John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

Remember that all the reforming in the world does not make a Christian. You can give up the use of tobacco and live a clean, moral life outwardly and still go to Hell. Remember that joining a church or being baptized or quitting outward sins never yet made a Christian. What you need is to be born again, to have a new heart. And the Lord Jesus Christ died for your sins and is willing to forgive you and save you. - John R. Rice [Tobacco, pg. 23]

 

In the Bible there were no women pastors of churches, no women apostles, no women evangelists. Women prophesied; that is, they were filled with the Spirit like other Christians and witnessed for Christ and won souls, but they did not preach in the accepted sense of taking a place of leadership in the church, or preaching in the pulpit. - John R. Rice [Speaking With Tongues, pg. 75]

 

Let us thank God for Christian women. God has a place for every one of them, a place of usefulness and happiness, both in the church and in the home. But that place is not the place of leadership over men. And where women usurp a place not intended for them, the result is some false cult, some heresy, some gross confusion. Women have greatly contributed to the confusion and false emphasis in Christian Science so-called, in Unity, in Spiritism, and in speaking in tongues. I do not mean that good Pentecostal people are to be compared with false cults that deny the inspiration of the Bible, the deity of Christ, and salvation by the blood. I only mean that anywhere women step out of their place and go against the command of God, the result is false teaching and harm to the cause of Christ, - John R. Rice [Speaking With Tongues, pg. 76-77]

 

We should not forbid anybody to speak with the miraculous gift of tongues, a gift which the Holy Spirit Himself puts on some individuals in some special times of need, as we are told in several Scriptures. The gift that the Holy Ghost gave some Christians at Pentecost, to give the gospel to others in their own language--no one must forbid that. We must not forbid it even in these modern times. Let the Holy Spirit of God give what He will. The miraculous speaking with new tongues, as promised in Mark 16:17, to certain people of great faith for such matters, let us not forbid. For my part, I do not agree with those who do not accept the authenticity of the last twelve verses of the Gospel of Mark. And if a miracle-working God sees fit to give any of the miracles there promised, let no Christian be unbelieving, let no Christian forbid. If any Christian is given the  wonderful girt to speak the gospel to someone in another language, his own language, and so to win him to Christ, rather let every Christian rejoice and thank God.  - John R. Rice [Speaking With Tongues, pg. 77-78]

 

I would say that if dear people are sometimes misguided, or at least if they do not see the tongues questions as we do, let us insist with brotherly kindness that they follow the restrictions in the Scriptures, and beyond that let us not go! If people follow the rules laid down in the Word of God, they are welcome in our services, and they will, like other Christians, sing and pray and listen and help win souls without disturbing the service and without causing confusion or bringing reproach on the name of Christ and the cause of Christ. - John R. Rice [Speaking With Tongues, pg. 78-79]

 

If we believe that every word in the Scripture is "God breathed" (the word for "inspired" in II Tim. 3:16), and that "every word...proceedeth from the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4), then we do not need to speculate that Luke copied from Mark or some mysterious, mythical, never-seen manuscript "Q." And in Luke 1:3 Luke tells us that he had "perfect understanding of all things from the very first," but more literally "from above" (the Greek word is anothen). So we can believe that the material came not from scholarly investigation and chasing down of sources but by direct revelation from God. - John R. Rice [Luke, pg. 14]

 

Zacharias and Elisabeth, "were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." Then when they kept the ceremonial commandments, the ceremonies were not an empty form but pictured the coming Saviour. The passover lamb pictured Christ our Passover. The circumcision of a baby boy pictured the circumcision of heart, regeneration. The work of a priest pictured the priestly work of the coming Saviour. They kept these ceremonies, pointing to Christ, in simple obedience and faith, just as good Christians today take the Lord's supper, pointing back to the death of Christ but not relying upon the ordinance, the ceremony itself, for salvation.  - John R. Rice [Luke, pg. 26]