Narrower Catechism (Part 1)

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.

Church Membership, Face-to-Face Reconciliation, and the Catechism Theme

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, Take 3. Thanks a lot, Pastor Steve. It�s my joy and pleasure. Come on, Steve. Tell me, what�s the trouble with TBN these days? Do you ever watch anymore?

Well, you know, mostly I TiVo the Pledge-a-thon.

You know, I have�it�s probably been 15 years since I�ve seen a TBN Pledge-a-thon. They�re good times. I�ll let your yes be yes and your no be no. Mmm. That�s.

Nyet. Let your nyet be nyet and your da be da.

Speaking of nyets, let�s just give you a little pastoral advice here on the radio before we get to our show today, which is quite the funny show, the Catechism Show.

Okay. Well, there�s nothing funnier than a good catechism, I always say.

And we�re not talking about Tim Keller�s catechism. Oh, no. Catechizing New York. That�s another subject. One catechist at a time. If you ever like to resign from your church membership, let me just tell you what not to do.

Don�t write a dear pastor letter, an email, and send it Monday morning. That�s a bad idea. Who would ever do that? Well, I just got one actually this week, and I thought to myself, who does that? I know.

How about Tim Boslin, who writes some email responses here on No Compromise Radio? Before he left his church, he went and personally spoke to, this is as a young man, every elder.

On staff at that church. It�s pretty impressive because they�ve got, what, 4 ,000 elders.

It took him 10 years to leave. And then you get the dear pastor letter. Dear pastor. So if you�d like to resign your church membership, the best thing you can do in all sincerity is to go talk to your pastor.

And how about a little face-to-face, man-to-man, talk through the issues?

I think that�d be the best thing to do. Yeah. I mean, we�ve got a young girl preparing for marriage, for message. She�s preparing for the message moment. She�s preparing for marriage, and she went to her former pastor to tell him she was going to be changing churches, and why?

Because she was getting ready to get married and wanted to go to her fiancé�s church.

Well, whether you eat or you drink or whatever you do, including leave a church� Do it all for. Do it the easy way. The kindness of the pastor. No. The glory of God. All right. So No Compromise Radio.

You can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com. Tuesdayguy at nocompromiseradio .com. What else can you do? Wednesdayguy at no. Oh, wait a minute. You won�t get a response. Wednesdayguy. I know.

And we received in the mail a semi. Maybe I received this from Steve Gould. Yeah, you did. Well, where did you get it?

Actually, I saw somebody post it on Facebook, and I liked it a lot. Okay.

Semi-Pelagianism and the Narrower Catechism

The Semi-Pelagian Narrower. Catechism. Steve, tell me about catechism. For those that automatically default to it's a Roman Catholic way to try to infiltrate the mind, what is a catechism?

Catechism is a way of teaching, but it's teaching through repetition, Q &A. You know? There you go. Q &A teaching. Yeah. You learn a lot of basic facts. You know, what is the� I want to say main purpose of man.

What is his. What is the chief end of man? Yes. To love God and� or to� Yes. I know it. I have it memorized. To enjoy God and glorify Him forever? Yes.

Would that be the one you're looking for? Okay. Well, Semi-Pelagian has a catechism as well, and I met him once backstage, by the way. It was very nice.

Semi? Yeah. Well, you know, I saw something today. You know, somebody just had a little baby they named, are you ready, hashtag?

Oh, I did see that, hashtag, yes. Well, it's better than trying to name yourself God, and then the judge said, sorry, you can't do that. This is a true story, 2001. And then he said, all right, well, then I'll name myself I am who I am.

And the judge said, what's your first name? And he said, I am, of course. Like Will. I am. True story. So, narrower catechism, and so our goal on No Compromise Radio today is to be kind of,.

You know Focused. We're going to be focused like a laser Focused. On the narrower catechism.

Steve, tell me, what is a Semi-Pelagian before we start, though?

