Many Christians would describe justice and mercy as being at odds with one another, but most confessions of the faith, such as the SLBC and the Westminster Confession, say that God is most just and He is most merciful. But if they are in opposition to one another, how can God be both merciful and just?
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 churches teach that Matthew 18 is the generally applicable text about church discipline and it should be followed in all circumstances. But Matthew 18 is primarily about forgiveness between brothers and when you look at other cases of discipline, such as when a man has his father’s wife, there is no hint that Matthew 18 should be followed.
So when is Matthew 18 appropriate? And why is this passage so often misunderstood?
In this episode, we start out by laying out the differences between personal offenses and offenses against God. Matthew 18 is about dealing with personal offenses and because the person who believes he has been wronged has no greater authority than the brother he is confronting the process is structured to minimize slandering and false accusations. We also discuss how this is not just for brothers who go to the same church, how that works and what it looks like. After laying this groundwork, we then walk through the passage verse by verse discussing how each step is rooted in God’s desire for justice and forgiveness.
Matthew 18 is an incredibly important passage for us to understand. When we do not understand what it is intended to accomplish or how we should go about the process, we cause the church to be filled with a lack of forgiveness and injustice.
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
Both of the primary Reformed confessions explicitly call the pope that Antichrist. They saw the man of perdition from 2 Thessalonians 2 and that Antichrist from 1 John 2 fulfilled in the office of the pope. So what does it mean for the Pope to be that Antichrist or for the apostasy of the Roman Catholic Church to the falling away that Paul writes about to the Thessalonians and also to Timothy?
One of the dangers of not considering these issues is that we begin to view eschatology as completely separate from doctrine. But Paul says that all scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. Whether we consider the Pope to be THAT Antichrist or just one Antichrist of many, we should realize that the scope and success of the Roman Catholic Church as a heretical and evil imitator of the true church for almost 1500 years is something that the church must grapple with. At a minimum it should warn us to not grow lax in standing against the heresies of the church even when they are embodied in likable people. At the most, it should help us focus on Christ and the work that He is doing in the world, it should reframe how we view the scope and significance of the Reformation and the work that Christ has for His church in fighting for right doctrines and right practices.
So here’s the question: If you hold to a Reformed tradition have you considered what it means for the Pope to be the Antichrist? And even if you do not, have to considered why the Reformers thought the way they did?
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
Leprosy in the Bible was a picture of sin. And God uses it many times throughout the Old and New Testament to help us to think about different types of sin and the redeeming work of Christ.
Recently we did a podcast on reading the Old Testament and how we should think abut the types and shadows whose substance has come in Christ. Leprosy, which was never intended to be primarily about health, was a type of parable regarding sin in individuals, in the works of men, and in houses and we are to be able to understand how those pictures as given in the law and in narratives apply to the current time.
As a follow on to that topic, we want to discuss leprosy and we thought it would be useful to start with one of the more straightforward examples: leprosy in a house. We think the most direct application of this passage is to when sin is exposed in a household of faith, not just in an individual, but in the very church itself. In the text that we walk through, God spends significant time talking about how to prevent that revealed leprosy from spreading and then what to do when it is found to have spread, and when it keeps recurring. This Old Testament instruction parallels Paul’s admonitions in the New Testament and it is instructive to us that he does not repeat the Old Testament but merely references it. This not only helps us to understand how to deal with this specific situation but instructs us in the proper use of Old Testament texts, how they relate to proper practices and how they relate to the holiness of the church. Please join us as we consider 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
In the 1960s, less than 4% of bodies were cremated. Now, it is about 2 out of 3 and by 2040, it is expected to be around 80%. Much of that is driven by the rising cost of funerals, since the burial plot is expensive and you can send a significant amount of money on a nice casket. On average, a cremation probably costs half of the cost of a burial. Another thing that seems to drive it is that the church typically doesn’t explain why burial matters and why cremation is wrong. While many people do not think deeply about it, cremation has always existed and from a Christian perspective has been viewed as a picture of the body going to hell while burial is the picture of the body waiting for the resurrection.
In this episode, we look at what scripture has to say about cremation and burial. We look to the Old Testament which contains the laws that detail dealing with the dead and where most of the narrative surrounding death and burial is written. We also look to church history and see how as Christianity spread, so too did the idea of burying the dead rather than burning them. We talk about how death and our handling of it is a significant testimony to the world about our faith and when done properly is something that the world cannot fully understand.
So here’s the question: If we are going to be resurrected anyway, does it matter how the body is treated? Or does our handling of death and burial testify to our faith?
Conference mentioned in the episode:
https://warhornmedia.com/conferences/last-enemy/
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 you read the Old Testament impacts how you read all of God’s word. It frames the questions that shape our understanding of God and His purposes. What was the purpose of the garden? Why did God choose, separate, and protect the nation of Israel? What is the church? Who is Jesus Christ and the nature of his atonement? It frames all of these and a hundred other questions as well, none of which are trivial or unimportant.
In this episode, we want to look at how broadly and deeply the Old Testament shadows run. And while we start with God’s word in Hebrews that “the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things” which is talking about the ceremonial, priestly laws of Israel, by the end of the episode, we want to go broader still to where Paul looks at the crossing of the Red Sea as a baptism, and Christ declares the manna in the wilderness to be bread from heaven which points forward to Him as the bread of life.
We also want to emphasize that Scripture teaches us that these pictures are for us. We should not say, it is only Christ and Paul who can understand them. Jesus promised that after He left, He would send the Holy Spirit, who Paul reminds us in Corinthians understands the deep things of God. God’s word declares that “all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” When the church refuses to look deeply at the Old Testament, we misunderstand the New Testament as well, as God does not spend a great deal of time repeating himself. The shadows are important because by them we can better understand the substance, which is Christ. 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
Credobaptists and Paedobaptists differing views of baptism have real-world implications over how they view their children and their relationship to the church. Presbyterians (paedobaptists) hold that baptized children are part of the church, with the church having authority over and membership responsibility toward the child. Baptists (credobaptists) hold that they only become part of the church through faith and membership, and see baptism as a result of their faith.
Often though, credobaptists treat their non-professing, unbaptized children like they are part of the church and as if they have been regenerated, going so far as to create practices that are inconsistent with their theological views of salvation, faith, and baptism.
In this episode, we want to look at some of these inconsistencies, compare them to scripture, and discuss how they cause harm and confusion. So here’s the question: What practices do churches need to watch out for so the children at the church are not deceived about their state with 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
A hundred years ago in America most wives considered themselves to be homemakers with very few working outside the home. Now about 57% percent of them do. What should we think about this shift in the fabric of the American home, and more importantly what does God’s word have to say about it.
Throughout history, there have been societies that have been very confused about men’s roles and women’s roles. Frequently, the men don’t do much work. They just do the things that please them. Hunting, fishing, maybe going to war while women do most of the provision for the household. But when Scripture began to inform a society, the roles of the husband and wife have typically been changed. Men begin to recognize they have a duty to provide for their family, to lead, and to make their household productive. Wives see their role as submitting to their own husband. Over the last hundred years, we have been losing that Christian influence in America and we’ve made an enormous shift that the church has largely gone along with it.
In this episode, we look at many of the passages in Scripture that frame God’s design for the home. We discuss how the curses from the fall continue to shape men’s and women’s rebellion against God’s design. We also talk about what it means to build a home, to be productive, and how our unwillingness to hold the structure and purpose of the household in high regard has caused our courtship rituals to become focused on shallow concepts such as pleasure and comfort rather than long-term purpose.
While modern culture has many problems that need to be resolved and fixing marriage and the home will only solve some of them, the home and family are fundamental building blocks of society and any movement back towards God’s design will have a profound positive impact. 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
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14, that we are to pursue love and to be zealous for spiritual gifts especially that we may prophesy. We are not just to sit back and wait for God to bestow them on us. It is part of pursuing love and edifying one another. And if prophecy is about love and edification, then it cannot be primarily about telling the future. So what is prophecy?
Prophecy is about declaring the truth regarding the nature of God. It means to speak forth, and while prophets did often declare future events, a key reason those events were foretold was to warn Israel and others to turn from their sins, thus declaring the justice and faithfulness of God. This is why Moses was a great prophet, not because of all his foretellings, but because by him the law of God was given. This is why Jesus Christ was the greatest prophet of all, because He is the very image of the invisible God. Everything He did and said declared his Father and the nature of God.
And we must understand this because Paul says that prophecy is for edification. How can we edify one another without understanding? This is one of the key differences between the Pentecostal view of prophecy and a Biblical view of prophecy. Pentecostalism keeps a great sense of mysticism around prophecy. It is cloaked in spiritual artistry and emotionalism. But Biblical prophecy brings all things back to scripture. The Spirit of God, as we are told in John 16, “will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” And some people will fixate on the phrase, “He will tell you things to come”, but look at what is said in full: “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” Consider this in light of II Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” This is the fruit of what the Holy Spirit has declared through God’s word. This is its purpose. He still works through his people to declare its truth, that the church might be edified and God glorified. 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
People often think that what made America unique was its separation of powers and system of checks and balances, but those ideas were not really new at the time or unique to America. What actually was unique was having the Constitution as a single written document that formed the structure and scope of powers of the government and having every officer in that government take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. In almost every other government, the standard expectation was that officials would try to use their authority in any way they could get away with and the checks and balances against one person becoming a tyrant was that others who had power as well would stand against them. But the oath of office was different. It constrained by establishing that those who did not keep their oaths were both morally and legally impeachable. This allowed for powerful figures to be held in check or even removed without violence and bloodshed.
And one of the reasons for taking oaths is to ask God to judge when the oath is broken.
So here’s the question: Does God still care about oaths and does he still judge people and nations when they fail to uphold them? Because that’s really the key point about oaths. They aren’t just super-serious secular promises. They invoke the name and identity of God. And God promises that He will judge, not just the person who swore the oath (Leviticus 19:11-12), but also the people who were witnesses to the oath, if they do not require it to be upheld (Leviticus 5:1).
So in this episode, we want to look at what God says about oaths, and how we as Americans have broken our promises made before God. We also want to specifically consider how God has judged our nation, not just in general ways, but in ways that are directly tied to our broken promises.
Here’s the important thing to take away: God has not changed. He does not think it is foolish to involve Him in matters of solemnity and seriousness. What is foolish is to believe that his name is nothing more than a societal tool for deepening and embellishing the ceremonies of state, church, and family. God cares about his name. He is a jealous God and a consuming fire. We should not think we can take Him lightly and not be judged. Please join us as we consider this serious matter.
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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