All of us would be wiser if we would resolve never to put people down, except on our prayer lists. D. A. Carson More Quotes by D. A. Carson More Quotes From D. A. Carson It's not a matter of us standing outside it and ticking off the boxes: yes, the Bible is faithful here; yes, it's telling the truth there, and so on, but rather granted that it's God-given. It's the frame of reference that shows us how to live in, tells us how to think about everything. D. A. Carson faithful matter thinking The truth of the matter is that inerrancy is simply a way of saying that there are no errors that call into question the truthfulness of Scripture wherever Scripture is making truth claims. D. A. Carson errors matter way Authority can mean different things to different people. For example, some document or other may be authoritative for particular group even though it's not reliable. It's just that the group has accepted that document as authoritative for their group. And some documents are truthful and reliable but they are ignored, so they have no authority for that particular group. D. A. Carson groups mean people God is absolutely sovereign, but his sovereignty never mitigates human responsibility. D. A. Carson sovereignty sovereign responsibility The way you lose the gospel is not by denying it, but by assuming it. D. A. Carson loses assuming way In every generation there are voices that question the authority of Scripture. So in one sense this is merely part of the continuing stream. But there's a sense in which the questions that are raised against Scripture vary a wee bit from generation to generation. D. A. Carson scripture generations voice It is a cheap zeal that reserves its passions to combat only the sins and temptations of others. D. A. Carson passion sin temptation The New Testament writers I think conceive of their inspired Scripture writings as flushing out, bringing to articulation, expounding and so on the climactic revelation in the son, but this in self-conscious fulfillment of the promises and covenants that were already made to God's chosen people in Old Testament times. D. A. Carson writing son thinking The Bible is not interested in precisionism unless the context indicates that precision is particularly important. D. A. Carson precision not-interested important You get into theological education and you're busy marking papers and getting into administration in raising funds and doing all the things that are part of life, but here we were talking about important theological, historical, gospel related, biblically centered things hour after hour after hour. D. A. Carson after-hours historical talking When we suffer, there will sometimes be mystery. Will there also be faith? Yes, if our attention is focused more on the cross, and on the God of the cross, than on the suffering itself. D. A. Carson mystery suffering attention Good praying is more easily caught than taught. D. A. Carson caught taught praying The heart of all idolatry in the Bible is the de-godding of God. D. A. Carson idolatry heart Others have questions about how it is that God and human beings can both be speaking through the one document such that you can see and read the personalities of the human authors with their individual vocabularies and literary genres, and yet this is nevertheless the word of God. How can that be? This is quite a contrast with Islam, for example, which holds that the Koran has been dictated in Arabic by God and as a result Mohammed is nothing more than the one who memorizes the word so as to pass it on. There is nothing of human contribution. D. A. Carson literary-genre vocabulary personality Our prayers may be an index of how small and self-centered our world is. D. A. Carson our-world self prayer What the Bible says is what God has disclosed and we want to approach this sacred text with cognitive reverence. D. A. Carson reverence sacred want To God on whom we rely knows what suffering is all about- not merely in the way that God knows everything, but by experience. D. A. Carson god-knows suffering way Christianity does not claim to convey merely religious truth, but truth about all reality. This vision of reality is radically different from a secularist vision that wants Christianity to scuttle into the corner of the hearth by the coal shovel, conveniently out of the way of anything but private religious concerns D. A. Carson religious heart reality For the far higher task of teaching fortitude and patience I was never fool enough to suppose myself qualified, nor have I anything to offer my readers except my conviction that when pain is to be borne, a little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all. D. A. Carson pain teaching love The important thing, Jesus is saying (in Matthew 5:33-37), is to tell the truth and keep one's pledges without insisting that a certain form of words must be used if it is to be binding. No oath is necessary for the truthful person... Their word is so reliable that nothing more than a statement is needed from them. D. A. Carson truthful important jesus
