Characteristics of a True Church
Working through a landmark Machen article, part 11
But if the existing Protestant church organizations, with some notable exceptions, must be radically reformed before they can be regarded as truly Christian, what, as distinguished from these organizations, is the function of a true Christian Church?
Machen believed that “true” churches were increasingly rare in his day, but he also believed such churches (all far from perfect) were still the most important institutions in the world. He went on to remind his readers what such churches were to be doing and how they should be doing it.
Ned B. Stonehouse, Machen’s biographer, dubbed him posthumously (after the Bunyan character) “Mr. Valiant-for Truth par excellence.” Here Machen says the church must be radically for the truth:
In the first place, a true Christian Church, now as always, will be radically doctrinal. It will never use the shibboleths of a pragmatist skepticism. It will never say that doctrine is the expression of experience; it will never confuse the useful with the true, but will place truth at the basis of all its striving and all its life. Into the welter of changing human opinion, into the modern despair with regard to any knowledge of the meaning of life, it will come with a clear and imperious message. That message it will find in the Bible, which it will hold to contain not a record of man’s religious experience but a record of a revelation from God.
Because he believed the Bible was true, perspicuous, and sufficient Machen warned his readers against the wiles of those resembling other Bunyan characters like the pragmatic Mr. By-ends and Worldly Wiseman. The church, armed with divine revelation, would be radical.
The truth would set the church free, but the church would never be free to do or believe just anything she wanted. The truth demanded intolerance:
In the second place, a true Christian Church will be radically intolerant. At that point, however, a word of explanation is in place. The intolerance of the Church, in the sense in which I am speaking of it, does not involve any interference with liberty; on the contrary, it means the preservation of liberty. One of the most important elements in civil and religious liberty is the right of voluntary association— the right of citizens to band themselves together for any lawful purpose whatever, whether that purpose does or does not commend itself to the generality of their fellow men. Now, a church is a voluntary association. No one is compelled to be a member of it; no one is compelled to be one of its accredited representatives. It is, therefore, no interference with liberty for a church to insist that those who do choose to be its accredited representatives shall not use the vantage ground of such a position to attack that for which the church exists.
The freedom of the church is the freedom to demand that its members and ministers adhere to its own biblical standards. The church is not the state (nor is it backed by the state's power) and has no power of enforcement or compulsion except to declare truth and declare who is a member. 1
It would, indeed, be an interference with liberty for a church, through the ballot box or otherwise, to use the power of the state to compel men to assent to the church’s creed or conform to the church’s program. To that kind of intolerance I am opposed with all my might and main. I am also opposed to church union for somewhat similar reasons, as well as for other reasons still more important. I am opposed to the depressing dream of one monopolistic church organization, placing the whole Protestant world under one set of committees and boards. If that dream were ever realized, it would be an intolerable tyranny. Certainly it would mean the death of any true Christian unity. I trust that the efforts of the church-unionists may be defeated, like the efforts of the opponents of liberty in other fields.
Here we find two things that Machen opposed: the loss of liberty at the hands of the state and the loss of liberty at the hands of top-down, lowest-common-denominator ecumenism which (ironically) often serves and is supported by the state. The doctrinal and moral death of the state churches of Europe proves Machen’s fears to have been well founded.
But when I say that a true Christian Church is radically intolerant, I mean simply that the Church must maintain the high exclusiveness and universality of its message. It presents the gospel of Jesus Christ not merely as one way of salvation, but as the only way. It cannot make common cause with other faiths. It cannot agree not to proselytize. Its appeal is universal, and admits of no exceptions. All are lost in sin; none may be saved except by the way set forth in the gospel. Therein lies the offense of the Christian religion, but therein lies also its glory and its power. A Christianity tolerant of other religions is just no Christianity at all.
Ecumenism is the enemy of doctrinal exclusivity, and Machen would say precise doctrine concerning the Triune God and the way of salvation is non-negotiable. Such precision will never be convenient for religious ecumenicrats, civil magistrates, or politicians.
Read The Responsibility of the Church in Our New Age in full.
Listen to a fine reading of the article (39 minutes) by Bob Tarullo.
Stay tuned for future/final installments - by Brad Isbell
READ PART 10:
Best exemplified in the Preliminary Principles of the Presbyterian Church in America:
7.All church power, whether exercised by the body in general, or by representation, is only ministerial and declarative since the Holy Scriptures are the only rule of faith and practice. No church judicatory may make laws to bind the conscience. All church courts may err through human frailty, yet it rests upon them to uphold the laws of Scripture though this obligation be lodged with fallible men.
8. Since ecclesiastical discipline must be purely moral or spiritual in its object, and not attended with any civil effects, it can derive no force whatever, but from its own justice, the approbation of an impartial public, and the countenance and blessing of the great Head of the Church.
https://www.pcaac.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/BCO-for-website-with-bookmarks-incl-RAO-OMSJC-HH.pdf