Dr. Michael Scott Horton

Dr. Michael Scott Horton (b. 1964) - is the J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics and is heard regularly on the excellent White Horse Inn radio program, a nationally syndicated, weekly radio talk-show exploring issues of Reformation theology in American Christianity.. He was formerly the president of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, a society of in the Reformation Tradition which "exists to call the twenty-first century church to a reformation that recovers clarity and conviction about the great evangelical truths of the gospel and that then seeks to proclaim these truths powerfully in our contemporary context." He is also the editor-in-chief of Modern Reformation magazine. A covenant theologian and an advocate of covenant baptism.

Horton received an M.A. from Westminster Seminary California, a Ph.D. from Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and the Coventry University, and completed a Research Fellowship at Yale Divinity School. He is also an ordained minister in the United Reformed Churches of North America in which denomination he has served two churches in southern California.

Selected Bibliography

Reformation Theology: A Systematic Summary (2017)

Rediscovering the Holy Spirit: God's Perfecting Presence in Creation, Redemption, and Everyday Life (2017)

Core Christianity: Finding Yourself in God's Story (2016)

The Reformation, Then and Now: 25 Years of Modern Reformation Articles Celebrating 500 Years of the Reformation (2016)

Ordinary: Sustainable Faith in a Radical, Restless World

The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way

Calvin on the Christian Life: Glorifying and Enjoying God Forever (2014)

Pilgrim Theology: Core Doctrines for Christian Disciples (2013)

For Calvinism (2011)

A Place for Weakness: Preparing Yourself for Suffering (2010)

A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship

Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church

The Gospel Commission: Recovering God's Strategy for Making Disciple

The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World

Too Good to Be True: Finding Hope in a World of Hype

Covenant and Eschatology: The Divine Drama

Covenant and Salvation: Union with Christ

Introducing Covenant Theology

Made in America: The Shaping of Modern American Evangelicalism

Putting Amazing Back into Grace: Embracing the Heart of the Gospel

The Law of Perfect Freedom: Relating to God and Others through the Ten Commandments

Lord and Servant: A Covenant Christology

People and Place: A Covenant Ecclesiology

Too Good to Be True: Finding Hope in a World of Hype

Where in the World is the Church?

Four Views on Eternal Security

Christ the Lord: The Reformation and Lordship Salvation

"The Gospel is not just the greatest story ever told. It's also true."

"The ultimate tragedy of man's self-understanding is that he believes himself to be free, has all the feelings of a free agent, but does not realize that he is a slave to sin and serves the will of Satan." - Michael Horton

Select Articles and Resources

• A New Creation
• Pelagianism: Religion of the Natural Man
• Reformation Essentials - Five Pillars of the Reformation
• Receiving Christ
• Christless Christianity
• Beyond Style Wars: Recovering the Substance of Worship
• The Disturbing Legacy of Charles Finney
• Grace: How Strange the Sound (.pdf)
• What Makes Something a Sacrament?
• The Indicative and The Imperative - A Reformation View of Sanctification
• Eschaton or Escape? Paul's Two Ages Vs. Plato's Two Worlds
• Good News for Bad Dads
• Whatever Happened to Sin?
• Preaching Christ Alone
• My Father's World - Christ & Culture
• Beyond Culture Wars - A Roundtable Discussion with...
  J.I. Packer, James Boice, Richard Halverson, William Pannell &
• What's Really at Stake
• What Are We Looking for in the Bible? (.pdf)
• Re-thinking Baptism (.pdf)
• Re-thinking the Lord's Supper (.pdf)
• Religion and Politics: A Roundtable Discussion
• Transforming Culture with a Messiah Complex
• Legal Rather than Evangelical Knowledge
• What About Bob? The Meaning of Ministry in the Reformed Tradition
• Union With Christ
• How the Kingdom Comes
• Evangelical Arminians: Option or Oxymoron?
• God's Grandchildren: The Biblical Basis for Infant Baptism
• Finding A Church (.pdf)
• Without Excuse
• The Promise-Driven Life (MP3)
• A Discussion With Robert Schuller
• Christ the Lord
• What is an Evangelical?
• Solus Christus: Our Only Mediator
• Who Saves Whom?
• When Your "Testimony" Is Boring
• Saved From God
• But Is It Relevant?
• Our Father In Heaven
• Give Us Today Our Daily Bread
• Thine Is the Kingdom and Glory Forever
• Recovering the Art of Christian Prudence
• What is the Reformed Faith? (.pdf)
• When The Salt Loses Its Savor
• The Covenant Summons: When God Gathers His People in Worship
• The Church & Israel
• Heaven Came Down: The Mission of Christ
• Are We Justified By Faith Alone?
• Too Good to Be True (MP3)
• Was Geneva a Theocracy?
• How Can We Know God?
• Your Own Personal Jesus
• God Glorified in The Cross of Christ
• Why Seminary? The Continuing Importance of an Educated Ministry
• Joel Osteen and the Glory Story: A Case Study
• Evangelicalism Today: Symposium: Six Evangelicals Assess Their Movement
• Become a Better You: Reflections on Joel Osteen's Latest Book (.pdf)
• Pastors' and Theologians' Forum on Church and Culture
• Christ & Culture: The Illustrative Life of Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920)
• How Your Theology Shapes Your Worldview
• The Apostle Paul & Oprah Winfrey
• Marketing the Church
• Calvin On Law and Gospel
• Bell's Hell: A Review by Michael Horton
• Does the Bible teach that Israel is the same as the church?
• Reformed Theology vs. Hyper-Calvinism
• A Tale of Two Kingdoms
• How flawed can one's knowledge of Jesus Christ be and be sufficient for saving faith?
• Review of Jesus Calling
• What Still keeps us Apart: Catholics and Evangelicals
• The Differences between Rome (infusion) and Geneva (imputation) in Justification
• Is Calvin Still Relevant After 500 Years? It all Depends
• Christ at the Center
• Doesn't God Want Us to be Happy?
• A Dying Man's Consolation The Active & Passive Obedience of Christ
• Make Your Calling and Election Sure: Predestination and Assurance In Reformation Theology
• Do You Hear the Spirit? Revivalism and the Ordinary Means of Grace
• Can We Still Believe in the Resurrection?
• Should You Pray for God to Save Your Loved Ones?
• Freer Than Thou: How Wisdom Avoids Legalism and License
• The Theology of Donald Trump
• The Law & The Gospel

Multimedia (Audio/Video Series)

Ordinary (series)
Sola Scriptura (series)
Response to The New Perspective (series)
Sanctification (series)
Six Points on Romans (series)
God and Suffering (series)
Evangelism and Mission (series)
Intro to Systematic Theology (21-Part Series)
The Gospel Driven Life (MP3 Lectures)
The Unfolding Mystery: Reading and Applying the Bible (series)

Individual Sermons/Lectures (YouTube)

• What is the Gospel? (YouTube)
• Imputation is the Heart of the Gospel (YouTube)
• Justified (YouTube)
• Why Is There So Much Evil & Suffering? (YouTube)
• Are You Saved by Faith Alone? (YouTube)
• Moralistic & Therapeutic Deism (YouTube)
• Christless Christianity (Q&A) (YouTube)
• The Theology of N.T. Wright (YouTube)
• Foolishness to the Greeks: Preaching the Resurrection Today (YouTube)
• The Antinomian Debate (YouTube)
• What's the Difference? Michael Horton v Jeffrey Johnson (Covenant Theology)
• The Parables of Jesus (YouTube)
• For/Against Calvinism - Michael Horton & Roger Olson (YouTube)
• Dr. Michael Horton - Christianity & Islam - Part 2 - Part 3 (YouTube)
• How to Read the Bible (YouTube)
• How to Disagree (YouTube)
• What is the Great Commission? (YouTube)
• A Case For Calvinism - Is it Good News? (YouTube)
• Is The Doctrine of Inerrancy Defensible? (YouTube)
• The Gospel According to the Heretic Pelagius (YouTube)

Individual Sermons/Lectures (MP3)

