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Jesus Jews Job Johnson journalism joy judging judgement justice justification
And Jesus said unto them, "And whom do you say that I am?" They replied, "You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our being, the ontological foundation of the context of our very selfhood revealed." And Jesus replied,"What?"
Jesus came into the world to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable
What good is having someone who can walk on water if you don't follow in his footsteps?
Jesus has also been accused of being ineffective, in a
political sense, and of having done little to right social
injustices. But it is clear from the Sermon on the Mount
that he was deeply concerned that his disciples should be
both the "salt" and the "light" of secular society; he
endorsed the authority of those Old Testament prophets who
vehemently rebuked social injustice; and he consistently
identified himself with the poor and weak, with social
outcasts and those who were regarded as morally
disreputable... It is true that he did not lead a rebellion
against Rome, seek to free slaves, or introduce a social
revolution. He had come for a particular purpose, which was
far more important than any of these things -- and from that
purpose nothing could or did deflect him.
J. N. D. Anderson, Christianity: the Witness of History
Jesus is honey in the mouth, music in the ear, a song of gladness in the heart.... Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153) Sermon 15 on the Canticle of Canticles
Jesus never married. So, should we not marry also? Jesus never used an electric appliance; never endorsed any medical procedure; never worked to save a troubled marriage. He never endorsed community volunteerism [i.e., Boy Scouts, Red Cross, United Way, etc.]; never owned a car; never went to college; never addressed juvenile delinquency or civil rights; never healed a case of alcoholism/alzheimer's/crib death/down's syndrome/drug abuse. Jesus never took time out for a hobby; never addressed professional burnout; never endorsed the ideals of saving money, of planning for retirement, of democracy. Do we REALLY want to "do as Jesus did" in these matters? His life was perfect in those areas that his life and words directly addressed. - William D Blake
Jesus Christ, the condescension of divinity, and the exaltation of humanity.-- Phillips Brooks
Jesus had a very bad habit of refusing to fit into anyone's paradigms.He learned a lot from the Pharisees, but He wasn't one of them. He may have hung out with the Essenes, but He was not a compulsive hand-washer. He was surely a Jew, steeped in the Torah, but He put a very different spin on it. He was charming and even witty and told wonderful stories, but He refused to be a celebrity. He dealt politely with those in authority, but did not sign on with them. Half the time He reassured people and the other half of the time He scared them. He told all the old stories but with new and disconcerting endings. He was patently a troublemaker. Which was why they had to get rid of Him. "It's been that way ever since. Everyone claims Him for their own. He's on our side. He's doing things our way. He confirms what we say. Then when we think we've sewed Him up, He's not there anymore. When we have domesticated Jesus, we may have a very interesting person on our hands, even a superstar maybe. Alas, it is not the real Jesus. He's gone somewhere else, preaching His contradictions about His Father's kingdom and stirring up His kind of trouble. A Jesus who does not disconcert and shake us up is not Jesus at all. -- the "little bishop", character, Andrew M. Greeley, _Irish Stew!_
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would be a lunatic - on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the devil of Hell. You must make a choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at this feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to . C.S LEWIS, Mere Christianity
What will you do with Jesus,
Neutral you can not be,
One day your heart will be asking,
What will He do with me.
C. S. LEWIS
Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You have taken upon yourself what is mine and given me what is yours. You have become what you were not so that I might become what I was not. MARTIN LUTHER
He feared nothing for Himself; and never once employed His divine power to save Himself from His human fate. Let God do that for Him if He saw fit. He did not come into the world to take care of Himself... His life was of no value to Him but as His Father cared for it. God would mind all that was necessary for Him, and He would mind the work His Father had given Him to do. And, my friends, this is just the one secret of a blessed life, the one thing every man comes into this world to learn. ... George Macdonald, Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood [1866]
You will never find Jesus so precious as when the world is one vast howling wilderness. Then he is like a rose blooming in the midst of the desolation, a rock rising above the storm.-- Robert Murray McCheyne. letter: 9 Mar 1843.
Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if there is room for Jesus. -Neal A. Maxwell
There is power here (in Jesus) but there is no violence.
There is authority, but it is the authority of one who has
taken upon himself the form of a servant.
Stephen Neill in The Lion Christian Quotation Collection,
1997
And the demon cried out in a loud voice, "What have you
to do with us, O Jesus of Nazareth? I know who you are, the
Holy One of God!"
