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Chapter 4- The Bible

Christianity and Liberalism by J. Greshman Machen 
Chapter 4: The Bible

              
               The Christian view is one that holds the Bible, at the very least, in some type of authority. There are some Christians who whole-heartedly believe the message of the Bible but are convinced that the Bible was written by men without any supernatural guidance. Machen’s point is that they at least hold that the message of scripture is true and that Jesus did come to save the world from their sins by dying in our place and taking on our deserved punishment. There are other Christians who believe the Bible is the Word of God and was written by the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit.

                The modern liberal “Christian” does not hold to any of this. Machen describes the modern liberal as someone who boils the Bible down to what they want it to be based in their own preconceived ideas. Then after they have done this they are left with an incomplete picture of who Jesus is and they still don’t have certainty that they can believe the “truth” they are left with. The problem is the liberals are left with no solid truth. Instead of standing on the foundation of Biblical truth they are left with only their personal independent methods of discerning truth meaning they are left to rely on their own shifting emotions.

                This is just not worth living for. That message is not one that influences society, or brings people to Jesus. The modern message is one that says come as you are and stay as you are for as long as you like. The message of the Bible is on that offers hope, transformation, love, peace, justice, fulfillment, purpose, forgiveness, etc. If we pull out the pieces we don’t like we lose the real message of the book. For example modern liberals might accept as “truth” the things that Jesus taught but, I do not see how they would know what Jesus taught if they do not trust the Bible as authoritative. They are doing what Thomas Jefferson did when he sat down and cut out the parts of the Bible he deemed worthwhile.   

                Machen then points out that the modern liberals not only cut up the New Testament but also disregard the Old Testament. They shrink their focus down to just Jesus’ life and ministry. The issue with that is there is no way Jesus could have taught everything there was to know about God in that time. God had been revealing His character and His purposes throughout history to His people which was recorded in the Scriptures. Not only is that an issue but, the Old Testament is also essential for understanding humanity’s need for Jesus. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are meaningless if we have no concept of our need for a savior which had been being developed since The Fall of Adam and Eve in the garden. 


                Overall, we cannot give up the infallibility of scripture or we lose our grasp of God, Jesus, and Christianity. We have no basis, no foundation without the Word of God. If sinful man attempts to edit it to suit his needs then we just have a book no different than any other. We might as well live according to “Humans of New York” as we should “The Bible”. But that is not true. The Bible is the infallible Word of God which should be revered, studied, memorized, and applied to our lives according to how it is written and how it was intended.  

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