The Pope and Bugs

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.

Farewell to WVNE and Ways to Listen

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth and I believe today, the day that the show will air, is Thursday. This is our last Thursday on WVNE. WVNE will be on today, Friday, and next Monday, then the month of September 2013 will be completed and our contract with WVNE for the fourth year will be done.

And sorry to say, the next day, October 1st, we won't be on WVNE. But I want to thank WVNE, its staff and its management. Seriously, I want to thank them for their ministry, for their open arms to No Compromise Radio, in all honesty, probably kind of a stretch for them to put us on since we're trying to be provocative and push the envelopes a little bit.

I used to send Manny, when he worked there, the positive responses we had received from No Compromise listeners on WVNE, because I got a lot of negative ones, too. But over time, people have now begun to just live with us.

I just got an email a while ago from Heather, and she says she listens every day when she drives to work. And so we sent her a free t-shirt. And so there are the Heathers of the world and others, lots of listeners in Springfield, that will have to now turn, beginning October 1st, to NoCompromiseRadio .com.

You can listen because we're still going to record the shows, still on Monday through Friday, and if I could get Cooley to do Saturdays, I'm trying. So we'll still be recording the show. You can listen to No Compromise Radio at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

You can go to iTunes, I suggest you just go to iTunes and you subscribe, and you'll get all the shows. You can go to TuneIn Radio on your iPhone or Android. You can also go to Worldview Weekend. Worldview Weekend, Brandon House is now playing No Compromise Radio, and you can go there, be a member of the Situation Room, you can get his free app, Worldview Weekend app, and you can see the latest No Compromise shows are on there as well.

I think that's about it for trying to listen to No Compromise Radio. We're just scaling down like everyone else, and so I think some of the money we'll save we'll put into an app, so you can get an app for your phone, and we'll just keep moving.

I'm not saying we'll never be back on VNE, maybe someday we will, it's just a tough economy and I'm not the send in or else we're going to leave the station kind of thing. You know I've never asked for money, not one time, never, I've always, I actually criticize people that are always on the begathons, and how many thousands, and you know Hank Hanegraaff blabbing on about how much in debt they are and everything else, I just don't want to do that.

I believe the S. Lewis Johnson, George Mueller philosophy, and that is if the Lord wants us on he'll provide the money, and when we don't have the money we won't be on, we'll just charge it. We haven't received many donations throughout the years, but I have received some Pete's coffee from my friends in Northern California.

So anyway, blown away by the response of people listening here locally across the world, if I, I wish I could just tell you, I'd probably be self-promotion and bragging, but people literally across the world from Indonesia to some Arabic countries, New Zealand, Australia, Iceland, what's that band from Iceland, what are they called?

Sugar Cubes. The Sugar Cubes, they don't know, I don't know that they listen, but maybe they secretly listen to No Compromise Radio. So anyway, today's the last Wednesday. I just have a potpourri of things.

Conference Announcement and Ministry Updates

Don't forget, Pat Ebendroth will be here for the Behold the Lamb conference, October 4th and 5th, if you're in the Central Mass area, or you want to drive up, Pat will be preaching Friday night, men only, then we'll have a Q &A, then two sessions Pat does on Saturday, I'll do one, then Pat will preach here October 6th.

So you want to register at bbchurch .org on our new website. All right, No Compromise 90, No Co 90, what else could I tell you? I think that's it. All right, I did read here recently, you're probably familiar with this, Pope Francis reaches out to atheists and agnostics.

Pope Francis, Conscience, and Forgiveness for Unbelievers

And so the newspaper article says the unprecedented gesture came as his incoming number two, the Vatican's newly nominated Secretary of State, I thought that was going to be Pope Benedict, said that the rule that priests should be celibate was not a dogma of the church and could be open for discussion.

Isn't it fascinating to watch the Roman Catholic Church as they're caught up in all this, and they get a new leader, and it's just now open for interpretation. The second, I'm telling you, the second things are open for discussion, it's over.

It's just a matter of time, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, until things change. So when PCUSA says, well, let's have ordination of women open for discussion, it's over. Let's reexamine the Bible's view of homosexuality.

