R. C. Sproul

This article is about the founder of Ligonier Ministries. For his son, see R. C. Sproul Jr.

Not to be confused with Robert Gordon Sproul.

R. C. Sproul
Sproul in 2006
Born	Robert Charles Sproul (1939-02-13)February 13, 1939 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	December 14, 2017(2017-12-14) (aged 78) Altamonte Springs, Florida, U.S.
Education	Westminster College (BA) Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (MDiv) Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Doctorandus / MA) Whitefield Theological Seminary (PhD)
Occupations	Professor author pastor
Spouse	Vesta Sproul ​ (m. 1960)​
Children	2, including R. C. Sproul Jr.
Theological work
Tradition or movement	Reformed (Presbyterianism)
Main interests	Biblical inerrancy Classical apologetics Systematic theology

Robert Charles Sproul (/sproʊl/ SPROHL; February 13, 1939 – December 14, 2017) was an American Reformed theologian, Christian apologist, and ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America. He was the founder and chairman of Ligonier Ministries, and could be heard daily on the Renewing Your Mind radio broadcast in the United States and internationally. Under Sproul's direction, Ligonier Ministries produced the Ligonier Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, which would eventually grow into the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. Along with Norman Geisler, Sproul was one of the chief architects of the statement. Sproul has been described as "the greatest and most influential proponent of the recovery of Reformed theology in the last century."

Education and personal life

Sproul was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as the second child of Robert Cecil Sproul, an accountant and a veteran of World War II and his wife, Mayre Ann Sproul (née Yardis). Sproul was an avid supporter of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Pirates as a youth, and at the age of 15, he had to drop out from high school athletics in order to support his family.

Having become a Christian in 1957, Sproul met with his childhood minister to share his conversion. During the meeting, the minister stated, "If you believe in the resurrection of Christ, you're a damn fool!" stunning Sproul, left wrestling with "feelings of betrayal."

Proceeding with study, he obtained degrees from Westminster College, Pennsylvania (BA, 1961), Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (MDiv, 1964), the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Drs., 1969), and Whitefield Theological Seminary (PhD, 2001). He taught at numerous colleges and seminaries, including Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando and in Jackson, Mississippi, and Knox Theological Seminary in Ft. Lauderdale.

One of Sproul's mentors was John H. Gerstner, being one of his professors at Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary. The two of them, along with Arthur Lindsley, another of Gerstner's students, co-authored the book Classical Apologetics in 1984. Sproul's ministry, Ligonier Ministries, made recordings of Gerstner teaching various courses on theology and the Bible. John M. Frame records that Gerstner was Sproul's "main intellectual influence."

Sproul recalls encountering theological opposition inside a liberal environment during his early studies:

When I was a seminary student ... I was selected to preach the senior sermon before the whole student body, the whole faculty, and also the presbytery who met there that day. And I preached that day on sin, and I made reference to some of the definitions of sin that we had learned at seminary: that sin, you know, was existential, inauthentic existence, or sin was some kind of neurosis ... And I said, you know, we may be neurotic, and we may be doing everything that we know how to destroy what authenticity of existence we may have, but ... the meaning of sin, as [Scripture and] our own confession says, is that it's "any want of conformity to, or transgression of, the law of God." ... Well, the student body that was largely liberal ... congratulated me, and they were very positive. I go make my way to the back of the church, and the dean of the institution comes up to me, and he's irate. [He physically threw me up against a wall and accused me of distorting the Bible.] ... So I went straight upstairs to Dr. Gerstner's office, who was my mentor, and I said, Dr. Gerstner, did I distort the truth of God? [I was so upset, I was shaking.] And he looked at me, and he said, ... "Every Christian in heaven from Paul to B. B. Warfield is rejoicing at the sermon that you preached in this house today." ... I was so relieved to hear his evaluation.

Gerstner convinced Sproul to study under G. C. Berkouwer at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University of Amsterdam) in Holland, where he initiated study in 1964. Sproul was granted leave in 1965 due to his wife's second pregnancy and mother's illness (during which he was appointed to teach philosophy at Westminster College), and later resumed study at distance. He returned to Holland in 1969 to receive a doctorandus degree.

He married Vesta Voorhis in 1960 and had two children, Sherrie Dorotiak and Robert Craig Sproul.

Sproul was a passenger on the Amtrak train that derailed in the 1993 Big Bayou Canot train wreck, and sometimes gave firsthand accounts of the story.

Career

Working alongside figures such as Bill Bright and Jim Boice, Sproul served as president of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI) from 1977 till 1979.

Ligonier Ministries hosts several theological conferences each year, including the main conference in Orlando, FL, at which Sproul was one of the primary speakers. Sproul served as co-pastor at Saint Andrew's Chapel, a congregation in Sanford, Florida. He was ordained as an 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 ecumenical document Evangelicals and Catholics Together.

Sproul was an advocate of Calvinism in his many print, audio, and video publications, and advocated the Thomistic (classical) approaches to Christian apologetics, less common among Reformed apologists, most of whom prefer presuppositionalism. A dominant theme in his Renewing Your Mind lessons is the holiness and sovereignty of God. Sproul taught that headcovering should be practiced in churches as the ordinance is "rooted and grounded in creation".

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."

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 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. With regard to the terminology "rape", a key topic in debate between Arminian and Reformed theologians is the hermeneutic employed to understand the meaning and strength of the verb "draws" (Greek helkysē) in John 6:44, 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." Sproul first uses the analogy in his 1984 novel Johnny Come Home, where Scooter, the main character, designed to be a "composite of John Guest, Jim Boice, and [himself]," converts to Christianity in "a docile submission to the holy rape of the soul." Sproul also uses the analogy in his 1989 teaching series A Shattered Image, where discussing the 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." By 2002, Sproul had abandoned the analogy for a revised perspective:

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.

In 2003, a Festschrift was published in his honor. After Darkness, Light: Essays in Honor of R. C. Sproul (ISBN 0875527043) included contributions from Robert Godfrey, Sinclair Ferguson, O. Palmer Robertson, Michael Horton, Douglas Wilson, John F. MacArthur, and Jay E. Adams.

At the 2008 Together for the Gospel biennial conference, Sproul gave a sermon titled The Curse Motif of the Atonement. The sermon details the theological significance of the crucifixion of Jesus from an 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." Kevin DeYoung praised it as "one of the best sermons I’ve ever heard."

Health and death

On April 18, 2015, Sproul suffered a stroke and was admitted to a hospital. Five days later, on April 23, Sproul went home from the hospital, suffering no ill effects. He was, however, diagnosed with a diabetic condition "that [would] be addressed through diet and regular medical attention."

Sproul had long suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 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 flu” (“not pneumonia”). 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).

Publications

Some of Sproul's best-known books are The Holiness of God, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith, and What Is Reformed Theology? He is also well known for Chosen by God, a book about predestination and the sovereignty of God. 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 evangelical publications. 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 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.

Published books

• Moses and the Burning Bush (2018) ISBN 978-1567698633
• The Legacy of Luther (2016) with Stephen J. Nichols and others ISBN 978-1567697100
• The Knight's Map (2016) ISBN 978-1642890587
• Everyone's a Theologian: An Introduction to Systematic Theology (2014) ISBN 978-1567693652
• The Promises of God (2013) ISBN 978-1434704238
• God's Love: How the Infinite God Cares for His Children (2012) ISBN 978-1434704221
• Are We Together: A Protestant Analyzes Roman Catholicism (2012) ISBN 978-1567692822
• The Work of Christ: What the Events of Jesus Life Mean for You (2012) ISBN 978-0781407267
• The Donkey Who Carried a King (2012) ISBN 978-1567692693
• The Barber Who Wanted to Pray (2011) ISBN 978-1433527036
• Unseen Realities: Heaven, Hell, Angels, and Demons (2011) ISBN 978-1845506827
• The Prayer of the Lord (2009) ISBN 9781567691184
• The Prince's Poison Cup (2008) ISBN 9781567691047
• The Truth of the Cross (2007) ISBN 9781567690873
• Truths We Confess: A Layman's Guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith Volume 3: The State, The Family, The Church, and Last Things (2007) ISBN 978-1596380417
• Truths We Confess: A Layman's Guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith Volume 2: Salvation and the Christian Life (2007) ISBN 9781596380400
• Truths We Confess: A Layman's Guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith Volume 1: The Triune God (2006) ISBN 9781596380394
• The Lightlings (2006) ISBN 9781567690781
• How Then Shall We Worship? (2006 as A Taste of Heaven; revised 2006) ISBN 978-1434704245
• Running the Race: A Graduate's Guide to Life (2003) ISBN 978-0801012563
• Defending Your Faith (2003) ISBN 9781433563782
• The Dark Side of Islam (2003) with Abdul Saleeb ISBN 978-1581344417
• Five Things Every Christian Needs to Grow (2002) ISBN 9781567691030
• Saved from What? (2002) ISBN 978-1433513428
• When Worlds Collide: Where is God? (2002) ISBN 978-1581344424
• What's in the Bible? (2001) ISBN 9781418545987
• Loved By God (2001) ISBN 978-0849916489
• The Consequences of Ideas (2000) ISBN 9781433563775
• In the Presence of God (1999) ISBN 9780849916243
• Getting the Gospel Right: The Tie That Binds Evangelicals Together (1999) ISBN 9780801011887
• A Walk with God: Luke (1999) ISBN 9781845507312
• The Last Days According to Jesus (1998) ISBN 9780801018589
• What is Reformed Theology (1997 as Grace Unknown; revised 2005) ISBN 9780801018466
• Willing to Believe: Understanding the Role of Human Will in Salvation (1997) ISBN 9780801075834
• The Priest with Dirty Clothes (1997; revised 2011) ISBN 9781567692105
• Now, That's a Good Question! (1996) ISBN 9780842347112
• The Invisible Hand (1996, revised 2003) ISBN 9780875527093
• Choosing My Religion (1996) ISBN 9780875526096
• Ultimate Issues (1996) ISBN 9780875526256
• Before the Face of God Volume 4: A Daily Guide for Living from Ephesians, Hebrews, and James (1996) ISBN 978-0801011023
• Reformation Study Bible (1995 as New Geneva Study Bible; revised 1998, 2005, 2015) served as General Editor ISBN 978-1567695014
• The Unexpected Jesus (1995 as The Mighty Christ; revised 2005) ISBN 9781845500375
• Faith Alone (1995; revised 2016) ISBN 9780801019494
• The Purpose of God: An Exposition of Ephesians (1994; revised 2006) ISBN 9781845506384
• Not a Chance: God, Science, and the Revolt against Reason (1994; revised 2014) with Keith Mathison ISBN 9780801016219
• Before the Face of God Volume 3: A Daily Guide for Living from the Old Testament (1994) ISBN 978-0801083785
• The Gospel of God: An Exposition of Romans (1994 revised 1999) ISBN 978-1845506377
• Before the Face of God Volume 2: A Daily Guide for Living from the Gospel of Luke (1993) ISBN 978-0801083587
• Doubt and Assurance (1993) ISBN 978-0801083525
• The Soul's Quest for God: Satisfying the Hunger for Spiritual Communion With God (1993; revised 2003) ISBN 978-0875527062
• Before the Face of God Volume 1: A Daily Guide for Living from the Book of Romans (1992) ISBN 978-0801083402
• Essential Truths of Christian Faith (1992) ISBN 978-0842320016
• Following Christ (1991) ISBN 978-0842359375 combination of previously published booklets titled: Who Is Jesus? (1983), Ethics and the Christian (1983), God's Will and the Christian (1984), and Effective Prayer (1984).
• The Mystery of the Holy Spirit (1990; revised 2009) ISBN 978-1845504816
• Abortion--A Rational Look at an Emotional Issue (1990; revised 2010) ISBN 978-1567692099
• The Glory of Christ (1990; revised 2003) ISBN 978-1857924749
• Surprised by Suffering (1989; revised 2009) ISBN 9781567691849
• Pleasing God (1988; revised 2012) ISBN 978-0781407281
• Discovering God Who Is (1987 as One Holy Passion; revised 1995 and 2003 as The Character of God and 2008 as Discovering God Who Is) ISBN 978-0801018299
• Lifeviews: Make a Christian Impact on Culture and Society (1986) ISBN 978-0800753573
• Chosen by God (1986) ISBN 978-0842313353
• The Holiness of God (1985; revised 1998) ISBN 978-0842339650
• Classical Apologetics (1984) with John Gerstner and Arthur Lindsley ISBN 9780310449515
• Johnny Come Home (1984) ISBN 978-0830709373
• The Hunger for Significance (1983 as In Search of Dignity; revised 1991 and 2001) ISBN 978-0875527017
• Stronger Than Steel: The Wayne Alderson Story (1980) ISBN 978-0060675028
• Reason to Believe (1978 and 1982 as Objections Answered; revised 2016) ISBN 978-0310449119
• Knowing Scripture (1978; revised 2016) ISBN 978-0830844685
• Soli Deo Gloria (1976) General Editor
• God's Inerrant Word: An International Symposium on the Trustworthiness of Scripture (1974) Contributor
• The Intimate Marriage (1975 as Discovering the Intimate Marriage; revised 1986 and 2003) ISBN 978-0875527086
• If There's a God, Why Are There Atheists? (1974 as The Psychology of Atheism; revised 1988, 1997, and 2018) ISBN 978-1527101050
• What We Believe: Understanding and Confessing the Apostle's Creed (1973 as The Symbol: An Exposition of the Apostle's Creed; revised 1982 as Basic Training, 1998 as Renewing Your Mind, and 2015 as What We Believe) ISBN 978-0801018473

Crucial Questions series

• How Can I Be Right with God? (2017) ISBN 978-1642890617
• What Can We Know About God? (2017) ISBN 978-1642890624
• What Do Jesus' Parables Mean? (2017) ISBN 978-1642890631
• Are People Basically Good? (2016) ISBN 978-1642890600
• How Can I Be Blessed? (2016) ISBN 978-1642890594
• How Should I Think About Money? (2016) ISBN 978-1642890587
• Can I Lose My Salvation? (2015) ISBN 978-1642890570
• What is the Great Commission (2015) ISBN 978-1642890563
• Are These the Last Days? (2014) ISBN 978-1642890556
• What Is Repentance? (2014) ISBN 978-1642890532
• What Is the Relationship Between Church and State (2014) ISBN 978-1642890549
• How Can I Develop a Christian Conscience? (2013) ISBN 978-1642890501
• What Is the Lord's Supper? (2013) ISBN 978-1642890518
• What Is the Church? (2013) ISBN 978-1642890525
• Does God Control Everything? (2012) ISBN 978-1642890495
• Who is the Holy Spirit? (2012) ISBN 978-1642890488
• Can I Have Joy in My Life? (2012) ISBN 978-1642890471
• What Can I Do with My Guilt? (2011) ISBN 978-1642890440
• What Is the Trinity? (2011) ISBN 978-1642890457
• What Is Baptism? (2011) ISBN 978-1642890464
• What Is Faith? (2010) ISBN 978-1642890433
• What Does it Mean to Be Born Again? (2010) ISBN 978-1642890419
• Can I Be Sure I'm Saved? (2010) ISBN 978-1642890426
• Does Prayer Change Things? (1984 as Effective Prayer; revised 2009) ISBN 978-1642890389
• Can I Know God's Will? (1984 as God's Will and the Christian; revised 2009) ISBN 978-1642890396
• How Should I Live in This World? (1983 as Ethics and the Christian; revised 2009) ISBN 978-1642890402
• Can I Trust the Bible? (1980 and 1996 as Explaining Inerrancy: A Commentary; revised 2009) ISBN 978-1642890372
• Who Is Jesus? (1983; revised 2009) ISBN 978-1642890365

St. Andrew's Expositional Commentary series

• Matthew (2013) ISBN 978-1433531750
• 1-2 Peter (2011) ISBN 978-1433522895
• Mark (2011) ISBN 978-1567692655
• Acts (2010) ISBN 978-1433522734
• Romans (2009) ISBN 978-1433506857
• John (2009) ISBN 978-1567691856

External links

• Official Ligonier Ministries website
• Renewing Your Mind Broadcast
• Tabletalk Magazine
• Reformation Trust Publishing
• Reformation Bible College
• Saint Andrew's Chapel
• Monergism – R. C. Sproul biography
• Stephen J. Nichols - R. C. Sproul: A Life