Popular Pope

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and we are glad to be back on WVNE 760 AM, your local Worcester station. So, I think, I don't know if they're technically in Worcester.

The office is close. Maybe in Auburn. See, when I see the city, it looks like Auburn, A-U-R-B-U-R-N, but I was told when I first got here that the way you pronounce that city, according to the New England way, is A-W-B-I-N.

Auburn. Auburn. You know, my favorite thing is, or one of my favorite things, when I drive and I've got the GPS, the GPS doesn't know how to say Worcestershire sauce. It doesn't know how to say Worcester either.

So, anyway, I got this gleanings in the December 4th, 2013 edition, gleanings under international semicolon, people. Five things evangelicals will cheer in Pope Francis's plan to change the Catholic Church.

Not that long ago, Time magazine said that Pope Francis was the person of the year. I think he used to be called man of the year, and so person of the year, that's fine. I would go for that. And there's a big hubbub about that, evangelicals, Roman Catholics.

If you look at the M, his face is, you know, covering the M on Time. And it looks like the two tops of the M's there, the top of the M's, make it look like he has horns on. I was listening to some crazy fundamentalist talk about horns and beasts.

Anyway, what will people think of next? Years ago, World magazine, and I think World by their own statements say that they're evangelical. I think Presbyterian, you know, mostly reformed, but I want to say it's a Presbyterian based deal.

I could be wrong. Anyway, I used to subscribe to World magazine and it was kind of nice instead of Newsweek or Time when these magazines were popular, it's nice to get World magazine. And you know, they had a lot of good articles, and I'm sure they still do, but they had Pope John Paul as the person of the year, the man of the year.

And if they would have said the most influential man in the world this year we put on the cover, I could understand that. I completely get that. I'm not saying, now listen to me carefully, I'm not saying the Pope is Stalin.

But if you had Stalin on the cover of World magazine and you said the person of the year because he's most influential, I would understand it. If you had President Obama, he's the most influential person in the world, and so he's on the cover of Newsweek magazine.

I understand that. But if you're a Christian magazine and then you don't say, by the way, we think altruistically and in a philanthropy sense, the Pope helped with this, that, and the other, and he's very pro-life, and he is for helping people in poverty, and he's a lot of these things, and too bad the world didn't have more of these kind of folks because it would be a better world to live in if morality is the standard.

But theologically, John Paul still believes in Trent, he still believes Protestants are accursed because if you believe in justification by faith alone, you are accursed. If you somehow think that the bread and the cup have not been changed into through a double miracle of transubstantiation, changed into the actual body and blood of Jesus, the second miracle yet still looking like bread and wine or juice, then you are accursed, you are anathema.

And so we have to part ways, similarly to what Al Mohler said to the Mormons. We might go to jail together for our common morality beliefs and stances and what the government's trying to do to religious organizations, but we're not going to go to heaven together.

Why? Because it's not a gospel that saves. The Mormon gospel doesn't save, it's not good news at all. So, anyway, I wrote to World Magazine and I just said, I don't really know what you're doing and why you're saying these things because you should have had some type of caveat, influential, famous, affecting a lot of people, Judeo-Christian mold, but we wish the Pope would be born again.

Not through the Roman Catholic system and sacraments, but born again from above. Anyway, they did, they meaning World Magazine, did publish my letter to the editor in part, although the part that they published had the tone of my email, our letter.

So it's not like they did a bad job in editing my letter to the editor. So anyway, I have not had World Magazine since. I would say every six months I go to the website just to snoop a little bit and see what they say.

Again, I hope they write good articles. So when Time Magazine says that Pope Francis is the person of the year, I know why they say that, because they like a pope who's postmodern. They like a pope who doesn't hold to the hard line.

I mean, with Benedict, he was hardline in his writings, especially before he became a pope. But I think the Vatican restricted some of the stuff that he said and wrote because he was so towing the line.

He was a more of a fundamentalist Catholic than a postmodern Catholic. So these days you're going to see Pope Francis, my prediction is he'll say fewer and fewer things that are in accord with what he said before, and he'll say more things that are in accord with the Roman Catholic Church.

But people who aren't really religious are people who are on the fringes of Roman Catholicism, Catholics who don't believe everything the pope says and the Catholic Church stands for on condoms and on birth control and on abortion and stuff like that.

They really like the softer side because he just isn't as firm on the truth as the Roman Catholic Church thinks the truth is as Benedict or others. So anyway, Time Magazine, Person of the Year. Pretty amazing.

Maybe he is the Person of the Year. If that means most influential or the most celebrated since President Obama's in such a slump, we pick now Pope Francis. So it says here in Gleanings, December 4th, this is ChristianityToday .com, Gleanings.

Did you catch that? ChristianityToday .com. That's ChristianityToday .com, December 4th. Five things evangelicals will cheer in Pope Francis' plan to change the Catholic Church. Timothy C. Morgan writes this, posted on November 26th, 2013.

In Evangelii Gaudium, that is the joy of the gospel, Francis says too many Christians have lost the joy of the Lord. I don't know if he means that in the midst of the sexual scandals or the two popes or I don't know what he means, but we're soon going to find out because Timothy C. Morgan will help us.

Today from the Vatican, Pope Francis released his most significant writing since taking office, the 50 ,000-word Evangelii Gaudium, joy of the gospel. The gaudy gospel, it almost sounds like. The document focuses on the pope's vision for evangelism, concern for the poor, the disabled, and the unborn.

And see, of course I have to say I think such a rich organization, such a rich country, such a rich institution like the Roman Catholic Church, I think they should be concerned for the poor. I would commend them.

Be concerned for the poor. Since you don't have the real gospel to help people, you might as well help alleviate poverty and do something when it comes to that regard. The disabled, I would be happy for that.

I'm glad when people help disabled folks, even if it's for temporary purposes, that is on this earth, temporal. And the unborn. I hate abortion, I hate the systematic destruction of millions of babies who are in the safest place in the world, should be the safest, the womb of their mother.

And for sexual freedom, think about this, and for convenience, they will be blended alive. It's just sick. But what about evangelism? Catholic News Service reports in this article, Pope Francis' voice is unmistakable in the 50 ,000-word document, Relatively Relaxed Style, Documents Relatively Relaxed Style.

Kind of like him, right? He writes that an evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral. You know what? Broken clocks right twice a day, so far so good. I mean, that would be wrong for me to say there are things that the Roman Catholic Church teaches that I don't agree with.

Would it be wrong for me to say that? No, that's right for me to say, but what am I trying to say? Some things the Church teaches I do believe in, even though I think they've got the wrong view of Jesus.

He doesn't die once for all for sins, and I don't think they've got the right view of salvation. But let's say Trinity. I would believe that. But still, back to this here. And its emphasis on some of his signature themes, including the dangers of economic globalization.

I mean, what a complete farce. I mean, really, they should have told me this in seminary. They should have informed me in pastoral ministry classes. You think all the years at theological seminary, I went to Master's Seminary for six years, I went to Southern Seminary for four or five years, I've been on the adjunct faculty at Southern at the Boston campus for lots of years, I've been on the adjunct faculty for the European Bible Training Center for several years.

If they only would have told me this. I feel like I'm 53 years old and I'm lost out because I don't know the dangers of economic globalization and how the church should be involved in that. See, this whole time, it's funny, I've been involved with a redemptive mandate, knowing that whether you're Republican or Democrat, Tory, live in the Vatican, or, you know, you live in Sri Lanka, you need to be born again.

That's what I thought. And spiritual worldliness, inspired, the Catholic News Service goes on to say, by Jesus's poverty and concern for the dispossessed, that's another word that just rubs me the wrong sandpaper way, during his earthly ministry, Pope Francis calls for a church which is poor and for the poor.

Yeah, that's a lark. The church is never going to be poor, and from its early days, figuring out ways to not have land go to heirs, we've got to have celibacy for the clergy. That and among other reasons.

The church is not going to be poor, and you won't see it in your lifetime if you're listening to this show. I wish it would give away its resources to help people, because, like I said before, if you can't help people with their spiritual problem, redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, justification by faith alone, through Christ alone, by grace alone, you might as well help them with their earthly needs.

My father died of cancer, my mother died of cancer, my grandfather died of cancer, my grandmother died of cancer, and my other grandfather died of cancer, and who knows who else. I'm not dying of a heart attack, in other words, but I might die of hazelnut poisoning in the Czech Republic.

So when the Cancer Society asks me for money, I say, thank you for your work, and I hate cancer, but basically in my mind I say, I'll let the pagans give you that, because I want to make an eternal difference.

I hate cancer. I mean, there's no two ways about it, and I'm glad for cancer research, but the money I have to give is going to go toward gospel-centered ministries, and only gospel-centered ministries who believe the real gospel, even though they might talk about the joy of the gospel, might talk about don't come back looking like you've been to a funeral.

I mean, the real gospel. And so I want this particular organization, the Roman Catholic Church, to do, I want them to become poor, so they can help people and they have fewer resources to promote their damning gospel.

So I want them to become poor. It says here, evangelicals who read the lengthy document may find themselves agreeing with the Pope's thoughts about changing the Roman Catholic Church. Well, so far, I guess I'm on board.

I think the proof is going to be in the pudding when we read through these next five on Roman Catholic No Compromise Radio. I think this is show eight this week. You can tell I'm losing my voice, but that's what we do around here.

We just talk, talk, talk, talk. All you do is talk, talk. Wasn't that a song? That was on K-Rock in the 80s. I think K-Rock still exists, 106 .7. I think Richard Blade is still around, too. Can you imagine that?

The church must find new ways to evangelize. New paths, Pope said, for the church's journey in years to come. I don't know what they mean by new ways to evangelize, but if a Christian hears that, born again, evangelical, Protestant, we've got to find new ways to evangelize.

I think that's even bogus from a Protestant perspective. If somebody else said it, I wouldn't think that was true. If you mean new ways like we need to go to Starbucks and evangelize, and we came up with that 20 years ago, and that's out, and everybody's hanging out at the hookah bars, let's do the hookah bar evangelism, well, different places.

But the philosophy of ministry that we have should be biblical, and the new way to evangelize, I wouldn't agree with. I'm not looking for new ways to evangelize. I'm looking for me to be more obedient to the old ways that are difficult, as I fear man, but I'm not looking for new ways.

So, zero to one here, Timothy Morgan. The church must wake up. These are things that evangelicals will cheer in Pope Francis' plan to change the Catholic Church. The church must wake up to the reality, and by the way, with number one, the church must find new ways to evangelize.

They don't know the gospel. They don't have the gospel. They don't understand sin, salvation, and the Savior. They don't understand the righteousness of God, imputed, not infused. So I don't cheer that.

The church must wake up to the reality that consumerism poses an existential threat to Christianity. Okay, I can tuck it under worldliness, I guess. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. It says here, the great danger in today's world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures and a blunted conscience.

Isn't that interesting? That's the great danger, according to Pope Francis. The great danger. How do we summarize the great danger? Complacent yet covetous heart, consumerism, a pleasure hedonism. Francis says, whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor.

God's voice is no longer heard. The quiet joy of His love is no longer felt, and the desire to do good fades. This is a very real danger for believers, too. Many fall prey to it and end up resentful, angry, and listless.

Reminds me of an I Love Lucy. Are you listless? So what do I do with that? Do you know what it sounds familiar to, similar to? You know what, it's familiar to the evangelicals that say that idolatry is the essence of sin.

Now, Tim Keller regularly does this. You can read Engaging Keller for the quotes, if you'd like. That sin is making good things ultimate things. Now, that is sin, but that's not the essence of sin. Idolatry is sin, but idolatry isn't the essence of sin.

It was Soren Kierkegaard who taught the same thing, that making good things ultimate is the essence of sin. Again, I'll say it, it is sin. Idolatry certainly is sin. Idolatry is wickedness. But sin is, when you go back to the garden, unbelief.

The cause, excuse me, the core of sin is unbelief, which leads to lawlessness. First John, sin is lawlessness, which manifests itself in immorality and idolatry and other things. So, very similar between the Pope and some of our evangelical teachers today.

Number three, my name is Mike Abendroth, this is No Compromise Radio, five things evangelicals will cheer in Pope Francis' plan to change the Catholic Church. So far, we're 0 for 2 Christianity today.

The church should recover its enthusiasm for evangelism. Now, I'm not cheering that in the Roman Catholic Church because they're going to go out and tell more people, here's spiritual strychnine, here's the straightjacket with works you can't get out of.

Here's more theological quicksand to get stuck in, and with the infused righteousness you can't get out. You need to be declared righteous. You're declared condemned, Romans 8. One, no, you're declared not guilty, not condemned.

This is Deuteronomy 25 language of imputation, reckoned, declared. So here it says they should recover their enthusiasm for evangelism. I don't want them to go tell them what they think is good news, but it's really bad news.

Pope Francis says, an evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral. Let us recover and deepen our enthusiasm, that delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing, even when it is in tears, and we must so.

And may the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the good news, not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient, or anxious, but from ministers of the gospel whose lives glow with fervor, whoever first received the joy of Christ.

Now, if I were going to use that with a Protestant evangelical audience, you know, I like to say that you should smile when you're talking about the gospel because it is good news, and maybe you need to send a missionary to your face first before you go out and evangelize.

I get all that, but I don't want them to recover their enthusiasm for evangelism because I think their news is not right. Their news isn't sacrificial, substitutionary atonement, penal substitution, penalty salvation.

God's Son, the God-man, representative, substitute, risen. How are you right with this God? Justification by faith, alone, alone. Number four, preaching the good news should always be first and foremost.

Now, it doesn't take a scientist from me, a rocket scientist, to say that we delivered, Paul said to you, as of first importance, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried and that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas in the twelfth, 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

I agree with that. Preaching the good news should be first and foremost. But I don't like it that the Roman Catholic Church thinks that because, again, I don't think they've got the right gospel. And matter of fact, Rome knows that the Protestants are different.

You know, in today's day and age, we both can't be right. Now, Rome might be wrong, evangelicals might be wrong, we could both be wrong together. Correct? There might be a different truth. We could both be wrong.

One of us could be right and one of us could be wrong. That's possible. But it is logically impossible for us to both be right when two different ways of salvation are taught. And essentially, two different natures of Jesus taught.

Different views of Christ's atonement taught, if you want me to use the Old Testament term atonement and you're a stickler on that, okay, uncle, Christ's death, His substitutionary death. Francis said, we cannot forget that evangelism is first and foremost about preaching the gospel to those who do not know Jesus Christ or who have always rejected Him.

Many of them are asking, or excuse me, are quietly seeking God led by a yearning to see His face, even in countries of ancient Christian tradition. All of them have a right to receive the gospel. Really?

They have a right to receive the gospel. Who has a right to receive the gospel? Christians have the duty to proclaim the gospel without excluding anyone. What he said, if he means what I mean by Christian and the gospel by what the Bible means by gospel, then of course we go to all nations.

But again, 0 for 4. The church should put number 5, it says here, the poor, disadvantaged and overlooked. I guess there's that including me. I'm overlooked here in the middle of New England, not in the middle of nowhere.

Why do I only have only like 25 Facebook likes? I'm overlooked. I'm on the edge at the front of the line for hearing the good news. The church has always has to go forth. Pope Francis says to everyone without exception, but to whom should she go first?

When we read the gospel, we find clear indication, not so much our friends and wealthy neighbors, but above all the poor and the sick, those who are usually despised and overlooked. Look, those who cannot repay you, Luke 14, 14.

Well, the good news is we at least have our first Bible verse here, not from me, but from the Pope. Now, maybe there's a bunch of other ones in his 50 ,000 word document, Evangelii Gaudium, but maybe not.

I don't know. This is the only one that's right here in this Christianity today. So I could be wrong on that one. It says there can be no room for doubt or for explanations, which weakens so clear a message today and always the poor are the privileged recipients of the gospel.

And the fact that it is freely preached to them is a sign of the kingdom that Jesus came to establish. We have to state without mincing words that there is an inseparable bond between our faith and the poor.

Well, my name's Mike Ebendroth, No Compromise Radio. This is kind of a squeaky chair. Brandon told me this, your chair makes noises, and I didn't think it was true, but I think it actually is true. So maybe just a little oil, the Gaudium oil, the oil of joy we could put on here.

You can write me at info at nocompromiseradio .com, or you can go to noco90 .com for some of our videos. Bbcchurch .org, we've got a cool new website, and you can go there, a very intuitive website. Thank you to Mr. Reddy and the team for the website there.

And again, this is Mike Ebendroth, Five Things Evangelicals Will Share in Pope Francis' Plan to Change the Catholic Church. Except Ebendroth came up with zero. How's that work?

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth 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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