It is over. It is so over. It's like me saying, all right, No Compromise Radio. I think it'd be fair to say that we hold here at No Compromise Radio to the London Baptist Confession of 1689. Actually, 1644 has some stuff in it that I like better than the 1689s, but generally, you know, the problem, as Abraham Kuyper said with confessions, is we just don't keep writing them, because they're documents written in time.

And so if we're holding on to something from 1689, I would like to see, although I don't have the money to put together the guys to do it, kind of an updated version of that. Wouldn't that be good? But anyway, if I were to say, let's open up the discussion.

Does the Bible really teach that there's an eternal hell? Was Jesus really right when he used the word eternal? After all, Philip Hughes, John Stott, Wenham, they believe in conditional immortality, and they're good guys, they're wonderful scholars, and we need to open up that discussion again.

Because behind the scenes, when people say, we need to bring up that discussion, why would they want to bring up the discussion if they already affirm what their church teaches in the 39 articles of the Anglican Church or whatever statement of faith you have?

So, God forgives those who obey their conscience, the Pope wrote in an unprecedented letter, that's two times we've got the unprecedented gesture and unprecedented letter, the latest example of the markedly different tone and style from his predecessors that he has set since being elected in March.

God gives those who obey their conscience. Well, that is totally wrong. God has given us a conscience, God has given us natural revelation, God has given us specific revelation, but you can have a conscience that is not educated to what the Bible teaches.

So, let's just use homosexuality as an illustration. If you have bought into what the world says, and this is just an alternative lifestyle, and this is everybody's equal, and God doesn't make no junk, and there's a variety of different arguments you can use, and you say, well, in my mind, my conscience is clear with people who are homosexuals and practicing homosexuals, my conscience is clear.

That doesn't mean your conscience is the highest court in the land. What does the Word of God say? And we have to educate our consciences in light of and through the Word of God. The 76-year-old Pontiff was responding to editorials written in July and August by Eugene Scalfari, an agnostic and the paper's founder, in which he asked whether the Christian God forgives those who do not believe and do not seek faith.

Now, if I was an atheist, I wouldn't really have to wonder. Here's the problem today. Long gone are the real scholars who believe in primary sources. And so, what's the lady's name who was the homosexual teacher at Syracuse Women's Studies, and she wrote a book, Surprising or Unlikely Conversion?

I can see her book on the other side of my desk, but I can't get to it. Rosaria Butterfield, I believe, is her name. And when she wanted to talk about Christianity, do you know what she did? Lo and behold, even as an unbeliever, she went to go read the Bible.

Isn't that fascinating? She went to go read the Bible, but people don't have any idea what the Bible says anymore. And so, when this person, Scalfari, asked the question, I want to know what the scoop is regarding this, the text is very clear.

Hebrews 11, verse 6. How about this one? And without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. Let's read this primary source one more time.

Hebrews 11, 6. And without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for who would...I don't know why I keep messing this up. I'm drinking Starbucks instead of Pete's, maybe that's why. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.

So, if someone asked me, does the Christian God forgive those who do not believe and do not seek faith? Well, the Christian God forgives through the Lord Jesus Christ and through Him alone. And so, does God grant regeneration to enemies?

The answer, of course, is yes. Does God justify the ungodly? The answer, Romans 4, is yes. But the way this is set up is, the Christian God doesn't forgive those who don't bow to His Son. You see, the Son died a substitutionary death, a sacrificial death, a penal death, satisfying the holy demands of the law of God.

God doesn't do what we do. Here's how we forgive. I forgive you, right? If someone sins against me, if I've got any brains in my body, I say to them, when they ask me to forgive them, I say, of course I do.

If I don't have any brains, I say, hmm, I'm going to hold this against you. I've got my list. I don't love you. Remember, love doesn't take into account this list of wrongs. Yeah, I know I got forgiven for about a million sins when I got saved, but I'm going to hold this against you.

Friends, the Christian God forgives those who do not believe and do not seek faith. We know what the answer to that is. Mr. Scalfari, the newspaper article goes on to say that he had not expected the South American pope to respond so extensively and so affectionately with such fraternal spirit.

Now, you can say it nicely. Friends, the God of the universe sent His Son, and I know it's foolishness to you. I know you want signs if you're Jewish. I know you seek wisdom if you're Greek, but I have something to preach to you, and His name is Jesus, the crucified one.

I can say it in a nice way, a fraternal way, a kind way. The pope wrote, the question for those who do not believe in God is to follow their own conscience. What sin, even for a non-believer, is when one goes against his conscience?

Really? Now, if you want to go to Romans chapter 14, 15, talk about conscience and Christian liberty, I think we could go there. I don't want a weak Christian to go against their conscience. I don't want them to do that, but that has nothing to do with an unbeliever's conscience.

Faith at its core is unbelief. You want to do a study? Go back to the garden, not taking God at His word, not believing what God has said. It spirals into lawlessness and eventually pops up as immorality, but the essence, the heart of sin is unbelief, not that you go against your own conscience.

Pope said to listen and to follow your conscience means that you understand the difference between good and evil, but it needs to be highlighted by the Word of God. How else do they know in a post-Christian age?

He said that the, quote, mercy of God has no limits, unquote, end quote, and encompassed even non-believers, but his remarks failed to impress the Italian Union of atheists and agnostics. Well, I'm not saying he wanted to impress them, but I'm not trying to impress them.

I'm trying to be faithful. I'm a steward. Here's what the Bible says. It's clear. Here we go. Why should a non-believer seek legitimization from the Pope? The association asked. And you know what? Here's the funny thing.

If you're a religious leader, why do you try to get legitimization? I put in an extra word there, a syllable. Sorry, Ted. Legitimization. Why do we want to be legitimized by them? It's not going to work.

It discussed what it called the pontiff's knife's words and said, what interests non-believers is certainly not forgiveness from an entity whose existence we do not trust. I think they're more honest than the Pope is being honest.

The Pope's reaching out to atheists echoes a homily he delivered in me when he said that even atheists could be welcomed into heaven. That declaration caused consternation among Vatican officials, with a spokesman later appearing to backtrack on the Pope's remarks, saying that people who do not believe in God cannot be saved.

Well, finally, kudos, and a further sign that the church is edging toward more openness, Archbishop Pietro Parolin, a Vatican diplomat who will next month become the Pope's deputy as Secretary of State, said that the principle of celibacy among clergy was ecclesiastical tradition rather than church dogma and therefore open to discussion.

The Pope has struck a more inclusive tone since taking over as leader of the world's 1 .2 billion Roman Catholics in March, notably reaching out to homosexuals on his return from a week-long trip to Brazil in July.

All right, ready for the next quote? Pope quote. This is like the message moment. Pope quote. Pope quote of the week. If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge?

Well, we aren't the ultimate judge. The Father has handed over judgment to the Son, has he not? That's true. But if someone were to ask a religious leader, do adulterers inherit the kingdom of God? Well, the answer would have to be no.

What would I say? If someone is gay, someone is an adulterer and searches for the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge? So, the goodwill is toward...who would that goodwill be toward? Toward God? Goodwill?

What happened to the fall? What happened to depravity? What happened to sin? What happened to forgiveness? What about standards of perfection for heaven and holiness and righteousness? That's why we need Jesus, the righteous one, because only He is good.

Yes, we are saved by good works, the good works of another, because we aren't good. No, not one. We don't have goodwill. Oh, it's relative goodwill toward other people compared to other folks, but it's not good in God's eyes.

This whole bell curve deal, gonzo, because the standard is perfection. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory. And Isaiah, far from being bad in society, Isaiah was good in society.

He wasn't a terrorist. He didn't work for Hamas. He wasn't a sexual deviant. He didn't run a crime ring. He was the most holy person on earth compared to everyone else, but compared to God, when he was in God's presence, you know what Isaiah said essentially?

Kill me now and get it over with. He knew what he deserved. He knew who he was, and he was far from saying, I've got some goodwill. He said what? Isaiah 6, woe is me. I am undone. I thought I had integrity compared to everybody else, and from society's perspective, he did.

I thought I had a righteousness and compared to everybody else. He did. But when he saw a glimpse of Jesus Christ, the Holy One, see John 12, he knew he was undone. Woe is me. Oy, I believe is the Hebrew word.

I am undone. Curse me. Damn me. Send me to hell. Obliterate me. Nuke me. I got to get out of here. Peter had the same feeling when he was in the bow with Jesus. Depart from me, for I'm a sinful man. And so for the Pope to write something, if he searches for the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge?

