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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. We've just had a few guffaws here and we're a big laughter outburst before we were even on the radio. Steve, what is going on?
Well, you know, we're just, we're looking for a special anointing for today's show.
As you know, listeners, I have my Holy Land olive oil from Galilee, holy soil from Jerusalem, and holy water from the Jordan River in front of me always, just to make sure we've got all our bases covered.
And so I'm actually, for the first time ever, I've owned these for 10 years. I've never opened them. Bought them in the Holy Land. I paid, I think, 14 shekels. I don't know how much I paid. And I'm going to open up the holy water right now.
And you know what I'm going to do? It's going to be auto anointing. I'm actually going to anoint myself. I wanted to anoint Steve, but he would probably try to do some kind of kung fu sheriff thing on me.
That's good, because I thought you were going to say he might melt. Yes, and so, oh yeah, that's right. He might sizzle. That's right, some kind of holy water that you make the vampires drink and Dracula is self-destroyed.
So I'm just a little dab, little dab will do you. I just put some on my forehead, down on my sternum to the left and to the right. And that is from the Jordan River. And let's see, have I feel anything?
I feel maybe there's a burning in my bosom.
Hmm, I think this is going to be the best show ever. It is. Oh, you know, all of a sudden.
It makes me talk a lot faster now. Off we go, item number one. I actually did that. So, too bad we don't have a camera. Today is random Tuesday. In other words, Christianity Today. Christianity Today, if you don't have a subscription to Christianity Today.
You are blessed. But it's just too good, Steve, to just ignore because this does represent Christianity Today. I mean, the cover. The cover is about going to make me throw up.
Yeah, it's offensive right from the beginning because here you have the typical Eurocentric, you know, feeble depiction of Jesus as if he is some kind of wimpy looking college professor. I mean, basically, you know, with his cool shades and everything else.
And it's, you know, about hipster faith. The ironic world of hipster faith. What happens when cool meets Christ?
The picture of Jesus with these Ray-Bans on and some kind of little staff that he's carrying over his shoulder with some red vestments and some other Roman Catholic draped things over him. He looks like he's gay.
And we are not supposed to have these kind of images. This is not who Jesus is.
And it just really bothers me. Well, at least they didn't go totally Metro on him. You know, but yeah, I mean, I'm uncomfortable anyway with pictures of Jesus. Nobody knows what he looks like, you know, first of all.
But secondly, when they make him white and, you know, kind of flabby,.
I just reject that altogether. Well, if you have pictures of Jesus in your house, we're not advocating burning them, especially what's in the news these days about burning things. But we are saying this, that there's a reason why we don't know what Jesus looks like.
You don't need to know what Jesus looks like. You need to know Jesus as revealed in the Bible. And we don't even have to go to the other extreme and say, well, he was the carpenter and he walked a lot and therefore his calves were ripped.
We don't need that either, do we?
No, but, you know, again, I just think, you know, when you look at the SpongeBob SquarePants kind of, you know, depiction of where he's just some, some kind of flabby, you know, dopey, it's just ridiculous the way they portray him.
And you know, if you really want to know what Jesus looks like or looked like, he looked a lot like his mother. Good point.
So there you have it. All right. Well, wait a minute though. She can be seen on many pieces of French toast and...
Yes, you know, I wish I had some French toast right now with real maple syrup. And maybe one of the places where Mary will show up is she'll actually have some of her bleeding heart come out with real maple syrup and maybe be on a maple tree.
Oh, man. All right, moving right along. Okay, this is a section of Christianity Today, September, 2010, called gleanings.
Gleanings. That's the leftover stuff that's no good in the field?
Pretty much, this is the stuff that didn't make it to Newsmax .com. All right then. John Eldridge hopes to change drug cartel. So far so good, don't you think? Yeah. It'd be good if drug cartels were changed.
Now if it just said, if there was an extra S there, so it says that he hopes to change drug cartels, that would be a problem.
That would be, he's using one, but he'd like to change to another one. Oh, man. The violent Mexican drug cartel, La Familia, has been distributing Wild at Heart book to new recruits. Oh, man. Drawing on the book's masculine themes and warrior metaphors.
Quien es mas macho? Author John Eldridge first expressed sorrow and anger to the Colorado Springs Gazette, but later told the Washington Post he was delighted the cartel was reading it, saying he hoped its true message would touch the hearts of its members.
You hear this thing, you just go, it's just so absurd. Well, let me ask your professional opinion is, would you say Wild at Heart is a gospel-centered book?
Well, it's about as gospel-centered as the Gladiator movie. After all, Russell Crowe, Maximus, he did say, what you do on Earth echoes for all eternity. Wow.
You know, I'm gonna write that in the front of my Bible.
It was, you know, self-sacrificial at the end. He was more concerned about his men, and so when he died, he turned to the praetorium, and he said, you know, let my men go free. Mm. You know, this reminds me, Steve, of that person in the South, and she got kidnapped, and she was gonna get killed by some, you know, escaped murder from jail, and she gave him the purpose-driven life, and he read it and got saved, and, you know, she used it to block the bullets or something.
No weapon formed against me can. Prosper. Well, there are some Bible verses in the book, but we would not recommend Wild at Heart. I have not done a book-burning on that in terms of metaphorical book-burning, figurative book-burning, and kind of this latest thing with the Koran burning, it's taken a bite out of my purely comical, that should be a book that you should burn.
I always talked about books that were pseudo-Christian, but I never said, let's burn the Doctrine and Covenants, let's burn the Satanic Bible. Yeah, that's just, to me, stupid.
Right, and I mean, what I find most appalling about it is, you know, here's a guy who is being told that it could have effects on our troops over there, and he's supposed to be this patriotic Christian guy, and he doesn't care.
I mean, the Holy Koran, as far as its contents and everything else, I frankly hate it. Why? Because Galatians 1 .8 would tell us that whoever wrote that book, and basically the contents of that book should be considered anathema.
So I hold no special place in my heart for the Koran, but the idea of burning it, you just make yourself into a spectacle and a stumbling block, and you push people away from the Gospel, and that should never be your objective.
Well, he knows it was gonna be a spectacle, that's why he's done it, and he's got a bad track record, bad theological doctrine. Don't for one minute think out there, radio listeners, that this man is some kind of real Christian pastor, and he wants to do the right thing.
I think it's been a strategy all along, and he wants to bring attention to his ingrown quote-unquote ministry, and so, you know, the bad news is, it just gives a poor name to Christianity. The good news is, Jesus is gonna build his church, and Islam can't stop it, and neither can anyone else.
Well, it's like that so-called Baptist church, you know, where the God hates F-word people. Yeah, just, where are those people, from Kansas or whatever, and it turns out, you know, it's just one family, and they call themselves a church, and terrible.
I mean, terrible.
I know, I know. How about this one in the news, Steve? Ted Haggard, and this is in the quotation marks, I have, excuse me, I over-repented. Yeah. Ted Haggard on accepting too much guilt for his 2006 prostitution scandal.
He has since founded a church within walking distance of his former New Life Church. I've over-repented, Wall Street Journal.
Yeah, well, my first response is. I've over-repented. Yeah, first response, that's exactly right. I laugh, because here's the question. When you're in sin, how do you over-repent? And what he means by that, by the way, is, well, you know, I probably went a little too far when I took myself out of ministry.
That's exactly what he means. Now, if repentance means, according to the New Testament, to change your mind. So let's just play with this for a minute. I've changed my mind too much, so I've changed from this back to that.
So he's done not just a 180, he's over-repented. He's done a 360, he believes what he used to believe. He spun all the way around.
You know, I'm over-repented. I'm really not so bad as I once thought I was. You know, I over-repented. I really only needed probably about an 80 in the repentance bracket, and I probably went to 110.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, how about this one? PC USA. Actually, this part of Christianity Today is a good, because it keeps us updated in the news. So I commend them for these.
Keeps your finger on the pulse, but, you know, they're not really condemning. They're just kind of reporting. Just the facts, ma 'am. Yeah. Who was that, Adam 12?
Yeah, Jill Friday. It was dragnet. That's right. PC USA still divided on gay issues. Two decisions at the Presbyterian Church. USA's General July Assembly revealed a deep divide on sexual ethics within the nation's largest Presbyterian denomination.
The assembly voted to lift a ban on non-celibacy. I'll just speak slowly so we can all get this. A ban on non-celibate gay clergy.
In other words, people who are actually having relations. That's right.
Yeah. While mandating two years of further study before deciding whether to bless same-sex unions. For the fourth time since 1997, the assembly sent the clergy ruling to local Presbyterians for approval.
So let me see if I got this right.
It is okay to be a minister in the PC USA and be a practicing homosexual. However, they're not ready to say that that same practicing homosexual who's a minister, a leader in the flock, can be married to another homosexual.
They're not prepared to say that.
We just need some further study. Yeah. And maybe we'll figure out some other ways to torque scripture and to twist it and pervert it. Or even ignore it. Yeah, you know. Paul talks about these people that peddle the gospel and how he didn't peddle the gospel.
And once the church buys into this idea that we need to be acceptable and we need to be inclusive and we need to do things that the Bible says we ought not to do, then we've got trouble. And just think the blood on the hands of these leaders in the Presbyterian church, Steve, where they're saying to sinners, you're not a sinner, you're good the way you are.
The gospel is, whatever brand of sexual sinner you are, you're either born a fornicator, born a homosexual, learned the behaviors, I don't care, but you're a sinner. Then there's forgiveness found, but you have to understand what you're doing first is sin, or why do you need a savior?
Shame on these people at the PCUSA regarding this whole issue. And by the way, once you let women clergy in, it is the Trojan horse for the next thing to follow. And that next thing is homosexuality approved, homosexuality in leadership, homosexuality in marriage.
Sure, why not? I mean, if there are no bars to ministry, then you're good to go. And I just find this really interesting because if you look at that, why would you go to a church like that? Why would you go to a church that can just ignore the Bible?
Why not just go to a bridge club on Sunday morning? Why not go to a brunch? I mean.
I don't know, it's like those two guys that were stranded on a desert island and they tried to get off, build a raft, and they could not make it off. So they said, well, maybe we should pray. Guy said, well, all right, I don't really know how to pray or what to do.
And the other man said, well, come to think of it, I lived across the street from a church, Catholic church for about 15 years. And a lot of times the windows were open and so I'll just try to do what they did and maybe God will hear us through this.
And the other guy said, that's a great idea. The guy, they closed their eyes and folded their hands and B -16, I -4. I mean, once you toss out the Bible, just forget it. It just, you know, call yourself a tax deferred, you know, nonprofit, but you're not a Christian.
If you're a Christian today, you will believe the word of God. That's a good test. Do I believe the word of God? Do I have the same view that Jesus had for the word of God and how he could have said, you know, Jonah was just chock full of errors in that whole fish story, and Tower of Babel, the fall, you know, 6 ,000 year young earth is no good, 10 ,000 years, no, it's a day age theory.
What about the gap? But Jesus affirmed and confirmed and said, basically, you mess with the word of God and you're in big trouble.
Yeah, he said that every word of it was true. He affirmed it all. So what are you going to do with that? And what these people have chosen to do is really no different than what people have done over the centuries.
They just ignore what is inconvenient for them, what is politically inexpedient and they move on. And so, you know what happened, Steve?
I think they know they're dying, so they want to increase their numbers and they say we could do more moral good and social good and, you know, we want to stand up against abortion, et cetera, so we need more people.
How do we get more people? Instead of actually teaching the Bible and then those folks would actually be saved and then evangelize other people, they say, well, let's be inclusive and let's let there be gay clergy and let's let there be fornicating clergy, et cetera, but then they undermine exactly what they're supposed to do and they're trying to build the church on gods, on man's, via man's methods.
You know, just getting back to that PCUSA thing for a second, an amazing thought just hit me and it's not really incredibly insightful, but just to picture this, there could be a practicing homosexual so-called pastor who could have multiple relationships and there's no restriction against that according to the PCUSA, at least what we saw there.
There would be no issue, I mean, bad enough that it's homosexuality, but the guy could be just a... Be a serial sodomite.
Yeah. You know, and according to the New Testament, if you're not a one-woman man, if you're not above reproach, if you don't manage your own household well, you can't be a pastor and so here you can just be a serial homosexual and it's fine.
So we need to realize these places aren't Christian and if you're in a PCUSA church, you can tell me all that you would like to tell me about how good it is and how gospel-oriented it is, but there's a time to fish and there's a time to cut bait.
I'm gonna change it from the inside. I'm gonna stay and just see if I can turn the denomination around.
You need, if you're in some place now not in leadership and you're just with loving motives, wanting to change the organization around from the inside, you need to read Robert Godfrey. Type in the internet, Google search, Robert Godfrey, the myth of influence and you might be challenged.
Okay. All right, here is an under-discussion section of Christianity Today, September 2010. Must Christians pray in public forums using Jesus' name?
I like the one, I did read this the other day and I really like the one, the comment by the guy who said, secret faith in the public square. You know, kind of the undercover Christian approach to things.
I mean, when you think about it, what a brilliant strategy. What if we just act like we're not really Christians and so the people just kind of down the road will have to figure it out? We could live our lives like a mystery.
Why are we asking this question? It is so amazing. This guy said that you just quoted, Jonathan Malasik, we're not gathered, it's even, they typed it wrong, where, it's we're, we're not gathered together specifically as Christians.
They should not pray in Jesus' name. I think the temptation to offer that kind of prayer for insincere reasons is far too great to make it legitimate in a secular setting. Well, I guess that's what Ravi Zacharias had for his rationale when at the National Day of Prayer several years ago, he cowardly didn't use Jesus' name.
If you can't say in Jesus' name, then there's a problem. Think about it. What is the only way you have access as a fallen, finite, sinful creature to the transcendent, holy, omniscient, omnipotent God?
How can you approach such a God? Just saunter right on in? Just kind of waltz right on in? Hey buddy, God, how are you? George Burns, God? There is no way, no access. The only access is through Christ Jesus.
Mediatorial work, His high priestly work to have access. And so we have access to God through Jesus by His name, by His attributes, by His actions, by His perfections. And that's the only way we have it.
