R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 75

Sovereign Grace in the Wilderness

Unhindered by man and unrestricted by Satan, the sovereign grace of God irresistibly overcomes every obstacle to the salvation of His chosen ones. The conditions in the lives of the elect do not have to be just right in order for God to bring them to Himself. Whether it is during the high times of a great reformation and revival or the low times of a spiritual famine in the land, whether in a king's palace or a pauper's prison, in a cosmopolitan culture or in a remote outpost, the sovereign grace of God is perfectly capable of irresistibly drawing those whom He has chosen to eternal life. No matter what seemingly impossible obstacle looms on the horizon, be it satanic forces or human hardness of heart, God's grace is greater still.

Perhaps nowhere was this irrepressible triumph of sovereign grace more clearly seen than in the dark days of the wilderness experience of Israel under the leadership of Moses. In the desert, Israel was confronted with many difficulties and challenges. In most of these tests, she failed miserably. The Israelites whined and complained against God, even in the face of His gracious guidance. They saw God's abundant provision, yet fell repeatedly into spiritual apostasy and sexual orgies. When they stood on the precipice of entering the Promised Land, they tragically fell back in rank unbelief and rebellion. For forty years, they wandered aimlessly in the barren wilderness until an entire generation died there. Never did God face greater obstacles to the fulfillment of His plan of salvation.

Yet even in these difficult straits, God's sovereign grace was promised and provided to those for whom it was intended. Despite the foul stench of unbelief and the swirling apostasy of Israel in the wilderness, the saving grace of God blew as a life-giving breath of fresh air. There, on the back side of the desert, the truth of God's sovereignty was clearly heard from heaven and unmistakably seen upon earth. Like a radiant star on the darkest night, God's sovereign grace shone brightly in the wilderness. This is the triumphant truth that Moses penned in the books of Exodus through Deuteronomy.

This excerpt is taken from Foundations of Grace by Steven Lawson.

$5 Friday (And More): Theology, Expository Preaching, & Church History

It’s time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week’s resources include such topics as theology, expository preaching, church history, baptism, parenting, John Calvin, and more.

Plus, several bonus resources are also available for more than $5. These have been significantly discounted from their original price. This week’s bonus resources include:

Devoted To God: Blueprints for Sanctification by Sinclair Ferguson, Paperback $18 $12
The Cost by Steven Lawson, Paperback $10 $6
Rejoicing in Christ by Michael Reeves, Paperback $16 $10
Jesus Among Secular Gods, Paperback $15 $10
A Simple Way to Pray, Paperback $10 $6
Ichthus: Jesus Christ, God’s Son, the Saviour, Paperback $13 $9
Choosing My Religion by R.C. Sproul, Paperback $10 $7
Church History 101 by Sinclair Ferguson, Paperback $8 $5
Hymns of Grace, Genuine Leather $80 $50
Heaven on Earth: What the Bible Teaches about Life to Come by Derek Thomas, Hardcover $13 $8
The Gospel: 2016 National Conference, DVD $75 $12
The New Testament Canon with Michael Kruger, DVD $30 $12
The New Testament Canon with Michael Kruger, Study Guide $15 $8
Does Prayer Change Things? by R.C. Sproul, Paperback — Spanish $4 $2
Don't Waste Your Cancer by John Piper, Paperback $3 $2
Can I Know God’s Will? by R.C. Sproul, Paperback — Spanish $4 $2

Sale runs through 12:01 a.m.–11:59 p.m. Friday ET.

View today’s $5 Friday sale items.

The Hunger for Significance by R.C. Sproul

Billions of people are searching for personal worth, but few know where to find it. In our pursuit of meaning, we must look further than our relationships and careers to something far more essential.

In his classic book The Hunger for Significance, now with a newly designed cover, Dr. R.C. Sproul gets to the heart of humanity’s search for dignity by unfolding the reality that we are made in the image of God. This truth shapes how we see ourselves and treat others in the home, the hospital, the prison, and the church.

“This new edition of R.C. Sproul’s The Hunger for Significance is both timely and very helpful to stimulate us to think biblically about ourselves. This book is accessible and engaging, vivid and wide-ranging. It is also remarkably personal at times. In many ways this is R.C. Sproul at his best.”

—Dr. W. Robert Godfrey, Ligonier Ministries Chairman and Teaching Fellow

“In this penetrating analysis, R.C. Sproul…uses his keen mind to teach us how and why we all want our lives to count. This book is a must-read for everyone: pastors, church leaders, and laypeople.”

