Ligonier Ministries

How should I preach the doctrines of grace?

I think, pastorally, one must always recognize that in some of these areas people do not have the paradigms to be able immediately to take in what Scripture teaches. Sometimes they have been taught in a way that is contrary …Read More

How do we obey the moral law without being moralistic?

We obey the moral law, first of all, by understanding what it’s for, and there are various ways of putting this. For all my life I have been interested in the game of golf. Golf is played according to rules. …Read More

What are the essential qualities of a Christian?

Think for example about what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13. Here is a church where certain gifts are being held up before the people as indications of a kind of super-spirituality. And basically what Paul says in 1 Corinthians …Read More

Why should we pray if God has planned all things?

In a way that’s a form of a bigger question that sometimes people who ask that question don’t ask, which is, “If God has planned all things, why should we do anything?” And we understand that what we do as …Read More

How do you know if God has called you to be a pastor?

When Paul is reflecting on young Timothy who has been called to the ministry, he says to him in 2 Timothy 1:6, “Fan into flame the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands.” …Read More

How do I know that I am elect? How do I know my faith is genuine?

The way in which we come to know our election is through faith in Christ. So we must never try to bypass Jesus Christ, because, for example, as Paul says in Ephesians 1, we are chosen in Christ before the …Read More

Which comes first in the ordo salutis (order of salvation)—faith or regeneration?

I think first of all of what Jesus said in John chapter 3, when he said to Nicodemus that unless you’re born from above—which is regeneration—you’ll neither be able to see or enter the kingdom of God (John 3:3-5). And …Read More

Is there biblical warrant for Sunday evening worship?

When people ask, “Should we have two services on the Lord’s Day?” my inclination is to say that I think we as the people of God ought to rise up in righteous revolt against the parsimony of our preachers and …Read More

How do you define a false teacher?

SPROUL: When is a false teacher a false teacher? It’s when he teaches falsehood. MOHLER: Amen. I would just add that I think there is in the New Testament a clear reservation of that title not just for one who …Read More

How should Christians respond to the imprecatory psalms?

GODFREY: It seems to me there’s a lot of confusion on this in part because Jesus has told us to love our enemies, to pray for them. And what we’re being reminded there is we are not to call down …Read More

What do we say to a mother who has lost her child in infancy when she asks, “Is my child in heaven?”

GODFREY: The Canons of Dort, First Head of Doctrine, Article 17, say that godly parents may believe without doubt that their children dying in infancy are elect and saved. And I think that’s true. DEYOUNG: That is exactly what I …Read More

What is the gospel?

SPROUL: When I would teach in the doctor of ministry program and I’d have the clergy in there, I would ask them to define the gospel. And if I got ten percent of them to give an adequate answer to …Read More

What parts of the law are still relevant to us today?

We make distinctions among the ceremonial law, the dietary law, the civil law, and the moral law. To the Jew, every law commanded by God in the Old Testament was moral in the sense that it had moral significance to …Read More

Is it important that a church subscribe to a confession? Why or why not?

Anything smaller than that, or theoretically larger, will not give you the stability that a solid confession of faith will do. For example, you might say, “The Bible is our confession.” But that wouldn’t help us. All that tells us …Read More

Since God is sovereign, what is the purpose of intercessory prayer?

There are layers of answers to that. One purpose is obedience to God, because in so many different places we are urged to pray, and we are urged to pray without ceasing. So even if we were not able to …Read More