R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 511

Announcing Our British Reformation Church History Tours

Ligonier Ministries exists to help as many people as possible grow in their knowledge of God and His holiness. So often this means helping Christians understand their connection with the generations of believers who came before. What were their lives like? What issues were on their minds? What was the context in which they read the Scriptures and applied them to their families, churches, and communities?

This is known as historical theology — the study of how Christian doctrine developed over the centuries. Traveling and seeing these places up-close provides for a robust learning experience that can marry knowledge with all five senses.

Imagine sitting by the shore of the Sea of Galilee in the shade of the synagogue at Capernaum where our Lord called His disciples to come and be fishers of men. Think about hearing the roar of the tumultuous crowd at the theater in Ephesus as they responded to Paul's ministry. Contemplate standing on the very spot where Martin Luther gave his courageous defense at Worms, Germany; or picture yourself walking in John Calvin's steps up to the academy in Geneva.

We have taken these trips with Ligonier students over the years, and because of the tremendous response, are pleased to announce that we will be creating more travel learning experiences to historic destinations in the future. The friends who have traveled with us continue to ask when the next trip is planned and where we will be going.

Here's the plan for 2013: you are invited to join us for our British Reformation Church History Tour. Dr. Sproul will be joined by Dr. Robert Godfrey for an immersive learning experience to the United Kingdom next August 15–23. We are anticipating a large response to this trip; however, we want to keep the size of our group manageable and are limiting it to 130 people. Because we have had a number of requests to do a British Reformation tour and because of the smaller group size, Ligonier is hosting a second trip August 25–September 2, 2013, led by Ligonier teaching fellows Drs. Sinclair Ferguson and Steven Lawson.

Consider joining Ligonier Ministries for one of these times of fellowship and teaching to the shores of a country in which God's Spirit moved mightily. Let us learn how the gospel was recovered out of eclipse in Elizabeth's England and Knox's Scotland, and how we can guard against theological decline in our own day. We look forward to learning together as we travel together. You can review the full schedule and itinerary at our website:

Tour 1 — 2013 British Reformation Tour

Location: England to Scotland
Speakers: Robert Godfrey and R.C. Sproul
Dates: August 15 — 23

Tour 2 — 2013 British Reformation Tour

Location: Scotland to England
Speakers: Sinclair Ferguson and Steven Lawson
Dates: August 25 — September 2

Remember, space is limited and bookings will be taken in the order they are received. Our travel partner for this trip is Sovereign Tours, who will handle all reservations, logistics, and other necessary travel arrangements. Please contact Sovereign to reserve your space. The number is 877-768-2784, ext. 100.

Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, October 2012

The October edition of Tabletalk is out. This issue features articles examining the relationship between the church and Israel, a relationship commonly misunderstood by the average layperson. This issue explores the various historical positions regarding this matter, and seek to help readers understand the composition and nature of the "called out ones," from the covenant of works in Adam all the way through the manifestations of the covenant of grace in redemptive history. Further, it pays special attention to how the nation of Israel, instituted at Sinai, factors into God's dynamic plan of salvation.

Contributors include R.C. Sproul along with Cornelis P. Venema, Iain M. Duguid, Ketih A. Mathison, John Starke, Jon Bloom, Barnabas Piper, R.C. Sproul Jr., Russell D. Moore and Andrew Peterson.

We do not post all of the feature articles or the daily devotionals from the issue, so you'll have to subscribe to get those. But for now, here are links to several free columns and articles from this month:

Thinking Like Jesus by R.C. Sproul
The True Israel of God by Burk Parsons
The Kingdom is Now by R.C. Sproul Jr.
How to Stay Christian in Seminary by David Mathis
The Gospel and the Gender Wars by Russell Moore
A Hopeful Offense by John Starke
Just How Beautiful Beauty Can Be: An Interview with Andrew Peterson
Feeding Your Soul by Jon Bloom

If you have not yet subscribed to Tabletalk, now is the perfect time. For those living in the U.S. and Canada it's only $23 for a year, and $20 to renew. You save even more if you get a 2- or 3-year subscription (as little as $1.36 per issue). We offer special discounts for churches or businesses who want multiple copies of each issue.

Get your subscription to Tabletalk today by calling one of Ligonier Ministries' resource consultants at 800-435-4343 or by subscribing online. You can also get free shipping on individual 2012 issues of Tabletalk.

Ravi Zacharias and Martyn Lloyd-Jones Join RefNet

This week we are pleased to announce that our newly launched 24-hour Christian internet radio now features shows from Ravi Zacharias and Martyn Lloyd-Jones. We are grateful for our many broadcast partners.

Just Thinking with Ravi Zacharias
Weekdays at 12:45 p.m. EST

Let My People Think with Ravi Zacharias 
Saturday and Sunday at 8:50 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. EST

Let My People Think and Just Thinking with Ravi Zacharias powerfully mixes biblical teaching and Christian apologetics. The program seeks to explore issues such as life's meaning, the credibility of the Christian message and the Bible, the weakness of modern intellectual movements and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.

From the Martyn Lloyd-Jones Archive
Saturday and Sunday at 6:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. EST

From the Martyn Lloyd-Jones Archive features complete sermons from the preaching ministry of the late Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

RefNet — Christian Internet Radio

Download RefNet from the App Store™
Listen online at RefNet.fm
Like RefNet on Facebook
Follow @RefNet on Twitter
Watch the Video

Weekday Schedule

Below outlines what a typical weekday on RefNet looks like. Times are in EST. Remember, a schedule for the current day can be seen by swiping forward in the app, or clicking forward at RefNet.fm

12:00 a.m. Renewing Your Mind
1:00 a.m. Audiobook Series
3:30 a.m. Truth for Life
4:30 a.m. Ligonier Conference Series
6:00 a.m. Renewing Your Mind
6:30 a.m. Ligonier Teaching Fellow Hour
7:30 a.m. Grace to You
8:00 a.m. The Pulpit of Saint Andrew's
8:50 a.m. Audiobook Series
9:20 a.m. Ligonier Conference Series
10:30 a.m. Truth for Life
10:55 a.m. SRN News
11:00 a.m. Renewing Your Mind
11:30 a.m. Grace to You
12:00 p.m. In The Classroom
12:45 p.m. Just Thinking
1:00 p.m. Desiring God
2:00 p.m. Truth for Life
2:25 p.m. SRN News
2:30 p.m. The Briefing
3:00 p.m. Renewing Your Mind
3:26 p.m. This is News
3:30 p.m. Ligonier Teaching Fellow Hour
4:30 p.m. Desiring God
5:30 p.m. Audiobook Series
6:00 p.m. Renewing Your Mind
6:26 p.m. This is News
6:30 p.m. Ligonier Conference Series
7:30 p.m. Lamplighter Theatre
8:00 p.m. Ligonier Teaching Fellow Hour
9:00 p.m. The Briefing
9:30 p.m. In The Classroom
10:15 p.m. Just Thinking
10:30 p.m. Audiobook Series
11:00 p.m. Truth for Life
11:25 p.m. Grace to You

Weekend times and programming vary slightly. For example, on Saturday and Sunday we include Let My People Think at 8:50 a.m. and 5:00 p.m, and From the Martyn Lloyd-Jones Archive at 6:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.

The Seduction of the World

The world is a seducer. It seeks to attract our attention and our devotion. It remains close at hand, visible and enticing. It eclipses our view of heaven. What is seen vies for our attention. It entices our eyes, preventing us from watching for a better country whose builder and maker is God. It pleases us—much of the time, anyway— and, alas, we often live our lives to please it. That is where conflict ensues, for pleasing the world seldom overlaps with pleasing God.

The divine call is this: "Do not be conformed to this world" (Rom. 12:2). But the world wants us to be partners with it. We are urged to participate in the fullness of it. It presses on us with the ultimate peer pressure.

Remember the anxiety we all experienced as teenagers? Our self-worth, our esteem, was measured by one magic word, a single all-encompassing standard: popularity.

To be "conformed" to this world is to be with (Latin con) the forms or structures of this world. It means doing the popular thing. The conflict is this: what is popular with people is not always popular with God. To be pleasing to God is not always to be pleasing to people. Sometimes we must choose whom we will please. This is a daily struggle in the Christian life.

In every generation, in every culture, there is a prevailing spirit. The Germans coined a word for it, zeitgeist, a term that joins two common ideas. Zeit is the German word for "time," and geist is the German word for "spirit." So zeitgeist means "spirit of the time" or "spirit of the age."

The contemporary zeitgeist in which the Christian lives is one of secularism. The emphasis is on this world, on this time. Little attention is given to things that are above and beyond this world. Eternity is rarely considered, save for brief moments at a graveside. What counts is the here and now. To live for the moment, for the gusto of the present, is the goal in this day and age.

The secular spirit of this world has its own trends and emphases, but in its essence it is not new. Every generation has its own form of secularism. We are earthbound creatures. Our focus is on this world.

The same was true in Jesus's day. He repeatedly called His disciples to look beyond the present. He lifted their gaze to the eternal: "Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven," He said (Matt. 6:20 NASB). He called them to weigh matters in the balance of eternity: "What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" (Matt. 16:26).

The world or the soul? Please the world or please God? This is the issue for every generation. To be conformed to this world is to risk the loss of one's eternal soul. The world places little value on the soul. A body in the hand is worth two souls in the bush, according to the zeitgeist of our generation. The world's spirit invites us to play now and pay later. This is the popular way to live.

To be conformed to this world is to risk the loss of one’s eternal soul. —R.C. Sproul

For the Christian to resist the seduction of this world, he must risk going against the tide. He must be willing to risk the loss of human approval to gain God's approval. Hence, Jesus said, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven" (Matt. 5:11–12).

The key words in this beatitude are "for My sake." The nonconformity we are called to is not simply nonconformity for nonconformity's sake. Anyone can call attention to himself or herself by being a maverick. It is the "for My sake" that separates cheap nonconformity from the genuine article. There is no virtue in being "out of it" indiscriminately. Our nonconformity must be selective. It must be at the points that matter.

It is easy to trivialize nonconformity. We can reduce it to simplistic externals as the Pharisees did. But authentic nonconformity rests on transformation. The Apostle Paul added a positive mandate to the negative prohibition. He said, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom. 12:2).

It is the prefix that must be changed. The prefix con ("with") must yield to the prefix trans, which means "across," "beyond," or "over." It is not enough for Christians to drop out of society. The call to transformation does not mean withdrawal from the world. We need no more monasteries. We are to go beyond the forms of this world. We are to effect changes in the world. The perspective of Jesus is beyond the forms of this world. We neither surrender to the world nor flee from the world. We are to penetrate the world with a new and different spirit.

There is a timeworn Christian saying that has become a cliché through its use: "We are to be in the world but not of the world." To be of the world is to be worldly. It is to conform to this world. To drop out of the world is to be a nonconformist who undergoes no transformation.

The theater of God's redemption is this world. It is to this world that God came in Christ. Christ refused to allow His disciples to hide in an upper room with the doors locked because of fear. No tabernacles were allowed on the Mount of Transfiguration. We are called to be Christ's witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Jerusalem is in this world. Judea is in this world. Samaria is in this world. The ends of the earth are still on this earth. So we should not flee this world. But, oh, how many Christians try to do so. And in doing so, they may actually be displeasing the God who wants the world to be redeemed, not escaped.

Excerpt adapted from R.C. Sproul's Pleasing God. Available now from the Ligonier Store.

Copyright 2012 R.C. Sproul. Pleasing God published by David C Cook. Publisher permission required to reproduce. All rights reserved.

Twitter Highlights (9/30/12)

Here are highlights from our various Twitter accounts over the past week.

We are not the message. —@johnmacarthur bit.ly/hgeJlK

— Reformation Trust (@RefTrust) September 24, 2012

Theology that doesn’t make us sing has failed in its mission, no matter how correct its doctrine (Gerrit Scott Dawson).

— Tabletalk Magazine (@Tabletalk) September 26, 2012

Nobody has ever been a victim of injustice at the hands of God. —R.C. Sproul

— Ligonier Ministries (@Ligonier) September 26, 2012

The people that were most comfortable w/ Jesus were the outcast sinners...they had no illusions about their own righteousness. —R.C. Sproul

— Ligonier Ministries (@Ligonier) September 27, 2012

As the church thinks, so she worships; and, as the church worships, so she lives, serves, and evangelizes (Steve Lawson).

— Tabletalk Magazine (@Tabletalk) September 28, 2012

One who cannot state the doctrine of justification by faith clearly should never stand in a pulpit (Lloyd-Jones).

— Ligonier Academy (@LigonierAcademy) September 28, 2012

As soon as you think God owes us mercy, you're not thinking about mercy any more. —R.C. Sproul

— Ligonier Ministries (@Ligonier) September 28, 2012

You can also find our various ministries on Facebook:

Ligonier Ministries | Ligonier Academy | Ligonier Connect | RefNet
Reformation Bible College | Reformation Trust | Tabletalk Magazine

How Do People Misrepresent the Person and Work of Christ?

Many years ago now there was a scholarly movement that became known as "The Quest for the Historical Jesus." Scholars said "Let's try to get behind the Gospels to find out who Jesus really was, and what he was really like." So they took bits and pieces of the Gospel testimony and made a picture of Christ. One of the shrewdest things that was said about this movement was that these scholars were like people looking down a well to find Jesus, but didn't realize that the "Jesus" they saw was really just a reflection of themselves from the water at the bottom of the well!

Sometimes I feel this is actually what has happened in popular evangelicalism. Our "Jesus" is actually a reflection of ourselves. This is the constant danger when we don't simply open the Scriptures and listen to their testimony about Jesus: we make a Jesus in our own image, usually domesticated. Sadly, much that dominates the Christian media seems to fall foul here. Any Jesus who isn't both Savior and Lord, Sacrificial Lamb of God and Reigning King, cannot be the Jesus of the Gospels. And any Jesus who does not call us to radical, sacrificial, and yes, painful, discipleship, cannot be the real Jesus.

I sometimes think that our danger as evangelicals is that we use what I sometimes tongue-in-cheek call the "Find Waldo Method" of reading the Gospels. Remember Waldo — the little fellow in the red and white sweater in the midst of the vast crowds? The whole point of the Waldo books was to try to find him. Many people read the Gospels that way, always asking "What does this have to say about me?" But that means that at the end of the day we're looking for what they have to say about me, and my life, and my improvement. Yes, the Gospels have much to say to me. But they aren't about me… they're about Christ. And we need to listen to them and master them, or better be mastered by them and by the Christ they describe.

Read more of this interview conducted in 2008 with Ligonier teaching fellow, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson.

6 Practical Reasons to Study Eschatology

Harold Camping has a lot to answer for, not least that his outlandish views about the end of the world have increased skepticism, even among Christians, about the value of studying eschatology. Let me try to win you back by providing six practical reasons for studying the Bible's teaching on the last things.

1. Eschatology helps us to teach the church

The Church needs teaching on this subject, not just because neglect produces a dangerous vacuum, but also because eschatology is the capstone and crown of systematic theology. As Kuyper said, it sheds light on every other doctrine and answers questions that every other theological subject raises. Louis Berkhof wrote:

In theology [proper] it is the question, how God is finally perfectly glorified in the work of His hands, and how the counsel of God is fully realized; in anthropology, the question, how the disrupting influence of sin is completely overcome; in Christology, the question, how the work of Christ is crowned with perfect victory; in soteriology, the question, how the work of the Holy Spirit at last issues in the complete redemption and glorification of the people of God; and in ecclesiology, the question of the final apotheosis of the church (Systematic Theology, 665).

2. Eschatology helps us to worship God

Worship should be the end of all theology, but especially of eschatology. When we think of the resurrection, the defeat of Satan, the final and perfect judgment, the new heavens and the new earth, and eternal fellowship with Christ and His Church, we surely cannot but amplify our worship of God. If our eschatology does not result in greater worship of God, we are either in error, or we are approaching the truth in the wrong spirit.

3. Eschatology helps us to serve with zeal

The fact that the end is nigh should not make us passive waiters for the inevitable nor induce a fatalistic inactivity. Rather, the New Testament links belief in the imminent end of all things with zealous service. When we consider our great hope, the eternal blessedness of heaven, and the great need of fellow sinners, we should be motivated with greater passion for lost souls and the glory of God.

4. Eschatology helps us to hope in the midst of trouble

Sometimes Churches and Christians face trials from which they will not be delivered while here on this earth. In the midst of disease, pain, and injustice, it is vital to have a lively hope of resurrection life. That alone will fuel faithful endurance to the end.

5. Eschatology helps us to prepare for judgment

One of the reasons why so few are ready for judgment is that they do not know there will be a judgment. In addition to getting ourselves ready, eschatology should motivate us to help others get ready too. While obsession with the last things is dangerous, omission is even more dangerous.

6. Eschatology helps us to look forward to heaven

Sadly, even for Christians, concern for this present world too often smothers interest in the world to come. Eschatology keeps these vital ultimate truths in our view and encourages us to look beyond this world and to long for the heaven of eternal life with Christ and His people.

$5 Friday: Creation, Five Solas, & Assurance

It's time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week's resources cover such topics as creation, the five solas, apologetics, evangelism, the persecuted church, John Calvin, assurance, the gospel, and more.

Sale runs through 12:01 a.m. — 11:59 p.m. Friday EST.

View today's $5 Friday sale items.

Understanding the Times: An Interview with Carl Trueman

Here's an excerpt from Understanding the Times: An Interview with Carl Trueman in the September issue of Tabletalk.

Tabletalk: Please describe your conversion and your call to ministry.

Carl Trueman: I first heard the gospel at a Billy Graham rally in Bristol, U.K., in 1984. I then started going to church and reading the Bible along with Christian literature. It was through J.I. Packer’s God’s Words that I really came to understand God’s grace.

My call to ministry came much later. While teaching at Westminster Theological Seminary, I became convinced of the need to be under church oversight. Thus, I pursued ordination in the OPC. Last winter, the church where I also served as teacher voted to call me as pastor beginning in August 2012. I continue to serve at Westminster but also serve part-time at the church.

I am a firm believer that the call to ministry needs both an internal component (one should desire it) but also an external dimension (one must be judged competent for it). Only the people who have to sit and listen to you can really know if you are meant to be a preacher.

TT: What are your responsibilities as professor of church history at Westminster Theological Seminary?

CT: As professor of church history, I teach master-of-divinity courses on the ancient and Reformation church periods. I also offer electives on various topics relating to Reformation and Presbyterian history and theology. Of course, few come to seminary to learn history; most come to do biblical studies or theology or counseling. With that in mind, I strive to make history more than names and dates. I strive to inculcate an attitude to the past and a way of reading history that provides students with critical skills for understanding their own culture and their place within it.

Continue reading Understanding the Times: An Interview with Carl Trueman.

Is God's Love Unconditional?

It has become fashionable in evangelical circles to speak somewhat glibly of the unconditional love of God. It is certainly a pleasing message for people to hear and conforms to a certain kind of political correctness. In our desire to communicate to people the sweetness of the gospel, the readiness of God to cover our sins with forgiveness, and the incredible depth of His love displayed on the cross, we indulge in a hyperbolic expression of the scope and extent of His love.

Where in Scripture do we find this notion of the unconditional love of God? If God's love is absolutely unconditional, why do we tell people that they have to repent and have faith in order to be saved? God sets forth clear conditions for a person to be saved. It may be true that in some sense God loves even those who fail to meet the conditions of salvation, but that subtlety is often missed by the hearer when the preacher declares the unconditional love of God. People hear that God will continue to love them and accept them, no matter what they do or how they live. We might as well declare an unabashed universalism as to declare the unconditional love of God without a clear and careful qualification of what that means.

An interesting contrast can be seen by comparing the preaching of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century evangelists with modern evangelists. The stress in earlier centuries was on the wrath of God directed toward impenitent sinners. Indeed, Jonathan Edwards's preaching has been described as evangelistic preaching that employed a "scare theology." That approach has given way to a more positive emphasis on God's love. Of course, Edwards also declared the love of God, but not without reminding sinners that as long as they remained impenitent, they were exposed to the wrath of God and were in fact heaping up wrath against the day of wrath (Rom. 2:5).

Edwards warned his people that they were more repugnant to God in their sin than rebellious subjects were to their princes. This was part and parcel of proclaiming the gospel of reconciliation. There can be no talk of reconciliation without first establishing that there is some prior alienation or estrangement. Parties who are not estranged do not need reconciliation. The biblical concept of reconciliation presupposes a condition of estrangement between God and man.

The biblical concept of reconciliation presupposes a condition of estrangement between God and man. —R.C. Sproul

Much is said of man's hostility toward God. The Bible says we are God's enemies by nature. This enmity is expressed in our sinful rebellion against Him. The common contemporary view of this is that we are estranged from God, but He is not estranged from us. The enmity is all one sided. The picture we get is that God goes on loving us with an unconditional love while we remain hateful toward Him.

The cross belies this picture. Yes, the cross occurred because God loves us. His love stands behind His plan of salvation. However, Christ was not sacrificed on the cross to placate us or to serve as a propitiation to us. His sacrifice was not designed to satisfy our unjust enmity toward God but to satisfy God's just wrath toward us. The Father was the object of the Son's act of propitiation. The effect of the cross was to remove the divine estrangement from us, not our estrangement from Him. If we deny God's estrangement from us, the cross is reduced to a pathetic and anemic moral influence with no substitutionary satisfaction of God.

In Christ, the obstacle of estrangement is overcome, and we are reconciled to God. But that reconciliation extends only to believers. Those who reject Christ remain at enmity with God, estranged from God, and objects both of His wrath and of His abhorrence. Whatever kind of love God has for the impenitent, it does not exclude His just hatred and abhorrence of them, which stands in stark contrast to His redeeming love.

Excerpt from God's Love by R.C. Sproul. Available now from the Ligonier Store.

Copyright 2012 R.C. Sproul. God's Love published by David C Cook. Publisher permission required to reproduce. All rights reserved.