When Public Schools Teach TULIP (Part 1)

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 ministry.

My name's Mike Abendroth. I don't think I slept well last night, so it sounds like I'm underwater, unterwasser, that's what it sounds like to me.

So sometimes I have to turn these headphones up a little bit. It was exciting. Scott and Paula from Arizona visited

Bethlehem Bible Church on Sunday, and then we went out for a sandwich, and they are

No Compromise listeners, and so I was glad for that. So if you are a No Compromise listener and you're out of town, and you want to email me, info at nocompromiseradio .com,

and say, hey, we're in town, we have a large donation, I could raffle these things, where you give

X amount of money, highest bidder gets to have lunch with Kim and I, and then you can buy, just kidding.

But seriously, we've had lots of visitors throughout the years, and if that's the case for you, you're visiting, we would love to have you.

Okay, somebody's just trying to call me, and I had to decline, since my son is in Israel for the semester with the

Master of Science, and for the Master's College, it's called the IBEX program, and for the same cost of a normal semester at Master's College, with the only additional cost being the flight, you can study in Israel for the semester.

So now whenever the phone rings, I quickly look at it, or when it vibrates,

I switched it from the constant vibrating to the beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, that vibrate, because then that is more annoying in my pocket, and I recognize it more often.

So I have to always look at the phone, because if it's your son in Israel, or of course, if your daughter was in Israel, you would probably answer the phone.

So I almost had to put pause button into effect here on No Compromise Radio. Well, back to where I was before the phone rang, and it was

B of A, not my son. Maybe it was B of A calling about my son. Talked to him yesterday, he said it's the eve of Yom Kippur, and some students were going to fast, and I asked him if he was going to fast, and he said no.

And I said, well, that's nice, because we believe in the new covenant. I guess if you're going to celebrate

Passover, a Christian view of Seder, or even a non -Christian, just to kind of see what it's like or something, there's probably something to be said for that.

But fasting, for fasting sake, I think we did a show on that, didn't we?

Let's see, what else is going on in the news? We're trying to do three, maybe four new shows a week, so we can keep

Fred at bay. You can get in touch with us via Facebook, via Twitter.

We have a No Compromise Radio YouTube channel. Probably should record some new videos sometime soon.

And then also the big news is the NoComedia book called Sexual Fidelity, No Compromise.

That's going to be released in November. I think it will come from the printer in November. You'll go to the

No Compromise Radio website. There'll be a little, or the new book here. It'll take you to another website, and it is $11 .99.

Some interesting things that I've learned. You have ISBN numbers that you can buy.

You have to buy one for $125, 1 ,000 for 500, or 10 for,

I think, 300, or something like that. And then buying the proof of purchase, what's it called, banner barcode or something.

You can get that. Library of Congress, register your book with the Library of Congress, and you have to send them a book once it's printed and published.

And I'm using Mike Gendron's printer, so he doesn't own a printer, but the one that he uses, because I like their format and style and all that stuff.

So anyway, Sexual Fidelity, No Compromise. Now, I want to say that the book title sounds pretty dry.

It sounds like a 55 -year -old man's book title. It's not necessarily flashy and no -co style like things that go bump in the church, for instance, or even next year's book,

Evangelical White Lies. That's got a better title to it. But I didn't want to, I want it to be a mature -sounding title because that's exactly what it is.

It's not a book with emergent talk and potty -mouth language. It stems out of a series of talks

I've had with both the men's discipleship groups at Bethel Bible Church, and specifically my son.

The refrain, Proverbs 2, my son, Proverbs 5, my son, Proverbs 6, my son,

Proverbs 7, my son, et cetera. So it's important to talk about our, to our sons and daughters about this topic of sex.

And somebody's going to teach your family about sex. And so dads and moms, it might as well be you. So it's a small book, less than 150 pages, 30 short chapters.

So you just, it's almost, I don't want to say it's a devotional, but it's to set your mind right. It is a cool hand

Luke. You got to get your mind right about the subject every day because I do know what will happen every day because I experienced it.

And just because I experienced something I know doesn't mean it's ultimately true, but see how complicated theological radio is.

I know I'm bombarded every day. You know, you can't even go to some news sites and sports sites without the stuff down at the bottom or to the bottom right or to the right where it's just a bombardment all day, every day with ideas and thoughts.

And it is no longer subliminal seduction like the psychology book I read in college regarding sexuality and promoting it.

It is a full frontal brute force. And I don't mean anything there besides it's in your face.

That's what I mean by that. So anyway, the book will be out. You can order it. I don't know about Amazon and Kindle and all those things.

We're working on audio. We're working on Kindle e -format. I have a day job, so we're just doing what we can do.

But I think around the middle of November, earlier maybe for pre -order, you can order the book.

And so $11 .99 plus shipping and you can get the book. Sexual, it's easy for me to say sexual fidelity, no compromise.

So we'll do a series of no compromise style books. I think you'll be encouraged as you look at this topic both righteously and then what to do if you sin in the area in light of the cross.

It's not necessarily a how -to book. It is a who you are book in light of Christ. And then the indicatives spin out of that.

Well, No Compromise Radio is proud to introduce a new segment to our show.

Let's see how it goes, if it comes back next week or not. And here's the new segment.

I just made it up today. How does that sound? Public school segment. Now I know many of you think that homeschool means godliness.

Private school means pretty good maybe if it's a King James only school using a Becca curriculum.

And then public school, that's where the hellions go. Now there certainly are hellions in public schools.

In public schools, I know that. There are actually Christian teachers in public schools as well.

You ought to listen to my friend, Carl Truman's mortification of spin episode that was mid -September regarding homeschool, public school.

Carl's got some interesting insights that you might want to glean from.

Well, at our house, we have a philosophy. And that philosophy is what we think is best as parents.

That's what we do for those particular children. Not all four children do we decide at the same time unless I was in Germany on sabbatical, then they got all homeschooled.

Actually, we were out sightseeing. It was Martin Luther schooled. So at the church, we also have the same philosophy.

It is the Rodney King philosophy. Although he didn't come up with it, we all need to just get along.

And if there is a homeschooler, private schooler, public schooler, frictional paroxysm, we need to say we are all

Christians. And when Paul discussed Jew, Gentile, male, female, slave -free,

I think we could include the trifurcation of the sixth sola of the

Reformation, homeschooler, and private school and public school.

So at our family, we do what's ever best. And this particular year, I have a daughter in high school, public high school, and she is a junior.

And I have another daughter who just entered the same said high school as a freshman. So my two children who are not in college, they go to a public high school.

Now, here's the funny part. Here's the fun part. My daughter was taught something about Calvinism the other day in her junior class at high school.

Sometimes our homeschool kids don't even learn about this. And here we are in public school.

Now, full disclosure. They were reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter.

Did he do House of the Seven Gables as well? I think that was a construction. I'm gonna sneeze here in about 10 seconds.

That was a deconstruction of Calvinism. Excuse me. He's no friend of Puritans.

And there were many Puritans that had the stereotypical Puritan ideology that if someone's having fun, we've got to make sure they don't.

But Hawthorne had a grudge, and it comes to be very clear in that book.

You say, well, the way he writes is so wonderful. That all may be true, better than some of the newer classics,

I would grant you that, writing style, literary style. But they were given the other day, my daughter was given something called

Puritan theology, the basics. So they were learning about Puritan theology in light of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter book in English literature class, whatever they call it,

EL something. English literature, maybe composition,

ELC. I don't know. Wasn't I a Lutheran, ELC, LCA? Is it a

Lutheran? If you're a

Lutheran and you listen to No Compromise Radio, would you email me? I'd love to get the scoop. I'd love to talk with you and chat with you.

Of course, I grew up as a Lutheran, more a liberal Lutheran than a Missouri Senate or Wisconsin Senate. But I still,

I would love in a friendly way, and I'm being completely honest here, sincere, frank, direct,

New England style. How can you stay a Lutheran?

