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When the Chinese drive pigs off a bridge, is it animal cruelty? Was Jesus cruel to the pigs when He sent demons into them?
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.
Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth and we here at this podcast, I guess that�s technically now what we are. I guess we�re not a radio show anymore since, are we on the radio?
We�re on Worldview Weekend. We are on that�s it! It�s easy for you to listen. If you�re listening now, you�ve already figured it out. You go to NoCompromiseRadio .com, you go to iTunes, you go to Facebook, or you go to the Twitter site and you�ll be able to get there, or Worldview Weekend online and you can catch us there.
Well, you can always write us at info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. I have been very, very encouraged by not only the frequency of encouraging emails, but also the depth. Even people who are unbelievers writing in with questions like �I�m just trying to understand Christianity and figure out what�s going on.
I�m not a believer. I would be what you call unregenerate, but does that mean I�m not elect And so I would try to explain. This is what saving faith is. This is the object of saving faith. And yes, in fact, there are unbelievers now who are elect.
They�re unregenerate elects. So anyway, that�s been very encouraging. So if you write, I will, if you just write to say thank you, I�ll probably have Spencer respond saying thanks for listening. If you�ve got specific questions, most of the time I�ll answer them.
If it says something about Tuesday guy, then I�ll make him answer the question for you. Just a little bit more housekeeping here, Reformation Montana, 2015 conference information that will be up in Billings, Montana.
I think I�ve been to 40 some states in the union, but I have not been to Montana. So I�m glad to go. Billings, Montana, and then to think of the other speakers that I have the privilege of sharing the, I�m not going to say stage, the platform with, the elevated platform.
No, I don�t even know where it is. I mean, I know where Billings, Montana is. Here Holiday Inn and Convention Center, Billings, Montana, registration, signups, and all that stuff at ReformationMontana .org and Phil Johnson will be speaking there.
By the way, I think you should email me. If you could ask Phil Johnson any question, what would it be? And then, you know, I�ll talk to him there and we�ll get him back on No Compromise Radio. He�s a regular guest.
So give me a question for Phil. I�m also going to be speaking with Todd Friel. Give me a question for Todd. They can�t be the same question though. Chris Roseboro, J .D. Hall, and Gene Clyatt. I think he�s the squirrel, isn�t he, in the social media?
And there were some squirrels in our neighborhood that got lead poisoning, but it was a different kind of lead. I didn�t do it. I didn�t do it. I heard of it. So that�s 2015 coming up soon, and that is June 25th, 26th, and 27th, I�m going to be preaching about substitutionary atonement and how that�s being attacked, penalty substitutions being attacked, and an updated new version of mysticism and the Word of God, and I love that topic because it�s interesting to talk about it in a setting like this with a conference, but the whole conference is on the church.
So you might want to register now. There�s a journal too, Reformation Montana Journal. I�m looking forward to being there this summer. Well, there are a few other things in the news. Drive-thru churches, yep, they�re in the news.
Now, years ago, I remember the drive-thru funeral, it was more of a calling hours deal, and so it was a small little, have you ever seen those little coffee shops that are really small? I mean, uber small drive-thrus, it�s like a shed, it�s like a toll booth, I don�t know what they are.
I think in Nebraska, they�re called scooters or something like that, only in Nebraska. By the way, I�m not supposed to criticize any particular group or place. If I criticize the New Englanders, I get in trouble.
If I criticize squirrel boils in Mississippi, I get in trouble. If I criticize those in Michigan and Wisconsin for their hash brown, what do they call them, the tater tot casseroles. Where do they make those jellos where they let the pretzels sink down?
I think Fred Butler likes those, the pretzels at the bottom. Anyway, you would drive up, I don�t know if you�d put money in, probably a code, or you just push a button, green button, and the curtain opens up and you can see the person�s dead body there in a casket.
You can pay your proverbial respects and drive off. I mean, no fuss, no muss, no crying in front of people, it�s just awful. Just the way we go about things now, and I think of the East and the West in attitudes and culture and we are very reserved and quiet and maybe have a tear and not too much bawling and not too much loud crying versus the East and even in the days of Jesus where you would hire people to mourn and there would be trumpeters and flute players and those kind of things.
Well here we have, published in the KRQE News, that�s not KROQ in Los Angeles, the radio station. This is KRQE News 13, Drive Through Church Makes Debut in New Mexico, an article by Emily Younger, and so Rio Rancho, New Mexico.
She writes, �When you think of a drive-thru, fast food usually comes to mind, but there weren�t any burgers served at one particular drive-thru in Rio Rancho on Sunday. Now, she could write for No Compromise Radio, speaking of which, there should be two, I�m planning two new No Compromise books this year and you�re going to have to stay tuned for those books and you�re going to be able to order them only through No Compromise Radio.
So how about that? We�re forcing the issue. It�s a monopoly. It�s like Teddy Roosevelt having to deal with all these people trying to scoop up all the railroads. �We aren�t going to ask them if they want fries when they leave said Paragon Church member Rob Miller.
Now I haven�t read anything beyond that, I�m just doing this live, see, so we can just capture the moment. When you hear churches that are called Verve, Clash, Vintage, Paragon, Parachute, that�s a new one.
I�m going to start a new denomination, Parachute. What do you usually think of? Well, I know what I think of, and maybe I can be wilder now that I�m not on WVNE 760 AM on your Worcester dial. That�s because the drive-thru is actually a drive-thru church.
Members of the church offer prayers to anyone who rolled through. Steve Dixon happened to be driving on Northern Boulevard in Rio Rancho when he saw the signs for drive-thru prayer. I felt it was kind of a calling.
I was kind of like I needed to be here. And so, somebody had this great idea, and it says here, according to Miller, �We know that there are many in our community that are just suffering and have a hard time and are hurting, and we care about them.
We are really just hoping if we can help one person feel a little bit better today and feel God�s love and feel God�s comfort, then we will feel like it�s been a successful morning for us. I feel that that�s an accurate representation.
It�s welcoming. There�s no pressure. So it�s kind of like you just come in and enjoy what�s going on. He got the idea from a church in Arizona. It�s hoping to offer the drive-thru prayer service in one month.
So should we be praying for our friends and relatives and neighbors and community? Well, of course, that�s not the issue. First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high places, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
For this I, Paul, was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am telling the truth. I am not lying. A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. So Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2, and I don�t want to make light of prayer, and I think there�s probably a way you could pull this off rightly, but I don�t know if they are or not.
So my critique is not of this drive-thru church. It�s not a drive-thru church. You can�t do that. But you could say a church is having a drive-thru prayer drive-thru stall, scooters. I never liked the coffee there.
So here�s what I�m after. If we�re going to reach out to people, remember, even with what I just read in 1 Timothy, the way that God hears our prayers is through our mediator, Jesus Christ. Now, omnisciently does God know when a pagan prays, yes, but He�s not bound to listen in terms of to take heed.
You can think of the Old Testament language that Israel in Deuteronomy was to listen. And what Moses meant by that, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was to take heed. Yes, you listen and you do something about it.
When I say to my son or one of my daughters, �Listen. I don�t mean just to listen. I mean listen, think, process it, and then do it. And so, anyway, the bigger critique is this. People don�t want to have any strings attached.
This is why church membership is so antithetical to our culture today. But I think it really helps the church in the long run, well, A, because it�s a biblical notion and concept, but also, when we expect people who are members of the church to contribute, I did not say money, although that�s part of their contribution, but to serve others as they serve the Lord or vice versa.
These are the demands of membership. And all these places out there, no membership fees, no membership dues, no membership requirements, no membership attendance required. Just give us your email and you�re set.
But there are responsibilities for the local church. And so, if they want to go out and pray for people and say, �By the way, I�d love to pray for you. How can I pray for you And the person says, �Well, my mother is sick.
And we say, �Yes, you know what? Here�s the wonderful thing. Jesus made your mother. God is the Creator. Jesus is God. And, you know, when I think of Jesus, He heals Simon�s mother-in-law. And He�s so powerful, He could do that.
And there�s ultimate healing in the atonement. And 1 Peter 2 talks about that. And by His stripes, we�re healed. And one day, there�ll be complete healing and glory. And here�s what Jesus did on the cross.
Here�s how He was born under law. And here�s how He was raised from the dead. And you go through that. I would be very pleased. I would not. I mean, it�s kind of back to that old slogan where, you know, why am I going to criticize you for doing something off-kilter if I�m not doing it at all?
So if that�s the way they�re going to do it, I commend them. But this just all feeds into the culture of quick, fast, especially when it comes to the other drive-thru that I was telling you about previously.
That is the funerals. We�ve just lost any notion of funerals in our society today in America, in my opinion. See, that�s what you have to do when you don�t want to get sued, in my opinion. We just, you know, wash our hands of the whole thing as fast as possible.
Because honestly speaking, death is awful. Death is the enemy. And we�d rather talk about Deflategate instead. So secondly, what�s up on our agenda today? Well, some days I have a particular topic and then other days I�m spirit-led.
Now, there are just things in the news that always offer good fodder for radio or podcast. I guess I�m relegated to the podcast. What I don�t want to be is a discernment podcast. But I do want you to discern, because otherwise we�d have a controversy on hand.
Pigs Can Fly, May 5th, 2015. Pigs Can Fly. This is I�m trying to see the exact I think it�s a UK paper here. And it says, �Chinese May Day Celebration Criticized for Pushing Pigs Off Bridge. Who could make that up?
I mean, that is just classic. What do you do on May Day? Well, we give I mean, when I grew up in Nebraska, we would get a May Basket and go to somebody�s house, knock on their door, and then run. Just ring and run with the purpose.
But now for May Day, you push pigs off bridges to see if they can fly and or swim. And so, let me just read you a little bit about this, because when I think of pigs herded off platforms into lakes, what do you begin to think about?
Well, I know what I think about. I think about Jesus and the swine and how people, since they believe that a dog is a boy, is a pig, is a rat, is a girl, and everything�s equal, PETA and animal rights and these kind of things.
Do I want a senseless killing of pigs for no reason? So if a kid�s out shooting a BB gun and his goal is to kill as many birds as he can, I�d tell my kids, �Knock it off. Actually, I think the last fight I ever got into, a fist fight with some kid, is he was shooting a bunch of birds and I didn�t like it.
He was bigger and tougher, though. That was my problem. You should have seen the other guy. That�s what my mom said to save people. I�ve never been really a fighter, which is good, because New Testament elders are not to be what?
Pugnacious. Well, you know, pigs are going to die, just if they live to be an old age. They live on an animal farm. Or if they�re for food, I�m not against the killing of pigs. And by the way, I don�t think any pigs were injured in this incident.
Harriet Alexander reports, �Tourism official in central China came up with a novel way of entertaining visitors to Shiyan Lake by creating a show featuring flying pigs. Animals were herded onto a bridge above the lake in Changsha.
Identified by red numbers painted on their sides, the pigs were driven off the bridge by a man holding a stick and splashed into the water below. It was a pretty good high dive. Pretty good high dive.
And so then what happens? The piglets were carefully trained to perform this special stunt, and they were rewarded with food. And once they get over their nerves, they clearly enjoyed it. It's pretty high.
A couple of them are at the edge of the scaffold with a couple of their feet like, I don't want to go off. And the guy is just driving them off the edge. Anybody who says it's cruelty is clearly not well informed that pigs like water.
Well, I like water too, but I don't want to be pushed off a 90 foot jump. This just isn't natural for any pig. There's no way you can claim they enjoy it, said one criticizer. That's disgusting, said Geraldine Walker.
Who's Geraldine Walker? Is that Jimmy Walker? Is that Jimmy Walker? It's a dino-mite. Anyway, Eva Cohen described the event as nauseating. And Giselle Kutryka said, �What is so entertaining about forcing scared animals into doing things they wouldn't normally do
Well, that's just all a platform for me to talk about Jesus healing demoniacs. Mark's attention is, his spotlight is on the one man with a demon. Remember, he calms the storm in Mark chapter 4. He gets to the other side of the sea, the Sea of Galileans.
He's in the Gerasenes area. And he gets out of the boat and there is this guy on him, virtually. He's got an unclean spirit. He lives in the tomb. You can't bind him any longer, not even with chains. You can't put shackles on him.
You can't put chains on him. He breaks them into pieces. He's got the strength of Goliath times 10. He's in the tombs night and days. He's crying out. He's cutting himself with stones. I mean, the way Mark begins to report this, you think you're there.
He's such an excellent writer. And his style of immediately, and, and, and, and. The way he uses verbs and participles. He's crying. He's cutting himself with stones. Not Mark, but the demon. Possessed man.
He sees Jesus. He runs up to him. I'm wondering if you're one of the disciples, what's this guy going to do? He's going to attack Jesus. I mean, we know when we read further that he falls down before him.
He cries out. He's got a loud voice. What do you have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High? I adjure you by God, do not torment me. Well, because Jesus was saying, come out of the man, you unclean spirit.
What's your name? My name is Legion, for we are many. Don't send me out of the country, basically. Now, a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. They begged him, saying, send us to the pigs, let us enter them.
So Jesus gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs and the herd, numbering about 2 ,000, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea. Now, if memory serves me properly, this is one of the cases that the atheist, well, he's no longer an atheist now, but the proclaimed, self-proclaimed atheist, no, I don't believe they're real atheists, see Romans 1.
Everybody believes, not in a saving way, but they understand who God is by power and by creation, et cetera. Heno, by the way, the heno thing is so far so good. People keep writing, what's heno, what's heno?
But now other people are catching. Somebody said on Twitter the other day, I'll see your heno and raise you a shenanigan. That was pretty good, that was pretty good. So Bertrand Russell said he didn't believe in the Gospels.
He could not believe in Jesus for many reasons. One was what he did to these pigs. And in Jesus' day, this was way before any PETA. What's the PETA stand for again? What's the acronym for PETA? People Eating Tasty Animals.
Was that it? I knew it was something like that, but again, memory is getting cloudy. I'm 55 years old now. I think I actually can get a discount at Denny's, although there's only one Denny's I've really appreciated going to.
And that was the one in, somewhere around Garden Grove, Anaheim. It was where the headquarters would be. And so you can imagine the Denny's next door to the headquarters of Denny's would be really nice.
They'd have nice food. Most of the time I go to Denny's, I just get some McGurgles. That's what I get. So the herdsmen fled. They told it in the city and the country. People came to see what had happened.
They came to Jesus and saw the demon -possessed man. The one who had the legion sitting there, clothed in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs, and they began to beg Jesus to depart from the region.
So, instead of saying, these liberal commentators, well, Jesus? I mean, how many pigs would you kill to make some man whole, healed? Let's put it a different way. Let's say you've got a child and they need some bone marrow, but you were told that they need bone marrow from 1 ,000 pigs and then they would be healed.
I mean, is that the right number, 1 ,000? One? No, I'm sorry. It's over five pigs. We can't do it. Again, I'm not after taking a dog and putting a collar and a leash on it and tying it up to a tree in the backyard in the sun without shade and water.
I think Proverbs is right and Solomon would teach us. A righteous man or a woman regards the life of his beast. There's a way to be kind and treat animals appropriately. I know they're not sentient in the sense of having souls and spirits, but hey, I got a dog.
I know what that's like. So, but people focus on how could Jesus do this to the pigs when this man who had been tormented, who had been cutting himself, who I think he was more than just physically healed.
Remember, he was getting into the boat, Jesus was, and the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. And he did not permit him, but said to him, go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you.
And he went away and began to proclaim in the 10 cities, the 10 Gentile cities, Decapolis, how much Jesus had done for him and everyone marveled. So, on No Compromise Radio today, we've talked about drive-through churches and Chinese May Day pigs can fly.
See, if you didn't tune in, where would you hear that? I mean, you don't hear that on any of these other big stations now, do you? You only hear them on podcast, just the We podcast. But if you do like the show, we'd suggest you tell your friends.
That's the best thing you could do. Instead of sending us gobs of money, you can tell gobs of your friends, hey, you should listen to No Compromise Radio. Different approach, always biblical, always provocative, always in that order, and it will point you to Christ Jesus.
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 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.
The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.