SOUTHERN BAPTIST LEADER CONCERNED ABOUT CHRISTIAN-ISLAM DIALOGUE (Friday Church News Notes, January 18, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Al Mohler, Jr., head of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, expressed concern this week on his radio program about the recent statement issued by Christian leaders in response to a Muslim paper entitled “A Common Word between Us and You.” The Christian response was drafted by professors at the very liberal Yale Divinity School and signed by nearly 300 Christian leaders of all stripes, including “evangelicals” such as Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Leith Anderson (president of the National Association of Evangelicals), and David Neff (editor-in-chief of Christianity Today). Mohler rightly stated that the response failed to identify the fact that Muslims do not worship the same God as Christians and they do not accept Jesus Christ as risen Lord and only Saviour. Mohler also said he was disturbed that the response asked forgiveness for “sins committed against Muslims, including the Crusades and excesses in the war on terror.” Mohler said: “I am sure that all kinds of sin went on with the Crusades on both sides. But I am not going to apologize for the Crusades because I am very thankful that the Muslim effort to reach a conquest of Europe was unsuccessful” (“Influential Theologian Troubled by Christian-Muslim Dialogue,” Christian Post, Jan. 12, 2008). He observed that since the war on terror is the responsibility of the United States he doesn’t know why Christians should apologize for it. He said, “I don’t think that is the right way to put it. I don’t think we associate the United States of America with the Christian church. For whom are we apologizing and for what are we apologizing?” With these points we could not agree more heartily and we are thankful that Mohler is willing to speak out and exalt Jesus Christ as Lord and expose Islam’s error. At the same time, Mohler’s statement and its context also remind us of how deeply compromised the Southern Baptist Convention is. First, it is a mixed multitude. On the one hand you have Rick Warren, one of its most prominent pastors, signing such a wretched document, while on the other hand you have one of its most prominent men reproving the document. If that is not an unholy mess, I don’t know what is! And we are not talking about a difference on minor matters. Second, instead of plainly identifying the signers of this document as the heretics and deep compromisers they are and calling for separation from them in a truly biblical fashion, Mohler spoke of them in friendly terms and “recognized the good intention of the signers of the Christian letter.” That is the Southern Baptist way. It is the Billy Graham Convention. It is New Evangelical to the core, having renounced biblical separation long ago. But God’s Word warns that those who refuse to separate from error are destined to be influenced by it. “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians 15:33). “And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD” (2 Chronicles 19:2).  

SURVEY: CHRISTIANS ARE CONSIDERED HYPOCRITES AND THEY GET ON NERVES OF NON-CHURCH-GOERS (Friday Church News Notes, January 18, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A survey by LifeWay Research found that 44% of non-church-goers agree with the statement “Christians get on my nerves” and a whopping 72% said the churches are “full of hypocrites.” The survey of 1,402 people was taken last year and involved people who did not attend a religious service at any time in the previous six months. More than 85% of these said one can have a good relationship with God without belonging to a church. COMMENT FROM BRO. CLOUD: No doubt there are plenty of hypocrites in churches today and that is a sad and wretched matter, but it is no excuse not to go to church. There are hypocrites at football and basketball games, but I have never heard of anyone who refused to attend sporting events because of hypocrites. Of course, the survey makes no distinction between Bible-believing churches and heretical ones or between spiritual churches and carnal ones. As far as Christians getting on the nerves of non-church-goers, that is no surprise. Before I came to know Christ, Christians who took the Bible seriously got on my nerves, too! And after I was saved in 1973 and I began to witness to my old worldly buddies, I got on their nerves so much that they told me not to come around anymore unless I would “leave Jesus and the Bible at home.” As for having a good relationship with God without belonging to a church, you can certainly come to know Christ and be saved apart from the church, but you can’t have a good relationship with God apart from it. The church was established by Jesus Christ. He said, “I will build my church” (Mat. 16:18). It is true that many churches do not follow God’s Word, and we do not recommend unscriptural churches; but the church as an institution is still God’s program for this age, and God’s Word commands, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is” (Heb. 10:25). There is widespread rebellion against the church today, and there are all sorts of excuses for this rebellion, but I am convinced from Scripture that there is no good excuse and I refuse to join the rebellion. The church is God’s program, and it should not be neglected. And a few believers meeting together from time to time is not a proper New Testament church (Titus 1:5).

ENVIRONMENTALIST HYPOCRISY (Friday Church News Notes, January 18, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - An extensive survey has revealed that most environmentalists are big polluters. The study of 25,000 people by Target Group Index found that environmentalists “have some of the biggest carbon footprints because they are still hooked on flying abroad or driving their cars while their adherence to the green cause is mostly limited to small gestures” (“Survey Shows Eco-Warriors Are Worst Polluters,” London Telegraph, Jan. 13, 2008). The survey looked at people in England, France, and the United States. This reminds us of Al Gore, who preaches extreme environmentalism and calls on others to conserve energy, while he personally consumes more electricity in his 10,000-square-foot Nashville mansion every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, and that does not include his second home in Arlington, Virginia, or his third home in Carthage, Tennessee (“Gore Isn’t Quite As Green as He’s Led the World to Believe,” USA Today, Dec. 7, 2006). Gore often flies in private jets, even though this type of travel produces four times the carbon emission per passenger as regular commercial jet travel (“Sean Hannity Exposes Al Gore’s Inconvenient Global Warming Hypocrisy,” NewsBusters, Feb. 20, 2007). These people are elitists who want to make laws for others but think of themselves as special cases.

SCIENTISTS SUGGEST THAT “HOBBIT” REMAINS NOT DIFFERENT SPECIES OF HUMANS AFTERALL (Friday Church News Notes, January 18, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The remains of three-foot-tall people discovered four years ago in Indonesia are now believed by scientists to be “modern humans” with a growth disorder rather than a new species that lived 120,000 years ago. We have commented before that the remains were doubtless just “regular” humans and that there are pygmies and small types of people living today that are not considered a different species. I have met grown people in Nepal that are only about 4 feet tall. Now some scientists are suggesting that the remains are of people who had a growth disorder similar to microcephaly, a disorder that limits brain and body growth and that has been documented in about 100 cases worldwide. Adults with this disorder grow only to about 3 feet tall and their brains are comparable in size to that of a three-month-old baby, but their intelligence is not stunted and their bodies are proportioned normally (“Hobbits not a different species,” London Telegraph, Jan. 3, 2008). Beware, friends, evolutionists “see” what they want to see. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:20-22).

ANOTHER JUDGE RULES AGAINST THE FIRST AMENDMENT (Friday Church News Notes, January 18, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - On January 8 a misguided federal judge ruled that it is “unconstitutional” for a public school to allow the distribution of free Bibles to its students. For more than 30 years the South Iron School District in rural Missouri allowed Gideons International to give away Bibles to fifth-graders, but two years ago the ACLU filed suit against the practice. U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry ruled against the school, claiming that the distribution of Bibles is “the promotion of Christianity” and “has the primary effect of advancing religion” (“Judge Bars Bibles to Grade Schoolers,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 9, 2008). We say, SO WHAT! It is none of her business one way or the other. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF; OR ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH...” Will the judge please tell us how a practice that is not prohibited by the Constitution can be “unconstitutional”? The government should not be in the education business in the first place. A great deal of evil has come from the nationalization of the education system. This is not the root of America’s problem, though, by any stretch of the imagination. The root of the problem is the apostasy in the churches, and that is the point that we attack most fiercely.

WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER NATIONS NEED IS CONTINUAL PREACHING ON GOD’S HOLINESS (Friday Church News Notes, January 18, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following by Paris Reidhead is from Getting Evangelicals Saved (Bethany House Publishers, 1989): “If I had my way, I would declare a moratorium on public preaching of ‘the plan of salvation’ in America for one to two years. Then I would call on everyone who has use of the airways and the pulpits to preach the holiness of God, the righteousness of God and the law of God, until sinners would cry out, ‘What must we do to be saved?’ Then I would take them off in a corner and whisper the gospel to them. Such drastic action is needed because we have gospel-hardened a generation of sinners by telling them how to be saved before they have any understanding why they need to be saved.”

SASSING NOT ALLOWED (Friday Church News Notes, January 18, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Training Your Children to Turn out Right, a truly excellent book by David Sorenson (Northstar Ministries, 1820 W. Morgan St., Duluth, MN 55811, 218-726-0209, http://www.northstarministries.com, dhs.northstar@charter.net) -- “[Another] basic rule in our house was that disrespect, defiance, sassing or any other form of overt rebellion toward us as parents absolutely was not tolerated. Nothing would bring judgment more swiftly than for me to hear our children sassing their mother. They were taught ahead of time that defiance or disrespect was not allowed, period! ... 1 Samuel 15:23 says, ‘For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft...’ It is Satanic in its origins. And rebellion begins with a smart mouth. ... Children are born with a rebellious, sassy spirit, and the sooner it is nipped in the bud the better. ... One of our children would, at times, fight the spanking. She was informed that if she fought and resisted, whatever the original punishment was, it would be doubled. Now, that may seem harsh. However, it did not take too long for it to soak in that rebellion, even during punishment, would not be allowed. ... As a result of dealing with it as soon as it raised its ugly head, it had pretty well been purged by the time the girls were of school age. ... Do not believe the foolishness that if you deal directly with rebellion, you will only cause a child to be more rebellious. Rebellion and defiance will grow like an ugly, malignant cancer. The earlier it is dealt with, the better. ... One might think that our home was a rigid, authoritarian, Spartan environment. To the contrary, it was a warm, fun, loving place; and one of the things that made it such a sweet place was that there was so little conflict” (Training Your Children to Turn Out Right, 1995, pp. 66-68).