[Note: I preface this post by saying that I am not endorsing or promoting Ryle as a true Christian when I quote from him. But I think he writes some things that true Christians could benefit from.]
J.C. Ryle writes in his popular book, Holiness:
“In the next place, a scriptural view of sin is one of the best antidotes to the extravagantly broad and liberal theology which is so much in vogue at the present time. The tendency of modern thought is to reject dogmas, creeds and every kind of bounds in religion. It is thought grand and wise to condemn no opinion whatever, and to pronounce all earnest and clever teachers to be trustworthy, however heterogeneous and mutually destructive their opinions may be. Everything, forsooth, is true and nothing is false! Everybody is right and nobody is wrong! Everybody is likely to be saved and nobody is to be lost! The atonement and substitution of Christ, the personality of the devil, the miraculous element in Scripture, the reality and eternity of future punishment, all these mighty foundation–stones are coolly tossed overboard, like lumber, in order to lighten the ship of Christianity and enable it to keep pace with modern science. Stand up for these great verities, and you are called narrow, illiberal, old–fashioned and a theological fossil!” (J. C. Ryle, Holiness; underlining mine–CD)
Many tolerant Calvinist heretics treat the essential mighty foundation stones as non-essential lumber. Machen is one unregenerate agent of Satan who calmly and coolly tosses overboard the doctrine of plenary inspiration in order to commit spiritual fornication with God-haters under the guise of…what, exactly? A perverted view of charity?
“It must be admitted that there are many Christians who do not accept the doctrine of plenary inspiration. That doctrine is denied not only by liberal opponents of Christianity, but also by many true Christian men. There are many Christian men in the modern Church who find in the origin of Christianity no mere product of evolution but a real entrance of the creative power of God, who depend for their salvation, not at all upon their own efforts to lead the Christ life, but upon the atoning blood of Christ — there are many men in the modern Church who thus accept the central message of the Bible and yet believe that the message has come to us merely on the authority of trustworthy witnesses unaided in their literary work by any supernatural guidance of the Spirit of God. There are many who believe that the Bible is right at the central point, in its account of the redeeming work of Christ, and yet believe that it contains many errors. Such men are not really liberals, but Christians; because they have accepted as true the message upon which Christianity depends. A great gulf separates them from those who reject the supernatural act of God with which Christianity stands or falls.” (Christianity and Liberalism, p. 75; underlining mine–CD)
These liberals whom Machen judged as “true Christian men” did blasphemously assert that the Bible was NOT the Word of God, but merely the word of “trustworthy witnesses.” They accepted it not as the word of God, but as the word of men (cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:13). Apparently, these lying liberals have decided for themselves where these “trustworthy witnesses” have erred and where they have not erred. [Clearly, “a great gulf” does NOT separate them. They BOTH reject the Bible as THE criterion. They (in their blinded minds) are the criterion, and they have put themselves in the place of God the Holy Spirit by asserting what He did and did not say, and what He is, and is not in error about.]
Contrary to what Machen says, Christianity “stands or falls” on the the doctrine of plenary inspiration, and NOT on any message of Christ’s redeeming work contained therein since the “doctrine of [plenary] inspiration is the first principle from which all biblical doctrines are derived.” (CCF) Machen is cohort to those who undermined the Scriptures:
“For if you were believing Moses, you would then believe Me; for that one wrote concerning Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My Words?” (John 5:46-47)
If Machen’s (alleged) “true Christian men” do not believe that the Bible as a whole is true, then how will they believe that the Bible in its parts are true? Jesus says they CANNOT. They have a different standard by which they judge what is true and what is false. They are like those whom Jesus addresses in John 5:46-47.
The tolerant Calvinist, spiritual fornicating heretic, J. Gresham Machen founded the “Orthodox Presbyterian Church.” Thus, the OPC was never a true Church. It began as a Synagogue of Satan, and it remains a Synagogue of Satan.
Agrammatos 