C - Past witness Files
- Marge Caldwell - Robert Farrar Capon - William Carey - Amy Carmichael - Beverly Carroll - Merlin Carothers - Morris Cerullo - Thomas Chalmers - David Yonggi Cho - Leslie F Church - Gordon H Clark - Adam Clarke - Thomas Coke - Thomas Cosmades - Loren Cunningham -
marge caldwell
Marge Caldwell was a professional charm and modeling teacher, and helped lead the way for teaching women Bible study at Houston First Baptist Church. `The Radiant You', 'Capsules for Confidence', `Speak out with Marge', `Dear God' were books she authored, along with 2 CD's, `Mountains and Valleys' and '66 Years of Marriage'. A speaker at numerous events on various topics, and at over 500 college and high school campuses. A member, Board of trustees, Houston Baptist University. Worked with young people on drug addiction and related problems. Led marriage seminars with husband, Chuck, on `Secret of a Happy Marriage'. A marriage counselor since 1975, and a counseling staff member at Houston's First Baptist Church. The Women of the Year, Houston Baptist University, 1970 and 1990. Taught college students in Sunday school at Houston's First Baptist Church for 30 years. A guest speaker on Focus on the Family with james Dobson. Hosted a 30 minute radio show on KXYZ for eight years each Sunday evening in Houston, Texas. Recipient, National Freedom Foundation Award for Individual Achievement, 1989-1990. Former speaker- Concerned Women of America. Received an Honorary Doctorate from the Houston Baptist University in 1997
Feb 20, 2023: Religion News Service: Beth Moore tries to untangle her ‘all knotted-up life’ in new memoir
One of the most gracious parts of her memoir comes when Moore gives thanks to two of her mentors. The first was Marge Caldwell, a legendary women’s Bible teacher and speaker. Caldwell met her when Moore was first starting out — giving devotions while also teaching an aerobics class at First Baptist Church in Houston.
Caldwell told Moore that God was going to raise her up to teach the Bible and have an influential ministry. For years, Moore said Caldwell attended her classes, even though her style was very different from her mentor.
One of the most gracious parts of her memoir comes when Moore gives thanks to two of her mentors. The first was Marge Caldwell, a legendary women’s Bible teacher and speaker. Caldwell met her when Moore was first starting out — giving devotions while also teaching an aerobics class at First Baptist Church in Houston.
Caldwell told Moore that God was going to raise her up to teach the Bible and have an influential ministry. For years, Moore said Caldwell attended her classes, even though her style was very different from her mentor.
Robert Farrar Capon
Robert Farrar Capon
The Parable of the Lost Sheep is not about the lost sheep. All the sheep ever did was get lost. The parable is about the passion of the shepherd who lost the sheep to find the sheep. His passion to find is what drives the parable; and consequently it isn’t the Prodigal’s lostness, wasting all his money on wine, women and song in the far country; and it isn’t the elder brother’s grousing and complaining and score keeping that stands against him. What counts in the parable is the father’s unceasing desire to find the sons he lost—both of them—and to raise both of them up from the dead.The story, of course, you know. The story begins with the father having two sons and the youngest son comes to the father and says, “Father, divide the inheritance between me and my brother.” What he’s in effect saying is, “Dear Dad, drop dead now, legally. Put your will into effect and just retire out of the whole business of being anything to anybody and let us have what is coming to us.” So the youngest son gets the money and the older brother gets the farm. And off the younger brother goes. What he does, of course, is he spends it all—blows it all—on wild living. When he finally is in want and working, slopping hogs for a farmer and wishing that he could eat what he’s feeding the pigs, he can’t stand it. When he finally comes to himself he says, “You know, I’ve got to do something. How many hired servants of my father’s are there who have bread enough to spare and I’m perishing here with hunger? I know what I’m going to do.”
Almost every preacher makes this the boy’s repentance. It’s not his repentance. This is just one more dumb plan for his life. He says, “I will go to my father and I will say, ‘Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and before you.'” That’s true. He got that one right. “And I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.” Score two. He gets that one right. But the next thing he says is dead wrong. He says, “Make me one of your hired servants.” He knows—he thinks he knows—he can’t go back as a dead son, and therefore he says, “I will now go back as somebody who can earn my father’s favor again. I will be a good worker or whatever.” This is not a real repentance, it’s just a plan for a life. What it is, is enough to get him started going home, and consequently when he goes home, what happens next is an absolutely fascinating kind of thing.
