Maundy Piper

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. Today is not Tuesday, but Pastor Steve is in the studio today here at Bethlehem Bible Church. Today is Friday, and what is the date today?

I think it's April 2nd.

It is April 2nd, and that's no joke.

We usually tape these shows so far in advance we don't know what day it is. There's usually snow outside or something. Today it's beautiful, and today is the day after Maundy Thursday. Today is Good Friday.

One of my kids accidentally called it today Black Friday.

Well, you know what? It did go dark for three hours. That's right, from noon to three.

Current Events, False Friday, and Roman Catholicism

And so today we want to talk about a few current events. We will interrupt our regularly scheduled programming on for False Fridays. We'll hit Roman Catholicism's Critique Part Two for next week.

Do we get some kind of news alert or something, some kind of bulletin announcement noise?

I could use some kind of other music. Steve was singing Happy Trails about two minutes ago. I deny. All right. But since we want to talk a little bit about current events, well, let me just rephrase that.

Popery Friday, some current events. Here's what we're going to talk about today. Satan is behind these media attacks on the Pope. Topic one. Topic two, what is Maundy Thursday? And number three, what about John Piper's recent announcement that he will have Rick Warren speak at the Desiring God conference?

Tasty.

That's why we're interrupting today's regularly scheduled programming. Sounds like a cafeteria of tasty treats.

So I'm looking at CNA, Catholic News Agency, and here's the line today in the news. Satan behind media attacks on the Pope asserts Italian exorcist. Rome, Italy. Noted Italian exorcist, Father Gabriel Amarth, commented this week that the recent defamation reporting on Pope Benedict XVI, especially in the New York Times, was, quote, prompted by the devil, end quote.

And he knows this. How? Did the devil send him an email? What was the scoop on that?

Well, he said, according to this 85-year-old exorcist, noted that the devil is behind, quote, the recent attacks on Pope Benedict regarding some pedophilia cases, end quote.

And, well, Steve, number one, pedophilia things. When you say to men, you may not be married and you must be celibate your entire life, you are asking for something unnatural, you are asking for unnatural men, so then would you be surprised when you get a group of men who do unnatural things?

Secondly, in terms of Satan, may I just say, I was talking about this last night in our class, the number one thing Satan desires to do, and I think even Pastor Pat Evendroth, when he was here the other week, he doesn't desire churches to be shut down or emptied, he wants to introduce error into churches.

And there is no greater error on the face of the planet than salvation by works as produced by the Roman Catholic Church.

There is a doctrine of demons somewhere in the Roman Catholic Church, but it is according to 1 Timothy 4, where men who forbid marriage, forbidding men to marry to be in the priesthood, which God has created to be gratefully shared in those who believe and know the truth, for everything, including marriage and sex, I might add, is created by God and is good.

In the right context, it's good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude. And if you teach opposite to what I just said, Paul says, you are spouting a doctrine of demons as a hypocritical lie speaker.

And so I think that Satan probably does need to be exercised, but not out of the New York Times. It needs to be exercised out of the system. This article goes on to say, according to Gabrielle Amoth, the devil wants the death of the church because she is the mother of all the saints.

Oy, they.

She's the mother of something, but I wouldn't say the mother of all the saints. She is the mother of non-gospel entities, I mean, false gospel entities. When the Roman Catholic Church, and some people are out there going, well, Steve sounds really harsh today.

Let me just say the Council of Trent says very clearly, Roman Catholic teaching is that if you believe that salvation is by faith alone, you are condemned. In other words, salvation by faith alone, apart from works, they teach, that's what the Roman Catholic Church teaches, that you must have faith and works, and your works ultimately are what save you.

It is doing the right thing, and that is a false gospel.

And we will not let up on this show regarding this issue, A, because it's in the newspaper, and B, because we want you all, every listener today, to receive full forgiveness from the Jesus of the Bible who died a sufficient death and said, with precise words, it is finished, and it is taken care of.

The debt has been paid in full, and if you have been a lifelong Catholic, there's hope for you, and you can know that you can have assurance of eternal life. The Church won't give you that, but the Bible will, and we want you to know about that.

Steve, here's my last comment. Let me quote Father Ammoth first. Strike that, I'm not to call anybody Father, so let's just call him Mr. Ammoth. There is no doubt about it, because he is a marvelous Pope and worthy successor to John Paul II.

It is clear that the devil wants to grab hold of him. And I just say this, the devil's already got him. The devil doesn't need to grab anybody, he's got him. And so what we want is, we would love to see this Ammoth saved, Benedict saved, and the Roman Catholic Church to fall headlong so that the free grace of the Gospel can be proclaimed to all those people who are enslaved now.

I mean, there is no greater enemy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ than the Roman Catholic Church. Let me say that again. There is no greater enemy. And people say, well, aren't there Christians in the Roman Catholic Church?

And I say, well, there probably are. And they need to get out of the Roman Catholic Church, because the idea of changing it is pure folly. And the Pope, I mean, I've heard some other things, involved in different cover-ups, whatever.

All that stuff, speculation, who knows? Here's what I do know. Galatians 1 .8 says, if anyone preaches a Gospel other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that is, he paid it all, he did it all, there is no purgatory, no intercession by Mary, none of those things, no works that we can do that would ever grant us any merit whatsoever, then he is to be accursed.

Amen. Well, I guess it's still in our False Friday series in Roman Catholicism Part 1A. Second topic today on No Compromise Radio Ministry, WVNE 760, or nocompromiseradio .com, is Maundy Thursday. Maundy Thursday, or also known as Holy Thursday, which would have been yesterday, April 1st.

And so, what is Maundy Thursday?

Honestly, if I could just answer that, I thought it was an old song by the mamas and papas. Maundy Thursday. I didn't know. Yeah, I think the first time I ever heard that term, I mean, this is, you know, because I didn't grow up a Catholic or anything, was last year when we were in Orlando and R .C., for the conference, and R .C. said something about, R .C. Sproul said something about Maundy Thursday, and I'm going, what does that mean?

Is that some kind of weather condition?

I didn't know what it was. Well, I knew what it was because not just the Catholics, but Lutherans, Episcopalians, et cetera, they celebrate it as well. And so, basically what happened, Steve, is Passover was celebrated by Christ on Thursday, according to tradition.

And then they say, well, we'll have a communion service on Thursday as well. Foot washing might've happened as well. I was waiting for my feet to be washed by you yesterday, but you're the one who came in today with wet feet.

Steve does not have any shoes on today. Shh. So, if you want to celebrate communion on Thursday, fine. It's just, it's a good tradition, but you don't have to do it. I know people who pick and choose churches based on do they have a Maundy Thursday service or don't they?

People would call, do you have a Maundy Thursday service? And I said, well, no. Well, it makes Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday more great. And I said, every Sunday for us is Resurrection Sunday service.

I just, I don't even know. You know, we get weird questions like that from time to time, and sometimes I don't even know what to say. Like, well, if we do, would it make us a better church? You know, where is that in the Bible exactly?

And it's just, people don't want the Bible. They want what they want. You know, some people don't want the Bible. I should qualify that. They want what they want.

And a Maundy Thursday, how about Monday through Thursday? I don't know. Well, some of the same folks want palm fronds on Palm Monday. Yeah, Palm Monday. It's actually on Monday when it comes in. And so I guess you come back in on our day off and we'll give you some palm fronds to kind of wave them around.

Listen, if you like Palm Sunday and a sermon on Palm Sunday regarding the, you know, the triumphal entry, what we call the triumphal entry, which is really Revelation 19, but the entry into the city, there's nothing wrong with that.

But don't pick and choose churches based on do they celebrate Holy Week? Because we are not required to celebrate any week except every Sunday we're required to proclaim Christ, the gospel, resurrection, ascension.

That's every single Sunday for us.

Well, I mean, think about it. The greatest event in history, and I say it's the greatest event in history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because without it, we have no hope. The greatest event in history should be celebrated once a year?

No, no, no, no, no. How about every single day of every year?

Well, traditions aren't bad if they don't supersede the Bible, right? That's right. And so if you want to have a tradition regarding these things, that's fine. But in Malta, Steve, you don't know this.

