SCRIPTURE & TRADITION

'The history of the church is a history of debate in which the truths of the Bible have been been successively defined so as to exclude the opinions of those who have questioned, obscured or denied them.'

John Stott, But I Say To You...Christ the Controversialist, p.35.

ANGELS & PINHEADS

'I don't care how many angels can
dance on the head of a pin. It's
enough to know that for some people
they exist, and that they dance.'
Mary Oliver, from 'Angels' in Blue Horses, p.15. 

THE DANGER OF "AINT--IT-AWFUL" CONVERSATION

'All of us who are committed to saving things of value have been in what Wes Jackson calls "the ain't-it-awful conversation," in which we recite the current litany of outrages. We have been in that conversation, and, if we have brought to it a modicum of sanity, we have recognized sooner or later the need to get out of it. The logical end of the aint-it-awful conversation, as of the life devoted merely to opposition, is despair. People quit having any fun, they begin to talk about the "inevitability" of what they are against, and they give up. Mere opposition finally blinds us to the good of the things we are trying to save. And it divides us hopelessly from our opponents, who no doubt are caricaturing us while we are demonizing them. We lose, in short, the sense of shared humanity that would permit us to say even to our worst enemies, "We are working, after all, in your interest and your children's. Ours is a common effort, for the common good. Come and join us."' 

Wendell Berry, 'The Purpose of a Coherent Community' in The Way of Ignorance, p.74. 

BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION & CONTROVERSY

'As a general rule, the more complex and/or emotional the issue, the greater the tendency to select only part of the evidence, prematurely construct a grid, and so filter the rest of the evidence through the grid that is robbed of any substance. What is needed is even-handedness, along with a greater desire for fidelity than for originality in the interpretation of the Scriptures.' 

DA Carson in Mark Meynell, The New Testament and Slavery: Approaches & Implications, p.25. 

GRACE

'The anesthetic of grace is constantly needed in the healing process of sanctification along with the surgical ministry of the law. For this reason, many areas of the church which contain a great deal of legal thunder and lightning, exposing at least the surfaces of sin, are full of desperately anxious and bitterly contentious people.'

Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, p.113.

CONTROVERSY

'...we owe to people who differ from us to seek to understand their aims. What is it that they are looking for? What is it that makes them tick? What is it that they are recoiling against? What are the experiences, perhaps tragic experiences, that have steeled them into a particular stance? What are the things that they fear and the things that they yearn for? Is there not something that I fear for or yearn for in the same way? Is there not a possibility here to find a point of contact at the very start rather than to move on with an entirely defensive or hostile mood?'

Roger Nicole, 'Polemic Theology: How to Deal with Those Who Differ from Us'. Available at: http://www.founders.org/journal/fj33/article3.html

CONTROVERSY

'We have obligations to people who differ from us. This does not involve agreeing with them. We have an obligation to the truth, and that has priority over agreement with any particular person. If someone is not in the truth, we have no right to agree. We have no right even to minimize the importance of the difference. Consequently, we owe them neither consent nor indifference. But what we owe that person who differs from us, whoever that may be, is what we owe every human being--we owe them love. And we owe it to them to deal with them as we ourselves would like to be dealt with or treated. (Matthew 7:12)

How then do we desire to be treated? First, we want people to know what we are saying or meaning. If we are going to voice differences, therefore, we have an obligation to make a serious effort to understand the person with whom we differ. That person may have published books or articles. Then we should be acquainted with those writings. It is not appropriate for us to voice sharp differences if we have neglected to read what is available. The person with whom we differ should have evidence that we have read carefully what has been written and that we have attempted to understand its meaning. In the case of an oral exchange where we don't have any written words, we owe the person who differs from us the courtesy to listen carefully to what he or she says. Rather than preparing to pounce on that person the moment he or she stops talking, we should concentrate on apprehending precisely what his or her position is.'

Roger Nicole, 'Polemic Theology: How to Deal with Those Who Differ from Us'. Available at:  http://www.founders.org/journal/fj33/article3.html

 

THEOLOGY

'That age of the church which was most fertile in subtle questions was most barren in religion; for it makes people think religion to be only a matter of cleverness, in tying and untying of knots. The brains of men inclining that way are hotter usually than their hearts.'

Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed, p.28.

CONFESSING CHRIST

'If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the Devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.'

Martin Luther in Randy Newman, Questioning Evangelismn: Engaging People's Hearts the Way Jesus Did, p.154.

EVANGELICALS

'Why is it, I wonder, that in our circles whenever anybody gets an interesting idea, if produces a party that makes it a test of orthodoxy, leading to another party that opposes it, and then to battles between these two parties in the churches? Why can't those who think they have new insights quietly teach them to others while embracing them as brothers and sisters in Christ? If some "don't get it," why should that amount to heresy? Why not simply permit both views to be taught until the Spirit convinces God's people generally that one view is scriptural and the other is not?'

John Frame, The Doctrine of the Christian Life, p.296.

CONTROVERSY

'Every really great Christian utterance...is born in controversy. It is when men have felt compelled to take a stand against error that they have risen to the really great heights in the celebration of truth.'

J. Gresham Machen in John Piper, The Future of Justification, p.29.