Friday Church News Notes
Volume 20, Issue 36 - September 6, 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.
50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ATM IN AMERICA (Friday Church News Notes, September 6, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Fifty years ago this week the first Automated Teller Machine in America was unveiled at a bank in Long Island, New York. (The world’s first ATM appeared two years earlier in England.) In America, the original ATM was called a Docuteller. Arriving before credit cards, personal computers, and the Internet, the ATM produced a major change in society. It created 24/7 banking, made people comfortable dealing directly with machines (robots), and simplified international travel. Today there are 3.5 million ATMs worldwide, but the need for cash dispensing machines is on the decrease in the face of a cashless society. Alexander Joyce of ReJoice Financial says, “[I]t is still very popular with the baby boomer generation. However, due to technology, most millennials don’t even know their PIN number. The new ATM is in our pockets. Your phone, through applications, does most of the functions your bank can” (“90-year-old inventor of the ATM celebrates its 50th birthday,” Fox News, Aug. 30, 2019). Global communication and banking technology is a major sign of the times. We can see “the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).
HEAD OF THE JESUITS SAYS SATAN JUST A SYMBOL (Friday Church News Notes, September 6, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Jesuit Superior General: The Devil Is a Symbol,” DailyWire.com, Aug. 21, 2019: “On Wednesday, the Jesuit order’s superior general announced that Satan himself is a ‘symbol’ rather than an actual being that was once created by God before falling into damnation. According to Catholic News Agency, Fr. Arturo Sosa told the Italian magazine Tempi that the devil ‘exists as the personification of evil in different structures, but not in persons, because he is not a person, he is a way of acting evil.’ ‘He is not a person like a human person. It is a way of evil to be present in human life,’ asserted the priest. ‘Good and evil are in a permanent war in the human conscience and we have ways to point them out. We recognize God as good, fully good. Symbols are part of reality, and the devil exists as a symbolic reality, not as a personal reality.’ The Jesuit leader’s statement about the devil stands in stark contrast with the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which teaches that Satan and his demons are ‘spiritual, non-corporeal beings’ who are nonetheless ‘personal and immortal creatures’ with an ‘intelligence and will.’ ... [A 2011 poll] showed eight in ten U.S. Catholics believe that Satan is just a symbol more akin to that of Santa Claus than an actual being.” The Bible says, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
ANOTHER SCIENTIST COMES OUT AGAINST DARWINISM (Friday Church News Notes, September 6, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from ‘Renowned Yale Computer Science Prof Leaves Darwinism,” The Stream, Aug. 21, 2019: “David Gelernter isn’t someone you’d expect to reject Darwin. He lives and works at the heart of the intellectual establishment. He’s a renowned computer scientist at Yale University — the New York Times called him a ‘rock star’ — and served on the National Council on the Arts. He explained in a recent essay in the Claremont Review of Books why he no longer believes Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. He makes similar points in a recent interview with the Hoover Institution’s Peter Robinson. Perhaps the biggest flaw with Darwinism, he writes, is how hard it would be to randomly make new functional proteins. Darwinian evolution depends on a huge number of them. Our understanding of molecular biology developed after Darwin. His theory doesn’t fit well with this new understanding. Gelernter carefully reviews the evidence, and his article provides a very helpful short guide to the problem. He cites Douglas Axe, a distinguished scientist, who has calculated the chances of hitting a stable protein that performs some useful function, and might therefore be preserved by natural selection, are only 1 in 1077. That’s just one of the many, many proteins needed for any organism. Gelernter summarizes the evidence. ‘Immense is so big, and tiny is so small, that neo-Darwinian evolution is — so far — a dead loss. Try to mutate your way from 150 links of gibberish to a working, useful protein and you are guaranteed to fail. Try it with ten mutations, a thousand, a million — you fail. The odds bury you. It can’t be done.’ He has plenty of other problems with Darwinism. ... Gelernter admits intelligent design is an ‘absolutely serious argument.’ It’s the ‘first, and obviously most intuitive one that comes to mind.’ It’s got to be dealt with intellectually. It can’t be dismissed with anti-religious bigotry. His colleagues have treated him courteously since he changed his position on this issue, he says. Still, for them Darwinism has passed beyond a scientific argument. ‘You take your life into your hands to challenge it intellectually. They will destroy you.’ He’s seen ‘nothing approaching free speech on this topic.’ It’s not a scientific or intellectual discussion. They think he’s attacking their ‘religion.’ Alas, he’s not hopeful that Darwinism will be phased out of academia anytime soon.” (See also “Evolutionists against Darwinism,” www.wayoflife.org.)
PEDOPHILIA BEING TAUGHT IN CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS AS A “SEXUAL ORIENTATION” (Friday Church News Notes, September 6, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Pedophilia Being Taught,” Alex Newman, Project Media, Apr. 17, 2019: “Government school officials in California think it is ‘really important’ to teach children about pedophilia and pederasty in the classroom because it is a ‘sexual orientation.’ That is according to a top official for California’s Brea Olinda School District, who admitted to parents that it was being done--and that it would continue, despite the outrage. The implications are mind-blowing. The stunning admission came after a parent-information meeting last month for the Brea Olinda Unified School District (BOUSD). Stephanie Yates, founder of Informed Parents of California, asked school officials why they were ‘teaching pedophilia in school to 9th graders.’ But instead of a denial that such an atrocity was taking place, a top school official confirmed it was happening and acted like there was nothing wrong with it. ‘This is done because we are talking about historical perspectives of how gender relations and different types of sexual orientations have existed in history,’ said BOUSD Assistant Superintendent of Curricula Kerrie Torres in a matter-of-fact way, sounding almost oblivious to how the bombshell might sound to normal people. Horrified, the mother turned activist expressed shock at Torres’ admission. ‘So sex between a man and a boy is a sexual orientation?’ she asked. Torres did not deny it. ‘It’s something that occurred in history, and so this is really important for us to include,’ the assistant superintendent said, implying that yes, sexual relations between a man and a boy--properly considered rape under the laws of every state--is a ‘sexual orientation.’ Of course, if simply having ‘occurred in history’ means something merits inclusion in school curricula, then one might ask why the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ or the full text of the Mayflower Compact are never mentioned in government schools. Obviously, there is more to the story than simply having to teach children about such perversions merely because they ‘occurred.’ Indeed, the comments may be one of the most shocking admissions from an education official in recent memory. And the implications go even beyond simply normalizing one of the most disgusting and abominable crimes that can be perpetrated. Consider: With ‘sexual orientation’ increasingly becoming a legally protected category across almost half of the states already--with Congress working on it, too--the implications of defining pedophilia and pederasty as such are hard to overstate. For instance, in California, ‘discrimination’ based on ‘sexual orientation’ is prohibited. If pedophiles simply have a different ‘sexual orientation,’ does that mean schools are required to hire them? Establishment propaganda outlets disguised as news organizations such as Salon and Slate have also been working to normalize and redefine pedophilia and pederasty as a ‘sexual orientation.’ LGBT movement hero Harvey Milk, who is celebrated in California’s fake ‘history’ textbooks as a great figure, was known for raping minor boys, at least one of whom later committed suicide.”
SENTIMENTALITY VS. OBEDIENCE (Friday Church News Notes, September 6, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Sentimentality is an enemy of church discipline. Sentimentality is the love of man divorced from the love of truth. Under the specious guise of broadened sympathies it cloaks a big lot of hypocrisy and moral decay. The church sentimentalist is so kind to his fellow church member that he is willing to ignore the plain instructions of the Book of his faith rather than bring him to account for unchristian conduct. ‘Judge not that ye be not judged,’ he quotes, but he forgets to quote 1 Corinthians 5:12, 13, ‘Do not ye judge them that are within, whereas them that are without God judgeth’” (Victor Masters, “Church Discipline,” Baptist Courier, South Carolina, Aug. 21, 1902).
