Post Post Modern 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.

A Postmodern Catechism and the Value of Catechesis

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. Mike Abendroth here, and I probably would go back to some old reruns, but that means Fred Butler would be disappointed. This show is all for Fred. This is for Fred.

Sola Freddo. Hey, when�s the new stuff coming out? I mean, I remember listening to some of MacArthur�s sermons. Maybe examine yourselves. I listened to literally 50 times, so can�t he listen to a couple old reruns?

I looked at the records, and to compare the amount of money that Fred has sent in to No Kill Radio, and how many requests he makes, actually, we need to have Fred on again. Fred, call my agent. Have your credit card ready.

In front of me, I have the postmodern medium-length catechism, and of course, you have the Westminster catechism. Longer, shorter, and so this is the medium-length postmodern. And so, catechism, a question-and-answer kind of format.

Where is the one that I actually have in front of me, a catechism for boys and girls? It shows a bunch of kids hanging upside down on some gym equipment or something outside. This is Cary Publications.

Cary Publications, where is, oh, Reformation Trust Today, 1969 by Cary Publications, Reformation Today Trust, 2005, distributed by EP, Evangelical Press. And so, that�s through Webster, New York in the U .S., or Darlington in the U .K.

Well, you�ve got questions about God, man, sin, the Ten Commandments, salvation, prayer, the Word, church, and ordinances, and last things. And so, just to give you an illustration, this is the one I recommend, by the way.

It doesn�t mean everything�s perfect in there, of course. Who made you? God made me. And then it has the verses. What else did God make? I should probably, I�m going to do this now without looking at it.

What else did God make? God made all things. Why did God make you in all things? For His own glory. How can you glorify God? By loving God and keeping His commandments? By loving Him and doing what He commands.

Why ought you to glorify God? Because He made me and takes care of me. Are there more gods than one? There�s only one God. So back and forth you go. Actually, my most memorable time in catechizing my children, I was in the hospital, my son was born, he was super sick, and so I had my daughter, who was four at the time, Haley, and we were just in the other room waiting, we were just going through our catechism.

I was keeping my mind off of, am I going to lose my son? Where is God? God is everywhere. Can you see God? No, I cannot see God, but He always sees me. Who can change a sinner�s heart? The Holy Spirit alone.

So anyway, a great section here on Adam, the sin of Adam. What effect did the sin of Adam have on all mankind or on all people? All people are born in a state of sin and misery. What does every sin deserve?

The anger and judgment of God. Can anyone go to heaven with a sinful nature? No, our hearts must be changed before we can be fit for heaven. What is the change of heart called? The new birth. So, if you think catechism is strictly Roman Catholic, you would not be correct.

Here we have a good way to teach. You can be instructed back in the old days in paganism via a catechism. So it�s just a general term, but it is especially used these days, most familiar with the term usually through Roman Catholicism, unless you�re OPC, then you know the catechism.

The extended laugh means I just checked my mail. I have no Twitter feed updates, I have no regular mail, didn�t get messaged or anything. Off we go. A list of questions being compiled by the work of diverse postmodern divines and edited by Christopher Alexia.

And so this is kind of a play on words as well, being a list of questions compiled by the work of diverse. I don�t know if I ever hear the word diverse without the E, like I would maybe in scholastic, theologically scholastic institutions.

Well, before I give you the list, I�m going to be in Rome soon in November, and so we�ve already ordered our tickets for the audience with the Pope. And so when NoCo met the Pope, that�s a good show, Fred would even pay to listen to that one.

I did that a long time ago, approximately 11, 12 years ago, and you order the tickets from the Vatican. Actually, the Vatican tickets came in this really cool envelope to the church here, Bethlehem, I think it was Bethlehem Bible Church, after we switched from Baptist to Bible.

And interestingly, you know, what would the post office guy think of the Vatican sending something to this Protestant church? So you walk into St. Peter�s Square, you get your tickets prior to that with the Swiss army knife guards, and then you�re able to sit in St. Peter�s Square and listen to the Pope, and it happened to be John Paul, and he came out in the Popemobile, and spontaneously these groups of pilgrims, people on pilgrimage, would stand up and sing songs in their foreign�sorry, in their home language, a lot of it foreign to me, and sing songs praising him.

