Friday Church News Notes
Volume 20, Issue 37 - September 13 , 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.
U.S. AIR FORCE REQUIRES LACTATION STATIONS FOR NURSING MOTHERS (Friday Church News Notes, September 13, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - According to the Air Force Times, “The Air Force is now requiring units to provide private, secure and sanitary rooms for nursing mothers to breastfeed or express breast milk, according to a Wednesday release. In an Aug. 15 guidance memorandum, the Air Force outlined procedures and requirements for setting up lactation rooms that can be locked from the inside. Christy Nolta, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for reserve affairs and airman readiness, said airmen at the grassroots level brought the lack of an Air Force-wide lactation room policy to the service’s attention. ‘Our job here is to do what we can to make it easier for airmen to serve,’ Nolta said. ‘Women shouldn’t feel like they must choose between serving and being a mother.’ ... The Air Force’s new memo also provides guidance for when mothers should be allowed lactation breaks. Supervisors should provide both military and civilian nursing mothers reasonable lactation breaks--defined by Air Force Instruction 44-102 as 15 to 30 minutes every three to four hours--for at least one year postpartum” (“Units must provide lactation space,” Air Force Times, Aug. 29, 2019). We wonder who will fight the enemy while the air “men” are breast feeding/pumping? Maybe they will grant 30 minute “time outs” from the fighting a few times a day. It is no small thing that the U.S. military has been turned into a social engineering experiment and in the process has been feminized, psychologicalized, homosexualized, lawyerized, and environmentalized.
HILLSONG PUTS ON A CIRCUS (Friday Church News Notes, September 13, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Hillsong is a coalition of churches, loosely headquartered at Hillsong Sydney where Brian and Bobby Houston are the senior co-pastors. The Hillsong churches produce some of the most popular and influential contemporary worship music, but their brazen worldliness is breathtaking. In August 2019, Hillsong Gold Coast in Australia put on a worldly circus. “Level-headed biblically-minded Christians have oft referred to Hillsong as a circus. But what they may not realize is that Hillsong isn’t just a circus metaphorically speaking--Hillsong is literally a circus. Hillsong Gold Coast, led by James & Elida Turner, recently put on a circus performance at their campus. Not kidding. In a program they call #SundayNightAtTheMovies, they put on such an outlandish and ridiculous stunt that even the most biblically-ignorant unbelievers can look at this and tell it has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity. It’s a freak show” (“Hillsong Puts on Circus Performance,” Reformationcharlotte.org, Aug. 23, 2019). In May 2016, Hillsong New York City hosted a Hillsong Women’s Conference that featured, among other things, scantily-dressed ‘cheerleaders,’ an Elvis impersonator, and a naked cowboy wearing only a cowboy hat, boots, and a guitar. The cowboy was Hillsong New York City’s own youth pastor, Diego Simla. This year (2019) Yelp identified Hillsong Los Angeles as one of the top ten “gay friendly churches” in the city. “This says something about Hillsong. A homosexual can walk in, sit down, be entertained, and not have their conscience pricked by the preaching of the biblical gospel and a call to repent of sins and come to Christ” (“Hillsong Listed in Top Ten,” Reformationcharlotte, Sept. 3, 2019).
SEEKER’S BIBLE STUDY (Friday Church News Notes, September 13, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Seeker’s Bible Study is a Bible study for unbelievers and non-Christians. It explains the gospel of Jesus Christ, repentance, and faith. It begins with a study of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 which deals with the Bible, Christ, sin, Jesus’ atoning death for sin, Jesus’ burial and bodily resurrection. The study on the gospel is followed by practical studies on repentance and faith. The last section answers the question, “When Is Jesus Coming?” The Bible study is designed to be used as a multi-week, one-on-one teaching course. In our church, we assign a qualified believer to go through the course with every willing visitor. The teacher is instructed to try to grow the class by involving family, neighbors, and friends of the original student. The teacher’s notes can be found in the file “Seeker’s Bible Study - Teacher’s Notes” at www.wayoflife.org.
“VULNERABILITY” WITHOUT REPENTANCE (Friday Church News Notes, September 13, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Paul describes the love of money and its consequences. “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:9-10). Note that they “pierced themselves.” They are not victims. The many sorrows come because of a sinful lifestyle. Many contemporary churches offer grace and forgiveness without repentance and supernatural conversion. They have church members who live the unholy rock & roll lifestyle and pursue wealth in the midst of the filthy pop music/entertainment industry. Invariably they pierce themselves through with many sorrows in that context, but they consider themselves victims. Instead of repenting of their sin, they become “vulnerable” by sharing their problems before the church. They don’t distinguish between suffering that comes because of sin and suffering that comes in the will of God. Pop star Justin Bieber is an example. He is a member of the contemporary Churchome in Beverly Hills, California, pastored by a husband wife team. He told the church, “It says in the bible count it ALL JOY when you face trials of various kinds. Sounds insane considering when u face trials u feel terrible. But if we are grateful and worship god for what we do have in that season there is so much power in that… whatever pain you are going through just keep telling yourself THIS WONT LAST!” (“Justin Bieber Leads Worship,” CBN News, Aug. 30, 2019). Note that he says nothing about faith in the blood of Christ or sin or repentance or conversion. Everything is generic and undefined. He spends a lot of time justifying himself by the fact that he was plunged into popularity at a young age. In contrast, Peter makes a sharp and repeated distinction between suffering for Christ’s sake and suffering for sin. “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters” (1 Pe. 4:14-15). See also 1 Peter 2:19-20; 3:17. The great promise of Romans 8:28 is not for anyone in any circumstance. It is for those who “love God, who are the called according to his purpose.” It is for those who are born again by repentance and saving faith and are walking according to God’s calling and will.
BLACK SLAVERY IN MUSLIM-DOMINATED AFRICAN NATIONS (Friday Church News Notes, September 13, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Black Slavery Exists Today” by Charles Jacobs, President of the American Anti-Slavery Group, The Stream, Sept. 4, 2019: “Today, an estimated 529,000 to 869,000 black men, women, and children are still slaves. They are bought, owned, sold, and traded by Arab and Muslim masters in five African countries. This statistic estimates those enslaved in Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, and Sudan. It excludes Nigeria, for which there are no tangible estimates. Western human rights organizations and the mainstream media are practically and painfully silent on this matter. It does not fit with their focus on Western white sin. Here is a brief survey of this quasi-taboo topic. In Sudan, slavery remains a painful vestige of the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005). That’s when the Arab Muslim government in the north of the country declared a jihad upon the black, largely Christian south. They killed perhaps 2.5 million people and enslaved as many as 200,000. Slaves rescued by grassroots abolitionists tell horrific stories. Abduction. Beatings. Forced conversion to Islam. Grueling labor. Female genital mutilation. Malnutrition. Rape. ... In Mauritania, the very structure of society reinforces slavery. Over the centuries a cruel class system has evolved. The lighter-skinned Arabs (beydanes) and Arabized Berbers rule over the black former slaves. Those slaves have been forcibly Arabized over time (haratin). The free blacks in the south who refuse Arabization and call themselves ‘Negro-Africans’ and the black chattel slave class (abid) are at the bottom. The country is entirely Muslim. Islam theoretically forbids the enslavement of one Muslim by another. However, in this case, Arab racism supersedes adherence to the Shari‘ah (Islamic law). In 1993, a U.S. State Department report estimated that between 30,000 and 90,000 blacks lived as slaves owned by private masters. In 2012, a CNN investigation estimated that the number could be as high as 340,000 to 680,000. ... Sub-Saharan Africans fleeing violence and poverty for Europe are enslaved by Algerian and Libyan Arabs as they try to cross the Mediterranean. Today, according to the Global Slavery Index, around 106,000 black Africans are estimated to be enslaved in Algeria. Migrant women, but also children (both male and female), risk being forced into sexual slavery. ... In Nigeria, the long-running civil war between the Muslim majority and the 40% Christian minority involves the enslavement of Christian Nigerians. The taking of Christian slaves has become a source of compensation for Islamic fighters.”
