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THE ECUMENICAL THRUST OF THE NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER (Friday Church News Notes, May 11, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Shirley Dobson, chairwoman of the National Day of Prayer in America, said the event should be a day when Americans of all faiths “drop their denominational tags and racial and cultural differences” to unite in prayer (“Dobson Stresses Unity,” OneNewsNow.com, May 2, 2007). A National Day of Prayer has existed in some form since 1775, but its current incarnation stems from a 1988 proclamation by President Ronald Reagan making the first Thursday of May “a National Day of Prayer.” Shirley Dobson has been chairwoman of the event for several years. In 1999 one of the liaisons was Catholic priest Robert Sirica, and that year Dobson suggested that participants light a scented candle “to remind you to pray” (Focus on the Family, April 1999). This year many Roman Catholics participated in National Day of Prayer events. For example, St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church was involved in the prayer vigil in Gorgas Park in Philadelphia, and Catholic Archbishop Daniel NiNardo was one of the speakers at the Sunrise Prayer Concert hosted by the National Day of Prayer for Houston. Shirley Dobson is the wife of influential Christian psychologist James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, who is an ecumenist in his own right. The November 1989 issue of Focus on the Family’s Clubhouse magazine praised Mother Teresa and the readers were not told that this Catholic nun preached Rome’s false sacramental gospel and gave multitudes a false comfort by encouraging them to place their faith in such vanities as the Roman Catholic Mass, the Roman Catholic Mary, and even Hindu idols. The September 1990 issue of New Covenant, a Roman Catholic magazine, featured a smiling Dobson on the cover. In November 2000, Dobson participated in a conference in Rome hosted by the Pope’s Pontifical Council for the Family. Dobson also met with Pope John Paul II. America desperately needs the prayers of the saints, but God’s Word does not allow us to join hands with those who hold false doctrine for the sake of any cause, be it ever so grandiose and right-sounding. “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them” (Romans 16:17).

CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT CONTINUING TO SPREAD AMONG SOUTHERN BAPTISTS (Friday Church News Notes, May 11, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The recent “Baptist Conference on the Holy Spirit” in Arlington, Texas, demonstrates that charismatic doctrine continues to spread among Southern Baptists. The host, SBC pastor Dwight McKissic of Cornerstone Baptist Church, claims that he speaks in a “private prayer language.” He said the objective of the conference was not “to get everyone on the same page” but “to help people understand and appreciate various Baptist viewpoints.” Historically, though, Baptists have overwhelmingly rejected the idea that the apostolic sign gifts are in operation today. What McKissic is actually doing is breaking down opposition to this bogus practice among Southern Baptists. Sam Storm, who delivered a message entitled “12 Bad Reasons for Being a Cessationist,” concluded by claiming that he has personally experienced “all spiritual gifts” in operation “on countless occasions.” What McKissic is doing is a continuation of the move that has been spreading since the 1990s. In 1995, two professors at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (William Hendricks and Tim Weber) told Baptist Press that Southern Baptists shouldn’t “feel defensive or threatened” by the charismatic movement (Charisma, April 1995, p. 79). Ron Phillips, pastor of Central Baptist Church of Hixson, Tennessee, has an annual charismatic Fresh Oil & New Wine Conference that draws hundreds of Southern Baptist pastors and church members. In 2006 Phillips told the Tennessean newspaper that he first experienced “speaking in tongues” when he was sleeping. Southern Baptist pastor Dwain Miller prophesied that God would use Phillips “to bring renewal to the SBC’s 41,000 churches.” Gary Folds, pastor of First Baptist Church in Belle Glade, Florida, has written a book promoting the “Toronto Blessing.” Missionary David Rogers, son of the late Adrian Rogers, SAID HE WORKS WITH MANY MISSIONARIES WHO PRACTICE PRIVATE TONGUES (“Baptists Are Caught up in Controversy Again,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, March 11, 2006). The fact is that there is no “private prayer language” in the New Testament. Biblical tongues were real languages that a believer could speak supernaturally. They were a sign to the nation Israel that God was going to send the gospel to every nation and create a new spiritual body composed of both Jews and Gentiles. See 1 Corinthians 14:20-22, quoting Isaiah 28:11-13. Each time tongues were spoken in Acts (Acts 2, 8, 10, 19) Jews were present. As the prophet Isaiah foretold, the Jews rejected the sign and were judged. The sign, having been fulfilled, ceased. When John Chrysostom wrote in the 4th century about the sign gifts of 1 Corinthians 12-14, he said: “This whole place is very obscure: but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to, and BY THEIR CESSATION, being such as then used to occur but now no longer take place” (“Homilies on 1 Corinthians,” Vol. XII, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Hom. 29:2). For more information see “Charismatic Southern Baptists” at www.wayoflife.org/fbns/charismaticsouthern.htm and “Private Prayer Language” at http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/private-prayerlanguage.html.

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY’S LEGISLATIVE SPEAKER CALLS FOR DEATH OF ALL JEWS AND AMERICANS (Friday Church News Notes, May 11, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Israel National News, May 2, 2007: “In a televised address to a packed mosque, the Acting Speaker of the Palestinian Authority’s Legislative Council called for the killing of every last Jew and American. His speech and murderous prayer were delivered in an unidentified packed mosque and broadcast on an official PA-controlled television station. According to a recording and transcript of the April 20th broadcast, translated and provided by Palestinian Media Watch, PLC Acting Speaker Ahmed Bahr called the Jews ‘the cancerous lump ... in the heart of the Arab nation.’ He predicted that ‘America is on its way to disappear. America is wallowing [in blood] today in Iraq and Afghanistan. America is defeated and Israel is defeated, and was defeated, in Lebanon and Palestine.’ Adopting the open-palmed gesture of Islamic prayer, as did his audience, the PA official intoned: ‘Allah, take hold of the Jews and their allies, Allah, take hold of the Americans and their allies. ... Allah, count them and kill them to the last one and don't leave even one.’ This is not Bahr’s first appeal for genocide of the Jews and Americans. Just one week earlier, on April 13th, Sudan television broadcast a fiery sermon delivered by the PA legislator in a Sudanese mosque. At the conclusion of his remarks, the Sudanese worshipers opened their palms in supplication and Bahr prayed: ‘Oh Allah, vanquish the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, vanquish the Americans and their supporters. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them all, down to the very last one. Oh Allah, show them a day of darkness.’”

$5000 FINE SOUGHT FOR CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE COMMISSIONER WHO DECLINED HOMOSEXUAL COUPLE (Friday Church News Notes, May 11, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from a report on LifeSiteNews.com, April 19, 2007: “A Canadian Christian civil marriage commissioner in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Orville Nichols, could face up to $5000 in fines for having referred a homosexual couple to a different commissioner. Human Rights Commission lawyer Janice Gingell asked the tribunal to find that Nichols contravened the code and order him to pay $5,000 in compensation to the complainant. The 70 year-old Mr. Nichols used a clearly religious-based conscience argument for his refusal, saying his faith guides his daily life, that he prays and reads the Bible every day. He told the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal that his faith ‘takes first place’ in his life. He said, ‘I couldn't sleep or live with myself if I were to perform same-sex marriages.’ The other commissioner to whom the two men were referred performed the ceremony on the same date they requested of Mr. Nichols. ... In Canadian Human Rights Tribunal cases, the party defending against a complaint is under a large disadvantage. While the government pays the costs of the complainant, the defendant must cover his own expenses and if the ruling goes against him, is normally charged with all the costs. Further costs are incurred if he should try to bring the matter to a legal court. The Tribunal, which is not under standard rules of evidence or judicial procedures, has yet to render a decision, though thus far, in most decisions in cases of this kind, the outcome has favoured the homosexual activists over religious conscientious objectors.”

STATE LOTTERIES INCREASING GAMBLING ADDICTION (Friday Church News Notes, May 11, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Evidence continues to appear that state-sponsored lotteries dramatically increase gambling addiction. A typical lottery slogan is “a dollar and a dream,” appealing to the covetousness in man’s fallen nature and promising something for nothing. The New York Council on Problem Gambling found that 40 percent of calls to its hot line in 2005 were by people with troubles related to lottery games (“Lottery Brings Tide of Gambling Addicts,” Lower Hudson Online, Jan. 28, 2007). The director of the Problem Gamblers Treatment Program in Rochester, New York, said the “overwhelming majority” of people seeking help are in trouble because of the lottery. Those who get treatment at the New York Council are in debt on average $65,000 to $75,000. Problem gamblers have a higher rate of suicide than any other addiction. Gambling has been defined as “hoping for excessive gain far beyond what the investment of time, money, or skill would justify.” The Bible commends hard work and wise investment, but it condemns covetousness and greed. “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase” (Prov. 13:11). “An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed” (Prov. 20:21). “He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him” (Prov. 28:22).  “A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent” (Prov. 28:20).

THE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE: ALL OR NOTHING (Friday Church News Notes, May 11, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from The Big Picture by David W. Norris: “We are required to believe in the God of the Bible. Only He is the Lord, no other will do. This God is the Creator of all things. We are required to believe everything that He has said to us in His Word, nothing less will do, and in this Word God speaks of everything. The Bible is not a self-service pick-and-mix sweetie bar where we take some things and leave others. ‘For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all’ (James 2:10). We obey the Word of God in its entirety or we do not obey it at all. The stance we take at one point we will take everywhere else. To obey God’s Word we must believe it. If we deny the authority of the Bible at one point we deny it everywhere. We pick and choose what we fancy, which we means we trust in ourselves and not wholeheartedly and without reserve in the Word of God.”