Friday Church News Notes
Volume 20, Issue 11 - March 15, 2019
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.
BIBLE GOING TO THE MOON ON ISRAEL’S SPACECRAFT (Friday Church News Notes, March 15, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A digital copy of the Bible is on the way to the moon on Israel’s first lunar landing spacecraft. Called Beresheet (Genesis), the craft was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on February 21 and is scheduled to land on the moon on April 11. The lander was built by SpaceIL, a private Israeli company, and was launched by SpaceX, a private American company. On March 6, the spacecraft took a “selfie” with the round earth in the background. In the foreground is a sign that says, “Small country, big dreams.” (Yes, Flat Earthers, Beresheet is yet another myth. SpaceIL is obviously in cahoots with NASA and the International Space Station and the European Space Agency, et al, to promote the lie that the earth is round.) If Beresheet succeeds, Israel will be the fourth country to make a moon landing, after the United States, the USSR, and China. The Bible is one of the documents in a 30-million-page archive of humanity’s achievements that is onboard the spacecraft. In the Bible onboard Beresheet is Israel’s past, present, and future. The prophecy of Ezekiel 37, given about 2,500 years ago, says that scattered Israel would miraculously return to her land, first in a spiritually dead condition, then revived and converted. Israel’s present return to the land fulfills the first part of the prophecy; the latter part remains to be fulfilled, but nothing can stop it. “So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.”
SERIAL “HONOR KILLINGS” IN PAKISTAN (Friday Church News Notes, March 15, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Honor killing” is defined as “acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonor upon the family.” It is practiced by Muslims in the Middle East and Turkey, and cases have also occurred in the West. According to the United Nations, 5,000 females are murdered every year in honor killings (“Murder in the Family,” Fox News, July 26, 2008). The perpetrators usually get off scot free or with a light sentence. In Pakistan, about 1,000 honor killings are recorded annually, but the number is likely much higher (“Afzal Kohistani: ‘Honour killing’ whistleblower shot dead,” BBC News, Mar. 7, 2019). Two families were nearly wiped out after a video was posted online in 2011 of two men dancing at a wedding as four women sing a song. A younger female member of the women’s family is also in the scene. The five females were subsequently killed by male members of the family who believed that their “honor” had been breached. When Afzal Kohistani, the older brother of the two men in the video, broke with local tradition and brought the case to national attention in 2012, he and his family became a target. His house was firebombed, three of his brothers were murdered, and he lived in constant danger. In March 2019, Kohistani was shot to death in broad daylight in spite of widespread media attention. Though honor killing is illegal in Pakistan, the police and the courts cannot protect those who are targeted.
PARENTS IN CANADA DENIED FOSTER CARE STATUS BECAUSE OF BIBLE BELIEFS (Friday Church News Notes, March 15, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Christianity in Canada,” Brownpublishings.com, Feb. 7, 2019: “A Christian couple in Canada was denied by a governmental adoption agency the ability to foster children, precisely because of their religious beliefs. A Human Rights Law Firm is challenging the actions of the Canadian government on the grounds of religious discrimination. While being interviewed by the adoption agency, the couple was questioned about their religious beliefs, to which the man stated that they are Christians. The social worker then asked him if their church ‘still believes in some of the more outdated parts of the Bible.’ The man stated that their church adheres to all of the Bible. The social worker stated that her son is gay and that churches had told her son in the past that homosexuality is a sin. The man then explained that although the Bible does identify homosexual behavior as a ‘sin,’ he believes all people are created in the image of God and are worthy of respect, dignity, and honor. He further explained that, in accordance with their beliefs, he and his wife would provide any child in their care with unconditional love, respect, and compassion regardless of the child’s sexuality, according to the press release. After the interview, approximately six months later, the couple received a letter in the mail stating their application had been denied. The letter read: ‘We feel that the policies of our agency do not appear to fit with your values and beliefs and therefore, we will be unable to move forward with approval for your family as resources home.’ … The couple then contacted the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom, a Human Rights law firm, about the matter. The Centre issued a letter to the adoption agency requesting a reversal of their decision and to end its religious discrimination practices.”
