Friday Church News Notes
Volume 20, Issue 23 - June 7, 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.
Pastor David Platt and President Donald Trump
PRESIDENT TRUMP VISITS SBC CHURCH UNANNOUNCED FOR PRAYER (Friday Church News Notes, June 7, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - On Sunday morning, June 2, U.S. President Donald Trump made an unscheduled visit to the McClean Bible Church in Vienna, Virginia. Franklin Graham had called for a special day of prayer for the President on that day, saying, “If his enemies are allowed to destroy him, and pull down the presidency, it will hurt our entire nation.” Trump had tweeted about this multiple times. The church learned of the visit at the end of the morning service when they were told that the President was stopping by for prayer (“Pastor explains sudden decision to pray for Trump,” USA Today, June 3, 2019). The President removed his hat and stood respectfully onstage with his head bowed while Pastor David Platt prayed as follows: “Oh God, we praise you as the one universal King over all. You are our leader and our Lord and we worship you. There’s one God and one Savior and it’s you, and your name is Jesus and we exalt you, Jesus. And we know we need your mercy, we need your grace, we need your help, we need your wisdom in our country. And so we stand right now on behalf of our president and we pray for your grace and your mercy and your wisdom upon him. God, we pray that he would know how much you love him, so much that you sent Jesus to die for his sins, our sins. So we pray that he would look to you and he would trust in you, he would lean on you, that he would govern and make decisions in ways that are good for justice and good for righteousness and good for equity--every good path. Lord we pray, we pray that you would give him all of the grace that he needs to govern in ways that we just saw in 1 Timothy 2 that lead to peaceful and quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way. God, we pray for your blessing in that way upon his family. We pray that you give him strength, we pray that you give him clarity, wisdom, wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Please, oh God, give him wisdom and help him to lead our country. Alongside other leaders we pray today for leaders in Congress pray for leaders in courts, we pray for leaders in national and state levels” (“Trump Surprises Evangelical Church with Visit,” Christian Headlines, June 3, 2019). It was a prayer with glaring omissions (e.g., no mention of Christ’s blood atonement; no confession of sin; no mention of repentance), in a very cool, rock & roll, “let’s not judge” SBC church, and it is sad that the President spent most of his Sunday morning on the golf course. But we are glad that the President desires prayer, and we do believe in praying for him. While we don’t join hands with “live after their own lusts” rock & rollers (2 Ti. 4:3-4) and ecumenists and “tongues” speakers, because God forbids us to do so, we do pray without ceasing for our president and our government leaders in obedience to 1 Timothy 2, and we believe God for the answer even in dark times.
200 EX-LGBT MEN, WOMEN RALLY TO SHOW FREEDOM THEY’VE FOUND IN JESUS (Friday Church News Notes, June 7, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “200 ex-LGBT,” LifeSiteNews.com, May 28, 2019: “Ex-homosexual and ex-transgender men and women from around the country descended upon the Nation’s Capital this weekend for the Second Annual ‘Freedom March’ where they proclaimed the freedom they’ve found in abandoning homosexual and transgender practices. ‘Look at this! This is Amazing! They say we don’t exist!’ declared author and documentary producer M.J. Nixon, a march co-founder, as many gathered for a group picture. About 200 participated this year—a threefold increase over last year. Former transwoman Jeffrey McCall kicked off the rally on the grounds of the Washington Monument, explaining that nobody here was forced to change. ‘It was the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of Jesus Christ that fell on all of us.’ One testimony after another from the racially diverse group of mostly millennials spoke about their personal conversion to Jesus and the freedom they have found from lives dominated by active homosexuality or gender dysphoria. A second Pulse Nightclub survivor [the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, three years ago], Luis Ruiz, said that like many of the people participating in the March the reason why he was there is ultimately because he had a ‘mother and a father that never compromised the Gospel. They prayed and prayed and believed not in my situation, but in my destiny, my identity found in Christ Jesus.’ ‘It wasn’t a gay to straight thing,’ said Ruiz, ‘It was a lost to saved thing. We were all born into sin, baby. Even though I might be tempted every day, I choose Jesus. He’s the only man in my life. I chose Him over him.’”
COLORADO BECOMES 18TH STATE TO BAN “GAY CONVERSION THERAPY,” AN ATTACK UPON FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND SPEECH (Friday Church News Notes, June 7, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In a brazen attack upon the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of religion and freedom of speech, Colorado has become America’s 18th state to ban “gay conversion therapy.” It was signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis, the first openly homosexual governor in America’s history. This is another example of how that “homosexual rights” trump and thus destroy the freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution. The fact that these laws are not being quickly overturned by the judicial branch is evidence that the judges in question are unethical activists who are not upholding the Constitution they have sworn to uphold.
