Moratorium on MacLaren

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.

Brian McLaren’s Moratorium on Moral Judgment

Welcome back to No Compromise Radio ministry. Glad to have you here tuning in for another rip-roaring 24-and-a-half minutes, 24-and-a-half minutes. That�s what we have here in terms of my speaking time, so let�s get right to it.

All right, Malcolm McLaren. Malcolm McLaren was a manager for some English punk rock groups, The Pistols and I think Bow Wow Wow and other people. And so I did not mean Malcolm McLaren. I meant Brian McLaren.

Remember a long time ago, this is already old news by the time this show airs, but that�s all right. In 2006, Brian McLaren, who by the way was asked to speak at Vision New England not that many years ago, and I think Charlie Crane, thankfully, our audio guy here at NOCO and a deacon at Bethlehem Bible Church, tried to talk to the leadership there saying, �This guy isn�t even saved by what he says.

Well, you never say by what you say, but based on what he says, it reveals that he, how could he be a Christian? Well, anyway, McLaren said in 2006, �Let�s have a five-year moratorium on any moral declaration or pronouncement about homosexuality.

So let�s just stop talking about it for a while. I don�t know exactly why he said that. Maybe in the heat of the moment, in the heat of the battle, let�s just step back and kind of look at this again.

Maybe that was his good intention. Of course, it was wrong because Scriptures are very, very obviously critiquing homosexual sin as sin, right? All sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman in the covenant of holy matrimony, all sexual activity, is sinful.

So that makes it easy, fornication, sinful, adultery, sinful. All the other weird things, sinful, homosexuality, sinful. Of course, you go on to say when you talk about any sin that God�s redemption is great enough to save sinners of every kind, of Romans one kind, of Galatians five kind, of Revelation 21 kind, of 1 Corinthians chapter six kind.

Some of those vice lists contain homosexuality and some of them don�t. But any kind of sin can be forgiven because of the infinite worth of Christ, the infinite worth of His death, vindicated by God the Father raising Him from the dead.

When Jesus said it is finished, God said amen to that by raising Him from the dead. So it�s easy to say sin can be forgiven based on what God has done and how through faith you need to take God�s word for it, trusting not in yourself for your salvation but in Christ� perfect work.

So McLaren said let�s take a five-year moratorium. Basically, if I could do no compromise style, just shut up about it for a while already. Let�s silence the debate. As Titus is told by Paul to silence critics of the Bible, so too here these men must be silenced, except it was the reversal and McLaren was the one trying to do the silencing.

And so most evangelicals saw through it, especially leaders saw through McLaren�s nonsense. And he was a big part of the emergent church, �Oh yes, we don�t have any leadership and don�t give us that name.

Basically, modern liberalism, theological liberalism with a kind grandfatherly delivery. I used to always say the old liberals just had kind of, you know, dorkier glasses than the new ones. So the new ones have the soul patches and the cool glasses, the Rob Bell glasses, but I don�t know if that really holds up or not.

But what is not new is theological liberalism, an anti-supernatural, anti-authoritarian, anti-exclusive nature of Christ, and the list goes on. And you need to read 1929, I believe, written by J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, and you�ll get it.

You�ll get Padgett, you�ll get Bell, you�ll get McLaren, you�ll get them all. You�ll get meaning, you�ll understand them. And so Denny Burke has lots of good things on his blog, a commentary on theology, politics, and culture, and he is an associate professor at Biblical Studies at Boyce College, so you�ve got Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville, that�s the graduate school, and close by, Stone�s Throat, you have Boyce College, which is an undergraduate school, so you get your bachelor�s degree there.

Well, McLaren says, �Let�s just take a five-year moratorium. So if the moratorium was 2006, that moves us up to 2011 to make any statements. But 2010, Brian McLaren said in his book, �A New Kind of Christianity that essentially homosexuality isn�t sin.

So you all have to shut up for five years while we let culture determine our hermeneutic. And then I, though, in 2010, I�ll tell you something about it. Well, so much for that. But here we have it, the New York Times reports McLaren recently presided over his own son�s same-sex commitment ceremony.

Okay? Now what do we have to do with this? Well, I think it would be fair to at least postulate, if in fact not say, that if you�re not careful with theological truths, that you can easily have relationships, son, parents, friends, neighbors, and then lower the bar of Scripture and salvation to make sure these people are in.

That is to say, you know, I have, well, you don�t know, but I had four grandparents, and Carl died in 1972. I don�t really remember him. I obviously wasn�t saved. I don�t know what happened to Carl. Not a professing believer that I know of.

Drunk is what he was. And then I had my other three grandparents, Nona, who was married to Carl. She died in her early 90s. She grew up Roman Catholic but converted to Lutheranism, at least by attendance, to follow Carl.

And it was a liberal Lutheran church, baptismal regeneration. I loved Nona. She raised me when I was little when Mom was working at Mutual of Omaha. Not the Wild Kingdom, but I wish it was. And my father was at Northwestern Bell, so I�d go over there, Grandma Up the Hill is what we called her.

And then my other grandparents, both Lutherans, marginal Lutherans, baptismal regeneration, ELC, LCA, ELCA Lutherans. And Henry died in his early 90s. And Hedwig, Erna, Klaus, and Ebendroth, she died in her mid -90s.

So, none of them that I know of was born again. Now, I did write Nona a letter and explain what the gospel taught about substitutionary death of Christ and who he really was. He must be born again. I tried to talk to my grandmother and grandfather, grandfather on his deathbed, and Grandma yelled.

And I tried to talk to them in a variety of settings. So here's my point. If I had to guess, well, let me say it this way. I didn't see anything that would lend itself for any of those four for me to be very, very hopeful on this earth.

Now, I'd love to be surprised. There'll be lots of surprises in heaven, Spurgeon said. Surprise at some people who you thought were going to be in heaven, weren't. Surprise at some people who thought you, you know, were not going to be, that are.

And surprise at yourself that you made it to heaven because God's grace is so great. Our sin was so bad. So just on, from the human level, nothing that I have to hold on to that would make me think Nona, Erna, Henry, and Carl would be in heaven.

So now shall I change the requirements of salvation? Shall I change what the Bible says about saving faith, regeneration, monergistic salvation, substitutionary atonement? Should I change all that? Well, I can't.

Even though I might want to, that would be a misplaced love. That shows love for the creature more than the creator. And I have to bow to Scripture, and Scripture is sufficient, and Scripture is clear.

It is not muddled. It is not muddied. It is not deficient. And so I have to just submit myself to what Scripture says. And God does right. The judge of the universe will do right. A, nobody belongs in heaven by their own righteousness.

Nobody can earn it. Nobody can get there. We all have Adam's sin imputed to our account, and we stand guilty before God. And then we've also, as a consequence, have our sinful nature, and we sin too. So we have no claim, no demand to get to heaven, no right to get to heaven, no authority.

So for anybody who goes, that is simply the sovereign, distinguishing grace of God. But I can't change Scripture's requirements. And so—but you get the feel. You feel the tug. And so if the tug is there for me with my grandparents, then the tug grows stronger with my parents.

My mother, born again, Bible-teaching lady, saved by sovereign grace. I know I'm going to see her in heaven. And she died six years ago. But my father, similar case to my grandparents. So what do I do in 1989 with my father's death?

I wasn't even a Christian to preach the gospel to him. What hope do I have? Well, he called for the Lutheran pastor to have his last communion given to him in the hospital. What if God used those things to remind him of Christ's all-sufficient death on Calvary and his resurrection, and my father's sin and trust in Christ?

It could happen. I'm sure hoping so. I could cry thinking of it. But I can't change the Scriptures. Now the tug would even get closer, and the tug would even be greater if it was one of my children—Haley, Luke, Maddie, Gracie.

And if one of them decided, you know what, I just, I kind of believe, but I want to go off and live in sin. I can't adopt a non-lordship position or an anti-lordship position just because of what my kids do.

I mean, I could. It might make me sleep better at night. But truth is truth. Reality is reality, no matter how I try to spin it. If I spin it in a way that's not biblical, that's not going to do me any good.

My heart is deceitful. My heart is desperately wicked. I can't know it. There's something called the fall, and our mind is fallen, our wills are fallen, our conscience is fallen—consciences. And therefore, we need the Bible, an outside word, extra nos, outside of us—revelation.

This is what God thinks and what He says, and I have to submit to that. Why create something false in my mind and then sin at the same time by disregarding God's Word? So, today we're talking about Brian McLaren and how he has, according to the New York Times, presided over his son's same-sex commitment ceremony.

So for him to do that with his son, I can't agree with it. Obviously, this is no-compromise radio, and I can't do that. But I understand to some degree the temptation. I think it's wrong to be fallen into that temptation, but I understand the temptation itself, right?

It's not sinful to be tempted. It's not sin to be tempted. We know Christ was tempted in Matthew 4, and He did not sin—tempted, though not sinning. When you have a close friend, a family member, and they are still loyal to the family, you still like to see them at Christmastime and other venues, you still love them, and you ought to love them.

You ought to be kind to them. And you can certainly tell them what you think about sin and the Savior and still love them. That's obvious. This is not stupid picketing people, wherever that is—Westwood, West Point, some kind of West Side.

I don't know who they are. They're the crazy ones that are on the TV all the time. But we can't change Scripture. You see the temptation, but we can't fall into that very thing. And so I have to ask myself the question, McLaren probably knew these tendencies of his son all along, and he's not wanting to say anything because he loves his son.

Well, we have to say things no matter what. If we're preachers, we have to preach the whole counsel of God. And if you say, well, Paul mentioned homosexuality, but Jesus didn't, didn't Jesus reference Sodom and Gomorrah?

In fact, I'm sure he did. So you can't use that stupid argument about, well, we're going to pit Paul versus Jesus. That won't work. Let's see what it says here. Burke rightly quotes Matthew chapter 10.

For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

Matthew chapter 10, verses 35 to 38. And what does Burke say about those passages? The text is not saying that one needs to make an enemy of one's family members in order to follow Christ. It's simply acknowledging that for some people, the interest of the kingdom will require conflict with family members who care nothing about Christ.

In such situations, Christians must choose Christ. Jesus is saying that Christians cannot shirk this confrontation. It's a tough cross to bear, but Jesus says that those who refuse it are not worthy of Him.

So, Mike Ebendorf, No Compromise Radio. If you have family members who aren't saved, put your energies into praying for them and preaching to them. That's where I think you should put your energies. Instead of trying to concoct a scheme in your mind that will allow them to go to purgatory instead of hell, if they die without Christ, they die unregenerate.

Don't waste all that time. I think actually what you need is you need a higher view of God. And when you realize that God is so transcendent, so holy, so different, once you grasp the holiness of God, then you see how bad sin is.

And then you see how great the Savior is. That's why this idea of not preaching about sin is just ridiculous. The song says, the hymn says, grace greater than all our sins. Back to Heidelberg. And in fact, I have the Heidelberg Catechism right here in front of me, also known as the Palatinate Catechism.

Let's see. Number one. How do you like this for the first part? Here's the first part of the Catechism of 129 Questions. Of the misery of man, of the redemption of man, of the gratitude due from man. So, guilt, that's the misery, grace, that's the redemption of man by a man, the God-man, and gratitude due from man.

Guilt, grace, and gratitude. That is the issue. So put your time studying who God is and his attributes, and I guess it shouldn't be a shock that people heap up teachers after their own desires. I guess what we should do is we should study the Scriptures and say, no matter what I feel or what the ramifications are, I have to submit to this as God's Word.

That's exactly what it is. And don't do what McLaren wrongly did. Let's put a moratorium on this issue. So let's say you've got a loved one and they moved in with some other college student, and they've got an illicit relationship going on.

You can't say we're going to have a five-year moratorium on fornication. It was funny, the other day I was talking to my chiropractor as he was adjusting me, and he and I are getting to know each other.

I switched chiropractors because I didn't want to drive across town anymore to get adjusted, and I put fornication, adultery, and homosexuality in the same category of sins that can be forgiven by Christ.

