State of the Church (Part 3)

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.

Sunday School, Weddings, and Getting to Church on Time

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry, Pastor Steve Esteban Sr. Cooley. That is my name. Thank you for having me here today.

Anything happening in your life? How�s Sunday school? Everything is happening in my life. Sunday school is packed, although, if I could just say, since nobody in Sunday school would be listening to this.

When I was there this last Sunday at your Sunday school, because that�s a good topic and I wanted to see how you�d handle it, I showed up and I thought, and this is an exaggeration, a low exaggeration, there are about six people here.

I think there were 12. And then 20 minutes later, there�s 60 or whatever.

I mean, by the time we got done, it was like 80 or 100 and I�m like, �Okay, I don�t know. I don�t know. It�s like when people stroll in 20, 25 minutes after the church service starts. They haven�t missed any of the sermon yet and they�ve got Dunkin Donuts or, you know.

There used to be these two ladies. They were sisters and they so despised the praise songs, right, anything but hymns, that they would sit in their car right up front there, Steve, in the handicapped parking.

They would sit there and then once the music stopped and the sermon was about ready to begin, they would come in.

I don�t know. I mean, I feel bad. I mean, I guess it�s kind of like school to me. You know, I mean, different, but I would always hate to be late to a class and I would hate even more to be late to worship service.

How about late to a wedding? Ever almost been late to a wedding you had to officiate?

To one I had to officiate? No, because I always make sure I get there.

Steve was following me the other day to a wedding and for some reason, my time got messed up. I got up and I said to Kim, I�m probably 15 minutes away from the location, and I said to Kim, I�m supposed to be there now.

And I wasn�t late for the wedding, but you know, beforehand I go say hi to the groomsmen, pray and encourage them and say, you know, don�t lock your knees, smile, don�t stand fig leaf, et cetera. And then I go say hi to the ladies and say, you look pretty, et cetera, et cetera, let�s pray.

And I just lost track of time, I guess.

I just thought it was funny because we come up to this intersection and I look to my left, you know, because I�m making a right-hand turn. I look to my left and the light�s about to change and I see this car go through and it almost gets hit by somebody making a left-hand turn, you know.

Seriously? Yeah, well, you did almost get hit. I mean, a guy kind of cut right in front of you and making his left-hand turn. And so you put your hands up like, what was that about? Oh, okay, yeah. And then you kept driving and so I couldn�t, I didn�t know if it was you, but I thought, I told Jenna, I go, I think that�s Mike.

And she goes, nah, he would already be there. And I go, no, I really think that�s him.

I remember, Steve, driving to the church and we�re on this highway here, it�s called the 110, and there�s no sidewalk, there�s no passing lanes pretty much. I mean, one tiny passing lane down here, a few miles that way passing it.

And if you�re behind someone on this road, you�re behind someone. And so I think I was probably tailgating or getting frustrated and then they turned into the church parking lot. And so I thought, do I just keep going and then turn around?

That�s dumb. So I just pulled up next to him and said, I�m sorry, you know, I�m an idiot.

Yeah, that�s why, especially on Sunday morning, you know, Janet will be like, you know, they could be going to, and I go, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, okay, okay.

Theology and Practice

So now that Steve�s here on Tuesday, sometimes I miss Steve when it�s not a Tuesday, and we are back to part three, talking about the state of theology. I think that�s the 51st state now in the continental United States, right?

Yep. Yeah, it�s the state of theology.

Yeah, it got in before Puerto Rico, so it�s number 51.

How many senators do you get in the state of theology? That�s what I�d like to know. Still two? It ought to be six. Well, if it�s bad theology. Well, then one. Before we talk about the state of theology found in the Ligonier slash LifeWay survey, tell me a little bit, Steve, about why theology is practical and why practical things are theological.

I mean, everybody wants to go, well, I want more practice. I want more application. I need more how-tos. But what�s our overall take here at No Compromise Radio for the relationship of theology and practice?

Well, theology impacts the way you think. It impacts the way you worship. It impacts the way you view your marriage. I mean, a lot of times we don�t really think of all the ramifications of theology until, you know, the theology starts to go off the rail, and then we see it.

You know, what is bad? We were just talking about this Saturday morning. I mean, you can see in theological liberalism, you can see a lot of the implications for it. I mean, once you deny, for example, and I think we�re going to be talking about this for a moment, but once you deny the divine authorship of the Bible, or once you, you know, even if you minimize that, there are all kinds of ramifications.

I mean, you basically, how many unbelievers come up to you and say, why would you trust that thing anyway? It�s just written by a bunch of men written, you know, 2 ,000 plus years ago, 2 ,000 to 4 ,000 years ago.

Why would you even listen to it? Right? I mean, who cares what they said? And besides, they�re all men. They all identified as he, him. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, even just something like that, if you just take the Bible as, you know, maybe some good instructions for morality, does that change the way you view things as opposed to it�s really about the story of God�s creation and his love for his creation and, you know, and a creation�s rebellion against him, ultimately.

So Steve, as you were talking, it made me think of Ecclesiastes 5, because I�m living in that world now as I�m preaching through Ecclesiastes. And I don�t think Solomon, or whoever the author was, I don�t think Solomon could have said what he said in chapter 5 if, in fact, the Bible wasn�t God�s Word, if God didn�t speak, if there was no inspiration and there�s no revelation from God, because it�d just be another competing voice.

Instead, knowing that God�s Word is God�s Word, he says in Ecclesiastes 5, �Guard your steps when you go to the house of the Lord. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools.

In other words, if God is really talking, that creates in you, or it should create in you, a humble posture and a listening posture and �I�m not running the world� posture.

Well, I mean, there are all kinds of, and that�s true, I think there are all kinds of, you know, ramifications if it�s the Word of God. But well, I mean, my favorite thing to say about the Bible is, if it�s just the Word of men, you know, then that makes it kind of optional, right?

If it�s the Word of God, then you have to pay attention. And if it�s the Word of, if men got together and wrote this, those are some brilliant guys, no computers, no anything, and yet they made a coherent, cohesive book.

You know, people say, what about all the contradictions? What about all the contradictions? There are none, you know. Well, what about, what about, what about? And when you break them down, the alleged contradictions are pretty easy to resolve.

The Bible, Myth, and Secularization

Steve, I think we picked up in the State of Theology on a little section, we made it through the section about innocence and church membership and all that, and we come to the section where it�s got a little Bible talk here.

I�m not saying that in a demeaning way, the little Bible talk, but it says in the State of Theology, U .S. adults increasingly reject divine authorship of the Bible, relegating it to the same category as other religious writings.

And then it says positively the Bible is a unified message from one true God, Proverbs 30, 2 Timothy 3, 2 Peter 1. So here�s where we get to the findings, and I�d like to know your sage advice on this or make comments.

Here�s a statement. The Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths that are not literally true. Now, we talked about that a little bit last time, but just as in a review, adult finding now is up from 41 agree eight years ago to 53 agree.

So I just want to know, Steve, what�s going on in the world that makes everybody think that these myths are mythical?

Well, I think, first of all, it has to do with how churches treat the Bible, right? I mean, if you are in the immortal parlance of Mike Abendroth giving TED Talks, if you�re talking about how to improve your life, how to do this, how to do that, and you wind up quoting Mother Teresa, John Wooden, all these supposed wise people, I don�t know, some poet laureate of the United States, etc., etc., etc., and eventually you�re, you know, every once in a while you slip in a little scripture, maybe at some point you�ll even accidentally mention the gospel, then it�s no wonder people don�t hold the Bible in high esteem because guess what?

The pastor doesn�t hold the Bible in high esteem.

Steve, I�m glad you mentioned that because we can criticize the world as much as we want, and we shouldn�t even be surprised if we surveyed the United States and 100 of the people said, �You know what?

It�s all rubbish. 90 of the people, �It�s all trash. �It�s all mythical. �It�s not over me. �I�ll do what I want to do. �Keep this to yourself. That�s not surprising. What is sad, and maybe not surprising, but sad, is when people use the Scripture on Sunday morning pastorally to, I don�t know, to motivate, to get people in, to help people consume.

So, I think you�re right. It starts with the pulpit. And how does a pastor view Scripture? That�d probably be a good question if you�re interviewing for a new pastoral candidate.

I mean, you know, if, excuse me, if the pastor gets up and he says, you know, Paul said to run the race, you know, that God has set before you. And now let me apply that to your life. Maybe you�re struggling with your weight.

Maybe you�re trying to get a promotion at work. Maybe you�re trying to, you know, be the top student at your school. Maybe you�re trying to, and you know, so you make all these analogies and everything else and you�re just like, okay.

But what was the context that Paul used that in? Was it really just about, you know, trying your best and working with zeal? And was it really advice that even an unbeliever could just apply to their life?

Is that really what Paul was saying?

Well, it�s interesting. If you give exhortations to Christians and then unbelievers find them helpful, oh, maybe there�s just some common grace in there or maybe it�s something else. Steve, I think Ligonier has a good insight here because they talk about the Bible.

Then they, in the section to follow, talk about secularization. And basically they�re saying, okay, with gender identity, with sexuality, with sex itself, we have a society now that thinks, oh, that�s all fine.

So then they look back to the Bible and the Bible says it�s sin, therefore we have to get rid of the Bible because we need to do what we need to do. Well, the Bible�s outdated.

You know, we�ve learned a lot and, you know, this is kind of getting into the book we�re reading for Saturday Morning Mentioned Men. You know, theological liberalism, because we�re reading liberalism and Christianity and liberalism, theological liberalism has seeped into our churches.

And you know, so we don�t have as high a view of the Bible because when you think about it, the Bible, you know, in terms of where we are as a society, as a world, you know, we know so much more. We�ve learned so much with regard to science, so much with regard to psychology, so much with regard to mathematics, et cetera, et cetera.

I mean, the Bible is antiquated. Why would anybody believe or listen to that book or take it seriously?

Come on, you�ve got, you know, you can�t put certain threads together and can�t put cotton and wool and all these things, you know, come on.

And you know, if Jesus were alive today, he would hold two completely different set of standards than he did back then.

Steve, I have a book, and I know where the book is, I forgot the title, and it was talking about women and slavery and a bunch of other things. And basically it was saying that there was this emancipation of women and slaves that the Bible saw glimmers of, but it just hadn�t gone far enough, and if Paul would have lived longer and if societies moved forward and evolved positively, that�s all in the past.

And so we pick up the Bible during its early trajectory, still seeing different roles for men and women, still seeing homosexuality as sinful, but now we�ve evolved as people. Yeah, we�ve pushed past all that.

I mean, you know, the way Machen presents theological liberalism in his book, he kind of, he suggests that they�re not evilly motivated. In other words, it�s almost like they�re trying to protect God from being embarrassed by all these new, you know, these new things that we�ve learned, and certainly if God knew about them, he would, you know, so he would have written a different book.

Well, Steve, it makes me think of Genesis and Abraham and Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah and the angels and those trying to get into the house and they�re struck blind and they still keep trying to claw at the door to get in to have sex with these visitors.

Come on. Somehow we have to push that aside because that�s not going to fly in our society today. That basically says, according to this survey, 46 agree with the Bible�s condemnation of homosexual behavior doesn�t apply today.

Right. I mean, homosexuality is just, it�s not even an alternative lifestyle. It�s a perfectly normal and acceptable lifestyle according to the world, according to its thinking.

Steve, the new movie came out in the last week about homosexual men. I think it�s called Bros, B-R-O-S. That is correct, yeah. And I think it cost something like $22 million to make in its first box office weekend.

It received gross sales of $4 .8 million, something like that. And they�re all saying that the heterosexual men or other heterosexual women, they aren�t going because they�re homophobic. Right. And I just think that�s so funny.

Buy my product and if you don�t, you�re homophobic.

Well, I mean, maybe it�s just not�it�s kind of, in a marketing sense, we know that they�re wrong, right? Because why do people not go? Because you�re not giving them the product that they want, the old kink song, �Give the people what they want.

I mean, this is marketing 101. And so I think it�s more the critics. I think the people in the actual business are looking at it going, �Hmm, yeah, that missed the mark.

Steve, I think you�re dabbling in hate speech. And you know, the First Amendment is the First Amendment. But you know what? If you�re hurting somebody, then it�s on you. You.

Can say whatever you want, but as long as it doesn�t offend me, right?

Now, I like him. And I don�t watch him that often, but somehow a little clip came up of Jordan Peterson and somebody was after him about hate speech and making people feel uncomfortable by telling people the truth.

And then he said to the interviewer, this lady, he said, �Well, I don�t know why you don�t think it doesn�t apply to you. You�re asking me direct questions, which you should. You�re the interviewee, and you�re asking me questions, but I don�t really feel good about it.

But I�m still answering the questions, even though I disagree. And I thought, you know, isn�t that interesting? But what we have, we have the God of the universe speaking. And when you think of Exodus 19 and 20 and the Ten Commandments and the backdrop and Sinai and lightning and thundering and earthquakes and everything else, the God of the universe speaks.

And when he speaks, �Thou shall not commit adultery. There�s all kinds of other things that he�s saying that we shouldn�t do. And that�s an umbrella command positively to say, �Be pure in your sexual activity, i .e., marriage between man and woman alone for a lifetime, et cetera.

But people, I think since maybe judgment is delayed, they�re thinking, hmm, I think I�ll take advantage of this right now. If time they committed a sin, they were dead, of course, that would cut down on a lot, but then there�d be nobody left in the world, of course.

But, you know, where�s the promise of his coming? Mm-hmm. You know? Same old, same old. Jesus hasn�t come back yet, so what makes you think he�s coming back? Another day, another dollar.

Yeah. Huh. So true. Mike Ebendroth, Steve Cooley on No Compromise Radio, talking about the state of theology, linear studies. And we are talking now about evangelical trends. And here�s statement number three found on their website, �God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

Why do you think, first of all, Steve, they clump those three together?

Well, they�re great world religions, right? And monotheistic. They all worship, allegedly, the same God.

Yeah. So monotheistic. It�s interesting to me, Steve, you�d have Islam saying that Jesus was a prophet, Christianity saying Jesus was the prophet, Judaism saying Jesus was a prophet.

He was I mean, if you want to get right down to it, they�d say false prophet. Right. Right.

They�d have to say that. Right. The evangelical findings from 2016 to 2022 are inching up, it seems. 56 percent of people agree in the United States, as evangelicals, that God accepts all worship.

Because theology gets in their way, so they just don�t want to know. I mean, how many people can even tell you about Islam? They can�t tell you anything about Islam, except for they know it�s monotheistic, but they don�t know anything about it.

They don�t know what Jesus is to the Muslims. They don�t know anything about Allah. All they know is, gee, it sure seems like there�s a lot of Islamic terrorism, but people don�t know much about it. They wouldn�t know, for example, that Jesus is seen as a prophet in Islam, but he is not the son of God because God doesn�t have a son.

They do believe that he�s coming back, but they don�t believe that he�s coming back to rule and reign as God. Right? I mean, there are vast differences between Islam and Christianity. I mean, all you have to do is read a little bit of the Koran to figure that out, because the Koran is a very.

Poor kind of rip-off of the Bible. Steve, as you were talking about the differences in these religions� view of God, I kept thinking about God, the triune God, right? Judaism would deny that. They, along with Islam, would deny that.

And monotheistic, but they don�t believe in three persons. And so, if I say God is love, to quote the New Testament scriptures, well, how can there be something describing God�s character, right? It�s not he has love, but he is love.

In eternity past, before any creation, how could there be love? If there�s just a man�, there�s just one, then there�s no one to love. There�s not a lover, a lovey, or anything like that. And so, thankfully, in Christianity, we see in the ontological trinity, before time, his nature and essence, there�s love.

That�s why I don�t think grace is an attribute, technically, because there�s no grace needed in the trinity, right? Because God�s good and loving, he�s gracious. Same thing. He�s righteous and he�s just, therefore he�s going to show wrath, but there�s no wrath within the trinity.

So, how can you have a God of love if there�s no trinity and Islam says,.

Well, we don�t know if he is or not? Right. I mean, the God of Islam is very unpredictable, to say the least. As I�ve been preaching through Acts, it�s striking that Peter, because I�m in the early parts of the book, preaches about the trinity, about the deity of Christ, about the deity of the Father, the deity of the Holy Spirit.

And the people who listen to him, they don�t object to it. And they don�t have to go to great lengths to explain the trinity. They just declare it and people believe. Well, how can that be if it�s completely foreign to the Jewish mind?

In other words, if they thought, oh, this is a new religion, and because they didn�t, they thought about it and they go, okay, this just kind of explains some of the things we maybe didn�t understand in the Old Testament.

Steve, I have not thought about that for very long, but I�m happy you brought it up because you see the preaching of Peter and then, of course, later Paul, and how Old Testament-ly they preach, if I can make up a word.

And of course, that�s their scriptures and their preaching, who Jesus is from the Old Testament. And you see him everywhere. And then you, of course, believe in God the Father, but with Acts chapter 5, the Spirit of God, same thing.

This is just, oh, we just accept this. This is part of, oh, Abraham, Moses, burning bush, et cetera, Holy Spirit. We see it all. That�s a great point. I like that.

Thanks. It happens once in a while. I mean, I read enough that I just kind of, you know.

The Trinity, the Old Testament, and the Exclusivity of Christ

Well, next show we�re going to talk about Jesus, the great teacher, but was he really God or not? So to wrap this show up in the next minute or so, do you think the influence of Hinduism and these millions of gods kind of thing, this New Age stuff has so seeped into the fabric of our lives, even as Christians?

That�s why we deny the exclusivity of Jesus saying,.

�I�m the way, the truth, and the life. I think it plays a part in it. And I think it�s this anti-discriminatory mindset, right? Smart. And this equality, we don�t want to, we as a society, don�t want to put down any religion.

And so we certainly, I mean, we ascribe to Jesus things that the Bible never does, like he must be completely even-handed and, you know, all these kinds of things. So Jesus wouldn�t insult somebody else�s religion and et cetera.

Therefore, we can�t. But I think Jesus very much was not a fan of the Pharisees� religion. And the reason why was because they denied the essence of what scripture taught.

Amen. Mike Abenroth, Steve Cooley, No Compromise Radio.

Mike Abenroth 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 bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.