Aug 2008
29/08/08 13:11
LAKELAND OUTPOURING ENDS WITH ANOTHER PENTECOSTAL SCANDAL (Friday Church News Notes, August 29, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Some had prophesied that Todd Bentley’s healing crusade in Lakeland, Florida, was the beginning of a national revival and that entire cities would be “shut down.” In fact, it was the Lakeland Outpouring that was shut down after Bentley announced that he was separating from his wife (“Todd Bentley, Wife Separating,” Charisma, Aug. 12, 2008). A week later it was further announced that Bentley was stepping down as head of Fresh Fire Ministries, after the ministry revealed that he had an “unhealthy relationship” with a female staffer (“Bentley Stepping Down,” OneNewsNow, Aug. 19, 2008). The Lakeland meetings began on April 2, 2008, at the Ignite Church, and continued nightly in various venues for more than three months, with Bentley dispensing his medicine by slamming people on the forehead, shoving them, flinging the Holy Spirit, yelling “Blah, blah, blah, blah,” crying out, “Come and get some,” and staggering around like a drunk. He has kicked an elderly lady in the face, banged a crippled woman’s legs on the platform, kneed a man in the stomach, and hit another man so hard that a tooth popped out. My friends, God has given us clear instructions in Scripture about healing, and James 5 does not describe a raucous “healing crusade.” We believe in divine healing for today, but we don’t believe in Pentecostal showmen. See “I Believe in Miracles” http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/ibelievein-miracles.html. For a more extensive study of this subject see The Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements: The History and Error, which is available from Way of Life Literature.
MORE CHARISMATIC WEIRDNESS (Friday Church News Notes, August 29, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Our book The Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements documents 100 years of Pentecostal weirdness, so this latest case is nothing new, but it is indeed weird. Michael Guglielmucci of the Assemblies of God in Australia recently admitted that he has been lying about having an advanced stage of cancer. For the past two years Guglielmucci has claimed to have terminal cancer. He even recorded a song called “The Healer” that became a hit and was featured on Hillsong’s latest album. In one church performance that has attracted one-third of a million hits on YouTube, he sang with an oxygen tube in his nose! He claimed that God gave him the song after he learned that he had “an aggressive form of cancer.” Guglielmucci is the former pastor of one of Australia’s largest youth churches called Planetshakers. His parents are the founders of an Assemblies of God church in Reynella. Hillsong is the ministry of Hillsong Church in Sydney, the largest church in Australia and prominent in the contemporary worship field. Brian Houston, who co-pastors the church with his wife, is the head of AOG in Australia (which has been renamed the Australian Christian Churches) The AOG has promised that the money that was raised by Guglielmucci fraudulently will be returned. We have documented many bogus Pentecostal healings, but this time we have a bogus Pentecostal sickness!
THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES’ 60 YEARS OF APOSTASY (Friday Church News Notes, August 29, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The World Council of Churches was founded 60 years ago on August 23, 1948. Currently the Geneva-based organization has 349 member denominations and organizations representing a supposed 560 million Christians worldwide. (It would be interesting to survey these “Christians” and ask a simple question that I have asked of attendees at ecumenical conferences I have attended with press credentials -- “When were you born again?”) The World Council can present different faces, depending on the situation. In some instances it tries to appear more “evangelical” in theological outlook, but more commonly its true liberal face is unveiled. There is probably no heresy that does not find a home within the context of the WCC. It is patently and grossly unscriptural. For example, the WCC-sponsored Re-imaging Conference in Minneapolis in 1993 featured a wide assortment of the rankest heretics. Delores Williams said, “I don’t think we need folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping and weird stuff ... we just need to listen to the God within.” Virginia Mollenkott said, “I can no longer worship in a theological context that depicts God as an abusive parent [referring to Christ’s death on the cross] and Jesus as the obedient, trusting child.” Chung Hyung Kyung said, “My bowel is Buddhist bowel, my heart is Buddhist heart, my right brain is Confucian brain, and my left brain is Christian brain.” Chung encouraged the crowd to ask the trees for life energy and said, “The Bible is basically an open book, and I want to add the next chapter.” The conference gave a standing ovation to 100 homosexual women who gathered on the platform to “celebrate the miracle of being lesbian, out, and Christian.” The attendees worshiped “Sophia, the goddess of creation,” and Aruna Gnanadason invited them to put red Hindu marks on their foreheads “to represent the divine” in them. For documentation of these statements and further evidence of the apostasy of the WCC see http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/wcc.html.