BAPTIST BIG NUMBERS-ISM AND PRAGMATISM IN 1877 (Friday Church News Notes, September 6, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The pragmatism that has characterized the vast majority of larger Baptist churches since the 1960s was already showing its ugly head in the 19th century. “While it is true that a Baptist church is, in theory, a body of regenerated, baptized believers, it can hardly be doubted that, in our wild scramble for numbers, we of this generation--preachers and people--are becoming less and less disposed to insist upon what our fathers used to call the marks of a genuine ‘grace experience’ on the part of those who offer themselves as candidates for baptism and church membership. ... If a long church-roll were any evidence of efficiency, or if large numbers were indication of large graces, it would be easy to understand this all-prevailing anxiety for numbers. But when it is perfectly clear to the dullest apprehension among us, that such is not the case, it must be confessed that this wild desire for counting up our hosts is too highly suggestive of David’s sad sin in numbering Israel” (J.C. Hiden, “Looseness of Discipline,” Working Christian, Mar. 22, 1877).
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).
HEAD OF THE JESUITS SAYS SATAN JUST A SYMBOL (Friday Church News Notes, September 6, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Jesuit Superior General: The Devil Is a Symbol,” DailyWire.com, Aug. 21, 2019: “On Wednesday, the Jesuit order’s superior general announced that Satan himself is a ‘symbol’ rather than an actual being that was once created by God before falling into damnation. According to Catholic News Agency, Fr. Arturo Sosa told the Italian magazine Tempi that the devil ‘exists as the personification of evil in different structures, but not in persons, because he is not a person, he is a way of acting evil.’ ‘He is not a person like a human person. It is a way of evil to be present in human life,’ asserted the priest. ‘Good and evil are in a permanent war in the human conscience and we have ways to point them out. We recognize God as good, fully good. Symbols are part of reality, and the devil exists as a symbolic reality, not as a personal reality.’ The Jesuit leader’s statement about the devil stands in stark contrast with the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which teaches that Satan and his demons are ‘spiritual, non-corporeal beings’ who are nonetheless ‘personal and immortal creatures’ with an ‘intelligence and will.’ ... [A 2011 poll] showed eight in ten U.S. Catholics believe that Satan is just a symbol more akin to that of Santa Claus than an actual being.” The Bible says, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
ANOTHER SCIENTIST COMES OUT AGAINST DARWINISM (Friday Church News Notes, September 6, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from ‘Renowned Yale Computer Science Prof Leaves Darwinism,” The Stream, Aug. 21, 2019: “David Gelernter isn’t someone you’d expect to reject Darwin. He lives and works at the heart of the intellectual establishment. He’s a renowned computer scientist at Yale University — the New York Times called him a ‘rock star’ — and served on the National Council on the Arts. He explained in a recent essay in the Claremont Review of Books why he no longer believes Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. He makes similar points in a recent interview with the Hoover Institution’s Peter Robinson. Perhaps the biggest flaw with Darwinism, he writes, is how hard it would be to randomly make new functional proteins. Darwinian evolution depends on a huge number of them. Our understanding of molecular biology developed after Darwin. His theory doesn’t fit well with this new understanding. Gelernter carefully reviews the evidence, and his article provides a very helpful short guide to the problem. He cites Douglas Axe, a distinguished scientist, who has calculated the chances of hitting a stable protein that performs some useful function, and might therefore be preserved by natural selection, are only 1 in 1077. That’s just one of the many, many proteins needed for any organism. Gelernter summarizes the evidence. ‘Immense is so big, and tiny is so small, that neo-Darwinian evolution is — so far — a dead loss. Try to mutate your way from 150 links of gibberish to a working, useful protein and you are guaranteed to fail. Try it with ten mutations, a thousand, a million — you fail. The odds bury you. It can’t be done.’ He has plenty of other problems with Darwinism. ... Gelernter admits intelligent design is an ‘absolutely serious argument.’ It’s the ‘first, and obviously most intuitive one that comes to mind.’ It’s got to be dealt with intellectually. It can’t be dismissed with anti-religious bigotry. His colleagues have treated him courteously since he changed his position on this issue, he says. Still, for them Darwinism has passed beyond a scientific argument. ‘You take your life into your hands to challenge it intellectually. They will destroy you.’ He’s seen ‘nothing approaching free speech on this topic.’ It’s not a scientific or intellectual discussion. They think he’s attacking their ‘religion.’ Alas, he’s not hopeful that Darwinism will be phased out of academia anytime soon.” (See also “Evolutionists against Darwinism,” www.wayoflife.org.)
