Tuesday, April 17, 2012

How Shall so Anomalous a Situation Be Brought to an End?

Quoting from J. Gresham Machen's book Christianity and Liberalism, p. 151:
But how shall so anomalous a situation be brought to an end? The best way would undoubtedly be the voluntary withdrawal of the liberal ministers from those confessional churches whose confessions they do not, in the plain historical sense, accept. And we have not altogether abandoned hope of such a solution. Our differences with the liberal party in the Church are indeed profound, but with regard to the obligation of simple honesty of speech, some agreement might surely be attained. Certainly the withdrawal of liberal ministers from the creedal churches would be enormously in the interests of harmony and co-operation. Nothing engenders strife so much as a forced unity, within the same organization, of those who disagree fundamentally in aim.

photo credit: J.Salmoral

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

And it was these same liberals who drove Machen out of his church. These are the same liberals who cry "tolerance" but, as has been amply demonstrated time and again, brook no opposition. I wonder how many truly confessionals remain on the faculty at Valpo (see yesterday's post).

Joe Strieter

Norman Teigen said...

J. Gresham Machen is an important link in modern church history. Thank you for posting this.

Machen and H.L. Mencken are known to have had a somewhat lengthy correspondence as I recall from my reading many years ago.

Machen and Mencken. This brings back memories.

Norman Teigen, Layman
Evangelical Lutheran Synod.