John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

Sin is a hateful subject to those who do not like the Bible teaching about Hell, but sin is the cause of Hell. The wages of sin is death. When God said to Adam in the Garden of Eden, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," He had reference, not primarily to physical death, but to death of the soul. When Adam sinned, he began to die physically; but he immediately died spiritually. He became a lost soul. But for the mercy of God, he would have gone to Hell. The second death is caused, like the first death, by sin. Unless God changes all His laws when we come to the next world, there will have to be a place where sin is punished. - John R. Rice

Hell will certainly be hotter for some than for others. God always does right. We may be certain that a man who rejects Christ fifty years and with great enlightenment still resists God, will be punished more than a younger person. We may be certain that one who is raised in this enlightened land and hears the Gospel all his life and then dies without Christ will find Hell more terrible than a heathen savage who only had mild enlightenment of the law written in his heart, that is, his conscience, and the evidence of nature about him that there is a God. Hell is the result of men's sins. Greater sin makes a more terrible Hell for the sinner. - John R. Rice

Incurably wicked sinners who rejected every offer of mercy, trampled underfoot the blood of Christ, scorned the Holy Spirit and hardened their hearts; sinners who will not let God change their hearts must be put in the madhouse of Hell, made by their own sin. A loving God gave His Son to keep people out of Hell. If men will not be saved, they must be lost. Those who will not go to Heaven must go to Hell. Sinner, do not blame God if you go to Hell! - John R. Rice

Paul realized the doom of a soul; it never left him! Day after day he toiled, working far into the night to teach people to repent; all the while the tears rolling down his face! Paul did not have any different gospel from what we have; he just had a deeper concern for the salvation of sinners. With him it was a holy passion, practically the only concern of his life. To see sinners saved from Hell, it was almost worth to Paul being accursed from Christ. - John R. Rice

We may be sure that most of the people in Hell did not expect to go there. Certainly the rich man did not. He thought Lazarus ought still to be his servant. He was startled to find himself in flames! - John R. Rice

The best proof of any man's wicked heart is the fact he has not turned to Christ. The only honest reason any man could ever give for not coming to Jesus is that he loves his sin and will not come to Christ, THE LIGHT, lest his sin should be reproved. Men without God may be cultured, may be pleasant, may be courteous and refined; but they certainly are not good. They are bad by choice. The lost man's heart is wicked, deliberately wicked, wicked enough to hate Christ, the Light. Men reject Christ purposely, loving sin. Without being converted such wicked sinners must go to Hell. - John R. Rice

Do you follow Arminius? or Wesley? Then you are certain to be wrong wherever those good but frail men were wrong. Do you follow Calvin? Then whatever doctrine Calvin formulated or invented will be wrong for you as for him.
Charles Spurgeon, great and blessed London preacher, was a Calvinist though he spoke against "hyper-Calvinism," and called it that; and his hyper-Calvinist friends criticized him for preaching that "whosoever will" may come. - John R. Rice