A Semi-Pelagian would be somebody who's not fully Pelagian. Pelagius was a heretic who taught that Adam's Fall only impacted Adam. And so a Semi-Pelagian is someone who says that Adam's Fall impacted everyone, but it had a somewhat limited effect.

In other words, it didn't make you spiritually dead. You didn't inherit spiritual death from Adam. What you inherited was spiritual illness. So, when it says in Ephesians 2 .1 that you're dead in your sins and trespasses, it only means mostly dead.

Oh, I see. I didn't know that was a nuance in the New Greek. Yes. That was in Nestle Elan 29 version.

It's dead, but not to the extent that you can't reach out and grab that antidote and drink it.

Speaking of Bibles, just for a second, Steve, I received something in the mail the other day from Crossway that is really about the best thing I've gotten in the last 20 years in the mail. A new translation?

Yes. Well, no. It is the Nestle Elan 28th edition, Greek text on the left-hand side, and on the right-hand side it's got the ESV. Nice. So, you don't have to have an interlinear because you default to cheating if you have the interlinear.

Right. You automatically look. But here I can look. See, normally in the morning for my quiet time, true story, I like to read the Nestle Elan 27th edition of the passage that I'm preaching that Sunday.

I like to have a Nestle's crunch in my...

Yeah, we can boycott Nestle. Was there a boycott of Nestle? I don't know. It didn't seem to go over too well in Europe. I just was in Europe. They have Nestle stands on every corner. So anyway, that was just a great book that I received.

I had to pay for it though. Where's Crossway's freebies when I need them? Oh. 36 max. You had to pay for a book? That's right. I did. All right. So, shorter catechism? No. Longer catechism? No. This is the semi-Pelagian narrow catechism.

And after our acronym show with the LGBTQ RSTUV, this is the SPNC catechism. I like it. See? So Steve, do you want to ask the questions or how do you want to do the show since this is... In rehearsal, we did it a different way.

Okay. Why don't I ask the questions? Because I like that. Well, let's just... Yeah, let's just... I think it's just a round robin time. Okay. What is the chief end of each chapter? Each individual Christian.

So of course, instead of thinking big picture, like God's glory at the very beginning, now we go down to the micro, we go to the not even community. The narrower. The narrower, that's right. Each individual Christian's chief end is to get saved.

This is the first and great commandment. Now we obviously want people to get saved and that is a very big deal. Take it from me personally. It was a big deal when I got saved. But it was more about God's glory and saving a man like Mike than it was about Mike himself.

Well, let's read John 3 to Nicodemus. He said, get ye saved.

Well, I was wondering, my Nestle Elan 27th apparatus at the bottom didn't have that, but the 28th does. And I was wondering, thank you for clearing that up. I'm thankful for that. Well, there's not just the first commandment, but the second commandment.

What would that be? What is the great second commandment?

Well, the second, which is like unto it, is to get as many others saved as you can.

Now what's classic in this redo is it has old English, King James only English kind of thing. It is so funny. All right, let's do another one, Steve. How about number four? At what time must thou perform this work, the salvation work?

I must perform this work at such time as I have reached the age of accountability.

Well, there are still Christians who believe in the age of accountability and it just seems to go everywhere, especially in semi-Pelagian circles. You won't find it usually in Calvinistic circles. At what time will thou have reached this age?

Capital A.

That is thine. I'm in, I'm injecting my own King James in there. That is, that is thine trick question. In order to determine this time, my mind must needs be sharper than any two edged sword able to pierce even to the division of bone and marrow, for, alas, the age of accountability is different for each individual and thus, and is thus, unknowable.

Yeah, but Steve, what does it mean there in Jonah chapter four where you don't know their left hand from their right, isn't that an age of accountability? Ask a kid, hey, raise your left hand. They don't know what to do.

Make those little signs? Yeah, does that mean they're able to spiritually discern though just because you know your left hand from your right hand? Is that what that means?

Question six. By what means is a decision for Christ made?

A decision for Christ is made not according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to me in Christ Jesus before the world began, but according to the exercise of mine own free will in saying the sinner's prayer in mine own words.

Repeat the sinner's prayer, repeat after me, or make this your own with your own words. Own it, baby. Free will is capitalized. You can't see that on the radio, I know. But Steve, what's the difference between baptismal regeneration and decisional regeneration?

Is there really a difference? As we say in Mississippi and Missouri, isn't there a difference? There is a difference.

You know, baptismal regeneration is just that you believe that when you get dunked, you get saved. And decisional regeneration is when you make a decision, you get saved. Did you see that YouTube?

You still got to get dunked. You see the YouTube about the baptism, and they've got some kind of crazy Texas lady, and she's going to baptize someone with all the cake, and you release doves afterwards, and it's kind of rich and famous baptism for semi-Pelagians and stuff like that.

And so Carl Truman, he said he saw it, and he and I were emailing back and forth, and he said, that's the reason why I'm a paedo-baptist. That was Truman. He said, this is the best case I have for my apologetics.

So I sent him back an infant baptism. I think it was a Roman Catholic infant baptism, and it was a lady saying some stuff to the priest while he was putting his hand in the water to sprinkle the baby, and the lady just would not be quiet.

And so finally, he has to shout her down. This is all in Espanol, I think. And he throws the holy water on the lady. Did she start smoking or anything? I said, that is my apologetic for why credo-baptism must be true.

He didn't even write back touche or anything. I just think he really knows.

He wants to be a Baptist. Well, most paedo-baptists do. I know.

I think we could make a shorter catechism for this. You think? What prevents thee from being a Baptist? All right, let me ask you this question, Steve, according to the narrower semi-Pelagian catechism.

What is assurance of thy salvation?

Question nine. Question nine. The assurance of thy salvation is that I know the date on which I pray the sinner's prayer and have duly written this date on an official decision card.

Now we here at No Compromise Radio support Bethlehem Bible Church, and we hand out gold-plated embossed decision cards suitable for framing, $49 .95.

Yeah, and signed by the senior pastor for only an additional $50.

Now let's talk about this actually manifesting itself in evangelical circles these days. How do we know we're saved? There's a variety of different answers, but is it the decision card?

The devil tells you you're not saved, and you tell him the date on which you believed. You just shout down the devil.

Oh, sorry. Official decision card. Well, you see this a lot in maybe a Billy Graham deal, and you get it in the mail and sign this card and send it in or something.

I have one of those at home. It's called a just-as-I-was card.

Do you know, I think that's etched in coal. It has some coal etchings. So, decision card. Let's think about it. If anyone is ever saved, were they actually justified and regenerated at a point in time?

Was there a point in time, an exact second, that that happened? Well, yes. All right, let's forget justification regarding the cross. Let's talk about regeneration.

Was there a moment when they were regenerated? Absolutely.

So, there was a second where they weren't regenerated. They were unregenerated. Spiritually dead and then made alive. And then God made them alive, right? Colossians 2 made them alive.

1 Peter 1 and multiple places.

1 Peter 1 and 3, Ephesians 2, caused us to be born again from Peter. You're getting me confused now with all these Bible verses.

And Ephesians 2, you know, and yeah. Made alive, that's right, together with Christ.

So, can't we go back and say, well, that was the second when we were saved? Do you remember the exact second you were saved? Can you know the exact second you were saved? Should you have no assurance if you don't know?

Yeah, I mean, why would you base your assurance on that, you know, on a momentary sense? I mean, it's not like when you get saved or regenerated, you get whisked into the courtroom of God and he declares you righteous, you know, so that you can see it.

And then you go, well, yeah.

Maybe he gives you the card, the indecision card.

That would be, well, it would be his bailiff, whoever that is. So, I mean, there is nothing like that, you know. I mean, when we look at 1 John, you know, how are we to measure our salvation? It's not by what we did, it's where we are, you know, how we're thinking now.

