Christianity Astray

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. We're here to take your calls as well.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.

This is Tuesday here in Worcester, Massachusetts, Worcester, and I'm here with my guest host,

Pastor Steve Cooley. Greetings. Greetings. He is my theological tanto.

Well, we've been talking about legalism on Tuesdays, and we've had enough legalism for a while.

We might pick that up next week. Today I want to talk about something that is, it's almost low -hanging food,

Steve, low -hanging fruit. I got the brand new Christianity Astray today,

November 2009, and it's hot. I got mine yesterday. The one

I really liked was the, what was that, oh, Holy Ghost house cleaning, but it actually was a mess.

That sounds like Benny Hinn with the Holy Ghost machine gun. If you say anything bad, he'll mow you down with the machine gun.

Well, we want to talk about Christian discernment today. After all, it is No Compromise Radio, and one of the themes that I've seen,

Steve, in this magazine is some of the compromise that leads then to more compromise, just the watering down of Christianity, gruel, lowest common denominator.

Frankly, I think they're just trying to fill space for their advertisements, but I don't really know their motives.

Well, it's kind of like the Rodney King philosophy, why can't we all just get along? You know, we promote everything, and as a result of promoting everything, we promote nothing.

And so people might ask, why do you subscribe to it? Why do you subscribe to Christianity Today if you are going to dog it, or if nothing's good in there?

Well, there's once in a while a good article. This month has Michael Horton in it, and they are interviewing him. But overall,

I like to keep up on what is going on in Christianity Today, because it really is a barometer of what is happening today.

Of what's happening in the Church, and how the culture is transforming the

Church rather than the other way around. Wasn't that some old sitcom in the 70s, What's Happening Now? I'm not that old,

Mike. What's Happening? You're not that old. He's just as old as I am. So let's talk a little bit today,

WVNE 760, No Compromise Radio, Mike Abendroth and Steve Cooley. Let's talk about Christianity Today.

And I opened it up in one of the ads. Actually, I've written to different magazines before, like World Magazine, and have said, why do you have

Creflo Dollar ads there? And actually, they took them out. But here, this is an ad called The Christian Code of Conduct, subtitled

The Missing Link, by Peter J. Daniels. And basically, if we didn't have already enough rules to hold us accountable, if promise keepers gave us seven extra rules that we couldn't keep, now we've got a whole other

Christian Code of Conduct book, The Missing Link. What's the missing link in this guy's theology,

Steve? The gospel? Well, Norman Vincent Peale called him the greatest speaker in the world.

Well, that speaks volumes. You know, it's too easy to say, but I remember when

I was taught the phrase regarding Norman Vincent Peale, that Peale's writings were appalling, and the

Apostle Paul's writings were appealing. See, you've got that down.

Can you imagine? Here's one of the things on the ad, Steve, a new Bible -based book written by one of the most outstanding

Christian men of the last 100 years. And then it says the Christian Code of Conduct.

I mean, when I look at the Bible and see all the things that I'm required to do, I'm very thankful that Christ Jesus obeyed in my place.

I don't need more things to condemn me. But did you know that Christians should leave 22 % tips?

That's in this book. I made that up. But I mean, it's the kind of thing where you just go, really, really?

I didn't know that. Bible -based. What does that mean? You take a verse, and then you extrapolate the things that you want to say, whether or not those things are actually biblical or not.

Everyone, this is part of our legalism series, actually, when you think about it, everyone likes a list of rules.

And you open up Peter J. Daniel's book, and you think, well, I just need a checklist, I need a to -do list, instead of saying to yourself, it is difficult to obey, it is impossible to obey.

I can't do anything to please God, but I know one who has pleased

God and who still continues to please God, and his name is Christ Jesus. He is my Redeemer, he was my substitute, he is my sacrificial atoning substitute, and I have to trust in him.

And in light of that, I mean, we go back to the Heidelberg Catechism. Guilt, grace, and then it's followed by what?

Gratitude. Yes. Well, you know why you should accept this book, though, Mike, it says so right here, that he's conducted seminars in over 1 ,000 churches in 30 countries throughout the world.

He does not accept any payment, pays all his own expenses, and does not accept any offerings, honorariums, gifts, or bequests.

His credentials are impeccable, as is his tie. As you look at it. Well, yeah, I see. Can't you see that on the radio there?

All right, let's flip the page. Here's another ad that's just interesting to talk about this. This is kind of potpourri for 500 today on WVNE, No Compromise Radio.

By the way, we did go to the concert on Friday, we meaning the collective we,

Bethlehem Bible Church, and we handed out all kinds of No Compromise CDs and bumper stickers, and we have some of the interviews we'll probably play next week.

Steve and I will talk about some of the interviews. What is doctrine? I have to tell you ahead of time,

Steve, when Bob said to one person, what is doctrine? The lady said, well, that's kind of, you know, different denominations.

So Bob said, when Paul told Timothy to preach sound doctrine, what denomination do you think

Paul was? And the lady said, I think he was a Roman. Oh, you heard it. Yeah. Well, and I've got a title for that series, by the way, it should be called

Dazed and Confused. Oh, that's good. I think I'm thinking about Led Zeppelin, but that's another story.

Here it says, hear the Bible come alive in dramatic audio theater.

And basically we have 600 actors from, you know, who are some of these actors in here?

Louis Gossett Jr. Oh, well, who would he be? I think he plays the

Martian in this reading. And I just think, here's the problem. When you think the

Bible is boring, what are you actually saying? Can you imagine God being boring?

By definition, how could God be boring? Oh, I found some other ones here. Marissa Tomei, maybe she's

Esther. Michael York, I don't know who he might be. He's the island of Dr.

Moreau. Oh, that's not in the Bible. How do you spruce up the Bible and make it more alive? Can you make the

Bible more relevant? Talk to me. Well, I just like what it says here. Hear the Bible come alive in dramatic audio theater.

So if you've got like Dolby 5 .1 in your car, you know, you just kind of, you can hear the background noise and maybe the crickets chirping in the background after Jesus says something really dramatic.

And everybody just kind of goes, oh, I didn't see that coming. So silence and then the crickets. The crickets.

Well, I think we should probably get to the big issue. And that is on page 23 of Christianity Today, highlighted with the article title,

Most Improbable Dialogue. Mormon Tabernacle Revival Service is latest sign of openness to evangelicals.

You've got Mormons open to evangelicals. And what's worse is the fact that evangelicals are open to Mormons.

Oh, I think we should be open to them. We should be open to giving the gospel to them often, very often.

Regularly, often. How about this little chart? And by the way, Pastor Steve used to be a

Mormon. I think he was a higher up Mormon, big shot Mormon, elder Mormon. I pretty much ran the thing. I know.

This is no compromise radio. Did you have special Mormon underwear? No, I did not. You didn't?

I went to Desiree Bookstore one time when I was in Utah, and I just thought it'd be interesting. I walked in and I was trying to find some of that interesting apparel, but it's secret.

You got to show your card to get it. Technically speaking, they're called temple garments. Hmm. Yeah. Okay.

Well, I should have asked for it properly then. Are Mormons Christian? How Christian groups answer the question.

Well, the Americans, all Americans say, yes, they are. So if you ask them, the Church of Latter -day

Saints, hey, we're the only church that has, you know, the Church of Jesus Christ in it. So 52 % of all

Americans say Mormons are Christian. I can live with that one. Sure, because what do they know? You know,

I mean, in other words, the population at large, they're undiscerning, they're unbelieving.

What do they know? Who's a Christian? 52 % of the people elected Barack Obama as president, too.

Yeah. Coincidence? I don't know. You make the call. Well, maybe we can't find his birth certificate because he's really a

Mormon. Oh, I'm not even going there. All right. Evangelical Protestants were asked the question, are

Mormons Christian? And I ask you the question if you're listening today, are Mormons Christian based on the biblical definition of what a

Christian is? Can you imagine 40 % of Evangelical Protestants said yes?

It's no, you know, big deal when 62 % of mainline Protestants say yes, and it's no big deal when

Catholics, 52 % say yes, but Steve, what does it tell us when 40 % of Evangelical Protestants say

Mormons are Christians? I think it tells us that 40 % of the Evangelical Protestants or Christians don't really know much about what it means to be a

Christian. Maybe 40 % of these people who are pulled need to be born again. I think it's pretty, probably pretty close.

I mean, I think you would find, I think we would be shocked if we saw the numbers on how many considered

Roman Catholics to be Christians by and by, and it's just a further demonstration of the lack of theological acumen.

Can I say that on the air? Knowledge. Bless you. Yeah, people just don't know what it means to be a

Christian. And why is that? Well, because for many of them, it's because they're not Christians. How could you know what it means to be a

Christian if you're not one? Well, when people say to themselves, Christianity is something you do versus Christianity is a done historical fact based on Christ's life and death and resurrection.

People think Christianity is getting baptized and attending church. It's all kind of human works. Then they probably fall right in line with the works righteousness cult of Mormonism.

Well, and not only that, but people say the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day

Saints, hey, it has the name Jesus Christ in it. And they say now, as opposed to my entire life, they never, when

I was in the church, they never would have said they're Christians, but now they say they're Christians. And if they say they're Christians, who are we to say that they're not?

Well, that would be judgmental. Matter of fact, speaking of judgmental, let me be judgmental for just a minute. In this article in Christianity Today, The Most Improbable Dialogue, the emcee for this standing together event, and that's basically the

Mormon tabernacle being open for a quote unquote evangelical revival.

And so they had, the article says throngs of evangelicals and Mormons enjoyed gospel songs and prayed together.

I could comment on that, but the emcee, Greg Johnson's called the event historic.

Oh, I have another word for it, and it ends in IC, but it's catastrophic. I thought you were going to say, until you went with the

IC thing, surrender or something like that. I mean, this is just as non -discerning, as undiscerning as you could possibly get.

The only thing that should be happening between evangelicals and Mormons in terms of theology is a one -way conversation where we give the gospel to our

Mormon friends. And if Richard Mau, the president of Fuller Seminary, after having 17 intense closed -door dialogue sessions with the

Mormons, is preaching the gospel to them and telling them that they have the wrong source of truth, the wrong

Savior, the wrong way to be right with God, then I say, way to go,

Richard Mau. But I'm not that hopeful. Well, no, especially since he apologized to the

Mormons for the way they've been portrayed in evangelical circles. He gave no indication whatsoever that that was his goal.

Well, mark this down for you, No Compromise radio listeners. Once you begin to have a discussion about God's straightforward, clear, canonized truth, a truth that was once delivered for the saints in Jude 3 and 4, once you open the door to dialogue, game over, match point, game, set, match, it's over.

Well, you know, it was the Mormons, by virtue of Joseph Smith at the age of 14, allegedly having a vision in which

God told him that all the other churches on the face of the earth were an abomination. It is

Mormon doctrine that there was a falling away from the truth and the truth disappeared. Jesus said he would build his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it.

But the Mormon Church says that within a very short period of time of Christ's death, shortly after that, that the truth disappeared from the earth and was not restored for 1700 years.

Well, Steve, when I teach the Bible, for instance, I'm teaching through First Corinthians now, as you know, and I like to go to the back to look at the maps to see, oh, here's where Corinth is, and look at it's close to the

Adriatic, and it's on this isthmus, and look at all these folks that are here, and check out the maps and see where Paul was, how close is

Berea, how close is Athens, etc., etc. And one of my most fascinating things to do is to get the

Book of Mormon and open up to the back to look at all the maps of the historical things. You're laughing.

Why are you laughing? Well, I mean, they may have some maps. I haven't looked at my Book of Mormon here lately.

But the fact is, when archaeologists have gone through and they've tried to find these huge, massive battlefields that are described in the

Book of Mormon, they've not been able to do it. They haven't been able to find these tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of human remains at these gigantic battles that are described in that book.

And there's probably a reason for that. They never happen. I think so. Well, maybe instead of having evangelicals and Catholics together, the

ECT, we could have evangelicals and Mormons together, the EMT. Call the EMTs. Emergency.

Well, on the same theme, Steve, regarding once you begin to dialogue, it's over.

I mean, we could look at the Lutheran, Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Methodist Church, Congregational Churches, a variety of churches say, well, let's revisit this issue as homosexuality is sin.

Once the dialogue starts, once the let's revisit truth that has been proclaimed for the last 2 ,000 years or longer, once you have the discussion open, it's over in Christianity Today, November 5th, online version 2009.

You can just go to ChristianityToday .com and find these articles. There's an article called, The Litmus Test by Charles Honey, subtitled,

Trustee Ban on Advocacy of Homosexual Practice and Same -Sex Marriage Stirs Up Calvin College Faculty.

What's going on there? Well, it's shocking, and the article goes on to talk about the faculty being upset because this curtails academic freedom, due process, and the college's tradition of vibrant Christian inquiry.

Translation, we know that the Bible teaches that homosexuality is a sin. By the way, it's a forgivable sin, like any other sin.

We also know that we come from a long line of Christian Reformed churches who have historically taught that homosexuality is a sin.

And again, I'll say it, a forgivable sin. But now we don't like that because the culture has affected us, and so now we want academic freedom.

What do we do with Christian colleges who are no longer Christian? Avoid them like the plague, first of all.

But, you know, the article goes on to say that, wouldn't they quote a faculty person here as saying that there's a growing lack of consensus about the issue.

And you know what it made me think about is, I don't know if you ever did any pranks when you were in high school.

Me, pranks? I didn't, but some of my friends did. You know, and so we had those old—

Oh yeah, you were a Mormon. You couldn't prank. That's right. We had some of those old projectors, you know, where they would show movies sometimes in class.

And I remember some guys occasionally, allegedly, would take Vaseline and smear it over the lens of the camera so that the movie would be out of focus.

And no matter how many times the teacher tried to turn the lens, it would never come into focus. And that's what this reminds me of because we're talking about homosexuality as if, you know, it's out of focus and we just can't quite seem to get it in there.

And if we twist the lens enough, maybe we'll get it. The Bible is very clear. Well, the problem is people don't like what the

Bible says, so they have to somehow work on a hermeneutic trajectory—I can't even say it.

Trajectory. Yeah, easy for me to say. He speaks for a living. A growing lack of consensus about the issue.

The Bible hasn't become cloudy. It's the view of the Bible that's become cloudy because for the sake of diversity, the sake of kindness to people—listen to what

Joan says, quote, There are some people for whom this has become the litmus test for whether you are properly compassionate and have a proper commitment to social justice.

Others say this is a key litmus test for whether you're properly biblical. This, it drives me just crazy.

I mean, it really is like the scholars, the people who should be perfectly clear on what the Bible says are the ones who are—they take the

Vaseline and put it on the movie lens, and then they complain about the lack of clarity. Because there's—where is the

New Testament, where does it indicate that social justice means we have to embrace homosexuality rather than call it what it is, rather than call sinners, period, to repentance?

This is part of that don't judge anyone mentality. Christians these days, especially college presidents and trustee boards, have no backbone, zero backbone.

They will let, like at Calvin and Wheaton and Gordon here in our own backyard, Gordon College, have

Soulforce, a national gay advocacy group, tour these

Christian colleges. 2007, Gordon College, Wenham, Massachusetts.

This Soulforce comes, students publish a volume of stories about gay and lesbian education and students and how they struggle with certain things.

