CHURCH PROMOTES ITSELF WITH SHOT GLASSES (Friday Church News Notes, January 25, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Next Level Church of Matthews, North Carolina, near Charlotte, is conducting a “give us a shot” campaign to increase attendance. Staff members are visiting bars and distributing shot glasses that bear the slogan “real church for real people.” A shot glass holds 1.5 ounces of liquor. The pastor, Robbie McLaughlin, says his objective is to impress people who don’t go to church (“Give Us a Shot,” Fox News, Jan. 13, 2008). No doubt it will. It will impress them that some churches are as worldly as they are. We wonder how many bar patrons will be encouraged to drink a few more rounds to the “cool church”? Just 6 shots of liquor can make the average man seriously intoxicated, and about 20 shots can kill him (“Blood Alcohol Content,” Wikipedia). Do they not see the wretched message they are sending by this gimmick? Have they no concern for the holy reputation of the church of Jesus Christ? Is there no end to the “Seeker Sensitive” madness? “Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed” (2 Corinthians 6:3).

BLACK PLAGUE A GROWING PROBLEM (Friday Church News Notes, January 25, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The plague, known in medieval times as the Black Death, is re-emerging worldwide and “poses a growing but overlooked threat” (“Plague a Growing but Overlooked Threat,” Reuters, Jan. 14, 2008). There are 1,000 to 3,000 cases each year. The Public Library of Science Medicine journal warned of the plague’s “inherent communicability, rapid spread, rapid clinical course, and high mortality if left untreated.” The bubonic plague is carried by fleas and rodents, while the pneumonic variety is spread by coughing or sneezing. During the Great Tribulation many will die from “pestilences” (Matthew 24:7).

A DESCRIPTION OF THE BIG BANG (Friday Church News Notes, January 25, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A recent New York Times article contained the following description of the evolutionist’s Big Bang: “Astronomers now know the universe has not lasted forever. It was born in the Big Bang, which somehow set the arrow of time, 14 billion years ago. The linchpin of the Big Bang is thought to be an explosive moment known as inflation, during which space became suffused with energy that had an antigravitational effect and ballooned violently outward, ironing the kinks and irregularities out of what is now the observable universe and endowing primordial chaos with order” (“Big Brain Theory,” New York Times, Jan. 15, 2008). Observe that we are told that astronomers KNOW that the universe was born 14 billion years ago in a big bang. It is a known, established fact, they pretend. Further, this big bang endowed chaos with order, producing the amazingly complex and orderly universe in which we find ourselves. What an incredible explosion! What wonderful blind chance! And they have the audacity to say, with a straight face, that the Bible’s account of creation is irreconcilable with the facts! Who has ever seen an explosion of any kind endow chaos with order? That, my friend, is blind faith of the highest order, but faith in the Bible is reasonable and wise, being established by “many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3). “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

MORE TRASHY COUNTRY MUSIC (Friday Church News Notes, January 25, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - We have often warned about the moral danger of Country music in the Friday Church News Notes. Recently we were informed of another example. Eric Church is a new country singer whose debut album was titled “Sinners Like Me.” In standard Country music tradition, the album intermingles drinking, partying, and extra-marital sexual relationships with Jesus and patriotism. The theme song, “Sinners Like Me,” is about two boys who follow in their father’s drunken footsteps. It’s all about drinking and “hell raisin’” but it ends with the singer standing at heaven’s gates expecting to get in, because “me and Jesus got that part worked out.” Yet Jesus Christ warned that unless a man is born again he will never see the kingdom of God (John 3:3), and the Bible says the new birth is a dramatic thing that radically changes a man’s life. The man who is still a drunken “hell raiser” deceives himself if he thinks he is heaven bound. The song “Two Pink Lines” is about an unmarried couple awaiting the results of a pregnancy test. The song “Before She Does” features cussing and drinking cold beer on a bar stool and wishing your woman hadn’t left while also believing that the Bible is a fact and Jesus is coming back. Beware of Country music. It is immorality wrapped in a thin veneer of vain religion. “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate” (Titus 1:16).

MUSLIMS IN FRANCE FORCE CHURCH TO CLOSE (Friday Church News Notes, January 25, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Islamic Pressure in Paris Forces Evangelical Congregation to Vacate Building,” OneNewsNow, June 15, 2007: “After a long struggle against Islamic intimidation, an evangelical church in the outskirts of Paris has been forced to vacate the 1,000-square-foot facility where it had been meeting. The Temple de Paris Church has been located in the Paris suburb of Bagnolet. Christine Thabot, the wife of the pastor, says Muslims have been trying to get rid of them since 2005, but local authorities had permitted the church to remain in the facility, paying 8,000 euros a month in rent. According to Thabot, the Muslims changed their strategy. ‘They attacked our owner this time,’ she explains. ‘They took up the case and [told him he was] not allowed to have this church open--and on Friday we [were told] that we had to get out of our premises.’ Thabot says Temple de Paris Church has been unable to secure another worship center. ‘For an evangelical or Protestant church, it is almost next to impossible to buy or to rent any premises. As soon as they find out you are a church, there is nothing open to us.’ Thabot says many churches in the area have been closed and have had similar difficulties in securing new facilities. But she claims Muslims can secure property for building a mosque simply by paying one euro to the authorities.”

ANIMAL RIGHTS SILLINESS IN NORWAY (Friday Church News Notes, January 25, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Norway Federation for Animal Protection opposes teaching children to fish because, they allege, fish and worms feel pain. They have opposed projects to distribute fishing poles to grammar school students. Animal Rights activist Siri Relling said, “It is important for children to experience nature, but they can do it without tormenting other species” (“Children Shouldn’t Fish, Aftenposten, May 21, 2003). In 2007 a popular chef in Norway was accused of animal cruelty by animal rights groups because on his television program he advocated boiling crabs alive, the traditional way to cook them. The case was dismissed by the court, but the chef, Yngve Ekern, was required to face his accusers at a “Conciliation Board.” The animal rights group NOAH claims that boiling crabs alive is a violation of the Animal Protection Act. Yet Stein Martinsen, of the Institute of Marine Research, observes: “It is difficult to kill shellfish in other ways than boiling. I know some who hack lobsters in two, but they have a tiny brain that is not so easy to hit” (“Charged after Crab Boiling,” Aftenposten, June 16, 2007). We don’t advocate any true abuse of animals, but all of this is just plain silliness. Fish eat fish, and birds eat worms, and tigers eat anything they please, and they aren’t interested in “humane” ways of doing it. If people are just animals, as the evolutionists believe (and probably most animal rightists are evolutionists, while many others believe in some form of “theistic evolution”), then it doesn’t matter what we do, because there is no design or purpose to existence.

UNHAPPY LOTTERY WINNERS (Friday Church News Notes, January 25, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Edward Ugle, in “Money for Nothing: One Man’s Journey through the Dark Side of Lottery Millions,” which was published in the fall of 2007, says that “broke lottery winners or financially troubled lottery winners are the rule.” Government lotteries have resulted in countless divorces, bankruptcies, estranged families, murders, attempted murders, drug and alcohol abuse, you name it. A recent case involved a man who tried to hide his lottery win from his wife and then disappeared when she found out (“Wife’s at a loss to find husband after he wins the lottery,” Miami Herald, Nov. 19, 2007). Following are a few other examples: EVELYN ADAMS, who won the New Jersey lottery in 1985 and 1986 for a total of $5.4 million, gambled and gave away her winnings and by 2001 was poor and living in a trailer. KAREN COHEN, who won $1 million in the Illinois state lottery in 1984, filed for bankruptcy in 2000 and in 2006 was sentenced to 22 months in jail for lying to federal bankruptcy court. ED GILDEIN, who won $8.8 million in the Texas lottery in 1993, gambled away most of the money and left his wife a slew of debt when he died in 2003. BILLIE BOB HARRELL, JR., who won $37 million a Texas lottery in 1997, committed suicide less than two years later after his spending habits had spiraled out of control and strained his marriage severely. Shortly before his death, Harrell confided to a financial adviser: “Winning the lottery is the worst thing that ever happened to me.” WILLIE HURT, who won $3.1 million in Michigan in 1989, spent his fortune on divorce and crack cocaine and within two years was broke and charged with murder. JANITE LEE, who won $18 million in 1993 in Missouri, filed for bankruptcy eight years later. MACK METCALF, who won $65 million in a Kentucky lottery in 2000, was divorced from his second wife, gave away half a million dollars to a former girlfriend when he was drunk, was sued by his first wife for unpaid child support, and died in 2003 at age 45 of alcoholism. Metcalf’s second wife, Virginia, who shared his jackpot, bought a mansion, surrounded herself with stray cats, and died of a drug overdose the same year Mack died. PAUL MCNABB, Maryland’s first lottery millionaire, ended up driving a cab in Las Vegas. SUZANNE MULLINS, who won $4.2 million a Virginia lottery in 1993, could not pay her bills 11 years later and was sued unsuccessfully for nonpayment of a loan. After WILLIAM POST won $16.2 million in a Pennsylvania lottery in 1988 his brother tried to hire a contract killer to murder him and his wife. When he declared bankruptcy in 1993 he said, “Everybody dreams of winning money, but nobody realizes the nightmares that come out of the woodwork, or the problems.” When he died in 2006 he was living on his meager monthly Social Security check and The Washington Post headlined his obituary “The Unhappy Lottery Winner.” SHEFIK TALLMADGE, who won $6.7 million in the Arizona lottery in 1988, declared bankruptcy in 2005. JACK WHITTAKER, who won $314 million in a lottery in December 2002, has been sued for bouncing checks at a casino, was divorced by his wife, was ordered to undergo rehab because of drunken driving, was sued by the father of a teenager who was found dead in one of Whittaker’s houses, and took to drink. After he pampered his teenage granddaughter with four new cars and a $2000 a week allowance, she died of a drug overdose. Whittaker’s ex-wife, Jewell, said, “If I knew what was going to transpire, honestly, I would have torn the [lottery] ticket up.” VICTORIA ZELL, who shared an $11 million Powerball jackpot with her husband in 2001, was penniless by 2006 and serving seven years in a Minnesota prison, having been convicted in a drug- and alcohol-induced collision that killed someone. “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition” (1 Tim. 6:9).