Ligonier Ministries: The teaching fellowship of R.C. Sproul

Reformed Christians are sometimes accused of being cold and callous, people who are Christian stoics or even fatalists. We are, to some, "the frozen chosen." In this article from the August issue of Tabletalk, Keith Mathison suggests that we may have earned this unfortunate nickname. He takes grief as an example of an area in which we may lack biblical balance, unintentionally offending others as we allow our sense of God's sovereignty to trump our understanding of the reality that death is an unnatural state. He goes on to encourage Christians to grieve well. "Here and now, we grieve with those who grieve, not as unbelievers with no hope of the resurrection, but as believers who know death cannot defeat us, but who still hate this enemy of God and the pain and loneliness it causes to our brothers and sisters. We grieve as those who cannot wait to see death destroyed once and for all." Keep Reading

Collin Hansen has a word for older believers. Asking you to overlook the pride of younger Christians, he asks you to do us one big favor: tell us your stories. "Your stories give us the perspective we haven’t yet gained with experience. We don’t yet understand how much we don’t know. Our youthful bluster masks insecurity. We stand tall against withering attacks from our peers, but we’ve hardly been tested. We fear that when harder times come our faith will prove ephemeral. But your stories gird us against these doubts. So look underneath our confident exterior. You’ll find that younger Christians actually want to hear from older believers about how God demonstrated His faithfulness in their generation." Keep reading to find how stories have influenced Collin, how they have led him to praise God for what he has done in the past, and how they have encouraged him to ask God to do great things in the future. Keep Reading

In this article, Tabletalk's senior associate editor Chris Donato asks "When was the last time you went to a private social club?" He goes on to say, "If you think that kind of thing is for the elite members of our society alone, guess again. The Yellow Pages are filled with lists of social clubs in which anyone in the neighborhood can become a member. They meet mainly on Sunday mornings — but don’t be foolish enough to wait for an invitation. Unfortunately, like most other clubs, this one is designed to keep certain people in and other people out. You will find in it a decidedly internalized and individualized faith, complete with its own set of man-made regulations. You will find in it a group of folks who act as if they are enjoying life to the fullest, no matter where they are or what they are doing. And what do they do? They do exactly what they wish to do. In this Sunday club, then, it comes as no surprise that God Is He Who Exists for Me." Read on to find how Chris calls each of us to live with the reality that we exist for God, not the other way around. Keep Reading

Not too long after so many of us were swept up in the significance of Y2K, R.C. Sproul Jr. peers back at Y1K and looks for its lessons. "As the tenth century drew to its conclusion, too many Christians saw in that grand, round number what they thought was a glimpse into the private thoughts of God. The millennium bug bit us, and we caught the fever." He warns, though, that "Disappointments along these lines, then and now, can be peculiarly damaging, as theologies are twisted and Scriptures denied in order to explain how our math turned out wrong." He reflects on the significance of numbers, even saying that "Numbers, because of their abstract nature, may be that place where our thinking grows closest to God’s. We hear in the harmony of music and we see in the dance of the heavenly spheres echoes and reflections of the beauty of not just creation but the Creator. In its place, this is right and proper. We should always marvel at His glory and power." Still, they can be dangerous and "we must always remember that His ways are not our ways, His thoughts not our thoughts. We must not, as Satan tempted us, see numbers as a tool for our own power and glory." Having warned of the allure of numbers and the danger they can bring us, he turns to the one number that matters most. Keep Reading

The August 2010 issue of Tabletalk continues our ongoing series on the history of the church by presenting highlights from the tenth century, including its historical, theological, and practical ramifications. Here is a list of helpful resources highlighting church history and eschatology that will complement your study through Tabletalk this month. Keep Reading

One of the dominant patterns in church history is that of corruption and reform. In his article from this month's issue of Tabletalk, C. Fitzsimmons Allison begins with tenth century corruption and reform and eventually the necessary reform to that reform. Looking at this pattern through the years leading to the Reformation, Allison asks "What, then, is the lesson for today, when the churches are tragically divided and the Christian message is being corrupted by scandals and accommodations to an increasingly corrupt society?" Ultimately, he suggests, the answer will begin with the centrality of the gospel. "One’s life follows one’s heart. What the heart desires and believes the will will choose and the mind will justify. Hence, starting at behavior is not as effective as starting with the gospel story, the teaching, and the doctrine that speaks to the heart." Keep Reading

"Volumes have been written giving detailed analyses of the extraordinary things that occurred in the first thousand years of church history, events that influenced everything that came after them." In this brief article R.C. Sproul distills those volumes into just a few words, setting the stage for an examination of the tenth century, the period of time that is the particular focus of the August edition of Tabletalk. Sproul points to five dimensions of activity that were particularly important in the first millennium of church history: the rise of the papacy, the innovations of pope Gregory the Great, the rise of the monastic movement, the great ecumenical councils of Nicea and Chalcedon and the life and ministry of Augustine of Hippo. He draws an unmistakable contrast between the vitality of the early church and the darkness that marked it by the end. Already by the close of the first millennium of church history "the church was already groping in the darkness and biblical soteriology had declined to such a degree that the gospel was rapidly becoming obscured, even becoming almost totally eclipsed until it was recovered in the sixteenth century Reformation." Keep Reading

In this introductory article to the August edition of Tabletalk, Burk Parsons writes about confession and the Roman Catholic sacrament of penance. "Although historically Rome has taught the necessity of both private and public confession of sin, many Catholics have been persuaded that only when they confess their sins to their priests, are absolved, and do penance that they really possess the forgiveness of God." Parsons then introduces us to Simeon, a tenth-century Christian who called the church to more than mere outward performance. "Through the centuries the Lord has continued to sustain and reform His church by raising up faithful men to proclaim His gospel and to call His people to live coram Deo, before His face, in genuine repentance, humble confession, and authentic faith leading to a life wholeheartedly devoted to God." Keep Reading

The August edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's issue continues our ongoing series on the history of the church by presenting highlights from the tenth century, including its historical, theological, and practical ramifications. Contributors include C. Fitzsimmons Allison, Chris Donato, Collin Hansen, Keith Mathison, Burk Parsons, R.C. Sproul, and R.C. Sproul Jr. Keep Reading

We need daily pardon and daily protection as well as daily provision. So after Jesus taught us to pray, “give us today our daily bread,” He also taught us to pray, “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6:12–13). Keep Reading