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Systematic theology will ask questions like “What are the attributes of God? What is sin? What does the cross achieve?” Biblical theology tends to ask questions such as “What is the theology of the prophecy of Isaiah? What do we learn from John’s Gospel?

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
God’s wrath is not an implacable, blind rage. However emotional it may be, it is an entirely reasonable and willed response to offenses against his holiness. But his love . . . wells up amidst his perfections and is not generated by the loveliness of the loved.
D. A. CARSON

Emotional Love Wrath
The Bible does not tell us that life in this world will be fair. Evil and sin are not Victorian gentlemen; they do not play fair.
D. A. CARSON

Evil Gentleman Play
As long as young people are asking, ‘Can I get away with this?’ or ‘Can I get away with that?’ I wonder if they’re regenerate. If they’re asking, instead, ‘How can I grow in holiness?’ then I suspect they’ve begun to understand.
D. A. CARSON

Holiness People Suspect Wonder Young
Some forms of absolutism are not bad; they may even be heroic.
D. A. CARSON

Absolutism Heroic May
Damn all false dichotomies to hell
D. A. CARSON

Damn Dichotomy Hell
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
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
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
In every generation there are voices that question the authority of Scripture. So in one sense this is merely part of the continuing stream. But there’s a sense in which the questions that are raised against Scripture vary a wee bit from generation to generation.
D. A. CARSON

Generations Scripture Voice
The cliché, God hates the sin but love the sinner, is false on the face of it and should be abandoned. Fourteen times in the first fifty Psalms alone.
D. A. CARSON

Hate Liars Wrath
The Bible is endlessly interesting because it is God’s story, and God by nature is himself endlessly interesting. The Bible is an ever-flowing fountain. The more you read it, the more you find its truth and beauty to be inexhaustible.
D. A. CARSON

Fountain Interesting Stories
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
God’s love in John 3:16 is not amazing because the world is so big, but because the world is so bad.
D. A. CARSON

Bigs God Love World
Effective prayer is the fruit of a relationship with God, not a technique for acquiring blessings.
D. A. CARSON

Blessing Prayer Technique
The more we get to know God, the more we want to know him better.
D. A. CARSON

God Knowing Knows Want

Systematic theology will ask questions like “What are the attributes of God? What is sin? What does the cross achieve?” Biblical theology tends to ask questions such as “What is the theology of the prophecy of Isaiah? What do we learn from John’s Gospel?

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Systematic theology will ask questions like “What are the attributes of God? What is sin? What does the cross achieve?” Biblical theology tends to ask questions such as “What is the theology of the prophecy of Isaiah? What do we learn from John’s Gospel?

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More D. A. Carson Quotes