IS THE ARCTIC ICE DISAPPEARING? (Friday Church News Notes, September 13, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Aug. 23, 2019: “In 2007, former US Vice-President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Al Gore warned that there was a 75% chance that the entire Arctic ice cap would be gone by 2014-16. Yet, the ice still seems to be there! In fact, the famed Northwest Passage does not yet appear to have opened up enough for regular shipping through it. A recent study from Yale University has suggested that the Arctic ice cap is not only under attack from melting at the edges but also in the middle from heat sources at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. One of the researchers says, ‘Presently this heat is trapped below the surface layer. Should it be mixed up to the surface, there is enough heat to entirely melt the sea-ice pack that covers this region for most of the year.’ Yet, such warnings have been issued many times before. Britain’s Global Warming Policy Foundation--an organization of so-called climate change skeptics--has a compilation of many doom-laden predictions of an ice-free North Pole--all of which have failed to come to pass. The GWPF show that there is insufficient data from a mere 40 years of satellite monitoring to make accurate predictions. And there is a natural cycle of warming and cooling, known as the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation. This peaked in 2008 and, therefore, North Atlantic temperatures are on their way down again. Warnings that the Earth’s seasons are coming to an end are contradicted by what God said at the end of Genesis 8.”
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).
SEEKER’S BIBLE STUDY (Friday Church News Notes, September 13, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Seeker’s Bible Study is a Bible study for unbelievers and non-Christians. It explains the gospel of Jesus Christ, repentance, and faith. It begins with a study of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 which deals with the Bible, Christ, sin, Jesus’ atoning death for sin, Jesus’ burial and bodily resurrection. The study on the gospel is followed by practical studies on repentance and faith. The last section answers the question, “When Is Jesus Coming?” The Bible study is designed to be used as a multi-week, one-on-one teaching course. In our church, we assign a qualified believer to go through the course with every willing visitor. The teacher is instructed to try to grow the class by involving family, neighbors, and friends of the original student. The teacher’s notes can be found in the file “Seeker’s Bible Study - Teacher’s Notes” at www.wayoflife.org.
“VULNERABILITY” WITHOUT REPENTANCE (Friday Church News Notes, September 13, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Paul describes the love of money and its consequences. “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:9-10). Note that they “pierced themselves.” They are not victims. The many sorrows come because of a sinful lifestyle. Many contemporary churches offer grace and forgiveness without repentance and supernatural conversion. They have church members who live the unholy rock & roll lifestyle and pursue wealth in the midst of the filthy pop music/entertainment industry. Invariably they pierce themselves through with many sorrows in that context, but they consider themselves victims. Instead of repenting of their sin, they become “vulnerable” by sharing their problems before the church. They don’t distinguish between suffering that comes because of sin and suffering that comes in the will of God. Pop star Justin Bieber is an example. He is a member of the contemporary Churchome in Beverly Hills, California, pastored by a husband wife team. He told the church, “It says in the bible count it ALL JOY when you face trials of various kinds. Sounds insane considering when u face trials u feel terrible. But if we are grateful and worship god for what we do have in that season there is so much power in that… whatever pain you are going through just keep telling yourself THIS WONT LAST!” (“Justin Bieber Leads Worship,” CBN News, Aug. 30, 2019). Note that he says nothing about faith in the blood of Christ or sin or repentance or conversion. Everything is generic and undefined. He spends a lot of time justifying himself by the fact that he was plunged into popularity at a young age. In contrast, Peter makes a sharp and repeated distinction between suffering for Christ’s sake and suffering for sin. “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters” (1 Pe. 4:14-15). See also 1 Peter 2:19-20; 3:17. The great promise of Romans 8:28 is not for anyone in any circumstance. It is for those who “love God, who are the called according to his purpose.” It is for those who are born again by repentance and saving faith and are walking according to God’s calling and will.
BLACK SLAVERY IN MUSLIM-DOMINATED AFRICAN NATIONS (Friday Church News Notes, September 13, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Black Slavery Exists Today” by Charles Jacobs, President of the American Anti-Slavery Group, The Stream, Sept. 4, 2019: “Today, an estimated 529,000 to 869,000 black men, women, and children are still slaves. They are bought, owned, sold, and traded by Arab and Muslim masters in five African countries. This statistic estimates those enslaved in Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, and Sudan. It excludes Nigeria, for which there are no tangible estimates. Western human rights organizations and the mainstream media are practically and painfully silent on this matter. It does not fit with their focus on Western white sin. Here is a brief survey of this quasi-taboo topic. In Sudan, slavery remains a painful vestige of the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005). That’s when the Arab Muslim government in the north of the country declared a jihad upon the black, largely Christian south. They killed perhaps 2.5 million people and enslaved as many as 200,000. Slaves rescued by grassroots abolitionists tell horrific stories. Abduction. Beatings. Forced conversion to Islam. Grueling labor. Female genital mutilation. Malnutrition. Rape. ... In Mauritania, the very structure of society reinforces slavery. Over the centuries a cruel class system has evolved. The lighter-skinned Arabs (beydanes) and Arabized Berbers rule over the black former slaves. Those slaves have been forcibly Arabized over time (haratin). The free blacks in the south who refuse Arabization and call themselves ‘Negro-Africans’ and the black chattel slave class (abid) are at the bottom. The country is entirely Muslim. Islam theoretically forbids the enslavement of one Muslim by another. However, in this case, Arab racism supersedes adherence to the Shari‘ah (Islamic law). In 1993, a U.S. State Department report estimated that between 30,000 and 90,000 blacks lived as slaves owned by private masters. In 2012, a CNN investigation estimated that the number could be as high as 340,000 to 680,000. ... Sub-Saharan Africans fleeing violence and poverty for Europe are enslaved by Algerian and Libyan Arabs as they try to cross the Mediterranean. Today, according to the Global Slavery Index, around 106,000 black Africans are estimated to be enslaved in Algeria. Migrant women, but also children (both male and female), risk being forced into sexual slavery. ... In Nigeria, the long-running civil war between the Muslim majority and the 40% Christian minority involves the enslavement of Christian Nigerians. The taking of Christian slaves has become a source of compensation for Islamic fighters.”
IS THE ARCTIC ICE DISAPPEARING? (Friday Church News Notes, September 13, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Aug. 23, 2019: “In 2007, former US Vice-President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Al Gore warned that there was a 75% chance that the entire Arctic ice cap would be gone by 2014-16. Yet, the ice still seems to be there! In fact, the famed Northwest Passage does not yet appear to have opened up enough for regular shipping through it. A recent study from Yale University has suggested that the Arctic ice cap is not only under attack from melting at the edges but also in the middle from heat sources at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. One of the researchers says, ‘Presently this heat is trapped below the surface layer. Should it be mixed up to the surface, there is enough heat to entirely melt the sea-ice pack that covers this region for most of the year.’ Yet, such warnings have been issued many times before. Britain’s Global Warming Policy Foundation--an organization of so-called climate change skeptics--has a compilation of many doom-laden predictions of an ice-free North Pole--all of which have failed to come to pass. The GWPF show that there is insufficient data from a mere 40 years of satellite monitoring to make accurate predictions. And there is a natural cycle of warming and cooling, known as the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation. This peaked in 2008 and, therefore, North Atlantic temperatures are on their way down again. Warnings that the Earth’s seasons are coming to an end are contradicted by what God said at the end of Genesis 8.”
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).
_____
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.
Way of Life Literature - www.wayoflife.org
copyright 2018 - Way of Life Literature