That's what I want to talk to you about in terms of the language, the nomenclature, the articulation when it comes to your statements of faith on baptismal regeneration.

Now, I just did not say that every Lutheran is going to hell. Did I just say that?

I think maybe Steve would talk that way, but I don't think I talk that way. But seriously, I'd love to just talk with you.

I don't have time for long dialogues and debates or anything like that. I have philosophy on Twitter, and that is no code, don't know, argue on no

Twitter. I mean, when I see people get arguing into Twitter, I don't think that doesn't work, number one.

And I know I'm not supposed to be driven by pragmatics ultimately, but okay. So my daughter received in English literature class,

Puritan Theology, The Basics, and underneath it in parentheses, T period, U period, L period,

I period, P period, which stands for in the acronym, or as we pronounce it,

TULIP. She, my daughter, was taught Calvinism in public school here in Central Mass.

Now see, what you don't know, the junior high system, the school was named

Luther Burbank. The elementary school was Mary Rollinson after this five -point Calvinist pastor's wife who was taken by the

Indians and then released at Redemption Rock down the street, which is a fascinating place to go to. It's a big rock, there's a sign there.

George Whitfield didn't preach on that rock, but Mary Rollinson was redeemed at that rock, redeemed physically.

So here we have, oh, and back at the junior high school, here's my point, they didn't read good books at all.

You just go to 500 banned books and that's where they pulled them up. They weren't even classics. They weren't even, you know, even if the content was bad, they weren't reading some classic book.

So Puritan Theology, and then there's five boxes, one for each letter, and they get the boxes correct.

Total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints.

That's pretty amazing, isn't it? Now they probably teach them pillars of Quran and Mecca and stuff like that.

But I was very interested. So now here's the fun part on No Compromise Radio. You said, this hasn't been too fun so far.

I know, well, we should pay for it, right? They have bullet points underneath each lettered title.

Total depravity, and it has four bullet points, unconditional election, two, and the list goes on. So we're gonna talk about those today, and you'll easily see the misconceptions regarding TULIP.

Now they could have gone, I haven't gone there lately, but they could have gone to Wiki and pulled up TULIP and did a much better job than this.

This is slanted. This is Hathornish, Nathaniel Hathornish, where we can make these

Calvinistic Puritans just as myopic and old -fashioned and exclusivist as possible.

Total depravity. Now, if you had to define total depravity, how would you? This is what we did for our family worship time last night, our family

Bible time, our discussion around the dinner table. We don't sing every time, but it's easier when the kids are little, but now the kids are older, we're still trying to do that.

So we got this out and I asked the kids, here's the scoop. Here's what they say total depravity is, and now let's figure out what you say and then what daddy says, and then what the

Bible says. We'll all try to match up underneath the Bible. Sound good? Sound good, okay, that's what we did. Total depravity.

According to the handout at this public school here in Central Mass, because of the fall of Adam and Eve, mankind is sinful.

And you say, okay, that's not bad. In Adam's fall, we sinned all. It doesn't tell you seminal headship, federal headship, realism.

It doesn't say any of that, but that's okay. It's close enough, right? The consequences of Adam's sin.

Da -da -da -da -da -da. Number two, mankind is worthless. Let's see, where did that come from?

Mankind is worthless. Now, what does that mean? Well, I don't think it would be fair to say without contextual construction and comment that Calvinism teaches mankind is worthless.

Are man's deeds done before a holy

God in an attempt to save himself worthless or worthy?

Well, in that particular case, then the answer becomes easy. They're worthless. His deeds are worthless. Now, you have to remember that John 3 .16,

although yanked out of context, we do see that along with John 17 for the elect and other passages, there is a love of God for sinful people.

And I don't think the phrase worthless is very good. I mean, immediately I just think, okay, total depravity.

Men are worthless. It doesn't give any qualifications for they can do good deeds on earth to other people altruistically.

Remember John Gershner's four boxes. Maybe it's R .C. Sproul's, maybe both. You have good, good deeds.

They're good deeds. The first good is they are for other people and they do good.

