Last time, we featured quotations from Charles Hodge (CH) and his son, A. A. Hodge (AAH). Here we complete that listing.
If you missed it, you can go back and read Gold from Giants of the Faith (Part 1).
While Charles Hodge was a deep theologian with a first class intellect, he was not a cold rationalist. He believed that a renewed heart was more important than a renewed mind. He believed “one can ascertain the real faith of people more clearly and uniformly from their hymns and expressions of devotion than from their creeds and theologies.” Hodge believed that the goal of theology is the same as God’s goal for Scripture, to lead us to greater love of Christ and our neighbors.
May the Lord use these quotations and Bible references to help us “love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love” (Ephesians 6:24).
Heaven is the Christian’s Eternal Home: Heaven is to be with Christ, for we shall be like Him when we see Him as He is. (CH) “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!… Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. All who have this hope in Him purify themselves, just as He is pure.” (1 John 3:1-3)
Hell: A person who realizes in any measure the awful force of the words “eternal hell” won’t shout about it, but will speak with all tenderness. (AAH) “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Since we know what it is to fear the Lord we try to persuade others.” (2 Cor 5:10-11)
History: The whole course of history is represented (in Scripture) as the development of the plan and purpose of God; and yet human history is little else than the history of sin. (CH)
Holiness and Justification: Any person who thinks that they are a Christian, and have accepted Christ only for justification, when they did not at the same time accept Jesus for sanctification, is miserably deluded. (AAH)
Holiness, Rewards of: It is the tendency of God honoring righteousness to produce blessings, as it is the tendency of evil to produce misery. (CH) “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse–the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods….” (Deut 11:26-28)
Humans Beings: Human are created by God as religious beings. Religion can’t be got rid of by seeking to ignore it. (AAH)
Idolatry: Idolatry is everywhere represented in Scripture as the greatest insult creatures can offer our Creator. (CH) “If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.” (Deut 8:19)
Indolence (laziness, inactivity): Not to serve God is to serve Satan. (CH) “We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat.” (2 Thes 3:11-12)
Lord’s Day (Christian Sabbath): The essence of the Sabbath could not be changed without changing the nature of humanity. (AAH) “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy….For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11)
Morality: All moral obligation involves the obligation of obedience to God’s revealed will (word). Morality does not make us religious, but (Christ-centered) religion makes us moral. (CH)
Obedience, Importance of: All moral obligation involves the obligation of obedience to God’s revealed will (word)….Morality does not make us religious, but (Christ-centered) religion makes us moral. (CH) “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all my the law; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” (Joshua 1:7-8)
Pain: The experience of God’s people shows that bodily pain has a special part to perform in God’s work of sanctifying us. (CH) “We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Rom 5:3-5)
Perfection: A great deal of perfectionism is rotten to the core. (AAH) “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, (God) is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word is not in us.” (1 John 1:8-10)
Regeneration (the Holy Spirit’s new birth): Regeneration is a single act, complete in itself, and never repeated; conversion, as the beginning of holy living, is the commencement of a series, constant, endless, and progressive….Whatever we may do after regeneration, the first quickening of the dead must originate with God. (AAH) “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (Ezek 36:26-27)
Religion: Morality does not make us religious, but religion makes us moral. (CH) Religion is what keeps a nation from chaos — from falling apart like uncemented sand. (AAH) “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people He chose for His inheritance.” (Psalm 33:12)
Resurrection of Christ: Jesus’ resurrection, as the evidence of the sacrifice of His death being accepted by God, and of the validity of all His claims, is a much more decisive proof of the security of all people who trust in Him than His death could be. (CH) “Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)
Revelation: Revelation is from the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit. Redemption is to the Father, by the Son, through the Spirit. (AAH) Revelation is God’s act of communicating divine knowledge by the Spirit to the human mind. Inspiration is the act of the same Spirit, controlling those who make the truth known. (CH)
Satan, Activity of: Satan, the great adversary, directs all his energy to prevent people from trusting and obeying Jesus Christ’s good news. (CH) “The god of this age (Satan) has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Cor 4:4)
Sin, Effects of: It is the tendency of God-honoring righteousness to produce blessings, as it is the tendency of evil to produce misery. (CH)
Theology (the study of God’s nature and Christian beliefs): The truth of God is a boundless expanse. Definitions were made for human beings, not human beings for definitions. (AAH)
Trials, Blessings of: Afflictions are the cause of eternal glory. Not the meritorious cause, but still the procuring cause. (CH) “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” (James 1:12)
Trials (people, things, or situations that test our endurance): It is a great consolation to know that dissensions (disputes, conflict, friction, antagonism) don’t happen by accident or chance, but are ordered by God’s providence, and are designed, as storms, for the purpose of our purification. (CH) “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)
Vigilance (keeping careful watch for possible danger or difficulties): Those whom God has promised to save He has promised to make watchful. (CH)
Will of God: All moral obligation involves the obligation of obedience to God’s revealed will (word). Morality does not make us religious, but (Christ-centered) religion makes us moral. (CH) “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” (Deut 29:29)
Most quotations from The Complete Gathered Gold (2006) by John Blanchard, Evangelical Press