Keep sharing good news without ads.
Twelve year old Jesus did what in India?
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.
My name is Mike Abendroth. It�s been a while, Steve, since I�ve had you in the studio. I think you even did last Tuesday, just like a solo show, because you were so busy.
I think I was banned, you know, 30-day timeout or something.
Well, yeah, what do we do with banned books and stuff like that? That�s a good way to get people to listen more, just say, �Steve�s been banned for a week and then you wonder what he�ll say the next week.
Well, or go back in the archives, what do you say to get banned? Totally.
Probably some rerun or something like that. Are you going to go to the Shepherds Conference this year? Hmm, let me think. Yes. It will be just a regular one, though, it wouldn�t be one of those uber-duber ones.
It�s just fine. You know, the uber-duber thing, you know, it�s kind of overdone. I heard some of our guys say that they like Spofford better than, Camp Spofford better than the Shepherds Conference.
That�s true. Now, that�s not Horatio Spafford. No. What�s the difference between Spofford and Spafford?
Spofford has a lake, Spafford just has a really nice hymn.
Now, that lake up in New Hampshire, I appreciate it, and I walked around it, and it was very pretty, but I didn�t like the road that was in between the campus and the lake. What would kids do?
I don�t know, look both ways and, you know, and run, but, you know, funny story. The first night we were there, well, I guess it was the only night we were there.
This was the Bethlehem Bible Church men�s retreat we were at, okay.
So Harry takes us up to this cabin, and, you know, a bunch of guys in the cabin and everything, and I go, well, I need to use the facility. So I use the facility, I come out, everybody�s gone. And I think, well, no problem, I�ll just drive back down to the thing.
Well, except for my car was blocked in by everybody else�s car. So I�m like, okay, I�ll just go back, I�ll just walk down the way we came. Well, the way we came was down the road. It is completely black.
I cannot, honestly, I could not see the difference between the road and the dirt. The only way I could tell is if I was standing on the road or not was by sticking my foot down and kind of feeling, you know, whether it was dirt or not.
It probably took me about 15 minutes to walk back the, you know, half mile back to the thing because I couldn�t see a thing.
Steve, I loved the retreat and hanging out with some of the men, and I enjoyed the singing and the sessions, and the food was excellent. I�m not kidding. It was just super. What was that final thing we had, Baked Alaska?
I mean, to have that at a men�s retreat, homemade, with that ice cream in there was excellent. Deluxe. Yes. But I am fairly, I don�t know. I mean, when I travel around and someone just says, you�re going to be staying in such and such a place, and here�s your room key or here�s your room, whatever it is, if it�s nice, four-star, one-star, India, England, I just say, �Thank you and I think, �You know what?
The Lord is good, and I don�t deserve some five-star thing and I just roll with the punches. I think I�m okay at that, but what I�m not very good at is we get there to the camp with all the guys, and I don�t need preferential speaker treatment or anything like that.
I do. But it was, okay, there are three buildings, and those buildings were the BBC people will stay, and there they are. First of all, find the buildings. I didn�t even know which ones they were, and then you just go find a cot, and then with Christian love, you find the best cot, and then throw your sleeping bag on it and claim it or something.
I just didn�t. Name it, claim it. I just did not.
That�s just not my style. It was, you know, kind of high school youth camp kind of thing, or what I would imagine high school youth camp. If I had been a Christian, you know, way back then.
So my room was with Luke, my son, and Mark Arnold.
Oh, you really lost out of the roomies. I know.
What a couple troublemakers you had. Steve, in front of me, I have six famous symbols that don�t mean what you think. Uh-oh. Okay. How do we, how do we redeem this in a no-coast?
I don�t know. Is this some kind of Jeopardy, let�s stump Steve, that sort of thing?
I just saw this, and it was such a gross picture that I thought it might actually be interesting. Yeah, that is pretty gross. Yes. Yeah. Now, this is from Wikipedia, and of course, that must mean it�s true.
Oh, absolutely. Everything on Wikipedia is true. That�s true. You�ve probably never questioned the logic that says a severed rabbit�s foot brings good luck.
By the way, what. It wasn�t so lucky for the rabbit, that�s what I always used to say.
Remember those old ones that they would be bright pink or yellow or something like that? They would dye the rabbit�s foot. I never saw a full rabbit like that except in a Jefferson Airplane video.
Actually, you can breed them, you know, for the different colors like that. It just takes a while to kind of harp on some of the genetics. We used to have blue rabbits.
Oh, blue. Okay. It was Alice in Wonderland or something. Blue rabbit. Walking under ladders, breaking mirrors, da-da-da-da-da. Well, it turns out the story of the rabbit�s foot is even creepier than the idea of dismembering animals for luck.
The origin, the rabbit�s foot was thought to be actually the foot of a witch. Hmm. Now, this is on Wikipedia. Yeah. Yeah, I don�t know. In the United States, the symbolism of the rabbit�s foot most likely came from the American hoodoo folk magic, H-O-O-D-O-O.
That was a pretty good band in the 80s. I love that hoodoo that you do. They believe that rabbits were frequently witches in disguise. So I don�t know if we like that or not. Do you think that�s true?
I�m dubious. Okay. But, you know, people do all kinds of stupid things.
Why do you think people are fascinated with witches?
White witches? Black witches? I think, well, first of all, because, you know, it�s a power outside of God. I think people are always looking to have some kind of, or exercise some kind of power. I mean, wouldn�t it be wonderful, and I mean this in a rhetorical sense, wouldn�t it be wonderful to just kind of have power to solve problems, you know?
Okay, Steve, I think you�re onto something there.
We live kind of in a closed system that is, we can�t go outside of our bodies. We have only a certain amount of power, which is a feeble, frail power, of course. And there are problems in life that we cannot solve, and we need help.
That�s right. And then we either believe in a natural system, there�s no supernatural God, and it is what it is, or we believe in a supernatural God who can, whenever he pleases, for lack of a better word, inject himself into the natural realm.
Is that a good way to say it? Yep.
An intercede, right. And so, you know, then witchcraft, what would be the attraction of that? Well, it�s some other source. You know, you don�t really have to humble yourself and go to God, you know?
You can sort of. Yeah, witches aren�t thrice holy. Witches don�t require perfection. They�re there to help you a little bit, especially if you�ve got an ornery neighbor and you need some, what do they call those little figurines that you poke with needles?
Would that be witchcraft? What�s that called? Voodoo doll. Yeah, voodoo, yeah. Voodoo doll, yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. That voodoo that you do. Or hoodoo that you do. It doesn�t matter. It�s voodoo hoodoo.
Who do you voodoo? I heard Michael Horton give a John Wayne quote the other day. Well, I heard it today, actually, but this was playing the other day, not far away, the other day. �I like God until he comes under my roof.
In other words, far off gods I like. He can be transcendent, powerful, sovereign, but once he�s too close, then I want him to back off a little bit.
Yeah, a little too close, as Robin Williams would say, too close.
But during Christmastime, isn�t that what we get? I think it was G. I. Packer who said that God is by nature transcendent, he�s other, but by will he is eminent, he�s close, and I think that is via the incarnation.
God is this transcendent being, but he, the son, has not counted equality with God a thing to be grasped, and he cloaks himself with humanity.
And comes and dwells among us.
Sounds like Luke, oh, my son Luke is back from Israel, so he knows a bunch of Hebrew now, and he thinks he knows how to pronounce Hebrew words better than I do, and that�s probably true. So, he was teaching me, he said, �Dad, I want to teach a new word.
I said, �Okay. He said, �A Hebrew word. I said, �Great. And he said, �Emmanuel. I said, �I know that one. Emmanuel. Emmanuel. Yes. Okay. I have in front of me, New York Times. That's fairly, fairly scientific reporting.
Biblical. Yeah. Of biblical proportions. Many psychology findings not as strong as claimed, study says. Shocking. I know. Now, first, let�s talk a little bit about God�s Word. It is sufficient, sanctify them in truth, thy word is true, Jesus said.
