September 7, 2017 Show with Nathan Pickowicz on “Why We’re Protestant”

Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio platform on which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed whom we converse with and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions. Now here's.

Our host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.

This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Thursday on this seventh day of September 2017, and when I mentioned Lake City, Florida, the city where Grace Life Radio 90 .1 FM is located, Grace Life Radio airs Iron Sharpens Iron Radio every day, twice a day in a pre-recorded form, in morning drive and in the evening from 8 to 10 p .m.

I would appreciate your prayers, all of you listening, for the folks at Grace Life Radio because of Hurricane Irma, which is going to be no doubt doing some damage, barring a miracle, out there in Florida, and obviously keep all of the citizens of Florida in your prayers, and most of us, I think, have at least somebody that we know who lives in Florida because it seems to be a very popular place for people to migrate from other parts of the country, so I just wanted to let the folks specifically at Grace Life Radio know that our prayers are with all of you over there, Brandon Ellickson, Justin Ellickson, and everyone at Grace Life Church and Grace Life Radio.

Today we have, returning to the program, Nate Pickowitz. I'm so delighted that he's back. He is pastor of Harvest Bible Church in Gilmanton Ironworks, New Hampshire. He's a writer for Entreating Favor and Servants of God and author of Reviving New England.

We are addressing today his new book, Why We're Protestant, an introduction to the five solas of the Reformation, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Nate Pickowitz.

Thank you for having me back.

It's great to have you back, and in studio with me is my co-host, the Rev. Buzz Taylor.

And hello once again. Good to be here.

And if anybody would like to join us on the air with a question for Pastor Nate, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com, c-h-r-i-s-a-r-n-z-e-n at gmail .com. Please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside of the USA.

Why Use the Word Protestant?

One of the reasons why I love the title of your book, Pastor Nate, is because it seems that the word Protestant has fallen out of use, and I for one am glad to see it come back into vogue with conservative, Reformed, Bible-believing Christians.

I understand that very often we have to do a little explaining because of the horrific damage to the reputation of Christianity that mainline liberal Protestantism has done, but nonetheless, I happen to love the word, and I was wondering if there was any specific reason you chose to use a word that is not necessarily popular.

Well, I think that in lieu of the 500th anniversary in terms of Martin Luther's contribution, I mean, we're really remembering back to when, I mean, before 1517, there were no Protestants in the formal set of remnants.

There's all, even beyond that, there's been people who have been opposing falsehoods. I'll point back to it. There was a time when we protested against the claim that title bears. I mean, you read J. Gresham Machen and, you know, Christianity's title and running with it, and, you know, knowing that, you know, there have been some people who have concerns about the Reformation.

And I'm going to read some endorsements from folks.

Who have been guests on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio in the past, and I'm sure that many of our listeners will recognize these names from their interviews on Iron Sharpens Iron or from other events and books and things involved in the media where they have heard these people preach or teach or write.

We have, first of all, many of you have been hearing me promote every day the G3 Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Josh Bice, who is the pastor of Praise Mill Baptist Church in the Atlanta area, and he is the director of the G3 Conference, he says, we stand once again, excuse me, in desperate need of the burning and brilliant light of the gospel.

Nate Pickowitz does an excellent job of reminding us of the importance of the historic Reformation and pointing out our place in the long line of our gospel heritage. And Stephen J. Lawson, who is, I'm sure, no stranger to most of my listeners, here is a desperately needed book for the dark days in which we live.

Why We're Protestant deals not with peripheral issues, but with what is absolutely essential and non-negotiable to the Christian faith. You cannot be wrong here and be right with God. I urge you to devour and digest this book.

And then Justin Peters, many of you may be familiar with Justin Peters, he not long ago was one of the speakers at John MacArthur's Strange Fire Conference, and he has been on the roster for a lot of major conferences across the country and across the globe.

Justin Peters, who is an evangelist, apologist, and author, and he is the director of Justin Peters Ministries, he says, some have jubilantly proclaimed that Luther's protest is over. Is it over? Should it be over?

In this excellent and immensely readable work, Pastor Nate Pickowitz shows the absolute necessity for the Protestant Reformation. If you want to understand the issues related to Roman Catholicism and the need to speak the truth in love to Catholics, I highly commend this book to you.

And last but not least, somebody who's been a guest a number of times on Iron Sharpens Iron, Mike Abendroth, pastor of Bethlehem Bible Church and host of No Compromise Radio, says, why we're Protestant wonderfully demonstrates what every Christian needs at the forefront of their mind.

You must be pro-Christ, pro-evangelism, pro-exposition, pro-Bible, and more. My only protest is that this book is too short. You gotta love Mike. Yes, yeah.

Yes, I do too, and I'm looking forward to his return to the program.

I was just telling you off air before the show started that I had an interesting morning. I had that unexpected debate with a Roman Catholic, a former Anglican, who converted to Roman Catholicism, and I gave my testimony of how I, by God's grace and mercy, converted from Roman Catholicism to Evangelical Reformed Calvinistic Protestantism.

And so this morning at 7 .30 I had this, what began as an interview with Justin Brierley, who is host of the Unbelievable show in the UK. I started with my testimony and then James Bogle, who is an attorney there in the UK, who is the, as I mentioned before, he's a former Anglican who converted to Catholicism.

What I thought was going to be just us having a conversation after giving our testimonies turned into a debate, and a debate that got quite heated but never reached a realm of mean-spiritedness or nastiness or ad hominem.

I really enjoyed the time. I think that both the host, who I believe is an Evangelical Protestant, Justin Brierley, and James Bogle, the Roman Catholic, I believe they're very likable guys, and I truly did have fun as well as I think a meaningful exchange with them on the program.

But one of the frustrating things about Mr. Bogle's presentation is that he is repeating some or many of the tired propaganda phrases and statements that have been disproven over and over and over again by apologists with far greater capabilities than I possess in the debate arena, both in live public moderated debates and also in writing.

Mr. Bogle gave us his firm belief that has obviously been passed on to him by the Catholics, that the Reformation that was ushered in by Martin Luther in 1517 was a pivotal time in history basically because Martin Luther, for the first time in over 1 ,500 years of church history, introduced things into the scholarly debate and the theological debate of the 16th century that never existed in the church prior to his arrival.

Now this is really something that could be easily disproven and could be documented as a false statement, a completely and utterly false.

Statement, am I right? Absolutely. I mean, the funny thing about it, when you read, you know, any biography of Luther, he came to a knowledge of superseminary. He's noting Augustine's man and the nature of sin, and he's tracing all this all the way back to Galatians dying on the cross, you know, to pay the penalty for sin, simply doing what he was supposed to do as a monk and study the scriptures and study theology on these works.

Sometimes we don't give the Greek New Testament in 1516, that's kind of around Europe, really, in the Greek language, in the original language. And so when you start to see words like kaiosane, righteousness, you know, to justify, it's very different than the Latin word usificare.

So, you know, Luther's using the stuff he's handed, and he's able to see the gospel. Frankly, the argument falls, you know, kind of a big joke, but as soon as it started to take a turn, I agree with you.

I mean, a lot of these arguments are very—bottom line is that you really need to just hear the gospel. And we understand that to the sovereignty of God, the grace and mercy of God, that when people hear the gospel, people get saved.

You simply need to preach the gospel.

Amen. And if anybody wants to get a copy of Roland Beaton's masterpiece, Here I Stand, go to cvbbs .com. In fact, today's their final day of a two-day sale that they're running, where they're discounting everything in the store, even things that are already discounted.

They're having a further discount, and cvbbs .com is a sponsor of Iron Trip and Zion Radio, so we would love for you to patronize them. And Roland Beaton, he didn't have any kind of bias in trying to paint Luther with a more attractive brush.

