Jun 30, 2019 | Notable Quotations
This sense of mission set Christians apart from other religious groups, including Jews, in the early Roman empire. The notion that it is desirable for existing enthusiasts to encourage outsiders to worship the god to whom they are devoted was not obvious in the ancient world. Adherents of particular cults did not generally judge the power of their divinity by the number of congregants prepared to bring offerings or attend festivals. On the contrary, it was common for pagans to take pride in the local nature of their religious lives, establishing a special relationship between themselves and the god of a family or place, without wishing, let alone expecting, others to join in worshiping the same god. Christians in the first generation were different, espousing a proselytizing mission which was a shocking novelty in the ancient world. Only familiarity makes us fail to appreciate the extraordinary ambition of Paul, who seems to have invented the notion of a systematic conversion of the whole world, area by geographical area.
—Martin Goodman, Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations
Jun 22, 2019 | Notable Quotations
[T]his dichotomy that is now readily accepted between matters of private faith and public life belies a betrayal of the very identity Jesus sets forth for his followers. The hope within the Christian is not something we are able to keep private—for if the very public act of Christ’s resurrection from the dead was not real, then the very faith our culture would have us keep in private is futile. The events of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, and the faith that upholds them, do not allow for the dichotomies of public and private, spiritual and physical, sacred and secular. The call of Christ is one that encompasses every possible realm, thus making “private faith” an unintelligible distinction.
—Jill Carattini, “Practical Atheism”
Jun 9, 2019 | Notable Quotations
Subjectivism not only produces error and distortion, but it breeds arrogance as well. To believe what I believe simply because I believe it or to argue that my opinion is true simply because it is my opinion is the epitome of arrogance. If my views cannot stand the test of objective analysis and verification, humility demands that I abandon them. But the subjectivist has the arrogance to maintain his position with no objective support or corroboration. To say to someone, “If you like to believe what you want to believe, that’s fine; I’ll believe what I want to believe,” only sounds humble on the surface.
—R. C. Sproul, Knowing Scripture
Oct 3, 2018 | Notable Quotations
But in the end, we can’t make the difference. As Western country after Western country devolves into a battle between the Hard-Heads of left and right, we’ll need a force more powerful than smart ideas to keep us from ripping apart. Or from enacting policies that serve good ends by wicked means. In fact, Hard-Headed laws can’t even save us. Nations with vanishing birth rates can build all the walls they want. (And of course, they should.) But they’ll die off by natural causes even without Islamist invaders unless they rediscover the goodness of life, dig down to the roots of their culture which are watered from the Cross.
As David P. Goldman wrote in How Civilizations Die, it turns out that once contraception exists, people won’t bother replacing themselves unless they believe in God. Only the prospect of eternal life is enough to make this one bearable. Or to make the sacrifices entailed by child-rearing worth it. If you really think you’re just a dying animal on a dying planet in a universe gradually winding down to its heat death, it makes perfect sense to grab all the happy moments you can. That doesn’t leave much room for bawling infants and diapers, sullen teenagers and their tuition.
So all the conservative causes we cherish because they make sense, are fair, and effective … they’re doomed without the Gospel. Every nation which abandons God pretty quickly gives up the ghost.
—John Zmirak, “The War on Kavanaugh Shows Us Why We Needed Trump, and Why Trump Needs Jesus”
Aug 18, 2018 | Notable Quotations
The belief that there was nothing and nothing happened to nothing and then nothing magically exploded for no reason, creating everything and then a bunch of everything magically rearranged itself for no reason whatsoever into self-replicating bits which then turned into dinosaurs. Makes perfect sense.
Feb 3, 2018 | Notable Quotations
[I]t is God’s plan for us that we should walk through this world in great weakness—physical and spiritual—so that we might never forget our desperate need for the one who walked this path perfectly in our place. His primary goal is not our perfect obedience and success, which might allow us to claim some of the glory for ourselves. His goal is Christ’s glory, which becomes all the more visible through our great weakness, and even through our ongoing struggles with indwelling sin.
—Ian Duguid, “Victory through Suffering, “ Modern Reformation Magazine, July 2016
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