Current Events (Part 2)

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.

Opening Banter and Technical Setup

Five, four, three, two, one, No Compromise Radio. Testing, one, two, three, four. It's Tuesday. Are we on air? Well, yeah. Steve, can you give me that coffee, please? I like with a little bit of splendor in it and some ice.

Splendor. Splendor in the coffee. Actually, I've been drinking Pete's coffee these days. In the morning, we had a listener.

Who sent me some Pete's coffee. Which explains why Mike can't go to sleep at night.

Yeah, and then diet Mountain Dew in the afternoon. What is going on in this world? It's a killer. What we'd like to talk about today is our continuing theme from last week. We like themes, we like continuation, we like to have the same kind of format, and that means Tuesday's Pastor Steve Cooley and Pastor Mike Abendroth here to talk to you, the listeners on WVNE 760, a station we really like.

I appreciate the management there, especially Manny. By the way, this is going to be, this show's for Manny, because Manny will stand up for the truth and he will promote evangelical ministries on this radio station.

And that means, I think he thinks his job is a ministry. Well, and that's important. I mean, it's important when someone will stand up for the truth. I like Manny, even if he drinks Starbucks and I drink Pete's.

Well then Manny, you owe me a Starbucks. I like him all the more in that case. Today, Steve, let's just beg for money. Times are tough, ministry's tough. We need some new studios. I don't know, we need a couple new Macintosh, Apple.

If you value this ministry and you want to keep it on the air, then you need to send We got a letter the other day from someone who has a reform ministry and they'd like to have some more money for their missionary outreaches and stuff.

And it basically said, if you don't give a mite to this ministry, you're going to receive the judgment of God.

And I just thought, oh, man. It said your priorities might not be right, and I'm like, okay, well,.

Somebody needs a humility check. Testing one, two, three, four. Testing one, two, five, four, three, two, one. No Compromise Radio Ministry. This is Mike Evendroth. We'd like to talk a little bit more about things in the news.

Bruce Waltke, RTS, and the Authority of Genesis

And so what we like to do here at the radio station is to look at Christianity today because you get to see so many things that are swirling around in evangelicalism and pseudo-evangelicalism, sub-evangelicalism.

What's the word for over again? Hyper-evangelicalism. Huper. Huper. Yes, I like to be in Germany and you say something's really good, you do something excellently, and they go, uber. Super. Super. So we'd like to talk about Bruce Waltke and how he had to resign from Reformed Theological Seminary.

Bruce Waltke is a very popular evangelical scholar in the Old Testament especially. I believe, Steve, that he first was at Dallas and then he was at Trinity and then RTS. He's resigned from RTS.

And why did he resign? Well, he resigned basically because he said, listen, all these people who take the Bible so literally need to wake up. You're in danger of falling into a cult.

Did he really say that?

Yes, he did. The scientific evidence of creation wouldn't be creative, it would be evolutionary. And you guys need to face the reality of that and stop denying it by your wrong view of the Bible. That's my paraphrase.

When Bruce Waltke says, science is on a journey, revelation is a destination, we begin and end with revelation at RTS. That makes me want to commend Reformed Theological Seminary, that it begins and ends with revelation.

That is the revelation from God. This is what God has said in his word. And here's what the word says in Genesis chapter one and Genesis chapter two. There's no way you can read those. And if you read it with a grammatical, historical, normal, plain, literal interpretation, if you go to India and meet someone who's never heard of the Bible and say, would you read this and tell me what you think it's trying to say?

They will always say, this is a day. When you use a word like six in front of a day, an ordinal number in front of a day, it always in the Bible refers to day. And then you start pouring in evolution.

I think we've got a problem. I applaud RTS for standing the ground, even in spite of what science supposedly is saying.

By the way, it was Michael Milton, the RTS interim president who said, what you just quoted there, that science is on a journey, revelation is the destination. Oh, you're exactly right. That is not. I just want to give you that small little correction.

No, no, that's good. That is a good correction.

That is why we are begging for money here at No Compromise Radio. We're struggling. Send us your money.

Need a better research staff. Gotta hire a better research staff. But I was just shocked as I read through this that there are a lot of people, people whose books I have on the shelves, scholars who just have this wrong view here.

Westmont College biblical scholar, Tremper Longman III, was disinvited last year from further adjunct teaching at RTS, Reformed Theological Seminary, due to questioning in a video whether Adam was a historical person.

Well, I think that, again, kudos to RTS. You know, that is the right thing to do. If you don't believe that Adam is a real person, it's like I say a lot of times, you know, if you don't believe the Bible in Genesis 1 and 2, if you don't take that literally, then please tell me when the literal Bible starts.

You know, when do you start reading it.

And going, okay, that's right? Well, at least some of these people are being consistent because if Genesis 1 early on is not literal, then Adam isn't literal either, and so we don't have a literal Adam, and then pretty soon it will be we don't have a literal fall, we don't have a literal Tower of Babel, we don't have a literal promise to Abraham in chapter 12, 15, 17, 22,.

And you're right, the list goes on because compromise leads to... Compromise, and that's why we're nocompromiseradio .com.

You know, everybody compromises in their life, but when you realize you have compromised... Everyone does. Everyone does. We don't compromise. Well, when we do, then we repent of it. That's my point. Everyone does, but we ought not to like it.

We ought not to support it. We ought not to say, like Howard Van Til, a retired astronomy professor at Calvin College, the general constituency of the evangelical community is lagging way behind the teachers at its own colleges and universities.

When you try to marry evolution and scripture, you're going to have problems, major problems. I always remember Daniel Bloch, who's an Old Testament scholar, and he would say, there's no one 3 ,000 years ago, 2 ,000 years ago, 1 ,000 years ago, who would read Genesis 1 and somehow think, well, that's a day age.

That's a gap. That's some kind of, you know, where's evolution start? They'd never do that. No, and you know, I mean,.

The scary thing that he says there is this idea that, you know, colleges and universities... Read that again. The general constituency of the evangelical community, in other words, Christianity at large, is way behind the curve when it comes...

And he's talking about with regard to the teachers at colleges and universities. So he's saying, listen, you go to a so-called Christian college, guess what you're probably going to hear in the classroom?

Evolution.

That is shocking. Can you think of Christian colleges today outside of the master's college in California that do not teach evolution in their Genesis 1 class? It's few and far between. Maybe there's some other ones, but I don't even know where they are.

And I think here's what Walkie's doing, and we're seeing this a lot in evangelicalism, Steve, as you know. We have to be able to look credible so we can have a good testimony. Because if we look like ignoramuses, if we look like these anti-evolution people, then we don't have a leg to stand on.

But I go back to 1 Corinthians 1. And when Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, we still have a message. We preach Christ crucified. So why do I have to kowtow and bow down to this great God of evolution to make people think I look good?

Because my next step, even if I did that, is going to be talking about Jesus, and they're going to think I'm loonier than I was before.

And this has been going on for more than 100 years. You know, it was the modernist controversy, and out of that sprung the fundamentalist movement, which, you know, today fundamentalism has a bad name.

But the idea is you take the fundamentals of the Bible and you cling to them. And why wouldn't we? And so then what happened is gradually that gave way to the fundamentalist movement, to the evangelical movement.

And when they did that, they went back into the schools, back into the worldly academy, as it were, and they were looking for the approval of the academic institutions. And to do that, they had to compromise.

They had to bow the knee to Baal, you know, and go, well, you know what, we'll accept Baal as long as we can also preach Christ. And you just lose it. You absolutely lose. The only credibility we have is not our own.

It is the gospel, it is the scripture, even as you were saying. I mean, who cares what the world thinks about Steve? I don't really care. What I care about is what do they think about the message that I preach to them?

Well, that message is going to be altered.

If you begin to look at something from the lens of science, that is evolution, and read Genesis chapter one. I like to look at Christ Jesus and his view of the Old Testament. He talked about Adam and Eve, Noah, Lot, all these supernatural things.

