Best Selling Christian Books of 2016 (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.

Opening Banter and the Day's Weather

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. Mr. Steve Cooley, Coulage, what�s going on?

Well, just another perfect day in New England. The sun is out, the sky is blue, it�s warm.

Sometimes, Steve, sitting here in the studio, I like to look out the window and then kind of make comments on what�s happening. It is a blue, blue sky. My dad might call it sky blue-pink, but I think that would be wrong.

It�s blue-blue. I see there are some stacks of snow pushed to the side that have not melted yet, but you would think it was spring yesterday. Yes, you would. Man, that was a good day. Yeah, it was. Excellent day.

I know. And anything happening with you? You at 56 years old? Fifty-six. Yeah.

You feeling like about 76? Yeah. I�m actually feeling like I�m 57 because I�m not far away.

You are such a physical specimen that the church doesn�t even have to buy insurance for you. It�s true. That is true. Well, the second part of the sentence is at least true.

When I am a physical specimen, the question is a specimen of what, you know, so.

I think that�s a new Fox show, �Physical Specimen of What Reality show. Speaking of reality, and this is a sad reality, I have in front of me, or we have in front of us, the Christian bestsellers, best-selling books of 2016.

And this is according to, compiled by, distributed by Evangelical Christian Publishers Association that would be the ECPA. Uh-huh. Yeah. I belong. No, I don�t. Well, my problem is, you know, I was fine with this particular entity, the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, until Donald Trump assigned a guy here, secretary of this particular thing, which is, you know, I just think, didn�t think he was going to serve The ECPA?

What�s he going to do? Get rid of a bunch of regulations? I know.

You know what? I think the regulations are just fine the way they are.

I don�t know if our listeners are going to get the ECPA, EPA, you know, connection, but it�s funny to us.

Somebody wrote a little critique of No Compromise Radio, and it was generally positive, but they said that, I don�t know if they said the host or the host have a droll sense of humor, D-R-O-L-L, and I thought, I have no idea what a droll sense of humor is.

So I looked it up and I figured out they just misspelled it. They meant dull, a dull sense of humor. So droll. Uh-huh. What�s a droll? I think it�s like a democratic troll, is what it was. No. When you droll people on Twitter?

No. So, Steve, I don�t know whether to cry or to be very happy with this list because I would cry based on who, you know, I can�t believe people read these books. Come on.

I�m sure that these are very theologically Missional? No. I was going to say very theologically sound, very well-written, very biblically-based books.

But I�m happy, on the other hand, and this is schadenfreude because we get to do a show on how idiotic people are when it comes to buying books.

And we say that to our listeners in love.

Can you imagine? Now, to start off with, I don�t know the first one. This is for 2016, best-selling books, The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines.

Isn�t that like where he�s wrestling with the angel under the magnolia tree? Jacob wrestling the angel under the magnolia tree. That�s exactly right.

Isn�t that what it is? Well, yes, and they had so many magnolias that had fallen on the ground. They put him in a pillow and then he laid his head down on the pillow. It was better than The Rock. So I just don�t know why.

Fractured Bible tales right there. Yeah. There are so many books now that� That was a good one. There are so many books now that just need to be one chapter. I think what happens and this is with all seriousness, somebody has a good idea and they�re a good writer and they say something.

You should live a radical life for Jesus and I like it. That�s true. But then they go on and then they spoil the whole thing because then they say a bunch of things that probably shouldn�t have been said or I know shouldn�t have been said.

You should live in an ashram in Colorado Springs.

Subjective Mysticism and the Problem with Jesus Calling

Number two. This one is at number two and at different packagings and different marketing re-dos. Jesus Calling, Hardcover, Sarah Young, Thomas Nelson Publishers. They�re making a lot of money.

And the sequel, Jesus Calling, make sure you answer.

The only thing I think I can say positive about the Jesus Calling, Sarah Young book is she�s not on tour. I think she doesn�t have good health but she�s not on tour with the Christine Canes, Beth Moores, Ann Voskamps of the world, this kind of new woman�s, I don�t know, compassion deal.

I won�t hear me roar deal. I met Helen Reddy once. Did you? Yeah. It was in Brentwood right off of San Vicente Boulevard and I went in to get a Gatorade after playing basketball in about 1985. She just had a bunch of alcohol on her cart.

That�s what I remember.

She�s probably reliving Delta Dawn days. So Jesus Calling, well, so then Sarah Young is leaving a lot of money on the table. Is what you�re saying.

Well, this tour kind of thing with the riders and the Evian water and green fefernoose and stuff like that. I think you can get whatever you want. I know this is no-coast. Once in a while we have to be a little more flamboyant.

There�s only one thing worse than a lady who reads Jesus Calling. A man. A man. That�s exactly right. If you�re a man and you read Jesus Calling, probably because your wife told you to, man, you better grow up, son.

Why don�t you get yourself a pink book or a Calvin book or John Owen, John MacArthur, anybody.

I thought you meant like a pink-covered book.

That would be good. That would be good. Number three, Christian Bisseller�s best of 2016, Jesus Always by Sarah Young. I think that�s the sequel. Is it? Uh-huh. So Jesus Calling, he�s calling you always.

Yeah. That doesn�t� I mean, that one doesn�t really flow off the tongue, though, like Jesus Calling. At least, you know, Jesus Always.

Jesus. Always and forever, something like that, no? See, tell our listeners your number one critique of the Jesus Calling, i .e., subjective mysticism and why that�s bad.

Well, I mean, if you�re� it�s funny because I�ve been talking about subjective mysticism quite a bit. If you�re hearing voices, that�s not good. You know, it�s not good if you�re an unbeliever and you�re hearing voices.

It�s not good if you�re a believer and you�re hearing voices. It�s still not good. Jeremiah 17, 9 says, you know, the heart is deceitful above all else who could know it. You know, and here we have Sarah Young basically saying that she listens to her heart.

Her heart is attuned to Jesus and, you know, she receives messages. This is extra biblical, meaning outside of the Bible, addition to the Bible, revelations that she�s supposedly getting. Well, the problem is the canon�s closed.

If Jesus has messages for anyone today, guess what? You already have it and you�re holding it in your hand. It�s called the Bible. That�s the message from Jesus. That�s, you know, if you wanted to call the Bible Jesus calling, I think that would be an interesting alternate title for it because that would be right.

But any kind of new revelation is bogus.

Steve, I think you�re mistaken. Remember 2 Timothy 4, 7, Paul�s in jail. He�s about ready to have his head chopped off on the Austin Way and he writes to his protege, Timothy, and he said, �For I�m already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure or exodus or my death has come.

And he says, �I charge you in the presence of God and even Christ Jesus. I don�t think he says preach the word there. I think he says hear the word from the inside gizzard. Make sure whatever you hear on the inside, you tell other people.

Wait for the Lord to call you.

He�s calling. When I was a kid, I was probably fifth grade. I went to Master�s. In the fifth grade, you went to. I went to Master�s. It was called Master�s Elementary School. It was a sign. Laura Dodge didn�t have enough room so they built a new school called Master�s and it was the Master�s Monarchs.

We were really a tough we had a tough attitude, the monarchs. Wow. We were only, you know, good. Kings of the court. In spring. And we died off. Anyway, we had some hotels, sorry, an apartment close by.

It was called the August Moon and they just kept playing that ad on radio over and over and over. �The August Moon is calling you. So see, subjective mysticism is calling you. Tell me, Steve, it feels good though.

I mean, you know the word �don�t complain� and �keep walking by faith� and all these kind of other things and �wrath of God assuaged. Tell me, this is so much nicer. I mean, this is a kind, nice, feminine kind of thing.

Yeah. It�s really nice to think that Jesus just wants to tend to your every wound now and affirm you and, you know, kind of be your constant companion in the sense that he wants to be your boyfriend. I mean, it�s blasphemous but, you know, it might be comforting to some lonely people and, you know.

I�m not a psychologist but sometimes I play one on People Access TV shows and the radio. I wonder what the psych profile is for some of these ladies. You know, their husband is not kind and doesn�t listen, doesn�t talk to them and doesn�t relate and have communication and stuff like that.

I mean, Steve, this is a big issue.

I�m sorry but you know what the original title for Jesus Calling was? It was Crazy Christian Cat Lady and they changed the title.

I told you. That�s the psychological profile. The ratings are going sky high on this one. Okay. Even think about the whole femininity thing. We�ll do another show on that here probably soon, in an hour.

I have a personal relationship. Steve is going to laugh so hard. A silent laugh, he�s going to break a rib. My knees are going to start hurting. If you go, okay, have a personal relationship. Well, the Bible doesn�t talk like that, have a personal relationship with Jesus.

Who talks like that? I�ll tell you who talks like that. Women who, you know, want to have a personal relationship with their husband and let�s have a relationship and, you know, going back to the whole Jesus is king thing.

What do men want when they relate to God? They think of sacrifice and they think of loyalty and they think they want to obey the king and honor the king. That�s how men think. And then they would never say, except the ones that have been, you know, drinking the Kool-Aid in the last 50 years, I�d like to have a personal relationship with Jesus.

Personal relationship because, like you said, you know, maybe your relationship with your husband isn�t all that it should be. Maybe he doesn�t listen to you. Maybe he�s not kind to you or whatever. Well, isn�t it nice to know that when your husband fails, you know, your boyfriend is on his way?

