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This month marks Tabletalk's fortieth year of publication. In 1977, Dr. R.C. Sproul launched Tabletalk as a monthly newsletter featuring news about the Ligonier Valley Study Center in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, which was established in 1971. The newsletter also included articles covering a wide range of subjects for Ligonier students and supporters. Dr. Sproul and his fellowship of teachers from the study center and abroad contributed articles on biblical, theological, cultural, and philosophical matters with a focus on helping Christians grow as disciples of Jesus Christ. In 1989, the format of Tabletalk changed, and a monthly theme, columns, and daily Bible studies were introduced. Since 1977, Tabletalk has witnessed tremendous growth in readership, with now more than one hundred thousand copies of Tabletalk going out the door every month and an estimated audience of 250,000 readers in more than fifty countries. We are grateful for our Lord's continued blessing these past forty years, and, if the Lord tarries, we hope He will continue to bless the ministry and readers of Tabletalk for the next forty years as we strive to make disciples of all nations for God's glory, not ours.

Tabletalk is Reformed, and we mean it. We are not ashamed of being distinctively Reformed in all that we do. We are Reformed because we believe that to be Reformed is to be biblical. To be Reformed is not only to stand firmly on the same doctrine as our faithful Reformation forefathers, it is to stand firmly on the Word of God. To be Reformed is not only to believe that God is sovereign over salvation, but to believe that He is sovereign over everything. To be Reformed isn't simply to accept the doctrines of grace, but to take great comfort in them, to teach them graciously, and to defend them courageously. To be Reformed is to believe that God has one glorious covenantal plan of redemption, and that He is carrying out that plan. To be Reformed is not to give mere lip service to the historic Reformed confessional standards, but to affirm them heartily and study them diligently. To be Reformed means not only that we are professing members of a local Reformed church but that we are regular, active worshipers and participants in the life, community, and mission of our local churches as we take the gospel to the ends of the earth. To be Reformed is not to be a complacent, smug, arrogant, or apathetic people, but to be a gracious, dependent, humble, prayerful, evangelistic, joyful, loving people who believe that God not only ordains the end of all things but that He ordains the means of all ends in us and through us by the powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit for His glory alone.