This week in Christian history: Galileo recants, Machen ordained, PCUSA elects first black leader
J. Gresham Machen ordained — June 23, 1914
This week marks the anniversary of when John Gresham Machen, a scholar and theologian who helped found the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, was ordained in Plainsboro, New Jersey.
A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Machen advocated for fundamentalist Christianity and opposed the liberalization of Princeton, where he served as an expert on the New Testament.
Shortly after his ordination, Machen served as a chaplain under the Young Men’s Christian Association during World War I, before returning to his academic post at Princeton.
Machen would later resign from Princeton, and in 1935, he was suspended from ministry over his views. The punishment led him to help found the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
“He was arguably the most important conservative Protestant thinker of the first half of the 20th century and the guiding light for the first generation of Orthodox Presbyterians,” stated the OPC.
