The Semi Pelagian Narrower Catechism

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the

Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. It is a Tuesday in NoCo Land at NoCo Radio.

You know, every day in NoCo Land is a Tuesday. At least that�s what I hear from the listeners. Steve, it was

Christmas time and holidays and all that kind of stuff, and we missed a week, so I had to play �Me� on a

Tuesday, and I think I�ll probably get some flack for that. I was teaching the Bible that day. My guess is it�ll start getting tweeted, and eventually

John Piper will retweet it. Well, speaking of that, you were telling me just off the air, and I said, �Steve,

I just interrupted you and said basically be quiet, hold that thought until we get on the radio.� The Passion Conference, there�s a variety of speakers there.

Louie Giglio, I believe, is the leader, and you�ve got thousands, tens of thousands of young people.

Yep, yep. They packed the Georgia Dome down there. Uh -huh. That�s an impressive conference, and now they have speakers.

Beth Moore, I watched about the first five minutes of it. I couldn�t take it after that. Francis Chan, couldn�t really take that either.

Former vacuum cleaner salesman. Christine Kane, didn�t even want to bother. Louie Giglio, didn�t watch, and Piper, I didn�t watch.

But I did watch the tweet -o -rama when it came to Piper retweeting

Ann Boskamp�s retweet of Giglio�s wife�s summary of the prophetic nature of Beth Moore�s message.

And you forgot what�s his name from Keller, Texas. Oh, and Matt Chandler. Yeah. Yes. I think

I said something like, �If you�re retweeting such nonsense, you need to either stop it or go back to seminary or just step down� or something like that.

I think that was a very � I think I got a lot of activity on that one, profile clicks.

Where is the love on that? Mm -hmm. Yeah, so what � So if someone were to say to you like they did on Facebook, like, you know, at least

Piper was there preaching the gospel. And what about Mars Hill? And they tried to tell our listeners what they were trying to do to rationalize

Piper�s involvement. Well, one of the arguments was, you know,

Paul went to the Areopagus, Mars Hill, and preached. And, you know, basically, a bunch of false teachers had been up there too.

And you know, so he was doing the same thing that Paul did, that is, that Piper was doing the same thing that Paul did.

And I said, �No.� What he did was he said, �You people are very religious.

You have all these idols all throughout, you know, Athens.� And he said, �But let me tell you about the

God who is, right? So here's what you all believe. Let me just tell you the truth, right ?�

And then they were like, well, Jesus shared, basically, the stage with the

Pharisees. And I said, �Listen, first of all, you ought not to compare Piper with Jesus.

But secondly, Jesus did not say, �Well, that's a very interesting point from Brother Saul there.

You know, now let me make a few points of my own, or, you know, yay for Pastor Christine.

Now let me tell you, or that was a great song from Carrie Underwood. Now let me, listen, what

Jesus said when he was preaching, right, in the same area that the

Pharisees were, he wasn't sharing a stage with them, an audience with them. What he said made them want to kill him.

Piper didn't say anything that made the people, you know, these false teachers want to kill him. If he got up there and said, �Well, you know, there's a lot of shenanigans and chicanery this weekend, a lot of errant doctrine.

Now let me give you the real skinny, let me give you the biblical doctrine of the gospel.�

I would go, �That's a man right there, right ?�

But that's not exactly what happened. Paul Matzko, Jr. I have not listened to the

Piper message, but I looked at that tweet and I just thought, you know, I've done things that I shouldn't have done, but then

I would like try to pull the tweet, right? There's only one thing worse than doing a dumb tweet and that is not pulling it.

And, you know, I guess it's the camaraderie of, you know, fellow speakers and everything else.

And this is what Beth said that was so amazing. I mean, it was several years ago, the whole Passion Lectio Continuum, not

Lectio Continuum, that's verse -by -verse preaching. What's the weird

Roman Catholic thing when they were praying? Trevor Burrus The Divina. Paul Matzko, Jr. Yeah, yeah. And Beth up there with John Piper doing all that stuff.

You know, you could be friends, this, that, or the other, but I'm not – John's influential and John can influence people and he doesn't need to be saying what

Beth Moore said, agreeing that Beth Moore's, you know, words are so prophetic. She shouldn't even be there.

Where's Beth Moore's husband? That's my question. Trevor Burrus And it's a good question. I actually posted that video.

And you know what? I know there are people who are going to say, maybe even hear this and say, well, you know what, who are these guys?

And John Piper's done more for the kingdom and, you know, I can already hear or, you know, I can prophetically read.

Paul Matzko, Jr. I would retweet that. Trevor Burrus The minds of people are going to hear this and it's not about that.

It's just like, you know, if I ever had a platform, which I won't, but if I ever had a platform like John Piper, I just,

I could not in good conscience lend my credibility to false teachers.

That is to say, not people with kind of poor doctrine or, you know, not as good a doctrine as mine, so to speak, but people who teach a false gospel, who proclaim themselves to be apostles or, you know, to have heard from God or all this other stuff who preach a different way to heaven, who preach a different Jesus.

Why am I going to share a platform with those people? Paul Matzko, Jr. Steve, the kerfuffle now with the president -elect, and by the time this is played, the

President Donald Trump and his Twitter account and how he's tweeting all the time, people are just going apoplectic regarding that.

I say tweet as much as he wants. The person that I'm concerned about who's got Twitter readily available is

John Piper because this isn't the first time he's tweeted something that is just like off the wall, kind of weird and odd.

And, you know, I guess we could talk about Piper and, you know, Mike, is there anything that you like about Piper?

I like his Swans Are Not Silent books. I like his Romans 9 book. Besides that, those are the things

I like. So that's just my own opinion, but those are the things I like. My bigger question,

Steve, is, and I guess it's more of a rhetorical question, charismatics. Why do charismatics have a hard time criticizing other charismatics?

I will criticize King James' only fundamentalist cessationists or other cessationists that don't know what they're doing or, you know, ultra -dispensationalist cessationists.

I don't have any problem doing that, but why, you know, there's a theme, Matt Chandler, John Piper, Francis Chan, these conservative charismatics, they won't criticize other charismatics.

You get Sam Storms and it's hard for him to criticize Mike Bickle and the list goes on and on. We know what the answer is. God told them?

Well, listen, if you're open to God told me, then when somebody says

God told them and it's different than what God told you, how can you criticize them though? Because they're only using the same standard that you have accepted, right?

If you're not the Bible alone, if you're the Bible plus some smidgen of personal revelation, then you've already lost the whole battle because you have to concede on that.

But let me give you one more argument that was raised up against me. Somebody said, because I said,

I said, if this is not the very clinical definition of being unequally yoked, that is to say, engaged in a spiritual endeavor, you know, with people who are promoting a different gospel, in other words, unbelievers, then

I don't know what is. And I'm not saying Giglio's an unbeliever, I'm just saying that some of those people there, some of the people that they've had there are not saved by their own teaching, okay?

So, someone said to me then, responded and said, that passage is about marriage, you know, like you don't know anything.

Petey Yeah, so I'm like, so, you know, just to make sure I opened up my

Bible and I was reading it, you know, I'm like, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?

Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?

What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God has said, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

And I'm like, okay, I don't really see the word marriage. Marriage is not mentioned anywhere.

Marriage is typically an application of that, right? We interpret the

Bible based on the context, but then we apply it and we say, well, wait a second, it would be wrong for a believer to marry an unbeliever because that is a spiritual enterprise.

So, that's what this has to do with each is being yoked, being working together, like, you know, cattle yoked together and pulling a plow, being yoked together with unbelievers in a spiritual endeavor like marriage or like, oh,

I don't know, the Passion Conference. Well, see, we are sometimes glad at No Compromise Radio when we say to Steve, you know, don't talk right now, let's turn on the microphones first and record.

So, now we have it for all eternity recorded. Oh, it's there. Steve, what I wanted to talk about this show mainly, so I guess this is like a two -part show, this is a, you know, two -segment show, is the narrow Pelagian, narrow, excuse me, the

Semi -Pelagian Narrow Catechism. Aren't catechisms Catholic?

Steve What year is this from? Paul Yeah, what year? Well, you know, remember the

Synod of Dort, the Canons of Dort, pretty much the same time frame. Steve The London Baptist Confession.

Paul Savoy Confession. Steve Yeah, all these different confessions, and then the catechisms and the shorter catechism.

Paul Right, yeah. The longer, shorter, and everything. It's about the same Belgian confession. Steve And so, now we have the narrower catechism.

Paul Heidelberg. Steve Semi -Pelagian. Paul R. Scott Clark sent this to me. Steve Now, Semi -Pelagian,

Pelagian is that Adam's fall had no effect on you. The Semi -Pelagian says…

Paul Well, I think it was Fesco that said that there's only been one Pelagian because who else in the world would say that they're only responsible and able to do their own salvation without God's help at all?

I think that's interesting. There's only been one Pelagian. Everybody else is nuanced enough to say it's some type of cooperation.

Steve He was the man. I mean, even Mormons with their Pelagian, you know, we don't believe that man is responsible for Adam's sin, but for his own transgressions.

But even they would say, you know, that Jesus does something for them, you know. Paul Yeah, he had to accomplish something.

So, there's just a little bit of depravity here involved in Semi -Pelagian, but a lot of bit of cooperation.

Steve A whole lot of cooperation. Paul Question one, what is the chief end of each individual Christian? I know, answer?

According to the Semi -Pelagian narrower catechism, each individual Christian's chief end is to get saved.

This is the first great commandment. Steve Get ye saved. Paul Question two, what is the second great commandment?

The second, which is like unto it, is to get as many others saved as he can.

Steve As much as it depends on you, get other people saved. Paul That's right, because since it requires human effort, not just with the person receiving salvation, but we, the evangelists now, we've got to exert a lot of effort.

Steve Well, you remember what Jesus said in John 1, it is up to the man who runs and the man who wills and unto

God who has mercy. Isn't that, that's pretty much, it's a loose paraphrase. Paul That is the semi -Heidelberg catechism.

Steve It is up to the man who runs or the man who wills. Paul Now, I kind of like this one. Number three, what one work is required for thee for thy salvation?

Answer. It is required of me for my salvation that I make a decision for Christ, which meaneth to accept him into my heart to be my personal

Lord and Savior. Steve Which meaneth, I like how they threw the whole

King James in there. Paul Or the second one was said, which is like unto it. Steve Yeah. Paul That's perfect.

All right, now this one, this will generate conversation on the radio. Number four, at what time must thou perform this work?

Answer. I must perform this work at such time as I have reached the age of accountability. Steve Oh, man.

You know, that age of accountability, it's a real stumbling block, at least Presbyterians believe, for Baptists, right?

Like, when is somebody able to be baptized? When are they accountable for knowing the gospel and therefore capable of knowingly sinning and knowingly repenting and really fully understanding who

Christ is? And I say, it's no less a problem for the

Presbyterians, right? Because they baptize them as babies and then they believe that they'll, or they hope that they'll come to faith or whatever.

So at what point do they reach the accountability where they need to kick them out of fellowship? Right? Paul I think number five asks and answers the question in a similar fashion.

Steve Oh, okay. All right. Good. Paul At what time wilt thou have reached this age? Answer. That is a trick question.

In order to determine this time, my mind must needs be sharper than any two -edged sword able to pierce even to the division of bone and marrow.

For alas, the age of accountability is different for each individual and is thus unknowable. Steve Oh, the variable age of accountability.

Is that like you roll two dice and the result of that is the age of accountability? Oh, a nine.

A nine is the age of... Paul Number nine. Hey, let's just skip to nine, see what happens. What is the assurance of thy salvation?

The assurance of thy salvation is that I know the date on which I prayed the sinner's prayer and have duly written this date on an official decision card.

Or might I add in the back of my Bible. Steve The front of your Bible. Yeah, whatever. Yeah. Well, I always thought it was interesting, you know, the front of Bibles now they'll have, you know, important dates, you know, people's birth date and, you know, when your parents died or whatever, you know, all these kinds of dates and then, you know, the date when you were saved, you know, so I guess maybe...

I wonder if we should have some kind of BBC timestamp, you know, for the date and time when you got saved so you can stamp it right in the front of your

Bible. Paul I will give my brother full credit for this, but I started writing on my Bible in the front where it says, you know, owner, you know,

Mike Ebendroth, and then date, you know, he received it or something like that. And then it has marriages, you know, anniversaries and some important facts.

And it had deaths. And so then I did what my brother did. And then the first death, it said, Mike Ebendroth to self 1989.

Nice. Very nice. I thought that was kind of fun. I think the only thing I ever wrote in the front of my

Bible like that, I was really mad at myself one day because I got to seminary and I forgot my Bible at home somehow, you know, in a rush and forgot my

Bible and I needed one for an exam. So I went to the bookstore and bought one. And then

I wrote in the front of it, you know, presented by B .B. Warfield. I was really bugged.

Number 10, what is thy story? What is thy song? Answer? This is my story.

Praising my Savior all the day long. And a close correlative question and answer.

But can I just interrupt for a second? I just want to say, I wish, you know, I would love to have one day where as I was closing my eyes,

I could say that all I did all day long was praising my Savior all the day long. Wouldn't that be a great day?

Wouldn't you just say, wouldn't you just say, this is probably the best day of my life because all

I can think about is all I did all day long was praise Christ all day long. All day long.

That's all I was thinking about. Well, I think that was a Fannie Crosby song.

You got to give her some slack. I'm just saying, I think that would be a fantastic day. I wish it would be happening.

Let's say we're talking about Jesus. If you're singing about Jesus, he was praising the Father's glory all the day long.

Yeah, that would be good. Well, he did it. I mean, I would like to have one day. I mean, he did it 24 -7 all the time, you know, every day of his life.

But I'd just like to have one day like that. Pete You know, Jesus never woke up and thought, it's another day of glorifying the

Father. Tom Yeah, like drudgery, right? Pete Number 11, you asked me how

I know he lives. Tom He lives within my heart. Pete Question 12, and what else has thou got in thine heart?

Answer, I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy in my heart. Question 13, where?

Tom But you know what, it's not repeated seven times, so I don't know if that counts. Pete Oh, I got the piece of passage.

I understand. All right, this one will be good fodder for us. Number 15, what witness aid hath been given us as a technique by which we may win souls?

Answer, the tract known commonly as the four spiritual laws is the chief aid whereby which we may win souls.

Tom Whereby. There's something you just kind of slip in the casual conversation, whereby, whereunto.

Pete Question 20, am I a soldier of the cross? Tom I am a soldier of the cross if I join

Campus Crusade, Boy's Brigade, the Salvation Army, or the Wheaton Crusaders, or if I put on the helmet of dispensationalism, the breastplate of pietism, the shield of tribulationism, and the sword of Zionism, having my feet shod with the gospel of Arminius.

Pete By the way, Campus Crusade is now crew, so. Tom You know, it'd be interesting to find out the numbers after they have switched that, you know,

Campus Crusade, now it's crew, hipper, cooler. Do you think giving's gone up?

Do you think decisions have gone up? Pete Well, the number of complaints has gone down. Tom Yeah, that's true.

And you save money because there's a lot of letters now. You don't have to use, you know, ink for those. Pete Just crew.

Tom Mm -hmm. Crew. Pete Everything's crew. I had a crew cut growing up.

That's hard to say. Those were the days. Tom I had a crew cut, and in fact, I got a picture taken with it, and every time my grandkids say it, they go, basically,

Grandpa, what were you thinking? I don't know. And they go, Grandma doesn't like that haircut.

