Psalm 117:2
The truth of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD!
Psalm 119:151
All thy commandments are truth.
John 17:17
...thy word is truth."
John 18:38
Pilate asked "What is truth?"
A.W. Tozer Renewed Day by Day
Truth is not a thing for which we must search, but a Person to whom we must hearken.
Loving the truth means loving Him who is the Truth (John 14:6), and those for whom He died.
Psalm 25: 4-5 (ESV)
Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all the day long.
Psalm 60:4 (NKJV)
You have given a banner to those who fear You,
That it may be displayed because of the truth.
Psalm 91:4 (NKJV)
His truth shall be your shield.
Matthew 22:29
Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures..."
1 Corinthians 11:19 (KJV)
For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.
2 Corinthians 11:4 & 13a
If someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted...such men are false apostles...
2 Peter 2:1-3
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words.
Reading, hearing, taking to heart (Revelation 1:3) and keeping (living the truth in obedience - Revelation 22:7) the word of God is how we recognize the Spirit of truth (John 16:13) and the spirit of falsehood. (1 Corinthians 12:10, 1 John 4:1-6)
Luke 10:26 (Romans 4:3)
Jesus said, "What is written in the Scriptures? How do you understand them?"
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Faith on Trial
I will take my stand on what I can be certain of...(God's word).
Jan Hus in “Vyklad Viry” from Opera Omnia; in Thomas A. Fudge, Jan Hus: Religious Reform and Social Revolution in Bohemia
Therefore, faithful Christian, seek the truth, heart the truth, learn the truth, love the truth, speak the truth, live the truth, defend the truth to the death.
“The Legacy of Jan Hus”
https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/the-legacy-of-john-hus/
John Wycliffe, quoted by J.C. Ryle in “Light from Old Times”
https://www.monergism.com/john-wyclilf-j-c-ryle
The true Christian was intended by Christ to prove all things by the Word of God, all churches, all ministers, all teachings, all preaching, all doctrines, all sermons, all writings, all opinions, all practices. Prove all by the Word of God; measure all by the measure of the Bible; compare all with the standard of the Bible; weigh all in the balances of the Bible; test all in the crucible of the Bible. That which cannot abide the fire of the Bible, reject, refuse, repudiate, and cast away.
Edward Bickersteth, The Christian Student, Designed to Assist Christians in General in Acquiring Religious Knowledge, Chapter IX, “Practical Rules for Study”
https://books.google.com/books?id=2LFWAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA178
Let all your sentiments on religious subjects be wholly subject to the Bible, and taken not from a few partially extracted passages, but from an enlarged view of the whole, and a comparison of the different parts of truth one with another. No religious truth is essential, but what is plainly asserted, or may be easily deduced from the Holy Scriptures. All things, then, that human writers assert, must be proved by this test, and received and rejected as they are conformable or not to the only infallible standard.
J.I. Packer, in A Quest For Godliness, paraphrasing John Owen
If private revelation agree with Scriptures, they are needless; and if they disagree, they are false.
(My "private revelation, personal view, and hope" doesn't matter.)
Jan. 14, 2024, Pope Francis appeared on the Italian TV show "Che Tempo Che Fa." The interviewer asked Francis how he "imagined hell." According to a translation from the Catholic News Agency, Francis replied: "What I am going to say is not a dogma of faith but my own personal view: I like to think of hell as empty; I hope it is."
Catechism of the Catholic Church
The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire."
John Owen in Triumph Over Temptation: Pursuing a Life of Purity
Since the finishing of the canon of the Scripture, the church is not under that conduct as to stand in need of such new extraordinary revelations. It doth, indeed, live upon the internal gracious operations of the Spirit, enabling us to understand, believe, and obey the perfect, complete revelation of the will of God already made; but new revelations it hath neither need nor use of;—and to suppose them, or a necessity of them, not only overthrows the perfection of the Scripture, but also leaveth us uncertain whether we know all that is to be believed in order unto salvation, or our whole duty, or when we may do so; for it would be our duty to live all our days in expectation of new revelations, wherewith neither peace, assurance, nor consolation is consistent.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox "Settle The Question Right"
No question is ever settled, until it is settled right.
