Friday Church News Notes
July 5, 2024 - Volume 25, Issue 27
The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, though this does not imply an endorsement.
THE PRIDE FLAG A SYMBOL OF AUTHORITARIANISM (Friday Church News Notes, July 5, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “The Pride Flag,” PJMedia, June 13, 2024: “Obviously, to the LGBTQ community, the pride flag--regardless of its iteration--is a symbol of diversity, unity, and pride. Yet, every June, we learn what the flag’s true colors are. Whatever the flag purported to represent in the past, it now represents a movement that has become entrenched in intolerance, coercion, and oppression. Throughout the year, but especially during the month of June, various institutions display the pride flag to not only virtue signal their support of the LGBTQ community but also declare their loyalty to leftist social values. This display, especially when mandated or strongly encouraged in workplaces, schools, and public spaces, forces individuals to conform to an ideology they may not agree with. Dissenting voices are often labeled as bigoted or regressive, stifling genuine discourse and marginalizing those with differing beliefs. ... On top of that, there’s a growing movement to force compliance with the LGBTQ agenda, including laws and regulations compelling the use of ‘preferred pronouns.’ Such mandates typically emerge under the guise of inclusivity, but in reality, they are the epitome of authoritarianism as our government attempts to enforce compliance with this ideology. Meanwhile, the LGBTQ movement and its allies marginalize and attack religious communities with traditional values. ... The flag really stands for the oppression of anyone who disagrees with this ideology.”
SPORTS LIKE A DRUG TESTIMONY (Friday Church News Notes, July 5, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is a testimony from a reader in response to the report last week “Sports Like a Drug”: “I grew up worshiping sports in Metro Detroit, a spoiled brat who went to 15-20 professional sporting events a year between 1987 and 2007. I moved West to pursue a career in sportswriting as a lost soul. I got saved in Idaho in 2011. Then the Lord Jesus Christ began to pull up the blinds of reality and show the idolatry of sports worship. I no longer watch professional sports and want absolutely nothing to do with it. It is a god in this culture. So thank you for writing about it, because many pastors in a major metropolitan area will promote their favorite team from the pulpit, and people in the congregation worship sports teams. Here is something I strongly believe: if a man has enough time after his 8-hour work day to watch professional sports, then he is not in the KJV scriptures on that particular day.”
THE CHOSEN AND THE BIBLE (Friday Church News Notes, July 5, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Lighthouse Trails has published a new booklet The Chosen and the Bible: 20 Questions to Ask Yourself. Following is an excerpt: “Author William Paul Young’s 2007 novel The Shack was a number one New York Times best-seller, selling over twenty million copies worldwide. The book has been read and loved by both Christians and the world as well. It eventually became a Hollywood movie and a twenty-week series on Christian television. For years, any criticism of The Shack was usually countered by Shack fans with—‘Hey, it’s just a novel!’ Yet in 2017, ten years after its original publication, and in the midst of his TV series, author William Paul Young openly declared what many had long-suspected—that he was a universalist. He had also gone on record stating that The Shack was more than ‘just a novel.’ He said, ‘The Shack is theology. But it is theology wrapped in story.’ Today, The Chosen TV series has been viewed by millions of people around the world. Its devoted fans have also donated millions of dollars to the series’ record-breaking crowdfunding campaign. Any biblical criticism of The Chosen is usually countered by Dallas Jenkins and Chosen fans with—“Hey, it’s just a TV show!” However, Jenkins seems to already be following William Paul Young’s Shack universalism path as he uses his highly visible Chosen platform to introduce mystical New Age Catholic universalists like Richard Rohr and Brother Lawrence to his ever-growing fan base. Obviously, the lesson Christians should have learned from The Shack has been lost amidst all The Chosen fanfare. And the lesson is that fictional false Christs can be used by our Spiritual Adversary to cleverly condition and deceive people. In short, what seems to be ‘just a novel’ or ‘just a TV show’ can turn out to be something else entirely. ... Given that Dallas Jenkins admits that 95% of The Chosen’s content is not from the Bible, and you are told to watch the series as if the Bible didn’t exist--how much truth will you ever learn from this multi-season series? As one watches episode after episode, season after season, you are learning more about fictional backstories than anything that is actually true. You will be ever viewing, but never coming to a knowledge of the truth. The Bible warns about things that have ‘a form of godliness’ but lack the true power of God and His Word. It says, ‘from such, turn away.’” [2 TIMOTHY 3:5] The Chosen and the Bible: 20 Questions to Ask Yourself can be viewed online or ordered as a booklet at Thelighthousetrailsresearch.com.
