Looking for a quotation on God's Law versus man's...

[Me Died Blue]

Does anyone know who it was that said something to the effect of pointing out that when people start increasingly emphasizing and stressing their own man-made laws (e.g., no alcohol, no secular music), it will never be long before they then start naturally de-emphasizing and rejecting God's true laws (e.g., the second and fourth commandments), and vice-versa?

I want to say it was a contemporary theologian. Maybe Ligon Duncan? Joey Pipa?

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Machen is supposed to have said: People who start forbidding what God allows, will soon allow what God forbids. That was told to me by Dr. C.Gregg Singer, who (back in the land before time) chauffered Machen around a bit.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

R.B. Kuiper:

May we ever be on guard against those who in the name of religion would add to God´s law. To be stricter than God is no evidence of piety but, contrariwise, of abominable presumption. To add to God´s law is just as heinous a sin as to subtract from it. He who does either puts himself in God´s place.

Therefore it is not at all strange that he who today forbids what God allows will tomorrow allow what God forbids. That is precisely what one may expect of him who sets himself up as Lawgiver in God's stead. He is sure to topple from the cliff of rigid moralism into the abyss of reeking immorality.

Source

 

[Me Died Blue]

Thanks, Bruce...that's it. I didn't think any of the sources in the back of my head were correct, but I just couldn't think of him for anything; I need to read some of his material more fully!

Do you know if there's a printed source that would likely have that to cite?

 

[Contra_Mundum]

No. I'd go with VH's Kuiper quote above (yes, he was with Machen and Westminster Sem).

 

[Me Died Blue]

I figured that when I saw the match in the quotation, and since they were from the same time-period; though it would be interesting to find out sometime which one originally said it. Machen was the one to whom I had always heard it attributed, but for now Kuiper is the only author with a direct source, so that works.

Thanks, Andrew! (I should have known I'd eventually be saying that when I started this thread, since it relates to sources or information regarding Church history!)

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

You're welcome, Chris! Bruce pointed the way. It certainly sounds like something that Machen (or J.G. Vos) might have said, so don't take my quote as the final word on the subject, but I hope it is helpful.