The Auburn Heresy.
Between 1920 and 1925, the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy plagued Baptist and Presbyterian denominations. It began with liberals changing the understanding of the authority of Scripture. They began to teach that scientific study, discovered by reason, was a superior source of authority that could add to and correct Scripture. The liberals believed that once Christians gave up the idea that the Bible was the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God, they would come to see that the Bible was just an error-ridden historical record of religious experience and that Christians today should be led by their feelings and experiences rather than the word of God.
This Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy led J. Gresham Machen to write his famous book, Christianity and Liberalism.
Although Machen and other orthodox, conservative Christians in the denominations fought against this attack on God’s Word, the emotionally charged plea of “unity in the church” won the day. In 1923, the Auburn Affirmation was approved by over 1,200 pastors and elders within the Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A. (PCUSA). Conservatives lost when the large body of centrists—mostly conservative in doctrine but had no wisdom of the times (not discerning the danger of modernism/liberalism within the church) - swung to the liberal side to avoid division.
In the Auburn Affirmation, their goal was to alter the established doctrines of Reformed and Evangelical Christianity as defined into religious modernism, known as Liberalism. This affirmation was a direct attack upon the fundamental doctrine of Scripture and, therefore, an attack upon God.
The Auburn Affirmation of 1924 declares the following heresies:
The Bible is not inerrant. “The supreme guide of scripture interpretation is the Spirit of God to the individual believer, not ecclesiastical authority. Thus, liberty of conscience is elevated. The doctrine of inerrancy, intended to enhance the Authority of the Scriptures, impairs their supreme authority for faith and life and weakens the church's testimony to the power of God unto salvation through Jesus Christ.” In other words, the signers of this document support the idea that the Bible has errors and, therefore, a pastor’s feelings and opinions (liberty of conscience) trump the Word of God.
Regarding theories concerning the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Resurrection, and the Continuing Life and Supernatural Power of Jesus Christ: “Some of us regard the particular theories contained in the deliverance of the General Assembly of 1923 as satisfactory explanations of these facts and doctrines. But we are united in believing that these are not the only theories allowed by the Scriptures and our standards as explanations of these facts and doctrines of our religion and that all who hold to these facts and doctrines, whatever theories they may employ to explain them, are worthy of all confidence and fellowship.” In other words, pastors and elders could believe and teach whatever their feelings and opinions led them to teach.
None of these essential doctrines would be used as a test of ordination. All "theories" of these doctrines were allowed.
Dr. Gordon H. Clark, Professor of Philosophy at Butler University Indianapolis, Indiana, addressed the Presbyterian laymen in Philadelphia at a meeting in 1935 in this way….. “This, then, is the situation conservative Christians must meet. Shall the truth of the Bible be upheld, or shall orders to support modernism (liberalism) be made the supreme authority over men’s conscience? This is no trivial matter but rather a life-and-death struggle between two mutually exclusive religions. One religion can, without harm to its integrity, reject the infallible Word of God, deny the Virgin Birth, repudiate Christ’s propitiatory sacrifice, and deny the resurrection. That religion will remain complete even if all these things are eliminated, but that religion is not Christianity. The other religion is Christianity. It accepts the Bible as the very Word of God, who cannot lie because it makes Christ’s sacrifice to satisfy divine justice the only basis of salvation and because it glories in the historical fact of the resurrection.”
Text of the Auburn Affirmation (article)
The Auburn Heresy Address by Gordon H. Clark (article)
Unmasking the Heresy! Revisiting the Auburn Heresy (article)
The Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy by Ligonier Ministries (article)
Context: Fundamentalists, Modernists, and Fosdick’s Sermon (article)
A Layman's Historical Guide to the Inerrancy Debate by Reformation21 (article)
Full Confidence: B.B. Warfield, J. Gresham Machen and the Battle for Biblical Authority by Westminster Theological Seminary (audio)
Holding the Line by Ligonier Ministries (article)
An Honest Witness by Ligonier Ministries (article)
Protestantism and Modernist-Fundamentalist Divide (pdf download)
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This episode focuses on his incredible time during the Great War.
Dr. Nick Willborn outlines the historical context that informed the Presbyterian/Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy in which J. Gresham Machen played a significant part.
Dr. Nick Willborn discusses the Presbyterian/Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy and some of the era's significant figures and events.
In 1923, the church faced challenges that seem surprisingly familiar today. To provide a biblical solution to these problems, J. Gresham Machen wrote his classic book, Christianity and Liberalism. Watch as Ligonier’s chief academic officer, Dr. Stephen Nichols, and chief publishing officer, Dr. Burk Parsons, explain the timely help Machen’s book offers us one hundred years later.
Many Americans today are taking note of the surprisingly strong political force that is the religious right. Controversial decisions by the government are met with hundreds of lobbyists, millions of dollars of advertising spending, and a robust grassroots response. How has the fundamentalist movement managed to resist the pressures of the scientific community and the draw of modern popular culture to hold on to their ultra-conservative Christian views? Understanding the movement's history is critical to answering this question. Fundamentalism and American Culture have long been considered a classic in religious history and, to this day, remain unsurpassed. Now available in a new edition, this highly regarded analysis takes us through the history of the origin and direction of one of America's most influential religious movements.
For Marsden, fundamentalists are not just religious conservatives; they are conservatives who are willing to take a stand and fight. In Marsden's words (borrowed by Jerry Falwell), "a fundamentalist is an evangelical who is angry about something." In the late nineteenth century, American Protestantism was gradually divided between liberals accepting new scientific and higher critical views contradicting the Bible and defenders of the more traditional evangelicalism. By the 1920s, a full-fledged "fundamentalist" movement had developed in protest against theological changes in the churches and changing mores in the culture. Building on networks of evangelists, Bible conferences, Bible institutes, and missions agencies, fundamentalists coalesced into a significant protest movement with remarkable staying power.
For this new edition, a significant new chapter compares fundamentalism since the 1970s to the fundamentalism of the 1920s, looking particularly at the extraordinary growth in political emphasis and power of the more recent movement. Never has it been more critical to understand the history of fundamentalism in our rapidly polarizing nation. Marsen's carefully researched and engrossing work remains the best way to do that.
In this book, Machen defends essential Christian doctrines and exposes liberalism as a false religion. Modernists in the early twentieth century thought the church needed to be rescued from irrelevance, so they laid aside unpopular teachings from the Bible and recast Christianity simply as a way of life. J. Gresham Machen responded unbendingly: Christian doctrine isn’t the problem—unbelief is. He establishes the importance of scriptural doctrine and contrasts the teachings of liberalism and orthodoxy on God and man, the Bible, Christ, salvation, and the church.
Learn more about J. Gresham Machen.
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