Augustine of Hippo: A Biography.  New Edition.  By Peter Brown.  University of California Press, 2000.  548 pp.  $19.95.St. Augustine was born in A.D. 354 in the town of Thagaste in North Africa to a pagan father and a Christian mother.  From these inauspicious beginnings, he would eventually become one...

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"The fundamental question posed in Calvinism is not 'How can I be saved?', but 'How shall God be glorified?'"So writes Ian Hamilton, minister of Cambridge Presbyterian Church in England and trustee at the Banner of Truth Trust. Read it here....

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At his blog "Christians in Context" Damian Romano has posted his top ten R.C. Sproul quotes. And he has rounded up some good ones. Here is a sampling:10. Every sin is an act of cosmic treason, a futile attempt to dethrone God in His sovereign authority.9. Most Christian's salute the...

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The music division of Ligonier Ministries has been created as an aid to the educational work. Our desire is to produce music which helps illustrate the transcendent qualities of God and of God's universe.In keeping with this mission, Ligonier has just released a new recording in collaboration with a remarkable...

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We asked one of our development officers, Kaki Cobb, to bring you an update on a special outreach we've been offering to our armed forces chaplains. Here is her report:As an extension of our mission, Ligonier Ministries continues to reach out to military chaplains, both at home and abroad, so...

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Is God a "delusion"? Is Christianity dangerous? Are science and faith incompatible? Although these questions are not new, they are being asked more often since the publication of Richard Dawkins' bestselling book The God Delusion.In October 2007, Richard Dawkins and fellow Oxford professor Dr. John Lennox were invited to Birmingham,...

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About six weeks ago, Mr. Ben Stein joined Dr. R.C. Sproul for a delightful and stimulating conversation about the current state of free scientific inquiry in academia. We have posted the video below.Many of you may recognize Mr. Stein as the teacher in the 1986 film, Ferris Bueller's Day Off,...

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As we look back on the weekend in which we have remembered Jesus death and rejoiced in his resurrection, this portion of R.C. Sproul's book Following Christ seemed particularly poignant.For three days God was silent. Then he screamed. With cataclysmic power God rolled the stone away and unleashed a paroxysm...

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A week ago, C.J. Mahaney presented a message at the Ligonier national conference based on 1 Corinthians 15:17, "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins."We thought it would be appropriate for this Easter weekend....

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What is the significance of the shedding of blood in the atonement?by R.C. Sproul The idea that there's some intrinsic or inherent power in the blood of Jesus is a popular concept in the Christian world. It even crops up from time to time in various hymns and praise songs....

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Together for the Gospel 2008 will be held in Louisville, April 15-17. Registration is almost full. It is our joy to see the revived interest in the historic Christian faith, particularly among young pastors and seminarians. Dr. Sproul is a guest speaker again this year and we know it energizes...

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I place the books I've read into several categories.  Aside from Scripture, which of course falls into a unique category, the top category consists of great books that I read again and again.  There are a number of books I would place in this category, one of which is Neil...

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Most readers know Tabletalk magazine for its helpful, topical articles as well as the daily Bible studies. In 2008, the editors have started posting the magazine's columns as well as R.C. Sproul's popular "Right Now Counts Forever" article. Here are the links to the March edition:Coram Deo (Living Before the...

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Dr. R.C. Sproul is fond of speaking of "the philosophy of the second glance." For instance, in his recent book on worship, A Taste of Heaven, Dr. Sproul writes that the ongoing controversies over what is proper in worship have "caused many of us to practice the philosophy of the...

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Our thanks to all our students and ministry partners who attended last week's National Conference. It was a pleasure to meet so many new friends and catch up with old ones. The team at Ligonier benefits from hearing your encouragement and your testimonies about the effects of this ministry...

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Embryo: A Defense of Human Life.  By Robert P. George and Christopher Tollefsen.  Doubleday, 2008.  242pp.  $23.95.The Least of TheseSince the 1973 Supreme Court decision in the case of Roe v. Wade, the question of the status of the human embryo (and fetus) has been at the center of heated...

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The conference has come to an end, but we are just getting started with adding the videos to the web site. If you were not able to watch the webcasts of the sessions, you can watch them online for the rest of this week. Here are the links: Preconference Messages...

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Dr. R.C. Sproul's second and final conference message was entitled "Counted Righteous in Christ (Imputation)." He began by reading Genesis 15:1-6, where we learn that Abraham believed God, and God "counted it to him as righteousness." Dr. Sproul then read from Romans 4:1-8, where we see Paul hearkening back...