BILL GAITHER SAYS JUDGING IS ALWAYS WRONG (Friday Church News Notes, August 29, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In an interview with Kim Jones of About.com, “Mr. Southern Gospel” Bill Gaither said it is always wrong to judge. He said, “Finger pointing is never, I think, of God. Because I know that Scripture ‘Judgment is mine, sayeth the Lord.’ When we get out of the judgment business and just get into the being business, the being what God wants us to be, it will take care of itself. I get weary of the finger pointing also” (“An Interview with Gospel Great Bill Gaither,” About.com, Dec. 6, 2004). This level of biblical ignorance is frightening, especially when we consider the vast influence that Gaither wields among churches in this generation. First of all, the Bible nowhere says, “Judgment is mine, saith the Lord.” It says, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Rom. 12:19). The believer is taught to give place unto wrath and to avoid avenging himself upon his enemies, because that is strictly God’s business. On the other hand, though the believer is forbidden to judge hypocritically (Mat. 7:1-5) and forbidden to judge in matters in which the Bible is silent in this dispensation, such as in matters of diet and holy days (Rom. 14:1-5; Col. 2:16), he is most definitely taught to judge many things by testing it with the Word of God and condemning it if it is in error. The believer is to judge sin in the church (1 Cor. 5:12). He is to judge preaching and teaching (1 Cor. 14:29; Acts 17:11). He is to reprove the unfruitful works of darkness (Eph. 5:11). As a matter of fact the Bible says that “he that is spiritual judgeth all things” (1 Cor. 2:15). That is a very far-reaching statement. The spiritual man knows that he lives in a world of spiritual darkness and error and he is warned repeatedly in the Bible about false teaching, apostasy, and spiritual deception. Thus he carefully tests everything by the light of God’s Word. The spiritual man does not judge by his own thinking and opinion, but by the holy Word of God, which he has in the Scriptures. For more on this see http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/gaithersdisobedience.htm.
YET ANOTHER CATHOLIC DIOCESE PAYS FOR ITS IMMORAL PRIESTS (Friday Church News Notes, August 29, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Catholic diocese of Kansas City has agreed to pay $10 million to settle 47 sexual abuse claims against priests, including retired Wyoming bishop Joseph Hart. The diocese has already paid out more than a $1 million to settle separate cases. In 2007 alone the Catholic Church in America paid $615 million to settle abuse cases. The total far exceeds a billion dollars. The Bishop Accountability organization says that more than 4,000 priests have been accused of abusing children (“US Church to Pay 12.6 Million,” AFP, Aug. 11, 2008). That represents roughly 10% of the Catholic priests in America, and the statistics include only those that have been formally accused. A conservative Catholic organization documented this wretched business in the fall/winter 2002 issue of the magazine Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, observing: “… the overwhelming majority of sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church--about 90%--involve homosexual priests preying on teenage boys. The major media and the U.S. culture at large want to deny or spin the homosexual factor out of the scandal.”
