Radek Kolarik Interview (Part 1)

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00:12

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My in -studio guest is looking at that board now with that cool new intro.

00:20

So what do you think of that, Radik? Very cool. Very cool. Very nice. Good to be back.

00:26

A little different than the English beat. My name is Mike Abendroth. You're listening to No Compromise Radio Ministry, and I have a friend who's back on No Compromise Radio.

00:36

I haven't been to see him recently, but he comes to see me once in a while. Radik is here, and I am going to try to pronounce his last name.

00:44

I always think it's funny when people mispronounce my last name, but here, Kolarzyk, no,

00:49

Kolarzyk. Kolarzyk. Kolarzyk. Kolarzyk. Kolarzyk. You did great. Oh, no.

00:55

Night out of ten. I hate it. I'm starting to sweat already. Radik, how did we meet?

01:01

I think the first time we met was back in EBTC in Germany. I think you were my professor for preaching in a seminary.

01:08

Do you remember what I called the little pulpit that I gave you men to preach from in our little class?

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I don't, but I remember that you made us preach over a freshly made grave.

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I told Christian there, I need a ride for all the students. We need to go to the cemetery to preach to the tombs.

01:28

So what you can't see, Radik, is just to my left across that highway, there's a

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Catholic cemetery there, a small one. And so I take the men in the preaching classes here over there to preach to the dead men's bones.

01:40

We were scared to death when you did that, but honestly, it was like a really, really good experience. And whenever we walk around cemeteries back in the

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Czech, I tell people about that experience. Well, you know what, Radik, one of the things about it is it's a good visual picture for even preaching to believers.

01:57

Unless the Spirit of God is working, nothing's going to happen. Right? So we're dependent upon the Spirit of God. It was

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Spurgeon who said, I say many times on the way up to the pulpit, this is

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Spurgeon talking, I believe in the Holy Ghost. I believe in the Holy Ghost. I believe in the Holy Ghost. How do you say Holy Spirit in Czech?

02:15

Duch svaty. Duch svaty. Duch svaty. Okay. And actually, that's probably another thing

02:20

I learned from you in the preaching class, because at our church, we have four or five steps when you go to the pulpit.

02:26

And I think ever since the preaching class with you, that's what I try to remember.

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You know, I'm dependent on the Holy Ghost. So I learned one or two things from you. I am so happy. That's why we have you back on the show.

02:38

And do you remember what Spurgeon said as he descended the pulpit stairs? One of the stories?

02:43

Well, you know, it was a good sermon. Somebody praised the sermon, right? And he's like, yeah, the

02:50

Satan just told me the same thing. The exact same thing. Yeah. So good. It's fun to talk about Baptists, isn't it?

02:56

You still a Baptist? Yes, sir. I know your theology matures, as all of ours should, but I'm just checking to see if you're still a

03:02

Baptist. Yes, sir. We still baptize, you know, not babies, but when you confess

03:08

Jesus Christ as the Lord. So Radek, speaking of which, tell our listeners a little bit about where you baptize folks, because the building you're in has no baptismal font, right?

03:19

Yes. Yeah. So, you know, in our town, we did a church plant some 15 years ago, and we are renting an old disco hall.

03:28

So just say that one more time. Even with his Czech accent, I can, I understand what he's saying. An old disco hall.

03:35

Disco hall or dance hall. Yeah. That's it. Does it have a disco ball up there still? For the first two Sundays, it did, and then my wife made me to take it down.

03:44

No, yeah, it was there for first Sunday, maybe, and then we realized it needs to come down.

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That is classic. What did it smell like when you first went in there? It smelled awful. No, you know, it was, it's a normal place where people would come and dance and, and with a bar and everything.

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But in our town, we needed a place because, because our church was growing, and this, this was the only place we were able to rent, and it didn't have any baptistry.

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So you know, if you, if you walk for 10 minutes away from our church, there is a pond. So usually we baptize people in the pond, unless they are sick or, or it's like middle of the winter and they have some serious like health issues, then we have like a large bucket kind of a thing that we bring inside of our church.

04:33

So I remember you taking me to the building where the church meets, and then I also remember you taking me on a walk to go see that spot where you would baptize people.

04:41

If it's in the middle of the winter and there's ice on the little pond lake area and people are in good health, what do you do?

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Yes. Well, we try to convince them that we should wait for the baptism. No, no.

04:54

So you know what, once we had a, we had a dear sister and she was from a non -believing family and she was looking forward to be baptized for so long.

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And her parents, you know, they told her like, you know, if you get baptized, you literally can pack your bags, pack your bags, and you know, like you have nothing to do with us.

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So back then she decided that, you know, she will honor them and she'll wait until she's 18. And when she turned 18, it was, it was, it was in the winter, right?

05:22

And she's like, I need to, I need to get, I need to get baptized. And I was like, well, there is ice in the water, you know, and she's like, yeah,

05:29

I know. I'm like, well, why don't you go and try the water, hoping that she will change her mind. And she went and tried the water.

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She came back next week and she's like, I need to get baptized. You know, and this is, I don't know, this is maybe like 15 years ago.

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So, you know, and it was, it was so, so encouraging to see somebody that was looking forward to get baptized for, for so long.

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Finally, they can, you know, I honor my parents. I waited until I'm 18, which is the legal age, you know, in the

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Czech. And, you know, I don't care if the water is cold. I don't care if there is ice. So we did a baptism,

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I think, in like two weeks later. So there was no ice anymore, but the water was still like, still very cold.

06:10

Speaking of the church, can you translate the name of the church into English? What's it called? Yeah, it's just, you know,

06:16

Christians of Kuzim. So Kuzim, that's the name of our town and Křesťané Kuzim, Christians of Kuzim or, you know.

06:23

And how far are you from Prague? We are two hours from Prague. Prague is the capital city. So we are two hours, you know, you hop on a highway.

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But we are right next to the second largest city in the Czech, which is Brno. So, you know, we are like a suburbs of Brno kind of a thing.

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But when we came there 20 years ago, there was no Bible teaching church there. 10 ,000 people. Now it's probably 12 ,000 people.

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It's growing. No Bible teaching church back then. And by God's grace, there is a church there now. And we praise

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God for that. Radek, if I walked into a church service there, what would

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I hear? What would I see? What would I not see? In other words, what's your church known for, if you had to say, this is what we do at this church?

07:09

So by God's grace, I hope, and it seems that we are known for, you know, preaching the

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Bible, preaching the word, going through the books of the Bible verse by verse, and just trying to depend on the power of God's word, you know.

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So we actually, you know, like, often we have people come into our church, and, you know, they're in their own church, and often they come and they say, you know what, we are sick and tired of being hungry every single

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Sunday. You know, they go to church, and they don't hear the preaching of the word. They hear stories, they hear psychology, they hear all these kind of things.

07:48

And because they are hungry, they go online, they find our sermons, and they come, and they are thankful, and grow, and it's…

07:58

Sounds like that happens all around the world, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah. In America and the Czech? Yeah, yeah. You know, that's what you guys taught us, you know, like,

08:06

I don't know, like, 15 years ago, or whenever we were in a seminary, like, the lessons that I learned from you and other faithful men were, you depend on the word.

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You know, it's the word that does the work. It's the word that, you know, divides the, you know, the heart and the thoughts of the heart, and it's

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God's word. You know, you don't have to defend it. You just need to preach it. You need to be faithful, and that's the truth.

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You know, it's like, it's so encouraging, because you just open up the Bible, you read the passage, you explain the passage, you help the people to apply the passage, you try to make

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Jesus great. I mean, He's great, but like, you know, like a focus on Christ, and people are growing by God's grace.

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What if you had to do all the work yourself? I mean, what kind of job would that be?

08:53

I mean, all the different people and background and problems, and if the Lord didn't do the work, I mean, it's crazy.

09:00

We'd be balder than we are. I'm sorry? We would be more bald than we are if we had to do it on our own.

09:06

Oh, my goodness. No, it's like, you know, I'm sure it's the same here at church. It's like, you look back and you see, you know, it's

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God giving you the strength. It's God's work, and God works in the people through His word. So, yeah.

09:20

Amen. Radek, you're by a big town without, let's see, there's,

09:25

I guess there is a vowel in there. B -R -N -O, right? Yes. Yeah, good job. What's it mean? I have no idea.

09:34

I have no idea. Where'd you learn your English? You speak well. Oh, thank, well, thank you.

09:40

But so, I grew up in Prague. I grew up in the capital, and in our church, we often had missionaries.

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So, you know, I just took them through Prague, and you pick up the language. I studied English in my school, and then

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I fell in love with American, and once you fell in love with an American girl, you have all the motivation to learn

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English as good, I mean, as fast as possible, you know. So, that was the deal breaker for me. So, you drove here this morning to Massachusetts from Maine.

