Radek Kolarik Interview

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, and I usually interview people over the phone, so I�ve got this little setup here.

I think it�s called, let�s see, Inkeeper 1X Digital Hybrid JK Audio, I don�t know, some call box.

The fun part about the call box is it has a drop button, so if I don�t like what Phil Johnson is saying,

I can just drop the phone call. But I rarely get guests besides Pastor Steve in the studio, especially all the way from the

Czech Republic. So today we have a wonderful privilege here at No Compromise Radio to have my friend

Radek here in the studio on this bright and early New England morning.

Radek Kolarik, welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. Thank you, Mike. All right, now, first of all, you know,

I�m the typical American, and my accent isn�t very good. Tell me how to say your last name in Czech.

My last name is Radek, I mean, my last name is Kolarik, my whole name is Radek Kolarik.

All right, great. And you are a pastor in the Czech Republic, and so tell us a little bit about the ministry there.

I�ve been to the church building and have seen you behind the scenes. What are you doing in the

Czech Republic? Well, we started 10 years ago as a youth group ministry. It�s a town of 10 ,000 people, no

Bible -believing church. So when we first got there with my wife, you know, there were a couple of guys that were interested in Christianity and Bible, and they actually got saved,

God regenerated them and saved them, and they were looking for somebody who would teach them Bible.

And they tried the Roman Catholic Church, and they shortly realized that what�s being taught from the pulpit there and what�s in the

Bible are two different things. So they were looking for somebody to, you know, come and teach them

Bible. So me and my best friend, we did. We came there, and we started a youth ministry, and it grew over the years, and now we have a little

Bible -teaching church there in the town, and we�re trying to proclaim Christ and make

His name glorious and known in that town. Rodik, tell our listeners a little bit about the

Czech Republic, and are most people there Roman Catholic? Are they Lutheran?

Are they atheist? What�s your religious background?

Well, it�s really sad because it�s going downhill. I think it has been said many times that Czech Republic should be like the third most atheistic country around the globe.

I�m not sure if that�s accurate, but I heard it many times. So a lot of atheists, when it comes to religion, the

Roman Catholic religion is very heavy there, especially in the Moravian region where we live, and, you know, just a lot of people that don�t believe in God, if they believe in God, it�s probably

Roman Catholic religion. You know, some Jehovah Witnesses, some Mormons, and a lot of unbelievers.

Rodik, is it similar to Germany, where I think if you�re not mainstream, if you�re not a

Lutheran, if you�re not a Catholic, and you�re some Baptist, or you meet at some little church, and, you know, there�s 30 people or something, 50 people, in my mind, the

Germans look at you as some kind of sect, or heresy, or maybe a cult, or something, the weird people.

Is that how people see evangelical Christians in the Czech Republic? That�s a good question.

You know what, like, I would say if you are a Baptist, or if you are part of some kind of a denomination, you probably will not have that kind of a problem.

Our problem when we started 10 years ago in the town of Kuzim was that, you know, we really didn�t have any place to meet, so we were meeting in a car in the summer,

I mean, in a car in the winter, and in the woods in a summer kind of a thing, before we were able to get any kind of a rental.

You actually met in a car? Well, that was in the beginning, when it was just a couple of us, you know, I needed a place to meet with the boys, and do some

Bible study, and it was cold outside, and we didn�t have a place, so that was the only working place for some time.

But you know, like, we were meeting in our living room, so back then, they kind of looked at us cultish, and I�m super happy that now, after years,

I think four years ago, we started renting a place right on the main street, it�s right next to the pub, you know, so you have one door that leads to the pub, and then probably two feet away from that is a door that leads to a church, which used to be an old disco room.

So, I�m not sure if they look at us as a cult or something, we are part of the

Baptist Union in the Czech, and yeah, so. Radek, if people want to go to the website, is there a website that they can go to?

Is it in Czech only? Is it English? Where would they go online to learn more about you?

Yeah, well, right now we have a webpage, křesťanékořim .cz, that�s easy. Oh, okay, that�s easy.

Well, you know what, with some of the translation, web browsers and stuff like that, spell it out for us, so we could go if we needed to.

Oh, man, now you�re going to embarrass me in front of the whole nation. This is a worldwide show, bro.

Well, they could just type in your name, how do you spell your last name? K -O -L -A -R -I -K.

That�s for us people. You caught me off guard there. So, we have a little webpage, and then we have a

YouTube channel, so if people look at our YouTube, there are sermons in Czech, I�m not sure if anybody would be interested, but we have some interviews there that are in English, and we have some really interesting things there in English.

Okay, great, and how would you access that channel? Go to YouTube, and either try to spell my name, and it should find it, or try to write

Christian. Okay, and you know what we�ll try to do for the show? If you send me that link, Rodik will put it when we post the

No Compromise show. Rodik and I met in Berlin, he was attending the

EBTC, the European Biblical Training Center, Christian Andresen is there,

I went to school with Christian, and you have heard here on No Compromise Radio, Tomek being interviewed, and Tao, and Christian as well, and I met him, and I liked it that he wanted to be a preacher who would teach the

Bible verse by verse, and show people who Christ was every single week.

I know the Holy Spirit, he is the one that is working behind the scenes, but from a human perspective, who did he use to get you to say, �Philosophy of ministry should be verse by verse preaching, and I want to talk about Christ Jesus.�

Who taught you that? You know what, I would probably have to mention a couple of guys.

I would say, you know, people like Lance Roberts, who is a dear friend, a missionary in the

Czech Republic, would be definitely one of them. He has been there for 15 years, a faithful guy with his family, and he is dedicated to that kind of preaching, and you know, that would be probably the first name that pops up to my mind.

You know, I didn't grow up in a church that would be preaching Bible verse by verse, and I think it's phenomenal, that's what we are trying to do in our church.

We believe that the Word of God is inspired, you know, every single word in the original languages, and every verse is profitable.

So, we don't want to miss anything, we don't want to skip anything, I don't want to be preaching about love every single week, because, you know, that's special to my heart or whatever.

We want to cover the whole counsel of God, and so, yeah, that's what we are doing.

And I would say that probably in the last eight years, that's where we are headed.

And people like Lance, Marcus, he's another great dear friend, and then a couple other pastors encouraging me in that way.

Great. Well, I think to myself, the way we preach flows from a view of our

Scripture. So if we think the Scripture is errant, and there are some errors, or it's fallible, it could be untrustworthy, then maybe we don't talk about it all.

But if it is all profitable, if it is all God -breathed, then we should preach everything.

To me, the easiest way is verse by verse by verse. Would you ever preach on Doomsday? I saw the sign outside of the church.

Today is my Doomsday. I said to the congregation that Martin Luther said,

I have only two days on my calendar. Number one, today, and number two, that day, speaking of the day of the

Lord. And then after the service last Sunday, Roderick, I met a sweet young couple. They live in Boston area.

They were here visiting, and they're going to get married June 6th or something. And I said, okay, we'll make an exception for you.

You can have three days in your calendar, your wedding day, and those other two days. I just was reading 2

Timothy, and he talks in chapter three about the sacred writings that he had been taught.

Paul was talking about that to Timothy, and then he called it all scripture. And then Roderick, he says, as you know, in 2

Timothy 4 .2, preach the word. Now you've got sacred writings, all scripture.

Paul could have said, preach the sacred writings, or preach all scripture. But here he says, preach the word.

Don't you think there's an aspect to that where he's focusing on preaching the word that we would think of in the beginning was the word as Jesus Christ is called the word?

How important is it to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified on a regular basis and get rid of all the morality and moralistic teaching?

No, you know what, that's the most important. I recently read a sign at my brother -in -law's house.

He had a sign there that says, there is a power in the name of Jesus. And I know that there are different preachers that use it in a wrong way, and it's just very sad.

But there is a power in the name of Jesus, the power to save, the power to reconcile a sinner to a holy

God. I think that was the question that the reformers were asking, how can a sinner be reconciled to a holy

God? And the only answer is that it's only through Jesus Christ, only through grace, only by faith.

And if there is any hope, it's not going to come from this world, it's not going to come from the culture. It's not going to come from my degree or whatever.

It needs to come from the scriptures, it needs to come from Jesus Christ. And that's what we are trying to do as preachers every single

Sunday or whenever we have the opportunity to preach the scriptures, make

Christ known and make him glorious as he is.

Amen. Today we're talking to Roddick here on No Compromise Radio, a friend for many years and actually a student as well.

Can you imagine I'm your professor? I can. By chance, but a nice professor.

Speaking more about Christ Jesus for a minute here, more of course we can talk about him for more than that.

But when I watch a little kid, a little child, and his daddy loves soccer, he loves football, he has a special team, he loves a certain baseball team or something.

He loves this, that, or the other. I can tell his dad has spoken well of that team, and the dad likes the team, so does the son.

And in a way that I don't want to make a one -to -one correspondence, but I think we should make much of Christ.

