Introduction
We all come to the doctrine of the church with baggage. Some of us have carry-on’s while other have a whole lot of luggage to check, but we all come with something. Maybe it’s good, maybe it’s bad, maybe it’s a little bit of both, but we all come to the doctrine of the church with something.
This something is either based on our experiences, or non-experience experiences. For example, the unbeliever that thinks everyone that goes to church is straight out of the Handmaids Tail, or that we are all look like the Westboro Baptist Church, (kinda like when we take communion we are all really eating flesh and blood, or it’s just one be fat orgy because when we come to the table it’s referred to as a love feast)…it’s safe to say, that caricatures, stereotypes, gross misrepresentations, and just flat stupidity abound, and always have.
The fact of the matter is, most of these people have never stepped foot within a church, or
seriously interacted with a God-fearing Christian as too what the church actually is. They just know that it’s really bad and really white – why? Because that’s what they’ve been told by the intelligentsia.
It’s also, important to point out, that these same road-scholars, these same masters – titans really – of the mind, also are still wearing masks…usually alone in the car so they don’t give themselves covid, have had multiple boosters at this point, and still have the Ukrainian flag flying on social media…oh yeah, and they’re very not racist.
But not all this baggage is based on the non-experiences of the woke brigade. Frankly, a lot of this is based on actual experience. Most stereotypes actually exist for a reason. Everyone that has gone to church for any length of time has come into contact with the church curmudgeon who is just a crotchety prick that no one would willingly spend any time around, but their contractually obligated too.
Or the passive Ned Flanders type that is also the nicest person in the room, this is the soft serve of broader evangelicalism. It has no real form and no real substance, but is super nice and super encouraging and loves Toby Mac and The Chosen, and is also, not racist. Which is clearly seen in all their films, like the Godly Black Man, who is always a supporting character, or the likeable Mexican guy who is always there for comic relief.
It's no wonder it’s been said that there are three sexes in the church: male, female and pastor. This is either because of gay priests who wear dresses to work…I mean robes…or the soft evangelical pastor in his hot pants, that really wants you to know how much God loves homosexuals…that very much forces you to call into question the authenticity of this guy’s marriage.
Or the popular stereotype that the church is just another social organization there to provide much needed social services to the community, just like any other Government agency. Truth be told, these stereotypes exists because we’ve all run into these people, and not just run into them, but many of them have huge platforms. And the reason why many believe that the church is just like any other government agency is because she is constantly acting like it…after all, everyone knows the best way to evangelize is by giving away free stuff that the congregation paid for.
So yeah…Baggage! However, despite all of this, with all of her blots and blemishes, and crazy cousins that no one wants to talk to at the family gatherings, the church of Jesus Christ and the propagation of the gospel are the only hope for humanity…and as Machen says, “The Church is the highest Christian answer to the social needs of man.” And that, “…the true transformation of society will come by the influence of those who have themselves been redeemed.”
Perhaps the real problem in the church then, isn’t with the curmudgeon, or the soft turdery of broader evangelicalism, or the crazy cousin that no one understands because they are so busy speaking in tongues. The real problem in the church isn’t with those God has justified and is sanctifying through Christ, by the Spirit – We’re all works in progress after all, and praise God for that progress – we can disagree and debate issues and even pick on each other a little bit while still extending grace.
However, the real problem isn’t with goofy, or stubborn sheep, it’s with goats that self-identify as sheep.
The Church
What H. Richard Niebuhr said of the Pedalers of the social gospel of his day, is also true of our own. That is, that they preach,
“A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.”
As we’ve already seen in working through Christianity and Liberalism, Liberals deny the
importance of doctrine. They prefer the anti-creed-creed that we should prefer deeds over
creeds. They have no problem saying such things because of their beginning presuppositions regarding the nature of God and the nature of man…namely, that man really isn’t that bad, but God is here to help him out and improve on his “not-that-badness.”
As a result, the Bible isn’t really the inerrant, authoritative word of God…It’s really more of a suggestion book that sometimes inspires us to do good things sometimes, because it’s filled with good examples…Like all those nice boys in Sodom. But the ultimate moral example for the Liberal is obviously Jesus…not really who He actually is and what He actually did and the message He actually preached and what He actually accomplished…but rather that stuff He said about not judging others and feeding the poor. It’s not surprising then, that the message of salvation that liberals preach boils down to, do good stuff…or rather they would say, “love God and love people”...
At this point, there is always that one kids in class that asks, “hey, isn’t that just a summation of the law” …to which the liberal responds, “that’s to judgy…and it’s not God’s law they are after, so therefore, it must not be law at all.”
So then, what are they left with when it comes to the doctrine of the church? – that is, the blood bought people of God, called out of the domain of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light…commissioned to go out into the world to declare Christ’s Lordship over the world.
After abandoning everything that makes Christianity…well, Christian, the liberal is left with the social gospel (which is a monumental feat in misnaming things – this group of nice Nazi’s are the most intolerant people around, and they have no good news to share, which is why they’re so miserable).
