Quote of the Day

Let me add in conclusion, that the passage which I have chosen for my text (Rev 1:3), in which a blessing is promised to all who read or hear this prophecy, has long appeared to me, to be utterly inconsistent with the popular historical or polemical interpretations.  If such interpretations, or even the principles upon which they proceed, be true, the Apocalypse can be read and understood by the scholar and the man of learning only: by him who has penetrated into the secrets of history, and traced the rise and progress and downfall of dynasties and doctrines; but to the poor, the unlettered, and to those who read the words of the prophecy alone, to those, who from their inability perhaps to read, are forced to content themselves with hearing it read by others; to such it is impossible, on the principles of the historical commentators, the Apocalypse can be any thing but an enigma and a riddle.  How can they keep those things that are written in this prophecy, to whom the things written are unintelligible, and necessarily unintelligible?  How can they look for the time as at hand, if the time of the prophecy be spread already over nineteen centuries?    Surely then such a promise as that which is contained in the text, must be understood, as implying, if not as asserting, that in the words of the prophecy itself, carefully considered and diligently 'kept,' we have that can be necessary to the right understanding of it; and the reason that is given for our keeping them in our hearts, namely, 'because the time is at hand.' would seem to intimate, that the period within which the prophecy shall be accomplished, shall not be, not a long and tedious series of many centuries, but a brief and rapid space; for the approach of which, we are to watch, as men that know neither the day nor the hour of their Master's coming; 'looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ;' and ever bearing in mind the prophetic warning of our Lord and Savior. 'for as the lightning cometh out of the  East, and shineth even unto the West, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be."  

 

Excerpt taken from Six Discources on the Prophecies Relating to Antichrist in the Apocalypse of St. John by James Henthorne Todd

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"A fellow lecturer told his Bible class that it did not matter whether the biblical character Job was real or fictional.  For him, the point off Job's book is to teach us about suffering, and the historicity of Job is immaterial to that lesson.  I cannot disagree more strongly, and hopefully this illustration will help clarify why. 

Suppose you are going through a difficult time in your life.  Perhaps it is from the death of a close relative or you struggle with debilitating illness. Just like the psalmist who felt abandoned by God in his deepest time of need, you feel lost and adrift in your suffering, with no sense of God's care.  In this state, you ask me to bring you wise counsel and comfort.

I tell you a story about a man who built a spaceship to travel to Venus.  Due to a technological breakthrough, he was able to equip his vessel with heat-resistant panels, making it safe to venture close to the sun.  Unfortunately, along the way the panels failed and his eyes were burned out of their sockets.  With all hope seemingly lost, in his despair he called out for help and God rescued him.

What would your reaction be to my story?  Would you thank me for the incredible comfort I gave you?  Or would you look at me with a glare, wondering how I expect this silly story to assist you?....Fiction can provide little comfort for the realities of life.  It is akin to telling someone struggling through financial difficulty, "Don't worry, you'll win the lottery."  Or to a man who lost his legs in a car accident, "Let me read you a story about a man who drank some sugar water and his legs grew back overnight."

The real God of creation acts in the real events of human history.  Our Christian faith is not rooted in esoteric platitudes or ethereal propositional truths to which we grant our mental assent.  Our faith is rooted in concrete experiences, with God breaking into history in amazing ways…"

- Victor Kuligin - From his book: Snubbing God: The High Cost of Rejecting God's Created Order

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"Snacking (on isolated verses in the Bible) hides things to be sure, but it also distorts the things it does show us.  For example, ,the Snacking Bible is not great news. It has gospel verses, but no gospel, because the gospel is the announcement of a particular turn of events within an ongoing story.  The gospel is not a sentence about justification by faith or a verse reference on the forgiveness of my sins.  The gospel is not the Romans Road.  The gospel is not John 3:16.  What the apostles Paul and John wrote - what God's Spirit enkindled in them - was something entirely different than these boiled-down reductions.  Evangelist D. L. Moody said he could write the gospel on a dime.  Well, Paul and John couldn't, and didn't."

- Glenn R. Pauuw

Quote/Excerpt of the Day

We do have our favorites.  They tend to fall into the general category of Scripture Encouragement.  There are many sacred words and they say many things, but it’s the Bible Balm that has caught our eye.  With a partitioned Bible preparing so many options for us, you might think it would be hard to choose.  But no.  The people have voted.  The customers know what they want. 

·        *  Jeremiah 29:11

·        *  John 10:10

·         * Philippians 4:13

·         * Joshua 1:9

If you didn’t already know, the addresses direct us to these:

·         “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

·         “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

·         “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

·         “Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Good, positive verses all.  But the shocking news to most people is that there is a parallel universe Bible.  It is rarely talked about and almost never explored.  In that other world every positive and negative is reversed.  Every verse has its anti-verse.  In the parallel universe Bible, the favorite anti-verses are:

·         * Deuteronomy 28:29

·         * 2 Corinthians 2:16

·         * Isaiah 49:4

·         * Deuteronomy 28:65

What? You don’t know these?  You’ve never seen them on a scenic piece of Christian framed art?  OK, well, here’s what they say:

·         “You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.”

·         “We are an aroma that brings death.”

·         “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all”

·         “The LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart.”

The real revelation may be that these anti-verses too are in the Bible (our Bible, in this universe).  They are set apart, numbered and included in the lineup just like all the rest.  It’s just that nobody ever wants to use them.  They aren’t ever selected.  They are more like bombs than balm.  But there they are.  Why?  If they are unusable, why are they there?  Do we need them for anything at all?  (And why do I have a suspicion that anyone being confronted with these verses will suddenly develop a strong interest in the original context, so as to nicely distance themselves from any unpleasant implications?)

- From "Saving the Bible from Ourselves" - By Glen Paauw

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Our task is not to help people see God favorably but to see him accurately.  God has the power to touch hearts and to draw people his love and grace while they fully affirm his holiness and justice...God has appointed us to faithfully deliver his message, not to compose and edit it.  He has already written the message - it's called the Bible.  Who are we to spin it and tame it , or presume to be more loving than Jesus, who with outrageous love took upon himself the horrific penalty from our sin?  God's position is already taken; we need not apply.   We do not own the Christian faith.  It isn't ours to revise.  God's Word wasn't entrusted to us so that we could give it away piece-meal, leaving the next generation with the leftovers.  If we go on decade after decade parceling out fragments of the faith, what will be left?  When we abandon truths Christians once died for, will we no longer have truths worth living for?

- Randy Alcorn
From the Forward to 'God Wins:  Heaven, Hell, and Why the Good News is Better than Love Wins' - by Mark Galli

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There can be little doubt, that the very obscurities of Hebrew form one of its chief recommendations to men, whose favorite delight is to grapple with difficulties, and to explore what is dark, dubious and uncertain.  But though this taste, within certain limits, is useful and praiseworthy, it is extremely dangerous, when indulged in excess, especially on subjects of Biblical investigation.  There is small scope for invention, in matters of Biblical criticism, and the closer we adhere to Divine authority the less likely are we to fall into human paradox.

The Septuagint comes before us, as the most ancient authorized interpretation of the Hebrew.  Such an authority quenches the spirit of theory, and rebukes the love of invention.  We then remain pupils and scholars, and sit patiently at he the feet of the original, and the version..  This is painful and humbling to human genius, but it is the best attitude of the Christian student and divine.  It should not be charged, as any imperfection of the Greek version, that it keeps us, from the elation of theorists and from the pride of dogmatists. When poor mortals sit down to study the Word of God, their first and most painful lesson is to abjure the love of originality.  It is their business to translate, not to invent; to follow; not to lead; to copy, not to originate.  The Greek version of the Old Testament, when united to the original, is admirably adapted to cherish and nurture this intellectual docility.  It should be used, as the teacher of the Christian student, in his approach to the awful mysteries of the Cross.  He will acquire from it far more valuable discipline, than from all the technical canons of Biblical critics.

 

Edward William Grinfield

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There is nothing so deluding as feelings. Christians cannot live by feelings. Let me further tell you that these feelings are the work of Satan, for they are not right feelings. What right have you to set up your feelings against the Word of Christ.

 

Charles Spurgeon

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I never knew my own father...Personal deprivations…can easily distort our understanding of the Christian gospel by making it say what we want to hear, rather than what God is really saying…It is where we are most thirsty that we shall be most likely to drink, but also perhaps to be least discriminating about what we drink.  One of the functions of theology is to help us test the quality of the water, to distinguish what is brackish from what is living…

  Thomas Smail

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Commenting on Matt. 19:16 and Luke 10:25-29:

Moral difficulties were the first consequence of the Fall, and are themselves the outcome of 'Man in Revolt' against God.  The Serpent in Paradise put them into the mind of the first man by asking, 'Hath God said?'  Until then the divine command had been clear enough, and man was ready to observe it in childlike obedience.  But that is now past, and moral doubts and difficulties have crept in.  The command, suggests the Serpent, needs to be explained and interpreted. 'Hath God said?' Man must decide for himself what is good by using his conscience and his knowledge of good and evil.  The commandment may be variously interpreted, and it is God's will that it should be interpreted and explained: for God has given man a free will to decide what he will do.  

But this means disobedience from the start.  Doubt and reflection take the place of spontaneous obedience.  The grown-up man with his freedom of conscience vaunts his superiority over the child of obedience.  But he has acquired the freedom to enjoy moral difficulties only at the cost of renouncing obedience.  In short, it is a retreat from the reality of God to the speculations of men, from faith to doubt…..Jesus simply quotes the commandments of God as they are revealed in Scripture, and thus reaffirms them as the commandments of God.  

The young man is trapped once more.  He had hoped to avoid committing himself to any definite moral obligations by forcing Jesus to discuss his spiritual problems.  He had hoped Jesus would offer him a solution of his moral difficulties.  But instead he finds Jesus attacking not his question but himself.  The only answer to his difficulties is the very commandment of God, which challenges him to have done with academic discussion and to get on with the task of obedience.  Only the devil has an answer for our moral difficulties, and he says: 'Keep on posing problems, and you will escape the necessity of obedience.'  But Jesus is not interested in the young man's problems; he is interested in the young man himself.  He refuses to take those difficulties as seriously as the young man does.  There is one thing only which Jesus takes seriously, and that is, that it is high time the young man began to hear the commandment and obey it. 

Where moral difficulties are taken so seriously, where they torment and enslave man, because they do not leave him open to the freeing activity of obedience, it is there that his total godlessness is revealed.  All his difficulties are shown to be ungodly, frivolous and the proof of sheer disobedience.  The one thing that matters is practice obedience……The young man…is still not satisfied.  'All these things have I observed from my youth up:  what lack I yet?'  Doubtless he was just as convinced of his sincerity this time as he was before….He knows the commandment and has kept it, but now, he thinks, that cannot be all God wants of him, there must be something more, some extraordinary and unique demand, and this is what he wants to do.  The revealed commandment of God is incomplete, he says, as he makes the last attempt to preserve his independence and decide for himself what is good and evil…….. "

Speaking on the Lawyer in Luke 10:

"The final question 'Who is my neighbor?' is the parting shot of despair (or else of self confidence); the lawyer is trying to justify his disobedience.  The answer is:  "You are the neighbor.  Go along and try to be obedient by loving others." …Every moment and every situation challenges us to action and to obedience.  We have literally no time to sit down and ask ourselves whether so-and-so is our neighbor or not.  We must get into action and obey - we must behave like a neighbor to him.  But perhaps this shocks you.  Perhaps you still think you ought to think out beforehand and know what you ought to do.  To that there is only one answer.  You can only know and think about it by actually doing it.  You can only learn what obedience is by obeying.  It is no use asking questions; for it is only through obedience that you come to learn the truth.  With our consciences distracted by sin, we are confronted by the call of Jesus to spontaneous obedience.  But whereas the rich young man was called to the grace of discipleship, the lawyer, who sought to tempt him, was only sent back to the commandment.

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Christianity is not just an experience, we need to remember, but it is about truth.  The experience of being reconciled to the Father, through the Son, by the work of the Holy Spirit all happens within a worldview.  This worldview is the way God has taught us in His Word to view the world.  That is why the Bible begins with Genesis 1:1 and not with John 3:16. 

David Wells

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God said it, I believe it, that settles it. This sounds good but isn't accurate because God's Word is true, irregardless of whether we believe it or not. A more accurate "saying" would be God said it, that settles it!

Bruce Hurt

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And as he passed by he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the place of toll, and he saith unto him, Follow me.  And he arose and followed him. (Mark 2.14)"

The call goes forth, and is at once followed by the response of obedience.  The response of the disciples is an act of obedience, not a confession of faith in Jesus.  How could the call immediately evoke obedience?  The story is a stumbling-block for the natural reason, and it is no wonder that frantic attempts have been made to separate the two events.  By hook or by crook a bridge must be found between them.  Something must have happened in between, some psychological or historical event.  Thus we get the stupid question: Surely the publican must have known Jesus before, and that previous acquaintance explains his readiness to hear the Master's call.  Unfortunately our text is ruthlessly silent on this point, and in fact it regards the immediate sequence of call and response as a matter of crucial importance.  It displays not the slightest interest in the psychological reasons for a man's religious decisions.  And why?  For the simple reason that the cause behind the immediate following of call by response is Jesus Christ himself.  It is Jesus who calls, and because it is Jesus, Levi follows at once.  This encounter is a testimony to the absolute, direct, and unaccountable authority of Jesus…Jesus summons men to follow him not as a teacher or a pattern of the good life, but as the Christ, the Son of God.  In this short text Jesus Christ and his claim are proclaimed to men.  Not a word of praise is given to the disciple for his decision for Christ.  We are not expected to contemplate the disciple, but only him who calls, and his absolute authority.

