The Importance of Dogma # 4
A jellyfish, as everyone knows who has been much by the sea-side, is a pretty and graceful object when it floats in the sea, contracting and expanding like a little, delicate, transparent umbrella. Yet the same jellyfish, when cast on the shore - is a mere helpless lump, without capacity for movement, self-defense, or self-preservation.
Alas! It is a vivid type of much of the religion of this day, of which the leading principle is, "No dogma, no distinct tenets, no positive doctrine."
We have hundreds of jellyfish clergymen, who seem not to have a single bone in their body of divinity. They have no definite opinions - they belong to no school or party. They are so afraid of "extreme views" - that they have no views at all.
We have thousands of jellyfish sermons preached every year - sermons without an edge or a point. They are as smooth as billiard balls - awakening no sinner, and edifying no saint.
We have legions of jellyfish young men annually turned out from our seminaries, armed with a few scraps of second-hand philosophy, who think it a mark of cleverness and intellect to have no decided opinions about anything in religion, and to be utterly unable to make up their minds as to what Christian truth is. Their proud hearts are not satisfied with truths which satisfied the godly of former years. Their only creed is a kind of "anythingism." They believe everything - and are sure and positive about nothing!
And last, and worst of all, we have myriads of jeffyfish worshipers - respectable church-going people, who have no distinct and definite views about any point in theology. They cannot discern things that differ, any more than color-blind people can distinguish colors! They think that everybody is right - and nobody is wrong, everything is true - and nothing is false, all sermons are good - and none are bad, every minister is sound - and none are unsound. They are "tossed" to and fro, like children, by every wind of doctrine!" They are often carried away by any new excitement and sensational movement. They are ever ready for new things, because they have no firm grasp on the old Scripture truths.
All this, and much more, of which I cannot now speak particularly, is the result of the unhappy dread of "dogma" which has been so strongly developed, and has laid such hold on many churchmen, in these latter days.
I turn from the sad picture I have exhibited with a sorrowful heart. I grant that it is a gloomy one; but I am afraid it is only too accurate and true. Let us not deceive ourselves - "Dogma" and positive doctrine are at a discount just now. Instability and unsettled notions are the natural result, and meet us in every direction. Never was it so important for laymen to hold systematic views of truth, and for ordained ministers to "enunciate dogma" very clearly and distinctly in their teaching.
The second proposition I wish to lay before my readers is this:
II. In spite of all that is said against dogma, its advocates have no cause to be ashamed.
I launch that statement without the slightest hesitation. The assailants of "dogma" make such boasting, and blow their trumpets so loudly, that I suspect some Christians lately have been rather frightened. They have thought that the ark was in danger, and that we must moderate our tone, and retire from our old paths! Let no man's heart fail at this crisis. There is no cause for alarm. It is the mark of ill-disciplined and half-savage armies to blow horns and beat drums, and cover their real weakness by noise! The true soldier holds his tongue, and reserves his breath for the actual struggle. "In quietness and confidence is our strength." In spite of all the hard words poured on "dogma" - as effete, worn out, injurious to free thought, unsuited to the nineteenth century, and so forth - there remains a chain of facts in support of "dogma," which I believe it is impossible to explain away. In short, there is a mass of evidence which cannot be refuted.
It is not enough to say, "We believe the Bible." We must distinctly understand what the leading facts and doctrines of the Bible are; and this is exactly the point where Creeds and Confessions are useful.
I shall confine myself to a simple statement of certain broad facts, which ought to encourage every loyal Christian to hold distinct doctrinal views, and not to be ashamed of "dogma."
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 5)
Saturday, May 11, 2019
Saturday, May 4, 2019
The Importance of Dogma # 3
The Importance of Dogma # 3
I shall content myself with the remark, that dislike to "dogma" is one prominent characteristic of the leaders and champions of the extreme Broad Church party. Search their sermons and books, and you find plenty of sad examples - plenty of great swelling words about "the universal fatherhood of God, and charity, and light, and courage, and manliness, and large-heartedness, and wide views, and free thought," - plenty of mere wind-bags, high-sounding abstract terms, such as "the true, and the just, and the beautiful, and the high-souled, and the congenial, and the liberal," and so forth.
But, alas! there is an utter absence of distinct, solid, positive doctrine! And if you look for a clear, systematic account of the way of pardon and peace with God - of the right medicine fora burdened conscience, and the true cure for a broken heart - of faith and assurance, and of justification, and regeneration, and sanctification - you look in vain. The words indeed you may sometimes find, but not the realities - the words in new and strange senses, fair and good-looking outside, like rotten fruits; but, like them, empty and worthless within.
But one thing, I repeat, is abundantly clear - "dogma" and positive doctrinal statements are the abomination off extreme Broad Churchmen. Their cry is continually "Down with dogma, down with it, even to the ground!'
(d.) I am afraid that time and space would fail me if I traveled outside our own communion, in order to find additional proof of the widespread dislike to "dogma" which we need to realize in this age.
We hear of it among Nonconformists - the oldest and soundest of them complain bitterly that the plague has begun among the descendants of the Puritans, and that old orthodox views are becoming scarce.
We hear it from Scotland - not a few Presbyterians are beginning to speak contemptuously of the Assembly's Catechism as a yoke which ought to be thrown off.
We hear it from Switzerland - the Churches of Zwingly and Calvin are said to be so deeply tainted with Socinianism, since they threw creeds overboard, that it might almost, to speak figuratively, make their founders turn in their graves!
We hear it from America - when Mr. and Mrs. Hannah Whitall Smith addressed the crowds at the famous Brighton Conference, their simple-minded and well-meaning hearers must have been puzzled to hear the often reiterated expression, "We do not want theology!"
But I trust I have said enough to convince my readers, that when I speak of dislike to "dogma" as one of the largest and most formidable perils of the day - I do not use any exaggerated language, or speak without good reason.
The causes of this dislike to "dogma" we need not go far to seek. There is nothing new about it, and nothing therefore which ought to surprise us. And the older the world gets, and the nearer to the second advent of Christ - the more clearly shall we see that prophecy fulfilled. We only see a full development of an old disease. There never have been lacking thousands of lazy, worldly Christians, who say with the poet - "For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight; He can't be wrong, whose life is in the right."
Eighteen centuries ago the apostle Paul forewarned us, "The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear!" (2 Timothy 4:3).
The natural man hates the Gospel and all its distinctive doctrines - and delights in any vain excuse for refusing it.
The plain truth is, that the root of the whole evil lies in the fallen nature of man, and his deeply-seated unbelief in God's infallible Word. I suspect we have no idea how little saving faith there is on earth, and how few people entirely believe Bible truths.
One man is proud - he dislikes the distinctive doctrines of Christianity, because they leave him no room to boast.
Another is lazy and indolent - he dislikes distinctive doctrine, because it summons him to troublesome thought, and self-inquiry, and mental self-exertion.
Another is grossly ignorant - he imagines that all distinctive doctrine is a mere matter of words and names, and that it does not matter a jot what we believe.
Another is thoroughly worldly - he shrinks from distinctive doctrine, because it condemns his darling world.
But in one form or another, I am satisfied that "original sin" is the cause of all the mischief. And the whole result is, that vast numbers of men greedily swallow down the seemingly new idea that doctrine is of no great importance. It supplies a
convenient excuse for their sins.
The consequences of this widespread dislike to doctrine are very serious in the present day. Whether we like to allow it or not, it is an epidemic which is doing great harm. It creates, fosters, and keeps up an immense amount of instability in religion. It produces what I must venture to call, if I may coin the phrase, a jellyfish Christianity in the churches - that is, a Christianity without bone, or muscle, or power.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 4)
I shall content myself with the remark, that dislike to "dogma" is one prominent characteristic of the leaders and champions of the extreme Broad Church party. Search their sermons and books, and you find plenty of sad examples - plenty of great swelling words about "the universal fatherhood of God, and charity, and light, and courage, and manliness, and large-heartedness, and wide views, and free thought," - plenty of mere wind-bags, high-sounding abstract terms, such as "the true, and the just, and the beautiful, and the high-souled, and the congenial, and the liberal," and so forth.
But, alas! there is an utter absence of distinct, solid, positive doctrine! And if you look for a clear, systematic account of the way of pardon and peace with God - of the right medicine fora burdened conscience, and the true cure for a broken heart - of faith and assurance, and of justification, and regeneration, and sanctification - you look in vain. The words indeed you may sometimes find, but not the realities - the words in new and strange senses, fair and good-looking outside, like rotten fruits; but, like them, empty and worthless within.
But one thing, I repeat, is abundantly clear - "dogma" and positive doctrinal statements are the abomination off extreme Broad Churchmen. Their cry is continually "Down with dogma, down with it, even to the ground!'
(d.) I am afraid that time and space would fail me if I traveled outside our own communion, in order to find additional proof of the widespread dislike to "dogma" which we need to realize in this age.
We hear of it among Nonconformists - the oldest and soundest of them complain bitterly that the plague has begun among the descendants of the Puritans, and that old orthodox views are becoming scarce.
We hear it from Scotland - not a few Presbyterians are beginning to speak contemptuously of the Assembly's Catechism as a yoke which ought to be thrown off.
We hear it from Switzerland - the Churches of Zwingly and Calvin are said to be so deeply tainted with Socinianism, since they threw creeds overboard, that it might almost, to speak figuratively, make their founders turn in their graves!
