Peyote Christianity

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.

Reading Systematic Theology and the Doctrine of the Cross

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. I still feel a little under the weather. I was just at Branson, in Branson the last weekend, and I was glad I didn't get sick before, but I came back to New England.

It's cold, rainy here, and then you get a little sick. So great time at Worldview Weekend. I encourage you to go to worldviewweekend .com. There's all kinds of speakers there. Good to talk behind the scenes to Jesse and Usama and Mike and Justin.

I met Randy White. I hadn't met him before he was speaking there, but didn't talk to him very much. And let's see what else. It's funny. One night, Kim and I went down to the pool slash sauna slash jacuzzi in Branson, and I spoke earlier in the day, and I saw the little wristband around the lady's wrist as she got into the jacuzzi.

They were probably in their mid -60s. Oh, what's that for? Of course, I knew it was for Worldview Weekend. She said, oh, there's a Bible conference in town. It's Oak Ridge Boys Theater. It's really good.

Speakers from all across the world and stuff come here to teach the Bible, and it was really good. And so I thought, well, let's play along. She can't tell who I am. I don't have my glasses on, and there I am in some jacuzzi, some salt water jacuzzi or something they said it was.

Anyway, oh yeah, you know, this speaker and that speaker, and she was going on. I think Kim said something about, well, you know, was there one from Massachusetts? Oh yeah, he is at a church there, and it's, you know, from Massachusetts, a larger church.

We couldn't do the game any longer. We had to say who we were. So that was fun. Branson, Missouri. Boy, I felt like I was back home in Nebraska. Felt like I was gonna call up DeKalb or something and order some seeds, some fertilizer, pest control substances or something.

Herman Bovink, Reformed Dogmatics. It has been a joy for me to read the Systematic Theology. Four volumes. I'm just reading one of the volumes at the moment. And I encourage you, listeners, to grab a Systematic Theology and just read through it.

You don't have to read through it like you would a book. Can't read anything else until that's done. But just here or there, you pick it up, pick up where you left off, concepts about who God is, who Jesus is, the plan of salvation.

And as I've said before, I have loved Robert Raymond's Systematic Theology. I have attempted to start other Systematic Theologies and have not quite finished. I've read Burkhoff, Millard Erickson. Who else?

Grudem. And then I have some other ones that I haven't finished yet. I have James P. Boyce, B .O .Y. Turrett and those kind of things. So anyway, Bovink is really excellent. And here's what Bovink says.

In the cry of Jesus, we are dealing not with a subjective, but with an objective God-forsakenness. So in Matthew 27, Jesus says, remember, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And of course, he's quoting Psalm 22 and the father turning his back on the son.

And then you have to say it because how else do we describe it? As it were, how does that happen? How does one God, three persons, one turn his back on the other? I mean, so you have to just be careful here.

In the cry of Jesus, we are dealing not with subjective, but with an objective God-forsakenness. He did not feel alone, but had in fact been forsaken by God. So you see where Bovink's going? Not subjective, but objective.

His feeling was not an illusion, not based on the false view of the situation, but corresponded with reality. See, he really was forsaken by God. It was objective. On the other hand, this must not be understood in the sense that the father was personally angry with Christ.

Calvin puts it very correctly. Yet we do not suggest that God was ever inimical or angry toward him. How could he be angry toward his beloved son in whom his heart reposed? Matthew 3 .17. And so to interrupt Calvin there, who's being quoted by Bovink, this is the special choice of mine, my specially beloved.

This is my beloved son in whom I'm well-pleased, both at the baptism and at the transfiguration, the special object of my love. That hasn't changed just because he's a sin bearer, in other words. Calvin goes on.

How could Christ by his intercession appease the father toward others if he were himself hateful to God? This is what we are saying. He bore the weight of divine severity since he was stricken and afflicted, Isaiah 53 .5, by God's hand and experienced all the signs of a wrathful and avenging God.

Also, on the cross, now we're back to Bovink, Jesus remained the beloved son, the son of his father's good pleasure. Precisely in his suffering and death, Christ offered his greatest, most complete obedience to the will of the father.

Philippians 2 .8, Hebrews 5 .8, Hebrews 10 .5 -10, Hebrews 12 .2. And Jesus himself tells us that the hour would come when all his disciples would abandon him, but that he himself would not be alone, for the father was with him, John 16 .32.

And so when you think of the cross, you ought to think with objective lenses versus subjective lenses. The father was always pleased with the son. How could he ever be angry with him, even as he's doing the father's will?

This is the job that God the father sent Jesus the son to do. I have been sent, I have been sent, I have been sent, I have been sent to this very thing by God the father. Well, what else does Bovink say, B-A-V-I-N-C-K?

Reformed theologians, however, could not speak along those lines since Christ is a true human being, was certainly obligated to keep the law, to love God above all and to love his neighbor as himself.

Yet they rightly rejected the sentiments of Piscator. It is one single work that the father assigned to him and that he finished in his death, John 4 .34, John 17 .4, John 19 .30. His ministry was completed in the giving of his life as a ransom for many, Matthew 20 .28.

Even Paul, who powerfully emphasizes the cross of Christ, regards his death not as the whole, but as the consummation of his obedience. He was born under law, Galatians 4 .4, in the likeness of sinful flesh, Romans 8 .3.

Did not live to please himself, Romans 15 .3. At his incarnation, he already emptied himself and assumed the form of a bondservant. He continually humbled himself and became obedient to death, Philippians 2.

So it is one single ministry and one obedience which gives life-giving justification to many. The case is rather that Christ's entire life and work from his conception to his death was substitutionary in nature.

Herman Bavink, Reformed Dogmatics, page three, seven, eight. See, doesn't that make you want to read the book? It makes you want to read that book. Well, what else is here on my desk? I read an article the other day that you should read.

It's disturbing in one sense, but necessary. Augusto Zimmerman writes the article, Augusto Zimmerman. And let's see, you know, when I read things like this, I'm such a victim of pop culture. I want to say with John Lennon, I don't believe in Zimmerman speaking.

Bob Dylan, of course, Steve Cooley would know that. And that's good. Feminism and Gender Side of Unwanted Girls. Feminism and Gender Side of Unwanted Girls, Augusto Zimmerman. Susan B. Anthony, 1820 to 1906.

Of course, introducing women's suffrage into the United States, women's rights. Of course, they weren't allowed to vote, but she was against abortion. She called it child murder. And this article is basically how feminism has hijacked women's rights.

Our women's rights has hijacked feminism in regards to the subject of abortion. In other words, abortion now is the issue that everything else revolves around. And Susan B. Anthony and these original people wouldn't be in agreement.

Here's what Susan B. Anthony says. I deplore the horrible crime of child murder, no matter what the motive. Love of ease or a desire to save self from suffering. The unborn innocent. The woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed.

Guilty? Yes, it will burden her conscience in life. It will burden her soul in death. Susan B. Anthony, of all people, would say that. And this article goes on to try to paint the picture that a baby in the womb should be protected.

Some things I never even considered. Did you know that you have to delay capital punishment if the person who's supposed to die is a pregnant woman? You have to delay punishment until she delivers the baby.

Why? Because they know it's a baby. It's only not a baby if the mother decides to kill it. Mary Ann Schaefer, S-H-A-E-F-E-R, says that when you try, and it's been more than tried, it's successful, but when you marry feminism in abortion, she calls it terrorist feminism.

And she says that it makes the whole feminist movement be, quote, willing to kill for the cause you believe in. Willing to kill for the cause you believe in. Legal scholar Erica Baciochi, B-A-C-I-O-C-H-I, who grew up pro-choice, because basically if you're a feminist, you have to be pro-choice, rejected women's rights, quote-unquote, and then said, well, now I wonder about real feminism.

Quote, abortion hijacked feminism. Rather than elevate the status of the feminine virtues in the public square and teach the power of serving as a true feminist ought, mainstream feminism, having allowed itself to be corrupted by the abortion imperative, taught women to place ambitions and desires of the self above those in need, and to value power more than truth and love.

Some women persuaded by this corrupt feminism have sacrificed their very womanliness. Most manifest in the ability to bear a child by having abortions in order to continue pursuing success in the public square.

Such a course of action is inherently anti-woman. Hearts will not change concerning abortion until women insist through both words and deeds, the acts of love that are far more impressive, attractive, and noble than acts of power.

Reminds me when I was in a liquor store, way before I was saved in Southern California, and right behind me was Helen Reddy. I didn't say anything, but the song went through my mind. Randy Alcorn said, it is ironic that abortion has been turned into a women's rights issue when it has encouraged male irresponsibility and failure to take care of women and children.

We have to have abortion on demand. So say the feminists. And we want to be equal with men in every regard. And we want men to stop doing the wrong things. And yet, this is encouraging male irresponsibility.

So if you get a girl pregnant, just kill the baby. Just kill the baby. Here's what the author says. And the author Augusto Zimmerman says, indeed, one of the greatest ironies, this was the shocking part to me.

I mean, it's like a dumb moment, but it was still shocking. One of the greatest ironies of feminism is that all its ideological advocacy of abortion has unintentionally sanctioned the elimination of unwanted girls across the globe.

And so you think of China and other countries, they want boys. It's called son preference, S-O-N, Pakistan, Yemen. Some, according to this article, want sons over daughters, 10 to one. In 1999, the government of India asked women what sex they wanted their next child to be.

One third of those without children said a son, two thirds had no preference, and only a residual said a daughter. So you have sex selection abortions. And who are they killing? Girls. What should that say to a feminist?

Augusto says, needless to say, it is a woman's right to choose whether or not to give birth to a baby. It must therefore be okay to choose whether or not to give birth to a girl. That's the feministic thinking.

If I decide it's okay to kill a baby, then I get to decide if it's okay if it's a boy or a girl as well. Can you imagine the number of babies killed in four months through abortion is the same number of Americans that were killed during all of World War II?

Now, before I go further here, no compromise radio, always biblical, always provocative, always in that order. Can you imagine as horrible, as heinous, selfish, and as wicked it is to kill a baby inside your womb?

Then for that sin to be given, how much greater is the grace of Christ Jesus's death on Calvary? If you've forced your girlfriend or wife to commit an abortion, or you yourself have decided to do that, if you are a mom that killed the baby, you can still be forgiven.

Why? Because even though your sin and transgression, murder is so bad, Jesus died for sinners just like you. And to think that Christ's death could cover the murder of a baby, I mean, murder of a grandma or grandpa's bad, murder of any person is bad, but just take a little baby and put that baby in your arms and then think, I'm gonna kill that baby.

Who would do that? Somebody so sick and depraved, somebody that if it wasn't for the hope of Christ Jesus would be eternally lost. So you can still be forgiven. And if you're a Christian and you did that in your past, you are forgiven.

Aren't you glad? There's something to be said for yearning for heaven so these skeletons that we have in our closets are going to be gone. One in three Australian women will have an abortion in their lifetime.

One abortion in Australia for every 2 .8 births. This is an article by Augusto Zimmerman. He's the senior lecturer in law and chair of legal theory, Murdoch University, adjunct law professor. And so again, I don't encourage you to read it to be encouraged, but I encourage you read it because these are facts and it will make you think very soberly.

And if you want to be someone who thinks women should be equal with men and who think that women should be able to vote and to work and to be paid the same, and if you think women and their rights are important, then I think you should read this because I want women to be treated properly.

