THE POPE THE FABLE MAN (Friday Church News Notes, October 24, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The prophesy of apostate Christianity in 2 Timothy emphasizes fables, and the Roman Catholic pope is the chief fable man. “And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Ti. 4:4). The latest fable to be adopted by the pope is the fable of manmade global warming. On Oct. 1, Pope Leo blessed a block of melting ice as he participated in the Raising Hope for Climate Justice conference at Castel Gandolfo. The press release said the event was “a sign of the urgency of the climate crisis, marked by the hope carried through the Pope’s blessing.” Leo is following in the steps of Pope Francis, who in 2015 published Laudato Si, “which stressed the urgency of the climate crisis and the need for swift and unified global action.” It is easy for popes to believe fables. They are described in 2 Timothy 3:13 as “deceiving and being deceived.” The papacy itself is a gigantic fable (e.g., Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, sitting on Peter’s throne and possessing Peter’s keys, the Vicar of Christ, Supreme Pontiff, Pontifex Maximus, Summus Pontifex, Holy Father, His Holiness). Rome’s Mary is a fable (e.g., Immaculate Conception, Perpetual Virginity, Assumption, Advocate, Benefactress, Protectress, Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix of all grace, Our Lady of Angels, New Eve, Queen of Peace, Queen of Heaven, Marian apparitions). Other papal fables include Apostolic Succession, Transubstantiation, the Real Presence, Extreme Unction, Auricular Confession, Penance, Indulgences, Infant Baptism, Baptismal Regeneration, College of Cardinals, Intercession of Saints, Ex Cathedra Infallibility, Semper Eadem (always the same), Rosary, Scapulars, Donation of Constantine (said to be the greatest fraud in history), Decretals of Isidore, Purgatory, the True Cross, Stigmata, Veneration of Relics, and the Treasury of Merit. Anyone who joins hands with the Roman Catholic Church and treats the Pope as anything other than an arch heretic, deceiver, and blasphemer is in open disobedience to God’s Word. This includes a large majority of evangelical leaders and contemporary Christian musicians. See Romans 16:17; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 2 Timothy 3:5; 2 John 1:9-11.

SOCIAL MEDIA PUSHES PORNOGRAPHY TO CHILDREN WITHIN MINUTES (Friday Church News Notes, October 24, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Social Media,” The Bridgehead, Oct. 17, 2025: “Social media is now one of the primary pipelines to porn addiction for both children and young adults. Global Witness, a campaign organization that investigates the impact of Big Tech on human rights, recently conducted a number of tests to determine how quickly children could access pornography on social media platforms. According to the Guardian, Global Witness conducted one test before the implementation of the U.K.’s Online Safety Act in July, and one after. In just a few clicks, TIKTOK directed children’s accounts to pornography. ... I have encountered countless young people who were first exposed to pornographic material on social media; many teenagers have told me that INSTAGRAM is a key on-ramp into pornography. If they so much as pause for a fraction of a second as they scroll past a sexually explicit image, the pause is detected by the algorithm, and more sexual content is pushed into their feed. That content escalates in explicitness, and the algorithm almost literally reels them in with a conveyor belt of sexual imagery. ... Many young men who had successfully freed themselves from pornography have told me that going onto Instagram caused relapses into addiction. SNAPCHAT is no better. Pornography is easily accessible within five clicks without ever leaving the app. The National Centre on Sexual Exploitation has been urging parents to keep children off of Snapchat for years, and lists the social media app as one of the worst offenders on its annual ‘Dirty Dozen’ list.”

CONTEMPORARY MUSIC ARTIST ADMITS HE IMITATES THE WORLD (Friday Church News Notes, October 24, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Forrest Frank, popular contemporary Christian music artist, testified on Instagram recently that he imitates the world. “As Christians it’s hard to know where the line in the sand is between being in the world but not of the world. And as a Christian artist, you know, I dress kind of like the world. I kind of look like the world. My music can kind of sound like the world.” He went on to say that he would no longer accept awards or attend awards ceremonies, such as the Dove or Grammys, because he “will not receive a trophy for something that is from Jesus and for Jesus.” He needs to go a lot farther than that. As he admitted, everything about contemporary Christian music is worldly. It is worldly in appearance and sound. Scripture answers the question, Where is the line between being in the world and not of the world? It is to not be conformed to the evil things of the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:15-17). That is a perfect definition of the filthy pop culture. The world’s fashion is designed by rebels. It is unisex, immodest, narcissistic, slovenly. The “sound” of pop music--the relentless back beat, the unresolving chord sequences, the crooning, the breathy whispering, the scooping and flipping, the vocal fry or popcorning--was created to proclaim a lifestyle of live as you please. Sensuality permeates every aspect of the music. Pop singers contort their voices and slip and slide around the notes because they have rejected absolute truth. Whether they are conscious of it or not, their singing style reflects the philosophy of moral relativism which permeates modern pop music. From its inception, the sound of pop music (e.g., ragtime, boogy woogy, blues, jazz, rock) has been a sensual dance sound, a barroom sound, a gambling den sound, a worldly party sound. It is a sound that is the opposite of holy and sacred and spiritual (Eph. 5:18-19; Col. 3:16). Sacred music is not fitting for a barroom, and barroom music is not fitting for the house of God. Contemporary Christian musicians will answer to God for being conformed to the world and influencing professing Christians toward worldliness. Contemporary Christian Music is a major element of end-time apostasy, which is a “live according to your lusts” Christianity (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

TURKEY EXPELS FOREIGN CHRISTIANS (Friday Church News Notes, October 24, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Turkey Expels,” Christianity Daily, Oct. 17, 2025: “ADF International reports that since 2020, at least 200 foreign Christian workers and their families, totaling about 350 individuals, have been barred from entering or remaining in Turkey under the Ministry of Interior’s internal security codes N-82 and G-87. The organization explained that the codes are used to deny residence permits or prevent re-entry often without charges or evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Those affected include citizens of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, several Latin American nations, and various European countries, many of whom have been denied visas or deported in recent years. A June 8 ruling by Turkey’s Constitutional Court dismissed an appeal from nine foreign Christians challenging the N-82 designation. The court’s decision publicly listed their names, leading local media to brand them as missionaries and enemies of the state. Following the publication, online commenters reportedly called for the death penalty and referred to killing them as a religious obligation.”

QUEBEC COURT ALLOWS THREE-MAN ‘THROUPLE” TO ADOPT 3-YEAR-OLD GIRL (Friday Church News Notes, October 24, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Quebec Court,” The Bridgehead, Oct. 2, 2025: “April, a Quebec Superior Court judge ruled that ‘multi-parent families,’ like ‘throuples’--three people living in a loosely defined sexual relationship--should be granted the same rights as ‘any other unit.’ By ‘unit,’ the judge was referring to what we once recognized as the natural family: a father, mother, and their children. Social conservatives predicted that if the natural family was legally redefined by same-sex ‘marriage,’ it would open the door to the legal recognition of an ever-expanding number of sexual relationships. Once law was unhitched from reality, all limiting principles would be removed. At the time, social conservatives were mocked as bigots. But as the judge put it: ‘limiting the legal affiliation of children to one or two parents is unconstitutional.’ ... Meanwhile, the LGBT movement has such a vise grip on Canada’s establishment that not a single federal politician or mainstream media commentator has bothered to protest--or even point out why this is wrong.”

INCHWORM STRATEGY (Friday Church News Notes, October 24, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Sept. 25, 2025: “Some creatures simply try to look uninteresting to hungry predators. Others take their role-playing so seriously that they actually fulfill some of the same roles as their models. Loopers, or inchworms, move along the ground, twigs or branches with the characteristic opening and closing of an upside-down letter U. These creatures are not true worms. Rather, they are caterpillars. As caterpillars, they often look very much like the twigs or branches on which they move. However, their odd form of movement can give them away. Here’s an experiment you can try. If you ever notice a looper on a branch, simply give the branch a gentle tap. Chances are, the looper will suddenly freeze into the same shape as a nearby twig. If you were to carefully touch the looper, you would find that it had become as stiff as a twig. A botanist reports that while studying one looper moving along a branch, an ant happened along. Ants, of course, will eat loopers. The looper froze in a horizontal position between branches. The ant walked across the looper, never noticing that its walkway was actually a potential meal. Many scientists suggest that the looper ‘just happens’ to be the same color as the branches on which it crawls. We ask, does it also accidentally know how to act like a twig to fool predators? The almighty hand of God is evident even in the inchworm! Ref: ‘The looper--inching along from one disguise to another,’ National Geographic.”

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).