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  1. 3 min

    Catechisms for the Imagination

    What are stories for? Ask an average group of young American narrative consumers this question and they most likely won't know what you mean. What you'll likely get are blank faces, shrugs.
    So, let's get more specific. What are movies, TV shows, comic books, and novels for? What's the point? Why watch? Why read? Why do we as a culture bother to spend billions of dollars (and hours) creating and consuming stories?
    The consensus answer—regardless of whether the kids asked are active and aggressive readers or merely passive imbibers of whatever happens to be on—will almost always come down to one word and one word only: fun. Why do we watch? For fun. Why do we read? For fun.
    Spider-man and Harry Potter and The Hunger Games and The Walking Dead all exist for fun. Twilight is fun. Or it isn't fun. And so this girl is absorbed in the books while that boy sneers and mocks. Personal and peer-group tastes and pleasures are adhered to as if they were indisputable and authoritative.
    But the word fun is a simplistic label for what is actually a remarkable and complex experience. Stories make people feel. Stories (particularly novels) take control of and govern the imagination, causing readers to feel things on command. Stories create empathetic and sympathetic bonds between readers and fictional characters, and those bonds are truly real. In fact, they can be more lasting than the bonds between readers and their fellow earth-walking humans because a fictional character is fixed and unchanging. I have deeply admired and looked up to Faramir (from The Two Towers, the second book of the Lord of the Rings series) from my youth, and that admiration has only grown. On the other hand, there are real men whom I long admired, and whom I admire no longer.
    Stories create affection and fear and joy, love and hate and relief. Stories can create loyalties and destabilize loyalties. Stories are catechisms for the imagination. Catechisms for emotions, for aspirations. Stories mold instincts and carve grooves of habit in a reader's judgments.
    Stories are dangerous, and that isn't a bad thing. Rain is dangerous. Sunlight is dangerous. Stories are potent, but that potency can be used for true and good and beautiful ends, or it can be used to attack and destroy and undermine truth and goodness and beauty.
    Let a faithful author guide a child's imagination, and that child will learn (and feel) what it is like to be courageous, to stand against evil, to love what is lovely and honor what is honorable. Hand them the wrong book, and they could learn to numb their own conscience, to gratify and feed darker impulses. The wrong stories catechize imaginations with sickness.
    Twilight is a manual for adolescent girls on how to become abused women. Is that man moody and mercurial and vicious? Is he death and danger? Let's have tens of millions of young girls practice (through emotional connection to a character proxy) envisioning themselves trailing around behind him like kicked puppies, just hoping
    N.D. Wilson
  2. 59:47

    Theology in Dialogue with R.C. Sproul and Derek Thomas (January 2016)

    On Friday, January 15, 2016, Dr. Sproul was joined by Ligonier teaching fellow Dr. Derek Thomas for a relaxed and informative evening of theology and dialogue. These notable theologians and pastors answered questions submitted through social media and from a live audience at Saint Andrew's Chapel in Sanford, FL. The topics addressed included God's nature, Islam, finding a local church, Scripture, and more.

    Questions:

    1. Does God choose not to lie, or does His nature dictate that He cannot lie? (02:58)
    2. What's the greatest challenge to biblical Christianity today? (03:19)
    3. Can Christians truly have assurance of salvation? (03:51)
    4. Were Adam and Eve saved? (04:31)
    5. Why does the church argue against head coverings using first-century culture when Paul argues from Genesis? (05:06)
    6. What is your favorite hymn and why? (07:13)
    7. How did they determine approximate dates for various books in the Bible? (08:00)
    8. Was the average Old Testament Jew able to gain a complete understanding of the Trinity? (10:35)
    9. Do you believe that we are headed to a point in which the government will require churches to perform "same-sex" marriages? (13:10)
    10. Why is wisdom personified as female? (16:10)
    11. Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God? (16:50)
    12. Do you believe that Christians need to do a better job of defending their faith (especially as it relates to Islam)? (19:00)
    13. Is there any support for complementarianism in the creation account prior to the fall? (20:23)
    14. Did Jesus, during His earthly ministry, have the ability to sin? (22:40)
    15. Does Scripture provide hope for a child who turns away from Christ as a young college student? (25:24)
    16. If the reformers like Calvin and Luther didn’t state explicitly their end times views, what would be their presumed view in your eyes? (28:38)
    17. Have either of you changed your eschatological views? (31:45)
    18. If you had a moment with one of today’s prosperity preachers, what would you say? (32:40)
    19. What doctrine in the Bible do you find the most difficult to accept and why? (33:31)
    20. Are both of you hopeful for another awakening in our age? (35:36)
    21. In Acts 2:38 it says that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins. What do you believe about this and why? (37:49)
    22. What makes a church good and how do you find one? (39:36)
    23. Does the incarnation mean that God has changed in space and time from that point on? If not, why and how do we respond to the question? (43:59)
    24. Did the death of Jesus accomplish anything for the non-elect? (46:31)
    25. What would you say to a Christian who doesn’t believe in the inerrancy of Scripture? (48:14)
    26. What is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? (49:43)
    27. Can good theology and sound doctrine become an idol? (52:53)
    28. How have the truths from your series "Surprised by Suffering” been a comfort for you as you have dealt with health issues? (56:19)
    Note: Answers given reflect the views of the individual speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dr. R.C. Sproul and Ligonier Ministries. Here is our Statement of Faith.
  4. Tabletalk
    Print Article : November 2010

    What’s in a Name?

    culture, the word dove can be used symbolically to refer to a variety of things, including “peace” and the “Holy Spirit.” In a similar way, the Hebrew word for “dove” can be used symbolically in a variety of ways. Of particular interest is its use in Hosea 7:11, where we read, “Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense.” From the beginning of the story to its end, Jonah will show himself to be true to his name “silly and without sense.” But the author does not simply give us Jonah’s “first” name. He goes on to give us his “last” name. Is there significance here? Since there were numerous people with the same names in ancient Israel, Hebrew tradition specified individuals in reference to their fathers. So Jonah is called “the son of Amittai.” The Hebrew noun translated “Amittai” is made up of two parts. The first part comes from a noun that means, among other things, “reliability, dependability, trustworthiness, faithfulness, constancy.” The second part of the name is the personal pronoun “my.” So when hearing Jonah’s full name in the story, ancient Israelites would have easily heard “Dove, the son of my faithfulness.” And that he was! From the beginning of the book to its end, Jonah not only shows himself to be “silly and without sense,” but he ever remains the son of God’s “faithfulness.” In the book of Jonah, the primary way in which God’s faithfulness manifests itself is in compassion. Even when God disciplines Jonah in the story, this discipline is from God’s compassionate heart and for Jonah’s good. God never gives up on Jonah but remains faithful to him throughout the story. Jonah is one who repeatedly experiences God’s faithful compassion. In short, therefore, the story of Jonah has a twofold focus: Jonah’s silly and senseless waywardness and God’s faithful compassion. This twofold focus is why the story of Jonah has touched the hearts of God’s people throughout the generations. From the time when the story was first told until the present day, it speaks to God’s people about the ways in which we, like Jonah, are silly and senseless at times and yet always remain the objects of God’s faithful compassion.
    Tabletalk
  6. 47:34

    Questions and Answers

    Gregory Beale, Michael Morales, Stephen Nichols, R.C. Sproul, R.C. Sproul Jr., and Derek Thomas answer questions ranging from Jesus' baptism, the atonement, and church history, to their favorite books of the Bible, and the theology of N.T. Wright.
    Questions:
    1. Why was it necessary for Christ to be baptized? (1:17)
    2. Derek Thomas, before you ran out of time in your message, what was going to be your third proof point for the resurrection? (3:19)
    3. After Christ accomplished his atonement, when and how, according to God's moral justice, did the Father's disposition toward the Son change from unmitigated wrath to redemptive favor? (5:45)
    4. How does Jesus' identity as the Word qualify Him to uniquely fulfill God's commission to Adam? (9:15)
    5. Do you believe Jesus Christ carries Mary's genes, or are His genes unique? (12:05)
    6. The Bible says that Adam was made in the image of God, but it also says that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Is Christ in the image of God the same way as we are? If not, why does the Bible use the same terminology, and what marks the difference between our image bearing and Christ's image bearing? (13:19)
    7. Stephen Nichols, as a church historian, beside the Reformation, what period in church history should we be most interested in? (15:25)
    8. Do you believe we need another Reformation, or another revival in this country? (17:25)
    9. What are some key principles or Scriptures that you gentlemen use to revitalize your faith when you're severely discouraged or feel very dry in your faith? (21:49)
    10. What are your favorite book of the Bible, or if it is a Psalm, which Psalm? (24:08)
    11. What did Paul mean in 1 Corinthians 1:24 when he calls Christ the wisdom of God? (30:31)
    12. The Bible teaches that Jesus was raised from the dead after three days. If He was crucified on Friday and risen on Sunday, how is this explained? (32:35)
    13. Regarding unconditional election, my son asked me, "What's the point of creating people if they won't have an opportunity to be saved?" What do I tell my son? (33:12)
    14. Is Limited Atonement just theological semantics? How important is it for the believer to embrace this doctrine? (36:04)
    15. R.C. Sproul, you quoted Martin Luther saying that justification by faith alone is the foundation upon which the church stands or falls. What are we to believe about N.T. Wright's doctrine of imputation? What does the New Perspectives on Paul do to sola fide? (41:13)
    16. Many in the Reformed camp believe that N.T. Wright is correct and has a good view on the resurrection, would you agree with that? (43:30)
    17. R.C. Sproul, I've heard you mention a connection with Francis Schaeffer in the early days of Ligonier. Can you share with us your relationship with him and how his influence helped you decide the structure of Ligonier Ministries? (45:08)
    Note: This Questions and Answers session is made available for historical archival purposes only. Further, answers given reflect the views of the individual speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dr. R.C. Sproul and Ligonier Ministries. Here is our Statement of Faith.
  7. 59:59

