Quotes About Christianity

We have epistles from Peter, James, John, and Jude—all of whom are said by the evangelists to have seen Jesus after he rose from the dead, in none of which epistles is the fact of the resurrection even stated, much less that Jesus was seen by the writer after his resurrection." [232:2]

Maya, the mother of Buddha, and Devaki the mother of Crishna, were worshiped as virgins, [326:6] and represented with the infant Saviours in their arms, just as the virgin of the Christians is represented at the present day.

the Gospels were not written by the persons whose names they bear, that they were written many years after the time these men are said to have lived, and that they are full of interpolations and errors. The first that we know of the four gospels is at the time of Irenæus, who, in the second century, intimates that he had received four gospels, as authentic scriptures. This pious forger was probably the author of the fourth, as we shall presently see.

Origen flourished and wrote A. D. 225-235, which shows that at that early day there was no rational evidence for Christianity, but it was professedly taught, and men were supposed to believe "these things" (i. e. the Christian legends) without severe examination.

Canon Farrar, who finds himself compelled to admit that this passage in Josephus is an interpolation, consoles himself by saying: "The single passage in which he (Josephus) alludes to Him (Christ) is interpolated, if not wholly spurious, and no one can doubt that his silence on the subject of Christianity was as deliberate as it was dishonest." [565:3]

Scotch Kirk, speaking of the precept uttered by Confucius, five hundred years before the time assigned for the birth of Jesus of Nazareth ("Whatsoever ye would not that others should do unto you, do not ye unto them"), says: "That Confucius is the author of this precept is undisputed, and therefore it is indisputable that Christianity has incorporated an article of Chinese morality.

Can we say as much for what is termed "the religion of Christ?" No! this religion has had the aid of the sword and firebrand, the rack and the thumb-screw. "Persecution," is to be seen written on the pages of ecclesiastical history, from the time of Constantine even to the present day. [444:1] This Christian emperor and saint was the first to check free-thought.

He discovered in his heart the first faint whispering of pure Christianity, and in some way he continued to keep his virtue intact by keeping his vices active.

I'm a pretty solid Christian. But even as an altar boy, I was always asking the bigger questions--you know: if God is, in fact, good, what is all this death I see? And if God is gentle, what is all this suffering I see? I've found some of the answers in Eastern religion. It explained my Christianity to me. Good and evil are the same thing. You can't have one without the other. It's the balance, it's the temperance of things.

The Christian community demonstrates the effectiveness of the gospel. We are the living proof that the gospel is not an empty word but a powerful word that takes men and women who are lovers of self and transforms them by grace through the Spirit into people who love God and others. We are the living proof that the death of Jesus was not just a vain expression of God's love but an effective death that achieved the salvation of a people who now love one another sincerely from a pure

When Peter says, "Baptism . . . now saves you," he's saying something similar to what we affirm when we say, "The gospel saves you." The gospel is God's promise. It's the promise that the death and resurrection of Jesus have dealt with the problem of sin and judgment—if we put our faith in Jesus. Baptism is that promise in physical form.

American Christians spend more on dieting than on world missions.5 We spend more curing our overconsumption than we do feeding the physically and spiritually hungry of the world.

We don't do good works so we can be saved; we are saved so we can do good works.

It is bad enough when rich Christians shoe little concern for the poor, but when they moan about their lot, they show contempt not only for the poor but also for the generosity of God.

There are so many blessings that flow from being a Christian, but the real blessing is Christ. Christ is himself his own reward.

Christianity is word-centered because God rules through his gospel word.

La historia del cristianismo en su totalidad, y la historia del mundo como un todo, habrían seguido un curso muy distinto de no haberse transmutado de forma continua la teología de la cruz en teología de gloria, pasando así a ser la iglesia de la cruz una iglesia de gloria'.

Our actions don't make us Christians or make us more of a Christian or keep us as Christians—for our union with God is all his work. Our actions do make a difference to our enjoyment of God—for our communion with God (our enjoyment of our union with God) involves a two-way relationship.

Of course this will never be accepted by fundamentalists, but if Christianity bows to reactionary pressure to return to its authoritarian past it will be consigning itself to the dustbin of history. The modern world is simply too sophisticated to fall for the 'it must be true because it says so in the Bible' routine.

The Apocalypse of Peter, the risen Jesus calls Literalist Christianity an 'imitation church' in place of the true Christian brotherhood of the Gnostics. From the Gnostics' point of view, it was the Literalists who had distorted true Christianity.

Whether this was explicitly taught or implicitly caught, I grew up with the impression that when it comes to the Christian life, justification was step one and sanctification was step two and that once we get to step two there's no reason to revisit step one.

When love becomes what Christianity is all about, we can make no sense of Jesus's death and resurrection.

Stand-up comics tend to make two assumptions: that Christians have no sense of humour and that all their audiences are unbelievers.

For in Jesus Christ there is neither male nor female, bond nor free; even you may be the children of God, if you believe in Jesus.