The book was originally published in 1923....J. Gresham Machen's Christianity And Liberalism....and it was considered a tour de force even by many of the anti-Christian pundits in American journalism. We opened a Christian bookstore in our town over two decades ago....and I had an idea....that I would only sell the very best of Christian books that were published at the time....and classic Christian literature from the past. Machen's book was one of them. I did a commercial on the local Christian radio station....it began with the sound of a nail being hammered into wood....and I commented on Martin Luther's posting his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. People did come from all around Pittsburgh....but generally the local church was not interested in Christian books that were not of the popular encouragement type.
Machen wrote....and this almost a century ago....on how socialism was an attack on individualism....and on education....and how the mind that God had given man was then and would continue to atrophy from lack of use....these are my words....in other words he saw well in advance the America that we are today....but he saw and wrote of an even greater problem....the collapse of the church....and of preaching....and the rejection of dependence upon Christ. He gives us some advice at the end of the book....and poses a question....is it the Word of God that we will follow....or some angel from heaven that brings a gospel....but not the gospel of the Cross? The following is near the end of Machen's book:
"If the Word of God be heeded, the Christian battle will be fought both with love and faithfulness. Party passions and personal animosities will be put away, but on the other hand, even angels from heaven will be rejected if they preach a gospel different from the blessed gospel of the Cross. Every man must decide upon which side he will stand. God grant that we may decide right!
Note: The novella.....Isaac Crockett....the link of which is to your left on this page.....was written about the time that we had our bookstore....and the main plot revolves around a Christian Bookstore.....if you are interested.