Dr. Charles F. Aked, 5th Ave. Baptist Church, New York
No question is settled until it is settled right...settled in the power, in the name, in the spirit of Jesus Christ, the son of God.
Pastor Alvin G. Hause, Bales Baptist Church, Kansas City, Missouri who faithfully served the Lord until taken home at 107.
No question is settled until it is settled right, and no question is settled right until it is settled by the word of God.
A SLIP (hold on to these truths to avoid A SLIP into doctrinal error)
A Authority of Scripture
S Sovereignty of God
L Lordship of Jesus Christ
I Inspiration of the Holy Spirit
P Priesthood of every believer
Horatius Bonar The Gospel of the Spirit’s Love
All wrong thoughts of God, whether of Father, Son, or Spirit, must cast a shadow over the soul that entertains them. In some cases the shadow may not be so deep and cold as in others; but never can it be a trifle. And it is this that furnishes the proper answer to the flippant question so often asked: Does it really matter what a man believes?
All defective views of God’s character tell upon the life of the soul and the peace of the conscience. We must think right thoughts of God if we would worship him as he desires to be worshipped, if we would live the life he wishes us to live, and enjoy the peace which he has provided for us.
John Calvin
(Resolve) in obscure matters not to speak or think, or even long to know, more than the Word of God has delivered (and to) direct our inquiries and meditations to those things which tend to edification, not to indulge our curiosity…
Explanation of the Moral Law (The Ten Commandments) sermon on Deuteronomy 5:20 “Thou shalt not bear false witness”, July 4, 1555
When I see truth oppressed, to the best of my ability, I must not tolerate it. Why? Because God calls me in his name to see to it that lies are suppressed. And above all, this applies with respect to the doctrine of salvation. Let us learn that when we live with men in such simplicity that people cannot reproach us for wanting to denigrate anyone, either by calumny, or lies, or slander, we ought also to maintain this same zeal with respect to God, that his truth abide in its fullness and that it may be maintained in order for his reign to be active in our midst.
William Gurnall The Christian in Complete Armour
Some things we trust God with, some things God trusts us with. The great thing which we put into God’s hand to be kept for us is our soul. That which God trusts us chiefly with is His truth.
Man naturally would be a god to himself, though for clambering so high he got his fall; and whatever doctrine nourisheth a good opinion of man in his own eye, this is acceptable to him.
If we will have truth for our guest, and be acquainted with the mind and will of God, we must prepare a holy heart for its lodging.
Richard Sibbes The Soul's Conflict With Itself
No man can know God, but by God; none can know the sun, but by its own light; none can know the truth of God, so as to build upon it, but by the truth itself and the Spirit revealing it by its own light to the soul.
Benjamin Francis Circular Letter of the Western Association (1778)
We earnestly beseech you carefully to guard against all pernicious errors in doctrine, experience and practice, and to bring all your religious sentiments, feelings, and actions to the unerring test of God's word, our only infallible rule in matters of religion. Buy the truth, cost what it will, and sell it not for all the world. (Proverbs 23:23)
John Flavel The Fountain of Life Opened
Would you like to test whether this or that doctrine is from the Spirit of Christ or not? Examine it by this rule: whatever doctrine you find to encourage and countenance sin, to exalt self, to be accommodating to the world's designs, and that bends to the humours and lusts of men, you may safely reject. Whatever doctrine makes those who profess it to be carnal, proud, and sensual, you may safely conclude never came from Jesus Christ. The doctrines of Christ lead to godliness; His truth sanctifies. Be sure, Christ never revealed anything that detracts from His glory, or obstructs the purpose of His own death.
Attributed to Martin Luther, but expressed by a fictional character named Fritz in a historical novel by Elizabeth Rundle Charles, Chronicles of the Schönberg-Cotta Family, 1864
If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point that the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages is where the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the (other) battlefields...is (but) flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.
John Robinson, pastor of the Pilgrims, in his farewell address upon their departure from Holland, 1620
https://pilgrimhall.org/pdf/John_Robinson_Farewell_Sermon.pdf
I exhort you to take heed what you receive as truth; examine and compare it and weigh it with other Scriptures of truth, before you do receive it.
