This Week's White Horse Inn

The Book of Galatians (Pt 1)

What is the book of Galatians about, and what doctrines does it address? We recently put questions like these to students at an Evangelical Bible college, and their answers reveal once again that Christians themselves need to recover Scripture. On this edition of the program, the hosts interact with these on-the-street interviews and explain why Paul's letter to the Galatians is such a crucially important book to read and think through. The White Horse Inn: know what you believe, and why you believe it!

http://www.whitehorseinn.org/

Israel and the Last Days

On Tuesday evening, January 26, I am speaking on the topic "Israel and the Last Days" from the text of Romans 9-11.  If you live near Temecula, or can make the drive, come on out!

Here's the info from the Providence OPC in Temecula's website.  They are hosting the event.

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 Almost every evening on the news we are reminded that a battle still rages over one piece of real estate in the Middle East.  What is the significance of the land in Israel and what impact does that have on God’s plan for the world in the last days? Does He have a special agenda for the people of Israel? 

What does the one New Testament text that speaks directly to this issue, Romans chapters 9-11, have to say in answer to these questions? 

Come join us as Dr. Kim Riddlebarger of the White Horse Inn comes to Temecula to share with us on this exciting topic.  The event begins at 7 P.M. at Old Town Temecula Theater located at 42051 Main Street, Temecula CA, 92590.

For more information about “Israel and the Last Days” contact Providence Presbyterian Church at info@temeculaopc.org

"Whoever Has the Son Has Life" -- 1 John 5:1-12

The Tenth in a Series of Sermons on John's Epistles

The Apostle John teaches by repetition.  Throughout his first epistle, repeatedly, John has spoken of the way in which we can tell the differences between those who believe that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh, and those who do not.  John has told us that Christians do not foolishly think that we are without sin, while those who have left the faith do mistakenly think they are without sin.  Christians will strive to obey God’s commandments, while those taken in by false teachers are indifferent to the commandments of God.  Christians will love their brothers and sisters in Christ, while those outside the church are not interested in demonstrating such love.  Christians will strive to avoid worldliness (which is thinking and acting like a non-Christian), while those who have imbibed from the spirit of antichrist treat those who are faithful to the gospel just as Cain treated Abel.  And Christians will love the truth, and willingly defend the doctrine that Jesus is God manifest in human flesh in the face of the many antichrists who will inevitably arise and seek to undermine the truth of our Lord’s incarnation.  In the fifth chapter of 1 John, the apostle summarizes these familiar themes one final time, before concluding his epistle by returning to his testimony by which we know that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh.

As we continue our series on the epistles of John, we move into the fifth and closing chapter of 1 John–Lord willing, our topic in this sermon and the next.  John will once again summarize his main points, before concluding this letter with a powerful assertion of the truth of the gospel, before asking that question which all of us must ask and answer at some point in our Christian lives–“how do we know that we know?”  How do we know that Christianity is true?  How do we know that our doctrine is correct?  Why do we go to such great lengths and self-sacrifice and deny ourselves to live differently than those around us?  Why do we drag our weary bones out of bed each Sunday to come to this place, listen to yet another sermon, and stand in line to receive a tiny piece of bread and receive a very small cup of cheap (and way too sweet) wine?  How do we know that we know?

The answer to these questions is to be found in the nature of John’s own experience and life as an apostle.  In chapter 20 of his gospel, John tells his reader that his purpose in composing that gospel is as follows.  “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31).  John has composed his gospel precisely because he wants us to believe in Jesus Christ so that we will have eternal life.  John is writing to convince us that Jesus is that one whom John (and the other apostles) claim that he is–God manifest in the flesh.  According to John, our Lord’s entire messianic ministry bears witness to his identity as the Son of God.  This is evident in Jesus’ teaching, through the fact that he is that one promised throughout the Old Testament, and through his miracles–done in the presence of those who means and motive to expose them if they these things were fake or nothing but magic.  But the capstone of John’s case for Jesus is the fact that once crucified, God raised Jesus from the dead.  And to all of this–that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh–John is witness.

To read the rest of this sermon, click here

Adopted Sons and Daughters

 Q. Why did Christ command us to address God thus: “Our Father?”

A. To awaken in us at the very beginning of our prayer that childlike reverence for and trust in God, which are to be the ground of our prayer, namely, that God has become our Father through Christ, and will much less deny us what we ask of Him in faith than our parents refuse us earthly things.

(Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 120)

It is not uncommon to hear critics of Reformation theology complain that Martin Luther, John Calvin, and those who followed them, were so preoccupied with justification, that they depreciated the family relationship that sinners enjoy with their creator (adoption). This charge stems from the Reformation (and biblical) doctrine of justification, in which it is understood that the righteousness of Christ is reckoned (or imputed) to a sinner through the means of faith, so that the sinner is given a right-standing before God and therefore saved from His wrath.

To read the rest of this article, Click here

Who Said That?

"Let us take an example to test this little doctrine [of the resurrection], so innocently put forth [by the Christians]:  A certain man was shipwrecked.  The hungry fish had his body for a feast.  But the fish were caught and cooked and eaten by some fishermen, who had the misfortune to run afoul of some ravenous dogs, who killed and ate them.  When the dogs died, the vultures came and made a feast of them.  How will the body of the shipwrecked man be reassembled considering it has been absorbed by other bodies of various kinds? . . .  Ah!  You say:  `All things are possible with God.'  But this is not true.  Not all things are possible for him.  [God] . . . cannot make 2 x 2 = 100 rather than 4, even though he should prefer it to be so."

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

Update on Friday, January 15, 2010 at 02:42PM by Kim Riddlebarger

This is from the pagan philosopher Porphyry (who lived in Tyre from 230-305).  This is his argument against the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body.  It is found in his Against the Christians:  The Literary Remains, 91.

Goes to show that the new atheism isn't really different from the old atheism.

"The Wisdom of God" -- 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Here's the audio from this morning's sermon:

Click here

Ken Samples on the Movie "Avatar"

Ken Samples was on "Issues, Etc," with Todd Wilken discussing the movie Avatar (01/15/10).

Here's the audio:  http://www.issuesetc.org/podcast/405011510H2S1.mp3

This Week's White Horse Inn

Recovering Scripture

George Gallop has commented that Americans revere the Bible, but don't read it. In fact, poll after poll, reveals an increasing trend toward biblical illiteracy, not only among those outside the church, but also among those who describe themselves as "born again," or Evangelical. On this edition of the White Horse Inn the hosts discuss the implications of this disturbing trend as they introduce their new series for 2010, Recovering Scripture.

http://www.whitehorseinn.org/



"Confidence for the Day of Judgment" -- 1 John 4:7-21

The Ninth in a Series of Sermons on John's Epistles

I think it safe to say that most people would identify “love one another” as the primary ethical teaching of Christianity.  No doubt, the love of neighbor is an apt summary of those things required by the second table of the law (commandments 5-10).  Jesus even spoke this way in Matthew 22 when he summarizes the law.  But whenever the Bible directs us to love our neighbor, we must never forget that the context for this commandment is always God’s prior love for us.  As the Apostle John puts it in verse 10, of the fourth chapter of his first epistle, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”  It is because of God’s prior love for us–a love which moved God to send his son to suffer and die to take away the guilt of our sins–that we, in turn, are to love our neighbors.  The indicative–the gospel, i.e., what God does for us in Christ–must be properly related to the imperative–the necessity of obeying God’s commands.  Understanding this distinction is vital if we are to make full sense of 1 John and the Apostle’s stress upon the necessity of obeying the commandments of God, specifically the command to love others as we would ourselves.

We continue our series on the Epistles of John.  As we have seen throughout this series, understanding the specific historical circumstances which prompted John to write these epistles is essential if we are to understand why John addresses the particular topics in the way that he does.  These three epistles of John most likely were written late in the first century to Christians throughout Asia Minor (in and near the city of Ephesus), where John was an elderly man and the last living apostle.  

Having composed his gospel (likely a year or so earlier), John must now respond to a group of false teachers who had departed from the faith, having supposedly gained insight into the secret teachings of Jesus.  Having imbibed from what John calls the spirit of antichrist (a form of proto-Gnosticism), these individuals were denying that Jesus was God manifest in the flesh.  While affirming that Jesus is truly God, the false teachers also affirmed that Jesus merely took the form of a human–explaining his physical appearance as recounted in the gospels.  This fully divine but not truly human Jesus, flies directly in the face of everything John had taught in his gospel, which depicts Jesus as the eternal word manifest in the flesh.  The denial of Jesus’ human nature poses a great threat to the church, which explains why John opens this epistle with the declaration that he himself had seen Jesus in the flesh, that he had heard Jesus preach, and that he had even seen Jesus perform miracles.  Jesus was no docetic phantom without flesh, blood, and bones.  Jesus is God manifest in the flesh.  As we have seen, to deny Christ’s true human nature is to deny Christianity.  It is to embrace the spirit of antichrist.

To read the rest of this sermon, Click here

Hey Pat, Put a Sock in It!

Pat Robertson on Haiti Disaster
by burghnews

I'm not quite sure how remaining a French colony or making a deal with the Devil doesn't get you to the same place in the end (on a practical level).  But I digress . . .

For Pete's sake Pat, just send them the aid they need (a wonderful thing) without all the pious pretense about knowing the mysterious will of God.  Enough.