Salvation By Allegiance Alone

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. It has been several weeks. Hey, Jetty.

The little NoCo mascot is here. Jetty, where is it? Where�s the kitty? Meow! Where�s the kitty? She was getting tired of staying home alone, so I thought I�d bring her into the studio, and now she�s just wandering around.

I think she�s almost 12, 13 years old, something like that. What�s that in dog years? 969 Methuselah, Methuselah. Anyway, I haven�t been in the studio for a while. I was in Israel, and then we were�oh, I guess I was in the studio last week.

But anyway, back in action today, still trying to figure out do I want to go for a half-hour show or not. Troy in California said he likes the 25-minute show because he can load about 50 rounds of ammo during those 25 minutes.

So Troy, Troy-zan, this is for you. I don�t know. I think I�ll, you know, after eight years, I will have felt like I�m ripping people off or something if it�s not a daily show, and I can�t go daily one hour.

Who needs to talk to me for�hear me talk for one hour every day? Crazy. All right, lots of things to talk about. I guess we could talk about the preacher�s Bible. We could talk about the New American Standard 2020, the update, updated update.

We could talk about lots of things. But I want to talk today about a book by Matthew Bates, Salvation by Allegiance Alone, Baker Academic 2017. Now we had discussed this book a little bit in the past, but it just came out again.

There was the new, I want to say, BibleStudyMagazine .com, that is correct. And, of course, within the last, oh, I don�t know, year or so, I�ve especially been bothered by people that deny sola fide in one way, shape, or form, putting the sola back into sola fide, justification by faith alone.

Any type of obedience, any type of law or merit, when it comes to justification by faith alone, must be reserved to the person and work of Christ Jesus, because to merit anything before God, it�s going to have to be perfectly done, and there�s only one person who could perfectly do these things.

Oh, I know what else I�m going to talk as I�m listening to myself speak. Therefore, if you�re going to have an initial justification by Christ�s perfect work credited to our account, and our sins, of course, at Calvary, credited to Christ�s account, and then you want to talk about a final justification, not a vindication per se, not the evidence shown, but talk of a final justification.

Maybe it�s for good reasons, maybe you don�t want people to live licentiously, and you�ve got to kind of corral them a little bit. Maybe you somehow think Romans 8 wants the textual variant there. There has to be something more than just there�s no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.

Full stop. I mean, that could lead to craziness, couldn�t it? That could lead to people letting their hair down. That could lead to wine in the communion cups instead of real juice. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Some manuscripts, my ESV study Bible says, add who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. And even there, most people when they talk about sola fide, I don�t even really think they talk about that textual variant.

But nonetheless, irregardless, my daughter the other day said, �Regardless. I thought, that was excellent, honey. Good job. There�s lots of talk about final justification, and Norman Shepard comes up, Richard Baxter comes up, and Schreiner comes up, Piper comes up, N .T. Wright, of course, comes up.

And now we have this new book, Salvation by Allegiance Alone. Before I look at anything else, by the way, the subtitle of the book is called �Henno�. It�s called �Forget You. I saw in the Facebook comments the other day, I have one word for you, �Forget You.

Now, that is a loyal listener. That is loyalty. Salvation by Allegiance Alone, subtitled �Rethinking Faith, Works, and the Gospel of Jesus the King. Alright, if it�s going to be something that�s close to the title, unless they�re just trying to smoke us out with the title, I don�t think so, though, because I�ve read other reviews.

Salvation by Allegiance Alone. So if you need to be saved from your sins, from the wrath of God, from eternal punishment, you need to have allegiance to God. Okay, the first question that comes to mind is, how much allegiance?

That should be the question everybody�s asking, because it actually should have�it�s going to have to be�if it�s something besides faith, and remember, faith isn�t meritorious. It�s an instrument, but it�s not meritorious.

Faith is saying, �I don�t have anything in and of myself. I have to look to another. I have to take the word of another with knowledge, assent, trust. I�m resting in the work of another. Does that make sense?

Then if I�m saved by allegiance alone, how much allegiance do I need? Who determines how much allegiance? And the answer is always found in whoever wrote the book. If you are saved by faith and treasuring Christ�I won�t mention any names at the moment�then who determines how much treasuring you have to do?

And I would say it�s the person who�s writing the book, or who started maybe a movement on Christian hedonism, maybe. Maybe the dog. She finally laid down. She got bored. Salvation by allegiance alone.

Now, this free thing that I get with Christianity Today�I�m sorry to say I just re-upped for three years. I guess it makes good radio� $79. Bible Study Today magazine has a little review. Now, I haven�t read the review, but it�s by James Matichuk.

Not magic, but Matichuk. M-A-T-I-C-H-U-K. I�m going to�this is going to be a little test to see if James gets it right, all right? Matthew Bates doesn�t get it right, but let�s see if James gets it right.

My guess is they�re trying to sell this book, because it�s got other things here, the NAS, Accuracy You Can Trust, you�ve got Logos, i .e. Logos, March Madness, Favorite Books, Faith Life, get your Catholic resources here.

Let�s see what it says, all right? This is fun. At least it�s fun to me. It�s a Monday. I don�t like Mondays, and of course, this week is Mounday, Thursday, and I don�t like Moundays either. What is it with Mounday, Thursday?

That�s what I�d like to know. I mean, seriously, we�re going to have�how many different Roman Catholic little holidays are we going to get in one week, right? I don�t like Mondays. We know the Boomtown Rats, don�t we, Bob Geldof?

What do you think that was? That was probably 1979, 1980, or something like that. Remember how it began? Salvation by allegiance alone. Rethinking faith works in the Gospel of Jesus the King. That�s the problem right there.

I don�t want to rethink it at all. Silicon. It�s not even silicone. It�s silicon. All right. Here�s what James Medichick said, �Faith in Jesus has come to mean belief in the saving work of Jesus� cross.

Okay. What reason do I need to give up Sola Fide? Man, he looks young on that video. But what are the implications of faith for how we live today? What is the relationship between faith and works? Matthew Bates, assistant professor of theology at Quincy University�the way we pronounce that here in New England is Quincy, but I don�t know how they pronounce it there�enlarges our vision, uh-oh, of faith by positing that it involves not mere belief, but allegiance to Jesus, the risen reigning King.

Okay. If he means trust, I�m all for it. Then just say trust. Notitia is knowledge, right? Assensus is assent to that knowledge. You have to know facts, but then you give hearty affirmation to those facts.

And then it is fiducia, fiduciar. And that is like a fiduciary establishment�I can hear her panting�establishment that you trust. It�s a banking establishment that you can trust. Faith, we would know, has nothing to do with knowledge, assent, and obedience.

It's knowledge, assent, and trust, because we have to put ourselves recognizing again in the covenant of works what has to be perfectly obeyed. The law, everything, and we can't do that. This idea proposed in the first chapter is fleshed out in chapters focusing on Paul's letters and Gospels, sorry, the Gospels, and implications of faith as allegiance to the risen and reigning King.

Fail. Later chapters address related topics, resurrection and new creation, the problem of idolatry, Jesus and our image-bearing, counsels of Trent, the nature of justification in Scripture, and to your right.

I added that in there. A concluding chapter considers what it means to practical allegiance. Well, I'm going to tell you right now, it's going to have to mean practical allegiance like full bore, like full throttle with your little Yamaha 125 racing clutch motorcycle.

Bates offers a compelling case for understanding faith, pistis, that's the Greek word, as allegiance. Those who have followed the recent academic debates, especially between Piper and Wright, N .T. Wright, on the nature of faith will find the book illuminating, yet it remains accessible for readers who are unaware of this context offering practical discussion of theological matters shaping the church's mission.

This book will be helpful for students, pastors, and lay Christians alike. That's by James Madichik. I don't like this review. Fail. I don't like this review. I don't like the title. I don't like anything that takes us away, especially just after the 500th year anniversary of Luther, Wittenberg, 1517, sola fide.

But it just doesn't end, does it? You've got Baxter, and he is the chaplain for the new model army, Cromwell, lots of people say they're Christians, but they don't act like it, so what do we do? What we don't do is mess around with sola fide.

Just go to Heidelblog or Scott Clark and type in sola fide, faith alone, and you'll get a lot of articles that you can read set especially in the context, historical context, so that you might avoid things like this.

Don't read the Piper Bright stuff. That's not going to help you as much as Heidelblog will, or Heidelcast, or Heidelberg Catechism. All right. What else is on here? The Boomtown Rats, I don't like Mondays.

If you just scroll down along with that, you've got Bob Geldof Reveals the Truth, Michael Jackson Beat It, Michael Jackson, Billie Jean, Live Aid, Boomtown Rats, Top 21 Hit Wonders of the 80s, and I think there was other music that we used at last show, wasn't there?

What is that? That's called an ad for a Napa leather. All right, so I know some of you have been wanting to have new music for the intro. I think it's going to be Ceremony by New Order. That's in the number one lead right now, but there are other musics that come up.

This is probably right here, number two for No Compromise Radio. New Compromise Radio, No Compromise Radio, I mean, that is just, can't you imagine? Welcome to No Compromise Radio. It's Mike Eberdroth here, going back to the 60s, Sly Stone, The Temptation, P-Funk, et al.

The other thing in this BibleStudyMagazine .com that is just completely off the deep end, Easter and the Gospel of Peter by Rick Brannan. Didn't he sink the winning shot for North Carolina State a long time ago, Archimandrus?

A document known as the Gospel of Peter circulated in the early church but was never adopted in the canon of Scripture. Hallelujah. The historian Eusebius records that Serapion, Serapion, that sounds better, Bishop of Antioch died circa 211.

Approved of reading the Gospel of Peter, I mean, I approve of you reading 1984 by George Orwell. Later, Eusebius reports that Serapion changed his mind. Okay, read Huxley then, Brave New World. Refuting the grounds, the book on the grounds of doceticism, Jesus only seemed to be human.

