John Frame Quotes

Digging into the creation of the Puritan mind-set involved really trying to wrap my head around extreme Calvinism and what that's all about. I now understand predestination, and I had to read the Geneva Bible cover-to-cover and read the gospels quite a bit to get into that world.

Calvinism did not spring from Calvin. We believe that it sprang from the great Founder of all truth.

Reformed theology so far transcends the mere five points of Calvinism that it is an entire worldview.

I believe that very much of current Arminianism is simply ignorance of gospel doctrine; and if people began to study their Bibles, and to take the Word of God as they find it, they must inevitably, if believers, rise up to rejoice in the doctrines of grace.

I like major theology. I like Karl Barth, and I like John Calvin, and I like Martin Luther. The scale of thinking and the power of integration that they're capable of from thinking in that scale is something that's really unique to theology.

Thank God, I never was cheerful. I come from the happy stock of the Mathers, who, as you remember, passed sweet mornings reflecting on the goodness of God and the damnation of infants.

I think what Calvinism may offer us is that God's in charge of his world.

Religion provides us with a puritanical dream, which can never be realized because it goes against human nature.

For the Puritans, the God-centered life meant making the quest for spiritual and moral holiness the great business of life.

If there ever was a militant religion, it was that of early New England.

I was raised as a Calvinist, which is doctrine-driven. And though there are many things wrong with Calvinism, you are at least encouraged to argue about things.

Protestant Ascendency

During my academical life, and from this time forward, I was indefatigable in my search after truth. I read all the authors of greatest repute, for and against the Trinity, original sin, and the most disputed doctrines, but I was not yet of an understanding sufficiently ripe for impartial decision, and all my inquiries terminated in Calvinism.

I'm a total puritan, but I found Jacques' adventures amusing. We couldn't be further apart. I am a Calvinist toward myself and totally indulgent toward others.

The preoccupation of American historical and literary scholars with the New England Puritans must seem to outsiders like an obsession.

Cotton Mather is one of those classic figures of American history who can't be left out. One has to explain him or explain him away, redeem him or denounce him.

The Puritans left behind so full a record of what they thought and did that scholars cannot resist the temptation to make the most of it.

You can't understand America without understanding the Puritans. In many ways, we're still living out their legacy in ways that are good and bad.

If there is one doctrine I have preached more than another, it is the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints even to the end.

His [Calvin's] religion was demonism. If ever man worshiped a false God, he did. The being described in his five points is ... a demon of malignant spirit. It would be more pardonable to believe in no God at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious attributes of Calvin

Presbyterianism without infant damnation would be like the dog on the train that couldn't be identified because it had lost its tag.

It is no novelty, then, that I am preaching; no new doctrine. I love to proclaim these strong old doctrines, that are called by nickname Calvinism, but which are surely and verily the revealed truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus.

In Reformed theology, if God is not sovereign over the entire created order, then he is not sovereign at all. The term sovereignty too easily becomes a chimera. If God is not sovereign, then he is not God.

Satan does not care whether he drags you down to hell as a Calvinist or as an Arminian, so long as he can get you there.

It has taken a weary long time to persuade American Presbyterians to give up infant damnation and try to bear it the best they can.