R.C. Sproul > Quotes

“It is one thing to believe in God; it is quite another to believe God.”
― R.C. Sproul, Surprised by Suffering: The Role of Pain and Death in The Christian Life

“The idea of holiness is so central to biblical teaching that it is said of God, “Holy is his name” (Luke 1:49). His name is holy because He is holy. He is not always treated with holy reverence. His name is tramped through the dirt of this world. It functions as a curse word, a platform for the obscene. That the world has little respect for God is vividly seen by the way the world regards His name. No honor. No reverence. No awe before Him.”
― R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God

“It is a profound political reality that Christ now occupies the supreme seat of cosmic authority. The kings of this world and all secular governments may ignore this reality, but they cannot undo it. The universe is no democracy. It is a monarchy. God himself has appointed his beloved Son as the preeminent King. Jesus does not rule by referendum, but by divine right. In the future every knee will bow before him, either willingly or unwillingly. Those who refuse to do so will have their knees broken with a rod of iron.”
― R.C. Sproul, What is Reformed Theology?: Understanding the Basics

“When people ask me how old the Earth is, I tell them I don't know because I don't.”
― R.C. Sproul

“How can we love a holy God? The simplest answer I can give to this vital question is that we can’t. Loving a holy God is beyond our moral power. The only kind of God we can love by our sinful nature is an unholy god, an idol made by our own hands. Unless we are born of the Spirit of God, unless God sheds His holy love in our hearts, unless He stoops in His grace to change our hearts, we will not love Him.”
― R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God

“To be a Christian is to be a theologian—a student of God and his will. The church is where believers should be nurtured in the practice of correct theology. The contemporary disdain for theological content and emphasis on self-image and emotions were not shared by the apostolic church.”
― R.C. Sproul

“The kingdom of God is not our only inheritance. In His last will and testament, Jesus left His heirs something else, something very special: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27).”
― R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God

“The failure of modern evangelicalism is the failure to understand the holiness of God.”
― R.C. Sproul

“[The laws of logic] were placed in our minds by the Creator during the act of creation. We speak because God has spoken. God is not the author of confusion, irrationality, or the absurd. Furthermore, his words are meant to be understood by his creatures, and a necessary condition for his creature's understanding of those words is that they are intelligible and not irrational.”
― R. C. Sproul

“It is easy to get faith into our heads. It is hard to get faith into our bloodstream.”
― R.C. Sproul

“God is serious about how we worship Him, and we must be serious about it, too.”
― R.C. Sproul

“Mindless Christianity is no Christianity at all. You can't love what you don't know.”
― R.C. Sproul

“God’s grace is resistible in the sense that we can and do resist it. It is irresistible in the sense that it achieves its purpose. It brings about God’s desired effect.”
― R.C. Sproul, Chosen by God

“The suffering of the Christian or anyone else in this world is never ultimately an accident. All suffering is within the pale of divine sovereignty. All suffering comes within the broader context of the sovereignty of God.”
― R.C. Sproul, Reason to Believe: A Response to Common Objections to Christianity

“Deep within our souls we know that God exists and that He has given His law to us. We seek to suppress this knowledge in order to escape God’s commands. But no matter how hard we try, we cannot silence this inner voice. It can be muffled but not destroyed.”
― R. C. Sproul, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith

“Before a person can make a choice that is pleasing to God, he must first have a desire to please God. Before we can find God, we must first desire to seek him. Before we can choose the good, we must first have a desire for the good. Before we can choose Christ, we must first have a desire for Christ. The sum and substance of the whole debate on predestination rests squarely at this point: Does fallen man, in and of himself, have a natural desire for Christ?”
― R.C. Sproul, Chosen by God

“I cannot read God's mind, however I can read God's Word.”
― R.C. Sproul

“It is precisely the presence and help of Christ in times of suffering that makes it possible for us to stand up under pressure.”
― R.C. Sproul, Surprised by Suffering: The Role of Pain and Death in The Christian Life

“Because of Christ, our suffering is not useless. It is part of the total plan of God, who has chosen to redeem the world through the pathway of suffering.”
― R.C. Sproul, Surprised by Suffering: The Role of Pain and Death in The Christian Life

“God is both Just and the Justifier.”
― R.C. Sproul

“What we call “the laws of nature” merely reflect the normal way in which God sustains or governs the natural world. Perhaps the most wicked concept that has captured the minds of modern people is the belief that the universe operates by chance. That is the nadir of foolishness. Elsewhere, I have written more extensively on the scientific impossibility of assigning power to chance, because chance is simply a word that describes mathematical possibilities.* Chance is not a thing. It has no power. It cannot do anything, and therefore it cannot influence anything, yet some have taken the word chance, which has no power, and diabolically used it as a replacement for the concept of God. But the truth, as the Bible makes clear, is that nothing happens by chance and that all things are under the sovereign government of God, which is exceedingly comforting to the Christian who understands it.”
― R.C. Sproul, Everyone's a Theologian: An Introduction to Systematic Theology

“I was new Christian. My conversation had been sudden and dramatic, a replica for me of the Damascus Road. My life had been turned upside down,, and I was filled with zeal for the sweetness of Christ. I was consumed with a new passion. To study the Scripture. To learn hoe to pray. To conquer the vices that assaulted my character. To grow in grace. I wanted desperately to make my life count for Christ. My soul was singing, "Lord, I want to be a Christian.”
― R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God

“We can no more assist the Holy Spirit in the quickening of our souls to spiritual life than Lazarus could help Jesus raise him from the dead.”
― R.C. Sproul, The Mystery of the Holy Spirit

“What kind of a concept of God do we have that we would say that God is paralyzed by human choices? If His freedom is limited by our freedom, we are sovereign, not God. No, we are free, but God is even more free. This means that our freedom can never limit God’s sovereignty.”
― R.C. Sproul, Does God Control Everything?

“Sin can be pleasurable, but it never brings happiness.”
― R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God

“We break our promises to one another. We break our promises to God. But God never breaks His promises to us.”
― R.C. Sproul, The Promises of God: Discovering the One Who Keeps His Word

“Everything we learn—economics, philosophy, biology, mathematics—has to be understood in light of the overarching reality of the character of God. That is why, in the Middle Ages, theology was called “the queen of the sciences” and philosophy “her handmaiden.” Today the queen has been deposed from her throne and, in many cases, driven into exile, and a supplanter now reigns. We have replaced theology with religion.”
― R.C. Sproul, Everyone's a Theologian: An Introduction to Systematic Theology

“Was Luther crazy? Perhaps. But if he was, our prayer is that God would send to this earth an epidemic of such insanity that we too may taste of the righteousness that is by faith alone.”
― R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God

“If an unjust law is passed and enforced, then anyone coerced to comply with the law is a victim of injustice.”
― R.C. Sproul, Abortion

“When I read the Bible, the Bible criticizes me, I don't criticize the Bible.”
― R.C. Sproul