Friday Church News Notes
Oct. 4, 2024 - Volume 25, Issue 40
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.
GETTYS LEAD WORSHIP AT LAUSANNE 4 (Friday Church News Notes, October 4, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Keith and Kristyn Getty led worship and conducted seminars at Lausanne IV, the ecumenical Congress on World Evangelization in Seoul, South Korea, Sept. 22-28. The Gettys are one of the most influential contemporary worship artists, and they are bridges to the one-world church because of their ecumenical philosophy and lack of true biblical boundaries. Together with Stuart Townend, who is charismatic in his doctrine and practice, they operate Getty Townend Music (GTM), which in the last several years has become increasingly popular with Bob Jones University, Majesty Music, the Wilds, and others. Over 5,000 people from 200 countries participated in Lausanne IV from a multiplicity of denominations. The 50 speakers included Rick Warren of Purpose Driven fame and Billy Wilson, president of the Pentecostal Oral Roberts University. A major theme was ecumenism. Patrick Fung of OMF International said, “A divided church has no message for a divided world. God has called us to a unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” This is a great error. The statement in Ephesians 4:3 is written to a biblically sound New Testament church, not to professing Christians in general. Nowhere does Scripture call for unity between those who hold sound doctrine and those who hold heresy. To the contrary, Scripture warns of a great turning away from the faith (2 Timothy 3-4) and calls upon those who are sound in the faith to mark and avoid those who err (Romans 16:17-18; 2 Timothy 3:5). The first Congress for World Evangelization was held in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974, led by Billy Graham. The Lausanne movement which is a product of that first congress has promoted ecumenical unity from its inception. In 1974, participants came from every sort of compromised and apostate denomination, such as the Church of England and the Church of South India, including many associated with the radically liberal World Council of Churches. Three Roman Catholic priests were invited to attend Lausanne I (F.E.A. News & Views, Jul.-Aug. 1974). One of the speakers at Lausanne I was Malcolm Muggeridge, who, five years previously, in his book Jesus Rediscovered (1969), brazenly rejected Christ’s virgin birth, deity, miracles, prophecies, and bodily resurrection. He wrote, “To imagine [God] having a son in any particular sense, and this son to have been born of a virgin, and to have lived on earth for thirty years or so as a man; then to have died and to have risen from the dead is, as far as I am concerned, beyond credibility" (Jesus Rediscovered, p. 95). He theorized that some “body-snatcher” stole Jesus’ body. By 1974, when he spoke at Lausanne I, Muggeridge professed to be a Christian of sorts, but he was never sound in the faith. He still denied the divine inspiration of Scripture and Jesus’ bodily resurrection. In his 1975 book Jesus: The Man Who Lives, which was supposed to be his Christian testimony, Muggeridge said it is likely that the events of the resurrection, such as the empty tomb and the stone rolled away, could not have been caught on camera, and he continued to propose the wicked body snatching theory. Muggeridge had no testimony of the new birth, stating that his “conversion” was a “lifelong journey.” Yet he spoke at Lausanne and was acclaimed by prominent evangelicals as a true Christian. The ecumenical spirit of the Lausanne congress was expressed in the Lausanne Covenant, which stated that “a growing partnership of churches will develop and the universal character of Christ’s church will be more clearly exhibited.” This is the false idea of a universal “church” composed of all professing Christians, which is actually the apostate “one-world church.” The March 2010 edition of the Lausanne World Pulse (a joint venture between Billy Graham and the Lausanne Committee) featured an article by Chandler Im entitled “Interfaith Interface with Buddhists,” calling for participating in Buddhism in order to understand it. Im said, “I strongly concur with [Lesslie] Newbigin’s claim that until one has felt in one’s soul the dynamic power and influence of a great religion, one has not heard or understood the message of it.” This is a dangerous recommendation that is forbidden by God’s Word. See 2 Corinthians 6:14-18. Newbigin denied the verbal inspiration of Scripture, claiming that the Bible is “not a set of timeless truths.” Evangelicals have a frightful habit of quoting rank heretics without any warning. The March 2010 issue of Lausanne World Pulse also had an article “Sharing Christ in Hindu Contexts” which stated that Hindus who “accept Christ” do not have to be baptized or identify with a church, because it “isolates them from their native community.” In the September 2009 Lausanne World Pulse, Philip Noss of the American Bible Society stated that “God reveals himself through his word and through each culture.” This is not what the apostles taught. “And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. ... Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:19-21). Modern evangelicalism is shot through and through with heretical thinking, and even those who are biblically sound to some degree are dangerous bridges to rank error. (For more about the Gettys, see the multi-media video presentation Bob Jones, Majesty Music, New Reformed Calvinism, and the Gettys,
www.wayoflife.org/s3/satanic-attack/)
SACRED MUSIC CHURCHES TARGETED WITH “TRANSITION” SONGS (Friday Church News Notes, October 4, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Contemporary Christian Music people are proselytizers. There are even TRANSITION SONGS and BRIDGE SONGS specifically designed to move “traditional” churches along the contemporary path toward Christian rock. These include “How Deep the Father's Love for Us” by Stuart Townend and “In Christ Alone” by Townend and Keith Getty. One concerned pastor wrote: “Keith and Kristyn Getty advertise themselves as ‘Modern Hymn Writers’ and are deceiving many into the rock genre by this very innocent title and the more conservative soft rock praise music. But the fact is, that they are not modern hymn writers because they are putting out rock music which is not spiritual at all but carnal and thereby fulfilling the desires of the flesh and not the spirit (the spiritual part of us yielding to the Holy Spirit).” The frightful thing is that the average independent Baptist pastor and musicians don’t have the foggiest idea that they are being manipulated and that they are walking on a BRIDGE that leads to a place they say they are against, which is full blown CCM and its enticing philosophy of “don’t be so strict and uptight; relax; enjoy life; live the grace.” Two of the major characteristics of bridge music are beat anticipation and unresolving chords. See the multi-media video presentation The Language of Music Styles, www.wayoflife.org/s3/satanic-attack/
QUEERING NUCLEAR WEAPONS (Friday Church News Notes, October 4, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) The ever-spreading Sodomite agenda is a major sign of the end times. The following is excerpted from “Queer Intel,” PowerLineBlog, Sept. 15, 2024: “Back in February, the Biden-Harris administration appointed Sneha Nair as a ‘Special Assistant’ at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Nair is co-author with Louis Reitmann of ‘Queering nuclear weapons: How LGBTQ+ inclusion strengthens security and reshapes disarmament,’ and as the authors contend: ‘Governments cannot afford to lose out on the human capital and innovation potential of queer people. Informed by their life experiences, queer people have specific skills to offer that are valuable in a policy and diplomacy context. ... queer people add value to nuclear weapons policy and discourse.’ ... But Bruce Bawer observes, ’Homosexuality and transgenderism are two utterly different phenomena’ and queer can mean anything, so there is no LGBTQ community. The formulation is a construct that divides people into oppressed and oppressor classes, as the left has always done. Being a component of the construct is not an accomplishment, confers no special skills, and adds no value to policy or practice.’” Seven times, Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah are mentioned in connection with the end times and the coming of Christ (Luke 17:18-29, 32; 2 Peter 2:6-7). The prophet Jude tells us that the sin of Sodom was not lack of hospitality or even gang rape. “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, 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” (Jude 1:7).
