A Bad Book Is A Good Thief

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, Mike Abendroth here at the helm with the other helmsman,

Steve Cooley. We're here in the command center of No Compromise Radio, enjoying a balmy, toasty day.

Yes, in real time right now, it's pretty snowy out. It's pretty slippery. I almost got in an accident.

My car almost ran down into the ditch. It wouldn't have been an accident. That would have been a divine appointment. Yeah, I think

I could have said, glad I got that over with. Yeah, it was a little sketchy out on the road this morning.

No snide remarks today, Steve. Okay, none. Yes, and when you think of snide, would that represent

No Compromise Radio? I don't really think you're snide. I hope not. Otherwise, we misnamed the show.

Maybe we should have named it, you know, always snide. Uh -huh, always snide. Snide Radio.

Yes, Steve, in front of you and in front of me, we have two copies, actually. We have christianbook .com,

1 -800 -CHRISTIAN, the January, February version. And do you think we should do like an anti -No

Compromise today, the opposite of we find books that are really good in here? It might be hard.

How much time do we have? Now, see, here's the thing. They do sell lots of good books, but what we like to do with Christianity Today and with Christian Book Distributors to just show you what people want to buy, and they're pretty much selling it.

It's pretty amazing. And so I'd ask our listeners, what's the last book you bought regarding the word and trying to understand it better?

Why did you buy it? And who wrote it? Those would be good questions. What'd you think?

Those would be great questions. I'm so, I mean, if you want to get discouraged, you should go through the

CBD catalog because it's just filled with books that in a million years, I would never buy. Okay, so let's start at the very back.

This is interesting because it makes it good fodder, at least in my opinion. Everest VBS Ultimate Starter Kit.

Lace up your climbing boots and teach your three to 12 year olds to conquer mountain -sized challenges by relying on God's provision, comfort, healing, and forgiveness, and love.

This is a kit. It includes director's guide and all the other stuff. Climb every mountain.

So Steve, it's fascinating. I mean, we just, we're just in a law world.

We love the law. We're built as Pelagians because of the fall. We get saved.

We're kind of a little more semi -Pelagian. We have to understand God's word a little more to understand Paulinism and what

Jesus taught about salvation. But we're climbing, climbing Jacob's ladder. Isn't it so true? Saved by grace, but perfected by law.

Well, I mean, what's the first thing you do after you're saved, right? Your first response is you think, well, now

I have to crank up my game. I have to change my, I, I, I, me, me, me, me.

I have to change my life. I have to get rid of all this stuff that I've been keeping. I have to do this.

I have to cut off all these relationships. I have to evangelize everyone. I have to, you know, and I, I'm, I'm so thankful for the grace of God in saving me now.

It's all up to me. How do I climb or conquer mountain -sized challenges?

I don't know. What I, what I would be concerned about with three to 12 -year -olds is how do I, how do

I come to faith in Christ? That's, that's what. Every single time. That's, that's why often at VBS here at BBC, at NOCO Radio, see, we have all these little tiny sloganettes that you, you know, we go to the

OPC folks and they have good VBS curriculum. They don't really have good songs to sing along because, you know, acapella psalms aren't that fun for the kids.

Just kidding. Open up your psalter. But they know let's teach everyone here every day, right?

VBSs are usually five days that need to preach the gospel every single time.

Yeah. And what we do is we'll usually have different men do it and, you know, from different passages.

And just because you have different guys, you're going to get a different personality, a different angle that they're going to approach it from, you know, and it's going to be a unique presentation no matter what.

Well, I was advised by the VBS committee here at the church that I might be the main speaker and that I was going to be known as a

Sherpa. Because you're going to be helping them climb the mountain. Okay, what else?

Steve, I have a question. What is at the very back the mystery of Shemotah?

I know it's a mystery and it's kind of a harbinger follow up.

You've got this messianic rabbi. Have you read the mystery of Shemotah? I have not, but it sounds like a very good, it would be an excellent, let's see what

I'm looking for, Law and Order SVU, you know. I have no comment for that.

There's just no way I can make any response at all. Steve, any books you've bought lately that aren't on this list?

What have you been reading? Well, I'm sure there are books that I bought lately. I mean, I just started the

John Owen biography by Sinclair Ferguson, yep, and I really like that.

Mostly because I'm just impressed. I didn't realize all the English history that he was involved in and actually, you know, kind of involved a close confidant of higher people or people higher up in the government.

So pretty impressive. I mean, I just knew he wrote Pilgrim's Progress and really smart guy or not him.

I'm just all confused. Sorry. Well, you know, I appreciate Pilgrim's Progress when

Paul Bunyan and his ox babe wrote it up somewhere in the tundra.

George Bunyan. I'm mashing things up here. Well, what was - But John Owen was, he was a close, there was just a big back and forth between the

Catholic church and the Protestant church and he was involved in kind of being an advisor and then he got shunned, you know, was just put out when they went to Catholic, so.

Okay. Anyway. Some kind of Cromwell chapter. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was interesting. It was very interesting. All right, well, as we're bombing this segment -

Yeah, we're just trashing it. We can move on. How about things like your

Sunday school class? Tell me the meaning of life. I like to know what you're thinking regarding that because I don't usually get to sit in.

People ask about the meaning of life and, you know, it's just a small topic. Yeah, well, that's what I thought.

You know what, after dealing with the humanity of Christ, I thought I'd pick a small target, you know, something easy to cover, so the meaning of life.

But actually, it's just a way to kind of talk about a multitude of ethical issues because one of the things that's been bothering me is how do you, as a

Christian, how do you say, well, you know what, here's an application of scripture, which is, you know, unbelievers should never be married to believers.

You know, we should never, as pastors, we'd never marry an unbeliever and a believer together. That's an application of how can two walk together unless they agree, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

But here we have these protests and people are, in essence, locking arms with people who are communists and anarchists, you know, completely against the government, completely against police authority, completely against Romans 13 and everything it says in scripture.

How do you do that? How do you not realize that this is a, it's a spiritual statement that you're making and how do you get things so wrong?

So that was one of the things that kind of motivated me to think about that. But, you know, we also have people begging for money for animals, and I think animals are important, but what's more important, a dog or a child?

You know, what's more, all these kind of issues, how do we, how should we look at euthanasia?

How should we look at, there's this situation in Connecticut the other day where this girl yesterday, as a matter of fact, she was just ordered to undergo chemotherapy.

She didn't want to undergo chemotherapy, but the state said, well, if you don't do it, you're going to die and you're not old enough to make that decision, so you have to undergo it.

All these kind of issues that are swirling about life and death, how should we view them in light of what scripture says about being image bearers?

Does it, you know, is human life more important than animal life? Is animal life more important than plant life?

You know, does any of this stuff matter? Steve, you know, the

CBD book has all kinds of wonderful books in there, and I think in light of your meaning of life and the dogs and all that, there's a new book, it's

The Circle Maker, Praying Circles Around Your Pets, and you know, I think that would actually work pretty well.

That really isn't there, is it? Praying Circles Around Your Pets? No, there's one, Praying Circles Around Your Children, five key lessons to help, you know, to pray circles around your children.

Well, some people have pets instead of children. I think if you run in a circle too long, you might turn into butter or something.

Isn't that some old story? That's a song by R .E .M. too. Seriously? Yeah. All right.

I was going to say Stop Making Sense, but that wouldn't be R .E .M. That would be David Byrne. Steve, when

I look - Big shoulder pads. That's true. When I look at this and I see books like Think, Act, Be Like Jesus, you know, it kind of bums me out a little bit, right?

That's like with the fifth gospel. I'm the fifth gospel. You know, you look at Jesus' life in Matthew, his life in Mark, his life in Luke, his life in John, and then you look at mine, and that's kind of like, you know, which one is the same?

The opening chapter of The Man Christ Jesus by Bruce Ware, he says, you know what, he's a kid.

And he's sitting there in church one day, and the pastor says, you know, basically be like Jesus. And he's sitting there, he goes, well, that's not fair.

Jesus is God. And that's what got him, you know, kind of motivated over the years as he was thinking about that to write this book,

The Man Christ Jesus. But, you know, the very idea, well, why can't you be, we're being conformed to the image of Christ, right?

But if you say, be like Jesus, do like Jesus did, follow in the footsteps of Jesus, okay, so all

I need to do is do everything perfectly all the time. And with a sacrificial motive, you know, with a complete obedience to God, and people are like, yes, that's what you should do.

And I have to agree. Yes, that is what I should do. But if that's my constant goal, if that's my constant mindset,

I'm going to be a very frustrated person because I can't do it. Steve, I only have one word for that, and it's three letters.

It is all one word, forget you. And it's not an O, it's aha.

Steve, have you read the aha book, The Moment That Changes Everything? Didn't they do that song,

Take On Me? Aha, take me on. No, who was that, aha, or is that wham?

No, I think it was aha. No, I think you're right, I think you're right. Have you ever had an aha experience? A flash of insight when you finally get it and your life changes forever.

Drawing on Jesus's parables, Eidelman reveals how three key elements, awakening, honesty, and action, can produce eureka moments.

How much more law can a man take? Is aha the Greek or is that the Aramaic? Well, in New England, it'd be ahar.

Which sounds Hebrew. Yeah, so when you find books that you think you might want to read, let's make sure we're not having them laced with moralism and more law -keeping, because hasn't the promise keepers movement told us once and for all with popular clarity, we don't need more law.

When it comes to buying books, I mean, we're kind of just talking about books in general and things like that, and I just say the most important thing, and this is gonna sound terrible, most important thing is who wrote it, not the subject matter.

And you say, why is that? Because, listen, bad authors produce bad books.

I mean, what could be more basic than that? If the man or the woman doesn't have sound theology, then why would you pick up the book and expect it to be helpful?

Because the answer is, it's not going to be. I guess if a bad theologian wrote 1 ,000 books, one of them might be good, but why would you want to go through 1 ,000 bad books to read the one good one?

Steve, for me and my house, our night table just has books like Bad Girls of the

Bible. That's what we read around our house. Jezebel.

I have no response for that. Well, I mean, people will ask me, well, what about this, people of the church, well, what about this author or that author?

And I kind of stole this from you. You know, well, there's a reason we don't sell any of his books or her books, and then

I'll talk about the reasons why we don't, but there are some people who just, they couldn't write a good book if you paid them a billion dollars.

So today on No Compromise Radio, we're just talking about a variety of books that give us an opportunity to talk about emotional health and stuff like that, spiritual health, that's good.

Steve, are you a big Christian DVD buyer? Do you buy souls, not souls, do you buy shows that talk about soul detox and stuff like that?

I don't really tend to buy a lot of Christian DVDs. No, I mean, the truth is, well, the truth is, most of the things in this catalog aren't worth the paper that they're printed on or the plastic that they're reproduced on or whatever, they're just bad.

Okay, now we will redeem the show. Let's talk about general topics like apologetics.

If you were going to buy a book on apologetics, somebody said, Pastor Steve, I'd like to read a little bit more about evidentialism or this, that, or the other, defending the faith, what might be a book that you would recommend?

Well, if I was gonna go with evidentialism, I wouldn't go with the evidence that demands a verdict. If I wanted evidentialism,

I'd probably do something like, I'd probably go with RC or something like that, some kind of traditional apologetic methodology.

But I mean, I'm more of the presuppositional mindset. Okay, what is presuppositionalism?

Presuppositionalism is that the evidence isn't going to change anybody's mind.

And so we start with the baseline that the Bible's true. And if somebody wants us to prove that the Bible's true, I'm not interested in that.

I'm just interested in declaring truth to them. So presuppositionalism is this, we all have presuppositions, that is, worldviews.

An unbeliever has their own worldview, and if you drive them back to ultimately how they know something is true, what will they say?

Because they believe it to be so. And I will say, I believe that the

Bible is true. And they say, well, you know, that's just your presupposition. And I'll say, exactly right. My presupposition is external.

It's outside of me. And I do engage in circular reasoning, and my circle always ends with the

Bible, you know, on the sure word. Your circle, because it is a circle, always goes back to your own understanding of the world, and your own understanding has fallen.

Jeremiah 17, nine, you know, your heart is deceitful. You are, apart from the word of God, you can't know anything.

And so that's presuppositionalism in 30 seconds. If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.

And so, since we have a supposition that people are dead in trespasses and sins, only the word of God can quicken them at God's own sovereign will.

Steve, if you had to recommend someone to read a book on the

Holy Spirit, and they said, well, I'd like to learn more about the Holy Spirit. I've always thought he was a force, or it was a force, and now

I believe he is a person. What book might you recommend on the Holy Spirit?

Well, I remember reading R .C. Sproul's book on the Holy Spirit, who wrote

The Forgotten Holy Spirit, or I guess The Forgotten Trinity. I mean, you could read

James White's book, didn't Sinclair Ferguson do one on the Holy Spirit? That's probably my favorite one on the

Holy Spirit is the Sinclair Ferguson. I think it's an IVP book. So, I mean, you're going to want to pick up, you know, we're probably going to throw out the same names over and over again, but that's because these are men who are sound in scripture.

They think, well, they're not innovative. And let me just say a word about that. I don't want anything innovative.

I want, why? Because when Paul writes to Timothy, what are we supposed to do? We guard the trust.

We hand it down from generation to generation. We don't reinvent it. I don't want anything new or novel or untried, because those things typically are untrue.

Steve, what about a book about the Bible? People want to know the authority of God's word, its sufficiency, maybe how the canon comes together.

Do you think of a good book people could read about the Bible? Pete About the canon of scripture? Steve I think this

Derek Prince book right here might be good. Pete I'm trying to think of what's, who wrote the book about the canon of scripture?

We get one in, I want to say I got one in seminary. Steve FF Bruce probably wrote the canon of scripture.

Pete Yes, excellent. Pete Yeah, so that would be good. I'm trying to think of other books. But again,

I just think, well, I think it'd be hard to find a really bad book about the canon of scripture, because if you're going to write one...

Steve Okay, that's a great point. Let's think about a hermeneutics book. When you recommend a hermeneutics book, people say,

I'd like to know about the science and art of biblical interpretation. Do you recommend the Max Lucado hermeneutics book?

