The Bible Story

Posted on April 26, 2024 by RC

A friend of mine has been known to encourage me to produce my own study Bible. Happily, his vision for my study Bible isn’t quite the mammoth undertaking that putting together a real study Bible is. He suggests that my Bible just have a few notes, repeated over and over again. Things like, “See this promise? Believe it.” Or, “This sinner in this story—he’s just like you. Learn to see yourself in the Bible’s great sinners.” These two themes—that we need to learn to believe more fully, down to our toes, the promises of God, and that we need to come to a more potent, existential awareness of our sins and our weaknesses—are a big deal to me. The themes find their way regularly into my writing and into my teaching.

That, in itself, is not a bad thing. Wisdom calls us to recognize, as much as we are able, our own peculiar callings. If God gives you a cannon, He expects you to fire it. There is, however, also a danger. Just as it has been said that to the man with a hammer everything can look like a nail, so when we come to the Bible with our pet passions we will find ourselves tempted to see things in the text that aren’t there, and to miss things in the text that are there. We will show ourselves workmen who need to be ashamed for mishandling the Word of God.

There are, of course, metanarratives to go along with biblical narratives. A narrative, simply put, is a story. A meta-narrative is a story that transcends stories. It is the overarching story. The Boston Tea Party is a narrative. America as a fearless bastion of freedom— that’s a meta-narrative. The two, of course intersect, just as they do in the Bible. Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah is a story that illumines the meta-narrative of substitutionary atonement and of fathers sacrificing sons (see also John 3:16). Nathan’s confrontation of David is a story that illumines the meta-narrative of blindness to sin.

Because there are meta-narratives, we are wise to see them in the narratives we read. But because there are many, we need to be careful not to put square narratives into round meta-narratives. Trouble is, because there is more than one meta-narrative, we face the temptation to seek out the meta-meta-narrative, the story that transcends the stories that transcend.

Consider covenant theology and dispensational theology. These big-picture interpretative grids are so broad, so all-encompassing that each side often finds itself struggling to correct the other. Our differences are so foundational, touching on how we understand all of God’s Word that we seemingly have nothing to do but talk past each other. We can’t walk inside each other’s shoes because we’re walking in opposite directions. I have my own convictions on the issue, strong ones. But I’m not afraid to confess that I am virtually uncorrectable from my friends on the other side, simply because this is such a foundational issue.

Which makes me long for an unimpeachable answer, a meta-meta-meta-narrative that comes from the lips of Jesus Himself. Is it just possible that all the Bible’s stories about substitution, about covering, about creation, fall, redemption, about covenant are subsumed under one grand story? Perhaps so. What if, in the end, it were all about the kingdom? What if that is why Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”? What if He was clueing us in on the big picture? What if the dominion mandate, the Great Commission, the promise that all things are being brought into submission to the reign of Christ— what if these were all the one great story?

This doesn’t, of course, undo the other stories in the Bible. It’s still true that the Bible is the story of Jesus’ rescuing not the beautiful princess, but the ugly hag. But in doing so, He secures a queen for His kingdom. It doesn’t undo His death and resurrection for us. But in doing so, He wins citizens for His kingdom. It doesn’t undo creation–fall–re-creation. But it affirms that God created a kingdom, Adam failed to rule it, and Jesus now succeeds where the first Adam failed.

When Jesus calls us to seek first His kingdom, He isn’t turning sanctification, evangelism, sound doctrine, atonement, and meeting the needs of widows and orphans into secondary matters. Rather, He is telling us why we pursue these things, the end for which they exist. It is affirming the forest that helps us understand the trees.

There is, however, one more step. The Bible is only penultimately the story of the kingdom. For the glorious truth is that the kingdom exists for the sake of the King. The Bible is Jesus’ story from beginning to end. He is the Alpha and Omega of the Bible, even as He is the Alpha and Omega of history. We understand history, we understand the Bible, therefore, only insofar as we understand Jesus. That is what each is for: to show us the glory of the Only Begotten, to the everlasting praise of the Father. May we never, in all our study, lose sight of Him.

Posted in beauty, Bible Study, Biblical theology, church, creation, eschatology, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR, wonder | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Draft Days

Posted on April 25, 2024 by RC

My father and I, as far back as I can remember, loved to talk sports, especially the Pittsburgh Steelers. It is true enough that we had plenty of valuable and enjoyable conversations on knotty theological issues and subtle biblical texts. It is even more true that we almost always agreed. I remember telling him, though I’m not sure he was persuaded, that even where we disagreed it was because I was seeking to take a position we shared to its necessary logical conclusion. Downstream disagreements flowed out of shared upstream sources.

