R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 88

Live Tomorrow: Made in the Image of God

In place of this year’s National Conference, our special online event, Made in the Image of God, will stream live tomorrow, beginning at 8:00 a.m. ET. The event will continue until approximately 4:30 p.m. ET. Join us here on our blog, YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter to receive trustworthy teaching throughout the day.

The reality that we have been created in God’s image has radical implications for the Christian life and how we relate to those around us. This livestream event will explore this truth and our God-given calling to serve well in our families, vocations, churches, and communities. These are truly unprecedented days in which we are living. As Christians, we need God’s Word to give us strength, for in the days to come the church will have even greater opportunities to proclaim the holiness of God in all its fullness. 

EVENT SESSIONS WILL INCLUDE:

Christ the Image of God by Michael Reeves
The Dignity of God’s Image Bearers by Stephen Nichols
The Depravity of God’s Image Bearers by Steven Lawson
The Imago Dei, Human Dignity, and the Present Crisis by W. Robert Godfrey
The Dominion of God’s Image Bearers by H.B. Charles Jr.
Panel Discussion: Pastoral Care in Times of Crisis with Charles, Ferguson, and Parsons
The Church and the Governing Authorities by Derek Thomas
The Church as a Caring Community by Burk Parsons
The Gospel, the Church, and This Present Crisis by John MacArthur
Ask Ligonier with Ferguson, Nichols, Parsons, and Thomas
The Hope of God’s Image Bearers by Sinclair Ferguson

Please help the teaching from this event reach more people by sharing the stream on social media. We hope you’ll join us for this special live event.

Later this week, we’ll also be adding each message from this special event to watch for free on Ligonier.org and the Ligonier app. 

Rejoicing in God in the Arena of Pain

God hasn’t promised that His children won’t go into the valley of the shadow of death. He promised that we will never go alone. In this brief clip from his series Dealing with Difficult Problems, R.C. Sproul considers suffering in the life of a Christian.

Transcript

We don’t rejoice that we have a headache. We don’t rejoice that we have cancer eating away at us. What we do rejoice in is the presence of God in the midst of our pain. But again, we have to understand, lest we fall into being absolutely undone and astonished whenever affliction hits us, that we are to expect it. It’s part of our call as Christians that God has called us into a fallen world to minister into a world that is a vale of tears. And it’s a place of pain. And there’s no way that we can ever expect to escape it.

Now, suppose I’m afflicted with suffering. Why? Why am I afflicted? There could be several reasons. It may be that God needs to correct me and that it is part of His corrective wrath to make me sick or to bring me low. He does that. There are manifold examples of that in Scripture. How did Miriam get leprosy? God gave her leprosy to bring her to repentance. What is Jesus saying here? “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Sometimes the suffering that we have in this world is because God is correcting us or disciplining us, but we can’t jump to the conclusion that every time we get sick or every time we suffer that there’s a direct correlation between our disobedience and the pain that we’re experiencing.

Again, Job is exhibit A to refute that argument. Job was more righteous than anybody else, and yet he suffered more than anybody else. And it would have been a terrible mistake to assume that there was a direct, proportionate relationship between the degree of his guilt and the degree of his pain. We mustn’t do that, and so we don’t always know. And we don’t have to know. What we have to know is Him. Because when Job demanded an answer for his pain, and asked God to speak to him, and explain it to him, and God finally appeared to Job and interrogated Job for several chapters, what answer does Job get from God? He didn’t get one. God didn’t say to Job, "You're suffering this pain for this, this, this, and this." The only answer that Job got to his affliction, in the final analysis, was God Himself, the presence of God. And, in effect, what God was saying is, "Job, here I am. I am with you. Trust Me."

Now when people say, "Trust me," it’s time to run. But when God says, "Trust Me," it’s time to trust. Let me finish by reminding you that our God never promised any of us that we would never go into the valley of the shadow of death. What He did promise us was that He would go with us. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me." We have the Good Shepherd. We have His presence. We have His consolation. That doesn’t mean we’re removed from the arena of pain, but that we are upheld in the arena of pain.