We hear it from America - when Mr. and Mrs. Hannah Whitall Smith addressed the crowds at the famous Brighton Conference, their simple-minded and well-meaning hearers must have been puzzled to hear the often reiterated expression, "We do not want theology!"
But I trust I have said enough to convince my readers, that when I speak of dislike to "dogma" as one of the largest and most formidable perils of the day - I do not use any exaggerated language, or speak without good reason.
The causes of this dislike to "dogma" we need not go far to seek. There is nothing new about it, and nothing therefore which ought to surprise us. And the older the world gets, and the nearer to the second advent of Christ - the more clearly shall we see that prophecy fulfilled. We only see a full development of an old disease. There never have been lacking thousands of lazy, worldly Christians, who say with the poet - "For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight; He can't be wrong, whose life is in the right."
Eighteen centuries ago the apostle Paul forewarned us, "The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear!" (2 Timothy 4:3).
The natural man hates the Gospel and all its distinctive doctrines - and delights in any vain excuse for refusing it.
The plain truth is, that the root of the whole evil lies in the fallen nature of man, and his deeply-seated unbelief in God's infallible Word. I suspect we have no idea how little saving faith there is on earth, and how few people entirely believe Bible truths.
One man is proud - he dislikes the distinctive doctrines of Christianity, because they leave him no room to boast.
Another is lazy and indolent - he dislikes distinctive doctrine, because it summons him to troublesome thought, and self-inquiry, and mental self-exertion.
Another is grossly ignorant - he imagines that all distinctive doctrine is a mere matter of words and names, and that it does not matter a jot what we believe.
Another is thoroughly worldly - he shrinks from distinctive doctrine, because it condemns his darling world.
But in one form or another, I am satisfied that "original sin" is the cause of all the mischief. And the whole result is, that vast numbers of men greedily swallow down the seemingly new idea that doctrine is of no great importance. It supplies a
convenient excuse for their sins.
The consequences of this widespread dislike to doctrine are very serious in the present day. Whether we like to allow it or not, it is an epidemic which is doing great harm. It creates, fosters, and keeps up an immense amount of instability in religion. It produces what I must venture to call, if I may coin the phrase, a jellyfish Christianity in the churches - that is, a Christianity without bone, or muscle, or power.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 4)
The Importance of Dogma # 2
The Importance of Dogma # 2
I. My first proposition is this: A strong dislike to all "dogma" in religion is a most suspicious and growing sign of the times. Hence it arises the peculiar importance of holding and teaching it.
This dislike is a fact, I am bold to say, which needs realizing and recognizing. It does not receive the attention it deserves. We have been so much occupied of late years in resisting those who believe too much - that we have somewhat overlooked those who believe too little. Whether we like to hear it or not, there is a sore disease in the land, which is eating like a canker into the vitals of Christianity. It is a pestilence walking in darkness, which threatens to infect a large proportion of the rising generation.
The evidences of this dislike to "dogma" are so abundant that the only difficulty lies in selection. Unless we are men who having eyes see not, and having ears hear not - we may see them on every side.
(a.) I might ask any intelligent man, for example, to mark the vague tone of the great majority of newspapers, when they touch religious subjects. He will find that while they are generally willing to praise Christian morality - they too often ignore bitterness with which School Boards frequently speak of what they are pleased to call "theology," and how ready they are to shovel it all aside under the vague name of "sectarianism."
I might ask him to analyze the most popular fictions and novels of the last forty years, which profess to paint Christians, and to notice how the portrait almost invariably avoids everything like doctrine, and exhibits the model Christian like a cut flower at a flower show, a mere bloom without root.
I might ask him to look at the concern which liberal speakers are constantly showing, in addressing popular audiences, to sweep away all "denominational Christianity," and to throw aside Creeds and Confessions as old worn-out clothes, which only fetter the limbs of modern Englishmen.
In each of these cases let him note one common symptom: that is, a morbid, unreasoning desire to have the fruits of Christianity - without the roots; to have Christian morality - without Christian dogma. And then let him deny, if he can, that a dislike to "dogma" is a widespread evil of our times.
(b.) I will then ask any intelligent man to examine the opinions commonly expressed in the talk of private life. You have only got to bring up the subject of religion in society, and you will get further proofs still. In five houses out of six, where people have anything like real religion - you will fine that they make a regular idol of "earnestness." They do not pretend to know anything about controversies and disputed questions, or to have any opinion as to who is right and who is wrong. They only know that they admire "earnestness;" and they cannot think that earnest, hard-working men can be unsound in the faith.
