Friday Church News Notes
May 3, 2024 - Volume 25, Issue 18
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.
Levites gather in Jerusalem to re-enact their musical role in the Temple.
LEVITES TUNE UP FOR THE THIRD TEMPLE (Friday Church News Notes, May 3, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Levites Tune up for the Third Temple” is the title of a report in Israel365News for May 3, 2024. Following is an excerpt: “On Thursday, the third intermediary day of Passover, Levites gathered in Jerusalem to reenact their musical role in the Temple. A group of about two dozen Levites gathered in the Old City to practice their singing while wearing garments designed for use by the Temple musicians in the Third Temple. ... The Gaon of Vilna (an 18th-century Torah sage) said that the Temple music would be the last secret to be revealed before the Messiah.” We know from Bible prophecy that the Third Temple will be built, and it will be occupied by the Antichrist, who will declare himself to be God and demand the worship of the entire world (2 Thessalonians 2:3-9; Revelation 13:4-8, 16-17). His entrance into the temple will mark the beginning of the great tribulation (Matthew 24:15-22). The preparations for the Third Temple is a major sign of the times. The hour is very, very late, and if the redeemed saints are going to serve Christ, we must do it now and not allow ourselves to be sidetracked to lesser things.
CECIL WILLIAMS - THE EPITOME OF APOSTASY (Friday Church News Notes, May 3, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Cecil Williams, who died April 22 at age 94, was the epitome of apostasy. He pastored Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco for nearly six decades. Aligned with the United Methodist Church, Glide Memorial traded biblical Christianity for fables in fulfillment of 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” The PBS documentary on Williams, This Far by Faith, said, “He opened the church to jazz music, gays, hippies, addicts, the poor, poets, and anyone else who wanted to come. He hosted political rallies and services, including a Hooker Convention, speeches by Angela Davis, and the Black Panthers.” Under Williams’ leadership, Glide Memorial’s “celebrations” included dancing and nudity. Speaking at a meeting connected with the 1972 United Methodist Quadrennial Conference, Williams said, “I don’t want to go to no heaven ... I don’t believe in that stuff.” In 1965, Williams began performing homosexual “weddings.” Bono of the rock band U2 said he attended Glide Memorial frequently (Flanagan, U2 at the End of the World, p. 99). U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris, who formerly served as district attorney of San Francisco, said in her eulogy of Williams that she has “many fond memories over the years of attending GLIDE’s morning sermon on Thanksgiving” and “our country is more just, more compassionate, and stronger for the leadership of Reverend Cecil Williams.” Williams was a good fit for the United Methodist Church. As early as 1927, Methodist Bishop Francis McConnell denied the deity of Jesus Christ in his book The Christlike God. McConnell said, “Is not this tendency to deify Jesus more heathen than Christian?”
SBC CONGREGATION IS A PERFECT DEFINITION OF “EMERGING CHURCH” (Friday Church News Notes, May 3, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Woodmont Baptist Church of Nashville, Tennessee, is the perfect definition of an “emerging church.” Jonathan Howe, CEO of the Southern Baptist Executive Committee, is a member of Woodmont, and the church gives generously to the SBC Cooperative Program. Note the following statement the church posted this year to justchurchjobs.com, “Woodmont is affiliated with both the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Currently, the church is pastor and deacon-led and congregationally ruled. Women serve in all levels of leadership according to their gifts and calling. Our neighborhood and our city have changed drastically over the past eight decades, and it is vital that the candidate fit with both the culture of our congregation and of Nashville.” This is a clear statement of the fundamental aspect of the emerging church philosophy, which is that churches must adapt to the times and the predominant culture. This church is aligned both with the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). The latter is the ultra-liberal denomination that formed in reaction to the Southern Baptist’s more conservative direction in the 1980s. In 1990, 1,900 churches broke away from the SBC to form the CBF. The 1994 CBF Pre-Assembly Institute featured Mercer University professor of New Testament and preaching, Paul Duke. He stated, “Scripture is not our ultimate authority ... Homosexuality is not a major concern of the Bible. ... I cannot with confidence say that the Bible condemns all forms of homosexual behavior...” (Calvary Contender, June 1, 1999). At the 2000 CBF annual assembly, which included auxiliary organization Baptist Women in Ministry, treasurer Sally Burgess said, “God is good, and She knows what She’s doing.” The women were encouraged to use “Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer” instead of “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” The bookstore featured the United Methodist inclusive language hymnal that addresses God as “mother” and “womb of creation.” One hymn calls the earth “your Mother.” The 2001 CBF general assembly sang a hymn entitled “Mother God,” which depicts God as “strong Mother” and “old aching God.” At the 2002 CBF’s annual assembly, the book The Wisdom of Daughters was sold, advocating lesbianism, abortion, worship of a female Sophia goddess, and the practice of Wicca. One essay in this book described the doctrine of Christ’s substitutionary death for man’s sin as an example of “divine child abuse.” This perverted book was commended in materials distributed at the conference by Baptist Women in Ministry. Speaking at the 2003 CBF general assembly, Tony Campolo said anyone who resists women pastors is an “instrument of the devil.” He said every Christian should support homosexuals as they “struggle for dignity.” He said Harry Potter, which is filled with witchcraft, is “good for kids to hear.” He said preachers should warn about dispensational theology and the doctrine of an imminent rapture. Many churches are dually aligned with both the SBC and the CBF.
REPORTS ON FREEMASONRY AND THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION (Friday Church News Notes, May 3, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Southern Baptist Convention has long been tied in closely with Freemasonry in spite of its clear pagan beliefs and false gospel. The Scottish Rite Journal in February 1993 stated that “Masons believe in the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man...” In the 1990s, 14 percent of SBC pastors and 18 percent of deacons were Masons (Calvary Contender, June 1, 1993). We don’t know the statistics today, but Freemasonry remains well entrenched. In 1992, an attempt to root Freemasonry out of the Convention failed decidedly. The chairman of the Home Mission Board, Ron Phillips, stated that he did not agree with the conclusion that Masonry is incompatible with Christianity and that he knew many “dedicated Christian men” who are Masons (Christian News, March 15, 1993). It quickly became obvious that the Southern Baptist Convention was more concerned with retaining members and maintaining harmony than in dealing with false gospels and spiritual compromise. Southern Baptist physician Dr. James Holly, who led the attempt to root out Freemasonry, said, “Southern Baptists have become the first Christian denomination that essentially blesses the Masonic Lodge” (Christian News, Dec. 20, 1993). Following is a link to current reports about the Southern Baptist Convention and Freemasonry - https://pulpitandpen.org/series/freemasonry/
OLD BAPTISTS AND REGENERATE CHURCH MEMBERSHIP (Friday Church News Notes, May 3, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In 1867, J.M. Pendleton’s influential Church Manual Designed for the Use of Baptist Churches emphasized a regenerate church membership: “Let it never be forgotten that the only suitable materials of which to construct a church of Christ, so far as spiritual qualifications are concerned, are regenerate, penitent, believing persons. To make use of other materials is to subvert the fundamental principles of church organization. It is to destroy the kingdom of Christ; for how can there be a kingdom without such subjects as the King requires? ... Great care should be exercised in receiving members. ... There is much danger of this, especially in times of religious excitement. Pastors should positively assure themselves that those who are received for baptism have felt themselves to be guilty, ruined, helpless sinners, justly condemned by God’s holy law; and under a sense of their lost condition have trusted in Christ for salvation” (Pendleton, Church Manual, 1867).
HOW THE NOSE WORKS (Friday Church News Notes, May 3, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, April 23, 2024: “Some things don’t have to be understood to be appreciated. You can enjoy the smell of dinner cooking or the scent of a rose without any idea of how your nose works. And believe it or not, you’re doing just as well as the most brilliant biologist. While your nose knows how it works, science cannot explain just how we sense scents. It is known that inside our noses, behind the bridge of the nose, are cells that can sense smell. These cells are able to detect and identify airborne molecules from an open rose or a cooking roast. But no one knows just how these cells turn those molecules into the sense of smell that we experience. To make matters more complicated, the sense of smell is one of our most complex senses. A single seemingly simple odor may contain more than 1,000 different chemicals. One sniff is likely to start activity all over the brain. Scientists have proven what experience has already shown most of us – a smell can also trigger emotions and memories, depending on an experience related to that smell. In addition, your sense of smell is linked to your sense of taste, which is why food can seem to be tasteless when you have a head cold. A sense of smell has saved countless lives and brought joy and pleasure to all but those few whose sense of smell has malfunctioned. It is so complex that modern science doesn’t know how it works – yet another testimony to the wisdom of our loving Creator. Reyneri, Adriana. ‘The nose knows, but science doesn’t,’ Science 84, September 1984. p. 26.”
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).
CECIL WILLIAMS - THE EPITOME OF APOSTASY (Friday Church News Notes, May 3, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Cecil Williams, who died April 22 at age 94, was the epitome of apostasy. He pastored Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco for nearly six decades. Aligned with the United Methodist Church, Glide Memorial traded biblical Christianity for fables in fulfillment of 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” The PBS documentary on Williams, This Far by Faith, said, “He opened the church to jazz music, gays, hippies, addicts, the poor, poets, and anyone else who wanted to come. He hosted political rallies and services, including a Hooker Convention, speeches by Angela Davis, and the Black Panthers.” Under Williams’ leadership, Glide Memorial’s “celebrations” included dancing and nudity. Speaking at a meeting connected with the 1972 United Methodist Quadrennial Conference, Williams said, “I don’t want to go to no heaven ... I don’t believe in that stuff.” In 1965, Williams began performing homosexual “weddings.” Bono of the rock band U2 said he attended Glide Memorial frequently (Flanagan, U2 at the End of the World, p. 99). U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris, who formerly served as district attorney of San Francisco, said in her eulogy of Williams that she has “many fond memories over the years of attending GLIDE’s morning sermon on Thanksgiving” and “our country is more just, more compassionate, and stronger for the leadership of Reverend Cecil Williams.” Williams was a good fit for the United Methodist Church. As early as 1927, Methodist Bishop Francis McConnell denied the deity of Jesus Christ in his book The Christlike God. McConnell said, “Is not this tendency to deify Jesus more heathen than Christian?”
SBC CONGREGATION IS A PERFECT DEFINITION OF “EMERGING CHURCH” (Friday Church News Notes, May 3, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Woodmont Baptist Church of Nashville, Tennessee, is the perfect definition of an “emerging church.” Jonathan Howe, CEO of the Southern Baptist Executive Committee, is a member of Woodmont, and the church gives generously to the SBC Cooperative Program. Note the following statement the church posted this year to justchurchjobs.com, “Woodmont is affiliated with both the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Currently, the church is pastor and deacon-led and congregationally ruled. Women serve in all levels of leadership according to their gifts and calling. Our neighborhood and our city have changed drastically over the past eight decades, and it is vital that the candidate fit with both the culture of our congregation and of Nashville.” This is a clear statement of the fundamental aspect of the emerging church philosophy, which is that churches must adapt to the times and the predominant culture. This church is aligned both with the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). The latter is the ultra-liberal denomination that formed in reaction to the Southern Baptist’s more conservative direction in the 1980s. In 1990, 1,900 churches broke away from the SBC to form the CBF. The 1994 CBF Pre-Assembly Institute featured Mercer University professor of New Testament and preaching, Paul Duke. He stated, “Scripture is not our ultimate authority ... Homosexuality is not a major concern of the Bible. ... I cannot with confidence say that the Bible condemns all forms of homosexual behavior...” (Calvary Contender, June 1, 1999). At the 2000 CBF annual assembly, which included auxiliary organization Baptist Women in Ministry, treasurer Sally Burgess said, “God is good, and She knows what She’s doing.” The women were encouraged to use “Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer” instead of “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” The bookstore featured the United Methodist inclusive language hymnal that addresses God as “mother” and “womb of creation.” One hymn calls the earth “your Mother.” The 2001 CBF general assembly sang a hymn entitled “Mother God,” which depicts God as “strong Mother” and “old aching God.” At the 2002 CBF’s annual assembly, the book The Wisdom of Daughters was sold, advocating lesbianism, abortion, worship of a female Sophia goddess, and the practice of Wicca. One essay in this book described the doctrine of Christ’s substitutionary death for man’s sin as an example of “divine child abuse.” This perverted book was commended in materials distributed at the conference by Baptist Women in Ministry. Speaking at the 2003 CBF general assembly, Tony Campolo said anyone who resists women pastors is an “instrument of the devil.” He said every Christian should support homosexuals as they “struggle for dignity.” He said Harry Potter, which is filled with witchcraft, is “good for kids to hear.” He said preachers should warn about dispensational theology and the doctrine of an imminent rapture. Many churches are dually aligned with both the SBC and the CBF.
