Friday Church News Notes
Volume 24, Issue 17 - April 28, 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.
Dr. Aaron Edwards
BIBLE SCHOOL FIRES, THREATENS PROFESSOR FOR HIS STANCE ON HOMOSEXUALITY (Friday Church News Notes, April 28, 2023, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Ken Ham, Answers in Genesis, Apr. 6, 2023: “A Methodist Bible college located in the UK fired one of its professors, Dr. Aaron Edwards—and then threatened to report him as a ‘terrorist’—for a simple tweet warning evangelicals about the invasion of homosexual behavior into the church and saying that this is severe. Dr. Edwards tweeted, ‘Homosexuality is invading the Church. Evangelicals no longer see the severity of this [because] they’re busy apologising for their apparently barbaric homophobia, whether or not it’s true.’ He later defended his tweet with: ‘This is a Gospel issue, by the way. If sin is no longer sin, we no longer need a Savior. That is the conservative view. The acceptance of homosexuality as ‘not sinful’ is an invasion upon the Church, doctrinally. This is not controversial. The acceptance is controversial. ... It is not homophobic to declare homosexuality sinful.’ The school claims he was ‘harming the reputation of the institution through his social media activities’--so, yes, this Bible school was concerned that it might have the reputation of believing the Bible and believing that sin is sin if this man kept tweeting! Shouldn’t they rather have been proud to embrace such a ‘reputation’? What have we come to as a church when someone proclaiming the obvious truth from God’s Word is fired and threatened by those who claim to be followers of Christ--and if they make that claim, they are obligated to be obedient to his Word? After all, God’s Word says, ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments’ (John 14:15). But it seems these professing Christians fear men, not God, and prefer the praise of men and their own ‘reputation’ to the praise of the King of kings--who will one day sit as the ultimate Judge! Sadly, we are seeing a number of churches and Christian institutions cave to the LGBTQ movement.”
NETHERLANDS CONTINUES DOWN EUTHANASIA’S SLIPPERY SLOPE (Friday Church News Notes, April 28, 2023, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Netherlands to broaden euthanasia rulers,” The Guardian, Apr. 14, 2023: “The Netherlands is to widen its euthanasia regulations to include the possibility of doctors assisting in the death of terminally ill children aged between one and 12. The new rules would apply to between five and 10 children a year who suffer unbearably from their disease, have no hope of improvement and for whom palliative care cannot bring relief, the government said on Friday. ... The Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise euthanasia under strict conditions in 2002. All cases must be reported to medical review boards. The law already provided possibilities for euthanasia involving terminally ill babies until their first birthday and for children over 12. ... The Netherlands will not be the first to allow doctors to assist in the death of children of all ages. Belgium has allowed it since 2014.”
THE PASSING OF JACK MOORMAN (Friday Church News Notes, April 28, 2023, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Jack Moorman, pastor, author, and evangelist, died in May 2021. He wrote several books and a number of articles in defense of the King James Bible and its underlying Greek and Hebrew texts. Moorman graduated from Tennessee Temple Bible College in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the 1960s, and traveled to South Africa to begin a missionary church-planting ministry. He was there from 1968-88 and started five churches, a Bible Institute, and a tract printing ministry. In 1994, Moorman took the pastorate of Bethel Baptist Church in Wimbledon, a suburb of London, England. He also carried on a daily gospel tract ministry to more than fifty market areas across the city, using the London Tube for transportation. Bethel Baptist Church is currently located in Tooting, south London, and is pastored by Alex Madley, who served as a long-time deacon at Bethel. The church’s web site is http://www.bethelbaptistlondon.com. Pastor Moorman’s books on the Bible Version issue include Forever Settled; Conies, Brass, and Easter: Answers to ‘Problem’ Passages in the Authorized Version; A Closer Look: Early Manuscripts and the Authorized Version; Early Church Fathers and the Authorized Version: A Demonstration; and When the KJV Departs from the “Majority” Text. These are available from The Bible for Today, http://www.biblefortoday.org. Moorman’s Modern Bibles—the Dark Secret contains a good overview of the Bible’s teaching on the preservation of Scripture. It is available in print from Plain Paths Publishers, https://plainpath.org/collections/books-in-print. It is also available online at http://www.alcorne.free-online.co.uk/jm_tds00.htm.
HAMAS OFFICIAL CALLS ON ALLAH TO ANNIHILATE JEWS (Friday Church News Notes, April 28, 2023, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Hamas Official,” Israel National News, Apr. 12, 2023: “Hamas official Sheikh Dr. Hamad Al-Regeb in a sermon in Gaza this past Friday prayed for Allah to bring annihilation and paralysis upon the Jews ... Al-Regeb also said that the Jews are ‘filthy animals’ ... who spread corruption, injustice, and evil at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. His remarks were translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). ... ‘We see the hordes of foreigners, the brothers of apes and pigs, spread corruption, injustice, and evil [at the Al-Aqsa Mosque]. According to the tradition, [the Jews] killed 70 of the Israelite prophets in one hour during the daytime, and they did not even close their markets,’ claimed Al-Regeb. ... ‘All the Palestinians and Muslims should make preparations. They should prepare for a day when they will heed a call to arms,’ declared the Hamas official. ... ‘We will pay no attention to the price, no matter how high. Are they trying to intimidate us with killing? What can possibly taste better than martyrdom? What can be more beautiful than ending your life by dying for the sake of Allah? ... Oh Allah, enable us to get to the necks of the Jews. Oh Allah, enable us to get to the necks of the Jews. Oh Allah, enable us to get to the necks of the Jews,’ concluded Al-Regeb.”
IN OREGON, CHRISTIANS MUST CELEBRATE TRANSGENDER OR THEY CANNOT ADOPT (Friday Church News Notes, April 28, 2023, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Christians Must Take Children,” The Washington Stand, Apr. 6, 2023: “The state of Oregon refused to allow a Christian mother of five to adopt two children after she said her religion would not let her take a young minor to receive cross-hormone injections--a policy that could prevent up to 78% of Americans from adopting children. Requiring adoptive parents to facilitate transgender procedures acts as a form of religious discrimination against many world religions, her attorneys say. Jessica Bates has sued five Oregon state employees for adoption guidelines that effectively say, ‘Conservative Christians need not apply,’ according to her legal brief. Oregon state law requires all would-be adoptive parents to ‘respect, accept and support’ the adoptee’s professed ‘sexual orientation, gender identity, [and] gender expression.’ Bates said mandatory classes in the state’s adoption application process said this included using a child’s preferred pronouns, presenting same-sex relationships in a positive light, and taking children who identify as LGBT to transgender procedures. ... Bates, whose late husband perished in a car accident in 2017, is a mom of five children between the ages of 10 and 17. She feels inspired to adopt children based on the Bible’s commandment ‘to visit orphans and widows in their affliction’ (James 1:27); she also volunteers twice a week at a pro-life pregnancy resource center. She would like to adopt two siblings, who are younger than nine years old. ... When Bates enrolled in the Resource and Adoptive Family (RAFT) program, she says a RAFT instructor told her good parenting required ‘allowing a child to dress however they want and taking them to a Pride parade.’ ... Parents should avoid ‘forcing youth to attend activities [including religious activities] that are … unsupportive of people with diverse SOGIE [sexual orientation, gender identity and expression],’ it said. ... ‘Oregon’s policy amounts to an ideological litmus test,’ said Jonathan Scruggs of ADF, which represents Bates in the court case, Bates v. Pakseresht.’”
THOMAS CHAMBER’S GAP (Friday Church News Notes, April 28, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Mar. 23, 2023: “In 1814, Thomas Chalmers was a young Scottish clergyman with an interest in geology. He had grown up with the deep-time views of James Hutton, and the work of more contemporary geologists seems to have caused Chalmers difficulties in accepting these ideas along with the book of Genesis. So it was that in 1814, Chalmers wrote a review of Georges Cuvier’s book Theory of the Earth. Cuvier was a catastrophist. That is, he believed that fossils were caused by flooding. However, to accommodate Hutton’s views on long ages, Cuvier accepted multiple floods rather than one Flood, equating the last of these floods with that of Genesis 6 through 8. Chalmers wrote: ‘It is true that his theory approximates to the book of Genesis more nearly than those of many of his predecessors.’ While that may indeed be true, it should be noted that Cuvier was still prepared to accept long ages because of opinions from outside the Bible, and the young Chalmers accepted these ages. So Chalmers developed his own idea. Instead of multiple catastrophism, he had two--the actual Flood and an earlier flood, thousands or even millions of years earlier, caused, so he said, by Lucifer’s sin in heaven. This early Luciferian flood had to be fitted into Scripture, so Chalmers believed that these events must have been after God had set the world going but before the events of Genesis 1:2 onwards. For this reason, Chalmers’ ideas became known as the Gap Theory. Exodus 20 reminds us that the initial creation of everything was part of the six-day creation week. So we see that Chalmers’ elegant compromise is not possible. Ref: Mortenson, T. (2004), The Great Turning Point, (Master Books).”
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).
NETHERLANDS CONTINUES DOWN EUTHANASIA’S SLIPPERY SLOPE (Friday Church News Notes, April 28, 2023, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Netherlands to broaden euthanasia rulers,” The Guardian, Apr. 14, 2023: “The Netherlands is to widen its euthanasia regulations to include the possibility of doctors assisting in the death of terminally ill children aged between one and 12. The new rules would apply to between five and 10 children a year who suffer unbearably from their disease, have no hope of improvement and for whom palliative care cannot bring relief, the government said on Friday. ... The Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise euthanasia under strict conditions in 2002. All cases must be reported to medical review boards. The law already provided possibilities for euthanasia involving terminally ill babies until their first birthday and for children over 12. ... The Netherlands will not be the first to allow doctors to assist in the death of children of all ages. Belgium has allowed it since 2014.”
THE PASSING OF JACK MOORMAN (Friday Church News Notes, April 28, 2023, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Jack Moorman, pastor, author, and evangelist, died in May 2021. He wrote several books and a number of articles in defense of the King James Bible and its underlying Greek and Hebrew texts. Moorman graduated from Tennessee Temple Bible College in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the 1960s, and traveled to South Africa to begin a missionary church-planting ministry. He was there from 1968-88 and started five churches, a Bible Institute, and a tract printing ministry. In 1994, Moorman took the pastorate of Bethel Baptist Church in Wimbledon, a suburb of London, England. He also carried on a daily gospel tract ministry to more than fifty market areas across the city, using the London Tube for transportation. Bethel Baptist Church is currently located in Tooting, south London, and is pastored by Alex Madley, who served as a long-time deacon at Bethel. The church’s web site is http://www.bethelbaptistlondon.com. Pastor Moorman’s books on the Bible Version issue include Forever Settled; Conies, Brass, and Easter: Answers to ‘Problem’ Passages in the Authorized Version; A Closer Look: Early Manuscripts and the Authorized Version; Early Church Fathers and the Authorized Version: A Demonstration; and When the KJV Departs from the “Majority” Text. These are available from The Bible for Today, http://www.biblefortoday.org. Moorman’s Modern Bibles—the Dark Secret contains a good overview of the Bible’s teaching on the preservation of Scripture. It is available in print from Plain Paths Publishers, https://plainpath.org/collections/books-in-print. It is also available online at http://www.alcorne.free-online.co.uk/jm_tds00.htm.
HAMAS OFFICIAL CALLS ON ALLAH TO ANNIHILATE JEWS (Friday Church News Notes, April 28, 2023, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Hamas Official,” Israel National News, Apr. 12, 2023: “Hamas official Sheikh Dr. Hamad Al-Regeb in a sermon in Gaza this past Friday prayed for Allah to bring annihilation and paralysis upon the Jews ... Al-Regeb also said that the Jews are ‘filthy animals’ ... who spread corruption, injustice, and evil at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. His remarks were translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). ... ‘We see the hordes of foreigners, the brothers of apes and pigs, spread corruption, injustice, and evil [at the Al-Aqsa Mosque]. According to the tradition, [the Jews] killed 70 of the Israelite prophets in one hour during the daytime, and they did not even close their markets,’ claimed Al-Regeb. ... ‘All the Palestinians and Muslims should make preparations. They should prepare for a day when they will heed a call to arms,’ declared the Hamas official. ... ‘We will pay no attention to the price, no matter how high. Are they trying to intimidate us with killing? What can possibly taste better than martyrdom? What can be more beautiful than ending your life by dying for the sake of Allah? ... Oh Allah, enable us to get to the necks of the Jews. Oh Allah, enable us to get to the necks of the Jews. Oh Allah, enable us to get to the necks of the Jews,’ concluded Al-Regeb.”
IN OREGON, CHRISTIANS MUST CELEBRATE TRANSGENDER OR THEY CANNOT ADOPT (Friday Church News Notes, April 28, 2023, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Christians Must Take Children,” The Washington Stand, Apr. 6, 2023: “The state of Oregon refused to allow a Christian mother of five to adopt two children after she said her religion would not let her take a young minor to receive cross-hormone injections--a policy that could prevent up to 78% of Americans from adopting children. Requiring adoptive parents to facilitate transgender procedures acts as a form of religious discrimination against many world religions, her attorneys say. Jessica Bates has sued five Oregon state employees for adoption guidelines that effectively say, ‘Conservative Christians need not apply,’ according to her legal brief. Oregon state law requires all would-be adoptive parents to ‘respect, accept and support’ the adoptee’s professed ‘sexual orientation, gender identity, [and] gender expression.’ Bates said mandatory classes in the state’s adoption application process said this included using a child’s preferred pronouns, presenting same-sex relationships in a positive light, and taking children who identify as LGBT to transgender procedures. ... Bates, whose late husband perished in a car accident in 2017, is a mom of five children between the ages of 10 and 17. She feels inspired to adopt children based on the Bible’s commandment ‘to visit orphans and widows in their affliction’ (James 1:27); she also volunteers twice a week at a pro-life pregnancy resource center. She would like to adopt two siblings, who are younger than nine years old. ... When Bates enrolled in the Resource and Adoptive Family (RAFT) program, she says a RAFT instructor told her good parenting required ‘allowing a child to dress however they want and taking them to a Pride parade.’ ... Parents should avoid ‘forcing youth to attend activities [including religious activities] that are … unsupportive of people with diverse SOGIE [sexual orientation, gender identity and expression],’ it said. ... ‘Oregon’s policy amounts to an ideological litmus test,’ said Jonathan Scruggs of ADF, which represents Bates in the court case, Bates v. Pakseresht.’”
THOMAS CHAMBER’S GAP (Friday Church News Notes, April 28, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Mar. 23, 2023: “In 1814, Thomas Chalmers was a young Scottish clergyman with an interest in geology. He had grown up with the deep-time views of James Hutton, and the work of more contemporary geologists seems to have caused Chalmers difficulties in accepting these ideas along with the book of Genesis. So it was that in 1814, Chalmers wrote a review of Georges Cuvier’s book Theory of the Earth. Cuvier was a catastrophist. That is, he believed that fossils were caused by flooding. However, to accommodate Hutton’s views on long ages, Cuvier accepted multiple floods rather than one Flood, equating the last of these floods with that of Genesis 6 through 8. Chalmers wrote: ‘It is true that his theory approximates to the book of Genesis more nearly than those of many of his predecessors.’ While that may indeed be true, it should be noted that Cuvier was still prepared to accept long ages because of opinions from outside the Bible, and the young Chalmers accepted these ages. So Chalmers developed his own idea. Instead of multiple catastrophism, he had two--the actual Flood and an earlier flood, thousands or even millions of years earlier, caused, so he said, by Lucifer’s sin in heaven. This early Luciferian flood had to be fitted into Scripture, so Chalmers believed that these events must have been after God had set the world going but before the events of Genesis 1:2 onwards. For this reason, Chalmers’ ideas became known as the Gap Theory. Exodus 20 reminds us that the initial creation of everything was part of the six-day creation week. So we see that Chalmers’ elegant compromise is not possible. Ref: Mortenson, T. (2004), The Great Turning Point, (Master Books).”
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.
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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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