And Jesus answered him, saying, "Relax. I've come to
celebrate our diversity. --Richard John Neuhaus,
Not only do we not know God except through Jesus Christ; We do not even know ourselves except through Jesus Christ. Blaise Pascal, Les Pensees
Jesus Christ is the center of everything, and the object
of everything, and he that does not know Him knows nothing
of nature and nothing of himself.
BLAISE PASCAL
Do you not find yourselves forgetful of Jesus? Some creature steals away your heart, and you are unmindful of him upon whom your affection ought to be set. Some earthly business engrosses your attention when you should have your eye steadily fixed upon the cross. It is the incessant round of world, world, world; the constant din of earth, earth, earth, that takes away the soul from Christ. Oh! my friends, is it not too sadly true that we can recollect anything but Christ, and forget nothing so easy as him whom we ought to remember? While memory will preserve a poisoned weed, it suffereth the Rose of Sharon to wither. -- C.H. Spurgeon
If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him, - C. T. Studd
I'm sure you've noticed that Jesus came into a world that was dominated by an oppressive government, saturated with slavery, and disadvantaged economically for much of the population. Yet, He did not seek to alter man's political, social or economic status. Why not? Simply put, the externals in life will never change much. It is forever true that one "born of woman is of few days and full of trouble" (Job 14:1). Jesus told the truth when He noted, "the poor you have with you always" (John 12:8). So He came to change what was in the hearts of men and women. ~Don Truex, Did Jesus Come to Solve Poverty?
I know Thee, Saviour, Who Thou art:
Jesus, the feeble sinner's friend!
Nor wilt Thou with the night depart,
But stay and love me to the end.
Thy mercies never shall remove;
Thy nature and Thy name is Love.
Charles Wesley (1707-1788)JESUS, the infinite I AM,
With God essentially the same,
With him enthroned above all height,
As God of God, and Light of Light,
Thou art by thy great Father known,
From all eternity his Son.Thou only dost the Father know,
And wilt to all thy followers show,
Who cannot doubt thy gracious will
His glorious Godhead to reveal;
Reveal him now, if thou art he,
And live, eternal Life, in me.
Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
He was God and man in one person, that God and man might be happy together again. --George Whitefield, letter 21 May 1740
I am from Jerusalem, but because Titus destroyed the Temple, I was born in Poland. S. Y. Agnon, 1966
His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed in any other country.--Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour writes to Baron Rothschild, 2 November 1917.
The Talmud teaches that Mount Sinai, which means
"mountain of hatred," earned its name because the Ten
Commandments that were given there made the Jewish people
the most hated nation on Earth. The world does not want a
conscience, and the Earth's inhabitants have always sought
freedom from a moral code. [...]
Because the Jews were entrusted by God with commandments
such as "Thou shalt not kill," they immediately become the
enemies of murderers. And now that America has become the
moral conscience of the world by aggressively promoting
liberty and justice, it too is being demonized. The
Democratic Party would have us believe that there is
something wrong in having the whole world oppose you. But
the Jews have long known that there is honor in it as long
as you are right and they are wrong. -- Schmuly Boteach,
"Democrats want 'Moore' than Kerry", _Jerusalem Post_, July
28, 2004,
That this nation of England, with the inhabitants of The Netherlands, shall be the first and the readiest to transport israel's sons and daughters in thier ships to the land promised to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for an everlasting Inheritance, - Joanna and Ebenezer Cartwright, 1649 petition, quoted by Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword.
Some folks put "Beware of the dog" signs on their houses or fences; but the sign on Yahweh's kingdom reads "Beware of the flock." Rulers and nations who read it should shudder - especially if they have touched and butchered the sheep of his hand. Dale R Davis, Commentary on 1 Sam 15.
It is just settled: you have it, Madam. ... Four millions sterling! and almost immediately. There was only one firm that could do it - Rothschilds --Benjamin Disraeli breaks the news of the Suez Canal purchase to Queen Victoria; November 1875.
How odd
Of God
To choose
The Jews."
William Norman Ewer
But not so odd
As those who choose
a Jewish God,
But spurn the Jews."
Cecil Browne in reply to Ewer
Would you really be more proud of and more connected to your Judaism if it had nothing to say about hunger or homelessness; nothing to say about capital punishment or abortion; nothing to say about euthanasia or rationing health care; nothing to say about genetic engineering or third world debt, violence or pornography, poverty or slavery? Woud Judaism truly inspire you and uplift you, would it transform your soul and realize your dreams if it was merely a complete theory of candle lighting and bread blessing?-- Marc Gellman, "Joe Lieberman as Rorschach Test", _First Things_, Dec. 2000
It is not only the psychology of the people that makes them so exacting -- their geographical situation has been equally problematic. - Shimon Peres (1923-____)
A Jew knows that anti-Semitism is not due to Christianity, because he knows that his people were persecuted before the advent of Christianity. --Fulton John Sheen (1895-1979) _Love One Another_ [1944}
No Christian hates the Jews because of the Crucifixion related in the Gospels--any more than the British hate the Americans because of the Declaration of Independence. --Fulton John Sheen (1895-1979) _Love One Another_ [1944}
I called the nane of a customer awaiting his prescription. He rose from his seat with an audible sigh. When I remarked on the sigh, he replied, " That was 6000 years of Jewish history'. - GJW
Recently at a public banquet I happened to sit next to a lady who tried to impress me by vouchsafing the information that one of her ancestors witnessed the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I could not resist replying: "Mine were present at the Giving of the Ten Commandments. -- Stephen S. Wise, 1923, in J. H. Hertz's _A Book of Jewish Thoughts_, 1924
Maybe the reason God doesn't explain to Job why terrible
things happen is that He knows what Job needs isn't an
explanation. Suppose God did explain....then what?
Understanding why his children had to die, Job would still
have to face their empty chairs at breakfast every
morning.
Frederick Buechner
The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.G.K. Chesterton - Introduction to the Book of Job, 1907
Job is not like consommé, clear and bright, but
like minestrone, dark and thick. it sticks to your ribs.
When we read Job we are like a little child eating his
spinach. "Open your mouth and close your eyes." Job, like
spinach, is not sweet tasting. But it puts iron in our
blood.
Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life
What an eye opener! This man, so highly revered as an expert on human thinking, doesn't himself understand who God is and what God has done, even with Job.~Maurice A. Williams (on Jung)
Johnson to be sure has a roughness in his manner; but no
man alive has a more tender heart. He has nothing of the
bear but his skin.-
Oliver Goldsmith, in Boswell's _Life of Johnson_
True, (answered the Earl, with a smile) but he would have been a DANCING bear. ~Boswell, Life of Johnson
You must not mind me, madam; I say strange things, but I mean no harm. -- Dr. Johnson, in Fanny Burney, diary 23 August 1778
I am delighted to hear that you have taken to Johnson. Yes, isn't it a magnificent style--the very essence of manliness and condensation. . . . I personally get more pleasure from the Rambler than from anything else of his and at one time I used to read a Rambler every evening as a nightcap. --Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) _The Letters of C. S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves_ [1986], "22 June 1930"
But the great Dr. Johnson was one in a century, and I count myself honored to have tasted the wine of his speech, even though put to my mouth through the goodness of his friend. For that Englishman is not to be read with the eyes alone, but read out, as with the Word, with a good voice, and a rolling of the tongue, so that the rich taste of magnificent English may come to the ears and go to the head, like the perfumes of the Magi, or like the best of beer, home brewed and long in the cask.--Richard Llewellyn, _How Green Was My Valley_ (1940), ch. 27
I can read every word that Dr. Johnson wrote with delight, for he had good sense, charm, and wit. No one could have written better if he had not wilfully set himself to write in the grand style. He knew good English when he saw it. --William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) _The Summing Up_ [1938], Chapter XII
A writer of gigantick fame in these days of little men.-- Thomas Sheridan, _ Life of Swift_
Of those who have thus survived themselves most completely, left a sort of personal seduction behind them in the world, and retained, after death, the art of making friends, Montaigne and Samuel Johnson certainly stand first.-- Robert Louis Stevenson, _Familiar Studies of Men and Books_
Laws of Truth in Reporting
1. The closer you are to the facts of a situation, the more
obvious are the errors in all news coverage of the
situation.
2. The further you are from the facts of a situation, the
more you tend to believe news coverage of the situation.
What the proprietorship of these newspapers is aiming at is power, and power without responsibility - the prerogative of the harlot through the ages.-- Stanley Baldwin
I am unable to understand how a man of honor can take a newspaper in his hands without a shudder of disgust. --Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)
They are so filthy and bestial that no honest man would admit one into his house for a water-closet doormat. ~ Charles Dickens (on American newspapers)
The newspaper does ivrything f'r us. It runs th' polis
foorce an' th' banks, commands th' milishy, conthrols th'
ligislachure, baptizes th' young, marries th' foolish,
comforts th' afflicted, afflicts th' comfortable, buries th'
dead an' roasts thim aftherward
Finley Peter Dunne (Mr. Dooley), 1867-1938 in Observations
by Mr. Dooley: The Newspaper.
