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“The Church expected the Second Coming of Christ immediately, and no doubt this was so in the ordinary literal sense. But it was certainly expected also in another sense. The converts in all the cities of Asia and (soon) of Europe where the small groups were founded had known, in their conversion, one way or another, a first coming of their Redeemer. And then? And then! That was the consequent task and trouble â€� the then. He had come, and they adored and believed, they communicated and practiced, and waited for his further exhibition of himself. The then lasted, and there seemed to be no farther equivalent Now. Time became the individual and catholic problem. The Church had to become as catholic â€� as universal and as durable â€� as time.”
― Charles Walter Stansby Williams, The Descent of the Dove: A Short History of the Holy Spirit in the Church

“In short, doctrinally, Puritanism was a kind of vigorous Calvinism; experientially, it was warm and contagious; evangelistically, it was aggressive, yet tender; ecclesiastically, it was theocentric and worshipful; and politically, it aimed to be scriptural and balanced.”
― Joel R. Beeke, Church History 101: The Highlights of Twenty Centuries

“Church History is the record of God's gracious, wonderful and mighty deeds, showing how by his Spirit and Word he rules his Church and conquers the world.”
― Nils Forsander, Life Pictures from Swedish Church History

“It was evangelicals' sense of rudderlessness - their desire for an authority to guide them in questions of dogma, life, and worship - that led them to rediscover liturgy and history in the first place. The irony was that in their smorgasbord approach to non-Protestant tradition, in their individualistic rejection of the rules of any one church in favor of a free run of the so-called church universal, in their repudiation of American nationalism in favor of cosmopolitanism, young evangelicals were being quintessentially evangelical and stereotypically American, doing as they pleased according to no authority but their own. The principle of sola scriptura was far clearer in theory than in practice. No matter evangelicals' faith that, with the 'illumination of the Holy Spirit,' 'Scripture could and should interpret itself,' too many illuminated believers came to different conclusions about what the Bible meant. Inerrantists who asserted their 'literal' interpretation with absolute certainty could do so only by covertly relying on modern, manmade assumptions. Other evangelicals were now searching for similar assurance in the authority of church history and the mystery of worship.”
― Molly Worthen, Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism

“When a church caters to the masses they become a body of feel-good, hell-bound worshipers of false gods and not a people of the narrow way”
― John M Sheehan

“One area that I now consider safe to follow after any past hero of the faith is in their personal devotion and relationship to Jesus Christ. Each of these men knew God. They spent much time with God. The reason I put our thoughts in this direction is that from personal devotion and walking with God comes our callings and gifts. That is the place where God calls us into his purpose and will for our lives.”
― Greg Gordon

“If we see some admirable work of human art, we are at once eager to investigate the nature, the manner, the end of its production; and the contemplation of the works of God stirs us with an incomparably greater longing to learn the principles, the method, the purpose of creation. This desire, this passion, has without doubt been implanted in us by God. And as the eye seeks light, as our body craves food, so our mind is impressed with the . . . natural desire to know the truth of God and the causes of what we observe." --Origen(185-254)”
― Bruce L. Shelley, Church History in Plain Language

“To insure the stability of imperial power, it is sufficient for an emperor to serve God with reverence.”
― Hermais Sozomen, The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen: From AD 324 to AD 425

“I do not think we could determine the truth of what had happened in history by having the Quorum of the Twelve vote on it.”
― Leonard J. Arrington

“Whatever the reason, the fact is that there was no widespread catechetical teaching for Christian children. Things were going to change. The growing awareness of the need for Christian education was one of the chief forces behind the desire in the sixteenth century to reform the rite of baptism.”
― Hughes Oliphant Old, The Shaping of the Reformed Baptismal Rite in the Sixteenth Century

“Until the mid-1500s, priests were allowed to marry and amass wealth and land just like anyone else; such property passed to a priest's wife and children upon his death. But starting in 1563, married priests were restricted from saying mass. This policy change, in effect, stopped priests from marrying, so upon their death, any wealth they had was passed to the church.”
― Kathy Baldock, Walking the Bridgeless Canyon: Repairing the Breach Between the Church and the LGBT Community

“Among the papyri interpreted as fragments of books once used by teachers and students, the Psalter is better represented than any other volume of Jewish or Christian canonical Scripture, strongly suggesting that the Davidic Psalter was more used and read ‘than any book of the Old Testament, perhaps more than any book of the Bible, throughout the Christian centuries in Egyptâ€�. A recent inventory of papyrus notebooks lists eleven items for the period between the third century and the seventh inclusive, of which eight give primarily or exclusively the texts of the psalms. Narrowing the period of the third century to the fifth gives seven papyrus items of which five contain copies of psalms. These notebooks are the best guide to what the literate slaves of larger households, grammar masters and attentive parents were teaching their infants in Egypt, both Jewish and Christian, and they suggest that the psalms were a fundamental teaching text in the social circles where men and women used writing, or aspired to it for their children. That is hardly surprising, since the psalms were ideal for teaching the young in households wealthy enough to afford the luxury of an education for an offspring. An almanac of prayer and counsel for times of good and adverse fortune, the poems of the Psalter are arranged in sense-units of moderate length by virtue of the poetic form. This makes them amenable to study, including the slow process of acquiring the skills of penmanship (Pl. 29).”
― Christopher Page, The Christian West and Its Singers: The First Thousand Years

“For if he attacks us without studying Christ's teachings, he is utterly depraved and worse than the simpleminded, who usually avoid discussing subjects they know nothing about.”
― Justin the Martyr

“The fathers [the Old Testament saints] knew the promise about the Messiah, that God for the Messiah’s sake had chosen to forgive sins. Therefore, since they understood that Christ would be the price given to pay for our sins, they knew that our own works are not a sufficient price for so weighty a matter. Accordingly, they enjoyed free mercy and the forgiveness of sins by faith, just like the saints in the New Testament."
"Psalm 130:3 “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?� Here David acknowledges his sins and does not speak of his merits. He then adds: “But there is forgiveness with You� (verse 4). Here David comforts himself by his trust in God’s mercy, and he quotes the promise: “My soul waits, and in His Word I hope,� (verse 5), i.e., because You have promised the forgiveness of sins, I am supported by Your promise.
Therefore the [Old Testament] fathers too were justified, not by the law, but by God’s promise and by faith.”
― Philip Melanchthon, The Apology of the Augsburg Confession

“We explain justification simply as the acceptance with which God receives us into His favour as righteous people. And we say that it consists in the forgiveness of sins and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness.”
― John Calvin, Institutes 3: 11: 2

“Maybe you go to mass every day. But if you live for your own selfish benefit, and have no concern for the difficulties of your neighbour, as if they did not touch you at all, then all you have done is take part in the sacrament in a merely outward way. The sacrifice of the mass, in a spiritual sense, means that we become one body with the Body of Christ, living members of His Church. If your love for things is guided by Christ, if you think all your possessions to be things you hold in trust for the good of all, if you take upon yourself the difficulties and sufferings of your neighbour as if they were your own, then you may take part in mass very fruitfully, because now you take part in a spiritual wayâ€�
But to worship Christ with nothing more than outward ceremonies, as if such worship were the height of spirituality, while all the time you are puffed up with self-importance, and condemn other people, and think yourself secure because you live and die in your outward worship: well, the very ordinances of worship that were meant to draw you to Christ will withdraw you from Him. Your religion is a rebellion against the spirit of the Gospel, a falling back into the superstitions and rituals of Judaism ...
The apostle Paul, the foremost defender of spiritual religion, never ceased trying to get the Jews to give up their confidence in outward works and rituals, and to lead them to spiritual realities. Yet I feel that the great majority of Christians have fallen back again into that sickness.”
― Erasmus The Dagger of the Christian Soldier, 4th and 5th Rules

“By infusing Jesus the man with the divine magic â€� by making him capable of earthly miracles as well as his own resurrection, the early church turned him into a god within the human world. Thus, the church reinforced the monopoly on the so-called route to heaven, i.e. salvation only through Jesus Christ. And during those days, whoever kept the keys to heaven would rule the world.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Neurons of Jesus: Mind of A Teacher, Spouse & Thinker

“People think we didn't have theatres in Scotland for centuries because the Church suppressed them. Well, perhaps. But you could also argue that we had theatres in every town and village in the land: they were called kirks, and every week folk packed in to see a one-man show about life, death and the universe.”
― James Robertson, The Testament of Gideon Mack

“Though the Reformation originated with the Lord's fresh move through various reformers, in a rather short time the resulting churches became institutionalized with a mixture of politics, human organization, and hierarchy.”
― Henry Hon, ONE: Unfolding God's Eternal Purpose from House to House

“Let's consider the Bible with fresh eyes without the distorted lens of historical Christianity. Let's pray that the readers of this book ('ONE: Unfolding God's Eternal Purpose From House To House') will hit 'reset' and return to the beginning (of Christianity) and become one.”
― Henry Hon, ONE: Unfolding God's Eternal Purpose from House to House

“Skepticism is fine, but don't pass by a once in a lifetime opportunity to uncover a treasure because of it.”
― T.R. Bosse, The Mystery of the Trinity Revealed

“En invoquant l’infusion en Jésus, l'homme, avec de la magie divine â€� en le rendant capable de miracles terrestres ainsi que de sa propre résurrection, l'église primitive l'a trans-formé en un Dieu du monde humain.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Neurons of Jesus: Mind of A Teacher, Spouse & Thinker

“God demonstrated His wisdom in that, even as people in Europe began despising the gospel, He was already preparing to go somewhere else.”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, Church History 101: The Highlights of Twenty Centuries

“With the Inquisition? But what will they accuse us of?'
'The problem isn't what they accuse us of.' Scharley's voice was extremely gloomy. 'The problem is what we confess to.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Narrenturm

“The Church dropped the ball early in its history, replacing the full Gospel of the Kingdom, which Jesus taught, with the gospel of salvation and eternal life of institutionalized Christianity.”
― Sebastien Richard, Kingdom Fundamentals: What the Kingdom of God Means and What it Means for You | A Thorough and Biblical Exposition of the Kingdom of Heaven as Preached by Jesus

“The church is the prototype of society. What you do not find in the church, you do not find it in the society”
― Royal Raj S

“Church history helps to illuminate and clarify what we believe, providing a context for evaluating our beliefs and practices, according to the teaching of the church of all the ages.”
― Sinclair B. Ferguson, Church History 101: The Highlights of Twenty Centuries

“The early church had much more than a collection of social practices upon which they did not reflect carefully. The early church ethics were formed in the context of a Judaism that had thought long and hard about its ethic based on Mosaic law, over against the practices of surrounding cultures. The early church's ethics were a further reflection on how that long history of Jewish ethics had to be rethought in light of Jesus Christ. Rethinking the faith involved an interpretation of authoritative Scripture and a continued use of the Law in ethical matters.”
― Rollin G. Grams & S. Donald Fortson III

“I decided that to get at the historical Jesus, one should perhaps start by looking at his background: his parents, his family, the places of his birth and life. The Gospels, of course, contained a lot of that stuff, though they didn’t always agree. But one couldn’t prove the validity of the Gospel story by appealing to the Gospel story. But here was the problem I encountered. Using the Muratorian Project Index and my own search of the non-canonical material I had entered, I could find no references to the names of Mary and Joseph, nor to Bethlehem, Nazareth or Galilee, anywhere in the non-Gospel documents of the first century. I decided to look up the name of the man who one might say was the most crucial in Jesusâ€� life, namely, the man who had tried and executed him: the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. In the epistles, he appeared only in a single passing reference in 1 Timothy 6:13, at my date of 115. Elsewhere, in all the discussions about Christ’s death and crucifixion, he was nowhere to be found. I could not even locate a reference in Paul or any other epistle writer to the fact that Jesus had undergone a trial! Little did Pilate realize when he washed his hands, that he was washing himself out of the wider Christian record for about 80 years!”
― Earl Doherty, The Jesus Puzzle: Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ? Challenging the Existence of an Historical Jesus

“When we consider from the vantage point of 2000 years of Church history we see this principle still intact that God endeavours to continue to work with and through a broken humanity full of failings.”
― St. Thomas Church, An Ancient Worship Movement