We’re starting with a pretty straightforward question this episode: Why do different people read the Bible and come to different conclusions? Is it the people? Is it the Bible? Or is it how they read the Bible? The study of reading and interpreting the Bible is called hermeneutics, and while proper hermeneutical principles won’t keep you from making any mistakes, it’s helps keep you from making some of the most obvious and dangerous errors.

In this episode, we want to discuss some of the most common mistakes that people make when reading and interpreting their Bibles. We’ll discuss everything from bringing your own assumptions to the text, to interpreting figurative language as if it was literal, to the most common error of all, not even bothering to read the actual text, but just going from memory or paraphrase.

Reading the Bible incorrectly is dangerous, but all of us who are saved are commanded to do it, so it’s not something that we can avoid if we desire to obey God. The issues raised in this video won’t keep you from making mistakes, but they can help you recognize mistakes that you’ve been making and even give you ideas on how to avoid making those mistakes in the future. God desires his people to understand his word so much that Christ died on the cross to send his Holy Spirit to help teach us all things and to guide us to truth. Our ardent desire is that the church would have a renewed desire to seek and follow after the Words of God. Please join us as discuss this very important topic.

Listen to the audio version here: https://theconqueringtruth.com/2024/03/how-not-to-read-the-bible-common-errors-in-hermeneutics-ep-161-audio/

Thumbnail image by Paul O’Rear on Flickr under CC BY-SA 2.0

Timecodes
00:00:00 The Problem
00:11:36 Need for a System
00:15:46 Read the Passage
00:25:21 Read the Details
00:28:06 Check the Context
00:49:05 Understanding the Genre
00:58:39 Proof Texts
01:05:05 Finding a Verse You Like
01:14:18 Accepting Exterior Sources as Authoritative

We’re starting with a pretty straightforward question this episode: Why do different people read the Bible and come to different conclusions? Is it the people? Is it the Bible? Or is it how they read the Bible? The study of reading and interpreting the Bible is called hermeneutics, and while proper hermeneutical principles won’t keep you from making any mistakes, it’s helps keep you from making some of the most obvious and dangerous errors.

In this episode, we want to discuss some of the most common mistakes that people make when reading and interpreting their Bibles. We’ll discuss everything from bringing your own assumptions to the text, to interpreting figurative language as if it was literal, to the most common error of all, not even bothering to read the actual text, but just going from memory or paraphrase.

Reading the Bible incorrectly is dangerous, but all of us who are saved are commanded to do it, so it’s not something that we can avoid if we desire to obey God. The issues raised in this video won’t keep you from making mistakes, but they can help you recognize mistakes that you’ve been making and even give you ideas on how to avoid making those mistakes in the future. God desires his people to understand his word so much that Christ died on the cross to send his Holy Spirit to help teach us all things and to guide us to truth. Our ardent desire is that the church would have a renewed desire to seek and follow after the Words of God. Please join us as discuss this very important topic.

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Hosts – Dan Horn, Jonathan Sides, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson

In all the recent discussions about transgender weddings, one thing that didn’t come up that much is that a wedding is very different from other types of events. At a wedding, a covenant is made between three parties, both the husband and wife making an oath to God and vows to one another, and with the guests participating as witnesses and taking upon themselves a responsibility to hold both the husband and wife to what they have committed. When we forget this, as even much of the church has, it causes us to treat weddings and marriage as little more than a party, focused on the happiness of the bride and groom. But when we understand this, we can see why God compares divorce to murder and why he holds not just the couple responsible, but also the community that allowed such sacred things to be treated as unholy.

And just to put things into context, we are referencing a particular event that occurred in September 2023 but only gained significant attention in early 2024. Last year, during an interview as part of a book tour, Alistair Begg responded to a question from a Christian grandmother by recommending her to attend her grandson’s wedding to his “transgender” partner. And while the response to Begg’s advice was generally negative and he was encouraged to repent of his position, we feel like there is still a lot that needs to be said about the issue.

In this episode, we want to discuss why Christians can’t attend a homosexual/transgender wedding. We discuss the nature of marriage itself and how it is a picture of the gospel, that publicly displays God’s mercy and holiness. Weddings, even secular ones, celebrate truth, but homosexual and transgender weddings are built around lies. There is no husband, there is no bride, it is not a man and a woman. For a Christian to go and to affirm such a wedding took place, is to affirm a lie, and to be part of a covenant that cannot be upheld. Please join us as we discuss this crucial topic.

Listen to the audio version here: https://theconqueringtruth.com/2024/03/why-a-christian-cant-attend-a-transgender-wedding-ep-160-audio/

Thumbnail image by yggg on Flickr under CC BY-NC 4.0

Timecodes
00:00:00 The Problems
00:05:16 Should We Be Judgmental?
00:10:56 What Makes it Different
00:17:43 Joining in Evil
00:24:10 Honoring God’s Name
00:27:42 Meaning of Marriage
00:33:22 What is a Wedding?
00:43:08 Denying the Image of God
00:49:26 Cross dressing
00:58:16 Testimony to Everyone
01:04:40 Would it Ever be Possible to Attend?

