Friday Church News Notes
March 29, 2024 - Volume 25, Issue 13
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.
Jeremy and Mary Cox
SUPREME COURT REFUSES TO HEAR CASE OF TRANSGENDER CHILD REMOVED FROM PARENTS (Friday Church News Notes, March 29, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Transgender child forcibly removed,” Premier Christian News, Mar. 21, 2024: “The US Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from a Catholic couple who lost custody of their child after refusing to acknowledge his self-identified female gender. The court did not provide a reason for its refusal to hear the case. ... Mary and Jeremy Cox, devout Catholics from Indiana, began legal proceedings after their teenage son informed them he identified as a girl. The couple’s Christian beliefs about gender and sexuality meant they could not agree to their son’s request of acceptance. ... In 2021, two years after the couple’s son began identifying as female, the Indiana Department of Child Services investigated the Coxes and eventually removed their son from their custody. He was placed into a home that affirmed his self-declared identity.”
ABANDONED WIFE DESCRIBES HOW HOMOSEXUAL LUST DESTROYED HER MARRIAGE AND FAMILY (Friday Church News Notes, March 29, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “‘I Refuse to Be Silent’: Writer Says Homosexuality Shattered Her Marriage, Family,” Christian News Network, Oct. 13, 2014: “A mother and writer has generated much discussion following the publication of an article in which she shares her personal story of how homosexuality and same-sex ‘marriage’ shattered her own marriage and family. ‘I refuse to be silent,’ wrote Janna Darnelle (a pen name used to protect her family’s identity), who states that behind many of the happy photographs in reports on same-sex ‘marriage,’ there are untold stories of sorrow and pain. ‘I represent one of those real life stories that are kept in the shadows. I have personally felt the pain and devastation wrought by the propaganda that destroys natural families.’ Darnelle recalled that in 2007, her husband announced to her that he believed he was a homosexual, and that he wanted to file for divorce. ‘In an instant, the world that I had known and loved--the life we had built together--was shattered,’ she said, advising that she urged her husband to stay and fight for their marriage. ‘But my voice, my desires, my needs--and those of our two young children--no longer mattered to him. We had become disposable, because he had embraced one tiny word (gay) that had become his entire identity.’ She said that when the matter went to court, her husband sought primary custody of the couple’s children, and asserted that he deserved everything that he wanted in the divorce because he was a homosexual. He was granted his request, and later went on to ‘marry’ his male partner with the children present--a photograph that was featured in USA Today. ‘Commenters exclaimed at how beautiful this gay family was and congratulated my ex-husband and his new partner on the family that they created,’ Darnelle recalled. ‘But there is a significant person missing from those pictures: the mother and abandoned wife. ... I am missing. But I am real, and I represent hundreds upon thousands of spouses who have been betrayed and rejected.’ She later expressed concern about the life that the children are now exposed to and how it might affect their psyche as they try to understand their own manhood and womanhood. Her husband and children live in a condo with sixteen other homosexual men. ... ‘My children are brought to gay parties where they are the only children and where only alcoholic beverages are served. They are taken to transgender baseball games, gay rights fundraisers, and LGBT film festivals. [My daughter] needs a dad who will encourage her to embrace her femininity and beauty, but these qualities are parodied and distorted in her father’s world. Her dad wears make-up and sex bondage straps for Halloween. She is often exposed to men dressing as women,’ she continued. ... Darnelle explained that she understands that when a spouse announces that he or she is struggling with same-sex attractions, it may be difficult for them to resist temptation, but they must--just as a man who lusts for a woman who is not his wife--do what is right for the sake of their own wedding vows.”
