John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

How we ought to long for our Saviour to come! Every one of us was taught to pray, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." (Matt. 6:10.) This prayer does not ask for the rapture of the saints when Christ will call us out into the air to meet Him and take us away on out honeymoon in Heaven to eat the marriage supper, to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, to meet our loved ones and stay for a time in the Father's house of many mansions. No, this prayer asks rather the return of Christ to the earth to reign, when He will brings us back with Him, accompanied by all His holy angels. Then He will set up His kingdom on the earth and reign gloriously at Jerusalem. For this blessed kingdom, when the will of God will be done on earth like it is in Heaven, we are taught to pray. - John R. Rice

One is not a Christian because he is a Gentile; rather, most Gentiles do not love nor trust the Lord Jesus Christ. And one is not really a Jew, the Scripture says, which is one outwardly. (Rom. 2:28.) They are true Jews who follow in the steps of Abraham, who "believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness." (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3.) Every Jew who does not trust Jesus Christ must die in his sins, unconverted, unforgiven, unpardoned, unsaved just exactly like every Gentile who dies without Christ. Jesus Christ is God's only Saviour for mankind. Will you trust Him today and so enter into sweet peace and salvation? - John R. Rice

And to Gentile Christians let me add this word of warning and exhortation, I beg you, love the Jews. Every prophet of the Old Testament was a Jew. God gave the law, the Psalms, the prophecies to the Jewish nation. Concerning the flesh Christ came as a Jew. All the Apostles were Jews and the New Testament, like the Old, was written by Jews. We Gentile Christians are simply wild olive branches grafted into the Jewish tame olive tree. - John R. Rice

I beg you, never join in any persecution of the Jews. Jews are no more guilty of the death of Christ than Gentiles. Herod, Pontius Pilate and the high priests entered into the same plan, and my sins and yours nailed Christ to the cross as truly as the sin of any Jew. Jesus said concerning Mount Zion at Jerusalem and in some sense concerning Jews, "For thus saith the Lord of hosts... he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye." (Zech. 2:8.) He will bring judgment on the nations that oppress Israel. Them that bless Israel, God will bless and them that curse Israel, God will curse. Remember the solemn injunction, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee." (Psa. 122:6.) - John R. Rice

Satan inspires hatred of the Jews because he hates Christ and hates the promises God has made to Israel. Every Postmillennialist or Amillennialist or modernist who does not believe the promises God made to Israel about their land Palestine, their throne at Jerusalem, the reign of Christ on David's throne and the regathering and conversion of Israel, does not know it but he is carrying out Satan's plan who would thwart, if he could, the reign of Christ on the earth. Iron-jawed Mussolini and that insane egotist, Hitler, do not know it but their Jewish hate is but an expression of the will of Satan who strikes at Jesus Christ, the Jew of all Jews. Beware, Christian, lest the subtle influence of the Evil One lead you, too, to hate Jews. - John R. Rice [Jewish Persecution and Bible Prophecies, pg. 46, copyrighted in 1941]

In October 1938 I had the joy of leading a Jewish businessman to Christ in St. Paul, Minnesota. When little by little God had helped me to answer all his objections and he trembled on the verge of accepting Christ, the one prejudice I yet had to break down and the one question I had to answer was, "Why do Christians hate the Jews? Why did Christian boys throw rocks at me when I was a little boy and when I had done them no harm? Why do so-called Christians today yet discriminate against Jews and despise them?" God is dealing with Jews and turning their hearts to seek Him. Let us make sure that we do not add to the veil of blindness over the eyes of the Jews by our unchristian conduct and attitude. Rather, let us take the Gospel to Jews all about us. They are hungry-hearted, they are beloved of God. God has not cast them away! - John R. Rice

May God speed the day when Jew and Gentile may be one in Christ; when scoffers and lovers of wickedness are destroyed and when all those who seek God shall find Him in Jesus Christ, God's own Son, the Saviour of Jew and Gentile alike, when they trust Him to save them through the merits of His shed blood. - John R. Rice