Inspirational Quotes by John F. Walvoord

“Believing is accepting as a fact and making a commitment of your own future to the promises of God to save you -- simply by believing in Christ.”

“His great act of condescension in becoming man and His willingness to be completely humiliated in the death on the cross is set before us here as the supreme example of what our attitude should be. If Jesus Christ the Lord of glory was willing to be obedient unto death, how much more should sinners saved by grace who owe everything to God give back to the God who saved them the life which He has redeemed.”

“In the first two centuries of the Christian era the church was predominantly premillennial, interpreting Scripture to teach that Christ would fulfill the prophecy of His second coming to bring a thousand-year reign on earth before the eternal state will begin.”

“Scripture to its literal, grammatical, historical sense.”

“In the last ten years of the second century and in the third century, the heretical school of theology at Alexandria, Egypt, advanced the erroneous principle that the Bible should be interpreted in a nonliteral or allegorical sense.”

“Strangely, Augustine held to a literal second coming, a literal heaven and a literal hell, but not to a literal millennium. This arbitrary distinction has never been explained.”

“But what precisely no one can conclude is that God was threatening that “in the day you eat of it you shall die — by which I mean, you will actually live forever, if very unpleasantly.” Given the pains God later takes to keep Adam and Eve from the Tree of Life (Gen. 3:22), we can be sure that by “die” God does not mean “not die.”

“The pattern is sadly familiar in church history: a cooling of the church’s love for Christ, then its replacement by a love for the things of the world, resulting in compromise and spiritual corruption, followed by a departure from the faith and loss of effective spiritual testimony.”

“Paul wrote, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith” (1 Tim. 6:10). John warned, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15), and again, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).”

“The letter to the church at Ephesus reminds us how easily the church’s early days of passionate love for Christ can grow cold as the years go by. But Christ never meant for our duty to Him, even faithful duty, to replace our love for Him. The church’s “first love” for Jesus Christ has to be continually nurtured, and serve as the genuine motivation for service to our Lord.”

“CONCLUSION TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES The church at Ephesus represents the danger of losing our first love (2:4), that fresh devotion to Christ that characterized the early church. The church at Smyrna represents the danger of fear of suffering and was exhorted, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer” (2:10). With persecution against believers worldwide so strong today, the church can take heart that Christ is aware of her suffering. The church at Pergamum illustrates the constant danger of doctrinal compromise (2:14–15), often the first step toward complete defection. The modern church that has forsaken so many fundamentals of biblical faith needs to heed this warning! The church at Thyatira is a monument to the danger of moral compromise (2:20). The church today may well take heed to the departure from moral standards that has invaded the church itself. The church at Sardis is a warning against the danger of spiritual deadness (3:1–2), of orthodoxy without life, of mere outward appearance. The church at Philadelphia commended by our Lord is nevertheless warned against the danger of not holding fast (3:11), and exhorted to keep “my word about patient endurance,” to maintain the “little power” that they did have and to wait for their coming Lord. The final message to the church at Laodicea is a telling indictment, a warning against the danger of lukewarmness (3:15–16), of self-sufficiency, of being unconscious of desperate spiritual need. Each of these messages is amazingly relevant and pointed in its analysis of what our Lord sees as He stands in the midst of His church. The”