R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 568

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Sheep, Wolves, Snakes, and Doves

When Jesus sends us to bear witness to Him in the world, He does not send us out as dominant and strong but as weak and seemingly defenseless in ourselves. The only reason I say “seemingly” defenseless is that it is possible that, since “all authority” belongs to Jesus (Matt. 28:18), He might intervene and shut the mouths of the wolves, like he did the mouths of the lions that surrounded Daniel.

But that does not appear to be His intention. He goes on to say that the “wolves” will deliver the “sheep” to courts, f log them, drag them before governors, have parents and children put to death, hate them, persecute them from town to town, malign them, and kill them (Matt. 10:17–31). So it is clear that when Jesus says He is sending us as sheep in the midst of wolves, He means that we will be treated the way wolves treat sheep.

Read more from Dr. John Piper in the article he wrote for this month's issue of Tabletalk: Sheep, Wolves, Snakes, and Doves.

The Mighty Weakness of John Knox: An Interview with Douglas Bond

Reformation Trust: What does the title—The Mighty Weakness of John Knox—mean?
Douglas Bond: We tend to think of Knox as the bold, thundering, charge-into-the-fray, no-holds-barred Reformer—sort of a giant who walks into the room and says, “Everybody move!” and they do. But the more research I did, the more formidable problems with this stereotype emerged. The title reflects the character of Knox that developed from my research. The thundering might of Knox’s ministry was not the result of DNA. He was not a giant who just switched loyalties. Knox was a meek, reluctant personality, a weak man in the flesh, made mighty by the grace and power of God’s sovereign call on his life in the gospel.

RT: Why is it important for Christians today to read about John Knox?
DB: We who live in the twenty-first century are such self-satisfied individuals, and this has an effect on the church, in a big way. We’re so impressed with our progress, our technology, our innovations, our scholarship. We tend to look down on the past. Now, there are things to distance ourselves from in the past, to be sure. But sitting down and feasting on the rich legacy that we have from those God raised up and equipped to confront the challenges to the gospel that litter history—learning of these challenges and how God raised up men like Knox to contend for the faith through them—is essential for Christians surrounded by a world that scorns the past and worships ourselves and the work of our hands in the present. I don’t think learning from church history and men like Knox is take-it-or-leave-it optional for Christians who know they must have the perspective of the ages on the moment they are living in in the present.

RT: You argue that the typical understanding of Knox as a giant of men thundering against queens is somewhat inaccurate. How so?
DB: A guy who, when first called on to preach God’s Word, breaks into tears in public and flees the room doesn’t sound to me like a man who thundered simply because he was inherently a thundering sort of guy. Another feature of Knox’s life—and I include an entire chapter on it, so central is it to understanding the man—is his life of prayer. Men who know they’re weak and needy tend to be better prayers; men who know their frailty, who abandon all hope in themselves, these are the men who fall on their knees and cry out to their all-powerful God. That was Knox. Tyrants didn’t fear sickly, timorous Knox. Tyrants feared Knox’s praying more than the cannons of ten thousand soldiers.

RT: Is it necessary for the contemporary Christian to study Christians who lived so long ago? How could they be relevant for the milieu in which we live?
DB: There really is nothing new under the sun. What goes around does, indeed, come around. All the greats of church history were great precisely because they contended for the gospel in the particular way in which the gospel was under attack in their day. The gospel is under attack in our day, and anyone who thinks otherwise needs to spend more time studying church history (and Paul’s epistles and the whole canon of Scripture). The thing that so impressed me with Knox was how unflinching he was about getting the gospel right. Anything that intrudes between the sinner and Christ our righteous Redeemer was idolatry to Knox, and idols had to be torn down. We need this today, in a big way.

RT: In the preface of the book you write that Knox is a model for the ordinary Christian. What makes him relevant to all Christians?
DB: If we’re honest with ourselves, in the trembling loneliness of our own hearts, we’re all weak, insecure, frail and dying individuals. Some attempt to compensate by shouting this down and being arrogant, proud, and noisy. But many simply fear they have nothing to contribute, that God can’t use someone so ordinary, weak, unskilled, or simple as they know themselves to be. In Knox as he really was, there is great encouragement for the saints who feels they have nothing to contribute. I was thrilled to discover this dimension about Knox’s life. It seems so eminently practical for so many dear saints, the elderly, the untried youth, the sick, the handicapped, the many for whom life has been a succession of disappointments—God has a purpose and a use and role for each one of his children in his family in every age—yes, the broken reeds and the smoking flax. This is what I so much want to convey in this little volume. Readers may forget details about the convoluted history in Knox’s world, but my hope is that they will not forget the mystery of God’s providence in forgiving the adulteress, in calling smelly fishermen, in choosing the younger brother, in raising the dead.

RT: What is a Christ-subdued life?
DB: Simply put, it is dying that we might live. It is a life, like Knox’s, where I must decrease and he must increase. It is knowing that without Christ we are nothing, but with Christ as our righteousness, as our Redeemer, as our Lord, and as our friend, weak, frail, and timorous sinners can do all things.

RT: What was the source of Knox’s strength in his own weakness?
DB: Christ, Christ alone, solus Christus!

RT: How is weakness an “essential prerequisite to being used of Christ”?
DB: Without knowing who we really are, we can never be made good by Christ Himself. Therefore, right self-knowledge, as in the order of John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, goes hand in hand with right knowledge of God. If we think we can worship, serve, obey, or be faithful to even the tiniest degree without the grace of God in Christ alone, we haven’t gotten the gospel right. We’ll never be used of Christ if we think we are clever, well-educated, sophisticated, or inherently gifted. Christ takes the empty and fills them. He came to seek and to save those who knew that they were in desperate need, that they were lost.

RT: What are some of the ways in which we see Knox’s strength in weakness?
DB: It is remarkable to see a man who feared preaching before friends, stand and deliver fearlessly before tyrants who had the power to lop his head off—and he knew they had this temporal power. Yet he preached anyway, and what preaching it was! He called a spade a spade, and a fig a fig, as he put it. There was no mincing of words with Christ-empowered Knox.

RT: What have you personally learned from John Knox’s life?
DB: I have learned so much it is hard to begin. God does not call all of us—myself included, of course—to be the instruments of reformation in an entire nation. But He does by His grace alone raise me from my weakness and insecurities to find strength in Christ alone, period, plus nothing.

RT: What was your favorite chapter to write in this book?
DB: I found writing the first draft of the final chapter while sitting in Knox’s house (for skeptics who don’t think it was his house, I just could not find evidence to sufficiently discredit the long tradition of the house at Trunk Close being, in fact, a house that Knox did live in, and the house he died in) on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh in April of 2010 a favorite chapter. I read from it just a few weeks ago with a tour group my wife and I led, and that was also a meaningful part of that chapter, sort of a completion of it in the final book form. It recounts his dying hours, the comfort he found in God’s Word read by his young wife, and his final words.

RT: Who do you hope will read the book?
DB: I hope our unbelieving coach driver on the most recent tour will read the copy I gave him and everyone on the tour signed with a note of appreciation to him; the gospel is on every page. But I do hope all Christians—yes, especially the non-Presbyterian ones—will read it. All Christians who have ever felt inadequate to the challenges they face.

RT: If readers take only one lesson from this book, what do you hope that will be?
DB: My hope is that this little book will help little Christians to look away from themselves and to the splendor and might of Jesus Himself.

Find out more about this and other titles in A Long Line of Godly Men Profile series published by Reformation Trust Publishing.

Learn more about Douglas Bond.

 

Join Us Next March for the 2012 National Conference

Burning hearts are not nourished by empty heads.

On March 15-17, 2012, in Orlando, Florida, R.C. Sproul will be joined by Sinclair Ferguson, Robert Godfrey, Michael Horton, Steven J. Lawson, Albert Mohler, Stephen Meyer, R.C. Sproul Jr., and Del Tackett to consider "The Christian Mind." One of the things most alarming about today’s culture is the way in which evangelicals are responding to attacks. We must develop our minds if we are to sustain our passion for the Savior and deal with the bias against us. Join us for this exciting time of training and fellowship as we all learn how better to think like Christians in order that we might live like Christians.

Register now and receive the Early Bird Rate. Learn more at Ligonier.org.

Happy Pastors

"As the star of the television series Dirty Jobs, Mike Rowe suits up and labors in some of the most dirty and dangerous work environments possible. To date, he hasn’t tried pastoring. But pastoring qualifies as a dirty job, which is reflected in the most common biblical metaphor for the job: shepherd. Being a shepherd is difficult, demanding, and — if done well — exhausting. Pastors with any experience in the field will know exactly what I mean."

This is how C.J. Mahaney introduces the subject of his article in the current issue of Tabletalk: Happy Pastors.

"Take sermon preparation," he says. "The work is hard, repetitive, and impossible to avoid, outgrow, or expedite. You spend hours of hard work over the text, and at some point you review your sermon manuscript and are embarrassed by what you see. Maybe you find yourself tired, confused, and a bit fearful. And you’ll do it all again next week."

Read further encouragement for pastors in Happy Pastors.

Receive a Special-Edition Copy of Chosen by God for Your Gift of Any Amount

All Christians at times struggle to embrace certain teachings of the Bible. I’ll never forget my seminary days when I challenged Dr. John Gerstner regarding divine election. I made a pest of myself, but Dr. Gerstner patiently endured me. Slowly, I came to learn that I must teach what the Bible says is true, not what I want the Bible to say is true.

Paul’s teaching in Romans finally convinced me that God chooses a people for Himself based solely on His good pleasure. I began to see the depth of human depravity and that the Lord must sovereignly, lovingly, and directly work in the hearts of His elect if anyone is to believe. The graciousness of God toward sinners — such as myself — overcame me.

Understanding predestination leads to a God-centered theology, one confident that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:29–39). I have seen this theology make people desire the glory of God and His kingdom above all else.

A longing to see this fruit is one reason Ligonier Ministries works to help Christians develop a God-centered theology.

In October, we plan to air a special Chosen by God teaching series on Renewing Your Mind. We are making this push in the hope that it will help even more people better understand God’s love, grace, and sovereignty.

We are asking for your help to enable us to fund this outreach and the other ways Ligonier is reaching the world with the gospel. As a token of thanks for your gift of any amount, I will send you a special twenty-fifth anniversary copy of my book Chosen by God. You can donate via our secure website.

With over 300 stations and translators both at home and abroad, it costs Ligonier $58,500 every week to broadcast Chosen by God and other teaching series to those who desperately need a place to find God-centered theology. As friends like you join with us, we can reach the world with the gospel of God.

Your servant in Christ,

R.C. Sproul

R.C. Sproul's Chosen by God 25th Anniversary: A Testimony

Great Quotes from The Intimate Marriage

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 Intimate Marriage.

Communicating is often a burdensome task, but it is a task that must be accomplished for a marriage to be complete. When communication falters, the marriage is in trouble. When it fails, the marriage is virtually doomed.

The more we are able to reveal ourselves to our life partners and still be loved, the more we are able to understand what a relationship with God is all about.

When the New Testament calls wives to be in subjection to their husbands, there is no hint of female inferiority. That notion is neither explicitly stated or implied. When the idea is wrenched out of Scripture, it is done so by twisted minds. What is called for is a division of labor in the economy of marriage. The role of leadership is assigned to the man and not to the woman.

There is a genuine sense in which Christians are to be grateful to God in the midst of trial. But this can be distorted into a flippant gimmick that keeps one from dealing responsibly with problems. Maybe a better way is to praise the Lord and then get busy solving the problem.

Marriages can’t be healed or redeemed overnight. There is no therapeutic panacea that can transform an intolerable marriage situation into an idyllic dream. But the direction of the marriage can change overnight. The pattern of destruction can change into a pattern of construction in a short time. For this pattern to change, a new commitment must be made. If the two options are status quo or redemption, that commitment is not difficult to make. But if the options include divorce, commitment is extremely difficult.

The wife has authority over the husband’s body and the husband has authority over the wife’s body in the sexual context. Imagine that! I wonder how many marital problems would be solved if couples followed this one principle.

Commitment lies at the heart of marriage. In the biblical context, this commitment does not take place privately, in a corner. It is a public matter. Hence the beginning of the marriage ceremony calls attention to the fact that the “dearly beloved” are gathered in an assembly before witnesses. The marriage ceremony is a corporate affair. The Bible has low regard for private covenants witnessed by no one.

Twitter Highlights (9/18/11)

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

Reformation Trust We have no right to come before God at all, apart from the finished work of Christ. -R.C. Sproul http://bit.ly/qFURja



Ligonier A holy God is both just and merciful, never unjust. - R.C. Sproul



Tabletalk Magazine "He who makes himself his own master subjects himself to a fool." - Bernard of Clairvaux



Ligonier The seductive power of this world is to conform... -R.C. Sproul



Tabletalk Magazine Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has (Descartes).



Reformation Trust Christ’s death accomplished a real redemption for His sheep, not a potential redemption for the world in general. -Steven Lawson



Ligonier I get so irritated when I hear preachers...say, "Come to Jesus & all your problems will be over," because that's just simply a lie. -Sproul

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

Encouraging One Another

I write, but I also read. The two actually go hand in hand. To read only is to be a wisdom vortex, to take in but never breath out. To write only is to embrace the folly that wisdom ends with you. Without drinking deeply of the wisdom of others we will soon become clouds without rain. As a writer I am well acquainted with the temptations that come to writers. We are easily discouraged. We think we are speaking into the wind, that no one is hearing us. As a reader, however, I have the great privilege of hearing. I get to see God at work in the lives of others as they receive wisdom from the Spirit, and then pass it along to the rest of us.  For what it’s worth, my internet reading tends to begin with the wisdom of David and Tim Bayly at Baylyblog. It includes the insights of my friend Lane Keister and his friends at Green Baggins.  I also benefit from reading the insights from the sundry contributors at Pyromaniacs. Tim Challies and Doug Phillips are likewise among my favorites.

Were one to construct a theological continuum one would see a fairly clear distinction between the Bayly Brothers and the Pyromaniacs. Though there is of course overlap and continuity, one would see a rather yawning gap between Doug Phillips and Lane Keister. What one would find in common among all these men is a commitment to be in submission to the Word of God. This, I pray, is where I aspire to intersect with all this diversity. 

What history has shown us is that we cannot rightly measure commitment to the plain teaching of God’s Word on the basis of one’s conclusions. One can both reach the right conclusions for the wrong reasons, and, though this might be slightly more difficult, the wrong conclusions for the right reasons. That is, some may have a deep passion for God’s Word, but still end up parroting the wisdom of their heroes. There is no body of conclusions that come equipped with some kind of organic seal of approval--All conclusions reached here can be traced clearly to the perspicuous Word of God. Sin always gets in our way.

The hard reality is that the more we grasp the sinfulness of man the more we must watch for the sinfulness of those we hope will teach us wisdom. We are indeed all sinners, which explains why even the most pious among us take wrong turns theologically. But even those who take wrong turns know and teach that the Bible is the map. And what that map always shows us, not surprisingly, is our own sin.

Which means that the ones we ought to be listening to are those who are least likely to tell us what to think, who are most likely to tell us where to look. Those who speak, who write about their own sin, those are the ones who have been given wisdom. Those, on the other hand, who are most quick to point out the sins of others, that is where we need a godly skepticism. Sinners speak of their own sin and God’s grace and pronounce peace. The proud, on the other hand, speak of the sins of others and pronounce judgment. In short, where the gospel shows its impact is where we see ourselves. Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Feminine Threads

“Christianity is a religion of history.” With these words, Diana Lynn Severance launches into a comprehensive survey of church history from the New Testament to the present day. As is obvious by the book’s title, Feminine Threads: Women in the Tapestry of Christian History is a survey intended to be selective. Severance brings two particular aspects of church history into sharp focus:  the roles of individual women in that history and the way the church has thought about women through the centuries.

Dr. Severance is well equipped to write such a survey, having taught “Women in Church History” courses in various seminaries. She has two stated purposes in writing. The first is to encourage readers by providing narrative accounts of godly women, many of whom have made significant contributions in the advance of the gospel through the years. A second purpose for the book is the exposure of the roots of much of the current unbiblical thinking on gender and women. The author’s hope is that, as modern-day Christians see how some of this thinking has evolved, they will more clearly grasp the unbiblical nature of its ideas.

Feminine Threads begins with the New Testament era and progresses on through early and late antiquity, early and late Middle Ages, the Reformation and its aftermath, both Great Awakenings, the Victorian Age, and modern times. Each chapter highlights specific women of that time counted as Christians. Some were slaves; some were queens.  Some lived secluded lives, while others traveled the world as missionaries, teachers, or preachers. Some raised many children; others chose celibacy. And some valued the Bible supremely as the Word of God, while others put greater faith in their own subjective thoughts and experience. Severance includes them all, providing first a caveat in a note to the reader called “Tares Among the Wheat.”  As Christ taught in his parable, she warns, the church has always included tares among the wheat. This is true both in terms of individual professing Christians, whose practice falls short of biblical teaching, and in terms of beliefs and ideas the church and individual Christians have held. In a fallen world, even the most faithful believers will have some inconsistencies in their thought and practice.  Severance freely admits the reader will find both tares and wheat in this survey, and calls upon Christian readers to exercise discernment in comparing the lives and the teaching described in Feminine Threads with the clear principles of Scripture. 

As Feminine Threads moves through the centuries, Severance provides, as background, brief synopses of history in general for each era. She then describes the ideas held by the church of that time, specifically ideas related to women.  This is what especially fascinated me. As I moved from chapter to chapter, I could follow the rise and fall of biblical thought—and unbiblical thought. For any who have ever wondered where the idea that celibacy is better than marriage originated or how a cult worshiping Mary developed or for any who have thought—erroneously—that the Puritans were prudes when it came to romantic love and sex, this is enlightening reading!  In addition to the text, boxes and charts appear on many pages, giving additional historical insights in capsule form.  A few examples are: “Women Martyrs in the Early Church;” “Were Women Priests?”; “Mary Magdalene, Fact and Fiction;” “Christian Queens of Influence among Franks and Anglo-Saxons;” “American Voluntary Societies” (having Christian women at the forefront); and “Five Unmarried Woman Missionaries.”

Both in her narrative accounts of women and in her mini-lessons on church thought, only occasionally does Severance interject her own opinions. She provides objectivity and, as often as possible, allows the women and church leaders to speak for themselves, using their writings to show us what they did and thought.

In fact, readers from a Reformed background may consider that to be a negative. Included along with Sarah Edwards, Susanna Wesley, and Elisabeth Eliot are Teresa d’Avila and other mystics and Aimee Semple McPherson, preacher and founder of the Foursquare Gospel Church. Some might think they have no place in a book that highlights contributions of Christian women to the church.  It is at least certain that such women have influenced the church in important ways.  Often, Severance simply describes the contribution and allows the reader to determine whether it was for good or for ill.  On the other hand, feminist readers will no doubt take offense at the reminders of the Bible’s teaching on women that are woven throughout the work. If folks on both sides of the issue feel a little offended, then I believe Severance has done what she set out to do:  provide an objective look at the history of women and the church and remind us of what the Bible actually teaches about women.