How can I be a part of the Shepherd’s College?

Posted on August 25, 2021 by RC

Discover the Difference

In just a few days we will be having our first class for the Shepherd’s College. We’ll be meeting Monday evening at 7 eastern time. You can read about our program here. You can get a taste of it by coming to Monday’s meeting. You can do that either by coming to our meeting place, at Cedarville Community Church, 12828 Main Street, Cedarville, IN 46765 or by emailing us at hellorcjr@gmail.com to let us know you’d like a Zoom invite.

What will it be like? It will be a conversation among men, those with ministry experience, men new to ministry and those aspiring to ministry. We will talk about the struggles, the battles, in our own spiritual lives as well as in the lives of those under our care. We will talk about the means of grace, those tools that God has blessed us with to equip us, and others, for ministry. We will pray. We will open our Bibles and find there not fodder for arguments but food for sustenance.

The Shepherd’s College is an old way of preparing for gospel ministry, aided for those far from us by a new way of conversing across great distances. The center, however, isn’t the technology but the conversation. We believe conversation is education, that education is discipleship. We believe that the truth that one can spend three years studying in a seminary without realizing that the Bible says nothing whatsoever about seminaries isn’t a ringing endorsement of seminaries. We believe in an educated clergy, yes. But, back to the beginning, we believe conversation is education and education is discipleship.

Read through I Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9. These lists describing the qualifications of an elder include the ability to teach. Every other quality, however, is a question of character. Every other quality is a quality that every godly man ought to aspire to. Every other quality is one that is not best served by abstract studies performed in ivory towers. Every other quality is one not best passed along by learned presentations. These qualities are learned and taught in and through shared life, in the midst of the sheepfold, where there is precious little ease and comfort. Where there is a great deal of hunger and need.

Come and join us for a test drive. If you find the investment of time and energy to be of value, we can talk about signing you up. We are prepared to partner with local churches as well as individuals. If ever the church were in need to men equipped with valiant hearts, it is now. We’re looking for a few bad men, men who by His grace cling to His grace and want nothing more than to tell other bad men where they can be redeemed.

Posted in announcements, Ask RC, Biblical Doctrines, Biblical theology, church, Education, kingdom, prayer, preaching, RC Sproul JR, Reformation, shepherd's college, special edition | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on How can I be a part of the Shepherd’s College?

The Gospel At Work- CR Stewart, author of Britfield and the Lost Crown

Posted on August 25, 2021 by RC

Today’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

Posted in beauty, Books, church, creation, interview, Jesus Changes Everything, kingdom, on writing well, RC Sproul JR, special edition, wonder | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Gospel At Work- CR Stewart, author of Britfield and the Lost Crown

New Theses, New Reformation

Posted on August 24, 2021 by RC

Thesis 89 We must encourage greatly.

The Holy Spirit is called by Jesus the paraclete, or Comforter. While I would never want to diminish the value of the comfort the Spirit gives, we might do well to look more deeply at the root meaning of comfort. Com, the prefix, means with, while fort comes from forte which means strength. The Spirit Jesus promises in John 14:16 comes with strength. In a similar way, to encourage, based on its root, doesn’t mean merely to speak well to another, but reminds us that speaking well to another blesses them with courage. It strengthens their resolve in the face of battle.

Just as we are called to correct gently, so we are called to encourage greatly. Which, for some of us, can be hard. Perhaps because we’ve been schooled in the biblical notion of total depravity, we seem more inclined to point out the flaws of others than their strengths. We tend to be glass half empty people. One old friend of mine had a long and successful career as a Christian musician. When I saw him live it seemed like he was just pounding on his piano while delivering a Jeremiad, a sermon of judgment. Then, however, he spoke to the audience about some wisdom he had received from his wife. She had said to him, “You always sing about what you’re against. Why don’t you try singing about what you are for?” And so he did.

In our interactions with each other in our local body, are we more apt to grumble about whomever isn’t there, or to give thanks for those that are? Are we more likely to complain about weaknesses that remain, or strengths that are being strengthened? We are dragged down by droning denunciations. Words of encouragement, on the other hand, put wind in our sails.

