Quotes from David F. Wells

I just completed No Place for Truth, by David Wells last night. I thought I would paste some good quotes from the book. All of these particular quotes come from his last chapter titled, "The Reform of Evangelicalism."

On Modern Revivalism:

"At moments like this, the customary response to the sense of Christian inadequacy, whether in relation to God or some aspect of the Christian message, has been to call for revival. In the modern period, though, revival has frequently entailed little more than proceeding with business as usual and praying that God will spice it up with some new enthusiasm and effectiveness. This is the legacy of the Finneyite conception of revival as something that can be engineered by the Church with proper techniques. Working from such assumptions, the Church will almost certainly be inclined to think of its own rejuvenation as self-engineered. But this is simply to apply modernity's solution to a problem that modernity has caused, and that is a dead end (Wells, No place for Truth, 296)."

On the Image of God:

"If we view ourselves as beings made in the image of God, we will recognize in ourselves capacities for God, truth, and goodness--capacities that cannot be meaningfully filled by that which is not divine, not true, not good. As Augustine observed long ago, we will be restless and frustrated until these capacities find their satisfaction in the God for whom they are made (Wells, No Place for Truth, 298)."


On the Relationship between Theology and the Church:

"Why should theology not be content simply to think its deep thoughts alone in the learned guild, doing its work only among scholars? The answer, quite simply, is that the learned guild cannot properly serve as the primary auditor for theology, the wider culture finds it incomprehensible, and theology developed apart from the Church rapidly loses its character. A theology oblivious to the Church as the people of God soon loses a sense of wonder because it is cut off from worship, and it soon loses productive connections to the world because it is not driven by a commitment to service. It will lose its life and character. And, conversely, without theology there can be no Church, because theology holds the key to Christian identity, to Christian continuity, to genuine piety, to serious worship, and to the sort of Christian thought that seeks to bring the import of God's Word into our world (Wells, No Place for Truth, 292)."

A Few Good Quotes on Various Topics

"Things are allowed to be said and done at revivals which nobody could defend . . . If, for a moment, our improvements seem to produce a larger result than the old gospel, it will be the growth of mushrooms, it may even be of toadstools; but it is not the growth of trees of the Lord."
C.H. Spurgeon, An All-Around Ministry, 375-376 (Quoted from Revival and Revivalism, by Murray, xvi)

"Even today the earth sustains many monstrous spirits who, to destroy God's name, do not hesitate to misdirect all the seed of divinity spread abroad in human nature. How detestable, I ask you, is this madness: that man, finding God in his body and soul a hundred times, on this very pretense of excellence denies that there is a God?"
John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion 1, 55-56

"The task of all Christian scholarship--not just biblical studies--is to study reality as a manifestation of God's glory, to speak and write about it with accuracy, and to savor the beauty of God in it. It is a massive abdication of scholarship that so many Christians do academic work with so little reference to God. If all the universe and everything in it exist by the design of an infinite, personal God to make his manifold glory known and loved, then to treat any subject without reference to God's glory is not scholarship, but insurrection."
John Piper, The Pleasures of God, 298

"Worship is the language of love and growth between believers and God; evangelism is the language of introduction between those who believe and those who don't."
Marva Dawn, A Royal "Waste" of Time, 124

"When we fail morally, physically, emotionally, we do not quit worshipping or outpouring, it is that we change gods."
Harold Best, Lecture Notes from the Worshipping Church Class at SBTS in 2003

The Nature of Deception

Here are two quotes concerning the deceptive nature of wickedness. One is modern. One is ancient.

"Wolves don’t come with business cards that say 'Wolf.' They dress up like sheep, talk like sheep, and are published by sheep publishers."
Mark Dever

"Error never shows itself in its naked reality, in order not to be discovered. On the contrary, it dresses elegantly, so that the unwary may be led to believe that it is more truthful than truth itself."
Irenaeus of Lyons

Final Words

I have almost completed Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography by Iain H. Murray. I think these parting words of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards are warming to the heart. They also serve as a reminder as to the real importance of one's family on the measuring of one's legacy.

Edwards received an innoculation against smallpox, and developed the virus. He knew he was dying and gave these parting words for his wife (who was not present) to one of his daughters, "Dear Lucy, it seems to me to be the will of God, that I must shortly leave you; therefore give my kindest love to my dear wife, and tell her, that the uncommon union, which has so long subsisted between us, has been of such a nature, as I trust is spiritual, and therefore will continue for ever. And I hope she will be supported under so great a trial and submit cheerfully to the will of God. And as to my children, you are now like to be left fatherless, which I hope will be an inducement to you all, to seek a Father who will never fail you (p 441)."

Upon receiving the news of her husband's death, Sarah Edwards writes to Esther (another daughter), "What shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. O that we may kiss the rod, and lay our hands on our mouths! The Lord has done it. He has made me adore his goodness, that we had him so long. But my God lives; and he has my heart. O what a legacy my husband, and your father, has left us! We are all given to God; and there I am, and love to be (p 442)."