"Man can certainly keep on lying (and he does so); but he cannot make truth falsehood. He can certainly rebel (he does so); but he can accomplish nothing which abolishes the choice of God. He can certainly flee from God (he does so) ; but he cannot escape Him. He can certainly hate God and be hateful to God (he does and is so) ; but he cannot change into its opposite the eternal love of God which triumphs even in His hate. He can certainly give himself to isolation (he does so — he thinks, wills and behaves godlessly, and is godless) ; but even in his isolation he must demonstrate that which he wishes to controvert — the impossibility of playing the "individual" over against God. He may let go of God, but God does not let go of him."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
ClergyChristian leadersAcademics from SwitzerlandChristian existentialistsTheologians from Switzerland
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Paraphrased variant: Man can certainly flee from God... but he cannot escape him. He can certainly hate God and be hateful to God … but he cannot change into its opposite the eternal love of God which triumphs even in his hate. — Quoted in Simpson's Contemporary Quotations (1998) by James Beasley Simpson.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Barth
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"The name Jesus defines an historical occurence and marks the point where the unknown world cuts the known world . . .…"
"The Resurrection is the revelation: the disclosing of Jesus as the Christ, the appearing of God, and the apprehending…"
"The power of God can be detected neither in the world of nature nor in the souls of men. It must not be confounded wi…"
""The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highwa…"
"For the millions that suffer unjustly, the Confessing Church does not yet have a heart."
"What expressions we used – in part taken over and in part newly invented! — above all, the famous 'wholly other' brea…"
"Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible."
"Faith is never identical with "piety" even if it were the purest and finest."
"Grace must find expression in life, otherwise it is not grace."
"Faith in God's revelation has nothing to do with an ideology which glorifies the status quo."