RICK WARREN SAYS EVANGELICALS AND LIBERALS ARE ON THE SAME TEAM (Friday Church News Notes, February 1, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Speaking January 27 at the Washington National Cathedral, Rick Warren said that evangelicals and liberals “need to be on the same team because we share the same Saviour” (“Mainline Church Problems Need Evangelical Solution,” Christian Post, Jan. 28, 2008). Warren was participating in the church’s “Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith.” He said that the churches need both a social gospel and a gospel of personal salvation, adding, “And mainline protestant and evangelical--we need both wings.” Either the man is grossly ignorant of what is taught in the “mainline churches” or he simply cares nothing whatsoever about doctrinal heresy. The Washington National Cathedral is a member of the Episcopal Church in America, one of the world’s most liberal denominations. In 1960, Episcopalian Bishop James Pike said the doctrine of the Trinity is “outdated, incomprehensible and nonessential” (The Christian Century, Dec. 21, 1960). In 1963, Episcopal theologian Paul van Buren started the God-is-dead movement with the publication of his book The Secular Meaning of the Gospel. In 1967, after heresy charges were brought against James Pike, the Episcopal Church adopted a resolution declaring that all heresy was out of date. In 1976, John Spong was ordained as the bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Newark, New Jersey, even though he denied practically every doctrine of the Christian faith. By 1991, at least 50 practicing homosexuals had been ordained to the Episcopal priesthood. In his book Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, John Spong said the apostle Paul was “a self hating, repressed homosexual.” In 1998, Spong said, “I would choose to loathe rather than to worship a deity who required the sacrifice of his son” (Christianity Today, June 15, 1998). In April 2003, Episcopal bishop Charles Bennison said that Jesus Christ was a sinner (Worthy News, April 14, 2003). Many Episcopalians have left the Episcopal Church in recent years at the cost of losing their pensions and property, but Southern Baptist pastor Rick Warren thinks we need it! Friends, beware of this man.

EPISCOPALIANS WORSHIP WITH HINDUS AND APOLOGIZE FOR “PROSELYTIZING” (Friday Church News Notes, February 1, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - On January 19, Episcopalians in southern California joined hands with Hindus in a joint worship service and apologized for attempts to convert them to Jesus Christ. The service was held in St. John’s Cathedral in Los Angeles and the participants included members of St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church of Thousand Oaks and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Pomona. J. Jon Bruno, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, issued the statement of apology to the Hindu community and said he renounced “proselytizing” of Hindus. A Hindu nun blew into a conch shell to start the service and members of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness chanted (“Episcopalians Hold an Indian Rite Mass with Hindus,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 20, 2008). A female Episcopal priest, Karen MacQueen, who spent two years in India studying Hinduism, preached on “A Vision for Inter-Religious Dialogue.” She said that both Hindus and Christians worship the “divine light” and teach “the divine truth.” “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of” (2 Peter 2:1-2).

BLASPHEMOUS PLAY OPENING IN SYDNEY (Friday Church News Notes, February 1, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The blasphemous play Corpus Christi, which depicts Jesus as a homosexual, is scheduled to open in Sydney, Australia, on February 7 as part of the city’s annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival. When the play ran in London, England, in 1999, it drew a death threat from an Islamic group. The author of the play, Terrence McNally, a homosexual, said he wrote it to show parallels between Christ’s persecution and the rejection he faced as a homosexual growing up in Texas (“Gay Jesus Play Angers Australian Church Leaders,” Reuters, Jan. 21, 2008). To the contrary, Jesus was persecuted because of holiness and truth, whereas a homosexual’s “persecution” comes as a result of sin. Unrepentant sinners who are reproved often confuse it with persecution. The play’s director, Leigh Romney, claims to be a Christian. The Bible warns: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

MORMON LEADER DIES (Friday Church News Notes, February 1, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Gordon Hinckley, the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died on January 27 at age 97. Hinckley was a life-long Mormon and his grandfather knew founder Joseph Smith and traveled to St. Lake City under the leadership of Brigham Young. He was a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles for 34 years and the president for 12 and oversaw its rapid expansion during the last decade. Membership grew 37% to 12.3 million and 75 new temples were built. Hinckley traveled tens of thousands of miles each year promoting Mormonism and was a brilliant public relations man, “able to sooth the public’s fears about Mormonism” (“Gordon B. Hinckley,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 28, 2008). In spite of the fact that it preaches a false gospel and a false christ, Mormonism has been gradually moving into the mainstream of Christianity. In 1994, Mormons participated in an ecumenical service in San Antonio, Texas, and Vernon Burrow, pastor of Stone Oak Presbyterian Church, said the Mormons are “Christ-centered people” (San Antonio Express News, Feb. 19, 1994). In January 1997, Billy Graham said on Larry King Live that he has a wonderful relationship with Mormons. In November 1997, Southern Baptist Sunday School teacher Jimmy Carter said that Mormons are Christians and they should not be the targets of “proselytizing” (“Are Mormons Christians,” Deseret News, Nov. 15, 1997). In 1998, Mormon professor Robert Millet spoke at Wheaton College. In November 2004, an “Evening of Friendship” was held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, featuring evangelicals who are calling for a better understanding of Mormons. Ravi Zacharias, the main speaker, was joined by Richard Mouw (president of Fuller Seminary), Craig Hazen (a professor at Biola University), Greg Johnson (director of Standing Together Ministries in Utah), and Michael Card (Contemporary Christian musician). Cooper Abrams, a Baptist missionary to Utah, wisely observes: “One question that I would ask all Mormons is this: ‘Would you accept me as a Mormon if I reject Joseph Smith and all the LDS prophets as being prophets of God, if I do not believe in the Book of Mormon or the LDS Scriptures, and reject baptisms for the dead, the temple endowments, and the LDS gospel? The answer is that you would not. In like manner, when Mormonism denies the Bible and every Christian doctrine, do you think that biblical Christians should accept Mormons as Christians? You cannot legitimately claim to be Christians when you refuse to accept what the Bible teaches and what a true Christian believes’” (Abrams, “Are Mormons Christians?”).

THE TRIBULATION TO COME (Friday Church News Notes, February 1, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Any troubles that this world is experiencing today are as nothing compared to the Great Tribulation to come. This seven-year period is described in great detail in Revelation 6-18. At the very opening of the Tribulation one-fourth of the earth’s population will die from war and famine (Rev. 6:7-8). A little later, a third of all the ships in the seas will be destroyed (Rev. 8:9) and a third of the waters on the earth will be poisoned (Rev. 8:10-11). A swarm of demonic locusts will torment men with stings so fearful that they will seek death but “shall not find it” (Rev. 9:1-6). A third of the world’s inhabitants will die when an army of 200 million marches from the east (Rev. 9:15-18). The antichrist will rule and require that all men bow to his image and take his mark or die (Rev. 13:11-18). The sun will become so hot that men will be “scorched with great heat” (Rev. 16:8-9). A terrible shaking of the earth will cause every island to sink and the mountains to tumble (Rev. 16:20). Hailstones weighing 75-95 pounds will fall from heaven (Rev. 16:21). Men’s hearts will fail “for looking after those things which are coming on the earth” (Lk. 21:26). No person living today has to go through these horrible judgments. We are still living in the era of “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people” (Luke 2:10), which is the gospel of Jesus Christ, that He died for our sins, was buried, and rose the third day to offer eternal salvation to whosoever will believe in Him as Lord and Saviour. The Bible says God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 33:11); it is His will, rather, that all men be saved (1 Tim. 2:3-4).

FUN VS. DISCIPLINE (Friday Church News Notes, February 1, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Training Your Children to Turn out Right, an excellent book by David Sorenson (Northstar Ministries, 1820 W. Morgan St., Duluth, MN 55811, 218-726-0209, http://www.northstarministries.com, dhs.northstar@charter.net) -- “The old nature lives for entertainment of self. It looks for things that are fun. ... The problem is that God did not create us primarily to have fun. He created us to serve Him. That means work. He created us to glorify Him. That means being oriented to please Him rather than ourselves. He created us to do what is right. That means placing doing what I ought above doing what I want. Now, do not misunderstand me. I am not preaching against fun. Fun in and of itself is not intrinsically evil, but we have a culture and a generation surrounding us today that has essentially made fun their goal in life. ... Discipline in general and self-discipline in particular force us to do what we ought to do whether it is fun or not. .... Beware of the fun philosophy that seems to prevail in our culture. It is anti-spiritual and anti-Christian in character. ... Fun is a natural desire of the flesh. Never let it prevail as a matter of course and habit” (Training Your Children to Turn Out Right, 1995, pp. 42, 43, 45).

CONFESSION OF SINS (Friday Church News Notes, February 1, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from How on Earth Can I Be Spiritual by C. Sumner Wemp: “The word confess in the Greek has at least two ideas inherent in it. One means ‘to agree with’ God that the deed is sin and wrong. Don’t quibble with God. Call it what it is. ... Then there is also the idea of naming it. It is quite easy to try to tone down confession and gloss over confronting sin by praying the vague prayer of asking God to ‘forgive us of all our sins’! This is a cop-out! He says confess them (1 John 1:9). ... There remains a barrier in many hearts because they have not named their sin to God. The freedom from guilt and the liberty of true fellowship with God is lacking because some have not been sincerely honest with God and called the sin by name. ... One other course of action often needs to be taken, and that is an apology. Private sin should be kept private. ... but if a Christian offends another person through losing his temper, or is unkind in word or deed, he should go to that one and apologize. This surely is what Matthew 5:22-24 is teaching. Many never will get a clear conscience until they have personally apologized. One step further: public sin needs to be confessed publicly. If a brother has hurt the testimony of Christ and the whole church so that the community and church knows about it, he should confess before the whole church his wrong and his sorrow and apologize for it. This open apology has started many a revival.”