Machen and the Church

ABOUT THE MESSAGE: J. Gresham Machen was a churchman. He cared deeply for Christ’s church and was zealous for its health. For this reason, he did not avoid controversy and conflict over the essentials of the Christian faith even though he did not seek it out. In this lesson, Dr. Nichols explains why conflict and controversy are sometimes necessary and how Machen promoted conviction and clarity in the church.

ABOUT THE SERIES: In 1923, J. Gresham Machen wrote his classic work Christianity and Liberalism. Machen understood that he lived in a time that needed answers. People needed to know the fundamental doctrinal convictions of Christianity in an age of compromise. Modernism was threatening the church, and liberals within the church were seeking to accommodate it, calling into question bedrock doctrines of the faith. In this teaching series, Dr. Stephen J. Nichols reminds us of who Machen was, why his book is still important, and how it teaches us that there is only one true, uncompromising Christian faith.