35+ John Gresham Machen Quotes And Sayings

Following is our list of the best John Gresham Machen quotes and sayings.

Top 10 John Gresham Machen Quotes

1. According to Christian belief, man exists for the sake of God; according to the liberal church, in practice if not in theory, God exists for the sake of man.
2. God is the ruler of history. His times are well chosen The Roman Empire was an instrument in his hand. And so are the nations of the modern world.
3. 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
4. Modern culture is a mighty force. It is either subservient to the gospel or else it is the deadliest enemy of the gospel
5. Christianity is not engrossed by this transitory world, but measures all things by the thought of eternity.
6. What is today a matter of academic speculation begins tomorrow to move armies and pull down empires.
7. If we give the bureaucrats our children, we may as well give them everything else.
8. Light may seem at times to be an impertinent intruder, but it is always beneficial in the end.
9. Conservative New Testament studies could also provide an intellectually satisfying alternative to German biblical criticism and to the liberal theology that accompanied it
10. 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 Short Quotes

• A low view of law always produces legalism; a high view of law makes a person a seeker after grace.
• I can't die now, I have so much work to do.
• Afternoon classes - that evil invention!
• Indifferentism about doctrine makes no heroes of the faith.
• The Gospel does not abrogate God's law, but it makes men love it with all of their hearts.
• It is impossible to be a true soldier of Jesus Christ and not fight.

John Gresham Machen Famous Quotes And Sayings

The most important Christian Education institution is not the pulpit or the school, important as those institutions are; but it is the Christian family. And that institution has to a very large extent ceased to do its work. — John Gresham Machen

What I need first of all is not exhortation, but a gospel, not directions for saving myself but knowledge of how God has saved me. Have you any good news? That is the question that I ask of you. I know your exhortations will not help me. But if anything has been done to save me, will you not tell me the facts? — 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

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

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

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

I see with greater and greater clearness that consistent Christianity is the easiest Christianity to defend — John Gresham Machen

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

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. — John Gresham Machen

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

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

Let us not fear the opposition of men; every great movement in the Church from Paul down to modern times has been criticized on the ground that it promoted scensoriousness and intolerance and disputing. Of course the gospel of Christ, in a world of sin and doubt will cause disputing; and if does not cause disputing and arrouse bitter opposition, that is a fairly sure sign that it is not being faithfully proclaimed. — John Gresham Machen

A public-school system, if it means the providing of free education for those who desire it, is a noteworthy and beneficent achievement of modern times; but when once it becomes monopolistic it is the most perfect instrument for tyranny which has yet been devised. Freedom of thought in the middle ages was combated by the Inquisition, but the modern method is far more effective.’ (1923) — John Gresham Machen

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. — John Gresham Machen

Place the lives of children in their formative years, despite the convictions of their parents, under the intimate control of experts appointed by the state, force them to attend schools where the higher aspirations of humanity are crushed out, and where the mind is filled with the materialism of the day, and it is difficult to see how even the remnants of liberty can subsist. — John Gresham Machen

Again, men tell us that our preaching should be positive and not negative, that we can preach the truth without attacking error. But if we follow that advice we shall have to close our Bible and desert its teachings. The New Testament is a polemic book almost from beginning to end ... It is when men have felt compelled to take a stand against error that they have risen to the really great heights in the celebration of the truth — John Gresham Machen

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

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

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