    Ask Ligonier with W. Robert Godfrey (February 2020)

    On February 18, Dr. W. Robert Godfrey joined us as a special guest on our Ask Ligonier team and answered your biblical and theological questions live online.
    This special online event was streamed live on Ligonier’s blog, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
    Questions:
    1. What should discipleship look like in the local church? (2:19)
    2. Are the TV preachers that talk about health and prosperity the false teachers Jesus talked about? (3:26)
    3. Aside from God’s Word, what book has had the greatest impact on your life and ministry? (4:24)
    4. Why should Christians today read the writings of the Reformed scholastics? (5:24)
    5. Do Baptists come from the Anabaptist movement? (7:49)
    6. What advice do you have for interpreting Scripture correctly? (9:05)
    7. How do you preach the Psalms? (11:45)
    8. Are Roman Catholic baptism and Mormon baptism considered valid? (15:18)
    9. If someone was baptized before conversion, must he be baptized again after coming to faith? (17:10)
    10. Does God’s election cause us to believe in Christ, or does He give us the choice to believe? (19:30)
    11. Does God predestine people to hell? (20:28)
    12. Why do some churches replace the historic creeds and confessions with mission statements and statements of faith? (23:19)
    13. What is the value of studying God’s law and the book of Deuteronomy? (25:35)
    14. Do you have any advice on how to grow in the discipline of reading? (28:19)
    15. When we develop a relationship with God, are we developing it with the Father or with Jesus? (30:31)
    16. Is it normal that I feel nervous about heaven and entering the presence of God? (31:54)
    17. What does Philippians 2:12 mean by “work out your salvation with fear and trembling”? (34:14)
    18. Is social media a help or a hindrance for the church in the 21st century? (36:20)
    19. Why should we trust the Bible? (38:50)
    20. What are your favorite Christian biographies? (42:11)
    21. Some teachers are claiming that the Old Testament is no longer relevant for Christians. What is your advice? (44:27)
    22. Should specific people and groups be called out from the pulpit as false teachers, or should only their teaching be called out? (45:52)
    23. When a person trusts in Jesus, does the Holy Spirit automatically fill them, or must they invite Him? (46:43)
    24. What is “the gift of God” in Ephesians 2:8—grace, faith, or both? (47:55)
    25. When John identifies Jesus as “the Logos,” is he referring to the Logos in Greek philosophy? (49:30)
    26. How important is God’s covenant with Adam when it comes to our salvation? (51:07)
    27. What’s the biggest difference between Reformed theology and non-Reformed theology? (52:46)
    28. Do Christians sin when they work on the Lord’s Day? (55:26)
    29. What must I do to be saved? (58:23)
    Note: Answers given reflect the views of the individual speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dr. R.C. Sproul and Ligonier Ministries. Here is our Statement of Faith.
    W. Robert Godfrey
  8. 11 min

    Principles for Voting

    to the church just so we can get a tax write-off. Our responsibility to tithe to the Kingdom of God is there whether we receive any benefit from the secular government or not. Surely we must all understand that. And I'm not going to tell you who to vote for, but I am going to tell you some things you should be concerned about when you go to the voting booth.
    But here is what I'm going to tell you to do when you vote. As a Christian you have obligations opposed upon your conscience that in some sense other people don't have, although they should have. And the first thing is this: You have to understand what a vote is. The word vote comes from the Latin votum, which means 'will' or choice. And when you go to the ballot box and you vote, you are not there to vote for what's going to benefit you necessarily. Your vote is not a license to impose your selfish desires upon the rest of the country. You only have the right to vote for what is right. And not only do you have the right to vote for what is right, but when you vote you have the duty to vote for what is right.
    I'm reminded of the work of William Wilberforce in England. You may recall that in debate after debate after debate, and in election after election after election, Wilberforce was soundly and roundly defeated when he sought the abolition of slavery in the British Commonwealth. But if ever there was an exercise in perseverance, it was by Wilberforce. Wilberforce refused to give up. He simply would not walk away from being the conscience of the English nation. And he publicly testified that slavery was wrong and he promised to oppose it as long as he had breath in his body. And finally in the providence of God, Parliament woke up and abolished this unethical practice that was a plague on the English speaking world.
    We've gone through the same plague in the history of America, and thanks be to God slavery has finally been abolished in America. But I believe that slavery is the second most serious ethical issue that our country has ever faced. From my perspective the number one ethical issue that this nation has ever faced is the issue of abortion. Abortion is not a matter of private choice--not for the Christian who understands anything about the sanctity of life. The first century church made it very clear in their day, explicitly stating that abortion is murder.
    I've written over 70 books. The book that had the shortest shelf life of all of my books was my book on the case against abortion. I talked to pastor after pastor and sought to understand why they weren't using this material (for which we also made a video series). They told me, "Well, we agree with it but we can't do it in our church." And I said, "Why?" They
    R.C. Sproul
  9. 3 min

    Why Church History?

    The bombing of Britain during World War II leveled most of the area known as “Elephant & Castle” in the city of London. A row of pillars stood defiantly among the piles of rubble. These pillars belonged to the Metropolitan Tabernacle, the church that housed the larger-than-life preacher of the nineteenth century, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Those pillars well represent Spurgeon. He was solid. He stood tall in his own day, and like the pillars, his legacy still stands.
    Spurgeon has friends across many pews. Baptists like Spurgeon because he was a Baptist. Presbyterians like Spurgeon because he was so Reformed. Even Lutherans like Spurgeon because he was very nearly a nineteenth-century version of Martin Luther.
    While Spurgeon held forth at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Londoners would flock to hear him preach. In fact, people even traveled the Atlantic to hear him preach. He wrote many sermons, of course, while he was at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. And Spurgeon also wrote many books.
    In one of his many books, Spurgeon made a comment well worth hearing. It comes from the preface to his book on commentaries. He had written this book to convince pastors of the need to use commentaries and to engage in deep study for their sermon preparation. Spurgeon well knew the value of reading for preaching. He had a personal library of around twenty-five thousand books. And this was in the 1800s. What’s more, he actually read most of them.
    In the preface to this book, he speaks to an objection to using commentaries. The objection goes something like this: As a Christian, I have the Holy Spirit. I have the Spirit’s wonderful work of illumination. I don’t need commentaries; I don’t need to rely on the thoughts of others. I can go right to the source.
    To that objection, Spurgeon replied, “It seems odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should think so little of what he has revealed to others.”
    Spurgeon reminds us that the Holy Spirit is not an individual gift. The Holy Spirit is a corporate gift to the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit has taught others, and the Spirit uses others to teach us. Spurgeon’s argument reaches the conclusion that preachers should use commentaries. Don’t be arrogant, and don’t think you have a corner on the market of the Holy Spirit, because you don’t.
    But what if we were to expand Spurgeon’s argument in order to apply it to the relationship of today’s church to church history? Here’s my paraphrase of Spurgeon’s argument: “I find it odd that the church of the 21st century thinks so highly of what the Holy Spirit has taught it today that it thinks so little of what the Holy Spirit taught the church in the first century, the second, the third, the fourth, and so on, and so on.”
    The Holy Spirit is not unique to our age. The Holy Spirit has been at work in the church for the past twenty centuries. We could put the
    Stephen Nichols
  10. 6 min

    The Many Shades of Calvinism

    The term Calvinism was first used by Lutheran theologians to refer to what they regarded as the peculiar views of Christ’s real presence at the Lord’s Supper held by John Calvin and his followers. It is not used in this way nowadays. What does it refer to now? In some cases, it denotes the entire theological system of Calvin himself as we find it in the four books of his Institutes of the Christian Religion. In other cases, and more usually, it refers to the understanding of the doctrine of salvation as we find it in the first three books. What’s the difference? Well, the fourth book of the Institutes contains what Calvin may have thought to be the climax of his system, his doctrine of the church (and sacraments) and its relation to the state. Briefly, he sets forth a presbyterian system of church governance and a close connection between church and state, one in which the magistrate is regarded as the minister of God, whose duty it is to uphold the true worship of God—worship according to the principles of Reformed theology, and no other.
    Two Significant Changes
    Calvinism used in this sense has undergone two seismic changes since the final edition of the Institutes_ saw the light of day in 1559. During the last part of Calvin’s life and afterward, Calvin’s teaching regarding the way of salvation through Christ was exported; it became international. This was due to the wide circulation of Calvin’s books, to his influential correspondence, and to the presence in Geneva of congregations of refugees from persecution, not only from France but from Italy, Great Britain, and so on. As the refugees returned to their homelands, as Calvin’s Institutes and his commentaries and other works were translated into English and Dutch and other languages, “Calvinism” radiated across Europe.
    But the circumstances of the receiving countries were often very different from Geneva, and as time went on, they became even more different. Perhaps Calvin’s overall teaching was received in its fullest form in Scotland due to the power and courage of John Knox and others. But elsewhere, Calvin’s understanding of the way of salvation through Jesus Christ was accepted by people who were Anglicans, such as many of the puritan party in the Church of England, including bishops such as George Abbot, Edwin Sandys, and James Davenant; by Independents (or congregationalists) such as the puritan John Owen; and by Baptists such as John Bunyan. They willingly accepted Calvin’s teaching on the way of salvation but declined his views on church government and on church and state. One Greek Orthodox theologian, Cyril Lucaris, patriarch of Constantinople, even wrote a Calvinistic Confession in 1629, but the Orthodox church later rejected it.
    That was the first seismic change. The second was the effect on Calvinists of the first tentative and hard-fought-for expressions of religious toleration that arose during the seventeenth century, particularly in Holland, in England, and in the American colonies. This meant, in effect, a weakening of the churchstate alliance
    Paul Helm
  14. Tabletalk
    Print Article : February 2020

    Our Family Story

    The bombing of Britain during World War II leveled most of the area known as “Elephant & Castle” in the city of London. A row of pillars stood defiantly among the piles of rubble. These pillars belonged to the Metropolitan Tabernacle, the church that housed the larger-than-life preacher of the nineteenth century, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Those pillars well represent Spurgeon. He was solid. He stood tall in his own day, and like the pillars, his legacy still stands.
    Spurgeon has friends across many pews. Baptists like Spurgeon because he was a Baptist. Presbyterians like Spurgeon because he was so Reformed. Even Lutherans like Spurgeon because he was very nearly a nineteenth-century version of Martin Luther.
    While Spurgeon held forth at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Londoners would flock to hear him preach. In fact, people even traveled the Atlantic to hear him preach. He wrote many sermons, of course, while he was at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. And Spurgeon also wrote many books.
    In one of his many books, Spurgeon made a comment well worth hearing. It comes from the preface to his book on commentaries. He had written this book to convince pastors of the need to use commentaries and to engage in deep study for their sermon preparation. Spurgeon well knew the value of reading for preaching. He had a personal library of around twenty-five thousand books. And this was in the 1800s. What’s more, he actually read most of them.
    In the preface to this book, he speaks to an objection to using commentaries. The objection goes something like this: As a Christian, I have the Holy Spirit. I have the Spirit’s wonderful work of illumination. I don’t need commentaries; I don’t need to rely on the thoughts of others. I can go right to the source.
    To that objection, Spurgeon replied, “It seems odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should think so little of what he has revealed to others.”
    Spurgeon reminds us that the Holy Spirit is not an individual gift. The Holy Spirit is a corporate gift to the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit has taught others, and the Spirit uses others to teach us. Spurgeon’s argument reaches the conclusion that preachers should use commentaries. Don’t be arrogant, and don’t think you have a corner on the market of the Holy Spirit, because you don’t.
    But what if we were to expand Spurgeon’s argument in order to apply it to the relationship of today’s church to church history? Here’s my paraphrase of Spurgeon’s argument: “I find it odd that the church of the century thinks so highly of what the Holy Spirit has taught it today that it thinks so little of what the Holy Spirit taught the church in the first century, the second, the third, the fourth, and so on, and so on.” The Holy Spirit is not unique to our age. The Holy Spirit has been at work in the church for the past twenty centuries. We could put the
    Stephen Nichols
    Tabletalk
  15. 3 min

    Glorifying God in the Routines

    Kiss, hug, monkey blanket, book, pray. That's the summation of my preschool-age son's bedtime routine. His simple bedtime routine must mean the world to him because if I miss a beat or shake up the order, he lets me know that the universe is falling apart. If you want accountability for keeping a disciplined routine, just let preschoolers know of your intentions, and they will tirelessly remind you to stay the course.
    Order and predictability go a long way to reassure young children that their world is stable. Routines work the same way in reassuring us big kids, too. Consider how disconcerting your morning would be if the coffeemaker suddenly sputtered sparks onto the countertop and broke.
    When Life Seems Boring
    Although we can all appreciate the stability that routines bring (Thank you, God, for causing the sun to rise this morning), a life of "all things ordinary" may sound, well . . . boring. We live in the mundane, and life-altering, dramatic moments are, by definition, extraordinary. Whatever your "normal" is, I think we can all agree that that's where we live. Even so, we long for significant work, unique callings, and uncommon opportunities.
    It's tempting to view everyday life as a monotonous cycle of making your bed only to lie in it again. Our perspective on the everyday business of our lives is important because when we forget about God's activity in the world, we become functionally hopeless. What's the point of anything if "all is vanity"? Often our view of the ordinary is ruled by the "have-to's": I have to take out the trash; I have to go to work; I have to change another diaper; and so on. We hear Paul's instruction of "whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31) and we wonder how that squares with the "have-to's" of our everyday lives. Grace sheds light on our mundane. Grace can transform the "have-to's" into "get-to's" as we live for His glory.
    Here are just three of the ways the grace of God governs the areas of our lives that seem ordinary and unimportant:
    1. We get to live outside of the garden. Live. We get to live. Let your heart soar with thankfulness as you consider that God continues to give us life even though we have all sinned against His holiness. Let your mind be blown by the reality that Jesus is currently, intentionally holding our very lives together by the word of His power. The gracious gift of life in spite of our sin is overwhelming. Surely this mercy is cause for unceasing praise to our Creator. Job teaches us that whatever condition our lives are in, God is to be praised. As recipients of such astonishing grace, far be it from us to lament that life is boring. Instead, let us spill over with praise to the Author of Life with our every breath.
    2. We get to live forever in Christ. Each of us is just a breath away from meeting the
    Gloria Furman

  17. Brandwashing & Biblewashing

    You may not know it, but you’ve been “Brandwashed,” probably multiple times, especially if you’ve shopped at Whole Foods Market. Martin Lindstrom made Time’s 2009 “World’s Most Influential People” list partly due to his book Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy. His latest book, Brandwashed,
    highlights “the tricks that companies use to manipulate our minds and persuade us to buy.” Lindstrom is a fan of Whole Foods and loves their produce, but in a recent Lifehacker column, he used the company as an example of the “many strategies retailers use to encourage us to spend more than we need to — more than we want to.” Consider these examples from Whole Foods’ New York City store:
    • The escalator brings us straight into a realm of freshly cut flowers, immediately priming us to think of freshness, a suggestion that we carry with us subconsciously as we shop.
    • The prices for the flowers, fresh fruit, and vegetables are scrawled in chalk on rough-cut black slate, prompting thoughts of outdoor farmers’ markets. (The signs are actually mass-produced; the “slate” is plastic; the prices set at the chain’s Texas headquarters; and the “chalk” is indelible.)
    • The stacked “crates” of melons are actually one large cardboard box that has been designed to reinforce the idea of “rustic old-time simplicity.”
    And Whole Foods is just one example.
    Brainwashing
    Try to imagine how much you’ve been shaped by a lifetime of “brandwashing.” Frightening, isn’t it?
    However, the effectiveness of commercial “brandwashing” should highlight our vulnerability to something far more insidious and evil — spiritual brainwashing. If retailers’ marketing strategies are so successful in taking our cash from us, how much more successful is the far less obvious and yet far more powerful priming and seducing we are continually experiencing at the hands of the master marketer, the Devil.
    Day after day, in both our conscious and subconscious minds, the Evil One is brainwashing us with multiple covert and overt messages. Do you question his power or doubt your own weakness? Well, consider the experiment conducted by illusionist Derren Brown, who set out to prove just how susceptible we are to the thousands of signals we are exposed to each day.
    Brown invited two advertising creatives to visit his office to discuss some marketing ideas. On their journey across town, Brown arranged for carefully placed clues to appear surreptitiously on posters and balloons, in shop windows, and on t-shirts worn by passing pedestrians. When they arrived, the two creatives were given twenty minutes to come up with a campaign for a fictional taxidermy store. Brown also gave them a sealed envelope that was only to be opened once they had presented their campaign. Twenty minutes later, they presented and then opened the envelope. Their plans for the taxidermy store were remarkably similar to the ad campaign that Brown designed, with an astounding 95 percent overlap.
    If Derren Brown can do that to advertisers, think what the Devil can do to you. What’s the solution?
    Biblewashing
    God has provided His Word to protect and purge
    David Murray
  19. 1 min

    The World Upside Down

    It’s hard to believe that it was nearly a decade ago that we witnessed the turn of the third millennium. If you recall, on New Year's Day several network TV stations featured live coverage from around the world. It was an international spectacle with an estimated viewing audience of more than one billion worldwide. With great intrigue I watched as each culture welcomed the new millennium in its own way according to the customs of its heritage. Fireworks, music, singing, dancing, parades- — all in celebration of the new millennium. While 300,000 gathered in Auckland, New Zealand, for a performance of Handel’s Messiah, people on the central tropical Pacific island of Kiribati chanted in the Gilbertese language: “Let all the world be joined with us to greet the new millennium.”
    Having traveled to many parts of the world, I have had the unspeakable privilege of witnessing how Christians in different cultures worship the Lord. What’s amazing, however, are not the differences among the world’s cultures in worship and ministry, which certainly exist, but the astonishing similarities in content, method, and philosophy of ministry. This, of course, is due in part to the profound influence of Western missionaries, who still account for nearly fifty percent of the world’s missionaries. Nevertheless, the similarities exist primarily because we are reading the same Book. We worship the same Lord; we are indwelled by the same Spirit; we share the same faith, the same baptism, and the same hope as we eagerly await and hasten the coming Day of the Lord (2 Peter 3:12).
    Therefore, when we gather together for worship on the Lord’s Day, we are joining our hearts and minds with believers from all over the world as we prepare for that great day when we will join together coram Deo, before the face of God, falling on our faces, proclaiming, “Let all Christians from around the world join with us to greet our Savior Jesus Christ.” In our worldwide witness, we are bearing witness to the undeniable reality that the good news of Jesus Christ has turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6).
    Burk Parsons
  20. 1 min

    5 Recommended Resources for Back to School

    Young people are being confronted at an increasingly early age by an anti-God, anti-Scripture worldview that desires to influence their minds, attitudes, and behaviors. Yet, believers can be hopeful, knowing that we are transformed as our minds are renewed by God’s truth (Rom. 12:2). The following resources, curated by the Ligonier editorial team, focus on building up teenagers and young adults in the truths of God’s Word, that they might effectively identify and refute ungodly worldviews, as well as grow in their knowledge of the Lord and His will.
    Reformation Study Bible, Student Edition by Ligonier Ministries
    This resource makes the trusted teaching of Dr. R.C. Sproul and the Reformation Study Bible accessible to young people, helping them dig deeper into the Scriptures to find answers and direction for all of life. Practical lessons from every book of the Bible, together with questions and answers on key subjects, encourage lifelong study and growth in God’s Word.
    Surviving Religion 101_ by Michael Kruger
    This book, aimed toward collegians, seeks to equip students attending secular universities by addressing a number of difficult questions they will face regarding the Christian worldview. Written as a series of letters, Surviving Religion 101 can strengthen students and help foster a more solid grasp on biblical truth.
    Thriving at College by Alex Chediak
    Written by a college professor, this book addresses the ten most common mistakes that college students make, as well as how to avoid them. In addition to providing sound advice for the college years, the book also seeks to cultivate mature adulthood to the glory of God during these formative years of transition.
    What’s Your Worldview? by James Anderson
    This book addresses the critical question of how a person views the world by helping readers identify and evaluate various worldviews. This resource can assist those who are asking the big questions about life, addressing not only what to believe, but also the reasons for those beliefs and how they shape our lives.
    Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung
    Those laboring over the question “What is God’s will for my life?” can find helpful biblical guidance from this book. While its scriptural approach can assist readers of all ages and stages of life, it is especially helpful in providing sound guidance for young adults facing their first major life decisions.
    Karrie Hahn
  21. 7 min

    The Masculine Mandate: God's Calling to Men, New from Reformation Trust Publishing

    Genesis 2:15 summarizes our calling as men in our various roles. God put Adam in the garden “to work it and keep it,” and the only difference between Adam’s calling and ours lies in the details of how we seek to fulfill it.
    So far, I have laid the doctrinal groundwork for this position and developed the theme within marriage, where a woman is to be built up and kept safe by her husband. But does this mandate apply to a man’s calling as father? It absolutely does.
    Page 122 - In our study of manhood and the Bible’s Masculine Mandate to work and keep, it is obvious why we focused first on marriage and fatherhood. These are the personal relationships that dominate a man’s life. But they are not the only relationships a man is to enjoy. One mark of a true godly man is his faithfulness in friendship to other men, especially to Christian brothers. The Bible celebrates the true friend, and most of us find that godly male companions are among the most blessed resources in life.
    Pages 131-132 - In demonstrating the use of the Masculine Mandate among God’s people collectively, Nehemiah set a precedent that holds even today. Within the church, men are called to work and keep in service to God. That is, Christian men are to labor in the church with the trowel in one hand (Adam’s gardening trowel and Nehemiah’s brick mason’s trowel supplemented by the “trowels” of a thousand other professions and pursuits) and with the sword of truth (which never really changes) in the other hand. Under such servant-laborers and the guardian care of godly men, Christ’s church grows strong and remains safe for its mission of spreading the gospel in the world.
    Retail: $15 | Buy it now for $12
    About the Author
    Richard D. Phillips (M.Div., Westminster Theological Seminary) is senior minister of the historic Second Presbyterian Church in Greenville, S.C., a member of the council of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, and chairman of the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, which was founded by James Montgomery Boice.
    He is the author of numerous books, including Jesus the Evangelist, What’s So Great about the Doctrines of Grace?, and Hebrews in the Reformed Expository Commentary series. His preaching is heard weekly on the radio program God’s Living Word. Prior to his calling to the gospel ministry, Rev. Phillips served as a tank officer in the U.S. Army and was assistant professor of leadership at the United States Military Academy, West Point, resigning with the rank of major. He lives with his wife, Sharon, and their five children in the Upcountry of South Carolina.
    View other books and articles by Richard D. Phillips.
    Deborah Finnamore
  22. 72 min

    The Attractions of the New Perspective(s) on Paul

    Many intelligent Christians are puzzling today over what is being called "the new perspective on Paul." Seminary students run across it in their New Testament course reading and perhaps class lectures. Pastors hear about it from fledgling theologues wanting to impress them with their newfound knowledge of the latest thing in Pauline studies. Laypeople find it being peddled ubiquitously on the internet, on websites, in chatrooms or in various online discussion groups, as well as in numerous books on the Christian market, even from conservative evangelical publishing houses.
    Why Talk About It?
    We take up this subject mindful of the wise old dictum of the Westminster divines, who advise that in "confutation of false doctrines," the preacher "is neither to raise an old heresy from the grave, nor mention a blasphemous opinion unnecessarily: but, if the people be in danger of an error, he is to confute it soundly, and endeavor to satisfy their judgments and consciences against all objections."2 Our very taking up of the subject of the new perspective on Paul, then, assumes several things. (1) The new perspective on Paul is not some ancient matter, of no relevance to the current spiritual health of God's people, being trucked out to impress them with the preacher's skill in historical theology, New Testament exegesis and contemporary hermeneutics. (2) The new perspective on Paul is not a subject taken up unnecessarily. Indeed, to fail to take it up would leave church members, ministers and ministerial students vulnerable to an opinion that is, at the very least, undermining the definition of, and confidence in the historic Protestant understanding of, the Gospel itself. (3) The new perspective on Paul is productive of dangerous errors; errors which are increasingly common pertaining to our understanding of the nature of the Gospel, the meaning and importance of justification, the imputation of Christ's righteousness and more. And thus it needs to be understood and addressed so as to be confuted soundly. This presentation is one step in that direction.
    Never Heard Of It
    It may well be that you have never heard of the new perspective on Paul. If so, after you have heard this talk, you will have been introduced to something of its background, and its main ideas and assertions, as well as its problems. Perhaps this will help prepare you for encounters with the purveyors of the new perspective in the future, or to be intelligently skeptical of it when you run across it in books and commentaries. On the other hand, some readers may well have already read material, in the process of keeping up with what's going on in Pauline studies today, or in talking with a young ministerial student in your congregation, or with whom you have regular contact. Perhaps this student has become intrigued by and enamored of this new approach to understanding what Paul is saying in his letters. Maybe the student has articulated some opinions to you that sounded a little bit different from what you had always believed, and
    Ligon Duncan
  23. 3 min

    7 Reasons the Old Testament is Neglected

    "You'll find our text this morning in the Old Testament…" I know this is a rare announcement on a Sunday morning, but when you heard it last, what did you think?
    "Oh no! Not another historical lecture." "We're going to get a whipping with the law today." "Why? I came to church to hear about Jesus." "What's Israel and Babylon got to do with my family struggles?"
    Or maybe you didn't just think it. You said it or emailed it to the pastor afterwards. And pastors are feeling the pressure. Some surveys put the ratio of Old Testament to New Testament sermons at 1 to 10. Some would like it nearer 0 to 10.
    But might this imbalance in the spiritual diet of most Christians explain many of the spiritual problems in the modern Church and in modern Christians? Or as Gleason Archer put it: "How can Christian pastors hope to feed their flock on a well-balanced spiritual diet if they completely neglect the 39 books of Holy Scripture on which Christ and all the New Testament authors received their own spiritual nourishment?"
    Where did the Old Testament go?
    It wasn't always like this. The Church used to have a much more balanced diet. So how did we get here?
    1. Liberalism: The sustained attack on the Old Testament by liberal scholars has shaken many Christians' confidence in this part of the Bible.
    2. Ignorance: It is almost impossible to understand large parts of the Old Testament without knowledge of the historical context and geographical setting. But, while this knowledge was once widespread, many now know little or nothing of biblical history.
    3. Irrelevance: Some look at the historical and geographical details of the Old Testament and wonder what possible relevance can events and places from thousands of years ago have for me? And anyway, the New Testament teaches that many Old Testament practices have stopped. So, why study them?
    4. Dispensationalism: Although unintended, the dispensational division of Scripture into different eras tends to relegate the Old Testament to a minor role in the life of the Church, and of the individual Christian.
    5. Bad Examples: Bad examples of Old Testament preaching and teaching are easy to find and even easier to ridicule. The malpractice of some, however, should not lead to the non-practice of others.
    6. Laziness: Studying the Old Testament is often more intellectually demanding than the New Testament. The familiar paths of the Gospels seem much more inviting than Leviticus, 2 Chronicles, or Nahum!
    7. Christ-less preaching: Perhaps the greatest reason for so little interest in the Old Testament is that there has been so much Christ-less teaching from the Old Testament. At a popular level, Old Testament preaching has often degenerated into mere moralism (e.g. "Ten lessons from the life of Moses"). At an academic level, there seems to be a determination to downplay and even remove any possibility of Christ-centeredness in the Old Testament. Little surprise then that many turn away from the Old Testament and towards
    David Murray
  24. 1 min

    What’s so “Minor” about the Minor Prophets?

    When we refer to the last twelve books of the Old Testament as the Minor Prophets, we’re not dismissing them as unimportant or insignificant. Although these books are shorter—and therefore “minor”—their teaching remains vital.
    In today’s message from his video teaching series Dust to Glory, R.C. Sproul gives us brief vignettes of three of these prophets: Joel, Micah, and Habakkuk. Each of them provides a lens to help us see God’s character in spectacular glory, revealing His holiness, faithfulness, and steadfast love for His people.
    These prophets also herald God’s mercy and grace in the new covenant. Micah predicts Bethlehem as the birthplace of the Messiah (5:2). Joel’s promise that the Lord will pour out His Spirit (2:28–29) is fulfilled during Pentecost. And we see echoes of Habakkuk’s teaching that “the righteous shall live by his faith” (2:4) throughout the New Testament.
    If you’ve overlooked the Minor Prophets in the past, we hope today’s message will spark your interest and encourage you to study all twelve of them more closely.
    Watch today’s message, or for a limited time, request your copy of the full teaching series Dust to Glory for a donation of any amount. You can also dig deeper into the Scriptures with the Reformation Study Bible_._
    “God
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