Ligon Duncan Bio, Age, Sermons, Covenant Theology, Books and Twitter

Ligon Duncan Biography

Ligon Duncan born Jennings Ligon Duncan III is an American Presbyterian scholar and pastor.

Ligon Duncan Age

Ligon was born on November 29, 1960, Greenville, SC.

Ligon Duncan Image

Ligon Duncan Wife

He was 29 years old and had very little time in the last decade to do much of anything except study. The position at RTS allowed him to use the tools and the knowledge he had accumulated. It was a wonderful opportunity.

God had a few plans of His own.

When a boyhood friend of Ligon’s came to RTS to take a course, he asked, “So, Ligon, how’s your social life?”

Ligon’s not surprising reply was, “What social life? I don’t have one.”

The friend—who, by the way, was not a psychologist—said, “Well, do you want to be married?”

That set Ligon to thinking. There was this one girl…

Anne Harley was an RTS student in the Marriage and Family Therapy program. She was from Columbia, South Carolina, and had arrived on campus the very same week as Ligon. They had had several conversations. She, too, had spent a decade of serious study and preparation for ministry. There had been one relationship that had just not worked out, and she had come to a perfect peace with the fact that maybe marriage was not God’s plan for her.

Ligon was not so interested in the girlfriends Anne kept introducing him to, but it took him three months to get up the nerve to ask her out instead. When he finally did, he says he was ready to marry her on the second date. Anne was a bit more cautious. “It was sort of like whiplash for her,” he laughs. Even so, his powers of persuasion were strong.

Their first date was on April 14, 1991, and they married on January 25, 1992.

Ligon Duncan Early Life and Education

Duncan was born in Greenville, South Carolina. His father was a Southern Presbyterian ruling elder of the eighth generation. In 1979, Duncan graduated from Greenville Senior High School and in 1983 from Furman University (B.A., History). He continued his studies with an MDiv in 1986 at Covenant Theological Seminary and an MA in Historical Theology in 1987. In 1995, at the University of Edinburgh, New College, he completed doctoral studies in theology.

He served in St. Louis, Covenant Presbyterian Church (1984–1987) staff. The Presbytery of Calvary (PCA) in South Carolina licensed him to preach in 1985 and ordained him in 1990.

Ligon Duncan Sermons

Sermons

Ligon Duncan Woke Church

“Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference.” –Frederick Douglass, 1845

The prophets of old were not easy to listen to because they did not flatter. They did not cajole. They spoke hard words that often chafed and unsettled their listeners. Like the Old Testament prophets, and more recent prophetic voices like Frederick Douglass, Dr. Eric Mason calls the evangelical church to a much-needed reckoning. In a time when many feel confused, complacent, or even angry, he challenges the church to:

Be Aware – to understand that the issue of justice is not a black issue, it’s a kingdom issue. To learn how the history of racism in America and in the church has tainted our witness to a watching world.

Be Redemptive – to grieve and lament what we have lost and to regain our prophetic voice, calling the church to remember our gospel imperative to promote justice and mercy.

Be Active – to move beyond polite, safe conversations about reconciliation and begin to set things right for our soon-coming King, who will be looking for a WOKE CHURCH.

Ligon Duncan Publication

Authored/co-authored

Does Grace Grow Best in Winter? (co-author with J. Nicholas Reid). P & R Publishing, 2009.
Fear Not! (foreword by Jerry Bridges). Christian Focus, 2008.
The Westminster Assembly: A Guide to Basic Bibliography (co-author with David W. Hall). Reformed Academic Press, 1993.
A Short History of the Westminster Assembly(co-author/editor with William Beveridge). Reformed Academic Press, 1993.
The Genesis Debate: Three Views of the Days of Creation (co-author with David W. Hall, Meredith Kline, Lee Irons, Hugh Ross, and Gleason Archer). Crux Press, 2000.
Should We Leave Our Churches? (co-author with Mark Talbot). P&R, 2004.
Women’s Ministry in the Local Church (co-author). Crossway, 2006.

Contributor

The Practice of Confessional Subscription (contributor). University Press of America, 1995.
Reclaiming the Gospel and Reforming Churches, (contributor) Founders Press, 2003.
Letters to Timothy, (contributor) Founders Press, 2004.
Confessing Our Hope, (contributor) GPTS Press, 2004.
The Devoted Life: An Invitation to the Puritan Classics, (contributor) IVP, 2004.
Preaching the Cross (contributor), Crossway, 2007.
Fear Not: Death and the Afterlife from a Christian Perspective (contributor), Christian Focus, 2008.
In My Place Condemned He Stood (contributor), Crossway, 2008.

