Hillsong Street Blues

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.

Molinism, Divine Sovereignty, and Human Freedom

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and before I get into the show�s main discussion points, you can pull us up on Facebook if you�d like, on YouTube, Brannon House�s Worldview Weekend has the NoCoTV show, and of course, as some of you know, Erin Benziger has her show Equipping Eve that you can find at DoNotBeSurprised .com, EquippingEve .org, or if you�re on the NoCo iTunes feed, every other week you should get her show for ladies only, Equipping Eve.

Happy to have her with us. In ministry, I have what else here in front of me? I have a stack of stuff here, just a stack. It's fascinating. My son said to me the other day, he said, �Dad, I�ve been evangelizing with a guy, but I think he�s a Molinist.

Okay, Luis de Molina, Molina. Sounds like, I don�t know, sounds like a tennis player to me, Molina, something like that. Molinism, after this Jesuit named Molina, how do you work sovereignty of God, the providence of God, the decree of God with human freedom, human free will?

And I thought, you know, this will be kind of fun. Let�s just pull up what Wiki has to say. It's a strange day when you, quote Wiki, �William Lane Craig and Alvin Plantiga are some of its best known advocates today, although other important Molinists include Alfred Fredoso�he�s NASCAR driver�and Thomas Flint.

In basic terms, Molinists hold that in addition to knowing everything that does or will happen, God also knows that His creatures would freely choose if placed in any circumstance. So, there you go.

Kenneth Keithley, author of Salvation and Sovereignty, A Molinist Approach, states that Molinists argue that God perfectly accomplishes His will in the lives of genuinely free creatures through the use of His omniscience.

After Luis de Molina, Molinists present God�s knowledge in a sequence of three logical moments. The first is God�s knowledge of necessary truths or natural knowledge. These truths are independent of God�s will and are non-contingent.

Now, before I read any further, isn't it just easier to say to yourself, okay, the scriptures are inerrant. Scriptures are infallible. Scriptures are sufficient. Scriptures are authoritative. And whatever they teach, I will accept.

I don�t need to understand them all. I don�t need to grasp them all. I don�t have to have closure. I don�t have to put God in a box. I will just accept it. And I already know ahead of time that I�m dealing with an infinite God as a finite person.

I already know ahead of time that I have a mind that is tainted by the fall. And so there are going to be some things that I just cannot grasp. And if scripture doesn�t seem to reconcile these friends, that is, man�s responsibility and God�s utter sovereignty, you got to pick one.

Which one do you pick? Responsibility or sovereignty? Which one�s first? Who�s on first? So, it�s just much easier for me to say, �God sits in the heavens and he does whatever he pleases�, Psalm 103, versus me to try to parse it like this.

Now, I�m not saying everything a Jesuit does is wrong. Everything a Jesuit believes is wrong. But I�m pretty much not going to follow my theology�I�m not going to follow a Jesuit priest for my theology, especially on the sovereignty of God kind of thing.

And so it�s interesting. Wiki goes on to say, �This knowledge includes a full range of logical possibilities. Examples include statements like, �All bachelors are unmarried� or �X cannot be A and non-A at the same time.

It is possible that X obtained. The second is called �middle knowledge. Now, I think I have �middle earth� down, but I�m not sure if I had �middle knowledge. And it contains the range of possible things that would happen given circumstances.

The third is �knowledge of God�s free knowledge. This type of knowledge consists of contingent truths that are dependent upon God�s will or truths that God brings about that he does not have to bring about.

So if you�d like to study Molinovich, the tennis player, you can. That would probably be more interesting than this. So Molinists�can a good Molinist go to heaven? See also �formulary controversy�, �tomism�, �moderate Calvinism�, �open theism.

So when I say to myself, you know, what else does Wiki say I should study that�s kind of like along the same lines, and then I look at those and I don�t think I want to do any of those. So we hear today it�s going to be Molinist-free day at No Compromise Radio.

How about that? I think I talked last time with Pastor Steve, didn�t I, with expecting a 1 -800 -786-BABY. I think that�s an old phone number. This was Prenatal Education Ministries, 6 East King Street, Orlando, Florida, 32804.

Teach your pre-born child the Bible and establish God�s Holy Word in their developing spirits of life. I didn�t know what that was. Prenatal Preschool, as seen on the 700 Club, for free brochure call.