Pete No, I mean, you're going to go with, you know, Dr. Thomas or something of that nature. I mean, they're all manner of bad hermeneutics books, you know, like the hermeneutical spiral.

I remember when you stopped me from getting that years ago. I remember where we were.

Yes, I do too. And you're like, no, you practically dived across the stack of books. No. Steve I think that's when you could order, you know, some kind of online deal and you get 10 books free, right?

You buy one, you get a bunch free. I like Zook's book on hermeneutics. Pete Yep, good.

I like, what's the other one I often recommend?

The one I read in seminary was good. Bernard Rams, Protestant Biblical Interpretation. Steve What about Mayhew's book,

How to Interpret Scripture? Pete That's a good beginner's one. Steve R .C. Sproul's book.

Pete Knowing Scripture. Steve Yes. Pete That's excellent. Steve Yes. Pete How about if you were going to read a book about faith?

There's a book about faith that you say would be good for your soul. Because I thought of Sproul when you said that faith alone, he wrote,

What is Faith by Machen. I ask a question, then I answer it. So can you think of other books about faith?

Pete Those are good. I mean, no, I mean,

I think, I mean, I'm just basically going to come back to the same writers over and over and over again.

There are probably maybe 10 that if you just pick up any of their books, you're going to be blessed, whether it's

MacArthur or Sproul or White or Ferguson or all these guys are going to bless you by what they write.

Steve Okay, let's talk in the remaining four minutes of the show. What's our strategy for reading good books?

In other words, Steve, we don't have a whole lot of time in life and a bad book is a good thief, as some would say.

We need to pick the best books and read them versus wandering around reading books.

I think, for instance, of Francis Chan. A lot of stuff he says, of course, is true and accurate, but there's enough in there where I just think,

I don't need to spend my time reading Crazy Love. I'd rather read something else that I know would be top -notch, even if it was good, better, best paradigm.

Pete Yeah, and, you know, besides that, if you're kind of a slow reader like me, never learned how to really read fast or I have to really put forth a great effort to read fast, let's put it that way.

Yeah, I don't want to read a bunch of bad books, so I'm not going to be spending my time reading the Daniel Plan or, you know, whatever, the

Rick Warren books. I'm not going to be doing that. So what am I going to do? I'm going to read good books and I'm going to want to really consume them.

And part of what I do is I make notes in the book as I'm reading it.

I'll underline things and, you know, when I'm really on top of my game, if I see something exceptional,

I'll not only underline it, I'll go to the front of the book and I'll put page number and like a four or five word synopsis of what that underlined thing is, you know, and the page number there.

So that if I'm ever thinking, now, what was it that MacArthur said about whatever?

And I know it was in that book. I'll just go to the book, open it up to the opening page there and I'll see all the things

I've listed and I'll find it. And that, you know, it makes it really easy to, and that way

I'm really getting the most out of a book that I possibly can. Steve, if I was going to give advice, we're going to give advice to people when they go shop at a

CBD catalog, or if they walk into a Christian bookstore. Here's my advice for walking into a

Christian bookstore and shopping. Go toward the back and you walk past the books up front that are the popular,

The Storm's Coming, Jesus Calling, Daniel Plan, all the stuff that's on the front page of CBD's catalog.

And you got to go back to the kind of small little section there, reform section or something else.

Walk past the Amulets, walk past the Communion Cups, walk past the Roman Catholic section, walk past the

Charismatic section, walk past the T .D. Jakes, John Hagee books, and you might find a small little section there with, who knows what,

A Shame to the Gospel by MacArthur, tucked away for $4. Yeah, you really have to look.

Because today's Christian bookstores are really kind of minefields.

They're filled with books by wheat and tares. I mean, it's pretty rough.

I mean, you're going to go in and you're going to see the circle maker, draw the circle. And in fact, anytime an author uses the same word or phrase in four or five different books, you've got a problem.

You know, if it's circle this, circle that. Steve, I was asked by a young student once, what about John 2?

Jesus cleans the temple out and he drives the money changers out. We probably shouldn't sell coffee or books at the local church.

Is that a right interpretation? And I said, well, I don't think so. I said a better application of that verse would be

Jesus walking into some Christian bookstores, quote unquote Christian, and taking his whip and driving out those people.

Because if you're going to be a Barnes and Noble, I don't fault you for selling certain books. Because you're in it for the money.

But if you call yourself Christian and you want to be a ministry, then you have to have some discernment.

Very well said. Yeah. Discernment. So that was the English version. Well, you know,

I mean, there are books, all manner of books that are really bad. But I mean, what you really want to do is get a list of 10 or 12 people that you can really trust and read those books.

Good. Mike Ebenroth here with Steve Cooley, a little words for wisdom regarding reading books, buying books, selling books, copying books.

Books, books, books. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebenroth 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.