NURSE RECOUNTS HORRORS OF INFANTICIDE PRACTICE BARACK OBAMA PROTECTED (Friday Church News Notes, August 29, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from LifeSiteNews, Aug. 12, 2008: “At the same time that the National Right to Life Committee has unearthed documents proving that Barack Obama repeatedly voted against a bill that would have protected children born alive after an attempted abortion, Illuminati Pictures has released a video of an interview with a nurse who witnessed the very practice that Obama protected while in the Illinois senate. Jill Stanek was a nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois in 1999 when she discovered that babies born alive after failed abortions purposely were being left to die in the ‘soiled utility room,’ which, says Stanek, is a room where biohazard materials and soiled linens are disposed of. ‘That’s where nursing staff took these babies and left them to die.’ Stanek went public with her traumatizing experiences when hospital staff refused to stop the practice of infanticide. In 2000 she was asked to testify before a U.S. House committee for the federal Born Alive Infants Protection Act (BAIPA). The BAIPA was a two-paragraph bill intended to clarify that any baby who is entirely expelled from his or her mother, and who shows any signs of life, is to be regarded as a legal ‘person’ for all federal law purposes, whether or not the baby was born during an attempted abortion. A version of this bill, almost identical to the federal bill, was eventually brought before the Illinois Senate, which is where Obama repeatedly opposed the measure. ‘Christ hospital--and we now know other hospitals and clinics around the country--are involved in an abortion procedure called induced labor abortion,’ says Stanek in the video, entitled ‘Kill and Destroy.’ In this type of abortion, she says, the abortionist inserts a medication into the birth canal of the mother and induces premature labor. ‘My experience was that they [the babies] survive as short as a few minutes, to once, almost as long as an eight hour shift.’”
ARCTIC ICE REFUSES TO MELT (Friday Church News Notes, August 29, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Steven Goddard, “Arctic Ice Refuses to Melt as Ordered,” The Register, London, England, Aug. 15, 2008: “Just a few weeks ago, predictions of Arctic ice collapse were buzzing all over the internet. Some scientists were predicting that the ‘North Pole may be ice-free for first time this summer.’ Others predicted that the entire ‘polar ice cap would disappear this summer.’ The Arctic melt season is nearly done for this year. The sun is now very low above the horizon and will set for the winter at the North Pole in five weeks. And none of these dire predictions have come to pass. ... The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado released an alarming graph on August 11, showing that Arctic ice was rapidly disappearing, back towards last year’s record minimum. ... The problem is that this graph does not appear to be correct. Other data sources show Arctic ice having made a nice recovery this summer. Maps of Arctic ice extent are readily available from several sources, including the University of Illinois. A comparison of these maps (derived from NSIDC data) below shows that Arctic ice extent was 30 per cent greater on August 11, 2008, than it was on the August 12, 2007. ... ice has grown in nearly every direction since last summer--with a large increase in the area north of Siberia. ... There appears to be a consistent pattern of overstatement related to Arctic ice loss. ... The media tendency to knee-jerkingly blame everything on ‘global warming’ makes for an easy story--but it is not based on solid science. ... And what of the Antarctic? Down south, ice extent is well ahead of the recent average. Why isn’t NSIDC making similarly high-profile press releases about the increase in Antarctic ice over the last 30 years?”
DRESSING FOR THE LORD (Friday Church News Notes, August 29, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - After reading our book Dressing for the Lord, one reader said: “I finished reading ‘Dressing for the Lord’ this morning, and Sir, you have hit the nail right on the head! This is the best and most comprehensive work I’ve ever seen on the dress issue; praise God! The book is super and really needs to be read by Christian men and women the world over.” To lay a solid Bible foundation for modesty, we give a careful exegesis of about 25 key Bible passages from Genesis to 1 John, developing Bible principles that can be applied to any nation or culture. The chapter titles include “The Origin of Clothing, “Clothing Is a Language,” “The Captains of the Fashion Industry,” “Isn’t This Basically the Man’s Problem?” “Bible Guidelines for Clothing,” “A Study on Biblical Modesty,” “Worldliness and the Christian’s Dress,” “Pants and the Christian Woman,” “Pushing the Edge on Dress Standards,” Questions Answered on the Issue of Christian Dress,” “Testimonies from Christian Women on the Issue of Modest Dress,” “Survey of Men on the Subject of Women’s Dress,” and “Sources for Ready-made Modest Clothing.” The section on QUESTIONS ANSWERED deals with 36 common challenges, such as “Since God looks on the heart, why be so concerned about appearance?” “Shouldn’t we just teach the Bible and let the Holy Spirit deal with this issue?” “I believe dress standards produce pride and hypocrisy.” “Should women only wear drab sack dresses?” “I wear pants because there are many things I can’t do in a dress.” “Those who preach against pants on women are legalistic.” “What about the issue of modesty in other cultures?” and “What about tattoos and piercings?” The 203-page book is 203 $9.95 plus postage. It can be ordered by internet, phone, e-mail, or post. Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143 (toll free), fbns@wayoflife.org (e-mail), http://www.wayoflife.org. If ordering from Canada contact Bethel Baptist Church, 4212 Campbell St. N., London, Ont. N6P1A6, 1-866-295-4143.
