James R. White > Quotes

“True worship must worship God as He exists, not as we wish Him to be.”
― James R. White

“Church history has repeatedly and clearly proven one thing: Once the highest view of Scripture is abandoned by any theologian, group, denomination, or church, the downhill slide in both its theology and practice is inevitable.”
― James R. White, Scripture Alone: Exploring the Bible's Accuracy, Authority and Authenticity

“Many in our world today want us to believe that we can except Christ simply as a Savior from sin, but not the Lord of our lives. They teach essentially that a person can perform an act of believing on Christ once, and after this, they can fall away even into total unbelief and yet still supposedly be "saved". Christ does not call men in this way. Christ does not save men in this way. The true Christian is the one continually coming, always believing in Christ. Real Christian faith is an ongoing faith, not a one-time act. If one wishes to be eternally satiated, one meal is not enough. If we wish to feast on the bread of heaven, we must do so all our lives. We will never hunger or thirst if we are always coming and always believing in Christ. He's our sufficiency. Christ the bread from heaven. We must feed on all of Christ, not just the parts we happen to like. Christ is not the Savior of anyone unless He is their Lord as well.”
― James R. White, Drawn by the Father: A study of John 6:35-45

“The idea that there is some kind of contradiction between the in-depth study of God’s Word, so as to know what God has revealed about himself, and a living, vital faith is inherently self-contradictory.”
― James Robert White, The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief

“MELITO OF SARDIS Melito, bishop of Sardis, died around the year A.D. 180. Until recently, few students of church history paid much attention to him. One of the reasons might be that he ended up on the “wrong side” of the ancient debate over how to determine the date of Easter. Only recently a sermon on the Passover was found, penned by Melito. It provides us with a tremendous insight into the theology of the late second century. I reproduce here just one section, which requires no commentary, only a hearty “Amen!”: And so he was lifted up upon a tree and an inscription was attached indicating who was being killed. Who was it? It is a grievous thing to tell, but a most fearful thing to refrain from telling. But listen, as you tremble before him on whose account the earth trembled! He who hung the earth in place is hanged. He who fixed the heavens in place is fixed in place. He who made all things fast is made fast on a tree. The Sovereign is insulted. God is murdered. The King of Israel is destroyed by an Israelite hand. This is the One who made the heavens and the earth, and formed mankind in the beginning, The One proclaimed by the Law and the Prophets, The One enfleshed in a virgin, The One hanged on a tree, The One buried in the earth, The One raised from the dead and who went up into the heights of heaven, The One sitting at the right hand of the Father, The One having all authority to judge and save, Through Whom the Father made the things which exist from the beginning of time. This One is “the Alpha and the Omega,” This One is “the beginning and the end” . . . the beginning indescribable and the end incomprehensible. This One is the Christ. This One is the King. This One is Jesus. This One is the Leader. This One is the Lord. This One is the One who rose from the dead. This One is the One sitting on the right hand of the Father. He bears the Father and is borne by the Father. “To him be the glory and the power forever. Amen.” The deity of Christ, His two natures, His virgin birth, His being the Creator, His distinction from the Father—all part and parcel of the preaching of the bishop of Sardis near the end of the second century.”
― James R. White, The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief

“A person who wants to “know Jesus” must, due to the nature of God’s revelation, know Him as He is related to the Father and the Spirit. We must know, understand, and love the Trinity to be fully and completely Christian. This is why we say the Trinity is the greatest of God’s revealed truths.”
― James Robert White, The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief

“How one views Scripture will determine the rest of one's theology. There is no more basic issue: Every system of thought that takes seriously the claims of the Bible to be the inspired, authoritative Word of God will share a commitment to particular central truths, and that without compromise. Those systems that do not begin with this belief in Scripture will exhibit a wide range of beliefs that will shift over time in light of the ever-changing whims and views of culture. Almost every single collapse involving denominations and churches in regard to historic Christian beliefs can be traced back to a degradation in that group's view of the Bible as the inspired and inerrant revelation of God's truth. Once this foundation is lost, the house that was built upon it cannot long stand”
― James R. White, Scripture Alone: Exploring the Bible's Accuracy, Authority and Authenticity

“We have so often heard certain things taught in a particular fashion that they have become part of the very fabric of our religious experience and belief. So when our personal traditions are challenged, we often respond with emotion rather than biblically-based thought and consideration. Love of the truth demands that we remember this: sentimentality is no replacement for doctrinal purity. To desire correct doctrine should be normative for every believer.”
― James R. White, The Potter's Freedom: A Defense of the Reformation and a Rebuttal To Norman Geisler's Chosen But Free

