Current Events (Part 1)

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

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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

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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.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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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

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

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, ministry. Today is Tuesday. That means Steve Cooley is here with me as we talk about things that suit our fancies.

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Buenos dias, mis amigos. I think you're just singing a Paul McCartney song just a moment ago. Would you like to try to sing that song again, and I'll guess the name of that tune?

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I can name that tune in three notes. No, I would not. Because I think what comes out of your gizzard maybe isn't notes.

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What would those be? Grunts? I think you were singing Mother Mary Comes to Me, Speaking Words of Wisdom.

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That wouldn't be Paul McCartney. It would be Beatles with Paul McCartney. Yes, it would be. Yeah, that's right.

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Okay, do we get any royalties for that? None. We probably have to pay Paul McCartney for mentioning this song. A lot. Okay. Here's what we want to do today.

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We want to just talk about things that are in the news. So this is kind of like, what do they call the thing on Saturday Night Live where they're doing the news?

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Live update? I think that might be live update. Yeah, something like that. The only problem is this is taped a couple weeks in advance.

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So we'll call this pseudo live update. Now too bad we couldn't do the other way around, where we would hear the news first and then play it a couple weeks earlier, and then it would look like we were prognosticators.

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What about this? What if we just guess what the news will be and then talk about it? Well, we could. I think Euro's going down, the

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Dow is going down, and Rush Limbaugh is wanting impeachment. And there's going to be false teaching all over the place.

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We already know that. We can name names, and we will name names. I forgot to tell you in the last week since we've done the show,

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I've switched over to post -millennialism, and I think the world's going to get better. Well, good for you.

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I just have one word for that theology. Forget you. Forget you. All right.

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Here's what we're up to first. Glenn Beck has recently spoken at Liberty University.

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Liberty pretty much is the place where Jerry Falwell started, and it is a

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Christian college. He founded. He founded, yes. He was the founding reverend father, doctor, pastor. Yes.

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Whenever I drive by a church and I see something like founding pastor, I always wonder why do they do that?

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I'm the founding pastor. I don't know. I don't know. It strikes me as prideful.

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Well, you know. I'm the founder of this place. Honor where honor is not due,

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I guess. It's the same thing when I read people's emails and they put doctor on there, and it's not a PhD or a

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THD, it's some kind of de -min or something, I'm just thinking, I don't think you should do that. I wouldn't know.

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I haven't achieved those rare heights of scholasticism. Glenn Beck, while I'm thankful for some of his positions that align with mine,

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I don't think that's bad. By the way, I don't get cable TV, so I don't watch Glenn Beck. I don't listen to Glenn Beck. I think he's on Fox News.

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Is that correct? Yeah, I can't really watch him either. But since this is no compromised radio ministry, why would a

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Christian university have Glenn Beck, a Mormon, address their students, receiving an honorary

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Doctor of Humanities from Liberty University and then speaks to 8 ,650 students, the largest graduating class ever?

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Now since you're an ex -Mormon, you probably are more bugged at this than I am.

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Well, the answer why they would do it is on the thing here, the article from Christianity Today.

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It says Falwell, not Jerry Falwell. He's not speaking any longer, but his son, who is the president of Liberty University, said this.

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He said, Commencement has always featured leaders from all walks of life and all faiths who share the university's social values and traditional family values.

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Commencement speakers have included representatives of the following faiths, Roman Catholicism, Judaism, mainline and Protestant denominations, such as the

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Episcopal Church, and even some speakers with no religious affiliation whatsoever. My head hurts.

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If it's a Christian university, if I were the president, and I had a doctorate before my name, what

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I would do is this. We are going to continue to preach the word, to influence the students with the word, and we will give them a sending off with the word.

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It's no different than Charles Hodge would do at Princeton Seminary when it was a good seminary and they would all stand around out in front of Nassau Hall, hold hands, sing

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Blessed Be the Tithe that Binds, and then he would send them off with biblical instruction.

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And last time I checked, Mormons don't give people biblical instruction because they're not

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Christians. Well, I think the objective in this case is just to make sure that they know that, you know, they've lived in a cloister long enough, and now they're about to enter the real world, so they have to get some real world advice and wisdom.

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Well, at a university, I'm not saying that you cannot be exposed to what other people think and believe.

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I'm also not saying that social help is something that would be bad, but I just have a bad feeling in my gut when my – maybe it's my spiritual spidey sense,

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I hope that's what it is. Maybe Steve, it's God told me. God's telling me right now that that was really a bad thing.

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Well, I mean, look at what Glenn Beck says here. In his commentary, Beck, who is Mormon, said, speaking at Liberty University is, quote, an endorsement of your faith.

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This is a time when we all need to come together. We may have differences, but we need to find those things that unite us.

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See, this is liberalism. This is Protestant liberalism that extends its hand warmly and firmly to those who deny the gospel.

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I don't hate Glenn Beck. I think Glenn Beck probably has a lot to offer when it comes to commentary.

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The question is, when he gets up and tells these students at a Christian university, by the way, they're not required to have

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Glenn Beck speak, could they not have them – bless you – could they not have them – you could pick somebody else, right?

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It's not that this is the only person alive to speak, and so it's not a matter of onlys, our good, better, best.

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It's a matter of 2 Corinthians 6. Here's what Beck said. As a man who needed the atonement,

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I read the promise. He will carry your burdens. I made him, capital

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H, a promise. You keep your word, and I will keep mine. He said, Beck said, he,

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God, will never break his promise, and now it's all up to me. The atonement is the most powerful thing you will ever encounter.

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So we only have 24 and a half minutes to kind of deconstruct that thing, and we've got other topics today.

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But the atonement, Steve, I'm not telling you anything new because you're an ex -Mormon. The atonement that the

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Mormons believe in happened not on Calvary, but in the Garden of Gethsemane.

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It's the wrong atonement for the wrong kinds of sins, and it doesn't work. That's right, and it brings – in Mormon theology, basically, it just eradicates our old sins and kind of brings us up to neutral, and now –

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I mean, what Beck's saying, that he's going to now keep his word. He's going to do what he needs to do to do what?

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To be like God. In other words, thanks for the help, Jesus, and now I'm on my own.

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I will ascend to the most high. I will – you know, I mean, this is pride, and it is also a non -saving gospel.

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I don't mind the Arminian nature of that, that kind of Pelagianist, semi -Pelagian kind of comment may be taken at best, but what

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I mind is Liberty University. They could have chose someone else. I would rather have them choose – Maybe a

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Calvinist. Yeah, I doubt they would do that with the Liberty Theological Seminary's issues there and tied in.

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I just – call me old -fashioned, call me kind of frumpy, call me whatever you'd like. You're a little bit frumpy.

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I just think Christian colleges should have Christian speakers at the baccalaureate.

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The public school here in town, in West Boylston, for 13 years I've basically been uninvited as a guest clergy person to speak because I would go there and speak the gospel.

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And so we can have people get up and have the moon align with Mars and have the coexist stickers and have the, you know, the last ending of the last show of Lost with all the – you know, we're all one type of Hindu nonsense.

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But for somebody to stand up and say, by the way, for those of you who are here and who are Christians, let me remind you of the gospel and how it will anchor your life, your work, your career, your marriage for the rest of your life.

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And some of you 8650 students who aren't saved, here is the gospel for you. And that they would then preach what

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Christ says, not having Glenn Beck come and give some kind of jabberwocky atonement deal.

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It's just lame. I mean, Glenn Beck does not belong at a Christian university.

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All right. On to topic two, and this is the one that I didn't really want to talk about. I know we're supposed to examine everything carefully, 1

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Thessalonians 5. I know that discernment is commended. The Bereans were commended in Acts chapter 17.

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I don't like to rock the boat. I like to just go under the radar. And Pastor Steve insisted that we talk today about Beth Moore and her insecurity.

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So long, insecurity. Her new book on Tyndale House, You've Been a Bad Friend to Us.

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So long, insecurity. And I didn't really want to talk about this because I think this is just something that just divides,

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Steve, and we should be nice to Beth Moore. After all, she's a Christian.