CONCLUSION: Friends in Christ, do not be discouraged by any of this. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. These things remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the coming of the Lord. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ day by day? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:11-14).
22/08/08 13:11
SEEKER SENSITIVE CHURCH PRODUCES FALSE CONVERTS (Friday Church News Notes, August 22, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Granger Community Church of Granger, Indiana, is one of the most prominent “seeker sensitive” churches. Last year The Church Report listed it has one of the 50 most influential churches in America. Their philosophy is to make the gospel “relevant” to culture and to use pop culture to attract a crowd, and they are very adept at that. They used Beatles Music for their 2007 Christmas theme, which was advertised as “Let it Be...Christmas -- A Story Told by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, George and Ringo.” The church’s web site describes its Sunday evening youth meetings as follows: “Imagine stepping into a large room, the floor vibrating with the beat of rock music. Colored lights cut through a fog-machine haze. The stage is empty, for now. ... if you’re a teenager, chances are you avoid church like the plague. It’s boring. Irrelevant. And the music is ... face it ... lame. So what else do we offer besides a unique environment? Here’s the tip of the iceberg: your kind of music--live and loud; leaders who talk to you, NOT AT YOU (or worse, down to you)--about hard issues you face every day; wild extracurricular events...” Granger is also on the “great sex” bandwagon. Its “My Lame Sex Life” campaign featured billboards with two pair of feet in a very suggestive configuration and sermon titles such as “The Greatest Sex You’ll Ever Have.” The church has attracted large crowds with its “relevant” philosophy, but what is the spiritual reality of the congregation? We have always said that “what you win them with you win them to,” and Granger’s own survey of attendees bears this out. The church’s “Reveal Now” survey found that 47% of attendees do not believe in salvation by grace; 57% do not believe in the absolute authority of the Bible; and 56% do not believe Jesus is the only way to eternal life (Christian Research Net, Aug. 14, 2008).
CATHOLIC CHURCH CONTINUES TO PAY FOR ITS IMMORAL PRIESTS (Friday Church News Notes, August 22, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has agreed to pay $12.6 million to settle 14 cases of sexual child abuse by 10 priests. In 2007 alone the Catholic Church in America paid $615 million to settle abuse cases. The total so far exceeds a billion dollars. The Bishop Accountability organization says that more than 4,000 priests have been accused of abusing children (“US Church to Pay 12.6 Million,” AFP, Aug. 11, 2008). That represents roughly 10% of the Catholic priests in America, and the statistics includes only those that have been accused. A conservative Catholic organization documented this wretched business in the fall/winter 2002 issue of the magazine Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, observing: “… the overwhelming majority of sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church--about 90%--involve homosexual priests preying on teenage boys. The major media and the U.S. culture at large want to deny or spin the homosexual factor out of the scandal.” We would also comment that the judicial system in America is nearly as corrupt as the child-abusing Catholic priests. If a “minister” is guilty of a heinous crime, he should be held liable and should pay for his crime, and if a fellow “clergyman” is found to have contributed to the crime by trying to cover it up, he, too, should be made to pay. But an entire group of churches should not be bankrupted by greedy lawyers as the present system unjustly allows. The American judicial system is no longer about justice for those who have been wronged; it is about money, which it drains from every victim that falls into its uncaring clutches.
