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Luke joins Pastor Mike in the NoCo world headquarters today and tells of his experiences at TMC’s IBEX campus in Israel.
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.
My name is Mike Abendroth. And back on for the, I think he's been about on the show 14, 15 times, something like that,.
Are our, you should see his face right now.
Back again from last year, Luke Abendroth. Luke, welcome back to No Compromise Radio. Thank you.
Well, I'm glad I inherited your face for radio.
See, that's exactly right. Luke, you're 19 years old. What's going on with you these days?
I'm still a student at the Master's College. I just got back last semester. I actually got to spend three months in Israel as a student there through Master's. We have a program in Israel. So I just got back from that and been hanging out here in Massachusetts with the family and you know that, so.
Okay, good. Tell us a little bit about IBEX. And so IBEX, maybe this is a good commercial for them. Maybe they'll send us some money or something for some promo.
Some shekels. Some shekels, yeah.
So you're a student at the Master's College and then how do they promote IBEX? What do they tell you you're gonna learn there?
Then we'll talk about some actual things that happen in Israel. Okay, IBEX stands for the Israel Bible Extension Program. It's basically just a program that Master's has where, well, it's a study abroad program and you go to Israel and study the Bible for a semester.
So three months, about three months, 90 day visa. And everybody at Master's has Bible general education requirements. So just like any other school, you have gen eds in economics and science, but at Master's you also have Bible gen eds.
So the way it works out, you have enough Bible gen eds that basically every student at Master's can go to Israel if they want to, if they can plan it out. So if you're a business major or a science major or English or whatever other major you are, you basically have a chance to go to Israel because of the gen eds.
So I actually just switched my major to business, but I went over to Israel as a political studies major and just took, what classes I took? I took Land of the Bible, Life of Christ, Biblical Hebrew one, and my last class was Jewish Thought and Culture.
So those are the main classes. They kind of switch around throughout the time there, but it's just a really great opportunity to be able to go and be in the land of the Bible and see things with your own eyes and stuff like that.
Luke, it seems to me that almost every student at Master's College should go to IBEX. What's the percentage of the folks that do go?
I don't know the exact percent, but I think a pretty good amount go. There's about 30 students that go every semester. And I think you're right, everybody should go. I don't know why people don't. One of the coolest things, or not the coolest things, but one of the great things about IBEX is the only extra cost is the plane ticket.
So you have the same financial aid and scholarships and loans and things like that. And you just, as long as you can get your plane ticket, which is probably, I don't know, $1 ,600 or something, there and back, you can go there for free.
Not free, but. Yeah, no extra cost though.
You know it's not free. Yeah, that's exactly right. Luke, we'll talk about specifics in Israel, but first let's just talk about God's goodness to you. The time that I was in Rome with Kim, I was teaching through the book of Romans and it happened to coincide with one of your breaks from your classes in Israel.
Tell me what you said, because I want our audience to listen, about where you woke up, where you spent the afternoon, and then what you were doing that night, all within 24 hours. Where I woke up.
You woke up in Jerusalem. You caught a flight. Oh, I woke up super early in Jerusalem, took a flight over to Greece, actually. We had a little, probably seven hour layover in Greece with a couple of friends.
So we left the airport in Athens, or went over to the Acropolis and the Parthenon and stuff like that. Or not the Parthenon, the Pantheon. Super quickly and walked around Athens for a little bit. Marseille, did you go to Marseille?
Marseille, yeah, the Oropagus. And that was, we had our first Starbucks that we had for a while there in Athens, and then booked it back to the airport, and then flew to Rome, landed in Rome, went to our friend's hotel for a little bit, and then I met up with you and mom for dinner in Rome.
Stood there looking at the Colosseum. That was cool.
And then I said to Luke, 19 years old, here you wake up in Jerusalem, you have lunch in Athens, and you have dinner in Rome. And I hadn't even seen the ocean till I was probably 20. So back to Israel and the IBEX program.
What's something that you were the most impressed by when it comes to Israel? You think, oh, I'm gonna go to Israel, it's the land of the Bible, and now I know where the Dead Sea is. But what's something you think, you know what?
That was amazing to me. I never could picture that on a map, or the size of the mountain, or how far Jericho was to Jerusalem. I mean, I don't know what you'll say, but what was interesting to you, kind of surprising to you?
Surprised? Well, I think just the general geography of Israel. I think when we read our Bibles, it's like, okay, it's just desert places, a bunch of, you know, just a big desert. And that's not really how Israel is at all.
If you just look up, type in Google Maps, Israel, Judean hill country or whatever. And it's just, there's evergreen trees, hills, a lot of rocks, all kinds of things like that. So just the geography was a lot different than what I pictured.
And then I obviously,.
Most of the time when you picture something, you get there and it's a lot different. And if I just say to you places from the Bible, what goes through your mind if I say Dead Sea? Dead Sea?
Well, it was floating there a couple of months ago. And I remember just thinking about Masada and just basically the Dead Sea is not the best one, but just floating around. Actually, I remember our professor would always say, do you want to have a biblical view of the Dead Sea?
Don't call it the Dead Sea, it's the Salt Sea. Because the Dead Sea has that kind of negative connotation where it's a great resource for salt. And it's a big, even today, mining the salt and stuff like that.
Okay, what if I said Gath? Gath, it's a hometown of Goliath and Philistine city.
Okay, what if I said Bethshan? Bethshan, let's see, that's
He knows how to pronounce it, I don't. I just know it's in the Sork Valley. I kind of forget what happened there, but I know it's close to like Zora and Eshtail where the spirit of the Lord first came upon Samson.
So it's cool that that's one of the places we went. We just stood there and then you just look around and you go, okay, so that's where the Ark of the Covenant, actually the Ark of the Covenant came to Bethshan, I think for a little bit.
You guys can check that. But so it's just cool to stand at Bethshan though and look around and say, okay, right there is where the spirit of the Lord came upon Samson. And then here's where the Ark of the Covenant came through.
And here's where this happened. Saul's sons, I think were displayed there. Is that true? I don't know. I think it's probably You probably know. Part of the Decapolis. I think so. What if I were to say to you, Dan?
Dan? There's somebody that named Dan that used to come to our church, isn't there? Oh, yeah. Thanks a lot. Yeah, good cheesy Bible jokes. No, Dan, that was a cool, that was a cool place. You know, one of the things I wanted to do in Dan, it's cool, there's lots of cool waterfalls in the northern part of Israel.
And it's like just a bunch of cool waterfalls and stuff like that. And I remember we were standing at Dan and there's these little, I mean, first of all, there was a high place there where there was false worship going on and stuff.
Actually, no, this is a funny story. So we were in Dan and there was this, when you're in Israel, it's just like every weird group that you could ever imagine is there. Every, you know, super charismatic group or cults or whatever, they're all there because they all want to see Israel.
So there was this Spanish group. I don't know. There was a Spanish-speaking girl that was with us. So she told us what they were saying. I forget what it was, but they were singing worship songs and they were standing on top of the high place at Dan singing worship songs.
So it was pretty interesting to see. And I'm like, I don't know what's going on here. I don't think this is a good place for you to stand. Why don't you stand a little bit on the ground or something?
So that was interesting. Correct me if I'm wrong. I think near that high place in Dan, if you look over to the right, well, it depends on where you stand, but there's a tank, I think, there, an old tank.
Did you see the tank?
Yeah, I think there's a blown out tank and it's right on the border with Lebanon, I think. So it's cool. We went up also to another spot where you could see Syria and Lebanon and a couple other spots.
So it's interesting to just see, man, that's where ISIS is and stuff. And I think they actually just recently moved up into that area up and right up north of Israel.
How about if I said to you, Sea of Galilee? Sea of Galilee?
Actually, that's where I learned some backflips. Is that where you broke your tooth? No, that was, where was that? I don't know. But yeah, so Sea of Galilee, what do we do there? I mean, it's just cool to just swim out to a buoy in the Sea of Galilee and hang on in the sun setting and just think, man, this is where Jesus would have walked right by here.
Or I actually went tubing for like four shekels, or I forget, like 20 shekels in the Sea of Galilee. How'd you talk yourself into that? We just negotiated with the guy. We got like 33 shekels for lunch every time.
And I think we spent 13 shekels on some pizza. We split it and then we had 20 shekels left over that we had been given for lunch and then we just paid to go tubing for a little bit.
Now, does the president of the Master's College know that? I don't know, you could email him probably. Oh yeah, I could probably email him. Luke, tell us as you were there and you're having to learn Hebrew, could you learn enough Hebrew to then talk to people or how did that all work as you were trying to work through the language?
Only three months. Yeah, so I think it's helpful, obviously, to be in Israel when you're learning Hebrew because I can, you know, when we first got there, we're on the plane ride over and I had tried to learn the alphabet in the summer and you're trying to pronounce the words because Hebrew, you read it right to left.
