Christianity Today Book Awards

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.

Shepherd’s Conference Banter and Shared Memories

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. Pastor Steve, how long have we known each other? One billion years.

Okay, or since �95.

�95, okay, that�s pretty amazing. I was listening to something the other day, and it was Deepak Chopra�s son interviewing someone. Now, what must have that had been? How did I hear that?

I think that was the Grace to You podcast.

Well, you know, I was wondering who that new announcer was. I just was not sure of that. Shepherd�s Conference is coming up. What are you looking forward to when you go back? You want me to tell you the truth?

Well, I guess this is no-lying radio, so, you know, some compromise. Krispy Kreme donuts. Really? Okay. Now, last year, I think I had one. I just have the one the first day, and that�s it. How many do you have?

I don�t know, because I went to the store, actually, and probably had about three or four.

Oh, the Krispy Kreme donut store right there next to the hotel? Yeah. You know what?

Jeremiah Seidman�s a bad influence on me.

Now, I could eat three or four, but I usually don�t. But the only time I would be tempted is if I was at the Riedel store and they were making them. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Well, yeah. So, you go in there, and you�re just like, �Oh, man. They�re so good.

Yes. Mm-hmm. Well, I have been on a diet for about a week, and I thought if I diet for the two months before the Shepherd�s Conference, then I can eat what I want. Nice. If I don�t diet, then I�m going to feel guilty when I eat what I want.

I don�t know how many sessions I�m going to go to. I always like to hear John�s first session, and Ferguson and Beaky, I�m interested in those. I like to talk to Phil Johnson. I usually set in on his, but I think those are my main ones.

Well, for me, it�s more about the people that I�ll see there, so yeah. I mean, I just wonder which ones I�m not going to be permitted in to.

I know. I might have to pull some, like, I�m the D-Min mentor or something at Masters for that Sinclair Fergus one.

If my name�s not on there. Wait a minute. You�re going to go up and do the �Do you know who I am thing?

No, no, but I�m just going to have Luke serving there again, and I think I�m just going to have him get me the pass from Mahoney or somebody, but I think I�m going to be in that one. Jerry Mahoney? One or the other.

Oh, Jerry. Jerry McGuire. Jerry Mahoney and Nucleus?

Show me the pass. No, Jerry. I don�t know that guy. Jerry Mahoney. Oh, he�s a little doll. The Paul Wetschel Show or whatever it was called. Oh, yeah, yeah.

You know what I was just thinking about? I think growing up, we not only had G .I. Joes, but we had Action Jackson. Action Jackson.

I think that was later, though, wasn�t it? Or maybe that was my brother that had that. That probably was. It was my brother�s era. Because G .I. Joe was definitely. And what about the Stretch Armstrongs?

Was there one of those? I think that was like when we were teenagers, Mike. Okay. I think you were, like, mushing everything together. Yeah. Let�s see. What else did we have? Little Evel Knievel dolls?

My dad always called them Awful Knafel. Awful Knafel. I know. Well, today we have on No Compromise Radio Books of Virtue. And these are book award winners from the vaunted, from the valiant Christianity today.

And, you know, one of the things that I do like about Christianity Today, the subscription that I have, is that if I need an article online for something� Yeah. You can go right and get it. Then I can get it.

Because otherwise, they just give you, like, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal. You get, like, three sentences, and that�s it. So I�m happy that this could be purchased online.

I mean, the way you said Christianity Today, I almost wanted to say, �May peace be upon them. You know, it�s almost like, you know, with an Islamic reverence that you have for them.

Steve, is World Magazine still out there? I think it is. Yeah. Joe Bell�s or whatever. Do all Presbyterians read that? Or just like PC? They�re keeping that thing afloat. Well, maybe. Maybe that�s where the special money at the GA is going for the General Assembly.

Uh-huh. Okay. Do you ever listen to Presbycast? No. You don�t? All right. Well, I usually listen. Okay.

I�m just not on bikes like you are, you know, so. Now I�m not on a bike. So I just, that�s at the gym. Okay. What else do you listen to? Anything on podcast? Yeah. Lately, no. Lately, I�ve just been, usually when I go to the gym, it�s Grace to You.

So, because that�s easy and I�m just listening to a series or whatever. And in fact, I�ve been meaning to listen to a series, I�m sure, on Isaiah 53. So I thought I�d pull that up.

You know what? I think John�s going to handle that passage well. I have the book regarding that. It just makes me think about how people, not John, but other New Testament scholars, Old Testament scholars, you can�t really read Jesus into this because these original people weren�t thinking about Jesus as the servant.

It was going to be Israel or somebody else. I�m just like, what? What are they, Jewish rabbis or something? I know. Oh, I remember classes that I had and not just where I got my MDiv, other places too.

I�m like, wait a second.

If you can�t read Jesus into Isaiah 53. How can I?

Is there? Well, to me, you know what happens with this debate now, Steve, with do I preach Jesus from all the scriptures? I didn�t say he was in every scripture atomistically, but am I preaching Christ Jesus?

I�m thinking to myself, if I focus on the divine author, right, there are two authors of every book, the divine author and the human author. If I�m focused on the human author too much, then I might fall into some of those traps of, well, he didn�t really know what he was writing about and did he know he was writing about the Messiah and where the angels longing to look and everything else.

But there�s a divine author and I think the divine author knew what was going to happen because he was making it happen and he knew the plan because this is eternity past stuff.

Well, he says that in Isaiah, you know, over and over and over again, you know, declaring from the beginning, you know, things that were to come and, you know, but yeah, I find that odd because, you know, even I had some very old school teachers, but they would say they talked about the servant songs in Isaiah and they were quite overt about the Christological import of them.

That�s good. That�s, that�s, that�s,. I was trying to think of a funny word, but I couldn�t. All right. So here�s some book titles that came out last year that Christianity Today has given awards to. Do you think they�re literal awards or just, it�s like a kook and a Barney.

Well, that�s what I was wondering if these are their kooks and Barneys here. You know, don�t read these books, they�re terrible. Maybe then I�d want to read it.

Now sometimes they do have books in here that are good that I would read, but lots of times I�m thinking. Would you sped read them? I think maybe most of them I have sped read. So these are 2019 book awards.

Why are they 2019. If some of these books, I guess they were all introduced in 2018?

You know, I just think that�s kind of odd, right? If they came out in 2018, they�re really 2018 book awards. So why are you pushing the award into 2019? Agreed.

In the category, so I�m going to give you a category, then I�m going to tell you the title and then you just tell me whatever you think about it. Best supporting book. By a humanoid. They�re going to have those pretty soon, by the way.

They�re going to give Academy Awards to robots, and the robot�s going to come up and say, �Thank you for this. Yeah, I don�t know about that. I�m thinking they�re going to have robots. Really? Yeah.

Culture and the Arts is the category. Here�s the book that they give the award to. Why should the devil have all the good music? Isn�t that an old book?

Seriously, isn�t that Larry Norman or something?

Larry Norman and the Perils of Christian Rock by Gregory Thornberry.

Oh, so this is a biography of Larry Norman. Because I think he had an album or something out way back before I was even a Christian, you know, justifying Christian rock, and it was like, �Why should the devil have all the good music

Well, the reviewer said, �Many of us working at the intersection of Christianity and the arts have a deeply conflicted relationship with Christian music as a genre. Genre.

Well, yeah. Well, we at this No Compromise Radio have a conflicted relationship with it, too, because we hate, you know, �Jesus Has My Boyfriend� songs and, you know, �Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit� repeated 35 times, you know, or whatever.

I was at the gym the other day, and my two daughters were with me, and somebody introduced themselves to me, and I didn't know who they were, but they knew who I was because my daughter was there, and this lady's daughter knows my daughter, and that she recognized that I was the dad.

So she talked, and she said, �I can't wait for my husband to meet you. He got his theology degree at some Roman Catholic place, and then she said, �Do you like Michael W. Smith And so this is the first time I've ever met the person.

And so I was polite, and I was kind, Steve, and I said, �Oh, you know what? I don't really listen to much Christian music, but I know who he is. I didn't want to say.

And then she started singing, �Friends are friends forever if the Lord's the Lord of them.

Uh-huh, yeah. And then it was, �Come, Holy Spirit, come, and I feel your presence and you know, all that. So I said, �I'd listen to Switchfoot if you played Switchfoot. There's some good songs by Switchfoot.

Yeah. Yeah. I think they're coming to Boston. But do I want to pay $80 to go see kind of a Switchfoot-y band?

I don't know, but didn't they open for U2 once? They probably did. Yeah.

They probably did. Ever have U2 songs for offertories?

That would be so lame.

You ever have three men, ballerina men, dress up for a...

Who's had U2 for an offertory? Really somebody would do that?

Oh, they had a big deal about all the U2 songs for corporate worship. I can't tell you who, but Matt Chandler.

I'm just kidding. If you're here today and you're not saved, this song's for you.

I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Well, anyway, I'm not going to read that book. How about Award of Merit? Under Culture of Arts. This means a second place.

First runner-up in the best supporting book. It's a demerit award. We should have our own, Steve. An award of demerit. Yeah. It's so bad we use it. Well, give me some warning and I'll rewrite all these awards, you know, make them my own.

Okay.

Award of Merit Under Culture in the Arts. The book titled Selfies, Searching for the Image of God in a Digital Age by Craig Detweiler. Detweiler.

Detweiler. Yeah, well, that's a catchy title, but it sounds kind of stupid. Okay.

I know you've been, when working on these books here, under the category of CT women. I guess this is commuted tomography women, CAT scans. CT women. Oh, sorry. It's Christianity Today. What if it was Christianity Astray, right?

And it was CA women? Isn't that what we call it? Yeah. Most of the time. I know. In our opinion. Yes. You have to make sure we're all legal.

Because everything that says it's Christian ain't necessarily Christian.

A Tragic Pregnancy and the Sanctity of Unborn Life

Perfectly Human, Nine Months with Sarian. In Perfectly Human, William allows the reader to join her in the most excruciating journey of her life, carrying her daughter to term, knowing that the child would not survive her own birth.

Now, see, that, that to me, I didn't know what I was going to read before I read it. I'd probably read that.

Well, I mean, that would be like, I would sound like I had a cold by the time I finished that book.

There was a couple at the seminary when I was there in Los Angeles, and that exact thing happened to them, where they said, you know, the lungs of the baby would not support life. We can't fix it. And we're going to birth the baby, and put the baby in your arms, and that would be the end.

And it's amazing. And you think, okay, we're not going to terminate the pregnancy, because that's not our decision that we can even make, right? That's the Lord going to have to do that. So anyway, with all our joking around, that's probably a very, very touching book.

I've known a few couples who've been through that exact thing, where either part of the brain stem was missing or whatever, you know, and yet they took the baby to term. And this one guy I used to work with, he and his wife had a baby like that, and they knew ahead of time.

So they took, they arranged to like have all these pictures taken, and they were taken in certain angles, because I think even part of his head was missing, but just to make him look really normal. And they just didn't want to forget him, and it was just, oh man, it tore me up.

It was beautiful the way they handled the whole thing.

Well, Steve, on a pastoral level, and again, we were just going to kind of bust CT's chops, and then we're thinking about this very, you know, crucial issue. I remember being in the room when a couple at the church and their baby died, and then two days later, the twin of that baby died, and it was very, very traumatic.

I mean, just, you know, just unbelievable grief and sorrow. And yet, a sweet trusting in the Lord was shown by the couple. And I was trying to exhibit that as well, but you know, the nurse said to me behind the scenes two things.

She said, you know, would you like this little scallop shell so you can put some water in it and baptize the babies? And I expressed my thanks and said, you know, I appreciate your offer. It was a Roman Catholic hospital that was sweet of the nurse.

The nurses were great there at St. Vincent's. And I just said, no thanks, you know, we don't have that view, and you know, the baby doesn't need any water on his head in order to be in the presence of God, or whatever I said.

And then she said, I know this might sound weird, but since you're the pastor, maybe you could talk to the couple. If they want pictures, you know, this would be basically the only time to take pictures.

