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J. Gresham Machen, in the 1923 book Christianity and Liberalism,
makes a good point that Christians in America
need to hear today.
"It is upon this brotherhood of twice-born sinners, this brotherhood of
the redeemed, that the Christian founds the hope of society. He finds no solid
hope in the improvement of earthly conditions, or the molding of human
institutions under the influence of the Golden Rule. These things indeed are to
be welcomed. They may so palliate the symptoms of sin that there may be time to
apply the true remedy; they may serve to produce conditions upon the earth
favorable to the propagation of the gospel message; they are even valuable for
their own sake. But in themselves their value, to the Christian, is certainly
small. A solid building cannot be constructed when all the materials are
faulty; a blessed society cannot be formed out of men who are still under the
curse of sin. Human institutions are really to be molded, not by Christian principles
accepted by the unsaved, but by Christian men; the true transformation of
society will come by the influence of those who have themselves been redeemed."[1]
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