Friday Church News Notes
September 19, 2025 - Volume 26, Issue 38
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.
CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSIN REPRESENTS A DARK ONLINE WORLD (Friday Church News Notes, September 19, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following information reminds us that the internet is a very dangerous place, as well as a powerful communication tool for the truth. The dangers include every form of wicked thinking and lifestyle, every form of false religion and philosophy, and every form of false doctrine. For God’s redeemed people to be safe, there must be proper education, spiritual wisdom, effectual controls, and supervision. Our book/course The Pornographic Age and Spiritual Victory deals with these things in much detail, www.wayoflife.org. The following is excerpted from “Dark online subculture,” The Washington Times, Sept. 15, 2025: “[Tyler Robinson, 22] the man accused of assassinating rising conservative star Charlie Kirk was immersed in a toxic online community that may have driven his actions. ... They point to taunting messages left by Mr. Robinson on bullet casings and social media postings that are linked to violent gaming and nihilistic discourse. ... Mr. Robinson, who was in a romantic relationship with his transgender roommate, was active in the online video gaming community on several message boards. ... the picture emerging is one of a once-promising student who became engrossed in ‘socially isolated and toxic online gaming subculture dominated by an obsession with violence.’ ... Three recent school shooters ... had spent months viewing and sharing the content produced in an online ‘gore forum.’ ... ‘A position that once looked unthinkable has been normalized inside the group. The mix says nothing matters. Everything is a joke. Nihilism is the punch line.’”
UNIVERSITIES ARE TERRORIST TRAINING GROUNDS (Friday Church News Notes, September 19, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following report is a reminder that wicked living and wicked thinking has not been eradicated from America and will not be eradicated by anything the current administration is doing. This is excerpted from World Israel News, Sept. 12, 2025: “A day before Charlie Kirk was assassinated, the Free Speech Rankings, a FIRE survey of 68,000 college students at 257 universities, was released and it revealed that 1 in 3 students believed that using violence to stop a speaker they disagreed with on campus was acceptable. 2% or 1,360 students believed that violence to stop speech they opposed was ‘always acceptable’. 13% found it ‘sometimes acceptable’ so that over 10,000 students find violence against campus speakers acceptable some of the time. When combined with the 19% who say violence is rarely, but sometimes, acceptable, that’s over 23,000 college students who were willing to answer that using violence against speakers they disliked was a valid option. Projecting and generalizing this large sample size to the much larger number of 18 million of college students across the country would translate into support for violently shutting down campus speakers by between 2.7 million and 6.1 million college students. Another 54% or more than half, support blocking students from attending campus speeches they oppose, and 71% back shouting down speakers. A majority of college students not only oppose free speech, but support intervening to stop it. What kind of views do they support shutting down by any means necessary? 74% believe speakers who view transgenderism as a mental illness should [be shut down.] 60% believe in blocking abortion opponents. ... One killing anywhere can be an aberration but generations of violence incubated by professors and deans on campus, some of whom openly admire terrorists and urge students to imitate them, is not random chance. It’s a culture of terrorism that is now approaching its murderous apex. 76% believe in banning anyone who says BLM is a hate group.”
