BEWARE OF RON WYATT’S ALLEGED CHARIOT WHEELS (Friday Church News Notes, June 29, 2012, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Ron Wyatt: The Indiana Jones of the SDA” by Wayne Jackson, The ChristianCourier.com, n.d.: “Ron Wyatt (1933-1999) was a nurse-anesthetist in a hospital in Madison, Tennessee, and a sensationalist pseudo-archaeologist whose work has been debunked thoroughly by professional archaeologists and respected biblical scholars. ... [Wyatt supposedly discovered some 92 relics or sites, including Noah’s home, fences from Noah’s farm, anchor stones from Noah’s ark, Noah’s altar, Noah’s tombstone, wheels from Egyptian chariots in the Red Sea, the Ark of the Covenant, the tables of the Ten Commandments, and a sampling of Christ’s dried blood, supposedly proving the doctrine of the virgin birth by means of a ‘chromosome count.’] ... Wyatt claimed to have discovered the exact place where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, before the waters returned and drowned Pharaoh’s forces. He contended that he explored the floor of the Gulf of Aqaba, using scuba gear. Supposedly, he discovered ‘chariot litter’ in the form of wheels, body frames, and the bones of both humans and horses, scattered over a lengthy area. ... Wyatt claimed that he was using simple recreational scuba equipment when he discovered these wheels, etc., at a depth of some 200 feet in the Gulf. However, ordinary scuba apparatus is designed to accommodate only a depth of approximately 125-130 feet. ... Pharaoh’s army was said to have been destroyed ‘in the middle of the sea’ (Exodus 14:23) which, according to measurements of the British Admiralty, is almost 2,800 feet deep in the midst of Aqaba. ... Then there is the issue of the ‘bones’--of both horses and men--that Wyatt reputedly found. Recall that the destruction of Pharaoh’s army took place about 3,500 years ago. Compare this with the following facts. The Titanic went down in 1912 and 1,553 people were lost in the wreckage. In 1985, [a mere] 73 years following that Atlantic catastrophe, the submerged vessel was discovered and explored and the remains of not a solitary person--neither skin nor bone--was found. Everything had been completely consumed by fish, crustaceans, and the destructive effect of salt water (HRR, 179ff). ... One authority suggests that the video tape Wyatt employed to show these underwater ‘artifacts’ appears to be a hoax; he challenged him to subject the items to a C14 dating test--if indeed he ever had an actual sample of anything (Zias, op. cit.).”

Since last year I have been hearing from church members who are being mistreated by their pastors because they don’t agree with what Lancaster Baptist Church in Lancaster, California, (home of West Coast Baptist College) is doing in regard to the adaptation of contemporary worship music.

This week I have received two more examples of this.

In one case, the pastor has taken to “blasting” me from the pulpit because he has a family who is resisting the church’s contemporary direction in music. This family has refused to sing contemporary worship songs by Getty/Townend and others. They have done this quietly without talking around to try to cause trouble among the members, but they cannot in good conscience sing these songs. They told the music director personally, and that was all. The husband said, “I told my wife that, since I did not want to cause divisions, we would not talk to anyone about the reasons for my decision, and we didn't.”

Even so, the pastor has made this godly family feel very uncomfortable by saying that questioning the pastor is evidence of a critical spirit and that being concerned about things such as “beat anticipation” is to “waste time about minor things while souls are dying and going to hell.”

Last year this pastor had seemed to agree with my warnings, but after he attended a conference at Lancaster he developed a bad attitude toward me personally and toward my ministry and toward those who listen to me. He is now treating me as an enemy of good churches and an underminer of pastoral authority.

Recently the pastor preached a sermon that was obviously directed toward that family. The husband testified as follows of how he felt when his own pastor treated him like some sort of enemy of the truth:

“I don't think I have ever felt so despised and worthless as I did at the end of that sermon. Just as he never mentioned your name when blasting away at you, he never mentioned my name when blasting away at me. But it was obvious to everyone involved in the music ministry, and perhaps to some others as well, EXACTLY who he was talking about. He stood up there and mocked me for ‘taking a stand’ on such a supposedly trivial issue. He accused me of being more loyal to an ‘Internet pastor’ than to himself.  He accused me of being unsubmissive to pastoral authority and causing divisions. He accused me of thinking that I'm ‘more spiritual’ than everyone else. He even implied that my actions were somehow preventing people from being saved.”

