For a lot of people, TULIP, or the “Five Points of Calvinism”, serves as their introduction to Reformed Theology. But TULIP describes a fairly narrow set of doctrines, focused specifically on aspects of salvation, and while they are true and there is nothing wrong with knowing them or holding to them, Reformed Theology is a much broader and deeper subject. Reformed Theology is about the sovereignty of God over all things and focuses on God’s centrality in all and through all things. Or as Paul says at the end of Romans 11: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! “FOR WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD? OR WHO HAS BECOME HIS COUNSELOR?” “OR WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM AND IT SHALL BE REPAID TO HIM?” For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.”

In this episode, we discuss the differences between TULIP or Calvinistic Soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) and Reformed Theology and we do so by considering how the doctrines that make up the Five Points of Calvinism (Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints) apply to more than just salvation. The goal is to demonstrate how the Reformed view of doctrine is not narrow but broad. To the extent that any doctrine is true, that doctrine shapes the world by its truth, and the doctrines related to salvation are no difference. Our desire is that we would all seek to know God more deeply, for the people of God to think deeply and with great joy upon the things that God has revealed to us, and for the church to not grow complacent, but to continue reforming as we better understand our Lord and his glorious plan to glorify himself through creation. Please join us as we discuss this important topic.

One of the resources that we mention in the episode is J.I. Packer’s Introduction to a reprint of John Owen’s book, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. It is available here:
https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/packer_deathintro.html

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

On March 10, 2023, Silicon Valley Bank failed and was taken into receivership. While there has been a great deal of discussion about this in the news and online, much of what has been said has been has either been completely false or misleading, particularly the claim that taxpayers will not bear the cost of the bailout.

In this episode, we briefly discuss bank runs and how they happen in general before shifting our focus to the details of how Silicon Valley Bank was taken into receivership. We review the banking crisis in 2008 and how it set the stage for this current event and talk about how past decisions have effectively removed the obligation from those who are wealthy to be conscientious about where they put their money.

As always, the fundamental focus is on how these issues are driven by scriptural issues. Because the church does not speak to the nature of God’s justice and what God requires of man it is not surprising that’s the world has forgotten to fear God. The answer is for the church to repent.

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 this mega episode we discuss more than you ever wanted to know about Bible translations – the KJV, NIV, NKJV, ESV, NASB, and more. Why are they different, and why does it matter?

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

While the events of January 6th have been discussed and debated for two years now, in many ways, it seems as if the public is no closer to understanding what actually occurred that day. And even though Tucker Carlson was recently given access to 41,000 hours of footage, most of what he has released so far has been focused on disrupting the prevailing narrative rather than establishing a timeline of events and actions that clearly lays out what happened. And while most people have already made up their minds about that day and how and why it unfolded, those opinions are by necessity based on very little hard evidence.

In this episode, we sit down with Stephen Horn, an independent journalist who was in Washington DC that day covering Donald Trump’s rally. He spent the day on the Capitol grounds, observing and recording what went on and he has spent the past two years assembling publicly available footage to create a soon-to-be-released documentary that attempts to lay out as clearly as possible what happened and when. The goal of this episode is to deal with the complexity of real-world events as honestly as possible. One of the themes of our podcast is that Christianity explains the world and that through truth we are able to deal with and even understand difficult situations. Please join us as we discuss this important topic.

Jonathan was out this week due to the birth of their baby, but he will be back next time.

Stephen Horn is an independent journalist focusing on issues local to North Carolina. For the past two years, he has been working on a documentary titled J6: The First Breach. His reporting can be found and followed through the links below.

https://twitter.com/stephenehorn
https://twitter.com/j6documentary
https://www.thisweekinthetriangle.com/

Thumbnail image Creative Commons by Tyler Merbler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2021_storming_of_the_United_States_Capitol_DSC09254-2_(50820534063)_(retouched).jpg

Listen to the audio version here:
Timecodes
00:00:00 Protest to Riot
00:10:30 Flashbangs
00:19:38 Police Response
00:21:30 Protestor Deaths
00:29:05 Police Resources
00:44:36 More Riot Incidents
00:58:18 Woman Trampled
01:12:45 Violence in the Capitol

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 February of 2023, there was a lot of discussion in Christian circles about the “Asbury Revival” at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. And while we do have some observations about what went on there, this episode is focused more specifically on what God’s word has to say about revival, what causes it, what it looks like, and what it produces. The Bible actually has a great deal to say about revival and while we do not cover every verse on the topic, we do try to walk through a number of passages and discuss what they mean for Christians as a group, collectively, and for the culture around us. Please join us as we discuss the important topic of revivals.

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

Miscarriage is a sad but common experience in the Christian life, especially among those who believe in following God’s command to be fruitful and multiply. In this episode we tackle this difficult 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

Every year, Congress invites the President to provide an address on the state of the nation. It is typically the most watched presidential speech of the year and provides an opportunity for the president to cast his vision for the country and to set an agenda for Congress to follow. And while we wouldn’t say that everyone has a duty to take the time to watch the State of the Union, we do believe it is worthwhile for Christians to consider the vision that our leaders have for the country.

In this episode we focus on five key topics from the State of the Union, the economy, health care costs, the debt limit and the sunsetting of social security, the border, and the opioid crisis. Each of these are issues that President Biden felt were worth dedicating a considerable amount of his time and energy to, and we believe that each is worthy of our consideration as Christians.

One thing that is particularly important to us as Christians is the degree to which lies and deception are tolerated. While lies in politics are not new, in the last ten years, there has been considerable decay in how we collectively view truth and how willing we are to accept brazen lies from those who have sworn to uphold our laws and liberty. And while we might think that we are immune to lies because we expect them, this is not how words actually work. Even when we know that people are lying if we do not consciously take our thoughts captive as scripture commands, then their words will go into us and become a part of us. How many times have you seen a lie damage a personal or business relationship? Even when both sides know it is a lie.

Episodes referenced:
Why Conservatism Should Die
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YWHCZI15mo

Enslaving our Children: Why the Debt Ceiling Fight Matters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx0V4yz9ngQ

Why Inflation is Evil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVwLqzbn7C4

What the Bible Say About Labor Unions, Collective Bargaining, and Politics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBUWwKxcss0


A Christian Solution for Immigration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p49i5j1unA


Why Is Our Society So Confused
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frPRZF0eiVI

Drugs and Alcohol: How Does the Bible Regulate Their Use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjotJhLTZqE

Should Marijuana Be Illegal? America’s Drug Policy and the Bible
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGcd_jtCzv4

7 Ways to Deceive Others
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCjwTz2fPXU

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

Every few years there’s a fight in Congress over the debt ceiling. Of course, Democrats and the liberal-leaning media outlets mock the process, calling it nothing more than political theater or “holding the nation hostage”, but to be fair, there are a decent number of leading Republicans who view the process as nothing more than that, just an opportunity to get concessions or make a cheap political point. And there are a lot of bad arguments for raising the debt ceiling. We want to try to cut through that and focus on two main things:

First, debt is slavery and Scripture has a lot to say about it. As Americans, we have accepted the lie that we can be massively in debt and still be rich and enslaved to nothing. Those who truly believe this have chosen to follow a course that openly mocks the words of God and God will not be mocked.

And second, fights like the debt-ceiling fight are worth having. We aren’t arguing that the Republicans are shining beacons of righteousness (because they are not), but they are demonstrating something that the people of God seem to have forgotten. The nature of sin is to frame our wrong actions so they are seen as acceptable or even better, righteous. “We must raise the debt ceiling because we have committed to spending this money and we must be people of our word”. (Or President Biden’s tweet from last November, “ Love is love and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love.”) One of the best ways to fight back against accepted sin is to force people to confront the truth that they have been suppressing. And we should do it in the places that God has put us. At our work, at church, at school board meetings, and anywhere we are being asked to be part of a process that is proclaiming a lie as the truth. That fight, which can be a very civil discussion, is always worth having.

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

Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper is considered a sacrament or ordinance in almost all churches that call themselves Christian. It is one of two sacred rites, the other being baptism, that is universally practiced across Christendom and can be considered a defining practice related to being a Christian. But within the American Protestant church, communion has lost much of its significance within the life and worship of the church. According to a study from 2012, only 1% of Southern Baptist churches practice weekly communion.

In this episode, we want to focus on why communion is important. We discuss how it unifies the church, how it proclaims the holiness of God, and how it proclaims the gospel through the separation between believers and unbelievers. We also discuss how communion is related to church discipline and how the church’s failure to observe and show honor to the reality of our communion with Christ and with one another makes being cut off from the table seem insignificant. Please join us as we discuss this incredibly 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

Labor Unions have been a major part of the American political landscape for many years, but what does the Bible have to say about them?

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