R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 535

Charles Spurgeon on Calvinism — Irresistible Grace

In Steven Lawson's latest book, The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon, Lawson argues that Charles Spurgeon's fervent commitment to the doctrines of grace "sharpened" his "gospel focus." So what exactly did Spurgeon believe about the five points of Calvinism? Using excerpts from The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon, we'll answer that question in what will be a five part series on the blog. Our prayer is that these truths will sharpen your gospel focus also.

Today we discover what Charles Spurgeon believed about the doctrine of Irresistible Grace.

Charles Spurgeon affirmed the doctrine of irresistible grace. This is the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, who convicts, calls, draws, and regenerates elect sinners. This work unfailingly results in the faith of all those chosen. All whom the Father chose in eternity past and all those for whom the Son died are those whom the Spirit brings to faith in Jesus Christ. None whom the Father elected and for whom Christ died fail to believe. The Holy Spirit grants repentance and faith to these elect sinners and ensures their conversion.

This irresistible call is distinct from the general call of the gospel. The former is extended only to the elect and cannot be resisted. The latter is extended to all who hear the gospel and is resisted apart from the Spirit's effectual call. Spurgeon explained: "The general call of the gospel is like the common 'cluck' of the hen which she is always giving when her chickens are around her. But if there is any danger impending, then she gives a very peculiar call, quite different from the ordinary one, and the little chicks come running as fast as they can, and hide for safety under her wings. That is the call we want, God's peculiar and effectual call to his own." This effectual call always secures its desired effect—the salvation of God's own.

Difficulty is not a word to be found in the dictionary of heaven. Nothing can be impossible with God. —Charles Spurgeon

God's sovereign call, Spurgeon affirmed, is far more powerful than any man's resistance: "A man is not saved against his will, but he is made willing by the operation of the Holy Ghost. A mighty grace which he does not wish to resist enters into the man, disarms him, makes a new creature of him, and he is saved." This means no one is beyond the saving power of God: "Difficulty is not a word to be found in the dictionary of heaven. Nothing can be impossible with God. The swearing reprobate, whose mouth is blackened with profanity, whose heart is a very hell, and his life like the reeking flames of the bottomless pit—such a man, if the Lord but looks on him and makes bare His arm of irresistible grace, shall yet praise God and bless His name and live to His honor." In short, no human heart is so obstinate that the Spirit cannot conquer and convert it.

No human heart is so obstinate that the Spirit cannot conquer and convert it. —Steven Lawson

Spurgeon described how the Spirit had conquered his own stubborn heart: "When He first came to me, did I not spurn Him? When He knocked at the door, and asked for entrance, did I not drive Him away, and do despite to His grace? Ah! I can remember that I full often did so until, at last, by the power of His effectual grace, He said, 'I must, I will come in;' and then He turned my heart, and made me love Him." Just as the Holy Spirit turned Spurgeon's heart, so He does in all those chosen by the Father, causing them to believe in the Son.

Spurgeon gloried in this triumph of God's sovereign grace. God's immutable will, he proclaimed, is far greater than man's stubborn will:

Oh! I love God's "shalls" and "wills." There is nothing comparable to them. Let a man say "shall," what is it good for? "I will," says man, and he never performs; "I shall," says he, and he breaks his promise. But it is never so with God's "shalls." If He says "shall," it shall be; when He says "will," it will be. Now He has said here, "many shall come." The devil says, "they shall not come;" but "they shall come." You yourselves say, "we won't come;" God says, "You shall come." Yes! There are some here who are laughing at salvation, who can scoff at Christ, and mock at the gospel; but I tell you some of you shall come yet. "What!" you say, "can God make me become a Christian?" I tell you yes, for herein rests the power of the gospel. It does not ask your consent; but it gets it. It does not say, will you have it? But it makes you willing in the day of God's power.

