CHURCH HOSTS NEW YEARS EVE CHAMPAGNE DANCE PARTY (Friday Church News Notes, December 21, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Mars Hill Church in Seattle is hosting a “Red Hot Bash2” on December 31 featuring Bobby Medina and his Red Hot Band, “one of the top dance bands in the Northwest,” which will play everything “from Swing to Latin to Motown and beyond.” Participants are invited to “come bust a move on the enormous dance floor” and are reminded to bring their IDs so they can enjoy the champagne bar. We are told that the church facility will be “transformed into a posh club” and there will be a dance contest. This church is pastored by Mark Driscoll, the president of the Acts 29 church planting network. Ed Stetzer, director of the Southern Baptist Convention’s LifeWay Research, is on the Acts 29 board and many of their church plants are affiliated with the SBC. Darrin Patrick, founding pastor of the Journey in St. Louis, is the vice president of Acts 29. The Journey hosts a “Theology at the Bottleworks” where participants “grab a beer and discuss political or spiritual topics, such as the role of women in society, the legal system, or animal rights” (“Brewing Battle Missouri Baptists frown on beer as evangelistic hook,” Christianity Today, June 29, 2007). The Journey also views and discusses R-rated movies at their “film night.” Another Acts 29 church, Damascus Road Church in Marysville, Washington, has a “Men’s Poker Night” and invites men to play cards for money. They also have a “Men’s Bible and Brew” and a “Men’s Movie Night.” And believe it or not, they claim that they aren’t worldly!

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EVANGELICAL OFFICIAL SAYS GOD WILL JUDGE THOSE WHO DON’T SUPPORT GLOBAL WARMING AGENDA (Friday Church News Notes, December 21, 2007,  www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Rich Cizik, Vice President for Governmental Affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals, says that God will judge those who resist the global warming campaign. Speaking at the very liberal National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on November 18, Cizik quoted Hebrews 10:31 and applied it to those who don’t try to save the environment. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” He said that if we don’t impose measures quickly we will face dramatically rising sea levels and unprecedented natural disasters (“Global Warming Skeptics Face Divine Judgment,” Institute on Religion and Democracy, Dec. 20, 2007). This man is very confused. The only global warming that the New Testament warns about is the coming judgment of this world by fire, and the same passage that warns about that says that the only reason God is withholding judgment is to save men’s souls. The Lord Jesus Christ did not commission His people to save the earth, but to save souls, and there needs to be a great urgency to that task because the day of salvation could end at any time. “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:8-10).

CANADIAN MAN “BANNED FOR LIFE” FROM CRITICIZING HOMOSEXUALITY (Friday Church News Notes,  December 21, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Catholic Activist ‘Banned for Life,’” LifeSiteNews, Dec. 13, 2007) -- “The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission’s decision to impose a ‘lifetime’ ban on a local Catholic's freedom to publicly criticise homosexuality, was upheld this week in its entirety by Saskatchewan Court of Queens Bench. Bill Whatcott, a licensed practical nurse who lives in Saskatchewan, is a campaigner against the homosexual political movement that is sweeping the Canadian legal system. In 2006, the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission (SHRC) ordered Whatcott to pay $17,500 Cn. to four complainants who complained that their ‘feelings’ and ‘self-respect’ were ‘injured’ by Whatcott’s pamphlets denouncing the ‘gay lifestyle’ as immoral and dangerous. Whatcott says he was fined for his pamphlets that used ‘verbatim’ a text from a classified personal advertisement in a local homosexual publication that ran, ‘Man seeking boys.... age not so relevant.’ Canadians concerned about what they see as the erosion of basic democratic freedoms are calling for a stop to the extra-judicial powers of the Human Rights Commissions in which the usual rules for due process of law do not apply. Ottawa Citizen columnist David Warren blasted the Human Rights Tribunals, calling them ‘kangaroo courts’ and ‘star chambers’ with ‘quasi-legal powers that should be offensive to the citizens of any free country... in which the defendant’s right to due process is withdrawn.’ He says, ‘They reach judgments on the basis of no fixed law,’ and, ‘the process is the punishment for simply by agreeing to hear a case, they tie up the defendant in bureaucracy and paperwork, and bleed him for the cost of lawyers, while the person who brings the complaint, however frivolous, stands to lose nothing.’ Conservatives in Canada are supporting a petition, addressed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, to abolish or at least curtail the powers of the Human Rights Commissions. The petition to stop the Human Rights Commissions is located at http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/a-free-dominion-against-the-hrcs.html.”

SHALLOW EVANGELISM PRODUCES SHALLOW RESULTS (Friday Church News Notes, December 21, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Maybe Elvis Was Just a Carnal Christian” by Tom Friel, Christian Worldview Network, Aug. 3, 2006: “Imagine trying to lovingly confront a high profile evangelical to share your concern that his Gospel presentation wasn’t Biblical. Gulp. That is precisely what I did with Luis Palau several years ago prior to one of his mega-events. I suggested he was giving the cure without explaining the disease of sin. Mr. Palau informed me that everyone has an overwhelming burden of guilt and it is not necessary for him to preach about their need for forgiveness. Suspecting he might say that, I handed him a CD with a montage of people we interviewed on the street. We asked strangers, ‘Do you have an overwhelming burden of guilt?’ The responses ranged from condescending disdain to outright laughter. While Mr. Palau was very nice to me, he ultimately patted me on the head and said, ‘Be careful that you don’t fall into that Lordship salvation trap. Christians can be carnal.’ Carnal Christianity is the concept that says: you can live like the world and still be a Christian. ... Later that night at the festival, Mr. Palau’s message included two profanities and proclamations like, ‘If Elvis had become a Christian, he would have been a rock star, but his life wouldn’t have turned out so bad.’ He also informed the audience that if they would simply ask Jesus into their hearts, ‘The party starts right now.’ A woman from my church who just buried her seven year old son almost rushed the stage…and not to sign a card. His Gospel presentation, as our British friends would say, was ‘a complete dog’s breakfast.’ ... It is no surprise that the follow up statistics to crusades are so tragic. The backslider rate (or Carnal Christian rate) hovers around 90%. It seems that Carnal Christianity and Gospel presentations that don’t include sin, righteousness and judgment go hand and hand. ... Listen to the words of A.A. Hodge. ‘Think of a sinner coming to Christ and saying, I do not want to be holy; I do not want to be saved from sin; I would like to be saved in my sins; do not sanctify me now, but justify me now.’ That is ridiculous, isn’t it? And so is Carnal Christianity. Even Elvis would agree with that.” CONCLUDING NOTE FROM BROTHER CLOUD: According to 1 Corinthians 3 there is such a thing as a carnal Christian, but it is not what Luis Palau is talking about. A carnal Christian, according to 1 Corinthians 3, is a truly born again believer who loves church and the things of Christ but who is not walking in the Spirit as he should. The brethren at Corinth had some serious problems but they did love Christ and church and spiritual things. On the other hand, a person who responds to a shallow gospel presentation and makes a repentance-less profession of faith in Christ and gives no evidence of regeneration is not a carnal Christian; he is no Christian at all!

RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS KILL THEIR BABIES TO SAVE THE PLANET (Friday Church News Notes, December 21, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Former British Government Advisor Applauds World Population Collapse,” LifeSiteNews, Nov. 22, 2007: “Global populations have been falling dramatically and few countries of the developed world have a fertility rate higher than bare replacement level. Recent statistics have shown that nearly 40 per cent of the world’s countries have fertility rates from 0 to 2.4 children born per woman, whereas the bare minimum replacement level is 2.1. A United Nations report showed in August this year that 28 per cent of the world’s countries allow abortion on demand. ... The UK’s Daily Mail reports today that British women have been so completely indoctrinated by the environmentalist anti-human doctrines that they are foregoing motherhood, including by aborting their children, ‘for the planet.’ In a bizarre interview with the Daily Mail’s Natasha Courtenay-Smith, 35 year-old Toni Vernelli, an environmentalist and vegetarian, said she had an abortion and had herself sterilized rather than bring a child into the world. ... The exceptionally negative environmentalist creed was summed up by Toni, ‘Every person who is born uses more food, more water, more land, more fossil fuels, more trees and produces more rubbish, more pollution, more greenhouse gases, and adds to the problem of over-population.’ Her husband, she said, agreed with her conviction. ‘We both passionately wanted to save the planet--not produce a new life which would only add to the problem.’” CONCLUDING NOTE FROM BROTHER CLOUD: It is interesting that these people never end their own lives in order to save the planet. And if atheistic evolution is true, saving the planet is an entirely meaningless act.

THE ISLAMIC MESSIAH (Friday Church News Notes, December 21, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Muslims are expecting an Islamic messiah, called the 12th Imam or the Imam Mahdi or the Hidden Imam, to return to earth and establish Allah’s kingdom, and it is believed that Jesus will accompany him. The Imam Mahdi is supposed to reign on earth for seven years before bringing about a final judgment and the end of the world. His return is to be preceded by cosmic chaos and war. According to the Bible, the next event on God’s calendar is the Catching Away of church age saints (1 Thessalonians 4:13 - 5:5), followed by the appearance of the Antichrist as a man of peace and a prophet that will accompany him (2 Thess. 2:3-12; Revelation 13). Doubtless one or the other of these men will be accepted by the Jews as their Messiah and by apostate Christians as theirs and by the Muslims as theirs. Mankind will rejoice that the Middle East problem has been solved and the long-awaited “Age of Aquarius” has arrived, but the peace party will be short-lived and the Antichrist will show his true colors, setting himself up in Israel’s temple as god and requiring the world’s worship at the point of death. In the late 19th century a man claiming to be both the Christian Messiah and the Islamic Madhi gained a large following in northwestern India. Francis Younghusband describes him in the book “Wonders of the Himalaya,” which contains a record of his travels in India in 1884 and 1886: “... there had arisen in this district, just about the time I was passing through it, a man who was honestly convinced he was both the Messiah of the Christians and the Madhi of the Mohamedans, and was destined therefore by God to combine both Mohamedans and Christians under his leadership. Many thousands of people believed in him.” Though Younghusband didn’t name this man, he was doubtless referring to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad who lived in the Punjab and died in 1908.