Quotes from GC Berkouwer
In the New Testament, myth stands over against the truth of the history of Jesus Christ ... the decisive die has ... been already cast in the New Testament opposition to myth.
— GC Berkouwer
Sanctification is not the humanly operated successor to the divinely worked justification.
— GC Berkouwer
Reality and symbolism in the sacraments ... Only if we reject false dilemmas ... it will be possible to delve deeper, to discern the sovereign manner in which God stoops down to us, taking up simple earthly elements and using them for the affirmation and strengthening of our faith.
— GC Berkouwer
We must not get caught up in an emotional reaction against such phrases as 'believing on authority' ... Everything depends on the character of the authority and the character of believing.
— GC Berkouwer
The authority of Scripture is never established by means of a rationalistic apologetic. It is established through the testimony of the Holy Spirit. The doctrine of Biblical authority as not a conservative testimony in fear of facts, but … a conviction of faith.
— GC Berkouwer
I am of the opinion that … one can judge soundly of the scriptural doctrine of election only when one rejects this symmetry (i.e. the 'equal ultimacy' of election and reprobation) ... as an unbiblical distortion of the message of the Divine election.
— GC Berkouwer
Every word about the God-breathed character of Scripture is meaningless if Holy Scripture is not understood as the witness concerning Christ.
— GC Berkouwer
Faith involves a certain subjectivity, ... a subjectivity which has meaning only as it is bound to the gospel.
— GC Berkouwer
Genuine sanctification has a 'continued orientation toward justification.
— GC Berkouwer
Salvation ... has its eternal foundation in the love of God.
— GC Berkouwer
The grace of God is never the cause for glorying in one's own power ... Perseverance is always opposed to false self-confidence.
— GC Berkouwer
The fundamental fact about baptism will always be its involvement with the death of Christ ... The prevenient aspect of the grace of God lies not in the temporal priority of the acts of God in baptism in comparison with the conscious acceptance of the divine promise, but in the temporal priority of the cross of Christ with respect to the baptized person, whether child or adult.
— GC Berkouwer