Friday Church News Notes
July 18, 2025 - Volume 26, Issue 29
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.
Shawn Bolz
Screengrab/YouTube/Shawn Bolz
Screengrab/YouTube/Shawn Bolz
PENTECOSTALS USING CHATGPT TO INTERPRET “TONGUES” (Friday Church News Notes, July 18, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “New Claims,” Crosswalk, July 11, 2025: “Self-professed prophet Shawn Bolz recently claimed that Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians have engaged in a trend where they can interpret speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, by using Chat GPT. Bolz, who was previously accused of fabricating prophecies, addressed the matter in a video titled ‘God, Technology & the Next 25 Years: the Prophetic Mandate for Innovation’ on his YouTube Channel late last month.” CONCLUDING COMMENTS: This is just more Pentecostal nonsense. Even in the apostolic era, tongues were not to be spoken without interpretation (1 Corinthians 14:27), and this refutes the tongues movement from its inception at Charles Parham’s Bible school in Topeka, Kansas, in 1900, and William Seymour’s Azusa Street Mission, in 1906. Parham and Seymour have been called “the co-founders of world Pentecostalism” (Antonio Arnold, We Are Living in the Finished Work of Christ, p. 143). But the “tongues” were mere gibberish, and there were no interpretations. The participants at Azusa Street would be “seized with a strange spell and commence a gibberish of sounds” (Larry Martin, The True Believers, p. 58). Following is how Parham himself described the “tongues” at his Bible school: “The next day I went down town and upon my return found ALL THE STUDENTS SITTING ON THE FLOOR TALKING IN UNKNOWN TONGUES, NO TWO TALKING THE SAME LANGUAGE, AND NO ONE UNDERSTANDING HIS OR HER NEIGHBOR’S SPEECH” (Topeka Mail and Breeze, Feb. 22, 1901). Parham’s students not only claimed to speak in tongues but also to write in tongues. They said these writings were foreign languages, such as Chinese, but when they were examined by knowledgeable people, they were found to be mere indecipherable scratchings (James Goff, Jr., Fields White Unto Harvest, p. 76). We have an actual record of one of the “tongues” spoken by Parham’s students written by a reporter of the Topeka State Journal. I found a copy of this some years ago during a visit to the Kansas State Historical Society. “Mr. Parham called Miss Lilian Thistlethrate into the room and asked her if she could talk some. She ... began to utter strange words which sounded like this: ‘Euossa, Euossa, use rela sema calah mala kanah leulla ssage nalan. Ligle logle lazie logle. Ene mine mo, sah rah el me sah rah me.’ These sentences were translated as meaning, ‘Jesus is mighty to save,’ ‘Jesus is ready to hear,’ and ‘God is love’” (“Hindoo and Zulu Both Are Represented at Bethel School,” Topeka State Journal, Jan. 9, 1901). Ligle logle lazie logle!!!!! Ene mine mo!!!!! This is exactly the type of “tongues” I have heard at Pentecostal and charismatic meetings in various parts of the world, but it is nonsense. “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints” (1 Corinthians 14:33).
THE PENTECOSTAL-CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT: THE HISTORY AND THE ERROR (Friday Church News Notes, July 18, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The 6th edition of this book (and Bible course), August 2019, is enlarged and revised throughout and is accompanied by a series of eight multi-media PowerPoint presentations. The Pentecostal movement, with its offshoot the charismatic movement, is one of the major building blocks of the end-time, one-world “church.” The author has researched the movement ever since he was saved in 1973. He built a large library on the subject, interviewed Pentecostal leaders, attended conferences with media credentials, and visited prominent churches and sites pertaining to the movement’s history in many parts of the world. The book/course deals with the history of Pentecostalism beginning at the turn of the 20th century, the Latter Rain Covenant, major Pentecostal healing evangelists, Manifest Sons of God, the Charismatic movement, the Word-Faith movement, the Roman Catholic Charismatic Renewal, the new Pentecostal prophets, the Third Wave, recent Pentecostal “revivals” such as Toronto, Pensacola, and Lakeland, and prominent Pentecostal and charismatic scandals. There is also a section on the charismatic influence on Contemporary Christian Music. The course deals extensively with the theological errors of the Pentecostal-charismatic movements (exalting experience over Scripture, emphasis on the miraculous, the continuation of Messianic and apostolic miracles and sign gifts, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, baptism of fire, tongues speaking, physical healing guaranteed in the atonement, spirit slaying, spirit drunkenness, visions of Jesus, journeys to heaven, women preachers, and the ecumenical doctrine). The final section of the book answers the question, “Why are people deluded by Pentecostal-Charismatic error?” The textbook is 487 pages. It is accompanied by eight PowerPoint Presentations featuring 1,400 slides. There are photos taken firsthand at historic locations (such as John Dowie’s Zion City and Frank Sandford’s Shiloh community), Pentecostal-Charismatic conferences attended with media credentials (such as New Orleans ’87 and Indianapolis ’90), and churches we have visited for research purposes. Also included are video clips of Pentecostal-Charismatic experiences such as spirit slaying, holy laughter, and spirit drunkenness. We urge every Bible-believing church and home to study this course as a Sunday School series or in some other forum. It is available from www.wayoflife.org.