When I was in elementary school I admired my dad, and wanted to be like him, in the realm of sports. He had earned a football/baseball scholarship to college. When I entered into high school I continued to admire my dad, and wanted to be like him, in the realm of theology, philosophy and apologetics. While there were times when I behaved badly, I was never in open rebellion against my father, always hungering for his approval. That has never changed.

What has changed is that I no longer hear from him. He went on to His reward more than six years ago. Were he still with us, however, I wouldn’t be having those heavy conversations with him right about now. Instead we’d be talking about the NFL draft. He’d start out by asking me what positions I’d pick for the Steelers in the first three rounds. Then he’d wait patiently to break down his first three choices. Then we’d go back and forth awhile until the conversation would veer into epistemology, how we know things.

That is, I’d say, “I can’t for the life of me figure out how come no one seems to know who will do well and who won’t. When two of the best players of the last twenty years were both 6th round draft picks, when the majority of first round quarterbacks either ride the bench or don’t even play five years in, it sure seems like a crapshoot. I’d argue that we won’t really know until the end of the following season, and we’d measure by wins, losses and play-off births.

I wasn’t, mind you, arguing that our conversation was fruitless. No, I loved the conversation, even though it never led to any definitive conclusions, for one simple reason- they were conversations with my father. I got to listen to his gravelly voice, to his infectious laugh. I got to watch his eyes light up. I got to see him relax. I got to be the skeptic and he the optimist, until the regular season began and we’d switch positions, he bemoaning that the Steelers were doomed, me believing magic would strike again.

For some people it is the holidays that bring to mind the blessings lost from loved ones who have passed on. For me it is NFL draft season. I doubt he’ll be watching, but if he is, it’s probably around a table with Chuck Noll and Myron Cope. I miss my dad, and love him. I miss in turn loving the Steelers with him.

Posted in 10 Commandments, beauty, friends, friendship, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, Nostalgia, RC Sproul, RC Sproul JR, sport | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Grace; Groypers; More Grace and More

Posted on April 24, 2024 by RC

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

Posted in "race", Biblical Doctrines, church, communion, cyberspace, Devil's Arsenal, ethics, grace, In the Beginning, Jesus Changes Everything, Lisa Sproul, Month of Sundays, politics, RC Sproul JR, Sacred Marriage | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Antithesis

Posted on April 23, 2024 by RC

Of what? Antithesis, to the broader world, describes that idea which counters the thesis. The antithesis of “Social justice is a biblical concept” is “Social justice comes out of Marxist ideology.” To the Christian, however, it is more than this. “The antithesis” is a concept found in our Bibles that affirms the reality that there exists in this world two groups of people- the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, and that these two groups are at war with one another. It is a way of looking at the world in light of this reality.

The church, too often, takes the eminently biblical notion that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal and turns it into the eminently carnal notion that there is no war going on. The world is, to those who don’t think in terms of the antithesis, a neutral place, Switzerland if you will. To be sure there are Nazis out there, enemies of the kingdom of God, but the great bulk of the world is made of non-combatants, well-meaning albeit ignorant civilians. Such a perspective is, well, the antithesis of what the Bible teaches.

We are engaged in a war. The war began in the garden. Satan’s first assault made of every mere human a soldier in his army. God’s promise, however, was that He would put enmity in our hearts against the serpent, that He would draft us into His army. There is, however, no way station. We are born at enmity with God, by nature His enemies. We stay that way, no matter how polite and well behaved we might be, no matter how conservative our politics might be, unless or until He gives us new life. The instant that happens we are at enmity with the Serpent, soldiers in the Lord’s army.

Antithesis then means tearing down strongholds, every high-minded thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God (II Corinthians 10: 4-5). The Apostle Paul, Jesus Himself, the whole of the Bible reminds us of the reality of the war. Because one of the enemy’s most potent weapons is simply getting us to forget. In our day, as the broader culture tosses overboard every vestige of its biblical heritage, the antithesis is more easy to see. Watching Republicans embrace a 15 week murder window, watching leftists demanding the destruction of Israel doesn’t look “neutral” to the most oblivious Christian.

The danger faced by those who are aware of the antithesis, however, is found here- knowing who and what our enemies are. There is great overlap between the culture wars and the war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. But they are not the same thing. The enemy of our enemy may be someone we can fight beside. But we must remain on our guard. We must not confuse our common cause with a common faith.

We must, in fact, be eager to fight the enemy within, our own sins and lofty thoughts. We have been drafted into the Lord’s army, but the old man always tries to drag us to the other side. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty. And they begin here- with repenting and believing the gospel.

Posted in 10 Commandments, abortion, Biblical Doctrines, Big Eva, church, Devil's Arsenal, ethics, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, persecution, politics, RC Sproul JR, repentance, sexual confusion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Is the Pro-Life Movement pro-life?

Posted on April 22, 2024 by RC

No. The pro-life movement is not pro-life. It is pro-choice, with exceptions. In the first years after Roe v. Wade made abortion legal up to birth in all fifty states those who stood opposed took the position, recognizing that human life begins at conception, that all the unborn deserve full protection under the law. Recognizing that a. abortions performed in the aftermath of rape or incest were exceedingly rare and b. the majority of Americans supported the legal murder of such babies, the pro-life movement adopted a strategy of laboring to stop the least popular forms of baby murder first, with the hope of stopping the more popular forms later.

The law of unintended consequence came in like a hurricane. Soon, candidates for political office, vowing the protect the exceptions, were called “pro-life.” Bills and laws that protected the exceptions were deemed “pro-life.” Eventually “pro-life” politicians, organizations and supporters fought against legislation that did not allow for exceptions.

The pro-choice position argues that some unborn babies should enjoy the full protection of the law, and other unborn babies should not. The distinction is rooted in the desire of the mother. Wanted unborn babies should be protected, while the mothers who hire “doctors” to murder their unwanted unborn babies should be protected.

The pro-life position argues that some unborn babies should enjoy the full protection of the law, and other unborn babies should not. The distinction is rooted in the circumstances of the baby’s conception. Babies conceived by consenting adults should be protected. Babies born who were conceived in the process of a crime by the father should have no protection.

The pro-life movement likewise focused its efforts on what the public has considered the most egregious forms of abortion. Late term abortions and partial birth abortions came under fire by the pro-life movement, and various laws were passed. And now we have “pro-life” politicians talking about a “15 week” compromise. None of those nasty, dirty abortions will be allowed, except for those nasty rape/incest babies. The rest will be the polite, clean abortions of babies under 15 weeks old.

To be a part of the “Pro-Life Movement” one must abandon reason, moral sanity and the blessing of God. What one gains is, purportedly, electability. Which is of no use, because it cannot be used to protect all unborn babies.

My counsel is that we all disavow this fatally compromised movement. Many in it do not even know where they stand. That may include you. It is a heartbreaking thing to discover that those whom you thought to be allies are allied with the enemy. But courage, wisdom, honor require that we refuse to identify with those lacking in courage, wisdom and honor.

If you are unfamiliar with it let me encourage you to check out the abolitionist movement. We are those seeking, in reliance on the grace and power of God, to abolish all human abortion. We are those calling the government, God’s ministers of justice, to protect all babies and punish all those complicit in their murder.

Posted in 10 Commandments, abortion, Ask RC, Biblical Doctrines, Big Eva, church, Devil's Arsenal, ethics, logic, politics, RC Sproul JR, sexual confusion, wisdom | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Room 101

Posted on April 19, 2024 by RC

There is a simple enough test to see if someone has actually read George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. All you have to do is utter the words “Room 101” and look to see if the person shudders. Those who have merely heard of the book, or of that particular allusion may recognize it, but will not react viscerally to it. If you read through the account of Winston’s fateful trip to Room 101, its mere mention hits you in the gut.

Throughout Orwell’s novel, we are given a picture of a brutal future, ruled by the virtually omnipresent Big Brother. Every step is prescribed, every action watched, even every thought monitored. Our “hero,” however, out of an inchoate love for the fair Julia, becomes a rebel with a cause— to serve with his beloved against Big Brother in hopes of bringing him down. The two are caught in their revelries and placed under arrest. It turns out their purported contact with the underground was just another agent of Big Brother.

Orwell doesn’t dive right into Room 101. Rather, he leads us there slowly. Winston’s anguish begins first with hunger as he is jailed and given nothing to eat. What follows next is days, perhaps weeks, of interrogation and extreme torture. Over time, Winston confesses to all he has done and not done. He even confesses that the Party is the arbiter of all truth, indeed that 2+2=5. He is broken, beaten, a shell of his former self. All that he has left is peace in knowing that in all his confessing, in all his repenting, he never turned on Julia. There was still a hidden corner of his heart that Big Brother could not penetrate and make his own.

