December 25, 2009, Volume 10, Issue 52
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.
CANADA PASTOR CLEARED OF “HATE CRIME” AFTER SEVEN YEARS OF HARASSMENT (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - After seven years of harassment by the Human Rights Commission of Alberta, youth pastor Stephen Boissoin has been cleared of hate crimes against homosexuals by a civil judge (“Canadian Pastor Cleared,” Christian.org.uk, Dec. 8, 2009). As we first reported in Friday Church News Notes in September 2005, Boissoin was called before the Human Rights Commission for writing about the immorality and dangers of homosexuality. This appeared in a letter to the editor that was published in the Red Deer Advocate on June 17, 2002. Boissoin rightly lamented that “children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights.” A civil rights complaint was filed by homosexual activist Darren Lund, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary. Though threatened with a large fine, Boissoin said that he would not pay it nor would he apologize for what he wrote, even if he had to go to prison. He has stood by his convictions through the ordeal. In 2008, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal found Boissoin guilty of hate crimes. It banned him from expressing his views on homosexuality “in newspapers, by e-mail, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the Internet,” ordered him to pay $7,000 for “damages for pain and suffering,” and demanded that he apologize to Lund. We are pleased that Justice Earl Wilson has overturned this totalitarian-style ruling, having determined that Boissoin’s letter does not constitute a hate crime. He also said that Lori Andreachuk, the civil rights lawyer that issued the ruling under the auspices of the Human Rights Tribunal, made many errors in her decision and had no power to impose a speech ban on Mr. Boissoin.
JOHN PAUL II CLOSER TO SAINTHOOD (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Pope Benedict XVI has moved his predecessor, John Paul II, closer to sainthood or beatification by signing a decree on his “virtue” (AP, Dec. 19, 2009). The only remaining step is for the Vatican to certify a miracle attributed to his intercession. John Paul II has been on the fast-track for sainthood since soon after his death, when Benedict waived the five-year waiting period for the investigation to begin. Even during his funeral in 2005, there were cries of “Santo Subito (Sainthood Immediately)! A French nun has claimed that she was cured of Parkinson’s disease after praying to the dead pope, and it has been reported that John Paul II could be beatified as early as October 2010 if doctors, bishops, and cardinals sign off on this alleged miracle. Rome’s doctrine of sainthood is one of the countless evidences that it is a false “church.” The term “saint” is used 62 times in the New Testament, and nowhere does it refer to a dead person that has been exalted by the Vatican. A New Testament saint is a believer in Jesus Christ. It describes one who has been set apart into God’s family by the blood of Christ. The Christians at Jerusalem, Rome, Corinth, Achaia, Ephesus, Philippi, and Colosse were called saints (Rom. 15:25-26; 16:15; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1; Eph. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; Col. 1:2). When Jesus returns from heaven, he will come with ten thousands of saints, and that is far more saints than even Rome has created (Jude 14)!
UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY REMOVES REFERENCE TO HOMOSEXUALS IN CIVIL RIGHTS TREATY (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - On December 18, the United Nations General Assembly voted to delete language from a proposed addition to an international treaty on civil rights that would have made specific reference to homosexuals. The addition was Comment 20 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The existing covenant requires that the signatory nations “undertake to guarantee that the rights enunciated in the present Covenant will be exercised without discrimination of any kind as to race, color, sex, language, religion ... or other status.” The proposed addition would have specifically mentioned “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” and would have required the passing of legislation to ensure that these groups are not discriminated against (LifeSiteNews, Dec. 21, 2009). The language was rejected due to efforts by organizations such as the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. The United Nations is a very dangerous institution that is committed to a “new world order” that has no place for the free exercise of the New Testament Christian faith.
CHINA CRUSHES LARGE HOUSE CHURCHES (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Fast-Growing Christian Churches Crushed,” Fox News, Dec. 10, 2009: “Towering eight stories over wheat fields, the Golden Lamp Church [of Linfen] was built to serve nearly 50,000 worshippers in the gritty heart of China's coal country. But that was before September when hundreds of police and hired thugs descended on the mega-church, smashing doors and windows, seizing Bibles and sending dozens of worshippers to hospitals with serious injuries, members and activists say. Today, the church’s co-pastors are in jail. The gates to the church complex in the northern province of Shanxi are locked and a police armored personnel vehicle sits outside. The closure of what may be China’s first mega-church is the most visible sign that the communist government is determined to rein in the rapid spread of Christianity, with a crackdown in recent months that church leaders call the harshest in years. ... House churches have been around for decades, but their growth has accelerated in recent decades, producing larger and larger congregations that are far more conspicuous than the small groups of friends and neighbors that used to worship in private homes, giving the movement its name. Their expansion and growing influence has deeply unsettled China’s rulers, always suspicious of any independent social group that could challenge communist authority. ... At least two other large churches have recently faced similar crackdowns. In Beijing in October, authorities locked parishioners of Shouwang house church out of the space they had rented to worship in. In Shanghai, the Wangbang congregation faced a similar lockout. Both congregations had grown to more than 1,000 members.”
LUTHERAN LEADER SAYS BIBLE NOT SOLE AUTHORITY (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Mark Hanson, president bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said on December 6 that the Bible is not the final word on homosexuality. In a meeting in Chicago he said, “The understanding we have of homosexuality today does not seem to be reflected at all in the context of the biblical writers,” but he thinks that is O.K. because “God is still speaking to us” (Lighthouse Trails Research, Dec. 7, 2009). Thus, according to this Lutheran leader, the Bible is clearly not the sole authority for faith and practice. So much for Martin Luther’s sola scriptura.
FICTIONALIZED BUNYAN (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is by Brian Snider: “The Internet is a good way to share news and information that is not filtered by the mainstream media; however, we often find that Christians can be very gullible in circulating chain emails that are filled with errors. Of all people, Christians ought to make sure that they are dealing in things that are honest and true. There are several websites around that exist for the sole purpose of debunking things that are known to be false. Before we circulate something, we ought to make a reasonable effort to see that it is true. We recently received a supposed transcript of the trial of John Bunyan. No doubt, the author thought he was ‘helping the cause’ by embellishing the transcript to make Bunyan even more of a hero than he already is for many people, but the author makes up whole passages of conversation that, to the best of our research, never took place. This falsified document has found its way onto many websites throughout the Internet. That brief piece of writing could actually replace the truth about Bunyan’s trial and imprisonment, as most people will simply accept what is written there without delving deeper to see if it is true or not. ‘Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things’ (Phil. 4:8).”
ERIC LIDDELL’S GODLY EXAMPLE (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In an age when sports has become a religion, we would do well to consider the godly example of Eric Liddell. The son of Scottish missionaries to China, Liddell became Scotland’s fastest runner. In 1923 he won the 100 meter race at the AAA Championship with 9.7 seconds, a record that stood for 35 years. A committed Christian, Liddell spoke at gospel meetings for the Glasgow Students Evangelical Union during his college years. He qualified for the British track and field team at the 1924 Olympics in Paris, but because the 100 meter race was held on Sunday he refused to participate, even though this was his best distance. It has been said that “most athletes come to the games desiring to be great and do great, Eric Liddle came to the Paris Olympics desiring to be good, and to do good.” In spite of personal pleas from the royal family and criticism in the British press for letting down his country, he stood by his decision and spent that Sunday preaching in a Protestant church in Paris. He entered the 400 meter race, and as he headed to the starting block, a man handed him a piece of paper with a quotation from 1 Samuel 2:30, “... them that honour me I will honour.” He ran with that piece of paper in his hand and won, breaking the world record with a time of 47.6 seconds. In 1925, Liddell returned to China to preach the gospel. In 1943, he was incarcerated in a Japanese prison camp where he died two years later. Liddell said, “We are all missionaries. Wherever we go, we either bring people nearer to Christ, or we repel them from Christ.”
PRECISE BLOOD (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from Creation Moments, http://www.creationmoments.com/radio/transcript.php?t=2446: “While most would agree that our circulatory system is vital to life, many of us don’t fully appreciate the almost miraculous workings of that system. Your heart pumps about one-hundred thousand times every day. That means that your heart pumps the equivalent of 10 tons of blood every day or 80 million gallons in a lifetime. Your circulatory system brings that blood to every cell in your body through a capillary network that is so large that the combined capillaries of only four people, stretched end to end, would reach from the Earth to the moon! But your circulatory system involves quality as well as quantity. The chemistry of your blood is monitored and adjusted to within incredibly fine limits to keep it in precise balance second by second, day by day, year in, year out. For example, the acidity of your blood is adjusted constantly to within one part in a hundred million. Our circulation system cannot be simply ‘good enough’; it has to work perfectly. So if mindless evolution created us, it had to make the whole system perfect the first time. There is no room for millions of years or for a poorer circulation system to be improved by mutations. Here, the facts clearly support Scripture, strongly indicating that we were created in finished form--not developed slowly by trial and error.”
DISCIPLINE OR DISORDERS? (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Training Your Children to Turn out Right, an excellent book by David Sorenson (Northstar Ministries, 1820 W. Morgan St., Duluth, MN 55811, 218-726-0209, www.northstarministries.com, dhs.northstar@charter.net) -- “I make no pretense of being a psychologist. However, I am convinced that much of what is diagnosed by modern child psychologists is just a figment of their professional imagination. It seems that decade by decade and almost year by year new ‘psychological’ disorders are ‘discovered’ in children. ... I am convinced that some of these ‘disorders’ are things that psychologists have invented to describe children who are just lacking in self-discipline. ... My wife, particularly, has worked with children for over 27 years and in my estimation is a master in working with them. ... In later years as the nature of our ministry changed, Pam has continued to work with children. Though the group size she has worked with in more recent years is smaller, parents still come to her and tell her that ‘Johnny’ is hyperactive, or ‘Susie’ has an attention deficit disorder, or little ‘Billy’ is learning disabled. Our experience usually has been that these children have had very little encouragement in self-discipline. ... I have watched Pam work with children who are ‘hyperactive.’ The psychologist’s solution to the problem was to prescribe behavior modification drugs to essentially sedate the children. Their parents would come to Pam and warn her that little Susie had this disorder and that they could not do anything with her. ... Pam would work with these children in junior church or in some other children’s program and would let little Susie know in no uncertain terms that her word was law, and that she was going to obey, period. There was kindness, a positive incentive to cooperate, and a fun atmosphere about the program, but above all she demanded and taught behavioral discipline. And she got it. I have watched many of these children over the years. Even though they were a terror at home and diagnosed as hyperactive at school, they would sit up straight, pay attention, behave, and learn the lesson or story in junior church. ... Pam teaches discipline and she demands it. Yet the children love her. And the Sunday School bus kids, who for the most part come of their own volition, come back week after week” (Training Your Children to Turn Out Right, 1995, pp. 38, 39).
THE COMING RAPTURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT SAINTS (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18).
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.