THE SLAVE MARKETS OF UGANDA (Friday Church News Notes, June 7, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Modern-day Slavery,” msn.com, June 2, 2019: “When Christine Nambereke left for Oman last September, she was hopeful she was on her way to helping her family--including her husband, James Obed, and seven children--fight crippling poverty. An agent had promised the 31-year-old Nambereke, from eastern Uganda’s Bumbo village, a job as a housemaid with a monthly pay of 600,000 shillings ($168). But when she reached Muscat, she was sold as a slave. When she returned to Uganda in early May, she was dead. ... These women--all of whom died unnatural deaths after complaining of abuse--are just the most extreme examples of a growing epidemic of an increasingly open, modern slave trade that starts in Uganda’s eastern region and culminates in closed rooms in Gulf nations. Migrant workers from across Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia have for several years complained of abuse in the Middle East. But over the past year, eastern Uganda has emerged as the theater of a double-barreled racket. At fast-spreading weekly markets, some women are promised jobs in the Gulf only to be sold once they get there, while others--many of them girls between the ages of 10 and 18--are directly and publicly ‘bought’ as slaves and then resold in the Middle East, according to Ugandan authorities, Interpol, independent experts, legislators, and victims and their families. The public sale of women started at Arapai, eastern Uganda’s second-largest market located 180 miles northeast of the capital Kampala, in January 2018, says Edina Nagudi, the local government’s officer in charge of the region’s markets. ... The practice quickly spread to other regional markets such as Chapi and Sire. At Arapai alone, up to 50 girls are now auctioned in a day, says Nagudi. Overall, more than 9,000 girls and young women are estimated to have been bought at these eastern Uganda markets since last year--for as little as 50,000 shillings ($14), according to Betty Atim, a Ugandan member of Parliament. ... And for some, even death doesn’t bring closure. After 22-year-old Shivan Kihembo died in Oman in October--months after she had been sold there--her father, Patrick Mugume, was asked by his daughter’s ‘owners’ for money if he wanted her body back. ‘I sold my land … and sent it to her boss in Oman before the body was released,’ he says. ... Uganda has a per capita income of $604, so Nambereke was promised three times what the average Ugandan earns. ... Some, like Stella Namazzi, who escaped from her masters in Jordan, return with tales of horror. ‘We were lined up in a big room,’ she recalls. ‘Those who wanted to buy us came and pointed out who they wanted to buy. We were sold as if we were domestic animals.’ For the traffickers, there’s big money involved: The women bought for $14 are sold for as much as $10,000 in the Middle East, authorities say. When Zubedah Nakitende complained to her Jordanian employers that her hands were aching from work, her boss gave her what she thought was water to wash her hands. It turned out to be an acid that ate up her fingers. Unable to work anymore, she was sent back to Uganda--where she had to have her fingers amputated.”
METHODIST CHURCH MORE LIBERAL THAN ALABAMA’S PUBLIC TELEVISION NETWORK (Friday Church News Notes, June 7, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - First United Methodist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, screened an episode of the children’s show Arthur depicting a “same-sex wedding.” The same show was rejected by Alabama Public Television (“Alabama Methodist church to screen shunned ‘Arthur’ episode,” AP, June 3, 2019). The mainstream Protestant denominations (e.g., Episcopal, United Methodist, Presbyterian Church USA, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) have been permeated with wicked theological liberalism since the turn of the twentieth century. The so-called “evangelicals” who remain in these denominations are openly and brazenly disobedient to God’s Word, which says, “Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? ... Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:14, 17, 18), and, “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (2 Timothy 3:5).
COOKSTOVE APOSTASY (Friday Church News Notes, June 7, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Cookstove Apostasy,” The Gospel Advocate, May 30, 1935: “Today, the supper room has taken place of the upper room, play has taken the place of prayer, and feasting the place of fasting. There are more full stomachs than there are bended knees and broken hearts. There is more fire in the range in the kitchen than there is in the pulpit. ... Oh, I would like the cooking squad put out and the praying band let in, less ham and sham and more heaven, less pie and more piety, less use for the cook book, and more use for the Old Book. Put out the fire in the kitchen and build up the fire in the pulpit.”
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).
200 EX-LGBT MEN, WOMEN RALLY TO SHOW FREEDOM THEY’VE FOUND IN JESUS (Friday Church News Notes, June 7, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “200 ex-LGBT,” LifeSiteNews.com, May 28, 2019: “Ex-homosexual and ex-transgender men and women from around the country descended upon the Nation’s Capital this weekend for the Second Annual ‘Freedom March’ where they proclaimed the freedom they’ve found in abandoning homosexual and transgender practices. ‘Look at this! This is Amazing! They say we don’t exist!’ declared author and documentary producer M.J. Nixon, a march co-founder, as many gathered for a group picture. About 200 participated this year—a threefold increase over last year. Former transwoman Jeffrey McCall kicked off the rally on the grounds of the Washington Monument, explaining that nobody here was forced to change. ‘It was the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of Jesus Christ that fell on all of us.’ One testimony after another from the racially diverse group of mostly millennials spoke about their personal conversion to Jesus and the freedom they have found from lives dominated by active homosexuality or gender dysphoria. A second Pulse Nightclub survivor [the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, three years ago], Luis Ruiz, said that like many of the people participating in the March the reason why he was there is ultimately because he had a ‘mother and a father that never compromised the Gospel. They prayed and prayed and believed not in my situation, but in my destiny, my identity found in Christ Jesus.’ ‘It wasn’t a gay to straight thing,’ said Ruiz, ‘It was a lost to saved thing. We were all born into sin, baby. Even though I might be tempted every day, I choose Jesus. He’s the only man in my life. I chose Him over him.’”
