Good News, Good News, Good News and Bad News

Posted on August 22, 2025 by RC

I’ve got great news — I just saved a bundle on my car insurance. This punchline might expose a problem in our Christian sub-culture: we don’t know what the good news is.

The confusion is understandable. God is good, gracious. We move from grace to grace, receiving gifts from Him all the time. God is sovereign, controlling all things. When He tells us all things work together for good for those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28), we learn that it’s all good news. His coming, that’s good news. His dying, that’s good news. His ascending, that’s good news. His sending the Spirit, that’s good news. The Spirit applying these things to His people, that’s good news. Even the trials we go through, they are good news as well. We are, after all, to count it all joy.

That everything is good news, however, does not mean that everything is the good news. The authors of their respective gospels were not merely publishing everything they came upon. While each had their own peculiar focus, each of them together, on the other hand, were seeking to make known the good news.

These four men, however, were not the first. Two other men before them labored diligently to make known the good news. One of those two was called by the Lord the greatest man born of a woman (Luke 7:28). The other was the Lord of Glory Himself. If we would understand the Gospels, we would be wise to understand that the good news they were reporting was the good news proclaimed not just about Jesus, but by Jesus. The good news is that the kingdom has come. This is the message of Jesus: the kingdom of God is here.

On the other hand, the bad news is that the kingdom has come. The life, death, resurrection, ascension and return of Christ is to us who have been called, the very aroma of life. To those who are still outside the kingdom, it is the stench of death. It is the same kingdom either way, but for the seed of the woman (Christians) it is blessing, and for the seed of the serpent it is cursing. That this one kingdom can mean one thing for one group and the opposite for another can help explain how we have come to conflate some terms over time.

The difference between seeing the coming of the kingdom as an event of joy or of dread is found in one simple distinction — do we trust in the finished work of Christ alone or not? The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent began in the same place, as enemies of the kingdom. We are all by nature children of wrath. But it is as we are gifted with repentance and believe that we move from darkness to light, that we are adopted into the very family of God. That’s good news. Better still, the king who has adopted us, He is now king indeed. That’s very good news.

Our gospel is a truncated shell if the good news is merely that we don’t have to go to hell. It gets only slightly better if it means our souls go to heaven. The fullness of the gospel is found in the fullness of the kingdom. Jesus, the first-born of the new creation, is remaking all things, all the created order that groans under the burden of sin. He is remaking all the political order, as all kings everywhere learn to kiss the Son, lest He be angry (Ps. 2). He is remaking His bride, removing every blot and blemish. And He is remaking every one of us, reshaping us pots into vessels of grace. Jesus changes everything.

We are a part of this good news precisely because He came and lived a life of perfect obedience in our place. We are a part of this precisely because He suffered the wrath of the Father that is due to us for our sins. We are a part of this because He has given us each a new heart that responds to His calling with repentance and faith. We bring nothing to the table but our need. Jesus has done it all. We are His workmanship, judged innocent by His death, judged righteous by His life.

There is still more good news. We are not merely made citizens of that kingdom we are called to seek. Not merely judged righteous by His righteousness that we were called to seek. We are by the same Spirit made kings and queens with Him, not just subjects but rulers. Seated even now with Him in the heavenly places our calling is to believe these promises. We’re to be of good cheer, for He has already overcome the world (John 16:33). We do not wait for His kingdom to come, for it is here. Instead, we strive to make it ever more visible, as we make all things subject to His glorious reign.

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Tariffs and Inflation: And Never the Twain Do Meet

Posted on August 21, 2025 by RC

Economic pundits have been celebrating of late that thus far we haven’t seen a deep spike in inflation due to the imposition of tariffs on foreign goods sold in the US. In other news, thus far the lint in my pocket has had little impact on the WNBA standings. I am not a fan of tariffs, which I addressed earlier here. I’m certainly not a fan of inflation. I’m even less a fan of anyone who thinks the two correlate.

The confusion is partly driven by politics, partly by misleading measurements. People confuse inflation with rising prices in part because politicians cause inflation and prefer to blame it on business. The price of gas goes up and suddenly Bernie Sanders is screeching about greed in the C suite at Exxon. But the good people at Exxon don’t decide the price of gas. The people at the pump do.

The misleading measurement is found in the calculus of inflation. Every month of so we are treated to the latest numbers on “inflation.” These numbers are actually a measure of the change in price for a certain group of goods, the CPI, or Consumer Price Index. Last month a gallon of gas cost x, a loaf of bread y and a box of paperclips z. This month those same products are 1% more expensive, giving an annual inflation rate of 12%.

