Erin Benziger Interview--Equipping Eve

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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. And of course, you know, if you�re a listener, a

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NoCo listener, I think we�re up to a million listeners now per podcast, we do a few things throughout the week.

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Pastor Steve is in on Tuesday to provide comic relief and theological acumen. Mondays is a sermon that I�ve preached at Bethlehem Bible Church.

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Thursdays, we try to teach something, some, you know, nice doctrines, some, oh, something about, you know, church discipline or something, some encouraging stuff.

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And then on Fridays, we go to the theological woodshed and maybe critique something.

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But on Wednesdays, it�s kind of a highlight, it�s the middle of the week, and we like to interview authors and bloggers and bloggerettes and those kind of folks.

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And so today, since it�s Wednesday, I have a special guest online with a special announcement. Erin Benzinger is online.

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio. Thanks for having me, Mike. It�s good to be back. Erin, I think you�re the only lady

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I�ve ever interviewed on No Compromise Radio, and now you�re back. I�m back. What does that mean?

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I don�t know. I mean, do I get some sort of an award for this, a plaque to hang on my wall? I think you get a mug, a

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DoNotBeSurprised .com mug sent back to you with some remnants at the bottom of it. You know what,

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Mike, that is yours to keep. You grew that fungus and you can keep it. Thank you. Well, Erin is a friend of No Compromise Radio, and she has a great site that I look at regularly,

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DoNotBeSurprised .com. And she, Erin, what was the website that you�d write some articles for in the past?

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Yeah, in the past I was working on ChristianResearchNetwork .org. Okay. I�m not really writing there now, but it�s a good resource.

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Right. And I�ve actually sent you some material that I�ve had for books or introductions for books, and you�ve helped me with some editing, and so I thank you for that ministry.

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Well, I�m happy to do it. That�s what I love to do, so anything I can do to help get the

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Word of God and the truth of God�s Word in other�s hands, that�s kind of a great goal to have in life.

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So I�m very thankful to be able to do it. The only bone I have to pick with you is your pastor seems quite odd,

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Don Green. I don�t know really where he comes from, but, you know, we�re becoming friends.

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I�m slowly warming up to him. In all seriousness, he�s a great guy. And so that�s the fellowship you�re at, right?

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Truth Community Church? Truth Community Church, yeah, in the Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky area.

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Pastor Don, he�s a wonderful pastor, wonderful man, loves the

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Word and proclaims it faithfully week after week. So I�m very blessed. It�s a wonderful church, wonderful body of believers.

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You told me that there was an interesting thing that happened at the church the other day, and I thought maybe our no -co -listeners would like it.

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I was just critiquing the CBD catalog with Pastor Steve not that long ago, and there was a New Covenant, New Covenant prayer shawl.

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And so you�ve even seen some prayer shawls walk in and out of the church, haven�t you? Well, yeah, that�s what the word on the street was.

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I have to admit, you know, I kind of had a hearsay. I sit up front because, you know, all the good students sit up front in the front row.

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So I sit up front, I didn�t see this come in. But yeah, apparently we had a visitor with a prayer shawl of some sort, and she was praying in her tabernacle or something to that effect.

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I�m not quite sure, but I don�t know that she�s been back, so.

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Well, that leads me into our announcement today. I was thinking, you know,

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Erin has such a wonderful ministry at DoNotBeSurprised .com. I appreciate her discernment.

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I appreciate she�s not some kind of spiraling out of control, you know, female bloggerette who�s, you know, just after people.

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But the website has a variety of positive things and encouraging things with some critique.

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And I don�t know if you know this, Erin, but I looked at the No Compromise YouTube demographics, and so in the last two years that we�ve been posting videos, we have 75 % male analytic with 25 % female.

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And so there�s got to be a way to get more female listeners, don�t you think? You got to come up with something,

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Mike. I don�t know, maybe you need a little more of that Caleb in there. See? A little more of the warm fuzzies.

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And that�s why today we�re announcing a new ministry. I don�t know if I want to call this a spinoff, kind of Happy Days spinoff,

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Laverne and Shirley, you know, NCIS, then NCIS Los Angeles, or New Orleans, or whatever city.

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But we so appreciate it, No Compromise Radio, you and your ministry. We wanted you to have a platform where you can talk to ladies on a regular basis.

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And so you�ve come up with a great idea called Equipping Eve Ministries, or Equipping Eve, and you�re going to be on the

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No Compromise Radio feed two times a month with your own radio show, Erin Benziger at the helm talking about women�s issues for a ladies -only

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Bible study. And so this is the kickoff coming this Saturday. When you get on iTunes, you�ll see the feed there, or you can go to equippingeve .org.

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And so Erin, tell us about the idea, what you hope to do, what the royalty fees are to me personally, you know, those kind of things.

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Yeah. Well, first of all, Mike, I�m just, I�m really thankful to you and kind of humbled by your confidence in me.

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So I�m just, I�m really grateful for the opportunity, was kind of unexpected when you asked me to do it, but yeah, it�s, you know, as we said, there�s a need for just trustworthy resources for women out there.

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I think the evangelical landscape is dominated by women, but it�s not dominated by women who handle the

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Word of God rightly. And that�s really to the detriment of Christian women who desire to study

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God�s Word. So what we�re going to do, like you said, twice a month, maybe more frequently down the road, we�ll see, but we�re just going to dig into topics that are important to women, that are practical, relevant to women, but ultimately that go back to the

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Word of God, because part of the problem in women�s ministries that I see is that there is kind of this self -love, narcissistic overtone, you know, �What can

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I get out of this ?� �What does this mean to me ?�

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You know, �What does this verse mean to you ?� type of attitude when you open the Word of God.

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And ultimately, what we need to do is be studying the Word to learn about God, not to find myself in the story of David and Goliath.

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We need to be opening the Word so that we can learn about the

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Christ that that Word reveals, and everything falls into place from that.

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So that�s really kind of something that�s just been on my heart for several years now, just seeing the lack of resources out there for women and just wanting to put something out there that women can go to and trust.

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And, you know, I hope that we can be recommending good websites, good authors, pastors, preachers that women can go to to dig into the

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Word more deeply. There�s such a mindset that, you know, we�ll just leave that for the men. Men study theology, and I�ll just come to church on Sunday, and I just need this practical stuff about parenting or homemaking.

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And, you know, that�s just not the way it should be. We should be excited to dig into the deep truth of Scripture.

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Well, Erin, I know you agree that we should teach ladies, as Titus 2 says, to train these young ladies to love their husbands and to be self -controlled, working at home, kind, submissive to their husbands, that the

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Word of God may not be reviled. But I know you also agree with me that, for instance, Ephesians.

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It�s written to the church. And so these great truths about the triune God, I think of chapter 1, that God is to be praised for His election,

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His Son�s redemption, and the Spirit�s sealing. These are truths for men and women, not just ladies.

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And so what I like about you and your background, your education, and you working on your master�s degree at master�s college, is you want to show the ladies the deep things of Scripture, and you will recommend men authors.

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I mean, how many ladies Bible studies never read any other book except written by ladies?

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And so there�s nothing wrong with reading a ladies book. But I like it that you�ve got a more well, I don�t know what

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I want to say. I don�t want to say balanced. I don�t want to say you put God in a box. But I appreciate your ministry that you�ll study men and women, and you want to have ladies study, so then it affects their doxology.

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They can praise the Lord more because they�ll know some of the deep things of the Lord, as Romans 11 talks about.

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Exactly. Exactly, Mike. You kind of hit the nail on the head there. That�s probably one of my pet peeves, is that so many women�s ministries just gravitate toward the women authors.

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And as I said, there just seems to be a tendency that the popular women authors are not rightly handling the

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Word. And so, you know, we spend time studying in the Beth Moore study, Priscilla Shire, you know, some of these popular women teachers, and we neglect the men that God has given to the church.

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There�s a reason that God ordained and designed that men would lead and teach in the church, and to neglect that teaching is, you know, again, it�s to the detriment of the woman to neglect the resources that have been given to the church over time, whether dead or alive.

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You know, we have some really great teachers out there. So we�re talking to Erin Benziger today. She�s going to have a new podcast on the

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No Compromise Radio feed, and it�s going to be called Equipping Eve, and you can write her at equippingeve at gmail .com

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or go to her website, donotbesurprised .com. Erin, I listened to the first two shows.

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The first one was more of an introduction, who you are and background, and then the second one was how

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God speaks to us today, and you were critiquing some folks. I think the listeners, the lady listeners, will especially be encouraged because we�re called to really follow

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Timothy�s mandate from Paul, where we don�t want to be ashamed by God.

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We want to study the word, and we want to really cut it straightly, and so I appreciate your desire to know the word.

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And in light of that, and in light of the name of the show, I know why men do sloppy exegesis.

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It�s probably laziness. Why do you think ladies, what�s the woman�s take for why they struggle with kind of really studying and discerning and understanding context and hermeneutics, and what�s your take on all that?

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Yeah, I alluded to that a little bit earlier, Mike, and I really think part of it is a mindset that we�re women, we�ll just leave the deep study to the men, and then we just fail to dig into the word ourselves.

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Women are busy. Most women have a family. Many women also are juggling a job and children and this and that.

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But that�s no excuse for neglecting our study of God�s word. And, you know, back in the garden, we all know the story so well that Satan tempted and deceived

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Eve, and then she, of course, gave to Adam, and then he sinned and ate of the fruit as well.

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And so, there�s a reason that Satan sought out the weaker vessel. You know, we can�t really get around the fact that God has designed men and women differently, and that�s why it�s so important for women to be in the word daily and studying sound theologians and really knowing

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God through His word so that we can stand strong against those deceptions.

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Because Satan hasn�t changed his tactic, you know, in all these millennia.

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He still is trying to deceive men and women alike, but women are very easily led by emotions.

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You know, we are just more emotionally driven, and if we don�t know how to take something to the word and be a good

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Berean and test it against Scripture, we can be easily led astray. And I know that�s happened in my life, you know, as an immature

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Christian or as a false convert, even. You tend to go towards the things that make you feel good, and while it sounds spiritual, it sounds biblical, it�s, you know, talking about Jesus, and it�s got a

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Bible verse tossed in there, but if we don�t know how to take it back to the word and really test it against Scripture and context, we�re going to be led astray and could be led down a dangerous path.

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Well, Erin, you probably know how I operate by now, but first I ask for the, you know, for some editing here, there, and then

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I ask for some, you know, why don�t you just do a radio blog, and you know books are coming next.

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You know, I�m going to ask you to write, you should write a book. It doesn�t have to be a no -compromise radio production. It can be your own book, but I think that�s around the bend, so you better get that degree and get moving.

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Okay, yeah. Erin, I was thinking about that. Take one thing at a time here,

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Mike. Okay, I was thinking about equipping Eve and the desire to do that very thing with ladies, and this is both for Adam�s fault and Eve�s fault, of course, more for Adam�s, but, you know, they are told,

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Adam and Eve in the garden, to take dominion over the animals, the fish, and the sea, and the birds, and every other living thing that moves on the earth,

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Genesis 1. And then one of those created things, one of those snakes, one of those serpents, because I think it was a real serpent that Satan inhabited, comes along and starts talking.

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First of all, you�d have dominion over those things, and second of all, when animals speak, you know, you better watch out.

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And so I�m very thankful that you�re going back to those issues, and how do we combat our weaknesses?

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And so men have their weaknesses, ladies have theirs. How do we approach the Scripture in terms of being a good

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Berean? Which leads me to this question. Aaron, there�s a knock on some ladies, rightfully so, for being out in the internet, running around with crazy discernment blogs.

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And as a matter of fact, more men do that than ladies with the crazy discernment. But how do you position yourself theologically and in the blog world so you�re just not one of those kind of anti -ladies, you know, you�re just not against stuff.

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You�re not like a no -compromise radio show. So tell us your strategy or, you know, where you find yourself, and what�s your philosophy of ministry is what

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I�m asking. Yeah, well, Mike, I really like to be known for what I�m for, not for what

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I�m against. That is so good. That�s why you�re on the NoCo feed. That�s what

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I figured. Uh, well, you know, there�s just a modicum of truth to that, and that is that I am for the truth and for the

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Word of God. And if that means that I have to stand against error and falsehood, then so be it.

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I, yeah, there�s certainly a tendency for quote -unquote discernment blogs to take on kind of a harsh, bitter tone,

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I guess might be one way of describing it. And you make a good point. There are a lot of men out there running similar blogs as well.

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So let�s not just pin that on the ladies. But what I try to do is, you know, it�s important,

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I think, to point out error, especially a teaching maybe that�s very public, very pervasive in the church that you see people are starting to get kind of drawn into it.

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I think it�s important to address those things. But if I�m doing that, it�s essential to me to take it, again, back to the

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Word and point people ultimately to Jesus Christ, to our Savior, to our Master, and to His Word.

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Because I can sit and I can talk all day long about what�s wrong out there in the church, but that�s not going to do anything.

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Maybe you�ll stop listening to that teacher, but if I haven�t pointed you to the truth, I haven�t really accomplished anything of value.

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So that�s really my primary focus if I�m taking on something like that as a blog.

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It�s really important to me, like I said, to point my readers to men that, you know, over time, they�ve stood the test of time of being trustworthy men of God, and so I like to put up little excerpts from some of my favorite authors and theologians, the

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Spurgeons, the Martin Lloyd -Jones, you know, men like that. So, and then pointing people to preachers and pastors today who

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I trust and who are faithfully proclaiming the Word, and so I think it�s just really important to get good resources into the reader�s hands so that it doesn�t matter how much air is swirling around them, they know where they can go for the truth.

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And so that�s really kind of how I approach the blog and the blogging world.

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I�ve been labeled in the past as a discernment blog, and there�s definitely been an evolution in my blog, if you�ll forgive the term.

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You know, if you look back at some of my earlier stuff, I probably was far more focused on what�s wrong in the church, and there just comes a point where you�re just kind of going around in circles, you�re saying the same thing over and over again, because there�s nothing new under the sun, and you know, you don�t want to be an ambulance chaser.

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You know, what did Stephen Furtick put on Twitter today? Let me write about that. You know, it�s not about that, it�s about Jesus Christ, and so we don�t want to lose our focus.

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And I think even if you look at your new radio show�s name,

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Equipping Eve, so see, it is positive, it is encouraging, it�s encouraging. It�s no co -radio.

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So, think about it, Aaron. At least, I think you do what I do in the sense of discernment, and when we critique someone,

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I use that as a foil for my time now to teach what is true.

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And so, since 2 Corinthians chapter 10 discusses the weapons of our warfare, we�re destroying strongholds and destroying arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.

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Then it goes on to say, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. So, when I, I don�t think

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I�ve ever, maybe I have, I don�t know if you�ve ever just said, this is all wrong and bad, and that�s it.

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We say, this is wrong, this is why, this is what the Bible teaches, and this is the truth that you should brace instead.

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I think that�s the way you operate, right? Yeah, that�s what I strive to do.

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And, you know, I mean, exactly. You�ve taken the word right out of my mouth.

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I mean, we use it really as a, use the air as a launching off point to teach the truth.

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And even in addressing the air, it�s important that we are addressing the air and not necessarily the person.

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And I think that�s another problem we see in so many other blogs and ministries is there�s a tendency towards ad hominem attacks and this and that, and, you know, that just then really disqualifies whatever else you say beyond that.

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It doesn�t matter then if you do point people to the truth, you�ve already kind of disqualified people from respecting what you have to say, you know, for the rest.

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So, it�s really important to look at the air and say, this is why it�s wrong, in light of the truth of God�s word.

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So, Aaron, if we start the show Equipping Eve, it�s for ladies only, we say that in the introduction.

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What happens when a man is going to listen? If you could just talk, you know, right now, I�ve got about two minutes left for this show, to the men, maybe some men want to listen because they like what you�re saying.

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What would you say to a man who�s listening to Equipping Eve, except for me or Pastor Don, who, you know, have to hold you accountable?

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I won�t listen to every show, but I�ll listen to some. I�ll listen to the controversial ones. But seriously, we�ll, you know, you�ll be kind of under the umbrella of NoCo Radio, but more importantly, your local church and elders.

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But what do you say to a guy who�s listening to the show? Not this particular episode today, but I mean your show,

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Equipping Eve. Yeah, I would encourage men, you know, this is a show for ladies.

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We�re going to be addressing things that are more specific to women. And it�s really important to me as a woman, you know,

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I don�t believe that women should be teaching men. And so, that�s why

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I�m thankful for this opportunity to be able to reach out to the ladies only and to just kind of have a place where women can go and women can hear the truth of God�s Word.

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And so, you know, I�d be honored if men want to tune in and listen.

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But I think what I would love for the men to do is to maybe point the women that you care about to the show, you know, your mother, your sister, your wife, and have them tune in and maybe they can talk with you about it afterward.

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But I think, by and large, you know, we want to make sure that we�re focused on the ladies.

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We�re going to be, you know, we�re not going to be getting too much girl talk going here, because obviously we�re focused on the

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Word of God. But, you know, women approach things differently. Women have different issues that they deal with, different weaknesses, as we said previously.

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And we really just want to have this place where women are just kind of gathering around a table with an open

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Bible, if you were, and, you know, and just kind of digging into Scripture together as ladies and comparing what we�re saying to the

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Word of God. Well, that wraps up our show today on No Compromise Radio. Erin, we�re thankful to have you on the show.

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We�re so thankful that Equip and Eve will be starting to play this Saturday on the No Compromise Radio feed on iTunes, and you can go to our website, equippingeve .org.

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Erin, thanks for being on the show. Well, thanks for having me, Mike. It was a great time. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of 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 1015 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 bbchurch .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.