 
 

Fear of Disease and Disability

Here’s an excerpt from Fear of Disease and Disability, John Perritt's contribution to the March issue of Tabletalk:

Scripture tells us that we are eternal souls right now, and our mortality constantly bumps up against that. We are bodies too. Whether it’s aching joints, lack of sleep, chronic pain, or the truth that all of these are a possible reality for us, these are unwelcome truths to our souls. Our entire existence on this earth is a walking paradox—we are eternal beings who will experience physical death.

Our bodies will wear out. They are wearing out right now as you read this. This is evidenced by the glasses some of you are wearing—your eyes have a shelf life. The inability to focus on the sentences of this article gives testimony to a brain that is weary and wearing out. Maybe it’s chronic pain of some sort. It could be the family member or friend you constantly care for. Their continual need reminds you that we were made for another place.

Continue reading Fear of Disease and Disability, 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.

All Teaching Series Now Free to Stream

As a result of the global health crisis, churches are canceling Bible studies, small groups, and Sunday school classes. Pastors and elders around the world are thinking about new ways to bring God’s Word to their congregations. Fathers and mothers want to care for their children’s souls. This truly is an unprecedented time. To serve growing Christians around the world, Ligonier Ministries is here to help you maintain your daily growth and the discipleship within your family and community.

For the first time ever, we have made our entire library of hundreds of teaching series free to stream. Download the free Ligonier app today and stream thousands of messages from R.C. Sproul, the Ligonier Teaching Fellows, and other gifted pastors and teachers. Or browse more than 2,500 messages here on Ligonier.org. This represents 1,000+ hours of time-proven, trusted teaching covering topics in biblical studies, theology, church history, Christian living, and worldview. Our entire video and audio teaching series library will remain open until at least June 30.

Not sure where to begin? Try these series:

Surprised by Suffering with R.C. Sproul
The Providence of God with R.C. Sproul
Dealing with Difficult Problems with R.C. Sproul
The Book of Job with Derek Thomas
Attributes of God with Steven Lawson
A Time for Confidence with Stephen Nichols
The Great Commission with Burk Parsons

Free Study Guides

To dig even deeper into your study, you can also freely download the digital study guides that accompany many of our teaching series during this time. Share what you are learning online with others in your community.

Prefer DVD?

If you prefer having Ligonier’s teaching series on DVD, the following DVD resources are available for your donation of any amount:

Dealing with Difficult Problems with R.C. Sproul
The Book of Job with Derek Thomas
The Attributes of God with Steven Lawson
A Time for Confidence with Stephen Nichols
The Great Commission with Burk Parsons

The Ligonier app is available in the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV, as well as on Google Play for your phone or tablet. You can also get it on Amazon and Roku. Just visit Ligonier.org/app or search for “Ligonier” in your app store to begin.

Fighting Fear and Anxiety

When I moved to central Florida in 1992, I was told that this part of the state had not been directly hit by a hurricane since the fifties. We were hit by the outer edges of some hurricanes and tropical storms on occasion, but nothing major. All of that changed in 2004 when this one small part of the state was hit by not one, but three strong hurricanes in the short space of six weeks. Hurricane Charley hit us the evening of August 13. Three weeks later we were hit by Hurricane Frances. Three weeks after that we were hit by Hurricane Jeanne. It was not a pleasant time to live in this part of Florida.

There was one side effect of the 2004 hurricane season that I probably should have expected but did not, and that was the effect it would have on our local meteorologists. As the 2005 hurricane season approached, some of them lost their minds. If I may be permitted a bit of hyperbole, the typical weather report that year could be paraphrased as such: “A tropical depression has formed off the coast of Africa. It is probably going to turn into a major hurricane. It is probably going to hit us, and we are probably all going to die.” They seemed to have one goal—to create a perpetual state of fear and anxiety. I stopped watching after a few weeks of this and asked my wife to let me know if and when there was something I needed to know, such as the need to board up the windows and/or evacuate.

Those who have watched or read the news over the last several years have likely noticed this tendency regardless of where you live. Watch the news long enough and a monologue begins to develop in your mind:

The economy will soon collapse, hampering our war against the terrorists who are on the verge of attacking us again. The only thing that may stop them is a pandemic of bird flu, swine flu, or the black plague, but this pandemic will only affect those of us who haven’t already succumbed to the dire effects of global warming. Stay tuned for a report on what popular food product that you eat every day has been shown to cause cancer in lab rats and chimpanzees.

So, we are faced with a certain amount of fear and anxiety that is media-induced to one degree or another. There is also, however, fear and anxiety caused by actual frightening events. Strong hurricanes are frightening to experience. Other natural disasters such as floods, fires, earthquakes, and tornadoes are frightening. Diseases are frightening, especially when they spread across the world—as the coronavirus has done so far in 2020. Wars and terrorist activity are also frightening.

Complicating matters is the lack of trust that many have in the news media. We know that fear sells because it keeps people glued to their screens and that is profitable. We know bias exists in news reporters as it does in everyone. Due to factors such as these, however, many people have lost all trust in the news media to accurately report events. Social media has intensified this problem because friends and family share stories without always checking the sources. This can cause problems when a truly dangerous event is unfolding and a certain segment of the population writes it off as nothing but media hype, or worse, the fruits of some vast dark conspiracy.

When we are dealing with something that is potentially life-threating, we need to err on the side of loving our neighbor. If a Category 5 hurricane is predicted to hit your area directly, it is not loving or wise to tell everybody on your social media pages that it’s all a hoax. Convincing a neighbor to not prepare for a strong hurricane can result in your neighbor’s death. Similarly, if there are reports of a highly contagious virus spreading, we need to err on the side of loving our neighbor. Many of our neighbors are elderly. Many have chronic respiratory issues such as COPD and asthma. Many have compromised immune systems due to things like cancer treatment. It is not loving to those neighbors to put them at risk of catching something from you that your own immune system can most likely handle. This is true even during a normal flu season. It is not loving toward your neighbor to go to work or to church or to any public place if you are sick with a contagious illness.

There is, then, the matter of loving our neighbor. There is also the deeper matter of dealing with fear and anxiety—regardless of its source. How do we deal with all of the fear and anxiety that we face, whether media-induced or event-induced? An example from church history proves instructive. Saint Augustine (354–430) lived at a time of great fear and anxiety. His world changed dramatically in A.D. 410 when the barbarian Alaric entered Rome. This was the beginning of the end for the western half of the Roman Empire. As refugees fled to northern Africa, bringing all manner of ominous reports, Augustine was forced to deal with the issues as many were going so far as to blame the fall of Rome on Christianity. His classic work The City of God was written to respond to the crisis. One of my favorite quotes from this book addresses the fearfulness of his readers. He encourages Christians who are surrounded by danger on every side, saying: “Among the daily chances of this life every man on earth is threatened in the same way by innumerable deaths, and it is uncertain which of them will come to him. And so the question is whether it is better to suffer one in dying or to fear them all in living” (1:11). These are the words of one who trusts the sovereignty of God. Augustine knew there was no point in being constantly fearful about all of the dangers surrounding him. He knew God was in control and that not a single hair could fall from his head apart from God’s will.

The world is fearful and anxious, but it is fearful and anxious about the wrong things. The world is fearful about the economy. The world is fearful about retirement accounts. The world is fearful about natural disasters and man-made disasters. The world is fearful of terrorism, and the world is fearful of diseases like the coronavirus. The world, however, is not fearful of God. Jesus tells us that we are not to fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead we are to fear God who can destroy both (Matt. 10:28). The wrath of God makes all other objects of the world’s fears seem like nothing in comparison. A truly fearful thing is to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:31).

Those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, however, have nothing to fear from man, or from anything else for that matter. Those who trust Christ have nothing to fear from hurricanes, diseases, economic collapse, war, famine, or even death. All of these things are under the control of our sovereign Father in heaven. Of course, this is easy enough for us to say, but we all too easily take our eyes off of God and dwell on the dangers surrounding us.

Is there anything we can do to fight worldly fear and anxiety? I believe Paul provides one important clue by contrasting fear with prayer. He writes: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6–7). A neglect of prayer almost always results in a corresponding rise in our fear and anxiety. This is no coincidence. Prayer is an act of faith in God, and faith in God leads to the peace of God.

This post was adapted from an article originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

A Pastor’s Update from Italy on the Coronavirus

Last week, Rev. Michael Brown, a pastor in Milan, Italy, wrote to us about how we can pray for the Italian church amid the current coronavirus (COVID-19) situation. Here is his additional update on the unfolding circumstances in the Lombardy region:

Since my report on March 10 (see below) concerning the coronavirus outbreak in Italy, the number of reported cases and deaths have sadly continued to soar. According to Italy’s department of health (il Ministero della Salute), as of March 15 at 6:00 p.m., there have been a total of 24,747 confirmed cases of the virus and 2,335 deaths. Of the number of people who have died, 1,218 (more than half) have been in one part of the country: Lombardy, the region in which my family and I live. This is due to the fact that the Italian authorities have done an excellent job of managing the spread of the virus to other parts of the country by putting everything on lockdown and requiring people to stay at home. We have not yet hit the peak number of cases, but we are hopeful that that time is coming soon.

Here in Milan, in the meantime, the hospitals are overcrowded, doctors and nurses are overworked, and people are dying alone and without the comfort of family by their bedside. It is truly a heartbreaking time for this city. The streets are eerily empty and quiet, disrupted only by the persistent sound of sirens from ambulances.

Although it is true that the majority of people who have died from the virus are over 70 years old and/or have had previous health problems, it is also true that the sick and the old are still people, created in the image of God. What concerns my wife and me is not that we may contract the virus ourselves, but rather that we may pass it on to others who might not survive. This is why compliance with the government’s ordinances to remain at home is so important right now. We are willing to be inconvenienced out of love for our neighbor and to protect those who are weak and vulnerable.

By God’s grace, my family and I remain healthy, as do all the precious members of Chiesa Riformata Filadelfia, the church I am privileged to serve. We stay in frequent contact with one another throughout the day and livestream our Sunday services as well as a short devotion every evening at 8:00 p.m. We are grateful for your prayers.

The number of people sick and dying in northern Italy is not good. But our God is good. And He has delivered us from far greater threats: the power of sin, the fear of death, and the judgment we deserve. We give Him praise that, by His grace, we belong to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in body and in soul, in life and in death. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). During these dark and difficult days, our ultimate prayer is that many will look to Christ for the only remedy to a problem much more devastating than the pandemic of COVID-19. None who call upon the Lord in true faith will be refused.

For the gospel in Milan,

Rev. Michael Brown

ReformationItaly.org

Original Update (March 10)

I am a missionary of the United Reformed Churches in North America serving in northern Italy, where I pastor Chiesa Riformata Filadelfia, an Italian congregation in the suburbs of Milan. As you have probably seen in the news, we have experienced a devastating outbreak of the coronavirus. In the past ten days alone, we have seen the number of reported cases in Italy skyrocket from 888 to 7985, and deaths have climbed from 21 to 463. In the past 48 hours, Italy has experienced more than 100 deaths to coronavirus per day. Almost 90% of the cases of coronavirus in Italy are in Lombardy, the region where my family lives. The entire country, however, is on lockdown. This means that no one is permitted to travel and everyone is encouraged to remain at home unless absolutely necessary. All schools and churches in the entire country are under a strict mandate to remain closed until at least April 3. Out of love for our neighbors, we are complying with that ordinance.

For our church, this means that all worship services, classes, and meetings are canceled for the time being. I have been preaching sermons from home via the internet and staying in contact with everyone in the congregation. By God’s grace, all of us are still healthy and well supplied with food and water. The greater crisis at the moment, however, is the destructive toll that the panic is taking on the already fragile Italian economy. More than 30% of Italy’s GNP is dependent on tourism, which has come to a screeching halt during this health situation. In our congregation, several members are unable to work because of school and restaurant closures, and most are seeing a radical decline in business. It is a trying time, to say the least.

I have one encouraging piece of news, however. With the temporary closure of churches, our online sermons are receiving a significant spike in views. Each Sunday, we’re averaging between 600 and 900 views. These are excellent numbers for a Protestant congregation in staunchly Roman Catholic Italy. Some Italians who have listened to the preaching have reached out to us and expressed their gratitude for the gospel and asked for more information about our church. This is very hopeful. Even amid the spread of the coronavirus in northern Italy, God is causing His Word to spread. For that, we give Him praise and trust that He will use these difficult days for His glory.

