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When a central Massachusetts High School teaches Calvinism, is there a catch? Listen in to Part 4
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.
Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. It has been very interesting to do a little side work in getting a book published. Now, in the old days, I went through day one for the first two books, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Preachers, and what I call King.
They gave me a different title there, The Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus Bowing to the Gracious Despot. Kind of sounds puritanical, which is what the show is about today. Things would go bump in the church with Clint and Byron.
That was Harvest House. And then discovering Romans, the S. Lewis Johnson commentary on Romans with Sondraven. The nice thing about those companies, they do a lot of the work. You jump through the hoops, they like what you�ve done generally, and then with Sondraven, you got a literary editor, you received a theological editor, they design covers, they do all that stuff.
And so they do it, and so they need to be paid to do it, and then you receive 25 cents a book. Okay, maybe you get more, I don�t know. I think the smallest royalty check I�ve ever received was, I think it was for one pound 15, 15 pence, one pound.
I cashed it. People said we should tape it up on the wall. I said, no, I cashed it. So the new book, it was on the, in the editing, the editor�s kind of final cut room, I don�t know what you call that, pub board�s final, and with a particularly large, reputable monstrosity of a publisher.
But then they said no. Well, I just let the thing sit for about three years and thought, all right, now I have enough gumption to publish it through NoCo Media. And so that�s exactly what we�re going to do.
It has a title, and I try to make the title not flashy in NoCo because I didn�t want to, I wanted to convey the message that it�s written from a mature perspective and not potty mouth. And it�s called Sexual Fidelity, No Compromise.
So there�ll be a variety of No Compromise books, at least they�re planned, whether they make it to you, I don�t know. Sexual Fidelity, No Compromise. It�s easy to read. It�s fun to read in the sense we�re trying to not make it as scholastic as, let�s say, Chapter 5 of the Romans Commentary, Romans Chapter 5.
So I think you�ll like it. You can go to No Compromise Radio�s website, and it�ll send you a link to the NoCo Media site, and you can order them online, and then we�ll ship them. It�s about 140 pages, actual pages of print, I don�t know, 120 something.
Simple, 30 days to read about the subject, whether you�re single or you�re married, you can read the book, and I think it would encourage you. So that�s what�s up around here, but I�ve had to get Library of Congress numbers, you get the barcode on the back, ISBN numbers, you have to talk to printers, you have to talk to format and layout people, cover designs, and let�s see, now I know why people just go through a publisher.
But if nobody wants your work, then you have to do it yourself. So technically, I don�t want to say I�m a self-published person. They always say don�t self-publish because then nobody else will want to pick you up, but hey, nobody wants to pick this up anyway, and I think it�s valuable for the people here at Bethlehem Bible Church.
That�s the focus. I think the people at Bethlehem Bible Church, if they had the book, they would read it and they would be strengthened and encouraged. This isn�t just a no book. This is who you are in Christ, and therefore, how do we approach this subject.
So I think if the church benefits here locally, anything else is gravy. Well, you have to pick a number of books to order too, so I had to clean out the garage the other day. I hope we have room. Actually the garage, if you�ve been to my house and seen my garage, you�re probably just like, �Oh yeah, great pastor.
But now I�m not embarrassed. I�ve got one other little section, but now it�s just bicycles, many bicycles, many motorcycles, washer, dryer, lots of surfboards, snowboards, that�s about all there are, boards, board shorts, board games, 2x4 boards.
My daughters, 14 and 16, sometimes they�re homeschooled, sometimes they are put into private school. Well, this particular year, they�re in a public school. I know, shame, boo, hiss, ungodly, Calvinist, you�re not a King James only guy.
I know, I know, bring it on. Bring it on. But they�re reading Nathaniel Hawthorne�s Scarlet Letter, and the teacher said, �Here�s Puritan theology and they handed my daughter out a little chart with tulip on it, the basics, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints, with some bullet points underneath them.
So today is number four, the fourth installment, as we work through this, as the teacher is basically trying to say, �Aren�t Calvinists really bad And that would echo, in fact, Nathaniel Hawthorne as well, saying the same thing, which would echo Herman Melville in Moby Dick, which would echo the House of the Seven Gables.