That's how you know. We're never told to look back at a point in time and determine whether we were saved or not. That would be false.

The day that I read Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great English preacher at Westminster, said that he didn't know the exact moment when he was saved, he just knew the general time frame from when his affections changed and his desire to do things for the Lord changed.

I was very happy because I grew up in this semi-Pelagian system. If you didn't know the exact time, then maybe you should question your salvation. And Steve, today, even here, as you know, at Bethlehem Bible Church, some people question their salvation because they don't know the exact time.

But it's tied into this whole idea of decisional regeneration and a walk in the aisle, and if we don't have an altar to call people to at Bethlehem Bible Church and call them up, then when do they really get saved?

Well, I mean, for myself, you know, I think I would be—I like to say this—I think I would be more like Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

Let another man praise you and not yourself. I like to say that a lot.

You know, because there was a time when I really fully came to recognize who Jesus was, and yet I was not saved. And people say, how is that possible? Because I know I still believe things, not that we're just kind of small little deals.

I didn't believe in the Trinity, you know, so I was not thinking, oh, I'm saved, but I just have a few things I have to clean up. I was excited, but I knew there were more things I needed to believe, and I was willing to, you know, learn those things.

But I don't know what the exact moment was.

Steve, wouldn't you say it's true that within the movement of easy-believism, there's rarely talk about false faiths, counterfeit faiths, non-saving faiths? And doesn't this kind of go back to when you believed?

Not deal with this counterfeit faith issue, because, oh, I said that when I was 15. I walked the aisle, I signed the decision card, and then I went and lived with 15 girls for the next 25 years, but I remember the day I signed the card.

Yeah, and I was a Christian all those times. I was just struggling, you know, with some issues.

I know. Steve, it's interesting, and you'll like this because it's how Farnell, your Greek professor, would teach this passage. 1 John chapter 2, after it talks about Jesus as a propitiation for our sins, a wonderful advocate that we have with the Father, and by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.

Is that, this is how we know if we have come to know Him, if we remember the time when we first believed. No, no, that's not true. We're not saying you can't go back and say, there was that time when I remember God saved me, and that I poured out my heart to Him, and my sins were forgiven.

We think you can know the time, but we don't think you have to know the time. There was a time, but whether you recognize it gradually or not, we are asking the question, if we keep His commandments. Now, here's the Farnell thing, since we were talking about the Nestle Elan 28 and Greek stuff.

Greek word order determines emphasis. So how do we determine emphasis?

Well, we highlight something. How do you highlight your notes? What color do you use? Well, I use pencil now because you taught me that. Yeah, okay.

Well, let's do this. Let me just tell you the Farnell version to translate this in Greek, Nestle Elan 28, and it's very effective. Okay. All right, you're going to say, I forgot that, but now I'm going to keep this.

Whoever says, I know Him, but does not keep His commandments is a liar.

No, he says it like this. He goes, the Word of God has something for you. It says, you're a liar.

Yes, but the Greek emphasis, Farnell would say, liar. That's right. That's right. Is he. So the ESV says, does not keep His commandments, is a liar. The Greek is, liar is he, right? Liar is. Yeah, it's pants on fire.

That's the emphasis of the Greek. And the truth is not in him. Not to get too technical. All right, next question, number 10 on the Shorter Catechism of Narrower versus Semi-Pelagian. What is thy story?

What is thy song?

That's actually a question. Praising my Savior all the day long.

Question 11, you asked me how I know. He lives. He lives within my heart. And what else hast thou got in thine heart?

I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Question 13, where?

In my heart. Question 14 is the same as the earlier one. Down in my heart. Oh, how about number 18? I'm so happy. What's the reason why?

Jesus took my burden all away.

Now, see, I like that one, though, Steve. Is it because I like old songs? Jesus took my burden away.

