May 8 Today in OPC History

On this day in 1975 Professor John Murray passed from this world to the next, leaving behind his loving wife Valerie and their two young children. Born in Scotland in 1898, young Johnnie was raised in a believing home and a faithful Presbyterian kirk. During the Great War, he served in the Black Watch Regiment until he was wounded in the eye by shrapnel. After his recovery and discharge, he entered a course of study at the University of Glasgow. In 1923, he came to Princeton Seminary for theological training, where he distinguished himself. In God's providence, the door to ordination was closed to him in his native land, so he returned to Princeton as an instructor. After a single year of teaching at Princeton, he soon joined Dr. Machen and the faculty of the new Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Recalling their friendship, Allan MacRae said of Murray: "Never in my life have I been associated with anyone whom I found it more pleasant to discuss all manner of subjects. John had many interesting ideas and could express them with great clarity and insight. He also had the ability to lead one to dig into his own inner thoughts and find there ideas that he had not previously realized he possessed." Dr. Machen came to value Murray and relied upon him to help handle the avalanche of correspondence. In late 1934, Dr. Machen received an enquiry from a Seventh-day Adventist minister. He asked Murray to send a reply, saying, "You are the world's best answerer of such inquiries and I am under a terrific pressure and strain just now." Moreover, biographer Iain Murray contends that "by the mid-thirties Murray had become Machen's closest adviser on questions of theology." Professor Murray would teach theology at Westminster Seminary for 37 years, shaping the thinking of countless young men and of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Murray was ordained to the gospel ministry in 1938 by the Presbytery of New York and New England. His ministry included lecturing, writing, evangelistic work in New England and regular preaching. He was a thoroughgoing churchman, serving on numerous important committees of the General Assembly. At his last General Assembly, in 1966, his fellow commissioners presented him a scroll with a tribute: "You have been a warm friend and counsellor to us, one and all, giving individual counsel whenever we sought - always out of a rich wealth of knowledge and inspiring reverence for the written Word. You have been a faithful presbyter, spending untold days in the service of our beloved church, both in its assembly services and as a member of many of its committees. You have been a gracious reprover, a hearty encourager, and an un-bitter dissenter in our deliberations…"

After his retirement from Westminster, Murray returned to Scotland, where he continued to minister. At age 69 he married Valerie Knowlton and a son and daughter were born in following years. Upon news of his death in 1975, John R. de Witt said, "We shall miss him immensely. He was a good and gracious man in every way, a man of humble, child-like faith and piety. He was also one of the best modern representatives of the old Reformed School of theology. We shall not see his like again." Likewise, Cornelius Van Til eulogized him in these words: "John Murray I held in high esteem as a Christian, as a personal friend and as a colleague for many years. As to his character there was, first, his deep humility before God, and even before men who were with him, as he knew, seeking to serve their Master. There was, second, his boldness. He feared God and therefore feared no man… Humble boldness marked John's every doing, no less when he was known throughout the world as the greatest living Calvin scholar than when he began his career of teaching as an instructor at Princeton."

Picture: John Murray (left) and E.J. Young in mid-1960s