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THE WORLDLINESS OF CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC (Friday Church News Notes, February 16, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - That there is no separation from the world in Contemporary Christian Music in general is evident on every hand. CCM “artists” listen to secular rock and even record it. A recent example is Switchfoot’s cover of Beyonce’s hit “Crazy in Love” in a new music video. This “faith-based” band just released its third album, which is at the top of the contemporary “charts.” Note some of the lyrics to “Crazy in Love” -- “I look and stare so deep in your eyes,/ I touch on you more and more every time,/ When you leave I’m begging you not to go,/ Call your name two or three times in a row.” What type of example is that for unmarried Christians? Wise parents teach their young people to avoid touching members of the opposite sex until marriage, because touching is powerful and leads quickly to immoral actions. A 60-year-old friend told me recently that he plainly remembers the first time he merely touched a girl’s hand when he was a young teenager, and it was “like fire.” Given the carnal nature that we inherited from Adam, it is indeed like fire, and, “Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned” (Proverbs 6:27)? Beware of Contemporary Christian Music. It is the blind leading the blind.

RUSSIA SUPPLYING ARMS TO ISRAEL’S ENEMIES (Friday Church News Notes, February 16, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - That Russia supplies arms and military expertise to Israel’s enemies is an interesting fact in light of Bible prophecy. Ezekiel prophesied that when Russia attacks Israel during the Great Tribulation she will be joined by Persia (modern-day Iran), among others (Ezekiel 38:1-5). Russia will be “a guard” to her allies (Ezek. 38:7), meaning she will be the chief military power in the alliance. In light of this it is of more than passing interest that Russia is supplying Iran with military technology, both nuclear and non-nuclear. Earlier this month Russia sold advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Iran. Russia also maintains military listening posts manned by its own officers along the Syrian border with Israel and supplies information on Israeli Defense Forces movements to Israel’s enemies (“Russia Tracking IDF Movements,” Jerusalem Post, Jan. 26, 2007). Before Ezekiel prophesied of the attack upon Israel from the great power to the north, he prophesied that Israel would be regathered and restored to her land in two stages (Ezekiel 37). She will first come together in a spiritually lifeless state (Ezek. 37:7-14). Since 1948 Israel has been back in her land and has existed again as a nation, but she is spiritually dead and continues to reject her Messiah. Until she repents she will have nothing but heartache and trouble and confusion, and she will be a curse to the world instead of a blessing.

600 CHURCHES PARTICIPATE IN EVOLUTION SUNDAY (Friday Church News Notes, February 16, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Nearly 600 churches participated in the second annual Evolution Sunday in America on February 11, the day before Charles Darwin’s birthday. These churches claim that Darwinian evolution is compatible with Christianity and the Bible, though they admit that you can’t take the Bible literally if you want to be an evolutionist. Tom Boyd, an emeritus professor of philosophy and religious studies and an ordained Presbyterian minister, says that you can “believe that God is the creator and accept evolutionary theory” as long as you don’t “take the Bible as an inerrant historical text” (“Churches Gear up for Evolution Sunday,” Cushing Daily Citizen, Cushing, Okla., Feb. 2). Though the Bible is not a science textbook, when it touches on scientific matters it is perfectly accurate, and this cannot be said for any other ancient book. The late scientist Henry Morris demonstrated the amazing scientific accuracy of the Bible’s oldest book, the book of Job, which was written more than 3,500 years ago. Job, for example, says that light has a way and darkness has a place (Job 38:19). “That is, light is not to be located in a certain place or situation. Light is traveling! It dwells in a ‘way,’ always on the way to someplace else. It is always moving. When light stops, there is darkness. Thus, darkness is static, staying in place; but light is dynamic, dwelling in a way” (Morris, The Remarkable Record of Job).