We have a sufficient word, we would believe. Do we believe in Sola Scriptura or Prima Scriptura? I think it�s Sola Scriptura. Sola Scriptura. So, I think it�s fascinating that with the Roman Catholics and others, and even some evangelicals in the charismatic realm, they believe in Prima Scriptura.
Scriptures first, but there are seconds and thirds, magisterium, experiences, papal decrees. I saw, as a matter of fact, in Rome, the chair that the pope used to sit on for ex-cathedra. Are they having it refurbed?
What�s going on there? It needed an upgrade. It didn�t have enough gold on it. I�ll tell you what, when you see gold in the Vatican, it�s not a thin gold plating. It�s not paint. It�s not spray paint.
It�s the real deal. You know why that is? Because the popes are crooked?
No, because the weight makes it harder to steal. So, they don�t have to nail things down. Oh, I see. Yeah. See? You know, getting back to Prima Scriptura, what�s the real message there? If a charismatic says, well, yes, scripture first, but we also have other sources.
If the Catholic says, yes, scripture first, but we also have other sources, what are they really trying to say? Pete. I find it fascinating, Steve. What are they trying to say? Hold on just a second. This is a radio show.
It's going to be a roundabout route. Yeah. I know. We like those routes. Route 66. The charismatic would always say, if they�re thinking properly, the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church is not equal to scripture, the magisterium, ex cathedra statements, whether it�s Council of Trent and other, you know, any kind of official document.
These things don�t have any weight. It�s the Bible alone, yet our charismatic friends, probably influenced by Grudem systematic theology. I�m on a big kick regarding that, how to turn your church to be a charismatic church in one generation.
Use Grudem instead of Berkhoff.
You say, yeah, but then Pete. What are we using in our systematic theology classes?
Pete I don�t want to use Berkhoff. I mean, Grudem anymore. Pete What do we use? Pete I don�t know. Is that what we�re using? Pete Yeah. Yeah. That�s what we�ve always used. Pete I know. I�m changing that right now.
It�s a papal decree. I�m sitting on the ex cathedra seat.
Pete Well, it is a nicer seat than mine. That�s for sure. Okay, back to the question again. What is the question? Pete I forgot.
No. Prima. Pete. Prima? Yeah. What are they really saying? Pete. Yeah. What are they really saying? Pete. Well, there�s more than one source of authority.
Pete Well, what they�re really saying is scripture�s good. Pete But.
Pete But. Pete The second they say that. Yes, I know the Bible is sufficient, but. Pete But.
If I have an experience that doesn�t agree with scripture, the experience wins.
Pete. Now, Steve, you don�t come across in person as a super smart guy, but I know differently about you.
Pete Well, you know, he�s kind of a, you know, he�s slow, but you�ll have to kind of overcome that.
Pete Let�s pretend like we�re on the White Horse Inn and we�re really smart and talking about these things.
The experiential. Pete. Oh, would you like to be erudite then?
Pete. The experiential Christian. Isn�t this really a Schleiermachian deal?
Pete Well, it is quite Schleiermachian. Pete Schleiermachian.
I think at least every other show the White Horse Inn has done, one of them says Schleiermacher. Pete And that would be wrong. Pete So, there are this big focus on experience and how we, can experiences be wrong?
I mean, what if we�ve had a wrong experience?
Pete. Can experiences be wrong? I mean, like, yeah, sure.
Pete. Well, here in the New York Times study, not that long ago, reported by Benedict Cary, the past several years have been bruising ones for the credibility of the social sciences. A star social psychologist was caught fabricating data leading to more than 50 retracted papers.
A top journal published a study supporting the existence of ESP that was widely criticized. And the final sentence of the first paragraph, the journal Science, that is capital S, pulled a political science paper on the effect of gay canvassers on voters� behavior because of concerns about fake data.
Pete. Well, I mean, there you go. That would have quite an impact, right? If the person who is asking you the questions, you know, is homosexual and, you know, very flamboyant about it, and they�re asking you, so what do you think about homosexual marriage?
Are you more likely to say, write to the person�s face? No, I don�t approve of it. Yeah, I think that clearly would have an impact.
How many different psychological-driven so-called sciences do we need. Before we say to ourselves, why do we need 400 different psychological approaches if there�s one that�s really scientific?
Call me simple. It�s, hmm, okay, I�ll call you simple. Well, I mean, it�s obvious. Psychology, even psychiatry. So many of the things that they do are just absolute guesswork. And, you know what I mean?
It�s nice that people go to school to do those things, and well, it�s not really nice. But I mean, I would say your average, your person of average intelligence by the time they�re 60 can probably sit in a psychiatrist�s office and probably do just about everything that a psychiatrist does.
Show kindness, ask questions, listen, give suggestions. And probably give better suggestions. Talk therapy. Really a value to the whole talk therapy. That�s what they�re doing, right? You�re just talking through issues.
Is there a value to it? I think initially there might be, okay, let�s just use biblical counseling. What�s your problem? Okay, let�s analyze it according to the Bible. Maybe you didn�t know about these Bible verses that talk about anxiety and worry is sinful.
And then let�s motivate to replace it with other things and who the Lord is, who you are in Christ. But after a while,.
Is it okay for 25 sessions to work through a problem? No, but hopefully it�s useful I think sometimes to just kind of get out of your own head. There�s victory in an abundance of counselors. Why is that?
Because when we�re just talking to ourselves all the time, we can get ourselves into the wrong rut. So you need somebody to come along like, I�m going to talk vinyl here. You need somebody to come along and just kind of give a tap to the needle and get it over to the next groove.
The needles, if you wanted to replace a needle it wasn�t that bad, but the whole cartridge itself, I think that was a scam just so you�d have to buy more of a cartridge. How does a cartridge go bad? I don�t know.
I think it was a little bit of a scam, but I do remember those days too. I still think I have my, I may have my turntable in the basement. I don�t think I ever got rid of it because it�s just such a cool one.
And now vinyl�s coming back. Jesus, silent years, lost years, missing years. Actually, I remember seriously, I�m a brand new believer and I was just like, I was a stupid believer. And so I�m going to, you know, I went to the Christian bookstore and then I was like, I just wanted to see everything that said it was Christian, you know, and so I went to a bookstore and they were like, oh yeah, we�ve got these Christian books over here and they were like, you know, Jesus in India, you know, and stuff.
So yeah, lost years, lost years, yeah. Steve, I did not know this. In the late medieval period, Arthurian legends like King Arthur, yeah, Arthurian,.
I�ve never used that word before. Really? That sounds good, Arthurian, Arthurian. Now, now it seems a little slow in public. I know. Appeared, including stories that the young Jesus had been in Britain.
I didn�t know that. Between about age 12 and about age 30, we don�t know what happened to Jesus. Those are kind of lost years and he went to the UK. Well, you know, he could walk on water, so. No. No.
Why don�t we know what happened? He said, he said one day I�m going to go for a walk and he wound up in England. You know, who knew? Let�s discuss with all seriousness, when the Bible doesn�t tell us something, it doesn�t tell us for a reason.
So, the scripture is silent for a reason about all kinds of different things. It could tell us a variety. Why do you think the scriptures don�t tell us what Jesus did from 12 to 30? In the military we had something called need to know, right?
And apparently, the sovereign god of the universe decided we have no need to know what went on in those years. Is it enough to know that Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men, Luke 2?
Apparently, because scripture is sufficient, right? And so, any kind of guesswork or attempts to sort of fill in those years, I would just have to, you know, throw those in at best speculative, at worst sinful and demonic.
Unknown years. Maybe we could study the Essenes and maybe they�ve got some scoop for us. Maybe they do and probably they don�t. During the late 12th century, Joseph of Arimathea became connected with the Arthurian cycle appearing in them as the first keeper of the holy grail.
Holy grail, yeah. This idea first appears in Robert de Boron�s Joseph de Arimathea in which Joseph receives the grail from an apparition of Jesus and sends it to his followers in Britain. I thought it first appeared in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Here�s the thing, just think about that for a minute. You know, because somebody might be listening and going, well, what�s wrong with that? Okay, try to imagine somebody telling you that something happened 1 ,000 years ago because that�s what we�re talking about.