He appeared human only. Where's the dog? Where's the kitty? Meow. Where's the kitty? He's running around. Available portions of the Gospel of Peter record events of the crucifixion including key details from the canonical Gospels while also providing otherwise unknown details about salvation by allegiance alone.

Made that up. Of course, the extra information, the early church, excuse me, cannot be considered canonical or historical but it does tell us what the early church would have been aware of. Insert music here.

In the excerpt below, it's not excerpt by the way, it's excerpt. In the excerpt below, soldiers at Jesus' tomb see the sealed stone roll itself away? See the sealed stone roll itself open and two young men, angels, enter.

While they wake up their sleeping superiors, they see three men exit the tomb, two angels carrying Jesus with a large cross following them. This walking, talking cross affirms that the dead in the underworld have received the preaching of Jesus.

I've heard it all. I've heard it all. If I had a Brian Eno song, I'd introduce it here. The walking, talking cross. I mean, this is veggie tales except made out of pine, made out of wood. Maybe it's balsam.

Maybe it's redwood or something like that. All right, here we go. It's going to tell us a little bit here. This is the excerpt. Now on the night when the Lord's day was drawing on, as the soldiers kept guard two by two and a watch, there was a great voice in heaven and they saw the heavens opened and two men descend from there with much light and come close under the tomb.

And the stone that had been cast at the door rolled away of itself and made way in part and the tomb was opened and both the young man entered in. The soldiers, therefore, when they saw it, awakened the centurion and the elders for they were also there keeping watch.

And as they told the things that they had seen again, they saw three men coming from the tomb. Two of them supporting the other and a cross following them. And the head of the two reached to heaven, but that of him who was led by them over past the heavens, I read that perfectly by the way.

And they heard a voice from the heavens saying, you preach to the ones who are sleeping. And a response was heard from the cross. Yes. Yes. End quote. That is from the Gospel of Peter, chapter 9, verses 35 through 42, translated by Brannon, Greek Apogrypha Gospels, Fragments and Agrapha, 74 to 75.

I know, I need a new website, I know. By the way, there is a new website coming out and it's not working yet, but it's going to be working pretty soon. SermonCritique .com and it's a new, no compromise radio ministry.

Bonus, it's a bonus. I hope it gives me a bonus. I critique sermons for fun, sometimes, with great disdain, sometimes my own. And I help the master seminary, I watch the doctorate of ministry students, pastors, preach sermons and try to help them.

And some people can't afford the $20 ,000 to go to master seminary or any other seminary for that matter, and they would like to have a little tune up, a little finishing school, a little fine tuning, a little verb added to their preaching, a little caffeinated help.

What's the nitro coffee kind of thing? And I'm going to start doing that. My kids are getting older, my kids are in college, the master seminary does pay me to do that very thing and so I think I'm going to do the same thing.

If you've got a pastor that could use a little tune up, everybody of course can, we all can as pastors and preachers, then we want the church to help out your pastor and then it will take me an hour to two hours to watch the video.

I will Skype the pastor for an hour, helping him work on both what he says, but mainly how he says what he says, assuming that he's going to preach the gospel, and then he sends me another video when I watch that and that kind of thing.

So by the time you get this, it might be live, it might be ready. If not, you can write me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com and I will try to help you out. If I could do a couple of those a month, that would be great, that would be great.

That will pay for some co-pays, that's true, co-pays. And dentist, man, I got the dentist bill the other day, I could not hardly believe it. I told my son to go, get his teeth all fixed, and my daughter, when they were home for school, and I'm like, it's on my dime, not yours, you know, I've got insurance, but it was already full, it was already maxed out, so it's like the cash, oh.

So we have to start SermonCritique .com. I mean, really, this Easter and the gospel of Peter, thoughts from the Church Fathers, what does it have to do with Easter? There's a cross walking around and talking, and I mean, this is like for some kids.

This is for kids at a really bad, you know, Mormon school or something that's defunct now, a Desiree defunct fifth grade class, the walking, talking cross. I've never, I actually, this might be the stupidest thing I've ever heard on No Compromise Radio, Easter and the gospel of Peter, thoughts from the Church Fathers.

What's the thought? How ridiculous this is? It was never adopted into the canon of Scripture, and some dude, Serapion, Al Pacino Serpico, decided to start reading it, and then he changed his mind. It was crazy.

If you've got crazy things, you can always send it to me. We don't get that many emails anymore, but that's all right. That's okay. I still feel okay. I still feel fine. Just be that way. At least Troy still listens because he's got some ammo.

I was going to go to Troy's house in California when I was there, but he couldn't get the pool ready in time. He has a lap pool, and it's in the shape of a gun. I'm not kidding you, Troy. I'm not kidding.

So today on the show, what do we have? Justification by allegiance? No, by faith alone, you're trusting in what Jesus did. And then walking, talking crosses? I think not. Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio, mike at nocompromiseradio .com.

If you want to hear about the 2020 Israel trip, we can talk about that. If you want to talk about sermon critique, maybe you want to pay for your pastor to get a little... That'd be hard to do, though.

Hey, Pastor, I paid for some advice for you.

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

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.