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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 ministry. Thank you for tuning in.

And thank you, Steve, for not interrupting. It's my pleasure. Steve, what's new with you in your life?

I know the listeners would kind of like to get to know the behind the scenes, Steve. What can you tell us that would reveal a little more of your personality, your character?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Makes it pretty simple around here. I'm a closed book.

Do you like white bread? No. Do you like white rice? Sure, with something on it.

Okay. All right, any announcements, family announcements, friendship announcements, anything that's going on in your life or surgeries that you might be having?

I have a multitude of upcoming surgeries. Be sure to check my Facebook page out for steveishavingsurgery .com.

You could tweet that, I believe. Yeah, I could. All right, Steve, let's talk about Christianity today,

December 2011, that particular issue. I think that could give us good fodder, good fodder for No Compromise Radio.

Okay, bring it on. All right, so the cover actually has an interesting picture, but we won't talk about that.

You'll have to go buy that yourself. How's that for helping? I think it'll be delivered to my home. It will be.

All right, one of the things I want to talk about here as we just flip through the magazine, unleashing the full story of Jesus.

It must be about the Bible, then. I thought that was Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Yeah. Or maybe the unveiling of Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation.

Revelation, sure. This is an advertisement, and actually, did you know I have written to Christianity Today and World Magazine when they would advertise anti -Christian things?

Okay. Yeah, actually, and World Magazine wrote me back and said, we'll stop promoting that Creflo dollar book or whatever it was.

Man, you've got juice. Was that before or after No Compromise? That was before No Compromise.

Wow, man. They also, I remember, but Steve, this is a little known fact. When they called Pope John Paul II the most influential man of the century or whatever they called him, but never said anything about his beliefs are different than Christian beliefs,

Protestant beliefs. I know he was influential, I'll grant him that, but I just thought it was fair of a

Presbyterian -type magazine, World Magazine, to give a little critique there, and so I wrote a letter to the editor, and part of it got published.

Really, was that the part where you said he didn't exactly lead the Normandy invasion? How could he be?

I think, I don't know if they included the part, this is a take -me -off -your -subscription list because I don't really need this kind of drivel.

Yeah, so here this particular ad, this is N .T. Wright books, two books by N .T.

Wright, the Bishop, they call him. I don't call him that, but they call him that. Bishop.

You know, when I played basketball on the campus of University of Nebraska, not on the varsity team, but just with some varsity players, that was my nickname, by the way.

The Bishop? When I would drain a 35 -foot jump shot. The Bish. Blindfolded.

Yeah, that's right. I'd like to know if anyone knows Pastor Steve's favorite professional basketball team.

I don't know if they know. You wanna tell us around this particular area? Real Madrid. Real Madrid.

Now that is funny. I know many of you write and say, get Steve off the Tuesday deal, but this is why

I keep him for things like that. It's a brutal crowd out there. Lakers. There you go.

Unleashing the full story of Jesus, a new vision and the New Testament from N .T.

Wright. Now, he probably didn't write that, but even this new vision and the New Testament from N .T.

Wright, what do you think of that? I think that's great. It's about time somebody got up to revising and updating the whole, you know, gospel, wrong?

Is that wrong? Well, HarperOne is publishing these books, and we just wanna go on record with No Compromise Radio Ministry to say that we do not endorse

N .T. Wright. And if your pastor is always quoting N .T. Wright, I've got serious reservations about that.

Of course, he is strong on the literal resurrection, but so are other people too.

And I don't want the people at Bethlehem Bible Church, I don't want you in our virtual no -compromise church out there in ListenerLand to read

N .T. Wright. Pick somebody else. We have a virtual church out there. Do we do virtual church discipline then?

We have a virtual 501c. Hey, you know who else is really strong on the resurrection?

Paul Crouch. You know who else is really strong on the resurrection? Bishop. Oh yeah, that's right.

I mean, there are a lot of people we could say, hey, they're really strong on the resurrection. Great. If everything else they say is wrong or a majority of things that they say are wrong or even just a good portion.

Look, if John Calvin was right, I think it was Calvin who said this, that nobody has more than 80 % of their theology right, fine.

But when somebody is as wrong as N .T. Wright is, as often as he is, there is real reason to be concerned.

I wouldn't buy any of his... Well, the problem with N .T. Wright is he is super smart. Smarter than Steve and I put together.

Smarter than Kobe Bryant, Steve and I put together. That he can say things in such a brilliant way.

And I hate to quote him, but G .K. Chesterton, when he would say, there's a difference between wrong, being wrong and being brilliantly wrong.

That's a rough translation. In other words, he knows exactly how to say things. And I think he knows better when he says in his book, what

St. Paul really said. By the way, that title should probably have a little red flag there.

I actually had that on my true false question Saturday morning. Every Christian should own what

Paul really said. As soon as you hear that title, you should be running for the hills. I mean, that would be a good title for a

Hebrew's commentary if you believed in Pauline authorship. But short of that, that the church for nearly 2000 years has quote, systematically done violence to the text of Romans.

I've got a problem with that because he does not believe in justification by faith alone,

Christ righteousness imputed to our account, our sins imputed to Christ account confirmed by the resurrection.

And when you get that wrong, it's called new perspective theology. How can I promote anything he writes?

Well, and like I said, well, backing up to what you said, when somebody says, you know, for 2000 years, the church has gotten this wrong.

And now I, and even if there are others, you know, promoting a new idea, but now

I have been endowed with the truth. You need to run from that person. I mean, what's the difference between that idea that the truth has been hidden for 2000 years or Joseph Smith in the

Book of Mormon. When somebody says all of a sudden, I have a new insight that nobody's seen before, run.

Did Joseph Smith have a new vision and the New Testament? Unleashing the full story of Jesus.

You know, he actually started retranslating the New Testament. So I guess he could have done that. I think MacArthur's going to sue this guy because at least

Harper won, because instead of unleashing the Bible verse by verse or one verse at a time, now it's the full story of Jesus.

Unleashing, well, you know, he couldn't actually copyright unleashing. So we actually use that on some of our copies.

I think that's the new church name, Unleashing Bible Church. Unleashing the truth. Wow. All right, today on No Compromise Radio, Steve and I are just yucking it up.

What's, if I were Scooby -Doo, Steve, who would you be? Shaggy? Bible translators adopt new standards.

SIL International and Wycliffe Bible Translators release new guidelines that affirm literal, excuse me, literal renderings of son of God in the majority of cases in Muslim culture translations.

But in the places where the phrase may imply that God has had sexual relations with Mary, alternative translations that maintain the concept of sonship can be used.

In June, the Presbyterian Church in America declared that the alternative translations for sonship were unfaithful to the biblical text.

Well, I mean, if we're going to worry about what every false religion thinks about the Bible and how they want to interpret it, then we're going to wind up with a really funky

Bible. What about people who go overseas and they go to an island, and that island has goats, but they don't have any lambs.

They've never seen a lamb. They don't know about a picture of a lamb. They can't describe a lamb.

It's not in their vocabulary. And so you translate John the Baptist saying, and John, behold, the goat of God that takes away the sin of the world to help them and accommodate the text.

What do you think of that? I don't think that falls in the same area because, I mean, one has to do with directly who

Christ is and the other one, not so much. I mean, he's not really a lamb. He's, it's a symbolic, but he is actually the son of God.

And so there are two different things. Yeah, well, I think that you've got a good point there with priority, but in addition, what

I would say, Steve, and I think you'll agree with me, because I have the mute button. It's always helpful, believe me.

Many an argument has been resolved via the mute button. But what we do is if the text says lamb, then we translate it lamb and then educate the people about what the

Bible says when it comes to lambs. Lambs were in the Middle East. Lambs were slain in the

Old Testament and Yom Kippur and these other things. And so we educate the people, but I'm after a

Bible that as close to, as close as possible can be translated in another language.

Nothing can be one -to -one for language to language, but I just want to go for accuracy. And then we explain to them what a lamb was compared to a goat.

Sure. All right. Well, what about this whole sonship deal with Muslims? Do we give a different translation to the

Muslims to help them because otherwise it's going to be offensive? Absolutely not. They need to understand the relationship with God.

I mean, that very idea, what are you going to do, take out all references to the father? Because after all, you can't be a father without actual children, right?

So that would imply some kind of sexual activity too. So you have to change all those words. I mean, how far do you go in accommodating a false religion?

Yeah, I say we realize that the Bible is very offensive to people. Sin is offensive, repentance is offensive, but I think it's more offensive to change

God's word around. And so let's just leave the translations like they are, be as exact as we can, word for word approach, not dynamic equivalence or anything like that.

And then we, as Bible teachers, can help explain the nuances to these unsafe people.

Okay. Groups. Newthetic nuances. Newthetic nuances. All right,

Steve, this is going to get us in trouble right now. We're 11 minutes in. We're already in trouble. You and I are going to get fired right now from this.

Okay, ready? Wait, wait, wait. You can hit the mute button while you answer this. Who's going to fire us?

We are the world. Okay. We aren't the children. Hey, did you read

Bono the other day when he said America? You actually did a good thing. I applaud you. In the midst of all the AIDS issues,

America and George Bush did the right thing. Well, I'm not surprised he said that. It's pretty amazing.

Yeah. Baptist convention might drop Southern. All right, so here we go,

Steve. I know where this is going to lead us. The Southern Baptist convention may change its name in order to better plant churches by escaping regional associations with the word

Southern. President Brian Wright announced in September, new members and baptisms in the 166 -year -old denomination have declined in recent years.

And a 2006 poll found respondents like Southern Baptists, but dislike the denomination.

Hold on, hold on, hold on. I know you can't wait. A committee considered a name change in the 1970s, but recommended against it.

Some Baptists complained that Wright formed no relation to N .T. Wright. Wright formed the unofficial task force without first securing approval from the executive committee or convention.

Well, I don't know how y 'all feel about that, but you know, just speaking for me and my kinfolk, we're -

You could probably write a country song about where dropping the Southern and Southern Baptists. Well, there's a Southern accent where I come from, and that's just how we do things.

What's that, South Bakersfield? Dwight Yoakam, he - He's from Bakersfield. That's pretty good,

I like that. I don't know what his eyes look like, but that's not the point now, is it? No, it's not. All right, Southern Baptists.

We are here in the North, and there's not a whole lot of Southern Baptists up here. Here's my problem.

Southern, Northern, what's in a name? It's kind of like the Crusade, right?

Who needs Christ or campus when you can have a crew? It sounds like that's some kind of gene or something, isn't it?

Some kind of denim, crew. Crew, yeah, it sounds cool. Well, or like a color, you know, a crew, and then -

I used to get my hair cut that way. A crew cut. I did, the crew.

So, name changes. I don't mind if people change the name, but if the motivation to change the name is to help grow the place, then

I just usually have problems with that. You know, we've got a bad affiliation with the name. So what's going to change?

Steve, tell me what you think about Southern Baptist churches in general in New England, and then I'll tell you what I think about them.

Well, I mean, it's a potpourri. I mean, it's a mixed bag. You'll find - More po than pourri?

Yeah, a lot more po. And you'll find everything from, well,

I don't know, I guess us, to, you know, places where there's a little bit more of a mystical, almost charismatic vibe to them.

And then you'll find places that are what I would say is shame to the gospel, and they all fall under the

Southern Baptist umbrella, as it were. So, I mean, the Southern Baptist label isn't especially helpful in a lot of cases.

It doesn't really mean that much. Is Baptist spelled with a

P or a B? It's a B, yeah. Bab - Bab - Tist. There are exceptions here in New England, and I think maybe

Wes Pastor up in Vermont with NETS, New England Theological School, or something like that.

I think he's a good exception to this rule. But in general, I find Southern Baptists in New England weighed and wanting.

In other words, seeker -sensitive, mystical, charismatic, as you were saying, always trying to be on the cutting edge, trying to find the new flavor of the week.

I don't know, I just find them very weak and very shallow here, although I don't want them to be.

Maybe there's a good trend for Southern Baptist churches in New England, but I don't think a name change is going to stem the tide of bad theology and bad methodology.

No, you might even pull up a sermon and listen to some guy say that the main thing is about a church, period, is love, and then go on for quite a while doing that sort of thing.

Yeah. Just recently, I think. I mean, theoretically, you know. Yeah, that was only just a few short weeks ago, wasn't it?

Yeah, typically, when I think of Southern Baptist churches, I think regionally, because I'm in New England, but the

Southern Baptists aren't very prominent here, and many of them are liberal, and the ones that aren't liberal are very seeker -sensitive,

Arminian, mystical, charismatic, just, you know, just Church of America. So whether they change the name or not,

I don't really care. I love a lot of Southern Baptists, and that makes everything I say okay now, right?

Amen. Preach it, brother. All right, so Southern Baptist, taking the

Southern out of Baptist. All right, how about this, Steve? You're going to find this interesting. Study his words, serve his world.

That is a seminary slogan. No, not Dallas Seminary. They've already changed theirs two months ago.

Study his words, serve his world, Talbot School of Theology. This is in Southern California.

Steve, just talk to me about study his word. I like that part, don't you? Yeah, I like that a lot, because in order to preach the word, you have to study the word.

Good, but what about serve his world? Tell me what they're trying to do behind the scenes.

Study the word, serve the world. Now, are we to serve the world? But what's behind serving the world?

Behind serving the world, see, I would say it's preaching the word. I mean, how do we serve people by telling them the truth, right?

Not kind of being involved in a bunch of social niceties. I don't know.

I mean, people get all hung up on, do we want people to go hungry? No, we don't.

Does that mean that we have to run food banks, drive around the neighborhood, making sure everybody has enough to eat?

Our main concern here at Bethlehem Bible Church, and we can only speak for ourselves, is the gospel. We want to be faithful to that, and that's how we change.

We don't change the world by social medium. We change it by the gospel.

You have hit the proverbial free throw. I was just getting nailed on that.

Nice, 15 feet away, nobody with a hand in my face. Sadly, it was a free throw that was a bank shot.

Well, you know, I haven't shot a basketball for a while. My knees really don't do very well. Of course, we serve the world by preaching the gospel.

That's how the world is turned right side up. I get all that, but Steve, even with the doors, there's a man standing at the back of the church, opening up the doors.

It's almost in the shape of a cross with the light, the Shekinah glory, but then the green hues.

I don't know, when I look at this, plus I know the background of Talbot Seminary, and I wish it would retreat 30 years to what it used to be when

Dr. Roskopp and Dr. Thomas and MacDougall were there, and those kind of guys.

But anyway, I just think serve the world that is emergent, that is liberal, that is, we want to try to serve the world.

I think we preach the gospel, and when there's an opportunity to do good, we try to do good, but the pastor's job is to equip the saints, preach the gospel, and this whole serve the world thing,

I think is an advertisement too. Do you want to not just be an intellectual conehead, do you want to help the world too?

Come to our place. Mips, mips, mips. That's so funny.

I mean, it takes me back to the 70s and conehead. That's funny, intellectual conehead.

Yeah, we want to be, it's good to be good, and it's nice to be nice. That ought to be the, that is the buzzword for Christianity today.

Well, I hope I'm wrong, but you never know. All right, lessons from an usher. How about this? Tell me,

Steve, just in general, not the article, but tell me the role of an usher and why it's super important.

We've got a couple of minutes to go, and I want to challenge all ushers out there, calling all ushers, that you really have an opportunity for ministry, and so how could you bolster the thought process of an usher or...

Well, you know, I would just say an usher is the first person that a lot of people will see at a church, and so they need to be, you know, happy.

They need to be well -groomed and well -dressed. I mean, those are all just givens, but after that, kind of, if you put yourself into the person's shoes, visiting the church for a first time, what kind of questions would they have?

Well, if they have kids with them, those, that's pretty obvious. They want to know where their kids go. Then they're going to want to know maybe where the restrooms are, if there are any refreshments available, but then they're just going to want to know where they can sit, and if service is already underway, and by the way,

I'd encourage everybody to be on time for service, but if service is already underway, the ushers need to know where the empty chairs are so that they can put them in them.

When I look at ushers, I say to myself, I wonder if they know and they realize, and then they flesh out this concept of ministry to Christ Jesus.

How would we act if Christ Jesus walked in the door? Well, first of all, we would throw a lot of our eschatology out the door.

But just hypothetically speaking, thinking how to serve others like I would

Christ Jesus. How do I love the people that Jesus loved? I think that's probably more technical, but so many people, maybe it's just New England, Steve.

I just see grumpy ushers. I see ushers who shout out more imperatives and say indicatives, if I could use the theology of ushering, just saying, hi, how are you?

I don't know if you're an usher, if you could think about people and say, you know what? I'm going to be praying for you this week, or just joyful ushering is what

I'd like. I think we have some people like that here at the church, and we have other people who need to learn and grow.

I mean, can you imagine what could be worse than an usher? You know, kind of standing there with his arms folded, a surly look on his face, and first time visitors come up, and he goes, what do you guys want?

Yeah, what's too full already? I think you smile, and you know what? As we always say here at Bethlehem Bible Church, if you don't feel like smiling, then just send a missionary to your face, and you just fake it anyway, and you smile, welcome, glad to have you at the church, and figure out what to do, and then go tell some of the local yokels, move down, move upstairs, go to the overflow room.

Let's serve people. If we want them to be offended, we'll wait for the sermon for that. I have to say, you know, one of my favorite ushers of all time was

Ed Peters, good brother there at Grace Community Church, and Ed used to just, I mean, he was dead serious about his ushing, and you know, he would greet people at the door, he would kind of put his arm around them, and he would sort of walk them down the aisle, and you know, tell people to scoot over.

He just like literally scooted half a row over, so that these visitors wouldn't have to climb over everybody, and he took it very, very seriously.

So if you're ushering this weekend, we'd like you to usher for the glory of God, because of what

God has done for you. We'd like some serious ushing to go on. Serious ushing. So today on No Compromise Radio, it was a more

Po than Puri. Wouldn't you say, Steve? Definitely. Well, you know, I kind of would lean towards Puri.

Okay, and you need to write Steve a controversial question at info at nocompromiseradio .com, and forward that to Steve.

And put it hyper important too. 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.

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