“They cannot be brought to understand that they think something that would make anything like thinking impossible.”
The Light From Behind the Sun, p. 66
Night and Day
“If a man teach uprightly and walk crookedly, more will fall down in the night of his life than be built in the day of his doctrine.”
John Owen, in Beeke, Reformed Preaching, p. 69
And There You Have It
“In short, if thought is subjective there is no reason to trust my thought that thought is subjective.”
The Light From Behind the Sun, p. 56
So Do That
“What does the Holy Spirit like best in a preacher? The Spirit most delights in the preaching of Christ.”
Beeke, Reformed Preaching, p. 63
The Axe at the Root of the Tree
“A blind, purposeless and material process does not and cannot know that it is blind, or purposeless, or material. It cannot know anything. If thought is simply the froth on the waves of our brain activity, then one of the first things that thought loses is the ability to know that there is even such a thing as brain activity, or froth for that matter. If human argumentation is simply the epiphenomena that our brain chemistry produces, then there is absolutely no reason to trust human argumentation—including the arguments that urge us to believe that argumentation is simply the epiphenomena that our brain chemistry produces. If reason is simply what these chemicals do under these conditions and at this temperature, then we cannot know that such things as ‘chemicals’ exist, and we certainly cannot know about ‘conditions’ and ‘temperatures.’”
The Light From Behind the Sun, pp. 54-55
The Reformed Word
“Reformed preaching is declaring biblical truth to promote biblical spirituality as it was rediscovered in the Reformation of the sixteenth century.”
Beeke, Reformed Preaching, p. 58
Which Is To Say, A Decisive Argument
“In my view, whatever form the argument takes—although this may be just me—it is a slam-dunk, knock-down, set-the-tattered-remains-on-fire argument.”
The Light From Behind the Sun, p. 53
Which Shouldn’t Be a Shock
“Self-centered preaching produces self-centered hearers.”
Beeke, Reformed Preaching, p. 34
Far Worse Actually
“In haste I ordered a copy of The Defense of the Faith . . . and breathed a sign of relief after I read it. I guess I was Van Tillian. There are worse things, I suppose.”
The Light From Behind the Sun, p. 52
When There Is No War
“There are times that make artificial sins and artificial heresies, lest they should find no enemies to fight with. It is bad to cry, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace. It is just as bad, in some ways it is worse, to cry, ‘War, war!’ when there is no war.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 219