Book De-recommendations (Part 1)

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 Show Setup

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. Pastor Steve was just waxing eloquently about special Kevlar clothes and such, and I thought, well, we should just turn on the show. Let�s start the recording.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, Steve.

Give you great insight. Thank you for having me. It�s a pleasure to join you all the way from beautiful downtown Burbank.

We used to do shows at Burbank, didn�t we?

I think we talked about doing shows from Burbank. It was probably a wish list kind of item.

I was in Glendale not that long ago, and they have kind of an old-school downtown Glendale on the north side of 134. Maybe we should start recording there. Okay. Let�s do it. I just opened up the Book of Common Prayer to St. Thomas the Apostle, and it says, �The.

Collect. We need some appropriate, you know, music. I don�t know.

Who does the sound? People like the Wayne Newton Donkeyshane stuff. They like that in the background.

Yeah. Well, I don�t really know if that�s appropriate for the Book of Common Prayer. I know, but what�s the collect?

Here�s the collect. Here�s the collect. �Almighty and ever-living God, who for the greater confirmation of the faith did suffer thy holy apostle Thomas to be doubtful in thy Son�s resurrection, grant us so perfectly and without all doubt to believe in thy Son Jesus Christ that our faith in thy sight may never be reproved.

Hear us, O Lord, through the same Jesus Christ, to whom with thee and with the Holy Ghost be all honor and glory, now and forever. Amen. That�s Thomas Acampus, �The Collect.

The Collect. See, when you say �The Collect yes, I have a phone call for you.

It�s �The Collect. See, there was a day that everybody knew about collect calls, but I don�t think young kids know that any longer.

They should. I mean, there�s, you know, the only, I mean, I have so many great memories of pay phones, only not, I mean, I can remember I would literally, when I was in the Army, I would go to the bank and get rolls of quarters, you know, so I could call home.

Well, you are more righteous than I was, at least externally, because my pay phone experience are, you know, the memory of pay phones. I lived in Newport Beach, I was working for Duracell Batteries, I think, at the time, and my territory was in downtown LA.

Well, some days I didn�t really want to work, but they would know you make phone calls from where and from when. This is before the mobile phones. So I would have to drive to downtown LA, find a phone booth, do my, you know, my card, my credit card, you know, phone card or whatever.

It would show that I was calling from downtown LA, make a few phone calls, and I could drive back home. Dumbo. Yeah, just had to punch the clock, huh? I know. I mean, I would go home and then probably, you know, make calls there or, you know, work on presentations or shoot baskets or something.

Steve, anything happening in your life we need to know about? Anything going on with Sunday school? You're teaching from a confession. You a confessionalist? Yeah, well, I. Yeah, where are you in that?

Sanctification?

Sanctification: Monergism, Synergism, and Human Responsibility

Yeah, you know, I'm being challenged. We were talking about it, you know, is sanctification monergistic, is it synergistic? Is the answer yes? You know, so it's a lot more challenging than, you know, I thought it would be, and it's good to read.

So you would think sanctification, yes, it's monergistic, and yes, it's synergistic. How could both be yes?

That's what I'm working on. Well, I mean, you know, I think.

Maybe we should say that it's monergistic, but there is responsibility when it comes.

To sanctification? God is sovereign, man is responsible, and, you know, just like in salvation, God commands us to believe, right? But then He has to regenerate us, grant us the faith, etc. But then we have to believe.

We must believe that, you know, both are true. God is sovereign, and man is responsible, so.

All right, well, no matter what you teach about sanctification, as long as we still believe what the Bible teaches, I'm fine with that. Okay, good. You work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

Yes, we do. That's true. Because God doesn't work. Oh, see? Why do we forget those last bits? I don't know. Because it's easy to forget. Steve, we have in front of us our own copies of Christianity Today.

Critiquing the NIV and Bible Translation Choices

And I thought we would just do a show. You know how we put so much effort into the show and time, and we plan it out, and we literally alliterate things. And the very first page, I opened the inside cover, and it's got the NIV from Zondervan.

And you know what? I just think there's a typo there. Because it says, outrageously thin, outrageously readable. And I think there's one more, outrageously, that they forgot to put in there. Inherent.