And I thought that was really sweet of her, because, you know, you want to have some memories of your children, and that's a real child with a real soul that the Lord gave you. And I thought, you know what, I don't think I've met a nicer lady, at least in the common grace realm, as this nurse.

So now we've gone from joking around to very serious matters. Very serious matters. It reminds me of Mark Borner and his wife, Nancy, who's a medical doctor. They're both alive now, and they have kids, and I don't know if it's the oldest child or the youngest, but one of those children, I know that after the amnio, he was a seminary student, after the amnio, they said, well, you know what, there could be some mental problems or whatever the problems were, and, you know, we're not sure about this, and you maybe should, you know, think about options and everything.

And they're like, we're not thinking about options. There are no options. And I think that daughter just graduated from West Point.

It's just, well, my dear friend Matthew, you know, was told his son was going to be a dwarf or whatever it was. You know, he had some genetic malformation and, you know, really turned his life upside down.

He went off the deep end. He was not saved at the time. And then, you know, when the baby comes out, he's just fine. But it didn't matter for Matthew. He was already, you know, off for a 20-year prison sentence.

He can't really use it as an excuse, but it just kind of, it shows that you can't, that they're good. Doctors are good, but they're not perfect.

Evangelism, Apologetics, and the Foolishness of the Cross

Well, to change gears here, Christianity Today, Books of Virtue, 2018 books that they call 2019 Book Awards, under Apologetics and Evangelism, because, Steve, I know you like apologetics.

I love Apologetics and Evangelism.

What would you say the difference between apologetics and evangelism. Might be?

Apologetics theory, evangelism practice, you know, more or less, so.

All right. There you go. Well, Sam Chan wrote a book called Evangelism in a Skeptical World, how to make the unbelievable news about Jesus more believable. Now, is he writing the book to the Holy Spirit to educate the Holy Spirit?

How do you make this more believable?

Can you make it more believable? No, you can't. I mean, either the Holy Spirit is convicting and working in somebody's life, or they're just going to, they're not going to believe no matter what you do.

There's no amount of rationalization or smoothing things up or whatever you want to do that is going to convince somebody to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, here, Winfried Kordeon, a professor, gave a little review, and here's what he said. For every generation or maybe even every decade, a book comes out that will become a standard reference for evangelism and apologetics.

This book has the potential to become the leading manual for Christians engaged in outreach for many years to come. Chan discusses a wide set of issues ranging from the theology of evangelism to how to give evangelistic talks to the places of apologetics in evangelism, all geared to the mindset of our contemporary culture.

Wrong. I'm thinking of 1 Corinthians 1. And Paul, you know what? I know you want wisdom, Greeks and Jews. I know what you want. I mean, think about what the Jews got in the wilderness, sign after sign, after miracle, after wonder.

We know what you want. We know what impresses you. But I'm not going to give you that. So I am going to give you the stumbling block and the foolishness, and that is Christ, the crucified one. Who wants that?

I mean, if he preached Christ to the Jews, I'm sure the Jews would think that was good. But the crucified Christ, they didn't want anything to do with it or him. They couldn't go for that. No can do. Who sang that, by the way?

Was that Hall Oates? Hall Oates, yeah. Okay. What's your favorite song by them? I don't know. I have a lot of them. I like Starting All Over Again. It's a really good song. Do you ever watch Daryl's Place on YouTube?

Yeah, I have watched it, yeah.

I think that song is more of the R &B style. Hall Oates, you know, that I really like. Okay.

Rural Ministry, Multi-Campus Churches, and Faithfulness Outside the City

How about under Church and Pastoral Leadership Book Awards, and there are two. These are going to be bad. Uh-huh. Well, it's interesting. Let's start with the second one, because I don't think the title is as bad, and I like the idea.

The Forgotten Church by Glenn Damon, Why Rural Ministry Matters for Every Church in America. And I don't know what the book is about, and I don't know if it's good or not. He's the lead pastor at Redeemer Church in North Carolina, and it's a Moody published book.

