R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 80

$5 Friday (And More): Faith, Depression, & Family

It’s time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week’s resources include such topics as faith, depression, family, worship, prayer, Jonathan Edwards, 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:

Discovering the God Who Is , Hardcover book $18 $10 (Save 44%)
The Next Story: Faith, Friends, Family, and the Digital World , Paperback book $15 $10 (Save 33%)
Christians Get Depressed Too , Paperback book $10 $7 (Save 30%)
The Purpose of God: An Exposition of Ephesians , Paperback book $16 $10 (Save 37%)
Developing a Healthy Prayer Life: 31 Meditations on Communing with God , Paperback book $10 $7 (Save 30%)
The Ology , Hardcover book $30 $18 (Save 40%)
Jesus Made in America , Paperback book $20 $12 (Save 40%)
The Lord's Prayer , DVD collection $48 $12 (Save 75%)
The Lord's Prayer , Study guide $15 $8 (Save 46%)
The Screwtape Letters , Hardcover book $26 $16 (Save 38%)
What is Reformed Theology? , CD collection $31 $10 (Save 67%)
What is Reformed Theology? , Study guide $15 $8 (Save 46%)
Silencing the Devil , Study guide $15 $8 (Save 46%)
Family Worship , Paperback book $6 $3.50 (Save 41%)
The Prodigal Son: December 2012 Tabletalk , Magazine $3 $1 (Save 67%)
The Millennium: December 2013 Tabletalk , Magazine $3 $1 (Save 67%)
The Temple: December 2017 Tabletalk , Magazine $3 $1 (Save 67%)
The Promised Messiah: December 2018 Tabletalk , Magazine $3 $1 (Save 67%)

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

View today’s $5 Friday sale items.

Paedobaptism

Here’s an excerpt from Paedobaptism, Guy M. Richard's contribution to the April issue of Tabletalk:

As a Presbyterian minister, I often get asked about why I believe in baptizing infants. The sheer number of questions that I get tells me that there is a great deal of misunderstanding about this doctrine. Part of the reason for this misunderstanding is that many members of paedobaptist churches have not been able to give good biblical justification for what they believe. This may be because paedobaptist churches are not adequately preparing their members to do so, or it may simply be because baptism is not a defining doctrine for paedobaptists in precisely the same way that it is for many others. Our Baptist brothers and sisters, for instance, distinguish themselves from most other Christian traditions by their position on baptism, which means that their average church member often receives more thoroughgoing teaching on this doctrine than ours will.

Continue reading Paedobaptism, 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.

The Psychology of Atheism

The greatest terror that grips us is the thought of being held accountable before the uncompromising scrutiny of a holy God. In this brief clip, R.C. Sproul exposes the real reason why people profess to be atheists.

Transcript:

The Apostle is saying that there is a psychology to atheism. He goes on to say what it is that we fear more than nature, more than meaninglessness, is that the greatest fear that any human being has by nature is to be held accountable by a God who is holy. Because, in the presence of the holy, we are immediately exposed of being unholy. The God of Scripture is a God who is omniscient, who knows everything about us. He is a God who is omnipotent, who is all-powerful. He is a God who is altogether holy. And worst of all, He is immutable. There is no hope that He’ll ever grow weak and lose His omnipotence. There is no hope that He’ll ever have a senior moment and lose His knowledge of everything that I’ve ever done. He will never get Alzheimer’s disease. There’s no hope that He’ll ever compromise His righteousness or His holiness. Because He is immutably holy, immutably omnipotent, and immutably omniscient, and all these things are revealed through nature, and we know it by nature. Because that is so terrifying, it is our basic disposition as fallen creatures to have a vested interest to flee, since Adam and Eve fled the garden and hid in the bushes because they were naked and they were ashamed. That’s the biggest barrier we have to coming to a full understanding of God—that we, too are naked, and we know it.

When Life Is Out of Control

In his book, The Way of the (Modern) World: or, Why It’s Tempting to Live as If God Doesn’t Exist, Craig Gay observes that one of the major preoccupations that defines modern culture is the quest for control. “The desire to maintain autonomous control over reality by rational-technical means is particularly central to the modern world.…[A] modern society is one in which the prevailing conception of the human task in the world is that of mastery by way of systematic manipulation.”

Francis Bacon’s assertion that knowledge is power may well serve as a slogan for modern culture. To be modern is to believe that we can bring nature and history under our dominion. Systems of all kinds — political, economic, technical, educational, even spiritual — have been designed by modern men and women to extend and ensure that control. Of course, the desire to run the cosmos is nothing new. One of the irrational symptoms of human sinfulness from the very beginning is the belief that we mortals are more reliable in running the cosmos than God is. This attitude is not distinctively modern, but only the modern West has so thoroughly institutionalized this wicked presumption.

C.S. Lewis has this quest for control in mind in a key passage in The Abolition of Man when he compares the rise of modern science and technology to the practice of magic in the high Renaissance. “For the wise men of old,” Lewis wrote, “the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men.”

The celebration of the possibility of human control is one of the features of Renaissance humanists. As Lewis pointed out, before the rise of modern science, the power to control nature so as to fulfill human desires was sought through the disciplines of magic, specifically astrology, numerology, and alchemy. We forget that Johannes Kepler was not only a brilliant mathematician and astronomer but also a court astrologer who believed that the movements of the planets had profound effects on human life. We still have about eight hundred horoscopes that Kepler drew up for his patrons. Isaac Newton had as much in common with Albus Dumbledore as with Stephen Hawking, being deeply committed to the pursuit of various alchemical and occultic research.

Lewis compared Francis Bacon — the godfather of modern science — with the figure of Faustus in Christopher Marlowe’s play about temptation and ambition (The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus). “You will read in some critics that Faustus has a thirst for knowledge. In reality, he hardly mentions it. It is not truth he wants from his devils, but gold and guns and girls. ‘All things that move between the quiet poles shall be at his command’ and ‘a sound magician is a mighty god.’” Knowledge is power, indeed.

By the eighteenth century, Western thinkers were more and more confident about the possibility of human reasoning and experimentation to control nature. Nature was understood as a mechanism following observable laws, and it was no longer seen as the site for God’s purposive activity. As Lesslie Newbigin has summarized, “Medieval thought saw divine purpose manifest everywhere in the world of nature. The revelation of that purpose had been given in those events confessed in the church’s creed, and thus all study of nature had its place within the framework that the creed articulated.…The effect of the work of the new scientists…was to replace this explanatory framework with another. The real world disclosed by the work of science was one governed not by purpose but by natural laws of cause and effect.” This view of the cosmos makes God an unnecessary hypothesis, which is convenient for those who are eager to replace His providential care for creation with their own systems.

For more than five hundred years, Western culture has been shaped by the dream of achieving control of an allegedly purposeless nature. But many contemporary thinkers believe that such confidence is waning. Secularized science displaced God in the hopes of achieving human control over all things. But what happens when those scientific systems (including scientific approaches to economic well-being) fail to achieve the levels of control we expect?

Some of our unbelieving contemporaries are beginning to realize that the modern project of comprehensive control may not be possible. Such a realization may drive them to despair, but only because they continue to assume that, if we aren’t in control in this chaotic cosmos, then everything is pointless and doomed. But creation is not meaningless, and we are not called to complete control. As Paul reminds us at the end of Romans 11, there is a purpose being worked out in creation and in history, a purpose that we are not able to comprehend fully. We should be grateful that many people have a dawning sense of losing control; it may be the first step toward personal and cultural repentance.

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

Predestination and Human Actions

Here’s an excerpt from Predestination and Human Actions, James N. Anderson's contribution to the April issue of Tabletalk:

The Reformed or Calvinistic doctrines of providence and predestination are often charged with being fatalistic. Yet this characterization trades on some deep confusions. Calvinism does indeed affirm that all events in creation are foreordained by God. As the Westminster Confession of Faith puts it, “God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass” (3.1). Nevertheless, the confession immediately adds that this divine foreordination does not render meaningless the wills of God’s creatures. On the contrary, God normally works out His eternal purposes though secondary causes such as human agents and natural processes. Biblical examples of God directing human actions to His own ends include the story of Joseph (Gen. 45:5–8; 50:20), the Assyrian conquest of the kingdom of Israel (Isa. 10:5–11), and the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus (Acts 4:27–28).

Continue reading Predestination and Human Actions, 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.

One Week Only: Save 50% on Reformation Study Bibles

Give someone a gift that will enhance their study of God’s Word for years to come with the Reformation Study Bible. During our weeklong sale, save on this trusted resource that offers an unparalleled reading, study, and discipleship experience for every age and stage of the Christian life. Two attractive new styles are available.

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Edited by Dr. R.C. Sproul, the Reformation Study Bible is filled with book introductions, verse-by-verse notes, theological articles, creeds and confessions, and visual aids to place the whole of God’s redemptive story at your fingertips.

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Sale ends May 2, 2020

Can Sound Theology Become an Idol in My Life?

If our theology causes us to be puffed up with pride, something is seriously lacking in our knowledge of God. From one of our live events, R.C. Sproul and Derek Thomas warn of humanity’s sinful tendency to turn everything—even doctrine—into an idol.

Ask your biblical and theological questions live online at ask.Ligonier.org.

Read the Transcript

When Will the Kingdom of God Come?

