The Puppy Bible (rerun)

Galatians 2 and the Purpose of No Compromise Radio

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 ministry. Steve, are you on? Steve, Steve, Steve. Good and talk. Steve, Steve, are you on? Steve, I hope so. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Steve, tell me a little bit about your background.

Maybe there's a listener out there that just tuned in and they said, we heard Tuesday's a really good show to listen to some theological banter. So who is the bantery here?

And who's the banterer? And tell us about yourself. I am definitely the banterer. Let's see, tell you about myself. Well, when you said background, my first thought was beige.

Well, yeah, okay, I get that. I think since Code Orange, you've been wearing a lot of orange. Actually, Steve wore an orange tie the last day of Code Orange Revival. Yeah, just in memoriam. It was a requiem tie.

Requiem for the revival. That'd be a good book.

Let's see, what about me? I mean, I guess I spent 21 years on the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. I come from a family where that was kind of cool. My brother's in law enforcement. My dad was with the Sheriff's Department for 30 years.

My brother got saved before I did and now goes to a Presbyterian church. He was a missionary. I was in the Mormon church, grew up in the Mormon church. I came from California where I grew up and spent all my life until a little less than eight years ago when we came out here.

Married to a wonderful woman, have three kids. Two of the daughters are local here and are married to fine Christians and we have two granddaughters and another grandchild on the way.

The Puppy Bible and the Problem of Marketing Bibles to Children

See, now when you listen to Steve talk, he sounds so kind. He's just a, he's a dad. I am. He's a grandpa. See, and then after he throws some kind of theological hand grenade, now you're going to receive it in a better fashion.

I prefer to think that I launch scuds rather than toss hand grenades. Scuds. What about Patriot missiles?

I'm in favor of Patriot missiles. Okay, what about some kind, what do they call those rocket-propelled grenade launchers? RPGs.

Yeah, that would be bad. Yeah, that would be, well, it would wreck your day, let's put it to that.

Well, on No Compromise Radio, Tuesdays, Steve and I talk about pastoral issues and so today is one of the most important pastoral issues we'll ever face. It's gripping. And that is, we got the new Zondervan catalog of books and we get these things before anybody else gets them because after all, we're media.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, and this is no small time deal. I mean, we are really kind of the hub of the Christian media.

Yeah, that's actually why we are on because we need to inform our constituency.

From behind the faux gold, what do we call it? The faux gold. EIB, oh no, we can't use EIB. Pyrite. Pyrite. Yeah. Behind the famous Pyrite microphone of No Compromise Radio.

Now we like publishing, we like publishers, but sometimes publishers make some decisions that we would, I think, seriously question.

Is that the best way to say it? Yes, and in fact, if I were thinking in terms of greening the planet, I would think this is a complete waste of paper.

Yes, that's true, that's true. So here is a new Bible that's out and do you like Bible, Steve, just in general?

You know what, I love Bibles. And what's the other half? Do I love puppies? Yeah, yeah, so

I love puppies. So don't you think someone who loves puppies, you have three dogs, right? Yes. And let me think if I can remember their names again. Starbucks. Yes. Kona and Latte. That's exactly right.

And I guess, do you like coffee? No, we never drink it. We drink green tea. And so Steve has three dogs, so he likes puppies. Love dogs. And he loves the Bibles. Yes. And so what if I were to give you a Zonder Kids Playful Puppies Bible?

I would round file that bad boy.

Now on the front, it's a brown backing. It says it's leather and fine binding, of course. And then it's got a puppy. And what kind of puppy is it?

It doesn't look like Latte to me. It looks like a golden retriever. He sort of looks like my Latte boy though. Yeah, it's a little, it is definitely a puppy. You can tell it's got the puppy face because puppies don't have the definition of their muzzle and everything.

They kind of grow and change. Right, so here's the summary.

And I just don't know, maybe we'll get some free puppy Bibles from Zondervan for this promotion. Or some free puppies. That would be better. And I don't know if this is promotion or demotion. It is definitely demotion.

Okay. What child doesn't love puppies?

Well, I mean, there are children who are afraid of them.

We have kids who come over and they're afraid. I like to make sure those kids that come over my house are afraid of my dog.

See, now who's mean?

Let's get this straight. Bite. Similar to the popular Wild About Horses Bible.

Is that a Rolling Stones song? Yeah, wild horses couldn't keep me away from the Bible. I think that's a... Mick Jagger, Keith Richards. Who knew that they were biblical theologians?

This NIV compact Bible includes adorable color photographs of puppies along with inspirational thoughts and Bible verses that will inspire all cuddly animal lovers.

And to keep it compact, they drop every fifth word.

I just thought of Judah's horrible sin. And the scriptures say like well-fed lusting horses, each one nays after his own neighbor's wife. Nays after his own Bible. Nays after his own... I think that would be the wild like a horse Bible.

But that's the future. So the playful puppies Bible, watch the puppies cavort as you...

How do you like that word, cavort? Well, that's good in case you need a word that's close to caveat. Now, what about this? It says great for kids on the go. Now, I'm not really sure about that, but it's great for kids on the go.

And it has 12 adorable full color photos of puppies, short inspirational thoughts, scripture verses on themes of love, peace, friendship and faith, accompanied with the photos of the words of Christ in red.

It would have been so great to have this when my kids were young, in elementary school, when they would ask to borrow the car and I'd say, we'll take your playful puppy Bible with you. I mean, for kids on the go, what if they're going to soccer practice, make sure you take your puppy Bible with you.

What is that? I guess if you're walking your dog, you take this. They're on the go with that. It makes no sense. Okay, how about this?

Words of Christ in red, would that be a benefit or a feature? It is a, it's a, it's neither one. I mean, you know, it's the classic question, which are more inspired, the red letters or the black letters?

You know, it's kind of like, I mean, it's like one of those wrong answer, no matter what you say.

Well, they have a code in the back and it shows you with the code for puppy paw prints. And the puppy paw prints in the red are actually the words of Agabus.

Oh, then it says here. See, I thought you were going to go for the, you know, the Labrador seminar, you know, where the dogs vote on which words Jesus actually said and which ones he didn't say. Yes, yes.

And the different colors of paw prints. Uh-huh, see, I like that.

That's right. Italian duo tone binding with a puppy motif embossing. So here's what we would like to say. So someone wrote a while ago and they said, we don't really like what you and Steve do on Tuesdays.

It's too much comedy. Et cetera, et cetera. But there is a theological point that we like to get to. And so what's our theological point when it comes to children's Bibles?

That it should be a real Bible. I mean, I don't have any problem with, you know, like January's first Bible. My granddaughter, I love watching her with it because she says, you know, if you say, what's that?

She goes, Bible. And she knows what, you know, and it's got a picture of Noah on the cover and it's got, you know, but it's got actual Bible stories in it. And it's something that she can, you know, eventually, now she just likes the pictures, but she could eventually learn from.

And I think the whole idea of a playful puppy Bible makes no sense to me at all. I mean, it's like, you know, what do you do when you have teenagers? Well, how about hot rod Bible? You know, that'll get the young boys to read it for when they're on the go,.

When they're doing 180 miles an hour. Steve, there must be one of these, but if not, let's market it. I think we could put out a NASCAR Bible. Oh, absolutely. Oh, come on. Those NASCAR fans are super.

How about the NASCAR study Bible with notes from your favorite drivers? You know, have you ever wondered what Jeff Gordon thinks about, you know, numbers chapter 20, you know? You know what, Steve, we could do the,.

I'm hyperventilating. We could have the five hour energy Bible. Oh, awesome. Encased in there is just a little five hour energy you can just stash inside there. That's why it's a thicker Bible.

Yeah, but you know what would be cool about the five hour energy Bible is we can mark off how much you should get, studying you should get done in five hours. So you drink that and then you just plow, you know, for five hours straight through them.

I think people would really enjoy that. How about dogs in the Bible? Are there any dogs in the Bible? I think that would be in Revelation, right there at the end in 21 and 22 when it's talking about heaven.

Because we know that dogs are in heaven. All dogs are in heaven. I started to look at Revelation 21. Yeah, I mean, when it talks about dogs,.

I think it typically talks about them returning to their vomit and, you know, things like that. So, but it's not really talking about dogs, it's talking about false teachers. So I don't really know that, I mean, certainly dogs are not portrayed in a great way because they were seen as unclean animals, you know?

So I, yeah, I don't think that'd be great.

Well, here is the good news with the puppy duotone Italian Bible. This is the theme verse at the very beginning. I just was thinking about dog versus Steve. And you know what, just for the no compromise listeners out there, we want you to know that even though this sounds scripted, we have not rehearsed the show, have we?

This is just impromptu, right? That's an insult to our entire writing team. Yeah, that's right. I hope they're not listening right now. The dozens of writers that we have that endlessly work, toil hour after hour to put the show together.

We used to have all kinds of things ready to talk about, and then now we just look at each other and say, ready, and then we say, go. And then every listener says, yeah, we can tell. So here's a verse that I thought of.

You know, there are the verses in 2 Peter and Proverbs about dogs returning to their own vomit. But this is the one that I think is the theme for the puppy playtime Bible. Philippians chapter three, verse two, look out for the dogs.

Who let the dogs out? Yeah, the paraphrase version is who let the dogs out. Look out for the evildoers.

Look out for those who mutilate the flesh for we are of the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. So we would like you to have a Bible for your child.

And if you happen to have a puppy Bible, when kids can't read, I guess it doesn't really matter, but I would just soon have a different Bible. You teach your children to love the Bible. And we are after Bibles that help your children understand who God is more than it's false advertising.

Do you like puppies? Here's a book about puppies. And then the kid gets older and says, you know what? There's no such thing as any puppies in the Bible. I don't like that. I don't like youth groups that say, hey, we have free pizza tonight.

Come to our youth group and then you give them a slice and then teach the Bible. Why don't you say we have free pizza.

And we have free Bible study. You know, I learned that so early from you. I remember I was going to have somebody over who said they were a Christian and I didn't think they were a Christian. So I was like, I want to invite them over and give them the gospel and explain to them nicely, you know, how Christians are to think about things and everything.

But I go, well, I don't want to mislead them. So I told them upfront what I was going to do, feed them the world's best pizza for my wife. And then, you know, talk about the Bible. And they came over.

Yeah.

And then you didn't have to have a bad conscience. It worked. Maybe that could be our new radio show, Bad Conscience. How to keep a good conscience, I think would be a better title. I think you should get your kids Bibles.

I think you should read your kids the Bibles. And here's what I think. If you are excited about the Bible and Bible study and Bible reading, I think your kids will catch that. And I think you could give them the muddy Bible, the waterlogged Bible.

And they'll still say, you know what?

Dad's reading the Bible. I want to read it too. Last comment about the puppy Bible. If you want one, just wait. They will go on clearance before you know it. I mean, that is a really bad, bad idea. How about this, Steve?

We have the NIV Thinline.

So far, so good. This is 1984 NIV. Sure. Although I think this is the, we slipped a Mickey NIV. Pseudo TNIV. Uh-huh. Yeah. But anyway. Slipped a Mickey. Flora and Fauna Collection Bible. Oh, lovely. So why would you do that?

This is a whimsical metal print. It fits seamlessly into a pretty one-of-a-kind style that soon becomes your signature.

I think it's for the art lover among us. You know, the artsy person, the kind of somebody who likes to pirouette while they're reading the Bible. You know what? I think that's true.

But my problem is, I like this, but it says it adds femininity and charm to any woman's every day. What's every woman's, any woman's every day? I don't know.

I really don't know. I mean, I knew women who used to carry around an NIV study Bible, and I think it was a good luck charm because that's Didn't rub off. No, it didn't.

Celebrity Christianity and Why the Kingdom Does Not Depend on Fame

Okay. Steve, we've come to the culmination now of No Compromise Radio Ministry. And The fulcrum point. I mean, this is it. This is the hinge, the apex, the defining moment. Which means it's all downhill from here.

I think this is a sign from God because we've done about 700 shows. So I think we only have 699 more to go. This is the middle point. I feel good then. Okay. This is one more Bible from our friends at Zondervan.

I wonder if they'll send me any more free books. Not if they listen to the show. Well, you know what? A lot of the books they have are good. So, especially the ones I asked for the free ones, the Michael Horton ones and stuff.

You know, I wish they just And such. Maybe they should just run their ideas by us before they do these things. And such.

Yeah, and such. Oh, props to Banner of Truth because I did a show on one of my favorite books, The Forgotten Spurgeon by Ian Murray, published by Banner of Truth. And I said it was falling apart. And the people at Banner of Truth listened to that show as I promoted Christ Jesus in the life of Charles Spurgeon, written by Ian Murray.

And they sent me a free copy of the book from Banner of Truth with compliments, it said. Nice. I thought that was pretty good. Nice. So then I sold it to one of the guys of the discipleship group and made 15 bucks.

No. You did not. I gave it to Bruce Bolivar. All right. Here's the culmination, the fulcrum. NIV Coffeehouse Bible. For many of us, the coffee shop has become our third space. Starbucks, corn, or latte.

The place we go to share life with our friends and family. It's the place where we meet to discuss things that matter. Life, love, politics, the patriots, and religion, and everything in between. Coffeehouse Bible.

Study on key life issues and important topics. We'll engage your coffee group gatherings for an entire year. 52 studies broken into sections to fit the amount of time you have. No, I kid you not, Steve.

Here we go. Coffeehouse Bible, NIV Zondervan. You can use these short, tall, and grande sections by yourself or with your friends. I want the venti. Dunkin' Donuts, extra, extra. That's pretty bad. All right.

The other thing I will like to say for Zondervan, Gary Smalley has a new book called, If Only He Knew, Understanding Your Wife. Now, I wish he would have written it with his wife or something. How does he know?

Yeah, that's pretty bad when a guy, I mean, any guy who tells you that they know everything about women or the things that your wife really wishes that you knew,.

Yeah, probably not. If only Gary Smalley knew the Lord, would that be the follow-up? I don't know if he does that. Okay, no more books from Zondervan, I guarantee you that. But you know what? Here's what it shows you.

I think with my new book, Jesus Christ, no, that's the old book, Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus, I think I'm like nine billionth place on Amazon right now.

Gary Smalley sells more books than you do.

He has already sold 800 ,000 of these books.

Well, you're climbing up close to him. Oh, inch by inch? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, okay. All right, Steve, what else is going through your mind these days? I'll tell you what's going through my mind is the celebrity Christian that has the most influence in the United States.

I thought that was absolute fact. I think I folded that page over. I did, matter of fact,.

Because it was sick. I'm just like, are you kidding me? Look, now I have, well, let's put it this way. I'm not gonna say I have nothing against Billy Graham, but here's a man who was basically seen as the face of Christianity for, I mean, if you ask people to name a Christian, the first person they would say is Billy Graham.

So listen to how this is phrased. Americans on the most, this is the person that they say is the most influential Christian leader. Steve Cooley. That is amazing. Billy Graham. Steve Cooley made it, Tuesday guy.

Billy Graham, 19%. Now, the Reverend Billy Graham is in poor health right now, but he hasn't been a leader in any sense of the word for what, 10 years, 15 years? I mean, you can't name the last time that you saw him on the canceled Larry King show.

I mean, he just, he's in poor health. He doesn't do that kind of thing anymore. And so it's shocking to me that nearly one out of five Americans would say he's the most influential Christian leader today.

Maybe they would say, maybe what they meant was he's the most influential Christian because of decision and reruns and Sunday shows.

No, I think it's just because they know his name. In other words, if you press people, just a guy on the street, if you say name a Christian, they're like, Amy Grant, Billy Graham. I mean, they're just kind of floundering around.

They don't know any Christians. Especially up here, they don't know any, so.

Well, I think they'd probably pick the second one. Tell us who's the second on the list. Pope Benedict.

I saw a video of him the other day and he looks pretty old. Yeah, was that the kitchen show where he was making the eggs, Benedict?

No, this is the show where he was pronouncing some puppy Bible blessing or something. No, he looks older. And of course they picked an older man this time because the last Pope had too much influence over too long of a time.

So if you pick him older, their influence is a little less. He is 9%, Pope Benedict. And then the third one is the one I'm after today. You have celebrities. And if you think of Christian celebrities, number one, I guess people think of Billy Graham.

I don't really argue with that. Pope Benedict, I see the rationale. But this third one, I'm not sure if this was done with the cooperation of George Stephanopoulos or what the scoop was.

But tell us who number three is. Number three at 8 is President Barack Obama.

Now he was just in the news. Today we're taping this and it's the 2nd of February, although we're playing it on March something, I don't know. He likes to talk about Christianity when he wants to ram a social policy down our throats.

That's exactly right. Is that true? Yes, it is. Do unto others as you would like to have them do unto you. That's right.

And I don't, I guess that doesn't apply to abortion.

No, probably doesn't apply to his own kids going to public school in DC. Yeah, because they're not doing that. Yeah, I doubt that. I just think how many people in this, there would be in this world without abortion.

Quite a few more. Quite a few more. That is an amazing thought. I cannot believe that people in general are so naive. Let's just say you love Barack Obama and you think he's a wonderful president and you like his policies.

Don't you think a fair thinking person, a person who has any education at all should say to themselves, he attends church less than almost any other president in our era. I think that's a true statement, isn't it?

Yeah, he just started going because they're ramping up for the campaign, but yes.

The churches that he has attended in the past, the

Reverend Wright there in Chicago.

The Mob Bible Church is there in Chicago, Chicagoland Bible Church. It's all crazy, whacked out versions of African Methodist, A and E stuff, whatever it is, Episcopalian, African. A and E. A and E, yeah.

I just see, I am just literally dumbfounded to see his name as the third most influential.

He would be the third most influential Christian. And I'm like, well, what does it mean to be a Christian? And to me, well, look, let's put it this way. If I asked Barack Obama, and I think I did see him basically ask this, what's the gospel?

I'm going to promise you one thing. He couldn't find it if you gave him three or four major hints. He doesn't know the gospel.

Billy Graham is first, then Pope Benedict, then Barack Obama, then Joel Osteen, excuse me, then 41 not sure are none. Steve, what if, now this is the serious part. We were laughing earlier and then a little more serious.

Now here's the serious part. What if Christianity was dependent upon celebrity Christians? I think we would be in a world of hurt.

We're smoked, we got nothing. I mean, look at this list. There's one Christian on the list. Joel Osteen, forget that. President Obama, and with all apologies to our listeners in Western Massachusetts, Pope Benedict.

I mean, he has moved the Roman Catholic Church back to the Council of Trent, which pronounced anathema on everybody and who's not in the church. So, good for him for being a staunch Catholic, but bad for him because he doesn't believe in the Bible.

If we had to depend on celebrities to get saved and change the world like Deion Sanders or Reggie White or those, I think Reggie White seemed like a Christian. Deion Sanders, I think has some recent problems.

We will be so hurting, but since salvation is from the Lord, I love it, Steve, in 1 Corinthians 1 .26. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

And I could add in an application fashion, not many were celebrities.

Yeah, I mean, we make all the big deal out of people who get saved and are celebrities or they're famous or whatever. They have a spectacular salvation story, but the truth is the Bible makes very clear that it's God who gets the glory and he gets the glory because he doesn't have the great front men, and yet the word goes forth and people get saved.

It is because of him you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, that is righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

I want celebrities to get saved, but the kingdom is not dependent upon celebrity Christianity. I'm really thankful for that, especially knowing our status.

Well, thankfully, and I mean, even going back to the early days of the church, how was the church, how did it grow? How did the gospel get spread? It wasn't through the popularity of it or the popularity of its leaders.

It was often by the blood of the martyrs and by persecution.

God's wisdom is not our wisdom. We're thankful for that on No Compromise Radio. You can email us at info at nocompromiseradio .com or you know what? We need to get Steve's picture up there on No Compromise Radio.

Yeah, that would be great. 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.

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