EMERGING CHURCH’S “3.0 CHRISTIANITY” DESTROYS BIBLICAL AUTHORITY (Friday Church News Notes, March 29, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In a message presented at the Greenbelt Festival in England in August 2014, emerging church leader Brian McLaren sought to destroy absolute biblical authority by claiming that we have entered a new era of Bible reading. He divided church history into three parts: Bible 1.0 was the Roman Catholic approach to Scripture whereby the Bible “was read and controlled by the religious elite.” Bible 2.0 was the Protestant approach to Scripture by which “the Bible itself was viewed as inerrant” and believers tested everything by it. Bible 3.0 is the new approach recommended by McLaren whereby the multiplicity of interpretations available on the internet allegedly render any one authoritative interpretation invalid. He says that Bible 3.0 is to be “in conversation with everything and everyone.” He says, “Bible 1.0 didn’t give up to Bible 2.0 without a fight. And it’s very difficult for Bible 2.0 to imagine a world of Bible 3.0,” but, “If we are ready, we are going to discover the Bible as better, deeper and richer than before” (“Brian McLaren: ‘We’ve entered a new era of Bible reading,’” ChristianityToday.com, Sept. 4, 2014). McLaren’s “deeper and richer” Bible reading is the one-world church’s approach which exalts unity, “social justice,” etc., over doctrinal purity. McLaren grew up in a fundamentalist Christian home, but he rejected the faith of his parents and his godly grandparents, who were Brethren missionaries. He is a dangerous heretic who has robbed many of their biblical faith. In response to the Bible 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 thing, we would observe that McLaren’s view of history doesn’t start early enough. In truth, Bible 1.0 is not the Catholic Church. It is the New Testament churches under the direction of Christ’s apostles. Bible 1.0 is the Christianity of those who believe that one infallible faith was delivered in the New Testament Scriptures and is to be contended for (Jude 1:3). Bible 1.0 is the Christianity of those who take the words of the resurrected Christ seriously when He said that His disciples are to be taught to “observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Mt. 28:20). There is no room for the confusion of multiple interpretations here. Bible 1.0 is the Christianity of those who believe Paul committed absolute truth to faithful, born again men who were to teach “the same” to others (2 Tim. 2:2). Bible 1.0 is the Christianity of those who are taught to test, beware of, mark, avoid, and reject false teachers and heretics (Ro. 16:17-18; Eph. 4:4; Php. 3:2, 17-18; Col. 2:8; 1 Ti. 4:1-4; 2 Ti. 3:5; Tit. 3:10-11; 1 Jo. 4:1). This is impossible for those who believe in a variety of acceptable interpretations. By McLaren’s scheme, no one is a heretic. Rather, all are sincere seekers with different “perspectives.” Further, Bible 1.0 is the Christianity of those who are taught to study to show themselves approved unto God by “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Ti. 2:15) and who “have an unction from the Holy One” to know the truth (1 Jo. 2:20, 27). This means that the Spirit of God leads His redeemed people to the correct interpretation of Scripture. (For more on this see “Beware of Brian McLaren” by using the search engine at www.wayoflife.org.)
EMERGING CHURCH SPREADING BY “SEASONING” (Friday Church News Notes, March 29, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Brian McLaren says that the emerging church is growing in influence, “not by creating a new slice of the pie, but by seasoning nearly all sectors of the pie” (“More on the emergent conversation,” BrianMclaren.net, Nov. 17, 2014). He is exactly right, and the “seasoning” extends even to many “fundamentalist” churches. What McLaren calls “seasoning,” the Bible calls “leaven,” and it twice warns that “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (1 Co. 5:6; Ga. 5:9). The church at Corinth and the churches in Galatia were being careless about error. They were entertaining it, countenancing it. They were “bearing with it” (2 Co. 11:4). But if a small amount of error is countenanced, it will eventually leaven everything. This is why we have warned that most fundamental Baptist churches will be emerging within 20 years. Large numbers of them are entertaining error. They haven’t capitulated to it, but they are playing with it. They say, “This is just a small thing; let’s ‘major on the majors.’” They are playing with contemporary worship music, which even in its most “conservative” form is a definite bridge to the one-world church of the Getty’s and Townend’s and Redman’s and Kendrick’s and Zschech’s.
TINY TIME BOMBS (Friday Church News Notes, March 29, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Jan. 26, 2024: “The discovery of tiny pollen grains in rock shows just how inflated the billions of years claimed by evolutionists really are. This discovery, by a creation scientist, has turned those pollen grains into tiny time bombs that continue to damage the theory of evolution. In 1964, Dr. Clifford Burdick devised a new, better way to collect pollen samples, and he used this method to gather samples in the Grand Canyon. These pollen samples, when viewed under the microscope, allowed scientists to identify what kinds of trees they came from. The Hakatai shale, dated by evolutionists at 600 million years old, was among the layers Dr. Burdick examined for pollen. According to evolutionary dating, this layer would not have contained pollen from conifer trees. Conifers supposedly hadn’t yet evolved. When conifer pollen was discovered in the samples, evolutionists quickly claimed that they were modern pollen grains that had contaminated the sample. The problem with the evolutionists’ explanation is that pollen is resistant to staining. Yet, this pollen was stained with red from the shale itself. It must have been there a long time. The experiment was repeated in 1970. Not only were grains of conifer pollen again found, but pollen from oak trees and evidence of other flowering plants were found as well. The discovery of these pollen grains offers scientific evidence that evolution’s time scale and story of history is wrong. The evidence does support the accuracy of the Bible that tells us that all life began during the first week of the Earth’s history a few thousand years ago. Ref: Burdick, Clifford L. ‘Pine pollen in the Grand Canyon,’ Bible-Science Newsletter, June 1981, p. 1.
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).
ABANDONED WIFE DESCRIBES HOW HOMOSEXUAL LUST DESTROYED HER MARRIAGE AND FAMILY (Friday Church News Notes, March 29, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “‘I Refuse to Be Silent’: Writer Says Homosexuality Shattered Her Marriage, Family,” Christian News Network, Oct. 13, 2014: “A mother and writer has generated much discussion following the publication of an article in which she shares her personal story of how homosexuality and same-sex ‘marriage’ shattered her own marriage and family. ‘I refuse to be silent,’ wrote Janna Darnelle (a pen name used to protect her family’s identity), who states that behind many of the happy photographs in reports on same-sex ‘marriage,’ there are untold stories of sorrow and pain. ‘I represent one of those real life stories that are kept in the shadows. I have personally felt the pain and devastation wrought by the propaganda that destroys natural families.’ Darnelle recalled that in 2007, her husband announced to her that he believed he was a homosexual, and that he wanted to file for divorce. ‘In an instant, the world that I had known and loved--the life we had built together--was shattered,’ she said, advising that she urged her husband to stay and fight for their marriage. ‘But my voice, my desires, my needs--and those of our two young children--no longer mattered to him. We had become disposable, because he had embraced one tiny word (gay) that had become his entire identity.’ She said that when the matter went to court, her husband sought primary custody of the couple’s children, and asserted that he deserved everything that he wanted in the divorce because he was a homosexual. He was granted his request, and later went on to ‘marry’ his male partner with the children present--a photograph that was featured in USA Today. ‘Commenters exclaimed at how beautiful this gay family was and congratulated my ex-husband and his new partner on the family that they created,’ Darnelle recalled. ‘But there is a significant person missing from those pictures: the mother and abandoned wife. ... I am missing. But I am real, and I represent hundreds upon thousands of spouses who have been betrayed and rejected.’ She later expressed concern about the life that the children are now exposed to and how it might affect their psyche as they try to understand their own manhood and womanhood. Her husband and children live in a condo with sixteen other homosexual men. ... ‘My children are brought to gay parties where they are the only children and where only alcoholic beverages are served. They are taken to transgender baseball games, gay rights fundraisers, and LGBT film festivals. [My daughter] needs a dad who will encourage her to embrace her femininity and beauty, but these qualities are parodied and distorted in her father’s world. Her dad wears make-up and sex bondage straps for Halloween. She is often exposed to men dressing as women,’ she continued. ... Darnelle explained that she understands that when a spouse announces that he or she is struggling with same-sex attractions, it may be difficult for them to resist temptation, but they must--just as a man who lusts for a woman who is not his wife--do what is right for the sake of their own wedding vows.”
