The Courage of Anonymous Letters

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.

Anonymous Criticism and the Courage to Sign Your Name

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. It is Tuesday and I�m very thankful that Steve has his phone off and now we can talk. Can you hold on for just a second? I�ve got to take this call. Steve, I think the iPhone 16s actually is programmed to create No Compromise Radio shows from our past utterances.

Is that right? Like a random show?

I understand you�d like a random Tuesday guy show.

Do you know those YouTube videos, let�s say of George W. Bush or Bill Clinton, those men have uttered so many words, people have taken time to snip them all together or splice them together and then make them say, you know, should I stay or should I go now?

Tony Blair.

Or, you know, never going to give you up or whatever.

I know. Steve, we have an email address and it�s info at nocompromiseradio .com. Mine is Mike at nocompromiseradio .com.

Yours is Tuesday guy. Mine is Mike at nocompromiseradio .com. That�s right.

And sometimes we get emails that are super encouraging, right? And sometimes people aren�t so happy. Most of the time it�s encouraging, though. And our friend Erin over at Do Not Be Surprised and Equipping Eve Ministries, she has a blog post, donotbesurprised .com, and it�s interesting, she forwarded us a comment and I thought it would be a good launching point because we�re semi-involved.

A launching point, okay. Anonymous left a new comment. I am sorry to say, this is on Do Not Be Surprised. I don�t have any copyright with Erin and stuff. I hope she�s not going to, she�ll sue, yeah. I know that guy, by the way, Anonymous.

Yeah, do you? Yeah. Okay. Personal friend. Yes. And I am unsubscribing because I�ve discovered that you are tied to Calvinism slash Reform Theology, which is a false gospel. I�m not an Arminian, by the way, but I am anonymous.

I have listened to the teaching on No Compromise Radio and the scripture twisting is incredible. I wanted to say, what�s that old slogan with the eggs, it�s incredible, edible egg.

Well, when I hear, you know, the scripture twisting is incredible, I�m like, dude, really? We just kind of get after it.

Yeah, Steve now is twisting his Bible a little bit, and that reminds me, Steve, of my father, who when he wanted to impress all the kids, he would take the Northwestern Bell Telephone Company yellow pages, well, it was a couple inches thick, maybe three inches thick, and he could rip that thing in half.

I could never do that. Well, there�s a trick, you had to break the binding, I think, first and then rip it, but I was impressed. I still couldn�t do it. So anyway, it goes on here. One cannot stand for truth and compromise it at the same time with the false gospel of Calvinism.

All right, now Steve is involved, by the way, the next statement involves Pastor Steve, because it�s not solo speaker, it�s plural speakers. Can we get a drumroll?

Okay. Because I want to hear the next statement. Yes. Doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom. Okay, here we go. The drum is building. The speakers are snide. Oh, I�m snide button off.

And snicker at those who may differ. That's almost poetic. Okay, snide and snicker. This is another spirit, not the Holy Spirit. This makes me sad and yet at the same time upset to see God�s message of salvation distorted like this.

It is damaging and counter to the truth. I pray that you will be led into the true gospel and away from Tulip. It�s counter.

It sounds like that�s a remonstrance. Away from the false gospel of Tulip. Yes. Really?

Yes. So Steve, then Aaron forwarded that to us and she said she was not going to have anything more to do with us. And I thought that was snide and then she snickered.

Well, there needs to be a brilliant riposte to that. Yes.

And so, then you wrote a response. Oh, I did. Yes. And I'm going to read the response that you wrote and then I'd like you to comment on your own writing.

Well, I should be able to do that. Yeah. Okay.

That's kind of nice, isn't it? In case you've forgotten, you said, �Dear Anonymous so far so good.

Yeah. Very, very clever on my part.

�Thank you for your forthright and brave post.

Well, you know, that might've been a little snide. Okay. And there might've been some snickering involved.

That's right. Now let's think about that really in a pastoral way. How can we critique and criticize and make suggestions and come alongside and do it in a better way than Anonymous? Because it really is a cowardly thing.

You know, let's just, okay, let's be out with it. I mean, if I think somebody is doing something wrong, I just don't do a little drive-by. I want to help them. You know, and the way I help them is by saying, �Here are the issues, and by the way, here's my name and contact information if you want to discuss it further right?

Or you, well, I mean, ideally you go to them, but I mean, you know, in the digital world we live in, sometimes things are done by phone or by email or whatever, but identify yourself. If you're convinced that you're right, I mean, what is Steve going to do?

What is Mike going to do? Are we going to go over to your house and, you know, thump on your door because you disagree with us? No.

I know. Now, Steve, probably in the past, you know, 1 ,500 shows, and for you, it's a few less than that. There are times maybe we've, you know, I know I snicker. I know we try to have some fun, but I don't think we've ever said, �Oh, you know, somebody like my grandmother-in-law, Grandma Evie, who was an Arminian.

She's Calvinist now, by the way, in heaven. Oh, that's snickering. I know.

Seriously. It's radio, and we try to teach some truth, a doctrinal truth, but we do it in a fun-loving way or a fun way, depending on which end of the receiver. Some might even say it's jocular. You know what?

That's exactly right. I'm trying to think of another word to interpose into the situation, but, you know, I hate verbal interlopers. Oh, excellent. So, the thing is that we never like, �Oh, she's, you know, weak and immature, and she, you know, how awful it is to be an Arminian because really, at the end of the day, whatever we are and what we believe, we've received, right?

It's been the grace of God to open our eyes to see the sovereignty of God, right? Yeah, it wasn't me. Yeah. So, but if there's a teacher, somebody in the public arena, and they're teaching something, so let's say it's Dave Hunt, �What love is this

He says some awful things. Yes, he says some things in his book that are so bad, it is laughable in a sense that it got by the editors and all that.

Well, it's true. You know, a brief example, when I read Debating Calvinism, James White and Dave Hunt, I would get so exercised, so upset by reading Dave Hunt, and it's not because I disagreed with him.

It's because what he said about scripture made no sense. I'm like, �Okay, well, why don't you give us the rationale behind what you're saying about that passage None. You know, and so on and on and on it would go.

And so I would, I would like, my wife would go, �Are you going to bed tonight And I'd go, �I can't until I read the James White chapter. You know, I mean, I have to, I have to be calmed down, you know?

Cleanse. Yes. I remember back in the old day, when we would watch TBN a lot, and I would watch Benny Hinn doing some Holy Ghost Machine Gun or something with Paul Crouch on TBN. And I'd want to be cleansed afterwards.

I'd need to read something from the Bible or from a good theologian or something else or watch Ronan Martin's Laugh-In just to be cleansed.

Yeah, because you've, you know, ceremonially unclean. I feel like I should put myself outside the camp for a while, I don't know.

So, when you critique someone, I think you should just say who you are. Why don't they just write in and say, you know, Alan Ladd from, you know, Okoboji thinks that you said such and such and did such and such, and let's just do it that way.

It's so much better. Steve, when I first became a pastor, and I know you have had Alex Montoya as a professor too for pastoral ministries at Master's Seminary, he said, do not read anonymous letters. As a pastor, now people with email, it's a much easier now and Facebook little comments and hear that.

But I remember getting these anonymous letters sent to the post office here in West Boylston sent to me. Isn't that sweet? And a little encouraging notes. So just say, you know, just be a man about it.

Be godly about it. Or a woman about it. Yes, be a godly woman about it. And just say, you said this in particular, and I disagree, or could you have said it a better way? And of course, remember, on No Compromise Radio, we are trying to provoke, we are trying to prod, but we realize we are sinful men, and that we are trying to point to the one who's never compromised.

The show isn't about us, even though we talk. We want to talk about the Lord, and I'm sure we've fallen short at times, but when you get the anonymous email, you just think, okay. So Steve goes on. Thank you for your forthright and brave post.

If I may offer a suggestion or two. See that's so nice. I'll even make three. You did three. Yeah. Number one, please give a few examples of twisting scripture on No Compromise Radio. That would be good, right?

Yeah. I mean, if you're going to accuse us of something, why don't you tell us what, if we have something to repent of, well then tell us what we did so we can, you know.

Steve, I think maybe the easiest one when we want to, you know, confront other people and accuse them of sin, where we say, you know what, that was unloving. People just go, oh, you know, that was unloving.

And you're being very unloving. And so, you know, here's the bad news. Sometimes I am unloving and I need to be called out on it. But the general statement, you know, Mike, we don't like you, you're unloving.

Well, could you like, just give me an opportunity for a particular thing, you know, I said this to my wife in such and such a way, or what do you mean by love? Sometimes it's a matter of they don't know what love is.

And, and, and it's also a matter of sometimes of just ascribing motives, you know, like this show, right? Well, you're unloving. Well, what does that mean? Well, you guys, you guys critique people. Okay, here's a question.

Was Paul unloving when he went to Peter's face and corrected him? Was he unloving?

No, he was anonymous. He sent him a little note in Galatians.

No, I went to his face, he says.

Yeah. So that's, and you know, you don't have to drive here or anything. But if you say, we understand Calvinism, we understand Arminianism, we happen to be Wesleyan, and we do know you teach the real gospel that everybody's sinful, and there's only one Savior, one Redeemer, Jesus Christ, right?

First Corinthians chapter 15. I mean, who can say there's not the real gospel taught unless they use a different Bible for the definition of gospel? What's the good news? Jesus Christ saves sinners based on his representative work as, you know, what did you say the other day?

It was his perfect, his, you had a nice little slogan when you were saying something from the pulpit.

Yeah. And you quoted me later and I was like, did I say that? That was pretty good. His perfect life, I think, I don't know, I said substitutionary.

He lived perfectly, he died sacrificially, and then I added, he rose victoriously. There you go.

It was very, it was very well said between the two of us.

See, between those adverbs and all that stuff. So, Steve goes on and says, please give scriptural evidence of the errors of Calvinism. You know, it'd just be nice to have one thing said like, you know, whosoever will or something like that.

And typically, because we know this, I mean, we've studied it and I'm still looking for a really good, well-written defense of Arminianism. You know, in other words, a proposal here, here's Arminianism and here are the scriptural proofs.

Because when you look at what they say are the errors of Calvinism, you know, for example, Dave Hunt, well, the Bible's full of people making choices. You know, of course people make choices. You Calvinists say that, you know, people don't choose God, do you not understand what the Bible says?

Steve, when I first got to Bethlehem Bible Church 17 years ago, there were some questions between some of the folks and some of the leaders on what we taught and what we believed. And I said before I got here, this is what I believe and I'm just going to teach verse by verse.

And so one of the guys said, you know, I'm struggling with sovereignty and human responsibility. And I put together, I want to say an eight-page document. So you know, we exaggerate over time. So let's say it was 16, no, it's about five pages.

And I got the response back as the person read it. And they sent me an email and they just said, whosoever will, like that just counteracted everything that I put on there about the will and concurrence and, you know, and all this stuff.

So let's think a little bit more about real life versus radio. Steve, when you go to a funeral or you go to a wedding, a marriage, and there's a pastor and he is an Armenian, but he talks about how this wedding is a great little picture of Jesus loving the church.

And you run into the pastor after the service. Do you make snide remarks and do you snicker? Seriously, let's talk about this in all honesty. I've had this happen.

And what I actually said, you know, in similar circumstances to that is I thank him for preaching the gospel. I mean, I don't nitpick in those kinds of situations, you know, what I've maybe framed things differently a little bit.

Yeah, but the gospel was preached and I rejoice in that.

Steve, I don't think people realize this is radio. And honestly, when we're around other folks, sometimes we're joking around and those kind of things. But in real life, when I meet a, let's just make a caricature.

He's a King James only fundamentalist separatist with brill cream on his hair, slick back, you know, or some old school wingtips. And I mean, Yeah, I like wingtips. Yeah, I bet you do. And he does talk about sin and the only Savior, Jesus.

I teach this to my seminary students, and I try to model it. I will go out of my way to go to that man after the service and say, you know, I really appreciate the fact that you talked about the Lord Jesus as the only Savior and called people to believe because I know it's hard to do at weddings and funerals.

It takes a man to do it.

And why wouldn't I rejoice? Listen, we've been, we've done this. You know, we've done the funerals and the, and the weddings and stuff. And I remember one wedding where I was talking out of Ephesians five.

And I just remember the looks from the women when I was talking to my wife, submitting to her husband. And I mean, I think there were maybe 10 or 12, I'm ready to storm the stage and take me out.

You know, so Steve, I always do the same thing. And I'm sure you do it as well. It's a wedding or a funeral. And so beforehand, lots of people are, you know, dressed in suits and dresses and, and I have a suit on.

And I'm just greeting people. They don't know who I am, right? They're visitors. And I try to be kind and nice and helpful and, and then I get up and preach and Jesus is the only Savior. And then afterwards, then they're not so nice to me.

You can tell, but the believers, they always come up to you and say, thanks for telling us about what the Bible teaches, you know, thanks for being faithful. If you're an Armenian believer, you're, you're a brother or sister in Christ.

And I will treat you as such when I meet you. But if you have a radio show, you write books, or you're out on the blogosphere, and you're saying things that are pretty kooky, pretty corny, we might give you a Kooks and Barney's Award because A, you deserve it and B, this is radio.

Yeah, I did a funeral earlier this year and it was a bit of an odd funeral. I won't go into the details, but as people were leaving, not one of the unbelievers would even look at me. I had to, like, interrupt them on their way out and shake their hand and stuff like that.

But the believers afterwards were just so, they're like, they were so nice and so gracious and thank you for, you know. So it really is, it hardens those who already have hard hearts and it, you know, those who are saved, they love hearing the gospel and it's the same for me whenever I go anywhere and hear it.

Mike Abendroth with Steve Cooley today on No Compromise Radio. We're just talking about interaction and how to confront and what does the Bible say about going to one another and how do we do this and please don't write anonymous letters to your pastor.

I would guess, Steve, that every person who has a pastor has problems with that pastor. Something the pastor said or did or teaches or My pastor's pretty awesome. You know what? One more year and you might get a raise, but you don't get one this year.

So we all have that. I mean, we are not perfect people. We're pointing people to the Lord Jesus Christ. One more reason why pastors better preach Christ or they're going to preach themselves. But how about, we're not asking this for the BBC folks, because we get plenty of encouragement.

How about trying to write a little encouragement card to your pastor? That might be good. If you're only writing these kind of anonymous or critiques or saying to other people negative things, it's kind of a thankless job.

Of course, you get your rewards in heaven. But it is a very, very difficult thing to be a pastor. And so why don't you write a little note to your pastor? There is one good way to write an anonymous note.

As I received anonymous notes before, we pray for you. We love you. Here's a $100 gift certificate for such and such. A saint. Now, that would be a good one. Now, we're not asking for money. Take the money and send it to your own pastor, because he probably needs the encouragement.

Pete. And this isn't any kind of pity party, but it really is, people don't realize, you know, I tell people all the time, this is very similar to be a police officer, because people will say, you know, that they love the ministry.

They love this. They love that. They love the people of the church. And, you know, there will sometimes be one thing notably missing, the pastor. And, you know, when they get their opportunity, when the pastor's not around, then they'll just, you know, throw a little scud his way.

And we just want to encourage you to encourage your pastors, knowing that they do carry a heavy load. They're concerned about your souls. They have to preach the word. There's a lot of responsibility that goes with it.

So, yeah, no, but I do want to say this, Steve, about this point, because it's fascinating to me. There are many pastors who don't have radio shows and don't receive thanks like Steve and I do. I'd say nine out of 10 emails we get are very positive.

They really try to say, thank you. You know, we're out in the middle of, you know, Waukesha someplace, and we listen to the show, and we're glad there's somebody like-minded. You know, we're not the only weirdos who believe in expository preaching.

So, they're happy for that. And so, we get encouragement. But what about these guys behind the scenes? And they rarely get encouraged. You know, they're in some small little town, and they're just plodding away and faithful.

I think it'd be a good time to encourage them. And, you know, if they get a blog and they write something stupid, we might whack them. Pete. Why not? Pete. Oh, sure. Pete. That's so snide. What's the definition of snide, by the way?

Pete I don't know it, but I don't know the definition, but I know snide when I hear it.

Pete Yeah, and I feel snide when I hear it as well. Pete I sometimes feel snidely. Pete Yes, snidely whiplash, I think of, or Andy Snyder or something like that. Who knows? All right. Please tell us what the true gospel is.

So, this was a question that you wrote for Anonymous.

Pete Yeah, I put true gospel in quotation marks, too.

Pete. Yeah, true gospel versus the false gospel. I think we talked about that a little bit with Galatians chapter 1 as well.

Pete. And I can almost guarantee that if we're this person to write back and, you know, hey, that'd be great if you listened to the show and decided to contact us. My guess is that the true gospel, you have to slant it to include, you know, the will of man.

You really want to appeal to the will of man. That's the true gospel.

Pete Steve, Luke and I were watching a video the other day on YouTube, and it was about, it's called Free Will. And, you know, you created the stars and the sun and the moon and you ordain them by your sovereign mighty hand.

Yet you let us choose, you know, so we're not forced. Pete Oh, that's so good. Pete I said to Luke, when you think about regeneration, God makes alive. God makes us born from above. He gives us a new nature.

And that nature freely loves God with its own will, with its own agency, with its own desire.

You don't understand 1 Peter 1, because what he's really saying, what he's really saying, Pete. We caused us to be born again. Pete. No, God caused us to be born again, but it was only after we willed.

That's kind of a little asterisk phrase there. It's not, you know, it's in the original, but it's been removed by you Calvinists.

Pete I think it was Dwight Pentecost, or maybe it was S. Lewis Johnson that says, you know, before you believe, God has to jiggle your willer. So, you have to be alive. You should see Steve now doing a little jiggle.

Pete Well, you know, I get a little jolt.

Pete Steve, we're Baptists, no dancing allowed. Pete So, I know. Pete I know. Well, we're still waiting, you know, for some large radio station to pick us up on syndication.

Pete. It could happen any day now.

Pete Yeah, they probably want to change the names, you know, Tuesday guy wouldn't work and Mike Abendroth wouldn't work. Pete Actually, Tuesday guy might work.

Pete Yeah. Pete Tuesday guy might work, because that way I don't have to be in one day a week. Pete I know.

Matthew 18 and Public Critique of Public Teaching

So, how about with this whole thing of critique publicly and all that, Steve, we've only got a couple minutes left. What about Matthew 18. When people say, you know, have you gone to the person, you said something about, you know, Andy Stanley's new, you know, version of preaching and how he frames things.

Have you gone to him? How do we think through that?

Steve. Yeah, well, first of all, thank you for that question. It's really a bogus question, because here's the idea of Matthew 18. Nobody else knows about the sin, except for you. So, what do you do? You know, is that in the original Greek?

No. But if your brother sins, reprove him in private. Well, if everybody knows about the sin, then everybody's going to go reprove him in private. That's not the point. You know, there isn't a line to go reprove these guys in private.

The point is, they've sinned publicly, you know, or they're, let me back up on that. Pete. Teaching error. Steve. Yeah, they're teaching error publicly. And so, do we have to go to them privately? The answer is no.

It's a public statement. It's open for public critique, you know, just like we are.

Pete. And what's going on in Matthew 18, you're in a local church setting, and there's sin in the church, and so you go to them privately. This has nothing to do with a critique of what someone teaches.

If someone writes a book, they're open for critique.

Steve. Yeah, I mean, Andy Stanley, go to them private and then what? Take, you know, one or more, one or two witnesses and then tell it to the church? No, because that's a, like you said, a local church setting.

So, it's just wrong, wrong thinking.

Pete Snide, derogatory in a nasty, insinuating manner. Origin 1860, uncertain.

Andy. Well, you know, I don't, well, then I just don't think we're snide. Sorry.

Pete Mike Abendroth with Steve Cooley. You can write us with your snidely whiplash answers and questions. NoCompromiseRadio .com is the website.

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