Sep 2008
26/09/08 14:11
THE “CORPUS CLOCK” REMINDS OF MAN’S MORTALITY (Friday Church News Notes, September 26, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A clock recently unveiled at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge teaches about the brevity of life and man’s mortality. Built and funded by inventor John Taylor, the clock features a grasshopper that “eats time” and tolls the hours by a coffin loudly banging shut. Taylor told the Associated Press, “I’m in my early 70s. When you’re a young person you think there is plenty of time. The sound was to remind me of my mortality” (“Cambridge’s Fantastical New Corpus Clock,” USA Today, Sept. 19, 2008). That’s a great lesson. It’s too bad that the gospel of Jesus Christ is no longer preached at Cambridge University to prepare men for death. Why remind men of their mortality if they are the mere product of blind evolution? “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:27-28).
EUTHANASIA’S SLIPPERY SLOPE (Friday Church News Notes, September 26, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Euthanasia’s slippery slope was witnessed by a statement made recently by an “ethicist” in Britain. In an interview with Life and Work, the Church of Scotland’s magazine, Baroness Warnock said, “If you’re demented, you’re wasting people’s lives--your family’s lives--and you’re wasting the resources of the National Health Service. I’m absolutely, fully in agreement with the argument that if pain is insufferable, then someone should be given help to die, but I feel there’s a wider argument that if somebody absolutely, desperately wants to die because they’re a burden to their family, or the state, then I think they too should be allowed to die. ... I think that’s the way the future will go, putting it rather brutally, you’d be licensing people to put others down” (“Dementia Patients Should Consider Ending Lives,” USA Today, Sept. 19, 2008). The Bible gives us the responsibility to provide for loved ones, but never are we told that we have the right to kill them! “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Tim. 5:8). It is a proud, foolish, and rebellious society that thinks it has the prerogative of God to end life whenever it wishes. Death is not dignified, and it is not a right; it is a punishment by God upon sinful man. We praise Him, though, that He has not left us to die without hope but He has made a way of salvation through the substitutionary death of His Son Jesus Christ. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). (For more on this see http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/rightdie.htm).
TODDLER IGNORED MOTHER’S WARNING (Friday Church News Notes, September 26, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Ignoring his mother’s warnings, a two-year-old boy removed a gun from his parents’ nightstand and shot himself to death. He had reached for the gun earlier, and his mother had grabbed his hand and told him, “No! Bad, boo, boos.” But as soon as she wasn’t looking, he removed the gun and shot himself in the eye. He was pronounced dead 90 minutes later (“Mother Warned Toddler,” The Hartford Courant, Sept. 19, 2008). There are many lessons in this sad account. One, of course, is the importance of keeping guns out of the reach of children. But another lesson, one that the regular news media will never mention, is the importance of effective child training. The Bible gives clear instructions on this matter, and it says that the training must begin early and must include the rod. Proverbs 13:24 says, “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.” The old English word “betimes” means early. John Gill defined it as “in the morning of his infancy, before vicious habits are contracted, or he is accustomed to sinning, and hardened in it.” A toddler can be taught to obey, but modern psychological child-training philosophies have been very destructive.
CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC’S LOVE FOR THE WORLD (Friday Church News Notes, September 26, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Bible says, “Love not the world,” and, “Be not conformed to the world,” but Contemporary Christian Music blatantly ignores this. Consider DecemberRadio. Their first album in 2006 won a Dove Award for Rock Album of the Year, and Christianity Today named them Best Band of the Year and Best New Artist. They claim to be Christians and talk about God, but the gospel is nowhere given on their web site, and their biographical sketches only mention in a very hurried way “becoming a Christian” or “surrendering to Christ,” with no details whatsoever. Josh “became a Christian” at age seven; Brian, at age eight; Eric, at age six. Not only do they not give a clear testimony of salvation, but they also do not mention the church, though the Bible says that it is the house of God and the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15). They say more about their musical influences than their saving relationship with Christ. They list Led Zeppelin, Herman’s Hermits, Rolling Stones, Black Crowes, Tom Petty, Eric Clapton, Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and other raunchy rock groups. On April 21, 2008, Josh Reedy and Erik Miker of DecemberRadio had an interview with John DeBiase of Jesus Freak Hideout. The following statements demonstrate their love for the world. “One thing that gets us excited as a band as far as making music and playing it live is seeing Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan and all of these guitar greats. What they were doing. What he did with Cream. From them to like Aerosmith, Tom Petty with his ‘Runnin’ Down a Dream’ thing. ... I’m really passionate about that era of music. There’s something special about it. ... The stuff that we all grew up on from our dad’s old record collections like Chicago and Led Zeppelin inspire us. ... [Brian, our guitarist] spends time on the computer just learning all of the licks from Eric Clapton and all these people. He learns all these things and just makes it his own.” After I was saved out of a rock & roll/drug background in 1973 at age 23, God spoke to me from the Scriptures (e.g., Romans 12:2; Ephesians 5:11; James 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17) and instructed me to put away the evil music of my past and to sing a new song, meaning new in character. I renounced the filthy, rebellious world of rock & roll then, and I renounce it today. The apostle John defined the world as “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” A more perfect description of rock & roll has never been written. What is lacking in “Christian rock” is the fear of God. “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4).
RECREATING THE BIG BANG? (Friday Church News Notes, September 26, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Peter Galling, “A Miniature Big Bang or More Hot Air,” Answers in Genesis, Sept. 11, 2008: “Flowing champagne marked the startup this week of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a nearly 17-mile-long (27 km) tube located 300 feet (91 m) beneath the Swiss–French border. The new LHC is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator, designed to (essentially) hurl two beams of magnet-accelerated particles at each other inside a vacuum, with the inevitable, hoped-for result being some incredible collisions. ... A primary quest for the LHC is to create the as-yet unobserved Higgs boson, a theorized particle that would ‘help explain why matter has mass,’ according to CNN. The Higgs boson has even been referred to as the ‘God particle’ because physicists believe it may answer many other lingering ‘big questions’ in physics. ... Also, a common theme in most, if not all, of the news stories describing the LHC is that the experiments there will, e.g., ‘recreate the conditions of less than a millionth of a second after the [b]ig [b]ang, when there was a hot soup of tiny particles called quarks and gluons, to look at how the universe evolved’ (in CNN’s words). The hype surrounding the LHC seems to falsely indicate that whatever happens in the LHC experiments, they will in various ways verify the big bang. However, our guess is that no matter what happens when the beams collide, researchers will use it to justify and/or explain what they believe happened in the moments after the big bang. After all, these scientists have faith that they are recreating big bang conditions; they will likewise have faith that the results mimic the ‘original’ big bang. The problem is that because the big bang was (allegedly) a one-time event--just like creation in Genesis--no amount of ‘repeating it’ nor any scientific experiments could provide evidence for it. Rather, it must be accepted on faith, and then the results interpreted within that framework. In other words, the LHC experiments will no more confirm the big bang than creationists could confirm Genesis 1 by shining a flashlight on a swimming pool on a dark night, saying, ‘Let there be light’ and leaning over the surface of the deep. If the Higgs boson is discovered, there is little doubt it will be held up as partial proof for the big bang model of origins. Yet subatomic particles, and the related physics, can also be explained within a biblical model of origins. Having faith in God’s account of origins (presented in Genesis) means that we, too, will be able to interpret and explain whatever good observational science the physicists conduct at the LHC.”
1925 MOSLEM GUIDE STATED THAT THE TEMPLE MOUNT IS JEWISH (Friday Church News Notes, September 26, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Since the 1990s there has been an Islamic campaign to deny that Israel ever had a temple in Jerusalem. This Temple Denial is intended to delegitimize Israel’s claim to the city. In The Fight for Jerusalem, Dore Gold describes the rapid spread of this propaganda: “Temple Denial spread across the Middle East like wildfire from the editorial pages of al-Jazirah in Saudi Arabia to well-funded international seminars in the United Arab Emirates. ... Temple Denial found fertile ground in the Arab world’s universities, particularly those with a more radical Islamist perspective, where it would affect an entirely new generation.” Gold gives many evidences for the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, including Josephus’ testimony, the Arch of Titus in Rome, and items that have been recovered such as temple plaques and coins. (See http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/temple-denial-vs-archaeology.html). Now there is new evidence. The Jewish Temple Institute recently acquired a copy of a 1925 guidebook published by the Supreme Moslem Council, which states the following: “Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which ‘David built there an altar unto the Lord’” (Arutz Sheva, Sept. 2, 2008). In March 2008, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced that for the first time in the history of archaeological research, remains from Solomon’s Temple have been found close to the Temple Mount (“First Temple Building Remains Found,” Arutz Sheva, March 17, 2008). Excavations done over the past two years have uncovered a “magnificent colonnaded street from the 2nd century” that sits directly on top of the layer from the First Temple period, thus having protected it from plunder in later periods.
IRAN PARLIAMENT PASSES APOSTASY DEATH BILL (Friday Church News Notes, September 26, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from the WEA Religious Liberty News, Sept. 22, 2008: “That apostasy (leaving Islam) is an enormously risky even deadly business in any Muslim country is not news to any apostate or to any serious religious liberty observer. That the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) does not always share this view, however, is news to many. Traditional Sharia Law mandates death for apostates based on the Hadith (saying of Muhammad) ‘Whoever changes his Islamic religion, kill him’ (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Vol. 9:57). ... An international revival of Sunni Wahhabism has been riding on the back of Saudi Arabian oil profits since the late 1970s. ... Now Iran is in the process of legislating to make apostasy and promoting apostasy (including through the Internet) mandatory capital offences in the name of protecting the State’s ‘mental security.’ ... Yet over recent years several Western countries have been returning Iranian Christian asylum seekers, including apostates, to Iran on the basis that the UNHCR claims they will not be persecuted. UNHCR take note: As Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports, ‘The Iranian Parliament voted on Tuesday [9 Sep] in favour of a bill stipulating the death penalty for apostasy. The bill was approved by 196 votes for, seven against, and two abstentions.’ ... The Khaleej Times (Dubai) in July reported the bill states that those convicted of these crimes ‘should be punished as mohareb (enemy of God) and ‘corrupt on the earth.’ The bill also stipulates that the punishment handed out in these cases ‘cannot be commuted, suspended or changed.’ ... On 10 September Compass Direct (CD) reported that two Iranian Christians have now officially been charged with ‘apostasy.’”
