…a large part of the New Testament is polemic; the enunciation of evangelical truth was occasioned by the errors which had arisen in the churches. So it will always be, on account of the fundamental laws of the human mind… There may have been a day when there could be propagation of Christianity without defence. But such a day at any rate is passed… In such times of crisis, God has always saved the Church. But He has always saved it not by theological pacifists, but by sturdy contenders for the truth.
J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism (Eerdmans, 1923), p174.
Machen’s book is good stuff. He tends to ramble on a particular topic a bit too much, saying the same things in many different ways. But, using variations of the same argument, he is able to reinforce his points in a way that a more concise argument could not. To drive a nail into a doctrinal coffin sometimes requires a few bangs of the theological hammer, I guess.
