Biblicism or Sola Scriptura

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.

The Reformation and the Gospel Unchained

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. I usually don�t start off the show, or Steve doesn�t, with a guffaw.

Well, we just had a new nomination for our slogan here at No Compromise Radio.

Yeah, and that would be? We really don�t know what we�re doing. I think, Steve, out of all the shows that I�ve ever done, this is the least prepared I�ve been. 1 ,800 shows. You�re back. I�m back. Tell me what you were preaching here on that Reformation Sunday night.

I think you had a special service, and priesthood of all believers. People were here. You had your Genevan gown on.

How did that go? Well, that�s so close to what we did. We had lots of ice cream and cake, and we were talking about why we�re thankful for the Reformation. You know, there�s a reason why every believer should be thankful for the Reformation, and it�s because�not because the gospel was.

Recovered, because there were always people who believed the gospel. They were just far and few between, and Rome usually tracked them down and killed them. But what happened was the gospel was uncovered.

It was unchained. It was loosed. No longer could Rome basically control the Word or the gospel. And so it was free to run, and it did, by the grace of God.

Steve, does that have anything to do with the T .D. Jake�s book, Woman, Thou Art Loosed?

It�s so close. So I talked about some of the absolute heresies of Rome and why we should be thankful that we�re not under. The thumb of Rome or something like that.

Steve, you know how I like to use the little mathematical equations, n and n plus 1? To me, that�s now Rome. When it comes to their blurring of justification, sanctification, how many good works do you need to do, how many sacraments, all these other things, the standard in the Bible is n, and you need to just do n plus 1.

It just�you�ve got to just keep going.

Well, that�s the nature of�here, here�s a word�cults.

Speaking of which, can you think of a cult within the vein of, you know, professing Christendom? That is to say, people calling themselves Christian. I�m not trying to talk about, you know, some kind of Buddhist cult.

But a sect or a heresy from Christianity that has not started off with a torqued view of sola scriptura, i .e. Biblicism, this is what the Bible says, therefore we just believe it? Right.

No, it all has to start there. Because if you hold to a solid foundation of that, you�re not going to go astray. Okay. So, you know, what you wind up, again, I know Mormonism probably as well as any� Human being alive on this earth.

No, I wouldn�t say that. But as well as any other cult, and, you know, what they do is they take a verse here or there and they just proof text and launch, you know, and anything that you�if you bring a corrective to that, they�ll say, well, you know, that�s not translated correctly or, you know, some verses are just lost there and, you know, I mean, they just kind of shuffle it off.

It�s just meaningless because they have a prophet who�s the ultimate authority in Salt Lake City and, you know, a series of prophets and those prophets are more important than the Bible. And that�s what happens.

You discount the Bible, you substitute something else in its place, and you�re off to the races. You�re on your way to full cult status.

Steve, maybe you could start a new show on the Discover Channel or something, Discovery Channel, and it could be about, you know, these LDS people and they�re out and you kind of track them down through their lives and you have people acting and stuff.

Do you think it�d be a big seller?

I don�t know if it would be, but I have to tell you, a woman�because I commented on this LDS Facebook page yesterday. I mean, it�s an anti-LDS Facebook page. So this woman contacts me via Messenger, and I won�t even say her name, but she says, you know� Cindy Lou Who?

Close. She says, you know, �I love you and I�m a Christian you know, kind of thing. And I said, �Well, great. I said, �Super. You know, and so I just started, you know, giving her the gospel and she�s like, �Well, you know, I�m a proud Mormon and, you know, the Mormon church, I�ll be a Mormon for life kind of thing.

And so I started giving her some verses that indicated the Mormon church was wrong. And she says, �Well, I only use the King James. So I switched over to the King James. And then she�s like, she called me a liar and blocked me, you know.

As soon as I was like, �Jesus Christ is the only way you know, and just kind of give her the gospel, �You�re a liar. Block. I love you. P .S. I love you. It took five minutes to go from, you know, �I love you and I�m a Christian� to �I hate you and you�re blocked.

Reading the Bible with Context and the Help of the Church

Steve, I think for years I functionally denied Sola Scriptura. And what I mean by that is I think I too, like some of these cult originators, I would come to a verse in the Bible and I would try to erase everything that was in my mind or have some biblical amnesia, amnesia.

Come to the text and just let it say what it says, irregardless of what it said earlier in that book, what it said in the New Testament, what was said in the Old and New, and then what some of the pastor teachers that God had gifted in church history had said, and I just would come blank slate kind of thing.

Did you do the same, or is that just me?

I don't think it's just you, but I didn't, but the reason I didn't is because of my background. You know, knowing the danger of that, I was always, that idea would scare me. As soon as I got saved, that idea would scare me because I thought, okay, whatever I think this verse means, having experienced it from the Mormon perspective, I was like, I need to understand it, you know, in context, and I need to understand what other men have said about this historically, because if I'm going to go off on a bender, I'd rather not.

Steve, a while ago, I said to the discipleship group that I'm meeting with on Sunday mornings here, we're just reading some Berkhoff's Systematic Theology, I said, guys, do you look around here and see all these books in the library?

And there are books, too, on the computer, but do you see all these? What does that tell you? I said, here's what it should tell you. If you need your carburetor fixed in the car, do they have carburetors in cars anymore?

I really couldn't tell.

I think they do. If you have, you know, the points need to finally go. And you go to the car mechanic, and he has one crescent wrench and a flathead screwdriver. That's it. Those are his only two tools.

Do you leave the car?

Well, it depends. If his name is Mick and he's British, probably. Manny Moe and Jack, maybe.

I'll take care of that for you, mate. I said, you know what? These are tools, and these are tested time-honored tools in the sense that, you know, this is the millimeter wrench, this is the ratchet, this is et cetera.

So similarly here.

The millimeter wrench? Boy, that's going to be one small little...

A wrench that's in metric is what I meant. Oh, okay. Got it. Sorry about that. Okay. I'll use, I think it's Van Hoover's categories. Tradition one is, all right, what Augustine said about predestination matches up with the Bible.

What Augustine said isn't in the Bible, but it matches up, so we will accept that as a biblical tradition that can be consulted. Not equal with the Bible, but subordinate to, but derived from. So far so good?

Yeah, I like that category. Okay. Tradition two is what Augustine...Augustine? August? A little coin flip. What he taught about the Mass, let's say. And then you say, well, that's not biblical. That's not derived from the Bible.

So that's tradition two. That would be the Roman Catholic doctrine. I'm not talking about Augustine now. A .K .A. Spurious. Yeah, yeah, right. That's right. Purgatory. Purgatory. You know, perpetual virginity of Mary, immaculate conception.

I did talk about her perpetual virginity that Sunday night, too, yeah. Because to me, that has implications. What does that say about marriage? And sex? What does that say? What about poor Joseph? Right.

He's the saint. Yeah, I know. Every church should be renamed instead of, you know, Our Lady of whatever. It should be like, dude.

That is 1 Corinthians 7, sinful. If you are able to as a married couple, you cannot withhold what is right.

Well, except for one marriage. And again, what does that say about sex in general? It says basically there must be something wrong with sex. No, there's nothing wrong with sex within the confines of marriage.

So tradition one, it matches up with the Bible. Let's consult it. Tradition two, it's not biblical, so we toss it. But then Van Hooser said tradition zero is biblicism. We can't look at anything that's come before us, all these books here, the Bavink Systematic Theology and the Turretin and the Calvin and, you know, whoever's on your shelf, and commentaries written by Luther on Galatians.

You can't consult any of that. Whatever the Bible says in this particular verse, it just means that. We have to accept it.

It sounds, you know, so godly, so holy, but the truth is, you know, and it's one of my pet peeves really, because it defies Ephesians 4, you know, where Christ gives gifts to the church and he's talking about men, gifted men, teachers, you know.

And so we're to ignore everything that Jesus has done with regard to shepherding and teaching his church for 2 ,000 years, you know, so that we can somehow be pure, and it's nonsense. What you wind up with then is errant doctrines, doctrines that have never been taught before, and you know, in trying to be pure, you wind up in error.

Steve, so insightful. I then said, which dovetails perfectly to what you've just stated, I said to the men, if we had to depend here at this church on no other resources, that is to say, no Ephesians 4, he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and shepherd-teachers, our ESV says the shepherds and teachers, that's interesting, but that's a different show.

If we had to ignore all that, your understanding of God and the Bible would be determined by me.

That would be a scary church. Yeah. Well, and who likes that the most? You know, the pastor, because whatever he says goes, and anybody who questions him, you know, is a heretic, burn them at the stake, right?

That is so true. And so here's how we want to make this very practical for you today as we talk about, it is only, of course, God's Scripture that is breathed out, inspired by God, and profitable. But in that Scripture, it does talk about pastors and teachers, and you need to think about tradition and commentaries and systematic theologies, confessions, and creeds rightly.

Here's how it should flesh out to yourself, that if you hear a doctrine taught by someone who's got a good track record of teaching the Bible, and something strikes you wrongly, and you just say, well, you know what, that seems kind of wrong, God's, you know, unconditional election of people.

