Why I trust the Bible--1991

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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

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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.�

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

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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

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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth and it is November -ish,

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I think it�s the day before Thanksgiving 2018. I sound like I have a cold, but I don�t. Anyway, if you want to write me, you can, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

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We do spend some time on Twitter, and if I take a break or get up from my desk or do something like that,

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I�m usually checking Twitter quickly, so you can send me things at nocoradio.

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It is interesting that I looked at my iTunes reviews for NoCo Radio the other day.

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Here�s what one of the iTunes reviewers said. I think there�s only 17 or 18 reviews.

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There�s a lot of, you know, thumbs up or thumbs down kind of things, stars, ratings, 80 -something, but only 17 reviews or something like that.

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So if you want to give a review, that�d be great. If it�s funny, I�ll read it. If it�s like this,

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I�ll probably read it, too. If it�s just, �Hey, great show ,� you don�t get anything. Here�s another happy NoCo customer.

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Low -quality biblical talk show with a host who�s basically talking to himself.

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Doesn�t go much below the surface, and the randomness of the discussion is frustrating. Definitely not provocative.

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Second star is for Jesus. Thank you. Well, it is low -quality in the sense that I just have this little mixer here, this 1202

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Victor Lava Z3 premium line mixer, a couple microphones.

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What are these microphones? These microphones are actually Phil Johnson -approved, and then we�ve got a little

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Marantz Professional Solid State Recorder PMD620.

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That's all we got, pretty much. I got a Bricklinks here and a digital hybrid call -in and a PowerStream.

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So low -quality. Okay. That�s no problem. We don�t get many donors, so that�s that.

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Biblical talk show. So I am talking about the Bible. I�ll take that. With a host who�s basically talking to himself.

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Insert Billy Idol music here. Basically, I am, except on Tuesdays or Wednesdays when

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I�m interviewing people, I do talk to myself, and I guess there is some randomness and some frustration because I don�t know what he wants me to do.

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The older shows, I think, were pretty scripted, and then now I often say to Steve, �Let�s just sit down and see if we can talk for 25 minutes.�

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And to make it somewhat encouraging, somewhat biblical, somewhat edifying. Anyway. So what we�re going to do today is

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I was cleaning out my old three -ring binders from seminary and from Bible Institute classes.

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And years ago, I had the secretary kind of put new binders with new nice printed labels on them because everything was just a hodgepodge.

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I don�t really like dirt, but I guess I can live with clutter. And anyway, they look all nice now.

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But I thought to myself, I have not looked at any of these for how many years? Maybe a few of them, but not too many.

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I probably have 34, 40, something like that. And some of them have two subjects, etc.

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So I found something that I have not read since the time, but I thought it would be interesting radio.

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And since I�m just talking to myself, this is a class that I took at the

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Lagos Bible Institute at Grace Church. And I took this class, I believe, in 1991. So what does that give us?

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Quite a few years ago, and it�s not even on a computer printout because I don�t think

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I had a computer at the time, Mike Avendroth, �Why I Trust the Bible.� And it was given to my teacher in bibliology class there those

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Tuesday nights, Dennis McBride. I saw Dennis McBride one day at the Shepherds Conference and just said, �Thank you.�

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And by the way, my grade was 27 out of 28. It said, �Good work, Mike.� So we are going to see what

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I said then and what I would say now, because we all have room for deprovement, as Jonathan Gershner said.

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We all mature. And here�s a little side note. When you are discussing the

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Word with people and talking about Jesus, and when you are training people or you have people in your Sunday school class or Bible study, remember those new believers, those immature believers, you were once one of those.

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And you want to handle God�s people with care and you want to be kind to them and help them along, because they�re going to pull out a paper they did for you, �Why

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I Trust the Bible ,� that they did, and they�ll look back on it and they�ll think, �You know what?

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They�ve got some essential components there, and they�re learning and they�re growing. Their knowledge is deeper than it was back in those days.�

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So this is my pastoral way to say, �Just be kind to people.� I would say that I hope

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I�m becoming kinder and more patient with people. On one hand, I think that it�s a theological paradigm shift in my mind, because I�ve always known that it�s the

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Lord who sanctifies and the Lord who matures Christians and the Lord who�s sovereign over all that, and the

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Holy Spirit, He is quite capable to take care of people. I�ve always known that, intellectually at least, as a

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Christian. Once I was taught that, I believed it. But what I do now is

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I think, �You know what? Everybody�s going to be completely mature on that day of glorification, so why get all bothered when people have bumpy roads now?