—Dr. Miguel Núñez, Senior Pastor of Iglesia Bautista Internacional

Available now in the Ligonier store.

Paperback for $17.00 $13.60

Expectations of the Pastor’s Family

Here’s an excerpt from Expectations of the Pastor’s Family, Brian Croft's contribution to the May issue of Tabletalk:

Pastoral ministry today is especially challenging. The most recent figures show that 50 percent of current pastors will not be in the ministry in five years. This number rises to a staggering 80 percent at the ten-year mark. Pastors already face a constant barrage of unreasonable, unrealistic expectations on their limited capacity. This alone is often too much to bear over time. It gets worse. Add to this the challenges and expectations a church places on a pastor’s family, and these attrition rates should be no surprise. Eighty percent of pastors say the ministry has had a negative effect on their families. One statistic that should trouble us the most if we truly care about a pastor’s family is that 66 percent of church members expect their pastor and his wife and children to live at a higher moral standard than they themselves do. In my experience, that percentage is too low.

Continue reading Expectations of the Pastor’s Family, or begin receiving Tabletalk magazine by signing up for a free 3-month trial.

For a limited time, the new TabletalkMagazine.com allows everyone to browse and read the growing library of back issues, including this month’s issue.

God’s Word Is Our Standard

If someone claims to represent the Lord and yet seeks to lead others away from God’s written Word, that person must be rejected. In this brief clip, W. Robert Godfrey teaches that Scripture is our ultimate standard of truth, just as it was in the days of Moses.

Transcript:

Now, when we get to the middle of Deuteronomy, at the top of our step pyramid we'll see that Moses says one of the tests of a true prophet is if he says something and it comes true, then that's a sign he's a true prophet. And that's one test. But here, he's giving another test, a test that almost seems contradictory, because here he says, “If there's a prophet and he gives you a sign and a wonder…” Now what does that mean? If there's a prophet who really performs miracles. Moses isn't going into how he performs those miracles. He's not raising the question, are they real miracles or false miracles? He's saying, in effect, let's grant for a moment the guy performs a real miracle and, therefore, seems to be able to be a true prophet with power, able to say what's going to happen, and then it happens. If we only had that test of a prophet, we would say, "Well, if a prophet comes along and performs a miracle, he must be right." But Moses here is preparing us and adding another test, and he's saying, "It doesn't matter how powerful a prophet seems to be. If he wants to lead you into idolatry, you're not to follow him." If he has miraculous powers, it doesn't prove anything if he's leading you against the Word. And what Moses is really saying here is the Word is always the primary test. Power is not the primary test. The Word is the primary test. So, no matter how powerful the prophet seems, no matter what miracles he may appear to be able to do, if he's leading you against the Word – and particularly, if he's leading you against the faithful, proper worship of the one true God – you are to reject that prophet with all your heart.

Who Are the “Sons of God” in Genesis 6?

In the twentieth century, the German biblical scholar Rudolf Bultmann gave a massive critique of the Scriptures, arguing that the Bible is filled with mythological references that must be removed if it is to have any significant application to our day. Bultmann’s major concern was with the New Testament narratives, particularly those that included records of miracles, which he deemed impossible. Other scholars, however, have claimed that there are mythological elements in the Old Testament as well. Exhibit A for this argument is usually a narrative that some believe parallels the ancient Greek and Roman myths about gods and goddesses occasionally mating with human beings.

In Genesis 6, we read this account: "When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. . . . The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown" (vv. 1–4).

This narrative is basically a preface to the account of the flood God sent to eradicate all people from the earth, except for the family of Noah. Of course, the flood narrative itself is often regarded as mythological, but this preparatory section, where we read of the intermarriage of "the sons of God" and "the daughters of man," is seen as blatant myth.

The assumption in this interpretation of Genesis 6 is that "the sons of God" refers to angelic beings. Why do some biblical interpreters make this assumption? The simple answer is that the Scriptures sometimes refer to angels as sons of God, and it is assumed that the reference in Genesis 6 means the same. This is certainly a possible inference that could be drawn, but is it a necessary inference? I would answer no; I do not believe this text necessarily teaches the idea of sexual relations between angels and human beings.

