Friday Church News Notes
Volume 20, Issue 32 - August 9, 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.
CHINA’S THOUGHT TRANSFORMATION CAMPS (Friday Church News Notes, August 9, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “BBC Report Shows Disturbing Nature,” The Stream, July 1, 2019: “Adorned with bright smiles and clothed in colorful garb, Uighur Muslims held in political reeducation camps flash across the screen as they sing and dance triumphantly to the words that President Xi Jinping wrote just for them. These sights, captured by the BBC, are what the Chinese government wants journalists and the outside world to see. No amount of colorful displays of political allegiance, however, can hide the reality: Not one of these people is in a political reeducation facility of their own accord. One interchange in the video is especially telling. The BBC reporter asks one of the men whether it was his choice to be in a political reeducation facility. ‘Yes,’ he replies. ‘A policeman at my village told me to get enrolled in the school and transform my thoughts.’ The reporter also speaks to Chinese officials. Nearly every one alludes to the notion that the roughly 800,000 to 1 million people interned in Xinjiang are affected by religious extremism and in need of reeducation so that their thinking aligns with the Chinese Communist Party. The conflation of religion with extremism took shape in new regulations instituted in February of last year. These regulations continue the government’s practice of ‘Sinicizing’--or secularizing--religion, so that it conforms to the core tenets of the Communist Party. In addition to ‘thought transformation,’ people in these facilities must undergo Mandarin lessons, self-criticism sessions, forced labor, and even torture. Occasionally, there are deaths. ... The BBC reporter notes up front that the facilities they were permitted to visit were cleaned up for journalists’ prying eyes. Satellite images showed that prior to the BBC’s visit, watchtowers and barbed wire were removed from the premises and barren outdoor spaces were transformed into sports facilities. Documentaries like this one are incredibly important to building a human rights case against the Chinese government. They provide additional evidence, especially of what the Chinese government wants the outside world to see. Such evidence augments the troves of satellite imagery collected over the last several years and eye-witness testimony of former prisoners, who can testify that these facilities are far from benign. The existence of these facilities and the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people arbitrarily detained within their walls is now irrefutable.”
LIFESITENEWS BANNED FROM APPLE NEWS (Friday Church News Notes, August 9, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Apple News Bans LifeSite,” Lifesitenews.com, July 31, 2019: “A little over one week ago, Apple approved LifeSiteNews’ application to publish our news on their Apple News platform. Today, without warning, Apple News abruptly reversed course, telling LifeSite that they had deleted our channel and all of our content from their platform. Apple claimed that LifeSite’s channel ‘didn’t comply with our Apple News guidelines.’ Specifically, they stated that LifeSite’s ‘[c]hannel content shows intolerance towards a specific group.’ ... ‘We don’t yet know the reason for Apple’s decision to delete our channel,’ said LifeSiteNews Editor-in-Chief John-Henry Westen. ‘However, at a time when there is growing evidence that tech juggernauts are engaging in concerted censorship against even mainstream conservative viewpoints, Apple’s decision--made unilaterally, and without opportunity to appeal--is frightening. It goes without saying that LifeSite would never promote intolerance or hatred against any group. However, in our current divisive political climate, even mild expressions of common conservative viewpoints are often written off as de facto hatred and intolerance. We certainly hope that this is not what Apple is doing. However, we urge our readers to contact Apple and to respectfully demand that they reinstate LifeSite’s channel.’”
