R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 528

The Reformation Study Bible for iPhone and iPad

The Reformation Study Bible was the first Bible since the 1560 Geneva Bible to contain study tools rooted in the biblical doctrines recovered during the Protestant Reformation. Under the direction of Dr. R.C. Sproul, this foundational resource was created by more than fifty scholars. Albert Mohler described The Reformation Study Bible as "a milestone in evangelical publishing." Mark Devor says that he rarely preaches "without first reading the study notes."

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96 theological essays on central doctrines of Scripture

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The Dead in Christ — The Unfolding of Biblical Eschatology

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18, Paul turns to a specifically eschatological question regarding believers who have died. He writes, "But we do not want you to be uninformed brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope" (v. 13). A question has arisen among the Thessalonians because one or more of their fellow believers has died since Paul left.i Based on what Paul says in this and the following verses, it appears that the Thessalonians were concerned about the position of deceased believers at the Lord's Second Coming.ii Their question indicates that this was one topic that they did not understand fully. Apparently, Paul had taught them something about the resurrection of the dead but was forced to leave the city before teaching them as much as they needed to know.iii Paul's basic response to their concern is to tell them that they have no reason to worry.

Paul tells the Thessalonians not to grieve over the dead like the unbelievers who have no hope. "For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep" (4:14; cf. Acts 17:3). Paul points the Thessalonians back to the resurrection of Jesus as the foundation of their hope for the dead in Christ. Jesus was raised from the dead, and those who are in Christ will be raised from the dead as well (cf. 2 Cor. 4:14). The eschatological resurrection began with the resurrection of Jesus. Believers now have hope because they know that they too will be raised to everlasting life.

Paul continues by explaining what will happen at the Lord's coming, "For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming (parousian) of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep" (4:15). The first question that must be addressed in connection with this verse is whether or not Paul taught here that he would definitely live until the time of the coming of Christ to raise the dead. According to some, Paul's use of the word "we" indicates that he definitely believed he would live to see the Second Coming of Jesus and the final resurrection.iv This interpretation, however, is unlikely. First, in the immediate context of this passage, Paul indicates the possibility that he might live to see these things and the possibility that he might not. He says that Christ died for us so that whether "we are awake [alive] or asleep [dead] we might live with him" (5:10). Paul also entertains the possibility that he might die before the final resurrection in his other letters (e.g., 1 Cor. 6:14; 2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:20–24; 2:17).

Paul does not ever claim to know when he will die or exactly when the Second Coming of Jesus will occur. Therefore, as Witherington explains, he could not have said "we who are dead and not left around to see the parousia of the Lord…." He does not know for sure that he will be dead, "so the only category in which he can logically place himself and the Christians he writes to here is the 'living.'"v The "we" is simply an expression of corporate solidarity.vi Essentially, all that Paul means here is that those Christians who are alive at "the coming of the Lord" will not precede those who are dead.

The word Paul uses to refer to the coming of the Lord here is parousia. As we have already seen, Paul uses this word to speak of the presence or the arrival of someone, sometimes Jesus and sometimes other individuals. In the Graeco-Roman world, the word was sometimes used to describe either the coming of a deity or the official visit of a ruler to a city. Such visits were important events, and the city would have great celebrations in honor of the visiting king.vii The important city officials and the citizens would go out of the city to meet the visiting sovereign and escort him back to the city in a glorious procession. If Paul had this imagery in mind in this context, perhaps a misunderstanding of it is one reason the Thessalonians were confused about those who had died. It is possible they believed that those who had died would not enjoy the honor of going out to meet the coming Messiah in this official parousia. If that is the case, Paul puts the concern to rest, telling the Thessalonians that those who are alive "will not precede those who have fallen asleep." Those believers who have died will participate in this glorious event and will in fact have a place of honor.

Paul tells the Thessalonians, "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first" (4:16). It is important to observe that Paul specifically describes this event in terms of Christ's descent from heaven.viii As we have already seen, Jesus often spoke of "the coming of the Son of Man," alluding to the prophecy of Daniel 7:13–14. Daniel 7 spoke of one like a Son of Man coming up to the Ancient of Days. In other words, Daniel 7 used the imagery of an ascent. As I have argued, Daniel's prophecy of the Son of Man's ascent to receive his kingdom was fulfilled in connection with the first advent of Jesus. What Paul is speaking of here, on the other hand, is Christ's descent from heaven.

It should be recalled that when Jesus spoke of Daniel's "coming of the Son of Man," a coming up to the Father, he sometimes used the word parousia (e.g., Matt. 24:27; 24:37, 39) and sometimes used the word erchomai (e.g., Matt. 16:28; 24:30, 44; 26:64).ix Paul, on the other hand, uses the word parousia in this context to refer to Jesus' descent from heaven, his coming to earth, and as we've already seen, he also uses the term elsewhere to refer to the presence or arrival of people other than Jesus. What all of this means is that the term parousia, by itself, is not a synonym for the Second Coming of Jesus. It is simply a word that means "presence" or "arrival" or "coming." Whose coming is meant and the direction they are coming can only be determined from the context.

Christ's descent from heaven is the fulfillment of the promise made to the apostles by the two men in white at the time of the ascension (Acts 1:11). In other words, at the time of Jesus' ascension to heaven (itself part of the fulfillment of Daniel 7:13–14), there is a promise of a future coming from heaven. The ascension to heaven and the promised coming from heaven are not the same events. In 1 Thessalonians 4:16, Paul is speaking of the future coming from heaven—the Second Advent.x At the time of the Second Coming, Christ will call out a "cry of command" (4:16). Jesus' cry of command is likely the command to the dead calling them to rise from the grave (John 5:28–29; cf. also John 11:43). At his command, "the dead in Christ will rise first."

Paul continues, "Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord" (4:17). The word translated "to meet" is the word apantesin. This word was used in the Graeco-Roman world to describe the meeting of a king or other important official who has come to visit a city.xi As F. F. Bruce explains, "When a dignitary paid an official visit (parousia) to a city in Hellenistic times, the action of the leading citizens in going out to meet him and escort him back on the final stage of his journey was called the apantesin."xii

According to Paul, after the dead in Christ are raised, those who are still alive will be caught up together with them so that all will meet the Lord in the air and then be with him forever. Paul does not explicitly say at this point where we will be with the Lord forever. Some suggest that after meeting Christ in the air, we will go with Christ into heaven.xiii However, if Paul is describing the meeting of Christians in the air with the Lord in terms of the known customs involving official visits of dignitaries and kings, then the idea is that believers will meet the coming Lord and escort him back to the earth. The Thessalonians are to encourage one another with these words (4:18).

i "Sleep" is a common euphemism for death in the Jewish and Christian literature of this time period (F.F. Bruce, 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Waco: Word Books, 1982, 95). While not stated explicitly, the death of the Thessalonian believer(s) may very well have been at the hands of those who were persecuting them.
ii Ernest Best, A Commentary on the First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1986), 180.
iii Gene L. Green, The Letters to the Thessalonians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 216.
iv E.g., Charles A. Wanamaker, The Epistles to the Thessalonians (Grand Rapids:Eerdmans, 1990), 171–72.
v Ben Witherington III, 1 and 2 Thessalonians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), 134.
vi As Gregory K. Beale (1–2 Thessalonians, [Downers Grove: IVP, 2003], 140) explains, a similar concept is used throughout the Old Testament. A contemporary generation of Israel could be addressed as if they themselves had actually participated in the historical events of the past or would participate in historical events of the future, even if the individuals of that generation did not or would not participate. In Deuteronomy 4:20–31, for example, Moses speaks to the second generation of Israel after the Exodus telling them that God brought "you" out of Egypt even though it was the first generation who actually experienced the Exodus firsthand. He also tells this generation that they will experience exile if they disobey God and that they will be restored if they repent. Hundreds of years later, Israel was exiled, and many years after that, Israel was restored, but none of the individual Israelites to whom Moses spoke experienced these events firsthand. They had all died many years before the exile.
vii Green, Letters to the Thessalonians, 223; Witherington, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 91.
viii BDAG, s.v. katabaino.
ix In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus alternates the terms throughout.
x Much of the confusion on this subject is due to the fact that the word "coming" is used to describe these two different events (and other things as well). Daniel speaks of the "coming of the Son of Man" to refer to one event, while Paul and others often use the word "coming" to speak of the other event.
xi Helmut Koester, "Imperial Ideology and Paul's Eschatology in 1 Thessalonians" in Paul and Empire: Religion and Power in Roman Imperial Society, ed. Richard A. Horsley (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997), 160.
xii Bruce, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 102; cf. also Green, Letters to the Thessalonians, 226–27.
xiii E.g., John F. Walvoord, The Thessalonian Epistles (Findlay, OH: Dunham, 1955), 70.

