Of course. Well, wait, it’s complicated. Most Christians agree that we are not to obey what Bible scholars call “the ceremonial law.” The notion that a believer must be circumcised was a critical battle while the New Testament was being written. And the apostles were clear that such was not only not required, but that… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
We all have them to one extent or another; sometimes they are a constant burden on our conscience, other times they are not but perhaps should be. Maybe it’s our fault, our perhaps theirs. Join us as we have a conversation about Broken Relationships and try and discover what we as Christians should do about… Read more »
Posted by Eric Owens
Our gratitude has a short memory. When we ask, we never forget. When we receive, we move on to asking for the next thing. For twenty-five years I prayed for the soul of a dear friend. Twenty five months after his deliverance and I find I don’t give thanks as often as I should. I’ve… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
One could argue that on the most important issues surrounding our understanding of the last things are those convictions we hold in common. Christians agree that He will come again to judge both the living and the dead. We all agree on a future bodily resurrection. We all agree that His kingdom is forever and… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
In the June issue of Every Thought Captive magazine we take a look at money. From, as in our norm, a variety of perspectives: debt, inheritance, gratitude, the tithe, stewardship, the poor, how we teach our children and so on. In addition to our feature articles we have your favorite Top Ten List, pictures of… Read more »
Posted by Eric Owens
Creation, Recreation, and Economics: Why the Truth That God Owns Everything Changes Everything Christians are on both sides of the political fence, some arguing we should keep what is ours, others arguing just for the state to redistribute “our” wealth. Both sides miss the most fundamental economic reality- God owns everything. Exploring themes from his… Read more »
Posted by Eric Owens
Written 2010 The fight is on to decide if the American people will pay more in income taxes in 2011. Our congressional leaders are busy positioning themselves right and left. Some say they want no more tax increases of any kind while others are saying we ought to tax the rich another bite. Taxes… Read more »
Posted by Donald Schanzenbach
It’s the fuzzy stuff around the edges that gets us. When we are aware we are facing a text from God’s Word, we tend to tread carefully. We move slowly, break out our exegetical tools, and get to work. The trouble comes when we’re dealing in broad generalities. We take a vague notion grounded in… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
Written 2010 I mentioned in a recent note dealing with the blessing and pain of my imminent return to Orlando that within a few feet of me as I type there hangs a banner. It is roughly four feet wide and six feet tall. The font of the letters, and the color scheme, manifest the… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
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.
God gives us many unlimited blessings—grace, forgiveness, peace, but one gift that is not unlimited is time. The Bible instructs us to redeem the time and this is a lesson that God is teaching me. When my oldest children were very young, each day dragged. I counted the hours and minutes until Daddy came home,… Read more »
Posted by Kara Murphy
The spectacle of the Kermit Gosnell trial has captured the attention of quite a lot of Americans these past few weeks. At first the major news outlets refused to air the story but eventually they were shamed into talking about this sordid case. We have been dragged (shall we say) kicking and screaming through the… Read more »
Posted by Donald Schanzenbach
The purported value of ethical relativism, the idea that there are no transcendent, binding rules for right and wrong that all humans are morally required to submit to, is that it allows us to live in peace. That is, if you have your ethics, and I have my ethics, well then there is no real… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
When I listened to a review copy of Dan and Karen Vitco’s CD, I thought, Wow, these people actually put the first five questions of the Children’s Shorter Catechism to music. That’s creative. I wonder if they will explain it after the talk starts. But there was no talk. I was astonished to find that the entire… Read more »
Posted by Eric Owens
Written 2008 It was a good idea my dear wife had. She is eager to exercise. I am eager to exercise. We live in rural southwest Virginia, on a rather flat road that follows the contours of the river that flows beside it. So what we have been doing of late is walking together early… 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.
The Opportunity for Relationship and Discipleship You’ve heard about family –based education (commonly called homeschooling or home discipleship). Many families have seen the disintegration of family relationships over the last few decades and responded by integrating relationship and character into their home and their children’s lives. But what about the 80% or more of real… Read more »
Posted by Eric Owens
I’m cleaning up my desk. Not the one my computer sits on, but the one that sits inside my computer. I’m filing old Kingdom Notes, sermon notes, personal notes. And in so doing I came across the below. In coaching my dear friend who recently lost his wife I told him to save what wisdom… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
There is wisdom in the playground adage that every time we point a finger at others we have three more pointing back at ourselves. It’s also true for adults who are given to hurling accusations against those who are just like us. Christian A complains to Christian B about what a horrible gossip Christian C… 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.
Dr. Sproul was interviewed by David Barrett for 790 am KSPD in Boise, Idaho. The discussion was on Faith and Family, Faith and the Future, Faith and Culture. This two-part interview may be heard LIVE online at 6:00 p.m. (eastern) Monday, April 29th and at 6:00 p.m. (eastern) on Tuesday, April 30th. Go to 790… Read more »
Posted by Eric Owens
Alex was all of five years old. Her sibling had done something to her, I don’t remember what, and she was scandalized. She pointed up the stairs where the hardened little criminal had disappeared, and she looked at Brett, her eyes blazing fire. “Get him!” He was ‘got.’ And that was the end of that…. Read more »
Posted by Noel Adams
BELIEVING GOD DVD TEACHING SERIES
Too good to be true?