Following are a few of the hundreds of testimonies we have received in recent years about Way of Life’s blessing on churches. We have always exalted the church as the pillar and ground of the truth and as the headquarters for world evangelism (1 Timothy 3:15; Acts 13:1-4), and a major objective of Way of Life has been to provide sound materials to help pastors in their ministries of protecting and building up the Lord’s churches.

We publish these testimonies because so many have said that Way of Life is a “negative” ministry that tears down. In fact, Way of Life is a multi-faceted preaching-teaching ministry and warning is a small but important part of that ministry.

Most of the following are written by pastors:
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“I wanted to take this time to let you know how grateful we are for your coming to Westview Baptist Church, Warren, Michigan, for a Bible conference and for the great help you brought. One of the reasons this is the church it is today is because of your teachings and the WOL website. When I first met the man who is now my Pastor we were members of a liberal and worldly church, though I didn't realize it at the time. I came from out of the world and didn't know any better. I listened to CCM and watched the worldly movies that the others in the church watched until I met Tom Watson, who later became my Pastor. He found the WOL website and began to read the material and share it with me. As he began to gain conviction of certain things, he taught me. He would print out the articles and give them to me. One day he gave me one on modest apparel on women. My wife read it and was very angry until the Lord began to melt her heart. Now she is a very modestly dressed woman. Pastor also showed me about the harm of CCM and we turned aside from that as well. Four or five years ago a couple received a flier from our church and came one Sunday morning. Pastor happened to be preaching on modest apparel, and the woman became angry and said they wouldn’t be coming back. But later that night she began getting ready for church and her family asked what she was doing. She replied, ‘Going to church.’ She was saved shortly thereafter. Two years later her husband and daughter were saved also and they are some of the finest members of our church. The WOL materials have been an invaluable tool for countless people. We will always be grateful for you, Brother Cloud. We also thank you for the strong stand you take against all of the evils of the day and for teaching us what we need to watch for. Your ministry has helped more people than you could ever know!”

GREG LAURIE’S ABOMINABLE ECUMENICAL FOLLOW-UP (Friday Church News Notes, June 22, 2012, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Greg Laurie of Calvary Chapel hosts large evangelistic “Harvest” crusades that are patterned after Billy Graham’s pioneer ecumenism. The crusades bring together every type of “church” and the follow-up is done in the context of those churches. The following is a testimony of how this worked at a 2003 crusade in Newcastle, Australia. This was written that year by Hughie Seaborn. “Regrettably for those who believe ‘Harvest 03’ to have been such a huge success in evangelizing the lost, even if we could delude ourselves for a moment into believing that God really does have a fondness for the world’s music, the gathering would still classify as an abomination in the eyes of the Lord. ... Prior to the event, the Hunter Harvest website claimed, ‘With more than 80% of local churches of various denominations participating in next month’s Hunter Harvest, church unity and community spirit seems to be at an all-time high.’ ... Partway through the Compass program [a religious program on Australia Broadcasting Corporation TV that broadcast the event], a Presbyterian spokesman revealed that ‘there are about 300 churches registered in the Newcastle/Hunter area, and we have 282 churches formerly registered as active participants and supporters of Hunter Harvest. That level of unity amongst the churches has been a real blessing. We have every form of Christian church--whether it’s Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Assemblies of God, Seventh Day Adventist--they’re all united in this event.’ Towards the end of the Compass program the scene changes from the main auditorium of the Entertainment Centre to a room where a crowd of volunteers are preparing follow-up letters to the 2,400 altar call responders. A spokesman for the follow-up committee comments to the Compass reporter that ‘we want to give them every opportunity to be followed up on and to get plugged into a local church.’ The camera then pans across the room and focuses on a sheet which lists the participating local churches within the Newcastle area, in alphabetical order. Only part of the sheet is visible, but clearly displayed to the viewer are some of the ‘local churches’ that the follow-up committee directed the altar call responders to -- Abermain Mission Hall Church, Anglican Branxton Greta Lochinvar, Avondale Seventh Day Adventist College Church, Crossroads Christian Outreach Centre Maitland, East Maitland Salvation Army, Grace Community Inc., Gresford Congregational Church, Gresford Paterson Anglican, Hope Christian Centre, Hunter Valley Life Centre, Kurri Kurri Catholic Church, Kurri Kurri Church of Christ.” CONCLUDING NOTE BY D. CLOUD: It is an abomination to turn seekers over to wolves in sheep’s clothing, but this is the path of spiritual insanity and wickedness that was pioneered by Billy Graham. Preachers who claim to love Christ and His Gospel, yet do not lift the voice against this type of thing in no uncertain terms, are cowards and self-servers and enemies of the truth, just as were Meroz, who was cursed by the angel of the Lord for not coming to the aid of Deborah and Barak against the enemies of God. “Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty” (Judges 5:23).

CRYSTAL CATHEDRAL NOW A ROMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL (Friday Church News Notes, June 15, 2012, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The name of Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral was officially changed to Christ Cathedral this week in its new incarnation as a Roman Catholic cathedral. The property was purchased by the Catholic diocese of Orange County after Schuller’s ministry filed for bankruptcy. Schuller retired in 2008 and turned his church and television ministry over to his children, but the power of self-esteem and wishful thinking proved insufficient without the founder’s charisma and drive. The ministry continues in a very reduced form with Sunday services and the broadcast of the Hour of Power television program. On June 10, Schuller’s grandson, Bobby, told the Hour of Power congregation that the Roman Catholic Church is “of the Lord” and that he will continue to be worshipped at the cathedral (“Bobby Schuller Encourages Crystal Cathedral to Press On,” Christian Post, June 11, 2012). He is right in one sense. A false gospel will continue to be preached and a false christ worshiped at the Crystal Cathedral under the Roman Catholic Church’s ownership just as they have from the ministry’s inception. Few men have had a greater influence on contemporary “evangelical” Christianity than Robert Schuller. In his 1982 book Self-Esteem: The New Reformation, he called for a new kind of Christianity: one that believes in the universalistic Fatherhood of God and the divinity of man, one that is positive and non-judgmental, one that worships a New Age self-esteem Christ, one that denies the necessity of Christ’s blood atonement, one in which salvation involves being reconciled with one’s own goodness, one that believes in the essential truth in all religions. These heresies have spread far and wide during Schuller’s lifetime. Schuller’s god is The Shack god. (For more about Schuller’s heresies and his acceptance by evangelical leaders see “Evangelicals and Heretic Robert Schuller” at the Way of Life web site.)

There is a rapidly growing tendency among popular Christian writers to accept unrepentant homosexuals as genuine Christians and to refuse to “judge” them. Following are a few examples:

Chris Seay, author of Faith of My Fathers, says churches are not “called to be moral police” and that we should “approach homosexuals without condemnation” (“Shayne Wheeler and Chris Seay on Homosexuals and the Church,” ChurchRelevance.com, June 19, 2007).

Donald McCullough says that “condemning homosexuality feels natural because about 95 percent of us could never imagine engaging in such a practice” but “in a world turned upside down by grace, we must distrust whatever feels natural” (If Grace Is So Amazing, Why Don’t We Like It, pp. 201, 202).

Brian McLaren says:

“Frankly, many of us don’t know what we should think about homosexuality. ... We aren’t sure if or where lines are to be drawn, nor do we know how to enforce with fairness whatever lines are drawn. ... Perhaps we need a five-year moratorium on making pronouncements” (“Brian McLaren on the Homosexual Question,” Jan. 23, 2006, http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2006/01/brian_mclaren_o.html).

Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners, says in his book The Great Awakening (2008), that “civil rights for gay and lesbian people and equal protection under the law for same-sex couples” is “a justice issue” (p. 229).

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It is doubtful that any man has had a greater influence on the Independent Baptist “movement” than the late Jack Hyles. His influence lies particularly in his pastoral philosophy and in his evangelistic philosophy and techniques, as we document in the book The Two Jacks.

Recently I was given a copy of the book Jack Hyles on Justice (Hyles-Anderson Publishers, 1992), which helped me better understand the man’s philosophy.

Hyles’ put himself above being tested by Scripture or reproved for sin and heresy, and he terribly abused the Scripture toward this end. The title of the book should be “Why Jack Hyles Cannot Be Judged by Any Man.”

The book contains sermons Hyles preached on Wednesday evenings. He emphasized six points that would make it impossible for a church to effectively discipline a pastor and that grant preachers the liberty to live and teach above human accountability. While “private” exhortation of the preacher might be allowed in certain cases, public reproof is never allowed. These unscriptural principles, to various degrees and in various incarnations, have spread widely.

