J. Gresham Machen

Life

John Gresham Machen was born in 1881 in Baltimore, Maryland. As a child he learned the Bible and the Westminster Shorter Catechism from his mother. After studying at Johns Hopkins University and Princeton Theological Seminary, he continued his studies at the universities of Marburg and Göttingen in Germany. In Germany he came under the influence of liberal theology and went through a period of spiritual struggle, but he is reported to have returned to orthodox theology.

From 1906 to 1929 he taught New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, and in 1914 he was ordained a minister in the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA). During the Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy of the 1920s, he was a leading scholar on the conservative side. He died of pneumonia in Bismarck, North Dakota, on January 1, 1937.

Ministry and Accomplishments

• Christianity and Liberalism (1923): In this book Machen argued that the liberal theology of his day differed fundamentally from historic Christianity in its understanding of the Bible, of Christ, and of salvation. He therefore contended that liberalism was not a branch of Christianity but an altogether different religion.
• Founding of Westminster Theological Seminary (1929): When the General Assembly of the PCUSA reorganized the board of Princeton Theological Seminary, Machen concluded that the school had turned toward liberalism and resigned his professorship. That same year he founded Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in an effort to carry on the tradition of "Old Princeton" theology. Cornelius Van Til, John Murray, and others joined him.
• Independent foreign missions board (1933): Believing that liberalism had spread within the denomination's Board of Foreign Missions, Machen established an independent mission agency. The General Assembly of the PCUSA ruled that this agency violated the church's constitution. Machen and others who refused to sever ties with it were tried and suspended from the ministry, and the General Assembly upheld the suspensions in June 1936.
• Founding of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (1936): On June 11, 1936, Machen and his supporters founded a new denomination, and he became its first moderator. The denomination later changed its name to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC).

Assessment

Machen's supporters regard him as "the last great figure of Old Princeton theology" and a leading apologist for orthodox Christianity. They understand his suspension and his departure from the denomination as the cost of faithfully upholding doctrine.

By contrast, the leaders of the PCUSA at the time considered his criticisms excessive and damaging to the order of the church. Those on the liberal side criticize his dichotomy, which separated Christianity and liberalism as "different religions," for shutting down dialogue and encouraging division. The Reformed theologian John Frame has also observed that the movement Machen began later fell into internal disputes over less important matters.