EMERGING CHURCH’S “3.0 CHRISTIANITY” DESTROYS BIBLICAL AUTHORITY (Friday Church News Notes, March 29, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In a message presented at the Greenbelt Festival in England in August 2014, emerging church leader Brian McLaren sought to destroy absolute biblical authority by claiming that we have entered a new era of Bible reading. He divided church history into three parts: Bible 1.0 was the Roman Catholic approach to Scripture whereby the Bible “was read and controlled by the religious elite.” Bible 2.0 was the Protestant approach to Scripture by which “the Bible itself was viewed as inerrant” and believers tested everything by it. Bible 3.0 is the new approach recommended by McLaren whereby the multiplicity of interpretations available on the internet allegedly render any one authoritative interpretation invalid. He says that Bible 3.0 is to be “in conversation with everything and everyone.” He says, “Bible 1.0 didn’t give up to Bible 2.0 without a fight. And it’s very difficult for Bible 2.0 to imagine a world of Bible 3.0,” but, “If we are ready, we are going to discover the Bible as better, deeper and richer than before” (“Brian McLaren: ‘We’ve entered a new era of Bible reading,’” ChristianityToday.com, Sept. 4, 2014). McLaren’s “deeper and richer” Bible reading is the one-world church’s approach which exalts unity, “social justice,” etc., over doctrinal purity. McLaren grew up in a fundamentalist Christian home, but he rejected the faith of his parents and his godly grandparents, who were Brethren missionaries. He is a dangerous heretic who has robbed many of their biblical faith. In response to the Bible 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 thing, we would observe that McLaren’s view of history doesn’t start early enough. In truth, Bible 1.0 is not the Catholic Church. It is the New Testament churches under the direction of Christ’s apostles. Bible 1.0 is the Christianity of those who believe that one infallible faith was delivered in the New Testament Scriptures and is to be contended for (Jude 1:3). Bible 1.0 is the Christianity of those who take the words of the resurrected Christ seriously when He said that His disciples are to be taught to “observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Mt. 28:20). There is no room for the confusion of multiple interpretations here. Bible 1.0 is the Christianity of those who believe Paul committed absolute truth to faithful, born again men who were to teach “the same” to others (2 Tim. 2:2). Bible 1.0 is the Christianity of those who are taught to test, beware of, mark, avoid, and reject false teachers and heretics (Ro. 16:17-18; Eph. 4:4; Php. 3:2, 17-18; Col. 2:8; 1 Ti. 4:1-4; 2 Ti. 3:5; Tit. 3:10-11; 1 Jo. 4:1). This is impossible for those who believe in a variety of acceptable interpretations. By McLaren’s scheme, no one is a heretic. Rather, all are sincere seekers with different “perspectives.” Further, Bible 1.0 is the Christianity of those who are taught to study to show themselves approved unto God by “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Ti. 2:15) and who “have an unction from the Holy One” to know the truth (1 Jo. 2:20, 27). This means that the Spirit of God leads His redeemed people to the correct interpretation of Scripture. (For more on this see “Beware of Brian McLaren” by using the search engine at www.wayoflife.org.)
EMERGING CHURCH SPREADING BY “SEASONING” (Friday Church News Notes, March 29, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Brian McLaren says that the emerging church is growing in influence, “not by creating a new slice of the pie, but by seasoning nearly all sectors of the pie” (“More on the emergent conversation,” BrianMclaren.net, Nov. 17, 2014). He is exactly right, and the “seasoning” extends even to many “fundamentalist” churches. What McLaren calls “seasoning,” the Bible calls “leaven,” and it twice warns that “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (1 Co. 5:6; Ga. 5:9). The church at Corinth and the churches in Galatia were being careless about error. They were entertaining it, countenancing it. They were “bearing with it” (2 Co. 11:4). But if a small amount of error is countenanced, it will eventually leaven everything. This is why we have warned that most fundamental Baptist churches will be emerging within 20 years. Large numbers of them are entertaining error. They haven’t capitulated to it, but they are playing with it. They say, “This is just a small thing; let’s ‘major on the majors.’” They are playing with contemporary worship music, which even in its most “conservative” form is a definite bridge to the one-world church of the Getty’s and Townend’s and Redman’s and Kendrick’s and Zschech’s.
TINY TIME BOMBS (Friday Church News Notes, March 29, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Jan. 26, 2024: “The discovery of tiny pollen grains in rock shows just how inflated the billions of years claimed by evolutionists really are. This discovery, by a creation scientist, has turned those pollen grains into tiny time bombs that continue to damage the theory of evolution. In 1964, Dr. Clifford Burdick devised a new, better way to collect pollen samples, and he used this method to gather samples in the Grand Canyon. These pollen samples, when viewed under the microscope, allowed scientists to identify what kinds of trees they came from. The Hakatai shale, dated by evolutionists at 600 million years old, was among the layers Dr. Burdick examined for pollen. According to evolutionary dating, this layer would not have contained pollen from conifer trees. Conifers supposedly hadn’t yet evolved. When conifer pollen was discovered in the samples, evolutionists quickly claimed that they were modern pollen grains that had contaminated the sample. The problem with the evolutionists’ explanation is that pollen is resistant to staining. Yet, this pollen was stained with red from the shale itself. It must have been there a long time. The experiment was repeated in 1970. Not only were grains of conifer pollen again found, but pollen from oak trees and evidence of other flowering plants were found as well. The discovery of these pollen grains offers scientific evidence that evolution’s time scale and story of history is wrong. The evidence does support the accuracy of the Bible that tells us that all life began during the first week of the Earth’s history a few thousand years ago. Ref: Burdick, Clifford L. ‘Pine pollen in the Grand Canyon,’ Bible-Science Newsletter, June 1981, p. 1.
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).
_____
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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