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SOUTHERN BAPTIST SAYS WE CAN’T REACH THE WORLD TODAY WITHOUT ROCK MUSIC (Friday Church News Notes, June 22, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Speaking at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas, Rob Zinn said the denomination must be willing to change its methodology to reach this generation, and one of those changes includes music. He asked grandparents in the audience, “How many of you love those grandkids enough you’d be willing to change your music for them?” He then said: “[I]f we’re going to win [young people] to Jesus in this culture, we’re going to have to be willing to change our mindsets. ... Folks, what you did in the ’40s and what you did in the ’50s isn’t going to win this culture to Jesus” (“Wrap-up,” Baptist Press, June 15, 2007). Zinn, who is the pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church, Highland, California, has been brainwashed and led astray by the contemporary church growth philosophy and probably by fellow California Southern Baptist pastor Rick Warren. Zinn committed three errors in this one short statement. First, nowhere does the Bible say we are to win this culture to Jesus. Rather we are to win sinners to Jesus, and they are won today the same way they were won 2,000 years ago. They are won by the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the quickening power of the Holy Spirit. It is the Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16). Second, nowhere in the New Testament is music used in evangelism, so the subject of music is irrelevant to the subject of soul winning. Third, the rock music that Zinn is referring to is of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and cannot be properly used in the service of a thrice-holy God. I have grandchildren, and I love them enough to warn them not to be conformed to this world and also to warn them of confused Baptist pastors who will attempt to lead them astray from the Bible to a man-made philosophy and program.

SOUTHERN BAPTIST PRESIDENT SAYS “TERTIARY” DOCTRINES SHOULD BE LAID ASIDE FOR EVANGELISM AND UNITY (Friday Church News Notes, June 22, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Many speakers at the recent Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting said the denomination needs to lay aside “tertiary” doctrines for the sake of evangelism and unity. The theme was set by SBC president Frank Page, who was re-elected to his second term. He called for a passion of reaching the lost rather than infighting and finding faults with others (“Southern Baptists Hear a Call for Unity,” AP, June 12, 2007). He said that for “Jesus’ sake, and the sake of His kingdom on earth, we must not make every doctrinal issue a crusade” and “we have no right to judge others with whom we disagree about secondary and tertiary doctrines” (“Southern Baptists Urged to Overcome Factionalism to Win the Lost,” Christian Post, June 13, 2007). These “secondary” doctrines are things such as Calvinism and non-Calvinism, cessationism and non-cessationism, views on Bible prophecy, and views on women in ministry. The New Testament’s doctrine of unity is much narrower than Page’s New Evangelical approach. Timothy was instructed to allow “no other doctrine” (1 Timothy 1:3) and was instructed to “keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Timothy 6:14). The commandment that Timothy was to keep without spot is that which Paul had delivered to him in this epistle, the theme of which is church truth (1 Timothy 3:15). In this epistle Paul had commanded Timothy about such things as the woman’s role in ministry, the very type of thing that is considered “tertiary” among evangelicals today. But Timothy was instructed to keep all such things without spot, and to do so requires that we narrow our fellowship severely in these apostate, compromised times. And there is no contradiction between holding to the Bible’s strict position on doctrine and having a zeal for evangelism. The Southern Baptist Convention’s failure to win people to Christ, which was bemoaned often during its recent conference, is not due to divisions caused by “secondary” doctrine. That is a smokescreen. It is due, rather, to the worldliness and spiritual lukewarmness that is rampant in SBC congregations. I grew up in Convention churches, and the situation is much worse now than when I was young, and it was very bad then.

NON-ESSENTIALS? (Friday Church News Notes, June 22, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from the late H. A. Ironside’s commentary on Daniel: “I have heard Christians refer to certain precepts in the Scriptures as non-essentials. But we may rest assured there are no non-essentials in our Bibles. ‘The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.’ When people talk of non-essentials in regard to anything concerning which God has revealed His mind, it is well to ask, ‘Essential or non-essential to what?’ If it be a question of the soul’s salvation, undoubtedly the one great essential is faith in His blessed Son, whose finished work alone avails to put away sin and procure peace with God. But if it be a question of what is essential to the enjoyment of communion with God--essential to obtaining the Lord’s approval at the judgment-seat of Christ--then it is well to remember that in everything the believer is sanctified to the obedience of Christ.”

LUTHERAN COLLEGE HIRES HINDU TO HEAD RELIGION DEPARTMENT (Friday Church News Notes, June 22, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, which is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has hired a Hindu to head up its religion department. Anantanand Rambachan is not only a Hindu, he is a Hindu who is opposed to “the obsession of converting others” to one’s religious faith. His writings have been featured on the website of the Hindu-American Foundation, which publishes a list of Christian organizations that are guilty of “hate crimes” against Hindus. Way of Life Literature is on that wrong-headed list, but we have never hated Hindus and we have never committed any crimes against them, unless it is a crime to love them enough to preach Jesus Christ to them even in the face of much persecution. Rambachan calls biblically-based Christians naïve, saying, “It is only ignorance of other traditions or the refusal to be challenged by their claims which enables one to explain away religious pluralism by the naïve conclusion that one’s own tradition is true to the nature of God and that all others are false” (Hindu Appointed,” WorldNetDaily, June 8, 2007). The man could not be more wrong. Jesus Christ dogmatically claimed, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6), and, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). Before I became a follower of Christ in 1973, I was a member of Hindu guru Paramahansa Yogananda’s Self-Realization Fellowship Society, and the thing that changed me was simply believing the words of Jesus Christ. There is nothing naïve about that.

LESBIAN SUES EHARMONY FOR DISCRIMINATION (Friday Church News Notes, June 22, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A lesbian has sued the online dating service eHarmony for alleged discrimination against homosexuals. Linda Carlson, who said she was turned down when she tried to use eHarmony to meet a woman, filed the suit in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. She said such discrimination is “hurtful and disappointing” (“Woman Sues eHarmony,” Yahoo News, June 1, 2007).

THE WORDS “MOTHER,” “FATHER,” “HUSBAND,” “WIFE” ON THE ROPES (Friday Church News Notes, June 22, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Use of terms such as “mother” and “father” is under attack by homosexual activists and their dupes in government and education. Consider the following three examples. The first example is Bill SB 777, which was passed by the California Senate for the second time this year (it has been vetoed once by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger), would ban absolutely anything that “reflects or promotes bias against” homosexuals in America’s largest public school system. Randy Thomasson of the Campaign for Children and Families warns that references to “mother” and “father” would probably be banned from any school text if this idiotic policy becomes law (“Lawmakers Pass Redefinition of ‘Sex,” The Berean Call, June 8, 2007). The second example is the new policy that was passed in Scotland recently. The National Health Service’s new policy for hospital workers is mis-titled “Fair For All -- The Wider Challenge: Good LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Practice in the NHS” (Ed Vitagliano, “There is only one acceptable way to talk about homosexuality -- SILENCE!” OneNewsNow.com, May 31, 2007).  In fact, the new policy is “fair” for no one, because it destroys the right of free speech and forbids the use of historic and biblical terms such as “mother” and “father” (since some patients might have two mothers or two fathers) and “husband” and “wife,” labeling this “homophobic language.” Such terms must be replaced with “partner” or “they/them.” The new policy is to be strictly enforced. The third example is a case that began in 2003, when the city of Oakland, California, labeled a flier posted on a workplace bulletin board as “homophobic” because it used the terms “the natural family and marriage” (Suit to Decide Workplace ‘Hate Speech,’” The Washington Times, June 11, 2007). The flier, which was posted by Regina Rederford and Robin Christy, was removed after a lesbian complained to the city attorney’s office that it made her feel “excluded.” When Rederford and Christy sued the city, claiming their First Amendment rights had been violated, they lost at the local, state, and federal level, with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against them. The case has been appealed to the Supreme Court.

HINDUS ATTEMPT TO IMMOLATE A PASTOR IN MODERN BANGALORE (Friday Church News Notes, June 22, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - On June 8 a mob of Hindus beat and humiliated a pastor and attempted to immolate him. This occurred in Bangalore, which is known as “The Silicon Valley” and “The Fashion Capital” of India. It is also the headquarters for many Christian ministries. The attack upon Pastor Laxmi Gowda began in his house in front of his wife and small children. The mob beat him, doused him with kerosene, and threw a burning Bible on him. Only by God’s grace was he not severely burned or even killed. The mob then stripped him naked, hung a sign around his neck saying, “I am the one who was converting people,” and paraded him through the area (“Hindu Mob in India,” Compass Direct News, June 12). The angry crowd burned at least 250 Bibles and vandalized furniture and equipment. This is another example of the spread in persecution in India, and oftentimes the police take little or no action. The event was orchestrated by a lawyer and led on the ground by youths from the Bajrang Dal Hindu organization and joined by an estimated 1,000 locals (“Bangalore--The Barometer of India?” WEA Religious Liberty News, June 15). It is thought that they were trying to make an example of Gowda for his conversion from Hinduism 15 years ago. Prior to that, he was a member of the RSS, a radical Hindu organization that is the parent of numerous Hindu extremist groups. Two pastors were murdered in India in 2005. In 2000 a Catholic priest was murdered by Hindus who left behind literature denouncing “proselytizing,” and in 1999 Protestant missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were burned to death.