The idea of the invisible church is foreign to the New Testament, while the interpretation of the real visible church as a merely external means of salvation is not only foreign to it but completely impossible... The thought of Calvin, that the church is an external support for faith, is utterly unintelligible... The ekklesia of the New Testament... Is precisely not that which every "church" is at least in part – an institution, a something. The Body of Christ is nothing other than a fellowship of persons... Where fellowship... signifies a common participation a togetherness, a community life. The faithful are bound to each other through their common sharing in Christ and in the Holy Ghost, but that which they have in common is precisely no "thing", no "it", but a "he", Christ and his Holy Spirit... The Body of Christ... has nothing to do with an organization and has nothing of the character of the institutional about it.

Emil Brunner (1889–1966)

The man who does not meet God outside the temple will not meet God inside the temple, he may rest assured of that.

C. H. Spurgeon

If deacons were everywhere active in holding up the hands of the pastors, as Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses, the prosperity of the churches would be greatly advanced, and the success of the gospel far more abundant.

J. L. Dagg (1794–1884)

A covetous person lives as if the world were made altogether for him, and not he for the world.

Robert South (1634-1716)

Henry Dunster resigned from the presidency of Harvard and became a Baptist after seeing the mistreatment of [Obadiah] Holmes and other Baptists there in Boston.

Dr. Dan Nelson

You cannot understand a book if you refuse to hear what it is saying.

Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001)

The New Testament knows nothing of Christians who think involvement in a local church is unnecessary or optional.

Max Doner

We shall be forgiven a great many sins in the matter of pastoral visitation if the people's souls are really fed on the Sabbath day; but fed they must be, and nothing else will make up for it. The failures of most ministers who drift down the stream may be traced to inefficiency in the pulpit. The chief business of a captain is to know how to handle his vessel, nothing can compensate for deficiency there, and so our pulpits must be our main care, or all will go awry.

C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

True salvation results in a desire to obey and a lifelong pursuit of obedience to Jesus Christ.

Max Doner

In the Lord's Prayer "Jesus asks the person wronged to forgive the one responsible for the wrongdoing even when there is no confession of guilt."

Kenneth E. Bailey

Islam is attempting to dominate the West by attacking the basis of the West – freedom of speech.

Diana West

If facism comes to America, it'll be called antifacism.

Huey Long (1893-1935)

The formal object of faith in the divine promises is not the things promised in the first place, but God himself in his essential excellencies of truth or faithfulness and power.

John Owen (1616-1683)

A mind not agitated by good questions cannot appreciate the significance of even the best answers.

Mortimer J. Adler

What is assurance? It is not any vocal or audible voice, or brought to us by the help of an angel or revelation. Assurance consists of a practical syllogism, in which the Word of God makes the major, conscience the minor, and the Spirit of God the conclusion. The Word says, "He that fears and loves God is loved of God;" there is the major proposition; then conscience makes the minor, "But I fear and love God;" then the Spirit makes the conclusion. "Therefore thou art loved of God;" and this is what the apostle calls "The witnessing of the Spirit with our spirits, that we are his children." Romans 8.16

Thomas Watson (c. 1620–1686), "A Body Of Divinity," p. 174

If you don't read you don't lead.

John S. Waldrip

Anyone who has a naive belief in the power of higher education to instill morality has not studied the history of German universities in the Third Reich.

Niall Ferguson

Should one point out that from ancient times a decline in courage has been considered the beginning of the end?

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008)

No man can be a good pastor who cannot preach, any more than a man can be a good Shepherd and still failed to feed his flock. A part of shepherding is feeding and an indispensable part.

Charles E. Jefferson

When a church receives an unbaptized person, something more is done than merely to tolerate his error.

John L. Dagg (1794-1884)

The main thing a Christian should look after is sanctification. This is the unum necessarium, the one thing needful.

Thomas Watson (1620-1686)

The saints, even in this world, are compared to a tree that does not wither, Ps. 1:3; to the cedars which flourish on Mount Lebanon, Ps. 92:12; to Mount Zion which cannot be moved, but which abideth for ever, Ps. 125:1; and to a house built on a rock, Matt. 7:24. The Lord is with them in their old age, Is. 46:4, and is there guide even unto death, Ps. 48:14, so that they cannot be totally and finally lost.

Loraine Boettner (1901-1990)

The believer, like a man on shipboard, may fall again and again on the deck, but he will never fall overboard.

C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

The 20th century saw far more Christians die for their faith than was known in the early centuries. In Armenia, Russia, China and the southern Sudan, millions in the modern age have died for their loyalty to Jesus Christ.

Kenneth E. Bailey

Childhood comes but once with its opportunities. Whatever is done to stamp it with beauty must be done quickly.

J. R. Miller (1840-1912)

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