11 April 1933 A.D. Machen v. Speers Re: Theology & Missions
11
April 1933 A.D. Machen v. Speers Re:
Theology & Missions
April 11: Machen Debates Speer (1933)
Be Ready Always
The
day of the debate had brought a crowd of Presbyterian elders to the
sanctuary of the Fourth Presbyterian Church on that day of April 11, 1933. The
topic was “Modernism on the Mission Field.” And the two individuals
engaging in the debate were two “heavies” on opposite sides of the issue.
Dr.
J. Gresham Machen was the recognized leader of the conservatives in the
Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. Founder and president of Westminster
Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was still a member
minister of the New Brunswick, New Jersey Presbytery, though he had tried
unsuccessfully to transfer to the Philadelphia Presbytery. Against him
was Dr. Robert Speer, present head of the Board of Foreign Missions of the
Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.
Dr.
Machen began his presentation with a proposed overture from the Presbytery of
New Brunswick to the General Assembly of 1933. The first two of four
parts are the key ones, which I will quote word for word from the April 1933
Christianity Today article, and sum up the other two.
Point
1 of his overture was: “To take care to elect to positions of the Board of
Foreign Missions only persons who are fully aware of the danger in which the
Church stands and who are determined to insist on such verities as the
full truthfulness of Scripture, the virgin birth of our Lord, His
substitutionary death as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, His bodily
resurrection and His miracles, as being essential to the Word of God and
our Standards, as being necessary to the message which every missionary
under our church shall proclaim.”
In
essence, this first proposition simply summed up the Declarations of the
General Assembly’s five fundamentals which were considered as essential for the
Church, its boards, and its ministers. It specifically repudiated the
denials of the same by the Auburn Affirmation in 1924.
Proposition
2 of the proposed overture sought to “instruct the Board of Foreign Missions
that no one who denies the absolute necessity of acceptance of such verities by
every candidate for this ministry can possibly be regarded as a
candidate to occupy the position of Candidate Secretary.”
This
proposition addressed the important place which the Candidate Secretary has in
ascertaining the theological convictions which each missionary candidate has to
serve on the Foreign Field. In other words, in people such as Pearl Buck,
who was openly denying the exclusiveness of the gospel of Christ, it is obvious
that the Candidate Secretary had “missed the boat” in approving her as being a
missionary to China.
The
third proposition summed up that those who held that the tolerance of opposing
views was more important than an unswerving faithfulness in the
proclamation of the Gospel as it is contained in the Word of God, show
themselves to be unworthy of being missionaries of the cross.
This
proposition was aimed at those who had accepted the fundamental viewpoint of
the book, “Rethinking Missions,” that denied the exclusivity of the gospel.
The
last proposition sought to warn the Board of the great dangers lurking with
union enterprises in view of wide-spread error.
Dr.
Speer for his part of the “debate” simply dismissed each of the overture
propositions. When the vote was taken on Dr. Machen’s
proposed overture, it was voted down by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, with a
majority voting in favor of confidence in the Board of Foreign Missions.
Dr. Machen, Rev. Samuel Craig, and Dr. Casper Wistar Hodge asked that their
names be recorded in dissent of the motion.
For a
fuller account of the debate, click here. https://continuing.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/239/
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