Friday Church News Notes
April 26, 2024 - Volume 25, Issue 17
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.
David Hughes
SOUTHERN BAPTIST CHURCH WORSHIPS TO HOMOSEXUAL ROCK ANTHEM (Friday Church News Notes, April 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “SBC Megachurch Starts New Sermon Series,” Disntr, Apr. 15, 2024: “David Hughes, the president and CEO of Church ... by the Glades in Coral Springs, Florida, has successfully turned the organization into a highly profitable carnival act. Rather than providing spiritual sustenance through the gospel, Hughes is preoccupied with putting on a spectacle. Week after week, we have reported that this church, which remains in fellowship with the Southern Baptist Convention and the powers that be, blasphemes God with its worldly performances and secular music. This past weekend, Church by the Glades opens a new sermon series on ‘Family’ by worshiping to a popular anthem that is used to open the vast majority of ‘pride’ festivals around the nation. According to one article in Rhino, the band Sister Sledge openly embraced the fact that their song had become such a popular LGBTQ anthem. ‘When Joni Sledge died in 2017, the website TheOutFront.com opened their obit of the singer by saying, ‘Every gay man who’s ever been on a dance floor or attended a Pride Parade knows the words to We Are Family. In fact, it’s practically required for getting one’s official Gay Card.’”
NATIONAL CENTER ON SEXUAL EXPLOITATION’S “DIRTY DOZEN” (Friday Church News Notes, April 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Christian Headlines, Apr. 12, 2024: “Roblox, Spotify, and Meta’s Instagram are popular among children, and they’re also popular among sexual predators according to a new report by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation that placed all three companies on its 2024 Dirty Dozen List of mainstream contributors to sexual abuse and exploitation. The game-playing app Roblox, according to the report, exposes children to ‘highly sexualized content and themes’ and has been used by countless predators to sexually abuse and exploit minors. ... The music service Spotify includes ‘sexually explicit images, sadistic content, and networks trading child sex abuse material,’ ... Meta’s platforms--Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp--have consistently been ranked as ‘the top hotspots for a host of crimes and harms,’ including pedophile networks sharing child sex abuse material, exploitative algorithms promoting children to adults, sex trafficking and image-based sexual abuse, the report says. ... Apple also made the list. It abandoned plans to detect child sex abuse material on iCloud, the report says. Further, it refuses to ‘turn on Communication Safety for teens by default.’”
RUSSIA TARGETING UKRAINIAN CHRISTIANS; HUNDREDS OF CHURCHES DESTROYED (Friday Church News Notes, April 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from the Baptist Press, Apr. 9, 2024: “[Southern Baptist leaders in America have joined Ukrainian Baptist leaders in issuing] a letter urging House Speaker Mike Johnson to ‘consider the plight of Christians’ suffering brutality at the hands of invading Russian forces in Ukraine. The Ukrainian leaders are Yaroslav Pyah, president of Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary, and Valerii Antoniu, president of The Baptist Union of Ukraine. ‘The Russian government’s decision to invade Ukraine and to target Baptists and other evangelical Christians in Ukraine has been a tragic hallmark of the war,’ the letter noted. A systematic erasure of ‘faithful Christians in occupied areas of Ukraine’ has included threats, torture and the removal of pastors, even retired ones who are considered too Western and not sufficiently pro-Russia. ... At least 270 houses of worship, religious educational institutions and sacred sites were either destroyed or damaged during the first five months of the war that began in February 2022. Experts believe it is not a case of collateral damage, but a step toward Russia eventually weaponizing religion and using it as a propaganda tool. Religious organizations are allowed to exist once they ‘fully and publicly support the authorities, namely their military actions,’ said Ruslan Khalikov, a Ukrainian religious expert...”
BACKLASH AGAINST WIND/SOLAR (Friday Church News Notes, April 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Robert Bryce, “Backlash,” Fox News, Apr. 5, 2024: “All around the world, big solar and wind projects are being rejected. From rural England to the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, local communities are rejecting alt-energy development ... As I have documented in the Renewable Rejection Database, there have been at least 639 rejections or restrictions of wind or solar projects in the U.S. alone since 2015. ... Last December, a French court ruled that a wind project in southern France near the town of Luna must be dismantled due to ‘noise complaints from residents and the effect it is having on birds.’ ... In March, a judge in Ireland sided with local landowners and ruled that the noise pollution generated by a wind project in County Wexford built near their properties amounted to a ‘nuisance to the plaintiffs.’ ... In England, the solar rejections are piling up so fast it’s challenging to keep track. Since January, local authorities have rejected a 102-acre project in Cambridgeshire, a 198-acre project in Holbeach, a 66-acre project in Kent, a 96-acre project in Herefordshire, and a 103-acre project in Coventry. ... In January, an Australian court rejected an application for a 10-megawatt solar project proposed near Mudgee in New South Wales. ... Last year, in Canada, regulators in Alberta imposed a moratorium on all wind and solar projects. In February, provincial officials announced updates to their regulations, including a ban on alt-energy projects on prime agricultural land. ... The binding constraint on the growth of solar and wind around the world is that fewer and fewer communities are willing to accept the landscape destruction that comes with large alt-energy projects. And no amount of PR or spin can change that fact.”
GOD’S PEOPLE HAVE THEIR MARCHING ORDERS AND IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH PUBLIC SCHOOLS (Friday Church News Notes, April 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - We publish many facts about the terrible educational, moral, and spiritual condition of America’s public schools, but we don’t give these facts so that Bible-believing Christians will engage in “saving the schools.” There is no possibility of redeeming the public school system in America (or any other nation). It is godless and filthy beyond belief. It is the mystery of iniquity in near full bloom. But the government school system should never have been supported by God’s people even in its more benign condition at its inception in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is never right and biblical for Christian parents to send their children to be educated in a mixed multitude by unregenerate and/or doctrinally unsound teachers in an atmosphere permeated with humanistic “enlightenment” philosophy (2 Co. 6:14-18; Col. 2:6-8; 2 Ti. 3:5) and the world (1 Jo. 2:15-17). We are instructed to teach our children the whole Word of God (De. 6:4-9; 2 Ti. 3:15-17). They are to be taught to observe all things that Christ has given by divine revelation (Mt. 28:19-20), which is the whole Bible. They are to be prepared for salvation and a surrendered life in Christ as priests (1 Pe. 2:5), ambassadors (2 Co. 5:20), soldiers (Eph. 6:10-19), ministers of spiritual gifts (Ro. 12:3-8), builders of the church (1 Co. 3:9-15 Eph. 4:16), and builders of the home (Eph. 5-6). That requires a lot of godly education, and the church, which is the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Ti. 3:15), is the only institution that can give it. The church and home are to operate together in harmony for the great work of raising a godly seed for Christ. God’s instructions for the Christian home are given in the church epistles. The church is to build up the home, and the home is to disciple the children. The pastors and other ministry-gifted men are to be the chief educators (Eph. 4:11-16). The fathers are to be engaged personally and energetically in this business (Eph. 6:4). The mothers are to be the keepers and guides of the home (1 Ti. 5:14 Tit. 2:4-5). God’s people are to live as pilgrims in a foreign world. The Captain’s marching order is to focus like a laser on fulfilling the Great Commission until He comes, and this is emphasized by repetition (Mt. 28:18-20; Mr. 16:15-16; Lu. 24:44-48; Joh. 20:21; Ac. 1:8). He promised to be with those churches that obey this command “even unto the end of the world” (aion, age). The church at Thessalonica got it right and is a model church until the end. “For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Th. 1:9-10).
THE SUN: A GIGANTIC MULTI-FREQUENCY BELL SINGING THE PRAISES OF GOD (Friday Church News Notes, April 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, March 28, 2024: “In Psalm 148:3, the sun, moon and stars are specifically encouraged, along with the rest of creation, to praise God. And truly, God, as our Creator and our Savior through Jesus Christ, is worthy of all praise. But perhaps many Christians have been a little too ready to accept this biblical language as figurative. Based on scientific principles discovered by Isaac Newton, a creationist, a new science has developed today that studies sound waves on the sun. The vibrations on the sun’s surface can be measured as the surface of the sun moves. Scientists studying these movements on the seething surface of the sun have learned with the help of computers that the sun actually rings like a bell! They have found that the sun rings over so many frequencies that there are several million resonances going on all at the same time. Truly, the sun is making a glorious sound to the Lord! Scientists have long known that the Earth does the same thing. And we have learned that the moon, too, has its own song. So next time you read in Scripture about the creation--the sun, moon and Earth--praising God, don’t dismiss the words as figurative! And once more, when the scientists finally arrived at some knowledge, they found that the Bible had already been there--for thousands of years. That alone is a great reason for us to join the sun, moon and Earth in praising our wonderful Creator!”
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).
NATIONAL CENTER ON SEXUAL EXPLOITATION’S “DIRTY DOZEN” (Friday Church News Notes, April 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Christian Headlines, Apr. 12, 2024: “Roblox, Spotify, and Meta’s Instagram are popular among children, and they’re also popular among sexual predators according to a new report by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation that placed all three companies on its 2024 Dirty Dozen List of mainstream contributors to sexual abuse and exploitation. The game-playing app Roblox, according to the report, exposes children to ‘highly sexualized content and themes’ and has been used by countless predators to sexually abuse and exploit minors. ... The music service Spotify includes ‘sexually explicit images, sadistic content, and networks trading child sex abuse material,’ ... Meta’s platforms--Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp--have consistently been ranked as ‘the top hotspots for a host of crimes and harms,’ including pedophile networks sharing child sex abuse material, exploitative algorithms promoting children to adults, sex trafficking and image-based sexual abuse, the report says. ... Apple also made the list. It abandoned plans to detect child sex abuse material on iCloud, the report says. Further, it refuses to ‘turn on Communication Safety for teens by default.’”
RUSSIA TARGETING UKRAINIAN CHRISTIANS; HUNDREDS OF CHURCHES DESTROYED (Friday Church News Notes, April 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from the Baptist Press, Apr. 9, 2024: “[Southern Baptist leaders in America have joined Ukrainian Baptist leaders in issuing] a letter urging House Speaker Mike Johnson to ‘consider the plight of Christians’ suffering brutality at the hands of invading Russian forces in Ukraine. The Ukrainian leaders are Yaroslav Pyah, president of Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary, and Valerii Antoniu, president of The Baptist Union of Ukraine. ‘The Russian government’s decision to invade Ukraine and to target Baptists and other evangelical Christians in Ukraine has been a tragic hallmark of the war,’ the letter noted. A systematic erasure of ‘faithful Christians in occupied areas of Ukraine’ has included threats, torture and the removal of pastors, even retired ones who are considered too Western and not sufficiently pro-Russia. ... At least 270 houses of worship, religious educational institutions and sacred sites were either destroyed or damaged during the first five months of the war that began in February 2022. Experts believe it is not a case of collateral damage, but a step toward Russia eventually weaponizing religion and using it as a propaganda tool. Religious organizations are allowed to exist once they ‘fully and publicly support the authorities, namely their military actions,’ said Ruslan Khalikov, a Ukrainian religious expert...”
BACKLASH AGAINST WIND/SOLAR (Friday Church News Notes, April 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Robert Bryce, “Backlash,” Fox News, Apr. 5, 2024: “All around the world, big solar and wind projects are being rejected. From rural England to the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, local communities are rejecting alt-energy development ... As I have documented in the Renewable Rejection Database, there have been at least 639 rejections or restrictions of wind or solar projects in the U.S. alone since 2015. ... Last December, a French court ruled that a wind project in southern France near the town of Luna must be dismantled due to ‘noise complaints from residents and the effect it is having on birds.’ ... In March, a judge in Ireland sided with local landowners and ruled that the noise pollution generated by a wind project in County Wexford built near their properties amounted to a ‘nuisance to the plaintiffs.’ ... In England, the solar rejections are piling up so fast it’s challenging to keep track. Since January, local authorities have rejected a 102-acre project in Cambridgeshire, a 198-acre project in Holbeach, a 66-acre project in Kent, a 96-acre project in Herefordshire, and a 103-acre project in Coventry. ... In January, an Australian court rejected an application for a 10-megawatt solar project proposed near Mudgee in New South Wales. ... Last year, in Canada, regulators in Alberta imposed a moratorium on all wind and solar projects. In February, provincial officials announced updates to their regulations, including a ban on alt-energy projects on prime agricultural land. ... The binding constraint on the growth of solar and wind around the world is that fewer and fewer communities are willing to accept the landscape destruction that comes with large alt-energy projects. And no amount of PR or spin can change that fact.”
GOD’S PEOPLE HAVE THEIR MARCHING ORDERS AND IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH PUBLIC SCHOOLS (Friday Church News Notes, April 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - We publish many facts about the terrible educational, moral, and spiritual condition of America’s public schools, but we don’t give these facts so that Bible-believing Christians will engage in “saving the schools.” There is no possibility of redeeming the public school system in America (or any other nation). It is godless and filthy beyond belief. It is the mystery of iniquity in near full bloom. But the government school system should never have been supported by God’s people even in its more benign condition at its inception in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is never right and biblical for Christian parents to send their children to be educated in a mixed multitude by unregenerate and/or doctrinally unsound teachers in an atmosphere permeated with humanistic “enlightenment” philosophy (2 Co. 6:14-18; Col. 2:6-8; 2 Ti. 3:5) and the world (1 Jo. 2:15-17). We are instructed to teach our children the whole Word of God (De. 6:4-9; 2 Ti. 3:15-17). They are to be taught to observe all things that Christ has given by divine revelation (Mt. 28:19-20), which is the whole Bible. They are to be prepared for salvation and a surrendered life in Christ as priests (1 Pe. 2:5), ambassadors (2 Co. 5:20), soldiers (Eph. 6:10-19), ministers of spiritual gifts (Ro. 12:3-8), builders of the church (1 Co. 3:9-15 Eph. 4:16), and builders of the home (Eph. 5-6). That requires a lot of godly education, and the church, which is the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Ti. 3:15), is the only institution that can give it. The church and home are to operate together in harmony for the great work of raising a godly seed for Christ. God’s instructions for the Christian home are given in the church epistles. The church is to build up the home, and the home is to disciple the children. The pastors and other ministry-gifted men are to be the chief educators (Eph. 4:11-16). The fathers are to be engaged personally and energetically in this business (Eph. 6:4). The mothers are to be the keepers and guides of the home (1 Ti. 5:14 Tit. 2:4-5). God’s people are to live as pilgrims in a foreign world. The Captain’s marching order is to focus like a laser on fulfilling the Great Commission until He comes, and this is emphasized by repetition (Mt. 28:18-20; Mr. 16:15-16; Lu. 24:44-48; Joh. 20:21; Ac. 1:8). He promised to be with those churches that obey this command “even unto the end of the world” (aion, age). The church at Thessalonica got it right and is a model church until the end. “For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Th. 1:9-10).
THE SUN: A GIGANTIC MULTI-FREQUENCY BELL SINGING THE PRAISES OF GOD (Friday Church News Notes, April 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, March 28, 2024: “In Psalm 148:3, the sun, moon and stars are specifically encouraged, along with the rest of creation, to praise God. And truly, God, as our Creator and our Savior through Jesus Christ, is worthy of all praise. But perhaps many Christians have been a little too ready to accept this biblical language as figurative. Based on scientific principles discovered by Isaac Newton, a creationist, a new science has developed today that studies sound waves on the sun. The vibrations on the sun’s surface can be measured as the surface of the sun moves. Scientists studying these movements on the seething surface of the sun have learned with the help of computers that the sun actually rings like a bell! They have found that the sun rings over so many frequencies that there are several million resonances going on all at the same time. Truly, the sun is making a glorious sound to the Lord! Scientists have long known that the Earth does the same thing. And we have learned that the moon, too, has its own song. So next time you read in Scripture about the creation--the sun, moon and Earth--praising God, don’t dismiss the words as figurative! And once more, when the scientists finally arrived at some knowledge, they found that the Bible had already been there--for thousands of years. That alone is a great reason for us to join the sun, moon and Earth in praising our wonderful Creator!”
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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