R.C. Sproul died December 14, 2017 at age 78. Months before the theologian’s final illness, WORLD founder Joel Belz interviewed him at Ligonier Ministries headquarters in Sanford, Fla. Here’s an edited transcript of their conversation. 

You said in a video series several years ago that everybody is a theologian. There are good theologians, you said, and there are bad theologians. But everybody’s a theologian. So what’s the distinction between a good theologian and a bad theologian?

Well, a good theologian has a correct understanding of theology—and a bad theologian has a distorted view. Everybody has some concept or understanding of God. Everybody who lives in America is aware, at least, of Jesus—if for no other reason than Christmas. So they draw conclusions and inferences about Jesus—and when they do that, they’re doing theology.

A lot of the inferences drawn about Jesus are wildly inaccurate. Bad theology has become an escape form for us. We all have to be engaged in some form of theology—and the question is: Are we going to be rigorous and open to being instructed by Scripture, and the truth of it?

So you’re pushing us back, as you always do, to the Bible. Tell us how you read it—and when you’re getting ready to preach, is it different from the way you read it for your personal devotions?

C.S. Lewis talked about his concept of devotions: It was sitting with his pipe studying as deeply as he could the text of the Bible. He said a true theologian never removes himself from a devotional study of the things of God. But when I’m preparing a sermon, I will go an extra mile of research on the text—more than I do when I’m just simply reading Scripture.

We never stand over the Bible. But the Bible does stand under us. I remember as a philosophy major and then a professor trying to learn for myself and to inculcate in my students the art of critical reading. But when I read the Bible, it’s criticizing me. I’m not criticizing it.

That’s a helpful distinction. So, when I get up every morning this week—and it’s really the case that I’m in the book of Leviticus—how do I read Leviticus devotionally?

As quickly as you can. You want to get that historical framework first, among other things. So many people resolve to read through the Bible. They read Genesis and Exodus. They get to Leviticus, and it’s so unfamiliar to them with all the details of various ceremonies, that they lose their resolve and give up. At some point you have to go and read Leviticus. But only after you have the framework, the larger scope of Scripture.

Then it’s like Luther said. He said the joy of studying the Bible is that first you see the forest—and once you see the forest, then you see a copse of trees, and you look at that copse of trees, and then you pick out an individual tree and you examine that. Then each branch, he said, but Bible study doesn’t really become fun until you’re turning over every little leaf, every little branch, of every little tree. You get down to the details of a book like Leviticus once you have the framework in which you see where that comes in redemptive history. It’s a treasure trove. Do you see it? Don’t you find that when you’re reading?

I’m only in Leviticus 4. I haven’t found it yet!

I promise you it’s there.

Whose inspiration was it to give the church Tabletalk, a monthly magazine that serves as a day-by-day guide and commentary?

Tabletalk started when we were in Pennsylvania and had our study center there in the mountains. Initially it was a newsletter to our constituents with a few theological articles. We derived the title from Luther’s pattern. He would sit around the table with his students and discuss Biblical theological matters, and we used to do that at our Pennsylvania study center.

When we began this ministry, we had been in conversations with Francis Schaeffer, who gave us insights on how to operate a study center. But we differed from L’Abri in that they were principally evangelistic: We were more focused on nurturing Christians. To that end, we decided to change the format and to go with a combination of theological articles as well as a daily devotion so it had a two-pronged outreach—to help people get into the Scriptures on a daily basis, and also to chew on some theological matters.

Last year, when my local church used your series on the book of Revelation, I couldn’t help thinking, “R.C. is not at all as dogmatic as his critics have said!” How do you decide which parts of Scripture can have different readings and which are absolutely clear?

Luther talked about the perspicuity of Scripture but qualified it by saying not all parts of Scripture are equally clear, and that one of the most important rules of hermeneutics is that you interpret the obscure in terms of that which is really clear—not the other way around. The other way around you’d turn the Bible into a wax nose that can be twisted in any way you want to. But, when you’re dealing with apocalyptic literature, you’re dealing with the most difficult genre to interpret with any final dogmatism at all. The book of Revelation is exhibit A.

Whatever you’re teaching, to me the cardinal sin is to bluff—to pretend you know something that you don’t know. I’d say one of the first things a teacher has to learn to say without choking at it is, “I don’t know.” It’s hard to say that because the students expect you to know, and all you need to qualify as a teacher is to know more than your students. Honesty and integrity demand that when you don’t know something, you say so.

Let’s leave the field of scholarship for a bit. What’s your counsel to somebody who is moving and wants to choose a church in a new community. What are one or two first tests to apply when looking for a new church?

Look for a church where Biblical exposition is the order of the day. Being fed by sacred Scripture is the single most important element.

What are a couple of trademarks of that kind of preaching?

There are different kinds of expository preaching. Some preach topically but use a text, and really stick with it and expound it. That’s a legitimate form of expository preaching. My preference is the preaching that goes verse by verse through a whole book. I do that—and the main reason I do it is that our duty as preachers is to preach the whole counsel of God.

Our normal human tendency is to preach our favorites and avoid texts that are controversial or difficult to handle from the pulpit. Whereas when I’m preaching through Luke, as I am right now, next week’s sermon is right there in front of me. It’s the next verses after the ones I preached last week. I can’t duck it—I have to preach what’s there. With the exception of Christmas Eve and Easter, my preaching schedule just follows sequentially.

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