The White Horse Inn Goes Daily in So Cal!

Big news if you live in So Cal!  Beginning Monday, October 3, the White Horse Inn will be broadcast daily @ 10:30 a.m. on KPRZ (AM 1210). 

The KPRZ listening area extends from Tijuana to Temecula, and even reaches areas along the coast as far north as Long Beach.  There are 7,000,000 people in the broadcast area. 

If this local trial succeeds, we hope to expand into new markets.

Here's the scoop and program info.  White Horse Inn daily broadcast

"The Triple Cure" -- From "Rightly Divided"

Thanks Lane for doing this!   You can find other videos and resources from Lane Chaplin here:  Lane's Website

From the Man Who Never Sleeps

Some book news from Mike Horton. 

First, a new edition of Michael's very helpful Putting Amazing Back into Grace has been released.  The updated version includes a DVD of Mike teaching on the material in each chapter.

Second, Michael's For Calvinism releases soon.  This is part of a two-volume dialogue with a defender of classical Arminianism, Roger Olson.

If you live in the LA/OC area, Horton and Olson will hold a public "conversation" about their books on Saturday, October 15, at Biola University.  Details to follow.

You can purchase these books from your favorite bookstore.

Actually, Michael does sleep, just not very much!

Horton on the Proper Way to Read and Apply the Old Testament

Here's an essay with some provocative content including:  Dr. Laura on homosexuality, a response from one of her critics, and whether or not it would be proper to "own" a Canadian. 

Actually, Michael's essay was prompted by a clever series of questions raised some time back by a critic of Dr. Laura's use of the Old Testament (specifically Leviticus 18:22) to condemn homosexuality.  This, in turn, prompts Michael to address the larger question of "just how do we read the Old Testament?"

You can find the essay here:  Horton on "Rightly Dividing the Word of God"

"You Are God's Temple" -- 1 Corinthians 3:16-23

The Seventh in a Series of Sermons on 1 Corinthians

Growing up in fundamentalism, I recall hearing a number of sermons stressing the fact that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit.  While this was the reason usually given us as to why we shouldn’t smoke cigarettes or drink alcoholic beverages, we were never told what it means to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, nor were we told how this doctrine should inform our view of the church.  But for Paul, the fact that Christ’s church is the temple of the Holy Spirit (who indwells each one of us) should be fundamental to our conception of the nature of the church.  This is why the divisions and factions in the Corinthian church were so destructive.  To divide Christ’s body (God’s spiritual temple indwelt by the Holy Spirit) is to attempt to destroy that which God is building through the preaching of Christ crucified.  Paul must warn the Corinthians of the serious consequences of tearing apart that which God is building in their midst.

We return to our series on 1 Corinthians, and we are discussing this very important letter to a church struggling with a multitude of problems, many of which are facing the church again today.  Most of the members of the Corinthian church were recent converts to Christianity.  They were struggling to leave behind pagan ways of thinking and doing.  The Corinth of Paul’s age was a city with a Roman ethos, a Greek history, and dominated by pagan religion.  Although they had come to faith in Christ, the Corinthians faced their pagan past on a daily basis.  Paganism was everywhere they went.  Under these conditions, no doubt, it was very difficult for the Corinthians to learn to think and act like Christians.

As we have seen in previous sermons, Paul has been using irony to make a point.  The Greeks think Paul’s message of a crucified Savior is only so much foolishness.  The cross makes no sense to someone steeped in Greco-Roman culture.  Yet Christians know that Christ’s cross is the power of God unto salvation.  In the preaching of Christ crucified–a message which the Greeks regard as foolishness–the wisdom of God is revealed.  And this revelation of God’s wisdom exposes the so-called wisdom of the pagans for what it truly is–foolishness.  In making this point, Paul has skillfully exposed the fact that the Greek quest for wisdom is not a quest for wisdom at all.  Rather, the philosophers, prophets and sages reject the very wisdom they claim to be seeking.  While they mock God, God mocks them.  They claim to be seeking the truth.  Yet, they are suppressing the truth in unrighteousness.

The new Christians in Corinth must understand that God’s wisdom is revealed through the proclamation of the cross, even though that message offends Greek sensitivities.  Paul sees the root of the problem in the fact that many of the Corinthians were still devoted to the worldly wisdom of their recent past.  It was this typically Greek love of celebrities, entertaining public speakers, and philosophers who had all the answers, which led the Corinthian Christians to devote themselves to those individuals in the church who had taught them when they first came to faith (Paul, Apollos and Peter).  

