the_sermon_at_nazareth – We Love God!

General Revelation in Scripture [verses] Special Revelation in Scripture: Only condemns/Condemns and redeems. Harmonizes with special revelation but provides no new material/Not only enhances and explains in detail the content of general revelation but also goes significantly beyond that explanation. In its perceived message needs to be confirmed by Scripture/Is self-authenticating and self-confirming in its claim to be God’s Word. Needs to be interpreted in light of special revelation/Needs no other revelation to be interpreted since it interprets itself. Is never equated with Scripture by Scripture/Has no peer.

John MacArthur

The true doctrine [of the call to gospel ministry] is that no man, whether young or old, rich or poor, learned or unlearned, should presume to dispense the mysteries of Christ without the strongest of all possible reasons for doing so – the imperative, invincible call of God. No one is to show cause why he ought not to be a minister; he is to show cause why he should be a minister. His call to the sacred profession is not the absence of a call to any other pursuit; it is direct, immediate, powerful, to this very department of labor. He is not here because he can be nowhere else, but he is nowhere else because he must be here.

James Thornwell

We start each day with our personal security resting not on the accepting love of God and the sacrifice of Christ but on our present feelings or recent achievements in the Christian life. Since these arguments will not quiet the human conscience, we are inevitably moved either to discouragement and apathy or to a self-righteousness which falsifies the record to achieve a sense of peace. But the faith that is able to warm itself at the fire of God’s love, instead of having to steal love and self-acceptance from other sources, is actually the root of peace.

Richard Lovelace