I don't judge people's eternal souls. I just judge according to what the Bible says. This is a stupid statement, and it's not true, and it's unbiblical, and it's actually sinful. And if I were the Roman Catholic Vatican advisors, I'd have to try to start controlling what this Pope says, because this is only at the beginning of his quote-unquote ministry.

Once the Pope starts getting a little more leverage and a little more power and has been around for a little bit longer, and people start to follow him and like him, and it's just going to keep going.

You watch. You watch. This is going to be, you know, the Roman Catholic Church always talks about how Protestants can't be right, because there's so many different denominations, schisms. Well, that's not a good argument, and they give that too much credence, because they just accept everybody like a big kind of amoeba.

Oh, I was going to say, oh, amoeba. Is that kind of a...what is amoeba? Is that like a maple syrup amoeba? So, anyway, this is just an amazing thing, and you watch what's going to go on with the Vatican, and with this Twitter thing and indulgences.

It's amazing. You know, it reminds me of this, I guess this is the Catholic show. This is reported by Leonardo Blair, August 13, 2013, The Christian Post. So, I just want you to know I'm not making this up, and you can go to christianpost .com forward slash news forward slash.

Catholics worship at tree weeping miraculous liquid, but expert says tears are just bug poop. I'm not kidding. Catholics worship at tree weeping miraculous liquid, but experts say tears are just bug poop.

I've never said that word on the radio, but I just said it a couple times. A growing number of Catholics have been flocking to the St. John's Cathedral in Fresno, California, to worship under a crape myrtle tree, C-R-A-P-E, said to be weeping a miraculous healing liquid from God.

What scientists say, it's something else. I already told you what they said. Despite what scientists say, however, the faithful maintain the liquid is a touch from God for believers. They can say it's this theory, that theory, the tree does this every year.

It's odd when it happens when there's a bunch of people praying. When you're asking the Holy Spirit to reveal itself, that would be himself. It happens all of a sudden and it's still here, said Janine Esquivel-Oiji, as she told Mr. Fox Philly, my Fox Philly.

When you say glory be to God in Jesus name, the tree starts throwing out more water, exclaimed Maria Yabera to G-K-G-P-E TV. She was the first person to experience the miracle of the droplets coming from the tree while she was praying with a sick woman under it.

The tree released water under the sick woman and she said she felt better. Then she said, oh my gosh, I hadn't felt, I hadn't feel good. That's a quote. I hadn't feel good and then when the water was hitting me, it changed me.

I feel peace. I said, the Lord be with you. The Lord said, peace be with you. Peace I give to you, Yabera told my Fox Philly. Oh, she's telling the Philly Fox. What about the Fresno Fox? I said my prayer and asked the Lord to give me a miracle because I'm really, really sick, Rosemary Navarro told K-G-P-E.

A number of the faithful flocking to the tree even brought their children along to see the miracle in motion. I'm like, let's go, you guys. Can you take a look for yourselves and then decide? When you get there, you can decide if it was the tree that got wet.

Entomologist, Richard Covello, however, explained that the tears are coming from the tree are simply honeydew, a sweet liquid emitted from the anus of aphids and some other sap sucking bugs. I know it's coming from God and ye of little faith will not reach the kingdom of God, she said.

Yes, but what comes around goes around and so I'm sorry to say, she doesn't know the Pope's latest utterance that if you're seeking goodwill and a bug liquid that it's okay and God just cares about your conscience.

See where this goes? Once we abandon the Bible. So, my Roman Catholic friends, maybe you think I'm a foe and my Protestant friends, maybe you think I'm a foe. Read your Bible. Read your Bible regularly and you'll see quickly that if there is a miracle, there's a reason for the miracle and you'll see Jesus's miracles, the Apostles' miracles don't have anything to do with this.

This would be good for the Apogryphal, though. Apogrypha books, perfect. Pseudepigrapha, perfect. Lore, perfect. Yeti Beasts, perfect. I thought I seen and heard it all. Don't forget, this is, I think, Thursday.

Next Monday's the last day on WVNE. You can listen to us at NoCompromiseRadio .com. You can go to iTunes, type in No Compromise Radio, sign up, just click subscribe and you'll get five to six shows every week, even if you don't want to.

NoCompromiseRadio .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.