IRANIAN ASSASSINS WORLDWIDE (Friday Church News Notes, July 18, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Iranian assassins now target everyone,” World Israel News, July 11, 2025: “Donald Trump and anyone else threatening the Supreme Leader of Iran is ‘waging war against Allah’ and must be ‘punished with death,’ according to a new religious fatwa by Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi. ... Vidal-Quadras, a former vice president of the European Parliament and once a professor of Atomic Physics, was targeted by the Iranian regime, which is subcontracting murders to European criminal networks. ‘They are recruiting mafia organizations to do their work.’ He was returning home from a walk in the park around lunchtime. Just 30 meters from his apartment in Madrid’s Salamanca district, a man called out, ‘Hola, señor’, making him turn. He was shot at close range with a 9mm Parabellum pistol ... The bullet shattered his jaw and narrowly missed his neck and brain. ... the Wall Street Journal revealed that Iran was accused of gathering intelligence on Jewish targets in Berlin in preparation for attacks. A Danish citizen named Ali S., working for Tehran, was arrested. Sweden thwarted two Iranian plots targeting Saskia Pantell, head of the Zionist Federation of Sweden, and Aron Verständig, president of the Swedish Jewish communities. ... This week, the Washington Post revealed a foiled Iranian plot to assassinate Mike Pompeo in a Paris hotel. Robert O’Brien, Trump’s former National Security Advisor, was also tailed by two Middle Eastern men in Paris. He was extracted from the Ritz hotel by his security detail. UK Security Minister Dan Jarvis disclosed about 20 Iranian plots targeting Britain. In London, Iranian journalist Pouria Zeraati was stabbed. Dissident singer Shahin Najafi was nearly killed in Hannover on the anniversary of the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ protests. The US has offered a $20 million reward for info leading to the arrest of Shahram Poursafi, accused of trying to hire hitmen to assassinate John Bolton. ... Masih Alinejad, anti-hijab activist, escaped an assassination attempt in New York. Other targets: Salman Rushdie (almost killed by a Hezbollah-trained agent) and Irwin Cotler, ex-Canadian Justice Minister. ... Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi, [was] arrested in Germany for plotting a bombing at an Iranian opposition rally near Paris. He was sentenced to 20 years in Belgium.”
SOUTHERN BAPTIST APOSTASY (Friday Church News Notes, July 18, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - J.D. Greear, senior pastor of The Summit church, Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, 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, testify 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.
TREE WARS (Friday Church News Notes, July 18, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, May 5, 2025: “A gypsy moth caterpillar infestation can strip the leaves from large numbers of trees, threatening the trees’ lives. Since they don’t have a means of escape, it doesn’t seem as if the poor trees have much of a chance. But botanists were tipped off to the possibility that trees may not be all that defenseless when they began to investigate why only a few trees were badly damaged by insects in an infected grove while most stood unharmed. They discovered that when facing a threat like gypsy moth caterpillars, trees begin to defend themselves by sounding the alarm. A large variety of trees--including beeches, poplars, sugar maples and red oaks--communicate with each other. Scientists believe the trees communicate by releasing chemicals called pheromones into the air. What they now know is that before insects attacking one tree can get to the tree next door, the second tree has already begun defending itself. How do they defend themselves? When under attack or notified by other trees of attack, most trees begin to manufacture an array of poisons. Some of the poisons make leaves impossible to digest, while others kill the insects outright. Some make as many as eight poisons at once, and many can change the poisons that are made from year to year. Our Creator’s concern for living things extends even to plants. If He sees to this detailed level of care for trees, can there be anything in our lives that is too small for His loving concern? Ref: Brownlee, Shannon, ‘The silent battle,’ Discover.”
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).
