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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said,.
But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.
By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. Why do I always start the show off that way? I'm not quite sure. That's just a habit. That's a routine. That's what we're doing now. We say welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.
You can access our old podcast on iTunes, type in No Compromise Radio, or you can go to NoCompromiseRadio .com, pull them up there. I think you can go to Facebook and find the podcast on Facebook. I think you can get a little Twitter update if you'd like.
And you can just be bombarded with No Compromise Radio. Today I'd like to continue my email cleanup. It's the beginning of the year. I've got a huge stack of paper here in my study, and I need to get rid of some of these emails.
And so they just keep piling up. I'm super happy that you would write to me. I'm even happier that you listen. And I just do this for the good of hopefully the local church, the local churches here in Worcester, and then anything else, anywhere else that the Lord takes the ministry, I'm happy for that.
Whether it's Australia, we have some listeners in Perth, whether it is Saudi Arabia, whether it is London, England, around the globe I get emails, and so I'm very happy for that. And MacArthur was right.
If you take care of the depth of your ministry, make your ministry deep and rich, Scripture saturated, soaked with the Word of God, focused on not trying to get famous and not trying to take over the world, but just where you are, minister to the glory of God.
And then if God so sovereignly sees fit to expand the ministry beyond your Jabez borders, then He can do that. And so I'm thankful that the Lord has done that. I'm a man who has received much, and so I'd like to try to help listeners by getting you to think critically.
And I want to do it in an interesting way, so I try to have fun, sit down. Sometimes I come into the studio just to see what I'm going to say. So I have some new studio equipment. We lost about six shows last week, last couple weeks.
Lost the Todd Friel interview. Todd emailed me and said that he can't buy it. I said, I need to do this over, Todd. And he said, I can't believe you lost one of the recorded interviews, which was mine.
You're a big loser. And then he said his nose is growing, that he'd never lost one. So anyway, that will come up again soon. I interview him in just a couple days. Email number one from Scott. Email from Scott.
Dr. Chauncey Crandall seems to be getting some attention after claiming to raise a patient from the dead. His new book, Raising the Dead, is out. I have a co-worker who has bought into the claims. I don't believe his story lines up with Scripture.
Could you please do a show soon to discuss his book? Thanks. Scott. Well, Scott, I don't really want to buy his book. And so, sorry, I'm not going to get into this very much, but I will say this. When someone writes a book and says how they went to heaven and came back, how they went to hell and back, how they went to heaven for 90 minutes, how they went to hell for 90 seconds, 40 days they went to hell, 60 days of purpose in heaven, whatever they do when it comes to heaven and hell, I don't trust those books.
I don't trust the writers. I don't trust the publishers. My guess, this book is published by some two-bit publisher or self-publisher. I guess not every self-published book is horrible. That's not what I'm saying.
But you're not going to get Crossway to publish these kind of books because they know better. Not going to get, well, maybe there's some other publishers that would, but there are publishers that have to screen this stuff.
Now, I don't know where 90 Minutes and who published that, 90 Minutes to Heaven. I'm sure they're richer than they were before. But remember what my old pastor used to say, the operative word in near-death experience is near.
Oh, I went, I was, you know, dead and I went someplace, I got raptured up to heaven. I want to tell you about it. Listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Paul actually did go somewhere. These guys, we don't know if it's, you know, they ate too many refried beans at night or maybe they took a Vicodin before they went to bed or watched some kind of scary movie.
Paul said though in 2 Corinthians 12, boasting is necessary, though it's not profitable, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. Not your gizzard because you had too many refried beans at night.
I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body, I do not know, or out of the body, I do not know. God knows such a man was caught up, raptured to the third heaven. Now, of course, we have different heavens.
We have the heaven where the birds fly. That would be considered heaven in scriptural language. There's the heaven where the stars are and the moon and the sun. That's a second heaven. Then the third heaven is where God dwells.
I know how such a man, whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know, God knows, was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words. So first of all, they're inexpressible. How are you going to express them in a book?
Well, I know why you're going to do that. It's because A, you're a loon, or B, you'd like to make money. Which a man, these inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak unless you're trying to sell money on the concert tour or the Benny Hinn tour.
On behalf of such a man, I will boast, but on my own behalf, I will not boast except in regard to my weaknesses. For if I do wish to boast, I will not be foolish, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from this so that no one will credit me with more than he sees in me or hears from me.
And then interestingly, Scott, Paul was given a thorn in the flesh. These people get big payoffs. Paul gets a thorn in the flesh because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations for this reason.
So if you really did go to heaven or hell or purgatory or, I don't know, Madagascar or someplace, you are going to get clamped. You are going to get shut down. It's going to be so wild. Here's what Paul got, that he got a thorn in the flesh, was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself.
Now whether it's an eye problem or something else, I think most of the time when messenger is used in the Bible, it's used of a person. I think 87 out of 88 times, not including this one. So I take this as a messenger too.
So here's some guy that Paul is having to deal with, his ministry, and he was given this messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself. Concerning this, I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.
And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. And then something we rarely do as Christians, most gladly therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. So there's quite a few factors here.
We're talking on No Compromise Radio about Chauncey Crandall, about a book, Raising the Dead. And so I have lots of different things to say, even though I haven't read the book. And one thing I'll say is, when we base Scripture on experience, or when we base truth on experience, we're in trouble.
Now you say, well, he's not saying, Chauncey's not saying that he went to heaven, came back and talked about it. He didn't say he went to hell and he's coming back and talked about it. He's raising people from the dead.
And so you've got a group of people who will say, you know, that Jesus promised that the followers of Christ would do greater miracles than he would do. And therefore, if Jesus raised the dead and Peter raised the dead, then we should also raise the dead.
And so I think people forget Ephesians 2, verse 20, where these apostles were given great signs to authenticate both themselves and their message. I think they forget 2 Corinthians 12, verse 12, that basically says the same thing.
I think they're forgetting Hebrews 2, verse 3 and 4, that talks about these miracles and signs and confirmation in the past tense. Why do I need to raise people from the dead? Why would I want to do that?
Well, if I could do it, what I say would be received very well. They'd say, yes, he knows what he's talking about. But I don't need to do that now. Whether I can raise people from the dead or whether I cannot raise people from the dead, if I tell you the Bible says, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness, I need no other authority, I need no other argument.
And so, raising the dead, I don't know why he wants to write such a book, I don't know anything about the scientific validations. I heard the other day, somebody said that they have seen 500 ,000, it was Eric Loody, he said, I've seen 500 ,000, there are 500 ,000 documented cases of healing.
Well, I don't know what your view of healing is, but I'd like to see people raised from the dead. I'd like to see apostolic healing. I want to see legs lengthened, cavities turned to gold, bad backs, throw away the chair, throw away the wheelchair, throw away the crutch.
I'd like to see instantaneous, organic, complete healings like Jesus did in the apostles. So I haven't really been bogged down to it too much. If the Bible's not enough, nothing's enough, and so you need to go to these kind of books to get your shot, and so stick close to the Bible.
Scott, I think your spider senses are correct. Here is an email on No Compromise Radio from Glenda. Glenda is writing, caught a tidbit of your show, I heard you make a comment about Beth Moore's mysticism, could you elaborate on that remark?
I have been invited to attend a Bible study revolving around her teaching, and I want to make sure she's on target, and if I misunderstood you, please forgive, I will check the batteries in my hearing.
Laugh out loud in Christ. Glenda. Well, I get this question a lot, and the question that I have is, Beth Moore, would I recommend her or not? I have a wife, and I have three daughters, and I would not want my daughters, nor would I want my wife, nor would I want the people at Bethlehem Bible Church, nor would I want people at No Compromise Radio Ministry to read Beth Moore.
Why? Well, it is not because I think she is a theological heretic like Joyce Meyer. It is not because she is an unbeliever. It is not because she is some false teacher that needs to be ostracized from local churches.
I don't think that's the case. And so, when you think about women who are false teachers, I'm not saying she's like an Ellen G. White, who was the founder of the Seventh-day Adventist, but I am saying that you ought to be careful, because Beth Moore is very mystical, and I don't think mysticism is healthy for the New Testament church.
I don't think you, Glenda, should read Beth Moore, not because I say it, I mean, who am I? I'm just some guy. If you saw my studio, you'd say, this is No Compromise Radio? Yeah, I got a few mugs and a few t-shirts and a couple of microphones and a recorder and a mixing board, that's it?
Well, I guess that probably is it, and so you have to be discerning regarding this. It's actually good to be discerning. That's one of the things that society today says you can't do, evangelicals, you can't do.
We don't want you to examine these things. But that's opposite of the Bible, because Bereans were, what, commended, because they searched to see if these things were true, Acts 17. And the people at Thessalonica, which is not too far away from Berea, they were told to examine what?