Moreover, Spurgeon declared that irresistible grace makes even the most resistant hearts receptive to the offer of salvation. Listen to the enormous confidence in his preaching of the gospel:

If Jesus Christ were to stand on this platform tonight, what would many people do with Him? If He were to come and say, "Here I am, I love you, will you be saved by Me?" not one of you would consent if you were left to your will. He Himself said, "No man can come to Me except the Father who hath sent Me draw him." Ah! We want that; and here we have it. They shall come! They shall come! Ye may laugh, ye may despise us; but Jesus Christ shall not die for nothing. If some of you reject Him there are some that will not. If there are some that are not saved, others shall be. Christ shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands. They shall come! And nought in heaven, nor on earth, nor in hell, can stop them from coming.

Spurgeon was as courageous as a lion in proclaiming the saving message of Christ. He drew that courage from his belief that the Holy Spirit will turn the hearts of those chosen to believe on Christ. Simply put, Spurgeon knew that the Spirit guarantees that God's Word will not return to Him void. Irresistible grace is triumphant grace.

Excerpt adapted from Steven Lawson's The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon. Available now from ReformationTrust.com.

Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

The twentieth-century British pastor D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, "If we only spent more of our time in looking at Christ we should soon forget ourselves." Fixing our eyes on Christ is the first step and the entire path of the Christian life. We don't look to Christ in faith to be saved and then look to ourselves to persevere. We trust Christ alone as our Savior and look to Christ alone and follow Him as our Lord. In order to look to Christ as our Savior and Lord, we need new eyes and a new heart. We are born spiritually dead and blind in sin, with our eyes fixed on ourselves and our own glory, but God the Holy Spirit strips the inherited blindfolds from our eyes and graciously rips out our hard hearts and gives us new hearts that love Him and new eyes that see Him. Yet even as Christians who have been declared righteous by God the Father through faith in the perfect life and sacrifice of God the Son, Jesus Christ, we remain sinful this side of heaven and daily struggle against the world, our flesh, and the Devil. In our struggle against our own self-centered sin, it might seem like an obvious remedy to focus our eyes on the sin itself in our attempt to deal with it. Yet, God says otherwise.

Continue reading Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus, Burk Parsons' contribution to the April issue of Tabletalk.

The New Covenant — The Unfolding of Biblical Eschatology

Commentators often refer to chapters 30–33 of Jeremiah as the "Book of Consolation."i This section of the book has been given this name because, as J. A. Thompson explains, "it gives expression to hopes for the future rather than judgment which characterizes earlier chapters."ii Earlier chapters of Jeremiah were not without occasional references to future restoration after the judgment of exile, but the theme was not prominent. Here the themes of restoration and hope move to the forefront and are developed extensively. This section of the book reaches its climax in Jeremiah's prophecy of a new covenant in chapter 31.

Although this section of Jeremiah has a unified theme, it comprises different literary genres. Chapters 30 and 31 are almost completely poetic, while chapters 32 and 33 are prose narrative. In chapter 30, the Lord assures the people that he will restore them to the land. Jeremiah writes, "For behold days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says Yahweh, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it" (30:3). The expression "days are coming" is fairly common among the prophets, and it simply refers to an unspecified future time (cf. Isa. 39:6; Jer. 7:32; Amos 8:11; 9:13).iii The Lord also promises to renew his covenant relationship, telling the people that in that day, "you shall be my people, and I will be your God" (30:22).

Jeremiah 31 contains one of the most significant prophecies in the Old Testament, the promise of a new covenant (vv. 31–34). Jeremiah begins the chapter by describing Israel's captivity using the imagery of the wilderness wandering (31:1–6). He then celebrates the coming restoration of Israel to her homeland (vv. 7–14). Jeremiah uses the imagery of Rachel weeping for her children to describe the extreme grief caused by the exile (v. 15). But the promised restoration of Israel from exile means the end of Rachel's mourning (vv. 16–22). "There is hope for your future, declares Yahweh, and your children shall come back to their own country" (v. 17). Following another promise of restoration (31:23–26), Jeremiah speaks of the days to come using the six words found in 1:10, "And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares Yahweh" (v. 28).

One of the most fundamental teachings found within the pre-exilic prophets is that Israel has failed to keep God's covenant and that due to this failure to obey, judgment is coming. The history of Israel from the time of Moses onward is a history of almost continual disobedience and apostasy. Both Moses and Joshua had indicated that Israel was incapable of obeying God's law, and Israel had proven them correct (cf. Deut. 31:16–18, 20–21; Josh. 24:19). Now exile is imminent, but God is promising restoration. If the covenant relationship is to be restored, how will this happen?

