R.C. at the Beach: Volume 1
Through the years, Dr. R.C. Sproul helped us give careful thought to topics ranging from the birth of Jesus to professional football. On this episode of 5 Minutes in Church History, Dr. Stephen Nichols canvasses the first volume of Right Now Counts Forever, a collection of 40 years of theological reflection from Dr. Sproul.
Transcript
This is our first week with R.C. Sproul at the beach. I have in front of me the beautiful boxed edition of the four-volume set of all of his columns titled Right Now Counts Forever. These columns go all the way back to 1977 and stretch all the way to February 2018.
I’m going to do something a little different. I’m just going to read the titles from volume 1 for you. Are you ready?
Roots in the Pepsi Generation
The Sex Revolution and the Christian
The American Dream
God, Violence, Pro Football
God and the Johnstown Flood
The Press: Profits or Cynics?
The “Elvis” Phenomenon
Marx or Jesus?
Spiritual Giants
Heroes
The Fruitful Moment
Terrorism
Solzhenitsyn Speaks Out
Classical Christianity
The Antinomian Spirit
Born Again
Chicago Summit
A Time for Truth
The Just Shall Live by Faith
Khomeini—Are All Religions the Same?
Separation of Church and State
The Joy of Running
“My People Perish . . .”
American Caesar
The Church Faces the Eighties
Religion in America
What Happened to the Human Race?
The New King
Work World: Jungle or Paradise?
The Real War
Hidden Gold: The Rediscovery of Samuel Shellabarger
The Secret Sin
Christmas 1980
A Look to the Future
Robbing Hood
The Parable of Peter: The Profit Making Pork Producer, or the Ballot Is a Bullet
Frustrations of a Christian Educator
Intolerable Tolerance
Practical Atheism
Eschatology: What Difference Does It Make?
Pie-in-the-Sky Theology
Theology and “Reaganomics”
A New Opportunity—A Solemn Responsibility
The Birth of Jesus
Rationalism and Fideism: The Battle of Two Extremes
Duty Is a Four-Letter Word That Has Become a Modern-Day Obscenity
The Philistine Cross
There’s More to Life Than Meets the Eye
Going for the Brass Ring
The Soul’s Hunger for Beauty
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Carnegie Hall
The Protestant Over-Reaction
The Ultimate Vision
Be Ye Holy
The Christian in the Marketplace
Heroes
An Affair of the Heart
“You Ought.” You Should. “Sez Who?”
Regeneration Precedes Faith
Who Will Speak to My Husband?
No Secret Code
Sight for the Blind
Predestination: A Solemn Warning
Those are all of the titles from the first ten-year run of the Right Now Counts Forever column. Let’s pop into just a few of these. Remember the one titled “Chicago Summit”? It’s from December 1978, and it’s about the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. Reading those two little pages is like getting a front-row seat to all that was happening at the Chicago Summit.
And then, “The Joy of Running.” What is that all about? Dr. Sproul is talking about the craze of running. He notes millions of people are taking up our newest national pastime pleasure, and so he too joined the team of runners at Ligonier. Here he goes with a little bit of humor: “I started out for the two-mile run inspired by visions of Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile, of multitudes of wiry athletes running through the streets of Boston in the annual Marathon, of ‘Rocky’ jumping with jubilance, fist stretched out to heaven in triumph, as he reached the top step of the plaza in Philadelphia. These visions inspired me to greatness, for the first hundred yards. . . . I can see the headlines: ‘Sproul breaks, 12-minute Mile in Stahlstown Marathon.’”
That’s volume 1 of Right Now Counts Forever. And that’s our first week with Dr. Sproul at the Beach. I’m looking forward to hearing more.
