Friday Church News Notes
August 2, 2024 - Volume 25, Issue 31
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.
OLYMPICS GLORIFYING HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA (Friday Church News Notes, August 2, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The summer Olympic Games in Paris are flaunting the homosexual agenda. Three drag queens (Minima Geste, Nicky Doll, and Miss Martini) participated as torch bearers to bring the Olympic flame from Greece. The opening ceremony and contests themselves continued this theme. One display at the opening depicted drag queens pretending to be Christ and the apostles in a blasphemous re-enactment of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper. “From the moment that the 2024 Paris Olympics launched its opening ceremony ... it became clear that pushing the LGBTQ agenda was at the top of the program with a sequence that made the opening the ‘gayest opening ceremony ever.’ ... Despite many global sports organizations ruling against allowing transgender and non-binary players to participate, two non-binary competitors will compete in this year’s games” (Breitbart, July 26, 2024). (“Binary” refers to male and female.) Sodom is mentioned multiple times in the New Testament in the context of the end-times, Christ’s return, and God’s judgment upon impenitent sinners. “But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17:29-30). “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities” (Jude 1:7-8).
NEWLY ELECTED PRESIDENT AFFIRMS IRAN’S GOAL TO DESTROY ISRAEL (Friday Church News Notes, August 2, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Iran’s President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday reaffirmed Tehran’s dedication to destroying Israel, saying its proxies across the region will not allow the Jewish state’s ‘criminal policies’ to continue. ‘The Islamic Republic has always supported the resistance of the people of the region against the illegitimate Zionist regime. The support of the resistance is rooted in the fundamental policies of the Islamic Republic,’ Pezeshkian wrote in a missive to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. ... Pezeshkian’s win is not expected to produce any major policy shift in Tehran’s nuclear program or support for Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, or the various militias in Iraq and Syria” (“Iranian president-elect,” Israel Today, July 9, 2024). Iran’s fervent, persistent, unreasonable desire to destroy Israel is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Iran was called Persia until 1935, and according to the prophecy of Ezekiel 38, Persia will be a major part of the Gog Magog (Russia) military coalition that will attack Israel during the day of the Lord. Even today, Russia is a major player in providing Iran with arms and nuclear technology. In September 2008, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Sallai Meridor, warned that Russian arms sales to Iran and Syria are “destabilizing and dangerous for Israel” (“Israel Irked by Iran-Russia Military Ties,” PressTV.ir, Sept. 13, 2008). In 2014, Russia pledged to build two more nuclear power plants in Iran (“Iran, Russia Agree to Continue Nuclear Cooperation,” ITAR-TASS, May 29, 2014). In August 2012, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said “the ultimate goal of world forces must be the annihilation of Israel” (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 2, 2012). On Nov. 8, 2014, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted, “This barbaric, wolflike & infanticidal regime of Israel which spares no crime has no cure but to be annihilated.” These threats will turn out to be hot air, because according to Bible prophecy the armies of Persia will suffer destruction with Russia. Jehovah God says, “And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 38:22-23). This will mark the time of Israel’s repentance and conversion. “So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel. ... And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward. ... Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 39:7, 21, 22, 28, 29).
CHRISTIAN TEACHER BANNED FOR MISGENDERING PUPIL LOSES HIGH COURT APPEAL IN BRITAIN (Friday Church News Notes, August 2, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Christian teacher,” Premier Christian News, July 26, 2024: “A Christian maths teacher who was banned from teaching after ‘misgendering a pupil’ has lost his High Court appeal against the decision. Joshua Sutcliffe challenged a prohibition order issued in May 2023 by a regulator, which found him guilty of ‘unacceptable professional conduct’ while employed at The Cherwell School in Oxford from 2015 to 2018, the Oxford Mail reports. His lawyers argued that the order was an ‘unjustified interference’ with his rights to freedom of speech and religion. However, the Government countered that Sutcliffe failed ‘to distinguish between his role as a teacher and his activities as a preacher’. In a written ruling on Thursday 25th July, Mr Justice Pepperall dismissed the appeal, stating that Sutcliffe ‘fails to understand or accept the harm that he caused vulnerable children in his class’. The judge found no merit in Sutcliffe’s argument that his human rights had been violated, emphasising that his professional duties to treat children with dignity and respect must be balanced against his right to express his religious convictions. In an interview with Premier Christian Radio, Tim Dieppe from advocacy group Christian Concern, who have supported Sutcliffe, said that he was very ‘shocked’ and ‘disappointed’ about the outcome, claiming that this means ‘teachers have compelled speech’. After the judgment, Sutcliffe said: ‘With this ruling, every teacher is at risk if they share their beliefs and views in the classroom.’”
A MUSIC WARNING ABOUT TOLERATING, ACCOMMODATING, INCLUDING (Friday Church News Notes, August 2, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - This is a warning for churches and institutions that are playing with contemporary worship music. A major element of the contemporary sound is the non-resolution of chord tension. Returning to the key note or tonal center creates a solid, resolved feel to the music. Pastor Nathan Searle says, “99.99% of all our hymns have perfect resolution. This was a characteristic of all of the great composers, until there were those who started to move away from the laws. ... You cannot change the way you write harmony without changing the message of the music. You start to go down a path of no absolutes, and you just write for whatever feels good; you are in dangerous territory. Most of the modern songs being written lack resolution; they are using 11th chords, and 11th chords by definition can’t resolve. It creates that kind of mysterious, mystical feel, and that’s in a lot of conservative churches now” (A Biblical Philosophy of Music, Southern Cross Baptist Church, Engadine, NSW, www.scbc.org.au/music.aspx). Only a small percentage of contemporary worship hymns employ a balance in tension and resolution in the chord structure. The lack of resolution, the unresolving chord sequences, create a sensual effect, which is what contemporary worshipers desire. Like secular society at large, they are “hooked on a feeling.” Consider the following warning by David Moss: “If we use music in our churches or in our personal lives that is contaminated with harmful elements of unresolved tension, even in small doses, our ability to demonstrate the difference between holy and unholy, clean and unclean will be greatly inhibited. The world thrives on music that is saturated with unresolved tension; it provides an anesthetic to reality. It is a strange paradox that the people of the world use one form of tension to resolve another form of tension. Yet stranger still is that Christian people who have available to them the real solutions to the pressure points of life would rather follow the faulty solutions of the world. We are in danger of being led away from good music by the Pied Piper of worldliness. Compromise is overwhelming the church of Jesus Christ, and someone must stand up and say it is time to go the other way. When we TOLERATE, we begin to ACCOMMODATE. When we accommodate, we begin to INCLUDE. When we include, we are no longer what we used to be” (David Moss, God’s Song).
A WARM BLOODED TURTLE (Friday Church News Notes, August 2, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, June 4, 2024: “For generations it was a rule that reptiles were cold blooded. And turtles, being reptiles, were therefore called cold blooded as well. Being cold blooded, it was expected that the body temperature of turtles would be close to that of the surrounding water. It was creation scientist Dr. Wayne Frair who first discovered a “warm blooded” turtle in the early 1970s. He and two other scientists published their historic research in the journal Science in 1972. They reported the discovery of a giant leatherback turtle weighing 920 pounds that was able to maintain a body temperature of 72 degrees Fahrenheit, even when placed in a tank of 45 degree water. Leatherback turtles range from warm tropical waters to cold northern waters, often migrating between them. This discovery actually shatters two false claims made by evolutionary science. First of all, it proves that reptiles can be warm blooded and that the leatherback turtle is warm blooded. Secondly, this is one of many examples answering the claim that scientists who believe in creation aren’t real scientists. Over the years, many scientists who believe in creation have made important discoveries in science. This shouldn’t surprise us, since science studies the material world that the Creator made. Scientists who believe in creation are actually in a better position to learn what He has done than those who deny Him. Ref: Discovery. BibleScience Newsletter, Apr. 1973, p. 2.”
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).
NEWLY ELECTED PRESIDENT AFFIRMS IRAN’S GOAL TO DESTROY ISRAEL (Friday Church News Notes, August 2, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Iran’s President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday reaffirmed Tehran’s dedication to destroying Israel, saying its proxies across the region will not allow the Jewish state’s ‘criminal policies’ to continue. ‘The Islamic Republic has always supported the resistance of the people of the region against the illegitimate Zionist regime. The support of the resistance is rooted in the fundamental policies of the Islamic Republic,’ Pezeshkian wrote in a missive to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. ... Pezeshkian’s win is not expected to produce any major policy shift in Tehran’s nuclear program or support for Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, or the various militias in Iraq and Syria” (“Iranian president-elect,” Israel Today, July 9, 2024). Iran’s fervent, persistent, unreasonable desire to destroy Israel is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Iran was called Persia until 1935, and according to the prophecy of Ezekiel 38, Persia will be a major part of the Gog Magog (Russia) military coalition that will attack Israel during the day of the Lord. Even today, Russia is a major player in providing Iran with arms and nuclear technology. In September 2008, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Sallai Meridor, warned that Russian arms sales to Iran and Syria are “destabilizing and dangerous for Israel” (“Israel Irked by Iran-Russia Military Ties,” PressTV.ir, Sept. 13, 2008). In 2014, Russia pledged to build two more nuclear power plants in Iran (“Iran, Russia Agree to Continue Nuclear Cooperation,” ITAR-TASS, May 29, 2014). In August 2012, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said “the ultimate goal of world forces must be the annihilation of Israel” (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 2, 2012). On Nov. 8, 2014, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted, “This barbaric, wolflike & infanticidal regime of Israel which spares no crime has no cure but to be annihilated.” These threats will turn out to be hot air, because according to Bible prophecy the armies of Persia will suffer destruction with Russia. Jehovah God says, “And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 38:22-23). This will mark the time of Israel’s repentance and conversion. “So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel. ... And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward. ... Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 39:7, 21, 22, 28, 29).
CHRISTIAN TEACHER BANNED FOR MISGENDERING PUPIL LOSES HIGH COURT APPEAL IN BRITAIN (Friday Church News Notes, August 2, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Christian teacher,” Premier Christian News, July 26, 2024: “A Christian maths teacher who was banned from teaching after ‘misgendering a pupil’ has lost his High Court appeal against the decision. Joshua Sutcliffe challenged a prohibition order issued in May 2023 by a regulator, which found him guilty of ‘unacceptable professional conduct’ while employed at The Cherwell School in Oxford from 2015 to 2018, the Oxford Mail reports. His lawyers argued that the order was an ‘unjustified interference’ with his rights to freedom of speech and religion. However, the Government countered that Sutcliffe failed ‘to distinguish between his role as a teacher and his activities as a preacher’. In a written ruling on Thursday 25th July, Mr Justice Pepperall dismissed the appeal, stating that Sutcliffe ‘fails to understand or accept the harm that he caused vulnerable children in his class’. The judge found no merit in Sutcliffe’s argument that his human rights had been violated, emphasising that his professional duties to treat children with dignity and respect must be balanced against his right to express his religious convictions. In an interview with Premier Christian Radio, Tim Dieppe from advocacy group Christian Concern, who have supported Sutcliffe, said that he was very ‘shocked’ and ‘disappointed’ about the outcome, claiming that this means ‘teachers have compelled speech’. After the judgment, Sutcliffe said: ‘With this ruling, every teacher is at risk if they share their beliefs and views in the classroom.’”
A MUSIC WARNING ABOUT TOLERATING, ACCOMMODATING, INCLUDING (Friday Church News Notes, August 2, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - This is a warning for churches and institutions that are playing with contemporary worship music. A major element of the contemporary sound is the non-resolution of chord tension. Returning to the key note or tonal center creates a solid, resolved feel to the music. Pastor Nathan Searle says, “99.99% of all our hymns have perfect resolution. This was a characteristic of all of the great composers, until there were those who started to move away from the laws. ... You cannot change the way you write harmony without changing the message of the music. You start to go down a path of no absolutes, and you just write for whatever feels good; you are in dangerous territory. Most of the modern songs being written lack resolution; they are using 11th chords, and 11th chords by definition can’t resolve. It creates that kind of mysterious, mystical feel, and that’s in a lot of conservative churches now” (A Biblical Philosophy of Music, Southern Cross Baptist Church, Engadine, NSW, www.scbc.org.au/music.aspx). Only a small percentage of contemporary worship hymns employ a balance in tension and resolution in the chord structure. The lack of resolution, the unresolving chord sequences, create a sensual effect, which is what contemporary worshipers desire. Like secular society at large, they are “hooked on a feeling.” Consider the following warning by David Moss: “If we use music in our churches or in our personal lives that is contaminated with harmful elements of unresolved tension, even in small doses, our ability to demonstrate the difference between holy and unholy, clean and unclean will be greatly inhibited. The world thrives on music that is saturated with unresolved tension; it provides an anesthetic to reality. It is a strange paradox that the people of the world use one form of tension to resolve another form of tension. Yet stranger still is that Christian people who have available to them the real solutions to the pressure points of life would rather follow the faulty solutions of the world. We are in danger of being led away from good music by the Pied Piper of worldliness. Compromise is overwhelming the church of Jesus Christ, and someone must stand up and say it is time to go the other way. When we TOLERATE, we begin to ACCOMMODATE. When we accommodate, we begin to INCLUDE. When we include, we are no longer what we used to be” (David Moss, God’s Song).
A WARM BLOODED TURTLE (Friday Church News Notes, August 2, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, June 4, 2024: “For generations it was a rule that reptiles were cold blooded. And turtles, being reptiles, were therefore called cold blooded as well. Being cold blooded, it was expected that the body temperature of turtles would be close to that of the surrounding water. It was creation scientist Dr. Wayne Frair who first discovered a “warm blooded” turtle in the early 1970s. He and two other scientists published their historic research in the journal Science in 1972. They reported the discovery of a giant leatherback turtle weighing 920 pounds that was able to maintain a body temperature of 72 degrees Fahrenheit, even when placed in a tank of 45 degree water. Leatherback turtles range from warm tropical waters to cold northern waters, often migrating between them. This discovery actually shatters two false claims made by evolutionary science. First of all, it proves that reptiles can be warm blooded and that the leatherback turtle is warm blooded. Secondly, this is one of many examples answering the claim that scientists who believe in creation aren’t real scientists. Over the years, many scientists who believe in creation have made important discoveries in science. This shouldn’t surprise us, since science studies the material world that the Creator made. Scientists who believe in creation are actually in a better position to learn what He has done than those who deny Him. Ref: Discovery. BibleScience Newsletter, Apr. 1973, p. 2.”
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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