As always, a war is being waged against the truth. We are on one side or the other. There is no middle ground–no safe zone for the uncommitted. Lately the question of truth itself–what it is and whether we can truly know it at all–has become one of the major points of contention. We also happen to be living in a generation when many so-called Christians have no taste for conflict and contention. Multitudes of biblically and doctrinally malnourished Christians have come to think of controversy as something that should always be avoided, whatever the cost. Sadly, that is what many weak pastors have modeled for them.

– John MacArthur

The all-important words are “while we were enemies.” This is when “we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son” (Romans 5:10). While we were enemies. In other words, the first “change” was God’s, not ours. We were still enemies. Not that we were consciously on the warpath. Most people don’t feel conscious hostility to God. The hostility is manifest more subtly with a quiet insubordination and indifference. The Bible describes it like this: “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot” (Romans 8:7).

– John Piper

There has been somewhat of a reformation going on in American Christianity. It’s underground–not too many people know about it–but it’s true.

– Paul Washer

Thousands [of professing Christians] will crowd to hear a new voice and a new doctrine, without considering for a moment whether what they hear is true. There is an incessant craving after any teaching which is sensational, and exciting, and rousing to the feelings. There is an unhealthy appetite for a sort of spasmodic and hysterical Christianity. The religious life of many is little better than spiritual dram-drinking, and the “meek and quiet spirit” which St. Peter commends is clean forgotten (1 Pet. 3:4). Crowds, and crying, and hot rooms, and high-flown singing, and an incessant rousing of the emotions are the only things which many care for. Inability to distinguish differences in doctrine is spreading far and wide, and so long as the preacher is “clever” and “earnest,” hundreds seem to think it must be all right, and call you dreadfully “narrow and uncharitable” if you hint that he is unsound!

– J. C. Ryle

1816 – 1900

The doctrinal ignorance of the evangelical church is shocking; matched only by its cowardice.

– John MacArthur

One of the greatest problems in American households today . . . regarding parent children relationships . . . is this: children want to be recognized–they want to have the authority and the rights of an adult–without being willing or without being able to assume the responsibility.

– Paul Washer

   The fact that a just and righteous God holds both unbelievers and believers alike responsible for obedience to His revelation is irrefutable proof that He has made the truth sufficiently clear to us. To claim that the Bible is not sufficiently clear is to assault God’s own wisdom and integrity.

– John MacArthur

One should suppose that proper instruction in the doctrines of man’s depravity and the necessity for justification through the righteousness of Christ alone would deliver us from the power of the self-sins; but it does not work out that way. Self can live unrebuked at the very altar. It can watch the bleeding Victim die and not be in the least affected by what it sees. It can fight for the faith of the Reformers and preach eloquently the creed of salvation by grace, and gain strength by its efforts. To tell all the truth, it seems actually to feed upon orthodoxy and is more at home in a Bible Conference than in a tavern.

– A.W. Tozer

1897 -1963

So pure, so just, so uncompromising is the Law of God, that when it is really understood, it makes us quail, and brings us to our knees.

– Charles Spurgeon

1834 – 1892

   God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

– C. S. Lewis

1898 – 1963

Truth itself does not change just because our point of view does. As we mature in our ability to perceive truth, truth itself remains fixed. Our duty is to conform all our thoughts to the truth (Psalm 19:14); we are not entitled to redefine “truth” to fit our own personal viewpoints, preferences, or desires. We must not ignore or discard selected truths just because we might find them hard to receive or difficult to fathom. Above all, we can’t get apathetic or lazy about the truth when the price of understanding or defending the truth turns out to be demanding or costly. Such a self-willed approach to the truth is tantamount to usurping God (Psalm 12:4). People who take that route guarantee their own destruction (Romans 2:8-9).

– John MacArthur

When people talk of having received “such a blessing,” and of having found “the higher life,” after hearing some earnest advocate of “holiness by faith and self-consecration,” while their families and friends see no improvement and no increased sanctity in their daily tempers and behavior, immense harm is done to the cause of Christ.

– J.C. Ryle

1816 – 1900

I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church.

– Charles Spurgeon

1834 – 1892

HT: Bororean

Truth is never determined by looking at God’s Word and asking, “What does this mean to me?” Whenever I hear someone talk like that, I’m inclined to ask, “What did the Bible mean before you existed? What does God mean by what He says?” Those are the proper questions to be asking. Truth and meaning are not determined by our intuition, experience, or desire. The true meaning of Scripture–or anything else, for that matter–has already been determined and fixed by the mind of God. The task of an interpreter is to discern that meaning. And proper interpretation must proceed application.

– John MacArthur

It is thoroughly scriptural and right to say , “Faith alone justifies.” But it is not equally scriptural and right to say, “Faith alone sanctifies.”

– J. C. Ryle

1816 – 1900