1
January 1937 A.D. Mr.
(Rev. Dr. Prof.) J. Gresham Machen died.
John Gresham Machen. July 28, 1881 – January 1,
1937. Machen was an American Presbyterian theologian in the early 20th century.
He was the Professor of New Testament at Princeton Seminary between 1906 and 1929, and led a conservative revolt against modernist
theology at Princeton and formed Westminster Theological
Seminary as a more orthodox alternative. As the Northern
Presbyterian Church continued to reject conservative
attempts to enforce faithfulness to the Westminster Confession, Machen led a small group of conservatives out of the church to form the Orthodox Presbyterian
Church. When the northern Presbyterian church (PCUSA) rejected
his arguments during the mid-1920s and decided to reorganize Princeton Seminary
to create a moderate school, Machen took
the lead in founding Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia (1929) where he
taught New Testament until his death. His continued opposition during the 1930s
to liberalism in his denomination's foreign missions agencies led to the
creation of a new organization, The Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign
Missions (1933). The trial, conviction and suspension from the ministry of
Independent Board members, including Machen, in 1935 and 1936 provided the
rationale for the formation in 1936 of the OPC.
Machen is considered to be the last of
the great Princeton theologians who had, since the formation of the college in the early 19th century,
developed Princeton theology: a conservative and Calvinist form of Evangelical Christianity. Although Machen can be
compared to the great Princeton theologians (Archibald Alexander, Charles Hodge, A. A. Hodge and B. B. Warfield) he was neither a lecturer in
theology (he was a New Testament scholar) nor did he ever become the seminary's
principal.
Machen's influence can still be felt
today through the existence of both institutions that he founded—Westminster Theological
Seminary and the Orthodox Presbyterian
Church. In addition, his textbook on basic New Testament Greek is still used today in many seminaries, including PCUSA schools.
Asked how to say his name, he told The
Literary Digest, "The first syllable is pronounced like May, the name of the
month. In the second syllable the ch is as in chin, with e
as in pen: may'chen. In Gresham, the h is silent: gres'am."[1]
Early life
Machen was born in Baltimore
to Arthur Webster Machen and Mary Jones Gresham. Arthur, a Baltimore lawyer,
was 45 and Mary was 24 when they married. While Arthur was an Episcopalian, Mary was a Presbyterian, and taught her
son The Westminster Shorter
Catechism from an early age. The family attended Franklin
Street Presbyterian Church.
Machen's upbringing was considered to
be privileged. He attended a private college and received a classical education
including Latin and Greek. Although no records exist, it was probably The
University School for Boys. He was also taught the piano.
Early Adulthood
American Student Life
In 1898, the 17-year old Machen began
studying at Johns Hopkins University for his undergraduate degree, and performed sufficiently well to gain a scholarship.
He majored in classics and was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. Machen was a brilliant scholar and in 1901 was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society after graduation.
Despite having some indecisiveness
about his future, in 1902 Machen opted to study theology at Princeton Seminary, whilst simultaneously studying a Master of Arts in Philosophy at Princeton University.
Encountering German Liberalism
He also pursued theological studies in
Germany for a year in 1905. In a letter to his father, he admitted being thrown
into confusion about his faith because of the liberalism taught by Professor Wilhelm Herrmann. Although he had an
enormous respect for Herrmann, his time in Germany and his engagement with
Modernist theologians led him to reject the movement and embrace conservative
Reformed theology more firmly than before.
Pre War Period
Princeton 1906-1916
In 1906, Machen joined Princeton
Seminary as an instructor in New Testament after assurances he would not have
to sign a statement of faith. Among his Princeton influences were Francis Landey Patton, who had been the prosecutor in a nineteenth-century heresy trial, and B. B. Warfield, whom he described as the greatest
man he had ever met. Warfield maintained that correct doctrine was the primary
means by which Christians influenced the surrounding culture and he emphasised
a high view of scripture and the defence of supernaturalism. It appears that under their
influence Machen resolved his crisis of faith. In 1914, he was ordained and the
next year he became the Assistant Professor of New Testament.
World War One
Machen did not serve
"conventionally" during World War I, but instead went to France with the YMCA to do volunteer work near and at the front - a task he continued with for
some time after the war. Though not a combatant, he witnessed first-hand the
devastations of modern warfare. Suspicious of his family friend Woodrow Wilson's project of spreading democracy and
of imperialism, he was staunchly opposed to the war, and upon returning to the U.S.,
he saw that many of the provisions of, "the Treaty of Versailles constituted an attack upon international and interracial peace....[W]ar
will follow upon war in a wearisome progression."[2]
Post War Period
Princeton 1918-1926
After returning from Europe, Machen
continued his work as a New Testament scholar at Princeton. During this period
he gained a reputation as one of the few true scholars who was able to debate
the growing prevalence of Modernist theology whilst maintaining an evangelical
stance. The Origin of Paul's Religion (1921) is perhaps Machen's best known
scholarly work. This book was a successful attempt at critiquing the Modernist
belief that Paul's religion was based mainly upon Greek philosophy and was
entirely different from the religion of Jesus. Christianity and Liberalism
(1923) is another of Machen's books that critiqued theological modernism. The
book compared conservative and Protestant Christianity to the rising popularity
of Modernist (or "Liberal") theology. He concluded that "the
chief modern rival of Christianity is Liberalism". In What is Faith?