• The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit - John 14:25-29, 16:5-15
• The Ascension of Christ (MP3)
• Dr. Michael Horton from Westminster Seminary California answers the question, "Are Churches Secularizing America?" (MP3)
• Hellenistic or Hebrew? Open Theism and Reformed Theological Method
• Creeds and Deeds
• Missional & Reformed: Reaching the Lost & Teaching the Reached
• Does God Have a Plan for My Life? (MP3)
• Can I Know God’s Plan for My Life? (MP3)
• Is the Bible Sufficient for My Life? (MP3)
• Decision Making & the Will of God Question and Answer Session (MP3)
• Why the Marks of the Church Need the Mission
• "Panel Discussion 1 (Friday evening)" (MP3)
• "Two Mothers, Two Mountains" (MP3)
• "The Promise-Driven Life" (MP3)
• "Panel Discussion 2 (Saturday afternoon) Pt.1" (MP3)
• "Panel Discussion 2 (Saturday afternoon) Pt.2" (MP3)
• "Panel Discussion 3 (Saturday evening)" (MP3)
• Selling Jesus (MP4 Video)
• The Gospel and its Implications for the Church with Michael Horton (MP3)
• Sacred Message, Sacred Mission (MP3)
• God Glorified in The Cross of Christ
• The Gospel According to the Heretic Pelagius (YouTube)
• Onward Christian Soldiers? (Audio)
• Obsessed with Rapture (MP3 Download)
• 1 Cor 11:17-34 and What the Supper is and Isn’t (MP3)
• An Introduction to Systematic Theology: Class 2 (MP3)
• The Servant Who Is Lord (MP3)
• Whose Orthodoxy?: How to Define It and Why It's So Important
• Christless Christianity: the Alternative Gospel of the American Church (MP3)
• "Casting new Characters: The Word as a Means of Grace" - Session 1 (MP3)
• "A New Wardrobe: Baptism as a Means of Grace" - Session 2 (MP3)
• "A Feast in a Fast_Food World: The Lord's Supper as a Means of Grace" - Session 3 (MP3)
• Psalm 74; Luke 24:13-35 (MP3)
• 1 Samuel 2:1-10; Luke 1:26-56 — "The New Covenant’s First Evangelist (MP3)
• I Corinthians 11:17-34 (MP3)
• Concept of Covenant in 'God of Promise'
• The Gospel-Driven Church (MP3)
•  

6-Part Series on Worship

• Part 1 - Reforming Worship
• Part 2 - Preaching Christ
• Part 3 - Reforming Church Music
• Part 4 - Reforming the Church Service
• Part 5 - Re-thinking Baptism
• Part 6 - Re-thinking the Lord's Supper

Most Arminians will agree that we cannot make the slightest move toward God apart from his grace. It is a caricature to suggest that Arminianism (at least the evangelical variety) denies original sin and the fallenness of human beings in heart, mind, and will. Nevertheless, Arminians generally hold that God provides sufficient grace to all unbelievers so that they may be regenerated if they fulfill certain conditions. According to H. Orton Wiley, “The Holy Spirit exerts His regenerating power only on certain conditions, that is, on the conditions of repentance and faith.” To Calvinist ears, this sounds like demanding that a blind person see before he or she has been healed of blindness. The glory of the new covenant is that God gives in the gospel what he demands in his law: both justification and the renewal of heart and life. Only because of God’s one-sided act of regeneration does anyone repent and believe.
- Michael Horton

"The secularist mantra, “You can’t legislate morality,” is a shibboleth. [They] moralize as much as anyone. They appeal to dogmas like freedom of choice, individualism, love, respect, acceptance (not, tolerance, mind you, but acceptance), and excoriate religiously traditional opponents as hypocritical in failing to follow the loving example of Jesus. The agenda is plainly as ethical as any other. Whatever is decided at state and federal levels, a certain version of morality will most certainly be legislated." - Dr. Michael Horton,

----------------------------------------------------------

Author Related Links

• Westminster Seminary California
• The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
• The White Horse Inn
• Modern Reformation magazine