Bulls and Papals

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.

Smoking, Tattoos, and Legalism on No Compromise Radio

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, ministry. We start off with a laugh and a chuckle. I know on Tuesdays with Pastor Steve, you come to expect that, a little jocularity,.

A little levity, but you'll stay for the theological acumen.

Well, you know, here's the thing. On Tuesdays, we talk a little, we laugh a little, we have a little smoker's laugh, you know, the little easy laugh, yeah. And did you ever smoke cigarettes, Steve?

Not a chance. Did you ever smoke even one? No, my dad completely cured me of that just by smoking.

I hated it so much. I remember going to my grandmother's house and grandfather's house, and they were smokers at the time. I think they quit maybe 20 years before they both died. And they would loan us books, you know, oh, take this home, you know, this Louis L 'Amour book.

And it would smell like cigarettes for years.

It was crazy. I used to, and I'm not even making this up, my dad always drove a Volkswagen Bug until, I don't know, maybe the late 70s or something like that. And I can remember being a kid, sitting in the front seat and opening, there's that little wind wing thing there, and I would stick my nose and mouth out the wind wing so I wouldn't have to smell the cigarette smoke.

That's how bad I hated cigarettes.

When my father was a smoker still, there was an ad campaign. It was this late 60s, could have been early 70s, but my guess is 69-ish. And it was 10 ,000. Doctors have stopped smoking, you can too. So I made about 100 of those little cards and I put them in every ashtray in the house.

There was like six ashtrays in the house. And I would just put one in and then he'd use the ashtray and dump it out. And I put another one in over and over and over. And finally he said, don't do that anymore.

So I didn't.

Yeah, you know, it's amazing. I think my dad smoked for almost 40 years. And then one day he just said, I'm done. And he quit. Well, it was bad.

I remember growing up, you know, you're trying to sneak cigarettes or whatever you're not supposed to do. You know, you want to do, because man was born good. You know, neutral.

Inherently good. I'm learning that all the time with my grandchildren.

Think about how psychology promotes that though. But anyway, I had a friend and his dad was a cigarette salesman. And so they had little packs of cools and camels and other things, little four packs that you give out for samples.

And then we could just go get as many as you wanted. We wanted, and that was a bad deal.

And I never saw any samples like that. You don't want to see samples. Well, I mean, that just strikes me as being tailor-made for a kid or something. Yeah, perfect.

I know. Well, we're not necessarily against tobacco. Somebody on Facebook the other day is like, you guys are legalist and anti-tattoos. Well, I was posting some things on Facebook regarding tattoos because they were the Virgin Mary tattoos, you know, but Mary looked like she hadn't shaved and somebody tattooed on the back of their neck, judge not lest you be judged.

And it was kind of crooked. And so to me, it was all strikingly funny. It had nothing to do with legalism. We go back to the first show, Steve, that you and I ever did here. Something about a baker's dozen of legalisms or something, you know?

And you know, it has nothing to do with legalism because even when I was an unbeliever, I was in the army and guys were getting tattoos and everything. And I'm like, I would just look at them and go, now, as an unbeliever, I would say, why would I pay to have somebody inflict pain on me when I might regret it and then want to have it removed?

I go, I don't understand that. Maybe that works for you guys, not for me.

Well, if you'd like to write us with any kind of, you know, your legalist or antinomian or anything like that, you can. It's At no cost.

Well, and I'll tell you my response on tattoos right now. Yeah. It's really easy. If you don't get a tattoo, you can always change your mind. Yeah, well, that's true. Uh-huh, that's right. That's right.

It's much harder after you get it. So, but you know what? I mean, it's up to you. If that's how you want to burn your money, feel free. See, before we get into the stuff.

That you have in front of you, let me read you a Nietzsche quote. Remember, tell us why it's not Nietzsche, it's Nietzsche. Because it's German. Oh, okay. What then is truth? Kind of sounds like a question that maybe Pontius Pilate might ask.

Oh, say what is truth.

Is it Pontius or is it Pontius? I think it's, well, it probably is Pontius, but we always say it Pontius. Uh-huh, I know. But who was it who was looking for the honest man in the cave with the lamp? That'll come to me later.

Hank Aaron? No, Diogenes. Oh, very nice. What then is truth? A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms. In short, a sum of human relations which have been enhanced, transposed, and embellished poetically and rhetorically, and which, after long use, seem firm, canonical, and obligatory to people.

Truths, here's the point. Truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that this is what they are. Metaphors which are worn out and without sensuous power. Coins which have lost their pictures now matter only as metal, no longer as coins.

Truths are illusions. So why are we doing this show today? That's what I wanna know.

I don't know. I don't even know what he said. I mean, it sounds like, basically, truths are emanations which, over time, you know, they're myths, which, over time, seem more reliable, and therefore, we just kind of assume that they're true.

But, you know, Nietzsche, with his idea, ultimately, is there's no genuine truth, right? So use your illusion, and truth is.

So how would he fit in an emergent church? You know, we need to have Nietzsche and an emergent church, you know? And it's like, but how could you do authentic community and missional relationships if truth is an illusion?

It'd be hard, though. Well. Would he wear skinny jeans and kind of? I'm sure he would. I think he'd be tatted up, cool beard, right? Real cool beard. I haven't shaved for like 10 days, and I'd like to maybe grow a beard because it's so cold here in the winter, but I don't wanna be on the hipster bandwagon, so I'll just let it go for a little while longer.

I wanna grow a beard, too, but, you know, my wife says, honey, you look homeless when you.

Well, you know, I know your legalism will come out, and it's touch not the anointed and do his face no harm. Steve, if someone calls, this is a little tidbit here, and they call the church and they say, well, could you give us all the answers to your theological questions and when your Bible studies are and all that kind of stuff, and I were to say to them, sure, let me answer a few of your questions, but the best thing to do if you'd like to find out about the church is why don't you come on a Sunday?

Services are at 8 .30 and 11. We'd love to have you be our guest. Make sure you say hello to me at the door. Is that the right kind of thinking or is it just kind of no-co-honoriness?

Well, first of all, let me say it's pragmatic thinking in this sense because, you know, it just reminds me of, you know, if you get challenged to prove that the Bible's true or that God really exists and you go down that road and somebody still doesn't believe, well, it's the same way.

Somebody wants to call and ask this question or that question or the other question, and you answer all their questions and then you never see them again, well, what was the point? You know, if they come on a Sunday morning, well, then maybe they, I don't want to say this wrongly, then maybe it is wise to invest time in them.

You know, if somebody just calls and you're on the phone with them for five or 10 minutes and you never see them again, well, that was five or 10 minutes that may or may not have any value whatsoever.

But if they come on a Sunday morning and I get to spend some time with them, well, that's a different matter altogether. And it allows us to interact, you know, and maybe drive to the heart of whatever the problem really is.

Nietzsche, Truth, and the Emergent Church

Steve, I have a Christianity Today in front of me and I'm sorry. It says, contributing editors, Ruth Moon, Ed Stetzer, Sarah Acoff-Leistra. And then they have a little picture of Ed Stetzer. It says, Ed at Ed Stetzer, the Twitter account, has never met a thought he would not tweet.

And he is a managing editor. And then it's got two Twitter birds above him. And it says, he's never met a thought he wouldn't tweet.

Well, I think everybody should have some thoughts. They should not tweet, right? I mean, if you just put out into the ether, into the internet, everything that you think, people are gonna have a pretty low view of you after a short period of time.

There you go. So Steve, you've got some stuff about the Pope. I think the Pope actually has a Twitter account. And there are several fake Pope Twitter accounts as well. These don't come from the Twitter world, but these are things about the Pope.

So tell me a little bit about the Pope. Do you like Pope Francis? Would you vote him as a Christian of the year? You know, let's start there.

Well, you know what? Here's what I would say. I would vote for him for Pope of the year. Oh yeah.

What are the other choices? We're not 300 years ago or 500 years ago where there are three to choose from simultaneously.

And they're all running around trying to kill each other. I'm the real vicar of Christ on earth. No, I am the real, you know, what's my line? You know, I'm the, or, you know, who's the real, will the real, will the real Pope please stand up?

I don't know why you said, when you said that I thought of truth or consequences.

Okay, that's it. You know, yeah, the old game show. Anyway, yeah. Would I vote for him as Christian of the year? Well, no, because I mean, there's a lot of reasons to doubt whether the Pope is saved, like he's the biggest proponent of a false gospel on the face of the planet.

So, but he said here this week, you know, this is shortly after the attack in Paris, the attack on Charlie Hebdo, the magazine over there. And satirical, probably a magazine that I would never read.

Steve, I have to interrupt you just for a second. Yes, go ahead. Because in some languages, the H is silent. Yeah, so people are saying Charlie Hebdo, but it's really Charlie Hebdo. So from now on, in light of that, we probably should not say anything except N-O.

Hmm, okay.

Tip the hat to grandma. Okay, so in light of that whole situation there, Pope Francis said, there are limits to freedom of expression, especially when it insults or ridicules someone's faith. Don't make fun of Islam, is the subtext there.

He spoke about the Paris terror attack, said there were limits. By way of example, he referred to Alberto Gasparri, who organizes papal trips and was standing by his side on a board the papal plane. If my good friend, Dr. Gasparri, says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch.

Now, this is the Pope speaking. In other words, if my good friend, Dr. Gasparri, insults my mother, he can expect me to unload on him.

Well, Steve, my only response comes from the Purpose Driven Life book. Sorry, your Best Life Now book, game. And I have a stack of cards here. They're called Wonder Words. And so anytime I want to have a response, a wonderful word in response to that, thanks to Joe Osteen's book, I flip it over and it says, fantastic.

The Pope wants to throw a punch. You say fantastic. Okay. Now, this is interesting because the writer says, Francis, after he said those things, he said, throwing a pretend punch his way. So he actually mimicked it.

This is normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others. Okay. So in other words, what would you expect these Muslims to do when you mock their faith?

Of course, they're going to come and...

The Pope, Islam, and the Limits of Mockery

Steve, I find this all so awful and hypocritical, and I could use other modifiers, but when you have Trent that is not revoked as of today, and you call down anathema on people that don't believe in the real substance of Jesus in the bread and in the wine, or if you disagree with their version of infused grace for justification, not by faith alone, you're damned.

And then he's making these kinds of wisecracks. I just have no respect for this kind of talk.

Yeah, he's going to kind of defend Islam. Well, you can't mock the Prophet Muhammad. Now, I personally would not have published those cartoons. I mean, I saw a few of them, and I mean, mostly I just don't think they're funny.

I mean, I don't think they're funny, and I'm not really in favor. I don't think you win the hearts of anyone. I wanted to see people come to Christ, and obviously these Charlie Hebdo people don't care if people come to Christ or not.

So I mean, I wouldn't have any part of that, the mocking of Muhammad. But if you were to ask me about him, I'd say he was a pedophile. He was a false teacher. He said he got this information from an angel, which he didn't.

He was illiterate. He misconstrued and misremembered a bunch of the Bible. I mean, there are a lot of problems with Muhammad, but I don't see any particular reason to draw a funny picture of him and make fun of him.

Well, Steve, in public discourse and critique and things that are going back and forth, if someone were to say to me, how can this Bible verse, how can this be in the Bible and you believe it? What's going on with this particular strange doctrine?

Then I would listen to them, and we could converse back and forth, but I wouldn't say, well, now you've got some kind of Jesus crucifix inside a urine deal, and then that's now my public declaration of Christianity.

It's just a non-starter. I don't think you're going to win anyone over or try to talk about these things. I mean, I've talked to unbelievers all the time, but I'm gonna have to do it in such a way. Let's say it's a Mormon.

I'm gonna have to say, well, these are the facts about Joseph Smith. Doing some kind of dopey cartoon with Joseph Smith and with a bunch of young girls running around isn't gonna help me.

