October 23, 2009, Volume 10, Issue 43
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.
FRANKLIN GRAHAM PREACHES IN THREE-SELF COMMUNIST CHURCH (Friday Church News Notes, October 23, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – Following in his father’s footsteps, Franklin Graham recently preached in a registered Three-Self communist church in China. The church, Bethel Church of Baoding, is the second largest church in China. This was Franklin’s second occasion to preach in Three-Self churches. It is illegal in China for churches to exist unless they register with the government and come under government restrictions which forbid them to do such things as have Sunday Schools or preach the gospel outside of times and venues approved by the communist government. Those who have refused to submit to these restrictions and have sought to obey God more than man have been harshly persecuted. Even today many unregistered preachers are in jail for their faith, as we have often reported in the Friday Church News Notes. The Three-Self Patriotic Movement and the China Christian Council were founded by the brutal Mao Tse Tung as a tool to control the churches. To preach in a deeply compromised communist-registered church is a sellout to the Lord Jesus Christ, the sole Head of the Church. The Grahams will give account to God for their great compromise of His Word and for their mocking of biblical fundamentalists who simply want to take the Bible seriously. They have gone the way of bigness and worldly popularity, but Jesus said, “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). (We have written many articles about the Three-Self movement and its former head K.H. Ting, a theological modernist and a master of Chinese communist propaganda. These can be found in the Fundamental Baptist Digital Library, which goes on sale in the next couple of weeks.)
U.S. PUBLIC SCHOOL SEX EDUCATION AT WORK (Friday Church News Notes, October 23, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The Humanists who control the public school in America have been pushing sex education at the youngest ages as a tool for social engineering. Not surprisingly, the fruit has been an explosion of immorality. It was recently reported that 115 young women t Robeson High School in Chicago are either expecting or already have had children (“Officials Say a Mix of Factors Are to Blame,” CBS2 Chicago, Oct. 15, 2009). That is one out of every seven girls! The pictures of the teen moms would fill roughly six pages of the high school year book. Of course, this does not count the young women who have ended pregnancies through abortion. What is the problem? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to identify the chief culprits. Fir, there is the rejection of the Bible as God’s Word, and the replacement of absolute truth with relativistic Humanism. Principal Gerald Morrow takes an entirely non-judgmental approach to the rampant immorality, saying, “We’re not looking at them like ‘Ooh you made a mistake.” The moral relativism that has been the mainstay of U.S. public school philosophy for over half a century has predictably resulted in a generation that lives as it pleases. Other major factors in the breakdown of morality in the public school system are sex education; the pop culture, particularly its filthy music; the welfare system with its destruction of the family unit; absentee fathers; and the abortion mentality that treats unborn children as mere “things” that can be tossed into the waste.
CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATIONS FALSELY LABELED “HATE” GROUPS (Friday Church News Notes, October 23, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from MissionAmerica.com, Oct. 13, 2009: “The Southern Poverty Law Center is based in Montgomery, Alabama, and originally was a watchdog for racist groups, and I certainly appreciate this focus. But the group also has a long history of radical left-wing activism, including more recently, becoming defenders of ‘tolerance.’ By their priorities, though, we are to tolerate every religion except Christianity. There is to be no criticism of law-breaking and financially-draining illegal immigrants, because that’s ‘racism.’ And homosexuality and transgenderism are to be considered worthy lifestyles. Those who oppose homosexuality in the public arena are now automatically suspect. … The SPLC identifies groups they deem as ‘hate’ groups. They regularly publish hate group lists, and this wouldn’t matter if they were just another goofball leftie group out there. But some law enforcement agencies use this group’s information for their own ‘watch’ lists, and the SPLC even conducts some ‘hate crimes’ training. Along with the neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan groups, they have recently begun adding others they call ‘anti-gay.’ And that’s where these pro-family groups come in. Traditional Values Coalition based in California … Illinois Family Institute, a Christian public policy group in the Chicago area … the Family Research Institute in Colorado … Mass Resistance and Abiding Truth Ministries, both based in Massachusetts, made the list last year. … Once again, certain rabid folks on the left are trying to intimidate anyone who dares to stand up against abortion and against the promotion of homosexuality.”
