The following is another installment of the Friday Church News Notes designed especially for use in churches. It is published by Way of Life Literature's Fundamental Baptist Information Service. For instructions on how to unsubscribe to this list or to change mailing addresses, please consult the information paragraph at the end.

FULLER SEMINARY SAYS MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS WORSHIP SAME GOD. Friday Church News Notes, December 19, 2003 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org, http://www.wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Fuller Theological Seminary has again demonstrated its apostasy by saying that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. The statement was made by Sherwood Lingenfelter, Fuller's senior vice president, in the context of announcing a new $1-million interfaith project designed to build bridges between Muslims and Christians ("Seminary Is Reaching Out to Muslims," Los Angeles Times, Dec. 6). Fuller was established by a fundamentalist but from its inception there was an unscriptural emphasis on "scholarship" rather than humble Bible education. When it was formed in 1947 it held that the Bible is infallibly, verbally, plenarily inspired, but within a short time this was rejected. Fuller quickly became a hotbed of New Evangelical compromise, adopting a philosophy of doctrinal neutrality, positivism, and pride of intellect. Its first president, Harold John Ockenga, claimed to have coined the term "New Evangelical" in 1948. Ockenga stated that New Evangelicalism "differed from fundamentalism in its repudiation of separatism." Friends, if you repudiate "separatism," you repudiate the Scriptures! Having rejected biblical separation from its inception and having adopted the unscriptural philosophy of dialogue and infiltration, it is no surprise that Fuller Seminary was quickly infected with worldliness and unbelief. As Brother Jerry Huffman would say, be wise and beware!

IS WORSHIP COMPATIBLE WITH A "SHOW"? Friday Church News Notes, December 19, 2003 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org, http://www.wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The December 2003 issue of Worship Leader magazine contains an interview with Mark Schultz, who has had 10 Dove nominations in the past two years. He claims that his latest album is inspired by the book Wild At Heart by John Eldredge. The book is filled with all sorts of self-esteem, psychological mumbo jumbo, and this is reflected in Schultz's interview. He talks about finding self-worth and healing the heart by delving into past "wounds," something the Bible is silent on. The point I want to make from this interview, though, is this. He talks about having "worship stuff" in the middle of "my show." Doesn't he see how incongruous that is? The true worship of God has nothing to do with a show put on by an "artist"; they are opposites in the extreme. One says look at God; the other says look at me. They are entirely incompatible, and to include the first in the midst of the latter is to confuse and destroy true worship. The contemporary worship movement is a great spiritual deception.

CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC IS SHALLOW. Friday Church News Notes, December 19, 2003 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org, http://www.wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - With few exceptions, Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) is either doctrinally shallow, vague, or entirely unscriptural. I became convinced of this when I was doing research for my book Contemporary Christian Music Under the Spotlight and studied the lyrics to hundreds of CCM songs. The CCM Song of the Decade for the 1990s was "Big House" by Audio Adrenaline. Note the following words: "I don't know if you got some shelter/ Say a place to hide/ I don't know if you live with friends/ In whom you can confide/ I don't know if you got a family/ Say a mom or dad/ I don't know if you feel love at all/ But I bet you wish you had/ Come and go with me/ To my fathers house ... It's a big big house/ With lots and lots a room/ A big big table/ With lots and lots of food/ A big big yard/ Where we can play football ... Ibidibidee bop bop bow whew! yeah!" How shallow! How vague and frivolous the serious things of God have become! Audio Adrenaline invites its hearers to come to a big house. What is this house? Whose house? You say, "It's my father's house." But who is your father? Why should I come? You say I need "a place to hide." Hide from what? If you are claiming that the "big house" is heaven, upon what authority do you say that they play football there? Did you have a vision? And if for some reason I decide to go to this mysterious big house where they play football, how do I get there? There is absolutely no gospel here, my friends, and you cannot go to God's House apart from the gospel. This is mere "feel good" New Age religiosity into which every listener can pour his own philosophy, and it is typical of the field of Contemporary Christian Music. Yea, it was the CCM Song of the Decade!

POLL INDICATES THAT ONLY 2% OF MAINLINE PROTESTANTS IN THE USA HAVE A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW. Friday Church News Notes, December 19, 2003 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org, http://www.wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - According to a new Barna poll, only 2% of mainline Protestants in America have a biblical worldview. This is defined as "believing that absolute moral truths exist; that such truth is defined by the Bible; and firm belief in six specific religious views -- that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life; God is the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe and He still rules it today; salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned; Satan is real; a Christian has a responsibility to share their faith in Christ with other people; and the Bible is accurate in all of its teachings." Those identifying themselves as Baptists did not fare much better, with only 8% holding these views.

STUDY SHOWS VIOLENT MUSIC PROVOKES AGGRESSION. Friday Church News Notes, December 19, 2003 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org, http://www.wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from SermonAudio.com, May 8, 2003: "College students who listen to violent music are more likely to act violently, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association. Even brief exposure to violent lyrics increases aggressive thoughts and behavior, according to research appearing in the May issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Researchers from Iowa State University and the Texas Department of Human Services asked more than 500 college students to listen to seven violent songs by seven artists and eight nonviolent songs by seven artists. The students who listened to the violent songs reacted with increased feelings of hostility without provocation or threats. The study cites previous research that shows that college students who prefer rap and heavy metal music have more hostile attitudes than students who prefer types of music such as alternative, adult contemporary, dance, soul or country. Listeners to heavy metal music held more negative attitudes toward women. Rap music fans were more distrustful. Other research found that students who listened to rap and heavy metal were more prone to below-average academic performance, school behavior problems, drug use, arrests and sexual activity."

ANTI-SEMITISM ON THE INCREASE IN CANADA. Friday Church News Notes, December 19, 2003 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org, http://www.wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Nine church leaders in Canada have issued a warning about rising anti-Semitism (ENI, Dec. 12, 2003). The incidents this year include arson at a Jewish Youth Library in Ottawa the defacing of two Jewish schools in Montreal with obscene graffiti.

EXPLOSION OF ISLAM IN EUROPE CITED AS REASON FOR GROWING ANTI-AMERICANISM. Friday Church News Notes, December 19, 2003 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org, http://www.wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from Worthy News, Nov. 14: "A Christian woman who once worked for a German television network in Lebanon says much of the current anti-Americanism in Europe can be attributed to the exploding Islamic population there. Brigitte Gabriel saw what happened in her native Lebanon when Islamists seized the once-thriving country that tolerated Christianity, and turned it into a haven for Islamic terrorists. Now, she says, Muslims could very well be the majority population in many European countries by the middle of the century. According to Gabriel, Muslim marital practices are behind the increasing Muslim populace. 'The problem we have with Europe is that [it] is infested with the Muslim population. The reason why is because they multiply at a much faster rate than we do,' she says. The former journalist believe the massive influx of Muslims into Europe is having a profound effect on the attitudes in countries like France and Germany."

MAJOR INCREASE IN PROFANITY ON TV. Friday Church News Notes, December 19, 2003 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org, http://www.wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from Calvary Contender, Dec. 2003: "Foul language on television shows has increased dramatically on nearly every network and time slot-including the so-called 'Family Hour' from 8 to 9 p.m. (10/24 Sword of the Lord). Foul language, including curses, offensive epithets, scatological language, sexually suggestive or indecent language, and censored language increased by 94.8 percent during the Family Hour between 1998 and 2002."