Friday Church News Notes
Volume 21, Issue 45 - November 6, 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.
2020 U.S. ELECTIONS (Friday Church News Notes, November 6, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - U.S. elections affect things on earth, but they do not change anything in heaven. No election can remove God from His throne or Jesus Christ from God’s right hand or stop the coming of the Day of the Lord. The prophetic hour is very late, and as God’s redeemed await the Rapture shout, which is imminent, we have our assignment. Let’s keep the hand to the plow. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:1-4). “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matthew 28:18-20).“But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-9).
SOUTHERN BAPTIST CHURCH BURNED DOWN IN PHILADELPHIA AS SBC LEADERS SYMPATHIZE WITH RIOTERS (Friday Church News Notes, November 6, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Vietnamese Southern Baptist Church,” Reformation Charlotte, Oct. 29, 2020: “This week, a Vietnamese Southern Baptist church was burned to the ground amid race riots in Philadelphia. According to Kentucky Today, ‘Pastor Philip Pham received a call Tuesday night from a church member whose friend had seen the flames and seven fire trucks surrounding the church.’ ... He said the facility is a ‘total loss.’ Incidentally, in recent weeks, Southern Baptist leaders have called on Southern Baptists and Evangelicals to sympathize with the rioters and try to ‘understand’ why they are doing what they are doing. In June, a group of staff from one of the denomination’s most prestigious seminaries, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS), along with pastors from Southern Baptist churches, held a discussion where they justified the actions of rioters and anarchists while pointing to ‘white supremacy’ as the underlying cause of their disorderly conduct. In the video, you can hear Wesley Price say, ‘Rioting makes sense. It’s not right, but makes sense ... everyone can get to the point where you’re going to rage out ... it’s the voice of those who had their voice taken away.’” CONCLUDING NOTE: The idea of “systemic racism” in 21st century America is nonsense. No one has taken away the “voice” of the rioters. They have opportunities in America today that were not even dreamed of in former times in human history and are not enjoyed in the vast majority of the world even today.
MAILCHIMP TO START CENSORING E-MAIL (Friday Church News Notes, November 6, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Beth Baumann, “An Unlikely Tech Company Now Censoring,” Townhall, Oct. 31, 2020: “Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have been on Americans’ radar because of their blatant censorship over the years. Most recently, Twitter came under fire for censoring the New York Post over their reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop that allegedly revealed he sold access to his father, former Vice President Joe Biden. But now, Mailchimp, a platform used to send mass emails to clients, supporters and even the media, are now talking about ‘fact checking’ the emails that are sent. Melissa Chen the New York editor for Spectator USA shared a screenshot of the message Mailchimp’s legal team sent her. ‘We’ve updated our language to further clarify our Rules (Section 17 of STOU), which state that Mailchimp does not allow the distribution of Content that is, in our sole discretion, materially false, inaccurate, or misleading in a way that could deceive or confuse others about important events, topics, or circumstances,’ the email stated.’ ... I’ve worked on numerous political campaigns--senatorial, congressional, all the way down to mayoral--that have relied on Mailchimp to send information to supporters. The reason: the first 1,000 or so subscribers are free. My guess: this is just another way for a Big Tech company to censure people, especially conservatives. It will be interesting to see what they consider ‘false, inaccurate, or misleading.’”
