Evil Employees and Saintly Corporations

Posted on June 25, 2024 by RC

It is a common but dangerous business, our propensity to make ourselves the heroes of our own stories, and to see all who stand in our way as wearing the black hats. As a person with an interest in all things economic I see it in the realm of our buying and trading all the time. We all want to sell high and buy low. And we are all sellers and buyers. We all sell our labor in the marketplace. And we buy what we buy. The ones in the black hats, we think, are the ones keeping us from selling high, and from buying low.

First, when we sell our labor we all want to sell high. We might insist that the government make it illegal for anyone to hire anyone for less than what we think we ought to earn. We might simply grumble that we are being taken advantage of. We might cheat our employer on the ground that we are not being paid as we think we ought to be. In any of these cases the employer is wicked and must be punished.

Second, when buy goods and services we all want to buy low. We might insist that the government make it illegal for anyone to charge more than what we think we ought to be charged for the good or service. We might insist that the state give us money so that we can more easily buy what we want. We might simply grumble that we are being taken advantage of. We might steal from the business we are buying from on the ground that we believe they are charging more than they ought. In any of these cases the business is wicked and must be punished.

Trouble is, of course, that because we are all sellers and buyers we are all also buyers and sellers. Why should our employers not insist that the government make it illegal for anyone to work for more than they want to pay? Why should they not insist that the government give them money so they can more easily afford to pay us? Why should they not simply grumble that they are being taken advantage of? Why should they not steal from us, on the ground that we are charging them more for our labor than we ought? We may be, in selling our labor, a corporation of one, but we are a corporation.

Or, why should the business we buy from not insist that the government make it illegal for anyone to pay less than they are willing to sell for? Why should the businesses not insist that the government give them money so they can charge less? Why should they not grumble that they are being taken advantage of? Why should they not steal from us, on the ground that we are paying less for their goods and services than they believe we ought?

There is an economic lesson here, but as is so often the case with economic lessons, there is also a life lesson- we are adept at justifying ourselves and castigating others. Our moral compasses are out of whack because we think we’re the center of the galaxy, because we believe in our own innate goodness and the innate badness of all who oppose us, even if what it means to oppose us is charging more, or paying less, than we would like. The truth is that prices, for both labor and goods and services ought always to be determined solely by the free interaction of those making the deals, by agreement of both parties.

When I pull up to the gas pump that reads $4.00 a gallon I am reaching an agreement. When the Kansas City Chiefs write Patrick Mahomes a check for $40 million, they are reaching an agreement. When I pick up my spatula at the local Burgers Cooked By People Making $5 An Hour joint, I have reached an agreement. When those deals don’t get made, we’ve just agreed to disagree. No one needs to be vilified. No need to call the feds.

What we all need to do is own our own sins. We’re the hero of the story when we keep our agreement. And those who use the force of theft or the state to get their way, those are the ones in the black hats.

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

What’s the ideal size for a local church?

Posted on June 24, 2024 by RC

The Bible doesn’t say. So neither will I. I will concede that different sizes have differing advantages and disadvantages. We live in the era of the mega-church. Churches that measure their membership in the thousands are positioned to support many missionaries, to serve their unbelieving neighbors, to create helps to the broader church.

Where they tend to be weaker is in strong relationships between leadership and laity and among the laity. Accountability is lost in the sea of faces, which sadly is part of what draws so many of those faces. Finally, such churches tend to let slip, remain silent, or seek safe spaces on the issues of the day, so as not to offend.

Churches that measure their membership in the tens, not surprisingly, tend to have the opposite strengths and weaknesses. They tend to be cash poor, unable to pay their pastor, often without a building to meet in, and often invisible to the broader world. They tend to be stronger in pastoral care and the blessings of community. Accountability can, however, slide over into a church body full of busy-bodies.

It may be that what works best is shaped largely by the state of the church as a whole, and the state of the broader culture. When the Christian faith is strong and the broader culture is less hostile, big churches may be more effective. When, however, the church is both given to worldliness and being overrun by the world smaller might be better. The church in our day is less effective and more worldly which in turn makes the world more worldly. Compromise with the world doesn’t bring peace but greater aggression from the world.

Smaller churches do not have to face mass departures and budget deficits when they confront the sexual insanity of the world, or sexual shenanigans inside the church. Smaller churches have smaller targets on their backs when the state encroaches on our call to gather for worship.

As the world becomes more hostile to the Christian faith, as it descends deeper into its madness large churches will either stand firm and become small churches or flee from the battle and remain large and largely insignificant. Thus far, it seems, we’re seeing far more of the latter than we are of the former.

I suspect smaller churches will become increasingly common in the coming years, and that such is a good thing. That doesn’t mean large churches are sinful and small ones pious. I haven’t forgotten where I began- the Bible doesn’t say how big churches should be. I do believe, however, we would be wise not to assume that which is normal right now is how things always ought to be.

Remember this- ear tickling preachers have large flocks precisely because both sheep and goats like having their ears tickled. Even the pew-sitters long to be on the winning team. The winning team, however, just may be the twenty faithful folks who just got kicked out of the local YMCA for not being inclusive enough. Give some thought to how you think about your church.


This is the first of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more.

Posted in Ask RC, Big Eva, church, kingdom, RC Sproul JR, wisdom | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Got to Get Back to the Garden

Posted on June 21, 2024 by RC

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I’ll admit I got taken in the first time. As a grade school child my conception of cool included too tight silk shirts and blue jeans with more flair than Liberace. I even had my own polyester jumpsuit. I looked like a cross between Howdy Doody and Elvis, in his latter years. The fashion craze of recreating the nightmare of the seventies hasn’t filled my heart with a warm dose of nostalgia. Instead it makes me embarrassed for what I used to wear. I’ve learned my lesson well. I won’t get fooled again.

It reminds me of the power of nostalgia. Postmodernism, because it is parasitic and destructive, cannot build a culture. It can only reconstitute old ones. Because it is cynical and knowing, it goes out of its way to reconstitute that which is garish, immature, and kitschy. We dress like goofballs to demonstrate our knowing superiority over the narrative that is clothing. Because it denies that anything lasts, it demands that everything be new. The danger is the speed at which our cultural spin-masters are spinning the old cultures. Soon we’ll practice a faux nostalgia for last week.

Real nostalgia, true longing for days gone by is fed by a different kind of folly. It seems that hindsight can only be had through rose-colored glasses. And they never go out of style. We want things not as they used to be, but as we remember that they used to be. Which is why the author of Hebrews went to such trouble, argued with such passion, warned with such fervor in his epistle. Nostalgia can do worse things than make you dress funny.

Living in a comparatively free country, one where pluralism rules the day, it is difficult to understand what it would have taken for a first-century Jew to embrace the claims of Jesus Christ. More than likely, such would destroy a whole host of family relationships. Friendships would be sundered as well. Those, like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, indeed, like the apostle Paul, who once were honored and respected men of the community, would now become social pariahs, unable to get a place at the table. And a swift and painful death by martyrdom, with each passing day, became more and more likely.

Like their forefathers before them, we can have sympathy when some begin to talk about how they once had leeks and garlic back in Egypt, that though they were slaves, their pots were filled. Present suffering deepens the rosy hue as we look back at past suffering. And so many believing Hebrews struggled mightily with fits of nostalgia. Many were sorely tempted to throw off the dead-weight of this Jesus, that happy days might be here again. Cast off that cross, they reasoned, and they could stand upright in the halls of men again. Many, in short, were tempted to neglect so great a salvation.

Ironically, one could argue that their problem wasn’t that they were looking backward. The old saying, “you can’t go back again,” wouldn’t help. One might say their failure was that they weren’t looking far enough back. A love of the past may be a good thing, as long as what we love is a good thing. They were called not to look back to their recent Judaism. Neither were they to look longingly at the apex of their nation, to the days of David and Solomon. They should not look back to Egypt, nor even to the days of the great patriarchs. Rather, they should have longed to get back to the garden.

The right thing too long for is a world without sin. Our hearts should ache to be once again at peace with God, to walk with Him in the cool of the evening, to see the lion lay down with the lamb. This is godly nostalgia, as long as it moves us to godly obedience. While we ought to long for such things, we ought not to do so forlornly, knowing that you can’t go back again. Rather we do so joyfully, knowing that we, with every forward step, move back to the garden. The path to the garden is through the consummation of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. To go home again, we must seek first the kingdom of God.

These things, however, are written for us as well. While our status as outcasts and victims in our own culture cannot compare with the Hebrews in the first century, we have entered that territory. Like Augustine before us, we are called to witness the destruction of the culture around us. And, like the Hebrews, we are tempted toward nostalgia. We long for those halcyon days of the 1950’s, when the Hayes Office kept our movies clean, and the daily news wasn’t filled with liberal prelates gayly shouting the “love” that once didn’t dare speak it’s name. And like the Hebrews, we are looking in the wrong place.

As Christians, our longing is not that we might have a cleaner pop culture. The church does not place its hope in military/industrial/cultural American hegemony across the globe. Rather, we long for the day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The church longs for the day when we will be dressed not in the gaudiness and flash of a decadent culture, but will be dressed in the radiant robe provided by our Husband and Lord.

Posted in beauty, Biblical Doctrines, Biblical theology, church, creation, eschatology, grace, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, Nostalgia, RC Sproul JR, wonder, worship | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ten Things I Miss About Childhood Summers

Posted on June 20, 2024 by RC

I am not a fan of summer. Not at all. I don’t like hot. I don’t like bugs. I don’t like night being overrun by daylight. Every year I count down the days until summer ends. The best thing I can say about today, the first day of summer, 2024 is that tomorrow we’ll be as far away as possible from the first day of summer, 2025.

It hasn’t always been this way. Part of my distaste, I’m sure, flows out of the too many years I lived in Florida and summer nearly year round. Another part is the adult chores that come with summer. When, however, I was young, those burdens weren’t a part of summer. The more I think about it, the more I miss those summers. Here are ten reasons why.

1. Baseball. When I was a kid I played in two different leagues, spent hours playing with friends, and either watched or listened to my Pittsburgh Pirates who had a great run during my childhood, winning two World Series and winning their division several more times. I have too much respect for the game to try to communicate its glories in prose.

2. Camping out. We had roughly twenty acres of woods behind my house. One or two nights a week my friends and I would hike a few hundred yards to our camping spot, light up a fire, make smores and watch the stars. It was like Stand By Me, but without the bullies and the dead body.

3. Fishing. I’ve never been a deep aficionado of fishing. But that doesn’t mean I never found joy in it. Mr. Campbell owned the neighboring property and had a lake. My friends and I would lug our tackle boxes and Zebco 202s to the banks of that lake and spend an hour or so seeking bass. If we succeeded we feasted. If not, we moved our hooks closer to shore and found our fun catching and releasing blue gill. Do kids still do this? Do they know how to put a bobber on a line, to bite a sinker closed? Have they removed fish scales with a fishing knife, or washed the pungent smell of fish offal from their hands?

4. No school. Goes without saying.

5. Watermelon, and spitting seeds.

6. Rainless thunderstorms. Oh mercy these were something else, a safe yet dazzling fireworks display from the living God. And, on a smaller scale, the whimsical dance of fire flies. And in between, fireworks on the 4th of July, or after a ballgame at 3 Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

7. The Fireman’s Fairs. Each summer several of the local volunteer fire companies raised money with fairs. Part small-scale county fair, part Monte Carlo Night, part country style rave, these kaleidoscopes of music, games, rides and cotton candy were mesmerizing.

8. Thursday nights at the Ligonier Valley Study Center. These community gatherings began with grilled hot dogs, covered dishes, Texas sheet cake, moved on to softball or volleyball and often ended with s’mores around the fire. This experience of koinonia shaped my soul.

