When Witches visit Bethel

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the apostle Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.

Christmas Cards, Sabbatical Plans, and Church Life

My name is Mike Abendroth, and I just got a Christmas card. Let me get the Christmas cards in there. Here is one from Todd. How nice is that? I got one from Phil Johnson this year. Todd Friel. There's some nice pictures of Todd and some white dog.

What kind of dog is that, Todd? What would that be? Anyway, I also got Todd's new book in the mail, Judge Not. I don't know whether you call it Judge or Judge Not or what you call it, but it looks really good, so I hope to have Todd on the show sometime soon.

Well, we have a little slogan around here, always biblical, always provocative, always in that order. For the time being, we're still going daily, Monday through Friday. I don't know how long that's gonna last.

I think I'm gonna take a sabbatical in the fall, not just from No Compromise Radio, but from life. Actually, I've been now at the same church for 19 years, taking one sabbatical, so it's about time for another sabbatical.

I don't know what we'll do. I think it's gonna be every day is Fred Butler rerun Friday in those days. I guess that's, you know, you get what you pay for kind of thing. Don't forget, you can order Sexual Fidelity No Compromise by the time this airs, most likely on Kindle, on Amazon, or you can go to the website and order the hard copy book.

Selling pretty well so far. I haven't had to order any extras, but haven't had to sell them out of my trunk either. My family and I love to go watch my daughter, Gracie, play basketball. She's 14. She's on the freshman team.

I think they call it JV2 or something like that. And we go to a variety of different high schools and watch the game. And we've been going to quite a few Catholic high schools as our public school plays the Catholic schools.

And, you know, I always root against Notre Dame because any team called our lady, I have to root against. And maybe there's some Notre Dame fans here. And we saw some paper on the bleachers, you know how kids will forget homework and throw things away in the bleachers.

And so Luke, my son, found someone's quiz and a little paper that she wrote out. I'm assuming it's she. The name on the paper, it looks like it's a foreign name. And I don't even know how to pronounce it.

So it is a quiz, chapter four, section five, life in the colonies. In this particular, I'm gonna think it's gonna be a lady. Got a 92 on her paper and it's matching. You have a variety of things on the left-hand side and the right-hand side, you have to match them, one with A, B, C, D, et cetera.

And what caught our attention was number one, Great Awakening, and she picked rightly E, religious movement in the 1730s and 1740s. Number two, Jonathan Edwards. Now, there are plenty of things to love about Edwards and there are a few things that you should not love about Edwards.

This isn't the show for that. I'm still ready to do a show sometime on people I don't quote, but I still quote Edwards. Some of his falafel sermons, shawarma, I prefer. He philosophizes too much on certain topics and his view of justification, I don't care for, to put it mildly.

But here it says, and I don't know if this is from a book or this is the Catholic slant or something like that, but it says, Jonathan Edwards, and it's matched up and correctly according to this teacher, preached emotional sermons about the evil of sin and the beauty of God, Jonathan Edwards.

Now, I just thought that was pretty interesting. There's stuff here about the enlightenment of Benjamin Franklin, indentured servants, Dame School, D-A-M-E. I don't think that's a typo. Apprentice, libel, middle-class, John Peter Zenger.

I don't know who John Peter Zenger is. Arrested for publishing unflattering stories about the governor. Thanks, governor. Preached emotional sermons. What I would say about that would be, I think 60 miles from here in Northampton, Massachusetts, they were received emotionally because he often was dealing with the text to such an degree, and he was a great wordsmith, that they were received emotionally.

But I don't think he preached them emotionally. Now, there has been some talk with Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, and he would read monotone to let the scriptures come forth, and he would read from the manuscript.

But I've seen many of his manuscripts and sermons at the Yale Beinecke Library. I remember taking Steve Lawson down there, and Steve and I would look through those manuscripts. And toward the end of his middle of his ministry, when he was older, he just had a small little, about the size of a yellow post-it.

And those were a sermon, so he didn't read everything manuscript. And I do know for a fact that many of his sermons were received emotionally in people crying, weeping. Isn't that the same thing? Wailing.

And that is true. He did preach. They were received emotionally. And instead of the typical caricature about hell and damnation and spiders and spiderwebs and planks that are rotten, this says he preached about the evil of sin and the beauty of God.

