Some theological quotations

[Cynic]

“Every sin is an act of cosmic treason, a futile attempt to dethrone God in his sovereign authority.” -- R. C. Sproul, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith

[Cynic]

The following is a quotation from a work by John Owen called, Vindiciae Evangelicae; Or, The Mystery of the Gospel Vindicated and Socinianism Examined. John Owen has been given the moniker by some of the “Hammer of the Socinians” for his successful critique of and opposition to Socinian dogma that had then risen on its hind legs in England. Owens's arguments seem to ring as loudly in their content today against the teachings of Wierwille, TWI spinoffs, and Anthony Buzzard as they did against those errant teachings that denied Christ's deity in Owens's day.

1. Distinction of persons (it being an infinite substance) doth no way

prove difference of essence between the Father and the Son. Where Christ,

as mediator, is said to be another from the Father or God, spoken

personally of the Father, it argues not in the least that he is not partaker of

the same nature with him. That in one essence there can be but one person

may be true where the substance is finite and limited, but hath no place in

that which is infinite.

2. Distinction and inequality in respect of office in Christ doth not in the

least take away equality and sameness with the Father in respect of nature

and essence. A son of the same nature with his father, and therein equal

to him, may in office be his inferior, his subject.

3. The advancement and exaltation of Christ as mediator to any dignity

whatever, upon or in reference to the work of our redemption and

salvation, is not at all inconsistent with that essential [axia (value}], honor, dignity,

and worth, which he hath in himself as “God blessed for ever.” Though he

humbled himself and was exalted, yet in nature he was one and the same,

he changed not.

4. The Scripture’s asserting the humanity of Christ with the concernments

thereof, as his birth, life, and death, doth no more thereby deny his deity,

than, by asserting his deity, with the essential properties thereof, eternity,

omniscience, and the like, it denies his humanity.

Edited February 8, 2011 by Cynic

[geisha779]

One of my favorites is C.S. Lewis, from Mere Christianity.

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."

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Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.

John Piper

"The wisdom of God devised a way for the love of God to deliver sinners from the wrath of God while not compromising the righteousness of God."

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"Christ did not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above seeing and savoring God. And people who would be happy in heaven if Christ were not there, will not be there. The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. It's a way of overcoming every obstacle to everlasting joy in God. If we don't want God above all things, we have not been converted by the gospel."

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"Do you feel loved by God because you believe he makes much of you, or because you believe he frees you and empowers you to enjoy making much of him?"

A.W. Tozer

"It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply."

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"The yearning to know what cannot be known, to comprehend the incomprehensible, to touch and taste the unapproachable, arises from the image of God in the nature of man. Deep calleth unto deep, and though polluted and landlocked by the mighty disaster theologians call the Fall, the soul senses its origin and longs to return to its source."

Ravi Zacharias

"Yes, if truth is not under girded by love, it makes the possessor of that truth obnoxious and the truth repulsive."

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"Unless I understand the Cross, I cannot understand why my commitment to what is right must be precedence over what I prefer."

R.C. Sproul

For the soul of a person to be inflamed with passion for the living God, that person's mind must first be informed about the character and will of God. There can be nothing in the heart that is not first in the mind. Though it is possible to have theology on the head without its piercing the soul, it cannot pierce the soul without first being grasped by the mind.

DL Moody

God doesn't seek for golden vessels, and does not ask for silver ones, but He must have clean ones.

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Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead. Don't you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now; I shall have gone up higher, that is all, out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal- a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body.

I was born of the flesh in 1837. I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die. That which is born of the Spirit will live forever.(Especially poignant as we once had the honor of tending his grave)

Edited February 9, 2011 by geisha779

[Cynic]

“The unregenerate man can, through common grace, love his family and he may be a good citizen. He may give a million dollars to build a hospital, but he cannot give even a cup of cold water to a disciple in the name of Jesus. If a drunkard, he may abstain from drink for utilitarian purposes, but he cannot do it out of love for God. All of his common virtues or good works have a fatal defect in that his motives which prompt them are not to glorify God, — a defect so vital that it throws any element of goodness as to man wholly into the shade. It matters not how good the works may be in themselves, for so long as the doer of them is out of harmony with God, none of his works are spiritually acceptable. Furthermore, the good works of the unregenerate have no stable foundation, for his nature is still unchanged; and as naturally and as certainly as the washed sow returns to her wallowing in the mire, so he sooner or later returns to his evil ways.”

Loraine Boettner, Total Depravity

( http://www.the-highway.com/depravity_Boettner.html )

Edited February 13, 2011 by Cynic

[Sunesis]

Some wonderful things to think about you two.

I know someone like the last quote Cynic - they do wonderful things, but its to show how wonderful they are.

I will take time to check out the link you provided.

[geisha779]

Some Spurgeon....

I can conceive no surer method of prejudicing men against the truth than by

sounding her praises through the lips of men of suspicious character. When the devil

turned preacher in the Lord's day, the Master bade him hold his peace; he did not

care for Satanic praises. It is very ridiculous to hear good truth from a bad man; it is

like flour in a coal-sack.

Religious deceivers are the worst of vermin, and I fear they are as plentiful as rats in

an old wheatstack.

Almost every impostor who has come into the world has aimed principally at the rich,

and the mighty, and the respectable; very few impostors have found it to be worth

their while to make it prominent in their preaching that they preach to the poor.

The devil has more to do with some men's pitiless theology than they imagine.

I loathe to hear our true Lord praised by false lips. They deny the doctrines which he

taught, and yet prate about believing him. It is a shallow trick, but yet it deceives

shallow souls.

O blessed Jesus, it is the same still, thou wilt not dazzle or amuse, and therefore men

prefer any charlatan to thee.

As for the new doctrine that many are teaching, it has not enough in it to make even

a mouse enthusiastic; it has not enough in it for them to bait a mouse-trap of their

own, and the only way in which they can make any progress at all is by sneaking into

our churches, obtaining a hearing and winning attention, and then, traitors as they

are, speaking against the very truth that has built our houses of prayer.

All false prophets have sought to keep their disciples at a distance, and to impress

upon them, not merely a high estimation of their importance, but also a superstitious

reverence for their person; ay, and sometimes altogether putting aside the thought of

allowing any of their disciples to hold communion with them.

Who, think you, are the more honest men,—those who tell you plainly what the

Scriptures say concerning this wrath of God, or those who smooth it over, or deny it

altogether?

[teachmevp]

John 5:26; Yeshua was to have that life, that life Yahweh has within himself; before Yeshua was killed, he didn't have that life. When Yahweh raised Yeshua from among the dead, Yeshua got that life within himself; in some kind of flesh and bone body. Beware of that spirit teaching of man?

[geisha779]

You should see it in the original.........For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. John 5:26

[teachmevp]

Granted or to have, Yeshua did not have that life, when Yeshua said that in John? Cool stuff that life, really cool how Yeshua got that life, when Yahweh raised Yeshua from among the dead. To bad that spirit of the Way stuff, is still taught around these here woods?

[Cynic]

The following is from Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments, by Geerhardus Vos (page 356, 2000 edition). Scripture references are, of course, from the Gospel of John.

The Logos is ‘the true light’, that embodiment of the quality of light of which all other lights in the world are but copies and derivatives [1.9]. On the same principle Jesus calls himself ‘the true bread’, ‘the true vine’, [6:32, 33; 15.1]. The adjective that is used in such statements is not the ordinary form alethes, but the stronger form alethinos. One might say that the entire supernal sphere is made up of ‘alethinities’. The objectivity of the concept becomes most apparent by observing that this heavenly truth is, as it were, condensed, incorporated in the heavenly Logos: He is the truth, not, of course, because He is veracious and reliable, but simply, because He has the reality of heaven in Himself. Almost a definition of the idea in this sense is found in connection with ‘the true bread’ [6:32, 33]: ‘My Father gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is He which comes down from heaven and gives life unto the world’. Even to God himself can the predicate alethinos be applied [17.3]. He is the only God having the reality of the essential Godhead in himself.

[teachmevp]

I would never pi$$ on your back, and tell you it is raining; like the pushers that spirit teaching, light?

[geisha779]

John 6:51:I AM the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever

John 8:23: And He said to them, You are from beneath; I AM from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.

John 8:12: Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I AM the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.

John 8:58 Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.

John 10:9: I AM the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

John 10:11: I AM the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.

John 10:36:. . . because I said, I AM the Son of God?

John 11:25: Jesus said to her, I AM the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.

John 14:6: Jesus said to him, I AM the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

John 15:1: I AM the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

John 19:2: Do not write, The King of the Jews, but, He said, I AM the King of the Jews.

Acts 7:32: Stephen speaking of Moses' encounter at the burning bush "saying, I AM the God of your fathers-- the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

Acts 9:5: And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" And the Lord said, I AM Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

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IF Thou art the Son of God command that these stones be made bread (Matt, 4- 3).

IF He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. (Matt 27:42)

IF Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross (Matt. 27: 40).

IF He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.

Let Him save Himself IF He be the Christ, the chosen of God (Luke 23: 35).

Tell us IF You are the Christ, the Son of God! (Matt 26:63)

IF You are the Christ, tell us plainly (John 10: 24).

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I told you, and you do not believe. (John 10:25)

Edited February 21, 2011 by geisha779

[waysider]

Jesus wept.

[Cynic]

The following comments on the progressive nature of the biblical revelation of God as tri-personal is from “The Trinity,” by Loraine Boettner.

See: http://www.jude3.net/boettner_trinity.htm

In regard to all of the great doctrines of the Bible we find that revelation has been progressive. What is only intimated at first is set forth clearly and fully as time goes on. The obscure hint in the Old Testament is found to coincide perfectly with the fuller revelations in the New . . .

"The Old Testament," says Dr. Warfield, "may be likened to a chamber richly furnished but dimly lighted; the introduction of light brings into it nothing which was not in it before; but it brings out into clearer view much of what is in it but only dimly or even not at all perceived before. The mystery of the Trinity is not revealed in the Old Testament; but the mystery of the Trinity underlies the Old Testament revelation, and here and there almost comes into view. Thus the Old Testament revelation of God is not corrected by the fuller revelation which follows it, but only perfected, extended and enlarged" . . .

In the very first chapter of Genesis, as well as in many other places, we find that the names of God are in the plural, Elohim, also Adonai; and with these plural forms of the divine name singular verbs and adjectives are usually joined,-a remarkable phenomenon in view of the fact that the Hebrew language also contained the singular term El, meaning God. Along with the plural name, God sometimes uses plural pronouns in referring to Himself: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26, 27) ; "And Jehovah God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil" (spoken of Adam after the fall) (Gen. 3:22) ; "Come, let us go down, and there confound their language" (at the tower of Babel) (Gen. 11:7) ; "And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" (Isa. 6:8). In these verses we have counsel within the Trinity, God speaking with Himself. He is not taking counsel with, nor asking advice of, the angels, as some have suggested; for the angels are not His counsellors [sic], but His servants, and, like man, infinitely below Him in knowledge. In the Divine nature itself, the Bible teaches us, is to be found that plurality of personal powers which polytheism separated and sought to worship in isolation.

Edited March 28, 2011 by Cynic