What happens next is that the father (you must remember this) is now sitting on the front porch of the farm house. The farm house doesn’t belong to him anymore. The front porch doesn’t belong to him. He’s sitting in the rocker that belongs to his oldest son who is now, you know, the owner of the farm. He’s sitting there and he sees the Prodigal, the younger boy, coming down the road from far away. He sees him coming. What does he do? He rushes off the porch, runs a half mile down the road, throws his arms around the boy’s neck and kisses him.
Now, this is all that Jesus does with this scene. The fascinating thing in this parable is that in the whole parable the father never says one single word to the Prodigal Son. Jesus makes the embrace, the kiss, do the whole story of saying, “I have found my son.” The fascinating thing also is that when the father embraces the boy who has come home from wasting his life, the boy never gets his confession out of his mouth until after the kiss, until after the embrace. What this says to you and me who have to live with the business of trying to confess our sins is that confession is not a pre-condition of forgiveness. It’s something that you do after you know you have been forgiven. Confession is not something you do in order to get forgiveness. It’s something you do in order to celebrate the forgiveness you got for nothing. Nobody can earn forgiveness. The Prodigal knows he’s a dead son. He can’t come home as a son, and yet in his father’s arms he rises from the dead and then he is able to come to his father’s side. --Robert Farrar Capon
Almost every preacher makes this the boy’s repentance. It’s not his repentance. This is just one more dumb plan for his life. He says, “I will go to my father and I will say, ‘Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and before you.'” That’s true. He got that one right. “And I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.” Score two. He gets that one right. But the next thing he says is dead wrong. He says, “Make me one of your hired servants.” He knows—he thinks he knows—he can’t go back as a dead son, and therefore he says, “I will now go back as somebody who can earn my father’s favor again. I will be a good worker or whatever.” This is not a real repentance, it’s just a plan for a life. What it is, is enough to get him started going home, and consequently when he goes home, what happens next is an absolutely fascinating kind of thing.
What happens next is that the father (you must remember this) is now sitting on the front porch of the farm house. The farm house doesn’t belong to him anymore. The front porch doesn’t belong to him. He’s sitting in the rocker that belongs to his oldest son who is now, you know, the owner of the farm. He’s sitting there and he sees the Prodigal, the younger boy, coming down the road from far away. He sees him coming. What does he do? He rushes off the porch, runs a half mile down the road, throws his arms around the boy’s neck and kisses him.
Now, this is all that Jesus does with this scene. The fascinating thing in this parable is that in the whole parable the father never says one single word to the Prodigal Son. Jesus makes the embrace, the kiss, do the whole story of saying, “I have found my son.” The fascinating thing also is that when the father embraces the boy who has come home from wasting his life, the boy never gets his confession out of his mouth until after the kiss, until after the embrace. What this says to you and me who have to live with the business of trying to confess our sins is that confession is not a pre-condition of forgiveness. It’s something that you do after you know you have been forgiven. Confession is not something you do in order to get forgiveness. It’s something you do in order to celebrate the forgiveness you got for nothing. Nobody can earn forgiveness. The Prodigal knows he’s a dead son. He can’t come home as a son, and yet in his father’s arms he rises from the dead and then he is able to come to his father’s side. --Robert Farrar Capon
william carey
William Carey, "the father and founder of modern missions," was born at Paulersbury, Northamptonshire, England, August 17, 1761. In April, 1789, Carey was called to the pastorate of Harvey Lane Church at Leicester. Here he was brought into association with men of culture, and books were freely placed at his disposal. Feb. 7, 1801, saw the issuing of Carey's translation of the New Testament. On the completion of this great undertaking, a special meeting was convened for the purpose of giving thanks unto God. The publication of the Bengalee New Testament naturally directed attention to Mr. Carey. The eminent scholarship it disclosed pointed him out at once as the teacher who might fittingly occupy the Bengalee chair in the government college at Fort William. His first position was that of teacher of Bengalee, afterwards of Sanscrit and of Mahratta, with a salary of £600 per annum. From teacher he became professor. As professor of the three Oriental languages his emoluments rose to £15,000. For forty-one years William Carey was spared to labor for the good of India. He outlived nearly all who were associated with him in his prolonged residence, unbroken by any return to England. He died June 9, 1834.
Wiliam Carey
“A Christian minister is a person who in a peculiar sense is not his own; he is the servant of God, and therefore ought to be wholly devoted to him. By entering on that sacred office he solemnly undertakes to be always engaged, as much as possible, in the Lord's work, and not to chuse his own pleasure, or employment, or pursue the ministry as a something that is to subserve his own ends, or interests, or as a kind of bye-work. He engages to go where God pleases, and to do, or endure what he sees fit to command, or call him to, in the exercise of his function. He virtually bids farewell to friends, pleasures, and comforts, and stands in readiness to endure the greatest sufferings in the work of his Lord, and Master.”
― William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens In Which the Religious State of the Different Nations of ... of Further Undertakings, Are Considered
― William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens In Which the Religious State of the Different Nations of ... of Further Undertakings, Are Considered
William Carey
“In the Acts of the apostles we have an account of four of the principal journies which Paul, and his companions undertook. The first, in which he was accompanied by Barnabas, is recorded in the xiii. and xiv. chapters, and was the first attack on the heathen world.”
― William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens In Which the Religious State of the Different Nations of ... of Further Undertakings, Are Considered
William Carey
“One of the first, and most important of those duties which are incumbent upon us, is fervent and united prayer. However the influence of the Holy Spirit may be set at nought, and run down by many, it will be found upon trial, that all means which we can use, without it, will be ineffectual. If a temple is raised for God in the heathen world, it will not be by might, nor by power, nor by the authority of the magistrate, or the eloquence of the orator; but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.”
― William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens In Which the Religious State of the Different Nations of ... of Further Undertakings, Are Considered
― William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens In Which the Religious State of the Different Nations of ... of Further Undertakings, Are Considered
William Carey
“A Christian minister is a person who in a peculiar sense is not his own; he is the servant of God, and therefore ought to be wholly devoted to him. By entering on that sacred office he solemnly undertakes to be always engaged, as much as possible, in the Lord's work, and not to choose his own pleasure, or employment, or pursue the ministry as a something that is to subserve his own ends, or interests, or as a kind of bye-work. He engages to go where God pleases, and to do, or endure what he sees fit to command, or call him to, in the exercise of his function. He virtually bids farewell to friends, pleasures, and comforts, and stands in readiness to endure the greatest sufferings in the work of his Lord, and Master.”
― William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens In Which the Religious State of the Different Nations of ... of Further Undertakings, Are Considered
― William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens In Which the Religious State of the Different Nations of ... of Further Undertakings, Are Considered
William Carey
“I feel that it is good to commit my Soul, my Body, and my all into the Hands of God, Then the World appears little, the Promises great; and God an all sufficient Portion.”
― William Carey, The Journal and Selected Letters
amy carmichael
Amy Beatrice Carmichael (16 December 1867 – 18 January 1951) was an Irish Christian missionary in India who opened an orphanage and founded a mission in Dohnavur. She served in India for 55 years and wrote 35 books about her work as a missionary. Amy's father moved the family to Belfast when she was 16 years old, but he died two years later. In Belfast, the Carmichaels founded the Welcome Evangelical Church. In the mid-1880s, Carmichael started a Sunday-morning class for the 'Shawlies' (mill girls who wore shawls instead of hats) in the church hall of Rosemary Street Presbyterian. This mission grew quickly to include several hundred attendees.
Amy Carmichael
“You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.”
― Amy Carmichael
“We will have all eternity to celebrate our victories, but only a few short hours to win them.”
― Amy Carmichael
“He said "Love...as I have loved you." We cannot love too much.”
― Amy Carmichael
“All along, let us remember we are not asked to understand, but simply to obey...”
― Amy Carmichael, Candles in the Dark
“Satan is so much more in earnest than we are--he buys up the opportunity while we are wondering how much it will cost.” ― Amy Carmichael
― Amy Carmichael
“We will have all eternity to celebrate our victories, but only a few short hours to win them.”
― Amy Carmichael
“He said "Love...as I have loved you." We cannot love too much.”