Well, He did take my burden away, right? Which is a great thing. But, you know, I'm so happy. What's the reason why? That's pretty lame.

The Four Spiritual Laws and Decision-Centered Evangelism

All right. How about number 16? Number 16.

Yeah. Do you want to read it? Yeah. Talking about the four spiritual laws. What does this tract principally teach?

What does the four spiritual laws principally teach? Remember, Steve, let's just give them a little background again for No Compromise Radio. As we have Bill Bright coming up with four spiritual laws.

And it started off originally, he was going to have these laws begin with sin and God's holiness. But he thought it was too negative. So he rearranged them. And now we have, of course, number one, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

His daughter was so angry, it actually caused a family fight. For years, they were not seen eye to eye because he compromised with spiritual law. By the way, why all these laws? Laws. Laws and order. So the question is answered.

The four spiritual laws principally teach that this is the first principia. Yes. Right. The principia. Yeah. What's the difference between principia and principia? I just remember Scott Oliphant saying principia.

That God's entire plan for history and the universe centereth on moi. And that I am powerful enough to thwart his divine purpose if I refuse to let him pursue his wonderful plan for my life. That is so classic.

I'm not going to let Jesus sit on the throne of my heart.

Remember the whole deal there? You have the Campus Crusade track. You've got the four spiritual laws. And either in that one or the follow-up one with the Kazekian, that's right.

Kazekian sanctification. Kazekian. That sounds Armenian to me.

I've met sometimes, I've met Armenian Kazekians. Or Armenian Armenians.

Shavart's Kazekians. Hey, well, you know, my favorite Bill Bright story is this is in Time magazine. Oh, I'd like to hear this one. Yes. Yeah. He said he told Time magazine that over a billion people had been saved under his ministry.

Wait a minute. I might have moved to zero. I think it was 100 million. And it was pretty impressive, whatever it was. I just thought, really?

Do you know what? That's a lot of tick marks in your Bible. That's a lot of tick.

Well, that's a lot of graphite. In fact, what happened, he also relayed this story that there were so many tick marks in his Bible that his Bible fell apart. He had to replace it.

Well, maybe there should be another spiritual law for that. All right. Let's see what else do we have here on No Compromise Radio. Who is your boss? Question 21.

My boss is a Jewish carpenter.

Now, when you see bumper stickers like that, see, let's talk about bumper stickers just for a minute. Smoking. You know, now or in hell or something like that. What's the smoking one?

I don't know. All bumper stickers to me, they're just kind of, you know, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. Then why do you drive like an idiot? I found it. You know, my favorite one, I told you about this, is I'm pro-jihad and I vote.

So that's your new one, isn't it? Well, the whole I found it one, seriously, there was a young child, S. And he was talking about the whole I found it thing. And he said, you know, have you found Jesus?

And the kid said, I didn't know he was lost. It completely switches things. Instead of us being lost, Jesus as the seeker, Jesus is lost. Jesus came.

Have you found him? Jesus came so that those who were lost might find him. Then why would he come? That's in the Nestle Alon 30.

That's coming out in a couple of years. Yes, that's the textural apparatus for those of us whose grammarians aren't quite principians. Grammaticians. All right. What else? I don't think that we have anything else for right now, Steve.

We'll have to do another show after this. What's the book for thee?

Question 26. The B-I-B-L-E. That's the book for me.

Closing Remarks and Station Disclaimer

Well, today on No Compromise Radio. If you end up not praying using King James only, then we question your salvation and we'll sell you a embossed. He's pointing to me. Steve's pointing to me. Oh, good.

We have to do another show on that one. You can write us at info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. Steve, what's going on with you? Fill in the last 15 seconds. Well, nothing. Let's see. Well, I've got a new grandbaby on the way.

I'm excited about that. Other than that, not much. All right. You can write Steve at Tuesdayguy at NoCompromiseRadio .com or write me at info at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

God bless 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 6. 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.