“The central tradition that must be passed on to our children, and their children after them, is the long and honored evangelical tradition of rising from the dead” (Against the Church, p. 43).
First Church
“All churches have traditions, and the older they are, the more pernicious they are. We should never forget that Cain was the eldest. If he had founded one, his church would have had the very best claim on antiquity” (Against the Church, p. 40).
Grace Perfects Nature
“The transformation of the water at Cana was a supernatural act, but it did not have a supernatural result. Jesus made natural wine, not supernatural ambrosia, but He nevertheless did it by supernatural means. In the new birth, God makes a new man out of an old one; He makes a true man out of …
And Also Like the Lesbyterians
“Our baptist brothers see the problem, and (in my view) want to uproot the tares before it is time. They wind up damaging the wheat. The sacramentalists, I believe, are too careless about letting everything grow together, until eventually, like the Episcopal Church, they think that morning glory is wheat. And why shouldn’t we ordain …
Do the Math
“If there are only two final destinations, Heaven or Hell, and there are, and if it is possible for baptized Christians, who have been communing since they were ‘so high,’ with all their external papers in order, to go to Hell, and it is, and if God is sovereign over all history (which includes every …
Explain What Happened, Not What Didn’t
“Salvation first, then the theology of it. Joy at the foundation, and then the building. Jesus first, then the discussions” (Against the Church, p. 34).
Child Communion
“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 …
All or Nothing
“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).
There’s Always Something
“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). …
Sacraments in Motion
“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).