WHEN THE POPE SPOKE THE TRUTH (Friday Church News Notes, July 5, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Did you know that the Roman Catholic Church has identified herself with Revelation 17? “In 1825, Pope Leo XII struck a medal, bearing on the one side his own image, and on the other, that of the Church of Rome symbolized as a ‘Woman,’ holding in her left hand a cross, and in her right a CUP, with the legend around her, ‘Sedet super universum,’ ‘The whole world is her seat’” (Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons). “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration” (Revelation 17:1-6).
ONE STRING HARPS (Friday Church News Notes, July 5, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Many evangelical ministries are what I call “one string harps.” By this metaphor, the whole counsel of God is a 47-string grand concert harp, but these ministries limit their focus to one or two strings. It might be the string of the family (Focus on the Family), pro-life (Evangelicals for Life), disaster relief (Samaritan’s Ministries), evangelism (Laurie, Palau, Graham), poverty (World Vision), creationism (Answers In Genesis, Institute for Creation Research), campus ministry (Campus Crusade), complementarianism (Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood), child evangelism (Child Evangelism Fellowship), apologetics (Ligonier Ministries), etc. Multitudes of evangelical ministries are one string harps. They might play that one string well, but they tend to avoid anything that would interfere with that particular emphasis (and its fund raising). In contrast, the Bible’s emphasis is on “all things.” Consider Christ’s command in Matthew 28:20, “teaching them to observe ALL things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Consider Acts 20:27, where Paul stated his commitment to “declare unto you ALL the counsel of God.” God’s people are to “prove ALL things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Th. 5:21). (Paul instructed God’s people to be followers of him; see 1 Co. 4:16; 11:1; Php. 4:9; 2 Th. 3:7, 9.) Jude instructed every believer to “earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). As Jude didn’t delineate what part of the faith is to be defended, the obvious meaning is that all of it is to be defended. Whatever aspect of the faith is under attack at any given time, God’s people should rally to its defense rather than claim that it is a “non-essential.” If we are to teach all things and declare all things and prove all things and earnestly contend for all things, it is obvious that nothing in God’s Word is to be ignored for the sake of Christian unity, fellowship, evangelism, creationism, the family, right to life, caring for the poor, or any other reason. The all string harp of God’s Word can only be found in a sound New Testament church. It alone is divinely appointed to be “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15), and it alone can be the pillar and ground of all truth (including baptism, the Lord’s Supper, discipline, interpretation of prophecy, etc.). The crying need of the hour is for doctrinally sound, life-changing, pilgrim- making New Testament churches that proclaim the whole counsel of God and disciple God’s redeemed people in all areas of life and ministry. I pray every day for God to raise up 500 strong New Testament churches in these last times.
THE BARE BONE FACTS (Friday Church News Notes, July 5, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflfe.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, June 14, 2024: “When an engineer builds a building, a bridge or some other structure, he must build it so that it can withstand both stretching and compressing forces. In designing the structure to withstand both kinds of these forces, he must anticipate how much of each force the structure might face in its lifetime. Some materials, like cast iron and concrete, are very good at withstanding compression forces but very poor in handling stretching forces. Using one of these materials to build a structure that undergoes tensile or stretching forces could lead to disaster. Now let’s apply our basic engineering information to the problem of building a frame or skeleton for a living creature. Although you may weigh only 130 pounds, your long leg bone will very likely have to be prepared to deal with more than 1,000 pounds of compression and hundreds of pounds of tension from the muscles that are anchored to it. It’s a good thing, then, that normal bone is three times as strong as good solid wood and nearly as strong as iron! Tests have shown that the tensile strength of bone is 35,000 pounds per square inch, while iron is 40,000 pounds per square inch. But bone material is better than iron because it is three times lighter and much more flexible. The structure of your bones is too carefully engineered to have been an accident. If life were the result of impersonal evolution, evolution would still be trying to engineer the best material for skeletons, and there would be an awful lot of jellyfish around!”
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).
SPORTS LIKE A DRUG TESTIMONY (Friday Church News Notes, July 5, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is a testimony from a reader in response to the report last week “Sports Like a Drug”: “I grew up worshiping sports in Metro Detroit, a spoiled brat who went to 15-20 professional sporting events a year between 1987 and 2007. I moved West to pursue a career in sportswriting as a lost soul. I got saved in Idaho in 2011. Then the Lord Jesus Christ began to pull up the blinds of reality and show the idolatry of sports worship. I no longer watch professional sports and want absolutely nothing to do with it. It is a god in this culture. So thank you for writing about it, because many pastors in a major metropolitan area will promote their favorite team from the pulpit, and people in the congregation worship sports teams. Here is something I strongly believe: if a man has enough time after his 8-hour work day to watch professional sports, then he is not in the KJV scriptures on that particular day.”
THE CHOSEN AND THE BIBLE (Friday Church News Notes, July 5, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Lighthouse Trails has published a new booklet The Chosen and the Bible: 20 Questions to Ask Yourself. Following is an excerpt: “Author William Paul Young’s 2007 novel The Shack was a number one New York Times best-seller, selling over twenty million copies worldwide. The book has been read and loved by both Christians and the world as well. It eventually became a Hollywood movie and a twenty-week series on Christian television. For years, any criticism of The Shack was usually countered by Shack fans with—‘Hey, it’s just a novel!’ Yet in 2017, ten years after its original publication, and in the midst of his TV series, author William Paul Young openly declared what many had long-suspected—that he was a universalist. He had also gone on record stating that The Shack was more than ‘just a novel.’ He said, ‘The Shack is theology. But it is theology wrapped in story.’ Today, The Chosen TV series has been viewed by millions of people around the world. Its devoted fans have also donated millions of dollars to the series’ record-breaking crowdfunding campaign. Any biblical criticism of The Chosen is usually countered by Dallas Jenkins and Chosen fans with—“Hey, it’s just a TV show!” However, Jenkins seems to already be following William Paul Young’s Shack universalism path as he uses his highly visible Chosen platform to introduce mystical New Age Catholic universalists like Richard Rohr and Brother Lawrence to his ever-growing fan base. Obviously, the lesson Christians should have learned from The Shack has been lost amidst all The Chosen fanfare. And the lesson is that fictional false Christs can be used by our Spiritual Adversary to cleverly condition and deceive people. In short, what seems to be ‘just a novel’ or ‘just a TV show’ can turn out to be something else entirely. ... Given that Dallas Jenkins admits that 95% of The Chosen’s content is not from the Bible, and you are told to watch the series as if the Bible didn’t exist--how much truth will you ever learn from this multi-season series? As one watches episode after episode, season after season, you are learning more about fictional backstories than anything that is actually true. You will be ever viewing, but never coming to a knowledge of the truth. The Bible warns about things that have ‘a form of godliness’ but lack the true power of God and His Word. It says, ‘from such, turn away.’” [2 TIMOTHY 3:5] The Chosen and the Bible: 20 Questions to Ask Yourself can be viewed online or ordered as a booklet at Thelighthousetrailsresearch.com.
WHEN THE POPE SPOKE THE TRUTH (Friday Church News Notes, July 5, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Did you know that the Roman Catholic Church has identified herself with Revelation 17? “In 1825, Pope Leo XII struck a medal, bearing on the one side his own image, and on the other, that of the Church of Rome symbolized as a ‘Woman,’ holding in her left hand a cross, and in her right a CUP, with the legend around her, ‘Sedet super universum,’ ‘The whole world is her seat’” (Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons). “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration” (Revelation 17:1-6).
ONE STRING HARPS (Friday Church News Notes, July 5, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Many evangelical ministries are what I call “one string harps.” By this metaphor, the whole counsel of God is a 47-string grand concert harp, but these ministries limit their focus to one or two strings. It might be the string of the family (Focus on the Family), pro-life (Evangelicals for Life), disaster relief (Samaritan’s Ministries), evangelism (Laurie, Palau, Graham), poverty (World Vision), creationism (Answers In Genesis, Institute for Creation Research), campus ministry (Campus Crusade), complementarianism (Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood), child evangelism (Child Evangelism Fellowship), apologetics (Ligonier Ministries), etc. Multitudes of evangelical ministries are one string harps. They might play that one string well, but they tend to avoid anything that would interfere with that particular emphasis (and its fund raising). In contrast, the Bible’s emphasis is on “all things.” Consider Christ’s command in Matthew 28:20, “teaching them to observe ALL things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Consider Acts 20:27, where Paul stated his commitment to “declare unto you ALL the counsel of God.” God’s people are to “prove ALL things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Th. 5:21). (Paul instructed God’s people to be followers of him; see 1 Co. 4:16; 11:1; Php. 4:9; 2 Th. 3:7, 9.) Jude instructed every believer to “earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). As Jude didn’t delineate what part of the faith is to be defended, the obvious meaning is that all of it is to be defended. Whatever aspect of the faith is under attack at any given time, God’s people should rally to its defense rather than claim that it is a “non-essential.” If we are to teach all things and declare all things and prove all things and earnestly contend for all things, it is obvious that nothing in God’s Word is to be ignored for the sake of Christian unity, fellowship, evangelism, creationism, the family, right to life, caring for the poor, or any other reason. The all string harp of God’s Word can only be found in a sound New Testament church. It alone is divinely appointed to be “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15), and it alone can be the pillar and ground of all truth (including baptism, the Lord’s Supper, discipline, interpretation of prophecy, etc.). The crying need of the hour is for doctrinally sound, life-changing, pilgrim- making New Testament churches that proclaim the whole counsel of God and disciple God’s redeemed people in all areas of life and ministry. I pray every day for God to raise up 500 strong New Testament churches in these last times.
THE BARE BONE FACTS (Friday Church News Notes, July 5, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflfe.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, June 14, 2024: “When an engineer builds a building, a bridge or some other structure, he must build it so that it can withstand both stretching and compressing forces. In designing the structure to withstand both kinds of these forces, he must anticipate how much of each force the structure might face in its lifetime. Some materials, like cast iron and concrete, are very good at withstanding compression forces but very poor in handling stretching forces. Using one of these materials to build a structure that undergoes tensile or stretching forces could lead to disaster. Now let’s apply our basic engineering information to the problem of building a frame or skeleton for a living creature. Although you may weigh only 130 pounds, your long leg bone will very likely have to be prepared to deal with more than 1,000 pounds of compression and hundreds of pounds of tension from the muscles that are anchored to it. It’s a good thing, then, that normal bone is three times as strong as good solid wood and nearly as strong as iron! Tests have shown that the tensile strength of bone is 35,000 pounds per square inch, while iron is 40,000 pounds per square inch. But bone material is better than iron because it is three times lighter and much more flexible. The structure of your bones is too carefully engineered to have been an accident. If life were the result of impersonal evolution, evolution would still be trying to engineer the best material for skeletons, and there would be an awful lot of jellyfish around!”
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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