I don't. Communion. Thursday, Monday, Thursday, you're to visit seven other churches for that tradition. Mm. So see? Yeah, that sounds kind of mixed up. Okay, it's gonna get better. Okay. In Sweden, this is a day associated with the folklore of witches.

Young children dress up as witches and knock on doors and get candy and coins for Easter eggs. On Monday, Thursday? Yeah.

Trick or treat. My guess on that is because it's probably too cold in October, so they just switched it to April.

Oh, okay. In Bulgaria, Monday, Thursday, they color their Easter eggs on that day, and then they do other household chores to prepare for Crucifixion Friday. Woo! Sign me up. And lastly, there are more, but I'll just give you this last one.

In the Philippines, most places of business close their shops for Holy Thursday. They keep them closed until Black Saturday. Most malls, according to one account, however, only cease their operations on Holy Thursday and Good Friday and open on Black Sunday.

Television and radio stations are on air during that period, but cable channels usually continue the normal telecast, as usual.

Well, you know, I just saw some kind of thing, I think it was on the internet, because I don't read the newspaper, but about a crucifixion in the Philippines. I mean, the Philippines, they really kind of go overboard on this.

You know, everybody wants to be crucified and carry around crosses. And listen, none of those things have any value. I mean, you know, they carry on as if they do, they don't. Jesus never said, crucify yourself literally.

He was meaning, he meant, you know, be willing to die to yourself, put off your old self. But none of this carrying around a wooden cross, nailing yourself to a cross, none of those things have any spiritual value.

In fact, they really are foolish. Monde, monde.

Monde, monde. All right, last thing we want to talk about today, April 2nd, 2010, on No Compromise Radio.

And not on April Fool's Day, this is not an April Fool's joke. No, this is not.

We were hoping this next one was going to be an April Fool's joke. That would have been nice. John Piper, you know, you have to give the obligatory, we're not attacking the man. John Piper's written a lot of good books.

The swans must not be silent, et cetera, et cetera. John Piper, on April 1st, announced that he would have Rick Warren come and speak at the Desiring God Conference. Rick Warren, along with Al Mohler, R .C. Sproul by video, Francis Chan, et cetera.

John Piper, Rick Warren, and the Desiring God Conference

So what we want to talk about the rest of the time, evangelicalism is abuzz, and you basically have two kind of camps. Camp one, I would call those who follow John Piper, if I was going to say something derogative.

What's derogative? Derogatory. Derogatory, yeah. But then I never would do that. I'd call them maybe Piperites. Okay. And then there are others who say, what is John Piper doing? This is the next in the long line of kind of crazy things that he's done.

Steve, give us an overall assessment before we deal with some of the particulars.

Can I just say, I absolutely, one of my favorite books, and maybe a top five book of all time, is Piper's Supremacy of God in Preaching. I happen to really like a lot of the things he's preached and other things, but sometimes he just kind of leaves me wondering what the hell he's doing.

And this is one of them, but I think there was an issue, there was an issue a few years ago, you know, at the Shepherds Conference, and kind of, he went up to the college beforehand and told the guys, hey, told the kids that they needed to speak in tongues, and just different things that I just thought were, yeah, just, he announced, this was at the conference, he was on live microphone, said he was asked to do his whole Christian hedonism thing, but, you know, God told him to do racial reconciliation, so he was gonna do both.

And so, I mean, he's always had that kind of looseness about him, you know, but this, and this is really puzzling, because I watched the video where he's explaining why he invited Rick Warren, and he says some things that, quite frankly, just are puzzling, and then one thing in particular that really struck me as just not being true, but I don't think Piper was lying, I think he was just misinformed.

He said that, you know, Rick Warren never puts on, Rick Warren told him that he doesn't do drama in his church.

Well, Steve, you and I sat there while they were doing the cleaning out the garage, carwash kind of, no, it was a garage cleaning skit that they had, and then next week it was gonna be carwash, because they played the 1974 or five song, Working at the Carwash, yeah, who sang that song, by the way?

