Voscampian Rules

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Voscampian Rules

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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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
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Apostle Paul said, ìBut we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour ,î so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isnít for you.
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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as weíre called by the
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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Hereís our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. Pastor El Jefe Steve Cooley, welcome.
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Hi, itís me. Okay. Hello, itís me. Who sang that? Todd Rundgren. He had a really cool video.
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One of those first videos that came out that, you know, pre -MTV stuff.
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Yeah, I wasnít a huge Todd Rundgren fan, so I donít know. Can you name one other song that he sang?
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Probably not. I canít either. Watch anything interesting these days, documentaries or anything?
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Iím trying to think if Iíve watched anything interesting at all. I watched, well,
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I watched a horrible, lie -filled 60 Minutes the other night, but... You know, I remember watching 60
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Minutes when I was younger. I havenít watched 60 Minutes for so long. I donít even remember why I wanted to watch it.
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There was something on there, and so I recorded it and then watched it, and, you know, they never failed to disappoint, so...
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Anything going on with your grandkids or anything like that? Well, theyíre just fun.
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You know, I mean, if you canít enjoy grandkids, you canít really enjoy anything. So Declanís going through, the youngest oneís going through this phase, what is he, about 19, 20 months, and he doesnít really talk a whole lot, but he points.
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He doesnít like when anything is out of place. If thereís a door thatís not closed, if thereís a gate thatís not put in the right place, whatever.
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Heís just like Mr. Pointer guy, like everything is an outrage to him. Thereís a lot of stuff in the world to fix.
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Oh, yeah. Heís Mr., but, you know, heís like a lot of people at church. They point and complain, but they donít do anything about it.
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Oh, opa. They have the ministry of complaint. When I was reading from James last
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Sunday, I was thinking, Steve, as you know, because I said it out loud, when it says
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Jesus was without sin, and I thought to myself, well, how easy is it to sin, right? How hard, then, must it have been to not sin if sinning is so easy, right?
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Easy for you to say. I know. I know. It must be easy to sin if not sinning is so difficult.
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And then the one is in chapter 5, ìDonít grumble against one another .î Thatíd probably be a good banner to put above a church sometime.
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Well, all the talking would just stop, right? No, donít grumble against one another.
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Silence. The sound of silence. Well, that reminds me of the kid song, you know, ìHe brought me to his banqueting table.
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His banner over me is love .î Except the only problem with that is, in Hebrew is, ìHe brought me to his house of wine .î
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ìHis banner over me is love .î Well, letís take the Song of Solomon and make it for, you know,
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Godís love for people. Mm -hmm. Very nice. Yeah. All right. All right. Well, today, weíre going to talk about Ann Voskamp.
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We havenít talked about Ann for quite some time. No, we have not. But you know what? Thatís her fault, because she wrote another book.
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Well, good for her. Congratulations, Ms. Voskamp. If Calvinís first sentence in his
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Institutes talk about, you know, itís important to know who God is and who man is, right? Thatís theóthose are the two foundational things.
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And sheís got a wrong view of God and a wrong view of man. I guess itís going to be a short show. And a bad book.
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Yeah. All right. Letís talk at a more birdís -eye view. Why do you think,
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Steveóthis will be our controversial show for the weekówhy do you think that women tend to only read other women when it comes to Christian books?
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Christian women reading Christian women. Well, if I may say, I think itís for the same reason that men donít like to read men, right?
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Because they donít like sound theology. I mean, justóitís so dry.
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I like something a little more relatable. Experiential. Yeah. Something I can put my arms around.
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Okay. So, point oneóand this is all unrehearsed. I know itís hard to believe, but itís unrehearsed.
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Well, yeah, if you count unrehearsed as reading from a script. But I mean, we donít have these points in front of us or anything.
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Point number oneó No, just a word -by -word script. Yeah. Even my interruptions are scripted. Yep. Point number one, women donítówomenóDeepak
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Chopra. Thatís well -read. Now we need the script. But hereís what
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Iím after, Steve. Iím after women that will only read Elizabeth Elliott, Ann Boskamp, Beth Moore, Melissa Kruger.
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I mean, you know, some of those people I would not recommend, and some I would. Why do you think ladies, maybe by default, only read ladies?
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Because theyówhat do you think? Well, I think part of it is they think they can relate better and that the ladies will write aboutóother women will write about things that are more interesting to women, right?
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I mean, women donít tend to write about things that theyíre not interested in, right? I mean, itís pretty hard.
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I mean, would you write a book that you didnít care about? Itíd be a short book. Shalom.
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I donít care about this book. You know, thatís my title. So do you think itís good for ladies to read books written by men?
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Yes. When it comes to theology? Sure. Absolutely. Okay. Does it have anything to do with Ephesians chapter 4 and pastor -teachers?
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In my mind? Yeah. Not so much. I mean, I think it has something to do with the whole idea of women being teachers versus men being teachers, yes.
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So should we trust a woman who wants to engage in thatóI donít knowóengage in the teaching of Scripture?
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I have a problem with that. Well, hereís what I was thinking, Steve, and you know me well, but you canít read my mind.
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No, I canít. Thankfully. Not on Tuesdays. And God has ordained that both men and women learn from pastor -teachers, right?
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Some are current, youíre a pastor -teacher, and then some are in the past, and they have died, but theyíve written books, and we have maybe some audio sermons or something like that.
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Thereís nothing wrong with a woman learning from a man, right, theologically? No. I mean, men preach every week.
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Right. And, you know, I know people are listening, and theyíre wondering if we could ever learn anything from a woman. Has your wife ever taught you anything?
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Iím going to take the fifth. Well, hereís what
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I would say. If youíre a lady and youíre a reader, you want to read the Bible and other things about the Bible, I, A, commend you.
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Donít we want to commend ladies who read? For those about to learn, we salute you. This is so wrong.
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But when it comes to Ann Voskamp, we have concerns to the extent that if she was a member here, and she wasnít living in Canada with her husband talking about how
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Americans should let more illegal immigrants inóweíll put that aside for a secondóthatís kind of easy to do if youíre a
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Canadian, isnít it? Itís super easy. Yeah, you can go down to D .C. and march, but Iíd have bigger problems. I wish that was the extent of her problems.
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Would you allow her to teach at Bethlehem Bible Church? I know your wife was teaching just an hour ago here to the ladies.
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Would you let Ann Voskamp teach? Teach the ladies? Yeah. No. Teach the men? No. Teach the children?
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No. Do you think you want to put her in the aberration category or heritage category?
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I mean, honestly, Iíve not read enough Ann Voskamp to be knowledgeable, to be
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Voskampable. Oh. Okay. Very nice. Yeah. Well, hereís the thing.
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If she were here, I wouldnít have her teach. I would have her learn, and I would give her a systematic theology book, and I would hope she would learn underneath the systematic exposition of the
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Scriptures as well. But I donít think sheís ready to teach because the Bible does it not say that not many of you should be teachers because you incur the stricter judgment.
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If youíre teaching people the wrong things, thatís not going to go over well. It is.
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Well, I mean, letís just say itís condemned in Scripture. Now hereís what weíre going to do.
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Weíre going to use this show against you, ladies. If youíre a lady listening, weíre going to use it against you because if you somehow like von
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Kässbach and Voskamp, we have a great website.
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A lady wrote this blog. The website is called wiseinhiseyes .com, and this lady wrote a little critique on Voskampís The Broken Way.
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And this lady, her name is Rebecca Womble. Sheís a 27 -year -old
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Christian wife, mother, and author living in South Florida. So this is not from a discernment site.
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This is Mrs. Rebecca Womble. Sheís going to take her out to the Womble woodshed. It is a major woodshed.
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Okay. Now, I pulled this up because she has some good things to say. So youíre learning from a woman.
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Well, Iíll tell you. The main reason I pulled it up is because it had the most quotes from Voskamp.
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I didnít have time to read this book, right, because I was still memorizing The Thousand Love Gifts or whatever it was called.
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Who buys these things? I donít know. Now hereís what Mrs. Womble said.
