Friday Church News Notes
Volume 21, Issue 1 - January 3, 2020
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.
BONO LOVES “THE MESSAGE” (Friday Church News Notes, January 3, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In an interview with Jenna Bush Hager (President George W. Bush’s daughter) on the Today Show, rock star Bono of the band U2, said that his favorite Bible version, and the one he reads to his children, is Eugene Peterson’s The Message. He also said that his children read “mostly mainstream books,” including Harry Potter. He recommended LifeLines by Martin Wroe and Malcolm Doney, explaining, “It’s a book about faith but it’s not strict or in any sense sectarian or specific” (“Bono reveals the Bible translation he reads to his children,” Christian Post, May 21, 2019). This is Bono Christianity, and it is the Christianity of the vast majority of “evangelicals” today, which is why Bono is a modern hero of the faith even though he does not give evidence of biblical regeneration in his beliefs and rock & roll lifestyle. The late Eugene Peterson was a universalist who worshiped a false god of his own making, a promoter of Catholic contemplative mysticism, and this is reflected in The Message. It is not God’s Word; it has no sense of absolute truth and has zero convicting, sanctifying power. It says everything and nothing. Peterson took the Word of God and bent it like a nose of wax. The Message is the Bible of end-time, New Age Christianity. Consider a couple of examples: “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule” (The Message, Matthew 5:3). “Jesus said, You’re not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation--the ‘wind hovering over the water’ creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life--it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom” (The Message, John 3:5).
MEGACHURCH’S BEATLES CHRISTMAS PROGRAM (Friday Church News Notes, January 3, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In the most recent example of how a worldly love for rock & roll makes professing Christians absolutely nutty, Community Christian Church of Naperville, Illinois, has put the Christmas story to Beatles music. The pageant is entitled “Let It Be Christmas: The Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, George and Ringo” (“Beatles Music, Christmas Story,” Religion News Service, Dec. 18, 2019). It was advertised as a “magical mystery tour through the gospels to tell the greatest story of all time, with the greatest music of all time!” The nine shows at the multi-campus church played to sold out crowds. Beatles songs used in the performance include “All My Loving,” “From Me to You,” “We Can Work It Out,” “Taxman,” and “Love Me Do.” The Trinity is blasphemously depicted as an Engineer, a Carpenter, and a Blackbird (the latter is the title of a Beatles’ song). When Mary is informed that she will be the mother of Christ, she dances with the Blackbird. This is the vilest apostasy. The Beatles have done more to further the devil’s program in these last days than any other group. They were doubtless controlled by demons as they captured the affection of an entire generation with their “magical mystery” music and carried millions of young people along on their journey to moral relativism, free sex, unisex, eastern religion, atheism, drug abuse, and rebellion against established order. In his 1965 book, A Spaniard in the Works, John Lennon called Jesus Christ many wicked things that we cannot repeat and he blasphemed the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the song “God” (1970), Lennon sang: “I don’t believe in Bible. I don’t believe in Jesus. I just believe in me, Yoko and me, that’s reality.” Lennon’s extremely popular song “Imagine” (1971) promotes atheism and a global New Age unity. The lyrics say: “Imagine there’s no heaven … No hell below us, above us only sky … no religion too/ You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one/ I hope some day you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.” How many millions of people throughout the world have followed John Lennon in this delusive dream? Death will prove that this “dream” is actually the most horrible nightmare imaginable. George Harrison was a Hindu to the day of his death and led many into this pagan darkness. As of April 2009, the two surviving Beatles headlined a benefit concert to promote Transcendental Meditation (TM) among children. “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11).
HILLSONG CLAIMS OVER 20 DENOMINATIONS REPRESENTED AT ITS ANNUAL CONFERENCE (Friday Church News Notes, January 3, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In the advertisement for its 2020 conference, Hillsong Australia claims that over 20 denominations are represented at its annual conferences, including Anglican, Apostolic, Baptist, Brethren, Catholic, Church of Christ, Assemblies of God, Foursquare, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Seventh day Adventist, and Uniting. Latter Rain ecumenism is a major Hillsong theme, one of the most prominent producers of contemporary worship music. The goal is to unite “the greater church” for the expected “latter rain” miracle revival outpouring. This is a heresy nowhere taught in Scripture. New Testament prophecies of the end of the church age describe terrible apostasy, not revival. See 2 Timothy 3:1-5; 4:3-4, for example. The “signs and wonders” that are described for the end of the age are not true apostolic signs as per 2 Corinthians 12:12. Rather, they are false signs. See Matthew 24:24; 2 Thessalonians 2:9. Hillsong’s “signs” are such things as gibberish tongues, failed prophecies, spirit slaying, holy laughter, shakings, electric shocks, word-faith confessions, and failed healings, none of which do we see in the ministry of Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, John, or Jude. Hillsong’s annual conferences are party extravaganzas that breathe of worldliness rather than biblical holiness and the fear of God. Take away their rock & roll, and there would be nothing left. In 2020, Hillsong Australia’s conference is scheduled for the Qudos Bank Arena, the largest entertainment arena in Australia. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). (For more about Hillsong, see “Darlene Zschech and Hillsong” in the Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians, available as a free eBook at www.wayoflife.org.)
CHRISTIANITY TODAY EDITOR CALLING FOR TRUMP’S IMPEACHMENT CALLED GOD A “DIVINE DRAMA QUEEN” (Friday Church News Notes, January 3, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Christianity Today Editor-in-Chief,” worldviewweekend.com, Dec. 20, 2019: “My late friend Vic often referred to Christianity Today as ‘Christianity Astray.’ Indeed it is. ... The Christianity Today article [by editor-in-chief Mark Galli] has also been the topic on almost all liberal news outlets such as CNN. ... what most Americans and Christians may not know is that back in 2010 Mark Galli wrote what can only be described as heretical and blasphemous. While the article was removed by Christianity Today, the place holding of the article page still exists along with a note by Galli stating that the article has been removed because apparently most Christians have missed the point of his blasphemous article. ... My friend T.A. McMahon wrote an article about Galli’s blaspheming of God on August 1, 2010 ... All of this leads us to Christianity Today's senior managing editor, Mark Galli, and his article of July 15, 2010, titled ‘Divine Drama Queen,’ which is his characterization of the God of the Bible. ... What Galli has written is CT’s latest installment of corrupting the faith, generated from decades of undermining the Word of God and distorting the God of the Bible. ... Gallie: ‘I like a tranquil, even-keeled, self-controlled God. A God who doesn't fly off the handle at the least provocation. A God who lives one step above the fray. A God who has that British stiff upper lip even when disaster is looming. When I read my Bible, though, I keep running into a different God, and I’m not pleased. This God says he “hates” sin. Well, he usually yells it. Read the prophets. It’s just one harangue after another, all in loud decibels. And when the shouting is over, then comes the pouting. ... Take his conversation with Hosea. ... This God is like the volatile Italian woman who, upon discovering her husband’s unfaithfulness, yells and throws dishes, refuses to sleep in the same bed, and doesn’t speak to him for 40 days and 40 nights. ... We may think this a crude depiction, except that Jesus—God with us—seems to suffer the same emotional imbalance. He rants about Pharisees and Scribes—or “snakes” and “hypocrites,” as he calls them. So upset is he over sacrilege in the Temple, he overturns tables and drives people out with a whip. ... This God knows nothing about being a non-anxious presence. This is a very anxious God, indeed. ... I’d rather have a God who takes sin in stride. Why can’t he relax and recognize that to err is human. I mean, you don’t find us flawed humans freaking out about one another’s sins. You don’t see us wrathful, indignant, and pouting. Why can’t God almighty just chill out and realize we’re just human? ... It’s that little phrase, “we’re just human,” that may be the rub with God. Sin seems to be a big deal to God because apparently we’re a big deal to him. ... I much prefer reasonable religion with reasonable expectations, and a God who doesn’t get bent out of shape every time his people trip up. But then again, I don't love as God loves. Not God. Not others. Not myself.’ T.A. McMahon: ‘So, are we to suppose that Galli was just trying to get our attention with his blasphemies for effect? Did we misunderstand Galli’s “literary cleverness”? No. What he paraded before us was a mockery of God akin to what Jesus suffered from those who gathered to watch Him being crucified and to what every God-hating humanist has since voiced.’”
