Systematic Theology - Quotes

“No one book of scripture can be understood by itself, any more than any one part of a tree or member of the body can be understood without reference to the whole of which it is a part.”
― Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology -

“It is plain that complete havoc must be made of the whole system of revealed truth, unless we consent to derive our philosophy from the Bible, instead of explaining the Bible by our philosophy.”
― Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology: The Complete Three Volumes

“It is intuitively true, to all who have eyes to see, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that his gospel is the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation, and that it is absolutely impossible that any theory which is opposed to these divine intuitions can be true.”
― Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Volumes 1-3

“It would be well if all who call themselves Christians, should learn that it is not their business to believe and teach what they may think true or right, but what God in his Holy Word has seen fit to reveal.”
― Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Complete; Vol. 1: Introduction, Vol. 2: Part 1, Theology Proper; Part 2, Anthropology; Part 3, Soteriology; Vol. 3: Part 4, Eschatology

“f a wonder, therefore, be wrought in favour of what is good, it is from God; if in support of what is evil, it is from Satan. This is one of the grounds on which Protestants give themselves so little concern about the pretended miracles of the Romish church. They do not feel it to be necessary to disprove them by a critical examination of their nature, or of the circumstances under which they were performed, or of the evidence by which they are supported. Not one in a thousand of them could stand the test of such an examination; most of them, indeed, are barefaced impostures openly justified by the authorities on the ground of pious frauds. It is a sufficient reason for repudiating, prior to any examination, all such pretended miracles, that they are wrought in support of an antichristian system, that they are part of a complicated mass of deceit and evil.”
― Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology -

“No less clear and universally admitted is the principle that God can control the free acts of rational creatures without destroying either their liberty or their responsibility.”
― Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology: The Complete Three Volumes

“Theology, therefore, is the exhibition of the facts of Scripture in their proper order and relation, with the principles or general truths involved in the facts themselves, and which pervade and harmonize the whole.”
― Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology: The Complete Three Volumes

“If the facts of Scripture are what Augustinians believe them to be, then the Augustinian system is the only possible system of theology. If those facts be what Romanists or Remonstrants take them to be, then their system is the only true one. It is important that the theologian should know his place. He is not master of the situation. He can no more construct a system of theology to suit his fancy, than the astronomer can adjust the mechanism of the heavens according to his own good pleasure.”
― Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology: The Complete Three Volumes

“This collection of facts must not only be carefully conducted, but also comprehensive, and if possible, exhaustive. An imperfect induction of facts led men for ages to believe that the sun moved round the earth, and that the earth was an extended plain.”
― Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology: The Complete Three Volumes

“There is in every department of investigation great liability to error. Almost all false theories in science and false doctrines in theology are due in a great degree to mistakes as to matters of fact.”
― Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology: The Complete Three Volumes

“It is conceded that nothing contrary to reason can be true. But it is no less important to remember that nothing contrary to our moral nature can be true.”
― Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology: The Complete Three Volumes

“Fourth, Such is evidently the will of God. He does not teach men astronomy or chemistry, but He gives them the facts out of which those sciences are constructed. Neither does He teach us systematic theology, but He gives us in the Bible the truths which, properly understood and arranged, constitute the science of theology. As the facts of nature are all related and determined by physical laws, so the facts of the Bible are all related and determined by the nature of God and of his creatures.”
― Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology: The Complete Three Volumes

“determined”
― Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology: The Complete Three Volumes

“Science is more than knowledge. Knowledge is the persuasion of what is true on adequate evidence.”
― Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology: The Complete Three Volumes