UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA PASTOR CALLS FOR DOING AWAY WITH GOD, CHRIST, AND SALVATION (Friday Church News Notes, April 11, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Gretta Vosper, pastor of West Hill United Church in Toronto says in her new book that Christianity needs to get rid of the doctrine that God is a judge and that salvation is through Jesus Christ. Her book, which was published a couple of weeks ago, is entitled With or Without God: Why the Way We Live Is More Important Than What We Believe. She calls for an end to “the image of God as an intervening all-powerful authority who must be appeased to avoid divine wrath” and wants to redefine salvation to mean “new life through removing the causes of suffering in the world” (“Taking Christ out of Christianity,” Globe and Mail, March 22, 2008). Vosper rejects the Bible as what she mockingly labels TAWOGFAT -- The Authoritative Word of God For All Time.” The “reverend” says we need a new “spiritual movement that will have relevance in a global world.” She is not alone. Unregenerate New Age “Christians” throughout the world are dreaming the same vain dream, and they will no doubt get what they want. The global interfaith spirituality that is being created before our very eyes will have its moment of glory and then experience the shocking demise described in Revelation 17.

TONY BLAIR SAYS RELIGION MUST BE SAVED FROM EXTREMISM (Friday Church News Notes, April 11, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - On April 3 former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that religion must be saved from extremism. Blair’s speech was a part of “The Cardinal’s Lectures” at the Westminster Cathedral sponsored by Cormac Murphy O’Connor, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England. Blair, who became a Catholic last year, said that religion must become the centerpiece of a program to solve the world’s problems. To do this, it must reject “extremism,” “exclusion,” and “strange convictions.” He was referring to Islamic terrorism, of course, but not only to Islam. Bible Christianity with its exclusive gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ is considered extremist and strange to globalists like Tony Blair and Mikhail Gorbachev. Those who believe that salvation is only in Jesus Christ and that the Bible is the sole revelation from God and that men are going either to heaven or to hell and that Jesus is coming back at any time to establish His kingdom are hindrances to the New Age globalist aspirations. Blair announced the formation of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which will “bring together different faith organizations to foster friendship and understanding and harness people of faith as a force for good in the modern world.” He wants to help create a global interfaith “spirituality” that is tolerant, non-dogmatic, and dedicated to social-justice-environmentalist issues.

TED TURNER CALLS FOR GLOBAL POPULATION CONTROL (Friday Church News Notes, April 11, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Turner’s Depopulation Plan,” LifeSiteNews, April 3, 2008: “In a wide-ranging hour-long interview on PBS, CNN founder and billionaire environmental extremist Ted Turner let the cat out of the bag on the real goal of climate change extremists--depopulation. ... Speaking on PBS’s Charlie Rose program on April 1, Turner stated plainly that next to nuclear disarmament the most pressing world concern is ‘global climate change’--which he said is caused by too many people. ... Turner, a fan of China’s one-child policy--despite the brutality of forced abortion and sterilizations which are associated with it--proposed similar limits on family size for all. ‘We’ve got to stabilize population,’ he told Rose. ‘On a voluntary basis, everybody in the world’s got to pledge to themselves that one or two children is it.’ ... Turner and environmentalist extremists of his ilk employ cultish fear-mongering in order to promote their religious environmentalism. Speaking on what would happen if climate change were not addressed (i.e. population were not controlled), Turner told Rose, that it would be ‘catastrophic.’ He prophesied an end to civilization, resorting to cannibalism for the few survivors, and more.” CONCLUDING NOTE FROM BROTHER CLOUD: It has always amuses me that the elitist population control crowd always want to reduce the population by culling other people (by abortion) but never by offering themselves as part of the solution.

DEBATE OVER “CHRISTIAN YOGA” (Friday Church News Notes, April 11, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A debate is raging over whether yoga can be Christianized. Winnie Young, a Roman Catholic who founded a national yoga institute and authored Yoga for the Christian, claims that Christians don’t have to accept Hindu beliefs to benefit by it. Some Hindus beg to differ. Ashwn Trikamjee, head of the South African Hindu Maha Sabha, said, “I don’t understand how anyone can teach yoga from a Christian background” (“Hindu Leaders Slam Yoga for Christians,” The Times of South Africa, March 29, 2008). Kamal Maharaj, editor of a Hindu newspaper, agrees. He says that the yoga practitioner must “come out of the box” in regard to deity and not believe that there is only one “personal creator.” In fact, these Hindus are correct. Professing Christians who are using yoga and contemplative techniques similar to yoga, which seek to reach a thoughtless meditative state, are deceived. Yoga means union, and it is the attempt to achieve union with God by reaching a mindless alternative state of consciousness through mantras. Centering prayer, which is very popular among evangelicals, involves quieting the mind and emptying it of conscious thoughts with the objective of entering into a non-verbal experiential communion with God in the center of one’s being. It is nothing more or less than thinly disguised Hindu yoga. It has no biblical basis whatsoever. When the Bible speaks of being still and quiet before God, it is referring to trusting in Him, submitting to Him, waiting upon Him. Prayer in the Bible is always conscious verbal communication with God. This is the type of praying that Jesus taught (Matthew 6:9-13) and Paul practiced (Romans 1:8-10). It is instructive that Winnie Young is a Roman Catholic. It is Catholics that have been at the forefront of the contemplative movement, and they have borrowed deeply from Eastern religions for their techniques. Examples are Thomas Merton, Basil Pennington, Henri Nouwen, Brennan Manning, James Finley, William Shannon, John Michael Talbot, William Johnston, and Thomas Keating. Merton, who heads the field in influence, actually became a Buddhist. “Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen” (Jeremiah 10:2). See also Psalm 106:34-36.

ANOTHER ANGLICAN WITH NO FEAR OF GOD (Friday Church News Notes, April 11, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Anglican vicar Robert Harrison has taken strange liberties in rewriting 10 well-known Bible stories “for a younger, more modern generation.” Harrison’s book, Must Know Stories, which was published a couple of weeks ago, depicts Eve as “sex-obsessed,” Goliath as a celebrity binge drinker, and Noah’s wife as wanting to kill her husband. Harrison says: “I wanted to write a book that tells the most important Bible stories in a way that relishes them rather than tries to make any particular religious point. After all, who knows what the point is?” (“Reworked Bible Stories,” Daily Mail, March 26). Who knows the point of the biblical account of Adam and Eve, the “vicar” asks. This reminds me of an interview that former Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie had with John Mortiner of the Sunday Times for Easter 1982. When asked why Christ has to suffer, Runcie replied, “As to that I am an agnostic.” He did not know for certain why Christ died on the cross! The interviewer asked, “Is God a judge?” Runcie replied, “No.” The interviewer then said, “So you don’t see God as celestial Lord Chief Justice?” Runcie said, “Not at all. I had an old landlady when we were at Oxford. And when we got into any sort of trouble, she’d say: ‘There’s one above who seeth all.’ I can’t think of God like that.” Mortiner then asked Runcie if God accepts people of other religions, and Runcie replied: “I can’t believe in a God who only saves people who live in certain latitudes. I used to lecture to Hellenic cruises about mosques, and I found great spiritual values in them.” Of course, God doesn’t only save people who live in certain latitudes. He saves all people of every nation, tribe, and tongue who come to Him through Jesus Christ.

HOLD THE HELLFIRE AND BRIMSTONE (Friday Church News Notes, April 11, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is by Paul Proctor, March 12, 2008, NewsWithViews.com: “A friend showed me an interesting cartoon that appeared in USA Today bearing a caption that read: Study shows nearly half of U.S. adults have switched or dropped their religions, which included a pensive couple standing in line at the U.S. Religious Beliefs Cafeteria, where customers can pick and choose their favourite doctrines and commandments from the sacred buffet. Pointing to one of the selections, the male character in the drawing tells the server behind the counter: ‘I’ll take that with a little less hellfire and brimstone.’ ... The USA Today cartoon was apparently a response to an earlier article by Cathy Lynn Grossman concerning a recent Pew Forum poll called the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey where, after interviewing over 35,000 people by telephone, it was determined that Americans are changing churches, denominations and even religions like never before. In a related Tennessean piece, Grossman wrote: ‘…the main thrust of the study is that the religious landscape is changing, and Nashville is no exception,’ adding that Vanderbilt divinity professor Robin Jensen “had observed that there’s much more of a marketplace quality to religion: People are interested in finding a church that matches their value systems and that has programs that fit their family’s needs.’ Sounds to me like we’re God shopping. ... Moreover, there seems to be an insatiable appetite for all the wrong things. Could that be why so many spiritually starving mega-churches today have a fat and sassy feel to them--because members are getting everything they want and nothing they need? Who knows--a serving of hellfire and brimstone from the pulpit now and then might be slimming--and spare us that extra helping of Hades later. ‘Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things’ (Isaiah 30:10).” 

GEORGE WASHINGTON’S AMAZING PRAYERS (Friday Church News Notes, April 11, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - It is challenge to read the following excerpt from one of George Washington’s prayers, but it is also sad. It is sad because it reminds us that America’s true greatness is long past. It has a glorious and unique heritage. No other Gentile nation that I know of has had such a godly leader in its infancy. This prayer, which was written in Washington’s own handwriting in his prayer journal, is from William Johnson’s George Washington, the Christian, 1919: “O eternal and everlasting God, I presume to present myself this morning before thy Divine majesty, beseeching thee to accept of my humble and hearty thanks, that it hath pleased thy great goodness to keep and preserve me the night past from all the dangers poor mortals are subject to, and has given me sweet and pleasant sleep, whereby I find my body refreshed and comforted for performing the duties of this day, in which I beseech thee to defend me from all perils of body and soul. Direct my thoughts, words and work, wash away my sins in the immaculate blood of the Lamb, and purge my heart by thy Holy Spirit, from the dross of my natural corruption, that I may with more freedom of mind and liberty of will serve thee, the everlasting God, in righteousness and holiness this day, and all the days of my life. Increase my faith in the sweet promises of the gospel; give me repentance from dead works; pardon my wanderings, and direct my thoughts unto thyself, the God of my salvation; teach me how to live in thy fear, labor in thy service, and ever to run in the ways of thy commandments; make me always watchful over my heart, that neither the terrors of conscience, the loathing of holy duties, the love of sin, nor an unwillingness to depart this life, may cast me into a spiritual slumber, but daily frame me more and more into the likeness of thy son Jesus Christ, that living in thy fear, and dying in thy favor, I may in thy appointed time attain the resurrection of the just unto eternal life.  Bless my family, friends and kindred; unite us all in praising and glorifying thee in all our works begun, continued, and ended, when we shall come to make our last account before thee, blessed Saviour...”