Edited

Matthew Henry’s Method for Prayer (editor). Christian Focus Publications/Christian Heritage, 1994.
The Westminster Confession in the 2lst Century: Essays in Remembrance of the 350th Anniversary of the Westminster Assembly, (general editor and contributor) Mentor, Vol. 1, 2003; Vol. 2, 2004; Vol. 3, 2008.
Give Praise to God: A Vision for Reforming Worship, (editor and contributor) P&R, 2003.

Ligon Duncan Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

He was the former president of the Confessing Evangelicals Alliance, a broad coalition of different denominations of evangelical Christians. It aims to call the church to repent of what it sees as its worldliness and to take up the Protestant Reformers ‘ mantle in recovering the centrality of worship and doctrine in the church’s life. Duncan spoke regularly at the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology in his capacity as president, an Alliance-related forum that offers quarterly conferences on reformed doctrine and history. He contributes to the online magazine and blog of the Alliance, Reformation21 as well.

He is also a council member of the Gospel Coalition, a “group of (mostly) Reformed heritage pastors and churches who delight in the truth and power of the gospel and want the gospel of Christ crucified and risen to lie at the center of all we cherish, preach and teach.” They have created The Gospel Coalition Network, a consortium of “Christian pastors and other leaders.”

Ligon Duncan Reformed Theological Seminary

In the summer of 1990, as the John R. Richardson Chair of Systematic Theology, Duncan joined the faculty of Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS), Jackson, Mississippi. At the same time, he served as assistant pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi (1990–1995), and interim pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Yazoo City, Mississippi (1993). Minister of the First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS, and Chancellor of the Reformed Theological Seminary. In this role, he continues to teach in the department of Systematic Theology.

Ligon Duncan Quotes

“The complementarian position acknowledges that God created men and women equal in being but assigned different-but equally valuable-functions in His kingdom and that this gender distinctiveness complements, or harmonizes, to fulfill His purpose.”

“A husband should be the first recipient of a woman’s capacity to show compassion and nourish the community. If a woman bypasses her marriage, every other ministry will be polluted.”

“Eve means “life-giver.” Because of her rebellion, the woman became a life-taker, but because of the promise of life she became a “life-giver.” This is more than biological. Woman’s redemptive calling is to be a life-giver in every relationship and circumstance.*”

“The kingdom order of male headship liberates women to fulfill their redemptive function. From the world’s perspective, submission restrains women. From a gospel perspective, submission frees us to do what we have been created and redeemed to do.”

“Scores of evangelical women are functional feminists because the world’s paradigm for womanhood is the only one they have heard. The church should lead the way in equipping God’s people to think biblically about all of life, including a biblical perspective of gender roles and relationships.”

“Whenever the creation order is inverted, there is a disorder, destruction, and death. When we tamper with this order, even a little, we become life-takers rather than life-givers.”

“When a church has a biblical apologetic for womanhood, the foundational concepts of woman’s helper design and life-giving mission can permeate the women’s ministry. Whether that ministry is small and informal or large and well-organized, it can be perpetually and intentionally guided by three questions: • Are we being helpers or hinderers? • Are we being life-givers or life-takers? • Are we equipping women to be helpers and life-givers?”

“Without a proper esteem and love for Christ Himself, and an understanding of His covenant love for His church, we will lack the motive-force to serve Him in the world. If our ultimate motivation for service to God is simply because we love people, we will never be able to sustain the call to service that God has given to us because the very people we are called to serve will break our hearts. It is only the grace of Christ that enables us to persevere.”

“If we want to benefit most from our suffering, by prayer and meditation, we will approach our suffering as a good soldier approaches war. What do I mean by that? A good soldier who has trained and trained is not surprised when he fins himself in war! He has been trained for it. Likewise, consider it your Job to be be prepared to suffer. That puts a whole different cast on Sunday morning, doesn’t it? You are gathering with God’s people Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day to train as good soldiers of Jesus Christ so that when your time of trial and testing sand suffering comes, you will be ready.”

