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.

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.