Friday Church News Notes
JULY 27, 2012, VOLUME 13 ISSUE 30
(David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org)
BEWARE OF DARK FANTASY (Friday Church News Notes, July 27, 2012, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The heart is the source of one’s actions. God’s Word says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life,” and,” For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 4:23; 23:7). The corruption of the imagination was one of the first steps in the downward slide to idolatry and moral perversion in man’s early history as described in Romans 1. “... when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:21).
The same thing happens in the lives of individuals. What the mind dwells on is what will eventually control the life. If the imagination becomes perverted, the life will reflect this. This is a loud warning in an age when individuals can connect 24/7 in the most private manner with any aspect of the pop culture, and there are a great many dark and perverted things with which one can fill the imagination. In fact, dark and perverted is an apt description of much of today’s music, video games, novels, and movies. Science fiction and the superhero genre, for example, have grown ever darker, stranger, more sensual and godless, and many people are living a dark fantasy world.
Consider James Holmes, who murdered a dozen people and wounded nearly 60 more last week in a movie theater where Batman: The Dark Knight Rises was premiering. Jesus taught us that murder is an acting out of the impulses of the sin nature (Mark 7:21-23), but the fallen nature can be inflamed. Homes had dyed his hair red and said he was The Joker, the clownish, ultra-violent enemy of the superhero Batman (“NYC Police Commissioner Said Alleged Shooter Calls Himself The Joker,” Fox News, July 20, 2012). These are vile movies. In the 2008 movie Batman: The Dark Night, a man’s face is filleted by a knife, another’s is burned half off, a man’s eye is slammed into a pencil, a bomb is stitched inside of a man and exploded, a man is bound to a chair and set afire, a child is threatened by a man with a melted face, and clowns are shot point-blank in the head.
In the comic book “Batman: The Dark Night” The Joker murders an entire television audience. Thirteen years earlier, not far from where Holmes acted out his perverted fantasies, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 13 and wounded 21. They, too, were acting out demonic fantasies that had been enflamed through violent music, video games, and dark movies.
FILM CRITIC WARNS ABOUT THE DARK VIOLENCE OF TODAY’S MOVIES (Friday Church News Notes, July 27, 2012, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In 2008, film critic Jenny McCartney warned about the growing darkness and violence of the movie industry and the fact that children are watching this soul-corrupting trash. The following is excerpted from “Our Attitude to Violence Is Beyond a Joke,” The London Telegraph, July 26, 2008: “But the greatest surprise of all--even for me, after eight years spent working as a film critic--has been the sustained level of intensely sadistic brutality throughout the film [Batman: The Dark Knight]. ... The Dark Knight, however, has been rated 12A by the British Board of Film Classification, which means that although the BBFC believes it is best suited to children aged 12 and over, any under-12 can see it provided he or she is accompanied by an adult. Cinemas are even holding parent-and-baby screenings.
The 12A certificate, a relatively recent innovation, is a piece of fudge designed to deflect responsibility from the BBFC on to British parents. ... In 2002, the BBFC took a stand on Spider-Man, a hugely hyped Hollywood release: it decided that it contained unsuitable levels of violence for under-12s, and therefore awarded it a ‘12’ certificate, meaning that under-12s should not be allowed into cinemas to see it. A public storm erupted; children and many parents were furious; and a number of councils announced their intention to defy the ban.
At first the BBFC stoutly defended itself, saying that ‘Hollywood has carried out an aggressive worldwide marketing campaign aimed at young children when the film is not suitable for them.’ And then, fed up with being everyone’s most hated Aunt Sally, it invented the 12A certificate, which translates as a fed-up, institutional shrug of the shoulders. It’s been busy shrugging ever since. Spider-Man now looks like Bambi when set next to The Dark Knight. ... The intensity of violence in The Dark Knight is a grimly logical progression from the sort of distilled brutality that has rapidly become the norm in films rated 15 and 18: the only difference is that now small children are permitted to watch it, too. ... Increasingly, extreme screen violence is used not as a necessary adjunct to a greater point, but as the pleasurable point in itself.”
CHRISTIAN ROCK CONTINUES TO BUILD ONE-WORLD CHURCH (Friday Church News Notes, July 27, 2012, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Christian rock’s one-world church building enterprise was in full steam at the recently concluded 14th annual Lifest in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. On hand were popular CCM groups such as Switchfoot, Newsboys, Underoath, Building 429, Norma Jean, Steven Curtis Chapman, Tammy Borden, Love & Death, Casting Crowns, and Disciple. 15,000 enthusiastic fans gathered to celebrate ecumenical unity through the sensual power of rock & roll.
Participants could choose from three worship services, including a Catholic Mass led by Bishop David Ricken, who officially approves of the “Marian Apparitions” at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in northern Wisconsin. The apparition appeared to Adele Brise in 1859 and said, “I am the Queen of Heaven, who prays for the conversion of sinners,” plainly identifying itself as a demon, since the only Queen of Heaven mentioned in Scripture is an idolatrous goddess that was condemned by the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 7:18).
That Christian rock is intimately associated with such things is clear evidence of its apostasy. None of the aforementioned popular CCM groups and “artists” condemned Roman Catholic participation in the festival. (See The Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians for extensive documentation of CCM’s one-world church building efforts. It is available as as a free eBook from the Way of Life web site -- www.wayoflife.org )
TISHA B’AV (Friday Church News Notes, July 27, 2012, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Since the destruction of the Second Temple, Jews have observed Tisha B’Av (meaning ninth of Av) as the day of mourning over their loss. The practice began after the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians and was reestablished in 71 A.D, for the first and second temples were destroyed on the same day, 655 years apart. The observance falls in July or August of the Gregorian calendar.
This year it is on July 28, so the observance is deferred until Sunday July 29. On Tisha B’Av, the Torah is draped in black. There is fasting and mourning with various rituals and the reading of the book of Lamentations and Jewish poetry called kinnot. In some Jewish communities the book of Job is read. Orthodox Jews believe that Tisha B’Av will be kept until the Messiah comes, at which time it will become a celebration.
ISRAEL LEGISLATOR RIPS APART BIBLE (Friday Church News Notes, July 27, 2012, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A member of Israel’s Knesset ripped the New Testament out of a Bible in a public demonstration recently. Michael Ben-Ari said he stands by his action, claiming that the “Christian Bible led to the murder of millions of Jews in the Inquisition and throughout history” (“Ben-Ari Unapologetic,” Arutz Sheva, July 18, 2012). The Bible desecrated by Ben-Ari was one of the copies that were sent to each of the Knesset members by a publisher. Here we are reminded of the reproach that has been brought upon the New Testament faith by the harlot church in Rome and its vicious, unscriptural actions.
The New Testament does not authorize the persecution of the Jews or of anyone else. Roman Catholicism is a terrible corruption of true New Testament Christianity. If Ben-Ari would do more careful historical research, he would learn that Rome hated Bible-believing Christians as much as she hated Jews. It is true that the New Testament puts the blame for the crucifixion of Jesus at the feet of the Jewish leaders of that day. They rejected Him as their Messiah in spite of the fact that He fulfilled the Messianic prophecies, and they even rejected Pilate’s efforts to release Jesus, crying out, “Crucify him, crucify him,” and, “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15-16).
But Bible-believing Christians do not hate the Jews and never have. We know that we are not better than any other men and that only by God’s grace are we saved. The nation Israel is in God’s hands, and we pray for the peace of Jerusalem because that is the glorious day that Christ will reign over the whole earth. The story of the crucifixion doesn’t stop with the part played by the Jews. The New Testament also puts the blame on the Roman government. In fact, it puts the blame upon the head of every sinner, because the Son of God would not have died had it not been for His love for sinners and His desire to redeem them.
As Jesus said to Pilate, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above” (John 19:11). The Messianic prophecies explain exactly why Jesus died: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
THOUSANDS OF ROMAN CATHOLICS JOIN MARCH FOR JESUS (Friday Church News Notes, July 27, 2012, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Roman Catholics in various parts of the world joined the annual March for Jesus. In Trinidad and Tobago, for example, thousands of Roman Catholics joined Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, and the Salvation Army for this year’s March (“Marchers by the Thousands,” Archdiocese of Port of Spain, July 15, 2012). Catholic Archbishop Joseph Harris said the event has his full support as “ecumenical and multi-religious” (“Christians March for Jesus,” Catholicnews-tt.net, June 24, 2012). In New Zealand, the Roman Catholic Church began official participation in March for Jesus in 1995.
It was called “an unprecedented expression of Christian unity” (The Challenge Weekly, June 5, 1996). This March of the Mixed Multitude is even considered to be a form of evangelism. John Fulford of the Evangelical Fellowship of New Zealand called the declaration of unity an opportunity for evangelism (Ibid.), but he didn’t explain how unity between those who preach different gospels can be anything other than apostasy, confusion, and spiritual death. Those who preach a false gospel are under God’s curse (Galatians 1:8-9). How can blessing come by yoking together with that which is cursed?
March for Jesus does not represent the true church of Jesus Christ; it represents the building of the one-world harlot church, and two of the most effective instruments in the building of this “church” are the charismatic movement and contemporary Christian music. Graham Kendrick, one of the most influential names in contemporary praise music, was a co-founder of March for Jesus. A March for Jesus coordinator said: “Through praise and worship, we’re seeing all denominations—Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, Charismatics come together to proclaim the most important points of the gospel” (Calvary Contender, Feb. 15, 1994).
It it is no surprise that Kendrick is also a radical charismatic who promotes heretical “kingdom now” theology. He is a member of the Ichthus Christian Fellowship which welcomed the so-called Toronto Blessing with its meaningless gibberish, spirit slaying, hysterical laughing, barking, braying, rolling. Kendrick claims that he received the gift of “tongues” while brushing his teeth after attending a charismatic meeting in 1971.
BOY SCOUTS AFFIRM BAN ON HOMOSEXUALS IN FACE OF PROTESTS (Friday Church News Notes, July 27, 2012, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from the Associated Press, July 17, 2012: “After a confidential two-year review, the Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday emphatically reaffirmed its policy of excluding ‘gays,’ ruling out any changes despite relentless protest campaigns by some critics. An 11-member special committee, formed discreetly by top Scout leaders in 2010, ‘came to the conclusion that this policy is absolutely the best policy for the Boy Scouts,’ the organization’ national spokesman, Deron Smith, told The Associated Press.
Smith said the committee, comprised of professional scout executives and adult volunteers, was unanimous in its conclusion--preserving a long-standing policy that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 and has remained controversial ever since. As a result of the committee’s decision, the Scouts’ national executive board will take no further action on a recently submitted resolution asking for reconsideration of the membership policy. The Scouts' chief executive, Bob Mazzuca, contended that most Scout families support the policy, which applies to both adult leaders and Scouts.”
CHICK-FIL-A DUBBED HATE-MONGER FOR STANDING FOR BIBLICAL FAMILY VALUES (Friday Church News Notes, July 27, 2012, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Chick-Fil-A Interview Triggers Media Storm,” Biblical Recorder, July 19, 2012: “In a day when companies such as General Mills, Nabisco, JC Penney and Target seemingly compete to appear the most supportive of gay marriage, Chick-fil-A and its biblically-based values stand out--and the nation and media are noticing.
As a company, Chick-fil-A takes no position on gay marriage, but comments Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy made to the Biblical Recorder newspaper--in a story re-posted by Baptist Press--have launched a media storm. ... Asked about the company’s support of the traditional family, Cathy said in the Biblical Recorder story, ‘Well, guilty as charged.’ ‘We are very much supportive of the family--the biblical definition of the family unit,’ Cathy said. ‘We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives.
We give God thanks for that.’ Chick-fil-A's stores are closed on Sundays and the company, he said, ‘operate on biblical principles.’ The media storm grew larger when a June 16 radio program was spotlighted in which Cathy underscored the need for children to have a mom and a dad. ‘As it relates to society in general, I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, We know better than You as to what constitutes a marriage,’ Cathy said on The Ken Coleman Show.
‘I pray God's mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we would have the audacity to try to redefine what marriage is all about.’ ... The Human Rights Campaign--the nation’s largest gay activist group--posted a Chick-fil-A logo on its website with a fake tagline, ‘We Didn't Invent Discrimination. We Just Support It.’’” [Not fake concerning my person! I fully support it! I do discriminate, and plenty! Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. 1 Corinthians 15:33 (King James Bible)]
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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