Quotes on the Bible

1. Men do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself but because it contradicts them.
2. The Bible was the only book Jesus ever quoted, and then never as a basis for discussion but to decide the point at issue. (Leon Morris)
3. When you are reading a book in a dark room, and find it difficult, you take it to a window to get more light. So take your Bible to Christ. (McCheyne)
4. Our faith is fed by what is plain in Scripture and tried by what is obscure. (Augustine)
5. The doctrines of the Bible are all practical and its laws all reasonable. Every doctrine has its practical ‘therefore’ and every law its doctrinal ‘because’. (John Brown)
6. Scripture knowledge is the candle without which faith cannot see to do its work. (Anon)
7. My ground is the Bible. Yes, I am a Bible bigot. I follow it in all things, both great and small. (John Wesley)
8. Once give up the verbal inspiration of Scripture, and we stand on a quicksand. (J.C. Ryle)
9. If there be any mistakes in the Bible, there may as well be a thousand. (John Wesley).
10. Compare Scripture with Scripture. False doctrines, like false witnesses, agree not among themselves. (William Gurnall)
11. First I shake the whole [apple] tree, that the ripest may fall. Then I climb the tree and shake each limb, and then each branch and then each twig, and then I look under each leaf (Luther).
12. The Scriptures ‘breath the Spirit of fulness, and there is nothing, whether in the Law or in the Prophets, which does not descend from the fulness of the divine majesty.’ (Origen)
13. God the Father is the giver of Holy Scripture; God the Son is the theme of Holy Scripture; and God the Spirit is the author, authenticator, and interpreter of Holy Scripture. [J. I. Packer]
14. Billy Sunday was once interrupted in his harangue by a heckler, who shouted the question, then famous in all agnostic or atheistic circles, “Who was Cain’s wife?” Billy Sunday shot back the reply, “I respect any seeker after knowledge, but I want to warn you, young man, don’t risk being lost to salvation by too much interest in other men’s wives.”
15. When John Stott attended the World Council of Churches meeting in Nairobi (1975) as an Advisor, he pointed out “that the World Council uses Scripture as a drunk uses a lamppost, namely for support rather than illumination”.
16. Trying to destroy or defend the Word of God is like having two men push with toothpicks on opposite sides of the Rock of Gibraltar. While one is trying to push it over with his toothpick, the other is trying to hold it up with his. the rock is going to stay firm regardless of what either man does. (Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, 28 )
17. Preparing for a long trip, a young man said to his friend, ‘I’m just about packed. I only have to put in a map, a lamp, a mirror, a volume of poetry, a few biographies, a package of old letters, a book of songs, a sword, a hammer, and a set of books I have been studying.’ ‘But,’ the friend objected, ‘you won’t get all that into your case.’ ‘Yes I will.’ He tucked his Bible into the corner of his suitcase and closed the lid.
18. ‘Let a man question the inspiration of the Scriptures and curious, even monstrous, inversion takes place: thereafter he judges the Word instead of letting the Word judge him; he determines what the Word should teach instead of permitting it to determine what he should believe; he edits, amends, strikes out, adds at his pleasure; but always he sits above the Word, and makes it amenable to him instead of kneeling before God and becoming amenable to the Word.’ (Tozer, Man, The Dwelling Place of God, 109)
19. ‘It shall greatly help ye to understand Scripture, if thou mark, not only what is spoke or wrytten, but of whom, and to whom, with what words, and what time, where, to what intent, with what circumstance, considering what goeth before, and what followest.’ (Miles Coverdale)
20. ‘It seems odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should think so little of what he has revealed to others.’ (Spurgeon, Commenting and Commentaries, 1)
21. Reading at normal speed, the entire Bible could be read in about 70 hours. That’s 12 minutes a day for one year. Reading at a rate of 3 chapters a day, you could read through Matthew’s Gospel in just over a week, the New Testament in under three months, and the entire Bible in just over a year.
22. A young man was discouraged in his attempts to read and remember the Bible. He said, “It’s no use. No matter how much I read, I always forget what I have just read.” A wise minister replied, “Take heart. When you pour water over a sieve, no matter how much you pour, you don’t collect much. But at least you end up with a clean sieve.” (Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, 29.)
23. ‘The joy of Bible study is not the fun of collecting esoteric titbits about God and Magog, Tubal-Cain and Methuselah, Bible numerics and the beast, and so on; nor is it the pleasure, intense for the tidy-minded, of analysing our translated text into preacher’s pretty patterns, with neatly numbered headings held together by apt alliteration’s artful aid. Rather, it is the deep contentment that comes of communing with the living Lord into whose presence the Bible takes us – a joy which only his own true disciples know.’ (J.I. Packer, God Has Spoken, 10)
24. George Mueller said this about God’s word: “The vigor of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts. I solemnly state this from the experience of 54 years. The first 3 years after conversion I neglected the word of God. Since I began to search it diligently the blessing has been wonderful. Great has been the blessing from consecutive, diligent, daily study. I look upon it as a lost day when I have not had a good time over the word of God.”
25. There is a basic difference between an explorer and a tourist. The tourist travels quickly, stopping only to observe the highly noticeable or publicised points of interest. The explorer, on the other hand, takes his time to search out all that he can find. Too many of us read the Bible like a tourist and then complain that our devotional times are fruitless. It is necessary that we take time to explore the bible. Notable nooks and crannies will appear as we get beneath the surface. (Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, 31.)
26. Nothing less than a whole bible can make a whole Christian. (A.W. Tozer)