But all this city stuff makes me think a book like this could have some legs. It might be good.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, because the focus on—I just think it's interesting, because anytime somebody wants to tell you how to adjust your ministry based on where you are, I don't know. You know, I don't know how helpful that is.

I think, you know, the core of the ministry needs to be what? Preaching the Word, right? And I don't know if that should really vary if you're in the city, you're in the country, or you're somewhere in between.

If you're in the burbs, you still have to give the Word. We can and we can't.

Think about how many churches are not in the city. How do we approach them? And I don't think I need a manual or a pamphlet or a strategy, but I am thankful for the push that says there are other churches besides the city, right?

And so if you're out there in the middle of nowheresville, how can I be faithful and don't look at numbers?

I mean, what would you tell a guy in the country? Well, exactly, because, you know, those churches are not very important because they don't have the big numbers. They don't have the big money. They don't have all the doodads and, you know, big screen TVs and multi-campus.

Well, you've got doodads and gizmos and whatchamacallsits.

Well, I mean, if you're in, you know, left corner Kansas, you know, you probably don't have 2 ,000 people on four different campuses and, you know, 45 elders.

Steve, once I spoke in Kansas, kind of where the Dust Bowl was, and I flew into Amarillo and then rented a car and then drove north through Texas, through the panhandle of Oklahoma and then into Kansas.

And so it was interesting when I got into Kansas, you know, there's the jeep wave. By the way, if you drive a jeep and everybody who's got a jeep gives you the jeep wave. How about here where I was in Kansas, where everybody waved at me for no reason except I was just driving by them on a highway at 55 miles an hour?

I was just thinking that was like a big eight reunion tour for you, right? Oh, yeah, that's right.

Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas. Well, Texas was never in the big eight, though. Never really. No, Texas was not big eight.

But they just played Oklahoma every year.

They used to. Yeah. So Texas and Oklahoma had that rivalry, but it was Iowa State, Colorado, Kansas State, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, and who would be the last one there? Missouri.

That was the big eight. That's funny. I mean, now Colorado's in the Pac -12. You just can't figure it out, can you?

No, you can't. It's all messed up. I'm telling you, though, after watching the Clemson game, the football game, Alabama, and then I watched the awards of the number 42, the defensive guy, where he got the, like, off the field, you know, does the community work and stuff, and won the award for outstanding citizenship and community involvement, and then with the quarterback with a Christian testimony, and I thought, man.

And the coach? Yeah. Kind of this overtly, you know, Christian deal. I thought, this is my team to root for now. This is like, I'm going to root for, this is like post-millennialism. Ushering in the kingdom on the football.

Seriously, they're hard not to root for. Yeah. Yeah. Especially when Nebraska, you know, is tanking it.

I think Nebraska's going to be better, but we're not really talking about sports.

I know. Well, you know, what's the difference between the forgotten church and then the church leadership.

Book? Well, I think it's good that a book like that was written anyway, to just kind of say, hey, wait a second. You know, are we really saying that people in the cities are more important, right? Have we kind of lost our way if we think that's where the important ministry goes, and everybody out in, you know, all these little places, whether it's Idaho or Nevada or whatever, you know, or someplace in Illinois, those places don't matter.

Right. And you've got this multi-campus mentality, and you've got 12, you know, Greer's going to 12 campuses now and everything else. And maybe those type of churches send money to the rural churches, but that might be a good place for even missionary funding.

That is the assistance that a larger church in the city could give to a rural church.

I just find that whole multi-campus thing just kind of scary because, you know, you and I went to a big church. MacArthur's church is huge. But at least we could see him week in and week out. We might not, you know, have a personal relationship while we were there.

I mean, now, you know, you get to rub elbows with him all the time. He can have a big shot.

Just last week, John and I had coffee.

But in those multi-campus things, you're pretty much, you're two steps removed. You're never going to see that guy.

You're never going to talk to him. Well, if he's only at my campus once every 12 weeks, then who does he talk to every 12th week? Me? In the back? Not likely. The guy reading Christianity Today?

Not likely. Yeah. So, Mike Abendroth here. Steve Cooley, NOCO Radio. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.