NEWS NOTES 12/03/2004

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CHURCH PULLS OUT OF SBC OVER FEMALE PREACHERS. Friday Church News Notes, December 3, 2004 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org, http://www.wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Parker’s Chapel Missionary Baptist Church of Marion, North Carolina, pulled out of the Baptist State Convention in protest to the annual “convention message” being delivered by a woman. The message was preached by Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of Billy Graham. Pastor Larry Brown called the message an “outright affront to the Word of God” and said that though Lotz is “a fine Christian woman” and “a good teacher and speaker,” she “cannot fulfill the role of preacher, whether this refers to the pulpit of a church or the podium of a convention.” He said further, “We just feel like if this is OK this time, what’s it going to lead to next?” Amen. Does the Word of God not warn, “A little leaven leaveth the whole lump”? Two things are forbidden to the Christian women in 1 Timothy 2:12. She cannot teach men and she cannot usurp authority over men. Lotz was featured as a preacher at a Sunday morning worship service June 15, 2003, sponsored by the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists (Ohio Baptist Messenger, July 2003).

CCM MUSICIAN SAYS MORMONISM AND EVANGELICALISM NOT OPPOSED TO EACH OTHER. Friday Church News Notes, December 3, 2004 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org, http://www.wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Popular CCM musician Michael Card led the singing for the “Evening of Friendship” at the Salt Lake City Tabernacle on November 14. The crowd was composed of Mormons and “evangelical” Christians of various stripes. In the Deseret Morning News, Card is quoted as saying that “he doesn’t see Mormonism and evangelical Christianity as opposed to each other; they are more like the two ends of a long thread -- part of the same thing.” He said, “The older I get, I guess the more I want to integrate everything. I think it’s more important to be faithful than right” (“Songwriter puts faith to music and verse,” Deseret Morning News, Nov. 16, 2004). Yet the Bible says salvation comes only by the apostolic doctrine (Rom. 6:17) and those who preach false gospels are cursed (Galatians 1). Card now has the distinction of having the greatest ecumenical reach of any of the CCM artists. At the one extreme he performs for Mormons and for Roman Catholics. His close friend is John Michael Talbot, the Roman Catholic contemporary musician who prays to Mary. And at the other extreme, Card even performs for independent Baptists. On October 1996 Card had a concert at Temple Baptist Church, Detroit, Michigan. This church was pastored by J. Frank Norris from 1935 to 1950 and by G. Beauchamp Vick from 1950 to 1975. In bygone days, it was the most prominent church in the Baptist Bible Fellowship International.

PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS IN SAUDI ARABIA. Friday Church News Notes, December 3, 2004 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org, http://www.wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from AsiaNews, Nov. 25: “Brian Savio O’Connor’s case is but the latest one in a long series of arrests, torture and abductions endured by Christians in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi regime’s oppression of anything that is not Wahhabi Islam is raising fears among the eight million foreigners working in the desert kingdom. Christianity is especially marked for repression. Local sources told AsiaNews that many Christians are in Saudi prisons for religious reasons. There is no religious freedom in Saudi Arabia. With the exception of Wahhabi Islam, all other religions are banned from public life. In principle, Saudi law allows members of other confessions to worship in the privacy of their home, but in practice, this is not the case.”

APOSTATE ARCHBISHOPS. Friday Church News Notes, December 3, 2004 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org, http://www.wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The highest office in the Church of England is that of Archbishop of Canterbury. This position has long been held by utter apostates. In 1934, William Temple, who would become Archbishop of Canterbury, said, “... an atheist who lives by love is saved by his faith in the God whose existence (under that name) he denies” (Temple, Nature, Man and God, p. 416). In 1961, Michael Ramsey said, “Heaven is not a place for Christians only ... I expect to see some present-day atheists there” (The Daily Mail, Oct. 2, 1961). In 1982, Robert Runcie, when asked by a newspaper reporter about the meaning of the cross, replied, “As to that, I am an agnostic” (Sunday Times Weekly Review, April 11, 1982). In 1996, George Carey lashed out at fundamentalists who place the Bible “above and beyond human inquiry” (Christian News, Dec. 9, 1996). While addressing a Muslim mosque in Bahrain in 2001, Carey said, “Muhammad was clearly a great religious leader whose influence on millions has been for the good” and mocked Christians who preach an exclusive salvation and hold up signs saying, “Jesus is the only way.” In 2002, Rowan Williams, who is the current Archbishop of Canterbury, faced the dawn sun and, as prayers were chanted “to the ancient god and goddess of the land,” was inducted into the order of the White Druids. Williams has been an active campaigner for the ordination of homosexual priests.

