Interesting Quotes

I hope you will read these quotes and see if you can figure out who said them. I am not going to reveal who the person is until the next post.

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To have a group of men tell us what the Bible means
in every instance and what all must teach and believe,
would be placing a human yoke upon the necks of us
all. It would be signing away our very birthright.
So long as men are made free to study God's book
independently, unfettered by ecclesiasticisms,priests,
popes, and preachers, there will be honest mistakes
in interpretations of the devout, the consecrated,
and the most godly of God's children. It has always
been so. And no church of our Lord has a right to
pass upon the scruples of the most humble and
untrained in God's house. "One man esteemeth one
day above another: another esteemeth every day alike.
Let each man be fully assured in his own mind...
Who art thou that judgest the servant of another?
To his own Lord he standeth or falleth."

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If there is one thing for which the church of the living God has stood for through all its history, it is the freedom of conscience of all its members. No one has been free to bind on another's conscience that which the other man has not found to be the word of God. Every one too, unto the humblest of these children, has been encouraged to teach what he feels to be his duty from his own study of God's word, without intimidation. This has been our heritage.

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It is right for each of us to present his honest convictions concerning any difference of teaching he may hold. Having done this, let us leave it with that, and not try to force our teaching upon each other. An effort to force always produces opposition, strife, bitterness, and finally division. What we need is to love one another and magnify our agreements.

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The way to unity and good fellowship is not in deciding what is "essential" and what is "non-essential". This line cannot be fixed except by a dictator or a pope. God has not fixed it. To submit to a line here would be nothing less than submitting to human wisdom and...it would be deadly, as I see it, in its reflection on the wisdom of God.

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There is a great need to stress the importance of maintaining
freedom of speech in the kingdom of God. Intolerance is
dangerous to the future growth of the church. Most of us
have an aversion to anything except what we ourselves believe
and teach, and as a consequence, we are intolerant of the
teaching of anything that antagonizes our doctrine. All
progress of truth - all truth - has always depended on free
speech and progressive teachers who were not afraid to teach
their honest convictions, even though it cost life....It takes
no courage to teach the things one's audience already believes.

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I am well aware of the fact that free speech has its dangers and that progressive and fearless teachers have given the world untold trouble. But are we ready to surrender free speech and to deny ourselves teachers who are not afraid? Even our deliverance from such a possibility must come through free speech and courageous teachers. If our great-great-grandchildren enjoy the truth we hold dear, it will be due to free speech and courageous teachers.