R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 25

We Are Not Germs: The Case for Human Dignity

Several years ago, the mother of a college student came to me wringing her hands, saying: “I don’t know what to do with my son. I’ve been praying for him for years; he’s in total rebellion. He’s smoking dope; he’s doing all these wild and crazy things, and he won’t listen to me about the Christian faith. Will you talk to him?” I cautioned her that forcing him to come talk to me would make him a reluctant audience, but I nevertheless agreed to her request. She persuaded the young man to come and see me. When he came in, he was sullen, curt, and obviously hostile. So I asked him, “Who are you mad at?” He replied, “My mother.” And I said, “Why are you angry at your mother?” He said he was mad at her because “every time I turn around she keeps trying to shove religion down my throat.”

I said, “I see, you don’t buy into Christianity?” He said, “No, sir.” “OK,” I replied, “so what do you believe?” He said, “I believe that everybody should have the right to do their own thing.” “Alright,” I answered, “but why are you mad at your mother?” He said, “What do you mean?” “Well,” I replied, “maybe it’s your mother’s thing to shove religion down people’s throats. What I hear you saying is that you want everybody to do their own thing as long as their own thing doesn’t impose upon your own thing. And you want to be able to do your own thing even if it does impose on other people’s own thing.”

I said, “Don’t you see that if you complained to me on the basis of Christian ethical standards that things would be diferent? If your mother is provoking you to wrath and is being thoroughly insensitive to you as a person, then I would have a foundation upon which to stand with you. I could defend your cause against your mother.” At that point, he started getting interested in the Christian faith. Of course, the point of the illustration is that the young man knew what he didn’t like, but he hadn’t thought it through. He wanted to come to the conclusion that there is no basis ultimately for ethics, but he couldn’t live in that domain. And that is the point that even a non-Christian philosopher such as Immanuel Kant made, namely, that life ultimately is impossible without God, without justice, without life after the grave.

The bottom line is this: if there is no God, if there is no life after death, then ultimately all of our ethical decisions are absolutely meaningless. That’s a true and inescapable conclusion. If we think about it, it’s the only conclusion we can reach if we have absented God from our thinking. The only alternative to an absolute ethic is a relative ethic. We cannot have an absolute ethic without a personal Creator.

To confess that God is Creator is to confess that we are not cosmic accidents, devoid of ultimate value. We came from somewhere significant and we are headed toward a destination of importance.

Mechanistic determinists and hyperevolutionists say that the human animal is the highest advance up a scale of life that emerged out of primordial slime. Humanity, the grownup germ, is the result of accidental cosmic forces, and the destiny of the human race is at the mercy of these indifferent, impersonal forces. This view does not leave us in total darkness about the goal of human existence, nor does it point us in the direction of significance. What began in the slime is destined for organic disorganization or disintegration.

The mechanistic view ofers no understanding of the meaning of life. Attempts have been made to develop a sense of mechanistic ethics. All have failed. Why should germs be moral? If I am a cosmic accident, why should I care about you? Why prefer life over death? What is so special about life? Why should a human being be valued over a stone?

Modern versions of secular humanism embrace this mechanistic or evolutionary description of our origins, and yet they do not follow through to the inevitable conclusion. Yes, all forms of humanism share a concern for humanity and its well-being, but apart from God there can be no lasting, permanent foundation for such a concern. Both Christianity and humanism seek the healing of estranged relationships, and both honor the dignity of the human being. However, their bases for dignity are radically different. The Christian sees the horizontal, interpersonal relation as inseparable from the vertical relationship with God.

To remain at the human, horizontal level is to neglect the path toward eternal human significance. To establish human dignity without acknowledging the God of creation, the humanist must act in an arbitrary and irrational fashion. If humans rose by chance from chaos, why should dignity be ascribed to them? Since the advent of the Christian faith, humanism has constantly incorporated Christian values and ethics while ripping the heart out of Christianity’s theological context. Yet that context is the only reason the values and ethics make sense. As a representative human, I resent the moral demands if someone tells me I “ought” to do this or that, without giving me any reason. Humanists have for no reason made dignity and value the “givens” of human experience. To be sure, our experience agrees with their assessment. It screams that life is valuable and that each person is a creature of immense worth and dignity. That scream is hollow, however, if it comes from a germ with no destiny but death.