When I read Hebrews chapter 1, and the father says of the son, chapter 1 verse 8, your throne

O God, speaking about Jesus, is forever and ever the scepter of uprightness, is the scepter of your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness, therefore your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.

So I see the father commending the son, speaking well of the son.

And we are children of the father, and we have, I don't mean a weird divine nature like some kind of weird faith people, but we are partakers of the divine nature, 2

Peter. So I want to speak well of the son as well. Yeah, amen to that. Tell us a little bit about how you got saved.

When I'm in the Czech Republic, I don't see churches on every corner that are proclaiming Christ Jesus, and so it just was luck and chance, and you saved yourself, right?

You should have seen Rodik's face. Uh -oh. No. I had a huge privilege to grow up in a

Christian family. My grandfather was a Baptist pastor during the communism, and he was a great servant of God.

You know, he didn't have any education. He didn't have any seminary education. He wanted to go to seminary, but he couldn't because just the time he was living in and the situation with a communist country.

So he was a guy who boldly proclaimed Christ, and, you know, when people speak about my grandfather, they remember him as a guy who didn't need a microphone.

He was behind a pulpit, and he was just preaching the word. So I had a great opportunity to meet him a couple times.

You know, he died when I was around nine or ten years old, but I have the best memories for him.

Godly man. My father and mom, my mom, you know, Christ -loving Christians.

So I had a huge privilege to be growing up in a country that's 99 -whatever -percent atheistic, growing up in a

Christian home, hearing the gospel. And you know, when I was 18 years old, until then,

I think I was playing a lot of games with God, you know, thinking I can go to church and, you know,

I can say I'm a Christian and then on the side live my own life. So I kind of have two faces, and when

I was 18 years old, somebody preached the gospel, you know, once again, and God showed me, you know, you cannot live like that, you are not number one, you cannot have your life on the side, you need to surrender.

So that's what he did in my life. He saved me. I had no part in that. And then a year after that,

I went to a Christian camp to be a counselor. And that's, you know,

I saw non -Christians come in there, I saw gospel preached to them, and I saw what

God is doing in their lives. And I was just thinking, you know, I don't want to do anything else in my life than that.

So that's how God brought me to ministry. That's how he immersed me in it, and ever since, that's what

I'm doing. Bartik, your wife, Laura, is from Maine. Is she from Maine, the

United States, originally? She would say I'm all over the place, because she's from a family of an army guy.

So they traveled all around, but that's where her dad has his roots in Maine.

So that's where they live right now. All right. And so you met her in the

Czech Republic when she went over as probably a short -term missionary or something to serve? Yeah, yeah.

I was a counselor, and I helped with her translation, and I made sure that I can be in her class and translate for her and help her with other projects during the week.

Now, see, my pride and my sense of worth, now,

Radek, is hurt, because this whole time when I was in the Czech Republic and you were translating for me as I was preaching,

I thought I was your number one. And you know, I know Steve Lawson has just been in the

Czech Republic and you translated for him, and I'm just very heartbroken now.

Now you should be excited, you know? You are up there, Mike. You are right next to my wife, you are right next to Dr.

Lawson. If our listeners want to learn more about the

Czech Republic, I'm thinking to myself, Radek, we've got Jan Hus and the Moravians.

I don't mean they hung out together, although there's some probably influence there. Tell us a little bit about Jan Hus, and many people know about Tyndale and Luther and some of the

Reformers, but before Luther, before Tyndale, and I say

Jan Hus, I'm sure you'll have the correct pronunciation. Who is Jan Hus and why does it matter?

Well, it matters a great deal, and if you want to hear some great sermons and teachings, if you go to our

YouTube channel, Křestenej Kuřim, or whatever, we have the

Czech Shepherds Conference there and Dr. Lawson is preaching there, so it's

English and Czech, but you can learn a lot about Jan Hus there and things like that. So just in a nutshell, he was a

Roman Catholic priest. He got his hands on writings of Wycliffe from England, and he started reading them, he started studying them, he was actually transcribing them.

He was paid to transcribe them, and that's where he saw his teachings, salvation is by grace through faith, and so he started preaching that.

He started preaching that right there in Prague. He started preaching in Czech, which was very unusual, right there in Bethlehem Chapel.

He was one of the leaders of Charles University, which was a huge, big university, and he was not fully reformed, so some people have a problem with that, but he was on the right track, and God was changing him, and he was preaching the gospel.

