Abraham Kuyper (40)
the Holy Spirit, who gave the Scriptures, is Himself the perpetual author (auctor perpetuus) of all appropriations of their contents by and of all application to the individual. It is the Holy Spirit who, by illumination, enables the human consciousness to take up into itself the substance of the Scripture; in the course of ages leads our human consciousness to ever richer insights into its content
Principles of Sacred Theology, 402
Abraham Kuyper
Principles of Sacred Theology, 402
And as the Christian knights were inspired to high exploits by crusade upon crusade undertaken against Islam, the sight of this glittering arsenal in the writings of Aristotle made the scholars of those days quickly cast aside the sling and stone and immediately arm themselves with the lances of Aristotle's categories and with the armor of his distinctions, and so to gain trophies for their Christian faith. At the outset they foresaw none of the danger this implied. As yet they perceived nothing of what was to come to light in Abelard, in the Nominalists, and presently in the Humanists. They did not surmise that the Greek-Roman tradition held a spirit peculiar to itself, and that when once called out from its grave this spirit would soon prove able to enlist once more the sympathies of thinking minds, and for a second time let loose against the Church the old enemy which had spoken in Celsus and Porphyry. They thought they were simply dealing with the armor of a buried hero, and that they had a perfect right to appropriate this armor to themselves.Sacred Theology, 655
The proclamation of new discoveries is not always a proof of devotion to the truth, it is sometimes a tribute to self-esteem.Sacred Theology, 577
we read in Acts viii.29: "And the Spirit said unto Philip, GO near, and join thyself to this chariot." It does not say that this thought arose in him, but that a speaking took placePrinciples of Sacred Theology, 442
If God then withdraws Himself, if in the soul of men He bear no more witness to the truth of His Word, men can no longer believe, and no apologetics, however brilliant, will ever be able to restore the blessing of faith in the ScripturePrinciples of Sacred Theology, 366
He is your friend who pushes you nearer to God.
The dominating principles [of the Reformation] was not, soteriologically, justification by faith, but in the widest sense cosmologically, the sovereignty of the Triune God over the whole cosmos, in all its spheres and kingdoms, visible and invisible.
A theologian who undervalues Logic, as being little necessary to him, simply disarms himself.Sacred Theology, 612
it does not follow that his studies are to have no other tendency than to confirm the confession of his Church, as if this were clothed with infallible authority. This was the fault committed by Scholasticism.Sacred Theology, 592
In so far as our nature is created after the image of God in original righteousness, this excellency could be lost and our nature become depraved; but not our creation after God's image so far as it pertains to its essence (quod ad substantiam).Sacred Theology, 507
Either Jesus' view of the Scripture is the true one, and then we should kneel in His presence; or Jesus' view of the Scripture is one enormous mistake, in which case the Rabbi of Nazareth can no longer be the absolute guide along the way of faith.Sacred Theology, 459
Very unjustly at the mention of miracles one thinks almost exclusively of those in the material domain, and almost without a thought passes by the spiritual miracles. This of course is absurd.Principles of Sacred Theology, 420
The truth of this mysticism lies naturally in the high estimate of the personal element in religion, and in preaching that not only every individual person must come to his God, but also, that God must reveal Himself to every individual, so that the secret walk with God may be found by every one for his own soul. As a fundamental principle of theology, on the other hand, this representation of the inner light (lumen internum) is of no use whatever, simply because it rests on fiction. If it were true, if the Lord our God did give to each one personally not merely a disposition, an emotion, a perception, but a real knowledge of God, then he who has been thus mystically inspired should be able to speak just like the prophets of old, and the witness of one should confirm the witness of another. Such, however, is not the case. You never receive from these mystics a clear communication of what has been revealed in this way to enrich our knowledge of God. For the most part they even avoid clear language, and hide themselves behind indefinite expressions of feeling and sounds without rational sensePrinciples of Sacred Theology, 350-351
the Word of God condemns unconditionally all seeking of medical help which excludes a seeking of the Lord, all use of preventatives and cures which disregards God, which fails to acknowledge Him as the giver of both the remedy and the wisdom to apply it. He who struggles against sickness and suffering without humbling himself in prayer and supplication before God, brings upon himself the curse of God. Not only the curse of Eden but a second curse comes upon the man who in foolish pride believes himself wise enough and strong enough and great enough to harness and subdue and control nature.The Practice of Godliness
A man of ripe and rich development will rather become a voluntary exile, will rather suffer imprisonment, nay, even sacrifice life itself, than tolerate constraint in the form of conscience.
Her position in the state is not assigned her by the permission of the government, but Jure divino. She has her own organization. She possesses her own office-bearers... the sovereignty of the state and the sovereignty of the church exist side by side, and they mutually limit each other.
Calvinism protests against state-omnipresence; against the horrible conception that no right exists above and beyond existing laws; and against the pride of absolutism.
