“So if there is a biblically defensible liturgy coupled with biblically indefensible lives, this is a routine maneuver by sinful men to try to put God into their debt by doing just what He told them to, as though it were a paint-by-numbers kit. And since that is how the sinful heart of man loves …
Like Liturgy and Love
“The Bible routinely opposes things that are not necessarily opposed to each other. Pastoral opposition is not the same thing as logical opposition” (Against the Church, p. 147).
He’ll Never Think of Looking Here
“Scripture teaches us, and history shows us, that the very best hiding places [from the grace of God], at least for a brief time, are found in the things of God — the church, the Bible, the sacraments, the catechism, the ministry, the Internet theology debates, the church splits over a bunch of nothing, the …
The Natural Man Baptized
“But the natural man, the unconverted man, the unregenerate man, is the same kind of man whether he is inside the covenant or outside it, with the difference that reprobates inside the covenant have greater condemnation” (Against the Church, p. 143).
The Action is in the Verb
Regeneration “is not a change from nature into grace; it is a change from broken nature to restored nature, and the change is accomplished by grace. We are not changed into grace, we are transformed by grace. When Jesus changed the water into wine, it was natural water and the result was natural wine. The …
How God Fastens Things
“There can only be one fixed point in the created world, and that is the Word of God. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of the Lord endures forever (1 Pet. 1:24). But note what this does — the constant (considered as absolute) is the Word of God. But this Word fastens …
An Object Other Than Itself
“There is a pitfall that some have fallen into, the mistake of trying to have faith in their own faith. Sure, and so let’s not do that. Blind men healed should look to Jesus, and then at the world. They should spend very little time trying to look at their own eyeballs. You look with …
A Sublime Disrespect
“The Wind blows where He wishes and is not bottled up by anything whatever that we can do — whether we are talking about decision cards or baptismal fonts. Understanding this is a function of basic piety, and we have countless passages in Scripture that reinforce this reality by talking about things like sacrifices, sacraments, …
A Very Great Miracle
“When we are born again, a dramatic miracle happens. When we are born again, we are being turned into people” (Against the Church, p. 133).
Where He Writes What He Wills
“If God can quicken and glorify stone by writing on it with His own finger, then how much more will human hearts be glorified, quickened, made alive, and regenerated when the finger of God, the Holy Spirit Himself, writes on them? What is it to be born again? It is to become the Holy Spirit’s …