CQOD: 07/10/07 -- Mascall: faith vs. scholarship (II)

Christian Quotation of the Day

July 10, 2007Meditation:
    Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
    -- Proverbs 3:5 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    In the rare cases where faith appears to be contradicted by scholarship whose conclusions have not been prescribed from the start, [the critical scholar] may be cast down but will not be destroyed. For he will know how temporary and mutable the conclusions of scholarship essentially are, and he will also be conscious that he himself may not have perfectly comprehended the Church’s faith.
    ... E. L. Mascall (b.1905), The Secularization of Christianity [1965]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in my ignorance, I rely on You.

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CQOD: 07/09/07 -- Mascall: faith vs. scholarship

Christian Quotation of the Day

July 9, 2007Meditation:
    They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.
    -- Romans 1:25 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    The critical scholar is not committed, within the area of his research, to accepting the Church’s presuppositions about Jesus, but he should not be committed to accepting naturalistic presuppositions either. If he does accept the latter, then the results of his research will in all probability contradict the beliefs of the Church, but this is because he has begged the question from the start. In examining, for instance, the evidence for the virginal conception [of Jesus], if he begins with the presupposition that such an event is impossible he will end with the same conclusion; if he begins with the presupposition that it is possible he may end with the conclusion that the evidence for it is good or that it is bad or that it is inconclusive. This is as far as scholarship can take him. The Christian will accept the virginal conception as part of the Church’s faith. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... E. L. Mascall (b.1905), The Secularization of Christianity [1965]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me boldness in proclaiming Your eternal truth.

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CQOD: 07/08/07 -- Pinnock: ethics and Christianity

Christian Quotation of the Day

July 8, 2007Meditation:
    My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
    -- John 15:12 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    The philosopher [Immanuel] Kant was right long ago to notice that moral activity implies a religious dimension. The atheist [Friedrich] Nietzsche also saw the point and argued forcefully that the person who gives up belief in God must be consistent and give up Christian morals as well, because the former is the foundation of the latter. He had nothing but contempt for fellow humanists who refused to see that Christian morality cannot survive the loss of its theological moorings, except as habit or as lifeless tradition. As Ayn Rand also sees so clearly, love of the neighbor cannot be rationally justified within the framework of secular humanism. Love for one’s neighbor is an ethical implication of the Christian position. This suggests to me that the world’s deepest problem is not economic or technological, but spiritual and moral. What is missing is the vision of reality that can sustain the neighbor-oriented life style that is so urgently needed in our world today.
    ... Clark H. Pinnock (b.1937), Reason Enough [1980]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have shown us Your love. Now make us to love like You.

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CQOD: 07/07/07 -- Bonner: fleeing scholars

Christian Quotation of the Day

July 7, 2007Meditation:
    Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
    -- 1 Peter 1:8-12 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    A certain group of scholars, mostly German or influenced by German protestant theology, has rushed to abandon positions before they were attacked, and to demythologize the Gospel message when there was no clear evidence that intelligent minds outside the Church were any more frightened by her mystery than by her morals.
    ... G. I. Bonner

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen my faith against the attacks of skeptics.

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CQOD: 07/06/07 -- Lewis: we recognize the good

Christian Quotation of the Day

July 6, 2007

Feast of Thomas More, Scholar & Martyr, & John Fisher, Bishop & Martyr, 1535

Meditation:
    What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet."
    -- Romans 7:7 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    He would be a brave man who claimed to realize the fallen condition of man more clearly than St Paul. In that very chapter [Romans 7] where he asserts most strongly our inability to keep the moral law he also asserts most confidently that we perceive the Law’s goodness and rejoice in it according to the inward man. Our righteousness may be filthy and ragged; but Christianity gives us no ground for holding that our perceptions of right are in the same condition. They may, no doubt, be impaired; but there is a difference between imperfect sight and blindness. A theology which goes about to represent our practical reason as radically unsound is heading for disaster. If we once admit that what God means by “goodness” is sheerly different from what we judge to be good, there is no difference left between pure religion and devil worship.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), “The Poison of Subjectivism”

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have written the Law on my heart with Your own hand, and I cannot deny its truth.

