Friday Church News Notes
Volume 20, Issue 27 - July 5, 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.
IS ANNE GRAHAM LOTZ CONSERVATIVE? (Friday Church News Notes, July 5, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A few years ago a preacher friend mentioned that he had been listening to some conservative evangelicals, including Anne Graham Lotz (not something I would advise), and he observed, “This Anne lady should have been a man. She makes some very good points, better than her dad Billy and her brother Franklin. She even talks about sin, repentance, hell, demons, earnest prayer, revival, about Israel in a favourable light, etc. There are a very small group of evangelicals that seem good on a few things.” I replied that for years I have noticed that Franklin Graham and Anne can talk a good talk, sounding stronger than their dad, but they walk in the same terribly disobedient footsteps. I have seen this same thing on the part of evangelicals that I have heard at various conferences and on visits to their churches. You sometimes find yourself thinking that you are listening to a true Biblicist who has a zeal for the truth, but then you realize that what they say and what they do are in great contradiction. Anne indicated to Kyra Phillips of CNN on April 8, 2005, that Pope John Paul II might be in heaven. She applauded the Pope’s efforts “to bridge the gaps between Protestants and Catholics and Jews and Catholics” (CNN.com, transcripts). She said, “The wonderful thing, in Rome I’ve heard people say the Holy Father is in heaven and everybody is so confident that the Pope is in heaven. And I think it’s because he was such a good man.” This is in spite of the fact that the spiritually-blind pope held to a false gospel of salvation through Rome’s sacraments, beginning with baptismal regeneration, and devoted himself 100% to Mary. Anne represented her father at that Pope’s funeral. How could a true Bible believer praise the Pope? It is great confusion. It has been said of Billy Graham that he is “Mr. Facing Both Ways,” and the same can be said of the entire Graham family, yea, pretty much the entire world of “evangelicalism.” This is because they have renounced “separatism” and they believe in a “big tent” of fellowship and ministry which requires a tremendous amount of compromise. In 2005, Anne preached at a conference in Russia sponsored by the extremely modernistic Baptist World Alliance (BWA) (“Baptists Unveil New Strategy for Evangelism,” Assist News Service, Aug. 3, 2005). Denton Lotz, General Secretary of the BWA, is Anne’s brother-in-law. In 2007, she joined with Samuel Kobia, president of the wretchedly apostate World Council of Churches, in a conference in India. Kobia doesn’t preach the redemption of the soul through the blood of Christ; he preaches the false gospel of redemption of society through socio-political work (“WCC Head Calls for Change in Famed Ecumenical Motto,” Christian Post, April 28, 2007). Like other conservative evangelicals, Anne Graham Lotz is acceptable to many Bible believers, even while subtly drawing them into fellowship with the one-world church. In truth, these are very dangerous people. Anyone who genuinely loves the truth will demonstrate the Psalmist’s hatred of error, but we don’t see this even in the most conservative of evangelicals. “Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way” (Psalm 119:128). (For more documentation on these subjects see the report “Liberal Baptist Denominations” and the free eBooks Billy Graham and Rome, Billy Graham’s Sad Disobedience, and The World Council of Churches, at www.wayoflife.org.)
