Bible College
Information

Way of Life Literature

Publisher of Bible Study Materials

Way of Life Literature

Publisher of Bible Study Materials

Way of Life Bible College
Friday Church News Notes
Volume 22, Issue 36 - September 3, 2021
Graphical Edition
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.
Storm Damage
AMERICA’S CONTINUAL CURSE OF BILLION DOLLAR STORMS (Friday Church News Notes, September 3, 2021,, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Since 1980, America has experienced 298 “natural” disasters, each of which caused overall damages exceeding $1 billion (National Centers for Environmental Information). The total cost exceeds $1.975 trillion, but that was before the Category 4 Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana on Sunday and caused an estimated $70B in damages. In the 1980s, the annual average was less than 3 billion-dollar disasters. That more than doubled in 2000s. It doubled again in the 2010s, with an annual average of more than 10 billion-dollar disasters (“Billion Dollar Disasters,” newamerica.org). In 2017, there were 10 “disaster events” costing more than $1 billion each, capped off in August with Hurricane Harvey, the costliest storm in American history (National Centers for Environmental Information). Most of Harvey’s damage to southern Texas and Houston was caused by flooding from record rainfall, more than 50 inches in a mere five days. The storm didn’t pass through; it camped. The damage was estimated to be $160 billion, similar to the combined effect of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy (“At $160B, Harvey expected to be the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history,” UPI, Aug. 30, 2017). In 2020, there were a record 22 billion-dollar disasters, shattering the previous record of 16 in 2017. In 2020 a record 10.2 million acres of forest burned. The total average annual cost since 2016 has been $121 billion. God has always used extreme weather to judge sinful mankind. “The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed” (Deuteronomy 28:24-25). “And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered (Amos 4:7).

DERECHOS AND HABOOBS (Friday Church News Notes, September 3, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Not only is this old world subject to hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, drought, extreme heat, extreme cold, hail, lightening, blizzards, and ice storms, there are derechos and haboobs! A haboob is a violent dust or sand storm created by thunder storm downdrafts and outflow winds. They are prevalent in North Africa, some parts of the Middle East, and the American Southwest plains. A derecho (Spanish for “straight ahead”) “is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms. A typical derecho consists of numerous microbursts, downbursts, and downburst clusters. By definition, if the wind damage swath extends more than 240 miles and includes wind gusts of at least 58 mph or greater along most of its length, then the event may be classified as a derecho” (National Severe Storms Laboratory). God didn’t create man to be subject to haboobs and derechos. God made man to live in a paradise, but man wasn’t satisfied with God and sinned against his lovely Creator’s law, and when man fell, his world was placed under a curse. On that memorable day, God said to Adam, “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:17-19). Happily, the story doesn’t end there. The compassionate Creator had planned salvation, and He Himself paid the price that His own holy and just law required when His Son suffered and bled and died on Calvary. By receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ, fallen sinners can be reconciled with the lovely God and can look forward to living again in paradise. “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose” (Isaiah 35:1).

BEN CARSON WARNS ABOUT VACCINE MANDATES (Friday Church News Notes, September 3, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Ben Carson is a retired neurosurgeon and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The following is excepted from “Vaccine Mandates Shape Terrible Future,” Newsmax, Aug. 23, 2021: “‘The really important thing here is for us to recognize that this is America that we’re living in,’ Carson told Monday’s ‘Eric Bolling: The Balance.’ ‘This is a place where people came so that they could be free. And the whole concept of mandates, no matter how wonderful you think they are, are opening the door to something that could be pretty terrible in the future.’ Carson shared his concern that politicians could impose ‘some types of penalties’ on Americans for having unorthodox views, and that is something ‘we have to think about.’ As far as vaccines, Carson believes ‘they’re very good.’ Vaccination mandates, however, are not, he said. And if activists try to steer people ‘in one direction or another by parceling out certain types of information, it makes them even more suspicious,’ Carson said. The retired neurosurgeon concluded that ‘the damage that we do with mandates that are unnecessary is tremendous.’”

CHINA HAS BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF VIDEO GAMES THAN A LOT OF CHRISTIAN PARENTS (Friday Church News Notes, September 3, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - China is a totalitarian state and an avowed enemy of God, but the Communists seem to have better understanding of the danger of video games than a lot of Christian parents. The following is excerpted from “China limiting kids’ online gaming,” The Washington Times, Aug. 30, 2021: “China is banning children from playing online games Monday through Thursday and will allow them to play only 3 hours each week over concerns about addiction, according to China’s National Press and Publication Administration. The new restrictions on children’s video game playing will take effect Wednesday and will force companies to limit children’s access to an hour each day on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and certain holidays. The companies will be required to implement a real-name-based registration system that links an account to an individual user that China‘s regulators will be able to check. The notice from China’s National Press and Publication Administration on Monday said the ‘problem of excessive use or even addiction to online games by minors’ has become prominent, according to an English-language translation made by Apple.”

MUSLIMS BURN PASTOR TO DEATH IN UGANDA (Friday Church News Notes, September 3, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Islamic Extremists Burn Pastor,” Morning Star News, July 6, 2021: “Islamic extremists in eastern Uganda set a pastor’s home on fire on Wednesday (June 30), burning him to death, sources said. Pastor Isima Kimbugwe’s body was burned beyond recognition after the assailants set his home on fire in Buseta village, Kibuku District at about 10:30 p.m., local Christians said. ... Leaving Islam to become a Christian in 2017, Pastor Kimbugwe had fled the village after Muslims upset with him leading five Muslims to faith in Christ threatened to kill him, the sources said. He worked for a Christian organization in Kampala until the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a loss of donor support that caused it to shut down, leading him to his return to his home village. ‘Immediately after arriving at his house, Muslims sent a young boy aged 14 who was a student at an Islamic school at Kibuku,’ said a source who requested anonymity. ‘He greeted the pastor in the Islamic way, Asalamu Asalamu alaikumu [I greet you, in Arabic]. The pastor refused to answer but instead replied that Jesus loves you. The boy spat saliva on the ground and uttered the Islamic [jihadist] slogan, Allahu Akbar [Allah is Greater] and ran away.’ ... His brother said, ‘By 10:30 we saw flames of fire and smoke from his house. Arriving at the scene, the house was completely burnt up, and nearby was a small steel jerrycan, a cap and Koranic notes. The notes read, Your enmity to Islam is what you have ripe, an idiom meaning he had provided a valid reason for them setting him and his house on fire according to Islam.’”

PYGMY HIPPOS AND MEN LIVING AT THE SAME TIME AND PLACE (Friday Church News Notes, September 3, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Aug. 4, 2021: “Creationists are often objects of scorn because they take the Bible’s account of history literally. If the Bible’s history is accurate, humans were on the Earth at the same time as many animals that are extinct today. Creationist arguments are often dismissed without answer by skeptics. Often they do this only because creationists believe that the entire creation is only about 6,000 years old. At the same time, we are gaining a more complete picture of the early Earth’s history. As a result, evolutionists are being forced to accept important parts of what creationists have always been saying. Excavations in Cyprus have shown that humans have a long history of settlement there. Excavations have also revealed that Cyprus was once home to the extinct dwarf elephant and the pygmy hippopotamus. However, evolutionary scientists said dwarf elephants and the pygmy hippopotamus were there 1.5 million years before humans ever arrived on the scene. Creationists, of course, rejected this claim. But in recent excavations bones of pygmy hippos have been found in the same layers as chipped bone artifacts, chisels, scrapers, beads and hearths. Based on this evidence, project director Alan Simmons says, ‘I believe the earliest occupants of Cyprus enjoyed pygmy hippo steaks.’ We may not ever know for sure whether the settlers on Cyprus ever really ate pygmy hippo steaks. However, evolutionists now have to stop laughing at creationists long enough to admit that at least this part of our Young Earth position is scientific fact. Author: Paul A. Bartz. Ref: Bower, B. 1990, ‘Cyprus dig pushes back colonization date,’ Science News, v. 123, Dec. 8. p. 359.”

AVOID A SUGARED GOSPEL (Friday Church News Notes, September 3, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is by Charles Spurgeon: “Avoid a sugared Gospel as you would shun sugar of lead. Seek that Gospel which rips up and tears and cuts and wounds and hacks and even kills, for that is the Gospel that makes alive again. And when you have found it, give good heed to it. Let it enter into your inmost being. As the rain soaks into the ground, so pray the Lord to let his Gospel soak into your soul” (Sermons, 48.538).

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.

Way of Life Literature - www.wayoflife.org
copyright 2018 - Way of Life Literature