The Way in the Manger

Posted on January 30, 2024 by RC

It is increasingly fashionable, and has always been quite easy to debunk a number of Christmas season staples that are either less than certain or certainly not true. We don’t know, for instance, how many wise men there were, because the Bible doesn’t tell us. Three gifts are mentioned, but not three men. We don’t even know that they arrived the night He was born. We do know that our typical image of the stable is way off. At that time the “stable” was the first floor of the home, where animals were brought at night, not a wooden structure away from the house.

These kinds of mistakes happen in part because our cultural baggage gets lost in transition. If we wanted a place to keep our animals we’d make it out of wood, and put it some distance from the people. So we assume they would do the same. Even the image of Joseph and the young Jesus as a carpenter is likely off quite a bit. And for much the same reason. Wood was relatively scarce in first century Palestine. Whenever possible homes, tools, even furniture were constructed of something far longer lasting, stone. It is likely that stone was the material Joseph worked with.

It is likely as well, for the same reasons, that the manger Jesus was placed in was not a wooden kind of basket but was instead stone, either carved into the wall of the first floor of the home, or free standing. Part of the subtext of the birth in the stable narrative is that it is consistent with the compelling notion that God humbled Himself in the birth of Jesus. And so it is, even if the “stable” is a bit more like an unfinished basement. But could there be more here?

Whether dug into the wall or standing alone, the stone mangers of that period look remarkably like the tombs of the same period. If you took a tomb, in fact, and shrunk it down to the size of a baby it would look exactly like a manger. Could it be that the original audience, when they read that the newborn child was laid in a manger would have naturally thought, “Yes, He was born to die. The end is foreshadowed in the beginning here.” And if so, should not we think the same?

Could there be yet another reason He was placed in the manger? Another message in the text? We’ve invested so much time and energy remembering He was born in a manger that we have virtually forgotten what a manger is for. A manger is the place where food was placed. The sheep know the manger is where they go to be fed. There they find the bread of life. We, His sheep, continue to do the same.

The stable story does a wonderful job of reminding us of His humility. The true story gives the same message, but also reminds us He came to die, and did so that we might live.

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Bible Study Tonight- Romans 10, Part 1

Posted on January 29, 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 it wrong to publish anonymously?

Posted on January 29, 2024 by RC

That depends a great deal on what one is publishing. Last week I nearly broke the internet when first I suggested that while Pastor Alistair Begg’s advice on attending a loved one’s faux wedding was well off the mark, it was not keeping with I Timothy 5:1 to rebuke a father harshly. That, however, was just the beginning. Next, after a long line of internet warriors rebuked me harshly, I pointed out that many of them were doing so behind a veil of anonymity. When I suggested such was less than kosher, that’s when war broke out.

There were a few who gave some semblance of reasoned arguments in defense of anonymity. Many pointed to history, to those who had gone before. Would I, these brave souls wanted to know, stand in judgment of Luther who translated the New Testament into German while disguising himself as Sir George, the Knight, Christians in the early church making the fish symbol in the sand and the founding fathers writing their thoughts on federalism under pen names? A few others were more pragmatic, though no less accusatory, arguing I wanted to starve their families because they could lose their jobs if their bosses knew what their counter-cultural positions were. Or they argued that I wanted to see them exposed to the assaults of Antifa.

I get it. I am now, and always have been, willing to concede that there are certain circumstances where anonymity is the fitting choice. If one is seeking to propagate a perspective that could get one in deep trouble, secrecy may be the order of the day. Under what circumstances, though, is it wrong to maintain anonymity? When you are accusing someone. The right to face one’s accusers isn’t some merely American creation, but goes back to the Bible. To be a witness, one must testify, and not through a sock puppet. John the Baptist met his end because he rightly accused Herod. He neither shied away from the accusation nor hid behind anonymity. He acted wisely and courageously.