It�s very simple. I often ask myself the question, �Why do people hate Christianity so much? They don�t hate Hinduism as much. Well, it�s real, it�s true. So their hatred is put in the direction of the truth, energized by the world system and maybe Satan.
Well, why do people hate Calvinism so much? Could there be some similarities to the logic behind the hatred of the truth? Plus, what I call Calvinism, that is the biblical doctrine that God is not only in charge of the weather, but He is in charge of salvation, and He is not sitting back waiting for people to act because they never will.
He�s active in salvation, and He could have saved everybody, but He only decided to save some. They�re called the elect. This is just the way God works. He chooses some angels for heaven and not the rest.
He chooses Israel and not the Philistines. He chooses Jerusalem as the capital, not Gath. He chooses twelve disciples, that is, the Son does, not the rest. This is just the way God is. And you know He�s this way because you�re made in His image and likeness, and you�re that way too.
Most of you don�t have a range of marriages. You pick your spouse. You pick what you want to eat. You go to the supermarket and you pick the flavors of the mustard you like. That�s what you do. French�s mustard, yellow, no calories.
There�s some foods that I don�t care if I ever eat again, but I don�t want to say that about French�s mustard yet. Why? Because if I ever eat a corn dog again, I pretty much never eat a hot dog. If I was at your house and you were serving hot dogs, and I was going to offend you if I didn�t eat one, maybe I�m overseas someplace, that�s all that they can afford.
Maybe it was a Brockfurst or something, then that�s different, that�s not a hot dog. But I would eat one under those circumstances. I would eat possum. As a matter of fact, Phil Johnson�s Twitter account the other day said you could get canned possum in Amazon.
So I clicked on it. And underneath, �Customers that buy canned possum also buy� and then it had a yodeling pickle. Hey, by the way, if you have not listened to my friend Erin with her show Equipping Eve, you ought to.
You can go to Equipping Eve and listen to the shows. Her show is usually on the NoCode Twitter feed and Facebook feed and stuff like that. As Laverne and Shirley is to Happy Days, Equipping Eve is to No Compromise Radio.
And we�ve tried to help her and we like her ministry toward two ladies. And now I think her latest, speaking of Phil Johnson, she interviewed Phil twice. That�s going to be spicy, so I guess you men can listen to this one.
I listened to the first few shows just because she�s kind of accountable to us. And so I figured I better make sure I know what I�m putting my stamp of approval on. The, you know, proper imprimatur stamp is there.
I haven�t listened to any other shows except maybe the first three. And they were biblical. They were engaging. You could tell she was a student of the word and she wanted to do the right thing from the lady�s perspective looking at things.
And so we said, �Go. Now she�s talking Phil Johnson. All you men that have been dying to listen, you now can. See, I�m the only one who could have listened as a man because I needed to hold her accountable and critique and stuff like that.
But now you too can listen to Aaron�s Equipping Eve. Or you could follow the ones at Twitter. Puritan Theology handout at a public school in central Massachusetts. Total of Pravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, Perseverance of the Saints.
T-U-L-I-P. We talked about total inability. You can�t save yourself. Every faculty was affected by the fall. You need a savior. You, Unconditional Election, therefore, since you couldn�t do anything good to merit your salvation including believe on your own, God had to choose you and he chose you in eternity past Ephesians 1, 4.
If you want a verse for depravity, Ephesians 2, 1 -3. Limited Atonement, Jesus then died, not for everybody because the Father only chose some. So he died just for the elect. Only the elect are regenerated by the Holy Spirit and the triune God always does things not in competition, not underdoing what the other does or overdoing, but all the exact same nature and essence, right?
So we talked about limited atonement and how Jesus dies for the church, not the unchurch, not the preachers. Jesus dies for the bride, not the non-bride. And then today we come to I. Now remember, what they're trying to do at the school is to say Calvinism is really bad.
I just wish they would have been more honest even though I'm glad they handed out something with tulip, right? More than what some homeschoolers do. So there you have it. Irresistible Grace. Now this is the bullet point that my daughter received at school.
One cannot refuse God's grace. One must live with God whether he wants to or not. Those whom God has chosen to save, he will save. All right. Now, do we like those? Well, let's take a look at them from the bottom up, bullet points.
And by the way, there's no verses behind any of these. Those whom God has chosen to save, he will save. That's what Irresistible Grace is. We might call it in our language, systematic language, systematic theology language, effectual call.
Now there are two kinds of calls. Call number one, repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Can people resist that? Remember we look at words, irresistible, root word resist. Can you resist the call of God?
Do you know people and you tell them, here's free grace, here's forgiveness, wouldn't you like to be reconciled to God? Here's what God has done. Here's how God has loved a sinner like you. And you should respond with repentance and faith in the risen savior.
And they say no. They stiff arm you. They might punch you. They might kick you out of the family. Who knows, depending on where you live, a lot of bad things could happen. And they resist. They resist.
Some of your family members have resisted all the way to the end of their grave, to the end of their life, and to the grave. I will not worship the son. I will not bow my knee to Jesus Christ. And sadly, they'll bow their knee one day, won't they?
Except it's not on this earth. So what is this talking about? Well, the general call, believe, repent. That can be refused. Many are called, but few are chosen. We understand with scripture, as you look at things systematically, that once God regenerates a heart, the spirit of God changes someone.
That the powerful God of the universe, who can create the world by speaking, he can recreate a person and give them a new nature. And there's nothing that person can do about it, except here's the interesting thing.
That new-natured person used to hate God, now with a new nature, loves God. And that new-natured person who used to love sin, now loves God and hates his sin. This is the next chain that says in the flow of redemption, man's free will will bow to God's sovereign will.
Man's free will, that is to say nature choosing, a depraved person is always going to choose the wrong thing until somebody interrupts, that is the triune God. And when he regenerates and he renews and he quickens and he makes alive, whatever language you'd like to use, the person cannot say no and get away with it.
The new nature will turn the no into the yes. You can resist the general call, repent and believe, flee from the wrath of God. But you cannot resist when God says, now you are an elect person and Jesus died for you and I'm going to make you alive, you're going to be alive.
And this gives hope to the believer, this gives hope to the believer when they have unbelievers who are friends, parents, children, because left to the people, their hard-hearted recalcitrant hearts would never accept the free gift.
They have to be given a new nature and then they gladly will. It's not force, this is not a caveman dragging his wife by the hair or me, Tarzan, you, Jane. This is God graciously changing Lydia's heart and she responds with belief and with, I have a desire to be baptized and then serve people.
That's what that is. It's irresistible, it cannot be stopped. The general call can be, the irresistible call cannot be. I call that the effectual call. Irresistible grace isn't that good, but we're going to have a tulip, a tulip with a, how I say milk, milk, milk, I don't really drink milk anymore, milk anymore.
Chocolate milk? Nope. Almond milk, I put a little bit in my oatmeal in the morning. I'm old enough now where every day it's oatmeal, even though all my numbers are good, I still, I don't know why I eat oatmeal, it seems, it seems heavy.
So you got some steel cut oats and then I put on some, in some walnuts or some pecans. I put in some flaxseed, I put in a little bit of real maple syrup, no angiomimer. I put in some almond butter, I put in a little salt, I put in a little stevia, I put in some blueberries, some cinnamon, and then I repeat the next day.
That's a pretty good breakfast right there. It seems meaty, it seems weighty, partly because there are the meats of the nuts there, but I like that. And we've gone from 200 calorie oatmeal, 300, but who's counting?
Oh yeah, who's counting? At least in the summer, you don't really have to count calories so much because you're up and out and doing and all that stuff. But then the winter comes, winter. P, Perseverance of the Saints.
My name is Mike Gabendroth. How did we get to the oatmeal? Anybody know? I was talking and then I thought of oatmeal for a second and then when I just described that a little possum on the side, cream of possum.
Do you eat cream corn? Do you eat cream possum? One of the things I love about Phil Johnson, he has not an ecumenical bone in his body, but when it comes to his palate, he is ecumenical. He'll just eat anything.
And so when we're out here and we go eat some ice cream, it's called Indian pudding. Not India like Pakistan slash India, but Indian, American Indian, native Indian, and it's got cornmeal and molasses.
You know, grandpas eat that kind of stuff. As children would eat bubblegum ice cream, rainbow ice cream, then so too do adults eat Indian pudding. You know you're an adult when you eat Indian pudding or if you're extra old strawberry or if you're way past, you eat some sherbet.
