Machen Anthology -- The Church

I have just finished reading J. Gresham Machen's Christianity & Liberalism and wanted to pass on some of the nuggets of wisdom from the book. While in was written in the early 1920's, I find it still very relevant today.

"The fundamental fault of the modern Church is that she is busily engaged in an absolutely impossible task -- she is busily engaged in calling the righteous to repentance. Modern preachers are trying to bring men into the Church without requiring them to relinquish their pride; they are trying to help men avoid the conviction of sin. . .Even our Lord did not call the righteous to repentance, and probably we shall be no more successful than he." (p. 68)

"The Unitarian Church is frankly and honestly just the kind of church that the liberal preacher desires -- namely, a church without an authoritative Bible, without doctrinal requirements, and without a creed." (p. 165)

"Nothing engenders strife so much as a forced unity, within the same organization, of those who disagree fundamentally in aim. . .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." (p. 168-69)

"At the present time, when the opponents of the gospel are almost in control of our churches, the slightest avoidance of the defence of the gospel is just sheer unfaithfulness to the Lord. . .In such times of crisis, God has always saved it not by theological pacifists, but by sturdy contenders for the truth." (p.174)