Which is just why Winston was brought to Room 101. There is nothing particularly unique in this room. Rather, each prisoner brought to Room 101 faces his own deepest fear. For Winston, it is rats. There are just two rats, and they are safely caged. The cage, however, has an odd design. It is a special apparatus that could be, indeed would be, strapped around Winston’s head with the door to each cage opening right at his eyes. The rats, having been starved, would escape through Winston. As the cage is brought closer, he does not merely scream in fright and beg for safety but pleads that someone else be given the cage, anyone else— even Julia. “Do it to Julia!” he screams, now fully and finally broken.

Which brings me to my deepest fear— my Room 101, betrayal. Persecution comes in as many sizes and shapes as there are Rooms 101. Some experience the comparatively petty persecution of mild social ostracism, others face death, and still others torture. What history teaches us, however, is that whatever form persecution takes, it is often our brothers who lead us there. That is, those believers who crave acceptance and safety are the first ones to throw their brothers under the bus. By doing so, they prove their loyalty to the regime and their distance from the family.

Consider two examples, one ancient, the other current. The Roman Empire did not have a careful and sophisticated taxonomy of the people they conquered. To them, the Jews were the Jews. The key reason the Pharisees hated Jesus so much was less that He was popular while they were not, less that He exposed their folly, and more that He was a danger. As the people looked to Jesus to throw off the yoke of Rome, the Pharisees understood that Roman reprisals for such a rebellion wouldn’t be nuanced. They would all be killed. So, they handed Jesus over to Pilate, insisting, “He’s not one of us.”

In our day, the danger is social ostracism, especially regarding the issue of sexual morality. With each passing day, the biblical sexual ethic is looked upon more and more as not merely quaint and old fashioned but oppressive, bigoted, and immoral. Which is why certain wings of the church have been, and will be, so quick to jump on the bandwagon. Which is why every week or so we read about another megachurch pastor, Christian pop star or respected academic coming out in favor of homosexual marriage. Which is why adultery and fornication and the fruit thereof— abortion— are dead issues in our pulpits. “We’re not like them. Hate those bigots down the street from us. We’re loving and accepting. Turn your bile on them, but give us a pass.”

What then do we do? Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. It is, remember, in the same sermon that Jesus calls us to seek His kingdom that He tells us we are blessed when we are persecuted for His name’s sake. The question is, will we believe it? Will we accept His shame as our honor, or will we honor them to our shame? Will we remember that love toward the world is hatred toward God (James 4:4)? Will we be the betrayers, or will we have the blessing of being the betrayed?

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Golden Rule Epistemology

Posted on April 18, 2024 by RC

It was an easy argument. As a graduate student in English at Ole Miss I had developed something of a reputation as a contrarian, a gadfly. Which led one colleague to ask me words to this effect- “RC, you always make challenging comments in class. It’s like you think you have the right answer, and everyone else’s answer is wrong. Don’t you think that’s arrogant?”

I replied, “I believe that truth exists apart from me, outside of me. I can know it, just like everyone else. In fact, I have a duty to know it and to submit to it. You, and most of our classmates believe there is no truth outside of each of us, but that we construct our own truth. You have no duty to submit to anything, since you are the Creator of your own reality. Which position is the arrogant one?”

I recount this story not to pummel poor post-modernism once again. Instead I do so to commend applying the Golden Rule to our epistemology. Because we are sinners we all desire to privilege our own understanding, and we look askance at all who disagree with us. We have one set of standards by which we approve of our own convictions, another by which we disapprove of those with other views.

Recently an otherwise thoughtful fellow on twitter opined that complementarianism was a joint project of various theological ne’er-do-wells, right wing strategists, Confederate sympathizers, theonomists. He reached this conclusion because most right-wing strategists, Confederate sympathizers and theonomists are complementarians.

I pointed out, using the same standard, that if such a standard were workable, then egalitarianism was a joint project of feminists, progressive “evangelicals” and cultural Marxists. Oddly, he found my reasoning less than compelling. Because, you know, it’s not compelling, just like his.

Guilt by association for thee, but not for me, he seemed to believe. Well, we’re all guilty by association with this kind of sloppy reasoning. That is, his failure is common among us all. The Golden Rule isn’t just about what we do to others, but how we reason with them.

Before we make an argument we should first look at the structure of it, quite apart from its content. We can do this simply by applying the structure to our own view. Such may not demonstrate that our view is false. It will, however, demonstrate if our argument is flawed, fallacious.

It is something of an irony that the hard laws of logic intersect with the soft call to walk a mile in our brothers’ crocs. Steering clear of various formal and informal fallacies is not only a good way to love the Lord with all our minds, but a good way to love our brother, and to love our enemies.

