Friday Church News Notes
Volume 23, Issue 47 - November 25, 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.
SCHOOL CHOICE GROWING IN U.S. (Friday Church News Notes, November 25, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - School choice is the only program that can have a significant impact in reducing the power of the mainstream public school system, and school choice is growing. The following is excerpted from Scott Jensen, American Federation for Children, June 28, 2022: “At the American Federation for Children, the nation’s voice for educational choice, we only count programs that 1) give parents enough assistance to actually make a different choice; and 2) provide parents with a variety of private school options including religious schools. These states are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin. In addition, you have the District of Columbia and Douglas County, Colorado. ... Illinois’ $500 tax credit is too small to affect a parent’s decisions. And, Minnesota’s $1,000 tax credit does not cover tuition--just other educational expenses. The Vermont and Maine programs do not allow students to attend a religious school, and therefore, do not truly empower parents with full educational options.”
CONCLUDING NOTE: Many of these states limit their school choice programs to select students, such as special needs and military, but there is an ever-increasing push to expand them. In October, West Virginia’s Supreme Court reversed a circuit court injunction on the Hope Scholarship Program which provides public funds to students “leaving the public school system for either charter, private, religious, or home-schooling” (Fox News, Oct. 7, 2022). Currently eight states have an Education Savings Account (ESA) program. These are Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Education Savings Accounts “allow parents to withdraw their children from public district or charter schools and receive a deposit of public funds into government-authorized savings accounts with restricted, but multiple, uses. Those funds—which families generally access via an online platform—can cover private school tuition and fees, online learning programs, private tutoring, community college costs, higher education expenses and other approved customized learning services and materials” (“ESAs,” EdChoice.org).
MENTAL HEALTH CARE BELGIUM STYLE: ANTIDEPRESSANTS AND EUTHANASIA (Friday Church News Notes, November 25, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “A Belgian Euthanasia Case,” Breakpoint, Nov. 17, 2022: “Back in May, a Belgian woman named Shanti De Corte was killed by euthanasia. Six years ago, when only a teenager, De Corte had survived the horrific terrorist attack on Brussels. Thirty-two people were killed in the attack, which was perpetrated by Islamic State terrorists. Many students were among the victims, classmates of De Corte. Though she narrowly escaped being killed, De Corte struggled to cope with the trauma of the event. She was prescribed heavy medication for depression which only got worse over time. ‘I get several drugs at breakfast and up to 11 antidepressants a day,’ she wrote. ‘With all the drugs I take, I feel like a ghost who doesn’t feel anything anymore. Perhaps there were solutions other than the drugs.’ In April of 2022, De Corte submitted a request to be euthanized due to her ‘medically futile’ condition of mental suffering. Two psychologists approved the request, and a month later, at age 23, she was given a cocktail of lethal drugs. Shanti De Corte is the 33rd victim of her nation’s deadliest terror attack. Only, she was not killed by terrorists, but by her own government. ... Though advocates often ridicule the opposition as only appealing to ‘slippery slope’ arguments, the slope of doctor-assisted death isn’t just slippery, it’s steep, greased, and leads to the moral abyss. Executing the victim instead of the attackers was not only legal, but logical in this world turned upside down.” (For more on antidepressants, see “No Happy Pill: A Study of Antidepressant Drugs,” https://www.wayoflife.org/reports/no_happy_pill_antidepressant_drugs.php.)
RETIRED GREEK FOOTBALLER SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR ANTI-LGBT COMMENTS (Friday Church News Notes, November 25, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “God created Adam and Eve,” Premier Christian News, Nov. 14, 2022: “A Greek football legend has been sentenced to time in prison after he criticised a gender identity law on social media. Retired midfielder Vasilis Tsiartas has been sentenced by an Athens court to ten months in prison and a 5,000 fine after he was charged with hate speech following comments he made in 2017. Tsiartas wrote on his Facebook page that he hoped ‘the first sex changes are carried out on the children of those who ratified this abomination,’ according to news outlet The Greek Times. ‘Legitimise paedophiles, too, to complete the crimes,’ he continued. Tsiartas later added, ‘God created Adam and Eve.’ The law being criticised by Tsiartas removed the medical requirement from the process of changing legal gender, and dropped the minimum age to 15. Following Tsiartas’ comments, prominent Greek trans activist Marina Galanos filed a lawsuit against him. The 49-year-old has become the first person to be convicted after Greece introduced an anti-racist law for public incitement of violence or hatred on the basis of gender identity. The Transgender Support Association (SYD) described Tsiartas’ conviction as ‘particularly important for the transgender community.’ Reacting to the news on Twitter, Tsiartas said he will be appealing the decision.”
NO LOST TRIBES (Friday Church News Notes, November 25, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Beginning with the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities in the 8th and 6th centuries BC, the tribes of Israel were scattered, but they were never lost. James speaks of them in his day. “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting” (Jas. 1:1). In the Tribulation, 144,000 evangelists will be sealed out of the 12 tribes of Israel (Revelation 7:4-8). “The mention of the twelve tribes of Israel is likewise a refutation of the idea that the tribes of Israel are lost, as well as of the theory that the lost tribes are perpetuated in the English-speaking people of the world [British Israelism]. Though genealogies have been lost, a modern Jew can be assured that he belongs to the seed of Abraham; and God knows into which tribe he should be classified” (John Walvoord).
NEW STUDY SUGGESTS BAN ON SINGING IN CHURCHES AND MASK REQUIREMENT DURING COVID UNNECESSARY (Friday Church News Notes, November 25, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “New Study,” Premier Christian News, Nov. 17, 2022: “A new study has suggested that a ban on indoor singing within church congregations and in choirs during the Covid 19 pandemic was based on misleading evidence. The reason for the ban which applied in most countries, was based on a choir rehearsal that took place in March 2020 with the Skagit Valley Chorale in Mount Vernon, in a Washington Presbyterian Church, in which 52 of the 61 attendees became infected with coronavirus, A later investigation however by Skagit County Public Health officials shed new information that a single chorister, who turned up to the 2020 rehearsal with symptoms and later tested positive for the virus was more likely to have come from an infected community and was a single source of the virus. A review of this new information by Brunel University, Nottingham Trent University and Brighton and Sussex Medical School concluded that many of the choristers’ symptoms started too early to be caused by the rehearsal. Brunel University London’s Dr Colin Axon spoke to Premier and said he believes the global bans were unnecessary. ‘I can see why there was caution, but I think it was overcautious, and I don’t think it was necessary. The value of people getting together and singing was completely forgotten about. Masks are also not effective in church settings, there is no more scientific evidence that they work, these things together created that fear in people, which was unfounded, unjustified. People do not need to be fearful because the effect on people’s health of socialising with other people, whether it’s in a church setting or choir or anything else, it’s the social interaction that is important that people need, and that has a significant effect upon someone’s health.’”
KILLFIES (Friday Church News Notes, November 25, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “A study by the iO Foundation found 379 people were killed while taking selfies around the world between January 2008 and July 2021” (Petapixel, Nov. 15, 2022). At least nine deaths have been reported since then, but many selfie deaths are not reported as such. On Nov. 10, 2022, Igor de Oliveira Rodrigues Dias died after falling 40 feet from a rock in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He climbed the rock to take a selfie to celebrate a new job. Selfies are dumb even when they aren’t dangerous.
KING HEZEKIAH INSCRIPTION (Friday Church News Notes, November 25, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Bible’s Reliability Further Affirmed,” Israel Today, Nov. 8, 2022: “A broken portion of an engraving on a limestone tablet the size of your palm is adding yet further confirmation to the biblical account and giving a new twist on how Israel’s kings saw themselves. The partial inscription engraved in ancient Hebrew letters was originally reported in 2008, but was not deciphered until recently. The letters on the inscription are only fragments of words, with the rest of the letters having been broken off. When found, the artifact was near an ancient man-made pool together with pottery shards dating to the 8th century BC. However, at the time the Israel Antiquities Authority did not make a conclusive connection between the inscription, King Hezekiah and the pool. Now two mainstream Israel archaeological experts, Gershon Galil and Eli Shukron, have concluded that the full inscription was: ‘Hezekiah made the pool in Jerusalem.’ The parallel passage is found in 2 Kings 20:20, which reads: ‘As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city…’ (NKJ). Not so many years ago, skeptical archaeological minimalists were claiming only minor evidence had been found for the reliability of the Bible. However, year by year those claims are increasingly being shown to have been premature and mistaken.”
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).
MENTAL HEALTH CARE BELGIUM STYLE: ANTIDEPRESSANTS AND EUTHANASIA (Friday Church News Notes, November 25, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “A Belgian Euthanasia Case,” Breakpoint, Nov. 17, 2022: “Back in May, a Belgian woman named Shanti De Corte was killed by euthanasia. Six years ago, when only a teenager, De Corte had survived the horrific terrorist attack on Brussels. Thirty-two people were killed in the attack, which was perpetrated by Islamic State terrorists. Many students were among the victims, classmates of De Corte. Though she narrowly escaped being killed, De Corte struggled to cope with the trauma of the event. She was prescribed heavy medication for depression which only got worse over time. ‘I get several drugs at breakfast and up to 11 antidepressants a day,’ she wrote. ‘With all the drugs I take, I feel like a ghost who doesn’t feel anything anymore. Perhaps there were solutions other than the drugs.’ In April of 2022, De Corte submitted a request to be euthanized due to her ‘medically futile’ condition of mental suffering. Two psychologists approved the request, and a month later, at age 23, she was given a cocktail of lethal drugs. Shanti De Corte is the 33rd victim of her nation’s deadliest terror attack. Only, she was not killed by terrorists, but by her own government. ... Though advocates often ridicule the opposition as only appealing to ‘slippery slope’ arguments, the slope of doctor-assisted death isn’t just slippery, it’s steep, greased, and leads to the moral abyss. Executing the victim instead of the attackers was not only legal, but logical in this world turned upside down.” (For more on antidepressants, see “No Happy Pill: A Study of Antidepressant Drugs,” https://www.wayoflife.org/reports/no_happy_pill_antidepressant_drugs.php.)
RETIRED GREEK FOOTBALLER SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR ANTI-LGBT COMMENTS (Friday Church News Notes, November 25, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “God created Adam and Eve,” Premier Christian News, Nov. 14, 2022: “A Greek football legend has been sentenced to time in prison after he criticised a gender identity law on social media. Retired midfielder Vasilis Tsiartas has been sentenced by an Athens court to ten months in prison and a 5,000 fine after he was charged with hate speech following comments he made in 2017. Tsiartas wrote on his Facebook page that he hoped ‘the first sex changes are carried out on the children of those who ratified this abomination,’ according to news outlet The Greek Times. ‘Legitimise paedophiles, too, to complete the crimes,’ he continued. Tsiartas later added, ‘God created Adam and Eve.’ The law being criticised by Tsiartas removed the medical requirement from the process of changing legal gender, and dropped the minimum age to 15. Following Tsiartas’ comments, prominent Greek trans activist Marina Galanos filed a lawsuit against him. The 49-year-old has become the first person to be convicted after Greece introduced an anti-racist law for public incitement of violence or hatred on the basis of gender identity. The Transgender Support Association (SYD) described Tsiartas’ conviction as ‘particularly important for the transgender community.’ Reacting to the news on Twitter, Tsiartas said he will be appealing the decision.”
NO LOST TRIBES (Friday Church News Notes, November 25, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Beginning with the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities in the 8th and 6th centuries BC, the tribes of Israel were scattered, but they were never lost. James speaks of them in his day. “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting” (Jas. 1:1). In the Tribulation, 144,000 evangelists will be sealed out of the 12 tribes of Israel (Revelation 7:4-8). “The mention of the twelve tribes of Israel is likewise a refutation of the idea that the tribes of Israel are lost, as well as of the theory that the lost tribes are perpetuated in the English-speaking people of the world [British Israelism]. Though genealogies have been lost, a modern Jew can be assured that he belongs to the seed of Abraham; and God knows into which tribe he should be classified” (John Walvoord).
NEW STUDY SUGGESTS BAN ON SINGING IN CHURCHES AND MASK REQUIREMENT DURING COVID UNNECESSARY (Friday Church News Notes, November 25, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “New Study,” Premier Christian News, Nov. 17, 2022: “A new study has suggested that a ban on indoor singing within church congregations and in choirs during the Covid 19 pandemic was based on misleading evidence. The reason for the ban which applied in most countries, was based on a choir rehearsal that took place in March 2020 with the Skagit Valley Chorale in Mount Vernon, in a Washington Presbyterian Church, in which 52 of the 61 attendees became infected with coronavirus, A later investigation however by Skagit County Public Health officials shed new information that a single chorister, who turned up to the 2020 rehearsal with symptoms and later tested positive for the virus was more likely to have come from an infected community and was a single source of the virus. A review of this new information by Brunel University, Nottingham Trent University and Brighton and Sussex Medical School concluded that many of the choristers’ symptoms started too early to be caused by the rehearsal. Brunel University London’s Dr Colin Axon spoke to Premier and said he believes the global bans were unnecessary. ‘I can see why there was caution, but I think it was overcautious, and I don’t think it was necessary. The value of people getting together and singing was completely forgotten about. Masks are also not effective in church settings, there is no more scientific evidence that they work, these things together created that fear in people, which was unfounded, unjustified. People do not need to be fearful because the effect on people’s health of socialising with other people, whether it’s in a church setting or choir or anything else, it’s the social interaction that is important that people need, and that has a significant effect upon someone’s health.’”
KILLFIES (Friday Church News Notes, November 25, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “A study by the iO Foundation found 379 people were killed while taking selfies around the world between January 2008 and July 2021” (Petapixel, Nov. 15, 2022). At least nine deaths have been reported since then, but many selfie deaths are not reported as such. On Nov. 10, 2022, Igor de Oliveira Rodrigues Dias died after falling 40 feet from a rock in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He climbed the rock to take a selfie to celebrate a new job. Selfies are dumb even when they aren’t dangerous.
KING HEZEKIAH INSCRIPTION (Friday Church News Notes, November 25, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Bible’s Reliability Further Affirmed,” Israel Today, Nov. 8, 2022: “A broken portion of an engraving on a limestone tablet the size of your palm is adding yet further confirmation to the biblical account and giving a new twist on how Israel’s kings saw themselves. The partial inscription engraved in ancient Hebrew letters was originally reported in 2008, but was not deciphered until recently. The letters on the inscription are only fragments of words, with the rest of the letters having been broken off. When found, the artifact was near an ancient man-made pool together with pottery shards dating to the 8th century BC. However, at the time the Israel Antiquities Authority did not make a conclusive connection between the inscription, King Hezekiah and the pool. Now two mainstream Israel archaeological experts, Gershon Galil and Eli Shukron, have concluded that the full inscription was: ‘Hezekiah made the pool in Jerusalem.’ The parallel passage is found in 2 Kings 20:20, which reads: ‘As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city…’ (NKJ). Not so many years ago, skeptical archaeological minimalists were claiming only minor evidence had been found for the reliability of the Bible. However, year by year those claims are increasingly being shown to have been premature and mistaken.”
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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