Latest from R.C. Sproul Jr.
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10 Important Things To Ask a Potential Pastor
from R.C. Sproul Jr. Mar 07, 2010 Category: Articles
When interviewing a potential pastor, what are the ten most important questions that you would ask? I suspect that in most churches the gap between the actual questions and the best questions would go a long way to explain the particular weakness of the particular church. The questions we ask reveal our hearts just as much as the answers reveal the heart of the potential pastor. Here, I believe, is what I would want to ask. Keep Reading -
What Is the Goal of Becoming a Christian?
from R.C. Sproul Jr. Feb 18, 2010 Category: Articles
It is my contention that we spend far too little time thinking through issues of teleology, the study of end or purpose or design. We prefer to leave these questions unexamined, and thus move through our lives less than deliberately. That said, this question comes with at least a potential danger, turning the Christian faith at best, and God at worst into a means to an end. Marva Dawn wisely described worship as a “royal waste of time.” It is royal because we are praising the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. It is a “waste of time” because such worship serves no other end, but is the ultimate end of all things. Keep Reading -
Two Birds, One Stone
from R.C. Sproul Jr. Feb 10, 2010 Category: Tabletalk Magazine
When error comes into the church we face a set of obligations. First, we must confront the error. The world has embraced a live-and-let-live relativism that will accept any foolishness, but will not accept the wisdom of calling foolishness by its name. Too often the church follows suit. We want to get along, and so pet the wolves in our midst rather than drive them away. Our calling, as faithful soldiers of the kingdom, is to combat error in whatever form it takes. Second, we must not err when confronting the error. If we would have sound and accurate thinking in the church, we must be sound and accurate in what we denounce. Keep Reading -
How and When Did You “Get Saved?”
from R.C. Sproul Jr. Jan 27, 2010 Category: Articles
How/when did you "get saved?" Or when did God sovereignly grant you the faith to repent and believe?
I don’t know. I certainly had any number of conversion experiences in my life, the latest of which took place when I was in high school. The first I remember was while saying prayers before bed with my mother when I was still in grade school. Another was a typical experience at church camp. The last I was alone, listening to Bob Dylan’s record “Saved” when I asked God to cover my sins in the blood of the Lamb. I have been tempted over the years, however, when asked to give my testimony, to say something like this, “I was baptized as a child, and have been improving on that baptism, more or less, ever since.” I do not, of course, believe that God necessarily gave me the gift of saving faith at the time of my baptism. The Westminster Confession affirms wisely that the efficacy of baptism is not tied to the moment of time wherein it is administered (chapter 28, section six) and I concur with it. I don’t believe in baptismal regeneration. Keep Reading -
Be Still (and know that you’re loved)
from R.C. Sproul Jr. Jan 21, 2010 Category: Tabletalk Magazine
The children of God are rather different from the children of men. We have been reborn by a sovereign God. They have not. We have been redeemed by a sovereign God. They have not. We are being remade by a sovereign God. They are not. Despite these things that distinguish us, that set us apart, there are yet ways where we are very much like those outside the kingdom. We, both inside and outside the kingdom, have drunk deeply of the modernist conceit that we are defined by what we know. Thus, we think the difference between us and them, between sheep and goats, is a matter of knowledge. We are those who have been blessed to have the truth revealed to us. Once those outside the kingdom have the truth revealed to them, we seem to think, they will become just like us. Keep Reading -
Last Things First
from R.C. Sproul Jr. Dec 23, 2009 Category: Tabletalk Magazine
Last things last, that’s what I used to say. It seemed to me that there were plenty of difficult theological issues for us to wade through without having to worry about the end times. We all agree, after all, that in the end our side wins. Whether Jesus comes to find His world a horrible cesspool that needs to be cleaned up, or to find a glorious reflection of His successful bride, or somewhere in the middle, He does come back and make all things right. I was indifferent about how He would return. But two things kept nagging at me. The Bible talks about the return of Christ. It talks about the full consummation of history. And one thing I didn’t want to happen when Jesus comes back was this — to have Him be displeased with me because I tossed aside a portion of His Word cavalierly, indeed, if I tossed a part aside at all. The second problem was this, a fundamental principle of progress. One cannot know which way to go unless one knows where one is supposed to go. If you’re going nowhere, any direction will do. But if you want to get somewhere, you have to know where. Keep Reading -
Repent, For the Kingdom of God
from R.C. Sproul Jr. Dec 04, 2009 Category: Articles
How quick are you to repent? If you're anything like me, you've just this moment added several more things to repent of. First, pride. I suspect that you, if you are like me, think yourself a pretty decent repenter. You likely wish that others would learn from your wonderful example, and do likewise. Indeed, now that I mention it, you can think of several people that owe you an apology, and aren't you the one for being so gracious about it up until now? Keep Reading -
Intelligent Design?
from R.C. Sproul Jr. Nov 16, 2009 Category: Tabletalk Magazine
The culture wars are heating up again. Such, I suppose, ought not to surprise me. Evangelical professor of sociology James Davidson Hunter published his book Culture Wars in 1992. Therein he argued that the real dividing line in modern culture was not between right wing and left wing, not between Christians and non-Christians, but between the orthodox and the progressives Keep Reading -
Amazing Grace
from R.C. Sproul Jr. Nov 11, 2009 Category: Articles
If you were to draw a circle, and label is "sense" there would be no need to draw a second circle labeled "nonsense." If sense is all that is inside the circle, nonsense is of necessity all that is outside the circle. The same is true with respect to obedience. Draw your circle, and label it obedience. Now everything outside the circle is disobedience. Which is bigger, the world inside the circle or the world outside? Keep Reading -
Is Sola Scriptura in the Bible?
from R.C. Sproul Jr. Nov 05, 2009 Category: Tabletalk Magazine
No, and yes. The Bible does not have specific text that suggests that the Bible alone is our final authority in all matters of faith and practice. Those who delight to point this out, however, typically Roman Catholics and the eastern Orthodox, typically miss the point. Keep Reading