“There is no purpose for Christian scholarship outside the purpose of God that He is accomplishing in the church.”
― James R. White, The God Who Justifies

“Praise God from Whom all blessings flow! Praise Him all creatures here below! Praise Him above ye heavenly host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Amen!”
― James Robert White, The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief

“Christ is our all. He is everything to the Christian. He fills all, is in all, and He is our life (Colossians 3:4, 11). It is in Him that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden (Colossians 2:3). He is the author and finisher of our salvation, the one who starts it, works it out, and completes it (Hebrews 12:2). This is as the Father wanted it. He places His people in the hands of the Son, having joined them to the Son in a super-natural union, so the Son, by His perfect life of obedience, and perfect act of self-sacrifice upon the cross, can bring about their full and complete salvation.”
― James R. White, Drawn by the Father: A study of John 6:35-45

“What we are saying about God is that His being is not limited and finite like a creature’s. His Being is infinite and unlimited, and hence can, in a way completely beyond our comprehension, be shared fully by three persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The divine Being is one; the divine persons are three. While”
― James R. White, The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief

“Do we love God—all of God, including the “tough” parts of His nature—or do we refuse to bow before those elements that cause us “problems”? If we love Him and worship Him as He deserves, we will not dare to “edit” Him to fit our desires. Instead, we will seek to worship Him in truth.”
― James Robert White, The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief

“If you are a Christian, you are a theologian. You have no choice. Theology is simply knowing about God. In fact, since Christians are called to grow in their knowledge of God, part of the very goal of the Christian life is theology. Theology”
― James R. White, The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief

“And yet I will exert special effort to the end that they who lend ready and open ears to God’s Word may have a firm standing ground. Here, indeed, if anywhere in the secret mysteries of Scripture, we ought to play the philosopher soberly and with great moderation; let us use great caution that neither our thoughts nor our speech go beyond the limits to which the Word of God itself extends. For how can the human mind measure off the measureless essence of God according to its own little measure, a mind as yet unable to establish for certain the nature of the sun’s body, though men’s eyes daily gaze upon it? Indeed, how can the mind by its own leading come to search out God’s essence when it cannot even get to its own? Let us then willingly leave to God the knowledge of himself. For, as Hilary (of Poitiers) says, he is the one fit witness to himself, and is not known except through himself. But we shall be “leaving it to him” if we conceive him to be as he reveals himself to us, without inquiring about him elsewhere than from his Word. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, I:XIII:21.”
― James Robert White, The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief

“The Trinity is a doctrine not revealed merely in words but instead in the very action of the Triune God in redemption itself! We know who God is by what He has done in bringing us to himself!”
― James R. White, The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief

“In ayat 65–68 a few other vital assertions are made about our subject that shed more light upon the above argument. Note what is said: 5:65. If only the People of the Book would believe and fear Allah, surely We would bring them into Gardens of Bliss. 66. If they had observed [practiced] the Torah and the Gospel and that which was sent down to them from their Lord, they would surely have been nourished from above them and from beneath their feet. Among them there are people who are moderate, but many of them are of evil conduct. Once again, how could the People of the Book, Jew or Gentile, observe or practice the Torah and the Gospel if both books were corrupted by the time of Muhammad? These words had to have meaning when they were written, and the unstated assumption that must be seen is that the Torah and the Gospel were right there for all to see, observe, and practice. The fault for the unbelief is placed not on the books of Scripture but at the feet of the people!”
― James R. White, What Every Christian Needs to Know about the Qur'an

“All pretense has been taken away from man. He cannot plead ignorance, for the revelation (1) has been made to him by God himself (ὁ θεὸς γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἐφανέρωσεν), (2) has been constant and consistent from the beginning of time (ἀπὸ κτίσεως κόσμου), and (3) is currently being perceived, and that clearly (νο-ούμενα καθορᾶται). Indeed, it could be properly understood that it is the intention of the revelation to render man without excuse. This would fit well with the purpose of Paul expressed in his concluding indictment of all of mankind—“for we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin” (Romans 3:9)—and none can make a case against their sinfulness in light of the clarity of God’s revelation.”
― James R. White, The God Who Justifies

“The advent of postmodernism, the enshrinement of Darwinian orthodoxy in the educational systems of Western society, and the rise of blatant humanism as the religion-by-default of large subcultures have brought no end of new challenges to biblical sufficiency.”
― James R. White, Scripture Alone: Exploring the Bible's Accuracy, Authority and Authenticity

“Joseph Smith’s religion started with six people in 1830, and today there are twelve million. Mohammed started with no one, and now there are a billion Muslims in the world. Contrast that with Jesus, who had five thousand men listening to Him on one day, and by the end of the next only twelve confused men remained, one of whom He said was a devil. Truth is never determined by numbers or popularity.”
― James R. White, Scripture Alone: Exploring the Bible's Accuracy, Authority and Authenticity

“The guiding factor for the development of Christian doctrine is the Bible itself! The text of Scripture provides the grounds and, most important, the limits for this development over time. Rather than bringing in outside influences (such as tradition), we recognize that no one has ever plumbed the depths of God's revelation contained in Scripture; no one has ever come close to exhausting what is to be found in its pages. Therefore, real development of Christian doctrine is simply our ever-increasing understanding of the Word. It is a delving deeper and deeper into the truths of the Word.”
― James R. White, Scripture Alone: Exploring the Bible's Accuracy, Authority and Authenticity

“Almost every single collapse involving denominations and churches in regard to historic Christian beliefs can be traced back to a degradation in that group’s view of the Bible as the inspired and inerrant revelation of God’s truth.”
― James R. White, Scripture Alone: Exploring the Bible's Accuracy, Authority and Authenticity

“If we take the beginning of John 1:1, the Word is already there. If we push it back further (if one can even do so!), say, a year, the Word is already there. A thousand years, the Word is there. A billion years, the Word is there.[3] What is John’s point? The Word is eternal. The Word has always existed. The Word is not a creation. The New English Bible puts it quite nicely: “When all things began, the Word already was.”
― James R. White, The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief

“The world today says we cannot openly disagree, especially in the area of religion, without being hateful or bigoted. I suggest that, conversely, it is the world’s attitude that is hateful and bigoted. If we will not say that anything is wrong, then at the same time, whether or not we want to admit it, we also are saying there is nothing that is right. Herein we are denying the existence of truth in the realm of faith, and that is a slap in the face of every believer of every creed or background. I”
― James R. White, What Every Christian Needs to Know about the Qur'an

“Martin Luther described the doctrine of justification by faith as articulus stantis vel cadentis ecclesiae—the article of faith that decides whether the church is standing or falling.”
― James Robert White, The God Who Justifies

“can’t compare God to anything, because to do so assumes that there can be anything in creation that can be likened to God. “To whom will you compare me?” God asks. No answer is given, for there simply is no answer. God cannot be compared to anyone or anything, for He is unique, alone as the Creator of all things.”
― James R. White, The Sovereign Grace of God: A Biblical Study of the Doctrines of Calvinism

“Our culture has done everything in its power to rid itself of having to think of death and its consequences. As a result, we don’t talk about it, think about it, or do a very good job preparing ourselves for its certain arrival. As a result, we enter into the grieving process unprepared for what lies ahead. We don’t realize the range of emotions we are going to face, and we often don’t even know how to reach out to those around us for their help and comfort. What’s even worse is that many feel uneasy giving comfort, because it isn’t “the thing to do” in our society. We are all supposed to be able to “handle things on our own.” Well, grief is not handled well alone. God made us social beings, and when we lose a loved one, we desire and need the help and assistance of others. Give”
― James R. White, Grieving: Your Path Back to Peace

“the Trinity is the highest revelation God has made of himself to His people.”
― James R. White, The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief

“There is no reason to learn divine truths if we do not apply them in our hearts and minds, live them out daily, and defend them in the public square when we are given the opportunity to glorify God in so doing.”
― James R. White, Scripture Alone: Exploring the Bible's Accuracy, Authority and Authenticity

“To know Christ truly is to know the Trinity, for God has not revealed himself in such a way as to allow us to have true and balanced knowledge of the Father outside of such knowledge of the Son, all of which comes to us through the Spirit. A person who wants to “know Jesus” must, due to the nature of God’s revelation, know Him as He is related to the Father and the Spirit. We must know, understand, and love the Trinity to be fully and completely Christian. This is why we say the Trinity is the greatest of God’s revealed truths.”
― James R. White, The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief