Captive to the Word of God Quotes

“The Baptists argued that the Church of God should be a community of godly men; that faith is the gift of God, and not to be compelled by force of arms; that only those rites sanctioned or commanded by Christ and His Apostles are binding upon His people; and that the only Lawgiver of the Church is Christ Himself. Each party [Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and Presbyterians] had, therefore, its own reason for hating the Baptists; and as each had yet to learn the true nature of religious freedom, each oppressed and persecuted in turn.”9 Baptists protested that they were not Anabaptists, because they did not see baptizing believers who had been sprinkled as infants as re-baptizing and because they did not want the radical, anti-state label hung on them as earned by some Anabaptist and 5th Monarchy activists. It appears that after some time of such protests, in answer to the inevitable question, “If you're not Anabaptists, what are you?” 10 the name “Baptist” emerged.”
― Stuart L Brogden, Captive to the Word of God: A Particular Baptist Perspective on Reformed and Covenant Theology

“The only good a book can do is to point back to the Scriptures, which focus on the Lamb of God who was slain to reconcile sinners to Holy God. To the degree books help us better comprehend God’s Truth, praise God – let us read! To the degree books distract us or, worse, lead us astray from God’s Truth – let us repent! Confessions or books, the same rules apply; undergirded by the reality that all works of man are influenced to some degree by the sin that has infected and affected every person in every generation of the human race.”
― Stuart L Brogden, Captive to the Word of God: A Particular Baptist Perspective on Reformed and Covenant Theology

“Instead of “confessionalism,” we need to promote and cultivate “something close to biblicism.” Instead of expending the bulk of our energies exegeting the Confession and the writings of Luther, Calvin, and the Puritans, we need to go back farther in history and find the answers and solutions to modern questions and problems as they’re provided in the writings of Moses, the Prophets, and the Apostles.1”
― Stuart L Brogden, Captive to the Word of God: A Particular Baptist Perspective on Reformed and Covenant Theology

“Properly understood, Sola Scriptura means that Scripture alone is esteemed as the Word of God. It is His special revelation to man, revealing Him as Creator and Judge of all flesh and us as fallen creatures who deserve His wrath. The Bible reveals to us the hope of redemption that is possible in Christ Jesus alone, and in Whom alone there is safety from the judgment of God against sinners.”
― Stuart L Brogden, Captive to the Word of God: A Particular Baptist Perspective on Reformed and Covenant Theology

“Men with power are prone to misuse it, and it is nowhere more damaging to good order than when the power of the state is wedded to a perceived religious authority. And when a few children of God desire to walk as they see fit in Scripture, the religious authorities inevitably take actions to stop it and try to bind the consciences of the “rebels.” The danger of state churches is clearly demonstrated by history, as man cannot rule as God does. So having each congregation be autonomous is the only acceptable way; and it has the benefit of aligning with Scripture. So the congregation and each saint therein stands before God with, as Luther put it, a conscience bound only by the Word of God.”
― Stuart L Brogden, Captive to the Word of God: A Particular Baptist Perspective on Reformed and Covenant Theology

“The Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus was our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7), showing us the Passover is not a continuing observance, but a ceremonial shadow or type that pointed God’s people to the promised seed who would save His people from their sin. The Lord’s Supper has connections to the Passover, but is itself the sign of a better covenant (Luke 22:20 & Hebrews 8:6). As the infant Hebrew nation was saved by the blood of the Passover lamb being shed only once, so the New Covenant was ratified and made effective for the salvation of all the elect by the one-time sacrifice of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus. The Passover was a type of the Lord’s Supper, something temporal pointing to something eternal.”
― Stuart L Brogden, Captive to the Word of God: A Particular Baptist Perspective on Reformed and Covenant Theology

“But deep as this glorious truth (that of the Lord's Supper) may be, it is not the bottom of the cup. Our vicarious burial into Christ's death is deeper still, plunging us ever deeper and deeper into the Savior's precious wounds. Our vicarious participation in Christ's death, our drinking of His cup, is no mere abstract and distant imputation of our sins to Him at the cross. Do we not believe that the cup which Jesus drank, and which we by grace drink with Him, is a cup filled with “wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation” against our sins? Do we not believe in that eye for eye, tooth for tooth, stripe for stripe, and blood for blood, God perfectly measured His unbearable wrath with exactitude, precisely meted out hell's fury against us, and poured the full measure of His indignation into the cup of our Savior's suffering? Do we not believe that the sufferings of Christ transcend His mere physical sufferings in Pilate's hall or upon Golgotha's hill? Do we not believe that in the hour and power of darkness, when the moon turned to blood and the sun to blackness as sackcloth of hair, that there beneath the ebony sun and crimson moon, a great transaction between the Godhead, a holy transaction too terrible for human eyes to gaze upon, and too wonderful for the minds of men and angels to comprehend? And it is in this moment of Christ's submersion into the dark and scarlet billows of Divine wrath that we see deeply, not only to the bottom of the cup, but also into the deepest meaning of immersion as the only accurate symbolic representation of Christ's horrific burial in the sea of God's wrath.”
― Stuart L Brogden, Captive to the Word of God: A Particular Baptist Perspective on Reformed and Covenant Theology

“Lack of knowledge and trust in the Word of God leads men astray, to trust in the imaginations of men.”
― Stuart L Brogden, Captive to the Word of God: A Particular Baptist Perspective on Reformed and Covenant Theology

“Baptist growth has always been in proportion to the staunchness with which Baptist principles have been upheld and practised. So it ever has been with all religious bodies. Nothing is gained by smoothing off the edges of truth and toning down its colors, so that its contrast with error may be as slight as possible. On the contrary, let the edges remain a bit rough, let the colors be heightened, so that the world cannot possibly mistake the one for the other, and the prospect of the truth gaining acceptance, is greatly increased. The history of every religious denomination teaches the same lesson: progress depends on loyalty to truth. Compromise always means decay.”
― Stuart L Brogden, Captive to the Word of God: A Particular Baptist Perspective on Reformed and Covenant Theology

“The Word of God – alone! – demands and warrants our full allegiance. While we have disagreements, let Holy Writ be our foundation and wisdom as we test all things and hold to that which is good.”
― Stuart L Brogden, Captive to the Word of God: A Particular Baptist Perspective on Reformed and Covenant Theology