Who is R.C. Sproul, Jr.?

On Spanking:

“We live in a world that tells us that the rod is bad. To be sure some tragically provoke their children to wrath by crossing the line that separates discipline from abuse. But that doesn’t change the plain teaching of the Word. We have experts writing learned papers for prestigious journals telling us that when we spank our children that we train them to be violent; that they will learn from the experience that problems are solved through violence. We are told that spanking damages our children. Sadly, we often tend to accommodate the wisdom of the world. We believe, because we have been taught to believe, that it takes an expert to really understand anything, rather than He who created the children in the first place. We think maybe instead of giving us the rod as a tool of enforcement, God gave us the time-out chair. It’s still unpleasant after all. (I wonder why no one makes the argument that when we use the time-out chair we teach our children that timeout is the way to solve our problems.) And in so doing we make manifest our own disobedience. We likewise make manifest our own hatred for our children (Prov. 13:24). I do not need to make a case for using the rod. Here too, the Bible is abundantly clear.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

“Bound For Glory: A Practical Handbook for Raising A Victorious Family” page 104

On “Provoking Children to Wrath”:

“God warns fathers that we must not provoke our children to wrath (Eph. 6:4). One simple way of translating this concept is to believe that God warns fathers against making their children mad. Such an understanding would be mad indeed. God warns instead that we, as we seek to help our children learn to obey, that we do not instead lead them toward destruction.

“The text isn’t telling us that if we overdo the discipline that our children will be provoked to wrath. Nor is it promising us that if we discipline our children that they will not be provoked to wrath. While it is not a complicated thing, we can surely discipline our children in a foolish and counter-productive way. We will surely provoke our children to wrath if we don’t discipline them. But we might so provoke them even if we do. Our calling is to love our children enough to discipline them, and to discipline them with wisdom.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

“Bound For Glory: A Practical Handbook for Raising A Victorious Family” page 98-99

On Educational Standards:

“I have dear friends whom God has blessed with eight children. They homeschooled their children, who were rather typical of homeschoolers. They were delightful. But, as is still too often the case, family and friends would often fuss at them because of the choices they had made. The mother made a confession to me. She told me, ‘You know, my nine-year-old daughter doesn’t know how to read.’ Now here is a good test to see how much baggage you are carrying around. Does that make you uncomfortable? Are you thinking, ‘Mercy, what would the school superintendent say if he knew?’ My response was a cautious, ‘Really?’ But my friend went on to explain, ‘She doesn’t know how to read, but every morning she gets up and gets ready for the day. Then takes care of her three youngest siblings. She takes them to the potty, she cleans and dresses them, makes their breakfasts, brushes their teeth, clears their dishes, and makes their beds.’ Now I saw her rightly, as an overachiever. If she didn’t know how to read, but did know all the Looney Tunes characters, that would be a problem. But here is a young girl being trained to be a keeper at home. Do I want her to read? Of course I do, as does her mother. I want her to read to equip her to learn the Three Gs. But this little girl was learning what God requires, to be a help in the family business, with a focus on tending the garden.

“I’m not suggesting that the goal is to have ignorant daughters. I am, however, arguing that we are to train them to be keepers at home.”

Note: the “Three Gs” are explained on page 77 of the same book thusly: “The first G is ‘Who is God?’ The second G is much like the first, ‘What has God done?’ The third and final G is ‘What does God require?’”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

“When You Rise Up” page 110-111

On Prerequisites for Homeschooling:

“There is a similar test I like to offer to determine whether or not you are competent to homeschool. You don’t have to go to college to get a degree in education. (In fact, that degree might prove to be counterproductive because education programs prepare you to teach how the state wants you to teach.) You don’t have to have teachers in your family background. Nor is it necessary that you were once the teacher’s pet, or are an expert in clapping erasers. The test is rather simple to take. It should take only a few minutes, and then you will know. The first thing you do is wait until it is late at night. Then, very quietly, go from room to room in your house. Peek in carefully, and see if you find any sleeping children. Then be sure that these are your own children. If there are wee ones in your home during the wee hours, and if they belong to you, you are competent to homeschool. The true Expert on education is the very One who gave you these children.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

“When You Rise Up” page 46

Addressing Educational Shortcomings in Homeschooling:

“There is yet another line of argument, this one having a slightly more pious tint to it. The various forms of this argument all come under the heading I like to call ‘the well-being of the child’ argument: ‘I can’t teach my child x, and in today’s fast paced economy, everybody has to know x.’ Once again we need to go back to the standard. Can you teach your children the Bible? If the answer is yes, you are ready to homeschool. If the answer is no, then you must devote every moment you have to becoming trained to teach your children the Bible, because somehow God, in his mysterious providence, has given you a child and not equipped you for every good work. So learn the Bible. If you can’t teach them physics, then you can’t teach them physics. If you can’t teach them geography, then you can’t teach them geography. If you are able, and you want to teach those things, then do so. But if you don’t know the Bible, learn the Bible.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

“When You Rise Up” page 132

On the Educational Benefits of Feeding Chickens:

“What are you supposed to teach your children? To exercise dominion for God’s glory. Now we are back to our methodology. That is, if all our days are about the exercise of dominion, then we are always in school. Let’s try a little quiz. When my daughter [Name] is giving table scraps to our chickens, is she (a) learning obedience and hard work, (b) doing school, (c) living the good life, (d) exercising dominion, (e) humoring her daddy’s silly dream of succeeding with chickens, or (f) all of the above? I trust the answer is obvious.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

“When You Rise Up” page 94

On Teaching Newborns (And Letting His Laboring Wife Pack Everything But the Bible):

“None of our children were born so fast that we didn’t make it to the hospital. We always have time to pack, and my wife is a professional packer. She packs the still camera and the video camera, clothes for herself and the baby, a deck of cards to play with me, and a stack of birth announcements that she starts filling out as soon as the baby is born. I have only to pack one thing, and so far, out of six times, I’ve never forgotten it. I always bring our homeschool curriculum. When Denise holds the baby I kiss the baby, hug and kiss Denise, cry a little bit, and wait. When the baby is bundled up, I reach for the curriculum.

“Our curriculum has sections in it for boys and girls. The boy part has thus far been used only once, the girl part five times. To all of my girls I read Proverbs 31, the beautiful description of a godly wife and mother. To my son I read Proverbs 3, calling him to lean not on his own understanding, but to rely on the Word of God.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

“When You Rise Up” page 70

On Gender Differences in Education:

“There is, understandably, a great deal of overlap between what we’re supposed to be teaching our boys and what we’re supposed to be teaching our girls. Both of them will serve the same God, know the same history. Both of them bear the same image of God. They are equal in dignity and value. But they will be called to different roles, and so once more, contra mundum, we affirm that there is a difference in what they should be taught. There ought not to be a one-size-fits-all approach that denies the differences in boys and girls.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

“When You Rise Up” page 97-98

On Scaring Children with Threats of CPS & Brotherly Authority:

“I don’t remember what point I was trying to make, but to illustrate the point I made a passing reference to the chain of command in my home. I mentioned that my second born child, my son [Name], who at the time was five and is now seven, knows, as does his older sister, who was seven then and is nine now, that a day was coming when he would be in a position of authority over his sister. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, all the older sisters in the crowd were both in combat mode and instantly united. Their enemies were proximately their little brothers, but ultimately, me. When I finished by address, I found myself surrounded by a mass of angry, feminine, pulchritude. The younger brothers did not bother to back me up. They were too busy demonstrating their maturity by doing end zone dances in celebration over what I had said.

“For all their obvious anger, the ladies did manage to remain ladies. They were polite, and demure, as they graciously asked out of which specific pit in hell my fool idea had come from. Unable to spot a lawyer in the crowd, I chose to defend myself. ‘Suppose,’ I asked the young ladies, ‘your mom and dad were away some afternoon. While they were gone your baby sister, in mid-diaper change, decided a nice brisk walk in the front yard, in the snow, would be invigorating. Before she can do too much damage, you rescue the child from the cold and complete the diaper change. Two hours later you peak out the window and see coming toward your front door a Hillary Clinton clone. This one isn’t the nanny from New York, but your friendly, neighborhood Lady from Child Protective Services. Who,’ I asked them, ‘should answer the door? Who is responsible to make sure that this woman doesn’t cart off all of you?’ They all agreed that in the face of this enemy, the oldest son should step in. ‘Alright,’ I continued, ‘now suppose he thinks it would be a grand idea for the Lady from Child Protective Services not to see the still-rosy cheeks of baby sister, nor the gaggle of middle children. He thinks this ‘intervention’ would go more smoothly if all of you were out of sight. Does he not have the authority to instruct his siblings, even his older sister, to head down to the basement until the danger has passed?’”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

Source

On Scaring Children with Stories of Martyrs:

“It is good and right that we don’t want our children to be scared. When we were working our way through the Book of Acts during family worship, almost every night the application of whatever text we covered was some version of, ‘They might come one day; you better be faithful. Don’t you betray Jesus, even if it means torture and death.’ And my saintly wife, understandably, was a little concerned. ‘Do you think it’s wise?’ she asked. ‘These poor children aren’t going to be able to sleep at night.’ How should I answer that? Should I tell the children the next time we are about a martyr, ‘It’s not really that bad. This could never happen to you or to your children.’?

“No, instead I teach them to find comfort in the same place the people in Acts found comfort, in the sovereignty of God, or in his strong right arm. The counterbalance is in the power of God and his promises. If enemies come and take us away, that’s okay. What’s the worst they can do? To live is Christ, and to die is gain. They can’t take anything from us, for our treasure is in heaven. If they do come, let us rejoice to be counted among his martyrs.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

“When You Rise Up” page 103-104

On the Question of Socialization:

“…’What about socialization?’ Before we begin to look at the question, let’s consider once again what the Bible tells us. It tells us that it equips us for every good work. It tells us likewise that we are to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. But it not only doesn’t tell us how to socialize our children, but doesn’t tell us they should be socialized. There is no commandment from God, ‘Thou shalt socialize thy children.’”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

“When You Rise Up” page 135

On His Very Own Genesis Head-Cannon:

“We raise our daughters to be warriors for the kingdom by raising them to be keepers at home. Remember that back in the garden there is, in a sense, a twofold element to the dominion mandate. Adam and Eve (who, you will remember, was made to be a help to Adam in his charge to exercise dominion) are supposed not only to exercise dominion, but dress and keep the garden. God had given them a model of the end product in the Garden of Eden. They were both to protect that model, and to reshape the outlying jungle to reflect the glory of the garden. Adam, being the head of the household, was responsible for the whole enterprise. (Some say, in fact, that he sinned in not guarding Eve in the garden.) But, being masculine, his focus would tend to be more outward. He would go into the jungle and gardenize it. Eve, being feminine, called to be a keeper at home, would focus on keeping the garden. He is outward-looking, while she is inward-looking. He is aggressive; she is protective.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

“When You Rise Up” page 108-109

On Weddings:

“Consider what is happening, for instance, in most wedding ceremonies. Early on the bride-to-be is escorted down the aisle by her father. The officiating minister asks, ‘Who gives this bride?’ The father typically answers, ‘I do, together with her mother’ or ‘Her mother and I do’ or some such variation. What is happening here? The young lady is moving from being under the care and authority of her parents, to being under the care and authority of her husband.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

“Bound For Glory: A Practical Handbook for Raising A Victorious Family” page 81

On Feminism:

“The feminist movement, like every strategy of the devil, has failed on all fronts. When you make a deal with the devil, not only does he always get what you offer, but he never delivers on his side of the bargain. Feminism does not set women free from the tyranny of men. Rather, it imposes on women the tyranny of men. The truth is that ‘Boys protect girls’ is not just a moral imperative. It is an ontological reality. That is, men will always lead women. The only question is whether that leadership will be servant leadership. The only question is whether men will lead by ordering women off to battle, or to serve men’s petty wants, whether we will send our sisters to face off with the Lady from Child Protective Services, or have them shine our shoes. Or, will we lead as Jesus led?”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

Source

On Homemaking:

“This passage, as with Ephesians 5, tends to draw still more ‘Yes, buts…’ in our day. We complain that this homeward calling is not challenging, it’s not glamorous, it’s not important, it’s not profitable. And surely if it is none of those things, it cannot be God’s calling. But this again is bucking under the authority of God Himself. He instructed Paul to instruct the older women to instruct the younger women to be homemakers. Which means that this calling comes from God Himself. Which means that not only must we obey, but that it is in fact important. If it comes from God it cannot be any more important. It cannot be any more glamorous. It cannot be any more profitable.

“Only the devil could convince us to look at this call as demeaning. Both husband and wife are called to build the kingdom. Men have the principal call of going out into the jungle and turning it into a garden. Women have the principal call to tend that which is the garden. Which means this–women have the blessing of focusing their energies on raising up godly seed….

“When we buy into the modern myth that meaning for women is found outside the home, we are distracted from the business of building the kingdom. We are living in the center of the curse upon Eve–that her desire would be for her husband.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

“Bound For Glory: A Practical Handbook for Raising A Victorious Family” pages 70- 71

On Women Pastors & Miserable Marriages:

“Even within the church we have embraced an understanding of ethics steeped in pragmatism. We are willing to submit to God, only insofar as we are able to understand His wisdom. Why, for instance, would God not want women to serve as elders and pastors if He has so gifted them? Why would God want me to stay married when I’m so miserable in this life? Why would God not want me to eat this fruit that is pleasing to the eyes and desirable to make one wise? God is our Father, and as such He is utterly free to declare, ‘Because I said so.’ His law is grounded not in what it does for us, far less in what we understand that it does for us. His law is grounded in who He is.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

Source

On the Requirment of Joyful Submission:

“Our next qualifier is perhaps the most difficult, and is built once again around this concluding phrase, ‘as unto the Lord.’ This not only tells us that there are circumstances where wives must not obey their husband, but also tells us that when they obey, with what spirit they ought to obey. A begrudging obedience is no obedience at all. We as the church do not respond to the Lord’s commands, ‘Well, if you say we have to do it, we suppose we have to do it.’ The submission of a wife to her husband ought to reflect the same joy that we are called to in our submission to our King.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

“Bound For Glory: A Practical Handbook for Raising A Victorious Family” page 69

On Submission:

“We have difficulty with this in large part because we live in an individualistic age. The world around us is steeped in egalitarianism. Egalitarianism is a fancy way of saying, ‘equal-itariansim.’ It is a philosophy that affirms–as the Declaration of Independence does–that all men are created equal. But egalitarianism fails to include appropriate qualifiers as to the nature of that equality. It affirms not only that all people are equal before the law, not only that all people are equal in dignity and value, not only that all people are made in the image of God, but that all people are equal in authority, in relationships, and with respect to roles.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

“Bound For Glory: A Practical Handbook for Raising A Victorious Family” page 63

On Submission Being Specific to Husbands & Wives vs. All Men & Women:

“Paul tells us that wives are to submit to their own husbands. This is not an issue having to do with the relationship between men and women, but between husbands and wives. Paul does not teach that all men have authority over all women, or that all women must submit to all men. It is quite clear that such is not the case. Wives cannot submit to other men, because they must submit to their own husbands. No one can serve two masters.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

“Bound For Glory: A Practical Handbook for Raising A Victorious Family” page 67

In Telling the Story of A Family Cared For by R.C.’s Church After Being Abandoned by an “Infidel Father”:

“It was a hard thing for the widow. We weren’t, of course, able to keep her in great style. She had to trust that the church would meet her needs. The state offered to do the same. She had to choose one or the other, because we as a church had no interest in helping the state care for her. It was tough on her pride. But I reminded her that her calling at that time was to be Jesus to us, that we might have the opportunity to be Jesus to her. We cannot give a cup of water in the name of Christ, unless there are those in our midst who have need of a cup of water. He called her to be thirsty, that He might call us to give her drink.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