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They�re learning, they�re growing. I don�t think our progressive sanctification model, where you�ve got to just always skyrocket and you�re always at the top of your game and every day you�re better than the last,

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I think there�s an immature person that moves to a mature person, but that person is still simultaneously just, righteous, et, and peccator, sinful, right?

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We still struggle with sin. Anyway, now I just think, you know, I don�t have to win this debate because,

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A, I�m in the pulpit or behind the radio microphone for this low -quality biblical talk show. And so if I�m right, and I think

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I am or else I would not teach it, then I don�t have to sell, connive, manipulate, or unduly persuade.

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I like to be persuasive, but I don�t have to be unduly persuasive. So this is no -compromise radio.

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I am no -compromise radio. And we have a little article called, �Why I Trust the

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Bible ,� and it is on lined paper, 1, 2, Course Grade A, by the way.

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I trust the Bible for many reasons. Now, see, I would have probably made a different punctuation mark there, but that�s okay.

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In this short paper, I will be discussing why I trust the Bible, but also a component of why is what.

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I will also discuss what I trust the Bible to be, and in that, help to show why

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I trust the Bible. I�m the author of six books, one published by Harvest House, one by HarperCollins.

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He�s just talking with himself, that�s exactly right. That is what radio is. If you don�t have a host, what are you going to do?

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I�m trying to talk to you, yes, but I�m talking here by myself, with myself. What is this old thing here?

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There�s an old Twizzler. Twizzlers twist strawberry artificially flavored.

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Webster defines trust as a firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a thing, semi -colon, confident belief, faith.

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Well, I like that because when I think of even saving faith, saving faith has nothing to do with our obedience, it has to do with a firm reliance, or Heidelberg says, a hearty trust.

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I certainly have a confident belief in God, so do I have faith in a

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God who would or who does say to me, �Yeah, you can�t make this up.�

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I think what I meant then was if I�since I trust God, I trust that He can speak clearly and plainly with clarity, with perspicuity, with alacrity.

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It goes on. God deals very objectively, or should I say, would speak to us in an objective fashion, so that we could plainly understand

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Him without subjection, without subjectivity.

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That's what I was looking for, Mike. Boy, so far, how do you get a 27 out of 28 for this?

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You get an E for effort, I guess. The most objective format of communication is the written Word. It also only has to be communicated slash recorded once for all to see over time.

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Now, that's, I don't know where I learned that, but that's very important. When you think about the Bible and your

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Word is true, and when you think about this living and active Word, when you think about how

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God, unlike the idols of the day, the pagan idols that you could see but couldn't talk, our

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God, the God of the Bible, He is a spirit and you can't see Him. Of course, He sent

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His Son and His Son became incarnate, but I'm talking about God as a being, a spirit, and you can't see a spirit because a spirit doesn't have flesh and bones.

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And we have this God who talks, though, and we look in the Scriptures and you hear Him talk to Adam and Eve, you hear

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Him talk from Sinai, you hear Him talk, Jesus incarnately, on earth, you hear

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Him talk through the apostles, Hebrews chapter 1, and that is very important.

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And with words, you can stop and you can back up and you can rewind and you can look at them and you can...by the way, this is why

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I think if you are a Bible listener on your app, good for you, but if that's the only intake you have, it's hard to stop and think and rewind and focus.

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And so I think that should be, pastorally speaking, just as a friend, that should be supplemental.

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I like to do that. I almost...it might be close to every day that I listen to the

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Bible on the app. So I'm not against that, but if you just only do that, then

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I think you could do something a little bit better. If you are...if you, you know, compared to not listening to the

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Bible, that you're listening to the Bible, I commend you. But it's nice because here we have this text that can be recorded once and then

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God keeps that text from perishing, and no matter what happens, whether Islam takes over or any other ism or schism,

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God maintains and providentially protects His Word.

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You know, you can try to burn the Bibles all you want, but God over time has taken care of His Word. My article goes on to say,

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I believe God would and did show all of us everything He ever wanted to reveal to us by words,

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His words. And that is correct. We are not lacking anything in the

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Scriptures. Everything we need in the Scriptures are there, everything that God wants us to know. That is not to say that every bit of knowledge is found in the

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Scriptures. And let's even talk about God theologically. We don't need to talk about astrophysics or something like that.

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But everything God...about God is not revealed. Number one, we couldn't understand it because He is other.

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But number two, for whatever reason, He has just decided not to give us everything.

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I'm sure the Bible would be, you know, multi -volumes if that were the case. But we need not worry about what was not revealed.

