R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 558

What is the Regulative Principle of Worship?

The Regulative Principle of Worship is simple enough. It affirms that Christians ought only to incorporate into their worship those things that God has expressly commanded. The locus classicus for this perspective is Leviticus 10, where Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Levi are struck dead by God for offering “strange fire” before the Lord. The principle is both historical and sound. Its application, however, has often proved to be problematic.

The Bible does indeed give a detailed explanation on exactly how God demands to be worshipped. The challenge is that this explanation is given in the Old Testament, prior to the coming of Christ. The Bible tells us what sacrifices should be brought, how they should be killed, how they should be cut up, how they should be cooked, and who should eat what. In the New Testament all we have are scattered mentions of what the saints actually did when they gathered together.

Because we rightly affirm that Jesus was the once for all sacrifice, and to go back to the shadows would be to deny His coming (see the book of Hebrews), we are left in something of a pickle. We can’t follow the Old Testament requirements, and the New Testament doesn’t contain a clear order of worship. Some solve the dilemma by building what might be called a Frankenstein model of worship. Like Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, a part of the service is taken from here (where the saints are said to take up a collection) another part from this other text (where they saints are said to celebrate the Lord’s Supper), and still another from this third place, where we see preaching going on. 

This patchwork approach, for all there is to commend it, has a few disadvantages. First, like Frankenstein’s monster, it is clumsy. There can be precious little beauty and flow from a service of disparate parts forced together. Second, while it happily avoids the bloody shadows of old covenant worship, it lacks the unifying theme of the sacrifice. Old Testament worship was sacrificial. Though the once for all sacrifice has come, He left us with a fitting ways to remain sacrificial, while not going back to the shadows, while no longer spilling blood- we touch sacrifice when we praise, when we give, and most of all, at the Lord’s Table. 

Just as in the Old Covenant, we come to worship because we are called, commanded to appear by the Lord of Hosts. Just as in the Old Covenant we come in ourselves still sinners, and so confess our sins. On this side, however, the sacrifice has already come, and so we who trust in that once for all sacrifice are assured of our pardon. Out of this flows a sacrifice of praise, as we sing the glory of the Redeemer. Having been redeemed, we are in need of direction, instruction from our commander. And so the Word is preached. Just as in the Old Covenant we respond with sacrifice, standing to return to God His tithe, not because the tenth is His, but because all that we have, and all that we are are His. We respond to the call of His sermon with “Here I am. Send me.”

And then He feeds us. Then we share the fellowship meal, wherein we are welcomed to His table, not as soldiers, but as friends. Not as servants, but as children. Finally, just as in the Old Covenant He pronounces His blessing on us, and we depart to make known His reign, until we can come again. Here then we dance, we feast, just as we will at the marriage feast of the lamb.

The Regulative Principle of Worship is a wonderful gift from our fathers. We need to remember, however, that our fathers include not just the Puritans, but Calvin and Luther, as well as Aaron and Levi.

$5 Black Friday: More than 25 Resources for Only $5

Need to find some great gifts with a limited budget? Check out our second annual $5 Black Friday sale with more than triple the number of resources available for only $5. We've partnered with publishers including Christian Focus, Crossway, P&R Publishing, and Reformation Heritage Books for some incredible savings. Sale starts 8 a.m. Friday and runs through 8 a.m. EST Saturday, November 26th.

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*Important Note: $5 Friday items are not available for resale. Internet orders only. Only valid on product format displayed. While supplies last.

Great Quotes from The Mystery of the Holy Spirit

I recently had the opportunity to read through almost all of the books of R.C. Sproul. Along the way I built a collection of some of the best quotes from each one of them. Here are several of the best from The Mystery of the Holy Spirit.

The idea of one person with two distinct natures or essences is foreign to our experience. But there is no law of logic that requires that a single person cannot have two natures.

When we speak of the being of God or the essence of God, we are talking about what God is. We believe that God is His attributes. He is a simple, unified being in the sense that there are no component parts that, when added together, make up His being. God is not made up of two or more parts. He is essentially one. That is why the church insists on the tri-unity of God. The plurality of persons in the Godhead does not negate the essential unity of God.

The flesh is not merely weak with respect to the power of rebirth. It is utterly impotent. It has no power whatever to effect rebirth. It cannot aid or enhance the Spirit’s work. All that the flesh yields is more flesh. It cannot yield an ounce of Spirit. The nothing is not a little something.

