Mike Abendroth Guest on Engaging Your World

No Compromise Radio

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00:01

From politics to social issues to the latest news, it's time once again for Engaging Your World.

00:07

Here's your host, Tom Krause. Welcome to Engaging Your World. This is Tom Krause, your host. Great to have you along with us for a very special edition today.

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We have the future host of the soon -to -be show, No Compromise Radio, Pastor Mike Abendroth in studio.

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Brother, how are you? That sounds like a good voiceover, Tom. I like that. It does sound like a good voiceover. So, exciting, exciting news that a brand -new show starting

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Monday, 3 -3 -4, I thought it would be a good idea to have Mike come in and talk about the show and get everyone prepped for that and get excited about that.

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It's going to be a good show. How are we going to be biblical and edgy at the same time? Is that possible? I think so.

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How many years have you been doing that? Going on a year or six, I think. I think it's possible. I think it obviously has its times where those two conflict, but tell us about the show.

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Tell us what's going to be happening and give us a little intro on it. Well, before I do that, Tom, I want to say thank you because I owe it all to you.

01:06

I feel like I need to sing some Debbie Boone songs. Yeah, do that. You are the reason

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I live. You light up my life. Oh, I was in Los Angeles and San Francisco over the summer listening to K -Love, and I just thought, please play a song that's not related to my wife or girlfriend or boyfriend or something.

01:27

Give me some transcendent music, but I digress. The show's called No Compromise Radio. We'll have the show from Monday through Friday live, 3 .30

01:36

to 4. Basically, Tom, what we're going to try to do is carve out every day of the week to be something special.

01:42

So, for instance, Monday we'll be live, but typically it'll be a sermon that I preach at Bethlehem Bible Church.

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Now, will it be the previous Sunday sermon, do you think, or you'll kind of just decide what you want to do with that? I'll try to pick the biblical edgy sermons.

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Edgy's the word. We want edgy. It is. Yeah, okay. So, I'll just try to pick the best of kind of thing for Mondays.

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Tuesday will be a live call -in. We're trying to get all the equipment set up at the church so I don't have to come down here to Auburn every day.

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Wednesday will be book reviews, kind of like you do with different ... mine maybe will be a little more biblical, but not as much edgy.

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Authors, maybe I'll just review the book without talking to the author. Teaching Christian truths as we look at books.

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Thursday, right now on the website, it's current issues in evangelicalism. Anything that's new from Joel.

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Open lines or something, whatever people are calling it. And then Friday, I've entitled it Mystery Friday.

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Mystery Friday. Kind of like a mystery dinner. Yeah. Nice. Surprise Friday. You know what I thought about, Tom? How about this? Some kind of top 10

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Friday. Top 10? The top 10 worst books in evangelicalism. Cool. The top 10 worst

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TBN preachers. Yeah. Something like that. We'll sell, won't it? I like that. I like the sound of it.

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I got names running through my mind right now. I could elicit top 10 lists and then run from there.

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They could email you and send that. That'd be cool. I mean, the nice thing is if you ... Pastor Mike has, the last few months, would guest host when

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I was gone, along with ... we had Gary George do it as well. But if you like what you've heard, and Pastor Mike has done that, now they'll have his own show, 3 .30

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to 4, and it'll be live. It'll be ... again, it's local.

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It's a local church, which is good, and we want to promote the church and the preaching and all of that, and good theology.

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So it's exciting. I'm thrilled. I mean, it is cool, actually. I mean, this is probably flesh and private, but it is cool to have you guest host here and then get your own show and overtake me and stab me in the back.

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It's great. I mean, it's like it's ... I got a voicemail from Tom a couple months ago, or maybe a month ago, yeah,

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Mike, heard about your new show. 10 seconds. I'm really excited for you. Thanks for stabbing me in the back. All right.

03:47

We're going to talk more. Pastor Mike Gammage off. We'll have some open phone lines, 508 -831 -9863. When we get back, more at No Compromise Radio.

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06:06

Titanic sound. I always want to sing, here, now. So it's been a major event in the engaging world, and we're talking, uh, are we talking about that?

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You gotta go, it's gonna be hard to find? That's alright. I'll just have him play a baby song, like a baby sound, a baby crying and say that we've given birth, uh, we've given birth.

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You got it? Alright, here's the, here's the, here's an event that happened that we're talking about today. Yes! We've given birth to a radio show, no -compromise radio.

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Engaging your world is just, oh, it hurt, giving birth. And so, that's right, and then it was painful, that's, that makes me laugh every time

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I hear it. Alright, um, so no -compromise radio, we'll start right with the baby. The baby's good.

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Um, 334, Monday through Friday, and you already have a website up, right? The website is up, nocompromiseradio .com.

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We're gonna have some bumper stickers made up, t -shirts, all kinds of seeker -sensitive things we can lure people in.

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All the things we've never had, you will be able to get on this show. That's right. T -shirts, bumper stickers, coffee mugs, maybe,

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Christmas, something. Yeah, maybe we can have some, uh... Your face on it or something? That's why I'm doing radio. No -compromise radio,

07:21

Pastor Mike's head right there, Merry Christmas. I do want to say, on a serious note, Tom, thank you for your support, for your ministry.

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You gave me the opportunity to hear, to be at VNE, and it's all spiraled out of that, or spiraled down from that.

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Oh, yeah. Don't thank me yet. And it's just neat to see how the Lord works. Yeah, it's awesome. And...

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I'll say, all kidding aside, it's awesome. I think it's a great... I think the more shows like this, the better, that are solidly biblical, theological, and I think it's helpful for people.

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I think it'll be helpful for people to have places, more places to go and hear and call and talk, and it's good.

