Friday Church News Notes
Volume 24, Issue 36 - September 8, 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.
The Second Temple-era aqueduct in Givat HaMatos. Photo by Emil Aladjem/Israel Antiquities Authority.
HEROD-ERA AQUEDUCT DISCOVERED IN JERUSALEM (Friday Church News Notes, September 8, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Jerusalem Archaeologists Uncover,” Israel365 News, Aug. 30, 2023: “Archaeologists in Jerusalem have discovered a 300-meter (985-foot) portion of a Second Temple-era aqueduct, the longest such continuous stretch ever found in Israel’s capital, the Israeli Antiquities Authority announced on Monday. The ancient waterway was discovered at a building site in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Givat HaMatos. ... The Hasmoneans’ King Herod built two elaborate aqueducts for Jerusalem, which were among the largest and most complex waterworks in the Land of Israel. The system concentrated spring water in the Bethlehem area and transferred it to Jerusalem by taking advantage of topography, the laws of gravity and large pools, said [excavation managers Ofer Shion and Rotam Cohen.] The aqueduct known as the ‘Upper Aqueduct’ brought water to the Upper City—the area of the Old City’s current Jewish and Armenian Quarters. Meanwhile, the so-called ‘Lower Aqueduct’ transferred water directly to the Temple.”
1,600 SCIENTISTS, INCLUDING NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS, DECLARE CIMATE EMERGENCY A MYTH (Friday Church News Notes, September 8, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Second Nobel Prize Winner Signs,” The Federalist, Sept. 1, 2023: “A coalition of more than 1,600 scientists critical of their peers’ hyperbolic claims about climate change drew a prominent recruit to sign their 2019 declaration that the climate ‘emergency’ is a myth. John Clauser, who won last year’s Nobel Prize in physics, became the second Nobel laureate last month to sign the document with 1,607 other scientists rebuking the idea of a climate crisis. ‘Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific,’ the declaration organized by the Climate Intelligence Foundation (CLINTEL) reads. ‘Scientists should openly address uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of their policy measures.’ Norwegian-American engineer Ivan Giaever, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1973, is also a signatory to the declaration. ‘The popular narrative about climate change reflects a dangerous corruption of science that threatens the world’s economy and the well-being of billions of people. Misguided climate science has metastasized into massive shock-journalistic pseudoscience,’ Clauser said. ‘In turn, the pseudoscience has become a scapegoat for a wide variety of other unrelated ills. It has been promoted and extended by similarly misguided business marketing agents, politicians, journalists, government agencies, and environmentalists.’ The document makes several claims that contradict popular narratives peddled by climate hysterics. For example, the planet is warming slower than predicted and has not driven a spike in natural disasters. ... The World Climate Declaration also notes that carbon dioxide is plant food, ‘not a pollutant’. ‘It is essential to all life on Earth,’ the document reads.”
LARGE MAJORITY OF ANGLICAN PRIESTS ACCEPT PRE-MARITAL SEX AND HOMOSEXUAL PRACTICE (Friday Church News Notes, September 8, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “British Clergy Supports,” The European Conservative, Aug. 31, 2023: “A new ‘landmark’ survey of English priests—the first of its kind in almost a decade—has allowed the clergy to reveal its increasingly liberal views on marriage and sexual matters. Well over half (62.6%) of those polled by The Times said the Church of England should drop its opposition to premarital sex. They said this climbdown should only apply to people in ‘committed relationships,’ in what comes across as a fairly flimsy attempt to continue looking firm on the subject. A slightly higher percentage (64.5%) of priests said the worldwide Anglican teaching that ‘homosexual practice is incompatible with scripture’ should come to an end. So too should the ban on gay priests entering into civil marriages, according to 63.3% of those polled. The Times reported that a majority of priests want the Anglican church to stop its official opposition to homosexuality. ... Around 6% of the active English clergy—mostly vicars, rectors, curates, chaplains, and retired priests who still serve—responded to the survey by The Times (1,436, to be exact). The survey also pointed to changing attitudes towards the role of women, with the possibility of a female Archbishop of Canterbury now backed by more than 80% of priests.”
AMERICANS MORE CHURCHY AND RELIGIOUS BY A LARGE MEASURE THAN BRITS AND EUROPEANS (Friday Church News Notes, September 8, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Who Goes to Church?” powerlineblog.com, Sept. 1, 2023: “It remains the case that although church attendance and religious affiliation have been declining in the U.S. for a while now, the U.S. remains one of the most religious nations among western democracies. This chart is an interesting measure, showing that even Ben & Jerry’s Communist Vermont has higher weekly church attendance than most leading European nations. By the way, one possible interpretation of this data is that any state that scores above 25 percent weekly church attendance votes Republican. Europe Avg: 14% and U.S. Avg: 25%. Data: European Social Survey 2018-2022 and Cooperative Election Study 2020-2022.” The top ranked U.S. states are Utah 41%, Mississippi 35%, Alabama 34%, Arkansas 34%, South Dakota 33%, South Carolina 33%, Louisiana 32%, Georgia 31%, North Carolina 31%, Idaho 31%, Tennessee 31%, Nebraska 30%, North Dakota 30%, Indiana 30%, Missouri 30%, Texas 29%, Oklahoma 25%, Kentucky 27%, Wyoming 26%, West Virginia 26%, Kansas 26%, Maryland 26%, and Virginia 26%. In comparison, Spain is 14%, Great Britain is 12%, Netherlands 10%, Belgium 9%, Switzerland 8%, Germany 8%, France 8%, Sweden 5%, Finland 4%, Norway 4%, and Denmark 3%.
CANADA COURT SUPPORTS ORDER FOR CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR TO ATTEND RE-EDUCATION CLASSES; OUTSPOKEN VICTIM STANDS FIRM (Friday Church News Notes, September 8, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Peterson Loses Court Battle,” The European Conservative, Aug. 28, 2023: “Three Ontario judges ruled unanimously against Jordan B. Peterson, upholding the decision of the College of Psychologists that ordered the conservative commentator to undertake social media ‘re-education’ training due to a series of ‘degrading’ and ‘unprofessional’ tweets that offended marginalized social justice groups, Peterson announced on Thursday, August 24th. As we wrote back in February, the renowned psychologist and conservative media personality was reprimanded by the Ontario College of Psychologists, who threatened to revoke Peterson’s license as a medical practitioner due to ‘hateful conduct’ on social media unless he takes a course on ‘professional communication’ and even pay for it himself. But one glance at his ‘problematic’ tweets is more than enough to know it was never about professionalism, but an ideologically motivated witch-hunt, attempting to silence one of the best-known right-wing commentators on the internet simply for his political opinions. ... In an interview with the Toronto Sun, Peterson reacted by saying he was ‘stunned’ by the decision and vowed to take his appeal ‘all the way to the Supreme Court’ if he has to. ... Before the ruling, Peterson--who no longer practices but wants to retain his license--stated that if every court rejected his appeal, he would eventually attend the training--and even broadcast it. ‘I’ll comply with their regulations, but I’m not going to do it in secret,’ the psychologist told CBC. ‘And the reason I’m not going to do it in secret is because I don’t believe I’ve done anything wrong.’ Besides, the story is not really about the Orwellian re-education training, but whether it manages to silence one of Western conservatism’s most influential voices. ‘The fundamental issue is one of free discourse. … We think by talking, in a large part.’ Peterson said, adding that: ‘And so I’m not willing to suspend my tongue as a consequence of government decree.’”
MARXISTS LOVE TURMOIL (Friday Church News Notes, September 8, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Marx took Hegel’s idea of change through confrontation and accommodation and placed it in the material world. This gives us the basic communist idea of change through destruction and reorganization. Communism thrives on turmoil because, to their way of thinking, anything which upsets order is an aid in movement toward their ultimate synthesis. In communism, the ruling class is the thesis, the working class the antithesis, and the ultimate synthesis will be a state controlled by the people living in complete equality. ... Many Christians have been amazed at the sympathy and comradeship liberal theologians feel for the godless communist movement. But it is not really surprising since they are both, in different areas of life, searching by the same methods for the same end” (Daniel J. Ebert, Will Our Sons Defend the Faith, 3rd edition, 1994, p. 36).
ERIC LIDDELL’S LAST RACE (Friday Church News Notes, September 8, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Eric Liddell, the son of Scottish missionaries to China, was Scotland’s fastest runner and in 1923 won the 100 yard race at the AAA Championship with 9.7 seconds, a record that stood for the next 35 years. A committed Christian, Liddell spoke at gospel meetings for the Glasgow Students Evangelical Union during his college years. He qualified for the British track and field team for the 1924 Olympics in Paris, but because the 100 meter race was held on Sunday he refused to participate, even though this was his best distance. It was said that “most athletes come to the games desiring to be great and do great, Eric Liddle came to the Paris Olympics desiring to be good, and to do good.” In spite of personal pleas from the royal family and criticism in the British press for letting down his country, he stood by his decision and spent that Sunday preaching in an evangelical church in Paris. He entered the 400 meter race, and it is said that as he headed to the starting block, a man handed him a piece of paper with a quotation from 1 Samuel 2:30, “... them that honour me I will honour.” He ran with that piece of paper in his hand and won, breaking the world record with a time of 47.6 seconds. In 1925, Liddell returned to China to preach the gospel. In 1943, he was incarcerated in a Japanese prison camp where he died two years later. Liddell said, “We are all missionaries. Wherever we go, we either bring people nearer to Christ, or we repel them from Christ.”
