Kooks and Barnies: Pat Robertson

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.

Hosting Wretched Radio and Returning to No Compromise Radio

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name's Mike Abendroth and I'm your host today. Today is the first day I'm back in my studio. Was it Todd Friel's studio or we made our own studio to talk to Todd Friel's studio for the Wretched Radio show, wretchedradio .com.

That was great filling in for Todd on a Tuesday and on a Thursday, two hours of live radio. It was quite fascinating because here in No Compromise Radioland, I have a headphone, a set of headphones, and I have those on my ears, sometimes glasses on my nose and ears as well, but I don't have two people talking to me at once.

Tony would say to me at Wretched Radio, Mike, one minute to commercial, Mike, 30 seconds to commercial, but then he'd also say other things to me that could be heard, the listeners could hear those things.

And so it was interesting, fairly nerve wracking the first day. On Tuesday, Thursday, I felt like I hit my stride and it was a wonderful opportunity. Thanks to Todd Friel for that. I think what we can start doing now is we can combine Wretched Radio and No Compromise Radio together.

And I thought maybe a good name for that would be Wretched Compromise. That'd probably be really interesting, don't you think? So we'll see if I host Todd's show again, or if it's Phil Johnson, or if it's the best of, but even the two times I got to host it, I said to myself, I can't really be Todd Friel funny wise, and so let's just be Abe and Droth and let's make sure we teach the truth and that we're always biblical, always provocative, always in that order.

Todd said I could try to sell my book and promote that, but I didn't really want to do that too much. But I did try to promote No Compromise Radio Ministry. And the reason why I did that is the same reason I try to promote the church that I'm at, Bethlehem Bible Church here in Central Mass.

And that is because it promotes Jesus Christ. So if I promote my new book, and I am going to do that right now, The Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus, Bowing to the Gracious Despot, that is to say, if you understand God as King, then it will help you understand the biblical nature of God.

God is a King, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And so we promote books, we promote the radio show, we promote the church, why? To promote us, we want to promote Christ Jesus, the King, the Savior, the one who gave his life as a ransom for many, and then was raised from the dead.

And so that's why we do all that stuff is to promote the Lord. That's why we have this show. And I want you to be able to go back to the Bible and learn more about Christ Jesus. Well, just a couple other things about hosting Wretched Radio.

Conference on Psalm 119, Discernment, and Mysticism

Now let's just talk about the conference. And we had the conference at the church, the Wretched conference called Psalm 119 on discernment. And I talked about evangelical metrosexuality and mysticism in the church.

And so I thought it was very fascinating because the people that normally attend Bethlehem Bible Church, they didn't really have many questions for me, even though the topics, you know, I taught it maybe in a different way than I normally do, but they've heard all that stuff about God talks to you through the word and you talk to him, it's called prayer and, you know, never the twain shall meet, that kind of stuff they were used to, they knew.

But I had the majority of questions from visitors and I was very glad they were here, but visitors from a different persuasion. And so we hosted that conference and many of the Wretched Radio listeners attended, yet they weren't probably used to my style or my approach or one of the things I need to work on, I'm sure, and you can pray for me regarding this, is I need to learn to speak more plainly, more bluntly.

That's one of my problems. I always beat around the bush and you never know what I'm thinking. And so I'm resolved, you know, kind of like Jonathan Edwards here in New England when he was 19 years old or whatever the age was, resolved, Abendroth, resolved to speak more plainly, to speak more bluntly.

Anyway, if you want to order the new book that I wrote, it's on day one, you can go to the website and it is nocompromiseradio .com and it's $10 including shipping or you can go to Amazon or CBD or someplace else like that and you can learn about Jesus as King.

The Kooks and Barneys Award and Pat Robertson's Divorce Advice

I started something new on Todd Friedel's show and that was called the Kooks and the Barneys Award, the Kooks and the Barneys Award. And so that was started there, but it's my intellectual piece of propriety.

And so we're gonna do that on No Compromise Radio on a regular basis, a Kook and Barney Award, or to make it in the plural, used in surf lingo, Kooks and Barneys. What is a kook and what is a Barney? Well, you may be thinking the purple dinosaur.

Oh, by the way, I am married to Kim and Kim decided to do purple dinosaur parties back in Los Angeles when I was in seminary and you could raise some money, $100 to go do a purple dinosaur party and all that stuff.

And she did talk me into getting in the Barney outfit one time, but I'm not really good with kids jumping up all over on me and everything else when I'm in the Barney outfit. I don't mind it as I have my own kids or if I'm a grandpa or babysitting and kids are jumping all around, I like to do the wrestling thing and the fun thing.

And I'm pretty crazy when it comes to kids, crazy about them and crazy with them. But at some party in downtown Los Angeles, we've got a bunch of kids wanting to go hit Barney, you know, a cost Barney and all that, that wasn't so much fun.

Plus the thing was so tight on my head, I could hardly stand it. So Kooks and Barneys, that's just a term that the surfers use for somebody who comes out and they don't know what they're doing. They're in over their head and they mess up the surf lineup and they mess up everything else.

And so they've been given the moniker Kooks and Barneys. And so today we have our Kooks and Barneys award. If you listen to Wretched Radio, you probably already heard me give this award out to Pat Robertson, but hey, I have to do this show too.

And I'm quite positive that lots of people in Worcester have not heard of the Kooks and Barneys award that I gave out, which chronologically one week ago, maybe for you now because of the tape delay, two weeks.

Pat Robertson, what happened? Well, if you look at the Washington Post, it says Pat Robertson, divorce and option for Alzheimer's patients spouses. And then there's a video of him on Crazy Broadcasting Network, CBN.

And it says here in the Washington Post, written by Elizabeth Tennantly. By the way, Friel's got that Retcheter thing now where there's a video of him doing radio. Why do people like that? I'm not talking about Todd Friel per se.

I'm talking about the audience. Why does the audience want to see people doing radio? Now I think that's called TV, isn't it? We do the same thing in secular. We have to see, you know, Imus. You have to see these people, what they're doing, what they're saying when they're doing their radio show.

I always find that fascinating. I'm glad I don't have a big video camera right here. Washington Post writer, Elizabeth Tennantly said, look out Mrs. Robertson. Now that is insightful. That is fascinating.

Look out, Mrs. Robertson. Why? Because if you get old and have some kind of sickness, then he's going to dump you if he says someone else should dump their spouse. Washington Post said in his television broadcast Tuesday, Christian evangelist, televangelist Pat Robertson said that in certain cases it may be ethically permissible for a spouse to divorce a husband or a wife stricken with Alzheimer's.

If the non-ill spouse is going to do something with a new partner. I know it sounds cruel, Robertson said in answers to a viewer's question, adding that although Christian marriage vows are binding till death do us part, this is a kind of death.

I certainly wouldn't put a guilt trip on you. If you decided that you have to have companionship, you're lonely and you're asking for some companionship, Robertson said. And he did know, make sure that somebody should take care of your wife and look after her while you're, you know, gallivanting around romantically and socially and probably sexually with some other woman.

I say, number one, shame on Pat Robertson. This is ungodly talk. This is senile talk. But you know, on the other hand, this is Pat Robertson because he has said all kinds of kooky things before. And that's why Kooks and Barney's award goes perfectly for this.

When you're surfing and the waves aren't really good, you can say there's, you know, the ocean's got some weak sauce. So that's weak sauce. And so this is major, major weak sauce when it comes to a so-called pastor.

He needs to unplug the radio show, unplug the TV show and just go back to Kooks and Barney's land. This is inappropriate. This is not right. Robertson's answer was neither A, biblical, nor B, compassionate.

Marriage Vows, Divorce, and Church Discipline

When I do wedding counseling here, premarital, and by the way, this is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. When I do premarital counseling, we go over the vows. And by the way, I don't let the couple write vows because, write their own vows, because A, they're usually not very biblical and B, they're symmetrical.

That is to say, they say the exact same thing, yet we have different functions and different roles. Although equal in Christ Jesus, Galatians 3 .28, but we have different roles. So why would we have vows that were the exact same when the scripture says in Ephesians 5 and other places where husbands and wives are discussed, Colossians chapter four, why would we make them the same?

It says, husbands love your wives, wives submit to your husbands, et cetera. Why would we make both say the same thing? Well, we wouldn't. But I talk to them about vows and I say to them that if you are going to be given these vows, I want you to make sure you take them very seriously.

Before God and these witnesses, these are promises before God. And you must, by the grace of God, keep them and be willing to keep them or else. You have vows for lots of reasons. One of the reasons you have vows when you get married is that when there are difficult times, I didn't say if, this is kind of James one language, when you're troubled, when you're surrounded by trials of various colors, this will happen because A, the world is fallen, creation groans.

B, we are fallen people. We have sin that affects us indirectly like sickness, disease, health issues, and death. And we also have sin that affects us when it comes to God chastening for certain things.

And we have sin that affects us through other people because they're sinful. And the list goes on and on and on. And so we need to be reminded when we're taking these vows that there will be difficult times.

And if you ever feel, I use that word on purpose, like jettisoning from the marriage, then you remember your vows and you think, I'm a man of my word. I'm a woman of my word. I'm not going to do that.

I promise for better or for worse in sickness and in health, unless when Kooks and Barney's award men try to tell me I don't have to do that. Alzheimer's is not a kind of, it is not death. Think about the biblical divorce issues.

One, sexual immorality. And I don't recall this Alzheimer's wife running around on this other person. And number two, if the unbelieving spouse wants to leave the believing spouse primarily due to their Christian faith.

And that's found in 1 Corinthians 7. So those are the only two biblical divorces. And if you can only have those two biblical divorces, you can only have two reasons for biblical remarriage. Biblical divorce, biblical remarriage.

Unbiblical divorce, unbiblical remarriage, no remarriage. And so for Pat Robertson to say, it's okay if you want to take those vows seriously, etc. Here's what we would do at Bethlehem Bible Church. I tell couples, it's really neat to see young couples who want to get married, or older couples wanting to get married.

And they've got the goo-goo eyes and their heart is skipping a beat and they just can't wait to get married. I really love those times to sit and talk with couples. It's a neat experience. I remember back in the day with the same thing with me, just the anticipation of being married and serving the Lord Christ Jesus with your wife, with your spouse forever.

But I say to them, now listen, for whatever reason, if you want to get divorced and you get divorced unbiblically, I want you to know for the glory of Christ Jesus and for your own good and for your spouse's good that we will lovingly enact church discipline, Matthew chapter 18 style, and we will prosecute you until you repent.

We will prosecute the text against you until you repent. If you want to unbiblically divorce your spouse, then we will prosecute. And usually if people are getting married, they never think about divorce.

And so they usually are smiling and happy that the church would care enough. And why is this such a big issue? Well, it's such a big issue because A, you made a promise. B, love looks out for what's best in the other person.

And even if you have an Alzheimer's spouse, a spouse afflicted with Alzheimer's, you getting divorced and running off with some other lady, whether she's 20 or 50, or I don't care how old she is, that is not most loving for the spouse, let alone the kids and everything else.

Christ's Love for the Church and the Meaning of Marriage

And here is the real issue with Pat Robertson and his theological sin and faux pas. The issue is this, it preaches. It preaches. What preaches? When you divorce your spouse for Alzheimer's, it says this, that Jesus doesn't love the church until the end.

That Jesus doesn't love the church to the end. It teaches against the perseverance of the faith, of the saints and of the faith for that matter as well. It says there's no such thing as eternal life. It says that the gifts that Father gives are revocable.

And so since marriage is a picture of Christ Jesus loving the body of Christ, loving the bride of Christ, to use that metaphor, then when a husband does the wrong thing, it makes Jesus look bad. That is the real issue.

When you look at Ephesians chapter five, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and blameless without blemish.

Excuse me, she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

So today on No Compromise Radio Ministry, we're talking about the ultra embarrassment of Pat Robertson and how he is saying horrible things about the gospel. And I would like to say this and just get put on the record once and for all.

With Russell Moore, who wrote an excellent blog post on September 15th regarding this issue, it is time for all evangelicals to stop taking Pat Robertson seriously. He is a farce, he is a fraud, he is a phony, and he is an embarrassment to the Christian religion.

And so you say to yourself, well, you know, I think you're being a little tough. When people start messing around with the gospel, and we start talking about, well, you know what, if you'd like a little companionship and your wife is a little loony, and you like to have some comfort from another woman, as Russell Moore calls it, a hormonal surge of romance, then you need to begin to think about Christ and how he in fact loved the church.

And he loved the church up to and including the ignominious death on a cross, humiliation, sacrifice for the bride. The bride was not worth it, the bride did not earn it, actually in this particular case, if you want to keep the metaphors straight, like back in Hosea's day with Gomer and with Israel, the bride actually was an adulteress, the bride was a prostitute, and yet Jesus loved the bride anyway.

He loved the bride anyway. And so on No Compromise Radio today, I think you should just get rid of Pat Robertson and all your affinities toward him. He said in 1995 in the New York Times, we all admire the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II tremendously, we all want to build bridges with the Catholic church.

And so here's my point, this is nothing new from Pat Robertson, Kooks and Barney's award is the perpetual annual award. What's that award they give at Harvard to some actress or actor, some kind of zany award, some Peabody award, Mr. Peabody, hey, it's the Mr. Peabody award.

Oh man, 1995, he attends a Catholic mass to honor Pope John Paul II. I always thought that was interesting too. A Catholic mass is to honor a person dead or alive. I usually, we usually have worship services here to honor Jesus Christ, but call me old fashioned.

Pat Robertson said, quote, I believe the time has come where he must lay aside minor differences and focus on the common ground of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you may think I'm a Catholic basher and I think many Catholics are Protestant bashers, but we would all be kind to one another and nice to one another and all that.

I'm just trying to tell you that we don't believe the same gospel. It's two different gospels, imputed righteousness, Protestants, infused righteousness, Catholics, and the list goes on, how to be right with God, et cetera, how to deal with sin.

But here's the point, he's wanting us to become Catholics. That's what he wants us to do. And so Catholics and Protestants can't both be right. Think about it logically. You have a group of people, the Catholics, and then you have other people that protest what they say.

We protest what they say, Protestants, Protestants, and yet they're both right. Works perfect in the dawning of the age of Aquarius, but in real life, that kind of thinking doesn't hold water. Pat Robertson claimed that God chose him, quote, to usher in the coming of my son.

That's interesting, he chose Pat Robertson to do that. Okay, in the 80s, I have something else for you to do. God told him, I want you to run for president of the United States. I don't think he did too well.

I guess God's message was, I want you to run for president and lose in a landslide. He predicted Russia would invade Israel in 1982, worldwide collapse of the economy in 1985. 27 years too late. And that Robert J. Rockefeller would be United States Senator as a, he would be, he was a Senator.

He would be elected president in 1996. I have a question. How many false prophecies does it take to make one a false prophet? This reminds me of what Voltaire said. I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one.

Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it, end quote. Robertson affirmed back in the day, the laughing revival. He says, this says to me, Robertson said, talking about Rodney Howard Brown, his revival is taking place in the world in a mass wave.

And we look to the coming of the Lord. I think this is very encouraging sign in the middle of all this trouble and all these wars and all this confusion. God is saying, I'm on the throne and I'm going to touch multiplied millions.

It's wonderful and I applaud it. 1994, October 27th, the 700 Club. Aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye. How about Al Franken? I don't think you probably like Al Franken's politics. He wrote in a book called Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.

And here's what he said. He said, if Pat Robertson says something like there's a woman in Ohio who has just been cured of her diverticulitis, praise God. Then can't you give me the rest of the details?

Frankenstein, Al Frankenstein. Al Franken said, quote, if God can tell Pat Robertson that it's a woman in Ohio and it's diverticulitis and it's been cured, why can't he tell Pat Robertson the woman's name and her address?

It makes no sense whatsoever, end quote. It also makes no sense that Pat Robertson said if God told him there's gonna be a mass killing in 2007 that he endorses Benny Hinn. He does say Pat Robertson of false prophecies.

I have a relatively good track record. You can kind of hear Elijah say that too, right, and Isaiah. Sometimes I miss. Sometimes I miss to steal the line. I think you miss more than Shaquille O 'Neal missed free throws when he was in junior high.

That's what I think. This is Kooks and Barney's for sure, but mainly because it is at odds with, what? The doctrine of eternal security, the doctrine of once saved, always saved, the doctrine of the preservation of the saints, the perseverance of the saints.

That is, when God saves someone, he gives them life, what? Eternal. If you've got one thinking bone in your body, then you ought to say to yourself, when God gives eternal life, he must give eternal life forever, and there's nothing that can snatch us out of the Father's hand.

I give them life. And so if God gives you faith, he gives you a faith that will last through the time you die, and you will be saved. And he begins a good work, he'll be faithful to complete it. So when it comes to Pat Robertson, he gets the first inaugural Kooks and Barney's Award.

We might have this as a regular feature, so it might not be inaugural, but it is introductory. And so my name is Mike Abendroth. It's info at nocompromiseradio .com. I would love it, if you want to support Pat Robertson, I would love an email, and you could tell me why that you support Pat Robertson.

If it's a good enough reason, I might even talk about it on the air. This is Mike Abendroth, nocompromiseradio .com. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church.

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 six. 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.

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