This report is also being published under the titles “Independent Baptist Music Wars” and “15 Challenges to Lancaster Supporters.”
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Since last year I have been hearing from church members who are being mistreated by their pastors because they don’t agree with what Lancaster Baptist Church in Lancaster, California, (home of West Coast Baptist College) is doing in regard to the adaptation of contemporary worship music.

This week I have received two more examples of this.

In one case, the pastor has taken to “blasting” me from the pulpit because he has a family who is resisting the church’s contemporary direction in music. This family has refused to sing contemporary worship songs by Getty/Townend and others. They have done this quietly without talking around to try to cause trouble among the members, but they cannot in good conscience sing these songs. They told the music director personally, and that was all. The husband said, “I told my wife that, since I did not want to cause divisions, we would not talk to anyone about the reasons for my decision, and we didn't.”

Even so, the pastor has made this godly family feel very uncomfortable by saying that questioning the pastor is evidence of a critical spirit and that being concerned about things such as “beat anticipation” is to “waste time about minor things while souls are dying and going to hell.”

Last year this pastor had seemed to agree with my warnings, but after he attended a conference at Lancaster he developed a bad attitude toward me personally and toward my ministry and toward those who listen to me. He is now treating me as an enemy of good churches and an underminer of pastoral authority.

LEAKEY SAYS EVOLUTION SKEPTICS WILL SOON BE SILENCED BY SCIENCE (Friday Church News Notes, June 8, 2012, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Fossil collector Richard Leakey, an atheist, claims that science will silence evolution skeptics in 15 to 30 years. He says, “If you don’t like the word ‘evolution,’ I don't care what you call it, but life has changed. You can lay out all the fossils that have been collected and establish lineages that even a fool could work up. So, the question is why, how does this happen? It's not covered by Genesis. There’s no explanation for this change going back 500 million years in any book I’ve read from the lips of any God” (“Evolution Skeptics Will Soon Be Silenced,” AP, May 28, 2012). Richard is the son of Louis Leakey, the patriarch of the family that claims to have unearthed “much of the existing fossil evidence for human evolution.” In the book Seeing the Non-existent: Evolution’s Myths and Hoaxes, we deal with the Leakeys and the major icons of human evolution. The book is based on extensive research, including visits to the most prominent natural history museums in the US, England, and Australia. We deal with icons such as Cro-Magnon, Neanderthal, Java Man, Piltdown, Nebraska Man, Peking Man, Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, and Lucy. The more I study the history of the search for the supposed missing link between man and animal, the more amazed I am that they have gotten away with foisting such a myth upon the world. The only explanation is found in the Bible, which says that man is in rebellion to God and under the spiritual power of the devil, who is called “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Sweet has spoken at Bill Hybels Willowcreek Community Church.

Sweet’s book Jesus Manifesto (co-authored by Frank Viola) was recommended by Southern Baptist Ed Stetzer.

Emergent leader Brian McLaren credits Sweet’s “brilliant and stimulating work” in Carpe Mañana with making him “a better pastor and a better Christian” (http://www.leonardsweet.com/books.php).

In an undated blog that I viewed on May 17, 2010, Sweet complained about his critics and pretended that he is being wrongly accused and persecuted. He rejects the charge that he is a New Ager and says he does not believe in the divinity of man. He further (and amazingly) pretends that he is theologically sound.

Actually, the man is speaking out of both sides of his mouth. He is a master of doublespeak.

(first published April 23, 2008) (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) -

Hegelian dialectics is being used around the world as a tool to break down traditional beliefs with the objective of replacing them with something new.

Georg Wilhelm Hegel (1770-1831) was a liberal German philosopher who led the German Idealist movement, turning his back on orthodox Christianity and holding to a type of pantheism. He denied that there is such a thing as absolute truth. He said it is “narrow” and “dogmatic” to assume that of two opposite assertions, one must be true and the other false. He rejected the Bible and proposed that man is on an evolutionary journey and that human history is the record of a process of conflict and synthesis that he referred to as the dialectical process of Spirit, believing that man would eventually reach his highest state, ultimately arriving at “the Absolute Idea” which would be so perfect it could not be challenged or synthesized.