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In his second and final conference message, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson spoke on the theme "The Nature of Saving Faith." Dr. Ferguson took his text from Romans 3:19-4:2, but also read several verses on the results of saving faith from Romans 5. INTRODUCTION Towards the beginning of the third book of...

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As we approach the end of the second day of this conference, I would like to remind you that you can participate in the weekend's proceedings from wherever you are, even if you happen to be on the other side of the world. We are continually updating the conference photo...

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This afternoon we finally got to hear from R.C. Sproul. He chose to speak from a few verses in Galatians 1 and 2 and said that he has probably preached this message 100 times in the past. He provided a brief defense of the importance of the doctrine of justification...

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C.J. Mahaney is president of Sovereign Grace Ministries, which is devoted to the establishment and support of local churches. Formerly the pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Md. for 27 years, Pastor Mahaney also currently serves on the council of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals and on the board...

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Dr. Sinclair Ferguson is senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, S.C., and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Systematic Theology at Westminster Seminary. One of the most renowned Reformed theologians in our day, Dr. Ferguson is also a member of the Council of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. He is...

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Yesterday, in a preconference message, Joni Eareckson Tada shared "Good News in a Fallen World." She spoke again this morning and as she so often does, she prefaced her speech with a video and a song and concluded it with another song (in which she was joined by the...

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The second day of the conference began with John MacArthur's second and final sermon. His topic was "Simultaneously Righteous and a Sinner" (or, to use the Latin theological term, simul iustus et peccator). He turned first to the well-known story of the raising of Lazarus and on that basis titled...

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Dr. Steven J. Lawson gave his second and final message entitled "The Saving Power of God." Noting that this is the central theme of Romans, Lawson took his text from Rom. 1:1-18. INTRODUCTION That all power belongs to God is clearly taught in the Bible. We call this the...

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Mrs. Joni Eareckson Tada has for many decades traveled the world to remind people of the practical applications of the Gospel. She is the founder of Joni and Friends, an organization designed to evangelize and disciple in the disability community. She currently holds an appointment to the Disability Advisory Committee...

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R.C. Sproul Jr. followed Dr. Lawson with a message entitled "Evangelizing Your Children." R.C. Sproul Jr. is the founder of the Highlands Study Center in Mendota, Va., which seeks to help Christians live more simple, separate, and deliberate lives to the glory of God and for the building of His...

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Dr. Steven J. Lawson opened the conference with a dynamic message entitled "The Foolishness of Preaching" from the text I Cor. 1:18-25. Lawson is the senior pastor of Christ Fellowship Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama. He serves on the board of directors of The Master's College and Seminary and the...

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This year we are pleased to have Lukas VanDyke, photographer extrordinaire, serving at the conference. He has been wandering all over the campus with his cameras and we have just posted the first of many galleries of his work.You can view them here....

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The Ligonier Ministries 2008 National Conference is now underway. Please consult this post if you would like to enjoy the plenary sessions via free, live webcast. Also, be sure to check back over the course of the conference for daily photo galleries. And stay tuned here for live-blog updates from...

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"Hello I'm Mel Duncan. I'm with Ligonier Ministries and I work with pastors." It's something I've said hundreds of times the last few years. It's also something I never get tired of repeating because over the last three years I've encountered pastors from all walks of life serving faithfully in...

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If you're not just a reader of blogs but a blogger yourself, we have a deal for you. Last summer, Ligonier's publishing arm, Reformation Trust, launched a small pilot program under which bloggers can contact us for a free PDF version of one of our books. When a blogger posts...

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We're just days away from the biggest Ligonier event of the year. We are pleased to announce the free, live webcast of our national conference. New this year is a Spanish language audio simulcast. See below for details.Last year we had more than 22,000 visitors enjoy the conference stream, many...

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We recently interviewed Dr. Sinclair Ferguson, author of In Christ Alone (Reformation Trust Publishing, 2007) and speaker at this week's 2008 National Conference:You begin your book In Christ Alone with a poetic treatment of a passage from John Calvin's Institutes. Many folks have a view of Calvin that he was...

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John Newton is best known for his classic hymn "Amazing Grace," but he wrote much more.  One of the most helpful things he ever wrote is found among his collected letters. A fellow minister had written to Newton informing him of his intention to write an article criticizing another minister...

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What is a Christian's responsibility to government?by R.C. SproulThe New Testament gives us some broad principles on how we are supposed to respond to government. For example, Romans 13 elaborates on the origin and institution of government as something that God ordains. The great theologian Augustine said that government is a...

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Since the Preacher tells us in Ecclesiastes 3 that there is a time for everything, we suppose that must include a time for a Ligonier Ministries Blog. The day has arrived and here we go.We'll use this forum to point our students to the helpful articles, broadcasts, events, and resources...

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