Friday Church News Notes
Volume 22, Issue 5 - January 29, 2021
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.
TRUMP’S ALLEGED LANDSLIDE VICTORY (Friday Church News Notes, January 29, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In the report “The Cost of a Lie,” political commentator Michael Medved calls the idea that Trump won a landslide victory that was stolen “the most damaging lie in America.” We don’t agree with this. The most damaging lies in America, in our estimation, are such things as higher textual criticism, humanism, Darwinian evolution, socialism, feminism, transsexualism, and critical race theory. We do believe that Trump’s landslide victory is probably a myth, though there can be no doubt that there was some corruption. Whether you agree or not, the following is worth considering. It is excerpted from The Michael Medved Show, Jan. 15, 2021: “In order to believe the lie that President Trump actually won a landslide victory on November 3rd, but malevolent and fraudulent forces somehow changed the result, you must also accept a succession of ridiculous falsehoods. You must first believe that vote counters in at least three states, many of them lifelong Republicans, deliberately, inexplicably erased millions of votes for Trump or else manufactured millions of invalid votes for Biden. You must believe that Republican controlled state legislatures in all the major swing states – Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona – inexplicably went along with the steal. More than 60 prominent judges also acquiesced, including all nine members of the Supreme Court, three of whom Trump himself recently appointed. Moreover, to accept the foundational lie of the ‘Stop the Steal!’ campaign you must also believe that cunning conspirators simultaneously rigged the election for Joe Biden and for some of the most conservative Congressmen out there. The November ballots challenged as illegal frauds by the likes of Mo Brooks, Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz and Andy Biggs, are the very same ballots that re-elected said Brooks, Gosar, Gaetz and Biggs. How do you invalidate Joe Biden’s victory without tearing up or casting aside the simultaneous victories of GOP Congressmen in the states whose count you now seek to discard?” For Medved’s complete report on this see the following link -
https://www.newsweek.com/outrageous-lie-stolen-trump-landslide-opinion-1559798
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE U.S. 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION? (Friday Church News Notes, January 29, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - We believe that three major elements came together in the 2020 presidential election. First, a majority of voting Americans simply don’t like Trump. Exit polls found that 54 percent of all voters said that the incumbent “did not have the temperament to serve as president” (“Outrageous Lie,” Newsweek, Jan. 8, 2021). I am convinced that Trump’s personality was a major cause of his loss, and this has not been given enough attention by political conservatives. Trump lost because he is Trump. I listened to parts of Trump’s campaign speeches toward the end, and what struck me most forcefully was his arrogance, boasting, narcissism, anger, scorn, and foul-mouth. I don’t vote by personality, but a lot of people do. Second, the extremely biased, deceptive reporting across the entire spectrum of the mainstream media, and the manipulation of news by major social media corporations, left a large number of people too grossly uneducated to cast a proper vote. (See “Expert Claims Google Shifted a Minimum of 6 Million Votes” and “Media’s Suppression of Issues Likely Swung Election,” Friday Church News Notes, Dec. 4, 2020.) Third, and most prominently, God is judging America for thumbing its collective nose at His holy laws. “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). Even if Democrats committed corruption, which is doubtless, we have to look at the big picture and not share the frustration and anger of political conservatives who do not have a solid biblical worldview. If I find myself thinking like Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson, Mark Levin, and Breitbart, the Word of God is not dwelling in me richly as it should (Colossians 3:16). To storm the Congress Building in the name of Donald Trump is like Josiah going against Pharaoh Necho (2 Ch. 35:20-23). Though Egypt was Israel’s ancient enemy, it was not time for Israel to have victories. The nation was under God’s judgment. Josiah ended up fighting against God and met an untimely death. Within six years, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took Israel’s king Jehoiakim captive and made Israel a puppet nation. Within 22 years, Jerusalem was destroyed and Judea was taken captive.
PASTOR WARNS ABOUT EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION OF CONSERVATIVE NEWS (Friday Church News Notes, January 29, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - We received the following from a pastor in South Carolina: “I am sickened by the political angst in many Christians and their excessive consumption of ‘conservative’ news sources, whose only purpose for existence is to create such angst and then addiction to checking their website every day or several times a day. They are nearly as guilty of fake news, sensationalism, and drama as CNN and the so-called Main Stream Media. You and I are close in age, and I grew up the son of a GARBC Baptist pastor listening to Twentieth Century Reformation Hour with Carl McIntire at breakfast before going off to elementary school. I handed out free copies of None Dare Call It Treason in the second grade and led mock debates and elections for Barry Goldwater. I had read much of the John Birch Society’s literature by the time I was 12 and attended their meetings in my early teens. Jack Van Impe’s prophecy of a communist takeover of America in 1976 made me think militia-like. I was an anti-government and anti-tax rebel in my early 20’s. But God saved me by His Word. For decades now I have strongly preached against disrespect of civil government and stressed the kingdom of Jesus Christ over nation, politics, crusades, etc. What you publish is very near or exact with my sentiments on this matter of Christian involvement in politics. My concern here, let me return from my brief and mild rant, is what you published a year or two ago about the fellow in Michigan that asked about taking up arms. Many Christians have been reduced to such foolish or similar notions by allowing the inputs of Newsmax, Breitbart, Epoch Times, OAN, CFP, and other sources to totally twist them out of shape with the drama of D.C. You have dealt with Techno Temptations of our modern world, but a related aspect is the information never before available. If a senator sneezes in D.C., Christians in S.C. immediately know about it with pundit analysis and the opportunity to write a comment. Insane! The world just a century or two ago knew nothing about events in other countries or even other states until long past. Now every single little burp is recorded and broadcast with sensational reporting around it to arouse and provoke the audience to anger, fear, hate, and worry ... the opposite of Paul, who ignored political events and systemic racism (Acts 18:2) and violent politics of the pagan Roman Empire to teach compliance, prayer, and appreciation. Lord, help us do the same. Pray for American Christians, for independent Baptists, to block out the conservative media and focus on the GOOD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST.”
SHOULD GOD’S PEOPLE BE IGNORANT OF WHAT IS HAPPENING? (Friday Church News Notes, January 29, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The comments in the previous note, “Pastor Warns about Excessive Consumption of Conservative News,” does not imply that God’s people should be ignorant of what is happening in this world or be unconcerned. It is a warning about being caught up in these events, in being captivated by these events, in filling your mind with these events, in sharing the anger and frustration of the world at these events. Paul knew what was happening in the Roman Empire in his day. He was educated in its history and its current events, but that is not what captured his mind and heart. It is a warning about being filled with news more than the Word of God, about being ill equipped spiritually to weigh the news. In my experience, the average member of an Independent Baptist church is not skilled in God’s Word (Heb. 5:12-14), not a diligent student of God’s Word and not able to rightly divide it (2 Tim. 2:15), not meditating therein day and night. Therefore they do not have a clear, consuming Biblical world view. It is a warning about setting one’s affection on things on the earth more than on things above (Col. 3:1-4). It is a warning about focusing on Make America Great Again instead of Make Churches Great Again, which is the Bible’s focus!
JUSTICE CENTRE FOR CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOMS TO REPRESENT ONTARIO CHURCHES (Friday Church News Notes, January 29, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Justice Centre to Defend,” Conservative Review, Jan. 5, 2021: “The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) will be representing numerous Ontario pastors and church elders who have been charged for holding religious gatherings in contravention of the Reopening Ontario Act (ROA), according to a press release issued on Monday. The JCCF will contest the charges on the basis the ROA violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by prohibiting people in Ontario to peacefully assemble for worship, as is their right. Several members of the Old Colony Mennonite Church and Word of Life Mennonite community, with locations in Leamington, Ont., and Wheatley, Ont., were charged by police in December. [Also charged or given summons are Harvest Bible Church in Windsor, Ont., Trinity Bible Chapel of Waterloo, Ont., and the Church of God in Aylmer, Ont.] ‘Churches are being targeted by both police and vigilante members of the public, who look for church parking lots with vehicles and call in complaints to the police,’ said Lisa Bildy, a constitutional lawyer at the JCCF. ‘It's easy to see how the Stasi in East Germany were able to operate so effectively—it appears it doesn't take much to turn neighbours into informants, and police into petty tyrants.’ ... The JCCF will be attending multiple first appearances over the next several months, on behalf of these churches and their leaders.”