DARWIN’S COLD SHUDDER (Friday Church News Notes, February 16, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Charles Darwin, father of the theory of evolution, grew up in a Christian home, but it was a Christianity tainted by the unbelief of Unitarianism. Inside the Unitarian Church on High Street in Shrewsbury, England, is a plaque that says: “To the memory of Charles Robert Darwin, author of ‘The Origin of the Species,’ born in Shrewsbury, February 12, 1809, in early life a member of and a constant worshipper in this church.” Charles Darwin’s mother, Susannah, was a Unitarian, and Charles was educated for a short period at a school operated by the Unitarian minister George Case. Charles Darwin’s wife, Emma Wedgwood, was also a Unitarian. A biographer of Darwin speaks of “the vein of skepticism in the Darwin family” (John Wehler, Charles Darwin: Growing up in Shewsbury 1809-25). Thus, Darwinism was a product of end-time theological apostasy, and he is a sad example of where even the smallest amount of doubt in the Bible can lead. Though he promulgated his theories on evolution through his writings and lectures and though he became more openly and thoroughly opposed to the Bible as his life advanced, he still had doubts. He once wrote: “Often a cold shudder has run through me, and I have asked myself whether I may have not devoted myself to a phantasy” (Darwin’s Life and Letters, vol. 2, p. 229). It is impossible to calculate the evil influence that Darwin’s theory has had upon society. If evolution is true, the Bible is a fairy tale and there is no meaning to life, man is a mere animal and when he is dead he is dead and Lennon was right to dream that there is no heaven or hell, so live as you very well please. The theory of evolution teaches men not to fear God, yea, that there is no God to fear, and modern society reflects this attitude. It is evident in the fashion industry, in the entertainment industry, in public education, in commerce, in powerless churches, you name it. My friends, Darwin was wrong, dead wrong, and he did well to shudder, because the Bible’s is true. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). “The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death” (Proverbs 14:27).

VIOLENCE INCREASES AGAINST JEWS IN FRANCE (Friday Church News Notes, February 16, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Violence against Jews is on the rise in France. The following is excerpted from The Berean Call Daily for January 26: “In 2003 a poll found that 25% of Jews living in France were actively considering emigration, citing a growing Anti-Semitism as their motive. Consider the following recent comments from a Jew living in France. ‘In Lyon, a car was rammed into a synagogue and set on fire. In Montpellier, the Jewish religious center was firebombed; so were synagogues in Strasbourg and Marseilles; so was a Jewish school in Creteil--all recently. A Jewish sports club in Toulouse was attacked with Molotov cocktails, and on the statue of Alfred Dreyfus in Paris the words ‘Dirty Jew’ were painted. In Bondy, 15 men beat up members of a Jewish football team with sticks and metal bars. The bus that takes Jewish children to school in Aubervilliers has been attacked three times in the last 14 months. According to the Police, metropolitan Paris has seen 10 to 12 anti-Jewish incidents PER DAY in the past 30 days. A gunman opened fire on a kosher butcher's shop (and, of course, the butcher) in Toulouse, France; a Jewish couple in their 20s were beaten up by five men in Villeurbanne, France. The woman was pregnant. A Jewish school was broken into and vandalized in Sarcelles, France. This was just in the past week.”

COUNTRY BAND WITH CHRISTIAN ALBUM (Friday Church News Notes, February 16, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The country music band Alabama is publishing its second “cross over” Christian album entitled “Songs of Inspiration II” in March. Alabama is one of the most popular country bands of all time, with 32 No. 1 Billboard singles. In 1999 it was recognized as the “Country Group of the 20th Century” by the Recording Industry Association of America. As we have documented many times, country music today is morally filthy, and Alabama’s music is no exception. Consider, for example, the lyrics to their song “Feels So Right” -- “Lying here beside you, I hear the echos of your sighs./ Promise me you’ll stay with me and keep me warm tonight./ ... Mmmm, Mmmm, feels so right. Feels so right.” We could give other examples of the lascivious nature of Alabama’s music, which has helped corrupt the moral climate of this generation. It is confusion to think that one can sing acceptable praises to God while living in open defiance to God’s Word. No amount of sincerity and emotional earnestness and talk of “grace” can make up for a lack of repentance and the absence of the fear of God. “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:8-11).

GOD CAN BE LIMITED? (Friday Church News Notes, February 16, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel” (Psalm 78:41). According to Calvinism, if man can resist God or thwart His purposes then God is no longer a Sovereign God and man must be Sovereign. Thus they claim that it is impossible that man could accept or reject God’s salvation. But the fact is that the Bible says man does resist and reject God, and this has been going on since the earliest days of his history. Adam rejected God’s Word. Cain rejected it. Noah’s generation rejected it. The men gathered at the Tower of Babel rejected it. When the Psalmist recounts the experience of Israel in the wilderness, he describes them as “a stubborn and rebellious generation” (Psa. 78:8) who “refused to walk in his law” (Psa. 78:10). The Psalmist then makes this amazing statement: “THEY LIMITED THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL” (Psa. 78:41). According to Calvinist thinking, this is not possible and if it were possible it would mean that God is not sovereign, but it is obvious that Calvinism is wrong on both counts. For God to make man in His own image with a will and an ability to make real choices and for God to allow man to exercise his will even in the matter of receiving salvation does not make God any less sovereign than had He created a robot. And it will not do to allow that man can resist God in some things but not in the matter salvation. If man can resist and reject and limit God in any way and God can still be God, then God can still be God if He offers salvation to all and some receive it and some reject it, as the Bible so plainly says. “And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Rev. 22:17).