Tag Archives: J. Gresham Machen

New Schoolers, Neo-Calvinists, and Fundamentalists

mcintire-marching

After Darrell Todd Maurina kicked up some dust with his post at the Baylyblog on 2k, he made the following comment: Men such as Dr. Darryl Hart have accused me in the past of holding the same position as the Bible Presbyterians and Carl McIntyre. That is an important accusation and it needs to be… Read More→

Posted in Adventures in Church History, Neo-Calvinism | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | 146 Responses

If Theonomy, Then No Machen (or United States)

founding-fathers-declaration-of-independence

The folks who lament the decadence of the contemporary West most (who also happen to be some of the biggest whiners about 2k) seem to think that a return to God’s law in the United States would fix our social and political woes. Aside from the problem of finding unregenerate citizens who will follow God’s… Read More→

Posted in Adventures in Church History, Novus Ordo Seclorum | Also tagged , , | 311 Responses

Old Life New Year Revelries

machenjohn2

Celebrating New Year’s Day is always mixed with sobriety (talk about paradoxes) thanks to January 1 being the anniversary of J. Gresham Machen’s death (1937). He died of pneumonia at 7:30 Central Standard Time in a Roman Catholic hospital in Bismarck, North Dakota. To honor the man, here is an excerpt from his defense of… Read More→

Posted in Novus Ordo Seclorum, spirituality of the church | Also tagged , | 46 Responses

Comparing J. Gresham Machen and Mustafa Kemal

Style: "coins_3"

I did in fact compare Machen’s effort to purge Christian political activism from American Protestantism to Ataturk’s secularization of Islam in last night’s lecture. Here is an excerpt, well before the comparison: The intervening history of Enlightenment and secularization is what makes the Religious Right and political Islam stand out. Both groups in different ways… Read More→

Posted in Adventures in Church History, Shameless Selves Promotion, spirituality of the church | Also tagged , , , | 20 Responses

Almost All Old Princeton All the Time

Alexander Hall, Princeton Theological Seminary

The new issue of Credo Magazine is out and it is dedicated almost entirely to the bi-centennial of Princeton Theological Seminary. Here’s an excerpt from Christopher Cooper: While the Princeton theologians did not oppose the possibility of revival and welcomed them on occasion, they believed that it was neither the common, best, nor desirable mode… Read More→

Posted in Adventures in Church History, Shameless Selves Promotion | Also tagged , , , , | 242 Responses

Machen Day 2012

JGM and brother

Social conditions in the apostolic age were exceedingly bad. There were favoured classes, living in vicious luxury, and great hordes of the poor and the down-trodden. There was especially the great institution of slavery, impairing the dignity of free labour, permeating all nations and all peoples, and producing a thousand miseries. Under such conditions the… Read More→

Posted in Adventures in Church History, spirituality of the church | Also tagged , , | 41 Responses

How 2K Might Have Helped Stellman

Rocky-Road-Brownies

I hope Jason Stellman does not consider this piling on. He is a friend and I mean to be respectful of his decision even if I lament his loss of Protestant convictions. At the same time, since some have invoked the two-kingdoms theology as a plausible factor in Stellman’s resignation, a response is in order.… Read More→

Posted in spirituality of the church | Also tagged , , , , | 92 Responses

Three Strikes and You’re Out

Baseball_umpire_2004

The piece by David Noe on Christian education (or the lack of it) has attracted a number of heated responses and none of them give much confidence that the proponents of Christian education are going to do something that is distinctly Reformed or decidedly educational. But these responses show the real weaknesses of w-w thinking… Read More→

Posted in New World Presbyterianism | Also tagged , , , , , , | 8 Responses

More Machen, Less Mencken

Lecrae

Our Philadelphia correspondent alerted me to an arresting invocation of J. Gresham Machen and H. L. Mencken — Baltimore’s two bad boys (one on religious, the other on cultural grounds) — at the G-rated Gospel Coalition of all places. The post surprised me not for the appeal of Machen to those who channel Edwards via… Read More→

Posted in Because Someone Has to Provide Oversight | Also tagged , , , , | 30 Responses

Fair and Balanced

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 Responses