Everything carefully. So I think you should examine Beth Moore carefully, and I think you should examine me carefully, because I'm not your mediator, I don't give you any righteousness, I can't make you born again, I'm just a teacher.
I'm just a simple teacher of the Bible. And that's absolutely true, and I'm not trying to claim that I'm a great man, but great men have great errors, and non-great men have great errors too. So put me in the non-great man, is there un-great, ingrate?
Pick up the book, Believing God by Beth Moore, and just read through it, and I think you're going to see some quotes that make you say, you know, this book is replete with, A, mysticism, B, too much talk about Satan and strongholds, C, a lot of talk about generational sin and hyper-feelings, all kinds of emotionalism.
I think you're going to have to be careful. In the book, Believing God by Beth Moore, Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2004, Southern Baptist Publishers, she said, the primary reason God left us on the earth after our salvation was for our Christianity to succeed right here on this turf.
Well, I guess that's okay, but how do you turn that into action? She has a five-point pledge, and you are to say this out loud daily and memorize it. Is this how Paul helps people work through their sanctification?
You speak this out loud daily. God is who he says he is. Absolutely, that's true. God can do what he says he can do. I believe that. I am who God says I am. I am who I am. That's true. I can do all things through Christ.
Well, it depends on what the all things are. If it's regarding contentment, then Philippians chapter 4, that's the intention of the author. God's word is alive and active in me. Well, God's word is alive, the active in you part, I don't know about that, but here's what I'll say.
Why do you have to memorize that and speak it out loud? That's kind of funky to me. I guess it's some kind of affirmation some Stuart Small. Is that what his name was? Stuart Small. She's got things called God Stops.
It's an acronym for savoring the observable presence. Savoring the observable presence. Now this is kind of Keswick, kind of pietistic. I just want more of Jesus. Who talks that way? Does Peter talk that way?
Does Paul talk that way? Did John talk that way? Did the writer of Hebrews talk that way? I just want more of Jesus. God reveals himself in his word and in creation. No, Beth says she's got signs, miracles, emotions, mystical experiences.
Forget theology. You got to see God working in you. Now let me give you a few quotes from her book so you don't think I'm somehow saying, hey, I got asked a question. I wasn't going to do this show. I was forced into it.
Again, I'm trying to tell you, you should do good, better, best. Good, better, best. And good isn't Beth Moore. She might be orthodox, but she's mystical, and I don't think she's going to help you as much.
I just looked outside. It's starting to snow. Well, look at that. It's snowing outside. It's a sign. It's a sign that I should continue to talk about this. And so I was going to go to the next question, but no, I can't do that.
My biggest problem with Beth Moore's mysticism in the book is she takes Old Testament verses and she misapplies them, and she gives a wrong application for the Christian today. You know, Joshua marching around the city of Jericho, how about this in her book, page 213, God often directs us to keep walking around that Jericho day after day, repeating the same old fundamental steps while nothing seems to happen.
And one of the major faux pas you can make in Bible hermeneutics, the study of interpretation, is to somehow, you know, say it's David and Goliath, and I have to slay the Goliaths in my life. That is as bad as you can get.
It's not true. I remember what Haddon Robinson once said, and he said, more heresy comes into the church through the pulpit in the application than any other format. And so it's not that Beth Moore's going to say Jesus isn't God.
She's just going to get up there and say, go to your Gilgal. That's exactly what she said. I'd like to suggest that Gilgal is an important place for you and me to go with God as well. Think of your personal Gilgal as a place where two highly significant works occur.
Now, if you want to go to Gilgal with us in two months for the No Compromise Radio Israel tour with Bethlehem Bible Church and Omaha Bible Church, you can go to Gilgal there, but here she's taking these Old Testament passages and she just figuratively torques them and I don't want you to follow someone who's going to do that.
She says in page 194, slavery is anything that keeps you bound from your God-ordained destiny and fulfillment of his earthward promises to you. Really? I don't think so. God most often looks for what prevails in our lives.
If unbelief prevails, we find ourselves repeating the cycle of defeat. Page 195. Well, it's just not true. You can say it. You can be published. Broadman and Holman's selling a lot of books, but those things just aren't true.
Not only do we insist on wearing some of our old wardrobe, sometimes victimized by someone else's reproach, or simply take on something that was never ours. Page 199. I don't know. How do you go to Gilgal by faith?
I don't know about wearing old pieces of clothes. I don't want to tell you, again, she's a heretic, I'm not going to say that, but I want literal meaning of the text. I don't want some kind of figurative application that's wrong.
There are ways to apply some Old Testament passages to the modern church, to believers today, but there are wrong ways too. And I don't want you to say, you know, God speaks outside the Bible because I don't think you can prove that he can, that he does, that he will, that he ought to.
I guess you can prove that he could. I'll take that one back. But why would he? How about Beth here in chapter 15? If you've walked with God for many years, you've probably noticed that what he requires from us to live in victory can differ greatly from season to season.
I guess you could say it. Beth Moore, page 208. At the risk of sounding mystical, you know, when someone says that, you know it's coming. Midway through the night, I suddenly began to receive what I believe may have been a revelation of sorts, an unusual spiritual insight that I felt I could trust because it came to me totally through God's word.
Now if it comes through God's word, then what's the mystical part? What's the trusting part? What does it mean through God's word? I don't know that. I don't understand that. How about what she says about predestination in Ephesians chapter 2, page 8 of her book, Ephesians 2 .10, for where his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Beth said, too much predestination for you? Here's the catch. We don't have to cooperate. We can live our entire lives as Christians and never fulfill the glorious plan God tailored for us in advance.
Did you get that? Some of these others are just sappy. I see why people read them. And by the way, if you're a lady listening to No Compromise Radio Ministry, may I tell you this? If you only read books about God and the Bible written by women, you're robbing yourself and you're going to fall prey to this kind of stuff.
I'm not saying you can't read a Martha Peace book. Read it to your pleasure, to your enjoyment. But if you only read women's books, you're going to find yourself defaulting to this. So I don't want you to do that.
I want you to read the best that the church has to offer. And certainly that's not Beth Moore, the mystic. She says we can basically squelch God's plan, his predestined plan, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in Him.
And you can actually not walk in those if you don't want to. How about this? Page 58. I have been taught that God does not work many miracles today because we live in a different time period on the kingdom calendar.
In other words, we are not in apostolic time, so God works differently. She says I don't believe that. Page 59. Simply put, cessationism teaches that more dramatic miracles have ceased in our day. Sensationalism teaches that the whole point of belief is miracles.
My complaint is the tendency of people like me to be drawn toward doctrinal extremes. Frankly, I've got a crick in my neck from watching them both and I beg God for a biblical sinner. So, you've got on one side cessationism where the miracles through men have ceased because we don't need to authenticate the messenger anymore, or the message, and we've got people running around today that can do all these biblical things.
So you've got the ceasing, and so I guess you're in the middle, so you kind of have to only half-validate them. This is the error of saying middle ground is always good, we've got to have a balance. The signs through the apostles have either ceased or they have not.
And if they have ceased, then why go for the middle? If they've not, then why go for the middle? More says on page 60, if the body of Christ in our generation is set on being bipolar, meaning you've got to go back and forth to doctrinal extremes, our choice is whether we'd rather be an unbelieving and perverse generation or a wicked and adulterous generation.
Not good choices. So, I guess I'm a cessationist and I am now equal in Beth's eyes to an unbelieving and perverse generation. See, this is just A, ignorance, B, Broadman and Holman should know better, and C, how could I say to my people, yeah, that's good for you, I want you to read that.
If you are, like most people in churches today, you're only going to read a handful of books. Let's just say you read one book a month. By the way, that's a great thing to set for a goal. One book a month about God and His Word.
If you're going to read one a month, why would I want you to read this? Well, you just have to pick out the bones and enjoy the meat. Well, Beth Moore's book is like carp then. It's like carp, where you've got tons of bones.
So, if you're going to have to pick out bones, why don't you read Calvin, so you only have to pick out a few bones, not that many. Why don't you read somebody else? Why don't you read Jerry Bridges, Trusting God?
There's a good book for you. If you're a lady out there today, you need to get Trusting God by Jerry Bridges. And if you don't like it, then up to 10 books I'll take back. We'll send you, if you don't like Jerry Bridges' book, up to the first 10, you send me that Jerry Bridges' book and I'll send you a Beth Moore book.
How's that? Okay, I made the promise. Make it happen. Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry. Just read the best stuff. We don't need to be mystics. We don't need to run around and claim things and go to our gilgals and take the Old Testament out of context.
Let's turn that page and go for the good stuff. 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.