The Hegelian system is described as follows:

“It was Hegel’s view that all things unfold in a continuing evolutionary process whereby each idea or quality (the THESIS) inevitably brings forth its opposite (the ANTITHESIS). From that interaction, a third state emerges in which the opposites are integrated, overcome, and fulfilled in a richer and higher SYNTHESIS. This synthesis then becomes the basis for another dialectical process of opposition and synthesis. Hegel believed that the creative stress of opposing positions was essential for developing higher states of consciousness. In the moment of synthesis, the opposites are both preserved and transcended, negated and fulfilled” (Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson, Spiritual Politics, 1994, p. 88).

Hegel believed that this process has a life of its own, in an evolutionary sense, but since the days of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels it has been used as a guided process toward a desired end.

The objective of Hegelian dialectics in this sense is to replace something old with something new (e.g., capitalism with communism, traditional Bible doctrine with theological modernism, a traditional educational system based on moral absolutes with a new one based on relativism, an old age with a new).

The following is excerpted from the new book The Hyles Effect, which is available in print for purchase or as a free eBook from the Way of Life web site -- www.wayoflife.org.

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The very fact that there are still many preachers today who believe a public warning about influential independent Baptist leaders is wrong is evidence that the spirit and error of Jack Hylesism is alive and well.

It is time for this heresy to be buried.

They say, “Who do you think you are to speak against such men?”

I can’t answer for others, but my personal answer to that is, “I don’t think I’m anybody at all. I’m just a frail and simple man God saved and called to preach, but I have His authority to speak and so does every other God-called preacher.”

God solemnly charges the preacher to identify false teachers, to exhort, reprove, and rebuke with all authority, to speak as the oracles of God, to earnestly contend for the faith, and even to warn about born-again compromisers (Romans 16:17; 2 Timothy 4:2; Titus 2:15; 1 Peter 4:11; Jude 3; 2 Thess. 3:6; 2 Tim. 4:10). Nowhere in Scripture are these commandments restricted in their scope. Nowhere does God say that a Bible preacher can reprove and rebuke only the members of his own church or that he can reprove and rebuke anyone who errs except an influential Christian leader.

To reprove public sin and error publicly by the Word of God under the guidance of the Spirit of God and in His wisdom is not slander and is not gossip and is not “throwing rocks” and is not “shooting the wounded” and is not hateful and is not dishonoring to Christ.

Private offenses and private sins need to be dealt with privately, but public errors need to be dealt with publicly. When a man builds an ecclesiastical empire, of sorts, and influences thousands of people beyond the borders of his congregation, his errors are no longer private matters and they are no longer matters pertaining only to his church.

When a man admits and repents of a sin or error, that is one thing and is dealt with in a certain way. But when an influential man covers up sins and errors and lies about them and even goes on the attack against those who try to expose them, that is another matter altogether and is to be dealt with in entirely a different way.

FACEBOOK, APPLE, GOOGLE CENSORING CHRISTIAN SPEECH (Friday Church News Notes, May 25, 2012, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “True Liberty in a New Media Age,” by Craig Parshall, National Religious Broadcasters, Sept. 15, 2011: “The policies and practices of several major Internet-interactive ‘new media’ communications platforms and service providers were examined and evaluated in order to determine the risk of those entities committing anti-Christian viewpoint censorship. The companies reviewed were: Apple and its iTunes App Store; Facebook; MySpace; Google; Twitter; and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon. Our conclusion is that Christian ideas and other religious content face a clear and present danger of censorship on web-based communication platforms. ... Apple has twice removed applications that contained Christian content from its iTunes App Store. In both instances, Apple admitted that these apps were denied access because it considered the orthodox Christian viewpoints expressed in those applications to be ‘offensive.’ ... Of the 425,000 apps available on Apple’s iPhone, the only ones censored by Apple for expressing otherwise lawful viewpoints have been apps with Christian content. The search engine giant Google has committed past practices of anti-religious censorship. For content reasons, it refused to accept a pro-life advertisement from a Christian organization, an issue that prompted litigation in England. ... Also, in March of 2011, Google established new guidelines for its ‘Google for Non-Profits,’ a special web tool program, but specifically excluded churches and other faith groups, including organizations that take into consideration religion or sexual orientation in hiring practices. Facebook has partnered with gay rights advocates to halt content on its social networking site deemed to be ‘anti-homosexual,’ and it is participating in gay-awareness programs, all of which suggest that Christian content critical of homosexuality, same-sex marriage, or similar practices will be at risk of censorship.”