Many professing evangelicals today believe the kingdom of God is strictly in the future, although there is no biblical foundation for that. This view robs the church of important teachings concerning the kingdom that are clearly set forth in the New Testament. In fact, the New Testament opens with John the Baptist's announcement of the kingdom: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:2). The Old Testament prophets spoke of the kingdom to come at some point in the future, but at the time of John the Baptist, it was about to burst onto the scene. It was "at hand." If we examine John's message carefully, we see that his announcement of the kingdom contained urgent warnings: "Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees" (Matt. 3:10) and "His winnowing fork is in his hand" (Luke 3:17). Time was running out, and people were not ready.

Christ came on the scene just a short time later with the same message: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). However, there were differences between the behavior of John the Baptist and that of Jesus. John was an ascetic; he lived a life of radical self-denial. He ate locusts and wild honey, and dressed like the Old Testament prophets. Jesus, on the other hand, was accused of being "a glutton and a drunkard" (Matt. 11:19). He went to the wedding feast at Cana and ate at a banquet with tax collectors, which caused some of John's disciples to ask Him, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" (Matt. 9:14). Jesus replied, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast" (v. 15).

Another time the Pharisees asked Him when the kingdom of God would come, and Jesus replied, "Behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you" (Luke 17:21). The kingdom was in their midst because the King was there. On another occasion, He said, "But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Luke 11:20).

So John came first with his warning of the radical nearness of the kingdom. Then Jesus came announcing the presence of the kingdom. This was followed by the acme of His redemptive work in the ascension, when He left earth to go to His coronation, where God declared Him King. As Jesus stood on the Mount of Olives, ready to depart, His disciples asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). They had been waiting for Jesus to make His move, to drive out the Romans and establish the kingdom, but Jesus replied, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (vv. 7–8).

In answer to their question about the kingdom, Jesus gave the fundamental mission of the church. Men would be blind to His kingship, so His disciples were given the task of making it visible. The fundamental task of the church is to bear witness to the kingdom of God. Our King reigns now, so for us to put the kingdom of God entirely in the future is to miss one of the most significant points of the New Testament. Our King has come and has inaugurated the kingdom of God. The future aspect of the kingdom is its final consummation.

This excerpt is taken from Everyone's a Theologian by R.C. Sproul.

Charles Finney and Momentary Excitement

If Charles Finney was right about anything, it was this: Excitement cannot be maintained indefinitely. In this brief clip, W. Robert Godfrey laments how Finney’s methods of creating “revival” have led to the breakdown of churches, rather than their establishment.

Transcript:

What’s intriguing is if you actually read his “Lectures on Revival,” very shortly into it, I mean within the first few pages, what he says is we absolutely need excitement until the millennium comes. Finney was a strong postmillennialist as almost all American Protestants were in the first half of the 19th century. He believed that the Bible promised that the success of the preaching of Christ would grow and grow and grow until “the whole earth was covered with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.” They had that verse from Isaiah to quote. Finney was a staunch believer that that was true. It was connected to his optimism, and what he says that is so intriguing is we need excitements until the millennium comes, and the millennium will come soon. At one point he said, “If we all just do our duty, the millennium could come within three years,” and then he said, “Of course, we know the millennium needs to come soon, because we cannot long continue excitements. A nervous system long excited will break down.” He is finally right about something. He is exactly right about that. But the church has continued to seek excitements and the new for 150 years after Finney, forgetting his warning that such excitements would really lead to the breakdown, not the establishment, of the church.

$5 Friday (And More): Charles Spurgeon, Worship, & Preaching

It’s time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week’s resources include such topics as Charles Spurgeon, worship, preaching, sacraments, sanctification, forgiveness, 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:

Abortion , DVD collection $30 $10 (Save 66%)
God in Our Midst: The Tabernacle and Our Relationship with God , Hardcover book $18 $8 (Save 55%)
Reformation Women: Sixteenth-Century Figures Who Shaped Christianity's Rebirth , Paperback book $14 $8 (Save 43%)
Joseph and the Gospel of Many Colors: Reading an Old Story in a New Way , Paperback book $20 $10 (Save 50%)
Essential Truths of the Christian Faith , Paperback book $16 $10 (Save 37%)
Spurgeon on the Christian Life: Alive in Christ , Paperback book $20 $10 (Save 50%)
The Bondage of the Will , Paperback book $25 $15 (Save 40%)
Now, That’s a Good Question! , Paperback book $18 $12 (Save 33%)
Now, That’s a Good Question! , (Spanish) Paperback book $17 $12 (Save 29%)
Acts 1-12 for You , Hardcover book $23 $11 (Save 52%)
What is Hell? , Paperback book $5 $3 (Save 40%)
The God-Centered Life: April 2012 Tabletalk , Magazine $3 $1 (Save 67%)
Addictions: August 2016 Tabletalk , Magazine $3 $1 (Save 67%)
Giving an Answer: August 2019 Tabletalk , Magazine $3 $1 (Save 67%)
Psalm 23: August 2018 Tabletalk , Magazine $3 $1 (Save 67%)

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

View today’s $5 Friday sale items.