Friday Church News Notes
Volume 24, Issue 12 - March 24, 2023
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.
Swedish flag with Islamic logo
SWEDEN: FROM DEAD CHRISTIANITY TO ATHEISM TO ISLAM (Friday Church News Notes, March 24, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Islam continues to take control of Great Britain and many parts of Europe. The following is excerpted from “Replacement theory is alive in the Islamic takeover of Europe,” Israel National News, Mar. 15, 2023: “Sweden had 8 percent Muslims in 2016. In 2050 it will have 11 percent Muslims if immigration stops completely, but up to 21 percent if it remains ‘normal,’ and 31 percent if it continues at the same pace of the last years. ... Not bad for the country that boasted of being ‘the least religious in the West.’ There was the transition of an entire people from Christianity to atheism. A Gallup poll said that only in China are there more atheists than in Sweden. David Thurfjell in a book called it Det Gudlösa Folket. The people without God. Speaking with Dagen, theologian Alan Hirsch said: ‘Christianity is decaying throughout the Western world and here it can die out in a generation.’ In a conversation this week with the Tribune Juive, the Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, author of the ... novel 2084, says: ‘Islam is today the second religion in Europe, but undoubtedly the first in terms of number of practitioners. I see Islam establishing itself in the West and it has imprinted powerful evolutions which little by little change the internal structure of the West. Laxity and the art of retreat are in place and have formed the minds of people to the point that we no longer even know whether a mortar shell in broad daylight in Paris is incivility, barbarism or jihadism. Europe is falling apart and is on a slope, absorbing blow by blow without being able to respond. But Europe would be too stupid not to understand that the weak have no future in the world to come and that globalization is not peace and prosperity for all as it naively believed, but a battleground between the strong.”
IN ENGLAND, POLICE AGAIN ARREST WOMAN FOR SILENT PRAYER - WHAT INSANITY! (Friday Church News Notes, March 24, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “UK Pro-Life Arrested Again,” CBN News, Mar. 7, 2023: “The nonprofit law firm Alliance Defending Freedom UK (ADF UK) reports their client, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, has been arrested for the second time for the ‘offense’ of silently praying within an abortion facility censorship zone or ‘buffer zone.’ Her arrest comes just weeks after being acquitted by a UK court for the same violation. Vaughan-Spruce was arrested again on Monday outside the BPAS Robert Clinic in Birmingham. Her exchange with two police officers was captured in a video clip that was released on social media by ADF UK. In the 46-second video ... several police officers approach her. One officer asks her, ‘Can I please ask you to step away from here and step outside the exclusion zone?’ Vaughan-Spruce replied, ‘But I’m not protesting. I’m not engaging in any of the activities prohibited.’ ‘But you said you were engaging in prayer which is the offense,’ the officer responded. ‘Silent prayer,’ Vaughan-Spruce counters. ‘No, but you were still engaging in prayer. It is an offense,’ the officer explained. ... Although two police officers are seen in the video clip, the ADF UK said six police officers were involved in Vaughan-Spruce’s arrest on Monday.”
CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES ERASED 16 YEARS OF EMISSIONS CUTS (Friday Church News Notes, March 24, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “California Wildfires,” Breitbart, Mar. 1, 2023: “The raging California wildfires of 2020 created enough carbon emissions to offset 16 years of reductions through the state’s green policies--twice over--according to a UCLA study published by Environmental Pollution. As Breitbart News reported at the time, the wildfire season in 2020 was so intense that smoke from the fires reached cities on the East Coast of the United States. The CalFIRE state agency describes the fires as follows: ‘The 2020 California wildfire season was characterized by a record-setting year of wildfires that burned across the state of California as measured during the modern era of wildfire management and record keeping. As of the end of the year, nearly 10,000 fires had burned over 4.2 million acres, more than 4% of the state’s roughly 100 million acres of land, making 2020 the largest wildfire season recorded in California’s modern history. California’s August Complex fire has been described as the first gigafire as the area burned exceeded 1 million acres.’ The study in Environmental Pollution, by two UCLA professors and one University of Chicago author, reports: ‘Viewed from the perspective of what this means for wildfire emission reductions from all other sectors combined, if we compare to reductions from 2003 to 2019 from 483 to 418 mmt CO2e, the likely amount of increase from the fires is close to double all the emission reductions achieved in the state from 2003 to 2019.’ ... In his book, Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters, Steven Koonin considered the scientific data and concluded that ‘whatever influence a changing climate might have had on wildfires globally in recent decades, human factors unrelated to climate were dominant.’”
BREAKDOWN OF THE FAMILY IN AMERICA (Friday Church News Notes, March 24, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from Paul Johnson, A History of the American People: “To many analysts of American society ... the decisive single development in America during the second half of the 20th century [was] the decline of the family and of family life, and the growth in illegitimacy. The enormous number of children born outside the family structure altogether, or raised in one-parent families, appeared to be statistically linked to most of the modern evils of American life: poor educational performance and illiteracy or semi-literacy, children out on the streets from an early age, juvenile delinquency, unemployment, adult crime, and, above all, poverty. ... Up to 1920, the proportion of children born to single women in the United States was less than 3 percent, roughly where it had been throughout the history of the country. The trend-line shifted upwards, though not dramatically, in the 1950s. A steep, sustained rise gathered pace in the mid-1960s and continued into the early 1990s, to reach 30 percent in 1991. In 1960 there were just 73,000 never-married mothers between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four. By 1980 there were 1 million. By 1990 there were 2.9 million. ... In 1960, 24 percent of black children were illegitimate, compared with 2 percent of white children. By 1991, the figures of illegitimate births were 68 percent of all births for blacks, 39 percent for Latinos, and 18 percent for non-Latino whites. At some point between 1960 and 1990, marriage, and having children within marriage, ceased to be the norm among blacks, while remaining the norm among whites (though a deteriorating one). By the end of 1994 it was 33 percent for the nation as a whole, 25 percent for whites, and 70 percent for blacks. In parts of Washington, capital of the richest nation in the world, it was as high as 90 percent.”
STREET PREACHER’S CONVICTION FOR “MIS-GENDERING” OVERTURNED (Friday Church News Notes, March 24, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Street preacher,” Premier Christian News, Mar. 10, 2023: “A Christian street preacher who was arrested for ‘misgendering’ a member of the public has had his conviction overturned. Dave McConnell, 42, who’s from Wakefield, appealed his conviction at Leeds Crown Court after he was arrested under section 4A Public Order Act 1986 for ‘insulting’ a member of the public in Leeds City Centre in June 2021. He was arrested after he ‘misgendered’ a transgender person who identified as a woman during a one-on-one conversation with a police officer. ... Mr McConnell was subsequently convicted and made to pay costs of £620. He was also forced to do 80 hours of community service despite there being no legal obligation to use a trans person’s preferred pronouns in the UK. Following his conviction, the Probation Service reported Mr McConnell to the Joint Counter-Terrorism Team. It is believed Mr McConnell is the first street preacher to be convicted for such an offence and reported as a potential ‘terrorist.’ Mr McConnell’s lawyer argued that the police response was unlawful, disproportionate and interfered with his Article 9 and 10 rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Mr McConnell, who was supported by the Christian Legal Centre was asked in court whether he knew that ‘misgendering’ a trans person could be insulting, to which he replied: ‘I wasn’t misgendering, I was telling the truth.’ ... Following the ruling, Mr McConnell said: ‘I am delighted and relieved that the Judge has overturned the conviction and that I can clear my name. I am, however, appalled at how I have been treated by the authorities in this matter. No other street preacher, professional or member of the public must go through what I have.’”
