John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

Once men made great threats against me. I wondered what would happen if I didn't go along with the denomination and boost the program. So I went to the Bible and began to consult with the prophet Daniel. I said, "Daniel, what about it?"
And Daniel said, "John, these lions' dens are greatly overrated. They are not so bad." God can handle all the lions in the world. A wonderful thought, isn't it? - John R. Rice

You can see that it is a foolish and wicked scheme of the Devil to get people to disregard the Word of God. Any man who throws away part of the Bible is a kind of modernist and is not to be trusted. If one man has a right to disregard the command of Jesus Christ about baptism, other men have a right to disregard the teaching of Jesus on any other matter. As for me, I will have a whole Bible, inspired of God, all of it authoritative and reliable, or I will have no Bible at all. - John R. Rice

Repentance was Christ's plan of salvation. And when He gave the disciples the Great Commission, as reported in Luke, He said unto them, "That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among the nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:47). It was just another way of stating His plan of salvation "among all nations." All who honestly repent-- that is all who turn, in the hear...t, from sin to God-- certainly trust in Christ. So repentance and faith are inseparable.
And Paul preached the same thing, namely that God "commandeth all men every where to repent" (Acts 17:30). It is silly, then, to say that repentance is only for Jews. Actually repentance means a change of mind, a heart's turning from sin toward God. And of course every person who was ever saved in the Old Testament or the New turned his heart from sin toward God, that is, he repented, as he trusted. - John R. Rice

I went into the Masonic lodge. I meant well. My father was active and a speaker in the Masonic lodge. Other good men said, "Brother Rice, you are going to be a preacher; and you will have more influence if you belong to the lodge." I thought that. They thought it was true. I went in. I found in it an old infidel, cussing, dirty-mouthed man whom I had rebuked on the streets for cursing in my presence and the presence of others. Yet, here he was helping my father give me the entered apprentice degree in a Masonic lodge! And I found I was taking oath to support these men in business instead of others who were not lodge members, support them when they ran for office instead of somebody else who wasn't a lodge member, and I should support him if he got arrested and put in jail, and if I were on the jury I was to try and uphold him. Good night! I didn't want that! I thought, that is not my place. That is not my crowd. So I got out. I never went back. I have great respect for many noble good men who mean well, but they still ought not be yoked up with unbelievers. - John R. Rice

Sure, I love born-again Christians where they are in the churches. I mean I am a brother to Southern Baptists or Methodists or Presbyterians or Pentecostals or to any man who loves the Lord Jesus and trusts in Him and believes the Bible and depends on the shed blood of Jesus. I am his brother. I am his friend. I want his love. But I don't want to call any man "brother" who says the Bible is full of mistakes, who says Adam was not a real person, as the Bible says-- that that story is just mythical and allegorical; who say God didn't create the earth like He said He did in six days but instead, says the earth has been here billions of years. I don't want any fellowship with him. That is infidelity. That is contrary to the Bible. Christians ought not put up with it. You are not to run with those people. Rather, you'd better say, "I am never going to give another dollar where it will get in the hands of anybody who is breaking down faith in the Bible." - John R. Rice

So Paul was inspired to use the same figure of speech in 1 Corinthians 12:13 when he said, "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." In a figurative sense, when one is converted, he becomes a part of the mystical, unseen body of Christians who will be called out at the rapture and assemble in Heaven. So as a figure of speech, one may say that he is buried into that body, immersed in it, becoming a part of that body. The picture is the same used in 1 Peter 2:5 where Christians are said to be living stones, built into a wall, and the wall is a spiritual house for God. In that fanciful and beautiful figure of speech the word baptism or immersion is used. But actually, of course, that is not in a physical baptism. It is only in a figurative sense that a Christian is built into a wall and covered or buried in the wall of a house. It is all right to say we are baptized into the body of Christ, if you realize that it is only a figure of speech and not a literal, physical immersion of the believer into anything. - John R. Rice

 

Listen. You better get out and put your influence out-and-out for Christ and the Bible.
I don't mean to hate anybody. I am just against those who are not for Christ and the Bible. I am for everybody who is for Christ and the Bible. Christians ought to take sides and put your money where your mouth is. And it ought to be your mouth and your money both for Jesus and salvation. - John R. Rice