“Bound For Glory: A Practical Handbook for Raising A Victorious Family” page 98-99

On Queerness:

“The very heart of sexual confusion is the drive to act against that which is natural. It is to shake one’s fist at the very order of God and the very God of order, at the design of the Creator’s creation. Perversion, for the sexually confused, isn’t a bug of the lifestyle, but a feature.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

Source

On Homosexuality & Culture:

“There is a reason homosexuality was once called the love that dare not speak its name. It once made sense that homosexuals used to live in ‘closets,’ hiding the truth about their sexual peculiarities. There was, not just among Christians but in the broader culture, a consensus that this was twisted. Those given to such behavior kept it on the down-low. The only reason Christians find themselves having to be bold and upfront in denouncing homosexuality is because homosexuals and their fellow-travelers are insisting that we celebrate homosexuality….

“The homosexual lobby has no interest in protecting their ‘rights’ to do what they do in private. No one has been trying to take those ‘rights’ away. The whole of the movement isn’t about what they do, but about what we think about what they do. We are being made, through the tender mercies of the state, to care. Christians want nothing more than for everyone to repent and believe the gospel, to turn from our sins and rest in the work of Christ for us.

“The homosexual lobby wants Christians to repent of our Christianity, our belief in the gospel, our conviction that we are all sinners, that we have a duty to submit to God’s law. Christians proclaim our message, the sole weapon of our warfare being the preaching of the gospel. The homosexual lobby uses the bludgeon of the state, their sole weapon of enforcing their religion of ‘tolerance.’”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

Source

On Abortion:

“The great tragedy of the last thirty years is not ultimately that the heathen, those who the Bible tells us ‘love death,’ are killing their children. Rather, the great tragedy is that those who have been bought by the blood of the Lamb just don’t care. Of course the heathen kill their children. They, after all, are the heathen. But we who were dead in our trespasses and sins, but who have been made alive, who have been set free by the death of the One Innocent, ought not to give up.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

Source

In Answering the Question, “What should our relationship be with our oldest son and his live in girlfriend?”:

“How then ought your family to treat him? The more important question is how ought the church to treat him. When your son professed Christ he surely came under the authority of a local expression of the body of Christ, the church. The elders there vowed to watch out for your son’s soul, and so now have a duty to bring to bear the grace of church discipline in his life. He should be called before the elders to repent, to turn from his sin. If he refuses, he should be barred from the Lord’s Table and from the table of those who belong to the Lord. He should be excommunicated, disfellowshipped. He should, that is, no longer be welcome at your own table as well. Your relationship with him changes from one wherein you believed one another to be bound together in the bonds of Christ to now being mere relatives. Yes you can be polite to him. You can be cordial to him. You should let him know that your hearts are broken, that you love him and always will, but that having left the faith; he has left that which defines your family.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

Source

On Discernment Blogging & Internet Gossip:

“First, consider gossip. If gossip is spoken in the woods and no one hears, does it still make a mess? Guarding our tongues is important. But we need to guard our ears as well. Without an audience, gossip dies on the vine. It isn’t gossip when I know something you don’t. It isn’t gossip when you find out what I knew first. It’s only gossip when I get to be the one telling you. Ego and pride drive the tongue and open the ear.

“The same is true of controversy. In the prototypical schoolyard fight, there is typically the victim, the bully, and the cowards. While we rightly cheer for the victim and hiss at the bully, the cowards, too, deserve our opprobrium. They haven’t even the willingness to risk what the bully has, and worse still, they provide the audience he craves.

“The Internet has not helped. Cyber-bullies hide behind proxy servers and false names. Victims slowly learn that fighting back only encourages them. And there is no vice principal patrolling the hallways and breaking things up. Then there are the cowards. They create the page views, and some even input their own comments, usually anonymously, yelling, “Fight, fight,” while they sit three rows back. They create the audience that is the real raison d’être of the controversy to begin with.”

– R.C. Sproul, Jr

Source