I call upon You, Lord, God of Abraham and God of Isaac and God of Jacob and Israel, You who are the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God who, through the abundance of your mercy, was well-pleased towards us so that we may know You, who made heaven and earth, who rules over all, You who are the one and the true God, above whom there is no other God; You who, by our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit, give to every one who reads this writing to know You, that You alone are God, to be strengthened in You, and to avoid every heretical and godless and impious teaching.

St Irenaeus of Lyons, Against the Heresies 3:6:4


Wednesday, January 2, 2013

J. C. Ryle on the Revelation


“But I appeal to the common sense of men and their sense of fairness, and I ask them whether they have a right to expect that such a book as the book of Revelation can in the very nature of things — be anything but dark and mysterious. Here is a prophetic book which spans the mighty gulf between the end of the first century — and the day of judgment; a book which was given to show God's dealings with the Church and the world during a space of well night 2000 years; a book which points to the rise and fall of empires and kingdoms, with all the attendant wars and tumults over a third part of the habitable globe; a book, above all, which does not tell its story in simple, plain matter of fact narration, but clothes it in majestic visions, symbols, emblems, figures, and similitudes.”

J. C. Ryle, from a sermon on Revelation, “The Reading Which is Blessed.” 

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