The truth is inflation is an increase in the money supply, something only the government can do. Such does cause prices to rise, for a simple reason that has nothing to do with anyone’s greed. It’s because there’s more dollars chasing the same goods. If an economy produced ten loaves of bread, and had ten dollars in circulation, each loaf of bread would cost a dollar. Add ten more dollars and the economy isn’t any richer. Now a loaf of bread costs $2.

What has this to do with tariffs? Everything. Tariffs do nothing, in themselves, to increase the money supply. Which is why they don’t cause inflation. They certainly, like any other cost of doing business, can raise the cost of doing business. Which doesn’t, contra general economic illiteracy, mean they can simply pass those costs on. Prices are still determined by what consumers are willing to pay. As noted, I’m not a fan.

Which is not a good reason to erroneously blame tariffs for inflation. Every bit of inflation can be traced back to government borrowing and printing money into existence. Not wealth, but money. If tomorrow the government told us we could all add three zeroes to our bank balance, we would not be any richer. We’d just add three zeroes to everything we want to buy.

Economics isn’t terribly complicated. It is just enough so that politicians and demagogues are equipped to fleece us year after year. Don’t invest in battles with the dimwitted. Instead learn a little and be equipped for battle.

For more lessons in economics from a biblical perspective, see my Economics for Everybody here.

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Classic Sacred Marriage- Dissing Your Spouse

Posted on August 20, 2025 by RC

This week’s classic Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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Our Bread and Circuses: At Ease In Babylon

Posted on August 19, 2025 by RC

While Christians martyred under the Roman empire died for their faith, I fear they didn’t die for our faith. First, we must understand what Rome had against these saints. Part of the genius of the Roman empire was their “broad-mindedness.” They didn’t roll into town after their conquest and rebuild from scratch. Instead it was their habit to assimilate.

As they did with the Pharisees, they cut a deal. We will rule over you, but you can, by and large, keep doing what you were doing. Keep your temple. Worship there. Keep your traditions, your way of life. All we ask of you is that you pay your taxes, acknowledge our authority. And this one other little thing- we need you to acknowledge that Caesar is Lord. Burn a pinch of incense, bow the knee, and then go back to what you were doing. You don’t even have to mean it.

The Christians’ problem was more political than narrowly theological. You see the very first creed of the church was just three words long, but managed to confront Rome at its heart. Christians were those who confessed Christ is Lord. They died by the thousands because they would not confess that Caesar is Lord.

Which brings us to our faith. We’re like the Pharisees. We have our worship services, our private convictions, and that’s where our faith ends. We submit to the world’s demands. As CS Lewis described it, “When the modern world says to us aloud, ‘You may be religious when you are alone,’ it adds under its breath, ‘and I will see to it that you never are alone.’” The rest of our lives are committed to the authority of the state, and to the diversions and distractions the broader culture provides. We are in no danger because we are no danger.

When the world calls our convictions “hate” we simply change them, insisting that our response to the wholesale turning over of God’s created order is more love, more appeasement, more assurance that we are not a danger. Some of us reinterpret our Bibles to get with the times. Some simply look away awkwardly when the Bible embarrasses us. We conflate the Biblical notion that all sin is rebellion against the living God and deserving of His judgment into something much safer. We embrace the notion that all sins are equal, making all of them innocuous, not worthy to be mentioned.

When the Supreme Court made its most wicked ruling, upending the natural, God created order of things, we ignored it. When we finally woke up, we found safe, reasonable, Rome approved ways of “fighting” it. 52 years later and still over 2,000 little babies are literally murdered every day, right in our own neighborhoods, with our full knowledge and with the full protection of the state. And we are more interested in our favorite football team.

We worship a Jesus who will save us from our sins, but whose reign we’re willing to negotiate. We worship a state that simply requires of us that we be nice and keep our convictions to ourselves. We worship distraction, so that we won’t have to face our idolatry. We worship the acceptance of the broader culture, and sacrifice all else to get it. We’re not like our fathers who died for Jesus, but like our fathers that killed Him and the prophets God sent to call us to repentance, because they, like we, worship the god of this age.

Until we stop repenting to the god of this age for the plain teaching of the living God, and start repenting to the living God for bowing before the god of this age, we will be trodden underfoot. Until we weep for our sin, until we tear down the high places, until we cease to hand our children over to Moloch we will burn with Rome. Lord be merciful to us, sinners.

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How has the internet impacted journalistic integrity?

Posted on August 18, 2025 by RC

There are some of us still around who remember the pre-internet world. There was a time when if you wanted your thoughts to reach an audience you had to find a publisher willing to help you out. That publisher had his own reputation to guard. In addition, he had his own money on the line. This provided a significant hedge against reckless writing. The internet has ground that hedge down to the roots. Now we are all our own publishers, and our financial investment is little more than a monthly internet bill.