Christianity teaches that human dignity is rooted in the holiness of God; it reflects God’s dignity. That is because human beings are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). The Creator, who possesses infinite value and worth, has stamped us with a value and dignity that is derivative of His own value and dignity. Lose that idea, and you have lost any transcendent, foundational reason to treat human beings any differently than you treat a dog, a dolphin, or even a weed. It is no accident that the two greatest commandments are love of God and love of neighbor (Matt. 22:34–40). You cannot have the latter without the former and those who truly have the former will also have the latter, for if we love the God of infinite dignity, we will also love people because they reflect, however imperfectly, His dignity.

Our notions of dignity are ultimately based on God’s dignity and our being made in God’s image. Thus, we apply titles of dignity to people, but not to animals or other elements of creation. John Smith appears to sound more important when he is called “Dr. Smith,” “the honorable Congressman Smith,” or “President Smith.” But “Germ Smith” just doesn’t have the same ring. People do not build monuments to germs. Few people grieve when a fly dies.

This is not just a semantic or historical matter. The value difference between humanist and creation visions of human worth has profound significance. Martin Luther King Jr. did not give his life to advance the cause of equal civil rights for black germs. Many thousands now work tirelessly in the right-to-life movement, but not to save the lives of preborn viruses. Although at the gut level we automatically assume the dignity of human beings, it is pure nonsense apart from creation.

I know that secular humanism waxes eloquent about how important it is for us to be virtuous and how important it is for us to work for human dignity and for freedom and industry and love. But intellectually, I’ve never seen anything more pitiful than the type of philosophical humanism that tells us on the one hand that our origin as human beings is a cosmic accident, that we are grownup germs who have emerged fortuitously from the slime, and that we are destined ultimately to annihilation to nonbeing, to the abyss of das Nichtige, the nothingness, but that even so, we enjoy enormous significance in between our origin and our destiny. Talk about fantasy and wish projection. Talk about blind faith and leaping into absurdity. What could be more absurd than to celebrate the significance of grownup germs? I say candidly to the secular humanist: “Don’t come to me and tell me about human dignity, because I don’t care whether white germs or black germs sit in the back of the bus. And I don’t care about whose slime is blown away by a nuclear holocaust. If I’m going to care about human beings and about human dignity, I want a reason.”

If you call me to sacrificial, altruistic action in behalf of human beings, you better have a reason. And it should be greater than simply, we should be for people because we’re people. Because unless we can establish that it means something to be people, it’s pure emotion. And rights granted on the basis of pure emotion ultimately unravel. What emotion gives, it can also take away. But if our human dignity is given by God and that is recognized by our culture, then we have fundamental human rights that inform how we treat other people under the law and even one on one at the personal level.

 

$5 Friday (And More): Roman Catholicism, Church History, & John Knox

It’s time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week’s resources include such topics as Roman Catholicism, church history, John Knox, hymns, salvation, reformed theology, and more.

Plus, several bonus resources are also available for more than $5. These have been significantly discounted from their original price. This week’s bonus resources include:

Are We Together? A Protestant Analyzes Roman Catholicism by R.C. Sproul, Paperback book (Spanish) $12 $8 The Church History ABCs by Stephen Nichols $17 $10 John Knox: Fearless Faith by Stephen Nichols $10 $7 The Life and Theology of Paul by Guy Waters $15 $8And More

Sale runs through 12:01 a.m.–11:59 p.m. Friday ET.

View today’s $5 Friday sale items.

 

Now Available: The Biography of R.C. Sproul

In R.C. Sproul: A Life, Dr. Stephen Nichols provides a close look at the beloved founder of Ligonier Ministries. These pages detail Dr. Sproul’s childhood and formative education, his marriage and partnership with his cherished wife, Vesta, his friendships with key Christian figures, and the enduring impact of his teaching on the global church. Meet the man used by God to awaken generations to the majesty of His character, the truth of His Word, and the glory of His gospel.

Watch this video, shared by permission of Crossway Publishing, as Dr. Nichols takes us back to the Ligonier Valley Study Center to talk about Dr. Sproul’s overarching desire to teach people who God is.

“The range of R.C.’s vast interest and contribution, along with the irresistible charm of his personality, require a biographer who is a church historian, theologian, and very close friend. Stephen Nichols is the best choice, as this account demonstrates.”
—Dr. John MacArthur
Pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA

“I’ve always admired R.C. Sproul for his razor-sharp mind; now, with this biography, he’s printed on my heart.”
—Joni Eareckson Tada
Founder and CEO of Joni and Friends

“I couldn’t put this book down, for it doesn’t just tell you the fascinating story of a life well lived; it takes you on R.C.’s own journey.”
—Dr. Michael Reeves
President and professor of theology at Union School of Theology in Oxford, England

“I am thankful for this accessible biography of R.C. Sproul by Stephen Nichols. His clear and simple way of writing is certainly appropriate in his biography of a man who always sought to communicate the glorious theology of Scripture in a clear and simple way.”
—Dr. Burk Parsons
Senior pastor of Saint Andrew’s Chapel and chief publishing officer for Ligonier Ministries

Available now from the Ligonier store. Read a sample chapter.

Hardcover for $35.00 $28.00

Dr. Stephen J. Nichols is president of Reformation Bible College, chief academic officer for Ligonier Ministries, and a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow. He is host of the podcasts 5 Minutes in Church History and Open Book. He is author of more than twenty books, including Beyond the 95 Theses and A Time for Confidence, and coeditor of Crossway’s Theologians on the Christian Life series.

 

Applying the Christian Ethic to Specific Issues

Here’s an excerpt from Applying the Christian Ethic to Specific Issues, James N. Anderson's contribution to the March issue of Tabletalk:

We live in an age of unprecedented moral confusion. The public consensus on basic moral issues—the fruit of Christian influence on Western civilization—has been tragically eroded. As pragmatism and relativism reign supreme, we are reliving the period when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judg. 21:25). In the midst of this fog, the Christian faith presents us with a coherent worldview that provides straightforward direction on central ethical questions. In this article, we will consider how the Christian ethic speaks to a number of hotly contested issues of our time.

Continue reading Applying the Christian Ethic to Specific Issues, or begin receiving Tabletalk magazine by signing up for a free 3-month trial.

For a limited time, the new TabletalkMagazine.com allows everyone to browse and read the growing library of back issues, including this month’s issue.

 

Live Now: 2021 National Conference

Our three-day 2021 National Conference, Right Now Counts Forever, is now live. Join us today on Ligonier.org, YouTube, the Ligonier app, Facebook, and Twitter, beginning at approximately 9:00 a.m. ET. As we consider the eternal significance of our everyday lives, we encourage you to share these messages with your family and friends on social media and download our free app so you can tune in any time.

Marking fifty years since the founding of Ligonier Ministries, our 2021 National Conference will consider the eternal significance of our everyday lives by equipping us today to better serve the Lord, love our neighbors, and make Christ known. With our glorious future in view, Christians do not have less of a stake in the present, but infinitely more. As Dr. R.C. Sproul so often reminded us, right now counts forever.

TODAY’S SESSIONS INCLUDE (all times ET):

9:00 a.m. – No Other Gospel by Stephen Nichols10:45 a.m. – Panel Discussion: R.C. Sproul’s Life and Ministry with Nichols, Parsons, and Mrs. Sproul2:00 p.m. – Working as for the Lord by Steven Lawson3:45 p.m. – Questions & Answers with Kim, Lawson, MacArthur, and Nichols7:00 p.m. – The Holiness of God and His People by John MacArthur

The conference will also be streaming in Spanish on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, and in Portuguese on Facebook.

 

God Ordains Whatsoever Comes to Pass

Belief in the absolute sovereignty of God doesn’t separate Calvinists from Arminians—it separates theists from atheists. In this brief clip, R.C. Sproul proclaims a truth that every Christian should embrace.

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Transcript

The third chapter the Westminster Confession begins with these words: “God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and immutably”—that is, without possibility of changing it—“God…did…freely and immutably ordain whatsoever comes to pass;” semicolon. Let me take a breath there at the point of the semicolon. “God from all eternity,” according to His own holy and wise counsel, did “freely and immutably ordain, or foreordain, whatsoever comes to pass.” I paused at that point in the seminary classroom, and I said to my students, “How many of you believe that statement?” You have to understand, this was a Presbyterian seminary, so these fellows were pretty well steeped in the Augustinian tradition. And I got like a 70% vote there, that that large number believed it. I said, “Okay, how many of you don’t believe that statement?” And thirty or so hands went in the air. And I said, “Fine. Now, let me ask another question,” I said, “without fear of recriminations. Nobody’s going to jump all over you; we just would like to know. Feel free to state your position. How many of you would call yourselves atheists?” And nobody put their hand up. And I went into my Lieutenant Columbo routine: “There’s just one thing here I can’t understand,” I said. And I looked at those thirty who had raised their hand and I said, “Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?” I said, “I can’t figure out why those of you who raised your hand saying you did not believe this statement, didn’t raise your hand when I asked if you were atheists.” And they looked at me with a mixture of puzzlement, with the same kind of looks I’m seeing in your eyes here today.

I was saying, “Because, if you don’t believe this statement, you understand that fundamentally, at the bottom line, you’re an atheist.” And that was about the most outrageous thing they ever heard in their lives. I said, “Well, let’s understand that this statement that I’ve just read, that God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, is not a statement that is unique to Calvinism or to Presbyterianism. It doesn’t distinguish the Reformed tradition from other traditions. It doesn’t even distinguish Christians from Jews or from Muslims. This statement here distinguishes theists from atheists. And they were still puzzled as I continued this harangue. And I said, “Don’t you see? If there’s anything that happens in this world outside the foreordination of God—if there’s no sense in which God is ordaining whatsoever comes to pass—then at whatever point something happens outside the foreordination of God it is, therefore, happening outside of the sovereignty of God.”

Live Tomorrow: Right Now Counts Forever

Our 2021 National Conference, Right Now Counts Forever, will stream live tomorrow, beginning at approximately 9:00 a.m. ET. Join us online for this three-day event on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Ligonier.org.

Marking fifty years since the founding of Ligonier Ministries, this year’s National Conference will consider the eternal significance of our everyday lives by equipping us today to better serve the Lord, love our neighbors, and make Christ known. With our glorious future in view, Christians do not have less of a stake in the present, but infinitely more. As R.C. Sproul so often reminded us, right now counts forever.

We hope you’ll join us online over the next three days and share this invitation with your family and friends.

LIVESTREAM SESSIONS WILL INCLUDE:

Thursday, March 18

No Other Gospel by Stephen NicholsPanel Discussion: R.C. Sproul’s Life and Ministry with Nichols, Parsons, and Mrs. SproulWorking as for the Lord by Steven LawsonQuestions & Answers with Kim, Lawson, MacArthur, and NicholsThe Holiness of God and His People by John MacArthur

Friday, March 19

The Centrality of the Family by Joel KimQuestions & Answers with Godfrey, Kim, Lawson, and ThomasThe Body of Christ by Burk ParsonsA Conversation on Life and Ministry with Sinclair FergusonGlorifying God in Our Bodies by W. Robert GodfreyThe Providence of God by Derek ThomasThe Word of the Lord Stands Forever by Steven Lawson

Saturday, March 20

Achieving an Eternal Glory by Derek ThomasQuestions & Answers with Godfrey, Lawson, Nichols, Parsons, and ThomasGo Therefore by W. Robert Godfrey

The conference will also be streaming in Spanish on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, and in Portuguese on Facebook.

 

Who Was Saint Patrick and Should Christians Celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

When it comes to Saint Patrick, the true story is even more exciting than the legend and the myth. The facts are far better than the fable. This day that belongs to St. Patrick has become about leprechauns, shamrocks, pots of gold, and green—green everywhere. Famously, the City of Chicago dumps forty pounds of its top-secret dye into the river. A green racing stripe courses through the city. But long before there was the St. Patrick of myth, there was the Patrick of history. Who was Patrick?

Patrick was born in 385 in Roman Britannia in the modern-day town of Dumbarton, Scotland. Patrick opens his autobiographical St. Patrick’s Confession with these opening lines:

My name is Patrick. I am a sinner, a simple country person, and the least of all believers. I am looked down upon by many. My father was Calpornius. He was a deacon; his father was Potitus, a priest, who lived at Bannavem Taburniae. His home was near there, and that is where I was taken prisoner. I was about sixteen at the time.

Patrick skips over much of his first sixteen years. But who can blame him? At sixteen and being captured by barbarian Irish pirates is a pretty exciting place to begin a story. When the pirates landed on the Irish coast, they took Patrick about 200 miles inland where he was a shepherd and farm laborer. Six years passed and Patrick had either a vivid dream or a vision in which he was shown an escape route. Emboldened, Patrick made his break from his captors, traveling back over the 200 miles to the shoreline. As he approached the docks, a British ship stood waiting. The sails unfurled and Patrick was home. But he didn’t stay long.

Before he was a prisoner, Patrick’s Christian faith meant little to him. That changed during his captivity. His previously ambivalent faith galvanized and served to buoy him through those long, dark days. Now that he was back in his homeland he committed to his faith in earnest. He became a priest and soon felt a tremendous burden for the people that had kidnapped him. So he returned to Ireland with a mission.

Patrick had no less of a goal than seeing pagan Ireland converted. These efforts did not set well with Loegaire (or Leoghaire), the pagan king of pagan Ireland. Patrick faced danger and even threats on his life. He took to carrying a dagger. Yet, despite these setbacks, Patrick persisted. Eventually the king converted and was baptized by Patrick and much of the people of Ireland followed suit. A later legend would have it that Patrick rid all of Ireland of snakes. Snakes were not native to Ireland at the time. Instead, Patrick rid Ireland of marauding ways and a cultural and civil barbarianism by bringing not only Christianity to Ireland, but by bringing a whole new ethic. It was not too long ago that a New York Times’ bestselling book argued that St. Patrick and his Ireland saved civilization.

Patrick would come to be known as the “Apostle of Ireland.” He planted churches, the first one likely at a place called Saul, in Northern Ireland, a bit inland from the coast and just below Belfast. Patrick planted more churches as he crisscrossed Ireland. The challenge with Patrick is sifting through the legend. Take the shamrock for instance. Some biographers claim definitively that Patrick used the shamrock as an object lesson to teach pagans about the Trinity, that God is one in essence and three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is no evidence, however, for such a claim.

Curiously, like most of his legend, St. Patrick is not even truly a saint. He has never been canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. Patrick himself told us he was a sinner, not a saint.

Legend further has it that Patrick died on March 17, 461. He likely died in Saul, where he planted his first church. A significant monument stands atop the hill overlooking the town. Panels depicting scenes from Patrick’s life surround the monument’s base.

What casts a far greater shadow than his monument, however, is St. Patrick’s Day. And that day in the middle of March raises a significant question: Should Christians celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? If you do, you might want to consider wearing orange. Orange? Here’s why. After 1798 the color of green was closely associated with Roman Catholicism and orange with Protestantism—after William of Orange, the Protestant king. The holiday is certainly not to be used as means for excessive partying and celebration. But wearing orange and trying to tell people who St. Patrick really was might be a good way to celebrate.

So we remember Patrick best not in the legends and fables and not in the ways his holiday tends to be celebrated. Perhaps we remember him best by reflecting on the “St. Patrick’s Breastplate,” which has traditionally been attributed to him. The word breastplate is a translation of the Latin word lorica, a prayer, especially for protection. These prayers would be written out and at times placed on shields of soldiers and knights as they went out to battle. St. Patrick’s Lorica points beyond himself and his adventurous life. It points to Christ, the one he proclaimed to the people who had taken him captive:

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

Dr. Stephen Nichols is president of Reformation Bible College, chief academic officer for Ligonier Ministries, and the host of the podcasts 5 Minutes in Church History and Open Book.

Christian Living and the Ethical Mandate

Here’s an excerpt from Christian Living and the Ethical Mandate, Cory Brock's contribution to the March issue of Tabletalk:

What do we mean when we say “ethical mandate”? Ethics is reflecting on how one ought to live life. If there is an ethical mandate, there is a command that tells us what it means to live the good life. If there is a command, that means there is a command giver. This simple confession stands against modernity, which confesses that moral goods are not real but socially constructed. Yet, Christians know that the triune God is the command giver. In the incarnation, God comes to the world and shows us a life that is truly good. Looking at the life of Christ in the Gospels, it is not difficult to state precisely what God requires of us. Jesus affirmed the words of the lawyer in Luke 10:27: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart . . . soul . . . strength . . . and mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” In John 13:34, He gives a “new commandment”: “love one another.” The ethical mandate of the Christ-centered life is to love God and to love others with our whole selves.

Continue reading Christian Living and the Ethical Mandate, or begin receiving Tabletalk magazine by signing up for a free 3-month trial.

For a limited time, the new TabletalkMagazine.com allows everyone to browse and read the growing library of back issues, including this month’s issue.

 

You Can Watch Our 2021 National Conference Live

Did you know you can watch all of the main sessions from the 2021 National Conference live online? Join us for this three-day event on Ligonier.org, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, beginning on March 18 at approximately 9:00 a.m. ET. Additionally, you can tune in any time when you download our free app.

Marking fifty years since the founding of Ligonier Ministries, our 2021 National Conference will consider the eternal significance of our everyday lives by equipping us today to better serve the Lord, love our neighbors, and make Christ known. With our glorious future in view, Christians do not have less of a stake in the present, but infinitely more. As Dr. R.C. Sproul so often reminded us, right now counts forever.

The conference will also be streaming in Spanish on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, and in Portuguese on Facebook.

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