J.C. Ryle (1816 - 1900)
It is not Atheism I fear so much in the present times as Pantheism. It is not the system which says nothing is true, so much as the system which says everything is true. It is the system which is so liberal, that it dares not say anything is false. It is the system which is so charitable, that it will allow everything to be true. It is the system which is so scrupulous about the feelings of others that we are never to say they are wrong...What is it but a bowing down before a great idol speciously called liberality? What is it all but a sacrificing of truth upon the altar of a caricature of charity? Beware of it if you believe the Bible.
Controversy in religion is a hateful thing. ... But there is one thing which is even worse than controversy, and that is false doctrine tolerated, allowed, and permitted without protest or molestation. It was controversy that won the battle of the Protestant Reformation.
There are times when controversy is not only a duty but a benefit...It is a plain Scriptural duty to "contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints" (Jude 3).
Old Paths
Try every new doctrine of these latter times by two simple questions. Ask first, "Where is the Lamb?". And ask secondly, "Where is the Holy Ghost?".
Alexander Carson The History of Providence as Manifested in Scripture
There is nothing that grieves the Christian more sensibly than the introduction and progress of error in religion. Against this he ought to contend earnestly at every risk. He ought not to be ashamed of any part of the divine testimony with the knowledge of which God has honoured him, nor to seek the praise of men by concealing or modifying God’s truth.
C.H. Spurgeon
It is, of course, the most easy to flesh and blood to deal in generalities, to denounce sectarianism, and claim to be of an ultra-catholic spirit; but though rough and rugged, it is required of the loyal servant of King Jesus to maintain all His crown rights and stand up for every word of His laws. Friends chide us and foes abhor us when we are very jealous for the Lord God of Israel, but what do these things matter if the Master approves?
The words of (Samuel) Rutherford, in his letter to William Fullerton, ring in our ears, “I earnestly entreat you to give your honour and authority to Christ, and for Christ; and be not dismayed for flesh and blood while you are for the Lord, and for His truth and cause. And howbeit we see truth put to the worse for the time, yet Christ will be a friend to truth, and will act for those who dare hazard all that they have for Him and for His glory. Sir, our fair day is coming, and the court will change, and wicked men will weep after noon, and sorer than the sons of God who weep in the morning. Let us believe and hope for God’s salvation.”
Human thought is not the arbiter of truth, but the infallible Word is the end of all strife. It is not ours to say what the truth must be, or what we think it should be, or what we would like it to be, but reverently to sit down with open ear and willing heart to receive what God has spoken.
Half of the heresy in the Church of God is not willful error, but error which springs of not knowing the Truth of God, not searching the Scriptures with a teachable heart, not submitting the mind to the light of the Holy Spirit!
“Forts Demolished and Prisoners Taken” on 2 Corinthians 10:5
http://www.spurgeongems.org/vols25-27/chs1473.pdf
No man was ever led to a saving faith by our meeting him half way and consenting to his unbelief! No real faith was ever worked in man by his own thoughts and imaginations—he must receive the Gospel as a Revelation from God, or he cannot receive it at all.
Morning Devotion November 19, Titus 3:9 "Avoid foolish questions"
Our days are few, and are far better spent in devoting ourselves to good works, than in disputing over matters which are, at best, of minor importance. Incessant discussion of subjects of no practical value, do a world of mischief. Our churches suffer much from petty wars over abstruse points and unimportant questions. After everything has been said that can be said—neither party is any the wiser! Therefore, the discussion no more promotes knowledge, than love! It is foolish to sow in so barren a field.
Questions upon … points wherein Scripture is silent; mysteries which belong to God alone; prophecies of doubtful interpretation; modes of observing mere human ceremonies—are all foolish! Wise men will avoid them!
Our business is neither to ask nor answer foolish questions—but to avoid them altogether! If we observe the apostle’s precept to be careful to devote ourselves to good works, we shall find ourselves far too much occupied with profitable business, to take much interest in unworthy, contentious, and needless strivings!