Outrageously. What happened? Was that 15 years ago when the NIV said, hey, we're going to sneak in this other stuff, and they got caught in the little fibster?

Yeah. I don't even remember how long it was. I mean, 1977 was the last decent translation.

Oh, you're talking about the NAS from 77? Oh, you're right. You're right.

It was 84. 84, yeah. 84 was the last time they did a decent job of it, right? I mean, doesn't it go back?

Did it first come out in 84? Is that right? Well, maybe that was for the whole Bible. Maybe you're thinking New Testament or something in 77. But 77 makes me think of NAS.

Yeah, but they came out later. I think it was about 15 years ago, 2002, 2001, or something like that, with the New International Version Update, or whatever they called it.

So they did the update even though they said they weren't going to update, and then they did the TNIV that had 30 change or whatever. Then now with this one, they've got part of the update, if I remember correctly, and I know they have some of the TNIV in here.

So it's outrageously thin, outrageously readable, and outrageously combinable.

I like what they say here, though, unfit to read at any size. They did not. Oh, wait. Wait, wait. They did not.

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. My bad. It says easy to read. Well, it does say here on the bottom, this part is true, choose from 63 sizes and colors. And the other thing they've done between the 77, the 84, the TNIV, the updated version, you can pick and choose any kind of conglomeration with those three different versions.

Choose from 63 different hybrids of the TNIV and the 84.

So that's kind of nice. Yeah. If you're uncomfortable with the non-inclusive language, that's fine, you know?

Well, we just give these out at the church after we give the bumper sticker that says all welcome here. It's like a rainbow. You know, there is something to be said for the NIV, the old school NIV. I would pick it up and read it.

You know, it's kind of like Augustine, pick up and read, you know, the kid's song. And there's a lot of good you could get out of it. I just don't like this newer hybrid version. But what do you do when you see a brand new mom come to the church and she's got her NIV paperback?

Do you say anything to her? I just wait till she sets it down, and then I secretly take it, throw it in the dumpster and... Switch it out. ...and substitute in, you know, something more profitable. Switch it out.

Yeah. Anything else in this magazine you'd like to make some comments on? ESV. They do have the advertisement about the Conqueror series, the plan, the battle plan for purity, combating pornography. Obviously, pornography is a huge issue.

I did think it was interesting, though, on that. They've got like MRI scans, brain scans, and here's how they promote this advertisement. They've got the picture of the book. It's got a guy with a sword.

He's like up in Mordor or someplace. And then it's got three brains. And this is... I'm not joking. Here's your brain. And it's this greenish, yellowish, orb-looking thing.

To be honest, it's not all that attractive. Yeah.

Right. But then it has, here's your brain on heroin, and it's kind of clumpled and it's purple.

Yeah. It's uglier than the regular brain.

And then it has got another one. Here's your brain on porn.

And honestly, I'd rather be on heroin than porn, according to these pictures. Well, according to these pictures, yeah.

Anyway, it's talking about how porn restructures the brain and not in a good way. That's exactly what it says. I just think this problem with pornography is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. I think I'd probably take a different approach than showing three pictures.

This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. And I think of the commercial with the eggs and stuff, the scrambled eggs.

Well, I did read, what did I read? Maybe about a week, week and a half ago, that it does physiologically alter your brain. So I thought that was interesting. I don't know that they can represent what it does in a picture like this.

I'm dubious.

Ephesians 5 and the Call to Sexual Purity

Mm-hmm. Well, I'm so dubious that it's on the opposite page of the health-caring MediShare kind of Christian sharing thing. So when it comes to medical insurance, I'm just as dubious. It says in Ephesians 5, therefore, be imitators of God.

That's pretty amazing, by the way. Be imitators of God as beloved children, walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. If you'd like to know what love really is, you can take a look at the cross and you see Jesus' sacrifice there, the just dying for the unjust.

But then the opposite of love is selfishness, because love sacrifices, agape love, we think of Ephesians 5 .1. Here then it says, but sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among the saints.

And then it talks about even, you can't even talk about it, filthiness or foolish talk or anything else. And so when it comes to this issue, I'd like to see us get back to the Bible, hopefully they're doing that, and talk about laziness and things like that.