The duty of a newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." --Finley Peter Dunne (1902)
Nobody's interested in sweetness and light.
Hedda Hopper (1890-1966) "The Last Word - A Treasury of
Women's Quotes," by Carolyn Warner, 1992.
She (Margaret Thatcher) regarded journalism as the haunt of the brittle, the cynical and the unreliable. - Bernard Ingham, Kill the Messenger, p168
The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them: inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehood and errors. --Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
For we who live to please must please to live.-- Samuel Johnson
Everything you read in the newspaper is absolutely true except for the rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge. --Erwin Knoll
In his own lifetime Jesus made no impact on history. This is something that I cannot but regard as a special dispensation on God's part, and, I like to think, yet another example of the ironical humour which informs so many of His purposes. To me, it seems highly appropriate that the most important figure in all history should thus escape the notice of memoirists, diarists, commentators, all the tribe of chroniclers who even then existed . . . Malcolm Muggeridge Jesus: The Man Who Lives, NY: Harper & Row, 1975
People in the media say they must look at the president with a microscope. Now, I don‚t mind a microscope, but boy, when they use a proctoscope, that‚s going too far.-- Richard Nixon ATTRIBUTION: NBC TV 8 Apr '84
Journalism: A profession whose business it is to explain to others what it personally does not understand. -- Lord Northcliffe
To read a newspaper for the first time is like coming into a film that has been on for an hour. Newspapers are like serials. To understand them you have to take knowledge to them; . . . best is the knowledge provided by the newspaper itself.- Shimon Peres (1923-____) R:Referring to The "New York Times; in "The Enigma of Arrival," "The Journey," 1987.
What qualifies journalists to know the truth when they see it? Are they philosophers? Judges? Theologians? Do they have the leisure to reflect upon events and their meaning? Rarely.~ Arthur Plotnik, Honk If You're a Writer (1992)
Nest of vipers. The bloody reds. - Denis Thatcher describing the BBC to its new chairman, Marmaduke Hussey in Barnett and Curry, The Battle for the BBC, p39
Publish and be damned. (when being blackmailed) --Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852)
There is much to be said in favor of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community. Oscar Wilde
Joy is not the absence of suffering, but the presence of God.
The experience of earthly love reveals itself through a feeling of inexpressible joy. How much greater, then is the joy that overwhelms us when we throw our whole selves into a loving relationship with God.
Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures. AQUINAS
There is a joy which is not given to the ungodly, but to those who love Thee for Thine own sake, whose joy Thou Thyself art. And this is the happy life, to rejoice to Thee, of Thee, for Thee; this it is, and there is no other.... The Confessions [397] of Augustine (354-430)
The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy-- Henry Ward Beecher
But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you. For surely, O LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield. -- Ps. 5:11-12.
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.--Ps. 90:14
All who joy would win must share it,
Happiness was born a twin.
Lord Byron [George Noel Gordon] (1788-1824)
There is not one blade of grass, there is no colour in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice. John Calvin
Joy is not gush: joy is not jolliness. Joy is simply perfect acquiescence in God's will, because the soul delights itself in God himself... rejoice in the will of God, and in nothing else. Bow down your heads and your hearts before God, and let the will, the blessed will of God, be done.... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951)
Happy is the person who not only sings, but feels God's eye is on the sparrow, and knows He watches over me. To be simply ensconced in God is true joy. How small a portion of our life it is that we really enjoy! In youth we are looking forward to things that are to come; in old age we are looking backward to things that are gone past; in manhood, although we appear indeed to be more occupied in things that are present, yet even that is too often absorbed in vague determinations to be vastly happy on some future day when we have time. C. C. Colton
Joy, not grit, is the hallmark of holy obedience. We need
to be light-hearted in what we do to avoid taking ourselves
too seriously. It is a cheerful revolt against self and
pride. Our work is jubilant, carefree, merry. Utter
abandonment to God is done freely and with celebration. And
so I urge you to enjoy this ministry of self-surrender.
