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?

Posted in abortion, apologetics, Big Eva, church, creation, Devil's Arsenal, ethics, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, persecution, RC Sproul JR, scandal, sexual confusion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Room 101

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 , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Grace Again; Internet Discourse; Laughter; Sin, in Heaven?

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.

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Is God’s grace wide enough for homosexuals?

Posted on April 15, 2024 by RC

Of course, depending on how we define the term. We recently witnessed yet another erstwhile evangelical reject biblical sexual ethics. Richard Hays, professor at Duke Divinity School, whose work on ethics has been much appreciated among evangelicals, began arguing that God’s grace is “widening” to include unrepentant homosexuals.

No. God’s grace doesn’t widen, and it doesn’t encompass unrepentant homosexuals. Why then would I say “of course God’s grace is wide enough for homosexuals?” Because God’s grace is wide enough for any sin which by His grace is repented of, and too narrow to include any sin that is not repented of.

Which brings us back to the actual crux of the matter among professing Christians. The trope that Christians are mean-spirited, suicide-causing Pharisees with respect to the sexually confused is propaganda of the worst sort. Christians don’t condemn those who reject sexual perversity despite a temptation toward it. We don’t turn away from those in the midst of the battle. It is the quislings, the traitors that surrender that will suffer God’s wrath should they die in the midst of that rebellion.

In so doing we are right in line with God’s Word. Paul wrote:

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (I Cor. 6: 9-11).

The sins listed here are not, of themselves, that which makes one miss out on eternal life. Were that the case, “such were some of you” makes no sense. Some of the Corinthians had been caught up in some or all of these sins before coming to faith. As with the rest of us, likely the temptation followed with them as they entered the kingdom. And so the battle raged on.

It is when the battle ceases, when repentance stops, that these sins become evidence that this person is not in the kingdom. No believer may identify as a “fornicating Christian,” a “thieving Christian,” a “drunkard Christian” and be an actual Christian. Which is precisely what progressive “Christians” are demanding of us, that we embrace the oxymoronic notion of the “gay Christian.”

No one can be in submission to this text and claim that fornication, idolatry, adultery and extortion are not evil and wicked sins. Which is precisely what progressive “Christians” are demanding of us, that we deny sexual perversion is wicked and evil.

While not all sins are equally egregious (despite the evangelical truism to the contrary), every one of them is rebellion against the living God. Every one of them is due the full wrath and fury of God. All those, however, who by the power of the Holy Spirit, turn and repent, resting in Christ, inherit eternal life. His grace is sufficient even for my own sins, to His everlasting praise.

Posted in 10 Commandments, apologetics, Ask RC, Biblical Doctrines, Big Eva, church, ethics, grace, RC Sproul JR, repentance, scandal, sexual confusion | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

A Whole New World

Posted on April 12, 2024 by RC

My father may well have been the hardest man in the world to shop for. One year, however, I did well. I got my dad a nice plaque with a photo of Three Rivers Stadium, home to the Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers for more than thirty years. The plaque also had a photo of the statue outside the stadium of the Great One, Roberto Clemente, one of the Pirates’ all-time greats. Plaques and photos, however, are pretty easy to come by. What was unusual about the plaque was this— it included a three-inch by three-inch strip of the actual artificial turf from Three Rivers Stadium, the very ground Roberto Clemente and the Steelers’ Franco Harris once trod.

I found this amazing gift through something even more amazing: the Internet. I’m still getting used to all that it can do, harnessing it to solve sundry shopping challenges. My computer and now even my phone have become magic boxes, opening up virtual vistas I couldn’t have dreamed of as a child. With the Internet, we do not have the old world plus the Internet, but rather a whole new world. I labor to make sense of the pre-Internet world to my children because this world is all they’ve ever known.

The Internet, however, is not the first new world to change the world. In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Now, a strong case can be made that earlier European explorers landed on our shores. Indeed, I find such rather likely. But the successes of Leif Erikson and St. Brendan, however great they may have been, didn’t affect the world in the same way that Columbus’success did. He not only found a new world, but he came back to report on it (even if he wasn’t clear on what he had found). That is, it was Columbus’ discovery of the New World that actually changed both the New World and the Old.

Just as the Reformation a quarter of a century later would soon challenge the settled convictions of millions and would reshape the institutions that shape us, so the New World did the same for those who lived at that time. Imagine reading the newspaper (or for you younger readers, imagine logging on to your favorite news site) after word returned from the Americas. Not only was there an undiscovered, untamed land, virtually as large as the Old World, but there were people there. Thousands upon thousands living in multiple cultures, people about whom we had heretofore known nothing. Imagine the wonder of it all.

Soon, however, would you not be called out of your revelry to ask— and answer— this simple question: Given this earth-shattering news, what ought you to do? How do you respond to this development, which, to put it in modern terms, is not that far removed from finding not just sentient life but human life on the moon?

One of the great temptations that comes with the discovery of new worlds, whether they be the Internet or two massive continents, is to believe that new worlds call for new rules, that new worlds demand new ends. Such a temptation, however, is to be fought rather than succumbed to. What must we do in or about this strange new world? Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

The discovery of the New World did not bring a discovery of a new purpose. It did, however, provide a new opportunity to be about the business of the old purpose. Christians were called to bring the good news of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ to the New World. They were called to exercise faithful stewardship in the New World. They were commanded to make manifest the glory and beauty of the reign of Christ over all things.

How did we do? To be certain, we believers have much for which to repent in how we have responded to this amazing new world. And one would hardly confuse the New World today with a city shining on a hill. But some perspective would be more helpful. At the close of the fifteenth century, how many saints occupied the New World? If there were any, they likely could be counted just on your fingers and toes. Now, despite all our weakness and worldliness, despite the decline and retreat of the people of God, there are millions of the children of God laboring for the kingdom on these two continents.

The story, however, is not yet over. If God has been pleased to call in millions from this corner of His world where for centuries not one soul was redeemed, what might we hope for, what ought we to work for in the future? The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, beginning as the smallest of seeds but growing until the birds of the air make their nests therein. There are old worlds and new ones. There are earthy worlds and cyber worlds. But one truth remains the same now and forever, that Jesus rules them all.

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Death and Taxes

Posted on April 11, 2024 by RC

You have heard it say, “Taxation is theft.” You have also heard it said, “Jesus approves of taxes.” I say to you that both of these are partly true and partly false, and it is important that we get it right. Neither point undoes the other.

First, taxation is theft. How is that true? Well, if theft is taking the property of another by force than all taxation is theft because it is all taking the property of another by force. How is it not true? In the same way that not all homicides are murder. That is, while murder is taking the life of another, and while capital punishment is taking the life of another, capital punishment is not murder. Taxation is just under certain limitations, just as taking the life of another is just in under certain limitations.

What are those limitations? Let me posit three. First, any taxation that is progressive is unjust. When God established a kind of “tax” for His kingdom, the tithe, He made certain that the more prosperous would pay more than the less. Ten percent of lots is more than ten percent of less. But the rate is the same. Second, any tax beyond ten percent is unjust. To demand more than God is to place oneself above God. Third, and perhaps most important, any tax taken to finance illegitimate functions is itself illegitimate.

When God established civil government He commissioned them to punish evildoers, giving them the power of the sword. He did not call them to be in the business of building empires, of educating citizens, of redistributing wealth. The cost of punishing evildoers is minimal compared to policing the world and providing cradle to grave security. Taxes taken to finance governmental interference where it does not belong are indeed theft.

Jesus commands that we render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and Paul commands us to give taxes to whom they are due. Amen. This does not mean, however, that all taxes are legitimate. Jesus also commands us, when someone strikes us on the face that we turn the other cheek. Would anyone honestly argue that such means that it is okay to slap someone’s cheek or that it would be wrong to object to cheek slapping?

Jesus approves of legitimate taxes, and commands that we pay even illegitimate taxes. But He no more approves of illegitimate taxes than He approves of theft. So we ought to pay our taxes, knowing some of it is theft and some of it not, while maintaining our liberty to object to those taxes that are theft. In turn, there is not a thing in the world wrong with minimizing one’s taxes, so long as one does so within the constraints of the law. Using legal “loopholes” or deductions is not only not sinful but is simple good stewardship.

Another tax day is nigh upon us. It’s frustrating and objectionable. I get that. But let us pay and object from a posture of obedience and of peace. Let us remember that the living God provides our daily bread, even when His rivals seek to take it from us.

Posted in 10 Commandments, Economics in This Lesson, ethics, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, persecution, politics, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Grace; National Debt; Abimelech; 1934 and God’s Glory

Posted on April 10, 2024 by RC

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

Posted in 10 Commandments, Economics in This Lesson, ethics, Jesus Changes Everything, Lisa Sproul, Month of Sundays, RC Sproul JR, Sacred Marriage, scandal, That 70s Kid, theology, wonder, worship | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Grace; National Debt; Abimelech; 1934 and God’s Glory