Academy Audio Posted -- Signs of the End (Part Two), "The Antichrist"

Here's the audio from Friday Night's Academy Lecture dealing with "Signs of the End" (Part Two).  I focus upon the Antichrst.

Click here

"You Are the Temple" -- 1 Corinthians 3:16-23

Here's the audio from this morning's sermon, the seventh in a series on 1 Corinthians:

Click here

This Week's White Horse Inn

Grounded in the Gospel

Throughout the history of the church, young believers and new converts to the faith went through a process called "catechism." What are the roots of this ancient practice, and why has it fallen out of use in contemporary Christianity? On this edition of the program Michael Horton talks with J.I. Packer and Gary Parrett, authors of an important new book on this subject titled, Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old Fashioned Way.

http://www.whitehorseinn.org/

Know Anyone in Regina?

Recent Westminster Seminary California grad Brian Cochran is now the pastor of Redeemer Reformation Church (URCNA) in Regina, SK.

If you know of anyone who might be interested, here's their website.

http://www.redeemerchurch.ca/

Speaking of the Academy . . . Have You Checked Out Our Audio Resources?

If you haven't checked out the Christ Reformed Academy Audio resources recently, here's the link.  Click here

There are Author's Forum lectures from Scott Clark, Mike Horton, Danny Hyde, G. K. Beale and others.

In addition to my stuff on eschatology, there are series I've done on the Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer, and the New Perspective on Paul.

There are series from Ken Samples on Islam, Comparative Religion, Learning How to Learn, and St. Augustine.

Most of our lectures are available in both streaming and MP3 format.  Best of all, everything is free!

Tonight's Academy Lecture -- "The Signs of the End" (Part Two)

Lecture Title:  "The Signs of the End -- Part Two"

Lecture Contents:  The New Testament gives us three signs of the end: The universal preaching of the gospel; the conversion of Israel; and the revelation of a final antichrist.

Instructor:  Dr. Kim Riddlebarger

Textbooks:  A Case for Amillennialism (Baker 2003), The Man of Sin (Baker, 2006)

About the Academy:  The Academy meets at Christ Reformed Church in Anaheim.  The lectures begin at 7:30 p.m., are free of charge, and are followed by a time for questions and answers, as well as a time for fellowship and refreshments.

For more information, click here



"Above Every Name" -- Ephesians 1:15-23

The Third in a Series of Sermons on Ephesians

Paul has a well-defined concept of history.  While God ordains all things and reveals his will through the unfolding events of human history, Paul is especially concerned with the redemption of God’s people.  Redemptive history refers to God’s plan of salvation as it unfolds in those historical events recorded in Genesis through Revelation.  In verses 3-14 of Ephesians 1, Paul’s redemptive-historical panorama takes us from eternity past (when the Father chooses to save a multitude of sinners so vast they cannot be counted), to the historical work of Christ (who redeems those chosen by the Father through his shed blood), to that moment in time when we were called to faith by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel.  Paul states that we were sealed by the Holy Spirit until the end of the age when our bodies will be raised in the resurrection.  In our passage this morning (verses 15-23 of Ephesians 1), Paul focuses upon the center-point in redemptive history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  For Paul, Jesus’ resurrection marks the dawn of the new creation and is that critical turning-point when God begins to undo the effects of human sin.  Occurring at the mid-point of Paul’s redemptive-historical panorama, the resurrection of Jesus defines how we as Christians are to view the balance of human history from the moment Jesus was raised until our own resurrection at the end of the age.  It is in our Lord’s triumph over death and the grave that we find our hope as we await that day when the story of redemption is finally complete and we receive that glorious inheritance promised to us “in Christ.”

We are continuing our series on Ephesians and now make our way to the concluding verses of Ephesians chapter 1.  Building upon the sweeping Trinitarian panorama of redemption he has set forth in verses 3-14, Paul now prays for those who will read this letter, and in doing so, points us to the importance of Jesus Christ’s resurrection as the foundation for the Christian life.  Jesus not only shed his blood to redeem us from our sins, but his resurrection and ascension are a defining moment of the redemptive drama.  All those who read Paul’s letter to the Ephesians presently live in that period in redemptive history after Jesus has actually accomplished redemption for all those whom the Father had chosen from eternity past.  This is why we speak of particular redemption (or definite atonement).  Jesus does not merely make salvation possible for whomever wishes to be saved.  Who among Adam’s fallen children actually wishes to be saved?  Rather, Jesus actually redeems all those given to him by the Father.  Jesus’ resurrection is the proof that Jesus definitely accomplished our redemption, and as surely as Christ “died for us,” it is certain that Jesus was “raised for us,” ensuring our own resurrection at the time of the end.  

When Paul wrote this letter in the early 60's of the first century, Christianity was spreading rapidly throughout the Roman world.  As we read this letter today, people are still coming to faith in Christ.  It has been argued by some that the course of history will reach its end when the last elect sinner comes to faith in Jesus and the full number of those chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and called by the Holy Spirit is realized.  Now, since we don’t know when that will be, we must prepare as though human history will continue to roll along just as it has been doing, long after we are dead and gone.

To read the rest of this sermon, Click here

Ken Samples on The Dalai Lama, Buddhism and Tiger Woods

Ken Samples was on Issues, Etc., today. 

Here's the link:  http://www.issuesetc.org/podcast/432022310H1S1.mp3

I Thought I Had Heard Everything . . . I Guess Not

Just when you think you've heard it all.   This from the Layman Online: 

"Once honored for voicing substantive theology in the Reformed tradition, Union Theological Seminary’s 2010 Sprunt Lectures will feature a feminist speaker who favors replacing the cross with a lactating breast.  The event will occur May 3-5 on the seminary’s Richmond, Va., campus. Union is one of 11 seminaries that are officially related to the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Sprunt Lecturer Margaret R. Miles is emerita professor of Historical Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkley, Calif. Employing a title reminiscent of the denominationally sponsored Re-Imagining God Conference in 1993, Miles’ topic is “Revisioning Historical Theology.” 

“Although theologians may have claimed that crucifixion scenes exhibited the extremity of God’s love for humans, it was scenes of the child sucking at the breast that spoke to people on the basis of their earliest experience,” she said. This symbol was replaced by the cross, argued Miles, when patriarchal Western Europeans “secularized the breast. . . .  Miles suggested that the cross is inappropriate as a symbol of God’s love because `it presents a violent act as salvific.'”

This is one of those cases where the less I say, the better.  It speaks for itself.

To read the article, Click here

Who Said That?

"I am convinced in my heart and in my mind that if the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States . . . [W]e have to show that we are inextricably entwined, that as a nation we have been blessed because of our relationship with Israel, and if we reject Israel, then there is a curse that comes into play. . . .  We believe very strongly the verse from Genesis [Genesis 12:3], we believe very strongly that nations also receive blessings as they bless Israel. It is a strong and beautiful principle."

Leave your guess in the comments secition below.  Please, no google searches or cheating.  Answer to follow in one week.

Update on Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 04:19PM by Kim Riddlebarger

This is from a speech that Michele Bachmann recently made to the Republican Jewish Conference.  Here's the link to the new story.  Click here

Once again, we see the influence of dispensationalism on American foreign policy.