John Gresham Machen (1881-1937) was an American Presbyterian New Testament scholar and educator in the early 20th century.
J. Gresham Machen Quotes
“Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried”-that is history. “He loved me and gave Himself for me”-that is doctrine.
—J. Gresham Machen
A new and more powerful proclamation of the law is perhaps the most pressing need of the hour… A low view of law always brings legalism into religion; a high view of law makes man a seeker after grace. Pray that the high view may prevail.
—J. Gresham Machen
A new and more powerful proclamation of the law is perhaps the most pressing need of the hour… A low view of law always brings legalism into religion; a high view of law makes man a seeker after grace. Pray that the high view may prevail.
—J. Gresham Machen
At that point the enemies saw clear. You may accept the lofty claims of Jesus. You may take Him as very God. Or else you must reject Him as a miserable, deluded enthusiast. There is really no middle ground. Jesus refuses to be pressed into the mould of a mere religious teacher.
—J. Gresham Machen
At that point the enemies saw clear. You may accept the lofty claims of Jesus. You may take Him as very God. Or else you must reject Him as a miserable, deluded enthusiast. There is really no middle ground. Jesus refuses to be pressed into the mould of a mere religious teacher.
—J. Gresham Machen
All men, according to Paul, are dead in sin. Salvation, then, can come only by a new creation.
—J. Gresham Machen
This world’s problems can never be solved by those who make this world the object of their desires.
—J. Gresham Machen
Everywhere Jesus thinks of himself as being Son of God in some entirely unique sense.
—J. Gresham Machen
Dark and gloomy would be the world, if we were left to our own devices and had no blessed Word of God.
—J. Gresham Machen
Christian doctrine lies at the very roots of faith.
—J. Gresham Machen
The student of the New Testament should be primarily an historian.
—J. Gresham Machen
For us Jesus does not merely place His fingers in the ears and say, Be opened; for us He does not merely say “Arise and walk.” For us He has done a greater thing–for us He died.
—J. Gresham Machen
For us Jesus does not merely place His fingers in the ears and say, Be opened; for us He does not merely say “Arise and walk.” For us He has done a greater thing–for us He died.
—J. Gresham Machen
God has condescended to touch our hearts…by the wonderful variety and beauty of his Book.
—J. Gresham Machen
Are we forever condemned to live the sordid life of utilitarianism?
—J. Gresham Machen
Without the consciousness of sin, the whole of the gospel will seem to be an idle tale.
—J. Gresham Machen
Christian laypeople must be encouraged to be leaders in their fields, rather than eager-to-please followers…
—J. Gresham Machen
The world is lying in misery, we ourselves are sinners, men are perishing in sin every day. The gospel is the sole means of escape.
—J. Gresham Machen
According to Christian belief, man exists for the sake of God; according to the liberal Church, in practice if not in theory, God exists for the sake of man.
—J. Gresham Machen
A Christianity that avoids argument is not the Christianity of the New Testament.
—J. Gresham Machen
“Christ died”-that is history; “Christ died for our sins”-that is doctrine.
—J. Gresham Machen
All sin at bottom is a sin against God. “Against thee, thee only have I sinned” is the cry of a true penitent. How terrible is the sin against God!
—J. Gresham Machen
[Christianity] bases upon the Bible both its thinking and its life. Liberalism… is founded upon the shifting emotions of sinful men.
—J. Gresham Machen
What is today a matter of academic speculation begins tomorrow to move armies and pull down empires.
—J. Gresham Machen
Where the most eloquent exhortation fails, the simple story of an event succeeds; the lives of men are transformed by a piece of news.
—J. Gresham Machen
Ah, people are so patronizing in the presence of Jesus today. They say such kind, polite things about him.
—J. Gresham Machen
[During WWI] I hate war, I am tired of the whole business.
—J. Gresham Machen
we know absolutely nothing about an atonement that is not a vicarious atonement, for that is the only atonement of which the New Testament speaks.
—J. Gresham Machen
But, it will be said, Christianity is a life, not a doctrine. The assertion is often made, and it has an appearance of godliness. But it is radically false, and to detect its falsity one does not even need to be a Christian.
—J. Gresham Machen
But, it will be said, Christianity is a life, not a doctrine. The assertion is often made, and it has an appearance of godliness. But it is radically false, and to detect its falsity one does not even need to be a Christian.
—J. Gresham Machen