The sphere of the family opens itself, with its right of marriage, domestic peace, education and possession; and in this sphere also the natural head is conscious of exercising an inherent authority - not because the government allows it, but because God has imposed it
We must ever watch against the danger which lurks, for our personal liberty, in the power of the state.
however strenuously we emphasize this intellectual development, unless a spiritual development be its guide, it degenerates of necessity into intellectualism, and becomes cold, barren and unfruitful. Only when the theologian applies himself inharmonious relation to the development of both, does he offer himself to the Holy Spirit as a prepared instrument, and is able to reveal even more fully the strength of this instrument.Sacred Theology, 577
every theologian shall, in his investigations, reckon with all those things that are taught him by the history of the churches concerning well and badly chosen paths in this territory to be investigated; and, also, in the second place, that he shall take the dogmas of his Church as his guide, and that he shall not diverge from them until he is compelled to do this by the Word of God.Sacred Theology, 577
the investigator of the Holy Scripture shall take account of what history and the life of the Church teaches concerning the general points of view, from which to start his investigation and which paths it is useless to further reconnoitre.Sacred Theology, 576
As the conversion of many people has taken place almost without observation, which often happens in the quieter walks of Christian life, and the conversion of a few only, who at first wandered far off, is incisive like that of an Augustine, such also is the case here. For the most part this witness works gradually and unobserved, and only in exceptional cases is it as lightning that suddenly flames through the skies.Sacred Theology, 560
As in sanctification you are made to err in this way from time to time with respect to the Holy Scripture, you may be led to doubt, and even for a while pursue wrong paths. But this will not be permanent. The work of grace is not left to yourself, but with a firm hand is guided by the Holy Spirit, who in no mechanical way, but by a richer spiritual experience, at length restores you to seeing again what is truly Divine.Sacred Theology, 559
The whole question of inspiration virtually amounts to this: whether God shall be denied or granted the sovereign right of employing, if so needed and desired, the factors which He Himself created in man, by which to communicate to man what He purposed to reveal respecting the maintenance of His own majesty, the execution of His world-plan, and the salvation of His elect.Sacred Theology, 552
As unholy and repulsive as the imprecatory Psalms are in the lips of those who apply them to our relative universal human life, they are solemnly true and holy when you take your stand in the absolute palingenesis, where God's honor is the keynote of harmony of the human heart.Sacred Theology, 524
if one closes the eye to the many-sidedness and multiformity of the Scripture, and the organic way in which it gradually came into existence as a sum-total of many factors, then nothing remains but a mechanical lifelessness, which destroys the vital, organic unity.Sacred Theology, 480
Whatever in the end compiled this Scripture canonically, it was not simply human sharp-sightedness, but rather Divine providence. Even so... with clear consciousness a second Holy Scripture as such was in view, and that the assignment of such high authority to this or that book was contested, but not the reality of such an authority as such.Sacred Theology, 464
it is alleged that in the centrum of the religious and moral life there yawns an abyss between the Old Testament and the Christ. Notwithstanding all this the attempt is being made to make it appear as though it had merely been an innocent mistake in Christ that for eighteen centuries by precept and example He has bound His followers and confessors to the authority of the Old Testament. But is it not absurd to qualify in the Founder of your religion, as Jesus is called, as of no importance a mistake which for ages has led millions upon millions astray, and still continues to do this?Sacred Theology, 459
As long as the effort was prosecuted to prove that
Jesus shared the view of the
Scripture of the Old held by the liberal tendency at the beginning
this century, inspiration could be abandoned without
the
loss of one's Christ. Since, on the other hand, this effort
has suffered total shipwreck, and since it is, and must be
historically acknowledged that Christ viewed the Scripture
in about the same way in which the Church of all ages has
done this in her symbols, the conflict against this view of
the Scripture has become directly a conflict against the Christ
Himself. He who breaks in principle with that ancient view
of the Scripture cuts the cord of faith, which bound him
to that Christ as his Lord and his God
And he who can
not refrain from kneeling low before his Saviour cannot break
with the ground of faith in the Scripture, as Jesus Himself
has sealed itSacred theology, 456
Hence the reason that we reject tradition, in which Rome seeks a complement for the Holy Scripture, is not because we deny that there is an abundance of material for a very interesting tradition, nor yet alone because we foster a just doubt concerning the reliability of this tradition, but rather because such a complement by tradition is antagonistic to the entire conception of Scripture. In that case the Holy Scripture would attain no higher value than of being itself a part of tradition.Principles of Sacred Theology, 404
Christ shall sometime be no longer the interposed Mediator, but the natural Head of the human race in gloryPrinciples of Sacred Theology, 372
God is indeed, a God afar off; but He approaches you by and in the Scripture; unveils His presence to you; and speaks to you as though you were standing right by Him, and He drew you close beneath His wings.Principles of Sacred Theology, 364
What the Holy Spirit personally does, is to direct faith to the revealed knowledge of God, to explain and apply this revealed knowledge of God to the heart according to its particular need, and also to quicken in the soul a lively sense of truth; but along this individual way He does not impart an increase of content.Principles of Sacred Theology, 351
Speaking more accurately, we should say that the material principium is the self-revelation of God to the sinner, from which principium the data have come forth in the Holy Scriptures, from which theology must be built up.Principles of Sacred Theology, 347
Even Calvin is clearly conscious that he builds on the theology of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas; and he who reads the original Lutheran and Reformed dogmatists, perceives at once that they make constant use of what has been contributed by Romish theologians. But in the subsequent period that usage has become extinct. Every church withdraws itself within its own walls; and finally it seems that there is no theology for the dogmatist, but that which rests upon his own confession.Principles of Sacred Theology, 323
all knowledge remains received knowledge, and it is not God Himself, but the knowledge He has revealed to us concerning Himself which constitutes the material for theological investigation. Hence ectypal TheologyPrinciples of Sacred Theology, 252
"As you cannot kneel in prayer before your God as worshipper, in any other way except as dependent upon Him, so also as Theologian you can receive no knowledge of God when you refuse to receive your knowledge of Him in absolute dependence upon Him.Principles of Sacred Theology, 252
the conception of Theological Encyclopedia consists in the scientific investigation of the organic nature and relations of Theology in itself and as an integral part of the organism of science.Principles of Sacred Theology, 54
Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!' Kuyper, Abraham (1998). "Sphere Sovereignty". in Bratt, James D.. Abraham Kuyper, A Centennial Reader. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. pp. 488
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