Episode 213 | Dr. Michael Horton and Adriel Sanchez answer caller questions. Show Notes CoreChristianity.com Key questions answered in today’s show: 1. I’m a single mom and most of the families at my church either home school or send their kids to private school. I can’t afford to do either so I have my kids in a local public school but lately I have been pressured by people in my church to seek a different option. What are your thoughts about this? Do you think I should just be trusting in God’s provision and try to find a way to get my kids out of public school? 2. Jude quotes the book of Enoch as authoritative, so why is the book of Enoch not in the Bible? 3. I feel like Paul in Romans 7, where he says, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” These last few years have felt very spiritually dry. I don’t worship with the same passion, study the Bible with the same joy, or feel God’s presence working in my life. Is there any way to get beyond this situation? 4. Did God invent the principle of sacrifice, or has God chosen to accept this practice invented by man? Did Christ have to die because of God’s law or because of man’s law? 5. If the book of Romans was written to believers, why does it say in 2:5 that “because of your stubbornness and unrepentant hearts you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath”? If the audience consists of believers, they wouldn’t be storing up wrath for themselves, would they?

Episode 212 | Dr. Michael Horton and Adriel Sanchez answer caller questions. Show Notes CoreChristianity.com Key questions answered in today’s show: 1. There is this famous quote that we should preach the gospel always and if necessary use words to point out that Christian’s lives should so demonstrate love, that people would almost be able to see something of the gospel in how we live. Do you think this is helpful advice? 2. How can I better minister to other believers? Can you guys help me increase my potential in this? 3. When Paul talks about putting on the full armor of God in Ephesians 6, do you think he is drawing on the imagery of a Roman soldier or OT passages? 4. What does the Bible say about hunting wild game? 5. As I was reading in Numbers 28-29 where the Lord is laying out offerings for special days and feasts, I noticed for those that call for no work it is translated “no ordinary work” except for the day of atonement where the Lord says “You shall do no work”. Is there a difference between no work and no ordinary work? 6. Do you believe Satan can still go before God and accuse believers as he did with Job? It seems a ridiculous waste of time to bring charges to one who Satan knows will be acquitted.

Episode 211 | Dr. Michael Horton and Adriel Sanchez answer caller questions. Show Notes CoreChristianity.com Key questions answered in today’s show: 1. Where did the Bible come from? 2. I’m a Father and my daughter is now 3. We go to church regularly, but I’m not sure how my wife and I can take on a more active role in teaching our daughter about Jesus and the gospel. Do you have any suggestions? 3. At what point can someone not understand faith alone and be saved? 4. I have a friend who believes that no one spends eternity in hell. He argues that “perish” in John 3:16 means that the person will not live for eternity in hell but cease to exist. What do you think? 5. I’m wondering, why do you think faithful Christians can still struggle with prayer? 6. Does belief in grace mean that people are free to sin? If people are saved by grace how can they not live however they want?

Episode 210 | Dr. Michael Horton and Adriel Sanchez answer caller questions. Show Notes CoreChristianity.com Key questions answered in today’s show: 1. Should Christians evangelize even if they don’t fully understand the gospel or important doctrines or should they wait until they are taught first? 2. Why did the apostles say, “Jesus is Lord” and not “Jesus is God”? 3. Psalm 101 begins, “I will sing of steadfast love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will make music.” It strikes me how often the Bible celebrates justice and yet when I think about justice it reminds me of prisons, judges and lawyers. What is the Bible’s view of justice? And how is it different or similar to ideas of justice in our cultural context? 4. I know that in the Bible God promises to have wonderful plans for our lives, but I don’t feel like I’m walking in God’s blessing. Maybe it’s because I have weak faith or that God is dealing with sin in my life. Can you help? 5. Does the office of deacon serve the church or the outside world or both?

Episode 209 | Dr. Michael Horton and Adriel Sanchez answer caller questions. Show Notes CoreChristianity.com Key questions answered in today’s show: 1. Why is it so hard to make progress in holiness? What do you think a new Christian should know about this topic? 2. What does it mean to say that Christians will judge the nations with Jesus? 3. I have a friend who is suffering from depression. She says killing herself isn’t wrong because she will be with God, which is better than being in this horrible world. She is a Christian, and isn’t persuaded there’s a biblical reason not to commit suicide. What would you say? 4. I am confused about the comment Jesus made in Mark 4:12, what we call the Parable of the Sower. On the face of it, it seems that God is preventing the people from understanding and coming to faith. Can you explain that? Also, can you talk about the seeds, especially the seed on the thorny ground. Is that someone who is ultimately an unbeliever? Finally, can you recommend a book on the teachings of Jesus?

Episode 208 | Dr. Michael Horton and Adriel Sanchez answer caller questions. Show Notes CoreChristianity.com Key questions answered in today’s show: 1. I want to be married to someone who I have loved for 15 years. But she does not believe in Christ? Can I still marry this person? 2. How can you tell if you are really bearing fruit and growing as a Christian? 3. With the law-gospel distinctive in mind, how are we to tell the difference between an exhortation that is moralistic vs. an exhortation that is Christ-centered? 4.  In your book, Core Christianity you write that God is self-existent. And you make the point that God created the world out of love and not necessity. Can you elaborate upon that? 5. If the Bible teaches that salvation is by grace how do you make sense of the book of James where he says faith without works is dead?

Episode 207 | Dr. Michael Horton and Adriel Sanchez answer caller questions. Show Notes CoreChristianity.com Key questions answered in today’s show: 1. How do you understand the Bible verse where it says that we are saved by faith “working through love”? 2. I’m fighting an addiction to smoking. I’m down to a half a cigarette in the morning. Am I going to hell because of it? 3. What is grace defined as biblically? What is common grace and is it real; If all those who are vessels of wrath are filling up the full measure of their sins and all the good they receive is unto their destruction, should we call the good that they receive ‘common grace’ if grace has a strictly salvific notion scripturally? 4.  I’m coming across resources saying that Jesus’ resurrection body didn’t have any blood because his blood was shed on the cross. Is this a good inference?

Episode 206 | Dr. Michael Horton and Adriel Sanchez answer caller questions. Show Notes CoreChristianity.com Key questions answered in today’s show: 1. Does God hear or answer the prayers of unbelievers?  2. Hebrews 12 speaks of God disciplining His children. What does that look like? 3. My teenage son and daughter have been asking really hard questions about the Bible. I don’t always have the answers and I’m not sure how to deal with it. How can we make the Bible relevant to the issues that teenagers are going through and what should I do to be better equipped to be able to have these hard conversations about the Bible? 4. What does it mean when Peter says that Christians are “a kingdom of priests?” 5. If Satan knows the end of the story, why does he keep trying?

Episode 205 | Dr. Michael Horton and Adriel Sanchez answer caller questions. Show Notes CoreChristianity.com Key questions answered in today’s show: 1. When did God create the angels? Was it before man or after man? Where does it talk about this in the Bible? 2. What does it mean to be a good witness to my non-Christians co-workers at my job? Should I strive to share the gospel with them? Do you have any advice on how to do it? 3. I am studying the Letter of Paul to the Romans and am confused about what is meant when he continues to speak of the Law. I know that we are freed from the law when we come into a saving relationship by grace through faith in Christ, thank God! But suddenly, I am unable to explain exactly what law we are freed from the penalty of breaking? I understand it is the law of sin and death that all are subjected to after Adam’s fall. But, are we speaking about the 10 Commandments as being the Law? Or are we speaking about the entire Pentateuch and all the 613 laws written in it that I suppose the Pharisees were attempting to keep? Can you help? 4. 2 Corinthians 5 says that we used to regard Christ according to the flesh. What does it mean to regard Christ according to the flesh?

Episode 204 | Dr. Michael Horton and Adriel Sanchez answer caller questions. Show Notes CoreChristianity.com Key questions answered in today’s show: 1. How do you understand John 20:23, where Jesus says, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld”? 2. I was wondering why it’s important to recite the Apostle’s Creed and the Lord’s Prayer during a worship service? I know some worship services do not do this and I was wondering what the reason for that was. 3. Does Jesus really expect Christians to turn the other cheek? Where is the line? At what point should a Christians stand up for themselves or their family and defend themselves against persecution? 4. How do you understand first Corinthians 10.23 where Paul says, “‘All things are lawful,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful,’ but not all things build up.”? 5. I was raised believing that we are supposed to get baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I have been reading my Bible about that and in Hebrews, it says that we are supposed to be baptized in Jesus’s name. Can you clarify this?