Embodied Faith

Posted on January 11, 2024 by RC

A culture that denies that truth exists and can be known is already dead whether its obituary has been written or not. Cultures are built on truths, even if those truths are false. It is bad enough to be wrong, but so much worse to deny that right and wrong exist. Once upon a time we held these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Now everyone gets to decide for themselves what a man is, and the state gets to decide what rights some men have and others do not.

Truth is the foundation of all other things. The word itself is a synonym for the Word, the Lord of all things. The message of the gospel, that which we are commanded to go into all the world and preach, is true. Truth, however, comes to us never as less than abstract propositions but at best, more than mere abstract propositions.

In the church, especially, we can be prone to reducing truth to propositions. While the less theologically astute churches present elaborate displays when gathered for worship, the more theologically astute churches often gather simply to have the smart pastor download the information he gathered into the minds of the congregation. This kind of “download” isn’t in itself a bad thing. Jesus spoke to all who would listen.

This same Jesus, however, didn’t leave us an abstract gospel, a neatly stacked pile of propositions. Neither did He leave us mysterious and elaborate rituals and incantations. Instead He gave us water, bread and wine. He gave us water as the mark of the covenant, a tangible, watchable event that goes beyond mere words. He gave us in turn the sacrament of His Supper, a tangible, watchable, smellable, taste-able event that reminds us of His sacrifice for us, that draws us closer to Him, that draws us closer to one another.

The One who came to save the world, who Himself took on flesh and dwelt among us, the very embodiment of the Word directs our gaze beyond words to things, fellow creatures that He has set apart, making them holy. He is Lord not just of heavenly ideas but of earthly, and earthy realities.

We are indeed to take every thought captive. But He is about the business of bringing all things into subjection, every idea and every power that exalts itself above Him. He speaks truth, and He breaks knees. He reigns in our hearts, and reigns over the sun and the stars, the wind and the rain. He is the sower who plants the seed, the vineyard owner who crushes grapes into wine. He came to bring life, and life abundant, not mere deracinated truths to make sure we’re right. Not less than this, but more.

Our Lord has invaded space and time, recapturing what was His from the beginning. And He is bringing it all under subjection. May He start with us, in remaking us into His image.

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What If God…? Romans 9 Study Continues

Posted on January 10, 2024 by RC

Posted in apologetics, Bible Study, Biblical Doctrines, church, Doctrines of Grace, ethics, grace, RC Sproul JR, sovereignty, theology | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Lisa’s Blog; Epstein’s List; Cutting Covenant; Our Last War

Posted on January 10, 2024 by RC

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

Posted in Ask RC, assurance, Biblical Doctrines, Jesus Changes Everything, Lisa Sproul, Month of Sundays, Nostalgia, politics, Purpose Driven Wife, RC Sproul JR, Sacred Marriage, That 70s Kid | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Lisa’s Blog; Epstein’s List; Cutting Covenant; Our Last War

Sinner- n. One who sins.

Posted on January 9, 2024 by RC

I have noticed in recent years a great upsurge in objections to the objective truth of what we are. Any time I speak of the believer as a sinner, let alone a miserable sinner, I can always count on someone to come along behind and chasten me for forgetting how God sees us. They will, happily, often do so by reminding me of the great truths of the gospel. But one thing the gospel doesn’t do is make our sin disappear on this side of the veil. It doesn’t make us incapable of committing this sin or that (with the exception of blaspheming the Holy Spirit). If we define “sinner” simply as “one who sins” then it doesn’t cause us to cease being sinners. And it certainly doesn’t mean that we are removed from our calling to recognize and give thanks for His mercy.

When we get ahead of ourselves, when we start to think not that we are deemed fine fellows by our Maker due to the life and death of His Son for us, but think instead that we are fine fellows in ourselves, we lose sight of the marvel of mercy. We forget not only to give thanks for the redemption of our souls, but for the preservation of our bodies. We forget not only to give thanks for the goodness in our lives in all the things that give us pleasure, but for the goodness in our lives in all the things that give us pain. In short, when we miss the sin, we miss the mercy. When we forget what we are due, we forget all that we have been given.

We forget we are sinners, we forget to give thanks for His mercy, precisely because we are still sinners. We preach this truth not to weigh us down, but that we would look up. Jesus told us that the man who beat his breast, crying, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner” went to his home justified (Luke 18:13). He went home then joyful, thankful. He did not, however, from that moment forward never again beat his breast. He did not, from that moment forward, never again cry out to God, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.” But each time he returned to pray, he prayed the same prayer, and went home with the same joy. If we would remember the joy of our salvation, we must needs remember the sorrow of our damnation.

Our lives are faithful liturgies by which we remember the joy of our thanksgiving. We remember to remember our condition before we are redeemed. We remember to remember our condition after we are redeemed. We remember to enter into the graces He continues to show us, remembering that His mercies are new each day (Lamentations 3:22). We remember to hope in the promises of future grace, remembering that one day we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (I John 1:3). And all along the way we give thanks, that He did not destroy us, but died for us when we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8), that He will never leave us not forsake us as we walk to the Celestial City (Deuteronomy 31:6), that He who began a good work in us will carry it through to the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6).

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Bible Study Tonight- More from Romans 9

Posted on January 8, 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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What is “Deliverance Ministry?”

Posted on January 8, 2024 by RC

It seems, from time to time, that the evangelical church becomes aware of some strange “new” practice on the fringes of some charismatic churches. Some evangelicals experience a kind of jealous desire to join in, most react with cynicism and disdain. Whether it is angel feathers falling, fillings turning to gold, or holy laughter we feel a tension of wanting to not miss the moving of the Spirit and to not be misled by false spirits.

By the time reports of this kind of activity make their way beyond fringe charismatics there is usually already a history there. The practices may trace back to Azusa Street, Keswick quietists, nineteenth century mystics or some such. That there is a history satisfies some that it must be just fine. The trouble is, they miss that these things do not go back to the Bible, or even to the ancient church. Which, while I acknowledge is not compelling proof that the practices are false, it is evidence nonetheless.

“Deliverance ministry” fits this same pattern. While exorcism has a long history in the church, this was affirmed to be only for unbelievers. All Christians, for the first 1500 years of the church and beyond recognized that a person cannot be demon possessed and Spirit indwelt at the same time. Deliverance ministry still affirms that truth, but fashions another doctrine, that Christians can be oppressed or assaulted by demons. Once again, yea and amen. The reality of spiritual warfare is clear in the Bible as the nose on the face of someone with a very big nose. That most evangelicals pay it little heed is more a function of our worldliness and modernism than any spiritual maturity.

The trouble comes in the application. The Bible teaches we war against principalities and powers. It doesn’t teach us the demon Subglub rules over Cleveland, or how to recognize a “Jezebel spirit,” or how to uproot generational curses. In fact, these common tenets of “Deliverance Ministry,” if you look closely, are just as worldly and modernist as those theories that deny them. What they have in common with each other is they all, like much of modern psychology, fall under the heading of Flip Wilson Theology. For you youngsters, Flip Wilson was a comedian last century who made a fortune with this tag-line, “The devil made me do it.” Psychology, Flip Wilson and “Deliverance Ministry” all seek to distance our guilt from ourselves and put it on others.

“Deliverance ministry” does precious little to deliver us either from our sins or from our guilt. Repentance and resting in Christ does that. What it seems to remove is our mere feelings of guilt. Because the cause of our sins are laid at the feet of the demon oppressing us, or some childhood trauma, or some generational curse we’re suffering under, who could blame us? Sure, I may be a quick tempered, angry jerk, but my grandfather was the same. It’s his fault. Sure, I may be unfaithful to my spouse, but it’s because I was hurt by my mother when I was a child. It’s the spiritual version of Freud blaming our sins on our potty training.

We, again, surely need to be delivered from our own sinful patterns. This happens as we run to Christ in repentance. Surely we need to be delivered from the fiery darts of the devil. This happens when we put on the full armor of God. We won’t, however, ever be delivered from our sins unless we are delivered by Jesus, and delivered to a place of repentance and faith. There are no special tricks. No secret insights. There’s only the problem in the mirror, and the solution on our knees.

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What are We Supposed to Do?

Posted on January 5, 2024 by RC

Though teleology may be the most neglected of all branches of philosophy, it cannot long be ignored in our daily lives. We need to know what we are for, what the goal is. And in a harried world, it is all the more understandable that we would seek out one, clear bottom line. We want news we can use. What we can use the most is an explanation of what our calling is. We are aimless, directionless when we don’t know where we are headed. This may explain why God’s Word is so rich in bottom lines, in quick, understandable summaries of our calling. The One who made us is well equipped to tell us what we are for.

We could start at the beginning. In the garden God gave our first parents what theologians call “the dominion mandate.” He called on them to fill the earth and subdue it, to rule over the birds of the air, the fish of the sea and every creeping thing that creeps upon the ground. Lest we should think this calling fell away when our parents fell, we should remember that it was reiterated to Noah and his family when they left the ark.

Moses, of course, gave us the great commandment, that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. That sounds like a bottom-line kind of command, especially when we consider that Jesus tells us that all the Law and the Prophets hang on these (Matt. 22:40). The prophet Micah gave us what might be called an “executive summary” of what the believer is called to do. The Micah mandate says we must do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God (6:8). One could in turn argue that Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, finally settled things when He commanded us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (6:33). Or, alternately, we could look to the Great Commission.

What, though, do we do now? We started out looking for direction. The Bible was quick to give it, but which of these telē, or purposes, is highest? Which of all these bottom lines is the bedrock bottom line? Or, are we left free to pick and choose? Perhaps God calls some of us to be dominion mandate guys and others Great Commission guys. Maybe some of us were once Micah-mandate guys, but we have transitioned into seek-first-the-kingdom guys.

My spiritual forbears, the Westminster Divines, came up with a rather odd solution to this surfeit of purposes—they added one more. Man’s chief end, they tell us, is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. As counterintuitive as this solution might seem, to add one more to an already long list, it actually highlights the solution. We don’t have competing sets of direction, contrary maps. We have instead a variety of ways to say the same thing.

Jesus is the last Adam. That glorious reality certainly encompasses the equally glorious reality that just as in Adam all fell, so all those in Christ are made alive. But there is more to this connection. The first Adam, in falling, did not merely fall but failed. That is, because he ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he not only failed to obey God, but he failed to exercise dominion. Noah likewise failed, as did Moses after him. Even Micah failed.

Jesus, however, never fails. Though His test was alone in a wilderness, He faced and defeated the temptations of the devil. At Calvary, His heel was bruised, but with His first step out of the tomb He crushed the head of the serpent. At His ascension, as He proclaimed, all authority in heaven and on earth had been given unto Him. Now He is about the business of bringing all things under submission so that at the last day He will hand the kingdom back to His Father. For He must reign until all His enemies are under His feet.

It is out of this gospel confidence that we are called as a helper suitable to Jesus, the last Adam. The church is His bride, the new Eve. Our labors are to help Him fill the earth and subdue it, to lead His own in loving the Lord our God with all our being and in loving our neighbor as ourselves; in doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God; in seeking first His kingdom; and in fulfilling the Great Commission. All this we labor toward as we make His name known, His reign visible across the globe, until the earth will be filled with His knowledge as the waters cover the sea (Hab. 2:14). We go forth with peace and certainty as we go therefore and make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that He has commanded us. For lo, He is with us always, even unto the end of the age. This is the end of our beginning, and the beginning of our end.

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You Can’t Call Me AI

Posted on January 4, 2024 by RC

A “Man on the Street” interview asked people this question- what’s the most impressive invention of the last 150 years?” One gentleman suggested that it had to be the automobile. What else, he reasoned, had had such an impact, reshaping the very contours of the world? The second took a more modern approach, suggesting that the personal computer has had the greatest impact, putting immeasurable knowledge at our fingertips. The third man, however, was more down to earth. “What most impresses me,” he said, “is the thermos.” “The thermos?” the interviewer asked, “But why?” “Well, the gentleman explained, “some mornings my wife fills my thermos with cold iced tea, and when I drink it at lunch, it’s still cold. Other mornings she puts in hot coffee, and come lunchtime, it’s still hot. That impresses me because I’ve never been able to figure out, how does it know?”

Despite the wonders it is able to accomplish, the above funny highlights to real limits of AI. If it is artificial, it isn’t intelligence. If it is intelligence, it isn’t really artificial. Technology doesn’t truly know anything. Mercury may rise on a hot summer day or drop when the sun goes down but it neither knows what day it is, nor whether it is day or night. You can ask AI a question, but even if it gives you the right answer a million out of a million times, you can’t make it think. AI no more thinks than Rodin’s “The Thinker” thinks. Thinking requires consciousness, which is why Descartes made the philosophical Hall of Fame. “I think, therefore I am” isn’t the philosophers’ equivalent of “Live to Ride; Ride to Live” of Harley enthusiasts. Rather it is a profound affirmation that one cannot doubt one’s existence without first existing. In like manner, one cannot ponder the nature of one’s existence if one is created by mere man.

Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, Star Trek’s Mr. Data, Pinocchio may have seemed to puzzle over their own natures, but that’s because they are merely two dimensional literary creations. They didn’t ponder; their creators pondered for them. In short, they aren’t real. Neither is artificial intelligence real, if by real we mean something more than what men put in. In the same way that an animal is a higher order of being than a rock, so that which is conscious is a higher order of being than that which is unconscious. Humans will no more ever have AI overlords than God could ever have human overlords.

Such is not to say that AI might not come with some problems. (Though anyone with any economic sense should know that long term they won’t cost a single soul a single job.) Our concern, however, ought to be over actual conscious beings, those who are able to sin. Such might connect with AI, either those writing the programs, or those “speaking” through them. To put it another way, remember that we war with neither flesh and blood nor programs and algorithms but with principalities and powers.

Posted in apologetics, creation, cyberspace, Devil's Arsenal, Economics in This Lesson, ethics, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, philosophy, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Resolved; Abram’s Faith; Counting Stars; Sinfully Rich?

Posted on January 3, 2024 by RC

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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What are some good goals for the new year?

Posted on January 1, 2024 by RC

I’ve never read a book on leadership. I’ve not hired a life coach. I haven’t ever attended a personal development event. And I’m not much one for to-do lists. That said, I can see the wisdom in this aphorism- if you fail to plan you are planning to fail. Or this heavenly insight- “My people perish for lack of vision” (Hosea 4:6).

To make use of a few buzzwords from this world I’m not a part of, I find balance by thinking outside the box and taking a bird’s eye view rather than lose the forest for the trees by taking a granular view. To put it more clearly, I think broad goals can be good things to set while also affirming that the best way to make God laugh is to tell Him your plans.

This goal of mine I’d commend to everyone of you. My goal for 2024 is that I would, each day, become more and more like Jesus. I doubt any believer could argue with that. The worst that could be said is that it seems a mite vague and difficult to measure. The truth is we have a clear measuring stick- the Word of God. If anything defines Jesus it is His zeal for obeying His Father. Love of God and love of neighbor is unpacked for us in the law. I want to become more obedient to God’s law.

One step below this, in the Russian nesting dolls that are our means and ends, are God’s ordinary means of grace. I will better know His law as I read His Word. This year, God willing, will be the sixth year in a row that Lisa and I will read through the Bible. Prayer is yet another means of grace I aspire to avail myself of. Such pleases my Father, and mirrors my elder Brother. I will gather together with the saints for corporate worship, for encouragement and to encourage others.

Pursuing these individual goals in light of pursuing the one higher goal will not increase my influence. It will not make a difference in my bottom line. But it will be good for business because, to adapt a bit of wisdom from Jacob Marley, becoming more like Jesus is my business. As it is yours. This is the business of all our days. There is nothing more important, nothing more valuable. This is not a means but the end, our very reason for being.

It is likely to be a humdinger of a year, chock full of Black Swans, October Surprises, wars and rumors of wars, nano-particles and giant asteroids. There will almost certainly be riots in our streets and increasing public persecution of believers. All of which are tools in the Potter’s hands, as He remakes us into vessels made for His glory. Praying, with confidence, for a fruitful new year. For this is not only the year that the Lord has made, but is the year that the Lord is remaking us. Let us will rejoice and be glad in it.

Posted in 10 Commandments, Ask RC, Biblical Doctrines, communion, eschatology, ethics, grace, kingdom, prayer, preaching, RC Sproul JR, repentance, wisdom | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments