John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

If you don't read the Bible through, then you are going to be led off by Armstrong, or by Thieme, or by Ruckman or by somebody else, or by somebody talking in tongues, or some other heresy. Nobody is a strong Christian who doesn't read the bible and try to learn what God said do, and try to live by it. - John R. Rice

I hope every Christian who hears me will set out to read the Bible through within a year. To read four chapters a day is the easiest way. You might read three chapters in the rest of the Old Testament besides the Psalms, and one chapter a day either in the Psalms or the New Testament. There are 150 Psalms and about that many chapters in the New Testament. If you read one chapter a day in the New Testament or the Psalms, you get through those parts in a year. If you read three chapters a day in the rest of the Old Testament, then you get that part read in a year. Set out to read four chapters a day. Be a good Christian. - John R. Rice

When one says, "Well, I'm not ready to be saved yet," he means, "I have another god on the throne. I have put self up there and let self be the boss. I am going to have my way." How it comes out in every child ever born! - John R. Rice

Notice that God has quite a bit of comment about this command: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God. . . . " What is this commandment? You are not to use any kind of an image in worship. - John R. Rice

The Bible is not against images and pictures. In the Temple they had lilies on the posts of the Temple, the capitals, the engraved lilies and pomegranates and beautiful flowers. And under the big brass laver out in the front of the tabernacle in the Temple courtyard there was a laver resting on twelve oxen that were graven out. And under Solomon's Temple there were figures of lions. The Bible is not against figures, not against pictures, but against using them in worship. - John R. Rice

Now what do people put before them representing God? Sometimes they may pray to Mary instead of to Jesus. "Oh, I just want to honor her." But you put her in a place the Bible does not put her. Let me say this: Mary was a good woman. Now people often mean well, but they have been deceived and mistaught about it. The Bible makes clear that Mary was no better than other Christians.
When somebody told Jesus, "Your mother, Your brothers are outside: they want to see You," Jesus looked about on the crowd and said, "Who is My mother, or My brethren?" Then He said, "Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother, and My sister, and mother." - John R. Rice

I want you to see this: To put anybody in the place of Jesus is wrong. To depend on anybody else for salvation is wrong. To depend on any other sacrifice is wrong. You say, "We have the sacrifice of the mass, which is the sacrifice of Jesus repeated. That bread becomes the body of Christ, and that grape juice or wine becomes the blood of Christ."
No. When Jesus died on the cross He said, "It is finished." That is the end of it. He paid it all. In Hebrews, chapter 8, the Lord said, "I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts." Then He said, ". . .there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins" (Heb. 10:26). When Jesus died, that is enough. What He paid, it pays all that needs to be paid. No one ought ever add anything else in the place of His sacrifice or add it to His sacrifice. It is idolatry to put anything else in the place of representing God, except Christ Himself, the Scriptures said. - John R. Rice