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Anyways, 508 -831 -9863, we're gonna do open phone lines. We'll talk about, again, anything you want to talk about, biblical, whatever you want to talk, we will do that today.

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Now when you guys were talking about it and you ended up doing this show, you said biblical and edgy.

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Define that. Like, what do you... I mean, we say it, but what do you mean? What are you trying to go for there? In a postmodern world, Tom, whatever you'd like it to mean, that's what we want it to mean.

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Oh, very nice. Perfect. You're off to a great start. Well, here's my philosophy. Even with the website design,

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I said to the guys, this is not necessarily the local church, even though the church is supporting it.

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It's a ministry of our church in West Boylston. At the church, we have people who are 75 years old, people who are five years old.

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It's not my goal to be somehow edgy or relevant or bitey, although probably my personality shows some of those characteristics.

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With the radio show, we want to take a different slant. When I turn on radio, Christian radio, I want it to be biblical,

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Christ -centered, but it needs to be a kind of show that if you turn on the radio, you'll say, oh, that's interesting.

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I might not like it. That's just exactly what you do. There's got to be some kind of provoking. It needs to be provocative.

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Makes you listen. Keeps you listening. Absolutely. And so I can push the envelope a little bit more since it's a radio show versus the local church and maybe,

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I don't know, cut colors off. So what topics would you consider to be under that umbrella, just off the top of your head?

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Biblical and edgy. Yeah. Well, I probably will attack false teachers more than I normally would.

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I'll probably talk about more controversial theological positive issues than I would at a local church.

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At church, I just pick a book of the Bible and preach through it. And so I am purposefully limited by the text.

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So people of your church might get to know you a little better as well through this show. I think so. I think they'll say, well, we're glad he's the pastor on Sundays and when he needs to be.

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But when he gets into that study of his and has the radio lights, do not disturb. By the way, if anybody from the church is listening and I had a little sign on the window from 334, unless your leg is cut off, do not disturb.

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I don't want the knock on the door and the first word to come out of somebody's mouth to be a pastor. I know you're on live radio, but I know you're preaching.

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That's right. And really, when it comes to no compromise, as you know, Tom, it's a biblical mandate.

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So many churches today say, well, we are known for what we're for, not what we're against.

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And with propositional truth and with error in the Bible, not error in the Bible, but error that the Bible attacks, you can't be for something and not against something else.

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Well, that's why I ask you, because I mean, I know I'm assuming, well, I know this anyways, but the title has a reason and what you're looking to do has a reason more than just entertaining or people listening, but there's a reason you've taken the strategy and the title and the direction that you are, given the times we're in.

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Absolutely, and I hope some people who don't like my theology, or maybe they don't like me personally, will tune in, because it will be high -powered, high -caffeinated radio.

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Interesting topics, lots of different things that could be controversial, or people wondering, well, what about this issue?

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And so I think even my enemies and my theological counterparts would still like a show like this.

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And do you envision having, it's all speculation, but do you envision having other views presented in a more debate form, or just more you're directing the...

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Well, when I filled in for you, Tom, and I would talk to somebody on the air or interview them, caller would call in,

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I was pretty nice. I was on my best behavior. And of course, I wanted to be, it's not gonna be rude radio, it's not how to slam somebody radio, but I probably would let people go with a thought a little farther than I would on my show, where I can say, that's enough teaching that particular subject, let me cut you off.

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Again, it's not going to be rude, but No Compromise has a little bit of, just a little kind of New York push to it.

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What do you think? By the way, 508 -831 -9863. Pastor Mike Abendroth is in the studio with myself, and Monday is a great day.

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We're gonna be enjoying the launch of No Compromise Radio, 3324, right here on 768 -MWVNE,

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Monday through Friday. You go to nocompromiseradio .com, find out more information about the show, the church.

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There's bumper stickers coming, t -shirts coming, doilies, coffee mugs, microwave ovens, refrigerator, whatever.

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It's just a whole line of No Compromise merchandise. I think we're gonna have a weight loss clinic that will all spin out of that as well.

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Sugar every three months or something? Absolutely. By the way, it'll all be podcast, and so I hope to have listeners here in the

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Worcester area. I'm really after, Tom, just like you, people who live in Worcester that don't go to a local church, that sit at home and do

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TV church, they do computer church, they ignore those commands of the one and others, and they don't stimulate one another to love and good deeds, and they need to find a good church.

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And if it's north of the 290, come to Bethlehem Bible Church. If it's south, go to Holland. Yeah. And I think also that when you think of No Compromise, you think of where is a compromise.

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So where would you say three or four places in God's church, let's make it the quote -unquote

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Bible -believing church or evangelical, whatever title we want to put on that, where do you think are the few areas where the most compromise is today?

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Well, in no particular order, as we talked about at lunchtime, Tom, you watch the ELCA, the

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Evangelical Lutheran Churches Association, of which I used to be a part when I was growing up. It was

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LCA at that time. Once you allow something unbiblical to happen, like women in pastoral leadership, elder board, preachers, it's not as if we look down upon ladies, they are equal in Christ.

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Galatians 3, verse 28 is very clear, they are image bearers. But God has functions, and He has roles, and He wrote the scriptures, and so you allow women in leadership, and eventually what you'll have is what?

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Homosexual leadership. And so compromise always leads to more compromise. And so where are the -

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Imagine if Luther came back and said, now, here's the churches with your name on it. Can you imagine? You talk about his worst moments getting -

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I'm a Calvinist, and so are you, but I would love to have old Lutheran doctrine come to Oh my Lord, if he ever came walking by and said, hey, by the way, go check that church out, it's got your name on it.

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Tom, the second someone says, we need to re -examine what we believe, kind of like N .T. Wright new views of justification, new perspective on Paul, the second you say to yourself, after 2 ,000 years of church history, after a plethora of manuscript evidence, we don't have to come up with something new, nor do we re -examine it.

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This is what the text has taught always, this is how church history has confirmed that, and we don't need to ask the question.

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You ask the question, is the Bible, open for public debate, is the Bible still full of errors? It's over before you start, and so with the show,

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I want to try to demonstrate to people, sometimes it's wrong to ask the question.

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Well, Paul says that in Romans chapter 9, you will say to me now, how can God find fault if God's the one that's doing it?

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How can God find fault? And Paul's basic answer is, you have no right to ask. There are some things you just have no right to ask because he is

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God. 508 -831 -9863, but there have to be some things you could ask, otherwise you'll have a week of dead air, so people will be able to ask some things, we hope.

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So the first place from your answer about the places you see compromise, I hear church leadership is one.

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Okay, I get that. Where else would you say is, I mean, fundamentally, it's the Word of God being compromised.

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Absolutely, everything stems from that. And so once the Word is attacked, back in the old days with Barth and neo -orthodoxy, when the words of the

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Bible kind of felt good to you, really appealed to you, the words that you would underline in your

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Bible that were extra, I'd always like to know about the words that you don't underline in your Bible, but that's another story.

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Since it's all inspired, since it's all breathed out by God, we have to accept it. And if you want to just cut and paste, then as John MacArthur would say, that's fine to do, just don't call it

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Christianity because that name's already taken. And so the Bible has clearly spoken of things that are amazing.

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When Paul uses the word mystery, it was something that before we didn't know about, but now we know, and God has revealed this truth, it's no longer a mystery to us, and our job as evangelicals, especially pastors and leaders, is to proclaim what is already there.

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So I think once we do the debate, oh, Moses goes over and says, is that burning?

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Is that a bush? How can that bush be burning? What's going on? God said, basically, this isn't debate class.

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This is not you wear a robe and smoke a pipe and have slippers on and debate the

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Bible. God has spoken, and He is a holy God, and He will not allow His Word to be tampered with.

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And so I think you're right, fundamentally, once you deviate off the Word of God by either subtracting or adding, you're in big trouble.

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508 -831 -9863. Pastor Mike Amendroth is in the studio with us. The show is called

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No Compromise Radio. It'll be heard Monday through Friday, 3, 3 to 4, and today we open phone lines. You can ask anything you want about the

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Bible, theology. I will say this, the show, Mike, is very good and versed in Scripture and history, so you'll learn a lot from listening to the show.

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You will learn a lot of church history, theology, so it'll be entertaining, I'm sure, but also you'll be educated in a lot of areas maybe that you're not or you are and maybe even further.

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And you can add to the show as well by calling in. Since people, you won't probably be able to do this on your show, give people an idea of who you are, your background, because you probably,

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I don't know if you, it's kind of weird to come on air and say, hey, let me introduce myself. So I mean, who? I'll interview myself.

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Well. Well, I guess it's edgy. I don't know if it's biblical. It would be edgy, yeah. Arrogant and edgy, that's good. So I mean, give the audience just who you are, background a little bit.

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Well, my background is fairly simple. I was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, born in 1960, so I'm coming up on 50 years old.

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And you know, when you're younger, you always say, well, I'm almost this age, I'm almost that age.

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And I've been 50 for about three years now, and my wife's like, you're not even there yet. And so almost 50 years old,

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I went to University of Nebraska at Lincoln for my bachelor's degree. I went to Master's Seminary for my seminary degree,

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Southern Seminary for my doctorate degree in ministry. And I've been a pastor here in West Boylston for 12 years.

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And I have a wife, I've been married for 20 years, four children. By the way, we were talking about,

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I was at a college retreat last week, and people were talking about who they should date or court. I said,

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I have a few simple rules, I was talking to young men, for you when it comes to dating and courting.

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I said, number one, you need to look for somebody who is a woman. Unfortunately, that needs to be said this day and age.

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Number two, she's always been a woman. Number three, she's regenerate, she's born again.

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She didn't cooperate with the grace of God. She has been saved by the grace of God, redeemed by the triune

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God. Number four, she has to have a high view of God. When trials come in your life, and the baby is born, and maybe won't make it, it's in the

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NICU, there's some kind of bad test that comes back, and you realize, I've got a sickness, etc.

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You want to have a woman, or if you're a woman, you want to have a man who has a high view of the sovereignty of God. And even though we might die, we're still going to praise

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God. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. And if you have a low view of God, there's not much of a

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God to bless. And be a rough marriage. Yeah, so that's number four. So a woman, always a woman, a regenerate, high view of God, translation

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Calvinist, biblicist, Augustinian, Paulinian.

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Biblical. That's right. And frankly, there's nothing worse than on your wedding night to find out that Jane is

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Jim. I mean, that's just, it's not good. I was just reading in Genesis, and you've got Jacob trying to, he just gets done swindling

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Esau, and now he's going to work for Laban for seven years for Rachel. On the wedding night, he finds out

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Rachel isn't Rachel, she's Leah. I thought, what's everything in the dark, you have a veil on,

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I don't know how that all works. I think it's got to be pretty dark. Yeah, it's got to be pretty dark. It's got to be a lot of animal smells and stuff, and around, that is weird.

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And then he works another seven years for Rachel. 508 -831 -9863, let's go to the phones and talk to Bruce.

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Bruce, how are you? Good, brother. How about you? Hey, both you guys preach the truth, and the truth is always controversial, so I'm grateful for you guys.

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But I wanted to ask you a question, and this is going to be a little controversial.

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And anyway, I love Steve Lawson, and I really appreciate his ministry, and he just started,

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I mean, he came out recently with Calvinism and stuff like that, and the

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Calvinistic, I forget the name of the book, but it's something about Calvin. And John Piper, and you just mentioned,

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Mike, being a Calvinist and everything. Now, Calvin himself was an infant baptizer, and probably would have had us shipped out of Geneva, you know, on a rail, or had us beaten if he found out we were

21:34

Baptists. Now, the question is, I guess, is why should we call it

21:41

Calvinism and not the Doctrines of Grace? Okay, good question. This is now no -compromise radio.

21:49

Take it! Well, Bruce, that's a great question, and as you know, being at the Church for the last

21:55

How long have you been at the Church? Since, let's see, February 2002. 2002.

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Tell me how many times I've ever said the word Calvinism from the pulpit on a Sunday morning. Yeah, probably not much, if any, but I have, you know,

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I mean, we heard it, you know, here and there many times, you know, and maybe not Sunday morning, but like, you know,

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Steve Lawson came and did the tulip and everything, and I really, like I said, I really appreciate

22:20

Steve Lawson. He's one of my favorite preachers. If I ever want to get hammered on the head, I just turn them on. There you go.

22:26

Well, what we do is we all use theological shorthand, and so Calvinism has a historical definition.

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It has a biblical definition. It doesn't have anything to do with John Calvin, per se. It has to do with, that's just what we call it.

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And so, whether it's Augustinianism, Paulinism—I remember James Boyce preached a sermon,

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Was Jesus a Calvinist? Boy, that will cause controversy. There you go. And so, what

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Lawson did when he came to the church, he said, let's go through the Gospel of John and see if John teaches man is depraved.

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Let's see if John and Jesus teach that God chooses unconditionally, and that kind of thing.

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So I probably will say Calvinism more on the radio than I would in the pulpit, because typically in New England, if I say

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Calvinism, people cringe. People want to run. They think it's some bad word. When what we mean when we say

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Calvinism would not mean anything to do with infant baptism, anything to do with Servetus, anything to do with ecclesiastical policy at a civilian level in Geneva.

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It would have to do with, like you said, Bruce, the doctrines of grace, the five solas. Basically, at the end of the day, who is in charge?

23:37

Who is more sovereign, man or God? And just like in Exodus chapter 33, when

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God said to Moses, you want to see my glory? You get over here. You get tucked in at the cleft of the rock, and I'll let my glory pass by.

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And what do I let pass by, God says, that I choose who I want to choose. The essence and nature of God is choice.

23:59

And so if someone believes in free will and they can trump God's will, then I don't like that as you know, because God is the one who is not bound by any outside or inside force.

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He's bound by his eternal decree in nature. That's it. And so shorthand Calvinism, I mean,

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God is in charge and you're not. That's basically it. And I think it's just some semantics. I mean, doctrines of grace or Calvinism is,

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I think, interchangeable. I think what we want to do, Bruce, and I appreciate the question, is in a sense of I think it's important to define terms.

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If someone says Calvinism, I would have them define what they mean, because it might mean something that's totally different than what it actually means.

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So I think that's important. And like, you know, Pastor Mike, I've, you know, my church 16 years, I haven't ever once from the pulpit said

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Calvinist or Calvinism. I'm looking to make Biblicists, you know, not Calvinists.

24:47

And if, you know, and I don't think Calvin would have wrote us out on a rail for baptism. I think that in any good theological person, period, whatever, you're going to find things that probably you'll disagree with.

25:04

You know, and I think that's healthy. I don't think it's ever good to blindly follow any man. I think we follow

25:09

Jesus blindly, but we don't follow any man blindly. And I think it's healthy to say, well, if Calvin believed in infant baptism,

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I think that's biblically wrong. I think that you're too immersed. So I think that's a healthy thing to do.

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But unfortunately, the word Calvinism has been caricatured by some parts of the body of Christ.

25:27

So you have, you know, someone might say Calvinism, and what they actually mean is, well, you never witnessed, you never talked to anybody about Christ, and they have the caricature.

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So I think it's important to define terms and say, well, what are you talking about? And Doctrine of the Grace, Reformed theology, whatever, look, you know, you go to Calvin, you go to Augustine, you go to Paul, you end up with Jesus.

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It's the Bible. It's what God says. God is in control, and man is not. And praise God for that.

25:51

What do you think the reason was, though, of the turning away from that back in the mid to late 1800s, early 1900s?

26:00

Well, the preachers in New England began not to preach a high view of God. There is something edgy or something lacking contour when

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God is sovereign and we're not. When God sits in the heavens and He does whatever He pleases.

26:15

When God says in the Psalms, if I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you. Where God says, you don't add to me any intrinsic glory.

26:22

I am glorious throughout all eternity, and you are a byproduct in salvation. Glory is the main product.

26:28

And those kind of, that kind of language in a narcissistic, selfish culture doesn't really pass the mustard.

26:35

And so, what happened was, you got a lot of romance novels coming out in the 1800s. A lot of effeminate preachers who began to contour the gospel.

26:44

Lots of Unitarians come up. Lots of Universalists come up. And as Calvinism then went out of the pulpit, that is a high view of God.

26:51

When that high view of God went out of the pulpit, it just created more and more people who said, we need more man -centered doctrine.

26:58

And the doctrines of grace, Reformed theology, Ephesians chapter 1, Romans chapter 5, those doctrines just slay man.

27:08

And, you know, if you read any of Jonathan Edwards, if you get his works and read some of his letters, he absolutely nails it on the head and predicts, here's what the church is going to look like if it keeps going that way.

27:18

And he describes the church today. Really? I mean, he saw it coming. He said, if we embrace Arminianism, if we embrace this man -centered view of God, here's what the church is going to look like.

27:27

This is what's going to happen to it. And it's basically where we're at in the mainstream evangelicalism.

27:33

So, I mean, Edwards saw it and talks a lot about it in his letters. Great. Hey, I appreciate you guys.

27:38

All right. Thanks, Bruce. Hey, Bruce. Thank you. Take care. Bye -bye. 508 -831 -9863. Pastor Mike Amendroth in the studio with us.

27:44

No Compromise Radio, Monday through Friday, 330 to 4. And you can hear it podcast and you can go to his website, nocompromiseradio .com.

27:54

So these will be the kind of discussions you'll have, those types of discussions. You'll engage in, so to speak. Bruce brings up a good point.

28:00

I probably say the word Calvinism because I'm sitting next to you, Tom, and I know when you hear it, it has 15 paragraphs worth of information, and I can just distill it into one word.

28:11

I'm not saying it's exactly the same, but with the word, for instance, in the Bible, blood or the word cross, those are theological shorthand terms.

28:19

When I say cross, nobody who thinks biblically should think, well, would, unless it's the cross that Jesus was on.

28:27

Typically, this cross that Paul boasts in, and he says that it's so offensive, it's theological shorthand for the atoning work of Jesus Christ, in the substitutionary sense, for sinners.

28:39

Same thing with blood. Those people that were beating, literally, the snot out of Jesus, when the blood flew and hit those soldiers, they weren't redeemed by the blood.

28:48

Hey! That's what happens here! We have a break! Wow! Hits ya! Where's the baby crying? That's an edgy break.

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Sponsored by the Massachusetts National Guard. Aired by the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association and this station. Hey, Fred, what you listening to?

31:05

Well, I just bought this new radio. It's really cool. Have you seen this? It's got the latest technology.

31:10

What's the slit on the front of the radio for? Is that for a computer disc? No, it's for a radio card.

31:16

Radio card? What's that? Well, you know about prepaid phone cards, right? Well, that slit is where the prepaid radio card goes.

31:24

You just buy these cards from the radio manufacturer for a different amount. Then you insert a card, and that lets you listen to the program for a certain amount of time.

31:31

What? You know, you pay for cable TV, so how about paying for radio? Well, thankfully, radio doesn't work that way.

31:40

You're not required to pay for the program before you hear it. But the Christian radio broadcasters you do hear on Life -Changing

31:46

Radio depend on the prayer and financial support of listeners in our area. As you pray for and send donations to them, they are able to pay for the broadcast time on Life -Changing

31:56

Radio for their programs. That's the way you can keep this ministry coming your way. Thanks for doing your part.

32:06

508 -831 -9863. Do some open phone lines, second half of the show. Question, thought, comment, whatever has puzzled you about God's Word.

32:15

Today's a great day to be talking those topics, asking those questions. Pastor Mike Abendroth is with us, and it's

32:22

Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Mass. Great church. I encourage you to go there if you're in that area. Also, Monday, this

32:30

Monday, it's the big day, the launch of No Compromise Radio, 330 to 4, right here on 760

32:35

AM WVNE. Also, you can get the podcast at nocompromiseradio .com. Bumper stickers,

32:40

T -shirts, there's going to be some Christmas ornaments coming out. There'll be all kinds of things. We're going to have candles, posters, sign posters of you surfing,

32:50

I understand. That's right, with some Ash Wednesday gear. Yeah, which will be nice. That'll be great. I'll never forget the guy at the church who said, you know,

32:57

I went out when I was a kid for Ash Wednesday, and I said to my parents, I'm going to go out to go to church, but really went to go party.

33:04

On his way home, he forgot that he was supposed to be at church, so he took the last puff of his cigarette.

33:10

Put it on there, yeah. Extinguished it, and then put it on his forehead. Wow. And was good to go. Wow, amazing.

33:16

By the way, that is so much easier than denying yourself, picking up your cross, and following Christ every single day.

33:22

Why do we have people that say, you know, if I just eat the right food, Seventh -day Adventist, or maybe some Messianic Jews, if I just eat the right food,

33:29

I'm fine. That is way easier than holy living. And I think what is in the heart of people,

33:38

I think all of us, before we meet Christ for real, there is a desire to tangibly have some way to know

33:43

I'm okay with God, and that helps them. It's false, but I think everyone's looking for that tangible, this means

33:49

I'm okay with God, as opposed to bowing to Jesus, and He's the one that makes you. That's hard for people to get until God gives it to you.

33:55

It's true, and Tom, you know this because I've heard you talk about it. God doesn't love us more because we have devotions in the morning.

34:02

God doesn't love us more because we go to Sunday night service, because we pray for the pastor at the prayer meeting on Wednesday.

34:08

Those are all excellent things, and I think God's face shines upon those wonderful things when they're done for the right motives.

34:15

But God can't love us more, He can't love us less, because we are in Christ's people. And as much as the

34:22

Father loves the Son, He loves His people. And so it's just a freeing thing.

34:29

I read my Bible this morning, I had my devotions this morning, but God doesn't love me more or less because of that.

34:34

I'm glad to learn about God. I was reading this morning about Exodus 19, and Moses goes up to the mountain and hears this fire that engulfs the mountain.

34:43

Moses walks into the cloud, and the people are like, Yeah, Moses, you go, we'll stay right here. Let us know how that works out.

34:48

It is fascinating. I ran into a young boy in the pool in Maine.

34:53

It was an outdoor pool. My family was there, and I went over to the jacuzzi, and the kid said to me, You know, my dad over there, he's a policeman of Bedford.

35:02

I go, Really? I said, I'm the mayor of Bedford. I said, No, I'm not. I'm a pastor.

35:07

He goes, Yeah, I read the Bible. It's boring. And so part of No Compromise Ministry, No Compromise Radio, is this.

35:14

The Bible is far from boring. We have the eternal God who speaks with a word and creates out of nothing, and He reveals

35:22

Himself to people. He interacts with sinners. Here this holy God who should, when

35:27

He interacts with people, have some nuclear winter happen, but He loves His people. He interacts with them, and there's nothing boring about that.

35:36

And so I said to the boy, Hey, did you ever read that story about that man who was Israel's enemy, and he went running into a tent?

35:43

And then in the tent, he said, Here, protect me, protect me. And the woman said, Yeah, you lay down right here. And as he slept, the woman got out the hammer and the tent peg and drove it through his temple and said,

35:55

Victory is the Lord's. He said, Oh, I didn't read that part. That's not boring. So I think it's a sin to make the

36:01

Bible boring. I think it's a sin to have some kind of dull radio show. And so I'm going to follow in your steps.

36:08

Well, that's probably not a good idea. But it's the whole, I think there's a struggle every day for us, even for believers.

36:15

Paul says there's this war going on, and it's just being cold and indifferent to the things of God and the things that, no,

36:23

God doesn't love us anymore because we read our Bible or don't. And why God is pleased that we read our Bible is because He knows our greatest joy is there.

36:30

Just getting that God really designed us to have our greatest joy, which is in Him, and He knows that. And we're dumb sheep.

36:36

We keep having to learn that over and over and say, Oh, yeah, I get that. And then tomorrow I'm laying on my back in a field of grass starving to death.

36:41

I mean, that is the battle. That is the battle for people, those affections for God.

36:47

It's true. I don't know if you're like me, Tom. We go to the store, Redbox, or you could do it Netflix, and you think,

36:53

You know, when will a good movie be out? I just want something good and just sit and watch a nice movie.

36:58

And you get disappointed because the advertisements don't match up to the real deal. I just would like some kind of excitement, some plot, protagonist, antagonist.

37:07

Take him. Take him. Well. It's a great movie. Just hold that thought for a second.

37:13

All of a sudden I realize I've been reading the Bible in the morning, and in the afternoons when I'm in the car

37:18

I've been listening to the Bible on tape. Haven't done that for a long time. On the way here to the studio, guess what

37:24

I'm listening to? Here's this man, Shechem. He takes Dinah. He sleeps with Dinah.

37:29

He basically rapes her. He says, I want to have her. The Israelites say, Okay, you can if you all get circumcised and you can have our women in.

37:36

So three days when they were at their peak of being sore, the text says. Here you have the two men come, the sisters of Dinah, and kill them all as they lay there circumcised in recovery.

37:48

And I'm listening to it thinking, Why do I need law and order? Why do I need some kind of— But that is—God is working in the history of people, and there are more fascinating things going on in God's Word than anywhere by far.

38:03

And the other thing that's been striking me lately is Jesus probably isn't the guy we really do worship when we understand him.

38:11

Two disciples are working with their father. He comes along and says, Follow me. They pretty much leave their father's business immediately.

38:18

Now the dad's got to be ticked. He's got to be upset. I would imagine he's upset. The sons are there. They're doing hard work. Yeah, we're going. Let the dead bury the dead.

38:25

Don't go to the funeral. I mean Jesus did some crazy things that is not how we picture him. And so I think it's important for people, if you really understood who

38:33

Jesus was, he would be offensive to many people because he was. But caregiver, mercy giver to the

38:41

Samaritan woman. But leave what you're doing right now and follow me. Don't go to your father's funeral.

38:47

Follow me. I mean stuff that would— You're in line waiting to be healed. I got to go. I'm leaving.

38:52

I mean just stuff that would be not what we think. You mean, Tom, when you think of Jesus, you don't think of that picture with the wavy hair, halo in the background?

39:00

Yeah, I actually do. That's what troubles me. I got him with a tie -dye t -shirt and singing kumbaya with an acoustic guitar with doves over his head.

39:08

You should have been born in the 50s so you could have grown up in the 60s. Haight -Ashbury,

39:13

Jesus movement. That would have been perfect for you. I would not have lived through the 60s. I barely lived through the 80s or 70s. So it's good for me

39:19

I didn't. 508 -831 -9863. We digress. We'll take phone calls this half hour.

39:25

If you want to talk with Pastor Mike Abendroth, the show is No Compromise Radio, Monday through Friday, 330 to 4 p .m.,

39:32

760 AM WVNE. You can also go to NoCompromiseRadio .com. Their website is up. Podcast. And we're excited about all that God's going to do with that.

39:43

So church leadership, scripture. Is there any other place in the church or that you would say, you know what, I see real compromise here?

39:49

I think it's in the gospel, the gospel itself. And I know you'd agree. Let me read to you Galatians 2, 4, and 5, which basically are the theme verses for the show

39:58

No Compromise Radio. It's almost a negative no compromise, but within the negative there's a positive.

40:04

You stand against something because you're standing for something. And so Paul writes, and we know the scenario.

40:10

He's been around for 14 years studying, and he goes up to Jerusalem.

40:15

He says in verse 4, Galatians 2, Then he says in verse 5,

40:36

We didn't compromise for a minute, Paul could have said. For a purpose. Here's the purpose.

40:41

Here's the hint of clause. Here's the purpose statement. There are some things worth fighting for.

40:50

We all love when we watch, speaking of movies, some kind of band of brothers are saving

40:55

Private Ryan or The Longest War. I've almost said The Longest Yard. That was good too.

41:00

That was a great movie. I only saw the original. Oh, that's the best. That's the best. Let the guy come through the line. That's a great moment.

41:07

The bad news is I knew you were going to know about that movie. And there's something about honor and courage and manliness about standing up for the truth.

41:17

And we love people who stand up for the truth. John Knox, Jonathan Edwards, Hudson Taylor.

41:26

It could be women standing for the truth for that matter. Mary Slessor. Can you imagine Mary Slessor of Zanzibar from Scotland?

41:33

She rescued 51 sets of twins back there in Africa. They thought in this particular area, if there are twins born, they're satanic.

41:41

So let's just set them out for the black jaguars to eat. And she would run right up to the chief and say,

41:46

I'm not going to let you kill these babies. And they called her White Maw. And so I look at White Maw and think, there's some commendable traits there.

41:55

She's an image bearer. Courage. Courage and loyalty. And so that's what we want to do, stand up for the gospel.

42:01

Interestingly, Tom, you'll agree with me. When you add to the gospel, you actually subtract to it.

42:08

You add works, traditions, sacraments, all kinds of things. It becomes less than what it is.

42:15

It becomes not good news. It becomes bad news. And Paul says, whoever brings that teaching should be accursed. Whoever brings a different gospel is to be—I think we miss that.

42:23

I think often we think the teaching is to be accursed, but it actually is he is to be accursed. The person teaching the false gospel is to be accursed.

42:31

And not to hammer that, but I think we emphasize that, you and others, because it's so rarely done these days.

42:39

We're so afraid to make anybody upset, and we're so afraid. You know, Paul says,

42:44

Hymenaeus and Alexander. He just names them. Look, this is what's going on. I think it's important to name people.

42:50

The most loving thing we can do is to say, look, Joel Osteen's a heretic. He's not preaching the gospel.

42:56

This one or that one, because you're caring for people's souls. Even though you're called arrogant, obnoxious, you know, bigot, whatever.

43:04

But you're in a good line of people when you do that. It's true. You don't have to say it every week from the pulpit. But let's use an illustration that's outside of ourselves.

43:11

We'd all agree with it. If we lived in Salt Lake City, and we had an evangelical church, 50 people down in the corner, and we never mentioned, this is why

43:19

Mormonism is wrong. This is why in love we need to tell our Mormon friends about the gospel. And this is how you evangelize

43:26

Mormons. Everyone would go, oh, of course. It's a loving thing. Now, not every week you don't have to bash

43:31

Mormons. But we need to just systematically teach the text and then help our people. Well, then why is it here in New England, if you've got 80 % of the people are non -practicing, are practicing

43:42

Roman Catholics, when we try to say, oh, by the way, why don't you approach a Roman Catholic and say, you can know you can have eternal life.

43:50

Council of Trent says you're anathema if you have assurance. 1 John 5 .13, you can know you can have your sins forgiven.

43:56

What's so unloving about that? Well, and it'll come across that way, and you'll get, on your show you'll see, you will get many phone calls.

44:02

When you bring up the Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, the phone lines will ring, and it's the third rail. You're not supposed to talk about that.

44:10

But you are supposed to talk about that. So when you do, it sets something off in people. I was raised Roman Catholic.

44:16

There's something that is set off in people. I mean, when the whole priest thing was going on, and I was dealing a lot with that on the show, and I said, look, it's worse than the mafia, the way they move these priests around, and they know they've raped a boy, and yet they move him to another town and put him over other boys and people.

44:33

I said, I didn't know a word for that. But people are offended. They're just blindly offended that you would even say anything about the

44:40

Roman Catholic Church. But the truth wins out. And for me, it's been helpful to have the catechism right here.

44:45

I'll bring it in. I said it right here. Read from that. Read what the Bible says. Give them the truth, and the truth is the gospel's offense.

44:52

I don't want to be offensive, and I think I certainly can be. But I don't want to—I don't know what the word is, but I don't want to be offensive with the word.

45:00

I don't want to try to make the gospel not an offense. Absolutely. Well, let me give you a little biblical and edgy together for No Compromise Radio.

45:08

It is a good thing to be offended. God has so placed us as we are, created beings, that being offended is something that should happen regularly in the

45:18

Christian life. But that offense shouldn't be for false systems, for prideful things, for family heritage.

45:25

It should be, the gospel's attacked. Let's be offended. I'm offended that the gospel's attacked.

45:31

For instance, I could say it this way. It is a good thing to boast. God has made us as boasters.

45:37

But we're not to boast in ourselves and our own accomplishments, our brains, bucks, and—

45:44

What's the other one that starts from Jeremiah 9, verse 23? Wisdom, dollars—

45:51

I heard Alistair Begg one time preach on that. Brains, bucks, brawn, strength.

45:57

But we're to boast. We are to be boasters in this great God, a triune God who saved us by His grace alone, through faith alone.

46:04

We didn't even cause our salvation by believing. He saved us and we responded with belief, and we praise

46:09

God. God chose us. Out of the whole clump, He chose just us specifically by name, adopted us.

46:16

In love, He predestined us, and our response should be boasting. So boasting in the wrong things— I guess

46:21

I could say it this way. We boast too little in the right thing and boast too much in the wrong thing.

46:27

Yeah, and we settle for too little joy and don't go for the greatest joy. And even the idea of God chose us. God not only chose us, but then sent

46:34

His Son to ransom us. I mean, it's a part of it, but you're chosen, and then Jesus comes for you.

46:39

It's amazing what our way that you be mindful of us. And that's where the joy is.

46:44

And so what No Compromised Radio will do, I'm sure, is what we try to do, and just speak the truth and name

46:50

God's Word as it is. And where that falls, it falls. It falls where it falls. And it's never been liked.

46:57

It's never been liked except by believers. I'm positive that I won't be as famous as Rush Limbaugh.

47:03

I'm positive I won't be as famous as you. But I wanted to be faithful. I think probably

47:09

I could summarize No Compromised Radio in this way. I think it's okay to make the

47:15

Bible interesting. I think it's good to sit down a group of 10 high school kids and actually be enthusiastic and teach them the

47:22

Bible and be fired up about it because it's life -changing. It's the eternal Word of God. When Moses talked to the people, he said, this is life to you, the

47:31

Word. We're not worshiping some Bible, although Psalm 119, David said, I lift my hand up to your

47:37

Word. Because the person and the Word are the same. If Jesus were here, I wouldn't use the Bible.

47:42

I would go straight to him and say, look at him. Since he's not here, I see Jesus in the

47:48

Bible. I'm going to autograph my Bible. I might do that. Just sign my Bible. Have you ever autographed a Bible? I've never autographed a

47:54

Bible. I would like Jesus' autograph. If he was here, I'd have him. I'd probably get a picture too. That German picture.

48:01

It's kind of maybe Swedish -looking. Ask him what he does for his hair. Nice hair. Now, Jesus would be a regular

48:06

Jew. You wouldn't recognize him. You would not recognize him. Well, now obviously you would. That's correct. But you wouldn't have recognized him in the day.

48:13

He had nothing to make himself attractive in his personal, physical. Again, another thing that we don't understand about Jesus.

48:19

I think we think blue -eyed, long hair because that's what we see. But when you see him in the Scriptures, he's a big forearmed,

48:26

I'd imagine, strong -gripped man, carpenter, Jewish, probably a pretty rugged

48:32

Jewish guy. I bet he looked like his mother. It's true.

48:40

He didn't look like his father at all. All right, we're going to take it. That is true. Because Joseph wasn't his father.

48:46

Joseph was not his father. That's right. All right, we're coming back. Phone the calls when we get back. Don't go away. No Compromised Radio. Edgy. Here's Seth Campbell of Keller Williams Realty with Seth Tells the

49:15

Truth. There's a lot of rumors swirling about how the government is helping homeowners in trouble. Here's the facts.

49:21

There are two programs, home affordable refinance and home affordable modification. The refinance plan will allow homeowners with a

49:27

Freddie or Fannie loan who were not late on payments in the past 12 months and whose first mortgage is close to current market value refinance into today's rate.

49:35

Modification plan applies to homeowners with mortgage payments greater than 31 % of gross monthly income and have a proven hardship that shows they cannot make current payments.

49:44

The mortgage can be modified various ways to get the payment below the 31 % guideline. Both of these programs look good on the surface but there's a lot of details and involves the cooperation of the banks and mortgage insurance companies and my insiders tell me the insurance companies aren't cooperating yet.

49:58

Plus, is helping some people get locked into a house even longer that they can't afford really going to help us?

50:03

Tell me your opinion on my blog at SethTellsTheTruth .com That's SethTellsTheTruth .com Have you ever known anyone who had the answer to everything?

50:14

Regardless of the question or the topic, he spoke authoritatively on the subject. I once read that people who have all the answers are either getting easy questions or giving wrong information.

50:26

The fact is, nobody has all the answers. Not even Jesus Christ had all the answers.

50:32

He said he didn't know the exact time of his second coming. If we had all the answers, we wouldn't need faith.

50:39

Our faith is based on the answers we do have but we don't need them all.

50:44

It's okay to say, I don't know. This is David Jeremiah encouraging you to get on the road to new life.

50:53

Discover God's answers on Route 66. Route 66, driving the word home.

50:59

Log on to Route66life .com and get your road map for life. Route 66, start your journey home today.

51:11

Alright, let's go to the phones. 508 -831 -9863. Talk to Peter. Peter, how are you?

51:17

I'm good, how are you? Good, how are you? Good, I got a question for Pastor Mike. I read where he took his materiality course at his church.

51:24

Uh -huh. And my question is, if we're predestined, which

51:29

I learned in that class, was angels predestined? And if so, didn't

51:35

God know that when he created Satan that he was going to be evil? You know, and by the book...

51:42

Are you ready with this question? I mean, we've got a minute and a half here. I was in any area. Alright, that's fine. Alright, Peter, I'll give you my quick answer.

51:50

God did predestinate Christians. That's true in Ephesians 1, verse 4 and 5. He predestined us in love.

51:57

But the text doesn't use the language of predestination for angels. If we want selection or choice, we know one -third fell, the two -thirds were elect angels, they did not fall.

52:07

But the word elect and predestination aren't used for angels. Certainly God did know. God ordained it.

52:13

God permitted it. God was sovereign over the fall of Satan so much so that he can get more glory when

52:19

Satan fell and sin entered into the universe than he could have without sin getting into the universe because that's why

52:25

God does things for his glory. Which is why there's sin. Sin is a necessary component for the greatest glory to be seen in Christ.

52:33

That has to be there. That's right. So God did know about Satan's fall because he ordained that fall.

52:39

Satan is responsible and will pay that forever as God, I believe, puts him in the pit forever.

52:47

But it's true. We go by what the text says and we are people of the book and that is exactly right.

52:54

All right, so quick, give us, again, No Compromise Radio, Monday. Give us the whole, give us 10 seconds. Oh, the whole in 10 seconds.

53:00

Pertinent info, go ahead. Monday to Friday next week, this station, 3 .30. We're a plant out of Engage in Your World.

53:07

The mothership, the womb of all stations. Engage in Your World, 3 .30 to 4, 7 .60

53:13

a .m. Monday will be live, but Monday will typically be sermons. Then we'll have different kinds of shows every day. Starts this

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Monday. NoCompromiseRadio .com NoCompromiseRadio .com on the No Compromise Radio. Thank you, Pastor Mike. Everyone else, love

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Jesus. He loves you. Have a great, wonderful, passionately God -centered, God -glorifying day. Make sure that every day is biblical, edgy.

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See you tomorrow. You've been listening to Engage in Your World with Tom Krause.

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The opinions expressed on today's program do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff or management of this station.