Michael Horton, born Michael Scott Horton on May 11, 1964, is the J. Gresham Machen Professor of Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California. He is also the president and host of the nationally syndicated radio broadcast The White Horse Inn. Raised in an Arminian Baptist church, Horton adopted Reformed and Calvinist theology during high school after a personal study of the book of Romans. This transformative experience set the foundation for his theological trajectory.
Horton later attended the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, which further sparked his interest in Reformed doctrine. He completed his undergraduate studies at Biola University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree. During his time there, he studied Biblical Hebrew and Koine Greek and was intellectually influenced by theologians such as Meredith Kline, Robert Strimple, and Dennis Johnson.
He pursued advanced theological training in the United Kingdom, earning his Ph.D. from the University of Coventry in affiliation with Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. Horton also completed a Research Fellowship at Yale Divinity School, further solidifying his academic grounding in systematics and apologetics.
Michael Horton was ordained as a deacon in the Reformed Episcopal Church and soon became involved in ministry leadership. He served as the president of Christians United for Reformation (CURE) for four years, an organization that later merged with others to become the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals—an influential coalition promoting Reformation theology.
He also held the position of Associate Pastor at Christ United Reformed Church in Santee, California. In this capacity, he taught courses and Sunday school classes focusing on Reformed theology, the doctrine of God, and the Heidelberg Catechism.