So it's, and they're just, they look like random shapes. So it's fun even to try to be able to pronounce things when you're first learning it. It's not like, I don't know, it's not like learning Spanish because you already know how to pronounce things.
So you're kind of already behind when you're learning Hebrew but I think I could, I mean, I could say, you know, excuse me, how are you? I'm doing well, praise, like, you know, praise the Lord or, you know, bless the name, like the Orthodox.
How about any song? Sometimes I hear you sing songs. You want me to sing a song? Well, you don't have to sing it, but just, you could maybe pronounce.
Some of the words or something. Tell us what it is first. Okay, I think it's, there's Psalm 117. I think it's Psalm 117. I think that's the shortest Psalm. Yeah, it is. So it's like, Hallelujah Adonai kol goyim shabechuhu kol ha 'amim ki gavar aleinu chasdo ve 'emet Adonai le 'olam.
That's good. I might've missed a word. I got the end there, olam. That's eternity, right?
Ages to ages. Okay, that's excellent. Luke, tell us a little bit about maybe what the Lord taught you there. Did you, how did you grow spiritually? Was there a kind of, I don't know, a charismatic epiphany?
Did God speak to you directly with audible words? I mean, what happened there? Yeah, he did.
No, there was a lady actually, I'll answer that question in a second, but there was a lady that she came up to me. I had met her on the, so we stayed on a moshav, a little area where it's like a Christian little community that we stay on.
And some lady came up to me and she said, she's, what'd she say? She said, isn't it exciting to be in the season of the Lord? And I just was like, uh. I said, well, I think everybody always in history thought that Jesus was gonna come back in their lifetime or something.
And then she, and I said, yeah, and I think the Bible says, you know, no man knows his time of the hour. And she goes, no, it's the season. No one, or yeah, but we do know the season or something like that.
And then she obviously knew that I wasn't really following her, but then she said, oh, can I pray for you? And I said, okay, yeah, sure. And she's, then she started praying for me right there. And she's like, I think, I don't know, she put her hand on me or she was just looking at me, but I just had my coffee and she's praying.
And she's like, Lord, I just pray that Luke will have dreams and visions. And I wasn't closing my eyes because I didn't want it to happen. So I was just looking at her drinking my coffee, just praying for me to have dreams and visions.
So that was interesting. That's the closest I got to charismatic epiphany. Yeah.
So, I mean, you'd read your Bible in the morning or afternoon or you study, and then you think, wow, you know, you're really real or true or it's, you know, does it fortify your faith?
How does that all work? Yeah. So I think when I first got saved, probably right around the time that I got to masters, I don't know exactly when, but around that time period, one of the things I struggled with a lot was just doubt and not doubt like, oh, I'm an atheist for a day.
I think you have to believe something to doubt it. I don't doubt Santa Claus is real or a truth fairy. I know that they're not real. So I think I struggled with doubt some and still sometimes, but it was really cool to go to Israel and you just go, man, everything backs up the Bible.
The Bible is just true in every sense. I don't think we, of course, we don't need to put the Bible on trial and say, well, now we know the Bible's true because you know, archeologically things back it up.
Of course, like, especially when you're preaching the gospel to people, I don't think we need to do some kind of evidentialism where here I'm gonna lay God here, put Jesus on trial and you can decide for yourself, but it is helpful after you're a believer to go, okay, well, just see how everything just supports what the Bible says.
So that was cool to just be able to, okay, if I'm struggling with something, I can go, okay, well, I remember where that happened and all the details about how this is true and all the records we have and ancient manuscripts and all that information that we studied in class is helpful.
Talking to Luke Avendrall today on No Compromise Radio. As you were saying those things, Luke, I was thinking of 1 Corinthians 15, Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas and then to the 12 and the 500, et cetera.
And we're talking as the theologian, Jay Gresham mentioned, would say, about a historical fact. There were theological ramifications, of course, but this was a historical fact, a human Jesus. No, he was more than human, but a real human walking on earth, walking up to the Mount of Olives and then over to where Lazarus was.
Wasn't it helpful to be right there to see what's a Sabbath day walk, what happened on the top of Mount of Olives and all that?
Yeah, this is awesome. One time I woke up early in the morning because we'd go and stay in different hotels around Israel. So one time we were staying in Jerusalem overnight in the old city and I woke up super early, probably, I don't know, five or six or something and just walked around by myself.