― Amy Carmichael
“All along, let us remember we are not asked to understand, but simply to obey...”
― Amy Carmichael, Candles in the Dark
“Satan is so much more in earnest than we are--he buys up the opportunity while we are wondering how much it will cost.” ― Amy Carmichael
When my kids were little, a friend introduced me to the writings of Amy Carmichael. Carmichael’s young adult life was full of adventure as she traveled across the world and was part of a growing evangelism ministry in India. Then she started to shelter and raise young girls who were abandoned by their parents.
Carmichael remembered an Indian proverb “Children bind the mother’s feet,” and as the number of children grew, she wondered if it was right for missionaries like her to abandon blossoming public ministry to “become just nursemaids.” In the end, she concluded, “If by doing some work which the undiscerning consider ‘not spiritual work,’ I can best serve others, and I inwardly rebel, thinking it is the spiritual for which I crave, when in truth it is the interesting and exciting, then I know nothing of Calvary love.” Her writings about the beauty of everyday faithfulness, especially in caring for children, were profoundly encouraging to me as I raised my own kids.
--Ginger Blomberg; Gospel Coalition; Amy Carmichael Shaped Me as a Mom 5.25.23
Carmichael remembered an Indian proverb “Children bind the mother’s feet,” and as the number of children grew, she wondered if it was right for missionaries like her to abandon blossoming public ministry to “become just nursemaids.” In the end, she concluded, “If by doing some work which the undiscerning consider ‘not spiritual work,’ I can best serve others, and I inwardly rebel, thinking it is the spiritual for which I crave, when in truth it is the interesting and exciting, then I know nothing of Calvary love.” Her writings about the beauty of everyday faithfulness, especially in caring for children, were profoundly encouraging to me as I raised my own kids.
--Ginger Blomberg; Gospel Coalition; Amy Carmichael Shaped Me as a Mom 5.25.23
Amy Carmichael
“There have been times of late when I have had to hold on to one text with all my might: "It is required in stewards that a man may be found faithful." Praise God, it does not say "successful.”
― Amy Wilson-Carmichael Things as they Are
beverly carroll
Beverly Carroll. The founding director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for African American Catholics started the organization in 1988 and led it for two decades. Carroll died Nov. 13, 2021 at age 75. Early in her secretariat role, Carroll predicted Black and Hispanic Catholics would become “the dominant cultures of the 21st century in the American Catholic Church,” the UPI reported. She advocated for more Black priests and encouraged the presence of more African American lay people in the front offices of the nation’s dioceses, reported the Black Catholic Messenger.
In 2009, she was named the assistant director in the USCCB’s Secretariat for Cultural Diversity and advised the bishops on evangelization in African American communities. According to the USCCB, she received the first Servant of Christ Award-Lifetime Achievement Honors from the National Black Catholic Congress in 2012.
In 2009, she was named the assistant director in the USCCB’s Secretariat for Cultural Diversity and advised the bishops on evangelization in African American communities. According to the USCCB, she received the first Servant of Christ Award-Lifetime Achievement Honors from the National Black Catholic Congress in 2012.
merlin carothers
Born: 1924 - Died: November 11, 2013
A former army chaplain, Rev. Merlin R. Carothers is a Methodist minister and popular inspirational speaker on the Charismatic Christian speaking circuit. His best-selling first book, Prison to Praise (1971), is an autobiographical account of his dramatic salvation. It has been published all over the world in Japanese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Burmese and other languages. Carothers has written subsequent books, including Power in Praise (1972), Bringing Heaven into Hell (1976), and From Fear To Faith (1997).
Merlin Carothers Files
"There is something intriguing and mystifying about our ability to imagine things known and unknown. To God, that ability is sacred. He does not want it misused. And that is exactly why evil forces have an intense desire to see that ability misused. Our minds are the battleground; using our imaginations are the trophy to be won.
