Samuel D. Renihan > Quotes

“The creature is finite, so its comprehension and expression are finite. God is infinite, and the finite cannot contain the infinite. You will sooner capture the ocean in a thimble than you will contain God in your thoughts or words:”
― Samuel D. Renihan, Deity and Decree

“In light of the humility that covenant theology ought to instill in its students, the way in which believers have turned it into a battlefield is unacceptable. When the revelation and explanation of the mystery of Christ becomes a source of aggression and division between brethren, a diligent self-examination and repentance is in order for all parties involved. The mystery of Christ and His covenant is not a weapon of war, means of mischief, or source of schism. It is the gospel for the nations. It is union with God and communion with all His children in one Lord, one Spirit, one baptism, one covenant.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant, and His Kingdom

“Typology without Christ at its center is concerned with something other than the mystery of Christ, His covenant, and His kingdom. And it is therefore, by definition, not typology.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant, and His Kingdom

“Estudiar la teología pactual es una experiencia devocional que enriquece nuestra comprensión de la unidad de los propósitos de Dios, mejora la predicación de cualquier texto, informa nuestro entendimiento de la Iglesia, afirma al pueblo de Dios en la seguridad de su salvación, y mucho más. Pero, sobre todo, estudiar la teología pactual de la Biblia magnifica la majestuosidad del plan de redención del Dios trino.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, El Misterio de Cristo: Su Pacto y Su Reino

“Any affirmation of subordination that one affirms about the Son, if it is affirmed with regard to his divinity, is dangerous and unacceptable because God is simple, and whatever we affirm about the divinity of one person applies equally to the other two. There is an order, or taxis, in the subsistences, but not a priority or subordination.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, Deity and Decree

“The decree is the act of God by which he determines, absolutely, the existence and infallible future (or futurition) of all that is outside of himself, to the praise of his own glory, the first cause and Director of all things, the Antecedent and Governor of all events.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, Deity and Decree

“The origin of the decree is God himself without relation to any other force or cause, simply because no other being exists apart from God decreeing its existence.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, Deity and Decree

“Candy bars are sold with the tagline, “You’re not you when you’re hungry.” Sometimes the difference between a good mood or a bad one is some chocolate and caramel. Candy bars can change us. Anything can. Now I ask you, is God like this? Is I AM WHO I AM like this? No. God is not drawn to perceived good or repulsed by perceived evil. God does not have passions. In light of God’s immutability and impassibility, we must read the Scriptures in such a way that the affections of God are not affects, but effects. They are effects, changes that God causes in our experience. They are not affections, new dispositions or states of being which we have caused in God.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, Deity and Decree

“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.- Judges 21:25 (ESV)

This is precisely the context of the Davidic Covenant. Israel entered the land as promised to Abraham, but they disobeyed the law delivered by Moses. And as a result, they were afflicted and oppressed. There was no king in Israel. There was no obedience in Israel. The law was neglected, and the people suffered. What Israel needed was for someone to keep the law of Moses for the nation, bringing blessing and deliverance to all the children of Abraham.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant, and His Kingdom

“The Father is the principle of origin of the persons of the Holy Trinity: He is not a principle of nature or time. The Father is called principle, but neither the Son nor the Spirit has had a beginning. The Son originates from the Father in respect of the mode of subsistence in the essence, not in respect of the essence itself.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, Deity and Decree

“Of each person, we can ask, “Does the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, have the whole divine essence?” We answer, “Yes,” and we say, therefore, that each one, in himself, is God with respect to the divine essence. Then we can ask, of each one, “In what manner does this person have the divine essence?” And we answer that The Father is of none, the Son is begotten eternally of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son. The result is that the essence of the Son is the divine essence. The Son has the whole undivided divine essence. He is, therefore, God, in himself. But his subsistence, the way in which he has the whole divine essence, is from the Father. He is God, in himself (essence), but not of himself (subsistence).”
― Samuel D. Renihan, Deity and Decree