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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The Scripture will be attacked all the time relentlessly from every angle whether it's coming from critics or cultists or Charismatics who want to add to it, whether it's coming from the culture.  I could even throw in the capricious, the silly, foolish attacks on Scripture like Bible codes.  I was one time on the radio program and somebody said, "What do you think of Bible codes?" And I said, "Well I'll tell you what I think of Bible codes, I think you better be careful when you say God said something He didn't say, because for that God condemns false teachers."  It's clear what God said in the Bible.  But to find some acrostic in a computer and think that what God said is written in a diagonal up this way and half-way down that side and that what God meant to say was that Ghandi would die in October of 1984 is a far cry from the revelation of God.  In fact, people have found the same stuff in Moby Dick.

John Macarthur

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another thing just to mention by way of avoidance...avoid spiritualizing or allegorizing the Bible. Spiritualizing or allegorizing the Bible. This is that which gives to the Bible some kind of mystical meaning. In other words, what is on the surface is not the meaning, but what is hidden becomes the meaning. This is very popular. We could talk about allegorizing, it's quite...it's not quite as popular today as it used to be, although it's finding a resurgence. Allegorizing means to say that the historical meaning is not the real meaning, and in fact may be nothing but a fabrication. The historical meaning is not the real meaning, the real meaning is the spiritual meaning hidden beneath the surface. And once you say that something in the Bible is an allegory, that is it is only a symbol of the reality, you have just made it impossible to know what that reality is because if that reality cannot be discerned through the normal understanding of language, how can it be discerned?

John Macarthur

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All truth is given by revelation, either general or special, and it must be received by reason. Reason is the God-given means for discovering the truth that God discloses, whether in his world or his Word. While God wants to reach the heart with truth, he does not bypass the mind.

 

Jonathan Edwards

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I have no sympathy with the preaching which degrades the Truth of God into a hobbyhorse for its own thought and only looks upon Scripture as a kind of pulpit from which it may thunder out its own opinions! No, if I have gone beyond what that Book has taught, may God blot out everything that I have said! I beseech you, never believe me if I go an atom beyond what is plainly taught there. I am content to live and to die as the mere repeater of Scriptural teaching—as a person who has thought out nothing and invented nothing—as one who never thought invention to be any part of his calling, but who concluded that he was to take the message from the lips of God to the best of his ability and simply to be a mouth for God to the people—mourning much that anything of his own should come between—but never thinking that he was somehow to refine the message or to adapt it to the brilliance of this wonderful century and then to hand it out as being so much his own that he might take some share of the glory of it.

 

Charles Spurgeon

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We all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking.

Mark Twain

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In space, astronauts experience the misery of having no reference point, no force that draws them to the center. Where there is no "moral gravity"- that is, no force that draws us to the center- there is spiritual weightlessness. We float on feelings that will carry us where we were never meant to go; we bubble with emotional experiences that we often take for spiritual ones; and we are puffed up with pride. Instead of seriousness, there is foolishness. Instead of gravity, flippancy. Sentimentality takes the place of theology. Our reference point will never serve to keep our feet on solid rock. Our reference point, until we answer God's call, is merely ourselves. We cannot possibly tell which end is up.

Elisabeth Elliot

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You are required to believe, to preach, and to teach what the Bible says is true, not what you want the Bible to say is true.

R. C. Sproul

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While it is nice to have our problems solved and difficulties removed by others, it is not always best for us. Instead of continuing to answer your questions, I might be of more service if I put you in the way of answering them for yourself. That man is the greatest help to me who casts me back upon God and stimulates me to the study of his Word. 'Study', I say, for while there are many who read it daily, and use the concordance, scarcely any study it. The first requirment is, of course, a spirit of dependence upon the Lord(distrusting our own competency), yet prayer is not meant to encourage slothfulness, and is no substitute for the diligent use of whatever talents God has bestowed upon us...

 

A. W. Pink