The book of Acts introduces us to Barnabas, which being translated means “Son of Encouragement.” When my dear wife and I had just begun dating she asked me what I might come up with as a nickname for her. I named her “Batnabas.” True, it doesn’t roll right off the tongue. It doesn’t have any poetic panache. But it describes her well, as it means, “Daughter of encouragement.” She has an uncanny knack not only for speaking just what I need to hear, but does the same for our boys, and her friends, and so many others in our lives.

We won’t, of course, bring a new reformation through flattery. Blowing smoke never kindled a reformation. Genuine encouragement, however, begets courage. I’ve long argued that as sound and right as he was on justification, the defining quality of Luther was courage. Which was precisely the need of the hour. Just as it is in our day. Look for opportunities to use your voice to encourage. Be alert. Remember that your heavenly Father is, because of our elder Brother, well pleased with you and your siblings in the faith. So let us speak to each other the words of our Master, well done though good and faithful servant.

Posted in Biblical Doctrines, church, grace, kingdom, Lisa Sproul, RC Sproul JR, Reformation, Theses | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on New Theses, New Reformation

Futilitarianism; Parables; Selling our Souls

Posted on August 24, 2021 by RC

Today’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

Posted in abortion, apologetics, church, ism, Jesus Changes Everything, kingdom, parables, persecution, philosophy, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Futilitarianism; Parables; Selling our Souls

What are the biggest changes you’ve seen in your lifetime?

Posted on August 23, 2021 by RC

My maternal grandparents were both born within a year of each other, 1903 and 1904. As a schoolboy, when I learned this was just around the time the Wright brothers took flight and that Henry Ford began producing Model A’s I realized how much change they had lived through. Beyond the airplane and the mass produced automobile there was radio, movies, television, a man on the moon. It fascinated little me to think they had lived in both worlds.

I’m not as old as they were when this dawned on me but I am taking a moment to look back at the sweeping changes I’ve seen. I remember the first VCRs, compact discs, and the dawn of the internet. It is not, however, being a witness to technology that leaves me shocked. What I have lived through is a radical shift in culture. Women’s lib was a thing when I was a kid. But it was a weird thing. Today, in my pantry, there is a box of Kix cereal. It says on it, “Kid tested, parent approved.” Yeah, for old timers like me, it used to be “Kid tested, mother approved.” The change itself isn’t huge, but that it has reached something as homespun and normal as cereal is.

We are living not just on a slippery slope but we are riding a raging landslide. In the space of ten years we went from Democrats voting to defend marriage to Republicans giving up on it. We went from commitments to keep women out of combat to registering them for a draft to allowing men into their restrooms to allowing men to compete against them in the Olympics. We went from “Don’t ask, don’t tell” to “Don’t call him her or you’ll be cancelled.”

Not long ago I watched in horror as pundits on a main stream news channel argued, as if they were normal Americans who had actually taken a civics class, about how the government must do something to silence people who say things they disagree with. It was as slick a propaganda move in favor of censorship as Goebbels could have come up with, as if when the cameras turned off they all went home in their Chevrolets to watch baseball, and eat hot dogs and apple pie.

My shock, however, soon leveled off to mere resignation. Why should I be surprised at this turn? A country where we are told to “follow the science” which in turn tells us that boys are girls and girls boys, except for the ones who want to be some other thing, is not a country that will defend free speech. A country where a federal agency charged with controlling diseases can outlaw removing unpaying tenants is not a country that will honor, in any way, limitations on federal powers.

When we lived through the steroid era of baseball, a friend who had played in the major leagues made an astute observation. Why, he wondered, are we surprised that men would cheat in baseball when so many of them cheat on their wives? Which vow is more sacred? In the same way, a country that legally protects the “right” of parents to hire medical assassins to murder their own children isn’t a country that should ever surprise us. We are living in the twilight of a once great civilization. The sun is setting. But be of good cheer. The Son has risen.