WAKE UP, PASTORS, PARENTS, WE ARE LIVING IN A PORNDEMIC (Friday Church News Notes, September 26, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from a sermon by Pastor Simeon Western, 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 to date 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 have shocked 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 a parents, but you have 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.’” The full sermon is available at the following link
https://web.sermonaudio.com/sermons/1425115319160
THE WORLDLINESS THAT HAS PERMEATED EVANGELICALISM (Friday Church News Notes, September 19, 2025, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In 1978, Richard Quebedeux published The Worldly Evangelicals, documenting the dramatic changes that were already occurring within evangelicalism a mere thirty years after the onslaught of the spirit of “Newism.” He observed that “the wider culture has had a profound impact on the evangelical movement as a whole” (The Worldly Evangelicals, 1978, p. 115). Though Quebedeaux didn’t make the connection, this is a direct result of the repudiation of separation. He said: “In the course of establishing their respectability in the eyes of the wider society, the evangelicals have become harder and harder to distinguish from other people. Upward social mobility has made the old revivalistic taboos dysfunctional. ... the COCKTAILS became increasingly difficult to refuse. Evangelical young people LEARNED HOW TO DANCE AND OPENLY ‘GROOVED’ ON ROCK MUSIC. ... And evangelical magazines and newspapers began REVIEWING PLAYS AND MOVIES. ... The Gallup Poll is correct in asserting that born-again Christians ‘believe in a strict moral code.’ BUT THAT STRICTNESS HAS BEEN CONSIDERABLY MODIFIED DURING THE LAST FEW YEARS ... DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE are becoming more frequent and acceptable among evangelicals of all ages, even in some of their more conservative churches. ... Some evangelical women are taking advantage of ABORTION on demand. Many younger evangelicals occasionally use PROFANITY in their speech and writing ... Some of the recent evangelical sex-technique books assume that their readers peruse and view PORNOGRAPHY on occasion, and they do. Finally, in 1976 there emerged a fellowship and information organization for practicing evangelical LESBIANS AND GAY MEN and their sympathizers. There is probably just as high a percentage of gays in the evangelical movement as in the wider society. Some of them are now coming out of the closet, distributing well-articulated literature, and demanding to be recognized and affirmed by the evangelical community at large. ... It is profoundly significant that evangelicals, even the more conservative among them, have ACCEPTED THE ROCK MODE. This acceptance, obviously, indicates a further chapter in the death of self-denial and world rejection among them. ... When young people were converted in the Jesus movement, many of them simply did not give up their former habits, practices, and cultural attitudes--DRINKING, SMOKING, AND CHARACTERISTIC DRESS AND LANGUAGE. ... Young evangelicals drink, but so do conservative evangelicals like Hal Lindsey and John Warwick Montgomery (who is a member of the International Wine and Food Society). ... But EVEN MARIJUANA, now virtually legal in some areas of the United States, is not as forbidden among young evangelicals as it once was. A few of them, particularly the intellectuals, do smoke it on occasion...” (The Worldly Evangelicals, 1978, pp. 14, 16, 17, 118, 119).
PLANT SNIFFS OUT ITS PREY (Friday Church News Notes, September 19, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, August 22, 2025: “The dodder is a very unusual plant and is known as one of the ten worst weeds found in the United States. A newly sprouted dodder seed does not bother to grow roots. Rather, it sprouts a tendril that grows out, looking for other plants. It has, at most, a week to find a plant from which to steal water and nutrients. The dodder is a parasite, and while it does not kill its victims, it will take enough water and nutrition to stunt their growth. The dodder actually costs California tomato growers $4,000,000 a year in losses. Researchers found that the species of dodder that causes most trouble to tomato plants actually ‘sniffs out’ its victims. Scientists knew that plants emit pheromones or scents unique to each species. The researchers gave a sprouting dodder seed a choice of targets to grow toward, including a tomato plant. When the dodder seed sprouted, it immediately sent a tendril out to the tomato. In a more rigorous test, researchers connected possible targets in separate enclosures to the sprouting dodder with curved tubes. The dodder still found the tomato plant. The dodder has no nervous system, and scientists marvel at what it can do. Rather, they should be marveling at what our Creator can do in providing for the needs of all living things. Ref: Science News, S. Milius, ‘Scent Stalking.’”
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).
UNIVERSITIES ARE TERRORIST TRAINING GROUNDS (Friday Church News Notes, September 19, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following report is a reminder that wicked living and wicked thinking has not been eradicated from America and will not be eradicated by anything the current administration is doing. This is excerpted from World Israel News, Sept. 12, 2025: “A day before Charlie Kirk was assassinated, the Free Speech Rankings, a FIRE survey of 68,000 college students at 257 universities, was released and it revealed that 1 in 3 students believed that using violence to stop a speaker they disagreed with on campus was acceptable. 2% or 1,360 students believed that violence to stop speech they opposed was ‘always acceptable’. 13% found it ‘sometimes acceptable’ so that over 10,000 students find violence against campus speakers acceptable some of the time. When combined with the 19% who say violence is rarely, but sometimes, acceptable, that’s over 23,000 college students who were willing to answer that using violence against speakers they disliked was a valid option. Projecting and generalizing this large sample size to the much larger number of 18 million of college students across the country would translate into support for violently shutting down campus speakers by between 2.7 million and 6.1 million college students. Another 54% or more than half, support blocking students from attending campus speeches they oppose, and 71% back shouting down speakers. A majority of college students not only oppose free speech, but support intervening to stop it. What kind of views do they support shutting down by any means necessary? 74% believe speakers who view transgenderism as a mental illness should [be shut down.] 60% believe in blocking abortion opponents. ... One killing anywhere can be an aberration but generations of violence incubated by professors and deans on campus, some of whom openly admire terrorists and urge students to imitate them, is not random chance. It’s a culture of terrorism that is now approaching its murderous apex. 76% believe in banning anyone who says BLM is a hate group.”
WAKE UP, PASTORS, PARENTS, WE ARE LIVING IN A PORNDEMIC (Friday Church News Notes, September 26, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from a sermon by Pastor Simeon Western, 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 to date 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 have shocked 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 a parents, but you have 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.’” The full sermon is available at the following link
https://web.sermonaudio.com/sermons/1425115319160
THE WORLDLINESS THAT HAS PERMEATED EVANGELICALISM (Friday Church News Notes, September 19, 2025, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In 1978, Richard Quebedeux published The Worldly Evangelicals, documenting the dramatic changes that were already occurring within evangelicalism a mere thirty years after the onslaught of the spirit of “Newism.” He observed that “the wider culture has had a profound impact on the evangelical movement as a whole” (The Worldly Evangelicals, 1978, p. 115). Though Quebedeaux didn’t make the connection, this is a direct result of the repudiation of separation. He said: “In the course of establishing their respectability in the eyes of the wider society, the evangelicals have become harder and harder to distinguish from other people. Upward social mobility has made the old revivalistic taboos dysfunctional. ... the COCKTAILS became increasingly difficult to refuse. Evangelical young people LEARNED HOW TO DANCE AND OPENLY ‘GROOVED’ ON ROCK MUSIC. ... And evangelical magazines and newspapers began REVIEWING PLAYS AND MOVIES. ... The Gallup Poll is correct in asserting that born-again Christians ‘believe in a strict moral code.’ BUT THAT STRICTNESS HAS BEEN CONSIDERABLY MODIFIED DURING THE LAST FEW YEARS ... DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE are becoming more frequent and acceptable among evangelicals of all ages, even in some of their more conservative churches. ... Some evangelical women are taking advantage of ABORTION on demand. Many younger evangelicals occasionally use PROFANITY in their speech and writing ... Some of the recent evangelical sex-technique books assume that their readers peruse and view PORNOGRAPHY on occasion, and they do. Finally, in 1976 there emerged a fellowship and information organization for practicing evangelical LESBIANS AND GAY MEN and their sympathizers. There is probably just as high a percentage of gays in the evangelical movement as in the wider society. Some of them are now coming out of the closet, distributing well-articulated literature, and demanding to be recognized and affirmed by the evangelical community at large. ... It is profoundly significant that evangelicals, even the more conservative among them, have ACCEPTED THE ROCK MODE. This acceptance, obviously, indicates a further chapter in the death of self-denial and world rejection among them. ... When young people were converted in the Jesus movement, many of them simply did not give up their former habits, practices, and cultural attitudes--DRINKING, SMOKING, AND CHARACTERISTIC DRESS AND LANGUAGE. ... Young evangelicals drink, but so do conservative evangelicals like Hal Lindsey and John Warwick Montgomery (who is a member of the International Wine and Food Society). ... But EVEN MARIJUANA, now virtually legal in some areas of the United States, is not as forbidden among young evangelicals as it once was. A few of them, particularly the intellectuals, do smoke it on occasion...” (The Worldly Evangelicals, 1978, pp. 14, 16, 17, 118, 119).
PLANT SNIFFS OUT ITS PREY (Friday Church News Notes, September 19, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, August 22, 2025: “The dodder is a very unusual plant and is known as one of the ten worst weeds found in the United States. A newly sprouted dodder seed does not bother to grow roots. Rather, it sprouts a tendril that grows out, looking for other plants. It has, at most, a week to find a plant from which to steal water and nutrients. The dodder is a parasite, and while it does not kill its victims, it will take enough water and nutrition to stunt their growth. The dodder actually costs California tomato growers $4,000,000 a year in losses. Researchers found that the species of dodder that causes most trouble to tomato plants actually ‘sniffs out’ its victims. Scientists knew that plants emit pheromones or scents unique to each species. The researchers gave a sprouting dodder seed a choice of targets to grow toward, including a tomato plant. When the dodder seed sprouted, it immediately sent a tendril out to the tomato. In a more rigorous test, researchers connected possible targets in separate enclosures to the sprouting dodder with curved tubes. The dodder still found the tomato plant. The dodder has no nervous system, and scientists marvel at what it can do. Rather, they should be marveling at what our Creator can do in providing for the needs of all living things. Ref: Science News, S. Milius, ‘Scent Stalking.’”
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, 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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