In all the recent discussions about transgender weddings, one thing that didn’t come up that much is that a wedding is very different from other types of events. At a wedding, a covenant is made between three parties, both the husband and wife making an oath to God and vows to one another, and with the guests participating as witnesses and taking upon themselves a responsibility to hold both the husband and wife to what they have committed. When we forget this, as even much of the church has, it causes us to treat weddings and marriage as little more than a party, focused on the happiness of the bride and groom. But when we understand this, we can see why God compares divorce to murder and why he holds not just the couple responsible, but also the community that allowed such sacred things to be treated as unholy.

And just to put things into context, we are referencing a particular event that occurred in September 2023 but only gained significant attention in early 2024. Last year, during an interview as part of a book tour, Alistair Begg responded to a question from a Christian grandmother by recommending her to attend her grandson’s wedding to his “transgender” partner. And while the response to Begg’s advice was generally negative and he was encouraged to repent of his position, we feel like there is still a lot that needs to be said about the issue.

In this episode, we want to discuss why Christians can’t attend a homosexual/transgender wedding. We discuss the nature of marriage itself and how it is a picture of the gospel, that publicly displays God’s mercy and holiness. Weddings, even secular ones, celebrate truth, but homosexual and transgender weddings are built around lies. There is no husband, there is no bride, it is not a man and a woman. For a Christian to go and to affirm such a wedding took place, is to affirm a lie, and to be part of a covenant that cannot be upheld. Please join us as we discuss this crucial topic.

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Hosts – Dan Horn, Jonathan Sides, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson

It doesn’t take much discernment to see that we live in dark days. In Romans 1, the Bible says that God judges people by turning them over to a debased mind and we can see in our nation an in much of world, sodomy and perversion are all around us. God also says clearly that these thing come to pass because men and women do not want to retain God in their knowledge. But, as of 2021, as many as 63% of Americans identify as Christians. How can we be a people who do not retain God in our knowledge when so many of us profess Christianity and even more importantly, what should we do about it?

In Leviticus, when God establishes the Aaronic priesthood, the very first command that he gives to Aaron is a command for the priests to distinguish between the holy and the unholy. And this is not something that changes in the New Testament. All who are Christians are priests, and one of our most serious roles in the world, as we see in Romans 1, is to declare the righteousness and holiness of God. In this episode, we want to deal with the work that God has given each Christian to do, both within the church and out in the greater world. It’s so tempting to think that kindness is accepting all things, and that love is overlooking every form of sin, and while the blood of Christ does wash away sin, he never ignores it or pretends that it does not exist. Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, and because this is true, the people of God will always care about what is holy and what is unholy. Please join us as we discuss this important topic.

Listen to the audio version here: https://theconqueringtruth.com/2024/03/how-can-christians-overcome-the-world-ep-159-audio/

Timecodes
00:00:00 Confronting False Christians
00:24:45 Duty as Priests
00:36:26 Responsibility in the Church
00:41:41 Taking God’s Name in Vain
00:47:32 Responding to Persecution
00:51:14 Exaulting Men
01:00:18 God is Holy
01:07:12 God is Fearsome
01:12:08 God is Powerful

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Hosts – Dan Horn, Jonathan Sides, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson

It doesn’t take much discernment to see that we live in dark days. In Romans 1, the Bible says that God judges people by turning them over to a debased mind and we can see in our nation an in much of world, sodomy and perversion are all around us. God also says clearly that these thing come to pass because men and women do not want to retain God in their knowledge. But, as of 2021, as many as 63% of Americans identify as Christians. How can we be a people who do not retain God in our knowledge when so many of us profess Christianity and even more importantly, what should we do about it?

In Leviticus, when God establishes the Aaronic priesthood, the very first command that he gives to Aaron is a command for the priests to distinguish between the holy and the unholy. And this is not something that changes in the New Testament. All who are Christians are priests, and one of our most serious roles in the world, as we see in Romans 1, is to declare the righteousness and holiness of God. In this episode, we want to deal with the work that God has given each Christian to do, both within the church and out in the greater world. It’s so tempting to think that kindness is accepting all things, and that love is overlooking every form of sin, and while the blood of Christ does wash away sin, he never ignores it or pretends that it does not exist. Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, and because this is true, the people of God will always care about what is holy and what is unholy. Please join us as we discuss this important topic.

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Hosts – Dan Horn, Jonathan Sides, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson

IVF is getting a lot of attention this past week because of the Alabama Supreme Court ruling. For those who do not know, IVF refers to “in vitro fertilization”, and is a fertility procedure where multiple eggs are harvested from a woman, fertilized in a laboratory, and then one or more are selectively implanted back into her (or a surrogate’s) uterus. And all of this matters because the basic pro-life position is that life begins at conception meaning that each of those harvested eggs that are fertilized deserve the same protection and life-honoring treatment that any other image-bearer of God should be afforded under His law. And that’s really the heart of the discussion, because IVF is marketed as a this purely positive treatment for those who greatly desire to have a child, but not much attention is placed on the process itself, where in the Western world there are currently millions of frozen but fertilized embryos, many of which, no one has any plans to implant, and which will eventually, if nothing is done to prevent it, be destroyed.

