“The chaos of the deep upon which the Spirit moved was brought out of nothing by the Word (Col. 1:17). The protons at the center of every atom, the position and velocity of every asteroid in the great darkness beyond Mars, and the awesome intricacy of the double helix . . . all of it, spoken into existence by the Word and sustained by that same Word . . . And that Word is always driving in the same direction—the formation of the world that will come about as a result of the Word’s authority.”
“Uninspired sermons, even when anointed by the Holy Spirit, are not to be equated with Scripture. So much should be obvious. But the prepared Reformed parishioner nevertheless comes to a preached message prepared to encounter the Word of God.”
“Anybody who wants to discover the real condition of their soul can read through Ecclesiastes and Ephesians, and there he will find the whole thing laid out for him, his heart pinned to a card like a dried beetle in a museum case.”
“We live in a time when progressives can sport bumper stickers that will tout the ticket of Shagrat/Slubgob 2024, and still manage to look down on you and your kind as ethical retards.”
“The people always have an earnest desire to have a messenger who is willing to prophesy smooth things for them (Is. 30:10). ‘Prophesy deceits unto us’—they want deceits, boy, and they want them layered on thick. They want to heap up teachers who will stroke their felt needs (2 Tim. 4:3). If a man of wind comes prophesying wine and beer, he would be just the right spokesman for this people (Mich. 2:11). They want prophets who will speak to them in terms of affirming and melted butterscotch. They want pumpkin spice sermons.”
“What does shocking language do? One of the things it accomplishes is that it wakes people up. It brings them to their senses. It smells like burnt Marsh-wiggle.”
[Concerning Matt. 6:2] “We often miss the earthy peasant humor of Christ (that He could use to devastating effect) because we read our Bibles through seven or eight layers of high gloss sanctimony. But Jesus was not afraid to make fun of what might be called tarantara tithers.”
“If some profoundly needs to continue on with his conviction that we are the end product of so many millennia of blind evolution, and you obligate him to acknowledge a Creator God, the only two alternatives are anger or repentance. He does not want to stand at a that crossroads, and so he lashes out at the person who brought him there.”