GOOGLE WANTS TRUMP TO LOSE IN 2020, FORMER ENGINEER FOR TECH GIANT SAYS (Friday Church News Notes, August 9, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Google wants Trump to lose in 2020,” Fox News, Aug. 3, 2019: “A former Google engineer who claims he has been blacklisted by the tech giant says he believes the company will try to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. ‘They really want Trump to lose in 2020. That’s their agenda,’ Kevin Cernekee said Friday on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight. ‘They have very biased people running every level of the company,’ Cernekee continued. ‘They have quite a bit of control over the political process. That’s something we should really worry about.’ Cernekee was fired in June 2018 after Google told him he was terminated for misuse of the company’s equipment, including its software system for remote access. However, Cernekee, who describes himself as a whistleblower, maintains he was terminated for his outspoken conservative views. ... Cernekee spent ... three years fighting the Mountain View, Calif.-based firm over the alleged violations and arguing that conservative employees were being treated unfairly, according to the report, which cites interviews, documents and copies of posts on the company’s internal message boards. Carlson asked Cernekee if he thought Google would try to ‘influence’ the 2020 election and attempt to ‘prevent’ Trump from being reelected. ‘I do believe so. I think that’s a major threat. They have openly stated that they think 2016 was a mistake. They thought Trump should have lost in 2016,’ Cernekee responded. Cernekee called the Google operation ‘highly ideological’ and ‘plagued with bias.’”
WHO IS BORIS JOHNSON? (Friday Church News Notes, August 9, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Who Is Boris Johnson,” The Stream, July 31, 2019: “A colorful character, known for his shock of shaggy blond hair and blustering, entertaining, flamboyant style, Boris Johnson [b. 1964] has had one of the most amazing careers in English politics. A journalist, magazine editor, member of Parliament, the conservative who did the impossible in getting elected mayor of London twice, foreign minister, leader of the radical Brexit movement to leave the European Union, he’s done it all. Johnson’s a celebrity. ... He clowns around and quotes long passages of Homer in Greek. ‘BoJo,’ as he’s sometimes called, is England’s Donald Trump. Both came to office already famous. Both were international celebrities. [Both were] known for saying outlandish things, poking the politically correct and infuriating their political opponents. Sometimes infuriating their own party. As of July 24th, that is, when he became the new prime minister of the United Kingdom. ... He takes office with an unstable razor-thin majority, with many members of his own party opposing him. He’s taken up the almost impossible task of getting the U.K. out of the European Union by October 31st. ... Johnson’s election represents his party’s commitment to completing Brexit and leaving the European Union. It expresses the party’s rejection of the European Union globalists, including those in the other major political parties, Labour and the Liberal Democrats. It is part of a broader trend around the world electing conservatives as world leaders. ... The London Times fired him for making up a quote. He moved on to the more conservative Daily Telegraph. Still, he became the favorite journalist of conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. His writings became a key influence on the Eurosceptic UK Independence Party in the early 1990s. That party’s agitation eventually led to Brexit. ... He took some left-leaning positions, however, on climate change, LGBT issues and race relations. ... He became editor of The Spectator, the UK’s top conservative weekly. Tabloids revealed in 2004 that Johnson was having an affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt, resulting in two abortions. He was married to his second wife at the time. He was fired from his position with the Conservative party for lying about the affair. Another affair led to a child. ... Johnson became the mayor of London in 2008, the first Conservative to ever achieve that position. He ran on a campaign that included legalizing medical marijuana and allowing amnesty for illegal immigrants. ... [When] Theresa May became Prime Minister, she appointed him Foreign Secretary in 2016. As Foreign Secretary, Johnson praised U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as a ‘moment of opportunity’ for peace. ... In a controversial 2018 article for The Daily Telegraph, he discussed the Danish face veil ban. While he opposed a ban on the burqa or niqab, he suggested that such garments make the wearer resemble a ‘letter box’ and ‘bank robber.’ ... Johnson was baptized a Catholic. He was later confirmed in the Church of England. However, he says ‘his faith comes and goes.’ He’s not a serious practicing Christian.”
