Friday Church News Notes
Volume 20, Issue 22 - May 21, 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.
BETH MOORE SAYS CHRISTIAN MEN REFUSE FEMALE LEADERSHIP BECAUSE OF SINFUL PRIDE (Friday Church News Notes, May 31, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Beth Moore Challenges Theologian,” ChristianHeadlines.com, May 14, 2019: “Prominent Southern Baptist Bible teacher Beth Moore has ignited a firestorm on Twitter after challenging a theologian who singled her out in a blog post for encouraging women to preach. Owen Strachan, associate professor of Christian theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri, said in the May 7 post he was surprised that both Moore and SBC President J. D. Greear support ‘a woman teaching and preaching to the corporate body.’ He followed that up on Twitter the next day, saying, ‘One thing we [complementarians] have massive agreement on: women do not preach on Sunday to the church. Doing so is functional egalitarianism. We will not capitulate here.’ Complementarians embrace the Scriptural view that the role of men and women is distinct and complements one another within the home and church ... Moore responded to Strachan with a series of tweets. ‘Owen, I am going to say this with as much respect & as much self-restraint as I can possibly muster. I would be terrified to be a woman you’d approve of. And I would have wasted 40 years of my life encouraging women to come to know and love Jesus through the study of Scripture. I am compelled to my bones by the Holy Spirit—I don’t want to be but I am—to draw attention to the sexism & misogyny that is rampant in segments of the SBC, cloaked by piety & bearing the stench of hypocrisy....’ She wrote, ‘I had the eye opening experience of my life in 2016. A fog cleared for me that was the most disturbing, terrifying thing I’d ever seen. All these years I’d given the benefit of the doubt that these men were the way they were because they were trying to be obedient to Scripture. ... Then I realized it was not over Scripture at all. It was over sin. It was over power. It was over misogyny. Sexism. It was about arrogance. About protecting systems. It involved covering abuses & misuses of power. Shepherds guarding other shepherds instead of guarding the sheep.’ For Strachan and other complementarians, though, that path to serving is clearly defined in Scripture and is not negotiable. ‘For a woman to teach and preach to adult men is to defy God’s Word and God’s design,’ Strachan wrote in his blog post. ‘Elders must not allow such a sinful practice; to do so is to bring the church body into disobedience against God.’”
BETH MOORE’S PROMOTION OF CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER (Friday Church News Notes, May 31, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Beth Moore’s contemplative prayer probably explains the “revelation” she describes in the previous report: that in 2016 her eyes were opened to see that men who refuse women preachers are sinfully proud. While it’s probably true that some men who are opposed to women preachers are proud, the rejection of women preachers and women church leaders is clearly taught in God’s Word and is therefore a doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the Bible’s Author. “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression” (1 Timothy 2:11-14). In rejecting this doctrine and attributing it to sin, Moore is communing with devils. Moore, a Southern Baptist who is influential with a broad spectrum of evangelical women, is very much on the contemplative bandwagon. She joined Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, and other contemplatives on the Be Still DVD, which was published in April 2008 by Fox Home Entertainment. Lighthouse Trails issued the following discerning warning: “In the DVD, there are countless enticements, references and comments that clearly show its affinity with contemplative spirituality. For instance, Richard Foster says that anyone can practice contemplative prayer and become a ‘portable sanctuary’ for God. This panentheistic view of God is very typical for contemplatives. ... The underlying theme of the Be Still DVD is that we cannot truly know God or be intimate with Him without contemplative prayer and the state of silence that it produces. While the DVD is vague and lacking in actual instruction on word or phrase repetition (which lies at the heart of contemplative prayer), it is really quite misleading. What they don’t tell you in the DVD is that this state of stillness or silence is, for the most part, achieved through some method such as mantra-like meditation. THE PURPOSE OF THE DVD, IN ESSENCE, IS NOT TO INSTRUCT YOU IN CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER BUT RATHER TO MAKE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY HUNGRY FOR IT. The DVD even promises that practicing the silence will heal your family problems. ... THIS PROJECT IS AN INFOMERCIAL FOR CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICE, and because of the huge advertising campaign that Fox Home Entertainment has launched, contemplative prayer could be potentially introduced into millions of homes around the world. [On the DVD Moore says], ‘... if we are not still before Him [God], we will never truly know to the depths of the marrow of our bones that He is God. There’s got to be a stillness’” (“Beth Moore Gives Thumbs Up,” lighthousetrailsresearch.com). In her book When Godly People Do Ungodly Things (2002), Moore recommends contemplative Roman Catholics Brother Lawrence and Brennan Manning. Of Manning she says that his contribution to our generation “may be a gift without parallel” (p. 72) and calls Manning’s Ragamuffin Gospel “one of the most remarkable books” (p. 290). She does not warn her readers that Manning never gives a clear testimony of salvation or a clear gospel in his writings, that he attended Catholic Mass regularly, that he believed it is wrong for churches to require that homosexuals repent before they can be members, that he promoted the use of mantras to create a thoughtless state of silent meditation, that he spent six months in isolation in a cave and spends eight days each year in silent retreat under the direction of a Dominican nun, that he promoted the dangerous practice of visualization, that he quoted approvingly from New Agers such as Beatrice Bruteau (who says, “We have realized ourselves as the Self that says only I AM ... unlimited, absolute I AM”) and Matthew Fox (who says all religions lead to the same God), and that he believes in universal salvation, that everyone including Hitler will go to heaven. (For documentation see “A Biographical Catalog of Contemplative Mystics” in the book Contemplative Mysticism: A Powerful Ecumenical Glue, available from www.wayoflife.org.) Beth Moore is the blind leading the blind, and her vast popularity is clear evidence of the apostasy of the Southern Baptist Convention.
WOMEN’S GROUP CALLS ON IDF TO REINSTATE “MOTHER” AND “FATHER” TO FORMS (Friday Church News Notes, May 31, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Women’s Movement,” Arutz Sheva, May 21, 2019: “The Shovrot Shivyon (Breaking Equality) women's movement on Tuesday called on the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] ‘to return Father and Mother to the induction forms and immediately remove the categories of Parent 1 and Parent 2, recently instituted by the IDF. The new categories were instituted in response to continuous pressure from LGBT groups and in order to avoid embarrassment during the recruitment process. According to Shovrot Shivyon, ‘Identity politics have penetrated the IDF. The minority is forcing its opinion on the majority who believe in the values of the natural family. The IDF Spokesperson stated that the goal was to prevent embarrassment during induction stages. The silent and conservative majority was the one who felt embarrassed by such a form. Progressive values are assimilated by left-extreme groups without any public discussion, with the other side being silenced and modernized. As women and mothers, we call on the army to return to a consensus and avoid political disagreements that shape society at the expense of our children.’”
METALWORKING BEFORE THE FLOOD (Friday Church News Notes, May 31, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from Creation Moments, Apr. 29, 2019: “The first metalworker recorded in history was Tubal-Cain. He is mentioned in Genesis chapter 4, where it says: ‘And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron.’ Neither bronze nor iron is found naturally, so this shows that Tubal-Cain must have developed technologies to extract the metals from their ores. Since we are referring to a time before the Flood, we must also assume that the ores containing these metals were placed in the crust during the Creation Week as part of the original bedrock of the Earth. We refer to such rocks as Plutonic Rocks. At first sight, we would imagine that two metals were being worked. In fact, there must have been at least three because bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. Copper and tin are relatively easy to extract from their ores just by heating with a source of carbon, such as charcoal. Iron is a little more sophisticated because it requires a blast furnace, heated extra hot by blowing air into the furnace, with the ore and carbon, probably by bellows. The use of a forge suggests that Tubal-Cain was able to work these metals, perhaps by working the alloys and also by molding the molten metal and beating the solid metal. That this sort of advanced technology existed before the Flood shows that an evolutionary view of human progress is not correct. It also explains how such technologies could be quickly reproduced by early civilizations after the Flood.”
Baptist preacher, professor, and commentary writer B.H. Carroll, speaking of his empty profession of faith at age 13: “I did not believe, in any true sense, in the divinity or vicarious sufferings of Jesus. I had no confidence in professed conversion and regeneration. I had not felt lost, nor did I feel saved. There was no perceptible, radical change in my disposition or affections. What I once loved, I still loved. What I once hated, I still hated” (My Infidelity and What Became of It). “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
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).
BETH MOORE’S PROMOTION OF CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER (Friday Church News Notes, May 31, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Beth Moore’s contemplative prayer probably explains the “revelation” she describes in the previous report: that in 2016 her eyes were opened to see that men who refuse women preachers are sinfully proud. While it’s probably true that some men who are opposed to women preachers are proud, the rejection of women preachers and women church leaders is clearly taught in God’s Word and is therefore a doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the Bible’s Author. “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression” (1 Timothy 2:11-14). In rejecting this doctrine and attributing it to sin, Moore is communing with devils. Moore, a Southern Baptist who is influential with a broad spectrum of evangelical women, is very much on the contemplative bandwagon. She joined Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, and other contemplatives on the Be Still DVD, which was published in April 2008 by Fox Home Entertainment. Lighthouse Trails issued the following discerning warning: “In the DVD, there are countless enticements, references and comments that clearly show its affinity with contemplative spirituality. For instance, Richard Foster says that anyone can practice contemplative prayer and become a ‘portable sanctuary’ for God. This panentheistic view of God is very typical for contemplatives. ... The underlying theme of the Be Still DVD is that we cannot truly know God or be intimate with Him without contemplative prayer and the state of silence that it produces. While the DVD is vague and lacking in actual instruction on word or phrase repetition (which lies at the heart of contemplative prayer), it is really quite misleading. What they don’t tell you in the DVD is that this state of stillness or silence is, for the most part, achieved through some method such as mantra-like meditation. THE PURPOSE OF THE DVD, IN ESSENCE, IS NOT TO INSTRUCT YOU IN CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER BUT RATHER TO MAKE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY HUNGRY FOR IT. The DVD even promises that practicing the silence will heal your family problems. ... THIS PROJECT IS AN INFOMERCIAL FOR CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICE, and because of the huge advertising campaign that Fox Home Entertainment has launched, contemplative prayer could be potentially introduced into millions of homes around the world. [On the DVD Moore says], ‘... if we are not still before Him [God], we will never truly know to the depths of the marrow of our bones that He is God. There’s got to be a stillness’” (“Beth Moore Gives Thumbs Up,” lighthousetrailsresearch.com). In her book When Godly People Do Ungodly Things (2002), Moore recommends contemplative Roman Catholics Brother Lawrence and Brennan Manning. Of Manning she says that his contribution to our generation “may be a gift without parallel” (p. 72) and calls Manning’s Ragamuffin Gospel “one of the most remarkable books” (p. 290). She does not warn her readers that Manning never gives a clear testimony of salvation or a clear gospel in his writings, that he attended Catholic Mass regularly, that he believed it is wrong for churches to require that homosexuals repent before they can be members, that he promoted the use of mantras to create a thoughtless state of silent meditation, that he spent six months in isolation in a cave and spends eight days each year in silent retreat under the direction of a Dominican nun, that he promoted the dangerous practice of visualization, that he quoted approvingly from New Agers such as Beatrice Bruteau (who says, “We have realized ourselves as the Self that says only I AM ... unlimited, absolute I AM”) and Matthew Fox (who says all religions lead to the same God), and that he believes in universal salvation, that everyone including Hitler will go to heaven. (For documentation see “A Biographical Catalog of Contemplative Mystics” in the book Contemplative Mysticism: A Powerful Ecumenical Glue, available from www.wayoflife.org.) Beth Moore is the blind leading the blind, and her vast popularity is clear evidence of the apostasy of the Southern Baptist Convention.
WOMEN’S GROUP CALLS ON IDF TO REINSTATE “MOTHER” AND “FATHER” TO FORMS (Friday Church News Notes, May 31, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Women’s Movement,” Arutz Sheva, May 21, 2019: “The Shovrot Shivyon (Breaking Equality) women's movement on Tuesday called on the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] ‘to return Father and Mother to the induction forms and immediately remove the categories of Parent 1 and Parent 2, recently instituted by the IDF. The new categories were instituted in response to continuous pressure from LGBT groups and in order to avoid embarrassment during the recruitment process. According to Shovrot Shivyon, ‘Identity politics have penetrated the IDF. The minority is forcing its opinion on the majority who believe in the values of the natural family. The IDF Spokesperson stated that the goal was to prevent embarrassment during induction stages. The silent and conservative majority was the one who felt embarrassed by such a form. Progressive values are assimilated by left-extreme groups without any public discussion, with the other side being silenced and modernized. As women and mothers, we call on the army to return to a consensus and avoid political disagreements that shape society at the expense of our children.’”
METALWORKING BEFORE THE FLOOD (Friday Church News Notes, May 31, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from Creation Moments, Apr. 29, 2019: “The first metalworker recorded in history was Tubal-Cain. He is mentioned in Genesis chapter 4, where it says: ‘And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron.’ Neither bronze nor iron is found naturally, so this shows that Tubal-Cain must have developed technologies to extract the metals from their ores. Since we are referring to a time before the Flood, we must also assume that the ores containing these metals were placed in the crust during the Creation Week as part of the original bedrock of the Earth. We refer to such rocks as Plutonic Rocks. At first sight, we would imagine that two metals were being worked. In fact, there must have been at least three because bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. Copper and tin are relatively easy to extract from their ores just by heating with a source of carbon, such as charcoal. Iron is a little more sophisticated because it requires a blast furnace, heated extra hot by blowing air into the furnace, with the ore and carbon, probably by bellows. The use of a forge suggests that Tubal-Cain was able to work these metals, perhaps by working the alloys and also by molding the molten metal and beating the solid metal. That this sort of advanced technology existed before the Flood shows that an evolutionary view of human progress is not correct. It also explains how such technologies could be quickly reproduced by early civilizations after the Flood.”
Baptist preacher, professor, and commentary writer B.H. Carroll, speaking of his empty profession of faith at age 13: “I did not believe, in any true sense, in the divinity or vicarious sufferings of Jesus. I had no confidence in professed conversion and regeneration. I had not felt lost, nor did I feel saved. There was no perceptible, radical change in my disposition or affections. What I once loved, I still loved. What I once hated, I still hated” (My Infidelity and What Became of It). “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
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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