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FRIDAY CHURCH NEWS NOTES August 28, 2009, Volume 10, Issue 35 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. LUTHERANS ALLOW HOMOSEXUAL PASTORS (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – On August 21, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to allow “gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy.” Moments after the vote, Mark Hanson, the Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, pleaded for unity, saying, “It would be tragic if we walked away from one another” (“Lutheran Gay Clergy Vote,” AP, Aug. 22, 2009). In fact, it is tragic that those who claim to believe the Bible are yoked together in the same denomination with those who obviously do not (Romans 16:17). Many mainstream media reports depict the ELCA as a fairly conservative denomination, but in fact it has been riddled with theological modernism and unbelief since its inception. J. Kincaid Smith, an ELCA pastor who attended Hamma School of Theology in the Lutheran Church in America, one of the denominations that merged to form the ELCA in 1988, testified, “When I graduated in 1973, to the best of my knowledge, none of my classmates, nor I, believed in any of the miraculous element in the Bible, in anything supernatural, no six day creation, that Adam and Eve were real historical people, that God really spoke to people, the flood with Noah and the Ark, the Red Sea parting. We believed that no Old Testament Scriptures foretold of Jesus of Nazareth, that Jesus was not anticipated in the Old Testament. No virgin birth” (Christian News, April 29, 1985). MASS MURDERER CHEERED IN LYBIA (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The Islamic mass murderer who was found guilty of bombing Pan Am flight 103 in 1988, killing 270 people when it crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland, was given a hero’s welcome at the Tripoli airport in Libya when he arrived there on August 21 (“Lockerbie Bomber Release,” AOL News, Aug. 21, 2009). Thousands cheered Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was released from prison in Scotland after only eight years on grounds of “compassion.” He is said to be dying with cancer. Libya’s president, Gadhafi, met with al-Megrahi personally and hugged him. It is obvious that many of Libya’s citizens believe that destroying a commercial jetliner full of people is a glorious Islamic act, worthy of the highest praise.
JUDGE REFUSES TO SEND TEEN CHRISTIAN GIRL BACK TO MUSLIM PARENTS (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from “Teen Christian Convert to Stay in Florida,” WorldNetDaily, Aug. 21, 2009: “A judge in Florida has determined arguments over a young Christian who ran away from her Muslim parents in Ohio when her father allegedly threatened her life will continue in Florida, and she will not be returned immediately as her parents wished. Fathima Rifqa Bary, 17, an honor student and cheerleader, was raised in a Muslim family in Columbus, Ohio. She became a Christian four years ago as a result of her interactions with children at school. But Bary, a native of Sri Lanka, hitchhiked to a bus station and ran away from home July 19 because she says her family will murder her in what is known as an ‘honor killing.’ [Her father has severely beat her many times.] In Islamic tradi tion, an honor killing is the killing of a person believed to have brought dishonor upon his or her family. … In the Columbus area, where she lived, ‘There is a densely populated group of Muslims with connections with radical Islam and al-Qaida,’ said John Stemberg, an attorney representing the teen. … Wafa Sultan, a Syrian-born psychiatrist, human rights activist and author, wrote on JihadWatch.org that the case ‘highlights the danger of creeping jihad in the Western world. This is not only because of the imminent danger the teenage girl may face right here in the U.S., had the court decided to have her return to her parents’ home, but also because of the mainstream media’s weak response to the severity of this case.’ … Dr. Phyllis Chesler, author of ‘Are Honor Killings Simply Domestic Violence?’ told Fox News Bary’s life will be in danger if she is forced to return to her parents. ‘Anyone who converts from Islam is co nsidered an apostate, and apostasy is a capital crime,’ she said. ‘If she is returned to her family, if she is lucky, they will isolate her, beat her, threaten her, and if she is not presuaded to return to Islam, they will kill her. They have no choice.’ Chesler continued, ‘She escaped from her family’s brutal tyranny and shamed her family further through public exposure. Muslim girls and women are killed for far less.’ … The United Nations tabulates about 5,000 such ‘honor killings’ annually around the world, and they have been documented even in the United States. … one of the more notorious recent cases came when a Muslim TV network founder was charged with beheading his wife.” OBAMA PRAISES ISLAM’S ADVANCE OF JUSTICE, TOLERANCE, AND DIGNITY (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – In his video greeting to Muslims on the occasion of Ramadan, President Barack Obama praised Islam’s “role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings” (“Obama Offers Wishes,” The Washington Times, Aug. 21, 2009). It would be interesting to know what non-Islamic history books back up this amazing claim. In our day, it is obvious that the greatest role that Islam is playing is to advance arbitrary violence, regression, intolerance, and indignity. Presidential praise of Islam got a big push on George W. Bush’s watch. REBA MCENTIRE SAYS SHE DOESN’T JUDGE HOMOSEXUALS (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – Country Music singer and actress Reba McEntire recently told Out.com, a homosexual website, that she doesn’t judge any type of behavior. “I just try not to judge. Don’t judge me, and I won’t judge you. And that’s what it says in the Bible — ‘Don’t judge.’ Keep an open mind. That would be my voice. I have gay friends. I have a lot of straight friends. I don’t judge them. I take them for what they are. They’re my friends, and I can’t defend my feelings for them, other than I like ‘em” (“Reba McEntire Keeps on Loving Gay Fans,” TheBoot.com, Aug. 19, 2009). Reba’s authority is not the Bible; it is her “feelings.” Asked about homosexual marriage she replied, “Again, I can’t judge that. I have gay friends who hav e partners, and I see where they would want to get married. I understand why. So, I can’t judge that.” This is typical country-music “faith.” Live and think whatever you please, but spread a thin veneer of unregenerate Christianity over it. Jesus did not say that we are not to judge anyone or anything. He said we are not to judge hypocritically (Matthew 7:1-5). Elsewhere in the Bible we are commanded to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11). OFFICIAL KILOGRAM LOSING OR GAINING WEIGHT, SCIENTISTS NOT SURE (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The official international kilogram prototype that is stored in a vault in Paris is either losing or gaining weight, scientists aren’t sure which. It was made in 1889 out of platinum and iridium to the most exacting science and declared the international standard, but compared with copies that were made the same year, either the prototype has lost weight or the copies have gained weight or both (“This Kilogram Has a Weight-Loss Problem,” National Public Radio, Aug. 20, 2009). This reminds me that modern science is both exceedingly fallible and exceedingly proud. Even though they can’t explain what has happened to these weights in a period of a mere century, they have the audacity to tell us that they can tell us what happened over the past billion years and that we are to believe them over the Bible. No thanks. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord! UNBELIEVING “JESUS SEMINAR” REVITALIZED (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The Jesus Seminar, which claims that only a small part of the four Gospels contain authentic sayings of Jesus, has been revitalized in recent days. After the death of founder Robert Funk in 2005, the organization nearly went out of business. Now it is moving to Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, and is receiving an influx of money to carry on its Satanic work of destroying people’s faith in God’s Word. Through the Jesus Seminar, the hiss of the slithering serpent can still be heard asking, “Hath God said?” In the 1980s, the Jesus Seminar boys cast ballots on the authenticity of Christ’s sayings in the four Gospels, using red balls to indicate that a saying was probably authentic, gray, that it was possibly authentic, and black, that its authenticity was improbable. Less than a third of Jesus&rs quo; sayings received red votes. In 1992, Marcus Borg, a participant in the Jesus Seminar, said, “It makes no historical sense to say, ‘Jesus was killed for the sins of the world.’ … I am one of those Christians who does not believe in the virgin birth, nor in the star of Bethlehem, nor in the journeys of the wise men, nor in the shepherds coming to the manger, as facts of history” (Bible Review, December 1992). The Jesus Seminar is only one voice in a loud chorus of end-time unbelief that was supernaturally prophesied in the very Bible they so blindly denounce. “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13). “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). “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” (2 Peter 2:1). “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts” (2 Peter 3:3). GRAHAM’S ROCK FESTIVAL – SUBJECTIVE HOLINESS (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following report is excerpted from “Franklin Graham: Minister of Christ or Priest of Baal?” by Pastor Ralph Ovadal http://www.pccmonroe.org. “Rock the River [a series of four festivals held in cities on the Mississippi River] is the proud brainchild of BGEA president/CEO Franklin Graham, who also briefly preached the Graham gospel several times during each of the six- to seven-hour ‘Christian’ rock concerts. Mr. Graham was candid about his reason for making use of head-banging rock, hip-hop, and even a mosh pit set up by BGEA. ‘We’re just changing the lure. Kids today love rock music. We’re giving them the music they like and understand’ (Quad City Times, Aug. 9, 2009). … What I want to very briefly address here is Franklin Graham’s notion of what is worship accept able to the Lord. The Scriptures have much to say on that very issue, for instance, ‘Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness’ (Psa. 29:2) … But apparently Mr. Graham holds the same philosophy as his rock-and-roll followers, including two young women I interviewed at the Rock the River event at which we ministered in Davenport on Saturday, August 8. After our time of preaching, passing out tracts, and holding signs, I assumed my Christian media identity and conducted an interview with two evangelical rockers. With pounding, ear-splitting music as the backdrop, I brought up that the Scriptures command that the Lord be worshiped with reverence and also ‘in the beauty of holiness.’ I asked them if Rock the River fits that description. The young women confidently explained to me that ‘it depends on who you are as a person. Like, some people love this. And you have to worship as you do, and they have to wors hip as they do.’ But I asked again, ‘Is this music reverent?’ Again, the god ‘I’ was put forward as the ultimate authority in such matters. ‘I think it’s awesome . . . I think it’s perfect . . . I think for them that’s reverent. For you it might be different . . . for them it’s how they get it all out.’ Reverence, I was told, is different for everyone. And what of holiness? ‘I think it’s how you view it.’ Such is the ignorance and such are the resulting beliefs that allow, and seduce, young evangelicals into the ‘Christian’ rock culture which is anything but Christian and into a worship of God which is really a frenzied, heathenish worship of another christ, with another gospel preached, and all of this by another spirit, not the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 11:4).” GRAHAM’S ROCK FESTIVAL – MOSHING (Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following report is excerpted from “Franklin Graham: Minister of Christ or Priest of Baal?” by Pastor Ralph Ovadal http://www.pccmonroe.org. “Consider Franklin Graham’s canned media comment, fed to reporters at Rock the River towns and posted on the BGEA website: ‘As we head up the Mississippi River . . . we will be going against the currents of secularism, postmodernism, and the godless culture in which we live.’ … Rather than risk reader fatigue, I will not attempt to describe in depth the ungodly looking characters and music Graham made use of to fight those evils he just mentioned. … Suffice it to say, I am of the opinion that long-haired, ear-ringed men–in some cases wearing eye makeup–and sexualized, screaming, even growling women pumping out ear-splitting, demonic-sounding music while gyra ting, writhing, and slamming around in front of immodestly dressed, crowd surfing, moshing, screaming fans is hardly the antithesis of ‘the godless culture in which we live.’ … Young people who wanted to mosh to the frenzied music were invited into the pit to enjoy themselves. Simply put, people mosh by physically slamming themselves into each other and trying to throw each other to the ground. A dictionary definition puts it this way: ‘to engage in a form of frenzied, violent dancing; slam-dance.’ … [T]he music, the body surfing, and the moshing–were all said to be worshiping the Lord and praising Him!” |
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