But I guess people could buy a book, maybe Sexual Fidelity or something like that. That'd be an outstanding purchase.

Do they get anything free with their order? Hey, you know, it's interesting, Steve.

I said online, or maybe on the show, hey, if you want to order 10 or 20, I'll give you a great deal. Somebody just order 20. Good call. I know. It'd be good for a men's book. Yeah, and I'd charge them double instead.

Christianity Today's Best Christian Books of 2017

Okay, so we're all leading up to this right now, and that is the best Christian books of 2017 in Christianity Today. And so what page do we have that on, Steve?

Let's see. There's no page numbers on here. Yeah, I know, it's kind of tricky. So if you just look for the Christmas Buying Guide, I think it's the next page.

This is high-tech radio right here. Yes, super. Okay. Next page. Yes. Are you ready to make your mark? There it is. Okay. How many of the Gospel Coalition? No, no, yeah. Together for the Gospel People.

Out of the 10, would you go see? Together for the Gospel. Yeah. We've been there before. Yeah, not very many. Yeah. Well, off the top of my head, we don't have the pictures in front of us. Mark Dever.

I'd go see. I'd see Dever. Yeah, I'd see Dever. I'd see MacArthur. Yeah, I'd see MacArthur. Uh-huh. I'd see Kevin DeYoung. Mm-hmm. And I would see Ligon Duncan. Yeah. But pretty much the rest. Black Lives Matter.

Does that interest you at all?

Are they going to be speaking there? No, but Tabeti's there. Oh, okay. And he's hedged around that stuff. Yeah, I'm really, if somebody asked me, you know, what would the LA County Sheriff's Department do, you know, if a Black Lives Matter leader was put in charge of it?

And I just said, well, I think they'd probably all mark time until they resigned and went to other departments. Hmm.

Interesting. But it is Christmas, and so we'd like to have some buying guides, and so we probably need some good Christian books.

Good Christian books. The top, the best Christian books of 2017, according to the Christian Book Award people who give out the Medallion of Excellence Awards.

I know. That medallion is strikingly similar in looks to the brain not on porn.

It's not, actually, it's not far off, really. Just for the record, Mike has never smoked cigarettes.

I know. You know what, as I was laughing, I was thinking about that very thing. Now, to the credit of this little book award deal, there are books here from Zondervan, Crossway, Waterbrook, Cook, Thomas Nelson.

In other words, this is not a book award given to a company that's making the advertisement. Right. Right? Okay? And at the bottom, there's Parable, Barnes Noble, Christianity Today, Amazon, etc. Christianbook .com.

I don't know who orders books from them anymore, but I don't see how they keep that warehouse in Peabody open. It's a lot of overhead.

It's a mystery. Well, you know what? Actually, I did order something here not too long ago from them because they had a great deal on the HCSB or HSCB or whichever, the Southern Baptist translation of the Bible, and I just thought, well, okay, I'll get one, so.

What if Parliament the Band came out with the translation? Would you buy that? P-Funk? Probably not. Okay. There's something bad about the Holman standard version that got...

Well, yeah, they took out... They were going to use Yahweh, and then they took it out.

Yeah, well, that, and I think it's 1 Corinthians 16, act like men. The new Holman Christian standard, which is... Act like concrete. No, no, it's be courageous. Weak.

Weak. That is about as weak as it gets. Weak sauce. You know, that's one of the places where I really do like the King James, acquit ye like men. Yeah, acquit ye like men.

That's pretty good, I know. So, we've got all these books here that people may or may not buy, and these have won some awards.

And so, you're pointing at something. Because I just thought, this is just so awesome. We were just talking about the NIV. How about the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Steady Bible?

Well, now when you read something and you can see, oh, cultural background, like in Luke 15, that normally fathers don't roll up their robes or whatever and run, but that was a sign of love. What if it had something like that?

Boy, I hope that's what it has. I hope that's what it has. Somehow I'm dubious of that. Yeah.

Well, you know what? You might... Maybe it's a manners and customs thing, Steve.

I'm just looking at this list, though, and I'm like, some of these books, I'm sure, are really good.