“Por esto, como dijeron Nehemiah Coxe y otros bautistas particulares: “el mejor Intérprete del Antiguo Testamento es el Espíritu Santo hablándonos en el Nuevo”.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, El Misterio de Cristo: Su Pacto y Su Reino

“the Father is the divine essence subsisting in the Father who begets, the Father is God in, and of, himself. The Son and the Holy Spirit are also God, in themselves, but not of themselves.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, Deity and Decree

“Cuando le quitamos lo que es incongruente con su ser, afirmamos más fuertemente su ser, y sabemos más de él cuando lo elevamos por encima de todo, y por encima de nuestra propia capacidad.”
― Samuel Renihan, Dios sin pasiones: manual introductorio: Un estudio práctico y pastoral sobre la impasibilidad de Dios

“By virtue of the divine essence being numerically one, and the three persons being distinctions of subsistence in the one divine essence, they are indivisibly united. Each one has the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, Deity and Decree

“Under Solomon all the promises and blessings of God delivered to Abraham and Moses and David reach their zenith. Solomon's dedication of the temple is the high point of the entire Old Testament.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant, and His Kingdom

“The kingship of Israel is not founded on the people's desire to free themselves from God, as with Saul, but on God's commitment to establish the Throne of David.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant, and His Kingdom

“Bucanus, Norton, and Maccovius explain.[94] When we speak simply of the Son without the Father, we avouch truly and properly that he is of himself, and call him God, because of himself he has his being, and all that he has; and therefore we call him one alone beginning [or, origin]. But when we point at that relation which he has with his Father, we justly make the Father the beginning of the Son, and say that the Son received all from the Father, John 3:33. For the Essence is one thing, and the manner of subsisting another. Hence it is that the Schoolmen say, that the Son is by himself, not of himself. So the Essence of the Son is without beginning, but the Father is the beginning of his Person.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, Deity and Decree

“We are not free to practice arbitrary interpretation nor to be fanciful in our conclusions. Scripture must interpret Scripture to demonstrate what ultimately enjoys the status of a typological relationship.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant, and His Kingdom

“No podemos contener[12] a Dios en nuestro idioma más de lo que podemos contener el océano en un dedal. Lo finito no puede contener lo infinito. Por eso nuestra mente y lenguaje nunca podrán abarcar por completo a Dios y expresarlo plenamente.”
― Samuel Renihan, Dios sin pasiones: manual introductorio: Un estudio práctico y pastoral sobre la impasibilidad de Dios

“Being free from all passive potency means that there is no agent that can or could operate upon God as a patient. There is no one and no thing that could exercise a force on, or against, God to change him. God is incapable of being a patient. Will the thing created overpower the Creator? Furthermore, in the creation in which we live, God not only cannot be a patient, but is always an agent. We teach in our catechisms that God has decreed all things, and that he fulfills all his holy will.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, Deity and Decree

“The same argument applies to the Holy Spirit. The essence of the Holy Spirit is the divine essence. The Holy Spirit has the whole undivided divine essence. He is, therefore, God, in himself.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, Deity and Decree

“El principio regulativo de la adoración, edificado sobre este fundamento, resume la verdad que no debemos añadir ni sustraer de la adoración instituida por Dios, porque la manera en la que Él ha de ser adorado proviene solamente de la revelación de Dios al respecto. No tenemos la libertad de hacer deducciones en esta área.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, El Misterio de Cristo: Su Pacto y Su Reino

“The Father is not without the Son, the Son is of the Father, the Holy Ghost is of the Father, and the Son. The Essence absolutely considered, is common to all the three Persons, but non communicated; for the Son is God of himself, and the Holy Ghost is God of himself, no less than the Father is God of himself. Hence there is an Original in regard of the manner of the Essence, but not in regard of the Essence itself.”
― Samuel D. Renihan, Deity and Decree