We�re talking about, you know, like 1200. And so, you know, almost 1200 years before that, we�re supposed to believe what this person in 1200 said. It�s just kind of incredible. How would anybody know?
You know, it�s just utterly silly. It�s foolishness. In this particular article, it says rejection by modern mainstream Christian scholarship. So, they pretty much, it says here, almost unanimously agreed that these travels of Jesus to Tibet, Kashmir,.
Or the rest of India contain nothing of value. Well, what about North America? Is there some Mormon stuff coming out here? Just a little? Yeah, well, I mean, you know, this idea that he popped up here and everywhere.
Why not, you know, the Americas? Other sheep I have that are none of this fold. True story. I first get to Bethlehem Bible Church 18 and one half years ago, and a guy came up to me with John 10 and talked about that, and he said, I think, this was the man speaking, I think this verse gives us a little insight to the fact that Jesus has made life on other planets.
Calling occupants of interplanetary craft. And I thought to myself, I think I should have a noco radio show about this. You were looking around going, security, security. Now, do you think that person's at the church any longer?
Do you think they moved on? Well, let me see. I want to, because we haven't talked about this, no prep. I'm going to say no. What the elders did is we got together, discussed it, and I gave them some white marbles, some black marbles, some red marbles, and some Jesus seminar instructions, and we didn't let each other know what we were going to cast, but when the die was proverbially cast, we had to follow through.
Yeah. Yeah. The words of Jesus. And so is that person at the church or no? They are not. Yeah. See, I said that. Okay. That was correct. Third, did you say Nephi or Nephi? Nephi. Nephi. Nephi. Yeah. Okay.
Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world, and it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words the whole multitude fell to the earth, for they remembered that it had been prophesied among them that Christ should show himself unto them after the ascension, arise and comfort unto me that ye may thrust your hands into my side, also that you may feel the print nails in my hands and my feet that you may know I am the God of Israel, the God of the whole earth and have been slain for the sins of the world.
I don't, I was waiting for something more to be said in that quote but I couldn't see on the other page. But that's, that's Mormonism right there. Yeah, they just believe that he came to North America and showed himself.
How about when the Japanese legend Shingo claimed that Jesus came to Japan when he was 21 years old? Shingo. Shingo. Now, speaking of Japan, they're in the news, they are not allowing a lot of Muslim refugees come into their country.
Now, are they racist for that or are they profiling or what, what is, what's going on there? Well, I mean, they're very, they're very, you know, I just know what I've read of Japan and previously they were very race conscious, you know, as evidenced by their attitude going into World War II.
I just, and you know what, they're very xenophobic. So, I think this would just be.
Historical behavior for the Japanese, really. So, you know, I mean, I think they're very generous and everything but I just don't think this would, I would be shocked if they were taking vast numbers of Muslim refugees because Muslim, Islam is just not going to, it's just not going to fly in Japan.
I never knew that according to this legend in Japan that when he was to be crucified his brother Isukiri took his place and died in his stead after escaping Judea. Eventually found his way to the village of Hirai in Amorio Perfector.
He became a father, had a wife, and kids, died there at the ripe old age of 106. Wow. Yeah. Huh. Uh-huh. That doesn't sound like Jesus. It doesn't. That's your own personal Japanese Jesus. Yeah, it might be somebody but, you know, it doesn't.
It's a vapor song. I'm turning Japanese. Yeah, I really think so. I really think so. Yeah. Yeah, that wasn't it. Anything else you want to say as we wrap this stellar show up? Well, it's great to be back on No Compromise Radio.
You know, getting back to the retreat, we really did have a good time. I had a really fun time and I think the men were edified and we'd like to invite all our listeners. No, no. I like the dress code there.
That was kind of nice to just wear what you want. It was a men's retreat after all. Yeah. It wasn't high tea with hats and stuff like that. No, we should do some man, it could be called man camp. Man, oh, that is good.
Man camp. I like that a lot. Okay, if you want to write us, it's info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. You can write Tuesday Guy or follow his Twitter feed. The Tuesday Guy. Yeah, the cutting edge. 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 bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WV &E its staff or management.