In the old days we chose who we’d read in large part on the basis of how trustworthy we found the publisher to be. We knew both William F. Buckley and Alfred Regnery were more trustworthy than whomever the imaginative fellow was down at the Weekly World News. The publisher listed his own name and the brick and mortar address of the office. The author listed his name as well. Now we have anonymous “publishers” publishing their anonymous writings, hiding their ip addresses through proxy servers. Now mysterious and arcane mathematical calculations determine what shows up first when we search out information. How now do we know whom to trust?

We trust those who confirm our biases. Credibility is now wrapped up in who hates the people we hate and who loves the people we love. Someone going after our friends online has an attack blog. Someone going after our enemies online has a discernment ministry.

Last week someone read something I wrote that they didn’t agree with. They replied with a link to an article about one of my scandals in my past. “This you?” he asked. “Yes,” I replied, “why do you ask?” On the same day I had another commenter falsely accuse, no, not accuse but convict me based on something he read on an anonymous attack blog. I’d like to think the first person was acting with integrity and wanted to check for himself. I suspect, however, that his true motive was to put me in a glass dog house.

In the first instance I can confess that yes, I was guilty. In the second it’s my word against the word of my anonymous accuser. How much weight should we give to an anonymous, or pseudo-nonymous accusation? None. Less than none. But we do, if they are going after those who already don’t care for. Oh, we might pride ourselves on how judicious we are.

How many times have you heard, or worse, said something like this, “Well, if he’s guilty of even ten percent of what is written here, he’s a terrible, awful, good-for-nothing so and so.”? What we should be saying is “Well, if he’s innocent of even ten percent of what is written here, his accuser is a terrible, awful, good-for-nothing so and so.”

My counsel? Why don’t we try to not only stop speaking ill of others, but stop listening to those who speak ill of others? Why don’t we look at gossip, whether spread over the backyard fence or across the world wide web as the Bible does, a destructive, vile sin-

They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless (Romans 1:29-31).

The internet didn’t create this problem. It is born out of our own hearts. Which means there is only one solution- repenting and believing His Word. That is counsel you can trust, because the Author is not just true, but Truth.

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Resting in His Providence, Working For His Kingdom

Posted on August 15, 2025 by RC

To suggest that wisdom is always balanced seems to me to be a bit, well, unbalanced. Whoever first uttered the words of wisdom, “moderation in all things,” should, I believe, have healed himself. All things? Isn’t that a bit extreme? In like manner, wisdom is almost always balanced. We need to measure the wisdom of looking before we leap with the equally potent conviction that he who hesitates is lost. We need to remember, as we loudly affirm that we ought not answer a fool according to his folly lest we be like him, that we ought to answer a fool according to his folly lest he become wise in his own eyes (Prov. 26: 4–5).

Jesus, who is wisdom incarnate, wisely tells us that we must consider the cost. Only a fool would set about the business of building a tower without first checking his checkbook. Planning, according to Jesus, is good and proper. Out of this wisdom we have with all due wisdom extrapolated our calling to set goals, look beyond today.

This same Jesus, however, speaking through James His brother, says, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’ — yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil” (James 4:13–16).

It is a great thing to plan, to lay down our hopes and aspirations. We ought to map out the steps that will get us there. It is, however, incumbent upon us to do this as creatures, as vapor. We must remember our frame, that we propose while God disposes.

If the Lord wills, we will do this or that. If, however, the Lord wills differently, His plans will supersede ours. We to pray, “nevertheless not my will but Thine be done.” And know His sovereign will will be done.

If we would plan in accordance with God’s plan, we must know God’s plan. He hasn’t told us we will go into a city, buy and sell and make a profit. Nor that our five-year-old daughter will marry her eight-year-old neighbor. That the two of them will build their home on the back side of our property. He has not told us that our ten-year-old son will thrive in a particular line of work. That he will, along with his own unborn children, seize that whole industry for the kingdom of God. It is shameful to be shortsighted, an arrogant thing to boast you can see far into the future.

God’s secret plan is just that — secret. We don’t know His strategy, how He will move in this coming year, decade, or century. God’s revealed plan is, well, that which has been revealed. He has told us what is required of us — that we do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him (Mic. 6:8). He has told us the sum of the matter — that we should fear Him and obey all that He commands (Eccl. 12:13). He has called us to go into all the nations, baptizing them, teaching them to obey all that He has commanded (Matt. 28:19–20).

He has told us that we ought not worry about what we will eat or about what our great grandchildren will eat. The Gentiles worry about such things. No, our calling is to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33). My prayer and my plan is that every day I would grow more faithful in this calling, that I would in turn encourage my dear wife in the same direction. My prayer and my plan is that the two of us, as long as life should last, will encourage our children along this same path. But as long as we live, we are all called to grow in grace and wisdom.

This, we highly resolve — that we would seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. If we would but keep this one resolution, we would witness worldwide revolution. Better yet, we would enjoy a new reformation. May God give us the grace to be extremists where we ought to be, that we would always seek out wisdom and rest in His finished work.

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The Bride Wore Black: Protesting Our Pride

Posted on August 14, 2025 by RC

A week or so ago the folks at Protestia tweeted this:

Better to marry a former OF model who has come to know the depths of her sin and the mercy of the Lord, than an unkissed virgin with a haughty look and a proud heart.

I do not personally know anyone at Protestia. We would have plenty of disagreements, and plenty of agreements. My goal is not to comment on them, but to comment on the tweet. It provoked hundreds of responses, many of them negative. Which, frankly concerns me. I thought though it might be helpful to break it down.

God gave few biblical restrictions on who can marry whom. Believers may only marry believers; boys must marry girls. Finally, the two must not be too closely related. Which brings us to the first point of clarification.

We lack the ability to read souls with complete accuracy. Which is why we should, in making these kinds of judgments, acknowledge the difference between professing believers and actual believers. I’d argue that the language of the tweet does not allow us to put the first woman in the category of a mere professing believer. She knows the mercy of the Lord. She is not experiencing mere remorse, but genuine Spirit given repentance.

The second person, on the other hand, could fit into either category. A haughty look and a proud heart could certainly mean this professing believer hasn’t come to actual saving faith. Or, it could be this actual believer struggles against haughtiness and pride. Believers are not beyond any sin, much less haughtiness and pride. Nor should they be treated as such.

If she is a believer, one could presumably make the case that at the very least, this isn’t an easy call. We’re comparing the hardships of someone carrying baggage from repented of grievous sin with the hardships of someone still battling grievous sin. Not the same grievous sin. Not the same level of wickedness on the sin. This, however, is mitigated by one being the past, the other in the present.

In this scenario the tweet’s claim may still be true. If, however, the comparison is between a true believer with deep past sins and an unbeliever who has led a “clean” life, the choice is not only obvious, but biblically required. How could anyone possibly object? Out of pride and haughtiness.

This tweet hit a nerve. We live in an age in the church where we think our sin is small and the sins of others are great. When, while Christ covers our sins, Christians delight to expose them. Where we’re willing to “forgive” others’ sins, but unwilling to look past them. We don’t believe in the power of the gospel, seeing it as a small answer to our small problem, our small sins. We’ve lost sight of the depth and scope of our own capacity to sin, both before we’ve been redeemed and after.

God, remember, not only commanded Hosea to marry a prostitute, but, to go and rescue her when she, having been saved, went back to her old life. Rahab, Gomer, David, Peter, Mary Magdelene, the thief on the cross, rescued porn producers, rescued porn consumers, and me. We’ve all together been made by His grace, His bride.

Posted in 10 Commandments, Apostles' Creed, assurance, Biblical Doctrines, Big Eva, church, communion, Devil's Arsenal, ethics, grace, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR, repentance, scandal, theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Golfing with RC Sr.; Thief on the Cross; Ethic Cleansing

Posted on August 13, 2025 by RC

Another classic episode, complete with the story of my first time on the golf course with my father. You don’t want to miss this one.

This week’s Classic Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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Angels, Angels Everywhere- Messengers of Unbelief

Posted on August 12, 2025 by RC

Being sick has its advantages. I am constantly encouraged when sick by the willingness of others to pray. I am grateful for the prayers, and goaded to be a more faithful prayer warrior myself. It is also a timely reminder of the catholicity of the church. That is, people from all manner of denominational backgrounds have been faithful to pray when I’ve been sick. What’s more interesting, however, is the response I receive from those outside the body of Christ.

I have friends outside the kingdom, and they too have, at times, been concerned for my health. They just have a rather peculiar way of expressing their concern. I can’t count the number of times I have been told, “We’re sending thoughts your way.” Apparently either their transmitter or my receiver is on the blink. What are these dear folks thinking? Do they actually believe that their brain waves have some sort of healing power? Do they think that they can visualize away the illness in my body?