Don't push too hard. Hold this work lightly, joyfully. The
saints throughout the ages have witnessed to this
reality.... You know, of course, that they are not speaking
of a silly, superficial, bubbly kind of joy like that
flaunted in modern society. No, this is a deep, resonant joy
that has been shaped and tempered by the fires of suffering
and sorrow &endash; joy through the cross, joy because of
the cross.
Richard Foster - Freedom of Simplicity
Know that joy is rarer, more difficult, and more beautiful than sadness. Once you make this all-important discovery, you must embrace joy as a moral obligation. Andre Gide, Fruits of the Earth
Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise
of men, but from doing something worthwhile.
Sir Wilfred Grenfell
Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them? Rose Kennedy (1890-1995)In "Words of Women Quotations for Success," by Power Dynamics Publishing, 1997.
Joy is not a substitute for sex; sex is very often a
substitute for Joy. I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures
are not substitutes for Joy.
C. S. Lewis, _Surprised by Joy_ 1955
All joy (as distinct from mere pleasure, still more amusement) emphasises our pilgrim status; always reminds, beckons, awakens desire. Our best havings are wantings. C. S. Lewis
If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to
desire our good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of
it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in
from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian
faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of
reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in
the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires
not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures,
fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite
joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on
making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is
meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too
easily pleased.
C S Lewis Weight of Glory and Other Addresses pp. 1-2.
Joy is never in our power and pleasure often is. C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) Surprised by Joy
For happiness one needs security, but joy can spring like a flower even from the cliffs of despair.-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh
God and eternal things are my only pleasure. HENRY MARTYN
Joy is increased by spreading it to others.--Robert Murray McCheyne in a letter: 27 June 1839
Do not look for rest in any pleasure, because you were not created for pleasure: you were created for Joy. And if you do not know the difference between pleasure and joy you have not yet begun to live.--- Thomas Merton
It was on the last night of His life, when His enemies were all around Him, that He spoke to His disciples of the joy that no man taketh away. Read again the story of His Passion: Jesus is seen throughout as calm, quiet, and confident. His last word is, ìFather, into Thy hands I commit my spirit.î Someone may say, 'Yes, but He knew that He was going to rise from the dead.' But have we not the same promise for ourselves? ... Stephen Neill (1900-1984), The Christian Character [1955]
The ordinary group of worshipping Christians, as the preacher sees them from the pulpit, does not look like a collection of very joyful people, in fact, they look on the whole rather sad, tired, depressed people. It is certain that such people will never win the world for Christ... It is no use trying to pretend: we may speak of joy and preach about it: but, unless we really have the joy of Christ in our hearts and manifest it, our words will carry no conviction to our hearers. ... Stephen Neill (1900-1984), The Christian Character [1955]
Joy is the flag you fly when the Prince of Peace is in residence within your heart. - Wilfred Peterson
This is the true joy in life--being used for a purpose recognised by yourself as a mighty one. George Bernard Shaw
Rejoicing is clearly a spiritual command. To ignore it, I need to remind you, is disobedience. Charles Swindoll
Always be joyful. That is the only truly saintly state.- Teresa of Avila
Till you can sing and rejoice and delight in God, as
misers do in gold, and Kings in sceptres, you never enjoy
the world.
Traherne, Centuries XXIX, quoted in The Practical
Christianity of Malcolm Muggeridge, by David Porter
Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.... Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), "Following the Equator", 1897 er
Be merry, really merry. The life of a true Christian
should be a perpetual jubilee, a prelude to the festivals of
eternity.
Theophane Venard
The religion of Christ is the religion of JOY. Christ came to take away our sins, to roll off our curse, to unbind our chains, to open our prisonhouse, to cancel our debt; in a word, to give us the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Is not this joy? Where can we find a joy so real, so deep, so pure, so lasting? There is every element of joy - deep, ecstatic, satisfying, sanctifying joy - in the gospel of Christ. The believer in Jesus is essentially a happy man. The child of God is, from necessity, a joyful man. His sins are forgiven, his soul is justified, his person is adopted, his trials are blessings, his conflicts are victories, his death is immortality, his future is a heaven of inconceivable, unthought-of, untold, and endless blessedness. With such a God, such a Saviour, and such a hope, is he not, ought he not, to be a joyful man? Octavius Winslow, THE SYMPATHY OF CHRIST, p. 215f.
I am grateful that I am not as judgmental as all those censorious, self-righteous people around me.
But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7 NIV
The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him. Proverbs 18:17.
We find it hard to apply the knowledge of ourselves to our judgment of others. The fact that we are never of one kind, that we never love without reservations and never hate with all our being cannot prevent us from seeing others as wholly black or white. Eric Hoffer
The jury has a right to judge both the law as well as the fact in controversy. -- John Jay
Whoever ... is overrun with suspicion, and detects artifice and stratagem in every proposal, must either have learned by experience or observation the wickedness of mankind, and been taught to avoid fraud by having often suffered or seen treachery; or he must derive his judgment from the consciousness of his own disposition, and impute to others the same inclinations which he feels predominant in himself.- Samuel Johnson: Rambler #79
God Himself, sir, does not propose to judge a man until his life is over. Why should you and I? ----Samuel Johnson (attributed)
It helps to have a friend in court when one is constantly sentencing oneself to death - Erica Jong
In judging others a man laboureth in vain; he often erreth, and easily falleth into sin; but in judging and examining himself he always laboureth to good purpose. Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ
Who are you to judge? is the standard response, and I quote Captain James T. Kirk when asked the same question by Kodos the Executioner: who do I have to be? -- James Lileks, http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/03/0803/080703.html
In our world where it seems we are taught to judge everything all around and about us and we spend so much of our time doing just that, it might be wise to ask if we can judge anything. To judge anything with any degree of clarity and accuracy we would need all the information past, present and future and how it will affect all concerned to make a perfect judgment. Since no one has that skill, ability or information, you might agree, it may be unwise to judge. This idea may be hard to accept, but when you look back over your life and the judgments you made, ask yourself. How many of your judgments, when you made them, were you perfectly sure they were correct, would you want to change now with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight? Since every judgment is only an opinion based on the limited information at hand, filtered through one's personal value system, it might be safe to assume no two people will judge anything exactly the same. Even concepts of right and wrong, good or bad, good or bad morals and ethics are only opinions, for what may be good in one case may be a disaster in another. Sidney Madwed
A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.-- H. L. Mencken
I will not judge a person to be spiritually dead whom I have judged formerly to have had spiritual life, though I see him at present in a swoon as to all evidences of the spiritual life. And the reason why I will not judge him so is this -- because if you judge a person dead, you neglect him, you leave him; but if you judge him in a swoon, though never so dangerous, you use all means for the retrieving of his life. John Owen (1616-1683), Sermons
Every intellectual product must be judged from the point-of-view of the age and the people in which it was produced. Walter Pater (1839-1894)
You are young, my son, and, as the years go by, time will change and even reverse many of your present opinions. Refrain therefore awhile from the setting yourself up as a judge of the highest matters. --Plato (428-348 BC), _Laws_ #888
My soul, sit thou a patient looker-on;
Judge not the play before the play is done:
Her plot hath many changes; every day
Speaks a new scene; the last act crowns the play.
Francis Quarles (1592-1644)_Epigram_, "Respice Finem"
There is no art to find the mind's construction in the face.- William Shakespeare, 1564-1616,
True non-judgementalism is a logical impossibility. To forbid or exclude a value judgement is to assume, unconsciously, that the highest value is to have no values.-- John White
Getting what they deserve doesn't satisfy many people.
Examine what is said, not who speaks. Arabian Proverb
Guard against the prestige of great names; see that your
judgements are your own; and do not shrink from
disagreement; no trusting without testing.
John Dalberg Acton (1834-1902)
People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead.-James Baldwin (1924-1987) US novelist, essayist
Of all the judgments we pass in life, none is more important than the judgment we pass on ourselves. -- Nathaniel Branden
What more impiety can he avow
Whose heart rebelleth at God's judgment dread?
Dante, THE DIVINE COMEDY, translation by Lawrence Binyon,
Copyright 1947 Viking Press Inferno, Canto XX, Lines
7-30
You may juggle human laws, you may fool with human courts, but there is a judgment to come, and from it there is no appeal.--Orin Philip Gifford (1847- ) Mead, Frank S. (1965), The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations (Westwood, NJ: Revell).
If God doesn't bring judgment on America soon, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. ... Ruth Graham
Hagar, to invisible celestial power as his boat sinks:
"WHY ME?"
Invisible celestial power: "WHY NOT?" From Hagar the
Horrible
[Dr. Johnson to a Quaker:] Oh, let us not be found, when our Master calls us, ripping the lace off our waistcoats, but the spirit of contention from our souls and tongues. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
The belief in some being who can be the judge of all
human matters is a very comfortable one -- all wrongs will
be righted and all rights will be rewarded.