You know, I don't remember. I just remember it was from a soundtrack to a terrible movie. I think that was the same service that we had a Celine Dion song sung for special music by a lady in super tight black leather pants with lots of cleavage showing, and one of our pastors sat in the front row and couldn't look up, and I also think that was probably the same sermon of the same year we went to the church, and the governmental view of the atonement, which is a wrong view of the atonement, was preached, or maybe that was the time where Rick Warren had Steve Arterburn up in the pulpit preaching about diarrhea.

That was a different, well, I remember the Steve Arterburn message. Steve Arterburn said that God is the God of second chances. Now, Rick Warren was there, and Steve Arterburn said that God is in heaven literally wringing his hands hoping that you'll make the right decision, but the most striking, I mean, that was horrific, but the most striking thing about the Arterburn message was right in the beginning, because they have outstanding music in terms of quality there, not in terms of content, and the girls are kind of dancing and singing, and the band's doing its thing, and Steve Arterburn gets up there, and he goes, wow, I feel like I'm in Las Vegas, and I remember sitting there, and I said amen a little bit too loudly, and people were looking at me.

Well, here's the deal. John Piper can ask anybody he wants to the conference. Absolutely. That's his right. It's a free country. It's his conference. He could say, you know, we'd like to have you come and speak, and then I'm gonna rake you over the coals and kind of critique you and do this and do that, but here's the issue.

John Piper should know better than to just listen to Rick Warren after a meeting at Ralph Winter's, I believe, funeral in Pasadena, and then talking about Jonathan Edwards a little bit, and then the phone call, and so here's my problem, Steve.

If John Piper calls Rick Warren and says, I've got a few questions for you. Do you believe in inerrancy? Yes. Do you believe in substitutionary atonement, and you don't buy the whole emergent Steve Chalke kind of child abuse theory?

That's true, substitutionary atonement. Drama in church? No, I don't like that. I don't do that. Women elders? No, I don't have them, and whatever Piper asks, Warren knows how to give the right answer.

You go back to 2004 when Warren was interviewed by Michael Horton at the White Horse Inn. I'm a monergist, he says, and I believe in the five solas, and my response is, you don't do either of those because it doesn't manifest itself out in your theology and in your church services and in your preaching, so he knows what to say to John Piper so he can have this stage, and so I say to Piper, is Rick Warren even a Christian when he doesn't understand repentance, the gospel, substitutionary atonement?

He says it all, but he won't preach it, and so at the end of the day, Steve, if Warren wants to come because he's had an epiphany and he's now saved or he's come to knowledge of the saving truth, you don't have him come now.

How about in about five years you could have him come and preach the gospel?

And we sat there, we've listened to, I'm with you, we've listened to Rick Warren and sat there several times and listened to his messages, and I remember he did the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, parable of the soils, and he went on to explain it as God wants you to get the obstructions out of your life that prevent you from hearing the message God has for you as a Christian, and we left that morning and I just thought, well, that's a fascinating interpretation.

The problem is Jesus goes on in Matthew 13 and he explains it here then, the parable of the sower, and he just goes on in verse 18 and he explains everything about it, so it's not like Rick Warren shouldn't know better or doesn't know better, and he can definitely give the right answers, but when you go and examine the ministry, when you see all of the psychology, when you see, honestly, the infantile nature of most of the people who go there week in and week out, they know nothing because they're taught nothing.

And see, he can say, oh, I've read 17 volumes of the Yale edition of Jonathan Edwards, but now he's more accountable because he knows all these things, but he refuses to do them. That's the issue. I want everybody to learn and grow, and have I taught stupid things in the past?

Absolutely, but I try to teach what I believe. Show me what you, show me, you preach and I'll tell you what you believe, and when he says, basically, I've got a high view of man and a low view of God, I'm not gonna promote that.

Titus is clear. We're not to give these kind of people platforms to influence other people who are weaker than John Piper and all the Piper followers. We are to say, rebellious men, empty talkers, deceivers, they must be silenced.

Titus chapter one, verses 10 and 11. And so they do upset families. They do teach things they ought not to teach. For whatever sake he teaches them, I don't know why he teaches them. The Cretans did it for sordid gain.

