Perry Noble Ignoble Vision

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. How fast can I say this, Pastor Cooley? Much faster than I can. Thank you very much. What was that commercial where they had that man who was saying things very quickly to get all the information in the 30-second commercial?

Was it for a car or something? I don't know, but usually I find that they do that about the fine print. There are exclusive colors.

In 30 days. By the way, if I never, ever, ever again hear a commercial that talks about this may cause blindness, muteness, deafness, and could kill you faster than you could spell.

I listen to the disclaimers on some of those medications, and I'm going, you know, because sometimes, you know, as you get older, you're like, oh, that medication sounds kind of interesting. And then you listen to all the caveats and the exceptions and the possible, you know, calamitous things that will happen and you go, no way, I'd rather get struck by a meteor than take that medication.

I mean, I default into Genesis three language. Did God really say, did that thing really say that?

In some cases, suicide hasn't been, you know, I mean, seriously, I mean, like one of the things that can help you quit smoking things, you know, possible suicidal ideation, you just go, why? Okay. I'm all for quitting smoking, but I wouldn't use that.

I don't smoke by the way, but if I did, I, you know.

Stevie, it was years ago and I went to South Africa and they said, when you go to the clinic ahead of time, the travel clinic, okay, you need your HEPA shots and you need your, you know, tumbleweed fever, you know, medicine.

I think that's for Antelope Valley, not South Africa. I think so.

Well, it's a big continent. Okay. And they said, here's some stuff for malaria and we suggest you take it. There are two options. This one works better, but there's some side effects. And so do you, are you ever down and are you ever downcast or depressed or moody or suicidal?

And I thought this was a Lucy, I love Lucy, you know, are you listless? And so I said, no, no problem. And of course my pride gets in the way. Of course not. You know, I help people like that. And so anyway, I'm, you take it before, during and after your trip, this, it's maladrone or something like that.

And I, I recognized one day I woke up and I thought, I'm mad at everybody and I'm here teaching the Bible. Why am I so mad at everybody? I could kill somebody with my bare hands. And then it dawned on me, you know what?

This medicine is affecting me.

I'm going to put the fightin' back in fightin' fundy. That's right. Perfect for no-co.

Right. So what'd you think about that. Marlboro Man no-co ad? Marlboro Man's out, no-co man's in.

Yeah. I, the only thing is I didn't really get the, the, you know, I saw the Marlboro Man, you know, packaging and all that stuff. I didn't see the, the no-co man. Well, I, I don't know how to Photoshop.

That's why we have the crack team. Oh, I got it. The crack team of, uh, uh, artists.

Well see, that was the first Marlboro Man and he had a tattoo on his hand and a cigarette in his mouth. So I think for the fundamentalist to enjoy no-compromise radio, we're going to have to airbrush that out.

Maybe an e-cig. Maybe. Oh, there goes Jack Nicholson again. There you go. Okay. So today the topic du jour is visions from God. Now I didn't say vision forum because I think they closed. What about vision casting?

Yeah, well, we probably should do that knowing we've been here combined. I've been here almost, well, 17 years. And how long have you been here? Nine? Coming up on 10. Yeah. When, when will it be 10? It'll be 10 in May.

That is unbelievable. Or is it June? May, June, whatever it is. Okay. So 27 years and we haven't done much vision, vision casting and it shows Steve's closing his eyes right now.

Well, I'm focusing. I'm just trying to focus on my vision.

Perry Noble’s Blog on How to Tell Whether a Vision Is from God

So today I'm looking at this blog written by Perry Noble.

Who's Perry Noble? Perry Noble is some kind of pastor guy. That's right.

Who has charismatic tendencies. He's a pastor of New Spring Church in South Carolina. And he's, he's kind of an aggressive guy. And I think he likes to be on the cutting edge. He does have a new book out called Overwhelmed.

And I don't know if it's perfect timing or just coincidental or serendipitous, but he's now come out to say that he is on antidepressant medication for mental anxiety. Stop, really? Yeah. Oh. Yeah. That's according to Leonard Blair, CP reporter, February 26th.