While Christians may express trust in God’s words, they refuse, in numerous ways, to stake their lives on what He says. In this teaching series, Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. challenges Christians to take a second glance at twelve of the most significant promises in Scripture. As Dr. Sproul methodically unpacks each divine pledge, he invites every Christian with a teachable heart to discover anew the grandeur of what God has committed Himself to do for His people and to live in the joy of God’s promises.
When a great man dies, it is our habit to stop and chronicle his achievements. In obituaries and homilies we retell success stories and tally victories. While this is utterly fitting, it can be misleading. Were our eyes more attuned to looking at and for the things of God we would confess that what makes… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
There is I suspect a difference between being grateful and being a fan boy. God has blessed the church with all manner of godly men who preach and teach faithful to the Word. My own desire is to cultivate deeper gratitude while avoiding the awkwardness of being a fan boy. But I suppose part of… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
We don’t understand God. What is it about Him that so often leads Him to mute His power, to hide behind the weak and lame? It’s not as though He doesn’t understand His own power. His Word created the whole of the universe. His Spirit gave life to us when we were dead. That Word… 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.
We want to be like Jesus. What I tend to want, however, for those whom I love, is that they would be happy and healthy. I want the good stuff for me, something less for others. When my wife was first diagnosed with leukemia I was worried for her, but happy for me. This, I… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
Half the church was there. It’s not a large church. About three hundred souls in total. But they were there. Truly there. Fully there. There for her. She lay in bed, above them, directly in the path of hymns and spiritual songs wafting to heaven, to God’s ears. To hers through a small opening in… Read more »
Posted by Eric Owens
We went to a party today. And when I say party, I don’t mean the sanitized Christian kind where there are…Christians. I mean PARTYYYY party. One of Brett’s old co-workers had turned 50, and she was throwing a big bash out at the lake house. She even invited Brett and me–and our whole family. She… Read more »
Posted by Noel Adams
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.
The Westminster Confession, when dealing with how Christians ought to understand the place of the Old Covenant civil law (that is, the laws God gaveIsrael’s government at the founding of the nation), argues that we are bound by the “general equity” of these laws. That is, I believe, that we are called to apply that… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
In a plane, on my way to address a large crowd, many of whom may well be hostile, fear is heavy on my mind, and truth be told, even on my heart. There are many who have a deep seated fear of flying. I am not one of them. For all the hassles, and all… 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.
There is a lot of fear out there over what our government will do next. Will we be taxed insensible? Will our guns and gold be seized? Will homeschooling remain legal? Must we obtain more registrations and numbers from the central government? Are the banks going bankrupt? Will the dollar devalue into uselessness? Things have… Read more »
Posted by Donald Schanzenbach
Empathy is a tricky thing. Great thing to have, not so great thing to prematurely claim. We are called, as much as we are able, out of love to enter into the sufferings of our neighbor. That’s a good thing. But one can’t do it mildly, or vicariously. “I know how you feel” is a… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
It is Holy Week, and this season, always grabs me by surprise. The word of its coming blows past my unlistening ears carried away on winds of hurry, work, and inattention. The days approach, but my soul may be prepared—unprepared. How precisely, does one prepare for the greatest solemn gift without somehow diminishing its value?… Read more »
Posted by Donald Schanzenbach
What is Patriotism? Patriotism seems to have a distinctive meaning. It is difficult to think of a synonym. For instance, ‘loyalty’ does not exactly capture the heart of what patriotism is. Love of country is closer, but, ‘love of country’ is not one word and so cannot be a synonym for anything (Do I have… Read more »
Posted by Donald Schanzenbach
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.
We serve an exponential God. He who made everything out of nothing does not increase through addition, but through multiplication. We move from faith to faith, from grace to grace, from blessing to blessing. The more we grow in grace the more blessed we are. The more blessed we are, the more we grow in… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
Sorrow over the loss of a loved one, at least for those of us who trust in God’s loving, sovereign care for us, is pretty simple to understand. We don’t, when our wife passes, have to wonder what God is thinking. We don’t, when our little girl joins her, have to listen to the accusations… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
There is a lot of wailing right now about the coming crash, the mid-east spoiling for war, Israel at battle stations, and the general unwinding of the American system. There are a whole lot of my evangelical brethren who believe we are at the end of the age. Not just the end of politics as… Read more »
Posted by Donald Schanzenbach
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.
Written 2011 Watching The King’s Speech reminded me of the purpose of kings who reign but don’t rule. They serve an important function for a given culture, one that in turn touches on the whole nobility. Kings serve as “public persons,” personifications of the morals and manners of the nations. This concept, rightly understood is… Read more »
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
It is because we love the world so profoundly that we think we’re already being persecuted. That is, we see ourselves as bold prophets confronting the sin of the world because we vote for candidates approved by the National Right to Life. We watch pundits on CNN mock us. We might even face a moment… 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.
“Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me in the shadow of your wings” Psalm 17:8 Rand Paul’s grand filibuster speech this week pointed up the concerns many of us have about the growing fleets of drones being operated by agencies of government at every level. It seems the governments find it almost… Read more »
Posted by Donald Schanzenbach