Isaiah had hinted at the prospects of a new covenant many times (cf. Isa. 42:6; 49:8; 54:10; 55:1–5; 59:21; 61:1–9). Now Jeremiah brings the nature of this covenant into clearer focus in 31:31–34.

Behold the days are coming declares Yahweh, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares Yahweh. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Yahweh: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know Yahweh,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares Yahweh. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

As Harrison rightly observes, "The prophecy of Jeremiah marks a watershed in Hebrew religious and cultic life."iv

Jeremiah places the inauguration of the new covenant at an unspecified time in the future: "the days are coming" (v. 31). All that is certain, in light of the context, is that it will not occur until after the time of exile. The concept of a "new covenant" is found elsewhere in the prophets (e.g. Ezek. 37:26). However, the specific term (berit hadashah) is found only here in the Old Testament. The need for this new covenant is evident. The covenant that was established at Sinai has been broken by Israel. It must, as O. Palmer Robertson explains, be superseded by another covenant.v This is precisely what the Lord promises to do. The covenant will be made with "the house of Israel and the house of Judah." In other words, a new covenant will be made with those who broke the old covenant.vi

The emphasis in verses 32–33 is upon the discontinuity between the old covenant and the new covenant, but the discontinuity is not total. The Lord emphasizes discontinuity when he declares that the new covenant is "not like the covenant that I made with their fathers" (v. 32).vii Both discontinuity and continuity are evident in the next verse, "I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts" (v. 33). Under the old covenant, the law was written on tablets of stone (cf. Exod. 24:12; 34:1). Under the new covenant, the law will be written on the hearts of God's people. Herein lies one major element of discontinuity. Yet the continuity is evident in that it is "the law" that is written on the hearts of his people.viii God himself will make the necessary changes within the hearts of his people (cf. Deut. 30:6).ix

Under the old covenant, the people had to be continually instructed to do the law and to remember the law (cf. Deut. 4:23; 5:1, 32; 6:3, 12; 8:11; etc.). In verse 34, the Lord declares that with the law inscribed on the people's hearts, this will no longer be necessary because all will know the Lord. Finally, in one of the most profound promises involved with the new covenant, the Lord says, "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Under the old covenant, provisions were made for the forgiveness of sin by means of the various sacrifices. But these sacrifices had to be constantly repeated, indicating that they had no inherent power within themselves to remove sin (cf. Heb. 10:1–10). Under the new covenant, the shadows will be replaced by the reality, and God will not only "forgive their iniquity" but also "remember their sin no more."

Following the prophecy of the new covenant is a declaration of the inseparable bond between God and Israel. The permanence of God's relationship with Israel is compared to the permanence of the created order.

Thus says Yahweh, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—Yahweh of hosts is his name: "If this fixed order departs from before me, declares Yahweh, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever." Thus says Yahweh: "If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares Yahweh" (vv. 35–37).

This promise is noteworthy because it is stated in absolutely unconditional terms. For those facing the prospect of seventy years of exile, it is a source of great hope for the future of Israel.x

i Cf. Jack R. Lundbom, Jeremiah 21–36 (New York: Doubleday, 2004), 368; J. A. Thompson, The Book of Jeremiah (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), 551; R. K. Harrison, Jeremiah and Lamentations (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1973), 133.
ii Thompson, Jeremiah, 551.
iii Thompson, Jeremiah, 553.
iv Harrison, Jeremiah and Lamentations, 138.
v O. Palmer Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 1980), 272; cf. also William J. Dumbrell, Covenant and Creation: A Theology of Old Testament Covenants, 1984), 164.
vi In our examination of the New Testament, the relationship between "Israel" and believing Gentiles will be explored in more detail. Here it is only necessary to make a few observations that will prepare for that discussion. First, it is evident from our reading of the history of God's people that any Gentile could become a part of "Israel" by confessing faith in Yahweh (e.g. Ruth). Gentiles could become "my people" and Jews could become "not my people" (cf. Exod. 12:43–48; Hos. 1:9). However, although this is an important truth, it must also be remembered that in Jeremiah's day, at this stage in the progress of God's revelation, "Israel" was primarily understood as the ethnic community descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. "Israel" was a people distinguishable from the surrounding Gentile peoples, whether they were Assyrians, Egyptians, or Philistines. This is how Jeremiah uses the term here.
vii Emphasis mine.
viii Robertson, Christ of the Covenants, 281–82.
ix Thompson, Jeremiah, 581.
x It is a hope that will also be echoed in the New Testament in the writings of the Apostle Paul (cf. Rom. 11:1, 28–29).

