Princeton Seminary and the PCUSA After Machen

[149-deleted]

Hey everyone!

I have just finished Stonehouse's biography of Machen. In some ways it was quite a tragic book with all that went on and how the conservative party were defeated in their efforts to preserve the Reformed faith in Princeton Seminary and the PCUSA.

I was wondering about what happened after with Princeton Seminary and the PCUSA. Was the slide into liberalism complete and unhindered, or did something arrest it? What is the status of the denomination today, and the seminary? I know that Vos and a few of the old guard did stay behind in Princeton, but Stonehouse said they did so with sadness.

 

[jwithnell]

I was baptized in a Presbyterian church just south of the involved presbytery and our pastor was a Princeton graduate. Like many, the church boomed through the 50s and 60s. It doubled the size of its physical facility around 1960.

It bought in to female officers, the idea of relevance, had youth groups, and offered worship services with a teen strumming a guitar. In other words, if you fast-forward to some PCA churches now, you'd find only a few differences except one: our pastor led the public outcry when a convenience store moved locally and stayed open on Sundays.

However, the bunch of young families grew older and no one filled in behind. What might have been cool in 1968 now feels dull and dated. I suspect that the pitched battles from the 30s that we read about now were mostly at the academic and leadership levels and that local congregations pushed on "like normal." But without the pure word of the gospel, there was nothing to sustain these churches.

We moved south to an odd mixture of Presbyterianism and "old time religion." That church battled the start of the PCA and about 20 years later had an offshoot that started a new PCA congregation carrying the old time religion with it complete with dispensationalism.

I was quite young at these churches and many of the details are filled in by my mother who never fully understood my leap into fully reformed teaching and practice.

 

[149-deleted]

Thanks for that, jwithnell!

 

[arapahoepark]

I was baptized in a Presbyterian church just south of the involved presbytery and our pastor was a Princeton graduate. Like many, the church boomed through the 50s and 60s. It doubled the size of its physical facility around 1960.

It bought in to female officers, the idea of relevance, had youth groups, and offered worship services with a teen strumming a guitar. In other words, if you fast-forward to some PCA churches now, you'd find only a few differences except one: our pastor led the public outcry when a convenience store moved locally and stayed open on Sundays.

However, the bunch of young families grew older and no one filled in behind. What might have been cool in 1968 now feels dull and dated. I suspect that the pitched battles from the 30s that we read about now were mostly at the academic and leadership levels and that local congregations pushed on "like normal." But without the pure word of the gospel, there was nothing to sustain these churches.

We moved south to an odd mixture of Presbyterianism and "old time religion." That church battled the start of the PCA and about 20 years later had an offshoot that started a new PCA congregation carrying the old time religion with it complete with dispensationalism.

I was quite young at these churches and many of the details are filled in by my mother who never fully understood my leap into fully reformed teaching and practice.

Can you more specifically define 'old time religion'?

 

[jwithnell]

Can you more specifically define 'old time religion'?

Looking back, I recognize we had members who had been reared in the typical deep south dispensationalism and decisionalism: good-hearted folks, to be certain, but they couldn't really connect the dots for someone dealing with a recognition of his depravity. Meanwhile from the pulpit, we were hearing quotes from "I'm Ok, You're OK." When I came to Christ reading Francis Schaeffer's work, I was certain Presbyterians had no grasp of the scriptures, but then I had never met a confessional Presbyterian at that point

 

[jwright82]

Hey everyone!

I have just finished Stonehouse's biography of Machen. In some ways it was quite a tragic book with all that went on and how the conservative party were defeated in their efforts to preserve the Reformed faith in Princeton Seminary and the PCUSA.

I was wondering about what happened after with Princeton Seminary and the PCUSA. Was the slide into liberalism complete and unhindered, or did something arrest it? What is the status of the denomination today, and the seminary? I know that Vos and a few of the old guard did stay behind in Princeton, but Stonehouse said they did so with sadness.

I've read that they both moved more to a Karl Barth mentality. So they are not liberal but not a stinking fundamentalist either.