Morality vs. Miracles: Looking at Machen’s “Christianity and Liberalism” Today

It’s been almost a century since J. Gresham Machen’s landmark work, Christianity and Liberalism, was released. What prompted Machen’s book was the descent of many mainline churches into liberal theology and teaching. Higher critical approaches to the Bible were a factor in this development, as well as scientific discoveries that made the Christian’s affirmation of miraculous, supernatural interventions seem embarrassing.

Keeping Morality, Ditching the Miracles

The trajectory of liberalism one hundred years ago went something like this:

• We are living in a scientific age of discovery.
• The miracles we read about in the Bible were written from another cultural vantage point.
• It is important to maintain the ethical and moral teaching of Christianity.
• Belief in the literal occurrence of biblical miracles is not needed to maintain the moral center of Christianity.
• If belief in miracles is embarrassing to modern people, we should deemphasize them in order to extend Christianity into the next generation.   Continue at Trevin Wax