Machen Chapter 1

I really enjoyed how Machen starts describing the purpose of this book. Even more so, the fact that he does not want to “decide the religious issue”, rather wants to “present” an issue in today’s world. It allows for a clear picture and gives an opportunity to dive into a deeper talk rather than trying to clump so much into one book.

            On page 2 he talks about the rise of modern naturalistic liberalism. He mentions how it is not something that someone must look deeply into, rather, you can simply see it with a plain eye. I thought this was hilarious because he is so right. There are times where someone might want to keep their point of view hidden because they are fearful of other’s opinions. With liberalism and its development, we can see that they want everyone to buy into it. Often, those who believe it will push their opinions on someone and will not back down. They will not back down and change what they believe.

            On page 4 it talks about how some people will say that science and religion are separate. To me this makes no sense. I am not the best with science, but I do not understand how you can think there is no correlation at all with religion. For example, micro evolution. That is science but it ties into how nature is created and evolves. I do, however, understand that we must be cautious with modern science and its seeking desire to debunk Christianity. It is a question that I will continue to have, and I hope that Machen continues to evaluate that throughout the book more. Machen then continues further in his point and mentions how one of Christianity’s issues is that it questions if it can survive the scientific modern age. I think we can. To do so, we must not question scripture. We must follow and abide by it to its fullest. We also must stop backing down to the world and what it wants. As Christians we shall not back down but stand up for the Word of God.

            On page 6 Machen mentions the attempt at reconciling Christianity and science through liberalism. I really want to ask liberal thinking Christians how and why they believe that their way of thinking can ever reconcile it. For Christians, we are saved by Christ and from then on we live a life for Christ and God’s Word is a strong foundation to do so. I struggle so much seeing so many churches bow down to liberalism and its beliefs. It is such a worldly way of thinking. We must be thoughtful and discerning while we do research on things of this world. Even more important is our discernment of the bible. That is our life and can show us how to live. It will guide us in so many ways. Unfortunately, so many churches and Christians have fallen from that. It makes me so distraught seeing that. It also makes me question what pastors are preaching to their congregations. I am very interested in hearing what Machen continues to talk about in this book.