MICHAEL W. SMITH TOURS WITH REBELLIOUS ROCK BAND (Friday Church News Notes, October 23, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – Michael W. Smith, one of the biggest names in Contemporary Christian Music, is scheduled to tour with the filthy rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd at the Freedom Concerts in 2010. Though the cause is noble (aid for families of fallen soldiers), Smith is again modeling rebellion to God’s Word, which says, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17). Six members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, which features “cocky, boisterous hard rock,” have died young. Ronnie Van Zant (28), Steve Gaines (27), and Cassie Gaines (26), died in 1977 in a fiery plane crash. Guitarist Allen Collins, died in 1990 at age 37 of respiratory failure. He had wrecked his car in 1986, killing his girlfriend and leaving himself paralyzed from the waist down. Leon Wilkeson, bassist, died in July 2001 at age 49 in a motel room in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, of unknown cause. He suffered from chronic liver and lung disease, but his death has been labeled a murder by some of his friends. Billy Powell, keyboardist, died in January 2009 at age 56 of an apparent heart attack. The band’s rebellious philosophy is inherent in its very name, which was devised in mockery of a former gym teacher, Leonard Skinner, who harassed the band members about their long hair.
CLIMATE CHANGE HYSTERIA IS DESTROYING PROPERTY RIGHTS OF AUSTRALIANS (Friday Church News Notes, October 23, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is from Missionary David Bennett’s mailing list <bennettdubbo@aapt.net.au>: “In seeking protection of their god, planet Earth, ‘the Australian Government has just introduced legislation that will encourage 34 million hectares of farm land to become carbon sinks under an Emissions Trading Scheme – Carbon ‘Pollution’ Reduction Scheme (ETS/CPRS)’ (ClimateScpetics.com). This legislation ‘is using tax policy in association with a CPRS/ETS to force landholders land to lose value, and therefore stop producing the various food and fibre products it currently does’ and it is all ‘based on a false belief that CO2 causes climate change,’ but what else is new?”
THE FRUIT OF ROCK MUSIC (Friday Church News Notes, October 23, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following illustration is from the sermon “The Quiet Judgment of God” by R. B. Ouellette (The Preacher’s Page, October 1997, First Baptist Church, Bridgeport, MI. 517-777-0210). “I had preached at a Christian camp. A young lady who was working there as a counselor asked to speak to me. She told me a very sad tale of how after graduating from a Christian high school, she began to date a young man several years older than her and lost her purity to him. Though she was not aware of it, she was pregnant when she went off to Bible college and had to come home. She told me of her grief, her sorrow and then said, “It all started in the sixth grade when I began listening to rock and roll music.” Listening to that first rock song did not make her lose her purity. Listening to that first rock song did not make her completely backslidden and out of fellowship with God. But listening to that first rock song led her to listen to other songs, to harden her heart against the instruction of her parents, the preaching of her pastor and the conviction of the Spirit of God.” CONCLUDING NOTE FROM BROTHER CLOUD: Friends, there is less and less plain preaching against rock music in fundamental Baptist churches with each passing decade, and the fruit can be seen in the worldly attitudes of the young people. Preachers must preach against rock music because it is spiritually destructive. Too many pastors have swallowed the contemporary lie that it is not their business to preach against certain kinds of music because music is neutral, but music is not neutral. One reason, perhaps, there is so much pulpit silence about rock music is that many pastors are listening to rock music in their own daily lives through talk radio (e.g., Rush Limbaugh) and sports channels. In fact, I have discovered that many fundamental Baptist pastors and deacons are listening to Contemporary Christian Music in their personal lives and homes even though they maintain traditional music in their services. Is that not hypocrisy? Carnal music feeds carnality and robs us of spiritual power and blessing. God’s Word warns that “evil communications corrupt good manners” and whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap; for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.”
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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