I see a picture of him. I don't, I don't see the medicine, but I see overwhelmed.

And so he wrote a whole book about the fact that he needs to be on antidepressants?

Well he's showing a picture of the book and he has the OV covered in overwhelmed. So it's erwhelmed. And that's like ER whelmed or something. Hmm. Yeah. So. I don't get it. So here's a way to find out if your vision is actually from God.

So you know, you can imagine Steve, you're down in Florida at the League in Air conference and you eat a few too many Chevy's tacos or something. What'd you eat there?

Well I had some kind of funky salad. It was a, it was a good funky salad, but the best thing was the guacamole because they make it fresh right at the table and lots of lime and different spices and stuff.

It was excellent.

Okay. So let's say you eat that on a empty stomach and then you quickly go to bed and you have some vision from God. How would you know if it's from God, capital G or small g? Is there any way to find out?

Small g as in gut? Well, it's kind of like they would discern the future through livers and that hep. Liver shivers? Cotology kind of thing. So he wrote a little blog article so you would know. Now for us, for Steve and I, and for of course people that subscribe to the no compromise.

Theological statement of faith. I thought you were going to say the no compromise creed and I was like, do I have to repeat it? What is it?

Oh, I haven't written it yet. So that would be the no co screed, not creed. Anyway, we believe in sola scriptura. We believe that canons close. We believe that in these last days, God has spoken to us in his son and his apostolic messengers.

I don't think we need any more scriptures. Do you? No. Steve, I actually think that when people have a yearning and a burning and a desire for little road signs from God to make sure they're on the right path.

Now sometimes it's just immaturity, but often it's idolatry. I cannot trust in the sovereignty of God just for my salvation. I have to trust in signs that he's walking with me and talking with me along the broad road to destruction.

Well, and, and, you know, part of the problem I have with that is you can see all kinds of signs. And then what happens when, you know, things go South, you're going to go,. Oh, uh, I guess those weren't signs.

Steve. There are signs, signs everywhere. There are signs. Do this. Don't do that. Can't you read the sign? And now who said that? Who sang that? Who wrote that? That's the five man electric band. Seriously?

Yeah. Sign signs? Yeah. I wish we could play that as a no-go. Steve, I was hoping to have the cow sound so we could have the compromiser C of the O week W the cow award, and this could be the compromiser of the week.

And so we could play the, we could play it right now.

We spared no expense on those sound effects.

I did drive to Southern, from Southern California to Northern California, and it was dark along the grapevine. And so I could tell when I was near the stockyards.

Did you drive through Coalinga? Because that's where it hits you like a, like a wall. We actually did.

Signs, Sacrifice, and the Authority of Scripture

So number one, how do you know if your vision is from God? If you feel confident that you can accomplish what is in front of you with no problem at all, then you didn't hear from God. How does this work?

See, isn't it much easier to be a cessationist and just trust in the Lord with all your heart and don't lean on your own understanding or your own gizzard?

If you feel confident that you can accomplish, well, I don't even, you know, I mean, I feel confident when I look at my plate, you know, after I've ordered a meal and I look at it, I'm pretty confident I can eat that.

Does that mean? Well, that's not a vision from God then. The way that ketchup got, you know, sprinkled out in the shape of a, of a cloud looking.

Fellow, that's not God. So I need to send it back until something shows up that I go, I don't think I can eat all that.

And then I, I'll never forget a cartoon I once saw. And it was talking about the vacuum shaped, you know, you've got some God shaped vacuum in your life. Sure. And then it showed this God that was in the shape of a vacuum inside this guy.

That sounds like the far side, you know, what, you know what I think it was, it was in the.

LA weekly and it was the angriest dog in the world or something like that. That's pretty funny. Yeah. Are the other one that I love from the LA weekly that I, I don't have a great memory from those pre-salvation days, salvation days, thankfully.

But the other one I remember was it had a guy with a frown on his face and a big glob of something on his forehead. And it looked like some of the glob was falling off. And underneath the caption was hash Wednesday.

Reminds me of Mark Twain who said, I never eat hash out, you know, at a restaurant cause I don't know what's in it. I don't eat hash at home because I know what's in it. There you go. Number two, if one is angry at you, if no one is angry at you, then you didn't hear from God.

Again, how long did it take for him to write this? Yeah, I'm sorry, but that doesn't make any sense if nobody's angry at you. So in other words, if everybody goes,. Oh, well that makes sense. It wasn't from God.

So it has to be, I mean, I, this sounds like he's talking about, I guess, here's what I would say so far. It sounds like Noah and the Ark, right? I mean. The movie? Well, no, I mean, just real life because, because I'm sure when Noah first started building that Ark, he's like, there's no way I'm going to do this myself.

Right. And the second one, nobody got angry. Well, you know, I think there were a lot of people who were, who were even laughing at him or whatever, or, you know, his wife probably thought he was a little bit daft.

If I could conflate underwhelmed, overwhelmed in this book, see, then I've got it's it's. I'm so far underwhelmed with this. Yeah. It's pretty underwhelming. All right. Does or does not the scripture or do the do do not or does not to the scripture say in chapter three of second Timothy, all scriptures breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

Don't we have everything we need in our toolkit from God to do gospel ministry?

How about vision casting? If you feel that way, then it didn't come from God.

Sacrifice, Religious People, and the Problem of Visionary Authority

Oh, see, that's 2A amendment. Number three, if you don't have to ask anyone to sacrifice to make the vision come true, then you didn't hear from God. Like your congregants, we need more money.

This this this is going down a very dark path. I mean, so in other words, I could just see this, you know, you get up on Sunday morning and you go, the Lord has told me X and you explain it to the congregation.

Some people get mad. Some people think I don't want to sacrifice that much. You know, some other people go, this is impossible. And that's when you know it's from God. Right.

Especially with the other elders. When they all say that, then you know, especially from God. Oh boy. Here's the problem. Once you acknowledge something comes from God, allegedly, then you mean to tell me you're going to believe anyone else or bow to anyone else's authority?

Because if you do believe there's a God and he is all powerful and authoritative, you're not going to listen to your elder board or somebody else.

Well, I mean, think about this. If I said, you know, God gave me a vision that we're going to pay for a new building by putting a Krispy Kreme donuts in the parking lot here. OK, then, you know, some people are going to go, well, that's not possible.

You can't. Well, see, it's from God. And then, you know, people are going to get angry because it's really dumb. And then, you know, well, then it has to be from God. And then other people are going to say, well, where are we going to get the money?

How are we going to do that? Well, we've got to sacrifice to make it happen. Perfect.

You know, it's from God. It has to be. Speaking of Krispy Kreme donuts, Shepard's Conference. Did you have any there? I did have one. Yeah. OK. I had one on Wednesday, one on Thursday. And and I was thankful that that Ash Wednesday was coming up soon.

Did you did you make a hash out of them?

I took I took them and put them up to my head and made a Princess Leia comment or something like that. A glazed donut Friday. Mm hmm. All right. Number five, six and seven. Doesn't matter the number. These are all so ridiculous.

If religious people are not steaming at you, blogging about you and are leaving your church, then you didn't hear from God.

Religious people. See, there's a new definition of religious people. I guess religious people would be people who read the Bible. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Christians. Yeah. Christians. That's a brand new way to.

Because you know what? There are two kinds of people. There are religious people and then there are spiritual people. Which do you want to be now?

Sometimes we joke on Tuesdays. Not very often, but sometimes. Without any joking, Steve, I think that if you are trying to read the tea leaves of life and circumstances and dreams and visions and then give them the stamp of God's approving nature and character, no wonder he has anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

Because if you think something's authoritative and then you try to follow through, but then it's really not. And that would drive anyone batty.

This just kind of reminds me, I mean, is pastoral ministry about serving people, you know, glorifying the Lord by preaching, teaching the word, et cetera, et cetera. Or is it about living on the edge?

You know, this sounds like, you know, pastoral ministry is a thrill-seeking deal because God gives you these impossible tasks and by the skin of your chinny-chin-chin, you're going to make it happen.

Steve, what if the retort comes back to you and says, you know, you never have visions, so who are you to talk? Until you have a vision, you're silenced, you're muzzled. Well, I dream dreams.

I'm a dreamer of dreams. And you know, I just, I don't even know, you know, what's the biblical, here's the thing, what's the biblical basis for this? And of course we know what the biblical basis is going to be.

It's going to be some Old Testament section, it's going to be Nebuchadnezzar or something like that. And they're going to say, you know, unless somebody interprets a dream or whatever, whatever they're going to say, there is no biblical warrant for that in the New Testament.

And if it's so important, and I go back to this again and again and again, if it was so important, then why didn't Paul address it with Timothy and Titus, these young men whom he was instructing on how to run a local church?

Why didn't he tell them about how to cast their visions?

Well, maybe what Paul thought, you know, he loved Ephesus, spent so much time there. Crete, who could be bothered? But maybe Paul thought, you know, I don't have to say anything in the pastoral epistles.

I don't have to write anything to Timothy and to Titus because God will just give them direct vision. So if I'm incomplete in my correspondence, there's somebody to fill in the gap for him.

Well, that was really, really poor on his part, because what he should have said was, by the way, when you get a dream or a vision from God, here are the things to look for. And if these things are true, then you know it's from God.

If it's impossible, it's from God. If you don't have enough money, it's from God. If people are complaining about it, it's from God. That's what he should have told them.

The Final Test: Knowing the Answers, Money in the Bank, and Risky Attempts

Steve, the last one, and we'll back up a little bit, but I don't want to miss the last one because I think it's, you know, specifically apropos to a guy like you. If you know all the answers, then you didn't hear from God.

Well, Pastor, how does he know all the answers about visions from God? How are you?

Well, I guess it wasn't from God. Well, he does. Actually, that's a sign, right? He doesn't. Well, he does have all the answers, though. Well, OK.

He wrote a book. He's an expert. His church is large. Disqualified. He's disqualified. If you have money in the bank to do what God has asked your church to do, it says you, but it means your, then you didn't hear from God.

So you're only supposed to have a loan? Because planning and responsibility and, you know, all those kinds, those are really dumb.

Well, you know, the message Bible takes out the ant reference and stuff like that. I think it's replaced with something else.

I'll tell you, we haven't, I feel like we haven't had a message moment in months.

Well, if I could figure out what verse that would be, Proverbs 30 or something, I would write it, read it. But, you know, this is only the new test. Oh, Steve, you do have, you know what? It does have Proverbs.

Yeah, you do. And I'm sure there's going to be something about a fool that will be apropos, as we say.

If someone doesn't try to talk you out of what you are about to attempt, then you didn't hear from God.

So it has to be really risky. You know, if there was some way that we could, like, link the magic eight ball with the message Bible, we would really have something going on.

I think we should sell NoCo Magic Eight Balls.

With verses from the message on them.

Well, the message here says in Proverbs 30, and I think we should, this is a new verse for Perry Noble. And it doesn't tell me the exact verse number because, of course, it's not in the original. Right.

Neither is it in the message. I flunked wisdom.

Oh, Solomon, Solomon, just getting down to the nitty gritty there.

I flunked wisdom. All right, here's another one. If every step is perfectly designed and nothing happens to totally throw you off along the way, then you didn't hear from God.

I wonder if you can apply the same thing to his architect. You know, you're building a new house and you're just like, oh, well, didn't see that coming. It's going to cost you another hundred K, Perry.

Oh, that's fine. That's fine. Totally cool. Where does he even get this stuff? I mean, look, you know, just between me and Perry, and this is just for Pastor Noble here right now. If you're just making stuff up that's not in the Bible, I don't know, man, that might not be the wisest way to go.

Just winging it is what I would call it. This reads like it should be Revelation 2 or, you know, second revelation or something, you know.

Second insecurities. How about message moments,. Proverbs 30, it says, three things are too much for even the earth to bear. Yes. Four things shake its foundations. Ready? Yeah. I love this old kind of English.

It's the literary genre. When the janitor becomes the boss, when the fool gets rich, when a whore is voted woman of the year. That's in the scriptures. I feel like Paul Crouch.

It's actually in the scriptures. Did they have woman of the year back there, you know, a thousand or so BC?

Well, Steve, Proverbs also says, and I say this to you from the authority of the message, paraphrase, don't be stuck up and think you're better than everyone else.

Proverbs 30. With all the authority of the message.

Vested in the message. I have no authority, but I have vested through this.

I mean, imagine if we got up on some Sunday morning and said, you know what, as elders and pastors here, we have no authority except what the message.

I'd be embarrassed to say that. I know what the Hebrew does say, and it doesn't say this. Three things amaze me. No, four things I'll never understand. So these are the four. Okay, four. It's got a few of them right, but it's got one really wrong.

Okay.

Let me see if I can figure it out.

How an eagle flies so high in the sky, how a snake glides over a rock. Possible. Yeah. Those are both in the Hebrew. How a ship navigates the ocean. Okay. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. And why adolescents act the way they do.

I'm not kidding. How could I make this up? You know, I think, honestly, I just think he just kind of, from time to time, just thought. Just going to throw it in. Yeah. Wrote from his own life. You know, things that, you know, when I had kids, I'll tell you what, I couldn't figure out what these adolescents were thinking.

Yeah. Actually, it says in the real scriptures, English translation, this is NASESV, I don't know. The way of an eagle in a sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a virgin.

So how do we get the way that adolescents act the way they do? Oh boy. I think you flunked wisdom, you know, when you write things like that. Anything else here, Steve, Perry Noble? Would you just give a general thumbs up or thumbs down if you were going to give a Rotten.

Tomatoes No Compromise Tower Award? I'd have to give it like 11 thumbs down. I mean, that is quite unacceptable. And you know, so many times I'm like, okay, if the Bible doesn't say what I want, then I try to spiritualize what I really want.

And that's what he's done here, you know. And even using language like religious people, because religious people are bad, spiritual people are good. And so what he's really trying to do is dress up what his own desires and just make them sound wise and they are not.

If you want a vision from God, lest you perish, right? People need vision, otherwise you're going to perish. Yeah, that's in context, I think. The verse actually means in Proverbs 28, without revelation, without God revealing himself, both in nature, but more specifically in Scripture, you're going to go your own way.

You're going to perish. You're going to, you're going to walk off the cliff of life if you don't have someone.

To instruct you. Wait, so it doesn't have to do with a local congregation of a church?

Well, what's the vision statement here, Steve? You've been here almost 10 years.

The vision statement, well, I think it's something like this. If you feel confident that you can accomplish what is in front of you with no problem at all, then you didn't hear from God.

I think that was part of our vision. Well, Steve, I think our vision is pretty dim and dull because I think we need a new vision casting deal for our parking lot because it's thrashed after this winter.

Yeah, it was pretty bad, but you know, the good news is we can still see the white peaks of the mountains.

We can still see. Oh, wait. Sorry, that's not the mountain. That's the electrical power thing that they said they were going to move 25 years ago.

And they never did. And the edges of our parking lot still tinged with about four feet of snow.

But I think, you know, I think this will be played in, this show will be aired in probably like late May. So the snow is almost gone. Oh, you're saving it for sweeps month. Steve, you did some Saturday, you know, no co-guide Tuesday guys on Saturday things.

Do you think that'll ever happen again or is that just you waiting for a vision or what?

Well, I'm waiting, waiting for, actually, I should just make a list of things because I think I probably have about 10 or 12 ideas. I just kind of haven't written them down.

See, and now your interview with Tony Miano, that played on Worldview Weekend. So it's just all across the world. It was pretty spectacular hit.

I mean, I've got people all the way from Romania and nowhere really, whoever wrote about it, but it did get some good feedback though, I have to say.

The first Tuesday guy moment I had at the Shepherds Conference, I said, could I have a Krispy Kreme donut? I'm no kidding. The guy said, hey, Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. Where's Tuesday guy? Really?

Yeah. True. Cool. 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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