What Is Labor Day Really All About? Busting Union Myths

Posted on September 1, 2025 by RC

We exercise a certain practicality about our holidays. The move to Mondays makes perfect sense to me. Trouble is, that practicality can lead us to lose sight of what we’re celebrating, because what we are honestly celebrating is a three day weekend. Many of our Monday holidays are celebrations of soldiers and victories of various kinds. Labor Day is different.

Before I dive into the origin of Labor Day please note that I am a big fan of work. Work encompasses a great deal of what it means to bear God’s image. I’m also in favor of that kind of labor that makes you sweat. Though much of my own labor takes place sitting down in air-conditioned buildings, I am also a farmer. I work some outside, amidst my own sweat and the stench of animals.

What I am not such a fan of, sadly, is what the holiday was actually created for. The “Labor” in “Labor Day” is not work, or even the kind of labor that makes you sweat. Rather the holiday was created by the federal government to grease the palms of “organized” labor. It was created for unions.

Once again some subtlety matters here. There’s nothing in the world ethically wrong with a group of men agreeing they won’t work unless certain conditions are met. If that’s what a union does, more power to it, says I. It may not help them but I can’t blame them for trying. It may, on the other hand, run headlong into basic economics.

The problem comes when one group of men decides that no other men can work unless certain conditions are met. Especially when the first group discourages the second group with violence.

Cross a picket line and becoming a victim of violence becomes a real possibility. The very least you can expect is to be hated, yelled at, called a scab. What are you guilty of? Being willing to work. You, ironically, rather than “management” are the enemy of “organized” labor. Because you are the competition.

For decades the federal government, in exchange for political support, tipped the scales of justice on behalf of unions. In twenty four states and the District of Columbia, unions are given the legal power to keep non-union labor out.

The slow decline of organized labor over the past forty years has had a simple cause- unions generally fail to deliver the goods. Collective bargaining has not brought to pass wildly different pay scales and work environments than what the market produces simply through the working a supply and demand.

That’s a good thing. And something for which we ought to give thanks. Maybe Labor Day can become what it should have been all along, a celebration of God’s gift of work, for all of us, whatever color collar we wear, whether we negotiate in groups, or one at a time.

All men are by rights free to make their own financial decisions, without threat of violence, from either union members, or governments. We exercise dominion to the glory of the Father. We provide for our families. We enter into the joy of Psalm 128:

Blessed is every one who fears the Lord,
Who walks in His ways.
When you eat the [a]labor of your hands,
You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
In the very heart of your house,
Your children like olive plants
All around your table.
Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
Who fears the Lord.
The Lord bless you out of Zion,
And may you see the good of Jerusalem
All the days of your life.
Yes, may you see your children’s children.
Peace be upon Israel!

For more economics from a biblical perspective see my Economics for Everybody.

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Praise Him Above Ye Heavenly Host: War of the Worlds

Posted on August 29, 2025 by RC

I don’t, in all honesty, have much knowledge of this peculiar movement. I’m pretty sure it involves a great deal of prayer, in particular prayer against demonic powers that are believed to have some sort of proprietary sway over a given region or institution. Think of spiritual warfare as seeking to perform an exorcism on a whole town. I’m guessing this movement got a kick in the pants from Frank Peretti’s early novels wherein angels and demons fought battles in an invisible realm, and our prayers gave the angels power boosts.

Now there are any number of silly things about the spiritual warfare movement. I’m afraid, however, that some reject the movement not because it doesn’t fit with the Bible, but because it doesn’t fit with our modernist mindsets. The trouble, from our perspective, isn’t that this movement affirms things about demons that the Scripture does not say, but that this movement affirms things about demons.

Like angels, we think demons are certainly real. We just think they’ve been sitting on the sidelines for the last two thousand years. Angels and demons, like everything else supernatural, we seem to think became passé with the closing of the canon. This despite the truth that one part of the canon tells us that we war with principalities and powers (Ephesians 6:12).