Public school, handout, high school, junior level, P, perseverance of the saints. Let me tell you what they say, and then we'll talk about it biblically. One must persevere as if he or she, oh, you know what I forgot to say?
One must live with God, whether he wants to or not. Irresistible grace says you don't want to live with God, but then God gives you a new heart and now you do. You get what you want. You want to do that.
It changes your heart. See, it changes your affections. P, perseverance of the saints. One must persevere as if he or she is one of God's own. Oh, bullet point two, the Puritans were always checking and watching to try to figure out who was one of God's elect.
That's the perseverance of the saints. They persevere. Let's watch. The watchman at the wall ministry, Watchman Nee, Witness Lee, better run from those two people by the way. If you like Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, Spike Lee, theology is as good as Spike Lee.
Sometimes I get email or mail to Michael Lee, like Lee's my last name. It's a fine last name, but that's my middle name, Michael Lee. The people whom God has chosen will persevere into the end, living a life of faith and obedience.
Last one's not bad. Second one, dopey, irrelevant. Third one though, people whom God has chosen will persevere until the end. Yes, because God is making them persevere. He's a God of preservation. He will see fit.
If these people could lose their salvation, they would have, they did, they will. But God makes sure that not one has been left forgotten or can jump out of his hand. Think of the language of John 10.
No one can snatch him out of my hand, right out of the father's hand. No one, Jesus said. Think of the language of a good shepherd, Psalm 23, Ezekiel 34. God is this great shepherd, John chapter 10, again.
Living a life of faith and obedience. I would just term that a little differently. They are going to persevere to the very end, thankfully because the life of obedience that Jesus lived is going to be the trump card.
Because Jesus lived a perfect life, and these Christians will fluctuate in their faith and obedience. It's not going to be perfect, but in spite of that, because of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to their account, they will make it.
And in spite of themselves, God will see to it that they do make it. And so Christians do persevere until the end. I just wouldn't say, living a life of faith and obedience, like there's never an oscillation to the sinusoidal waveform.
Oh, right. What does it say here in Philippians, verse 6 of chapter 1, and I am sure of this, probably to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. He who began a good work in you, he who began a good work in you, he'll be faithful to complete it.
You can take that out of the cassette. Perseverance of the saints. Now, typically people say eternal security. That's what we say. And are saints eternally secure? Yes. Because the nature and character of the name, God's name, is attached to that.
If God says, I'll save you, and I place my affections on you in eternity past, and then my son died for you at Calvary, and then my spirit, Christ's spirit, the Holy Spirit, regenerated you, you're going to make it to the end.
That's the promise of God. If you believe on me, you have eternal life. This is strewn throughout the whole Bible. The just shall live by faith, and they're trusting in God's word. We're taking God at his word that he will take us to heaven and bring us there.
Isn't that the language that encourages people when they've lost a loved one in Christ? Isn't that the language of hope and trust in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4? When you can't sing, you quote scripture.
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
We declare this to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive and who are left until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with the cry of a command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of a trumpet.
The dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord, therefore encourage one another with these words.
Only some of you will make it, so then discourage one another without these words. We're going to make it, and that is eternal security. But that's typically used, eternal security, in the Arminian settings, and they're one point Calvinist.
You're just once saved, always saved. And then we have people fall away from their walk, and then it doesn't fit into our once saved, always saved, and we try to get them into heaven, even though they're living a lifestyle of the damned, because they made a profession of faith.
They walked the aisle, they signed the card, they're in. So saints persevere to the end. That's much better, because they're preserved by God. Much better than eternal security, once saved, always saved.
At its core, once saved, always saved is true, but the way it's methodologically used often leads people to false assurance when their lifestyles for years are characterized by unrighteousness. Do not be deceived.
First Corinthians chapter 6, verse 9 through 11 would be important there. Well, my name is Mike Ebenroth. This was a four-part series on how public high schools in Massachusetts teach TULIP, that they actually are.
I was glad to sit down with my family to work through these very issues, and that's a lot better than the adult coloring books emerging as popular spiritual practice that we'll talk about one of these next times.
Color between the lines.
No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebenroth 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.
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