That one kid in class just can’t keep his hand down…so he asks, “how does that differ from any other institution or government agency?” Well, it doesn’t really. Only in that the Government funds itself through coercion and the church is a voluntarily funded organization, but the Government graciously gives them some tax breaks as long as they do some good stuff and don’t say anything bad about the Government.
Again, we are not splitting hairs over particular doctrines…Christianity and Liberalism have entirely different starting points. They are different religions – and there is no mixing the two without violating Christianity. Admitting liberals into church membership or into any type of teaching position is to be unfaithful to the Lord.
“We are not dealing here with delicate personal questions; we are not presuming to say whether such and such an individual man is a Christian or not. God only can decide such questions; no man can say with assurance whether the attitude of certain individual ‘liberals’ toward Christ is saving faith or not. But one thing is perfectly plain – whether or not liberals are Christians, it is at any rate perfectly clear that liberalism is not Christianity. And that being the case, it is highly undesirable that liberalism and Christianity should continue to be propagated within the bounds of the same organization. A separation between the two parties in the Church is the crying need of the hour.” J. Gresham Machen
This is one of the big reasons why “unity” has been such a buzzword in the church over the last three years…This doesn’t mean that sincere Christian men can’t have respectful disagreements. It is to say that they can have respectful disagreements because they are, in fact, Christian men. Remove the core doctrines that make unity possible and what you’re left with isn’t unity, but rather forced assimilation with some Christian pixy dust sprinkled on top which means you can feel good about compromising the truth and your integrity.
This is why unity with a liberal is not really unity at all – indeed, by definition, it can’t be,
because there are no fundamental doctrines to unite around. Therefore, for the liberal, unity is a code word which means, “do what we say,” but we’re going to disguise our forced compliance in the language of love for neighbor, so that you can feel good about it.
“If a man believes that salvation from sin comes only through the atoning death of Jesus, then he cannot honestly support by his gifts and by his presence a propaganda which is intended to produce an exactly opposite impression. To do so would mean the most terrible bloodguiltiness which it is possible to conceive. If the liberal party, therefore, really obtains control of the Church, evangelical Christians must be prepared to withdraw no matter what it costs.” Machen
Nothing creates more disunity that forced unity, but again, if you have to force unity it should be evident to all that something is way off. Again, over the last few years many churches have split right down the middle, or rather, it would probably be more appropriate to say, that God simply revealed how divided these churches already were, however nobody realized it was that bad because Biblical doctrine wasn’t being preached to force said revelation. But when the Government started shutting everything down, God’s people asked, “well, what does the Bible say…” and the liberals said, “shut up, church unity and stuff, and don’t you love your neighbor, racist”
There are bleeding hearts among that would argue that such statements, will shrink the size of our churches and that will ruin our witness before the world (quick, someone manufacture a revival)…I would respond to them that if the church is shrinking by removing unbelievers it’s not really shrinking, nor is it weakening the churches witness in any way – going from thirty-two thousand to three hundred – is just fine in God’s economy.
The fact of the matter is, removing liberalism from the church does not weaken the church any more than removing a cancerous tumor from the body weakens the body…just the opposite. You remove the tumor to strengthen the body. Machen writes,
“The plain fact is that liberalism, whether it be true or false, is no mere ‘heresy’ – no mere divergence at isolated points from Christian teaching. On the contrary it proceeds from a totality different root, and it constitutes, in essentials, a unitary system of its own.”
Liberalism is anti-Christian to the core and the church has left the front doors wide open for a very long time and we have stage four cancer. It’s in times like these that Christian’s should remember that there have always been times like these and God has always sustained His church through it…And just when the church seems most dead, God has a way of reminding His people that He is a God who raises the dead.
“In such times of crisis, God has always saved His Church. But He has always saved it not by theological pacifists, but by sturdy contenders for the truth.” J. Gresham Machen
When addressing the Liberalism of his day and the penetration that it made into the church, Machen determined that it was made possible through ignorance. That is, people reject Christianity not because of what they know about it, but because they don’t know a darn thing about it…if ignorance of the Scriptures was an issue in Machen’s day it certainly is hundred-fold in ours. In his day, naturalism had just begun to make huge inroads into the church. Today, we don’t even know how to identify a boy or a girl.
What is the answer for the church in such trying times? The same as it’s always been.
“Yet there is in the Christian life no room for despair. Only, our hopefulness should not be founded on the sand. It should be founded, not upon a blind ignorance of the danger, but solely upon the precious promises of God. Laymen, as well as ministers, should return, in these trying days, with new earnestness, to the study of the Word of God….If the Word of God be heeded, the Christian battle will be fought both with love and with 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 aright!” J. Gresham Machen
Conclusion
As we come to the end of Christianity and Liberalism let me just end where Machen did, and may these words give you hope,
“Is there no refuge from strife? Is there no place of refreshing where a man can prepare for the battle of life? Is there no place where two or three can gather in Jesus’ name, to forget for the moment all those things that divide nation from nation and race from race, to forget human pride, to forget the passions of war, to forget the puzzling problems of industrial strife, and to unit in overflowing gratitude at the foot of the Cross? If there be such a place, then that is the house of God and that the gate of heaven. And from under the threshold of that house will go forth a river that will revive the weary world.” J. Gresham Machen
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