Is The Pope Ignorant Or Unwilling?

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.

Radio Banter, Social Media, and the Trouble with Constant Response

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. Pastor Steve, good to see you back here in the studio. Well, it�s good to be here. What did Jean-Luc Picard say to No. 1 usually when they needed to get the show on the road?

Well, he�d either say, �Engage you know, �Engage or he�d say, you know, �Make it so,. No. 1. That�s right. I like both of those.

So for because you�re present here today in the studio, I feel like saying, �Engage or, �Make it so or, �Let�s get going or, �Where you been or, �Skedaddle. I don�t know. What do I want to say?

Skedaddle. What were you listening to in your office? Well, again, I thought it was rock and roll music, and I thought, �Is that The Secretary

Yeah. It was Eleanor Rigby by David Cooke. It�s a remake of the old Beatles song.

We did that at Special Music on Sunday, didn�t we? Yep.

Ah, look at all the lonely people.

You could do the little old Pete McArthur preaching with that. Where do they all come from? It�s like a Tim Keller cultural relevance thing, you know. What about urban social context?

Well, if you don�t do that, you just can�t be effective.

Yeah, that�s right. Right. I just walk down the streets of Manhattan, and I think, �Look at all the lonely people.

How do we exegete them first?

Steve, I don�t know. Is it okay to sometimes feel Henri and then do radio? Or should that be a time where we just kind of shut her down?

Feel Henri. Well, you know what? We just are not controlled by our feelings, so we neither respond to them nor let them control us. Yes, I know.

They just are. I think it�s kind of like, you know, Spock.

Boy, that sounded so philosophical. It did.

It did. That almost was Crooked Guardian-ish with feelings and stuff.

I was thinking more Yoda, but it�s all the same.

If you write blog posts, let�s say critiquing someone, and then they don�t respond, would it be a good idea or a mouimal idea to say, �And you don�t respond to what I say

Well, you know, let�s just kind of put it in context. If I�m Steve Cooley, which I am, you know, most days of the week. Somebody asked me what I do the rest of the week, I don�t really know, but if I�m Steve Cooley and I write a blog post on My Little Blog, you know, maybe I should have one called My Little Blog, mylittleblog .com.

You know what? It�s like My Little Pony. Yeah, exactly. That�s what I was thinking. My Little Blog. And, you know, I say, I don�t know, I�ll just make something up. I, you know, write some blog about things that the president�s doing wrong, and then, you know, three days later or a week later or a month later, I write,.

�And the president still hasn�t responded. I�m outraged. I don�t know. What was I expecting? You know, the president to go perusing through the entire internet to find my blog and go,. �Oh, Steve raises some good points on mylittleblog .com.

Maybe I should respond to them.

Well, maybe some of our listeners know what we�re talking about, but remember, if we do a radio show or we write something or somebody writes something about us or whatever, I don�t think it�s really bad manners if it�s not addressed.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is just drop something, and I think there�s probably a proverb somewhere that says, you know, �For lack of fire, the argument goes out. I mean, come on. Yeah.

I mean, do you ever get in a situation? I won�t, I know this never happens with Kim, but, you know, do you ever get in a situation where you�re listening to somebody and you just go, �Hmm. If I respond, this is going to escalate into an argument and there�s really no need to respond.

You know, they�re welcome to hold that opinion, and, you know, maybe someday the Holy Spirit will convict them that they�re wrong, but it�s not my job to talk them out of their opinion.

Especially, I think, Steve, with social media, blogs, Twitter, that�s a difficult way to try to express yourself, to try to, you know, point, counterpoint, rejoinder. It�s difficult because you can�t see the person, you can�t hear.

That�s why we�re promoting radio, by the way.

Well, I know. I was, you know, I was responding to somebody having a debate with somebody on Twitter the other day, and, you know, once I got into my footnotes, you know, I was just busily typing away, and once I got into the footnotes, I realized that probably, well, about 80 ,000 characters over the limit, and, you know, so I didn�t know what to do.

