Was Jesus Male?

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. I need to adjust these headphones a little bit. I sit here in the studio, surrounded by books, papers, and angry darkness. If you don't know what angry darkness is and you're a new listener, you're going to have to go back to when Steve and I did the show on angry darkness.

Justification by Faith Alone and Christian Liberty

I'm still having a hard time dealing with the Wall Street Journal's article on March 8th, Some Church Folk Ask What Would Jesus Brew? Others Abstain from Tasting Trend, A Swaddling Ale Falls Flat, written by Erica Phillips and Ben Kiesling.

Pastor Matt Bistei, who started Valley Church three years ago, stated that the goal of WWJB, What Would Jesus Brew, isn't to be churchy, obviously, but rather to reach out to people in a loving, grace-filled way that meets people where they are and as they are.

We're meeting people where they are, wounded and broken included. What has happened over the last 15, 20 years, as thankfully many evangelicals have embraced the Reformed faith, which includes justification by faith alone, and if you look at the book of Romans, you will see that Romans 14 and 15 that talk about legalism, liberty, who we are in Christ, and what can we do, follows.

This is going to be an odd statement, I know. Romans 14 and 15 are after Romans 3, 4, and 5. Pretty amazing, isn't it? That's an amazing truth that 14 and 15 are after 3, 4, and 5. Now, why is that important?

Well, if you have been justified and declared righteous in a forensic way, in a judicial way, easy for me to say, having imputed into your account an alien righteousness that is a righteousness outside of yourself, God's righteousness, Christ's righteousness, and now you're in Christ, united with Christ, union with Christ, all your sins were credited to Christ's account, reckoned to His account, logizimai, you now, based on what you eat or don't eat, drink or don't drink, wear or don't wear, and the rest of the things that are included in Romans 14 and 15, you can't make yourself more justified.

You can't make yourself less justified. It is a work of God, and through the non-meritorious instrument of faith, you have these great benefits. And so, you can't be more united to Christ, less united, more loved by Christ, less loved by Christ, based on if you drink Diet Coke, caffeine, Pete's Coffee, or anything else.

Alcohol does not change your justification either. And so, while you know on No Compromise Radio, I'm not promoting drinking, drunkenness, excess. My father was a drunk, I was a drunk, my grandfather was a drunk, grandma had to quick go Friday afternoons to get the paycheck from the boss, so grandpa wouldn't drink at all.

My wife's dad was a drunk, mom was a drunk, I mean, the list goes on and on. I'm not pro-drunkenness. But I'm not going to call alcohol evil for the same reasons I'm not going to call sex evil, and I'm not going to call guns evil, because it's what the human heart does with creation.

I'm not going to call food evil. People are bulimic, people are anorexic, people overeat, they're gluttonous. It's not the food's fault. People say, well, a lot of damage has been caused by alcohol. No, no, it's the human heart under the influence of alcohol, unless somebody's poured Everclear down your throat.

And even then, then that's not the alcohol's fault, it is the person's fault who's assaulting you. And so if you say, well, alcohol causes a lot of problems, guns cause a lot of problems, sex causes a lot of problems, food causes a lot of problems, even sleep, people sleep too much, sleep causes a lot of problems.

See, the problem isn't with the sleep. So back to Romans 4, 3, 4, and 5. Justification by faith alone. We see that in Romans chapter 3, not by works of the law can anyone be justified by no means. Then we see a wonderful illustration of this fact in Romans 4, Abraham reckoned to him as righteousness.

And we see the benefits of justification in Romans chapter 5. Peace with God, access to God. If he has loved us when we were enemies, how much more will he love us as friends? Then we see legalism and the licentious issues and antinomian issues pop up as Paul addresses them in Romans 14 and 15.

So back to this, what would Jesus brew issue? A competition. Mr. Hughes had an idea at a meeting of church elders. It was quiet, recalled Mr. Hughes. He is Jeffrey Hughes, a member of St. Paul's in Wilmington, North Carolina, Paul's Episcopal Church.

Then everyone started laughing. St. Paul's team brew unto others. Mr. Hughes also came up with a slogan, God's peace, happy yeast. He built a giant four-foot trophy with a giant stein on it, which went to the apostles from St. Mary Catholic Parish for their tasty double India pale ale.

It's just foolish. It's foolishness. Now elders aren't supposed to sit long next to wine. That's the qualification of an elder. An elder doesn't have to be a teetotaler. There are no higher standards for elders beyond this.

The higher standard is not what we put on it. Jesus through his apostolic messengers gives us what the Bible teaches. Now elders can be teetotalers if they like. For instance, I don't drink alcohol because I've had a track record of abusing alcohol, probably spending enough money on alcohol and gained enough weight with alcohol that I'm just not drinking alcohol.

I might have a NyQuil here or there on the rocks. Does anybody drink NyQuil on the rocks? I got some of that Z-Quil the other day. I don't think there's alcohol in that. It didn't help me go to sleep.

But the young, restless, and reformed pushing drinking. It's not wise. It's not good. It's not smart. Leaders in the church should know that what they do, the other folks are prone to do. If I start riding a bicycle, you know what?

Some guys around the church are going to start riding bicycles. Why? That's just what happens because leadership influences. So for instance, I don't think it's a sin to go to a movie. Maybe some cities are movies.

Some movies are sinful. But I don't get a bunch of church people to say, let's all go see The Hobbit and Carpool because they're going to do that anyway. I'm going to try to use my influence to have them do something that's more productive.

Something maybe they wouldn't do normally. Now I'm not uber consistent because people probably go to the beach and I organize beach parties. So, you know, the hobgoblin of consistency is not good. Here it says, let's see, humble fryer, oatmeal stout.

Not everyone welcomes the marriage of church and brew. Now this is interesting. Joe Godfrey, a veteran Southern Baptist pastor who runs a policy and education group addressing moral concerns such as alcohol and drug abuse, says it burdens him to see churches supporting alcohol consumption and homebrewing.

Actually many of the Southern Baptists are so teetotaling that I disagree with them on it. Although I know where the convictions are coming from. But I agree with Joe Godfrey here because, why? Because I don't want to have leadership support and encourage homebrewing.

You want to homebrew? If I come to your house and you have a homebrew set up, I'm not going to say a word. I'll probably ask you to show it to me so I can see it. If you offer me a beer, I'll say no thanks.

If you say, pastor, would it offend you if I have a beer tonight while you're here? It's not going to offend me when I'm overseas. Indians who are Christians in India usually don't drink, and Germans, you have to drink if you're a Christian, although I still say no.

Mr. Godfrey testified recently before the Alabama State Legislature in order to prevent his home state from legalizing homebrewing. Before Prohibition, when saloons were running rampant, churches were the voice of reason.

Now it's in his right to go do that. I personally wouldn't go that far. But now we've got Father Brown says he tells skeptics that it's all in keeping with the monastic tradition of hospitality. Oh, so see, there we go.

Reverend Brown of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church outside Dallas, playing host to an Octoberfest celebration with a roasted pig, bounce house, cake walk, and of course a beer tasting competition. See this is just foolish.

It's not wise. I think drunkenness is a sin, but I'm not going to try to promote people at our church to, you know, look at Christian beer history from St. Patrick to Arthur Guinness like Pastor Besti did.

So anywhere, anyway, beer gives us the opportunity to tap into that deeply God-given desire to create. So I've got to create a bit too heavy on the spruce tree extract. All right, what's next here on No Compromise Radio?

Whether Jesus Was Male

Feminist theologian claims we can't be sure Jesus was male. Christian Post, March 7th, 2003, written by Brittany Smith, of course, Dr. Susanna Cornwall, a professor of Manchester University's Lincoln Theological Institute, wrote a recent paper.

Jesus' male was simply a, quote, best guess. See, I'm telling you, here's the point on No Compromise Radio today. When you abandon the Bible, you're smoked. You are completely inebriated with self and other authorities, to try to mix the metaphors here.

Her paper, titled Intersex and Ontology, in response to the church, women bishops, and provision, said we can't know with any certainty that Jesus did not have... I can't even read it. I can't read it.

There's no way I can read this. It is not possible to assert with any degree of certainty that Jesus was male as we now define maleness. Peter Mullen, a priest with the Church of England, wrote a response to Cornwall in the Telegraph.

Please, let's have a voice of reason here from the Christian Post. In it, he refutes her claims, saying that the Gospels were written in Greek and they always use the male pronoun to refer to Jesus. Not once do they use the equally available feminine or neuter pronouns.

Thank you. He also notes that the Gospel writers seem to have assumed that Jesus was a man. You just give the Bible to a person in India, Sri Lanka, America, and just say, read it and see what they do.

Ah, Jesus was a girl. And if masculinity is recognized by particular characteristics, there is a pretty huge pile of circumstantial evidence. Kind of like, you know, in Isaiah where they plucked his beard out.

Maybe that would be it. In the infancy stories, Jesus is referred to as a male child. On his ritual pilgrimage to the temple when he was 12, he is described as a boy. Well, I hate to say a technical Latin term on No Compromise Radio, but I'm going to have to stoop to Latin right now.

Duh. Oh, come on. How would we term—you know, what terms would we give for Jesus if he wasn't male? So the son of the Most High turns into what? The daughter of the Most High? See, there's a reason why we have God used—described as male.

One of the reasons is in paganism, you have the Mother Earth. Mother is associated with paganism. Not because if you have a mother, are your wife is a mom to your kids. She's a pagan. That's not my point.

Although she may be. She might be on the fast track if you let her have the What Would Jesus Brew beer. But fathers and mothers, there's a different connotation when you look into paganism. That's all.

That's all I'm trying to say here on No Compromise Radio. I wonder, since Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day in the temple, according to the law of Moses, does the Bible say anything about female circumcision?

I don't think so. Chris Rosenborough said, if Jesus wasn't a male, the obvious question is then what did they have circumcised? So, I think Rosenborough is right. This is idolatry, and this is the latest.

See, here's the thing. They can't have this person rule over them. It all goes back to submission. And as much as all of us have trouble submitting and going along with authorities over us, whether it's our spouse, that is the husband, government, work, elders, boss, that is one of the things.

That is an eternal verity. You look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1, 1 and following, the eternal Son, who is equal with the eternal Father and the eternal Spirit, the Son gladly submits to the Father. Functionally, there are some differences.

By essence, equal. Submission does not equal inferiority. But see, once you have the notion in your mind that your idol is feminism, your idol is equality for function as well, whether it's LBGTQXYZ or feminism, then you've got to try to say something about the Bible, especially if you're at a church.

Right? I don't care if some feminist want to say Jesus was this, that, or the other, but when you're at a church and you actually have Bibles in your pews, and you have Bible readings, the gospel reading, you have hymns, then you've got to try to concoct this method.

And so we're either under the authority of Scripture or we are over it. But we can't be both at the same time. So I think I'll just stick to the Bible. Just read the Bible and you'll come to a good conclusion.

Fasting, Silence, and Listening to Jesus

Now, I've got the New Christianity today in front of me, and I talked to Patrick Slimon about this a little bit, but I'm very sad to read the Village Green, leading Christians address open questions. And it says here that what classic spiritual discipline needs the most renewal among American Christians?

So, Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove, pastor of the Rootbah House, I don't know why that seems so funny. What does that mean? Says we should be fasting. So, scanning through here, I do see one verse used, Matthew 6, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet too, even with the crust where there is companionship, Dorothy Day used to say. What does that have to do with anything? I have no idea. I don't think fasting is for today.

As a prescription, I think you can look at fasting in the Bible, and when you're reading about fasting, when you fast, it says that in the Gospels, that's before the cross. That is Old Testament, Mosaic law, pre-New Covenant, friends.

Dallas Willard, you know what he would say. He'd either say walking in some mazes or something, or here's silence. Dallas Willard said silence is the most classic spiritual discipline that needs the most renewal.

Should have said what monastic Roman Catholic mystical thing should evangelicals be doing today that they're not, because that's exactly what this is. Silence. Now, is silence golden? We ought to think about, you know, not running our mouths all the time, which is hard to do on radio, by the way, but silence so we can listen, so we can listen to Jesus, so we can empty our minds?

