Pittsburgh 1931

Before Harold John Ockenga took his post as minister of Point Breeze Presbyterian Church, J. Gresham Machen had an important message for him. Today, Stephen Nichols recounts how Machen charged Ockenga to stand firm for the gospel.

Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. And you might be hearing some birds chirping in the background, perhaps some noise of the city streets because we are once again in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania doing another installment of being on location for 5 Minutes in Church History. When I left you, we were in 1931 and we were at First Presbyterian Church right here in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh, and it was the installation service for Harold John Ockenga. Well, Ockenga was quite a figure, very talented. He’s going to go on to be the minister of Park Street Church in Boston. He’s going to be affiliated with Fuller Theological Seminary. He’s going to be a significant figure in 20th century evangelicalism. But back in 1931, he was a Pittsburgher. He was here at First Press in January, and as a very talented young minister, he caught the attention of the session not too far away, and the Point Breeze neighborhood of Pittsburgh just a couple miles away.

And he was invited to be the senior minister of Point Breeze Presbyterian Church. Well, Machen once again boarded a train in Philadelphia and he headed west to preach at yet another installation service for Ockenga. So, in May of 1931, there at Point Breeze with a congregation of about a thousand people, Machen preached the charge to the minister, the charge to his student, Ockenga. For the text, Machen chose the 19th chapter of second Kings. Machen says, in this text, we are told how Hezekiah, the King of Judah, received a threatening letter from the Assyrian enemy of the people of God. The letter contained unpalatable truth. It set forth the way in which the King of as Assyria had conquered one nation after another. And as Machen continues, could the puny kingdom of Judah escape, where others had failed? And so, Hezekiah takes that threatening letter and he lays it out before the Lord, and he petitions the Lord for help for his people.

Machen uses this text because he saw that moment in church history and even that moment here in the city of Pittsburgh as a time of threatening’s. There’s Pittsburgh Theological Seminary here, which had many liberal faculty in it, and many of the churches here in Pittsburgh were beginning to have in their pulpit’s liberal ministers. And he knew the challenge that was in front of Ockenga. At one point, he says to Ockenga directly that you don’t need to deny the things of the Gospel in order to neglect them. He says, “all you need to do is relinquish the terrible exclusiveness of the Gospel’s appeal, make common cause with those who believe not in the Gospel of the church if you but preach that the Gospel of Christ is one way of salvation and admit that other ways are leading to the same result.” Machen, of course, says, this is not the Gospel.

This is the false Gospel. And this is what is being preached in many pulpits, not only here in Pittsburgh, but across the United States, and not just in the Presbyterian denomination, but in many denominations. And so, he's challenging young Ockenga to stand firm. He's challenging him to stand on his convictions, and he's challenging him to preach indeed the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. And then Machen says this towards the end of the charge, he says, “in these days of doubt and defection and hostility, there are those who love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And you and I know very well how sweet and precious in the presence of a hostile world is the fellowship of those who meet in prayer and praise to Almighty God, united at the foot of the cross.” There was Machen even in a time of threatening, even in a time of hostility, a time of doubt and defection. He was optimistic, not optimistic in his talents or Ockenga’s talents, but optimistic in the power of the Gospel and the truth of the Gospel and the joy and comfort that the Gospel brings. And there is Machen's charge at the installation of the Reverend Harold, John Ockenga, point Breeze, Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 8th, 1931. And I'm Steve Nichols and thanks for joining me on location for 5 Minutes in Church History.