R. C. Sproul Jr.

Last updated

R. C. Sproul Jr.
Born (1965-07-01) July 1, 1965 (age 58)
Theological work
Tradition or movement Calvinism, Postmillennialism
Main interestsCalvinism, the character of God, classical apologetics

Robert Craig Sproul, better known as R. C. Sproul Jr., (born July 1, 1965) is an American Calvinist writer, theologian, and pastor, and the son of R. C. Sproul.

Contents

Life

Sproul holds degrees from Grove City College (Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Literature, 1986) and Reformed Theological Seminary (Master of Arts in Theological Studies, 1991) and received his D.Min. in theology from Whitefield Theological Seminary (2001).

In 1989 Sproul began working for Ligonier Ministries in Orlando, Florida. In 1996 he moved to Meadowview, Virginia where he founded Highlands Study Center (later renamed Highlands Ministries). Sproul served as executive editor of Every Thought Captive, a monthly magazine published by Highlands Ministries. Sproul planted Saint Peter Presbyterian Church in Bristol, Virginia in 1996 serving as senior pastor until 2001, then as Associate Pastor of Education until 2010. From 2009 to 2010, he worked as a teacher for Veritas Press, which specializes in Christian educational texts. [1] [2]

In 2010, Sproul was appointed a Teaching Fellow and Associate Professor of theology, philosophy, and apologetics at Ligonier Academy in both the Bible college and D.Min. programs. In 2014 he was named Rector at Reformation Bible College as well as the Chair of the Department of Theology and Philosophy. [2] [3]

In August 2015, Sproul wrote in his personal blog that he had briefly visited the Ashley Madison website in 2014. [4] As a result, Ligonier Ministries suspended him until July 2016. [5] Sproul had addressed the recently announced Ashley Madison data breach in a July 22, 2015, blog entry that highlighted "the biblical truth that our sins will find us out", but without the acknowledgment made in August. [6]

On November 29, 2016, ten days after his ecclesiastical wedding ceremony, Sproul was arrested in Fort Wayne, Indiana, for drunken driving with two of his minor children in the car. He posted a $5,000 bond and was free under a "monitored conditional release." [7] [8] On June 2, 2017, Sproul filed a plea agreement in which he pled guilty to one felony count, 9-30-5-3(a)(2)/F6: Operating Veh. While Intox or Controlled Substance: Passenger Under 18. He was sentenced to a prison term of 1 year 183 days. Under the terms of the plea agreement his prison sentence was suspended and he was remanded to 1 year supervised probation. [9]

On December 9, 2016, days after his arrest, the board of directors of Ligonier Ministries and Reformation Bible College received and affirmed Sproul's resignation request. Ligonier Ministries posted a statement on their website on December 12, 2016, saying that Sproul resigned "for personal reasons". [10] [11]

Early 2019 Sproul briefly worked as website manager for Bucs Dugout, SB Nation's community for Pittsburgh Pirates fans. [12] His contract was terminated the morning after Deadspin's piece criticizing the hire. [13] [14] Later that year he became ordained through Logos Ministries and formed Dunamis Fellowship (details under Church allegiances).

Personal life

Sproul has been married twice. Sproul's first wife, Denise Elizabeth Sproul (née Rocklein), died in 2011, age 46, of cancer. They have seven surviving children, a disabled daughter died in 2012. [15]

On October 14, 2016, Sproul married Lisa Carol Ringel (née Porter) in a civil ceremony. On November 19, 2016, his father R. C. Sproul Sr. officiated the church wedding ceremony. Lisa, a thrice divorced [16] nutritionist, [17] legally adopted the four youngest Sproul children on July 12, 2018. Combined they have twelve surviving children, eleven grandchildren and currently reside in Indiana. [8]

Several years after his father's death, Sproul Jr filed a trust complaint against the RC Sproul Trust Agreement trustee, mother Vesta Sproul; and the successor trustee, his sister. The Seminole County Florida probate case was filed in 2021 and, after a number of motions, voluntarily dismissed July 11 2023. [18]

Church allegiances

Sproul was first ordained in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP). After a failed attempt to transfer to the Presbyterian Church in America, [19] he was ordained in the Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly (RPCGA) in 2000.

