Classic and contemporary excerpts.
Our open road
The videotape of history seems stuck on fast rewind—as our post-Christian era comes to resemble the pre-Christian era: Material affluence amid moral decadance.… In a time of despondency and despair over the hubristic follies of our own republic, Christ’s road remains open.
We had the truth, we can find it again.
—Patrick Buchanan in the Washington Times (April 11, 1993)
Alone isn’t enough
One can acquire everything in solitude—except character.
—Stendhal in Fragments, I
The God of enthusiasm
God dwells in a state of perpetual enthusiasm. He is delighted with all that is good and lovingly concerned about all that is wrong. He pursues His labors always in a fullness of holy zeal. No wonder the Spirit came at Pentecost as a sound of a rushing mighty wind and sat in tongues of fire on every forehead.…
Whatever else happened at Pentecost, one thing that cannot be missed by the most casual observer was the sudden upsurging of moral enthusiasm. Those first disciples burned with a steady, inward fire. They were enthusiastic to the point of complete abandon.
—A. W. Tozer in Of God and Men
A vacuum doesn’t just happen
The expression “moral vacuum” has been tossed around in the media as an attempt to describe the apparent refusal of some sections of society to recognize, let alone live by, basic moral standards.… The phrase is apt, but means more than the absence of morality. The whole point about a vacuum is that it does not just happen, for nature, as we all know, “abhors a vacuum.” Vacuums have to be created. You get a vacuum when you deliberately suck out the air inside an object. It has to be pumped out and sealed out. Western culture for the past 200 years has been systematically and deliberately sucking out the transcendent from its public heart and core.
—Chris Wright, “All Our Gods Have Failed,” in Themelios (April 1993)
Elephants in church
A circus parade was moving gaily through the streets of Milan, Italy. Suddenly one of the elephants veered from the line and marched into a church. [In Milan, church doors are large, and in the summer are often wide open!] This visitor wandered up the center aisle, trumpeted a bit, swung her trunk around and headed back to the parade.
Unfortunately, many humans seem to imitate this pious pachyderm. On a Sunday morning we lurch into church, make a few noises, observe the congregation, then step out to resume our place in the parade. The great drama of worship is played out, but it is lost on us. We are elephants in church!
—David R. Randolph, quoted by Donald P. Hustad in Jubilate II
Life Is no abstraction
The apologist must make the connections with the lives of real people in the modern world. Without those connections, theories remain theories—abstract ideas hang in mid-air rather than being grounded in the realities of life. But the history of Christian apologetics demonstrates that these connections can be made, just as the history of the church shows that they must be made.
—Alister E. McGrath in Intellectuals Don’t Need God & Other Myths