I actually like that. That's pretty good. That's pretty good for, I don't know, St. Peter, Marian, whatever the thing is. It does give another paper behind it, and it's a little essay. And I have not read this, so I'm hoping it's gonna be good, because we're on national radio.

When I was little, I fell really hard at recess because this kid pushed me. See, don't you like this? When the teacher saw the kid was, I can see it's too hard to read, was an accident. So the next day I pushed her back and she got cuts on her elbows and knees.

And she told the teacher, and I did the same thing and said it was an accident. But I made it up. But I made up a believable story. It was like we were playing tag and I bumped into her. After the teacher left, she yelled at me, but I didn't care.

The funny thing was that she used to be my best friend ever. And the teacher writes with pink flare pen, oh no, don't stoop to their level, be the bigger person. So we have there a No Compromise Radio.

That's quite interesting. I have in front of me an email, and you can always write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com. And the email comes from, since I didn't ask if I can read it, I'll just give his first name, Dan.

Sufficiency of Scripture, Revelation, and Illumination

Dan is someplace in the contiguous continental United States. Our church, now this is from Dan, this is not Bethlehem Bible Church, this is not No Compromise Radio. Our church is semi-charismatic. Well, buddy, then it's charismatic.

Oh, by the way, you have to read the article by Kruger, Michael Kruger writes about the canon that God has spoken and how the Montanists tried to add things to revelation and the canon early on, and they were rebuked.

An excellent article. But for the most part, pretty firm in the sufficiency of scripture. I wrote, hard to do, but I take your word for it, smiley face. I think charismatics deny solo scriptura by definition.

You can read Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology on Sufficiency of Scripture. Many good things said there. And then he's got a footnote about impressions and how to work through impressions. I personally think when we look at the three categories of bibliology that relate to this subject of impressions and God speaking today, canon close, sufficiency of scripture.

If you look at revelation, inspiration, and illumination, okay, those are the three. Instead of rei, the store, it's rii. Revelation, inspiration, and illumination. Revelation, God to man, right, speaking.

Variety of ways, Hebrews 1, in these last days through the person and quality of a son. Then we have inspiration, God breathed, right? 2 Timothy 3, 16, and 17. This is a man to paper, right? Where the W-R-I-T or R-I-G-H-T, both of those, right?

Right, right, right, right, right. And then finally we have illumination and that is the paper, parchments, vellum, the word that was written, that was divinely breathed out as God revealed himself, right?

Right, illumination, the spirit of God helps us understand what was already written. So if you want to think about it simply with revelation, inspiration, and illumination, God reveals himself, that is God to man.

God breathes out the scriptures as he uses men to do that through men, that is from. Easy for me to say, easy for me to say. From men to paper, and then we have from paper to the mind and heart, that's illumination.

And for the most part, the charismatic friends of ours, they talk about things that would fall into the category of revelation, but that is, revelation has ceased, canon is closed. God is not giving any more revelation and we need the spirit of God to understand what he's already written.

And if God is still speaking, it is revelation and we should probably write it down. At least some of the monists try to do that, at least they try to be consistent and you can read that in the Michael Kruger article.

They do lean, this is, what's his name again? Dan. They do lean toward Arminian doctrine. Here in the last year, they have also been sliding toward using words like hearing from God and what is the Holy Spirit trying to tell you.

Well, once you crack that door open, give them an inch to those charismatics, those rascals, they'll take a mile. Let's see. I have a question about wording in our church bulletin. Same guy, same email.

Church Bulletins, Meditating on Scripture, and Preaching the Word

Leadership has replaced the word sermon with meditation for the last three weeks. And that's fascinating. I remember I was once scolded 15, 16, 17 years ago for saying something about bring your unbelieving friend.

We had an outreach concert or something like that. Bring your unsafe friend. And I was rebuked by one of the elders because that was unloving and not sensitive to, what if there's an unbeliever reading the bulletin?

Maybe I should have called them pre-Christians. Here now, the bulletin, we have meditation. Now, when I read church bulletins and I see the time when there's giving and you have tithes and offerings in your bulletin, I would prefer it say offerings.

I don't know, maybe you have a time warp and it's back to the future with Israel and tithes and Old Testament covenant type of things. And I know what you mean if you say tithes and offerings. I prefer just offerings.

Well, you could change the bulletin for that. That'd be more biblical, right? And when you replace the word sermon with meditation, we are to meditate upon scripture. I get that. I'm not thinking that this church is doing a Zen Buddhist meditation, a Hindu spirituality.

