Yesterday, the popular Christian author, speaker, and founder of Ligonier Ministries, R. C. Sproul, passed into glory. Posted here is a note of gratitude for his life and ministry from Wayne Grudem.
R. C. Sproul was a tireless, ever-courageous defender of the inerrancy of the Bible and the unfathomable greatness of our sovereign God. He had an influential leadership role in producing the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. Throughout his life, he was a major voice promoting a resurgence of Reformed theology as the system of doctrine most consistent with Scripture and most conducive to deep trust in God every moment of every day. My interaction with R. C. was primarily related to his long-time agreement with the ministry the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, especially in our opposition to the gender-neutral changes in the TNIV Bible, and most recently in his willingness to be one of the first signers of the Nashville Statement on Biblical Sexuality.
I am thankful to God for his life and ministry. His death makes me think of this promise of Scripture: “And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘That they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!’” (Rev. 14:13).
Dr. Grudem became Research Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary in 2001 after teaching at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for 20 years. He has served as the President of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, as President of the Evangelical Theological Society (1999), and as a member of the Translation Oversight Committee for the English Standard Version of the Bible. He also served as the General Editor for the ESV Study Bible (Crossway Bibles, 2008).
