Supporters of Presbyterians' Independent Missions Rally in Orange
The division in the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., which has resulted in the creation of the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, was described as "a fight to the death between two mutually exclusive religions" at a rally of the board's supporters last night in Orange High School.
Dr. Gordon H. Clark, University of Pennsylvania professor of philosophy, who used those words, attacked the Auburn Affirmation, which asserted minister's rights to liberal interpretation of the five Fundamental beliefs, the inerrancy of the Bible, the Virgin Birth, Christ's miracles, the crucifixion and the resurrection. The Affirmation was circulated after the General Assembly of 1923 had passed a resolution reiterating faith in those teachings.
Dr. Clark said the Auburn Affirmation would be significant in church history. "The reason it is so important," he stated, "is that it constitutes a major offense against the Word of God. Thirteen hundred Presbyterian ministers have signed this heretical document."
Declares Judges Hostile.
Referring to trials of Independent Board members for disregarding the edict of the General Assembly of 1934 dispersing them, Dr. Clark said: "If these men are finally brought before the Permanent Judicial Commission they will be facing ministers of whom half have signed the Auburn Affirmation and of whom half are in sympathy."
Rev. H. McAllister Griffiths of Philadelphia, managing editor of Christianity Today, described the schism as "a conflict between those who stand for the Word of God and those who wish to mix the Word of God and the authority of God with the word and authority of Man." In decreeing that missionary funds should not be given the Independent Board, Mr. Griffiths said, the General Assembly usurped its authority.
"I do not say that all, or even the majority, of the missionaries are tainted with modernism," he stated, "but I do say that the fountainhead, the Board of Foreign Missions in New York, is so tainted with modernism that it will in time permeate the whole missionary structure."
James E. Bennett of Flushing, L. I., member of the Independent Board, called the trial of Rev. Dr. J. Gresham Machen of Philadelphia a "mock trial." Dr. Machen was brought to New Brunswick for trial, he declared, because the authorities feared they would lose the case in Philadelphia, "so they discovered they had lost the papers, of something, which transferred him from New Brunswick Presbytery to Philadelphia." The result of the trial, Bennett stated, was that "Dr. Machen can serve at the Communion table in Philadelphia, but not in New Brunswick."
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