John Gresham Machen

John Gresham Machen (1881-1937) was nominated for a promotion as a professor at Princeton Seminary in 1926, having taught New Testament there for twenty years. Back in the day, faculty promotions required the approval of the General Assembly, the highest governing body of the Presbyterian church. Such promotions were normally a formality. Not this time! John’s view of prohibition was on trial. While prohibition enjoyed widespread support among the religious mainstream, John staunchly opposed it. He insisted that a federal policy against alcohol would cause more harm than good by spawning a network of criminal activity. While he believed Scripture advocated for a moderate consumption of alcohol and condemned intoxication, nowhere did he find biblical warrant to justify government coercion as the solution for the problem. His faculty promotion stalled in committee, and the General Assembly decisively reaffirmed its endorsement of prohibition. Church leaders carried it a step further, launching an investigation into John’s theology. Some were looking for a way to curtail his influence in challenging the church’s infatuation with theological liberalism. John believed the trueness of Christianity was not merely a matter of personal opinion, but an objective reality based on the veracity of Scripture. The investigation resulted in a reorganization of the seminary, primarily to stem John’s growing impact. John resigned in protest with other Princeton colleagues to form Westminster Theological Seminary as an orthodox alternative. While John was an outspoken foe of theological liberalism, he was also a strong advocate of civil liberties.
What does all this have to do with prayer? John wrote of studying theology, “The more we know of God, the more unreservedly we will trust him; the greater our progress in theology, the simpler and more childlike will be our faith.” At his final sermon at Princeton before his resignation in 1929, he uttered words that resemble prayer: