THE BIBLE AND THEOLOGY
"I believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the will and the Word of God."---Daniel Webster
"The Bible is a window in this prison-world through which we may look into eternity."---Timothy Dwight
"More than words, Not just letters on a page.
More than words, for every line and every phrase
Was a breath of inspiration from a caring Father
Who gave the gift of His Son to prove
He loved us more than words." ---Steven Curtis Chapman
"Long-lasting relief is not found in a bottle, but in the Bible." ---Anonymous
"God himself has condescended to teach the way: for this very end he came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price give me the Book of God!"---John Wesley
"The Bible walks the ways of all the world with familiar feet and enters land after land to find its own everywhere. It has learned to speak in hundreds of languages to the heart of man. It comes into the palace to tell the monarch that he is a servant of the Most High, and into the cottage to assure the peasant that he is a son of God. Children listen to its stories with wonder and delight, and wise men ponder them as parables of life." ---Henry Van Dyke
"Psychology has to do with how I feel about myself. Theology has to do with what God says about Himself."---Stuart Briscoe
"Theology is somewhat like the game of baseball. In baseball a runner must keep one foot on base or else risk being thrown out. In theology the base is the Bible."---Herschel Hobbs
"It is human to err. It is devilish to remain willfully in error."---Augustine
"A glory gilds the sacred page, Majestic like the sun;
It gives a light to every age, It gives, but borrows none." --- William Cowper
"Besides belonging to eternity, Christ belonged to his times; on the outskirts of a dying civilization he spoke of dying in order to live. Today, when our civilization is likewise dying, his words have the same awe-inspiring relevance as they had then."--- Malcolm Muggeridge
"God the Father is the giver of Holy Scripture; God the Son is the theme of Holy Scripture; and God the Spirit is the author, authenticator, and interpreter of Holy Scripture." ---J. I. Packer
"The Bible is a book in comparison with which all others in my eyes are of minor importance, and in which in all my perplexities and distresses has never failed to give me light and strength."---Robert E. Lee
"The Bible is the sheet-anchor of our liberties."---Ulysses S.Grant
"The Bible has stood the test of time because it is divinely inspired by Almighty God, written in ink that cannot be erased by any man, religion, or belief system. God's written word has survived every scratch of the human pen." --Billy Graham
"We account the Scriptures of God to be the most sublime philosophy. I find more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history whatsoever." ----Isaac Newton
"It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible." ---George Washington
"Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the Book widens and deepens with our years."---Charles Spurgeon
“I would say to my soul, O my soul, this is not the place of despair; this is not the time to despair in. As long as mine eyes can find a promise in the Bible, as long as there is a moment left me of breath or life in this world, so long will I wait or look for mercy, so long will I fight against unbelief and despair.”
----John Bunyan
"There are no songs like the songs of the Scriptures, no orations like the orations of the prophets."---John Milton
"The inerrancy of Scripture is the fundamental doctrine upon which all other doctrines rest." ---Norman Geisler
The inerrancy of Scripture is an essential, not optional, doctrine for the Church. Otherwise, we are cast on a raging sea of subjectivism with a high priesthood of scholars (who assume the position of God) telling us what we should and should not believe." ---Paige Patterson
"God’s Book is packed full of overwhelming riches; they are unsearchable—the more we have the more there is to have."---Oswald Chambers
“It is the work of the Holy Spirit to enable us to believe Scripture to be the Word of God, and infallibly to evidence it to be so in our minds, so that we spiritually and savingly rest in it.” --- John Owen
"Book of books, our people's strength,
Statesman's, teacher's, hero's treasure,
Bringing freedom, spreading truth,
Shedding light that none can measure;
Wisdom comes to those who know thee,
All the best we have we owe thee." ---Percy Dearmer
"Those who, having forsaken Scripture, imagine some way or other of reaching God, ought to be thought of as not so much gripped by error as carried away with frenzy."---John Calvin
"The Bible was written only that men might believe and understand and know and love and follow CHRIST." ---Henry Halley
"We need a return to a gentle dogmatism that smiles while it stands stubborn and firm on the Word of God."--- A. W. Tozer
"I think the greatest weakness in the church today is that almost no one believes that God invests His power in the Bible. Everyone is looking for power in a program, in a methodology, in a technique, in anything and everything but that in which God has placed it—His Word. He alone has the power to change lives for eternity, and that power is focused on the Scriptures." ---R.C,Sproul
"The Bible-- banned, burned, beloved. More widely read, more frequently attacked than any other book in history. Generations of intellectuals have attempted to discredit it, dictators of every era have outlawed it and executed those who read it. Yet soldiers carry it into battle believing it more powerful than their weapons! Fragments of it smuggled into solitary prison cells have transformed ruthless killers into gentle giants." ---Chuck Colson
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST:
"I am Patrick, a sinner, most unlearned, the least of all the faithful, and utterly despised by many.
Because there is no other God, nor ever was, nor will be, than God the Father, without beginning, from whom is all beginning, the Lord of the universe, as we have been taught; and His son Jesus Christ, whom we declare to have always been with the Father, spiritually and ineffably begotten by the Father before the beginning of the world, before all beginning; and by Him are made all things visible and invisible. He was made man, and, having defeated death, was received into heaven by the Father; and He hath given Him all power over all names in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess to Him that Jesus Christ is Lord and God, in whom we believe, and whose advent we expect soon to be, judge of the living and of the dead, who will render to every man according to his deeds; and He has poured forth upon us abundantly the Holy Spirit, the gift and pledge of immortality, who makes those who believe and obey sons of God and joint heirs with Christ; and Him do we confess and adore, one God in the Trinity of the Holy Name."
The Shield of St. Patrick
Paraphrased by Cecil Frances Alexander
"I bind unto myself today the strong name of the trinity,
by invocation of the same, the Three in One, the One in Three.
I bind this day to me forever by power of faith Christ's incarnation,
his baptism in the Jordan river, his death on the cross for my salvation;
his bursting from the spiced tomb, his riding up the heavenly way,
his coming at the day of doom I bind unto myself today.
I bind unto myself today the power of God to hold and lead,
his eye to watch, his might to stay, his ear to hearken to my need,
the wisdom of my God to teach, his hand to guide, his shield to ward,
the Word of God to give me speech, his heavenly host to be my guard.
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me;
Christ to comfort and restore me;
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
I bind unto myself the name, the strong name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same, the Three in One, and One in Three,
of whom all nature hath creation, eternal Father, Spirit, Word;
Praise to the God of my salvation, salvation is of Christ the Lord!"
"In some ages, as with some people, the tendency is strong to make an essential out of what is a mere accompaniment. In our day this tendency is marked in the emphasising of our Lord as a sympathiser, and the direct practical effect of this is to turn spirituality into sentimentality, and to make our Lord simply a kind brother-man. Jesus does come to the broken-hearted, to the captives bound by a cursed hereditary tendency, to the blind who grope for light, to the man bruised and crushed by his surroundings, but He does not come as a sympathiser. He binds up the broken-hearted, gives release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind; He sets at liberty them that are bruised. Jesus Christ is not a mere sympathiser, He is a Saviour, and the only One, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved. His sympathy is the accompaniment of the work He alone can do." ---Oswald Chambers, from "God's Workmanship"
“Philosophy says: Think your way out.
Indulgence says: Drink your way out.
Politics says: Spend your way out.
Science says: Invent your way out.
Jesus says: “I am the Way.” ---Anonymous
"Christ is not one of many ways to approach God, nor is he the best of several ways; he is the only way."--- A. W. Tozer
“A person may go to heaven without health, without riches, without honors, without learning, without friends; but he can never go there without Christ.”--- John Dyer
"We must never be deceived by the “popularity” of Jesus Christ among certain kinds of people today. Very few want Him as Saviour and Lord. Many want Him only as Healer or Provider, or the One who rescues them from problems they have made for themselves.” ---Warren Wiersbe
"Between John the Baptist and Jesus there was this similarity: both proclaimed the gospel. Even John’s message was certainly not without hope (see especially John 1:29). Even when his emphasis was on repentance, his exhortation was hope-inspiring. See Luke 3:16, 18. Yet between John and Jesus there was also a contrast, namely, that while John proclaimed the good news, Jesus not only proclaimed it but came into this world that there might be good news to proclaim!"---William Hendricksen
"Jesus' sinlessness was necessary for our salvation. Had he not been "a lamb without blemish or defect" his blood would not have been "precious" (1 Pet.
1:19). He would have needed a savior himself, and his death would not have redeemed us." ---J.I.Packer
"“Adam was made to rule as God’s vice-regent and to obediently exercise his God-given dominion. He sinned, lost his dominion, and fell short of God’s glory. Since then, we have sought to recover that lost dominion without letting go of our sin. When the Son of Man came, however, He became the servant Adam had failed to be; He reflected the glory of God in His obedience to Him. He has consequently been highly exalted.”—Sinclair Ferguson
"You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him for a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."---C.S. Lewis
"Christ is greater than our faith in Him."---James Hastings
"We can only commemorate aright Christ's death when we view it in the light of a substitutionary atonement for the sins of his people. It is the one perfect propitiation for sin, the substance of all ancient sacrifices, the grand means of reconciliation to God, the bright exhibition to the universe of God's justice and mercy harmonized in the salvation of sinners, through the blood of the Lamb." -- Thomas Houston
"O sing a song of Bethlehem, of shepherds watching there,
And of the news that came to them from angels in the air.
The light that shone on Bethlehem fills all the world today;
Of Jesus’ birth and peace on earth the angels sing alway.
O sing a song of Nazareth, of sunny days of joy;
O sing of fragrant flowers’ breath, and of the sinless Boy.
For now the flowers of Nazareth in every heart may grow;
Now spreads the fame of His dear Name on all the winds that blow.
O sing a song of Galilee, of lake and woods and hill,
Of Him Who walked upon the sea and bade the waves be still.
For though like waves on Galilee, dark seas of trouble roll,
When faith has heard the Master’s Word, falls peace upon the soul.
O sing a song of Calvary, its glory and dismay,
Of Him Who hung upon the tree, and took our sins away.
For He Who died on Calvary is risen from the grave,
And Christ, our Lord, by Heaven adored, is mighty now to save."
----Louis F. Benson
"The term only begotten as applied to Jesus means "unique," "the only one of its kind." Jesus is not a "son" in the same sense that I am, having been brought into existence by conception and birth. Since Jesus is eternal God, He has always existed. The title Son of God declares Christ's divine nature and His relationship to the Father, to whom the Son has willingly subjected Himself from all eternity." ---Warren Wiersbe
"The first argument from the New Testament in proof of the divinity of Christ, is derived from the fact that He is everywhere called Lord; the Lord; our Lord...
The usage referred to is altogether peculiar; no man — not Moses, nor Abraham, nor David, nor any of the prophets or Apostles, is ever thus prevailingly addressed or invoked as Lord." ---Charles Hodge
"It is apparent that apart from the many-sided uniqueness of the Person and work of Christ there can be no Christian gospel. The gospel centers in Christ. The gospel is Christ. The gospel brings to men redemption. Men who reject the Christ of the four gospels cut away the foundation of the Christian gospel. This may not seem a tragedy to those with superficial views of sin and the necessity of God's grace. But souls awakened to the depravity of sin and the lostness of the human soul apart from God's mercy, see in the rejection of the supernatural Christ a catastrophe of first magnitude. Without the Christ of the gospels fulfilling the messianic prophecies of the OT and furnishing the gospel as expounded by the apostle Paul, Christianity is an empty shell, a mere corpse overlaid with elaborate ritual and costly trappings, but spiritually meaningless. Christ is the life of Christianity and its very heart. If the heart is rejected, the life is forfeited. Jesus must remain the absolute One or the greatest unanswered riddle of history." ----Merrill F. Unger
"Christ is the bread for men’s souls. In him the church has enough to feed the whole world."--- Ian Maclaren
"Jesus Christ is the divine Physician and Pharmacist, and his prescriptions are never out of balance."--- Vance Havner
"It pleased God, in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, to be the Mediator between God and man, the Prophet,a Priest, and King, the Head and Savior of His Church, the Heir of all things, and Judge of the world: unto whom He did from all eternity give a people, to be His seed, and to be by Him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified."---Westminster Confession of Faith.
"Christ died to save us, not from suffering, but from ourselves."---George MacDonald
"Every character has an inward spring; let Christ be that spring. Every action has a keynote; let Christ be that note to which your whole life is attuned."--- Henry Drummond
"Jesus Christ is God’s everything for man’s total need."--- Richard C. Halverson
"Jesus loved people and used property. We tend to use people, and love property."---Richard C. Halverson
"Level your scrutiny at the Person of Christ. Pilate said of Him, I find no fault in this man[Luke 23:4]. The thief on the cross said, We receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong [Luke 23:41]. Jesus looked at His fiercest opponents and said, Which of you convicts Me of sin?[John 8:46]. That last challenge could not have been made by any other religious leader, founder or prophet. Jesus alone stands without moral blemish. Fairy tales are merely fantastic; Jesus Christ is fantastically true."---Ravi Zacharias
"He wrestled with justice, that thou mightest have rest; he wept and mourned, that thou mightest laugh and rejoice; he was betrayed, that thou mightest go free; was apprehended, that thou mightest escape; he was condemned, that thou mightest be justified, and was killed, that thou mightest live; he wore a crown of thorns, that thou mightest wear a crown of glory; and was nailed to the cross with his arms wide open, to show with what freeness all his merits shall be bestowed on the coming soul, and how heartily he will receive it into his bosom."--- John Bunyan
"We will glorify the King of Kings, we will glorify the Lamb;
We will glorify the Lord of Lords, who is the great I Am.
Lord Jehovah reigns in majesty, we will bow before the throne;
We will worship Him in righteousness, we will worship Him alone."
---Twila Paris
"Jesus Christ is the center of all, and the goal to which all tends."--Blaise Pascal
"I attended a convocation at a theological seminary once at which a Swiss theologian gave an address. At an academic occasion like that, one expects to hear a very technical, sophisticated, boring piece of theology. This professor simply got up before the assembly and began to recite the names of Jesus, saying, “Alpha and Omega, Son of Man, Lion of Judah, Lamb without Blemish, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Rose of Sharon . . .” He went on for forty-five minutes and still didn't exhaust all of the names and titles that the New Testament attributes to Jesus—Jesus, the most titled man in human history."
---R.C.Sproul
"All the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has this one solitary life."---Anonymous
"Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Muhammad, and Napoleon; without science and learning, he shed more light on things human and divine than all the philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of the school, he spoke words of life such as were never spoken before nor since and produced effects that lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, he has set more pens in motion and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, works of art, learned volumes, and sweet songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times."--- Philip Schaff
‘The wicked shall not inhabit the earth.’' Neither will communism prevail and, interestingly enough, neither will democracy, because God has a form of government that is to be a monarchy. There will be no dictatorship equal to the dictatorship of Jesus Christ.” ---- J.Vernon McGee, on Prov.10:30
"From morning to night keep Jesus in your heart, long for nothing, desire nothing, hope for nothing, but to have all that is within you changed into the spirit and temper of the Holy Jesus." --- William Law
"Jesus Christ came into my prison cell last night, and every stone flashed like a ruby."--- Samuel Rutherford
"Men overlooked a baby’s birth
When love unnoticed came to earth;
And later, seeking in the skies,
Passed by a man in workman’s guise.
Only children paused to stare
While God Incarnate made a chair."--- Mary Tatlow
"The whole life of Christ was a continual passion; others die martyrs, but Christ was born a martyr. He found a Golgotha (where he was crucified) even in Bethlehem, where he was born; for to his tenderness then, the straws were almost as sharp as the thorns after, and the manger as uneasy at first as his cross at last. His birth and his death were but one continual act, and his Christmas Day and his Good Friday are but the evening and morning of one and the same day."--- John Donne
“The simple shepherds heard the voice of an angel and found their Lamb; the wise men saw the light of a star and found their Wisdom.”---Fulton J. Sheen
"The greatest instance of judgment that ever was, or ever will be in the world, is in Christ’s judging Satan, the prince of this world. God hath set Christ as King on his holy hill of Zion, having put all things under his feet, made him the Head of all authority and power, and has committed all judgment to the Son, and this is the greatest instance of Christ’s power of ruling and judging. Satan is the greatest of all the enemies of God, and Christ, and his people; he probably originally was the highest of all creatures. He has usurped the throne; as he is called the prince of this world, he set up himself as god of this world. It is the greatest evidence of Christ’s kingly power and his might, as the Captain of the salvation of his people, to overcome this enemy, dispossess him of his throne, and make him his footstool, and bruise his head under his feet; and it is the greatest manifestation of his high judicial authority to judge and condemn this great rebel, and head and leader of all the rebellion in the universe, and to execute vengeance upon him."---Jonathan Edwards
"In Jesus we have... the holiest man who ever lived, and yet it was the prostitutes and lepers and thieves who adored him, and the religious who hated his guts."--- Rebecca Manley Pippert
"They should have known that He was God. His patience should have proved that to them."--- Tertullian
"The communist system may say that the worker is king, though in fact it is quite different. But none can doubt that death is the king...except those who know that Christ conquered death by His own Resurrection."---Minister's Manual
"With the Resurrection stands or falls Christ’s whole work for our redemption. If He died, like other men—if that awful bony hand has got its grip upon Him too, then we have no proof that the cross was anything but a martyr’s cross. His Resurrection is the proof of His completed work of redemption. It is the proof—followed as it is by His Ascension—that His death was not the tribute which for Himself He had to pay, but the ransom for us."---Alexander MacLaren
"The Jesus who is supposed to be left after the elimination of the supernatural element is at best a very shadowy figure; for the elimination of the supernatural logically involves the elimination of much that remains, and the historian constantly approaches the absurd view which effaces Jesus altogether from the pages of history. But even after such dangers have been avoided, even after the historian, by setting arbitrary limits to his process of elimination, has succeeded in reconstructing a purely human Jesus, the Jesus thus constructed is found to be entirely unreal. He has a moral contradiction at the very center of His being--a contradiction due to His Messianic consciousness. He was pure and humble and strong and sane, yet He supposed, without basis in fact, that He was to be the final Judge of all the earth! The liberal Jesus, despite all the efforts of modern psychological reconstruction to galvanize Him into life, remains a manufactured figure of the stage. Very different is the Jesus of the New Testament and of the great Scriptural creeds. That Jesus is indeed mysterious. Who can fathom the mystery of His Person? But the mystery is a mystery in which a man can rest. The Jesus of the New Testament has at least one advantage over the Jesus of modern reconstruction--He is real. He is not a manufactured figure suitable as a point of support for ethical maxims, but a genuine Person whom a man can love. Men have loved Him through all the Christian centuries. And the strange thing is that despite all the efforts to remove Him from the pages of history, there are those who love Him still."
---J.Gresham Machen (1921)
“Christ is nearer to me than father, or mother, or sister -- a near relation, a more affectionate Friend; and I rejoice to follow Him, and to love Him. Blessed Jesus! You are all I want --a forerunner to me in all I ever shall go through as a Christian, a minister, or a missionary."
----Henry Martyn: 19th Century Missionary to India and Persia
"Once Arturo Toscanini was rehearsing the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in playing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. They played through the entire work without interruption. After the finale there was a long silence. Everyone was moved by the music. Then Toscanini spoke. 'Who am I? Who is Toscanini? I am nobody. It is Beethoven. He is everything.' In the church, Christ is everything."----From A Speaker's Sourcebook of Illustrations
"On the front of the 2,000 zloty Polish bill, there is a picture of Mieszko, the first king of Poland. He was never formally crowned, so he is pictured without one. Yet he is the founder of Poland. He united the various Slavic tribes to form a state. He brought Christianity to Poland in 966. He is their uncrowned king. Christ was an uncrowned King while he was on earth, except for the crown of thorns." ----From A Speaker's Sourcebook of Illustrations
"Some people say that Jesus has nothing to say to this enlightened age. The truth is that with all its intellect, this age has never come up to Jesus. His character and truth continue to challenge the slow learners of every age." ---Herschel Hobbs
"I must know Jesus Christ as Savior before his teaching has any meaning for me other than that of an ideal which leads to despair."--- Oswald Chambers
"In his life, Christ is an example, showing us how to live. In his death, he is a sacrifice, satisfying for our sins. In his resurrection, he is a conqueror. In his ascension, he is a king."--- Martin Luther
"For the Lord Jesus, there was no fellowship in suffering. For the Lord, there was only the wooden insensitivity of his disciples—from the first day right up to the end of his ministry. For him, there was only that awful climax of isolation on the cross, even to the point of being forsaken by the Father and abandoned to God’s blazing wrath."--- Joni Eareckson Tada
"When Jesus died on a Roman cross
To save our souls from death and loss,
He'd come from God above.
And His only crime was love.
Though thieves died on either side,
And mockers all were there to chide,
He died for you and He died for me,
And His only crime was love.
The Father turned away from Him
Because He could not look on sin,
'Twas the most horrid death that e'er had been,
And His only crime was love.
They placed Him in a borrowed tomb
Where He only stayed 3 days.
And all of this our sin-debt pays,
Though His only crime was love.
In that tomb He did not stay,
And He is still alive today.
He pleads for us at Father's side,
This is why He lived and died.
And His only crime was love.
Come to Him with all your guilt,
A bridge to freedom He has built.
Just trust His death to be your own,
Then all your guilt and sin are gone,
For His only crime was love.
He's coming back to claim His own,
To take us home with Him above,
There we will all sinless be
Since He died on that dread tree.
We'll praise His Name forevermore
When we reach that blissful shore.
All our tears He'll wipe away
Where it is forever day.
He's the light that shines above,
For His only crime was love."
---Danny Turner
"Jesus is worthy of my life, worthy of my love, worthy of everything I can say for him, worthy of a thousand times more than that, worthy of all the music on earth, worthy of all the songs of all the sweetest singers, worthy of all the poetry of the best writers, worthy of all the adoration of every knee, worthy of all that every man has or can conceive, worthy to be adored of all that are in the earth and under the earth, and in the sea, and in the heaven of heavens. He is worthy.
If I had fifty thousand lives in this poor body, he is worthy that they should all be poured out one after another in martyrdom, and he would deserve them all. He is worthy, and if we had all silver and gold and gems, the rarest treasures of all the kings that ever lived, if we were to give it all up to him, and go barefoot, he is worthy. And if, after having done that, we were to abide day and night in perpetual work without rest, all for his sake, and if each one of us were multiplied into a million, and all of us labored so, he is worthy.
Worthy. I would make every drop of dew sparkle with his praise, and every leaf in the forest bear his name. I would make every mountain vocal with adoration, and teach the stars, and teach the angels above the stars, his praise. Let time and space become one mouth for song, and all eternity sound forth that mighty word: 'He is worthy'." ---Charles Spurgeon
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