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When a central Massachusetts High School teaches Calvinism, is there a catch? Listen in to Part 3.
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. This is a Friday installment, technically in real-world time, GMT. It is Thursday, but these are Friday shows, and this is the third in the installment of When Public Schools Teach Tulip.
When a high school in Massachusetts talks about Puritanism, Calvinism, or Tulip, or as defined as Tulip, well, before we get into that today, I wonder if you know what Tulip stands for. I wonder if you know the background that it was a response to some Arminian thinking, five points of Arminianism.
Of course, we always like to say it�s a response to Daisy, right? If Tulip teaches if ever God loves you, if He started to love you in eternity past and loved you at the cross, He�ll love you throughout your entire life, unto the end, unto heaven.
If ever He loves you, He�ll love you forever, as Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 4 Israel, but it�s true of us, too. I�ve loved you with an everlasting love. Well, for the Arminian, the flower is the daisy, right?
He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me, he loves me not. Not sure. My daughter was taking a class, or is taking a class, must be English literature class, and to their credit, they�re reading classics.
Lots of times the public schools around here don�t read classics, they read modern tripe, and I don�t like the slant on what the Bible teaches through Nathaniel Hawthorne�s Scarlet Letter, but I think it�s important for young people to walk through, work through, figure out, talk to mom and dad, and that�s exactly what we did because my daughter was given Puritan Theology, the Basics, Tulip, a handout to teach them what Puritan Theology was all about so they would understand the setting of the book, okay?
So we did T and U, the last two shows, Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, that�s the T and the U. A part of it they got right if they would have gone to Theo Wiki or Wiki or typed in any other place, even something that taught against Calvinism, I don�t think they would have come up with these things.
I�m not sure how or why they�ve done this. It reminds me that primary source work is so critical when it comes to critiquing things. That�s why years ago when I used to read Dave Hunt, you know, 15 years ago, 20 years ago on the Roman Catholic Church, and thought he was all that, seduction of whatever his book�s name, the name of his books, there�s something else about Rome, then I read his book on What Love Is This and realized how poorly he documented things.
I realized if you�re going to use non-source material, if you don�t have primary source material used for footnoting and documentation when it comes to Calvinism, then what about Rome? So I just abandoned all that.
Such an awful book, by the way. So what we�re doing is we�re reading the bullet points underneath TULIP because I want to. I need some shows to do. Matter of fact, I have a message here in front of me, the message, quote unquote, Bible.
Let�s see, what would be a good one? What have I been thinking about lately? Is there a psalm that I�ve been thinking about? Oh, you know, Psalm 139, David writes, and of course we think always about children, and rightfully so.
There�s so much applicable to us. But it is a Davidic psalm, and so when he talks about hatred, that throws us off sometimes because we forget about the ultimate David who does this and will do this. Let�s see.
See how I hated those who hated you, God. See how I loathe all this godless arrogance. I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred. Your enemies are my enemies. Well, my humble apologies, Mr. Peterson. I think you got that one right, or close enough for what you�re trying to do.
So let�s try for another one. Let�s keep going until we get a bad translation. That�s awful. That kind of critical spirit is, well, let�s just keep going until we find something awful. Man, who does that?
See if you can guess where this comes from. Those people are on a dark spiral downward, but if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself.
It takes one to know one. Now, that�s from Romans 2. And the thing is, he has probably the application about down, but God�s words are precise and we want to adequately convey those. When you see the �gave them over, gave them over, gave them over� of Romans 1, we know it�s all sinful and they�re lawbreakers.
Romans 2, we move from what they do in Romans 1 to what we do in Romans 2. The moralizing Jew, and it�s applicable to any other self-righteous person, including moi. So not bad. Not bad. Pope�s in town.
Popemobile. We want to get away from narcissism. Please kiss my ring. Are we crazy? Who are these people? Facts don�t matter. Nothing matters. Just go for it. T, total depravity. That�s total inability is how we would define it scripturally.
No one on their own, apart from the work of the triune God, can be saved. God must do the saving. Salvation is done by God. God is the active saver, and we aren�t the self-saviors, self-rescuers, self-redeemers.
Salvation is something done to you. We believe in monergism because of depravity. I will say in review that if you have a problem with unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, or perseverance of the saints, your problem�well, it could be pride, it could be a lot of things, but it stems back to your understanding of total depravity.
Every faculty of every person outside of Jesus was affected by the fall of Adam. Mind, soul, will, strength, conscience, everything. It was a whole depravity because of the fall. Total, all faculties, all makeup, everything about the person.
This does not mean utter depravity. Everybody is as bad as they could be. It doesn�t mean that at all. It doesn�t mean that unbelievers can�t do good, moral things that are relatively moral and help in hospitals and give blood.
That�s not what it means. But you try to save yourself. You can�t do it. That�s why you need someone to rescue you. That�s why God sent His Son. That�s why in eternity past we knew that God cares and loves us as He had prepared that great plan of redemption.
Call it a promise. Call it a pact. Call it a covenant. Whatever you�d like. It�s fine by me. Then unconditional election. While the class at the high school here locally in Massachusetts said that a person�s actions in life cannot change whether a person is chosen as one of God�s elect, while technically and bald-facely true, there is a context there and no one could ever get to heaven apart from this election.
God doesn�t have to choose anyone. The parents who go to an orphanage, if they choose one and not the other 700, are still applauded for their kindness and grace. No one deserves to be chosen. It�s not a matter of if God doesn�t choose everybody, He�s unjust.
Everybody�s wicked and no one merits getting chosen, so God chooses based on His own good pleasure in eternity past before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1, 4, Revelation 13, 8, Revelation 17, 8, Revelation 21, et al.
Now we move to L, limited atonement. This is what the public high school in English literature teaches. These are the sub-points. Then we�ll talk about what the Bible teaches. This is the one where people trip.
This is the one where people drop their trays and the milk goes flying. This is the one where you hit your toe and you think, �Wait a second� and you revert back to John 3 .16 or 2 Peter 3 .9, and God wills for everybody to be saved.
They forget the context of the book. They forget pretty much everything they�ve ever been taught because they have a universalistic view of what Jesus has done. They�ve always had it. They�ve never heard of anything else.
Some limit to the atonement, some constriction or something to be off bounds, it rubs us the wrong way. I�m just turning my Bible here to 2 Peter 3. So here�s what it says under limited atonement, �Ten percent of the Puritans will be one of the ones who go to heaven.
The rest are damned to hell. Ten percent are supposed to be descendants of God because God had a covenant with Israel. I think there�s a couple words missing here because of the Xerox, because of the mimeograph, because the carbon paper type thing didn�t work.
What is limited atonement? Now that I�m talking about it, didn�t we talk about this last time? Well, we use the word atonement generally. I always tell the kids, �Just think of the words. Look for root words.
It�s similar to in Hebrew, there�s a tricontinental root and pretty much every word is built off those three middle consonants. So you might lose one or you�re going to gain some things at the front or the back and the words change here or there or the other.
But when you start in Hebrew, you�re looking for the tricontinental root. So I like to look at root words. What is the root word? What is the word itself? Well atonement, while not technically a word found in your Bibles, it is a summary word for at-one-ment.
We are at one with God because of a sacrifice, because of an offering, and it is just parlance now for substitutionary atonement, for Jesus dying on the cross. It could go back to the Old Testament with sacrifices, so God would be at rest.
Remember back in Leviticus, there was a soothing aroma, and it�s basically there was an odor of rest after the sacrifice was given. Instead of the people dying for their sins, the sacrifice died in place of the sinners, sinner, and then God was at rest.
He was no longer offended. He no longer was angry. He no longer had to mete out justice because it already had been met out by, meted out by the sacrifice, and he accepted that. It was all part of God�s plan, and then he was at rest.
It was an odor of Noah. We get the word Noah for rest. If you want to know what Jonah means, I think it means dove, right? He is as stupid as a dove, but we also think of dove as something bringing peace, and both of those are true.
The dumb prophet brings God�s peace. Isn�t that nice? Isn�t this special? Limited atonement. Okay, so that means the death of Jesus was limited. Now, the first thing we say is, �Well, you know what? We don�t like to limit the atonement.
Well, okay. I join you. I commend you. I�m with you. I don�t want to reduce the effectiveness of the atonement. If there were a billion planets with billions of races, and of course they would be affected by sin because this whole universe has been affected by sin.
If there are Martians, they�ve been affected by sin, but of course Jesus only cloaks himself with humanity, not Martianity. It�s a restricted canon, the Martian canon, M-A-R-C versus M-A-R-T-I-A-N-I-N.
My point is this, Christ�s atonement could have saved ten times what it did. His atonement was valuable. It was precious. And here�s how we know it. We know it because Jesus was fully man. Remember, he cloaked himself with humanity.
God prepared a body for him, Hebrews 10. And that body was joined to divine nature, and that divine nature is infinitely valuable. It was an infinite sacrifice, therefore, and it itself was magnificent, large, wonderful.
Nothing limited about its gravity or its effect in terms of saving sinners. What was limited is to whom it was applied. The intention is what we get after. We�re not saying that God didn�t so love the world.
We�re not saying that at all. We�re saying that the design of Jesus�s death, was it primarily for each and every person or was it intended for those that the Father elected? You say, well, there�s a logic here I don�t like.
If you say it that way, I have to buy your logic and I�m going to be exegetical, 2 Peter 2 .1, 1 John 2 .2, 1 John 4 .10, and you start listing these verses. Well, we can look at the verses if we want, if I want.
What we have, this is not the first show on Tulip, you Calvinist. Limited atonement, maybe definite atonement is better. What we have here is there�s a limit on the intention. That�s really the key here.
Some people say that Christ�s death was sufficient for everyone but only applied to the elect. Now, both 4-point Calvinists and 5-point Calvinists would believe that. Probably most of you would believe that.
Sufficient for everyone but only efficient for the elect. Non-elect people aren�t going to get to heaven, in other words. So, the question is, did Jesus die? I can think of two non-elect people. After these two, it gets harder to prove.
I can think of Goliath and I can think of Judas. So, did Jesus die for Goliath? Did Jesus die for Judas? If you believe in unlimited atonement, then the answer has to be yes. And why are they in hell if Jesus paid for their sins?
Answer? Your answer would be because they didn�t believe. My response, my retort, my rejoinder, that doesn�t make any sense. Because if Jesus died for all your sins, that includes the sin of unbelief and rejection and a lack of repentance, doesn�t it?
I sure hope so because for many years that�s exactly what I did. So, we turn back to a man-centered, double jeopardy, conscience-though-assuaging doctrine that Jesus just died for everybody. I mean, it�s just part of our person now.
God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. We make no distinguishing differences in the love of God, a love of Creator, and a love of Savior, and a love of the Father to the Son, Son to the Father, and the rest of the Trinity.
We don�t have any differences. Everything is just lumped into a big thing. God loves the world, and He loves each and every person the same. Even in our own English environment and in the Western and Eastern world, I love my wife and I love my children, and that love is different, but I love them both.
So there are differences there. Limited Atonement teaches that since all people are depraved, no one will ever choose God and get saved. God chooses, and He chooses in eternity past. And then for that same group of people, then He has the Son die for those.
Jesus came to save His people from their sins, and He is the one who is going to rescue, the verse in Matthew 121 is specifically to Jews, but to use that rubric, He didn�t come to die for the goats. He came to die for the sheep.
And many revert to all and world, and all doesn�t always mean all inclusive. It might mean all relative. It might mean the world, the globe, the evil world system, humankind. God did love humans, and He sent His Son.
It has nothing to do with the extent of the Atonement or the intent of the Atonement. You ought to read The Death of Death and the Death of Christ by John Owen, and once and for all it would rid you of any notion that Jesus died for Judas.
Jesus dies for you, you�re going to heaven. Jesus assuages the wrath of God for you. You don�t have to pay yourself, there�s no double jeopardy involved. So I like particular redemption much better. And when you begin to look at Jesus dying for the church, and Jesus dying for the bride, and the passages that speak of limited Atonement, nobody disagrees with those, and they say those are true.
But they�ll pull out a verse or two and say, �Look, this particular verse, it makes the whole house of cards of limited Atonement fall. And if you want a more detailed exegetical defense of limited Atonement, this isn�t the show.
But what you have to think through is this. In the doctrine of the deity of Christ, let�s say there�s a couple verses that JWs and Mormons use to try to disprove the eternal deity of Jesus, do you look at all the other verses that teach the deity of Christ in light of that verse in the Gospel of John that they show you, John 17, or do you interpret the one verse, John 17, in light of all the deity of Christ passages?
Well, you do the second, of course, you just automatically, you know you�re trained to do that, the one in light of the many or the many in light of the one. You know the answer. But it�s not convenient to do that with limited Atonement because then you�ll have to believe in limited Atonement.
That�s what you�ll have to do. So if you can get through your mind, world and all, and the eight different times, eight different meanings that world has, and even the Johannine writings, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, 4 John, Revelation, used I think Cosmos 112 times, let�s just say five different times if you don�t like eight, you�ll quickly see that, you know what, if Jesus dies for you, you�re going to heaven.
And why would the Father and the Son and the Spirit make a pact to rescue the elect and then have the Son do something more? Think of the economy and the nature of the Trinity. So the Father chooses some, not all.
The Spirit in time, everyone would agree, regenerates the same some, not all. The Holy Spirit�s not going to regenerate a non-elect person. But the Son, He goes above and beyond the call of duty. He says, you know, Father, I know you�ve just chosen the some, but I�m going to die for all.
Spirit, I know you�re going to just regenerate the some, but I�m going to die for all. Even there. And then you say, yes, but you don�t understand. What about 2 Peter 2 .1 or 1 John 2? Those, I don�t even think, teach unlimited atonement.
But even if you somehow thought they did, I look at all the other passages that teach Jesus dies for the church. So my name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. We�re talking about homeschool, and it just rolls off the tongue.
I wonder if you even teach your kids about this in homeschool. Now, if you�re an Arminian and you don�t want to teach your kids Calvinism, I still think you should work through these issues. That�s what I�m after.
I think at the end of the day, you�ll just bow. You won�t just throw verses out of context. You won�t just say, oh, well, um, where�s the passage? The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Okay, unlimited atonement. There you go. I�m an Arminian. I�m an Arminian. Calvinists are wrong. Oh, wait a second. This is written. 2 Peter is written to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Hmm. He's writing to Christians, and he is basically saying one of the reasons why Jesus isn�t coming back because they�re elect and regenerate people, and they need to be saved. They need to be saved.
He�s patient towards you. Hmm. Who is the you? What about 1 John 2, 2? And the list goes on. Yeah, what about those? Jesus is a propitiation for Jews and Gentiles. That�s the point. Jews and the world.
That�s the issue. 1 John 2, 1 and 2 does not teach anything close to unlimited atonement. If you think propitiation for the world means Jesus assuaged the wrath of God for everybody in the world, that�s called universalism.
That�s what that�s called. He doesn�t assuage the wrath for all those. He rescues the elect. Well, that�s the unlimited atonement one. Okay, next. Next is irresistible grace. Wait. What do you mean? That whole show is already done.
That entire show is done. Just me talking about limited atonement. I probably need some notes next time. In front of me I have the Joe Osteen wonder words from his special book, special not book, what�s it called again?
Board game, Best Life Now. And so maybe we have a wonder word and I�m honestly just shuffling the deck here. This is the wonder word that I want it to relate to limited atonement. So we�re going to make this word to relate to limited atonement in any way we can.
I�m pulling out a wonder word here. Fun. Isn�t this fun? It is a fun doctrine, but once you grasp it and you think, hmm, Jesus, he, excuse me, the triune God, he picked Israel and Yom Kippur was a sacrifice.
Here we have not for everybody, not for all the other nations, but it was for Israel. Do we whack God for that? That particular particularity, that particular definite atonement at Yom Kippur, the definite atonement of Passover, no, I don�t think we run from that at all.
So I guess it is fun. Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. Tell your friends if you�ve benefited from the show.
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.
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