BACTERIA THAT DISSOLVE STEEL (Friday Church News Notes, August 9, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from Creation Moments, July 17, 2019: “They work silently and in the dark. While most of earth’s inhabitants need oxygen for life, they merely tolerate it. They prefer to build their own environments where there’s no oxygen. Then they go to work. And they love metal. Using complex chemistry, they begin dissolving metal. They can make a sixteenth-of-an-inch hole through an inch-thick pipe in six months. Stainless steel isn’t so tough—it doesn’t slow them down a bit. Even modern space age metals like titanium can’t stand up to them. No, we’re not talking about some hideous creatures from outer space. These strange-sounding creatures are called sulfate-reducing bacteria. Each year metal corrosion causes about $167 billion dollars in damage. And a large part of that damage is caused by bacteria destroying metal pipes. Sulfate-reducing bacteria begin by sealing off their colony from liquid in a pipe or tank. Once sealed off, bacteria begin forming hydrogen gas. Sealed under the biosphere, the hydrogen accumulates and is absorbed by the metal. The absorbed hydrogen begins to corrode and make the metal brittle. Researchers using pipes coated with epoxy couldn’t stop the bugs. It appears that the bugs thought the pigment in epoxy made a great change of diet. Despite our modern scientific sophistication, moth and rust continue to afflict our efforts. This is God’s way of reminding us that we, along with the creation, are afflicted with sin and are in need of the forgiveness of sins that is ours only through Jesus Christ. REF.: Raloff, Janet. 1985. “The bugs of rust,” Science News, v. 128, July 20. p. 42.”
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).
LIFESITENEWS BANNED FROM APPLE NEWS (Friday Church News Notes, August 9, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Apple News Bans LifeSite,” Lifesitenews.com, July 31, 2019: “A little over one week ago, Apple approved LifeSiteNews’ application to publish our news on their Apple News platform. Today, without warning, Apple News abruptly reversed course, telling LifeSite that they had deleted our channel and all of our content from their platform. Apple claimed that LifeSite’s channel ‘didn’t comply with our Apple News guidelines.’ Specifically, they stated that LifeSite’s ‘[c]hannel content shows intolerance towards a specific group.’ ... ‘We don’t yet know the reason for Apple’s decision to delete our channel,’ said LifeSiteNews Editor-in-Chief John-Henry Westen. ‘However, at a time when there is growing evidence that tech juggernauts are engaging in concerted censorship against even mainstream conservative viewpoints, Apple’s decision--made unilaterally, and without opportunity to appeal--is frightening. It goes without saying that LifeSite would never promote intolerance or hatred against any group. However, in our current divisive political climate, even mild expressions of common conservative viewpoints are often written off as de facto hatred and intolerance. We certainly hope that this is not what Apple is doing. However, we urge our readers to contact Apple and to respectfully demand that they reinstate LifeSite’s channel.’”
GOOGLE WANTS TRUMP TO LOSE IN 2020, FORMER ENGINEER FOR TECH GIANT SAYS (Friday Church News Notes, August 9, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Google wants Trump to lose in 2020,” Fox News, Aug. 3, 2019: “A former Google engineer who claims he has been blacklisted by the tech giant says he believes the company will try to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. ‘They really want Trump to lose in 2020. That’s their agenda,’ Kevin Cernekee said Friday on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight. ‘They have very biased people running every level of the company,’ Cernekee continued. ‘They have quite a bit of control over the political process. That’s something we should really worry about.’ Cernekee was fired in June 2018 after Google told him he was terminated for misuse of the company’s equipment, including its software system for remote access. However, Cernekee, who describes himself as a whistleblower, maintains he was terminated for his outspoken conservative views. ... Cernekee spent ... three years fighting the Mountain View, Calif.-based firm over the alleged violations and arguing that conservative employees were being treated unfairly, according to the report, which cites interviews, documents and copies of posts on the company’s internal message boards. Carlson asked Cernekee if he thought Google would try to ‘influence’ the 2020 election and attempt to ‘prevent’ Trump from being reelected. ‘I do believe so. I think that’s a major threat. They have openly stated that they think 2016 was a mistake. They thought Trump should have lost in 2016,’ Cernekee responded. Cernekee called the Google operation ‘highly ideological’ and ‘plagued with bias.’”
WHO IS BORIS JOHNSON? (Friday Church News Notes, August 9, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Who Is Boris Johnson,” The Stream, July 31, 2019: “A colorful character, known for his shock of shaggy blond hair and blustering, entertaining, flamboyant style, Boris Johnson [b. 1964] has had one of the most amazing careers in English politics. A journalist, magazine editor, member of Parliament, the conservative who did the impossible in getting elected mayor of London twice, foreign minister, leader of the radical Brexit movement to leave the European Union, he’s done it all. Johnson’s a celebrity. ... He clowns around and quotes long passages of Homer in Greek. ‘BoJo,’ as he’s sometimes called, is England’s Donald Trump. Both came to office already famous. Both were international celebrities. [Both were] known for saying outlandish things, poking the politically correct and infuriating their political opponents. Sometimes infuriating their own party. As of July 24th, that is, when he became the new prime minister of the United Kingdom. ... He takes office with an unstable razor-thin majority, with many members of his own party opposing him. He’s taken up the almost impossible task of getting the U.K. out of the European Union by October 31st. ... Johnson’s election represents his party’s commitment to completing Brexit and leaving the European Union. It expresses the party’s rejection of the European Union globalists, including those in the other major political parties, Labour and the Liberal Democrats. It is part of a broader trend around the world electing conservatives as world leaders. ... The London Times fired him for making up a quote. He moved on to the more conservative Daily Telegraph. Still, he became the favorite journalist of conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. His writings became a key influence on the Eurosceptic UK Independence Party in the early 1990s. That party’s agitation eventually led to Brexit. ... He took some left-leaning positions, however, on climate change, LGBT issues and race relations. ... He became editor of The Spectator, the UK’s top conservative weekly. Tabloids revealed in 2004 that Johnson was having an affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt, resulting in two abortions. He was married to his second wife at the time. He was fired from his position with the Conservative party for lying about the affair. Another affair led to a child. ... Johnson became the mayor of London in 2008, the first Conservative to ever achieve that position. He ran on a campaign that included legalizing medical marijuana and allowing amnesty for illegal immigrants. ... [When] Theresa May became Prime Minister, she appointed him Foreign Secretary in 2016. As Foreign Secretary, Johnson praised U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as a ‘moment of opportunity’ for peace. ... In a controversial 2018 article for The Daily Telegraph, he discussed the Danish face veil ban. While he opposed a ban on the burqa or niqab, he suggested that such garments make the wearer resemble a ‘letter box’ and ‘bank robber.’ ... Johnson was baptized a Catholic. He was later confirmed in the Church of England. However, he says ‘his faith comes and goes.’ He’s not a serious practicing Christian.”
BACTERIA THAT DISSOLVE STEEL (Friday Church News Notes, August 9, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from Creation Moments, July 17, 2019: “They work silently and in the dark. While most of earth’s inhabitants need oxygen for life, they merely tolerate it. They prefer to build their own environments where there’s no oxygen. Then they go to work. And they love metal. Using complex chemistry, they begin dissolving metal. They can make a sixteenth-of-an-inch hole through an inch-thick pipe in six months. Stainless steel isn’t so tough—it doesn’t slow them down a bit. Even modern space age metals like titanium can’t stand up to them. No, we’re not talking about some hideous creatures from outer space. These strange-sounding creatures are called sulfate-reducing bacteria. Each year metal corrosion causes about $167 billion dollars in damage. And a large part of that damage is caused by bacteria destroying metal pipes. Sulfate-reducing bacteria begin by sealing off their colony from liquid in a pipe or tank. Once sealed off, bacteria begin forming hydrogen gas. Sealed under the biosphere, the hydrogen accumulates and is absorbed by the metal. The absorbed hydrogen begins to corrode and make the metal brittle. Researchers using pipes coated with epoxy couldn’t stop the bugs. It appears that the bugs thought the pigment in epoxy made a great change of diet. Despite our modern scientific sophistication, moth and rust continue to afflict our efforts. This is God’s way of reminding us that we, along with the creation, are afflicted with sin and are in need of the forgiveness of sins that is ours only through Jesus Christ. REF.: Raloff, Janet. 1985. “The bugs of rust,” Science News, v. 128, July 20. p. 42.”
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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