John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

Note what inspiration means. It means that the Bible claims perfection. It claims the quality of deity. The Bible claims to be perfect. The Bible claims to be supernatural. - John R. Rice [Sweet Family Ties in Heaven and Hell, pg. 31]

The Bible foretells future events with the authority as if it were present or as if it were past. Who would know that? Nobody but God. So the Bible claims to be God speaking. - John R. Rice [Sweet Family Ties in Heaven and Hell, pg. 32]

This is what we mean by inspiration--that the Bible is breathed out from God; that holy men of old wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost; that the Bible is literally the Word of God, not the word of men; that the Bible claims perfection, and the eternal values; that the Bible is alive, etc. And the Bible claims to quote accurately God Himself; and the Bible speaks of past and future events with the authority that only God could have and nobody but God would know. The Bible, then, is inspired in that sense. - John R. Rice [Sweet Family Ties in Heaven and Hell, pg. 32]

Now, verbal inspiration. What do you mean by verbal? It comes from the Latin word verbum which means "word." That means the words are inspired. Sometimes these days people say they believe in verbal inspiration and teachers in schools and seminaries sign an annual statement of faith in which they say they believe in the verbal inspiration of the Bible, but they do not believe God gave the words. Then that is itself a fraud and a cheat. There is no verbal inspiration except that God Himself gave the words. - John R. Rice [Sweet Family Ties in Heaven and Hell, pg. 32-33]

Where did the Bible come from? Every word proceeded from the mouth of God. Did the man speak in his own vocabulary? No, he spoke the words that God put in his mouth because they were from God's mouth. It may have fitted in with the man's vocabulary and the man may have been largely acquiescent; he may have been glad to write down what God said, and he may have understood some of what God said, but the words were from God. Listen to it again, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Jesus said that the words of the Bible proceeded from the mouth of God. - John R. Rice [Sweet Family Ties in Heaven and Hell, pg. 35]

Did somebody write down words he thought would fit when he wrote the Bible? No, he wrote the words God gave. You say, "There are problems of style." Yes, but God made the style. The words are God's words, so the Scripture says. All right then, the Bible is given by verbal inspiration, word-for-word inspiration. - John R. Rice [Sweet Family Ties in Heaven and Hell, pg. 36]

Christ and the Bible are inseparable. So to be ashamed of Jesus is to be ashamed of the Bible. To be ashamed of the Bible is to be ashamed of Jesus. - John R. Rice [Sweet Family Ties in Heaven and Hell, pg. 39]