“Admiral Nelson won the great Battle of Trafalgar against the French during the Napoleonic Wars. The Viscount of Camperdown, who also won many battles during that period, was one of the admirals under Nelson. The Viscount of Canperdown’s family crest had a ship with full sails on it and with two little Latin words: Disce pai—”Lean to suffer.” That is precisely what Peter and Paul and Job and Moses and Jesus would say to you and me as believers in the fallen world. “Learn to suffer.”

“Christ, not womanhood or the women’s ministry, must be the reference point. Unless a women’s ministry is an overflow of the gospel, women will become hinderers and not helpers in God’s Church. Those who plan for and implement a women’s ministry must be intentional in maintaining a gospel orientation in their hearts and lives.”

“The only reliable motive for encouraging women’s ministry in the local church is an insatiable longing to see the display of God’s glory in the local church. (Ligon Duncan)”

“Leaders of women should continually challenge women to ask the Holy Spirit to examine their motives for ministries of mercy. Are they seeking self-fulfillment or God’s glory?”

Ligon Duncan Books

2009- Does Grace Grow Best in Winter?
2003-Ligon Duncan the Westminster confession into the 21st century: essays in remembrance of the 350th anniversary of the Westminster assembly
2011-Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
2011-The Genesis Debate: Three Views on the Days of Creation Hugh Ross
2009-Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Contributors: Thabiti M. Anyabwile, John MacArthur, John Piper, R.C. Sproul)
2010-Fear Not! Death and the Afterlife from a Christian Perspective
2011-Children and the Lord’s Supper
2004-Should We Leave Our Churches? A Biblical Response to Harold Camping
1994- The Westminster Assembly: A Guide to Basic Bibliography
1996-Moses’ Law for Modern Government: The Intellectual and Sociological Origins of the Christian Reconstructionist Movement
2013-L’Évangile Et Le Peuple de Dieu: Les Brochures de la Gospel Coalition – Volume 4 (the Holy Spirit; The Church: God’s New People; Baptism and the Lord’s Supper; The Kingdom of God)
2007-Preaching the Cross
2006-Misunderstanding Paul? Responding to the New Perspectives

Ligon Duncan Legacy

he Duncans make a good team. As Ligon’s calling and career have always required big swaths of time away from home, Anne is a very capable partner. Ligon points out that Anne is more than able to take care of herself and everybody else in his absence. Both had lived very independent lives for at least a decade before they married and had to learn all the hard lessons of the marriage partnership. The whole independence thing may have required more adjustment for both of them at the start, but it has certainly been a blessing in the long run.

Things run fine when Ligon travels, but it is also so much more fun when he is home. Sarah Kennedy (17) and Jennings Duncan (14) keep life busy, and oh, so interesting.

Ligon is only 52, but he is, obviously, a planner and a thinker. He has given thought to his legacy. And it’s not about titles or degrees or ego. It’s really quite simple.

“I hope they’re able to say that he lived what he said he believed. I want my life to be consistent with what I’ve taught. And so, I want to preach the gospel and live the gospel out. I hope they would say as well, ‘he was at home and in his family life what he presented himself to be in public,’ so that there’s not some sort of a false dichotomy there between my public person and private life.”

“I hope people would see that I love the church and I love the Bible and I love the gospel and that I wanted other people to love the church, and love the Bible and love the gospel. And if—if I’m able as the leader of this institution to help the institution to be a blessing to pastors, to church leaders, to congregations, to Christians around the world in a time where we face some pretty stiff cultural headwinds—then that will be it. That is gratifying.” `

Ligon Duncan Covenant Theology

Covenant theology (also known as covenantalism, federal theology, or federalism) is a conceptual overview and interpretive framework for understanding the overall structure of the Bible. It uses the theological concept of a covenant as an organizing principle for Christian theology. The standard form of covenant theology views the history of God’s dealings with mankind, from Creation to Fall to Redemption to Consummation, under the framework of three overarching theological covenants: those of redemption, of works, and of grace.

Ligon Duncan Shepherds Conference 2019

This March marked the 2019 annual Shepherds’ Conference at John MacArthur’s Grace Church, a traditionally very conservative, biblically-grounded gathering of like-minded believers to teach and preach the Word of God while exhorting believers to go into the world and to the same. MacArthur and Grace Church, while not classically Reformed in doctrine, are both conservative in theology and Calvinistic in soteriology (the doctrine of salvation). In other words, in MacArthur’s 50 years of ministry, he’s held unapologetically and unwaveringly to sound biblical ideology