CHRISTIAN BAKER’S MAJOR VICTORY AFTER CONTINUOUS HARASSMENT FROM LGBT ACTIVISTS (Friday Church News Notes, March 15, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Christian Baker Jack Phillips,” DailyWire.com, Mar. 5, 2019: “Christian cake artist Jack Phillips has scored a major victory after facing years of continuous persecution for his religious beliefs from LGBT activists and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian nonprofit that advocates for religious freedom and traditional values, announced Tuesday that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission ‘will dismiss its most recent charges against cake artist Jack Phillips in the wake of newly discovered evidence of the state’s ongoing hostility toward religious freedom.’ After Phillips prevailed at the Supreme Court in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the Christian baker was targeted for refusing to create a transgender celebration cake due to his religious beliefs concerning sex and gender. ADF explains: ‘On June 26, 2017, the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, an attorney asked cake artist Jack Phillips to create a cake designed pink on the inside and blue on the outside, which the attorney said was to celebrate a gender transition from male to female. Phillips declined the request because the custom cake would have expressed messages about sex and gender identity that conflict with his religious beliefs. Less than a month after the Supreme Court ruled for Phillips in his first case, the state surprised him by finding probable cause to believe that Colorado law requires him to create the requested gender-transition cake.’ In response to the clearly-targeted harassment of Mr. Phillips, ADF attorneys filed Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Elenis. ‘We’re pleased that the state will be dismissing its case against Jack,’ said ADF attorney Kristen Waggoner, who represented Phillips in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. ‘This is the second time the state has launched a failed effort to prosecute him. While it finally appears to be getting the message that its anti-religious hostility has no place in our country, the state’s decision to target Jack has cost him more than six-and-a-half years of his life, forcing him to spend that time tied up in legal proceedings. Jack’s victory is great news for everyone. Tolerance and respect for good-faith differences of opinion are essential in a diverse society like ours. They enable us to peacefully coexist with each another. But the state’s demonstrated and ongoing hostility toward Jack because of his beliefs is undeniable,’ noted Waggoner.”
THE LIVING CELL (Friday Church News Notes, March 15, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Seeing the Non-existent: Evolution’s Myths and Hoaxes by David Cloud: “The living cell is a fantastically complex thing, more complex than a modern city. It’s a living body with organs called organelles. It has blueprints, decoders, error checkers, quality control systems, power plants (mitochondria), power storage units, manufacturing plants (cytoplasm, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus), chemical plants, assembly lines, disposal units (proteasome), trash compactors, a complex communication system, recycling centers (lysosomes), detoxification plants (peroxisomes), transportation highways and tracks and tunnels, transportation vehicles (dynein), incredible living walls with many types of one-way and two-way guarded, gated portals to the outside world, an external matrix to connect with other cells, and a host of other things. It is living and reproducing and not only makes its own machinery but also its own raw materials. The cell contains not only the blueprint of the plant or animal’s body and the information describing its every function but also the ability to actually fashion and operate it. A typical cell contains more than a trillion parts at the atomic level (Jerry Bergman, Ph.D. biology, In Six Days, edited by John Ashton, p. 25). Even a ‘simple’ E. coli bacterium has about 4,640,000 nucleotide base pairs, which code for 4,288 genes, each one of which produces an enormously complex protein machine (Bergman, p. 25). There are 200 major types of cells in the human body and each one contains the complete DNA needed to create the entire body. Each cell uses only that part of the DNA instructions necessary to accomplish its particular function. The information in the DNA in one human cell is equivalent to a library of 4,000 books (each containing 500 pages), yet all of the DNA from every person who has ever lived would weigh less than an aspirin tablet (Walt Brown, In the Beginning). The amount of information that could be stored in a pinhead’s volume of DNA is equivalent to a pile of paperback books 500 times as tall as the distance from earth to the Moon, each with a different, yet specific, content (W. Gitt, ‘Dazzling Design in Miniature,’ Creation Ex Nihilo, Dec. 1997 - Feb. 1998, p. 6). There are 60 trillion cells in the human body.”
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).
SERIAL “HONOR KILLINGS” IN PAKISTAN (Friday Church News Notes, March 15, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Honor killing” is defined as “acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonor upon the family.” It is practiced by Muslims in the Middle East and Turkey, and cases have also occurred in the West. According to the United Nations, 5,000 females are murdered every year in honor killings (“Murder in the Family,” Fox News, July 26, 2008). The perpetrators usually get off scot free or with a light sentence. In Pakistan, about 1,000 honor killings are recorded annually, but the number is likely much higher (“Afzal Kohistani: ‘Honour killing’ whistleblower shot dead,” BBC News, Mar. 7, 2019). Two families were nearly wiped out after a video was posted online in 2011 of two men dancing at a wedding as four women sing a song. A younger female member of the women’s family is also in the scene. The five females were subsequently killed by male members of the family who believed that their “honor” had been breached. When Afzal Kohistani, the older brother of the two men in the video, broke with local tradition and brought the case to national attention in 2012, he and his family became a target. His house was firebombed, three of his brothers were murdered, and he lived in constant danger. In March 2019, Kohistani was shot to death in broad daylight in spite of widespread media attention. Though honor killing is illegal in Pakistan, the police and the courts cannot protect those who are targeted.