THE BOY WHO ONLY LOVES THE GOOD (Friday Church News Notes, January 29, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “[In 1924] Dr. J. Gresham Machen said, ‘The worst sin today is to say that you agree with the Christian faith and believe in the Bible, but then make common cause with those who deny the basic facts of Christianity. Never was it more obviously true that he that is not with Christ is against Him. ... Dr. Arnold of Rugby used to say that he never could be sure of a boy who only loved the good. Until that boy also began to hate evil he never felt that he was safe. Abraham Lincoln said, ‘To sin by silence when they should speak in protest, makes cowards of men.’”
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).
https://www.newsweek.com/outrageous-lie-stolen-trump-landslide-opinion-1559798
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE U.S. 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION? (Friday Church News Notes, January 29, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - We believe that three major elements came together in the 2020 presidential election. First, a majority of voting Americans simply don’t like Trump. Exit polls found that 54 percent of all voters said that the incumbent “did not have the temperament to serve as president” (“Outrageous Lie,” Newsweek, Jan. 8, 2021). I am convinced that Trump’s personality was a major cause of his loss, and this has not been given enough attention by political conservatives. Trump lost because he is Trump. I listened to parts of Trump’s campaign speeches toward the end, and what struck me most forcefully was his arrogance, boasting, narcissism, anger, scorn, and foul-mouth. I don’t vote by personality, but a lot of people do. Second, the extremely biased, deceptive reporting across the entire spectrum of the mainstream media, and the manipulation of news by major social media corporations, left a large number of people too grossly uneducated to cast a proper vote. (See “Expert Claims Google Shifted a Minimum of 6 Million Votes” and “Media’s Suppression of Issues Likely Swung Election,” Friday Church News Notes, Dec. 4, 2020.) Third, and most prominently, God is judging America for thumbing its collective nose at His holy laws. “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). Even if Democrats committed corruption, which is doubtless, we have to look at the big picture and not share the frustration and anger of political conservatives who do not have a solid biblical worldview. If I find myself thinking like Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson, Mark Levin, and Breitbart, the Word of God is not dwelling in me richly as it should (Colossians 3:16). To storm the Congress Building in the name of Donald Trump is like Josiah going against Pharaoh Necho (2 Ch. 35:20-23). Though Egypt was Israel’s ancient enemy, it was not time for Israel to have victories. The nation was under God’s judgment. Josiah ended up fighting against God and met an untimely death. Within six years, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took Israel’s king Jehoiakim captive and made Israel a puppet nation. Within 22 years, Jerusalem was destroyed and Judea was taken captive.
PASTOR WARNS ABOUT EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION OF CONSERVATIVE NEWS (Friday Church News Notes, January 29, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - We received the following from a pastor in South Carolina: “I am sickened by the political angst in many Christians and their excessive consumption of ‘conservative’ news sources, whose only purpose for existence is to create such angst and then addiction to checking their website every day or several times a day. They are nearly as guilty of fake news, sensationalism, and drama as CNN and the so-called Main Stream Media. You and I are close in age, and I grew up the son of a GARBC Baptist pastor listening to Twentieth Century Reformation Hour with Carl McIntire at breakfast before going off to elementary school. I handed out free copies of None Dare Call It Treason in the second grade and led mock debates and elections for Barry Goldwater. I had read much of the John Birch Society’s literature by the time I was 12 and attended their meetings in my early teens. Jack Van Impe’s prophecy of a communist takeover of America in 1976 made me think militia-like. I was an anti-government and anti-tax rebel in my early 20’s. But God saved me by His Word. For decades now I have strongly preached against disrespect of civil government and stressed the kingdom of Jesus Christ over nation, politics, crusades, etc. What you publish is very near or exact with my sentiments on this matter of Christian involvement in politics. My concern here, let me return from my brief and mild rant, is what you published a year or two ago about the fellow in Michigan that asked about taking up arms. Many Christians have been reduced to such foolish or similar notions by allowing the inputs of Newsmax, Breitbart, Epoch Times, OAN, CFP, and other sources to totally twist them out of shape with the drama of D.C. You have dealt with Techno Temptations of our modern world, but a related aspect is the information never before available. If a senator sneezes in D.C., Christians in S.C. immediately know about it with pundit analysis and the opportunity to write a comment. Insane! The world just a century or two ago knew nothing about events in other countries or even other states until long past. Now every single little burp is recorded and broadcast with sensational reporting around it to arouse and provoke the audience to anger, fear, hate, and worry ... the opposite of Paul, who ignored political events and systemic racism (Acts 18:2) and violent politics of the pagan Roman Empire to teach compliance, prayer, and appreciation. Lord, help us do the same. Pray for American Christians, for independent Baptists, to block out the conservative media and focus on the GOOD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST.”