I mean, it�s horrible. I�m sorry to even talk like that, but that is the essence of, I mean, it�s borderline offends me to talk like that, but that�s the essence of this whole line of so-called theology.

It is not Jesus as king, not Jesus as God, not Jesus as Savior, but Jesus as boyfriend.

1 Timothy chapter 6, king of kings and Lord of lords. Of all the kings who are king, he�s the ultimate one and the same with the Lord. He�s the ultimate Lord. So then you think, okay, I�m a knight at the round table and I go up to King Arthur.

Could I have a personal relationship with you, please?

Welcome to the knights of the round table.

I would say, no, you�re dismissed, young sire.

You need to grow up a little bit. And by the way, I�m about to lop off your arm.

I was watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail excerpts the other day with Luke. He didn�t have any idea what it was and, you know, that guy is trying to guard the bridge and he�s down to stumps. It�s just a flesh wound.

The Five Love Languages and Marketable Christian Self-Help

Number four on this list, I�m lisping, the five love languages by Gary Chapman. That�s still being put out there. I just want you to know. This is 2016. Steve, this is talking about, you know, relationships again and husbands and wives and stuff like that.

But actually entities have love languages as well and the No Compromise Radio�s love language is receiving gifts, financial gifts.

You know what�s shocking to me about that is I think I�m pretty sure this book was around before I was even saved because I�d never even heard of it before, you know,.

Before you and I started hanging out. Steve, the key to this, the insider trick is if you can write a book that appeals both to Christians and pre-Christians. Seriously, purpose-driven life kind of thing, five love languages.

I mean that thing rocks.

You can rock it. Yeah, as long as you leave the gospel out, leave all the offensive parts of the Bible.

Out, you�re fine. Yes, but if you�ve never read it, how can you criticize it? I mean, come on.

You know, there are a lot of books I have not read and I�m grateful not to have read them.

Fervent, Shaken, and Other Popular Titles

Number five, I don�t know this title but I know the author, Fervent by Priscilla Schreier. I think is that Tony Evans� daughter?

Oh, well, I was thinking of William Schreier, the guy who wrote The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

Yeah, that would actually be a bestseller probably but with a different ranking.

But maybe like great-granddaughter or something.

No, I think Tony Evans� daughter Priscilla Evans got married to a Mr. Schreier. Okay. Yeah. So I don�t know anything about it but I think she�s off the deep end when it comes to mysticism and I want to say is she a little word-faithish?

I don�t know. But I mean nothing if there�s a book on this list that�s good so far, I will.

Know there is one. So let�s hope number eight is going to be good, Tim Tebow�s book Shaken. Let�s just hope for the young man Tim Tebow. Shaken. Yeah. There�s a Laugh Out Loud Jokes for Kids. That�s Rob Elliott at number seven.

I thought for a minute when I first looked at it, it was Ronan Martin�s Laugh In.

I thought it was Chris Elliott but Laugh Out Loud well, Shaken is the original title for that one.

Well, I thought that was a Liam Neeson thing where the daughter gets attacked, kidnapped. Yeah. No, that was Taken. All right. Now, here we go. You would know if you listen to the show long enough what�s coming up and there�s a bunch of them.

There�s a slew of them. There�s a gaggle of them, a whole bevy of them. They�ve got coloring books. Whatever is Lovely, adult coloring book at nine. Uh-huh. Fourteen, Today is Going to be a Great Day, adult coloring book.

I don�t know if that�s Elevate Church kind of thing or not. I�m not exactly sure. Number 22, Inspiring Words, adult coloring book. That is Zondervan. Number 23, The Promises of God, adult coloring book.

This just makes me so sad. I�m sorry, folks. If you have those on your shelf, they don�t count as books. What books did you read this year? Oh, I read the It�s Going to be a Beautiful Day coloring book.

Well, somebody has given us one of those as a gift. It wasn�t a gag gift like Aaron gives gag gifts and stuff. Yeah, this was a genuine gift. This was a genuine gift. But since we don�t get newspapers anymore, we do need kindling for the fire and so it works out well.

My only problem is I can�t put the Silly Putty on it to get the little mirror-like resemblance. Remember that when you were a kid? No, I don�t. You never took Silly Putty and put it on the newspaper?

You used to do all kinds of. �Yes, I did that. Yeah. That�s what I mean. Where you take the Silly Putty, put it on the newspaper. Well, I thought we were talking about fire though so I didn�t. I put Silly Putty in the fire and I see myself.

I don�t know what that is. Maybe they put something in the Silly Putty I wasn�t aware of. They called it Silly Putty for another reason because it made you feel silly.

Well, you know, Baker Publishing, they�ve produced a lot of excellent books over the years. Now they have the number 12 bestseller, Knock Knock Jokes for Kids.

