“When we want the children ‘tracking’ as we commune, we are wanting them to participate in the joy — the way my one-year-old granddaughter claps after everybody sings ‘Happy Birthday’ to one of the cousins. What we want is ‘Yay, here we are with Jesus again!’ not an infant’s contemplations of Turretin’s rejection of consubstantiation on the one hand, and the folly of the Socinians on the other” (Against the Church, p. 32).
Tag Archives: Chrestomathy
“It will not do to say that the new covenant has full continuity when it comes to the privileges of the covenant, and no continuity when it comes to the responsibilities” (Against the Church, p. 31).
“Historic evangelicals, at their best, are unaccredited teachers in the schools of the prophets. At their worst, they are sons of Zedekiah, selling little miniature horns of iron on the teevee for $9.95 plus shipping and handling (1 Kings 22:11). Institutional Christians, let us call them, at their best, are like Jehoida (2 Kings 11:17). At their worst, they carry on in such a way as to make even a Bach chorale obnoxious to God (Amos 5:23), processing up the center aisle in such a way as to make every true child of the Father want to throw a Scottish psalter at their pointy hats” (Against the Church, p. 30).
“We must be opposed to every sacrament caught in a freeze frame. In order to be true sacraments, they must be story sacraments” (Against the Church, p. 26).
“The heart of man is fully capable of polluting whatever he might be offering to God. He does this whenever he thinks that believing the promises and keeping God on a short rope are the same thing” (Against the Church, p. 25).
“If we say that we are saved on the basis of the Bible alone, we are not making any claims about the paper, the ink, and the leather or the maps, concordance, and ribbons. In the same way we are not saved by water, or by bread and wine. The surgeon may pick up many different instruments in the course of the operation, but it is the surgeon who is doing it” (Against the Church, p. 23).
“We are not permitted to draw contrasts where the New Testament draws parallels. The Corinthians were tempted to put on airs over against the Jews. We have spiritual food. We have spiritual drink. So did the Jews, Paul replies bluntly. You can have religious ceremonial, God-given ritual, whole burnt offerings and sacrifices, baptism in the cloud and sea, and still be overthrown in the wilderness (1 Cor. 10:5). You can have a degree in liturgics and still not have the one thing needful (Heb. 4:2). Not only is it possible to do this, it is easy to do this. The human soul likes making this mistake” (Against the Church, pp. 20-21).
“Regeneration enables us to use biblical ordinances rightly; it does not eliminate the need for them. It only eliminates the spiritually stupid use of them” (Against the Church, p. 19).