You know, it wasn�t �Praise God, from whom all blessings flow, we�re thankful for our vicar on earth. But it was praising the Pope. I�ll never forget it, so I�m going to be back in Rome, Lord willing, and so I have to go back to see the new Pope.

I miss the one in between, the one that got tired and retired, that Pope. He just kind of got tired, you know, those keys of the kingdom kind of got heavy, and had to take a nap. Alright. What is the chief end of humankind, postmodern, medium-length catechism, Christopher Alexian?

I think it�s pretty old, by the way, I don�t know if you can find it online, it�s a bootleg, it�s a collector�s item, it�s a cutout, remember those albums, cutout albums, and you could get them for $2 .99, and who were some of those albums, I don�t know, by heart or something.

Were they a band back in the �70s? I think so. What is the chief end of mankind? Mankind�s, oh, it doesn�t say mankind, humankind, humankind�s chief end is to promote world peace and enjoy it forever.

You say, �Well, we�re no longer postmodern, we�re post-postmodern. Yes, but this is still very funny. To promote world peace and enjoy it forever, and for those of you that want to give the Ron Artest comments right now, you might want to hold your tongue.

Question two, what rule do we have to direct us how we may accomplish this peace? A, for answer. We have but one rule, and that is that we have none. That�s the only rule. What is God? Question three, answer.

God is a spirit, so far so good, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his design, so far so good, to bless America. America. Question four, are there more gods than one? Answer, according to the postmodern medium-length catechism.

There is but one only, though the term includes all religions. I don�t know why it strikes me as funny, because when you sit down, actually it was 94 yesterday here in New England, and today it�s 74, but raining.

So we need the rain. I think California needs to rain more, but that�s in the catechism here someplace. Something about Jerry Brown and Schwarzenegger, something about that, I don�t know. How many persons are there in the Godhead?

Answer, as many as we want there to be. This is not the EP one, by the way. This is not the one suitable for use in family worship times or in a Sunday school setting, as the Cary Publications say. Let me throw in a couple about salvation from the catechism for boys and girls that EP put out.

How does God save us? Answer, the Lord Jesus Christ became a man to rescue us from our sins. And again, it has the verses, Matthew 121, 1 Timothy 115, Hebrews 2 .14 .15. When Jesus became a man, did he ever sin?

No. He obeyed God�s law perfectly. Why did Jesus die on the cross? Jesus died on the cross in our place to take the punishment which we deserve. About that. What is sanctification? It is God making sinners holy in heart and conduct, Ephesians 4 .24, Titus 2 .14, 2 Corinthians 7 .1.

What connection is there between justification and sanctification? Answer, both arise out of union with Christ. So see how good that would be? It's even good for if you're not a boy or a girl. Now back to the postmodern medium-length catechism, a list of questions compiled by the work of Diverse Postmodern Divines and edited by Christopher Alexian.

What are the decrees of God? The decrees of God are the contingent purposes according to the counsel of our will whereby for our benefit he will make all our favorite sports teams win. Patriots open their season tonight with Tom Brady at the helm.

Come on. That's a funny one. That's the funniest one so far. Do you pray for your sports team to win? Should you pray for your sports team to win? Have we sunk that low on no-compromise radio where that's what we have to talk about?

Sports teams, praying for sports teams. Now if you are on a sports team and you pray that you would do well and not get hurt and that the other guy would get hurt instead, I think you could pray still if you're on a sports team.

But pray to win, hmm, all right. That's kind of like the Creflo dollar deal that's online. What's my favorite nation? Doe Nation. How does God execute his decrees? God executeth his decrees in the work of watching us exercise our free will.

Where and how is God to be worshipped? He is to be worshipped at the Washington National Cathedral in the name of the Father, Muhammad and Jesus Christ. That's so funny. What is the first commandment?

The first commandment is thou shall make no absolute judgments. Now that is true. What is the second commandment? The second is like unto it, thou shall accept all views as thine own and not be bigoted.

First I thought because my eyes are so bad, I thought it meant don't be bigfooted. Like you know the creature of the Black Lagoon or what's the thing that's the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, Snipe Hunts, you know those kind of things.

