Roger E. Olson Quotes

• Before you disagree make sure you understand. In other words, we must make sure that we can describe another's theological position as he would describe it before we criticize or condemn. Another guiding principle should be 'Do not impute to others beliefs you regard as logically entailed by their beliefs but that they explicitly deny'.

  Roger E. Olson

  Guiding Principles, Belief, Deny

  Roger E. Olson (2009). “Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities”, p.41, InterVarsity Press

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• Before saying 'I disagree' be sure you can say 'I understand.'

  Roger E. Olson

  Disagree

  Roger E. Olson (2011). “Against Calvinism: Rescuing God's Reputation from Radical Reformed Theology”, p.8, Harper Collins

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• As the perfect parent, God suffers emotional pain when his creatures, created in his own image and likeness, rebel against him and do evil instead of good.

  Roger E. Olson

  Pain, Emotional, Perfect Parents

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• Scripture is our norming norm and tradition is our normed norm and that in a doctrinal controversy Scripture alone has absolute veto power while The Great Tradition (orthodox doctrine) has a vote but not a veto.

  Roger E. Olson

  Doctrine, Scripture, Vote

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• There's nothing easy or simple or even entertaining (in our contemporary American sense of that word) in disciplining our minds to "see" reality through biblical lenses; it takes effort and time. But Christians who don't take that effort and time will inevitably succumb to some of the anti-biblical and anti-Christian messages that bombard us every day through advertising, entertainment, etc.

  Roger E. Olson

  Christian, Biblical, Simple

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• Today we cannot assume people, even all Christians, understand the Bible's implicit, underlying view of reality. We have to dig it out and show it to people, including Christians, and ask them to "see reality as this" rather than "as that" - where "that" refers to any number of unbiblical ideas about reality.

  Roger E. Olson

  Christian, Reality, Views

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• To some of us, raised and trained in allowing the Bible to absorb the world (that is, to "see" all of reality through the biblical story), the Bible is quite clear about all really important matters.

  Roger E. Olson

  Biblical, Reality, Important

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• Knowledge has come to be defined as what can be proven by secular evidence and arguments.

  Roger E. Olson

  Argument, Evidence, Secular

  Roger E. Olson (2013). “The Journey of Modern Theology: From Reconstruction to Deconstruction”, p.27, InterVarsity Press

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• The Heidelberg Catechism rightly says, for all Christians who allow the Bible to absorb the world for them - who see reality through the biblical story - that the purpose of life is to glorify God - a personal being who is ultimate over us and everything else - and enjoy him forever. This should be clear to all Christians, but many Christians have been influenced to think otherwise even about the Bible because of dabbling in movements such as the New Age Movement or the Gospel of Health and Wealth or even naturalistic humanism.

  Roger E. Olson

  Christian, Biblical, Reality

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• Too many American (and other) Christians revel in feelings and/or morality and don't care to develop a biblically-shaped Zeitgeist or worldview. The result is folk religion rather than classical, historical Christianity which has always included sound theology.

  Roger E. Olson

  Christian, Feelings, Historical

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• Today, under the influences of Eastern religions and philosophies imported into the West, many Christians confuse God's Spirit with our spirit and think our spirit is a spark of the divine, "the God within everyone." That's not how the biblical writers thought about our spirits or souls.

  Roger E. Olson

  Christian, Philosophy, Biblical

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• For Christians ultimate reality is and can only be a personal, sovereign, holy, and loving God. But even some Christians, under extra-biblical and even anti-Christian cultural influences read the Bible as pointing to something not ultimate, such as material wealth, health, happiness, power, etc.

  Roger E. Olson

  Christian, Biblical, Reality

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• The biblical writers assumed many things about reality that modern, Western people do not assume because we've been conditioned by our cultures to assume otherwise.

  Roger E. Olson

  Biblical, Reality, People

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• Humanism cannot survive on a purely secular platform.

  Roger E. Olson

  Platforms, Secular, Humanism

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• Only God has no limits (except those he voluntarily imposes on himself). The mantra "no limits" is actually a call to idolatry.

  Roger E. Olson

  Limits, Idolatry, Mantras

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• We're creatures, so we have limits.

  Roger E. Olson

  Limits, Creatures

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• Only a loving and covenant-making personal God can provide humans with unique dignity, worth, and rights. Blind nature cannot do that. So, for the Christian, "secular humanism" is an oxymoron.

  Roger E. Olson

  Christian, Unique, Rights

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• Human beings are special, of higher dignity and worth than other animals, because they're created in God's own image and likeness. It's actually true humanism.

  Roger E. Olson

  Animal, Special, Dignity

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• GraceQuest is a gripping story of one man's (and his family's) struggle with tremendous weakness and pain, but it is also a narrative theodicy--defense of God's goodness in spite of the undeniable reality of evil. . . . This is an honest and hard-hitting book about God's grace in and through tremendous loss of health and strength. Readers will find hope and help here if they are open to its message about the God-given 'strength to suffer well.'

  Roger E. Olson

  Pain, Struggle, Book

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• We're created in God's image, but our souls or spirits are not offshoots of God's own Spirit - as New Age teachers would have us believe.

  Roger E. Olson

  Teacher, Believe, Soul

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• The biblical writers didn't need to say everything; they could assume some things. They didn't anticipate a day when even Jews and Christians would fall under influences of non-biblical religions, philosophies, and worldviews, to the extent that is now the case in our pluralistic culture and society.

  Roger E. Olson

  Christian, Philosophy, Fall

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• "Ultimate reality" is the highest, deepest, eternal, unchangeable, source and ground of everything we see, touch, and experience with our five senses. It's that which gives being and meaning to everything finite, mortal, changeable. It's also that toward which we creatures look and live - whether we know it or not - our telos; our goal and purpose.

  Roger E. Olson

  Reality, Giving, Goal

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• The idea of having no limits, either through education or money or possessions or power, is radically alien to everything the Bible assumes and says.

  Roger E. Olson

  Ideas, Limits, Aliens

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• If the biblical writers were writing today they might spell out some things more clearly, given how easily even Christians fall into thinking in ways alien and foreign to the biblical story of God and creation.

  Roger E. Olson

  Christian, Fall, Writing

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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• We, including many Christians, read the Bible through "eyes" conditioned by, and even accommodated to, modern Western culture plus the influences of messages and ideas from other cultures that are alien to the worldview of the biblical writers. Therefore, in order fully to understand the Bible and allow the Bible to absorb the world (rather than the world - culture - absorb the Bible) we must practice an "archaeology" of the biblical writers' implicit, assumed view of reality.

  Roger E. Olson

  Christian, Eye, Biblical

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

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