Friday Church News Notes
Volume 21, Issue 23 - June 5, 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.
Locust attack in India; worst in 2 decades.
PESTILENCES AND LOCUSTS - IS IT THE END OF THE WORLD? (Friday Church News Notes, June 5, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The coronavirus pestilence has caused a reported 365,000 deaths worldwide. At the same time, a locust plague is devouring tens of thousands of acres of cropland and pasture in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Iran, Pakistan, and India. “In Kenya, the locusts are eating in one day the amount of food consumed by all Kenyans in two days” (“Locusts attack crops,” The Times of India, May 26, 2020). “Iranian officials say the current swarm has already attacked more than 494,000 acres of orchards and farmland in seven of Iran’s 31 provinces, and caused damage exceeding $7 billion” (Israel Today, May 23, 2020). But this is not the Day of the Lord. The wars and pestilences and locusts of the Day of the Lord will make the current problems seem like a picnic. At the very beginning of the Day of the Lord one-fourth of the earth’s population will die from “sword, hunger, and death [pestilence]” (Revelation 6:8). Currently the world population is 7.8 billion, so the death toll would be 2 BILLION! Global health care and emergency systems will be completely overwhelmed. The locusts of the Day of the Lord that are described in Revelation 9 are not ordinary locusts. They are demonic. They don’t hurt the grass of the earth, they attack men with a tormenting sting like a scorpion, but the torment lasts five months and is so terrible that men will “desire to die, and death shall flee from them” (Revelation 9:5-6). There will be no vaccination. After this, one-third of the remaining world population will be killed by a rampaging two million-man army spewing out fire and brimstone (Revelation 9:16-19). That will be another 1.7 BILLION. And those are only some of the judgments that will fall on the earth during the Day of the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ described it as follows: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened” (Mt. 24:21-22).
TWITTER EXECUTIVE WHO IS CENSORING PRESIDENT TRUMP IS MASSIVELY BIASED AGAINST CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL VIEWS (Friday Church News Notes, June 5, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Twitter’s “Head of Site Integrity,” Yoel Roth, boasts of being in charge of “developing and enforcing” Twitter’s censoring rules. Twitter placed a warning label on two of President Trump’s tweets concerning mail-in balloting on May 26 and a tweet about the racial violence in Minneapolis on May 29. Roth should not be in charge of such things. He is a braggart who is incredibly biased against conservative thinking. “Roth has previously referred to Trump and his team as ‘ACTUAL NAZIS,’ mocked Trump supporters by saying that ‘we fly over those states that voted for A RACIST TANGERINE for a reason.’ ... Roth compared senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels” (“Twitter exec,” Fox News, May 27, 2020). Roth has no business doing this type of thing, but, in fact, no one at Twitter should be censoring political speech. Who has appointed Twitter as a speech censor or “fact checker”? Our concern here is not politics. Our concern is freedom of speech in an age when the majority of social media is owned by a few extremely biased, activist-oriented, anti-Christian companies. If they will censor the President of the United States, they will definitely censor you.
FACEBOOK CEO CRITICIZES TWITTER’S WARNING LABELS ON TRUMP’S POSTS (Friday Church News Notes, June 5, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Mark Zuckerberg went on record criticizing Twitter’s decision to apply warning labels on President Donald Trump’s posts. Zuckerberg told Fox News’s “The Daily Briefing” that privately-owned digital platforms should not act as the ‘arbiter of truth. We have a different policy than, I think, Twitter on this. I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online. Private companies probably shouldn’t be, especially these platform companies, shouldn’t be in the position of doing that.” To that we say a loud Amen! But Facebook has a massive censorship program. It has 15,000 “content moderators” who search through Facebook pages and determine whether or not the content is acceptable. In December 2018, a Facebook employee “leaked more than 1,000 pages of documents detailing its content moderation policies and how it polices speech on a global scale” (“After Facebook apologizes for ban,” Fox News, Dec. 31, 2018). In December 2018, Facebook temporarily blocked Franklin Graham’s Facebook account because in 2016 he supported North Carolina’s state law HB2 that banned cities from requiring businesses to allow transsexuals to use the bathroom of their choice (“After Facebook apologizes for ban,” Fox News, Dec. 31, 2018). One of Facebook’s 15,000 “content moderators” judged this to be “dehumanizing language,” which shows how much they have capitulated to the homosexual rights agenda. Simply to speak out in support of a state law is considered some kind of hate toward homosexuals. Graham said the social network is “trying to define truth. They’re making the rules and changing the rules. Truth is truth. God made the rules and His Word is truth. Actually, Facebook is censoring free speech. The free exchange of ideas is part of our country’s DNA. ... I think it was just really a personal attack towards me” (Ibid.). In December 2018, Facebook censored pro-life advocate Obianuju Ekeocha who had posted a link to an article about her pro-life work. Facebook said it “goes against our community standards” (“Big Problems with Big Tech,” The Stream, Dec. 20, 2018). Obviously Facebook’s “community standards” support the murder of unborn children. Recently Facebook and Instagram (owned by Facebook) have threatened to ban permanently the account of Olga Shirnina, a professional German-Russian translator and one of the world’s best colorizers of historic black-and-white photos. Why? For posting beautifully colorized photos of historic World War II events such as the iconic photo of Russian soldiers raising the Soviet flag over the Reichstag in Berlin in 1945. It’s a ridiculous policy, to say the least. Anyone who can’t distinguish properly between the promotion of violence and violent organizations today and the innocent posting of historic photos has no business in the role of censor.
CHINA FORCES SCHOOL TEACHERS TO RENOUNCE CHRISTIAN FAITH (Friday Church News Notes, June 5, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Teachers Forced to Renounce,” Bitter Winter, May 18, 2020: “After President Xi Jinping stressed during a national education conference on September 10, 2018, that the fundamental task for education is to train builders and successors of socialism, the pressure on teachers to indoctrinate students increased significantly. In June last year, a primary school in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang threatened to dismiss a teacher after finding out that she also preached in a house church. She was told to stop doing that, or the government would punish the entire school. In August, authorities investigated a kindergarten teacher in Shenyang, the capital of the northeastern province of Liaoning, because she is a practicing Protestant. She was forced to quit her job. In November, Chen Qiufa, the CCP Committee secretary of Liaoning Province, demanded to suppress ‘religious influences’ on teachers and students at a meeting for Party members and provincial government officials. In December, at a training event for local Party members in Liaoning’s Anshan city, participants were demanded to carry out ‘four investigations’— scrutinize schools, teachers, students, and their actions—to ensure that no CCP members, teachers, and students in kindergartens, primary or middle schools hold religious beliefs. Similar measures have been implemented at the end of last year in many counties and cities in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. A teacher from the eastern province of Shandong told Bitter Winter that last July, local education departments carried out investigations targeting newly employed middle school teachers. The primary focus was to find out if they hold religious beliefs and support the Communist Party.”
LOVERS OF PLEASURES CHURCHES (Friday Church News Notes, June 5, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Paul’s prophecy of the last days in 2 Timothy 3 describes apostates as “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Ti. 3:4). This is a perfect description of last days society, which is pleasure mad. There has never been more economic prosperity and there have never been more avenues for pleasure. Even most professing Christians love pleasures more than God. There is some love of God, but there is more love of pleasure. Consider the test of time. How much of one’s time is spent on God compared with how much is spent on pleasures? Consider the test of money, energy, and enthusiasm. A great many Christians, even in the staunchest Bible-believing churches, are as sports mad as the secular crowd. Christian youth are as much in love with video games and rock & roll and hip hop and mature-rated movies and Facebook self-expression as the secular crowd. Consider the typical church’s calendar, which is filled to the brim with entertainment, not only for children and teens, but also for the “senior citizens.” Over the pleasure program is a thin veneer of God. Think of the average evangelical or even “fundamentalist” Christian home. There is a little prayer, a little Bible, a little evangelism, a little ministry, perhaps, but there is a whole lot of pleasure. This is accepted as normal Christianity, but it is actually apostasy.
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).
TWITTER EXECUTIVE WHO IS CENSORING PRESIDENT TRUMP IS MASSIVELY BIASED AGAINST CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL VIEWS (Friday Church News Notes, June 5, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Twitter’s “Head of Site Integrity,” Yoel Roth, boasts of being in charge of “developing and enforcing” Twitter’s censoring rules. Twitter placed a warning label on two of President Trump’s tweets concerning mail-in balloting on May 26 and a tweet about the racial violence in Minneapolis on May 29. Roth should not be in charge of such things. He is a braggart who is incredibly biased against conservative thinking. “Roth has previously referred to Trump and his team as ‘ACTUAL NAZIS,’ mocked Trump supporters by saying that ‘we fly over those states that voted for A RACIST TANGERINE for a reason.’ ... Roth compared senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels” (“Twitter exec,” Fox News, May 27, 2020). Roth has no business doing this type of thing, but, in fact, no one at Twitter should be censoring political speech. Who has appointed Twitter as a speech censor or “fact checker”? Our concern here is not politics. Our concern is freedom of speech in an age when the majority of social media is owned by a few extremely biased, activist-oriented, anti-Christian companies. If they will censor the President of the United States, they will definitely censor you.
FACEBOOK CEO CRITICIZES TWITTER’S WARNING LABELS ON TRUMP’S POSTS (Friday Church News Notes, June 5, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Mark Zuckerberg went on record criticizing Twitter’s decision to apply warning labels on President Donald Trump’s posts. Zuckerberg told Fox News’s “The Daily Briefing” that privately-owned digital platforms should not act as the ‘arbiter of truth. We have a different policy than, I think, Twitter on this. I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online. Private companies probably shouldn’t be, especially these platform companies, shouldn’t be in the position of doing that.” To that we say a loud Amen! But Facebook has a massive censorship program. It has 15,000 “content moderators” who search through Facebook pages and determine whether or not the content is acceptable. In December 2018, a Facebook employee “leaked more than 1,000 pages of documents detailing its content moderation policies and how it polices speech on a global scale” (“After Facebook apologizes for ban,” Fox News, Dec. 31, 2018). In December 2018, Facebook temporarily blocked Franklin Graham’s Facebook account because in 2016 he supported North Carolina’s state law HB2 that banned cities from requiring businesses to allow transsexuals to use the bathroom of their choice (“After Facebook apologizes for ban,” Fox News, Dec. 31, 2018). One of Facebook’s 15,000 “content moderators” judged this to be “dehumanizing language,” which shows how much they have capitulated to the homosexual rights agenda. Simply to speak out in support of a state law is considered some kind of hate toward homosexuals. Graham said the social network is “trying to define truth. They’re making the rules and changing the rules. Truth is truth. God made the rules and His Word is truth. Actually, Facebook is censoring free speech. The free exchange of ideas is part of our country’s DNA. ... I think it was just really a personal attack towards me” (Ibid.). In December 2018, Facebook censored pro-life advocate Obianuju Ekeocha who had posted a link to an article about her pro-life work. Facebook said it “goes against our community standards” (“Big Problems with Big Tech,” The Stream, Dec. 20, 2018). Obviously Facebook’s “community standards” support the murder of unborn children. Recently Facebook and Instagram (owned by Facebook) have threatened to ban permanently the account of Olga Shirnina, a professional German-Russian translator and one of the world’s best colorizers of historic black-and-white photos. Why? For posting beautifully colorized photos of historic World War II events such as the iconic photo of Russian soldiers raising the Soviet flag over the Reichstag in Berlin in 1945. It’s a ridiculous policy, to say the least. Anyone who can’t distinguish properly between the promotion of violence and violent organizations today and the innocent posting of historic photos has no business in the role of censor.
CHINA FORCES SCHOOL TEACHERS TO RENOUNCE CHRISTIAN FAITH (Friday Church News Notes, June 5, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Teachers Forced to Renounce,” Bitter Winter, May 18, 2020: “After President Xi Jinping stressed during a national education conference on September 10, 2018, that the fundamental task for education is to train builders and successors of socialism, the pressure on teachers to indoctrinate students increased significantly. In June last year, a primary school in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang threatened to dismiss a teacher after finding out that she also preached in a house church. She was told to stop doing that, or the government would punish the entire school. In August, authorities investigated a kindergarten teacher in Shenyang, the capital of the northeastern province of Liaoning, because she is a practicing Protestant. She was forced to quit her job. In November, Chen Qiufa, the CCP Committee secretary of Liaoning Province, demanded to suppress ‘religious influences’ on teachers and students at a meeting for Party members and provincial government officials. In December, at a training event for local Party members in Liaoning’s Anshan city, participants were demanded to carry out ‘four investigations’— scrutinize schools, teachers, students, and their actions—to ensure that no CCP members, teachers, and students in kindergartens, primary or middle schools hold religious beliefs. Similar measures have been implemented at the end of last year in many counties and cities in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. A teacher from the eastern province of Shandong told Bitter Winter that last July, local education departments carried out investigations targeting newly employed middle school teachers. The primary focus was to find out if they hold religious beliefs and support the Communist Party.”
LOVERS OF PLEASURES CHURCHES (Friday Church News Notes, June 5, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Paul’s prophecy of the last days in 2 Timothy 3 describes apostates as “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Ti. 3:4). This is a perfect description of last days society, which is pleasure mad. There has never been more economic prosperity and there have never been more avenues for pleasure. Even most professing Christians love pleasures more than God. There is some love of God, but there is more love of pleasure. Consider the test of time. How much of one’s time is spent on God compared with how much is spent on pleasures? Consider the test of money, energy, and enthusiasm. A great many Christians, even in the staunchest Bible-believing churches, are as sports mad as the secular crowd. Christian youth are as much in love with video games and rock & roll and hip hop and mature-rated movies and Facebook self-expression as the secular crowd. Consider the typical church’s calendar, which is filled to the brim with entertainment, not only for children and teens, but also for the “senior citizens.” Over the pleasure program is a thin veneer of God. Think of the average evangelical or even “fundamentalist” Christian home. There is a little prayer, a little Bible, a little evangelism, a little ministry, perhaps, but there is a whole lot of pleasure. This is accepted as normal Christianity, but it is actually apostasy.
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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