Tag Archives: J. Gresham Machen

Fair and Balanced

By D. G. Hart | Published: September 30, 2011

From our Canadian correspondent comes word of a 1926 New York Times headline that reported on one of J. Gresham Machen’s sermons about the condition of American Protestantism. Church Teaching Scored–Professor Machen Says the World Is Full of Quack Remedies For Sin–Calls for More Pessimism Not many people — believers or not — find pessimism… Read More→

Posted in Miscellany | Also tagged , , | 31 Comments

Tim Bayly Does His Impersonation of St. Peter

By D. G. Hart | Published: August 17, 2011

Apparently the Brothers B have dyslexia, though I am open to other explanations for how they garble other peoples’ writings and ideas. Tim Bayly has written yet another blast of their loud trumpet against 2k theology. This time they identify with the plow boy who knows right from wrong and they pit the common person… Read More→

Posted in spirituality of the church | Also tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

Why Do Reformed Think They Are Evangelical?

By D. G. Hart | Published: July 18, 2011

If Reformed Protestantism is basically evangelical then how do you account for the major divisions that have occurred among American Presbyterians? The fundamentalist controversy apparently has nothing at stake for the Reformed/evangelical consensus since Machen and other conservative Presbyterians were fighting liberalism and EVERYONE knows that liberalism is bad. (Of course, the problem here is… Read More→

Posted in Paleo Calvinism, Piety with Excitement | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 87 Comments

The Law Coalition

By D. G. Hart | Published: June 14, 2011

While working on a talk for a conference last week hosted and attended by academic conservatives, I revisited the Manhattan Declaration. My point was that so many who think themselves conservative think they also take religion seriously by injecting faith into public affairs. But what ends up happening most often is that the complexities and… Read More→

Posted in Jure Divino Presbyterianism | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | 40 Comments

An Anniversary that Deserves More than a Mug

By D. G. Hart | Published: June 11, 2011

The Orthodox Presbyterian Church turns 75 today. Festivities have so far included lectures, presentations from the General Secretaries of the Assembly’s standing committees, a banquet tonight, and the opportunity to purchase handsome coffee mugs. Thankfully, the Assembly’s organizers resisted the chief temptation of our time — t-shirts (which are fine to wear under shirts with… Read More→

Posted in J. Gresham Machen, Shameless Selves Promotion | Also tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Oldlife.org 201: Wit and Sarcasm

By D. G. Hart | Published: June 8, 2011

The first installment in this series about this blog was to clarify what a blog is. One aspect that I did not mention was that the more successful blogs are provocative – that is, they agitate readers and that’s why people come back. The most successful blogger in the world arguably is Andrew Sullivan, the… Read More→

Posted in Miscellany | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | 43 Comments

Huh?!?

By D. G. Hart | Published: March 31, 2011

Over at Ref21, Ligon Duncan supplies a drive-by quote from Herman Bavinck that the Mississippi pastor directs against John Williamson Nevin. Here is the the Bavinck quote: In a comparatively sound church life, it is possible to assume that as a rule the children of the covenant will be born again in their youth and… Read More→

Posted in Piety with Excitement | Also tagged , , , , , | 75 Comments

The Spirituality of the Church at the Westminster California Conference on Machen

By D. G. Hart | Published: January 15, 2011

I had the wonderful opportunity to speak last night at the WSC conference, Christianity & Liberalism Revisted. My topic was “The Perennial Machen,” which I changed to “The Perennial Problem with Machen.” Since evangelicals, neo-Calvinists, and even secular do-gooders malign the doctrine of the spirituality of the church, I attempted in one point to explain… Read More→

Posted in Shameless Selves Promotion, spirituality of the church | Also tagged , | 8 Comments

Good and Necessary Consequence?

By D. G. Hart | Published: November 24, 2010

Mike Horton often laments that the evangelicals who become excited about confessional Protestant theology often do not realize that the new teachings and practices they adopt are at odds with older parts of their born-again devotion and conviction. Mike likens this to a notebook in which the student puts in new pages but neglects to… Read More→

Posted in Paleo Calvinism | Also tagged , , , , | 20 Comments

I Believe the Bible Requires Me to Avoid Movies, and If You Go See a Movie You Don’t Believe the Bible – Huh?

By D. G. Hart | Published: November 16, 2010

I learned 2k from J. Gresham Machen. If 2k critics were to spend a little time with the chief founder of Westminster Seminary they might be less alarmed. They might also see in the mirror staring back at them the liberal Protestants who tried Machen for breaking his ordination vows. Here is where 2k critics… Read More→

Posted in spirituality of the church | Also tagged , , , , , | 284 Comments