Visual Arts

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. My name is Mike Abendroth, I�m your host today, and I have said many times before,

I�m glad to be your host. Coming up on, I don�t know, I think we�re two and a half years into this experiment.

Hey, that�s a good new title, �The No Compromise Experiment.� It�s kind of like the video production we filmed with James White and Carl Truman and Phil Johnson, �No

Compromise Ever.� Well, now it�s the No Compromise Experiment, still experimenting with your mind.

I want to make sure I remind the listeners, we�re going to Greece in April of 2013.

Lord willing, we�ll go. Who knows what will happen with wars in Israel, rumors of wars, but don�t be afraid of the economy in Greece.

I�m sure they�ll take your Euros or whatever form of payment you�d like to give them. You can write me at info at nocompromiseradio .com

if you�d like me to send you a brochure. We don�t have the exact dates yet just because we haven�t quite nailed that down, but it�ll be

April 2013, leaving out of Boston. You�ll need to get to Boston. I guess you can meet us in Greece.

We�re going to go to Ephesus over in Turkey, Patmos where John was the apostle, Athens, Corinth, Berea, Thessalonica, Thessaloniki.

Where else are we going to go? Oh, we�ll go to a lot of other places it says in this brochure. Santorini. Remember Santorini, the third book of Santorini?

Where else? Philippi. I�ve never been to Philippi. Now some of these places like Berea, Thessalonica, and Philippi, there�s not really much there.

There�s just going to be some remains, some cremains, but that�s all right.

We�ll be able to go there anyway. So write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com if you�d like to go. No Compromise Cruise to Greece next year.

Well, Steve Cooley is not in today, and we won�t air this on a

Tuesday. Steve is in California doing the funeral for his father, and I have

Christianity Today in front of me, and I usually do that with Pastor Steve here, but I�m going to try a solo effort.

We�re going to try to fly solo right now without Pastor Steve�s help, without Tuesday Guy�s help.

We probably should get a picture up sometime of Tuesday Guy so you can know what he looks like.

I guess you can go to bbcchurch .org and look up a picture there. After this video that we filmed with James White, Carl Truman, and Phil Johnson, we�ve got the cameras and the desk and the table and the chairs, and so I think there might be some

No Compromise video productions down the line besides this big one with those three celebrities.

Christianity Today, April 2012. Now Christianity Today has come a long way from the day that Carl Henry was,

I don�t know if he was a general editor or not. I know he at least was a reporter, and it just is of interest to me.

I guess you could read World Magazine as well if you�d like to have maybe a more Reformed take on things. I�m trying to speak up a little bit.

Sorry, I�m just kind of quiet today. It�s raining and gloomy again in Massachusetts.

And in this particular article, first of all I should tell you when it is.

I think I did. April 2012. Christianity Today, on the front it�s got the new school choice agenda.

There�s an article called Discipling the Eyes, written by W. David O.

Taylor. Kind of an interesting name, W. David O. Taylor. W. The visual arts can play a powerful role in worship if we look closely enough.

What if we saw the arts in worship as part of discipleship? What if we saw the arts as essential rather than optional to the

Spirit�s working of forming us in the image of Christ when we gather as a corporate body?

What if a carefully crafted work of visual art enabled a congregation to see its mission in a radically new light?

What if art in worship could yield a substantively formative experience?

Okay, and then it�s got a picture of a church, Austin, Texas.

Is that one Austin, Texas? No, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis, a multimedia display including

Bibles. That�s what�s on stage. It�s got a picture of this. It looks like a regular alcove with a pulpit.

I think that�s a pulpit. It�s kind of hidden. A media display including Bibles. Okay, I don�t have any problem with Bibles around.

Live plants. Maybe there�s some live plants at Bethlehem Bible Church, especially on Easter.

We had to stop putting Easter lilies out because at the time, Ron, who was making announcements, was allergic and had to go to the hospital once after that, so we ixnayed the lilies on Easter.

So there you have that. He since moved away, not because of that issue. Oh, Ron is the man who was interviewed on radio here,

No Compromise Radio, and was trying to get a job in the local school systems, and they turned him down because they pulled up his name and Googled him, and they found his name on No Compromise Radio Ministry.