If we use our imagination power to visualize anything that represents lust of impurity, we are in direct conflict with God's will. Men enjoy using the power of imagination to create a multitude of images that God has forbidden. For example, when a man sees a woman who is attractive to him, he can disrobe her in his mind, can used his imagination to feel what it would be like to touch her body. He can continue this mental activity until he has experienced every possible sexual act. He has taken God's special, holy gift and consumed it upon the altar of lust..." --Merlin Carothers; What's On Your Mind? 1984
If we use our imagination power to visualize anything that represents lust of impurity, we are in direct conflict with God's will. Men enjoy using the power of imagination to create a multitude of images that God has forbidden. For example, when a man sees a woman who is attractive to him, he can disrobe her in his mind, can used his imagination to feel what it would be like to touch her body. He can continue this mental activity until he has experienced every possible sexual act. He has taken God's special, holy gift and consumed it upon the altar of lust..." --Merlin Carothers; What's On Your Mind? 1984
God's way of answering the Christian's prayer for more patience, experience, hope and love often is to put him into the furnace of affliction. --Richard Cecil, English Clergyman (1748-1810)
Morris Cerullo
July 14, 2020: Legit: Morris Cerullo: US televangelist dies aged 88
Morris Cerullo was rushed to hospital after contracting pneumonia
Feb 3, 2015: Charisma: Morris Cerullo Launches Bold New Tour
World-renowned evangelist Morris Cerullo, President of faith-based organization, Morris Cerullo World Evangelism, is embarking next month upon a courageous 9-day tour throughout the continent of Africa.
Morris Cerullo was rushed to hospital after contracting pneumonia
Feb 3, 2015: Charisma: Morris Cerullo Launches Bold New Tour
World-renowned evangelist Morris Cerullo, President of faith-based organization, Morris Cerullo World Evangelism, is embarking next month upon a courageous 9-day tour throughout the continent of Africa.
thomas chalmers
Thomas Chalmers
THERE are two ways in which a practical moralist may attempt to displace from the human heart its love of the world; either by a demonstration of the world’s vanity, so as that the heart shall be prevailed upon simply to withdraw its regards from an object that is not worthy of it; or, by setting forth another object, even God, as more worthy of its attachment; so as that the heart shall be prevailed upon, not to resign an old affection which shall have nothing to succeed it, but to exchange an old affection for a new one. --Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847)
david yonggi cho
Dec 30, 2021: Religion News: Observers, detractors and preachers of religion who died in 2021
David Yonggi Cho. The founder of one of the world’s largest megachurches, Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea, led the Pentecostal congregation that grew to have hundreds of thousands of members.
Cho died Sept. 14 at 85. He initially held services in a tent in 1958 and moved to a 10,000-seat sanctuary in 1993, according to Christianity Today. The church, which is affiliated with the Assemblies of God, eventually claimed the title of the world’s largest church, according to Guinness World Records, with close to 800,000 members. At the time of his death, Yoidi Full Gospel remained the largest Protestant church in South Korea, with 500 missionaries abroad and 400 evangelists and pastors in the country, The Associated Press reported.Cho retired as pastor of the Yoido Full Gospel Church in 2007 and was convicted seven years later for embezzling millions from the church. He received a suspended sentence and, still a beloved figure, was named pastor emeritus by the church.
“All I did was offer my life just like the boy who gave the five loaves and two fish,” Cho stated in a greeting on his church’s website. “I simply held on to the dreams that the Lord gave me, and it was He who grew Yoido Full Gospel Church to 750,000 members to become the World’s largest church. This is entirely a grace given to us by God.”
David Yonggi Cho. The founder of one of the world’s largest megachurches, Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea, led the Pentecostal congregation that grew to have hundreds of thousands of members.
Cho died Sept. 14 at 85. He initially held services in a tent in 1958 and moved to a 10,000-seat sanctuary in 1993, according to Christianity Today. The church, which is affiliated with the Assemblies of God, eventually claimed the title of the world’s largest church, according to Guinness World Records, with close to 800,000 members. At the time of his death, Yoidi Full Gospel remained the largest Protestant church in South Korea, with 500 missionaries abroad and 400 evangelists and pastors in the country, The Associated Press reported.Cho retired as pastor of the Yoido Full Gospel Church in 2007 and was convicted seven years later for embezzling millions from the church. He received a suspended sentence and, still a beloved figure, was named pastor emeritus by the church.
“All I did was offer my life just like the boy who gave the five loaves and two fish,” Cho stated in a greeting on his church’s website. “I simply held on to the dreams that the Lord gave me, and it was He who grew Yoido Full Gospel Church to 750,000 members to become the World’s largest church. This is entirely a grace given to us by God.”
leslie f church
Leslie F. Church (Born 1886) WM minister and historian, born at Chester-le-Street. He trained for the ministry at Headingley College. He taught Church History and Pastoral Theology at Richmond College 19291935 and was Connexional Editor 1935-1953. He was a gifted preacher, broadcaster and writer. His Fernley-Hartley Lecture of 1948, published asThe Early Methodist People (1948) and More about the Early Methodist People (1949) was a pioneering study of the Methodist laity. During his presidential year (1943-44) his house was destroyed in an air-raid, but he continued to serve both the home Church and those serving in the Armed Forces, for whom he provided books and devotional material. He died on 17 January 1961.
Leslie F Church Files
"To be born of God is to be inwardly renewed, and restored to a holy rectitude of nature by the power of the Spirit of God. Such a one committeth not sin, his seed remaineth in him. Renewing grace is an abiding principle. Religion is not an art, an acquired dexterity and skill, but a new nature. And thereupon the consequence is the regenerate person cannot sin. He cannot continue in the course and practice of sin. And the reason is because he is born of God. There is that light in his mind which shows him the evil and malignity of sin. There is that bias upon his heart which disposes him to loathe and hate sin. There is the spiritual disposition, that breaks the force and fullness of the sinful acts. It is not reckoned the person’s sin, in the gospel account, where the bent and frame of the mind and spirit are against it. The unregenerate person is morally unable for what is religiously good. The regenerate person is happily disabled for sin." (commenting on 1 John 3:4-10) --Leslie F. Church, ed., Matthew Henry’s Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1960)
Leslie F Church Files
"What it is that is required: to be born again. We must live a new life. Birth is the beginning of life; to be born again is to begin anew. We must not think to patch up the old building, but begin from the foundation. We must have a new nature, new principles, new affections, new aims. We must be born anothen, which signifies both again, and from above. We must be born anew. Our souls must be fashioned and enlivened anew. We must be born from above. This new birth has its rise from heaven, it is to be born to a divine and heavenly life." (commenting on John 3:3-8)
--Leslie F. Church, Matthew Henry’s Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1960)
--Leslie F. Church, Matthew Henry’s Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1960)
gordon h clark
Gordon Haddon Clark (August 31, 1902 – April 9, 1985) was an American philosopher and Calvinist theologian. He was a leading figure associated with presuppositional apologetics and was chairman of the Philosophy Department at Butler University for 28 years. He was an expert in pre-Socratic and ancient philosophy and was noted for defending the idea of propositional revelation against empiricism and rationalism, in arguing that all truth is propositional. His theory of knowledge is sometimes called scripturalism.
Gordon H Clark
“The direction in which the culture of an age develops is, humanly speaking, chosen by a few exceptionally intelligent men. The popular authors then pick up some of the main ideas, usually distorting and diluting them considerably, and finally fifty years or a century later the general viewpoint has seeped down to the whole populace.”
― Gordon H. Clark, Religion, Reason, and Revelation
Chaos is not a philosophy. Eternal principles, especially the law of contradiction, are the prerequisites of all argumentation. If Nietzsche, Dewey, and Sartre wish to make intelligible objections to any philosophy, they must use the law of contradiction. They must proceed on the basis of the fixity of that law even in order to object to the law itself. Without logic everything is chaos, and all conversation is the chattering of monkeys. We need logic.
--Gordon H. Clark. “Clark and His Critics.” Apple Books. 70.
--Gordon H. Clark. “Clark and His Critics.” Apple Books. 70.
“The consent or logical consistency of the whole is important; for if the Bible contradicted itself, we would know that some of it would be false.” – Gordon H. Clark, What Do Presbyterians Believe, p. 18.
"It is strange that anyone who thinks he is a Christian should deprecate logic. Such a person does not, of course, intend to deprecate the mind of God; but he thinks logic in man is sinful, even more sinful than other parts of man's fallen nature. This, however, makes no sense. The law of contradiction cannot be sinful. Quite the contrary, it is our violations of the law of non-contradiction that are sinful. Yet the structures which some devotional writers place on "merely human" logic are amazing. Can such pious stupidity really mean that a syllogism that is valid for us is invalid for God? If two plus two is four in our arithmetic, does God have a different arithmetic in which two and two makes three or perhaps five? The fact that the Son of God is God's reason for Christ is the wisdom of God as well as the power of Giod-plus the fact that the image in man is so-called "human reason" suffices to show that this so-called "human reason" is not so much human as divine." --Gordon H Clark
adam clarke
Adam Clarke, (Born: 1762, Moybeg Kirley Died: August 26, 1832, London, United Kingdom) LL.D., F.A.S., was born in Moybeg, Londonderry Co., Northern Ireland, and was a British Methodist. At age seventeen he became a class leader. He was sent by John Wesley in 1782 to Kingswood where he bought a Hebrew Bible and learned the language. He was elected three times as conference president of British Methodism. He is especially noted for his commentaries of the Bible which he published over a span of forty years. Some of his work was opposed by Richard Watson who accused him of heresy regarding the doctrine of the Trinity.
Adam Clarke Files
"If voluntary and deliberate looks and desires make adulterers and adulteresses, how many persons are there whose whole life is one continued crime, whose eyes being full of adultery, they cannot cease from sin. (II Peter 2:14). Many would abhor to commit one external act before the eyes of men, in a temple of stone; and yet they are not afraid to commit a multiple of such acts in the temple of their hearts, and in the sight of God." - --Adam Clarke
"If voluntary and deliberate looks and desires make adulterers and adulteresses, how many persons are there whose whole life is one continued crime, whose eyes being full of adultery, they cannot cease from sin. (II Peter 2:14). Many would abhor to commit one external act before the eyes of men, in a temple of stone; and yet they are not afraid to commit a multiple of such acts in the temple of their hearts, and in the sight of God." - --Adam Clarke
Adam Clarke
Verse Acts 16:3. Took and circumcised him — For this simple reason, that the Jews would neither have heard him preach, nor would have any connection with him, had he been otherwise. Besides, St. Paul himself could have had no access to the Jews in any place, had they known that he associated with a person who was uncircumcised: they would have considered both to be unclean. The circumcision of Timothy was a merely prudential regulation; one rendered imperiously necessary by the circumstances in which they were then placed; and, as it was done merely in reference to this, Timothy was lain under no necessity to observe the Mosaic ritual, nor could it prejudice his spiritual state, because he did not do it in order to seek justification by the law, for this he had before, through the faith of Christ. In Galatians 2:3-5, we read that Paul refuses to circumcise Titus, who was a Greek, and his parents Gentiles, notwithstanding the entreaties of some zealous Judaizing Christians, as their object was to bring him under the yoke of the law: here, the case was widely different, and the necessity of the measure indisputable.
---Adam Clarke; Clarkes Commentary
---Adam Clarke; Clarkes Commentary
thomas coke
Thomas Coke
And I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth – A phrase like this occurs in Deu 32:13 : He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of fields. In Hab 3:19, the phrase also occurs: He will make my feet like hinds feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. So also Psa 18:33 : He maketh my feet like hinds feet, and setteth me upon my high places. In Amo 4:13, it is applied to God: He maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth. Kimchi, Calvin, and Grotius suppose that the idea here is, that God would restore the exiled Jews to their own land – a land of mountains and elevated places, more lofty than the surrounding regions. Vitringa says that the phrase is taken from a conqueror, who on his horse or in his chariot, occupies mountains, hills, towers, and monuments, and subjects them to himself. Rosenmuller supposes it means, I will place you in lofty and inaccessible places, where you will be safe from all your enemies. Gesenius also supposes that the word high places here means fastnesses or strongholds, and that to walk over those strongholds, or to ride over them, is equivalent to possessing them, and that he who has possession of the fastnesses has possession of the whole country (see his Lexicon on the word bamah, No. 2). I give these views of the most distinguished commentators on the passage, not being able to determine satisfactorily to myself what is the true signification. Neither of the above expositions seems to me to be entirely free from difficulty. The general idea of prosperity and security is undoubtedly the main thing intended; but what is the specific sense couched under the phrase to ride on the high places of the earth, does not seem to me to be sufficiently explained. And feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father – That is, thou shalt possess the land promised to Jacob as an inheritance. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it – This formula often occurs when an important promise is made, and it is regarded as ample security for the fulfillment that Yahweh has promised it. What more ample security can be required, or conceived, than the promise of the eternal God? -Thomas Coke
thomas cosmades
Thomas Cosmades (29 April 1924 in Istanbul – 20 September 2010) was a Turkish-born ethnic-Greek, later American national, Evangelical preacher and translator of New Testament in Turkish. Cosmades was born of Greek parentage and served in the Turkish army during the Second World War. In 1949 he served as translator for American Aaron J. Smith during searches for Noah's Ark in Ararat. In 1950 he left Turkey for the US, followed by evangelical work in the Lebanon and then from 1968 was based in Germany as missionary at large for The Evangelical Alliance Mission.
Thomas Cosmades
"Our Lord’s anguish in the garden so vividly described in these two places was a most ferocious battle against the powers of hell, a battle far more intense than the ongoing cataclysmic storms in outer space. The enemy confronting him there was none other than Satan. Christ had won a clear-cut victory against the chief of all his enemies on the Mount of Temptation. The devil left him on that mountain, but did not give up the hope of preventing his redemptive death. “And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13).
We know from the scriptures that from the very outset at Jesus’ birth the devil wanted to destroy him. He failed. On the Mount of Temptation he attempted to destroy him in toto. He failed. During Jesus’ three years’ ministry, how many times Satan sought to avail himself of plots by the religious establishment to murder him! He failed. Christ had to encounter man’s and God’s arch enemy throughout his earthly tenure. Now had come the final and by all accounts the most ferocious of all attacks. Satan determined to kill Jesus through sheer enervation and depletion (cf. Matt. 26:38; Mk. 14:34). The Lucan as well as the Hebraic renditions makes this extremely clear. Go over all the descriptions and try to catch the relentless battle which went on between heaven and hell. Both Matthew and Mark reveal Christ’s clear-cut disclosure of the ferocious battle with death in Gethsemane. These accounts describe the true nature of the conflict. In fact, he wished the three disciples would remain with him to offer human support. That which they could not provide, apparently an angel did (cf. Daniel 10:18, 19). " --Thomas Cosmades; The Dreadful Warfare Symbolized By The Cup
We know from the scriptures that from the very outset at Jesus’ birth the devil wanted to destroy him. He failed. On the Mount of Temptation he attempted to destroy him in toto. He failed. During Jesus’ three years’ ministry, how many times Satan sought to avail himself of plots by the religious establishment to murder him! He failed. Christ had to encounter man’s and God’s arch enemy throughout his earthly tenure. Now had come the final and by all accounts the most ferocious of all attacks. Satan determined to kill Jesus through sheer enervation and depletion (cf. Matt. 26:38; Mk. 14:34). The Lucan as well as the Hebraic renditions makes this extremely clear. Go over all the descriptions and try to catch the relentless battle which went on between heaven and hell. Both Matthew and Mark reveal Christ’s clear-cut disclosure of the ferocious battle with death in Gethsemane. These accounts describe the true nature of the conflict. In fact, he wished the three disciples would remain with him to offer human support. That which they could not provide, apparently an angel did (cf. Daniel 10:18, 19). " --Thomas Cosmades; The Dreadful Warfare Symbolized By The Cup
"Anyone who witnesses to the grace of God revealed in Christ is undertaking direct assault against
Satan's dominion." --Thomas Cosmades
Satan's dominion." --Thomas Cosmades
loren cunningham
Josh Shepherd
Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With A Mission (YWAM), a youth-driven evangelism movement that popularized short-term mission trips among evangelicals, has died following a battle with cancer. He was 88. Cunningham, a missions pioneer who served as chancellor of YWAM’s University of the Nations in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, died on October 6. Lynn Green, a senior leader of YWAM, announced in a statement that Cunningham had “passed away peacefully today at 4:20 AM at home in his sleep.” According to YWAM, Cunningham “was the first person in history to travel to every sovereign nation on earth (and) all dependent countries . . . for the sake of Christ and the Great Commission.” While he had roots in the Assemblies of God denomination, a charismatic fellowship of churches, Cunningham envisioned YWAM as inter-denominational from its founding. --Josh Shepherd; Roys Report; Loren Cunningham, Founder of Youth With A Mission, Has Died 10.10.23