I have a wife. I had a mother, had two grandmas. I have three daughters and I want women to be treated fairly and equally and equitably and lovingly. But to be a feminist nowadays means you have to be able to kill for it.

And to wear that tag feminist with modern nomenclature, you have to be willing to kill a baby. And so Susan B. Anthony's words ring loudly. It will burden her conscience in life. It will burden her soul in death.

Well, my name is Mike Abenroth. This is No Compromise Radio. You can go to Israel with us, February, 2015. You just go to our website, nocompromiseradio .com, far right-hand side, Israel, 2015. We'd love to have you on the bus.

And no, I won't be like Driscoll to throw you under the bus if you don't want to get off the bus. And I want you on the bus, all aboard. Something interesting that came across my desk. There's a United States federal law that protects the harvest, possession, consumption, and cultivation of, what do you think I'm gonna say?

Just what do you think I'm going to say? Well, you thought I was going to say marijuana, but it's close, peyote. And as long as you're harvesting, possessing, consuming, and cultivating peyote for bona fide religious ceremonies, that's a little phrase there in quotes, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, 42 U .S .C. 1966a, you can use, quote, traditional Indian religious use of the peyote sacrament.

There you have it. Doesn't apply, the controlled substance, Schedule 1, does not apply to the non-drug use of peyote in these religious ceremonies. So if you take them for worship services, you're okay.

But how does that work? Like if you're driving, so does the same apply to alcohol? I can drink alcohol if it's for non-drug use. If I'm on the way to church because I'm bringing the communion wine, how does that all work?

Special exemptions. This was made common law in the Peyote Way Church of God. That's actually a church. This is like, you know, some ganja thing for the Rastafarians. Peyote Way Church of God versus Thornburg, Fifth Circuit, 1991.

And there are exempt persons for peyote. What does peyote do, by the way? It makes you a mystic. So what you do, you are introspective, you have insights, you cut off the top of these little spineless cactuses, cacti, and you dry that top off.

It's called a crown. And then the crown dries and it forms like a little brown mini frisbee and you chew it and you have hallucinations. And what I found super fascinating was that when you eat these things, it often makes you vomit.

But if you vomit, then it's really meaning you have to be more purified. And so you have to have the spirit get into your body, but not into your body until you throw up what's already there. And so they're hard to eat, but they make you hear things.

So much so that for those who know who Nurse Ratched is, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Ken Kesey, K-E-S-E-Y, he was a night watchman at a psych ward and he ate some peyote and said, as quoted in John Clark Pratt's introduction to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, peyote inspired my chief narrator because it was after choking down eight of the little cactus plants that I wrote the first three pages.

Okay, that would be the peyote sacrament. Well, that's not much different these days than people having a burning in their bosom or a quiver near their liver or still small voices or mystic stomach grumblings and rumblings.

What does it mean when your stomach grumbles? Growls, my stomach's growling. That's what we called it as a kid growing up in Nebraska. They'd say, mom, my stomach is growling. What would that mean? Well, it's mad at you, it's going to attack you.

I think it's just gastric juices, don't you? But if you're a Greek person and you're thinking of Pythia and the Delphic Oracle, then maybe there's some channeling that's going on, some Sarah Young, Jesus Calling, Jesus, that's what we're going to start calling it, Jesus Channeling, Jesus Channeling.

But it's Mike Abenroth, this is No Compromise Radio. Write me info at nocompromiseradio .com. If you've got something you want me to talk to you about on the radio, some topic, some issue, you can write me.

And if you've got some quotes to back things up for me, that would be helpful. Maybe some of you could do the research for me. I talk about things that I know about because I have a job, therefore it's hard for me to do a lot of research on topics that I haven't already done research on.

But if it's peyote, fasting, Lent, feminism, then you just might get more than you bargained for on No Compromise Radio. Thanks again to Brandon House and Worldview Weekend for the conference in Branson, Missouri.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abenroth 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 six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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