A Note of Thanks for R.C. Sproul

Tabletalk Magazine ^ | 12/15/2017 | Joni Eareckson Tada

[Gamecock]

Fifty years ago, when I snapped my neck under the weight of a dive into shallow water, quadriplegia smashed me up against the study of God. Lying in bed paralyzed, I had hard-hitting questions such as, “God, who’s behind all this suffering, You or the devil? Are You permitting this or ordaining it? I’m still a young Christian. If You’re so loving, why treat Your children so meanly?”

A well-meaning friend gave me a copy of The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination by Dr. Loraine Boettner. It was weighty and I had to turn its pages with a mouth stick, but reading it helped. Yet, I wondered, “Isn’t there something or someone out there who explains things more simply?” That’s when this same friend popped into my cassette player a tape by Dr. R.C. Sproul. I was hooked.

All during the summer of 1971, I’d park my wheelchair on the back porch of our Maryland farmhouse and listen to either Dr. John Gerstner or R.C. Up until then, God’s overarching decrees seemed scary. But Dr. S, as I liked to call him, presented God’s sovereignty as a truly comforting doctrine. It enlivened my spirit and elevated my faith to think that God had chosen me for the furnace of affliction (Isa. 48:10). R.C. helped me see that God had chosen me to be a quadriplegic for good reasons—not only good, but noble.

Fast-forward from the back porch to Joni and Friends, a California-based global ministry I began in order to reach for Christ people with disabilities and their families. Through thousands of wheelchairs and Bibles that we deliver, through every U.S. or overseas family retreat we hold for special-needs families, my heart’s desire is to help others find the same comfort and encouragement in the sovereignty of God. I want other disabled people to see that when God chooses them for the furnace, it’s a calling. It’s a privilege. I have R.C. to thank for that vision.

And I’ve told him so. It’s what began a truly sweet friendship between my husband, Ken, and me and R.C. and Vesta. Throughout the years, R.C. often asked me to speak at Ligonier conferences, and I was always a little breathless at the prospect. As a laywoman—and as a woman in a wheelchair—I was keenly aware of the weighty responsibility of presenting from a Ligonier platform, especially with R.C. “sitting over there with his critical ear.” But he had to know I was simply parroting the many lessons I had learned from him over the years.

When I was battling stage 3 cancer in 2010, R.C. and Vesta prayed earnestly for me and my husband. During my chemotherapy treatment, R.C. wanted to encourage Ken in the midst of his nonstop caregiving routines. Knowing Ken was an avid fly fisherman, R.C. sent my weary husband a G-Loomis Stream Dance 5 weight 10-foot rod. It was the best on the market. You should have seen Ken’s eyes get wide with delight and amazement as he opened his gift. I will always treasure R.C.’s thoughtfulness with that precious gift. It was such a “guy thing” to do; he obviously knew what would brighten my husband’s heart.

My most touching memories of R.C. have to do with his granddaughter Shannon. Born with multiple disabilities, Shannon had seizure disorders, could not talk, and required constant care. It would’ve shaken the faith of most grandparents, but R.C. held fast to the goodness of his sovereign God.

Shannon’s disability opened his eyes to a world of other special-needs families, and his rapport with them moved me deeply. His grandfather’s heart broke for Shannon, but he would often echo the words of Jesus in John 11:14: “This sickness . . . is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” And he was right. At Joni and Friends, we have told Shannon’s story to countless thousands, all to the end of helping others hold fast to the goodness of God in His sovereignty.

R.C.’s familiarity with Shannon’s severe disability prepared him to enter his own world of disability. Older age wasn’t easy on Dr. Sproul, and he often felt the bite of “outwardly wasting away” (2 Cor. 4:16). But just as his insights once enlivened my spirit and elevated my faith in the furnace of affliction, those same treasured doctrines bolstered his spirit and faith. And his incredible sense of humor remained—the last time I saw him, we challenged each other to a bit of wheelchair racing.

And now as I muse on the homegoing of my friend, I can’t help but belt out all four stanzas of “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” Especially that last line: “Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill, God’s truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever!” I so want to be there when R.C. shakes the hand—no, rather, gives a bear hug and hearty slaps on the back—of Martin Luther.

Yes, Dr. Sproul will be remembered as a remarkable Christian statesman, standard-bearer for the Reformed faith, and advocate for the gospel once delivered to the saints. But I will miss my happy friend and the times we would spontaneously sing a hymn together in the hallway of some convention center or compete to see “who knows the most stanzas” to this hymn or that. I will miss the times when, in his older years, he would back away from me and shout, “Jezebel!” whenever I complimented him on how youthful he looked.

Our ministry at Joni and Friends is all about conveying the kindness of God in a horribly broken world of deep suffering. Dr. R.C. Sproul helped lay a foundation for our work, not only in my personal life, but in our outreach. For when crib deaths occur, when spina bifida or autism or Alzheimer’s encroaches, when people groan under the weight of significant disabilities and wonder if they’ve been forsaken, we can tell them that God has not taken His hands off the wheel for a nanosecond. R.C. Sproul, even to his last days, would hold forth that powerful line from Psalm 103:19: “His kingdom rules over all.” Yes, God considers these awful things tragedies and He takes no delight in misery, but He is determined to steer each affliction and to use suffering for His own good and glorious ends.

And those ends are happy. God is heaven-bent on sharing His joy, peace, and power with us. But there’s a catch. A caveat I learned early on from listening to R.C.’s tapes on my little cassette player: God shares His joy on His terms, and those terms call us, in some measure, to suffer as His beloved Son did while on earth. “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21).

So, I say a heartfelt thanks to R.C. Never would he have imagined how God would use His teaching ministry to touch the life of this quadriplegic and countless others like me. R.C. showed me, way back in the beginning, that of all the things I might waste here on earth, I must not waste my disability. Earth provides my one and only chance to give Jesus a “sacrifice of praise,” demonstrating to the heavenly hosts that He is supremely worthy of my loyalty and love (Heb.13:15).

And once I get to heaven, R.C. and I will have all of eternity to sing praise to the God who permits what He hates in order to accomplish what He loves. Thank you for championing that blessed message, Dr. Sproul. I’ll catch up with you at the foot of the throne, where we will know—and sing—all the stanzas.

[Gamecock]

GRPL Ping.

[LouieFisk]

I didn’t even know RC had passed away. I didn’t agree with him on some things, but he was an excellent teacher and will be missed by a great many.

[ifinnegan]

Thanks!

[Pelham]

bump

[jonno]

Just - wow.

Thank you for this post.

[jonno]

Pinging you - if you haven’t already read this wonderful tribute.

[righttackle44]

Mrs. Tada is a personal hero of mine. I look to her for wisdom and encouragement, and she always delivers.

In my view, she is on the level of Pastor Bonhoeffer, who was praying the night he was called to be hung.

Sorry. Some Freepers wanted me to tell about his gigantic Christian concert and media ministry and his personal airplanes and his huge mansion, didn't you?

I'll tell you he didn't have any of that. I'll also tell you he was called to a pastorate in America, and he could have stayed here during the war. He chose to return to Germany because he believed the Christians there needed leadership and encouragement.

I hold Mrs. Tada in the same esteem and thank God for her and her husband.

[srweaver]

“And once I get to heaven, R.C. and I will have all of eternity to sing praise to the God who permits what He hates in order to accomplish what He loves.”

That is not quite Calvin’s teaching, which could be more accurately portrayed as that He deliberately created/foreordained some for heaven and others for hell, in eternity prior, and not based on what they would or would not do, but merely to glorify and please Himself.

[RCFlyer]

Thank you for posting. I’ve been following his condition.
He is my favorite.

[TigerClaws]

About 20 years ago I sent a letter to R.C. Sproul. Subject was the topic of works vs. faith alone.

He actually wrote me back and said he was glad it wasn’t just theologians who pondered such topics.