I'm not ashamed to say that, and he ran into a couple problems. The Roman Catholic Church didn't like him for obvious reasons, preaching in Czech, preaching against indulgences and against all these things, and it went so far that they shut churches in Prague, they said, we are not going to open them unless you turn

Hus to us. And of course, if the Roman Catholic churches are closed, there's no salvation, there's no mercy, because all these things are happening in the church through the hands of priests, so there was one way how they tried for the

Czech people to turn Hus in, and he would be preaching to thousands. There would be thousands and thousands of people standing, not sitting, but standing in the

Bethlehem Chapel and outside of the Bethlehem Chapel just to hear him preach in Czech.

Well, long story short, the Roman Catholics had a council, or however you say that.

They invited him, I'm pretty sure he knew, it's a trap, but he went, just as Luther many years later, went to defend himself, they didn't give him a chance to defend himself, they put him to prison for a year or two, or however long.

He got very sick, very ill, finally, he got in front of the council, and they told him, you need to say that you recant, just as they did to Luther years later.

He did not. They stripped him of his priestly clothes, they took away the priestly rights from him, and they burned him at a stake, then they took his ashes and dumped them to the river, so Czech people would have no memory and no place to remember

Hus. So he went before Luther, Luther got some of Hus' works, he got in touch with them, and I think

Hus was a little spark, and Luther was on fire because of that spark.

And I would just say one more thing, that's really encouraging, if I may, Hus told the people that were doing this to him, because Hus actually means in English goose.

So he told them, you know, you can kill the goose, but there is going to be a swan that's going to come.

And back then he had no idea about Luther, it was kind of his hope. And if you go to Germany, sometimes you see a

Lutheran in the background, you see a swan, and that's what many people think about Luther, that he is the swan that Hus, the goose that was burned, kind of predicted that that's going to come.

The swan will not be silent. And the swan's not going to be silent. That's right. Great story. Thank you, Roderick, for giving us a little bit of update on that.

I want you to know that this church that I pastor and have the privilege of preaching at every week is called Bethlehem Bible Church.

And I don't really like the name on one hand, I inherited the name, and it means, you know, house of bread,

Bethlehem, and so that part's nice, you know, we give them bread, it's like water and bread, we give people food, you know.

But when I stood in Bethlehem Chapel in Prague, and I thought Hus was here preaching, okay,

Bethlehem's not a bad name after all. No. So I want our listeners to know that Roderick is preaching in this church in Czech Republic, and there are some

American supporters and other supporters, if they wanted to support you, how would they go about doing that?

Because I've seen what goes on behind the scenes, I've seen the lake where you chop the ice to go baptize people,

I'm sure you have needs and resources that you'd like. How would people get in touch with you if they wanted to give

American dollars to the work? I think the best way is through an organization called Philippian Fellowship.

It's a small organization that connects pastors from Eastern Europe, Czech, Romania, and Hungary.

And the neat thing about it is that, you know, if your listeners are interested in supporting this way, which would be phenomenal, 100 % of the donations go straight to us.

So there's no fee whatsoever. You can get your tax receipts and things like that.

So Philippian Fellowship, just search for them on Google, and it's going to come up and the instructions are right there.

All right, wonderful. Well, we've only got about two minutes left, a minute and a half. I was gladly preaching in the

Czech Republic, Rodik is translating, we have a wonderful party after the conference, and it should have been a concert too.

And I eat the hazelnuts, I have the reaction, and I walk up to the bedroom because I'm having anaphylactic problems,

I can't breathe, my face is swollen. And I don't know if I even knocked on the door, but I'm like, Rodik, you've got to get me to the hospital or something.

And he looked at me and off to the hospital. What was the name of it? Was it in Brno? It was in Brno.

It was some emergency place in Brno. I think we made it in under 10 minutes, that was pretty fast. I was thinking to myself,

Lord, I don't want to die yet, but if I have to, I have to. I've taught Rodik some expository preaching principles, now

I'm teaching him how to die well. You did a good job, I'm ready, I'm ready.

Text my wife, tell her I love her, and that's it. So on good days, I think Rodik saved my life.

On bad days, I think his wife tried to kill me. You know, if he want to kill you, he would be dead.

See? That's right. Well, Rodik Clark is on No Compromise Radio today. He's here in the

States visiting with his family, seeing his wife's family, and then back to the Czech Republic.

Rodik, I'm thankful for your ministry. I'm thankful that behind the scenes, you just preach, stewards are to be found faithful, and because of the

Lord's work in your life, I'm glad to see that you're faithful. Thank you for your ministry. Thank you for having me.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at 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.