Friday Church News Notes
May 10, 2024 - Volume 25, Issue 19
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.
UNITED METHODIST CHURCH VOTES IN FAVOR OF HOMOSEXUAL PASTORS AND SAME-SEX “MARRIAGE” (Friday Church News Notes, May 10, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - After long years of the leavening of theological liberalism, the United Methodist Church voted to remove its ban on homosexual pastors and same-sex “marriages.” The vote at the General Conference on May 1 was 692-51. This follows the departure of more than 7,600 congregations over the last four years in protest of the denomination’s apostasy. Most have joined The Global Methodist Church (GMC) which was founded in 2022. The United Methodist Church was formed in 1968 from a merger of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church. It has been declining in membership each year, having lost almost two million members in the 1970s and ‘80s alone. As early as 1968 a widely publicized scientific survey by Jeffrey Hadden and published by the Washington University showed that about 60% of the Methodist clergy did not believe in the virgin birth and at least 50% did not believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ. Methodist Bishop Gerald Kennedy in Los Angeles was spouting every sort of unbelief and heresy prior to 1950. He denied the divine inspiration of Scripture, the Trinity, the Deity of Christ, the vicarious Atonement, and the Second Coming. Kennedy stupidly said, “I believe the testimony of the New Testament taken as a whole is against the deity of Jesus.”
ELITE UNIVERSITY REMOVES DEI REQUIREMENT (Friday Church News Notes, May 10, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Elite University eliminates DEI hiring requirement,” Fox News Digital, May 6, 2024: “The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) became the first elite institution to scrap diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) statements from its faculty hiring process. On Sunday, the school confirmed to UnHerd that it was removing a requirement that mandated all prospective faculty submit a diversity, equity and inclusion statement during the hiring process. A university spokesperson told Fox News Digital that ‘requests for a statement on diversity will no longer be part of applications for any faculty positions at MIT’ and added that the decision was made by the school’s president, Sally Kornbluth, with the support of the Provost, Chancellor, and all six academic deans. ‘My goals are to tap into the full scope of human talent, to bring the very best to MIT, and to make sure they thrive once here,’ Kornbluth said. ‘We can build an inclusive environment in many ways, but compelled statements impinge on freedom of expression, and they don’t work.’ Prior to the change, MIT required candidates applying for faculty positions to submit a statement that ‘demonstrates knowledge of challenges related to diversity, equity, and inclusion’ as well as outlining their ‘track record of working with diverse groups of people’ and how they plan to advance DEI in their position at the school, according to MIT’s Communication Lab. A 2023 survey conducted by freedom of speech advocacy group the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) found that ‘large portions of MIT faculty and students are afraid to express their views in various academic settings.’ ... Last month, a Harvard Law School professor penned a column in the Harvard Crimson urging the Ivy League to eliminate its mandatory DEI statements, arguing that they force faculty and staff to ‘toe a political line.’”
TOP FREEMASON SPEAKS OUT AGAINST THE CRAFT (Friday Church News Notes, May 10, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is a brief excerpt from “Top Freemason,” PulpitandPen.org, July 19, 2018: “Some months ago, a Tennessean named Glenn Beck reached out to me regarding my research into and publications about the unbiblical nature of the cult of Freemasonry. Glenn is a Southern Baptist deacon and Sunday School teacher. He is also, perhaps, the most decorated Freemason ever to leave the craft and speak out against it. A few weeks ago, I traveled to East Tennessee and sat down with Glenn for an in-depth interview about his experience as a Freemason. ... [He said,] ’I took the three degrees of Blue Lodge and was raised a Master Mason in 1976. After becoming a Master Mason, I petitioned for the Scottish Rite and became a Shriner, all in 1976. ... I was a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason. ... I also went into the Eastern Star, my wife and I, and served as Worthy Patron six times. ... Around 1995, I became interested in the York Rite and petitioned for those degrees. ... [Eventually] I demitted from the Blue Lodge, which removed me from all Masonic bodies. If Masonry is designed to give more light, then I received enough light to know that I wasn’t getting the real light. Masonry is darkness. ... I was led to repent of all the obligations that I had taken. It is unbiblical. It is hypocritical. ... Speaking as a Christian, and using my definition of a ‘Christian,’ Masonry is not compatible to anyone who professes to be a follower of Jesus Christ. ... Masonry teaches universality. It is [claimed] that Masonry is not a religion, but it’s based on religious tenets. ... The Masonic oaths and obligations are the ties that bind. I think it is a form of religious Christian Gnosticism. ... The Masonic funeral preaches you right into Heaven, whether you have any church affiliation or not. ... Every Mason gets the same Masonic rites. The Masons will tell you they are not a religion and that they don’t teach a way of salvation, just morals. [But] the funeral rite mentions God (the Great Architect of the Universe) and Heaven (the Celestial Lodge). Being a Mason will get you into the Celestial Lodge above.”
NEW SCIENTIFIC STUDY AFFIRMS THAT JERUSALEM WAS A MAJOR CITY UNDER DAVID AND SOLOMON (Friday Church News Notes, May 10, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “New Scientific Study,” Crosswalk Headlines, May 3, 2024: “For decades, archaeologists and historians have debated whether the Bible’s description of Jerusalem as a large city during the time of kings David and Solomon was accurate or--as skeptics suggested --the biblical account was inaccurate, and Jerusalem instead was an insignificant town or village. Now, though, a new major scientific study in Israel has affirmed what Scripture describes as a large urban area. The study was conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority, Tel Aviv University, and the Weizmann Institute of Science and uses science ‘in order to link events mentioned in the Bible to archaeological findings unearthed in the city of David.’ ‘The new research sheds light on one of the longstanding and controversial research questions regarding the nature and scope of Jerusalem during the reigns of David and Solomon and thereafter: the findings from the new research indicate that there was a widespread settlement in Jerusalem during this period,’ the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said in a news release. As part of the research, scientists studied grape seeds, date pits, bat skeletons, and other natural materials found in structures at four different excavation areas in the City of David on the eastern and western slopes. ... The scientific study, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, ‘brings tantalizing clues that the city was already an important urban center in David and Solomon’s time and not an insignificant village, as scholars more skeptical of biblical historicity have long maintained.’”
OLD BAPTISTS AND REGENERATE CHURCH MEMBERSHIP (Friday Church News Notes, May 10, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Charleston Summary of Church Discipline of 1774: “The temple of the Lord is not to be built with dead but living materials, 1 Pe. 2:5. None have a right to church membership but such as Christ will own as his sincere followers at the last decisive day, whatever pretensions they may make to an interest in his favor, Mt. 7:22, 23. ... None are fit materials of a gospel church, without having first experienced an entire change of nature, Mt. 18:3. ... By nature we are dead in trespasses and sins, and Christ does not place such dead materials in his spiritual building. It is certain the Ephesian church was not composed of such materials, Eph. 2:1. ... The members of the church at Colosse are denominated not only saints, but faithful brethren in Christ, Col. 1:2, or true believers in him. None but such have a right to ordinances, Acts 8:37. Without faith none discern the Lord’s body in the Supper, and consequently must eat and drink unworthily, 1 Co. 11:29. ... Their lives and conversations ought to be such as becometh the gospel of Christ, Php. 1:27; that is holy, just, and upright, Psalm 15:1, 2; if their practice contradicts their profession they are not to be admitted to church membership. ... Persons making application are to be admitted into the communion of a church by the common suffrage of its members; being first satisfied that they have the qualifications laid down in the preceding section; for which purpose candidates must come under examination before the church; and if it should happen that they do not give satisfaction, they should be set aside until a more satisfactory profession is made, 1 Ti. 6:12.”
THE BAT COMPUTER (Friday Church News Notes, May 10, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, April 2, 2024: “Nearly everyone is familiar with the way in which the whistle of a train moving toward them lowers in pitch as the train passes. The change in pitch is caused by the change in the movement of the train relative to the listener. First it is moving toward the listener, but after it passes it is moving away. This change in pitch is called Doppler shifting. Now let’s apply this principle to the bat’s echolocation system. Bats are most sensitive to certain frequencies as they listen for the echo of their high pitched squeak. If you are a bat, you listen for echoes from stationary objects around you, like trees, as well as moving objects, such as an insect that is about to become lunch. Because of the differences in the movements of these objects relative to your flight, Doppler shifting changes the pitch of returning echoes. That change could place a returning echo outside the range of frequencies to which you are most sensitive. Scientists have discovered that the bat solves this problem by calculating the expected change in frequency due to Doppler shifting and then altering his squeak so that the returning echo is at the needed frequency! How many of us could do that without a computer and other sophisticated equipment? Amazingly, the Creator has gone so far as to make the bat a bit of a physicist so it can make its living. What an elegant testimony to God’s wisdom and generosity! REF.: ‘Bats alter frequency of squeaks to aid hunt for prey,’ The San Diego Union, Mon., Oct. 23, 1989. p. D1.”
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).
ELITE UNIVERSITY REMOVES DEI REQUIREMENT (Friday Church News Notes, May 10, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Elite University eliminates DEI hiring requirement,” Fox News Digital, May 6, 2024: “The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) became the first elite institution to scrap diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) statements from its faculty hiring process. On Sunday, the school confirmed to UnHerd that it was removing a requirement that mandated all prospective faculty submit a diversity, equity and inclusion statement during the hiring process. A university spokesperson told Fox News Digital that ‘requests for a statement on diversity will no longer be part of applications for any faculty positions at MIT’ and added that the decision was made by the school’s president, Sally Kornbluth, with the support of the Provost, Chancellor, and all six academic deans. ‘My goals are to tap into the full scope of human talent, to bring the very best to MIT, and to make sure they thrive once here,’ Kornbluth said. ‘We can build an inclusive environment in many ways, but compelled statements impinge on freedom of expression, and they don’t work.’ Prior to the change, MIT required candidates applying for faculty positions to submit a statement that ‘demonstrates knowledge of challenges related to diversity, equity, and inclusion’ as well as outlining their ‘track record of working with diverse groups of people’ and how they plan to advance DEI in their position at the school, according to MIT’s Communication Lab. A 2023 survey conducted by freedom of speech advocacy group the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) found that ‘large portions of MIT faculty and students are afraid to express their views in various academic settings.’ ... Last month, a Harvard Law School professor penned a column in the Harvard Crimson urging the Ivy League to eliminate its mandatory DEI statements, arguing that they force faculty and staff to ‘toe a political line.’”
TOP FREEMASON SPEAKS OUT AGAINST THE CRAFT (Friday Church News Notes, May 10, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is a brief excerpt from “Top Freemason,” PulpitandPen.org, July 19, 2018: “Some months ago, a Tennessean named Glenn Beck reached out to me regarding my research into and publications about the unbiblical nature of the cult of Freemasonry. Glenn is a Southern Baptist deacon and Sunday School teacher. He is also, perhaps, the most decorated Freemason ever to leave the craft and speak out against it. A few weeks ago, I traveled to East Tennessee and sat down with Glenn for an in-depth interview about his experience as a Freemason. ... [He said,] ’I took the three degrees of Blue Lodge and was raised a Master Mason in 1976. After becoming a Master Mason, I petitioned for the Scottish Rite and became a Shriner, all in 1976. ... I was a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason. ... I also went into the Eastern Star, my wife and I, and served as Worthy Patron six times. ... Around 1995, I became interested in the York Rite and petitioned for those degrees. ... [Eventually] I demitted from the Blue Lodge, which removed me from all Masonic bodies. If Masonry is designed to give more light, then I received enough light to know that I wasn’t getting the real light. Masonry is darkness. ... I was led to repent of all the obligations that I had taken. It is unbiblical. It is hypocritical. ... Speaking as a Christian, and using my definition of a ‘Christian,’ Masonry is not compatible to anyone who professes to be a follower of Jesus Christ. ... Masonry teaches universality. It is [claimed] that Masonry is not a religion, but it’s based on religious tenets. ... The Masonic oaths and obligations are the ties that bind. I think it is a form of religious Christian Gnosticism. ... The Masonic funeral preaches you right into Heaven, whether you have any church affiliation or not. ... Every Mason gets the same Masonic rites. The Masons will tell you they are not a religion and that they don’t teach a way of salvation, just morals. [But] the funeral rite mentions God (the Great Architect of the Universe) and Heaven (the Celestial Lodge). Being a Mason will get you into the Celestial Lodge above.”