John 3 .16 says, for God so loved the world. If you want to argue that way, I think initially you could say to yourself, you know what, for God so loved the world, how can God love the world and still He chooses people?

Would that be so far so good? Yeah, it'd be fine. But if that's your trump card, I don't care what you say, you've just given me a 10-page report, like I gave once an elder that used to be here a 10-page, okay, time exaggerates, so let's say five-page, five-page report on the biblical doctrine of divine sovereignty and man's responsibility.

And then that elder says to me, none of our elders here now, that elder says, whosoever will may come.

Well, and amazingly, that woman on Facebook, that was her trump card too. So I said, you know, well, in the same context, John 3 .3 says, you know, you must be born again. And then Jesus says to Nicodemus, you must be born again.

Then he talks about the Holy Spirit being sovereign and how He, you know, does what He wants, etc., etc., etc. And you know, that's when she really started getting mad because it was, you know, one thing to just say, whosoever will, she was fine with that part.

But when you start talking about the sovereignty of God and salvation, that's when, here I'll just say it, an unbeliever really gets mad.

Tradition, Biblicism, and the Danger of Private Revelation

Steve, when you think about sola scriptura and the right place for tradition, our councils, our creeds, and then the wrong place for the wrong traditions, it makes me think, you know what? Functionally today, the biblicist, the one that says, well, this verse says, and Hebrews 6 says, they're like an Anabaptist because it was the Anabaptist who said, the radical ones.

I mean, you know, we're not talking about the issue of rebaptism. We're talking about the Anabaptists that said, you know what, by the way, God talks to me individually and personally and outside of Scripture.

And He walks with me, too. Calvin, in 1539 to Cardinal Satellito, quote, we are opposed by two sects, S-E-C-T-S, the Pope and the Anabaptists. Because you've got tradition on one hand, which would be the wrong kind, tradition two, and then you've got tradition zero on the other hand.

Yeah. Is that like Coke zero? You stole my words. You know, it's kind of like my wife and I, you know, we are finishing each other's thoughts now after almost 30 years of marriage. And now as my co-host, we're doing the same thing.

Well, we've got almost 30 years. Can you imagine?

Just to my left, over by my Council of Trent book. Over there, there's a picture.

His autographed Council of Trent book.

There's Steve and I think Edwin and myself, picture, bottom left on that little picture thing over there, back at some North Hollywood Bible study or something.

The only one who hasn't changed is Edwin. I know, the ageless man.

I was talking about that last night, Steve, the old Bible study. Do you remember when we would sing acapella songs and Edwin would lead them? And then one time there was a guy, and he wasn't very, you know, charismatic in his personality or anything.

He said, well, you know, if you ever need a piano player, I would be willing to play along. Oh, you know, that would be nice sometime. A few weeks go by, he's still around, because the first thing you do at a Bible study is see if people show back up.

Sure. Yeah. I said, well, you know, whatever his name was, I've forgotten too bad. His name was Jim. Billy Joel. But something close. He sits down to play, and our jaws just drop. He was Frank Sinatra Jr.'s personal piano player, and that was our home Bible study deal.

That was pretty good. Yeah. Not bad.

Uh-huh. Sure. Just drop a guy in who, you know, used to perform in Vegas.

Reading the Bible in Context, Not as a Lone Ranger

So when it comes to reading the Bible, Steve, are we saying that you shouldn't just sit around and read the Bible for yourself because the Spirit of God can't illuminate it or anything like that, and you're going to have to have crutches?

No, we absolutely would say read the Bible for yourself. You know, I think the issue is if you start coming up with funky doctrine on your own, you know, it's probably, well, definitely needs correction.

So I mean, if questions arise or you start thinking, well, this seems odd to me, well, it's a good thing to go to your pastor or one of your elders and ask them, you know, what does this mean? How can I understand this better?

Or, you know, like I always like to say, look at the authorized notes, the MacArthur Study Bible.

Steve, I think one of the ways from seminary that this error could be avoided, that it's just me and the Bible, is that final principle we learned at Dr. Roskapp's class, and he called it the principle of checking.

What's the principle of checking when you're doing Bible interpretation?

I'm trying to think of the more specific name for it, but yeah, it was the eighth step where we would, you know, kind of, what else does the Bible have to say about this? You know, so let me give an extreme example.

If I look at 1 Corinthians 15, 29, where it talks about baptism for the dead, if I'm going to look for some other verse to help me understand that, I'm going to search in vain, right? But if I look at John 3, 16, and I use that as my kind of, my proof text that we have free will, that we choose God, that it's whoever will choose God is the one who gets saved, that God then saves them, well, I'm going to miss the boat.

