Friday Church News Notes

Nov/13/09 06:51

November 13, 2009, Volume 10, Issue 46

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The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this does not imply an endorsement. For instructions on how to unsubscribe to this list or to change mailing addresses, please consult the information paragraph at the end.

MASS MURDER ON U.S. MILITARY BASE WAS AN ACT OF ISLAMIC TERRORISM (Friday Church News Notes, November 13, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In spite of attempts on the part of some government officials and media personalities to blame something else, it is clear that Nidal Malik Hasan’s mass murder of 13 people and wounding of 31 others at Fort Hood Army Base in Texas was an act of Islamic terrorism. Hasan cried “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah Is the Greatest”) before opening fire, and one of his neighbors said that he gave her a Koran at 9am that morning before heading to the base and said, “I’m going to do good work for God” (“Fort Hood Gunman Had Told US Military Colleagues That Infidels Should Have Throats Cut,” Telegraph, London, Nov. 8, 2009). Hasan had told some of his colleagues that “infidels” should have their throats cut and that they should be set on fire. Earlier this summer he cheered the shooting death of a Little Rock Army recruiter by a Muslim (“The Military’s Blunders,” New York Post, Nov. 7, 2009). In a lecture at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (where he worked prior to being assigned to Fort Hood in July of this year) Hasan ranted that “non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats.” While stationed at Walter Reed, Hasan attended the Dar al-Hijrah mosque at the same time as two of the 9/11 terrorists (“Fort Hood Shooting: Texas Army Killer Linked to September 11 Terrorists,” The Telegraph, Nov. 7, 2009). The imam at that time was Anwar al-Awlaki, who now lives in Yemen. Charles Allen, former under-secretary for intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security, described him as “an al-Qaeda supporter who targets US Muslims with radical online lectures encouraging terrorist attacks.” Val Finell, an Army doctor who studied with Hasan, said he and others questioned Hasan’s allegiance to the U.S. Constitution and his commitment to the defense of America (“Officials: U.S. Aware of Hasan Efforts to Contact al Qaeda,” ABC News, Nov. 9, 2009). Dr. Finnell said that most of the officers did not file complaints for “fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim solder” (“Fort Hood Gunman Had Told US Military Colleagues,” The Telegraph, Nov. 8). That exposes the foolish “political correctness” that has taken over the U.S. military, which is more zealous to please the feminists, environmentalists, Muslims, and lawyers, than it is to fulfill its obligation to protect America from all enemies. The root problem, though, is not the weakness of the military; the root problem is the apostasy and cowardliness of the nation’s preachers, which refuse to proclaim the fear of God boldly and without compromise. As a result, the nation has been robbed of its wisdom and power. The solution, therefore, from the Bible believer’s side is not to focus on politics and immerse himself in conservative talk radio; the solution is to focus on godliness, in our individual lives and in our churches. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

THE U.S. MILITARY’S BLINDERS TOWARD THE DANGER OF ISLAM (Friday Church News Notes, November 13, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “The Military’s Blinders,” by Paul Sperry, New York Post, Nov. 7, 2009: “[Mass murderer and Islamic terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan’s] superiors put up blinders to many red flags because Hasan--who wore traditional Islamic robe and kufi and prayed five times a day--practiced the ‘religion of peace.’ And they’re not supposed to make a connection between that religion and terrorism, even as they prosecute a war on Islamic terrorism. The Pentagon has made well-publicized moves to show the military does not equate Islam with terror, and is making efforts to accommodate more Muslims in the military, whose ranks now exceed 15,000. It recently dedicated a new Muslim prayer center at Quantico, commissioned the first Muslim chaplain at the Air Force Academy and inaugurated the first Muslim prayer room at West Point. Good and decent Muslims certainly serve admirably. But how does the military know which Muslims will put allegiance to country ahead of allegiance to Allah as interpreted by radical Islam? A conflict obviously exists for soldiers like Hasan--and for Sgt. Hasan Akbar, the Muslim convert who in 2003 fragged commanding officers at a military camp outside Iraq, killing two and wounding 15 others. Akbar said at the time he did it out of loyalty to the ummah, the international community of Muslims. ... Within months of Akbar’s traitorous 2003 attacks, the Defense Intelligence Agency issued an internal report warning that Muslim soldiers pose a possible security threat--which the Pentagon by and large ignored. Then, in 2005, after the FBI broke up a Muslim spy ring at Gitmo that involved Muslim military personnel, the Pentagon’s counterspying unit, the Counterintelligence Field Activity, warned brass that Islamic legal doctrine was compromising devout Muslim soldiers’ loyalty. ... A couple of years ago, it became known that 10 of the 14 Muslim chaplains in the US military had trained at an Islamic school that the FBI raided after 9/11, a school still run by an unindicted terrorist co-conspirator. Members of Congress led by Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) last year asked the Pentagon to use the FBI to screen groups that certify chaplains. The Pentagon replied it would be ‘legally problematic’ to do so--even though some of these chaplains have been radicalizing soldiers. ... Last year, Hassan Abujihaad, a Navy signalman, was convicted of tipping off al Qaeda about battlegroup movements in the Persian Gulf, including disclosing classified documents detailing the group’s vulnerability to terror attack. ... Other terrorists are knocking on the recruiting-station door. One of the convicted Fort Dix terrorists said he wanted to join the Army so he could kill US soldiers from the ‘inside.’”

ECUMENISTS CELEBRATE ANNIVERSARY OF “JUSTIFICATION AGREEMENT” (Friday Church News Notes, November 13, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - On October 31, various liberal ecumenical churches observed the tenth anniversary of the signing of the “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.” Representatives of the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation signed it on October 31, 1999, and the World Methodist Council signed on in 2006. Many deluded “evangelicals” have praised the declaration, claiming that Rome now agrees with “Protestants” on this doctrine, but in fact Rome has given up nothing in this cleverly-worded declaration. The document defends the false Catholic sacramental gospel in every point, which is that justification is the IMPARTATION of new life to the sinner whereby he is enabled to know and seek God, and it is a PROCESS that begins with baptism and requires the doing of good works and participation in the church sacraments. Point number 11 of the Joint Declaration says, “Justification ... occurs in the reception of the Holy Spirit in baptism...” The Council of Trent cursed anyone who would dare to say that justification is by faith alone through grace alone by Christ’s completed atonement alone, and this ecumenical declaration does not draw back from that one iota. Consider the following statement from the sixth session of the Council of Trent: “If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in divine mercy, which remits sins for Christ’s sake, or that it is this confidence alone that justifies us, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA” (Canons Concerning Justification, Canon 12). If the Roman Catholic Church were suddenly to agree with Bible-believing non-Catholics that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone by Christ’s complete and all-sufficient sacrifice alone WITHOUT WORKS OR SACRAMENTS OR BAPTISM OR PRIESTHOOD, it would bring the curses of its own infallible popes upon its head. For more on this see “Liberal Lutherans and Roman Catholics Agree to Deny the Gospel” and “How the Roman Catholic Church Denies Salvation by Grace Alone” at the Way of Life web site. There is a search engine.)

PARIS DIVORCE FAIR DRAWS THOUSANDS (Friday Church News Notes, November 13, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Paris was the site of France’s first ever divorce fair on November 7-8, and an estimated 4,000 attended. In France, nearly one of two marriages ends in divorce and the “New Start” trade fair was geared toward providing services to this large market. Attendees could consult lawyers and tarot card readers, visit makeover specialists, make an appointment with plastic surgeons, and have their confidence level pumped up by self-esteem coaches. Seminars ranged from “How to Re-seduce your partner using the Gestalt method” to “Meeting on the Web.” Brigitte Gaumet, the fair’s organizer, said she got the idea after French President Nicolas Sarkozy divorced his second wife soon after taking office. “For me,” she said, “that crystallized that divorce has lost its stigma and is really a commonplace thing” (“Paris New Fair Targets Divorce Market,” AP, Nov. 9, 2009). Divorce is always a tragedy, and though it is a reality in this sin-cursed world and sometimes unavoidable, it should never be encouraged or celebrated. The worldwide breakdown in marriage is a sign of the end times. “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us” (Psalms 2:1-3).

AMERICA’S DECLINING AFFAIR WITH MARRIAGE (Friday Church News Notes, November 13, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from The Washington Post, Nov. 9, 2009: “The institution of marriage in the United States has steadily declined in strength over the past four decades, according to a report released last month by a panel of scholars and advocates. The U.S. Marriage Index, the brainchild of David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values, seeks to quantify the health of marriage in the United States in the same way economists use leading indicators to parse the state of the country’s economy. ... The index combined five statistics--the percentage of adults between the ages of 20 and 54 who are married, the percentage of adults who reported being a ‘very happy’ with their marriages, the percentage of first marriages intact, the percentage of births to married parents and the percentage of children living with their own married parents--to reach a composite score illustrating the state of America’s nuptial unions. In 1970, that score totaled 76.2; by 2008 it had dropped to 60.3. Almost 90 percent of children were born to married parents in 1970; last year it was 60 percent. Of adults between ages 20 and 54, 78.6 percent were married in 1970, compared with 57.2 percent in 2008. The portion of first marriages that remained intact dropped from 77.4 percent in 1970 to 61.2 percent last year. ... Blankenhorn points to statistics showing that kids who grow up in homes where their parents are married to each other are, on average, less likely to live in poverty, to have emotional or behavioral problems, to engage in premature sexual activity, to use drugs or commit suicide. ‘Every single pathology or problem or difficulty a child can experience--every single one--growing up outside of a married-couple home elevates the risk,’ he says.”

MOVIE STAR RIPS LEVITICUS 18:22 OUT OF BIBLES (Friday Church News Notes, November 13, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Ian McKellen, a popular British movie start who played the wizard Galdalf in “Lord of the Rings,” said in an interview with Detail magazine that he tears Leviticus 18 out of Bibles in hotel rooms. McKellen, a homosexual, says, “I’m not proudly defacing the book, but it’s a choice between removing that page and throwing away the whole Bible” (“Ian McKellen Rips Leviticus,” Popeater.com, Nov. 2, 2009). In fact, the whole Bible condemns homosexuality. This begins in the Bible’s first book, with the establishment of marriage between one man and one woman as the divinely-ordained context for the sexual relationship. God did not make a Steve for Adam; He made an Eve. The last book of the Bible continues to condemn homosexuality. John says that those who have their part in the lake of fire include “the abominable” (Rev. 21:8), and homosexuality is one of the things called an abomination in Scripture. A glorious way of redemption has been provided and offered to mankind through the sacrifice of God’s own Son, but those who rip pages out of God’s Word and thus deny the holiness and just judgment of God upon sin have no part in His grace and mercy. You cannot be saved unless you acknowledge that you are a sinner in need of salvation.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD DIRECTOR HAS CHANGE OF HEART (Friday Church News Notes, November 13, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Abby Johnson stepped down as the director of the Planned Parenthood office in Bryan, Texas, because of a change of heart after watching an ultrasound of an abortion. She said, “I just thought I can’t do this any more, and it was just like a flash that hit me and I thought that’s it” (“Planned Parenthood Leader Resigns,” KBTX News 3, Nov. 2, 2009). Johnson, who worked for Planned Parenthood for eight years, says, “I feel so pure in heart. I don’t have this guilt. I don’t have this burden on me anymore. And that’s how I know that this conversion was a spiritual conversion.” Johnson says that Planned Parenthood has focused on “getting more abortions in the door.” She now supports the Coalition for Life and prays for volunteers outside the Planned Parenthood facility. The organization has sued Johnson and Coalition for Life, claiming that they “would be irreparably harmed by the disclosure of certain information.” Indeed, the truth hurts!

CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. 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. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “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). This material is sent only to those who personally subscribe to the Fundamental Baptist Information Service mailing list. To SUBSCRIBE, go to http://www.wayoflife.org/wayoflife/subscribe.html. TO UNSUBSCRIBE OR CHANGE ADDRESSES, go to the very bottom of any email received from us and click "Manage My Subscription." Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org.