“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).
A Short Rope
“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).
On Not Leaving God Out of It
“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 …
A New Covenant Mistake
“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 …
Inescapable Need for Grace
“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).
If Quantity Were the Thing . . .
“True baptism is of the internal man, by the Holy Spirit, and if that is missing you do not have a Christian inwardly. You do not have a true Christian, but rather a wet member of the visible covenant. The only thing we control (with the variations we have in our rituals) is how wet …
When Itching Ears Tingle
“YHWH makes our ears to tingle (1 Sam. 3:11; 2 Kings 2:12; Jer. 19:3). He did it at Shiloh. He did it to Solomon’s temple. He did it to Nehushtan. He did it to Herod’s temple. And the holy prophets of old used the kind of language in declaring the righteousness of such judgments that …
The Greatest Iconoclast
“We should know that God is the great maker of icons. As the Creator of a world full of His image-bearers, He has made billions of them . . . And this is why it is necessary for us to confess that God is also the greatest iconoclast. As the Judge who governs a sinful …
Working Doesn’t Work
“Unconverted Protestants have figured out their own ways of offending God. Someone who is born again knows that God cannot be ‘worked.’ He knows that it is not our task to assemble before the Almighty in order to blow smoke at Him — whether or not thuribles are involved” (Against the Church, p. 15).
Done With Anything Else
“The Bible teaches that the basic division in liturgical worship is not between high and low or between traditional and contemporary, but rather between acceptable and unacceptable. And the only thing that can make it acceptable is pure, unfeigned, evangelical faith in Jesus. Anything else is on its way to the Bad Place” (Against the …