RC Sproul Jr

I was all of 14 years old. I was dragged to a speech given by a former World War II Luftwaffe fighter pilot turned economist. His name was Hans Sennholz. The first PhD under the tutelage of the great Austrian School economist, Ludwig von Mises. His lecture left me spellbound. Over the course of the next three years I read everything free market I could get my hands on. I handed out copies of Bastiat’s The Law, to all my friends. I dove deep into Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson. I even checked von Mises’ massive tome and magnum opus, Human Action out of the library in Ligonier, PA.

Over the course of the next ten years I published my first book on biblical economics, sat at the feet of Sennholz at Grove City College, both attended and spoke at events put on by the Foundation of Economic Education and published a piece in their journal, The Freeman. Over the course of the next forty years I have changed not a single conviction with respect to the blessings of liberty. I remain in principle a libertarian minarchist. I have produced more teaching material on the same theme including Economics for Everybody, a popular curriculum for homeschoolers and Christian schools put out by my friends at Compass Cinema.

I continue to speak and write about economics to this day. I list my free market bona fides today not to boast, but to reveal my profound puzzlement over the reaction I received recently. I tweeted a notion that ended up, by my standards anyway, going viral. I said,

“If you think handing everyone a $5000 DOGE check is a good idea, you’re part of the problem, not the solution.”

Now I acknowledge one could make a case that I’m mistaken. I don’t think I am, but I’m often wrong. I didn’t object, of course, because I thought that the federal government should keep spending wastefully as DOGE has exposed. I didn’t argue the money saved should go to my favorite causes. No, my objection was simple enough- we don’t have any money. Everyone wants their wasted dollars returned. I do too. Who wouldn’t? But you can’t get blood from a turnip that is down $37 extra large (trillion) to his bookie.

Still, this post isn’t about basic economics but basic communication. Over 1.5 million people saw that post. Over 5,700 liked it; over 500 shared it. Two thousand people left comments. Most of them seemed to prefer I keep my ideas to myself, if not take them to my grave, and quick. They accused me of being a lefty stooge, woke, gay, an oligarch, an imbecile, Nancy Pelosi’s and Bernie Sander’s love child. (Well, not that last one.)

Now I’m not expecting the many people whose feed was invaded with my sweet smelling input to know my background. Nor do I expect them to look it up before opening their can of verbal whup tush. I do expect them, however, to not simply assume that a mere disagreement with a specific policy floated by the President makes me a bad guy. Shouldn’t people who like the President understand that arguing about who the government writes checks to ultimately changes nothing? We ought to worry less about the recipients of federal spending, more about the amount of federal spending.

My solution is as timeless and effective as liberty- why don’t we let people keep their money? Why don’t we understand that you can’t “punish” the government by taking “their” money because they have no money except what they take from us? You can’t get even with a broke junkie who stole your stereo, fenced it and shot it into his arm. It’s gone, and telling the junkie to steal someone else’s stereo and fence it to pay you back does nothing to even the scales of justice. It just multiplies injustice.

Let’s try a little discernment. Let’s pinpoint what the problem is. It’s big government, red, purple and blue. And let’s slow the rush to judgment at least a tad.

One of the common complaints against the doctrine of unconditional election is that it seems to make God ought to be capricious. The late great John Gerstner, in trying to emphasize the sovereign grace of God in election once, with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, described that moment before time when we were chosen as “your lucky day.”

The Reformers were more interested in denying something than affirming something. They wanted to ensure we understood that election is not done on the basis of any good in those chosen. There were no meritorious conditions in the elect that motivated God to make them the elect. He did not peer down the corridor of time to find out which of us were good enough to choose Him, and then on that basis choose us. Total depravity, of course, is sufficient to undo that notion. If He peered down the corridor of time to see who would of themselves choose Him, then none would be elect.

That God looked for nothing good in us before He chose us, however, does not mean that He looked for nothing at all. The goal of the doctrine is not neutrality, but humility. If we look to God’s Word, we find that God just may have used a particular criteria in choosing us. Paul writes about God’s choosing His people,

“For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are” (I Corinthians 1:26-28).

That’s us. Were we honest, we’d give up our dignified church names, like Covenant Church, First Church, even Sovereign Grace. We’d adopt more honesty in our labeling. We ought to tell our neighbors, “We worship each Lord’s Day at First Church of the Ignoble.” We ought to put bumper stickers on our cars advising “Follow me to Base and Despised Presbyterian.” God did indeed have a reason for choosing you and choosing me- He wanted to choose losers.

Does the church embrace our inner loser? No. He chooses us because we are fools, and we, because He was right, think ourselves wise. We come up with elaborate marketing strategies for the kingdom of God. We divide up the congregation by market tastes. The hip, urbane fancy coffee gathering place over here, and the country/western place over there. We’ll serve this group lattes and the other group Mountain Dew. And we’ll send the satellite feed of Pastor Sneakers to both. He chooses us in our lack of nobility, and we pat Him on the back for choosing such fine fellows such as we are.

This, of course, is one more reason why it is wise to gather at the table each Lord’s Day. How can we go one thinking so highly of ourselves if, each week we see the body we broke, and the blood we shed? How can we perceive ourselves to be a net gain for the body, when we cannot stay alive without His body? The table, for all the joy and delight it brings, powerfully reminds us of who we are. The weak, the foolish, the ignoble.

Why would God choose losers like us? The text tells us how God reasoned this out- “that no flesh should glory in His presence” (verse 29). God’s motive for picking us is the same as His motive for all that He does, that His glory might be made known. When we preen about, thinking too highly of ourselves, therefore, we are not merely showing our foolishness by misunderstanding ourselves, but we fall under the very curse of Malachi, “Will a man rob God?” (3:8). A failure of humility is a failure to render unto God the things that are His, glory.

We’re not, by the way, fooling anyone anyway. The world knows what losers we are. God knows what losers we are. Losers that we are, we’re the only ones that don’t seem to notice. We’re too busy trying to impress each other. May God have mercy on our souls.

That we are losers isn’t cause for mourning, but for rejoicing. We should move not only from grace to grace, but from shocked to stunned- ME? He chose ME? But I’m awful. I’m a bundle of dust and rebellion. What did He see in me?

What did He see in us? Losers so awful that He was our only way out. He saw in us an opportunity to make known His glory, to shine forth the riches of His grace by bestowing them upon we the poverty-stricken. We now have no more reason to pretend. We need no more put on a show for others. All we need to do is to repent and believe. And having believed, all we have left to do is rejoice and give thanks. We are losers, every one of us. But by His grace and for His glory, we’re His losers.

This is the thirty-fifth installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more. Remember also that we at Sovereign Grace Fellowship meet this Sunday March 16 at 10:30 AM at our new location, at our beautiful farm at 112811 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us.