News from a different perspective

Fundamental Baptist Information Service October 16, 2009

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FRIDAY CHURCH NEWS NOTES

October 16, 2009, Volume 10, Issue 42

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.

U.S. PRESIDENT PROMISES HOMOSEXUALS THE MOON AND EXPRESSES COMPLETE DISDAIN TOWARD SUPPORTERS OF TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE (Friday Church News Notes, October 16, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from “Obama: Homosexual Relationships ‘Just as Real and Admirable’ as Heterosexual Marriage,” CNSNews, Oct. 13, 2009: “President Obama delivered an unprecedented message to the Human Rights Campaign Saturday night. Sounding more like a homosexual activist than a sitting president, Obama went well beyond his expected message of ‘I’m here with you’ on the homosexual agenda. ‘My expectation is that when you look back on these years, you will see a time in which we put a stop to discrimination against gays and lesbians–whether in the office or on the battlefield,’ Obama told an estimated audience of 3,000. ‘You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relati onships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman.’ Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese said, ‘This was a historic night when we felt the full embrace and commitment of the President of the United States.’ Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, told CNSNews.com. ‘I think this is the ultimate Obama audacity play–for him, just declaring it seems to make it so. … he also mentioned his support for a laundry list of homosexual activist issues, including bringing an end to the military’s ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy on homosexuals serving in the military and overturning the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as being between one man and one woman. … [T]he president also characterized those who oppose the homosexual agenda in terminology reminiscent of last year’s presidential campaign, when then-candida te Obama, campaigning in Pennsylvania, referred to ‘bitter’ residents of small-town America who ‘cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.’ Obama told Saturday’s event that there are still people ‘who hold fast to outworn arguments and old attitudes; who fail to see your families like their families; who would deny you the rights most Americans take for granted.’”

HOMOSEXUAL HATE CRIMES LEGISLATION POISED TO BECOME LAW (Friday Church News Notes, October 16, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from LifeSiteNews.com, Oct. 13, 2009: “In what appears to mark the end of a years-long battle over homosexual hate crime legislation in America, the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday passed a law authorizing the federal government to intervene in violent crimes that appear motivated by hatred of homosexuals. The hate crimes language passed in a 281-146 vote as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill, with 15 Democrats and 131 Republicans voting against the must-pass bill in apparent protest against the hate crime language. The expanded hate crime legislation would extend special protection to victims of crime based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. The measure is now poised to become law after final approval by the Senate. President Obama, as an avowed supporter of the homosexual lobby, is expected to sign the measure. … Commenting on Thursday, Family Research President Tony Perkins said that the law ‘sets us on a slippery slope toward serious infringements of the freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Hate crime legislation will lay the legal foundation and framework for investigating, prosecuting and persecuting pastors, business owners, and anyone else whose actions reflect their faith.’”

EVOLUTIONISTS RE-EVALUATING NUMBER OF DINOSAURS (Friday Church News Notes, October 16, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – National Geographic is reporting that as many as a third of alleged dinosaur species might never have existed. The report is based on new findings that juvenile dinosaurs have mistakenly been labeled as separate species from their parents because paleontologists didn’t understand how different they looked in the juvenile stage. National Geographic says, “… young dinosaurs didn’t look like Mini-Me versions of their parents, according to new analyses by paleontologists Mark Goodwin, University of California, Berkeley, and Jack Horner, of Montana State University. Instead, like birds and some other living animals, the juveniles went through dramatic physical changes during adulthood. This means many fossils of young dinosaurs, including T. rex relatives, have been misidentified as unique species, the researchers ar gue. … The lean and graceful Nanotyrannus is one strong example. Thought to be a smaller relative of T. rex, the supposed species is now considered by many experts to be based on a misidentified fossil of a juvenile T. rex” (“A Third of Dinosaur Species Never Existed?” National Geographic News, Oct. 9, 2009). This report shows how terribly fallible the evolutionist fossil investigators are. It also lessens the number of animals that would have been on Noah’s Ark. Noah did not have to carry every sub-species, such as every kind of dog, into the Ark. He only had to carry a representative of each kind. The average size of the dinosaurs, based on the fossil record, was the size of a sheep or small pony (M. Crichton, The Lost World, p. 122). Struthiomimus, for example, was the size of an ostrich, and Compsognathus was the size of a chicken. Thus, only some so-called dinosaurs were overly large, and of these, Noah could have taken the eggs or juveniles. Since repti les can grow as long as they live, the large dinosaurs were probably very old ones (The New Answers Book). Even the largest dinosaurs were small when first hatched. “There were probably fewer than 50 distinct groups or kinds of dinosaurs that had to be on the Ark” (Ken Ham, The New Answers Book, p. 168).

THE CALORIE NAZIS (Friday Church News Notes, October 16, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The elitist humanistic social engineers are gearing up to oversee your calorie intake, and they are starting with a restriction on convenience stores. They have proposed new regulations restricting the building of convenience stores in South Los Angeles, in order to keep poor kids away from snack foods. Lark Galloway-Gilliam, executive director of Community Health Councils, says there should be “a moratorium” on such stores (“Obesity Concerns Spur Calls to Limit New Convenience Stores,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 12, 2009). Last year, the Los Angeles City Council established a moratorium on new openings of fast-food restaurants. The food Nazis won’t be content until the government legislates the caloric intact of every citizen. When that comes, there will be a flourishing black market in double cheeseburgers, deep-fried chicken, and T winkles. Yum!

10 BRIEF FACTS ON THE ISRAELI CONFLICT (Friday Church News Notes, October 16, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is adapted from a list that was sent to us recently. 1. Israel became a nation in 1312 BC, two thousand years before the rise of Islam. 2. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BC, the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years. 3. Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital for over three centuries, but it has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. 4. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Jewish Holy Scriptures, but it is not mentioned once in the Koran. 5. Jews pray facing Jerusalem; Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem. 6. Arab refugees were intentionally not integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee grou p in the world that has never been integrated into their own people’s lands. 7. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms. 8. The Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won. 9. The PLO’s Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. 10. Of the 690 United Nations General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel, but the UN was silent while the Jordanians destroyed 58 Jerusalem synagogues, systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, and enforced an apartheid-like a policy of preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

CHILD TRAINING MUST BE A HIGH PRIORITY (Friday Church News Notes, October 16, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – One thing that is consistent with parents who have had the joy of seeing their children serve Christ is that they have made this a high priority. It is not something that just happens by taking kids to church. In his excellent new book Rearing Spiritual Children, Pastor Terry Coomer testifies: “We had not been saved very long and were in the first few months of Bible College. I was not impressed with the children that were being reared around me at college. Also, I was not impressed with many of the pastor’s children I saw and with those who were preparing to serve God as pastors and the children they were rearing. I shared this with my wife and we prayed and asked God for help in this matter. We sat down together and read every verse in the Bible that talked about rearing children, our responsibility in rearing our children, an d any verse that was remotely connected. We prayed and meditated over the verses and asked that God would make them real in our lives. We started the plan when Teresa was a baby and we made this a goal in our lives. God was gracious to show us many things we needed. We were not spiritually mature Christians when we started to look at these verses; we were just a young couple asking God to help us rear our children for Him. James 4:8 became very real in our lives, ‘Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.’ God began to teach us and we applied what the Lord was showing us. I would go in to Teresa’s room every evening while she was asleep as a baby and get down beside the bed and pray for God to help us to be spiritual parents, to do exactly as He commanded, and to not let us fail in this matter” (Rearing Spiritual Children, 2009, p. 46, www.fortheloveofthefamily.com). Observe that this couple did not accept the status quo. They wanted something differen t for their home and for their children than what they were seeing around them even at a fundamental Baptist Bible College. They made godly child training a high priority, and studied God’s Word and trusted Him to lead them in this matter. The proper goal, of course, is to produce young people who know Christ personally and who seek His perfect will, whatever that turns out to be for their individual lives.

THE MYSTICAL POWER OF ROCK & ROLL (Friday Church News Notes, October 16, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – Rock & roll is not just music. It is a philosophy. It is a way of life. It is a religion. It is a mystical power that captures hearts and souls. It is the background music of end-time apostasy. The book Rock Facts, published by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, says that “rock and roll refers to an attitude, a feeling, a style, a way of life…” (Rock Facts, 1996, p. 7). I was reminded of this from an article entitled “Eight Commonly Misinterpreted Songs” by Vicki Santillano. The author gives examples of how listeners often misinterpret the message of pop songs, being so influenced by the powerful rhythm, the emotional impact, and the social context that they ignore the actual meaning of the words and in fact give the songs a meaning in their hearts that is the opposite of what the authors intended. She says, “Because many of us use music as an outlet for our deepest feelings, we are often shocked when the meanings that we have given to certain songs prove false. … For example, the song “Born in the U.S.A.” by Bruce Springsteen has often been used in patriotic contexts, but in reality it was a protest against the Vietnam War. The Police’s song “Every Breath You Take” and the Dave Matthews Band’s “Crash into Me” aren’t about romance; they’re about stalkers and peeping toms. Santillano says that pop music is “an outlet for our deepest feelings.” As B.J. Thomas sang in 1969, rock music is about being “hooked on a feeling.” To live by one’s feelings rather than objective truth is the heart of mysticism. It is also a recipe for spiritual deception and destruction. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking w hom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

THE DAY OF THE LORD (Friday Church News Notes, October 16, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless” (2 Peter 3:10-14).

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