So maybe one of you wants to call. As a matter of fact, speaking of some folks doing thanks for No Compromise Radio, I want to say thank you to Jill on the left coast for sending me a Woodshed Friday t-shirt.

My size as well, and it�s got the font like Woodshed font. She sent me some other stuff, but I have to try it to see if I would recommend it. I found this the other day in the Christian Post. Now when it comes to news and the Christian Post, I�m sorry I read it, and it�s the same reason that I slow down at traffic accidents.

I don�t want to admit that I do, but I do. I try to keep going fast enough. I also try to make sure that I don�t rear end the gawker in front of me, gawky, gawkette. But Christian Post, I think, is an easier way to find news about Christianity small C than probably Christianity today.

So October 25th, 2014, Pastor Bobby Houston, for a second I thought Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, this was their stage name or something, that�s what I first thought. But Pastor Bobby Houston, that�s a lady by the way, explains why Hillsong Church does not �sideline the girls.

I didn�t say unquote, because then I would just undo what I would do. So see, we have to say �et cetera. We have to get our R�s and our R�s correctly �a-r-e-n-o-u-r. What else do I mispronounce?

Ted. Where�s Ted these days? I get these e-mails from linguist Ted, and I remember the first time Ted, or the first time I remember Ted�s e-mail, he did some kind of linguistic analysis of No Compromise Radio, and I think he found that the most popular thing that I say was something like so it�s the thing that I said most often �Steve, you�re wrong.

Just kidding. I would say things like I like John MacArthur when he said I like what John MacArthur said. I think that was it. So I don�t know where Ted is. But where�s a good Christian version of Noam Chomsky when you need him?

Women in Ministry and the Authority of Scripture

So Hillsong Church co-founder Bobby Houston, because you know this is a very popular thing that Charismatics do. They do this co-pastoring thing, and so it would be Mike and Kim, Pastor Mike, Pastor Kim.

I guess if you�re a Korean man, you could be called Pastor Kim, but not my wife. You wouldn�t want to call her Pastor. She wouldn�t go for it. She recently explained why, quote, �the church needs to come of age sometimes and just grow up.

In other words, the church is behind the times, and we have to get along a little doggies. That is to say, in other words, hey, this is a day and age where women can vote. Women are equal. Women are image bearers.

Women are saved the same way. Women believe in the same God, the triune God. Women have forgiveness of sins the exact same way men do. The women back in the tomb saw the resurrected Jesus first. There�s lots of things that can be said.

She goes on to say in this article by Nicola Menzi, �It�s a good question, and for some it�s a theological debate. For us, it�s never been that. Okay, so, I mean, this is just low-hanging fruit for No Compromise Radio.

�It�s a good question. All right, I�m with her so far, and for some, it�s a theological debate. �It�s a theological debate. For us, it�s never been that. What? �It�s a good question, or it�s a theological debate.

I think she means theological debate. Now, if two sides disagree, there�s two sides to the argument. I think it�s a debate, and it does have to do with theology, doesn�t it? Now here�s what I would say before reading any more to the article.

Now, see, in the old days, I would read the article. I would underline things. I would make notations, and we would�that�s how we would make, in my mind, excellent radio. But then we lose the spirit-led element.

We lose the experience. We don�t practice the presence of God properly when you do that, so you just have to go for it. True story. I�ll never forget. I�m working out at Gold�s Gym, North Hollywood. It is probably 1991.

I�m a new Christian, and there�s a guy there who I think he�s probably a Christian man. He�s always talking about Jesus, and he said to me that he�cause I told him I hurt my back. We were working out, and he said he could heal backs, and I said, �Well, okay, he�ll mind.

Just, what are you going to do? Like adjust me? That would be a good way, right, if he�s a chiropractor. Pray for me? That would be good. He said, �No, he couldn�t do those kind of things in the gym.

I had to come to the revival. I�m not kidding. That�s crazy. At the same gym, I met another guy, and he was an actor, and he got saved, and he would go speak in front of 500, 1 ,000 people. This was right in the heyday of promise breakers, excuse me, promise keepers.

That�s all we need is more laws to break, right? You can tell those things just die slow, painful deaths. Where is promise keepers when you need them? Gonzo. We don�t need more laws, more promises to break.

I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so, and there�ll be another movement. Why do we need those kind of movements? Well, we don�t, but we need men to just be masculine, biblical, act like men, stand firm in grace, stand up for the truth.

So anyway, he said to me, �How long do you have to study? I was impressed that you speak to 500 or 1 ,000 people. I think at the time I had two people attending my home Bible study. We were going through Ephesians, and I was trying to figure out how can God really choose people.

That�s where I was. And he said, �Well, I just let the Spirit lead me. Just let the Spirit lead me. And so there are some charismatics that are very studious, and I commend them. Good job. Not kidding.

Good job. But some just use Spirit-led stuff as a little decoy, as a little duck dynasty decoy so that they don�t have to study as much. And so we are supposed to study to show ourselves approved. That is, the elders, of course, everybody else, follow suit, workmen that do not have to be ashamed.

That�s a passive verb, by the way. You don�t want to have God shame you because you�re a shoddy worker. You�re a �that�ll do. That�s good enough for government work in gospel ministry. And so it is a theological debate, and as far as I�m concerned, Bobbie Houston can do whatever she�d like.

I think she�s from Australia. It�s free country down there at the moment. Just got an email from Perth. So anyway, I was glad for that. The thing is, here�s the bottom line for local church, for the church.

Jesus purchases the church with His own blood, right? The ransom price was His life, right? It was a substitutionary, vicarious death, bloodshed, which included death. He was a sacrifice. Jesus was. And so He makes redemption.

He buys people out of the slave pit of sin with a price, and that price is the ransom price. That is, He is the ransom price. He died on the cross for sinners, and of course we know He was raised from the dead.

So, if He buys the church, if He uses the Luken language to purchase the church, then that means it�s His church, simple. And so if it�s His church, then we don�t really care what the world says. We don�t care what the media says.

It doesn�t move us what the culture is saying, and we can�t get caught up in this. And so Bobbie can do whatever she�d like. But the word �church�, to use my old pastor�s terminology, is already taken.

And so in Jesus� church, anyone who picks up the Bible and reads in the pastoral epistles, 1 Timothy chapter 2, this whole book, 1 Timothy, is written so we know how to conduct ourselves in the house of God, that is the church.

It makes it super clear, nobody�s better than anybody, nobody�s greater, if you talk to my wife, you�ll see that she�s a finer Christian than I am, she�s more godly than I am, she�s, I mean, I don�t think, I have nothing, I�m not kidding either, I have nothing on my wife.

I mean, I�m memorizing, you know, Titus, two verses at a week, and she�s memorizing chapters a week. And so, I mean, in every way, shape, and form, I am not the brand and type and quality Christian that my wife, Kimberly, is.

And Galatians 3 .28 would tell us that we are all in Christ. When it comes to salvation, we�re all the same. But there�s different functions in the life of a marriage. I happen to be the leader, not because I�m greatest, but because that�s what God said.

I mean, it�s just simple. It�s super simple. Has not God said, right? Did God really say, he either said or he didn�t say. And so, I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over man, rather she is to remain quiet.

Two reasons. One, Adam was formed first, then Eve, so creation account, that�s before the fall, before sin, this was the story, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

So, first reason, creation order. Second reason, because she was deceived and Adam wasn�t. Adam was a bigger sinner. He was the federal head, and I can digress into all that if you�d like. But the word �church� is already taken, so if you want to say, well, it�s a theological debate and we want to empower and raise up female leaders, I really don�t want to compete with Jesus.

Hillsong, Pragmatism, and Relevance

And then it talks about how Protestant denominations are changing their stance and leadership, and they don�t say they�re changing their stance and leadership in liberal churches, mainline liberal churches, that is Lutherans and Methodists and Presbyterians and liberal Baptists, and they of course say the Southern Baptist Convention restricts pastoral ministry and any ministry role requiring ordination to men.

Hillsong Church, which belongs to the Australian Christian Churches, formerly Assemblies of God in Australia, embraces and equips women pastors and preachers, as evidenced by Houston�s own work. So, one more reason why I don�t promote Hillsong stuff.

Preacher, author, and activist Christine Cain is one popular example of a Hillsong Church reared female minister, Sydney-born evangelist. So now Christine Cain is an evangelist, that�s amazing, I never knew that, I learn something new every day.

