Friday Church News Notes
Volume 22, Issue 17 - April 23, 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.
MORE EVIDENCE OF AMERICA’S SYSTEMIC WHITE RACISM (Friday Church News Notes, April 23, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Critical Race Theory claims that America is racist to the core, and the evidence keeps piling up. Kamala Harris is the nation’s first black vice president, and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, newly appointed American ambassador to the United Nations, is a black woman. Thomas-Greenfield recently told Al Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN) that “the original sin of slavery weaved white supremacy into our founding documents and principles.” There can be no doubt that a black woman becoming an American ambassador is clear evidence of the nation’s systemic racism. Consider further evidence: There have been 25 minority race governors and lieutenant governors in U.S. states. 162 blacks have served in the U.S. Congress. The 116th Congress (2019) was the most racially diverse in the nation’s history with 116 non-white members. America has more than 6,000 black public officials. About 330 of America’s cities have black mayors, including many cities in the South (e.g., Atlanta, GA; Baton Rouge, LA; Birmingham, AL; Augusta, GA; Shreveport, LA; Jackson, MS). 39 of the 100 largest American cities have black mayors; 40% of them serve in cities that do not have black majority populations. Black women lead seven of the nation’s largest cities. From 2009 to 2017, a black man held office as the 44th president of the United States. He was elected to two terms though blacks only formed 13% of the population. A majority of the total votes nationwide for this black man were cast by whites. About 30% of America’s police nationwide are non-white. America has spent trillions of dollars in support of non-white “minority” communities. Further, that America has a lot of black millionaires, such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, is clear evidence that it is systemically racist.
BLACK LIVES MATTER CO-FOUNDER PURCHASES MILLION-DOLLAR HOME IN EXCLUSIVE AREA (Friday Church News Notes, April 23, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Marxist BLM Leader,” Fox News, Apr. 10, 2021: “Patrisse Khan-Cullors, one of the founders of Black Lives Matter and a self-described Marxist, recently purchased a $1.4 million home in an exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood where the vast majority of residents are White, according to reports. The home, which features three bedrooms and three bathrooms, is nestled in Topanga Canyon and has a separate guesthouse on the property, according to a celebrity real estate blog which reported the transaction last week. The property, which is about a 15 minute drive from Malibu beaches, features bamboo floors and vaulted ceilings, according to the listing.” Khan-Cullors has purchased property totaling $3.2 million, according to the Daily Caller. Online comments on this report include the following: “Of course, Marxists doing what all Marxists do - they take from everyone under the guise of ‘equity for all’ and line the pockets of the elite at the top of the movement.”
HILLSONG DALLAS COLLAPSES (Friday Church News Notes, April 23, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Hillsong Dallas has been shut down due to the worldliness of its leaders, husband-wife “pastor team” Reed and Jess Bogard. It has been reported that the leadership “has been using church money to fund their lavish lifestyle, including insanely expensive designer clothing, frequent stays at expensive Airbnb rentals, and thousands of dollars on single meals” (“Hillsong Caving in on Itself,” Reformation Charlotte, Apr. 12, 2021). This is the latest in a long list of Hillsong scandals. The following is only the tip of the iceberg: According to the New York Times for October 17, 2014, a homosexual couple, Josh Canfield and Reed Kelly, sang in choirs at Hillsong New York City, and Canfield was a volunteer choir leader. Canfield and Kelly were billed as the “Broadway Boyfriends” on the reality show Survivor: San Juan del Sur.” In May 2016, Hillsong New York City hosted a Hillsong Women’s Conference that featured, among other things, scantily-dressed ‘cheerleaders,’ an Elvis impersonator, and a naked cowboy wearing only a cowboy hat, boots, and a guitar. The cowboy was Hillsong NYC’s own youth pastor, Diego Simla. In 2017, Hillsong NYC pastor Carl Lentz and pop star Justin Bieber were photographed in New Zealand drinking heavily and partying in a tavern. Lentz baptized Bieber in 2014 in the bathtub of a pro-basketball player. In 2019, Yelp identified Hillsong Los Angeles as one of the top ten “gay friendly churches” in the city. In November 2020, Lentz was fired as pastor of Hillsong NYC after having been caught in an affair with a Muslim fashion designer. According to the Religion News Service (RNS), multiple reports have also described money mismanagement at Hillsong NYC. Observers need to understand that Hillsong is not true biblical Christianity. It is a fake.