PINTEREST CENSORING PRO-LIFE, CONSERVATIVE ORGANIZATIONS, BIBLE VERSES (Friday Church News Notes, July 5, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Tech Insider Blows Whistle,” ProjectVeritas.com, June 11, 2019: “Project Veritas has received and published documents from an insider at Pinterest. The documents, which include product code, Slack messages, and internal policies, reveal terms and websites that Pinterest apparently censors. In an interview, the Pinterest insider who leaked the documents explains how the company censors pro-life and Christian content on the website. Said Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe: ‘The documents we obtained raise questions about whether or not these tech companies really operate like neutral platforms, as opposed to publishers with editorial agendas.’ Pinterest is a publicly-traded social media company headquartered in San Francisco that has nearly 300 million active monthly users. In the past, Project Veritas released undercover footage of Twitter employees discussing ‘shadow-banning,’ and also published leaked documents from Facebook which revealed plans to target and demote conservative commentary. ‘I was pretty surprised,’ said the Pinterest insider in an interview, when s/he discovered that pro-life group LiveAction.org was added to a ‘porn domain block list.’ The insider explained that the ‘block list’ was intended to be a collection of pornographic websites that Pinterest uses in order to ensure that pornography cannot be posted. LiveAction.org is not a pornographic website; it is the web domain of a prominent pro-life advocacy group. The insider explained that websites on a ‘domain block list’ cannot be linked in posts made by users. While investigating, Project Veritas tried to post the LiveAction.org link on Pinterest and failed to do so, receiving an error message that read, ‘Sorry! Your request could not be completed.’ ... Lila Rose, the founder and president of LiveAction claims that her organization has been censored in the past, and believes that pro-life organizations are unfairly targeted by social media companies: ‘Pinterest says that their mission is to “help empower people to discover things that they love,” but despite the fact that millions of people love babies and the pro-life cause, they are secretly censoring our life-affirming messages. Pinterest users deserve to know the truth and our messages deserve to be treated fairly.’ ... Project Veritas reviewed the ‘Sensitive Terms List’ and discovered that Christianity-related terms like ‘christian easter’ and ‘bible verses’ were marked as ‘brand unsafe.’ ... The insider explained to Project Veritas that in addition to removing content it wants to censor, Pinterest also ‘hides’ materials from users on their home screens and search results. The insider added that there is also ‘silent removing,’ which means the content is removed but there is no notice to the account who posted the material that it was removed.”
CHRISTIAN FATHER/MOTHER IMPRISONED BY CUBAN GOVERNMENT FOR HOMESCHOOLING (Friday Church News Notes, July 12, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Christian Father,” Breitbart, May 20, 2019: “A Cuban Evangelical pastor sentenced to two years in prison for homeschooling his children says his family has endured ‘psychological pressure and a war on behalf of authorities’ for refusing to allow the Castro regime to indoctrinate his children into communist ideology. His remarks form part of a petition to the Organization of American States (OAS) for a precautionary measure protecting Rigal and his wife, Ayda Expósito--who was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison for the same crime of ‘acts contrary to the normal development of a minor.’ Homeschooling is illegal in Cuba and legal schools are of notoriously low quality, prioritizing the development of submissive citizens over life and professional skills. ... The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), a nonprofit advocacy group defending the right to home school, and the Global Liberty Alliance, a legal defense fund dedicated to defending the defenders and advancing justice in places such as Communist Cuba, filed the petition for a precautionary measure on behalf of the Rigal family. ... ‘There are no guarantees of due process or a state of rights in Cuba and, therefore, there are no legal or other avenues that allow for denouncing [crimes] … because the courts, as well as the police and all other authorities are under the control of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC),’ the application reads. ... the couple’s two children, Ruth and Joel, have been forced to matriculate at their local government school in Guantánamo. ... Cuba, a nominally Marxist atheist state, has consistently moved to repress the religious rights of its citizens. According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which publishes an annual global report on religious persecution, Cubans regularly face ‘harassment campaigns targeting religious leaders and activists who advocated for stronger religious freedom protections. While it is difficult to track these cases, one organization reported that 194 individuals were imprisoned or detained because of their religious beliefs and activities between July 2017 and April 2018,’ its annual report for 2019 read.”
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS READY (Friday Church News Notes, July 5, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Every time you go into a home, every time you talk to a man on the street car, or in the shops, or factories, you have the absolute assurance that there is another One also witnessing. And that is God Himself in the Person of the Holy Spirit! ... Everywhere Barnabas and Saul went the Holy Spirit was there waiting for them. ... The same Divine Spirit that called and separated Barnabas and Saul was by the river and opened the heart of Lydia while Paul witnessed to her--‘whose heart the Lord opened ... that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul’ (Acts 16:14). There you have the whole thing in a nutshell. God’s side of the witnessing and man’s side. Therefore, every time you go forth on your personal visitation for Jesus Christ, to tell of His salvation, you have the absolute assurance that the Holy Spirit precedes you, goes with you, talks with you, walks with you, and opens the hearts of all you talk to. ... This was the greatest truth that ever came into my life next to my salvation. Do you want a holy boldness in your testimony? then go forth and testify of Christ. Suppose you don’t feel like it. Go anyway. The Word does not say that God gives the Holy Spirit to them that feel like it. But He gives the Holy Spirit to them that ‘obey Him’ (Acts 5:32)” (J. Frank Norris, The Inside Story of First Baptist Church).
PUTTING FEELING IN FAITH’S STEAD (Friday Church News Notes, July 5, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “If ever a soul rested its hopes on shifting sands, he does who puts feeling in faith’s stead. Nothing is less stable; nothing so subject to every wind that blows as a man’s emotions. Until they are steadied by faith they have no more stability than the mercury in thermometers. I want to tell you, beloved, there is something better than that for the Christian. God never meant to have His children lead a spiritual fever and ague existence, shivering one day and scorching the next. ... There is no soul-health in that. It is Satan’s scheme to settle you on such sand hills. God offers you the eternal Rock. God has laid for you a sure foundation in His eternal Word. Build on that, and the waves of unbelief will beat themselves into harmless foam at your feet, and you can stand in unshaken assurance, proving the ‘things not seen’” (William Bell Riley, commenting on Hebrews 11).
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).
PINTEREST CENSORING PRO-LIFE, CONSERVATIVE ORGANIZATIONS, BIBLE VERSES (Friday Church News Notes, July 5, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Tech Insider Blows Whistle,” ProjectVeritas.com, June 11, 2019: “Project Veritas has received and published documents from an insider at Pinterest. The documents, which include product code, Slack messages, and internal policies, reveal terms and websites that Pinterest apparently censors. In an interview, the Pinterest insider who leaked the documents explains how the company censors pro-life and Christian content on the website. Said Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe: ‘The documents we obtained raise questions about whether or not these tech companies really operate like neutral platforms, as opposed to publishers with editorial agendas.’ Pinterest is a publicly-traded social media company headquartered in San Francisco that has nearly 300 million active monthly users. In the past, Project Veritas released undercover footage of Twitter employees discussing ‘shadow-banning,’ and also published leaked documents from Facebook which revealed plans to target and demote conservative commentary. ‘I was pretty surprised,’ said the Pinterest insider in an interview, when s/he discovered that pro-life group LiveAction.org was added to a ‘porn domain block list.’ The insider explained that the ‘block list’ was intended to be a collection of pornographic websites that Pinterest uses in order to ensure that pornography cannot be posted. LiveAction.org is not a pornographic website; it is the web domain of a prominent pro-life advocacy group. The insider explained that websites on a ‘domain block list’ cannot be linked in posts made by users. While investigating, Project Veritas tried to post the LiveAction.org link on Pinterest and failed to do so, receiving an error message that read, ‘Sorry! Your request could not be completed.’ ... Lila Rose, the founder and president of LiveAction claims that her organization has been censored in the past, and believes that pro-life organizations are unfairly targeted by social media companies: ‘Pinterest says that their mission is to “help empower people to discover things that they love,” but despite the fact that millions of people love babies and the pro-life cause, they are secretly censoring our life-affirming messages. Pinterest users deserve to know the truth and our messages deserve to be treated fairly.’ ... Project Veritas reviewed the ‘Sensitive Terms List’ and discovered that Christianity-related terms like ‘christian easter’ and ‘bible verses’ were marked as ‘brand unsafe.’ ... The insider explained to Project Veritas that in addition to removing content it wants to censor, Pinterest also ‘hides’ materials from users on their home screens and search results. The insider added that there is also ‘silent removing,’ which means the content is removed but there is no notice to the account who posted the material that it was removed.”
CHRISTIAN FATHER/MOTHER IMPRISONED BY CUBAN GOVERNMENT FOR HOMESCHOOLING (Friday Church News Notes, July 12, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Christian Father,” Breitbart, May 20, 2019: “A Cuban Evangelical pastor sentenced to two years in prison for homeschooling his children says his family has endured ‘psychological pressure and a war on behalf of authorities’ for refusing to allow the Castro regime to indoctrinate his children into communist ideology. His remarks form part of a petition to the Organization of American States (OAS) for a precautionary measure protecting Rigal and his wife, Ayda Expósito--who was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison for the same crime of ‘acts contrary to the normal development of a minor.’ Homeschooling is illegal in Cuba and legal schools are of notoriously low quality, prioritizing the development of submissive citizens over life and professional skills. ... The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), a nonprofit advocacy group defending the right to home school, and the Global Liberty Alliance, a legal defense fund dedicated to defending the defenders and advancing justice in places such as Communist Cuba, filed the petition for a precautionary measure on behalf of the Rigal family. ... ‘There are no guarantees of due process or a state of rights in Cuba and, therefore, there are no legal or other avenues that allow for denouncing [crimes] … because the courts, as well as the police and all other authorities are under the control of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC),’ the application reads. ... the couple’s two children, Ruth and Joel, have been forced to matriculate at their local government school in Guantánamo. ... Cuba, a nominally Marxist atheist state, has consistently moved to repress the religious rights of its citizens. According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which publishes an annual global report on religious persecution, Cubans regularly face ‘harassment campaigns targeting religious leaders and activists who advocated for stronger religious freedom protections. While it is difficult to track these cases, one organization reported that 194 individuals were imprisoned or detained because of their religious beliefs and activities between July 2017 and April 2018,’ its annual report for 2019 read.”
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS READY (Friday Church News Notes, July 5, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Every time you go into a home, every time you talk to a man on the street car, or in the shops, or factories, you have the absolute assurance that there is another One also witnessing. And that is God Himself in the Person of the Holy Spirit! ... Everywhere Barnabas and Saul went the Holy Spirit was there waiting for them. ... The same Divine Spirit that called and separated Barnabas and Saul was by the river and opened the heart of Lydia while Paul witnessed to her--‘whose heart the Lord opened ... that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul’ (Acts 16:14). There you have the whole thing in a nutshell. God’s side of the witnessing and man’s side. Therefore, every time you go forth on your personal visitation for Jesus Christ, to tell of His salvation, you have the absolute assurance that the Holy Spirit precedes you, goes with you, talks with you, walks with you, and opens the hearts of all you talk to. ... This was the greatest truth that ever came into my life next to my salvation. Do you want a holy boldness in your testimony? then go forth and testify of Christ. Suppose you don’t feel like it. Go anyway. The Word does not say that God gives the Holy Spirit to them that feel like it. But He gives the Holy Spirit to them that ‘obey Him’ (Acts 5:32)” (J. Frank Norris, The Inside Story of First Baptist Church).
PUTTING FEELING IN FAITH’S STEAD (Friday Church News Notes, July 5, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “If ever a soul rested its hopes on shifting sands, he does who puts feeling in faith’s stead. Nothing is less stable; nothing so subject to every wind that blows as a man’s emotions. Until they are steadied by faith they have no more stability than the mercury in thermometers. I want to tell you, beloved, there is something better than that for the Christian. God never meant to have His children lead a spiritual fever and ague existence, shivering one day and scorching the next. ... There is no soul-health in that. It is Satan’s scheme to settle you on such sand hills. God offers you the eternal Rock. God has laid for you a sure foundation in His eternal Word. Build on that, and the waves of unbelief will beat themselves into harmless foam at your feet, and you can stand in unshaken assurance, proving the ‘things not seen’” (William Bell Riley, commenting on Hebrews 11).
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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