William Booth, English Methodist and Founder of the Salvation Army
The chief danger that confronts the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, heaven without hell.
A.B. Simpson
If today you are abandoning for some new truth the things that a year ago you counted most precious and believed to be divinely true, this should be sufficient evidence that a year from now you will probably abandon your present convictions for the next new light that comes to you. God wants to continually add to us, to develop us, to enlarge us, to teach us more and more but always building on what He has already taught us and what He has established in our lives. While we are to prove (test) all things (1 John 4:1), let us hold fast that which is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
James Denney, “Death of Christ”, on Galatians 1:6-8
https://www.ccel.org/ccel/denney/christ_death.iii.iii.html
If God has really done something in Christ on which the salvation of the world depends, and if He has made it known, then it is a Christian duty to be intolerant of everything which ignores, denies, or explains it away.
A.W. Pink “Experimental Salvation”
https://www.the-highway.com/articleJan09.html
Those who do “love the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:10) are they in whom a divine work of grace has been wrought. They have something more than a clear, intellectual understanding of the Scripture: it is the food of their souls, the joy of their hearts (Jeremiah 15:16). They love the truth, and because they do so, they hate error and shun it as deadly poison. They are jealous for the glory of the Author of the Word, and will not sit under a minister whose teaching dishonors Him; they will not listen to preaching which exalts man into the place of supremacy, so that he is the decider of his own destiny.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
We are living in an age when definitions are at a discount, an age which dislikes thought and hates theology and doctrine and dogma. It is an age which is characterized by a love of ease and compromise.
“Girded With Truth”
https://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/book-of-ephesians/girded-with-truth/
Truth Unchanged, Unchanging The first Jonathan Blanchard Lectures delivered at Wheaton College, August, 1947
https://archive.org/details/truthunchangedun0000dmar/page/n5/mode/2up
To have fellowship with men who deny the truth is to deny the truth by implying that the truth does not matter.
"Knowledge - False and True"
https://gracebiblebattleground.org/articles/knowledge-false-and-true/
“Cults”, A sermon on Ephesians 6:10-13 (The sermon series was delivered between 1954 and 1963)
https://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/book-of-ephesians/cults/
Never was such stability more necessary than today with all the cults and false teachings, the things that look so good on the surface! The only way to know them and to be able to detect their errors is that we know our own biblical position and are ‘rooted and grounded’ in it, and established in the faith.
A.W. Tozer
By silence a man will reveal his beliefs as surely as by argument.
We must obey the truth as we see it (in God's word), (then) trust God with the consequences.
Man - The Dwelling Place of God
I would rather know the truth than be happy in ignorance. If I cannot have both truth and happiness, give me truth. We'll have a long time to be happy in heaven.
The Warfare of the Spirit
While all truth is to be at all times held inviolate, not every truth is to be at all times emphasized equally with every other.
The Root of The Righteous
The whole Bible and all the great saints of the past join to tell us the same thing. "Take nothing for granted," they say to us. "Go back to the grass roots. Open your hearts and search the Scriptures. Bear your cross, follow your Lord and pay no heed to the passing religious vogue."
"The masses are always wrong. In every generation the number of the righteous is small. Be sure you are among them."
Matthew 7:13 - 14
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
The Next Chapter After the Last
No man has any moral right to propound any teaching about which there is not full agreement among Bible Christians until he has made himself familiar with church history and with the development of Christian doctrine through the centuries. The historic approach is best. After we have discovered what holy men believed, what great reformers and saints taught, what the purest souls and mightiest workers held to be important for holy living and dying—then we are in a fair position to appraise our own teaching.
To wink at iniquity for the sake of peace is not a proof of superior spirituality; it is rather a sign of a reprehensible timidity which dare not oppose sin for fear of the consequences. For it will cost us heavily to stand for the right when the wrong is in the majority, which is 100 percent of the time.
That Incredible Christian
Truth in the Scriptures is more than a fact. A theological fact may be held in the mind for a lifetime without its having any positive effect upon the moral character; but truth is creative, saving, transforming, and it always changes the one who receives it into a humbler and holier man. At what point, then, does a theological fact become for the one who holds it a life-giving truth? At the point where obedience begins.