And so once you throw out Genesis one and supernaturalism, you've got a big problem. You're right, Steve. Walkie said, if the data is so overwhelmingly in favor of evolution, to deny that reality will make us a cult.

Well, of course I'm going to be a cult and worse to the unbelieving pagan who says, my unbelief leads to rebellion, which leads to immorality. And therefore I don't want somebody telling me it's sin. So let's get rid of this guy.

Okay, if the world thinks I'm a cult leader, then I'm a cult leader.

And here's what I hate. You know, I will say, I will use the word hate. I hate this idea that somehow we need to accommodate science when here's the truth about science. You mentioned it kind of, but if you think back a thousand years, scientists would not have believed what they believe today.

Do you think that in a thousand years, they'll still be holding on to evolution? I can guarantee you they will not. They will have some, if, you know, if the Lord tarries and we're all still around, it's going to be something completely different.

Why? Because science is learning. Science is changing. Science is always testing and, you know, getting rid of the old and bringing in something new. Scripture cannot bend to the whims of the moment, to the whims of science even.

So this is all leading into something else, Steve. If we commend RTS, if we affirm them to stand up for the truth, what does this say of Knox Theological Seminary, who now hires Waltke and Waltke says, I see this as providence.

I'm wondering if the pastor, I'm trying to think of the guy's name, who's down at Coral Ridge, Presbyterian.

Oh, D. James, well, D. James Kennedy.

I think he was the president of Knox. Yes, he was. Of course, he's now in glory. I wonder if he would have allowed this. I don't think he would have, because he was especially into, you know, anti-evolution politics, et cetera.

Yeah, and establishing the, you know, the biblical basis of the constitution and all these kinds of things. I mean, one of my, you know, just quick D. James Kennedy story. One of my favorite ones is I saw him one night on TBN.

He was there with Paul Crouch and all these other people, and he preached a message on justification. And after he got done, Paul Crouch gets up and he's just astonished and he says, I've never heard a message like that about justification.

And I was watching at home and I just thought, I imagine you probably haven't, because that man just preached the word.

If we had someone who was an elder candidate at the local church level, and they said, I believe in evolution. I look at Genesis chapter one, two, and three, and my hermeneutic is not grammatical historical, but it's grammatical, historical, scientific, grammatical, historical, empirical, grammatical, historical, rational, grammatical, historical, you name it.

Scientific, grammatical, historical, rock and roll. It's, yeah, I'm going to say, you know, your ACDC view of the Genesis chapter one will not fly here because it will affect other things. It just doesn't stop here.

That's the problem. You start doing the little inchworm game against, you know, away from certain doctrines because public pressure is going to affect you. You're going to retreat in other areas as well.

I just, I'm saddened.

Doesn't make me happy to talk about this. Well, and that's why we only talk about it on nocompromisedradio .com.

You can listen to Thursday or Friday shows. Steve makes me talk about negative things, you know, discernment ministry, contending earnestly for the faith once delivered. And then, you know, Thursday and Friday, I talk about sweet things.

Positive, nice. Yes, positive. K-love. We only talk about songs like Christians for girlfriends.

And if you listen tomorrow, he's really going to improve your view of your own insecurity.

I'm sorry, I misquoted K-love. Positive, encouraging K-love. Oh, nice. Yes. Okay, why Johnny can't read the Bible is another article in Christianity Today. Most Americans, the subline says, including scripture-loving evangelicals, cannot name the disciples.

The Ten Commandments are the first book of the Bible. But then Colin Hansen says, but that's not our biggest biblical illiteracy problem. I don't know, if you can't name the first book of the Bible, that's a pretty big problem.

One of the things Let me give you a hint. The genesis of your problem is that you don't know the first book of the Bible. Does that help you out?

That sounds like you should do that kind of Moab song that you were in the country songs. Sing that again.

Something about Oh, no, that's one and done. You'll have to get

You even amended it. You amended it the other day, and I liked it. It was off the air, though, about some kind of Moabite girl.

I think they'll have to download the MP3. No, we need to move along. We don't have much time here.

On No Compromise Radio. Get a little move along. Actually, Colin Hansen has some good articles. Many of the people who write for Christianity today are these Catholic mystics, but Colin Hansen actually has some good articles, and I think he hits the nail on the head often.

We do want to encourage you to read your Bibles. I don't know if their definition of evangelical would be ours. I think most evangelicals, unless they're brand-newly saved, I think they can figure out Genesis, can't you?

Yeah, I sure hope so.

But, you know, interesting, because this article is talking about Great Britain and what they're really trying to do to get people up-to-date on, or, you know, more involved in reading. But I found this quote interesting.

It's from a person. I'm not really clear if it's a guy or a gal, but named Kendiah, who says this, this privilege, talking about this program they want to launch, should unite us at a time when the evangelical church in the UK, that is United Kingdom, is increasingly fragmented, with tribal groups raging over debates surrounding the role of women, the definition of the atonement, and the place of the charismatic gifts while church attendant figures are in decline.

Whatever denomination or tribe we tend toward, all of us need to do better with the Bible, which is true, but these other issues are not minor things. I mean, this is, you know, a definition of the atonement.

You know, let's all just get back to reading the Bible. I think both of them matter, you know? I think it's important that we read the scripture and that we understand what the proper role of women is.

Well, lots of these things divide people because the truth divides. Doctrine divides. It's supposed to. It's supposed to divide truth from?

Fiction, or truth from error, yeah. That'd be a good book title,.

Doctrines That Divide. I think that might be, except Erwin Lutzer's probably already stolen it. It's a good book. It's talking about, actually, it's a great book. And so, what do you have to do? Kendiah says, I almost thought that it was Candy, but I think it's Candia is her name.

Is that her last name or first name?

I don't know. Maybe it's just one of those one-name persons, you know?

Maybe, I was thinking about the song Dandy by Herman's Hermits. Dandy, dandy. Did you know John Owen, they said, was a dandy? He'd really dressed up. I thought you were going to say John Owen was in Herman's Hermits, and I was going to get a little worried.

No, no. Here's the literacy quiz on Christianity Today, and I kind of like it. And so we're going to ask you the question, not you, Steve, but the people who are listening at nocompromiseradio .com. The other day I said nocompromise .com.

It's nocompromiseradio .com. And this is the quiz that they have, and I kind of like these quizzes. And so if you're driving now, you just put your thinking cap on and ask yourself, do I know the answer to this question?

Jonah, Melchizedek, Resurrection, and Biblical Literacy

Question number one, Christianity Today, what lesson from the life of Jonah did Jesus talk about? Watch out for big fish.

Catch and release. Jonah was caught and then released, right?

A, Jonah learned to obey God because disobedience is punished. B, God forgives the repentant as he forgave Nineveh. C, God rescues us as he rescued Jonah when he was cast overboard. That's how most people preach it.

You got the five stone, five smooth stones, the problems in your life kind of thing with David. Dared to be a Daniel. D, Jonah spent three days in the fish as Jesus would spend three days in the tomb.

And people, E, are as wicked today as they were in ancient Nineveh. Talk to me.

Well, obviously we would all say D.

You know, there are a lot of things that we could learn, but if the question is, what lesson from the life of Jonah did Jesus talk about? I think it's a bad way to even phrase the question. If you say, how did Jesus refer?

What were the similarities between Jonah and Jesus when he talks about himself in Matthew chapter 12? Then I think we might get the answer a little quicker. Because you know what? There's lots of other issues swirling around that book that we believe is in the Bible, Jonah, and we take it as a normal, literal Jonah and a normal, literal fish, normal, literal water.

You know, while you're turning there and fiddling around with your words and everything like that, I just want to say, you know, what was interesting to me was I got into a discussion about Jonah one time with a Roman Catholic apologist.

And he said to me, he goes, well, the church doesn't have an official position on whether that should be treated as a historical book or an allegory. And I thought, I have an official position. You know, it's the word of God, and it's a historical book.

You know, I'm going to do a show on Jonah. Did you know that?

I think you should. I think I should. Maybe two. Listen to what Jesus says. An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. For just as, Matthew 12 says, just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

And so we say it is D, but Jesus goes on to say, the men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of judgment and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

So something even more happened that I wish Christianity today would have talked about.

Yeah, so I mean, that's number one. And that's when, you know, people don't zero in on that. I mean, a lot of people know the story of Jonah, but they don't know what Jesus said about Jonah.

All right, and you know what? We only have four minutes left, so we have to go faster. Okay, faster. Number two, Melchizedek, king of Salem, met with which biblical figure? Sub-question, how is Jesus like Melchizedek?

Now read to me what they said.

And we'll tell you if it's right. Okay, Melchizedek, which means priest of the most high God, met with Abram, which was Abraham's name before he became Abraham, you know. And then it says, Jesus is like him in that he is a priest forever, which is from Psalm 110 and Hebrews 5.

And once for all, greater than the priesthood of Aaron in Hebrews 7, the writer of Hebrews says that he was without beginning of days or end of life in Hebrews 7 .3.

All right, I think we agree with that one. That's pretty good, Colin is right on there. He wrote this. Number three, besides Jesus, name five biblical figures who rose from the dead. Five biblical figures.

Now that one, that would be a hard one, Steve. Yeah, it would be. Five biblical figures. I'm not even gonna look. Let me just sneak, no, just kidding. I immediately think of Lazarus. Sure, that's the easy one.

And I think of a lot more than five in Matthew when the resurrection happened, Christ Jesus' resurrection. You had all those people up out of their tombs and they were walking around, I believe, telling people that Jesus Christ is risen,.

But I bet you they don't have that there. Well, they do, but they only just count him as one, so, you know. Oh, they have it in there. Yeah. Okay, that's not bad.

I forgot about Eutychus. I believe he was sleeping because Paul was preaching for a long time and he raised him from the dead. And Tabitha.

Yeah, Tabitha, who else? The son of Nain, or the son of the woman of Nain. All right. And then the son of the widow of Zarephath, the son of the Shunammite woman, and the dead man who touched Elisha's bones.

I like it that they say each was resurrected, not resuscitated.

And the daughter of Jairus, I love that, yeah. That's true.

All right, so now this is snoozing radio. But it's no compromise. Annie's about to be resurrected. And we need some money. Send us your money, cold hard cash. We don't want money, we want gold. Or we'll catch y 'all off.

We have a gold standard here.

The other questions are. Let's give out the mailbox and the 800 number one more time.

Can you believe we dedicated this show to Manny? He's gonna hate that. He'd think, you know, just teach them real stuff. Sorry, sorry, Manny. You know, if you want to clown around, you're supposed to do that on your own internet time.

Women in Jesus' Genealogy and the Need for Biblical Literacy

Name four women besides Mary who were included in Jesus' genealogy and describe their circumstances. I do really like that because in the genealogy of Christ, you find sinners. Not that it would affect him, but you find Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba.

And Jesus Christ is a friend of sinners. And Jesus Christ identifies with sinners. And Jesus Christ can die in the place of sinners.

Adulteresses, harlots. I mean, we're not talking about, these are not, you know, incredible, virtuous, never sinned before in their lives women. You're exactly right.

And when it comes to, oh, I remember the time my kids asked me, I was reading the Bible to them at the dinner table and they said, dad, what's a prostitute?

How do you answer that question? Have another bite of your spare ribs and I'll tell you.

I said, well, you know, I have some insecurities. And I need to be healed from my insecurities and my despondency.

Yeah, just give the kids a bunch of 12-step babble and keep them dancing. We at this radio station would love to have you read your Bibles. And we want you to read your Bibles more than you read Christianity Today.

How's that for a wraparound? Well, that'll preach because if you get into Christianity Today, you are really getting into Christianity astray.

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 six. 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.