Friday Church News Notes
Volume 22, Issue 47 - November 19, 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.
Moradi, 83, an Afghan Jewish woman who fled Kabul this month with her relatives with the assistance of an Israeli aid group.
LAST JEW DEPARTS AFGHANISTAN (Friday Church News Notes, November 19, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “No More Jews,” Israel Today, Nov. 11, 2021: “Following the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, Zebulon Simantov was said to be the last Jew in the country. However, reports now name 83-year-old Tova Moradi, who fled Afghanistan last month, as the holder of that title. Whoever was the last to leave, what is now certain is that Afghanistan has no more Jews [thanks to the Islamic Taliban]. The country once hosted a healthy Jewish community numbering some 50,000. Boaz Arad reports, ‘Tova Moradi and 124 other Afghans boarded an extraordinary evacuation flight from Mazar-i-Sharif. This flight was the final lap of a nerve wrecking operation run by Israeli volunteers. ... What was orig. supposed to be a land crossing through Tajikistan helped by Afghan contacts with the right connections in Taliban checkpoints ... went wrong fast--so plan B kicked into action. They fly out. Against all odds, the plane took off and arrived at Dushanbe. ... Albania’s PM, Edi Rama, was willing to help. There were female athletes and students on the flight. Young, motivated, with a very bleak future under Taliban. Human rights activists, female police officers, judges, all blacklisted. ... The Taliban’s return put Moradi and her family in danger. She is now at a small seaside resort in Albania that houses her and other Afghans, from where she hopes to continue to Canada’ (@aradboaz, Oct. 30). The Jerusalem Post reported that Moradi left Kabul in October with more than 20 grandchildren. Their escape was organized by the Israeli human rights organization IsraAid. Moradi was herself one of 10 children. At the age of 16, she ran off and married a Muslim. The Jewish community ostracized them. She never adopted her husband's religion, but kept Jewish traditions, her daughter told the Associated Press. She was known as a Jew in her neighborhood. Several brothers live in Israel, and her parents are buried in Jerusalem. The elderly woman ... first flew to Albania before being taken to resettle in Canada. She also desires to visit relatives in Israel.”
COVID - LOCKDOWN VS. FREEDOM (Friday Church News Notes, November 19, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The U.S. states of California and Florida are case studies in the effects of lockdown on the spread of Covid. California, ruled by a leftist Democratic government, has had one of the most draconian lockdowns among the 50 states. Florida, with a Republican government oriented toward personal liberty, has had one of the least restrictive policies toward Covid. Florida has come out better throughout the Covid situation and continues to do so. “The rate of new COVID-19 cases in California is currently more than twice the rate in Florida, prompting debate about draconian public health measures implemented across the Golden State, like vaccine mandates for small children. California is averaging 16 new cases per 100,000 residents the last week compared to just seven in Florida. California’s full vaccination rate (62%) is higher than places like Florida (60) and Texas (54), where state leaders do not enforce mask policies or support strict mandates. The Golden State has seen a surge of more than 60% in new cases in the last two weeks, compared to a 20% drop in the Sunshine State. Clearly, their progressive edicts failed to quell recent outbreaks” (“Despite Mandates Aplenty, California’s Covid Rate Now Doubles Florida’s,” PJMedia, Nov. 9, 2021).
NORTH KOREA ASKS STARVING CITIZENS TO EAT LESS (Friday Church News Notes, November 19, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “North Korea,” New York Times Post, Oct. 28, 2021: “North Koreans are being asked to eat less food as the communist nation deals with a food emergency that is expected to continue at least until 2025, according to reports. A shortage of food in the nation led by dictator Kim Jong Un has resulted from a shutdown of its border with China, an action that was taken in 2020 in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported. But the move has devastated North Korea’s economy as food prices have spiked, and has resulted in starvation deaths among its population of 25 million, the report said. ... About 40% of North Korea’s population is estimated by the U.N. World Food Program to be undernourished and the nation has been short of food this year by about 860,000 tons – or the equivalent of two months’ worth of food, according to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, RFA reported. ... Meanwhile, Pyongyang has recently resumed the testing of missiles after a hiatus. The most recent tests occurred Tuesday when the North fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan.”
HILLSONG PHOENIX HOSTS CATHOLIC MASS (Friday Church News Notes, November 19, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Hillsong Phoenix is hosting an Alpha Conference in January 2022, featuring Catholic priest John Riccardo and a Catholic mass (alphausa.org). The theme is “Cultivating Kingdom Culture,” the “core value” of which is “to listen, to understand, to actively engage in the world of another,” because “great healing happens when we Listen to each other.” This is psychobabble heresy. The Lord Jesus Christ sent His disciples to preach the gospel (Mark 16:15). The truth is revealed in Scripture; it is not found by dialogue. The truth is to be believed and obeyed and proclaimed. Paul didn’t listen to the philosophers at Athens to empathize with them. He understood that they were in ignorance and superstition and spiritual darkness and he proclaimed to them the glorious light of the gospel of Christ (Acts. 17). The New Testament faith revealed in Scripture is not to be debated; it is to be proclaimed and defended. “... it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3). This is the third time that Hillsong Phoenix has hosted an Alpha Conference with a Catholic priest and a Catholic mass. On July 3-4, 2015, Darlene Zschech and Hillsong joined hands with Pope Francis at the Convocation of the Renewal of the Holy Spirit at the Vatican and participated in a mass. Pope Francis praised the charismatic movement’s zeal for unity and said that Christian unity is “rooted in a common baptism” (“Pope Greets Members of the Renewal,” July 4, 2015, FullyCatholic.com). According to Roman Catholic dogma, baptism is the new birth and the entrance into the Christian life which is then nurtured by the sacraments. It is a cursed “grace plus works” gospel (Galatians 1:8-9) which the Catholic Church in recent times has cleverly rebranded as “grace only.” The Hillsong philosophy is pure ecumenism, and it is the recipe for building an apostate one-world “church.” Bible-believing churches that use charismatic contemporary praise music are playing with fire. This music brings with it a philosophy that will change the character of any “fundamentalist” church. It builds bridges to the “broader church” and its heresies. (For a full report on Hillsong, see “Darlene Zschech and Hillsong,” www.wayoflife.org.)
BLACK LIVES MATTER THREATENS NEWLY ELECTED MAYOR WITH VIOLENCE (Friday Church News Notes, November 19, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “The head of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York met with Eric Adams, the city’s mayor-elect, to discuss policing and warned that there will be ‘bloodshed’ if the city returns to its pre-De Blasio model, according to a report. Adams, himself a former police captain, on Wednesday met with Hawk Newsome, the BLM leader, and others behind closed doors at Brooklyn’s Borough Hall, the New York Daily News reported. The meeting was tense and turned into a shouting match, the paper reported. One of the key issues raised was the possibility that the city could reinstate its anti-crime unit, which Newsome compared to the Nazi Gestapo. ‘If he thinks that they’re going to go back to the old ways of policing, then we are going to take to the streets again. There will be riots, there will be fire and there will be bloodshed because we believe in defending our people,’ Newsome told the paper’” (“New York BLM leader,” Fox News, Nov. 11, 2021). Black Lives Matter is a Marxist, lawless, hate-filled, violent, “tear down traditional America” organization. They should be outlawed and imprisoned.
WHEN THE TRANSITION OF POWER IN AMERICA WAS DONE WITH GOOD WILL (Friday Church News Notes, November 19, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In the 1952 U.S. presidential election, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower won a landslide victory over Democrat Adlai Stevenson, ending Democratic control of the White House that stretched back two decades. In his farewell address on January 15, 1952, Harry Truman said, “Next Tuesday, General Eisenhower will be inaugurated as President of the United States. A short time after the new President takes his oath of office, I will be on the train going back home to Independence, Missouri. I will once again be a plain, private citizen of this great Republic. That is as it should be. Inauguration Day will be a great demonstration of our democratic process. I am glad to be a part of it--glad to wish General Eisenhower all possible success, as he begins his term--glad the whole world will have a chance to see how simply and how peacefully our American system transfers the vast power of the Presidency from my hands to his. It is a good object lesson in democracy. I am very proud of it. And I know you are, too. ... Regardless of your politics, whether you are Republican or Democrat, your fate is tied up with what is done here in this room. The President is President of the whole country. We must give him our support as citizens of the United States. He will have mine, and I want you to give him yours. ... When Franklin Roosevelt died, I felt there must be a million men better qualified than I, to take up the Presidential task. But the work was mine to do, and I had to do it. And I have tried to give it everything that was in me. Through all of it, through all the years that I have worked here in this room, I have been well aware I did not really work alone--that you were working with me. No President could ever hope to lead our country, or to sustain the burdens of this office, save as the people helped with their support. I have had that help--you have given me that support--on all our great essential undertakings to build the free world's strength and keep the peace. Those are the big things. Those are the things we have done together. For that I shall be grateful, always. And now, the time has come for me to say good night--and God bless you all.”
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).
COVID - LOCKDOWN VS. FREEDOM (Friday Church News Notes, November 19, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The U.S. states of California and Florida are case studies in the effects of lockdown on the spread of Covid. California, ruled by a leftist Democratic government, has had one of the most draconian lockdowns among the 50 states. Florida, with a Republican government oriented toward personal liberty, has had one of the least restrictive policies toward Covid. Florida has come out better throughout the Covid situation and continues to do so. “The rate of new COVID-19 cases in California is currently more than twice the rate in Florida, prompting debate about draconian public health measures implemented across the Golden State, like vaccine mandates for small children. California is averaging 16 new cases per 100,000 residents the last week compared to just seven in Florida. California’s full vaccination rate (62%) is higher than places like Florida (60) and Texas (54), where state leaders do not enforce mask policies or support strict mandates. The Golden State has seen a surge of more than 60% in new cases in the last two weeks, compared to a 20% drop in the Sunshine State. Clearly, their progressive edicts failed to quell recent outbreaks” (“Despite Mandates Aplenty, California’s Covid Rate Now Doubles Florida’s,” PJMedia, Nov. 9, 2021).
NORTH KOREA ASKS STARVING CITIZENS TO EAT LESS (Friday Church News Notes, November 19, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “North Korea,” New York Times Post, Oct. 28, 2021: “North Koreans are being asked to eat less food as the communist nation deals with a food emergency that is expected to continue at least until 2025, according to reports. A shortage of food in the nation led by dictator Kim Jong Un has resulted from a shutdown of its border with China, an action that was taken in 2020 in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported. But the move has devastated North Korea’s economy as food prices have spiked, and has resulted in starvation deaths among its population of 25 million, the report said. ... About 40% of North Korea’s population is estimated by the U.N. World Food Program to be undernourished and the nation has been short of food this year by about 860,000 tons – or the equivalent of two months’ worth of food, according to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, RFA reported. ... Meanwhile, Pyongyang has recently resumed the testing of missiles after a hiatus. The most recent tests occurred Tuesday when the North fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan.”
HILLSONG PHOENIX HOSTS CATHOLIC MASS (Friday Church News Notes, November 19, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Hillsong Phoenix is hosting an Alpha Conference in January 2022, featuring Catholic priest John Riccardo and a Catholic mass (alphausa.org). The theme is “Cultivating Kingdom Culture,” the “core value” of which is “to listen, to understand, to actively engage in the world of another,” because “great healing happens when we Listen to each other.” This is psychobabble heresy. The Lord Jesus Christ sent His disciples to preach the gospel (Mark 16:15). The truth is revealed in Scripture; it is not found by dialogue. The truth is to be believed and obeyed and proclaimed. Paul didn’t listen to the philosophers at Athens to empathize with them. He understood that they were in ignorance and superstition and spiritual darkness and he proclaimed to them the glorious light of the gospel of Christ (Acts. 17). The New Testament faith revealed in Scripture is not to be debated; it is to be proclaimed and defended. “... it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3). This is the third time that Hillsong Phoenix has hosted an Alpha Conference with a Catholic priest and a Catholic mass. On July 3-4, 2015, Darlene Zschech and Hillsong joined hands with Pope Francis at the Convocation of the Renewal of the Holy Spirit at the Vatican and participated in a mass. Pope Francis praised the charismatic movement’s zeal for unity and said that Christian unity is “rooted in a common baptism” (“Pope Greets Members of the Renewal,” July 4, 2015, FullyCatholic.com). According to Roman Catholic dogma, baptism is the new birth and the entrance into the Christian life which is then nurtured by the sacraments. It is a cursed “grace plus works” gospel (Galatians 1:8-9) which the Catholic Church in recent times has cleverly rebranded as “grace only.” The Hillsong philosophy is pure ecumenism, and it is the recipe for building an apostate one-world “church.” Bible-believing churches that use charismatic contemporary praise music are playing with fire. This music brings with it a philosophy that will change the character of any “fundamentalist” church. It builds bridges to the “broader church” and its heresies. (For a full report on Hillsong, see “Darlene Zschech and Hillsong,” www.wayoflife.org.)
BLACK LIVES MATTER THREATENS NEWLY ELECTED MAYOR WITH VIOLENCE (Friday Church News Notes, November 19, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “The head of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York met with Eric Adams, the city’s mayor-elect, to discuss policing and warned that there will be ‘bloodshed’ if the city returns to its pre-De Blasio model, according to a report. Adams, himself a former police captain, on Wednesday met with Hawk Newsome, the BLM leader, and others behind closed doors at Brooklyn’s Borough Hall, the New York Daily News reported. The meeting was tense and turned into a shouting match, the paper reported. One of the key issues raised was the possibility that the city could reinstate its anti-crime unit, which Newsome compared to the Nazi Gestapo. ‘If he thinks that they’re going to go back to the old ways of policing, then we are going to take to the streets again. There will be riots, there will be fire and there will be bloodshed because we believe in defending our people,’ Newsome told the paper’” (“New York BLM leader,” Fox News, Nov. 11, 2021). Black Lives Matter is a Marxist, lawless, hate-filled, violent, “tear down traditional America” organization. They should be outlawed and imprisoned.
WHEN THE TRANSITION OF POWER IN AMERICA WAS DONE WITH GOOD WILL (Friday Church News Notes, November 19, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In the 1952 U.S. presidential election, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower won a landslide victory over Democrat Adlai Stevenson, ending Democratic control of the White House that stretched back two decades. In his farewell address on January 15, 1952, Harry Truman said, “Next Tuesday, General Eisenhower will be inaugurated as President of the United States. A short time after the new President takes his oath of office, I will be on the train going back home to Independence, Missouri. I will once again be a plain, private citizen of this great Republic. That is as it should be. Inauguration Day will be a great demonstration of our democratic process. I am glad to be a part of it--glad to wish General Eisenhower all possible success, as he begins his term--glad the whole world will have a chance to see how simply and how peacefully our American system transfers the vast power of the Presidency from my hands to his. It is a good object lesson in democracy. I am very proud of it. And I know you are, too. ... Regardless of your politics, whether you are Republican or Democrat, your fate is tied up with what is done here in this room. The President is President of the whole country. We must give him our support as citizens of the United States. He will have mine, and I want you to give him yours. ... When Franklin Roosevelt died, I felt there must be a million men better qualified than I, to take up the Presidential task. But the work was mine to do, and I had to do it. And I have tried to give it everything that was in me. Through all of it, through all the years that I have worked here in this room, I have been well aware I did not really work alone--that you were working with me. No President could ever hope to lead our country, or to sustain the burdens of this office, save as the people helped with their support. I have had that help--you have given me that support--on all our great essential undertakings to build the free world's strength and keep the peace. Those are the big things. Those are the things we have done together. For that I shall be grateful, always. And now, the time has come for me to say good night--and God bless you all.”
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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