Steve, when I am troubled and am in a debate with a punctious, pugnacious person. A punctious? Punctilious, I was going to say, but I knew that wasn�t right. When I am in a debate, it�s very difficult for me because I can�t use certain Latin and German letters.

I actually have to go to the Google site, copy it from them, and then drop it into the Twitter, and then it usually carries over. Right, right. And so I just, you know, I just get very perturbed that I can�t use certain other language.

Do you get miffed? I do. I do. Now, occasionally on No Compromise Radio, over the years, we�ve had message moments, and we�ve read something from the message, quote, Bible, end quote, and it�s a paraphrase.

Don�t we use that on Sunday morning? Well, that�s�is that before or after the special music? Like last Sunday after Prince died, we did Purple Rain as kind of a�did you see the Church of the Glades video?

Yes, I was. I mean, seriously, how can that be anything except a laughing stock, and you know God�s patient when there are not firebolts from heaven coming down Sinai-like on such a travesty?

I like some of the comments there, you know, where people are like, well, they�re worshipping their prince, you know, and.

Mm-hmm. They are. You know, the old moniker that the atheist would use, you know, if God exists now, you know, why doesn�t he strike me with a lightning bolt? I mean, God doesn�t need to strike lightning bolt people, atheists, with lightning bolts, but I think he does need to strike that Church of Hades or Glades or whatever it was.

Glades. Well, it wouldn�t be a bad idea from time to time, you know, of course, that�s just me, to shake things up, you know.

Mm-hmm. Well, like in the New Testament, while everyone deserves death because the wages of sin is death, there are just a few exclamation points, Ananirus� Ananirus and Sephiroth. Ananirus and Sephiroth.

That�s the New England coming at me. Yeah. Yeah, that�s right. Oh, man. But instead of having the message, I pulled this out the other day, Steve, Tyndale�s New Testament Translated by William Tyndale, Modern Spelling Edition of the 1534 Translation with an Introduction by David Daniel.

Did you ever read the David Daniel book on William Tyndale? The biography?

Yeah, I think so. By the way, I�m guessing this is just a little more accurate than the message.

I�d say that would probably be true. I haven�t analyzed it underneath my. It�s just a guess. Uh-huh. Yeah. I analyzed it with an old computer I had. I think it was a 386SX, so I wasn�t quite sure if that could run the numbers.

It didn�t have the math chip. It didn�t have the math chip. And I was just thinking about this the other day, these exhortations at the end of 1 Corinthians. And so, here�s what it says, �Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, and be strong.

Let all your business be done in love. Let all that you do be done in love is the way the ESV, I think, translates it. That�s kind of nice. I like that. �Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men.

What does that mean, quit you like men?

I don�t know. I always think it must mean like �acquit. You know, like it must be old English for �acquit. Maybe that.

Yes, I think so, because the English standard in the NES would say what instead? Is it �act like men Yeah, �act like men. Yeah. Right. Now, here�s my question, especially with all this gender stuff and complementarian and blogs, Reformation 21 blogs, those kind of things.

Can you tell a congregation made up of men and women to act like men? What would that mean? He�s actually addressing the entire congregation. He says �watch ye and then now he�s telling the entire congregation to act like men.

Now, what is that? Is that possible?

Is that? Well, see, I�m going to get in trouble. No matter what I say, I�m going to get in trouble. Yeah, I�m not going to be funny, because that would get me in trouble, but I also think, you know, that basically what I think it may be that he�s just saying that women act in a certain way and men act in a certain way, and therefore in this particular instance.

See, finally, after, you know, six years, Steve is finally speechless. I like that. You should see him tap dance. His feet have just been, like, tipping and toeing. Well, it�s interesting, when you think of masculinity, some of the words that pop in your mind if you�re playing word association should be courageous, brave, bold, and I think that�s what he�s saying to the church, and he�s not using �anthropos.

He�s using a root word �andre�, specifically masculine. I always think of Andre. Andre the Giant. I know. Yeah, I just watched a video about him. And I was watching a Robert F. Kennedy video, so what does that tell us about our psyches?

Steve watches Andre the Giant, and I watch Bobby Kennedy.

