TURKEY’S FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS ISRAEL IS BURDEN HUMANITY CANNOT BEAR (Friday Church News Notes, July 24, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told CNN Türk that Israel has become “a problem for the entire international community” and that “Israeli authorities have become a burden humanity can no longer bear” (“Turkish FN Fidan,” World Israel News, July 3, 2026). He is unwittingly citing Scripture. The prophet Zechariah said, “The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it” (Zec. 12:1-3). This is a reference to Armageddon when the foolish nations will besiege Jerusalem during the coming day of the Lord. Jerusalem will be a stone that is too heavy to lift and too strong to break. This is exactly what we see in the last 2,000 years of history. It is as if Jerusalem were a massive stone in a field that someone wants to remove, but no matter how much they labor, they cannot remove it, and they become drunk with a fervor to solve this unsolvable problem. Both the city (Jerusalem) and the field (the land of Israel) are God’s, and those who are wise will leave them alone. Jerusalem is mentioned 814 times in Scripture. In addition, it is called Zion 153 times. Jerusalem was chosen by God that His name might be there (2 Ch. 8:6). This is not said of any other city on earth. God calls Jerusalem “my city” (Isa. 45:13). God loves Jerusalem (Ps. 78:68; 87:2) and has stated that He will dwell in Jerusalem forever (Ps. 132:13-14). God delivered Jerusalem to Israel by the hands of David in about 1050 BC (1 Ch. 11:4-9) and it was Israel’s capital city until the Babylonian Captivity. Since then Israel has been under “the times of the Gentiles” and has largely been under Gentile control, but Jerusalem still belongs to God and will be the capital of the Messianic kingdom. (See Ps. 2:6; 48:1-2; 68:35; 87:5-7; 102:16, 21; 110:2; 132:11-18; Isa. 2:1-4; 4:3-5; 12:4-6; 24:23; 27:13; 30:19; 33:5, 20; 35:10; 40:2, 9; 41:27; 44:26; 46:13; 51:3, 11, 17; 52:1-2, 9; 59:20; 60:14; 61:3; 65:18-19; 66:10, 13, 20; Jer. 3:17; 17:25-26; 30:17; 31:12; 32:44; 33:10, 13, 16; 50:28; Joe. 3:1, 16-17, 20; Ob. 1:17; Mic. 4:2, 7, 8; Zep. 3:14-17; Zec. 2:4, 10, 12; 8:3-4, 8; 8:22; 9:10; 12:6-11; 14:8-11, 14, 16-17, 21; Mal. 3:4.) Throughout the times of the Gentiles, Jerusalem has been a cup of trembling and a burdensome stone for many people. The city has been captured and recaptured more than 40 times. Jerusalem was a cup of trembling to the Babylonians, to the Greek Seleucid Empire of Syria, to the Romans, to the Catholic Crusaders, to the Muslims, and to the British. The latter seemed to be drunken with the desire to solve the Jerusalem problem, but the great world empire builders had zero success and finally gave up in disgust and left. Jerusalem has been a cup of trembling to American presidents who have tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to solve “the Middle East problem.” Jerusalem is a cup of trembling to Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestinian Authority, the PLO, and Iran. Jerusalem will be a cup of trembling at Armageddon. (For more of this history, see The Way of Life Commentary Series - Minor Prophets, available in the Books section of www.wayoflife.org.)

UK HAS “GAYEST PARLIAMENT IN THE WORLD” (Friday Church News Notes, July 24, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Keir Starmer’s parting gift,” The Bridgehead, July 9, 2026: “On June 29, outgoing U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who resigned on June 22, hosted an LGBT event for ‘pride’ month at 10 Downing Street. ... ‘I’m really proud that we’ve got the gayest Parliament,’ he declared. ‘I don’t think there’s any Parliament that is gayer than this Parliament. That is fantastic.’ The U.K. Parliament has 76 members who identify as LGBT, with 62 MPs from Starmer’s Labour Party, four from the Tories, one from the Green Party, and eight from the Liberal Democrats. ... ‘I want to be clear that all lesbians, all gay, all bi and trans people--that this government will defend your rights,’ he stated. ... Ironically, Starmer’s ‘conversion therapy ban’ is an extraordinarily totalitarian piece of legislation ... which critics warn could make it illegal for parents to affirm their child’s biological sex and criminalize body-affirming therapy for people who struggle with gender dysphoria. Additionally, the bill could also criminalize pastoral conversations and prayer, as well as exploratory therapy for those who are struggling. Starmer’s divisive bill comes with teeth--up to five years in jail or massive fines, which would immediately trigger a chilling effect on freedom of speech even with regard to personal, private conversations.”

