Friday Church News Notes
April 3, 2026 - Volume 27, Issue 14
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.
Päivi Räsänen
FINNISH POLITICIAN CONVICTED OF CRIME FOR BIBLICAL VIEWS ON MARRIAGE (Friday Church News Notes, April 3, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Country’s Supreme Court Convicts,” Christian Broadcasting Network, Mar. 26, 2026: “A Christian politician in Finland has been convicted of a crime for publishing her views on marriage and sexual ethics 22 years ago. The country’s Supreme Court found parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen guilty of ‘hate speech’ for publishing her biblical beliefs. In a 3–2 decision, the court upheld a criminal conviction against Räsänen and a Lutheran bishop for ‘making and keeping available to the public a text that insults a group.’ The high court did acquit her on a separate charge of tweeting a Bible verse, but it found her guilty of ‘insult’ for the two-decade-old pamphlet. In a statement, Räsänen said, ‘I am shocked and profoundly disappointed that the court has failed to recognize my basic human right to freedom of expression. I stand by the teachings of my Christian faith, and will continue to defend my and every person’s right to share their convictions in the public square.’ She may appeal her case to the European Court of Human Rights.”
OLYMPIC COMMITTEE BANS TRANSGENDER “WOMEN” FROM COMPETITIONS (Friday Church News Notes, April 3, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excepted from “White House applauds ban,” The Washington Post, Mar. 26, 2027: “Ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, the International Olympic Committee on Thursday banned transgender women from competing in women’s events--a move that was immediately applauded by the White House. Kirsty Coventry, the first woman to serve as IOC president, made the announcement in a statement Thursday in which she also said that all women who participate in Olympic events will have to undergo genetic testing to confirm they are biologically female. The decision comes as preparations ramp up for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles--and as the Trump administration aggressively moves to prevent transgender athletes from participating in sports not aligned with their sex assigned at birth. The White House cheered the decision Thursday, noting in a statement that Trump signed an executive order in February 2025 that aims to ban transgender athletes from participating in women’s and girls’ sports by denying federal funds for schools that allow it. ... Coventry, in her statement, said, ‘As a former athlete, I passionately believe in the rights of all Olympians to take part in fair competition. The policy that we have announced is based on science and has been led by medical experts. At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat. So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category. In addition, in some sports it would simply not be safe.’”
DESPERATE TIMES FOR INDEPENDENT BAPTIST CHURCHES (Friday Church News Notes, April 3, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Over the past 30 years we have seen dramatic changes among independent Baptist churches. Everywhere I travel for Bible conferences, pastors tell me about churches that have capitulated to the contemporary philosophy and are now enemies of what they used to stand for, or they are dying, or they no longer exist. Consider Akron Baptist Temple of Akron, Ohio. It was founded in 1935 by Dallas F. Billington. By 1949, the church claimed 10,000 members and built a 2,800-seat auditorium. (Obviously most of the “members” were absentee, which is typical of the Quick Prayerism program.) In the 1960s, the church boasted the title “the world’s largest Sunday School” with high days of more than 5,700. In 1978, a 4,000-seat auditorium was built and the church claimed a (meaningless) membership of 15,000. Never biblically strong, the church began a rapid downward slide after the death of the founder. The son, Charles, pastored from 1972 to 1996, when the founder’s grandson, Dallas R., took the pastorate. The church relocated and renamed itself The Connection. Today the former Akron Baptist Temple is an emerging church offering a smorgasbord of worship “experiences.” There is a “traditional” service and a “modern service,” where a loud rock & roll band plays contemporary worship music in a darkened auditorium. The service is advertised as “creating an environment where people who are seeking God, can do so in a non-threatening, comfortable way.” This is the charismatic, new age, rock & roll lust for a feeling. It’s all about me and my tastes and my choices. How 21st century! How 2 Timothy 4:3-4! I was recently rebuked by a pastor who said, “Stop being critical of everyone.” My answer is that I want to obey God’s Word. I want to prove all things and hold fast that which is good; I want to warn, to reprove, rebuke, and exhort. Preacher friends, it’s not time to speak in mumbling generalities and to sit on the sidelines when the battle for truth rages. We must fear Christ more than man and honor God’s Word more than tradition. “When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers” (Psalm 50:18). “The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity” (Micah 7:4). “His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter” (Isaiah 56:10-11).
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AS A WALK (Friday Church News Notes, April 3, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “... even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). The Christian life is often described as a walk. See Ro. 13:13; 1 Co. 7:17; 2 Co. 6:16; Eph. 2:10; 4:1; 5:8, 15; Php. 3:17; Col. 1:10; 2:6; 4:5; 1 Th. 2:12; 4:1, 12; 1 Jo. 1:7; 2:6; 2 Jo. 1:6. This is a powerful metaphor with manifold lessons. Walking speaks of action. It is not sitting. For those redeemed by free grace, there is a new life to live, there are holy works to be done; there is a perfect will of God to be proven; there are spiritual gifts to be exercised; there is a gospel to be preached; there are Christian homes and churches to be built. Let’s rise up and walk! Walking speaks of forward movement. The believer is to be moving forward in the will of God, not going backwards. Walking speaks of gradual movement. The victorious Christian life is not leaping and bounding. It is a step-by-step affair, living for Christ day-by-day, dealing with “the body of this death”; putting on the new man and putting off the old man, facing by faith whatever trials God ordains for me. Christian growth happens incrementally, step-by-step, by moving in the right direction. Worldliness and backsliding also happen step-by-step, by moving in the wrong direction. Walking speaks of having one’s feet on the ground. Walking is not flying. We would prefer to have some sort of “second blessing” experience and fly above the troubles of this present life, the struggles with the old man, the trials of our faith, the wrestlings with the powers of darkness. Such an experience is called “higher life,” “deeper life,” “exchanged life,” “the abiding life,” “the abundant life.” But there is no such experience in the New Testament epistles.
A WARNING ABOUT LOSS AT THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST (Friday Church News Notes, April 3, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Harry Ironside observed, “We are all saved by the same grace and through that same grace we will be raised and changed at the coming of the Lord. But we will not all be rewarded in the same way, for reward is for faithful service, and I am afraid many of us are going to lose a great deal at the judgment seat of Christ because we have not been more true and real in all our ways down here. The day is soon coming when you and I would give worlds, if we possessed them, if we had only let God have His way absolutely in our lives. ... There is not one soul with Christ today who looks back on his earthly life and says, ‘I wish I had not been quite so out-and-out for God; I wish I had been less self-denying; I wish I had been more concerned about my own comforts.’ But I fancy there are many who say, ‘If I had my life to live over again, no matter what suffering, what renderings of the heart-strings it might mean, I would never hesitate a moment to let God have His will in everything in my life.’ It is not a question of whether or not we get to heaven. All who are saved by grace will be there, but there will be a difference in our rewards” (Ironside). “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:10-11).
SHRIMP KIDNAPS CHEMIST (Friday Church News Notes, April 3, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, March 11, 2026: “High drama takes place even among the tiny, almost unnoticeable creatures in even the most remote parts of the world. In the frigid waters of Antarctica there’s a tiny plankton that kidnaps even tinier chemists for its protection. The tiny shrimp‑like plankton are not much larger than a grain of rice. They spend their days foraging the cold waters for food and hopefully not running into any plankton‑eating fish. The tiny creature has absolutely no defenses of its own. But this creature is not a shrimp without a plan. As it searches about, it may find an even smaller snail‑like pteropod. If it finds one, it will fasten the pteropod to its back, not harming it at all. The pteropod makes a chemical that fish hate. Plankton‑eating fish that have tried to eat one of the shrimp‑like creatures with its chemist backpack have been seen to shake their heads violently and spit the pair out. But the shrimp’s captive backpack slows down his foraging for food. So after several days, the shrimp releases the pteropod unharmed, to search for more food and, hopefully soon, another pteropod. It sounds rather silly to suggest that one day, many years ago, one of these tiny plankton noticed that fish never ate pteropods because of the chemical defense they produce. Who would suggest that once he told his friends, all the shrimp‑like plankton started kidnapping pteropods? This strategy was obviously taught to the plankton by the Creator Himself. REF.: Amato, Ivan, ‘Kidnapped plankton shares its defenses,’ Science News, v. 138.”
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).
OLYMPIC COMMITTEE BANS TRANSGENDER “WOMEN” FROM COMPETITIONS (Friday Church News Notes, April 3, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excepted from “White House applauds ban,” The Washington Post, Mar. 26, 2027: “Ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, the International Olympic Committee on Thursday banned transgender women from competing in women’s events--a move that was immediately applauded by the White House. Kirsty Coventry, the first woman to serve as IOC president, made the announcement in a statement Thursday in which she also said that all women who participate in Olympic events will have to undergo genetic testing to confirm they are biologically female. The decision comes as preparations ramp up for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles--and as the Trump administration aggressively moves to prevent transgender athletes from participating in sports not aligned with their sex assigned at birth. The White House cheered the decision Thursday, noting in a statement that Trump signed an executive order in February 2025 that aims to ban transgender athletes from participating in women’s and girls’ sports by denying federal funds for schools that allow it. ... Coventry, in her statement, said, ‘As a former athlete, I passionately believe in the rights of all Olympians to take part in fair competition. The policy that we have announced is based on science and has been led by medical experts. At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat. So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category. In addition, in some sports it would simply not be safe.’”
DESPERATE TIMES FOR INDEPENDENT BAPTIST CHURCHES (Friday Church News Notes, April 3, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Over the past 30 years we have seen dramatic changes among independent Baptist churches. Everywhere I travel for Bible conferences, pastors tell me about churches that have capitulated to the contemporary philosophy and are now enemies of what they used to stand for, or they are dying, or they no longer exist. Consider Akron Baptist Temple of Akron, Ohio. It was founded in 1935 by Dallas F. Billington. By 1949, the church claimed 10,000 members and built a 2,800-seat auditorium. (Obviously most of the “members” were absentee, which is typical of the Quick Prayerism program.) In the 1960s, the church boasted the title “the world’s largest Sunday School” with high days of more than 5,700. In 1978, a 4,000-seat auditorium was built and the church claimed a (meaningless) membership of 15,000. Never biblically strong, the church began a rapid downward slide after the death of the founder. The son, Charles, pastored from 1972 to 1996, when the founder’s grandson, Dallas R., took the pastorate. The church relocated and renamed itself The Connection. Today the former Akron Baptist Temple is an emerging church offering a smorgasbord of worship “experiences.” There is a “traditional” service and a “modern service,” where a loud rock & roll band plays contemporary worship music in a darkened auditorium. The service is advertised as “creating an environment where people who are seeking God, can do so in a non-threatening, comfortable way.” This is the charismatic, new age, rock & roll lust for a feeling. It’s all about me and my tastes and my choices. How 21st century! How 2 Timothy 4:3-4! I was recently rebuked by a pastor who said, “Stop being critical of everyone.” My answer is that I want to obey God’s Word. I want to prove all things and hold fast that which is good; I want to warn, to reprove, rebuke, and exhort. Preacher friends, it’s not time to speak in mumbling generalities and to sit on the sidelines when the battle for truth rages. We must fear Christ more than man and honor God’s Word more than tradition. “When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers” (Psalm 50:18). “The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity” (Micah 7:4). “His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter” (Isaiah 56:10-11).
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AS A WALK (Friday Church News Notes, April 3, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “... even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). The Christian life is often described as a walk. See Ro. 13:13; 1 Co. 7:17; 2 Co. 6:16; Eph. 2:10; 4:1; 5:8, 15; Php. 3:17; Col. 1:10; 2:6; 4:5; 1 Th. 2:12; 4:1, 12; 1 Jo. 1:7; 2:6; 2 Jo. 1:6. This is a powerful metaphor with manifold lessons. Walking speaks of action. It is not sitting. For those redeemed by free grace, there is a new life to live, there are holy works to be done; there is a perfect will of God to be proven; there are spiritual gifts to be exercised; there is a gospel to be preached; there are Christian homes and churches to be built. Let’s rise up and walk! Walking speaks of forward movement. The believer is to be moving forward in the will of God, not going backwards. Walking speaks of gradual movement. The victorious Christian life is not leaping and bounding. It is a step-by-step affair, living for Christ day-by-day, dealing with “the body of this death”; putting on the new man and putting off the old man, facing by faith whatever trials God ordains for me. Christian growth happens incrementally, step-by-step, by moving in the right direction. Worldliness and backsliding also happen step-by-step, by moving in the wrong direction. Walking speaks of having one’s feet on the ground. Walking is not flying. We would prefer to have some sort of “second blessing” experience and fly above the troubles of this present life, the struggles with the old man, the trials of our faith, the wrestlings with the powers of darkness. Such an experience is called “higher life,” “deeper life,” “exchanged life,” “the abiding life,” “the abundant life.” But there is no such experience in the New Testament epistles.
A WARNING ABOUT LOSS AT THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST (Friday Church News Notes, April 3, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Harry Ironside observed, “We are all saved by the same grace and through that same grace we will be raised and changed at the coming of the Lord. But we will not all be rewarded in the same way, for reward is for faithful service, and I am afraid many of us are going to lose a great deal at the judgment seat of Christ because we have not been more true and real in all our ways down here. The day is soon coming when you and I would give worlds, if we possessed them, if we had only let God have His way absolutely in our lives. ... There is not one soul with Christ today who looks back on his earthly life and says, ‘I wish I had not been quite so out-and-out for God; I wish I had been less self-denying; I wish I had been more concerned about my own comforts.’ But I fancy there are many who say, ‘If I had my life to live over again, no matter what suffering, what renderings of the heart-strings it might mean, I would never hesitate a moment to let God have His will in everything in my life.’ It is not a question of whether or not we get to heaven. All who are saved by grace will be there, but there will be a difference in our rewards” (Ironside). “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:10-11).
SHRIMP KIDNAPS CHEMIST (Friday Church News Notes, April 3, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, March 11, 2026: “High drama takes place even among the tiny, almost unnoticeable creatures in even the most remote parts of the world. In the frigid waters of Antarctica there’s a tiny plankton that kidnaps even tinier chemists for its protection. The tiny shrimp‑like plankton are not much larger than a grain of rice. They spend their days foraging the cold waters for food and hopefully not running into any plankton‑eating fish. The tiny creature has absolutely no defenses of its own. But this creature is not a shrimp without a plan. As it searches about, it may find an even smaller snail‑like pteropod. If it finds one, it will fasten the pteropod to its back, not harming it at all. The pteropod makes a chemical that fish hate. Plankton‑eating fish that have tried to eat one of the shrimp‑like creatures with its chemist backpack have been seen to shake their heads violently and spit the pair out. But the shrimp’s captive backpack slows down his foraging for food. So after several days, the shrimp releases the pteropod unharmed, to search for more food and, hopefully soon, another pteropod. It sounds rather silly to suggest that one day, many years ago, one of these tiny plankton noticed that fish never ate pteropods because of the chemical defense they produce. Who would suggest that once he told his friends, all the shrimp‑like plankton started kidnapping pteropods? This strategy was obviously taught to the plankton by the Creator Himself. REF.: Amato, Ivan, ‘Kidnapped plankton shares its defenses,’ Science News, v. 138.”
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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