We [wrongly] feel that heaven is bearable, all right, when one has sucked dry all the pleasures of earth. We feel that, only after old age has come upon us, when life is a burden, when health has failed, when we are in the way and our children don’t want us, then perhaps we should be resigned to go to Heaven. Subconsciously we look upon heaven as a scrapheap for the worn-out and useless, a kind of old people’s home – better than nothing but not as good as this world, with youth, health and prosperity.

John R. Rice (1895–1980), Evangelist

Topics: Eternity & Hope Beyond Death, Time & Transience

Occasions: For Reflection

John R. Rice

Der US-amerikanische baptistische Evangelist und Autor John R. Rice (1895–1980) war eine führende Stimme des christlichen Fundamentalismus des 20. Jahrhunderts. Er begründete die einflussreiche Publikation „The Sword of the Lord“, forderte kompromisslose theologische Abgrenzung und geriet insbesondere wegen seiner Schriften zur Verteidigung der Rassentrennung sowie patriarchaler Rollenbilder in die Kritik. Heutigen Bibellesern begegnen vor allem seine praktischen Ausführungen zu beharrlichem Gebet und persönlicher Evangelisation.

All quotes by John R. Rice (9)

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I ask myself: what does hell mean? I maintain: it is the inability to love.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

God has put eternity into our hearts and filled it with longing.

John Piper

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

C.S. Lewis

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Jim Elliot

I want you to know that we will reach God's kingdom. That's why I am happy today. I am not worried about anything. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming Lord.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Whoever knows Easter cannot despair.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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

Death in its substance has been removed, and only the shadow of it remains… Nobody is afraid of a shadow, for a shadow cannot block a man’s pathway for even a moment. The shadow of a dog can’t bite; the shadow of a sword can’t kill.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

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