Pet Cemetery

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. Steve here is in the house, Pastor Steve Cooley. Dasvidanya. Sheriff Cooley. Si. Senior Cooley. Ja. Grandpa Cooley. Da. Da. We want to remind the listeners, No Compromise Radio ministry is going to go on a cruise to Greece.

Contrary to Steve's wisecracks about the urban terror sites that we'll visit, we're going to see places like Berea, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, Patmos—it's not in Greece. Persia. Persian jail cells.

April 2012—13, 2012. It was a great trip, wasn't it? I really enjoyed it. It was the best.

I didn't even get my HEP shots. The only thing I wish is we'd had more of a view. If we could have gotten more of a view of the ocean, that would have been nice.

You know what? You're supposed to go on trips, Steve, to make memories, and I don't really have a lot of memories from that trip.

Well, I just remember having to man the guns there as we—. The turrets. Cruised the coast of Somalia. All those pirates trying to board us.

If you want to travel with us, you can. We'll send you a brochure. Info at nocompromiseradio .com.

And the first 10 listeners get a free flare gun. First free.

The Message Bible and 1 Corinthians 6

All right, well, today we're going to have our message moment, Steve. Yes. Okay, so I'm going to just pick 1 Corinthians 6. We pull out the message Bible, small B. The message moment.

Shouldn't we have some kind of special music for this?

We should, but you know what? This is just a—this is a very low-production radio show.

Just as it is with, you know, just special music. Well, you know what?

We could plug in everything in this console here in this 1202 VLZ3, but I don't really know how to do it. I just know how to talk and ask you the right questions. Okay. Message moment. This is the message moment.

Mental drum roll. This is very—it's tough here, I know. Okay. All right, ready? Yeah. Do you realize this is just not the way to live? Oh, wait. That's not the right one. Steve, I have to admit—.

Our first faux pas in the message moment. I made a mistake.

Okay. Because they don't have verses here, see? That's the problem. Well, because that wouldn't be user-friendly. I don't know. So why can't I find it? I'm going to 1 Corinthians 6, and I want verses 9 and 10, and I cannot find it.

Because there are no verses, Mark. That's why you can't find it. Steve, this is really crazy. It says all kinds of stuff, but I can't find it. And I was going to talk about fornicators who want to inherit the kingdom of God and homosexuals who practice homosexuality and this thing.

Am I that dumb? Well, this is embarrassing on live TV. Oh, wait. We're not on live TV. No. I say this as bluntly as I can to wake you up to the stupidity of what you're doing. I say this as bluntly as I can.

That is the verse. Well, I'm telling you, I cannot find it. Oh, okay. This is it. This is the extent of it. No wonder. Steve, seriously, no wonder. That is a dramatic build. Don't you realize that this is not the way to live?

Unjust people who don't care about God will not be joining in His kingdom. Those who use and abuse each other, use and abuse sex, use and abuse the earth and everything in it, don't qualify as citizens in God's kingdom.

Wait. It actually says that. Well, no wonder I couldn't find the passage, because this has nothing to do with it. It actually says that. So implied, if it's a loving monogamous relationship and it's homosexual, that's not sexual abuse.

No one's getting hurt. Don't abuse or use the earth. I guess I'm not going to go to heaven because I use the earth.

Right. So, I mean, to take the best possible spin on it, polluters are in worse shape than homosexuals.

Absolutely. A number of you know from experience what I'm talking about. For not so long ago, you were on that list. Since then, you've been cleaned up and given a fresh start by Jesus, our Master, our Messiah, and by our God, present in us, the Spirit.

Okay, that is just stick your finger down your throat time. That is—it sounds like rehab. That's 12-step talk.

That is not the Bible. That is definitely from Nav, Depress. That makes me depressed to read that, because that is so—for anybody that gets up and quotes the message in any way, shape, or form without first saying, this is not a translation.

This is wrong. This is bad. This has bad theology. This has got spiritual strychnine. But they want it because it just puts a nice spin on a verse.

I have no respect for that. But wait, Pastor Mike, I've heard Pastor Rick Warren use that translation before.

Yeah, well, if the shoe fits, wear it. I was trying to think of something about the Twilight movie to inject in there, because it was so—. If the shoe fits, wear it. I think that was in the Twilight movie.

Oh, it was? I didn't see it. So Steve, today, after our message moment—isn't that depressing, though?

Well, I'll tell you what, it's not very uplifting.

Are we thinking that we have study Bible message, study Bible?

If you use or abuse one another, or the earth, or—.

If you use or abuse the airwaves. And don't use or abuse your car. If you use or abuse the iTunes. Or the library. How does this—this is bad. See? Am I not redeemed now because I couldn't find the verses that I actually thought were in the Bible, 9 and 10, 1 Corinthians 6?

You know what? I'd like to rename that the Satanic Verses. Has that title been used? Oh, wait, it has. That wasn't Anton LaVey.

It was another guy, wasn't it? Salman Rushdie. Salmond. That's a nice Salmon shirt you've got.

It's actually blue, but I digress. Well, it just depends. What if I'm colorblind?

Excellent point. All right. Here in—did you know there's a new Bible that's coming out? Speaking of Bibles, how do you like that transition? I'm excited about that.

Steve. Steve. Steve. Now, when I saw this ad, I thought it was a TV show. Oh, I did too. Yeah. It isn't? A reality show.

What's this new Bible called? It's called The Voice. Ooh, I can hear God's whispering in my ear right now. No, it's a still voice. It's a small voice. Actually, it's a still small voice. Nice. And you know what?

They make these things in compact pocket Bible sizes, the mini small voice. Excellent. All right. So, it's a step into the story of Scripture. And so, you know what? In our day and age, it's not necessarily news.

You have to be part of the news. And so, in the old days, Steve, reporters actually reported on the event. They tried not to say subjective things about how they felt about the event. Was the event right or wrong?

The reporter reported the news. That's actually a good word for, we get good insight when we think of the word gospel, to proclaim good news. And so, here we want you to step into the story because where's Waldo?

Right there. Right in the story. I call this the yearbook edition of the Bible where you can open up the Bible and find your own picture first. That is so swell. Swell. So, Steve, tell us what Thomas Nelson, I guess we won't be getting any more free Thomas Nelson books sent to the radio station.

Well, maybe his brother Terry Nelson will send us some books.

Well, that could be. It says www .seegodswordinaction .com. But tell us a little bit about The Voice in terms of what does it say about it so I can understand it in case I want to order some for Christmas.

The Bible is alive like no other book. And The Voice draws you in like no other Bible. Scholars, poets, musicians, and storytellers have come together to create this singularly unique translation that transports you into the Bible's narrative.

Don't just read the word. Step into the story.

You are there. Two thumbs up. There is a glut of new Bibles for lots of reasons. Maybe some translators think that they are doing good things with good motives. I think some of it has to do with money, Steve, don't you think?

Don't you think we have enough Bibles these days?

Oh, you can never have too many translations. Are you kidding? I mean, you know, just think if we just settled on one or two that we would all study the same Bible and maybe come to more similar conclusions.

That's one more reason why we should use the only inspired version, the 1611 KJV.

That's exactly right. If it was good enough for the Apostle Paul, it's good enough for me.

John the Baptist was the original Baptist if it was good enough for him.

He scratched it out. So you know what I really like, though? I'm excited about The Voice. I, you know, I was just kidding because this was actually endorsed by Blake Shelton. Oh, wait. That's not right.

Who won The Voice? I don't even know. But how about this? It comes with a special screenplay format because it says here in the ad, a screenplay format makes biblical dialogue more engaging.

Okay, so Steve, you be God and I'll be Adam. Very good. Okay, here we go.

Oh, I'm God. Yeah. Okay, God calling to Adam, where are you?

When I heard the sound of your coming in the garden, I was afraid because I asked. I was naked. So I hid from you.

Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten from the tree in the center of the garden, the very one I commanded you not to eat from?

My finger's actually pointing to the woman right now. It was she, the woman you gave me as a companion, put the fruit in my hands and I ate it.

Well, you know, I can sense the palpable tension between God and Adam there. In fact, I think in this—. That was more engaging for sure. Yeah, this dialogue we have between these two strong leaders, you know, these—I mean, it makes me want to cast the characters right now.

And I'm not thinking George Burns and John Denver. I'm thinking more like, I don't know, Charlton Heston and James Earl Jones, if Charlton Heston were still alive. Who could take Charlton Heston's place?

It has to be somebody really, you know, James Earl Jones, obviously, you know, with that voice he needs to be—well, never mind.

Steve, the only kind of screenplay format I would like is I would like that for the Song of Solomon for my wife and I. We could read that back and forth together, and I could talk about. All her teeth are the same and she's not missing a one.

Wow, you are a romantic person. Kim is one lucky woman.

Well, they do have that screenplay format, I think, in some of the translations for the Song of Solomon, so you know who's speaking, because sometimes it's difficult to know whether it's the singers or the Shulamite.

I just love this because it even has the direction, you know, you could really visualize it because you just think, you know, it says, Adam, and then in parenthesis pointing to woman, you know, so you just go, you know, if you want to live act it out, you know, it's all there.

Steve, I don't know if that's actually in the text. Maybe that's like, say la. I heard S. Lewis Johnson say, some consider say la a translation—actually, it's a description of what David said when he broke a harp string.

Well, in this version, it's— Say la. In this version, it's considered an autograph, you know, you just say la. That's the person's name who got a hold of it and just put their name in the manuscript.

We at No Compromise Radio encourage you to get a New American Standard Bible, 78 or 95, an ESV Study Bible, a MacArthur Study Bible—.

A Waste Management Study—oh, that's not true.

By Waste Management—actually, the Voice would probably be good for the Waste Management. Oh, stop! Please stop Waste Management. We have an extra copy of the Voice for you. Put it in the recyclables. We want you to just have a regular Bible that is having the philosophy of word for word, not phrase by phrase, not theatrical trailer, not the voice, not to spin the chair around to vote for the person you want on your team.

Just something that's clear, concise. It doesn't have to be 15th grade reading level in college. It can be 8th grade, 10th grade, it doesn't really matter to me. Something simple. And see, here's the wonderful thing.

The Spirit of God comes alongside the Christian because He dwells inside the Christian, of course, too, and illumines the Scripture. And so, I don't know if Adam pointed or didn't point. I don't know if Adam raised his voice or didn't raise his voice.

I didn't know if God sounds like Pastor Steve or not, although some of the people heard God's Word spoken and it sounded like thunder. But why don't you just get yourself a good, sturdy ESV, our New American Standard, MacArthur Study Bible.

You can get a Reformation Study Bible.

Is MacArthur Study Bible coming out in The Message?

It's called the Massage. You massage the word to it so it fits the therapeutic, moralistic, deistic society of today, otherwise known as Sheila-ism.

The Holy Spirit and the Limits of Bible Paraphrase

Well, you know, when I look at translations like The Voice or The Message, here's what I think they're really failing to grapple with, is exactly what you were saying. The 1 Corinthians 2 .14 principle, which basically is, apart from the Holy Spirit, you cannot understand the Word of God.

So what these guys are trying to do, they're trying to write a Bible so simple that even an unbeliever can understand it. And that's the wrong approach. We don't want people translating—let me change that—commenting on the Bible and pretending that it's a translation, because this is not a translation.

The Voice is not a translation. It may be a good screenplay, but it's not a translation.

For the first time ever, we have our second message moment, because Steve just quoted 1 Timothy 2 .14. 1 Corinthians 2 .14. 1 Corinthians are alluded to it. It says here, the unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can't receive the gifts of God's Spirit.

There's no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. They seem like so much silliness.

Honestly, that translation just makes me want to weep. And we've talked about Eugene Peterson at some length in other shows.

Makes me want to go get one of his leadership books. How about you?

Yeah, because I want to learn how to lead from the trunk. I mean, that's climbing out of the trunk and lead your church.

Now what if someone said, yes, but I got saved by reading the Message Bible and learned about sin, atonement, Christ, and what He requires in the Word, so therefore it must be good.

That's just pragmatism. I mean, you know, people get saved through all sorts of means. I mean, really, this isn't where I got saved, but what started me off on the path that led to my salvation was a 12-step meeting.

Does that mean we should all go to 12-step meetings in order that we might receive that kind of movement of God that leads us to the truth? No. You know, I mean, there are all a variety of ways that God uses to save people.

Should we employ all of them and call them normative? No. We should look to Scripture as our guide.

You asked me how I know He lives. He lives inside my heart. All right, here's a quotation, Steve. I'd just like to have your reaction. And Harold Campion, of course, for the 88th time, had the wrong return date for Christ.

It's only been 84. Yeah. And he said, even as God used sinful Balaam to accomplish His purposes, so He used our sin to make the whole world acquainted with the Bible.

And thus, we could talk about the message. Yeah.

Harold Campion, at least he admitted his sin, I guess. Right. And he called himself— A donkey. He called himself a donkey.

Which, you know, a rare moment of humility for Mr. Campion.

Christ would return May 21st, last year. It was sinful and wrong on family radio. What about Pat Robertson here in quotation marks? The quotation isn't from Pat, but it's about Pat. Pat said that the 700 Club broadcast, he agreed with the Drug Policy Alliance that they should legalize marijuana use.

Now, as an ex-Los Angeles sheriff, do you think we should legalize marijuana? Well, if you're going to—. I think Peter Tosh might agree, but I'm not sure about Steve.

Yeah. You know, having actually stopped people who were under the influence of marijuana just because of the way they were driving, I would not advise it at all from a legal standpoint. I would not advise it from a moral standpoint, because it really sends a message that there's really nothing wrong with intoxicating your brain, with frying it, with, you know, exposing it to all manner of chemical compounds and waiting to see what happens.

And marijuana really is, whether people want to admit it or not, it is a gateway drug. Studies have shown repeatedly that people who use heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, all these other drugs, start with marijuana.

Now, just because you use marijuana doesn't mean you necessarily go on to harder drugs. But people who wind up on harder drugs almost invariably started with marijuana. So the answer is no, I would not advise legalizing it.

Grace, Grace, and More Grace, and the Question of Pets in Heaven

Well, Steve, then I think maybe you should go to the Grace, Grace, and More Grace Spiritual Formation as God's Care for Us conference at Friends University at September 27th through the 29th with our friends at the Friends University with Richard Foster.

It's good to have friends. Yes. It's nice to be nice, and it's friendly to have friends. Actually, friends is a denomination, of course, right?

See, what I find interesting is they've actually, you know, there's a guy there speaking that many evangelicals, conservative evangelicals, have been recommending one of his books recently. And so I find this a very curious lineup.

Would that be John Ortberg?

That would be John Ortberg. I wonder what John Ortberg is doing there. I don't know.

I guess he's speaking. Yes, along with his, I guess, I presume his wife. I mean, they have the same last name, so it would be striking if they weren't married.

Why can't we get a big conference like this for no compromise and have InterVarsity Press, Christian Audio, Renovere, The Apprentice Series? This is not Celebrity Apprentice.

But why won't they back us? I think we're just too narrow-minded. Well, and, you know, we don't sell as many books. When we start popping up at the top of CBD, then we'll be rolling. In fact, well, actually, that'll probably happen when my first book is released in about 20 years.

I am at the top of the list. Really? Alphabetically. Oh, that was a nice one. Yeah, I'm at the top of the CBD sales chart, really, alphabetically.

April 2012, Christianity Today, The Village Green basically asking for three different opinions on a particular topic, open questions, and then three scholars, according to Christianity Today, give their input.

This is an easy question. It's a two-foot putt. All right, well, there are three people who are responding to this question. Do pets go to heaven? Now, Steve, before we answer the question, we've talked about this a lot on No Compromise Radio.

Yeah, it's one of our favorite topics. And it all stems from the message moment that had the pet deal. But Steve, here's my issue. Why does this keep coming up? I mean, I think it makes funny radio, and it's interesting to think about.

We've so anthropomorphized our pets, seeming to have human qualities and attributes and the way they look at us and talk to us and all that with their eyes and all. But Steve, why?

Because if Skippy, my Burmese python, is not in heaven, then it won't be heaven. Skippy.

Okay, well, there are three responders. Wesley Smith said, many of us hope so. Now, so far, I don't think that's so bad. Yeah. That would be nice. Uh-huh.

We hope so. Yeah. Like the story yesterday about the person who was attacked by their pet lynx. Did you see that? No, I didn't know that. Yeah. And I'm just like, every time I see those stories, I'm like, okay, who thinks a lynx is a good pet?

Or a chimpanzee, or a python, or these are wild animals, people.

Then they had to kill the animal, and many of us hope it's in heaven. Yes. It won't be as aggressive, then, a sinful nature. Hopefully not, yeah. So do pets go to heaven? One, many of us hope so, Wesley Smith.

Number two, Karen Swallow Pryor said yes via the covenant.

Because animals are, I mean, to be in covenant, you need to be in Christ, right? So animals are by default, or do you have to get your animal baptized to be in the covenant?

By the way, she is a professor at Liberty University. I mean, Liberty University, in the old days, I think was pretty stellar. And these days, maybe this is a different Liberty, but Liberty has gone downhill from there.

She also has a her .menudix blog. So a her .menudix blog, like a him .menudix, but it's a her .menudix. Wasn't that Menudo? Weren't they some kind of a Spanish all-boys band? Were they any good? Whatever happened to?

One of the guys got a TV show. Do you know, Steve, in 35 years, there's going to be a segment, probably, on Slate Magazine. Whatever happened to Mike and Steve at No Compromise Radio? Oh, I'm sure there will be.

You know, it could be a, actually, I think you're selling a short. It could be a four-volume book.

Karen Swallow Pryor said, Oy.

I mean, let's see. Physical salvation versus spiritual salvation. I mean, here's the question. Do animals have a soul, you know, if we're going to talk about salvation? And the answer is obviously no.

I mean, would I love to have dogs in heaven? Yes. Do you have dogs? Yes. What are their dog's names?

Starbucks, Kona, and Latte. Okay, what if you start liking Pete's Coffee more than Starbucks Coffee?

Well, then the next one will probably be named Pete. No, it has to be Pete's. Pete's, come here. Pete's. Pete's. Okay, keep going. Pete and repeats. But, you know, I'm confident of the fact, because we know that there are going to be no more tears in heaven, that cats will not be in heaven.

I'm pretty sure of that. Even though this lady said, as foretold in Isaiah, animals will be in heaven. The wolf will live with the lamb.

Yes, but you notice neither one is a cat.

That's nice. And then finally, in the Village Green, do pets go to heaven? Ben DeVries, he's the founder of Not One Sparrow, a Christian voice for animals.

I thought it was the DeVries Institute.

Yeah, I thought it was that, and I thought it was some kind of, what's the sparrow song, the Rocky song? Keep your eye on the sparrow. Oh, that would be Richard, that would be Robert Blake. Beretta. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's right.

That's Beretta. Yeah. Beretta. He said, I wish I knew. Murder. It occurred to me from time to time in my grief that if God had made Bubba and knew and loved him even more than my family did, he could very well have some desire to bring his own treasured creation back to life one day.

I wish I knew. In the meantime, it seems okay to ask God if his grace might extend that far while doing my best to trust that heaven won't seem anything but complete regardless.

Listen, if we know, if we can read Revelation, you know, from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, if we can read all that and think heaven is going to be a place that we want to be, where there'll be no more tears, where we'll have no sorrow, and we think about the dear family members and everything that we've lost and understand that maybe not all of them are in heaven and we'll still have joy, then what about Bubba and pets?

I think, you know, come on, give me a break.

Great point. This is Mike Ebendroth with Steve Cooley for No Compromise Radio Ministry. I don't even know why we're asking these questions. I think we should argue less about pets in heaven and devote our time to the marginalized cats in war.

Or the marginalized doctrines.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth 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 bbcchurch .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.