Quotes by Helmut Thielicke

Helmut Thielicke (1908–1986) — Theologe · Lutherisch · Deutschland

Helmut Thielicke (1908–1986) war ein deutscher evangelisch-lutherischer Theologe, Universitätsprofessor und einflussreicher Prediger, der vor allem in Stuttgart, Tübingen und Hamburg wirkte. Bekannt für seine theologische Ethik und alltagsnahe Verkündigung, vertrat er eine klassisch-lutherische Position und geriet in den 1960er-Jahren wegen seiner konservativen Haltung und Kritik an der Politisierung des Glaubens in scharfe Konflikte mit der Studentenbewegung. Für Bibelleser heute bieten seine Arbeiten Reflexionen über christliche Verantwortung und theologische Orientierung im Spannungsfeld von Glaube und säkularer Welt.

Era: The 20th Century

Recurring topics: God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit, Faith & Trust, Hope & Confidence, Grace & Redemption, Eternity & Hope Beyond Death, Suffering & the Question of God, Meaning & Identity, Grief & Comfort

Quotes by Helmut Thielicke

God does not love us because we are so valuable, but we are so valuable because God loves us.
Helmut Thielicke

We do not know what is coming; but we know who is coming. That means: losing fear, because I know the final reality.
Helmut Thielicke

The grip of our faith by which we hold on to the Lord may loosen. But the One in whom we believe holds us with his grip.
Helmut Thielicke

God remains faithful to me, even when I lose myself in doubt about him.
Helmut Thielicke

The eternal arms are spread out beneath us. If we must fall, then let us fall into them.
Helmut Thielicke

I do not see the meaning, but I trust the one who knows it.
Helmut Thielicke

Jesus also lets his people rest: in spring they may sit in the sun without constantly having spiritual thoughts.
Helmut Thielicke

That is how Jesus Christ is: he sets me no conditions I would first have to fulfill in order to find him.
Helmut Thielicke

When the Easter message dawns on us, we suddenly find ourselves surrounded by life, where before we had a future hedged in by worries.
Helmut Thielicke

That is exactly the miracle of the gospel: we are not the only ones on the way. Someone also comes toward us who knows us.
Helmut Thielicke

Jesus does not love me only once I get something right and am fit; even if it never comes to that, I am already loved.
Helmut Thielicke

It is always a comfort to me that almost all the stories in which people become entangled with Christ happen on sober weekdays.
Helmut Thielicke

Even the people who cause us trouble are radiant with the nobility he bestowed on them when he died for them.
Helmut Thielicke

God does not solve all our questions, but he redeems us from having to ask them!
Helmut Thielicke

The glum, sour faces of many Christians. They rather give the impression that, instead of coming from the Father’s joyful banquet, they have just come from the Sheriff who has auctioned off their sins and now are sorry they can’t get them back again.
Helmut Thielicke

When we stand under Jesus, we stand above things. When we raise ourselves above Jesus, we fall under things.
Helmut Thielicke

We die into the living hand of God.
Helmut Thielicke

The other person is what my love makes of them. We too are what God's love makes of us.
Helmut Thielicke

Only he who knows the end of all things can smile at the chaos.
Helmut Thielicke

The last secret of history is this: there is a homecoming for us all, because there is a home.
Helmut Thielicke

When everything seems to be at an end, God's possibilities are only just beginning.
Helmut Thielicke

God's tasks always have something surprising about them, and the brother is sure to lie along my path just when I am busy with other duties.
Helmut Thielicke

In Jesus, death loses its terror. Here an eternal hand lies in ours.
Helmut Thielicke

The good news is that with God everything is entirely different from what we thought or feared.
Helmut Thielicke

In life we sit between the chairs — but under the shelter of the Most High.
Helmut Thielicke

Everything must first pass by God before it can touch me.
Helmut Thielicke

Between me and every darkness stands Jesus Christ, and there is no darkness that light cannot overcome.
Helmut Thielicke

If Jesus is not the Redeemer here in everyday life, then Sundays are of no use either.
Helmut Thielicke

Christ is greater than our faith; that is what we live on. He is also greater than anything that could come between him and us.
Helmut Thielicke

It belongs to the nature of the kingdom of God that it seeks out the thickest concrete walls of my life to make its entrance here, and only here.
Helmut Thielicke

That is indeed the miracle of the gospel: that there is no depth in which this Savior would not become our brother.
Helmut Thielicke

I can afford to be honest and realistic about myself; I can afford it, because I am a free, unstrained child of God.
Helmut Thielicke

Today we sin in most cases not by working too little. We should rather ask ourselves whether we are still capable of being idle in God's name for once.
Helmut Thielicke

It is a piece of Christian enjoyment of life to give oneself over to the suspense of how God will go on writing the story of my life.
Helmut Thielicke

The Bible says, with breathtaking simplicity, that the final power is good to us.
Helmut Thielicke

There is One who stands by me, whoever I may be.
Helmut Thielicke

If there is one thing I can count on with absolute certainty, it is that God arrives with his surprises right on time, with startling precision.
Helmut Thielicke

When our love grows cold, he will keep burning with love for us.
Helmut Thielicke

God builds bridges and paths out of the rubble field of our lives, on which he leads us across every abyss.
Helmut Thielicke

Christmas tells us: God comes to fetch us, no matter where we stand.
Helmut Thielicke

127 quotes in total — browse the collection.

Sources: wikipedia.org, spiegel.de, youtube.com, elca.org

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