“It is better to be divided by truth than united in error. It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals, than falsehood that comforts and then kills. It is not love and it is not friendship if we fail to declare the whole counsel of God. It is better to be hated for telling the truth than to be loved for telling a lie.” Dr. Adrian Rogers, beloved pastor of the 29,000 member Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. He joined the Church Triumphant in November, 2005.
“Truth is hate to those who hate the truth” This theology from heaven first became biography in the streets on the t-shirts of the saints in Denver, Colorado, in July 2005. It perfectly encapsulates Dr. Rogers’ profound words.
“There is no longer room for hope. If we wish to be free we must fight! … We are not weak. Three million people, armed in the holy cause of liberty…are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. We shall not fight alone. God presides over the destinies of nations, and will raise up friends for us. The battle is not to the strong alone, it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave ….
Is life so dear or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775, stirring address to the Virginia House of Burgesses. It was a call to the 13 hopelessly divided and separate colonies to unite under the banner of Christ for the cause of true Christian liberty.
“Too long have we been waiting for one another to begin! The time of waiting is past! The hour of God has struck! War is declared! In God’s Holy Name let us arise and build! ‘The God of Heaven, He will fight for us’, as we for Him. We will not build on the sand, but on the bedrock of the sayings of Christ, and the gates and minions of hell shall not prevail against us.
“Should such men as we, fear? Before the world, aye, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God, we will venture our all for Him, we will live and we will die for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts.
“We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only our God, than live trusting in man. And when we come to this position the battle is already won, and the end of the glorious campaign in sight. We will have the real Holiness of God, not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts; we will have a Masculine Holiness, one of daring faith and works for Jesus Christ.” – C.T. Studd (1860-1931) English missionary served His Savior in China.
“The true Christian is called to be a soldier, and must behave as such from the day of his conversion to the day of his death. He is not meant to live a life of pious ease, indolence and security. He must never imagine for a moment, that he can sleep and doze along the way to Heaven, like one traveling in an easy carriage. If he takes his standard of Christianity from the people of this world, he may be content with such vain notions — but he will find no countenance for them in the Word of God. If the Bible is the rule of his faith and practice, he will find his course laid down very plainly in this matter. He must ‘fight!'”
[J.C. Ryle, Holiness]