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FRIDAY CHURCH NEWS NOTES
January 2, 2009, Volume 10, Issue 1
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. For instructions on how to unsubscribe to this list or to change mailing addresses, please consult the information paragraph at the end.
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CHARISMATIC SONGS AND THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST HYMNAL (Friday Church News Notes, January 2, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, (866-295-4143) – The 2008 Southern Baptist Hymnal contains many songs written by charismatics and published by charismatic music companies such as Integrity, Maranatha, and Hillsong. About 75 of the top 100 contemporary worship songs are included. For example, songs by Jack Hayford, David Ruis, Paul Baloche, and Darlene Zschech are included.
These popular worship leaders are extreme charismatic ecumenists and contemporary Christian rockers. Hayford believes that God told him he must not criticize the Roman Catholic Church. Ruis is a worship leader at the Toronto Airport Church where people roll on the floor, bark like dogs, roar like lions, laugh hysterically, and get “drunk in the spirit” during their “revivals.” Ruis’s song “Break Dividing Walls” calls for an unscriptural ecumenical unity between all denominations.
Paul Baloche is worship leader at the Community Christian Fellowship of Lindale, Texas. Their 2002 Leadership Summit featured Ricky Paris, who calls himself an apostle. Baloche’s Offering of Worship album was recorded at Regent University, which was founded by the radical charismatic ecumenist Pat Robertson. As far back as 1985, Robertson said that he “worked for harmony and reconciliation between Protestants and Catholics” (Christian News, July 22, 1985). According to Frontline magazine, May-June 2000, a Catholic mass is held on Regent’s campus every week. Darlene Zschech and her Hillsong worship band recently performed for the Catholic Youth Day in Sydney, with the pope in attendance. The charismatic movement is not in submission to the Word of God and does not care one way or the other that these associations are contrary to Scripture, but shame on Baptists who follow in these presumptuous and disobedient footsteps. Shame on Lifeway for giving charismatics a powerful forum to influence Baptist churches, and shame on the Southern Baptist Convention for allowing Lifeway to do these things. Because the SBC refuses to deal with error consistently, the leaven will spread. The Bible warns that “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” This is true for sin (1 Cor. 5:6) as well as for false doctrine (Gal. 5:9). For more information see The Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements: History and Doctrine (book) and Dangers of Contemporary Worship Music (DVD), which are available from Way of Life Literature.
BILLY GRAHAM JOINS SBC CONGREGATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA (Friday Church News Notes, January 2, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, (866-295-4143) – Billy Graham has moved his membership from the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, to First Baptist of Spartanburg, South Carolina, near his retirement home (“Graham Moves Dallas Membership,” AP, Dec. 30, 2008). Graham joined First Baptist of Dallas in 1953, and the Southern Baptist Convention has never condemned his unscriptural evangelism. Even a “conservative” like Albert Mohler, Jr., head of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, supports it. He was the chairman of Graham’s crusade in Louisville in 2001. The Baptist Press reported that “hundreds of Southern students prepared for the Graham crusade.” Mohler said, “Nothing else has brought together the kind of ethnic and racial and denominational inclusivity as is represented in this crusade…” (Baptist Press, May 3, 2001).
Southern Baptist churches, colleges, and seminaries do not warn that Billy Graham has turned thousands of converts over to Roman Catholic and modernistic churches. For example, at the Vancouver, British Columbia crusade in 1984, the vice-chairman of the organizing committee, David Cline, said, “If Catholics step forward THERE WILL BE NO ATTEMPT TO CONVERT THEM and their names will be given to the Catholic church nearest their homes” (Vancouver Sun, Oct. 5, 1984). SBC bookstores do not carry books in that warn about wretched ecumenical ventures such as this and that document other New Evangelical compromises. (For more about this see “Billy Graham’s Sad Disobedience” at the Way of Life web site.)
TOTALITARIAN DICTATOR STALIN POPULAR IN RUSSIA (Friday Church News Notes, January 2, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, (866-295-4143) – Josef Stalin, the totalitarian dictator who murdered multiplied millions of his fellow citizens, is the third most popular historical figure in Russia today according to a recent survey. The poll was taken by Rossiya, a state television channel. He received almost the same percentage of votes as Alexander Nevsky, who defeated German invaders in the 13th century, and Pyotr Stolypin, a 20th century prime minister. Human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov told Reuters, “The younger generation is fed with myths about Stalin. It knows nothing about the millions who died in Gulag camps but well knows he was a strong leader who defeated (Nazi) Germany” (“Dictator Stalin Strong Contender,” Reuters, Dec. 28, 2008). The average young person in North America is also brainwashed in mythology. According to Bible prophecy, Russia and her allies will attack Israel during the Great Tribulation and their armies will be destroyed (Ezekiel 38-39). Anti-semitism has long been rampant in Russia.
EUROPEAN UNION PUSHING FOR WORLDWIDE HOMOSEXUAL RIGHTS (Friday Church News Notes, January 2, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org,(866-295-4143) – Under the leadership of France, the European Union (EU) is pushing for worldwide homosexual rights through the United Nations. In December, France, which headed the EU in 2008, attempted to get the UN to approve a resolution decriminalizing homosexuality.
The resolution received support from 66 of the 192 member nations, with all of the EU countries voting for it (“Conservatives Expect U.N.
Battle over Homosexuality,” CNSNews.com, Dec. 24, 2008). The United States voted against it, but that will probably change once Barack Obama comes to power this month. U.N. analyst Thomas Jacobson said, “I would fully expect that France and the European Union will push for ‘LGBT (lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender) rights’ and ‘gender-identity rights’ and collaborate heavily with the Obama administration, beginning in the first quarter of 2009.”
SNOWZILLA AND EVOLUTION (Friday Church News Notes, January 2, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – Snowzilla is a 25-foot snowman in Anchorage, Alaska, that is said to have appeared mysteriously just before Christmas. It was first built on Billy Powers property in a 16- foot incarnation in 2005, but after the city forbade him to build the giant snowman again this year, it appeared overnight larger than ever and Powers said that it must be “magic” and that he doesn’t know how it got there (“Revenge of Snowzilla,” Anchorage Daily News, Dec. 24, 2008). That a 25-foot snowman with wooden arms and cans for eyes, a scarf around its neck, and a hat on its head would just happen makes as much sense as evolution. Design doesn’t happen without a designer.
The Bible doesn’t waste time trying to prove the existence of God, because His existence is evident in the very creation. The Bible’s opening words state solemnly and majestically, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Men are held accountable for knowing that there is a God and will be judged on that basis. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:18-20).
GLOBAL WARMING ROPE-A-DOPE (Friday Church News Notes, January 2, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from Dr. Walter Williams’ syndicated column for December 23, 2008:
“Americans have been rope-a-doped into believing that global warming is going to destroy our planet. Scientists who have been skeptical about manmade global warming have been called traitors or handmaidens of big oil. … U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said it was ‘criminally irresponsible’ to ignore the urgency of global warming. U.N. special climate envoy Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland on May 10, 2007 declared the climate debate ‘over’
and added ‘it’s completely immoral, even, to question’ the U.N.’s scientific ‘consensus.’ In July 23, 2007, CNN’s Miles O’Brien said, ‘The scientific debate is over.’ … The global warming scare has provided a field day for politicians and others who wish to control our lives. After all, only the imagination limits the kind of laws and restrictions that can be written in the name of saving the planet.
Recently, more and more scientists are summoning up the courage to speak out and present evidence against the global warming rope-a-dope.
Atmospheric scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said, ‘It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.’ Dr. Goldenberg has the company of at least 650 noted scientists documented in the recently released U.S. Senate Minority
Report: ‘More Than 650 International Scientists Dissent over Man-Made Global Warming Claims: Scientists Continue to Debunk “Consensus” in 2008.’ The scientists, not environmental activists, include Ivar Giaever, Nobel Laureate in physics, who said, ‘I am a skeptic … Global warming has become a new religion.’ Dr. Kiminori Itoh, an environmental physical chemist, said warming fears are the ‘worst scientific scandal in the history … When people come to know what the truth is, they will feel deceived by science and scientists.’”
UNITED NATIONS GLOBAL WARMING HYPOCRISY (Friday Church News Notes, January 2, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The United Nations is a ridiculous and hypocritical organization. It is ridiculous because its main stated objective is world peace, but it has no more ability to bring that about than it has to change the course of the sun. As for hypocrisy, we will give but one example. It is leading the global frenzy to save the world from global warming, but what it says and what it does is contradictory in the extreme. In Nepal, for example, the United Nations Mission, which helped put Maoists into power in a sham election in 2008, owns a fleet of gas- guzzling, pollution-producing SUVs which rarely if ever venture outside of the capital city.
A WORLDLY BIBLE FOR THE CHRISTIAN ROCK GENERATION (Friday Church News Notes, January 2, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org,(866-295-4143) – The Bible Illuminated is a worldly Bible fitting for the Christian rock generation. Released in English for the holiday season, The Illuminated Bible is a glossy magazine format that features pictures of rappers in indecent poses, immodestly clad models, Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, Hollywood movie star Angelina Jolie, atheist rocker John Lennon, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Princess Diana, Bono, Muhammad Ali, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Andy Warhol in homosexual cross-dressing attire. The Illuminated Bible was the brainchild of Dag Soderberg of Sweden and was created by a group of secular advertising and corporate executives. It first appeared in Swedish in 2007 in an even “sexier” version than the English incarnation. Soderberg, who is “not a practicing Christian”and “not very religious,” hopes The Illuminated Bible “will generate more religious tolerance” (“Repackaging the Bible,” CNN, Dec. 24, 2008). The text for The Illuminated Bible is the Today’s English Version, which uses the dynamic equivalency method of translation to rob the readers of God’s Words, changes “blood” to “death” and corrupts practically every passage touching on the Deity of Jesus Christ. It is true in Christianity in our day as it was in Israel of old, “Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holythings: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean…” (Ezekiel 22:26).
THE CYANIDE DEFENSE (Friday Church News Notes, January 2, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from Creation Moments, http://www.creationmoments.com/radio/transcript.php?t=2179 : “Wouldn’t it be amazing if a creature developed a chemical defense that is deadly to practically every other creature but itself– especially if that defense meant exposing itself and its enemy to deadly cyanide? Yet there is a species of millipede called Apheloria that does just this. Apheloria has, on each segment of its body, special glands that produce the chemical needed for defense. When the millipede is attacked by an enemy, it mixes this chemical with a catalyst. The result is a chemical that is a mild irritant plus hydrogen cyanide gas–the same lethal chemical used in the gas chamber. In this defense, the millipede as well as his enemies, are engulfed in a cloud of deadly cyanide gas. His attacker dies, but the millipede simply walks away unharmed. This truly amazing defense clearly has a purpose. Even more amazing, if evolution is right, the millipede developed this remarkable defense quite accidentally, and at the same time he became immune to deadly cyanide gas! This defense is completely unlikely to develop without a planner. The millipede’s immunity to cyanide makes sense if there was a planner, and it makes no sense at all if there wasn’t. God’s fingerprints are all over the creation as He seeks to draw us all to Himself.”
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 list. To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE ADDRESSES go to http://www.wayoflife.org/fbis/subscribe.html. Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org.