How can Bible believers respect either the scholarship or the integrity of modernists, when they either have not studied of they intentionally pervert these most simple fundamental teachings of the New Testament, clearly understood for centuries by Bible-believing Christians? It is a sad truth, often demonstrated, that modernists are not scholarly as regards the Bible, and that they are not honest when they use Bible terms. When a modernist uses the word "gospel," he does not mean what the Bible means by the term. "Inspiration," "divinity," and "salvation" are terms deliberately perverted by modernists. - John R. Rice [Is Jesus God?, pg. 47]
In every detail Jesus died exactly as had been prophesied the Messiah should die in Old Testament prophecies written hundreds of years before! That could be no accident. Only a supernatural revelation from God could foretell hundreds of years ahead of time so may, may literal, accurate details without a single error. The Bible is God's infallible Word! Christ Jesus is God's own Son, our Saviour. - John R. Rice [Is Jesus God?, pg. 47]
Any teaching that the body of Jesus decayed and mouldered in the dust in a Palestinian grave is not Christianity. Any body of doctrine that omits the personal, literal resurrection of Christ is not Christianity. It is a false religion; a pagan, ungodly religion. For this reason we must say that the modernist who denies the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not a Christian. He has denied the deity of Christ, for Jesus said that His deity would be proved by the one sign of His resurrection. He has denied the integrity of the Bible which everywhere, in the Old Testament and New Testament, declares or implies the resurrection of Christ. He has turned his back on historic Christianity, the kind of Christianity preached by the apostles and held by saints and martyrs down through the centuries. Anybody who denies the basic fact of the resurrection of Christ has denied Christianity itself, has denied Christ, has denied the Bible, has denied the God of the Bible! - John R. Rice [Is Jesus God?, pg. 134]
The proven character of Christ makes His resurrection from the dead easy to believe. He claimed to be deity, one with the Father. In the books of Isaiah, Matthew, and Luke, very specific claim is made that He was born of a virgin, supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit. All the references to Christ in the Old Testament and the New presuppose that He is God incarnate, that He is the God-man. That such an one, God come in the flesh, should prove His deity by rising from the dead is sensible and believable. Those who do not believe in Christ's deity started their unbelief far earlier than that; they do not believe in Christ Himself. - John R. Rice [Is Jesus God?, pg. 139-140]
God turns people over to a reprobate mind that they may believe a lie and be damned, when they repeatedly and intentionally reject the light He gives. That is the clear teaching of Romans 1:21-32. Why should God reveal His truth to people who would not follow it if they had it? John 3:19-21 says, "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." The reason infidels and modernists are condemned is not because they CANNOT believe the truth, but rather because they WILL NOT believe the truth. - John R. Rice [Is Jesus God?, pg. 156]
Those who want to know the truth and are willing to follow it can find the truth. If you want to know quickly and surely whether Jesus rose from the dead, whether His is the Saviour, God incarnate, whether the Bible is His Word and true, then set out to read the Bible carefully and prayerfully. Read the gospel of John. Pray as you read for God to give you light to understand His Word. Ask God to help you see the truth and to follow it. Make up your mind to love and obey the true God when you find Him, to accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord, just as soon as God will show you clearly that He is the Saviour. And coming with such an open heart you will find that God will meet you. You will find God's sweet promise, "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you," is true. - John R. Rice [Is Jesus God?, pg. 156-157]
Remember, modernism is a matter of doctrine, not a matter of how one lives. A modernist, or liberal, may be a total abstainer, an outwardly moral citizen; may even be a respected preacher. On the other hand, a drunkard or gambler may not be a modernist at all, but a believer in the truths of the Bible. Do not call one a modernist because he is worldly. Worldliness is one thing; modernism is another. One may lead to the other, but they are not the same. Modernism is a denial of fundamental Bible doctrine. - John R. Rice [Is Jesus God?, pg. 163]
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