I mean, he was not Lutheran. I recently, I think, made the mistake of classifying Roland Beaton as a universalist, but he was—he still may have been a universalist, but he was more in the realm of being a Quaker and a Congregationalist.

He had connections in both areas, both denominational groups. But this was no embellished work in order to promote a denominational hero of his own fellowship. He was just really writing honestly as a historian, was he not?

Yeah, I mean, that's the thing about it, is that a lot of times, you know, I mean, in the book, you know, we see—he's able to trace me—we see him having nearly having a nervous breakdown, and he seems like he said he's—you know, and I think, you know, there are also—yeah, I mean, the whole point is that these people were used by God for a percentage, just like everybody—it's almost, you know, without the sovereignty of God, it was almost dumbing to do anything.

He wasn't even trying to break away from the Church in the beginning. He simply wanted to reform it. He wanted to make some needed changes, because he cared about the Church.

In fact, the only reason he left Rome—well, the Church of Rome—is because he was fleeing.

For his life. Right. He had a price on his head for the rest of his life. At any point in time, somebody could have turned him in, and they could have—I mean, he really had no choice. I mean, he was saying that he'd never even been—I mean, he just lost his mind.

He's like, this is wrong. I mean, he was trying to do the right thing, and they didn't even concede one point. And this topic, the five solos of the Reformation, there are quite a number of books.

On the solos and on the Reformation in general. Why did you find a need for this book to.

Fill some kind of a void that was left open? Yeah, so there's a few things to it. I presented this to them to help a resource. Go ahead. No, you can go ahead. I'm sorry. There's a lot of levels that I'm trying to hit with this, but certainly this is not going to be the be-all, end-all.

And the Reverend Buzz Taylor has something to say. Yeah, well, having also.

Spent a lot of time in New England—I moved here from Maine. I spent 10 years in Maine, and I've had a lot of discussions with a lot of people, largely not so much Catholic, although they were very Catholic around in my area, but even in Pentecostal churches.

And in the discussion, some things came out more than others. And I can just hear—I try to play the devil's advocate on behalf of our listeners—and I can just hear them questioning, well, why would you want to be known for what you are against?

You know, the word Protestant, protest. Why would you want to be known by what you're against instead of what you're for? Sure. Well, you know,.

Jews contending earnestly for the faith—well, contending is really a fighting term, a boxing term. And, you know, the struggle to be fighting against what is trying to come in and destroy the Church and all those trying to try to bring in doctrine that is contrary to the gospel.

So the gospel is always under assault. And so, you know, this is not just some static thing where we can be right just to be vigilant. Jesus said in Matthew 11, 12, he says, "...the kingdom of heaven suffers the violent, and violent men take it by force.".

You know, this here's what is true. Here's what the Bible teaches. There's absolutely nothing wrong with Christ. We have to contend for the faith. I mean, these are after soundness of our faith. I mean, by God's grace, I'll go there, but it's on these things.

This is the need to know what they're for, and the need to know. I have no problem. Now, the subtitle of the book is.

An introduction to the five solas of the Reformation. I'm assuming that most of our listeners know the five solas because I think, just judging from the responses I get by email, people seem to, for the most part, have a grasp of Reformed theology and so on.

But I also know that there are people outside of not only Calvinism and Reformation theology, but there are also Roman Catholics. There are even occasionally a Muslim will contact me and let me know what he thought of a program.

And I've had people really from over the years across the spectrum of religious experience. Why don't you at least summarize for those folks especially what the five solas—well, state what they are, the five solas, and summarize what they are about.

The Five Solas of the Reformation

Yeah, so the five solas of the Holy Day of Gloria, and these five became credos for the Reformation. You know, no one sat down in a council and said, okay, these are the five thing Reformers. These things kept on coming up, and these are really the non-negotiable creeds and counsel, but that is the basis of authority.

And it is through him that we get what we deem to be. Yeah, these five solas were distilled from writings of all the major Reformers. They.

Weren't compiled by one Reformer like Luther or somebody who had them all together in some kind of list, just like Calvin didn't design the acronym for TULIP and so on. These were just the gleanings from all of the Reformers, where all of these watchwords were in some form present in their writings and in their protest against Rome.

In fact, you know, John Calvin knew that.

People were calling the doctrines of Rome. Yeah, he doesn't even have a marked grave. No, that's right. And of all the—go ahead, I'm sorry. Oh, of all the solas,.

You will have the Church of Rome—I guess perhaps it depends on who you talk to—but you will have many Roman Catholics try to claim that they have no problem with and support some of these solas, but it is just clearly, without exception, where they militate against Sola Fidei and Sola Scriptura.

Those are the two of the solas that they really make no bones about being in their minds and according to their own dogma, heresy. That's right, that's right.

And I think, you know, in the book I talk in, from that, they're invented—.

And we're going to go to a break right now, and when we come back, I want to touch a little bit more on those anathemas that were pronounced at the Council of Trent, which was a council specifically designed to be a response to the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century.

But I wanted to clarify something as well. When I said that many Roman Catholics will say they agree with three of the five solas, I'm not saying that they are logically and consistently correct when they say that.

They cannot believe in Solae Deo Gloria, for instance, even if they say they believe to God alone be the glory, because of the fact that they share, or they try to share in the glory of God for their salvation, which is—you cannot escape when you have a system of meritorious works.

And that would go with Solae Gratia as well, grace alone. Many Roman Catholics will claim that their theology is consistent with that statement, but it's purely not. It's very easily refuted from their own documents.

But we're going through our first break right now, and if you'd like to join us on the air for the question of your own, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com, c-h-r-i-s-a-r-n-z-e-n at gmail .com.

Please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence, if you live outside of the good old USA. Don't go away. We'll be right back, God willing, right after these messages from our sponsors.

One sure way all Iron Sharpens Iron radio listeners can help keep my show on the air is to support my advertisers. I know you all use batteries every day, so I'm urging you all from now on to exclusively use BatteryDepot .com for all your battery needs.

At BatteryDepot .com, they're changing the status quo. They're flipping the script. They're sticking it to the man. In other words, they'd like to change the battery industry for good by providing an extensive inventory of top-of-the-line batteries that are uniformly new, dependable, and affordable.

Ordering from BatteryDepot .com ensures you'll always get fresh out-of-the-box batteries you can count on to work properly at competitive prices. Whether you need batteries for cordless phones, cell phones, radios, PCs, laptops, tablets, baby monitors, hearing aids, smoke detectors, credit card readers, digital cameras, electronic cigarettes, GPSs, MP3 players, watches, or nearly anything else you own that needs batteries, go to BatteryDepot .com.

Next day shipping available. All products protected by 30-day guarantees and six-month warranties. Call 866 -403 -3768. That's 866 -403 -3768. Or go to BatteryDepot .com. That's BatteryDepot .com.

Thrive in Financial is not your typical financial services provider. As a membership organization, we help Christians be wise with money and live generously every day. And for the fourth year in a row, we were named one of the world's most ethical companies by the Ethisphere Institute, a leading international think tank dedicated to the creation, advancement, and sharing of best practices in business ethics.

Contact me, Mike Gallagher, Financial Consultant, at 717 -254 -6433. Again, 717 -254 -6433 to learn more about the Thrive in Difference.

A new faith, finances, and generosity. That's the Thrive in Story.

Hi, I'm Chris Arnsen, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, here to tell you about an exciting offer from World Magazine, my trusted source for news from a Christian perspective. Try World at no charge for 90 days and get a free copy of R .C. Sproul's book, Relationship Between Church and State.

I rely on World because I trust the reporting. I gain insight from the analysis. And World provides clarity to the news stories that really matter. I believe you'll also find World to be an invaluable resource to better understand critical topics with a depth that's simply not found in other media outlets.

