Friday Church News Notes
Volume 19, Issue 43 - October 26, 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.
CANADA LEGALIZES MARIJUANA (Friday Church News Notes, October 26, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Canada has become the second country to fully legalize recreational marijuana, after Uruguay. In Newfoundland, Canada’s easternmost province, marijuana shops opened at midnight on October 17 to serve queues of customers. Like the legalization of “same-sex marriage,” the legalization of marijuana is a reflection of a dramatic change in the moral and spiritual condition of a nation. Since 2012, ten states in the United States have legalized recreational marijuana and others have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of the drug. Proponents of recreational marijuana use typically ignore proven dangers such as addiction, psychosis, marijuana as a gate-way drug, long-term effects on learning, cognition, and personality, “amotivational syndrome” (lethargy and loss of interest in achievement), bronchitis and respiratory infections, and increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Earlier this year it was announced that a major new scientific study by Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, found that marijuana use is independently associated with a 26 percent increased risk of stroke and a 10 percent increase in heart failure (“Pot Smoking,” Newsmax, Mar. 16, 2018). Since the legalization of marijuana in Colorado in 2012, the number of drivers who tested positive for marijuana use jumped 145 percent (‘Traffic fatalities linked to marijuana,’ Denver Post, Aug. 25, 2017). Teen drug use in Colorado is the highest in the nation. Fatal, drug-related automobile accidents have skyrocketed (“The sad anniversary of Big Commercial Pot in Colorado,’ The Gazette, Nov. 21, 2017). We are convinced that the legalization of recreational marijuana is a foolish experiment that will have serious repercussions. The fact that marijuana use in modern culture can be traced to the lascivious world of jazz, blues, and rock & roll is warning enough for those who have ears to hear. I know this all too well, having been a drug user before I was saved, beginning with my time in Vietnam in the Army in 1970-71. After I was discharged, I was immersed in the hippy drug culture, joining many of my generation on the Beatles’ very stupid Magical Mystery Tour. Alcohol is a powerful drug, but marijuana changed my thinking more than alcohol. It is a psychoactive drug with hallucinogenic properties. It is not an innocent thing. It can mess with the depths of a man’s soul. Not everyone has bad experiences with the drug, but a lot do. It affects people differently, but depression, intense anxiety, and paranoia are common side effects, and acute psychosis is not infrequent. It was definitely a “gateway” drug for me and for a lot of my friends. And the marijuana of today is vastly more powerful than the marijuana of the 1960s and 1970s, typically containing 15-20% THC (the psychoactive ingredient), and going as high as 37%, compared to 3 and 4 percent in the past. In 2013, the American Medical Association recommended against legalization, warning that “cannabis is a dangerous drug and as such is a public health concern. ... Heavy cannabis use in adolescence causes persistent impairments in neuro-cognitive performance and IQ, and use is associated with increased rates of anxiety, mood, and psychotic-thought disorders” (Ruth Marcus, “The perils of legalized pot,” The Washington Post, Jan. 2, 2014). Sir Robin Murray, a psychiatrist at King’s College in London, says, “Even I, 20 years ago, used to tell patients that cannabis is safe. It’s only after you see all the patients that go psychotic that you realize—it’s not so safe” (cited from Linda Nathan, The Cross and the Marijuana Leaf, available from LighthouseTrails.com). The rush to legalize marijuana is driven by the lascivious pop culture, the entertainment industry, an educational system devoted to moral relativism, a society that celebrates unrestrained self-expression, and the gross lack of wisdom typically reflected in mainstream media reporting. God’s command that His people be “sober” is repeated 12 times in the New Testament Epistles. It means to be in control of one’s mind and spirit so that nothing but God is in charge. “Sober” is the opposite of being under the influence of alcohol or drugs or anything else. One can be drunk on music, fashion, video games, professional sports, or anything that has captured the heart. “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:6). “But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer” (1 Peter 4:7). “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Because of the speed with which so many fundamental Baptist churches are spiraling toward a contemporary stance that is accompanied by a “don’t judge, let people live as they please” philosophy, I predict that it won’t be long before some accept the use of alcohol and marijuana.
ALABAMA SUPREME COURT JUSTICE CALLS ON U.S. SUPREME COURT TO OVERTURN ROE V. WADE (Friday Church News Notes, October 26, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “State Supreme Court: Roe v. Wade ‘patently illogical,’” WorldNetDaily, Oct. 19, 2018: “The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that an unborn baby is a ‘person’ under the law, and, consequently, the death of that person can be punished with execution. Further, in a special concurrence, Justice Tom Parker called on the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that created a ‘right’ to abortion. ‘I write specially to expound upon the principles presented in the main opinion and to note the continued legal anomaly and logical fallacy that is Roe v. Wade,’ he said. ‘I urge the United States Supreme Court to overrule this increasingly isolated exception to the rights of unborn children.’ Parker affirmed the Alabama court’s rationale that ‘unborn children are persons entitled to the full and equal protection of the law.’ He asserted Roe v. Wade is ‘without historical or constitutional support, carved out an exception to the rights of unborn children and prohibited states from recognizing an unborn child’s inalienable right to life when that right conflicts with a woman’s ‘right’ to abortion.’ ‘This judicially created exception of Roe is an aberration to the natural law … and common law of the states,’ Parker said. ... In August, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down an Alabama law banning the gruesome, second-trimester abortion procedure in which limbs are removed from a baby’s body in the womb. At the time, Chief Judge Ed Carnes lamented in his opinion that he was bound by U.S. Supreme Court precedent to rule against the state, writing that ‘dismemberment’ is the best description of the procedure, which clinically is known as dilation and extraction. ‘In our judicial system, there is only one Supreme Court, and we are not it,’ he wrote, calling the high court’s history of abortion rulings an ‘aberration’ of constitutional law. ... ‘There is a growing chorus of voices urging the Supreme Court to overrule its abortion decisions,’ said Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver. ‘The Supreme Court has created a constitutional aberration and caused incalculable harm by its abortion decisions. ... We applaud Justice Tom Parker in calling on the Supreme Court to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision and once again protect precious children, women, and families. Abortion is simply a euphemism created by activists to soften what it really is: the murder of innocent unborn children. “We must stop this human genocide. We must demand that the Supreme Court undo the horrendous ruling and make the womb a safe place again in America. As we hear about the horrible descriptions of the dismemberment of Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi, every breathing person naturally shudders. Yet, every day in America, helpless, preborn children are dismembered while they are still alive. We too must shudder at this horrible act and stop it.’”
WORLD CYCLING BRONZE MEDALIST COMPLAINS AFTER TRANSGENDER “WOMAN” WINS GOLD (Friday Church News Notes, October 26, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - After a transgender “woman,” won a world-championship cycling race for women, the third-place winner, a real woman, complained that it isn’t fair. The forum was the 2018 Masters Track Cycling World Championship in Los Angeles, and the event was the women’s 35-39 bracket. The winner, Rachel McKinnon, “identifies” as a woman but is a biological male (“Biological Male Wins World Championship Event,” Daily Signal, Oct. 14, 2018). Third place winner, Jennifer Wagner, tweeted, “It’s definitely NOT fair” (her emphasis). Four days later, Wagner apologized to McKinnon, saying “I apologize for not properly congratulating you on race day. I hope you accept it a few days later.” But far from accepting the apology, McKinnon wrote, “This is why the apology is not accepted: she still thinks what she said.” So McKinnon doesn’t merely want the “right” to be whatever sex he wants to be, he wants to control the thinking of those who disagree with him. Seeking to end all debate on the subject, he labels all critics of his lifestyle “transphobic bigots.” This is the fruit of the unisex movement of the 1960s, and it is absolute confusion. Intimately associated with unisexuality are feminism and gay rights. This generation can rail against “nature” and do its best to change it, but it won’t work. God’s Word is true, even if the whole world disbelieves it. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27). That is both the first word on the subject, and the final word.
AMAZING DANDELION SEEDS (Friday Church News Notes, October 26, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - New research at the University of Edinburgh has found that dandelion seeds have “a remarkable form of flight never before seen in nature.” Using a specially-designed wind tunnel, long-exposure and high-speed photography, X-rays, and microscopes, researchers were amazed to find that the seed bristles (collectively called the pappus) create ring-shaped air bubbles to form a vortex that increases air resistance and slows descent (“Scientists unlock the secrets of the flying dandelion seeds,” New Atlas, Oct. 19, 2018). The dandelion seed is four times more efficient in maintaining altitude than a human parachute. But of course, we know that while a human parachute and the scientists’ research equipment are intelligently designed, the dandelion is an accident of evolution. Don’t we?
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).
ALABAMA SUPREME COURT JUSTICE CALLS ON U.S. SUPREME COURT TO OVERTURN ROE V. WADE (Friday Church News Notes, October 26, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “State Supreme Court: Roe v. Wade ‘patently illogical,’” WorldNetDaily, Oct. 19, 2018: “The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that an unborn baby is a ‘person’ under the law, and, consequently, the death of that person can be punished with execution. Further, in a special concurrence, Justice Tom Parker called on the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that created a ‘right’ to abortion. ‘I write specially to expound upon the principles presented in the main opinion and to note the continued legal anomaly and logical fallacy that is Roe v. Wade,’ he said. ‘I urge the United States Supreme Court to overrule this increasingly isolated exception to the rights of unborn children.’ Parker affirmed the Alabama court’s rationale that ‘unborn children are persons entitled to the full and equal protection of the law.’ He asserted Roe v. Wade is ‘without historical or constitutional support, carved out an exception to the rights of unborn children and prohibited states from recognizing an unborn child’s inalienable right to life when that right conflicts with a woman’s ‘right’ to abortion.’ ‘This judicially created exception of Roe is an aberration to the natural law … and common law of the states,’ Parker said. ... In August, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down an Alabama law banning the gruesome, second-trimester abortion procedure in which limbs are removed from a baby’s body in the womb. At the time, Chief Judge Ed Carnes lamented in his opinion that he was bound by U.S. Supreme Court precedent to rule against the state, writing that ‘dismemberment’ is the best description of the procedure, which clinically is known as dilation and extraction. ‘In our judicial system, there is only one Supreme Court, and we are not it,’ he wrote, calling the high court’s history of abortion rulings an ‘aberration’ of constitutional law. ... ‘There is a growing chorus of voices urging the Supreme Court to overrule its abortion decisions,’ said Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver. ‘The Supreme Court has created a constitutional aberration and caused incalculable harm by its abortion decisions. ... We applaud Justice Tom Parker in calling on the Supreme Court to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision and once again protect precious children, women, and families. Abortion is simply a euphemism created by activists to soften what it really is: the murder of innocent unborn children. “We must stop this human genocide. We must demand that the Supreme Court undo the horrendous ruling and make the womb a safe place again in America. As we hear about the horrible descriptions of the dismemberment of Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi, every breathing person naturally shudders. Yet, every day in America, helpless, preborn children are dismembered while they are still alive. We too must shudder at this horrible act and stop it.’”
WORLD CYCLING BRONZE MEDALIST COMPLAINS AFTER TRANSGENDER “WOMAN” WINS GOLD (Friday Church News Notes, October 26, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - After a transgender “woman,” won a world-championship cycling race for women, the third-place winner, a real woman, complained that it isn’t fair. The forum was the 2018 Masters Track Cycling World Championship in Los Angeles, and the event was the women’s 35-39 bracket. The winner, Rachel McKinnon, “identifies” as a woman but is a biological male (“Biological Male Wins World Championship Event,” Daily Signal, Oct. 14, 2018). Third place winner, Jennifer Wagner, tweeted, “It’s definitely NOT fair” (her emphasis). Four days later, Wagner apologized to McKinnon, saying “I apologize for not properly congratulating you on race day. I hope you accept it a few days later.” But far from accepting the apology, McKinnon wrote, “This is why the apology is not accepted: she still thinks what she said.” So McKinnon doesn’t merely want the “right” to be whatever sex he wants to be, he wants to control the thinking of those who disagree with him. Seeking to end all debate on the subject, he labels all critics of his lifestyle “transphobic bigots.” This is the fruit of the unisex movement of the 1960s, and it is absolute confusion. Intimately associated with unisexuality are feminism and gay rights. This generation can rail against “nature” and do its best to change it, but it won’t work. God’s Word is true, even if the whole world disbelieves it. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27). That is both the first word on the subject, and the final word.
AMAZING DANDELION SEEDS (Friday Church News Notes, October 26, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - New research at the University of Edinburgh has found that dandelion seeds have “a remarkable form of flight never before seen in nature.” Using a specially-designed wind tunnel, long-exposure and high-speed photography, X-rays, and microscopes, researchers were amazed to find that the seed bristles (collectively called the pappus) create ring-shaped air bubbles to form a vortex that increases air resistance and slows descent (“Scientists unlock the secrets of the flying dandelion seeds,” New Atlas, Oct. 19, 2018). The dandelion seed is four times more efficient in maintaining altitude than a human parachute. But of course, we know that while a human parachute and the scientists’ research equipment are intelligently designed, the dandelion is an accident of evolution. Don’t we?
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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