Well, and how do we respond when people mock Christianity? For example, I hear or read or interact with people all the time who will say something like, how can you defend the Bible? After all, the God of the Old Testament, he prescribed genocide.

He wanted to put babies to death. He was just this horrible person. Now, the God of the New Testament, he's not so bad. And I'm supposed to then start, well, what should I do? I mean, if it's justifiable according to the Pope that you respond to a caricature of Muhammad, then what are you supposed to do when somebody caricatures or misrepresents God?

How should we respond to that? I know. Let's have another quote from the Pope or another comment that he said. Let's see. He said, there are limits to free speech when it comes or when it concerns offending someone's religious beliefs.

And this is a quote. He says, there are so many people who speak badly about religions or other religions, getting back to Trent, who make fun of them, who make a game out of the religions of others. They are provocateurs.

Did you like how I said that? And what happens to them is what would happen to Dr. Gasparri if he says a curse word against my mother. There is a limit. In other words, if you provoke Muslims,.

You deserve what you get. Steve, isn't there a huge chasm between we're gonna critique something objectively according to what the Bible teaches versus what other people say, and me making fun of them?

I'm gonna make fun of someone versus I'm gonna tell you, this is what the Bible teaches about what they've said. Let's use Ellen G. White in the Seventh-day Adventist. You know, I guess we could make fun of her or her husband or something like that and how they dressed and how she had a bun in her hair or something.

She had her hair in a bun, rather. What does that have to do with anything, right? It has nothing to do with anything,.

But I could say, do you know what? Her quote about cheese is unwholesome. Don't give it to your children. And I could say, do you know what? Jesus declared all foods clean. So who are you gonna believe?

But now I can't do that because the Pope says, well, that's making fun of people.

No, it's critiquing according to what Scripture says. And, you know, are we allowed to examine what people say in light of Scripture? And I think, you know what? The Bereans were commended for it, right?

Let me interrupt you, Steve. You're making a mistake.

It's the Areans. Oh, because of the silent B? Yeah, silent B. We just take the first letter off.

That's gonna make it really hard for me to speak. Or to peek.

It's like when my daughter, Haley, she was little and she had some, you know, picante Mexican food in Los Angeles. And she said, that's picey, dad. That's picey. My other favorite one, we went to Starbucks for the first time.

I know Starbucks has been around longer than what we've, you know, than what we've experienced. But I was in Burbank, you know, Pasadena on Lake Street. And we got a Frappuccino and Haley's like, I can't wait to get a Frappuccino.

I like Frappuccino.

You know, like two. Yeah, I just remember how she used to go, I like the two-lies.

All right, what else did the Pope say? Well, let's see what else he say.

I am worried. Oh, he's talking about his own security. That the Vatican is taking prudent and secure measures. I don't know why. He says all these nice things about Islam. Why would they want to kill him, right?

But he goes on to say, I'm worried, but you know, I have a defect, a good dose of carelessness. He's not like the other Popes. He doesn't run around in the Pope mobile, you know, with all the protection and all that stuff.

He likes to mix among people. He says, I'm careless about these things. But he admitted that in his prayers, he had asked that if something were to happen to him, that quote, it doesn't hurt, because I'm not very courageous when it comes to pain.

I'm very timid. And he added, I'm in God's hands. I wonder what he thinks when he sees, you know, these images of Muslims beheading people and things. I wonder if he thinks, well, that would be painful.

I wish those people hadn't, I don't even understand his, I don't understand this. I mean, he shouldn't be saying anything about people mocking Islam. That's just not, that shouldn't be his issue. He shouldn't be defending it.

Let me put it that way. Steve, is it me, or am I wrong regarding this? If I were the Pope, and I thought, therefore the Catholic doctrine was true, and I thought, what's the most important truth? It's how to get to heaven.

Why don't I ever hear this Pope talk about, this is what heaven is, and here's how to get there. Now, maybe he does, or it just doesn't make news. Maybe this stuff is in the news. But why isn't the Pope talking about how people can have their sins forgiven?

And if he said everybody needs to have the mass daily to have your sins forgiven, I would understand what he's saying.

I wouldn't agree with it, but. He's spent a lot of time on a lot of political issues. I mean, he's more concerned about Cuba and the United States having relations. He's more concerned about global warming.

He's more concerned about Islam. He's concerned about a lot of things. He's concerned that the Church, the Roman Catholic Church spends too much money. He has a lot of issues, but I don't hear a lot of, well, I don't even want to call it gospel talk.

How about just religion talk? How do you get to heaven? And that seems like that would be the Pope's, like you said, his main concern.

When he says something ex cathedra from his chair, or gives us some kind of papal bull, I'd much rather hear that because we're talking about doctrine versus this other stuff.

What? Nothing, nothing, I can't say a thing.

I didn't even do that on purpose. I mean, that was not meant to get any kind of snide comments or anything.

No, I know. And I'm just, I'm almost physically holding my tongue so that I don't say anything. Yeah, I just don't, I don't even understand. This seems like the most kind of political Pope, most politically correct Pope.

So here on No Compromise Radio, we are formally asking the Pope and the Vatican and the Cardinals College to make more pronouncements and talk more about the Bible.

That would be great. Did you see what I tweeted the other day, by the way, about the Pope? Somebody made a comment about the Pope and I responded, you know, that if the Pope would repent and believe and make a credible profession of faith, I would be happy to baptize him.

Oh, you know what? I did see that. And how do people give the thumbs down on a Twitter?

Why, what's wrong with that? I mean, wouldn't you like to see him repent?

Well, see, you, like me, have a bad back. And so I gave up the baptismal duties around here.

You know, for the Pope, you'd do it.

But when you dunked him under and his kind of like little yarmulke tiara kind of thing floated to the top, what would that mean?

It would mean he hadn't really repented because all that, I mean, here's what I would want. I'd want the Pope to, you know, repent and to have some kind of like, take all his vestments and everything, you know, douse him with a good bit of lighter fluid and light them bad boys on fire.

Now, Steve, we have here at the church a variety of baptismal gowns. You know, it's my penchant to wear a swimsuit because when you get in the water, yeah, you just wear a swimsuit,.

Usually in a t-shirt, right? No kosher. Because he likes to be in surfing gear.

As often as possible. Yeah, and so some people didn't like that. So we have, you know, the gowns for others. If they need it or certainly, you know, if they want the gowns, the baptismal gowns, there's little weights at the bottom, you know?

Yeah. But I don't think the Pope would need to wear one of them. To hold him under the water. Yeah, the Pope wouldn't need one of those because he's got his big robes anyway.

He's not gonna wear the big robes, you know,.

If he gets baptized here. What about those like Dagon Fishgod hats that they wear? So do they have to take those off?

All of it. You know, there's not gonna be, you know, he's not gonna say, I pontificates Maximus or whatever he's called, you know,.

He's not gonna do any of that kind of stuff. There's a book out, I wish I remember the name, From Rome to Home or something like that. I don't mean the Scott Hahn opposite book, but a Catholic priest who have left the Catholic church in light of the real gospel of justification by faith alone.

And it's just one chapter after another priest who have left their parishes.

And you know what? Just by way of encouragement, here's what I would say to any Roman Catholic who's listening today. I don't care if you're a priest or you haven't been in a while or whatever. I would just say, read your Bible because the word of God has an effect.

And when you read the Bible and you compare it to the teachings of Rome, here's what you're gonna find. They don't match up. You're not gonna find Mary as some wonderful, perfect person who never sinned.

There's only one person who never sinned and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. There's only one way to heaven by faith alone in Christ's perfect work alone.

And even as we got the email last week, the letter from Paul, the bad Catholic, he was thankful to be taught the truth. And even though it might not feel good going down or first hearing it, it's nice to say, I stand before God cleansed based on the work of another plus nothing.

Amen.

The Gospel of Justification by Faith Alone

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 six. 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.

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