Inspirational Quotes by George E. Ladd
“The presence of the messianic salvation is also seen in Jesus' miracles of healing, for which the Greek word meaning "to save" is used. The presence of the Kingdom of God in Jesus meant deliverance from hemorrhage (Mk 5:34), blindness (Mk 10:52), demon possession (Lk 8:36), and even death itself (Mk 5:23). Jesus claimed that these deliverances were evidences of the presence of the messianic salvation (Mt 11:4-5). They were pledges of the life of the eschatological Kingdom that will finally mean immortality for the body. The Kingdom of God is concerned not only with people’s souls but with the salvation of the whole person.”
“The righteousness of the Kingdom is a righteousness which only God Himself can give. Perfect purity, perfect honesty, perfect love, perfect forgiveness: what man is there anywhere in any dispensation who can live such a life?”
“Love does not mean the abandonment of justice and right; nor is it a sentimental benevolence which does not have the capacity for holy wrath.”
“The righteousness of God’s Kingdom is the product of God’s reign in the human heart. God must reign in our lives now if we are to enter the Kingdom tomorrow.”
“The Kingdom of God is His kingship, His rule, His authority. When this is once realized, we can go through the New Testament and find passage after passage where this meaning is evident, where the Kingdom is not a realm or a people but God’s reign. Jesus said that we must “receive the kingdom of God” as little children (Mark 10:15). What is received? The Church? Heaven? What is received is God’s rule. In order to enter the future realm of the Kingdom, one must submit himself in perfect trust to God’s rule here and now. We must also “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Matt. 6: 33). What is the object of our quest? The Church? Heaven? No; we are to seek God’s righteousness—His sway, His rule, His reign in our lives.”
“Jesus’ message of the Kingdom of God is the announcement by word and deed that God is acting and manifesting dynamically his redemptive will in history. God is seeking out sinners; he is inviting them to enter into the messianic blessing; he is demanding of them a favorable response to his gracious offer. God has again spoken. A new prophet has appeared, indeed one who is more than a prophet, one who bring to people the very blessings he promises.”
“The mission of Jesus brought not a new teaching but a new event. It brought to people an actual foretaste of the eschatological salvation. Jesus did not promise the forgiveness of sins; he bestowed it. He did not simple assure people of the future fellowship of the Kingdom; he invited them into fellowship with himself as the bearer of the Kingdom. He did not merely promise them vindication in the day of judgment; he bestowed upon them the status of a present righteousness. He not only taught an eschatological deliverance from physical evil; he went about demonstrating the redeeming power of the Kingdom, delivering people from sickness and even death.”
“The miracles of healing, important as they were, were not an end in themselves. They did not constitute the highest good of the messianic salvation. This fact is illustrated by the arrangement of the phrases in Matthew 11:4-5. Greater than deliverance of the blind and the lame, the lepers and the deaf, even than raising of the dead, was the preaching of the good news to the poor. This “gospel” was the very presence of Jesus himself, and the joy and fellowship that he brought to the poor.”
topics: charismatic , christian , healing , jesus , kingdom-of-god , messianic-task , new-testament , religion , theology
“Now I know in part.” This lays a demand upon us that we hold the Word of God both in humility and in charity: in humility towards God and in charity towards our brethren.”
“However, I understand the word as it is used here to mean not regeneration but the transition from physical death to life in heaven with Christ during the time between death and the resurrection (pp. 170-71).”
“Ladd understands ezesan in verses 4 and 5 as meaning bodily resurrection in both instances. In support of this interpretation he points to two other passages in the book of Revelation whereezesan has this meaning: 2:8 and 13:14.”
“We find on the contrary that the millennial reign of Christ will be the manifestation in history of the lordship and sovereignty which is his already.”
“The apocalypses use highly symbolic language to describe a series of events in history; and the main concern of apocalyptic is the end of the age and the establishment of God's kingdom.”
“It should not trouble us that the New Testament for the most part does not foresee the millennial kingdom any more than the fact that the Old Testament does not clearly predict the Church Age.”
“The main purpose of prophecy is not to answer all our questions about the future but to enable God's people to live in the present in light of the future (2 Pet. 1: 19).”
“We have argued above that Christ began his Messianic reign at his resurrection-ascension; but his present reign is invisible, unseen and unrecognized by the world, visible only to the eye of faith. The order of the Age to Come will involve a new heaven and a new earth, and will be so different from the present order that we can speak of it as beyond history”
“The presentation of each of the millennial views in this book centers on the hermeneutic or principle of interpretation adopted by each writer.”
“The fathers of the church from the second century on have not held this view, and this therefore does not establish its validity.”
“It is the dispensational view that the final company of the saved is resurrected at this time, thus completing the first resurrection.”
“Not one view of the millennium in this book is without some arrangement of dispensations; it is impossible to interpret the Bible apart from some arrangement of dispensations; and most certainly the very mention of an eschatological millennium imposes another dispensation.”
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George Eldon Ladd was a Baptist minister and professor of New Testament exegesis and theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.
Ladd was ordained in 1933 and pastored in New England from 1936 to 1945. He served as an instructor at Gordon College of Theology and Missions (now Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary), Wenham, Massachusetts from 1942–45. He was an associate professor of New Testament and Greek from 1946–50, and head of the department of New Testament from 1946–49. In 1950–52 he was an associate professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif, becoming professor of biblical theology in 1952.
Ladd's best-known work, A Theology of the New Testament, has been used by thousands of seminary students since its publication in 1974. This work was enhanced and updated by Donald A. Hagner in 1993.