Hell Broths

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.

Personal Updates, Listener Mail, and the Greece Tour

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. Mike Abendroth here, your host. No Steve Cooley in today. No S. Lewis Johnson. I was listening a while ago when we played the rerun of S. Lewis Johnson. I just thought, isn't it great that God gives people like this, and he hasn't been alive since 2004.

That part's not great. But even though he hasn't been alive since 2004, though he's dead, he still speaks. The ministry that God has given him has gone beyond his life. Actually, I was thinking about that.

If I were to die sometime soon, I think in the last three years, my kids could listen to No Compromise Radio and get an inkling of what I might believe and teach and who I am, etc. All right. So what do I have on my desk today?

John Dawson, my friend, he said, I see that NOCO is now on the TuneIn radio app. T-U-N-E-I-N, all one word, TuneIn radio app. And I think he is correct, because I pulled it up on my TuneIn, and there was No Compromise Radio ministry.

So if you have a smartphone and you can get TuneIn, why don't you pull up No Compromise Radio that way? Quite a handy app, I might say. He also said, I was listening to the D .G. Hart interview, and he thought that was a good interview, and he said, why do so many uber-theologians use their first and middle initial instead of their name like normal people?

Is it a pride thing? Is it just some wacky tradition? Will you be known as M .L. Abendroth someday? Do you know what? I think it's true. I think it's D .G. Hart, B .B. Warfield. I think we said for B .B., it was just, who wants to say, Benjamin Breckenfield, Breckenridge, Breckenfield, Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield.

Who wants to say that all the time? A .A. Hodge, Archibald Alexander Hodge. I think it's just for brevity. So Michael Lee, that doesn't take too many syllables, Michael Lee Abendroth. I think I'm going to be known as the venerable M .L. Abendroth from here on out.

So thank you, John, for nothing. We are going to Greece, and I think we're going to have enough people to go. Bethlehem Bible Church slash No Compromise Radio Ministry, highlights of Greece tour, 11-day tour and cruise.

We've just added Crete. We're going to stop and see if there's any evil beasts or gluttons, lazy people there, liars. And it's going to be April 17th through the 27th, 2013. If you'd like to go to info at nocompromiseradio .com and send me an email, I'll send you the brochure.

If not, the brochure is at pilgrimtours .com forward slash groups forward slash bbcgreece .htm. Pilgrimtours .com forward slash groups forward slash bbcgreece .htm. It's about $3 ,200, I guess. I think there'll be some lunches you might have to pick up.

Otherwise, all inclusive price. So that is highlights of Greece. Can't wait to go Corinth, Athens, Thessalonica, Berea, Crete. We'll take a tour boat over to Patmos and we'll go to Turkey and visit Ephesus.

So why don't you get your passports in? Why don't you send me an email and say, I'd love to go. If you live someplace besides Boston area, you may go and you can either get pilgrim tours to set up your flight to get to Boston, or you can just get there on your own and go with us on April 17th.

Exorcism, Deliverance Ministries, and the Christianity Today Briefing

All right. So what do we have in the docket today? What is in the docket? What is on the docket? Well, I have a Christianity Today in front of me and it has an interesting article and it's technically not an article.

It's called the briefing. And so I like to play like I'm a top brass executive in the Pentagon area, in the Beltway area. And I like briefings. So this isn't my personal briefing though. This is just a briefing for everyone who might read Christianity Today.

And it says spotlight. This is page 11. Christianity Today, what, July, August, 2012. It's got some scientists on the cover, briefing, spotlight, exorcism routine. Christians have been casting out unclean spirits since Jesus dispatched the 12 disciples throughout Israel, Matthew 10.

But how do deliverance ministers, by the way, deliverance ministers, if you ever just hear that, oh, come check out my pastor. He's a deliverance minister. Or if someone says there's a big thing down at the auditorium and it's a, this guy has a deliverance ministry that I just want you to know ahead of time, you don't have to think about it.

You don't have to ponder. You don't have to say, let me check my calendar. You don't have to say something dopey like, let me check with my boss, i .e. my wife. That was one of my all-time pet peeves.

I have to check with my boss. What does that say? If you're a husband, what does that say? You should say, well, out of courtesy, I'd like to check with my wife to see if anything's on that calendar day because I want to be kind to her and love her.

And she's my helper and my soulmate and the love of my life. And I'd like to double check with her just to see if we are doing something because sometimes our social calendars don't match up. And before I commit in love for my wife and in deference to her, I think I better check.

But when people say, I have to check with my boss, you don't know me very well, but please don't say that around me because I'll probably say, yeah, I'll look at you and tilt my head and give you some kind of Scooby-Doo response.

Huh? That's what I, my brother does a better job than I do with that. Okay. So run from deliverance ministries. I want to deliver you from deliverance ministries. I want to deliver you from deliverance ministers.

Where's that? Uh, I have a ministry. Yes. What is that ministry? That's nice. Uh, it's a deliverance ministry run because they're going to be trying to cast out demons of post-nasal drip. They're going to try to get some unclean spirit of PMS.

They're going to have all kinds of things. Now a post-nasal drip does exist. PMS does exist, but neither of those have anything directly to do with demons. Now maybe they have indirectly to do with demons, uh, but I would never know and neither would you and neither would the deliverance minister because we aren't told lots of these things and everything blaming itself on demons.

So I've got this problem of alcohol. I got the demon of alcohol. No, you've got the demon of bad theology. I'd like to know if the deliverance ministry people could deliver themselves from bad theology.

You don't have a demon of alcohol. I'm not saying that Satan can't tempt you to drink, although I think Satan is dealing with LDS people and Watchtower people more than he's dealing with you. Although maybe one of his lower screw tape minions might be after you and you may be tempted by the world, by your own flesh and lust.

I get all that, but James is very, very clear at the end of the proverbial day, you made you do it. That's what Dr. Zemeck would say, my theology professor at theological seminary. It says in the passage very clearly, James chapter one, let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God.

So you can't blame God even who sovereignly is control of everything and he's sovereignly even control of the devil and his minions and his lemmings and the world and your friend who's asking you to booze it up.

He's sovereign over all that, but you can't say you're being tempted by God because God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself, emphatically, when you see the himself in there, he himself tempts no one.

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own personal demon. Depeche Mode, my own personal demon. No, my own, his own, by his own personal desire. And so you need to be delivered from deliverance ministries, but let's get back to the point.

See where Steve Cooley terrain me back in, uh, how deliverance ministers deal with demons in North America today. A recent study by Michael Moore, not the one you're thinking of, M-O-H-R, an Ohio pastor and Kenneth D. Royal, an adjunct professor at the University of Kentucky, found that today's self-professed exorcists don't see it as special or complicated.

That is, most believe any mature Christian can cast out demons and that no special items, water, oil, or crucifixes, or crucifixes, are needed, are needed beyond the authority of Jesus's name. All right.

So that's the little caption there. And then we have a survey, responses of 170 self-professed North American exorcists. It sounds, it's kind of like a football team or something, right? The Dallas Stars or the Dallas Mavericks.

This is the North American exorcists. We've got spirit. Yes, we do. We don't want you to have that spirit. No, we do. Oh, if you're listening to the First Time No Compromise Radio because you watch NoCoEver .com, I'm sorry for you.

We do actually teach theological truths and verities now and again. All right. Here's the thing. How to drive out demons, survey responses from 170 self-professed North American exorcists, and then we've got a variety of responses.

None, occasionally, frequently, almost always, et cetera. So this is all, where's this going, by the way, if one of the folks that are listening is asking this question? Where are you going? Well, I'm going to go to Ephesians 6 very soon, soon and very soon, and then we'll do some more exposition, some exegetical talk.

But right now, I just want you to see how absolutely ludicrous this is, and if there's a self-professed demon deliverer, deliverance ministry, we're going to find out do we really need those kind of people, and what does the Bible teach about demon possession?

I use Jesus' name to cast out and or bind demons, almost always 99%. And so, that one, no surprise there. Steve, is there a surprise there? No, Mike, there's not a surprise there. I, we, use blessed items such as water, oil, salt, a cross, or a crucifix.

And so, 43 of the people don't use those things, but others, either occasionally up to almost always. So use some water, a little holy water. When I was in Israel, I bought a little packet, it had some special holy oil, holy water, and then it had some rocks from someplace, I don't know where, which reminds me of the story when I was at the, I think, Ella Valley, where David, the general vicinity where David killed Goliath, and we were talking about the five stones, etc., going through the passage, and then I heard this beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, and it was not my cell phone.

It was a truck backing up because it was going to back up into the area where all the tourists were taken, and it needed to dump all the rocks back into the riverbed, the creekbed there. It was kind of a dry, waddy area, and then when you picked up your stones to take home for a souvenir, they kind of run out after a while, so you have to fill them back up again.

So there you have it. Salt, I don't know what the salt has to do with anything, a cross or a crucifix. Okay, I have the demonized person or guardian sign a consent form. To quote Steve, many things I do not know, but this I do know.

Well, let me give you the answer first. Occasionally, they, occasionally 11%, frequently 5%, almost always 15%, and then 70 the rest. So almost always, could you please fill out this form in case I jam a crucifix down your son's throat and tears his esophagus, which has happened, by the way.

I need to be covered from Delta Dental. Okay, I operate my ministry out of a community slash church where follow-up can happen. 73%, almost always. We're big on follow-up around here. I lay hands on a person to cast out a demon from him or her.

That's balanced, 25%, 25%. Say none, and 32 say almost always. So you can either go chiropractic, you can do hands-free. This is called Bluetooth. This is Bluetooth casting out. Hands-free. I just got a new car recently.

As we say in New England, I got a Keir. And I needed a car that could get good gas mileage and could seat seven. So I got a Keir and it has a Bluetooth. I've never had a car with Bluetooth. All right.

People seek me to cast out demons, 37%, almost always. They always seek me out. I'm the guy. They seek me out to do that because I have the salt and the Bluetooth. The demonized person tells me when the demon has left, 29%.

The rest are mixed. So I'm almost always told by the demons when they leave that I've, in fact, the demon has left the house. This is crazy. I've been to theological seminary, two different ones, probably over the course of 10 years.

Studied the Bible. I don't think I missed too many days. And read and study and study and read and I've never heard a half of this stuff. I guess I'd have to call somebody like this because I wouldn't know what to do.

I'm a self-professed North American non-exorcist. All right. I fast in preparation for casting out demons. Hmm. Mixed. Just about like 25 -25. In the world, 25 -25, if man is still alive, will there be demons?

I try to find out the demon's name. Oh, okay. Almost always 27%. Almost never. Third, 28%. So we've got a conflict of interest here. They don't need to know their name. Some need to know their name. I, we take breaks during the process of casting out demons.

I've got to take a break. It won't work. Yeah. You can see the apostles. Jesus, do we take a little, like a little coffee break, a little bread and fish break because it doesn't seem to be working so well.

Okay. I have other believers with me during sessions. Almost always 70%. And then just two more. I know this is bombing, but that's just life. I believe that any mature Christian can command demons in Jesus' name.

96%. 96. And then lastly, the church should confirm and commission or ordain those who cast out demons. 48%. That's what they should do. Confirm them. And see, I'm denying. Commission them. I'm trying to decommission them.

Ordain and I'm trying to, what's the opposite of ordain? It sounds just like it, kind of unordain, I guess, those who cast out demons. I'm wondering, just thinking about this out loud, no compromise radio listeners, if Job could have cast out the demon named Satan, or maybe you don't think Satan's technically a demon, but if he could cast out Satan, I'm sure he would have done it.

But he didn't know it was Satan behind the scenes. And he didn't know that Satan was God's hardest working servant, doing everything and only what God allowed so that eventually the best would happen for Job and the greatest glory would happen and be given to Jesus Christ, the eternal God.

Spiritual Warfare, Demons, and the Sufficiency of Scripture

So what does the Bible say about spiritual warfare? That's really the question, isn't it? I believe in spiritual warfare. I believe there is an invisible, for lack of a better word, dimension. It's pretty scary when you say that, an invisible dimension.

I believe that Satan is alive. He's called the God of this age, 2 Corinthians 4. He's called the prince of this world, John 12 and 1 John 5. The prince of the power of the air, you know where that's from, don't you?

Ephesians chapter 2. The evil one, Matthew 5. Thief, John 10. Tempter, 1 Thessalonians 3. Murderer, John 8, remember? The father of lies, same passage, John 8. Great dragon, Revelation 12. Prince of demons, Mark 3.

I am quite confident that Satan exists today. I'm also quite confident that demons exist today. Now, I will say, maybe you haven't considered this before, but I do believe in demons today, but I think their activity has lessened over the last couple centuries, because it seemed like there was a ramping up of demon activity when Jesus was on the earth and his apostolic messengers were on the earth spreading the word and revelation being given and the New Testament being put together.

It seemed like there was an extra added attack. Now, there's no way I can prove that because I don't know how many demons were attacking people outside of Palestine during those days, and I don't know what the demon attacks are now or a century ago or anything like that.

I don't know. I mean, if I believed the surveys, then maybe these people who are decommissioned could tell me. But it would be logical that if Jesus is on the earth, then all hell breaks loose to try to stop Jesus from accomplishing the mission for what the Father sent him to do.

And so I do believe, I want you to know ahead of time, I believe that Satan is a real personal being and that he is very, very ferocious and that he does bad things by definition. But my point is not, is there Satan?

Are there demons? Of course there are demons. You have other designated terms in the Bible for demons. Devils, Matthew 7. Spirits, Matthew 8. Unclean spirits, Matthew 10. Foul spirits, Luke 9. Evil spirits, Luke 8.

Even our Lord Jesus Christ, he attested to the fact that demons actually exist. And you can read Matthew chapter 12 to find that out. You can see him minister to demon-possessed people in Mark chapter 1.

If you believe the Bible, if you believe Jesus of the Bible, you have to admit that there are demons. Now the question is, what do we do with these demons? Do we do anything? Do we acknowledge it? Do we just try to ignore them and hope that they just go away?

Well, of course the Bible is sufficient. The opposite of sufficient is what? Deficient. And everything we need to know about spiritual warfare is found in the Bible. Now, God could have determined not to tell us anything that was going on.

We would be like Job. There would be warfare going on, an invisible war with angelic beings, both good and bad, and we wouldn't know anything about it. We'd get to heaven and we'd then be told by God or it'd be revealed to us and we'd think, wow, that is amazing.

But we are told many things. As the canon's getting put together, my questions are manifold. One, shouldn't the pastoral epistles contain something about spiritual warfare so that the pastors would know what to do?

Since apostles are the foundation of the church and we're past foundation building now, prophets, same thing, and we are working on the roof, as it were, of the church, universal over time. We don't have prophets around.

We don't have apostles around. And there's demons and we need to know what to do. Where would that be told most likely? It would be told to the pastors, to the elders. Appoint elders in every city. And so you'd expect that the elders would be told what to do.

And you know what? First Timothy, there's no how-to methodology for demon casting out. Second Timothy, ditto. Titus, ditto. Why is it silent in that regard? Well, you could say, well, there's lots of demons going on, demon activity going on, and these godly men would know what to do because they would be trained in what Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and Acts says.

They would know what to do. Okay, I could go for that argument, and that's in effect what's happening. Although they don't necessarily do what Jesus and the apostles did, but they do know what to do. And here in the most full and clear passage about spiritual warfare, Paul says, Ephesians 6, Now Paul is telling the church what to do.

This is not a transitional passage in James. It's not a narrative. This is the prescription for what churches should do. Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything, to stand firm.

Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6, 10 -17. Now, when you study the Bible, you should say what's in that passage and what's not in that passage.

That passage tells us about spiritual warfare. It's very complete. It's very comprehensive. Yet, where's the demon stuff? I didn't see any salt there. I didn't see any sign the guardian consent form. Oh, please tell me your name.

I use Jesus' name. I think regular, any mature Christians can command them out. It didn't have any of that. Why? That's the question. Why don't we have those things? And so, what we're going to do next time is we're going to answer those questions.

But I don't have time to answer those questions now because we are short of time. My name is Mike Abendroth. Why don't you go watch NoCoEver .com. Carl Truman, Phil Johnson, and James White, myself, and why don't you come to the church September 14th through 16th to hear Carl Truman himself on current issues in evangelicalism, September 14th, and then the 15th, Lessons from the Life of Martin Luther.

It's $20 a person or $30 for a family.

NoCompromiseRadio .com. 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 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.