Friday, November 3, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The following is another installment of the Fundamental Baptist Information Service Friday News Notes:

ECUMENISM FLOURISHING DESPITE POPEâS CLAIM OF CATHOLIC SUPREMACY. Friday News Notes, November 3, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - An article in the World Council of Churchesâ news service for October 26 states that ãecumenism is flourishing despite Dominus Iesus.ä This refers to the Vatican document published in September which claims that Roman Catholicism is the one true church founded by Christ, that churches apart from Rome ãare not Churches in the proper sense,ä that Rome is the mother of all churches, and that the Pope of Rome is the supreme head of all churches. Ecumenical leaders protested against this document, but it only restates what the Catholic Church has long claimed. As expected, the deluded ecumenical leaders are ignoring Romeâs dogmas and moving ahead with their agenda. Maria Jepsen of Hamburg, Germany, who became the first female Lutheran bishop in 1992, recently spoke at a gathering of Lutherans in Rome. She said ecumenism is flourishing at the ãgrassrootsä level and that many Protestants and Catholics in her country ãtake communionä together. Jepsen was publicly welcomed to Rome by a representative of the Vaticanâs Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. In October 1999 the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church signed their ãjoint declaration on justification.ä We discussed this in the article ãLiberal Lutherans and Roman Catholics Agree to Deny the Gospel,ä Nov. 3, 1999, which is available in the Fundamental Baptist CD-ROM Library.

LIBERAL BAPTISTS IN ALABAMA FORM NEW GROUP. Friday News Notes, November 3, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - A group of liberal Baptists in Alabama have formed Mainstream Alabama Baptists to fight what they call ãthe domination of fundamentalismä in the Southern Baptist Convention. One of the founders of this new organization is Frances Jones, a female deacon at First Baptist Church in Huntsville. She said, ãOne of the sore spots is that we believe in women ministers and women deacons.ä The new group has no plan to leave the SBC or to call for channeling funding away from the SBC. There are many good people in the Southern Baptist Convention who love the Lord, but sadly it is a mixed multitude of believers and unbelievers, true teachers and false, and even its most conservative preachers do not practice biblical separation.

JIMMY CARTER APPROVES OF THE ORDINATION OF HOMOSEXUALS. Friday News Notes, November 3, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - Former United States President Jimmy Carter, who recently said he cannot support the Southern Baptist Convention (though he remains a deacon and Sunday School teacher in a Southern Baptist congregation), has told the Baptist Press that he approves of the ordination of homosexuals. He also said adultery is a more serious sin than homosexuality.

CHURCH LEADERS PRAISE BILL CLINTONâS ãSPIRITUALITY.ä Friday News Notes, November 3, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - In spite of Bill Clintonâs immorality and public deceit, his support for abortion and homosexuality, and other witnesses to his vile, unbelieving condition, many Christian leaders have praised him. Daniel Vestel of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship recently described Clinton as ãobviously a person of faith and a committed Christian.ä Ed Dobson, pastor of Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, told Christianity Today in 1994 that Clinton is ãmore deeply spiritual than any president weâve had in recent years.ä After a meeting with the president at the White House in 1993, Jack Hayford, pastor of a Foursquare Pentecostal church and popular writer and speaker, said that he knows Clinton is a brother in Christ. After the same meeting, Roberta Hestenes, then president of Eastern College, said, ãIâm absolutely convinced of his deep and sincere faith.ä James Dunn, then executive directory of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, told the Washington Post in 1994 that Clinton ãhas an intensely personal faithä and ãhas a Christian baseline from which he operates.ä Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Community Church and church growth guru, faced Clinton on inauguration day in January 1997 and praised ãthe wisdom and the leadership and the vision in your life the past four yearsä and lauded ãthe development of your heart, your increasing desire to know God, and to live for him.ä In 1993, Billy Graham told U.S. News & World Report that he was impressed with Clintonâs charisma and ãsome of the things he believes.ä Graham said: ãFrom a biblical point of view, we should be headed in the direction of goodness and righteousness, away from crime and immorality and towards oneâs neighbors who are in need. Iâm encouraged by the emphasis President Clinton and Hillary are putting on that.ä Robert Schuller, pastor of the Crystal Cathedral and one of the most popular preachers in America, said in 1997 that Clinton is a ãpastor to the nation, not a politician.ä The root of Americaâs ills is its apostate church leaders.

FRENCH PROTESTANTS REJECT HALLOWEEN AS SATANIC. Friday News Notes, November 3, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - In recent years Halloween has been introduced into France by businesses seeking to imitate the American model and increase sales. (In the U.S., Halloween is the second most financially profitable holiday after Christmas.) French Protestants, though, have wisely spoken out against it, properly labeling Halloween as a ãsatanic festivalä and a ãveritable resurgence of druidical beliefs.ä The Protestant Evangelical Committee for Human Dignity said ãall of France should be alarmed that Oct. 31, a day dear to fans of witchcraft, will be observed in public schools·ä

CATHOLIC CHURCH ANNOUNCES SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIANS. Friday News Notes, November 3, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - In late October the Catholic Church in Syria announced solidarity with the Palestinian people and supported their right to defend ãholy sitesä and establish an independent state. It also denounced the Israeli forces for their ãinhuman practices.ä This is a direct affront to God and denial of the Bible, which states plainly that God has given that land to Israel. It also ignores reality. If the Israeli forces were not attacked illegally by the Palestinians, the violence would cease.

JUDGE DROPS CHARGES AGAINST STREET PREACHER. Friday News Notes, November 3, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - In late October a judge dismissed charges against a man who refused to stop preaching on a public sidewalk. William Romansky, 45, and his 21-year-old son, were preaching on a Philadelphia street on July 31 when police demanded that he stop. He showed them a copy of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion and speech, but the police ignored it and proceeded to handcuff him and detain him in a police car for nearly an hour. They charged him with disorderly conduct. The judge, Craig Washington, wisely and properly upheld the Constitution, saying, ãGod bless him. It seems to me he did not intend to break this law. His intent was to preach the gospel. That being the case, the case is dismissed.ä

SOUTHERN BAPTIST TONGUES SPEAKERS. Friday News Notes, November 3, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - Tongues speaking and other unscriptural Charismatic phenomena continue to increase among Southern Baptist churches. SBC Pastor Ron Philips was on Trinity Broadcasting Network recently ridiculing fundamentalists for taking a stand against tongues. SBC Pastor Gary Folds defends the ãlaughing/drunken revivalä at Toronto, Ontario, in an Internet article titled ãBull in a China Shop: A Baptist Pastor Runs into God at Toronto.ä SBC Pastor Wade Trimmer supports tongues in ãThe Real ÎTongue Twisterâä More information about the Charismatic movementâs infiltration of the SBC and can be found in the Fundamental Baptist CD-ROM Library.

FEMINISTS FOR LIFE. Friday News Notes, November 3, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - A group of feminists who are opposed to abortion are placing ads in college newspapers and posters on bulletin boards urging students to rethink the abortion issue. The group is called Feminists for Life. One ad reads: ãAbortion-rights activists promised us a world of equality, reduced poverty, a world where every child would be wanted. Instead, child abuse has escalated, and rather than shared responsibility for children, even more of the burden has shifted to women. No law can make the wrong choice right.ä