Easter Week Services at Christ Reformed

Maundy Thursday, April 1 at 7:30 PM

Sermon: Love One Another

Scripture references: Leviticus 19:1–19 & John 13:31–14:4

Good Friday, April 2 at 7:30 PM

Sermon: They Will Look on Him, Whom They Have Pierced

Scripture references: Psalm 22, Isaiah 52:13-53:12 & John 19:1-37

Easter Sunday, April 4 at 10:25 AM

Sermon: Jesus Is the Christ

Scripture references:  Isaiah 25:1–9 & John 20:1–31

You are cordially invited!

For more information, Click here

Author's Forum with Dr. David VanDrunen -- Audio Posted

Here's the audio from our Author's forum with David VanDrunen.  Great stuff!

Here's the MP3:  Click here

Here's the streaming version:

Click here

This Week's White Horse Inn

The Kingdom of God, Part 2

On this edition of the White Horse Inn the hosts continue their discussion of the Kingdom of God. Though many today seek a Kingdom of power and glory, God's Kingdom advances in weakness and humility. One day God will reign visibly with great power and majesty, but in the meantime his Kingdom advances through word and sacrament.

http://www.whitehorseinn.org/



Who Said That?

"At God’s will the Son has the greatness and qualities that he has.

His existence from when and from whom and from then—are all from God.

He, though strong God, praises in part his superior."

You know the drill!  Leave your guess in the comments section below.  Please, no google searches or cheating.  Answer to follow in one week.



Update on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 11:33AM by Kim Riddlebarger

This is a quote attributed to Arius, from his Thalia, found here:  Arius' Thalia

Author's Forum with Dr. David VanDrunen -- Tonight

Dr. David VanDrunen will be our guest author at the Academy tonight, March 26 at 7:30 p.m. 

Dr. VanDrunen, a minister of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, began teaching at Westminster Seminary California in 2001. He formerly served as a pastor of Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Hanover Park, IL, and currently serves on the Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s Committee on Christian Education and Subcommittee on Ministerial Training. His present research interests include natural law, the two kingdoms doctrine, and bioethics. 

Join us for an evening with Dr. David VanDrunen as he lectures on his book Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms: A Study in the Development of Reformed Social Thought.  Dr. VanDrunen will explain why he wrote the book and the two main themes of this survey of the history of Reformed social thought.

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 info, http://www.christreformed.org/



But Then Again . . . You May Be the Antichrist.

Given the genuine angst that many Christians feel after the recent passage of Obamacare, a number of people have actually written or asked me whether or not I think Barack Obama might be the Antichrist.

Having written a book on the subject, I guess people feel like I might be able to confirm their suspicions.  Sorry, I cannot.  Barring some completely unforeseen prophetic development (and I mean really unforeseen!), Barack Obama is not the Antichrist. 

This worry is not limited to Bible prophecy devotees as, apparently, a number of Republicans who oppose the recent healthcare bill have had the same concerns (25% of Republicans fear that Obama might be the Antichrist).

Although someone made a facetious "Barack of Sin" cover for my book (the same person made one with me on the cover as well-so don't get too upset), the biblical evidence points us in a very different direction.

The only time the term "antichrist" is used in the Bible (in John's Epistles) it refers to heretics who deny that Jesus is God in the flesh (1 John 2:18-22; 4:3; 2 John 1:7). 

When Paul speaks of the "man of sin" he's referring to someone in the church ("the temple of God") who opposes God and proclaims himself to be God (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12).

In the Book of Revelation (chapter 13), the dragon (Satan), the beast (the Roman Empire) and the false prophet (the imperial cult) oppress the people of God, persecuting them and preventing them from buying and selling unless Christians deny Christ and confess the deity of the current Roman emperor.  This image is given us as a warning of those empires which will arise throughout the course of this age, bent on opposing the kingdom of Christ, only to be thwarted by the preaching of the gospel and the providence of God until the time of the end.

I set out the biblical data for this in my book--you can read about it here:  (My book on the doctrine of Antichrist)  

All of that is to say, "No, Barack Obama is not the Antichrist."  Look, I don't like the guy either.  I don't trust him as far as I can see him.  I fear he's a Marxist (in terms of his view of history and economics).  There can be no doubt whatsoever that he is a statist and has little regard for the unborn.  He's also a bare-knuckled Chicago hack politician.  But he was duly elected, and like it or not he is our president.  If we disagree with his policies, we have an appropriate remedy--the ballot box.

"Pin the tail on the Antichrist" has long been a Christian parlor game.  If you don't like someone and fear their power, it is easy to demonize them.  Throughout the history of the church, Christians have called their enemies (perceived and otherwise) "antichrists."

Barack Obama is not the Antichrist.  But Nancy Pelosi on the other hand . . .

"The Love of Christ" -- Ephesians 3:14-21

The Seventh in a Series of Sermons on Paul's Letter to the Ephesians

Like the majority of his letters, Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians is divided into two parts.  In the first half of this epistle (chapters 1-3), the Apostle sets out a number of important doctrinal issues before making specific applications of these same doctrines to the Christian life in the second half (chapters 4-6).  As we conclude the first half of this letter, Paul brings us back to where he began in the first chapter–God’s eternal decree to save sinners “in Christ.”  But Paul is so moved by the very thought of how God’s eternal plan has played out on the stage of human history, as well as in the circumstances of his own life, that he wraps up the doctrinal section with a heart-felt prayer of thanksgiving for the glorious inheritance which is ours “in Christ.”  Paul wants his readers to both know and experience the glorious reality of the love of Christ.
 
As we continue our series on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, we now come to the end of chapter three, which is also the conclusion of the first half of this letter.  Here at the end of the third chapter we will find that Paul is quite moved by the very thought of all that God has done in providing for the salvation of his people.  In the first three chapters of this letter, the Apostle to the Gentiles has laid out for us in unmistakable clarity God’s plan for those of us Gentiles who were formerly strangers and aliens, without hope, and without God in the world.  Paul has told us how we relate to God’s old covenant people (the Jews), and how in Christ, God has done the impossible–he has taken those divided by race, diet, and culture, and made them one people.  God has done all of this, Paul says, through the shed blood of Jesus, who, in his death has reconciled God to us, us to God, and Jew to Gentile.

In verses 14-21 of Ephesians 3, Paul wraps up this doctrinal section with an impassioned prayer that everything he’s just told us about the grace of God, the revelation of the mystery of Christ, as well as God’s purpose for Jew and Gentile, would be fully realized in the lives of all those reading (or hearing) this epistle.  As an English biblical scholar once put it, “who has not read and re-read the closing verses of the third chapter of the Ephesians with the feeling of one permitted to look through the parted curtains into the holiest place of the Christian life.”  This prayer is but one reason why so many of our theological forbears, like John Calvin, identify Ephesians as their favorite book of the Bible.

But in order to understand what it is exactly that Paul is praying for, and what specific blessings he desires us to experience, we need go back to that point where Paul began (Ephesians 1:3-14), and where he returns in Ephesians 3:11.  Paul clearly emphasizes that everything he has stated about the mystery of Christ and the reconciliation of God’s people “was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  God’s eternal plan has been fully realized in the person and work of Christ.

To read the rest of this sermon, Click here

Academy Audio Posted -- "The Rapture"

Here's the audio from Friday's Academy lecture.

http://links.christreformed.org/realaudio/A20100319-Amillenialism.mp3

"And Such Were Some of You" -- 1 Corinthians 6:1-11

Here's the audio from Sunday's sermon, the tenth in a series on Paul's letter to the Corinthians.

Click here

This Week's White Horse Inn

The Kingdom of God, Part 1

How does God's Kingdom advance? Can we usher it in by our political or cultural endeavors? Will it come if enough people band together in pursuit of social justice? As the hosts discuss on this edition of the program, the Kingdom of God is not something that we build or bring in by our own activity, but rather is something that we receive by grace alone (Heb. 12:28).

http://www.whitehorseinn.org/