R. C. Sproul: Difference between revisions

Ligonier Ministries hosts several theological conferences each year, including the main conference in [[Orlando, Florida|Orlando, FL]], at which Sproul was one of the primary speakers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ligonier.org/conferences.php|title=Conferences|publisher=Ligonier Ministries|access-date=July 30, 2008|archive-date=September 15, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915130051/http://www.ligonier.org/conferences.php|url-status=dead}}</ref> Sproul served as co-pastor at Saint Andrew's Chapel, a congregation in [[Sanford, Florida]].<ref name="Sproulbio" /><ref name="SaintAndrews">{{Cite web|url= http://www.saintandrewschapel.org/staff/rcsproul.php|title= Dr. R.C. Sproul|access-date= July 30, 2008|publisher= Saint Andrew's Chapel|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080625100317/http://www.saintandrewschapel.org/staff/rcsproul.php|archive-date= June 25, 2008|df= mdy-all}}</ref> He was ordained as an [[elder (religious)|elder]] in the [[United Presbyterian Church in the USA]] in 1965, but left that denomination around 1975 and joined the [[Presbyterian Church in America]]. He was also a Council member of the [[Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals]]. Being a staunch critic of the Catholic Church and [[Catholic theology]], Sproul denounced the 1994 [[ecumenism|ecumenical]] document ''[[Evangelicals and Catholics Together]].<ref>{{Citation |title=Books: Betraying the Reformation? |date=October 7, 1996 |newspaper=Christianity today |url=http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1996/october7/6tb054.html}}</ref>''

Sproul was an advocate of [[Calvinism]] in his many print, audio, and video publications, and advocated the [[Thomism|Thomistic]] (classical) approaches to [[Christian apologetics]], less common among Reformed apologists, most of whom prefer [[presuppositional apologetics|presuppositionalism]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2019}} A dominant theme in his ''Renewing Your Mind'' lessons is the [[Sacred|holiness]] and [[sovereignty]] of God. Sproul taught that [[Christian head covering|headcovering]] should be practiced in churches as the ordinance is "rooted and grounded in creation".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sproul |first1=R.C. |title=Do Paul's instructions about head coverings apply today, since he appeals to creation, not culture? |url=https://www.ligonier.org/learn/qas/do-pauls-instructions-about-head-coverings-apply-today-since-he-appeals-to-creation-not-culture |publisher=[[Ligonier Ministries]] |access-date=30 May 2022 |language=English}}</ref><ref name="Barth2019">{{cite web |last1=Barth |first1=Paul J. |title=Head Coverings in Worship? |url=https://purelypresbyterian.com/2019/07/15/head-coverings-in-worship/ |publisher=Purely Presbyterian |access-date=10 April 2022 |language=English |date=15 July 2019 |quote=R.C. Sproul writes, “The wearing of fabric head coverings in worship was universally the practice of Christian women until the twentieth century.” Incidentally, I remember talking with my mother some years back, and she told me that when she went to church as a little girl, she and her sister wore hats to church. And she was not Presbyterian – that was the case across all American Christianity. “What happened?” Sproul asks, “Did we suddenly find some biblical truth to which the saints for thousands of years were blind? Or were our biblical views of women gradually eroded by the modern feminist movement that has infiltrated the Church of Jesus Christ which is ‘the pillar and ground of the truth’ ()?”}}</ref>

Sproul was a critic of [[postmodern philosophy]]. Having examined the effects of [[relativism]] on Western society, Sproul considered the 21st century to be "the most narcissistic generation in the history of the human race."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sproul |first=R. C. |date=April 3, 2010 |title=How Does Today's Postmodernism Affect the Popular Understanding of the Atonement? |url=https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/how-does-todays-postmodernism-affect-popular-understanding-atonement |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240512072735/https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/how-does-todays-postmodernism-affect-popular-understanding-atonement |archive-date=May 12, 2024 |access-date=May 12, 2024 |website=Ligonier Ministries}}</ref>

In 1996, Sproul gave a lecture on [[irresistible grace]], titled ''Divine Sovereignty and Man’s Helplessness''. During a Q & A session, he misattributed to [[Jonathan Edwards (theologian)|Jonathan Edwards]] an analogy regarding the "holy rape of the soul," claiming that "some people are violently offended by that language—I think it's the most graphic and descriptive term I can think of, to how I was redeemed," taking into consideration theological themes surrounding [[total depravity]] and being in a state of spiritual death prior to conversion.{{Efn|A recording of the lecture was released by Ligonier Ministries on cassette tape. On total depravity and spiritual death, see {{Bibleref|Romans|2:14–16|ESV}}, {{Bibleref|Romans|3:9–20|ESV}}, and {{Bibleref|Ephesians|2:1–10|ESV}}.}} With regard to the terminology "rape", a key topic in debate between [[Arminianism|Arminian]] and Reformed theologians is the [[Hermeneutics|hermeneutic]] employed to understand the meaning and strength of the verb "draws" (Greek ''helkysē'') in , where Jesus states, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day."<ref>{{Bibleref|John|6:44|ESV}} ESV</ref> Sproul first uses the analogy in his 1984 novel ''Johnny Come Home'',{{Efn|This was later republished in 1988 as ''Thy Brother's Keeper''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sproul |first=R. C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x1kYa2PyPy4C |title=Thy Brother's Keeper: A Novel |publisher=Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc. |year=1988 |isbn=978-0943497372 |location=Brentwood, TN |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240714104452/https://books.google.com/books?id=x1kYa2PyPy4C |archive-date=July 14, 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref>}} where Scooter, the main character, designed to be a "composite of [[Coalition for Christian Outreach|John Guest]], [[James Montgomery Boice|Jim Boice]], and [himself],"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nichols |first=Stephen J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FnCTzQEACAAJ |title=R. C. Sproul: A Life |publisher=[[Crossway]] |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-4335-4477-4 |location=Wheaton, IL |pages=144 |language=en |access-date=July 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111033649/https://books.google.com/books?id=FnCTzQEACAAJ |archive-date=January 11, 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref> converts to Christianity in "a docile submission to the holy rape of the soul."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sproul |first=R. C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GYtbyqFcBFYC |title=Johnny Come Home: A Novel |publisher=Regal Books |year=1984 |isbn=978-0830709373 |pages=71 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240714102221/https://books.google.com/books?id=GYtbyqFcBFYC |archive-date=July 14, 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{Efn|This description was criticised in the foreword to ''Grace for All: The Arminian Dynamics of Salvation'', edited by [[Clark H. Pinnock]] and John D. Wagner.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GXLDCAAAQBAJ |title=Grace for All: The Arminian Dynamics of Salvation |publisher=Resource Publications |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-4982-0012-7 |editor-last=Pinnock |editor-first=Clark H. |location=Eugene, OR |pages=20 |language=en |editor-last2=Wagner |editor-first2=John D. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240714054620/https://books.google.com/books?id=GXLDCAAAQBAJ |archive-date=July 14, 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref>}} Sproul also uses the analogy in his 1989 teaching series ''A Shattered Image'',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nichols |first=Stephen J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FnCTzQEACAAJ |title=R. C. Sproul: A Life |publisher=[[Crossway]] |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-4335-4477-4 |location=Wheaton, IL |pages=352 |language=en |access-date=July 18, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111033649/https://books.google.com/books?id=FnCTzQEACAAJ |archive-date=January 11, 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref> where discussing the [[Pelagianism#Pelagian controversy|Pelagian controversy]], Sproul states that "the only way you will ever choose Christ is if God melts your heart, if God softens that stone cold recalcitrant heart, if God the Holy Spirit rapes your soul and puts in you a desire for Christ."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sproul |first=R. C. |title=The Extent of Our Sin |url=https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/shattered-image/the-extent-of-our-sin |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240714084613/https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/shattered-image/the-extent-of-our-sin |archive-date=July 14, 2024 |access-date=July 14, 2024 |website=Ligonier Ministries}}</ref> By 2002, Sproul had abandoned the analogy for a revised perspective:

| text = The person that God, the Holy Spirit, draws to Jesus comes to Jesus, not because he's raped, not because he's coerced, not because he's dragged, kicking and screaming against his will, but because God, the Holy Spirit, in that act of effectual drawing, changes the heart of the person. Where that person previously was blind to the things of God, now the scales of the eyes have been removed, and that which was unpleasant to the soul now is shown to be sweet, attractive, and something that is altogether desirable. So the heavenly drawing of God is one by which God changes the attitude or the inner disposition of the soul of the person so that when the Father draws them to His Son, they come to His Son.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sproul |first=R. C. |title=The Bread of Life |url=https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/knowing-christ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240714081541/https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/knowing-christ/the-bread-of-life |archive-date=July 14, 2024 |access-date=July 14, 2024 |website=Ligonier Ministries}}</ref>

At the 2008 [[Together for the Gospel]] biennial conference, Sproul gave a sermon titled ''The Curse Motif of the Atonement''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sproul |first=R. C. |title=R.C. Sproul: The Curse Motif of the Atonement |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgwpd0SKpmc |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240716083729/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgwpd0SKpmc |archive-date=July 16, 2024 |access-date=July 16, 2024 |website=[[YouTube]]|date=May 13, 2015 }}</ref> The sermon details the theological significance of the crucifixion of Jesus from an [[Expository preaching|expository]] perspective. The sermon contains some content originally presented in his 1995 teaching series ''The Atonement of Jesus''. [[Tim Challies]], who attended the conference, recounts that "there is no doubt this was one of the most earnest, one of the most solemn sermons ever heard by that audience. I was there that day, I can tell you, there was a holy hush over that room as we were all forced to consider the sheer horror of what Jesus Christ endured on our behalf."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Challies |first=Tim |date=May 22, 2018 |title=How R.C. Sproul Blessed the Church by Preaching the Curse |url=https://www.challies.com/vlog/how-r-c-sproul-blessed-the-church-by-preaching-the-curse/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240716085030/https://www.challies.com/vlog/how-r-c-sproul-blessed-the-church-by-preaching-the-curse/ |archive-date=July 16, 2024 |access-date=July 16, 2024 |website=Tim Challies}}</ref> [[Kevin DeYoung]] praised it as "one of the best sermons I’ve ever heard."<ref>{{Cite web |last=DeYoung |first=Kevin |date=December 14, 2017 |title=R. C. Sproul on the Curse Motif of the Atonement |url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/one-best-sermons-ive-ever-heard/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240716083629/https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/one-best-sermons-ive-ever-heard/ |archive-date=July 16, 2024 |access-date=July 16, 2024 |website=[[The Gospel Coalition]]}}</ref>

Sproul had long suffered from [[chronic obstructive pulmonary disease]],{{citation needed|date = March 2022}} and was hospitalized on December 2, 2017, because of difficulty breathing, the result of an apparent infection, an “exacerbation of his emphysema due to the [[influenza|flu]]” (“not pneumonia”).<ref name="health">{{Cite press release|url=https://www.ligonier.org/blog/update-dr-sprouls-health/ |title=An Update on Dr. Sproul's Health |publisher=Ligonier Ministries |date=December 12, 2017 |access-date=December 14, 2017}}</ref>{{better source needed|date = March 2022}} After a twelve-day period of intermittent fever, and sedation and ventilator-assisted breathing, with effort given to restore his respiratory function, Sproul died on December 14, 2017 (at age 78).<ref name="health"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ligonier.org/blog/rc-sproul-called-home-lord/|title=Dr. R.C. Sproul, Called Home to the Lord|website=Ligonier Ministries|access-date=December 29, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.christianpost.com/news/rc-sproul-dies-at-78-210167/|title=RC Sproul Dies at 78|website=The Christian Post|date=December 14, 2017 |access-date=December 29, 2017}}</ref>

Through [[Ligonier Ministries]] and the ''Renewing Your Mind'' radio program and conferences, Sproul generated numerous audio and video lectures on the subjects of [[history of philosophy]], theology, Bible study, [[apologetics]], [[intelligent design]], and Christian living. In addition, Sproul wrote more than 100 books and many articles for [[evangelicalism|evangelical]] publications.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ligonier.org/about/rc-sproul/rcs-book-release-timeline/|title=R.C. Sproul's Book Release Schedule|website=Ligonier Ministries|access-date=December 15, 2017}}</ref> He signed the 1978 ''[[Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy]]'', which affirmed the traditional view of [[Biblical inerrancy]], and he wrote a commentary on that document titled ''Explaining Inerrancy''. He also served as the general editor<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://reformationstudybible.com/|title=The Reformation Study Bible edited by R.C. Sproul|website=The Reformation Study Bible|access-date=December 15, 2017}}</ref> of the ''[[Reformation Study Bible]]'' ({{ISBN|0-87552-643-8}}), which has appeared in several editions and was also known as the ''New Geneva Study Bible.'' In addition, Sproul was executive editor of ''Tabletalk'' magazine.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ligonier.org/about/rc-sproul/|title=R.C. Sproul, Founder {{!}} Ligonier Ministries|website=Ligonier Ministries|access-date=December 16, 2017}}</ref>