All that was before some of the stuff, a lot more of the terrorist stuff was going on in the old cities. There was no really stabbings at the time because it was in the beginning of my time there. So I walked around by myself, it was kind of dark and all the Muslim shopkeepers are opening up their shops and stuff.
And I just got to see like a sunrise over the Mount of Olives. So it's cool to just kind of see the Temple Mount and stuff. So it's amazing to just think about, man, or right here, wherever this is, this is where we think that maybe, God basically set down fire for Elijah and then the prophets of Baal are killed.
Stuff like that, it's amazing to think about.
Luke, sometimes the general area we'll see, okay, Sea of Galilee, Mount of Olives, Jezreel Valley, but we don't know the exact, exact, exact spot. You can't say to yourself, well, this is the spot where Jesus actually stood.
And people just guess there's traditions, there's probably money to be made to say, this is the spot for Jesus. And so when you went to, for instance, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and they have that marble slab supposedly where Jesus was on that, tell us about some of the sad worship and the sad state of people where they're worshiping spaces and items and places and slabs, it seems like.
Yeah, it's amazing to see,.
Because I mean, one of the things that's kind of highlighted there in being in Israel is that Christianity or just, it's not about a place, like in Judaism, Jesus even talks about to the woman in Samaria, we have the right spot.
Jews, we worship in the right place in Jerusalem. It's not Mount Gerizim over here. And, but then he says, in time or whatever, my true worshipers are gonna worship in spirit and in truth. And that's something that's highlighted.
It's like, this is not about, I can't go to the, I can go to the Temple Mount or I can go to where we think Jesus was or the Sea of Galilee and be learning about Jesus all day and I've just got a terrible attitude and I'm super lazy and I'm struggling with being nice and sweet to other people and just be totally sinning.
So it's not about, it's not like any other Judaism or Islam where it's like, we've got to go to these places to see, but that's what it's been perverted into and just totally ignored and turned into another religion basically where it's just all about this spot where Jesus was.
And I think probably the Holy Sepulcher is a lot better chance of being the spot than the other Protestant place. It's not very scholarly. It's not really a great pick, the other Protestant spot, the Garden Tomb and stuff, but it is just gross and gaudy and just total perversion.
And they have like a little flame in there that's supposed to light on its own. And I'm sure, I'm sure they just perpetuate that by going in and lighting some flame, some Greek priest, one of the corrupt guys.
So it's pretty gross. But one good thing I did get it out of it, I followed your lead. I remember when you were there, you put your iPad on the slab where Jesus was laid, you got the special anointing.
And I actually, I got the Kindle. So holy reading, even when I'm not reading my Bible, I get some kind of special, something special out of it, even if it's some kind of Western or something.
I mean, I think everybody should go to Israel and see the place there and all the different good things and bad things. And when you go to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, I agree, Luke, that's probably the spot.
If you had to pick one of the two, I'd pick that one over the other. But then when you first walk in, first of all, when I walked in, it was just had snowed there recently, and there's a big pile of snow in front of the church.
And I threw a snowball in typical Abendroth fashion, walked in, there's the slab, supposedly where the dead body of Jesus was put. And everybody was down there kissing it, rubbing their handkerchiefs on it, their scarves, doing all kinds of things and trying to get a blessing.
And I thought, this is crazy. And so I took my iPad and I rubbed it on there to somehow get a blessing. But the problem was it was only a temporary blessing, Luke, because a year later I was at the gym and then dropped that iPad and it shattered.
That's God's judgment.
God's judgment. Well, you know what's funny? You can go upstairs and walk to where the top of the rock is. So people go down there and they crawl on their knees and we're up there and there's all these Russian Orthodox people singing the same song for like 10 minutes.
So my friend and I are waiting in line and everybody's getting down on their knees, crawling over and looking at the spot and looking inside the little hole where you can see the top of where they think Golgotha was.
And then they kind of kneel and walk over. There's a priest standing there and making sure everybody's, whatever, he's just standing there and watching. And so my friend and I are looking to like, we're in line to see, I'm not going to get on my knees.
I'm not getting on my knees to go to this spot. This is weird. So we kind of did a little shuffle on our feet and walked over and then bent down and looked inside and then just walked right past and not, it's funny.
It's kind of like, yeah, do you go up the Scala Sancti in Rome on your knees or do you somehow do the shuffle? Just run. Talking to Luke Abenroth today on No Compromise Radio. Luke, what about parents who say, yes, but if I send my kid to Israel for three months, it's always dangerous over there and there's stabbings and all that.
