Friday Church News Notes
Volume 19, Issue 2 - January 12, 2018
Graphical Edition
The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, though this does not imply an endorsement.
Stacks Image 336840

Statue of Greek goddess Athena, UN headquarters

UNITED NATIONS FUNDS RESURRECTION OF ANCIENT IDOLS (Friday Church News Notes, January 12, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Since 2016, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has been funding the restoration or recreation of ancient idols, particularly goddesses. In April 2016, a replica of a Roman arch that once stood in front of a Baal temple was erected in London’s Trafalgar Square to celebrate UNESCO’s World Heritage Week. A few months later the Baal arch greeted attendees of the World Government Summit in Dubai. In November 2017, a statue of the Greek goddess Athena was featured in an exhibit “The Spirit in the Stone” at UN headquarters in New York City. Most recently, UNESCO funded the reconstruction of an image of a lion associated with the goddess al-Lat. “It is believed al-Lat was the continuation of the earlier Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar Inanna; the goddess of sex and, in particular, extra-marital relations” (“UNESCO Produces Lion Idol,” BreakingIsraelNews.com, Jan. 2, 2018). The United Nations is a hotbed of New Age mysticism. (See “The United Nations and the New Age,” www.wayoflife.org.) With its one-world ambition, humanistic philosophy, syncretistic agenda, and anti-Semitism, it is unwittingly making preparations for the coming of the Antichrist. The United Nations is an end-time Tower of Babel which seeks to unite mankind in rebellion to the Creator God and His holy Word, and like the first Tower of Babel, it is doomed to failure. “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. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion” (Psalm 2:1-6).

ABORTION CLINICS DISAPPEARING IN SOME U.S. STATES (Friday Church News Notes, January 12, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Pro-life Win on Horizon,” Dailywire.com, Jan. 2, 2018: “Thanks to the tireless effort from brave pro-life advocates, voters, and politicians, there are a total of seven states that have only one abortion clinic left: Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Missouri, West Virginia, and Kentucky. In Kentucky, the pro-life movement and mothers and their babies are on the cusp of another major victory: ridding the state entirely of the death clinics. In a matter of weeks, the last abortion clinic in the state, EMW Women’s Clinic in Louisville, could be forced to pack up their sopher clamps and close their doors, thanks to Republican Governor Matt Bevin. According to Bevin, EMW--which was caught performing abortions without a license in 2016--‘is not in compliance with a state law that requires it to have hospital and ambulance service agreements for patient emergencies,’ reported Life News in September. When Bevin moved to revoke the facility’s license until compliance, EMW sued the state. ... A decision in the case could be made as early as this month.”

THE WAR ON DRIVING TO COME (Friday Church News Notes, January 12, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “The War on Driving to Come,” National Review, Dec. 30, 2017: “At some point in the future, be it years, decades, or a century hence, the federal government will seek to ban driving. This, I’m afraid, is an inevitability. It is inexorably heading our way. The dot sits now on the horizon. As is common, the measure will be sold in the name of public health. ‘Now that robots can do the work,’ its bloodless advocates will explain, ‘there’s no need for human involvement.’ And from then on, the snowball will roll. ... For a century, the automobile has been a bastion of liberty, freeing up almost everybody from the tyranny of other people’s schedules. Trains, planes, and even taxis are run to their owners’ clocks: I cannot tell Amtrak to pick me up at 9; Delta won’t stop in Fayetteville if I ask nicely; yellow taxis have a habit of disappearing in the rain. But the car--oh, the car. The car is mine. I can get in my car when I want, and get out when I want. I can oversleep or undersleep, and still it sits there waiting, as might a Labrador or a loyal slipper. My car has no luggage restrictions, and I know exactly what it’ll fit. In my car, I may play what I want on the radio. And, best of all, I may choose the other passengers. Crucially, I need no special permission to drive my car--at least not beyond a basic license and a plate screwed into the back. At my choosing, I can go around the block, or I can go to California. Nobody cares. There are no tickets, no inspectors, no medallions to subsidize. ... Will it remain these things if I am no longer allowed to drive it? The answer, of course, is ‘No.’ ... Any network of self-driving cars would, by definition, necessitate total and unceasing tracking of their occupants. ... At a stroke, my autonomy would be gone.”

HOW ALCOHOL DAMAGES DNA AND INCREASES CANCER RISK (Friday Church News Notes, January 12, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “How alcohol damages,” Reuters, Jan. 3, 2018: “Drinking alcohol produces a harmful chemical in the body which can lead to permanent genetic damage in the DNA of stem cells, increasing the risk of cancer developing, according to research published on Wednesday. Working with mice in a laboratory, British scientists used chromosome analysis and DNA sequencing to examine the genetic damage caused by acetaldehyde, a harmful chemical produced when the body processes alcohol. Their findings offered more detail about how alcohol increases the risk of developing seven types of cancer, including common forms such as breast and bowel cancer. It also showed how the body seeks to defend against the damage alcohol can do. ... The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies alcohol as a Group 1 carcinogen, citing ‘convincing evidence’ it causes cancer in humans. A study published in 2011 found that alcohol is responsible for around 4 percent of all cancer in Britain--equating to around 12,800 cases a year.” Proverbs 23:29-32 - “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.”

KNOWLEDGE SHALL INCREASE (Friday Church News Notes, January 12, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - About 2,500 years ago, during the Persian Empire, an angel told the prophet Daniel, “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” (Daniel 12:4). We are seeing a dramatic fulfillment of this in our day. Recent inventions include the following: Scientists at the University of Nottingham, England, have used ultrasound to image the inside of a cell. The shorter-than-optical sound wavelengths produce an image at nanoscale. “The resolution of optical images is limited by the wavelength of light being used. Details smaller than the wavelength of light can’t be imaged. ... Sound waves don’t carry intense amounts of energy, and thus shorter wavelengths can be used to image biological processes without causing cell damage” (“New ultrasound technique,” UPI, Dec. 21, 2016). Scientists have developed a new class of ingestible devices that derive power from stomach acid (“New ingestible devices,” UPI, Feb. 6, 2017). The electronic capsule prototypes, developed by researchers from MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, can measure temperature and other biological properties and stream the data wirelessly to a remote receiver. C. Giovanni Traverso says, “Our work helps pave the way toward a new era of pill-sized electronics, which can operate over the course of weeks or even months in the gastrointestinal tract--changing the way we think about disease diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment.” A brain implant allows a paralyzed man to feed himself using his thoughts (“Brain Implant,” Fox News, Mar. 29, 2017). “A paralyzed man in Cleveland fed himself mashed potatoes for the first time in eight years, aided by a computer-brain interface that reads his thoughts and sends signals to move muscles in his arm, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. The research, published in the journal Lancet, is the latest from BrainGate, a consortium of researchers testing brain-computer interface technology designed to give paralyzed individuals more mobility. Prior tests of the technology allowed paralyzed people to move a robotic arm or a cursor on a keyboard just by using their thoughts. ... The sensors record brain signals created when Kochevar imagines moving his arm, and relay them to a computer. The computer sends the signals to the electrical stimulation system, which directs impulses through about 30 wires implanted in muscles in Kochevar’s arm and hand to produce specific movements.”

SHE SELLS SEA SHELLS (Friday Church News Notes, January 12, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, January 2, 2018: “British comedian Milton Jones tells this one-liner: ‘It’s difficult to say what my wife does for a living. She sells sea shells on the sea shore.’ However, the famous tongue-twister actually refers to a young woman who never married. Mary Anning was born in 1799 to Richard, an impoverished furniture maker, and his wife, Molly, in Lyme Regis, England. This coastal town is now famous for its discoveries of dinosaur fossils, discoveries that began with Mary. Richard would take the young Mary and her older brother Joseph out on to the cliffs and the beach looking for fossils, and they would sell these to visitors. The teenagers discovered what would later be named the ichthyosaur, and this was the first of many discoveries made by Mary. One biographer of Anning has stated that her many discoveries of so-called prehistoric animals paved the way for Darwinism. Mary was mostly self-taught, having learned to read and write only in Sunday School. Nevertheless, her extensive knowledge of her finds did not cause her to lose her faith, despite her many hardships. She was not allowed to join the Geological Society because she was a woman and also because she and her family were members of a Dissenting Chapel, not the Church of England. It is of note that her most prized possession was a volume of the Dissenters’ Theological Magazine and Review. Her pastor, James Wheaton, had contributed two articles to this journal. One urged his flock to get interested in geology. The other emphatically taught the biblical truth that God had made the world in six literal 24-hour days.”

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).

_____


Distributed by Way of Life Literature., publisher of Bible Study Materials and reports for Fundamental Baptists and other fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians. Established in 1974, Way of Life Literature is a fundamental Baptist preaching and publishing ministry based in Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. Brother Cloud lives in South Asia where he has been a church planting missionary since 1979. OUR GOAL IN THIS PARTICULAR ASPECT OF OUR MINISTRY (REPORTS AND FRIDAY NEWS) IS NOT DEVOTIONAL. IS TO PROVIDE INFORMATION TO ASSIST PREACHERS IN THE PROTECTION OF THE CHURCHES IN THIS APOSTATE HOUR.

David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org

The Way of Life Literature preaching and publishing ministry is based at Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. A mail stop is maintained in Port Huron, Michigan.

Way of Life Literature - www.wayoflife.org
copyright 2018 - Way of Life Literature