To be spiritually dead is to be diabolically alive
R. C. SproulRead
I’ve often wondered where Jesus would apply His hastily made whip if He were to visit our culture. My guess is that it would not be money-changing tables in the temple that would feel His wrath, but the display racks in Christian bookstores.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques modern Christianity and its commercialization.
R. C. Sproul reflects on how, if Jesus were to return today, He might not direct His anger at the obvious sins in society but rather at the way Christian bookstores prioritize profit over genuine faith and spirituality. This thought-provoking statement invites readers to consider the integrity and purpose of their religious practices in contemporary culture.
Themes
JesusCritiqueChristianityCommercializationFaith
In practice
Example use cases
During a sermon on materialism, I quoted R. C. Sproul to illustrate the pitfalls of commercialized religion.
More from R. C. Sproul
All quotes →The real crisis of worship today is not that the preaching is paltry or that it's too drafty in church. It is that people have no sense of the presence of God, and if they have no sense of His presence, how can they be moved to express the deepest feelings of their souls to honor, revere, worship, and glorify God?
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We talk about predestination because the Bible talks about predestination. If we desire to build our theology on the Bible, we run head on into this concept. We soon discover that John Calvin did not invent it.
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Without God man has no reference point to define himself.
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I do not want to drive across a bridge designed by an engineer who believed the numbers in structural stress models are relative truths.
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Prayer does change things, all kinds of things. But the most important thing it changes is us. As we engage in this communion with God more deeply and come to know the One with whom we are speaking more intimately, that growing knowledge of God reveals to us all the more brilliantly who we are and our need to change in conformity to Him. Prayer changes us profoundly.
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