Friday Church News Notes
March 7, 2025 - Volume 26, Issue 10
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.
ISRAEL’S DELUSION (Friday Church News Notes, March 7, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Israel’s delusion is that she is back in the land by her own power and that she can live as she pleases and have God’s blessing without obedience to God and His Christ, just because she is Israel. This has been Israel’s delusion for 2,000 years. There can be no doubt about this, because Israel’s history, present condition, and future are recorded in infallible Scripture. Israel’s survival in the midst of the nations is indeed miraculous and her return to the land proves that the Bible is God’s Word. But Israel has survived against impossible odds, not because she is living in God’s favor but because she is unwittingly preparing for the completion of Bible prophecy. She is back in the land to receive the Antichrist and to participate in the building of the third temple that he will desecrate (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15-22; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12). She is back in the land to prepare for the day of the Lord, which is also called “the day of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7). She is back in the land in an unregenerate condition to fulfill Ezekiel 37:8, “And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.” Israel’s worse time is yet ahead, but this will be followed by the glad day when the Spirit of God will convert the nation, not in whole but in part. “And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God” (Zechariah 13:8-9).
A PORNDEMIC (Friday Church News Notes, March 7, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is by Simeon Western, Pastor, Northside Baptist Church, Adelaide, Australia: “You have heard of a pandemic. What we have in our churches that is even more dangerous is a porndemic. I don’t enjoy having to tackle this problem. I wish I didn’t have to talk about it. It makes me faint to look at it because it is like ten Goliaths facing us all at once. But I have come to a realization in my experience today that this porndemnic is not going to go away, and whether we like it or not, as parents, as pastors, we are going to have to face this battle. And you’ve got to be awake to it, and you’ve got to be alert to it, because it is destroying families, it is destroying marriages, it is destroying lives. Wantonness has taken over the people of God. It is killing the spirituals lives of so many Christian men. And I’ve been praying, ‘Lord, what do I do about it as a pastor? How can we tackle this more effectively?’ And I think maybe this is of the Lord, but the thought that came to mind is that we need to go on the offense. That means that you as a parent need to be involved in this because if you are not careful your ten year old could get hooked on your unprotected device. The amount of young men I have counseled would shock you, and guess where they got hooked on porn? In their home school bedrooms on unprotected devices which parents let into their home and did not think carefully and wisely about what they were doing. There is forgiveness and restoration and such, and I’m not trying to smash you down if you have made mistakes as parents, but you had better get on your knees and say, ‘God, forgive me for being unwatchful, forgive me for not being alert, and now my son or daughter is practically an addict, and I’m going to have to fast and pray and get my hands dirty to lift them out of the pit in which I, to a degree, allowed them to get into.’” (We recommend the new course “A Church Smartphone Accountability Program,” www.wayoflife.org.)
I BELIEVE IN THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD AND DELIGHT IN IT (Friday Church News Notes, March 7, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Charles Spurgeon defined the essence of Calvinism as follows: “To me, Calvinism means the placing of the eternal God at the head of all things. I look at everything through its relation to God’s glory. I see God first, and man far down in the list. ... Brethren, if we live in sympathy with God, we delight to hear Him say, ‘I am God, and there is none else’” (An All Round Ministry). I am not any type of Calvinist, but I agree 100% with this. I believe in God big and man little. I would change just one word in Spurgeon’s statement: “To me, Biblicism means the placing of the eternal God at the head of all things.” I don’t need Augustine or John Calvin or the divines of the Westminster Assembly to teach me this, for it is the emphasis of Holy Scripture. I believe God is Almighty, all-wise, infinite, eternal, King of kings, the only God, the most High. He “sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers ... That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity” (Isa. 40:22-23). “The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD sitteth King for ever” (Isa. 29:10). The heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool (Isa. 66:1). He “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1:11). He is working all things together according to His eternal plan “that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him” (Eph. 1:10). Nothing can stay His hand. “But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased” (Ps. 115:3). “For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?” (Isa. 14:27). When God has determined something, there is no power in heaven or earth, now or ever, that can hinder it. God--not revolutions or politics or economics or dynasties--is the Author of human history. He “changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding” (Da. 2:21). No matter what men determine to do, God is in charge. “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD” (Pr. 16:33). God’s will can only be resisted when and as He allows, as when He gives men and angels a will that can be exercised within certain narrow parameters. But when God has ordained that something be done, it will be done. All creatures operate within the boundaries of God’s will and they can do nothing beyond those boundaries. The God who made the world and all things therein “hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation” (Ac. 17:24-26). In His foreknowledge, God has incorporated man’s will and man’s actions and man’s prayers within His eternal plan and has ultimate control over all things so that His eternal plan will be fulfilled. I can say with a prominent Calvinist, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” (See “I Hold to the Doctrines of Grace,” www.wayoflife.org.)
WALDENSIAN PERSECUTION (Friday Church News Notes, March 7, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Two streams of churches have flowed through church history: true churches and false, sound churches and apostate. Century after century, the Bible-loving Waldenses were subject to the Inquisition, horribly persecuted by the popes and bishops and monks. Entire cities and towns were destroyed and valleys decimated. Countless thousands were tortured and brutally murdered. We have documented this in A History of the Churches from a Baptist Perspective, www.wayoflife.org. Consider one example. In the year 1209, Pope Innocent III was the first pope to call for a crusade against the Waldenses in France (also called Albigenses). Anyone who volunteered to war against the “heretics” was promised forgiveness of sin and many rewards. Tens of thousands took up arms for the pope and marched against the hated Waldenses. Some 200,000 were killed by the pope’s army within a few months. Two cities, Beziers (Braziers) and Carcasone, were destroyed, together with many smaller towns and villages. Some of the 40,000 inhabitants of Beziers were Roman Catholics, and when Simon de Monfort, Earl of Leicester, asked the pope’s representative how he was to separate the Catholics from the Albigenses, he answered: “Kill them all. God knows His own.” That is exactly what they did. The cruelties practiced by the Catholic persecutors were horrible. Believers and unbelievers alike were thrown from high cliffs, hanged, disemboweled, pierced through repeatedly, drowned, torn by dogs, burned alive, crucified. In one case, 400 mothers fled for refuge with their babies to a cave in Castelluzzo, which was located 2,000 feet above the valley in which they lived. They were discovered by the rampaging Catholic campaigners; a large fire was built outside of the cave and they were suffocated. Thousands were made homeless and were forced to wander in the forests and mountains to escape the persecutors. “In this manner, the war was carried on for twenty years. Town after town was taken, pillaged, burnt. Nothing was left but a smoking waste. Religious fanaticism began the war; rapacity and ambition ended it. Peace was concluded in 1229, and the Inquisition finished the deadly work” (John Christian, A History of the Baptists). This is but one tiny glimpse into the persecutions against the Waldenses and other Baptists that occurred century after century.
ANOTHER MIRACLE OF SIGHT (Friday Church News Notes, March 7, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, January 20, 2025: “The eye is a chemical and technological wonder. It would take thousands of carefully directed mutations for an eyeless creature to develop sight. And since a partial eye doesn’t provide sight, each of these thousands of mutations would offer no advantage to the creature. The fact is, of course, that mutations don’t happen this way. All the true mutations we know about have harmed rather than helped the creature with the mutation. This fact places the thought of thousands of positive mutations in a row outside the realm of scientifically reasonable consideration. In addition, neither living nor known fossil animals show any evidence of gradual development of eyes. Therefore, the most reasonable scientific conclusion is that there is a Creator Who designed and created the eye. The lens of the eye is a marvel of chemistry. It is made up of a concentration of protein molecules inside water-lined cells. When scientists learned this, they were amazed. Protein molecules in water are not transparent, as the lens must be. After more research, they discovered God’s secret. The high concentration of protein molecules in the lens of the eye causes the proteins to pack together something like the molecules of window glass. As a result, the normally opaque protein solution in the lens becomes transparent. The eye does more damage to ideas about origins that leave out God than almost any other feature of the creation because it allows us to see the Creator’s fingerprints all around us!”
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; Mt. 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” (Ro. 13:11-14).
A PORNDEMIC (Friday Church News Notes, March 7, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is by Simeon Western, Pastor, Northside Baptist Church, Adelaide, Australia: “You have heard of a pandemic. What we have in our churches that is even more dangerous is a porndemic. I don’t enjoy having to tackle this problem. I wish I didn’t have to talk about it. It makes me faint to look at it because it is like ten Goliaths facing us all at once. But I have come to a realization in my experience today that this porndemnic is not going to go away, and whether we like it or not, as parents, as pastors, we are going to have to face this battle. And you’ve got to be awake to it, and you’ve got to be alert to it, because it is destroying families, it is destroying marriages, it is destroying lives. Wantonness has taken over the people of God. It is killing the spirituals lives of so many Christian men. And I’ve been praying, ‘Lord, what do I do about it as a pastor? How can we tackle this more effectively?’ And I think maybe this is of the Lord, but the thought that came to mind is that we need to go on the offense. That means that you as a parent need to be involved in this because if you are not careful your ten year old could get hooked on your unprotected device. The amount of young men I have counseled would shock you, and guess where they got hooked on porn? In their home school bedrooms on unprotected devices which parents let into their home and did not think carefully and wisely about what they were doing. There is forgiveness and restoration and such, and I’m not trying to smash you down if you have made mistakes as parents, but you had better get on your knees and say, ‘God, forgive me for being unwatchful, forgive me for not being alert, and now my son or daughter is practically an addict, and I’m going to have to fast and pray and get my hands dirty to lift them out of the pit in which I, to a degree, allowed them to get into.’” (We recommend the new course “A Church Smartphone Accountability Program,” www.wayoflife.org.)
I BELIEVE IN THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD AND DELIGHT IN IT (Friday Church News Notes, March 7, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Charles Spurgeon defined the essence of Calvinism as follows: “To me, Calvinism means the placing of the eternal God at the head of all things. I look at everything through its relation to God’s glory. I see God first, and man far down in the list. ... Brethren, if we live in sympathy with God, we delight to hear Him say, ‘I am God, and there is none else’” (An All Round Ministry). I am not any type of Calvinist, but I agree 100% with this. I believe in God big and man little. I would change just one word in Spurgeon’s statement: “To me, Biblicism means the placing of the eternal God at the head of all things.” I don’t need Augustine or John Calvin or the divines of the Westminster Assembly to teach me this, for it is the emphasis of Holy Scripture. I believe God is Almighty, all-wise, infinite, eternal, King of kings, the only God, the most High. He “sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers ... That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity” (Isa. 40:22-23). “The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD sitteth King for ever” (Isa. 29:10). The heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool (Isa. 66:1). He “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1:11). He is working all things together according to His eternal plan “that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him” (Eph. 1:10). Nothing can stay His hand. “But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased” (Ps. 115:3). “For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?” (Isa. 14:27). When God has determined something, there is no power in heaven or earth, now or ever, that can hinder it. God--not revolutions or politics or economics or dynasties--is the Author of human history. He “changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding” (Da. 2:21). No matter what men determine to do, God is in charge. “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD” (Pr. 16:33). God’s will can only be resisted when and as He allows, as when He gives men and angels a will that can be exercised within certain narrow parameters. But when God has ordained that something be done, it will be done. All creatures operate within the boundaries of God’s will and they can do nothing beyond those boundaries. The God who made the world and all things therein “hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation” (Ac. 17:24-26). In His foreknowledge, God has incorporated man’s will and man’s actions and man’s prayers within His eternal plan and has ultimate control over all things so that His eternal plan will be fulfilled. I can say with a prominent Calvinist, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” (See “I Hold to the Doctrines of Grace,” www.wayoflife.org.)
WALDENSIAN PERSECUTION (Friday Church News Notes, March 7, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Two streams of churches have flowed through church history: true churches and false, sound churches and apostate. Century after century, the Bible-loving Waldenses were subject to the Inquisition, horribly persecuted by the popes and bishops and monks. Entire cities and towns were destroyed and valleys decimated. Countless thousands were tortured and brutally murdered. We have documented this in A History of the Churches from a Baptist Perspective, www.wayoflife.org. Consider one example. In the year 1209, Pope Innocent III was the first pope to call for a crusade against the Waldenses in France (also called Albigenses). Anyone who volunteered to war against the “heretics” was promised forgiveness of sin and many rewards. Tens of thousands took up arms for the pope and marched against the hated Waldenses. Some 200,000 were killed by the pope’s army within a few months. Two cities, Beziers (Braziers) and Carcasone, were destroyed, together with many smaller towns and villages. Some of the 40,000 inhabitants of Beziers were Roman Catholics, and when Simon de Monfort, Earl of Leicester, asked the pope’s representative how he was to separate the Catholics from the Albigenses, he answered: “Kill them all. God knows His own.” That is exactly what they did. The cruelties practiced by the Catholic persecutors were horrible. Believers and unbelievers alike were thrown from high cliffs, hanged, disemboweled, pierced through repeatedly, drowned, torn by dogs, burned alive, crucified. In one case, 400 mothers fled for refuge with their babies to a cave in Castelluzzo, which was located 2,000 feet above the valley in which they lived. They were discovered by the rampaging Catholic campaigners; a large fire was built outside of the cave and they were suffocated. Thousands were made homeless and were forced to wander in the forests and mountains to escape the persecutors. “In this manner, the war was carried on for twenty years. Town after town was taken, pillaged, burnt. Nothing was left but a smoking waste. Religious fanaticism began the war; rapacity and ambition ended it. Peace was concluded in 1229, and the Inquisition finished the deadly work” (John Christian, A History of the Baptists). This is but one tiny glimpse into the persecutions against the Waldenses and other Baptists that occurred century after century.
ANOTHER MIRACLE OF SIGHT (Friday Church News Notes, March 7, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, January 20, 2025: “The eye is a chemical and technological wonder. It would take thousands of carefully directed mutations for an eyeless creature to develop sight. And since a partial eye doesn’t provide sight, each of these thousands of mutations would offer no advantage to the creature. The fact is, of course, that mutations don’t happen this way. All the true mutations we know about have harmed rather than helped the creature with the mutation. This fact places the thought of thousands of positive mutations in a row outside the realm of scientifically reasonable consideration. In addition, neither living nor known fossil animals show any evidence of gradual development of eyes. Therefore, the most reasonable scientific conclusion is that there is a Creator Who designed and created the eye. The lens of the eye is a marvel of chemistry. It is made up of a concentration of protein molecules inside water-lined cells. When scientists learned this, they were amazed. Protein molecules in water are not transparent, as the lens must be. After more research, they discovered God’s secret. The high concentration of protein molecules in the lens of the eye causes the proteins to pack together something like the molecules of window glass. As a result, the normally opaque protein solution in the lens becomes transparent. The eye does more damage to ideas about origins that leave out God than almost any other feature of the creation because it allows us to see the Creator’s fingerprints all around us!”
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; Mt. 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” (Ro. 13:11-14).
_____
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.
Way of Life Literature - www.wayoflife.org
copyright 2018 - Way of Life Literature