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 (4/8/12)

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

How sweet is rest after fatigue! How sweet will heaven be when our journey is ended (Whitefield).

— Tabletalk Magazine (@Tabletalk) April 2, 2012

The most obscene symbol in human history is the Cross; yet in its ugliness it remains the most eloquent testimony to human dignity. —Sproul

— Ligonier Ministries (@Ligonier) April 4, 2012

No scene in sacred history ever gladdens the soul like the scene on Calvary (Spurgeon).

— Ligonier Academy (@LigonierAcademy) April 5, 2012

New: Moses and the Burning Bush. Discover how the coming of Christ is foreshadowed in the meeting between God and Moses bit.ly/Hkx2kM

— Ligonier Connect (@LigonierConnect) April 5, 2012

The Father did not require the death of Christ to persuade Him to love us. Christ died because the Father loves us. —Sinclair Ferguson

— Ligonier Ministries (@Ligonier) April 6, 2012

Not only is the sin of man imputed to Christ, but the righteousness of Christ is transferred to us, to our account. —R.C. Sproul

— Reformation Trust (@RefTrust) April 7, 2012

Jesus' heart began to beat, pumping glorified blood through glorified arteries, sending glorified power to muscles atrophied by death. —R.C.

— Ligonier Ministries (@Ligonier) April 8, 2012

You can also find our various ministries on Facebook:

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

Missing Missing

My wife would be pleased with me. As I do far too infrequently, I uncluttered my desk today. You should see how nice it looks. In so doing, however, I came across another old stack of sympathy cards sent months ago from friends and strangers. I read through them, and found myself lonesome for a surprising time, the day my Denise went on to glory. In a previous piece I wrote about how, crossing the barrier of forty days of mourning made me fear that I would miss Denise all the more. I suggested that the more I mourned the more it seemed she was with me. Turns out I was right.

As I read through those cards I was taken back to that first day. Denise passed very early on Sunday morning, December 18th. After taking care of necessary details in the nursing facility I headed home to tell my children. After we talked and cried and hugged I got myself cleaned up, and headed off to church. My thought was that what I needed most of all at that moment was to meet with Jesus, and to be reminded of His grace, His gospel. Turns out I was right.

As I sat there that morning however, I didn't have the sense that she had left me. Indeed I felt more like we were going to go through this together, that she would walk me through my mourning. She would speak to me the words of life. She would hold me when I could not sleep. She would encourage me to do the next thing. She would remind me to give thanks. Though I do not pretend to know if she sees me. I believed she would make certain that I sensed her with me. Turns out I was right.

As I look back on that morning, however, somehow now I look back alone. Of course I still cry. I still mourn, even as I type. I miss her laughter, her hand, her beautiful eyes. But somehow as time moves on what I end up missing is the comfort and closeness she somehow gave even after she had gone. She doesn't sit beside me when I'm alone in the car anymore. She doesn't look over my shoulder when I am typing and crying alone anymore. Somehow the more time passes, the farther she is gone, not because I am forgetting her, but because I am remembering her. The great heartbreak is that she is now becoming my past, rather than my ever present.

Denise was carried by Jesus out of the valley of the shadow of death. She now dances with Him on the mountain of the lightness of life. She has, rightly, wisely, and through the very love of our Savior, left me. And I feel lost. By His grace, however, I have a path to follow. For His pierced feet leave bloody prints all the way out of the valley, all the way up the mountain. I will follow Him, who promised to be with me, even until the end of the age. He is a blessed man to dance with her. I am a blessed man to follow Him.

