Calvary Chapel (Part 2)

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Mental Illness (Part 3) (rerun)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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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
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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.
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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.
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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
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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, ministry. Tuesday guy is actually here.
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We need more Tuesday guy, said one man. Yeah, well, he was thinking about Saturday guy, and Saturday guy, where's
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Tuesday guy? I get many emails at nocompromiseradio .com, and some of them are about Tuesday guy, and Steve usually gets to answer those.
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He gets the cop -related ones, the law -related ones, and anything having to do with pop music.
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Which really is enormous. I've decided to write a whole column now.
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I'm gonna just review pop music just to keep people happy. Maybe we should actually have a No Compromise blog.
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That's the way of the world, is the blog. We blog things. And I could review the latest Peebo Bryson CD.
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Now, last time, last week, last Tuesday, we talked about George Bryson's write -up, his get -up -and -go about Calvary Chapels and how there should be no
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Calvinist pastors in Calvary Chapel, and he wrote a little document.
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And so Steve decided that he would call him, I don't know if this was fortuitously.
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Or because I was double -dog dared. Yeah, and so you know what? I just thought I'd put, Steve can talk a little bit more, but in the background, we're gonna give a little
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Peebo Bryson, just so Steve can have something to talk about. That would be absolutely lovely. Because you know what? It's got the mood to everything.
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Uh -huh. Yeah, I feel like any moment, we should see the guys come shining down with the
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Earth, Wind, and Fire outfits. Totally. It sounds like that's the way of the world, or what was that one guy's name?
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Well, Maurice White, I think was, and then who's the other guy who could really sing?
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Philip Bailey. Guy can really sing. Okay.
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So there we have it. For those of you not knowing who Peebo Bryson is, you can call up Todd Friel and ask.
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Yeah, you're better off listening to the soundtrack of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, where he did those final songs there on those
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CDs. Is he alive? I think so. I mean, although I wouldn't wanna certify that.
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All right. They've got two things here, the biblical doctrines of grace and the reformed doctrines of grace.
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I find it interesting, Steve, because doctrines of grace, it's a moniker for reformed theology.
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And so they've said, no, we've got biblical doctrines of grace. Yeah, the Arminian doctrines of grace. That's right. And it says, saving faith in Christ always and immediately results in regeneration, which is patently wrong and false.
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We looked at that last time. God desires all men to be saved. That is in, that's number two point from 1
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Timothy chapter two. And they are having a hermeneutic that says, we need to find all the verses that talk about all men to prove our point that all men are saved without thinking that you have all without exception or all without distinction, which the
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Greek word would allow you to have based on context. Number three, Steve, tell us number three today. This is new for those of you who were not here last week.
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This one just, it brings my acid reflux to new levels. Christ died savingly, redemptively or propitiously for all the sins of all sinners.
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That is universalism. I'm sorry, that's just universalism. So Steve, so the argument goes that if Jesus dies for all men savingly in their place, substitutionarily, redemptively, that is they were slaves to sin and then he redeemed them by paying the ransom himself and propitiously, that is to say,
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God is angry with the wicked every day and he pours out his wrath instead of on them, the son takes the full brunt of the wrath of God, perfectly assuages
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God's holy law and the judgment that comes from it. Then I have a question,
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Steve, you play Arminian though for a second. Not a stretch I know, just kidding.
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Then why are people in hell if every sin has been punished? Well, especially if the wrath of God has been propitiated, has been assuaged,
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I'll play the Arminian though. Yeah, yeah, I think, didn't I ask him to do that? Yes, the Arminian would say, well, that's because they have not believed,
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Mike. They have to believe, it's conditioned upon their belief. What part of this do you not understand, you rock -headed
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Calvinist? Well, Steve, I used to believe like that too. Didn't you, by the way? No.
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No, yeah, because you were taught well. I know who taught you. No, I'm just kidding. Belief or unbelief, that is something that's required.
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Belief is required, unbelief would therefore be a sin. So if Jesus died for every sin of every person, except for the sin of unbelief, two things have happened.
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One, there's only one kind of hell punishment. In other words, there are no degrees of hell because if you're only gonna go to hell for one sin.
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Unbelief, right. Yeah, and the other thing is, isn't unbelief a sin that Jesus, do you think, would die for?
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I unbelieved for 29 years, I disbelieved. I hope he died for that sin because I unbelieved for longer than that.
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And if we're commanded to believe, then clearly to not believe is a sin, right? So if you say
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Jesus died savingly, propitiously, you're saying that everybody's in heaven.
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You're a universalist, there's no way to get around it. Now, they'll say, well, you're trying to do some hopscotch and everything else.
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They use 1 John 2, 2. In 1 John 2, 2, my little children, it says in verse one, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin.
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But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
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Well, I guess if you'd like to interpret that basically, immaturely, not thinking about any concept in the
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Bible about the word world, John uses the word world, I believe 112 times, five to eight different ways.
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Then I guess you think it's for all the world, but did he die for the cosmos? Did he die for the planet?
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Did he die for people who weren't just Jews? Which one, Steve, is it? Did he die for people that were already in hell?
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Oh, that's a low blow. Now that's systematics and stuff, Steve. You can't go there. Stick with the text.
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Okay, okay, okay. Well, I think even the other reference he gives, 2 Corinthians 5 .14 and 15 is interesting because when
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I heard MacArthur teach that, it was specifically the opposite. It was specifically the opposite, that it had to do with specific redemption or particular redemption.
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Listen to these. For the love of Christ controls us, for we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died.
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And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
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Well, listen, this isn't some kind of conditional thing. He says, therefore all have died.
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All have died in Christ. All who have identified themselves with Christ is what this is talking about, not for the sins of the whole world.
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It has nothing to do with that. And this is exactly wrong. If you're gonna say that Christ died in a way that saved, redeemed, and assuaged the wrath of God for all the sins, every single one of all sinners, then there's no reason for anyone to go to hell.
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And to say that it's for the sin of unbelief is to ignore what the Bible says. So that's about all
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I have to say on that. Do you wanna add some? Well, Steve, this article written by George Bryson, it says at the end, no one is forced to be a
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Calvary Chapel pastor, and no one is forced to be a Calvinist unless Calvin was right, and there is an irresistible decree that includes all things.
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Yeah. If you would like to discuss ways to help the churches in Calvary Chapel movement remain reformed free, or if you have any other questions or concerns about the contents of this letter, please feel free to email me, georgebryson at ccm .org,
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unless your name is J -A -M -E -S space W -H -I -T -E. I mean, this whole thing verges on open theism, and I'm not saying he is an open theist, but I mean, if you take these views out to what he's saying, if you just,
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I'm not talking about a logical extreme, if you just follow what he's saying, then God really doesn't know what's gonna happen. Let me move on to number four.
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God calls all lost sinners to saving faith in Jesus Christ through a gospel proclamation, and by believing the gospel, all lost sinners can and will be saved.
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Well, just to think a little bit differently here, Steve, for a second, God calls all lost sinners to a saving faith in Christ Jesus through a gospel proclamation.
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What about people who have never heard the gospel? Now, the people that do hear the gospel, God is calling them to repent and believe, and if they do believe, they will certainly be saved.
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If you call upon the name of the Lord, you will be saved, but I find it interesting that some of my Arminian friends will not come to grips with the fact that there are places in this world where the gospel has never been preached, and so starting in Jerusalem and then expanding out,
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God has even decreed the expansion of the gospel, where it should go, and how it should go.
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I know we are responsible as men of God to preach the gospel to every kind of tribe and tongue, and certainly in heaven, there are all kinds of people there as well, but Steve, this ignores that.
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God calls all lost sinners to a saving faith through a gospel proclamation. Yeah, he doesn't say this, but it's almost like that argument, if you're just faithful to the light that God gives you, then you'll be saved, and he doesn't say that explicitly, but I can't even imagine what else he's getting to, because this really isn't very well written, and I think if you're gonna write a letter like this, you ought to expand on what you're talking about a little bit.
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Well, when he uses 1 Corinthians 15, verses one through three about the gospel, this is not the gospel that is what we give to unbelievers, although that's true.
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He's telling the church of Corinth in context. Remember when I was there for 18 months, and I preached the gospel to you?
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This is the gospel that I preached to you. I just don't understand why he's using 1 Corinthians 15 at all.
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I think we need to have some like, who's another singer in the genre of Peebo Bryson?
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That'd be pretty tough. Barry White? No, Barry White. Barry Manilow.
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What's your favorite Barry Manilow song? Mandy? Mandy? That's tough.
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No, I think it would be one of those McDonald's jingles. I don't know, did he do one?
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Yeah, he did, actually. Anyway, yeah, he was a jingle writer.
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All right, let's go to the next one, because this is crazy. Yeah, let's go on. All right, number five. This is tanking. Yeah, all those who believe, and he does this again, all those who believe in Jesus Christ and are thus saved, and then he's explicit.
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Thus meaning chronological, kind of sequential. Yes, and you know that by what comes next in the parenthesis, regenerated and justified.
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In other words, you believe, and then you are regenerated and justified. So belief, faith, precedes regeneration and justification.
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So God, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong here, but if we have to believe on our own and then God justifies us, doesn't that sound like?
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We do the saving works. Sounds like saving works to me. Saving Private Ryan theology.
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So then he goes on to say, are called to live a life to please, honor, and glorify the
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Lord, and that such a life, although possible for and expected of the believer, is not automatic or inevitable for the believer.
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And he kind of implies that somehow that's what Calvinists teach. You know, the elect just kind of cruise through life.
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Steve, if I were to write such a document to basically say, we're going to sniff out our minions from this particular denomination, the
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NoCo denomination. By the way, we're working on that. Dude, that's a great idea.
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NoCo radio denomination. We're a NoCo church. You just send all your money to the headquarters. We expand the radio waves.
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Wow. And then we play videos of ourselves in the satellite areas. And then we brag how many people come to our church.
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To our church. But you do get a free t -shirt if you're a local senior pastor. But if I were to write a document, now,
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I listen to Carl Truman, or I listen to, you know, Lane Tipton, or Gaffin, or MacArthur, anybody.
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You know, these guys, sometimes I say to myself, I have no idea what they're talking about. And I've gone to two seminaries and been a pastor for quite some time now.
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But I should have - Joel. Okay, that's good.
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Ted, by the way, one of our listeners, he's gonna respond that that's not the exact way to say it, because he's some
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Noam Chomsky linguist, and he knows how to do all those things. Hey, anybody who hangs out with Noam Chomsky is okay with me.
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I saw him in college once. And I think the next week I saw Joan Jett. Noam Chomsky was running away from the scene of his death.
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So here's the thing. If I were to write such a document, I think I would be much clearer, even though I don't have to have some
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PhD, THD, all these other things. This is just written poorly. This doesn't get to the salient issues.
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This doesn't cut down to the real doctrines of grace. This last one,
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I understand the first three where they're coming from. The fourth one, I have no idea. And then this fifth one, this is some straw man.
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This is some, well, Steve, I don't get it. This is poorly written and ill -advised.
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Well, and you know what? The reformed doctrines of grace, first of all, he doesn't get it right anyway.
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I mean, if we're gonna talk about the five points of Calvinism, which is what the doctrines of grace are, shouldn't we at least enumerate them?
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I mean, he could have found them online and cut and pasted them and been far more accurate than this.
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For example, number one, this is not a reformed doctrine of grace. This is not. Regeneration precedes and produces saving faith in Christ.
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Now, that part is true, but it's not the same as total depravity. It's just not. But here's the one
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I wanted to get to, the number three here. Christ did not die for all the sins of all sinners.
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This is the reformed. Yeah, this is allegedly our side. Yeah, this is allegedly our side. As opposed,
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I guess this would be limited atonement, allegedly. Christ did not die for all the sins of all sinners.
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And in fact, he did not die for any of the sins of many sinners, which sounds shocking, right?
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And then he says, for the elect and only the elect, Christ died for their sins. That is, Christ only died savingly, redemptively, or propitiously for the elect.
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Well, what's the alternative? Is that he died savingly, redemptively, or propitiously, he says, for all people.
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And I would argue that the alternative is not for all people, because that's universalism, but the alternative is for no people.
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Steve, it says, of the reformed doctrines of grace, the reformed doctrines, all the elect will be saved, none of the non -elect can be saved.
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That's true. Well, if - Okay. Yeah, I mean, if God chose from the,
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I mean, again, you know, it would be nice if you're going to write this sort of thing to maybe walk us through Ephesians 1 and Ephesians 2 and tell us why the reformed doctrines are wrong.
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And by the way, if the reformers were wrong, then why aren't you a Catholic? The Catholics got it wrong, the reformers got it wrong, but thankfully we have the unlearned men of Calvary Chapel to ride to our rescue.
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All the elect will persevere in faith and righteousness unto the end. Boy, that's bad. Thanks. I have no words.
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That's what they say the reformed doctrine of grace teaches, in that particular case, they're correct because it's biblical.
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All the elect will persevere in faith and righteousness unto the end. Now, what does he say?
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And no one can be absolutely certain they are one of the elect until they have persevered in faith and holiness till the end.
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That's a lie. I can know I'm elect now because I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of God.
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I don't have to wait till the end. This is not some new perspective on Paul's reformed doctrines of grace. I mean, I think he has us confused with the
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Roman Catholics who can't know if they're saved or not. But I wrote down this question because this really strikes at the heart of it.
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Here's a question I have. Does God love all people equally? And is there any place in the
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Bible we could go to where it says that maybe he loves different people differently? Oh, well, as we say in Kansas, or we say in Nebraska, differently.
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But I mean, here's what he's driving at. He's saying that in order, and he goes on to talk about this a little bit in different places.
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But basically, if God doesn't love, oh, I'm sorry, this is a Christianity Today by Ben Witherton that I'm mixing together with this.
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But true or false, God loves all men equally. Well, if it's the love of common grace and the love that a creator has for a creature.
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Salvificly, does he love all men equally? No, just like when I always say, Steve, you've heard me say it, after the service, if I walk up to my wife and say,
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I love you, and then I walk up to some other lady, let's say I walk up to your wife and say, Janet, I love you.
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Are those the same kinds of love? The answer is absolutely not. I love one, like I do with my wife, as my wife, and I love the other as a person who's a member of the church.
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And so we have different kinds of love, a love for the bride and a love for the rest. And so Christ loves the elect savingly, propitiously, and he gave himself, if you want to know what love is, he gave himself, he died on the cross for those people.
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Christ died for the sheep, he prayed for the disciples. I mean, we can go on and on and on.
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You know, how about, I mean, this is really basic, and we talked about this, I think, several weeks ago, but Romans 9, 13, as it is written,
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Jacob, I loved, but Esau, I hated. Before they'd done anything, and I'm like, okay, God didn't obviously love
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Esau in the same way that he did Jacob, right? Unless I'm missing something, it would be interesting to hear what
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Mr. Bryson would say about that. Well, he's probably going to say Romans 9 has to do with nations, not individuals.
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But last time I checked, Steve, aren't nations full of individuals? Nations are made up of individuals. If I was gonna argue something, I would never say that because nations mean a lot of individuals.
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So I'm gonna try to do the anti -a -furtory argument where I'm gonna say, well, no, they're all nations are full of individuals.
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I mean, did God love Israel the same way he loved Egypt? Did God, you know,
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I mean, did God love the Assyrians just as much as he loved the Israelites? That's a cush question.
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I mean, these are not difficult Bible issues.
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They're only difficult if you come in with a presupposition that says, I know that God is love and that's all
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God is, that God doesn't hate anyone, that God wouldn't leave anybody out, and therefore
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I have a fair and just God that I can trust and he loves me, I love him, and that's the way it's gonna be.
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Today on No Compromise, we're talking about Calvary Chapels and how they're trying to smoke out Calvinists.
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Here's the problem, Steve. Let's think big picture for a second in the last four minutes of the show. Calvary Chapel men, and again,
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I love Calvary Chapel. I was saved by Christ's gospel through the preaching of a man in Calvary Chapel, and so I have a soft spot in my heart.
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Guys start preaching through the Bible chapter by chapter. I would say they probably start off as Arminian, semi -Pelagian, one of those two, and as time goes on,
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I think they become more and more reformed. So here's what's happening, Steve. You've got Calvary Chapel men who are faithful to the word and just keep preaching verse by verse by verse, and they're becoming more
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Calvinistic, and this is the way they're trying to handle it, they meaning the upper echelon of the non -denomination denomination.
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Yeah, they're just gonna squash it, and basically what he's saying here is, you know, if you choose of your own free will to be a
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Calvinist, then you've also chosen not to be a pastor, and you should have the decency, or at least not a
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Calvary Chapel pastor, and you should have the decency to step down so that we're not infected, as it were, with the doctrines of grace.
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The doctrines of grace that they show here are taught by certain leaders. I thought it was interesting to just see the wide swath of men that they consider
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Calvinist. If I had to pick 15 guys who are Calvinist, I probably wouldn't include
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Mark Driscoll. Jay Packer, I can see. Tim Keller, I wouldn't include, although Keller is a five -pointer.
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Driscoll's not. Wayne Grudem, okay, he's popular. Systematic theology. Al Mohler, yes. C .J.
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Mahaney, yes. MacArthur, yes. I pick Sproul. Oh, yeah, I definitely pick Sproul.
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Alistair Begg. Yep. Maybe, you know, he's popular, he's on TV, that kind of thing, radio. Francis Chan. Makes movies.
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Yeah, he makes movies. What was Alistair Begg thinking when he was on that movie?
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Just type in Alistair Begg, movie controversy, golfing. I don't know, I've never seen it, but I want to just kind of see it.
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David Platt. David Platt's message on missions at T4G was excellent. I think he's a
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Calvinist. And all, if not all, other Calvinists say that the Reformed Doctrines of Grace say this.
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So I don't even think they polled these guys. I think they just made this stuff up and threw those guys out because these were the popular influencers.
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Well, like I said, when you can't get the first point right, I mean, seriously, if I wanted to, you know, go after the no -co churches out there that weren't following the
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Doctrines of Grace, I would at least have the decency to write the five points of Arminianism, you know, in their proper perspective and give them the credit that they are due historically rather than making it up as I went along.
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Because point number one is not regeneration proceeds and produces saving faith in Christ.
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Otherwise we'd have Rulip, right? Oh, Rulip. Was that some kind of lady that dressed up like a man or something?
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I don't know, but it's obviously, it's total depravity. And it talks about the inability of man to choose
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God. And then, you know, secondly, you'd have unconditional election, God's choice of man for no reason other than his own glory and his own purpose, limited atonement or specific redemption, particular redemption, definite redemption, however you want to say it, that Christ died for the elect and for the elect only, those that the
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God, that the Father chose before the foundations of the world, irresistible grace, that God irresistibly in time draws men to himself and then finally he preserves them or they persevere, however you want to look at it.
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Those would be the five points and not, it wouldn't start this way at all. Steve, do you have a song that we can end with that would kind of summarize the situation here with this?
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Yes, Beauty and the Beast by Peebo Bryson and Celine Dion. And how does that go?
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How does the Beauty and the Beast go? Tales Before Time, I can't remember the words exactly, but nocompromiseradio .com.
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No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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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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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.
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