Inspirational Quotes by R. C. Sproul

“It is finding the lost that necessitates the endeavor of missions. It’s easy for us to deceive ourselves into thinking that no one is lost, and one way of doing that is to distance ourselves from the search—that is, to make sure that we keep ourselves uninformed about the needs of the lost, to insulate ourselves from knowing what is really going on in the world. For instance, we don’t go out of our way to understand and learn about all of the people who are starving in this world. When we are confronted with it, our consciences are pricked and we are moved to action. But we don’t go out of our way to find misery; we think there’s enough misery in our own lives, without looking for more.”

“On the cross Jesus was in the reality of hell. He was totally bereft of the grace and the presence of God, utterly separated from all blessedness of the Father. He became a curse for us so that we someday will be able to see the face of God. So that the light of His countenance might fall upon us, God turned His back on His Son. No wonder Christ screamed. He screamed from the depth of His soul. How long did He have to endure it? We don’t know, but a second of it would have been of infinite value.”

“The purpose of witnessing is to make something manifest that is hidden.”

“The beauty of worship is never to be divorced from the truth of worship.”

“Worship is not simply an experience of feeling; it must involve an understanding of the mind. That's why, in Protestant worship, so much attention is given to the centrality of the reading and preaching of the Word of God.”

“[W]e can discern principles in the patterns of worship that God revealed from heaven to His people in the Old Testament, and that those principles can and should inform the patterns our worship follows.”

“In a word, the Lord’s Prayer is the greatest martyr on earth (as are the name and Word of God). Everybody tortures and abuses it; few take comfort and joy in its proper use.”

“To protect our self-image, we kid, trick, and fool ourselves into believing the visible you is somehow real. To see ourselves as we really are, we must acknowledge our inability to do so without God’s help.”

“Let God be true, and every man a liar.” This postscript may close with the impressive caution of a great critic and theologian of the last century, which, though it has special reference to the Apocalypse, is equally applicable to the whole prophetical portion of the New Testament. “If it be objected that the prophecies in the Apocalypse are not yet fulfilled, that they are therefore not fully understood, and that hence arises the difference of opinion in respect to their meaning, I answer, that if the prophecies are not yet fulfilled, it is wholly impossible that the Apocalypse should be a Divine work; since the author expressly declares (Chap. 1:1) that the things which it contains ‘must shortly come to pass.’ Consequently, either a great part of them, I will not say all, must have been fulfilled, or the author’s declaration, that they should shortly be completed, is not consistent with fact. It is true that to the Almighty a thousand years are but as one day and one day as a thousand years; but if we therefore explain the term ‘shortly,’ as denoting a period longer than that which has elapsed since the Apocalypse was written, we sacrifice the love of truth to the support of a preconceived opinion. For when the Deity condescends to communicate information to mankind, He will of Course use such language as is intelligible to mankind; and not name a period short which all men consider as long, or the communication will be totally useless. Besides, in reference to God’s eternity, not only seventeen hundred but seventeen thousand years are nothing. But the author of the Apocalypse himself has wholly precluded any such evasion, by explaining (Chap. 1:3) what he meant by the term ‘shortly,’ for he there says, ‘Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein; for the time is at hand.’ According, therefore, to the author’s own declaration, the Apocalypse contains prophecies with which the very persons to whom it was sent were immediately concerned. But if none of these prophecies were designed to be completed till long after their death, those persons were not immediately concerned with them, and the author would surely not have said that they were blessed in reading prophecies of which the time was at hand, if those prophecies were not to be fulfilled till after the lapse of many ages” (J. D. Michaelis, “Introduction to the New Testament,” vol. 4: pp. 503, 504).”

“for i those who are called according to his purpose.”

“] But God said to him, b ‘Fool! z This night c your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, d whose will they be?’ 21[✞] So is the one e who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

“k I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love l with which you have loved me may be in them, and m I in them.”

“✞] When Christ gwho is your 1 life happears, then you also will appear with him iin glory.”

“Indeed, truth itself may be defined as that which corresponds to reality as perceived by God.”

“There can be nothing in the heart that is not first in the mind.”

“The Christian life is nothing if not challenging. It is not the fun life, nor the easy life. It is life.”

“How then shall we worship? To honor God as God, we must worship Him as He, and He alone, decrees. No church dare replace the chancel with a stage. Stages are built for performance; chancels are constructed for worship. We must work, and work hard, to remove the shadows we have placed over the glory of God, that God’s people may be renewed by basking in His divine splendor and brilliant glory. Nothing else will do.”

“The death of Christ covers our sin, but the life of Christ provides the merit and the righteousness that we must have in order to enter into heaven. So, Jesus’s life is as important for us as His death. He lived to fulfill all of the law of God.”

“Shepherds were not even allowed to give testimony in court because they were considered utterly untrustworthy, the dregs of society. In other words, the shepherd was seen as just a bit above a slave. He was a lowly servant. That is why it was so significant that the first announcement of the birth of Jesus was given to shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem. Those shepherds had the lowest status in the culture of that time. Things were much the same in the time of the first family, and that is significant to what occurred in Genesis”

“But we cannot have purpose accidentally, and we cannot have intelligence unintelligently. Impersonality cannot produce personality because that would be unintentional intention, and we cannot have intention unintentionally. Just like the concept of self-creation, unintentional intentionality is an absurdity. If there is design in the universe, then this self-existent, eternal something that is responsible for generating the universe as we find it must be a self-existent, eternal, intelligent being, not merely a something. And if it is intelligent, then it must be personal. And if it is personal, we have now moved away from abstractions and have landed squarely on the pages of sacred Scripture.”