"It is a word that is now regarded as highly objectionable, a word that Paul, if he had been what modern men would have desired him to be, never would have used. It is the small but weighty word 'not.' That word 'not,' we are today constantly being told ought to be put out of the Christian's vocabulary. Our preaching, we are told, ought to be positive and not negative; we ought to present truth, but ought not to attack error; we ought to avoid controversy and always seek peace...With regard to such a program, it may be said at least that if w e hold to it we might just as well close up our New Testaments; for the New Testament is a controversial book almost from beginning to end...The church of our day needs above all else men who can say 'No;' for it is only men who can say 'No,' men who are brave enough to take a stand against sin and error in the church--it is only such men who can really say 'Yea and amen' to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ."
--J. Gresham Machen, from Notes on Galatians (SGCP, 2006, pp. 6-7)
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