Friday Church News Notes
May 16, 2025 - Volume 26, Issue 20
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.
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears on the balcony of St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. Pic: Reuters
LEO XIV, ANOTHER BLENDING, MERGING POPE (Friday Church News Notes, May 16, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The newly elected pope, Robert Prevost of Chicago, has named himself Leo XIV and expressed the desire to be an ecumenical pope, which could have been predicted by any right-thinking student of Bible prophecy and of the times in which we live. In his inaugural speech on a balcony above St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo said, “We must be a church that builds bridges and seeks dialogue” (“Catholics in Rome,” The Washington Times, May 8, 2025). Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York hailed the new pope as “a bridge builder,” a “universal pastor,” and “a citizen of the world.” Leo is the first American pope, which is appropriate since America is the heart and soul of the one-world church that is unwittingly, but ever so diligently, preparing the way for Mystery Babylon. In the last half of the 20th century we entered the era of ecumenism, and the pace of advance has been breathtaking. In the 1950s, “evangelicals” pointed the way by renouncing separatism and embracing Billy Graham’s ecumenical crusades. The Roman Catholic Church announced its intention to join the movement with the “Decree on Ecumenism” published by the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). It said, “The term ‘ecumenical movement’ indicates the initiatives and activities encouraged and organized, according to the various needs of the [Roman] Church and as opportunities offer, to promote Christian unity. ... This sacred Council is gratified to note that the participation by the Catholic faithful in ecumenical work is growing daily. ... Cooperation among Christians ... should be developed more and more.” In the 1980s, the public friendship between Billy Graham and Pope John Paul II propelled the ecumenical movement to new heights. Leo is a product of this era. Christianity Today magazine, which was founded by Graham in 1956, documented widespread praise for the new pope by evangelicals. For example, Matthew Bates, professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Chicago, says, “[W]e see this as important for the future of the whole church--seeing Catholics as our brothers and sisters in Christ even if we don’t see [Leo] as our head” (“How Evangelicals View the First US Pope,” Christianity Today, May 9, 2025). The hour is very late. God’s born again people must redeem the time for Christ’s Great Commission while there is still opportunity (Matthew 28:18-20).
PREVIOUS LEO POPES WERE HATERS OF THE BIBLE SOCIETIES (Friday Church News Notes, May 16, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The newly elected pope has named himself Leo XIV. Previous Leo popes were denouncers of the Bible societies and enemies of the distribution of the Bible. LEO X (1513-1521), who denounced Martin Luther, organized the fifth Lateran Council (1513-1517), which charged that no books, including Bibles, could be printed except those approved by the Roman Catholic Church. (LEO XI reigned only a few days in April 1605.) LEO XII (1823-1829) issued a bull to the Irish bishops, May 3, 1824, in which he affirmed the Council of Trent and condemned Bible distribution. He warned that “if the Sacred Scriptures be everywhere indiscriminately published, more evil than advantage will arise thence” (Richard Blakeney, Popery in Its Social Aspects, 1875, p. 136). The “evil” he referred to, of course, is the “evil” of men and women reading Scripture for themselves and learning that the Roman Catholic Church has no authority therein. LEO XIII (1878-1903) issued an “Apostolic Constitution” in 1897 stating, “All versions of the vernacular, even by Catholics, are altogether prohibited, unless approved by the Holy See, or published under the vigilant care of the Bishops, with annotations taken from the Fathers of the Church and learned Catholic writers” (Melancthon Jacobus, Roman Catholic and Protestant Bibles, 1908, p. 237). The ecumenical age enveloped the work of Bible translation in the 1960s when the Second Vatican Council called for “cooperation” to provide “easy access to sacred Scripture for all Christian faithful” (Vatican II, “Constitution on Divine Revelation”). Since then, the popes have worked together with the United Bible Societies to produce interdenominational versions in multitudes of languages. These ecumenical Bibles are a major element of the one-world church. There is one version that no pope has ever approved, though, and that is the King James Bible. We find this fact significant. (For documentation, see the free eBook Unholy Hands on God’s Holy Book, a report on the United Bible Societies, www.wayoflife.org.)
AMERICAN POP CHRISTIANITY: HEART AND SOUL OF THE ONE-WORLD CHURCH (Friday Church News Notes, May 16, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Last week we reported on the one-world church represented by President Trump’s cabinet. There are Roman Catholics, Baptists, Foursquare Pentecostal, Word-faith Pentecostal, Episcopalian, Methodist, Huguenot, Reformed Evangelical, Lutheran, Coptic, a Hindu, a “secular Muslim,” a Jungist, and a Jew. What we are saying here has nothing to do with politics, by the way. Politically we like this cabinet. What we are focusing on here is the prophetic times. Having read Trump’s Inner Circle, Kristi Noem’s Not My First Rodeo, Tulsi Gabbard’s For Love of Country, and Pete Hegseth’s America Crusade, etc., I am reminded that in one-world Christianity, we all love Jesus and we’re all friends. Nothing can be allowed to hinder the unity. In disobedience to 1 Timothy 1:3, doctrine matters little. In disobedience to Romans 16:17, 2 Timothy 3:5, etc., there are no clear boundaries. In disobedience to 2 Corinthians 11, false gospels, false christs, and false spirits are not identified and renounced. In contrast to James 4:4 and 1 John 2:15-17, separation from the world is not emphasized. In contrast to Jesus’ preaching, hell is almost never mentioned. In contrast to Matthew 7:13-14, vast numbers of people are saved and nearly everyone goes to heaven. In disobedience to Jude 1:3, there is no earnest contention for the faith. In contrast to Colossians 3:1-4, the affection is set on things on earth more than things above. Of course, pulling everything together and creating sensual feelings of oneness is contemporary Christian music. This is American pop Christianity; Trump Christianity; Fox News Christianity. It is apostasy, but it is very attractive; it seems right; it has a form of godliness. It is the Christianity of a lot of fundamental Baptist churches that are more in love with MAGA than the Bible, in practice. This is a major sign of the times.
ERIC WHITACRE AND MUSIC FOR A NEW AGE (Friday Church News Notes, May 16, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Eric Whitacre is a major figure in new age music. (Also called post-modern, contemporary classical.) The philosophy is “we disregard any rules; we have free reign; there is nothing restrained” (Pastor Tim Kelly). Whitacre says, “I’m tapping into the deepest part of our collective psyche with my music.” He is creating music for the unity of mankind. He majors on unresolving chords and dissidence without resolution. The music flows but never ends. It is emotionally powerful but tense, not relaxing, not peaceful. There is expectation but no fulfillment. It is music fit for yoga and contemplative prayer. It asks questions but gives no answers. It is non-dogmatic. It is music to unite contradictory philosophies and religions. It is music for the new Babylon which will soon be led, in a brief global rein, by the new Nimrod. Whitacre is perhaps best known for his virtual new age choirs that unite singers from across the world through internet technology. Virtual Choir 01 in 2009 and 2010 featured 185 singers. Virtual Choir 06 in 2020 featured 17,572 singers from 129 countries. Whiteacre composed the soundtrack for NASA’s IMAX film, Deep Field: The Impossible Magnitude of the Universe. It features Virtual Choir 05. Pastor Tim Kelly has documented that this type of new age music is being used in advertisements by fundamental Baptist colleges. See the presentation “Evidence for Godly Music, 1b,”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98UxqSbVKsM
MANKIND’S DOUBLE HAUNTING (Friday Church News Notes, October 25, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Unregenerate man is doubly haunted! First he senses eternity, toward which he moves--finite speck that he is--as one strangely destined. Then he finds written upon his very heart a law which condemns him to miss his eternal destiny! No wonder Paul wrote elsewhere, ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel’ (1 Co. 9:16). Nothing else can end this double haunting of man” (Don Richardson, Eternity in Their Hearts).
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).
PREVIOUS LEO POPES WERE HATERS OF THE BIBLE SOCIETIES (Friday Church News Notes, May 16, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The newly elected pope has named himself Leo XIV. Previous Leo popes were denouncers of the Bible societies and enemies of the distribution of the Bible. LEO X (1513-1521), who denounced Martin Luther, organized the fifth Lateran Council (1513-1517), which charged that no books, including Bibles, could be printed except those approved by the Roman Catholic Church. (LEO XI reigned only a few days in April 1605.) LEO XII (1823-1829) issued a bull to the Irish bishops, May 3, 1824, in which he affirmed the Council of Trent and condemned Bible distribution. He warned that “if the Sacred Scriptures be everywhere indiscriminately published, more evil than advantage will arise thence” (Richard Blakeney, Popery in Its Social Aspects, 1875, p. 136). The “evil” he referred to, of course, is the “evil” of men and women reading Scripture for themselves and learning that the Roman Catholic Church has no authority therein. LEO XIII (1878-1903) issued an “Apostolic Constitution” in 1897 stating, “All versions of the vernacular, even by Catholics, are altogether prohibited, unless approved by the Holy See, or published under the vigilant care of the Bishops, with annotations taken from the Fathers of the Church and learned Catholic writers” (Melancthon Jacobus, Roman Catholic and Protestant Bibles, 1908, p. 237). The ecumenical age enveloped the work of Bible translation in the 1960s when the Second Vatican Council called for “cooperation” to provide “easy access to sacred Scripture for all Christian faithful” (Vatican II, “Constitution on Divine Revelation”). Since then, the popes have worked together with the United Bible Societies to produce interdenominational versions in multitudes of languages. These ecumenical Bibles are a major element of the one-world church. There is one version that no pope has ever approved, though, and that is the King James Bible. We find this fact significant. (For documentation, see the free eBook Unholy Hands on God’s Holy Book, a report on the United Bible Societies, www.wayoflife.org.)
AMERICAN POP CHRISTIANITY: HEART AND SOUL OF THE ONE-WORLD CHURCH (Friday Church News Notes, May 16, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Last week we reported on the one-world church represented by President Trump’s cabinet. There are Roman Catholics, Baptists, Foursquare Pentecostal, Word-faith Pentecostal, Episcopalian, Methodist, Huguenot, Reformed Evangelical, Lutheran, Coptic, a Hindu, a “secular Muslim,” a Jungist, and a Jew. What we are saying here has nothing to do with politics, by the way. Politically we like this cabinet. What we are focusing on here is the prophetic times. Having read Trump’s Inner Circle, Kristi Noem’s Not My First Rodeo, Tulsi Gabbard’s For Love of Country, and Pete Hegseth’s America Crusade, etc., I am reminded that in one-world Christianity, we all love Jesus and we’re all friends. Nothing can be allowed to hinder the unity. In disobedience to 1 Timothy 1:3, doctrine matters little. In disobedience to Romans 16:17, 2 Timothy 3:5, etc., there are no clear boundaries. In disobedience to 2 Corinthians 11, false gospels, false christs, and false spirits are not identified and renounced. In contrast to James 4:4 and 1 John 2:15-17, separation from the world is not emphasized. In contrast to Jesus’ preaching, hell is almost never mentioned. In contrast to Matthew 7:13-14, vast numbers of people are saved and nearly everyone goes to heaven. In disobedience to Jude 1:3, there is no earnest contention for the faith. In contrast to Colossians 3:1-4, the affection is set on things on earth more than things above. Of course, pulling everything together and creating sensual feelings of oneness is contemporary Christian music. This is American pop Christianity; Trump Christianity; Fox News Christianity. It is apostasy, but it is very attractive; it seems right; it has a form of godliness. It is the Christianity of a lot of fundamental Baptist churches that are more in love with MAGA than the Bible, in practice. This is a major sign of the times.
ERIC WHITACRE AND MUSIC FOR A NEW AGE (Friday Church News Notes, May 16, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Eric Whitacre is a major figure in new age music. (Also called post-modern, contemporary classical.) The philosophy is “we disregard any rules; we have free reign; there is nothing restrained” (Pastor Tim Kelly). Whitacre says, “I’m tapping into the deepest part of our collective psyche with my music.” He is creating music for the unity of mankind. He majors on unresolving chords and dissidence without resolution. The music flows but never ends. It is emotionally powerful but tense, not relaxing, not peaceful. There is expectation but no fulfillment. It is music fit for yoga and contemplative prayer. It asks questions but gives no answers. It is non-dogmatic. It is music to unite contradictory philosophies and religions. It is music for the new Babylon which will soon be led, in a brief global rein, by the new Nimrod. Whitacre is perhaps best known for his virtual new age choirs that unite singers from across the world through internet technology. Virtual Choir 01 in 2009 and 2010 featured 185 singers. Virtual Choir 06 in 2020 featured 17,572 singers from 129 countries. Whiteacre composed the soundtrack for NASA’s IMAX film, Deep Field: The Impossible Magnitude of the Universe. It features Virtual Choir 05. Pastor Tim Kelly has documented that this type of new age music is being used in advertisements by fundamental Baptist colleges. See the presentation “Evidence for Godly Music, 1b,”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98UxqSbVKsM
MANKIND’S DOUBLE HAUNTING (Friday Church News Notes, October 25, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Unregenerate man is doubly haunted! First he senses eternity, toward which he moves--finite speck that he is--as one strangely destined. Then he finds written upon his very heart a law which condemns him to miss his eternal destiny! No wonder Paul wrote elsewhere, ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel’ (1 Co. 9:16). Nothing else can end this double haunting of man” (Don Richardson, Eternity in Their Hearts).
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).
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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, BUT 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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