In salvation we are not only saved from sin and damnation; we are saved unto holiness. The goal of redemption is holiness.

The Holy Spirit may be distinguished from the Word, but to separate the Word and the Spirit is spiritually fatal. The Holy Spirit teaches, leads, and speaks to us through the Word and with the Word, not apart from or against the Word. How grievous it is to the Holy Spirit when unbridled spirits mock God by claiming the leading of the Spirit when they are acting against the Word of God.

It is the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit that is the mark of our progress in sanctification. Of course, God is pleased when we dutifully exercise the gifts the Holy Spirit has bestowed upon us. But I think God is even more pleased when He sees His people manifest the fruit of the Spirit.

Happy Thanksgiving! Free Downloads from Dr. Sproul

Thanksgiving is a moment to express profound, deep, sincere and genuine gratitude to the providence of God for a year's worth of tender mercies that we have received from the hand of His benevolence. From his care, from His comfort, from His guidance, from His government of our lives, we are to take time to be grateful.
—R.C. Sproul

The Sprouls and Ligonier Ministries wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy these free downloads from Dr. Sproul.

Free Downloads from R.C. Sproul

How much thanks do you give each year? In this special two-part message, Dr. Sproul reminds us of what is missing from so many Thanksgiving feasts and the fundamental sin we are guilty of everyday.

Thanksgiving (Part 1) (Right click to save)
Thanksgiving (Part 2) (Right click to save)

Preview $5 Black Friday: Our Biggest Sale of the Year

This coming Friday we are holding our second annual $5 Black Friday sale with more than triple the number of resources available for only $5. We've partnered with publishers including Christian Focus, Crossway, Cruciform Press, P&R Publishing, and Reformation Heritage Books for some incredible savings. Sale starts 8 a.m. Friday and runs through 8 a.m. EST Saturday, November 26th.

Preview the $5 Black Friday specials.

*Important Note: $5 Friday items are not available for resale. Internet orders only. Only valid on product format displayed. While supplies last.

In the Beginning

When Genesis speaks of a beginning, it is referring to the advent of the universe in time and space. It is not positing a beginning to God but rather to the beginning of the creative work of God. One of the most enigmatic questions of philosophy and theology relates to the nature of time. Was the universe created in time, or was it created along with time? Did time exist before creation, or did it come into being with creation? Most classical theologians affirm that time correlates with creation. That is, before matter was created, time, at least as we know it, did not exist. How one approaches this question of the origin of time is usually bound up with how one understands the nature of time. Some see time not as an objective reality but merely as a category or construction of the mind.

However we conceive of time, we will agree that the ordinary manner by which we measure time requires a relationship between matter and motion. A simple clock uses hands that move around the face of a dial. We measure time by the motion of these hands. Or we may use an hourglass, which measures the passing of sand through a narrow aperture in the glass. The sundial measures time by the movement of a shadow. There are many devices to measure time, but in the final analysis they all rely on some sort of motion relative to some type of matter.

If there is no matter, we cannot measure motion. If we cannot measure motion, we cannot measure time. However, just because we cannot measure time without matter does not mean that without matter time does not exist. Genesis merely asserts that the universe had a beginning. It does not explicitly declare that time began with the universe. That concept is derived via speculative philosophy. The philosophical concerns are usually linked to our broader understanding of the nature of God. Especially when we declare with Scripture that God is eternal, the question of His relationship to time arises. Does His eternality mean that He is somehow outside of time, that He is timeless? Or does His eternality mean that He exists in an endless dimension of time?

However we answer this question, we conclude that God Himself never had a beginning. He exists infinitely with respect to space and eternally with respect to time. His existence has neither a starting point nor an ending point. The dimensions of His existence are from everlasting to everlasting. This means that He always has been and always will be.

In the Beginning God

Though God Himself had no beginning, nevertheless He was already there in the beginning. He antedates the created order. When we affirm that God is eternal, we are also saying that He possesses the attribute of aseity, or self-existence. This means that God eternally has existed of Himself and in Himself. He is not a contingent being. He did not derive from some other source. He is not dependent on any power outside Himself in order to exist. He has no father or mother. He is not an effect of some antecedent cause. In a word, He is not a creature. No creature has the power of being in and of itself. All creatures are contingent, derived and dependent. This is the essence of their creatureliness.