In our enlightenment conceit we think the important event of any given Sunday is when the pastor preaches. Having waded through the preliminaries, we get to the point where he feeds our brains. He will present a body of information that he put together during the week. If that body of information is both sound and interesting, we go home happy. We miss that we’ve entered into another dimension, one inhabited by angels and demons.

Sermons certainly have their place. What is best about the Lord’s Day, however, is the fellowship. When we gather together we are lifted up into the heavenly places. We worship in spirit and in truth at the true and eternal Mount Zion. We gather with the saints in our local body and with all His people around the globe. We join the souls of just men made perfect. As we gather the church militant is lifted up to join together with the church triumphant. That is why I get to worship with the great heroes of the faith. But there God’s people worship together with the angels. We join the heavenly host in praise of our God.

The angels speak with us. We go to them each and every Lord’s Day, where we join their choir. There we are gathered together in three part harmony, those who have gone before us, joined with those who are from everlasting, joined with us as we praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. May the Lord of hosts be pleased, each time we gather, to remove the scales from our eyes, that we might behold the glory of His hosts, reflecting His own glory.

Posted in Biblical Doctrines, Big Eva, church, creation, Devil's Arsenal, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, prayer, RC Sproul JR | Comments Off on Praise Him Above Ye Heavenly Host: War of the Worlds

Bargains in the Remainder Bin: (Mostly) Forgotten Bangers

Posted on August 28, 2025 by RC

Sometimes a book comes along, captures the attention of an audience, and then seems to fade away. They’re not quite classics but their usefulness far outlasts their market. The list below is nothing but such books. Sure, if you want to make the case this one or that is in fact a classic, feel free. Two simple requirements to make this list- first, the book must educate. Second, the book must be a good read. Away we go…

Modern Art and the Death of a Culture by Hans Rookmaaker.
I was introduced to this outstanding book as a student at Grove City College in the 1980s. Dr. Andy Hoffecker was my prof. I took every class he offered. This one was amazing. Rookmaker, a close friend to Francis Schaeffer, draws parallel lines following the progress (better understood as regress) of modern art and modern philosophy. He demonstrates how one shapes the other. Suddenly, modern art is revealed to be not just silly, but foreboding.

The Birth of the Modern by Paul Johnson.
Johnson was a well-respected conservative Catholic historian. He wrote perhaps a dozen books that could be on this list. I chose The Birth of the Modern because of the time frame he set his prodigious mind to here. If you want to understand the forces behind the modern world, how technology helped create a culture, this book is for you. Johnson’s encyclopedic scope brings the heat by zeroing in on those moments that shaped our world.

Intellectuals by Paul Johnson
I couldn’t choose just one of Johnson’s books. This one provides a chapter each to exploring the thought of those who shaped the 20th century, exposing the Romans 1 folly at work. You’ll find the intellectual giants are little more than pygmies.

Class by Paul Fussell
Fussell was a cultural and literary historian. He wrote on a variety of subjects. Class is a quick read highlighting distinctions among varying classes in the United States. He blows away the silly notion that class is a function of mere wealth. He is entertaining, and astute in showing each of us fish much of the water we’ve never noticed despite swimming in it. You’ll see yourself, and those around you, much more clearly.

Monsters from the Id by E. Michael Jones
Jones does for horror fiction what Rookmaaker did for modern art, tracing the parallel lines of cultural rot and macabre literature. He has an uncanny ability to tie specific incidents from specific artists to specific ideologies. He does much the same thing with music in Dionysus Rising, and architecture in Living Machines. Monsters from the Id begins with Shelley’s Frankenstein and ends with Alien.

Honorable Mentions:
These last two did not make the list not because they aren’t good enough, but because they’re too good. They truly are classics, but still don’t get enough love. First, Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. Postman is like a wise uncle, seeing things most of us miss. In Amusing Ourselves to Death he explores the distinctions between an image based culture and a word based culture, looking at ours through the lens of television. Someone really ought to do something similar for our internet based age.

Finally, The Abolition of Man by CS Lewis. If you haven’t read this little book, well, let’s just say that’s not good. So read it. You’ll be astonished at the prescience of Lewis, seeing the crack-up of postmodernism at its birth. Typical Lewis style. Penetrating analysis, that reads like nothing more challenging than a fruitful conversation. If you have read it, read it again. And read the fiction version, That Hideous Strength.