I don't think so, but the one that's the craziest to me is the Ann Graham Lotz listening to Jesus. Now, I like to listen to Jesus. The other day on my iPhone, on the airplane, I listened to Marks chapter 1 through 7, just listening, because I wanted to hear the words of Jesus.

I wanted to hear one of the Gospels just read. There's something about listening to the audible sound of Scripture reading, and when we have public Scripture reading here, when it's my turn as an elder to read the Scriptures, I have my Bible open.

You can be thankful for that. When it's not my turn to read the Scriptures, because we have an elder, out of all the elders, we just rotate Scripture reading. I usually have my Bible there, but I just close my eyes and listen, because it is a powerful thing to listen to God's Word.

See Revelation chapter 1 when I'm following. But this is crazy. This is kooky. She needs to do more of the silence stuff, because she takes Mark chapter 9—I talked about this with Patrick, but I just want to talk about it a little bit more—reading the Bible and then just jamming yourself into it.

Have you ever seen collagen injections? How about the injection of self into the Scriptures? Where are you in Mark chapter 9? I'll tell you where. Nowhere. Nowhere. It's the transfiguration of Jesus. When she reads the words, there He was transfigured before them, it says this, God, He will reveal Himself to me in fresh ways when I make the time and effort to draw aside with Him by myself.

That's the lesson? That's not the lesson. That's false. Don't believe that. That's not the lesson. That wasn't the lesson for even the disciples, because it was initiated by Jesus, motivated by Jesus.

These disciples didn't say, well, I'm going to make some time for Jesus. This is the transfiguration. I'm going to make an effort to draw aside with Him by myself. The text says, Mark 9, 2, after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John with Him and led them up a high mountain where they were all alone.

There He was transfigured before them. Now, if I were going to teach an English class and talk about here, theologically, who is active in this and who is passive, I think we're going to know the answers pretty quickly.

So here we have one—why am I always against mysticism on No Compromise Radio? Because it destroys the foundation of sola scriptura, sufficiency of the Word. It makes the Scriptures deficient, and then I have to have this kind of stuff, this kooky fasting stuff.

Don't eat for a while and have some visions or hear from God or walk around or take the Bible out of context. Just read the Bible. You think, wow, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. When the text says, all alone in Mark 9, Lot says it means, quote, He wants me to give Him undivided attention.

As I ask myself those questions, I listen for His voice to speak to me. I reword each as a question to myself. For example, when was the last time I went on a personal retreat with Jesus? I don't think that was a personal retreat with Peter, James, and John.

I think they were afraid. I think they were stumbling. I think that was frightening. It was no little getaway retreat. The Mark passage, Lot says, has another lesson about time with Jesus. When Jesus, James, John, and Peter returned from their retreat, they found that the disciples who had stayed behind were frustrated and powerless to help others.

Could it be that one reason the Church today has not had more of an impact on our culture is that disciples are not spending enough time with Jesus? It's time to come with me by yourselves now. Friends, don't spend time with Jesus hacking up the Bible with a dull machete called the latz hermeneutic.

Please don't do that. Just read the Bible. God, show me Jesus. God, thank you for Jesus. God, as I see that sin is described in the Bible, thank you that Jesus covered my sin. God, help me to think like you think.

Help me to get the point of the passage. What is the point of the Transfiguration passage? And I'm not there. Where's Waldo? Where's Waldo's gone? He's not in the house. He's not there. Where can I be found in the Bible?

What does this mean to me? This is not good for you if this is the way you study the Bible. Now, someone on No Compromise Radio wrote to Christianity Today and said, I should be a guest on The Village Green.

Leading Christians address open questions. The problem is, I'm not a leading Christian. I hope I'm not a following Christian. Follow Christ, of course. But I don't think they're going to like what I have to say.

What classical spiritual discipline? What do you mean, classical spiritual discipline? What's missing from the people today? Probably I would talk about Sola Scriptura and the Bible and its efficiency.

So it just goes against fasting, goes against listening, goes against silence. Well, my name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. No Compromise Radio, NoCo90. You can get that on YouTube. God bless you.