“The church must not abandon its belief in devils. Orthodoxy cannot afford to put out the fires of hell.”

—  Robert G. Ingersoll

Orthodoxy (1884)
Context: The church must not abandon its belief in devils. Orthodoxy cannot afford to put out the fires of hell. Throw away a belief in the devil, and most of the miracles of the New Testament become impossible, even if we admit the supernatural. If there is no devil, who was the original tempter in the garden of Eden? If there is no hell, from what are we saved; to what purpose is the atonement? Upon the obverse of the Christian shield is God, upon the reverse, the devil. No devil, no hell. No hell, no atonement. No atonement, no preaching, no gospel.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The church must not abandon its belief in devils. Orthodoxy cannot afford to put out the fires of hell." by Robert G. Ingersoll?
Robert G. Ingersoll photo
Robert G. Ingersoll 439
Union United States Army officer 1833–1899

Related quotes

“The problem with Christian belief--I mean real Christian belief, the belief that there is a God and a devil and a heaven and a hell--is that it is not a fashionable thing to believe.”

Donald Miller book Blue Like Jazz: nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality

Blue Like Jazz (2003, Nelson Books)

Russell Kirk photo

“Men cannot improve a society by setting fire to it: they must seek out its old virtues, and bring them back into the light.”

Russell Kirk (1918–1994) American political theorist and writer
Nikolai Berdyaev photo

“The uniting of Orthodoxy with state absolutism came about on the soil of a non-belief in the Divineness of the earth, in the earthly future of mankind; Orthodoxy gave away the earth into the hands of the state because of its own non-belief in man and mankind, because of its nihilistic attitude towards the world.”

Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948) Russian philosopher

"Nihilism  On  A  Religious Soil" (6 May 1907) http://www.berdyaev.com/berdiaev/berd_lib/1907_135_4.html
Context: The uniting of Orthodoxy with state absolutism came about on the soil of a non-belief in the Divineness of the earth, in the earthly future of mankind; Orthodoxy gave away the earth into the hands of the state because of its own non-belief in man and mankind, because of its nihilistic attitude towards the world. Orthodoxy does not believe in the religious ordering of human life upon the earth, and it compensates for its own hopeless pessimism by a call for the forceful ordering of it by state authority.

Don DeLillo photo

“The nonbelievers need the believers. They are desperate to have someone believe." "As belief shrinks from the world, people find it more necessary than ever that someone believe… Those who have abandoned belief must still believe in us. They are sure that they are right not to believe but they know belief must not fade completely. Hell is when no one believes.”

Don DeLillo book White Noise

White Noise (1984)

Georges Bernanos photo

“They are always talking about the fire of hell, but no one has ever seen it, my friends. For hell is cold. It used to be that the nights weren't long enough to wear out your malice, and you got up each morning with your breasts still full of poison. But now the devil himself has withdrawn from you. Ah, how alone we are in evil, my brothers! The poor human race dreams from century to century of breaking that solitude — but it's no use! The devil, who can do so many things, will never succeed in founding a Church, a Church that will put in common both the merits of hell and the sin of all. From now until the end of the world, the sinner will have to sin alone, always alone — for just as we die alone, so also do we sin alone. The devil, you see, is the friend who never stays with us to the end.”

Georges Bernanos book Monsieur Ouine

The curé of Fenouille to his congregation, p. 171
Monsieur Ouine, 1943

George MacDonald photo

“No, there is no escape. There is no heaven with a little of hell in it - no place to retain this or that of the devil in our hearts or our pockets. Out Satan must go, every hair and feather.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist
Anne Rice photo

“Should we put out the light? And then put out the light. But once put out thy light, I cannot give it vital breath again. It needs must wither.”

Anne Rice (1941) American writer
Elvis Costello photo

“Now I just don't know who to tell to go to hell
Who put the old devil in the distorted angel?”

Elvis Costello (1954) English singer-songwriter

Distorted Angel
Song lyrics, All This Useless Beauty (1996)

Josh Duffy photo

“If I have to start fires, to put out fires, then so be it.”

Josh Duffy (1978) Subject of the documentary THE MAYOR

Film Quotes

“We should have a glorious conflagration, if all who cannot put fire into their works would only consent to put their works into the fire.”

Charles Caleb Colton (1777–1832) British priest and writer

Preface
Lacon (1820)

Related topics