Quotes

Divisions and separations are most objectionable in religion. They weaken the cause of true Christianity ...But before we blame people for them, we must be careful that we lay the blame where it is deserved. False doctrine and heresy are even worse than schism. If people separate themselves from teaching that is positively false and unscriptural, they ought to be praised rather than reproved. In such cases separation is a virtue and not a sin. J.C. RYLE Men today do not, perhaps, burn the Bible, nor does the Roman Catholic Church any longer put it on the Index, as it once did. But men destroy it in the form of exegesis: they destroy it in the way they deal with it. They destroy it by not reading it as written in normal, literary form, by ignoring its historical-grammatical exegesis, by changing the Bible's own perspective of itself as propositional revelation in space and time, in history.... - Francis Schaeffer, Death in the City [1969] “The trouble with the charismatic movement is that there is virtually no talk at all of the Spirit ‘coming down’. It is more something they do or receive: they talk now about ‘renewal’ not revival. The tendency of the modern movement is to lead people to seek experiences. True revivals humble men before God and emphasize the person of Christ. If all the talk is about experiences and gifts it does not conform to the classic instances of revival.” Martin Lloyd-Jones The Fight of Faith Banner of Truth Trust, 1990 "I would say that a 'dull preacher' is a contradiction in terms; if he is dull he is not a preacher. He may stand in a pulpit and talk, but he is certainly not a preacher." D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones "The man who is called by God is a man who realizes what he is called to do, and he so realizes the awefulness of the task that he shrinks from it. Nothing but this overwhelming sense of being called, and of compulsion, should ever lead anyone to preach." D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones "I would have been dead long ago if I had depended on men for encouragement." (Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones - Welsh Preacher, 1899-1981) We all, therefore, have to face this ultimate and final question: Do we accept the Bible as the Word of God, as the sole Authority in all matters of faith and practice, or do we not? Is the whole of my thinking governed by Scripture, or do I come with my reason and pick and choose out of Scripture and sit in judgment upon it, putting myself and modern knowledge forward as the ultimate Standard and Authority? The issue is crystal-clear: Do I accept Scripture as the revelation from God, or do I trust to speculation, human knowledge, human learning, human understanding, and human reasons? Or, putting it still more simply, do I pin my faith to and subject all my thinking to what I read in the Bible? Or do I defer to modern knowledge, to modern learning, to what people think today, to what we know at this present time (which was not known in the past)? It is inevitable that we occupy one or the other of those two positions. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones