He was just a sports-and-fun loving Pittsburgh kid, a secular agnostic who didn't really give much thought to ultimate truth until a fortuitous jaunt in search of a pack of Lucky Strikes gave him an upside-the-head insight about his relationship to his Creator:
His basic message, that the entire universe, including our own souls, is constantly under God's spotlight, is one that is just sinking in with real relevance for me.R.C. was reborn in September of 1957 during the first weekend of his first semester at Westminster College, a progressive Presbyterian school an hour north of Pittsburgh. Following freshman orientation, R.C. and his roommate (whom he had played baseball with in school) wanted to leave their dry campus to go to a neighboring town to drink. When they got to the parking lot, R.C. reached his hand in his pocket and realized he was all out of Lucky Strike cigarettes. They returned to the dorm, which housed a cigarette machine.As he started to put his quarters in the machine, the star of the football team invited them to sit down at a table with him. He began asking them questions. They ended up talking for over an hour about the wisdom of God. What struck R.C. was that for the first time in his life, he was listening to someone who sounded like he knew Jesus personally. The football player quoted Ecclesiastes 11:3 (“Where the tree falls in the forest, there it lies”) and R.C. saw himself as that true: dead, corrupt, and rotting. He returned to his dorm that night and prayed to God for forgiveness. He would later remark that he was probably the only person in church history to be converted through that particular verse.R.C. was biblically and theologically illiterate. Within the first two weeks of his Christian life, he read through the entire Bible, and was awakened for the first time to the holiness of God, especially through the Old Testament.
We are so blessed to have such a vast and rich body of work to mine for the rest of our lives. It is now complete, as is Dr. Sproul's journey back to the embrace of the Most High.
Big Calvinist, denounced the Catholic church and ecumenism. Died of COPD. Did he ever quit smoking?
ReplyDeleteThe Calvinist basis is the key to his theological contribution.
ReplyDeleteAnd the beat goes on, on, on anyhow, in the heart, not the head:
ReplyDeleteToday, under the leadership of Pope Francis, interfaith dialogue and calls for religious freedom have gained a new intensity. Günzelmansur's organization, a special department within the Catholic Conference of German Bishops, aims itself to increase interfaith dialogue. He sees the current era as a continuation of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the most important meeting of Catholic leaders in the modern age at which the church declared a more open stance.
The pope "is showing how dialogue can function," Günzelmansur said. "He is pointing out new and courageous paths that can also be traveled by others."
When Pope Francis travels abroad and speaks to those on the periphery, he also makes a point of seeking out those countries' minorities, Güzelmasur said, adding that the pope wants to give those people a voice and alert the world to their difficulties.
http://www.dw.com/en/pope-francis-pushes-catholic-church-towards-interfaith-dialogue-on-travels/a-41571122
The Vatican's second most powerful representative, Secretary of State and Cardinal Pietro Parolin, underscored this week how serious and fundamental an issue dialogue is for Pope Francis. Interfaith dialogue, said Parolin ahead of the pope's departure to Asia, serves to further world peace. He pointed out that the pope has often said that the world is experiencing "a Third World War."
ReplyDeleteAccording to Parolin, "religions can play a key role in fostering peace [ … ] But to do so they must come together and work towards it hand in hand."
Ibid
Yay for the Pope. This post is about R.C. Sproul.
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ReplyDeleteNo, I don't. I do know his stance on God, though.
ReplyDeleteI think I know. The old saved by grace thing. Do we have free will or is it all predestination?
ReplyDeleteHonestly I never read anything by him. I was thinking you might want to argue like he did. At first glance I took issue with his stance against ecumenism. The Catholic church took many steps backwards from ecumenism. How much of his output have you read and when were you first introduced to him? I actually have a close Wheaton College connection--my brother-in-law. He even owns a house on the edge of campus which he rents to students. Before he went on to greener pastures, he lived there and when we would visit I'd walk the campus at night. Interesting that Annie Besant's Theosophical Society is in the same town. I visited their libraries too. Both of them. Too many people have died in the name of Christ for anyone to heed the call? I've always been an ecumenist. Sprout may have been more of one than I think. Here's an evangellie ripping him an new assoul, from Blessed Quietness Journal, Searching for the Truth in the King James Bible;
ReplyDeleteFinding it, and passing it on to you: R. C. SPROUL--Raging Heretic and Blasphemer http://www.blessedquietness.com/journal/resource/rcsproul.htm
This all gets quite thorny. Did you look onto Steve Van Natten of Blessed Quietness very far?
ReplyDeleteAt this site http://dyspraxicfundamentalist.blogspot.com/2006/05/blessed-quietness-journal.html you find this assessment of him.
The site editor, Steve Van Nattan is a Fundamentalist who advocates House Church-style meetings.
There is an awful lot of stupidity and silliness in the website. The 'go to hell' language is rather disturbing. I have wondered if the site is a sort of parody or satire. However, generally when people attempt to parody fundamentalism, they show a complete ignorance of it. If this is a satire, it is a remarkably clever one.
What is most strange is that despite the harsh language, the site says a lot of very sensible and reasonable things at time. They advocate KJV-Onlyism, yet they criticise Gail Riplinger (albeit with very harsh language). They condemn Texe Marrs as anti-semitic.
Their main hobby horse seems to be Fundamental Baptist churches. They are very keen to expose legalism and authoritarianism in the Fundamental Baptist movement.
If anybody has any background on this site, please let me know.
Then there is this statement from Van Natten on the Blessed Quietness home page. he appears to be a birther:
ReplyDeleteMisawa Omera- That is "hello, how are you?" in the Luo language of Kenya.
That is the tribe of Barak Obama, and, until we see his birth certificate,
possibly his national tribe.
Layer upon layer to peel back. It can all make one's head hurt.
I'm now going to a UMC church. I doubt that I'll officially join. For one thing, the UMC, like the PCUSA, is most likely a sinking ship.
But I did also find a side- by-side comparison of Calvin's TULIP formula and Wesley's stance on each of the five points.
http://www.crivoice.org/tulip.html
My pastor is big on Wesley. I may pick his brain on all this.
Sproul was a Reformed theologian, meaning he had his roots in Calvinism.
It all gets very dense. Not only are there myriad schools of theology and, as we know, myriad denominations, there are differences within each and constant splintering-off.
And the irony is that they all agree on the basic point that the point of Jesus Christ's birth, life, death and resurrections was to make reconciliation with God possible.
As in so much, we can look to the great C.S. Lewis for a healthy way to see this:
ReplyDelete"I hope no reader will suppose that "mere" Christianity is here put forward as an alternative to the creeds of the existing communions — as if a man could adopt it in preference to Congregationalism or Greek Orthodoxy or anything else.
It is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall, I have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in. For that purpose the worst of the rooms (whichever that may be) is, I think preferable. It is true that some people may find they have to wait in the hall for a considerable time, while others feel certain almost at once which door they must knock at. I do not know why there is this difference, but I am sure God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait. When you do get into the room you will find that the long wait has done some kind of good which you would not have had otherwise. But you must regard it as waiting, not as camping. You must keep on praying for light: and, of course, even in the hall, you must begin trying to obey the rules which are common to the whole house. And above all you must be asking which door is the true one; not which pleases you best by its paint and paneling.
In plain language, the question should never be: "Do I like that kind of service?" but "Are these doctrines true: Is holiness here? Does my conscience move me towards this? Is my reluctance to knock at this door due to my pride, or my mere taste, or my personal dislike of this particular door-keeper?"
When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. This is one of the rules common to the whole house."
-C.S. Lewis