“There are… those who tell us that no defence of the faith is necessary. “The Bible needs no defence”, they say; “let us not be forever defending Christianity, but instead let us go forth joyously to propagate Christianity.” But I have observed one curious fact – when men talk thus about propagating Christianity without defending it, the thing they are propagating is pretty sure not to be Christianity at all. They are propagating anti-intellectualistic, non-doctrinal Modernism; and the reason why it requires no defence is simply that it is so completely in accord with the current of the age. It causes no more disturbance than does a chip that floats downward with a stream. In order to be an adherent of it, a man does not need to resist anything at all; he needs only to drift, and automatically his Modernism will be of the most approved and popular kind. One thing needs always be remembered in the Christian Church – true Christianity, now as always, is radically contrary to the natural man, and it cannot possibly be maintained without a constant struggle. A chip that floats downwards with the current is always at peace; but around every rock the waters foam and rage. Show me a professing Christian of whom all men speak well, and I will show you a man who is probably unfaithful to the Lord”.
J. Greshem Machen, What is Christianity?, p.126-7