A quote by Michael Horton.

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In Light of the Gospel » Blog Archive » The Gospel and Sanctification

Thanks for the link Randy. It was a very helpful read. I still have great respect for Horton but am seeing a bit clearer what you and Reverend Winzer are alluding to and it is greatly appreciated
 
I'm going to shut this down for now and ask that we give the Horton thing a rest. I think it's sort of unfair to extend the initial post to infer so much into Mike's overall beliefs. I know Mike personally so this issue is very personal and uncomfortable for me. He doesn't participate here (nor do I think he has the time) in a way that would allow us to fully interact with what he's saying.

I'm a supporter of the WHI and just today I was listening to the CD's I get in the mail every month and I heard him with my own ears use the word "obedience" with respect to the Gospel as a command to those that the Church heralds the message of the Gospel unto. I've also heard him repeatedly refer to the 3rd use of the law in such a way that I believe he fully embraces sanctification as a component of the Gospel.

I realize there are some nuances that need to be discussed and continue to be debated in the Reformed community but I would prefer that to be done with a spirit that it is an intramural discussion.

I've been listening to Mike for years on the WHI and he's been personally very kind to me. I think he focuses more on the historical kerygma on his show as well as criticizing the "living the Gospel" in this sense I noted earlier:
2. Others increasingly use it to make their life itself the content of the Gospel ("Preach the gospel always, If necessary use words." ~ St. Francis of Assisi.) There is a confusion that the actions of the believer or the dramatic lifechange of the person become the content. People speak of testimony today as "I used to smoke crack and was miserable but now I'm a happy, well adjusted person..." as the Gospel.
In other words, I'm not convinced he denies a sense of the Gospel which makes the 3rd use of the law a type of "evangelical obedience". Some may disagree but, again, I've heard statements from him repeatedly that convince me he does not deny this.

I think if Mike's show was primarily focused internally to the Reformed community and he was interacting with Reformed uses of the term "living the Gospel" in the way some Puritans used it then he might not take issue to it. Yet, if you listen to his program regularly, as I do, his show is sort of a very minority voice in a wave of evangelical use of this term that has transformed the use of the phrase "living the Gospel" in the way I described earlier.

I think we need to recognize that we are in a Christian community that is increasingly confused about the Gospel and I believe that Mike and the WHI serve an important function to wake up Christians today that Christianity is not an interior religion among many but an announcement of Christ's death, resurrection, and reign that drags men out of the dungeon of their sin and transports them into the Kingdom of God.

I would like us all to consider that we can respectfully disagree with one another on this and learn a little from the manner in which Calvin criticized some of his contemporaries. He criticized other views in the Reformed movement at his time but he didn't "name names". It allows for discussion and interaction without getting so personal and tearing down. My frustration is that we don't "bird dog" every little thing that a leader says and necessarily assume that it confirms our worst fears in others.
 
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