DINOSAUR HEAT EXCHANGER (Friday Church News Notes, January 3, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from creationmoments.com, November 26, 2019: “Large dinosaurs could conceivably have had a heat problem. If they were able to generate their own body temperature, like birds and mammals, then the larger the size, the greater the volume to surface area ratio. This would lead to a greater retention of heat. How would large dinosaurs have been able to cope with such a situation? A lot of research on the subject of dinosaurs has been hampered by researchers’ general assumptions on the supposed evolution of the creature that they are studying. This is despite the fact that there is no scientific evidence for such evolution. So it is exciting to come across some research that does not require evolutionary beliefs to make sense. Such research was carried out by Ohio University scientists into an ankylosaur, named euoplocephalus. This dinosaur fossil--about the size of a large rhino--had a highly convoluted nasal passage. Computer modeling has suggested that this extended passage would lead to veins being close to a lot of incoming air. The air would cool the blood, before it is transported to the brain, and the blood would warm the air before it hit the lungs. Thus there would be a pretty efficient heat exchange in the animal’s nostrils. The one flaw in the research was when one scientist suggested that nature was finding a solution to a problem. Nature is not alive, and does not find solutions. This system speaks volumes about God’s wonderful design. Ref: Ohio University. ‘Huge armored dinosaurs battled overheating with nasal air-conditioning: Researchers use 3D computer modeling to simulate heat exchange in dinosaurs,’ ScienceDaily, 19 December 2018.”
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).
MEGACHURCH’S BEATLES CHRISTMAS PROGRAM (Friday Church News Notes, January 3, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In the most recent example of how a worldly love for rock & roll makes professing Christians absolutely nutty, Community Christian Church of Naperville, Illinois, has put the Christmas story to Beatles music. The pageant is entitled “Let It Be Christmas: The Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, George and Ringo” (“Beatles Music, Christmas Story,” Religion News Service, Dec. 18, 2019). It was advertised as a “magical mystery tour through the gospels to tell the greatest story of all time, with the greatest music of all time!” The nine shows at the multi-campus church played to sold out crowds. Beatles songs used in the performance include “All My Loving,” “From Me to You,” “We Can Work It Out,” “Taxman,” and “Love Me Do.” The Trinity is blasphemously depicted as an Engineer, a Carpenter, and a Blackbird (the latter is the title of a Beatles’ song). When Mary is informed that she will be the mother of Christ, she dances with the Blackbird. This is the vilest apostasy. The Beatles have done more to further the devil’s program in these last days than any other group. They were doubtless controlled by demons as they captured the affection of an entire generation with their “magical mystery” music and carried millions of young people along on their journey to moral relativism, free sex, unisex, eastern religion, atheism, drug abuse, and rebellion against established order. In his 1965 book, A Spaniard in the Works, John Lennon called Jesus Christ many wicked things that we cannot repeat and he blasphemed the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the song “God” (1970), Lennon sang: “I don’t believe in Bible. I don’t believe in Jesus. I just believe in me, Yoko and me, that’s reality.” Lennon’s extremely popular song “Imagine” (1971) promotes atheism and a global New Age unity. The lyrics say: “Imagine there’s no heaven … No hell below us, above us only sky … no religion too/ You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one/ I hope some day you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.” How many millions of people throughout the world have followed John Lennon in this delusive dream? Death will prove that this “dream” is actually the most horrible nightmare imaginable. George Harrison was a Hindu to the day of his death and led many into this pagan darkness. As of April 2009, the two surviving Beatles headlined a benefit concert to promote Transcendental Meditation (TM) among children. “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11).
HILLSONG CLAIMS OVER 20 DENOMINATIONS REPRESENTED AT ITS ANNUAL CONFERENCE (Friday Church News Notes, January 3, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In the advertisement for its 2020 conference, Hillsong Australia claims that over 20 denominations are represented at its annual conferences, including Anglican, Apostolic, Baptist, Brethren, Catholic, Church of Christ, Assemblies of God, Foursquare, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Seventh day Adventist, and Uniting. Latter Rain ecumenism is a major Hillsong theme, one of the most prominent producers of contemporary worship music. The goal is to unite “the greater church” for the expected “latter rain” miracle revival outpouring. This is a heresy nowhere taught in Scripture. New Testament prophecies of the end of the church age describe terrible apostasy, not revival. See 2 Timothy 3:1-5; 4:3-4, for example. The “signs and wonders” that are described for the end of the age are not true apostolic signs as per 2 Corinthians 12:12. Rather, they are false signs. See Matthew 24:24; 2 Thessalonians 2:9. Hillsong’s “signs” are such things as gibberish tongues, failed prophecies, spirit slaying, holy laughter, shakings, electric shocks, word-faith confessions, and failed healings, none of which do we see in the ministry of Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, John, or Jude. Hillsong’s annual conferences are party extravaganzas that breathe of worldliness rather than biblical holiness and the fear of God. Take away their rock & roll, and there would be nothing left. In 2020, Hillsong Australia’s conference is scheduled for the Qudos Bank Arena, the largest entertainment arena in Australia. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). (For more about Hillsong, see “Darlene Zschech and Hillsong” in the Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians, available as a free eBook at www.wayoflife.org.)
CHRISTIANITY TODAY EDITOR CALLING FOR TRUMP’S IMPEACHMENT CALLED GOD A “DIVINE DRAMA QUEEN” (Friday Church News Notes, January 3, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Christianity Today Editor-in-Chief,” worldviewweekend.com, Dec. 20, 2019: “My late friend Vic often referred to Christianity Today as ‘Christianity Astray.’ Indeed it is. ... The Christianity Today article [by editor-in-chief Mark Galli] has also been the topic on almost all liberal news outlets such as CNN. ... what most Americans and Christians may not know is that back in 2010 Mark Galli wrote what can only be described as heretical and blasphemous. While the article was removed by Christianity Today, the place holding of the article page still exists along with a note by Galli stating that the article has been removed because apparently most Christians have missed the point of his blasphemous article. ... My friend T.A. McMahon wrote an article about Galli’s blaspheming of God on August 1, 2010 ... All of this leads us to Christianity Today's senior managing editor, Mark Galli, and his article of July 15, 2010, titled ‘Divine Drama Queen,’ which is his characterization of the God of the Bible. ... What Galli has written is CT’s latest installment of corrupting the faith, generated from decades of undermining the Word of God and distorting the God of the Bible. ... Gallie: ‘I like a tranquil, even-keeled, self-controlled God. A God who doesn't fly off the handle at the least provocation. A God who lives one step above the fray. A God who has that British stiff upper lip even when disaster is looming. When I read my Bible, though, I keep running into a different God, and I’m not pleased. This God says he “hates” sin. Well, he usually yells it. Read the prophets. It’s just one harangue after another, all in loud decibels. And when the shouting is over, then comes the pouting. ... Take his conversation with Hosea. ... This God is like the volatile Italian woman who, upon discovering her husband’s unfaithfulness, yells and throws dishes, refuses to sleep in the same bed, and doesn’t speak to him for 40 days and 40 nights. ... We may think this a crude depiction, except that Jesus—God with us—seems to suffer the same emotional imbalance. He rants about Pharisees and Scribes—or “snakes” and “hypocrites,” as he calls them. So upset is he over sacrilege in the Temple, he overturns tables and drives people out with a whip. ... This God knows nothing about being a non-anxious presence. This is a very anxious God, indeed. ... I’d rather have a God who takes sin in stride. Why can’t he relax and recognize that to err is human. I mean, you don’t find us flawed humans freaking out about one another’s sins. You don’t see us wrathful, indignant, and pouting. Why can’t God almighty just chill out and realize we’re just human? ... It’s that little phrase, “we’re just human,” that may be the rub with God. Sin seems to be a big deal to God because apparently we’re a big deal to him. ... I much prefer reasonable religion with reasonable expectations, and a God who doesn’t get bent out of shape every time his people trip up. But then again, I don't love as God loves. Not God. Not others. Not myself.’ T.A. McMahon: ‘So, are we to suppose that Galli was just trying to get our attention with his blasphemies for effect? Did we misunderstand Galli’s “literary cleverness”? No. What he paraded before us was a mockery of God akin to what Jesus suffered from those who gathered to watch Him being crucified and to what every God-hating humanist has since voiced.’”
DINOSAUR HEAT EXCHANGER (Friday Church News Notes, January 3, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from creationmoments.com, November 26, 2019: “Large dinosaurs could conceivably have had a heat problem. If they were able to generate their own body temperature, like birds and mammals, then the larger the size, the greater the volume to surface area ratio. This would lead to a greater retention of heat. How would large dinosaurs have been able to cope with such a situation? A lot of research on the subject of dinosaurs has been hampered by researchers’ general assumptions on the supposed evolution of the creature that they are studying. This is despite the fact that there is no scientific evidence for such evolution. So it is exciting to come across some research that does not require evolutionary beliefs to make sense. Such research was carried out by Ohio University scientists into an ankylosaur, named euoplocephalus. This dinosaur fossil--about the size of a large rhino--had a highly convoluted nasal passage. Computer modeling has suggested that this extended passage would lead to veins being close to a lot of incoming air. The air would cool the blood, before it is transported to the brain, and the blood would warm the air before it hit the lungs. Thus there would be a pretty efficient heat exchange in the animal’s nostrils. The one flaw in the research was when one scientist suggested that nature was finding a solution to a problem. Nature is not alive, and does not find solutions. This system speaks volumes about God’s wonderful design. Ref: Ohio University. ‘Huge armored dinosaurs battled overheating with nasal air-conditioning: Researchers use 3D computer modeling to simulate heat exchange in dinosaurs,’ ScienceDaily, 19 December 2018.”
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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