Way of Life Literature
Publisher of Bible Study Materials
Friday Church News Notes
CHINA’S SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEM - SOCIALISM IN ACTION (Friday Church News Notes, February 15, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “China’s Social Credit System,” futurism.com, Dec. 2, 2017: “In a contentious world first, China plans to implement a social credit system (officially referred to as a Social Credit Score or SCS) by 2020. The idea first appeared in a document from the State Council of China published in June 2014. It is a technological advancement so shocking to modern-minded paradigms that many can do little but sit back in defeatist chagrin as science fiction shows.. Read More
From Southern Baptist to Goddess Worship: Sue Monk Kidd
Sue Monk Kidd is a very popular writer. Her first two novels, The Secret Life of Bees (2002) and The Mermaid Chair (2005), have sold more than 6 million copies and the first one is being produced as a movie. She has also written two popular books on contemplative spirituality: God’s Joyful Surprise (1988) and When the Heart Waits (1990).Kidd is quoted favorably by evangelicals such as David Jeremiah (Life Wide Open), Beth Moore (When Godly People Do Ungodly Things), Richard Foster (Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home), and Philip Yancy (Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?). Kidd’s endorsement is printed on the back of Dallas Willard’s book The Spirit of the Disciplines. She wrote the foreword to the 2006 edition of.. Read More
The Southern Baptist Convention and the Charismatic Movement
The charismatic movement has been sweeping through the Southern Baptist Convention since the late 1980s and the pace of spread is increasing with each decade.In April 1995, Charisma magazine reported that two professors at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (William Hendricks and Tim Webber) urged the churches not to fear the charismatic movement. Hendricks, director of Southern’s doctoral studies, said, “We shouldn’t feel defensive or threatened by an alternative experience, perspective or insights about the Holy Spirit,” and warned that in fighting the charismatic movement “you could be fighting what is a legitimate experience of the Spirit.”
In March 1999, a Charisma magazine report entitled “Shaking Southern Baptist Tradition” gave many examples of charismatic Southern Baptist congregations.
.. Read More
Friday Church News Notes
BEWARE OF MOLINISM (Friday Church News Notes, February 8, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Molinism is a theology developed by 15th century Jesuit priest Luis de Molina as a half-way thing “between Calvinism and Arminianism.” It is defined as follows by Jake Rainwater: “Molinism is an attempt to reconcile God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility through the use of ‘middle knowledge.’ Between God’s ‘natural knowledge’ of everything that could be and God’s free knowledge of everything that is, there is God’s middle knowledge of everything that would be” (“Salvation and Sovereignty: A Molinist Approach,” Oct. 3, 2017). If you don’t understand that, you are not alone! Molina himself didn’t understand it. “Middle knowledge” is a worthy addition to the many other inscrutable Calvinist terms, such as supralapsarianism.. Read More
Christian Drinking Is a Bellwether Issue
The rapid change in attitude toward drinking among “Bible believing” Christians is a major sign of the times.When the 18th Amendment, which “prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors,” was ratified in January 1919, the Southern Baptist Convention called it “the greatest victory for moral reform in America since the Declaration of Independence”.. Read More
Rock Music and Suicide
The rise of rock music to a place of prominent influence in a global westernized pop culture has been accompanied by a dramatic rise in youth suicide.A study made by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company found that the suicide rate among teens rose 50% from 1952 to 1962. It rose another 200% between 1962 and 1982, with as many as 500,000 teens attempting suicide each year (“The Frightening Facts about Teen Suicide,” Teen magazine, October 1983, p. 10).
.. Read More
Friday Church News Notes
PAUL CHAPPELL SCHEDULED TO SPEAK IN ROCK & ROLL SOUTHERN BAPTIST CHURCH WITH SLATE OF EVANGELICALS (Friday Church News Notes, February 1, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Paul Chappell, Pastor of Lancaster Baptist Church of Lancaster, California, and President of West Coast Baptist College, is scheduled to speak in May at the One Nation Under God Conference at the hard-rocking First Baptist Church in Villa Rica, Georgia. (For evidence of their rocking, see the church’s youth ministry video clips.) Other speakers include Todd Stearns (former staff writer for the Southern Baptist Press); Robert Jeffress, Pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas (Southern Baptist); Tony Perkins, Southern Baptist and president of the Family Research Council; and Emir Caner, President of the Southern Baptist-affiliated Truett-McConnell University. Pastor Chappell is obviously sensing more liberty these days to be what he has long been, which is a conservative evangelical. This is the type.. Read MoreGod Rebukes the Women of Israel
Isaiah 3:16-24“Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, the rings, and nose jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, the glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails. And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.”
In this passage God reproved the women of Isaiah’s day, not only for how they dressed but also for how they carried themselves. We have seen... Read More
Teaching Modesty to Children
The following is adapted from Dressing for the Lord, which is available in print and eBook editions from Way of Life Literature.Proverbs 22:6
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
This verse reminds us that training in modesty best begins in childhood. Many married women in Bible-believing churches did not have an opportunity to grow up in a godly Christian home and were not taught how to be modest when they were young, but now they have the opportunity to provide such a home for the next generation. This is a great blessing as well as a large responsibility.
The best time to teach a girl how to dress modestly is when she is a toddler. When she reaches teenage years she will be habituated to dressing in a feminine and modest.. Read More
Biblical Shallowness
Biblical Shallowness in the ChurchesThe following is excerpted from Why Most Independent Baptist Churches Will Be Emerging, available from Way of Life Literature in print and a free eBook edition, www.wayoflife.org.There is a frightful lack of biblical knowledge among members of the average Independent Baptist church, in my experience. Many pastors have admitted to me that the majority of their people are not serious Bible students.
It is impossible to understand the Bible properly and grow in understanding of it effectively without training in such things as principles of interpretation, Bible history and geography, Bible culture, and theology or Bible doctrine, yet most members of Independent Baptist churches are grossly lacking in such things.
Most are like.. Read More
Friday Church News Notes
BEWARE FEMALES - FACEBOOK STALKING (Friday Church News Notes, January 25, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A missionary friend in a Latin American country wrote the following: “I have seen several young girls here with Facebook ‘friends’ who are men from other countries. I have counseled several and warned about this. They all replied that they get bombarded with ‘friend’ requests. I decided to do an experiment, and the results were very disturbing. I opened a fake Facebook account as a 17-year-old girl from this country. No photos, no likes, no friends, no links to anyone or anything. I used an unregistered new phone chip.. Read More
The Discipling Church. How to take a church to a higher spiritual level so that it can stand and bear fruit until Jesus comes
A Plea to Southern Gospel Music Fans - A plea for Southern Gospel fans to tear down the bridges that are being built from conservative Southern Gospel-loving homes and churches. .