Sadly, the Corinthians quickly divided into cliques centering around these teachers–even though those who taught them would never have encouraged the mantras being heard in the Corinthian church.  “I follow Paul.”  “I follow Peter.”  “I follow Apollos.”  According to Paul, this mind-set demonstrates the sad fact that even though the Corinthians may have thought themselves to be mature and making good progress in the Christian life, the reality is that this only demonstrates their spiritual immaturity and shows how deeply pagan ways of thinking and doing still dominate this church.

To read the rest of this sermon, Click Here

This Week at Christ Reformed Church -- An Additional Academy Class Begins!

Sunday Morning (10/2):  We are currently going through the Book of Hebrews.  On Sunday, Lord willing, we'll be discussing the nature of Christ's once for all sacrifice for sin in Hebrews 10:1-18.

For previous sermons in this series, go here:  Sermons on Hebrews

Sunday Afternoon:  We are discussing Lord's Day 23 of our catechism and Q & A 59-61 which deal with the doctrine of justification.  Our afternoon service begins @ 1:15 p.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study:  We resume our series on the sacraments, and this week we'll be defining basic terms and looking at those biblical passages (an overview) from which these terms arise.  Bible study begins at 7:00 p.m.

The Academy Resumes!  The Academy continues this coming Friday night, September 30 @ 7:30 p.m., as we continue working our way through the the first chapter of Mike Horton's theology text, The Christian Faith.

Also Ken Samples will be beginning his new series on his forth-coming book, "CLEAR Pointers to God:  The Biblical God as the Best Explanation for the Meaningful Realities of Life."  Ken's class will meet concurrently with mine on September 30, October 7, 14, 21 November 4, 18, and December 2.  Ken's book will be released by Baker Books in the spring-summer of 2012. 

For more information and directions, check out the Christ Reformed website:  Christ Reformed Church

This Week's White Horse Inn

The New Covenant

Over five hundred years before the time of Christ, Jeremiah prophesied that the days would come when God would “make a new covenant with the house of Israel” (Jer. 31:31). So how is this new covenant fulfilled in Jesus’ life and sacrificial death? How is it different from the old covenant received by Moses on Mount Sinai? Is it true that before Christ the Old Testament saints were really saved by works? On this edition of the program, the hosts will discuss these questions as they walk through Hebrews 8-10. 

Click Here

The White Horse Inn Crew At the Desiring God Conference

The White Horse Inn crew gathers at our booth before the opening of the Desiring God Conference in Minneapolis

From left to right -- Rod Rosenbladt, KR, Ken LeBron Jones, Heidi and Shane Rosenthal.

We had a blast taping before a live audience a bit later in the day.  Those programs will likely air in November. 

It was nice to meet to many of you who support the White Horse Inn, buy our books, and use the resources on this blog!  Thanks!

The White Horse Inn Conference at Sea -- January 2012

"The Foundation" -- 1 Corinthians 3:1-15

The Sixth in a Series of Sermons on 1 Corinthians

Even though Greeks see the cross as foolishness, and Jews stumble at the thought of a crucified Messiah, Paul has made his case that the cross of Jesus Christ is the revelation of the wisdom of God as well as a demonstration of the Holy Spirit’s power.  In chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians, Paul now moves on to address the specifics of what is going wrong in the church in Corinth.  The Corinthians still rely on human wisdom instead that of wisdom revealed by God in the preaching of the gospel.  And this reliance on human wisdom has led to a host of problems in this church, beginning with the formation of various factions.  As Paul points out, the sole foundation of church has already been laid through the preaching of the gospel.  The question the apostle now puts to the Corinthians is “what kind of church are they building on that foundation?”

We are in the midst of a series on Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church.  We have completed the first two chapters of this letter in which Paul has diagnosed the first in a series of problems plaguing the Corinthians–division and schism within the church.  Paul now explains why this problem exists in this particular church.  As good Greeks, the Corinthians love human wisdom.  And while the Corinthian Christians seem to understand the gospel, there is an intellectual struggle going on in this church as these new Christians are slow in learning to think like Christians, while at the same time they are having trouble leaving their pagan ways behind.

Having spelled out that the fact that true wisdom is revealed in the cross, Paul now makes his case that the Corinthians are immature.  And so in chapter 3, Paul rebukes the Corinthian church for this lack of maturity.  To make his case, Paul uses two vivid metaphors:  adults (mature) v. infants, and solid food (meat) v. milk.  Paul uses these familiar figures of speech to illustrate the false assumption on the part of the Corinthians that they were making real progress in the Christian life, when the fact of the matter is that they were not any progress at all.  The behavior of many in this congregation demonstrates that they are anything but mature.  The reality is the Corinthians are behaving like infants.  The wisdom of God has not sufficiently informed their thinking, nor their conduct.  They may think of themselves as mature, but Paul must point out to them that they are but infants.

To read the rest of this sermon, Click Here