SHOULD GOD’S PEOPLE BE IGNORANT OF WHAT IS HAPPENING? (Friday Church News Notes, January 29, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The comments in the previous note, “Pastor Warns about Excessive Consumption of Conservative News,” does not imply that God’s people should be ignorant of what is happening in this world or be unconcerned. It is a warning about being caught up in these events, in being captivated by these events, in filling your mind with these events, in sharing the anger and frustration of the world at these events. Paul knew what was happening in the Roman Empire in his day. He was educated in its history and its current events, but that is not what captured his mind and heart. It is a warning about being filled with news more than the Word of God, about being ill equipped spiritually to weigh the news. In my experience, the average member of an Independent Baptist church is not skilled in God’s Word (Heb. 5:12-14), not a diligent student of God’s Word and not able to rightly divide it (2 Tim. 2:15), not meditating therein day and night. Therefore they do not have a clear, consuming Biblical world view. It is a warning about setting one’s affection on things on the earth more than on things above (Col. 3:1-4). It is a warning about focusing on Make America Great Again instead of Make Churches Great Again, which is the Bible’s focus!
JUSTICE CENTRE FOR CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOMS TO REPRESENT ONTARIO CHURCHES (Friday Church News Notes, January 29, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Justice Centre to Defend,” Conservative Review, Jan. 5, 2021: “The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) will be representing numerous Ontario pastors and church elders who have been charged for holding religious gatherings in contravention of the Reopening Ontario Act (ROA), according to a press release issued on Monday. The JCCF will contest the charges on the basis the ROA violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by prohibiting people in Ontario to peacefully assemble for worship, as is their right. Several members of the Old Colony Mennonite Church and Word of Life Mennonite community, with locations in Leamington, Ont., and Wheatley, Ont., were charged by police in December. [Also charged or given summons are Harvest Bible Church in Windsor, Ont., Trinity Bible Chapel of Waterloo, Ont., and the Church of God in Aylmer, Ont.] ‘Churches are being targeted by both police and vigilante members of the public, who look for church parking lots with vehicles and call in complaints to the police,’ said Lisa Bildy, a constitutional lawyer at the JCCF. ‘It's easy to see how the Stasi in East Germany were able to operate so effectively—it appears it doesn't take much to turn neighbours into informants, and police into petty tyrants.’ ... The JCCF will be attending multiple first appearances over the next several months, on behalf of these churches and their leaders.”
THE BOY WHO ONLY LOVES THE GOOD (Friday Church News Notes, January 29, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “[In 1924] Dr. J. Gresham Machen said, ‘The worst sin today is to say that you agree with the Christian faith and believe in the Bible, but then make common cause with those who deny the basic facts of Christianity. Never was it more obviously true that he that is not with Christ is against Him. ... Dr. Arnold of Rugby used to say that he never could be sure of a boy who only loved the good. Until that boy also began to hate evil he never felt that he was safe. Abraham Lincoln said, ‘To sin by silence when they should speak in protest, makes cowards of men.’”
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).
_____
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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