STEVEN ANDERSON BANNED FROM YET ANOTHER COUNTRY (Friday Church News Notes, May 17, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Steven Anderson has been banned from yet another country. This time it is Ireland. Anderson was scheduled to preach in Dublin on May 26, but the Minister for Justice signed an exclusion order against him. This is the first time that someone has been banned under a 1999 immigration law that allows exclusion “in the interest of national security or public policy.” The decision followed a gay activist petition that received over 14,000 signatures. Anderson is targeted for his statements that homosexuals should be killed. After the mass shooting at a gay-friendly nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016, Anderson said, “The good news is that there’s 50 less pedophiles in this world, because these homosexuals are just a bunch of disgusting perverts and pedophiles” (“Gay Hating Preacher,” Sunday Express, Sept. 16, 2016). Anderson said it was too bad some of the homosexuals survived. Of transgender celebrity Bruce (Caitlyn) Jenner, Anderson said in a sermon, “Listen to me--I hate him with a perfect hatred. I have no love for this Bruce freak. ... This person is just the evangelist of sodomy and filth to the world, and people are like, ‘Oh, we need to pray for him so that he finds Jesus.’ I’m going to pray that he dies and goes to Hell” (Adam Salandra, “Pastor Prays Caitlyn Jenner’s Heart Explodes,” NewNowNex, n.d.). Anderson has also preached “Why I Hate Barack Obama” and said that he prayed for the death of the former President. Anderson calls himself an Independent Baptist, but he is a deeply confused individual who should not be in the ministry. When James and John wanted to call down fire upon those who rejected the Lord, Christ rebuked them and said they were of the wrong spirit (Luke 9:54-56). Anderson denies the Holocaust, holds to Replacement Theology, believes that God is finished with Israel, rejects biblical repentance, believes that salvation doesn’t have evidence, and denies the imminency of the Rapture. Anderson has also been banned from or denied entry to the Netherlands (2019), Jamaica (2018), Canada (2017), South Africa (2016), Botswana (2016), Malawi (2016), and the United Kingdom (2016). (For more on this see What about Steven Anderson? a free eBook available at www.wayoflife.org.)

HILLSONG’S FALSE GOSPEL (Friday Church News Notes, May 17, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Hillsong is one of the most influential names in contemporary Christian music. Hillsong began in a mega-church in Sydney, Australia, with music produced under the direction of worship leader Darlene Zschech. It has since multiplied into a group of churches in 21 countries. Hillsong is Pentecostal (the original Hillsong was an Assemblies of God church) and radically ecumenical, with close ties to the Roman Catholic Church. It preaches the Word-Faith heresy and a no-repentance, “you don’t have to change anything” false gospel. Joel Houston, Hillsong United worship leader who is currently on tour in the United States, says, “God loves you more than you could ever imagine just the way you are, you don’t have to change anything, just you, He knows you” (“Hillsong’s Joel Houston declares God is doing something new in America,” Christian Post, May 10, 2019). God does love sinners, and He does love them as they are, in their sins, which is why Christ shed His blood in the sinner’s behalf; but the “you don’t have to change anything” is a damnable lie. Consider the clear Word of God: “Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3, 5). “O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision: But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance” (Acts 26:19-20). Salvation is God’s free gift without works, but it is received by repentance and faith and always produces a dramatic change of lifestyle. “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4). Hillsong is lying to this generation, offering no-repentance “cheap grace” which is no grace at all. It wasn’t that long ago that Hillsong was too charismatic, too radical, too hard rocking to be heard in an Independent Baptist church, but that has changed. “Toned down” editions of Hillsong’s music are heard in many Independent Baptist churches and schools today. We suggest that if a church is going to use CCM, it should use it properly, which requires full-blown rock & roll that captures the people’s very souls and sweeps them into fleshly, charismatic mysticism. It requires giving oneself over 100% to the power of the music. That’s what CCM is all about and that’s where it always leads. So if you intend to go in that direction, then go for it full bore and skip the ridiculous “adaptation” middle ground. If you love CCM, stop pretending that you don’t!

