Martin Luther on education
I am much afraid that schools will prove to be great gates of hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where the scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt.
Edmund Burke
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Democracy in America, 1831
Alexis de Touqueville, a French aristocrat, wrote this about his visit to America in 1831.
“Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power…The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.”
Samuel Adams and the Declaration
As the members of the Continental Congress were signing the Declaration, Samuel Adams declared:
“We have this day restored The Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come!”
The Most Intolerant Man
Jesus Christ never tolerated evil. He confronted it and exposed it. In that sense it could be said that Jesus was the most intolerant man who ever walked on planet earth. He never once compromised God’s Law’s of righteousness. If America is to be saved, we, like Christ, must be intolerant of any compromise with His laws.
(America: A Call to Greatness by John W. Chalfant)
George Whitefield on the Moravians
“I doubt not but there are many holy souls among the Moravians; but they are not preaching the Law, either as a schoolmaster to show us the need of Christ, or as a rule of life after we have closed with Him, is what I can in no wise concur with.”
(George Whitefield by Arnold Dallimore, Volume 2)
Richard Sibbes on Evangelism
With some a spirit of meekness prevails most, but with some a rod. Some must be “pulled out of the fire” (Jude 23) with violence, and they will bless God for us in the day of their visitation. We see that our Savior multiplies woe upon woe when he has to deal with hard-hearted hypocrites (Matthew 23:13), for hypocrites need stronger conviction than gross sinners, because their will is bad, and therefore usually their conversion is violent. A hard knot must have an answerable wedge, else, in a cruel pity, we betray their souls. A sharp reproof is sometimes a precious pearl and a sweet balm. The wounds of secure sinners will not be healed with sweet words.
(The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes)
He that is born of God cannot sin
In this heavenly righteousness sin can have no place, for there is no law; and where no law is, there can be no transgression (Romans 4:15). Seeing then that sin has here no place, there can be no anguish of conscience, no fear, no heaviness. Therefore John says (1 John 5:18): “He that is born of God cannot sin.”
(Martin Luther’s Commentary on Galatians, Declaration)
Benjamin Franklin
Christian puritan ethics were a dominant factor in all walks of American life for most of our nations history. Political dissertations were filled with religious quotations; the Bible was used as an authoritative and powerful document when proving a political point. No better example could be given than the comment of the 81-year-old Ben Franklin, who at the Constitutional Convention stated the following to the assembled delegates.
“I have lived, sirs, a long time, and the longer I’ve lived, the more convincing proofs I have seen of this truth-that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, sirs, in the Sacred Writings, that ‘except the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it.’”
(Confrontational Politics by Bill Richardson)
A Sharp Contention Between Peter and Paul
Here let other men debate whether an Apostle may sin or no; this say I, that we ought not to make Peter’s fault less than it was indeed. The Prophets themselves have sometimes erred, and been deceived. Nathan said unto David that he should build a house unto the Lord (2 Samuel 7:3). But this prophecy was later corrected by a revelation from God. So did the Apostles err also, for they imagined that the Kingdom of Christ should be carnal and of this world, saying, “Lord, will you at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6).
And Peter, although he heard the command of Christ, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), would not have gone to Cornelius if he had not been admonished and compelled by a vision. And in this matter of Paul’s rebuke, he did not only err in judgment, but committed a great sin.
(Martin Luther’s Commentary on Galatians 2:1-14)
I am much afraid that schools will prove to be great gates of hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where the scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt.
Edmund Burke
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Democracy in America, 1831
Alexis de Touqueville, a French aristocrat, wrote this about his visit to America in 1831.
“Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power…The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.”
Samuel Adams and the Declaration
As the members of the Continental Congress were signing the Declaration, Samuel Adams declared:
“We have this day restored The Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come!”
The Most Intolerant Man
Jesus Christ never tolerated evil. He confronted it and exposed it. In that sense it could be said that Jesus was the most intolerant man who ever walked on planet earth. He never once compromised God’s Law’s of righteousness. If America is to be saved, we, like Christ, must be intolerant of any compromise with His laws.
(America: A Call to Greatness by John W. Chalfant)
George Whitefield on the Moravians
“I doubt not but there are many holy souls among the Moravians; but they are not preaching the Law, either as a schoolmaster to show us the need of Christ, or as a rule of life after we have closed with Him, is what I can in no wise concur with.”
(George Whitefield by Arnold Dallimore, Volume 2)
Richard Sibbes on Evangelism
With some a spirit of meekness prevails most, but with some a rod. Some must be “pulled out of the fire” (Jude 23) with violence, and they will bless God for us in the day of their visitation. We see that our Savior multiplies woe upon woe when he has to deal with hard-hearted hypocrites (Matthew 23:13), for hypocrites need stronger conviction than gross sinners, because their will is bad, and therefore usually their conversion is violent. A hard knot must have an answerable wedge, else, in a cruel pity, we betray their souls. A sharp reproof is sometimes a precious pearl and a sweet balm. The wounds of secure sinners will not be healed with sweet words.
(The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes)
He that is born of God cannot sin
In this heavenly righteousness sin can have no place, for there is no law; and where no law is, there can be no transgression (Romans 4:15). Seeing then that sin has here no place, there can be no anguish of conscience, no fear, no heaviness. Therefore John says (1 John 5:18): “He that is born of God cannot sin.”
(Martin Luther’s Commentary on Galatians, Declaration)
Benjamin Franklin
Christian puritan ethics were a dominant factor in all walks of American life for most of our nations history. Political dissertations were filled with religious quotations; the Bible was used as an authoritative and powerful document when proving a political point. No better example could be given than the comment of the 81-year-old Ben Franklin, who at the Constitutional Convention stated the following to the assembled delegates.
“I have lived, sirs, a long time, and the longer I’ve lived, the more convincing proofs I have seen of this truth-that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, sirs, in the Sacred Writings, that ‘except the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it.’”
(Confrontational Politics by Bill Richardson)
A Sharp Contention Between Peter and Paul
Here let other men debate whether an Apostle may sin or no; this say I, that we ought not to make Peter’s fault less than it was indeed. The Prophets themselves have sometimes erred, and been deceived. Nathan said unto David that he should build a house unto the Lord (2 Samuel 7:3). But this prophecy was later corrected by a revelation from God. So did the Apostles err also, for they imagined that the Kingdom of Christ should be carnal and of this world, saying, “Lord, will you at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6).
And Peter, although he heard the command of Christ, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), would not have gone to Cornelius if he had not been admonished and compelled by a vision. And in this matter of Paul’s rebuke, he did not only err in judgment, but committed a great sin.
(Martin Luther’s Commentary on Galatians 2:1-14)