In January 2006, Sproul and the Session of Saint Peter Presbyterian Church (SPPC), its governing body, were deposed from office by the RPCGA under charges including "abuse of authority in an inexcusable manner" against several families, alleged illegal use of the ARP's tax identification number, planting a church without authority, and practicing infant communion. [20] [21] The SPPC Session issued a letter of apology and asked to be released from general membership in the RPCGA, and the denomination granted their request. SPPC requested pastoral oversight from the CREC, which accepted the congregation as a full member in October 2007. [22] The Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC) examined the case and accepted Sproul as an ordained minister in good standing in 2006. In 2010 Sproul transferred his ordination to the denomination Covenant Presbyterian Church (CPC). [23]

On March 27, 2019, Sproul announced, "I am a member in good standing at Pine Hills Church here in Fort Wayne. It is a part of the Federation of Evangelical Churches." [24] The FEC is an Anabaptist denomination of Amish Mennonite origin.

July 2, 2019, Sproul became ordained through Logos Ministries of Florida and formed the business entity Dunamis Fellowship. February 14, 2021, Sproul planted his newest church, Sovereign Grace Fellowship in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Sproul announced April 3, 2021, he would launch the Shepherd’s College, August 30, 2021, as a pastors college for training and mentoring men nationally and internationally. [25]

Publishing

Sproul has written twelve books, including When You Rise Up: A Covenantal Approach to Homeschooling,Bound for Glory,Biblical Economics,Almighty Over All,Eternity in Our Hearts, and Tearing Down Strongholds. He has edited four books, including After Darkness Light: Distinctives of Reformed Theology, and contributed to several others. He was a regular columnist for World magazine, Homeschooling Today magazine and the Covenant Syndicate. For eleven years he was the editor of Tabletalk magazine, a publication of Ligonier Ministries.

In Almighty Over All Sproul takes the position that God created man to have an object worthy of his wrath: "God is as delighted with his wrath as he is with all of his attributes... What I’ll do is create something worthy of my wrath, something on which I can exhibit the glory of my wrath" (p. 52). Sproul goes on to state that God is the author/creator of sin: "I am not accusing God of sinning; I am suggesting that He created sin" (p. 54). [26]

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presbyterian Church in America</span> Conservative Reformed Christian denomination in the United States and Canada

The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is the second-largest Presbyterian church body, behind the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the largest conservative Calvinist denomination in the United States. The PCA is Reformed in theology and presbyterian in government.

Michael Scott Horton is the J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California. He is a scholar and theologian, having written and edited more than forty books and contributed to various encyclopedias, including the Oxford Handbook of Reformed Theology and Brill’s Encyclopedia of Christianity.

The Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) is a confessional Presbyterian denomination located primarily in the United States, with additional congregations in Canada, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. It was founded by conservative members of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA), who objected to the rise of Liberal and Modernist theology in the 1930s. The OPC is considered to have had an influence on evangelicalism far beyond its size.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Covenant theology</span> Protestant biblical interpretive framework

Covenant theology is a conceptual overview and interpretive framework for understanding the overall structure of the Bible. It uses the theological concept of a covenant as an organizing principle for Christian theology. The standard form of covenant theology views the history of God's dealings with mankind, from Creation to Fall to Redemption to Consummation, under the framework of three overarching theological covenants: those of redemption, of works, and of grace.

Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) is a theological seminary in the Reformed theological tradition with campuses in multiple locations in the United States. Founded by conservatives in the Southern Presbyterian Church, the Presbyterian Church in the United States, in 1966, it serves primarily students from more conservative branches of the Presbyterian and Reformed traditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R. C. Sproul</span> American theologian, author and pastor (1939–2017)

Robert Charles Sproul was an American Reformed theologian 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."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Covenant Theological Seminary</span> Seminary of the Presbyterian Church in America

Covenant Theological Seminary, informally called Covenant Seminary, is the denominational seminary of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Located in Creve Coeur, Missouri, it trains people to work as leaders in church positions and elsewhere, especially as pastors, missionaries, and counselors. It does not require all students to be members of the PCA, but it is bound to promote the teachings of its denomination. Faculty must subscribe to the system of biblical doctrine outlined in the Westminster Standards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Gerstner</span> American theologian and academic

John Henry Gerstner was an American Reformed and Presbyterian theologian and professor of Church History at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and Knox Theological Seminary. He was an expert on the life and theology of Jonathan Edwards.