And then he cracked my neck, and I couldn't feel my toes. Just kidding. My old chiropractor, Mike, I preached to him quite a bit 15 years later and no response, and so I wanted him to get saved, but I had to move on.

No, I just had to change because of the travel. Anyway, he, the new chiropractor, who's also named Mike, he couldn't believe that I put homosexuality, fornication, and adultery in the same category. And the category was this, forgivable sexual sins.

And so if you've got family members who are living with each, you know, who live with some girl at UMass Amherst, you can't try to concoct a five-year moratorium on, let's not talk about premarital or extramarital sex as being sinful and showing people that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Corinthians 6, 9, and 10.

No, what you need to do is you need to go to them and say, I know you grew up in the church. I know you were catechized, confirmed, baptized, irrigated, consecrated, whatever other word I could think of.

You grew up in the church. You made a profession of faith, and what's going on? I'm going to call you and love to repent. That's where you need to spend your time. Not well, I've got to have a, how can I get them into the kingdom?

I'm not saying you shouldn't be heartbroken. I'm not saying you shouldn't be sad. These are all obvious responses of a broken-hearted father, our mother, our grandfather, our grandson, our grandmother.

I mean, the list goes on. But we can't have some moratorium on what the Bible has already said. Let me read you the second, actually it would be the first question of Heidelberg Catechism while I have it out here because I think it relates.

What is thy only comfort in life and death? So, no matter what problems you're going through, let's just think about the one here in light of the McLaren article and his actions. What is thy only comfort in life and death?

How do you comfort people? Answer, according to the Heidelberg Catechism, that I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood has satisfied, fully satisfied, for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil, and so preserves me, that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head, yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation.

And therefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready henceforth to live unto Him. Now that is good comfort in life and death. Question two, how many things are necessary for thee to know that thou enjoying this comfort may live and die happily?

Answer, three, the first, how great my sins and miseries are, second, how I may be delivered from all my sins and miseries, and third, how I shall express my gratitude to God for such deliverance. See, that's part of the overarching theme of section one of the Heidelberg Catechism.

Question three, whence knowest thou thy misery? Answer, out of the law of God, Romans chapter three. So, Mike Ebendroth, No Compromise Radio. When you struggle with family members who aren't saved, put your time into praying for them, put your time into pouring your life into them, and put your time studying the Scriptures.

Put your time into that, because then you'll think rightly. One of the great things about studying the Bible is the Bible, especially if you go to some narratives, let's think of Old Testament narratives, Kings, for instance, first and second Kings.

I like to read those books because, well, no particular order, A, they're interesting, B, they showcase who God is. But C, the thing that I really like is Kings, Samuel, Chronicles, they give us history from a theological perspective, and that's how I need to see history.

If you just look at President Obama and Mitt Romney, Governor Romney, and you look at the world and the Euro and the Muslims, and now the Muslims are going to try to protest in Jordan, and the list goes on.

I need to see things as God does, through the lens that God is sovereign, and that He rules over all, and that He works everything together for my good and for His glory. And I need to think that way.

This is theology through history. This is a historical theological look at God's history. And so that's what I really need. I need to read the Bible. And you say, yeah, but these are huge issues, life and death issues, and you're just telling me to read the Bible?

Yes. I'm telling you to read the Bible because the Bible's Word is living and active. It performs its work in those who believe. It changes you. It helps to guard you from sin. It helps you increase your trust in who God is.

It shows the brilliance of Christ Jesus and what He's done. And it will help you in every way, shape, and form. That's what you need. You need to have your mind thinking rightly. It's like when I had to discipline one of my kids, and before I disciplined him, I gave them the opportunity.

What were you thinking? Right? When kids are little, I never ask them, why did you do it? I just said, what did you do? When they're older, you work through the whys. And the kid said to me, I wasn't thinking right.

So I didn't discipline the child because they recognized it was a problem with their mind. It was a problem with thinking. And when you read the Scriptures, your mind is transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Romans 12, verse 2. Mike Abendroth here, No Compromise Radio. You can pull up Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus. That would be a good book to help you. You can go to Greece with us in April. Send in your money.

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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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