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

TORONTO CHRISTIAN REFORMED ACCEPTS HOMOSEXUALS. Friday Church News Notes, December 20, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The First Christian Reformed Church of Toronto, Ontario, has proclaimed itself "fully inclusive" and will now allow practicing homosexuals to participate at all levels of congregational life, including positions of leadership (Christian Renewal, Dec. 16, 2002). How foolish and wicked. All sinners were welcome to attend the churches in the first century to hear the preaching of the gospel, but only those who repented and were born again were baptized and received into the membership and allowed to participate in the spiritual ministry of the church. "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such WERE some of you: BUT ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6: 9-11).

PETRA TAKES ITS CHRISTIAN ROCK TO INDIA. Friday Church News Notes, December 20, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The Christian rock band Petra performed concerts in two cities in India this month, thus spreading their worldly music and philosophy to other parts of the world. Bible-believing missionaries today must be prepared to confront an almost bewildering variety of isms and errors on even the most far-flung foreign fields. Too many of them, though, are not willing to arm themselves for this task and are like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand. It is the task of every church leader and every missionary to protect the people from error (2 Tim. 4:1-4; Titus 1:9-13; Jude 3).

SATANIST CLUB APPROVED BY PUBLIC SCHOOL. Friday Church News Notes, December 20, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - In early October, the San Mateo High School in California approved the Satanic Thought Society as a school club, and its first meeting was attended by 35 students. The public schools in America are pagan institutions that brainwash young people in humanistic thought and pollute their morals with the rock & roll philosophy.

MISSIONARIES TO RUSSIA FACE INCREASED RESTRICTIONS. Friday Church News Notes, December 20, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The following is from ASSIST News Service: "International missionaries in Russia are facing a tough Christmas as the authorities seem to no longer welcome them following the recent adoption of a law on the legal status of foreigners, reports suggested.Several foreign Catholic and Protestant Christians, including priests, pastors and other missionary workers, have already been expelled or refused entry this year, even before the law became official.This new development comes amid continued tension in the region resulting from increasing persecution of Christians in the former Soviet Union."

MARVEL COMICS PUSHING HOMOSEXUALITY TO CHILDREN. Friday Church News Notes, December 20, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - Marvel Comics is pushing homosexuality to its unsuspecting young readers. In February 2003, "The Rawhide Kid," a Marvel character since the 1950s, will be debuted as a homosexual. Marvel's editor-in-chief Joe Quesada says that the character's homosexuality will be "obvious through his actions and things he says." Marvel Comics already has other homosexual characters, such as "North Star" of the X-Men series (AgapePress, Dec. 11, 2002). Parents need to be extremely cautious about what their children are reading and watching and hearing.

AMERICAN SERVICEMEN LOVE FOUL-MOUTHED COMEDIAN. Friday Church News Notes, December 20, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - It is a sad and frightful testimony to America's moral condition that the most popular comedian among servicemen is the foul-mouthed Robin Williams. A friend sent me a quote from the Dec. 10 issue of People magazine, which states: "For the younger generation of military fighters overseas, comic actor Robin Williams may be the 21st century's Bob Hope. 'They love him. He's all they talk about,' Hollywood ambassador Johnny Grant said recently after completing a 10-day USO trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan to visit U.S. service personnel fighting the war on terrorism." Williams' standup acts are filled with profane and vile language. His movies are also filthy. A web site that reviews films says William's latest movie contains "35 F-words, 12 scatological terms, 10 sexual references, 49 anatomical terms, 26 mild obscenities, and 8 religious profanities." "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people" (Prov. 1434).

BEWARE OF THE UNITED BIBLE SOCIETIES. Friday Church News Notes, December 20, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The United Bible Societies (UBS) was formed in 1946 and now coordinates the work of most of the world's national Bible societies. There are 137 member societies involved in the UBS. The UBS is radically ecumenical, is committed to the corrupt eclectic Greek New Testament, and promotes the dangerous dynamic equivalency method of translation. In April, representatives of the UBS met in Rome and were addressed by Pope John Paul II. He said, "Division among the disciples of Christ has certainly impaired our mission. Your meeting, therefore, draws together members of different churches and ecclesiastical communities united in the love of the Bible" (United Bible Societies News, April 26, 2002). David Bedford, the UBS Head of Global Development, said the Pope's words touched him deeply. God's Word forbids yoking together with unbelievers and heretics, but most of the national Bible Societies have disobeyed the Bible since the earliest days of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

BBC QUESTIONS CHRIST'S VIRGIN BIRTH. Friday Church News Notes, December 20, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - In a documentary scheduled to run on the Sunday before Christmas, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) will question the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. The program will propose three alternatives to the virgin birth: that Mary and Joseph had sexual relations before their marriage, that Mary was raped by a Roman soldier, and that she became pregnant by an unidentified man. The blasphemous program is mistitled "The Virgin Mary." If Jesus were not virgin born, he would have inherited the adamic sin nature and could not have been the sinner's substitute. The hypocritical, anti-christ BBC would never dream of blaspheming Mohammed like they blaspheme Jesus Christ.

BEWARE OF CURSILLO. Friday Church News Notes, December 20, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - Recently I received the following e-mail: "We have been invited to take part in a weekend 'reteat' forhusbands one weekend and then wives the next.It is called Cursillo.There is very little information given. We are wondering if you have any information about it." I sent the following as a reply: "The Cursillo Movement is a program within the Roman Catholic Church to bring 'renewal' and work as an instrument of 'evangelizing' non-members. The May 20th issue of the Vatican's L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO reported the pope's reminder to its participants of the inseparable link between 'evangelizing' and submitting to the Roman yoke: 'To evangelize means bringing the Good News of Christ "into all the strata of humanity." ... But there is no new humanity if there is not first of all new persons renewed by Baptism and by lives lived according to the Gospel.' The Cursillo weekend retreats appeal to Catholics and non-Catholics alike so a word of warning must be given to its basic purpose -- Catholic evangelization and indoctrination" (M.H. Reynolds, Jr., Fundamental Bible Church Bulletin, Los Osos, California, June 2, 1985).