M-M-M-My Corona

Posted on December 15, 2022 by RC

As I type I’m on day 4 of quarantine. My precious wife is on day 2. This go around has already proven to be significantly less intense than the first one. Still unpleasant mind you, but not like the first time. It seemed kind of strange to get it again because as an illness it has been less and less in our common conversation. Oh sure, we’ve talked an awful lot about the controlled leaking out of the now being admitted innumerable distortions, lies and half-truths put out by the WHO, the CDC and myriad DRS at the height of the illness. I’m glad for that, and hope for more conversation, or better still, hope for an international tribunal that will bring these men and women to justice. It’s been laughable watching an army of Karens now gently asking for amnesty for their alarmist tyrannies.

During the opening rounds of COVID I was careful to not take a hard stand on the vaccine, one way or the other. I am generally inclined toward suspicion of governments, whoever is in charge. I remember watching President Trump’s first national address on COVID. At the beginning I was frankly quite surprised at how “presidential” he seemed. Then he announced travel restrictions he had absolutely no authority to make. That tripped all my civil liberties alarm bells. The tyranny continued to descend for months, long before the party in power switched, while Christians wrestled with how to understand the intermingling of our responsibilities to be in submission to our employers, our civil authorities and our churches.

My posture was simple. I had nothing to say about the science and statistics. I did, however, have something to say about the ethics. Here (https://rcsprouljr.com/follow-the-ethics/) I wrote this-

We don’t actually know the future. We don’t actually know what outcome would be best. We do know this. Forcing someone against his or her will to have injected into his or her body something they don’t want injected into their body is Mengele level evil. My unpleasant experience of having COVID has zero impact on that moral fact.

Having COVID a second time, this time in a context where the lies of the Forces of Fauci are scurrying for cover, still doesn’t change my perspective. Had the vaccine eradicated COVID overnight, with the only side effect being a cure for baldness, it would still have been wrong for governments to mandate receiving it. Not just wrong, but wicked. The problem with tyranny isn’t that the tyrant always makes the miserable choice but that whatever choice he makes, he takes away the choice of the free man. Whether that tyrant is the President or two parents deciding whether to murder their unborn child. Benevolent dictators may make better choices than fools, but we are all fools if we think the problem with dictators is their choices.

By the time you’re reading this, my battle with COVID will likely have come to an end. My battle with tyranny, on the other hand, will end at my death.

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Sacred Marriage, Fasting; Twitter, Supplemental; The Grinch

Posted on December 14, 2022 by RC

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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Jesus Changes Everything

Posted on December 13, 2022 by RC

It was likely driven by my own personal spirit of Eyeore. Either that, or I just like being unconventional. Our class was asked what event in the Bible we thought was the most significant of all. Eighty percent picked the crucifixion of Jesus. A smidge less than twenty percent picked the creation. I, alone, picked the fall. My reasoning went like this. Creation, as glorious and astonishing as it is, as needful for the rest of the story, isn’t the story itself. It is the stage on which the story is told. Then, taking the opposite tack I thought that as important as the crucifixion is, it wouldn’t have happened, wouldn’t have been necessary, were it not for the prior fall of mankind. The fall of mankind is the very hinge of history, the reason for history. The world begins with man and God in joyful relationship. The world ends with man and God in joyful relationship. The whole of the in-between revolves around the sin of Adam and Eve.

The fall changed almost everything. The creation, which had enjoyed perfect harmony, now began to groan. Death descended on the animals like a curse. The ground suddenly became stingy, though prodigious in producing thorns and thistles. Man, who had been at peace with the animals, was now at war. Man, who had been at peace with each other, was now at war. Man, who had been at peace with God, was now at war. Virtually every positive became a negative. Death, sickness, danger, pain, decay filled history’s stage, opening a Pandora’s box of Pandora’s boxes.

The only thing left untouched, unchanged, was the untouchable, unchangeable God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit enjoyed an infinite blessedness before creation, before the fall, and indeed after the fall. They had no need to do anything about the fall, about the calamity of Eden. They would have been utterly just to condemn Adam, Eve and all their descendents to an eternity of their wrath. They would have rejoiced to exercise their wrath in just that way.

But they didn’t. Instead they covenanted together. Instead they determined not just to rescue us from Their just wrath, but to recreate all that had been lost. The Father would choose a people from all of humanity. We would become His children, and together, the bride of His Son. The Son would take on flesh and dwell among us. He would live a life of perfect obedience, and then suffer the wrath of the Father that was due to us. He would be vindicated, and would begin the process of recreating the world when He walked out of His tomb. Forty days later He would ascend to His throne and from there would brings all things under subjection. He would send the Spirit who would breathe life into the chosen, indwell and empower them. And as the bride of the second Adam, the church, the second Eve would be a help suitable to Him as He fulfills the dominion mandate.

It is a glorious thing that our sins are forgiven. It is a wondrous truth that we need not fear the wrath of our heavenly Father. It is a stunning reality that we will never suffer anger from on high. And it would be a terrible thing indeed to diminish any of these truths. It would in turn, however, be to miss the full glory of the gospel to stop there. It would be to cheat Jesus of the praise due to Him to stop there. What we need to come to understand is that Jesus changes everything.

My insecurities are grounded in Adam’s fall. The solution is embedded in the coming of Christ. My fears flow out of Adam’s fall. Courage breaks forth from the empty tomb. My temper spews out of Adam’s fall. Peace grows out of His ascension. Whether it is my failure here or discontentment there, always and everywhere the solution is Jesus. Not what I think about Jesus, not how I get close to Jesus, but what Jesus is and what Jesus is doing. When I say “Jesus changes everything” I do not mean that changing our perspective on Him will change our perspective on the world. I mean instead that Jesus is about the business of changing everything.

Jesus changes everything in my life. There is no Jesus-free zone that remains untouched, that will not be remade, or burned away. Every bit of my life, every bit of yours, every bit of our eternities will not merely be stamped, “Property of Jesus” but will be so stamped because they will also be stamped, “Remade by Jesus.”

When we seek to fence Jesus off from a part of lives, to maintain a “No Jesus” zone we are not setting aside a bit of freedom for ourselves. What we are doing instead is inviting another master into our lives. When Jesus is how we get our souls saved, but the American dream is how we make our earthly choices, we are serving two masters. And that is always doomed to failure. When we want Jesus to only change some things, we do not leave the rest the same. Instead we face the endless, wearying complications of syncretism. What we are called to is a simple life. Here we have but one master to please, one Lord to serve, one goal to pursue, and that is that we would be made more like that Lord.

What a glorious blessing that as we seek first His kingdom, as we labor beside Him to see all under His dominion, we know that He will win. His kingdom will cover the earth as water covers the sea. The nations will be discipled. Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that He is Lord. Jesus is changing me, which redounds to my blessing. Ultimately, however, He is changing everything for His glory. Ultimately the Father, the Son and the Spirit rejoice over the recreation of all reality. Ultimately they rejoice together in the manifestation of their glory. The stars, the galaxies, the angels, and all the saints will sing that glory, forever and ever. His kingdom is forever. Because Jesus changes everything.

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No Study Tonight

Posted on December 12, 2022 by RC

Doing much better, not contagious, but still recovering. God willing we’ll be back next week.

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Why did Republicans vote for the Respect for Marriage Act?

Posted on December 12, 2022 by RC

Christians were deeply disheartened recently when a critical culture war battle left religious liberty bleeding out while sexual perversion celebrated, waving its rainbow flag. As if losing this vote were not bad enough, a frightening omen of dark days ahead, the perception has been that the battle was lost precisely because 12 Republican senators defected to the other side. Had these 12 had a sprinkling of understanding of what the Constitution says, had they bothered to read the Bill of Rights and specifically the 10th Amendment, had they the least desire to be in submission to the Word of God, had they any wish to honor the wishes of those who voted them into office, they would have voted differently. So why did they vote as they did?

Because they haven’t a sprinkling of understanding of what the Constitution says, haven’t read the Bill of Rights and specifically the 10th Amendment, have zero desire to be in submission to the Word of God and do not wish to honor the wishes of those who voted them into office. Or, it could be because they are politicians. It could be that they are, just like the rest of those who voted for this bill, self-interested liars who never saw a parade they couldn’t get in front of.

The passing of this bill, while disappointing, is certainly not a surprise to me. The votes of the 12 Republicans, on the other hand isn’t disappointing, because it is just what I would expect of Republican politicians. There are, in my judgment, a precious few statesmen inside the beltway that are fighting the good fight. I’m willing to concede that every one of those is a Republican. What we need to learn is that every Republican is not one of those.

Politically aware Christian conservatives are, of course, aware of the existence of “rinos,” Republicans in name only. These are well-connected, establishment politicians like Liz Cheney. They have no ideological grounding and will embrace whatever position they believe will keep them in power. They question is, which is more rare, Republican statesmen or rinos? Those shocked by this vote likely think the rinos are more rare. Those not shocked are not shocked precisely because we already knew that the Republican party, while less putrescent than the other party, is stinking up the fridge.

That it is abundantly clear that the Republicans will not save us, this doesn’t, of course, open the door for supporting the death party. Instead it means we need to stop waving their flag. The Republicans are not the team of conservative Christians. They are part and parcel of the problem. They are the establishment that will soon be treating we who believe in marriage like those who believe only whites should rule. They are not our friends. We need to watch our backs. They didn’t betray us, nor what they stand for. They were never for us and they stand for nothing.

Jesus changes everything. Political engagement is sound, biblical, necessary. Lesson one, however is this- you can’t win a battle aligned with the enemy. The enemy is not the Democratic party, but politicians who won’t stand for the unborn, who won’t commit to marriage.

Posted in 10 Commandments, abortion, Ask RC, ethics, kingdom, politics, RC Sproul JR, sexual confusion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Beauty and the Best

Posted on December 9, 2022 by RC

There is a tension among God’s people that reflects a delicate balance to which the Bible calls us. Paul, you recall, argued that in his passion for the gospel, he wished to be all things to all men, that by all means some might be saved (1 Cor. 9:22). On the other hand, Jesus tells the disciples that when they brought the good news and were not received, they were to wipe the dust off of their feet as they left town (Luke 9:5). They’re both legitimate perspectives on the lost. Where, we wonder, does earnestly contending for lost souls end and pandering to the lost begin?

The worship wars of our own day are driven by this same tension. There is nothing new under the sun. Do we gather together each Lord’s Day to worship the Lord with the most simple language? Should our music aspire for accessibility above all else? Do we want to dumb everything down so that everyone can get it? Is this how we bring in the lost? Or, should our weekly gatherings instead be times of erudite exposition and sublime aural harmonies? Do we, with the former, through our workaday media, communicate a God who is safe? Do we, with the latter — with our highbrow affectations — communicate a God who is inaccessible?

In the ninth century, when the Latin Mass began to be enforced, I’m confident the same discussions took place. Some, I would expect, argued that the Latin Mass carried with it a gravity that communicated the glory of God, a certain sense of mystery and timelessness. Others, I’m quite sure, pointed out that the people for whom Jesus died could not understand what was being said. How can we say that this body was broken for you if you don’t know what we’re saying?

The Bible is a book that not only is full of wisdom but that in turn calls us to wisdom. Wisdom, more often than not, means balance. Wisdom recognizes that there is a real difference between prudent accessibility and the lowest common denominator. Wisdom can tell the difference between a foreign language and a challenging language. It is able to distinguish between self-serving, highbrow tastes and treating matters of import with all due dignity. It recognizes, for instance, that there is a great yawning space between a pastor preaching in a long dead language and a pastor preaching in a clown suit.

As is so often the case, wisdom is often found when we look away from the question at hand, when we step away from the raging debate and look instead to where we agree. When we gather together for worship, we are gathering together, according to the Bible, as a body. We are likewise gathering together as a bride. We are coming to meet our Lord, who comes to renew covenant with us and to feast with us at His table. Now consider how we approach a wedding.

When we come together for a wedding, no one would suggest that for the sake of the dignity of the event we ought to perform the service in Latin. No one would argue that the pastor’s homily ought to be peppered with obtuse language fit only for the seminary classroom. Neither, however, does any bride dream of a day when a man in stained overalls, smelling of a barnyard, looks down at her and asks her the vows: “Well, do yer or don’t yer?” Instead, when we marry we put on our best clothes. We decorate the setting to befit a time of solemnity and joy. We play our best music. We speak in our most gracious tones, and with our most polished grammar. It is our most important “our.” Nobody, I trust, argues that this leaves people out. No one argues that this is somehow inauthentic. No bride would, if her groom showed up in flip-flops and a t-shirt, argue that she sees the heart and that what’s on the outside doesn’t matter. That is, the wedding ceremony is not to be marked by the world’s best and highest, but by our best and our highest. It is our most important “our.”

Our worship should bring us together, rather than drive us apart. We have, after all, together been called to worship by our Lord. That is why we use at one and the same time a common language in an uncommon way. We speak so that the gravity of the message might be heard. We are not pandering to anyone, and we rejoice in an audience of One. We play music that can reach the hearts of the congregation in a way far more powerful than silly love songs ever could, seeking to reflect the heavenly chorus.

When we come to worship we come in ourselves still unclean. We as a bride are too besmirched and stained to feign haughtiness. We are too conscious of our own sin to be looking down our noses at others. But we come seeking to be made beautiful, confident that our Groom can bring this to pass. We have given up the world, with all its arrogant slovenliness. We have turned up our noses at the world’s studied indifference to beauty. We do indeed speak English, but it is not the English of the court fool. It is the King’s English.

Posted in 10 Commandments, beauty, Biblical Doctrines, church, communion, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, preaching, RC Sproul JR, worship | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Every Man a Liar

Posted on December 8, 2022 by RC

People lie. Cretans lie. Anglos lie. African Americans lie. Accusers lie. The accused lie. Friends of both lie. One of the things we lie about is what we truly believe. Those who say that racism is dead are lying. Those who say it is thriving are lying. The difficulty is that the lying protestations of the guilty sound exactly like the truthful protestations of the innocent. The lying accusations of false accusers sound just like the truthful accusations of true accusers. Throw in the internet and the ease with which we slither out of this skin or that and suddenly, we just don’t know.

If only we would learn this truth, that we just don’t know. Over the Thanksgiving holidays a donnybrook, a bru-haha, a kerfuffle broke out on the interwebs. Shocking, right? What was shocking wasn’t the battle but the armies. Many who had been co-belligerents just went belligerent with each other. Accusations of racism were made, then purportedly verified by prosecuting attorney Kevin Bacon, who uses the same lawn service as known sinner and divorcee Brad Pitt.

I don’t want to make light of the accusations. Both sides promise they are gathering receipts like it’s April 15th and the clock just struck 11. I can assure you that I haven’t the faintest idea who is guilty. I’ve been lied to and lied about by the (s)kinists who liked me because I don’t care for the feds, until they hated me when God blessed me with a son with melanin to spare. I’ve been lied to and lied about by Big Eva, who once liked me because my father loves me, but hated me because, well, there’s lots to hate about me. Though I haven’t been allowed to join in any of the reindeer games for many years, the accusations and rumors continue to swirl.

I don’t need to know who is guilty and who is not. My convictions haven’t changed a bit. I’ve never been a Christian nationalist. I’ve always been a Christian Internationalist, looking to the day when every tongue and tribe worships the Lord together, when every leader kisses the Son lest He become angry. I find CRT to be shameful and laughable and utterly missing from the Bible. I’ve never been a racist and never had much patience with those who are. I share a dream that a day will come when all men will be judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin. Shouldn’t this be true of all of us?

I’m in favor of rebuking liars. That said, there’s much that can be said for taking the approach of reducing the demand for lies. If we all recused ourselves from matters that don’t concern us, if we all were agnostic about matters we’re not privy too, if we all remained indifferent about the convictions of the friend of a friend of the cousin of the guy we’re trying to destroy, maybe there would be less lying. The truth is that the One who has all truth likewise has all power. And He is altogether trustworthy.

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Sacred Marriage, Feasting; Twitter Dump; Divine Simplicity

Posted on December 7, 2022 by RC

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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The Scandal of the Gospel

Posted on December 6, 2022 by RC

All of us, both within and without the church, face the temptation of being legalists when dealing with others’ sins against us, and antinomians when dealing with our sins against others. We want those we have perceived to have wronged us to pay for what they have done, while reminding our own tender consciences that we all deserve a little grace.

The two propensities come to a head at one and the same time as we seek to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the walking dead all about us. The first objection, typically, comes from the antinomian side. The sacrifice of witnessing to our enemies is that we know we will be hated for pointing out the reality of their sin. We will be pilloried as narrow, bigoted, judgmental, medieval. We will run smack into Romans 1. The unbeliever, in his unrighteousness unrighteously suppresses his knowledge of his unrighteousness. He, in short, doesn’t want to hear it. The irony, of course, is that what we are trying to tell them is just what they need to deal with their guilt. We would be wise to remember that when we fall under the onslaught of their wrath. They want to hide from their sin, while we are trying to tell them how to make it go away.

The second problem, however, arises when we get to the promise of God. As we preach, “Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” they will find “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” to be almost as incredulous as “Repent.” In fact I’ve often heard this objection- “What a minute. You’re telling me that if Adolph Hitler had simply said just before his death, “Jesus, forgive me” he would have entered into heaven at his death? That’s all it takes, just saying you’re sorry?”

Of course that’s not all it takes. Though our repentance is never the ground of our peace with God- that is, God doesn’t forgive us simply because repenting is such a wonderful thing it covers our sins, it is necessary and necessary that it be genuine. Saying something and meaning it, because we are sinners, often means two different things. Second, the ground is not in our repentance, but His provision. “All it took” was for God to put on humanity, to live a perfect life, and to suffer the wrath of the Father due to all those who would believe.” The passion of Christ is not a small thing.
The scandal, in fact, is less that we who are sinners should get off scot free, but that God should pay such a high cost for our redemption. Had Hitler repented at the last moment he would indeed now be enjoying the blessings of eternity. Not, however, because his sins would have gone unpunished, but because his sins would have been punished in Christ. And such are we.

I wonder if perhaps those outside the kingdom would be less tempted to think of the gospel as a cheap get out of jail free card if we were more faithful in grasping that we are Hitler, and Jesus suffered for us. The gospel is not for good people who fall a bit short, but for evil people. Jesus did not come to rescue the beautiful princess. He came to rescue the ugly hag that killed Him, because He laid His life down. Perhaps the gospel would scandalize the world less if it scandalized the church more.

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No Study Tonight

Posted on December 5, 2022 by RC

Sorry folks but I’m recovering from the COVID. God willing, we’ll see you next week.

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