Sinclair Ferguson

Dr. Sinclair B. Ferguson is senior minister of First Presbyterian Church (ARP) in Columbia, S.C., professor of systematic theology at Redeemer Seminary, and a teaching fellow of Ligonier Ministries.

  • Columba: Missionary to Scotland by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | August 2006

    In reading the “lives of the saints” it is difficult to the point of impossibility to discover the unvarnished truth. That is certainly true in the case of Columba, or Columcille, the Irish missionary to the Scots and Picts in …Read More

  • What’s in Your Mind, Believer? by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | June 2004

    Since the time of the Reformation in the sixteenth century, the question has been asked endlessly: “What is the role of the law of God in light of the Gospel?” The apostle Paul found himself asking it (for example, Gal …Read More

  • A Testimony of Faithfulness by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | December 2004

    Among all the names mentioned in the letter to the Hebrews, only one belongs to a member of the New Testament church. Here are four clues. If you still can’t get the answer, look up Hebrews 13:23. Clue …Read More

  • Privileges Bring Responsibilities by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | November 2004

    The letter to the Hebrews, as our studies throughout the year have shown, is full of Old Testament language and ritual. Running throughout it is an ongoing sense that as believers we are on the move, on a pilgrimage through …Read More

  • The Author of Faith by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | October 2004

    My last contact with the late Professor John Murray — to whose writings and influence I, like many others, owe a lasting debt — was particularly memorable for me, partly because I asked him a question to which he gave the answer …Read More

  • Theologian of the Spirit by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | October 2004

    The figure of John Owen (1616–1683) towers above — almost head and shoulders above — the galaxy of writers we know collectively as the English Puritans. His theological learning and acumen was unrivalled; his sense of the importance of doctrine for …Read More

  • The Life of Faith by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | September 2004

    The opening words of Hebrews 11, “now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” sometimes perplexes Bible students who are accustomed to the classical Reformed description of faith as consisting of knowledge, assent …Read More

  • The Christ of the Three Appearings by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | July 2004

    Many pastors, perhaps most, take a very deep breath before they commit themselves to preaching through Hebrews! Understandably so, for it brings most Christians into a world that is alien and distant: Melchizedek and Aaron, temple and furniture, blood and …Read More

  • How Long Will it Last? by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | May 2004

    “He’s going through a religious phase.” How often did you overhear that being said about you in your early days as an openly professing follower of Jesus Christ? Admittedly the sheer force of conversion on an untaught mind can …Read More

  • Hebrews— Does it “Do Anything” For You? by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | January 2004

    A friend — his face wrinkled in a cheerful grin — described an incident that took place at the end of a conference address I had given recently. One hearer, apparently full of the blessings of the passage I had been trying …Read More

  • Time to (Re)Discover Hebrews by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | January 2011

    Of all the New Testament letters, Hebrews seems to be one many Christians find strange and alien. Here we enter the world of Melchizedek and Aaron, angels and Moses, sacrifices and priests. It all seems so Old Testament, so intricate …Read More

  • Surprised by Joy by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | January 2008

    November 22, 1963, the date of President Kennedy’s assassination, was also the day C.S. Lewis died. Seven years earlier he had thus described death: “The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is …Read More

  • What Does Justification Have to do with the Gospel? by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | February 2010

    There is a striking plausibility about saying that “justification by faith is not what Paul means by ‘the gospel.’” After all, as N.T. Wright elsewhere observes, we are not justified by believing in justification by faith but by believing …Read More

  • A Catechism on the Heart by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | January 2012

    Sometimes people ask authors, “Which of your books is your favorite?” The first time the question is asked, the response is likely to be “I am not sure; I have never really thought about it.” But forced to think about …Read More

  • Faith and Repentance by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | June 2013

    When the gospel is proclaimed, it seems at first sight that two different, even alternative, responses are called for. Sometimes the summons is, “Repent!” Thus, “John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent for the kingdom of …Read More