In the Beginning God Created

Thinkers hostile to theism have sought every means imaginable to provide a rational alternative to the notion of an eternal self-existent deity. Some have argued for an eternal universe, though with great difficulty. Usually the temporal beginning of the universe is granted but with a reluctance to assign its cause to a self-existent, eternal being. The usual alternative is some sort of self-creation, which, in whatever form it takes, retreats into irrationality and absurdity. To assert the self-creation of anything is to leap into the abyss of the absurd because for something to create itself, it would have to exist before it existed to do the job. It would have to be and not be at the same time and in the same relationship. Some speak of self-creation in terms of spontaneous generation, which is just another name for self-creation. This would involve the logically impossible event of something coming from nothing. If there ever was a time when absolutely nothing existed, all there could possibly be now is nothing. Even that statement is problematic because there can never be nothing; if nothing ever was, then it would be something and not nothing.

Understanding the eternality of God is important because without some understanding of this attribute, our understanding of the love of God will be impoverished. This is so because the love of God must be understood as an eternal love. Just as He is from everlasting to everlasting, so His love is also from everlasting to everlasting. His is not a fickle love that waxes hot and cold over time. His love has a constancy about it that transcends all human forms of love. Just as human beings often fall in love, they also often fall out of love. This is not the case with the love of God.

If God's love is eternal, we must ask whom or what did God love from all eternity? What was the object of that love? In the first instance we see that God's eternal love had Himself as both the subject and object of His love. As the subject, God did the loving. Yet at the same time He was the object of His own love. Though this love was a kind of self-love, it was by no means a selfish love.

From Loved By God.

10 Gift Ideas Under $15

Gift season is approaching once again. Not sure what to get? On a tight budget? We've come up with a list of some of our newest and best-selling resources—all under $15.

The Barber Who Wanted to Pray by R.C. Sproul
Book $14.40
In his newest children's book, Dr. Sproul helps children learn to pray according to the Bible as they learn about Martin Luther and his barber.

Can I Know God's Will? by R.C. Sproul
Book $4
In this Crucial Questions booklet, Dr. Sproul outlines timeless principles for discovering and applying the will of God in day-to-day decisions. 

5 Things Every Christian Needs to Grow by R.C. Sproul
Book $12
R.C. Sproul identifies five crucial "nutrients" that promote spiritual growth. This is an important resource for new believers to learn these spiritual disciplines and become grounded in the faith in a way that anyone can understand.

The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul
Book $9.10 | Pocket-Size Book $4 | Spanish $10.40
Through biblical exposition and practical illustration, Dr. Sproul reminds us of the all-consuming nature of God’s holiness and calls us to proclaim this vital truth to the church and to the world.

The Invisible Hand: Do All Things Really Work for Good? by R.C. Sproul
Book $12
Have you ever asked, "Why?" In this book, Dr. R.C. Sproul covers all aspects of divine providence and reasserts the fact that God is concerned with each detail in the universe. 

The Mighty Weakness of John Knox by Douglas Bond
Book $12.80
For those who see themselves as too weak, too timid, or too ordinary for service in God’s kingdom, Bond shows how Knox’s life offers a powerful message of hope—the biblical truth that God often delights to work most powerfully through people who are most weak in themselves but most strong in Him.

Songs from the Prayer Closet by Larry Hall
Book $12
This album features quiet arrangements of well-loved hymns that focus on prayer and worship. These cherished songs are delicately explored through meditative, instrumental piano and string accompaniment.

The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms
Book $13
The Westminster Confession of Faith is considered to be one of the finest statements of doctrine ever produced. Here is vital information about Scripture, God’s character, the Trinity, the law of God, the gospel of Christ, the church, and the sacraments.

What Is Reformed Theology? by R.C. Sproul
Book $12.80
Few evangelical Christians today understand Reformed theology. In this classic book, Dr. Sproul offers an introduction to Reformed theology, the heart of historical evangelicalism.

What's in the Bible? by R.C. Sproul
Book $12
What’s in the Bible was designed to help individuals over common hurdles, such as long lists of laws and genealogies, which often discourage reading the Bible cover to cover. Instead, R.C. Sproul and Robert Wolgemuth collaborated to highlight the essence of God’s voice, activity, and purpose from Genesis through Revelation.