9. Pool days. A few days each week I was sent off with my peers, and the bigger kids, equipped with two dollars. Such got me into the public pool at Idelwild Park and a lunch of a hot dog and a root beer.

10. Cool evenings in late August- the sure sign that even better days were coming.

Do you miss anything from your childhood summers? Camp? Strawberry shortcake? Let us know in the comments. Happy first day of Summer.

Posted in beauty, creation, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, Nostalgia, RC Sproul JR, seasons, wonder | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Sorry Friends, No JCE Podcast This Week

Posted on June 19, 2024 by RC

But here, for your viewing/listening pleasure, is our final study on the book of Romans. We hope you’ll find it edifying.

Posted in announcements, Bible Study, church, friendship, grace, Jesus Changes Everything, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Love One Another, Because He is In Us and Them

Posted on June 18, 2024 by RC

Do we not glide happily past this command? It should, though it doesn’t, go without saying. There’s no question that the Bible teaches this. There’s no question that the Bible emphasizes this. There’s no question that we’re not very good at it. Why, when the command is obvious, are we so bad at obeying it? Because we’re no good.

Even a cursory reading of the gospels will reveal the connection between God’s love for and grace toward us and our call to love and be gracious toward one another. When we’ve been forgiven much we’re to find it easier to forgive much. When we’ve received grace we’re to find it easier to give grace. We fail here, however, because we judge unjustly. We minimize our sins while maximizing others’ sins. We minimize the importance of others, while maximizing our own importance. Whether it is a marriage, a family, a friendship, or a church body, believing ourselves morally above others is a sure recipe for disaster.

When I find myself hated by others, including those who name the name of Christ, I try to find comfort in the knowledge that my heavenly Father loves me. He knows how truly awful I am. Those who despise and accuse me are blind to my real flaws. My Father knows them all, and still loves me. When I find myself hating others, including those who name the name of Christ, it should be enough for me to remember that I am not due the love I receive. It’s not a bad first step. But I will do so much better if I remember not just that Jesus loves me, despite my sin, but that Jesus loves the one I’m despising, despite his sin.

When we fail to love our brothers and sisters we put ourselves in direct opposition against the One who loves and redeemed us and who loves and redeemed our brothers and sisters. “Jesus loves me” doesn’t blow me away like it ought to. “Jesus loves them” barely registers with me. Because I am a fool.

Our love for each other makes manifest three things the world needs to know. First, that love is possible. How easy it is to grow jaded and cynical when living in a world untouched by God’s redeeming grace. Those fragments of the image of God that yet remain in the unbeliever long for love and acceptance. What a testimony when they see it among believers.

Second, it shows that change in us is possible. My growing capacity to love the brethren is evidence that I am part of the family, that the Spirit is at work in me. When the unbeliever is discouraged in his own sin, it is light to blind eyes to see believers growing in grace, evidenced by increasing love one for another.

Third, it shows that acknowledging our sin is not a doorway to despair but the entrance into liberty. When the love others have for me is grounded not in me being good but in Christ being in me, when I have no need to pretend to be better than I am then I can know that the love I receive is for me, and not the image I project.

More important than all this, however, when we love one another we delight our heavenly Father.

Posted in "race", 10 Commandments, Biblical Doctrines, church, grace, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR, wisdom | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Love One Another, Because He is In Us and Them

Live Study Tonight, Finishing Romans

Posted on June 17, 2024 by RC

Tonight we conclude 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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Are believers justified by their election?

Posted on June 17, 2024 by RC

Of course not. The way some of my fellow Reformed folk talk at times it might seem some think so. The way some non-Reformed folk talk at times, it might seem that they think we think this. But we don’t. And it all comes down to simple logic.

Our first premise is- All the elect have been or will be justified.
Our second premise is- None of the non-elect have been or will be justified.
Our conclusion is- Election justifies us.

Each of our premises are correct, at least according to Reformed doctrine. The conclusion, however not only does not follow from the premises, but is in fact false. Election describes and delineates for us who are the saved and who are not. It says nothing whatsoever about how they are saved. The following syllogism follows the exact same form and yields a clearly false conclusion:

Our first premise- All the first class passengers were given parachutes when the engines failed.
Our second premise- None of the non-first class passengers were given parachutes when the engines failed.
Our conclusion is- Sitting in first class puts us safely on the ground.

It is the parachute, not the seat assignment that brings people safely to the ground. In like manner, if I were to die and God were to ask me why He should let me into heaven, and if I were to respond, “I’m elect. My name is in the Lamb’s book of life” that would demonstrate that I’m not elect, and my name is not in the Lamb’s book. Those whose names are in the Lamb’s book do not rest in the book of the Lamb but the blood of the Lamb.

There is only one way into heaven- the work of Christ for us, which becomes ours through resting in it alone, which is itself a gift from God, which gift is given only to the elect, for no other reason than God’s good pleasure. Both election and even faith are not the ground of our justification, not the means of our justification. Election determined who would receive it. Faith is how it becomes theirs. But it is Jesus’ perfect life of obedience imputed to us, and His sacrificial atoning death that covers our sins that earns the blessings of God for us.

These are not esoteric and meaningless distinctions. For one thing, we don’t know who the elect are. I’ve been asked countless times, “How can you know you are elect?” Knowing we are elect is not how we know we have the work of Christ. Rather, having the work of Christ is how we know we are elect. The tax collector went home justified because he cried out for God’s mercy. The same is true of all of us. We must stop trying to peek into the Lamb’s book, and instead run to the foot of His cross.

Election is true, biblical, God honoring, comforting. But it does not move us from dark to light. Jesus does that.

Posted in Ask RC, assurance, Biblical Doctrines, Doctrines of Grace, grace, justification, logic, RC Sproul JR, theology | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Are believers justified by their election?

Joy in the Mourning at the Table of the Lord

Posted on June 14, 2024 by RC

Reformed people can be odd ducks. Too often, we are a contentious bunch, given to arguing esoterica for the sheer fun of it. We give answers to questions that few are asking and ask questions where others are certain. When I planted a Reformed church nearly 30 years ago in rural western Virginia, we were the only such church for hundreds of miles that celebrated the Lord’s Table each and every Lord’s Day.

This not only raised eyebrows but raised the kinds of questions that only Reformed people can ask. “Where in the Bible,” I was asked regularly, “are we told that weekly celebration of the table is a requirement?” I suspect my answer also raised eyebrows—“I’m not sure the Bible anywhere requires us to do this weekly. I’ve never bothered to consider whether such is a requirement. We don’t celebrate the table every week because we believe we have to. We do it every week because we believe we get to.”

How did we get this idea that the best way to answer the question of the frequency of celebrating the table is to discern if such is required? Wouldn’t it be best to first seek to understand what the Lord’s Table is? Might that not answer the question? It may well be that one reason we are sometimes squeamish about weekly communion is grounded in our missing all that it is.

Our discomfort begins in acknowledging that this is a deeply emotional event. We Reformed people are, perhaps rightly, suspicious of emotional experiences. We want to be grounded in the truth rather than our emotions. We should, however, want our emotions to match the truth.

Second, the emotions we bring to the table are unpleasant ones. We are reminded at the table that we are the ones who broke the body of our Lord. We are the ones who shed His blood. It is because of our sin that the cup of God’s wrath could not be passed by Him. The Lord’s Table is the perfect place to look deeply into the darkness of our hearts, to acknowledge the depth and scope of our sin.

Who wants to do that every week? I wouldn’t, if that’s where our remembrance ended. But it’s not. The celebration of the Lord’s Table is so much more than simply looking deeply into our sin. We lament, we mourn, we confess, we repent. But we also remember that we are not just forgiven, but accepted; not just covered, but adopted. We come to the table confessing our sins. But there we are welcomed by our heavenly Father, welcomed as His own children. We are the olive plants around His table in which He delights (Ps. 128).

The mourning over our sin as we partake is real. It should be genuine. But it is there to serve as the backdrop for the joy of our forgiveness. Our sorrow is the black velvet upon which is placed the diamond of our rescue; our despair is the black velvet upon which is placed, in the bread and the wine, the Pearl of Great Price. The glory of the gospel is that no matter how close the darkness of our sin is, His grace shines brighter still.

When we come to the table, we come confessing that we do not indeed seek first the kingdom of God. We build our own kingdoms. We go to war with our brothers for the sake of our kingdoms— as they go to war with us for the sake of their kingdoms. We sin not only against the living God but against each other. But we come to the table together, as family. We have, in coming, shared that confession. Our elder Brother, however, confesses not His sin but His righteousness for us. He gives us His righteousness, and we are brought into the family.

When we miss out on the mourning, we miss out on the joy. When we see our sins as small, we see His rescue as small. At the table, we are to draw near to our sin, because in doing so, we draw near to Him. He is there where our sin is, covering it. He is there, giving us His garments of sparkling white, the robes of His righteousness.

Of course, it is true that we are always the children of God. We are always forgiven, always adopted. At the table, however, we go to remember, to taste, to feast upon these truths. There we find, not just in the midst of our mourning but precisely because of our mourning, the joy that we have sought in all the wrong places.

Of course, it is true that we are always the bride of Christ. We are always with Him, always beloved of Him. At the table, however, we go to remember, to taste, to feast upon these truths. There, because we remember that we broke His body and spilled His blood, we move forward with hope to the marriage feast of the Lamb. There we dance with Him.
We do not observe or keep the sacrament. Instead, we draw near to our King, brother, husband. Instead, we celebrate. Instead, we embrace joy in the mourning. And we remember that we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

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Stewarding Our Failures, Robust Dividends

Posted on June 13, 2024 by RC

When one invests his money wisely he ends up with more money. When one invests ones failures wisely he ends up with fewer failures. We don’t tend, however, to look at our failures as assets. We see them as burdens, losses. Jesus, for every one of our failures, has paid the debt earned by them. We cannot erase them from our ledger by our successes, as every success of ours is tainted with more failure. They can, however, by the grace of God not only be removed from our debit column, but added to our asset column.

All it takes is for us to not only believe our failures have been forgiven, but to believe the promise of the One who paid our debts, that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord, who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Not all successes. All things, which must include failures.

What then are some Failure Funds that have shown long term growth and robust returns?
Start here- the Repentance Fund. Here our failures first become successes because they lead us to repentance. And forgiveness. We use our failures well when we run to the Father rather than away. When our first parents first sinned they ran from the Father. When we are His we run to Him. Repentance brings us closer to the glory of Eden, not just because we are no longer unclean, but because we are both able and eager to draw near.

Then there is the Brethren Fund. This is one Jesus encouraged Peter to take, even as He predicted that Peter’s stock would plummet before the rooster crowed. He said both that Peter would betray Him three times, but said, “When you have returned to Me, strengthen the brethren” (Luke 22: 32). How often do we, in sympathy with the devil, determine that a man’s betrayal of the Lord is the end of his service? Jesus says it is a reason for his service. We want to distance ourselves from the disgraced; Jesus commands that we learn from them.

There is also the Eye Opening Fund. One of the most important ways of stewarding our failures is using them to remember what failures we are. Jesus, we remember, told us, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Mark 2:17). Too often we in the church fall prey to the temptation of thinking we’re doing pretty well. We need Jesus, of course, because no one is perfect. But, we don’t need Him much. Failure, for all its failure-ness, topples that lie post-haste.

We shouldn’t forget either the Compassion Fund. Our failures are stewarded well when they keep us from looking down our noses at others. Our failures bear grace-toward-others dividends that you can take to the bank. We keep our failures before us, not to beat ourselves up but to lift others up, to keep them from being beat down. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief” (I Timothy 1:15).

Invest wisely. Invest boldly. Steward your failures. Because Jesus changes everything.

Posted in Biblical Doctrines, grace, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR, repentance, scandal, wisdom | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments