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A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text.

D. A. Carson

My response to that is: there is no theological word that does not have to be similarly footnoted and constrained: justification, spirit, sanctification etc.
D. A. CARSON

Footnoted Justification Sanctification Similarly
We are lost when human opinion means more to us than God’s.
D. A. CARSON

Lost Mean Opinion
Some forms of absolutism are not bad; they may even be heroic.
D. A. CARSON

Absolutism Heroic May
To worship God ‘in spirit and in truth’ is first and foremost a way of saying that we must worship God by means of Christ. In him the reality has dawned and the shadows are being swept away (Hebrews 8:13).
D. A. CARSON

Christian Mean Reality
There is a certain kind of maturity that can be attained only through the discipline of suffering.
D. A. CARSON

Christian Discipline Maturity
God in his infinite wisdom chose to give us his Word in the 66 canonical books, with all of their variations in theme, emphasis, vocabulary, literary form, and distinctive contributions across time.
D. A. CARSON

Contribution Distinctive God Vocabulary
A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text.
D. A. CARSON

Context Pretext Proof
I suspect that relatively few people will sit down and read 1250 pages [ of The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures.] all the way through from cover to cover.
D. A. CARSON

Book Christian People
We want to fan the flames of Christians for whom inerrancy and the authority of Scripture are not mere shibboleths, but part of her life beat, part of the beating heart of what makes them tick.
D. A. CARSON

Beaten Christian Heart Son
Both God’s love and God’s wrath are ratcheted up in the move from the old covenant to the new, from the Old Testament to the New. These themes barrel along through redemptive history, unresolved, until they come to a resounding climax – in the cross.
D. A. CARSON

Covenant Moving Wrath
True freedom is not the liberty to do anything we please, but the liberty to do what we ought; and it is genuine liberty because doing what we ought now pleases us
D. A. CARSON

Genuine Liberty Please
So there are all kinds of things that grammarian purists would argue are awkward forms of speech and sometimes they are intentional for rhetorical effect and sometimes it’s the way people chose to write at the time. Inerrancy isn’t interested in any of those kinds of things.
D. A. CARSON

Awkward People Writing
Some Christians want enough of Christ to be identified with him but not enough to be seriously inconvenienced.
D. A. CARSON

Christ Christian Want
Justice is not always done in this world; we see that everyday. But on the Last Day it will be done for all to see. And no one will be able to complain by saying, “This isn’t fair.”
D. A. CARSON

Day Every Justice Lasts
The person who prays more in public than in private reveals that he is less interested in God’s approval than in human praise. Not piety but a reputation for piety is his concern.
D. A. CARSON

Approval Prayer Reputation
The kingdom of heaven is worth infinitely more than the cost of discipleship, and those who know where the treasure lies joyfully abandon everything else to secure it.
D. A. CARSON

Cost Heaven Lying

A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text.

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A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text.

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