John Charles Pollock Quotes & Sayings

For a slave to be taught that he should no longer lie and cheat with revolutionary; more astonishing still was the slave's discovery that he did not want to lie or cheat and that he now loved the owner whom he had once resented and feared. — John Charles Pollock

His joy was a release of Paul's conversion, not the heavy backslapping practical-joking humor of the Victorians, nor the cynical satire or the flippancy of the twenty first century mass media, just the gift of not taking himself or his adversaries too seriously. — John Charles Pollock

A colleague like Barnabas could comfort him (Paul) in illness and keep him from overstrain when fit. — John Charles Pollock

He would have considered it ironic that, the more men discovered the insignificance of their planet, the more highly they would rate themselves, all the more sure that they could explain everything without reference to God. They — John Charles Pollock

At length he told the Lord he would leave it in His hands. Peace flowed back. No voice or light disclosed the next move, — John Charles Pollock

I can do all things in Him who strengthens me" (or, "I am ready for anything through the strength of the One who lives within me"). — John Charles Pollock

New converts displayed a most un-Roman concern for the sick man. — John Charles Pollock

providing the element of slight distraction to keep the mind from wandering. Each — John Charles Pollock

Turning consciously from evil to faith did not always bring immediate awareness of how to please God — John Charles Pollock

In his late forties, an age when men settle to comforts and seek a firm base, Paul began his roughest travels. — John Charles Pollock

Faith in Christ leaped from person to person like some divine epidemic, not of disease but of spiritual health. — John Charles Pollock

In Paul's view a church should not merely survive in its unfriendly pagan environment, but advance. Christians should have nothing to do with a sad acceptance of harsh surroundings, bearing heavy crosses with uncomplaining gloom, cultivating an oppressive sense of sin. They were to be positive, doing good to one another and to unbelieving Jews and pagans regardless of abuse or injury. "Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks." No matter how adverse the circumstances, their way of life should be a rebuke to foulness and a spur to their neighbors to seek for themselves this new, extraordinary existence; Christians must outlove, outjoy, outthink, and always welcome those who opposed them. — John Charles Pollock

His (Paul's) entire personality within mutation. He was being turned inside out as he led Jesus light the recesses of his soul. — John Charles Pollock

In youth his mind had been closed, for every prejudice of upbringing was a disinfectant against pagan ideas. He now had an even more satisfying answer to the puzzles of human strivings and destiny. Paganism at its philosophical best would appear a gluttering candle to a man who had followed the Light of the World, and more usually it was idolatry, mixed with license. — John Charles Pollock

Though blue sky and the road's yellow dust and the green of the nearing oasis were all snuffed out, he (newly converted Saul) did not miss them. Light suffused his blinded eyes, his mind. — John Charles Pollock

His ally was the age-old, unending human search for truth and security. In the first century as the twenty first, some were devout, some superstitious, others were frankly materialistic, even though in that age they paid lip service to the gods. Others, contemptuous of religion, believed only in mankind. But at heart, when disguises were torn away and defenses broken, lay the same anxieties and hopes. — John Charles Pollock

The morality taught by Paul and demonstrated by his converts was in stark contrast to the old, permissive morality of the ancient world. It was unconventional: It showed a love of man irrespective of his race, showed forgiveness instead of resentment for wrong, joy instead of grim endurance of adversity or oppression. — John Charles Pollock

Disgust at idols strengthened his love for idolaters, and the man who once held Gentile neighbors at a distance now listened to their problems, fears, and temptations. — John Charles Pollock

A biographer has to decide between slowing to a halt in a bog of conflicting possibilities or striding boldly across by a causeway of conjecture. I choose the second course and, without stepping aside to discuss all the alternatives, tell the story as I see it. Paul's next eighteen months unfolded somewhat as follows, though the tone of assurance in my narrative must not disguise that some of its conclusions are tentative and disputable. The — John Charles Pollock