So skilled is error at imitating truth that the two are constantly being mistaken for each other. It takes a sharp eye these days to know which brother is Cain and which Abel. We must never take for granted anything that touches our soul's welfare. The human intellect is fallen and can no more find its way through the broad expanse of truth, half-truth and downright error than a ship can find its way over the ocean alone. God has given us the Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds. He is eyes and understanding to us. We dare not try to get on without Him.
In our eagerness to make converts I am afraid we have lately been guilty of using the technique of modern salesmanship, which is of course to present only the desirable qualities in a product and ignore the rest. If they will but accept Christ He will give them peace of mind, solve their problems, prosper their business, protect their families and keep them happy all day long. They believe us and come, and the first cold wind sends them shivering to some counselor to find out what has gone wrong; and that is the last we hear of many of them. The teachings of Christ reveal Him to be a realist in the finest meaning of that word. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find anything overoptimistic. He told His hearers the whole truth and let them make up their minds.
The Set of the Sail "Truth is a Great Treasure"
The true follower of Christ will not ask, "If I embrace this truth, what will it cost me?" Rather he will say, "This is truth. God help me to walk in it, let come what may!"
We are accountable not only for the light we have but also for the light we might have if we were willing to obey it. Obedience is the big problem: and unwillingness to obey is the cause of continued darkness.
Faith keeps its heart open to whatever is of God, and rejects everything that is not of God, however wonderful it seems to be. Try the spirits is a command of the Holy Spirit to the Church. We may sin as certainly by approving the spurious as by rejecting the genuine. And the current habit of refusing to take sides is not the way to avoid the question. To appraise things with a heart of love and then to act on the results is an obligation resting upon every Christian in the world. And the more as we see the day approaching. (2 Timothy 3:1-8)
The price of following a false guide on the desert may be death. The price of heeding wrong advice in business may be bankruptcy. The price of trusting to a quack doctor may be permanent loss of health. The price of putting confidence in a pseudo-prophet may be moral and spiritual tragedy. Let us take heed that no man deceive us.
The Knowledge of the Holy
I think it might be demonstrated that almost every heresy that has afflicted the church through the years has arisen from believing about God things that are not true, or from over emphasizing certain true things so as to obscure other things equally true. To magnify any attribute to the exclusion of another is to head straight for one of the dismal swamps of theology; and yet we are all constantly tempted to do just that.
For instance, the Bible teaches that God is love; some have interpreted this in such a way as virtually to deny that He is just, which the Bible also teaches. Others press the biblical doctrine of God's goodness so far that it is made to contradict His holiness. Or they make His compassion cancel out His truth.
The Divine Conquest "The Illumination of the Spirit"
Truth consists not in correct doctrine, but in correct doctrine plus the inward enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.
(Many who would be Christian) do not believe the Bible, but wants to believe something, and not feeling up to the task of examining the truth by the light of Scripture, they compromise by believing anything.
We Travel An Appointed Way
The man whom Christ illuminates with His message has eyes, and that resolves the old difficulty of blindness; but he must use his new eyes in a blind world, and that creates another problem. The world in its blindness resents his claim to sight and will go to any lengths to discredit the claim. The truth of Christ brings assurance and so removes the former problem of fear and uncertainty, but that assurance will be interpreted as bigotry by the fear-ridden multitudes. And sooner or later this misunderstanding will get the man of God into trouble.
Renewed Day by Day
Jesus said, “I am the Truth,” and followed Truth straight to the Cross. The Truth seeker must follow Him there and that is the reason few men seek the Truth!
J.I. Packer, “The Puritan View of Preaching the Gospel,” in Puritan Papers, Vol 1.
https://www.monergism.com/puritan-view-preaching-gospel
If we do not preach about sin and God’s judgment on it, we cannot present Christ as Saviour from sin and the wrath of God. And if we are silent about these things, and preach a Christ who saves only from self and the sorrows of this world, we are not preaching the Christ of the Bible.
We are, in effect bearing false witness and preaching a false Christ. Our message is ‘another gospel, which is not another.’ Such preaching may soothe some, but it will help nobody; for a Christ who is not seen and sought as a Saviour from sin will not be found to save from self or from anything else.
An imaginary Christ will not bring a real salvation; and a half-truth presented as the whole truth is a complete untruth.
Adrian Rogers
It is better to be divided by Truth, than to be united in error. It is better to speak the Truth that hurts and then heals, than to speak a lie that will comfort and then kill. It is better to be hated for telling the Truth, than to be loved for telling a lie. It is better to stand alone with the Truth, than to be wrong with a multitude. Better to ultimately die with the Truth, than to live with a lie.
Randy Alcorn Seeing the Unseen: A Daily Dose of Eternal Perspective
Truth hates sin. Grace loves sinners. Those full of grace and truth-those full of Jesus-do both. Attempts to “soften” the gospel by minimizing truth keep people from Jesus. Attempts to “toughen” the gospel by minimizing grace keep people from Jesus. When we offend everybody, we’ve declared truth without grace. When we offend nobody, we’ve watered down truth in the name of grace.
John 1:14 tells us Jesus came full of grace AND truth. Let’s not choose between them, but be characterized by both.
Jeremy Walker, “Listening To The Gaps”, The Banner of Truth, March 2017
Some truths are more central than others, some more critical, some more applicable and necessary in our age, but let us never imagine that there is some truth which God has been pleased to reveal which we can then dismiss as unimportant or avoidable.
(We dare not) be silent where God speaks, to be less precise and less careful, less full and less clear, when God—for the glory of his name and the good of men’s souls—has seen fit, in his infinite wisdom, to make known the truth as it is in Jesus. We cannot be ashamed to say all that God says, in its proper place and proportion. We cannot fail to commend and defend the truth, nor to expose and identify the error.
Compelling Truth website
https://www.compellingtruth.org/truth_False.html
G. Campbell Morgan
To the man who has given up the New Testament as final, authoritative, and infallible, I have no appeal. We have no common ground. If you are attempting to erect a Christian structure upon your philosophizing I have no time to argue with you. I respect your conviction, I believe in your honesty, but I part company with you. To me the New Testament is the living, final, absolutely infallible Word of God.
CAUTION I
1 Corinthians 15:2-8
Some truths are "of first importance"; some are not. "Earnestly contend" for the former (Jude 3).
Richard Baxter
Practical Works, "Directions For Getting And Keeping Spiritual Peace And Comfort"
It is the devil’s common successful trade; ‘When you have no other way of undoing, let it be by overdoing.’
1 Corinthians 4:6 "Do not go beyond what is written."
"The True and Only Way of Concord of All the Christian Churches", London, 1680. (Quoting Lutheran theologian Rupertus Meldenius) http://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/augustine/quote.html
In essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty; in all things charity.
(Quoted by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in Knowing The Times)
It is right and good that brethren should discuss together matters which are not essential to salvation, and about which there is, and has always been, and always will be, legitimate differences of opinion. We can do no better at that point to quote the old adage, "In essentials unity; in things indifferent, liberty; in all things charity."
Edward Bickersteth (1786–1850), The Christian Student, Chapter 9, “Practical Rules for Study”
https://books.google.com/books?id=XK5WAAAAcAAJ
(Only that) religious truth is essential (which) is plainly asserted, or may be easily deduced from the Holy Scriptures.
CAUTION II
1 Peter 4:17, 1 Corinthians 5:12
It is time for judgment to begin with the family of God...
(And starts with the shepherds - Ezekiel 33:6 & 34, Acts 20:26-28, James 3:1)
Every disciple of Jesus Christ will give an account of the words we speak (Matthew 12:36) and God takes very seriously the sin of presuming to speak for Him, and doing so falsely - Deuteronomy 18:20, Jeremiah 23:14, Ezekiel 22:38, Galatians 1:8
CAUTION III
John Newton
"On Controversy" (Linked below and highly recommended)
What will it profit a man if he gains his cause, and silences his adversary, if at the same time he loses that humble, tender frame of spirit in which the Lord delights, and to which the promise of his presence is made?