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ìThe most frightening thought I had while reading was that even an unbeliever could agree with the vast majority of this book .î
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Thatís a good critique. Wow. I mean, itís like the purpose -driven life, you know, where it was being handed around from Mormons to Muslims to everybody else, and you just go, okay, if it doesnít offend anyone, it canít really be very
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Christian, right? Totally. Now, letís get to the big stuff, the immigration issues and the romance and the experience and the broken way.
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Broken. By the way, she uses such ambiguous language that I donít even know what she means half the time.
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Who was I? I was listening to somebody who kept using the word broken the other day, and I had to shut it off.
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Itíll come to me later. Was it Jeremiah, the broken cistern? No, it was not. I havenít listened to the prophet
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Jeremiah in a while. His podcast is very good, though. What do you think about this,
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Steve? When it comes to theology proper, this is a profound mystery.
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Now weíre going to move into Christology here. God became emptied of God. ìJesus, self -emptying, hid his divinity, but became the window through which we saw divine majestyî, page 94.
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So when sheís talking about Philippians 2, does God empty himself of being God? Negative. Negative.
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I mean, first of all, thatís impossible, right? God canít stop being God. Heó Somehow, yeah, yeah.
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And even if the impossible were possible, we would all be nonexistent. Yes. Yeah, I mean, what happens if God takes a day off?
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We all die, right? I mean, thatísóHeís upholding everything by the word of His power.
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I mean, this is what He does, right? And when God says, you know, ìIím just not feeling it today.
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I want to take it off .î Thatís it. All of creation is obliterated in that instant.
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I would say that my theological critique of Ann Voskampís writingsóand
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Steve, by the way, have you gone to her with your concerns yet, Matthew 18, personally? Well, I have an
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Ann Voskamp doll at home that IóI say, ìAnn ?î What are you writing this for?
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It is such aóWeíve talked about it so many times, just a canard, a false knowledge of Scripture that if youíre going toó
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Yeah, thatís it. Is it a yellow canard or a yellow canary? Itís a red herring.
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And itís a red herring. But, you know, you donít have to go to her. I mean, I guess if you knew her, you could say something.
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Iíve tweeted to her several times about some of her things. She never tweeted back. Well, when somebody publishes something publicly, theyíre paid money to publish something.
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And then, you know, somebody says, ìHave you gone to her in private ?î She published it. I wish she would have gone to me in private and said, ìIím going to publish something that could affect your people, and they might buy it.
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What do you think of this ?î Because then we could say, ìWell, actually, itís impossible for God to stop being God, and we can give a number of references for that .î
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You know, this is just uninformed gooberishness. I mean, this is nothing.
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Now, see, Steve sometimes doesnít like it when I make up a word, ìgooberishness .î And then, you know, ìsalubrious ,î you know, is actually a word, but ìgooberiousness .î
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What actually is that? Gooberishness? Itís gibberish. Itís rubbish. Itís tripe.
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Itís dross. ItísÖ ìWho, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but made himself nothing .î
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Thatís where we get the word ìemptied .î And how does he do that? ìTaking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man .î
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You could say, Steve, could you not, that at certain times the Son did not exercise
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His divine attributes, but you must always say that He was always God. Yes. I mean, we see very clearly that He emptied
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Himself. There are things that He doesnít know, for example, in His humanity. But as God, He knew all these things.
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And so, you know, itís a bit of aÖ it is a mystery in that sense.
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How does He continue to be God and yet not know everything? And how does HeÖ you know, but those things are true, right?
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Because He voluntarily stops doing some things for a time while Heís on the earth.
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But He cannot stop being God. You know, it reminds me of that song, ìEmptied Himself of all but love .î
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Well, no, He didnít. The justice out the window. Yeah. Right? Omnipotence out the window.
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Omnipotence out the window, you know. Well, JesusÖ well, letís talk about the
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Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. He co -equal, coÖ you know, the same nature, same essence as the
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Father and the Son, right? One God, three persons, you know, one God subsisting in three persons. Jesus at the
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Incarnation, He adds human nature, right? So, you have one person, two natures, and He will always have those two natures forever and ever and ever from now on.
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The second of the Incarnation, He had those two natures and He didnít say, ìWell, now that Iím going to have the
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Incarnation, I guess I take the one nature on and then I empty myself of the other nature .î
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Right. I mean, we have all kinds of ìismsî for this. It makes me think of like chemistry class, right, where you pour from one beaker to another.
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You know, He emptied His divine beaker into His human beaker and stopped being, you know, the divine beaker.
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The beaker! Centrifuges and beakers. You know, we think of the word ìemptyingî as an
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English word where you pour water out of a beaker, right? But here, He goes on to say what
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He means, ìtaking the form of a servant .î So, it is emptying by addition.
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Right. He empties Himself by adding human nature because that is the great condescending love of the
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Incarnation. Taking on the limitations of humanity. Yeah. God became emptied of God.
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No, no, that would be bad. And I canít believe her publishers wouldnít catch this.
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What publishing company is it? I donít know. But whoever it is, itís bad, you know. And then youíve got, together for the
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Gospel, promoting her, at least some of those people there. All right, letís keep going here. Godís mercies are new every morning.
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So far, so good. I like that one. Not as an obligation to you. Yeah. Okay. Okay.
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But as an affirmation of you. No. Page 83. It was going so well for a couple sentences there.
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I mean, thatís Shuler -worthy right there, you know, as an affirmation of you. Okay, Steve doesnít know what
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Iím doing because Iíve read a few of these, and Iím doing something that we call in Radioland, ìaggregation .î
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And this is going fromÖ Iím getting aggregated. Hey, donít take your aggregation out on me.
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Iím just the messenger. All right. She has a chapter.
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Itís called Chapter 6, ìWhatís Even Better Than a Bucket List ?î
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Okay. Even better than a bucket list. All right. Yeah. Whatís better than a bucket list? Um, the
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Hasidic rabbi that was on her airplane one day told her some advice. Oh. ìWhy do people always say itís about having a strong belief in God, who sits with the knowing that Godís belief in you is even stronger than yours in Him ?î
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Oh. Believe in the God who believes in you. Uh -huh. NowÖ This is,
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Iím telling you, this is like second -generation Shuler. When you interpret God through the lens of your own heart, emotions, uh, false religions and other things, itís not going to go well for you.
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Itíll be a man -centered view of God and an exalted view of yourself. And here we go, page 85,
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Ann Voskamp, ìThe Broken Way .î Watch Steve, watch Steve go fromÖ
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Wait. We need a camera. Mm -hmm. I know. Yeah. Maybe it isnít enough to believe in Jesus.
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Maybe I have to believe that Jesus believes enough in me to choose me. I can hear
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Vince Gill singing, ìI still believe in you .î You know, this is, I mean, this is so, this is so bad.
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Now, you know, I, I know people make these kind of errors, right? People in our own congregation make these kind of errors.
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And left to ourselves, we think thereís something good in us and then God would choose us and, and we choose our spouses because theyíre, theyíre, you know, lovely or godly or whatever.
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But the way God chooses people makes certain that he gets all the credit for the choosing.
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That is to say, the objects of his affection are ungodly, yet God still has his son die for the ungodly.
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Can I ask you a question? Yes, you may. What, what is the core of idolatry? Well, if I was
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Tim Keller, I would say making good things ultimate. Kierkegaardian.
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Well, I mean, what do people do when they make up a god? Well, they fashion them out of their own hearts and desires, and they make them look just like him.
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And Ann Voskampís god sounds a lot like Ann Voskamp. Well, thatís why when she says in her previous book, ìOne thousand gifts ,î something like that, ìone thousand broken gifts .î
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ìOne thousand adversaries .î One gifts. One thousand gifts, maybe it is, yeah, that she flies to Paris to make love to God.
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And she talks about caressing and wooing and, and uh, draping her hands on the bed sheets and all these kind of weird things.
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And the Gospel and Coalition promotes this woman. Yeah, I know. Because sheís, sheís uh, sheís tapping, sheís exposing a nerve of evangelicalism because weíre too stoic or something, could that be?
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She goes on to say in that same sentence, or after that sentence, ìIf Christ has chosen me, can he not believe in me?
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Can I believe Jesus believes in me ?î I mean,
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I, I, I donít know, you know, it would be really fascinating to sit down with her and just read like Romans 3, 10 to 12, and you know, just, thereís no one who seeks after God, all these things, and then go, ìAnn, what do those verses mean to you ?î
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Mmm. What about the sovereignty of God?
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What about salvation? Why would we even use a paradigm of, of Exodus, you know, letís just think about that.
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Well, God saw the Israelites, they were wandering around, and he believed in them, I mean, after 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, and he so believed in them that uh, he had
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Pharaoh kind of rerouted, and the water rerouted, and itís hard to believe that God believes in me when
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I donít believe in myself. Well, you know what? They were broken. They just needed somebody to affirm them, to, to, you know, just kind of shore them up so that they could find their own way out of Egypt.
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He died and his death broke a hole in the wall of time and abundant life without become, without becomingÖ
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A hole in the wall of time? What, what is, what is this, a kidís book? This sounds like a wrinkle in time or something.
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What? Now, do you know the song? Yes, of course.
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Okay, okay, now wait, now donít, now donít spoil it here. This is in the background. Itís the yellow. I love yellow. Jesus died of a broken heart.
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Yeah, well, of course he did. Justification by faith is ultimately a daily co -crucifixion that, ultimately life -giving.
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Jesus died of a broken heart, no, Jesus gave up his spirit, thatís what he did, you know, into my heart, or into your hands
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I commend my spirit, thatís what he did, right? Iím not laughing at what you just said, Iím just laughing about, uh, this is, this is some strange magic, uh -huh,
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I think thatís the new Voskamp subtitle. Love yellow. Strange magic. Jeff Lynne, Jeff Lynne is a genius.
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Uh -huh, because heís a traveling Wilbury. Yes, absolutely. Do you say Wilburys or Wilburys? Wilbury, Wilbury, yeah.
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Wilbury is like a New England way to say it. Yeah, it came from, uh, George Harrison, actually, and, yeah.
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Hereís Ann Voskamp for you. You know what, if Ann Voskamp was to write a biography of Jeff Lynne, Iíd probably read that.
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Oh, you know what, but she might have a lot of dashes and such. Oh, okay. Right, her ambiguity and her, her writing style.
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Jeff was broken. There are people giving it forward today, thatís giving it forward,
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G -I -F -T, by the way, giving it forward, yeah, yeah. And donít think that every gift of grace, every act of kindness, isnít a quake in a heart that moves another heart to give.
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That sounds very, uh, like social gospel, right?
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I mean, isnít that what that is? That is like three, four, that is completely removed from the gospel itself.
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The gospel, the good news isnít that youíre paying something forward to somebody else. Thatís not the gospel. I think she knows about 2K theology, two -kingdom theology.
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Donít say that this isnít what a broken -hearted world desperately needs. Donít say it isnít how to change a broken world.
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What if the truth really is that every tremor of kindness here erupts in a miracle elsewhere in the world?
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I donít, I donít, there is nothing remotely biblical about that. Why is
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Ann Voskamp, why does anybody listen to her? Steve, weíre going to get in trouble today because we are laughing.
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Uh -oh. Right? Yeah, I canít do that. Remember back to the day when we were mocking? Listen, I feel sad for everybody who buys her books, everybody who listens to her, and everybody who thinks that she has anything intelligent to say about the nature of God or the gospel.
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Well, then if weíre going to offend people, we might as well really offend them. Thereís only one thing worse than a
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Christian lady reading Ann Voskamp. A Christian man reading Ann Voskamp. A Christian man reading Ann Voskamp. Yeah, that is pretty bad.
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Yeah. So, we encourage you to go to the website, ìWise in His Eyesî if youíd like to see some of the quotes there. And we just want you to stay away from this.
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Why accept the gruel full of BBís and eating it like that when you can just read some excellent books about the nature and work of God.
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And why wouldnít you do that? Men who have been gifted over the centuries to teach the truth. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of Godís Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.
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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. Weíre right on Route 110 in West Boylston.
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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.