r.c. sproul

after i had posted on spurgeon, my wife pointed out that i had not mentioned anything about r.c. sproul in these posts about pastors and authors who have had a large influence on me.

as usual, she sees the obvious that i am in too big of a hurry to notice.

i have since gone back, being the poster child for o.c.d. that i am, and added sproul to my original post entitled "names and faces". but here, i will elaborate on him and his ministry. (though it will be out of order, he should come after piper, but i cant change the order of posts already up)

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Loving a holy God is beyond our
moral power.
The only kind of God we can love by
our sinful nature is an unholy god,
an idol made by our own hands.
Unless we are born of the Spirit of God,
unless God sheds His holy love in our hearts,
unless He stoops in His grace to change
our hearts, we will not love Him . . .
To love a holy God requires grace, grace
strong enough to pierce our hardened hearts
and awaken our moribound souls."
- R.C. Sproul


from ligonier ministries

Dr. Robert Charles Sproul was born in 1939 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
He is the founder and chairman of Ligonier Ministries, which started as the Ligonier Valley Study Center in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, more than thirty years ago. In an effort to respond more effectively to the growing demand for Dr. Sproul’s teachings and Ligonier’s other educational resources, the general offices were moved to Orlando, Florida, in 1984, and the ministry was renamed “Ligonier Ministries.”

Dr. R.C. Sproul is featured daily on Renewing Your Mind, an international radio broadcast that has aired for more than ten years with an estimated two million people tuning in every week on more than 235 radio outlets in the United States and throughout more than 40 countries. In addition, he can be seen daily on DirecTV.

Dr. Sproul is a respected teacher, theologian, and pastor. He is currently serving as the director of Serve International, and as senior minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel (http://www.saintandrewschapel.org/) in Sanford, Florida. Dr. Sproul is ordained as a teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.

In addition, Dr. Sproul was the general editor of The Reformation Study Bible, which was also known as The New Geneva Study Bible, and he is the executive editor of Tabletalk magazine. As a prolific author he has written more than 60 books and scores of articles for national evangelical publications. Dr. Sproul has produced more than 300 lecture series and has recorded more than 80 video series on subjects such as the history of philosophy, theology, Bible study, apologetics, and Christian living. He signed the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, which affirmed the traditional view of biblical inerrancy, and he wrote a commentary on that document titled Explaining Inerrancy.

Dr. Sproul holds degrees from Westminster College, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and the Free University of Amsterdam, and he has had a distinguished academic teaching career at various colleges and seminaries, including Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida, and Jackson, Mississippi, and Knox Theological Seminary in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

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it is odd indeed that i would have left r.c. sproul out of my original post. after all, i have nearly ten of his books on my bookshelves at home!

sproul has a gift of communication. he is able to write books on complex, or at least greatly misunderstood topics and making them easily digestible. he also is able to write on topics that are so well known they seem to have lost their punch, and leaves his readers clamoring for more.

again, (you knew it was coming), i do not agree with everything sproul writes or teaches. (as a baptist, i obviously disagree with his views on infant baptism).

but through reading authors like sproul who so obviously want to be faithful to scripture in all that they do, seeing where i think they depart from scripture keeps me from idolizing men, and it also keeps me from simply believing everything someone i respect says, just because "they" said it. it also keeps me humble, lest i get to the place where i believe i cannot be wrong about anything.

that being said, i do believe that the large majority of what sproul writes and teaches is purely biblical, and the books that i offer as recommendations i do so without hesitation.

these books by sproul are very easy to read, understand, and apply, and i encourage everyone who doesnt have them to buy them, borrow them, or check them out from a library, you will be better for it. (click titles for links)

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1) the holiness of god
sproul's most famous work, and a blessing to the church.
to properly worship god and know who god is,
we have to understand his holiness - biblically.
sproul does a masterful job in communicating the importance
of this, and you cant help put finish the book changed.

from the publisher:
Revised in 1997, The Holiness of God has sold almost
200,000 copies since it was first released in the 1980s.
An instant classic on the awesome nature of God,
this new paperback edition (of the 1997 revision)
will keep ministering to people for many years to come.

.
2) five things every christian needs to grow
from the publisher:
In Five Things Every Christian Needs to Grow, acclaimed theologian
Dr. R.C. Sproul guides his readers through the basic training of Christianity
and reveals the five most vital fundamentals of the Christian faith:
Prayer, Worship, Service, Study, and Stewardship. [only 96 pages in
small hardcover book very worthwhile read for new or longtime chrisians]

.
3) saved from what?
imagine, while you are witnessing, that the lost person tells you
"i dont need saving!"
how would you respond? what exactly are we saved "from"?
in order to fully appreciate our salvation, and to fully praise god
for what he has done,we need a proper understanding of what
we are saved "from". a very insightful and beneficial book that
informs our worship as well as our evangelism.
[also another short hardcover book]

.
4) chosen by god
if you have ever wondered what the bible means in the many passages
when it uses words like "predestined" "elect", or "foreknown", then you
owe it to yourself to read this book. sproul lets the bible speak for itself
on this controversial, often misunderstood and largely misrepresented truth
of scripture.