Posted in 10 Commandments, abortion, apologetics, Ask RC, Devil's Arsenal, Jesus Changes Everything, kingdom, persecution, philosophy, politics, post-modernism, RC Sproul JR, sexual confusion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Sacred Marriage, For Better or for Worse; Bible in 5, Philippians

Posted on August 23, 2021 by RC

Today’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

Posted in RC Sproul JR | Comments Off on Sacred Marriage, For Better or for Worse; Bible in 5, Philippians

Reckless Fervor

Posted on August 21, 2021 by RC

One of the oddest things to hinder our prayers is fear. Many of us are reluctant to pray in front of others. We fear, I suppose, that those who are listening might be critiquing our prayers. That fear is both sensible and foolish. It is sensible in the sense that people actually do, as they listen to others pray, make mental critiques. I know people do this because I am a people and I have done it from time to time, to my shame. I have run the prayers of hundreds through my own systematic theology grid, looking to filter out the folly. It is foolish, however, because there is someone far more discerning than me who listens to our prayers, and He manages not to critique them. That is, we ought to fear saying foolish things to the object of our prayers rather than the bystanders. On the other hand, we probably really have nothing to fear.

When we pray, if we pray rightly, we pray in Jesus’ name. That little formula is important. It is good that we almost always remember to pray this way; it is bad that we hardly ever remember what we means. When we pray in Jesus’ name, we acknowledge that we are, in ourselves, not worthy to come into God’s presence. Our entrance into the royal throne room is made possible only by the imputed righteousness of Christ. We are saying to our Father, “I couldn’t even be here talking to You had You not sent Jesus to suffer in my place.” This means, of course, that our sins, including our sinfully foolish thoughts, do not make it past the ceiling.

Dr. John Gerstner once explained this phenomenon. He invited us to imagine a young boy gleefully entering his home, a mixture of flowers and weeds clutched in his muddy hand. He explained to his father that he wished to honor his mother with this bouquet. The father suggested, “Perhaps I could give them to her for you.” The son handed over the bouquet and the father surreptitiously removed the weeds, leaving only the flowers. In like manner, when we pray to our Father in heaven, when we come before His face, the Holy Spirit sanctifies our very prayers. Because He does this, we can pray with boldness, not as those who seek the approval of men. “Our Father, who are in heaven…” See how much our heavenly Father loves us, that He allows His children to pray. And so, trusting as children, may we pray with care, but also with a reckless fervor. We are safe.

Posted in Biblical Doctrines, church, grace, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, prayer, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Reckless Fervor

I Kissed Kindness Goodbye, or, Shaming an Ex-vangelist

Posted on August 20, 2021 by RC

There are two kinds of people in the world- those who know there are one kind of people in the world and those who are mistaken. People are people, which is enough to encourage us to treat others with dignity and enough to cause us all to blush in shame knowing we fail to do so. We all agree that social media has not been a boon to our civility. Often we reason that it is the distance that the computer provides, that it is because we don’t talk face to face that explains our willingness to bite and devour each other. I concur that such is a vital part of it. I’d like, however, to posit another element.

We feel free to verbally assault others, to slice with our tongues, not just because we are unknown but because the people we assault are known. We think that people more well known than we are aren’t actually people at all. Of late a certain well-known in that pond we know as Big Eva, now ex-vangelical was found shilling a program to help others deconstruct their faith, all for a low, low price. I never met the man, but I knew his mother, consider his father a friend and know several of his brothers. I watched my corner of the twittersphere respond like sharks responding to a stuck pig that somehow found itself near a lot of nasty sharks. Some might argue that I am among the guiltiest, having tweeted my hope that the pain and hardship of being cut off from the body might drive ex-vangelicals back into the embrace of His bride.

I get it. This young man was a beloved son in our tribe who has turned his back on it, and now seems to be ex-vangelizing. I can see seeing him as an enemy. Such, however, doesn’t justify the assaults. The One who defines us, yes, who emptied the temple and had some hard words for the Pharisees, told us to love our enemies. I could not help but feel, however, that the hatred aimed at this young man came not from anger that he left us, but anger that he had been a success among us.

As exhibit A in defense of this thesis I give you Ed Litton. Ed Litton did not abandon the faith. He isn’t offering directions out the door of the church. Yet he too, just weeks ago, became lunch for the same sharks when he was found to have delivered undocumented sermons. I haven’t done the research to know how bad, or even if it is bad and have no comment on that. I comment instead on the comments. Christians had a field day mocking this brother mercilessly. The meme machine overheated after running overtime.

It happens friends because we dehumanize those more well known than we are. We think that because they have the benefits that fame affords that they are invulnerable to our attacks. And that they deserve them. When I gently asked that maybe we might want to show some grace to Ed Litton I even got pushback from someone arguing that I only spoke in defense of Ed because I’ve been in a similar position. “Of course you’d say that RC. After all, you’re in that club, people known well enough in the evangelical world to have your failures become fodder.” Guilty as charged. Worse still, I have been guilty of being a shark as well. Hopefully, being on the other side, I’m learning.

None of which changes the point. Believer or not, world famous or merely a big fish in our pond, or even just the son of a big fish in our pound, people are people. All of us bear our Father’s image. Some of us are His adopted children. Shouldn’t we do better?

Posted in 10 Commandments, church, cyberspace, Devil's Arsenal, ethics, grace, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR, scandal | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on I Kissed Kindness Goodbye, or, Shaming an Ex-vangelist

Forever Friend, Andy; Curating Books, Death Wake; Isaac’s Sacrifice

Posted on August 20, 2021 by RC

Today’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

Posted in Bible Study, Books, friends, friendship, Jesus Changes Everything, kingdom, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Forever Friend, Andy; Curating Books, Death Wake; Isaac’s Sacrifice

Why do we have such a hard time grasping grace?

Posted on August 19, 2021 by RC

Because we need it. I mean that in two ways. First, we have a hard time grasping grace because we are sinners, and sin begins with pride. All of us, from the most pious saint to the most egregious sinner have within us a little Pelagius. We think ourselves, even when our lips confess otherwise, essentially good. Sure, we sin, who doesn’t? But by any reasonable standard, we think in the secret places of our hearts, we’d pass the test. Those other people, the ones who score below us on the test, they’re the ones in need of grace. And of course, those who score higher than us, they’re the self-righteous ones. If only everyone were like me, recognizing my own lack of perfection, but striving to do well, well then, the world would be a happy place.

While the world denies the reality of sin, or pawns it off on others, we believers say we believe in it, but fail to own it. We confuse putting a check mark beside the doctrine of total depravity with a heart persuaded of the deep truth contained in “Lord be merciful to me, a sinner.” The former is confessing a doctrine, the latter confessing our wickedness.

Second, we have a hard time with grace because we NEED it. The little Pelagius in all of us hates both to be dependent upon others, and even more so to acknowledge that dependence. How often do even believers speak of their salvation as if what happened is they decided to join the winning team? “I came to Christ” or “I made Jesus Lord of my life” misses the hard truth that He came to us, and He imposed His Lordship upon us by the unbidden, regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. We are not saved because we recognized His goodness, but because He recognized our badness.

This is precisely why Luther unleashed his biblical wisdom and acute invective against Erasmus in his Bondage of the Will. We tend, if we are aware of the controversy at all, to see the dialogue between the two as a kind of intramural debate between Luther, the Protestant who grasped God’s sovereignty in our salvation and Erasmus, the Protestant who denied God’s sovereignty in our salvation. Luther didn’t see this conversation as a distraction from the battle he was waging with Rome. Rather he understood that this battle is the battle between Rome and Protestantism. Luther praised Erasmus, the Romish apologist, in the midst of his verbal assault, for at least dealing with the heart of the matter.

But even we who identify with Luther, who confess God’s sovereignty, are not in the clear. Too often when we confess our utter dependence on God’s grace the devil is there to congratulate us for our theological acumen. The moment we begin to think well of ourselves we’ve demonstrated why we need grace.

This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief (I Timothy 1:15). That’s what grace is all about- not that God grades on a curve such that we can pass, but rather that He sent His only begotten Son to pass the test, and receive our due for our failure. He sent His Spirit to give us life, while we were dead in our trespasses and sins. All I brought to the table was the need. And what I need is grace.

Posted in Ask RC, assurance, Biblical Doctrines, church, communion, grace, kingdom, RC Sproul JR, repentance, Roman Catholicism, theology | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Why do we have such a hard time grasping grace?