Warren probably does it for who knows what reason. I don't even need to know, but he's teaching a wrong gospel, a wrong view of repentance, a wrong view of sin. He says, I don't believe in women elders.

Yeah, is that point number two when you let your wife get up to preach your sermon,.

Point number two while I was sitting there? Yeah, I mean, it really is remarkable. For those of you who haven't been to Saddleback, he'll get up and he'll preach for 10 minutes and then it's almost like a commercial break, a preach.

I mean, that's kind of a strong word for what goes on there. But then it's like a little band break. They do a little musical number and then another 10 minutes and then a band break and another 10 minutes and then another band break and then the final 10 minutes.

But she actually got up and preached for a segment of that and you just go, okay, why? If you understand what the Bible says,.

You wouldn't do that. I do not permit women to teach and exercise authority but remain quiet, but I guess it means the opposite. I want John Piper's ministry to succeed. I'm not against Piper. We give a free Piper, at least we did until today, we'll have to make a decision, a free Piper book to every visitor.

50 reasons why Jesus came to die. Absolutely, I promote a lot of this stuff. But if you are a charismatic, that is to say, the canon is not closed for you. God still speaks, God still does things. Piper even says, I'm crazy when it comes to who knows what I'll do in the future because if God speaks to me, I've got to obey.

We are just calling Piper to say, it's not too late to make a decision now to say, I revoke that. I don't want him to have, I don't want to have Warren come because I'm not going to give a platform to Rick Warren who's got a wrong view of man and a wrong view of Christ.

It is really seriously mind boggling to me. I mean, here's a man who has written the second largest selling book in the history of the Christian world behind only the Bible, A Purpose Driven Life. And yet when people read that, they can be Mormons, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, and not be offended at all.

And you know what? They can't get converted by it because there's no gospel in it. There's no call to repentance in it. It is a sham of a Christian book. It's not Christian at all. It is, I read this and I think this is right.

Somebody said that it was like business principles in Christian language.

You've hit the nail on the head. We've even done shows about books worthy of being burned figuratively, maybe even literally, because they are so void of the gospel. When Rick Warren told John Piper, oh, we do church discipline.

Really? Maybe step one and maybe step two, but how about step three and step four? Has anybody ever been kicked out of that church?

I mean, there are, what, 20 ,000 people a week there, whatever it is, you know? I mean, five services with 3 ,000 or 4 ,000 people in there all the time.

This gets back to what John MacArthur says about relationships and friendships. Many good Bible-preaching men do dumb things because they're friends with other folks, and so I think Rick Warren knows how to be friendly.

I'd like to meet the guy. I mean, I went to confront him one time after that message, but never got to him. I thought he was an usher and stood in line waiting to talk to an usher, and I had to talk to somebody about what an abomination this particular sermon was underneath the watch of Rick Warren that Arterburn preached.

We want gospel success. We don't wanna, you know, and then Piper said, oh, you're gonna be separatist, you know? If you don't do this, you know, we don't wanna be separatist, meaning if you disagree with me, you're separatistic.

I'm not separating from John Piper. I'm saying show some discernment and don't give platforms to this, and I want the Piper followers to A, no longer be Piper followers. If MacArthur did this, I'd call him out on it and say, this is dumb.

Well, I mean, why draw the line at Rick Warren? How about Bob Shuler? In other words, what is the limit? How many false doctrines do you have to teach before you just say, well, that guy is a false teacher?

It legitimizes the man when you come and say, this is not going to be a debate James White style. This is gonna be, we want him to come and speak about the glory of God, whatever his particular thing was and the purpose, blah, blah, blah.

We want him to speak to us, teach us, train us. John Piper, I just want him to stop.

Yeah, I mean, if this was gonna be some kind of interrogation, that would be one thing, but it's not. He's gonna have a platform and that's wrong.

Well, MacArthur's probably gonna come out and say it's bad, and then everybody's gonna say, look at how separatistic John is, and us four shut the door no more. I just want to have John Piper just say no to Rick Warren.

Preach it. 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 six. 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.

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