Friday Church News Notes
Volume 19, Issue 21 - May 25, 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.
MATT MAHER WORSHIPS CHRIST IN THE MASS WAFER (Friday Church News Notes, May 25, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Matt Maher, one of the most influential contemporary worship musicians, says in an interview that he worships Christ in the consecrated wafer of the Catholic mass. He says, “I lead a college Bible study. It’s a Catholic Church, which kind of surprises a lot of people. The joy that I really feel, as part of my ministry, is that I’ve been kind of going out more and traveling and working with different people breaking down those stereotypes because people have a lot of Catholic stereotypes. ... I do a mass every Sunday night at 6 PM at my church, Saint Tims, and on Tuesday nights we do a thing called XLT. Basically what it is a gathering of high school and college students. It’s consistent with about 40 minutes of worship, 20 to 25 minutes of teaching and about 25 to 30 minutes of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament” (“Matt Maher Interview” Kim Jones, Mar. 6, 2017, Thoughtco.com). Adoration of the blessed sacrament refers to the worship of a consecrated wafer of bread as Jesus Christ. The Vatican II Council declared, “In this sacrament Christ is present in a unique way, whole and entire, God and man, substantially and permanently” (Vatican II, The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Instruction on the Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery, Chap. 1, E, p. 114). During a trip to Canada in November 1998, I had an opportunity to visit a cloistered convent in Montreal. A pastor friend invited me to meet his great aunt who had been a Catholic nun for 60 years. She was 80 years old and had lived most of her life in this monastery. She could converse with us only from behind metal bars. There are even bars across a section of the convent chapel, separating the nuns from the public. The nuns pray in the chapel by shifts around the clock. As you enter the chapel, there is a sign that says, “You are entering to adore the Jesus-host.” Note how the nuns make a direct connection between Jesus and the Catholic host. The host is the consecrated wafer of the mass. According to Catholic theology, as we have seen, the wafer, when blessed by the priest, becomes the literal body and blood of Jesus. After the mass, the host is placed inside a little box called a tabernacle, and the people worship it and pray to it as if it were Jesus Christ Himself. This is called “adoration of the blessed sacrament.” The Catholic mass is heresy and communion with devils. Matt Maher, who is communing with devils masquerading as angels of light (2 Corinthians 11), is in ministry fellowship with popular contemporary musicians such as Keith and Kristyn Getty, Stuart Townsend, Michael W. Smith, Third Day, Chris Tomlin, Jars of Clay, Matt Redman, and Bill Gaither. Maher’s wife is Methodist, and they are raising their son “in the Catholic Church,” while also taking him to Methodist services “so he can experience both traditions” (“Charismatic Catholic Rocker Finds Crossover Appeal with Evangelicals,” Charisma, May 20, 2013). God’s people need to understand that association with contemporary worship music is a bridge to the one-world church and doctrines of devils.
HISTORIC SUMMIT BETWEEN U.S. PRESIDENT AND NORTH KOREAN LEADER (Friday Church News Notes, May 25, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - [Trump has cancelled this meeting for now, but the N. Korean situation is something for God’s people to pray about.] Though it could be cancelled at any time, an historic face-to-face meeting between a U.S. President and a North Korean leader is scheduled for June 12 in Singapore. President Trump, whose goal is to curb North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, tweeted, “We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!” (Donald Trump Twitter account, May 10, 2018). Trump also said, “I really think he wants to do something and bring that country into the real world” (“Trump announces June 12 summit,” Chicago Tribune, May 10, 2018). Singapore maintains diplomatic relations with North Korea and hosts a N. Korean embassy. In April, in another first, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the demilitarized zone between the two countries. While Kim’s motives are highly suspect and nothing might come of the negotiations, it could be the beginning of an answer to many prayers for the people of North Korea. “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Timothy 2:1-6).
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL FERVENT IN SUPPORT OF THE HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA (Friday Church News Notes, May 25, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Twenty-three Major League Baseball (MLB) teams are brazenly promoting the homosexual agenda by hosting “LGBT Pride” Nights this season. MLB Vice President Billy Bean, a homosexual former baseball player, said, “I couldn’t be prouder of baseball--we’re really leading the way.” The “LGBT Pride” nights typically feature the unfurling of a rainbow flag, rainbow-themed merchandise, and the promotion of LGBT organizations. “The stadiums, despite the presence of children, also often use the ‘kiss cams’ to project gays kissing onto a large screen” (“23 Major League Baseball Teams to Promote Homosexuality,” cnsnews.com, May 13, 2018). This is another reason why Bible-believing Christians should have nothing to do with the filthy world of pro sports. “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11).
NEW ZEALAND GOES ALL OUT FOR HOMOSEXUAL RIGHTS (Friday Church News Notes, May 25, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Did you know that there is an “intersex flag” and that New Zealand has flown it at its parliament? The intersex flag was created in 2013 by Organisation Intersex International Australia and consists of a purple circle on a yellow background. These are supposed to be “hermaphrodite colors,” as opposed to blue and pink which are traditionally linked to male and female. New Zealand flew the intersex flag, along with the rainbow flag at its parliament building in celebration of the “International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia” (“New Zealand becomes the first country to fly intersex flag at Parliament,” May 18, 2018, www.stuff.co.nz). This is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy and a sign of the lateness of the hour. “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:1-4).
TURKISH LEADERS CALL FOR ISLAMIC NATIONS TO UNITE AGAINST ISRAEL (Friday Church News Notes, May 25, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Turkey’s leaders are urging Islamic nations to unite against Israel over the killing of more than 60 violent Palestinian protestors in Gaza. Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan called for a summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to discuss the matter. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said, “The Islamic world should move as one, with one voice, against this massacre” (“Turkish PM Calls,” National Review, May 16, 2018). Yildirim also said that the United States is “a party to this crime against humanity.” In a speech broadcast on Turkish state television, Erdogan irrationally called Israel’s self-defensive action “genocide.” If it weren’t for God’s protecting hand, Israel would long ago have been wiped from the face of the earth, but Israel is God’s nation and He has chastened her for 2,000 years in His sovereign will and will yet convert her as He has so solemnly promised. “Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever” (Jeremiah 31:35-36).
SOME SECRETS OF BUTTERFLY MIGRATION (Friday Church News Notes, May 25, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Seeing the Non-existent: Evolution’s Myths and Hoaxes, David Cloud, copyright 2011: “Scientists are beginning to learn some of the biological secrets that enable migration. They have found that the butterfly uses a combination of a sun compass, skylight cues, a circadian clock, and magnetic sensing to maintain its direction (‘Brain GPS Illuminated in Migratory Monarch,’ Science Daily, Jan. 27, 2011; ‘Monarch Butterflies Reveal a Novel Way in Which Animals Sense Earth’s Magnetic Field,’ Science Daily, Jan. 27, 2010). Scientists have also learned that the butterfly’s antennae play an essential role in migration (‘Migrating Monarch Butterflies Nose Their Way to Mexico,’ Science Daily, Sept. 24, 2009). Reports such as these sometimes boast that monarch migration is being ‘demystified,’ but this is patent nonsense. First, only the very rudiments of migration are currently known. Further, understanding the biological rudiments of migration does nothing to explain such truly mystifying things as how an incredibly complex mechanism could have evolved or how it could be created through the process of metamorphosis or how an insect could know where it happens to be on earth in a migration journey (e.g., the generations that are hatched in the midst of the migration process) and where it needs to go from there. William Pelletier, Ph.D., observes, ‘Imagine finding a tiny GPS unit that could navigate 3,000 miles with a destination accuracy of ten feet. Would you believe someone who claimed it had developed itself by random changes over millions of years? What if this GPS was found, not on a street, but inside the pinhead-sized brain of a monarch butterfly? Does the place where the unit was found, whether street or butterfly brain, alter the obvious conclusion that such an instrument must have been designed by a master intelligence?’ (William Pelletier, Ph.D., ‘Insect GPS,’ Bible-Science Guy, Jan. 1, 2010).”
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).
HISTORIC SUMMIT BETWEEN U.S. PRESIDENT AND NORTH KOREAN LEADER (Friday Church News Notes, May 25, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - [Trump has cancelled this meeting for now, but the N. Korean situation is something for God’s people to pray about.] Though it could be cancelled at any time, an historic face-to-face meeting between a U.S. President and a North Korean leader is scheduled for June 12 in Singapore. President Trump, whose goal is to curb North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, tweeted, “We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!” (Donald Trump Twitter account, May 10, 2018). Trump also said, “I really think he wants to do something and bring that country into the real world” (“Trump announces June 12 summit,” Chicago Tribune, May 10, 2018). Singapore maintains diplomatic relations with North Korea and hosts a N. Korean embassy. In April, in another first, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the demilitarized zone between the two countries. While Kim’s motives are highly suspect and nothing might come of the negotiations, it could be the beginning of an answer to many prayers for the people of North Korea. “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Timothy 2:1-6).
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL FERVENT IN SUPPORT OF THE HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA (Friday Church News Notes, May 25, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Twenty-three Major League Baseball (MLB) teams are brazenly promoting the homosexual agenda by hosting “LGBT Pride” Nights this season. MLB Vice President Billy Bean, a homosexual former baseball player, said, “I couldn’t be prouder of baseball--we’re really leading the way.” The “LGBT Pride” nights typically feature the unfurling of a rainbow flag, rainbow-themed merchandise, and the promotion of LGBT organizations. “The stadiums, despite the presence of children, also often use the ‘kiss cams’ to project gays kissing onto a large screen” (“23 Major League Baseball Teams to Promote Homosexuality,” cnsnews.com, May 13, 2018). This is another reason why Bible-believing Christians should have nothing to do with the filthy world of pro sports. “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11).
NEW ZEALAND GOES ALL OUT FOR HOMOSEXUAL RIGHTS (Friday Church News Notes, May 25, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Did you know that there is an “intersex flag” and that New Zealand has flown it at its parliament? The intersex flag was created in 2013 by Organisation Intersex International Australia and consists of a purple circle on a yellow background. These are supposed to be “hermaphrodite colors,” as opposed to blue and pink which are traditionally linked to male and female. New Zealand flew the intersex flag, along with the rainbow flag at its parliament building in celebration of the “International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia” (“New Zealand becomes the first country to fly intersex flag at Parliament,” May 18, 2018, www.stuff.co.nz). This is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy and a sign of the lateness of the hour. “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:1-4).
TURKISH LEADERS CALL FOR ISLAMIC NATIONS TO UNITE AGAINST ISRAEL (Friday Church News Notes, May 25, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Turkey’s leaders are urging Islamic nations to unite against Israel over the killing of more than 60 violent Palestinian protestors in Gaza. Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan called for a summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to discuss the matter. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said, “The Islamic world should move as one, with one voice, against this massacre” (“Turkish PM Calls,” National Review, May 16, 2018). Yildirim also said that the United States is “a party to this crime against humanity.” In a speech broadcast on Turkish state television, Erdogan irrationally called Israel’s self-defensive action “genocide.” If it weren’t for God’s protecting hand, Israel would long ago have been wiped from the face of the earth, but Israel is God’s nation and He has chastened her for 2,000 years in His sovereign will and will yet convert her as He has so solemnly promised. “Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever” (Jeremiah 31:35-36).
SOME SECRETS OF BUTTERFLY MIGRATION (Friday Church News Notes, May 25, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Seeing the Non-existent: Evolution’s Myths and Hoaxes, David Cloud, copyright 2011: “Scientists are beginning to learn some of the biological secrets that enable migration. They have found that the butterfly uses a combination of a sun compass, skylight cues, a circadian clock, and magnetic sensing to maintain its direction (‘Brain GPS Illuminated in Migratory Monarch,’ Science Daily, Jan. 27, 2011; ‘Monarch Butterflies Reveal a Novel Way in Which Animals Sense Earth’s Magnetic Field,’ Science Daily, Jan. 27, 2010). Scientists have also learned that the butterfly’s antennae play an essential role in migration (‘Migrating Monarch Butterflies Nose Their Way to Mexico,’ Science Daily, Sept. 24, 2009). Reports such as these sometimes boast that monarch migration is being ‘demystified,’ but this is patent nonsense. First, only the very rudiments of migration are currently known. Further, understanding the biological rudiments of migration does nothing to explain such truly mystifying things as how an incredibly complex mechanism could have evolved or how it could be created through the process of metamorphosis or how an insect could know where it happens to be on earth in a migration journey (e.g., the generations that are hatched in the midst of the migration process) and where it needs to go from there. William Pelletier, Ph.D., observes, ‘Imagine finding a tiny GPS unit that could navigate 3,000 miles with a destination accuracy of ten feet. Would you believe someone who claimed it had developed itself by random changes over millions of years? What if this GPS was found, not on a street, but inside the pinhead-sized brain of a monarch butterfly? Does the place where the unit was found, whether street or butterfly brain, alter the obvious conclusion that such an instrument must have been designed by a master intelligence?’ (William Pelletier, Ph.D., ‘Insect GPS,’ Bible-Science Guy, Jan. 1, 2010).”
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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