And then what happens? The article says, that I just got done talking about, Gordon encouraged its students to talk with Soulforce but vowed the college would not veer from its policy prohibiting sex outside of male -female marriage.

Goes on to say, following the 2007 Soulforce visit, more controversy came to Calvin with seven passages.

Hold on to your seats, by the way. If you're driving, hold the 10 and 2 position on your steering wheel.

A play about gay Christians conceived and directed by Calvin drama professor Stephanie Sandberg and performed at a

Grand Rapids community theater, end quote. Now, what would you do if you were the president of that school,

Steve? Steve McLaughlin Fire everybody involved. And if I couldn't get away with that, I'd step down in shame.

This is just stunning. I mean, this whole idea, it goes on later and even talks about parents continually ask, is my gay son or daughter going to be safe here at Calvin?

You know, that's the provost of the college asking that. And I'm like, as soon as – if I was the provost, somebody asked me that,

I'd just say, maybe your son or daughter doesn't belong here until they repent of that homosexuality.

Well, if I was going to lead the Christian college, certainly there will be people who don't measure up to Christian standards because they fall because they're weak and sinful.

But if you say, well, I'm living with my girlfriend. I'm a guy living with my girlfriend. Can I go to Calvin College?

The answer would be no. This is a Christian college. If you'd like to be a liberal arts college or whatever you'd like to be, that's fine and dandy.

But just think about what tenure does to a Christian college. There ought to be no such thing as tenure because people compromise.

So every year, it should be like Southern Seminary or Boyce College. This is our statement of faith.

A. Will you teach it? B. Do you believe it? And if the answer is no for either, you don't get your one -year contract renewed.

What about, Steve, the poor people who said, I'm going to bequeath $1 million to Calvin College because it stands for the gospel?

And that was 30 years ago they died, and every year that school collects a million. I think we need to revisit that.

Walter Kaiser's right. Well, thankfully, they're dead and in heaven. You know, that's the good news for them.

So they're blissfully unaware of what's going on here. But, you know, getting back to your point, you know, about a guy living with a girl, would you let them into the college?

Well, think about all the Ten Commandments. If a mother said, would my idolater be safe here at Calvin College?

You know, what would the provost say? If a father said, well, excuse me, my son's a thief.

I want to make sure he'll be safe at Calvin College. What would they say? And so why is this different?

We're not out to ostracize anyone. We say everyone can come to Christ.

Everyone can repent of their sin. But that means to turn away from it, not to embrace it, not to look for some way to explain it away.

Well, you're right, Steve. The implication is somehow they might be harmed. They might be radically harmed, either with words of violence and abuse of words, or maybe really physical violence.

Hey, in the same magazine, Calvin College has got some nice class on U2 and how

U2 is a good Christian religious influence. I'm in a state of vertigo.

I like listening to U2, but when they talk about Maynard co -editing, Get Up Off Your Knees, Cowley Publications, a collection of sermons based on U2 lyrics and biblical texts, here's what the article said in Christianity Today.

Among them is a sermon preached at 2002 at the Calvin Chapel by Stephen Garber, a former

Calvin scholar in residence. I enjoy U2, and yes, they do have a lot of biblical images in their songs.

What's lacking though, having listened to, I think, just about every U2 song ever done and seen them in concert,

I've never heard them preach the gospel or sing the gospel. Well, Bono's view of the world is very close to what we teach here at Calvin.

We're just not sitting around waiting for the earth to be destroyed. We expect the world to be renewed. I won't even tell you who said that because it gives shame.

Steve, compromise leads to... More compromise. And we don't want to compromise. We have a goal in our life.

God, keep us faithful. God, we're weak. We all struggle. Everyone compromises, but God, you never did, and help us to be more like you based on the power of the gospel.

My name is Mike Abendroth. And I'm Steve Cooley. This is NoCompromiseRadio .com. We'll see you tomorrow. God bless.