“When something starts to happen, all kinds of people are attracted to it, for various reasons. Not surprisingly, they want to help steer the movement in a direction consistent with why they showed up in the first place. But people are coming from all directions, including from some good directions, and this is why it takes some time for the whole thing to sort out and set up. Complicating the set-up period is the arrival of pistol-fanning heresy hunters, acting like they were Annie Oakley doing trick shots. Unfortunately, buying a gun is not the same thing as learning how to aim it, and waving the Westminster Confession overhead is not the same thing as reading it.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 803

“Whenever you are dealing with a new movement, identification of what that movement is all about is a lot trickier than, say, analyzing some fossilized denomination. With the latter, all you have to do is read the little inscription next to the glass case, and you know exactly what they stand for. But when something new is happening, it can take a bit of time for the whole thing to ‘set up.’”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, pp. 802-803

“There is a vast hierarchy of instruments below that—many bricks come below the capstone. But there is only one capstone. But none of those lesser bricks, lesser instruments, result in salvation necessarily. True evangelical faith does.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 800

“Faith is the sole instrument by which a person may receive the blessing of Christ’s righteousness imputed to him. Now when we say ‘sole instrument’ we do not mean that no other instruments are involved, but that no other instruments are involved in the way that faith is . . . the only instrumental cause of justification that leaves no remainder is faith.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, pp. 799-800