REPORTS ON FREEMASONRY AND THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION (Friday Church News Notes, May 3, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Southern Baptist Convention has long been tied in closely with Freemasonry in spite of its clear pagan beliefs and false gospel. The Scottish Rite Journal in February 1993 stated that “Masons believe in the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man...” In the 1990s, 14 percent of SBC pastors and 18 percent of deacons were Masons (Calvary Contender, June 1, 1993). We don’t know the statistics today, but Freemasonry remains well entrenched. In 1992, an attempt to root Freemasonry out of the Convention failed decidedly. The chairman of the Home Mission Board, Ron Phillips, stated that he did not agree with the conclusion that Masonry is incompatible with Christianity and that he knew many “dedicated Christian men” who are Masons (Christian News, March 15, 1993). It quickly became obvious that the Southern Baptist Convention was more concerned with retaining members and maintaining harmony than in dealing with false gospels and spiritual compromise. Southern Baptist physician Dr. James Holly, who led the attempt to root out Freemasonry, said, “Southern Baptists have become the first Christian denomination that essentially blesses the Masonic Lodge” (Christian News, Dec. 20, 1993). Following is a link to current reports about the Southern Baptist Convention and Freemasonry - https://pulpitandpen.org/series/freemasonry/
OLD BAPTISTS AND REGENERATE CHURCH MEMBERSHIP (Friday Church News Notes, May 3, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In 1867, J.M. Pendleton’s influential Church Manual Designed for the Use of Baptist Churches emphasized a regenerate church membership: “Let it never be forgotten that the only suitable materials of which to construct a church of Christ, so far as spiritual qualifications are concerned, are regenerate, penitent, believing persons. To make use of other materials is to subvert the fundamental principles of church organization. It is to destroy the kingdom of Christ; for how can there be a kingdom without such subjects as the King requires? ... Great care should be exercised in receiving members. ... There is much danger of this, especially in times of religious excitement. Pastors should positively assure themselves that those who are received for baptism have felt themselves to be guilty, ruined, helpless sinners, justly condemned by God’s holy law; and under a sense of their lost condition have trusted in Christ for salvation” (Pendleton, Church Manual, 1867).
HOW THE NOSE WORKS (Friday Church News Notes, May 3, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, April 23, 2024: “Some things don’t have to be understood to be appreciated. You can enjoy the smell of dinner cooking or the scent of a rose without any idea of how your nose works. And believe it or not, you’re doing just as well as the most brilliant biologist. While your nose knows how it works, science cannot explain just how we sense scents. It is known that inside our noses, behind the bridge of the nose, are cells that can sense smell. These cells are able to detect and identify airborne molecules from an open rose or a cooking roast. But no one knows just how these cells turn those molecules into the sense of smell that we experience. To make matters more complicated, the sense of smell is one of our most complex senses. A single seemingly simple odor may contain more than 1,000 different chemicals. One sniff is likely to start activity all over the brain. Scientists have proven what experience has already shown most of us – a smell can also trigger emotions and memories, depending on an experience related to that smell. In addition, your sense of smell is linked to your sense of taste, which is why food can seem to be tasteless when you have a head cold. A sense of smell has saved countless lives and brought joy and pleasure to all but those few whose sense of smell has malfunctioned. It is so complex that modern science doesn’t know how it works – yet another testimony to the wisdom of our loving Creator. Reyneri, Adriana. ‘The nose knows, but science doesn’t,’ Science 84, September 1984. p. 26.”
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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