Friday Church News Notes
Volume 23, Issue 1 - January 7, 2022
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.
TWITTER CONTINUES ITS DRACONIAN CENSORSHIP AND IS CALLED “A CONSTANT CLOWN SHOW” (Friday Church News Notes, January 7, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Twitter has permanently suspended Dr. Robert Malone for allegedly “spreading misleading and potentially harmful information” about coronavirus vaccines. He did pioneering work on the mRNA vaccines before turning critic. He has serious medical credentials and experience. He was trained at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, the University of California San Diego, the Salk Institute Molecular Biology and Virology laboratories, served as associate professor of pathology and surgery at the University of California at Davis, the University of Maryland, and the Armed Forces University of the Health Sciences, and did research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He is the “original inventor of mRNA vaccination as a technology, DNA vaccination, and multiple non-viral DNA and RNA/mRNA platform delivery technologies.” Yet he warns of “the many short-cuts, database issues, obfuscation and frankly, lies told in the development of the Spike protein-based genetic vaccines for SARS-CoV-2.” He says that the “authoritarian control by governments that are being manipulated by large corporations (big finance, big pharmaceutical, big media and big technology) influenced my changing world view” (rwmalonemd.com). There can be no doubt that this fallen world is rife with despotism and lies and covetous practices. I only have to read the Bible to know that is true. As for Dr. Malone’s warnings on the science of the vaccines, I don’t know if he is right or wrong; I haven’t even read his warnings; but he has far more authority to speak on the subject than any little Twitter checker. I don’t have a lot of interest in the vaccine debate, candidly. There are other things I consider far more important. What I do have a keen interest in is free speech. We need free, open debate on all subjects. I am extremely wary of quacks and conspiracy nuts and don’t give them the time of day, but I don’t believe in banning even quacks and conspiracy nuts. Who is to be the Chief Arbiter? We don’t need little Twitter checkers. They need to relocate to China, where checkers are in big demand. Dr. Malone nailed it when he called them “a constant clown show.” Dr. Malone joined Getter, the new social media platform founded by former Donald Trump adviser Jason Miller to “embrace free speech.” It reached one million users only three days after launch in July, an unprecedented achievement. Miller says, “I think what this shows is just the appetite that is there for a platform that doesn’t censor for political beliefs.” Indeed. The citizens of China, North Korea, Iran, and Afghanistan would vote for free speech if they could.
FACEBOOK’S BAN OF CONSERVATIVE CHILDREN’S BOOK PUBLISHER IS LABELED “ANTI-AMERICAN MADNESS” (Friday Church News Notes, January 7, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Facebook ‘permanently’ locks account,” Jan. 3, 2022, Fox Business: “Facebook has ‘permanently disabled’ the ads account of a conservative children’s book publisher, claiming that Heroes of Liberty--which has published books about Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, former President Ronald Reagan and author Thomas Sowell--violated the company’s rules against ‘Low Quality or Disruptive Content.’ ... Heroes of Liberty editor and board member Bethany Mandel told FOX Business on Sunday, ‘We began investing in Facebook four months before we launched our first book. We invested most of our marketing budget on the platform, and now our budget (the money we’ve already spent), as well as our assets and data are gone. Marketing-wise we are back in square one, financially it’s even more challenging.’ ... ‘We are not in politics, we are in the business of creating beautiful stories about great people that will entertain children and give them life lessons,’ she said. ‘To cancel children's books because they celebrate American values that 90% of Americans believe in isn’t even anti-conservative bias, it’s anti-American. Pure madness.’ ... While the loss of the Facebook ads platform will cost Heroes of Liberty, Mandel laid out a path forward. She said that the publisher has ‘received a warm welcome, sold tens of thousands of books and learned that many Americans are looking for a wholesome alternative to the current contemporary woke children’s literature.’ ‘We learned our lesson, and won’t risk building our business relying on the whims of Big Tech again,’ she added. ‘We are very happy with our initial decision to create a subscription model that will allow us to create a more meaningful one-on-one connection with families that can’t be disrupted by a censor.’”
INNER CITY PASTOR SAYS FATHERLESSNESS A NUMBER ONE CONCERN (Friday Church News Notes, January 7, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Rooftop Revelations,” Fox News, Dec. 30, 2021: “One of the toughest challenges Pastor Corey Brooks deals with on the South Side of Chicago is fatherlessness. For better or worse, the pastor has become a father figure to many youths in the neighborhood where approximately 80% of the homes do not have a father. He teaches them how to look someone in the eye and give a firm handshake. He makes them sweep the floors and wash the windows before he hands them a dollar, to teach them the value of earning. He meets with wayward kids and often spends hours counseling them back onto the straight path. ... There are those Americans who look at the pastor and the kids surrounding him and dismiss it as a ‘black’ problem. They lecture him that the culture needs to change and that it begins in the home. The pastor never disagrees, for he bears direct witness to these social ills. But what he disagrees with is that this is just a ‘black’ problem. Fatherlessness affects all Americans and continues to worsen with each passing year. According to the Census Bureau, approximately 89% of the ‘post-war generation’ grew up with a mother and father who were married to each other. That number has fallen today to approximately 68%. The Department of Education reports that 39% of all American students enrolled in grades one through 12 live in homes absent their biological fathers. ... While the number of fatherless children remains unacceptably high among blacks nationwide at approximately 56%, according to the Census Bureau, the numbers have risen significantly for other races. Approximately 31% of Hispanic children and approximately 21% of white children do not live with their biological fathers. ... According to data the Department of Justice released in 1998, children from fatherless homes accounted for 63% of youth suicides, 90% of all homeless and runaway youths, 85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders, 71% of all high school dropouts, 70% of juveniles in state-operated institutions, 75% of adolescent patients in substance abuse centers and 75% of rapists motivated by displaced anger. These statistics are likely worse today.” CONCLUDING NOTE: The fatherless problem is a product of many things, including (1) the spiritual powerlessness of churches, (2) the attraction and negative power of the hip-hop culture, (3) the poor moral example of a great many black leaders, secular and ecclesiastical, and (4) the character-destroying influence of the welfare state.
TWO AMERICAS, TWO WORLD-VIEWS (Friday Church News Notes, January 7, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - There are two Americas today. There is, for one, the conservative, traditional America, the America of the Founding Fathers, the America deeply influenced by the Bible. American conservatives, regardless of whether or not they are born again or even professing Christians, have a worldview that is to various degrees shaped by the Bible, which is the worldview of the nation’s founding: the existence of a Creator God, respect for the Bible and “Christianity,” private ownership of property (“thou shalt not steal ... though shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house ... nor anything that is thy neighbour’s”), the sanctity of life (“thou shalt not kill”), the right to defense of life and property (Exodus 22:2-3), respect for authority and the rule of law and order (Romans 13:1-7), equality of justice (Deuteronomy 1:17), the sanctity of the “nuclear family” (Matthew 19:4-6), nationalism as opposed to globalism (protection of national borders, strong national defense), freedom of religion, freedom for churches to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). This is the America of conservative evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity, conservative politics, conservative media, home schoolers, Blue Lives Matter. It is the America of the majority of the Republican Party. Then there is the leftist America influenced by godless and anti-Christian philosophies such as Humanism, social Darwinism, economic and cultural Marxism, critical theories, radical feminism, global socialism, intersectionality, queer rights, liberation theology, the Green movement, Islam. This is the America that is propagandized through the public education system, from elementary school to the university, and through many training programs in the federal government. It is the America of the “mainstream media” such as CNN and the New York Times and the bulk of the entertainment industry. It is supported by big technology (Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple) and by many of the nation’s largest corporations. It is the America of Black Lives Matter and Antifa and “systemic racism” and defund the police and wokeness and the cancel culture and deplatforming. It is the America of the “progressive” element of the Democratic Party, which is rapidly taking over the party. The two Americas are currently fairly equal in size and influence, which is evident in the makeup of the U.S. Congress and the razor thin margins of the presidential elections. Humanly speaking, the tide is on the side of leftist America because of its domination of the public school system and higher education, among other things. At the same time, those vast numbers of Americans who love the traditional America have many resources, not the least of which is prayer. America is still the world’s greatest bastion of biblical Christianity. If even a minority of biblical Christians would wake up from the slumber of a party lifestyle and live the pilgrim lifestyle that God’s Word commands and engage in spiritual warfare, there is no telling what God would do even in these dark times.
NO EXCUSES, SIR (Friday Church News Notes, January 7, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - My dad was in the U.S. Army in WWII and fought in fierce battles on the Pacific Islands against Japan. The US military was at its height. He told me the army did not allow men to make excuses for their failures. The business was too serious. They were to say, “No excuse, sir,” take their punishment, if any, and try harder. Of course, there are legitimate excuses in this life, but the policy was intended to emphasize hard work, dependability, responsibility. Jacob demonstrated this in his service to his father-in-law Laban. “That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night” (Genesis 31:39). Faithfulness and responsibility are characteristics of godliness. “He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not” (Psalm 15:4). “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2).
BAMBOO’S MESSAGE TO THE WORLD (Friday Church News Notes, January 7, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, December 17, 2021: “Many plants reproduce simply by cloning. The most obvious example of cloning that comes to mind is the dandelion. Unless you get all of the main dandelion root out of the ground, each piece of the root can sprout another dandelion, identical to the parent. The walking fern reproduces by cloning too. It moves across the countryside, albeit slowly, by producing new plants. A new plant is generated wherever the tips of its leaves touch the ground. Each new plant is identical to the parent. The bamboo reproduces through underground stems. The different species of bamboo live anywhere from 20 to 120 years. During their life spans, they produce only by cloning. Then they flower – once. When it’s time for a particular species to flower, every member of that species, no matter where in the world it grows, flowers gloriously. Each flower can have as many as 100 pollen-producing stamens. Once the seeds are ripe and scattered, every member of that species in the world dies. At this point, the entire species exists only in the scattered seeds. This is brilliant testimony to a recent creation of all bamboos at the same time. If evolution produced them and the forces of change worked on them for millions of years, one would think that all members of the same species would no longer be in perfect synchronization. Bamboo makes a strong testimony for the recent creation reported in Genesis! Author: Paul A. Bartz. Ref: Batten, Mary, ‘Sex & plants,’ Science Digest, Oct. 1983, p. 61.”
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).
FACEBOOK’S BAN OF CONSERVATIVE CHILDREN’S BOOK PUBLISHER IS LABELED “ANTI-AMERICAN MADNESS” (Friday Church News Notes, January 7, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Facebook ‘permanently’ locks account,” Jan. 3, 2022, Fox Business: “Facebook has ‘permanently disabled’ the ads account of a conservative children’s book publisher, claiming that Heroes of Liberty--which has published books about Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, former President Ronald Reagan and author Thomas Sowell--violated the company’s rules against ‘Low Quality or Disruptive Content.’ ... Heroes of Liberty editor and board member Bethany Mandel told FOX Business on Sunday, ‘We began investing in Facebook four months before we launched our first book. We invested most of our marketing budget on the platform, and now our budget (the money we’ve already spent), as well as our assets and data are gone. Marketing-wise we are back in square one, financially it’s even more challenging.’ ... ‘We are not in politics, we are in the business of creating beautiful stories about great people that will entertain children and give them life lessons,’ she said. ‘To cancel children's books because they celebrate American values that 90% of Americans believe in isn’t even anti-conservative bias, it’s anti-American. Pure madness.’ ... While the loss of the Facebook ads platform will cost Heroes of Liberty, Mandel laid out a path forward. She said that the publisher has ‘received a warm welcome, sold tens of thousands of books and learned that many Americans are looking for a wholesome alternative to the current contemporary woke children’s literature.’ ‘We learned our lesson, and won’t risk building our business relying on the whims of Big Tech again,’ she added. ‘We are very happy with our initial decision to create a subscription model that will allow us to create a more meaningful one-on-one connection with families that can’t be disrupted by a censor.’”
INNER CITY PASTOR SAYS FATHERLESSNESS A NUMBER ONE CONCERN (Friday Church News Notes, January 7, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Rooftop Revelations,” Fox News, Dec. 30, 2021: “One of the toughest challenges Pastor Corey Brooks deals with on the South Side of Chicago is fatherlessness. For better or worse, the pastor has become a father figure to many youths in the neighborhood where approximately 80% of the homes do not have a father. He teaches them how to look someone in the eye and give a firm handshake. He makes them sweep the floors and wash the windows before he hands them a dollar, to teach them the value of earning. He meets with wayward kids and often spends hours counseling them back onto the straight path. ... There are those Americans who look at the pastor and the kids surrounding him and dismiss it as a ‘black’ problem. They lecture him that the culture needs to change and that it begins in the home. The pastor never disagrees, for he bears direct witness to these social ills. But what he disagrees with is that this is just a ‘black’ problem. Fatherlessness affects all Americans and continues to worsen with each passing year. According to the Census Bureau, approximately 89% of the ‘post-war generation’ grew up with a mother and father who were married to each other. That number has fallen today to approximately 68%. The Department of Education reports that 39% of all American students enrolled in grades one through 12 live in homes absent their biological fathers. ... While the number of fatherless children remains unacceptably high among blacks nationwide at approximately 56%, according to the Census Bureau, the numbers have risen significantly for other races. Approximately 31% of Hispanic children and approximately 21% of white children do not live with their biological fathers. ... According to data the Department of Justice released in 1998, children from fatherless homes accounted for 63% of youth suicides, 90% of all homeless and runaway youths, 85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders, 71% of all high school dropouts, 70% of juveniles in state-operated institutions, 75% of adolescent patients in substance abuse centers and 75% of rapists motivated by displaced anger. These statistics are likely worse today.” CONCLUDING NOTE: The fatherless problem is a product of many things, including (1) the spiritual powerlessness of churches, (2) the attraction and negative power of the hip-hop culture, (3) the poor moral example of a great many black leaders, secular and ecclesiastical, and (4) the character-destroying influence of the welfare state.
TWO AMERICAS, TWO WORLD-VIEWS (Friday Church News Notes, January 7, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - There are two Americas today. There is, for one, the conservative, traditional America, the America of the Founding Fathers, the America deeply influenced by the Bible. American conservatives, regardless of whether or not they are born again or even professing Christians, have a worldview that is to various degrees shaped by the Bible, which is the worldview of the nation’s founding: the existence of a Creator God, respect for the Bible and “Christianity,” private ownership of property (“thou shalt not steal ... though shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house ... nor anything that is thy neighbour’s”), the sanctity of life (“thou shalt not kill”), the right to defense of life and property (Exodus 22:2-3), respect for authority and the rule of law and order (Romans 13:1-7), equality of justice (Deuteronomy 1:17), the sanctity of the “nuclear family” (Matthew 19:4-6), nationalism as opposed to globalism (protection of national borders, strong national defense), freedom of religion, freedom for churches to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). This is the America of conservative evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity, conservative politics, conservative media, home schoolers, Blue Lives Matter. It is the America of the majority of the Republican Party. Then there is the leftist America influenced by godless and anti-Christian philosophies such as Humanism, social Darwinism, economic and cultural Marxism, critical theories, radical feminism, global socialism, intersectionality, queer rights, liberation theology, the Green movement, Islam. This is the America that is propagandized through the public education system, from elementary school to the university, and through many training programs in the federal government. It is the America of the “mainstream media” such as CNN and the New York Times and the bulk of the entertainment industry. It is supported by big technology (Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple) and by many of the nation’s largest corporations. It is the America of Black Lives Matter and Antifa and “systemic racism” and defund the police and wokeness and the cancel culture and deplatforming. It is the America of the “progressive” element of the Democratic Party, which is rapidly taking over the party. The two Americas are currently fairly equal in size and influence, which is evident in the makeup of the U.S. Congress and the razor thin margins of the presidential elections. Humanly speaking, the tide is on the side of leftist America because of its domination of the public school system and higher education, among other things. At the same time, those vast numbers of Americans who love the traditional America have many resources, not the least of which is prayer. America is still the world’s greatest bastion of biblical Christianity. If even a minority of biblical Christians would wake up from the slumber of a party lifestyle and live the pilgrim lifestyle that God’s Word commands and engage in spiritual warfare, there is no telling what God would do even in these dark times.
NO EXCUSES, SIR (Friday Church News Notes, January 7, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - My dad was in the U.S. Army in WWII and fought in fierce battles on the Pacific Islands against Japan. The US military was at its height. He told me the army did not allow men to make excuses for their failures. The business was too serious. They were to say, “No excuse, sir,” take their punishment, if any, and try harder. Of course, there are legitimate excuses in this life, but the policy was intended to emphasize hard work, dependability, responsibility. Jacob demonstrated this in his service to his father-in-law Laban. “That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night” (Genesis 31:39). Faithfulness and responsibility are characteristics of godliness. “He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not” (Psalm 15:4). “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2).
BAMBOO’S MESSAGE TO THE WORLD (Friday Church News Notes, January 7, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, December 17, 2021: “Many plants reproduce simply by cloning. The most obvious example of cloning that comes to mind is the dandelion. Unless you get all of the main dandelion root out of the ground, each piece of the root can sprout another dandelion, identical to the parent. The walking fern reproduces by cloning too. It moves across the countryside, albeit slowly, by producing new plants. A new plant is generated wherever the tips of its leaves touch the ground. Each new plant is identical to the parent. The bamboo reproduces through underground stems. The different species of bamboo live anywhere from 20 to 120 years. During their life spans, they produce only by cloning. Then they flower – once. When it’s time for a particular species to flower, every member of that species, no matter where in the world it grows, flowers gloriously. Each flower can have as many as 100 pollen-producing stamens. Once the seeds are ripe and scattered, every member of that species in the world dies. At this point, the entire species exists only in the scattered seeds. This is brilliant testimony to a recent creation of all bamboos at the same time. If evolution produced them and the forces of change worked on them for millions of years, one would think that all members of the same species would no longer be in perfect synchronization. Bamboo makes a strong testimony for the recent creation reported in Genesis! Author: Paul A. Bartz. Ref: Batten, Mary, ‘Sex & plants,’ Science Digest, Oct. 1983, p. 61.”
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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