Tell them that any "earnest" clergyman whom they name does not preach the Gospel - and they are downright offended. Impossible! Whatever doctrines an "earnest" man holds and teaches - they think it narrow and uncharitable and illiberal in you to distrust him. In vain you remind them that zeal and laboriousness are useless - if a minister does not teach God's truth; and that Pharisees and Jesuits had zeal enough to "compass sea and land." They know nothing about that; they do not profess to argue. All they know is that work is work; and that an earnest man must be a good man, and cannot be in the wrong whatever he teaches. And what does it all come to? They dislike "dogma", and will not make up their minds as to what is truth.
Hitherto we have seen the evil I am considering in its most common and diluted forms.
(c.) If we want to see it in its more solid and crystallized state, we have only to turn to the preaching and writings of the extreme Broad Churchmen of our days. I will not weary my readers with a catalogue of the strange and loose utterances which come incessantly from that quarter about inspiration, about the atonement, about the sacrifice and death of Christ, about the incarnation, about miracles, about satan, about the Holy Spirit, and about future punishment.
I will not pain them by recounting the astounding theories sometimes propounded about "the blood of Christ." Time would fall me if I tried to sketch the leading features of a misty system which appears to regard all religions as more or less true, and in which "tabernacles" seem to be wanted for Socrates, and Plato, and Pythagoras, and Seneca, and Confucius, and Mahomet - as well as for Christ, and Moses, and Elijah - all, forsooth, being true prophets, great masters, great teachers, great leaders of thought! [Awful!! These folks don't know dogma, don't know the Bible, don't know the Holy Spirit!! (added by me, the owner of this blog!]
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 3)
I. My first proposition is this: A strong dislike to all "dogma" in religion is a most suspicious and growing sign of the times. Hence it arises the peculiar importance of holding and teaching it.
This dislike is a fact, I am bold to say, which needs realizing and recognizing. It does not receive the attention it deserves. We have been so much occupied of late years in resisting those who believe too much - that we have somewhat overlooked those who believe too little. Whether we like to hear it or not, there is a sore disease in the land, which is eating like a canker into the vitals of Christianity. It is a pestilence walking in darkness, which threatens to infect a large proportion of the rising generation.
The evidences of this dislike to "dogma" are so abundant that the only difficulty lies in selection. Unless we are men who having eyes see not, and having ears hear not - we may see them on every side.
(a.) I might ask any intelligent man, for example, to mark the vague tone of the great majority of newspapers, when they touch religious subjects. He will find that while they are generally willing to praise Christian morality - they too often ignore bitterness with which School Boards frequently speak of what they are pleased to call "theology," and how ready they are to shovel it all aside under the vague name of "sectarianism."
I might ask him to analyze the most popular fictions and novels of the last forty years, which profess to paint Christians, and to notice how the portrait almost invariably avoids everything like doctrine, and exhibits the model Christian like a cut flower at a flower show, a mere bloom without root.
I might ask him to look at the concern which liberal speakers are constantly showing, in addressing popular audiences, to sweep away all "denominational Christianity," and to throw aside Creeds and Confessions as old worn-out clothes, which only fetter the limbs of modern Englishmen.
In each of these cases let him note one common symptom: that is, a morbid, unreasoning desire to have the fruits of Christianity - without the roots; to have Christian morality - without Christian dogma. And then let him deny, if he can, that a dislike to "dogma" is a widespread evil of our times.
(b.) I will then ask any intelligent man to examine the opinions commonly expressed in the talk of private life. You have only got to bring up the subject of religion in society, and you will get further proofs still. In five houses out of six, where people have anything like real religion - you will fine that they make a regular idol of "earnestness." They do not pretend to know anything about controversies and disputed questions, or to have any opinion as to who is right and who is wrong. They only know that they admire "earnestness;" and they cannot think that earnest, hard-working men can be unsound in the faith.
Tell them that any "earnest" clergyman whom they name does not preach the Gospel - and they are downright offended. Impossible! Whatever doctrines an "earnest" man holds and teaches - they think it narrow and uncharitable and illiberal in you to distrust him. In vain you remind them that zeal and laboriousness are useless - if a minister does not teach God's truth; and that Pharisees and Jesuits had zeal enough to "compass sea and land." They know nothing about that; they do not profess to argue. All they know is that work is work; and that an earnest man must be a good man, and cannot be in the wrong whatever he teaches. And what does it all come to? They dislike "dogma", and will not make up their minds as to what is truth.
Hitherto we have seen the evil I am considering in its most common and diluted forms.
(c.) If we want to see it in its more solid and crystallized state, we have only to turn to the preaching and writings of the extreme Broad Churchmen of our days. I will not weary my readers with a catalogue of the strange and loose utterances which come incessantly from that quarter about inspiration, about the atonement, about the sacrifice and death of Christ, about the incarnation, about miracles, about satan, about the Holy Spirit, and about future punishment.
I will not pain them by recounting the astounding theories sometimes propounded about "the blood of Christ." Time would fall me if I tried to sketch the leading features of a misty system which appears to regard all religions as more or less true, and in which "tabernacles" seem to be wanted for Socrates, and Plato, and Pythagoras, and Seneca, and Confucius, and Mahomet - as well as for Christ, and Moses, and Elijah - all, forsooth, being true prophets, great masters, great teachers, great leaders of thought! [Awful!! These folks don't know dogma, don't know the Bible, don't know the Holy Spirit!! (added by me, the owner of this blog!]
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 3)
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Classic Quotes From Classic Ministers
Classic Quotes From Classic Ministers
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The Importance of Dogma # 1
The Importance of Dogma # 1
The word which forms the title of this paper requires some explanation and definition. What are we to understand by "dogma"? Before we go a step further, let us see clearly what "dogma" means.
"Dogma", says Garbett, "is to be distinguished from dogmatism. Dogma is a word that simply means a definite ascertained truth, which is no longer the subject of inquiry, simply because inquiry has ended, and the result has been accepted. Wherever there is any fixed ascertained truth whatever, there must be dogma. If there is no dogma - then there is no known truth."
"Dogma," says Dean Hook in his Church Dictionary, "is a word used originally to express any doctrine of religion formally stated. Dogmatic theology is the statement of positive truths in religion."
To these definitions I shall only add one more remark, by way of caution. We must never forget that there is a wide difference between dogma and science - and dogma in religion. In religion, to be dogmatic is often a positive duty; in science, it is often sheer presumption. In the study of natural science, on the one hand, we have no inspired book to guide us. We have no revelation from Heaven to teach us about biology, or chemistry, or astronomy, or geology. We can only attain conclusions in these subjects by careful observation of phenomena, by patient investigation and induction of facts, or by a diligent use of such helps as the microscope and telescope afford. Even then, our conclusions are often very imperfect, and we ought to be modest in our assertions, and to beware of overmuch positiveness.
"The highest wisdom in many matters of science," said Faraday, "is to keep ourselves in a state of judicious suspense." "All human knowledge is but fragmentary. All of us who call ourselves students of nature possess only portions of natural science." To be always dogmatic in natural science, is a mark of a shallow and conceited mind.
In religion, on the contrary, we start with an infallible Bible to guide us. Our only business is to ascertain the meaning of that Bible. When it speaks plainly, clearly, and unmistakably upon any point - then we have a perfect right to form positive and decided conclusions, and to speak positively and decidedly. Dogmatic language in such cases is not only not presumption, but a downright duty - and not to be positive when God has spoken positively, is a symptom of ignorance, timidity, or unbelief!
The subject I am going to take up, my readers will now understand, is the importance of holding distinct and systematic theological views - and of making positive statements of doctrine in teaching and dispensing God's Word. With the Bible in a minister's hands - there ought to be nothing faltering, hesitating, and indefinite in his exhibition of the things necessary to salvation. He must not shrink from making strong assertions, and drawing sharply-cut and well-developed conclusions. He must not hesitate to say, "This is certainly true - and you ought to believe it! This other teaching is certainly false - and you ought to refuse it! This is right - and you ought to do it. That is wrong - and you ought not to do it."
It is the duty of ministers to speak like men who have quite made up their minds, who have grappled with Pilate's question: "What is truth?" and are prepared to give the question an unhesitating answer. In short, if men mean to be faithful ministers of the New Testament, they must hold and teach "dogma." And of all Christian ministers, there are none, I am convinced, who ought to be so distinct and decided in their statement of dogma as the ministers of the Church of England.
The subject, I venture to think, is one of vast importance in the present day, and it needs to be pressed on the attention both of clergymen and laymen. But the subject is a very wide and deep one, and can only be touched lightly in a short paper like this. I shall therefore limit myself with laying down two general propositions, and offering a few remarks upon each of them.
The object of my first proposition will be to prove the peculiar importance of dogma in these days.
The object of my second will be to show the great encouragements there are to hold and teach dogma.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 2)
The word which forms the title of this paper requires some explanation and definition. What are we to understand by "dogma"? Before we go a step further, let us see clearly what "dogma" means.
"Dogma", says Garbett, "is to be distinguished from dogmatism. Dogma is a word that simply means a definite ascertained truth, which is no longer the subject of inquiry, simply because inquiry has ended, and the result has been accepted. Wherever there is any fixed ascertained truth whatever, there must be dogma. If there is no dogma - then there is no known truth."
"Dogma," says Dean Hook in his Church Dictionary, "is a word used originally to express any doctrine of religion formally stated. Dogmatic theology is the statement of positive truths in religion."
To these definitions I shall only add one more remark, by way of caution. We must never forget that there is a wide difference between dogma and science - and dogma in religion. In religion, to be dogmatic is often a positive duty; in science, it is often sheer presumption. In the study of natural science, on the one hand, we have no inspired book to guide us. We have no revelation from Heaven to teach us about biology, or chemistry, or astronomy, or geology. We can only attain conclusions in these subjects by careful observation of phenomena, by patient investigation and induction of facts, or by a diligent use of such helps as the microscope and telescope afford. Even then, our conclusions are often very imperfect, and we ought to be modest in our assertions, and to beware of overmuch positiveness.
"The highest wisdom in many matters of science," said Faraday, "is to keep ourselves in a state of judicious suspense." "All human knowledge is but fragmentary. All of us who call ourselves students of nature possess only portions of natural science." To be always dogmatic in natural science, is a mark of a shallow and conceited mind.
In religion, on the contrary, we start with an infallible Bible to guide us. Our only business is to ascertain the meaning of that Bible. When it speaks plainly, clearly, and unmistakably upon any point - then we have a perfect right to form positive and decided conclusions, and to speak positively and decidedly. Dogmatic language in such cases is not only not presumption, but a downright duty - and not to be positive when God has spoken positively, is a symptom of ignorance, timidity, or unbelief!
The subject I am going to take up, my readers will now understand, is the importance of holding distinct and systematic theological views - and of making positive statements of doctrine in teaching and dispensing God's Word. With the Bible in a minister's hands - there ought to be nothing faltering, hesitating, and indefinite in his exhibition of the things necessary to salvation. He must not shrink from making strong assertions, and drawing sharply-cut and well-developed conclusions. He must not hesitate to say, "This is certainly true - and you ought to believe it! This other teaching is certainly false - and you ought to refuse it! This is right - and you ought to do it. That is wrong - and you ought not to do it."
It is the duty of ministers to speak like men who have quite made up their minds, who have grappled with Pilate's question: "What is truth?" and are prepared to give the question an unhesitating answer. In short, if men mean to be faithful ministers of the New Testament, they must hold and teach "dogma." And of all Christian ministers, there are none, I am convinced, who ought to be so distinct and decided in their statement of dogma as the ministers of the Church of England.
The subject, I venture to think, is one of vast importance in the present day, and it needs to be pressed on the attention both of clergymen and laymen. But the subject is a very wide and deep one, and can only be touched lightly in a short paper like this. I shall therefore limit myself with laying down two general propositions, and offering a few remarks upon each of them.
The object of my first proposition will be to prove the peculiar importance of dogma in these days.
The object of my second will be to show the great encouragements there are to hold and teach dogma.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 2)
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Classic Quotes From Classic Ministers
Classic Quotes From Classic Ministers
"So shall we ever be with the LORD" (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
Nearest and Dearest Fellowship
"So shall we ever be with the LORD" (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
While we are here the LORD is with us, and when we are called away we are with Him. There is no dividing the saint from His Savior. They are one, and they always must be one: Jesus cannot be without His own people, for He would be a Head without a body. Whether caught up into the air, or resting in paradise, or sojourning here, we are with Jesus; and who shall separate us from Him? What a joy is this! Our supreme honor, rest, comfort, delight, is to be with the LORD. We cannot conceive of anything which can surpass or even equal this divine society. By holy fellowship we must be with Him in His humiliation, rejection, and travail, and then we shall be with Him in His glory. Before long we shall be with Him in His rest and in His royalty, in His expectation and in His manifestation. We shall fare as He fares and triumph as He triumphs. O my LORD, if I am to be forever with Thee, I have a destiny incomparable. I will not envy an archangel. To be forever with the LORD is my idea of heaven at its best. Not the harps of gold, nor the crowns unfading, nor the light unclouded is glory to me; but Jesus, Jesus Himself, and myself forever with Him in nearest and dearest fellowship.
~Charles Haddon Spurgeon~
_____________________________
Spending Our Inheritance
The word “inheritance” usually brings to mind the money and real estate handed down from one generation to another. But God has an even greater legacy to share with His children—one that they are given the moment they enter His family.
Galatians 4:7 tells us that believers are God’s heirs. First among our priceless treasures is a living hope in Jesus Christthat cannot be taken away (1 Peter 1:3). What’s more, He pledged to supply our needs according to His riches (Phil 4:19). In other words, we already have all that we need for an abundant and victorious life.
However, some folks get stuck in spiritual poverty because they refuse to view themselves as adopted children. Failing to tap into their inheritance, they’re like a man who sees himself as a poor, sinful creature: he wanders through this big angry world hoping to hold on to his meager scrap of faith until he’s lucky enough to die and go to heaven. Of course that man misses the blessings available in this life, because he’s not looking for them.
How differently people see themselves when they look through the eyes of Jesus. Christians who live like the beloved, empowered heirs that they are will lavishly spend their inheritance of grace to benefit everyone they meet.
God gives all believers a pledge of inheritance out of the unsurpassed riches of His infinite grace. We are spiritually rich citizens of heaven who have nothing to fear in this world. Choose to live boldly for Christ, and see how abundantly God pours out blessing from the legacy already set aside for you.
~Charles F. Stanley~
______________________________
It is not a Sunday religion, but a week-day lifestyle!
(J.R. Miller, "What Is a Christian Life?")
A great many people seem to misunderstand Christianity and the Christian life.
In some cases, no more is implied than intellectual belief of the doctrines of Christianity. Some people seem to think that a Christian is one who is "sound in the faith"--although the personal character may be very faulty, and there may be no practical application of the principles of the gospel to the conduct. Pride, bitterness, selfishness, malice, dishonesty, and harshness may abound. But because the person believes the facts of the gospel, he considers himself to be a Christian man.
A Christian life is a regenerated life. Thus the teaching of the Scriptures is that a true Christian life is one that has come under new influences, a new life, a divine principle--entering the heart and changing all within and then without. It is the Spirit entering into him and influencing his whole life.
In a true Christian life, the beliefs in the heart manifest themselves, in greater or lesser measure--in the conductand the character. Thus it is character which is the true and final test of religion. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control." These are the things that manifest one to be a Christian. Not those who say, "Lord, Lord"--but those who "obey His commandments," shall enter into Heaven.
Men talk about holiness and pray for it, as if it were something entirely apart from their everyday life--something that has nothing whatever to do with their conduct in their domestic, social and business relations. But holiness is not a mere sentiment--it is the most real and practical thing in this world! If being holy means anything at all, it means being true, honest, upright, noble, pure, gentle, patient, unselfish. Holiness is not only church-going and hymn-singing--it is life and conduct. It is not a Sunday religion, but a week-day lifestyle. We really have no more religion than we get into our everyday life--at home, in business, in all our conduct. We are Christians only so far as the Christ living in us, is manifested in a Christlike life.
(J.R. Miller, "What Is a Christian Life?")
A great many people seem to misunderstand Christianity and the Christian life.
In some cases, no more is implied than intellectual belief of the doctrines of Christianity. Some people seem to think that a Christian is one who is "sound in the faith"--although the personal character may be very faulty, and there may be no practical application of the principles of the gospel to the conduct. Pride, bitterness, selfishness, malice, dishonesty, and harshness may abound. But because the person believes the facts of the gospel, he considers himself to be a Christian man.
A Christian life is a regenerated life. Thus the teaching of the Scriptures is that a true Christian life is one that has come under new influences, a new life, a divine principle--entering the heart and changing all within and then without. It is the Spirit entering into him and influencing his whole life.
In a true Christian life, the beliefs in the heart manifest themselves, in greater or lesser measure--in the conductand the character. Thus it is character which is the true and final test of religion. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control." These are the things that manifest one to be a Christian. Not those who say, "Lord, Lord"--but those who "obey His commandments," shall enter into Heaven.
Men talk about holiness and pray for it, as if it were something entirely apart from their everyday life--something that has nothing whatever to do with their conduct in their domestic, social and business relations. But holiness is not a mere sentiment--it is the most real and practical thing in this world! If being holy means anything at all, it means being true, honest, upright, noble, pure, gentle, patient, unselfish. Holiness is not only church-going and hymn-singing--it is life and conduct. It is not a Sunday religion, but a week-day lifestyle. We really have no more religion than we get into our everyday life--at home, in business, in all our conduct. We are Christians only so far as the Christ living in us, is manifested in a Christlike life.
The Puritan Vision of God # 4
The Puritan Vision of God # 4
Furthermore, the prisoner on Patmos would say to us, "Listen, God is speaking to you. Hear what he says! "Not a little of the mischief of our age has been caused by the growth of what is known as Agnosticism, a long and high-sounding word for unbelief.
It may be doubted whether there have ever been any genuine atheists on the earth, men who have denied the existence of Deity altogether. Even Lucretius, the Roman poet, believed in a Deity who was far removed from all that goes on in the world, hidden somewhere in the inexhaustible depths of space. The human mind in every age has felt that there must be something, be it law or force or principle or energy or fate or destiny or mind, by which the universe came into being, and according to which it moves. But all men are practically atheists who deny that God can speak, and that He does speak to the human heart. To say that one does not know whether God speaks or not is to cut away the ground upon which the world's strongest characters have been built. "Out of the throne," says John, "there comes a voice. Listen to it." And if you listen you will hear it telling you to pray.
There is divine wisdom in the poet's lines:
"Speak to Him thou for He hears, and
Spirit with Spirit can meet
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer
Than hands and feet."
"Look up, listen, work." Work while it is day, for the night is coming when no man can work.
Work, for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Work, in order that at the end of the day you may hear the King saying, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord."
What did the Puritans give to the world? Certainly not pictures, nor statues, nor philosophy, nor metaphysics.They were not artists, scientists or architects or sages; they were nothing but heroes who gave the world a new impulse toward God. They were ahead of us because they are nearer to the throne. With all our knowledge and acumen and attainments and accumulations we stand abashed before these men, acknowledging that they are indeed above us, and the radiance of the throne is on their foreheads.
This then is the greatest work which any man can do, which any set or society of men can do, which any state or any church can do, it is to blow the dust off the ideal, to pick up the lowered standards and lift them higher, to unveil the face of virtue that men may see her in her loveliness, to adorn the doctrine of the blessed God, to sound a note of warning that men shall not take the downward path, but turn their faces toward God's throne.
If we should ask ourselves what our Puritan forefathers would say to us if they could speak to us tonight, no doubt they would say very simple and elementary things like this: "Better die than live ignobly, better be poor through life than be dishonest, better fail with honor than succeed by means that are unworthy of a man, better leave your boys nothing but an unspotted name than leave them a colossal fortune with a name that has been tarnished." There is no tragedy on earth so terrible as the fading of the luster of an honored name. There is no spectacle so heart-breaking as the spectacle of laurel withered brows that have worn it nobly until their hair is gray. There lies upon this island one of the highest heaps of gold ever amassed by the genius and ingenuity and industry of man. That mass of gold can be an Aaron's rod by means of which miracles shall be wrought for humanity, or it may if wrongly used be a millstone and drown us in the depths of the sea. Let us keep repeating to ourselves the words of Jesus, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Let us ponder the meaning of the sentence, "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul?" And how in a world like this shall a man keep from losing his soul? Simply by living always within sight of the great white throne!
~Charles E. Jefferson~
(The End)
Furthermore, the prisoner on Patmos would say to us, "Listen, God is speaking to you. Hear what he says! "Not a little of the mischief of our age has been caused by the growth of what is known as Agnosticism, a long and high-sounding word for unbelief.
It may be doubted whether there have ever been any genuine atheists on the earth, men who have denied the existence of Deity altogether. Even Lucretius, the Roman poet, believed in a Deity who was far removed from all that goes on in the world, hidden somewhere in the inexhaustible depths of space. The human mind in every age has felt that there must be something, be it law or force or principle or energy or fate or destiny or mind, by which the universe came into being, and according to which it moves. But all men are practically atheists who deny that God can speak, and that He does speak to the human heart. To say that one does not know whether God speaks or not is to cut away the ground upon which the world's strongest characters have been built. "Out of the throne," says John, "there comes a voice. Listen to it." And if you listen you will hear it telling you to pray.
There is divine wisdom in the poet's lines:
"Speak to Him thou for He hears, and
Spirit with Spirit can meet
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer
Than hands and feet."
"Look up, listen, work." Work while it is day, for the night is coming when no man can work.
Work, for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Work, in order that at the end of the day you may hear the King saying, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord."
What did the Puritans give to the world? Certainly not pictures, nor statues, nor philosophy, nor metaphysics.They were not artists, scientists or architects or sages; they were nothing but heroes who gave the world a new impulse toward God. They were ahead of us because they are nearer to the throne. With all our knowledge and acumen and attainments and accumulations we stand abashed before these men, acknowledging that they are indeed above us, and the radiance of the throne is on their foreheads.
This then is the greatest work which any man can do, which any set or society of men can do, which any state or any church can do, it is to blow the dust off the ideal, to pick up the lowered standards and lift them higher, to unveil the face of virtue that men may see her in her loveliness, to adorn the doctrine of the blessed God, to sound a note of warning that men shall not take the downward path, but turn their faces toward God's throne.
If we should ask ourselves what our Puritan forefathers would say to us if they could speak to us tonight, no doubt they would say very simple and elementary things like this: "Better die than live ignobly, better be poor through life than be dishonest, better fail with honor than succeed by means that are unworthy of a man, better leave your boys nothing but an unspotted name than leave them a colossal fortune with a name that has been tarnished." There is no tragedy on earth so terrible as the fading of the luster of an honored name. There is no spectacle so heart-breaking as the spectacle of laurel withered brows that have worn it nobly until their hair is gray. There lies upon this island one of the highest heaps of gold ever amassed by the genius and ingenuity and industry of man. That mass of gold can be an Aaron's rod by means of which miracles shall be wrought for humanity, or it may if wrongly used be a millstone and drown us in the depths of the sea. Let us keep repeating to ourselves the words of Jesus, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Let us ponder the meaning of the sentence, "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul?" And how in a world like this shall a man keep from losing his soul? Simply by living always within sight of the great white throne!
~Charles E. Jefferson~
(The End)
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