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.

SWEDISH PASTOR ACQUITTED FOR SPEAKING AGAINST HOMOSEXUALITY. Friday Church News Notes, December 2, 2005 (Fundamental Baptist Information Service, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - On November 28, Pastor Ake Green, who was convicted two years ago under Sweden’s hate crimes legislation, was acquitted by the nation’s highest court. In a sermon preached before his congregation in the summer of 2003, the Pentecostal pastor denounced homosexuality as “abnormal,” “something sick,” and “a deep cancerous tumor in the body of society.” He was subsequently arrested and charged with inciting hatred toward homosexuals. He was convicted in June 2004 (with a 30-day suspended prison sentence), but the conviction was overturned by an appeals court in February and that acquittal has now been upheld by the Supreme Court. In its ruling, the Court said Green’s sermon was “protected by freedom of speech and religion” (“Swedish Anti-Gay Pastor Acquitted,” BBC News, Nov. 29). One source stated that “the judge said from the bench that the only reason he was allowed to go free was because Sweden is now part of the European Common Market and they set the laws for ECM counties.”

NEW POPE MAKES PILGRIMAGE TO MARY SHRINE AND URGES TRUST IN HER “MATERNAL PROTECTION.” Friday Church News Notes, December 2, 2005 (Fundamental Baptist Information Service, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - On October 29, Pope Benedict XVI made a pilgrimage to the Mary shrine at Mentorella, Italy, imitating a similar pilgrimage made by John Paul II on Oct. 29, 1978 (Catholic World News, Oct. 31). The shrine is blasphemously called Mother of Grace. The Scriptures teach that grace came by Jesus Christ (Jn. 1:16-17). Never does the Scripture teach that grace comes through Mary. On October 23, Pope Benedict urged “the faithful” to “resort in all circumstances to the maternal projection of the Virgin Mary, in order to progress ever more along the road of evangelical perfection” (Catholic News Agency, Oct. 24). The Major Mary church in Rome features a painting depicting Mary seated in the throne of God at the right hand of Jesus and being crowned Queen of the Universe. Outside of that church is a large crucifix with Jesus on one side of the cross and Mary on the other.

HOW CAN WE KNOW WHAT WE CANNOT SEE? Friday Church News Notes, December 2, 2005 (Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The following is by Vince Londini, Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario: “The November 12, 2005 issue of The Economist offered an obituary of Richard Smalley, the man who discovered ‘Buckyballs,’ extremely stable molecular structures of 60 carbon atoms arranged in a hexagon and pentagon framework, like a soccer ball. He named them after Buckminster Fuller, the man who developed the geodesic dome in the 1960s, which has the same shape. Buckyballs are part of the scientific field of nanotechnology, a science that studies and manipulates structures as small as 100 billionths of a meter. The Nobel Prize recipient passed away on October 28, this year, at the age of 62. The Economist closed its obituary with the following question: ‘As he grew older, however, he became more convinced that science could do little or nothing to explain the world of spirituality. The more he learned, the more he realized that even the cleverest scientist understood only the tip of the material iceberg. “So how,’ he wondered, ‘can we know what we cannot even see?”’ Notice two things. First, as Dr. Smalley came to realize, science is limited to material inquiry. Science can only test that which is made of matter and energy, that which is materially quantifiable and testable. Science will never be able to authoritatively comment on the existence of the God (who is Spirit) or the factuality of the Genesis account of Creation. The tools of their craft are incapable of examining it. Instead they rule the Spiritual out in advance and proceed to construct materialistic explanations. We exercise faith in God’s Word. As we would expect, the evidence can be easily and reasonably interpreted to support the Biblical record. The origins issue is not a matter of religion vs. science, but a matter of faith: faith in materialism or faith in God’s Word. Second, Dr. Smalley asks, “How can we know what we cannot see?” Hebrews 11:1 answers, ‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’ By trusting God’s inspired, preserved, infallible Word, we can know for certain how we got here, who God is, and why we’re in the mess we’re in. Hebrews 11:3 goes on to say, ‘Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.’ There’s an incredibly timely verse!

ISLAMIC DECEPTION. Friday Church News Notes, December 2, 2005 (Fundamental Baptist Information Service, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from The Berean Call, November 21: “Muslims can be masters of deception. Within Islamic culture is the accepted idea that lying is permissible provided it is performed against one’s enemies. The following comments by an Australian journalist provide further detail. The article is titled “Taqiyya and kitman: The role of Deception in Islamic terrorism” --“Tradecraft. Persona. Deception. Disinformation. Cover: Western operational terms and techniques. But, Islamic terrorists have their own terms: taqiyya (pronounced tark-e-ya): precautionary dissimulation or deception and keeping one's convictions secret and a synonymous term, kitman: mental reservation and dissimulation or concealment of malevolent intentions. ... Taqiyya and kitman or 'holy hypocrisy' has been diffused throughout Arabic culture for over fourteen hundred years since it was developed by Shiites as a means of defence and concealment of beliefs against Sunni unbelievers. As the Prophet said: 'he who keeps secrets shall soon attain his objectives.' Taqiyya is common to both Shiite and Sunni Muslim discourse and has significant implications for understanding Islamic fundamentalism and terrorist operations. The theory and practice of counter terrorism would be counter productive, indeed pointless, and even harmful, without reference to taqiyya and kitman and the crucial role of deception ranging from Islamic jurisprudence to Al Qaeda training manuals, which carry detailed instructions on the use of deception by terrorists in Western target countries. Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly, the controversial Grand Mufti of Australia, [was] enjoying lunch with his trusted assistant Keysar Trad. The journalist writing of the meeting with the Sheik noted: ‘Several times, when direct responses to questions about passages in the Koran begged a simple yes or no, both men preferred to avoid the issues by talking about the difficulties of translating passages from Arabic to English.’ The claim that difficulties in translating from Arabic to English make communication with non-Arab speakers difficult or impossible, is another form of outwitting. The tactical use of a translator offers considerable advantage”  http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/25320).

THE ARAB EUROPEAN LEAGUE. Friday Church News Notes, December 2, 2005 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The following is excerpted from “While America Has Been Looking Elsewhere, the War on Terror Has Rapidly Been Shifting Its Direction,” Jewish World Review, Nov. 21 -- “Few Americans have heard of him, but in Europe, more and more are becoming familiar with the name--and the ideas--of Dyab Abou Jahjah, founder of the now-international Arab European League (AEL) and the Muslim Democratic Party. Handsome, charismatic, well-educated, and multilingual, he has the perfect makings of a political leader, or perhaps better said, a man poised to lead a revolution. And he knows it. More to the point: as the fury of Muslim youth explodes across the landscape of Western Europe, it’s time that others know it, too. The AEL, first founded in Belgium in 2000--in other words, before September 2001--now has branches in the Netherlands and France, and intends to spread across the E.U., with plans to participate in future European Parliamentary elections as the Muslim Democratic Party. With battle cries like ‘Whatever Means Necessary’ and frequent condemnations of America, Jahjah--who called the 9/11 attacks ‘sweet revenge’--recruits Muslim youth to spread his ideology, a vague series of ideas that occasionally appear moderate, but when added together, call for violent resistance, the destruction of Israel, and the introduction of Sharia (Islamic) law in Europe. Most recently, Jahjah issued a public statement supporting Iranian president Ahadi Najad’s declaration calling for Israel to be wiped off the face of the map. ... No longer are the dangers restricted to the caves of Bora Bora, but have filled the streets of European capitals.”

CANADIAN UNITED CHURCH APPROVES SAME-SEX MARRIAGES. Friday Church News Notes, December 2, 2005 (Fundamental Baptist Information Service, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from Canadian Christianity, Nov. 22: “A United Church in Saskatchewan has agreed to perform same-sex marriages after a secret ballot. Members of the Lakeview United Church congregation in Regina voted 81-32 in favour of performing wedding ceremonies for couples regardless of sexual orientation, said Rev. Everett Hollis. Members of the roughly 500 families in the congregation were given the opportunity to share their opinions on same-sex marriage during information sessions held before the vote.”

CONCLUSION: Friends in Christ, do not be discouraged by any of this. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. These things remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the coming of the Lord. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ day by day? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:11-14).