The type of religion which rejoices in the pious sound of traditional phrases, regardless of their meanings, or shrinks from "controversial" matters, will never stand amid the shocks of life. John Gresham Machen More Quotes by John Gresham Machen More Quotes From John Gresham Machen Paganism is that view of life which finds the highest goal of human existence in the healthy and harmonious and joyous development of existing human faculties. Very different is the Christian ideal. Paganism is optimistic with regard to unaided human nature, whereas Christianity is the religion of the broken heart. John Gresham Machen optimistic christian heart After listening to modern tirades against the great creeds of the Church, one receives a shock when one turns to the Westminster Confession... and discovers that in doing so one has turned from shallow modern phrases to a "dead orthodoxy" that is pulsating with life in every word. In such orthodoxy there is life enough to set the whole world aglow with Christian love. John Gresham Machen church christian listening I can see little consistency in a type of Christian activity which preaches the gospel on the street corners and at the ends of earth, but neglects the children of the covenant by abandoning them to a cold and unbelieving secularism. John Gresham Machen consistency christian children The Christian cannot be satisfied so long as any human activity is either opposed to Christianity or out of connection with Christianity. Christianity must pervade not merely all nations but also all of human thought. John Gresham Machen connections christian long Indifferentism about doctrine makes no heroes of the faith. John Gresham Machen doctrine hero Faith is indeed intellectual; it involves an apprehension of certain things as facts; and vain is the modern effort to divorce faith from knowledge. But although faith is intellectual, it is not only intellectual. You cannot have faith without having knowledge; but you will not have faith if you have only knowledge. John Gresham Machen divorce effort intellectual The first chapters of the Bible tell us of the sin of man. The guilt of that sin had rested upon every single one of us, it guilt and its terrible results..but..it also tells us of something greater still; it tells us of the grace of the offended God. John Gresham Machen guilt grace men And God grant that His fire be not quenched! God save us from any smoothing over of these questions in the interests of a hollow pleasantness; God grant that great questions of principle may never rest until they are stettled right! It is out of such times of questioning that great revivals come. God grant that it may be so today! Controversy of the right sort is good; for out of such controversy, as Church history and Scripture alike teach, there comes the salvation of souls. John Gresham Machen church soul fire Afternoon classes - that evil invention! John Gresham Machen afternoon evil class If all creeds are equally true, then since they are contradictory to one another, they are all equally false, or at least equally uncertain. John Gresham Machen contradictory creeds uncertain 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. John Gresham Machen modern age jesus I can't die now, I have so much work to do. John Gresham Machen dies i-can Light may seem at times to be an impertinent intruder, but it is always beneficial in the end. John Gresham Machen light ends may Just supposing for the sake of the argument that there is a being of such a kind as that He may with any propriety be called "God", it does seem antecedently very improbable that weak and limited creatures of a day, such as we are, should discover Him by our own efforts.... who could be discovered in that way would hardly be worth discovering. I think we ought to stick to that principle rather firmly. I think we ought to be rather sure that we cannot know God unless God has been pleased to reveal Himself to us. John Gresham Machen effort may thinking The truth is that the materialistic paternalism of the present day, if allowed to go on unchecked, will rapidly make of America one huge "Main Street," where spiritual adventure will be discouraged and democracy will be regarded as consisting in the reduction of all mankind to the proportions of the narrowest and least gifted of the citizens. God grant that there may come a reaction, and that the great principles of Anglo-Saxon liberty may be rediscovered before it is too late! John Gresham Machen spiritual adventure america I see with greater and greater clearness that consistent Christianity is the easiest Christianity to defend John Gresham Machen clearness consistent christianity Conservative New Testament studies could also provide an intellectually satisfying alternative to German biblical criticism and to the liberal theology that accompanied it John Gresham Machen biblical alternatives criticism In many respects, my work is very enjoyable, for I seem to get on pretty well with the fellows and enjoy the work of instruction as well as my own studies John Gresham Machen enjoy study instruction Certainly it does make the greatest possible difference what we think about God; the knowledge of God is the very basis of religion. John Gresham Machen differences doe thinking The chief modern rival of Christianity is 'liberalism'... at every point, the two movements are in direct opposition. John Gresham Machen point opposition christianity two
