Friday Church News Notes
Volume 19, Issue 20 - May 18, 2018
The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, though this does not imply an endorsement.
U.S. EMBASSY OPENS IN JERUSALEM (Friday Church News Notes, May 18, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - On May 14, the U.S. Embassy formally opened in Jerusalem in practical fulfillment of President Donald Trump’s statement in December 2017 recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The opening ceremony, which was held 70 years to the day after President Harry Truman recognized the new state of Israel in 1948, was attended by Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and some members of Congress. Ivanka said, “On behalf of the 45th president of the United States of America we welcome you officially and for the first time to the embassy of the United States here in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.” In a video presentation, President Trump said, “Israel is a sovereign nation with the rights like every other sovereign nation to determine its own capital. Yet for many years we failed to acknowledge the obvious, the plain reality that Israel’s capital is Jerusalem.” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “What a glorious day. Remember this moment. This is history. President Trump, by recognizing history, you have made history.” The embassy is currently housed in a building that was previously used for consular services. A square near the U.S. embassy has been named United States Square by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat. He said, “This is the way in which Jerusalem returns love to the president and residents of the United States who stand by the state of Israel. President Trump decided to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish people, stand on the side of historical truth and do the right thing” (“Square Near U.S. Embassy,” The Jerusalem Post, May 10, 2018). Israel’s current return to the land is a fulfillment of the first part of the prophecy of dry bones in Ezekiel 37, which describes Israel’s “resurrection” from among the nations in two stages. First, she is raised in a spiritually-dead condition, then she is converted (Eze. 37:7-10). Israel is back in the land to build the Third Temple and to sign a covenant with the Antichrist in fulfillment of the 70th week of Daniel’s prophecy (Da. 9:27). When I am in Israel, I feel as if the whole place is vibrating in anticipation of these things, but the reins of the times are in the Lord’s hand, and 2 Peter 3:9 says He is waiting for the salvation of souls. “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:7-8).
PAULA WHITE “TAKING CARE OF TRUMP’S SOUL” (Friday Church News Notes, May 18, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In an interview with the Tennessean, Jonathan Cain of the rock band Journey says that his wife, Paula White-Cain, is taking care of President Donald Trump’s soul (“He Kept Believin’: Journey’s Jonathan Cain on his wife, her role with Trump, and faith,” Tennessean, May 7, 2018). Paula was the chairperson of Trump’s evangelical advisory board and delivered the invocation at his inauguration. She claims to have had a vision in which God called her to preach and told her “that every time I opened my mouth and declared the Word of the Lord, there was a manifestation of His Spirit where people were either healed, delivered, or saved” (Shanye Lee, Holy Mavericks, pp. 107-128). Paula and her second husband, Randy White, were co-pastors of Without Walls International, a multi-location charismatic church in Tampa and Lakeland, Florida, but they divorced in 2007 and the church eventually folded. The couple blamed the divorce on the two different directions their lives were going (“Interruption during Megapastors’ Divorce Announcement,” Tampa Tribune, Aug. 23, 2007). Randy spent months commuting to Malibu, California, where he had a beachfront home, while Paula purchased a home in San Antonio, Texas, and was “oversight pastor” to the Family Praise Center. She also traveled frequently to New York City where she had a Trump Tower condo and conducted services at New Life by Design Empowerment Center as a motivational speaker. Currently Paula is “senior pastor” of New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Florida. In 2015, Paula married Jonathan Cain, the third marriage for both. After the wedding, she tweeted, “We’re so excited to share our wedding vows and celebration with our church family tonight.” Her “vows” must be something like, “I vow to remain married to you until I don’t want to remain married to you.” Of their marriage, Jonathan told the Tennessean, “What I was missing was the word. Paula brought me back to scripture...” At Unleashed 2016, Jonathan and Paula gave their testimonies and answered questions before Paula laid hands on people. Jonathan advised women that “if he [your husband] likes to watch porn, watch porn with him.” At this foolish, unscriptural statement, Paula laughed. We can’t fathom how any of this could be characterized as getting “back to Scripture,” but one thing is sadly true: Paula White exemplifies American Christianity today and is a fitting spiritual advisor to a president who has lived a very shameful moral life and expressed no public repentance. The grace these people preach is not the true grace of God; it is the “live according to your own lusts” Christianity prophesied in 2 Timothy 4:3-4. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
EPISCOPAL CHURCH TO REMOVE “HUSBAND AND WIFE” FROM MARRIAGE LITURGY (Friday Church News Notes, May 18, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The ultra-liberal Episcopal Church in the United States is planning to remove from its marriage liturgy terms deemed offensive to homosexuals. The words “union of husband and wife” will be replaced with “the union of two people” and “for the procreation of children” will be changed to “for the gift of children” (reflecting same-sex adoptions). The Episcopal Church, which is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, has been on this path for a long time. The denomination has never been a New Testament church by any biblical standard, and it has been increasingly permeated with theological liberalism since the early part of the 20th century. In 1960, Episcopal Bishop James Pike said the doctrine of the Trinity is “outdated, incomprehensible and nonessential” (The Christian Century, Dec. 21, 1960). After heresy charges were brought against Pike in 1967, the Episcopal Church adopted a resolution declaring that all heresy was out of date. In 1976, John Spong was ordained as the bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Newark, New Jersey, even though he denied practically every doctrine of the Christian faith. In 1985, the Jesus Seminar was founded with strong support from Episcopalians, including Marcus Borg of Oregon State University. The Seminar wickedly claimed that Jesus spoke only about 20% of the things attributed to him in the New Testament and that the Jesus described in the Bible is largely fiction. In 1993, a survey of nearly 20,000 Episcopalians showed that seventy percent believed “faithful Christians can be sexually active gays and lesbians” (Christian News, Nov. 1, 1993). Seventy-five percent approved of living with someone of the opposite sex without marriage. In his 1991 book Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Spong said the apostle Paul was “a self hating, repressed homosexual.” In 1998, Spong said, “I would choose to loathe rather than to worship a deity who required the sacrifice of his son” (Christianity Today, June 15, 1998). In April 2003, Episcopalian bishop Charles Bennison said that Jesus Christ was a sinner (Worthy News, April 14, 2003). Two months later, the Diocese of New Hampshire elected the first openly homosexual bishop in the history of the Episcopal Church (V. Gene Robinson). In June 2006, the national convention of the Episcopal Church in America voted overwhelmingly against a resolution stating “an unchanging commitment to Jesus Christ as the son of God, the only name by which any person may be saved.” In her first sermons after being elected as presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in 2006, Katharine Jefferts Schori referred to “our mother Jesus.”
EVOLUTION BY EUPHEMISM (Friday Church News Notes, May 18, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Dec. 29, 2017: “In my book Where Birds Eat Horses, I talk about the way that evolutionists use, or rather misuse, language in order to make their case. One type of language much loved by evolutionists is what we call ‘fuzzy words’. Recently, I discovered a subset of fuzzy words known as weasel words--an idea that seems to have been invented on Wikipedia (“Weasel Words,” Wikipedia.org/Wiki). Weasel words are designed to convey an element of authority which does not really exist. One such phrase, quoted and criticized on the Wikipedia site, is ‘a growing body of evidence.’ Wikipedia’s weasel word page editor suggests that the phrase should make us ask for the raw data for this growing body of evidence. The implication is that the ‘growing body of evidence’ does not exist and an author using this phrase is trying to shut down discussion. One popular science website containing a lot of evolutionary articles has an abundant supply of pages using this phrase. Consider these: ‘Growing body of evidence supports use of mind-body therapies in breast cancer treatment.’ ‘A growing body of evidence has hinted at this connection [between global cooling and the evolution of homo sapiens].’ ‘Although there is a growing body of evidence that there was once water on Mars, it does not rain there today.’ Biblical creationists should not be intimidated by such comments. It would appear that there is a growing body of evidence that many evolutionists are leaving logic behind! The Bible, in contrast, uses phrases which are full of meaning and truth.”
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).
PAULA WHITE “TAKING CARE OF TRUMP’S SOUL” (Friday Church News Notes, May 18, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In an interview with the Tennessean, Jonathan Cain of the rock band Journey says that his wife, Paula White-Cain, is taking care of President Donald Trump’s soul (“He Kept Believin’: Journey’s Jonathan Cain on his wife, her role with Trump, and faith,” Tennessean, May 7, 2018). Paula was the chairperson of Trump’s evangelical advisory board and delivered the invocation at his inauguration. She claims to have had a vision in which God called her to preach and told her “that every time I opened my mouth and declared the Word of the Lord, there was a manifestation of His Spirit where people were either healed, delivered, or saved” (Shanye Lee, Holy Mavericks, pp. 107-128). Paula and her second husband, Randy White, were co-pastors of Without Walls International, a multi-location charismatic church in Tampa and Lakeland, Florida, but they divorced in 2007 and the church eventually folded. The couple blamed the divorce on the two different directions their lives were going (“Interruption during Megapastors’ Divorce Announcement,” Tampa Tribune, Aug. 23, 2007). Randy spent months commuting to Malibu, California, where he had a beachfront home, while Paula purchased a home in San Antonio, Texas, and was “oversight pastor” to the Family Praise Center. She also traveled frequently to New York City where she had a Trump Tower condo and conducted services at New Life by Design Empowerment Center as a motivational speaker. Currently Paula is “senior pastor” of New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Florida. In 2015, Paula married Jonathan Cain, the third marriage for both. After the wedding, she tweeted, “We’re so excited to share our wedding vows and celebration with our church family tonight.” Her “vows” must be something like, “I vow to remain married to you until I don’t want to remain married to you.” Of their marriage, Jonathan told the Tennessean, “What I was missing was the word. Paula brought me back to scripture...” At Unleashed 2016, Jonathan and Paula gave their testimonies and answered questions before Paula laid hands on people. Jonathan advised women that “if he [your husband] likes to watch porn, watch porn with him.” At this foolish, unscriptural statement, Paula laughed. We can’t fathom how any of this could be characterized as getting “back to Scripture,” but one thing is sadly true: Paula White exemplifies American Christianity today and is a fitting spiritual advisor to a president who has lived a very shameful moral life and expressed no public repentance. The grace these people preach is not the true grace of God; it is the “live according to your own lusts” Christianity prophesied in 2 Timothy 4:3-4. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
EPISCOPAL CHURCH TO REMOVE “HUSBAND AND WIFE” FROM MARRIAGE LITURGY (Friday Church News Notes, May 18, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The ultra-liberal Episcopal Church in the United States is planning to remove from its marriage liturgy terms deemed offensive to homosexuals. The words “union of husband and wife” will be replaced with “the union of two people” and “for the procreation of children” will be changed to “for the gift of children” (reflecting same-sex adoptions). The Episcopal Church, which is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, has been on this path for a long time. The denomination has never been a New Testament church by any biblical standard, and it has been increasingly permeated with theological liberalism since the early part of the 20th century. In 1960, Episcopal Bishop James Pike said the doctrine of the Trinity is “outdated, incomprehensible and nonessential” (The Christian Century, Dec. 21, 1960). After heresy charges were brought against Pike in 1967, the Episcopal Church adopted a resolution declaring that all heresy was out of date. In 1976, John Spong was ordained as the bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Newark, New Jersey, even though he denied practically every doctrine of the Christian faith. In 1985, the Jesus Seminar was founded with strong support from Episcopalians, including Marcus Borg of Oregon State University. The Seminar wickedly claimed that Jesus spoke only about 20% of the things attributed to him in the New Testament and that the Jesus described in the Bible is largely fiction. In 1993, a survey of nearly 20,000 Episcopalians showed that seventy percent believed “faithful Christians can be sexually active gays and lesbians” (Christian News, Nov. 1, 1993). Seventy-five percent approved of living with someone of the opposite sex without marriage. In his 1991 book Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Spong said the apostle Paul was “a self hating, repressed homosexual.” In 1998, Spong said, “I would choose to loathe rather than to worship a deity who required the sacrifice of his son” (Christianity Today, June 15, 1998). In April 2003, Episcopalian bishop Charles Bennison said that Jesus Christ was a sinner (Worthy News, April 14, 2003). Two months later, the Diocese of New Hampshire elected the first openly homosexual bishop in the history of the Episcopal Church (V. Gene Robinson). In June 2006, the national convention of the Episcopal Church in America voted overwhelmingly against a resolution stating “an unchanging commitment to Jesus Christ as the son of God, the only name by which any person may be saved.” In her first sermons after being elected as presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in 2006, Katharine Jefferts Schori referred to “our mother Jesus.”
EVOLUTION BY EUPHEMISM (Friday Church News Notes, May 18, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Dec. 29, 2017: “In my book Where Birds Eat Horses, I talk about the way that evolutionists use, or rather misuse, language in order to make their case. One type of language much loved by evolutionists is what we call ‘fuzzy words’. Recently, I discovered a subset of fuzzy words known as weasel words--an idea that seems to have been invented on Wikipedia (“Weasel Words,” Wikipedia.org/Wiki). Weasel words are designed to convey an element of authority which does not really exist. One such phrase, quoted and criticized on the Wikipedia site, is ‘a growing body of evidence.’ Wikipedia’s weasel word page editor suggests that the phrase should make us ask for the raw data for this growing body of evidence. The implication is that the ‘growing body of evidence’ does not exist and an author using this phrase is trying to shut down discussion. One popular science website containing a lot of evolutionary articles has an abundant supply of pages using this phrase. Consider these: ‘Growing body of evidence supports use of mind-body therapies in breast cancer treatment.’ ‘A growing body of evidence has hinted at this connection [between global cooling and the evolution of homo sapiens].’ ‘Although there is a growing body of evidence that there was once water on Mars, it does not rain there today.’ Biblical creationists should not be intimidated by such comments. It would appear that there is a growing body of evidence that many evolutionists are leaving logic behind! The Bible, in contrast, uses phrases which are full of meaning and truth.”
CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:11-14).
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Distributed by Way of Life Literature., publisher of Bible Study Materials and reports for Fundamental Baptists and other fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians. Established in 1974, Way of Life Literature is a fundamental Baptist preaching and publishing ministry based in Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. Brother Cloud lives in South Asia where he has been a church planting missionary since 1979. OUR GOAL IN THIS PARTICULAR ASPECT OF OUR MINISTRY (REPORTS AND FRIDAY NEWS) IS NOT DEVOTIONAL. IS TO PROVIDE INFORMATION TO ASSIST PREACHERS IN THE PROTECTION OF THE CHURCHES IN THIS APOSTATE HOUR.
David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
The Way of Life Literature preaching and publishing ministry is based at Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. A mail stop is maintained in Port Huron, Michigan.
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