Friday Church News Notes
Volume 21, Issue 52 - December 25, 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.
President Trump and the First Lady
PRESIDENT TRUMP THANKS GOD FOR SENDING HIS SON TO REDEEM THE WORLD (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is President Trump’s 2020 Christmas greeting from the White House: “To every family across our nation, the first lady and I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas. For Christians, this is a joyous time to remember God’s greatest gift to the world. More than 2,000 years ago the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary. He said, ‘Do not be afraid. You have found favor with God.’ The angel told her that she would give birth to a baby boy, Jesus, who would be called the Son of the Most High. Nine months later Christ was born in the town of Bethlehem. The Son of God came into this world in a humble stable. As Christians everywhere know, the birth of our Lord and Saviour changed history forever. At Christmas we give thanks to God, that God sent His only Son to die for us and to offer everlasting peace to all humanity. More than two millennia after the birth of Jesus Christ His teachings continue to inspire and uplift billions of people all over the globe. His divine words still fill our hearts with hope and faith. And Christians everywhere still strive to live by Jesus’ timeless commandment to His disciples, ‘Love one another.’ Above all during this season our souls are filled with thanks and praise to Almighty God for sending us Christ His Son to redeem the world. Tonight we ask that God would continue to bless this nation and we pray that He will grant every American family a Christmas season full of joy, hope, and peace” (President Donald Trump). The apostle Paul gave the gospel in a nutshell as follows: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). See Video [YouTube].
TOP DOCTORS RECOMMEND IVERMECTIN AS A WONDER DRUG FOR COVID-19 (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - We are keen to avoid quackery on all fronts, theological, political, and medical. The Frontline Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), which is not quackery, is recommending the use of Ivermectin as a “miracle cure” and “wonder drug” for prevention and early treatment of Covid-19. We don’t know if it is true that no one who takes Ivermectin will get Covid, but it is obvious from the studies so far that it has a major effect. On Dec. 8, 2020, Dr. Pierre Kory, President of the FLCCC appeared before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs in Washington, D.C., to testify of the group’s scientific findings. Dr. Kory said, “We are a group of one of the most highly published physicians in the world. We have nearly 2,000 peer-reviewed publications among us. Led by Professor Paul Marik, who is our intellectual leader, we came together early on in the pandemic, and all we have sought is to review the world’s literature on every factor of this disease, trying to develop effective protocols. I was here [before the Senate committee] in May, and I recommended that it was critical that we use corticosteroids in treating this disease, when all of the national and international health care organizations said we cannot use those. That turned out to be a life-saving recommendation. I’m here again today with a new recommendation. ... We have a solution to this crisis. There is a drug that is proving to be of miraculous impact, and when I say ‘miracle’ I do not use that term lightly. I don’t want to be sensationalized when I say that. This is a scientific recommendation based on mountains of data that has emerged in the last three months. When I am told that we are touting things that are not FDA recommended, let me be clear, the NIH [National Institutes of Health], their recommendation on Ivermectin, which is to not use it outside of controlled trials, is from August 27. We are now in December. This is three to four months later. Mountains of data have emerged from many centers and countries from around the world showing the miraculous effect of Ivermectin. It basically obliterates transmission of this virus. ... Our manuscript details all of this evidence. ... We now have four large randomized controlled trials totaling over 1,500 patients, each trial showing that as a prophylaxis agent it is immensely effective. ... In early outpatient treatment, we have three randomized control trials and multiple observation as well as case series showing that if you take Ivermectin the need for hospitalization and death will decrease. ... We have four randomized control trials there, multiple observation trials, all showing the same thing. You will not die, or you will die at much, much lower rates, statistically significant, large magnitude results if you take Ivermectin. It is proving to be a wonder drug. It has already won the Noble prize in medicine in 2015 for its impact on global health in the eradication of parasitic diseases. ... Our manuscript has been submitted for peer review, but please recognize that peer review takes months, and we don’t have months. We have 100,000 patients in the hospitals right now dying. I am a lung specialist. I am an ICU specialist. I’ve cared for more dying Covid patients than anyone can imagine. They’re dying because they can’t breathe. ... They are on high velocity oxygen delivery devices, non-evasive ventilators, and/or they are sedated and paralyzed and attached to mechanical ventilators that breathe for them. ... By the time they get to me in the ICU, they are dying, they are almost impossible to recover. Early treatment is key. ... Any further deaths are going to be needless deaths. I cannot keep caring for patients when I know that they could have been saved with early treatment, and that drug that will treat them and prevent the hospitalization is Ivermectin.” Dr. Kory called upon the government’s medical authorities--the NIH, CDC, and FDA--to urgently review the latest data and then issue guidelines for physicians, nurse-practitioners, and physician assistants to prescribe Ivermectin for COVID-19. Following are the links to Dr. Kory’s interview, Dr. Hector Carvallo’s interview, and the FLCCC’s protocol for use of ivermectin as a prophylaxis: Video [Reddit]
SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN RESTRICTIONS ON COLORADO AND NEW JERSEY CHURCHES (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Supreme Court Slaps Down,” The Federalist, Dec. 15, 2020: “The Supreme Court sided with a rural Colorado church Tuesday that challenged the state Democrat governor’s COVID rules restricting building capacity in some parts of the state. The 6-3 decision overturned lower court rulings that had upheld Gov. Jared Polis’s church gathering limits to a maximum of 25 percent or 50 people, whichever is fewer, and ordered lower courts to re-examine the case. ‘Today in Colorado it is perfectly legal for hundreds of shoppers to pack themselves cheek by jowl into a Lowes or other big box store or patronize any one of the thousands of other retail establishments that are not subject to draconian numerical limits,’ church attorney Barry Arrington told National Review. The case was brought by the High Plains Harvest Church north of Denver, arguing the state was unlawfully targeting religious institutions by imposing harsher restrictions on churches than shopping centers. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court also handed down its ruling on a New Jersey case brought by a Catholic priest and a rabbi. This ruling overturned limits on religious gatherings in houses of worship, wiping out executive rule-favoring opinions in the lower courts. The cases upholding religious liberty come on the heels of rare public remarks by Justice Samuel Alito criticizing coronavirus lockdowns this year as placing ‘previously unimaginable’ restrictions on American freedom. ‘We have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive and prolonged as those experienced for most of 2020,’ Alito said in a virtual speech to The Federalist Society. ‘The COVID crisis has served as sort of a constitutional stress test.’” PJMedia added, “This would appear to open the door to churches nationwide to decide their own COVID policies. ... The arrival of Justice Amy Coney Barrett on the court has proven to be a godsend to religious liberty” (“Supreme Court,” PJMedia, Dec. 15, 2020).
IN LANDMARK RULING, U.K. COURT OF APPEALS UPHOLDS FREE SPEECH “RIGHT TO OFFEND” (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Right to Offend Upheld,” Reformation Charlotte, Dec. 18, 2020: “The United Kingdom has been known in recent decades as the precursor to what happens in the United States as far as social policy. Its unmistakable liberal drift has worked its way to the West Coast of America and tends to drift Eastward from there. One of the United Kingdom’s most notorious movements in the last decade has been a movement against free speech, punishing those who offend others through the use of words. From personal experience, as one who has been to the United Kingdom to preach in the open air, one thing we had to be careful of was preaching openly against homosexuality. The crowds were particularly prone to revolt against this kind of preaching which would tend to land us in hot water with the police for ‘hate speech.’ Simply put, it isn’t allowed. That, however, could be changing in a landmark ruling by a United Kingdom Court of Appeals which recently upheld the right to ‘offend’ in a ruling for free speech. Daily Mail reports, ‘Judges have insisted that freedom of speech includes the right to offend in a landmark ruling which could help to turn the tide on woke intolerance after a feminist who called a transgender woman a “pig in a wig” and a “man” was cleared.’ Presiding over a case in the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Bean and Mr. Justice Warby said: ‘Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having.’ They added that ‘free speech encompasses the right to offend, and indeed to abuse another.’ The judgment from two senior members of the judiciary will set a precedent for future cases involving freedom of speech.”
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).
TOP DOCTORS RECOMMEND IVERMECTIN AS A WONDER DRUG FOR COVID-19 (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - We are keen to avoid quackery on all fronts, theological, political, and medical. The Frontline Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), which is not quackery, is recommending the use of Ivermectin as a “miracle cure” and “wonder drug” for prevention and early treatment of Covid-19. We don’t know if it is true that no one who takes Ivermectin will get Covid, but it is obvious from the studies so far that it has a major effect. On Dec. 8, 2020, Dr. Pierre Kory, President of the FLCCC appeared before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs in Washington, D.C., to testify of the group’s scientific findings. Dr. Kory said, “We are a group of one of the most highly published physicians in the world. We have nearly 2,000 peer-reviewed publications among us. Led by Professor Paul Marik, who is our intellectual leader, we came together early on in the pandemic, and all we have sought is to review the world’s literature on every factor of this disease, trying to develop effective protocols. I was here [before the Senate committee] in May, and I recommended that it was critical that we use corticosteroids in treating this disease, when all of the national and international health care organizations said we cannot use those. That turned out to be a life-saving recommendation. I’m here again today with a new recommendation. ... We have a solution to this crisis. There is a drug that is proving to be of miraculous impact, and when I say ‘miracle’ I do not use that term lightly. I don’t want to be sensationalized when I say that. This is a scientific recommendation based on mountains of data that has emerged in the last three months. When I am told that we are touting things that are not FDA recommended, let me be clear, the NIH [National Institutes of Health], their recommendation on Ivermectin, which is to not use it outside of controlled trials, is from August 27. We are now in December. This is three to four months later. Mountains of data have emerged from many centers and countries from around the world showing the miraculous effect of Ivermectin. It basically obliterates transmission of this virus. ... Our manuscript details all of this evidence. ... We now have four large randomized controlled trials totaling over 1,500 patients, each trial showing that as a prophylaxis agent it is immensely effective. ... In early outpatient treatment, we have three randomized control trials and multiple observation as well as case series showing that if you take Ivermectin the need for hospitalization and death will decrease. ... We have four randomized control trials there, multiple observation trials, all showing the same thing. You will not die, or you will die at much, much lower rates, statistically significant, large magnitude results if you take Ivermectin. It is proving to be a wonder drug. It has already won the Noble prize in medicine in 2015 for its impact on global health in the eradication of parasitic diseases. ... Our manuscript has been submitted for peer review, but please recognize that peer review takes months, and we don’t have months. We have 100,000 patients in the hospitals right now dying. I am a lung specialist. I am an ICU specialist. I’ve cared for more dying Covid patients than anyone can imagine. They’re dying because they can’t breathe. ... They are on high velocity oxygen delivery devices, non-evasive ventilators, and/or they are sedated and paralyzed and attached to mechanical ventilators that breathe for them. ... By the time they get to me in the ICU, they are dying, they are almost impossible to recover. Early treatment is key. ... Any further deaths are going to be needless deaths. I cannot keep caring for patients when I know that they could have been saved with early treatment, and that drug that will treat them and prevent the hospitalization is Ivermectin.” Dr. Kory called upon the government’s medical authorities--the NIH, CDC, and FDA--to urgently review the latest data and then issue guidelines for physicians, nurse-practitioners, and physician assistants to prescribe Ivermectin for COVID-19. Following are the links to Dr. Kory’s interview, Dr. Hector Carvallo’s interview, and the FLCCC’s protocol for use of ivermectin as a prophylaxis: Video [Reddit]
SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN RESTRICTIONS ON COLORADO AND NEW JERSEY CHURCHES (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Supreme Court Slaps Down,” The Federalist, Dec. 15, 2020: “The Supreme Court sided with a rural Colorado church Tuesday that challenged the state Democrat governor’s COVID rules restricting building capacity in some parts of the state. The 6-3 decision overturned lower court rulings that had upheld Gov. Jared Polis’s church gathering limits to a maximum of 25 percent or 50 people, whichever is fewer, and ordered lower courts to re-examine the case. ‘Today in Colorado it is perfectly legal for hundreds of shoppers to pack themselves cheek by jowl into a Lowes or other big box store or patronize any one of the thousands of other retail establishments that are not subject to draconian numerical limits,’ church attorney Barry Arrington told National Review. The case was brought by the High Plains Harvest Church north of Denver, arguing the state was unlawfully targeting religious institutions by imposing harsher restrictions on churches than shopping centers. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court also handed down its ruling on a New Jersey case brought by a Catholic priest and a rabbi. This ruling overturned limits on religious gatherings in houses of worship, wiping out executive rule-favoring opinions in the lower courts. The cases upholding religious liberty come on the heels of rare public remarks by Justice Samuel Alito criticizing coronavirus lockdowns this year as placing ‘previously unimaginable’ restrictions on American freedom. ‘We have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive and prolonged as those experienced for most of 2020,’ Alito said in a virtual speech to The Federalist Society. ‘The COVID crisis has served as sort of a constitutional stress test.’” PJMedia added, “This would appear to open the door to churches nationwide to decide their own COVID policies. ... The arrival of Justice Amy Coney Barrett on the court has proven to be a godsend to religious liberty” (“Supreme Court,” PJMedia, Dec. 15, 2020).
IN LANDMARK RULING, U.K. COURT OF APPEALS UPHOLDS FREE SPEECH “RIGHT TO OFFEND” (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Right to Offend Upheld,” Reformation Charlotte, Dec. 18, 2020: “The United Kingdom has been known in recent decades as the precursor to what happens in the United States as far as social policy. Its unmistakable liberal drift has worked its way to the West Coast of America and tends to drift Eastward from there. One of the United Kingdom’s most notorious movements in the last decade has been a movement against free speech, punishing those who offend others through the use of words. From personal experience, as one who has been to the United Kingdom to preach in the open air, one thing we had to be careful of was preaching openly against homosexuality. The crowds were particularly prone to revolt against this kind of preaching which would tend to land us in hot water with the police for ‘hate speech.’ Simply put, it isn’t allowed. That, however, could be changing in a landmark ruling by a United Kingdom Court of Appeals which recently upheld the right to ‘offend’ in a ruling for free speech. Daily Mail reports, ‘Judges have insisted that freedom of speech includes the right to offend in a landmark ruling which could help to turn the tide on woke intolerance after a feminist who called a transgender woman a “pig in a wig” and a “man” was cleared.’ Presiding over a case in the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Bean and Mr. Justice Warby said: ‘Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having.’ They added that ‘free speech encompasses the right to offend, and indeed to abuse another.’ The judgment from two senior members of the judiciary will set a precedent for future cases involving freedom of speech.”
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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