IRAN’S PRESIDENT SAYS ISRAEL IS A “DIRTY MICROBE” THAT WILL BE DESTROYED (Friday Church News Notes, March 7, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In recent days Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called Israel a “dirty microbe” and warned that it will be defeated and uprooted (“Israel Will Be ‘Uprooted,’” The Australian, March 2, 2008). In fact, the Muslim nations surrounding Israel have been trying to destroy her since she announced statehood in May 1948. She was not only surrounded by enemy nations that were dedicated to her destruction but was also faced with an entrenched enemy within her own territory. To her discredit, England had done everything in her power to arm the Muslims and to disarm the Jews. Immediately upon announcing her statehood the fledging nation was plunged into war and forced to defend herself against well-supplied Arab armies. The Jews had few soldiers, few arms, and little food. They were outnumbered and outgunned by large odds.  They sometimes beat large tin cans as the guns were fired, thus giving the effect that they had many more guns than they actually possessed. One well fortified part of Jerusalem was captured with 7 guns and 30 tin cans (William Hull, The Fall and Rise of Israel). When it’s God’s time for something to happen, that thing WILL happen and all the forces of earth and hell cannot stop it. The fledgling nation was victorious over her enemies then, and has been victorious time and again over the past 60 years. She is back in her land according to Bible prophecy ...... yet she remains spiritually dead. In Ezekiel 37 the prophet was shown a valley full of bones and instructed to preach to them. First the bones came together and were covered with flesh, “but there was no breath in them” (Ezek. 37:8). The prophet preached again and “the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army” (Ezek. 37:10). The rest of the chapter explains that this describes the restoration of Israel to her land and the establishment of the Davidic kingdom in the end times. The prophecy teaches us that Israel’s restoration occurs in two parts. First, the nation that was scattered to the ends of the earth and seemingly dead and forever cut off comes back together, but in a spiritually dead condition. That is where we are today. Next, God breathes life into them and they live. This will happen at the end of the Great Tribulation when God will convert the remnant of Israel and restore them to the place of blessing. They will repent of their disobedience to God’s Word and will receive the Messiah that they had rejected (Zechariah 12-14), and Christ will establish the kingdom promised to David (Isaiah 9:6-7). Before all of this happens, though, Israel will be deceived by the Antichrist and will believe his lying peace program (1 Thessalonians 5:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12). He will come riding on a white horse as a man of peace, but his “peace” will result in the greatest trouble this world has ever experienced (Revelation 6). Ahmadinejad can huff and puff all he wants; he is not going to destroy Israel. Much more brilliant and powerful men have been trying to do that for 2,000 years and it simply is not a possibility, because behind that little nation of Israel is Almighty God! When God is finished with His chastisement of Israel, she will sit in glory at the center of the kingdom of God on earth.

THOSE BEER SWILLING CHURCHES (Friday Church News Notes, March 7, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A growing number of “evangelical” churches are getting into the beer drinking habit. Mars Hill Church in Seattle has beer-brewing lessons and sets up a champagne bar at its New Year’s Eve rock parties. Riverview Community Church in Holt, Michigan, has a RiverBrew night featuring homebrewed beer and religious discussion. When asked what Jesus would drink, ministry leader Brett Maxwell replies, “I believe he would sit down with people in the bar, and he would drink what they were drinking, and he would be happy to do that” (“Holt Ministry Celebrates Its Love of God and Beer,” Lansing State Journal, Feb. 29, 2008). The Journey in St. Louis hosts a “Theology at the Bottleworks” where participants “grab a beer and discuss political or spiritual topics, such as the role of women in society, the legal system, or animal rights” (“Brewing Battle: Missouri Baptists Frown on Beer as Evangelistic Hook,” Christianity Today, June 29, 2007). In the book Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches, beer drinking is mentioned probably a dozen times by the various contributors, both conservative and liberal. Jim West has written “Drinking with Calvin and Luther” to promote the idea that alcoholic beverages are a gift from God. He says, “They reveled in it as a gift of God,” but the Protestant Reformers are not our authority. They also “baptized” babies and drowned Baptists! It is true that there are instances in the Old Testament in which God allowed His people Israel to drink alcoholic wine, but there are many things in the O.T. that we do not practice today. I believe that Christians today should not drink alcoholic beverages for the following three reasons, among others. 1. THE BIBLE WARNS THAT WINE AND STRONG DRINK IS A MOCKER AND DECEIVES MEN (Prov. 20:1). To say that alcoholic beverages can be consumed in moderation sounds reasonable, but very few drunks have ever set out to be a drunk. It is an irrefutable fact that a man that does not drink will never get drunk and will certainly never become a drunk. All of the evangelical drinkers admit that the Bible forbids drunkenness, but all of their talk about the delights of beer drinking, of “a Guinness” and “a round of imperial pints,” makes me wonder if they don’t sometimes get a bit tipsy at their beer confabs, not to say drunk! How inebriated does one have to be to be drunk? 2. THE BIBLE COMMANDS THE BELIEVER NOT TO GIVE OFFENSE IN ANYTHING (1 Cor. 10:32-33). The possibility that a Christian would cause offense because of his drinking is very great in modern society. What about our example to the many people who have an addiction to alcohol? Paul was willing to stop eating meat entirely in this present world if he thought someone would be injured thereby and his testimony hurt (1 Cor. 8:13), and eating meat is a perfectly legitimate activity. How much more should a believer be willing to give up alcoholic beverages, which are questionable at best and have the potential in themselves to cause harm (which meat does not)? 3. THE BIBLE COMMANDS THE BELIEVER TO ABSTAIN FROM ALL APPEARANCE OF EVIL (1 Thess. 5:22). That is a far reaching exhortation. Alcoholic beverages are a great evil and curse in modern society. Consider the automobile wrecks, the disease, the adulteries, the lewdness, the blasphemy, the divorces, the neglected children, the abused wives, the waste of money, the gambling, the pure foolishness. In January 2005 the Royal College of Physicians in England warned that Britain is suffering from an epidemic of alcohol-related problems that is fuelling violence and illness throughout the country (The Telegraph, Jan. 3, 2005). If anything has the appearance of evil today, it is alcoholic beverages, and the Bible does not suggest that we abstain from all appearance of evil; it commands us to do so!

JUDGE ORDERS HOMESCHOOLERS INTO GOVERNMENT EDUCATION (Friday Church News Notes, March 7, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from a WorldNetDaily report dated February 29, 2008: “A California court has ruled that several children in one homeschool family must be enrolled in a public school or ‘legally qualified’ private school, and must attend, sending ripples of shock into the nation’s homeschooling advocates as the family reviews its options for appeal. The ruling came in a case brought against Jonathan and Mary Long over the education being provided to two of their eight children. They are considering an appeal to the state Supreme Court, because they have homeschooled all of their children, the oldest now 29, because of various anti-Christian influences in California’s public schools. The decision from the 2nd Appellate Court in Los Angeles granted a special petition brought by lawyers appointed to represent the two youngest children after the family’s homeschooling was brought to the attention of child advocates. ‘We find no reason to strike down the Legislature’s evaluation of what constitutes an adequate education scheme sufficient to promote the “general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence,”’ the court said in the case. ‘We agree … “the educational program of the State of California was designed to promote the general welfare of all the people and was not designed to accommodate the personal ideas of any individual in the field of education.”’ The words echo the ideas of officials from Germany, where homeschooling has been outlawed since 1938 under a law adopted when Adolf Hitler decided he wanted the state, and no one else, to control the minds of the nation's youth. Wolfgang Drautz, consul general for the Federal Republic of Germany, has said ‘school teaches not only knowledge but also social conduct, encourages dialogue among people of different beliefs and cultures, and helps students to become responsible citizens.’ Specifically, the [California] appeals court said, the trial court had found that ‘keeping the children at home deprived them of situations where (1) they could interact with people outside the family, (2) there are people who could provide help if something is amiss in the children’s lives, and (3) they could develop emotionally in a broader world than the parents’ “cloistered” setting.’”

RICK WARREN CONGRATULATES HIS WORSHIP DRUMMER FOR WINNING GRAMMY IN FILTHY ROCK BAND (Friday Church News Notes, March 7, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Foo Fighters Drummer Leads Worship at Rick Warren’s Church,” Feb. 23, 2008, by Dan Lucarini, former rock worship leader and author of an excellent book entitled Why I Left the Contemporary Christian Music Movement: “In the News & Views from Pastor Rick Warren, Feb. 23, 2008, we find the following: ‘Drew Hester, one of our worship team drummers won a Grammy this past week; he is also a drummer for the Foo Fighters who won Rock Album of the Year! Congratulations Drew! I love you all. See you this weekend! Pastor Rick Rick Warren Saddleback Church.’ COMMENT BY LUCARINI: In my book Can We Rock the Gospel, we wrote: ‘Since songwriting is a spiritual task and songwriters are in essence the embodiment of other musical influences that have been allowed into their minds and souls, it is perfectly fair to question one’s musical influences, even more so if one feels called to lead music in the church’ (p. 100). What are Drew Hester’s musical influences? He is a drummer who has worked with Foo Fighters since 2006. The Foo Fighters were founded by the drummer of Nirvana, Dave Grohl, after the heroin overdose death of Kurt Cobain in 1995. ... Grohl also masterminded a musical project in 2004 called Probot. ... He included thrash and death metal stars in the project. The video for the lead track, ‘Shake Your Blood,’ features an appearance by 66 women from the SuicideGirls [pornographic] website ... Clearly Dave Grohl is not a godly influence. He is in fellowship with evil and his music reeks of it. Foo Fighter music is mainly heavy metal, with loud guitars, very heavy rock rhythms and shouted lyrics. This is the music style that was born out of devil-worshippers, sex fiends, and blatant blasphemers of God in the early 80s, and today this sound has replaced the ‘classic 70s rock sound’ as the predominant rock music style. ... Drew Hester is in fellowship with Grohl and is clearly under the influence of an ungodly man and an ungodly music style. I urge him, in Christian love and concern, to repent and separate from the ungodly, the immoral and the blasphemers. Psalm 1:1; 2 Cor 6:14-17; 1 Cor 15:33; 1 Cor 10:21; Romans 1:32; Rom 12:9; 1 Peter 3:11; 3 John 1:11. ... It is one thing to reach out with the Gospel to those involved in the godless rock music industry; thank God someone did that for me. But here we have a preacher who not only fails to warn the new believer to separate from the mockers and scorners and sexually immoral (2 Cor. 5:17; 2 Cor. 6:17; Psalm 37:27), but actually celebrates and praises Hester’s participation. Woe unto them who call evil, good. Isaiah 5:20-21; Jeremiah 4:22; Amos 5:15; Malachi 2:17. This contradiction between God and evil is a direct consequence of Warren believing and preaching a lie: that music styles are neutral and have no affect at all (Purpose Driven Church, p. 281), and that God Himself invented all music styles (Purpose Driven Life, p. 65), which would make God the author of death metal and punk rock. God forbid! I urge Rick to pray for God to remove the scales from his eyes, to repent of leading saints astray and to separate from evil. 1 John 1:9; Psalm 51.”