J. Gresham Machen Quotes

#1. That it is not the Christianity of the New Testament which is in conflict with science, but the supposed Christianity of the modern liberal Church, and that the real city of God, and that city alone, has defences which are capable of warding off the assaults of modern unbelief. However,

J. Gresham Machen

#2. It is often said that the divided condition of Christendom is an evil, and so it is. But the evil consists in the existence of the errors which cause the divisions and not at all in the recognition of those errors when once they exist.

J. Gresham Machen

#3. A new and more powerful proclamation of the law is perhaps the most pressing need of the hour ... A low view of law always brings legalism into religion; a high view of law makes man a seeker after grace. Pray that the high view may prevail.

J. Gresham Machen

#4. It is usually considered good practice to examine a thing for one's self before echoing the vulgar ridicule of it.

J. Gresham Machen

#5. Why should we be indignant about slanders directed against a human friend, while at the same time we are patient about the basest slanders directed against our God?

J. Gresham Machen

#6. At that point the enemies saw clear. You may accept the lofty claims of Jesus. You may take Him as very God. Or else you must reject Him as a miserable, deluded enthusiast. There is really no middle ground. Jesus refuses to be pressed into the mould of a mere religious teacher.

J. Gresham Machen

#7. The church must seek to conquer not merely every man for Christ, but also the whole of man.

J. Gresham Machen

#8. The strange thing about Christianity was that it adopted an entirely different method. It transformed the lives of men not by appealing to the human will, but by telling a story; not by exhortation, but by the narration of an event.

J. Gresham Machen

#9. The more we know of God, the more unreservedly we will trust him; the greater our progress in theology, the simpler and more child-like will be our faith

J. Gresham Machen

#10. The Gospel does not abrogate God's law, but it makes men love it with all of their hearts.

J. Gresham Machen

#11. In the sphere of religion, as in other spheres, the things about which men are agreed are apt to be the things that are least worth holding; the really important things are the things about which men will fight.

J. Gresham Machen

#12. Christ died"
that is history; "Christ died for our sins"
that is doctrine. Without these two elements, joined in an absolutely indissoluble union, there is no Christianity.

J. Gresham Machen

#13. What is today a matter of academic speculation begins tomorrow to move armies and pull down empires.

J. Gresham Machen

#14. From every point of view, therefore, the problem in question is the most serious concern of the Church. What is the relation between Christianity and modern culture; may Christianity be maintained in a scientific age?

J. Gresham Machen

#15. Jesus was certainly not a mere enunciator of permanent truths, like the modern liberal preacher; on the contrary He was conscious of standing at the turning-point of the ages, when what had never been was now to come to be.

J. Gresham Machen

#16. Involuntary organizations ought to be tolerant, but voluntary organizations, so far as the fundamental purpose of their existence is concerned, must be intolerant or else cease to exist.

J. Gresham Machen