Tell us about, did you feel safe? Was your leader, the guy that lives over there, whatever his name is, Bill, did he know what was going on?
Yeah, I really appreciate Bill Schlegel and he's a great professor and he's been there for a long time and he was super concerned about our safety, of course, and he knows where to go and where not to go because he's been there for so long.
So he basically, he would tell us what to do and he'd say, okay, you got, sorry guys, today is not a good day. You can't go into Jerusalem. You're gonna have to hang out here at the Moshav because, I don't know, today's a Friday and on Fridays, the Muslims, it's like their mosque day and they'll come in and they'll basically, this is when they go crazy and something can happen in Libya on a Friday and then in Paris on a Friday and then in Jerusalem, it was the Friday, the next Friday, I think, and it's like, you don't wanna be walking around.
So he'd say, don't go in there or whatever. There's different times where it's just, basically, you just have to use wisdom and he'll just say, yeah, you can't go here. But then there's other times where I think other people might think something is dangerous, but since he's been there, he would know where to take us.
So we went into the West Bank and stuff like that and all kinds of places to go see, okay, this is where there's this hill right here, this ridge, and that's where the Amorites were running away from Joshua and gone sending down stones and basically sniping people with the rocks and that's where that was.
And I'm like, okay. So I took a picture with these, we ran up with this big hill, parked at this gas station in the West Bank, walked up this hill, and he's got a black bag, this is a drone. So then these two soldiers come running up, like, what's going on?
You're in the West Bank, bunch of tourists, why are you guys here? So they come running up, I don't think they really spoke English, but then they were fine once they saw what we were doing. And then I took a picture with them and there's the ridge in the background and there's the two Israeli soldiers and I'm just holding up a stone.
So that was pretty cool. Luke, we've got about two minutes or so, three minutes to go on this episode. Anything else popped in your mind about Israel? Something that you really liked, fascinating, interesting, funny story, something like that.
Funny story.
I mean, there's all kinds of things. I can't really think of anything specifically right now, but I just Did you get in trouble over there? Anything you wanna confess to me now? I know you did something bad.
I probably did tons of things that were bad. All right, so confess it now.
Let me think of something I can tell you. It's not gonna get me in too much trouble. Yeah, that's right.
I mean, it's just fun to just take a boat out at night, super far out in the Sea of Galilee and jump out and swim around, sing the national anthem. Oh, you did that?
Do something stupid like that. Did you sleep on the boat at all? I think you said
No, we planned to. We were gonna take the raft and tie it up to the buoy and then sleep out there. Some other guys from IBEX did that a couple of years ago, but somebody deflated the boats before we had a chance.
So that was a bummer. Oh, so they were intercepting your disobedience. Right, yeah. Yeah, that must be Matthew 5 to 7.
Oh, we did, the place we stayed in Galilee, right on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, they had a universal, it was like little huts that you stayed in and they had universal TV remotes and air conditioning remotes.
So what we did was we went around to the girls' rooms and they're all like laying down or whatever. And we'd turn on the TV and then turn the volume way up and then turn the air conditioning on. Oh, remotely?
Yeah, from outside the window and everybody. And I think I got in trouble because I woke one of our leaders up and she was sick and sleeping. So that was kind of something dumb I did.
When I was down by the Sea of Galilee, I saw the place supposedly where Jesus made breakfast for the disciples and charcoal and all that. And then they had some people over there, there's a bunch of rocks there, and then they had people drinking water from the Sea of Galilee for a special anointing.
And you know, I struggle with sin, even as a Christian, I should have drank some of that water. Maybe I would have got some microbe and it would have helped me. Yeah, I think that's the only part in there that would help you, the microbes,.
Build up your immune system or whatever. So Master's College, what's the website for Master's College? I think it's www .masters .edu, M-A-S-T-E-R-S.
And if you want to have your child take a little tour of Master's College, they'll give you a water in the welcome center there and hop on a golf cart. And maybe Mr. Luke Ebendroth will take you around as one of the, are you a tour guide?
What does that actually call?
I've got a job again in the admissions department this upcoming semester. So Lord willing, I'll be working there in about a week or so and come in and have a tour of the school.
Well, we've been talking to Luke Ebendroth today. Luke, thanks for being on the show. I'm proud of you as your dad. And anytime I can talk to NoCo Jr., I like that.
No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth 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.
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