Question 11, are we ourselves bigoted in our thinking? Answer, not at all. Of course we aren't. Question 12, not at all. Answer no. 13, not even a little bit, no. Question 14, no. Answer absolutely not.

My name is Mike Avendroth, this is NOCO Radio. The other day on Facebook people were saying when we quoted Acts 13 .48, now we know you're Calvinistic and they spell Calvinism with a C-A-L-V-A-N, like a van, like van shoes.

Remember van shoes? My kids, I think those are popular. I think the day was though when it was OP shorts, those corduroy shorts and some original van shoes, those black and white ones. And that was the bomb.

We knew that was the bomb but we were in Nebraska and couldn't get a hold of them. What do you do? So anyway, and some people on Facebook said, we know NOCO is now Calvinist, bye idiots, all that kind of stuff.

And so I just posted Ephesians 1 .4, Romans 9 .14 .15, so we're in there, 16 .17. And I posted probably 2 Timothy 1 and they just said, oh that's ESV, idiot. So there was time to do a druid dance around the skull on my desk.

The Lord High State and Postmodern Political Theology

What is the only redeemer of postmoderns? That's question 15. The only redeemer of postmoderns is the Lord High State, which though the coercer of men descended to feel our pain, and so was, and continue with be, coercer and pain-feeler in two distinct natures, and one administration forever.

Wherein consisteth the humiliation of the state? The humiliation of the state consisteth in its being limited by the founders in allowing terrorist attacks and losing jobs. See, speaking of jobs, Steve Jobs, and the whole iPencil thing.

I was using my iPad Mini the other day, never had any problem with it, I've traveled literally the world with that thing. It's always powered up, I have a backup all the time through my phone, I have a Mophie for battery backup in case something happens while I'm preaching, but nothing has ever happened.

I've used that thing to preach weddings, funerals, everything in between. How do you like that mirrorism? Right from top to bottom, from head to toe. And, I plugged it in the other day, picked it up, it was burning hot, thing just fried.

So I didn't upgrade to an iPad Mini 3, the 4 wasn't out yet, I just had the other one replaced for a small fee. So my preaching should be getting better over the time, now that I'm not on the iPad 2, old cracked one, cracked one.

Alright, let's see, 18 is not funny, 19, see, I'm kind of already done with this, after 15 minutes. This is why people say you need to go longer than 24 minutes, and I say, well, what if it's a show like today, then what do you do?

What is a true method of politics? The true method of politics is to take a position that avoids all extremes, even as this catechism is neither larger nor shorter, but medium length. What is the principal threat to neutrality in the civil realm?

Answer, oh, this is insightful, postmodernish, the principal threat to neutrality is religious extremism. What is religious extremism? What is that stomach, my stomach's growling, what is that, what does that actually mean?

Religious extremism is the view that certain absolute truths exist independent of the mind, minds of men and women, that if something is true, it is true, and that A and not A cannot both be true at the same time and in the same sense.

Question, who are the two most dangerous proponents of religious extremism? Answer, the two most dangerous proponents of religious extremism are Jerry Falwell and Rush Limbaugh. See what I mean when I said it was dated?

Who would they be today? Todd Starnes? I don't know. Question 27, but what means may we defeat religious extremism? Answer, we may defeat it by allowing it to make no judgments in the civil realm. Is this itself a religious judgment?

Nope, not at all, not at all. Are thou sure? Absolutely. Oh, see, absolute truth. Question 31, though the aforementioned extremism is a vicious crime, does this imply that there is no place for religion?

Answer, no, for there are the liberal churches. What are the liberal churches? The liberal churches are those churches which, to avoid conflict with non-Christian thought and to maintain a high level of relevance, have rejected certain minor points of faith.

33, wherein consisteth the worship of liberal churches? Answer, liberal worship consisteth in tolerance, affirmation, lighting of candles, experiencing of religious experience, and the consumption of goodies.

Now, if it was Fred, he'd have all kinds of weird goodies. He's probably, what's that stuff that you eat, a pork rind? Remember when pork rinds were big, big sellers, because I don't think there are many carbs in pork rinds, because it's all fat, so just a no-carb diet, but you can eat as much fat as you want.

How's that working out for you? All right. I would eat a pork rind again. I wouldn't buy a pork rind, but if I went to somebody's house and it was ministry and the only thing they had for appetizers were pork rinds, I could do it.

I hope they're the spicy kind. What is the moment of silence, capital M, capital S? Answer, the moment of silence is a time wherein one may engage in private prayer, meditation, or daydreaming, all the while maintaining religious neutrality.

What are the seven deadly vices? Did I just say Devon Sedley vices? You know you're tired when you do that. The seven deadly vices are intolerance, bigotry, logic, extremism, sexism, smoking, and making sin judgments.

And finally, question 36 of the Postmodern Medium-Length Catechism by Christopher Alexian. What is the postmodern view of organized religion? Organized religion is to be carefully avoided, unless at the Washington National Cathedral or in certain liberal churches, as are the accompanying matters of liturgies, psalms, and catechisms.

I don't see that. That was clever. That was very clever. So Christopher Alexian, I don't know where you are. Maybe you're not even still alive, but I give you props. Props to you. You didn't even use the Message Bible one time.

Family Worship, Salvation, and the Need for Christ

For those of you that want a real catechism, you know one of the things you could do if you don't want to order one and pay for it, is you can just order, go online and type in Westminster Shorter Catechism.

You could type in a catechism for boys and girls, Cary Publications, Spurgeon's Catechism for boys and girls. Very, very simple. And they just repeat over and over, and after a while, they begin to memorize them.

And so do you regarding parents. And so you could do it for five minutes a night. You know, here's my problem. We haven't done Bible study for much in our lives, family worship not in our lives, and so we're going to start today, kids, and it's the 90-minute deal.

And you're just killing everybody. And you think those looks that your wife is trying to give you as a hint, as a helper, as a helpmate, you think she's slowing you down. You're in the big leagues now, 90-minute devotions.

Now eventually for you to sit around the table with your kids and talk about the Lord, biblical worldviews for 90 minutes, that's probably pretty easy because there's lots of stuff that goes on in the world, whether you're a homeschooler, public schooler, private schooler or national, you know, Washington National Cathedral school.

So you want to just be careful. Five minutes is time, just like with family Bible study, sing a song, read for five or ten minutes, talk a little bit about what you've learned. Is there anything in the passage that teaches us about God?

Yes. What about this passage teaches us about the Lord and who He is and how we know He doesn't change so He's our same God. He's our God. And what does the passage teach us about sin or mankind and how they fall short and how they need a Redeemer and how we do need Jesus and He has to be a Redeemer who's human as well, not just a God.

He has to cloak Himself with humanity. For whom did Christ obey and suffer? Catechism question number 7, D7 for the real one here, catechism for boys and girls. Christ obeyed and suffered for those whom the Father had given Him, John 10, Ephesians 5.

What is it to repent, to be sorry for sin, and to hate and reject it because it is displeasing to God? Question 80, what is it to believe or have faith in Christ, to trust in Christ alone for salvation?

So if you're Pelagian, you probably won't like this one very much. If you're semi-Pelagian, you won't like it too much. If you're Lutheran, you'll probably like it a little bit more. But if you're Reformed, you would like this catechism.

Can you repent and believe in Christ by your own power? Answer, no. I can do nothing good without God's Holy Spirit. How about that? How were godly persons saved before the coming of Christ? They believed in the Savior to come.

Hmm, hmm, how did they show their faith? Now how did they show their faith? That's the direct question. By offering sacrifices on God's altar, Hebrews 9, 19 -23, Hebrews 10, 1 and Genesis 22, 8. Why do you need Christ as a prophet?

Because I'm ignorant. Why do you need Christ as a priest? Because I'm guilty. Why do you need Christ as a king? Because I am weak and helpless. So today, Mike Ebenroth, NOCO Radio, NOCO Media. You should, by the time you hear this, be about ready to order the new book, Sexual Fidelity, No Compromise Radio.

Very timely subject to think rightly about the topic. Not written in a weird post-modern way, in a pure way, a holy way, a godly way, stemming out of talks that I've had with my son. You'll go to NOCO's website.

There'll be a link there, and then you can go to NOCO Media and order one of the books. My name is Mike Ebenroth, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

No Compromise Radio, with Pastor Mike Ebenroth, is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church, firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

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

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