UNPRECEDENTED DEVASTATION COMING ON THE EARTH (Friday Church News Notes, October 4, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - World news is filled with reports of disaster, both natural and manmade. There are floods, earthquakes, active volcanos, violent revolution, wars, terrorism, and more. According to Bible prophecy, which has always been accurate, these things are but minor harbingers of greater devastation to come. The world’s population will be decimated, economies ruined, disaster management resources utterly overwhelmed. In comparison, the world wars of the 20th century were but a “walk in the park.” The time of unprecedented trouble will occur in a seven-year period called “the day of the Lord” and “the great tribulation.” It is a time when God will judge the world for its rebellion, a time when man will be humbled and God exalted. Some of the highlights are as follows: A fourth part of the earth’s population will die in warfare and associated famines at the very beginning of the tribulation (Re. 6:8). A third part of the sea will be turned to blood and a third of the ships destroyed (Re. 8:7-9). A third part of the waters will be made bitter (Re. 8:10-11). Demonic armies will torment and kill men (Re. 9:1-19), one-third of mankind perishing in this one judgment. A malevolent world ruler will exercise control over a global economy, forcing all men to worship him and killing those who refuse (Re. 13:15-18). Men will be scorched by a super-heated sun and gnaw their tongues for pain (Re. 16:8-11). A great earthquake will shake the world so terribly that the mountains will fall and the islands will flee away (Re. 16:18-20). Hail stones weighing 100 pounds will fall upon the earth (Re. 16:21). “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. ... For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:3, 4, 9).
THE FRENZY TO SLOW AGING AND AVOID DEATH (Friday Church News Notes, October 4, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Billions of dollars are being spent to slow aging and ultimately avoid death by cellular technology. “Mega money is being invested in startups researching how to regenerate and rejuvenate aging cells. Altos Labs, for example, emerged from stealth mode in 2022 with $3 billion from investors including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. OpenAI’s Sam Altman recently invested $180 million in Retro Biosciences. Alphabet subsidiary Calico Life Sciences has a reported $1.5 billion budget” (“The Company Aiming to Slow Down Aging,” Israel21c, Sept. 25, 2024). Some tech billionaires, including Google co-founder Larry Page and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, are funding research to end death. Ellison says, “Death makes me very angry,” so he created the Ellison Foundation to find a way to cheat death (“Larry Page Lists 5 Things That Google Will Conquer,” Business Insider, May 15, 2014). Having achieved remarkable things through technology and having exalted the human intellect to the place of God, the captains of the tech industry are deluded into thinking that they can cure man’s deepest moral and spiritual needs. I use and appreciate modern technology, but I don’t trust it for salvation. These men are willfully ignorant of the fact that death is the wages of sin (Romans 6:23). That awful wage includes physical death and the “second death,” which is eternal punishment in the lake of fire (Revelation 21:8). For the aged in Christ, God has unspeakably wonderful promises, such as my godly grandmother’s favorite: “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread” (Psalm 37:25).
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).
SACRED MUSIC CHURCHES TARGETED WITH “TRANSITION” SONGS (Friday Church News Notes, October 4, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Contemporary Christian Music people are proselytizers. There are even TRANSITION SONGS and BRIDGE SONGS specifically designed to move “traditional” churches along the contemporary path toward Christian rock. These include “How Deep the Father's Love for Us” by Stuart Townend and “In Christ Alone” by Townend and Keith Getty. One concerned pastor wrote: “Keith and Kristyn Getty advertise themselves as ‘Modern Hymn Writers’ and are deceiving many into the rock genre by this very innocent title and the more conservative soft rock praise music. But the fact is, that they are not modern hymn writers because they are putting out rock music which is not spiritual at all but carnal and thereby fulfilling the desires of the flesh and not the spirit (the spiritual part of us yielding to the Holy Spirit).” The frightful thing is that the average independent Baptist pastor and musicians don’t have the foggiest idea that they are being manipulated and that they are walking on a BRIDGE that leads to a place they say they are against, which is full blown CCM and its enticing philosophy of “don’t be so strict and uptight; relax; enjoy life; live the grace.” Two of the major characteristics of bridge music are beat anticipation and unresolving chords. See the multi-media video presentation The Language of Music Styles, www.wayoflife.org/s3/satanic-attack/
QUEERING NUCLEAR WEAPONS (Friday Church News Notes, October 4, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) The ever-spreading Sodomite agenda is a major sign of the end times. The following is excerpted from “Queer Intel,” PowerLineBlog, Sept. 15, 2024: “Back in February, the Biden-Harris administration appointed Sneha Nair as a ‘Special Assistant’ at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Nair is co-author with Louis Reitmann of ‘Queering nuclear weapons: How LGBTQ+ inclusion strengthens security and reshapes disarmament,’ and as the authors contend: ‘Governments cannot afford to lose out on the human capital and innovation potential of queer people. Informed by their life experiences, queer people have specific skills to offer that are valuable in a policy and diplomacy context. ... queer people add value to nuclear weapons policy and discourse.’ ... But Bruce Bawer observes, ’Homosexuality and transgenderism are two utterly different phenomena’ and queer can mean anything, so there is no LGBTQ community. The formulation is a construct that divides people into oppressed and oppressor classes, as the left has always done. Being a component of the construct is not an accomplishment, confers no special skills, and adds no value to policy or practice.’” Seven times, Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah are mentioned in connection with the end times and the coming of Christ (Luke 17:18-29, 32; 2 Peter 2:6-7). The prophet Jude tells us that the sin of Sodom was not lack of hospitality or even gang rape. “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, 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” (Jude 1:7).
UNPRECEDENTED DEVASTATION COMING ON THE EARTH (Friday Church News Notes, October 4, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - World news is filled with reports of disaster, both natural and manmade. There are floods, earthquakes, active volcanos, violent revolution, wars, terrorism, and more. According to Bible prophecy, which has always been accurate, these things are but minor harbingers of greater devastation to come. The world’s population will be decimated, economies ruined, disaster management resources utterly overwhelmed. In comparison, the world wars of the 20th century were but a “walk in the park.” The time of unprecedented trouble will occur in a seven-year period called “the day of the Lord” and “the great tribulation.” It is a time when God will judge the world for its rebellion, a time when man will be humbled and God exalted. Some of the highlights are as follows: A fourth part of the earth’s population will die in warfare and associated famines at the very beginning of the tribulation (Re. 6:8). A third part of the sea will be turned to blood and a third of the ships destroyed (Re. 8:7-9). A third part of the waters will be made bitter (Re. 8:10-11). Demonic armies will torment and kill men (Re. 9:1-19), one-third of mankind perishing in this one judgment. A malevolent world ruler will exercise control over a global economy, forcing all men to worship him and killing those who refuse (Re. 13:15-18). Men will be scorched by a super-heated sun and gnaw their tongues for pain (Re. 16:8-11). A great earthquake will shake the world so terribly that the mountains will fall and the islands will flee away (Re. 16:18-20). Hail stones weighing 100 pounds will fall upon the earth (Re. 16:21). “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. ... For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:3, 4, 9).
THE FRENZY TO SLOW AGING AND AVOID DEATH (Friday Church News Notes, October 4, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Billions of dollars are being spent to slow aging and ultimately avoid death by cellular technology. “Mega money is being invested in startups researching how to regenerate and rejuvenate aging cells. Altos Labs, for example, emerged from stealth mode in 2022 with $3 billion from investors including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. OpenAI’s Sam Altman recently invested $180 million in Retro Biosciences. Alphabet subsidiary Calico Life Sciences has a reported $1.5 billion budget” (“The Company Aiming to Slow Down Aging,” Israel21c, Sept. 25, 2024). Some tech billionaires, including Google co-founder Larry Page and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, are funding research to end death. Ellison says, “Death makes me very angry,” so he created the Ellison Foundation to find a way to cheat death (“Larry Page Lists 5 Things That Google Will Conquer,” Business Insider, May 15, 2014). Having achieved remarkable things through technology and having exalted the human intellect to the place of God, the captains of the tech industry are deluded into thinking that they can cure man’s deepest moral and spiritual needs. I use and appreciate modern technology, but I don’t trust it for salvation. These men are willfully ignorant of the fact that death is the wages of sin (Romans 6:23). That awful wage includes physical death and the “second death,” which is eternal punishment in the lake of fire (Revelation 21:8). For the aged in Christ, God has unspeakably wonderful promises, such as my godly grandmother’s favorite: “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread” (Psalm 37:25).
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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