If you haven’t checked them out, he’s got several video series worth a watch out there. Sure everything is on YouTube these days. Choosing My Religion is one title I remember.

Prayers sent.

[suzyjaruki]

Thank you TigerClaws for reminding me that YouTube can be an excellent source for sending videos to others who are not subscribers to Tabletalk Magazine or those who do not have the Ligonier organization app downloaded to phone or tablet.

Thank you, Gamecock, for posting this tribute from Joni. She is an inspiration. I have friends from various Christian denominations that pray for the healing of my Parkinson’s Disease. I tell them that witnessing in suffering is my new vocation. :) I would rather have prayers to be patient and gracious. I haven’t reached the point of being thankful for PD but I do understand suffering’s place. RC has taught me (biblically) that all things come from God’s providential hand, that God knows what is best for me, and PD is the way He chooses to keep me close to Him. I am thankful for that.

[metmom]

Too much of this is hitting home for me as I struggle with this mast cell disorder and I watch my condition continue to deteriorate.

I have just realized that I am now sensitive to the last form of Vitamin A I have found to take to supplement my diet. I can’t eat anything that contains it cause of what amounts to severe food allergies to virtually all veggies and fruits. And to anyone inclined to make suggestions, I have already thought of it, whatever it is.

Believe me. I’ve investigated everything.

I am not taking my furnace of affliction as gracefully as Joni.

I heard someone make a comment about how God gives His biggest trials to those He knows are most able to handle it.

I heard that with mixed feelings.

[azcap]

I am a Mormon, certainly far from RC’s flavor of Christianity but I always had great respect for him and his ministry. Always nice when you are driving cross country at 2 in the morning to pick up some distant AM channel and hear RC’s sermons.

[azcap]

Keep up the faith Metmom. One thing I have learned in my stage IV cancer at age 41 is that pain, illness, and debilitation are not optional but when we face these things on a scale we never before imagined in our lives we do have a choice to suffer or to endure. I have have chosen to never suffer from my cancer but rather I endure it as God has prepared me and provides for me.

[metmom]

One of the things that’s made this difficult is getting in the company of Word of faith/pentecostal folks who claim that it’s God’s will for everyone to be healed and that sickness is from the devil and God would not afflict anyone with something like that, etc....

But then again, I’ve noticed that most of them are not dealing with debilitating, life threatening health issues.

It’s easy to blame the sick person for lack of faith, sin in their lives, generational curses, something is blocking the healing from flowing, you need to just speak healing and claim it and *walk in it*, that He wouldn’t use suffering and sickness for growth, to make us more like Christ, teach us things, we all ought to be dying peacefully in our beds at a ripe old age, we’re owed 70 - 80 years we should expect that, ad nauseum.

So if I say something about it, they come back with *I rebuke that*, which does NOT make the person suffering feel any better. It just really invalidates the suffering of the person. It really just ends up putting the burden of getting healed on the sick person, which is an impossible situation.

And their theology JUST. DOESN’T. WORK. It is not the answer to the question of why God allows pain and suffering.

I’m sorry that you’re having to go through all that at such a young age. I’d hate to see anyone suffer like that at ANY age, but I’m well past 41 and you are still young.

[editor-surveyor]

.
Not to be throwing stones at anyone, but the word of Yehova plainly states that “the curse causeless will not come.”

And when Yeshua healed, every time but one he placed the blame on sin, and said plainly that forgiveness thereof was the cure.
.

[metmom]

Sure you are throwing blame.

You’re OT theology doesn’t work.

It didn’t work in the OT.

You are just one of Job’s worthless friends.

They, too, were wrong about Job’s suffering.

[editor-surveyor]

.
Boiling with bitterness is not the answer to anything.

OT theology is the only theology there is. It is the “theology” of every NT apostle, and of Yeshua.

There is no NT theology, but the “inherited lies” that rose up in the 4th century and later.

Every illness is an individual thing, so there is no grand spiritual cure, but to ask the Father to walk us through our lives to show us what he sees.
.

[metmom]

Boiling with bitterness is not the answer to anything.

You're projecting again.