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CQOD: 07/05/07 -- Mascall: the definitive miracle

Christian Quotation of the Day

July 5, 2007Meditation:
    Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
    -- John 3:18 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    If we are prepared to admit, even as a possibility, that Jesus was divine, or even that without being divine he was unique, then we must, as a matter of logic, discard any attempt to discredit the Gospel accounts on the ground that they record miracles.
    ... E. L. Mascall (b.1905), The Secularization of Christianity [1965]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord Jesus, You are the greatest of the Father's miracles.

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CQOD: 07/04/07 -- Williams: the weakness of the sword

Christian Quotation of the Day

July 4, 2007Meditation:
    And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.
    -- 2 Timothy 2:24-26 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    If the civil magistrates be Christians or members of the church, able to prophesy in the church of Christ, ... they are bound by the command of Christ to suffer opposition to their doctrine with meekness and gentleness, and to be so far from striving to subdue their opposites with the civil sword, that they are bound with patience and meekness to wait if God peradventure will please to grant repentance unto their opposites... The sword may make a whole nation of hypocrites. But to recover a soul from Satan by repentance, and to bring them from anti-Christian doctrine or worship to the Christian doctrine and worship, in the least true internal or external submission, is only worked by the all-powerful God through the sword of the Spirit in the hand of His spiritual officers.
    ... Roger Williams (1603?-1683), The Bloudy Tenent [1644]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant that others may see some of the gentleness and meekness of Jesus in my answers.

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CQOD: 07/03/07 -- Betz: faith and sight

Christian Quotation of the Day

July 3, 2007

Feast of Thomas the Apostle

Meditation:
    For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight.
    -- 2 Corinthians 5:4-7 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    In the era of faith there is room for repentance, since each person can decide freely for Christ; in the era of sight, when the reign of Christ is manifest, only judgment is left for the undecided.
    ... Otto Betz (b.1917), What Do We Know About Jesus? [1968]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen my faith until I see.

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CQOD: 07/02/07 -- Law: finished, once for all

Christian Quotation of the Day

July 2, 2007Meditation:
    [Christ] himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
    -- 1 Peter 2:24 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    Wonder not then that all the true followers of Christ, the saints of every age, have so gloried in the cross of Christ, have imputed such great things to it, have desired nothing so much as to be partakers of it, to live in constant union with it. It is because His sufferings, His death and cross, were the fullness of His victory over all the works of the devil. Not an evil in flesh and blood, not a misery of life, not a chain of death, not a power of hell and darkness, but were all baffled, broken, and overcome by the process of a suffering and dying Christ. Well, therefore, may the cross of Christ be the glory of Christians!
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Love [1752-4]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I receive Your reminder of Christ's suffering and death always in communion.

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CQOD: 07/01/07 -- Phelps: knowledge

Christian Quotation of the Day

July 1, 2007

Commemoration of John & Henry Venn, Priests, Evangelical Divines, 1813, 1873

Meditation:
    How can you say, "We are wise, for we have the law of the LORD," when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely? The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the LORD, what kind of wisdom do they have?
    -- Jeremiah 8:8-9 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    A knowledge of the Bible without a college course is more valuable than a college course without a knowledge of the Bible.
    ... William Lyon Phelps (1865-1943)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, send Your Spirit to fill me wih Your word.

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CQOD: 06/30/07 -- Wetzel: Jesus will prevail

Christian Quotation of the Day

June 30, 2007Meditation:
    [Jesus:] Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
    -- Luke 6:37-38 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    Jesus will prevail. His Church will prevail. Everything else is just passing away. Our current leadership [of the Episcopal Church USA] will die one day, as will you and I. It is not for us to condemn others, but to witness to them of Him who is in our lives. Even now, the enemy is at work, but Jesus will prevail. I know a God whose mercy knows no limits and whose power has no restraints.
    ... Todd H. Wetzel (b.1946), Steadfast Faith [1997]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in Your mercy, protect those who are under affliction for Your sake.

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CQOD: 06/29/07 -- Tozer: the irrelevance of proof

Christian Quotation of the Day

June 29, 2007

Feast of Peter & Paul, Apostles

Meditation:
    It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts."
    -- Hebrews 4:6,7 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    The unbelieving mind would not be convinced by any proof, and the worshiping heart needs none.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have placed the only proof I need within my heart.

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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2007, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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