Knock knock. Who is there? Well, how about number 13, Knock Knock Jokes for Pastors. Jesus isn�t calling. Knock Knock Jokes for Sermon Illustrations.

Number 15, Jesus Calling Deluxe Edition. Leather. Oh, yeah. You�ve got Book of Mysteries by Jonathan Cahn, Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Think Better, Live Better, Joe Osteen. Those are some of those.

Can I just tell you the best book in here? You know, the most theologically sound book. It�s not really even theologically sound. It�s just very practical advice. It�s total money makeover. Like that�s the best book in this list.

It is perfect because it has Bible verses and it does with those Bible verses just what cults do. It takes them out of context to make the point. But at least he makes good points. I like that. Right.

Well, this is important coming in at number 29, the Action Bible. That�s important, David C. Cook because there�s the regular Bible, not too much action. Remember like G .I. Joe�s and then they had the off-brand Action Jackson.

Action Jackson, yeah. What was he known for? Did he have guns and stuff? Action. I don�t. You know what we could do? We could be like Thomas Jefferson. When he took the Bible, right, he cut out everything that was supernatural, right?

So now it�s just a humanistic book. And we could just take out everything that seems to be boring to us. Yeah, take out all the genealogies.

Take out all the nonviolent narrative, you know, and just leave the real action scenes. In fact, what about embellishing the action scenes? Like you�re not really sure exactly what happened at the Battle of Ai, you know, how everybody died and everything.

So then you just kind of fill in the blanks. Slow bloodletting and stuff.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We could have Cicero the General come in to Jael�s tent and she could not just give him curds and tuck him in but she could give him some sushi and lay him down on a Tempur-Pedic mattress.

See how that works? Put on some soothing music. Well, you know she�d be around here someplace in the list. At number 30 with a bullet is Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer. Steve, do you know she was just denied this real-time show is I think about January, what is it, 14th today, 13th?

Yeah, 14th. Okay. She was denied entrance into India for a large prosperity gospel thing. And so what India understands as a nation, we shouldn�t let these kind of people in. Evangelicalism doesn�t get.

So they�ve got more sense than we do. Well, I�m surprised that they could stop her because if she claims something, shouldn�t she, you know? But I thought like Battlefield of the Mind, wasn�t that by that guy from

I mean it�s Steve Arterburn had one too. I think it was like sexual purity. Well, I was thinking even worse than that though. It sounds to me like what�s the Scientology dude? Oh, L. Ron Hubbard.

He wrote something about Battlefield of the Mind or something like that. So You�re right.

Nasty. At number 31, Jesus Calling, the women�s edition. Like what edition isn�t a woman�s edition?

Maybe they put like hearts or flowers or something on it too.

Well, I was preaching Second Timothy the other day down in Hartford as Eric Johansen�s installation sermon. Second Timothy talks about a lot of things but he doesn�t say all women are weak obviously. There are strong women and we�re married to two of those strong women, godly women, mature women.

But there are some women there in Second Timothy 2 that are weak women and they�re weighed down with various sins. It says in Second Timothy 3, �Avoid such people for among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at knowledge of the truth.

I really think the false teachers now instead of having a cloak and a staff and going door-to-door like vacuum salesmen used to do in the �60s, now they get into weak women�s houses through publishing companies via Jesus Calling.

Well, Sarah Young not only has her way in but she�s going to stay in and she�s going to keep publishing this tripe as long as she can. She�s taken up residence in a lot of homes, a lot of presumably Christian homes.

It�s very fascinating in the last couple of years the female influence in evangelicalism and I wish it was a good influence. There are ladies that could do wonderful things. I think of Rosaria Butterfield and what she�s written and there are classy ladies like that, biblically sound.

But then we get things like Sarah Young, 365 Devotions for Kids at number 41 and you�ve also got who�s that other lady that pro-homosexual? Maxine Lucchetto. Maxine Lucchetto. Did I get something wrong?

Excuse me. No, I was thinking about Jen Hatmaker but Maxine has written a few books and I got the smoker�s cough going. So I wish there would be more books written by women that would excel except now we have this who knows?

Jory Micah and Jen Hatmaker and Ann Boskamp and Jory Micah.

She�s a little bit of work there. If you don�t like what I write, get off my page.

I�m going to be going only to churches from now on that will have women pastorettes or whatever she said. And it�s like, �Who are you And I just signed a big book contract and everything else. Well, the publishers aren�t stupid.

They�re in it for the money. So then they sign these people that they know are going to go gonzo.

Crazy. What does that say about Christianity today where people are just so willing to set aside 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Timothy 3 and just go write for the women pastors and elders?

Go find yourself a free book, �The Attributes of God� by A .W. Pink, online. Read it and you�ll be blessed. It�s free. It�s good.

God-centered. And you can enjoy your personal relationship with a very high view of the Lord.

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.