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Way of Life Literature

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Way of Life Literature

Publisher of Bible Study Materials

Way of Life Bible College
Friday Church News Notes
Volume 23, Issue 38 - September 23, 2022
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.
 
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7TH CONGRESS OF WORLD RELIGIOUS LEADERS (Friday Church News Notes, September 23, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The 7th Congress of Leaders of World Religions met in Kazakhstan on September 14-15 and issued a call for world unity and peace. Participants included Pope Francis, Muslim Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Antonij, Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III, and the Chief Rabbis of the Ashkenazi and the Sephardic (Vatican News, Sep. 12, 2022). The 108 members of the congress adopted the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace. The congress issued an “appeal to all people of faith and goodwill to unity in this difficult time and to contribute to ensuring security and harmony in our common home--planet Earth” (Emirates News, Sep. 18, 2022). The first Congress of Leaders of World Religions was held in 2003 at Astana, Kazakhstan. The second congress, in 2006, met in a new building designed for the event, the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation. These congresses are the latest ecumenical gatherings fostering global religious unity. This end-time movement began with the World’s Parliament of Religions in New York City in 1893. Since then, there have been seven such parliaments, the latest in 2021. In 2002, Pope John Paul II led 200 religious leaders in the Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi, Italy. There were representatives of Orthodox, Protestant, Baptist, Mennonite, Mormon, Judaism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Bahai, Confucianism, Shintoism, Hinduism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, and others. The World Council of Churches also foreviews a worldwide apostate “church.” It is composed of more than 300 “Christian” denominations representing some 500 million people in more than 100 nations, but the unity envisioned by the WCC encompasses all religions. At recent general assemblies of the World Council, the main speakers included Hindus, Buddhists, Jewish rabbis, Muslims, Sikhs, Native American Indians, and Australian aborigines. Thus, there is already a harlot “church” sitting upon many waters. It is the forerunner to the Mystery Babylon described in Revelation 17 that is united with the Beast, who is the Antichrist.

RICK WARREN PREACHES FINAL SERMON AT SADDLEBACK (Friday Church News Notes, September 23, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Rick Warren, founder of the Southern Baptist-aligned Saddleback Church in southern California, preached his final sermon as pastor on Aug. 28, 2022. The new pastor is Andy Wood. Warren’s influence is vast, reaching into every sphere of Christianity, from Catholicism to Mormonism, from liberal Protestantism to evangelicalism and Baptists. Bruce Ryskamp, president of Zondervan, said, “The Purpose Driven Life is more than a bestseller; it’s become a movement.” Rick Warren has been called “America’s pastor,” and it is for good reason. He is so shallow in his teaching, so positive in his approach, so slighting of repentance, so neglecting of unpopular doctrines such as judgment and hell, so tolerant of heresies, so enthusiastic of rock music, so soft-spoken on that nasty subject of worldliness, that apostate America can’t help but love him. Warren’s gospel is incredibly superficial: “If you are not sure you have done this, all you need to do is receive and believe. ... Wherever you are reading this, I invite you to bow your head and quietly whisper the prayer that will change your eternity. ‘Jesus, I believe in you and I receive you.’ Go ahead. If you sincerely meant that prayer, congratulations! Welcome to the family of God!” (The Purpose Driven Life, pp. 58, 59). There is nothing in Warren’s gospel about God’s holiness and justice, no dealing with sin, nothing about Christ’s blood, no repentance. Just “believe on Jesus.” What Jesus? The apostle Paul warned about false christs, but Rick Warren doesn’t. Warren has done as much as any man alive to build the apostate “one world church.” He has done this by promoting Contemporary Christian Music, which is a bridge to apostasy. He has done this by his “judge not” philosophy, by his radical ecumenical activities, by his teaching that God is unconcerned about doctrine, by his constant promotion of heretics, particularly Roman Catholic authors, and by his promotion of a multiplicity of corrupt Bible versions, which has destroyed the authority of the Bible as “thus saith the Lord.” For documentation of these things, see Purpose Driven or Scripture Driven?, available as a free eBook from https://www.wayoflife.org/free_ebooks/free_ebooks_by_name.php.

FEDERAL COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF FIRST AMENDMENT (Friday Church News Notes, September 23, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Another Federal Judge Strikes a Blow,” PJMedia, Sep. 7, 2022: “U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York Judge Mae A. D’Agostino was appointed to the federal bench in 2011 by President Barack Obama. But that biographical detail did not prevent D’Agostino from delivering a decision protecting countless orphaned children. In the case of New Hope Family Services, Inc. (NHFS) v. Sheila Poole, the Acting Commissioner of the Office of Children and Family Services of New York, D’Agostino held that state officials cannot force NHFS to agree to adoptions of children in its care to couples who are either of the same sex or are unmarried. ... Roger Brooks, the Senior Counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), who represents NHFS, explained the significance of D’Agostino’s decision: ‘The court’s decision is great news for children waiting to be adopted and for the parents partnering with New Hope Family Services to provide loving, stable homes. New Hope is a private religious ministry that doesn’t take a dime from the government. Shutting down an adoption provider for its religious beliefs--needlessly and unconstitutionally reducing the number of agencies willing to help--benefits no one, certainly not children.’”

CHRISTIAN TAROT (Friday Church News Notes, September 23, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Now there is a book, The Contemplative Tarot, that promotes the occult tarot cards as a Christian contemplative method. Author Brittany Muller grew up Roman Catholic, rejected “Christianity,” discovered tarot, then returned to Catholicism and brought her tarot cards with her as a new way to seek God. “Muller found in tarot the ritual and reflection she missed in religion. Eventually, she found her way back to Christianity--and Christianity and the cards turned out to be ... a ‘natural pair’” (“Brittany Muller,” Religion News Service, Sept. 13, 2022). Muller says, “There’s been sort of a revival of tarot just in general in the last five or 10 years, and it’s been really interesting to see the different ways people use tarot now. ... I liken it to Visio Divina, a contemplative prayer practice that translates to ‘divine seeing.’ It involves praying with images--to look at an image, to insert yourself into the image, to spend time with an image in contemplation and to see if God is speaking to you in some way through the image. This fits well into the Catholic contemplative prayer movement. Of course, Catholicism has always been able to Christianize paganism, but today, this process is happening in nearly every aspect of Christianity. It is the fulfillment of Bible prophecy: “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” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

YOUNG GIRLS IN PAKISTAN BEING KIDNAPPED, FORCEFULLY MARRIED, AND CONVERTED TO ISLAM (Friday Church News Notes, September 23, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Christian Girl, 13, Forcibly Married, Converted,” Morning Star News, Oct. 26, 2020: “Police in Karachi, Pakistan are ignoring the kidnapping and forcible conversion to Islam of a 13-year-old Christian girl by a 45-year-old Muslim whose two brothers are police officials, sources said. Ali Azhar, a neighbor of the victim’s Catholic family, abducted Arzoo Raja on Oct. 13, and her family went to police that same day, said her father, Raja Lal. ‘When we failed to find Arzoo, we registered a kidnapping case with the local police station,’ Lal said. ‘On Oct. 15 we were summoned to the station, where we were shown documents which claimed that Arzoo was 18 and had willingly converted to Islam after marrying Ali Azhar.’ Police have shown no interest in arresting the accused in spite of National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) records showing Arzoo’s age as 13, as she was born on July 31, 2007, he said. ... ‘Two brothers of the accused are police officials, and they are using their influence to protect him,’ Ghazala Shafique, a Christian rights activist, told Morning Star News. ... Agha, a prominent Muslim lawyer, has taken up the case pro bono, a great relief to the grief-stricken parents who have lost their jobs in the search for justice. ... Shafique said it was the second case of forced conversion of underage Christian girls in Karachi in a year. In October 2019, 14-year-old Huma Younas was kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam, she said. ‘Forced conversion is often disguised as voluntary conversion and both the provincial and federal governments need to act against this persecution,’ she said.”

PEPPERED MOTHS AGAIN AND AGAIN (Friday Church News Notes, September 23, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, July 26, 2022: “Every so often, we need to return to the topic of peppered moths, which we have featured a number of times before. Previous Creation Moments have explained why Peppered Moths are not an example of evolution, and how, in the 1980s, it was found that the famous photos showing light and dark moths on light and dark tree trunks had, in fact, been staged. The moths do not normally settle on the trunks, so the photos were taken by gluing dead moths on to the trees. What we want to note at the moment is that teachers continue to perpetuate the peppered moth myth. One evolutionist has stated that this is because the concept of what happened to these moths is easy to understand, and more recent studies have suggested that the population of dark moths is indeed higher in urban areas than that of light moths. As creationists have often pointed out, this is not really the point, because, even if the accounts were correct, this is not an example of Darwinian evolution, as no new genetic information has been made. It is, however, an example of bad experimental technique, led by a desire to prove a particular outcome, rather than genuine investigation. It is disturbing, therefore, to look at that portion of the BBC’s website, where they publish notes for high school students. An up to date science review page for students, with the heading ‘Evidence for Evolution,’ once again publishes the faked moth photos. For us, this constant re-publication of error aptly illustrates the paucity of evolutionary science. Author: Paul F. Taylor. Ref: BBC Bitesize Science notes, accessed 4/25/2017.”

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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