Emotional Manipulation: How Leaders Exploit Our Fears and Desires (Ep. 232 Audio)

Whether it is politicians saying that we can deport illegal immigrants because you are separating children from their parents or the bill needs to pass because it is the biggest spending cut ever, politicians lead primarily with stirring up emotions. The church isn’t much different as music and stories are used to create an atmosphere so the people first respond emotionally rather than with reason. It is then easy to get them to agree with the reasoning when they are emotionally invested already. So here’s the question: How should emotion be used in leadership?

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

James Dobson: Was the Church Following a Psychologist? (Ep. 231 Audio)

In 1977 when James Dobson started Focus on the Family, American families were in a great deal of turmoil. Dobson, a Christian psychologist who grew up in the Holiness movement started Focus on the Family to try to help resolve some of the confusion and to strengthen the home. And while he was successful in many ways, the American church began to look to him as more than just a psychologist with much better advice than the world and looked to him as an Evangelical leader. This shift was in many ways not beneficial for either Dobson or the church.

In this episode, we want to look at Dr. James Dobson’s life and overall influence on the American family and the church. One of the main issues we want to focus on is what happens when the church follows someone whose primary focus is on something other than proclaiming and teaching the Word of God. To do that, it’s crucial to understand that every Christian is not called to lead the church. Every Christian who ministers is not required to focus on teaching the church how to understand the Word of God and equipping the saints for the work of the ministry. But the men who lead the church must have as their primary focus how to cause God’s word to shine forth and to transform the hearts and minds of those they are ministering to. And it is as much the duty of the church to follow the right men as it is the duty of the leaders to have the right focus. This is one of the main reasons that Dr. Dobson’s ministry is a bit of a mixed bag. He fought fiercely against the most visible cultural attacks and pressures that were assaulting American homes such as abortion and the sexual revolution, and he championed a return to Biblically mandated corporal punishment. For all of these positions, he was viciously attacked. But at the same time, he was and continued to be first and foremost a Christian psychologist. His fundamental view of man and sin was shaped by psychological principles and while he looked to align those principles with scripture, that alignment limited the extent to which scripture could be the primary focus.

It’s important for the church to examine how it is being led. It’s important to look back and see how past decisions caused significant impacts, not so we can praise or condemn James Dobson. If his faith was in Christ, then he has and will continue to receive His eternal reward from the hand of the one who is the author and finisher of the faith of all who believe, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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

Rebaptism: Should You Ever Be “Baptized Again”? (Ep. 23- Audio)

Rebaptism has been a discussion since before the Reformation where the Anabaptists openly rejected the Roman Catholic baptism and said that because they worshipped a false god, a Catholic who professed faith had to be baptized “again” – though the Anabaptists would say they were being baptized for the first time. Since then, especially with easy-believism – raise your hand, pray a prayer and you’re saved – many people who made such “professions of faith” earlier in their life have realized that they had no idea who God was when they were baptized as they were complete slaves to sin and continued to walk in that path. The Bible is very clear that there is one baptism, so should people in such a situation be baptized?

In this episode, we want to look at what is commonly referred to as “rebaptism.” While the Anabaptists were a heretical group with no real direct connection to modern Reformed Baptists, it doesn’t mean that their position on a particular topic was wrong. One of the things that gets overlooked with baptism is that while Baptism is more than just an outward sign of an individual’s inward faith, God still says that faith is required to please Him and that without faith, pleasing Him is impossible. When you consider a Catholic baptism, where is there any faith present? The same can be said for many evangelical services. The other thing that comes up quite frequently is the idea that baptism requires some sort of ability to determine if the person is “really saved”, with many jokes being made about “regeneration goggles”. We agree completely that it is impossible to tell if someone is truly regenerate. But what is so often overlooked is that Scripture does tell us how to identify a lack of faith. Those who walk in the flesh, who are slaves to sin, should not be thought of as brothers. The church should make it a practice to recognize known counterfeits. The church should not tell people that God has entered into a covenant with them when they have every reason to believe that is not true. False conversions and false baptisms are real, and “regeneration goggles” are not required. At the same time, no one should be baptized because of how they feel. A testimony is not a feeling, and God desires to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. Baptism should always be a serious event, and not performed lightly. Please join us as we discuss this important but controversial topic.

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

How Can Slaves of Righteousness Be Free? (Ep. 229 Audio)

In Hebrews, Jesus Christ is described as being different than all the sacrifices that preceded Him. All of them failed to take away sin. They could turn aside the wrath of God for a season, but they would never make the person who was offering it righteous. Then Christ came, and He was different. He actually took away sin. He actually took men who were slaves to sin and set them free. He ended sin’s power in their life and brought them to liberty.

In this episode, we want to look at what it means to be free in Christ. So many people claim that Christian liberty means that we can do what we want to do, but this is not how God’s Word describes it. Christian liberty is freedom to do what is right. It is the man who goes from being completely unable to choose righteousness to being able to glorify God in everything he does. One of the ideas that we want to discuss throughout the episode is how vast and broad the freedom that God gives to those who are His servants. Slavery to sin all leads to the same, solitary place, eternal death. But righteousness leads ever higher and deeper into the boundless glory of service to God.

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

Jimmy Swaggart, an All-American Prophet of Baal (Ep. 228 Audio)

While Jimmy Swaggart died in 2025 at the beginning of July, many people only know him because of his public scandals of being caught with prostitutes in 1988 and then again in 1991. But before those revelations that heralded the decline of his influence, he was an internationally known preacher on TV and radio, making around $150 million dollars per year, who had built his ministry over nearly 40 years.

In this episode, we want to look at Jimmy Swaggart’s message and the techniques he used in his ministry and ask some questions about his success. It’s so easy to dismiss false teachers and to think that we cannot be tricked by them. But in doing research for this episode, Charles went back and listened to some of Swaggart’s old sermons and was surprised to realize how much he sounded like an old-fashioned fire-and-brimstone preacher that would have preached in many churches he grew up in. Swaggart consistently refined his preaching techniques to the point that when he began his ministry, he sounded much like Billy Graham, and toward the end, he sounded much like Joel Osteen.

False prophets will always be a threat to the flock, but we can protect ourselves and others by being aware of how they lead men astray and by keeping our eyes fixed upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Please join us as we discuss this important topic.

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

The Eschatology of the Apostles: Psalm 110 (Ep. 227 Audio)

People turn to many different Scripture passages to build their eschatology, but which Old Testament passage did the Holy Spirit inspire the Apostles to use over and over again?

In this episode, we examine Psalm 110, one of, if not the most quoted and referenced scripture passages in the New Testament. It is a remarkable Psalm in that, among its poetic elements, it plainly and straightforwardly describes the order of future events relating to the establishment of Christ’s kingdom and his return. It is a beautiful Psalm in how it glorifies God as God and in the way it shows the plan of God to establish righteousness and to bring peace.

Often, when people attempt to understand eschatology, they look at the various historical views held by leaders in the early church or by prominent Christians at different points in history and then try to compose the correct view. But here is why that is a flawed approach: Scripture should be the primary influence that shapes our thinking. Scripture transforms our minds. It changes the way we think and when our thoughts flow through scripture, we are more likely to think correctly and to come to the correct conclusion. It is very believable that when the early church thought about eschatology through the lens of Psalm 110 (as well as other scripture) that they would come to different conclusions than we would come to today. It was hard for them to imagine 2000 years of history. They may have assumed that Christ would put his enemies under his feet quickly. After all, they may have seen Rome as the primary enemy that needed to be defeated. So this is why a proper view of scripture is important. It does not matter quite so much what conclusions Irenaeus came to regarding future events, what matters far more is that we look at the right scripture and that we give that scripture far more weight than we do to the minds of men. Psalm 110 says some very definite things about specific events. Christ and the apostles quote it in many places so that we know how to think about it correctly. Let us make sure we look to God’s word and not to the teaching of men. Please join us as we discuss this important topic.

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

Avoiding Hero Worship: Examining John MacArthur’s Good & Bad (Ep. 225 Audio)

In the wake of John MacArthur’s death, how do we avoid falling into the trap of hero worship or idolatry? How can we examine his life so we keep the good things he taught and avoid carrying forward his mistakes?

Few American pastors have had a longer or more impactful ministry than John MacArthur. From his focus on sequential expository preaching to his emphasis of Lordship salvation, to his late-in-life transition from Arminian to Reformed soteriology, John MacArthur helped reform the American church in significant ways. But like any man, Pastor MacArthur was not perfect and made decisions and had practices that we should not emulate.

In this episode, we discuss John MacArthur’s life and attempt to unpack the aspects that should be emulated and those that should be discarded. We believe that this is a God-honoring practice that helps keep us from idolatry and worship of man. Please join us as we discuss this important topic.

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

The Duties of Christians to Each Other (Ep. 225 Audio)

What does it mean to edify one another? We know that the word means to “build up”, but how should we think about that task as brothers and sisters in Christ? In this episode, as we continue to look at the duties of Christians, we come to edifying one another and supporting the ministry of the church, both of which are central to being Christians, both of which are often greatly misunderstood. Please join us as we discuss this oft-neglected topic.

Link to first video in series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u5lvDuSDlI

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

Should Women be in the Military? What the Bible Says (Ep. 224 Audio)

Often until things become very extreme, people do not recognize the absurdity of things. People who have any credible profession to be Christians are usually quick to say that a man cannot be born in a woman’s body or that two men cannot marry, but often they ignore the precursors that brought our culture to the point where that would be considered moral. One of the things that the church does to make those things appear normal is to have women speak in church or be pastors, because once you have eliminated the idea that there is any difference in roles, how can you say two men cannot marry or that there is any real differences between men and women. If God did not make them different and it is just a social construct, then why cant someone change their gender. Another major component to the societal self-deception that men and women are the same is women in combat. For a long time, governments have used the military to transform the culture and that happened in the United States. They said that they are the same, but they had significantly lower fitness standards for women than for men. Pete Hegseth says that he has eliminated that, but are there things other than strength that theologically and practically make it unwise to have women in combat?

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

What It Means to Be a Christian: Loving God and One Another (Ep. 223 Audio)

What does it mean to be a Christian? Not what you believe or how you become one. But what happens after that? What does the Christian life look like? What are the duties that we have to one another? How do we live and labor as a part of the body of Christ? In this episode, using our church’s covenant as a framework, we walk through the many different duties that make up the Christian life. Love for God, love for our spiritual brothers and sisters, love for our families, love for our neighbors, love for the world. It’s so easy to overlook many of these and yet we believe that each is a part of the Christian life. Please join us as we discuss this important topic.

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

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