R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 560

Parenting by God's Promises, New from Reformation Trust

To parent a child is to undertake a God given ministry of the highest order—providing a precious soul with care, nurture, and training in the Lord.

To assist Christian parents, Dr. Joel R. Beeke has written Parenting by God's Promises: How to Raise Children in the Covenant of Grace. Using Scripture as his foundation, Dr. Beeke offers practical wisdom for parents on topics such as instituting and leading family worship, teaching children, modeling faithful Christian living, and exercising discipline.

Parenting by God's Promises is available now.

Read a Sample Chapter | Retail $19, Buy it for $15.20 here

"This is a truly helpful and healthy book for Christian parents—deeply biblical, theological, and practical. Parents, prospective parents, and churches will want to keep Parenting by God’s Promises close at hand."

—Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr.
President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Louisville, Kentucky

Interview with Dr. Beeke

We had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Beeke concerning his latest book. Here are several of the questions and answers from that discussion:

How long have you studied and taught the subject of parenting?

I've been counseling parents for thirty-three years in the ministry; reading and preaching on the subject of parenting for more than twenty years; and teaching a family class on parenting in our church for four years.

What issues does this book address that are not found in most other parenting books?

Theologically, few parenting books provide a solid Reformed foundation for parenting, emphasizing God’s gracious promises to believing parents and their children in the covenant of grace. Practically, few parenting books address how Christian parents share in the anointing and threefold office of Christ as Mediator, and should function as teaching prophets, interceding priests, and guiding kings in the home. Also, few Christian parenting books deal with the common challenges of parenting, such as teaching children to listen, taming their tongues, and handling sibling relationships. Finally, few parenting books have chapters devoted to helping teenagers discern God’s will, resist negative peer pressure, and manage their anger.

Why do most books on parenting tend to leave parents feeling guilty instead of helping them?

They focus too much on mandates or imperatives, on what parents must do, without relating that to God’s fatherly love, His forgiveness in Christ, His promise of the Holy Spirit’s power and guidance, all aspects of His covenant of grace with us, as the bedrock of parenting, which truly provides help.

How does knowing the gospel apply to being a parent?

In a thousand ways, of which here are three: First, we must show unconditional love for our children as the fruit of Christ’s unconditional gospel love for us. Second, we should not be shocked when our children sin, for the gospel teaches us that we are all sinners. We must not disown our children for sinning, either, for Christ does not disown us as sinners. Finally, the gospel teaches us that we must continually be exercised in the gospel if we are to progress in our growth in grace to God’s glory. One of the greatest means of such grown is to strive to rear our children in the ways of the Lord. Repeatedly in the gospels, Christ uses children to bring parents to Himself. Think, for example, of the father of the demoniac in Mark 9 and the mother of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15.

You identify three types of problem parents: consensus administrators, horns of plenty, and wishing wells. What are the results of such parenting? How should parents see themselves?

Consensus administrators run their household by majority vote. Children do not learn submission to authority in such households. Parents who are horns of plenty shower their children with money and gifts. Rather than showing true love, this type of indulgence usually produces self-indulgent, demanding, and ungrateful children. Parents who are wishing wells are ruled by their moods and feelings. These moods are so unpredictable that children never know how their parents will respond to their requests. This tends to destroy their children’s trust, and offers opportunities for them to manipulate their parents to further their own agendas.

Instead of following these worldly and unwise models, parents should see themselves as representatives of Christ, seeking to train their children in a scriptural manner consistent with how they believe Christ wants them to raise them.

What are some practical areas in which you offer help for parents of teenagers?

I try to offer parents help in areas that surface in day-to-day parenting. That includes answering questions such as: How can we as parents train our children to treat their siblings with Christ-like love? How can we help our children learn to discern God’s will in life’s major areas, such as choosing a career and choosing a marriage partner? How can we help our children fend off negative peer pressure and become strong models of positive peer pressure for their friends? How can we help our teens cope with anger? What steps can we take to prepare our children for leaving home and for marriage?

Parenting by God's Promises is available now.

Read a Sample Chapter | Retail $19, Buy it for $15.20 here

Keep the Presence of God

Here is how John Piper begins his contribution to the November issue of Tabletalk:

On vacation, I kept a copy of Jonathan Edwards’ sermons on my bedside table as a way of going to sleep with a God-centered mind. One of those sermons was called “Keeping the Presence of God.” It was preached on a colony-wide fast day in April 1742. The second wave of the First Great Awakening had crested in the vicinity, and Edwards was seeing both the good and bad fallout of revival. He saw spiritual dangers lurking everywhere. In the next year, as he preached his famous series on the religious affections, he would become the most careful analyst and student of human hearts that had been wakened in the revival. What he saw in those hearts was mixed.

So in this sermon, “Keeping the Presence of God,” his aim was to stir up awakened Christians to be vigilant that their exuberance not become pride. He exhorted them to give themselves to watchfulness and prayer so as to remain broken, humble, and happy in the good work of God in their lives.

Keep Reading Keep the Presence of God.

Great Quotes from Knowing Scripture

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 Knowing Scripture.

I can’t make the Bible come alive for anyone. The Bible is already alive. It makes me come alive.

We fail in our duty to study God’s Word not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because it is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or a lack of passion. Our problem is that we are lazy.

The issue for Christians is not whether we are going to be theologians but whether we are going to be good theologians or bad ones.

We may pick up the Bible and be “inspired” or moved to tears or other poignant emotions. But our greatest profit is in being instructed.

The main reason why we should study the Bible is because it is our duty. If the Bible were the most boring book in the world, dull, uninteresting and seemingly irrelevant, it would still be our duty to study it.

I believe the Bible is uniquely inspired and infallible, and this puts it in a class by itself. But for matters of interpretation the Bible does not take on some special magic that changes basic literary patterns of interpretation.

Twitter Highlights (11/13/11)

Here are some highlights from the various Ligonier Twitter feeds over the past week.

Ligonier It's a dreadful thing to...ever think that you're going to have to stand naked before a righteous & holy God. -R.C. Sproul



Reformation Trust Besides the Bible, the way we live our faith...is the most important book our children will ever read. -Joel Beeke http://bit.ly/njTRMB



Reformation Trust Prayer is not magic. God is not a celestial bellhop ready at our beck and call to satisfy our every whim. -R.C. Sproul http://bit.ly/qFURja



Ligonier The only thing that we have earned at the hands of perfect justice is perfect punishment. -R.C. Sproul



Tabletalk Magazine When the value of God's benefits is known to us, all other things will be deemed worthless (John Calvin).



Tabletalk Magazine God speaks to us through the Scriptures not in order to make us scholars but to make us Christians (Ridderbos).



Ligonier The righteousness that justifies a Christian...is the righteousness that inherently belongs to, and is the property of, Jesus. - R.C. Sproul

You can also find our various ministries on Facebook:
Ligonier Ministries | Ligonier Academy | Reformation Bible College
Reformation Trust | Tabletalk Magazine

The Need for Perfect Obedience

There are only two ways of salvation: by the law or by grace. If salvation is to happen by the law, perfect obedience is necessary. There can be no blemishes or shortcomings, for the law will never show mercy. It knows nothing of grace or forgiveness. It demands perfection, because whoever transgresses in one tiny detail transgresses the whole of God’s law: “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it” (James 2:10). Getting to heaven through obedience to the law requires perfection. Merely doing your best will prove insufficient; good intentions are not enough. It is vitally important to grasp exactly how much the law demands if we think we are going to be in a right relationship with God through law-keeping. Simply put, “By works of the law no one will be justified” (Gal. 2:16).

*****
Excerpt from How the Gospel Brings Us All the Way Home (Reformation Trust, 2011) 

Praying Like Crazy

A crazy person is one who has a break from reality. Those of us who have not embraced postmodernism understand that reality is something outside ourselves, that exists, how it exists, quite apart from our agreement or understanding of it. If we think a tail is a leg, a dog still only has four legs. What we think has nothing to do with it.

Which is why I suspect that we are all as crazy as a spectacularly crazy thing.  So much of our pathos, so much of our pain, so much of what we seek to escape isn’t about what is, but what we think is. Because we don’t believe in “the” reality, “our ““reality” becomes a place of sorrow and fear.  

Imagine if you would, what would happen to your sorrows and fears if God Himself, the maker of heaven and earth, the Father of our Lord, the sovereign One, were to come to you, wrap you in His almighty arms and say to you, “I love you with a perfect love, exactly as I love My Son. I will never stop loving you, no matter what.  I am completely, utterly for you. I promise, on My own life, that I will do you good every day of your life. And because I control all things, that means My good is all you will ever experience from this time forward.” What if the Holy Spirit were to say to you, “I am with you wherever you go.  I will purify your heart, and fill you with my courage.” Suppose Jesus were to cup your chin in His scar stained hand, look you in the eye and say, “You are My beloved, and I will never forsake you.” Now, would you ever be afraid that He was displeased with you? Would you ever fear the world? Your own flesh? The devil?

Would you, if this had ever happened, ever be dissatisfied? Would you ever lose sleep? Would you ever be short with others? Would envy ever find a toe-hold in you? The truth, the objective, 2+2=4 truth, the “Squirrels have bushy tails” truth is that this is precisely what has happened.  These are precisely the present day promises of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The only problem is that I’m just crazy enough not to believe these promises.

Which is why I pray. I do not ask that God would do more for me, save that He would help me grasp all that He has already done. I do not ask Him that He would allow me to see the future, but that He would allow me to believe the present. I don’t ask to be made super spiritual. I don’t ask to be a pillar of piety. I don’t ask become an icon of integrity. I only want to be sane, to submit to the blessed reality in which I already live.  I only want to believe the One who is the Truth, whose Truth promises to set me free. Pray with, and for me.

Homesick Blues

One of my favorite songs is "Caledonia" by Dougie MacLean. Dougie is from Scotland, and he refers to the song as a "wee homesickness song." Before reading further, click on the video clip below and listen to the song.

I've thought about this song and often wondered why it strikes such a chord with me. There's a melancholy element there that is appropriate to a song about homesickness.

So I've been telling old stories, singing songs that make me think about where I came from, and that's the reason why I seem so far away today.

But in spite of this, it's not a "sad" song. It also contains an element of hope.

Caledonia you're calling me, and now I'm going home.

Perhaps part of the reason for the song's impact on me is my own occasional homesickness for the place where I grew up. I have lived in my new place of residence for over fifteen years, but it still does not feel like "home" to me.

I think there is more to it than that, however. As a Christian, I also feel out of place in this present fallen world. The reason, I believe, is because we as Christians are resident aliens. Scripture tells us "our citizenship is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20). In this world, we are "sojourners and exiles" (1 Pet. 2:11). Like our Old Testament forefathers in the faith, we desire "a better country" (Heb. 11:15). So this world is not our true home.

Those of us who are believers, therefore, feel something akin to homesickness, and a song like "Caledonia" resonates in our soul. We take joy in and give thanks for the grace and mercy that is now ours because of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we give thanks for the many blessings we have in this life, but we also daily struggle with the world, the flesh, and the devil. We see the suffering caused by sin around us, and we experience it ourselves. We see friends and family go home before us, leaving us to carry on without them. We cry out, "How long, O Lord?"

And what do we do? We gather together as the Lord's people on the Lord's Day and, as in the song, we "tell old stories" - old true stories. And we sing songs that make us think about our true home. And we can become "homesick." But we do not despair. We press on with the duties to which we have been called in this present age, but we also look forward to the day when we can say, "Lord you're calling me, and now I'm going home."

$5 Friday: Worship, Adoption & Sacraments

Find $5 Friday resources today on worship, adoption, the five solas, Psalm 23, and baptism and the Lord's supper. Special thanks to Reformation Heritage Books for partnering with us this week. Sale starts Friday at 8 a.m. and ends Saturday at 8 a.m. EST.

View today's $5 Friday sale.

From Pastor to President

Philip Graham Ryken is the president of Wheaton College, where he also teaches theology. Prior to his appointment as president of Wheaton in July 2010, Dr. Ryken served as the pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia for ten years. This month's issue of Tabletalk features a fascinating interview with Dr. Ryken in which he answers questions like these:

How did you make the difficult decision to leave the pastorate and enter the academy as president of Wheaton College?
What is your hope for the future for the congregation of Tenth Presbyterian Church and the city of Philadelphia?
Are there any things you learned as a pastor that have been particularly helpful in your new role as president of Wheaton?
At Wheaton you work with Christians from many theological traditions. In what ways can Christians from the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition work with Christians from other traditions to advance the gospel?

Read From Pastor to President: An Interview with Philip Graham Ryken.

Church History: Recommended Reading

Recently, I completed a series of posts listing what I believe to be the most helpful books on each locus of systematic theology. Prior to that I completed a series of posts listing what I found to be the most helpful commentaries on each book of the Bible.

What I would like to do now is something similar with church history. The first series of posts will cover general works on church history as well as some general works on historical theology. I do not plan to follow the “Top 5” format of my series on biblical commentaries. There are simply too many books on each of these topics for that format to work well. Also unless I’ve read a substantial number of the available books on a particular topic, I cannot say: “Here are the top 5.” In addition, I do not necessarily want to limit myself to five books on a topic. There may be more than five. There may be less.
 So, what are some of the more helpful books for students of church history?

General Church History

Cross, F.L. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 

Gonzales, Justo. The Story of Christianity (2 volumes).

Houghton, S.M. Sketches from Church History.

Kuiper, B.K. The Church in History.

Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of Christianity. 

Needham, N.R. 2000 Years of Christ’s Power (3 volumes).

Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church (8 volumes).

Shelley, Bruce L. Church History in Plain Language.

Tucker, Ruth A. Parade of Faith: A Biographical History of the Christian Church.

If I were to recommend only one of these titles, I would suggest Needham’s set. It only covers the period up to and including the Reformation so far, but more volumes are forthcoming. If you need something covering the entirety of church history, the two volumes by Gonzales are very helpful.

Historical Theology

Allison, Gregg R. Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine.

Berkhof, Louis. The History of Christian Doctrines. 

Brown, Harold O. J. Heresies: Heresy and Orthodoxy in the History of the Church.

Cunningham, William. Historical Theology. 

Gerrish, B.A. Thinking with the Church: Essays in Historical Theology.

Hägglund, Bengt. History of Theology.

Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine (5 volumes). 

If I were to recommend only one of these titles, I would suggest either Berkhof or Hägglund as an introduction to the subject.