Hillsong Church, founded by Pastors Brian and Bobby in 1983, welcomes 30 ,000 worshippers weekly at gatherings around the globe. It�s basically we just have a conviction, this is Bobby talking, when Bobby speaks people listen, and a belief that Jesus Christ created men and women together.

I would parse it differently, but I get it. Go multiply, be blessed, have dominion, flourish in life, be awesome. See, I cannot make this stuff up. You walk into the studio and you think, what am I going to talk about today?

Is there anything new under the sun? Is there anything that�s interesting? See, I have a little philosophy, and that philosophy is I�m going to do radio in such a way that I would like to listen to the show.

So I guess that gets rid of a lot of folks, but I think it should be interesting, entertaining, have a little fun with this whole thing as we teach theological truths. I did not know, maybe this was in the Message Bible, the New Living, the New Holman Living Message.

Holman�s fine, it�s not my favorite, but it�s fine. Go multiply, be blessed, have dominion, flourish in life, be awesome. So our experience is that women have always been on the page, always been invited in, always welcomed.

Just go be awesome. Well, I wonder if she thinks we did. We are. They did. Houston added, I keep thinking when I see Houston, I don�t know if it�s a basketball player named Houston, it�s a team, it�s a city, it�s a pastor, it�s a pastorette.

I think this is the pastorette still speaking. I personally believe, well, that pretty much takes me out of the game because it�s what does the Bible teach? That there�s a wealth of fabulous potential within the feminine heart.

Hey, I�m all for that. And I think down through history, it�s been quenched at times. You know what? Probably has, especially in the days before Jesus arrived and then he liberated women in every way, shape, and form.

Jesus the liberator. As the B -24 bombers liberated Europe, I think Jesus was the true liberator. I think that, you know, this is like the Joel Osteen moment. You know, I think, I personally believe the secular world doesn�t have an issue with women and I really think the church needs to come of age sometimes and just grow up and realize there�s a wealth of wonder and goodness and potential and all sorts of things within the feminine heart that we together, that together we can actually make the church more beautiful and more vibrant and more relevant to society.

So there we go. That�s all we need to know. That�s all I need to know. How do we make the church more relevant? Well, if you ever ask the question, you�re fired around here. You�re fired. You�re fired from the elder board, you�re fired from the deacon board, you�re fired from the chairman of the board, you�re fired.

Do we have a chairman of the board? This is an Iggy Pop song, Chairman of the Board, B-O-R-E-D. You know, what�s the world come to when I say to my kids, you know, I almost went to see Iggy, they don�t think it�s Iggy Pop and the Stooges, they think it�s some Iggy Azalea, whatever her name is.

I don�t even know her. What does she do? Some song. Well, in my opinion, the church should be this, that, or the other. Well, you can go rent a moose lodge, I guess you can call it a religion, but it�s what does the Bible say, and we don�t need to make it more relevant to society.

I�ve got a question for the No Compromise audience. How relevant is God? How relevant is forgiveness? How relevant is sin and guilt? How relevant is heaven? How relevant is hell? How relevant is truth?

How relevant is the eternal Son of God? How relevant is God? And so we don�t make it more relevant because we�re chasing things. And if we were making the church more relevant, we�d still have, some of us would still have flare pants on, and we�d have shag carpet in our churches.

Well, maybe some of us still do. We cannot chase relevancy. That is so wrong. That is exhibit number two, way down the line after 1 Timothy 1. This is exhibit number two, that she has no idea what she�s talking about, and we don�t need those kind of people leading.

Houston, who has been serving alongside of her husband for 30 years, is described on the Hillsong Church website as a beloved pastor with a prophetic teaching gift, who has redefined the face of women ministry, rising up a strong and capable company of women through local Hillsong sisterhood, global color sisterhood, and flourishing annual color conferences that take place across four nations.

�It�s not even an issue in our world she said, �and I think the fruit bears witness to that. Okay, so now we�re pragmatist. Now we have fruit of women doing things that means it�s right, it�s true, it�s good.

So relevancy, pragmatism, exactly what we don�t believe in No Compromise Radio. And so maybe you like some Hillsong songs, maybe you don�t. We prefer not. Well, my name is Mike Ebendroth. This is Hillsong Compromise Radio.

Sorry, I mean No Compromise Radio. You can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com, or you can write me personally at Mike at nocompromiseradio .com. Don�t forget equippingeve .org, and do not be surprised as well.

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.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We�re right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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