D. A. Carson Quotes

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
God has disclosed of himself in human words with such magnificent self accommodation to our limitations. Precisely so that we may be his holy people and reverence everything that he says, cherish it, value it, and thus live it out.
D. A. CARSON

Limitation May People Self
It’s not as if the New Testament writers came along and said, “The culmination of Old Testament books is more books, New Testament books.”
D. A. CARSON

Book Father Son
Good praying is more easily caught than taught.
D. A. CARSON

Caught Praying Taught
We treat the Bible, not as if it’s a magic book that has to be handled like a piece of abracadabra, make sure it’s dusted, never put it on the floor, and things like that.
D. A. CARSON

Book Magic Pieces
Some forms of absolutism are not bad; they may even be heroic.
D. A. CARSON

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

Damn Dichotomy Hell
Any term can be distorted or domesticated or fly off the handle because of another alien philosophical structure that’s imposed on the text and so on. Inerrancy is no different from what we find in every other theologically loaded word.
D. A. CARSON

Different Domesticated Form Philosophical
Some Christians want enough of Christ to be identified with him but not enough to be seriously inconvenienced.
D. A. CARSON

Christ Christian Want
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
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
Make a mistake in the interpretation of one of Shakespeare’s plays, falsely scan a piece of Spenserian verse, and there is unlikely to be an entailment of eternal consequence; but we cannot lightly accept a similar laxity in the interpretation of Scripture.
D. A. CARSON

Mistake Pain Play
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
For the far higher task of teaching fortitude and patience I was never fool enough to suppose myself qualified, nor have I anything to offer my readers except my conviction that when pain is to be borne.
D. A. CARSON

Love Pain Teaching
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
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
A prayerless person is a disaster waiting to happen.
D. A. CARSON

Disaster Persons Waiting
Love the church because Jesus loves it.
D. A. CARSON

Church Jesus Love
Jesus is hungry but feeds others; He grows weary but offers others rest; He is the King Messiah but pays tribute; He is called the devil but casts out demons; He dies the death of a sinner but comes to save His people from their sins;
D. A. CARSON

Jesus Kings People
What the Bible says is what God has disclosed and we want to approach this sacred text with cognitive reverence.
D. A. CARSON

Reverence Sacred 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
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

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