“The mark of a cult, in the minds of the West in the twenty-first century, isn’t the assertion of gross error, but the gross error of assertion.” – R. C. Sproul, Jr

In the last 1,000 years, what came to be known as “The Tower Experience” of Martin Luther might well be the most significant historical event in the Western world for all the ramifications which ensued. Here are Luther’s own words as he describes what happened as he was studying Romans 1:17 (and reading the insights of Augustine on this verse from a fairly obscure article he had written centuries before):

“For in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” – Rom 1:17

“I greatly longed to understand Paul’s epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but that one expression “the righteousness of God,” because I took it to mean that righteousness whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust.

My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage Him. Therefore I did not love a just angry God, but rather hated and murmured against Him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant.

Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the righteousness of God and the statement that “the just shall live by faith.” Then I grasped that the righteousness of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before “the righteousness of God” had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven…”

“The rejection of the gospel is as clear proof of moral depravity as inability to see the sun at noon is proof of blindness.” – Charles Hodge

“I Preach’d, as never sure to Preach again, and as a dying man to dying Men!” – Richard Baxter

“What is doctrine after all but the throne whereon Christ sitteth, and when the throne is vacant what is the throne to us? Doctrines are the shovel and tongs of the altar, while Christ is the sacrifice smoking thereon. Doctrines are Christ’s garments; verily they smell of myrrh, and cassia, and aloes out of the ivory palaces, whereby they make us glad, but it is not the garments we care for as much as the person.” C. H. Spurgeon, quoted in Iain Murray, Spurgeon vs. Hyper-Calvinism (Banner of Truth, 1995), 122

“Let us dismiss from our minds forever the common idea that natural theology, moral persuasion, logical arguments, or even an exhibition of Gospel truth, are sufficient of themselves to turn a sinner from his sins, if once brought to bear upon him. It is a strong delusion. They will not do so. The heart of man is far harder than we fancy—the ‘old Adam’ is much more strong than we suppose. The heart of man will never look to Christ, repent, and believe, until the Holy Spirit comes down upon it. Until that takes place, our inner nature is like the earth before the present order of creation began, “without form and void, and darkness covering the face of the deep.” (Gen. 1:2.) The same power which said at the beginning, “Let there be light—and there was light,” must work a creating work in us, or we shall never rise to newness of life.” – J.C. Ryle

“There is a God. You’re not Him. You will face Him soon. A fair meeting may be had if you will now flee by faith to Christ Jesus, the Lord.” – unknown

“Anxiety is not only a pain which we must ask God to assuage but also a weakness we must ask him to pardon—for he’s told us to take no care for the morrow.” – C. S. Lewis

?”God knows how to serve his own ends by the very sins of men, and yet have no communion at all in the sin he so overrules.” – John Flavel

“The reading of the Scriptures must never be perfunctory or merely formal. It should not be a mere authoritative presentation of facts or proclamation of words… The reader must live his ideas at the time of utterance… He can manifest to others the impressions made on his own being… [For] when one soul is made to feel that another soul is hearing a message from the King of kings, he too bows his head and hears the voice of the infinite speaking in his own breast.” – S. S. Curry, Vocal and Literary interpretation of the Bible (New York: Macmillan, 1903), 132.

“The way we pray tells us what we genuinely believe. Our prayer life is a more accurate picture of what we genuinely believe about God than our doctrinal statement.” – Jim Johnston

“Poverty of spirit is a fruit that grows on no merely natural tree. It is a spiritual grace wrought by the Holy Spirit in those whom He renews. By nature we are well pleased with ourselves, and mad enough to think that we deserve something good at the hands of God.” – A. W. Pink, Practical Christianity

“To preach salvation by good works is to flatter people and so avoid opposition. This may seem to some to pose the alternative too starkly. But I do not think so. All Christian preachers have to face this issue. Either we preach that human beings are rebels against God, under his just judgment and (if left to themselves) lost, and that Christ crucified who bore their sin and curse is the only available Saviour. Or we emphasize human potential and human ability, with Christ brought in only to boost them, and with no necessity for the cross except to exhibit God’s love and so inspire us to greater endeavour. The former is the way to be faithful, the latter the way to be popular.It is not possible to be faithful and popular simultaneously. We need to hear again the warning of Jesus: ‘Woe to you when all men speak well of you’ (Lk. 6:26). By contrast, if we preach the cross, we may find that we are ourselves hounded to the cross.” – John Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, IL, IVP, 1986), pp. 347-348

“There is no place for arrogance or one-upmanship in the Christian life and especially in the Calvinist life. Of all people, Calvinists should know that whatever understanding we have obtained into the mystery of divine grace, we have received it the same way we have received salvation itself–as a sheer gift (1 Cor 4:7). This means that we should be patient and gentle with our brothers and sisters in Christ who are where we once were in our journey toward a fuller understanding.

I once participated in a theological seminar at Cambridge University. One of the speakers had given a paper that was simply terrible, and there had been several brutal exchanges in the discussion that followed. When we retired for tea, several of us were quite upset by what we had heard from this speaker and his unyieldedness in defending what seemed to us a very misguided point of view. One of us turned to Dr. Ronald Wallace, a great Scottish theologian, and asked with some exasperation, ‘What shall we say now? What are we going to do?’ With great wisdom, Professor Wallace replied, ‘Young men, you must pray, “O Lord, open his eyes, that he may see.”‘ At the end of the day, it is not our brilliant arguments, nor our great learnings or quick wit that can bring anyone to believe in the doctrines of grace. It is the Lord who must open all of our eyes.” – Timothy George, Amazing Grace: God’s Pursuit, Our Response (Crossway, 2011; 2d ed.), 13-14

“Cast the burden of the present, along with the sin of the past and the fear of the future, upon the Lord, who forsaketh not his saints. Live by the day–aye, by the hour. Put no trust in frames and feelings. Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of excitement. Trust in God alone, and lean not on the needs of human help. Be not surprised when friends fail you: it is a failing world. Never count upon immutability in man: inconstancy you may reckon upon without fear of disappointment.” C. H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, 164

“No sooner do we believe that God loves us than there is an impulse to believe that He does so, not because He is Love, but because we are intrinsically loveable. The Pagans obeyed this impulse unabashed; a good man was ‘dear to the gods’ because he was good.

We, being better taught, resort to subterfuge. Far be it from us to think we have virtues for which God could love us. But then, how magnificently we have repented! . . . We next offer our own humility to God’s admiration. Surely He’ll like that! Or if not that, our clear-sighted and humble recognition that we still lack humility.

Thus, depth beneath depth and subtlety within subtlety, there remains some lingering idea of our own, our very own, attractiveness. It is easy to acknowledge, but almost impossible to realise for long, that we are mirrors whose brightness, if we are bright, is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us. Surely we must have a little–however little–native luminosity?” – C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves, 180

On August 23, 1683–the day before he died–John Owen dictated a final letter to his friend Charles Fleetwood. Part of it reads:

I am going to Him whom my soul hath loved, or rather who hath loved me with an everlasting love; which is the whole ground of all my consolation. The passage is very irksome and wearysome through strong pains of various sorts which are all issued in an intermitting fever… I am leaving the ship of the church in a storm, but whilst the great Pilot is in it the loss of a poor under-rower will be inconsiderable. – quoted in Sinclair Ferguson, John Owen on the Christian Life (Banner of Truth, 1987), 18

“An arrogant Calvinist should repent. There is nothing more humbling than Reformed theology rightly understood.” – R. C. Sproul

Cicero, Roman statesman (106-43 B.C.): How grievous a thing it is to be disgraced by a public court; how grievous to suffer a fine, how grievous to suffer banishment; and yet in the midst of any such disaster some trace of our liberty is left to us. Even if we are threatened with death, we may die free men.

But the executioner, the veiling of the head, and the very word ‘cross’ should be far removed not only from the person of a Roman citizen but from his thoughts, his eyes, and his ears. For it is not only the actual occurrence of these things or the endurance of them, but the liability to them, the expectation, nay the mere mention of them, that is unworthy of a Roman citizen and a free man. (For Rabirio 5.16, trans. Hodge 1927)

‘. . . despising the shame . . .’ (Hebrews 12:2)

“Synergists teach ‘… and as many as believed were ordained to eternal life.’ but the Bible teaches ‘And as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed.’ (Acts 13:48)

Synergists teach ‘…no one knows the Father except those who choose the Son.’ But the Bible teaches that ‘no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.’ (Matt 11:27) They are the ones who ‘choose’ the Son.

Synergists teach that ‘All can come to Christ of their own free will’, but Jesus teaches that ‘no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.’ (John 6:65) and all whom He grants will come (John 6:37)

Synergists teach that ‘you are not Christ’s sheep because you do not believe’, but Jesus teaches that ‘you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.’ (John 10:26)

Synergists teach that ‘the reason you are not of God is because you are unwilling to hear and believe God’s words.’ Jesus, on the other hand, taught, ‘The reason why you do not hear [God’s words] is that you are not of God.” (John 8:47)

Synergists teach that ‘salvation is so easy a cave man can do it” but the Bible teaches that “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” (Luke 18:27)

Synergists teach that ‘salvation depends on human will’, but the Bible teaches that ‘it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” (Rom 9:16)” – John Hendryx