As believers, we seek to be prudent and to use common sense. But there is never an appropriate time to panic or act as if God is not in control. He has given us “a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim. 1:7). Throughout the centuries, the Lord has brought His church through many periods of plagues, diseases, wars, and natural disasters—all of which are common to this fallen world. Our hope and confidence are not in our circumstances, but in Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead, reigns in heaven, and will return in glory. What a comfort to know that we belong to Him in body and in soul, in life and in death!

As you remember us in prayer, here are a few items you can bring before our Father’s throne of grace:

Pray that the Lord will use the coronavirus outbreak in northern Italy for His glory and for the spread of the gospel;
Pray that God will mercifully bring the suffering and economic devastation in Italy to an end;
Pray that the Lord will allow our family and congregation here in Milan to remain healthy;
Pray that those in the congregation who are suffering financially as a result of the outbreak will find relief.

We thank you for standing with us in prayer.

Are Preachers and Pastors More Important Than Other Christians?

Since proclaiming God’s Word is so important, do pastors and preachers play a more important role than other believers? From one of our live events, Sinclair Ferguson, Burk Parsons, and Derek Thomas discuss how we should view those entrusted with the ministry of God’s Word.

To ask a biblical or theological question, just visit ask.Ligonier.org or message us on Facebook or Twitter.

Read the Transcript

The Task of Apologetics

Exodus 3 narrates the well-known account of God’s revealing Himself to Moses in the burning bush and commissioning him to tell Pharaoh to release the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. But that was only part of Moses’ mission. The other task to which the Lord called Moses was to address the Israelites. He was to command the Israelites in the name of God to engage in the largest strike in history. In absolute defiance of the power and authority of Pharaoh, they were to leave Egypt and go out to the desert to worship God at His mountain. And, of course, these events ended in the exodus.

Just think of Moses’ task. Moses, an old man who had been tending sheep in the wilderness for years, was to somehow get an appointment with Pharaoh, the most powerful ruler on earth in that day. But in many respects it was even more difficult to go to the people of Israel and say, “Never mind the chariots of Egypt and the armies of Pharaoh. Follow me and I will lead you to the Promised Land.” What slave in his right mind would take Moses at his word? And that is the problem that is addressed particularly in Exodus 4, where Moses says to God, “They will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” And the Lord gave Moses many proofs to show the Israelites that his claims were credible.

In this encounter, Moses raised the question of apologetics, the question of how the believer is to defend the faith as reasonable. He had to convince the Israelites of the truth of the mandate and that it came from God. He was dealing with the in-house problem of apologetics, namely, that he had to persuade the church—the people of God—of the veracity of the Word of God and its claim on their lives.

The task of apologetics, of defending the truth of Christianity, has at least three main aims. I think most Christians are familiar with two of these. First, apologetics is to provide an answer to the critics of the Christian faith, to those who seek to undermine the rational basis for Christianity or who critique it from the standpoint of another philosophy or religion. Paul did that in Acts 17 when he confronted the Epicureans and the Stoics, followers of two popular philosophical schools in his day. Early Christian apologists such as Justin Martyr wrote to the Roman emperor to defend Christians against false accusations of atheism (because Christians did not worship the Roman gods) and cannibalism (because pagans misunderstood the Lord’s Supper).

The second major aim of apologetics is to tear down the intellectual idols of our culture. Here, apologetics operates on the offensive, pointing out the inconsistencies and errors of other faiths and worldviews. The third, and what I believe is the most valuable, aim of apologetics is to encourage the saints, to shore up the church—just as the first concern that Moses had was to be able to demonstrate that God had called him to go to the Israelites and lead them out of Egypt. Moses was an apologist to his own people.

The toughest three years of my life were my seminary years, because I was a zealous Christian studying in a citadel of unbelief. Every day, the precious doctrines of our faith were attacked viciously by my professors. One professor lashed out at a student in my class for coming to seminary with too many preconceived ideas, such as the deity of Christ. Another professor attacked a student when he preached on the cross. “How dare you preach the substitutionary atonement in this day and age!” the professor said. There was a hostility that was palpable in the air, and it was discouraging. All kinds of questions were raised, and even though I understood the philosophical assumptions behind the critics’ attacks, there were still many questions I was not equipped to answer. Intuitively I knew these men were wrong, but I couldn’t answer them.

At that time, there was basically one major seminary in the United States that was faithful to historic Reformed theology—Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. After classes were over at my seminary for the day, I used to read Westminster professors such as J. Gresham Machen, John Murray, Ed Stonehouse, Ed Young, and others. And they would give me answers to the questions I had. After a while, when I heard a question I wasn’t able to answer, I had confidence that God had raised up great men of learning who knew far more than I did and were able to answer these skeptical questions.

I said to the Ligonier staff many years ago: “The work that we do in apologetics may not be understood in all of the details by all the Christians who hear it. But if we can answer these questions and show the credibility of Christianity, the folks in the church will not be devastated by the voices of skepticism that surround them.” We’ve known students in our churches who’ve gone to college—even professedly “Christian” institutions—and had a crisis of faith. In many cases, they’ve hung on by their fingernails because they were being beaten down every day, ridiculed and scorned for their faith in Christ. What such kids need is the task of apologetics inside the church, to calm their fears. And it is not just college students, it is all of us who live in this fallen world. Because if Satan can’t take away our faith, he might be able to intimidate us to such a degree that we are paralyzed, that we are not quite as bold as we were before. And so, not everybody is called to be a professional apologist, but we are all called to study apologetic issues and to see that there are reasons for the hope that is within us.

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

The Triumph of the Laity in the American Church

In addition to seeing the conversion of many in colonial America, the Great Awakening changed how ministers and churchgoers related to each other. In this brief clip, W. Robert Godfrey examines the effects of the Great Awakening on American church life.

Transcript:

Last time, we were looking at the Great Awakening, arguably one of the most important events in the history of North America. We had looked both at the profound impact it had on people at the time—where many, many people were converted, all over the American colonies—but also the way in which it was a revolution that began to change church life in America. Not everyone recognized that huge change immediately, of course, but there are unintended consequences of actions. I don’t think Edwards or even Whitefield really intended to undermine the standing order of the congregational way in New England, to undermine the parish system or the authority of ministers. But it really began the ball rolling that would lead to what has been described as the “triumph of the laity” in America. When Europeans come to America today, one of the things they observe is how much the laity are involved in the life of the church, how much influence they have in the life of the church. Of course, that influence is, if you don’t like it here, you can walk down the block. An awful lot of Americans not only believe that, but act on that basis. As a result, the ministers always have a sense that they have to listen to the laity. Sometimes, unfortunately, ministers believe they have to let the laity roll over them. In any case, it has created a church environment where there is much more activity on the part of the laity. You go to Europe, by contrast, where there are still state churches—in Germany, for example—and there, the churches are almost empty, and the ministers are still paid because they’re paid by the state. So, the entrepreneurial spirit of America, both for better and for worse (because it has both sides to it), really triumphed, and that whole direction was set in motion by what happened in the Great Awakening.

The Triumph of the Laity

In addition to seeing the conversion of many in colonial America, the Great Awakening changed how ministers and churchgoers related to each other. In this brief clip, W. Robert Godfrey examines the effects of the Great Awakening on American church life.

Transcript:

Last time, we were looking at the Great Awakening, arguably one of the most important events in the history of North America. We had looked both at the profound impact it had on people at the time—where many, many people were converted, all over the American colonies—but also the way in which it was a revolution that began to change church life in America. Not everyone recognized that huge change immediately, of course, but there are unintended consequences of actions. I don’t think Edwards or even Whitefield really intended to undermine the standing order of the congregational way in New England, to undermine the parish system or the authority of ministers. But it really began the ball rolling that would lead to what has been described as the “triumph of the laity” in America. When Europeans come to America today, one of the things they observe is how much the laity are involved in the life of the church, how much influence they have in the life of the church. Of course, that influence is, if you don’t like it here, you can walk down the block. An awful lot of Americans not only believe that, but act on that basis. As a result, the ministers always have a sense that they have to listen to the laity. Sometimes, unfortunately, ministers believe they have to let the laity roll over them. In any case, it has created a church environment where there is much more activity on the part of the laity. You go to Europe, by contrast, where there are still state churches—in Germany, for example—and there, the churches are almost empty, and the ministers are still paid because they’re paid by the state. So, the entrepreneurial spirit of America, both for better and for worse (because it has both sides to it), really triumphed, and that whole direction was set in motion by what happened in the Great Awakening.