Armed with this coverage, World can help you to be a voice of wisdom in your family and your community. This trial includes bi-weekly issues of World Magazine, on-scene reporting from World Radio, and the fully shareable content of World Digital.

Simply visit wng .org forward slash iron sharpens to get your World trial and Dr. Sproul's book all free, no obligation with no credit card required. Visit World News Group at wng .org forward slash iron sharpens today.

Have you been blessed by Iron Sharpens Iron Radio? We remain on the air because of our faithful sponsors and because of listeners like you. There are four ways you can help. First, do you know potential sponsors who may wish to advertise their goods or services on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio?

Second, whenever possible, purchase the products or use the services that our sponsors advertise, and then let them know that you heard about them on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Thirdly, you can also donate to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio by going to our website at ironsharpensironradio .com and click support at the top of the page.

But most importantly, keep Iron Sharpens Iron Radio in your prayers. We hope that Iron Sharpens Iron Radio blesses you.

For many years to come. Hi, I'm Pastor Bill Shishko, inviting you to tune into.

A visit to the pastor's study every Saturday from 12 noon to 1 pm eastern time on WLIE radio, www .wlie540am .com. We bring biblically faithful pastoral ministry to you, and we invite you to visit the pastor's study by calling in with your questions.

Our time will be lively, useful, and I assure you, never dull. Join us this Saturday at 12 noon eastern time for a visit to the pastor's study because everyone needs a pastor. Iron Sharpens Iron Radio is sponsored by.

Harvey Cedars, a year-round Bible conference and retreat center nestled on the Jersey Shore. Harvey Cedars offers a wide range of accommodations to suit groups up to 400. For generations, Christians have enjoyed gathering and growing at Harvey Cedars.

Each year, thousands of high school and college students come and learn more about God's Word. An additional 9 ,000 come annually to Harvey Cedars as families, couples, singles, men, women, pastors, seniors, and missionaries.

90 miles from New York City, 70 miles from Philly, and 95 miles from Wilmington, and easily accessible, scores of notable Christian groups frequently plan conferences at Harvey Cedars, like the Navigators, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Campus Crusade, and the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.

Find Harvey Cedars on Facebook or at hcbible .org, hcbible .org. Call 609 -494 -5689, 609 -494 -5689. Harvey Cedars, where Christ finds people and changes lives. Welcome back. This is Chris Arnzen. If you just tuned us into Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, our guest today is Nate Pikowitz, and he will be on the program for the next 90 minutes as well.

And if you'd like to join us on the air with a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnzen at gmail .com. Chrisarnzen at gmail .com. We're discussing Nate's new book, Why We're Protestant, an Introduction to the Five Solas of the Reformation.

And the email address, once again, is chrisarnzen at gmail .com. We already have several people waiting for you to have their questions asked and answered, and in a minute I'm going to get involved in just a few questions on the anathemas of the Council of Trent.

But before I do that, I know that the Reverend Buzz Taylor has some announcement in regard to the Cumberland.

Valley Bible Book Service. If you're planning on buying that book or that Bible, today is the day to do it because this is the last day of the two-day sale, the after Labor Day sale, where everything is not only discounted, but there's an extra discount, and you can get details at CVBBS.

It's Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, cvbbs .com. So even if something already.

Was on sale, there's even an added sale on top of that. Added on top. And then everything else also,.

Even the things that weren't on sale before, also there's a sale. Yes, everything they sell is on.

Discount. That's cvbbs .com. And tell Todd and Patty Jennings, if you contact them, that you heard about them from Chris Arnzen on Iron Sherpins Iron Radio. Oh, of course, and Buzz Taylor, too. But Pastor Nate, you were mentioning before the Protestant Reformation evoked from Rome the Council of Trent, which declared dogmatically anathemas against all who believe in the specific doctrines connected somehow to the gospel of the Reformation.

And during my conversation slash interview this morning on Unbelievable Radio with the Roman Catholic attorney from England, who I have to keep repeating, he was a very nice guy, I don't want people to think that I am unnecessarily belittling him or something, I just obviously had a vehement disagreement with him and still do until he repents and becomes a Bible-believing Christian.

But James Bogle made the claim, when I brought up the fact that, you know, the question was asked of me, and basically in summary, you know, why do I think that the Roman Catholic Church has a false gospel that offers no hope of salvation?

Why do I think that it is not a secondary or tertiary issue? My guest, I'm sorry, my opponent in that discussion, who was eventually debating me on the issues, he made it apparent that being an ecumenist, perhaps not an extreme one, but you will find that most conservative Roman Catholics today, except for some of your traditionalists and more severely right-wing Catholics, most mainstream Catholics, including conservative ones, are ecumenical with Protestants, at least with conservative evangelical Protestants.

And he basically was saying that he believes that folks like us are saved, kind of making me look like the bad guy. I'm not saying that was his intention, but that's very often in the conversations that we have with Roman Catholics.

We will appear to be the bad guys because we're saying that they have a false gospel, therefore they are not our brethren, whereas they're extending an olive branch, saying, well, even though we disagree on serious matters, we still believe you're separated brethren.

But the Council of Trent, those anathemas were intended to declare curses upon those that believed in the gospel of the Reformation, and was not that a very serious declaration. It is not the declaration that the Catholic attorney attempted to make the case for today on Unbelievable Radio.

He tried, as many Catholics do today because they don't want to look like the bad guys, he was trying to make the case that those anathemas, all that means is that you are not in communion with Rome. That's either that you're excommunicated or you're not in fellowship fully with Rome.

It doesn't mean that you're going to hell. It doesn't mean that a curse has been declared upon you. He was adamant that there is no curse declared upon Protestants, but this is just a revision of history, isn't it?

Well, I mean, tell that to the...

I actually brought that up, and he mocked that. When I brought up the martyrs, I basically said, well, people in that century and others were brutally and gruesomely tortured and martyred for violating those anathemas.

Right. So yeah, I mean, we've anesthetized it today, and I've talked to other folks as a Roman Catholic doctor, and I mean, I certainly am not angry or these doctrines, I think that there's a deception going on, I think that they don't mind, but you know, we would like to think kinder, gentler, you know, evangelicals and Catholics together back in the early 90s, mid -90s didn't help anything, because all of a sudden now we're shaking hands and saying, well, we agree on more than we disagree about, and it kind of makes the middle very squishy.

But the bottom line is that, you know, this doctrine to say that if a person believes in justification by faith alone, apart from works of the law, even though guilty, declares us righteous because of the merits of Christ, and that it's simply by faith alone in Jesus Christ, to say that you are now accursed and condemned and anathematized, back then you were killed for it.

I mean, even into the Puritan days, I mean, again, go back to the Marian martyrs. I mean, these Protestants in the Church of England, and Mary had 200 of them killed. So, I mean, all aligned to use power and influence, and now if they're switching it around and they're trying to say, well, you know, we're the more loving, we're accepting, we want you to come home to enslavement, to a workspace system that does not save everyone up and giving up money that there's not even assurance in terms of, and if Rome doesn't want to concede these things anymore, then fine, give them up.

You know, all 33 canons of the council, we'll get rid of them. So they're not looking to budge at all on these things.

And the Apostle Paul clearly did not have that modern definition of the anathema when he was declaring an anathema against the Judaizers, who were actually more in align with Rome today, other than perhaps some cultic charlatans that masquerade as messianic Jews.

But the Roman Catholic Church, even though the specific work they were adding to faith for justification is different, it's circumcision, it still would fall under the same anathema of Paul. But Paul did not mean anything remotely as soft, kind, and squishy as this Catholic tried to insinuate today, or tried to affirm and actually very rigidly insisted upon that this had nothing to do with some kind of a curse.

And he kept saying, we're not witches, we don't cast curses upon anyone. Well, Paul wasn't a witch either, but it was certainly a declaration of being accursed. I honestly think it's just a change.

Of tactic, because prior to Vatican II, you know, you filled the churches with fear. You know, that if you don't do X, Y, Z, other kind of women back over and say, well, this is kinder, this is gentler.

You know, in the end, kindness, look at the doctrine, I mean, look at what their stance is, and it's just as clear there. And they have the verbiage in the most recent, again, you know, I'm sure that there would mean well, and they would say, well, we're trying to be kind and build a bridge and all that, and that's fine.

I appreciate the gesture. In the end, the forgiveness for their sins, and pardon and be saved, these are vastly important questions, and we cannot afford to get these questions. In truth, it extends the Gospel out to other people.

That is the most loving thing. If you don't repent and believe in Jesus Christ alone, then your future is going to be one of judgment, not one of blessing. And so I think we have to be honest. Even if it makes us look like bad guys, the Gospels, it changes a bit on our end.

We're going to be going to our midway break right now.

If anybody would like to join us, if you would like to get in line behind those who are already waiting to have their questions asked and answered, please do so as soon as possible. Our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Chrisarnson at gmail .com. Please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside of the USA and only remain anonymous if it's about a personal and private matter.

Perhaps you disagree with your own pastor or your own spouse. Perhaps your loved ones or your family is predominantly Catholic, or perhaps you are a Catholic and for some reason you don't want to identify yourself.

I can understand and we will grant your request to remain anonymous. But other than that, please give us at least your first name, city and state and country of residence. Don't go away. God willing, we'll be right back with Nate Pikowitz and why we're Protestant right after these messages from our sponsors.

Why the Reformation Still Matters

Tired of box store Christianity, of doing church in a warehouse with all the trappings of a rock concert? Do you long for a more traditional and reverent style of worship? And how about the preaching?

Perhaps you've begun to think that in-depth biblical exposition has vanished from Long Island. Well, there's good news. Wedding River Baptist Church exists to provide believers with a meaningful and reverent worship experience featuring the systematic exposition of God's Word.

And this loving congregation looks forward to meeting you. Call them at 631 -929 -3512 for service times. 631 -929 -3512. Or check out their website at wrbc .us. That's wrbc .us.

The NASB is known for. The NASB is available in many editions like a topical reference Bible. Researched and prepared by biblical scholars devoted to accuracy, the new topical reference Bible includes contemporary topics relevant to today's issues.

From compacted giant print Bibles, find an NASB that fits your needs very affordably at nasbible .com. Whichever edition you choose, trust, discover and enjoy the NASB for yourself today. Go to nasbible .com.

That's nasbible .com. Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted. He will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own.

You need to read. Solid Ground Christian Books is a publisher and book distributor who takes these words of the Prince of Preachers to heart. The mission of Solid Ground Christian Books is to bring back treasures of the past to minister to Christians in the present and future and to publish new titles that address burning issues in the church and the world.

Since its beginning in 2001, Solid Ground has been committed to publish God-centered, Christ-exalting books for all ages. We invite you to go treasure hunting at solid-ground-books .com. That's solid-ground-books .com and see what priceless literary gems from the past or present you can unearth from Solid Ground.

Solid Ground Christian Books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

Chef Exclusive Catering's Event Center is newly designed with elegance and style and is available for small office gatherings, bridal showers, engagement parties, and rehearsal dinners. Critics and guests alike acknowledge Chef Exclusive's commitment to exceeding even the highest expectations.

I know of their quality firsthand since Chef Exclusive catered by most recent Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Pastors Luncheon. For details call 717 -388 -3000. That's 717 -388 -3000. Or visit chefexclusive .com.

That's chefexclusive .com.

Paul wrote to the church at Galatia, For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Hi, I'm Mark Lukens, Pastor of Providence Baptist Church.

We are a Reformed Baptist Church and we hold to the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. We are in Norfolk, Massachusetts. We strive to reflect Paul's mindset to be much more concerned with how God views what we say and what we do than how men view these things.