Ligonier Ministries

Does God turn His face away from Christians?

The great Aaronic blessing that God gave to the priesthood in Israel to lay upon Israel and to bless Israel was that the Lord’s face would shine upon them (Num. 6:24-26). This was an expression of the happy, blessed, and …Read More

What is the best way to describe repentance to an unbeliever?

The best way may be to use an illustration that you think of either from their life or from your own life. The Hebrew word for repentance means returning. The prodigal son is a story like that: he goes away …Read More

How would you describe the majesty of God?

The psalmist says, “God dwells in light inaccessible.” We can use any word. I remember talking to R.C. about this and he said, “You know, the word I used was ‘holiness,’ but there are a lot of words we can …Read More

What book or resource would you recommend to a new believer?

Some new believers are just not readers at all, so the most important thing is to encourage them to read the Scriptures. For that reason, you might want to find a book for them that would give them simple help. …Read More

What is the relationship between the Holy Spirit’s work and our effort in sanctification?

I think the best place to go for a one-sentence answer to that is Philippians 2:12-13, where Paul urges the Christians to work out their salvation—which is not working up their salvation, but working out the salvation that God has …Read More

What happens when unbelievers die? Are they already in hell or waiting for the final judgment?

If we look at the framework of Scripture, we would say that they are in hell now; yet there is the final judgment to come. They’re certainly not in a state of soul-sleep, not in a state of limbo, not …Read More

Why has the church lost its appreciation for the Sabbath?

I think one of the temptations of American evangelical Christianity—borne out of something fundamentally good, namely our desire to see the church revived and our desire to see the church involved in evangelism and missions—has gotten persuaded, in our time …Read More

Is it a sin to be angry with God?

The New Testament has a lot to say about anger. It says, “Be angry, but don’t let the sun go down on your wrath” (Eph. 4:26). But there are also the warnings of our Lord against unjustifiable anger. And there’s …Read More

How do we overcome sin?

Sin is what needs to be overcome in sanctification. So sin is the enemy in sanctification. I go back to the Heidelberg Catechism, and at the end of the exposition of the Ten Commandments near the end of the Heidelberg …Read More

What level of importance should church history have in my walk as a Christian?

First of all, at the ordinary level, these folks are your family as a Christian, and it really is terrific to get to know them. The second thing is that the more we know about the past, the more we …Read More

What is an “ordinary means of grace” ministry?

FERGUSON: An ordinary means of grace ministry is the thrill, from the point of view of those who share in that ministry, of the exposition of Scripture in different ways and at different levels and watching the Word of God …Read More

Based on Acts 16:31, can we ask God to save our household?

The Philippian jailer is one context. There you’ve got the head of the household who has come to faith in Christ. I was brought up in a family that never went to church. My mother and father never went to …Read More

What is the greatest challenge in the church today?

I think the greatest challenge in the church today is probably no different from any day, and that is that if we really believe in God and His sovereignty we’ll learn to pray together. One of the things that has …Read More

How did the early church fathers interpret the “rock” of Matthew 16?

I would say if this were the lightning round we could say, true. The notion that Peter himself was the rock rather than his confession being the rock seems first to be articulated by a bishop of Rome in the …Read More

What is your theological background, and how has it shaped your view of history?

I’ve written a little book about my own personal spiritual journey. I was raised in a Methodist family, and it was in high school that I fell in amongst the Dutch Reformed and started going to a Reformed church. That …Read More