For fellow participants, what I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to see is for people to share quotes from what they're reading. I'd love for you to share quotes occasionally with your readers and let me know about it. If you don't have a blog, you could always leave quotes in the comments here.
You shouldn’t dare to reinterpret the Word of God your own way. It’s better to think, “I don’t understand these words. But before I change them, take something away from them, or add to them, I would rather leave them alone. I’ll give them to God.”The Scriptures should always be handled with reverence and respect. ~ Martin Luther, Faith Alone, May 22
So this is the way our God works: He leads his faithful people to hell before he brings them back. After terrifying them with threats, he comforts them with his promises. ~ Martin Luther, Faith Alone, May 25
Salvation can be obtained only by a faith that clings to Christ. No work of ours—or of any other person or saint—can have this same honor. On the other hand, we shouldn’t think that we don’t have to do good works. Rather, we must first come to Christ in order to receive God’s mercy and eternal life. After that, we should do good works and show love. We should make this distinction clear. We should never consider the way we live or the works we do as powerful enough to take us up to the Father. Though everyone else may abandon me and leave me lying in ruins, I will still have an eternal treasure that can never fail me. This treasure isn’t the result of my own works or efforts. The treasure is Christ—the way, the truth, and the life. Only through Christ do I come to the Father. I will hold to this, live by this, and die by this. ~ Martin Luther, May 26
People will never set their faces decidedly towards heaven, and live like pilgrims, until they really feel that they are in danger of hell. ~ J.C. Ryle, Holiness
If you would ever be a healthy Scriptural Christian, I entreat you to give hell a place in your theology. Establish it in your mind as a fixed principle, that God is a God of judgment, as well as of mercy; and that the same everlasting counsels which laid the foundation of the bliss of heaven, have also laid the foundation of the misery of hell. Keep in full view of your mind that all who die unpardoned and unrenewed, are utterly unfit for the presence of God and must be lost for ever. They are not capable of enjoying heaven: they could not be happy there. They must go to their own place: and that place is hell.--Oh, it is a great thing in these days of unbelief to believe the whole Bible! If you would ever be a healthy and Scriptural Christian, I entreat you to beware of any ministry which does not plainly teach the reality and eternity of hell. Such a ministry may be soothing and pleasant, but it is far more likely to lull you to sleep than to lead you to Christ, or build you up in the faith. It is impossible to leave out any portion of God's truth without spoiling the whole. That preaching is sadly defective which dwells exclusively on the mercies of God and the joys of heaven, and never sets forth the terrors of the Lord and the miseries of hell. It may be popular, but it is not Scriptural: it may amuse and gratify, but it will not save. Give me the preaching which keeps back nothing that God has revealed. ~ J.C. Ryle, Holiness
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible
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