A Theology for the Church Quotes

“When we approach theology as facts to look at, it is easy to allow certain theological debates to replace Scripture as our primary theological subject matter. These debates—such as the categorization of God’s attributes, the nature of predestination, the age of the earth, and the continuation of certain spiritual gifts—are not unimportant issues, and sometimes the church must return to them for extended theological reflection. However, the church’s mission is derailed when theology becomes little more than a discipline helping people know what to believe about these particular issues. These debates are necessary to the task of theology, but they are not primary. The primary role of theology is to cultivate in us a love for and knowledge of”
― Daniel L. Akin, A Theology for the Church

“If your conception of God is radically false, then the more devout you are, the worse it will be for you. You are opening your soul to be molded by something base. You had much better be an atheist.”72”
― Daniel L. Akin, A Theology for the Church

“Scripture, the Word of God, has always had an indispensable role in the formation of the people of God, regardless of covenantal context, for by it the character and works of God are revealed and explained, and through it people are called to a life of faith, devotion, and obedience.”
― Daniel L. Akin, A Theology for the Church

“Christian proclamation might make the gospel audible, but Christians living together in local congregations make the gospel visible (see John 13:34–35). The church is the gospel made visible.”
― Daniel L. Akin, A Theology for the Church

“The diminution of the Spirit’s sovereignty may be seen in Arminius’s Letter on the Sin Against the Holy Ghost.”
― Daniel L. Akin, A Theology for the Church

“Conscience is God speaking within us, but, because of man’s apostasy from God, it often delivers false oracles,”
― Daniel L. Akin, A Theology for the Church

“Don’t look down on death, but welcome it. It too is one of the things required by nature. Like youth and old age. Like growth and maturity. Like a new set of teeth, a beard, the first gray hair. Like sex and pregnancy and childbirth. Like all the other physical changes at each stage of life, our dissolution is no different. So this is how a thoughtful person should await death: not with indifference, not with impatience, not with disdain, but simply viewing it as one of those things that happen to us. Now you anticipate the child’s emergence from its mother’s womb; that’s how you should await the hour when your soul will emerge from its compartment.”
― Daniel L. Akin, A Theology for the Church

“Because of our finitude and sinfulness, we readily admit the limitations of our knowledge of God. Although we cannot know him exhaustively, we can know him truly. We are his image bearers, created to receive divine revelation. We can know propositional truth about our God, and we can know personally and intimately the God who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
― Daniel L. Akin, A Theology for the Church

“The lives of Christians together display visibly the gospel they proclaim audibly.”
― Daniel L. Akin, A Theology for the Church

“The church is the gospel made visible.”
― Daniel L. Akin, A Theology for the Church