This is the difference between religion and atheism; religion does not grow without planting, but will die even where it is planted without watering. Atheism, irreligion, and profaneness are weeds that will grow without setting, but they will not die without plucking up.

— William Gurnall (1616–1679), Puritanischer Pastor

Topics: Doubt & Hard Questions, Growth & Character, Faith & Trust

William Gurnall

William Gurnall war ein englischer puritanischer Geistlicher des 17. Jahrhunderts, der von 1644 bis zu seinem Tod als Pfarrer in Lavenham wirkte. Bekanntheit erlangte er durch sein umfangreiches Werk „The Christian in Complete Armour“ über die geistliche Waffenrüstung, geriet jedoch 1662 durch seine Anpassung an den staatlichen Act of Uniformity in Konflikt mit nonkonformistischen Puritanern. Heutigen Bibellesern bietet sein Werk eine detailreiche theologische und seelsorgliche Auslegung des Epheserbriefs zur Praxis von Gebet und geistlicher Wachsamkeit.

All quotes by William Gurnall (40)

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The strongest faith isn't a faith that never doubts. Rather, it's a faith that grows through doubts.
Craig Groeschel

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it but because, by it, I see everything else.
C.S. Lewis

Do you see the moon standing there? It's only half visible, and yet it's round and lovely! So it is with many things that we lightly laugh about, because our eyes cannot see them.
Matthias Claudius

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

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.
C.S. Lewis

Now that I am a Christian I do not have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable.
C.S. Lewis

Faith comes and goes. It rises and falls like the tides of an invisible ocean. If it is presumptuous to think that faith will stay with you forever, it is just as presumptuous to think that unbelief will.
Flannery O'Connor

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.
William Shakespeare

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