- 00:01
- Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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- 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
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- 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.�
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- In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.
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- 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
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- Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
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- Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, here with El Jefe himself. Si, como no.
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- Steve, great to be back here in the studio in beautiful downtown Burbank. It�s nice here.
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- It�s kind of hot. 109 or something in Burbank today. It�s beautiful. Look at all the concrete and asphalt, all the high skyscrapers.
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- It�s just lovely here. Buena Vista. It�s kind of changed over the year.
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- Yeah. Good view. I like to stay in Burbank when I go to the Shepherds� Conference, don�t you?
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- Kind of right down the street. I do. It�s very nice. Unfortunately, today we�re not really in Burbank, so I think we shouldn�t straighten that out.
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- After some time being gone with sabbatical and some medical issues, some vacation, recovery, glad to be back to New England.
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- It�s not tongue -in -cheek, really glad to be back. And there�s something to be said, Steve, something to be said about pastoring a little place out in the middle of nowhere, a town of 6 ,000 people, just away from the hustle and bustle and just back to ministry and preaching verse by verse.
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- I�m glad. Well, like I said, you know, to you yesterday, I appreciate my well -earned anonymity.
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- So, you know, it�s nice to be the associate of a backwater, you know, a little�
- 02:07
- Oh, yeah. See, that�s even one step removed. Yeah, that�s right. While I�m the pastor of a church, and I think it�s a vibrant church with wonderful believers here and maturing folks and get to send out people to go be pastors and pastor�s wives, and I love all that.
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- But you�re just even one step below that even, one step removed, not below. Nobody even knows who
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- I am. It�s the best thing ever. Well, I thought you ran for public office.
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- Didn�t you run for L .A. Sheriff once? I actually ran for�well, I was the district attorney of Los Angeles County for eight years, and then
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- I ran for attorney general of California, lost by about, I think it was about 150 votes to Kamala Harris.
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- If you would have got Bruce Hershenson to run for you, maybe you would have won. Well, he�s eminently smarter than I am.
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- Remember that back in the day? You remember George Putnam? Yes, I do. And actually, I wasn�t the district attorney of Los Angeles County, but a guy named
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- Steve Cooley was the district attorney. Sometimes I�ve called you in the past Steve Coulage.
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- Well, yeah. That�s the French side. What�s the coolest thing you saw in England related to the
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- Bible? The coolest thing I saw in England? Well, I�d have to say, oh,
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- I guess the Beatles were out. You, you, Liverpudlian you.
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- I really, I was so impressed by St. Giles Cathedral. I mean, just the beauty of it.
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- And, you know, Scotland is just� Who was preaching there? Oh, John Knox.
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- And, you know, it was just, it was really, I mean, I loved Edinburgh. Just loved
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- Edinburgh. But it was really kind of depressing to just see how non -Christian the country is now.
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- You know, given that the St. Andrew�s flag, which is the national flag of Scotland, is based on the idea that Andrew was crucified with a cross that was on its side.
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- That�s why they have the St. Andrew�s cross the way they do on the flag. And now to just go there and to just see how godless it is and to observe it.
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- I mean, you go to St. Giles Cathedral, and they have a bookstore there, and you can buy books on several things, including whiskey, but you can�t get one on John Knox, on the
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- Reformation, on the Bible, on Jesus, anything like that. So it�s just a�
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- Books on whiskey. I thought that was some kind of church up in Moscow, Idaho or something. No, you know, the
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- Scottish are really proud of their whiskey. So there is that.
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- All right. Well, I thought maybe, perchance, you were going to say you love that obelisk in Oxford.
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- Oh, that was nice, yeah. Tell us about that. That was nice, where the martyrs, I won�t even remember their names.
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- Crander? Yeah, Ridley, you know, play the man and all that. But, I mean, that was interesting.
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- But again, you know, it�s just kind of, it just sort of mixes into the city. It�s not really that� Prominent. Yeah, not very prominent at all.
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- I mean, I have to tell you this one sad story. I�ve never, I haven�t used an illustration, but it just kind of, it just grabbed me.
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- We were walking by this guy homeless and, you know, a drunkard just sitting in the street.
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- We walked past him and a couple times during the same day, and he spent all day long tearing apart remnants of cigarettes and trying to get enough tobacco to smoke a regular cigarette.
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- And I�m like, don�t tell me these things. Alcohol, you know, and cigarettes and all these things can�t wreck your life.
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- I�m looking at this guy, just watching him, and I�m just thinking, this is an image bearer of God. And, you know, he just, he�s just consumed by his lust for, you know, these substances.
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- But anyway, yeah, I mean� It�s kind of what the human heart did with it, though, because tobacco in and of itself.
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- Yeah, it�s fine, you know. But it was just�
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- I mean, we had a terrific time over there and saw a lot of things, but I mean, it just�
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- St. Giles Cathedral, what really made me just upset is just to think, you know, here�s a place where John Knox once preached and now the gospel is now proclaimed and it�s just kind of a� it�s more like a mausoleum, a spiritual mausoleum, as it were, than, you know, anything else.
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- The obelisk there outside of Oxford has a verse written on it, and it is
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- Philippians 1 .29, �For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake.�
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- I haven�t been there for a long time, but that was moving. I remember. Can you imagine getting burned there?
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- No, I can�t. And I mean, there are so many, so many Christian symbols and names and everything else all over the
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- United Kingdom, right? But there�s precious little Christianity. I was at the� by a hospital in London, and I was trying to find a little monument for John Rogers, and he was burned for his faith.
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- And I think it was Rogers. He was burned, but I think it was the particular monument I was looking for. And you know,
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- I�m asking people, they have no idea. Labor and delivery�s over there, psych ward�s over there.
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- I mean, so I finally, with Google, found it. Trevor Burrus Yeah, it�s interesting.
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- I mean, I don�t remember the list of, you know, top ten Britons. Maybe we should do a show on that sometime.
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- But it would be interesting to look at it, you know, because it�s Winston Churchill, it�s
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- John Lennon, Lady Di is on there, you know, things like that. But none of the great, you know,
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- Christian reformers, none of the great Christian preachers. I mean, Charles Spurgeon isn�t on that list, you know.
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- Because these people� today�s Britain, Christianity is an asterisk.
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- It�s kind of like, you know, that�s what we used to be, but now we�re more enlightened. You know, and the truth is, they�re more benighted.
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- Steve, we are No Compromise Radio leading a tour to Israel, February, late February 2018.
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- You can go to the website if you�d like to register. I noticed here in the Christianity Today, dated
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- August 2017, there�s an ad for Journeys of Faith.
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- Not the faith, you know, contending earnestly for faith. Trevor Burrus For the faith,
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- Winston, or nebulous faith. Steve McLaughlin Charles, Prince Charles.
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- He�s the defender. He changed it from defender of the faith to defender of faith. Did you know that? Trevor Burrus Did he really? Steve McLaughlin Yeah, he did.
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- What�s his title? His title is Duke of Windsor. Is that right? Maybe.
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- Whatever it is. Trevor Burrus I think maybe his son has that one now. I�m not sure. I�d have to, you know, the whole royal thing kind of, you know, it�s cool, but I don�t really understand it.
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- Steve McLaughlin I looked here, and there�s a variety of tours that you�ve, you know, if you don�t know a leader, let�s say at No Compromise, you don�t want to go with them, you just want to go, you could just sign up for one of these tours.
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- And it said Israel Clergy Familiarization Tour. So we could go and then, you know, check it out so we�d know how to lead.
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- Trevor Burrus Oh, cool. Steve McLaughlin I misread it, Steve. I honestly thought, it�s true, it said Israel Clergy Feminization Tour.
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- And I thought, well, there�s no better place to go for that. Trevor Burrus To get feminized. Steve McLaughlin Jen Hatmaker and, you know, and Beth Moore and all these people, we could just go.
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- Trevor Burrus Yeah, that just makes me think. I read the, you know, the anti -Nashville statement.
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- I read that, you know, and I was� Steve McLaughlin It�s a Memphis statement. That�s what that�s called. Trevor Burrus Is it? Okay. Memphis. Yeah, I� Steve McLaughlin Could be two different cities.
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- Trevor Burrus I read that and I was just like, you know, if I, because I was scanning down the list of names and I thought, boy,
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- I hope nobody I respect is on that list, you know, so� Steve McLaughlin I know. Well, the thing about it is, and this show is probably going to drop, you know, a week after the
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- Nashville statement was released. I�m not one of these big, oh, there�s something to sign.
- 10:43
- Let�s sign it. Oops. There�s something phrased improperly that at first glance I didn�t notice and then someone picked apart and found it.
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- I�m just not, you know, I just watched people get burned with the Manhattan Declaration signing and other things.
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- So, at the moment, I haven�t signed it. Trevor Burrus I did. Don�t tell anybody.
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- Steve McLaughlin Oh, uh -oh. Trevor Burrus Cutting edge. Steve McLaughlin See? Steve McLaughlin Hey, I figured and I did it before Phil Johnson.
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- Trevor Burrus Oh, did you? Steve McLaughlin And Phil signed it, too. Trevor Burrus No content radio, Mike Abendroth with formerly� with the man formerly known as Tuesday Guy.
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- Here in the magazine, Christianity Today, there�s another ad, Steve. We�re going to just probably talk about ads today and it�s from the
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- Mennonite Central Committee. When was the last time you heard something from the Mennonites, Minnow Simons? Steve McLaughlin It�s probably been a couple weeks.
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- You know, they�re very, no, Mennonites are not prominent at all. Trevor Burrus It has
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- Matthew 22, �Love God, love your neighbors.� I guess that�s a paraphrase. Steve McLaughlin That�s a pretty simple paraphrase, right?
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- Trevor Burrus It says Jesus said that. Steve McLaughlin Yeah, �Love the Lord your God with all your heart.� I mean, you know, �Love God, love your neighbors.� That�s really the short �love your neighbor as yourself.�
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- You know, I mean, just, yeah. Trevor Burrus And then it�s got those words in Espanol.
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- Or something in Espanol. Oh, here it is. �No matter where you are from, we�re glad you�re our neighbor.�
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- And then it says, �Every day is a chance to show God�s love to newcomers. Get your yard sign at welcomeyourneighbors .org.
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- Join us in response to Jesus� call.� So you�ve got English, Spanish, and Arabic.
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- You put that outside of your house next to your Trump, you know, swag, and then the
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- Muslims know where you live. I would invite people over to my house to see I have no Trump swag.
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- None. Steve McLaughlin We�d, during the whole campaign, we had some Trump posters, you know, yard signs, and we would go to people�s houses, you would know in the church, and put them in their front yards and then run.
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- Kids thought that was pretty fun. Kind of dine and dash, but the opposite.
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- So what do you think? Forget the Trump thing until you�re getting off track here.
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- You think this is kind of a good way to love your neighbor? Hey, here�s a sign. It has nothing to do with it. You know, it�s this whole idea of love as almost like an emotion or, you know, to just be kind of friendly, and that is not love.
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- Love is taking action on behalf of another. You know, if you say,
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- I mean, this is just common sense, if you say you love your wife and all you do is emote, well, she might appreciate that, but not as much as if you actually do something for her, right?
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- Okay. We�re continuing with Christianity Today, 2017, August edition. We�re not looking at the articles.
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- We just look at the ads. Which are usually more informative. They are. And in future shows, maybe we�ll talk a little bit about the trip to Reformation land, the trip to England.
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- Well, now this looks like it has to do with what do you call those people that adjust your back?
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- Uh -huh. Okay. So it�s called posture shift. Oh, yeah. I thought it was either a mattress,
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- Posturepedic. Or a new chair. Special chair. It�s got this funky P letter and something else on the inside.
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- So it�s, I don�t know, it�s trying to be cool and hip and everything. It�s a Hebrew pay, I think. Oh. Uh -huh.
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- Well, there�s something down below to lead them home and it�s got a L and a cross and an
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- H. So lead them home. L -T -H with a cross. Let my people go,
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- I think. I think you�ve probably spent 10, 15 minutes with a little program to design that.
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- I�m going to design a program that makes these kind of little icons and it�s going to be called the Doodad.
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- The Doodad. So anyway, it says posture shift, two -day intensives course.
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- Two -day intensives. I don�t know what that means. Maybe this should have been spell -checked. But it�s a two -day intensives course.
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- Well, it�s more intensive than one. Than one, yeah. If it was one -day intensive course, it�s a two -day�
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- Intensives. But what would even be more extreme would be two -days intensives courses. Oh, yeah.
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- That would be the ultimate. That would be. And of course, here we go. Are you ready for it?
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- A biblically sound missiological curriculum designed to enhance inclusion and relational care of LGBT+.
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- Now, the next line after it tells you the summer tour, our summers tour, our summers tours, our summer tours,
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- Indianapolis, Denver, Boston. Boston. We missed it. Orlando, Dallas. Missionaries do not consider exclusion a victory.
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- People don�t. It�s just such an odd thing because, you know, and we don�t want to single out
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- LGBTQPWXYZ people.
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- That�s not the point. The point is these people single out them and say, well, you know what?
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- Out of all the sins in the Bible, this is the sin or these are the sins that we�re going to ignore.
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- Right? I mean, in other words, you wouldn�t see a biblically sound missiological curriculum designed to enhance inclusion and relational care of thieves or, you know, robbers, rapists, pillagers, you know, idolaters.
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- Yeah, you wouldn�t see any of that. Arsonists, you know, how to include arsonists into your church.
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- So, why is it, you know, and you�re like, well, what are you making an equivalence between arson and being a lesbian or being homosexual or being bisexual, which, you know, again,
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- I don�t even want to get into all that. But the idea, which is more often condemned, arson or, you know, sexual immorality?
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- And sexual immorality wins by a landslide. So, why is it that everybody�s rushing to include those people into Christianity when the
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- Bible would say repent? Steve, as I look at things like this, maybe there is another category where people do this specialty focus and it�s usually pornography, right?
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- How do you do a two -day intensives course for men in the church that struggle with porn and, of course, a few of the ladies that do it as well, something like that.
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- But the idea here with the posture shift, do you see where all this is going? It goes on to say they understand that faith identity development,
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- I mean, these words. Jargon. Faith identity development, what�s that mean?
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- I identify with a certain faith and I�ve got to develop it more than I normally have? See, that�s all focused on faithfulness, not faith in who
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- Jesus is. It says it depends on proximity, sharing Jesus with people where they are, as they are.
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- So that means we never tell them to repent, we never tell them to believe in this
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- Lord. Missionaries commit their lives to contextualizing Jesus among hard -to -reach peoples across the globe.
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- Taking a similar missional approach, posture shift offers a powerful plan for reaching LGBT plus people in your church or ministry.
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- Loving well doesn�t have to subtract from God�s truth. Tens of thousands of evangelical leaders have already experienced our teaching.
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- This summer, you can too. Register today at postureshift .com. Let me give a better example than arson.
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- Let�s say we ran into a group of polygamists. Well, where might that be?
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- Well, I don�t know, but let�s just say we ran into a group of polygamists. Would we just want to meet them where they are?
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- As they are. As they are. I mean, nobody would ever say, well, yeah, that�s fine. Let�s just teach them about Jesus and just take them as they are.
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- And, you know, Billy and his 18 wives can all join the church. We would never say that.
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- So what is the difference? And, you know, eventually I�m sure that these people who advertise here will say there is no difference.
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- You should accept those polygamists too. You know, the polyamorous, however you say it.
- 19:31
- You know, it�s just going to get worse and worse and worse as the so -called church, the visible church, becomes more and more like Sodom and Gomorrah.
- 19:44
- Steve, this is a cool thing to do. It�s attractive. It follows the culture.
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- It exegetes the culture. And it�s just this continued nonsense about we�ve got to meet people where they are.
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- As they are. I just, I�m pretty much speechless.
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- How�s that? Well, I don�t know, but I do just think, you know, what would John the Baptist say?
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- You know, repent or would he just say, you know what? Dude, you don�t need to repent. You�re good just as you are.
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- He was actually anti -contextualization because what do you normally do out there in the, you know, probably go to the special cities and you go to the suburbs of Jerusalem and all these other places and he just goes out.
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- You got to come to me. He was the anti -missionary. I double -dog dare you, missionary. Okay, anything else here while I�m turning to the next page?
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- No, I�m just watching you. Are there cigarette ads in there? Well, after the jet lag, it feels like I�ve got the
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- John Gershwin to talk. How possibly?
- 20:52
- Oh, I know. Okay, well, here�s the next one. Okay, now this is just as, you know, we�ve planned every single moment of this.
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- Oh, Steve, did you notice this was in my inbox here? I�m holding a little angel, a little pewter, a pewter angel.
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- I�m pretty sure angels don�t look like, I mean, that looks like, you know. So why does this angel look like a girl when all the angels in the
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- Bible are used, they say that he�s Michael�s and Gabriel�s.
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- I�m not really sure. Yeah, that�s a little odd. It�s a little earth angel or something. I think maybe somebody like Jackson Brown would sing about this.
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- On a Christmas album, yeah. Maybe like Death Cab for Cutie. Why is the band named
- 21:35
- Death Cab for Cutie? I have no response to that. I think it was on a, there was a lyric of a
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- Beatles song. I heard about them, I read about them, but I have no idea. Really? No, no. Okay. Christian grandparents and church leaders, they now have a national conference.
- 21:51
- It was worth it. All this page flipping. There�s a large article about, I don�t know, some, what was the article?
- 21:58
- We, abandoning the orphanage. So it was a big orphanage article. Because that, along with adoption, you know,
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- LGBT plus stuff. But here we have Grand Parenting Summit 2017 in Rockwall, Texas.
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- The National Conference for Christian Grandparents and Church Leaders. We have everyone from Ken Davis to Tony Evans.
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- Well, maybe you should attend. Maybe I should get the church to pay your way. That�d be great. I�d love to go to Texas.
- 22:30
- And it is a ministry of Awana. Oh, lovely. So how�s that work? I don�t know. Speaking of Awana, we still have
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- Awana here at the church. What�s it called? Awaner? We put the honorary
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- R on the end. A workman approved, not ashamed, regularly.
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- You can be ashamed once in a while, but not on a regular basis. Yeah, what�s a regular Baptist? Anyway, when it comes to Awana, Steve, I got here 20 years ago.
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- We just celebrated my 20th anniversary. Yeah. You put on a big shin dig. Mm -hmm. That was wonderful. You snuck
- 23:05
- Pat Ebenroth into town, and it was really a memorable time. It was one of the highlights of my life.
- 23:10
- It was a lot of fun. Well, seriously, I was very encouraged by the people and by the work you put into it and behind -the -scenes things, and it was a welcome distraction from the whole prostate cancer deal and everything else.
- 23:22
- It was nice. Even though when we started planning, we didn�t know. That�s good. We didn�t know.
- 23:30
- So what was I talking about? Awana. Awana, yes. So 20 years ago, when
- 23:35
- I was here, I had to fill out a form every year. Did I affirm as the pastor, as the congregational leader, as the
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- CEO, as the Baptist, one elder kind of guy, the
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- Awana Statement of Faith? And then it asked me specifically, not only do I affirm certain things, but it�s a good doctrinal statement.
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- There are affirmations and there are denials. And the denial was, do I deny the existence of the charismatic gifts for today?
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- In other words, do I think they�re for today? The answer must be no, or they wouldn�t allow Awana in the church.
- 24:14
- Those were the good old days. Those were the good old days. But since, I don�t know,
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- I�m throwing out a number, 80 % of professing Christians in evangelicalism today are charismatics, continuationists, you know,
- 24:29
- God speaks to them on some kind of basis personally, then there�s no longer such a caveat, such a disclaimer, such a denial.
- 24:38
- Well, I mean, all I know is our Awana missionary retired. I did not know that.
- 24:44
- See, what happens when you�re gone? Well, see, we didn�t kick him out because he was a faithful guy, but now that he�s retired, we won�t be picking up the new guy.
- 24:51
- Right, whoever it is, or the new girl. Maybe it�s a grandparent.
- 24:58
- Could be. Well, if they posture things correctly. Well, yeah,
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- I mean, there�s no telling who it could be. No Mennonites. No Mennonites. No posturing. No. No grandparents. No LGBTQPPW.
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- You can get all our shows at NoCompromiseRadio .com. We�re at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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- 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.
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- Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We�re right on Route 110 in West Boylston.
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- You can check us out online at BBCChurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.
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- The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.