Keith A. Mathison > Quotes

“The kingdom is often limited to the hearts of the regenerate, heaven, or the eternal state. This virtually denies that the messianic kingdom has anything to do with this present earth. In contrast to this tendency, Scripture makes it abundantly clear that this earth, although not the source of the kingdom, is a part of the kingdom. Christ's messianic authority and reign extend over all of heaven and earth (Matt. 28:18), and He is in the process of subduing all of His enemies, whether in heaven or on earth (1 Cor. 15:25).”
― Keith A. Mathison, Postmillennialism: An Eschatology of Hope

“believe firmly that all truth is God’s truth, and I believe that God has not given revelation only in sacred Scripture. Scripture itself tells us that God reveals Himself in nature, which we call natural revelation. I once asked a seminary class, a conservative group, “How many of you believe that God’s revelation in Scripture is infallible?” They all raised their hands. I then asked, “And how many of you believe that God’s revelation in nature is infallible?” No one raised his hand. It’s the same God giving the revelation.”
― Keith A. Mathison, A Reformed Approach to Science and Scripture

“Until the Second Coming, sin will remain a part of earthly existence. And as long as there is sin, there will be suffering and pain. But suffering by persecution is not a sine qua non of the church. If it is, there are few if any true churches in North America today.”
― Keith A. Mathison, Postmillennialism: An Eschatology of Hope

“within the same person described ... we have not one or even two but at least three distinct entities.
1. The old sin nature-the root cause of all sin.
2. The new divine nature-which is unable to sin.
3. The believer-who chooses which of the other two will be in control.”
― Keith A. Mathison, Dispensationalism, Rightly Dividing the People of God

“Finally, it is wrong to say that "nothing" is more basic to the identity of the church than suffering. Nothing is more basic to the identity of the institutional church than the preaching of the gospel, the correct administration of the sacraments, and the worship of God in Spirit and in truth (Westminster Confession of Faith, 25.4). Nothing is more basic to the identity of the individual Christian than faith, hope, obedience, and love, the fruit of the Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 13:4-13; Gal. 5:22-24; 1 John 2:3; 3:10, 24; 4:7-21; 5:1-3).”
― Keith A. Mathison, Postmillennialism: An Eschatology of Hope

“Indeed, truth itself may be defined as that which corresponds to reality as perceived by God.”
― Keith A. Mathison, A Reformed Approach to Science and Scripture

“Unlike modern Evangelicalism, the classical Protestant Reformers held to a high view of the Church. When the Reformers confessed extra ecclesium nulla salus, which means ;'there is no salvation outside the Church,' they were not referring to the invisible Church of all the elect. Such a statement would be tantamount to saying that outside of salvation there is no salvation. It would be a truism. The Reformers were referring to the visible Church, and this confession of the necessity of the visible Church was incorporated into the great Reformed confessions of faith. It is not only the necessity of the visible Church that is confessed by the classical Protestant Reformers; her authority is also confessed. The Reformers even use the traditional language of the fathers when they refer to the Church as our 'mother.”
― Keith A. Mathison

“It is also worth observing that God’s creation is real and not an illusion, and God created man with the ability to learn about and have true knowledge of what He created. As Calvin noted, this ability was impacted by the fall, but it was not completely destroyed. Scripture regularly assumes man has the ability to learn about creation. Proverbs is probably the most obvious example of this, because Proverbs expects man to draw true conclusions about God and reality based on his observations of creation. Created things are what they are because God created them a certain way rather than another. When we learn something about creation that corresponds with what God actually made, we have learned something true. God is the source of these truths by virtue of the fact that He is the Creator.”
― Keith A. Mathison, A Reformed Approach to Science and Scripture

“a God-centered view of truth demands that we affirm that all truth is God’s truth. That which is true is true because God said it, created it, or decreed it.”
― Keith A. Mathison, A Reformed Approach to Science and Scripture

“The Reformers did not reject tradition; they rejected one particular concept of tradition in favor of another concept of tradition. The Reformation debate was originally between adherents of two different concept of tradition. One concept, which had its origins in the first centuries of the Church, defined Scripture as the only final and infallible standard. The other concept of of tradition, which was not hinted at until the fourth century, and which was not clearly expounded until the late Middle Ages, defined Scripture and tradition as two separate and complementary sources of revelation.”
― Keith A. Mathison

“the most certain sciences are like things lit up by the sun so that they may be seen. But it is God who gives the light. Reason is in our minds as sight in our eyes, and the eyes of the mind are the senses of the soul. Now, however pure it be, bodily sense cannot see any visible thing without the light of the sun. Hence, however perfect be the human mind, it cannot by reasoning know any truth without the light of God, which belongs to the aid of grace.”
― Keith A. Mathison, A Reformed Approach to Science and Scripture

“All truth meets at the top. This is so because all truth is God’s truth. It is not only His truth because He possesses it and He yields sovereign control over it, but also because He is the source and fountainhead of all truth. He is the source of all truth not only because all truth derives from Him but because He is the necessary condition for all apprehension of truth.”
― Keith A. Mathison, A Reformed Approach to Science and Scripture

“The work of redemption is applied to individuals definitively (in justification), progressively (in sanctification), and completely (in glorification). In the same way, the work of redemption is applied universally to the kingdom definitively (in its inauguration), progressively (in its expansion), and completely (in its consummation).”
― Keith A. Mathison, Postmillennialism: An Eschatology of Hope

“...the problem that many Roman Catholics fail to see is that there is a difference between development and contradiction. It is one thing to use different language to teach something the church has always taught (e.g., the “Trinity”). It is another thing altogether to begin teaching something that the church always denied (e.g., papal supremacy or infallibility). Those doctrines in particular were built on multitudes of forgeries.”
― Keith A. Mathison

“if all truth has its source in God and if all truth is unified, then one thing we know to be a fact is that if there is a contradiction between an interpretation of Scripture and an interpretation of what God has created, then one or both of those interpretations is incorrect.”
― Keith A. Mathison, A Reformed Approach to Science and Scripture

“In his commentary on Titus 1:12, for example, Calvin states: “All truth is from God; and consequently, if wicked men have said anything that is true and just, we ought not to reject it; for it has come from God.”
― Keith A. Mathison, A Reformed Approach to Science and Scripture

“If your sensory and rational faculties are not reliable enough to read, interpret, and understand Scripture, they are also not reliable enough to read, interpret, and understand the claims of the Roman apologists or the claims of Rome. You’re told that having an infallible Bible isn’t enough. You’re told that you need Rome in addition to Scripture as an infallible interpreter. But both of those authorities (Scripture and Rome) are exterior to you. If the only means we have to connect to and understand the exterior world (namely, our sensory and rational faculties) are too unreliable for Scripture to be of any use to us, an additional exterior authority isn’t going to help.”
― Keith A. Mathison

“Cardinal Newman said that to be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant. The truth is that to be deep in real history, as opposed to Rome’s whitewashed, revisionist, and often forged history, is to cease to be a Roman Catholic.”
― Keith A. Mathison

“The doctrine of sola Scriptura, in a nutshell, asserts that Scripture is our sole source of normative, infallible apostolic revelation, and that “all things necessary for salvation and concerning faith and life are taught in the Bible with enough clarity that the ordinary believer can find them there and understand.”6 Truths that are not found in the Bible (e.g. the date of your birth, the structure of protein molecules) are not necessary for salvation.”
― Keith A. Mathison, A Reformed Approach to Science and Scripture