John Murray

Life

Murray was born in Badbea, a village near Bonar Bridge in Sutherland in the north of Scotland. His family was devout and belonged to the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, one of the strictest Scottish Presbyterian denominations. During World War I he served in the British Army's Black Watch regiment and lost an eye. After the war he studied at the University of Glasgow, and from 1924 to 1927 he studied at Princeton Theological Seminary in the United States under J. Gresham Machen and Geerhardus Vos. The Korean theologian Park Hyung-ryong is also reported to have studied at the seminary during the same period.

In 1927 Murray returned home intending to become a minister, but he was not ordained. His denomination regarded traveling to church by public transportation on the Lord's Day as a violation of the fourth commandment (the Sabbath commandment), and Murray did not accept this position. He then studied historical theology at New College, Edinburgh. In 1929 he was invited to Princeton Theological Seminary as an instructor in systematic theology and taught there for one year; in 1930 he moved to Westminster Theological Seminary, which Machen and others had founded. That same year he left the Free Presbyterian Church in protest against the denomination's handling of a church discipline case concerning the Lord's Day at a congregation in Canada. In 1937 he was ordained to the ministry in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. After retiring in 1966, he returned to Scotland, where he died in 1975.

Ministry and Work

Murray taught systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary for thirty-six years, from 1930 to 1966. Students remembered him for lecturing from carefully written manuscripts that he continually revised, and for the gravity of his prayers.

Beginning in late 1935, he published a series titled "The Reformed Faith and Modern Substitutes" in the denominational periodical The Presbyterian Guardian. In this series he addressed limited atonement, total depravity, Arminianism, and modern dispensationalism from the standpoint of Calvinism. Some trustees and supporters who regarded the seminary as a nondenominational evangelical institution objected, and the controversy led to the 1937 conflict over the school's Presbyterian character.

Although a systematic theologian, Murray placed great emphasis on careful exegesis of the biblical text. He is regarded as a theologian who incorporated into soteriology the redemptive-historical reading of Scripture he had inherited from Vos. His major works include Redemption Accomplished and Applied, on the accomplishment and application of salvation; The Imputation of Adam's Sin, on the imputation of Adam's sin to the human race; Principles of Conduct, on biblical ethics; and his commentary on Romans in the New International Commentary on the New Testament series. That commentary has since been replaced in the series by Douglas Moo's. Murray served as an early trustee of the Banner of Truth Trust, which published his writings in a four-volume collection. In 1965 he played an important role when two congregations in Ontario, Canada, formed a presbytery of the Presbyterian Reformed Church.

Influence on Korean Churches

In Korea, Murray became known through translations of his works, notably John Murray's Systematic Theology (translated by Park Moon-jae), Redemption, and Calvin on Scripture and Divine Sovereignty. Murray never published a systematic theology during his lifetime and declined to have his lecture manuscripts published. The Korean edition of John Murray's Systematic Theology is therefore a compilation of essays drawn from the English collected writings. In Reformed Presbyterian theological circles in Korea, he has been read as one of the leading twentieth-century theologians of the Westminster Confession of Faith tradition.

Assessment

Within the Reformed community, Murray is regarded as one of the foremost Reformed theologians of the twentieth century for his precise integration of biblical exegesis and doctrine. Arminian and dispensationalist theologians, whose positions his series criticized, do not accept his conclusions.

Murray maintained the practices of strict Scottish Presbyterianism. He observed the Lord's Day rigorously, sang only the Psalms in public worship, and rejected the church calendar as Roman Catholic. Most Korean churches sing hymns, and Methodists, Anglicans, and others actively observe the church calendar, so his practice differs considerably from that of most Korean churches. He is also reported to have had reservations about retaining the traditional term "covenant of works," a question that continues to be discussed within covenant theology.