The following is another installment of the Friday Church News Notes:

AFGHANIS CELEBRATE DEFEAT OF TALIBAN IN MOST OF THE COUNTRY. Friday Church News Notes, November 16, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) The Northern Alliance, which, with the help of America and its coalition partners, is fighting against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, has liberated a large portion of the country in the last few days. They have driven the Taliban out of major towns, including Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat, Kunduz, and the capital, Kabul. As the Taliban fled Kabul in the early hours of Tuesday, Nov. 13, they committed one final barbarism upon the people there, robbing storekeepers of goods and money at gunpoint (Fox News, Nov. 13). Afghanis are celebrating all across the liberated part of the country. Refugees are streaming back into villages they have not seen in months or years. Men are shaving off the beards that were formerly mandated by Taliban policy. People were hugging one another and dancing in the streets and claiming it to be "a happy day." We need to pray that a wise government will be installed in Afghanistan and the people of this impoverished land will be given freedom to hear the Gospel.

AMERICANS RESCUED FROM THE HANDS OF THE TALIBAN. Friday Church News Notes, November 16, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) Two Americans, two Australians, and four Germans were rescued from the hands of the Taliban through the efforts of Northern Alliance troops and special forces personnel. They were arrested by the Taliban August 3 for preaching Jesus Christ and spent the last three months in prison in Kabul. When the Taliban abandoned the city early Tuesday morning, they took these prisoners with them. They spent that cold night in a steel container without blankets and were then carried about 50 miles south of Kabul and placed in a "putrid jail" in the town of Ghazni. After an uprising of the people against the Taliban in that area, the eight Shelter Now International aid workers were released from prison by Northern Alliance troops. In the predawn hours of Thursday, November 15, they were airlifted out of Afghanistan by three American special forces helicopters, which had flown 100 miles across enemy territory to make the rescue. They were then taken to Pakistan. The two Americans, Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer, are graduates of Baylor University, which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Many were praying for their safe release.

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES IN U.S. ELECTS FEMALE PRESIDENT. Friday Church News Notes, November 16, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) Elenie Huszagh, a member of the Greek Orthodox church, has been elected as the 21st president of the National Council of Churches in the USA (NCC). The National Council is composed of 36 liberal Protestant and Orthodox denominations which claim some 50 million members. A large percentage of these "members," though, do not participate in any meaningful way with the churches and are members merely because they were baptized as infants. The various Orthodox groups are very similar to the Roman Catholic Church from which they separated several hundred years ago, except they do not recognize the pope's authority. Like Romanism, Orthodoxy has a false sacramental gospel of faith plus works and mixes scripture with tradition.

SALVATION ARMY REVERSES POLICY PERTAINING TO HOMOSEXUALS. Friday Church News Notes, November 16, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) In the November 9 Friday Church News Notes we reported that the Salvation Army in the western part of the United States had decided to give benefits to homosexuals. Now we are glad to report that on November 12, the Salvation Army at the national level established a policy that reverses that decision. The national policy states that benefits can extend only to an employee's spouse and dependent children.

TWO MORE CHRISTIANS MURDERED IN PAKISTAN. Friday Church News Notes, November 16, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) The Barnabas Fund for November 13 reported that two more Christians have been murdered in Pakistan. Latifullah and Waheed Paul, who were converts from Islam, were shot dead in the town of Peshawar.

CCM MUSICIANS HONORED BY THE WORLD. Friday Church News Notes, November 16, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) The American Music Awards had added a "Contemporary Inspirational" category to its awards presentations. Executive Producer Dick Clark said, "The time has now come to include Contemporary Inspiration artists and recognize just how strong a force they have become in the world of music." This reminds us of how worldly Contemporary Christian Music is. The world recognizes its own. The Lord Jesus Christ said, "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John 15:19). He also said, "Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets" (Lk. 6:26).

CCM GROUP SAYS UNSAVED CAN WORSHIP GOD. Friday Church News Notes, November 16, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) The popular Christian rock band Delirious, which is at the forefront of the current Contemporary Praise music phenomenon, claims that they worship God by performing in immoral rock music venues. They have toured with the secular rock band Bon Jovi, for instance; and in a recent interview with CDNow editor Brian Mansfield, Delirious's lead man Martin Smith claimed that their secular concerts are "not much different" from their "more worship-oriented" concerts. Delirious has authored several popular praise songs, including "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever," "The Happy Song," and "Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?" Smith said, "&Mac183;when we're playing in a mainstream situation [immoral secular rock and roll concerts], I want to get everyone there worshipping God, but I can't speak that language. I have to encourage them in a different way. You have to get in the back door and let God move on the music in a sovereign way, and stir people's hearts, open them up. Music is the language of the spirit. Music, even without words, can cut a man in two, and God can get in there." Where does the Bible say that music can "cut a man in two" so that God can minister to him? The Bible is SOLE basis for faith and practice, yet there is no scriptural basis for using Christian rock music to minister to the unsaved. Where, too, does the Bible say that music even without the gospel message can bring people to God? At the typical Christian rock concert, one cannot even understand the words of the songs. Young people don't attend Bon Jovi concerts to hear the gospel, and Delirious doesn't clearly preach the gospel at such concerts. Yet it is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that only, which is the power of God unto salvation, not vaguely worded Christian rock songs performed by people who are committed to looking and sounding as much like the world as possible.

UNITING CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA WELCOMES HOMOSEXUALS. Friday Church News Notes, November 16, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) The Uniting Church in Australia, a liberal Protestant denomination, welcomes homosexuals as church members and as ordained pastors. In 1987 they proclaimed in Standing Committee minute 87.46 that "all baptised Christians belong in Christ's church and are to be welcomed at his table, regardless of their sexual orientation." The Bible condemns this policy. Any sinner can come to Christ by faith and be saved. Jesus died for sinners; but God also commands that sinners repent and turn from their sinful ways. The Lord Jesus warned that "except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." The Apostle Paul, likewise, preached that sinners "should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance" (Acts 26:20). The first churches received sinners upon their testimony of repentance and faith, and they exercised discipline toward any church members who lived licentious lives (1 Corinthians 5).

TEENS IN AMERICA SUPPORT HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE. Friday Church News Notes, November 16, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) According to a large recent survey, two-thirds of high school graduates support the right of homosexuals to marry. The poll was connected to a special aired by the rock music video channel, MTV, titled "Fight for Your Rights: Take a Stand Against Discrimination." The rock and roll philosophy has always been anti-God and anti-righteousness. It has promoted the idolatrous philosophy that man should be free to do whatever he pleases. The public school system in America has become a vast system for brainwashing young people in godless, humanistic causes.