Arguing unfairly is not only a bad way to win an argument, but a bad way to win a friend. May God give us the grace to love well enough to argue with precision and care, for the sake of the truth and the sake of all of us when we’re missing it.

Posted in 10 Commandments, apologetics, ethics, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, logic, philosophy, post-modernism, RC Sproul JR, wisdom | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Grace Again; Internet Discourse; Laughter; Sin, in Heaven?

Posted on April 17, 2024 by RC

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

Posted in 10 Commandments, Biblical Doctrines, church, cyberspace, Devil's Arsenal, ethics, Good News, grace, Jesus Changes Everything, Lisa Sproul, Month of Sundays, RC Sproul JR, Sacred Marriage | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Brotherhood of Grace

Posted on April 16, 2024 by RC

Grace is a virtue that is not only far more powerful than nice, but, not coincidently, is far more difficult to cultivate. All it takes to adopt a nice attitude toward others is to simply not care. Nice, in fact, is close kin to apathy. Grace, on the other hand, requires a right balance and right application of indifference, and passion.

Consider the indifference. Have you ever noticed that confusing phenomenon wherein you find it far easier to be angry with those with whom you have the most in common? The people closest to us, whether emotionally or ideologically, have the greatest capacity to test our patience. We expect little to nothing from our ideological enemies.

The truth is, however, that the greater issue is over what is under our jurisdiction. It is not my duty to make sure that in all issues everyone else be as sound as I think I am. I won’t answer to God for these things, and so can maintain peace because it’s outside of my control. All this is just a drawn out version of the punch line in the serenity prayer. As a big mouthed boor I usually do okay having the courage to try to change the things I can change. But it takes grace to be at peace about the things that I can’t. Understand that I’m not suggesting that I don’t care. I care deeply, but I don’t feel responsible.

Where does the passion come in? Often we destroy our peace with our brother because we lack a passionate commitment to the gospel. We miss three central truths, all of which are grounded in grace. First, we forget that we are sinners. One of the reasons we are so easily put out by others is we operate under the assumption that we are God. This, of course, is false. Nevertheless, we often lose patience with our brothers because they aren’t bowing and scraping before us. If we remember that perhaps they’re not throwing roses in our path might be because something we have done wrong, we will go a long way in keeping the peace.

Lesson two is like unto the first. If we are going to have peace with our brother, if we are going to be gracious instead of merely nice, we need to remember that like us, he is a sinner saved by grace. How can that help? We exhibit grace when we remember that we need grace, and when we remember that our brother needs it. The gospel, as it relates to our interpersonal relations, is in large part the call to forgive as we have been forgiven. If we remember that so and so is a sinner, we won’t be so put out when he actually sins. We will show grace, because we can understand how a sinner could end up doing such a thing.

The passion we are called to, however, is not simply a passionate remembrance of the condition in which Christ found us. It is not enough to say, “Well, I’m a sinner, you’re a sinner, so let’s just be friends.” We’re too sinful to be able to pull that off. We need, if we are to have peace with our brother, to have a passion for the ongoing grace of God.

This third thing though has two parts. “Oh Lord,” we pray, “indwell me, change me, make me more like You, so that I might love, show grace toward my brother that has this incredibly grating habit.” We have to rejoice in and live in the reality of our union with Christ. It is because we are in Him that we become more like Him. And no one knows more about showing grace than Jesus. In short, we need a passion to be more like our Savior and King.

We are called, however, not only to remember our union with Christ, but to remember our brother’s union with Christ. We have to have the passionate faith that says of sinful and annoying Brother Aggravatus, “Jesus Christ, my Lord and King, dwells therein. God our Father, when He gazes upon this brother, sees Jesus His Son. My duty and joy is to do the same.”

We must, if we would show grace to the Brotherhood of Grace, remember that, while we are called to encourage one another unto great works, and to be prophetic to each other, we are not responsible for the sanctification of those over whom we have not been placed in authority. That is, to have peace with our brother, we must have a peace about his incomplete sanctification. And then we must remember the gospel of grace, both in remembering what we were, and in remembering what we are, and in remembering what we will be. And then we will enjoy the peace that awaits the end of all war.

Posted in assurance, Biblical Doctrines, church, communion, grace, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR, repentance | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Romans Study Tonight, Romans 12

Posted on April 15, 2024 by RC

Tonight we continue our look at the monumental, towering book of Romans. All are welcome to our home at 7 est, or you may join us for dinner at 6:15. We will also stream the study at Facebook, RC-Lisa Sproul. We hope you’ll join us.

Posted in announcements, Bible Study, Biblical Doctrines, church, ethics, grace, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment