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.

CHARLES DARWIN’S FRIGHTFUL VISION OF THE FUTURE (Friday Church News Notes, October 30, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Charles Darwin believed that man evolved from the animal kingdom largely by the process of natural selection or survival of the fittest, and he predicted that this struggle would result in the annihilation of less evolved “races” of men. In his 1871 book The Descent of Man, Darwin wrote, “At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes, as Professor Schaaffhausen has remarked, will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian and the gorilla” (chapter vi). Thus, Darwin believed that Negros and Australian aborigines are lower on the evolutionary scale than Caucasians, and these “savage races” will soon be exterminated to make the way for a an evolved man “even” superior to Caucasians. That is racism of the most wretched kind, and this “science,” which was the product of the anti-God skepticism in which Darwin was reared, led directly to Hitler’s murder camps. The word “eugenics” was coined by Darwin’s cousin Francis Galton. It refers to the attempt to improve the human “race” by such means as birth control, abortion, and euthanasia. In his book Hereditary Genius, Galton looked forward to a time “when the population of the earth shall be kept as strictly within the bounds of number and suitability of race, as the sheep on a well-ordered moor.” Charles Darwin’s daughter Henrietta and her husband Robert Litchfield were fervent eugenicists. Charles’ son Leonard was the president of the First International Congress of Eugenics. He bemoaned the fact that “the unfit” are no longer killed off by hunger and disease, but “are cherished with care, thus being able to reproduce their kind.” Another son, George Darwin, called for easy divorce and contraception to encourage the survival of the fittest, predating the sexual revolution of the 1960s. A grandson, Charles Galton Darwin, a major figure in the Manhattan Project, was president of the Eugenics Society from 1953-59. Margaret Sanger, the atheist founder of Planned Parenthood, was a fervent eugenicist. Hitler praised eugenics in Mein Kampf, but as Dr. Benjamin Wiker, in his book The Darwin Myth, rightly observes, “The fundamental problem with Darwinism is not that it leads to Nazism, but that it can lead to anything” (p. 147). Darwinism destroys the basis of any true moral code.

EMERGING CHURCH LEADER SAYS OSAMA BEN LADEN HAS “DIVINE SPARK” (Friday Church News Notes, October 30, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Shane Hipps, Rob Bell’s co-pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan, made the following statement on October 5, 2008, in the first of a series of sermons on the Gospel of John: “Jesus is the ultimate unifier of these various diverse ways of looking at the world. Having a distinct religious identity marked by some boundaries, knowing how you are different from other religions, isn’t a problem. John isn’t trying to get rid of that. He is trying to point beyond it. To lose your religious identity is like losing a sail at sea. The sail is like religion. The wind is the spirit. You need a sail to catch the wind, to harness the wind. But you gotta realize that the sail isn’t the wind. ... Just because we claim Jesus as the center of our religion does not make us one and the same with the wind of God. It just means we have another sail. ... This is what John is doing, and it is extremely innovative, and it’s very unsettling, that he’s inviting us beneath and beyond the things that make distinctions between us. ... That’s why it says it [Logos, the Word] was the light and life of all people. It didn’t say it was the light and life of people who believe in Jesus. This Logos affects everybody, including Osama Ben Laden. As long as he’s got breath, in him is the spark of the divine” (http://trinitymennonite.com/audio/TMC-Sermon-2008-10-05.mp3). NOTE FROM BROTHER CLOUD: Hipps quotes some strange “translation” of John 1:9 or makes up his own, changing the wording from “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” to “it was the light and life of all people.” In truth, Jesus gives light to every man through creation (Rom. 1:20) conscience (Rom. 2:14-15), and Scripture (Mark 16:15), but this does not add up to the gross emergent heresies of there being “a divine spark” in every man or every religion being a “sail” for God’s Spirit. (For more about this see “What Is the Emerging Church?” which is available in a book, an e-book, and a DVD series at the Way of Life Literature web site.)

ST. LOUIS PAYS $80,000 FOR CENSORING CHRISTIANS (Friday Church News Notes, October 30, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from WorldNetDaily, Oct. 23, 2009: “The city of St. Louis has agreed to pay $80,000 for censoring the speech of Christians during a ‘gay’ pride festival on city property, according to the Alliance Defense Fund. The law organization represented the plaintiffs in a case brought over the censorship, and it announced yesterday it had voluntarily sought dismissal of the lawsuit after the city’s offending policy had been struck down and the city agreed to pay damages and costs of the case. ‘Christian groups shouldn’t be banned from public areas for expressing their beliefs,’ said Rick Nelson of the American Liberties Institute, who served as lead counsel in the case and is allied with the ADF. ‘We are pleased that the city of St. Louis now recognizes the First Amendment rights of ministries who wish to share their viewpoint on important social and moral issues at events taking place at public locations,’ he said. The city policy had been used to prohibit members of a Christian ministry from distributing literature and speaking about their religious viewpoint at an annual ‘PrideFest’ celebrating homosexual behavior. ... The ADF said the order protects the ministry’s distribution of literature at all public parks, public squares and other public locations in St. Louis, including public sidewalks.”

HOMOSEXUAL TOURISM (Friday Church News Notes, October 30, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - There is a worldwide push to promote homosexual tourism. Even Nepal is gearing up toward this. A report in the Kathmandu Post states, “Almost three years after the Supreme Court established gay rights in Nepal, the country is awaiting to host ‘one of the most extravagant groups of tourists in the world’-- the sexual minorities consisting of lesbians, gays,. bi-sexuals and transgenders (LGBTs)” (“Nepal Eyes Sexual Minorities for Tourism,” Oct. 22, 2009). The country is hosting a “historic international conference” in February to “explore opportunities for gay tourism in Nepal.” The United Nations pushes “gay rights” and tolerance toward moral perversion and wants to see international laws passed forbidding “discrimination.” The world, having traded the holy Creator God for a lie, is rushing pell-mell toward eternal destruction. Jesus likened the last days to the days of Lot when wicked Sodom and Gomorrah were given over to homosexuality (Luke 17:28-30), and the major cities of the world are looking more like Sodom with each passing decade.

CNN LAST PLACE AMONG U.S. CABLE NEWS NETWORKS (Friday Church News Notes, October 30, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - According to newly-released prime time viewing ratings (between 7 and 11 p.m.), CNN came in dead last among cable news networks. CNN averaged 202,000 viewers between the ages of 25 and 54, while Fox News averaged 689,000, MSNBC averaged 250,000, and HLN (formerly Headline News) averaged 221,000. In spite of CNN’s lack of popularity in U.S. homes, it is typically the network playing 24 hours a day on airport consoles and available in hotels in other parts of the world, whereas America’s favorite cable news network, Fox, is rarely seen in these venues. The reason is not difficult to fathom. Fox News is more conservative, somewhat less a voice for big government, and more patriotic than CNN (which is not saying much). That said, Fox News is no friend of the truth, and its objective is more to entertain and make money than it is to provide substantive news.

ROME OPENS DOOR TO “DISAFFECTED ANGLICANS” (Friday Church News Notes, October 30, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Vatican has announced a new program that makes it easier for Anglicans to convert to the Roman Catholic Church. The objective is to entice “traditionalists opposed to women priests, openly gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions” (“Vatican Seeks to Lure Disaffected,” Denver Post, Oct. 20, 2009). The program allows Anglicans to join the Catholic Church while keeping some of their practices, including a married priesthood. They can also convert in groups rather than on an individual basis. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, was informed of the program only hours before its announcement. (So much for ecumenical respect and good will!) Catholic Cardinal William Levada said that 30 to 40 Anglican bishops who are in touch with the Vatican are considering bringing their parishes into the Roman fold. John Hind, bishop of Chichester, said that he would be “happy” to become a Catholic priest (Daily Mail, Oct. 26, 2009). John Broadhurst, bishop of Fulham, said “the Anglican experiment is over,” and Martyn Jarrett, bishop of Beverley warned that the Church of England’s very survival is in question.

AN ATTEMPTED ISLAMIC HONOR KILLING IN AMERICA (Friday Church News Notes, October 30, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - According to police in Peoria, Arizona, Faleh Hassan Almaleki allegedly ran over his daughter on October 20 because she was becoming too “westernized” (“Police: Strict Iraqi Father Ran Daughter Down,” myfoxphoenix.com, Oct. 22, 2009). The twenty-year-old woman, Noor, was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. This appears to be an attempted “honor killing,” which the Human Rights Watch defines as “acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonor upon the family.” These are very common in the Middle East and Turkey. According to the United Nations, 5,000 females are murdered every year (“Murder in the Family,” Fox News, July 26, 2008). The perpetrators usually get off scot free or with a light sentence. Islamic apologists pretend that honor killings are “cultural” rather than a product of Islam, but Jihad Watch reports that in 2003 the Jordanian Parliament voted down ON ISLAMIC GROUNDS a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings, and Al-Jazeera reported that “Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values” (“Muslim Ran Down Daughter,” Jihad Watch, Oct. 22, 2009). Honor killings are on the rise in the United States. The first documented case was in November 1989, when Zein Isa, a Palestinian terrorist living in St. Louis, murdered his 16-year-old daughter, Tina, for having a boyfriend, going to a school dance, and applying to work at Wendy’s restaurant. Her mother held her down while her father plunged a 9-inch knife into her chest 13 times, the mother shouting “Shut up!” in response to the girl’s pleas for help (Ellen Harris, Guarding the Secrets: Palestinian Terrorism and a Father’s Murder of His Too-American Daughter, 1995). In April 2004, Ismail Peltek of Rochester, Minnesota, murdered his wife and fractured the skulls of his daughters because he was “concerned that my family’s honor was taken” (Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, April 24, 2004). In January 2008, when teenage sisters Amina and Sarah Said were shot to death in Irving, Texas, by their father, Yaser Abdel Said, their great aunt Gail Gartrell told reporters, “This was an honor killing” (“Honor Killing in Texas,” Human Events, Jan. 8, 2008). In July 2008, Chaudhry Rashid strangled his daughter to death in Jonesboro, Georgia, “to restore the family’s honor” after she wanted to end her arranged marriage. That same month, in upper state New York, 22-year-old Waheed Mohammad attempted to murder his sister for wearing western clothing. He explained the stabbing by saying that she was “a bad Muslim girl” (“An American Honor Killing,” New York Post, July 23, 2008). In February 2009, Muzzammil Hassan beheaded his wife, Aasiya, in upstate New York after she filed for divorce. Phyllis Chesler, author of “Are Honor Killings Simply Domestic Violence,” said, “The fierce and gruesome nature of this murder signals it’s an honor killing” (“Beheading Appears to Be Honor Killing, Experts Say,” Fox News, Feb. 17, 2009). Recently a judge in Florida ordered 17-year-old Fathima Rifga Bary to be returned to Ohio in spite of her statement that her father has threatened to kill her because she converted to Christianity.

UNITED KINGDOM: RELIGIOUS LIBERTY FADING FAST (Friday Church News Notes, October 30, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from AssistNews.net, Oct. 21, 2009: “All Nations Church in Kennington, South London, was recently ordered not to use its sound system for its sermons or music so as to avoid offending its (Muslim) neighbours. A Christian office worker from South London, Denise Haye (25), was recently sacked for expressing her disapproval of homosexuality. A Christian nurse from Exeter, Shirley Chaplin (54), was recently threatened with disciplinary action after she refused to remove the cross from her necklace that she had worn without a complaint throughout 30 years of nursing. A Deputy Registrar with Islington Borough Council, Theresa Davies (59), was demoted because she refused to preside over same-sex civil partnership ceremonies. A Christian nurse with 40 years' experience, Anand Rao (71), was sacked after he suggested to a training seminar that distressed palliative care patients could try going to church. A Christian community nurse and professional foster mother (with 80 children's-worth of experience) was recently struck off the register for failing to prevent a 16-year-old Muslim girl converting to Christianity. A Christian homelessness prevention officer with 18 years' experience, Duke Amachree (53), was sacked by Wandsworth Council for sharing his faith with a client who had lost hope. Revd Noble Samuel of Heston United Reformed Church, West London, who debates Muslims on his TV Gospel program, was hijacked in his car by three Urdu-speaking assailants who grabbed him by the hair, ripped off his cross and threatened to break his legs if he continued broadcasting. These cases (all in 2009) are just the tip of the iceberg. If the Equality Bill that is now making its way through parliament passes (as expected), then persecution will increase dramatically. While Christians are being silenced, Islamisation is advancing, with Islamic fundamentalists appeased at every turn by short-sighted politicians who lack political courage and hanker after political gain.”

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.

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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.

FRANKLIN GRAHAM PREACHES IN THREE-SELF COMMUNIST CHURCH (Friday Church News Notes, October 23, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Following in his father’s footsteps, Franklin Graham recently preached in a registered Three-Self communist church in China. The church, Bethel Church of Baoding, is the second largest church in China. This was Franklin’s second occasion to preach in Three-Self churches. It is illegal in China for churches to exist unless they register with the government and come under government restrictions which forbid them to do such things as have Sunday Schools or preach the gospel outside of times and venues approved by the communist government. Those who have refused to submit to these restrictions and have sought to obey God more than man have been harshly persecuted. Even today many unregistered preachers are in jail for their faith, as we have often reported in the Friday Church News Notes. The Three-Self Patriotic Movement and the China Christian Council were founded by the brutal Mao Tse Tung as a tool to control the churches. To preach in a deeply compromised communist-registered church is a sellout to the Lord Jesus Christ, the sole Head of the Church. The Grahams will give account to God for their great compromise of His Word and for their mocking of biblical fundamentalists who simply want to take the Bible seriously. They have gone the way of bigness and worldly popularity, but Jesus said, “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). (We have written many articles about the Three-Self movement and its former head K.H. Ting, a theological modernist and a master of Chinese communist propaganda. These can be found in the Fundamental Baptist Digital Library, which goes on sale in the next couple of weeks.)

ELIZABETH CLARE PROPHET, NEW AGE CULT LEADER, DIES (Friday Church News Notes, October 23, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Elizabeth Clare Prophet, New Age cult leader, died at age 70 on October 15 in Bozeman, Montana. She founded the Church Universal and Triumphant in the 1970s. First located in the Pasadena, California, which is a haven for cults, it was relocated in 1981 to a 12,000 acre ranch in Montana. Prophet grew up in a “Christian Science environment” and attended many churches before deciding that she had found the truth “within the self.” In 1963 she married Mark Prophet, the head of a cult called Summit Lighthouse. Prophet taught a message of “spirituality” that was syncretized from various religions. In the 1980s Elizabeth Prophet predicted that the Soviet Union would attack the United States with nuclear bombs. As a result the Church Universal’s ranch was inundated with followers seeking refuge. They stockpiled weapons and supplies and built a massive bomb shelter. It was all for naught, as she was proven to be a false prophet. One of her books, “The Lost Years of Jesus,” taught the myth that Jesus learned wisdom from eastern sages in a 17-year journey to India, Nepal, and Tibet. Prophet claimed to have received her teaching from “Ascended Masters.” She taught soul evolution and reincarnation, claiming that after many lifetimes of working out one’s karma through good works and sacrifice and such, the soul could rejoin God in an event called the “ascension.” Those who reached this level are the Ascended Masters, and these include the Hindu gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, as well as Jesus, Mary, and Buddha. In our book The New Age Tower of Babel (and in a new 3-DVD video presentation by the same title) we document how that New Age philosophy is spreading rapidly, even in churches.

U.S. PUBLIC SCHOOL SEX EDUCATION AT WORK (Friday Church News Notes, October 23, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Humanists who control the public school in America have been pushing sex education at the youngest ages as a tool for social engineering. Not surprisingly, the fruit has been an explosion of immorality. It was recently reported that 115 young women t Robeson High School in Chicago are either expecting or already have had children (“Officials Say a Mix of Factors Are to Blame,” CBS2 Chicago, Oct. 15, 2009). That is one out of every seven girls! The pictures of the teen moms would fill roughly six pages of the high school year book. Of course, this does not count the young women who have ended pregnancies through abortion. What is the problem? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to identify the chief culprits. Fir, there is the rejection of the Bible as God’s Word, and the replacement of absolute truth with relativistic Humanism. Principal Gerald Morrow takes an entirely non-judgmental approach to the rampant immorality, saying, “We’re not looking at them like ‘Ooh you made a mistake.” The moral relativism that has been the mainstay of U.S. public school philosophy for over half a century has predictably resulted in a generation that lives as it pleases. Other major factors in the breakdown of morality in the public school system are sex education; the pop culture, particularly its filthy music; the welfare system with its destruction of the family unit; absentee fathers; and the abortion mentality that treats unborn children as mere “things” that can be tossed into the waste.

CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATIONS FALSELY LABELED “HATE” GROUPS (Friday Church News Notes, October 23, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from MissionAmerica.com, Oct. 13, 2009: “The Southern Poverty Law Center is based in Montgomery, Alabama, and originally was a watchdog for racist groups, and I certainly appreciate this focus. But the group also has a long history of radical left-wing activism, including more recently, becoming defenders of ‘tolerance.’ By their priorities, though, we are to tolerate every religion except Christianity. There is to be no criticism of law-breaking and financially-draining illegal immigrants, because that’s ‘racism.’ And homosexuality and transgenderism are to be considered worthy lifestyles. Those who oppose homosexuality in the public arena are now automatically suspect. ... The SPLC identifies groups they deem as ‘hate’ groups. They regularly publish hate group lists, and this wouldn’t matter if they were just another goofball leftie group out there. But some law enforcement agencies use this group’s information for their own ‘watch’ lists, and the SPLC even conducts some ‘hate crimes’ training. Along with the neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan groups, they have recently begun adding others they call ‘anti-gay.’ And that’s where these pro-family groups come in. Traditional Values Coalition based in California ... Illinois Family Institute, a Christian public policy group in the Chicago area ... the Family Research Institute in Colorado ... Mass Resistance and Abiding Truth Ministries, both based in Massachusetts, made the list last year. ... Once again, certain rabid folks on the left are trying to intimidate anyone who dares to stand up against abortion and against the promotion of homosexuality.”

MICHAEL W. SMITH TOURS WITH REBELLIOUS ROCK BAND (Friday Church News Notes, October 23, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Michael W. Smith, one of the biggest names in Contemporary Christian Music, is scheduled to tour with the filthy rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd at the Freedom Concerts in 2010. Though the cause is noble (aid for families of fallen soldiers), Smith is again modeling rebellion to God’s Word, which says, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17). Six members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, which features “cocky, boisterous hard rock,” have died young. Ronnie Van Zant (28), Steve Gaines (27), and Cassie Gaines (26), died in 1977 in a fiery plane crash. Guitarist Allen Collins, died in 1990 at age 37 of respiratory failure. He had wrecked his car in 1986, killing his girlfriend and leaving himself paralyzed from the waist down. Leon Wilkeson, bassist, died in July 2001 at age 49 in a motel room in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, of unknown cause. He suffered from chronic liver and lung disease, but his death has been labeled a murder by some of his friends. Billy Powell, keyboardist, died in January 2009 at age 56 of an apparent heart attack. The band’s rebellious philosophy is inherent in its very name, which was devised in mockery of a former gym teacher, Leonard Skinner, who harassed the band members about their long hair.

CLIMATE CHANGE HYSTERIA IS DESTROYING PROPERTY RIGHTS OF AUSTRALIANS (Friday Church News Notes, October 23, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from Missionary David Bennett’s mailing list : “In seeking protection of their god, planet Earth, ‘the Australian Government has just introduced legislation that will encourage 34 million hectares of farm land to become carbon sinks under an Emissions Trading Scheme - Carbon ‘Pollution’ Reduction Scheme (ETS/CPRS)’ (ClimateScpetics.com). This legislation ‘is using tax policy in association with a CPRS/ETS to force landholders land to lose value, and therefore stop producing the various food and fibre products it currently does’ and it is all ‘based on a false belief that CO2 causes climate change,’ but what else is new?”

THE FRUIT OF ROCK MUSIC (Friday Church News Notes, October 23, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following illustration is from the sermon “The Quiet Judgment of God” by R. B. Ouellette (The Preacher’s Page, October 1997, First Baptist Church, Bridgeport, MI. 517-777-0210). “I had preached at a Christian camp. A young lady who was working there as a counselor asked to speak to me. She told me a very sad tale of how after graduating from a Christian high school, she began to date a young man several years older than her and lost her purity to him. Though she was not aware of it, she was pregnant when she went off to Bible college and had to come home. She told me of her grief, her sorrow and then said, "It all started in the sixth grade when I began listening to rock and roll music." Listening to that first rock song did not make her lose her purity. Listening to that first rock song did not make her completely backslidden and out of fellowship with God. But listening to that first rock song led her to listen to other songs, to harden her heart against the instruction of her parents, the preaching of her pastor and the conviction of the Spirit of God.” CONCLUDING NOTE FROM BROTHER CLOUD: Friends, there is less and less plain preaching against rock music in fundamental Baptist churches with each passing decade, and the fruit can be seen in the worldly attitudes of the young people. Preachers must preach against rock music because it is spiritually destructive. Too many pastors have swallowed the contemporary lie that it is not their business to preach against certain kinds of music because music is neutral, but music is not neutral. One reason, perhaps, there is so much pulpit silence about rock music is that many pastors are listening to rock music in their own daily lives through talk radio (e.g., Rush Limbaugh) and sports channels. In fact, I have discovered that many fundamental Baptist pastors and deacons are listening to Contemporary Christian Music in their personal lives and homes even though they maintain traditional music in their services. Is that not hypocrisy? Carnal music feeds carnality and robs us of spiritual power and blessing. God’s Word warns that “evil communications corrupt good manners” and whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap; for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.”

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.

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.

U.S. PRESIDENT PROMISES HOMOSEXUALS THE MOON AND EXPRESSES COMPLETE DISDAIN TOWARD SUPPORTERS OF TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE (Friday Church News Notes, October 16, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Obama: Homosexual Relationships ‘Just as Real and Admirable’ as Heterosexual Marriage,” CNSNews, Oct. 13, 2009: “President Obama delivered an unprecedented message to the Human Rights Campaign Saturday night. Sounding more like a homosexual activist than a sitting president, Obama went well beyond his expected message of ‘I’m here with you’ on the homosexual agenda. ‘My expectation is that when you look back on these years, you will see a time in which we put a stop to discrimination against gays and lesbians--whether in the office or on the battlefield,’ Obama told an estimated audience of 3,000. ‘You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman.’ Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese said, ‘This was a historic night when we felt the full embrace and commitment of the President of the United States.’ Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, told CNSNews.com. ‘I think this is the ultimate Obama audacity play--for him, just declaring it seems to make it so. ... he also mentioned his support for a laundry list of homosexual activist issues, including bringing an end to the military’s ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy on homosexuals serving in the military and overturning the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as being between one man and one woman. ... [T]he president also characterized those who oppose the homosexual agenda in terminology reminiscent of last year’s presidential campaign, when then-candidate Obama, campaigning in Pennsylvania, referred to ‘bitter’ residents of small-town America who ‘cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.’ Obama told Saturday’s event that there are still people ‘who hold fast to outworn arguments and old attitudes; who fail to see your families like their families; who would deny you the rights most Americans take for granted.’”

HOMOSEXUAL HATE CRIMES LEGISLATION POISED TO BECOME LAW (Friday Church News Notes, October 16, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from LifeSiteNews.com, Oct. 13, 2009: “In what appears to mark the end of a years-long battle over homosexual hate crime legislation in America, the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday passed a law authorizing the federal government to intervene in violent crimes that appear motivated by hatred of homosexuals. The hate crimes language passed in a 281-146 vote as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill, with 15 Democrats and 131 Republicans voting against the must-pass bill in apparent protest against the hate crime language. The expanded hate crime legislation would extend special protection to victims of crime based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. The measure is now poised to become law after final approval by the Senate. President Obama, as an avowed supporter of the homosexual lobby, is expected to sign the measure. ... Commenting on Thursday, Family Research President Tony Perkins said that the law ‘sets us on a slippery slope toward serious infringements of the freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Hate crime legislation will lay the legal foundation and framework for investigating, prosecuting and persecuting pastors, business owners, and anyone else whose actions reflect their faith.’”

EVOLUTIONISTS RE-EVALUATING NUMBER OF DINOSAURS (Friday Church News Notes, October 16, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - National Geographic is reporting that as many as a third of alleged dinosaur species might never have existed. The report is based on new findings that juvenile dinosaurs have mistakenly been labeled as separate species from their parents because paleontologists didn’t understand how different they looked in the juvenile stage. National Geographic says, “... young dinosaurs didn’t look like Mini-Me versions of their parents, according to new analyses by paleontologists Mark Goodwin, University of California, Berkeley, and Jack Horner, of Montana State University. Instead, like birds and some other living animals, the juveniles went through dramatic physical changes during adulthood. This means many fossils of young dinosaurs, including T. rex relatives, have been misidentified as unique species, the researchers argue. ... The lean and graceful Nanotyrannus is one strong example. Thought to be a smaller relative of T. rex, the supposed species is now considered by many experts to be based on a misidentified fossil of a juvenile T. rex” (“A Third of Dinosaur Species Never Existed?” National Geographic News, Oct. 9, 2009). This report shows how terribly fallible the evolutionist fossil investigators are. It also lessens the number of animals that would have been on Noah’s Ark. Noah did not have to carry every sub-species, such as every kind of dog, into the Ark. He only had to carry a representative of each kind. The average size of the dinosaurs, based on the fossil record, was the size of a sheep or small pony (M. Crichton, The Lost World, p. 122). Struthiomimus, for example, was the size of an ostrich, and Compsognathus was the size of a chicken. Thus, only some so-called dinosaurs were overly large, and of these, Noah could have taken the eggs or juveniles. Since reptiles can grow as long as they live, the large dinosaurs were probably very old ones (The New Answers Book). Even the largest dinosaurs were small when first hatched. “There were probably fewer than 50 distinct groups or kinds of dinosaurs that had to be on the Ark” (Ken Ham, The New Answers Book, p. 168).

THE CALORIE NAZIS (Friday Church News Notes, October 16, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The elitist humanistic social engineers are gearing up to oversee your calorie intake, and they are starting with a restriction on convenience stores. They have proposed new regulations restricting the building of convenience stores in South Los Angeles, in order to keep poor kids away from snack foods. Lark Galloway-Gilliam, executive director of Community Health Councils, says there should be “a moratorium” on such stores (“Obesity Concerns Spur Calls to Limit New Convenience Stores,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 12, 2009). Last year, the Los Angeles City Council established a moratorium on new openings of fast-food restaurants. The food Nazis won’t be content until the government legislates the caloric intact of every citizen. When that comes, there will be a flourishing black market in double cheeseburgers, deep-fried chicken, and Twinkles. Yum!

10 BRIEF FACTS ON THE ISRAELI CONFLICT (Friday Church News Notes, October 16, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is adapted from a list that was sent to us recently. 1. Israel became a nation in 1312 BC, two thousand years before the rise of Islam. 2. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BC, the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years. 3. Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital for over three centuries, but it has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. 4. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Jewish Holy Scriptures, but it is not mentioned once in the Koran. 5. Jews pray facing Jerusalem; Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem. 6. Arab refugees were intentionally not integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been integrated into their own people’s lands. 7. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms. 8. The Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won. 9. The PLO’s Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. 10. Of the 690 United Nations General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel, but the UN was silent while the Jordanians destroyed 58 Jerusalem synagogues, systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, and enforced an apartheid-like a policy of preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

CHILD TRAINING MUST BE A HIGH PRIORITY (Friday Church News Notes, October 16, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - One thing that is consistent with parents who have had the joy of seeing their children serve Christ is that they have made this a high priority. It is not something that just happens by taking kids to church. In his excellent new book Rearing Spiritual Children, Pastor Terry Coomer testifies: “We had not been saved very long and were in the first few months of Bible College. I was not impressed with the children that were being reared around me at college. Also, I was not impressed with many of the pastor’s children I saw and with those who were preparing to serve God as pastors and the children they were rearing. I shared this with my wife and we prayed and asked God for help in this matter. We sat down together and read every verse in the Bible that talked about rearing children, our responsibility in rearing our children, and any verse that was remotely connected. We prayed and meditated over the verses and asked that God would make them real in our lives. We started the plan when Teresa was a baby and we made this a goal in our lives. God was gracious to show us many things we needed. We were not spiritually mature Christians when we started to look at these verses; we were just a young couple asking God to help us rear our children for Him. James 4:8 became very real in our lives, ‘Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.’ God began to teach us and we applied what the Lord was showing us. I would go in to Teresa’s room every evening while she was asleep as a baby and get down beside the bed and pray for God to help us to be spiritual parents, to do exactly as He commanded, and to not let us fail in this matter” (Rearing Spiritual Children, 2009, p. 46, www.fortheloveofthefamily.com). Observe that this couple did not accept the status quo. They wanted something different for their home and for their children than what they were seeing around them even at a fundamental Baptist Bible College. They made godly child training a high priority, and studied God’s Word and trusted Him to lead them in this matter. The proper goal, of course, is to produce young people who know Christ personally and who seek His perfect will, whatever that turns out to be for their individual lives.

THE MYSTICAL POWER OF ROCK & ROLL (Friday Church News Notes, October 16, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Rock & roll is not just music. It is a philosophy. It is a way of life. It is a religion. It is a mystical power that captures hearts and souls. It is the background music of end-time apostasy. The book Rock Facts, published by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, says that “rock and roll refers to an attitude, a feeling, a style, a way of life…” (Rock Facts, 1996, p. 7). I was reminded of this from an article entitled “Eight Commonly Misinterpreted Songs” by Vicki Santillano. The author gives examples of how listeners often misinterpret the message of pop songs, being so influenced by the powerful rhythm, the emotional impact, and the social context that they ignore the actual meaning of the words and in fact give the songs a meaning in their hearts that is the opposite of what the authors intended. She says, “Because many of us use music as an outlet for our deepest feelings, we are often shocked when the meanings that we have given to certain songs prove false. ... For example, the song “Born in the U.S.A.” by Bruce Springsteen has often been used in patriotic contexts, but in reality it was a protest against the Vietnam War. The Police’s song “Every Breath You Take” and the Dave Matthews Band’s “Crash into Me” aren’t about romance; they’re about stalkers and peeping toms. Santillano says that pop music is “an outlet for our deepest feelings.” As B.J. Thomas sang in 1969, rock music is about being “hooked on a feeling.” To live by one’s feelings rather than objective truth is the heart of mysticism. It is also a recipe for spiritual deception and destruction. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

THE DAY OF THE LORD (Friday Church News Notes, October 16, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless” (2 Peter 3:10-14).

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.

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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.

NEW APE-MAN ANNOUNCED (Friday Church News Notes, October 9, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Evolutionary paleoanthropologists have announced the discovery of a new ape-man they are calling Ardipithecus ramidus. Supposedly 4.4 million years old, the first fossils of this creature were found 15 years ago in Ethiopia. A partial skeleton dubbed “Ardi” has been presented to the public by its founders, which include Tim White, who was also involved in the “Lucy” discovery. Ardi has an ape head, ape arms, ape hands, ape legs and feet, and is no compelling reason to say it is anything other than an extinct ape other than the extreme evolutionary bias of modern paleoanthropologists. Having rejected the God of the Bible, they have been searching for the missing link for 150 years. This is in spite of the fact that evolutionary ape-men have repeatedly turned out to be either hoaxes or cases of mistaken identity (e.g., Neanderthal man, Java man, Piltdown man, Peking man, Nebraska man). As was the case with previous ape-men, Ardi has her own drawings. She is depicted as an upright creature that has an ape’s head and feet, but otherwise looking like a hairy woman. This is purely mythical. Ardi doubtless looked nothing like a human being. Its founders claim that she walked upright, but, as is the case with Lucy, this is disputed even by other evolutionary scientists. Ian Tattersall, curator of the American Museum of Natural History, admitted to National Public Radio that “some people are even suggesting there’s not much evidence of bipedality at all” (“Researchers Unearth A Hominid More Ancient Than Lucy,” NPR, Science Friday, Oct. 2, 2009). I have observed rhesus macaque monkeys in Kathmandu, Nepal, walking upright for considerable distances, but they are neither “bipedal” nor “missing links.” Seven years ago, Science magazine reported that “skeptics argue that the published fossils [of Ardi] are so chimplike that they may represent the long-lost ancestor of the chimp, not human, lineage” (Ann Gibbons, “In Search of the First Hominids,” Science, February 15, 2002). Time magazine reported that “looking at the evidence, different paleoanthropologists may have different interpretations of how Ardi moved or what she reveals about the last common ancestor of humans and chimps” (Michael Lemonick and Andrea Dorfman, “Excavating Ardi: A New Piece for the Puzzle of Human Evolution,” Time, Oct. 1, 2009). It is important to understand that the pelvis of Ardi was “found crushed nearly to smithereens and needed extensive digital reconstruction” (Time, Oct. 1, 2009). We are reminded of the daring reconstruction of Lucy’s pelvis in such a fashion that it now wondrously fits its founder’s hypothesis that it was bipedal.

QUEEN OF ENGLAND HAS AFFINITY WITH THE POPE (Friday Church News Notes, October 9, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Queen ‘Appalled’ at Church of England Moves,” London Telegraph, Oct. 3, 2009: “When Pope Benedict visits this country next year, he is expected to stay at Buckingham Palace as a guest of the Queen. The warmth of her welcome will come as no surprise to the Pontiff, if senior sources at the Vatican are to be believed. According to informants quoted in The Catholic Herald, the Queen has ‘grown increasingly sympathetic’ to the Catholic Church over the years while being ‘appalled’, along with the Prince of Wales, at developments in the Church of England. The usually well-informed newspaper adds that the Queen, who is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, ‘also said to have an affinity with the Holy Father, who is of her generation.’” CONCLUDING NOTE: The Anglican Church broke away from the Pope in the 16th century under King Henry VIII, but it has always retained many aspects of Romanism and over the past century has been permeated with theological liberalism. In 1982, Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury, said he was an agnostic as to why Jesus suffered on the cross (Sunday Times Weekly Review, London, April 11, 1982). (Billy Graham was one of the honored guests at Runcie’s ordination in 1980 and spoke highly of the heretical archbishop during his evangelistic crusades in England in 1984 and 1989.)

IRREDUCIBLE COMPLEXITY EVERYWHERE (Friday Church News Notes, October 9, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The concept of “irreducible complexity” (IC) as an argument for “intelligent design” was invented by Dr. Michael Behe. In the book The Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution, he defined IC as “a single system which is composed of several interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, and where the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning.” Among other things, Behe uses the example of the flagellum, a microscopic molecular motor with its own proton power supply, drive shaft, propeller, etc., which can operate at 17,000 rpm and can reverse directions. The fact is that life is filled with irreducible complexity. The Nobel Prize for Medicine this year went to scientists who discovered telomerase, which protects the tips of DNA units. Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, one of the Nobel Prize recipients, said, “Without telomerase we wouldn’t be here--it’s vital to life” (The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 6, 2009, p. 14). Everything about DNA is irreducibly complex, and the phenomenon of interconnectivity and symbiosis is evident throughout creation. The list is endless, from the self-replicating cell to the clock-like movement of the solar system. There are the countless interrelated things that make life on earth possible: water, atmosphere, the earth’s distance from the sun, gravity, the hydrological cycle, the carbon cycle, etc. All of these things work together in a mega example of irreducible complexity, and all of them point to an Almighty Creator. The Bible says, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). The reason why the some cannot “clearly see” these things is because of spiritual blindness, and there is not a more frightful condition in human existence.

ITALIAN SCIENTIST RECREATES THE SHROUD OF TURIN (Friday Church News Notes, October 9, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Luigi Garlaschelli of the University of Pavia has reproduced the technique that was probably used to create the Shroud of Turin. The 14-foot-long cloth, which resides in the Roman Catholic cathedral in Turin, Italy, is alleged to be the burial shroud of Jesus. It appears to bear the image of a wounded, long-haired man. The history of the shroud only goes back to the 14th century, and it was condemned even by some Catholic authorities as a fraud. In 1389 Bishop Pierre D’Arcis exposed it as “a clever sleight of hand.” In spite of its shady history many Catholics and even some Protestants consider it authentic, and it is trotted out on special occasions for the “veneration of the faithful.” The Roman Catholic Church has always shown interest in relics such as this shroud, and multitudes have made pagan-like pilgrimages to offer devotion to such things. Rome’s relic business is very lucrative. Radiocarbon tests by three separate laboratories in 1988 dated the shroud to the 13th or 14th century. Garlaschelli reproduced it using materials and techniques that were available in the Middle Ages. The Bible believer knows that the Turin Shroud is not the burial wrapping of Jesus, because John 20:7 says that Jesus’ head was wrapped separately with a cloth called “the napkin.” Further, Jesus did not have long hair. He was a Nazarene, because He grew up in Nazareth, but unlike Samson, Jesus was not a Nazarite (Numbers 6:1-5). His own apostle said that “if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him” (1 Cor. 11:14).

DOES THE BIBLE SAY ANYTHING ABOUT POVERTY AND EQUALITY AMONG MEN? (Friday Church News Notes, October 9, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In answer to this question we would reply, first, that if the Bible’s laws were followed, men would not be poor. The Bible requires that men be honest and not steal from others, that they work hard and not be lazy, that they treat servants and employees justly and kindly, that they love other men as themselves, that the rich use their wealth to help others, that all men give to help those in need, that widows and orphans be treated with kindness and generosity, that judges dispense the law equally without favoritism. If these and other Bible laws were followed, there would be no poor people on the earth. People would work hard and be rewarded with a decent living, and the needy would be well taken care of. If the Bible was obeyed, the poor would not be abused by his fellow man. For example, I recently read about people in a district of Nepal who were dying of dysentery. Instead of having pity on these people and helping them, medical practitioners abused them and charged outlandish prices for treatment, so that some of them had to sell their land and livestock and were left penniless. The government made a show of giving a lot of money to help the sick, but much of the money was confiscated along the way by greedy people. The politicians spent more money flying around on helicopters to have their pictures taken by the media than the amount of money that was given to help the needy. This type of thing would not happen if God’s law was followed, and the world would be a different place. Second, the Bible supports the right to private ownership of property. Two of God’s laws are “thou shalt not steal” (Exodus 20:15), and “thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s” (Exodus 20:17). If it is wrong to covet or steal my neighbor’s money and property, then it is not wrong to own property. The man who owns property is obligated to use it in a godly fashion and not ignore the needs of his fellow man, but the man who does not own property is not allowed to take that which belongs to others just because he is poor. The law of God says that if a poor man steals, he is still guilty of a crime and must be punished (Proverbs 6:30-31). Third, when Jesus returns and establishes His kingdom, His righteous laws will be enforced and there will not be any poor. Thus, if we really care for the poor we will pray with John, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20)!

ROCK AND ROLL RELIGION (Friday Church News Notes, October 9, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In a tribute to Elvis Presley on the 25th anniversary of his death in 1977, rock star Bruce Springsteen said, “Elvis is my religion.” This is an admission of the power of rock music literally to capture the heart and soul. Jimi Hendrix said, “I used to go to Sunday School but the only thing I believe in now is music.” An Elvis fan club publication stated, “We believe in Elvis just like we believe in God.” Ozzy Osbourne said, “Rock and roll is my religion.” One of the members of the rock band Judas Priest said in 1984, “Heavy metal isn’t just music to us; it's a philosophy and a way of life”" Michael Jackson, whose concerts and videos are very immoral, said, “On many an occasion when I am dancing, I have felt touched by something sacred.” Brian Eno said that when he discovered rock and roll, it was “a spiritual experience" and occupied the religious part of his life.” The rock group KISS sang about “the god of rock and roll.” Sting said, “My religion would be music, and I had just received my first sacrament [when he first heard the Beatles at age 11].” The original members of the Grateful Dead, most of whom are dead, said that they looked upon their music as “something like religion.” A Britney Spears' fan said, “I live for Britney Spears my life wouldn't be complete without her.” Beware of the sensual, ungodly world of rock and roll (1 John 2:15-17; James 4:4). (Documentation for these statements is in our 473-page book Rock Music vs. the God of the Bible, available from Way of Life Literature.)

ISRAEL’S HISTORY IN PROPHECY (Friday Church News Notes, October 9, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In an amazing prophecy written about 2,700 years ago, the prophet Hosea summarized the Bible’s prophetic teaching pertaining to Israel. “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” (Hosea 3:4-5). For her rebellion to God’s Word, Israel temple was leveled in 70 A.D. when the Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem, and she was scattered to the ends of the earth. The prophecy says this will last “many days,” during which Israel will not have a temple, a king, or a sacrificing priesthood. But in the latter days she will return to the land and be converted to the Lord. The apostle Paul taught the same thing in Romans 11:25-27. “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.” This refutes Reformed Theology which says the church has replaced Israel and inherited her covenants.

CANADA’S FOSSIL FOREST (Friday Church News Notes, October 9, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from Creation Moments, http://www.creationmoments.com/radio/transcript.php?t=2551: “Axel Heiberg Island in Northern Canada is the closest point of land to the North Pole. The landscape is completely barren today but long ago a dense forest of large meta-sequoia trees grew there. At that time, the climate must have been like Florida today. The stumps of these ‘fossil trees’ have not mineralized and are still wood, that is, cellulose. They are claimed to be 45 million years old. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University studied the hydrogen and oxygen isotopes of the cellulose. These lightweight isotopes are normally quickly lost by evaporation from dead wood but to their surprise the researchers discovered an unusually high content. This means that their rate of evaporation was extremely low. In other words, not only did the trees grow in a humid climate but this climate continued a long time after the trees were destroyed. Further, cellulose is quickly broken down by bacterial action if exposed to air so that the trees were buried rapidly, deeply and a lot more recently than 45 million years ago. A Creation Moments staff member was present when a sample of this wood was used to calibrate the equipment at a well-known Carbon 14 dating laboratory. Believing the wood to be 45 million years old it should contain no Carbon 14 but in fact it did and dated at only 41 thousand years!”

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.

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.

EGYPTIAN COINS WITH JOSEPH’S IMAGE DISCOVERED (Friday Church News Notes, October 2, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Archaeologists Find ‘Joseph-era’ Coins,” Jerusalem Post, Sept. 25, 2009: “Archeologists have discovered ancient Egyptian coins bearing the name and image of the biblical Joseph, Cairo’s Al Ahram newspaper recently reported. Excerpts provided by MEMRI show that the coins were discovered among a multitude of unsorted artifacts stored at the Museum of Egypt. ... ‘A thorough examination revealed that the coins bore the year in which they were minted and their value, or effigies of the pharaohs [who ruled] at the time of their minting. Some of the coins are from the time when Joseph lived in Egypt, and bear his name and portrait,’ said the report.”

11 MILLION IRISH AMERICANS LEAVE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (Friday Church News Notes, October 2, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Holy Mess,” IrishCentral.com, Sept. 25, 2009: “A new survey shows 34 million Americans, or 15 percent of the population, say they have no religion. Even more significant is that one-third of those, about 11 million people, are Irish Americans. The survey by professors at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, does not explain why Irish Catholics are by far the highest number of people who are losing their religion every year in America. ... Why are so many Irish Catholics leaving the faith? The obvious reason to me is the church sex scandals. They disproportionately affected Irish Catholics and most of the abusers we read about were Irish Catholic priests. Certainly, based on evidence from Ireland where hundreds of thousands have fled the church and vocations have plummeted after the church scandals there, America with a similar experience is unlikely to be any different.”

U.S. MUSLIMS ASK FOR PROTECTION (Friday Church News Notes, October 2, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Muslim ‘Apostates,’” Washington Times, Sept. 25, 2009: “Five ex-Muslims who founded a group called Former Muslims United put out a public appeal Thursday to the U.S. government for protection, saying the lives of thousands of ‘apostates from Islam’ are in peril. Speaking at a Capitol Hill press conference, the Granada Hills, Calif., group cited the case of Fathima Rifqa Bary, a 17-year-old from Ohio who converted to Christianity four years ago. She fled to Florida this past summer in fears that her parents would murder her for "honor" reasons. Her father, the girl said in a court filing, had already threatened to kill her. ... Syrian-born Wafa Sultan, one of the five founders of the group, has received death threats, the group said, going on to predict that cases will increase and worsen as a generation of U.S.-native Muslims, born mostly to immigrant parents, reach adulthood. ‘We are going to have a lot more Rifqa Barys in America because the kids are rebelling,’ said Nonie Darwish, the Egyptian-born director of the group. ‘I know families in Los Angeles whose kids are not attending mosque and their parents are threatening them.’ ... Islamic law mandates death for adult male apostates. Female apostates are imprisoned for life or sometimes killed. If one member of a married couple leaves Islam, the marriage is declared void and the apostate loses custody of any children. ... ‘There is a tendency to downplay the dangers of Shariah law and the creeping Islamization of the West,’ said the Pakistani-born author Ibn Warraq, author of the 2003 book ‘Leaving Islam.’ ‘The left tends to be very critical of Christianity but not of Islam,’ he added. ‘Islam gets away with it.’ ... Mrs. Darwish said she had reported personal threats to the FBI but that nothing was done. ‘We in America are scared for our lives,’ she said. ‘No other religion on earth demands the death of those who leave it--except the mafia. And at least you choose to enter the mafia. But you are born into Islam.’”

THE U.S. SUPREME COURT AND EUGENICS (Friday Church News Notes, October 2, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Eugenics Impulse Alive and Well on SCOTUS,” UncommonDescent.com, Sept. 25, 2009: “In the infamous case of Buck v. Bell the court considered a Virginia law authorizing the forced sterilization of mentally challenged people. The state proposed to use the law to sterilize Carrie Buck on the ground that she was feeble minded and thus a genetic threat to society. The court upheld the law, and Ms. Buck was in fact forcibly sterilized, as were tens of thousands of other people across the nation after Buck v. Bell was decided. In his opinion upholding the law [Oliver Wendell] Holmes wrote: ‘It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes.’ Famously, Holmes concluded his argument with the phrase: ‘Three generations of imbeciles are enough.’ Buck v. Bell has NEVER been overturned. It remains the law of the land in the United States of America. To be sure, forced sterilization of the mentally challenged is currently out of fashion among legislators and the last such procedure was performed in 1981. But what if eugenics were to make a legislative comeback, perhaps in response to a crime wave. Would the current United States Supreme Court follow Buck v. Bell? Yes, I am afraid it would if Ruth Bader Ginsburg is to be believed. In a recent interview Ginsburg was asked what she thought of the lack of federal funding for abortions. She replied: ‘... Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.’ Scary stuff that. Does anyone else get a chill down their spine when a high ranking official of their government starts talking about controlling the growth of ‘populations that we don’t want to have too many of’?”

CHRISTIAN COUPLE IN ENGLAND ARRESTED FOR DEFENDING THEIR FAITH TO MUSLIMS (Friday Church News Notes, October 2, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Christian Hotel Owners Hauled Before Court,” Daily Mail, Sept. 20, 2009: “A Christian couple have been charged with a criminal offence after taking part in what they regarded as a reasonable discussion about religion with guests at their hotel. Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang were arrested after a Muslim woman complained to police that she had been offended by their comments. They have been charged under public order laws with using ‘threatening, abusive or insulting words’ that were ‘religiously aggravated’. The couple, whose trial has been set for December, face a fine of up to £5,000 and a criminal record if they are convicted. Although the facts are disputed, it is thought that during the conversation the couple were challenged over their Christian beliefs. It is understood that they suggested that Mohammed, the founder of Islam, was a warlord and that traditional Muslim dress for women was a form of bondage. They deny, however, that their comments were threatening and argue that they had every right to defend and explain their beliefs. Mrs Vogelenzang, 54, who has run the Bounty House Hotel near Aintree racecourse in Liverpool with her husband Ben, 53, for six years, said: ‘Nothing like this has happened to us before. We are completely shocked.’ She added that the episode had damaged their business and they had been forced to lay off staff and run the nine-bedroom hotel by themselves, leaving them exhausted. ... The use by the police of the Public Order Act to arrest people over offensive comments has dismayed a number of lawyers, who say the legislation was passed to deal with law and order problems in the streets.”
INDEPENDENT BAPTIST ECUMENISM, PART II, ESSENTIAL AND NON-ESSENTIAL DOCTRINE (Friday Church News Notes, October 2, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Last week we warned about the New Evangelical doctrine that permeates the book “Thinking Outside the Box” by Independent Baptist leader Charles Keen. Another of these is the division of truth into essential and non-essential and the idea that unity and world evangelism is more important than “non-essential” doctrinal differences. Consider the following excerpt: “I’m a slow learner, but I finally realized that not all truth is of equal value. Some truths I differ from others and divide over even die for (as least I should). With others, I might be uncomfortable with how they are handled by my brethren, but I can still fellowship with them either personally or in some cases, ecclesiastically. We need to develop some ‘ecumenicalism within the parameters of fundamentalism.’ ... Let’s decide who the enemies of the cross are and divide from them. Then let’s decide who the friends of grace are and tolerate them. We don’t have to unite but we do need unity” (p. 81). While we know that Bible doctrines are not equal in importance (e.g., John 3:16 is more important than 1 Corinthians 11:14-15), every teaching of Scripture has some importance and nowhere are we taught to despise anything God has said, not for the sake of an Independent Baptist unity or world missions or any other reason. Paul taught Timothy to keep the truth “without spot” until Jesus comes (1 Timothy 6:14). That refers to small, seemingly insignificant details. That part of the truth that we should defend is that part that happens to be under attack in the present time, regardless of how supposed “non-essential” it is. Personally, I believe that Romans 12:2 (“be not conformed to this world”) and 1 John 2:15-17 (“love not the world”) are very essential. The same is true for what God’s Word says about music or modest attire or ecclesiology or repentance or preservation or any other thing. Rather than tolerating and unifying with, we should separate from those that are promoting such things as sensual contemporary worship and “Christian” rock, that are throwing away modest dress standards, that are affiliating with the unabashed New Evangelical Southern Baptist Convention (a denomination that is rife with emerging church heresies), and that are promoting the heresy of modern textual criticism and its denial of biblical preservation. An hour in which compromise is running as deep as the Grand Canyon among Independent Baptists, an hour in which many are heading pell-mell toward the Southern Baptist Convention and the emerging church, is not an hour to discredit separation and to call for a “fundamentalist ecumenism.” Not for world missions or for any other reason.

INDEPENDENT BAPTIST ECUMENISM, PART III, RECOMMENDING THE WRONG BOOKS (Friday Church News Notes, October 2, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Returning to a final look at Charles Keen’s book “Thinking Outside the Box,” there are loud warning signs, too, in the Recommended Reading section. This is said to have been “prepared and furnished by David Parker of Milford, Ohio.” The list includes a biography of the neo-orthodox Dietrich Bonhoeffer, three books by the charismatic ecumenist Jim Cymbala, eight books by the Hyper-Calvinist John Piper, two by the radically ecumenical World Vision, six by George Verwer, the radically ecumenical founder of Operation Mobilization, an organization shot through and through with charismatic error, and six books published by InterVarsity Press, which is at the forefront of the emerging church. IVP and Zondervan sponsor the annual National Pastor’s Conferences that push the emerging church agenda. I attended the one this past February in San Diego with press credentials, and it was a breathtaking mishmash of heresy and compromise. I do not know of even one book by InterVarsity Press that I could recommend with a clear conscience. Dr. Keen gives absolutely no warning about these dangerous books. If fundamental Baptists read deeply of New Evangelicals and Ecumenists, they will doubtless imbibe their compromise. In fact, it all comes back to separation! “Be not deceived: evil companions corrupt good morals” (1 Corinthians 15:33). “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them” (Romans 16:17).

THE GOOD CAUSE SYNDROME (Friday Church News Notes, October 2, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from John Ashbrook, Axioms of Separation (Mentor, OH: Here I Stand Books, n.d.): “In 2 Chronicles 18, godless Ahab trapped godly Jehoshaphat with the ‘good cause’ syndrome. The Syrians held the border town of Ramoth-gilead. For the safety of both Israel and Judah, that town needed to be secured. On the basis of that good cause Jehoshaphat joined with Ahab. Jehoshaphat's faith was compromised as he listened to Ahab's false prophets. With a believer's discernment he saw that they were not men of God. A true prophet, Micaiah, was summoned to the scene and spoke the truth; but, by that time, Jehoshaphat was so enmeshed with his compromise that he stood with Ahab instead of Micaiah. Compromise ties your tongue so that you cannot rebuke evil. As Charles Spurgeon said, ‘Complicity with error will take from the best of men the power to enter any successful protest against it.’ God, in His grace, delivered Jehoshaphat. However, when King Jehoshaphat arrived home at Jerusalem, God sent Jehu the prophet to meet him as a reception committee with the words” ‘Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from the Lord’ (2 Chron. 19:2). Jehoshaphat's kingdom was never the same after that. I think he would have denied loving Ahab. He might have said that he could hardly stand him. But, he said ‘Yes,’ when he should have said ‘No.’ ... I read somewhere that ‘evangelism is the soft underbelly of fundamentalism.’ That is true. ... The line which has trapped more pastors into some endeavor of ecumenical evangelism is, ‘Brother, this is for the cause of souls.’ Do not allow any cause, even the cause of souls, to lead you into disobedience to God's command. There is one more practical thing to remember on the ‘good cause’ syndrome. You can be for or against a cause without joining anything. You do not have to join Right to Life to fight abortion. You need not join a society to fight communism or an association to be against pornography. ... Missions, movements, and evangelistic efforts will come to you seeking your support. Some of them will appear to have good policies, but they do not want to declare themselves separatists. Beware! Actively reproving apostasy is a part of biblical separation. If any group will not pay that price it will lead to the assembling of a mixed multitude.”

BLESS THE LORD AND FORGET NOT ALL HIS BENEFITS (Friday Church News Notes, October 2, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Psalms 103:1-5).

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.