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The secret things are not revealed, but the things that we're supposed to do have been revealed and we need not be concerned that we don't understand

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God's character, His law therefore, that is a reflection of His character, what

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He expects, perfection, who He is, perfect, holy, righteous, gracious.

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What His Son has done, His life, His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, soon return.

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We understand that, how to be reconciled, how God reconciles sinners.

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Everything we need to know is found there. The text that I wrote a long time ago says, all the divine truths and even

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Himself are recorded through acts and truths recorded in the Bible. God would not create a being only for it to be left in the dark without guidance or truth.

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I guess God could have, but He certainly didn't. Now we get to the point here, and I'm actually just,

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I can see ahead as I read ahead, and I'm thankful for what I wrote, because this is the right answer.

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The main reason for my trust in the Bible is, what would you say? You're listening to the show today, and you are listening to a low -quality biblical talk show with a man who's very frustrating, who drinks pizza coffee here.

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My friend just gave me this clean canteen insulated, and it's got

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Whitfield on the front, old squintum, banner of truth. Pizza coffee, banner of truth.

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What else could you want? Noco Radio. Come on. Last year, I was going to quit. You all heard it in my voice.

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I was going to quit the show. I don't want to quit now. I think I was tired, the whole cancer thing.

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I do have an MRI in a few weeks. If you want to pray for me that the cancer's all gone, I would appreciate it.

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If I was a Christian scientist, I would think the cancer was all gone, but as a

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Christian, I'm hoping the cancer's gone, but I'm trusting that the Lord knows best, and I know my life is going to be filled with trials.

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I just hope this particular one is over. And by the way, if you're a man, and you have high

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PSA levels, and they think you might need to be biopsied, or you have been, and you're trying to figure out, do you have brachytherapy, proton, photon, prostatectomy, da

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Vinci, whatever it is, and you want somebody to talk to from a Christian perspective, I am a doctor.

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From a Christian perspective, you just email me, mikeatnocompromiseradio .com, and I would be glad to talk with you.

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The main reason for my trust in the Bible is what Jesus Christ said in John 17, 17, "'Sanctify them by your truth.

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Your word is truth.'" He also used terms like, "'It is written,' in Matthew 4, verses 4, 7, and 10.

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Remember the temptation account. Paul also said that words the Holy Spirit teaches in 1

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Corinthians 2 .13, "'Being a Christian, I love and long to obey Jesus Christ.

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It follows I also believe what He says.'" I also trust the Bible... Okay, so let's just stop there.

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What I should have gone on to say, because there were hints of it, there was a glimmer of it, and I put a long chapter in Jesus Christ, the

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Prince of Preachers book. Your view of the Bible should be Jesus' view of the Bible. I mean, He affirmed even the wildest, most supernatural events from Adam to Noah to Lot to Sodom and Gomorrah to Jonah.

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Those were all affirmed by the Lord Jesus as He talked about those as if they were true, because they were true.

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And He could have, as the Messiah, remember we had the period of silence, those 400 years from the end of the

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Old Testament, which your last book is Malachi, the Jews' last book where they would put 2

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Corinthians, sorry, 2 Chronicles there, but there was this silent period. Jesus could have come along and said, by the way, since I am the

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Son of God, I've noticed there are textual problems and there are certain thoughts that you have about Jonah being literal and the fish being literal, let me tell you how this allegorically applies, and different senses to the words, or this chapter's wrong and that Aramaic in Daniel, that's all messed up,

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Esther's not in the Bible, it doesn't mention God. He could have done all those things, yet He didn't, and so by His silence

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He affirmed the canon, Hebrew canon, Septuagint canon,

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Jesus believed those to be true, and that needs to be your view of the Bible, Jesus' view.

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Since you are a Christian, I got that part right, I also believe what He says, and I also believe what

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He believes. That is to say, what Jesus believed about the Old Testament when He was growing up, I want to believe now.

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And that is, He thought it was God breathed, that He thought it was of divine origin, that He thought it was sufficient and authoritative and full of perspicuity.

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I also trust the Bible because it is, for all practical purposes, the inspired Word of God. Now, why did

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I say that? It just is. God revealed these books to us and we recognize these as God's Word. Man did not create which books belonged,

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God did. So there you can tell I've been trained early on that man doesn't select which books are in the canon.

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You know, man didn't say, well, I'm going to pick what Bible books are there. God revealed those and we just discover that.

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We recognize what God has done, we don't determine. Whenever you're thinking about Roman Catholicism or other books in the canon and pseudepigraphal books or apocryphal books, we, as men, we don't determine which ones are in the canon.

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They're just in the canon or they're not, and it's our job is to find are these canonical or not.