I don't think they mean that, but let's just meditate on what I'm saying. Here's the problem. In 2 Timothy 4 talks about herald. That means to herald the word. It is to preach a sermon, if you will. At least that's the way we think about it.

I wrote henno. Then I also said 2 Timothy 4, 2 says that men should herald the word, preach, proclaim, not share dialogue or meditate. Now we come to the part of the service where we are meditating. Very interesting.

The number to call is BR549. The article, the email goes on to say, I know this isn't right, and I want to talk to them about it, but I'm not very articulate when it comes to explaining things. No, sorry, when it comes to explaining my opinion or concerns.

Pastor of our church is a man of God, but he likes to tell us to listen for a word from God that he is telling us. And what is the Holy Spirit trying to tell you? I would appreciate any thoughts you might have.

Been going to this church my whole life, but became a Christian about seven years ago. I would really like to go to a reformed church, but the closest one I know of is over an hour away. I have young children, three and a half, so I've started teaching Sunday school and influencing where I can.

Any help would be appreciated. I said, good, I would meet with the pastor and ask questions. And then I said, nicely, smiley face. I really appreciate the show. Said some nice things about me. Listening for three years.

I can't believe he's the only, see if he'd been listening for three years, I can understand. If he'd been listening for six, then he'd know these answers and his no-co videos. I'd also like to thank the staff that does all the behind the scenes stuff at the website that makes this possible, God bless.

I'd like to thank them too, because I can't sit here and pontificate without all those guys, from Spencer, to Jonathan, to Josh, to Ben, to Jim. Who else? Who else is there to thank around here? Lots of people.

Sam, you know what I should do? I think I thank the whole team. Mario, I think I thank the whole team in the front of this book here. There, I'm in debt to the entire no-co team. Josh McDonald, Steve, Tuesday Guy Cooley, Ben Mercedes, Sam Farah, Mario Escobar, Ray Johnson, Jim Caruso, Spencer Kinnard, Haley, Haley, Haley Dela Genides, Tim Boslin, Aaron Benziger, Jill Cox, and Jonathan Newton.

See, there's the entire team. That is the team. All right, there's my little card. God's revelation. And by the way, you could pull up bbcchurch .org and listen to some of the Hebrew sermons I've been preaching along these lines.

If you don't want to read the Kruger article, I'm thankful for the email. It almost sounds like a wishy-washy Calvary Chapel or a more tightened-up Vineyard-type church. This is very common. And God's people, the pastors, should be pushing you, the listeners, to the Bible.

What does the Bible say, not what does the Holy Spirit say, and how does the Spirit of God speak to us? Et cetera. All right, what else do I have here? No Compromise Radio. I have been sent, I think Andrew sent me this.

Witches at Bethel and Claims of Healing and Prophecy

This is patheos .com blogs Agora. And this talks about born-again witches. Witches at a Pentecostal church, healings and prophecies. Third piece about my coven's visit to a spirit-filled Christian church.

I don't know how to make this up. I don't know what to do. I was restricting calories again, it's that time of year where you starve yourself. And I thought, well, you know, if I drink a monster drink just before the show, that will make me not hungry, but it makes my mind go crazy, especially when I read this.

In the first part, I wrote about what prompted us to visit the church, and together with Autumn, who has no background in Christianity, we shared our initial reactions. In the second part, Autumn and I compared notes, how we sensed and saw the flow of energy and understood the meditation, sorry, the sermon.

You're here for the healing rooms. Okay, so I need you to fill out these forms. It was Saturday morning at Bethel, and we had just walked in the door, still in the process of waking up after a night in a stuffy hotel room.

We were handed clipboards and ushered into a waiting area where we hurried to fill out the forms. Born again? Yes, no, not sure. Baptized in the Holy Spirit? Yes, no, not sure. Oh, this just has the earmarks of just being totally crazy.

The form asked if we were under the care of a doctor or counselor, and then told us to read a legal liability release. I was reminded of last year when my coven also sat in waiting area with clipboards, signing pages and pages of disclaimer in preparation for our first skydive, capital S.

Could it get better for radio? You wonder, you know, I have so much to talk about because the scriptures are so full of material. And then I have things like this, and I don't know if it's funny, it's sad, it's, it's, it's fat.