Adapted from From Age to Age by Keith Mathison. ISBN 978-0-87552-745-1
Used with permission of P&R Publishing Co. P O Box 817, Phillipsburg N.J. 08865 www.prpbooks.com

From Age to Age is available in the Ligonier store.

Twitter Highlights (6/3/12)

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

...the more godly we are, the more devout we will strive to be and the more painfully aware of our sin we will be. —R.C. Sproul

— Reformation Trust (@RefTrust) May 29, 2012

Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment (CS Lewis).

— Tabletalk Magazine (@Tabletalk) May 29, 2012

The truth redeems. The truth preserves. The truth makes us free. The truth makes us holy. —R.C. Sproul

— Ligonier Ministries (@Ligonier) May 29, 2012

Doctrine of the End Times course - now available. Examine the time-texts in the Olivet Discourse and book of Revelation bit.ly/KTHcuX

— Ligonier Connect (@LigonierConnect) May 30, 2012

In God’s workshop in this world, suffering is the raw material out of which glory is forged... —Sinclair Ferguson bit.ly/o8lTuo

— Reformation Trust (@RefTrust) May 31, 2012

Happy 35th Birthday @Tabletalk (1977 - 2012) instagr.am/p/LQ_Kwhiaqe/

— Ligonier Ministries (@Ligonier) May 30, 2012

Sinners you must either be cursed of God, or else you must accept Christ as bearing the curse instead of you (Spurgeon)

— Ligonier Academy (@LigonierAcademy) June 1, 2012

In Scripture, there is no divorce between doctrine and practice (R. Scott Clark).

— Tabletalk Magazine (@Tabletalk) June 1, 2012

All that God has to do to harden Pharaoh's heart, or to harden your heart, is to withhold His own grace. —R.C. Sproul

— Ligonier Ministries (@Ligonier) June 3, 2012

You can also find our various ministries on Facebook:

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

Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, June 2012

The June edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's issue examines the theology of evangelism. While most of us are familiar with the call to evangelism given by Jesus in the Great Commission, many of us either do not know or we misunderstand the meaning and importance of evangelism in the Christian life. This issue seeks to unfold the fullness of evangelism, the means by which God, in His sovereignty, calls sinners from darkness into the light of His grace. Contributors include Robert Godfrey, Paul Helm, Steven Lawson, John MacArthur, Conrad Mbewe, Will Metzger, Scott Oliphint, R.C. Sproul Jr., R.C. Sproul and Jared Wilson.

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 a few select columns and articles from this month:

The Church is One by R.C. Sproul
Evangelism for God's Glory by Burk Parsons
Heralding the Good News by R.C. Sproul Jr.
The Pastor's Example of Evangelism by Steven Lawson
The Motivation for Love by Conrad Mbewe
The Church and Idolatry by Jared Wilson
Grace to You: An Interview with John MacArthur
Christianity, Unplugged by K. Scott Oliphint

If you have not yet subscribed to Tabletalk, now is the perfect time. 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 (8am-8pm ET, Mon-Fri) or by subscribing online. You can also get free shipping on individual 2012 issues of Tabletalk.

Love Covers a Multitude of Sins

What does Peter mean when he says "Love covers a multitude of sins" in I Peter 4:8?

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 Christians in the church. He is calling us to a dual kind of grace toward others.

First, we should be slow to convict. I Corinthians 13 tells us that love "thinks no evil." When we love each other we practice with each other a judgment of charity. We assume the best about others, assigning the best of motives to their actions. Sadly, however, this wisdom is often confused with something altogether different.

