Justin S. Holcomb > Quotes

“Marcion: The God of the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament are two different gods. Docetists: Jesus only appeared to be human. Arius: The Son was a created being of a lower order than the Father. Apollinarius: Jesus’ divine nature/Logos replaced the human rational soul in the incarnation. In other words, Jesus’ “pure” divine nature replaced the “filthy” mind of a typical human. Sabellius: Jesus and the Father are not distinct but just “modes” of a single being. Eutyches: The divinity of Christ overwhelms his humanity. Nestorius: Jesus was composed of two separate persons, one divine and one human.”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Heretics

“Do you consider him a Christian who oppresses the wretched, who burdens the poor, who covets others’ property, who makes several poor so that he may make himself rich, who rejoices in unjust gains . . . and a man of this kind has the audacity to”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils

“Life doesn’t just happen to you. You react to it, and you are not forced to react the way you do. Your heart determines your reactions.”
― Justin Holcomb

“The very center and core of the whole Bible is the doctrine of the grace of God—the grace of God which depends not one whit upon anything that is in man, but is absolutely undeserved, resistless and sovereign.   J. Gresham Machen”
― Justin S. Holcomb, On the Grace of God

“We are all powerless to heal ourselves. Research shows that self-help statements have been found to be ineffective and even harmful by making some people with low self-esteem feel even worse about themselves in the long term. As a matter of fact, positive self-statements frequently end up reinforcing and strengthening one’s original negative self-perception they were trying to change.”
― Justin S. Holcomb

“What victims need are not self-produced positive statements but God's statements about his response to their pain. How can you be rid of these dysfunctional emotions and their effects? How can you be rid of your disgrace? God's grace to you dismantles the beliefs that give disgrace life. Grace re-creates what violence destroyed. Martin Luther writes that "the love of God does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it." One-way love is the change agent you need. Grace transforms and heals; and healing comes by hearing God's statements to you, not speaking your own statements to yourself.”
― Justin S. Holcomb

“Because of the widespread illiteracy during the period of the Reformation, catechesis often took place in face-to-face discussion. This is why “Luther intended his catechism to target primarily pastors, but also parents, and other ‘opinion makers’ who would in turn share the teachings of the catechism orally with children and illiterate members of the household.”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils

“Groom imagery in the Bible represents God in relation to his people. Describing reconciliation with God, Ed Welch writes: "The gospel is the story of God covering his naked enemies, bringing them to the wedding feast and then marrying them rather than crushing them.”
― Justin S. Holcomb

“The political struggles of Ephesus can pose a problem for modernday believers. Even if denominations might differ on how difficult theological questions are resolved, it seems obvious that they should not be resolved the way that those at Ephesus were — with underhanded political tactics and a refusal to understand the points of the other side. The fact that one of the major councils of the church seems to depend just as much on politics as theology can be disturbing — can we be sure that the church made the right decision? Are the beliefs that we hold today the result of careful interpretation of Scripture, or the machinations of powerful figures? It is helpful to remember that the story of redemption in the Bible relies on people who deliberately did evil things — Samson, Saul, and David are excellent examples. When Jesus came, however, it became apparent that God not only had accounted for human failing but had even made it a part of his plan for the salvation of the world; as Joseph says to his brothers in Genesis 50:20, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Because God is able to work through human failings as well as in spite of them, Christianity does not need to rely on a whitewashed version of history.”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils

“Whereas orthodox Christianity answers Jesus’ question to Peter — “Who do you say I am?” (Mark 8:29) — by affirming that Christ was both God (the Creator of the universe, the Lord of Israel) and human (an average Joe, yet without sin), these heretical thinkers answered the question differently.”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Heretics

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare . . . it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils

“Perhaps one of the best reasons for complex Trinitarianism comes from C. S. Lewis”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Heretics

“If Pelagius had solved the problem of sin and human responsibility by arguing that humans are perfectly capable of doing whatever they want, Augustine solved it by saying that humans deliberately act against the good ideals that they don’t know and are selfish, greedy, lustful, stubborn, and proud. In his words, people are non posse non peccare, “not able not to sin,” because even the good things that we do are not out of love for God but for some lesser purpose.”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils

“Ask most people, “Why would you go to heaven?” and if the person believes in heaven, a safe bet is that the answer will be, “Because I’ve tried my best to be a good person.” One arrives at this common answer because of a combination of three basic Pelagian concepts: 1. Freedom is defined as independence from God’s sovereignty. 2. Original sin is rejected; we are all born good. Sin is only in the act of the will. 3. Grace as unmerited favor from God is rejected, ignored, or unknown. The combination of these three results in personal morality as the basis for salvation. But this must be rejected, as it is clear from Scripture that “[t]here is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God” (Rom. 3:10 – 11). This is because of original sin, as Paul writes, for “just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Heretics

“Rather”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils

“Too much enthusiastic faith without a corresponding degree of theological understanding is almost certain to lead to error”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Heretics

“The communion of saints and the forgiveness of sins are ways in which we can relate to and experience God, because of Christ, and through the Holy Spirit, in our everyday, mundane lives, proving that the supernatural still breaks through into the world.”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils

“Learning how Christians throughout history have wrestled with the tough questions of our faith gives us a valuable perspective and keeps us from assuming that our own know-how”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Heretics

“It is sometimes said that you cannot describe the Trinity without committing some sort of heresy. Either you make God out to be three gods, or you make the three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) into a sham and pretense. The reason for this is that to speak about God, to speak about the Trinity, is different from speaking about any other thing. God is categorically separate from all other subjects. God is God. And nothing else is. So when we discuss the Trinity, we are peering into what theologians call the “aseity” of God — God as he is a se, to himself. God presents himself fully only to himself. We know about the Trinity only because God lovingly reveals aspects of his being and character to us. But God knows himself very well!”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils

“If the early Christians had lost their nerve and conceded the “lesser divinity” of Jesus, whatever that might mean, then the work of God in Christ for our salvation would have been rendered meaningless. No mere man, nor half god, could possibly intervene to save fallen and sinful humanity, let alone restore all of creation. Only the Creator can enter creation to fix its brokenness and redeem its original, latent purpose.”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils

“However much the fathers wanted a united church, however, they maintained their loyalty to Christ above all. Hence, each council also demonstrated the “orthodoxy” part of “generous orthodoxy.” The deity of the Holy Spirit was deemed crucial to salvation, as was the full humanity of Christ. When the emperor favored a theology that might have reconciled political parties but which compromised the truth, the council maintained the truth even though it meant the continued division of Christendom. For modern Christians, the councils can serve as a reminder to extend all possible charity to those who disagree with us, but also to maintain strong views in the face of opposition.”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils

“As theologian Robert Reymond opines, human beings are born “with Pelagian hearts,”23 meaning all people are prone to attempt salvation through natural means from within ourselves, rather than through the supernatural means of relying on God’s grace.”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Heretics

“The Christian faith is not only a matter of the heart, an exercise in sentimentality, for “Christian faith is a matter of the mind as well as the heart and the will, and as thinking persons we must give intellectual expression to our faith.”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils

“Creeds aren’t dogmas that are imposed on Scripture but are themselves drawn from the Bible and provide a touchstone to the faith for Christians of all times and places.”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils

“What the reader should take away from the doctrine of predestination is an appreciation of the mercy of God (rather than speculating on how election works or priding themselves on being part of the “in” group).”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils

“If I can bring anyone into that hall [creeds], I have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms [confessions], not the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals.”7”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils

“As Tertullian rightly declared”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Heretics

“Sixth”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils

“Tradition is the fruit of the Spirit’s teaching activity from the ages as God’s people have sought understanding of Scripture. It is not infallible, but neither is it negligible, and we impoverish ourselves if we disregard it. — J. I. Packer, “Upholding the Unity of Scripture Today”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils

“Understanding that the theological statements in this book31 are specific instances of the Christian act of confession is significant because it helps us remember that confessions are not primarily about doctrine and theology; they are ultimately about worship.”
― Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils