Friday Church News Notes
Volume 19, Issue 29 - July 20, 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.
STAR FOOTBALLERS SAY IT IS A RELIGION (Friday Church News Notes, July s20, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Brazilian star Pelé, who was voted the greatest footballer of all time, says, “Football is like a religion to me. I worship the ball and treat it like a god” (“Football the universal Religion?” BBC, Jul. 13, 2018). Diego Maradona, voted fifth greatest, agrees. “[F]ootball isn’t a game, nor a sport; it’s a religion.” Scottish footballer and manager Bill Shankly says, “Some people think football’s a matter of life and death. I can assure them it is much more serious than that.” Psychology Today observes that “as religious attendance rates have dropped off in recent decades, interest in sport spectatorship has soared” (“Is Sport a Religion,” Psychology Today, Nov. 11, 2009). BBC recently said, “Football ought to be rechristened ‘the holy game.’” God’s Word says, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen” (1 John 5:21).
IRANIAN GENERAL AWAITING ORDERS TO DESTROY ISRAEL (Friday Church News Notes, July 20, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards recently boasted that the “Islamic army in Syria” in the Golan Heights was awaiting orders to eradicate the “evil regime” of Israel (“Top Iranian general,” The Times of Israel, Jul. 9, 2018). Hossein Salami said, “Today an international Islamic army has been formed in Syria, and the voices of the Muslims are heard near the Golan. Orders are awaited, so that … the eradication of the evil regime [Israel] will land and the life of this regime will be ended for good. The life of the Zionist regime was never in danger as it is now.” He said that “the Zionist regime constitutes a threat … to the entire Islamic world.” Bible believers know how this is going to turn out. Israel is not going to be destroyed by Muslim nations. Israel is going to be deceived by the Antichrist’s “peace” program. He will enable Israel to build the Third Temple and then occupy it and claim to be God. During the Tribulation that will ensue, Israel will be converted. “And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 20:37-38).
MARY WEEPING IN HOBBS, NEW MEXICO (Friday Church News Notes, July 20, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A statue of Mary at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Hobbs, New Mexico, began “weeping” during mass on May 20. The church secretary and her husband first noticed an “oil-like” substance on its face and on the floor below. When priest Jose “Pepe” wiped away the substance from the statue twice “the tears still appeared.” After the phenomenon was published in newspapers, visitors began making pilgrimages to the site. Bishop Oscar Cantú said officials are investigating the phenomenon. They will start with possible natural explanations. He added, “If it is supernatural, then is it God? Or is it of an evil spirit?” (“Bishop Cantú explains investigation,” Las Cruces Sun News, Jun. 2, 2018). I visited the church on June 14, since I was in Hobbs to preach a Bible conference on church history, and talked with the church secretary. She showed me photos on her phone that she took of the weeping statue. When I asked her what she thought the “weeping” meant, she replied, “That Mary is sad and the world needs to change.” I asked if perhaps they could be tears of joy, but she replied that “Mary looked sad.” On July 14, the Diocese of Las Cruces announced that a chemical analysis of the “tears” found that it is olive oil (“Investigation into Weeping Virgin Mary Statue," Newsmax, July 17, 2018). The Catholic Mary is a heretical figment of man’s imagination, and any actual “visitations” at Mary shrines are demonic. When “Mary” does “appear,” she invariably preaches a work’s gospel, which is cursed of God (Galatians 1:6-8). God’s Word warns of the danger of spiritual deception, and the wise will test everything by the infallible Scripture. “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. … For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:3, 13-15). “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
VIDEO GAMES AND OCCULTISM (Friday Church News Notes, July 20, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A great many of the video games are occultic and therefore totally forbidden by God’s Word. Many are deeply influenced by the old Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. Occultic video games include Diablo, Dragon Quest, World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Ultima, Wizardry, Tabook, Xenogears, Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale 2, Lineage 2, H1Z1, Final Fantasy, Star Fox, Silent Hill, DmC Devil May Cry, Dante’s Inferno, Legend of Zelda, Deus Ex, E.V.O.: Search for Eden, Spore, Assassin’s Creed, BioShock Infinite, Shin Megami Tensei (featuring a high school boy who is a human/demon hybrid). Some of the occultic concepts in these games are wizards (“good” or “bad”), sorcerers, Tarot, druids, spells (conjuring, alteration), reincarnation, demons, goddesses (e.g., Lillith, Gaia), Canaanite gods (e.g., Baal), Norse gods (e.g., Odin), Hindu gods (e.g., Shiva), Greek gods (e.g., Zeus), elves, super powers, unicorns, centaurs, monsters, summons, aeons, time travel, evolution, under worlds, parallel worlds (dimensions, planes, spheres). The book Game Magic: A Designer’s Guide to Magic Systems in Theory and Practice by Jeff Howard instructs video game programmers in “how to construct magic systems.” It is “a magical recipe book.” It “gives you an in-depth understanding of the history and structure of magic to make your games richer and deeper.” It “shows how to set up … spell components.” The author has studied the works of satanist Aleister Crowley as part of his research. “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee” (Deuteronomy 18:10-12).
FAKE QUACK CANCER CURE SITE GETS 10 MILLION HITS (Friday Church News Notes, July 20, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “How a Canadian viral science video is teaching a lesson about online health hoaxes,” CBC News (Canada), Jul. 15, 2018: “Jonathan Jarry’s job is to separate sense from nonsense in science, but he never imagined that creating a fake news video would end up being his most effective tool. Facebook users may be familiar with his latest video for McGill University’s Office for Science and Society (OSS)—it has 10 million views and counting. The video title screams for a click: ‘This NATURAL TRICK can CURE YOUR CANCER.’ The opening graphic offers another too-good-to-be-true promise: ‘This amazing cure for cancer has been known since the 1800s.’ The video tells the very fake story of Dr. Johan R. Tarjany, who in 1816 discovered a kind of moss that cures cancer, knowledge the video claims has been suppressed by pharmaceutical companies. The story gets better. Tarjany added the moss to his diet and never got cancer—and great news—even though the Food and Drug Administration has banned the moss, it’s available online. Just as you’re reaching for your credit card, celebrating your discovery while simultaneously cursing big pharma, the tale unravels. Thirty-nine seconds into the video, the truth is revealed: The video that you thought promised an easy answer instead is a hard lesson in media literacy and critical thinking. … Jarry said the idea came from a similar video a former coworker had shown him. It had six million views and purported to show a researcher who had discovered radio signals that could kill cancer cells. … He said it was frustrating because bunk science videos often reach far wider audiences than those his team puts together. On the McGill OSS YouTube page there are a number of videos explaining topics like sloppy food science and personalized genetic testing, but the views rank in the hundreds of thousands, not millions. ‘We don’t sell these easy solutions to complicated problems,’ Jarry said. ‘We sell nuance and criticism and uncertainty, and that doesn’t sell as well.’ … The video ends with a message to viewers: Be skeptical, ask questions, consult doctors and scientists, and don’t fall for conspiracy theories dressed up in pretty packaging. Be skeptical because there's so much misinformation out there and be aware of your own biases. Be aware of the fact that you will be easily emotionally manipulated.’”
THE HUMAN EYE (Friday Church News Notes, July 20, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The bewildering complexity of the human eye speaks eloquently of an Almighty Creator. The eye’s retina is less than one square inch in surface area but it contains 137 million light-sensitive receptor cells. 130 million of these are rod cells (which see in black and white) while 7 million are cone cells (which allow color vision). Each photoreceptor cell is more complex than the most sophisticated man-made computer (Alan Gillen, Body by Design, p. 98). And each complex photoreceptor cell replaces itself every seven days. The eye has a dynamic range of 10 billion to one; that is, it will detect a single photon of light and will still work well in an intensity of 10 billion photons. By contrast, modern photographic film has a dynamic range of about 1,000 to one (Jonathan Sarfati, Ph.D., By Design, p. 26), and a high quality single lens reflex (DSLR) camera has a dynamic range of about 2000 to 1. A healthy eye can see the light from a single candle 25 miles away. At every level the human eye demonstrates mind-boggling complexity. For example, in response to bright light, a protein called arrestin rushes to “bind and calm the light-detecting proteins.” Arrestin is shuttled at lightning speed by a motor protein called myosin along special tracks of the cell’s internal skeleton (Sarfati, By Design, p. 27). “For the cell to properly adapt to bright light, arrestin needs to move; if it doesn’t, the cell remains as sensitive to light as it was when it was dark” (C. Montell).
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).
IRANIAN GENERAL AWAITING ORDERS TO DESTROY ISRAEL (Friday Church News Notes, July 20, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards recently boasted that the “Islamic army in Syria” in the Golan Heights was awaiting orders to eradicate the “evil regime” of Israel (“Top Iranian general,” The Times of Israel, Jul. 9, 2018). Hossein Salami said, “Today an international Islamic army has been formed in Syria, and the voices of the Muslims are heard near the Golan. Orders are awaited, so that … the eradication of the evil regime [Israel] will land and the life of this regime will be ended for good. The life of the Zionist regime was never in danger as it is now.” He said that “the Zionist regime constitutes a threat … to the entire Islamic world.” Bible believers know how this is going to turn out. Israel is not going to be destroyed by Muslim nations. Israel is going to be deceived by the Antichrist’s “peace” program. He will enable Israel to build the Third Temple and then occupy it and claim to be God. During the Tribulation that will ensue, Israel will be converted. “And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 20:37-38).
MARY WEEPING IN HOBBS, NEW MEXICO (Friday Church News Notes, July 20, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A statue of Mary at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Hobbs, New Mexico, began “weeping” during mass on May 20. The church secretary and her husband first noticed an “oil-like” substance on its face and on the floor below. When priest Jose “Pepe” wiped away the substance from the statue twice “the tears still appeared.” After the phenomenon was published in newspapers, visitors began making pilgrimages to the site. Bishop Oscar Cantú said officials are investigating the phenomenon. They will start with possible natural explanations. He added, “If it is supernatural, then is it God? Or is it of an evil spirit?” (“Bishop Cantú explains investigation,” Las Cruces Sun News, Jun. 2, 2018). I visited the church on June 14, since I was in Hobbs to preach a Bible conference on church history, and talked with the church secretary. She showed me photos on her phone that she took of the weeping statue. When I asked her what she thought the “weeping” meant, she replied, “That Mary is sad and the world needs to change.” I asked if perhaps they could be tears of joy, but she replied that “Mary looked sad.” On July 14, the Diocese of Las Cruces announced that a chemical analysis of the “tears” found that it is olive oil (“Investigation into Weeping Virgin Mary Statue," Newsmax, July 17, 2018). The Catholic Mary is a heretical figment of man’s imagination, and any actual “visitations” at Mary shrines are demonic. When “Mary” does “appear,” she invariably preaches a work’s gospel, which is cursed of God (Galatians 1:6-8). God’s Word warns of the danger of spiritual deception, and the wise will test everything by the infallible Scripture. “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. … For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:3, 13-15). “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
VIDEO GAMES AND OCCULTISM (Friday Church News Notes, July 20, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A great many of the video games are occultic and therefore totally forbidden by God’s Word. Many are deeply influenced by the old Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. Occultic video games include Diablo, Dragon Quest, World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Ultima, Wizardry, Tabook, Xenogears, Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale 2, Lineage 2, H1Z1, Final Fantasy, Star Fox, Silent Hill, DmC Devil May Cry, Dante’s Inferno, Legend of Zelda, Deus Ex, E.V.O.: Search for Eden, Spore, Assassin’s Creed, BioShock Infinite, Shin Megami Tensei (featuring a high school boy who is a human/demon hybrid). Some of the occultic concepts in these games are wizards (“good” or “bad”), sorcerers, Tarot, druids, spells (conjuring, alteration), reincarnation, demons, goddesses (e.g., Lillith, Gaia), Canaanite gods (e.g., Baal), Norse gods (e.g., Odin), Hindu gods (e.g., Shiva), Greek gods (e.g., Zeus), elves, super powers, unicorns, centaurs, monsters, summons, aeons, time travel, evolution, under worlds, parallel worlds (dimensions, planes, spheres). The book Game Magic: A Designer’s Guide to Magic Systems in Theory and Practice by Jeff Howard instructs video game programmers in “how to construct magic systems.” It is “a magical recipe book.” It “gives you an in-depth understanding of the history and structure of magic to make your games richer and deeper.” It “shows how to set up … spell components.” The author has studied the works of satanist Aleister Crowley as part of his research. “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee” (Deuteronomy 18:10-12).
FAKE QUACK CANCER CURE SITE GETS 10 MILLION HITS (Friday Church News Notes, July 20, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “How a Canadian viral science video is teaching a lesson about online health hoaxes,” CBC News (Canada), Jul. 15, 2018: “Jonathan Jarry’s job is to separate sense from nonsense in science, but he never imagined that creating a fake news video would end up being his most effective tool. Facebook users may be familiar with his latest video for McGill University’s Office for Science and Society (OSS)—it has 10 million views and counting. The video title screams for a click: ‘This NATURAL TRICK can CURE YOUR CANCER.’ The opening graphic offers another too-good-to-be-true promise: ‘This amazing cure for cancer has been known since the 1800s.’ The video tells the very fake story of Dr. Johan R. Tarjany, who in 1816 discovered a kind of moss that cures cancer, knowledge the video claims has been suppressed by pharmaceutical companies. The story gets better. Tarjany added the moss to his diet and never got cancer—and great news—even though the Food and Drug Administration has banned the moss, it’s available online. Just as you’re reaching for your credit card, celebrating your discovery while simultaneously cursing big pharma, the tale unravels. Thirty-nine seconds into the video, the truth is revealed: The video that you thought promised an easy answer instead is a hard lesson in media literacy and critical thinking. … Jarry said the idea came from a similar video a former coworker had shown him. It had six million views and purported to show a researcher who had discovered radio signals that could kill cancer cells. … He said it was frustrating because bunk science videos often reach far wider audiences than those his team puts together. On the McGill OSS YouTube page there are a number of videos explaining topics like sloppy food science and personalized genetic testing, but the views rank in the hundreds of thousands, not millions. ‘We don’t sell these easy solutions to complicated problems,’ Jarry said. ‘We sell nuance and criticism and uncertainty, and that doesn’t sell as well.’ … The video ends with a message to viewers: Be skeptical, ask questions, consult doctors and scientists, and don’t fall for conspiracy theories dressed up in pretty packaging. Be skeptical because there's so much misinformation out there and be aware of your own biases. Be aware of the fact that you will be easily emotionally manipulated.’”
THE HUMAN EYE (Friday Church News Notes, July 20, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The bewildering complexity of the human eye speaks eloquently of an Almighty Creator. The eye’s retina is less than one square inch in surface area but it contains 137 million light-sensitive receptor cells. 130 million of these are rod cells (which see in black and white) while 7 million are cone cells (which allow color vision). Each photoreceptor cell is more complex than the most sophisticated man-made computer (Alan Gillen, Body by Design, p. 98). And each complex photoreceptor cell replaces itself every seven days. The eye has a dynamic range of 10 billion to one; that is, it will detect a single photon of light and will still work well in an intensity of 10 billion photons. By contrast, modern photographic film has a dynamic range of about 1,000 to one (Jonathan Sarfati, Ph.D., By Design, p. 26), and a high quality single lens reflex (DSLR) camera has a dynamic range of about 2000 to 1. A healthy eye can see the light from a single candle 25 miles away. At every level the human eye demonstrates mind-boggling complexity. For example, in response to bright light, a protein called arrestin rushes to “bind and calm the light-detecting proteins.” Arrestin is shuttled at lightning speed by a motor protein called myosin along special tracks of the cell’s internal skeleton (Sarfati, By Design, p. 27). “For the cell to properly adapt to bright light, arrestin needs to move; if it doesn’t, the cell remains as sensitive to light as it was when it was dark” (C. Montell).
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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