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The ancient idea that God sends epidemics and pestilences as punishment for the sins of His people has been widely proclaimed in the Christian pulpit. To the Almighty has been attributed direct responsibility for the frequent plagues which have scourged Christendom. ...during an epidemic of malignant cholera, Dr. Gardiner Spring, pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church of New York City, said: "This fatal scourge is the hand of God... It points us to the provoking cause of God's displeasure, and calls upon us to bow in penitential confession before his throne.... The judgment we deplore has aimed its vengeance at three prominent abominations—Sabbath-breaking, intemperance, and debauchery." Throughout many centuries the Christian church failed to recognize the contradiction between the God of vengeance which it worshiped and the God of love proclaimed by Jesus.
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Kirby Page, Jesus or Christianity (1929) p.172-173

 

Gardiner Spring

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But by and by the time came when the Christian Church apostatized and turned away, and began to follow after their own wisdom, and the Prophets and Apostles ceased, so far as the affairs of the Christian Church on the earth were concerned. Revelations, and visions, and the various gifts of the spirit were also taken away, according to their unbelief and apostacy; but in the latter days God intends to again raise up a Christian Church upon the earth. Do not be startled, you who think that God will no more have a Church on the earth, for he has promised that he would again have one, and that he would set up his kingdom, and when he does you may look out for a great many Prophets and inspired men; and if you ever see a Church arise, calling itself a Christian Church, and it has not inspired Apostles like those in ancient times, you may know that it is a spurious church, and that it makes pretensions to something that it does not enjoy. If you ever find a church called a Christian Church that has no men to foretell future events, you may know, at once, that it is not a Christian Church. If you find a Christian Church that has not the ancient gifts, for instance the gift of healing, opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, causing the tongue of the dumb to speak and the lame to walk; if you ever find a people calling themselves a Christian Church and they have not these gifts among them, you may know with a perfect knowledge that they do not agree with the pattern given in the New Testament. The Christian Church is always characterized with inspired men, whose revelations are just as sacred as any contained in the Bible; and, if written and published, just as binding upon the human family. The Christian Church will always lay hands upon the sick in the name of Jesus, in order that the sick may be healed. The Christian Church will always have those among its members who have heavenly visions, the ministration of angels, and the various gifts that are promised according to the Gospel.

 

Orson Pratt

 

Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian "conception" of God. An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins. The church which holds the correct doctrine of grace has, it is supposed, ipso facto a part of that grace. In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God.
Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything, they say, and so everything can remain as it was before.

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

The point I want to make is, the idea that people will say — out of the 170,000 people or however many were killed in the tsunami — they'll say, "God saved me." As if God particularly saved this person. There's a tremendous amount of narcissism in that belief, that God is speaking directly to you. I mean, it's unbelievable. ... All these disparate opinions and points of view that people say they're getting as direct divine guidance — I've been concerned for decades about presidents who claim to be born again. And knowing that everyone I knew in the fundamentalist church or in the evangelical Christian church — they wanted the rapture to come. ... We don't have to save the environment, because we're not going to be around.

 

Lily Tomlin

 

Since God has been carrying on His dispensation through the Christian church, He and we are responsible to convey this message to the Christians first. Until our mission with the Christian church is over, we must quote the Bible and use it to explain the Divine Principle. After we receive the inheritance of the Christian church, we will be free to teach without the Bible. Now, however, our primary mission is to witness to the Christian church. When they recognize and accept our movement, the world restoration will be very easy. So go to the Christians. In reality, Christians are quicker to understand the Principle than non-Christians. Sometimes non-Christians may accept it quickly, but it is hard to put the roots into deep soil. They accept for a few days, then run away.

 

Sun Myung Moon

 

The Unitarian Church in Transylvania still survives on the thought that may be regarded as part of our historical heritage, first uttered in 1568 at the Parliament in Torda. There and then, under the influence of Ferenc David, for the first time in the world, tolerance and the freedom of conscience were proclaimed. This edict became the basis of Transylvanian spirituality. It has survived centuries — and is still vivid — due to the recognition of interdependence and a correct interpretation of the word tolerance. When, in the 18th century, the very existence of our Church was in danger, after the peril disappeared a saying spread among people: "they love one another as the Unitarians do."

 

Ferenc David