Autumn, our clipboards in hand, we headed to the Hall of Miracles, which was all by appearance as just a double row of chairs inside the hallway at Bethel. You know, all of us filled out forms. We had to fill out demographic contact information.

I went ahead and wrote down my fatigue, adrenal issues, as well as the headache I had from sleeping in a poorly ventilated hotel room from the previous night. No particular reason to refuse healing from any source, I figured.

While we were in the waiting room, there was a brief opening prayer and we all held hands. The young woman who was holding space for the group suggested we didn't need to wait to be healed and we could be healed right now.

She asked if anyone was here for joint pain. Passed the glucose amino, the wafer. And suggested trying to move the joints and see if they felt better from just being there. It seemed a little odd to me.

I'm used to energetic healing practices, said the witch, not deliberately suggesting what is going to happen, but maybe this could help some people if they really didn't believe that healing was possible.

I just think about this for a second. Let's just reflect upon healings in the new year. Could be healings in the Bible, but the New Testament will do. Were they not organic? Were they not, with one exception for a didactic reason, instantaneous?

Were they not confirmed by unbelievers? The unbelievers knew it was true. They wanted to tell Jesus that he, in fact, didn't use the power of God to heal, but they knew he healed. They understood it. So, so wrong on all these different levels.

Anika, a man stood up and said that he did indeed suffer from joint pain. He started walking down the hallway accompanied by other murmuring, praise God and yes, Jesus, yes. And that was her wrong spelling and grammar.

I'm just reading it. When he had walked the length of the hallway once, the young woman asked him if he felt better and he nodded. This was met with exclamations of praise the Lord and oh, thank you, Jesus, thank you.

Bethel staff called out a couple of other ailments, post nasal drip, always resulting in someone standing up, walking the hall, agreeing more or less enthusiastically that they were now better. While I have been to many charismatic and Pentecostal churches, this was a new experience for me.

I'm used to everyone having some time to shift into sacred space and establish a group connection before there was an expectation of healing and miracles. Yeah, they've got to lather you up is what they have to do.

When you watch TBN, Benny Hinn doing healing, what you don't see is the hour before where everybody has their head back, arms up, repeating all kinds of mantras over and over and over. Nor do you see on those healing shows, Benny Hinn coming out to the congregation and to his waiting flock to great is thy faith.

So I thought that was always fascinating. I don't know if he still does it anymore, but he used to. I'm used to everyone have some time to shift. This felt forced and awkward and I didn't want to stand out as a person who wasn't joining in the excitement.

Thankfully, I wasn't finished with my form yet. So I buried myself in my clipboard. I was hoping we would soon move from the hall of miracle to healing rooms, which I assumed would be more contained space, said the witch.

Autumn, from the hallway, we moved into what looked like very much a largish conference room or meeting room, except with no center table and chairs around the perimeter. As we entered, we were given a handout and I noticed a now serving sign in the corner with red digits.

It's like when my wife says, can you go get two pounds of sliced turkey? Don't get the cheap guy, like you're tempted to get. Get this good kind, get the tasting good kind, low sodium stuff. This red digit room was the group healing room itself.

I don't recall what this room is called or if it had a name, but I remember it primarily as a briefing room. A woman introduced us to what we'd be experiencing, including the upcoming healing rooms and the encounter room where we would commune with the Holy Spirit.

In addition to these logistical notes, she quoted from several Bible verses about how healing through Jesus is possible. Annika mentioned many people come to Bethel when healing has seemed out of reach and these are people truly looking for miracles.

So what you do is you get a little number and they brief you. Problem is with all this briefing stuff, they're whittling down who can really be healed of a, oh, I got a bad back, I got a headache kind of thing.

The issues that cannot be measured. They want the subjective ones because anyone who walks in without a hand, let's say their hand has been chopped off, they've been in the Middle East, their hand has been chopped off.

What room would I go to if my hand's been cut off? Oh, hi, I'm blind barred. What room do I go to if I can't see? John 9, what room do I go to where I need a miracle? Can we not say it's crazy on so many levels, especially when the witches end up at Bethel, healing room, encounter room, Holy Spirit rooms, whatever room it might be, so they could soak in the Spirit with the now serving signs.

My name's Mike Abendroth. Isn't this crazy? Why don't you just read the Gospels and think, Jesus and the apostles healed, God authenticated their ministry by things like this. We already have an authenticated ministry in the Bible.

This kind of stuff does not move us. Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.