R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 574

Twitter Highlights (8/14/11)

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

Reformation Trust Martin Luther once said that if he could just understand the first two words of the Lord’s Prayer, he would never be the same again. -Sproul



Tabletalk Magazine "To love someone means to see him as God intended him." — Fyodor Dostoyevsky



Tabletalk Magazine "Do I learn through dark providences, or simply seem relieved when they are over?" - Sinclair Ferguson



Ligonier It's easy to be an educated fool. -R.C. Sproul



Ligonier The knowledge that gives us wisdom is that knowledge that is delivered to us from the Word of God. -R.C. Sproul



Tabletalk Magazine God will take you where you did not want to go in order to produce in you what you could not achieve on your own (@PaulTripp).



Reformation Trust 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

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

Satan the Proud and Powerful (Part 1)

Where did the idea of a red-flanneled, pitchfork-bearing Devil come from? The roots of this grotesque caricature of Satan are found in the Middle Ages. It was popular sport in medieval days to mock the Devil by describing him in ludicrous terms. There was a method in this madness. The medieval church believed in the reality of Satan. It was aware that Satan was a fallen angel who suffered from an overdose of pride. Pride was Satan's supreme weakness. To resist Satan, that proud but fallen creature, required fierce combat. The combat focused on Satan's most vulnerable point, his pride. The theory was this: Attack Satan at his point of weakness and he will flee from us.

What better way to attack Satan's pride than to depict him as a cloven-hoofed court jester in a red suit? These silly images of Satan were intentional caricatures. Unfortunately, later generations responded to the caricatures as if they were intended to be the real thing.

The biblical view of Satan is far more sophisticated than the caricature. The biblical images include that of an "angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14). The "angel of light" image indicates Satan's clever ability to manifest himself sub species boni (under the appearances of good). Satan is subtle. He is beguiling. The serpent in the garden was described as "crafty" (Genesis 3:1). Satan does not appear as a fool. He is a beguiling counterfeit. He speaks with eloquence. His appearance is stunning. The prince of darkness wears a cloak of light.

A second image we have of Satan is that of a roaring lion who goes about seeking whom he will devour (1 Peter 5:8). Notice that the same figure that is used for Christ, the lion, is used by Satan, the archetype of the Antichrist. The anti-lion devours. The Lion of Judah redeems.

With both allusions to the lion we find a symbol of strength, though with Satan it is an evil, demonic strength. His strength is no match for Christ, but it is a strength that is certainly superior to ours. He is not as strong as Christ, but he is stronger than we are.

There are two frequent ways that Satan deceives us. On the one hand he will seek to have us underestimate his strength. On the other hand there are times that he seeks to have us overestimate his strength. In either event he deceives us and can trip us up.

The pendulum of popular belief about Satan tends to swing between two extremes. On one side there are those who believe that he doesn't exist at all, or if he does exist. he is a mere impersonal evil "force," sort of a collective evil that finds its origin in the sin of society. On the other side there are those who have a preoccupied fixation, a cultic focus of attention upon him that diverts their gaze from Christ.

Either way Satan gains some ground. If he can persuade people that he does not exist, he can work his wiles without being detected or resisted. If he can get people to become preoccupied with him, he can lure them into the occult.

Peter underestimated Satan. When Jesus warned Peter about his impending betrayal, Peter protested, saying, "Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death" (Luke 22:33). Peter was overconfident. He underestimated the strength of the adversary Moments before Jesus had warned him about the strength of Satan, but Peter rejected the warning. Jesus said, "Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat" (Luke 22:31).

Peter's protests notwithstanding, he became as putty in the hands of Satan. It was as easy for Satan to seduce Peter as it is to sift wheat in a sieve. In common jargon it was as if Jesus said to Peter, "Peter, you are a piece of cake. You are no match for the formidable strength of the Devil."

Even so, Satan's power over us is limited. He may be stronger than we are, but we have a champion who can and does defeat him. The Scripture declares, "Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4, NASB). James adds these words: "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). When we resist the roaring lion in the power of the Holy Spirit, he runs away with his tail between his legs.

Satan sifted Peter, but his victory was temporary. With the warning Jesus gave came also the consolation: But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren" (Luke 22:32). Jesus predicted both the fall and the restoration of Peter.

To underestimate Satan is to suffer from the pride that goes before destruction. To overestimate him is to grant him more honor and respect than he deserves.

Satan is a creature. He is finite and limited. He is subordinate to God. Christianity never embraces an ultimate dualism of equal and opposite power. Satan is stronger than men but no match for God. He has no divine attributes. His knowledge may exceed ours, but he is not omniscient. His strength may be greater than ours, but he is not omnipotent. He may have a wider sphere of influence than we have, but he is not omnipresent.

Satan is stronger than men but no match for God.

Satan cannot be at more than one place at one time. He is a space-time creature who is limited, as are all angels good or bad, by space and time. Chances are that in your whole lifetime you will never experience a direct, immediate encounter with Satan himself. You might encounter one of his junior-grade lieutenants or one of his host of disciples, but he is likely to spend his time and space in bigger targets than you or me. Even in his concentrated attack on Jesus, Satan departed from him "for a season" (Luke 4:13).

To be continued...

$5 Friday: Hebrews, Evangelism & Atheism

Find $5 Friday resources on Hebrews, pastoral ministry, atheism, angels and demons, evangelism and more. Special thanks to P&R Publishing for partnering with us this week. Sale starts 8 a.m. Friday and ends 8 a.m. Saturday EST. 

View today’s $5 Friday specials.

A Revival of Calvinism

Iain H. Murray is cofounder of Banner of Truth Trust in Edinburgh, Scotland, and an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church of Australia. He is a prominent author and biographer, having written more than twenty books, including Heroes, The Forgotten Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography, Revival and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism, and Evangelicalism Divided: A Record of Crucial Change in the Years 1950 to 2000.

The August issue of Tabletalk contains an interview with Mr. Murray. 

Tabletalk: What are the top three puritan works that every Christian should read and why?

Iain Murray: The Westminster Shorter Catechism; Heaven on Earth by Thomas Brooks (on assurance); Nature and Causes of Apostasy by John Owen (Works of John Owen, vol. 7); and many other “top” ones. Beginners should start with Brooks, Thomas Watson, or John Flavel.

TT: What book (new or old) have you found the most helpful in your past year of reading?

IM: For particular reasons, the majority of my reading in 2010 was in the works of John MacArthur and Archibald Brown (I hope to see published this year The Forgotten Brown,Spurgeon’s Successor).

Keep Reading "A Revival of Calvinism: An Interview with Iain Murray."

Great Quotes from A Taste of Heaven

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 5 of the best from A Taste of Heaven.

The worship to which we are called in our renewed state is far too important to be left to personal preferences, to whims, or to marketing strategies. It is the pleasing of God that is at the heart of worship. Therefore, our worship must be informed at every point by the Word of God as we seek God’s own instructions for worship that is pleasing to Him.

I’ve never been tortured or put on trial for my faith. The persecution I’ve had to endure in this world is minuscule compared to what the heroes of the faith went through. But whatever persecution I have known in my life, the heaviest weight of it has come from the false church, that part of the church that does not believe the gospel and has no heart for worship.

Do we think of our church buildings today in principal terms as being houses of prayer? When we talk as evangelicals about prayer, we can almost assume that the conversation will be about private and personal prayer, quiet times, daily devotions, or perhaps the Wednesday night prayer meeting where we gather with other Christians to pray. But it’s almost completely outside the scope of consideration when we talk about prayer to think about it in terms of the sanctuary. The typical Protestant church building today can hardly be called a house of prayer.

You can grieve for me the week before I die, if I’m scared and hurting, but when I gasp that last fleeting breath and my immortal soul flees to heaven, I’m going to be jumping over fire hydrants down the golden streets, and my biggest concern, if I have any, will be my wife back here grieving. When I die, I will be identified with Christ’s exaltation. But right now, I’m identified with His affliction.

The real crisis of worship today is not that the preaching is paltry or that it’s too drafty in church. It is that people have no sense of the presence of God, and if they have no sense of His presence, how can they be moved to express the deepest feelings of their souls to honor, revere, worship, and glorify God?

It would be the nadir of arrogance to assume that all the good music, the kind that is suitable to be used in the church, has already been composed, and that only the innovations of the past are worthwhile for worship. We can’t determine the aesthetic value of music based upon how long ago it was written or composed. It is also a mistake to think that the only good music is new music, and that if it isn’t new, it isn’t good.

Get Dr. Sproul's Series on Ecclesiastes for a Donation of Any Amount

Everything we do has eternal significance. In this series, R.C. Sproul demonstrates how God teaches us more in our suffering than in happy times. He concludes with a charge to fear God and keep His commandments and affirms that believers would do well to learn from Solomon’s message in Ecclesiastes. Although we live in an age of change, the important matters of the heart remain largely the same from generation to generation.

This week you can get this CD series for a donation of any amount. Messages include:

The Futility of Life
What Time Is It?
Wisdom Through Suffering
Fear God, Keep His Commandments
Questions & Answers

Offer valid through August 11th. Donate Now .

The Unholy Pursuit of God in Moby Dick

Here is a unique title for a Tabletalk article: "The Unholy Pursuit of God in Moby Dick." This is the title of R.C. Sproul's contribution to the August issue. It begins like this:

It seems that every time a writer picks up a pen or turns on his word processor to compose a literary work of fiction, deep in his bosom resides the hope that somehow he will create the Great American Novel. Too late. That feat has already been accomplished and is as far out of reach for new novelists as is Joe DiMaggio’s fifty-six-game hitting streak or Pete Rose’s record of cumulative career hits for a rookie baseball player. The Great American Novel was written more than a hundred and fifty years ago by Herman Melville. This novel, the one that has been unsurpassed by any other, is Moby Dick.

My personal copy of Moby Dick is a leather-bound collector’s edition produced by Easton Press under the rubric “The Hundred Greatest Books Ever Written.”

Note that the claim here is not that Moby Dick is one of the hundred greatest books written in English, but rather that it is one of the hundred greatest books written in any language.

Keep reading "The Unholy Pursuit of God in Moby Dick."

Says Who?

Main stream media tags the Norwegian killer as a Christian, and Christians, naturally object.  What, I wonder, do our objections say about us? First, is it really inconceivable that this man is  a Christian? It may be unlikely. And I may not like it. But I fear our objections run flat into our confession. We are sinners. We are capable of all manner of sin. Are we not betraying a Pelagian sensibility if we protest, “Well, we’re sinners. But not like THAT!!” I know a man who was a believer. He was well respected, and served God’s people in a position of visible leadership. He wrote some of the most beloved songs that are still sung among God’s people. While he was a believer he started an adulterous relationship. To keep himself from being caught he murdered the woman’s husband. Could such a man be a Christian? Well, God says he, David, was God’s own friend.

Do Christians commit murder?  Of course they do Is there some magic number, somewhere between one and a hundred where we can draw a line? I think not. Christians do not, however, murder freely, continuously, without repentance. They do not give themselves over to their sins. If they do, they no longer commit such sins, but practice them, showing their profession to be less than credible. Remember that, quite apart from the reality that we are all guilty of unjustified anger against our brothers, it is likely that your church has a number of saints who have murdered- some aborting their babies, others encouraging their wives, daughters, girlfireds to abort their babies.

Which brings us to the second point. What happens when we define a Christian as broadly as “One who professes to be a Christian?” Who are we to say this man is not a Christian? The better, the more historic question is, “Who is he to say that he is?” The credibility of a person’s profession of faith did not used to and should not ever rest in the one making the profession. Rather it belongs with those who hold the keys, with the elders of the local church.  Where are the elders that are ready to stand up and say, “This man is a Christian, as far as we can tell”? There are no such elders, because he is under no such authority.

Those who object to the accuracy of the man’s profession then had better embrace a more robust ecclesiology than we are used to in our day.  Without a body of elders who know you, who are in authority over you, how is your profession any better than this man’s? The loosey-goosey I-have-a-love-for-Jesus-in-my-heart, why should I need to join a church is a-historical, unbiblical and rebellious. If you cannot name the elders who will have to give answer for your soul- see Hebrews 13:17 and I Peter 5:7) then why would anyone feel compelled to accept your profession? Is a “Christian” who will accept no authority, in principle, any worse than a “Christian” who commits mass murder?

Would we not be more faithful Christians were we to confess that we too are capable of murder? Would we not profess more accurately, were we to confess that there but for the grace of God go we? Would we not confess the Lord, were we to profess that He redeems killers just like us? Would we not more confess the blood of Christ if we acknowledged His body, the church?

Twitter Highlights (8/7/11)

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

Ligonier The worst sin against stewardship is to waste your life. -R.C. Sproul



Reformation Trust Prayer is to the Christian what breath is to life, yet no duty of the Christian is so neglected. -R.C. Sproul http://bit.ly/qFURja



Tabletalk Magazine "Resentment is like taking poison and hoping the other person dies." — St. Augustine of Hippo



Reformation Bible College "God is that than which no greater can be conceived" - Anselm of Canterbury



Reformation Trust No spiritually dead sinner can work his way to heaven. -Steven Lawson



Ligonier God doesn't wait for a person to be pure & unblemished before He redeems him. -R.C. Sproul



Ligonier Once we are reconciled to God, the estrangement is over, the hostilities have ended & the peace is sealed for eternity. -R.C. Sproul

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

5 Principles for Evangelical Leadership

Time for a confession: I once thought an evangelical leader had to be a good marketer. Sensing a call to serve the church vocationally during high school, and since most pastors I knew were polished message crafters and used slick methods, I set out to study marketing in college to prepare for ministry in "seeker sensitive" churches. Leaders in the church were studying the latest advertising trends and picking up gleanings from sociological research to ensure we could pull the the correct "felt need" levers. Focus group theology sounded about right to me. My colleagues and I headed to seminars and sought to take those best practices back to our student ministry. More lights! Better sound system! Emotional skits and videos! Rocking band! Smoke machines! We chided those who didn't "get it" and grew impatient with those whom we perceived were anemic about reaching the lost. God's kingdom depended on me. Numbers were everything. If we did not act now, God's purposes in this world would be thwarted.

Enter the ministries of John MacArthur and R.C. Sproul. I cannot remember which came first, but they were my Calvin and Luther. It was transformative. They articulated a robust understanding of the authority of Scripture, the finished work of the cross of Christ, the Lordship of Jesus in the life of His disciples, and a high view of gospel preaching, God-centered theology and church life that was, at least to me, radical. Zeal for evangelism was bolstered by an unshakable confidence in the God who works through His un-thwartable Word. Gone was the tiring treadmill of pursuing the next best thing. They introduced me to a chorus of evangelical leaders calling the church to the pursuit of God as He sovereignly worked out his purposes in this world.

Iain Murray recently released a biography of John MacArthur. (Do try to pick up a copy.) In the opening of that book, he uses some of Dr. MacArthur's teaching to illustrate five qualities of an evangelical leader. We asked Mr. Murray if we could reprint a portion and he graciously agreed. Twenty years ago, this wise counsel would have saved me several years of heading down an unfruitful path. Perhaps it can do the same for another generation.

An evangelical is a person who believes the ‘three Rs’:  Ruin by the Fall, Redemption through Jesus Christ, and Regeneration by the Holy Spirit. It follows that an ‘evangelical leader’ is a person who stands out in the advancement and defense of those truths. The title does not necessarily imply success judged by numbers and immediate results. On that basis neither Paul nor (William) Tyndale might qualify.

1. An evangelical leader is one who leads and guides the lives of others by Scripture as the Word of God. He seeks to repudiate every other form of influence and pressure. His great concern is to teach Scripture accurately, and to see lives submitted to its authority.

2. An evangelical leader inspires the affection of followers because they learn Christ through him, and see something of Christ in him. They follow him because he follows Christ. And they love him because he loves them in Christ’s name. ‘The apostle Paul summarized the spirit of the true leader when he wrote, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”1 And what is to be imitated the Scriptures do not leave in doubt: ‘Almost every time Scripture holds up Christ as our example to follow, the stress is on his humility.’2

3. An evangelical leader is a man prepared to be unpopular. From the days when Ahab said to Elijah, ‘Are you he that troubles Israel?’, faithfulness to Scripture will not bring the approval of the majority. Dr. MacArthur says bluntly, ‘You cannot be faithful and popular, so take your pick.’ A quest for popularity is a very short-term thing. For an evangelical, ‘success isn’t measured in hours, or even centuries. Our focus is fixed on eternity.’ Success ‘is not prosperity, power, prominence, popularity, or any of the other worldly notions of success. Real success is doing the will of God regardless of the consequences.’3

4. An evangelical leader is one who is awake to the dangers of the times. Not every Christian has the distinction that was once given to the tribe of Issachar, ‘The men of Issachar had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do’ (1 Chron. 12:32). There are periods in church history when the leaders have seriously mistaken the way in which the cause of Christ is to be carried forward. The signs of the times have been misread. A true evangelical leader is raised up to provide God-given direction.

5. An evangelical leader will not direct attention to himself. He personally owes everything to Jesus Christ. As a sinner he sees the need to live in a spirit of repentance all his days. He knows the contrast between what he is in himself and the message that he preaches: ‘We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that  excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us’ (2 Cor. 4:7).  ‘God chooses whom He chooses in order that He might receive the glory.  He chooses weak instruments so that no one will attribute the power to human instruments rather than to God, who wields those instruments.’4

It follows that genuine spiritual leadership will lead others to the conclusion:  ‘Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your name give glory, because of Your mercy, because of Your truth’ (Psa. 115:1).