Well, the actress who was in the movie The Prince�s Bride with Him said that he would put his hand on her head, and his palm would be on the back of her head, and his fingers would be well down on her forehead.

That�s how big his hand was. It could be like a helmet. Yes. Yes. Yeah, it covered the whole thing. And I mean, they were. It looked like he had mitts on top of his hands. They were just that big.

I don�t know who said it, Steve, but I think it might have been Herschel York, and he was talking about how pastors, and then by extension everyone who�s a Christian, should know the Bible so well, and to be so acquainted with it, and to know God through Scripture, because that�s the only way we know Him, that you should be able to palm the Bible.

Get a good grip on the Bible.

Isn�t that good? Palm it. Palm the Bible. Yeah. I used to really struggle to palm the basketball.

I�d have to make sure, and I�m doing that with my hands right now, I had to make sure I had enough oil, sweat, something, some liquid-ish stuff on the tip of my fingers, and then I could palm the ball.

I used to use Stick�m. Oh, did you? Lester Hayes.

What was his number? 37? I don�t know. I didn�t like the Raiders back then, so. I know. Jack Tatum? Yes. He was.

He was 31, maybe? Or maybe he was 32. Maybe Lester was 37 or something like that. I�m sure I�ll, you know, here�s the funny thing about No Compromise Radio. Our listeners, our listeners, will write in and then tell us, and then it�s like three months later, I�ll get something, �Lester Hayes, we looked it up on Google, he�s number 38, you know, fool.

I mean, what were we even talking about back in those days?

Our millions of kindly listeners. See?

No pugnacious listeners. That�s what we�re, we�re not after pugnacious. Putting the pug back into nacious. Ignacious. Steve, it just seems like when it rains, it pours. We got another letter today straight from Austin, Texas.

Now when I say Austin, Texas, what do you usually think of?

I think of a little restaurant I went to once in Austin, Texas called Moonshine. It was really good.

All right. I think of Austin City Limits. Oh, yeah. That PBS deal? Yeah. Right? A little Hank William, Jr. or something.

Concerts. Yeah. Country. Country people. I think maybe of Dust. Well, I think also of liberalism because it�s a very liberal city. Probably a fun city, right? Like Portland, Oregon. It�s fun, but it�s liberal as anything.

Do I think of armadillos? I don�t know. Do you? I think I do. Anyway, our friend Lois writes us again about Mike Gendron. And I�m going to see Mike Gendron in Branson in just two or three short days, and I can�t wait to tell Mike, �Would you please have your fans write you and not me

Or your enemies. Either one. So, I still don�t get it, Lois. If you listen, I don�t know if you listen, but if you listen, maybe you just say, �CC, I sent this to Gendron, but Mike, I�m just letting you know what I�m sending him.

Listen, do you want to know a secret? Do you promise not to tell?

Steve, now, here�s Lois, and I guess I have to say in my opinion so then we don�t get sued or anything like that. We started off the show with kind of tweeting and responding, and now here we are again.

And we�re responding. A Catholic Responds to Gendron�s Accusations Against Pope Francis, April 2016. Maybe this is a form letter she sends out to everybody.

Now, is this her name up at the top? Because that�s not Lois, that�s Louise.

Oh, you know what? Then I stand corrected. Well, actually, you�re sitting. So that�s two corrections right in a row. You know what? I�m Louise. Yes, Louise. Yes, because the final E makes the prior vowel a hard sound.

I don�t know. I just know it�s Louise. Like the word lake. Right? So if we didn�t have the E, it would be lack. So now we got the E, it makes it lake. I don�t know what that rule is. Well, I don�t know how you came up with Lois.

I�m just like, everybody knows that�s Louise. I�m trying to pronounce Gendron�s name properly is what I�m trying to do. And, you know, I forgot the Granville Sharp rule of the E at the end. So she said, �Pope seeks to ban death penalty.

That�s what she�s quoting with Gendron. Gendron said,. �Once again, the Pope shows either his ignorance of God�s word or his unwillingness to submit to its authority. Now, let�s stop there for a second.

Tell me about Gendron when he says that his ignorance of God�s word or his unwillingness. Tell me which one you think it is and why regarding the death penalty, and I�ll tell you what I think it is.

Is he ignorant or is he unwilling? Pete. His unwillingness to submit to authority. I mean, that�s clear. The entire Catholic Church is, I mean, it�s history. It�s filled with an unwillingness to submit to the Bible.

You know, I mean, where do you think they come up, not you, but Louise, where do they come up with their teachings? I mean, they can�t get a lot of their teachings out of the Bible. So, for example, on Mary.

How do you get the idea that Mary is a co-redemptrix? Well, you can�t get that from the Bible because the Bible says that there�s only one mediator, there�s only one redeemer. So, they just make it up.

Where would you get the idea that Mary�s sinless? There�s nothing in the Bible that would indicate that. In fact, she says she needs a Savior. She says that.

Steve, but here�s what I don�t get. This little inconsistency where Rome says they made the Bible. They authorized the Bible. They wrote the Bible. They�re the ones, you know, the Lord gave the Bible to the church.

Now, don�t you think if that was the case, then if Rome came up with the Bible, loosely speaking, then they would actually do what the Bible says? You would think so. You would think so. Yeah. Yes, but one of my favorite all-time quotes is from Ralph Waldo Emerson, and I know he�s trans.

He was a trans guy. Was he trans? Uh-huh. Transcendentalist. Transcendental meditation. And here�s what he said. I don�t like the end, but I�ll read the whole thing. Okay. Go ahead. Because the end implicates us.

Uh-oh. I know. �A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. We usually stop right there. And they�re so inconsistent, it shows that they have little minds. That�s the hobgoblin of little minds.

I�m thinking about maybe, what�s that old show kind of right after Twilight Zone? The Outer Limits. No. No. Rod Sterling did it. It was little stories, and it was in color, and I�m sure our listeners will tell me what it is.

You had the Twilight Zone in something else. Along with Jack Tatum�s number.

Yes. We�re giving you our wish list of trivia. Uh-huh.

Well, I remember what it was. Night Gallery. Oh. There it is. There�s Night Gallery. With Kolchak. And you�ve got that little hobgoblin running around. Okay. Okay. �The hobgoblin of little minds. Right?

�A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen, philosophers, and divines. Ooh. So we got thrown into that one. That�s no good. No. No. Okay. So we both think the Pope knows the Bible, but he�s not willing to submit.

That�s exactly right. Tell me a little bit about your analysis of this particular Pope. He�s the perfect PC Pope, the perfect social activist Pope, the perfect inclusive Pope, the Pope that reflects the times most sadly, but.

Well, I mean, liberal Americans love him. You know, they agree with him on almost everything except for maybe, well, certainly they would not agree with him on abortion. But I mean, on most issues, they�re right with him.

You know, he complains about capitalism, they�re like, �Right on. He complains about the environment, they�re like, �Right on. Woo. So the only place they disagree with him is, you know, just a little thing called life.

They disagree about that.

It�s a crazy little thing called life. Crazy little thing called life. �Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. Genesis 9, 6, and the equivalent of that in the New Testament with the sword that the government would wield as Romans 13.

That�s right. So here�s the Catholic response. What�s the Catholic response to the death penalty? Well, �From the cross Luis said, �as his blood was shed for them by crucifying him and also by us and because of us, Jesus cried, �Father, forgive them, they do not know what they�re doing.

That means no more death penalty.

Let�s see what the survey says about that.

She says, �Does this cry sound like a cry demanding the shedding of their blood and our blood who are also responsible for shedding his blood? We are made in God�s image and likeness. Jesus Christ on his cross proves to us that God�s image and likeness is unconditional love, mercy and forgiveness, not eye for eye and tooth for tooth.

You notice the logic there?

Pete No, I don�t see the logic there. Because Jesus isn�t speaking about the death penalty, he�s not, hey, while I�m up here being crucified for your sins, let me just give you my opinion about the government and death penalty.

Pete Steve, isn�t it actually when we come to think about this whole political correctness and where the government, where the world, where culture is now compared to what the Bible teaches, at least there�s a line of demarcation now.

