Chris Whisonant

“Many Christians assume that we can just experience God in a personal relationship apart from doctrine, but that’s impossible. You cannot experience God without knowing who he is, what he has done, and who you are in relation to him. Even our most basic Christian experiences and commitments are theological. “I just love Jesus,” some say. But who is Jesus? And why do you love him?”
― Michael S. Horton, Pilgrim Theology: Core Doctrines for Christian Disciples

“Only when we start with the gospel — the most controversial point of Christian faith — are we ready to talk about who God is and how we know him.”
― Michael S. Horton, Pilgrim Theology: Core Doctrines for Christian Disciples

“All of our faith and practice arise out of the drama of Scripture, the “big story” that traces the plot of history from creation to consummation, with Christ as its Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. And out of the throbbing verbs of this unfolding drama God reveals stable nouns — doctrines. From what God does in history we are taught certain things about who he is and what it means to be created in his image, fallen, and redeemed, renewed, and glorified in union with Christ. As the Father creates his church, in his Son and by his Spirit, we come to realize what this covenant community is and what it means to belong to it; what kind of future is promised to us in Christ, and how we are to live here and now in the light of it all. The drama and the doctrine provoke us to praise and worship — doxology — and together these three coordinates give us a new way of living in the world as disciples.”
― Michael S. Horton, Pilgrim Theology: Core Doctrines for Christian Disciples

“When we meet God in the gospel, we first encounter him as a stranger, come to rescue us from a danger we did not even realize we were in.”
― Michael S. Horton, Pilgrim Theology: Core Doctrines for Christian Disciples