ISLAM JIHADIST MURDERS IN FRANCE (Friday Church News Notes, November 6, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Muslim jihadists are on a rampage in France in spite of massive police and military presence. On Sept. 25, 18-year-old Ali Hassan viciously attacked with a meat cleaver two people that he mistakenly thought worked for Charlie Hebdo, a magazine that published satirical caricatures of Muhammad in 2011 and 2012. Hassan, a refugee from Pakistan, had been watching videos calling for further jihadist action against Hebdo (“Before Attack,” Daily Herald, Oct. 6, 2020). On Oct. 16, a history teacher was beheaded near his school in Paris by an 18-year-old who was subsequently shot to death by police. He was a Chechen who had recently been granted refugee status in France. His grandfather, parents, brother, and other suspects were arrested (“Suspect in teacher’s beheading,” CBS News, Oct. 17, 2020), and a mosque was shut down for fomenting jihad (“French mosque closed,” The Hill, Oct. 20, 2020). The teacher, Samuel Paty, had used the Charlie Hebdo caricatures of Muhammad in his class to illustrate liberty of expression. Minutes after the attack, before being shot to death, the attacker posted a photo of Paty’s decapitated head with a message, “I have executed one of the dogs from hell who dared to put Muhammad down.” On Oct. 29, Brahim Aouissaoui shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is Great”) before beheading one worshiper, stabbing two others to death, and wounding others in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Nice (“Catholics beheaded by Islamist,” Catholic Arena, Oct. 29, 2020). The murderer, who had recently arrived from Tunisia, was shot multiple times by police but survived. On Jan. 7, 2015, two Muslim men aligned with Al-Qaeda killed 12 workers and injured 11 others at the offices of Charlie Hebdo. A couple of days later, an Islamic jihadist murdered four Jews in the Île-de-France region (which includes Paris). The terrorists were shot dead by police. On July 14, 2016, 86 people were killed and 458 injured by a Tunisian man who drove a 19-ton cargo truck through a crowd in Nice on Bastille Day. The murderer, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, who was aligned with the Islamic State, was shot dead by police. On July 26, 2016, 84-year-old priest Jacques Hamel’s throat was slit during morning mass in Rouen in northern France. The terrorists, who operated with the Islamic State, were shot dead by police.
PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES ARE NOT DYING FROM COVID (Friday Church News Notes, November 6, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - There is a media and CDC frenzy every time a professional athlete is diagnosed with Covid, but as far as we have been able to determine, ZERO American athletes who are currently active in professional sports have died of Covid-19. Several retired professional athletes have died, but the average age is 78 years old (“Here is the list of sports stars who died of Covid,” Outlookindia.com, updated Sept. 12, 2020). These include Roy Lester, football, died age 96; Dick Lucas, football, died age 86; and Steve Dalkowski, baseball, died age 80.
BRAINWASHED UNIVERSITY STUDENTS VOTE TO REMOVE STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN (Friday Church News Notes, November 6, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “University of Wisconsin-Madison Student Government,” Townhall, Oct. 30, 2020: “The student government at the University of Wisconsin-Madison voted unanimously to remove a statue of Abraham Lincoln, which the student government sees as a ‘remnant of white supremacy.’ President Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation and lobbied for the 13th Amendment, is not a ‘remnant of white supremacy.’ ‘That would likely have come as something of a surprise to John Wilkes Booth,’ Professor Jonathan Turley, George Washington University Law School professor, writes in a recent article on the students’ unanimous decision to cancel Lincoln. ... Nancy Pelosi has called for a ‘review’ of statues in the United States so that leftists can continue tearing down history in an official, government-approved manner. Would any historic figure survive the scrutiny of a congressional review committee comprised of members like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, or Rashida Tlaib? Would any living figure? Cancel culture is a repugnant development of our universities, and the unanimous vote to remove Lincoln shows just how pervasive the problem has become.”
ROBOT INSPIRED BY SLIME MOLD (Friday Church News Notes, November 6, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from creationmoments.com, October 9, 2020: “A robot that can move about on its own must be programmed in great detail. Instructions must be given to each moving part. These instructions must also be able to direct the robot under all anticipated conditions. If there is any error in the instructions or an encounter with unexpected conditions, the robot will probably just freeze in place. Even slime mold can do better than this. Even though slime mold cells are not connected to each other by nerves, when the cells join together, the resulting organism is able to move. It is able to deal with unexpected circumstances moving about by shifting liquid to change their collective bag-shaped body. Taking their cue from slime mold, a research group from Tohoku University in Japan has used the same principle to make a mobile robot. The robot is able to move across any flat surface by shifting liquid around, which changes pressure on different parts of the robot. It is made of 14 interconnected syringes, each with a motor to move the water. It moves around randomly until it is given a direction. Then the motors synchronize, and the robot begins to move in the commanded direction. This slime-mold type arrangement adjusts to changes in environment just like the real thing. Leave it to God to accomplish a complicated task with a simple design. Ref: Nikkei Weekly, 9/13/10, p. 21, ‘Robot inspired by slime mold.’”
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).
SOUTHERN BAPTIST CHURCH BURNED DOWN IN PHILADELPHIA AS SBC LEADERS SYMPATHIZE WITH RIOTERS (Friday Church News Notes, November 6, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Vietnamese Southern Baptist Church,” Reformation Charlotte, Oct. 29, 2020: “This week, a Vietnamese Southern Baptist church was burned to the ground amid race riots in Philadelphia. According to Kentucky Today, ‘Pastor Philip Pham received a call Tuesday night from a church member whose friend had seen the flames and seven fire trucks surrounding the church.’ ... He said the facility is a ‘total loss.’ Incidentally, in recent weeks, Southern Baptist leaders have called on Southern Baptists and Evangelicals to sympathize with the rioters and try to ‘understand’ why they are doing what they are doing. In June, a group of staff from one of the denomination’s most prestigious seminaries, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS), along with pastors from Southern Baptist churches, held a discussion where they justified the actions of rioters and anarchists while pointing to ‘white supremacy’ as the underlying cause of their disorderly conduct. In the video, you can hear Wesley Price say, ‘Rioting makes sense. It’s not right, but makes sense ... everyone can get to the point where you’re going to rage out ... it’s the voice of those who had their voice taken away.’” CONCLUDING NOTE: The idea of “systemic racism” in 21st century America is nonsense. No one has taken away the “voice” of the rioters. They have opportunities in America today that were not even dreamed of in former times in human history and are not enjoyed in the vast majority of the world even today.
MAILCHIMP TO START CENSORING E-MAIL (Friday Church News Notes, November 6, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Beth Baumann, “An Unlikely Tech Company Now Censoring,” Townhall, Oct. 31, 2020: “Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have been on Americans’ radar because of their blatant censorship over the years. Most recently, Twitter came under fire for censoring the New York Post over their reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop that allegedly revealed he sold access to his father, former Vice President Joe Biden. But now, Mailchimp, a platform used to send mass emails to clients, supporters and even the media, are now talking about ‘fact checking’ the emails that are sent. Melissa Chen the New York editor for Spectator USA shared a screenshot of the message Mailchimp’s legal team sent her. ‘We’ve updated our language to further clarify our Rules (Section 17 of STOU), which state that Mailchimp does not allow the distribution of Content that is, in our sole discretion, materially false, inaccurate, or misleading in a way that could deceive or confuse others about important events, topics, or circumstances,’ the email stated.’ ... I’ve worked on numerous political campaigns--senatorial, congressional, all the way down to mayoral--that have relied on Mailchimp to send information to supporters. The reason: the first 1,000 or so subscribers are free. My guess: this is just another way for a Big Tech company to censure people, especially conservatives. It will be interesting to see what they consider ‘false, inaccurate, or misleading.’”
ISLAM JIHADIST MURDERS IN FRANCE (Friday Church News Notes, November 6, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Muslim jihadists are on a rampage in France in spite of massive police and military presence. On Sept. 25, 18-year-old Ali Hassan viciously attacked with a meat cleaver two people that he mistakenly thought worked for Charlie Hebdo, a magazine that published satirical caricatures of Muhammad in 2011 and 2012. Hassan, a refugee from Pakistan, had been watching videos calling for further jihadist action against Hebdo (“Before Attack,” Daily Herald, Oct. 6, 2020). On Oct. 16, a history teacher was beheaded near his school in Paris by an 18-year-old who was subsequently shot to death by police. He was a Chechen who had recently been granted refugee status in France. His grandfather, parents, brother, and other suspects were arrested (“Suspect in teacher’s beheading,” CBS News, Oct. 17, 2020), and a mosque was shut down for fomenting jihad (“French mosque closed,” The Hill, Oct. 20, 2020). The teacher, Samuel Paty, had used the Charlie Hebdo caricatures of Muhammad in his class to illustrate liberty of expression. Minutes after the attack, before being shot to death, the attacker posted a photo of Paty’s decapitated head with a message, “I have executed one of the dogs from hell who dared to put Muhammad down.” On Oct. 29, Brahim Aouissaoui shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is Great”) before beheading one worshiper, stabbing two others to death, and wounding others in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Nice (“Catholics beheaded by Islamist,” Catholic Arena, Oct. 29, 2020). The murderer, who had recently arrived from Tunisia, was shot multiple times by police but survived. On Jan. 7, 2015, two Muslim men aligned with Al-Qaeda killed 12 workers and injured 11 others at the offices of Charlie Hebdo. A couple of days later, an Islamic jihadist murdered four Jews in the Île-de-France region (which includes Paris). The terrorists were shot dead by police. On July 14, 2016, 86 people were killed and 458 injured by a Tunisian man who drove a 19-ton cargo truck through a crowd in Nice on Bastille Day. The murderer, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, who was aligned with the Islamic State, was shot dead by police. On July 26, 2016, 84-year-old priest Jacques Hamel’s throat was slit during morning mass in Rouen in northern France. The terrorists, who operated with the Islamic State, were shot dead by police.
PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES ARE NOT DYING FROM COVID (Friday Church News Notes, November 6, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - There is a media and CDC frenzy every time a professional athlete is diagnosed with Covid, but as far as we have been able to determine, ZERO American athletes who are currently active in professional sports have died of Covid-19. Several retired professional athletes have died, but the average age is 78 years old (“Here is the list of sports stars who died of Covid,” Outlookindia.com, updated Sept. 12, 2020). These include Roy Lester, football, died age 96; Dick Lucas, football, died age 86; and Steve Dalkowski, baseball, died age 80.
BRAINWASHED UNIVERSITY STUDENTS VOTE TO REMOVE STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN (Friday Church News Notes, November 6, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “University of Wisconsin-Madison Student Government,” Townhall, Oct. 30, 2020: “The student government at the University of Wisconsin-Madison voted unanimously to remove a statue of Abraham Lincoln, which the student government sees as a ‘remnant of white supremacy.’ President Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation and lobbied for the 13th Amendment, is not a ‘remnant of white supremacy.’ ‘That would likely have come as something of a surprise to John Wilkes Booth,’ Professor Jonathan Turley, George Washington University Law School professor, writes in a recent article on the students’ unanimous decision to cancel Lincoln. ... Nancy Pelosi has called for a ‘review’ of statues in the United States so that leftists can continue tearing down history in an official, government-approved manner. Would any historic figure survive the scrutiny of a congressional review committee comprised of members like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, or Rashida Tlaib? Would any living figure? Cancel culture is a repugnant development of our universities, and the unanimous vote to remove Lincoln shows just how pervasive the problem has become.”
ROBOT INSPIRED BY SLIME MOLD (Friday Church News Notes, November 6, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from creationmoments.com, October 9, 2020: “A robot that can move about on its own must be programmed in great detail. Instructions must be given to each moving part. These instructions must also be able to direct the robot under all anticipated conditions. If there is any error in the instructions or an encounter with unexpected conditions, the robot will probably just freeze in place. Even slime mold can do better than this. Even though slime mold cells are not connected to each other by nerves, when the cells join together, the resulting organism is able to move. It is able to deal with unexpected circumstances moving about by shifting liquid to change their collective bag-shaped body. Taking their cue from slime mold, a research group from Tohoku University in Japan has used the same principle to make a mobile robot. The robot is able to move across any flat surface by shifting liquid around, which changes pressure on different parts of the robot. It is made of 14 interconnected syringes, each with a motor to move the water. It moves around randomly until it is given a direction. Then the motors synchronize, and the robot begins to move in the commanded direction. This slime-mold type arrangement adjusts to changes in environment just like the real thing. Leave it to God to accomplish a complicated task with a simple design. Ref: Nikkei Weekly, 9/13/10, p. 21, ‘Robot inspired by slime mold.’”
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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