“If we lived in a truly confessional age, with great preaching, theological geniuses writing their tomes, and so on, then we would have to worry about the naked Quakers running through Safeway again, and legalistic Anglican bishops cutting off people’s thumbs for having broken some stupid rule. But as it is, we are too anemic to get into serious trouble with legalism or antinomianism. We are the bland leading the bland, which provides us with some small measure of imagined safety, at least for a time” (Against the Church, p. 83).
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“The fire of evangelical conviction, when scripturally governed, cries out for a fireplace to burn in. A well-designed fireplace, put together by biblically-minded craftsmen, cries out for a fire to go in it. A fireplace without a fire is cold and dead. A fire without a fireplace is fierce and destructive. Shouldn’t we be able to work something out? . . . The Bible brings the fire, and the Bible contains drawing for the fireplace” (Against the Church, p. 77).
“Love is not a walk around the block, but rather a long-haul trucking trip” (Against the Church, p. 76).
“The New Testament era was born in a hot revival. The movement exploded in a fervor of religious zeal. The accusers at Pentecost thought everybody was drunk, not that everybody was singing Matins” (Against the Church, p. 76).
“I have not seen the same kind of willingness on the part of sacramentalists to admit that what they are telling us isn’t working, as measured by those indicators that the New Testament gives us as being inconsistent with inheriting the kingdom of God” (Against the Church, pp.75-76).
“Evangelicalism can be divided into two broad wings. The first wing houses a sedate wax museum containing the likenesses of such worthies as Jonathan Edwards, A.W. Tozer, and Carl Henry, while the second wing contains the teeming and swollen Barnum & Bailey contingent, not forgetting the tattooed fat lady. In my satiric labors, I have sought to focus my attentions on the latter, and all for the sake of the former” (Against the Church, p. 73).
“The hardest thing in the world to keep is balance, and this is particularly the case when you are in discussions with folks who think you might not be keeping yours” (Against the Church, p. 72).
“For those who persevere, how they subjectively receive grace is part of what has been objectively given” (Against the Church, p. 69).
