Friday Church News Notes
Volume 19, Issue 5 - February 2, 2018
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.
Steven Anderson
IS THE ISRAEL IN THE WORLD TODAY GOD’S “ISRAEL”? (Friday Church News Notes, February 2, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Baptist preacher Steven Anderson claims that the Israel that exists in the world today, the Israel that came out of the nations to form a state in 1948, is not the Israel of Scripture and has no future in the covenants and promises of God. A major thesis of Anderson’s popular video Marching to Zion is that since the Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah and have continued in unbelief and disobedience and since rabbinic Judaism today is not based on the Bible but on the Talmud, Israel today is not the true Israel. She has been rejected by God and replaced with the church. Anderson says, “It’s those of us who believe in Jesus Christ that are Israel. ... We Christians are the true people of God. We are the true Israel. And we are marching to Zion” (Marching to Zion). He says further, “So in God’s eyes, they are not Jews, they are the synagogue of Satan.” But the Bible speaks with a clear voice on this issue. From the Pentateuch to the New Testament, we are taught that the same Israel that disobeyed God and was scattered among the nations is the Israel that will be converted and restored. One clear statement on this is Leviticus 26:44 - “And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.” Consider, too, Hosea 3:4-5. “For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.” And consider Jeremiah 23:7-8 - “Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.” In fact, all of the prophecies dealing with Israel’s return and restoration indicate clearly that the same Israel that rebelled and was scattered among the nations as a judgment and has continued in apostasy until now is the Israel that will be converted and restored. Other examples are Deuteronomy 28-30; Jeremiah 31:6-11; Ezekiel 36:22-38; 37:1-14; Amos 9:8-15; Romans 11:15, 25-27. (For more on this see What About Steven Anderson? which is available in print and as a free eBook from www.wayoflife.org.)
3.5 MILLION PEOPLE DEAD BECAUSE OF CECILE RICHARDS (Friday Church News Notes, February 2, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “3.5 Million,” DailyWire, Jan. 26, 2018: “Planned Parenthood’s chief maniacal ghoul has apparently sated her ravenous appetite for snuffing out innocent incipient human life. Cecile Richards confirmed on Friday that she will resign from the largest abortion mill in the nation, explaining, ‘Leading Planned Parenthood over the last 12 years has been the honor of my lifetime. I will be leaving the organization well-positioned to serve and fight for our patients for a century more.’ The honor of Cecile’s lifetime has entailed depriving over three and a half million human beings of their own lifetimes, and Richards walks away well-positioned herself, having earned nearly $700,000 in salary for just the 2015-2016 fiscal year alone. ... Democrats and the mainstream media--but I repeat myself--have repeatedly claimed during Richards’s tenure that 97% of Planned Parenthood’s work ‘is about mammograms and preventative health,’ despite the absence of mammograms at any Planned Parenthood facility. ... In reality, a full 96% of Planned Parenthood’s work relates to abortion, funded by taxpayers to the tune of $528 million, slightly over 40% of the abortion mill’s annual budget. Former abortionists and abortion activists constitute some of the most vocal pro-life advocates, such as Abby Johnson, Paul E. Jarrett, Brenda Pratt Shafer, and Bernard Nathanson among others. Nathanson has admitted that he and his fellow National Abortion Rights Action League co-founders made up scare-statistics about women dying from illegal abortions before Roe v. Wade out of whole cloth. Jarrett powerfully testified, ‘And as I brought out the rib cage, I looked and I saw a tiny, beating heart. And when I found the head of the baby, I looked squarely in the face of another human being--a human being that I’d just killed. I turned to the scrub nurse and said, I’m sorry. But I just knew that I couldn’t be a part of abortion any more.’”
READER IS THANKFUL FOR WAY OF LIFE’S WARNING AND EDUCATION ABOUT MUSIC (Friday Church News Notes, February 2, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “In ---- Baptist Church, it is not just the young people who are a part of the issue. I have also gotten into the vehicles of some of our elderly church members and heard the raunchiest Southern Gospel barroom music. Southern Gospel is the Holy Grail in most churches down south where I live. ... Contemporary Christian Music is like an abscessed tooth. It will kill a church if it is not pulled from the music program. Once the tooth becomes abscessed, it cannot chew the strong meat of the Word of God. ... Most of the preacher’s monthly fellowship meetings and church revival meetings that I attend in Independent Baptist churches are using Contemporary Christian Music even though they preach against it. That tells me that they have neither educated themselves nor their congregations to what Contemporary Christian Music actually sounds like. They are sincere, but sincerely wrong. I have heard a lot of Contemporary Christian Music soundtracks with drums lately. ... I know of no better source for training material on Contemporary Christian Music than the Way of Life web site. Thank you, Brother David Cloud, for being at the forefront of this firefight. Thank you for standing in the face of much opposition from the folks who should be your fellow soldiers. I fully support your stand. The most poisonous of Satan’s darts come forth from carnal saved folk. ... One of our greatest enemies in this apostate age is Contemporary Christian Music. We must stand against it or fall into total apostasy. This is the battle we face. To lose the battle, is to witness the destruction of our churches.”
THE PREACHER WHO LEARNED TO TRUST GOD IN TITHING. (Friday Church News Notes, February 2, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Mal. 3:10). “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully” (2 Co. 9:6). The only way to practice regular giving to the Lord effectively is to practice it by faith. We must believe God’s promises even during times of difficulties. And we must remember that God tests faith to see if it is real and to make it grow stronger (Ja. 1:2-4). Many times if a Christian decides to begin tithing, he will have some financial problem to test his decision. John R. Rice told about an evangelist named Kuykendahl in Texas in the early 20th century. He had a circuit riding ministry and his offerings were very small, so much so that his large family had a difficult time. One year a wealthy businessman visited the area to share his testimony in several churches, and evangelist Kuykendahl was his host, transporting him from meeting to meeting in his buggy. Among other things, the businessman challenged the people to tithe and support God’s great work. As they were traveling along one day, the businessman asked the evangelist if he believed in tithing. He replied, “Yes, I would love to tithe, but I am poor and must take care of my large family.” The businessman responded, “I will make you an offer. If you will tithe for an entire year, I will guarantee you. If at any time during the year you find that you can’t meet your obligations and don’t know where to turn, just contact me and I will send you the necessary money. I am a wealthy man, and I am a man of my word.” Kuykendahl enthusiastically replied, “I will gladly take you up on this offer.” The evangelist kept his word and tithed faithfully, but he never had to contact the businessman. At the end of the 12 months, the evangelist was meditating on what had happened. God had blessed him that year and had met every need. People gave him more than ever, and the family experienced many special blessings. As he contemplated these things, his heart was suddenly smitten when he realized that he had trusted the word of a businessman when he had not been willing to trust the Word of the Living God, who had made even greater promises!
BEARS AND ARCTIC ICE (Friday Church News Notes, February 2, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Dec. 28, 2017: “Think of the Arctic and you probably think about polar bears. Those magnificent, big, white carnivores are probably pictured in your mind standing on snow and ice, where they can be difficult to see. The Arctic is the realm of the bear, and this is reflected in its name. The word ‘Arctic’ is derived from the Greek word arktos, meaning bear. There are layers of meaning here. Certainly, the Arctic is home to the polar bear, but also the constellation Ursa Minor, the Little Bear, contains the star Polaris, which is the Pole Star, being directly above the North Pole, so if you were traveling ‘towards the Bear’, or Bearwards, you would be traveling North. Perhaps the most iconic pictures of polar bears published have been those showing one or two bears clinging precariously to tiny icebergs barely able to support them. The implication of such images is that the habitat of the bears is disappearing. What would be the culprit that is melting the ice? Presumably, it would be our old friend Climate Change. So what would a bear do if the ice under its feet melted away? I guess it would have to swim! Fortunately, polar bears are strong swimmers. Some bears have been tracked swimming up to ten days. Contrary to popular opinion, recent research has shown that many polar bear populations increased during times of receding ice. In the last couple of years, ice sheets have expanded again. Climate Change Alarmists notwithstanding, conditions continue to underline that ‘while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.’ Notes: Crockford, S. (2015), The Arctic Fallacy, (London: Global Warming Policy Foundation).”
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).
3.5 MILLION PEOPLE DEAD BECAUSE OF CECILE RICHARDS (Friday Church News Notes, February 2, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “3.5 Million,” DailyWire, Jan. 26, 2018: “Planned Parenthood’s chief maniacal ghoul has apparently sated her ravenous appetite for snuffing out innocent incipient human life. Cecile Richards confirmed on Friday that she will resign from the largest abortion mill in the nation, explaining, ‘Leading Planned Parenthood over the last 12 years has been the honor of my lifetime. I will be leaving the organization well-positioned to serve and fight for our patients for a century more.’ The honor of Cecile’s lifetime has entailed depriving over three and a half million human beings of their own lifetimes, and Richards walks away well-positioned herself, having earned nearly $700,000 in salary for just the 2015-2016 fiscal year alone. ... Democrats and the mainstream media--but I repeat myself--have repeatedly claimed during Richards’s tenure that 97% of Planned Parenthood’s work ‘is about mammograms and preventative health,’ despite the absence of mammograms at any Planned Parenthood facility. ... In reality, a full 96% of Planned Parenthood’s work relates to abortion, funded by taxpayers to the tune of $528 million, slightly over 40% of the abortion mill’s annual budget. Former abortionists and abortion activists constitute some of the most vocal pro-life advocates, such as Abby Johnson, Paul E. Jarrett, Brenda Pratt Shafer, and Bernard Nathanson among others. Nathanson has admitted that he and his fellow National Abortion Rights Action League co-founders made up scare-statistics about women dying from illegal abortions before Roe v. Wade out of whole cloth. Jarrett powerfully testified, ‘And as I brought out the rib cage, I looked and I saw a tiny, beating heart. And when I found the head of the baby, I looked squarely in the face of another human being--a human being that I’d just killed. I turned to the scrub nurse and said, I’m sorry. But I just knew that I couldn’t be a part of abortion any more.’”
READER IS THANKFUL FOR WAY OF LIFE’S WARNING AND EDUCATION ABOUT MUSIC (Friday Church News Notes, February 2, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “In ---- Baptist Church, it is not just the young people who are a part of the issue. I have also gotten into the vehicles of some of our elderly church members and heard the raunchiest Southern Gospel barroom music. Southern Gospel is the Holy Grail in most churches down south where I live. ... Contemporary Christian Music is like an abscessed tooth. It will kill a church if it is not pulled from the music program. Once the tooth becomes abscessed, it cannot chew the strong meat of the Word of God. ... Most of the preacher’s monthly fellowship meetings and church revival meetings that I attend in Independent Baptist churches are using Contemporary Christian Music even though they preach against it. That tells me that they have neither educated themselves nor their congregations to what Contemporary Christian Music actually sounds like. They are sincere, but sincerely wrong. I have heard a lot of Contemporary Christian Music soundtracks with drums lately. ... I know of no better source for training material on Contemporary Christian Music than the Way of Life web site. Thank you, Brother David Cloud, for being at the forefront of this firefight. Thank you for standing in the face of much opposition from the folks who should be your fellow soldiers. I fully support your stand. The most poisonous of Satan’s darts come forth from carnal saved folk. ... One of our greatest enemies in this apostate age is Contemporary Christian Music. We must stand against it or fall into total apostasy. This is the battle we face. To lose the battle, is to witness the destruction of our churches.”
THE PREACHER WHO LEARNED TO TRUST GOD IN TITHING. (Friday Church News Notes, February 2, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Mal. 3:10). “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully” (2 Co. 9:6). The only way to practice regular giving to the Lord effectively is to practice it by faith. We must believe God’s promises even during times of difficulties. And we must remember that God tests faith to see if it is real and to make it grow stronger (Ja. 1:2-4). Many times if a Christian decides to begin tithing, he will have some financial problem to test his decision. John R. Rice told about an evangelist named Kuykendahl in Texas in the early 20th century. He had a circuit riding ministry and his offerings were very small, so much so that his large family had a difficult time. One year a wealthy businessman visited the area to share his testimony in several churches, and evangelist Kuykendahl was his host, transporting him from meeting to meeting in his buggy. Among other things, the businessman challenged the people to tithe and support God’s great work. As they were traveling along one day, the businessman asked the evangelist if he believed in tithing. He replied, “Yes, I would love to tithe, but I am poor and must take care of my large family.” The businessman responded, “I will make you an offer. If you will tithe for an entire year, I will guarantee you. If at any time during the year you find that you can’t meet your obligations and don’t know where to turn, just contact me and I will send you the necessary money. I am a wealthy man, and I am a man of my word.” Kuykendahl enthusiastically replied, “I will gladly take you up on this offer.” The evangelist kept his word and tithed faithfully, but he never had to contact the businessman. At the end of the 12 months, the evangelist was meditating on what had happened. God had blessed him that year and had met every need. People gave him more than ever, and the family experienced many special blessings. As he contemplated these things, his heart was suddenly smitten when he realized that he had trusted the word of a businessman when he had not been willing to trust the Word of the Living God, who had made even greater promises!
BEARS AND ARCTIC ICE (Friday Church News Notes, February 2, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Dec. 28, 2017: “Think of the Arctic and you probably think about polar bears. Those magnificent, big, white carnivores are probably pictured in your mind standing on snow and ice, where they can be difficult to see. The Arctic is the realm of the bear, and this is reflected in its name. The word ‘Arctic’ is derived from the Greek word arktos, meaning bear. There are layers of meaning here. Certainly, the Arctic is home to the polar bear, but also the constellation Ursa Minor, the Little Bear, contains the star Polaris, which is the Pole Star, being directly above the North Pole, so if you were traveling ‘towards the Bear’, or Bearwards, you would be traveling North. Perhaps the most iconic pictures of polar bears published have been those showing one or two bears clinging precariously to tiny icebergs barely able to support them. The implication of such images is that the habitat of the bears is disappearing. What would be the culprit that is melting the ice? Presumably, it would be our old friend Climate Change. So what would a bear do if the ice under its feet melted away? I guess it would have to swim! Fortunately, polar bears are strong swimmers. Some bears have been tracked swimming up to ten days. Contrary to popular opinion, recent research has shown that many polar bear populations increased during times of receding ice. In the last couple of years, ice sheets have expanded again. Climate Change Alarmists notwithstanding, conditions continue to underline that ‘while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.’ Notes: Crockford, S. (2015), The Arctic Fallacy, (London: Global Warming Policy Foundation).”
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).
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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.
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