Friday Church News Notes
Volume 21, Issue 37 - Sept. 11, 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.
TWO AMERICAS, TWO WORLDVIEWS (Friday Church News Notes, September 11, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - There are two Americas today. There is the conservative, traditional America, the America of the Founding Fathers, the America deeply influenced by the Bible. American conservatives, regardless of whether or not they are professing Christians, have a worldview that is to various degrees shaped by the Bible, which is the worldview of the nation’s founding: the existence of a Creator God, respect for the Bible, private ownership of property (“thou shalt not steal ... though shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house ... nor anything that is thy neighbour’s”), the sanctity of life (“thou shalt not kill”), the right to defense of life and property (Exodus 22:2-3), the rule of law and order (Romans 13:1-7), equality of justice (Deuteronomy 1:17), the sanctity of the “nuclear family” (Matthew 19:4-6), nationalism as opposed to globalism (protection of national borders, strong national defense), freedom of religion, freedom for churches to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). This is the America of conservative evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity, conservative politics, conservative media, home schoolers, Blue Lives Matter. It is the America of Donald Trump and the Republican Party. Then there is the leftist America influenced by godless and anti-Christian philosophies such as Humanism, social Darwinism, economic and cultural Marxism, critical theories, radical feminism, global socialism (a world superstate), intersectionality, queer rights, liberation theology, the Green movement, Islam. This is the America that is propagandized through the public education system, from the elementary school to the university and through many training programs in the federal government. It is the America of the “mainstream media” such as CNN and the New York Times. It is supported to a large degree by big technology (Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple) and by the nation’s largest corporations (Nike, etc.). It is the America of Black Lives Matter and Antifa and “systemic racism” and defund the police and wokeness and the cancel culture and deplatforming. It is the America of the “progressive” element of the Democratic Party, which is rapidly taking over the party. The two Americas are currently fairly equal in size and influence, which is evident in the makeup of the U.S. Congress and in the razor thin margins of the presidential elections. Humanly speaking, the tide is on the side of leftist America because of its domination of the public school system and higher education, among other things. At the same time, those vast numbers of Americans who love the traditional America have many resources, not the least of which is prayer. America is still the world’s greatest bastion of biblical Christianity. If even a minority of those Christians would wake up from the slumber of a party lifestyle and live the pilgrim lifestyle that God’s Word commands and engage in spiritual warfare, there is no telling what God would do even in these dark times.
OHIO MAYOR SURRENDERS CITY TO JESUS CHRIST (Friday Church News Notes, September 11, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Ashland becomes spiritual hot spot,” Front Lines Ohio, Aug. 26, 2020: “In the midst of a pandemic and national social unrest, a collaboration of twenty-five churches associated with the local Ashland County Ministerial Association (ACMA) braved August heat asking forgiveness from God during a sacred assembly. ... State Rep. Darrell Kick, one of the assembly speakers, shared about a group of state lawmakers who hold Bible studies before casting their votes at the Statehouse. ... County Commissioner Emmitt Justice at assembly prayed, ‘I ask on behalf of the Commissioners and all the county officials that you would forgive us for the rebellion of the people of our land. We have all sinned.’ Ashland Mayor Matt Miller prayed, ‘As I stand before you tonight, in the bright light of his Son, to the extent I am able, I give this City of Ashland to the Lord Jesus Christ. May this be a land where He rules supreme. May this be a land where His love is genuinely felt by believers and non-believers alike.’ Miller stated he believed God’s mercy has shielded the community from COVID-19. Ashland County has posted minimal cases in the course of the pandemic. ‘The heart of this city is seeking God ... I believe with all my heart that is why God has protected and blessed the City of Ashland during one of the most tumultuous times in my lifetime and the city’s history,’ the Mayor said. Joel Penton, the Executive Director of Lifewise Academy, prayed for the public schools during the gathering. Penton is partnering with ACMA to bring Bible education to all five public school districts in Ashland County. ‘For over two generations the Bible has been removed from the nation’s education system and now the country is reaping the harvest,’ Penton said. ‘However, an Ohio law passed in 2014 allows high school students to receive school credits for Bible classes. In fact, Van Wert, Ohio, has ninety-five percent of their elementary public school students taught from the Bible every week.’”
NORTH VALLEY BAPTIST CHURCH, SANTA CLARA, BEING FINED $5,000 A DAY (Friday Church News Notes, September 11, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - North Valley Baptist Church, Santa Clara, California, is being targeted by the city with draconian fines for holding church services, failing to ensure mask wearing and social distancing, and singing. As of September 7, the fines totaled about $60,000 and $5,000 is added for every assembly ($10,000 per Sunday), plus a daily fine of $5,000 even when the church does not meet. The County Counsel is looking for ways to be even more totalitarian. He says, “It appears for the moment that the fines have not stopped them from continuing the gatherings, and we’ll be looking at what other options we might have to take” (“Santa Clara Church,” Mercury News, Aug. 28, 2020). Pastor Trieber says, “We’ve had to this day 224 people pass away; 90 plus were in rest homes ... there’s not a pandemic here.” The pastor said on the church’s Facebook account, “We are not closing down this church. I hope you get this message. I know America does not want this to happen in her country and at this church.” Associate Pastor Justin Cooper told the Daily Wire, “It’s really strengthened us as a church, I believe, and we’re very unified right now in this decision to go forward. We believe that what happens here will swing across the country. So that’s why we’re still willing to take our stand here. I believe it’s a religious liberty battle and the future of our country, as far as we know it--as far as church is concerned --is definitely at stake.”
COVID-19 TESTS DETECTING VIRUS FRAGMENTS THAT AREN’T INFECTIOUS (Friday Church News Notes, September 11, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Coronavirus cases are mounting but deaths remain stable,” by Carl Heneghan and Tom Jefferson of Oxford University, The Spectator, Sept. 1, 2020: “At the time of writing, the UK records 1750 new cases daily and one death in a population of 67 million. With a roughly similar population and an average of 602 cases a day, Italy has had just over four deaths a day over the last month. The ratio of cases to deaths is nowhere near what it was at the height of the pandemic. The other notable feature is a shift of cases to a younger population. There can be several explanations for this trend. ... A fourth possible and much more complex explanation is what we call the ‘reality problem’. ... PCR [polymerase chain reaction] is a very sensitive test, which means that it detects the smallest fragments of the virus it is looking for by amplifying the sample millions of times. However, a fragment is not a whole virus, capable of replication and of infecting other human beings. It is a small part of the viral structure that the PCR primer is looking for, not the whole microorganism. Only whole viruses can infect us. ... You would expect all of this to be reported in a PCR results but it is not routinely done. There is worse news to come. A very sensitive test is vulnerable to contamination with extraneous genetic material (hence the need for suiting up operators). The rapid expansion of testing capacity may have degraded our capacity for sterility by increasing throughput and straining lab staff training. ... Evidence is mounting that a good proportion of ‘new’ mild cases and people re-testing positives after quarantine or discharge from hospital are not infectious, but are simply clearing harmless virus particles which their immune system has efficiently dealt with. ... So, we appear to have the reality of viral circulation, probably waning fast and the perceived reality of a misused and simply interpreted genial test.”
THREE LEVELS OF STUPID (Friday Church News Notes, September 11, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - To help our friends analyze events in these days, we have discovered that there are three levels of stupid. There is the normal, run of the mill stupid. Then there is dupid, which is double stupid. Finally there is tupid, which is triple stupid.
DREAM HOME GOES UP IN FLAMES (Friday Church News Notes, September 11, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Hank Hanson’s dream house was one of the 700 homes and other structures destroyed in the massive wildfires in Northern California a couple of weeks ago. What firefighting officials are calling a “lightning siege,” some 12,000 lightning strikes have produced more than 500 wildfires. The 13,700 firefighters have not been able to control them. Hanson, now 81-years-old, spent 30 years building his 3,000-square-foot (279-square-meter) dream house nestled in the lovely mountains of northern California, with a wine cellar, three fireplaces, and indoor and outdoor pools. He says he has no plans to rebuild. “I wouldn’t want to do it on a lesser scale, and I don’t have time to top the old one” (“California Dream House,” ABC News, Aug. 23, 2020). Every dream house will burn up eventually, and probably sooner rather than later. The Lord Jesus Christ gave a wakeup call 2,000 years ago pertaining to a man who had made his fortune and planned to live out his life in ease. “And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:20).
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).
OHIO MAYOR SURRENDERS CITY TO JESUS CHRIST (Friday Church News Notes, September 11, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Ashland becomes spiritual hot spot,” Front Lines Ohio, Aug. 26, 2020: “In the midst of a pandemic and national social unrest, a collaboration of twenty-five churches associated with the local Ashland County Ministerial Association (ACMA) braved August heat asking forgiveness from God during a sacred assembly. ... State Rep. Darrell Kick, one of the assembly speakers, shared about a group of state lawmakers who hold Bible studies before casting their votes at the Statehouse. ... County Commissioner Emmitt Justice at assembly prayed, ‘I ask on behalf of the Commissioners and all the county officials that you would forgive us for the rebellion of the people of our land. We have all sinned.’ Ashland Mayor Matt Miller prayed, ‘As I stand before you tonight, in the bright light of his Son, to the extent I am able, I give this City of Ashland to the Lord Jesus Christ. May this be a land where He rules supreme. May this be a land where His love is genuinely felt by believers and non-believers alike.’ Miller stated he believed God’s mercy has shielded the community from COVID-19. Ashland County has posted minimal cases in the course of the pandemic. ‘The heart of this city is seeking God ... I believe with all my heart that is why God has protected and blessed the City of Ashland during one of the most tumultuous times in my lifetime and the city’s history,’ the Mayor said. Joel Penton, the Executive Director of Lifewise Academy, prayed for the public schools during the gathering. Penton is partnering with ACMA to bring Bible education to all five public school districts in Ashland County. ‘For over two generations the Bible has been removed from the nation’s education system and now the country is reaping the harvest,’ Penton said. ‘However, an Ohio law passed in 2014 allows high school students to receive school credits for Bible classes. In fact, Van Wert, Ohio, has ninety-five percent of their elementary public school students taught from the Bible every week.’”
NORTH VALLEY BAPTIST CHURCH, SANTA CLARA, BEING FINED $5,000 A DAY (Friday Church News Notes, September 11, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - North Valley Baptist Church, Santa Clara, California, is being targeted by the city with draconian fines for holding church services, failing to ensure mask wearing and social distancing, and singing. As of September 7, the fines totaled about $60,000 and $5,000 is added for every assembly ($10,000 per Sunday), plus a daily fine of $5,000 even when the church does not meet. The County Counsel is looking for ways to be even more totalitarian. He says, “It appears for the moment that the fines have not stopped them from continuing the gatherings, and we’ll be looking at what other options we might have to take” (“Santa Clara Church,” Mercury News, Aug. 28, 2020). Pastor Trieber says, “We’ve had to this day 224 people pass away; 90 plus were in rest homes ... there’s not a pandemic here.” The pastor said on the church’s Facebook account, “We are not closing down this church. I hope you get this message. I know America does not want this to happen in her country and at this church.” Associate Pastor Justin Cooper told the Daily Wire, “It’s really strengthened us as a church, I believe, and we’re very unified right now in this decision to go forward. We believe that what happens here will swing across the country. So that’s why we’re still willing to take our stand here. I believe it’s a religious liberty battle and the future of our country, as far as we know it--as far as church is concerned --is definitely at stake.”
