John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

Once I tried to decide whether the story of the prodigal son was intended to picture sinners coming for salvation or to picture a backslider coming back to fellowship. First, I thought it was the one, then I thought it was the other. Then sensibly I concluded that this pictures any heart out of fellowship with God. - John R. Rice

Too many have had the opinion that Hell is ruled by Satan. That is not true. Satan does not even live in Hell now. He did not make Hell and he will never rule it. Rather, Satan will be cast into Hell as other wicked sinners are, and there he will be confined and tormented forever. - John R. Rice

People do not like any preaching about the wrath of God, though that is a scriptural term. A woman wrote the other day to say that "THE SWORD OF THE LORD" was a hateful name, that God would have nothing to do with that or any other weapon. She was wrong, of course. She had not read the Bible or she did not believe it. - John R. Rice

I know that God is a God of love and mercy. But God is a righteous God. And when love and mercy are spurned, there is nothing left but the holy justice and anger of a holy God. I know that Jesus is Saviour, but He is also judge and "God hath committed all judgment unto the Son." And it is the Lord Jesus Himself, we are told, the Son of man, who will say to them on the left hand, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41). - John R. Rice

I am glad for a salvation that is already completely paid for. On the cross Jesus cried out triumphantly, "It is finished!" (John 19:30) I need not add one stroke of work, one penny to the price, one tear, one prayer, one rite of the church. There is nothing I can do or need to do to prepare that supper. It is already ready! I can accept the blessed invitation and come freely, or I can stay away. But the supper is already prepared. [Mt. 22:8-9] - John R. Rice

Christ came not to build a better world, not to promote education, nor benevolence, nor world peace, nor labor unions; not to build inter-racial comity, not to stop the testing of atom bombs. No, no, the one great passion of the Christian ought to be to make sure the wedding [Mt. 22] is furnished with guests. That is the point of Christianity, the point of the Great Commission, the point of the Holy Spirit's enduement of power. That is the labor for Christians, the call of the ministry. That is the purpose of Sunday Schools and all other works of God. Oh, let us get guests ready for the heavenly wedding feast! - John R. Rice

What have the modernists to offer the world? This silly talk of men being essentially good and God-like and needing no regeneration, no new birth, no blood atonement, no justification -- what did it ever do for mankind? The communists talk so much of human brotherhood, and they have filled their own country with blood and hate and unspeakable poverty. And the world of those Christ-rejectors -- Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Khrushchev and Tojo -- has become a charnel house, a butchery of virtue, prosperity, brotherhood and happiness. All that men have promised the race or the individual on the grounds of human goodness or natural evolution, has deceived men a short while, then broken their dreams and crushed their disillusioned hearts! - John R. Rice