Danger Views of the RCC and JWs

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.

Opening Banter and Show Identity

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry, where we take the thin out of complementarianism. Is that a word? Complementarianism? Our slogan is always biblical, always provocative, always in that order. That�s what we�re after.

We use words like �henno, kooks, barnies. There�s a subculture of nomenclature. Is that too many �l�s in a word, nomenclature, culture, subculture? And we like to discuss biblical things. We�re ending about our sixth year.

I thought that was 1 ,800 shows, but there are two days of the weekend, Monday through Friday, with a few reruns on Friday these days, just for Fred. Fred loves reruns. He told me if he listens to NoCo at 1 .5 speed, that�s about a dog walk for him.

Around the block, NoCo is over. So that must be around 18 minutes or so. I don�t know. I don�t know how to do that kind of math. I had Nebraska math at Masters Elementary, Masters Monarchs. It has nothing to do with Masters Seminary or College or University.

My son is at the Masters University. I�m happy for that. My daughter hopes to go soon, and that�s why we�ve started the new No Compromise Radio Beg-a-thon for the college tuition. You think since I teach at the Masters Seminary for the Doctrine of Ministry preaching classes that you might get a break.

Am I like a subcontractor, or am I adjunct faculty? What�s my current position? I�d like Austin Duncan to tell me that before I proceed any further with those classes. I will be at the Masters Seminary teaching this July, July 12th.

I have three one-hour sessions with three different groups of Doctrine of Ministry students, and then I teach them all together for two hours in the afternoon. Who am I after? Who�s that Irish guy, Philip DeCourcy?

I know who he is. I could probably have him on No Compromise Radio. The ratings would go up, probably with content and with accents. You can get the book, Sexual Fidelity, online, either through Amazon or from the site.

We�ve cut down shipping to just $2 standard shipping. I think you�d be encouraged if you read it. I�m having lots of ladies respond after they have read the book. Kind of a guy�s book in the sense that I�m a guy right from a guy�s perspective, and I am encouraged when ladies read it.

I think they�ll understand the Bible better when it comes to the subject and how men think, and they�ll be challenged as well. The new book, Evangelical White Lies, Jill just sent it back to me as she edited it.

I need to do a few other things. We have a special person writing the foreword, and you�ll have to wait to see the book then. Probably will be via Amazon here soon. The other day, I was at the hospital.

My daughter, Haley, volunteers in the ER. She�s like the lady when you go up there and first point of contact. Since it�s a private hospital, no guns are allowed, and so often people give her knives and guns.

She doesn�t ask. They just know, �Oh, when we come in here, here are our knives and guns. I said, �Haley, I want to make sure you don�t pull the trigger by accident and squeeze the trigger, so make sure you tell the security guard or the policeman that�s there with you to take care of the guns and the knives.

I think she knows how to handle a knife. Anyway, sometimes I�ll just study there at the hospital. They have a nice atrium and coffee. They don�t sell Starbucks coffee there, I don�t think. I think it�s Dunkin� Donuts.

I�m drinking Starbucks right now, but I don�t prefer it. Starbucks in my mind has gone the way of Target, and they have a lot of free magazines of all kinds of places at the hospital. While I used to put Bible tracts at the hospitals when I work in medical sales, you�ll always see the Awake magazines from the Jehovah�s Witnesses laying around, and I pick them up and throw them away.

I would encourage you to do the same thing. If you see any JW .org stuff, you need to throw them away. On the front of this magazine, do you call magazines rags? I think maybe this one you do. It says, �Awake, No. 1, 2016, Attitude Makes a Difference.

This is a guy giving a flower to a girl. They are both clean cut. In this issue, what do you know about Jehovah�s Witnesses, how to make real friends, a visit to Liechtenstein, the Bible�s viewpoint of heaven, was it designed, the color-changing ability of the cuttlefish.