COLORADO BECOMES 18TH STATE TO BAN “GAY CONVERSION THERAPY,” AN ATTACK UPON FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND SPEECH (Friday Church News Notes, June 7, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In a brazen attack upon the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of religion and freedom of speech, Colorado has become America’s 18th state to ban “gay conversion therapy.” It was signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis, the first openly homosexual governor in America’s history. This is another example of how that “homosexual rights” trump and thus destroy the freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution. The fact that these laws are not being quickly overturned by the judicial branch is evidence that the judges in question are unethical activists who are not upholding the Constitution they have sworn to uphold.
THE SLAVE MARKETS OF UGANDA (Friday Church News Notes, June 7, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Modern-day Slavery,” msn.com, June 2, 2019: “When Christine Nambereke left for Oman last September, she was hopeful she was on her way to helping her family--including her husband, James Obed, and seven children--fight crippling poverty. An agent had promised the 31-year-old Nambereke, from eastern Uganda’s Bumbo village, a job as a housemaid with a monthly pay of 600,000 shillings ($168). But when she reached Muscat, she was sold as a slave. When she returned to Uganda in early May, she was dead. ... These women--all of whom died unnatural deaths after complaining of abuse--are just the most extreme examples of a growing epidemic of an increasingly open, modern slave trade that starts in Uganda’s eastern region and culminates in closed rooms in Gulf nations. Migrant workers from across Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia have for several years complained of abuse in the Middle East. But over the past year, eastern Uganda has emerged as the theater of a double-barreled racket. At fast-spreading weekly markets, some women are promised jobs in the Gulf only to be sold once they get there, while others--many of them girls between the ages of 10 and 18--are directly and publicly ‘bought’ as slaves and then resold in the Middle East, according to Ugandan authorities, Interpol, independent experts, legislators, and victims and their families. The public sale of women started at Arapai, eastern Uganda’s second-largest market located 180 miles northeast of the capital Kampala, in January 2018, says Edina Nagudi, the local government’s officer in charge of the region’s markets. ... The practice quickly spread to other regional markets such as Chapi and Sire. At Arapai alone, up to 50 girls are now auctioned in a day, says Nagudi. Overall, more than 9,000 girls and young women are estimated to have been bought at these eastern Uganda markets since last year--for as little as 50,000 shillings ($14), according to Betty Atim, a Ugandan member of Parliament. ... And for some, even death doesn’t bring closure. After 22-year-old Shivan Kihembo died in Oman in October--months after she had been sold there--her father, Patrick Mugume, was asked by his daughter’s ‘owners’ for money if he wanted her body back. ‘I sold my land … and sent it to her boss in Oman before the body was released,’ he says. ... Uganda has a per capita income of $604, so Nambereke was promised three times what the average Ugandan earns. ... Some, like Stella Namazzi, who escaped from her masters in Jordan, return with tales of horror. ‘We were lined up in a big room,’ she recalls. ‘Those who wanted to buy us came and pointed out who they wanted to buy. We were sold as if we were domestic animals.’ For the traffickers, there’s big money involved: The women bought for $14 are sold for as much as $10,000 in the Middle East, authorities say. When Zubedah Nakitende complained to her Jordanian employers that her hands were aching from work, her boss gave her what she thought was water to wash her hands. It turned out to be an acid that ate up her fingers. Unable to work anymore, she was sent back to Uganda--where she had to have her fingers amputated.”
METHODIST CHURCH MORE LIBERAL THAN ALABAMA’S PUBLIC TELEVISION NETWORK (Friday Church News Notes, June 7, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - First United Methodist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, screened an episode of the children’s show Arthur depicting a “same-sex wedding.” The same show was rejected by Alabama Public Television (“Alabama Methodist church to screen shunned ‘Arthur’ episode,” AP, June 3, 2019). The mainstream Protestant denominations (e.g., Episcopal, United Methodist, Presbyterian Church USA, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) have been permeated with wicked theological liberalism since the turn of the twentieth century. The so-called “evangelicals” who remain in these denominations are openly and brazenly disobedient to God’s Word, which says, “Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? ... Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:14, 17, 18), and, “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (2 Timothy 3:5).
COOKSTOVE APOSTASY (Friday Church News Notes, June 7, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Cookstove Apostasy,” The Gospel Advocate, May 30, 1935: “Today, the supper room has taken place of the upper room, play has taken the place of prayer, and feasting the place of fasting. There are more full stomachs than there are bended knees and broken hearts. There is more fire in the range in the kitchen than there is in the pulpit. ... Oh, I would like the cooking squad put out and the praying band let in, less ham and sham and more heaven, less pie and more piety, less use for the cook book, and more use for the Old Book. Put out the fire in the kitchen and build up the fire in the pulpit.”
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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