COVID-19 TESTS DETECTING VIRUS FRAGMENTS THAT AREN’T INFECTIOUS (Friday Church News Notes, September 11, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Coronavirus cases are mounting but deaths remain stable,” by Carl Heneghan and Tom Jefferson of Oxford University, The Spectator, Sept. 1, 2020: “At the time of writing, the UK records 1750 new cases daily and one death in a population of 67 million. With a roughly similar population and an average of 602 cases a day, Italy has had just over four deaths a day over the last month. The ratio of cases to deaths is nowhere near what it was at the height of the pandemic. The other notable feature is a shift of cases to a younger population. There can be several explanations for this trend. ... A fourth possible and much more complex explanation is what we call the ‘reality problem’. ... PCR [polymerase chain reaction] is a very sensitive test, which means that it detects the smallest fragments of the virus it is looking for by amplifying the sample millions of times. However, a fragment is not a whole virus, capable of replication and of infecting other human beings. It is a small part of the viral structure that the PCR primer is looking for, not the whole microorganism. Only whole viruses can infect us. ... You would expect all of this to be reported in a PCR results but it is not routinely done. There is worse news to come. A very sensitive test is vulnerable to contamination with extraneous genetic material (hence the need for suiting up operators). The rapid expansion of testing capacity may have degraded our capacity for sterility by increasing throughput and straining lab staff training. ... Evidence is mounting that a good proportion of ‘new’ mild cases and people re-testing positives after quarantine or discharge from hospital are not infectious, but are simply clearing harmless virus particles which their immune system has efficiently dealt with. ... So, we appear to have the reality of viral circulation, probably waning fast and the perceived reality of a misused and simply interpreted genial test.”
THREE LEVELS OF STUPID (Friday Church News Notes, September 11, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - To help our friends analyze events in these days, we have discovered that there are three levels of stupid. There is the normal, run of the mill stupid. Then there is dupid, which is double stupid. Finally there is tupid, which is triple stupid.
DREAM HOME GOES UP IN FLAMES (Friday Church News Notes, September 11, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Hank Hanson’s dream house was one of the 700 homes and other structures destroyed in the massive wildfires in Northern California a couple of weeks ago. What firefighting officials are calling a “lightning siege,” some 12,000 lightning strikes have produced more than 500 wildfires. The 13,700 firefighters have not been able to control them. Hanson, now 81-years-old, spent 30 years building his 3,000-square-foot (279-square-meter) dream house nestled in the lovely mountains of northern California, with a wine cellar, three fireplaces, and indoor and outdoor pools. He says he has no plans to rebuild. “I wouldn’t want to do it on a lesser scale, and I don’t have time to top the old one” (“California Dream House,” ABC News, Aug. 23, 2020). Every dream house will burn up eventually, and probably sooner rather than later. The Lord Jesus Christ gave a wakeup call 2,000 years ago pertaining to a man who had made his fortune and planned to live out his life in ease. “And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:20).
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).
A DRY WATERFALL (Friday Church News Notes, September 4, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from creationmoments.com, June 25, 2020: “In eastern Washington State, there is a waterfall, four times larger than the Niagara Falls. So why haven’t you all heard about this magnificent wonder of the world? Because there is no water going over the falls today. The whole jaw-dropping spectacle is dry--hence its name. Yet, it clearly used to be a waterfall. How was it formed, and why is it now dry? There was a devastating flood in the North West of the United States a long time ago. An inland lake, situated around Missoula, Montana, broke free, and the water poured west across Idaho and into east Washington, where it carved out enormous valleys, called coulees. Then the water flowed south into the Columbia River, where it carved out the Columbia Gorge--but that is another story. At one point, in the Grand Coulee, the water plunged over this cataract, which is nearly five miles wide, and has a drop of 400 feet. The waterfall must have been an awesome sight --even without water, it is impressive today. The depth of the plunge pools at the base of the falls give a measure of the power of the water. The Dry Falls were probably not wet falls for very long. They serve as a testimony to the fact that major geological changes in the Earth’s surface do not take millions of years, but can clearly be seen to be catastrophic--just as the Bible informs us in its account of the worldwide Flood. Ref: Oard, M.J. (2004), The Missoula Flood Controversy and the Genesis Flood (CRS).”
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).
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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