A Carson Quote

In the beginning was Diversity. And the Diversity was with God, and the Diversity was God. Without Diversity was nothing made that was made. And it came to pass that nasty old ‘orthodox’ people narrowed down diversity and finally squeezed it out, dismissing it as heresy. But in the fullness of time (which is of course our time), Diversity rose up and smote orthodoxy hip and thigh. Now, praise be, the only heresy is orthodox.

As widely and as unthinkingly accepted as this reconstruction is, it is historical nonsense: the emperor has no clothes.

D. A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Gotta' love Carson! The man can think and write. The above is from a blurb he wrote for a new book. You can read more about it here.

Towzer Quote

Not long ago I came across A.W. Towzer's book Knowledge of the Holy. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and I enjoy dipping back into it's insightful teachings about God. Here is a quote from it:

If some watcher or holy one who has spent his glad centuries by the sea of fire were to come to earth, how meaningless to him would be the ceaseless chatter of the busy tribes of men. How strange to him and how empty would sound the flat, stale and profitless words heard in the average pulpit from week to week. And were such a one to speak on earth would he not speak of God? Would he not charm and fascinate his hearers with rapturous descriptions of the Godhead? And after hearing him could we ever again consent to listen to anything less than theology, the doctrine of God? Would we not thereafter demand of those who would presume to teach us that they speak to us from the mount of divine vision or remain silent altogether?” (p. 71).

Tozer Quotes

Quote A.W. Tozer, "Faith Beyond Reason"

We begin with an explosive text, teaching as it does about a mysterious, invisible birth—a mystic birth. Here is how it reads:

He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:11-13)

Such a text cannot be properly handled without getting into areas that some may consider radical. It cannot be handled without considering the fact that there are many people in the world who are God's creation but not God's children.

It cannot be handled without an admission that we do truly believe in the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. (Stay with me and see what the Word of God says about these concepts!)

It cannot be handled without considering the refusal of many "believing Christians" to accept the terms of true discipleship—the willingness to turn our backs on everything worldly for Jesus' sake.

It cannot be handled without discussing the fact that receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord must be an aggressive act of the total personality and not a passive "acceptance" that makes a door-to-door salesman of the Savior.

And it certainly cannot be handled without a warning that evangelical Christianity is on a deadend street if it is going to continue to accept religious activity as a legitimate proof of spirituality.

In this text God informs us about certain people being born. That is significant. God has stepped out of His way to talk about certain persons being born, and we know that He never does anything without purpose. Everything He does is alive, meaningful and brilliantly significant. Why should the great God Almighty, who rounded the earth in the hollow of His hand, who set the sun shining in the heavens and flung the stars to the farthest corner of the night—why should this God take important lines in the Bible record to talk about people being born?

Quote #2,

Why should believing Christians want everything pre-cooked, predigested, sliced and salted and expect that God must come and hold the food to their baby lips while they pound the table and splash? And we think that is Christianity! It is not. Such a degenerate, illegitimate breed have no right to be called Christians.

Those who insist that the Lord God humor them, letting them continue on as they are and still say in the end, "Come, faithful servants," are fools. Someone needs to tell them so now!

—Faith Beyond Reason

Calvin Quote

Ambition is fine if properly constrained. Calvin understood this fact and commented on it. Although he didn't call it "ambition" there is no other name for it. I know some Christians who could learn much from reading this quote:

No single mortal can be sufficient to do everything however many and various may be the endowments wherein he excels. Let then God’s servants learn to measure carefully their powers, lest they should wear out by ambitiously embracing too many occupations. For this propensity to engage in too many things is a very common malady and numbers are so carried along by it as not to be easily restrained. Calvin on Exodus 18:15ff

Voddie Baucham says:

God has designed your family—not the youth group, not the children’s ministry, not the Christian school, but your family—as the principle discipling agent in your children’s lives.

A quote I like

I read this this morning and fogot to get the link. But, anyway, I liked it so much I will repeat it without attribution:

"the culmination of hatred is indifference."

That's something to think about.

If you happen to know where it came from let me know, please!