Marrio Escobar Interview

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.

Interview With Marrio Escobar and His Background in Hip-Hop

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and it's not Tuesday today, but I have a special guest here in West Boylston, and his name, I know him by Mario Escobar, but we know him as Mario Esco in the hip-hop world.

Mario, welcome. Thanks for having me, Pastor Mike. Who's this guy sitting behind you? This is Gil Vargas. Does he have a special name, too, besides Gil Vargas? Just Gil Vargas. Gil, how are you? I'm doing good.

All right, he's back there. Gil has a Damocles sword, and so if Mario says something wrong today on the radio, you're in so much trouble.

Well, hopefully he doesn't stab me in the back.

Now let's have a little introduction, Mario. You are a member here at Bethlehem Bible Church. How long have you been coming?

I've been a member for about four years now.

All right, four years, and you came to the church, and you had a passion for music, right? Yep, that's correct. And what kind of music did you do in the past?

I've always been involved with hip-hop for as long as I can remember. One of my first performances was done in the fourth grade. I was signed to an independent record label from Worcester, Mass. at the age of 19.

I've pretty much been doing it all my life.

All right, and then when you got here, would you say that your Christian hip-hop and your Christian rapping, would they be, would it be fair to say they were fairly Arminian? Absolutely. About 100%. Okay.

Now, if you put charismatic and Arminian together, I wonder what you'd get. A deadly weapon. Oh, I see. I like that. I like that. And so you and Gil have been working on an album. Do we still call them albums?

Yeah, they're still called albums. And the album, by the way, I love the name of the album. So tell us about the album and why you picked the title.

TULIP as the Doctrines of Grace

Sure. The album is called TULIP. TULIP is basically an acronym of five doctrines formulated by theologians in the early 1600s to counter five doctrines that were presented to the church at that time from the followers of Arminius James, known as Arminianism.

And the reason why I chose to do an album on TULIP, the doctrines of grace, is because I don't think that it's often taught, if at all, in the New England area. And they're very important doctrines to understand and just to know in general.

Well, Mario, behind the scenes, is part of the No Compromise family. People don't know what you do around here. And I'm glad to introduce you to them because you do all my editing, don't you? That's correct.

You make me sound good.

And hopefully I make myself sound good, too. Well, that's right. You've got to edit this show.

That's right. And Gil, he's a barber, so you make me sound good and Gil makes me look good. So we're going to talk about today on No Compromise Radio, the album TULIP, subtitled The Doctrines of Grace.

I like that. And you're also going to have an album release party here at the church Saturday, December 8th at 7 p .m. Tell us about that album release party. Is it free? Do you have to pay? Sure.

Yeah, everything's free. The first 150 people that show up get a free CD. Everyone else can download the music for free right off of the website tulipalbum .com.

So if you go to the website tulipalbum .com, does it have the address of the church, Bethlehem Bible Church, there? It's on the website as well. So tulipalbum .com. And today we're going to play two songs during the interview as well so you can get a little taste of this.

Hip-Hop, Christian Music, and the Meaning of Total Depravity

Now Mario, I have to ask you the question. When I had Jovan McKenzie on the radio show and played a couple of his hip-hop Christian songs, I got some negative feedback because I think people associate hip-hop with guns and gangs and gang signs and all that stuff.

How can you, a Christian man, ascribing to the doctrines of grace, be a hip-harp Hip-harp. See, I'm the one that can't talk. You edit that out, all right?

Sure, no problem. Hip-hop artist. Yeah, sure. Well, in and of itself, it's not sin. It's just a genre, a form of expression, it's a type of music. It's not the music itself that's sin. It's what you're expressing through the music, the lyrics, and the message that you're bringing forth.

That's what makes it sinful. So if I play this on the No Compromise network, I'm going to be okay? That's fine. Absolutely. Okay. Now, let's talk about Tulip in and of itself, and tell me how did the Lord convince you that Arminianism was not correct and that Tulip was correct?

I started going to a biblical sound church, and I noticed that it was literally almost on every page of scripture, the doctrines of Tulip. And so how about tea?

Let's start off with tea. We don't have to go through every one, but just a moment ago, Gil and you and I were talking about depravity. Tell me about tea for total depravity. Tea for total depravity. If I was an Arminian, I would say, what does that mean to you?

How does that make you feel? Basically... And if I was a charismatic, I would say, God told me not to ask that question.

Total depravity, basically, it states from scripture that we are unable of ourselves to choose God. We don't have the ability within, and not only that we don't have the ability within to choose God, but that we're dead.

The Bible teaches that we're dead, and we won't want to choose God. We're enemies from birth since Adam disobeyed. That disobedience was imputed onto us, and we live a lifestyle of rebellion from birth.

Because of that disobedience. I can tell there's a little cadence that wants to come out right here, a little hip-hop, rap cadence. Can you hear that, Gil? Because of the fall, no. That's right. Well, I just am reading Genesis chapter 6.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That is a good description of total depravity. What do your friends who are charismatic and who are Arminian think about this whole thing, TULIP?

What's their response? They kind of try to stay away from it and say, you know, we shouldn't divide because of over-doctrines.

Well, that's nice because then they can still be your friend. Yeah, absolutely.

I'm just going to teach and preach whatever's in the Bible, and if the doctrines of grace are being taught through Scripture, well then, that's what I'm going to talk about.

All right, this is going to be an interesting question, I think, Mario. I don't care how much pigment you have in your skin. It's irrelevant to me. We're both Gentiles, I think, actually. Are we all Gentiles in this room?

That's correct. So we're very happy to be saved, that God, the Jewish man, would bear our sins. But do your friends think, well, you know what, this Calvinism stuff, this doctrines of grace doctrine, this is kind of a white man's deal.

Do you get that at all?

I don't get that often, no. In fact, a lot of them like Charles Spurgeon. A lot of them like just different theologians that actually embrace the doctrines of grace, which I'm kind of confused about.

So we will use Spurgeon against them. That's correct. There's a great article that our listeners should pull up. It's called, Are You Sure You Like Spurgeon? And it pulls out the doctrines of grace quotes that Spurgeon uses like a machine gun to blast the Armenians.

And so Armenians quote Spurgeon, and this article is called, Are You Sure You Like Spurgeon? So let's play one song. Why don't you give us an introduction to the first song that we're going to play here on the radio?

And I can't wait for the WVNE listeners to hear a little rap music actually during the day. Me too. So the first song is called Intro to Tulip. That's right. Any guesses on what that might be on? Let's see.

Introduction to Tulip.

There you go. Basically, the reason why I chose to play that song on the air is because it touches up on all the doctrines. And a lot of the other songs, they specifically only speak about whatever doctrine it's representing.

So the next track, obviously, total depravity, the whole song is preaching and teaching about total depravity and so on. So I chose Intro to Tulip.

And you'll cover in Intro to Tulip, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints. That's right. Yep. What do you think about free will?

What I believe about free will? Well, we're bound to our nature. We have the free will to choose what kind of job we want or where we want to live. But as far as our spirituality, the Bible teaches that we're conceived of sin, so we're bound to a rebellious nature.

And only God, through the power of His Holy Spirit, can give us a new nature through regeneration.

I like that. Bound. People think that they have free will, and you hit it right on the head, that they are free to choose as their nature will allow, but if their nature is enslaved to sin, they'll always choose sin.

That's correct. They freely choose sin as much as they want, as often as they want, and so they are bound to sin. So here on No Compromise Radio today, Mario, is Gil on this first song? The first song, no, he's not.

Okay. On the second song. Any reason why you have it in that way? Every time there's a pause, I turn around and look at Gil here. All right. So, No Compromise Radio, Mario Esco, featuring Gil Vargas on the album, the first song, intro to Tula.

Let's take it away.

I bow down to the ground, my will was bound. Some think these doctrines are only absurd, but it's in the Bible, you can't find no holier verse. The sinner is dead, blind to death, search within his wicked heart, and all you'll find is death.

Not a soul can achieve his demand of perfection, that's why love is unconditional election. According to his plan, and by the works of a man, those he chose he will save, and no one's twerking his hand.

Sword in my hand, his only word's my weapon of choice. If you're selected by the law, you're not rejecting his voice. Even though we're driven by sin that slaughters and kills, God saves some according to his sovereign will.

These are the doctrines of the two-legged, drowning from the word, don't embrace them with a loose grip. They're not to be confused with heresy, the truth is in the word, don't ever lose it. The five points of Calvinism are truth, match it up with scripture, the verses are the real proof.

It's still lifting, now you better watch it, the slippery gets in your way. Christ died only for those chosen by his grace, and in heaven he will expose his holy face. There's many false doctrines Christians should be wary, the power of his death is substitutionary.

But it's only for selected individuals, and if you don't believe, you're rejecting truth that's biblical. Anything else is heretical, lies that I hope your discernment can easily recognize. So his atonement is limited to some, the chosen are given grace resistible to none.

In other words, the chosen cannot reject the call of Christ, fail if some go to hell when he elected. Oh, get it? We don't possess a saving any device, only God has the power to draw sinners to Christ.

And by his grace, maybe you will understand, salvation isn't limited by the will of a man. These are the doctrines of the two-legged, drowning from the word, don't embrace them with a loose grip. They're not to be confused with heresy, the truth is in the word, don't ever lose it.

The five points of Calvinism are truth, match it up with scripture, the verses are the real proof. And still lifting out, you better watch it, the slippery, it gets in your way. These are the doctrines of two-legged, see these doctrines are straight out of scripture, they magnify the glory of my Lord Jesus.

Believe, come on. Sin is redeemed by the Lord, I'm eternally saved. If you're not, when you face him, he'll turn you away. Every saint is preserved by the power of Christ. The tower of light, his glory showers in paradise.

No man can go to him unless he's drawn by the Father. And on the last day, he'll raise him up before he's slaughtered. Eternal punishment, you better fear it ain't pretend. And if you're his, then you persevere till the end.

Persevere till the end. Persevere till the end. Persevere till the end. And if you're his, then you persevere till the end. These are the doctrines of two-legged. These are the doctrines of the two-legged, drawn up from the Word, don't embrace them with a loose grip.

They're not to be confused with heresy, the truth is in the Word, don't ever lose it. The five points of Calvinism are truth, match it up with scripture, the verses are the real proof. And still lifting out, you better watch it, the slippery it gets in your way.

These are the doctrines of the two-legged, drawn up from the Word, don't embrace them with a loose grip. They're not to be confused with heresy, the truth is in the Word, don't ever lose it. The five points of Calvinism are truth, match it up with scripture, the verses are the real proof.

And still lifting out, you better watch it, the slippery it gets in your way.

Jesus is God! Jesus is God! Jesus is God! All right, let's talk a little bit more about the concert. Tell us about bringing friends to this concert. Is it going to be an evangelistic concert, outreach concert?

What's your thrust here?

It's open to everyone. If you are a Calvinist and you want to hear some good biblical music, come on in. If you have unbelieving friends that are not familiar with the gospel, come on in. If you have friends that you know that are Arminian and you would like them to get a little taste of what total depravity and unconditional election and all the five points are, bring them on in.

And we're just going to preach the gospel and glorify God and preach sound doctrine.

Dancing, Unconditional Election, and the Testimony of Conversion

Now, on the back here of the card for promoting the album release party, it says, come and enjoy gospel hip hop music that preaches the word of God and challenges popular doctrinal concepts. Now, this is the next part that I want to talk to you about.

While making you want to dance the whole way through at no cost, just show up and enjoy the show. So now let's talk about dancing. What are we going to do about dancing? Is that biblical? Sure.

David danced in the spirit. As long as it's done appropriately and respectfully, yeah, there's no problem with that. Well, how about big band dancing?

Would you find that sinful? Big band dancing? Yes. What do you mean by that? Some Glenn Miller band, jazz, classical music. People would dance and stuff.

As long as it's respectful and appropriate, yeah, there's no problem with that.

Now, let's talk a little bit about the next letter of the acronym TULIP. Unconditional election. What is unconditional election and who would sing a song about it? A Calvinist.

Unconditional election basically says that he elects unconditionally. There's nothing that a person does that God sees beforehand that a person does that brings him to draw him to Christ. It's unconditional.

It's completely in the will of God.

There's no condition that forces God to choose. For instance, oh, he believed and he did some good things, so that makes me want to choose him. God, by his will, for his own purposes, by his own good pleasure, chooses people.

There's a reason why God chooses. We just don't know the reason. Mario, tell me a little bit about your testimony. I'd like to know how God saved you. Of course, here on the radio show, if you talk about yourself too much and try to magnify your own sin, we don't call that a testimony.

What do we call that? Testifoni. Testifoni. Who's your pastor?

Pastor Mike Avedra. So tell us how the Lord saved you. Sure. It was actually my direct supervisor at the time who challenged a lot of my beliefs. I was born and raised as a Roman Catholic. Basically, I was antinomian.

I lived however I wanted to live. I believed that if I followed the sacraments and confessed my sins to the priest often, that I was okay. At the time, I was in the record label, performing everywhere, just completely living a complete rebellious sinful life, thinking that I was still saved.

He challenged that way of thinking. It drew me to the Word. I started reading the Bible and realized that I was just a wretched rebel who deserved nothing but the wrath of God. I felt like I was hopeless, but the Word of God presented a hope to me.

That hope is found in Christ Jesus, who lived a perfect life and died and resurrected and now sits on the throne with God in heaven. He is my hope. He is the only way. He's the perfect one, the only way, the truth, and the life.

The only way is through Him.

Well, what a good testimony of the grace of God in the life of a man. Then it has ripple effects, doesn't it? Your wife has gotten saved as well. Yes. How blessed are you? Gil has gotten saved too? Yes.

Did you preach the gospel to Gil? I did preach the gospel to Gil. That's right. The gospel must be powerful. Oh, yes. Definitely. Definitely. All right. Let's play the next song. It's called Save Me. Gil is on this one.

Tell me a little bit about the song ahead of time before we play it. Sure.

Save Me is basically a song that it's about a person who's struggling with sin and he's praying up to God to please just save me from my sin, save me from your wrath. That's coming.

By the way, if you're listening today and you're not a Christian, I think that is a wonderful prayer to pray to God. God doesn't have to listen to anybody's prayers if they're sinful, of course, without a mediator, but I think that is a good prayer.

It reminds me of the tax collector and the Pharisee, and here we have in Luke, we have the man crying out, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. I'm not comparing myself to anyone else. Before you, God, you're holy and I'm sinful.

Please save me. I think that's a good prayer. So let's hear it on the album Tulip, Doctrines of Grace, Mario Esco and Gil Vargas, Save Me.

Future Plans, Church Accountability, and the Final Sign-Off

We are rebels. I'm throwing up pebbles to the pearly gates of heaven, saying, let me in. Please, God, take away my sins. Without Christ, then I'm left on my own and left on my own. I'm guilty and hell is my home.

Only hell is in the home. It's eternal punishment for everyone not believing. On my knees, I'm pleading. Mighty God, please save my soul. Because if you don't, I already know the flames I go and the flames are unquenchable.

I'll burn forever, eternity in heaven. I can never earn this pleasure. However, you sent down your only son, the only one crucified for your chosen ones. And it wasn't because of anything you chose and done.

It's simply because you're sovereign, the only one. I praise you, God. I need you. I can do it. And only those who believe in the Christ are going with you. This isn't small talk. We're talking eternal issues.

Eternal issues, meaning it's everlasting and never passing forever. So what I'm asking is for believers, do you truly believe? Because if you don't, then you're being deceived and you aren't really saved.

Examine yourself to see if you are in the faith. And if you're not, you're a sinner who is in the grave. Just another slave, totally depraved. I praise my mighty God who has the power to raise me. I was one of them.

Breathing in my sins, I was loving them. God changed my heart. Now I'm done with them. Hating them. Praying for God to do away with them. Now his Holy Spirit's within. Revealing sin. Then he's slaying them.

Praise him. He is amazing. I need you to save me. All right. Well, let's just wrap up the show. We only have about three more minutes, Mario. What are your future plans?

We have another project coming out with Gil Vargas. It's a solo project that we want to do. And soon after that, we want to do a group project together. Where a lot of the tracks will be me and him, obviously, on the tracks.

And we also want to eventually down the line, we're praying to maybe start a record label. And that's one of our biggest goals right now. But one step at a time. And as long as it doesn't interfere with my family and my ministries within church.

And obviously, first and foremost,.

The church itself. Serving there and worshiping there. Good. Now one of the things that I joke around about, but I think it's very serious and important. I appreciate artists, musicians, who want to be submissive to the local church and the leadership there in regards to this.

So, for instance, here, Mario, you guys run the lyrics by the elders before you continue. That's right. You say to yourself, well, if, you know, Mike, if I'm ignoring my wife and kids, don't let me go on the road and tour all the time and hold me accountable.

Right. Why are not more artists accountable to their local pastors who care for them and care for their souls?

Well, I think because it takes a lot of work to throw away a whole album's worth of material,.

Which I had to do twice. So tell the listeners that you had a whole album's worth of material. Yeah. And why did you throw it away? One was Armenian. The other one was charismatic. And basically heretical.

Now when you say charismatic, you're not saying, well, I've got kind of a private prayer language. You're saying more word faith stuff. Yeah. Word faith. It was more in that area. Okay. So tell me about if someone wants to have you come to their church and give a concert.

Would you do that? That's not a problem at all. I didn't think that was. You can contact Mario at tulipalbum .com. Is there a link there? There's a link.

Yep. For contact. You can just go on, click the tab there and just send it and it goes straight to me.

And if you're listening today, we'd like to invite you to the Tulip Album Release Party Saturday, December 8th. That's this year, 7 p .m. And you can come and hear Mario and Gil. Admission is free. Bethlehem Bible Church, 307 Lancaster Street, West Boylston, Massachusetts.

The first 150 get a free CD. I'm the only one that gets the autographed one though. Tulipalbum .com. We'll see you then. Mario, thanks for coming to No Compromise Radio. I appreciate all your ministry behind the scenes and I pray that the Lord will bless you and Gil and your ministry with music.

Thank you for having me. 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.