Now, before you go into any other book, I'd like to turn to the section where it says, now, here's how you get your husband. You go into Boaz's tent, lay by his legs, uncover his feet. Now, what would that mean?

They're gonna have to address that kind of stuff. Sure. Yeah. Okay. When you want to try to win over the king, Esther, here's what you do. Six months of special cosmetics and doing all that other stuff, and you get one night with a guy.

What would that mean? I don't know.

I don't know. You should see Steve's face. You know, I think... I'm just looking at this list. I'm sure there are some really good things and even some books I'd like to read, but that study Bible, just by virtue of the fact that it's NIV, would be one discouraging thing.

But I'm also looking and I'm like, okay, best books, Tim Tebow, Shaken, Discovering Your True Identity in the Mist of Life's Storms.

You know, one time, Steve, I found my identity in the mist of a storm. In the midst.

Uh-huh. Well, you can find it in the mist, too. Jonah and the Fish, I'm sure that's a great kid's book, and I'm sure it's very God-centered.

Well, if I had to pick one book out of here, out of this list, two, four, six, twelve books, what would you pick? You have to pick one of these twelve. Have to pick one to read? Hmm.

I... Let's see. Well, I mean, I'd be most interested in the Union with Christ book.

Okay, and who's got that? Who's publishing that? David C. Cook. So I wonder how a David C. Cook published book on Union of Christ could be any good.

I don't know, but I mean, it would be at least interesting to me, but yeah, so I don't know.

So what we've got here, we've got Unblemished is for young people. I think this is kind of a, this is maybe Good Vampires or something like that, maybe Unblemished. You've got Marriage by Ortlund, a Union with Christ.

It says David C. Cook, but that's not the author. Yeah, I think that's just a publisher. And Rankin, Rankin Roger, he's with English Beat.

Oh, Rankin Wilborn, whom I've never heard of.

Courageous Faith by Charles Stanley. Interestingly, it's on Howard Books, a division of Simon Schuster, and you know who Simon's daughter was of Simon Schuster? No. Carly Simon. Really? That's true.

Oh, I haven't got time for the pain. Yeah. Well, you're so vain. Yeah. You probably think the song is about you. I was listening to a German version of that song on Spotify, and it was funny because they, well, I can't pronounce German words very well, but they couldn't pronounce English words very well.

We've got Joan and the Fish, that's a kid's book, 75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know, Baker Books. That's by Terry Glasphy. I can hardly read it, it's print so small. Spectacle of Glory by Johnny Erickson Tada.

Oh, that would be good. History of Western Philosophy and Theology by P .N .R., that's John Frame. Parenting by Trip, that is Paul David Tripp. Leadership Mosaic, Crossway by Daniel Montgomery. Shaken and then Study Bible Culture.

So those are the 12. Now, I like Johnny Erickson Tada. I just, I read her book on heaven. That was a sweet book, but it's not really, you know, I'm a pastor and a radio celebrity and stuff, so I'm not really into that kind of, you know, spectacle of glory stuff.

What about the Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know? What's a masterpiece? Is that a, it looks like it's Starry Night on the front there.

That must be... I think it looks, yeah, it looks to me like, I mean, again, we're talking about, we're trying to read something that is, you know, it's a picture of a book and the picture is about an inch and a half tall by three quarters of an inch wide.

So it's pretty tough.

Yeah. By the way, any church named Mosaic, our book named Mosaic, that's already out. Flee. What if we had a church named Flee? That's F-L-E-E. Flee from the wrath to come. That's what... Flee. Yeah.

Flee. Because I don't want you to think about the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Flee, like the bass player,. F-L-E-A.

That, I mean, talk about a seeker-sensitive church name. Flee from the wrath. Yeah, but, well, yeah, it's short from... Yeah, Flee. Flee. Because you have to just...

I know. It's so funny. It's catchy. Yeah. Flee. Yeah. I was once at a concert playing pinball. That tells you how long ago it was in Long Beach, California. A couple weeks ago. Yeah. Playing pinball. And the guy next to me came to play the pinball game as well, a different one that was right next to mine.

So he put the quarter in, you know, you got three games for a quarter instead of one game for 10 cents. So you got the deal for 25 cents. Right. And, you know, back in those days, it was five balls per game, right?

Not three. Not three, right. Then they changed it to, you know, three for 25 cents. Anyway, the angle of inclination was too great for this particular person next to me. So he got some kind of coasters and stuff and picked up the pinball machine at the front, jammed the coasters underneath so the angle of inclination was less, and then he played it.

And it was Flee from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He was a pinball wizard. Yeah, there has to be a twist. Now, would you read any Paul David Tripp books on parenting and stuff?

Well, I'm pretty much done with parenting books. It's grandparenting books.

If you wrote a grandparenting book, would you read it? I might not. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think probably what he writes is from the Bible and it's biblical and has a Reformed perspective. But I don't like it if I have to go to his website, and I think he's changed it.

The old days it said, you know, this is how much it was going to cost, and there was a fee. And I think now it's just how big's your church. There is going to be a fee. I don't know if the new website says you can't, like, distribute his messages that he gave there.

And maybe it's all under the auspices of he's not a pastor, he has to make a living this way. But that stuff kind of rubs me the wrong way.

Podcasting, Audiobooks, and the Value of the Author's Voice

Yeah, I'm not too keen on it myself.

Well, if you'd like to give to No Compromise Radio, you can go to the website.

As we close the year, and we look to balance the books here.

Oh, it's been another tough year, Steve.

It's very tough. I feel like I should be shaking something, you know.

But you know, our headphones, they're not giving us black speckles anymore. I know.

Our crack team of technical experts fixed that. Moi.

That is pretty amazing.

We're still sitting in back-breaking chairs, but...

Yours is the wiggly one. Mine is the one that your son-in-law destroyed. Oh, well. Joey sat in this thing and tried to fix it for me, and he sure put the fix on it. The fix is in. The fix is in. Uh-huh.

What podcast do you listen to these days?

You know, honestly, I've been listening to the book by Sinclair Ferguson, and I've not been listening to podcasts. I was talking to Pastor Bob Bowman a couple weeks ago, and we were talking about the book by Sinclair Ferguson.

The Whole Christ. Yeah, The Whole Christ. And he said he had listened to that book four times, the book on tape four times. And I'm like, I don't really blame you, because here's what happens. And this is why I'm not a huge podcast guy.

Because I mean, I'd rather listen to sermons, because it just has to be something that really keeps my interest. The book's on tape. I listened to him, and I'm like, it's just not the same as Sinclair Ferguson talking to me.

Right? It's some guy reading what Sinclair Ferguson wrote. And unless you've got a really compelling voice and a compelling delivery, I can't listen. You know, I kind of fade in and out. And so I can understand why Bob's listened to that four times, on top of the fact that the material is very, it's academically stimulating, I would say that.

Steve, I think they probably could have paid Sinclair some money to record that.

I would pay him some money to do that.

Yeah. And I'm not saying he would only do it for the money. But I'm saying there's a way to motivate authors to do things. Yeah.

And I think, you know, because I think the advantage the author has, when it's in his voice, and he thinks about, well, yes, I remember what I was thinking about when I said this, when I wrote this, he will then emphasize certain things and, you know, say them in a different way.

And it just kind of, it draws you in. It's like if somebody is just reading scripture and they just kind of go, you know, and the Lord said, you know, I mean, there are ways of emphasis and enunciation and everything else that just kind of draws people in as opposed to, you know, not drawing, I guess, as opposed to not drawing them in.

Well said, Steve. Well, we went over our time a little bit, but here's the thing, Steve, now that it's not on the local radio station. We can do whatever we want. Yeah. The other day when I interviewed Daryl Harrison, I think I went 40 minutes.

Did you really? Yeah. We've never gone 40 minutes. We were talking about white privilege and such.

I'm going to have to listen to that. I saw you had Kofi too. I did.

Yeah. And I asked Kofi about a variety of different people and he gave me his honest answers. I had Linton, Bara Kadathu on, and we're just, yeah, is that how you say his name?

I don't know. I just, you know, I still regret the day when I had to stop calling him Linton Abraham.

So anyway, you can write us info at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

Closing Credits and Church Information

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.