FIRST WOMAN ELECTED PRESIDENT OF A BAPTIST SEMINARY. Friday Church News Notes, December 3, 2004 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org, http://www.wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - When she takes the helm of Central Baptist Theological Seminary in January, Molly Marshall will become the first female president of an accredited Baptist seminary (Associated Baptist Press, Nov. 16). Central Baptist in Kansas City is affiliated with two very liberal groups, the American Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. It appears sometimes that men can disobey the Word of God with impunity in this world, but a Day is coming when those who made this rebellious decision and the one taking the position will face the Word of God. “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence” (1 Tim. 2:12). And they will not be able to explain it away then.

ALMOST 100% SURE. Friday Church News Notes, December 3, 2004 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org, http://www.wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Recently I have read about two life or death matters that were advertised as ALMOST 100% sure. One is the Ultimate Swing at a resort in Nepal. The jumper launches himself from a platform 1,650 feet high and reaches a speed of about 90 miles per hour as he swings by a rope cabled to a bridge. A consultant for The Last Resort said, “This is the highest jump of its kind and is 99.9 percent safe.” Hold on! The other is an electronic “artificial eye” developed by the Kyoto Institute of Technology in Japan to allow blind people to “reliably identify pedestrian crossings and determine when it is safe to walk across.” The company reported that the device “successfully identified a crossing 196 times out of 198.” That’s excellent success for a computerized eye, but it’s just not good enough. To be almost 100% sure in such things is not sufficient. This is true for the eternal salvation of one’s soul. The Bible says we can be 100% sure because salvation is not by works but is a gift that was purchased for the believing sinner by Jesus Christ when He died and shed His blood on the cross. True salvation is believing in Christ with all of one’s heart (Acts 8:37) and being sure (Jn. 6:69) and knowing that one has eternal life (1 Jn. 5:13). It is 100% sure.

HOLLYWOOD SPIRITUALITY. Friday Church News Notes, December 3, 2004 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org, http://www.wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In an interview with 60 Minutes, Hollywood actor Jim Carrey talked recently about his spiritual life. He took the 60 Minute reporter to his spiritual hide-away, “a lean-to adorned with candles and a bed built high on his hillside property” (The Drudge Report, Nov. 18). Carrey says, “This is where I hang out with Buddha, Krishna ... all those guys. I’m a Buddhist, I’m a Muslim, I’m a Christian. I’m whatever you want me to be...it all comes down to the same thing.” Carrey starred in the blasphemous movie Bruce Almighty, about a man who curses God for the difficulties in his life and God replies by granting him divine powers to use as he pleases. Americans in general, including a majority of churchgoers, are not far behind the Hollywood crowd in all of this. There is no absolute truth, just syncretistic religious mush and warm and fuzzy spiritual impressions. In fact, though, all paths do not lead to God. The Bible says there is only one way of salvation, a very narrow way in contrast to the broad ways of the world. Salvation is through faith in the shed blood and death of Jesus Christ for our sins. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

DNA IN THE BIBLE? Friday Church News Notes, December 3, 2004 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org, http://www.wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - I believe I have found DNA in the Bible. DNA is the genetic code from which an animal or person is formed. The physical features of the entire individual are encoded in the DNA before it is formed. Consider Psalm 139:16, which is part of a passage beginning in verse 13 that describes the formation of a person in the womb: “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” How is it possible for one’s members to be fashioned when they do not yet exist? The answer is that they are formed in the DNA before they are formed bodily. The Bible is a scientifically accurate book!

CONCLUSION: Friends in Christ, do not be discouraged by any of this. 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. These things remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the coming of the Lord. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ day by day? Are you in the perfect will of God for your life and bearing fruit for His glory? “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).