We would do well to watch out for temporal pride. We face the temptation to believe our broader culture is less primitive than others, because precious few bow down to statues. Or fear the storm god. We think the problem with those wrapped up in modernist unbelief is that they are too sophisticated. When the truth is they are superstitious rubes. They “send their thoughts” out. Hang crystals from their rear view mirrors. Not too long ago they were all aflutter over angels. There was a time you couldn’t swing a dead cat in Barnes and Noble without hitting some angel book. There were books explaining the work of angels, how to get in touch with angels, the history of angels.

Why all the fuss?

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known about God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image like corruptible men—birds, and four footed animals and creeping things” (Romans 1:18-23).

The unregenerate man finds himself in a horrible pickle. He knows all too well what Solomon wrote about in Ecclesiastes. If reality ends at the universe’s edge, if our lives are only under the sun, then all is vanity. You come from nothing, live in futility, and then you return to the nothing. If, on the other hand, there’s a transcendent realm, a God in heaven, then you answer to Him. This dilemma is what Paul is getting at in Romans. Either life is meaningless, or we will have to answer to the Giver of meaning.

Man’s solution is to muddy the water, to strive for a touch of transcendence, while steering clear of accountability. We do this by constructing gods in our own image, bowing to the creature. We are willing to worship, as long as what we worship will require nothing of us. Which may well by why angels became a thing. Angels give the unredeemed a touch of something beyond this world. They come from a world above the sun. But they come, because these false angels are made in our image, with no judgment. Check through all the angel books, blogs and podcasts and you won’t find a single one giving instruction on how to appease the wrath of your angel. They are all soft, light, and only want to help.

We are fools when we rejoice that those outside the church are at least interested in the world beyond. We are fools if we think that those who are “religious” or worse still “spiritual” are on the right track, but simply need better directions. It is all rebellion, and it is all foolishness. A culture fascinated by angels is a culture that is unwilling to look upon that which the angels delight to look upon, the glory of the living God. A culture awash in angel dust is a culture still buried under the dust of death. A culture that longs to be touched by an angel is not on the highway to heaven, but is on the highway to hell.

Angels are heralds, messengers. They are sent from the transcendent realm, the realms of glory, to wing their way o’er all the earth. They sang creation’s glory, and now sing not just the Messiah’s birth, but His death, burial, resurrection and ascension. If we want the world around us to hear them, we must point the world around us to the Word of God. We must encourage the lost to look into the very things that the angels themselves long to look into. In short, our calling to those caught up in angel lore is to be angels ourselves, messengers speaking the good news. May God give us the grace to speak with the tongues of angels, that every tongue would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

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What Causes Us to Fail to Rightly Divide God’s Word?

Posted on August 11, 2025 by RC

Nearly all of us are willing to concede that we are not right about everything we believe. We all have errors in our thinking and would love to correct them. Trouble is, we’re not always so sure where to find them. We affirm God’s Word is true in all that it teaches. We affirm that we believe all that it teaches. But we don’t. Why is that?

First, because we are sinners. Though it is unspoken, most of us carry with us this first rule of interpretation- whatever this text might be saying, it can’t be calling on me to change. Though the Bible says otherwise, we tend to think we’re just fine. Sure, we might slip up here or there. But overall, we’re wonderful people. James says the Bible is like a mirror that shows us what we are, and when we move away from it we forget who we are (1:23, 24). We don’t know ourselves because we don’t like what we see in the mirror. So we shroud God’s Word in the cobwebs of ambiguity and confusion.

Secondly, sometimes it isn’t ourselves that we don’t want to change, but what we have already learned. Because truth is one, every change in our convictions has a ripple effect that impacts everything else we believe. We have no hermetically sealed convictions, and so often come with a hermeneutic that says “No changes allowed.”

It may be that we learned this idea, or that system when a student. Maybe it feels like rejecting an idea would mean rejecting the one who taught it to us. We are, in short, sometimes more loyal to who teaches us than the Word they might have misunderstood. We must remember that whenever the Bible changes our view, we have actually remained loyal to our foundational principle, that the Bible is true in all that it teaches.

There is a third source, however, that we often miss. My father used to say that while a lack of knowledge of Hebrew or Greek, or an ignorance of ancient near eastern mores can cause us slip ups, the majority stem from something else. A failure to understand basic logic. It is because we are prone to jumping to conclusions with insufficient evidence that we sometimes err. Or because we miss when the evidence is compelling. We succumb to a bevy of informal fallacies.

We err in our thinking. Just as the fall impacts our bodies, our wills and emotions, so it impacts our minds. Such doesn’t mean we can’t reason well, anymore than wayward emotions mean we can’t feel rightly. It does mean we ought to be on our guard. It means a simple study of logic basics may bear good fruit in our understanding.

Posted in Bible Study, Devil's Arsenal, hermeneutics, inerrancy, logic, RC Sproul, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments