White Horse Inn

All Bible stories are really just one story repeated over and over again, describing the intersection between our sinful condition and God’s relentless faithfulness. So it should come as no surprise when even the heroes of the story seem to be the most flawed. In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Bob Hiller, and Walter Strickland consider the shocking narrative of Samson, explaining how all stories, like Samsons’, lead us back to the glory of God.

Called by God to lead his people to the promised land, Moses is heralded as a prophet like no other—one with whom God spoke face to face. But between his murderous past, bursts of anger that ultimately kept him from entering the promised land, and his own record that he was the most humble man to ever live, is he the hero we think? In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Bob Hiller, and Walter Strickland tackle the complicated details of Moses’s life, reflecting on how God works in and through sinners.

When new converts are brought into the church, they are often loaded up with the need to read the Bible, pray, practice repentance, and get into the community—but equally vital to spiritual health is a right understanding of and participation in the means of grace. In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Bob Hiller, and Walter Strickland discuss how the means of grace are used for our sanctification and why they are central to life and identity in the church.

Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper and commanded the church to “do this in remembrance of me.” But why? In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Bob Hiller, and Walter Strickland compare the unique views of the Lutheran, Baptist, Reformed, and Anglican traditions of this sacrament and what it means to participate in our union with Christ by “eating his body and drinking his blood.”

From his own baptism by John the Baptist to his last commission to his followers to go and make disciples from all nations, Jesus’s ministry is marked by this sacrament. But what does it mean? What are its biblical origins? And who should receive it? In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Bob Hiller, and Walter Strickland discuss the traditional Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, and Reformed views on the sacrament of baptism.

What are the differences between Reformational, Roman Catholic, and Anabaptist sacramental views? And what are sacraments for? In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Bob Hiller, and Walter Strickland discuss the common impressions and misconceptions of the sacraments in a society prone toward unmediated spirituality.

Soteriology precedes eschatology—but how? And what will the judgment of the risen Christ look like? In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Bob Hiller, and Walter Strickland examine different views of the end times as they consider our hopeful future—one where the work of Christ finally culminates in the new heavens and new earth.

The ascension seems like a really bad plan. Why would Christ leave his disciples? Is the indwelling Spirit truly better than Christ in the flesh? In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Bob Hiller, and Walter Strickland discuss Jesus’s gifts to the church through his intercession and his continuing priestly office in which he acts as our advocate and intercessor.

Many people struggle with the concept of atonement. What do we make of a God who demands the sacrifice of his own Son? And what exactly is happening in Christ’s work on the cross? In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Bob Hiller, and Walter Strickland consider the covenantal context for Christ’s passive obedience and speak to some of the harmful ways this doctrine has been misapplied.

Most Christians know about the forgiveness of sins, but not the doctrine of active obedience. But how do we become righteous if not through imputation? In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Bob Hiller, and Walter Strickland explain what is meant by the active obedience of Christ and why there’s no hope without it.

Christ’s incarnation immediately sets Christianity apart from other religions and disrupts the expectations of religious leaders. So, what is this important doctrine and what do we lose if we deny it? In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Bob Hiller, and Walter Strickland consider Christ’s divine and human natures and what Christ’s incarnation means for us.

Throughout this series, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Bob Hiller, and Walter Strickland have talked a lot about the need to distinguish law from gospel, but what happens when there’s not only a distinction but a division between the two? In this episode of White Horse Inn, the roundtable considers various distortions of the law-gospel distinction and their implications for the church.

Proponents of the law-gospel distinction have often emphasized the need for them to appear in the right order. But how important is that order? In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Bob Hiller, and Walter Strickland discuss what’s at stake if the law and gospel are out of order or confused.

Is the gospel something that we do? Is it something—like a law—that we can execute or abide by? In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Bob Hiller, and Walter Strickland unpack the covenant of grace throughout Scripture, considering the counterintuitive nature of God’s unilateral kindness to us in the gospel.

We are no strangers to the category of “law,” but how is God’s law different from man-made laws and rituals? In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Bob Hiller, and Walter Strickland discuss the importance of the law-gospel distinction and dig into the definition of the law and its impact on God’s people today.

We have a remedy to our sin problem, declared in 1 John 2:1-2, the fourth and final Comfortable Word. Because Jesus was our sacrifice, he is now our advocate. In this conclusion to our series on Thomas Cranmer’s Comfortable Words, White Horse Inn hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, and Bob Hiller reflect on the doctrine of propitiation, the order of the words, and the comfort found in remembering that Christ is our advocate.

The third word (1 Timothy 1:15) diagnoses our human condition, revealing not just the subjective feeling of burden but also the objective consequences of violating God’s law. So how is this a “Comfortable Word”? In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, and Bob Hiller consider the doctrine of sin and the concept and comfort of simul justus et peccator—“simultaneously justified and sinner.”

The second of the Comfortable Words, John 3:16, demonstrates God’s desire and initiative to save his people. In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, and Bob Hiller unpack this familiar verse and consider its implications for how we think about salvation, fellow image-bearers, and our Christian freedom.

As Christians, we often struggle to view God as one who wants to meet us with words of comfort and good news. But understanding God’s heart towards sinners is not just a therapeutic exercise, it’s our only hope in the midst of our spiritual fatigue. In this episode, White Horse Inn hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, and Bob Hiller discuss the first of the Comfortable Words, Matthew 11:28, exposing our weariness and longing while exploring the rest that Christ offers.

Do Reformational people read their Bibles? Do they have daily “quiet times”? Is it important for them to pray every day? Sometimes we can give people the sense that all God really cares about is public worship, but what happens in our public assembly should flow down into our families and then into our individual spiritual lives as well. In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, and Bob Hiller discuss the role private piety plays in our Christian life, considering how we can reclaim spiritual disciplines for our churches.