Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, February 2012

The February edition of Tabletalk is out. This month’s issue examines what Jonathan Edwards called charity as described by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:1–13. This passage rings familiar to many people on account of its frequent use (or misuse) in wedding ceremonies and other occasions demanding a proclamation of love. Yet the truth of Christian love as laid out in 1 Corinthians 13 reaches far beyond these settings. Contributors include R.C. Sproul along with Joel Beeke, D.A. Carson, Michael Haykin, Joe Holland, Steven J. Lawson, Keith Mathison, Ray Ortlund, John R. Sittema, R.C. Sproul Jr., and Cal Thomas.

We do not post all of the feature articles or the daily devotionals from the issue, so you’ll have to subscribe to get those. But for now, here are links to a few select columns and articles from this month:

• True Love by Burk Parsons
• For Glory and Beauty by R.C. Sproul
• Love’s Shroud by Ray Ortlund
• Smart is Not a Fruit by R.C. Sproul Jr.
• Theology and Doxology by Michael Haykin
• Soft Hearts, Solid Spines by Joe Holland
• Repairing the Ruins: An Interview with Cal Thomas
• A Child’s (Mis)understanding by Keith Mathison

---

If you have not yet subscribed to Tabletalk, now is the perfect time. It’s only $23 for a year, and $20 to renew. You save even more if you get a 2- or 3-year subscription (as little as $1.36 per issue). We offer special discounts for churches or businesses who want multiple copies of each issue.

Get your subscription to Tabletalk today by calling one of Ligonier Ministries’ resource consultants at 800-435-4343 (8am-8pm ET, Mon-Fri) or by subscribing online.

"Charity" Toward Heresy?

There are some truths which must be believed; they are essential to salvation, and if not heartily accepted, the soul will be ruined.

Now, in [the early church], the saints did not say, as the sham saints do now, "We must be largely charitable, and leave this brother to his own opinion; he sees truth from a different standpoint, and has a rather different way of putting it, but his opinions are as good as our own, and we must not say that he is in error."

That is at present the fashionable way of trifling with divine truth, and making things pleasant all round. Thus the gospel is debased, and "another gospel" propagated.

I should like to ask modern broad churchmen whether there is any doctrine of any sort for which it would be worth a man's while to burn or to lie in prison. I do not believe they could give me an answer, for if their latitudinarianism be correct, the martyrs were fools of the first magnitude.

From what I see of their writings and their teachings, it appears to me that the modern thinkers treat the whole compass of revealed truth with entire indifference; and, though perhaps they may feel sorry that wilder spirits should go too far in free thinking, and though they had rather they would be more moderate, yet, upon the whole, so large is their liberality that they are not sure enough of anything to be able to condemn the reverse of it as a deadly error.   Keep Reading...

Christianity – The Greatest Force of Good in the World!

Have you ever heard people say that Christianity is evil? I have. People who say that have to have a very poor sense of history and all the amazing advances the world now enjoys because of the spread of Christianity.


It is safe to say that the vast majority of the great scientists in history were Bible believing Christians. They believed that to study nature and science was merely to “think God’s thoughts after Him.” Whether they looked through the microscope or the telescope; whether the field was human biology, astronomy, physics, oceanography or zoology, these men believed they were merely discovering more about the world and universe God had made.

The first hospitals were built by Christians because they believed that each individual mattered (each person is made in the image of God) and because Jesus taught us to love our neighbor and He defined our neighbor as the one we find in need (remember the story of the Good Samaritan?). There’s actually a hospital here in Phoenix called “Good Samaritan Hospital.”

The first schools were built by Christians because they believed God had given us His word in the Bible and every child should have an education in order to read it and understand it. In society today the question is asked, “should the Bible be taught in schools?” Yet when school education was first introduced, the Bible was the only reason for the school’s existence. On and on we could go…Continue Reading>>>

In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity