One of the reasons why Christians are engaged in so much controversy about the sacraments is that because they see the sacraments as being very, very serious matters.

In fact, that's one of the reasons they're called sacraments, but we regard these things as sacred and holy gifts that Christ has given to his church.

Christians have disagreements when it comes to the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper.

For example, who should be baptized and how?

My view on that has changed over the years and perhaps yours has too.

Even though there are some disagreements among genuine Christians, the Protestant Reformation recovered a biblical understanding of what was to be considered a sacrament.

Thanks for joining us for this Saturday edition of Renewing or Mind as we continue to work through R.C. Sproul's overview of systematic theology.

The sacraments are part of the life of the church, so we mustn't neglect them or treat them lightly.

In today's message, R.C. Sproul reminds us why we only have two sacraments and also explains the seven that are practiced by the Roman Catholic Church even today.

Is Dr. Sproul?

There was almost 35 years ago that I was ordained to the ministry, but in my case, in those days, as it still is in most churches, you could be ordained to one of two different capacities.

One could be ordained to the pastoral ministry or to the teaching ministry, and since my call was not from a church, but from a university to be a professor, I was ordained to the teaching ministry and not to the pastoral ministry.

However, in our church, when you were ordained, regardless of the specifics of the call, you received all of the authorizations and benefits there appertaining to an ordained person, which meant that in my denomination, I was now authorized to administer the sacraments of the church.

But for the vast majority of the time that I've been in the ministry, I've not had the opportunity to exercise that privilege of administering the sacraments.

But now I do have a little parish here in Florida, and in our little congregation, I've had the opportunity once a month to administer the Lord's Supper, and also frequently to administer the sacrament of baptism.

I can't tell you how delightful that is to me as a minister to be on that side of the celebration of the sacraments.

I recognize that if there is any area of archaeology that has provoked endless controversy and about which there's very little agreement among Christians, it has to do with the sacraments.

And on the one hand, that is a very painful thing to admit that Christians can't agree on the meaning and the efficacy and the number and a host of other issues regarding the sacraments.

But the other side of that coin is that there is one good thing about it.

One of the reasons why Christians are engaged in so much controversy about the sacraments is that because they see the sacraments as being very, very serious matters.

In fact, that's one of the reasons they're called sacraments, that we regard these things as sacred and holy gifts that Christ has given to His church.

I mentioned earlier in our study of the doctrine of the church that in the reformation, one of the three marks that were considered as being the genuine marks of a valid church was the proper administration of the sacraments.

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