Napoleon expressed the following thoughts while he was exiled on the rock of St. Helena. There, the conqueror of civilized Europe had time to reflect on the measure of his accomplishments. He called Count Montholon to his side and asked him, "Can you tell me who Jesus Christ was?" The count declined to respond. Napoleon countered:
Well then, I will tell you. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions will die for Him. . . . I think I understand something of human nature; and I tell you, all these were men, and I am a man; none else is like Him: Jesus Christ was more than a man. . . . I have inspired multitudes with such an enthusiastic devotion that they would have died for me . . . but to do this is was necessary that I should be visibly present with the electric influence of my looks, my words, of my voice. When I saw men and spoke to them, I lightened up the flame of self-devotion in their hearts. . . . Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen, that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space. Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years, Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to satisfy; He asks for that which a philosopher may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself. He demands it unconditionally; and forthwith His demand is granted. Wonderful! In defiance of time and space, the soul of man, with all its powers and faculties, becomes an annexation to the empire of Christ. All who sincerely believe in Him, experience that remarkable, supernatural love toward Him. This phenomenon is unaccountable; it is altogether beyond the scope of man's creative powers. Time, the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish this sacred flame; time can neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its range. This is it, which strikes me most; I have often thought of it. This it is which proves to me quite convincingly the Divinity of Jesus Christ.
Whatever else one may say in response, it is difficult to explain this away as mere eloquence. In fact, it was to counter mere eloquence and such artificial power that Napoleon said what he did. With unbelievable insight, he saw how Jesus Christ conquered. It was not by force, but by winning the heart.
-- from Jesus Among Other Gods by Ravi Zacharias, 2000, W. Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee...quoting from Henry Parry Liddon, Liddon's Bampton Lectures 1866 (London: Rivingtons, 1869), 148.
I can’t buy my wife roses
She doesn’t care a thing for them
Instead she likes Tulips
Cause they’re approved by John CalvinShe doesn’t read that Beth Moore book I bought her
She’d rather read St. Augustine
If she wasn’t a Baptist preacher’s daughter
I think she’d be PresbyterianI think my wife’s a Calvinist
She only owns an ESV
I’m always catching her reading Romans 8:28 through 30
And Wayne Grudem’s Systematic TheologyShe has a tattoo that says, “I heart John Piper in Greek.”
She likes Spurgeon more than she likes me
But that’s okay
I didn’t choose her, she chose meShe put me in a dog house
For liking the Emergent Church
She won’t fix my supper now
Cause I brought home a book by Norman GeislerIf you ever met her
You know she’s not mean she’s really sweet
Except when it comes to the little bitty matters
Of doctrine and theologyI think my wife’s a Calvinist
She only reads the ESV
Always hearing her quoting Romans 8:28 through 30
And Wayne Grudem’s Systematic TheologyShe has a tattoo that says, “I heart John Piper in Greek.”
She likes Spurgeon more than she likes me
I think my wife’s a Calvinist
She only owns an ESVShe made me burn my NIV study Bible
Always reading Romans 8:28 through 30
All the time
And Wayne Grudem’s Systematic TheologyShe has a tattoo that says, “I heart John Piper in Greek.”
And she likes Spurgeon more than she likes me
But that’s okay
I didn’t choose her she chose meYeah, she chose me (repeat)
She didn’t choose you she chose mePS: Lotsa smiles thanks to Anne