And so if we are to pray, knowing that we have access through Jesus alone, that's probably good enough for me. And I really could give a rip about what unbelievers think about when I pray.
But this has just come to the fore here in the last several years. I mean, it's been a problem for longer than that. But after 9 -11, when we were told over and over again that Islam was a religion of peace, that it's one of the great religions of the world, and by the way, so is Hinduism, so is blank, blank, blank, blank, blank, all these other, you know, faiths, and they all kind of meet up at the top.
And so now the whole idea of Jesus Christ as the only way, that's just become something that, by saying that, if you repeat, if you dare repeat the words of Jesus, you are, you know, just a horrible person, you are intolerant, and you need to be shunned.
Well, the bad news is, Steve, most people now in the public square, when they think of Christians, they think of misguided evangelicals and the political movement instead of real Christians, who back in the day, some people didn't like Christianity, but they would recognize the John Newtons of the world as men, the Wilbur forces of the world, men who are committed to the truth of the gospel that would liberate people both spiritually and even socially and civically.
And so too bad we don't have those people in America today. Where are the people today in America who live Christian lives in the public, who aren't trying to hedge their bets and get more voters?
Yeah, well, and again, why would you do that? Because if you do that, people aren't gonna like you, you know, and that's just no good. You can't, people need to, it's good to be good, it's nice to be nice, and it's better to be liked.
Ooh, cover story, hipster faith, Brent McCracken. To remain relevant, many evangelical pastors are following the lead of hipster trendsetters. So what happens when cool meets Christ? So I read the book, I loaned you the book, maybe I just gave you the book.
Maybe you're gonna burn the book. Yeah, I hated it. And so now Christianity Today has picked this up. Hipsters reject the purpose-driven megachurch, well, that's duh, and McMansion evangelicalism, and long for a simpler, back to basics faith that is more about serving the poor than serving Starbucks in the church vestibule.
So it swings back and forth, and it has something interesting here, Steve. Stuff Christian hipsters like. Yeah. And so if you're really cool, and you know, it's cool to be cool too, and it's nice to be nice, and we really wanna be cool, so when we evangelize, people say, you know, you can be a Christian, you can still be cool.
And they've got bands, movies, and authors that you need to be, you can tell if you're cool or not if you like these things. So music artist, do you know if you're a cool Christian, you like Radiohead, Coldplay, U2, that's kind of a strange name.
And Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan, Jars of Clay, I did not know Cain West would make the test. Kanye West. Kanye West, see how bad I am, I don't even know. I didn't know how to make the list either. Lorraine Newman, now wasn't she on Saturday Night Live?
Oh, sorry, Larry Norman. Oh, and Vampire Weekend, you know, and there's a bunch of the other ones.
Yeah, I don't even know who a bunch of these bands are, probably to my credit. Cat Stevens. No, I'm just kidding.
Oh, very young. So you know what, if you want to listen to music, I like Radiohead, I like Coldplay, I like U2, but I don't like them to try to be cool and to influence culture with some kind of dorky contextualization.
How about movies? If you're really cool, you like these kind of movies. Anybody by these directors, Spike. Jones. Jones. Sofia Coppola. Martin Scorsese. Oh, I'm cool. No, no, you're not. You don't listen to the cool stuff.
And then authors, of course, C .S. Lewis, Dorothy Sayers, Shakespeare, Plato, Annie Dillard, N .T. Wright. Paul Tillich.
I mean, you know, I read this article and I go, you know, there's a name for this and it's not Christian hipster, it's liberal. I mean, they're more focused on social gospel and social this and social awareness, social justice, yada, yada, yada, yada.
And the bottom line is the fine line between Christian hipster and absolute liberal have nothing to do with the Bible. It's super thin. You can't hardly even see it because the next generation, which will be about six months from now, will have forgotten all about the God who rescued them from Egypt.
I mean, this is just bad.
That is so true. Just like with the megachurches and the whole Hybels Warren deal going after the rich crowd in the rich neighborhoods and set up these affluent ministries to minister to the affluent.
Same thing here. Let's minister to the hip, to the cool. What happens though to the person who is an image bearer of God and he or she is a total, societally speaking, dork? Dunce, dork, flood pants, brill cream, you know, glasses with a Band-Aid in the middle that are broken.
Who's going to minister to them? Doesn't the gospel apply to them as well? And I think the answer is yes. So I'm ready for some kind of dork church.
Is what I'm after. Well, they've got to get their inner hipster on.
You know, they've got to cool up. I guess they look dorky on the outside, but they're hipster on the inside. One fad, if you're going to play with modernity, you better suff that soup with a long spoon, as one man said.
You chase fads and you're going to keep chasing. That's right.
Mike and Steve here analyzing the culture in a hip and relevant way. Now let's go get ourselves a Starbucks, Steve. Thank you.
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.