Kitsch 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.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and this is my voice when I'm 65. This is my voice when I'm a smoker. Yeah. Anyway, I don't feel that well, but we don't call in sick.

We crawl in sick. I need to record some shows. I've been behind doing wretched radio, doing a variety of other things. I have a day job, and so I don't feel well. But I'm changing things up a little bit today since I'm sick.

Instead of having Pete's Coffee, or sometimes I've got the Keurig Starbucks here, I have a... I know there are certain callers and listeners that are going to email me because they're not going to like this.

They're watching out for my health. Although I just got back from the physical, the doctor said all my numbers, I mean every single number, praise the Lord, every single number from cholesterol to blood sugar to potassium, to everything else, every single number is out of whack.

Every single number is within the standard mean. Now, of course, you know, back in the old days, the 36 waist is really a 36 waist. But now when you buy 36, it's really 38, but you just feel better, right?

So anyway, every number I have is good. So to live, to die, another day. But anyway, in front of me I have a low-carb monster energy drink, 16 ounce, taurine, ginseng, plus B vitamins, plus L-carotene, cheers.

You can write me at info at nocompromisedradio .com if you would like, seats limited. You can go with us to Israel, 2015. I think the day we're leaving is February 14th, nine days in Israel. Pastor Pat Ebenroth will also be with us with Omaha Bible Church.

I think they get 26 slots on the bus, I get 26 slots. And the extension trip is going to be to Jordan to see Petra. So what do I have in front of me today? Well, to make it a little lighter, I have my friend Clint Archer.

Clint and I, along with Byron Yon, wrote a book. Three years ago we wrote it, Things That Go Bump in the Church. It will be out in two months. It will be out April 1st, April Fool's Day, and Theater Near You.

Clint Archer writes two segments here in his blog, Seminoid. Why the Arminian did not cross the road, he also writes for Cripplegate, and then why the Calvinist didn't cross the road. Now honestly, I cannot find the Calvinistic one.

It's here somewhere. I have no idea where it is. So I'm only going to do the Arminian one, but I promise you that if I can find the other one... Oh, oh, oh, there it is, see? Crackstaff found it for me.

Why the Arminian did not cross the road. Number one, he's waiting for the pastor to invite him to cross the road. Okay, I like Clint. They get funnier. He's not sure if he will cross or not. No one knows, not even God.

That was good. He's waiting for the Calvinist to show up, then he'll choose the opposite side on principle. Number four, he saw a book by Jonathan Edwards on the other side, and he's scared of it. Number six, he is the one who is in charge of his destiny.

No one is going to make him do anything. Number seven, he did cross the road, he just backslid. See, that was excellent. He said, what about number five? Well, I skipped that one. All right, here it is.

Clint Archer. Why the Reformed theologian did not cross the road. Actually, I think these are funnier. We were not elected to cross before the foundation of the road. That's not bad. Even when you're sick, that's not too bad.

We believe that road crossing ceased with the death of the last apostle or the completion of the New Testament. Number five, the walk sign was gender neutral. It made us mad. Number six, a woman already crossed.

We don't follow women. And number seven, why the Reformed theologian did not cross the road. Piper said, God is most glorified when we are most satisfied on our side of the road. There you have it. There you have it.

Bible-Minded Cities and the Church's Mission

Okay, what's up next? Huffington Post religion section, January 28, 2014. Now I don't suggest reading the Huffington Post for religious orthodoxy, but it is interesting to see what the Salon, Salon, Huffington Post left wing.

People think of religion. They don't think much of it, by the way, but maybe there's an exception here or there. Most and least Bible minded cities of the United States, list released by American Bible Society.

Most to least Bible mindedness. They classified respondents who reported reading the Bible within the past seven days and who agreed strongly in the accuracy of the Bible as Bible minded. So are you Bible minded?

If you've read the Bible within the last seven days and you think it's accurate, strongly agree you're Bible minded, just sounds funny. Maybe the monster drink will help me now see what happened was I could probably get hooked on these.

I've never really, I never really drank these because I didn't want the calories. But the decaf ones, the non-sugar ones had aspartame. I don't really, I don't do aspartame. It's coming up on three years, no aspartame.

But I will have some chlorine once in a while, the chlorine molecule of splendor. So anyway, anyway, I won't let my kids drink them probably, but I'll drink them when you're sick. All right, these are the 10 most Bible minded cities.

One Chattanooga, Tennessee, Birmingham, Alabama, home of S. Lewis Johnson, of course, see, I don't know why Chattanooga is there, but I know why Birmingham is here. Roanoke, forward slash Lynchburg, VA.

