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.

  • Union with God the Trinity by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | February 2013

    Have you ever imagined what it would be like to be within hours of death—not as an elderly person, but as someone condemned to die although innocent of every crime? What would you want to say to those who …Read More

  • Consider the Glory of God by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | May 2012

    John Newton (1725–1807) is best known today for his great hymns (including “Amazing Grace” and “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken”). But in his own day, he was perhaps more highly prized as a letter writer — “the great director …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

  • 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

  • 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

  • Speed with God by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | January 2009

    When Sereno E. Dwight included the seventy resolutions in his biography of his great-grandfather Jonathan Edwards, he added the arresting comment: “These were all written before he was twenty years of age.” Doubtless the resolutions display the marks of relative …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

  • The Practice of Mortification by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | January 2007

    The aftermath of a conversation can change the way we later think of its significance. My friend — a younger minister — sat down with me at the end of a conference in his church and said: “Before we retire tonight, just …Read More

  • 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

  • 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 Greatest of All Protestant Heresies”? by Sinclair Ferguson

    FROM TABLETALK | August 2004

    Let us begin with a church history exam question. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621) was a figure not to be taken lightly. He was Pope Clement VIII’s personal theologian and one of the most able figures in the Counter-Reformation …Read More