Preparing for Persecution

Posted on April 23, 2021 by RC

Apologists for the world inside the church love to downplay the power plays of the powerful. They argue that since, so far, no Christians in the west are being fed to the lions that we are not experiencing persecution. Persecution, however, is here. At Gracelife Church in Alberta, Canada it looked like the government would eat humble pie after Pastor James Coates politely refused their demand that he cease preaching. He served 35 days and they let him go. Humble pie, however, left them an appetite for revenge and so the government encircled Gracelife with not one, not two, but three layers of fencing. They sent 200 police officers out that Sunday to stand guard and ensure no worship took place. Apparently no one in Alberta government is aware that Jesus doesn’t demand that we worship on this mount or that, but is looking for those who will worship in Spirit and in truth. The saints of Gracelife met and worshipped beyond the reach of Alberta’s Royal Mounties.

Three Options

No Christians were killed, beaten, or, this time, jailed. But persecution is here. What do we do? Peter’s first epistle was written to believers who were facing the early stages of persecution- social ostracism, ecclesiastical rejection, families cutting ties, loss of position and wealth. Christians in such circumstances have three options.

Capitulate

The first is to surrender, to capitulate. Consider the cause of most of the cultural angst against the church. They hate us for our refusal to approve their sexual confusion. Great swaths of the evangelical church have responded by boldly, missionally, grace-filledly approving sexual confusion. What, after all, does who we’re sleeping with, have to do with Jesus? This approach has this advantage- it blunts the wrath of the world. It has this disadvantage- it welcomes the wrath of God, on both the sell-outs and the sexually confused.

Conflagrate

The second option is to prepare for war, to meet assaults on our liberties with all the ferocity of the founding fathers. We become culture warriors, marching against social justice warriors. We rattle our swords, wave our American flags and refuse not just the second mile, but the first. We fancy ourselves as heroic as Luther, as immovable as Knox, as bold as John the Baptist. We ask the Lord is He’d like us to call down fire on His enemies, demonstrating we know not what spirit we are of.

Believe

While the second option has much more going for it than the first, it too falls short of the biblical model. Peter’s call to his audience is neither to capitulate nor to conflagrate, but to believe. Peter calls them, and us, to believe the promises of God. We were dead, but by His grace we have been made alive. We have suffered, but Jesus is glorified because of it. We have been impoverished, but our inheritance is in heaven. We have sorrows, but we are to count it all joy. Joy, remember, is the settled conviction that God is able, and that God is for us.

This is what we have to look forward to- a deeper joy in what He has done for us, a deeper confidence in what He has secured for us, a deeper satisfaction in how He is glorified through us. Give thanks. Do not fear.

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Forever Friend, Bruce Goodreau; Appeal; What about seminaries?

Posted on April 23, 2021 by RC

Today’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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A Conversation with Dr. David White on Growing Up Ligonier

Posted on April 22, 2021 by RC

Today’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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Looking for Love

Posted on April 21, 2021 by RC

We must not allow our grasp of total depravity to lead us to miss the remnants in us of the image of God. We are plenty bad. Sin touches every part of us, and makes us utterly unable to do anything in ourselves pleasing to God, including coming to faith. We do not, however, run in precisely the opposite direction of where we ought. Romans 1, wherein Paul’s chief goal is to explain the universal guilt of man, for instance, tells us not that man in his sin, made to worship God, merely refuses to worship God, but rather says we worship the creature rather than the Creator. Because we’re fallen we won’t worship God. Because we bear His image, however, we will worship. Even at Babel they didn’t merely turn their back on the dominion mandate but rather twisted it. They built the tower because of God’s image. They built it for their own glory because of their depravity.

Distortion, Not Destruction

The same principle, that many of our desires (to work, to worship) are good and proper but because of sin, misdirected, applies to our desire to be loved. We are relational beings, just like our Father in heaven. It is not good, He told us, for man to be alone. Wanting to be loved isn’t a shame, weakness, a failure. Looking for love in all the wrong places, however, is a shame, weakness, a failure.

Seeking, Not Finding

When we are men pleasers, ear ticklers, hungerers for the approval of the world we are seeking love where we ought not, and missing the love that we have. When we commit adultery, indulge in pornography, escape into fantasy we seek love where we ought not, and miss the love that we have. When we gossip, slander, bear tales, we are seeking love where we ought not, and missing the love that we have. When we use social media to present our lives as one glamorous success after another, we look for love where we ought not and miss the love that we have.

Our Hearts Are Restless…

The answer to our longing, the one thing that will satisfy our hunger is the Father who sent His Son to dwell with us, to be our Husband, and to feed us. If I am in Christ, I am His beloved, and I am in turn beloved of the Father. The Spirit is ever with me, encouraging me. If I am in Christ I have all that I could ever ask or hope for. In my sin I’m like the beloved son of the wealthiest man the world has ever known, going to the seedy part of town to pick through dumpsters, seeking to fill my belly. A feast is laid out for me at home, my Father’s table heavy laden with the choicest delicacies, and I’m looking for a pizza crust in a trash can.

Full and Famished

My shame is not that I am hungry, for I was made to eat. My shame is missing what my Father has given me. My weakness is not that I want, but that I don’t recognize that I have. My failure isn’t that I long to be loved, but that I’m wrong to not know I am infinitely loved. He is my beginning- I bear His image. And He is my end- I will be with Him always.

Posted in 10 Commandments, apologetics, assurance, beauty, Biblical Doctrines, church, communion, Devil's Arsenal, grace, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR, sexual confusion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Top 5 Old TV Shows; Wedding Feast Parable; Catechism #71

Posted on April 21, 2021 by RC

Today’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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New Theses, New Reformation

Posted on April 20, 2021 by RC

Thesis 71 We must dwell with our wives with understanding.

As a rule, men are relational dolts. From an early age girls develop sophisticated communications arrays, whereby they are able to simultaneously translate what anyone says, whether with words, expression or body language, into what they actually mean. They know from birth that when a genteel southern woman tells them, “Well bless your heart” that war has been declared. Men, on the other hand, are tone deaf and body language blind.

Women in turn understand the intricacies of social interaction. They don’t have to be told to write thank you notes; they compose them on the way home from a dinner with friends. Men, on the other hand, bring their favorite beverage to a buddy’s barbecue not as a “host gift” but to make sure there is enough. We check the scores on our smartphones during a wedding.

Which is why, perhaps, western culture has constructed yearly reminders for us, to make it simple. We know our marching orders- a card, flowers or candy, perhaps a gift and a nice romantic dinner for two. We can do that, once, or twice, or four times a year- birthday, Valentine’s Day, and the hardest one, our anniversary. When we succeed on these days we tell our wives that we really are trying. We really do love them, and want them to know. We’re fighting our man weaknesses as best as we are able.

What we ought to be doing, however, is fighting her woman weaknesses. The Bible calls us to dwell with our wives with understanding (I Peter 3:7). Women, by and large, crave security. They are given to relational worry. When husbands and wives fight, often the husband is merely annoyed, while the wife fears the end is near. Peter doesn’t call us to turn our wives into men, but calls men to see it from her point of view. We fight her fears by putting her at ease.

A godly husband, then is not one who four times a year takes up the aggravating task of trying to be relational, in order to keep his wife from getting grumpy. Instead a godly husband is tasked with the constant call of communicating his love and commitment to his wife. This is not a few days a year, but every day. Too often husbands get frustrated, even offended by this hard reality. “Doesn’t she think I’m a man of my word? I promised ‘Until death do us part’ and I meant it.” The Perfect Husband does not treat His bride that way. Instead He daily affirms His love and commitment to us. If we, the church, would reform, we husbands must learn from Jesus.

A bride doesn’t want to know that she can count on us to grimly see our vows through to the end. She wants to know that we would make it all over again today, and tomorrow, and the day after that. She doesn’t want to know that we will stay with her, but that we want to stay with her.

My counsel for you is that on those special days to get the flowers and enjoy a nice meal together. But the next day let’s stop, hold her chin, look her in the eye and tell her, “I give thanks to God for you. I would marry you all over again. You are a joy in my life.” And then, the day after that, do it again. Repeat.

Posted in RC Sproul JR, Theses | 2 Comments

Catastrophism; Atin-Lay, Analogia Entis; Comfort My People

Posted on April 20, 2021 by RC

Today’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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Why is church membership important?

Posted on April 19, 2021 by RC


Ditching Membership

He spoke wisely who said, “When you come upon a fence, be sure you know what it was keeping out before you tear it down.” The contemporary church, looking down its collective nose at the historical church has jettisoned anything that might make anyone uncomfortable, including accountability. Churches that reject the idea of membership are led by hirelings, more than willing to receive donations but unwilling to take on spiritual responsibility. What responsibility you ask? For the souls of those under their care. Hebrews 13:17 is the definitive text on the necessity and meaning of church membership. There we read,

“Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.”

Giving Account

Who are those who rule over you, to whom you are called to be submissive? Who is called to watch out for your soul, as those who must give account? What are their names? Email addresses? If you can’t answer these questions, you can’t be in submission to this text. Which means in turn that a failure to be in submission to specific, namable men with genuine authority over you is a failure to be in submission to the Word of God.

But…

I know it’s scary. Believe you me I’ve had my fair share of tussles will elders who will on the last day have much to answer for. Even closer to home, I’ve been an elder who will on the last day have much to answer for. It’s scary to publicly place yourself under authority. What should scare all of us, however, even more is the idea of being out from under authority. We are sheep, in need of shepherds. Real, here on earth, know our name shepherds. Church membership isn’t about a list of duties in some overly complicated covenant. It isn’t about gaining the power to vote. It isn’t about a deeper subjective sense of belonging. It’s about accountability.

You Can Go Your Own Way

You are reading a blog. You can leave rcsprouljr.com at will. You can disagree, disregard, disrespect every word I’ve written. I don’t know you, and even if I did, my authority over you is non-existent. You have no duty to agree, to give attention or honor to any word I’ve ever written. In God’s grace He has given us all manner of resources by which we might learn more about Him. But He has given us only one institution that we are all called to be in submission to. And not in an invisible, abstract way, but in a person to person way.

If you find yourself bristling I have good news and bad news. The good news is noted above- I have zero authority over you. The bad news is that the Word of God does. See you if you can come up with a way you can fulfill this command in Hebrews without being a publicly committed member of a local visible church. If you can do so, let me know, and I will repent for giving bad counsel.

Posted in 10 Commandments, Ask RC, assurance, Biblical Doctrines, church, communion, Devil's Arsenal, kingdom, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Sacred Marriage, God Hears; Bible in 5 Minutes, Nahum

Posted on April 19, 2021 by RC

Today’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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Working for the Weekend

Posted on April 17, 2021 by RC

Common grace, or common goodness if you prefer, are good examples of God’s grace. Those of us within the kingdom, must remember to give thanks to the King that, while the creation yet groans, while death has not yet been banished, He has in many ways made us somewhat comfortable. We, for all the tears this side of the vale, ride toward eternity on eagle’s wings. As western civilization continues its long slouch downward we are witnessing a different kind of grace, an antithetical grace. Now the broad culture has sunk to such depths that by God’s grace, more and more Christians no longer confuse it with Christian culture. The only bad news is that the west is less and less a place a Christian would want to live.

There are any number of ways to measure this decline. Some years ago I wrote a piece, Land of the Lots about a fundraiser in the small, southern city. One could argue that it was a veritable slice of Americana, the teenage version of the lemonade stand. The cheerleaders from the local high school were putting on a car wash. What was both telling and shocking was that these teenage girls, with the full support of their parents and their school, advertised their event as a “bikini car wash.” Lecherous old men could get their cars cleaned, while their dirty minds were fed. We may not, however, go out with either a bang or a whimper, but with a “Dude, where’s the remote?” Our sign of the apocalypse may not be our lust, our avarice, our selfishness or our perversion. It may just be our sloth.

The medieval theologians, when they concocted their list of the seven deadly sins, included therein, as we might expect, lust, greed, hatred, and gluttony. We might be embarrassed by it, but we aren’t really surprised that gluttony would make the list. But sloth? Sloth? That’s an attribute we celebrate. From Rip Van Winkle’s power nap to Tom Sawyer’s multi-level marketing job on whitewashing the fence, to Beetle Bailey outsmarting his boss, we are at best amused by the lazy, and at worst envious of them. Everybody’s working for the weekend.

Work is perhaps the very core of the imago dei. We were made to copy the God who made all things. To stop the work is to deny the image, to lie about who God is, and to descend, both culturally and individually into the demonic realm of entropy. The failure, of course, isn’t confined to those outside the kingdom. We are all lazy. We are all, even within the church, shocked at the call to go the second mile precisely because we live in a culture that can’t be bothered to go the first mile.

Two thousand years ago we who belonged to Christ were known for our courage. We faced death with dignity and it wasn’t long before those in the coliseum who came to cheer our deaths learned to cheer the One who died for us. Would we not, in this time, be a city on a hill, were we willing only to be those who were known for working hard? May God help us to pick up not just our cross, but our hammer, our hoe, even our computer, and follow Him.

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