To Love God is to Know God →

By Nate Kreider

Last week, I wrote concerning the implications that 20th-century liberalism has had upon the modern-day mainline evangelical church (and mind for that matter) here. This week will be somewhat of a continuation of that thought based upon a point that Machen makes at the beginning of chapter three of his book Christianity and Liberalism. In this observation we will be going a step further, and talking about the practical ramifications of what was talked about in the article linked above. In the previous chapter, Machen spoke on the topic of doctrine, and how in his time many scholars and philosophers were throwing out the notion of doctrine for a natural religion, or one based not on scripture but on feeling, promulgated by the father of liberal theology Friedrich Schleiermacher. But what implication does this waywardness of doctrine have upon the Christian life? Paul answers this well in Ephesians 4:14, when he speaks of how young believers are “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” A similar picture is given in Jesus’ parable of the house upon the sand. When the winds come and seas rise, the shifty foundation upon which they are built will surely be washed away. The point being, Christians who do not have their faith truly built upon the Rock will be swept away by crafty teachers, desiring to tickle the ears of those who are ignorant to the truth (2 Timothy 4:3). 

Let’s talk about that passage for a second. The verse in full says “For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires.” Now let’s re-hash what we have been talking about in light of this verse. Many evangelicals today have little desire to know the doctrines of scripture, therefore putting themselves at a disadvantage, and possibly in harm's way. 

But what they might also be doing, is setting themselves up for the scenario described in this passage. If they do not desire to hear things that might be difficult to hear, they will begin to surround themselves with people who they like to hear, or that do not preach an offensive gospel message. They, in not committing themselves to the scriptures, have indirectly caused themselves to seek after people who tickle their own ears. 

    The Christian Religion, therefore, cannot just be a relationship based upon feeling. Machen says of this, 

“if religion consists merely in feeling the presence of God, it is devoid of any moral quality whatsoever. Pure feeling, if there be such a thing, is non-moral. What makes affection for a human friend, for example, such an ennobling thing is the knowledge which we possess of the character of our friend. Human affection, apparently so simple, is really just bristling with dogma...but if human affection is thus really dependent upon knowledge, why should it be otherwise with that supreme personal relationship which is at the base of religion.”

When, O Church, will we treat our relationship with the Lord with the fear and admonishment that it deserves. 

"The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our Lord stands forever" Isa. 40:8