That�s with two T�s, the cuttlefish. More online, what happens when you die? The Bible�s answer may surprise you. Teenagers, what your peers say. One of the things that struck me when I think about the Bible and I think about good news, historical good news, Jesus lives a perfect life, dies as a representative, lives a perfect life, then he dies as a substitute and he is confirmed and vindicated by the Father, by the resurrection.

Now, it�s much more in-depth than that or there�s more to it than that, but that just generally speaking, the eternal Son of God adds human nature and lives under the law and he dies for our sins as we are transgressors of the law and that is a perfect substitute, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Now, that�s gospel. When you�re watching CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, whatever you watch and a red ticker tape comes across the top, even if you read the websites, breaking news, the gospel is news just like that, breaking news.

It�s a historical event. We are not talking about spiritual only, we�re not talking about our subjective feelings. This is outside of us. This is something that really happened and it�s good news. On the other hand, we have law, we have commandments, we have things that we�re supposed to do and if we have to do those things to get into heaven, that�s obviously not good news at all because we are filthy, we are sinful, we are tainted.

And when you see a cult and how they promote themselves, which one do you think they focus on? Which one is their MO? Which one do they like to build up? Well, of course here it�s �attitude makes the difference� and you�re going to see law, law, law, law, law.

And if you prefer, if you don�t want law gospel categories, then you can just talk about indicative imperatives if you�d like to do that, that would be fine by me. Attitude makes a difference. Which one of the following do you think has the biggest effect on your happiness?

Your circumstances, your genes, your attitude. I think the Bible addresses attitude, I think it�s a fair thing, but what I�m talking about here today is with cults. And when you look at Roman Catholicism, what do they do?

Well, in one sense, they put you back under the Aaronic priesthood, back to Aaron, and it just doesn�t work out very well now, does it? When you look at all the to-do�s, you will see the cults really focus on the to-do�s.

They don�t like to focus on the done�s, the done, done, done�s, they like to focus on the do�s. But the problem with this type of emphasis is, �Oh Lord, if you should mark iniquities, who could stand

Well, none of us can, and we can polish ourselves up on the way to hell, that�s not going to help out very much. It might help your neighbor, I guess I�d rather live next to a moralist than an al-Qaedaist.

If you think of Roman Catholicism, if you think of their Catechism 1994, justification is the sanctification and renewal of the interior man. Well, that is why Robert Raymond would say, �I must conclude that Roman Catholic Church is the greatest organized enemy of the true gospel of justification by faith alone in Christ�s lamb work alone on the planet today.

It is, in a word, anti-Christian to the core. No wonder the Reformers, no wonder Paul guarded with great enthusiasm, with great zealousness, with great jealousy, the doctrine of justification by faith alone in the Messiah�s work alone.

No wonder Paul guarded Sola Fide with such passion. When you look at one of these magazines, Attitude Makes the Real Difference, page three, it shows a wider view of the couple on the front and it shows the young man, he is in a wheelchair and we need to, I would assume from this magazine, �Attitude makes the difference no matter what situation you are in.

Brittany and Andrea suffer from bouts of loneliness. Each of them has a different way of coping with the situation. And then which one do you think is better? Which one�s approach do you like more? And then it gives you, of course, some remedies.

And they're all law remedies because that's what they do. When the gospel isn't enough, then you have to add and add and add and add. You don't notice Rome or Jehovah's Witnesses doctrines getting smaller over time, do you?

They're not condensing. They don't do the 100-minute manager type of approach because once you start adding to the finished work of Christ, it just has to keep going and going and going and going. And you have doctrines and covenants.

You have the magisterium. You have Trent. You have Vatican I. You have Vatican II. You have catechisms. You have all the things that must be added because if the gospel isn't wonderful to you, if it isn't enough, if you don't say amen to it is finished, if you don't concur, if you don't believe, if you don't assent to, if you don't trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son, then you've got to add all these things.

And religion becomes therapeutic. It becomes relational. It becomes about the person. It becomes not about faith in the finished work because you don't have that. It turns into, I've got to be faithful and be a better person.

I know. It's just built in. I have to say, of course, for a Christian, I want you to be faithful. I just read Titus today two times. And there's a premium put on good works that flow from the work of Christ and flow out of your union with Him.

It cannot be denied. But when you think of cults, think about all the do stuff, things that you have to do. The Bible says avoid pessimism. So says Wake Magazine. It says focus on the positive. It does.

See, you just begin to make things up. These sappy stories to Julie Zha's childhood, J-U-L-I-Z-A. I don't know what that is. Is that like he, she, Z, Julie Zha? By the way, we're going to start calling girls George pretty soon.

They'll be on their birth certificates because they're just going to try to go the exact opposite of whatever. Find the most masculine name, Hank, Luke, Jake. And that's going to be a child's name that's a female.

And they give these sappy stories in Wake Magazine. And the third one is do things for others. And then they have all kinds of people helping. This shows actually, here it shows a guy doing dishes with an apron on.

Now, there's nothing wrong with that. I should probably read all the details so I don't unnecessarily offend. My point today is Jesus Christ paid it all, didn't he? Yes, he did. And Genesis 3 .15, Isaiah 7, Isaiah 9, Isaiah 52, 53, Leviticus 16.

We're looking at this great Messiah, the anointed one, the seed of David. And he is the one that could do all these things, the biblical things at least. And we look to him and we fall short. We need somebody else's righteousness, in other words.

And when we think we can be righteous before God and the ground of the sinner's righteousness is something found in ourselves, then, of course, we've got to have all these things. Here's the point. What do you know about Jehovah's Witnesses?

You see us in our public ministry, yes, I get bothered by that. You may read about us in news reports or heard things about us from others, yes, I have. Hasn't been very positive. What do you really know?

It shows two people, some Spanish writing there, and we're going to test our knowledge. So today on No Compromise Radio, we don't have much time left. We're going to do some tests. Well, you know what?

I think maybe that'll be a good show in and of itself. Fred is almost around the block. That's the problem. Let's continue this discussion on No Compromise Radio about law gospel. And when the gospel isn't enough, you've got to add more laws, law enforcement here in New England, No Compromise Radio, guarding like Luther, like Paul, justification by faith alone.

Did you know Martin Luther said the church could not exist without justification by faith alone for one hour, for one hour. That is in his Verkeh 32, page 651. He called it the chief article of Christian doctrine.

When you lose sola fide, you just become a little magazine cult track, give or outer. That's a new word. That kind of sounds like I'm from Nebraska. Ever have a runza? But it has to be a fresh runza. It can't be old.

But either way, fresh runzas are old runzas. You're going to have a problem afterwards. You're going to have a McRunza, a gurgle in your stomach is what you're going to have. Listen to what J .C. Ryle said, the beginning of half the unscriptural doctrines of popery may be traced up to the rejection of justification by faith.

You'd like to know why you have all these errors in Jehovah's Witness stuff and Roman Catholicism. I know Jehovah's Witness deals more with the deity of Christ and it's more an Arian controversy. And with Rome, she has no problem with the deity of Christ.

It is how the application of Christ's work is applied, not sola fide. But this is one cult, another cult. J .C. Ryle, the beginning of half the unscriptural doctrines of popery may be traced up to the rejection of justification by faith.

Ryle, no Roman teacher, if he is faithful to his church, can say to the anxious sinner, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. He cannot do it without additions and explanations, which completely destroy the good news.

He dare not give the gospel medicine without adding something which destroys its efficacy and neutralizes its power. Purgatory, penance, priestly absolution, the intercession of saints, the worship of the virgin, and many other man-made services of popery all spring from this source.

They are all rotten props to support weary consciences, but they are rendered necessary by this denial of justification by faith, end quote, J .C. Ryle. You ought to read that book, by the way, I think you can get it online for free, Warnings to the Churches.

Excellent. I think my little copy is Banner of Truth, read it years ago. And you think, it's so timely, and how can things written over a hundred years ago be timely? Well, when you address scriptural issues with scripture, then it'll be timely.

Jehovah's Witnesses, like Rome, they begin with the wrong premise. And if it is a law-based, works-based religion, then it's going to go off the deep end every single time. It is like a car that's a robotized car, what do they call those, self-driving cars.

And they are built with drive-in-the-ditch technology. What are these robotized cars going to be like in the hands of a terrorist? That's what I'd like to know. Ryle, whenever we hear teaching which obscures or contradicts justification by faith, we may be sure there is a screw loose somewhere.

See what I mean? It sounds like he's talking today. In the vernacular of our day, let us always be aware of any teaching which either directly or indirectly obscures justification by faith. All religious systems which put anything between the heavy-laden sinner and Jesus Christ the Savior except simple faith are dangerous and unscriptural.

So there's my tie-in. There's my tie-in between Rome and JW stuff with the Roman Catholic system and Awake magazine. What's put between them, their followers, heavy-laden sinners, and Jesus Christ the Savior?

What's put in between? What must be put in between is the non-meritorious instrument, i .e., faith. Ryle, all systems which make out faith to be anything complicated, anything but a simple childlike dependence, the hand which receives the soul's medicine from the physician, are unsafe and poisonous systems.

All systems which cast discredit on the simple Protestant doctrine which broke the power of Rome carry about with them a plague spot and are dangerous to souls. When Jehovah's Witnesses come to my door, I think they're coming to give me anything except faith alone in the finished work of Christ.

They're not giving that. Faith alone in a representative who lived a perfect life. Faith alone in the Savior who's alive and seated at the right hand of the Father. Okay, I'm a miserable, heavy-laden sinner, to use Ryle's terminology, and it is true.

Jesus is a great Savior who has compassion. He loves sinners. He, with the Father, eternally, in eternity past, decided to save sinners. That Jesus would come and rescue His bride because He loves the Father.

He loves sinners. He's a God of love, and the Trinity would even speak to that. Now, we have the Jehovah's Witnesses. They come to our door. We are heavy-laden sinners. Jesus is a great, loving Savior.

What do they put between us? And you know what they put between us? The same thing that Rome does, except Rome might be a little fancier. Be good, the Jehovah's Witness. Have the right attitude. Whatever the law is, whether it's a biblical law or an unbiblical law, a therapeutic law, a relational law, a judicial law, a magisterial law, papal law, papal decree, ex cathedra statements, you know it's dangerous and unscriptural to use the rile language if it's not faith.

Childlike dependence. I'm going to take Jesus at His word, and He loves to save sinners like me. I'm such a sinner. And I offer nothing to you. And there's nothing I could do, God, to approach you, because without faith it's impossible to please you.

And whatever I do, it's tainted by sin. You've credited Adam's sin to my account. Consequently, I'm a sinner and a sinner by nature. Everything I do stems from that. And I might be good compared to other people.

I might have what people would say, moralism, moralistic tendencies, good morals. But God, before you, I have nothing. And I'm just going to cling with childlike faith and trust, faith alone, sola fide, that you are the good God that Scripture says.

I can see you're wise in nature, powerful in nature, but I'm going to trust that you're good and that you're loving. So much so that you'd send your son to rescue a sinner like me. And I'm throwing myself by faith on those promises, on your character, and on the character and nature of Jesus Christ.

That's all I have. And if anybody puts anything else in between you and them, it's a poisonous system. It's an unsafe system. It's a dangerous system. It's an unscriptural system. It's a system that contradicts justification by faith alone.

And you know if that happens, there's a screw loose someplace. Don't take the bait.

Don't fall for the morality. Don't do 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 6. 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.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.