John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

The Lord Jesus said in John, chapter 15, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you" (vs. 18). He said, "The servant is not greater than his lord" (vs. 20).

Isn't it strange that the world that crucified Jesus likes you fine? There is something bad wrong with you when the world that killed Jesus Christ gets along all right with you, and doesn't find a thing to criticize. - John R. Rice [I Am A Fundamentalist, pg. 58]

I can say I prefer the King James Version of the Bible. I think for general use it is the best. I use it continually in preaching, in study, in memory work. I read it almost exclusively in private devotions. But I know that translations themselves are not guaranteed by the Scriptures, and I know that sometimes the American Standard Version can give help in places where other translations are not perfect.

Make sure that you understand what I am saying. I am against any translation of the Bible by modernists and liberals, like the Revised Standard Version, the Living Bible, the New English Version, Good News for Modern Man, or others that play down the deity of Christ and take the word "virgin" out of Isaiah 7:14. I say that even paraphrases of the Bible are doubtful and often especially bad because they pretend to be the Bible when they are not a careful, literal translation. But on these opinions I am not alone. Great Christian scholars are agreed, fundamental, Bible-believing scholars.

I am against the modernists, the liberals; I am not against God's fundamental, Bible-believing, soul-winning Christians, though I may differ with them on some details. - John R. Rice [I Am A Fundamentalist, pg. 74-75]

A correspondent writes:

"I sincerely cannot accept the belief that God dictated the Scriptures. I don't think this view is supported by either Scripture or evidence."

Well, he was kind to write me about it because I know the evidence, and I think it is compelling.

The fundamentalist position is that God gave the very words of Scripture in the original manuscripts. That is, literally "verbal inspiration," word-for-word inspiration. - John R. Rice [I Am A Fundamentalist, pg. 79]

I believe the Bible gives a clear pattern for local New Testament churches, local congregations of Christians. Members should be people claiming to be born again. They should be baptized by immersion, as people were in Bible times. They should set out to live for God. And, in the nature of the case, that local church fellowship is a fold and has boundaries which do not include all Christians. I can have Christian fellowship with some with whom I do not have local church fellowship. - John R. Rice [I Am A Fundamentalist, pg. 96]

In the old-time country churches, when people were saved we would invite all Christians to come by and give them a hand of "Christian fellowship." And then when they were baptized and fully recognized as members in the local church, the pastor would invite the church membership to come by and "give them the hand of church fellowship." That did not indicate anything unkind. We simply meant there is a special responsibility to those who are in our own number. - John R. Rice [I Am A Fundamentalist, pg. 96-97]

I can have fellowship with a Christian who is not scripturally baptized. I must feel free to tell him what he ought to do, but I cannot deny that he is a child of God, and I cannot withhold from him my love, because he has not been properly taught, maybe, or because he has thus far neglected scriptural baptism. - John R. Rice [I Am A Fundamentalist, pg. 97]

I do not recommend that churches open their doors to take anybody whether they are scripturally baptized or not. That scriptural requirement is proper and right, but I do not mean that it shuts out from love and fellowship, in the Christian sense, all those who are born again but not in the same local church. - John R. Rice [I Am A Fundamentalist, pg. 97]

When I say we should love the sheep of Christ, I do not mean fellowship with the goats of Satan. Again, 2 Cor. 6:14-18 gives us clear instructions. - John R. Rice [I Am A Fundamentalist, pg. 95]