R.C. Sproul > Quotes

“the more we understand of the holiness and the righteousness of God,
the more we begin to see by contrast how desperately fallen we are and how utterly dependent we are on His mercy and grace.”
― R.C. Sproul, The Truth of the Cross

“Actually, any Christian who has tried to bear witness to others has heard that charge: "Who do you think you are?" The greatest answer to that question that I've ever heard is the old answer, "I'm just one beggar telling other beggars where they can find bread." That's really all I anl, and that's all any of us are.”
― R.C. Sproul, John

“We need Christ-the real Christ. A Christ born of empty speculation or created to squeeze into the philosopher's pattern
simply won't do. A recycled Christ, a Christ of compromise, can redeem no one. A Christ watered down, stripped of power, debased of glory, reduced to a symbol, or made impotent by scholarly surgery is not Christ but Antichrist.”
― R.C. Sproul, Who Is Jesus?

“What does God expect of His children who are married or thinking about getting married? God expects, among other things, faithfulness to the marriage partner, provision of mutual needs, and mutual respect under the lordship of Christ. Certainly the couple should enhance each other's effectiveness as Christians. If not, something is wrong.”
― R.C. Sproul, Can I Know God's Will?

“dream at Bethel) or one could "ascend" to Jerusalem,”
― R.C. Sproul, Who Is Jesus?

“The great message of atheism is that “chance” has causal power.”
― R.C. Sproul, Does God Control Everything?

“The lack of deficiency in general revelation is rooted not so much in man's natural composition as in his disposition. That is, the matter of the knowledge of God the Creator is not so much an intellectual problem as it is a moral problem. It becomes an intellectual problem because the mind is darkened by man's indisposition or psychological bias against the light. As Jesus said, "The light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil (John 3:19).”
― R.C. Sproul, If There's a God, Why Are There Atheists?

“The text teaches that Christ died only for believers, and the only ones who believe are the elect. Atonement was not made for the sins of unbelievers. Had their sins been atoned for, God would be unjust to punish them. This is a very difficult doctrine, one over which people often stumble. A preacher’s mandate, however, is to be faithful to the text and to the whole counsel of God. Since this text is part of the whole counsel of God, there is no choice but to proclaim it.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“conversations”
― R.C. Sproul, Can I Trust the Bible?

“So all who are elect will become, at some point in this life, regenerate by the Holy Spirit. Likewise, all who are regenerate are numbered among the elect. So if you can be sure of your regeneration, you can be sure of your election; and if you’re sure of your election, you can be sure of your salvation.”
― R.C. Sproul, Can I Be Sure I'm Saved?

“Repentance rituals in the Old Testament often included a call for fasting during a solemn assembly”
― R.C. Sproul, What Is Repentance?

“works affects”
― R.C. Sproul, Can I Know God's Will?

“to Jerusalem. They must have been giddy: laughing, skipping, and singing the whole way. They recalled the words of Jesus in the upper room of the promise of another Comforter who would come. They were glad in heart because they finally understood where Jesus was going and why He was going there. Earlier, Christ had said, “No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended”
― R.C. Sproul, Who Is Jesus?

“In the final analysis, our names, our organizations, and our efforts are all meaningless unless we honor God's name.”
― R.C. Sproul, Does Prayer Change Things?

“The fact that people become emotional about the abortion issue has a rational basis. The emotion is not arbitrary or capricious. The emotion is rooted in the deep human consciousness of the sanctity of life. It is emotional concern for the well-being of people-living people.”
― R.C. Sproul, Abortion: A Rational Look at An Emotional Issue

“environment”
― R.C. Sproul, Can I Lose My Salvation?

“and downs of life, those changes that are part of the impermanency of our daily experience, we are tempted to raise the ultimate question: If I’m presently in a state of faith, if I’m”
― R.C. Sproul, Can I Lose My Salvation?

“once spoke with a missionary who had been laboring in a remote part of the world, ministering to a group of people who had never seen a person from the West before. The missionary labored with this tribe for several years, and when they finally came to an understanding of the gospel, many were converted to Christ—including the chief of the village. On one occasion, the chief asked the missionary how long ago Jesus lived on the earth. The missionary tried to find a way to communicate in the language of the people the vast distance of time of two thousand years. There was no way she could communicate that until they talked about generations. The chief then took some sticks, and he had each stick represent a generation. He asked, “Did Jesus live during my generation?” and the missionary said no. Then he took a second stick, and he said, “Did He live during my father’s life?” No. And then a third stick: “My grandfather’s life?” No. And with each stick that he put on the ground, his countenance grew more and more distressed. When he finally had a length of sticks on the ground stretching all the way back to the first century, he was beside himself, and he asked, “If Jesus lived so long ago, why is it that we are only hearing about Him now?”
― R.C. Sproul, What Is the Gospel?

