Friday Church News Notes
August 28, 2026 - Volume 27, Issue 35
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.
THE NEW AMERICA COULD NOT BUILD THE OLD AMERICA (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - There are two Americas today, the old America, endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among which are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, and the new America of socialism, cultural Marxism, the new morality, the cancel culture, pro-abortion, pro-homosexuality, pro-transsexualism, pro-corruption of children, and anti-parental rights. The new America has not built anything of value and never will. The new America could not possibly build the old America. The new Americans wouldn’t risk their lives crossing the great stormy Atlantic in tiny ships for religious and political liberty, couldn’t write the Declaration of Independence or produce the U.S Constitution, and wouldn’t pay the price to populate the American continent. They are not builders, they are destroyers and thieves.
CANADIAN POLITICIAN MUST PAY CHRISTIAN GROUP FOR CANCELLING THEIR EVENT (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excepted from “Canadian Politician,” The Bridgehead, Aug. 5, 2026: “former tourism minister Caroline Proulx has been ordered to personally pay Harvest Ministries International $30,000 by a Quebec judge for violating their right to freedom of speech. As LSN reported at the time, Harvest Ministries International had a contract to host their Faith, Fire, Freedom Rally at the Quebec City Convention Centre from June 23 to July 2, 2023. Their contract was abruptly cancelled at the behest of Proulx, who ordered its nullification on June 1 on the basis that the event was ‘against the fundamental principles of Quebec.’ The event was to cap off a series of cross-province events and was expected to draw 1,200 participants per day.After being asked about the event by a Radio-Canada journalist, Proulx looked up the group; Harvest’s website states that abortion has ‘made the mother’s womb the most dangerous place for a child in Canada’ and urges people to ‘pray for the sanctity of life, and for an end to abortion in Canada!’ As CTV reported, Proulx ‘then instructed her chief of staff to inform Pierre-Michel Bouchard, President and CEO of the Convention Center, in writing of her decision to cancel the lease agreement for the event.’ The message stated: ‘We firmly believe in freedom of expression, but just as strongly in freedom of choice...’ ... Other senior government figures in Quebec concurred with Proulx’s decision at the time; Premier François Legault stated that ‘we’re not going to allow anti-abortion groups to put on big shows in public places.’ ... On July 28, Superior Court Justice Alain Trudel ruled that Proulx had exercised her ministerial authority in ‘an arbitrary and abusive manner’ and stated that her order to cancel the event ‘is not justified in a free and democratic society.’”
CHARLES SPURGEON, SLAVERY, AND THE OLD SOUTH (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “The Lion of Anacostia and the Prince of Preachers,” World, Aug. 13, 2026: “Spurgeon never visited the United States, despite multiple invitations and his considering a trip in 1859. His vocal anti-slavery stance made it too dangerous. ‘I do from my inmost soul detest slavery ... and although I commune at the Lord’s table with men of all creeds, yet with a slave-holder I have no fellowship of any sort or kind,’ he wrote. ‘Whenever one has called on me, I have considered it my duty to express my detestation of his wickedness ... as a man-stealer.’ Spurgeon’s stance was noticed. ‘If the Pharisaical author should ever show himself in these parts, we trust that a stout cord may speedily find its way around his eloquent throat,’ thundered The Southern Reporter and Daily Commercial Courier in 1860. The North Carolinian noted that many ‘would like a good opportunity at this hypocritical preacher.’ The Weekly Raleigh Register stated that anyone selling his sermons should be arrested and charged with ‘circulating incendiary publications.’ A Florida paper accused him of being a ‘beef-eating, puffed-up, vain, over-righteous, pharisaical, English blab-mouth.’ Spurgeon’s sermons were banned and burned. Some Southern newspapers actually put out calls inviting people to contribute to scheduled bonfires of Spurgeon’s works. ‘Spurgeon’s character was assassinated throughout the Confederacy,’ noted The Spurgeon Center at Midwestern Seminary. ‘His sermons, which in 1862-1863 sold one million copies annually, were censured. His books, which sold 1,000 copies per minute at trade shows, were publicly destroyed. Sermon bonfires illuminated jail yards, plantations, and bookshops throughout the Southern states.’”