FIGHTING DEADLY BACTERIUM WITH VIRUSES (Friday Church News Notes, March 24, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Mar. 13, 2023: “Often the most productive science is done when scientists, as one founder of modern science put it, “Think God’s thoughts after Him.” For example, while antibiotics have saved millions of lives, they have proven to be only a temporary solution. In addition, there are some bacterial infections that move too fast for antibiotics to be effective. Vibrio vulnificus is one such bacterium. It is typically found in oysters. The bacterium has little effect on healthy people, but those whom it infects are most likely to be dead within 24 hours. How do we combat such a fast-working deadly bacterium by thinking God’s thoughts after Him? By finding something that is even faster at infecting the bacterium and killing it. That’s exactly what medical researchers have done. They have found a virus that infects the bacteria, rapidly reproducing inside the bacterium until it causes the bacterium to burst. Once the bacteria are all dead, the virus can no longer reproduce. Researchers infected eight mice with Vibrio vulnificus. If they had not at the same time infected the mice with the virus, all would have been dead within 18 hours. As a result, five of the mice never became ill. This approach is also being successfully used to treat bacteria that causes skin infections. The successes that come from thinking God’s thoughts after Him demonstrate that God is the Author of science and all that it studies. Ref: Science News, 6/3/00, p. 358, ‘Viruses that slay bacteria draw new interest.’”
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).
IN ENGLAND, POLICE AGAIN ARREST WOMAN FOR SILENT PRAYER - WHAT INSANITY! (Friday Church News Notes, March 24, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “UK Pro-Life Arrested Again,” CBN News, Mar. 7, 2023: “The nonprofit law firm Alliance Defending Freedom UK (ADF UK) reports their client, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, has been arrested for the second time for the ‘offense’ of silently praying within an abortion facility censorship zone or ‘buffer zone.’ Her arrest comes just weeks after being acquitted by a UK court for the same violation. Vaughan-Spruce was arrested again on Monday outside the BPAS Robert Clinic in Birmingham. Her exchange with two police officers was captured in a video clip that was released on social media by ADF UK. In the 46-second video ... several police officers approach her. One officer asks her, ‘Can I please ask you to step away from here and step outside the exclusion zone?’ Vaughan-Spruce replied, ‘But I’m not protesting. I’m not engaging in any of the activities prohibited.’ ‘But you said you were engaging in prayer which is the offense,’ the officer responded. ‘Silent prayer,’ Vaughan-Spruce counters. ‘No, but you were still engaging in prayer. It is an offense,’ the officer explained. ... Although two police officers are seen in the video clip, the ADF UK said six police officers were involved in Vaughan-Spruce’s arrest on Monday.”
CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES ERASED 16 YEARS OF EMISSIONS CUTS (Friday Church News Notes, March 24, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “California Wildfires,” Breitbart, Mar. 1, 2023: “The raging California wildfires of 2020 created enough carbon emissions to offset 16 years of reductions through the state’s green policies--twice over--according to a UCLA study published by Environmental Pollution. As Breitbart News reported at the time, the wildfire season in 2020 was so intense that smoke from the fires reached cities on the East Coast of the United States. The CalFIRE state agency describes the fires as follows: ‘The 2020 California wildfire season was characterized by a record-setting year of wildfires that burned across the state of California as measured during the modern era of wildfire management and record keeping. As of the end of the year, nearly 10,000 fires had burned over 4.2 million acres, more than 4% of the state’s roughly 100 million acres of land, making 2020 the largest wildfire season recorded in California’s modern history. California’s August Complex fire has been described as the first gigafire as the area burned exceeded 1 million acres.’ The study in Environmental Pollution, by two UCLA professors and one University of Chicago author, reports: ‘Viewed from the perspective of what this means for wildfire emission reductions from all other sectors combined, if we compare to reductions from 2003 to 2019 from 483 to 418 mmt CO2e, the likely amount of increase from the fires is close to double all the emission reductions achieved in the state from 2003 to 2019.’ ... In his book, Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters, Steven Koonin considered the scientific data and concluded that ‘whatever influence a changing climate might have had on wildfires globally in recent decades, human factors unrelated to climate were dominant.’”
BREAKDOWN OF THE FAMILY IN AMERICA (Friday Church News Notes, March 24, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from Paul Johnson, A History of the American People: “To many analysts of American society ... the decisive single development in America during the second half of the 20th century [was] the decline of the family and of family life, and the growth in illegitimacy. The enormous number of children born outside the family structure altogether, or raised in one-parent families, appeared to be statistically linked to most of the modern evils of American life: poor educational performance and illiteracy or semi-literacy, children out on the streets from an early age, juvenile delinquency, unemployment, adult crime, and, above all, poverty. ... Up to 1920, the proportion of children born to single women in the United States was less than 3 percent, roughly where it had been throughout the history of the country. The trend-line shifted upwards, though not dramatically, in the 1950s. A steep, sustained rise gathered pace in the mid-1960s and continued into the early 1990s, to reach 30 percent in 1991. In 1960 there were just 73,000 never-married mothers between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four. By 1980 there were 1 million. By 1990 there were 2.9 million. ... In 1960, 24 percent of black children were illegitimate, compared with 2 percent of white children. By 1991, the figures of illegitimate births were 68 percent of all births for blacks, 39 percent for Latinos, and 18 percent for non-Latino whites. At some point between 1960 and 1990, marriage, and having children within marriage, ceased to be the norm among blacks, while remaining the norm among whites (though a deteriorating one). By the end of 1994 it was 33 percent for the nation as a whole, 25 percent for whites, and 70 percent for blacks. In parts of Washington, capital of the richest nation in the world, it was as high as 90 percent.”
STREET PREACHER’S CONVICTION FOR “MIS-GENDERING” OVERTURNED (Friday Church News Notes, March 24, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Street preacher,” Premier Christian News, Mar. 10, 2023: “A Christian street preacher who was arrested for ‘misgendering’ a member of the public has had his conviction overturned. Dave McConnell, 42, who’s from Wakefield, appealed his conviction at Leeds Crown Court after he was arrested under section 4A Public Order Act 1986 for ‘insulting’ a member of the public in Leeds City Centre in June 2021. He was arrested after he ‘misgendered’ a transgender person who identified as a woman during a one-on-one conversation with a police officer. ... Mr McConnell was subsequently convicted and made to pay costs of £620. He was also forced to do 80 hours of community service despite there being no legal obligation to use a trans person’s preferred pronouns in the UK. Following his conviction, the Probation Service reported Mr McConnell to the Joint Counter-Terrorism Team. It is believed Mr McConnell is the first street preacher to be convicted for such an offence and reported as a potential ‘terrorist.’ Mr McConnell’s lawyer argued that the police response was unlawful, disproportionate and interfered with his Article 9 and 10 rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Mr McConnell, who was supported by the Christian Legal Centre was asked in court whether he knew that ‘misgendering’ a trans person could be insulting, to which he replied: ‘I wasn’t misgendering, I was telling the truth.’ ... Following the ruling, Mr McConnell said: ‘I am delighted and relieved that the Judge has overturned the conviction and that I can clear my name. I am, however, appalled at how I have been treated by the authorities in this matter. No other street preacher, professional or member of the public must go through what I have.’”
FIGHTING DEADLY BACTERIUM WITH VIRUSES (Friday Church News Notes, March 24, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Mar. 13, 2023: “Often the most productive science is done when scientists, as one founder of modern science put it, “Think God’s thoughts after Him.” For example, while antibiotics have saved millions of lives, they have proven to be only a temporary solution. In addition, there are some bacterial infections that move too fast for antibiotics to be effective. Vibrio vulnificus is one such bacterium. It is typically found in oysters. The bacterium has little effect on healthy people, but those whom it infects are most likely to be dead within 24 hours. How do we combat such a fast-working deadly bacterium by thinking God’s thoughts after Him? By finding something that is even faster at infecting the bacterium and killing it. That’s exactly what medical researchers have done. They have found a virus that infects the bacteria, rapidly reproducing inside the bacterium until it causes the bacterium to burst. Once the bacteria are all dead, the virus can no longer reproduce. Researchers infected eight mice with Vibrio vulnificus. If they had not at the same time infected the mice with the virus, all would have been dead within 18 hours. As a result, five of the mice never became ill. This approach is also being successfully used to treat bacteria that causes skin infections. The successes that come from thinking God’s thoughts after Him demonstrate that God is the Author of science and all that it studies. Ref: Science News, 6/3/00, p. 358, ‘Viruses that slay bacteria draw new interest.’”
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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