Why Church Mortgages Are Wrong (Ep. 181 Audio)

Many churches have mortgages or are seriously considering getting one. Sadly, it is shocking how many Christians (and particularly, pastors) do not believe the Bible when it says, “The borrower is a slave to the lender”. We like to make rationalizations and say that slavery has been abolished, and that it’s just a financial obligation that can be ended at any time, but those are just lies. The warning about slavery IS a warning about the financial obligation. Also, Psalm 37:21 says, “The wicked borrows and does not repay” and we should understand exactly what this says about the obligation that debt puts upon us. And while we published an episode on debt and slavery earlier this year, in this episode we want to focus specifically on churches and why the Bible teaches that it is a sin for the church to become a slave.

In this episode, we discuss how a local church body going into debt teaches a false gospel. God is the church’s husband and like any good husband, he does not fail to meet the needs of his beloved. Additionally, the gospel is the proclamation of how God bought the church out of slavery and into the freedom of his covenant and household; what could be more rebellious than the wife he purchased returning to her slavery because her husband will not give her what she claims she needs? We also spend some time discussing how a church should think about their time and resources and how the lure of a mortgage tempts them to focus on the wrong things. Lastly, we discuss what a church with a mortgage should do and what repentance might look like. Our prayer is that the church would take these issues seriously. The actions of the church are always moral actions and should depict the heart of a loving bride who trusts fully in her beloved. Please join us as we discuss this important issue.

Previous episode on debt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36WZF8ZZFKY

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

Can Food Be Sinful? What the Bible Teaches About Health, Gluttony and Gratefulness (Ep. 180 Audio)

The Bible has a lot to say about food, and from the beginning, we can see how food was related to sin, to sacrifices, and to the worship of God. There were also the food laws of Israel, which are frequently misunderstood. But through all of this, the Bible never teaches that a person’s health is tied to the food they eat. And this matters a great deal, because this is a common false teaching, even among the orthodox.

But the Bible does talk about health. It has to, because life and death are moral, spiritual issues. We understand this because anything to do with whether someone lives or dies will always be a moral topic because we understand that death exists because of sin and so we know that health issues must tie back to sin being in the world.

In this episode, we want to talk about what God’s word says about food and how we can please him with what we eat. In American culture, there is a lot of talk about eating healthy and frequently it is a power issue. Wives pressure their husbands to eat in certain ways. The US government has a food pyramid that is trying to tell people how they should eat. Doctors tell people how they should eat, but they find they have such little power, they frequently don’t even bother even when there is actual scientific evidence behind their conclusions. The more health care is nationalized, the more government asserts its right to dictate what you eat. With all the manipulation about food, how should we relate food and health and what does God’s word teach us about all these things.

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

Does God Hate the Republican’s Big Tent of Idolatry? (179 Audio)

If you watched the Republican National Convention this year, you may have noticed that there was a lot of emphasis on religion. Hopefully, you also noticed that none of it was pleasing to God.
One of the dangers of living in a formerly Christian culture that is rapidly decaying is that you can begin to think there are no more lines to be crossed, that there is a good political side and a bad political side and it’s obvious who Christians should stand with. But this view isn’t supported by Scripture, There comes a point where the “good political party” is corrupt as well and their idolatry excludes joining with them. We want to argue that we’ve come to that place.

In this episode, we discuss the pluralism and idolatry of the Republican Party and how its embracing of homosexuality and accepting that abortion is not murder show their lack of interest in retaining God in their knowledge. And Romans 1 is critical here because it tells us in this passage that refusing to retain the knowledge of God is what keeps us from falling into abject depravity. And this is where the Republican party is headed. So this is directed to believers who are in denial. Do you understand that the wrath of God is against them? If you go among them, it must be to call them to repentance, not to clap for their candidates and their policies. And if you join with them, you should expect God’s judgment to be upon you as well. This is where you will see if you have faith. 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

What It Means to Walk by Faith and Not By Sight (Ep. 178 Audio)

In Hebrews 11, the Bible states plainly that faith requires understanding that the visible world is controlled by the invisible:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

With that in mind, what does walking by faith look like?

In this episode we want to talk about what faith in an invisible, sovereign God looks like. How does faith in the invisible God cause our day to be structured? How do we think about things like sickness and trials, current events and global politics, and the role of the church in the world? When Christians do not believe in the invisible, we become like pagans who fear the world instead of fearing God and turn to worshipping the creature rather than the creator. Christians on the other hand, realize that there are unseen forces in the world, but that they are all controlled by the hand of the sovereign God. Because of this, we are able to fear no one but God, and to serve him directly. This is what it means to walk by faith. 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

Do People Who Commit Suicide Go to Hell? (Ep. 177 Audio)

Suicide has historically been a crime. This is true for many reasons, but one prevalent one is that it is difficult. If not impossible, to argue from the natural world that men own themselves. Everything about the world testifies to man’s dependence, his inability to create himself, provide for himself, or to exist without dependence upon others. We are born from our parents, totally dependent in so many ways and we end our lives in a similar state. From a scriptural perspective this is even more true as God says clearly that the world and all that is in it belongs to him. We are created for his good pleasure and have no claim to life or freedom apart from him.

In this episode, we want to start with the topic of suicide and move from there to discuss the fact that God owns our lives and that all men, whether they acknowledge God or not, know that they do not own themselves. We also discuss the difference between suicide and sacrifice and walk through some of the suicides and deaths in scripture and discuss how and why each of the different men died and whether they murdered themselves (ultimately out of pride) or sacrificed themselves for worthy reasons.

Suicide is serious and God treats it as self-murder. We should also treat it seriously and describe it as God sees it. 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

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