Firm Christian man, solid Christian. They didn�t like what they heard, and they did not give him the job.

Now, try to do that to a homosexual, and you would have the world after you. But for Christians, it�s quite all right.

Right here locally. I think I know the town, but since I don�t know it exactly, I better not say for fear that somebody might write me.

So, back to the whole plants thing. So we�ve got plants. I don�t really mind the plants. What else is on this picture?

Candles. Candles aren�t necessarily bad. If you live someplace and you can�t afford electricity, or electricity isn�t run there, or maybe you have generators on because there�s a power outage and you have candles.

And more graces, the sanctuary seemingly floating above the altar. I don�t know what more graces are.

It looks like it�s wadded up pieces of paper floating around. And so here�s my question.

What function should visual arts play in a worship service?

Is there a new way to do something? Is there an essential way the Spirit works through discipling the eyes via visual arts?

Is drama in worship good? Is it okay? What about the dance team?

What about those who have the dancers and the streamers and coming up and doing things like that?

What would God want us to focus upon? Now, of course, this article is saying these tactile things are good, and this whole thing is trying to promote discipling the eyes in our culture.

We have here on the next page the 40 -foot high banner at Church of the

Resurrection in Wheaton, Illinois, portraying the risen Christ was unveiled at Easter last year, while the three banners at First Baptist in Edmonton encourage congregants to embrace the city as a mission field.

The article says, �To see reality rightly, our eyes need to be discipled, and the visual arts serve this purpose well, including in the context of corporate worship.�

W. David O. Taylor is a doctor of theology candidate at Duke Divinity School.

He blogs at artspastor .blogspot .com. All right, here's the scoop.

Generally in worship, here's what we do. We don't just say, �We think this would be good.�

Now, Nadab and Abihu, they tried that in Leviticus chapter 10, and they were awakened rudely to the fact that God prescribes worship.

When you go to the doctor, the doctor says, �I think this is what's wrong with you, and I prescribe this. Take these amount of pills

X amount of days.� What does God prescribe?

God does not just let us worship Him as we want. Well, we worship on this mountain.

We do what we feel. If the Bible doesn't say we can't do it, we think it should be okay.

No, there's prescriptions for worship. Preaching is prescribed. Singing is prescribed.

Giving is, maybe it's not prescribed with any kind of imperative, but you could see giving, 1

Corinthians chapter 16. There are things in the Bible that regulate how we should worship.

We should worship in spirit and in truth. And so the Reformers had something that governed their worship, and that was called the regulative principle.

And whether they were consistent or not, that's not the point. But if you want to have drama,

I'm not against drama. I'm just against drama in a public worship service on a

Sunday because we're already told what we need to do, and it's not drama. If you have to go to drama with your eyes, to have your eyes discipled with visual arts, is not the gospel great enough drama?

Do you need more drama than the gospel, than creation, fall, redemption, restoration?

Isn't the drama of Christ Jesus the greatest rescue mission? I'm reading a book now about a plane that went down in New Guinea, in what they call

Shangri -La, and 23 men and women went down in an airplane, and then it's their fight for survival, and it's the fight for rescue.

And some got rescued, and I love rescue stories. I love stories of good triumphing over evil.

I like stories that pull me in and make me identify with one of the characters. Certainly, the gospel does all that and more.

The gospel doesn't need a prop. The gospel doesn't need some visual images of candles.

But the gospel is shown visually in a local church, not just from the pulpit as the pastor preaches.

That's not the visual part. But the visual part is called the Lord's Supper. I'm not against visual arts if it is a piece of bread and a cup.

You can put wine in the cup if you'd like. You could put juice in the cup if you'd like.

You can put a mixture of the two if you'd like. But talk about discipling our eyes.

The real discipling of our eyes is not all this mumbo -jumbo shenanigan stuff with murals and art and drawing.

I took the kids to Vintage Faith once in Santa Cruz, and there's a beer bottle display in the form of a cross or something, and people were riding, and they had incense, and they had candles.

This was several years ago. And things up on the walls that were not broadcast up there but displaced up there through a video camera, however you call it, however you say it.

What about the Lord's Supper? That is the visual cue. Now, for some leaders to be remembered, they would say, why don't you go make a trip to Mecca to remind yourself of me?

Why don't you go to this particular mountain? Why don't we make a monument?

I don't know if you've ever been to the Black Hills. I was there as a kid. I don't remember much. But you go to the Black Hills, and you see

Mount Rushmore. Or you watch North by Northwest, and you feel like you've seen Mount Rushmore as well.

And here are these four presidents that the society in general here in America have thought as great presidents, to remember them.

There's nothing wrong with remembering people and certainly remembering God, Ebenezer. God has helped us thus far.

But when you look at the Lord's Supper, these are the symbols. This is the focus.

This is God's ordained way for you to not just hear the gospel preached but to see the gospel, as it were, and proclaim the death of Jesus until He comes by taking the bread, by taking the cup, recognizing that it is

Christ's sacrificial, monergistic work that accomplished our salvation.

And He Himself bore our sins on His body on the tree, that He assuaged the full wrath of God, and God's holy law was upheld so God could be just, yet justify the ungodly.

By Christ's great atoning work, substitutionary atonement, penal substitution.

Oh yes, Christ's death was a great example of love, a great example of submission.

He conquered Satan and the demons, etc. But at the core, at the heart of things, penalty substitution.

Jesus took our penalty and gave us His righteousness. Our sin was imputed to His account, even though we never sinned.

And His righteousness was imputed to our account, even though we never were righteous. And we aren't righteous by our own doing now either.

And so at the core, when you want visual arts, it's a piece of bread and it's a cup full of wine, our juice.

And once you start going with more pomp and circumstance, you're running in the wrong direction.

Now let's think about this in No Compromise Radio Ministry. Could there be more pomp and circumstance than there was in the

Old Testament tabernacle and then temple? Even more so in the temple, but the tabernacle had a lot of beauty.

Just think of the temple and all the high liturgy and all the smells and the bells and the trumpets and the things that you could see with all the symbolism and the laver and the altar.

And there's the Holy of Holies inside, which of course you couldn't see. But there's a lot of this high liturgy, a lot of externals.

And then Jesus died on the cross, and the veil was rent in two.

It was ripped from the top to the ground, this very tall, I'm guessing, again, 80 -foot veil, and it's ripped.

It was thick. I think it was about four to six inches wide. And so it was ripped from the top down, signifying God, saying this sacrificial system is no longer the way to go because Jesus was the sacrifice.

He was the high priest as well. And so we don't need this anymore, and God put an exclamation point on that ripped veil, not but about 40 years later when

Titus conquers Jerusalem and wipes it out. And so now, instead of all the pomp and all the circumstance, even when you go to Jerusalem today and they have the model over by the museum there, with the museum of the book, whatever it's called, you see the model of Jerusalem, and then in the middle, this awesome -looking

Solomon Herod temple. It is great.

It is wonderful. You just see it and think, that is an amazing sight, and all the high liturgy that goes along with it.

That was the way it was supposed to be. Yet now that's done. Everything about it's over, and the way we have to remember

Christ Jesus is a piece of bread. I'm not saying we don't have his word, but a piece of bread and a cup, a piece of bread thinking about his body, which was given for us in our place.

He stood. Isaac Watts condemned he stood. And then a cup.

Now, it doesn't just say a little glass. It says a cup so that we might think of the cup of God's wrath that Christ drank all the way, that he drank all the way.

So that's what we have now for visual arts. And the second you start adding things, like Rome does, with all the bells and the smells, driving back to Old Testament kind of times, the farther you get away from the core of the sovereign grace of God found in penal substitution where Jesus, our

Lord and Savior, laid down his life for us in love, was raised the third day.

Once you start moving away, back to the Old Testament, via robes, via hats, via breastplates, via staffs, via ornaments, crucifix, all kinds of other things, you're moving the wrong direction.

So when I take a look at this, visual arts and having all the candles and all the visual things, this multi -sensory worship that we see, holistic humanity which

Jesus supremely embodies, it's moving away from the real visual effects called the cup and the bread, which proclaim

Christ's death until he comes. Listen to 1 Corinthians 1.

For I receive from the Lord what I also deliver to you. Same language that Paul has in 1

Corinthians 15. Technical language. Paul says that I received from Jesus, basically because Galatians 1, 12 and following.

Paul didn't go to apostle school. Jesus himself taught Paul. And then he transfers what he has been taught to the church at Corinth.

He was there for 18 months, Acts 18 records that, and he says, I was faithful to deliver.

I didn't add, I didn't alter, I didn't compromise, I didn't accommodate. I just delivered to you what

I received. That the Lord Jesus, the night when he was betrayed, took bread. On that super selfish night of Judas' life,

Jesus is a self -sacrificial one, and he's trying to teach the Corinthian church not to be selfish. But here we have insight into the

Lord's Supper. As Paul uses this to help the Corinthian church with their problem of selfishness.

This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. The same way also he took the cup after supper.

So they have the cup, and then, excuse me, they have the bread, and then they have a meal, and then they have the cup, making sure that everything that goes on in the meal is bookended by this self -sacrificial example of Christ Jesus and what he has done.

This is one case where what did Jesus do would apply to us. What did Jesus do?

He was self -sacrificial. How should you act towards other people? Self -sacrificially. So then the

Bible goes on to say, in the same manner he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the

Lord's death until he comes. So, here's what we're doing.

We've got the cup, we've got the bread. It's not even saying drink the wine. It's drink the cup, remembering all that.

Then we say to ourselves, this is visual arts. Do we have visual arts in our church?

Yes, but not drama, not girls with streamers on and dance team ministry and other mumbo -jumbo with all kinds of candles and incense, because we're not pushing the liturgy back towards the

Old Testament. We're not pushing the liturgy back to temple worship exactly like Rome is doing.

This is the accommodation of Protestants to become more Roman Catholic in their worship. When the

Bible's not enough and the story of redemption, nothing's enough. When the symbol of bread and the cup isn't enough, then nothing's enough.

And so then you need labyrinths, and then you need special prayer stations, then you need stations of the cross, then you need ashes on your forehead, then you need to deny yourself, then you need to have

Lent, and the list goes on and on and on. The article says a key idea was that life springs forth from the

Word of Light. Stacks of Bible, paper collage banners embedded with live plants, jasmine set in the windows, tall glass candles, pink lanterns, and encaustic—that means painted with hot wax—paper hovering fantastically over the stage communicated a visual dimension of this idea.

The installation also contributed aesthetic beauty to the space, a delight in line, color, smell, and texture.

So that's what this teaches us, these visual arts, at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, an art installation whose intention was to accompany a sermon series during Advent.

And so then you say, well, Mike, you're just an old curmudgeon, and that doesn't really seem to be too bad, and why don't you get off your high horse, and that doesn't seem very loving.

Well, I guess I can't say anything. There can't be any kind of talk of what is the best, and this is an educational show.

It wants to lift high Christ Jesus. Jesus is enough. Christ's death is enough.

What Jesus has prescribed through himself and the apostolic messengers is enough. And so then when other people say, oh yeah, that's pretty good, oh yeah, why don't we do that?

We hanker for new. We want novel. This whole idea of examining ourselves before we take the cup and think about what this actually means, and sit down and use our minds.

Let's go for visual. Oh, who wants to read the Wall Street Journal, after all, when we've got pictures in the

USA today? Once we had the advent of all these pictures coming in, it has done something to us.

You can read Tony Renke's book called Lit and figure some of that out, or you can look at Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death.

Well, today on No Compromise Radio, visual arts. Are visual arts good in the service?

Do pastors need to bring props up? Does James McDonnell need to bring a lamb into his service?

He can do whatever he wants, but I don't think I need to bring a lamb in. If I was going to do something on a

Friday night or talk to kids or something like that, that's fine. There's nothing wrong with bringing a lamb to talk about a story, but can't you describe the lamb?

On Sunday morning, can't you just preach about a lamb and substitution? And Jesus is a lamb slain, but yet standing,

Revelation 5. I think you can. The drama is the preached word about the object of our faith,

Christ Jesus. And the drama is seen visually in a piece of bread and a cup.

That's it. And everything else that leads to high liturgy and adds to that is leading you right back to the temple.

And that's exactly what Rome has done, leading us right back to temple worship.

It is finished. And then God raised him from the dead to say amen to Jesus as it is finished.

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.

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