Category: Audio Episodes

What should we do when someone who calls themselves a Christian commits a crime against us? Take theft for example. Let’s say a brother comes to you and tells you that he had $1000 stolen from him by a deacon in the church or by the teenage son of the pastor, or just by another church member. Is it wrong for him to report it to the police? What about for domestic abuse? Child abuse? Sexual abuse? The sad truth is, these things happen. And whether it’s someone that you personally thought was a Christian or not, many people struggle with how to handle this situation according to scripture.

In this episode, we want to deal with the reality of how to handle the overlapping authority between the church, the home, and the civil government and, in particular, how that works out when someone has broken the civil law but professes to be a Christian. This is an important issue, because while most Protestant churches correctly condemn the Catholic church for their handling of the child abuse scandal among priests, many Baptists, Presbyterians, and Protestants still fail to report cases of physical or sexual abuse to the God-appointed civil magistrates. This does not mean that the church should do nothing, but that the church should not usurp the authority that God has given to our civil leaders. A person can be excommunicated by the church and sentenced to death by the state for murder. The church of Jesus Christ needs to care about justice, and we need to stop believing that civil justice is not a part of God’s justice. Part of the reason why Christ was born as a man under the law, who lived a perfect life, and then was unjustly put to the death as a sacrifice for sins is because God cares about what happens in the physical realm just as much as the spiritual. Or to say it a different way, Christ’s punishment and death on the cross happened physically and also had spiritual ramifications. When the church forgets that God is Lord over all things, that he appoints rulers, commands justice, and causes mercy to come to pass, we start to preach and live a gospel that denies the truth of God’s word. 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

Many Christians believe the Bible teaches that everything in the world will get worse and worse and then Christ will suddenly rapture his church away before pouring out his judgment on Israel and his enemies. But In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream lays out when, how, and why Christ’s kingdom would begin before going on to triumph over all of Christ’s enemies, and God’s explanation does not involve the failure of the church or its rapture away to heaven.

We start out by making some pretty strong statements about the rapture. Not only is the teaching of a pre-tribulation rapture of the church wrong, going against the clear teaching of scripture, but it also causes real harm to the church and teaches a theology that Christ’s atonement and the power it bestowed upon the church by the sending of the Holy Spirit fails to constrain sin and overcome and destroy the works of the devil. Not only does the teaching of the rapture mislead the church into ignoring the awesome scope and grandeur of the Great Commission(make disciples of the nations, teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded), but many use the failure that it teaches as an excuse to justify their own sin and carnality.

In this episode, we want to look at a number of the verses where scripture explains most clearly what God is doing in the world; how, why, and when Christ’s kingdom will be established; and what it will accomplish in the world. While we will look at many verses, much of our time will be spent in Daniel 2, unpacking Daniel’s interpretation of the dream that God gave to King Nebuchadnezzar. This dream and its interpretation explain much of God’s design for the end times and the glorious triumph of Christ, his bride the church, and his kingdom of which there will be no end. 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

Christians recognize that Christ took the wrath of God upon Himself on the cross. But Christ’s suffering and death did not do away with God’s wrath toward the unrighteous. And God still pours out his wrath on the earth to deal with man’s sin when He so chooses. One of the titles of God that many Christians have forgotten is the Lord of Hosts, which literally means the Lord of Armies. The idea is that God is the one who rules over the world and so when nations go to war against one another, it is God who is sending judgment upon them. But in the United States at least, where we’ve lived for almost 200 years without having a war within our borders, much of the church has forgotten the great reality of God’s wrath.

In this episode, we want to discuss the reality of God’s wrath, how it is poured out on the earth, and what it looks like when He does so. We want to discuss not only how an understanding of God’s wrath can exist with an optimistic eschatology, but also how necessary it is for a proper view of the seriousness of sin and of God’s holiness. We also want to stress that while God is slow to anger, and is longsuffering, his patience is not without limits. Paul tells us in Romans 9, that one of the reasons that God created the world is to show his wrath and power. It is dangerous when the people of God forget basic things about their Lord. God’s wrath is not something that Christians can afford to forget. 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

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.

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.

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

The Bible says a lot about debt and slavery and teaches that the two are tightly connected, going so far as to say “the borrower is a servant (slave) of the lender”. And as Christians, when we read God’s word, it is our duty to take God’s commands and instructions seriously. But if you asked the average Christian if slavery is bad and then examined the amount of debt they have, would you come away with the sense that their stated beliefs and actions were in alignment?

In this episode, we want to deal with what God’s word says about debt and slavery. In doing this, we discuss the purposes for which God created debt, how we should think about freedom vs bondage, and even how this is different for the individual Christian than for a local church body. We even want to push back on our view of slavery itself as Scripture uses slavery to demonstrate both positive and negative aspects of our physical and spiritual lives. This is important, because part of the Christian life is keeping our minds from being conformed to the world but allowing them to be transformed through the renewing that God’s word and spirit bring upon all who faithfully abide in Him.

Topics discussed:
What is debt? What is slavery?
Are mortgages good or bad?
Is it better to rent or be a homeowner?
How the United States has structured its laws and policies to favor debt
How God uses debt and slavery to accomplish his purposes.
Why not paying back debt is evil and is a sign of being unsaved
What debt and slavery shows us about man’s relationship to God (and sin)
How should we treat the poor?
How living beyond our means is a rejection of God’s sovereignty and being carnally minded and covetous
Why churches shouldn’t take out a loan to buy a building
What does it mean to be free to serve the Lord Jesus Christ?

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