TENS OF THOUSANDS OF JEWS ABANDONING ULTRA-ORTHODOXY (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Large numbers of ultra-Orthodox Jews are abandoning the bondage of rabbinical tradition, with its endless minute rules covering every area of life. Some are atheists. Others are following different forms of Judaism. Sadly, most of them have not yet come to the truth that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the only Lord and Saviour. The following is excerpted from “The Double Life of an Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi,” Israel Today, June 10, 2026: “Rabbi Avraham Tfilanski was a leading rabbi in one of the strictest ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel. His family of rabbis has been living in Jerusalem for over 200 years, and as a young man he was head of a large yeshiva and a brilliant expositor of Torah, Talmud and Halacha. Ultra-Orthodox Jews came to Rabbi Tfilanski from far and wide to study under his guidance. And for twelve years Rabbi Tfilanski lived a double life. He went through the motions of performing as a renowned rabbi, all the while possessing no faith in the only God, and Judaism, he had known. ... Tfilanski, or Avi as he now likes to be called, leads a movement of tens of thousands of former Orthodox Jews who, like him, have left the fold, but found a new way to faith in the living and loving God of the Bible. ... he became the spokesman for ANUSIM, a growing movement of young Orthodox Jews crying out to be heard. ... Avi says, ‘I was married for 17 years, and we brought six children into the world. Even at home I had to pretend to live as an Orthodox Jew for fear that my father would find out. My wife soon discovered that I was not keeping the traditions as required, like smoking a cigarette on the Shabbat. She told my father that I was having doubts about the Orthodox faith in God, and my family held a funeral for me. I was excommunicated from family, friends and the entire Jewish community. I am not allowed to speak to anyone, not even my own children. A legal guardian was appointed by law over my children. I cannot see them, speak to them, or send them gifts. I am forbidden all contact with them. ... We now know that there are at least 30-40,000 Anusim. All of these, men and women, are running desperately from some trauma. There are now congregations and fellowships with tens of thousands like myself. ... I am now teaching communities of Anusim how to rediscover the God of Israel even after such horrendous trauma. I understand God in a different way. God has become alive to me. ... I believe Jesus is one of the greatest Jewish prophets.”
NOT FORSAKEN: THE STORY OF HOPE (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Not Forsaken: The Story of Hope is an autobiography by Pastor Courtney Lewis of Chicago. He grew up in the Henry Horner and LeClaire Court projects, raised by a single mom who died about the time he graduated from high school. A problem child, he was kicked out of multiple schools. He was even kicked out of Sunday School the first time he attended. But through the patient love of Christian workers and education in a sound Bible College, he was saved and prepared for the ministry. He and his wife, Portia, were both bus kids. Today they have four daughters and are leading Cornerstone Baptist Church of Chicago (founded in 2008), where the life-changing gospel is being proclaimed, souls are being saved out of gross darkness, real conversions are happening, godly families are being built, and children and youth are being discipled for Jesus Christ. Not Forsaken describes the only true hope for inner city communities that have been devastated by the filthy pop culture, woke propagandizing public schools, and runaway socialism which has destroyed the family. Politics has no answer. The great need is for the bold proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the establishment of sound New Testament churches that practice a pilgrim lifestyle in the midst of a corrupt generation. The great need is godly leadership.
https://www.notforsaken2710.com/home
CANADA’S FOSSIL FORRESTS (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, July 24, 2026: “Axel Heiberg Island in Northern Canada is the closest point of land to the North Pole. The landscape is completely barren today but long ago a dense forest of large meta-sequoia trees grew there. At that time, the climate must have been like Florida today. The stumps of these “fossil trees” have not mineralized and are still wood, that is, cellulose. They are claimed to be 45 million years old. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University studied the hydrogen and oxygen isotopes of the cellulose. These lightweight isotopes are normally quickly lost by evaporation from dead wood but to their surprise the researchers discovered an unusually high content. This means that their rate of evaporation was extremely low. In other words, not only did the trees grow in a humid climate but this climate continued a long time after the trees were destroyed. Further, cellulose is quickly broken down by bacterial action if exposed to air so that the trees were buried rapidly, deeply and a lot more recently than 45 million years ago. Creation Moments happened to be present when a sample of this wood was used to calibrate the equipment at a well-known Carbon 14 dating laboratory. Believing the wood to be 45 million years old it should contain no Carbon 14 but in fact it did and dated at only 41 thousand years!”
“In one thousand trials, it is not five hundred of them that work for the believer’s good, but nine hundred ninety-nine of them, and one beside” (George Müller).
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).
CANADIAN POLITICIAN MUST PAY CHRISTIAN GROUP FOR CANCELLING THEIR EVENT (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excepted from “Canadian Politician,” The Bridgehead, Aug. 5, 2026: “former tourism minister Caroline Proulx has been ordered to personally pay Harvest Ministries International $30,000 by a Quebec judge for violating their right to freedom of speech. As LSN reported at the time, Harvest Ministries International had a contract to host their Faith, Fire, Freedom Rally at the Quebec City Convention Centre from June 23 to July 2, 2023. Their contract was abruptly cancelled at the behest of Proulx, who ordered its nullification on June 1 on the basis that the event was ‘against the fundamental principles of Quebec.’ The event was to cap off a series of cross-province events and was expected to draw 1,200 participants per day.After being asked about the event by a Radio-Canada journalist, Proulx looked up the group; Harvest’s website states that abortion has ‘made the mother’s womb the most dangerous place for a child in Canada’ and urges people to ‘pray for the sanctity of life, and for an end to abortion in Canada!’ As CTV reported, Proulx ‘then instructed her chief of staff to inform Pierre-Michel Bouchard, President and CEO of the Convention Center, in writing of her decision to cancel the lease agreement for the event.’ The message stated: ‘We firmly believe in freedom of expression, but just as strongly in freedom of choice...’ ... Other senior government figures in Quebec concurred with Proulx’s decision at the time; Premier François Legault stated that ‘we’re not going to allow anti-abortion groups to put on big shows in public places.’ ... On July 28, Superior Court Justice Alain Trudel ruled that Proulx had exercised her ministerial authority in ‘an arbitrary and abusive manner’ and stated that her order to cancel the event ‘is not justified in a free and democratic society.’”
CHARLES SPURGEON, SLAVERY, AND THE OLD SOUTH (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “The Lion of Anacostia and the Prince of Preachers,” World, Aug. 13, 2026: “Spurgeon never visited the United States, despite multiple invitations and his considering a trip in 1859. His vocal anti-slavery stance made it too dangerous. ‘I do from my inmost soul detest slavery ... and although I commune at the Lord’s table with men of all creeds, yet with a slave-holder I have no fellowship of any sort or kind,’ he wrote. ‘Whenever one has called on me, I have considered it my duty to express my detestation of his wickedness ... as a man-stealer.’ Spurgeon’s stance was noticed. ‘If the Pharisaical author should ever show himself in these parts, we trust that a stout cord may speedily find its way around his eloquent throat,’ thundered The Southern Reporter and Daily Commercial Courier in 1860. The North Carolinian noted that many ‘would like a good opportunity at this hypocritical preacher.’ The Weekly Raleigh Register stated that anyone selling his sermons should be arrested and charged with ‘circulating incendiary publications.’ A Florida paper accused him of being a ‘beef-eating, puffed-up, vain, over-righteous, pharisaical, English blab-mouth.’ Spurgeon’s sermons were banned and burned. Some Southern newspapers actually put out calls inviting people to contribute to scheduled bonfires of Spurgeon’s works. ‘Spurgeon’s character was assassinated throughout the Confederacy,’ noted The Spurgeon Center at Midwestern Seminary. ‘His sermons, which in 1862-1863 sold one million copies annually, were censured. His books, which sold 1,000 copies per minute at trade shows, were publicly destroyed. Sermon bonfires illuminated jail yards, plantations, and bookshops throughout the Southern states.’”
