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.
Interpretation
Believing in the truth requires moral integrity and a willingness to acknowledge evidence, rather than ignoring or twisting facts.
This quote by D. A. Carson emphasizes that the root of disbelief is often not a lack of evidence, but rather a conscious choice to distort or overlook the truth. It suggests that our moral compass plays a critical role in our ability to accept and recognize reality, highlighting the psychological barriers that can prevent individuals from embracing truths that may be uncomfortable or challenging to their beliefs.
In practice
In a discussion about the importance of honesty in journalism, this quote can illustrate how personal integrity affects the portrayal of facts.
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.
It is a cheap zeal that reserves its passions to combat only the sins and temptations of others.
Many of us in our praying are like nasty little boys who ring front door bells and run away before anyone answers.
There is a certain kind of maturity that can be attained only through the discipline of suffering.
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.
Imagination is a God-given gift; but if it is fed dirt by the eye, it will be dirty. All sin, not least sexual sin, begins with the imagination. Therefore what feeds the imagination is of maximum importance in the pursuit of kingdom righteousness.
It's a funny thing, the less people have to live for, the less nerve they have to risk losing nothing.
-But rational thoughts lead only to rational thoughts, whereas irrational thoughts lead to new experiences.
No one can ride on the back of a man unless it is bent.
True, I am young, but for souls nobly born valor doesn't await the passing of years.
Spending plenty of time on something can be the most sophisticated form of revenge.
Zeroes are important. A million seconds ago was last week. A billion seconds ago, Richard Nixon resigned the presidency. A trillion seconds ago was 30,000 BC, and early humans were using stone tools.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.