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Friday Church News Notes

bksnider@gmail.com — 2010-03-05T07:47:30-06:00

March 5, 2010, Volume 11, Issue 10

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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.

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH USA APPROVES ORDINATION OF HOMOSEXUAL (Friday Church News Notes, March 5, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - On February 20 a presbytery in Wisconsin approved the ordination of Scott Anderson who was disqualified 20 years ago. Anderson pastored Bethany Presbyterian Church of Sacramento, California, from 1983 until 1990, when he was forced to step down because of his homosexuality, since the constitution of the Presbyterian Church USA requires that pastors “live in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness.” In 2006 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA “reinterpreted” this to allow the ordination of homosexuals tif approved by a regional ordaining body. It is obvious that words mean nothing to these people, not the words of the Bible and not the words of their own constitutions. Anderson’s new ordination was approved by his apostate peers by a margin of 81-25.

Can We Keep the Kids?

bksnider@gmail.com — 2010-03-04T09:18:32-06:00

March 4, 2010 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -

The following is from the new book KEEPING THE KIDS: HOW TO KEEP THE CHILDREN FROM FALLING PREY TO THE WORLD, available now. 531 pages, $19.95. Includes free video download of Bro. Cloud preaching a message based on this book.

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The question must be asked at the outset, can we keep the kids? Is a book like this practical or is such a thing a “pipe dream”? Is it possible for churches and families to live in such a way that the children turn out right for the Lord?

Many disagree with me on this and argue that since the child has a free will, the church and family can do everything right and a child might still turn out wrong.

Indeed, I understand very well that every child has a free will and this is a very important truth that must not be forgotten. It is on that we will come back to it, but God has given some exhortations and promises in His Word that have greatly encouraged (and frightened) me through the 33 years of my marriage, and I want to stand on these promises.

Consider the following Scripture that promises that we can see our children come to Christ.

“Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell” (Proverbs 23:13-14).

This is not only a wonderful promise; it is an amazing one. To think that parents can discipline their children in such a way that they will be saved and escape hell is a most incredible thought, and this is exactly what this Proverb promises. Of course, we know that salvation is an individual matter and it is a supernatural thing. The new birth cannot be inherited or caught, but godly discipline prepares the way for salvation by teaching the child the holiness of God, the seriousness of God’s Law, and the reality of his own sinful nature, and thus emphasizing to his heart his lost condition and urgent need of a Saviour. This provides fertile soil on which the Holy Spirit can work.

Consider another promise.

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

An Open Letter to Clarence Sexton about the Friendship Conference

bksnider@gmail.com — 2010-03-03T16:23:33-06:00

March 3, 2010 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -

The following is a slightly expanded edition of a letter that I sent to Dr. Clarence Sexton on October 20, 2009. Since I did not receive a reply, I decided to publish it. I believe that there are still some Independent Baptist preachers that will have an ear to hear this warning instead of mischaracterizing it as “unnecessarily divisive.”

Hello, Dr. Sexton,

I trust that things are going well in your life and ministry. I want you to know that I thank the Lord for your desire to believe God and to step out to do something significant for the cause of Christ in this day and time.

You don’t know me personally, but I believe you might be aware of some of my writings. I am a missionary church planter in Nepal and the director of Way of Life Literature.

How Rock and Roll Took Over Western Society

bksnider@gmail.com — 2010-03-02T08:45:15-06:00

Republished March 2, 2010 (first published October 22, 2007) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -

The following is excerpted from the book ROCK MUSIC VS. THE GOD OF THE BIBLE. This is an extensive examination of rock music and its evil influence on society. Chapter titles include “My Experience with Rock Music” (the author’s testimony), “The Roots of Rock” (focusing on the blues, jazz, black spirituals, and Southern Gospel), “The Pioneers of Rock” (the families and lives of pioneer rockers, the influence of 50s rock on society, etc.), “The Character of Rock Music,” “Rock and the Occult,” “Rock and Spirituality,” “Rock and Violence,” “Rock and Love,” “Rock and Voodoo,” “Rock and Drugs,” “The Rock & Roll Deathstyle” (a list of more than 500 rockers who have died young due to the rock & roll lifestyle), “Rock and Rebellion,” “Rock Music and Insanity,” “Rock Musicians as Mediums,” “Rock Music and Pagan Religion,” “Death Metal Rock Music,” and “How to Raise a Rock and Roll Rebel.” 473 pages, 7X8, perfect bound. $19.95.

1. THE INCREASE IN TEENAGERS, PROSPERITY, AND LEISURE PREPARED THE WAY FOR ROCK & ROLL.

There was a “baby boom” in America following the end of World War II. In 1946, there were about 5.6 million teens in U.S. high schools. By 1956, the number had almost tripled to 13 million (The Fifties, p. 473).

There was an accompanying dramatic increase in personal wealth and leisure. “In a 1956 survey, Scholastic magazine’s Institute of Student Opinion calculated that there were thirteen million teenagers in America, with a total income of $7 billion a year, and an average income of $10.55 a week--a figure close to the average disposable income available to an average American family just fifteen years before” (James Miller, Flowers in the Dustbin, p. 144).

Friday Church News Notes

bksnider@gmail.com — 2010-02-26T09:52:03-06:00

February 26, 2010, Volume 11, Issue 9

PDF VERSION

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.

HOMEOPATHY FOUND TO BE A DUBIOUS PRACTICE (Friday Church News Notes, February 26, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A British parliamentary panel has determined that homeopathy is “scientifically implausible” and no better than placebos such as sugar pills (Reuters, from The Bangkok Post, Feb. 23, 2010). The Science and Technology committee said that homeopathic products are not real medicines and should not be paid for by the National Health Service. This is an accurate observation. In fact, homeopathy is associated with occultic principles. Homeopathy was developed in the 18th century by Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843). His book Organon of the Art of Healing remains the foundational text in the field. One biographer says, “The reverence for Eastern thought was not just Hahnemann’s personal hobby, but rather the fundamental philosophy behind the preparation of homeopathic remedies” (Samuel Pfeifer, Healing at Any Price, 1988, p. 68). At the heart of homeopathy is the Hindu concept that there is a vital force or life energy that permeates all things (Homeopathy: Heart and Soul, p. 19). Homeopathic remedies are thought to “act upon the Vital Force to restore balance within the body.” Physically speaking, homeopathic remedies are so highly diluted that they are nothing more than water. Homeopathic doctor Keith Souter admits that a typical solution is “unlikely to have even a single molecule of the original compound left.” The diluted solution is allegedly effective because it has undergone a process known as dynamization or potentialization, which makes it possible to contract and retain a hidden power in the liquid. Hahnemann “believed that spiritual reality was more important than material reality” and “came to regard the ‘spiritual essence’ of a drug as more important than its physical substance” (The Hidden Agenda, p. 99).

Keeping the Kids

bksnider@gmail.com — 2010-02-27T08:30:00-06:00

Order now. $19.95

(Each purchase comes with a free video download of a sermon on the same subject that was preached last week at Madison Baptist Church, Madison, AL.)