TENS OF THOUSANDS OF JEWS ABANDONING ULTRA-ORTHODOXY (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Large numbers of ultra-Orthodox Jews are abandoning the bondage of rabbinical tradition, with its endless minute rules covering every area of life. Some are atheists. Others are following different forms of Judaism. Sadly, most of them have not yet come to the truth that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the only Lord and Saviour. The following is excerpted from “The Double Life of an Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi,” Israel Today, June 10, 2026: “Rabbi Avraham Tfilanski was a leading rabbi in one of the strictest ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel. His family of rabbis has been living in Jerusalem for over 200 years, and as a young man he was head of a large yeshiva and a brilliant expositor of Torah, Talmud and Halacha. Ultra-Orthodox Jews came to Rabbi Tfilanski from far and wide to study under his guidance. And for twelve years Rabbi Tfilanski lived a double life. He went through the motions of performing as a renowned rabbi, all the while possessing no faith in the only God, and Judaism, he had known. ... Tfilanski, or Avi as he now likes to be called, leads a movement of tens of thousands of former Orthodox Jews who, like him, have left the fold, but found a new way to faith in the living and loving God of the Bible. ... he became the spokesman for ANUSIM, a growing movement of young Orthodox Jews crying out to be heard. ... Avi says, ‘I was married for 17 years, and we brought six children into the world. Even at home I had to pretend to live as an Orthodox Jew for fear that my father would find out. My wife soon discovered that I was not keeping the traditions as required, like smoking a cigarette on the Shabbat. She told my father that I was having doubts about the Orthodox faith in God, and my family held a funeral for me. I was excommunicated from family, friends and the entire Jewish community. I am not allowed to speak to anyone, not even my own children. A legal guardian was appointed by law over my children. I cannot see them, speak to them, or send them gifts. I am forbidden all contact with them. ... We now know that there are at least 30-40,000 Anusim. All of these, men and women, are running desperately from some trauma. There are now congregations and fellowships with tens of thousands like myself. ... I am now teaching communities of Anusim how to rediscover the God of Israel even after such horrendous trauma. I understand God in a different way. God has become alive to me. ... I believe Jesus is one of the greatest Jewish prophets.”
NOT FORSAKEN: THE STORY OF HOPE (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Not Forsaken: The Story of Hope is an autobiography by Pastor Courtney Lewis of Chicago. He grew up in the Henry Horner and LeClaire Court projects, raised by a single mom who died about the time he graduated from high school. A problem child, he was kicked out of multiple schools. He was even kicked out of Sunday School the first time he attended. But through the patient love of Christian workers and education in a sound Bible College, he was saved and prepared for the ministry. He and his wife, Portia, were both bus kids. Today they have four daughters and are leading Cornerstone Baptist Church of Chicago (founded in 2008), where the life-changing gospel is being proclaimed, souls are being saved out of gross darkness, real conversions are happening, godly families are being built, and children and youth are being discipled for Jesus Christ. Not Forsaken describes the only true hope for inner city communities that have been devastated by the filthy pop culture, woke propagandizing public schools, and runaway socialism which has destroyed the family. Politics has no answer. The great need is for the bold proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the establishment of sound New Testament churches that practice a pilgrim lifestyle in the midst of a corrupt generation. The great need is godly leadership.
https://www.notforsaken2710.com/home
CANADA’S FOSSIL FORRESTS (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, July 24, 2026: “Axel Heiberg Island in Northern Canada is the closest point of land to the North Pole. The landscape is completely barren today but long ago a dense forest of large meta-sequoia trees grew there. At that time, the climate must have been like Florida today. The stumps of these “fossil trees” have not mineralized and are still wood, that is, cellulose. They are claimed to be 45 million years old. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University studied the hydrogen and oxygen isotopes of the cellulose. These lightweight isotopes are normally quickly lost by evaporation from dead wood but to their surprise the researchers discovered an unusually high content. This means that their rate of evaporation was extremely low. In other words, not only did the trees grow in a humid climate but this climate continued a long time after the trees were destroyed. Further, cellulose is quickly broken down by bacterial action if exposed to air so that the trees were buried rapidly, deeply and a lot more recently than 45 million years ago. Creation Moments happened to be present when a sample of this wood was used to calibrate the equipment at a well-known Carbon 14 dating laboratory. Believing the wood to be 45 million years old it should contain no Carbon 14 but in fact it did and dated at only 41 thousand years!”
“In one thousand trials, it is not five hundred of them that work for the believer’s good, but nine hundred ninety-nine of them, and one beside” (George Müller).
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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