PARENTS IN CANADA DENIED FOSTER CARE STATUS BECAUSE OF BIBLE BELIEFS (Friday Church News Notes, March 15, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Christianity in Canada,” Brownpublishings.com, Feb. 7, 2019: “A Christian couple in Canada was denied by a governmental adoption agency the ability to foster children, precisely because of their religious beliefs. A Human Rights Law Firm is challenging the actions of the Canadian government on the grounds of religious discrimination. While being interviewed by the adoption agency, the couple was questioned about their religious beliefs, to which the man stated that they are Christians. The social worker then asked him if their church ‘still believes in some of the more outdated parts of the Bible.’ The man stated that their church adheres to all of the Bible. The social worker stated that her son is gay and that churches had told her son in the past that homosexuality is a sin. The man then explained that although the Bible does identify homosexual behavior as a ‘sin,’ he believes all people are created in the image of God and are worthy of respect, dignity, and honor. He further explained that, in accordance with their beliefs, he and his wife would provide any child in their care with unconditional love, respect, and compassion regardless of the child’s sexuality, according to the press release. After the interview, approximately six months later, the couple received a letter in the mail stating their application had been denied. The letter read: ‘We feel that the policies of our agency do not appear to fit with your values and beliefs and therefore, we will be unable to move forward with approval for your family as resources home.’ … The couple then contacted the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom, a Human Rights law firm, about the matter. The Centre issued a letter to the adoption agency requesting a reversal of their decision and to end its religious discrimination practices.”
CHRISTIAN BAKER’S MAJOR VICTORY AFTER CONTINUOUS HARASSMENT FROM LGBT ACTIVISTS (Friday Church News Notes, March 15, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Christian Baker Jack Phillips,” DailyWire.com, Mar. 5, 2019: “Christian cake artist Jack Phillips has scored a major victory after facing years of continuous persecution for his religious beliefs from LGBT activists and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian nonprofit that advocates for religious freedom and traditional values, announced Tuesday that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission ‘will dismiss its most recent charges against cake artist Jack Phillips in the wake of newly discovered evidence of the state’s ongoing hostility toward religious freedom.’ After Phillips prevailed at the Supreme Court in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the Christian baker was targeted for refusing to create a transgender celebration cake due to his religious beliefs concerning sex and gender. ADF explains: ‘On June 26, 2017, the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, an attorney asked cake artist Jack Phillips to create a cake designed pink on the inside and blue on the outside, which the attorney said was to celebrate a gender transition from male to female. Phillips declined the request because the custom cake would have expressed messages about sex and gender identity that conflict with his religious beliefs. Less than a month after the Supreme Court ruled for Phillips in his first case, the state surprised him by finding probable cause to believe that Colorado law requires him to create the requested gender-transition cake.’ In response to the clearly-targeted harassment of Mr. Phillips, ADF attorneys filed Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Elenis. ‘We’re pleased that the state will be dismissing its case against Jack,’ said ADF attorney Kristen Waggoner, who represented Phillips in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. ‘This is the second time the state has launched a failed effort to prosecute him. While it finally appears to be getting the message that its anti-religious hostility has no place in our country, the state’s decision to target Jack has cost him more than six-and-a-half years of his life, forcing him to spend that time tied up in legal proceedings. Jack’s victory is great news for everyone. Tolerance and respect for good-faith differences of opinion are essential in a diverse society like ours. They enable us to peacefully coexist with each another. But the state’s demonstrated and ongoing hostility toward Jack because of his beliefs is undeniable,’ noted Waggoner.”
THE LIVING CELL (Friday Church News Notes, March 15, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Seeing the Non-existent: Evolution’s Myths and Hoaxes by David Cloud: “The living cell is a fantastically complex thing, more complex than a modern city. It’s a living body with organs called organelles. It has blueprints, decoders, error checkers, quality control systems, power plants (mitochondria), power storage units, manufacturing plants (cytoplasm, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus), chemical plants, assembly lines, disposal units (proteasome), trash compactors, a complex communication system, recycling centers (lysosomes), detoxification plants (peroxisomes), transportation highways and tracks and tunnels, transportation vehicles (dynein), incredible living walls with many types of one-way and two-way guarded, gated portals to the outside world, an external matrix to connect with other cells, and a host of other things. It is living and reproducing and not only makes its own machinery but also its own raw materials. The cell contains not only the blueprint of the plant or animal’s body and the information describing its every function but also the ability to actually fashion and operate it. A typical cell contains more than a trillion parts at the atomic level (Jerry Bergman, Ph.D. biology, In Six Days, edited by John Ashton, p. 25). Even a ‘simple’ E. coli bacterium has about 4,640,000 nucleotide base pairs, which code for 4,288 genes, each one of which produces an enormously complex protein machine (Bergman, p. 25). There are 200 major types of cells in the human body and each one contains the complete DNA needed to create the entire body. Each cell uses only that part of the DNA instructions necessary to accomplish its particular function. The information in the DNA in one human cell is equivalent to a library of 4,000 books (each containing 500 pages), yet all of the DNA from every person who has ever lived would weigh less than an aspirin tablet (Walt Brown, In the Beginning). The amount of information that could be stored in a pinhead’s volume of DNA is equivalent to a pile of paperback books 500 times as tall as the distance from earth to the Moon, each with a different, yet specific, content (W. Gitt, ‘Dazzling Design in Miniature,’ Creation Ex Nihilo, Dec. 1997 - Feb. 1998, p. 6). There are 60 trillion cells in the human body.”
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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