Friday Church News Notes
Volume 19, Issue 49 - December 7, 2018
Graphical Edition
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.
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MORE PREPARATIONS FOR THE THIRD TEMPLE (Friday Church News Notes, December 7, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The preparation for the building of the Third Temple is reaching fever pitch. On December 10, the last evening of Hanukkah, the “nascent” Jewish Sanhedrin is planning to consecrate a stone sacrificial altar and perform the daily offering that occurred every morning and evening in the ancient temple. The sacrifice will be enacted by Kohanim (Levites) dressed in biblical priestly attire. It is not known whether the lamb will actually be sacrificed at the site, but meat will be roasted on the altar. The Temple Institute’s golden menorah will also be lit. The Sanhedrin was a council of rabbis who led the Israelites before and after the destruction of Herod’s Temple. It ceased to function in the fifth century AD, but in 2004 a group of orthodox Jewish groups announced that they were re-establishing it. The “nascent” Sanhedrin’s goal is to establish a “Bible-based organization to replace the United Nations.” The announcement by Rabbi Yoel Schwartz states, “We are very close to the time about which the prophets of Israel prophesied that the God of the world who created everything will be called by the world in the name of the God of Israel, for only the people of Israel remained attached to Him. ... God’s call to return his people to his land will show that the belief of some nations that Israel was in exile as a punishment was a mistaken belief. The exile was only in order for Israel to serve as an example to the nations for serving God. ... Now, it is time for the Creator’s people to return to their land, and from here light will come forth to the world. And when we merit it, and the Temple will be restored and built on its place, then even more will all the nations realize that the time has come to worship God” (“Sanhedrin Invites 70 Nations to Hanukkah Dedication of Altar for the Third Temple,” BreakingIsraelNews, Nov. 29, 2018). Israel abides in the same self-righteousness that caused her to reject her own Messiah 2,000 years ago. She doesn’t admit that her dispersal was a punishment. But just before His crucifixion, Jesus said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when he shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Luke 13:34-35). And the apostle Paul, trained as a rabbi at the feet of the famous Gamaliel, said of Israel, “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Romans 10:3-4). The “nascent” Sanhedrin who are re-enacting the daily sacrifice are blind to the meaning of that sacrifice, having rejected the testimony of John the Baptist about Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

DEMOCRACY AND CIVIL RIGHTS IN ARAB MONARCHIES (Friday Church News Notes, December 7, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Democracy and Civil Rights,” Israel Today, Dec. 2018: “While in Israel and the West the role of political opposition is anchored in law, the governments of the Persian Gulf states tolerate no such criticism. Anyone defying the government is soon found in a cemetery or in prison or forced to travel abroad. ... The Gulf states have no real political parties, at least not as Westerners would define them. This is how countries such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Kuwait operate. In fact, with the exception of Kuwait, these countries have no parliament at all, and all power is vested solely in the royal families, who, we might remember, were handed the reins of rulership by the British in the early part of the 20th century. The power wielded by these families is absolute. ... The Gulf states are having trouble combatting popular opposition given voice by online social networks like Facebook and Twitter. And that only makes them more dangerous. Since the Arab Spring, many of these regimes have set up cyber units to hunt down those who criticize them online. ... Under these conditions, the Gulf monarchies are dictatorships in every respect. There is a total absence of human rights ... Acquiescing in economic considerations, the West continues to engage and do business with these monarchies, while all but ignoring their rampant violations of human rights.”

TWITTER DECLARES WAR ON BIOLOGY (Friday Church News Notes, December 7, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Twitter Declares War,” Christian Post, Nov. 30, 2018: “I recently did a little computer-generated test to help determine my ‘physiological age’ as compared to my ‘chronological age.’ (Thankfully, I was 8 years younger than my chronological age, 55 rather than 63.) One of the first questions I was asked was whether I was male or female. Why? It’s because--brace yourself!--men are biologically different than women. What a revolutionary concept! But if a computer program is going to determine your physiological age vs. your chronological age, it needs to know something about your biology since, to repeat, men are different than women. Medical science understands this. Genetic studies understand this. Common sense understands this. But it appears Twitter no longer understands this. So, Twitter has updated its terms of service, adding further information under the category of ‘Repeated and/or non-consensual slurs, epithets, racist and sexist tropes, or other content that degrades someone.’ Specifically, Twitter explains, ‘We prohibit targeting individuals with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanize, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category. This includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.’ Note carefully that last sentence, which singles out ‘misgendering’ and ‘deadnaming.’ And what, precisely, do these terms mean? To misgender would be to refer to Bruce Caitlyn Jenner as ‘he.’ To deadname him would be to call him Bruce rather than Caitlyn. Twitter now forbids this usage, meaning that Twitter forbids you from being scientifically and biologically correct. To do so is to risk being banned. ... And if you dare raise your voice in protest against this social madness, you risk being banned. Who cares about your conscience and convictions. Who cares about scientific reality. Speech that falls outside the lines of transgender political correctness is absolutely forbidden.”

FACEBOOK AND EPHESIANS 5:11 (Friday Church News Notes, December 7, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - There are many Bible verses that provide guidance for spiritual victory in the Internet age, and one of those is Ephesians 5:11 - “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” There are two simple commands and principles here. First, the child of God is to have NO fellowship with the works of darkness. This is a great protection. If I determine that I will not fellowship with darkness on Facebook, then I will not associate with, join hands with, link to, or befriend anyone or anything that pertains to spiritual and moral darkness. I will not befriend or “Like” or join in with communication threads pertaining to immodest dress or rock & roll (whether secular or “Christian”) or drinking or drugging or worldly partying or dating or vain philosophy or charismatic heresy or slandering of good churches. I refuse to have “a little fellowship” with darkness, because my God has instructed me to have “no fellowship” with it. The second command in Ephesians 5:11 is to “reprove them.” As a child of God, a pilgrim in a strange world, my responsibility is not finished when I avoid fellowship with evil and error. Separation is not enough. I must speak out against things that are wrong. This will tend to limit one’s associations and narrow one’s “tent,” but it is exactly what God’s Word commands. Godly reproof is light in the darkness, as we see in the same context: “But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light” (Ephesians 5:13). If you stand up for truth and righteousness as you should, you will not get along smoothly and comfortably with the worldly crowd. You will be like the pastor who shared the following with me recently: “I felt that when someone became my friend on Facebook they [should know] they had friended a Bible preacher. There were times I’d post Scripture and comment about Bible principles. As long as I was general about salvation, no big deal. But, as soon as I was specific about sin, I was attacked personally no matter how much Scripture I would use. One time I commented on Tim Tebow. I had been to his website to get some information about him and when his website loaded, a country music song about drinking on Friday night automatically played. I commented on Facebook about the bad testimony that was. That resulted in harsh criticism of me. One man said, ‘Tim Tebow will lead more people to Christ than you ever will.’ Many times Facebook created a forum for others to gang up on me. I made a comment about people being at the kids’ baseball game on Sunday instead of Church. Several ‘Christians’ criticized me.” This reminds me of something Jesus said: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19).

A SERMON THAT SAVED A SOUL 85 YEARS LATER (Friday Church News Notes, December 7, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from Spurgeon’s Lectures to My Students: “There is an authenticated case of a man being converted by a sermon eighty-five years after he had heard it preached. Mr. Flavel, at the close of a discourse, instead of pronouncing the usual benediction, stood up, and said, ‘How can I dismiss you with blessing, for many of you are Anathema Maranatha, because you love not the Lord Jesus Christ?’ A lad of fifteen heard that remarkable utterance; and eighty-five years afterwards, sitting under a hedge, I think in Virginia, the whole scene came vividly before him as if it had been but the day before; and it pleased God to bless Mr. Flavel’s words to his conversion, and he lived three years longer to bear good testimony that he had felt the power of the truth in his heart.”

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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