There�s a DMZ. In the old days, Benjamin Franklin would have said, �Of course marriage is between a man and a woman. Of course it�s no polygamy. Of course there�s a death penalty. Of course. And he would line up with almost every moral issue, at least for society.

Maybe for himself, he wouldn�t want that because he wanted to be, you know, an adulterer. But he would line up on every social issue and yet he was far from the kingdom. Doesn�t it make it easier now for us to just say, you know what, these people need the gospel, they�re obviously out versus these are in and what the Bible teaches is going to go directly contra to the face of most of society?

Pete. Yeah, it does make it easier. I mean, but we live in a time of, really a time of the judges, right? Where every man does what�s right in his own eyes. I mean, if you dare say anything negative to anyone about anything, you know, you�re judgmental and all that.

I was just reminded the other day of the emperor�s new clothes, the old fable where, you know, he doesn�t have any clothes on and somebody finally says, the little boy says, �You don�t have any clothes on.

And, you know, the whole thing is undone. And well, these days, if somebody was to do that, you�d say, well, how could he, how could that little boy dare tell that man he doesn�t have any clothes on?

He thinks he has clothes on. What�s wrong with you? How dare you do that to him? I think that in, you know, 15, 20 years, nobody will even know the myth of the emperor�s new clothes. It won�t exist because it�s so cruel to tell somebody the truth.

Steve, do you think people, I don�t know, I walked into a Portland bookstore, it�s called Powell�s. It�s a huge store. And I was kind of shocked that there were so many people in there buying books. So, my mind didn�t know what to do.

Here�s a very liberal place. Actually, the Christian section, you had all kinds of commentaries, Pillar commentaries, MacArthur commentaries, Word commentaries, Lenski commentaries, et al. But, you know, I just thought to myself, there�s so many people that I don�t think read.

Now I go to these liberal centers where reading is pushed and people do read, but maybe they�re just reading the wrong thing.

How do I analyze that? Well, I think you hit the nail on the head there. They don�t read the right thing. They read a lot of nonsense. I think they watch probably less TV in some of those areas. You know, it�s become common in the church not to have cable or satellite, but I think it�s become pretty common in the outside world, too, to just have Netflix and so not to just be so focused on television, and so therefore they read more.

But like you said, they don�t read the right things, so it doesn�t really profit them all that much.

Pete Steve, did you want to say to Luis that that Luke 23 passage, �Father, forgive them. They do not know what they�re doing. Did you want to tell them, tell Luis something about the Alexandrian text types and maybe does that verse even exist and all that kind of stuff?

Because the Catholic Bible probably adds that in. No, I don�t think Vaticanus even has it. Oh, it doesn�t.

I�d have to double check. And I�m not certain right off the top of my head, but what I would say is no matter how you slice it, that is, he�s not addressing, in other words, you have to prove to me that that is the issue that he�s addressing.

You can�t just throw a scripture out there and say, �Well, this is what he�s addressing.

Pete Steve, if he would walk to Lazarus� tomb and just said, �Everybody get up of course they all do, but he makes it more specific, �Lazarus, arise. If he says, �Forgive them and he means the Centurion, Herod, Pilate, the Jews, Sanhedrin, Pharisees, and then into the future, everybody that would ever exist, then wouldn�t we believe not in a full universalism, because universalism wouldn�t exist until Jesus said that, Goliath, I would imagine, still in hell.

Wasn�t there some limit? Let�s say this text is in the Bible. Isn�t there a limit when Jesus says, �Forgive them who are the �them

Pete. Well, that�s a good question. You know, just can he ask the Father to forgive people who don�t want to be forgiven? I mean, is there any account of the people who actually put him to death saying, you know, �Please forgive us.

Pete Well, I guess if we were going to argue technically that God could, you know, grant enemies regeneration and they would respond with, �Oh, I�m glad for that or something, right?

Pete Yes, he could do that. But my point is, I don�t think that�s what�s in view at all here and I think she�s completely missed the boat. Maybe we�ll have to address that in the future.

Pete. Sounds good. Mike Avendroth with Steve Cooley, NoCompromiseRadio .com. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Avendroth 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.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.