Carl R. Trueman Quotes

#1. If God's words determine reality, then of all the things a pastor does, speaking the words of God to the congregation is the most important.

Carl R. Trueman

#2. Heresy is usually quite sophisticated, actually has a meaning, and is to be taken very seriously. It is therefore to be carefully distinguished from turgid, pretentious, badly-written Bullsgeshichte, to use the technical German theological term.

Carl R. Trueman

#3. The collapse in evangelical doctrinal consensus is intimately related to the collapse in the understanding of, and role assigned to, Scripture as God's Word spoken within the church. p. 98

Carl R. Trueman

#4. We may live in an age when everything has to be "radical" and "revolutionary." For Luther the most radical thing one could do was to learn the basics of the faith with the simple trust of a little child.

Carl R. Trueman

#5. The task of the preacher, therefore, is to take the Bible and to do two things in every sermon: destroy self-righteousness and point hearers toward the alien, external righteousness of Christ.

Carl R. Trueman

#6. I always tell students that the first question to ask about any historical action is this: who makes money out of the deal?

Carl R. Trueman

#7. Luther's doctrine of justification depends upon two things: the constant preaching of the wrath of God in the face of sin; and the realization that every Christian is at once righteous and a sinner, thus needing the hammer of the law to terrify and break the sinful conscience.

Carl R. Trueman

#8. We need a critical theory that seeks to change the world by challenging the world - including the world of evangelicals - in its market-driven, all, consuming consumerist idolatries.

Carl R. Trueman

#9. Cultural relevance can be a cruel mistress.

Carl R. Trueman

#10. Drinking beer with friends is perhaps the most underestimated of all Reformation insights and essential to ongoing reform; and wasting time with a choice friend or two on a regular basis might be the best investment of time you ever make.

Carl R. Trueman