And I'm like, no, she really didn't. Pete Weren't those days, I mean, I guess this is doing something

Ecclesiastes forbids us to do, but I did enjoy, I won't say those were the days, but I did enjoy the days when

I could run around Omaha, Nebraska, in the neighborhood there in southwest Omaha, crew cut, sweaty, drinking high

C, you know, that was a fun time in my life. Tom I remember the first time I had high C, I was just like, man, this is some really fine high fructose corn syrup.

Pete That green kind. There was a -

Tom Something green. Pete That wasn't, no, cactus cooler was the soda. What was that green stuff called?

Tom I don't know. Pete Whatever our listeners should know. Tom And they will, they'll email us. Here's what happened, Steve. Steve, I, or you, say something on the air, and we can't think of something.

And then the show is finally aired three weeks from now. And then they'll write in and say, oh, it was such and such.

And I think, well, I've already forgotten what we were trying to think of. Tom You're a day late and a dollar short. There's a kid down the street, and his name was

Dave Jorgensen. He was about four houses down. We lived in these little tiny houses back in the day. And Dave Jorgensen was drinking some high

C during lunch at school, at the Master's Elementary School, and not affiliated with Master's Seminary.

Steve Yeah, I think it's wild that you went to Master's Elementary and Master's Seminary, right? I mean, one of the odds. Tom I know, my kid's at Master's University.

Steve That's weird. I know. And I got Dave to laugh. And you know how when you're a kid with a crew cut, and you're sweaty, and you're drinking high

C, and the green high C came out of his nose. Tom Oh, no. No, it didn't. Steve It was perfect.

So we drank Kool -Aid. Tom There's a visual nobody listening needed. Steve So high C, Kool -Aid,

Hawaiian Punch. And we didn't really, you know what? Kids now drink soda all the time.

Back in those days, we didn't just get soda. You got Shasta Soda when you went to the lake.

That was it. You didn't just drink that normally. Tom It was kind of a big deal. I mean, I can remember, you know, going to Safeway and getting some

Cragmont Cream Soda. You know, it was the store brand. And it would go on sale for like 10 cents for a quart or whatever it was.

And, you know, I was like, sweet. Steve We started drinking Mountain Dew, and that came out. That was good. I enjoyed

Mountain Dew back in those days. Tom Big time. Steve My mom drank

Tab and Fresca. Tom See, I still like, every once in a while, when

I can find it, when I see Fresca, I'm going, you know, I think I'll have Fresca, you know. Steve I do drink

Pepsi once in a while because it doesn't have aspartame, but I pretty much said goodbye to diet soda the last 10 years.

Tom I don't drink near as much. I used to drink a lot of Diet Coke. Number 16 on the semi -Pelagian narrower catechism.

Number 16, what doth this tract principally teach? Answer, the four spiritual laws principally teach that God's entire plan for history and the universe centereth on me, and that I am powerful enough to thwart his divine purpose if I refuse to let him pursue his wonderful plan for my life.

It has, that is so unreal, but I'm, this is so common among evangelicals, right?

The non -sovereign God, God wants to do something, but he just can't pull it off because I won't let him.

Steve Think about those little kids, you know, who disobey their parents and stomp their foot down and put their arms across their chest and say,

I'm not going to do it. And then the parents cave. It's like, who's in charge? You're three years old.

But the Lord God, he doesn't cave. We might want him to, but he doesn't cave. Pete And if anybody has any questions about that, please send them to info at nocompromiseradio .com.

Tom Question 21, who is your boss? Answer, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. Pete I mean, probably the least insightful bumper sticker in the history of evangelicalism other than I found it.

You know, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. I also don't like the one that says, you know, afterlife, smoking or not smoking.

Tom That's pretty bad. Pete Yeah, that's not my favorite, although it's true. It's not really bumper sticker fodder. Mike Avendross, Steve Cooley, No Compromise Radio.

You can write Steve as well. The Tuesday guy at No Compromise Radio. Do you ever get any emails? Tom No, nobody.

Pete Nobody. Let's flood Steve with the complaint emails. Tom Not even one time. Pete Remember what he said about John Piper?