UPDATE: The Sproul family has shared the sad news with us that our founder, Dr. R.C. Sproul, went home to be with the Lord this afternoon. Please pray for the Sprouls. Further updates will be available soon.
I’ve been reflecting on Dr. R.C. Sproul’s life as he nears the end of his earthly journey.
I lived in Pennsylvania in the late 90’s. I had arrived to study a year in America. The evenings were cold in December. The only distraction I had at night was an old radio that worked half the time. One particular night, I turned on the radio to the sound of Handel’s Messiah. The lecturer was clear and poetic in his delivery. I listened intently for 20 minutes or so to a lecture on Augustine. “You’ve been listening to Renewing Your Mind with Dr. R.C. Sproul,” the voice concluded after each episode. I retired to my room early every evening to hear his talks.
Though my curiosity increased with each year, my commitments to my synergistic theology prevailed. I simply could not embrace a theology that took away my liberty to have a voice in my spiritual condition. The following winter I returned to Pennsylvania for Christmas. It was there that I read Michael Horton’s “Putting Amazing Back into Grace.” His brilliant analysis of John’s gospel pierced me and persuaded me to put down my lingering hesitations of Reformed Theology.
Returning to college after changing my convictions gave me a tremendous sense of liberty to explore and read unhindered by past traditions. I immediately read “The Holiness of God” and “Chosen by God” and experienced the closest thing to a revivalistic episode. I was awed as Isaiah was in chapter 6. I am sure I cried with the new knowledge of a God who was far more glorious and powerful than I ever believed.
Years later, I had the joy of sitting under his teaching ministry in Sanford and had the opportunity to interact with him on numerous occasions.
I am deeply grateful to R.C.’s labors. He made theology accessible to me and millions of others. He taught that Jesus is Lord over everything and his sovereignty extends to every molecule. May he die as he lived: in the comfort and faithfulness of his God. Soli Deo Gloria.
“If God is the Creator of the entire universe, then it must follow that He is the Lord of the whole universe. No part of the world is outside of His lordship. That means that no part of my life must be outside of His lordship.” -R.C. Sproul
Uri, the Lord used RC to similarly bless my own life through his ministry. Unlike you, I only met him on one occasion. His passion for Jesus was so clear. May God comfort the Sprouls.