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)
19/09/08 14:11
CHURCH OF ENGLAND APOLOGIZES TO DARWIN (Friday Church News Notes, September 19, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - On September 14 the Church of England officially apologized to Charles Darwin for rejecting his theory of evolution. The statement said: “Charles Darwin, 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still” (“Church Makes ‘Ludicrous’ Apology,” The Daily Mail, Sept. 13, 2008). The statement was written by Malcolm Brown, who sits on the Archbishops’ Council, the Church of England’s managing body, headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Rowan Williams). It argues that the theory of evolution is not incompatible with Christian teaching, which is ridiculous. The Bible plainly says that the world was created by God in six days, that the plant and animal life was made to reproduce after its own kind, that man was made in God’s image, that he sinned against God, and that the world was cast into fallen chaos. This fits perfectly with the condition that we see in the world today, as well as the archaeological and geological records. If there was no divine creation, if man is a product of evolution, then Genesis is a myth, the fall is a fable, there is no purpose to life, no afterlife, and no salvation. If the account of Adam is a legend, then Jesus Christ’s apostles were deceived and the gospel they preached was a delusion, because they mentioned Adam seven times in their writings, always describing him as a historical figure.
POPE HONORS ROME’S HERETICAL MARY AT LOURDES (Friday Church News Notes, September 19, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - This month Pope Benedict XVI visited Lourdes to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the alleged appearances of Mary to a 14-year-old girl named Bernadette. He reminded the crowds that Mary revealed herself as the Immaculate Conception, claiming to have been born without sin. This proves that the “Mary” that appeared at Lourdes was a deceiving spirit, because the real Mary of the Bible admitted that she was a sinner who had a Saviour (Luke 1:47). The pope said that people flock to Lourdes because they “can entrust to Mary their most intimate thoughts” (“Pope Celebrates Mass, Tells Lourdes Pilgrims Mary Leads to Christ,” Catholic News Service, Sept. 14, 2008). This is blasphemous, as there is only one who knows man’s innermost thoughts, and that is Almighty God (1 Kings 8:39). While in Lourdes, the pope committed another blasphemy by “kneeling and praying in silent adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.” This is based on the idolatrous doctrine that the consecrated wafer of the mass becomes Jesus Christ and can be worshipped as God. The Second Vatican Council proclaimed, “The faithful should therefore strive to worship Christ our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament” (“The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy,” Instruction on the Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery, Chap. 3, I B, p. 132).
CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC HYPOCRISY (Friday Church News Notes, September 19, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Contemporary Christian Music has a veneer of “godliness,” but it is awfully thin! Consider The Jonas Brothers, a band that has become very popular over the last two years, largely because of exposure on the Disney Channel. They are homeschooled Christians; their father is a pastor; and they portray themselves as wholesome and family-friendly, even wearing “purity rings” that signify the promise to remain morally pure until marriage. But what they do and where they go and what they sing and how they sing it contradicts their profession. By appearing recently on MTV for the Video Music Awards and, I would assume, smiling and bantering with the very people who are destroying the morals of modern society, instead of denouncing their filth and rebellion as per Ephesians 5:11, they are sending a loud message to Christian young people and it isn’t the message of holiness and obedience. Further, their music encourages licentiousness. In a recent interview, Nick Jonas, referring to their rock & roll concerts, said, “the screaming girls are awesome” (Celebrity News, Feb. 22, 2008). Those girls aren’t screaming for the Lord. They are screaming at the way the rock music affects them physically and at the sensuality of watching the young men perform. When I checked the Jonas Brothers’ official web site on September 9, 2008, it was filled with sensual notes from adoring female fans. Consider a couple of examples: “I love you guys; you are my principles; you are the boys of my dreams; the voices I hear every day; the ones I have within my heart.” “joe you’re sooo hotttttttttt ... joe you’re so pretty & sexy. I love you soooooo much.” Even the lyrics of their songs encourage the very relationships between young men and women that lead to immorality. Consider the lyrics to “Live to Party”: “We’re gonna live to party/ gotta bust your move/ Everyone’s in the groove/ Tell the DJ to play my song/ Are you ready to rock & roll/ ... We were out on the floor and we danced the night away/ ... I drove her home and she whispered in my ear/ Party doesn’t have to end, we can dance here...” There is nothing pure and wholesome to songs like this. Parents, if your children listen to Disney pop and CCM they are in great danger of spiritual, doctrinal, and moral apostasy.
FILTHY ROCKERS PERFORM AT CHRISTIAN ROCK CLUBS (Friday Church News Notes, September 19, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Lead singer Joshua Wilkes of The Legendary Shack Shakers exposed himself before a crowd of hundreds of people at the Rocketown center in Nashville in July (“Police: Singer Exposed Self at Christian Club,” Channel 5 News, July 2, 2008). This “Christian” entertainment center has an indoor skatepark, a coffee bar, and three stages. Rocketown representatives considered the act a serious offense, but Wilkes was just being a rock & roller. Shack Shakers’ songs include “All My Life to Kill,” Cussin’ in Tongues,” “Where’s the Devil When You Need Him,” and “Bible Cyst.” Secular rockers live filthy lives and mock biblical morality and truth, so why should it be surprising that they would act in this fashion? Wilkes is just being true to his rock & roll religion. The “Christians” who operate and frequent Rocketown, on the other hand, are walking in disobedience to the religion they claim to revere as found in Scripture. There we are taught to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11), but they think having a good time is more important than obeying some obscure Bible verse. A similar thing happened at a rock & roll theater named Paradox operated by Mars Hills Church in Seattle. At one concert, a Japanese punk band performed naked. The church didn’t approve, but what should you expect from the filthy world of rock & roll? Mars Hill also hosts a secular jazz festival, proving to the really cool Seattlites that they can be really cool, too.
MAJORITY OF ISRAELIES BELIEVE THE JEWISH STATE WILL NOT EXIST IN 20-30 YEARS (Friday Church News Notes, September 19, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - According to polls, a majority of Israelis believe the Jewish State will cease to exist in the next two or three decades (“Will Israel Soon Disappear,” OneNewsNow, Sept. 3, 2008). Humanly speaking, they would be right, but they are viewing the future in unbelief. Israel is back in her land according to Bible prophecy, yet she remains spiritually dead. In Ezekiel 37 the prophet was shown a valley full of bones and instructed to preach to them. First the bones came together and were covered with flesh, “but there was no breath in them” (Ezek. 37:8). The prophet preached again and “the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army” (Ezek. 37:10). The rest of the chapter explains that this refers to the restoration of Israel to her land and the re-establishment of the Davidic kingdom in the end times. The prophecy teaches us that Israel’s restoration occurs in two parts. First, the nation that was scattered to the ends of the earth and seemingly dead and forever cut off comes back together, but in a spiritually dead condition. That is where we are today. Next, God breathes life into them and they live. This will happen in the Great Tribulation when God will convert the remnant of Israel and restore them to the place of blessing. They will repent of their disobedience to God’s Word and receive the Messiah that they had rejected (Zechariah 12-14), and Jesus will establish the kingdom promised to David (Isaiah 9:6-7). Before all of this happens, though, Israel will be deceived by the Antichrist and will believe his lying peace program (1 Thessalonians 5:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12). He will come riding on a white horse as a man of peace, but his “peace” will result in the greatest trouble this world has ever experienced (Revelation 6). Israel will never be destroyed. When God is finished with His chastisement of her, she will sit in glory at the center of the kingdom of God on earth.
CALIFORNIA BANS “BRIDE” AND “GROOM” (Friday Church News Notes, September 19, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - When a couple in Roseville, California, wrote the words “bride” and “groom” next to “Party A” and “Party B” on their marriage license because they wanted to be legally recognized as husband and wife, the county clerk turned them down, saying it “does not comply with California State regulations” (WorldNetDaily, Sept. 8, 2008). Pastor Doug Bird, who conducted the marriage ceremony, said, “What’s next? Will the State of California force [ministers] to use the terms ‘Party A’ and ‘Party B’ in the ceremony itself?” Pacific Justice Institute President Brad Dacus observed that “couples will be forced to wed out of the state if they wish to be officially identified as bride and groom or husband and wife.” A majority of three pompous judges on the California Supreme Court ruled that the definition of marriage as a union between a man and woman is unconstitutional. Obviously, it wasn’t unconstitutional for the first 150 years of the state’s history. God created the institution of marriage between one man and one woman. Judges that rule against it will live to regret the day they put on a judicial robe, for the Bible says that “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
BIBLE DISTRIBUTOR BURNED TO DEATH IN INDIA (Friday Church News Notes, September 19, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In the midst of the violence that was perpetrated recently against Christians in the Indian state of Orissa, a preacher was burned to death. Fifty-year-old Kumuda Bardhan was targeted by Hindu radicals for going village to village preaching the gospel and distributing Bibles. A mob of more than 1,000 set his church and the houses of the Christians on fire. When he pleaded with them to stop, they beat him unconscious and threw him into the fire (“Bible Distributor Killed in India,” Mission Network News, Sept. 12, 2008). Bardhan’s wife, son and daughter-in-law were hospitalized. At least one other professing Christian was burned to death in the recent violence, and in 1999 Baptist missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were burned to death by a Hindu mob in the same Indian state.
CANADIAN DOCTOR WORRIED THAT PALIN’S EXAMPLE WILL LOWER ABORTION RATE (Friday Church News Notes, September 19, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Dr. Andre Lalonde told the Globe and Mail in that Sarah Palin’s decision to keep her Down’s Syndrome baby, “may inadvertently influence other women who may lack the necessary emotional and financial support to do the same” (LifeSiteNews, Sept. 10, 2008). Lalonde, executive vice-president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC), also said, “We offer the woman the choice. We try to be as unbiased as possible. We’re coming down to a moral decision and we all know moral decisions are personal decisions.” In this particular context, that is a truly ridiculous statement. Killing a person is a “personal decision”? If someone wanted to kill Lalonde and his wife and children, would he glibly consider that a personal decision? In Canada and the U.S., between 84 and 91 percent of Down syndrome babies are aborted, whereas in England and Spain it is 94-95 percent. “... ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15).
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)
12/09/08 14:11
ORAL ROBERTS UNIVERSITY TRYING TO SHED ITS SCANDAL-RIDDEN PAST (Friday Church News Notes, September 12, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Earlier this year Hobby Lobby heir Mart Green announced that his family was planning to give $70 million to Oral Roberts University with the stipulation that dramatic changes will be made in its governance and business practices. He said, “ORU must restore its broken trust, its battered reputation, and its beaten spirit” (“Healing ORU,” Christianity Today, September 2008). The latest scandal is the charge that the founder’s son Richard Roberts and his wife Lindsay misappropriated school money and other improprieties. According to a wrongful termination suit filed last year by former ORU professors, the Roberts’ spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund their lavish lifestyle, including a stable of horses for their daughters, a $29,400 trip to Orlando and the Bahamas aboard a university jet for a daughter and her friends, and a $39,000 shopping spree at just one clothing store for Lindsay (“Healing ORU,” Christianity Today, September 2008). The suit also alleges that the Roberts’ home has been remodeled 11 times in the past 14 years, that Lindsay spent nights in the ORU guest house with an underage 16 year old male, and that she frequently had cell phone bills of more than $800 per month, with “hundreds of text messages sent between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. to underage males who had been provided phones at university expense” (“Oral Roberts University Faces the Blue Screen of Death,” http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2007/10/oral-roberts-university-faces-blue.html; “Richard Roberts,” Wikipedia). The professors were fired for trying to expose “the leadership’s moral failings and financial improprieties.” On November 13, 2007, the tenured faculty of ORU approved a vote of no confidence in Richard, and he resigned as president ten days later. (Lindsay is his second wife. He was divorced from his first wife, Patti, in 1979.) Green’s gift stipulated that the current board of regents (which included prosperity Word-Faith preachers Marilyn Hickey, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, and Kenneth Copeland) vote themselves out of office. They were replaced with Pentecostal leaders that have a reputation of higher business integrity and the school has applied for membership with the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. ORU founder Oral Roberts was shameless in his fundraising techniques and pioneered unscriptural methods, such as Seed Faith giving, that are used widely by Word-Faith Pentecostals. He was one of the first to make the false claim that Jesus was not poor. In 1977 Roberts claimed that God had appeared to him and instructed him to build a medical center called the City of Faith. In 1980 he said that he had a “face to face” conversation with a 900-foot-tall Jesus who told him that he was going to solve the City of Faith’s financial problems. Seven years later, Roberts said that God had appeared to him yet again and told him that he would die if he did not raise $8 million within 12 months. The wild-eyed visions and shameless appeals could not save the City of Faith. In 1989 Roberts closed it to pay off debts! Yet the Pentecostal world in general did not decry Roberts as a false prophet and a religious phony. Thousands have continued to flock to ORU from Pentecostal churches across the country, and millions of dollars have continued to flow into Roberts’ ministry from gullible supporters. The root problem with Oral Roberts University is its Pentecostal heresies.
MODERN TEXTUAL CRITICISM’S ROLE IN THE BREAKDOWN OF MORALITY (Friday Church News Notes, September 12, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In our book For Love of the Bible we document the defense of the King James Bible and the opposition to modern textual criticism in the past 200 years. One of the men that defended the KJV in the late nineteenth century was George Sayles Bishop, the pastor of the First Reformed Church of Orange, New Jersey. A brilliant preacher and a mighty defender of the Protestant faith, he fought valiantly against the Higher Criticism that was permeating Christianity in that day. Like John Burgon and many others, Dr. Bishop understood the intimate association between Higher Criticism and Textual Criticism. In a discourse preached on June 7, 1885, “The Principle and Tendency of the Revision Examined,” Bishop issued a devastating charge against the Westcott-Hort critical Greek text and the new English version that was founded thereupon (the English Revised Version). In this address he observed that most Christians do not understand the true character of modern textual criticism and its role in the revision of the English Bible. He warned that textual criticism appeals to scholarly pride. He considered the principles of modern textual criticism to be “twaddle.” He refused to accept the witness the Vaticanus manuscript because of Rome’s utter apostasy. Bishop stated that the objective of the prominent Unitarian and modernistic textual critics was to undermine the divine inspiration of Scripture and to weaken the doctrine of Hell, and he observed that if this objective succeeded, it would result in the complete moral breakdown of society. Events have proven Bishop correct in every point. Consider an excerpt from his sermon: “BECAUSE MY BUSINESS IS TO PREACH AND TO DEFEND THIS BOOK, I CANNOT AND WILL NOT KEEP SILENCE. ‘If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?’ ... The Revised Version of the New Testament is based upon a new, uncalled for, and unsound Greek text ... I have been confirmed in what had before been a growing conviction--that the revision movement, dating from the finding of Tischendorf’s [Sinaiticus], unconsciously to most, but consciously to the Unitarian--to Vance Smith, Robertson Smith, etc.--liberal members of the New Testament Company, was RUNNING STEADILY IN ONE DIRECTION ... TO WEAKEN AND DESTROY THE BINDING FORCE OF INSPIRATION IN THE VERY WORDS ... The Revised Version weakens and removes the deity of Christ in many places. ... It tends toward a general weakening all along the line toward Rome. ... A second tendency of the Revision is to loosen the Revelation of God from the letter, and to cast it floating out upon the winds. ... If Inspiration is not verbal, in the very words, it is nowhere. The third tendency is to remove from men that fear of penalty, which, say what we please, is the kingbolt of the Divine Government over the world. TAKE AWAY THE DOCTRINE OF HELL-FIRE AND THE WORLD WOULD BECOME ONE GREAT SODOM” (George Sayles Bishop, “Sheol: The Principle and Tendency of the Revision Examined,” The Doctrines of Grace and Kindred Themes, 1910, pp. 60-87).
SADDLEBACK CHURCH’S NEWEST BUILDING (Friday Church News Notes, September 12, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Saddleback Church’s newest building is a 50,000 square foot monstrosity called the Refinery. The grand opening featured “a comedy show, a live hip hop performance, a magician, a skateboarding expo, live music, a classic car show, and more” (The Slice of Life, Sept. 6-7, 2008, this is a publication of Saddleback Church). The building has a deli and café (designed to “feel like Starbucks on steroids”), indoor theater, outdoor amphitheater, basketball court, kid’s hangout, space for skateboarding, sand volleyball, you name it. This issue of The Slice also announced a barbeque and line dancing get together for those 60 and over on September 21. Hey, I have an idea. Let’s turn church into a combination circus/party/sporting event, with some shallow preaching and a heavy dose of rock & roll, and see if we can get a crowd! “And be not conformed to this world...” (Romans 12:2).
PIGS GRANTED SHOWER RIGHTS (Friday Church News Notes, September 12, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Though the animal rights movement grows more ridiculous by the year, it is making headway. A new law in Switzerland that governs the treatment of animals, bans catch-and-release fishing, requires that animals not be kept alone but must have at least “a visual contact with their fellows,” and requires pigs to have access to a shower. God says, “Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid” (Isaiah 29:14).
SOUTHERN BAPTIST PASTOR DIDN’T PRAY IN JESUS’ NAME AT REPUBLICAN CONVENTION (Friday Church News Notes, September 12, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Dan Yeary, pastor of North Phoenix Baptist Church, gave the closing prayer at the recent Republic National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, but he did not pray in Jesus’ name (“McCain’s Pastor Says Closing Prayer,” Baptist Press, Sept. 5, 2008). The Bible says there is no access to God except through Jesus Christ, but this Southern Baptist pastor didn’t pray in Jesus’ name. Presidential candidate John McCain, who was raised Episcopalian, has attended North Phoenix Baptist for 15 years, but he is not a member. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).
CHUCK COLSON’S VISION OF THE FUTURE (Friday Church News Notes, September 12, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Chuck Colson is at the forefront of the ecumenical movement. He was one of the movers and shakers of the Evangelicals & Catholics Together document of 1994, which called for common cause between evangelicals and Catholics in social tasks and resisting the forces of secularism. Colson and his fellow ecumenists claim that the Roman Catholic Church agrees with Protestants and Baptists on the “core beliefs.” That simply is not true. One of the most essential of all core beliefs is the gospel, and Rome defines the gospel heretically. The Council of Trent, which is still enforce, hurled curses against those who believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone without works. On October 31, 1998, Colson spoke at a symposium co-sponsored by Calvin Theological Seminary and the Roman Catholic Acton Institute. The title of his lecture was “Building Common Ground in the Christian Church for the Culture of Life.” Following are comments on this meeting by Baptist pastor Peter Van Kleek, who was in attendance: “After thirty years of cultural autonomy and its dismal failure [this refers negatively to Christians who separate from the world], he argued that it is time to identify with Pope John Paul II and his statement that the new millennium will be a ‘springtime of the Christian faith.’ Evangelicals and Catholics together, according to Colson, have a historic opportunity upon the demise of humanism to join ranks and create a driving force for implementing world change. ... In today’s subjective, religious malaise, social action has become so linked with theological compromise that Colson can speak of them as one thing. When social causes and theology become one, when theology cannot be separated from anthropology, the stage is then set for deified man to impose a kingdom, a final solution, diametrically opposed to the true church, Jesus Christ, and his Word. ... With the reunification of Rome and Protestantism, Colson believes the true love of Christ for the world will be seen and the next millennium will be the ‘Christian century.’ ... This new reformation, rather than being soteriological with justification as its focus, will be cosmological with a notion of religious sovereignty, indeed Roman Catholic sovereignty, as its theme” (Van Kleek, “We Have Seen the Future, and We Are Not in It,” The Trinity Review, March 1999). The date of this symposium is significant. October 31 is Reformation Day for Protestants, All Saints Day for Catholics, and Halloween for the world. What Colson is proposing will bring all three together into an end-time Tower of Babel.
END-TIME APOSTASY IS A BIBLE DOCTRINE (Friday Church News Notes, September 12, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - End-time apostasy is a Bible doctrine. New Testament prophecies describe two separate streams of churches operating side by side throughout the church age. First, there will be true churches of Jesus Christ, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail. The Bible tells us that they will be persecuted, hated, despised, yet they will continue to exist until Christ’s return. The Lord Jesus promised His faithful ones, “Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world” (Mt 28:20). Second, there will be apostate churches, which will increase in number and grow worse and worse as the centuries pass. Consider the following Scriptures: Matthew 24:4, 11, 24; Acts 20:29-30; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-8; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 3:1-13; 4:3-4; 2 Peter 2:1-3; Jude 1:3-4; Revelation 17. In light of these prophecies it should not be surprising that the majority of churches today are not committed to the sound teaching of God’s Word. “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).
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)
05/09/08 14:11
CHARISMATIC WORSHIP LEADER WHO LIED ABOUT CANCER SAYS HE IS ADDICTED TO PORN (Friday Church News Notes, September 5, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Michael Guglielmucci, who spent the last two years lying about having terminal cancer, now says that he did it to hide his addiction to pornography. Guglielmucci, a popular contemporary worship leader and a former pastor in the Assemblies of God in Australia, even recorded a song called “The Healer” that became a hit (contemporary music is so worldly that it has top 10 lists) and was featured on Hillsong’s latest album. For two years he allegedly fooled even his wife and parents and closest friends into thinking that he had cancer. He sent e-mails to his wife from phony doctors, shaved his head, walked with a cane, and carried around an oxygen bottle, performing before thousands with an oxygen tube in his nose! He was the worship leader at Edge Church International, which is pastored by his father, Danny, but he didn’t appear before his church to confess his sins. Instead, his father, the pastor, read his son’s “confession,” which didn’t deal with sin and repentance so much as it dealt with “pain” and “sickness.” Instead of being placed under church discipline for fornication according to the command of 1 Corinthians 5:11, Michael is being pampered with psychological counseling. Guglielmucci had a web site and raised a lot of money from donors who believed his lie. One grandmother said that she sent him $800 that she had saved to take her wheelchair-bound grandson on a vacation, thinking that more good would come by giving the money to Guglielmucci. His father said that restitution will be made “if people want their money back,” but why should any of the money be kept since it was obtained fraudulently? Where did the money go? Was it spent on pornography?
ABORTION A “CORE MORAL VALUE” OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY (Friday Church News Notes, September 5, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In her speech to the Democratic Convention in Denver, Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said that abortion is one of the party’s “core moral values” (“Democrats Told Abortion One of Their ‘Core Moral Values,’” AP, Aug. 26, 2008). Actually it is one of the party’s “core IMmoral values”; there is nothing moral about killing unborn children. To call abortion a moral value is to call evil good. The Democratic platform that was ratified on August 25 says: “The Democratic Party STRONGLY and UNEQUIVOCALLY supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay.” The Democratic Party should be called Murder Inc., and how a born again child of God could ever vote for such a wicked outfit is beyond me. I’m not saying that the Republican Party is vastly superior, but at least it does not inanely brag about abortion being one of its “core moral values.” Further, there are choices other than Democrat and Republican. Emerging Church personality Donald Miller, author of the book Blue Like Jazz, put his imprimatur upon this unholy mess by delivering the benediction the same night that Keenan spoke. The emerging church and the Democrats belong together, because neither have a clue about truth and righteousness. “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!” (Isaiah 5:20-23).
VAST HINDU VIOLENCE AGAINST CHRISTIANS IN INDIA (Friday Church News Notes, September 5, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - After a World Hindu Council leader was murdered in India by suspected Maoists on August 23, Hindus falsely blamed the Christians and went on a rampage in Orissa state. At least 13 have been killed, countless others injured, hundreds of church buildings destroyed, and thousands made homeless. At least one person was burned alive. The general secretary of the All Orissa Baptist Churches Federation said, “All Christian villages [are] empty in Kandhamal as Christians, old and young, sick and pregnant mothers [are] hiding in forests exposed to the non-stop monsoon rains without food” (“Hindu Attacks,” Baptist Press, Aug. 28). An Independent Baptist missionary in India wrote on August 27: “The aftermath of Swamiji’s (a local Hindu leader) death by Maoist rebels became a ‘good’ excuse for the VHP (a radical Hindu political party) to attack the local Christians. Today is the fifth day of unrelenting physical attacks by the Hindu militants on Christians. Churches, houses of Christians are burned down. No one knows the extent of the number of deaths. I am told that there is no district that is spared. Families have been separated. Christians from most of the villages from all over Orissa have fled to the forests. The VHP leaders are inciting the Hindus and other tribals not to provide food, water, telephones, SIM cards, and other basic necessities to Christians. Not surprisingly, the media have barely reported these events. Even when they have, they have tried to paint the picture of it being clashes among the different tribals. That it is an organized orchestration by the VHP with the hand-in-glove collusion by the local police and political parties is beyond doubt.”
ROCK & ROLL FAN IN TROUBLE FOR FOLLOWING THE ROCK PHILISOPHY (Friday Church News Notes, September 5, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Rock & roll fan Kevin Cogill was arrested by the FBI on August 27 and charged with copyright violation for streaming some unreleased Guns N’ Roses songs on his web site (“Blogger Arrested Over Leak,” AP, Aug. 28, 2008). Though not stated in the report, it appears that the rock group filed a complaint with authorities; but Cogill was only living up to the rock & roll philosophy, which is do your own thing. On a 1986 album, Guns N’ Roses brashly sang, “I lead a reckless life/ And I don’t need your advice” (“Reckless Life”), encouraging that brash attitude in their listeners, and on a 1988 album they sang, “If you got a hunger for what you see/ You’ll take it eventually” (“Welcome to the Jungle”). Cogill was just leading a reckless life and taking what he wanted. The rock & roll philosophy has caused incalculable moral injury to modern society, and it won’t do for the rock gods to say, “We were just kidding.” One day they are going to stand before a real God that doesn’t consider moral filth and rebellion a joking matter.
CHINESE PASTOR SAYS 2,000 CHRISTIANS ARE IN COMMUNIST PRISONS (Friday Church News Notes, September 5, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A persecuted house church pastor named Yu Jie says there are 2,000 Christians in prison in communist China. Yu is an elder in the Ark Church in Beijing, and though he has been under house arrest since July and his writings are banned in China, he continues to speak out against oppression. In an article published in a Hong Kong magazine he called Mao Zedong an “assassin” (“China House Church Leader,” Baptist Press, Aug. 29, 2008). Mao was probably the most brutal mass murderer in human history. His life is documented in Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday. The London Daily Mail called this “the most powerful, compelling and revealing political biography of modern times” while Time magazine called it “an atom bomb of a book.” For those who want to understand communism and modern history, it is a must read.
BEWARE OF DARK CHRISTIAN FANTASY (Friday Church News Notes, September 5, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Emergent ‘Christian’ Fiction,” Richard & Linda Nathan, FictionPlumbLine.com, Dec. 11, 2007: “In recent years, fiction aimed at Christians has exploded in the marketplace. And popular authors in that marketplace are emphasizing more and more of those disturbing elements that once were relegated to pagan, occult, or secular novels. Since Frank Peretti’s blockbuster novels delivered spiritual warfare to the Christian marketplace, the Left Behind series set millions hungering for apocalyptic literature, and the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis stimulated the appetites of occult fantasy lovers, publishers have been trying to repeat the phenomenally successful sales with a plethora of imitations and wannabes. But some of the biggest changes have come with speculative or ‘edgy’ fiction. ... Saint by Ted Dekker (Thomas Nelson, 2006), and Relentless (2006) and Fearless (2007) by Robin Parrish (Bethany House) are three popular novels promoted by houses considered major publishers for the Christian market.... Yet you won’t find the Gospel or a Christian worldview in [these] books; instead their fictional worlds are drenched with dark fantasy, conflicts of supernatural forces, and the promotion of imagination as a conduit to special powers. ... The main theme of Dekker’s Saint is power--the conflict of supernatural powers and the exaltation of human special powers. This supernatural conflict between good and evil strongly resembles a type of dualism where God and the devil are nearly equal in power and it’s not really clear who's going to be the victor. It is also tangled with an Eastern religious view of tapping into spiritual power to use for one's own purposes through the practices of focusing, meditation, asceticism, and contemplation, similar to the way the martial arts focuses on power. ... This novel is teaching a mythological worldview, not a Christian worldview, and the similarities to pagan myths are enormous. ... Christianity is not about super powers or human abilities. It is about sinners saved by grace and walking humbly with our God, who alone has the power. ... Along with the promotion of this pagan mythology is the elevation of Eastern spiritual disciplines as channels to obtain these powers and special abilities. Dekker gives constant praise for the discipline of Buddhist monks and occult warriors. ... I have the impression of a fascination with evil that is really unhealthy for anyone and especially for a Christian. ... As Dekker says, it’s entertainment. But fiction isn’t just any entertainment; its power and danger lie in that it can draw a reader into a worldview. It embraces the soul and the imagination. It brings to life conjecture and imagination. It teaches. And appearing as Christian, it can fool many.”
PREACHING AGAINST A THOUSAND THINGS (Friday Church News Notes, September 5, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Recently I received the following e-mail: “So, I’ve seen on your website the thousands of things that you don’t believe in. What do you believe in? I believe that the Bible is God’s holy Word, and that Jesus is His only begotten Son, and that I am saved by grace through faith in Christ’s atoning death on the cross. Shouldn’t you guys spend some more time proclaiming stuff like that? I just hear banging gongs and resounding cymbals after visiting your homepage.” BROTHER CLOUD’S REPLY: God saved me by His marvelous grace 35 years ago when I was a 23-year-old hitchhiking, drug-using pagan, and He put into my life many things that had never been there before. One of those was a great love for His holy Word, the type of love expressed in Psalm 119:128. “Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.” If you truly love the truth, you will hate error. IF I PREACH AGAINST A THOUSAND ERRORS, IT IS ONLY BECAUSE I LOVE A THOUSAND TRUTHS. God called me to preach, and He did not call me to preach only a part of His Word or only the “positive” things. He called me to preach all of it (2 Timothy 4:2). He laid Way of Life Literature on my heart a few years after I was saved when I was reading Proverbs 6:23--“For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.” Reproofs are necessary for godly living. That is why the Bible is so filled with them. As for “spending time doing stuff like that,” referring to preaching the gospel, my wife and I have been preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in one of the poorest and neediest and darkest parts of the world since the 1970s. If you think preaching the truth in love is just banging gongs and resounding cymbals, help yourself, but such thinking will fail mightily at the judgment seat of Christ.”
SCOFF NOT AT THE BOOK (Friday Church News Notes, September 5, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from Charles Spurgeon (1834-92) -- “Let me call your attention to the fact that when Jesus had risen from the dead, He was just as tender of Scripture as He was before His decease. He told them that ‘all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me. Then He opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and this it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead’ (Luke 24:44-46). Find Jesus where you may, He is the antagonist of those who would lessen the authority of Holy Scripture. ‘It is written’ is His weapon against Satan, His argument against wicked men. The learned of this hour scoff at the Book and accuse of Bibliolatry those of us who reverence the Divine Word; but in this they derive no assistance from the teaching or example of Jesus. Not a word derogatory of Scripture ever fell from the lips of Jesus Christ; but evermore He manifested the most reverent regard for every jot and tittle of the inspired Volume. Since our Savior, not only before His death, but after it, took care to commend the Scriptures to us, let us avoid with all our hearts all teaching in which Holy Scripture is put into the background” (Charles Spurgeon, “Scoff Not at the Book”).
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)