FRIDAY CHURCH NEWS NOTES
December 31, 2010, Volume 11, Issue 52
GRAPHICAL PDF VERSION
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 does not imply an endorsement. For instructions on how to unsubscribe to this list or to change mailing addresses, please consult the information paragraph at the end.
LIBERAL EMERGING LEADERS EMBRACE EVOLUTIONARY SPIRITUALITY (Friday Church News Notes, December 31, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) -
There is a growing movement toward the integration of evolution and religion. Most Roman Catholics, including the Pope, hold a theistic evolutionary view, and it is very popular among New Agers. With the discovery of the complexity of the living cell through modern microbiology, it has become increasingly evident that some sort of God was involved in life, but not wanting to submit to the holy God of the Bible, men are forced to create a god of their own invention. In fact, most “Christians” in America already worship an idol rather than the true and living God. Many worship the non-judgmental god of The Shack, and many worship the mythical god of evolution. From December 4 through January 14 “evolutionary evangelist” Michael Dowd is hosting live panels of “preeminent Christians on the leading edge of science and religion” to promote theistic evolution (“Emergent Church Leaders Promote Evolutionary Spirituality,” CrosstalkBlog, Dec. 23, 2010). Dowd, who travels the country preaching “the gospel of billions of years,” has a sticker on his van depicting the Jesus and Darwin fishes kissing. It’s a false Jesus, of course, because the Christ of the Bible authenticated Genesis 1-11 as literal history (e.g., Matthew 19:4-5; 23:35: Mark 13:19; Luke 11:50-51; 17:26-32). Dowd says evolutionary spirituality is where “mythic beliefs and measurable reality collide.” The mythic beliefs are supposedly found in the Bible, whereas the measurable reality is evolutionary science. The truth is exactly the opposite. Among the 38 “Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and Progressives” joining Dowd are emergent leaders Sally Morgenthaler, Spencer Burke, Doug Pagitt, and Brian McLaren. We have documented the unbelief of these individuals in our book What Is the Emerging Church? Two other members of Dowd’s evolutionary spirituality discussion are Matthew Fox, who is so outrageous in his New Age theology that he was actually kicked out of the Catholic Church (see our book The New Age Tower of Babel), and John Spong, retired Episcopalian bishop and arch-heretic who denies the virgin birth, blood atonement, bodily resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Actually, the existence of these “preeminent Christians” in our day is irrefutable evidence of the divine inspiration of Scripture, for the Scripture described them perfectly in a 2,000-year-old prophecy. “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of” (2 Peter 2:1-2).
CREATIONIST WINS PRESTIGIOUS SCIENCE AWARD (Friday Church News Notes, December 31, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) -
Naturalistic evolutionists such as Richard Dawkins claim that faith in God hinders “real” science, but the ridiculousness of this position is evident from the fact that most of the founders of modern science believed in the God of the Bible and many of them held to a biblical six-day creation. Further, there are hundreds of scientists today who believe in that same God. An example is Dr. Andy McIntosh, professor of thermodynamic and combustion theory at the University of Leeds in England. A team of engineers, headed by Dr. McIntosh, received the Outstanding Contribution to Innovation and Technology title at the Times Higher Education awards in November in London. They are studying the beetle’s incredibly complicated and amazing defense mechanism that consists of a toxic steam it can blast up to eight inches through an aim-able turret. A news report says the research “could inspire new types of nebulisers, needle-free injections, fire extinguishers and powerful fuel injection systems” (“Scientist Wins Prestigious Research Award,” BBC, Dec. 22, 2010). This research represents the rapidly growing field of biomimetics, wherein men learn from the design of nature. Dr. McIntosh, who is a creationist, said, “I believe there is much more of nature’s secrets that we could learn from our great Creator if we looked with an eye to see design. ... it was such an experiment and entrepreneurial spirit that led Wilbur and Orville Wright 107 years ago this month, to successfully copy the wing control of birds and so fly a warp wing controlled flying machine to fly along Kitty Hawk beach, in North Carolina” (The Times 2010 award website). Answers in Genesis observes: “So much for those secularists who continually claim that real scientists can’t be creationists. Dr. McIntosh has spoken for AiG many times in the UK on creation, plus his own speaking engagements all over the world.”
CHINA BANS ENGLISH WORDS IN ALL PUBLICATIONS (Friday Church News Notes, December 31, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) -
The communist state of China has banned the use of English words in all publications, including newspapers, books, and websites. The General Administration of Press and Publication “said the increasing use of English words and abbreviations in Chinese texts had caused confusion and was a means of ‘abusing the language’” (“China Bars English,” Breitbart, Dec. 22, 2010). Communism has never been a friend of liberty. Those who praise China need to go and live there. There is no freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of association. The state controls every detail of the citizen’s lives, including where they can live, what they can believe, what they can look at on the Internet, and how many children they can have. Under communism, you can do whatever you want to as long as it is in accordance with the will of the state. People have flooded to America from every part of the world for two centuries for the very fact that it has been a bastion of human liberty. Today those liberties, which were purchased at great cost, are rapidly being removed as a judgment of God on the nation’s wickedness and unbelief.
MUSLIMS RAID CHURCHES IN INDONESIA (Friday Church News Notes, December 31, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) -
The following is excerpted from “Islamists Raid,” Compass Direct News, Dec. 18, 2010: “About 200 demonstrators from hard-line Islamic organizations in West Java on Sunday (Dec. 12) disrupted the worship of a church in Rancaekek district, Bandung, driving more than 100 worshippers from the building. Members of the Islamic Defenders Front, the Indonesian Ulama Forum and the Islamic Reformist Movement arrived with the Civil Service Police Unit of Rancaekek district and sealed the house, thus leaving other churches that use it without a worship venue. The protestors also disrupted the worship of six other churches meeting in homes the same day. ... ‘Because they were fearful, children and women were crying when they came out of their place of worship,’ the Rev. Badia Hutagalung told Compass by phone. ... Hutagalung said the church was using the house because it had not been able to obtain permission to establish a church building under conditions imposed by Indonesian law. The Joint Ministerial Decree promulgated in 1969 and revised in 2006 requires places of worship to obtain the approval of at least 60 persons from the local community, mandates there be at least 90 church members, and the church must be approved by the the village head.”
EUROPEAN COURT HOLDS ABORTION IS NOT A RIGHT (Friday Church News Notes, December 31, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) -
The following is excerpted from Americans United for Life, Dec. 16, 2010: “Abortion proponents’ efforts to make abortion a “right” in Europe were thwarted today when the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights held that the European Convention on Human Rights contains no “right” to abortion. The Court rightly found that matters relating to abortion should be left to the member states’ own domestic laws. The Court dismissed two of the plaintiffs’ health-based claims in A, B, C v. Ireland because it found no right had been violated under the Convention. In the remaining woman’s situation, the Court stated that Ireland needs to take steps to better comply with its own domestic laws. ‘The Court’s ruling that abortion is not a right under the Convention is a victory for those who value the sanctity of all innocent human life,’ AUL Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel William Saunders stated.”
DARK SKIN NO LONGER A CURSE IN ONLINE BOOK OF MORMON (Friday Church News Notes, December 31, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) -
The following is excerpted from Religious Dispatches Magazine, Dec. 17, 2010: “Chapter headings in the online version of the Book of Mormon have been changed by LDS Church officials, eliminating vestiges of racist theology that linked dark skin to spiritual accursedness. One changed chapter heading appears in 2 Nephi, chapter 5. Old version: ‘Because of their unbelief, the Lamanites are cursed, receive a skin of blackness, and become a scourge to the Nephites.’ New online version: ‘Because of their unbelief, the Lamanites are cut off from the presence of the Lord, are cursed, and become a scourge unto the Nephites.’ A second changed chapter heading appears in Mormon, chapter 5. Old version: ‘The Lamanites shall be a dark, filthy, and loathsome people.’ New online version: ‘Because of their unbelief, the Lamanites will be scattered, and the Spirit will cease to strive with them.’ ... The Book of Mormon [previously] taught that the phenotypical features of Lamanites--their dark skin--came about as a consequence of unrighteousness. ... [The] summary chapter headings were added in the 1920s and revised in the 1980s by Bruce R. McConkie, author of Mormon Doctrine... In 1981, the Church changed the language of 2 Nephi 30: 6 to remove the statement that Lamanites who repented would become a ‘white and delightsome’ people, substituting instead the phrase ‘pure and delightsome.’”
JIMMY CARTER THINKS U.S. READY FOR “GAY” PRESIDENT (Friday Church News Notes, December 31, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) -
Former president Jimmy Carter has stated that America is ready for a homosexual president. Speaking with the website Big Think, Carter said: “I think the entire population has come tremendous strides forward in dealing with the issue of gays. I don’t know about the next election, but I think in the near future, because step by step we have realized that this issue of homosexuality has the same adverse and progressive elements as when we dealt with the race issue” (“Jimmy Carter,” Daily Mail, Dec. 17, 2010). Carter meant this as a positive thing, but from a biblical perspective it is merely a sign of the end times. Christ said: “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17:28-30). Peter said that the sin of Sodom was their “filthy conversation” (2 Peter 2:6-8). Jude says it was “fornication, and going after strange flesh” (Jude 7). For this the city was judged by God and set forth in Scripture as a warning to all men: a warning that is being ignored today.
