Quotes by James Montgomery Boice
James Montgomery Boice (1938–2000) — Pastor und Theologe · Reformiert · USA
James Montgomery Boice (1938–2000) war ein US-amerikanischer reformierter Theologe und langjähriger Pastor der Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Er prägte die evangelikale Bewegung maßgeblich durch seinen Einsatz für die Irrtumslosigkeit der Bibel im Rahmen der Chicago-Erklärung sowie durch seine Radiosendung „The Bible Study Hour“. Heutigen Bibellesern begegnet er vor allem durch seine Bibelkommentare, die klassisch-reformierte Theologie mit fortlaufender Schriftauslegung verbinden.
Era: The 20th Century
Recurring topics: The Bible & the Word of God, God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit, Discipleship, Wisdom & Understanding, Church & Congregation, Grace & Redemption, Justice & Commitment, Faith & Trust
Quotes by James Montgomery Boice
The cross stands as the focal point of the Christian faith. Without the cross the Bible is an enigma, and the Gospel of salvation is an empty hope.
James Montgomery Boice
The wrath of God is not ignoble. Rather, it is too noble, too just, too perfect – it is this that bothers us.
James Montgomery Boice
Why is God silent? Why does the God of all the universe not speak?… God has already spoken everything that can probably be spoken graciously. Jesus is the ultimate, final word of God in that area. Not a syllable can be added. The only words that remain to be spoken are the final words of judgment.
James Montgomery Boice
We are not to be anxious about the unknown future or to fret about it. We are to live in a moment-by-moment dependence upon God.
James Montgomery Boice
At the heart of the present significance of the Lord’s Supper is our communion or fellowship with Christ, hence the term “communion service.” In coming to this service the believer comes to meet with Christ and have fellowship with Him at His invitation. The examination takes place because it would be hypocrisy for us to pretend that we are in communion with the Holy One while actually cherishing known sin in our hearts.
James Montgomery Boice
We are to believe and follow Christ in all things, including His words about Scripture. And this means that Scripture is to be for us what it was to Him: the unique, authoritative, and inerrant Word of God, and not merely a human testimony to Christ, however carefully guided and preserved by God. If the Bible is less than this to us, we are not fully Christ’s disciples.
James Montgomery Boice
A nation's strength is found not in the number of its laws but in the character of its people.
James Montgomery Boice
[Immutability] means that, being perfect, God cannot and does not change. In order to change, a moral being must change in either of two ways. Either he must change for the better or he must change for the worse. God cannot get better, because that would mean that He was less than perfect earlier, in which case He would not have been God. But God cannot get worse either, because in that case He would become imperfect, which He cannot be. God is and must remain perfect in all His attributes.
James Montgomery Boice
Inerrancy is not the most critical issue facing the church today. The most serious issue, I believe, is the Bible’s sufficiency.
James Montgomery Boice
Can God reveal Himself to humanity? And, to be more specific, can He reveal himself in language, the specifics of which become normative for Christian faith and action? With an inerrant Bible these things are possible. Without it, theology inevitably enters a wasteland of human speculation. The church, which needs a sure Word of God, flounders. Without an inerrant revelation, theology is not only adrift, it is meaningless. Having repudiated its right to speak on the basis of Scripture, it forfeits its right to speak on any other issue as well.
James Montgomery Boice
In the days of hardship, particularly persecution, those who are in the process of becoming Christians count the cost of discipleship carefully before taking up the cross of the Nazarene. Preachers do not beguile them with false promises of an easy life or indulgence of sins. But in good times, the cost does not seem so high, and people take the name of Christ without undergoing the radical transformation of life that true conversion implies.
James Montgomery Boice
This is a paradox, of course, as Augustine, Luther, Edwards, Pascal and others have pointed out. When individuals rebel against God, they don’t achieve freedom. They fall into bondage, because rebellion is sin, and sin is a tyrant. On the other hand, when men and women submit to God, becoming his slaves, they become truly free. They achieve the ability fully to become the special, unique beings that God created them to be.
James Montgomery Boice
Jesus said that we will know the truth about Himself only if we are willing to do His will, that is, if we allow ourselves to be changed by the truths we find in Scripture. He said, “If any man’s will is to do His will (that is, if he determines to do it), he shall know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority” (John 7:17). We must not assume that we will be able fully to understand any passage of Scripture unless we are willing to be changed by it.
James Montgomery Boice
It is beyond doubt that Jesus highly esteemed the Old Testament and constantly submitted to it as to an authoritative revelation. He taught that the Scriptures bore a witness to Him, just as He bore a witness to them. Because they are the words of God, Jesus assumed their complete reliability, in whole and to the smallest part.
James Montgomery Boice
We often hear the “Savior” characteristics of God stressed – His love, mercy, goodness and so on – but the matter of His lordship is absent. The distortion is particularly clear in evangelism. In modern practice the call to repentance is usually called an “invitation,” which one can obviously accept or refuse. It is offered politely. Seldom do we hear presented God’s sovereign demand to repent or His demand for total submission to the authority of His appointed king, Christ Jesus.
James Montgomery Boice
It is significant that we are described as being slightly lower than the angels rather than being slightly higher than the beasts. Our place and privilege is to be a mediating figure, but to be one who looks up rather than down. When we sever the tie that binds us to God and try to cast off God’s rule, we do not rise up to take God’s place, as we desire to do, but rather sink to a more bestial level. In fact, we come to think of ourselves as beasts (“the naked ape”) or, even worse, as machines.
James Montgomery Boice
Instead of trying to find loopholes in God’s commandment or trying to convince ourselves that our spouse is not a Christian or is at least not behaving as one and therefore divorceable, we ought to be shouting the holiness of marriage from the housetops. It is better to endure much personal unhappiness than to treat as expendable the solemn vows of the wedding service.
James Montgomery Boice
Some persons think they can know God by means of their own human reason. But reason is a blind ally spiritually. It has always been the great minds exercising their powers apart from the Word of God who have produced the great heresies. Some think they can discover God by listening to a so-called “inner voice.” But the voice is often nothing more than an expression of their own inner desires. Quite a few think that spiritual truths can be verified by supernatural events or miracles. But the Bible everywhere teaches that even miracles will not lead men and women to understand and receive God’s truth unless they themselves are illuminated by the Bible (see Luke 16:31). I believe that we can state categorically that there is no knowledge apart from Jesus Christ and that there is no knowledge of Jesus Christ apart from a knowledge of the Bible.
James Montgomery Boice
If the death of Christ on the cross is the true meaning of the Incarnation, then there is no gospel without the cross. Christmas by itself is no gospel. The life of Christ is no gospel. Even the resurrection, important as it is in the total scheme of things, is no gospel by itself. For the good news is not just that God became man, nor that God has spoken to reveal a proper way of life for us, or even that death, the great enemy, is conquered. Rather, the good news is that sin has been dealt with (of which the resurrection is a proof); that Jesus has suffered its penalty for us as our representative, so that we might never have to suffer it; and that therefore all who believe in Him can look forward to heaven.
James Montgomery Boice
Sources: wikipedia.org, sbts.edu, tenth.org, byfaithonline.com
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