On July 28, 1881, John Gresham Machen was born in Baltimore, Maryland.
J. Gresham Machen was a brilliant Christian Scholar, Apologist, Political Figure and Writer from the early twentieth century. In 1923, he wrote his most popular and important book Christianity and Liberalism—Machen argued that there were two rival religions warring for control in the Protestant churches: Christianity and Liberalism were rival religions, not two sides of the same religion (you can read it online here). Sadly, the Church as a whole has yet to learn his lesson. His struggles in the Presbyterian Church to preserve orthodoxy and to battle the growing Liberalism eventually led to his expulsion. Machen and several other ministers formed what would become the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
Henry Coray, one of Machen's students, and a minister in the OPC wrote:
"What is it in Dr. Machen that stands out above everything else? . . . To me the answer does not lie in his scholarship, or in his teaching ability, or in his literary skill, great as these are. In my opinion the one feature about him that overshadows everything else is this: his burning passion to see the Lordship of Christ exercised in His church."I'd really recommend the following books about Machen:
- J. Gresham Machen: A Guided Tour of His Life and Work by Stephen J. Nichols
- J. Gresham Machen: A Silhouette by Henry Coray
- Defending The Faith: J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America by D. G. Hart
- J. Gresham Machen's The Gospel and the Modern World
- The Christian View Of Man
- Christianity and Liberalism (if you want something to hold in your hands)
- God Transcendent
- New Testament: An Introduction To Its Literature And History
- Select Shorter Writings
- What Is Faith?--a personal fave
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