HOMOSEXUALITY A STENCH IN THE NOSTRILS OF GOD (Friday Church News Notes, December 31, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) -
The following is from Christian Newswire, Dec. 19, 2010: “After delivering 205,000 fax petitions to Congress against open homosexual service in the military, Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt had this to say about the Senate's 65-31 vote to force open homosexual aggression upon our troops by repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’: ‘A chaplain friend of mine asked God this week, 'why do you allow evil to grow in America, and open homosexuality to be forced upon our military?' To which God answered him from Psalm 92:7: 'When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is so that they shall be destroyed forever.’ Homosexual sin will always be a stench in the nostrils of Almighty God, an abomination which God condemns and shall punish with everlasting destruction. Even if the Senate had voted 100 to 0 to legalize sin, they could not remove God from His throne of Judgment, before which every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”
SECOND PREACHER AWARDED DAMAGES FOR WRONGFUL ARREST FOR PREACHING AGAINST HOMOSEXUALITY (Friday Church News Notes, December 31, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) -
The following is excerpted from The Christian Post, Dec. 20, 2010: “Christian street preacher Dale Mcalpine is to receive more than $10,000 in damages after police in Cumbria, England, admitted wrongful arrest, unlawful imprisonment and a breach of his human rights. Mcalpine, 42, was arrested in April by Cumbrian police in his home town of Workington after he mentioned that homosexuality was among the sins listed in the Bible. His comments were not made in his main public sermon but in response to a question about homosexuality posed to him by a passerby. He was arrested by PC Craig Hynes for a ‘racially aggravated’ offense under Section 5 of the Public Order Act and, after being detained at the station for more than seven hours, was charged with using ‘threatening, abusive or insulting’ words ‘to cause harassment, alarm or distress.’ The charges were later dropped. The arrest sparked fears for freedom of speech among Christians and was even criticized by prominent gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. According to the Christian Institute, which funded Mcalpine’s legal defense, Cumbrian police have accepted that they acted unlawfully. Mcalpine said he was pleased the case had been settled without going to court. ... The settlement comes just weeks after Birmingham County Court awarded street preacher Anthony Rollins more than $6,000 in damages after the judge upheld his claims of wrongful arrest.”
GOD’S HAZARDOUS WASTE EXPERTS (Friday Church News Notes, December 31, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) -
The following is excerpted from Creation Moments, November 10, 2010: “The environment naturally produces hazardous waste without human help. Ashes from a wood fire can contain enough naturally occurring radioactivity to merit a hazardous waste classification. Uranium and other radioactive elements occur naturally in the environment and can be dissolved in ground water. Chloro fluorocarbons, manufactured for refrigeration, are also spewed from volcanoes. Also called CFCs, these chemicals are thought by some scientists to degrade the Earth's ozone layer. The fact is, nature produces more hazardous waste than man does. Since hazardous waste is a natural part of the creation, one might expect a well designed creation to have the ability to process hazardous materials into harmless substances. Science is beginning to discover how the Creator has designed the creation to deal with this problem. Scientists have learned how several bacteria decontaminate water that carries dissolved uranium. One species of bacterium combines the phosphate in the water with the uranium to make uranium phosphate crystals. These crystals are stored harmlessly in the bacterium. Another species uses enzymes to make uranium ore that then settles harmlessly out of the water. Another species has been discovered that breaks down CFCs. The creation is indeed well designed. In fact, the Creator's solutions to hazardous waste will help us learn how to clean up the messes we make.”
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; Mat. 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” (Rom. 13:11-14). This material is sent only to those who personally subscribe to the Fundamental Baptist Information Service mailing list. To SUBSCRIBE, go to http://www.wayoflife.org/wayoflife/subscribe.html. TO UNSUBSCRIBE OR CHANGE ADDRESSES, go to the very bottom of any email received from us and click "Manage My Subscription." Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org.
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What can you say to that? How can you argue with such plain and simple Words? The Word of God boldly proclaims that eternal life is obtained WITHOUT good works, i.e., works of self-righteousness. This Scripture silences the Lordship Salvationists. This Scripture silences the Pentecostals, like Wayman Mitchell, who teach that salvation can be lost if we do bad works. No sir, the Word of God does NOT teach any such lies. Jesus clearly stated in John 6:37, "...him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."
Nearly 500,000 Christians signed the original submission to Apple in 2009, including representatives from many major Protestant denominations, Catholic bishops, and leaders of the Orthodox Church. Apple pulled the free app from its online store in November, saying it "violates our developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people" because it opposes gay marriage, abortion, and embryonic stem-cell research.