10:11

From Maine. And so, Laura's family's from Maine, right? Yes. Yeah. Right. Yeah, she's from Maine. Where'd you meet her? I met her in a

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Czech. So, in a Czech, 20 years ago, they started this Christian camp, and they needed

10:24

English teachers to come over to Czech, teach the students English.

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So, Laura and a bunch of other students came over, and then they needed Czech Christians to be the counselors for the students, and she came over.

10:40

I came there, and... What question did you tell her, or did you ask her when you needed counseling?

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Did you ask her for counseling? How do I meet an American girl? Give me good counsel?

10:52

Now, you brought me some things from the Czech Republic, but let's only mention one. The hazelnuts?

10:58

Yeah, no, we maybe can talk about that later. You brought me over something, some soda that's the equivalent of something that's from Maine, and some people that listen that aren't local won't get this, but tell me what you brought me.

11:12

So, I brought you the Czech version of moxie, which is kofola. So, when

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I first came to Maine, I don't know, 20 years ago, I learned that there is something called moxie, and you either love it or hate it, and I'm the guy who...

11:27

It's not my favorite. They even have diet moxie now, but I'm going to try this

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Czech version. It's got some weird chemical in it. I can't remember what. No, it's just a bunch of herbs.

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I think there's like 15 herbs in it. So, it's like a Coke loaded with herbs.

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I'm going to lick it up right now. Hopefully, you're not allergic to any of them. I would have to try to kill you again, but you want to drink it chilled.

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You want to drink it with ice. They say it kills the flavor. Or you just guzzle it down.

12:01

No, so you'll either like it or you'll hate it. So, it's kofola, yeah. Tell me about your family.

12:08

Your son is here, but tell me about your other children. Yeah. So, you know, been married by God's grace for 20 years, and God blessed us with nine children.

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Say that one more time. God blessed us with nine children. Okay, I wanted to get your... Do you have to rent two cars when you go places?

12:25

No, no, no. So, you know, I always say that six of those children, God allowed us to rejoice with them right here, right now.

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And between number five and number six, we have three that we are going to rejoice one day, you know, by the

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Lord. So, we still fit in one car, but we cannot push it, you know.

12:47

If I'll go any further, then I'll probably need to get a bus or something. Well, when I was in Germany and in Europe with four children, people looked at us like we were

12:55

Mormons or something. Here, moxie, according to Wikipedia, is a carbonated beverage that was one of the first mass -produced soft drinks in the

13:03

United States. It was created in 1876 as a medicine called moxie nerve food and was produced in Lowell, Massachusetts.

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Similar to root beer with a bitter aftertaste, it is flavored with a gentian root extract commonly used in herbal medicine.

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It's nowhere close to root beer at all. It's a lie.

13:29

Don't believe Wikipedia. So, today we have Radek on No Compromise Radio Ministries show.

13:36

And I'd like to next dive in, Radek, to some of the past of the Czech Republic. You said you went to Prague or grew up there and you take people there.

13:46

Tell us about Bethlehem Chapel. Who was the pastor and why he was so important? Yeah. So, you know, you go back to Luther, right?

13:54

Like when you talk about Reformation, everybody knows about Luther. Everybody knows about Calvin and Wycliffe. And before them, probably a hundred years before Luther, there was this guy called

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Jan Hus, John Hus. And he lived in Prague. He was a Roman Catholic priest and he laid his hands on Wycliffe's teaching.

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So, there was a university in Prague and a university, you know, where Wycliffe worked.

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Was he Oxford, maybe? I tried to avoid those names because I wasn't really sure.

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So, I tried to look smart. But what I know is, you know, there were students who went there and they discovered

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Wycliffe. They brought his writings back and Hus, working at a university, being a

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Roman Catholic priest, you know, he started reading him. And I would love to say that he was like fully

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Reformed and all of that. He wasn't, right? Like he was a hundred years before Luther.

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But God used him to even like, basically,

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Luther said that we are all Husites. We are all followers of Hus, you know. So, God used

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Hus in the life of Luther and God used Luther to Reform his church.

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And he preached in Prague. And one thing that was super special about him was that he preached in Czech.

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So, back then, everybody preached in Latin, which means that people had no idea what's being preached, right? It's just a ceremony.

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Nobody knows what's going on. But Hus wanted the people to understand the

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Word of God. So, he preached in Czech. He got in a lot of trouble because of that with the Roman Catholic Church, and they ended up burning him at a stake in Constance.

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So, he died. He died for his faith. He died for, I would say, preaching the gospel, you know, in the best way he understood it with the resources he had.

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And for me, he's a hero of faith, you know. Jared Polin, M .D.: Amen. I think, and I could be wrong, but when

16:01

I'm in the town square in Prague, they've got a special clock that everybody looks at and everything.

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And I think on the ground, there are some crosses, 14 crosses or something. Peter T. Leeson, M .D.: 27. Jared Polin, M .D.:

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27. And what do those represent? Peter T. Leeson, M .D.: Okay. So, they represent 27

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Czech leaders who were beheaded right there on the square in a spot where the crosses are on a sidewalk.

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And the reason why they were beheaded was because they were Protestants. So, it was in a time when the Roman Catholics took over.

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They took over back of Bohemia or Czech. And people had, you know, two choices.

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You either convert back to Catholicism or you leave the country. And some people left, you know, persecution.

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So, people are leaving. Some people stayed. And those 27 lords were beheaded.

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One of them was Roman Catholic. So, 26 plus one. And the reason for the one

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Roman Catholic is that the Roman Catholics, right, if you're a Roman Catholic and you behead 27

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Protestants, you are doing it because they're Protestants, right? But if you throw in one Roman Catholic, then nobody can accuse you of being anti -Protestant.

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So, that's the story behind those crosses. And those guys laid their life for what they believed and for not converting to the false gospel of Rome.

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Peter T. Leeson, M .D.: It's a great word. It's a sad word picture in my mind, Radek, when I see all the people in Prague.

17:35

Nothing wrong with shopping and seeing tourist sites and buying things, but they just walk over those crosses like you're nothing.

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Radek Appelbaum, M .D.: No, that's one super sad thing. You know, Czech Republic has so much of a history, like when it comes to Christianity and proclaiming the gospel.

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And you're talking about Has and people who followed Has. They tried to follow Christ, you know, but they followed

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Has and, you know, Has inspired Luther and Luther carried the torch and stuff like that.

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And people walk on those crosses, have no idea. And on the same square, you remember there is this huge statue of John Has.

18:14

I mean, it's monumental. And on the bottom, it says the same thing that it's on the cup that I just gave you, you know, like the slogan, the motto that Has had, you know, hold the truth, preach the truth, love the truth, because the truth will save you from sin and from Satan and from eternal punishment.

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And obviously, what he meant by that is the truth is Christ, right? Like you preach Christ, you love

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Christ, you follow Christ, and it's right there and people can read it and people can see it.

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And in their deadness, you know, because they are dead in their sins, they can care less about it.

18:51

Pete T. Leeson, M .D.: Well, compared to America, where we take down statues of somebody that's not perfect, right?

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That's the craziest thing. Let's take down the Robert E. Lee statue. Was he a perfect man? No, but you have statues because he did some admirable things.

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Similarly, I don't want Martin Luther King Jr. statues taken down, even though he was a serial adulterer and denied some tenets of the faith.

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He's up there because he was instrumental in civil rights stuff. And so, tell me about the 27 martyrs.

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Were they after Jan Hus or before? Jared Polin, M .D.: They were after. Pete T. Leeson, M .D.: They were after. Okay. And then if you go to Bethlehem Chapel now, do people meet there or is it just a tourist site, an ancient place?

19:33

Jared Polin, M .D.: You know what, I wish people would take it as a tourist site. So, right now it's owned by the

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Czech University, I mean, Prague University. So, the university where Hus worked, you know, centuries ago, they owned the

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Bethlehem Chapel. So, it's used for like a ceremony, you know, when you have like a graduation or something like that, it would happen there.

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And it's just so sad because in Prague, there is this huge cathedral right on a hill and it has the stained glass, it has like the tall ceilings and all the fancy -schmancy golden statues and pictures in it.

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And you get tens of thousands of people there every single day, right? Because, you know, that's the beautiful thing to see.

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And then you come to Bethlehem Chapel, which is just white walls, maybe with like some lyrics to songs or something like that.

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And there's nobody there. You know, it's like even the contrast between like what interests people.

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You know, the people go to these big churches for the architecture and for the pictures. But for me, it's like I always love to take people like you and others to the

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Bethlehem Chapel. It's super plain because the focus was on preaching, the focus was on Bible, the focus was on Christ.

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So you didn't need all these like fancy -schmancy crazy things around. And it's just so sad.

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You know, another thing that is sad is like when Hus preached there, you would have like 3 ,000, 4 ,000 people meeting there.

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So they didn't even have chairs in the Bethlehem Chapel. People were standing. It was packed. People were outside of the

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Bethlehem Chapel because they couldn't get in, just hungry for the Word of God. And he would preach a couple times a week. And the princess or the queen of Prague or whatever her title was, you know, she would be coming there and she loved the preaching in the

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Czech, you know, so she would come there and she would be his supporter. And hopefully, you know, like the good thing is that even throughout the centuries, right now, they say the

21:36

Czech Republic is one of the most atheistic countries in the world. Like they say that like less than 1 % is like evangelical.

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So we have 10 million people, less than 1 % is born -again evangelical people. But we are hoping and praying that God will bring another reformation, you know, like people are hungry for the

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Word of God again. People are not satisfied with mimics and, you know, like crazy things that are going on in the churches these days.

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They're hungry for the Word of God. And, you know, if pastors are faithful in preaching it, then

22:11

God is blessing that. And that's a good thing. Hey, man,

22:16

I am thankful for that title even of Bethlehem Chapel because I pastor a church called Bethlehem Bible Church, and I never really liked

22:22

Bethlehem. I know it's about Jesus, baby, infant. I mean, it means house of bread.

22:28

So you get fed here, I think of that. But I'm mainly thankful because of Bethlehem Chapel because I think, okay, great.

22:35

What's hus mean in Czech? Goose. Yeah. What's the story behind that? Well, the story behind it is that, well, it's a story.

22:43

I'm not sure if it happened. But, you know, when they were ready to kill

22:50

Hus, it's being said that he said something like, well, you know, like, you can kill this goose.

22:56

You can burn this, you know, goose. Sorry about my accent.

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But they are going to be like, you know, like other geesees coming after me.

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And the interesting thing is that on some pictures. So, you know, if you look at the portraits of Martin Luther, sometimes behind him, there's a picture of a real goose.

23:20

And that should be like a connection to Hus. And they were going to cook his goose, right?

23:25

They were going to cook the goose. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. At the funeral pyre. Well, Radek, I'm super glad you're here today.

23:32

Driving down from Maine, and you said your son needs some driving hours at night. Is that for America or is that for the

23:39

Czech? No, that's for you guys. So in the Czech, you can start driving when you are 18. But here you can get your permit.

23:47

Learner's permit. Learner's permit when you are 15. So he's 15 and he did all his whatever he needed to do, all his classes and stuff.

23:57

And he started driving. And I'm just almost crying, weeping, because like your daughter,

24:05

I mean, your son just got married. Your daughter got married two years ago. And I just realized the other day, like my son is 15,

24:10

I might be a grandfather in like four years. And I had a nervous breakdown. I was like, oh,

24:16

I'm getting old. Well, Radek, everyone says, you know, older people, oh, time goes by fast, spend time with their children.

24:23

You know, you wake up and they're gone. And I realized when I was younger, that was a true fact, right?

24:29

But then experientially, when it happens, and then they're out of the house, and then my wife and I are the only ones home.

24:37

And, you know, one of the signs of us having an empty nest is we don't buy loaves of bread anymore.

24:43

We buy like the quarter loaf. Like, oh, we don't, you don't have to buy a dozen eggs, you just buy just a couple.

24:54

Well, Radek, we'll talk about this next show, but winding down here, episode one. If someone wants, a church wants to support you, or somebody individually wants to support you, and they say,

25:07

I'm so happy that in the middle of the Czech Republic, there's a Bible teaching Christ -centered church, and we'll talk next episode about your needs for a building, because you'd like to get out of the disco, right?

25:19

Yes, sir. It's going to cost a million dollars to get out of the disco, not to get out, but to build something. If people want to send money, or they'd like to have a link or something like that to your church, because they've got a friend that speaks

25:31

Czech, just email me, mikeatnocompromiseradio .com, mikeatnocompromiseradio .com,

25:37

and ask me about how to get in touch with Radek, and then I'll make sure I forward that information. Sounds good?

25:43

Thank you. All right. Well, we are live, and I'm trying to figure out how to do the outro now on No Compromise Radio.

25:50

You know, one of the things I have, Radek, is I have things like this that I didn't have on the other ones.

25:56

You want answers? I think I'm entitled. You want answers? I want the truth! You can't handle the truth!

26:03

You did not know I had those, did you? No! Okay. That's awesome. I think we have other ones, too.

26:08

Let's just— Do you have R6 Pro? What's wrong with you people? No, I have this, though. It was impossible, because I'm supposed to push these buttons.

26:19

Crazy. All right. Come and see it. All right. We're good. I'm going to stick with what

26:27

I'm good at. This is Mike Avendrall with No Compromise Radio. Thankful to have Radek on the show today. Have a good night.