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God's Hammer

Sometimes, indeed often, we build and maintain our paradigms for our own comfort. Our worldviews are usually less the result of careful, dispassionate, sober-minded analysis and more the result of self-serving, special pleading, rationalization of our sin. We believe not because these beliefs commend themselves to our minds but because in our minds the beliefs commend us. It is these habits of our desperately deceitful hearts that make us miss the voice of God. He speaks, but we hear what we want to.

We come to our Bibles with this most fundamental presupposition—whatever the Bible may be saying, it can’t be telling me that my life needs to be fundamentally changed. Wherever the Bible calls for such change, it must be addressing someone else. Out of this presupposition flows what I call “the diabolical art of simultaneous translation.” This is what happens when our eyes roam across the very words of God in Scripture, but our minds change what we read into something safe, something reasonable, something inoffensive. Jesus, for instance, tells us not to worry about what we will eat or what we will wear, that this is what the Gentiles worry about, and that we ought to know that we are under God’s care. What our minds hear is something like this: “Those people who are more prosperous than I am need to stop worrying about money. When I get as prosperous as they are, I will be pious enough to no longer worry. Those worrying prosperous people really ought to be ashamed of themselves.”

Continue reading God's Hammer, R.C. Sproul Jr.'s contribution to the November issue of Tabletalk.

#Truth4Inmates: 2 Days Left to Reach Our Goal

Earlier this month we started a campaign to raise $4,000 to send Tabletalk magazine to inmates. We are thankful to report that we have raised $3,168 — 79% of our goal! With only $832 to go, there are still two full days left to reach 100%.

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Do All Those Who Die in the Womb Go to Heaven?

I don’t know. The Bible doesn’t say.  It is certainly possible that they do. It is also possible that they don’t. It is, in turn, possible that some go to heaven when they die and some do not. Christians have, over the years dealt with this heart-wrenching question a number of different ways.

Some suggest that such children have no need to be saved from the wrath of God because they do not stand guilty before Him. While most of these would agree that even the youngest are tainted by sin (see Psalm 51:5), a few go so far as to suggest that the very young are without sin. Both positions suggest that the Bible leaves room for what they call the “age of accountability,” an unknown time (some suggest age 13 on the basis of the practice of bar mitzvah, when a Jewish boy becomes a man) when children do become responsible before God for their sin. The closest supportive text here is II Samuel 12:21-23.

Some suggest that the children of believers are welcomed to heaven, and leave open the question of the end of the children of unbelievers. The best text in defense of this position is I Corinthians 7:14, where the children of at least one believing parent are said to be “holy.”

Still others take the position that the elect among those dying in the womb go to heaven, and leave open the question of whether or not all or only some such children are elect. Finally, some take a mildly agnostic position, suggesting that “the God of heaven and earth will do rightly.”

I, though I agree that all and only the elect will enter into heaven, and that the judge of all the earth will do rightly, embrace none of these positions. In the end I believe that the texts cited do not warrant the conclusions drawn from them. Thus my bold response- I don’t know. What I am persuaded of is this. All humans, from conception, are sinners and stand guilty before a holy God. Their only hope is the work of Christ applied to them. That work is applied always and only through faith, and that only the faith of the one saved.  Babies in heaven are there not by virtue of their age, nor their election, nor their parents. They are there by virtue of Christ, applied to them by their Spirit-given faith.

But can unborn babies believe? Not by themselves, just like you and me. It takes a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit to make that happen.  Do we have reason to believe that He sometimes makes that happen? II Samuel 12:21-23 suggests He might. I Corinthians 7:14 suggests He might. Add to that John leaping in the womb at the presence of Christ (Luke 1:41) and we have reason to hope.

This could, of course, include all children dying in the womb. It could include none of them. Either way the Judge of all the earth would have done rightly. This is, clearly enough, an emotional issue. It is not, in my own life, merely abstract. My wife and I lost seven children to miscarriage, and have one precious 14 year old with the capacities of a one year old.  Our emotions, however, should not lead us to add to the Bible, nor to muddy the precious saving waters of the work of Christ given to us by faith. Our hope for them is the same as our hope for anyone. We are all sinners, and all without hope save for the work of Christ. But praise be to His name, He came into this world to save sinners.