Words'nTone

“God uses contemporary preaching to bring his salvation to people today, to build his church, to bring in his kingdom. In short, contemporary biblical preaching is nothing less than a redemptive event.” ~ S. Greidanus

“We have been studying cheerfully and seriously.  As far as I was concerned it could have continued in that way, and I had already resigned myself to having my grave here by the Rhine!...And now the end has come.  So listen to my piece of advice: exegesis, exegesis, and yet more exegesis!  Keep to the Word, to the scripture that has been given to us.” ~Karl Barth

“…first, remember, remember, remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night. And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your mind from following the signs. And secondly, I give you a warning. Here on the mountain I have spoken to you clearly: I will not often do so down in Narnia. Here on the mountain, the air is clear and your mind is clear; as you drop down into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse your mind. And the signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to look, when you meet them there. That is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances. Remember the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters.” ~Aslan, in The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis

“Almost all intellectuals profess to love humanity and to be working for its improvement and happiness. But it is the idea of humanity they love, rather than the actual individuals who compose it. They love humanity in general rather than men and women in particular. Loving humanity as an idea, they can then produce solutions as ideas. Therein lies the danger, for when people conflict with the solution as idea, they are first ignored or dismissed as unrepresentative; and then, when they continue to obstruct the idea, they are treated with growing hostility and categorized as enemies of humanity in general.” ~Paul Johnson, Intellectuals

“The sermon is a redemptive historical event where God’s presence invades and the Kingdom of God is revealed in a moment in time, in a particular place, through the proclamation of His written Word.” ~ Chip Anderson

“The twentieth century showed us the evil face of physics.  This century will show us the evil face of biology.” ~Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child in Brimstone

“As a message of salvation...preaching is in fact a coming of God into this world. It is not merely a presentation of salvation, an announcement of God’s plan with requirements to be met by mankind, but it is an act of salvation by God.” ~ J. Kahmann

“Put conversely, and bluntly, the secular world bores me to tears.  Its sky is low and thick with clouds, blocking the sun.  There is no Author and no great story of conquest against forces of darkness, advancing a kingdom of light, love and glory.  All is relativized.  Ideas are minimal.  Eyes closed to revelation, the cynic sees no glory, no intrinsic value to human beings; thus man is laid low.  Truth is dead, and so people grapple for power.  Goodness is analyzed and dismissed by the skeptic’s small heart and mind.  Romance, imagination and enchantment fade, needing the transcendent to break in.”

~Kelly Monoe Kullberg, Finding God Beyond Harvard: The Quest for Veritas

“There is no shred of evidence in Paul’s letters to suggest that he judged the churches by the measure of their success in rapid numerical growth…this nowhere appears as either an anxiety or an enthusiasm about the numerical growth of the church”

The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission

“Piously, or politically, we cripple ourselves with the need to bring about God’s righteousness on earth, failing to hear what Jesus so vividly declares: that we need not shoulder that burden because the goal itself does not need to be accomplished.  The goal is a fact, God’s fact, the fact of grace and promise.  No gap divides what God says from what God does; and the stories of the coming kingdom do not offer dreams and possibilities of what the Lord might or could do, but speak indicatively, and in the present tense of what is happening, and of what the future is becoming.  The kingdom need not—and cannot not—be worked for; it may only be accepted and awaited.  On the other hand this waiting for God’s indicatives cannot be dispassionate or passive…the gospel enslaves us again with its imperatives, demanding everything of us by way of repentance and discipleship”

~Alan Lewis, Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday