Quotes from Charles C. Ryrie

The Bible is the greatest of all books; to study it is the noblest of all pursuits; to understand it, the highest of all goals.

The solution to the problems of the church today lies in solving the problems of individual Christians, and the remedy is a person—the Holy Spirit.

Theology is for everyone. Indeed, everyone needs to be a theologian. In reality, everyone is a theologian—of one sort or another. And therein lies the problem. There is nothing wrong with being an amateur theologian or a professional theologian, but there is everything wrong about being an ignorant or a sloppy theologian. Therefore, every Christian should read theology. Theology simply means thinking about God and expressing those thoughts in some way.

There could be no such experience if death means extinction or cessation. Death always means separation, and it does in Romans 6 as well.

In other words, the death to sin of Romans 6 is a separation from the power of the sin nature to cause the believer to continue in sin. It

God regenerates (John 1:13) according to His will (James 1:18) through the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit (John 3:5) when a person believes (John 1:12) the gospel as revealed in the Word of God (1 Peter 1:23).

The two basic attitudes of life that must characterize genuine, biblical spirituality are thankfulness at all times and in all circumstances and the maintenance of unity in that part of the body of Christ.

Salvation brings into the life a new capacity and with it a new ability to think right, to love God, to purpose to do the will of God, to have a changed heart. The heart of the Christian (and this means his intellectual, emotional, volitional, and spiritual life) can now be true and pure (Heb.

The second is the Word of God used in the life to affect all its parts (notice that soul, spirit, body, and heart are all mentioned in Heb. 4:12).

The third preventive for callousness is the life of prayer (Heb. 4:14–16).

These three—fellowship, the Word, and prayer—will enable the believer to experience the new life in his heart: in his intellect, emotions, will, and spiritual life.

Thus the conscience, though it may lead the unsaved man aright in some areas, cannot save him, since it is defiled, seared, and evil. But in regeneration it is cleansed and used by the Lord to guide the believer in his political, vocational, spiritual, and social relations.

One of my former teachers repeatedly reminded us that an imbalance in theology was the same as doctrinal insanity.

The ministries of the Spirit involve teaching (John 16:12–15), guiding (Rom. 8:14), assuring (Rom. 8:16), praying (Rom. 8:26), the exercise of spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:7), and warring against the flesh (Gal. 5:17). All of these depend for their full manifestation on the filling of the Spirit (Eph. 5:18).

A new Christian cannot be called spiritual, simply because he has not had sufficient time to grow and develop in Christian knowledge and experience.

A Christian of longer standing may not be spiritual, not because he has had insufficient time but because during the years of his Christian life he has not allowed the Holy Spirit to control him.

To be filled with the Spirit means to be controlled by

That word maturity seems to hold the key to the concept of spirituality, for Christian maturity is the growth which the Holy Spirit produces over a period of time in the believer.

Spirituality is a grownup yet growing relation to the Holy Spirit.

While this may simply be another way of saying that spirituality is Christian maturity, it tries to delineate more openly the factors of Spirit-control over a period of time.

By the word genuine I mean biblical, for only in the Bible do we have truth that is indisputably reliable. For this reason, the Bible must be the guide and test for all of our experiences in the spiritual life, for biblical spirituality is the only genuine spirituality.

By wholesome I mean balanced. There is nothing more devastating to the practice of spiritual living than an imbalance.

It is more important to be than to do, for if I am what God wants me to be, then I will do what He wants me to do. If I try to promote a program, however well-meaning, without personal holiness, it will be tainted by the defects of my life. It may lack the direction of full knowledge of the Word, or the discernment of maturity, or the direction that comes through unclouded fellowship with the Lord. Primarily we do not need to develop programs, but people.

The mention of the word dispensationalism usually evokes an immediate reaction.