Presbyterian theologian founded Ligonier Ministries
The Rev. R.C. Sproul, a Presbyterian minister who studied and began his ministry in his native Western Pennsylvania and became one of the most influential leaders in the resurgences of biblical literalism and doctrinal Calvinism among conservative Protestants, died Thursday.
Rev. Sproul, who was 78, died at a hospital in Altamonte Springs, Fla., his ministry said.
He was born in Pittsburgh and earned degrees at Westminster College, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and the Free University of Amsterdam.
He founded the Ligonier Valley Study Center, which he used to promote lay education in an effort to bridge “Sunday school and seminary.” He regularly hosted seminars ANDREWS at the center in Westmoreland NICHOLE County ANNA and also spoke in Pittsburgharea churches.
He relocated to Orlando, Fla., in 1984 and rechristened his organization Ligonier Ministries.
The author of dozens of books, featured in countless teaching tapes, videos and radio broadcasts, he was an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America. He was co-pastor of St. Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Fla., where his funeral is scheduled for Wednesday. He also founded Reformation Bible College in Sanford.
He was a leading organizer of the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, which asserted the infallibility of Scripture in history and science, including a literal reading of the Genesis accounts of creation and Noah’s flood. The document became a manifesto for conservatives over the course of a generation of fierce battles in religious denominations over the role and interpretation of the Bible, particularly the Southern Baptist Convention.
He also was influential among a segment of conservative Protestants who embraced what is known as Reformed theology, or the doctrine of grace, anchored in the theology of John Calvin. These include a firm belief that God has full sovereignty over human events, including predestining BOUL those THELMA who are "AUNT saved. BUBBI" “Anything that (BYERS) happens in this world cannot happen apart from divine sovereignty,” he taught. “... If God is not sovereign, God is not God.”
He would speak along with others to audiences at conferences such as Together for the Gospel, which draws thousands, many of them young, male pastors from various denominations who embrace Reformed doctrines.
“It is hard to overestimate his influence on gospel-resurgent evangelicalism,” said Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Asked once what he wanted written on his tombstone, Rev. Sproul quipped: “I told you I was sick.”
Rev. Sproul is survived by his wife, Vesta; their two children, Sherrie Dorotiak and Robert Craig Sproul; 11 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.