To understand this difficult passage, we have to look at the broader application of the phrase "sons of God." Pre-eminently, it is used for Jesus Himself; He is the Son of God. As noted, it is sometimes used to refer to angels (Job 1:6; 21:1; Ps. 29:1). Also, it is sometimes used to speak of followers of Christ (Matt. 5:9; Rom. 8:14; Gal. 3:26). So, the concept of divine sonship in the Scriptures is not always linked to a biological or ontological relationship (relationship of being). Rather, it is chiefly used to set forth a relationship of obedience. This means Genesis 6 could simply be speaking about the intermarriage of those who manifested a pattern of obedience to God in their lives and those who were pagans in their orientation. In other words, this text likely describes marriages between believers and unbelievers.

The immediate context of Genesis 6 supports this conclusion. Following the narrative of the fall in Genesis 3, the Bible traces the lines of two families, the descendents of Cain and of Seth. Cain’s line is recounted in Genesis 4, and this line displays proliferating wickedness, capped by Lamech, who was the first polygamist (v. 19) and who rejoiced in murderous, vengeful use of the sword (vv. 23–24). By contrast, the line of Seth, which is traced in Genesis 5, displays righteousness. This line includes Enoch, who "walked with God, and . . . was not, for God took him" (v. 24). In the line of Seth was born Noah, who was "a righteous man, blameless in his generation" (6:9). Thus, we see two lines, one obeying God and the other willfully disobeying Him.

Therefore, many Hebrew scholars believe that Genesis 6 is describing not the intermarriage of angels and human women but the intermarriage of the descendents of Cain and Seth. The two lines, one godly and one wicked, come together, and suddenly everyone is caught up in the pursuit of evil, such that "every intention of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually" (v. 5). We do not need to surmise an invasion of the earth by angels in order to make sense of this chapter.

Resolving the interpretive difficulties of Genesis 6 reminds us to be very careful about drawing inferences from Scripture that are not necessarily warranted. The descriptive terms "sons of God" and "daughters of man" do not give us license to make the assumption of interaction between heavenly beings and earthly beings. We have to be very careful when we look at a difficult text like this to see how the language is used in the broader context of Scripture. It is a very important principle that Scripture is to be interpreted by Scripture.

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

Turning the Other Cheek

Here’s an excerpt from Turning the Other Cheek , Michael Aitcheson's contribution to the May issue of Tabletalk:

Jesus' command to turn the other cheek (Matt. 5:38) probably strikes many of us as odd, at least at first. At best, it seems that Jesus is advocating neutrality from the victimized, and at worst it seems that He would have them welcome more harm. A closer look will show a Christ-centered understanding of the believer’s call to be free from a heart of revenge when wronged by others.

Continue reading Turning the Other Cheek, or begin receiving Tabletalk magazine by signing up for a free 3-month trial.

For a limited time, the new TabletalkMagazine.com allows everyone to browse and read the growing library of back issues, including this month’s issue.

Am I Called to Be a Pastor?

The call to be a pastor involves more than a desire to shepherd others. From one of our Ask Ligonier events, John MacArthur appeals to the qualifications in Scripture and the role of the church in discerning the call of men seeking to enter pastoral ministry.

Just ask Ligonier to get clear and trustworthy answers to your biblical and theological questions.

Read the Transcript

The Lord Gives and the Lord Takes Away

The problem of evil has been defined as the Achilles’ heel of the Christian faith. For centuries people have wrestled with the conundrum, how a good and loving God could allow evil and pain to be so prevalent in His creation. The philosophical problems have generated an abundance of reflection and discussion, some of which will be reiterated in this issue, but in the final analysis, the problem is one that quickly moves from the abstract level into the realm of human experience. The philosophical bumps into the existential.

Historically, evil has been defined in terms of privation (privatio) and negation (negatio), especially in the works of Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas. The point of such definitions is to define evil in terms of a lack of, or negation of, the good. We define sin, for example, as any want of conformity to, or transgression of, the law of God. Sin is characteristically defined in negative terms. We speak of sin as disobedience, lawlessness, immorality, unethical behavior, and the like. So that, above and beyond the problem of evil always stands the standard of good by which evil is determined to be evil. In this regard, evil is parasitic. It depends upon a host outside of itself for its very definition. Nothing can be said to be evil without the prior standard of the good. Nevertheless, as much as we speak of evil as a privation or negation of the good, we can’t escape the power of its reality.

At the time of the Reformation, the magisterial Reformers embraced the definition of evil they inherited from the earlier church fathers in terms of privatio, of privation and negation. They modified it with one critical word. Privatio began to be described as privatio actuosa (an actual, or real, privation). The point of this distinction was to call attention to the reality of evil. If we think of evil and pain simply in terms of negation and privation, and seek to avoid the actuality of it, we can easily slip into the absurd error of considering evil an illusion.

Whatever else evil is, it is not illusory. We experience the pangs of its impact, not only in an individual sense, but in a cosmic sense. The whole creation groans, we are told by Scripture, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. The judgment of God upon the human race was a judgment that extended to all things over which Adam and Eve had dominion, including the whole earth. The curse is spread far beyond the house of Adam into every crevice of God’s creation. The reality of this curse puts a weighty burden and uncomfortable cloak upon all of life. It is indeed a cloak of pain.

Many years ago I had a dear Christian friend who was in the hospital going through a rigorous series of chemotherapy treatments. The chemotherapy at that time provoked a violent nausea in her. When I spoke to her about her experience, I asked her how her faith was standing up in the midst of this trial. She replied, “R.C., it is hard to be a Christian with your head in the toilet.” This graphic response to my question made a lasting impression on me. Faith is difficult when our physical bodies are writhing in pain. And yet, it is at this point perhaps more than any other that the Christian flees to the Word of God for comfort. It is for this reason that foundational to the Christian faith is the affirmation that God is sovereign over evil and over all pain. It will not do to dismiss the problem of pain to the realm of Satan. Satan can do nothing except under the sovereign authority of God. He cannot throw a single fiery dart our way without the sovereign will of our heavenly Father.

There is no portion of Scripture that more dramatically communicates this point than the entire Old Testament book of Job. The book of Job tells of a man who is pushed to the absolute limit of endurance with the problem of pain. God allows Job to be an unprotected target for the malice of Satan. Everything dear to Job is stripped from him, including his family, his worldly goods, and his own physical health. Yet, at the end of the day, in the midst of his misery, while his home is atop a dunghill, Job cries out: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord” (1:21). It is easy to quote this utterance from Job in a glib and smug manner. But we must go beyond the glib and penetrate to the very heart of this man in the midst of his misery. He was not putting on a spiritual act or trying to sound pious in the midst of his pain. Rather, he exhibited an astonishing level of abiding trust in his Creator. The ultimate expression of that trust came in his words, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (13:5). Job prefigures the Christian life, a life that is lived not on Fifth Avenue, the venue of the Easter parade, but on the Via Dolorosa, the way of sorrows that ends at the foot of the cross. The Christian life is a life that embraces the sacrament of baptism, which signifies, among other things, that we are baptized into the death, humiliation, and the afflictions of Jesus Christ. We are warned in Scripture that if we are not willing to embrace those afflictions, then we will not participate in Jesus’ exaltation. The Christian faith baptizes a person not only into pain, but also into the resurrection of Christ. Whatever pain we experience in this world may be acute, but it is always temporary. In every moment that we experience the anguish of suffering, there beats in our hearts the hope of heaven — that evil and pain are temporary and are under the judgment of God, the same God who gave a promise to His people that there will be a time when pain will be no more. The privatio and the negatio will be trumped by the presence of Christ.

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

The Enslaving "Alternatives" to Christianity

Many of the supposed “alternatives” to Christianity of the last two centuries have resulted in the violation of human dignity and freedom. In this brief clip, W. Robert Godfrey evaluates the disturbing implications of these theories that remain influential today.

Transcript:

I remember talking to a young man whose parents had been very pious Lutherans in Germany. With the rise of Nazism, he had gone off to the Hitler Youth, and he said, “We were overwhelmed with the sense that we were the wave of the future. We were facing the brave new world. We were being scientific. Our poor parents were just benighted, caught up in the past. We were modern people.” I do not want to say that all of that is Darwin’s fault personally. But if you really embrace the notion that we are all just animals, that it is the survival of the fittest, that weaker species do die off over time, how exactly do you answer the racists who insist that they are the wave of the future and supported by science? That has to be faced as a serious question if there is no alternative. Of course, part of what goes on here is a kind of determinism, is it not? You cannot determine your race, you cannot change your race. You can just live or die. You can kill or be killed. That is one of the really disturbing factors of a lot of the alternatives being offered to Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries. A lot of these alternatives are deterministic alternatives. The prize of freedom is being taken away. It is ironic that they hate Calvinism because of its view of the sovereignty of God. They “get rid of” God, but they do not maintain human freedom. They plunge humanity into an even greater loss of freedom. So, the sense that science is opposing the faith, is undermining the Bible, is changing our notion of who human beings are – that is a big factor of a changing mood amongst Christians in the later 19th century.