Lesslie Newbigin Quotes

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Christ Church Consumerism Jesus Resurrection

Mission begins with a kind of explosion of joy. The news that the
rejected and crucified Jesus is alive is something that cannot possibly
be suppressed. It must be told. Who could be silent about such a fact?
The mission of the Church in the pages of the New Testament is like the
fallout from a vast explosion, a radioactive fallout which is not lethal
but life-giving.

Lesslie Newbigin

Jesus, Giving, Joy

Lesslie Newbigin (2014). “The Gospel in a Pluralist Society”, p.156, SPCK

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The church is not meant to call men and women out of the world into a safe religious enclave but to call them out in order to send them back as agents of God's kingship.

Lesslie Newbigin

Religious, Men, Order

Lesslie Newbigin (1988). “Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture”, p.122, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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Live in the kingdom of God in such a way that it provokes questions for which the gospel is the answer.

Lesslie Newbigin

Answers, Kingdoms, Way

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How can this strange story of God made flesh, of a crucified Savior, of resurrection and new creation become credible for those whose entire mental training has conditioned them to believe that the real world is the world which can be satisfactorily explained and managed without the hypothesis of God? I know of only one clue to the answering of that question, only one real hermeneutic of the gospel: a congregation which believes it.

Lesslie Newbigin

Real, Believe, Training

37 Copy quote
It is less important to ask a Christian what he or she believes about the Bible than it is to inquire what he or she does with it.

Lesslie Newbigin

Christian, Believe, Important

Lesslie Newbigin (1995). “Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty in Christian Discipleship”, p.87, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

49 Copy quote
The business of the church is to tell and embody a story

Lesslie Newbigin

Church, Stories

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I am neither an optimist nor a pessimist. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.

Lesslie Newbigin

Life, Jesus, Optimistic

63 Copy quote
Do things that will get people asking questions, the answer to which is the Gospel.

Lesslie Newbigin

Christian, Prayer, Asking Questions

40 Copy quote
The victory of the Church over the power which was embodied in the Roman imperial system was not won by seizing the levers of power: it was won when the victims knelt down in the Colosseum and prayed in the name of Jesus for the Emperor.

Lesslie Newbigin

Jesus, Names, Victory

Lesslie Newbigin (1989). “The Gospel in a Pluralist Society”, p.275, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

41 Copy quote
The Church, wherever it is, is not only Christ's witness to its own people and nation, but also the home-base for a mission to the ends of the earth.

Lesslie Newbigin

Home, People, Church

26 Copy quote
The relativism which is not willing to speak about truth but only about ‘what is true for me’ is an evasion of the serious business of living. It is the mark of a tragic loss of nerve in our contemporary culture. It is a preliminary symptom of death.

Lesslie Newbigin

Loss, Serious Business, Culture

Lesslie Newbigin (2013). “The Gospel in a Pluralist Society: SPCK Classic”, p.36, SPCK

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The Church must be seen as the company of pilgrims on the way to the end of the world and the ends of the earth.

Lesslie Newbigin

Church, World, Earth

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The resurrection is the revelation to chosen witnesses of the fact that Jesus who died on the cross is indeed king - conqueror of death and sin, Lord and Savior of all. The resurrection is not the reversal of a defeat but the proclamation of a victory. The King reigns from the tree. The reign of God has indeed come upon us, and its sign is not a golden throne but a wooden cross.

Lesslie Newbigin

Jesus, Kings, Tree

31 Copy quote
The living God is a God of justice and mercy and He will be satisfied with nothing less than a people in whom his justice and mercy are alive.

Lesslie Newbigin

People, Justice, Alive

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It has never at any time been possible to fit the resurrection of Jesus into any world view except a world view of which it is the basis.

Lesslie Newbigin

Jesus, Views, World

Lesslie Newbigin (2011). “Honest Religion for Secular Man”, p.53, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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Our confidence...is not in the competence of our own knowing, but in the faithfulness and reliability of the one who is known.

Lesslie Newbigin

Knowing, Reliability, Faithfulness

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One does not learn anything except by believing something, and -- conversely -- if one doubts everything one learns nothing. On the other hand, believing everything uncritically is the road to disaster. The faculty of doubt is essential. But as I have argued, rational doubt always rests on faith and not vice versa. The relationship between the two cannot be reversed.

Lesslie Newbigin

Believe, Hands, Two

27 Copy quote
To be elect in Christ Jesus, and there is no other election, means to be incorporated into his mission to the world, to be the bearer of God saving purpose for his whole world, to be the sign and the agent and the firstfruit of his blessed kingdom which is for all.

Lesslie Newbigin

Jesus, Blessed, Mean

Lesslie Newbigin (2013). “The Gospel in a Pluralist Society: SPCK Classic”, p.117, SPCK

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To make the improving of our own character our central aim is hardly the highest kind of goodness. True goodness forgets itself and goes out to do the right thing for no other reason than that it is right.

Lesslie Newbigin

Character, Kind, Forget

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God's grace is not limited by any ecclesiastical barriers.

Lesslie Newbigin

Grace, God's Grace, Barriers

Lesslie Newbigin (2009). “The Finality of Christ”, p.101, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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...our societies appear to be intent on immediate consumption rather than on investment for the future. We are piling up enormous debts and exploiting the natural environment in a manner which suggests that we have no real sense of any worthwhile future. Just as a society which believes in the future saves in the present in order to invest in the future, so a society without belief spends everything now and piles up debts for future generations to settle. "Spend now and someone else will pay later."

Lesslie Newbigin

Real, Believe, Future

21 Copy quote
Christ is the clue to all that is.

Lesslie Newbigin

Stewardship, Clue, Christ

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Congregational life wherein each member has his opportunity to contribute to the life of the whole body, those gifts with which the Spirit endows him, is as much of the essence of the Church as are ministry and sacraments.

Lesslie Newbigin

Christian, Opportunity, Essence

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The gospel is not just the illustration (even the best illustration) of an idea. It is the story of actions by which the human situation is irreversibly changed.

Lesslie Newbigin

Illustration, Ideas, Stories

Lesslie Newbigin (1989). “The Gospel in a Pluralist Society”, Eerdmans Publishing Company

6 Copy quote
The reign of God is his reign over all things.

Lesslie Newbigin

Reign, All Things

Lesslie Newbigin (1995). “The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission”, p.31, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

4 Copy quote

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Born: December 8, 1909
Died: January 30, 1998
Occupation: Author
Cite this Page: Citation

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