“When we pray, we must remember who God is and who we are before Him. We must remember first and foremost that God's name is to be kept holy. We must remember
that He is the Source of our provision and that all good things come from Him. We are to live in such a way that we make visible the kingdom of God in this world. We must regularly confess our sin, for that is one of the surest marks of a Christian. We are to pray that God will protect us from the evil one.”
― R.C. Sproul, Does Prayer Change Things?

“Free-will without God’s grace is not free at all, but is the permanent prisoner and bondslave of evil, since it cannot turn itself to good. Martin Luther”
― R.C. Sproul, Willing to Believe: The Controversy over Free Will

“We need Christ—the real Christ. A Christ born of empty speculation or created to squeeze into the philosopher’s pattern simply won’t do. A recycled Christ, a Christ of compromise, can redeem no one. A Christ watered down, stripped of power, debased of glory, reduced to a symbol, or made impotent by scholarly surgery is not Christ but Antichrist.”
― R.C. Sproul, Who Is Jesus?

“The Sacred and the Profane. Eliade insists that we have never been able to create an existence of pure and utter profanity. He says, "To whatever degree he may have desacralized the world, the man who has made his choice in favor of a profane life never succeeds in completely doing away with religious behavior.”
― R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God

“When I have things in perspective, I know that if I never experienced another blessing in my entire life other than the blessings I already have received from the hand of God, I would have no possible reason to be anything but overflowing with joy until the day I die. God has already given me so much to be thankful for, so much to provoke my soul to delight, gladness, and joy, that I should be able to live on the basis of that surplus of blessedness and remain joyful all of my days.”
― R.C. Sproul, Can I Have Joy In My Life?

“Obviously there must be a relationship between our ethical theories and our moral behavior. In a real sense, our beliefs dictate our behavior. A theory underlies our every moral action. We may not be able to articulate that theory or even be immediately conscious of it, but nothing manifests our value systems more sharply than our actions.”
― R.C. Sproul, How Should I Live In This World?

“Le simple fait que je respire ce matin constitue un acte de miséricorde divine. Dieu ne me doit rien. Je lui dois tout.”
― R.C. Sproul, La sainteté de Dieu

“To mention something three times in succession is to elevate it to the superlative degree, to attach to it emphasis of superimportance... Only once in sacred scripture is an attribute of God elevated to the third degree. Only once is a characteristic ofof God mentioned three times in succession. The Bible says that God is holy, holy, holy. Not that He is merely holy, or even holy, holy. He is holy holy holy. The Bible never says that God is love, love, love; or mercy, mercy, mercy; or wrath, wrath, wrath; or justice, juatice, justice. It does say that He is holy, holy, holy, that the whole earth is full of His glory.”
― R C Sproul

“Los hombres nunca serán debidamente conmovidos e impresionados con la convicción de su insignificancia, sino hasta que se hayan contrastado con la majestad de Dios.”
― R.C. Sproul, La santidad de Dios = The Holiness of God

“If sin is quantified, then we look to merits or graces as the remedy. Baptism atones for original sin, or the sin of Adam that was imputed to us. What remains is our actual sins. Again, the quantity of sins is the issue. And so, the other sacraments, in addition to the sacrament of baptism, come into play. Through penance, it is possible to undo the effects of our sins.”
― R.C. Sproul, The Legacy of Luther

“The sovereignty of God deals not only with abstract principles but with real lines of authority. God has the right
to issue commands, to impose obligations, and to bind the consciences of men.”
― R.C. Sproul, How Should I Live In This World?

“For Plato, knowledge that is restricted to the material world is at best mere opinion and at worst ignorance. The task of education is to lead people out of darkness into light, out of the cave and its shadows and into the noonday sun. The Latin term educare describes this process. Its root meaning is “to lead out of,” as the root ducere means “to lead.” We”
― R.C. Sproul, The Consequences of Ideas: Understanding the Concepts that Shaped Our World