THE PENTECOSTAL-CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT: THE HISTORY AND THE ERROR (Friday Church News Notes, July 18, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The 6th edition of this book (and Bible course), August 2019, is enlarged and revised throughout and is accompanied by a series of eight multi-media PowerPoint presentations. The Pentecostal movement, with its offshoot the charismatic movement, is one of the major building blocks of the end-time, one-world “church.” The author has researched the movement ever since he was saved in 1973. He built a large library on the subject, interviewed Pentecostal leaders, attended conferences with media credentials, and visited prominent churches and sites pertaining to the movement’s history in many parts of the world. The book/course deals with the history of Pentecostalism beginning at the turn of the 20th century, the Latter Rain Covenant, major Pentecostal healing evangelists, Manifest Sons of God, the Charismatic movement, the Word-Faith movement, the Roman Catholic Charismatic Renewal, the new Pentecostal prophets, the Third Wave, recent Pentecostal “revivals” such as Toronto, Pensacola, and Lakeland, and prominent Pentecostal and charismatic scandals. There is also a section on the charismatic influence on Contemporary Christian Music. The course deals extensively with the theological errors of the Pentecostal-charismatic movements (exalting experience over Scripture, emphasis on the miraculous, the continuation of Messianic and apostolic miracles and sign gifts, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, baptism of fire, tongues speaking, physical healing guaranteed in the atonement, spirit slaying, spirit drunkenness, visions of Jesus, journeys to heaven, women preachers, and the ecumenical doctrine). The final section of the book answers the question, “Why are people deluded by Pentecostal-Charismatic error?” The textbook is 487 pages. It is accompanied by eight PowerPoint Presentations featuring 1,400 slides. There are photos taken firsthand at historic locations (such as John Dowie’s Zion City and Frank Sandford’s Shiloh community), Pentecostal-Charismatic conferences attended with media credentials (such as New Orleans ’87 and Indianapolis ’90), and churches we have visited for research purposes. Also included are video clips of Pentecostal-Charismatic experiences such as spirit slaying, holy laughter, and spirit drunkenness. We urge every Bible-believing church and home to study this course as a Sunday School series or in some other forum. It is available from www.wayoflife.org.
IRANIAN ASSASSINS WORLDWIDE (Friday Church News Notes, July 18, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Iranian assassins now target everyone,” World Israel News, July 11, 2025: “Donald Trump and anyone else threatening the Supreme Leader of Iran is ‘waging war against Allah’ and must be ‘punished with death,’ according to a new religious fatwa by Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi. ... Vidal-Quadras, a former vice president of the European Parliament and once a professor of Atomic Physics, was targeted by the Iranian regime, which is subcontracting murders to European criminal networks. ‘They are recruiting mafia organizations to do their work.’ He was returning home from a walk in the park around lunchtime. Just 30 meters from his apartment in Madrid’s Salamanca district, a man called out, ‘Hola, señor’, making him turn. He was shot at close range with a 9mm Parabellum pistol ... The bullet shattered his jaw and narrowly missed his neck and brain. ... the Wall Street Journal revealed that Iran was accused of gathering intelligence on Jewish targets in Berlin in preparation for attacks. A Danish citizen named Ali S., working for Tehran, was arrested. Sweden thwarted two Iranian plots targeting Saskia Pantell, head of the Zionist Federation of Sweden, and Aron Verständig, president of the Swedish Jewish communities. ... This week, the Washington Post revealed a foiled Iranian plot to assassinate Mike Pompeo in a Paris hotel. Robert O’Brien, Trump’s former National Security Advisor, was also tailed by two Middle Eastern men in Paris. He was extracted from the Ritz hotel by his security detail. UK Security Minister Dan Jarvis disclosed about 20 Iranian plots targeting Britain. In London, Iranian journalist Pouria Zeraati was stabbed. Dissident singer Shahin Najafi was nearly killed in Hannover on the anniversary of the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ protests. The US has offered a $20 million reward for info leading to the arrest of Shahram Poursafi, accused of trying to hire hitmen to assassinate John Bolton. ... Masih Alinejad, anti-hijab activist, escaped an assassination attempt in New York. Other targets: Salman Rushdie (almost killed by a Hezbollah-trained agent) and Irwin Cotler, ex-Canadian Justice Minister. ... Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi, [was] arrested in Germany for plotting a bombing at an Iranian opposition rally near Paris. He was sentenced to 20 years in Belgium.”
SOUTHERN BAPTIST APOSTASY (Friday Church News Notes, July 18, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - J.D. Greear, senior pastor of The Summit church, Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, 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, testify 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.
TREE WARS (Friday Church News Notes, July 18, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, May 5, 2025: “A gypsy moth caterpillar infestation can strip the leaves from large numbers of trees, threatening the trees’ lives. Since they don’t have a means of escape, it doesn’t seem as if the poor trees have much of a chance. But botanists were tipped off to the possibility that trees may not be all that defenseless when they began to investigate why only a few trees were badly damaged by insects in an infected grove while most stood unharmed. They discovered that when facing a threat like gypsy moth caterpillars, trees begin to defend themselves by sounding the alarm. A large variety of trees--including beeches, poplars, sugar maples and red oaks--communicate with each other. Scientists believe the trees communicate by releasing chemicals called pheromones into the air. What they now know is that before insects attacking one tree can get to the tree next door, the second tree has already begun defending itself. How do they defend themselves? When under attack or notified by other trees of attack, most trees begin to manufacture an array of poisons. Some of the poisons make leaves impossible to digest, while others kill the insects outright. Some make as many as eight poisons at once, and many can change the poisons that are made from year to year. Our Creator’s concern for living things extends even to plants. If He sees to this detailed level of care for trees, can there be anything in our lives that is too small for His loving concern? Ref: Brownlee, Shannon, ‘The silent battle,’ Discover.”
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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