black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

We are dealing with God’s thoughts: we are obligated to take the greatest pains to understand them truly and to explain them clearly.

D. A. Carson

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

Context Pretext Proof
There’s a change in the heart; there’s a cleaning up, a change in orientation, and holiness becomes attractive, instead of something you have to put up with to figure out what you can get away with.
D. A. CARSON

Away Change Figure Orientation People
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
Study Bibles tend to circulate widely, so they play a disproportionate role in helping Christians and others understand holy Scripture.
D. A. CARSON

Christian Holy Play Scripture Two
When we suffer, there will sometimes be mystery… Will there also be faith?
D. A. CARSON

Faith Religious Suffering
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
When Christians speak of the authority of Scripture, because Christians believe that this word, even though it’s mediated through many different human authors.
D. A. CARSON

Believe Christian Mistake
It’s just that the group has accepted that document as authoritative for their group. And some documents are truthful and reliable but they are ignored, so they have no authority for that particular group.
D. A. CARSON

Accept Group Particular Truthful
If the text is God’s Word, it is appropriate that we respond with reverence, a certain fear, a holy joy, a questing obedience.
D. A. CARSON

Holy Joy Obedience
We are dealing with God’s thoughts: we are obligated to take the greatest pains to understand them truly and to explain them clearly.
D. A. CARSON

Effective Greatest Pain Teaching
Failure to believe stems from moral failure to recognize the truth, not from want of evidence, but from willful neglect or distortion of the evidence.
D. A. CARSON

Believe Evidence Moral Want
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
To know God is to be transformed, and thus to be introduced to a life that could not otherwise be experienced.
D. A. CARSON

Father God Knowing Loving Resolution
Our prayers may be an index of how small and self-centered our world is.
D. A. CARSON

Our Prayer Self World
Some have argued that the Christian notion of Scripture is not epistemologically sustainable. It’s not philosophically possible with rigor to uphold the Christian understanding of Scripture.
D. A. CARSON

Christian Scripture Understanding
Most good evangelical Study Bibles have more in common than people sometimes realize. All of them are committed to explaining the Bible to lay readers.
D. A. CARSON

Common People Reader Study

We are dealing with God’s thoughts: we are obligated to take the greatest pains to understand them truly and to explain them clearly.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

We are dealing with God’s thoughts: we are obligated to take the greatest pains to understand them truly and to explain them clearly.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More D. A. Carson Quotes