Two Important Words This Good Friday: Expiation and Propitiation

When we talk about the vicarious aspect of the atonement, two rather technical words come up again and again: expiation and propitiation. These words spark all kinds of arguments about which one should be used to translate a particular Greek word, and some versions of the Bible will use one of these words and some will use the other one. I'm often asked to explain the difference between propitiation and expiation. The difficulty is that even though these words are in the Bible, we don't use them as part of our day-to-day vocabulary, so we aren't sure exactly what they are communicating in Scripture. We lack reference points in relation to these words.

Expiation and Propitiation

Let's think about what these words mean, then, beginning with the word expiation. The prefix ex means "out of" or "from," so expiation has to do with removing something or taking something away. In biblical terms, it has to do with taking away guilt through the payment of a penalty or the offering of an atonement. By contrast, propitiation has to do with the object of the expiation. The prefix pro means "for," so propitiation brings about a change in God's attitude, so that He moves from being at enmity with us to being for us. Through the process of propitiation, we are restored into fellowship and favor with Him.

In a certain sense, propitiation has to do with God's being appeased. We know how the word appeasement functions in military and political conflicts. We think of the so-called politics of appeasement, the philosophy that if you have a rambunctious world conqueror on the loose and rattling the sword, rather than risk the wrath of his blitzkrieg you give him the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia or some such chunk of territory. You try to assuage his wrath by giving him something that will satisfy him so that he won't come into your country and mow you down. That's an ungodly manifestation of appeasement. But if you are angry or you are violated, and I satisfy your anger, or appease you, then I am restored to your favor and the problem is removed.

The same Greek word is translated by both the words expiation and propitiation from time to time. But there is a slight difference in the terms. Expiation is the act that results in the change of God's disposition toward us. It is what Christ did on the cross, and the result of Christ's work of expiation is propitiation—God's anger is turned away. The distinction is the same as that between the ransom that is paid and the attitude of the one who receives the ransom.

Christ's Work Was an Act of Placation

Together, expiation and propitiation constitute an act of placation. Christ did His work on the cross to placate the wrath of God. This idea of placating the wrath of God has done little to placate the wrath of modern theologians. In fact, they become very wrathful about the whole idea of placating God's wrath. They think it is beneath the dignity of God to have to be placated, that we should have to do something to soothe Him or appease Him. We need to be very careful in how we understand the wrath of God, but let me remind you that the concept of placating the wrath of God has to do here not with a peripheral, tangential point of theology, but with the essence of salvation.

What is Salvation?

Let me ask a very basic question: what does the term salvation mean? Trying to explain it quickly can give you a headache, because the word salvation is used in about seventy different ways in the Bible. If somebody is rescued from certain defeat in battle, he experiences salvation. If somebody survives a life-threatening illness, that person experiences salvation. If somebody's plants are brought back from withering to robust health, they are saved. That's biblical language, and it's really no different than our own language. We save money. A boxer is saved by the bell, meaning he's saved from losing the fight by knockout, not that he is transported into the eternal kingdom of God. In short, any experience of deliverance from a clear and present danger can be spoken of as a form of salvation.

Ultimately, Jesus died to save us from the wrath of God.

When we talk about salvation biblically, we have to be careful to state that from which we ultimately are saved. The apostle Paul does just that for us in 1 Thessalonians 1:10, where he says Jesus "delivers us from the wrath to come." Ultimately, Jesus died to save us from the wrath of God. We simply cannot understand the teaching and the preaching of Jesus of Nazareth apart from this, for He constantly warned people that the whole world someday would come under divine judgment. Here are a few of His warnings concerning the judgment: "'I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment'" (Matt. 5:22); "'I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment'" (Matt. 12:36); and "'The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here'" (Matt. 12:41). Jesus' theology was a crisis theology. The Greek word crisis means "judgment." And the crisis of which Jesus preached was the crisis of an impending judgment of the world, at which point God is going to pour out His wrath against the unredeemed, the ungodly, and the impenitent. The only hope of escape from that outpouring of wrath is to be covered by the atonement of Christ.

It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of a holy God Who's wrathful.

Therefore, Christ's supreme achievement on the cross is that He placated the wrath of God, which would burn against us were we not covered by the sacrifice of Christ. So if somebody argues against placation or the idea of Christ satisfying the wrath of God, be alert, because the gospel is at stake. This is about the essence of salvation—that as people who are covered by the atonement, we are redeemed from the supreme danger to which any person is exposed. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of a holy God Who's wrathful. But there is no wrath for those whose sins have been paid. That is what salvation is all about.

Excerpt adapted from R.C. Sproul's The Truth of the Cross (Reformation Trust, 2007)

$5 Friday: Missions, Music, & The Doctrines of Grace

In this week's $5 Friday sale we have resources that cover such topics as Thomas Goodwin, the atonement, missions, music, the gospel, the doctrines of grace, apologetics, the five solas of the Reformation, and Ecclesiastes.

Thanks to Desiring God and Reformation Heritage Books for partnering with us this week.

Sale runs through our new time of 12:01 a.m. — 11:59 p.m. Friday EST.

View today's $5 Friday sale items.

Get The Donkey Who Carried a King for a Gift of Any Amount

Every day on our Renewing Your Mind broadcast we provide an opportunity for listeners to receive a biblically enriching resource for a gift of any amount and at the same time support the ongoing work of Ligonier Ministries. Occasionally, we highlight one of these offers on the blog.

Today through Sunday, you can get The Donkey Who Carried a King book + audiobook package for a donation of any amount. This package provides you with a hardcover copy of this beautifully illustrated children's book and an audiobook CD featuring R.C. Sproul narrating.

The Donkey Who Carried a King Hardcover Book + Audiobook

The biblical teaching that Jesus was the Suffering Servant who carried the sins of His people when He went to the cross is vividly brought home to children in The Donkey Who Carried a King, the latest children’s book from respected theologian, author, and educator Dr. R.C. Sproul.

Davey was a young donkey who was bored and unhappy because he was never given anything to do. Then one day, some strangers came to the gate—and Davey’s master picked him for a very special task. Davey carried the King, Jesus, into Jerusalem. A few days later, Davey saw some angry people making the King carry a heavy beam of wood. Davey could not understand it—until another donkey helped him see that the King was being a Servant on behalf of His people.

The Donkey Who Carried a King offers a unique perspective on the events of Jesus’ Passion Week and calls all believers, both young and old, to follow in the footsteps of the Suffering Servant for the glory of God. Jesus was willing to leave the glories of heaven to suffer and die in this world on our behalf, so we should serve Him with all our hearts.

Get the special book + audiobook package of The Donkey Who Carried a King for a donation of any amount.

The Challenge of Same-Sex Unions

In the world but not of the world? From the very beginning, the church has faced the challenge of responding to external events, trends, ideologies, and controversies. By definition, the church does not get to choose these challenges, but they have been thrust upon Christians by the world. The question always comes down to this: What now?

That question seems especially urgent in light of the emergence of same-sex unions and marriage in the United States and the world over. How must the church answer this challenge?

Continue reading The Challenge of Same-Sex Unions, Albert Mohler's contribution to the April issue of Tabletalk.

Announcing Our New Podcast: Renewing Your Mind Minute

Many readers of this blog are already familiar with our daily broadcast, Renewing Your Mind. Since 1994, Dr. R.C. Sproul, and more recently including the Ligonier Teaching Fellows, have provided accessible, in-depth Bible teaching to millions around the world. In fact, as the principal outreach of Ligonier Ministries, this radio broadcast and podcast is how a lot of you were first introduced to us.

Our New Podcast

Over the years we have recorded over a thousand hours of Bible teaching. Now, to supplement our usual Renewing Your Mind broadcast, we are launching Renewing Your Mind Minute.

Mining the riches of Dr. Sproul's teaching ministry, we are podcasting those "gold nuggets" sprinkled throughout to provide you with short insights on Reformed theology and the life-changing truths of historic Christianity.

For example, recent podcasts on Renewing Your Mind Minute have included:

Escaping the Wrath of God
Legalism
The Big Bang?
The Importance of Preaching
A Spiritual Call to Secular Work

Renewing Your Mind Minute is currently available exclusively in the iTunes Store and is updated three times each week.

Click here to subscribe to Renewing Your Mind Minute for free.

Our daily Renewing Your Mind broadcast is also available as a 23-minute podcast here.