The following is another installment of the Friday Church News Notes:

CHARISMATIC MAGAZINE PREDICTS MIRACLES WILL BLUR DOCTRINAL DIVISIONS. Friday Church News Notes, December 28, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) Charisma magazine for December 2001 ran an article by David Shibley of Global Advance titled "What Is God Doing in the Earth Today?" It contains various predictions for the coming days. Shibley hastened to say that the predictions "are not prophecies." Rather they are "what I sense deep in my spirit." The prophecy crowd has been proven wrong so many times, that it has started trying to cover its tracks. Be that as it may, following is one of Shibley's predictions: "MIRACLES WILL BLUR DOCTRINAL DIVISIONS. BY THE END OF THE DECADE THIS MAY BE A MOOT ISSUE, WITH THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF BIBLE-BELIEVING CHRISTIANS ENDORSING AND EXPERIENCING PRESENT-DAY SIGNS AND WONDERS." This statement reminds us of the extreme danger of the Charismatic movement. Where does the Bible say that God is pleased with the blurring of doctrinal divisions? To the contrary, God commands His people to be exceedingly strict about doctrine. Paul instructed Timothy to allow "NO other doctrine" (1 Tim. 1:3). Timothy was to teach sound apostolic doctrine to faithful men who were to teach "the same" doctrine to other men until Jesus comes (2 Tim. 2:2). This means the blurring of doctrinal divisions actually displeases God. This confused ecumenical generation thinks God wrote many different and contradicting Bibles and that He is pleased with a variety of conflicting doctrines, but it is wrong on both counts. By the way, Shibley is probably correct in his prediction. Already the Charismatic ecumenical-judge not philosophy and the Charismatic music and the Charismatic experiences are sweeping through every denomination. It is influencing, if not actually taking over, everything in its path. One of the biggest problems among churches even in remote places like Nepal is the ecumenical-charismatic movement with its heretical notions and weird experiences. As for "present-day signs and wonders," they are bogus. When the New Testament speaks of signs and wonders in the context of the last hours of this age, it speaks only of deceiving signs and "lying wonders" (Matt. 24:24; 2 Thess. 2:8-11; Rev. 13:13-14).

POPE JOHN PAUL II CREATING HEAPS OF SAINTS. Friday Church News Notes, December 28, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) Pope John Paul II has sainted or canonized more people than all the preceding popes of the past 500 years combined. He has canonized 456 and has beatified 1,282. Beatification is the final step before complete canonization. According to Catholic doctrine, Christians can pray to saints and seek their blessing and help. In reality, only Almighty God can make a person a saint (which also means sanctified or holy), and He does that for those who repent and put their faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. The words "saint" and "saints" are used 62 times in the New Testament and refer to a born again child of God. These are not saints because they are good; they are saints because their Savior is good and has given them His perfect righteousness. God's sainthood is a free gift of His grace through Jesus Christ. As for Rome's tradition that people can pray to saints, the Bible nowhere says that pray can be directed to anyone other than Almighty God Himself. To do so is idolatry and blasphemy, for there is only "one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5). Those Evangelicals who are flirting with Rome and who are telling us that we need to join hands with Rome in the war for morality should be rebuking the pope publicly for his heresies. Where is Chuck Colson and J.I. Packer and James Dobson and others who work with Catholics in social and political endeavors? When challenged about their affiliation with Rome, they counter that they don't actually accept Rome's teaching; but they are very quiet when it comes to plainly exposing Rome's blasphemies.

ISRAELI SCHOOL HALF APOLOGIZES FOR BURNING NEW TESTAMENT. Friday Church News Notes, December 28, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) The week before Hanukkah (which began on Dec. 9), the administrators of a Jewish school in Beit Shemesh, Israel, publicly burned a copy of the New Testament which had been given to a student by Christian missionaries. The teacher said, "God sent it and He gave us the privilege, and we'll be able to burn the New Testament." Prior to the burning, the teacher received approval from the principal, Jewish Rabbi Yair Bachar. After receiving calls from angry parents, the school issued an apology ("School apologizes for burning New Testament," Jerusalem Post, Dec. 25, 2001). The apology was only for burning the New Testament in that manner, though. The school consulted Rabbi David Spector, who ruled that missionary material should be burned, but that it should be burned by its owners and in private. Spector said, "It was appropriate to burn the New Testament in private." He cited traditional and modern rabbis, including Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, who wrote that he had burned missionary texts, which he called "books of incitement and brainwashing." The teacher who burned the New Testament said the action was anti-missionary, not anti-Christian. In reality, it was anti Jesus Christ AND anti-Christian AND anti-missionary. The New Testament is a book about Jesus Christ, who claimed to be Israel's Messiah and was put to death for that claim. The New Testament is the Christian's scriptures, and it commands him to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every nation and individual (Matt. 28:18-20; Mark 16:17; Acts 1:8). If the Christian is not free to obey that command, he is not free to be a Christian.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND METHODIST CHURCH OF ENGLAND SEEKING A MERGER. Friday Church News Notes, December 28, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) The Church of England and the Methodist Church of England are again seeking a merger. The process was started this month, and if approved by both parties, the ecumenical merger could take place within 10 years. The founders of Methodism, John and Charles Wesley, came out of the Anglican Church in the 1700s. Both denominations are liberal to the extreme and are dying. The Methodist Church in England claims to have one million members, but only about a third of that number are active. The Church of England claims half of the population of the United Kingdom as members, because they are baptized as infants, but fewer than one million attend Sunday services. The two denominations almost merged in 1972, but a vote in the Church of England to approve the deal fell slightly short of the necessary 75% majority. Many Methodist and Anglican churches already share facilities and priests.

IRANIAN LEADER CALLS FOR MUSLIMS TO USE NUCLEAR BOMBS AGAINST ISRAEL. Friday Church News Notes, December 28, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani recently called upon Muslim states to use nuclear bombs against Israel. He said that while such an attack would annihilate Israel, it would cost the Muslims "damages only" ("Iran's Rafsanjani suggests nuclear attack on Israel," World Tribune.com, Dec. 18, 2001). Rafsanjani is still the number two man in Iran today, after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. U.S. officials believe Iran could produce nuclear weapons within the next three years.

CHURCH FOCUSES ON PRAYER. Friday Church News Notes, December 28, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) Religion Today for Dec. 21 reported on a church in Greeley, Colorado, that has been focusing on prayer and has seen great results. The pastor said God was dealing with him about "going back to the basics," and he has led his people to come together by the hundreds for weekly prayer services, including a 9 p.m. to midnight one on Friday evenings. They pray for their city, for missions, for unbelievers, for schools, and for the government. This church is Assemblies of God, and we do not support their doctrine and practice, yet their zeal for prayer is a challenge to any church today. If ever there were an hour in which churches need to be on their knees, it is today.

ANOTHER CORRUPT BIBLE VERSION. Friday Church News Notes, December 28, 2001 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) The new French Hip-Hop Bible has been selling like hotcakes in France. At roughly $40 a copy, it has sold 140,000 and is the 12th highest selling title. It was published by Bayard, a Roman Catholic company, and took six years to translate. It "presents the Scriptures in everything from rap style to minimalist poetry." Genesis 1:1-3 reads, "First, God created heaven and earth. Empty land, solitude. Dark over the depths, God said Light and light there was." The word sin is sometimes translated by the French equivalent of "mistake," "error," and "waste." Men in the 21st century have no fear of tampering with God's Word.