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.

HOMEOPATHY FOUND TO BE A DUBIOUS PRACTICE (Friday Church News Notes, February 26, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A British parliamentary panel has determined that homeopathy is “scientifically implausible” and no better than placebos such as sugar pills (Reuters, from The Bangkok Post, Feb. 23, 2010). The Science and Technology committee said that homeopathic products are not real medicines and should not be paid for by the National Health Service. This is an accurate observation. In fact, homeopathy is associated with occultic principles. Homeopathy was developed in the 18th century by Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843). His book Organon of the Art of Healing remains the foundational text in the field. One biographer says, “The reverence for Eastern thought was not just Hahnemann’s personal hobby, but rather the fundamental philosophy behind the preparation of homeopathic remedies” (Samuel Pfeifer, Healing at Any Price, 1988, p. 68). At the heart of homeopathy is the Hindu concept that there is a vital force or life energy that permeates all things (Homeopathy: Heart and Soul, p. 19). Homeopathic remedies are thought to “act upon the Vital Force to restore balance within the body.” Physically speaking, homeopathic remedies are so highly diluted that they are nothing more than water. Homeopathic doctor Keith Souter admits that a typical solution is “unlikely to have even a single molecule of the original compound left.” The diluted solution is allegedly effective because it has undergone a process known as dynamization or potentialization, which makes it possible to contract and retain a hidden power in the liquid. Hahnemann “believed that spiritual reality was more important than material reality” and “came to regard the ‘spiritual essence’ of a drug as more important than its physical substance” (The Hidden Agenda, p. 99).

February 17, 2010 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -

Following are some of the testimonies that were sent to me recently by Christian parents who have gotten rid of the television. I requested these in the context of a new book I am writing entitled “Keeping the Kids.” These testimonies are extensive and there is some repetition, but I believe that it is important to publish them in order to offset the status quo that exists even in most allegedly staunch Bible-believing churches today.

“Sick of the nasty language, barely dressed women and/or men, sexual content, drugs, drinking, murder, the commercials, the list goes on, we have not had cable/antenna hook up for about six years in our home and we LOVE IT! The result has been wonderful! We are no longer couch potatoes. We enjoy the quietness in the home. We enjoy each other’s company. We enjoy more time spent with Father God. We spend more time in prayer, reading God’s Word and being with the each other. We do more out of doors activities--walking trails, driving to the mountains, etc.”

“Being engulfed in front of a TV has nothing to do with family time. Real family time is getting closer to God and developing an intimate, passionate, and personal relationship with Jesus!”

High Schools, colleges, and universities typically teach only one theory of origins, that being evolution, and the students are not presented with a creationist viewpoint. In fact, they are often given the idea that no true scientist today is a creationist. When the National Academy of Sciences in America published an educational tool in 1998 entitled Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science, they posed this question, “Don’t many scientists reject evolution?” The answer was, “No; the scientific consensus around evolution is overwhelming.”

Richard Dawkins, (shown right) a brash atheist and anti-creationist, says in his recent book The Greatest Show in Earth,

“Evolution is a fact. Beyond reasonable doubt, beyond serious doubt, beyond sane, informed, intelligent doubt, beyond doubt evolution is a fact. ... Evolution is a fact, and [my] book will demonstrate it. No reputable scientist disputes it, and no unbiased reader will close the book doubting it.”

According to Dawkins, if you reject evolution, you are unintelligent and your sanity should be questioned, and he proclaims that no reputable scientist disputes it.

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.

BILLY GRAHAM VOTED MOST INFLUENTIAL PREACHER (Friday Church News Notes, February 12, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - According to a new survey, Billy Graham has had the most influence on Protestant pastors of any living preacher. In addition to Graham, the list of top ten most influential preachers included Chuck Swindoll, Chuck Stanley, Rick Warren, David Jeremiah, and Mac Lucado. The survey was taken by LifeWay Research, an arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. Billy Graham has preached the gospel to more people than any other man in history, but he has also compromised the gospel as much as any man in history by pioneering the ecumenical evangelism philosophy that has torn down the biblical walls of separation between truth and error. He has turned hundreds of thousands of his “converts” over to Roman Catholic and liberal Protestant churches to be devoured by wolves in sheep’s clothing. (For documentation see “Billy Graham’s Sad Disobedience” at the Way of Life web site.)

February 11, 2010 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -

Excerpt from our book “What is the Emerging Church?” $19.95

A foundational teaching of the conservative emerging church is the idea that Jesus was incarnated into the culture of this world and the Christian is commissioned to do the same thing. They call this “missional.” Note the following statements by Mark Driscoll:

“Jesus’ incarnation is in itself missional. God the Father sent God the Son into culture on a mission to redeem the elect by the power of God the Ghost. After his resurrection, Jesus also sent his disciples into culture, on a mission to proclaim the success of his mission, and commissioned all Christians to likewise be missionaries to the cultures of the world (e.g., Matt. 28:18-20; John 20:21; Acts 1:7-8). Emerging and missional Christians have wonderfully rediscovered the significance of Jesus’ incarnational example of being a missionary immersed in a culture” (Confessions of a Reformission Rev., p. 26).

“Missions is every Christian being a missionary to their local culture” (Confessions of a Reformission Rev., p. 19).

The liberal emerging church believes the same thing. Mars Hill Graduate School proclaims:

“We believe a person or community can never receive a hearing, nor offer the gospel, unless it incarnates the gospel through joyful participation in a culture's glory and honest engagement in its darkness. We wish to develop lovers of language, story, drama, film, music, dance, architecture, and art in order to deepen our love of life and the God of all creativity” (Mars Hill Graduate School, http://www.mhgs.edu/common/about.asp#scpriture).