Nathan Finn: A crisis of theology

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, May 20th. Good morning! This isThe World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) is closing the doors on its global missions efforts. Nearly all its missionaries have been let go.

WORLD Opinions contributor Nathan Finn explains what led to this shift and why it matters.

NATHAN FINN, COMMENTATOR: The stated reasons for this move include a drop in the missionary force over the past 15 years and the financial repercussions of ongoing membership decline…but this is hardly the whole story. The roots of its decline are ultimately theological, not financial.

In the 1920s and 1930s, American Protestants endured a number of denominational disputes that collectively came to be called the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy. In each instance, theological liberals gradually gained control over denominational institutions and leading pulpits. They called for the redefinition of older ideas like Biblical inspiration, human sinfulness, the person and work of Christ, and salvation.

As modernists gained power, theological conservatives resisted and the conservative dissenters came to be called “fundamentalists” as they contended for the fundamentals of Biblical Christianity. They said the world didn’t need some revised version of the faith that tickled the ears. Rather, people still needed to hear that the Bible is an authoritative and truthful revelation from God, that all people are sinners, that Jesus is fully God and fully man, that He died for our sins and rose again on the third day, and that there is no salvation found outside of faith in Jesus.

The two major fronts in the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy were theological seminaries and foreign mission agencies, and they were closely connected. Seminaries educate future pastors and missionaries, so they necessarily shape how emerging church leaders think about the Bible, human nature, the gospel, and the Great Commission. Liberal pastors educated in modernist seminaries increasingly preached a social gospel that minimized the reality of personal sin and the need for salvation. Liberal missionaries focused their efforts on education, medical services, and economic development, often to the exclusion of evangelism and church planting.

Modernists and their pragmatically minded “moderate” allies gained control of denominational institutions, especially Princeton Theological Seminary and the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions.

Theological conservatives challenged these changes. They established Westminster Theological Seminary in 1929. In 1933 they started the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions. Both offered alternatives to the modernist denominational agencies. Ultimately, most conservatives left the denomination for new groups, most notably the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

The most important Presbyterian conservative of the time was New Testament scholar J. Gresham Machen, who served for decades on the faculty of Princeton Seminary. Machen helped found Westminster Seminary, the Independent Board, and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Most importantly, he wrote the definitive interpretation of theological liberalism and the threat it poses to authentic Christianity.

In his 1923 book: Christianity and Liberalism Machen argued that modernism wasn’t an updated form of Christianity but was rather a different religion that rivalled Biblical Christianity. Theological liberals may use the same vocabulary as Christianity, but they are working from a different dictionary because of their rejection of Biblical inspiration and other fundamental doctrines. Liberalism doesn’t lead to the renewal of Christianity for the modern world but results in the rejection of authentic Christianity altogether. The end product of liberalism is unbelief.

History has proven Machen correct. In 1983, the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America was one of the historically Reformed denominations that merged into what is now the Presbyterian Church (USA). In 1983, the PCUSA had over 3.1 million members. Today, membership is less than 1.1 million members. Several of its seminaries still have elite reputations, but all of them are liberal and declining. Churches continue to leave the denomination because of its progressive drift. None of this is a recipe for a robust commitment to Great Commission faithfulness.

The story of mainline Presbyterianism over the past 100 years is a cautionary tale. Theological liberalism is incompatible with authentic Christianity. When churches or denominations begin to adjust to the spirit of the age, Jude 3 says they inevitably deny the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints.

I’m Nathan Finn.

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