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).
1,600 SCIENTISTS, INCLUDING NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS, DECLARE CIMATE EMERGENCY A MYTH (Friday Church News Notes, September 8, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Second Nobel Prize Winner Signs,” The Federalist, Sept. 1, 2023: “A coalition of more than 1,600 scientists critical of their peers’ hyperbolic claims about climate change drew a prominent recruit to sign their 2019 declaration that the climate ‘emergency’ is a myth. John Clauser, who won last year’s Nobel Prize in physics, became the second Nobel laureate last month to sign the document with 1,607 other scientists rebuking the idea of a climate crisis. ‘Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific,’ the declaration organized by the Climate Intelligence Foundation (CLINTEL) reads. ‘Scientists should openly address uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of their policy measures.’ Norwegian-American engineer Ivan Giaever, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1973, is also a signatory to the declaration. ‘The popular narrative about climate change reflects a dangerous corruption of science that threatens the world’s economy and the well-being of billions of people. Misguided climate science has metastasized into massive shock-journalistic pseudoscience,’ Clauser said. ‘In turn, the pseudoscience has become a scapegoat for a wide variety of other unrelated ills. It has been promoted and extended by similarly misguided business marketing agents, politicians, journalists, government agencies, and environmentalists.’ The document makes several claims that contradict popular narratives peddled by climate hysterics. For example, the planet is warming slower than predicted and has not driven a spike in natural disasters. ... The World Climate Declaration also notes that carbon dioxide is plant food, ‘not a pollutant’. ‘It is essential to all life on Earth,’ the document reads.”
LARGE MAJORITY OF ANGLICAN PRIESTS ACCEPT PRE-MARITAL SEX AND HOMOSEXUAL PRACTICE (Friday Church News Notes, September 8, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “British Clergy Supports,” The European Conservative, Aug. 31, 2023: “A new ‘landmark’ survey of English priests—the first of its kind in almost a decade—has allowed the clergy to reveal its increasingly liberal views on marriage and sexual matters. Well over half (62.6%) of those polled by The Times said the Church of England should drop its opposition to premarital sex. They said this climbdown should only apply to people in ‘committed relationships,’ in what comes across as a fairly flimsy attempt to continue looking firm on the subject. A slightly higher percentage (64.5%) of priests said the worldwide Anglican teaching that ‘homosexual practice is incompatible with scripture’ should come to an end. So too should the ban on gay priests entering into civil marriages, according to 63.3% of those polled. The Times reported that a majority of priests want the Anglican church to stop its official opposition to homosexuality. ... Around 6% of the active English clergy—mostly vicars, rectors, curates, chaplains, and retired priests who still serve—responded to the survey by The Times (1,436, to be exact). The survey also pointed to changing attitudes towards the role of women, with the possibility of a female Archbishop of Canterbury now backed by more than 80% of priests.”
AMERICANS MORE CHURCHY AND RELIGIOUS BY A LARGE MEASURE THAN BRITS AND EUROPEANS (Friday Church News Notes, September 8, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Who Goes to Church?” powerlineblog.com, Sept. 1, 2023: “It remains the case that although church attendance and religious affiliation have been declining in the U.S. for a while now, the U.S. remains one of the most religious nations among western democracies. This chart is an interesting measure, showing that even Ben & Jerry’s Communist Vermont has higher weekly church attendance than most leading European nations. By the way, one possible interpretation of this data is that any state that scores above 25 percent weekly church attendance votes Republican. Europe Avg: 14% and U.S. Avg: 25%. Data: European Social Survey 2018-2022 and Cooperative Election Study 2020-2022.” The top ranked U.S. states are Utah 41%, Mississippi 35%, Alabama 34%, Arkansas 34%, South Dakota 33%, South Carolina 33%, Louisiana 32%, Georgia 31%, North Carolina 31%, Idaho 31%, Tennessee 31%, Nebraska 30%, North Dakota 30%, Indiana 30%, Missouri 30%, Texas 29%, Oklahoma 25%, Kentucky 27%, Wyoming 26%, West Virginia 26%, Kansas 26%, Maryland 26%, and Virginia 26%. In comparison, Spain is 14%, Great Britain is 12%, Netherlands 10%, Belgium 9%, Switzerland 8%, Germany 8%, France 8%, Sweden 5%, Finland 4%, Norway 4%, and Denmark 3%.
CANADA COURT SUPPORTS ORDER FOR CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR TO ATTEND RE-EDUCATION CLASSES; OUTSPOKEN VICTIM STANDS FIRM (Friday Church News Notes, September 8, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Peterson Loses Court Battle,” The European Conservative, Aug. 28, 2023: “Three Ontario judges ruled unanimously against Jordan B. Peterson, upholding the decision of the College of Psychologists that ordered the conservative commentator to undertake social media ‘re-education’ training due to a series of ‘degrading’ and ‘unprofessional’ tweets that offended marginalized social justice groups, Peterson announced on Thursday, August 24th. As we wrote back in February, the renowned psychologist and conservative media personality was reprimanded by the Ontario College of Psychologists, who threatened to revoke Peterson’s license as a medical practitioner due to ‘hateful conduct’ on social media unless he takes a course on ‘professional communication’ and even pay for it himself. But one glance at his ‘problematic’ tweets is more than enough to know it was never about professionalism, but an ideologically motivated witch-hunt, attempting to silence one of the best-known right-wing commentators on the internet simply for his political opinions. ... In an interview with the Toronto Sun, Peterson reacted by saying he was ‘stunned’ by the decision and vowed to take his appeal ‘all the way to the Supreme Court’ if he has to. ... Before the ruling, Peterson--who no longer practices but wants to retain his license--stated that if every court rejected his appeal, he would eventually attend the training--and even broadcast it. ‘I’ll comply with their regulations, but I’m not going to do it in secret,’ the psychologist told CBC. ‘And the reason I’m not going to do it in secret is because I don’t believe I’ve done anything wrong.’ Besides, the story is not really about the Orwellian re-education training, but whether it manages to silence one of Western conservatism’s most influential voices. ‘The fundamental issue is one of free discourse. … We think by talking, in a large part.’ Peterson said, adding that: ‘And so I’m not willing to suspend my tongue as a consequence of government decree.’”
MARXISTS LOVE TURMOIL (Friday Church News Notes, September 8, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Marx took Hegel’s idea of change through confrontation and accommodation and placed it in the material world. This gives us the basic communist idea of change through destruction and reorganization. Communism thrives on turmoil because, to their way of thinking, anything which upsets order is an aid in movement toward their ultimate synthesis. In communism, the ruling class is the thesis, the working class the antithesis, and the ultimate synthesis will be a state controlled by the people living in complete equality. ... Many Christians have been amazed at the sympathy and comradeship liberal theologians feel for the godless communist movement. But it is not really surprising since they are both, in different areas of life, searching by the same methods for the same end” (Daniel J. Ebert, Will Our Sons Defend the Faith, 3rd edition, 1994, p. 36).
ERIC LIDDELL’S LAST RACE (Friday Church News Notes, September 8, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Eric Liddell, the son of Scottish missionaries to China, was Scotland’s fastest runner and in 1923 won the 100 yard race at the AAA Championship with 9.7 seconds, a record that stood for the next 35 years. A committed Christian, Liddell spoke at gospel meetings for the Glasgow Students Evangelical Union during his college years. He qualified for the British track and field team for the 1924 Olympics in Paris, but because the 100 meter race was held on Sunday he refused to participate, even though this was his best distance. It was said that “most athletes come to the games desiring to be great and do great, Eric Liddle came to the Paris Olympics desiring to be good, and to do good.” In spite of personal pleas from the royal family and criticism in the British press for letting down his country, he stood by his decision and spent that Sunday preaching in an evangelical church in Paris. He entered the 400 meter race, and it is said that as he headed to the starting block, a man handed him a piece of paper with a quotation from 1 Samuel 2:30, “... them that honour me I will honour.” He ran with that piece of paper in his hand and won, breaking the world record with a time of 47.6 seconds. In 1925, Liddell returned to China to preach the gospel. In 1943, he was incarcerated in a Japanese prison camp where he died two years later. Liddell said, “We are all missionaries. Wherever we go, we either bring people nearer to Christ, or we repel them from Christ.”
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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