There’s a great deal of history and nuance to this question. One could argue that the terms are identical. Both groups trace their roots to a prior term, and the shift to the new term to the same source. That is, in a very real sense these once were synonyms for the prior term Protestant…. Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.Of course. And of course not. The sermon is that part of the service where God’s Word exposes our failures and proclaims Christ’s provision. The end is not the sin, but neither can the sin be ignored. We do not preach simply to tell the congregation, “Stop it. Try harder. This is the right way… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.There may be no more significant Old Testament description of how God relates to His people than this Hebrew word hesed. I argue that the best translation of this term would be “loyal love.” God loves His people genuinely, immutably, loyally. Both the love and the loyalty are, of course, tightly bound together. That is,… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.The power of the media is less what it gets us to think, more what it gets us to think about. That is, they have less influence on our credenda than our agenda, less on what we believe, more on what we believe we’re supposed to do. I was driving down the interstate after a… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.The wisdom of this question, I would argue, is that it gets at the real horror of hell. A lake of fire is a frightening thought indeed. The greater dread, however, is the duration of hell, that it never ends. This, I suspect, is what tempts some to try to tweak the church’s historic view… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.Though it is most often attributed to the great sports writer Red Smith, no one knows for sure who first bled this great insight- “Writing is easy. You just open a vein and bleed.” Like all great metaphors, this one invites us to slow down and examine its many facets. First, writing hurts. It hurts… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.It is not at all unusual for us to defend our own peculiar perspective by painting our opponents in the worst possible light. There is genuine disagreement over whether political issues have any place in preaching, even among the Reformed. Those who stand opposed, however, lob their arguments against those who wrap their sermons in… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.Sure it is. As long as what we mean by “having a conversion story” is broad enough to include, “I have loved and depended on the finished work of Christ as far back as I can remember.” Sadly, it is unlikely this is what people who say such things mean. There are at least two… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.It is an important part of my task as I teach Reformation Bible College students systematic theology to familiarize them with the grammar of our theological conversations. I’m called to introduce them not just to the issues theologians wrestle with, but to the language they use when wrestling with the issues. In the broader evangelical… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.A mirage, wrapped in propaganda, surrounded by demagogues. It is Chicken Little running around crying out that the end is near because she stubbed her toe, while the sky was actually falling. It is sound and fury, signifying nothing, while MacBeth hawks the crown jewels to buy more knives to kill more enemies. Not long… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.When I formulated the purpose statement of Highlands Ministries now more than fifteen years ago, that “we exist to help Christians live more simple, separate, and deliberate lives for the glory of God and for the building of His kingdom, I knew how people would react. They wouldn’t understand simple; they wouldn’t like separate; they… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.No, on both counts. Our labor is a service. Its value is determined neither by law nor by wish but by the market. All of us, I suspect, would love to be paid $1,000 an hour. Given that all of us would want this, why don’t we pass a law stating no one could be… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.I don’t know. The Bible doesn’t directly say. It does, of course, say that women are not to teach or rule in the church (I Timothy 2:12). For this reason the evangelical church has always held that women are not to be ordained as elders in the church for elder is an office of rule…. Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.Because I wish to answer some likely objections before answering this question, you will likely guess my answer. When the Bible calls us to “pray for the peace ofBabylon” (Jeremiah 29:7) I believe that means we are called to pray for the peace of our nation. When the Bible calls us to pray for our… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.At Highlands Ministries, one of the places I am blessed to labor, our purpose statement reads, “We exist to help Christians live more simple, separate and deliberate lives to the glory and God and for the building of His kingdom. I addressed what we mean by simple here. While simple by not be easy for… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.It is a legitimate and important question- the appropriateness of celebrating the incarnation, the celebration of Christmas. I believe it fitting and appropriate, but am in turn always uncomfortable disagreeing with brothers to my right. I understand their concerns, and appreciate their passion for the regulative principle of worship. On the other hand, one can… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.It is a legitimate and important question- the appropriateness of celebrating the incarnation, the celebration of Christmas. I believe it fitting and appropriate, but am in turn always uncomfortable disagreeing with brothers to my right. I understand their concerns, and appreciate their passion for the