PEDOPHILIA BEING TAUGHT IN CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS AS A “SEXUAL ORIENTATION” (Friday Church News Notes, September 6, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Pedophilia Being Taught,” Alex Newman, Project Media, Apr. 17, 2019: “Government school officials in California think it is ‘really important’ to teach children about pedophilia and pederasty in the classroom because it is a ‘sexual orientation.’ That is according to a top official for California’s Brea Olinda School District, who admitted to parents that it was being done--and that it would continue, despite the outrage. The implications are mind-blowing. The stunning admission came after a parent-information meeting last month for the Brea Olinda Unified School District (BOUSD). Stephanie Yates, founder of Informed Parents of California, asked school officials why they were ‘teaching pedophilia in school to 9th graders.’ But instead of a denial that such an atrocity was taking place, a top school official confirmed it was happening and acted like there was nothing wrong with it. ‘This is done because we are talking about historical perspectives of how gender relations and different types of sexual orientations have existed in history,’ said BOUSD Assistant Superintendent of Curricula Kerrie Torres in a matter-of-fact way, sounding almost oblivious to how the bombshell might sound to normal people. Horrified, the mother turned activist expressed shock at Torres’ admission. ‘So sex between a man and a boy is a sexual orientation?’ she asked. Torres did not deny it. ‘It’s something that occurred in history, and so this is really important for us to include,’ the assistant superintendent said, implying that yes, sexual relations between a man and a boy--properly considered rape under the laws of every state--is a ‘sexual orientation.’ Of course, if simply having ‘occurred in history’ means something merits inclusion in school curricula, then one might ask why the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ or the full text of the Mayflower Compact are never mentioned in government schools. Obviously, there is more to the story than simply having to teach children about such perversions merely because they ‘occurred.’ Indeed, the comments may be one of the most shocking admissions from an education official in recent memory. And the implications go even beyond simply normalizing one of the most disgusting and abominable crimes that can be perpetrated. Consider: With ‘sexual orientation’ increasingly becoming a legally protected category across almost half of the states already--with Congress working on it, too--the implications of defining pedophilia and pederasty as such are hard to overstate. For instance, in California, ‘discrimination’ based on ‘sexual orientation’ is prohibited. If pedophiles simply have a different ‘sexual orientation,’ does that mean schools are required to hire them? Establishment propaganda outlets disguised as news organizations such as Salon and Slate have also been working to normalize and redefine pedophilia and pederasty as a ‘sexual orientation.’ LGBT movement hero Harvey Milk, who is celebrated in California’s fake ‘history’ textbooks as a great figure, was known for raping minor boys, at least one of whom later committed suicide.”
SENTIMENTALITY VS. OBEDIENCE (Friday Church News Notes, September 6, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Sentimentality is an enemy of church discipline. Sentimentality is the love of man divorced from the love of truth. Under the specious guise of broadened sympathies it cloaks a big lot of hypocrisy and moral decay. The church sentimentalist is so kind to his fellow church member that he is willing to ignore the plain instructions of the Book of his faith rather than bring him to account for unchristian conduct. ‘Judge not that ye be not judged,’ he quotes, but he forgets to quote 1 Corinthians 5:12, 13, ‘Do not ye judge them that are within, whereas them that are without God judgeth’” (Victor Masters, “Church Discipline,” Baptist Courier, South Carolina, Aug. 21, 1902).
BAPTIST BIG NUMBERS-ISM AND PRAGMATISM IN 1877 (Friday Church News Notes, September 6, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The pragmatism that has characterized the vast majority of larger Baptist churches since the 1960s was already showing its ugly head in the 19th century. “While it is true that a Baptist church is, in theory, a body of regenerated, baptized believers, it can hardly be doubted that, in our wild scramble for numbers, we of this generation--preachers and people--are becoming less and less disposed to insist upon what our fathers used to call the marks of a genuine ‘grace experience’ on the part of those who offer themselves as candidates for baptism and church membership. ... If a long church-roll were any evidence of efficiency, or if large numbers were indication of large graces, it would be easy to understand this all-prevailing anxiety for numbers. But when it is perfectly clear to the dullest apprehension among us, that such is not the case, it must be confessed that this wild desire for counting up our hosts is too highly suggestive of David’s sad sin in numbering Israel” (J.C. Hiden, “Looseness of Discipline,” Working Christian, Mar. 22, 1877).
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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