(1925) he set before him the pastoral task of anchoring faith in the historical
fact of Christ's atonement. He found liberal theology anti-intellectual,
insofar as it spiritualized Christianity and treated it as merely an expression
of individual experience, thus emptying the Bible and creeds of all definitive
meaning. These books, along with a number of others, placed Machen firmly in
one theological camp within the Presbyterian Church. His work throughout the
1920s was divided between his time at Princeton and his political work with
evangelical Presbyterians. Despite his conservative theological beliefs, Machen
was never able to fully embrace popularist fundamentalism either. His refusal
to accept premillennialism and other aspects of Fundamentalist belief was based
upon his belief that Reformed Theology was the most biblical form of Christian
belief - a theology that was generally missing from Fundamentalism at the time.
Moreover, Machen's scholarly work and ability to engage with modernist theology
was at odds with Fundamentalism's anti-intellectual attitude.
Controversies
Between 1924 and 1925, relations among
the Princeton faculty deteriorated when The Presbyterian questioned if
there were two different parties on the faculty. In response Machen remarked
that his differences with Charles Erdman related to the importance they
attributed to doctrine. He noted that Erdman was
tolerant of those in doctrinal error. Erdman wrote privately ‘he (Dwight L. Moody) knew that controversialists do not
usually win followers for Christ.’
Westminster Theological Seminary
The 1929 General Assembly voted to
reorganise Princeton Seminary and appointed two of the Auburn Affirmation signatories as trustees. The Auburn Affirmation was a response by liberals[3] within the
Northern Presbyterian Church that condemned the General Assembly's response to
the controversy arising out of Harry Emerson Fosdick's May 1922 sermon "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?". Machen and
some colleagues withdrew and set up Westminster Theological
Seminary to continue reformed orthodox theology.
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church
In 1933, Machen, concerned about
liberalism tolerated by Presbyterians on the mission field, formed The
Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions. The next Presbyterian
General Assembly reaffirmed that Independent Board was unconstitutional and gave
the associated clergy an ultimatum to break their links. When Machen and seven
other clergy refused, they were suspended from the Presbyterian ministry. The
controversy divided Machen from many of his fundamentalist friends including Clarence Macartney who dropped away at the prospect of schism. Ultimately, Machen withdrew
from the Northern Presbyterian Church and formed what later came to be known as
the Orthodox Presbyterian
Church.
In his book The Great Evangelical
Disaster, Francis Schaeffer details the theological shift in American
Christianity from conservatism to liberalism. In that discussion, Schaeffer
describes how Machen's "defrocking" rightly became front page news in
the secular media of the country. Schaeffer concludes: "A good case could
be made that the news about Machen was the most significant U.S. news in the
first half of the twentieth century. It was the culmination of a long trend
toward liberalism within the Presbyterian Church and represented the same trend
in most other denominations" (p 35).
Religion and politics
Machen was suspicious of mixing religion and politics. He found attempts to establish a Christian culture by political means insensitive to minorities.[4] He was even more concerned about the corrupting influence of politics on Christianity and saw the social gospel as a terrible warning. He opposed school prayer and Bible reading in public school[citation needed]. This position, however, implied that Christians should run their own schools.[5]
Historian George Marsden has described Machen as “radically libertarian. He opposed almost any extension of
state power and took stands on a variety of issues. Like most libertarians, his
stances violated usual categories of liberal or conservative.”[6] He opposed the
establishment of a federal Department
of Education, suggesting before a joint Congressional committee that
government control of the children was the ultimate sacrifice of freedom.[7] He was not against
locally operated public schools per se, but feared the influence of materialist
ideology and opposition to higher human aspirations.[8] He also opposed Prohibition - a costly stance in an age when
abstinence was almost a creed among Protestants.[6]
Death
Much to the sadness of those who had
been involved in the movements that he had led, Machen died in 1937 at the age
of 55. Some commentators (notably Stonehouse) point out that Machen's
"constitution" was not always strong, and that he was constantly
"burdened" with his responsibilities at the time.[citation needed]
Machen had decided to honor some
speaking engagements he had in North Dakota in December, 1936, but developed pleurisy in the exceptionally cold weather there. After Christmas, he was
hospitalized for pneumonia and died on January 1,
1937. Just before his death, he dictated a telegram to long-time friend and
colleague John Murray -- the content of that telegram reflected deeply his lifelong faith:
"I’m so thankful for active obedience of Christ. No hope without it."[9] He is buried in Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland. The stone covering his grave bears, very simply, his name, degree, dates,
and the phrase "Faithful Unto Death," in Greek.
The Baltimore-born journalist, H. L. Mencken, wrote an editorial on Machen in
December 1931[10] and later
contributed an obituary entitled "Dr. Fundamentalis" which was
published in the Baltimore Evening Sun on January 18, 1937. While disagreeing with Machen’s theology, Mencken
nevertheless articulated a great respect and admiration for his intellectual
ability. Mencken compared Machen to William Jennings Bryan, another well-known Presbyterian, with the statement, “Dr. Machen himself
was to Bryan as the Matterhorn is to a wart.”[11]
Works
In addition to those mentioned in the
main article, Machen's works include:
- "The Origin of Paul's Religion" (1921) online
- Christianity and Liberalism (1923) ISBN 0-8028-1121-3
- What is faith? (1925)
- New Testament Greek for Beginners (3rd printing was 1925)
- The virgin birth of Christ (1930)
- The Christian faith in the modern world (1936)
- The Christian view of man (1937)
- God transcendent (1949) edited by Ned B. Stonehouse from Machen's sermons, ISBN 0-85151-355-7.
- What is Christianity? and other addresses (1951) edited by Ned B. Stonehouse
- The New Testament : an introduction to its literature and history (1976) edited by W. John Cook from two sets of Machen's course materials, ISBN 0-85151-240-2.
Bibliography
- Coray, Henry W. (1981). J. Gresham Machen: A Silhouette. Grand Rapids 1981, Kregel Publications. ISBN 0-8254-2327-9.
- Gatiss, L (2008). Christianity and the Tolerance of Liberalism: J.Gresham Machen and the Presbyterian Controversy of 1922-1937. London, Latimer Trust ISBN 978-0-946307-63-0
- Hart, D. G. (2003). Defending the Faith: J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America. P & R Publishing. ISBN 0-87552-563-6
- Machen, J. Gresham (1923). Christianity and Liberalism. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8028-1121-3
- George M. Marsden: "Understanding J. Gresham Machen." In Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism p. 182-201. Grand Rapids 1991, Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-0539-6.
- Noll, M. A. (1988). "John Gresham Machen". In S. B. Ferguson, D. F. Wright, and J. I. Packer (Eds.), The New Dictionary of Theology. Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester. ISBN 0-8308-1400-0
- Stonehouse, Ned B. (1987). J. Gresham Machen - A Biographical Memoir (3rd ed.). Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh. ISBN 0-85151-501-0. (Republished by the Committee for the Historian of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. ISBN 0-934688-97-4.)
Notes
2.
^ Douglas M. Jones III: J. Gresham Machen Was Right About the Gulf Crisis ANTITHESIS January/February 1991 - Volume 2,
Number 1.
5.
^ J. Gresham Machen: "The
Necessity of the Christian School," in What Is Christianity? And Other Essays by J. Gresham Machen, ed.
by Ned B. Stonehouse. Grand Rapids, Mich. 1951
6.
^ a b George M.
Marsden: Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism p. 196. Grand
Rapids 1991, Eerdmans.
7.
^ Testimony before the House & Senate Committees on the Proposed
Department of Education
February 25, 1926.
10. ^ H.L. Mencken, “The
Impregnable Rock,” American Mercury, v. 24, no. 96 (December 1931)
411-412.
11. ^ H. L. Mencken, "Dr.
Fundamentalis", an obituary of Rev. J. Gresham Machen, Baltimore Evening
Sun (January 18, 1937), 2nd Section, p. 15.
External links
- The Origin of Paul's Religion by Machen
- Christianity and Liberalism by Machen
- Christianity and Culture an essay by Machen. Princeton Theological Review. Vol. 11, 1913.
- A Brief Bible History: A Survey of the Old and New Testaments by Machen and James Boyd
- On the Deity of Christ by Machen
- A Short History of the Life of J. G. Machen by Professor Craig S. Hawkins
- Christianity, Liberalism, and the New Evangelicalism by Carl Trueman
- J. Gresham Machen Sean Richardson's links to articles by Machen on various sites.
- Machen's Warrior Children by John M. Frame
- The Machen trial by an unidentified newspaper of the time.
- John Gresham Machen's Gravesite
- J. Gresham Machen: A Forgotten Libertarian| The Foundation for Economic Education: The Freeman, Ideas on Liberty at www.fee.org J. Gresham Machen: A Forgotten Libertarian]
- Machen and the OPC at opc.org Machen and the OPC
- History & Faith
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