Gene Edward Veith Jr. Quotes & Sayings

Just as physical laws apply to Christians and non-Christians alike (Matthew 5:45), the laws of art apply universally. Aesthetic principles, no less than scientific principles, are grounded in the created order and are a manifestation of God's design. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Progress in science and technology is real, but it builds on past truths without rejecting them. Computers don't have to be re-invented in order to keep getting better; innovations expand what they already do. Knowledge accumulates, so it can increase. Scientists and engineers know this, but artists, authors, and philosophers keep trying to start over from ground zero in the humanities. Thus, they don't really progress - they become primitive. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Rather, the doctrine of vocation encourages attention to each individual's uniqueness, talents, and personality. These are valued as gifts of God, who creates and equips each person in a different way for the calling He has in mind for that person's life. The doctrine of vocation undermines conformity, recognizes the unique value of every person, and celebrates human differences; but it sets these individuals into a community with other individuals, avoiding the privatizing, self-centered narcissism of secular individualism. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

It should not be possible for Christians to be disillusioned. We should have no illusions in the first place. Our faith is in Jesus Christ alone. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Secular humanists of every type may ridicule the Bible, but they cannot escape it; and in their obsession with change, calls for reform, doomsday warnings, and utopian visions, they continue to steal from it. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Human sin and God's grace are the two poles of Lutheran spirituality. To be sure, these are intrinsic to all of Christianity, but in Lutheranism they are both heightened. They are resolved in the principle by which, it is said, the church stands or falls: justification by grace through faith. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Some readers are tempted to ignore the challenges of their own lives and to live completely in the alternative reality of books. This can be dangerous and sinful, a rejection of the real world in which God has placed us. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Christianity, in contrast, is for all cultures. This is a theme of the New Testament, St. John's vision of the redeemed in Revelation 7. Christianity is for every tribe, every nation, every language, every time, for every culture. That's really quite unique from other religions because Christ died for the sins of the world. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Abject fear of pagan gods is little different from abject worship of them. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

The habit of reading is absolutely critical today, particularly for Christians. As television turns our society into an increasingly image dominated culture, Christians must continue to be people of the Word. When we read, we cultivate a sustained attention span, an active imagination, a capacity for logical analysis and critical thinking, and a rich inner life. Each of these qualities, which have proven themselves the essential to a free people is under assault in a TV dominated culture. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Christians - who have no patience with Darwinistic materialism - often sound as progressive as the most ardent evolutionist. They look for "new" theologies, "new" ways of worship, and "new" music, being quite willing to toss out their entire "old-fashioned" Christian heritage. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

What Darwin did to nature, Sigmund Freud did to the self. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

So, in God's relationship to us, we might wonder, "Am I really saved?" "Am I of the elect?" "Is God angry with me?" "Why does God allow suffering in the world?" In each case, if we leave out the Cross, questions like these can drive us to despair or insanity. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

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Such is the perversity of human nature that what we have in abundance-our work, our possessions, and the beauty of our surroundings-we take for granted and learn to ignore, so that we are often paralyzed by boredom, indifference, and ingratitude. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Luther goes so far as to say that vocation is a mask of God. That is, God hides Himself in the workplace, the family, the Church, and the seemingly secular society. To speak of God being hidden is a way of describing His presence, as when a child hiding in the room is there, just not seen. To realize that the mundane activities that take up most of our lives - going to work, taking the kids to soccer practice, picking up a few things at the store, going to church - are hiding-places for God can be a revelation in itself. Most people seek God in mystical experiences, spectacular miracles, and extraordinary acts they have to do. To find Him in vocation brings Him, literally, down to earth, makes us see how close He really is to us, and transfigures everyday life. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Instead of insisting that human beings attain perfection, Lutheran spirituality begins by facing up to imperfection. We cannot perfect our conduct, try as we might. We cannot understand God through our own intellects. We cannot become one with God. Instead of human beings having to do these things, Lutheran spirituality teaches that God does them for us - He becomes one with us in Jesus Christ; He reveals Himself to our feeble understandings by His Word; He forgives our conduct and, in Christ, lives the perfect life for us. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

An easily manipulated population that cares mostly for its own amusement may be more ready for tyranny (which can keep the masses happy with "bread and circuses") than for the arduous responsibilities of self-government. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

The Sermon on the Mount proves that sin is a condition of our inmost being; although our sinful nature is atoned for in the cross and our failures freely forgiven, we must never willingly cultivate habits that Scripture condemns. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

God is hidden in vocations that bear authority. But that puts the pressure on human beings exercise that authority to act with God's justice and grace — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

The author relates that the word "OBSCENE" springs from the concept in Greek drama that certain actions would be performed outside the scene or off the stage. He clarifies that the Greeks did not shy away from shocking actions, but they knew that portraying them in the audience's view would drown out the emotional subtlety of the character development and ethical dilemmas. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Christians should be cultural and intellectual thermostats, exulting in opposition, iconoclasm,and balancing insights. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

The priesthood of all believers did not make everyone into church workers; rather, it turned every kind of work into a sacred calling. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

The word obscene can be thought of as meaning "out of the scene" or "offstage."7 — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

More than that, the doctrine of vocation amounts to a comprehensive doctrine of the Christian life, having to do with faith and sanctification, grace and good works. It is a key to Christian ethics. It shows how Christians can influence their culture. It transfigures ordinary, everyday life with the presence of God. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

There is a great superficiality in today's evangelical world. Many Bible-believing Christians share the contemporary case for self-gratification, emotionalism, and anti-intellectualism. Many people who believe in the Bible have never read it. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

The popular culture gives us books that offer entertainment but no ideas. High culture gives us books that offer ideas but no entertainment. The best books manage to do both. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Empathy is a special application of the imagination. The ability to imagine what it would be like to experience what someone else is experiencing can be crucial to moral sensitivity. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Original Sin has great marketing potential. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Parallelism may be the only poetic device that can be fully translated from one language to another.? Thus the Bible, translated into hundreds of languages, maintains its original poetic form and effects in every tongue, a linguistic curiosity that is clearly God's design. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

There is a certain mysticism in the Christian's affirmation of the physical universe. There is a confidence that whatever is discovered conforms with Jesus Christ and is a manifestation of His will. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Psychology either tends to glorify human beings or trivialize them, leaving out the complexity of the human soul and the demands of God. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Universal literacy, taken for granted today, was a direct result of the Reformation's reemphasis upon the centrality of Bible reading, — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Reading can break us out of the tunnel vision of the narrow specialty and lead us into many intriguing and important avenues of thought. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Misunderstanding literary form can result in misunderstanding Scripture. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Propositions are true or false. Images are not. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

He is not actually far from each one of us, for 'in him we live and move and have our being'" (Acts 17:25, 27-28). — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Realizing that one does not have to worry about what will happen, that the future is in God's hands, is liberating. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

No one can violently attack something without taking it seriously in some way. No one attacks belief in Zeus anymore. No one gets emotional over the Flat Earth Society. Yet Christianity calls forth the deepest emotions
even and especially in the ones who most reject it. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Modern Christians should not mistake our post-Victorian sense of propriety for moral purity. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

The Reformation may have resulted in a "Protestant work ethic," but this was not due to the pressure to prove one's election by worldly success, as certain social scientists ludicrously maintain. Rather, the work ethic emerged out of an understanding of the meaning of work and the satisfaction and fulfillment that come from ordinary human labor when seen through the light of the doctrine of vocation. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Luther says that vocations are a mask from God. That is, God hides Himself in the workplace, the family, the Church, and the seemingly secular society — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

As Emerson observes, "The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture. Language is fossil poetry."4 — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

According to the Reformers, each Christian has multiple vocations. We have callings in our work. We have callings in our families. We have callings as citizens in the larger society. And we have callings in the Church. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Many modern artists, philosophers, and theologians reject the knowledge of the past. Thus they must continually start over again from ground zero, their vision restricted to their own narrow perspectives, making themselves artificially primitive. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Our age in its honest moments admits its lostness. — Gene Edward Veith Jr.