I need to look both in, if we looked at the near context, if we look at what Jesus says in that whole interaction with Nicodemus, I wouldn't come to that conclusion. And if I look at what the Bible says in totality, if I look at all the cross-references, you know, to do with salvation, I wouldn't come up with that same idea either.

Excellent. Steve, what I try to remind people is this. When your pastor or a Bible teacher quotes someone, why does he quote someone? Well, the answers could be many, but the two that I think of right at the top of my head are B, he, the writer, can say it better than your pastor can, so he quotes, right?

The writer has better, you know, English language skills, right? He composes the thought better.

That's the main thing that drives me to quote people. Okay.

Well, unlike you, the sub-godly one, and I, the prima donna godly one, I like to quote people for that reason, yes. But I also like to quote people, Steve, if, let's say it's a tough doctrine, let's see if it's a controversial interpretation, I then quote some person who, for the most part, was trustworthy.

R .C. Sproul says in his book Chosen by God that election and reprobation are both true, but they're not symmetrical, and by that I mean, so in other words, I use someone else's quote to make sure the congregation realizes I'm not a kook.

So you start with B, would this be A? That's A, sorry. Okay.

In ascending, descending order, kind of like Excelsior.

I mean, normally when people say, well, there are two reasons why you would do this, they normally start with A, not B. There are two reasons why you would do this, B, and, you know, then C.

So, Mike Abendroth here with B, Steve Cooley, A, Mike Abendroth, B, Steve Cooley here on No Compromise Radio. You can always write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com. Steve, you also preached for me when I was in New Zealand, New Zedland, and you were not in John, or you were in John?

I was in John, yeah. You were, and what was kind of the thesis of that whole message, because it's an important.

The Holy Spirit as Comforter, Helper, and Advocate

Sermon? Well, the thesis was Jesus, in seeking to comfort the disciples, told them that he was going to send them another comforter, a comforter of, well, of the same kind, and that namely being the Holy Spirit, but not just a comforter, a helper, an advocate.

I like what one man said. He said, you know, we already have an advocate in heaven for us, you know, and now we have one on earth, which is, you know, who is the Holy Spirit, and he basically intercedes for God with us, you know, warning us, you know, in other words, what is the Holy Spirit doing?

Well, he's convicting us of sin and doing all these things. So he is, in a very real sense, communicating with us on behalf of God. But you know, all that to say that the disciples were downcast, and he says, I'm going to encourage you.

And how is he going to encourage them? By telling them about the Holy Spirit, by promising them the Holy Spirit. And so we talked about the Holy Spirit being a person. We talked about, I had five truths about the Holy Spirit.

You don't have five things to do?

Five things to do in light of the truths of the Holy Spirit?

No, I didn't have an application. I didn't say that they should, you know, ask for a private prayer language. Come on.

I need some attitude fruit and some action fruit, some application fruit?

No, you know, I think when times are difficult, and this is true throughout the Bible, you and I were talking about this the other day, when things are difficult, the number one thing that believers are instructed to do over and over and over again is look at God.

You know, they're reminded of the attributes of God. They're encouraged by what He does, what He has done, what He will do. They're never encouraged to feel better about themselves, you know, to kind of pull themselves up by their bootstraps, you know, stop with that frowny face, put on a smiley face.

None of these things are true. We're always told to remember who God is.

Steve, as you were talking, the light just came on. I know I've thought about this before, but it really hit home in a neo-Orthodoxian way.

Oh, I was glad to barf for you.

My natural response when I'm in a trial is to go inward, right? And I'm thinking about the trial and how do I respond, how do I get out of it, what will it mean for other people, and the list goes on and on and on and on.

And so I'm consumed with myself, and the thing that I need is, well, yes, I have to deal with the problem, but think about the problem in light of who God is. That's right. Isn't that walking by faith?

How do I deal with my problem in light of God? And that's what the preacher needs to do, is to remind people about that second part, but the first part comes easy.

Yes. It is so easy to, you know, how to manage your way through a trial. Five steps to, you know, handling trial. And the five steps should be, who's God, who's Jesus, who's the Holy Spirit. Yeah, exactly.

What have they done for you? Therefore, what is your response? Yes, but my Bible says. Yeah, well, you need a new Bible. Get rid of the message.

Mike Abendroth here with Steve Cooley. If you want us to talk about a particular topic, well, get your own show.

Oh, man, he's doubled over on that one.

Well, you can always write us, that's fine. You can go to bbcchurch .org to hear that message on the Holy Spirit, John 16, I believe.

John 14 verses 15 to 17.

But he'll also talk about the Holy Spirit in John 16. Yeah.

Yeah. Hang on, help is on its way, part two.

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 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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