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  2. Tabletalk
    Daily Study

    Reaching the World for Christ

    Christ entrusted his church with the Great Commission, calling His people to go forth and make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18–20). In the outworking of redemption, our Savior has therefore purposed that people will be saved in and through the mission of the church to preach the gospel to every creature, to baptize people in the name of the triune God, and to teach them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded. Our Lord certainly did not need to structure things this way, but He has granted His church the privilege of participating in the greatest rescue mission of all time, His mission to seek and to save the lost.
    The book of Acts describes the initial work of the church in carrying out this mission, and in our study of the book thus far, we have read about how many thousands of people came to faith in Christ through the work of Peter, John, Philip, and others (chs. 1–12). This month we will see how the Apostolic mission took another step forward. Looking to Acts 13–14, we will study the Apostle Paul’s first missionary journey. We will then look at several other portions of Scripture that deal with the mission to the gentiles.
    These verses parallel the themes of the studies each week. We encourage you to hide them in your heart so that you may not sin against the Lord:
    Tabletalk

  3. Jesus and the Law of God

    Major theological traditions have all looked to the law of God, especially the Ten Commandments, as the basis for ethics. Creeds and catechisms devote much space to expositing the Ten Commandments and what they tell us to do and what not to do. This might strike some people as strange. A great deal of popular non-Christian thinking portrays Jesus as someone who told us only to “love one another,” allowing us to define love for ourselves. Yet, even Christians can miss the coherence between a law-based ethic and the teaching of Jesus. After all, some texts seem to indicate that Jesus opposed the law of God, at least on a cursory reading.
    Today we will consider one text that might call into question our Savior’s commitment to the law of God. In Matthew 5:21–26, Jesus seems to contrast or even oppose the sixth commandment. It is almost as if He is willing to set aside the law against murder in favor of His teaching against hatred. “You have heard. . . . But I say . . .” (vv. 21–22) certainly seems as if it could be a contradiction.
    However, as Dr. R.C. Sproul frequently cautioned us, we must be careful students of Scripture and not just surface-level readers of the text. Looking closely at the passage, we see that our Lord by no means was seeking to overturn the sixth commandment. Note that He opens His teaching with “you have heard that it was said,” not “it is written.” This indicates that our Lord is not actually quoting Scripture as Scripture. When Jesus and the Apostles do that, they say “it is written” or something like “in the Scriptures” (Matt. 4:4; 21:42; Rom. 1:17; 1 Peter 1:16). The more general, “you have heard that it was said,” points not to the actual biblical text but to what others have said about the text. In other words, Jesus is alluding to the interpretation of the passage, particularly the interpretation of the Pharisees. His goal is to show where the Pharisees’ oral tradition was wrong. Significantly, the Pharisees were content with a mere outward observance of the law. They believed that the law against murder had been kept as long as one did not actually kill someone else. But the law against murder forbids everything that tends toward murder, including unjust and uncontrolled anger. Jesus is not contradicting the sixth commandment but pointing out that keeping it involves more than just refraining from actual murder. He is saying that we keep the sixth commandment only if we also put hatred to death in our hearts.
    matthew 5:21–26
  4. 29 min

    A Man More Sinned Against than Sinning?: The Portrait of Martin Luther in Contemporary New Testament Scholarship

    of the Spirit; he feels a battle between contrary laws in his own members; he delights in the law of God; he sees himself as fighting between two contrary laws; he cries out to God for help; and, finally, he declares that in his mind he serves the law of God. In other words, far from reading back pre-conversion struggles into Paul’s statements in Romans 7, Luther gives no less than ten reasons why Romans 7 cannot be dealing with the pre-conversion agonies of the apostle but must be dealing with his experience as a Christian. Little did he know it at the time, but in doing this Luther was also providing us with ten compelling reasons for rejecting Dunn’s portrait of the Reformer. Given this fact, it is perhaps not entirely surprising that Dunn chooses not to cite any relevant primary evidence for his arguments at this point; indeed, we can, I think, legitimately ask whether Professor Dunn has ever read Luther on Romans 7.
    The case against Dunn, however, does not end here. We still have the Augustine connection with which to deal. Now Dunn is correct on one point: Luther is indeed influenced by Augustine in his reading of Romans 7. In fact, he quotes him at length, and with approval, on the issue of whether Paul is describing himself as believer or unbeliever here. The problem for Dunn, however, is that Luther had an extensive knowledge of Augustine’s writings, and chose to use a passage from the Retractations, not the earlier anti-Pelagian material, to support his reading. This passage is quoted by Luther as follows in his comments on Romans 7:7 and following:
    When the apostle says: 'We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am carnal’ (v.14), I was absolutely unwilling to understand this passage as referring to the person of the apostle who was already spiritual, but I wanted to refer it to him as a man placed under the Law and not yet under grace. This is the way I first understood these words, but later, after I had read certain interpretations of the divine words by men whose authority impressed me, I considered the matter more carefully and saw that the passage could also be understood of the apostle himself.
    In other words, Luther is influenced by Augustine at this point, but by the later Augustine, and that into reading Romans 7 as the struggle of a believer not the preconversion agonies of an unbeliever under conviction of sin. The reading of Luther on Romans 7 offered by Dunn is therefore simply risible in its theological claims and its statements about its relationship to Augustine because in every significant way it is demonstrably incorrect. Given this, it is perhaps no surprise that even Dunn’s citation of the autobiographical fragment is not taken from an original Luther source (Latin or translation), but is adapted from R H Bainton’s popular biography, Here I Stand. The question of Dunn’s first-hand acquaintance with the Lutheran sources looms large.
    In
    Carl R. Trueman

  5. This Pornographic Life

    Well, you’ve done it again. Once more, you find yourself looking where you ought not. And this you have willfully done. Yes, you’ve begged God to remove this blight, these gross desires. You even made some headway. But you’ve gone off and done it again. Forget confession, God doesn’t want to hear that same old prayer, especially not when you know you’ll be breaking your commitment before long. On the other hand, maybe God doesn’t care that much about all this. After all, He made you; He knows your natural desires, He knows what you need. Why would He make you this way and get all worked up when you act on it? It’s not that big of a deal; He doesn’t think you need to confess.
    Well, you couldn’t be further from the truth — on both counts.
    We’ve just taken note in our last daily study how marriage is under attack (and, incidentally, we’ll study in the coming days the importance of the vows we take). It is under attack from all sides, not least from within. Our failure to recognize that life is not about being happy but about bringing glory to our God, leads even us Christians to botch marriage up. And a great deal of this botching up comes by way of our society’s addiction to pornography.
    A quick glance reveals a few surprising statistics (taken from the Internet’s Filter Review):
    • 89% of porn is created in the United States
    • $2.84 billion in revenue was generated from U.S. porn web sites in 2006 
    • $89 per second is spent on porn
    • 72% of porn viewers are men
    • 260 new porn sites go online every day
    This, of course, doesn’t take into account the sex industry as a whole, which topped at around $13 billion in 2006. In the case of the Internet, this means that any and all types of pornography can be easily accessed, with spouses none the wiser — in this case, mostly wives. For those not willing to pay for such thrills, the number of free sites is equally staggering. All of this amounts to the ruin of the marital relationship — in the case of single men and women, before it even comes into fruition.
    There was a time when pornography was a luxury reserved for the upper echelon, and there was a time, more recently, when one had to drive to a sleazy part of town, walk into a certain section in the video store, or ask the clerk behind the counter in order to find pornography. It was public. But no longer. All that has changed. Everyone can afford it now, and in the privacy of one’s home too. And even though there are many “free” web sites out there, the cost is never free, for the toll it takes is destruction itself.
    The reason for this is simple, and Scripture speaks to it clearly. When the Creator God commanded Adam and Eve to take care of His earth, part of
    Chris Donato
  6. Tabletalk
    Daily Study

    Portrait of a Prayer Wrestler

    Another new year has come, and with it comes this perennial question: “How can I make this year better than the previous one?” For the spiritually minded, thoughts turn to spiritual wellness. Most Christians will have to admit that the area that needs most improvement is their prayer life.
    Although the Scriptures abound with examples of great heroes of the faith in prayer, one worthy example is a little-known individual named Epaphras. Although there are only five verses of Scripture about him (Col. 1:7–8; 4:12–13; Philem. 1:23), he is set forth as a model for serious prayer. He was a native Colossian, apparently converted during Paul’s lengthy ministry in Ephesus on the third missionary journey, who himself became the founder of the churches in the Lycus Valley (Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis). He was their faithful circuit-riding pastor.
    When false teachers began to infiltrate those churches, seeking to take the saints captive to their soul-destroying errors, Epaphras made the thousand-mile trip to Rome to report the threat to Paul and seek his counsel on how to deal with it. Paul, at that time under house arrest, penned with urgency the epistle to the Colossians. When that letter had been dispatched, Epaphras remained with Paul for some time. In Colossians, we read Paul’s commendation of their faithful pastor: “Epaphras . . . greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God” (Col. 4:12). In somewhat abbreviated form, Paul described the frequency, the fervency, and the focus of the prayers of Epaphras for his people. Note especially the words “struggling on your behalf in his prayers.” This word has been variously translated as “laboring earnestly” or “wrestling” and can be transliterated as “agonizing.” It pictures the serious effort and energy of an athlete contending for the victor’s crown. Similar language is used to describe the agony of Jesus in prayer in Gethsemane. Concerning the prayers of Epaphras, Andrew Bonar said: “His were Gethsemane prayers. He made [Paul’s place of confinement] fragrant with the sweet incense of prayer.”
    We speak often of “prayer warriors,” and we know the great blessing of having such saints pray for us. Epaphras may be described as a “prayer wrestler,” and what a gift from God it is to have such people praying for us.
    What characterizes a prayer wrestler? Such a person (1) knows that he is in a serious war, (2) knows that this war is constant, (3) knows that the most important things to pray for are spiritual needs, (4) knows that the task will never be easy, (5) knows that he himself is in great need of prayer, (6) knows that he has divine help in his praying, and (7) knows that God can do much more than he could ever ask or imagine.
    Let us thank the Lord for the prayer wrestlers who have prayed for us. May He help us all to be serious and intense in our prayers.
    Tabletalk
  7. 1 min

    Ferguson, Godfrey, Lawson, Mohler and Sproul on Evolution, Politics, Pornography, and More

    One highlight of our conferences is the opportunity to gather great minds for a time of questions and answers.
    At our 2012 National Conference on the subject of "The Christian Mind," R.C. Sproul was joined by Sinclair Ferguson, Robert Godfrey, Steven Lawson, and Albert Mohler for our first questions and answers session. Below you'll find the questions they were asked. Using the timestamp you can skip forward to hear a specific answer.
    How do we instill a desire in our pastors and church leaders to engage science? 0:00-6:28
    How do I grow in the knowledge of God's truth in an environment that is openly hostile to it? 6:29-10:17
    How should Christians address evolution? 10:18-15:57
    How do we present the truth of the Bible to Catholics, Muslims, and other religions in a loving way without being confrontational? 15:58-18:08
    Why should we trust in the authority of the Bible over other sacred writings? 18:09-28:47
    Is it a sin for a Christian to vote for a Mormon or a Roman Catholic for President of the United States? 28:48-32:56
    I'm concerned that if we shelter our children too much from our society during their eduction, they will not know how to deal with people who disagree with them. Shouldn't we prepare our children so that as young adults they will be courageous? 32:57-36:30
    Can we say our rights that are bestowed to us by God are truly self-evident and the concept of inalienable rights have any foundation or stability apart from God or His Word as it is revealed? 36:31-41:18
    Do you believe that embracing postmillennialism leads to anti-intellectualism considering that some of the greater minds have held this belief? 41:19-42:24
    What can the local church do to address the rampant problem of Christian men who struggle with or addicted to pornography? 41:25-46:50
    Purchase or stream the other sessions from our 2012 National Conference.
    Ligonier Updates
  8. 58:53

    Questions and Answers #2

    Voddie Baucham, Stephen Nichols, R.C. Sproul, and Derek Thomas answer questions ranging from how God views the elect before they are saved, defining a Reformed view of speaking in tongues, and how to know if we've truly "repented enough."
    Questions:
    1. Athanasius confronted the issue of the deity of Christ. What is the strongest enemy the church faces today? (00:10)
    2. If God wants us to spend all eternity with Him, why didn't He just put us with Him from the beginning? (08:43)
    3. How do we deal with knowing some of our loved ones may be headed to perdition? (11:29)
    4. Since we are chosen before the foundation of the world, how does God view us before we are born again? (15:30)
    5. Dr. Baucham, you said that you had overcome numerous struggles as a married adult man due to not having your father around when younger. I can relate. Can you talk about this a bit? (16:42)
    6. I am trying to reconcile the death of my son. How do I deal with my anger against God experienced as I am in this dark time? (20:08)
    7. Since God is slow to anger and patient, why, when man first sinned, was His wrath and punishment so severe? (23:19)
    8. What is the minimal amount of gospel truth that must be believed to be saved? (25:43)
    9. How can we overcome the view that the OT portrays an unloving and ungracious God? (29:25)
    10. Can you discuss the relationship between God's sovereignty in salvation and man's responsibility? (33:30)
    11. What is the balance between standing for truth and maintaining the unity of the Spirit? (34:08)
    12. About Luther's anti-Semitism seen in his writings—How can these attitudes and actions of the father of the Reformation be justified? (38:26)
    13. What is the Reformed view of speaking in tongues? (43:20)
    14. Given that we are not of the world, but sent into the world, what should our political involvement be, particularly for moral issues? (46:22)
    15. I have a friend who says she is saved but has no need for the church. How can I help her return to church? (49:00)
    16. How can pastors encourage their flocks to engage the world in the most effective way in the public square? (52:04)
    17. Is repentance more than a change of mind? How can I know that I've repented enough? (53:52)
    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.
  9. 48:20

    Questions & Answers #1

    Sinclair Ferguson, W. Robert Godfrey, Albert Mohler and R.C. Sproul answer questions on the Christian mind and thought.

    Questions:

    1. How do we instill a desire in our pastors and church leaders to engage science? (0:00)
    2. How do I grow in the knowledge of God's truth in an environment that is openly hostile to it? (6:29)
    3. How should Christians address evolution? (10:18)
    4. How do we present the truth of the Bible to Catholics, Muslims, and other religions in a loving way without being confrontational? (15:58)
    5. Why should we trust in the authority of the Bible over other sacred writings? (18:09)
    6. Is it a sin for a Christian to vote for a Mormon or a Roman Catholic for President of the United States? (28:48)
    7. I'm concerned that if we shelter our children too much from our society during their eduction, they will not know how to deal with people who disagree with them. Shouldn’t we prepare our children so that as young adults the will be courageous? (32:57)
    8. Can we say our rights that are bestowed to us by God are truly self-evident and the concept of inalienable rights have any foundation or stability apart from God or His Word as it is revealed? (36:31)
    9. Do you believe that embracing postmillennialism leads to anti-intellectualism considering that some of the greater minds have held this belief? (41:19)
    10. What can the local church do to address the rampant problem of Christian men who struggle with or addicted to pornography? (41:25)
    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.
  10. Tabletalk
    Exclusive Post

    Book Review: The Desecration of Man by Carl R. Trueman

    In every era and in every part of the world, the enemy tests the defenses of the Christian church at specific points of doctrine and practice. Today, in the West at least, the focal point of attack is the biblical doctrine of humanity. Abortion, euthanasia, transhumanism, transgenderism, rampant pornography, LGBTQ+ ideology, racism, feminism—all of these and more raise questions about what it means to be human. The topic is at the forefront of almost every major public discussion today.
    Keith Mathison
    Tabletalk Magazine
  11. Tabletalk
    Print Article : June 2024

    Desire and Identity in Today’s Culture

    When I was in grad school for English literature, I took a course on science fiction. Only after registration had closed did I discover that the seminar was on a specific type of science fiction: lesbian science fiction. I hadn’t even known that there was such a thing. But I spent the next sixteen weeks trying to listen honestly, dodge certain portions of the reading, and agonize over how to contribute anything helpful. In class discussion, I took the strategy of the wise man—I shut up most of the time. When the conversation inevitably went to the evils of the Christian Bible, I would venture a defense of Scripture’s vision of women, sexuality, or relationships.
    Jeremy Pierre
    Tabletalk Magazine
  12. Tabletalk
    Print Article : February 2021

    God’s Providence Applied in Our Lives

    Nothing is more practical than the doctrine of providence, for it engenders both faith and godly fear. When Christ teaches us how to deal with anxiety, He reminds us that God the Father feeds every little bird and clothes every flower with its lovely colors (Matt. 6:25–30). How much more, then, should we trust Him to care for His own beloved children? Whether one is willing to admit it or not, everyone constantly lives in the presence of the living God. The more the believer is conscious of God’s providence, the more it can be said of him, as B.B. Warfield wrote, “Everywhere he sees God in His mighty stepping, everywhere he feels the working of His mighty arm, the throbbing of His mighty heart.”
    Joel Beeke
    Tabletalk Magazine
  16. 3 min

    How Should Christians Respond to Attacks and Insults?

    “ordinary” Christians to do anything extraordinary. We are all called to bear our injuries with joy, patience, love, and gentleness.
    This kind of response is required of all of us because the Christian life is about the imitation of Christ (1 Cor. 11:1). We are being molded into His image, so we are to strive to live as He lived. Our Lord was slandered and falsely accused of all kinds of offenses, but He opened not His mouth in protest (Isa. 53:7). Like a lamb, He accepted these vitriolic attacks, and, in the very moment of His passion, He prayed for the forgiveness of those who were attacking Him (Luke 23:34). This is how we are called to react to our enemies (1 Peter 4:13). Therefore, every false accusation, every slander, every ill word spoken about me is an opportunity for me to grow in my sanctification.
    Edwards helped me see that I had allowed my soul to become distressed, and that was sin. Instead of seeing the attack on me as an occasion to imitate Christ and to grow in my sanctification, I had resisted God’s Spirit, who had brought this painful event into my life for my edification, that I might remember where my treasure is.
    The key to responding to attacks and insults as Christ would is to nurture love for God. Edwards writes: As love to God prevails, it tends to set persons above human injuries, in this sense, that the more they love God the more they will place all their happiness in him. They will look to God as their all and seek their happiness in portion in his favor, and thus not in the allotments of his providence alone. The more they love God, the less they set their hearts on their worldly interests, which are all that their enemies can touch.
    We need to keep Edwards’ insight in mind as we deal with the inevitable attacks and insults that come our way in this life.
    R.C. Sproul
  17. 3 min

    The Basis of a Christian Marriage

    Some years ago, I attended an interesting wedding. I was especially struck by the creativity of the ceremony. The bride and the groom had brainstormed with the pastor in order to insert new and exciting elements into the service, and I enjoyed those elements. However, in the middle of the ceremony, they included portions of the traditional, classic wedding ceremony. When I began to hear the words from the traditional ceremony, my attention perked up and I was moved. I remember thinking, “There is no way to improve on this because the words are so beautiful and meaningful.” A great deal of thought and care had been put into those old, familiar words.
    Today, of course, many young people not only are saying no to the traditional wedding ceremony, they are rejecting the concept of marriage itself. More and more young people are coming from broken homes, and as a result, they have a fear and suspicion about the value of marriage. So we see couples living together rather than marrying for fear that the cost of that commitment may be too much. They fear it may make them too vulnerable. This means that one of the most stable and, as we once thought, permanent traditions of our culture is being challenged.
    One of the things I like most about the traditional wedding ceremony is that it includes an explanation as to why there is such a thing as marriage. We are told in that ceremony that marriage is ordained and instituted by God—that is to say, marriage did not just spring up arbitrarily out of social conventions or human taboos. Marriage was not invented by men but by God.
    We see this in the earliest chapters of the Old Testament, where we find the creation account. We find that God creates in stages, beginning with the light (Gen. 1:3) and capping the process with the creation of man (v. 27). At every stage, He utters a benediction, a “good word.” God repeatedly looks at what He has made and says, “That’s good” (vv. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31).
    But then God notices something that provokes not a benediction but what we call a malediction, that is, a “bad word.” What was this thing that God saw in His creation that He judged to be “not good”? We find it in Genesis 2:18, where God declares, “It is not good that the man should be alone.” That prompts Him to create Eve and bring her to Adam. God instituted marriage, and He did it, in the first instance, as an answer to human loneliness. For this reason, God inspired Moses to write, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).
    But while I like and appreciate the words of the traditional wedding ceremony, I believe the form of the ceremony is even more important. This is because the traditional ceremony involves the making of a covenant. The
    R.C. Sproul
  18. 3 min

    A Charitable Reaction

    “ordinary” Christians to do anything extraordinary. We are all called to bear our injuries with joy, patience, love, and gentleness.
    This kind of response is required of all of us because the Christian life is about the imitation of Christ (1 Cor. 11:1). We are being molded into His image, so we are to strive to live as He lived. Our Lord was slandered and falsely accused of all kinds of offenses, but He opened not His mouth in protest (Isa. 53:7). Like a lamb, He accepted these vitriolic attacks, and, in the very moment of His passion, He prayed for the forgiveness of those who were attacking Him (Luke 23:34). This is how we are called to react to our enemies (1 Peter 4:13). Therefore, every false accusation, every slander, every ill word spoken about me is an opportunity for me to grow in my sanctification.
    Edwards helped me see that I had allowed my soul to become distressed, and that was sin. Instead of seeing the attack on me as an occasion to imitate Christ and to grow in my sanctification, I had resisted God’s Spirit, who had brought this painful event into my life for my edification, that I might remember where my treasure is.
    The key to responding to attacks and insults as Christ would is to nurture love for God. Edwards writes: As love to God prevails, it tends to set persons above human injuries, in this sense, that the more they love God the more they will place all their happiness in him. They will look to God as their all and seek their happiness in portion in his favor, and thus not in the allotments of his providence alone. The more they love God, the less they set their hearts on their worldly interests, which are all that their enemies can touch.
    We need to keep Edwards’ insight in mind as we deal with the inevitable attacks and insults that come our way in this life.
    R.C. Sproul
  19. 10 min

    Oh How I Love Your Law!

    or even excuse them. (Rom. 2:14–15; see also 7:7–25)
    But God wants His portrait—His image—back.
    Moses
    In essence, the Mosaic law—summarized in the Decalogue—was a rewriting on tablets of stone of the constitution written on man’s heart in creation. But now the law came to fallen man, and included sin offerings to address the new condition of humanity. It came to one distinct nation in one specific land. And it came until the coming of the Redeemer promised in Genesis 3:15. Therefore, it was given largely in negative terms, with added applications relevant for one specific nation in a single land, until the day when the types and sacrifices of the law would be fulfilled in Christ.
    The law was given to people as “under-age children” (Gal. 3:23–4:5)—largely in negative form. We, too, teach our children: “Don’t stick the screwdriver into the electric socket!” long before we explain to them how electricity works. It is the simplest and safest way to protect them.
    But it was already clear to old covenant believers that the law’s negations enshrined positive commands. The negative “No other gods before me” implied the full-color, developed picture of loving the Lord with all of one’s heart, and commandments two through four fleshed out that picture. The rest of the commandments were negatives to be developed in “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
    In addition, since the animal sacrifices substituted for humans’ sins, they clearly lacked in proportion and could not deliver the forgiveness they pictured. An old covenant believer could work that out by going to the temple two days in a row: the priest was still standing at the altar, sacrificing all over again (Heb. 10:1–4, 11). The final adequate sacrifice was still to come.
    And then the Decalogue was given civil application for the people in the land. But these local laws would no longer function in the same way for God’s people when they would be scattered throughout all the nations. The preservation and advance of His kingdom would then no longer be dependent on them.
    All of this is well expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith’s teaching that the “moral law” continues, the “ceremonial law” is fulfilled, and the “civil law” is abrogated, although we can clearly still learn a great deal from the ceremonial and civil legislation (19.3–5). An old covenant believer could understand this, albeit with less clarity. After all, only the Decalogue was placed in the ark, as an expression of the very character and heart of God. Yes, the law was one because the God who gave it is one. But the law of Moses was not monolithic—it was multidimensional, having a foundation and also spheres of application. The former was permanent; the latter were interim arrangements until the coming day dawned.
    Old covenant believers really did love the law. They delighted in it. Their covenant God cared so much that He had rephrased His original instructions for them so that they could guide the people as sinners. Old covenant believers who knew and meditated on
    Sinclair Ferguson
  20. 5 min

    How Was Circumcision a Sign of the Covenant?

    Early on in my pastoral ministry, I decided to preach a sermon series through Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Throughout the series, I dealt with the passages that referenced the old covenant sign of circumcision. After addressing the subject of circumcision several Sundays in a row, I was approached by a congregant who wanted to express his disapproval of me preaching “something of such a sensitive nature as circumcision” since young children were present. In response, I asked if he believed that I should faithfully preach God’s Word. He said, “Of course!” I then asked if he believed that I should faithfully preach from every part of God’s Word (i.e., Law, Wisdom, Prophets, Gospels, Epistles, and apocalyptic literature). “Absolutely,” he replied. Recognizing that he didn’t understand the prevalence of circumcision throughout Scripture or that God gave it as a sign of the covenant promise in the old covenant era of redemptive history, I explained that one would have to refrain from preaching a large portion of the Bible if he could not talk about the meaning of circumcision.
    Misunderstandings about circumcision should come as no surprise to us. After all, even many in old covenant Israel failed to rightly understand the nature of the covenant sign of circumcision. Instead of trusting in the Christ to whom it pointed, they trusted in it as a badge of ethnic superiority. Instead of seeing it as the divinely appointed gospel sign of God’s covenant, they viewed it as a fleshly mark of merit. Several factors contribute to this ongoing misunderstanding of the nature of circumcision as a covenant sign in our day.
    The first thing that contributes to misunderstandings about circumcision is that the Apostles largely spoke of it in negative terms when they referenced it in their preaching or included it in their epistles. This was necessary since the Judaizers (as well as other groups of Jewish false teachers) were spreading a false gospel among the members of the fledgling churches, insisting that circumcision was necessary for salvation (see Acts 15:1, 5; Gal. 2; 5:3; 6:11–15). To deal decisively with these errors, the Apostles spoke strongly against the need for circumcision. The Judaizers were telling the gentile Christians, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” (see Acts 15:1). The Apostles made clear that this was a false gospel. As a notable exception, the Apostles also speak about the blessing of regeneration for elect Jews and gentiles using the term circumcision (see Col. 2:11–13).
    The second contributing factor is that many people today have never been taught the typological function of circumcision in redemptive history. After giving Abraham exceedingly great and precious promises, the Lord commanded him to give the covenant sign of circumcision to all the males in his household on the eighth day (see Gen. 17:11–14). Closely related to the covenant promise itself, the Lord calls the sign of circumcision “My covenant” (Gen. 17:10). God commanded Abraham to apply the sign of circumcision to
    Nick Batzig
  21. 9 min

    21 Reasons That the Handwriting Is on the Wall for the Abortion Industry

    Forty-eight years ago, the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision overturned legal restrictions on and prohibitions of abortion in all fifty states. It simultaneously laid the groundwork for what has become a multibillion-dollar global abortion industry.
    Today though, the industry is in trouble. Big trouble. Of course, that fact is hardly apparent to the casual observer. In fact, the grisly trade seems to be more powerful, more influential, and more relevant than ever before. Utilizing its considerable wealth, manpower, and influence, the “pro-choice” movement has proven to be adept at muscling its way into virtually every facet of modern life. It now plays a strategic role in the health and social services community. It exerts a major influence on education, providing the majority of sex education curricula and programs in both public and private schools. It carries considerable political clout through lobbying, legislation, campaigning, advocacy, and litigation. It has a tenured position in the new administration in Washington. It is involved in publishing, broadcast media production, judicial activism, public relations, foreign aid, psychological research counseling, sociological planning, demographic investigation, pharmacological development, contraceptive distribution and sales, mass advertising, and public legal service provision.
    Thanks to the abortion industry’s cavernously deep corporate pockets and its carefully crafted public relations efforts, it appears to enjoy wide popular acclaim for the provision of “effective and professional social services for the needy.”1 It seems to have manufactured for itself a sterling reputation for its development of what it advertises as “honest and insightful reality-based educational programs” for the young.2 It has conjured up high marks for its supposed advocacy of “low-cost, universally available counseling and health care services for women.”3 By all outward appearances, the business has become a kind of modern sociopolitical leviathan.
    Despite this, the abortion industry is in trouble.
    According to historian Hilaire Belloc, “It is often so with institutions already undermined; they are at their most splendid external phase when they are ripe for downfall.” Because it is indeed ripe for downfall, the abortion industry’s considerable political heft; its seemingly bottomless fiscal war chest; its enormous prestige; and its benign, American-as-apple-pie reputation have failed to shield it from a good deal of very troublesome controversy of late.
    At least part of the reason may be the very nature of the abortion business itself—along with the inevitable fallout that accompanies it. Consider these twenty-one portents.
    Business is actually declining—by as much as 37 percent over the last decade. And make no mistake: the abortion business is first and foremost a business. The steady erosion of the abortion business is likely due to a host of factors. But the effect is that vast abortion purveyors have become more and more dependent on government grants, bequests, and contracts. In addition, the industry has been hit by successive waves of negative publicity. During the summer and fall of 2015, a series of undercover videos revealed the true nature of the grisly abortion trade. Planned Parenthood, the oldest, largest, and best-organized provider of abortion services and the world’s most profitable nonprofit organization,
    George Grant
  22. 6 min

    Ministering to the Abused and the Abusers

    scenario unfolds. If we do, we'll be sure to deal with it inappropriately. Rather, we need in advance to have clear, written processes to follow.
    For Presbyterian churches, there is a sense in which that has already been determined for us. In the Presbyterian Church in America, for example, we have our denomination's Book of Church Order, which lays out a disciplinary process. For independent churches, which do not have denominational rules of discipline, there needs to be a clear, written process of church discipline. Regardless of denominational context, as church leaders we have to be determined to follow the process—no matter who is involved (Matt. 18:15–20; 1 Tim. 5:21).
    We have to admit, however, that we might need other protocols in place to help guide responses to specific situations. For example, when there is a suspicion or admission of child abuse, church leaders need to have and follow specific guidelines for reporting it to the appropriate civil authorities. In order to develop such protocols, it will be necessary to work with a local attorney to ensure that the church complies with the relevant state reporting laws. Having such a written protocol takes the guesswork out of reporting. In many states, the requirement is that church leaders report the matter as soon as it is discovered, and then allow the appropriate authorities to investigate and determine whether a crime has been committed. Working with the state in these matters is appropriate and biblical (Rom. 13:1–7).
    Be Firm yet Gentle
    The Apostle Paul urges us to restore sinners gently (Gal. 6:1). Such gentleness is not opposite to firmness and determination; rather, it stems from recognizing that we, too, are sinners. Such recognition should save us from self-righteous bluster or arrogant anger. To be sure, with sins such as child abuse there is an appropriate righteous anger over the sin and its long-term effects. Still, it is the kindness of God that leads to repentance (Rom. 2:4). Even as we deal gently and firmly with perpetrators, we are seeking their repentance and ultimate restoration.
    Often, though, we fail to show similar compassion toward the victims. Churches regularly make the news for failing to deal compassionately with women who divorce their husbands who are caught viewing child porn or for looking the other way when patterns of child abuse are uncovered. Other churches that refuse to stand up for women who are physically abused by their husbands or for children who are sexually abused by their fathers go unnoticed. Where is the compassion for these victims? As churches, we must be determined to demonstrate compassion to those who have been sinned against by being determined to do to them as we desire others would do for us (Matt. 7:12).
    Lead and Engage with the Gospel
    Both the perpetrator and the victim of sin need the same thing: the gospel of Jesus. Those who commit sexual sins—whether sexual immorality, adultery, or even sexual abuse—need to hear the gospel. The entire point of discipline is to confront the sinner with the claims
    Sean Michael Lucas
  23. 3 min

    Proclaiming Christ

    In his ministry, the Apostle Paul boldly proclaimed Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and as followers of Christ, we are called to do the same. Yet we do so knowing that the message of the gospel is foolishness to the world. As such, it has always been the object of derision by unbelievers. We see an example of this in a piece of ancient graffiti that was unearthed in Rome in 1857. The image depicts a human figure with the head of a donkey nailed to a cross. Next to the figure on the cross is a young man. An inscription in Greek reads, “Alexamenos worships his god.” Those who believe the image is intended to portray Christ on the cross understand it to be an intentional mockery of Christian worship of Jesus Christ.
    In our own day, the derision and mockery of Christ and Christians continues. A number of anti-Christian comedy acts, online videos, and memes declare, for example, that if Jesus was raised from the dead, then Christians worship a Jewish zombie. Should Christians be surprised at such blasphemous and, frankly, asinine attacks? How do we defend the person and work of Christ against such slanders?
    In order to proclaim and defend the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, several principles found in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians must be understood. The Corinthian Christians had been behaving according to the standards of worldly wisdom (vv. 10–17). In order to deal with this problem, Paul introduces a lengthy section in which he first criticizes the so-called wisdom of the world (1:18–2:5) and then offers true godly wisdom (2:6–3:4).
    In 1 Corinthians 1:18–31, within the section criticizing the wisdom of the world, Paul looks first at those who reject the gospel (vv. 18–25) and then at those who accept it (vv. 26–31). In doing so, he is able to expound on the stark differences between true and false wisdom. Three times in verses 18–25, Paul speaks of the gospel message as “folly” to unbelievers (vv. 18, 21, 23). He concludes this section by asserting that “the foolishness of God is wiser than men” (v. 25). According to what the world considers wisdom, the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified is utter folly. It is foolishness. We should not be terribly surprised, therefore, when unbelievers treat our Lord and His gospel with contempt.
    How do we answer such contempt? Well, we do not do it by altering the message of the gospel in order to make it something that unbelievers will consider wise. In other words, we don’t adapt the message to the standards of worldly wisdom. Other passages of Scripture point out the necessity and importance of providing evidence (1 John 1:1–4, for example), but here Paul cautions us with regard to our expectations. We are proclaiming something that unbelievers see as foolishness, and only the Spirit of God can open their eyes. We continue to proclaim the truth, however. We continue to preach Christ and Him crucified. While this message
    Keith Mathison
  24. 4 min

    Augustine of Hippo

    St. Augustine was born in A.D. 354 in the town of Thagaste in North Africa to a pagan father and a Christian mother.  From these inauspicious beginnings, he would eventually become one of the most influential thinkers in the history of the Church and Western civilization.  The ramifications of his debates with the Donatists and the Pelagians are still felt to this day in the Church.  His Confessions remains a spiritual classic among Christians of widely varying traditions.  His magnum opus, The City of God laid down the political and religious foundations for the following 1000 years of medieval history.  Those involved in serious theological debate continue to appeal to the writings of Augustine for support.
    It is too easy, however, for those of us who live over 1500 years after his death to read his works in a vacuum, without taking into consideration the context in which they were written.  We sometimes forget that Augustine was the Bishop of a small port town in North Africa called Hippo Regius and that he was living in a turbulent time in the waning days of the Western Roman Empire.  We forget that he had to deal day in and day out with the pastoral pressures and distractions of a sinful congregation.  We forget that he lived within a particular cultural, historical, religious and philosophical context that shaped his life and his work. Peter Brown has written a magnificent book that helps us to remember all of these things and to see Augustine within his own cultural context.  The original edition of Brown's biography was published in 1967, and since then it has attained the status of a modern classic.  Brown was inspired to offer a new edition with an epilogue because of the discovery in 1975 and again in 1990 of a number of previously unknown letters and sermons of Augustine.  He also desired to comment on the changing state of Augustinian studies in the last thirty years.
    The body of the text has remained unchanged.  Those interested in discovering where the author's thought has either developed or changed altogether are directed to the two new epilogues.
    The biography itself is a delight to read.  In addition to having a prose style that is almost poetic at times, Brown's mastery of the relevant materials makes it possible for him to effortlessly draw the reader into the everyday life and thought of the late fourth century.  Drawing upon sources ranging from official legal documents to simple inscriptions on tombs, he paints a vivid portrait of the cultural air that Augustine breathed.  Augustine is shown to be a flesh and blood human being with the same kinds of struggles and questions that many men and women throughout the centuries have faced.
    Part One of the book presents a fascinating glimpse into Augustine's early life—his relationship with his mother Monica, his education, his friendships, and his early devotion to Manichaeism.  Because Augustine spent some nine years among the Manichees, Brown devotes a fair amount of space to explaining
    Keith Mathison

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