Eli Khamarov "The Old Working Model"
There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy
will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then,
have it your way."
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) The Great Divorce
Nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world.~Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation ( March 30 1863)
I'm armed with more than complete steel,-- The justice of
my quarrel.
Christopher Marlowe. 1565-1593 Lust's Dominion. Act iii. Sc.
4.
As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by national calamities.=George Mason, Debates in the Federal Convention, Wednesday, August 22, 1787 Jonathan Elliot, Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol. 5, p. 458
I can hardly recollect a single plan of mine, of which I have not since seen reason to be satisfied, that had it taken place in season and circumstance just as I proposed, it would, humanly speaking, have proved my ruin; or at least it would have deprived me of the greater good the Lord had designed for me. We judge of things by their present appearances, but the Lord sees them in their consequences, if we could do so likewise we should be perfectly of His mind; but as we cannot, it is an unspeakable mercy that He will manage for us, whether we are pleased with His management or not; and it is spoken of as one of his heaviest judgements, when He gives any person or people up to the way of their own hearts, and to walk after their own counsels. John Newton
Jesus will judge us not only for what we did, but also for what we could have done and didn't. GEORGE OTIS
There is no outward constitution nor frame of things in government or nations, but it is subject to a dissolution, and may receive it, and that in a way of judgement. Dr. Owen's Sermon on 2 Peter iii. 11. Works, folio, 1721.
The most tremendous judgement of God in this world is the hardening of the hearts of men. John Owen
It is with our judgments as with our watches: no two go
just alike, yet each believes his own.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) In "Instant Quotation
Dictionary," by Donald O. Bolander, 1979
We must, furthermore, protest the notion of manifest destiny that permits our nation to do anything it chooses. For if we insist on alking down this road, than at some point--as God is God, the God in whose eyes there is real good and real evil--we who have trampled so completely on all of God's amazing gifts to this country are going to wake up and find that He cars very much what we do. We must not suppose that we are playing only intellectual and political games. If God exists, and if He judges good and evil, then we must realize that those who trample on His great gifts will one day know His judgment. The scriptures bear solemn witness to this. Our nation is not immune."- Francis A. Schaeffer, _Who Is For Peace?_ by Francis A. Schaeffer, Vladimir Bukovsky, and James Hitchcock.p. 19
The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions. --Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897-1963)
Whatever it is that hits the fan, it will not be evenly distributed. -- The third law of reality
I will deal with them according to their conduct, and by their own standards I will judge them. -- Ezek. 7:27
Capital Punishment, a penalty regarding the justice and expediency of which many worthy persons -- including all the assassins -- entertain grave misgivings. -- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), "The Devil's Dictionary", 1911
He who is only just is cruel.
Who on earth could live were all judged justly?
Byron (1788-1824)
There is no calamity which a great nation can invite which equals that which follows a supine submission to wrong and injustice. Grover Cleveland
You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe. --Ranger Marcus Cole, Babylon 5
My definition of social justice: those who refuse to work deserve to go hungry. --Clayton Cramer
When a student asked of Confucius:"What do you say concerning the principle that injury should be recompensed by kindness?" The Master replied:"With what, then, will you recompense kindness? Recompense injury with justice and recompense kindness with kindness"
Social justice is a semantic fraud from the same stable as People's Democracy. C. Curran
Since all people have sinned in Adam and have come under the sentence and the curse of eternal death, God would have done no injustice if it had been His will to leave the entire human race in sin and under the curse, and to condemn them on account of their sin. THE CANONS OF DORT
It is no solid objection against God aiming at an infinitely perfect union of the creature with himself, that the particular time will never come when it can be said, the union is now infinitely perfect. God aims at satisfying justice in the eternal damnation of sinners; which will be satisfied by their damnation, considered no otherwise than with regard to its eternal duration. But yet there never will come that particular moment, when it can be said, that now justice is satisfied. But if this does not satisfy our modern free-thinkers who do not like to talk about satisfying justice with an infinite punishment; I suppose it will not be denied by any, that God, in glorifying the saints in heaven with eternal felicity, aims to satisfy his infinite grace or benevolence, by the bestowment of a good infinitely valuable, because eternal: and yet there never will come that moment, when it can be said, that now this infinitely valuable good has been actually bestowed.-- JONATHAN EDWARDS
The necessity of Christ's satisfaction to divine justice is, as it were, the center and hinge of all doctrines of pure revelation. Other doctrines are of little importance comparatively except as they have respect to this. JONATHAN EDWARDS
Justice delayed is justice denied. --William Ewart Gladstone
Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.- Thomas Jefferson. 1743-1826. Notes on Virginia. Query xviii. Manners.
My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust.But how had I got tis idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a linecrooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. Thus in the very act of trying of trying to prove that God did not exist - in other words - the world of reality was senseless - I found I was forced to assume that the one part of reality - namely my idea of justice - was full of sense. -- C.S. LEWIS
Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice. --H. L. Mencken
Just are the ways of God,
And justifiable to men;
Unless there be who think not God at all.
John Milton. Paradise Regained. Book ii. Line 293.
A rattlesnake loose in the living room tends to end all discussion of animal rights,- Lance Morrow ,after the Sept. 11 attacks
Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.~ Reinhold Niebuhr, Children of Light and Children of Darkness (1944)
The purpose of the law is not to prevent a future offense, but to punish the one actually committed. --Ayn Rand, letter to John Hospers (April 29, 1961)
God always has another custard pie up his sleeve.~Lynn Redgrave in "Georgy Girl"
...if fairness is important, what is really fair? We may say something like, "People have a right to food, a right to housing, and a right to a good job for decent pay." But from an economist's perspective, all those rights involve making finite goods meet infinite wants. Unless the fair society generates tremendous economic growth--which societies that put fairness first have trouble doing--the goods will come from redistribution. Try rephrasing the rights statement thus: "People have a right to my food, a right to my housing, and a right to my good job for my decent pay. --P. J. O'Rourke
It is right that what is just should be obeyed; it is necessary that what is strongest should be obeyed. Justice without mightis helpless; might without justice is tyrannical.-Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensees (1660)
Who is more evil than one who is reminded of these revelations of his Lord, then insists upon disregarding them? We will certainly punish the guilty. -- The Koran, 32:22
Use every man after his desert, and who should 'scape
whipping?
Hamlet Act ii. Sc. 2.
Life is not fair; get used to it. Charles Sykes DUMBING DOWN OUR KIDS.
The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions.--Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897-1963)
I know the world isn't fair, but why isn't it ever unfair in my favor?~Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes)
Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a
good person is a little like expecting the bull not to
attack you because you are a vegetarian.
Dennis Wholey
simul justus et peccator
ex quandam parte justus ex quandam parte peccator
It is entirely by the intervention of Christ's righteousness that we obtain justification before God. This is equivalent to saying that man is not just in himself, but that the righteousness of Christ is communicated to him by imputation, while he is strictly deserving of punishment. John Calvin
[Justification is] the main hinge on which salvation turns. JOHN CALVIN
It is just like someone who is sick, and who believes the doctor who promises his full recovery. In the meantime, he obeys the doctor's orders in the hope of the promised recovery, and abstains from those things which he was told to lay off, so that he may in no way hinder the promised return to health...Now is this sick man well? He is sick in reality - but he is well on account of a sure promise of the doctor, whom he trusts, and who reckons him as already being cured...So he is at one and the same time time both a sinner and righteous. He is a sinner in reality, but righteous by the sure imputation and promise of God that he will continue to deliver him from sin until he has completely cured him. So he is entirely healthy in hope, but a sinner in reality. MARTIN LUTHER,commenting on Romans
When the article of justification has fallen, everything has fallen...This is the chief article from which all other doctrines have flowed...It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defnds the church of God; without it the church of God cannot exist for one hour...[it is] the master and prince, the lord, the ruler, and the judge over all kinds of doctrines. MARTIN LUTHER
We are justified propter Christum per fidem - that is, on acount of Christ, through faith. The basis of God's decision to place us in right relationship with Him lies in Christ Himself. We are justified on account of His obedience during His lifetime and His death upon the cross. It is because of Him, and nor because of anything we have done or will do, that we are made right with God. But the means by which we are justified is faith. Faith is like a channel through which the benefits of Christ flow to us...both the external foundation and the internal means of appropriation of justification are God-given. Faith is not something we can achieve; it is something achieved within us by God. ALISTER McGRATH
Justification is an act of God by which he declares sinners to be righteous by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. R. C. Sproul and James M. Boice
Justification is the very hinge and pillar of Christianity. An error about justification is dangerous, like a defect in a foundation. Justification by Christ is a spring of the water of life. To have the poison of corrupt doctrine cast into this spring is damnable. THOMAS WATSON