A hospital is being built by a contractor. And that contractor's second word, good, is a believer.

So they spiral out of a good heart. Good, good deeds. Now there are bad, good deeds.

That is 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10. Deeds that are worthless. N -A -S -N -E -S -V,

I think translated bad. That a good person does that is positionally good.

They can do things that aren't righteous. That is what we call bad good. There's also bad, bad.

Sinful things done by an unregenerate. And there are good, bad. That is an unregenerate second word, bad, does good things.

And that was what I was talking about earlier in the good, good, bad, good, good, bad, bad, bad discussion.

You dig? Point three, sub -titled, sub -pointed under total depravity.

Almost all are predestined to eternal punishment. Really? I thought predestined talked about in love he predestined us,

Ephesians chapter one. I thought the weight of scripture uses predestination and election unto heaven.

Oh, systematically do I understand double reprobation and double election and double, what do

I want to call it? Double trouble, toil and trouble. Double predestination was going to be in things that go bump in the church, part two, episode two, but episode one didn't sell enough.

Between Romans and things that go bump in the church, I've not received one penny above and beyond the advance.

We just, you know, making a dollar a minute, that's all we're doing. And you know what? It's completely fine because that wasn't the purpose of said books.

Number three, no, number four, sub -titled, sub -pointed, bullet -pointed, sub -bullet -pointed,

God hates the sight of mankind. Well, see what they're trying to do.

Of course you can see what they're trying to do. Let me read to you Genesis chapter six, verse five, the most, possibly the most comprehensive verse about depravity in all the

Bible. Maybe you could go to Ephesians two or four, but this one is right up there.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil, what?

Continually. And the Lord was sorry that he'd made man on the earth and it grieved him to his heart.

And he was sorry and therefore he's going to blot people out, but Noah found favor in the eyes of the

Lord. Depravity, total depravity, think of the words.

I said to my kids last night, okay, what's total mean? Well, it does not mean people are as bad as they could be.

As I like to say, even Hitler was nice to his dog before he killed him. People aren't as bad as they could be.

There are restraining influences in the world. Naturally there are restraining devices like family, church, society, death penalty.

There are supernatural restraining elements as well. And I don't mean the Holy Spirit isn't it when

I say an element, but I'm mixing things here. The Holy Spirit is a he, he is a person of course.

Total, what do you mean total? It doesn't mean utter depravity. What does total depravity mean? The total and total depravity, here's what you should think of every single time after this show.

Every faculty is affected by the fall. Everything goes back to the fall.

You don't get the fall right, you don't get anything right. The fall affected

Adam's mind, true or false? It affected his body, true or false?

It affected his feelings, true or false? It affected his, and here's the big one, drum roll, will.

The answer is yes, it affected him totally. Utter depravity does not mean, utter depravity means everybody's as bad as they could be.

But we know there's relative morality on this earth. None of it is righteous enough to merit

God's favor. We know that, but there is relative morality. There are some that do better than others.

God hates the side of mankind. God, almost all are predestined to eternal punishment.

Say, well, didn't Jesus say many are called, but few are chosen? That's the language of Jesus, and that's actually true.

But we don't know, do we? There's different options on this. What about all those infants who die?

Are they going to be in heaven? And some scholars think that the number of elect versus the number of the damned will be much closer than you might imagine.

I sit at a football stadium, and I look out, and I see 80 ,000 cheering people, and I think, how many here are really born again?

Probably not too many. The few and the many. I don't argue with you that Luke chapter 13 discusses this exact thing as well.

And it says in verse 23, and someone said to him, "'Lord, will those who are being saved be few?'

And then he said, "'Strive to enter the narrow door, "'for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and not be able.'"

So lots want to be, but not many will be. My name's Mike Avendroth. This is No Compromise Radio, and today is part two,

Calvinistic homeschooling from your school that is a public school.

And now here comes the phone. People keep calling me. I don't know why, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, they call. You can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com,

or go to No Compromise Radio to look for the book. God bless. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Avendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 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.

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