All through the history of the Church of Christ there has been a ceaseless struggle to maintain the truth.

That is a quote from Alan McRae, he was a 20th century Presbyterian churchman and a biblical scholar, he learned that quote firsthand.

He was with Jay Gressam Meachin as a student at Princeton Seminary in the late 1920s,

and when Meachin left Princeton and went across the Delaware River over to

Philadelphia to found Westminster Theological Seminary McRae went along with him.

And a few years later in 1936 when Machen, who was ousted from the Presbyterian Church,

U.S. and he formed a new church, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Well, McRae went along with him again. So what was the issue in the 1930s and specifically

in 1936 that McRae is talking about this ceaseless struggle to maintain the truth.

Well, broadly speaking, the issue was liberalism and cultural progressivism.

This had been at work in the Presbyterian Church USA and many other denominations as well at the time

from the 1890s on through the roaring 20s.

Machen battled it at Princeton and he was battling it within the denomination.

Narily speaking, the issue was missions.

In 1932, the fall of 1932, a report was issued entitled Rethinking Missions.

This report was then published fully in 1933 and no fewer than seven volumes published

by Harper, again under the title,

Rethinking Missions. This project was all funded by John D Rockefeller.

It had representatives from seven key positions on mission boards in seven denominations

participated.

This document had two major parts.

One was based on a fact-finding mission and just spoke of the state of missions and the conditions of places.

...