Ruminating Musings Brainwork

“The main business of our lives will be to bring them to the Saviour of their souls.” (134, Machen) Chapter 7, the final chapter in Machen’s book Christianity and Liberalism, it titled The Church. What I see as the very core of this chapter is the Church’s honor and responsibility of connecting people with God. Machen explains this in a couple ways. First, Christians have a special bond. Second, Christians cannot be unified with sin. Third, unauthentic Christians can sometimes seem authentic. Lastly, we will not be able to be unified if we do not try to understand others. “The Christian knows also of a relationship far more intimate than that general relationship of man to man, and it is for this more intimate relationship that he reserves the term ‘brother.’ The true brotherhood, according to Christian teaching, is the brotherhood of the redeemed.” (134, Machen) Galatians 3:26 tells us that by faith, we are all children of God. This is the brotherhood of the redeemed. I feel like...

     This week’s chapter is on Salvation. Machen is concerned with people knowing where their true salvation comes from: a life-giving relationship with Jesus Christ. He explains this by reminding us of why Jesus is savior, why His death was important, where liberal preachers fall short, and how the gospel is exclusive.      First, Machen wants us to know that Jesus is savior because of the sacrifice of his life. Some may try and say that Jesus was just a good guy who lived a life that is worthy of being an example of what a good person could do. But this thinking completely denies the authority of Jesus. Scripture says that Jesus is the Messiah, the saving one. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice because he lived a sinless life, could take on all the sins of the world in the past, present, and future, and he was completely man and completely God.      Machen writes, “According to Christian belief, Jesus is our Saviour, not by virtue of what H...

     This week’s chapter was on Jesus. Machen is explaining what he believed were some of the most important doctrine to know about Jesus. My focus of this chapter will be on just a few of Machem’s points: Jesus is the object of faith, Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, and Liberalism tried to bypass Jesus and have a relationship without him.      First, Machen begins by talking about how Jesus was everything to Paul. He wrote, “Jesus was not for Paul merely an example for faith; He was primarily the object of faith. The religion of Paul did not consist in having faith in God  like the faith which Jesus had in God; it consisted rather in having faith in Jesus.” (70, Machem) What does Machen mean by this?      When I first read this, I was confused because I didn’t think Machen was trying to say that Paul objectified Jesus and turned him into an object in any way. Instead, what Machen was referring to is how Jesus is the very center of P...