So, in this episode, we want to talk through the issue. Our position is pretty straightforward. IVF has a lot of serious moral problems, and while a single IVF customer might be able to find a doctor and associated laboratory that is willing to limit its egg harvesting, fertilization, and implantation so that every egg harvested is implanted, there are still moral problems with that strictly controlled process, and there is no reason to believe that the doctor and laboratory are following this strict and limited protocol with their other patients.

In the end, this really does become an issue about God’s sovereignty. As we see in scripture, men and women have always wrestled with the issue of fertility and offspring. And it has always been an emotional and heart-wrenching topic. But God’s answer is always the same. He opens and closes the womb. Yes, there are things that man can do that do not fall outside of our obedience to God, but there are also paths that require us to sin and even kill our own children to get what we want. IVF is not special in this regard, but it is something that Christians should understand. Please join us as we discuss this very important topic.

Listen to the audio version here: https://theconqueringtruth.com/2024/03/why-ivf-is-wrong-and-anti-life-ep-158-audio/

Thumbnail image by mulan under CC BY-SA and Marco Verch under CC BY (via Flickr)

Timecodes
00:00 The Problem with IVF
05:58 Abortion is Legal Everywhere
07:17 A Dark History
12:38 Can it be Done Right?
19:27 Death Rate
22:24 Intentions and Infertility
39:33 Snowflake Adoption
53:12 What if You’ve Done IVF?

IVF is getting a lot of attention this past week because of the Alabama Supreme Court ruling. For those who do not know, IVF refers to “in vitro fertilization”, and is a fertility procedure where multiple eggs are harvested from a woman, fertilized in a laboratory, and then one or more are selectively implanted back into her (or a surrogate’s) uterus. And all of this matters because the basic pro-life position is that life begins at conception meaning that each of those harvested eggs that are fertilized deserve the same protection and life-honoring treatment that any other image-bearer of God should be afforded under His law. And that’s really the heart of the discussion, because IVF is marketed as a this purely positive treatment for those who greatly desire to have a child, but not much attention is placed on the process itself, where in the Western world there are currently millions of frozen but fertilized embryos, many of which, no one has any plans to implant, and which will eventually, if nothing is done to prevent it, be destroyed.

So, in this episode, we want to talk through the issue. Our position is pretty straightforward. IVF has a lot of serious moral problems, and while a single IVF customer might be able to find a doctor and associated laboratory that is willing to limit its egg harvesting, fertilization, and implantation so that every egg harvested is implanted, there are still moral problems with that strictly controlled process, and there is no reason to believe that the doctor and laboratory are following this strict and limited protocol with their other patients.

In the end, this really does become an issue about God’s sovereignty. As we see in scripture, men and women have always wrestled with the issue of fertility and offspring. And it has always been an emotional and heart-wrenching topic. But God’s answer is always the same. He opens and closes the womb. Yes, there are things that man can do that do not fall outside of our obedience to God, but there are also paths that require us to sin and even kill our own children to get what we want. IVF is not special in this regard, but it is something that Christians should understand. Please join us as we discuss this very important topic.

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Hosts – Dan Horn, Jonathan Sides, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson

There are a few major ways to study history. One is the great man method which basically teaches that history is shaped by great men that rise up and lead and so studying those important men is the way to understand history. Another is to study history as a pattern of political or societal events where one cultural event by its nature leads to the next. Many modern educators completely reject the idea of history having any real patterns and instead, just study societies as stand-alone representations of human behavior. But Christians should think about history differently. And from a Reformed perspective in particular, Christians should think about history as an ordained series of people, circumstances, and events planned by a God who knew the end from the beginning and is moving the world from that beginning to the end in a way that manifests his glory.

Listen to the audio version here: https://theconqueringtruth.com/2024/02/how-a-wrong-view-of-history-obscures-the-glory-of-god-ep-157-audio/

Timecodes
00:00:00 Theories of History
00:15:09 Learning from History
00:18:24 Looking Back at COVID
00:25:59 God’s People Driving History
00:43:30 God’s Use of Sinners
00:53:49 Hope from History

There are a few major ways to study history. One is the great man method which basically teaches that history is shaped by great men that rise up and lead and so studying those important men is the way to understand history. Another is to study history as a pattern of political or societal events where one cultural event by its nature leads to the next. Many modern educators completely reject the idea of history having any real patterns and instead, just study societies as stand-alone representations of human behavior. But Christians should think about history differently. And from a Reformed perspective in particular, Christians should think about history as an ordained series of people, circumstances, and events planned by a God who knew the end from the beginning and is moving the world from that beginning to the end in a way that manifests his glory.

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Hosts – Dan Horn, Jonathan Sides, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson