Friday Church News Notes
August 23, 2024 - Volume 25, Issue 34
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.
IRAN (PERSIA) AND RUSSIA (Friday Church News Notes, August 23, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - This month Russia began delivering air-defense systems to Iran in preparation for its promised revenge strike against Israel over the killing of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Head of the Russian Security Council, Sergei Shoigu, “described Iran as a key strategic ally of Russia’s in the region” (“Iran receiving Russian air defenses,” Israel365News, Aug. 6, 2024). Iranian armed forces commander, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, told Shoigu that Russian-Iranian ties were “deep, long term and strategic” and would only expand under Iran’s new government (Ibid.). 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). This is fascinating in light of Bible prophecy that Persia will be a major part of the Gog Magog military alliance that will be destroyed during the day of the Lord (Ezekiel 38:3-5, 22). Iran, which was called Persia until 1935, Russia’s friend, is a vicious enemy of Israel. In August 2012, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said “the ultimate goal of world forces must be the annihilation of Israel” (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 2, 2012). That same month, Ahmadinejad called Israel a “cancerous tumor” that must be removed, and a top Iranian military commander said he would welcome an Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities because it would give his nation a reason to retaliate and “get rid of the Jewish state forever” (“Top Iranian Commander,” The Blaze, Aug. 18, 2012). Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for the annihilation of Israel. On November 8, 2014, he tweeted, “This barbaric, wolflike & infanticidal regime of Israel which spares no crime has no cure but to be annihilated.” A year earlier, Khamenei called Israel the “sinister, unclean rabid dog of the region.” In July 2024, Iran’s newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, reaffirmed Tehran’s dedication to destroying Israel, saying its proxies across the region will not allow the Jewish state’s ‘criminal policies’ to continue (Israel Today, July 9, 2024). (For a study on Gog Magog, see The Future According to the Bible, www.wayoflife.org.)
SOUTHERN BAPTIST APOSTASY (Friday Church News Notes, August 23, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - J.D. Greear, senior pastor of The Summit church and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, illustrates the apostasy of the Convention today. Greear has a goal of planting 1,000 new churches by 2050, and in the past 15 years the church has sent out more than 1,000 people to participate in church planting work. That would be encouraging, except these churches are modeled after The Summit, and that means they are frightfully apostate. They have a name that they live, but they are dead. The evidence is irrefutable. In 2024, Revolt News published seven video clips demonstrating that Greear “is highly doctrinally compromised on homosexuality and social justice.” The clips are as follows: Clip 1 - Greg and Lynn MacDonald, founders of Embracing the Journey, explain how Greear helped them understand that homosexuality does not send people to hell. Clip 2 - Greear says Christians should become the “fiercest advocates of LGBT people.” Clip 5 - Greear says women who have abortions, including those in his church, have a valid reason because of the social injustice they face. Clip 6 - Greear admits having abortion providers in his church. Clip 7 - Greear says homosexuality is not a sinful choice, it’s an affliction, morally neutral, like a sickness or a disease, and God most likely won’t change that. See “Seven Video Clips,” therevoltnews.substack.com.
SOUTHERN BAPTISTS VOTE DOWN PROPOSED BAN ON CHURCHES WITH FEMALE PASTORS (Friday Church News Notes, August 23, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In June, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) rejected a proposed ban on churches with female pastors. This was the culmination of a failed attempt by conservative pastors to do something of substance about the growing number of female pastors in the convention. In 2000, a new edition of the SBC’s Baptist Faith and Message stated, “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” That is a correct statement of the Bible’s teaching, as far as it goes, but the rule has been widely ignored, so conservatives tried to pass a formal ban. It would have restricted membership in the Convention to churches that “affirm, appoint, or employ only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.” While the ban passed its preliminary vote in 2023, it failed to garner sufficient votes on the second trial in 2024. Former SBC president J.D. Greear and others “led the charge to overturn the amendment” (“Women in Southern Baptist Pulpits?” The Disntr, Aug. 19, 2024). Those who voted down the ban argued that the statement in the Baptist Faith and Message is sufficient and pointed out that three churches have been removed from the Convention in recent years over this issue (Saddleback Church of California, Fern Creek Baptist of Louisville, Kentucky, and First Baptist of Alexandria, Virginia). But this is a subterfuge. Pastor Mike Law, Arlington Baptist Church, Virginia, author of the proposed ban, said, “Personally, I felt the need to offer this amendment because five Southern Baptist churches, roughly within a five-mile radius of my own congregation, are employing women as pastors of various kinds, including women serving as ‘Sr. Pastor.’ Many others have found that a number of Southern Baptist churches appoint, affirm, or employ women as pastors in their areas, too. These churches often use a modified title – co-pastor, worship pastor, women and children’s pastor, discipleship pastor, or youth pastor--but all trade on the office of ‘pastor.’” At the 2024 convention, Pastor Law cited a report that there are about 1,800 women pastors in the denomination. He said, “Our culture may see this prohibition as harsh, but our God is all wise, and wrote this word for the flourishing of both men and women.” That is right, but it is obvious that a large number of Southern Baptist pastors don’t want to deal with this clear biblical issue in a serious manner. They aren’t spiritual warriors; they love peace and unity above truth. The “conservatives” in the Southern Baptist Convention should obey God’s Word and depart from that deeply disobedient, mixed multitude denomination. “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; AND AVOID THEM” (Ro. 16:17).
MASSACHUSETTS PASSES RADICAL PRO-LGBT BILL TO REDEFINE THE FAMILY (Friday Church News Notes, August 23, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Massachusetts passes,” LifeSite, Aug. 15, 2024: “When the LGBT movement used the courts to force same-sex ‘marriage’ on America, the talking point was, ‘This won’t affect anything else.’ But now it’s evident their next major goal was to use state legislatures to completely redefine the family. Several states have already passed laws in that direction. But now the Massachusetts Legislature has surpassed them, passing--unanimously in both branches--a frightening 42-page comprehensive bill. It has already received national attention and is considered to be the most radical change in family law history. Openly lesbian Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has committed to signing the bill. ... This bill is mind-numbing to read. ... The word ‘mother’ in family law is replaced with ‘person who gave birth to the child.’ The word ‘father’ is replaced with ‘other parent.’ In addition, the roles of father and mother are removed from the statutes and replaced with gender-neutral terminology. Even the words ‘a man and a woman’ are replaced with ‘persons.’ ... The laws regarding divorce and child custody are also changed dramatically to allow for these new family/child relationship permutations. ... The bill states, ‘The court may adjudicate a child to have more than 2 parents if the court finds that it is in the best interest of the child.’ ... Like everything else the LGBT movement pushes on society, this bill is not for the benefit of innocent children. To be blunt, all these changes are meant to satisfy the selfish desires of bizarre adults. The new law changes innocent children into commodities that can be bought and sold, and possibly fought over. They may never know who their actual parents are, and are destined to grow up in sad, dysfunctional environments.”
SILVER TRUMPETS SOUND ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT (Friday Church News Notes, August 23, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “First in 2000 Years,” Israel365News, Aug. 14, 2024: “On Tisha B’Av, the day commemorating the destruction of the Jewish Temples in Jerusalem, Josh Wander brought his silver trumpets specially made for use in the Temple to the Machkama building. Built about 700 years ago, it is currently used as a Border Police station. The building faces the Western Wall Plaza but juts out over the Temple Mount. ... The trumpets were blown at a prayer service held twice a year and overseen by Rabbi Rami Goren, the son of Rabbi Shlomo Goren, who served as the first head of the military rabbinate of the Israel Defense Forces. Rabbi Shlomo Goren oversaw the IDF victory in the 1967 Six-Day War that brought the Temple Mount under Israeli sovereignty.” “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps” (Numbers 10:1-2).
CHRIST, THE ONLY MAN BORN A KING (Friday Church News Notes, August 23, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:2). “I remember no one who was born a king except Jesus; and there is emphatic meaning in that verse that we sing—‘Born thy people to deliver; Born a child, and yet a king’ (Charles Wesley, ‘Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus’). The moment that he came on earth he was a king. He did not wait till his majority that he might take his empire; but as soon as his eye greeted the sunshine he was a king; from the moment that his little hands grasped anything, they grasped a sceptre; as soon as his pulse beat, and his blood began to flow, his heart beat royally, and his pulse an imperial measure, and his blood flowed in a kingly current. He was born a king” (Charles Spurgeon, “The Incarnation and Birth of Christ”).
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).
SOUTHERN BAPTIST APOSTASY (Friday Church News Notes, August 23, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - J.D. Greear, senior pastor of The Summit church and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, illustrates the apostasy of the Convention today. Greear has a goal of planting 1,000 new churches by 2050, and in the past 15 years the church has sent out more than 1,000 people to participate in church planting work. That would be encouraging, except these churches are modeled after The Summit, and that means they are frightfully apostate. They have a name that they live, but they are dead. The evidence is irrefutable. In 2024, Revolt News published seven video clips demonstrating that Greear “is highly doctrinally compromised on homosexuality and social justice.” The clips are as follows: Clip 1 - Greg and Lynn MacDonald, founders of Embracing the Journey, explain how Greear helped them understand that homosexuality does not send people to hell. Clip 2 - Greear says Christians should become the “fiercest advocates of LGBT people.” Clip 5 - Greear says women who have abortions, including those in his church, have a valid reason because of the social injustice they face. Clip 6 - Greear admits having abortion providers in his church. Clip 7 - Greear says homosexuality is not a sinful choice, it’s an affliction, morally neutral, like a sickness or a disease, and God most likely won’t change that. See “Seven Video Clips,” therevoltnews.substack.com.
SOUTHERN BAPTISTS VOTE DOWN PROPOSED BAN ON CHURCHES WITH FEMALE PASTORS (Friday Church News Notes, August 23, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In June, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) rejected a proposed ban on churches with female pastors. This was the culmination of a failed attempt by conservative pastors to do something of substance about the growing number of female pastors in the convention. In 2000, a new edition of the SBC’s Baptist Faith and Message stated, “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” That is a correct statement of the Bible’s teaching, as far as it goes, but the rule has been widely ignored, so conservatives tried to pass a formal ban. It would have restricted membership in the Convention to churches that “affirm, appoint, or employ only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.” While the ban passed its preliminary vote in 2023, it failed to garner sufficient votes on the second trial in 2024. Former SBC president J.D. Greear and others “led the charge to overturn the amendment” (“Women in Southern Baptist Pulpits?” The Disntr, Aug. 19, 2024). Those who voted down the ban argued that the statement in the Baptist Faith and Message is sufficient and pointed out that three churches have been removed from the Convention in recent years over this issue (Saddleback Church of California, Fern Creek Baptist of Louisville, Kentucky, and First Baptist of Alexandria, Virginia). But this is a subterfuge. Pastor Mike Law, Arlington Baptist Church, Virginia, author of the proposed ban, said, “Personally, I felt the need to offer this amendment because five Southern Baptist churches, roughly within a five-mile radius of my own congregation, are employing women as pastors of various kinds, including women serving as ‘Sr. Pastor.’ Many others have found that a number of Southern Baptist churches appoint, affirm, or employ women as pastors in their areas, too. These churches often use a modified title – co-pastor, worship pastor, women and children’s pastor, discipleship pastor, or youth pastor--but all trade on the office of ‘pastor.’” At the 2024 convention, Pastor Law cited a report that there are about 1,800 women pastors in the denomination. He said, “Our culture may see this prohibition as harsh, but our God is all wise, and wrote this word for the flourishing of both men and women.” That is right, but it is obvious that a large number of Southern Baptist pastors don’t want to deal with this clear biblical issue in a serious manner. They aren’t spiritual warriors; they love peace and unity above truth. The “conservatives” in the Southern Baptist Convention should obey God’s Word and depart from that deeply disobedient, mixed multitude denomination. “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; AND AVOID THEM” (Ro. 16:17).
MASSACHUSETTS PASSES RADICAL PRO-LGBT BILL TO REDEFINE THE FAMILY (Friday Church News Notes, August 23, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Massachusetts passes,” LifeSite, Aug. 15, 2024: “When the LGBT movement used the courts to force same-sex ‘marriage’ on America, the talking point was, ‘This won’t affect anything else.’ But now it’s evident their next major goal was to use state legislatures to completely redefine the family. Several states have already passed laws in that direction. But now the Massachusetts Legislature has surpassed them, passing--unanimously in both branches--a frightening 42-page comprehensive bill. It has already received national attention and is considered to be the most radical change in family law history. Openly lesbian Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has committed to signing the bill. ... This bill is mind-numbing to read. ... The word ‘mother’ in family law is replaced with ‘person who gave birth to the child.’ The word ‘father’ is replaced with ‘other parent.’ In addition, the roles of father and mother are removed from the statutes and replaced with gender-neutral terminology. Even the words ‘a man and a woman’ are replaced with ‘persons.’ ... The laws regarding divorce and child custody are also changed dramatically to allow for these new family/child relationship permutations. ... The bill states, ‘The court may adjudicate a child to have more than 2 parents if the court finds that it is in the best interest of the child.’ ... Like everything else the LGBT movement pushes on society, this bill is not for the benefit of innocent children. To be blunt, all these changes are meant to satisfy the selfish desires of bizarre adults. The new law changes innocent children into commodities that can be bought and sold, and possibly fought over. They may never know who their actual parents are, and are destined to grow up in sad, dysfunctional environments.”
SILVER TRUMPETS SOUND ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT (Friday Church News Notes, August 23, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “First in 2000 Years,” Israel365News, Aug. 14, 2024: “On Tisha B’Av, the day commemorating the destruction of the Jewish Temples in Jerusalem, Josh Wander brought his silver trumpets specially made for use in the Temple to the Machkama building. Built about 700 years ago, it is currently used as a Border Police station. The building faces the Western Wall Plaza but juts out over the Temple Mount. ... The trumpets were blown at a prayer service held twice a year and overseen by Rabbi Rami Goren, the son of Rabbi Shlomo Goren, who served as the first head of the military rabbinate of the Israel Defense Forces. Rabbi Shlomo Goren oversaw the IDF victory in the 1967 Six-Day War that brought the Temple Mount under Israeli sovereignty.” “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps” (Numbers 10:1-2).
CHRIST, THE ONLY MAN BORN A KING (Friday Church News Notes, August 23, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:2). “I remember no one who was born a king except Jesus; and there is emphatic meaning in that verse that we sing—‘Born thy people to deliver; Born a child, and yet a king’ (Charles Wesley, ‘Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus’). The moment that he came on earth he was a king. He did not wait till his majority that he might take his empire; but as soon as his eye greeted the sunshine he was a king; from the moment that his little hands grasped anything, they grasped a sceptre; as soon as his pulse beat, and his blood began to flow, his heart beat royally, and his pulse an imperial measure, and his blood flowed in a kingly current. He was born a king” (Charles Spurgeon, “The Incarnation and Birth of Christ”).
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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