Deuteronomy 19 teaches that the one who testifies maliciously must receive the judgment intended for the accused. If I lie and say you committed first degree murder, I am to be put to death. If, however, I go on the internet, using a VPN and create a social media account, @secretherotheobro, and travel the web telling everyone you killed Tupac, I am immune from being judged for my lie. The very anonymity that might, in a just usage, protect me from injustice empowers me to commit injustice when I take up accusations against others.

This is not hypothetical. This is precisely what happened with Pastor Begg, as people not only (rightly) condemned his bad advice, but went on to challenge his masculinity, and worse, his salvation. I’ve been on the receiving end of anonymous internet assaults for decades. There are several rcsprouljristhedevil.com websites out there. Sometimes they rightly accuse me of sins I’ve committed. Other times they falsely accuse. They all, however, are anonymous. (Which doesn’t mean I don’t know who creates them.) It does mean I won’t dignify them with a response. It don’t respond to cowards.

I have also lost a job via doxing. When I began serving as an editor of an online sports website a merry band of anonymous assassins went to the company and laid before them not my actual sins which the employers already knew about, but my conservative, biblical positions on hot button social issues. I lasted a day.

I get it. If you want to speak into the spirit of the age and feel safer hiding your identity, feel free. If, however, you want to accuse a real human being, come out of the cowardly shadows, or put down the keyboard.

Posted in 10 Commandments, Ask RC, Biblical Doctrines, cyberspace, Devil's Arsenal, ethics, on writing well, persecution, politics, RC Sproul JR, scandal, wisdom | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Interesting Times

Posted on January 26, 2024 by RC

There is a sort of application of the Observer Effect that applies to the news of the day. Sometimes confused with the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which argues that at the subatomic level we can discern either the velocity of a particle or its location, but not both, the Observer Effect argues that observing scientific phenomena can affect what we are observing. It’s almost as if the electrons know we’re looking at them, and adjust their dance. With respect to the news of the day, we often hear this kind of argument: “Social ill x is no greater today than it was twenty years ago. It’s just reported more.” Or, “The recent slew of crime y is expected to create copycat crimes.” It’s like the news knows we are watching. Sometimes, the news is how we respond to the news.

In our day, however, the news is not just the news. The news is business. We are far less likely than our fathers were to tune in to respected journalists who at least sought to keep up an illusion of objectivity. We are far more likely to get our news exclusively from sources clearly identified with this political party or that political party, or worse still, exclusively from talk radio or even comedy television. When news becomes commentary and commentary becomes business, the greatest good is getting you to tune in. We, particularly those Christians who identify as political conservatives, forget that the goal of talk radio isn’t to inform us. We are not consumers of that product that is conservative commentary. We are instead the product being consumed by advertisers. The goal of the host is ultimately to get us to tune in and then to sell our ears to Madison Avenue. As such, no matter who is in office, no matter what is happening, the news is always the same: “The sky is falling.” Calamity is the order of the day, not because we are in a peculiarly calamitous age, but because calamity sells.

There are, of course, plenty of things wrong with the world. We have corruption in high places. We live in an overleveraged, bubble-bursting, upside-down economic house of cards. Government is growing more intrusive, more bloated, more destructive with each passing election cycle. Our inner cities are cesspools of crime, drugs, promiscuity, and the death that comes with all of the above. All of these things, of course, we have a duty as believers to address. We have the solution to all of these ills, and we are called to preach that solution, to disciple the nations. What we should not do, however, is panic. We shouldn’t even be surprised.

Consider the fourteenth century. Dangerous, attractive heresies were finding a foothold in the church. Like today. Faithful men of God were abused, harassed, even killed for their fidelity by men who believed themselves to be doing the work of God. Like today. Church leaders were publicly squabbling, exposing their own hunger for power and prestige, exposing our shame to the watching world. Like today. One-third of the population went to an early grave through the scourge of the Black Plague. Like today, when one-third of all babies, at least in these United States, are cut down by the blackest of scourges, abortion.

There is nothing new under the sun. Our hardships and the wickedness from which they flow are not new things, not things unique to our age. They are the fruit of our fallen humanity. This, this is what comes of sin. How then should we now live?

Like Jesus did—by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). Like Jesus does—bringing all things under subjection (1 Cor. 15:27). Like Jesus will do, handing it all back to the Father (v. 24). We must, in short, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. This doesn’t mean, of course, that we forget about the wickedness all around us. Even less does it mean that we forget about the wickedness inside all of us. It does mean that we do not worry as the Gentiles do. We seek the kingdom precisely because we have the King, and He shall reign forever and ever.

This same Jesus reigned in the fourteenth century. He will still reign in the twenty-fourth century. His reign does not—for now—mean that there will not be death, corruption, heresies, and murders. Neither, however, is His reign—for now—a mere hope that one day He will overcome. Rather, it is under His kingship that His kingship goes forth to war. Things are not now as they should be. But things not being as they should be is precisely as He would have things—for now.

Our calling as we fight faithfully beside our King against the world, our flesh, and the devil is to fight as those who are at peace. We fight with fervor, fidelity, and faith because we are of good cheer, knowing that He has already overcome the world. We live in interesting times indeed—because they are His times. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Posted in 10 Commandments, abortion, Biblical Doctrines, church, covid-19, creation, Devil's Arsenal, eschatology, grace, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, persecution, politics, post-modernism, RC Sproul JR, sovereignty | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Interesting Times

One of Those Days

Posted on January 25, 2024 by RC

Ever had one? You know the type of day I’m talking about. One of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days? The pipes are frozen; the car won’t start and some screw-up at the bank is keeping you from your own money. I’m not having one of those days, but I have had them before and will almost certainly have some again. My failure, I fear, is that when I’m not having one of those days I tend to forget that others might be right in the midst of one of those days.

When it’s someone we love, someone open enough to share their troubles, compassion isn’t hard to find. When it’s someone we don’t know well, and someone understandably reluctant to let his or her guard down we are more prone to add to the burden by getting annoyed by however the other person’s bad day manifests in our day. Maybe they respond to their day with a harsh tongue, or a slothful demeanor, or confusion and distraction.

What should we do? We should respond as we would want others to respond when we’re having one of those days. There’s nothing especially difficult to understand about this. It is, however, difficult to practice. Because we think ourselves to be more important that others. Our hardships are harder, because we deserve so much better. We are due special consideration from those having bad days, because of our exalted status. These internal mindsets make of us little more than one more bad part of this person’s bad day.

Kindness is the order of those kinds of days. As we come to understand that we who are in Christ already have more than we could ever ask or imagine, we no longer look at our encounters with others as a tug-of-war wherein each side seeks to get the best of the other. Instead we see opportunities to give and to share. We share out of the overflowing abundance of the grace that we have received. We live in peace, having been given peace with our Father, and so pass the peace on to others.

How pathetic that we even look at our sound doctrine as just another tug-of-war weapon. Whether we are stuck in the cage stage or simply ornery, too many of us study theology in order to win theological debates. What we ought to be seeking in our studies is instead a changed heart, a deeper faith that believes more fully in the fullness of His promises. Affirming God’s sovereignty does so much more than demonstrate our straight thinking. It allows us to rest, to rejoice, even to see our own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days for what they are, tools in His sovereign hands to remake us into the blessed image of His Son.

We need to hang in there, while encouraging our brothers in Christ to do the same. We need more smiles, more understanding, more encouragement, more faith. May God in His grace pour such out on us all.

Posted in Biblical Doctrines, church, Devil's Arsenal, ethics, friends, friendship, grace, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR, theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Going Homesteady; Civil War; God Who Sees and Loves

Posted on January 24, 2024 by RC

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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The Other Cheek, and the Other Foot

Posted on January 23, 2024 by RC

We are all quick to take offense, and all rather blind to the offenses we cause. That’s because we think we are the center of the universe, and all others orbit around us. Consider Roy Costner IV, a young hero in South Carolina, the valedictorian of Liberty High, who, several years ago, when giving his speech at graduation, tore up his school-approved speech and proceeded to recite the Lord’s Prayer. I joined the thousands of others who commended the young man for his courage. Good on him for being willing to face an angry world who doesn’t want to hear about the true and living God. There is much to be commended in the young man’s earnest heart.

We Christians are, I suspect, all tired of getting kicked around by our increasingly militantly secular culture. A baker in Colorado has, multiple times, faced the wrath of the state for his refusal to make a cake for two homosexual men who wanted to celebrate what they mistakenly call their marriage. We’ve seen too many normal human beings being verbally assaulted by Karens who think they are Kens. As even the mainstream media now admits, conservatives have been targeted by the IRS. With each passing day the targets on our backs grow.

The Apostle Paul, as we know, was not averse to claiming his legal rights when the state abused him. He refused to be released quietly after a wrongful arrest and later insisted on a full trial, as was his right as a Roman citizen. He knew the law better than the state’s lawyers. We ought not to be ashamed to do the same, to insist on our God-given rights. What we ought not to do, however, is trample on the rights of others in the name of Jesus. Which is, however unintentionally, what this young man did.

To help us grasp this admittedly counter-intuitive truth, all we need do is imagine the shoe on the other foot. Suppose that the valedictorian of Liberty High had been a Muslim. Suppose he had had his speech approved by the authorities, went forward, tore that speech up, and recited a Muslim prayer. Suppose he simply chanted over and over for his allotted time, “Allah Akbar.” How would we feel then? I suspect some of you, already unhappy with me, are thinking now, “Had that happened the mainstream press would not have said a word.” You may be right. But I’m not writing for the mainstream media, but for Christians. The question is not what would they have done, but what would we have done? I suspect we would have been upset, and rightly so.

The problem in both instances is that the public schools are financed by taxes, money taken against the will of those from whom it is taken. We don’t like, indeed we find it morally reprehensible for the state to take our money and use it in any way that gives the impression of endorsing Islam. As we should. It was Thomas Jefferson who said, “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.” That our opinions are true, that is, that the Christian faith is true and Islam (or the militant secularism of the state’s schools) false does not change the principle. Indeed it makes our sins that much the worse. We of all people should know better. We are indwelt by the Spirit of the living God. We have a true Word that calls us to turn the other cheek and to do unto others. Yet we applaud doing to the Muslim what we would protest the Muslim doing to us. We are called to a boldness that will proclaim the Lordship of Christ over all things. We are called to a humility that would insist that we must treat others as we would like to be treated. And we are called not to celebrate when we fail, but to repent.

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Is it a sin to break the law?

Posted on January 22, 2024 by RC

That very much depends. Because we are sinners we all face the temptation to become a law unto ourselves. God gave us civil government, and gave civil government the “power of the sword,” the right to impose law by force, for our good and for our protection. The difficulty is that this same sin nature that can lead us astray likewise afflicts those who govern. Which is why we have bad laws, tyranny and injustice from the very people called to enact justice. In our own day we have a federal government that is increasingly hostile to Christians, and increasingly the law reflects such.

Wicked government can and does create unjust laws. The progressive income tax, wherein those who make more not only pay more, but pay a higher percentage of their income to the state, is but one example. Is it a sin to break such a law? Yes. We are commanded to pay our taxes. Not just good taxes, fair taxes, just taxes but our taxes. The Bible doesn’t teach that we must obey just laws but the unjust we can defy at will.

Another form of unjust laws are those laws that extend beyond the lawmaker’s jurisdiction. This is one place the question becomes more subtle. If, for instance, the federal government mandates that I not grow more than X number of bushels of corn on my land, it has stepped well beyond its appointed jurisdiction. Nothing in the Constitution grants the federal government any say in what I do with my crops. That said, the Supreme Court, in clear violation of the Constitution, says federal law can restrict what I grow on my land. I believe I still have a duty to obey.

Suppose, however, that I receive notification from Canada, from the Governor of Utah or my next door neighbor telling me how much corn I can grow on my land. This jurisdictional failure is a horse of a different color. I am perfectly free to tell these interlopers to pound sand. The difference is that in the first instance the US federal government is legitimate government here exercising illegitimate overreach. In the second instance there is no legitimate rule by those butting into my affairs.

The Bible is clear on our duty to obey the government, calling us to submission even when it hurts. There is, however a limit. Because God is the source of all authority, and of all law, our ultimate calling is to obey Him. Which is why the church has always taught, in line with Peter’s response to the authorities commanding him to no longer preach Jesus, that we must obey God rather than man, that we not only may but must disobey any government that expressly commands us to do what God expressly forbids or expressly forbids us to do what God expressly commands.

Even here however we remain, as much as possible, law-keepers. We do this is two principle ways. First, if we must disobey, we don’t resist the judgment of the state on us. If Christians are forbidden to preach that homosexuality is a sin, we will continue to preach it. When they come for us, however, we will go peaceably. The other way we continue to bow to the law in such hardships is we don’t suddenly take it upon ourselves to overthrow the unjust government.

With respect to unjust laws, and the state doing what it ought not, and failing to do what it ought, believers are called to be prophetic, albeit obedient. With respect to laws requiring that we disobey the living God, believers are called to be defiant, but humble.

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Being Sought First, the Kingdom of God

Posted on January 19, 2024 by RC

Our faith is, more often than not, more both/and than either/or. Man’s responsibility or God’s sovereignty? Yes. Mourning or dancing? Yes. Living or dying? Yes. Our temptation in light of this is always to push for one side or the other. When we affirm man’s responsibility, some hear a denial of God’s sovereignty and vice versa. When we see someone mourning, we insist that they dance and vice versa. We ought to dance, even as we ought to mourn. And if we do it right, we find ourselves mourning while we dance and dancing while we mourn.

In like manner, we are called by Jesus Himself to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. This is not, contra too many to name, an embracing of legalism. This is not Jesus speaking during some bootstrap phase of His ministry that would later fade into a kinder, gentler message of unconditional acceptance. He is unequivocally calling us to pursue Him and to pursue obedience to Him. He leaves no wiggle room. And so we must. We are called to a single-minded passion that pursues obedience to the King, that hungers for entrance into the kingdom. We are called to lay aside every hindrance, to scale the walls, to take the kingdom by storm. We are called to run the race that is set before us—and to not grow weary in doing good.

However, as we run this race, one of the great challenges is the folly of concluding that we have arrived. As we grow in grace and wisdom, as we live our lives among the brethren, as we put off the old man, we find we’re not what we used to be. And we relax, thinking too highly of ourselves.

To protect this newfound pride, we may in turn establish ourselves as gatekeepers in the kingdom. To be sure, we are called to be discerning. We, especially the elders of the church, have a duty to make judgments about others. How often, however, do we slide into the practice of private excommunication? Do we not look at the sins of others, secretly judge their secret motives, then secretly convict them? Do we not conclude, “If they were real Christians, they would believe, act, and speak like me”?

When we fall to this kind of temptation, we discover that we have entered into a faux kingdom and crowned ourselves the faux king. We do not enter the real kingdom by pursuing it and our righteousness. We enter the real kingdom by being pursued by it, and by receiving His righteousness.

The broad, ecumenical bromide that affirms that all roads lead up the same mountain to the same god is wrong on multiple fronts. It is not enough to note that all those paths outside the Christian one actually proceed downhill, all the way into the very pit of hell. We must also recognize that what sets our path apart is that we do not climb up, but that He comes down. The kingdom of God is not that place where successful, world-class climbers reach the summit. Pastors are not Sherpas leading the way. Jesus is not standing on the peak waiting to congratulate us and gift us with a medal.

No. The kingdom of God is not something we ascend to. Nor did Jesus merely come to us to egg us on, to coach and encourage us. We were dead. We were in a bottomless crevasse, frozen in our sin. He made us alive. He gave us new hearts. He dressed us in the warmth of His righteousness. He carried us to eternity. And He did all of this precisely because, while we were yet sinners, He identified with us. Us—with our envious hearts, with our darkened minds, with our grubby hands—He identified with. Jesus stands with us as the devil gleefully spits out his accusations. “This,” he says, “this unfaithful bride, this bespotted and besmirched wretch, this duplicitous whore, this is Yours?” And Satan’s sinister grin becomes a mask of horror as Jesus, tenderly holding our filthy hand, answers, “Yes, she is My beloved.” What a wonder that it is in agreeing with the accusations of the devil that we enter in.

When we distance ourselves from those beside whom He stands, do we not of necessity distance ourselves from Him? When we turn up our nose at those for whom He gave up His life, do we not turn up our nose at Him and His work on the cross? When we believe we have arrived, do we not confess that we got there ourselves?

Were it our calling to run from sinners, we would have no place to go, for our own sin follows us wherever we go. Instead, however, we are called to stand, and to repent, with the repentant. We are to bind up the brokenhearted, to give the balm of Christ to those mourning their sin. Jesus came to heal the sick, not praise the well. I am a leper. But that’s OK, for the kingdom of God is a leper colony. Each of us, however, bows before Him as He places His scarred hands on our heads and pronounces blessing upon us.

Posted in assurance, beauty, Biblical Doctrines, church, communion, Devil's Arsenal, grace, Holy Spirit, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR, repentance, wonder, worship | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Are there two kinds of Christians?

Posted on January 18, 2024 by RC

From the beginning of the New Testament church to our own day believers have struggled with the temptation to divide the church, usually in terms of spiritual maturity. Just as the disciples clamored to be considered the greatest, so believers make distinctions to the end of elevating their own standing.

This temptation is understandable. We all start our journey from redemption to glorification at different places, and move at different speeds. It is absolutely true that some Christians are more mature than others. The problem is we either seek maturity where it is not found, or claim maturity we don’t have. Once Christianity became mainstream and acceptable under Constantine, it attracted false converts and weak believers. The more zealous believers determined to separate themselves from the less zealous. They created monasteries, something the Bible is silent about.

Before long the monasteries became places of influence and power and attracted false converts and weak believers. The more zealous determined that education would set them apart. They created the first universities. These also are mentioned nowhere in God’s Word. You can guess what happened next. Through the ages believers have come up with all sorts of distinguishing marks of the hard core and the zealous. Everything from Methodism and its promise of a second blessing to Keswick’s passive quietism to camp meeting revivalism to holy laughter to “Christian fight club,” are programs, events, experiences that the Bible says nothing about, yet are offered up as ways to juice up a person’s spiritual walk.

There aren’t “carnal Christians” and “spiritual Christians.” There aren’t “delivered Christians” and “chained Christians.” There’s just Christians, declared by God to be just in Christ, by His death for our sins and His righteousness imputed to us. There’s just Christians who continue to battle our old man, our flesh, besetting sins, who face assaults from the devil and his minions. There’s just Christians, who are called to fight the good fight. There’s just Christians who are all indwelt by the Holy Spirit, all gifted by the Holy Spirit, all bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit. There’s just Christians directed by the Word, led by the Spirit, members of the one body, availing themselves of the ordinary means of grace.

It is this same search for a “second blessing” that drives much of our theological disputes. Some of us seem to think that being correct on secondary and tertiary matters is what separates us from lesser believers. While it is always a good thing to be biblically sound, it is also always a bad thing and biblically unsound to think that our soundness raises us above other believers. Our calling, what spiritual maturity looks like is never, “I thank you Lord that I am not like other men.” Rather it is to cry out, beating our breast, “Lord be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Beware, however, making this mistake, praying, “I thank you Lord I am not like other men. I don’t pray, ‘I thank you Lord I am not like other men’ but ‘Lord be merciful to me, a sinner.’”

There is only one kind of Christian, the sinful kind, declared righteous because of Jesus, growing in grace, awaiting glorification at death.

Posted in Ask RC, assurance, Biblical Doctrines, Big Eva, church, ethics, grace, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments