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When confronted with the historical doctrines of grace, Arminians frequently respond by citing popular proof-texts like John 3:16, 2 Peter 3:9, and 1 Timothy 2:4 to deny God’s absolute sovereignty over salvation. But are these passages being handled righteously, or are they being ripped entirely out of their biblical contexts?

And this question about context matters, because the main problem with the way Arminians handle scripture is that they ignore or twist the context of their proof texts to arrive at the conclusion they desire. This is true whether you are talking about the general context of the harmonization of the Old and New Testaments, where so many Old Testament passages show the weakness and inability of man and are quoted in the New Testament, and Arminians act as if the Old Testament and New Testament have no relation with each other. The other way they do this is by quoting only one or two verses and completely divorcing this short excerpt from the context of the passage it was found in. This second category is where we spend most of out time in this episode

In this episode we break down the most common verses used to defend Arminian theology. By examining the surrounding text, the immediate audience, and the overarching counsel of Scripture, we expose wrong thinking and the poor hermeneutics that drive these misinterpretations—and try to show how ignoring context can pave the way toward serious errors.

Thumbnail image by AgnieszkaMonk on Pixabay

Timecodes
00:00 Hermeneutics
07:46 John 3:16
24:19 2 Peter 3:9
35:59 1 Timothy 2:4
51:02 Matthew 23:37

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

Many people think that effective evangelism begins with proclaiming Jesus’ love for sinners. But there’s the question, and it’s an important one: Has Jesus commanded us to tell unbelievers that He loves them? And when we say those words, do people understand that their most pressing need is to be saved from the wrath of God?

When we tell someone that Jesus loves them, we are often encouraging them to think about Christ in ways that are not at all biblical. They may think of him loving them in the way that their mother or father loves them. Because most people do not understand love, if they believe that Jesus loves them, they will be unable to imagine him sending them to hell for their sins. In Matthew 7, when Jesus describes sending false converts to hell, he does not express his love toward them. He tells them He never knew them and condemns them for their love of lawlessness. Throughout scripture, even when Jesus shows kindness to unbelievers, he does not begin by expressing his love toward them. Instead, he helps them to understand that God’s wrath is on the children of disobedience. So here’s a question: When is it appropriate to tell someone that Jesus loves them?

Thumbnail image by BunteAufnahmen on Pixabay

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

Christian celebrity culture gets rightly criticized for its worldliness, its elevation and celebration of men and their achievements, and its tendency to create apologetics for all types of unbiblical behaviors. But there is also a tendency to divorce celebrity culture from the culture of our local churches, its many congregants, and the pastors that lead them. So, in the wake of Sam Allberry’s resignation, we thought it was worth taking the time to look at what Christian celebrity culture says about the rest of us, and the leaders we choose.

Fundamentally, those who follow sound doctrine understand that sin is progressive by nature. So, if the “wordly” churches are tolerating sins among their leaders that are blatantly obvious to us, we have every reason to believe that there are sins, which seem much less offensive to us, but to which we are turning a blind eye. Celebrity culture exists because we desire to follow a man. That desire wars against our willingness to live and die for the truth. So let’s start with a question: How does blindness come upon churches? And how do we open our eyes to the truth?

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

There’s been a lot of talk in the past few years about how young men are leaving Protestant churches for the Roman Catholic Church. It’s easy to forget that the Roman Catholic Church, like all other cults and false religions, uses carnal means and methods to cause those who are dead in their sins and trespasses to feel as if they are spiritually alive unto God. And because the RCC has been practicing and perfecting these techniques for over a thousand years, it is easy for people to forget that they are a corrupt institution through and through.

In this episode, we want to focus on the many carnal means and techniques that the Roman Catholic Church uses to make its followers feel spiritual. Because the carnal man does not believe in an invisible God they give him a man who sits on a throne and wears a robe and a mitre and that is something the carnal man can believe in. Because the carnal man cannot imagine the glory of God they have built cathedrals so that a man can see the architecture and hear and feel the music and believe in the strength of man’s hand instead of having to believe in The Invisible God. Because they cannot believe in the invisible work of prayer, they give you beads to hold in your hand and set prayers to pray over and over to make you feel spiritual. Instead of being able to approach God or their brothers and sisters in Christ and confess our sins they set up a confessional where you confess before a priest or an icon. Because they cannot believe in the spiritual nature of the church as the mother of us all, they give you Mary to worship as a mother, because people cannot believe that God is their father they tell them to call men their father which Jesus expressly forbade. Because they cannot understand God neither can they know him they give you a pantheon of saints you can choose to relate to and pray to instead of relating to the God you cannot see. They use every sense and artifice of man to create false worship, from images to incense to relics to holy places to icons. Because they have nothing but carnal means, they use every carnal method they can think of.
The Roman Catholic Church is not unified, it is not holy, it is not spiritual. What it is great at, and what it has perfected over 1600 years, is making carnal men feel spiritual when they are truly headed to hell.

Thumbnail image by Leonhard Niederwimmer

Timecodes
00:00:00 Appeal of Catholicism
00:16:28 Corruption of Catholic Church
00:28:25 Syncretism
00:31:34 Schism
00:34:56 Carnality
00:48:59 Idolatry
00:54:51 Vain Repetition
01:04:27 Incense
01:08:39 God’s Word
01:27:50 Church Fathers
01:39:47 Sacred Secular
01:57:17 Conclusion

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