Too often we are unwilling to call sin sin. Not long ago I wrote a brief piece arguing that x was a sin. I might have been right. I might have been wrong. What puzzled me, however, were those who replied this way. First, they were willing to concede that x was unwise, selfish, dangerous, even shameful. But they argued that saying it was sin was going too far. Indeed these same friends argued that I was dangerous, Pharisaical, legalistic, small-minded, arrogant, even ungracious to say X was a sin. They did everything but call me a sinner. Which makes no sense. It is a sin to be foolish, and selfish. It is a sin to be arrogant and ungracious. Somehow we Protestants have reduced "venial" sins to folly and in turn elevated "mortal" sins as unforgivable. Sin, though, is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. Have we forgotten that we do this all the time?

The second kind of grace that Peter calls us to here is to not even bother to deal with every sin in a given relationship. Here we are, redeemed, indwelt, heaven bound, but we still sin against each other. Peter calls us here to not sweat the "small stuff." Note, however, that he recognizes that the small stuff is still sin. The text doesn't say, "Love covers a multitude of unwise, selfish, arrogant, shameful decisions."

Consider addiction. I was, for over twenty years a nicotine addict. I am grateful to be free now for ten years. I was well persuaded, and remain so, that my addiction was sin. We are called to not let anything rule over us, and for certain nicotine ruled over me. My old habit is rather rare in Christian circles. What is far more common is addition to caffeine. We joke about it, laugh about it, but the truth is coffee is the chemical stimulant of choice among evangelicals. Being addicted is a sin. But it is precisely the kind of sin Peter is talking about. We don't fuss at each other because coffee is more needful than it ought to be.

Consider being habitually late. When we are late for an appointment we are a. not keeping our word, b. stealing time from those we keep waiting c. not doing unto others and likely d. thinking of ourselves more highly than others. So should we concoct a Matthew 18 intervention for the late? Probably not. What we ought to likely do is plan around the late folks, or move on without them. What we certainly do is continue to love them.

When we are wronged our calling is to practice a careful moral calculus. Is this offense one I should let go of? Is it among the multitude that love covers? Or is this offense grievous enough that love means confronting in grace my brother? Sadly what we usually do is think we are practicing the former while actually holding grudges and putting miracle-grow on roots of bitterness. Peace in the church calls us to under-accuse, over-repent and over-forgive. Let us not be afraid to call sin sin, but let us not be slow to forgive it and to look past it.

Luther, Calvin, and Copernicus — A Reformed Approach to Science and Scripture

In this series, we have been discussing Dr. R.C. Sproul's answer to a question about the age of the universe during the Q&A at Ligonier's 2012 National Conference. In our last post, we looked at the distinction between God's infallible revelation and our fallible interpretation of that revelation. In this post, we will look at the thoughts of Martin Luther and John Calvin concerning certain astronomical ideas that were being introduced during their lifetimes.

After stating that the church's understanding of special revelation had been corrected by students of natural revelation, Dr. Sproul illustrated his point with a reference to the introduction of new astronomical ideas in the sixteenth century.

Both Calvin and Luther rejected Copernicus as a heretic in the 16th century. I don't know anybody in orthodox Christianity today who's pleading for geocentricity. Do you? Do you know anybody? In that case the church has said, "Look, we misinterpreted the teaching of the Bible with respect to the solar system, and thank you scientists for correcting our misunderstanding."

And so I think that we can learn from nonbelieving scientists who are studying natural revelation. They may get a better sense of the truth from their study of natural revelation than I get from ignoring natural revelation. So I have a high view of natural revelation is what I'm saying.

In this section of his response, Dr. Sproul is reminding us that Christians in the past have believed erroneous ideas about the nature of God's creation because they believed those views were taught in Scripture. He specifically mentions geocentricity – the idea that the sun, moon, and stars all revolve around a stationary earth.

This understanding of the universe had been articulated most thoroughly by Ptolemy (ca. AD 90 – ca. AD 168) and had been accepted by Christians for fifteen hundred years because they believed it was taught in passages such as Joshua 10:12–14 and the many passages that refer to the sun's rising or setting. Like most Christians (and scientists) of their day, Martin Luther and John Calvin believed geocentrism to be a true description of God's creation.

The heliocentric views of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) began to circulate in scholarly circles in the 1530s, although his book was not published until 1543. His views took many years to be accepted – even among other astronomers. As Young observes in his recent book on Calvin's views of the created order, "Widespread acceptance of the Copernican universe came only after discoveries made by Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), who held positions in mathematics at the Universities of Pisa and Padua; formulation of the laws of planetary motion by Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), who taught mathematics in Graz, Prague, and Linz; and the physical explanation of planetary motion in terms of inertia and gravitation by Isaac Newton (1642–1727), professor of mathematics at Cambridge."i In short, the ideas of Copernicus were not accepted overnight, and they were certainly not widely accepted during the lifetimes of Luther and Calvin.

But did Luther and Calvin know of Copernicus's theory, and if so, how did the Reformers respond? There is some dispute regarding the answer to these questions. The answer seems somewhat clearer with Luther. In the Table Talk (collections of Luther's comments on a variety of topics), we read of the following discussion (dated June 4, 1539) regarding these new ideas:

There was mention of a certain new astrologer who wanted to prove that the earth moves and not the sky, the sun, and the moon. This would be as if somebody were riding on a cart or in a ship and imagined that he was standing still while the earth and the trees were moving. [Luther remarked] "So it goes now. Whoever wants to be clever must agree with nothing that others esteem. He must do something of his own. This is what that fellow does who wishes to turn the whole of astronomy upside down. Even in these things that are thrown into disorder I believe the Holy Scriptures, for Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth [Josh. 10:12]."ii

There is some dispute as to whether Luther's words were quoted exactly as he said them, but this version of the Table Talk is generally considered to be the most accurate.iii Regardless of whether his student recorded his words precisely, it is still clear from his lectures on Genesis that Luther held to the geocentric view that was the prevailing view of his day.iv Furthermore, while some scholars deny that Luther placed his interpretation of Scripture over and against the theory of Copernicus, this statement in the Table Talk is not the only place where a conflict between Luther's views and the views of scientists occurred.

In his Lectures on Genesis, for example, Luther wrote the following regarding the sun and stars:

Indeed, it is more likely that the bodies of the stars, like that of the sun, are round, and that they are fastened to the firmament like globes of fire, to shed light at night, each according to its endowment and its creation.v

This too was not an uncommon view during the early sixteenth century. Luther added the observation that there were waters above this firmament where the sun and stars are fastened. Regarding the waters above the firmament, Luther wrote:

We Christians must be different from the philosophers [i.e. scientists] in the way we think about the causes of these things. And if some are beyond our comprehension (like those before us concerning the waters above the heavens), we must believe them and admit our lack of knowledge rather than either wickedly deny them or presumptuously interpret them in conformity with our understanding.vi

Here, Luther suggests that it is wicked to deny that there are literal waters above the firmament to which the sun and stars are fastened. Why did he believe this was an undeniable fact? Because he believed Scripture taught it clearly in Genesis 1. The problem arose when it was discovered over time that the sun and stars are not fastened to a firmament and that there are no waters being held back by this firmament. If Scripture did actually teach the existence of such things, that would leave two options: either the new discoveries were misinterpretations of general revelation or else Scripture was wrong. Since Luther believed Scripture clearly taught the existence of waters above the firmament, he believed the scientists were proposing an idea that would require him to say that the Scriptures are in error. Luther apparently believed that was the only choice, and if that was the only choice, it was one he had to reject. It did not seem to occur to him that the Scripture might not actually teach that view. It did not occur to him that the conflict could be a conflict between a correct interpretation of God's creation and his fallible interpretation of Scripture.

John Calvin's precise view of Copernicus is more difficult to determine and has long been debated. Part of the difficulty involved with discerning his view is due to a quotation that has been wrongly attributed to him by scholars, ranging from Bertrand Russell to Thomas Kuhn. Numerous scholars, including Russell and Kuhn, assert that Calvin condemned Copernicus with the words: "Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit?" The problem is that those words are found nowhere in Calvin's writings.vii Unfortunately, the statement has been repeated so often that it is accepted as a matter of historical fact.

However, even though Calvin did not make the oft-quoted statement about Copernicus cited above, there is a statement he made in a sermon on 1 Corinthians that is relevant. There, Calvin warns against those who say, "that the sun does not move and that it is the earth that moves."viii He describes those who hold this view as "stark raving mad" and as "possessed" by the devil.ix It is not clear that he is basing this warning on his interpretation of any particular passage of Scripture, and there is ongoing debate about how this statement coincides with Calvin's other statements regarding general and special revelation, but the statement does at the very least indicate that geocentricity was firmly established in Calvin's mind as the true explanation of the nature of God's creation.

Dr. Sproul indicated that he has not run across anyone within orthodox Christianity today who is pleading for geocentricity. There are not many, but they do still exist. There are entire websites, books, and articles written by contemporary proponents of geocentricity. They argue that other Christians, including young-earth creationists, have compromised and capitulated to non-believing scientists instead of holding to what they believe to be the clear teaching of Scripture in passages such as Joshua 10.

Geocentricity, however, is not the main point. The main point Dr. Sproul is making by pointing out these past mistakes Christians have made in the interpretation of general and special revelation is to remind us of the possibility of contemporary mistakes. Theologians and biblical scholars have not developed the attribute of infallibility since the time of Luther and Calvin.

Dr. Sproul also reminds us that students of special revelation can learn from students of general revelation. But this reminder raises even more important questions regarding matters such as the impact of the Fall on man's ability to understand God's general and special revelation, the distinction between human understanding of earthly things and of heavenly things, and the so-called "wisdom of the world." In our next post, we will begin to examine these issues.

i Davis A. Young, John Calvin and the Natural World (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2007), 28.
ii Martin Luther, Luther's Works. Vol 54. Table Talk, ed. Helmut T. Lehmann (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967), 358–9.
iii B.A. Gerrish, The Old Protestantism and the New (London: T&T Clark, 1982), 168.
iv Martin Luther, Luther's Works. Vol 1. Lectures on Genesis, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958), 44.
v Ibid., 42.
vi Ibid., 30.
vii For an overview of how this quote found its way into the scholarly literature, see Young, Calvin and the Natural World, 43–9.
viii Cited in Herman Selderhuis, ed., The Calvin Handbook (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 452.
ix Young, Calvin and the Natural World, 47.

See also:

Introduction
All Truth is God's Truth
General and Special Revelation
Interpreting General and Special Revelation
Luther, Calvin, and Copernicus

$5 Friday: Martin Luther, Election, & Evangelism

This week's $5 Friday sale includes resources that cover such topics as Martin Luther, election, evangelism, theology, worldviews, spiritual growth, and fear. 

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

View today's $5 Friday sale items.

Marks of a Great Teacher: Understanding

Here's an excerpt from Marks of a Great Teacher: Understanding, an article R.C. Sproul wrote in 1993 for Tabletalk.

The K-I-S-S principle is frequently requested in a learning environment. The acrostic stands for "Keep it simple, stupid." It seems we are a people who loathe difficult study. We want easy answers and we want them quickly. Mastery of a subject, however, requires years of diligent labor and study. But once the teacher has mastered his material, how does he transmit it to his students?

Certain assumptions are made in the classroom. The first is that the teacher knows more about the subject than the student. It is, in general, a safe assumption. The second assumption is that the teacher cannot communicate his mastery of the subject all at once. To educate (as the Latin root suggests), we must lead students "out of" ignorance into knowledge. That knowledge moves in increments, from the simple to complex.

Continue reading Marks of a Great Teacher: Understanding or learn more about Reformation Bible College where R.C. Sproul serves as president.

These Last Days: A Christian View of History

What would you expect if you were to attend a conference on "last days"? I came of age during the Jesus Movement of the '70's, when books like The Late Great Planet Earth were selling like hot cakes, and Larry Norman was crooning, in reference to the Rapture, "I wish we'd all been ready." My friends and I were fascinated by discussions of what would happen then, and of how events in the daily papers clearly indicated that the end was near. During church all-nighters for youth, we watched dramatic Christian films depicting the Great Tribulation. And that was before the whole Left Behind series hit the bookstores!

The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals chose "These Last Days" as the topic for their 2010 Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology. The book These Last Days is a written collection of the conference's main addresses and of several of the seminars, provided by nine different Reformed theologians. It is so other-than typical "end times" material!

These Last Days takes a long and thorough look at eschatology (the study of last things). What makes this book different from most evangelical fare on the subject is that it prefers the views of the apostles to human speculation and sensationalism. Rather than focusing on a few highly figurative portions of apocalyptic Bible literature, this book looks through the lens of the clear teaching of the apostles. The apostles understood "these last days" to be the period of time we're in now. The last days began at Christ's first coming and will reach their consummation at His return. The kingdom of God had come, the Apostles realized, and they were in it. Taking this stance, this book, like the New Testament itself, offers Christians wisdom for everyday life, comfort in death, hope in trial, a challenge to be holy as God is holy, and reason upon reason to praise our great God.

In one chapter, Cornelis P. Venema leads readers through a quick overview of "The Four Main Millennial Views," necessary for understanding what Christians believe in this essential area. In another chapter, Jeffrey K. Jue provides a survey of America's religious history showing why the majority position among American evangelicals has come to be dispensational premillennialism (see the opening paragraph of this review).

Sinclair Ferguson begins at the beginning with his chapter, "The Christ of History." Ferguson demonstrates that Christ is the center of history, come to redeem all that Adam had given away in the Fall. The conflict between the serpent and Christ (the seed of the woman) begins in the Garden of Eden, continues through every book and every era of Bible history, reaches a climax in Christ's death and resurrection, and resolves at last at Christ's return. This is the point of the Bible, and we rob God and ourselves when we read it in any other way.

D. A. Carson takes us to the twelfth chapter of Revelation, where a dragon, angry that he could not destroy the Baby born of a woman, goes off to make war on the rest of that woman's offspring. Carson shows us, as Revelation does, that all the opposition Christians and the church face during "This Present Evil Age" (the title of his chapter) springs from this fury of the dragon. Satan is the problem, Carson insists, and the gospel is the answer. Then he takes us on a quick spin through the book of Galatians to demonstrate his point.

While Carson focuses on the opposition in this period of time, Alistair Begg's chapter emphasizes that the times we live in are "The Age of the Spirit." This is an age in which the clear, biblical gospel must be faithfully proclaimed; this must be done in the power of the Holy Spirit; and every individual believer must live in daily dependence upon Him.

In "The Resurrection Hope," Michael S. Horton challenges the modern (and ancient Greek) assumption that souls are important while bodies are not. He emphasizes, as did the Apostle Paul, the necessity of Christ's bodily resurrection. Our hope is not a soul freed from the limits and pains of the body, but body and soul raised to newness of perfect life. But what will we do in those perfect bodies? What will we find in the new heavens and earth? One of J. Ligon Duncan III's answers in "The Eternal Glory" is that the church will be gathered there. When you read Revelation with any attentiveness at all, you can't miss that the climax of the story comes when the church is led to Christ for the marriage supper of the Lamb. This is why, Duncan points out, we must love the church now; "the church … will be the only monument of God's glory that stands for all eternity." We will worship there, with the entire gathered church, and we will live in perfect communion with the Lamb. The rich truths of these two chapters are fleshed out in "A Pastoral Guide to Life after Death" by Richard D. Phillips. This chapter is a simple, biblical, and thorough source of information and comfort for anyone facing death or the loss of a loved one.

In "Partakers of the Age to Come," D.A. Carson challenges us to avoid an "over-realized eschatology" (we can have health and wealth, our best life, sinless perfection now), while not falling into the opposite trap of an "under-realized eschatology" (failure to live in the power of the gospel with all the dramatic change that it brings). In a similar, highly practical vein, Paul David Tripp calls readers to see "The Radical Implications of Eternity." He urges us to live out our theology of eternity, here and now. He calls us to long for heaven as pilgrims long for their destination, keeping up our courage in the face of obstacles because of the certainty of our hope and fleeing the idols of this life because we value something better that's coming later.

These Last Days is not one more guess at what Gog and Magog represent, who the Antichrist is, and what the number of the beast will look like. Instead, this book offers the rich study of one biblical passage after another, leading to a deeper adoration of God and a renewed commitment to life for his glory. As the editors comment in their preface, "Reformed Christians have often shunned the field of eschatology, surrendering end-times doctrine to more popular (but less biblical!) schemes held by other Christians." If this is true, how we have cheated ourselves! And how grateful we can be to the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals for publishing These Last Days to help us correct the situation.

Starr Meade is the author of several books for children, teens, and their families including Training Hearts, Teaching Minds: Family Devotions Based on the Shorter Catechism and Grandpa's Box: Retelling the Biblical Story of Redemption .

R.C. Sproul on Suffering and the Christian Life [VIDEO]

In this excerpt from his teaching series, "Dealing with Difficult Problems," Dr. R.C. Sproul considers suffering in the life of a Christian.