SPEAK OUT FOR THE TRUTH (Friday Church News Notes, April 23, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Leftists of all stripes in America are trying to create a totalitarian society in which the only speech allowed is their speech. Already they are trying to control speech about marriage, sexuality, male and female distinctions, Covid lockdowns, masks, policing, evolution and creationism, American history, racism, China, and many other things. What can we do? There are many things we can do and one of those is that we can speak the truth. One reason the speech Nazis are having some success is that so many people are so incredibly timid. We must not shut up in the face of opposition. We can speak by conversation with our neighbors, by the distribution of literature, by social media, by whatever forum we have, every chance we get. If the Bible speaks about something, then God’s people can and must speak about that. The Word must be preached “in season, and out of season.” Refuse to be censored. Don’t sell your freedom of speech cheaply. “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion” (Proverbs 28:1).
“EVANGELICALS” RENOUNCING THEIR FAITH (Friday Church News Notes, April 23, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Modern evangelicalism is a fulfillment of 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” Popular evangelicalism does not endure sound doctrine; it loves fables; it lives after its own lusts, being more concerned about “liberty” than holiness and obedience. Contemporary Worship Music is a path to the “broad church” of evangelicalism and once you enter those dangerous spiritual waters, there is no telling where you will end up. Many have landed in atheism. Consider some examples: In May 2019, DAVE GASS, with 20 years’ experience pastoring evangelical churches, including Grace Family Fellowship of Pleasant Hill, Missouri, made the following announcement on Twitter: “I am walking away from faith. Even though this has been a massive bomb drop in my life, it has been decades in the making.” He admitted that he never firmly believed in Christ and always had doubts. Further, he said, “my marriage was a sham, prayer was never answered, miracles were never performed.” In July 2019, JOSHUA HARRIS, author of the best-selling I Kissed Dating Goodbye who was considered an expert on marriage and child training, renounced faith in Christ, said he was divorcing his wife, and proclaimed that he is happy and at peace following his “heart.” In August 2019, MARTY SAMPSON, one of the worship leaders and song writers for Hillsong, announced that his Christian faith “is on incredibly shaky ground.” He is seriously entertaining atheism, and he “is so happy now, so at peace with the world.” In May 2020, JON STEINGARD, singer and guitarist of the Christian rock band Hawk Nelson and a pastor’s son, announced on Instagram that he is an agnostic. “I am now finding that I no longer believe in God. ... The process of getting to that sentence has been several years in the making. ... It’s been more like pulling on the threads of a sweater, and one day discovering that there was no more sweater left.” Steingard said that he enjoys his new “freedom.” In April 2021, PAUL MAXWELL, popular author, renounced his faith on Instagram. “I think it’s important to say that I’m just not a Christian anymore, and it feels really good. I’m really happy.” CONCLUDING NOTE: I have the opposite experience as these men. I have never doubted God since I was converted in 1973, and my faith in the Bible as the infallible Word of God and in Jesus Christ as the only Lord and Saviour has grown stronger with each passing year. I have thousands of reasons to believe that God exists and that the Bible is His divine revelation to man. I have seen continual answers to prayer. For those who want to understand why “evangelicalism” is in such desperate straights, we recommend New Evangelicalism: Its History, Characteristics, and Fruit, available as a free eBook from www.wayoflife.org. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).
BLIND LUCK SMARTER THAN TOP PROGRAMMERS (Friday Church News Notes, April 23, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Research has discovered that fruit flies have an “incredibly smart method to categorize smells which lets them recognize differences with a very fine level of accuracy” (“Patterns in Fruit Fly Brains Could Soon Power Your Netflix Recommendations,” Science Alert, Nov. 11, 2017). The research was done by a team from the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Fruit flies are able to identify and categorize odors and associated behaviors (e.g., good to eat, must avoid) with great precision. Its brain has 2,000 neurons that “give each smell a distinct ID,” but only the top 5 percent of those are stored so that the fly can quickly sort through a great number of odors and associations. It turns out that this method is more effective than that which is currently used by services like Netflix and Spotify and YouTube to power their retrieval systems (e.g., labeling and sorting movies). “In a series of tests on three standard datasets commonly used by computer scientists, the fly method significantly outperformed basic locality-sensitive hashing.” Saket Navlakha of Salk says, “Pieces of this approach had been used in the past by computer scientists, but evolution put it together in a very unique way” (Ibid., Science Alert). Evolution put it together? Evolution put together a brilliant algorithm in the brain of a fruit fly? This “evolution” thing must be very God-like. In truth, natural selection and mutations couldn’t possibly explain such a thing.
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).
BLACK LIVES MATTER CO-FOUNDER PURCHASES MILLION-DOLLAR HOME IN EXCLUSIVE AREA (Friday Church News Notes, April 23, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Marxist BLM Leader,” Fox News, Apr. 10, 2021: “Patrisse Khan-Cullors, one of the founders of Black Lives Matter and a self-described Marxist, recently purchased a $1.4 million home in an exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood where the vast majority of residents are White, according to reports. The home, which features three bedrooms and three bathrooms, is nestled in Topanga Canyon and has a separate guesthouse on the property, according to a celebrity real estate blog which reported the transaction last week. The property, which is about a 15 minute drive from Malibu beaches, features bamboo floors and vaulted ceilings, according to the listing.” Khan-Cullors has purchased property totaling $3.2 million, according to the Daily Caller. Online comments on this report include the following: “Of course, Marxists doing what all Marxists do - they take from everyone under the guise of ‘equity for all’ and line the pockets of the elite at the top of the movement.”
HILLSONG DALLAS COLLAPSES (Friday Church News Notes, April 23, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Hillsong Dallas has been shut down due to the worldliness of its leaders, husband-wife “pastor team” Reed and Jess Bogard. It has been reported that the leadership “has been using church money to fund their lavish lifestyle, including insanely expensive designer clothing, frequent stays at expensive Airbnb rentals, and thousands of dollars on single meals” (“Hillsong Caving in on Itself,” Reformation Charlotte, Apr. 12, 2021). This is the latest in a long list of Hillsong scandals. The following is only the tip of the iceberg: According to the New York Times for October 17, 2014, a homosexual couple, Josh Canfield and Reed Kelly, sang in choirs at Hillsong New York City, and Canfield was a volunteer choir leader. Canfield and Kelly were billed as the “Broadway Boyfriends” on the reality show Survivor: San Juan del Sur.” In May 2016, Hillsong New York City hosted a Hillsong Women’s Conference that featured, among other things, scantily-dressed ‘cheerleaders,’ an Elvis impersonator, and a naked cowboy wearing only a cowboy hat, boots, and a guitar. The cowboy was Hillsong NYC’s own youth pastor, Diego Simla. In 2017, Hillsong NYC pastor Carl Lentz and pop star Justin Bieber were photographed in New Zealand drinking heavily and partying in a tavern. Lentz baptized Bieber in 2014 in the bathtub of a pro-basketball player. In 2019, Yelp identified Hillsong Los Angeles as one of the top ten “gay friendly churches” in the city. In November 2020, Lentz was fired as pastor of Hillsong NYC after having been caught in an affair with a Muslim fashion designer. According to the Religion News Service (RNS), multiple reports have also described money mismanagement at Hillsong NYC. Observers need to understand that Hillsong is not true biblical Christianity. It is a fake.
SPEAK OUT FOR THE TRUTH (Friday Church News Notes, April 23, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Leftists of all stripes in America are trying to create a totalitarian society in which the only speech allowed is their speech. Already they are trying to control speech about marriage, sexuality, male and female distinctions, Covid lockdowns, masks, policing, evolution and creationism, American history, racism, China, and many other things. What can we do? There are many things we can do and one of those is that we can speak the truth. One reason the speech Nazis are having some success is that so many people are so incredibly timid. We must not shut up in the face of opposition. We can speak by conversation with our neighbors, by the distribution of literature, by social media, by whatever forum we have, every chance we get. If the Bible speaks about something, then God’s people can and must speak about that. The Word must be preached “in season, and out of season.” Refuse to be censored. Don’t sell your freedom of speech cheaply. “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion” (Proverbs 28:1).
“EVANGELICALS” RENOUNCING THEIR FAITH (Friday Church News Notes, April 23, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Modern evangelicalism is a fulfillment of 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” Popular evangelicalism does not endure sound doctrine; it loves fables; it lives after its own lusts, being more concerned about “liberty” than holiness and obedience. Contemporary Worship Music is a path to the “broad church” of evangelicalism and once you enter those dangerous spiritual waters, there is no telling where you will end up. Many have landed in atheism. Consider some examples: In May 2019, DAVE GASS, with 20 years’ experience pastoring evangelical churches, including Grace Family Fellowship of Pleasant Hill, Missouri, made the following announcement on Twitter: “I am walking away from faith. Even though this has been a massive bomb drop in my life, it has been decades in the making.” He admitted that he never firmly believed in Christ and always had doubts. Further, he said, “my marriage was a sham, prayer was never answered, miracles were never performed.” In July 2019, JOSHUA HARRIS, author of the best-selling I Kissed Dating Goodbye who was considered an expert on marriage and child training, renounced faith in Christ, said he was divorcing his wife, and proclaimed that he is happy and at peace following his “heart.” In August 2019, MARTY SAMPSON, one of the worship leaders and song writers for Hillsong, announced that his Christian faith “is on incredibly shaky ground.” He is seriously entertaining atheism, and he “is so happy now, so at peace with the world.” In May 2020, JON STEINGARD, singer and guitarist of the Christian rock band Hawk Nelson and a pastor’s son, announced on Instagram that he is an agnostic. “I am now finding that I no longer believe in God. ... The process of getting to that sentence has been several years in the making. ... It’s been more like pulling on the threads of a sweater, and one day discovering that there was no more sweater left.” Steingard said that he enjoys his new “freedom.” In April 2021, PAUL MAXWELL, popular author, renounced his faith on Instagram. “I think it’s important to say that I’m just not a Christian anymore, and it feels really good. I’m really happy.” CONCLUDING NOTE: I have the opposite experience as these men. I have never doubted God since I was converted in 1973, and my faith in the Bible as the infallible Word of God and in Jesus Christ as the only Lord and Saviour has grown stronger with each passing year. I have thousands of reasons to believe that God exists and that the Bible is His divine revelation to man. I have seen continual answers to prayer. For those who want to understand why “evangelicalism” is in such desperate straights, we recommend New Evangelicalism: Its History, Characteristics, and Fruit, available as a free eBook from www.wayoflife.org. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).
BLIND LUCK SMARTER THAN TOP PROGRAMMERS (Friday Church News Notes, April 23, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Research has discovered that fruit flies have an “incredibly smart method to categorize smells which lets them recognize differences with a very fine level of accuracy” (“Patterns in Fruit Fly Brains Could Soon Power Your Netflix Recommendations,” Science Alert, Nov. 11, 2017). The research was done by a team from the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Fruit flies are able to identify and categorize odors and associated behaviors (e.g., good to eat, must avoid) with great precision. Its brain has 2,000 neurons that “give each smell a distinct ID,” but only the top 5 percent of those are stored so that the fly can quickly sort through a great number of odors and associations. It turns out that this method is more effective than that which is currently used by services like Netflix and Spotify and YouTube to power their retrieval systems (e.g., labeling and sorting movies). “In a series of tests on three standard datasets commonly used by computer scientists, the fly method significantly outperformed basic locality-sensitive hashing.” Saket Navlakha of Salk says, “Pieces of this approach had been used in the past by computer scientists, but evolution put it together in a very unique way” (Ibid., Science Alert). Evolution put it together? Evolution put together a brilliant algorithm in the brain of a fruit fly? This “evolution” thing must be very God-like. In truth, natural selection and mutations couldn’t possibly explain such a thing.
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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