David W. Hall > Quotes

“Thus the climax of Anglican history with respect to confessional subscription is found in a required unambiguous form of subscription which is to emerge “ex animo” and whose extent is “all things contained” in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion and the Three Articles of Archbishop Whitgift.”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“Beza also noted that Calvin’s reasons why he did not wish to return included his aversion to conflict and his sense that his ministry in the Church of Strasbourg was going well. Moreover, Martin Bucer and others initially declared that they had great objections to losing Calvin’s services in Strasbourg.33”
― David W. Hall, The Legacy of John Calvin: His Influence on the Modern World

“The godly during the long ages before the Reformation had no benefit from the discoveries of Martin Luther and John Calvin”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“The Reformation was above all a doctrinal reform in the life of the church. Throughout the Middle Ages”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“Christians who are not confessional”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“Even under the best case scenario”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“The discussion of confessional subscription should bear in mind the virtue of creeds in their impression of the truth on the mind and heart of the church. Any form of subscription that does not successfully foster this subjective impression”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“Presbyterianism in England in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“Thus, the human mind was forced to turn to revealed law if it wished to find God’s truths. Calvin emphasized the utter powerlessness of human ability and called on people to “distrust our own ability.”85”
― David W. Hall, The Legacy of John Calvin: His Influence on the Modern World

“The Church is healthiest which knows what it believes”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“He admits that in 1690 and in 1696 the General Assembly of Scotland both allowed subscription to the Confession of Faith as a test of ministerial communion and further forbade anyone to “speak”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“He wrote:“In short, while my one great object was to live in seclusion without being known, God so led me about through different turnings and changes that he never permitted me to rest in any place, until in spite of my natural disposition, he brought me forth to public notice.”
― David W. Hall, The Legacy of John Calvin: His Influence on the Modern World

“The creeds and confessions are perhaps the church’s greatest tribute to the spiritual apprehension of and appreciation for the truth as it is set forth in God’s Word.”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“Benjamin Franklin puts into the mouth of his character”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“In 1755”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“but they also appointed him to a committee to design a constitution for the Republic of Geneva.43 The drafts of the constitution indicate that Calvin paid close attention to the minute details of administrative matters and municipal functions, and he made some suggestions for judicial reform.44 Philip Schaff recorded that Calvin was awarded a cask of old wine as payment for his efforts in revising the city constitution, and that“[m]any of his regulations continued in legal force down to the eighteenth century.” Calvin’s legal training at Orleans would prove valuable over the course of his life. Occasionally, he was thus called on to divert some of his attention away from church matters in order to assist in this constitutional role or other civic matters.”
― David W. Hall, The Legacy of John Calvin: His Influence on the Modern World

“Sadly”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“It is just a clear declaration by the Lord that he finds nothing in men themselves to induce him to show kindness, that it is owing entirely to his own mercy, and, accordingly, that their salvation is his own work.”84 That, indeed, is humbling to one’s pride!”
― David W. Hall, The Legacy of John Calvin: His Influence on the Modern World

“he wrote that he did“not believe that there have ever been such friends who have lived together in such a deep friendship in their everyday style of life in this world as we have in our ministry.”70”
― David W. Hall, The Legacy of John Calvin: His Influence on the Modern World

“The “six Johns” (Knox”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“The animosity that had developed between the Lutheran and Reformed communions can be sensed in the 1592 hymn sung by the Lutherans”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“He was prudent enough to realize that the best way to reform the culture was indirectly, that is, to first reform the church.”
― David W. Hall, The Legacy of John Calvin: His Influence on the Modern World

“All believers hold to certain doctrinal sets; the only question is which sets are more or less in keeping with the Scriptures.”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“What bothers us most about our legal system? It is that we know the law isn’t being fairly enforced, that money or position can assure immunity from just punishment, whether the charge is murder or sexual harassment. We are in danger of becoming a government of men not of laws, and our founding fathers, if they were alive today, would tell us, “That way lies tyranny.” Not only must we have law; it must be law that calls us to a higher standard than that by which many are willing to live. Some folks say, “You can’t legislate morality.” If they mean we can’t make folks behave morally by requiring it in the law, they’re right. But if they mean we should therefore not try and set up high standards in law, they’re wrong. Good laws will set high moral standards, whether the moral issue be murder, stealing, lying to a jury, or sexual misconduct. All those things and many more fall within the purview of moral law. These days we especially need laws that affirm the value of human life. The violence in our culture results from our habit of undervaluing life, a habit which can only be changed when our laws recognize the”
― David W. Hall, Election Day Sermons

“Calvin urged leaders not to yearn for applause but instead to seek to reflect glory to God. He frequently criticized arrogance in its many forms. He was constantly on guard against self-flattery, which “sets up a kind of kingdom in his own breast.”
― David W. Hall, The Legacy of John Calvin: His Influence on the Modern World

“a subordinate standard”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“The Reformed faith has sought to be confessional because they knew that the changing opinions of even the best modern thinkers or the most established traditional hierarchies are inadequate guides to the peace and purity of the church of Christ.”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“Thus in 1606 a man is given orders “that he shall publicklie in the Kirk of Kilmacolme in presence of the congregation subscrybe the Confession of Faith”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“The result was the Negative Confession”
― David W. Hall, The Practice of Confessional Subscription

“The world-renowned German historian Leopold von Ranke, for example, reached the similar conclusion that “John Calvin was virtually the founder of America.”5”
― David W. Hall, The Legacy of John Calvin: His Influence on the Modern World