Posted in apologetics, Education, ethics, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, on writing well, philosophy, RC Sproul JR, wisdom | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Classic JCE- Isolationism; Honoring My Father; Writing Well

Posted on August 27, 2025 by RC

This week’s classic Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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I Am… Studies on the Attributes of the Living God

Posted on August 27, 2025 by RC

Just a note to let people know that we will begin our weekly Monday night Bible studies on September the 8th. We begin the study at 7:00, but local guests are invited to come for dinner too. That begins at 6:15.

For those of you at some distance, it it our habit to air the study on Facebook Live (RC-Lisa Sproul). In addition, within a day or two we post the video of the study right here for those who would like to watch on their own schedule.

We’d love to have you with us, in person if possible. We’d love for you to invite your friends. Our new study considers the attributes of God, unpacks just a hint of His ineffable glory.

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Elders to the Rescue: Rooting Out Unbelief

Posted on August 26, 2025 by RC

I was ordained, for the first time, in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. It’s an interesting institution with an interesting history. It is the oldest Presbyterian denomination in the nation to have never had a split. It is also one of those rare breeds of institutions, those who drew near to the brink of apostasy and then drew back.

Long after the mainline Presbyterians had embraced theological liberalism, the ARP stayed the course. They sidestepped the modernist-fundamentalist controversy that gave birth to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the Bible Presbyterian Church. Decades later, however, slowly but surely neo-orthodoxy began to creep into the denomination. The neo-orthodox were those whose stance against liberalism was, shall we say, more like standing right next to liberalism. In fact, within a decade or two of its founding its most influential proponents had clearly slip all the way into liberalism.

The ARP, perhaps wanting to avoid the perceived stodginess of the Orthodox Presbyterians and the fundamentalism of the Bible Presbyterians styled themselves as the safe middle. At least, that’s what its leadership sought to do. Neo-orthodoxy had the advantage of being perceived as reasonably intellectually credible. One could be neo-orthodox and still be allowed to play the academics’ academic games.

It was, however, the laypeople in the denomination who came to the rescue. Much like the later conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention, the ARP cleansed their churches and institutions of the unstable hybrid that was neo-orthodoxy. They came out the other side, to their credit, looking much more like the ARP of old.

In my lifetime some of the most faithful men of the church have served in the ARP or at ARP churches. Dr. Jay Adams pastored an ARP church. Dr. J. Richard deWitt was moderator for a time. Dr. Sinclair Ferguson and Dr. Derek Thomas served in the ARP. These, however, were all well after the resurgence had taken place. The laity in the denomination had the sense not to buy into neo-orthodoxy and the courage to root it out.

Which should teach us at least two things. First, academic attainment is no hedge against theological drift. In this battle, in fact, the bad guys wore academic gowns and the good guys wore overalls. Loyalty to the Lord, and indifference to the approval of the world, these were what enabled the laity to recognize that the emperor wore no clothes. Which means these are the qualities we ought to be pursuing for both clergy and laity alike.

Second, elders matter. The ARP makes a distinction in the callings of ruling and teaching elders. It makes no distinction between their respective authority. The ruling elders were the heroes of the story. How easy it is for us to see elders as a kind of board of trustees, successful businessmen tasked with making important business decisions but ill-equipped to wrestle with the text of the Bible. How wise of the heroes of the story to understand both their authority and their calling. Elders, as would be obvious if we would but read the qualities required of them in Scripture, must be men of character and integrity. Not perfect, but faithful.

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What can I fulfill His command to be a peacemaker?

Posted on August 25, 2025 by RC

Jesus, of course, listed peacemakers among the blessed in His Sermon on the Mount. He is the ultimate peacemaker, first reconciling us, His enemies, with our Father. Second, this in turn reconciles us with each other. We, however, are called to follow in His steps. In a time of increasing rancor both within and without the kingdom, how can we better spread the blessings of peace?

First, we stay out of entangling alliances. How foolish that we think the way to end a fight is to join it. Viet Nam era peaceniks used to ask, “What if they held a war and nobody came?” They were on to something. More fighters will never make for less fighting. The Bible calls us to not grab a passing dog by the ears (Proverbs 26:17). The party of the aggrieved is all about recruitment. Don’t sign up.

Second, we focus on our own failings. Sin is a disturber of the peace. When we sin we disturb the peace. So let’s work on mortifying our flesh, putting to death the old man, fighting not against others but against ourselves. One of the advantages of this approach is it makes others less likely to attack us. When we are quick to acknowledge our sins, it kind of takes the wind out of the sails of the accusers of the brethren. What need have we to defend ourselves?

Third, we focus on the peace He has given us. Paul makes much the same point in that Spirit inspired ode to His sovereignty that is Romans 8-

Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (Romans 8:33-35).

Peace with God comes from resting in the work of Christ for us. Peace with each other comes from resting in the work of Christ for us. Peace with ourselves comes from resting in the work of Christ in us.

Fourth, we look at our brothers and sisters the way our Father does. When I look at myself in the mirror I see nothing but sin. When my Father looks at me He sees nothing but Jesus. When I look at others I’m called to see them in the same way. He loves them infinitely and immutably. Going to war against them is like going to war against Jesus.

Fifth, we look at those outside the kingdom as we once were. Every soldier in the Lord’s army was once a soldier in the devil’s army. By His power, in His compassion, He drafted us into His army (Genesis 3:15). Who knows if He might not do it for our enemies? I know of a man who virulently, actively persecuted believers, some even to the point of death. But God stopped him dead in His tracks, blinding him, gave him eyes to see the kingdom and sent him to my people with the gospel.

We are called to fight for peace, and to peace in the midst of the fight. May He grant us grace to be faithful warriors who rest in His peace.

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Good News, Good News, Good News and Bad News

Posted on August 22, 2025 by RC

I’ve got great news — I just saved a bundle on my car insurance. This punchline might expose a problem in our Christian sub-culture: we don’t know what the good news is.

The confusion is understandable. God is good, gracious. We move from grace to grace, receiving gifts from Him all the time. God is sovereign, controlling all things. When He tells us all things work together for good for those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28), we learn that it’s all good news. His coming, that’s good news. His dying, that’s good news. His ascending, that’s good news. His sending the Spirit, that’s good news. The Spirit applying these things to His people, that’s good news. Even the trials we go through, they are good news as well. We are, after all, to count it all joy.

That everything is good news, however, does not mean that everything is the good news. The authors of their respective gospels were not merely publishing everything they came upon. While each had their own peculiar focus, each of them together, on the other hand, were seeking to make known the good news.

These four men, however, were not the first. Two other men before them labored diligently to make known the good news. One of those two was called by the Lord the greatest man born of a woman (Luke 7:28). The other was the Lord of Glory Himself. If we would understand the Gospels, we would be wise to understand that the good news they were reporting was the good news proclaimed not just about Jesus, but by Jesus. The good news is that the kingdom has come. This is the message of Jesus: the kingdom of God is here.

On the other hand, the bad news is that the kingdom has come. The life, death, resurrection, ascension and return of Christ is to us who have been called, the very aroma of life. To those who are still outside the kingdom, it is the stench of death. It is the same kingdom either way, but for the seed of the woman (Christians) it is blessing, and for the seed of the serpent it is cursing. That this one kingdom can mean one thing for one group and the opposite for another can help explain how we have come to conflate some terms over time.

The difference between seeing the coming of the kingdom as an event of joy or of dread is found in one simple distinction — do we trust in the finished work of Christ alone or not? The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent began in the same place, as enemies of the kingdom. We are all by nature children of wrath. But it is as we are gifted with repentance and believe that we move from darkness to light, that we are adopted into the very family of God. That’s good news. Better still, the king who has adopted us, He is now king indeed. That’s very good news.

Our gospel is a truncated shell if the good news is merely that we don’t have to go to hell. It gets only slightly better if it means our souls go to heaven. The fullness of the gospel is found in the fullness of the kingdom. Jesus, the first-born of the new creation, is remaking all things, all the created order that groans under the burden of sin. He is remaking all the political order, as all kings everywhere learn to kiss the Son, lest He be angry (Ps. 2). He is remaking His bride, removing every blot and blemish. And He is remaking every one of us, reshaping us pots into vessels of grace. Jesus changes everything.

We are a part of this good news precisely because He came and lived a life of perfect obedience in our place. We are a part of this precisely because He suffered the wrath of the Father that is due to us for our sins. We are a part of this because He has given us each a new heart that responds to His calling with repentance and faith. We bring nothing to the table but our need. Jesus has done it all. We are His workmanship, judged innocent by His death, judged righteous by His life.

There is still more good news. We are not merely made citizens of that kingdom we are called to seek. Not merely judged righteous by His righteousness that we were called to seek. We are by the same Spirit made kings and queens with Him, not just subjects but rulers. Seated even now with Him in the heavenly places our calling is to believe these promises. We’re to be of good cheer, for He has already overcome the world (John 16:33). We do not wait for His kingdom to come, for it is here. Instead, we strive to make it ever more visible, as we make all things subject to His glorious reign.

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Tariffs and Inflation: And Never the Twain Do Meet

Posted on August 21, 2025 by RC

Economic pundits have been celebrating of late that thus far we haven’t seen a deep spike in inflation due to the imposition of tariffs on foreign goods sold in the US. In other news, thus far the lint in my pocket has had little impact on the WNBA standings. I am not a fan of tariffs, which I addressed earlier here. I’m certainly not a fan of inflation. I’m even less a fan of anyone who thinks the two correlate.

The confusion is partly driven by politics, partly by misleading measurements. People confuse inflation with rising prices in part because politicians cause inflation and prefer to blame it on business. The price of gas goes up and suddenly Bernie Sanders is screeching about greed in the C suite at Exxon. But the good people at Exxon don’t decide the price of gas. The people at the pump do.

The misleading measurement is found in the calculus of inflation. Every month of so we are treated to the latest numbers on “inflation.” These numbers are actually a measure of the change in price for a certain group of goods, the CPI, or Consumer Price Index. Last month a gallon of gas cost x, a loaf of bread y and a box of paperclips z. This month those same products are 1% more expensive, giving an annual inflation rate of 12%.

The truth is inflation is an increase in the money supply, something only the government can do. Such does cause prices to rise, for a simple reason that has nothing to do with anyone’s greed. It’s because there’s more dollars chasing the same goods. If an economy produced ten loaves of bread, and had ten dollars in circulation, each loaf of bread would cost a dollar. Add ten more dollars and the economy isn’t any richer. Now a loaf of bread costs $2.

What has this to do with tariffs? Everything. Tariffs do nothing, in themselves, to increase the money supply. Which is why they don’t cause inflation. They certainly, like any other cost of doing business, can raise the cost of doing business. Which doesn’t, contra general economic illiteracy, mean they can simply pass those costs on. Prices are still determined by what consumers are willing to pay. As noted, I’m not a fan.

Which is not a good reason to erroneously blame tariffs for inflation. Every bit of inflation can be traced back to government borrowing and printing money into existence. Not wealth, but money. If tomorrow the government told us we could all add three zeroes to our bank balance, we would not be any richer. We’d just add three zeroes to everything we want to buy.

Economics isn’t terribly complicated. It is just enough so that politicians and demagogues are equipped to fleece us year after year. Don’t invest in battles with the dimwitted. Instead learn a little and be equipped for battle.

For more lessons in economics from a biblical perspective, see my Economics for Everybody here.

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Classic Sacred Marriage- Dissing Your Spouse

Posted on August 20, 2025 by RC

This week’s classic Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

Posted in 10 Commandments, Biblical Doctrines, friends, Jesus Changes Everything, Lisa Sproul, RC Sproul JR, Sacred Marriage | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Classic Sacred Marriage- Dissing Your Spouse