Kenneth L. Gentry Jr. is a Reformed theologian, and an ordained minister in the Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly. He is particularly known for his support for and publication on the topics of orthodox preterism and postmillennialism in Christian eschatology, as well as for theonomy and Young Earth creationism. He holds that each of these theological distinctives are logical and theological extensions of his foundational theology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geerhardus Vos</span> Dutch-American Calvinist theologian

Geerhardus Johannes Vos was a Dutch-American Calvinist theologian and one of the most distinguished representatives of the Princeton Theology. He is sometimes called the father of Reformed Biblical theology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ligon Duncan</span> American pastor and scholar

Jennings Ligon Duncan III is an American Presbyterian scholar and pastor. He is Chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ligonier Ministries</span> American Christian organization

Ligonier Ministries is an international Christian discipleship organization headquartered in the greater Orlando, Florida area. Ligonier was founded in 1971 by R. C. Sproul in the Ligonier Valley, Pennsylvania, outside of Pittsburgh. Ligonier is distinguished by its teaching of Reformed theology.

Bryan Chapell is an American pastor and theologian who currently serves as the Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church in America. He was previously the senior pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria, Illinois. Prior to that he was president and chancellor of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri for twenty years. Chapell is also an author, lecturer, and conference speaker specializing in homiletics. He served as Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in America in 2014.

W. Robert Godfrey is a minister in the United Reformed Churches in North America and formerly served as the third president of Westminster Seminary California. As of 2017 he is president emeritus and professor emeritus of church history. He currently is chairman of Ligonier Ministries, located in Sanford, Florida, a position he took over from the late Dr. R. C. Sproul.

Roger R. Nicole was a native Swiss Reformed Baptist theologian and proponent of Christian egalitarianism and biblical inerrancy. He was an associate editor for the New Geneva Study Bible, assisted in the translation of the New International Version, and was a founding member of both the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy and the Evangelical Theological Society, serving as president of the latter in 1956.

Libertarian Christianity is a designation that encompasses a variety of people, ideologies, philosophies, etc., the commonality of which is that each of these claims some commitment to both libertarianism and Christianity. Libertarianism and Christianity, as societal entities, are each composed of a variety of factions, each of which claims some distinguishing features that make such faction more libertarian, or more Christian, than other factions operating under the same libertarian or Christian banner. Libertarian Christians are yet another faction within each of these two internally diverse superstructures. What makes libertarian Christianity unique is that people who claim to be libertarian Christians are people who either implicitly or explicitly claim to have found some kind of ideological bridge that makes libertarianism and Christianity compatible. Whether people who claim to be libertarian Christians have discovered an ideological bridge that is genuinely faithful to the fundamental tenets of both libertarianism and Christianity is inevitably a question whose answer determines whether the libertarian Christian's bridge is ideologically sound or is based on pure presumption and wishful thinking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ray Sutton</span> American Anglican bishop

Raymond Ronny Sutton is an American Anglican bishop. He was bishop coadjutor in the Diocese of Mid-America of the Reformed Episcopal Church, since 1999, a founding member of the Anglican Church in North America, in 2009. He is the former Rector of the Church of the Holy Communion in Dallas, Texas, president and Professor of Scripture and Theology at Cranmer Theological House in Houston, Texas, and headmaster of Holy Communion Christian Academy. Sutton was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and moved to Dallas at age thirteen.

In Christianity, a family integrated church is one in which parents and children ordinarily attend church services together; during the service of worship, children and youth stay all through church services and do not attend children's and youth ministries during this time. Other terms used are family discipleship churches, family-centered ministry and inclusive-congregational ministry.

Douglas E. Bond is an American author. He is not to be confused with the musician and singer-songwriter, Douglas Burke Bond, Jr., who goes by the stage name, Hatchatorium, and is also a writer/author. Douglas E. Bond has written more than 30 books, primarily of historical fiction.

Robert S. Rayburn is an American pastor and theologian. He is the pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church, a PCA church in Tacoma, Washington, and stated clerk of the Presbytery of the Pacific Northwest. Rayburn studied at Covenant College, Covenant Theological Seminary, and the University of Aberdeen.

References

  1. ↑ "A brief history", About Highlands, Highland Ministries.
  2. 1 2 "R.C. Sproul Jr.", Teachers, Ligonier Ministries.
  3. ↑ R.C. Sproul Jr. emurse.com.
  4. ↑ Sproul Jr., R.C. (August 31, 2015). "Judgment and Grace". Jesus Changes Everything. Archived from the original on August 31, 2015.
  5. ↑ Neffinger, Veronica (August 31, 2015). "R. C. Sproul Jr. Suspended from Ministry after Admitting to Visiting Ashley Madison Website". Christian Headlines. Archived from the original on September 2, 2015.
  6. ↑ Sproul Jr., R. C. (July 22, 2015). "Hacking Ashley Madison". Jesus Changes Everything. Archived from the original on July 22, 2015.
  7. ↑ "R.C. Sproul Jr. Resigned From Ligonier Ministries After Felonious DUI Arrest With Minor in Vehicle". The Christian Post. December 16, 2016. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  8. 1 2 Clark, Heather (December 24, 2016). "Affidavit Says R.C. Sproul Jr. Drove Off Road, Unable to Walk After Drunk Driving Arrest With Children". Christian News Network. Retrieved December 25, 2016.
  9. ↑ "RC Sproul Jr. Avoids Prison, Takes Plea Deal for Driving Drunk With Kids" . Retrieved September 26, 2018.
  10. ↑ "A Statement Concerning Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr". Ligonier Ministries. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
  11. ↑ "'Bad Beer or No Beer?' R.C. Sproul, Jr., Who Advocated 'Drinking Well,' Arrested for Felony DUI". December 18, 2016. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  12. ↑ Sproul Jr., R.C. "Permission to Board", BucsDugout.com, 2/20/19.
  13. ↑ Wagner, Laura. "SB Nation Hired A Disgraced Pastor To Lead A Team Site And, Hoo Boy, Readers Have Questions", Deadspin.com, February 21, 2019.
  14. ↑ SB Nation Staff, "An update on Bucs Dugout management", BucsDugout.com, February 22, 2019.
  15. ↑ "Denise Elizabeth Sproul Obituary (2011) Bradenton Herald". Legacy.com. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  16. ↑ "RC-Lisa Sproul". www.facebook.com. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  17. ↑ thepurposedrivenwife.com. "Journey of Faith". thepurposedrivenwife.com. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  18. ↑ Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller Seminole County, Florida. "Case Details - Number: 2021CP001944".
  19. ↑ Johnson, Jerry. "The Saga of R. C. Sproul Jr.", Presbyterian & Reformed News, vol. 5, no. 5, September–October 2000. pp. 8-9.
  20. ↑ "The Pearcey Report". www.pearceyreport.com. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
  21. ↑ RPCGA judgment hushmoney.org
  22. ↑ "Public Statement from the CREC Pastoral Commission for Saint Peter Presbyterian Church, Bristol, TN" (PDF). Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  23. ↑ "Leadership & Faculty". Ligonier Academy . Retrieved December 8, 2016.
  24. ↑ Sproul, R. C. Jr. (March 27, 2019). "Bob, I am a member in good standing at Pine Hills Church here in Fort Wayne. It is a part of the Federation of Evangelical Churches. You can read their statement of faith online. I am grateful you asked, but it sounds like someone has been talking about me". @rcsprouljr. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
  25. ↑ RC (July 19, 2021). "What is The Shepherd's College? | RC Sproul Jr" . Retrieved February 28, 2022.
  26. ↑ Pierce, Timothy M. (2008). Enthroned on Our Praise: An Old Testament Theology of Worship. B&H Publishing Group. p. 133. ISBN   9780805443844 . Retrieved May 9, 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.