"Everything is so short in the gospel. Oh! what a little life of Him it is! Better so, of course, or it would have been otherwise. But they must have a bigger history of Jesus up in the high country. I trust we shall gather a life story from mouth after mouth about this Man, such as he was in the world, and that it will not be forgotten. The fame of men, the praise of men, passes away like a breath, and it is gone, thank God; but what Jesus did will be a rejoicing throughout the Divine ages, because He was a true Man -- nay, the true Man. There never was a Man in the world but Jesus. The rest are all only growing up to be men."



- The Story of Zacchaeus, in Getting to know Jesus - By George Macdonald, the most Christocentric anti-Calvinist I've read to date.

Concerning "Preconceived notions"

The time I often waste on the internet is spent looking at book reviews. Looking at the quality and substance of book reviews will often reveal far more about a book than will its Publisher's Weekly Review. Being able to look just at one-star reviews (this being the lowest rating; five stars is the highest) can be especially rewarding or insulting to the intellect.

The title of two of the one-star reviews I read both contained the phrases "Preconceived beliefs or Preconceived notions." Besides having incomplete sentences and spelling that did not inspire awe, they chose to employ one of the many meaningless phrases of today to defend their point. They criticized the book on the grounds that it was full of "preconceived notions."

Is there any one who does not preconceive? The book they spoke of was in fact full of preconceived notions, but that really means nothing at all. We must all start with preconceptions to get anywhere. If we find out our preconceptions are totally or partially wrong, we adjust them accordingly. All people do this to some extent, and the most honest people are willing to follow truth wherever it leads.

There is a place to say that someone is merely believing preconceived notions, but it's not the fact that their conceptions are preconceived that makes them wrong; it is the fact that their beliefs are wrong that make them wrong. If they change their mind and become right, their new belief will now be their new notion they will bring to their next debate, to which their opponent will most likely say "you are just following your preconceived notions."