THE SPORTS GOD CULTURE AND BIBLE-BELIEVING CHURCHES (Friday Church News Notes, July 24, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Fundamental Baptist pastors have a lot to answer for in modeling enthusiasm for the sports god culture. I received the following communication from a brother in Christ who is fed up with the worldliness of supposed Bible-believing churches and the role of sports in the worldliness: “I go to church to worship Jesus Christ. I expect to hear scriptures from the pulpit. The pulpit is not for the teams and its pro athletes. We don’t know the athletes, and they don’t know us. Why mention them? I know Jesus Christ in a personal way, and want to hear about Him and his scriptures. Professional sports teams, and its worldly athletes, might be the primary distraction for men in major U.S. cities. The culture is inundated with it. Businesses, billboards, grocery-store ads, and car decals flood the public, influencing the mind to think about pro sports. The teams are the gods of the culture. The athletes are revered like Hollywood actors. The ‘sports gods’ culture has bled into the church. It distracts Christians from witnessing, studying the Bible, doing devotions, and handing out tracts. Here’s a sad story: On the night of the Super Bowl in February of 2025, [a] Baptist pastor asked the congregation ‘What color does Philadelphia wear?’ There were 12-15 people in the congregation, and they all collectively answered his question by saying ‘GREEN!’ It was the most energetic response of the Sunday night service. None of those people said ‘AMEN!’ when the pastor preached scriptures. But they all perked up in the flesh when pro sports were mentioned. What a sad state of affairs. A useless NFL team gets more respect than the scriptures? Every liquor store in town has a Detroit Lions logo. That fact alone should make us preach against the NFL, not support it. Sunday is THE LORD’S DAY. The NFL literally keeps lost souls out of church, as it did to me from ages 18-32. I have an online book called Out of The Illusion, which is available on Amazon. It is 99 cents, only because I cannot make it free on that platform. Through the eyes of a saved soul, the booklet details the idolatry of my upbringing inside an NHL stadium, and a pursuit as a sportswriter inside the same stadium. It was all an illusion, a part of the world system to distract lost souls.”

THE CHARACTER OF ENGLAND UNDER ROME (Friday Church News Notes, July 24, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Violence and bribery everywhere overawed or corrupted justice. ‘There was not,’ we are told, ‘so much as one of the king’s ministers and judges who did not receive bribes, and very few who did not extort them’ [Henry’s History of Great Britain, 4th ed., 1805, vol. viii, p. 384]. Perjury was a vice so universal, that the words of scripture might have found an almost literal application to the English people, from the king to the serf--‘All men are liars.’ Life and property were kept in perpetual insecurity by the numerous and ferocious bands of robbers which roamed over the country, under the protection of powerful barons, who sheltered them in their castles and shared with them their booty. Englishmen and Englishwomen were still sold like cattle at the great fairs. Grossness of manners characterized all ranks, and exhibited itself in the most revolting forms of licentiousness among the leading classes. ‘Like priest, like people,’ was never more fully verified than in this portion of English history” (H.C. Conant, The Popular History of the Translation of the Holy Scriptures, revised edition, 1881, pp. 22, 23).

THE PUZZLE OF MATHEMATICS (Friday Church News Notes, July 24, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, June 8, 2026: “When a clothing manufacturer selects a high-quality fabric, he is usually concerned enough to make sure that good workmanship goes into the final product. In a similar way, the fabric of the creation tells us a lot about its Creator. Mathematics, more than anything else, reflects the fabric of the creation. Many scientists today are puzzled by the fact that the material world they study can be accurately described in mathematical equations. The falling of a stone or a feather, even the colors of a rainbow, all correspond to mathematical formulae. Even chaos has a mathematical description. One Nobel physicist was moved to write a paper entitled, ‘The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences.’ Because mathematics so precisely describes reality, we can send a space probe billions of miles, on perfect target. Mathematics allow us to receive the pictures it returns to Earth using a transmitter no more powerful than a five-watt light bulb. As one science writer put it, scientists use mathematics as a wonderful gift but they have no idea why it works so well. Of course, creation scientists don’t wonder why math works. They know that the creation is the work of an orderly and wise Creator Who was pleased with His final product. The precision of mathematics reflects the excellent quality of His fine workmanship.”

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).