PENTECOSTALS HOPING TO REKINDLE THE 1990s WILDFIRE (Friday Church News Notes, May 17, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Pentecostals are hoping to rekindle the wildfire with “Light the Fire Again Pensacola,” scheduled for September 4-7. A quarter century ago, “spirit drunkenness,” “holy laughter,” and other unscriptural phenomena broke out in multiple places, most prominently at Carpenter’s Home Church in Lakeland, Florida (began May 1993, led by Rodney Howard-Browne), Airport Church in Toronto, Canada (began January 1994, led by John Arnott), and Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida (began June 1995, led by Steve Hill and John Kilpatrick). The “fire” was also associated with Claudio Friedzon in Argentina, who in November 1993 taught John Arnott to “dial down the analysis” so he could “receive the spirit of fire” (Guy Chevreau, Catch the Fire, p. 24). This is the unscriptural Pentecostal doctrine of “open up; don’t judge; just receive the Spirit,” which is clear disobedience to God’s command to “be sober, be vigilant” (1 Peter 5:8) and therefore a path to spiritual delusion. At the beginning of the “outpouring” at Brownsville, Pastor John Kilpatrick fell to the floor and lay there for almost four hours. He said, “When I hit that floor, it felt like I weighed 10,000 pounds. I knew something supernatural was happening” (Charisma, June 1996). Church members had to haul their pastor out of the church in a wheelchair because he was too drunk to walk. There was also “spiritual jerking.” A 19-year-old female college student jerked so uncontrollably as she “prophesied” that she appeared to be suffering from seizures. A female choir member experienced wild and uncontrollable jerking of her head whenever she was near the church. At Toronto Airport Church there were spirit slayings, uncontrollable bodily jerks, birth groans, drunkenness, hysterical laughter, roaring, howling, braying, clucking. In Lakeland, the focus was on drunkenness and laughter. Rodney Howard-Browne called himself the “Holy Ghost bartender.” Oral Roberts’ son Richard, who flew to Florida to catch the fire, said he and his family ended up on the floor laughing at every service. On the flight back to Tulsa, Richard laughed so uncontrollably that the flight attendant thought something was wrong with him. Perpetually in financial straits, Oral and Richard Roberts claimed that God was helping them laugh their way out of debt. Marilyn Hickey (author of God’s Seven Keys to Make You Rich) also spent her time in Lakeland on the floor laughing. When Howard-Browne called this loquacious Pentecostal female preacher to the microphone, she laughed and fell down and could not speak, which in her case was doubtless a miracle. (For more about the “fire” in Brownsville, Lakeland, Toronto, and elsewhere see The Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements, available from www.wayoflife.org.)

SCIENTISTS DESIGN AN ENERGY HARVESTER BY STUDYING ASPEN LEAVES (Friday Church News Notes, May 17, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A new leaf-like energy harvester is the latest in a series of “nature inspired” technologies from a field called “biomimicry.” “Inspired by aspen leaves, which tremble in the slightest of breezes, scientists at the University of Warwick have developed a leaf-shaped energy harvester. Researchers suggest the device could power weather sensors in hostile environments, like those deployed by Martian rovers. [Researchers] used computer models to better understand the unique sensitivity of aspen leaves to wind. The analysis showed the leaf's thin, flat stem plays an important role. The stem's tendency to twist in two directions causes the long, thin leaf below to quiver. Armed with their new knowledge, scientists designed a model to produce a mechanical representation of an aspen leaf. They produced a device characterized by a flat stem, cantilever beam, curved blade tip and an arced cross section” (“Shaking aspen leaves inspire,” UPI, Mar. 18, 2019). The field of biomimicry has exploded in the 21st century. Edward Kelley copied the human eye’s design to create a camera that has 70 times better clarity and resolution in dealing with lens flare. Anthony Brennan developed Sharklet by studying how shark’s skin prevents fouling by algae and barnacles via a microscopic toothlike pattern of the scales. Eiji Nakatsu patterned the nose of a bullet train after the design of the kingfisher’s beak. WhalePower Corporation created superior fan blades by mimicking the bumps on the flipper of the humpback whale. Mick Pearce created the non-air-conditioned cooling system of a building in Harare, Zimbabwe, by mimicking the design of termite mounds. Dozens of other examples could be cited. Biomimicry scientists typically describe nature both as a product of blind evolution and as a design factory, which is an impossibility. A report by Hewlett Packard at hpmegatrends.com on “BioConvergence” begins with this astonishing statement: “After about 4.5 billion years of solid research and development, nature has developed some ingenious solutions.” But it is complete nonsense to describe non-directed, non-intelligence-driven evolution as “research and development”? How can the processes of natural selection and genetic mutations see the need for something and produce genetically complex solutions? Scientists involved in this field continually express amazement at “nature’s” fantastically complicated designs. Geri Richmond of the University of Oregon says, “We’re in the stone age compared to nature” (“Sponge Has Natural Glass Fiber Optics,” San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 8, 2000, p. A2). Isn’t blind evolution amazing! It supposedly creates “ingenious,” “exquisite,” “complex” designs that cause the most brilliant scientists and engineers to marvel. Though most scientists who operate in the field of “biomimicry” believe in evolution, their own work disproves it if they would but open their eyes and stop blindly following a man-made theory.

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).