Maybe I could get some students there. They like to read their Bibles. Springfield, Missouri, okay, is that pretty, is that close to Branson? Shreveport, Louisiana, Charlotte, North Carolina, Greenville, forward slash Spartanburg, South Carolina, forward slash Asheville, North Carolina, forward slash hashtag every city USA, Little Rock, Arkansas, Jackson, Mississippi, Knoxville, Tennessee.

So people in those places read their Bibles. Now, I regularly hear Mark Driscoll go on and on and on about the adventures of Mark Driscoll in Seattle, the least Bible area, the greatest place to plan a church, the place with the least amount of Bible people.

And he's always talking about that. But here we have the 10 least Bible minded cities, according to the American Bible Society. And Seattle is not on the list, FYI. Providence, Rhode Island, I will tell you that five of these least Bible minded cities are in New England.

Five in New England. Providence, Rhode Island, forward slash New Bedford, Mass, Albany, New York, Boston, San Francisco. Now, here's a weird one. It's just odd. I know there's a campus there and stuff like that, but, and, you know, pushing the secular stuff.

But Cedar Rapids, Iowa, I is for Iowa, O is for Iowa, W is for Iowa, Buffalo, New York, Hartford, Connecticut, slash New Haven, home of Yale, Phoenix, no, that's, that one's surprising to me, Burlington, Vermont, and Portland, not Oregon, but Portland, Maine.

The American Bible Society noted that they found an inverse relationship that exists between population size and Bible friendliness. Data for the survey came from the results of telephone and online interviews with random samples of 46 ,000 adults and change, conducted over a seven-year period ending in 2013, August.

Sampling error was plus or minus 0 .5 percentage points at the 95 level. It was done by the Barna Group in partnership with the American Bible Society. So what would we think about that? How could we biblically work through the issue?

I think if I were to analyze it as a pastor, I would say something like this. Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is?

And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others, Jeremiah, are one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.

And the gates of, ESV says, hell, Hades shall not prevail against it. That's the first thing I would say in response to that. And I would say the Lord is building his church, and whether people are Bible-minded or not, whether they receive the Bible, whether they're Bible-friendly, Bible-hostile, Bible-attackers, the Lord is going to build his church.

And when the church is done, we are going to wrap up all time, but right now, he's building his church. The second thing I'd say is from Acts chapter 13, the first one was from Matthew 16, now Acts 13, and when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. And so, when God appoints someone to eternal life, in eternity past, they will believe. And if they believe, excuse me, they will believe whether they're in Boston, whether they're in Burlington, Vermont, whether they're in Seattle or any place else.

Aren't you glad? So what do we do? Let's say you live where I live in Massachusetts, somewhere near Boston. You say, this is not very Bible-minded. So what's our strategy? What's our MO? What's our marching orders?

Well, our job is always to be faithful anyway, and that's your job too. We just tell people about the Savior, tell them the good news, tell them what the response to that good news is, and then we don't have to save everyone.

We know eventually, right, every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess. But for the time being, we preach, and we want people to have that happen, but we don't have to close any deal. We don't have to do anything in the sense of we convert people.

That's not what we have to do at all. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How are they, the people who aren't Bible-minded, to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news? But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Last comment, that was Romans 10, this comes from Romans chapter 1, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

And so whether you're in a Bible-minded area or a non-Bible-minded area, if there's a person and they are the unregenerate elect, you preach the gospel, they get saved. God gets all the glory. Again, Mike Gabendroth here, No Compromise Radio.

Kitsch Christian Gifts and Religious Consumerism

I live close to Peabody, Massachusetts. Now that's how I would say it if I lived in Omaha or Los Angeles or Santa Cruz, some of my other homes in the past. But if you live here in Massachusetts, you don't say Peabody, you say Peabody.

And so Christian Book Discounter is in Peabody, and they sell things. They sell Christian books for which I'm very happy, and they discount Christian books for which I'm happy, and they also sell other things for which I'm not that happy, but they don't answer to me.

They sell kitschy stuff. They sell things. And so I got their magazine, and it's basically a magazine of Christian gift discounts. And so I'm looking at things that you can buy and then just set around your house or wear.

Very interesting to see the stuff that they sell. So for instance, you can get a chocolate and prayer Java mug, and it says, God sends no stress that chocolate and prayer can't handle. A sweet dose of encouragement for a friend in need of vitamin C, C for chocolate.

Generous 16-ounce ceramic mug is microwavable and dishwashable safe, gift boxed, retail $11 .99, CBD $9 .99. Just go to your local Christian bookstore sometime and look at square footage and say to yourself, look it, they give this amount of space for CDs and DVDs, this amount for books and this amount for knickknacks, and it'll tell you how important Christian knickknacks are.

Well, let's see, what else do we have here for, oh, there's things for graduates. You can personalize some t-shirts and graduates need things just in time for their graduation. Okay, how about this one?

Men of faith necklace. This comes from the category of what never took by me. Occasionally we'll have people here on the radio station. They love to send some Pete's coffee to me. I'm very thankful for that.

Once in a while they send me bad letters. Not so thankful for that. But don't ever send me a men of faith necklace. It's a CBD exclusive. Acknowledgement his commitment, acknowledge his commitment to the Lord with this distinctive necklace.

The one inch pewter cross, pewter, comes on a 15 inch black cord with accent beads. CBD price $9 .99. Now, how do you acknowledge your commitment to Christ with a dopey necklace, I guess. All right, let me give you something else that I'd never want to receive.

A flashlight and tire gauge gift set with a cross on it. It's a fake mag light with a cross, a handy glove box essential. This silver tone set includes a five and three quarter inch tire gauge with a pocket clip and a five and one half inch slim line flashlight that features an on off button.

That's always good. The non-Christian ones don't have the on off. An attached carrying loop, see, requires two triple A batteries, not included. Comes in a sturdy metal gift box. So you know, if that's for the man of faith, I wonder what the woman of faith would bring here in the CBD deal.

You can wear your witness, it says in the t-shirt section, and you can get a flip-flop. But it's not a flip-flop that you wear on your foot, they're flip-flop t-shirts. And it's got girly grace on the front.

These flip-flops go wherever the good Lord takes me, 100 pre-shrunk, because the pagans, they don't buy the pre-shrunk kind. Oh, there's a man up t-shirt here. I don't know, maybe they're selling those down at Long Beach.

Donald and Driscoll, maybe they wore those things. My lifeguard walks on water. The Lord's army strong and courageous. It's not about religion. I think if you look up religion sometime, I think you're going to find Christianity listed underneath religion.

Oh, you say it's a relationship. I say, give me a daily bread basket over here. This is another, see what happens when you are sick. You get this kind of show. Keep the bread toasty and your heart's thankful throughout every meal.

Microwave the porcelain warmer, tuck it inside your serving basket. Your rolls, bread, or muffins stay deliciously hot. When you serve that loaf piping hot from the oven, don't forget to credit the giver of all gifts, capital G, featuring embroidered scalloped edges.

This 55 linen, 45 cotton. Doesn't Leviticus say something about that? Liner folds over bread or rolls served in a basket or on a plate. You can get pictures. You can get wooden plaques. You can get tabernacle-making models.

You can get a mini replica of the Ark of the Covenant. Actually, that would be a nice teaching thing. You can get a comfort cross. How many of those would like a comfort cross? For the fourth caller into the show today, you get a comfort cross.

What is a comfort cross? I'm glad you asked. Find reassurance holding these soft, rounded wooden crosses in worship or prayer. So these are little worry rocks, but they're comfort crosses. And so you rub them.

You rub them during Sunday morning when the pastor's preaching a really convicting sermon. Thankfully, they're imported from the Holy Land. They come with a cloth drawstring bag in case you rub them too much.

Okay. I don't know if this is the last one or not, but do we really need all this stuff? I mean, really? All these keepsakes and everything else tangible to hold, to smell, to feel, to touch, to taste, all reminding us of the invisible God?

How does that work? Maybe I'm not supposed to ask the question. But this one here maybe rubs me the wrong way, rubs me so much that I might have to have some more monster drink. It says there are two servings in this container.

Maybe I get two shows out of the deal. I get an email from somebody saying I'm a wannabe comedian. A New Covenant prayer shawl with carrying bag. And this comes with English and Hebrew, English and Hebrew, Spanish and Hebrew, or Spanish and Hebrew.

It depends on the size. So it says here, add meaning to ceremonial prayer time, add meaning to Old Covenant worship right here at CBD, Christian by definition, Hebrews, Jesus better than the Old Covenant.

This desire we have to go back to pomp and circumstance and gowns and robes and incense and bells and smells and whistles, and that's all hearkening back to temple worship. These exquisite shawls are adorned with scripture, messianic symbols and Hebrew prayer, fashioned of acrylic with tassel trim and fringes, of course.

Includes matching zippered bags. So if you want to go back to the Old Covenant and you want to be on the go while you do it, it's fine to do. Well my name is Mike Abendroth. If you'd like some multimedia accessories, I'm sure we could find you a no compromise tire gauge.

Our best-selling gift for under $10, a pop-up book-like collection with No Compromise Radio. You know we need those bands. People wear those bands, you know, WWJD, except it needs to say NoCoRadio or something like that, hashtag.

You can write me at info at nocompromiseradio .com. And we dealt today with preaching the gospel in New England, and also knick-knack, paddy-whack, give somebody some kitschy stuff. My name is Mike Abendroth, and if you'd like to go to Israel with us, you can also write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

You can go to our No Compromise Radio station as well, noco90 .com.

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 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.