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And so it's discovering, it is not, and in recognizing, it is not determining. I believe the

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Bible to be inerrant, inspired, unbreakable, that's interesting, infallible, misspelling, and final authority concerning all issues.

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That's good. That sounds like Westminster Confession of Faith there toward the end. Much of these beliefs,

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I should say many, many of these beliefs stem from Jesus' words, but some from the overall unity of the

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Bible. Sixty -six total different books, all compiled and written over 1 ,500 years, written by over 40 different authors concerning hundreds of topics in several languages, yet the unity and direction all point to one thing,

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Jesus. Wow. Why doesn't that show up in people's preaching? Why didn't it show up in my preaching for a long time?

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There is the problem and solution theme over and over and over, and Jesus Christ the Lord is the solution for sin.

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From the first book to the last is a marvelous unfolding of God's mercy and grace through Jesus. Where was

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I? Where was you at? Oh, why didn't somebody tell me to just keep believing that?

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Why did I get off on, you know, atomistic Bible teaching, sometimes forgetting the, not every time, but lots of times forgetting the overall theme of the

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Bible? It is also neat, that's how you write a paper, it is also neat because the

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Bible is not one man's effort or collection. It is put together by many people as it was written. There, I got a progressive revelation going on there.

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It's also an interesting thought that man would not write a book showing himself a lowly sinner totally without self -hope.

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Self -hope, what's self -hope and self? Come on. And it wasn't that long ago, somebody sent me a book and said, you know,

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Mike, you publish books, can you take a look at this book? Sure. Then I always ask them, you know, you want me to take a look at it?

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Like hey, good job, or do you want me to take a look at it like getting my red pen out? Editor kind of thing. Oh, oh, the second one.

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And then I did, and then they were offended. I don't know, if you're going to be offended by that, don't be a writer, because off to the editor it goes.

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I remember with Zondervan, I had to send the book to a theological editor, a literary editor, and man,

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I got whacked, obviously, because you can tell my writing style based on this paper

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I gave in 1991. Yikes. All right.

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Only God -driven prophets would utter the message that the Bible contains. That's in the topic there of the sin.

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Second Timothy 3 .16 states that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

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And I believe this. Okay, there you go. People say you can't use a

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Bible verse to prove the Bible, yet I say, of course you can, since there are many different authors, subjects, and timeframes.

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Circular logic does not apply here. Much of the Bible is historical and may be proven from historical evidences combined with archaeological finds.

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No archaeological discovery has ever went against a biblical reference, gone against.

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Hundreds of Bible prophecies have been fulfilled, even hundreds of years in advance. Prophecy about Jesus' birthplace, possessive apostrophe should be added.

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Time, life, death, and resurrection, all predicted with 100 % accuracy.

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This makes my trust most solid. Solid bond in your heart,

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Paul Willer. Oh, I saw Echo and the Buddymen the other day, they were excellent. Jesus said His Word would never pass away, and even with tremendous persecution from Christian...oh,

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from Christian -slash -God -hating people who burnt the Word, the Bible is now the number one best -selling book ever, except Rick Warren.

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The last reason, and certainly not the least, I trust the Bible is due to the life -transforming effect it has, and has had on myself and others.

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It is truly awesome what effect God's Word can have on us today, 2 ,000 years after Christ's death and resurrection.

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At least I got the resurrection in there, hey? Thinking of Webster's definition, I am glad I have such a firm reliance on the integrity and character of the

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Bible. I would hope I do. I place my life in its hands.

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Oh, that basically means, I would hope I do, because I place my life in its hands. Well, I'm actually...this

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is going to sound dumb, but I'm actually quite touched with that. And I have to say, good work, Mike. I've learned a lot of dumb things over the years.

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I've had a lot of great teachers, some teachers maybe not so good. You know, as I listen to Internet things, and this, that, and the other, and I look back and I have great admiration for those early lessons from Grace Community Church and Lagos, and of course,

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John MacArthur, and now Dennis McBride too, seeing Jesus as the theme in God's protected, clear, precise, inerrant, authoritative

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Word of God that transforms lives that has been proven accurate, that the

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Lord Jesus confirmed and affirmed. That is great stuff.

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So I hope you read your Bible. I hope you listen to it too, but if you only listen, I want you to try to read it too. This is

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Mike Abendroth here, No Compromise Radio. We now have computer work, and we can do that instead of printing out.

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That's the other problem, this handwriting that I have needs some work. When do you ever write cursively anymore? That's random.

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Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. You can write us, or you can go to the website. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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.

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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.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.