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We're not talking about Joyce Meyer here. Well, you know my motto. It's good to be good, and it's nice to be nice. And other mottos, it's this moralistic, therapeutic, deist

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God kind of thing that we have. Here's what I'd like to say. Like Luther, Steve and I would like to talk about things that are needed to be talked about.

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For instance, if you are trying to teach justification by faith alone, and someone else says, no, it's just by faith, but not alone, you need to stand up against that attack.

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So if the left flank is being attacked, I think you need to send troops over to boister.

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Boister. Boister, yeah. Or boister. Boisterously boister. I had the right idea.

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That left flank. And so when the left flank is being attacked by psychological mumbo jumbo from,

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I believe, a Christian lady, Beth Moore, and I know people in the church that I pastor, that we pastor, are reading it, then certainly other people must be getting into it as well.

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I just have a real hard time with this new book, Get Thee Behind Me, Insecurity, is what

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Christianity says of the article. Here's what Christianity Today says in their e -magazine.

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Insecurity, Beth Moore says, is the number one issue threatening women. Well, even

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Peter and Maynard thinks that's wrong. I had two responses to that. I mean, besides the fact that that's just wrong, you know, where does our security come from?

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It doesn't come from some kind of psychological approach. Our security is in Christ.

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Our security is in knowing who we are and what God has promised us in Christ. But the second thing is, you know,

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I would say, so it's wrong in that sense. It's addressing the wrong issue or the issue the wrong way.

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If somebody has insecurity, it's because they don't know Christ. But secondly, the number one issue facing women today is not insecurity.

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The number one issue facing them, I think, most women struggle in how to submit to their husbands, how to live a

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Christian life according to the Bible. Men struggle with loving their wives in a sacrificial way, and women struggle with submitting to their husbands.

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Why? Because that's what we don't want to do. Men don't want to sacrificially love, and women don't want to submit to their husbands.

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It goes against the flesh. Well, if it was a natural thing to do, then you wouldn't have the commands.

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Why would God have to tell you husbands love your wives when you just by nature would do that?

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But since the fall has happened, then men are lazy, selfish, bigoted men, and they need to be told to love their wives.

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I noticed in this article, Steve, and the book talks about this idea of dignity and getting your dignity back.

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May I just suggest someone in the Bible who Jesus commends, and she knew she had no dignity.

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Listen to this, Mark 7. And from there, Jesus arose and went to the region of Tyre. And when he had entered a house, he wanted no one to know of it, yet he could not escape notice.

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But after hearing of him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at his feet.

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Get thee behind me in security. Yeah. Now, the woman was a Gentile of the

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Syrophoenician race. If things can even get worse, they're seemingly getting worse.

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And she kept asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter over and over and over.

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And he was saying to her, little children, be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

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How about this? I came here for the Jews primarily and firstly, and you are a

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Gentile. But she answered and said to him, yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children's crumbs.

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That's not the kind of gross dog that runs around in the neighborhood. This is a little dog. It's a puppy. It's kind of a small dog.

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Even the little dogs get the spillover. And she's basically saying, I'm a nobody.

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I'm a Gentile. I'm a Syrophoenician. And I'll take the scraps. I'm like a dog, and I'll take the scraps. And he said to her, because of this answer, go your way.

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The demon has gone out of your daughter. She, I hate to say this, I'll steal it from S.

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Lewis Johnson, with dogged determination, knew that she had no dignity.

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She's on her face. This is not good and right and proper and full of self -esteem and a lot of insecurity.

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She throws herself, submitting completely to this great Messiah. And Jesus rewards her faith with the temporal healing.

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And I probably will see her in heaven one day, along with Steve and the rest of the Christians listening today. What kind of dignity is that?

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What kind of dignity throws herself, a person with dignity, throws herself on the mercy of Jesus Christ?

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I'll tell you someone who does it, someone who has a lot of faith. And so this whole lack of dignity thing, it strikes me as very psychologically bent.

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Yeah, I mean, the Bible never commands us to have a high view of ourselves, self -esteem, worry about our insecurity.

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I guess is that a kind of a contradiction? Worry about our insecurity. But anyway, you know where I'm going. This whole idea of us valuing ourselves is just not a biblical idea.

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We're to value Christ. We're to look at him. And that's what that woman in Mark 7 did. I mean, there are so many issues.

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There's a little interview with Beth Moore here. And down here at the bottom of the page, she says, she's talking about her husband.

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She says, my husband has been a wonderful husband. He has confessed a number of times face to face with my chin in his hands.

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Baby, I will never leave you. But the fact is, I cannot base my security on Keith always being faithful to me.

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What if he died tomorrow? I have to know that God is my security. And that's right. But this whole idea of insecurity in the first place is wrong.

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You know what her parents did on and on and on and on it goes, you know, being having problems as a toddler.

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This is just a wrong worldview. It's unbiblical. Well, I think what happened, Steve, is we talk too much about ourselves.

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Godly people don't focus upon themselves so much. They're the ones who focus on other people and focus on the

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Lord. Beth was asked this question. How would you respond to people who say that addressing insecurity is more of a psychological issue than a biblical issue?

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Beth Moore says, quote, we get into the biggest defeats in our personal lives when we keep compartmentalizing things into spiritual and religious categories.

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In other words, you know, that's not a really fair question, but I think that's exactly what she does.

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If you'd like to be focused on yourself, focused on who you are, focused on your psychological makeup, then

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Beth Moore's new book would be good for you. But if you'd like to have a biblical perspective of things, why don't you do something that probably some of you ladies aren't going to like?

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But I'm going to say it here because Steve forced me to say it. That's what I, that's my job, kind of. It is not good for ladies to only read ladies.

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I meet lots of ladies. First of all, if you're a reader, I'm happy for that and glad, keep reading. But if you only read other ladies, you are going to be distorted in your thinking.

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And so why don't you read some other books that are written by men that don't come across in such a psychological way?

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In such a, go ahead and say it. It. Well, I mean, so much of psychology is based on you and your felt needs.

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I mean, even in here, she just talks about I feel and I felt and all this other stuff.

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But, you know, psychology, I would say, I would argue is inherently kind of a feminine sort of thing.

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It is. I mean, listen to the book. This is from her book. Over the course of the last year or so, as God has graciously pinpointed this area of my life for healing, where in the

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Bible is some kind of emotional healing even mentioned? But let me I let me continue. I've come to some stark revelations about the toll of my insecurity and this addiction.

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I have a battle off and on for years, well -rooted in my well -earned insecurity. It just it's too focused on me, myself and I.

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And by the way, when you do that, you are going to have lots of insecure problems. Do you ever think about having

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Beth Moore as a guest on the show? Do you know what? My studio guest today is

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Beth Moore. Beth, I've got a couple of questions today. All right. Like what in the world were you thinking when you said as God took me through the journey that became the, well, you know.

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All right, next. Here we go. We've already offended enough people. If you'd like to read Beth Moore, we just challenge you when she talks about the 10 of meeting, don't believe her.

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When she talks about all this insecurity stuff, don't believe her. If she talks about Jesus as a substitutionary atonement for sins of all those who'd ever believe,

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I'd say you should believe that. Preach it. Top five books on prayer by Robert Benson, author of...

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Didn't he used to be an actor? Robbie Benson? Yeah. In the book, I think it was in the movie One, like one -on -one or something, maybe one -on -one.

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I never watched it. It's too much of a chick flick for me, personally. It was a basketball movie. Oh, okay. It wasn't that movie.

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My top five books on prayer. Now, here's what we're going to talk about for the next few moments, unless the

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ADT security rep comes and interrupts us again. You're getting the behind -the -scenes view today.

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That's what people like. We'd like to have the veil lifted and see how these people really are in real life. Steve has a bright orange shirt on.

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It is so orange. It's orange. And Mike has plaid shorts now. Thank you.

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And I have flip -flops on. All right. Top five books of prayer. If I had to pick one book for my top five book on prayer, it would be

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A Call to Spiritual Reformation by D .A. Carson. A Call to Spiritual Reformation.

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I'd also put on my top five, A Call to Prayer by J .C. Ryle. And I think even though he's an

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Arminian, he's a godly Arminian and a wonderful prayerer, I'd put some E .M. Bounds book there.

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Now, those are just some of my books. I don't mean— I love that book by D .A. Carson.

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I mean, I loved it. I read it when I was in seminary, and I wrote a review of it, and I'm just like, I think that is the book that everybody should be, you know, dragged kicking and screaming to read.

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I think it's really good. Now, how about the—what is it? The Hour that Changes the World. I forgot who wrote that.

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Eastman. Dick Eastman. Yeah, yeah. I don't think I'd quite go for that, although we had to read that in seminary. There's lots of books on prayer, and we want to encourage you to read books on prayer.

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The Psalms would be a good book to read on prayer. Very good books, yes. But Christianity Today has a problem, and here's their problem.

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They are reflecting Christianity Today, which would be highly subjective, highly mystical, and highly—

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Ecumenical. Ecumenical, which means highly Roman Catholic. So his five books on prayer, his top five books on prayer,

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Christianity Today, are all those kind of books. Number one, his top book is

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A Guide to Prayer from Ministers and Other Servants, Ruben Job, or Ruben Job, I don't know, and Norman Shah.

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This is a biblical show, therefore it's Ruben Job. Yes. And here he says, this is the book that first showed me that prayer is more than talking to God whenever I want, whatever

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I want. In its pages, I met the monks and the mystics and the poets, et cetera, et cetera.

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The second one is the Book of Prayer, which— I just want to finish that. Yeah, yeah, okay, keep going.

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He said, I met the monks and mystics and poets and pilgrims who have continued to draw me into the mystery of prayer.

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What's mysterious about prayer, and why do you need these people to draw you into it? Well, since it's hard and people don't like to pray, and it's difficult to get on your knees and pour yourself, pour your hearts out to God, then you've got to make it mystical.

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You've got to have incense. You've got to have prayer walks. It's that esoteric—and I'll use some words that people go, what's that?

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You know, neo -Gnostic. It's this kind of higher knowledge. We're all so spiritual, you know, kind of nobody knows how to be spiritual.

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Yeah, we have to turn to these people who cloistered themselves and, you know, never bathed for months.

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And that's how we learn how to pray, by listening to those people. Well, you know, if he had one mystical one on here,

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Steve, I guess everybody's got— Yeah, because, you know, maybe there were some insights given by—

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Sights and sounds. —peyote or whatever. That's my line. I'm sorry. The Book of Common Prayer.

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We can probably talk about that another time. I just don't think the newer Common Book of Prayer is that good, although there's probably a few good things in there.

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The Rule of St. Benedict. I didn't even know he was in charge of anything. The Rule— Thoughts in Solitude, Thomas Merton.

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Yeah. Father Louie Merton was known as Father Louie. Did you know that? That sounds like Edwin Seidman.

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Papa Louie, to the Jews foist and then the Gentiles. This is the first book—this is a shout out to our good friend

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Edwin. This is the first book I downloaded onto my iPhone when I was driving across the bridge to the 21st century.

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That's him, not me. The Book of Hours, Prayers to a Lowly God. I don't want to pray to a lowly god.

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Do you want to pray to a lowly god? I don't want to. Reichle is my favorite poet, and his book on prayers is based on the monastic hours, and it opened up to me the way of ancient prayer.

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Ancient prayer. I mean, when I hear those terms, like, it opened up to me, you know, some kind of mystical or whatever, it makes me think of, like, the

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New Age spirit guides or something. It just sounds— Yeah, it sounds pretty sketchy. Well, today on No Sketchy Radio, we've been talking about a few things that are just in the news.

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And so Christianity's in the news. Ergon Cantor's in the news. Christianity is today, and it's astray.

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That's right. Orange shirts and ADT, they're all in the news today. So if you'd like to write us at info at No Compromise Radio, we'd love to have you.

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By the way, Steve is going to do 10 shows this summer, especially solo, so you want to tune into those.

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Yes, you do. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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.

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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.

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You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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