You have need to watch and pray, for you will find Satan at your right hand to resist you: he will try to debase your views; and though you set out in defense of the cause of God, if you are not continually looking to the Lord to keep you, it may become your own cause, and awaken in you those tempers which are inconsistent with true peace of mind, and will surely obstruct communion with God.
Be upon your guard against admitting any thing personal into the debate.
Of all people who engage in controversy, we, who are called Calvinists, are most expressly bound by our own principles to the exercise of gentleness and moderation.
If, indeed, they who differ from us have a power of changing themselves, if they can open their own eyes, and soften their own hearts, then we might with less inconsistency be offended at their obstinacy: but if we believe the very contrary to this, our part is, not to strive, but in meekness to instruct those who oppose.
“If peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth.” (2 Timothy 2:25)
If you write with a desire of being an instrument of correcting mistakes, you will of course be cautious of laying stumbling blocks in the way of the blind or of using any expressions that may exasperate their passions, confirm them in their principles, and thereby make their conviction, humanly speaking, more impracticable.
I am afraid there are Calvinists, who, while they account it a proof of their humility that they are willing in words to debase the creature, and to give all the glory of salvation to the Lord, yet know not what manner of spirit they are of. Whatever it be that makes us trust in ourselves that we are comparatively wise or good, so as to treat those with contempt who do not subscribe to our doctrines, or follow our party, is a proof and fruit of a self-righteous spirit. Self-righteousness can feed upon doctrines, as well as upon good works; and a man may have the heart of a Pharisee, while his head is stored with orthodox notions of the unworthiness of the creature and the riches of free grace.
Memoirs of the Life of the Late Rev. William Grimshaw, 1799
They who avow the doctrines distinguished by the name of Calvinistic, ought, if consistent with their own principles, to be most gentle and forbearing of all men, in meekness instructing them that oppose. With us, it is a fundamental maxim, that a man can receive nothing but what is given him from heaven (John 3:27). If, therefore, it has pleased God to give us the knowledge of some truths, which are hidden from others, who have the same outward means of information; it is a just reason for thankfulness to Him, but will not justify our being angry with them; for we are no better or wiser than they in ourselves, and might have opposed the truths which we now prize, with the same eagerness and obstinacy, if His grace had not made us to differ. If the man, mentioned in John 9, who was born blind, on whom our Lord graciously bestowed the blessing of sight, had taken a cudgel and beat all the blind men he met, because they would not see, his conduct would have greatly resembled that of an angry Calvinist.
Thomas Manton Exposition of Jude
https://books.google.com/books?id=i5s_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA260&lpg
There is not a more likely way to undermine the truth than by an unseemly defense of it.
William Bright Ancient Collects and Other Prayers, 1864
Lord, grant all Who contend for the faith, never to injure it by clamor and impatience; but, speaking Thy precious truth in love, so to present it that it may be loved, and that men may see in it Thy goodness and beauty.
C.H. Spurgeon
“A Defense of Calvinism”
https://www.spurgeongems.org/sermon/chs002.pdf
But far be it from me even to imagine that Zion contains none but Calvinistic Christians within her walls, or that there are none saved who do not hold our views. Most atrocious things have been spoken about the character and spiritual condition of John Wesley, the modern prince of Arminians. I can only say concerning him that, while I detest many of the doctrines which he preached, yet for the man himself I have a reverence second to no Wesleyan; and if there were wanted two apostles to be added to the number of the twelve, I do not believe that there could be found two men more fit to be so added than George Whitefield and John Wesley. The character of John Wesley stands beyond all imputation for self-sacrifice, zeal, holiness, and communion with God; he lived far above the ordinary level of common Christians, and was one "of whom the world was not worthy." I believe there are multitudes of men who cannot see these truths, or, at least, cannot see them in the way in which we put them, who nevertheless have received Christ as their Saviour, and are as dear to the heart of the God of grace as the soundest Calvinist in or out of Heaven.
“Exposition of the Doctrine of Grace”
https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/exposition-of-the-doctrines-of-grace/#flipbook/
Since the fall, no powers of mortals are free from imperfection. Our judgment is not necessarily a fully enlightened one, and we ourselves therefore let another man's judgment also be his guide unto God; but we must not forget that every man is responsible to the Most High for the use of that judgment, for the use of that mental power which God has given him, by which he is to weigh and balance the arguments of either side.
Lectures To My Students, “The Necessity of Ministerial Progress”
We are not to go about the world searching out heresies, like terrier dogs sniffing for rats; nor are we to be so confident of our own infallibility as to erect ecclesiastical stakes at which to roast all who differ from us.
“Behold, He Prayeth”
https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/behold-he-prayeth/#flipbook/
For us to hate those who are in error; Talk of them with contempt; Wish them ill or do them wrong: Is not according to the Spirit of Christ.
You cannot cast out Satan by Satan, nor correct error by violence, not overcome hate with hate. The conquering weapon of the Christian is love.
If I go through the world hating my fellow-men because they differ from me, and determining to force my own doctrines upon others with an iron hand, I cannot lift that hand in prayer.
The "Downgrade Controversy"
The Sword and the Trowel September, 1887
We cannot hold the inspiration of the Word, and yet reject it; we cannot believe in the atonement and deny it;… we cannot recognize the punishment of the impenitent and yet indulge the ‘larger hope.’
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Exposition of Romans 12, “Christian Conduct”
The way in which we assert and declare the truth is all-important. ‘Speaking the truth in love’ (Ephesians 4:15) that is the teaching, and you must not leave out any one part of that statement. We cannot help it if the truth offends people, but we must always make sure that it is the truth that is offending them and not us. As a preacher, I must be careful that if there is offence, people are offended not by me, not by my person, not by my behaviour, not even by the way in which I speak and preach, but only by the truth itself. If it is the truth that is offending them, I am innocent, I cannot help it. I am anxious to be at peace. I have done my best to be persuasive, to present the truth in as attractive a manner as I can. So if they still resent it and reject it and react quite violently because of it, it is not my responsibility. I must declare the truth always, but I must always declare the truth in love.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
While we believe that theology is vital and essential, we must remember that the devil may so press us that our interest in it becomes inordinate and unbalanced, with the result that we are ‘puffed up’ rather than ‘edified’. I have watched such people, and have seen a kind of intellectual pride, a pride of knowledge coming in.
Though the original interest was right and good, gradually Intellectual Pride in Right Doctrine Mastered them. They lost their balance and became Intellectualists who were No longer concerned about the idea of Holiness and the pursuit of a True and Living Knowledge of God.
A.W. Tozer The Warfare of the Spirit
Christ said "I am the Truth." He gathers up in Himself all truth and truths. To know Him is to know the Truth in living experience, but it is not to know all truths in intellectual apprehension.
As long as we know that our view of truth is partial we can preserve that humbleness of mind appropriate to the circumstances; but let us once get the notion that our view is total and we become intellectually intolerant. Let us become convinced that ours is the only sensible view and our ability to learn dies instantly. 1 Corinthians 13:9-12 (NLT) "All that I know now is partial and incomplete..."
John Calvin’s Sermons on II Timothy
When God teaches us with his own lips, we must not venture to move too far ahead, as do those who walk in disobedience. It is presumptuous of us to try to discover more than God allows, but when we act soberly and reverently in obedience to our God, hearing and accepting what he says in holy Scripture, the way lies open before us.
Randy Alcorn Seeing the Unseen: A Daily Dose of Eternal Perspective
Truth hates sin. Grace loves sinners. Those full of grace and truth-those full of Jesus-do both. Attempts to “soften” the gospel by minimizing truth keep people from Jesus. Attempts to “toughen” the gospel by minimizing grace keep people from Jesus. When we offend everybody, we’ve declared truth without grace. When we offend nobody, we’ve watered down truth in the name of grace. John 1:14 tells us Jesus came full of grace AND truth. Let’s not choose between them, but be characterized by both.
Daniel Wallace, Senior Research Professor of NT Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary
It would be better for us to have some doubts in an honest pursuit of truth, than it would be for us to be certain about something that was not true.