Robert Charles Sproul (/sproʊl/SPROHL; February 13, 1939 – December 14, 2017) was an American
Reformedtheologian and ordained pastor in the
Presbyterian Church in America. He was the founder and chairman of
Ligonier Ministries (named for the
Ligonier Valley just outside
Pittsburgh, where the ministry started as a study center for college and
seminary students) 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.[4][5] Sproul has been described as "the greatest and most influential proponent of the recovery of Reformed theology in the last century."[6][7][8]
One of Sproul's mentors was
John Gerstner, a professor of his at
Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary. The two of them, along with another of Gerstner's students, Arthur Lindsley, co-authored the book Classical Apologetics in 1984. Sproul's ministry, Ligonier Ministries, made recordings of Gerstner teaching various courses on theology and the Bible.
He married Vesta Voorhis in 1960 and had two children, Sherrie Dorotiak and Robert Craig Sproul.[9]
Sproul was an advocate of
Calvinism in his many print, audio, and video publications, and advocated the
Thomistic (classical) approaches to
Christian apologetics, less common among Reformed apologists, most of whom prefer
presuppositionalism.[citation needed] A dominant theme in his Renewing Your Mind lessons is the
holiness and
sovereignty of God. Sproul taught that
headcovering should be practiced in churches as the ordinance is "rooted and grounded in creation".[16][17]
On April 18, 2015, Sproul suffered a
stroke and was admitted to a hospital.[19] Five days later, on April 23, Sproul went home from the hospital, suffering no ill effects. He was, however, diagnosed with a
diabetic condition "that [would] be addressed through diet and regular medical attention."[19]
A longtime heavy cigarette smoker, Sproul had long suffered from
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,[citation needed] and was hospitalized on December 2, 2017, because of difficulty breathing, the result of an apparent infection, an “exacerbation of his emphysema due to the
flu” (“not pneumonia”).[20][better source needed] After a twelve-day period of intermittent fever, and sedation and ventilator-assisted breathing, with effort given to restore his respiratory function, Sproul died on December 14, 2017 (at age 78).[20][21][22]
Publications
Some of Sproul's best-known books are The Holiness of God, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith, and What Is Reformed Theology? He is also well known for Chosen by God, a book about predestination and the sovereignty of God.[23]
Through
Ligonier Ministries and the Renewing Your Mind radio program and conferences, Sproul generated numerous audio and video lectures on the subjects of
history of philosophy, theology, Bible study,
apologetics,
intelligent design, and Christian living. In addition, Sproul wrote more than 100 books and many articles for
evangelical publications.[24] He signed the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, which affirmed the traditional view of
Biblical inerrancy, and he wrote a commentary on that document titled Explaining Inerrancy. He also served as the general editor[25] of the Reformation Study Bible (
ISBN0-87552-643-8), which has appeared in several editions and was also known as the New Geneva Study Bible. In addition, Sproul was executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.[26]
Truths We Confess: A Layman's Guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith Volume 3: The State, The Family, The Church, and Last Things (2007)
ISBN978-1596380417
Truths We Confess: A Layman's Guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith Volume 2: Salvation and the Christian Life (2007)
ISBN9781596380400
Truths We Confess: A Layman's Guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith Volume 1: The Triune God (2006)
ISBN9781596380394
Following Christ (1991)
ISBN978-0842359375 combination of previously published booklets titled: Who Is Jesus? (1983), Ethics and the Christian (1983), God's Will and the Christian (1984), and Effective Prayer (1984).
God's Inerrant Word: An International Symposium on the Trustworthiness of Scripture (1974) Contributor
The Intimate Marriage (1975 as Discovering the Intimate Marriage; revised 1986 and 2003)
ISBN978-0875527086
If There's a God, Why Are There Atheists? (1974 as The Psychology of Atheism; revised 1988, 1997, and 2018)
ISBN978-1527101050
What We Believe: Understanding and Confessing the Apostle's Creed (1973 as The Symbol: An Exposition of the Apostle's Creed; revised 1982 as Basic Training, 1998 as Renewing Your Mind, and 2015 as What We Believe)
ISBN978-0801018473
^Barth, Paul J. (July 15, 2019).
"Head Coverings in Worship?". Purely Presbyterian. Retrieved April 10, 2022. R.C. Sproul writes, "The wearing of fabric head coverings in worship was universally the practice of Christian women until the twentieth century." Incidentally, I remember talking with my mother some years back, and she told me that when she went to church as a little girl, she and her sister wore hats to church. And she was not Presbyterian – that was the case across all American Christianity. "What happened?" Sproul asks, "Did we suddenly find some biblical truth to which the saints for thousands of years were blind? Or were our biblical views of women gradually eroded by the modern feminist movement that has infiltrated the Church of Jesus Christ which is 'the pillar and ground of the truth' (1 Tim. 3:15)?"