Friday Church News Notes
July 26, 2024 - Volume 25, Issue 30
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.
U.S. SECRET SERVICE SHOT THROUGH AND THROUGH WITH DEI WOKE NONSENSE (Friday Church News Notes, July 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump narrowly escaped assassination and a committed husband and father was murdered on July 13 because of the inaptitude of today’s Secret Service. By any reckoning, for the Secret Service to allow someone with a rifle to access the roof of a building a mere 130 yards from the man they were tasked with protecting and to allow him to fire multiple times before ending his career, is inaptitude of the highest order. World class. It turns out that the person in charge of the venerable Secret Service is a woman whose previous job was head of security at PepsiCo, which somehow qualified her to lead America’s premier agency tasked with “protecting U.S. political leaders, their families, and visiting heads of state or government.” It sounds like she is a DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) hire, and in fact the Secret Service, like practically every branch of the U.S. government today, including the military, is shot through and through with DEI Woke idiocy. Their strategic plan for 2023-2027 is to increase women recruits until they are 30% of the workforce. (We are all for women in elite military-style agencies if they are former special forces, particularly Seals and Green Berets.) The DEI Woke policy is what Loucious Hires (yes, that’s his real name), the Secret Service’s “director of equity,” boasted of in an official government podcast in Feb. 2023. He said DEI is “mission imperative,” the “ultimate goal.” He said, “I could talk on and on what the agency is doing to promote diversity, equity and inclusion ... DEI is every action every day” (“Secret Service equity director,” Fox News, July 18, 2024). The agency attends homosexual “Pride events” to recruit candidates and “has seen more transgender people in the service as a result.” Andrew Cannady, a supervisory attorney-advisor for the agency’s Office of Chief Counsel, said the Secret Service is educating its workforce on “how to use pronouns.” This might be the key to understanding what happened on July 13. The agents could have been confused about what pronoun to use for the attacker and had to run it by headquarters before taking out he/she/it/them. The point with this little report is that this weird thinking is a judgment on the nation and is not something that can be rooted out by political effort. Paul described it as being given over to a reprobate mind. “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Romans 1:28). People can’t be this stupid naturally. Jeremiah’s description of Israel of old fits America perfectly: “The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?” (Jer. 8:9). The point is that Trump can’t fix this because he is part of the judgment. No matter what Trump does, if elected, he will not root out the DEI or “drain the swamp.” Florida Gov. Ron Desantis said, “This is where woke goes to die,” but woke is very much alive in Florida, though it is kept a bit under wraps for the time being. Like noxious weeds, if one Woke proponent is uprooted, ten thousand wait in the wings. (Among other things, woke typically refers to a hyper alertness to, a kowtowing to, the concerns and offenses of the most radical branches of homosexual/transsexual rights activism, women’s rights activism, black rights activism, climate change activism, etc.) For a very long time, the government funded school system from kindergarten to university has largely been devoted to producing a DEI Woke generation. Most of the nation’s churches promote some type of DEI Woke thinking. The solution is for God’s redeemed people to obey God and be holy pilgrims more than patriots. Charles Wesley was not talking about a carnal political battle when he wrote, “Soldiers of Christ, arise, and put your armor on, strong in the strength which God supplies, thro’ His eternal Son; strong in the Lord of hosts and in His mighty pow’r, who in the strength of Jesus trusts is more than conqueror.”
REPUBLICANS REMOVE OPPOSITION TO ABORTION AND SAME-SEX MARRIAGE FROM PLATFORM UNDER TRUMP’S INFLUENCE (Friday Church News Notes, July 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Donald Trump’s lack of morality has influenced the entire Republican Party, which is supposed to be very “conservative.” He supports the murder of unborn children so long as they aren’t too old in the womb, and the new Republican party platform supports abortion up to 20 weeks for the first time in its history (“RNC adopts Trump-inspired platform,” Washington Times, July 8, 2024). Trump also supports the homosexual rights agenda. He formed a Trump Pride this year consisting of a 21-member LGBT advisory board. Under this influence, the Republican Party has removed its former opposition to this abomination. The following is excerpted from “LGBT Republicans Celebrate,” Crosswalk, July 19, 2024: “The president of the nation’s leading LGBT Republican organization is celebrating the party’s new platform, which no longer opposes same-sex marriage. Every GOP platform from 1992 through 2016 included language opposing same-sex marriage--always in unequivocal terms. ... But this year, under direct guidance from Republican nominee Donald Trump and his team, the platform committee removed the platform’s opposition to same-sex marriage, making it neutral on the issue. Trump supports same-sex marriage. Delegates approved the new platform this week. On social media, Charles T. Moran, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, celebrated the news. The Log Cabin Republicans is the nation’s largest GOP organization dedicated to LGBT causes.”
MUSIC’S ROLE IN THE DESTRUCTION OF THE BLACK HOME AND CHURCH (Friday Church News Notes, July 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The world’s music has been a major part of the destruction of the moral character of black churches and homes. Consider the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival (documented in “Summer of Soul”). It consisted of six concerts attended by 300,000. It was called a “revolution,” and it was driven by music. There was the mixing of every type of music: filthy blues and boogie woogie and rock (B.B. King, Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder) with Gospel (Mahalia Jackson “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”; Staple Singers “Help me Lord Jesus I need your power”; Gladys Knight and the Pips “We join our hands and said prayers before going on stage”). The Fifth Dimension mixed “Aquarius” from the filthy new age opera Hair with “Let the Sun Shine In,” a gospel song by Stuart Hamblin. Edwin Hawkins Singers “O Happy Day” (“when Jesus washed my sins away; He taught me how to watch and pray and live rejoicing every day”) is a jazzed up version of a godly hymn by Philip Doddridge, 1755. The Edwin Hawkins Singers’ version consists of mindless repetition of the chorus only; “O Happy Day” is repeated 21 times. The Harlem Cultural Festival was an ecumenical merging of philosophy and religion. There was Black Marxism (Nina Simone shouted to the crowd, “Are you ready to smash White things, to burn things?”); Black Power (Black Panthers); Voodoo (there was a voodoo dance); Black Islam; and Christianity. Jesse Jackson said, “I want us to bow our heads in prayer. It does not really matter who your God is, whether you call him Allah, Buddha, Jehovah, Elohiym, or Yahway” (Summer of Soul).
LARGE ANCIENT MOAT DISCOVERED IN JERUSALEM (Friday Church News Notes, July 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Solving mystery,” Times of Israel, July 21, 2024: “Archaeologists have solved a 150-year-old mystery in the City of David, discovering a massive moat that was used to fortify and protect the Temple Mount and the king’s palace in biblical-era Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University announced on Sunday. The city’s northern fortification eluded archaeologists for a century and a half as they could not trace its full route. But recent excavations of the Givati Parking Lot, adjacent to the Old City walls, have revealed a moat that split the City of David in half, separating the palace and Temple Mount from the rest of the city. The vast moat, which was at least nine meters deep and 30 meters wide, the IAA said in a press release, was ‘one of the monumental fortifications that protected the kings of Jerusalem.’ ‘It is not known when the moat was originally cut, but evidence suggests it was used during the centuries when Jerusalem was the capital of the Kingdom of Judah, almost 3,000 years ago, beginning with King Josiah,’ said excavation directors Prof. Yuval Gadot and Dr. Yiftah Shalev. ‘During those years, the moat separated the southern residential part of the city from the ruling Acropolis in the north--the upper city where the palace and the temple were located.’”
GOOD TASTING FACTS (Friday Church News Notes, July 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, July 11, 2024: “Research is showing that we can forget just about everything we ever learned about how we taste food. To begin with, we don’t taste with our tongues but with our brains. Remember those tongue maps that we all learned about in school? They show that we taste sweet on the tips of our tongues, salt and sour flavors on the sides, and bitter tastes at the back of our tongues. In truth, research shows that we taste each of these flavors all over our tongue. And, no, those little bumps on your tongue are not taste buds. Rather, each of those bumps contains many taste buds. Further, the right half of your tongue does not communicate with the left half of your tongue. Each half has its own nerve that runs to the brain that interprets signals from the tongue as taste. These nerves pass right under your eardrum. That’s why a virus infecting your ear can cause you to lose some ability to taste. Dental Novocaine is often administered very close to these nerves, which is why some people experience phantom tastes when the dentist gives them a shot. Most amazing is the part touch plays in taste. If the right half of your tongue is numbed and you drag a flavor from the right half of your tongue to the left, only the left half will taste it. However, if you drag the flavor from the left half of your tongue to the right, your brain concludes that the left half of your tongue should experience the flavor, and it does, despite being numbed. The ability to taste flavors is a blessing from our Creator. He even invites us to Himself by urging us to taste and see that He is good. Notes: Discover, 7/00, pp. 70-75, ‘Tourist is a taste lab.’”
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).
REPUBLICANS REMOVE OPPOSITION TO ABORTION AND SAME-SEX MARRIAGE FROM PLATFORM UNDER TRUMP’S INFLUENCE (Friday Church News Notes, July 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Donald Trump’s lack of morality has influenced the entire Republican Party, which is supposed to be very “conservative.” He supports the murder of unborn children so long as they aren’t too old in the womb, and the new Republican party platform supports abortion up to 20 weeks for the first time in its history (“RNC adopts Trump-inspired platform,” Washington Times, July 8, 2024). Trump also supports the homosexual rights agenda. He formed a Trump Pride this year consisting of a 21-member LGBT advisory board. Under this influence, the Republican Party has removed its former opposition to this abomination. The following is excerpted from “LGBT Republicans Celebrate,” Crosswalk, July 19, 2024: “The president of the nation’s leading LGBT Republican organization is celebrating the party’s new platform, which no longer opposes same-sex marriage. Every GOP platform from 1992 through 2016 included language opposing same-sex marriage--always in unequivocal terms. ... But this year, under direct guidance from Republican nominee Donald Trump and his team, the platform committee removed the platform’s opposition to same-sex marriage, making it neutral on the issue. Trump supports same-sex marriage. Delegates approved the new platform this week. On social media, Charles T. Moran, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, celebrated the news. The Log Cabin Republicans is the nation’s largest GOP organization dedicated to LGBT causes.”
MUSIC’S ROLE IN THE DESTRUCTION OF THE BLACK HOME AND CHURCH (Friday Church News Notes, July 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The world’s music has been a major part of the destruction of the moral character of black churches and homes. Consider the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival (documented in “Summer of Soul”). It consisted of six concerts attended by 300,000. It was called a “revolution,” and it was driven by music. There was the mixing of every type of music: filthy blues and boogie woogie and rock (B.B. King, Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder) with Gospel (Mahalia Jackson “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”; Staple Singers “Help me Lord Jesus I need your power”; Gladys Knight and the Pips “We join our hands and said prayers before going on stage”). The Fifth Dimension mixed “Aquarius” from the filthy new age opera Hair with “Let the Sun Shine In,” a gospel song by Stuart Hamblin. Edwin Hawkins Singers “O Happy Day” (“when Jesus washed my sins away; He taught me how to watch and pray and live rejoicing every day”) is a jazzed up version of a godly hymn by Philip Doddridge, 1755. The Edwin Hawkins Singers’ version consists of mindless repetition of the chorus only; “O Happy Day” is repeated 21 times. The Harlem Cultural Festival was an ecumenical merging of philosophy and religion. There was Black Marxism (Nina Simone shouted to the crowd, “Are you ready to smash White things, to burn things?”); Black Power (Black Panthers); Voodoo (there was a voodoo dance); Black Islam; and Christianity. Jesse Jackson said, “I want us to bow our heads in prayer. It does not really matter who your God is, whether you call him Allah, Buddha, Jehovah, Elohiym, or Yahway” (Summer of Soul).
LARGE ANCIENT MOAT DISCOVERED IN JERUSALEM (Friday Church News Notes, July 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Solving mystery,” Times of Israel, July 21, 2024: “Archaeologists have solved a 150-year-old mystery in the City of David, discovering a massive moat that was used to fortify and protect the Temple Mount and the king’s palace in biblical-era Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University announced on Sunday. The city’s northern fortification eluded archaeologists for a century and a half as they could not trace its full route. But recent excavations of the Givati Parking Lot, adjacent to the Old City walls, have revealed a moat that split the City of David in half, separating the palace and Temple Mount from the rest of the city. The vast moat, which was at least nine meters deep and 30 meters wide, the IAA said in a press release, was ‘one of the monumental fortifications that protected the kings of Jerusalem.’ ‘It is not known when the moat was originally cut, but evidence suggests it was used during the centuries when Jerusalem was the capital of the Kingdom of Judah, almost 3,000 years ago, beginning with King Josiah,’ said excavation directors Prof. Yuval Gadot and Dr. Yiftah Shalev. ‘During those years, the moat separated the southern residential part of the city from the ruling Acropolis in the north--the upper city where the palace and the temple were located.’”
GOOD TASTING FACTS (Friday Church News Notes, July 26, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, July 11, 2024: “Research is showing that we can forget just about everything we ever learned about how we taste food. To begin with, we don’t taste with our tongues but with our brains. Remember those tongue maps that we all learned about in school? They show that we taste sweet on the tips of our tongues, salt and sour flavors on the sides, and bitter tastes at the back of our tongues. In truth, research shows that we taste each of these flavors all over our tongue. And, no, those little bumps on your tongue are not taste buds. Rather, each of those bumps contains many taste buds. Further, the right half of your tongue does not communicate with the left half of your tongue. Each half has its own nerve that runs to the brain that interprets signals from the tongue as taste. These nerves pass right under your eardrum. That’s why a virus infecting your ear can cause you to lose some ability to taste. Dental Novocaine is often administered very close to these nerves, which is why some people experience phantom tastes when the dentist gives them a shot. Most amazing is the part touch plays in taste. If the right half of your tongue is numbed and you drag a flavor from the right half of your tongue to the left, only the left half will taste it. However, if you drag the flavor from the left half of your tongue to the right, your brain concludes that the left half of your tongue should experience the flavor, and it does, despite being numbed. The ability to taste flavors is a blessing from our Creator. He even invites us to Himself by urging us to taste and see that He is good. Notes: Discover, 7/00, pp. 70-75, ‘Tourist is a taste lab.’”
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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