NEW SCIENTIFIC STUDY AFFIRMS THAT JERUSALEM WAS A MAJOR CITY UNDER DAVID AND SOLOMON (Friday Church News Notes, May 10, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “New Scientific Study,” Crosswalk Headlines, May 3, 2024: “For decades, archaeologists and historians have debated whether the Bible’s description of Jerusalem as a large city during the time of kings David and Solomon was accurate or--as skeptics suggested --the biblical account was inaccurate, and Jerusalem instead was an insignificant town or village. Now, though, a new major scientific study in Israel has affirmed what Scripture describes as a large urban area. The study was conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority, Tel Aviv University, and the Weizmann Institute of Science and uses science ‘in order to link events mentioned in the Bible to archaeological findings unearthed in the city of David.’ ‘The new research sheds light on one of the longstanding and controversial research questions regarding the nature and scope of Jerusalem during the reigns of David and Solomon and thereafter: the findings from the new research indicate that there was a widespread settlement in Jerusalem during this period,’ the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said in a news release. As part of the research, scientists studied grape seeds, date pits, bat skeletons, and other natural materials found in structures at four different excavation areas in the City of David on the eastern and western slopes. ... The scientific study, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, ‘brings tantalizing clues that the city was already an important urban center in David and Solomon’s time and not an insignificant village, as scholars more skeptical of biblical historicity have long maintained.’”
OLD BAPTISTS AND REGENERATE CHURCH MEMBERSHIP (Friday Church News Notes, May 10, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Charleston Summary of Church Discipline of 1774: “The temple of the Lord is not to be built with dead but living materials, 1 Pe. 2:5. None have a right to church membership but such as Christ will own as his sincere followers at the last decisive day, whatever pretensions they may make to an interest in his favor, Mt. 7:22, 23. ... None are fit materials of a gospel church, without having first experienced an entire change of nature, Mt. 18:3. ... By nature we are dead in trespasses and sins, and Christ does not place such dead materials in his spiritual building. It is certain the Ephesian church was not composed of such materials, Eph. 2:1. ... The members of the church at Colosse are denominated not only saints, but faithful brethren in Christ, Col. 1:2, or true believers in him. None but such have a right to ordinances, Acts 8:37. Without faith none discern the Lord’s body in the Supper, and consequently must eat and drink unworthily, 1 Co. 11:29. ... Their lives and conversations ought to be such as becometh the gospel of Christ, Php. 1:27; that is holy, just, and upright, Psalm 15:1, 2; if their practice contradicts their profession they are not to be admitted to church membership. ... Persons making application are to be admitted into the communion of a church by the common suffrage of its members; being first satisfied that they have the qualifications laid down in the preceding section; for which purpose candidates must come under examination before the church; and if it should happen that they do not give satisfaction, they should be set aside until a more satisfactory profession is made, 1 Ti. 6:12.”
THE BAT COMPUTER (Friday Church News Notes, May 10, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, April 2, 2024: “Nearly everyone is familiar with the way in which the whistle of a train moving toward them lowers in pitch as the train passes. The change in pitch is caused by the change in the movement of the train relative to the listener. First it is moving toward the listener, but after it passes it is moving away. This change in pitch is called Doppler shifting. Now let’s apply this principle to the bat’s echolocation system. Bats are most sensitive to certain frequencies as they listen for the echo of their high pitched squeak. If you are a bat, you listen for echoes from stationary objects around you, like trees, as well as moving objects, such as an insect that is about to become lunch. Because of the differences in the movements of these objects relative to your flight, Doppler shifting changes the pitch of returning echoes. That change could place a returning echo outside the range of frequencies to which you are most sensitive. Scientists have discovered that the bat solves this problem by calculating the expected change in frequency due to Doppler shifting and then altering his squeak so that the returning echo is at the needed frequency! How many of us could do that without a computer and other sophisticated equipment? Amazingly, the Creator has gone so far as to make the bat a bit of a physicist so it can make its living. What an elegant testimony to God’s wisdom and generosity! REF.: ‘Bats alter frequency of squeaks to aid hunt for prey,’ The San Diego Union, Mon., Oct. 23, 1989. p. D1.”
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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