John Calvin on reading and the folly of purism

[Reformed Covenanter]

But the problem is that many people today do not read books with a desire to learn, whatever they may be about, but rather seek to find something to attack. And if they are able to quibble over a single word, it acts as a stumbling block that prevents them from benefiting in any way at all. Then ignoring all the good in the book, they pride themselves in a way that causes their downfall. Even worse, the most ignorant are the most outspoken and critical. Others are so finicky that a single detail can put them right off, so much so that a single sentence that is not to their taste turns them away from the book as a whole, even though it may contain a great deal that they would be well advised to dwell upon.

It is no doubt a trick of the devil to turn them aside and stop them from receiving sound doctrine presented them. So those who would reap any profit from this book should cultivate a teachable spirit, putting aside anything that is an obstacle to progress, so that they might advance on the straight path that leads towards the pure truth of God, the only thing we are called to hold to, using those human means to help us reach that goal.

For the reference, see:

John Calvin on reading and the folly of purism

But the problem is that many people today do not read books with a desire to learn, whatever they may be about, but rather seek to find something to attack. And if they are able to quibble over a s…

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[Sam Jer]

back in my credo-Dispensational days, I almost tossed Sproul aside.
Once the Dispensational eschatology was cast aside, he was the one to convince me of pædobaptism (and by extension, a more Reformed ecclesiology, as well as several other corrections to errors I beleived at the time).