regulative principle of worship. On the other hand, one can… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.No. Christians, of course disagree on this. And when we disagree we can usually expect someone to trot out the whole “meat offered to idols” and weaker brother texts discussion in I Corinthians and Romans respectively. Neither of these texts, however, were given to us to squelch discussion nor to leave us blind to moral… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.It may well be in the calculus of evil that the only character faring worse than a Nazi is the Pharisee. These were the original black hats. In each of the gospel accounts they are the no-accounts, the very foil of Jesus Himself. We, because we are sinners just like them, ascribe to the Pharisees… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.Highlands Ministries, one of the ministries for whom I labor, has from its founding affirmed that its purpose is to “help Christians live more simple, separate, and deliberate lives for the glory of God and for the building of His kingdom.” I knew from the beginning in writing this statement that Christians would not readily… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.That time heals some wounds. It is natural as we enter into that season of the year, and now the very anniversary of her passing, that the pain would grow more acute, more insistent. And it is certainly possible that my expectations were terribly naïve. But the truth is not that I thought I would… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.You have heard it said, and rightly so, that it’s rather important to define our terms. Here is a case in point. There are at least three ways we use the phrase “celebrate Christmas.” The first is as the celebration Mass of the birth of Christ, that is, as Rome has celebrated it for centuries…. Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.These are dark days for the church in the west. While we can, indeed must rejoice over the spread of the gospel in China, and in the southern hemisphere, here the church is losing its savor, and the putrid smell of death is all around us. Perverts are parading in the streets. Mommies are murdering… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.Sonship theology is a set of biblical notions originally propagated by Jack Miller, a former missionary and pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America (former because Jack has gone on to his reward.) The ideas were first spread through a Bible study, then through a Presbyterian missions agency. The central theme, as evidenced in the… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.There are any number of appropriate ways to answer this question. I have for years now affirmed that the most foundational economic truth is that God owns everything. We need to learn that, down to our toes. I have also affirmed that the first law of economics is that consuming more than we produce leads… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.I don’t know. This text seems to settle the matter- “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD,” Leviticus 19:28. The anti-tattoo party is likely to pitch their tent here, perhaps wisely so. The pro-tattoo party, however, will object that this… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.As always I give thanks for the prayers of God’s saints on my family’s behalf. One of the best lessons learned over months of mourning has been the experience of being held up by the prayers of the saints. We who are Reformed aren’t always the most adept pray-ers. Being on the receiving end, however,… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.Yes. This, of course, is not what we typically hear about this text. We are told, for instance, that Jesus was tapping into the first use of the law rather than the third here, that rather than telling the young man what he must do to inherit eternal life He was demonstrating that despite the… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.Weekly. That is, I not only believe it important that we celebrate the Lord’s Supper every Lord’s Day, I believe we ought to fence the table every time we celebrate. There are those institutions that practice what we call close communion. Under this system only those who are members of the particular local church may… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.Probably not. There are two separate and related issues tied together in this question, one easier, the other less easy. First is the question of the authority to celebrate the table. The Reformers argued that the three marks of the church, that which tells us what is a true church and what is not, where… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.Pietism is a view that looks at the broader world as a matter of utter insignificance, because it focuses exclusively on making the individual soul better. Radically individualistic and deeply Gnostic the movement eschews political involvement, denigrates the exercise of dominion and sometimes adds to the law of God. This, of course, ought never to… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.There are not just different reasons why people go to college, but different legitimate reasons. There are in turn perfectly appropriate reasons why some people don’t go to college. I am not of the mind that anyone’s mind is wasted if it has never matriculated, or doesn’t know what matriculated means. As such, there is… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.There are any number of common myths, lies we tell ourselves, to somehow make it all seem not so horrible. The first lie is that the clientele at the local mill is made up of sweet faced high school girls who got carried away with their boyfriends, and come in blissfully ignorant of what goes… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.When I was a boy and my grades weren’t quite up to snuff I was given to committing the false dilemma fallacy. My parents would grumble, and I would explain, “But I’m not so interested in acquiring knowledge. It’s wisdom I want.” Which is teenager for, “I don’t want to study, and I’ve found a… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.Of course. And, of course not. The difference depends on what we mean by “hear.” God hears the prayers of all people, before they even leave their lips. Here we are careful to affirm the omniscience of God, that God quite literally knows all things. Remember as well that we are promised that when we… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.It is one of my great passions, the desire to see me, and the evangelical church take the evil of abortion more seriously, to have our hearts more deeply broken, and our actions more faithful. We have all, I fear, come to accept the status quo. We are content to vote for Republicans hoping they… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.Of course. Even Judas was sorrowful over his sin, according to the Bible. The world is full of people who are disgusted at at least some of their sins, who seek to put particular sins behind them. This kind of sorrow is not how we have peace with God. While repentance is intimately connected to… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.Wildfires are raging in Colorado. Governments are teetering in sundry corners of the globe. Christians are being murdered for their faith by roving bands of Muslims. These are all real, true, painful hardships. There are human beings losing their homes, their wealth, their lives. Prayer is fitting. Mercy ministry makes perfect sense. And we are… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.The use of incense by God’s people goes at least as far back as the sacrificial system established by God for the nation ofIsrael. The incense symbolized the sweet aroma of the prayers of God’s people rising up into heaven, which prayers were a delight to God. This same practice and symbolism was a part… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.First, we need to know which pulpits we are talking about. The world is full of “pulpits” that are filled by men and women who are missing the most important thing- the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That is, the pulpits in mainline churches are not truly “ours” for they are marked by fundamental unbelief…. Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.There is an appropriate tension in the relationship between Christians and the world. We serve a Lord who came to bring life abundant (John 10:10), who has overcome the world (John 16:33), who is bringing all things under subjection (Ephesians 1:22), who will see every knee bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord,… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.The Bible doesn’t say. My first inclination is usually to push against the prevailing wisdom of the world. They think that youth is better than age, whereas the Bible seems to suggest that wisdom is the main thing, and such comes with age. The Bible also, however, as I argue in my book The Call… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.Like prose and poetry, these two terms are better understood as opposite ends of a spectrum, rather than raw opposites. When we write prose we are given to sundry poetic devices, word-plays, metaphors, etc. and when we write poetry we are communicating information. In like manner it is rather difficult if not impossible to teach… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.Though it’s a cliché, it’s true- who defines the terms wins the debate. Before we determine how to avoid this kind of error, let’s be sure we know what we are talking about. One could argue that in the church there is a spectrum of views on the relationships between husbands and wives. On the… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.Yes. Jesus reminded us in His Sermon on the Mount that the Ten Commandments are rather wider in scope than we might be tempted to believe. If we avoid first degree murder, we haven’t escaped the charge of failing to keep the seventh commandment. One could argue that the ninth commandment merely forbids perjury, the… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.It’s not peculiarly new, this objection. People have used it for some time when confronted with the plain teaching of the Bible. Those outside the church seek to wiggle out from under the commands of God by, oddly, pointing to the commands of God. When we say “The Bible forbids x” they don’t reply, “It… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.It would seem to be a reasonable corollary to the Apostle John’s affirmation that he knew no greater joy than to know that his children walk in the truth (III John 4) that there is likely no greater sorrow than to see one’s own children walk away from the church and the gospel of Jesus… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.While it is certainly gloriously true that out of God’s love for us He sent His Son to cover our sins, to remove them as far from us as the east is from the west, this is not likely what Peter has in mind here. He is instead, in context, talking about interpersonal relationships among… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.I have written before about the cowardice of paper prophets. These thundering heroes build a following and a reputation by denouncing with great vigor and panache the errors of those who are not their audience. They are preaching against Ninevah inJerusalem, pronouncing woe againstJerusaleminCleveland. When we do this we get credit for courage when all… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.This little nugget of wisdom tends to get trotted out every four years, with different names of course, but the same principle, along with assurances that this one election is the very hinge of history. Those of us more conservative than both the Democrat and the Republican are told that if we don’t vote for… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