NEW BAPTIST HYMNAL FILLED WITH CONTEMPORARY/CHARISMATIC WORSHIP SONGS (Friday Church News Notes, August 22, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The 2008 Southern Baptist Hymnal, published by LifeWay, contains many songs written by charismatics and published by charismatic music companies. Jeff Royal warns: “Seventy-eight of the top 100 CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International) songs are included in this hymnal. That means Southern Baptist and others in churches everywhere will be influenced by authors and music companies like Integrity, Maranatha, and the radically charismatic Hillsong records. Most of the song writers or worship leaders I looked at are either charismatic, new evangelical or a combination of the two. You throw Bill Gaither in the mix and that’s a recipe for disaster in my opinion.” For example, songs by David Ruis and Darlene Zschech are included in the new hymnal. Both of these popular worship leaders are extreme charismatic ecumenists. Ruis was one of the worship leaders at the Toronto Airport Church where people, who are instructed not to judge things by the Bible, rolled on the floor, barked like dogs, roared like lions, laughed hysterically, and got “drunk in the spirit” during their “revival.” Ruis’s song “Break Dividing Walls” calls for ecumenical unity between all denominations. Zschech and her raucous Hillsong worship band recently performed for the Catholic Youth Day in Sydney, with the Pope himself present. The lyrics to Zschech’s “Holy Spirit Rain Down” (which is included in the new Baptist Hymnal) begin: “Holy Spirit, rain down, rain down/ Oh, Comforter and Friend/ How we need Your touch again/ Holy Spirit, rain down, rain down.” Where in Scripture are we instructed to pray to the Holy Spirit? To the contrary, the Lord Jesus Christ taught us to pray to the Father (Mat. 6:9). The charismatic movement is not in submission to the Word of God and does not care one way or the other that there is no Scriptural support for this type of prayer, but shame on Baptists who follow in these presumptuous and disobedient footsteps. Shame on Lifeway for giving charismatics a powerful forum to influence Baptist churches.
SON OF HAMAS LEADER FOLLOWS JESUS CHRIST (Friday Church News Notes, August 22, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of the main leaders of the terrorist Islamic organization Hamas, put his faith in Jesus Christ a few years ago and currently is seeking asylum in the United States. He is 30 years old and attends an evangelical church in California. The following is excerpted from a Fox News interview dated August 12, 2008: “There are two facts that Muslims don’t understand. I’d say about more than 95 percent of Muslims don’t understand their own religion. ... Second, they don’t understand anything about other religions. ... Muslims don’t recognize that they stabbed Christianity (in) its heart when they said that Jesus wasn’t killed on the cross. They think that they honor him in this way. ... they don’t understand that this is the most important part of Christianity: the cross! So, they are ignorant, they don’t know what they are doing and it explains what an evil idea it is behind this Islam. ... When I studied the Bible carefully verse by verse, I made sure that that was the book of God, the word of God for sure, so I started to see things in a different way, which was difficult for me, to say Islam is wrong. ... I left everything behind me, not only family. ... You’re saying goodbye to culture, civilization, traditions, society, family, religion, God--what you thought was God for so many years! So it’s not easy. It’s very complicated. ... That was the most difficult decision in my life and I didn’t do it for fun. I didn’t do it for anything from this world. I did it only for one reason: I believed in it. People are suffering every day because of wrong ideas. I can help them get out of this endless circle, the track the devil (laid) for them. ... There is no chance [for peace between Israel and Hamas]. Is there any chance for fire to co-exist with the water? There is no chance. ... It’s not about Israel, it’s not about Hamas: it’s about both ideologies. There is no chance. ... There will be a 100-percent peace when Jesus comes back, when he judges everybody. His kingdom’s going to be 1,000 years and it’s going to be completely peaceful and it’s going to be the kingdom of God.”
MUSLIM FATHER BURNS DAUGHTER TO DEATH FOR HER FAITH IN CHRIST (Friday Church News Notes, August 22, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Muslim Father Kills Daughter for Converting to Christianity,” International Christian Concern, Aug. 13, 2008: “A Saudi Arabian man cut out the tongue of his daughter and burnt her to death after finding out that she had converted to Christianity. The girl came to know about Jesus Christ through the internet, according to Gulf News. Her father found about her conversion and killed her ‘following a heated debate on religion,’ the source indicated. The man is currently in custody. There is no indication as to the killer’s identity or the date of the crime except that ‘the killing happened recently.’ The killer works for the mutaween (Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice), an arm of the government that enforces religious purity and is the government’s face of persecution to Christians in Saudi Arabia. ... The Saudi Arabian officials are using their huge oil wealth to export Wahabbism (the most intolerant version of Islam) to other countries, including the United States. In its recent press release regarding the Saudi government school in Northern Virginia, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom indicated that, according to text books at the school, ‘It is permissible for a Muslim to kill an apostate (a convert from Islam).’ From Ethiopia to Indonesia, Saudi Arabia’s oil money is fueling the killings of Christians and destruction of their property.” “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12).
NEW CATHOLIC BIBLE FEATURES QUOTES FROM HINDU SCRIPTURES (Friday Church News Notes, August 22, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The New Community Bible published by the Catholic Church in India features verses from the Hindu Scriptures and quotes from Hindu activist Mahatma Gandhi. (“New Indian Bible Draws Fire,” Christian Post, Aug. 11, 2008). It is approved by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India and published by the Society of St. Paul. The new Bible sold 15,000 copies within 10 days of its release. The Catholic Church in India has been deeply syncretized with Hinduism over the past 50 years. Some Catholic priests have even imitated the habit of the Hindu holy man, wearing the orange robe, adopting vegetarianism, meditating yoga style, living in ashrams, etc. We documented this in the new book Contemplative Mysticism: A Powerful Ecumenical Bond, which is available from Way of Life Literature.
BARACK OBAMA PRAISED BY HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVISTS (Friday Church News Notes, August 22, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Homosexual activists are praising Barack Obama for his influence in the new Democratic Party platform, which supports the “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender” (LGBT) vision for America (“National ‘Gay’ Leaders Credit Obama,” WorldNetDaily, Aug. 16, 2008). Rea Carey of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force says, “For the first time the platform explicitly calls for an end to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.” The platform states that Democrats will fight to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. As the homosexual’s candidate, Obama will lead America toward spiritual destruction. That Rick Warren didn’t tell him that publicly in the recent debate at Saddleback Church is evidence of his apostasy. “His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber” (Isaiah 56:10). “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” (Jeremiah 5:31).
BEHOLD, I COME QUICKLY (Friday Church News Notes, August 22, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The expression “Behold, I come quickly” is repeated four times in Revelation (3:11; 22:7, 11, 20). It refers, first of all, to His coming in God’s perspective. It must be interpreted by God’s clock, not ours. See 2 Peter 3:8. Elsewhere in the New Testament Christ’s coming is described as soon (Lk. 18:8; Rom. 16:20). To God a thousand years is as a day or even less than a day. In Isaiah 54:8 He told Israel, “In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for A MOMENT; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.” Though He has forsaken Israel for at least 2,000 years, to God that is but a moment because He measures things by eternity. The quick coming of the Lord also refers to the imminency of His coming, meaning that it is not preceded by specific signs and could happen at any time (Matt. 24:42, 44; 25:13; Phil. 4:5; 1 Th. 1:9-10; Tit. 2:12-13; Jam. 5:8-9). It will begin with the Rapture of church-age saints (1 Thess. 4:3-18), and from then until the return of Christ to establish His kingdom as described in Revelation 19-20 only seven brief years elapse. If a father leaves his teenage son in charge of his younger siblings and the household affairs and tells him, “I have to go away on some business, but I will come quickly,” what will that teenage son do if he is wise? He will be ready at every moment for the return of his father! The church-age believer is not looking for the Antichrist but for Christ. The events described in Revelation 6-18 are “the day of the Lord,” and it will come “as a thief in the night” and as “sudden destruction” (1 Thess. 5:2-3). The New Testament believer is “not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief” (1 Thess. 5:4). God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 5:5).
CONCLUSION: Friends in Christ, do not be discouraged by any of this. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. These things remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the coming of the Lord. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ day by day? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:11-14).
15/08/08 13:11
A GREAT END-TIME BLENDING (Friday Church News Notes, August 15, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A great end-time blending is in process throughout Christianity and beyond to the religious world at large. Fundamentalists are affiliating with Evangelicals; Evangelicals are affiliating with Roman Catholics; and Catholics are affiliating with all the pagan religions. Richard Galentino’s new book Hail Mary and Rhythmic Breathing (Paulist Press, 2008) is an example. Galentino merges Hindu yoga with the Catholic Rosary. The original title was Hail Mary and the Art of Yoga Breathing. The merging of Catholicism with non-Christian religions has been picking up steam each decade since the Second Vatican Council, which said: “The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. ... The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions ... they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men” (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, Oct. 28, 1965). This opened the door for the interfaith dialogue that has resulted, not in the Catholicization of paganism but in the further paganization of Catholicism. The call for interfaith dialogue has been repeated forcefully by every pope since Paul VI. One of the segments of the Roman Catholic Church that has responded in a big way is the Catholic monastic orders (Trappist, Benedictine, Franciscan, etc.). Since the 1970s they have developed intimate ties with their counterparts in pagan religions, and they have discovered that contemplative mysticism is an effective bridge for interfaith unity. In recent decades many Catholic priests have become Hindus and Buddhists, while remaining Catholics. The very influential Trappist monk Thomas Merton claimed to be both a Buddhist and a Christian. Paulist priest Thomas Ryan took a sabbatical in India in 1991 and was initiated into yoga and Buddhist meditation. Today he is a certified teacher of Kripalu yoga. In our new book Contemplative Spirituality: A Powerful Ecumenical Bond and in the article “Second Pagan Invasion into the Roman Catholic Church” we provide extensive documentation for this phenomenon. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (1 Timothy 4:1).
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY SUPPORTIVE OF “FAITHFUL” HOMOSEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS (Friday Church News Notes, August 15, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, believes that “faithful” homosexual relationships are not forbidden by Scripture and can “reflect the love of God” in a way that is comparable to marriage. This is what he stated in correspondence with a psychologist eight years ago (“Rowan Williams,” Times of London, Aug. 7, 2008). Williams said that he reached this conclusion when he was Dean of Clare College, Cambridge, in the 1980s. He first published it in an essay in 1989 entitled “The Body’s Grace.” The fact is that the Bible plainly states that sexual relationships apart from marriage are sinful (Hebrews 13:4) and it always defines marriage as a union of a man and a woman.
HIGH PERCENTAGE OF MUSLIM STUDENTS IN BRITAIN SUPPORT KILLING IN NAME OF RELIGION (Friday Church News Notes, August 15, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “One-third of UK Muslim Students Back Jihad,” The Jerusalem Post, July 28, 2008: “Nearly a third of British Muslim students polled in a new report to be published on Monday said that killing in the name of religion could be justified. The report by the London-based Center for Social Cohesion (CfSC), entitled ‘Islam on Campus: A Survey of UK Student Opinion,’ showed that 32 percent of Muslim students said killing in the name of religion could be justified, while 60% of active members of on-campus Islamic societies said the same. Only 2% of non-Muslims polled felt this way. ... Forty percent of Muslim students polled supported the introduction of Sharia into British law for Muslims, and a third supported the introduction of a worldwide caliphate based on Sharia law; 58% of active members of Islamic societies supported the idea. ... ‘These findings are deeply alarming,’ said CfSC researcher Hannah Stuart, one of the report’s authors. ‘Students in higher education are the future leaders of their communities. Yet significant numbers of them appear to hold beliefs which contravene liberal, democratic values. In addition, there are signs of growing religious segregation on campus. These results are deeply embarrassing for those who have said that there is no extremism in British universities.’”
JOEL HEMPHILL DENIES CHRIST’S DEITY (Friday Church News Notes, August 15, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Gospel Artist Joel Hemphill: Jesus Is Not God,” Apprising Ministries, July 18, 2008: “Joel Hemphill is a noted singer-songwriter, evangelist, musician, and author. ... He has penned over 350 songs, many of which became Gospel Music classics. ... Along with his singing family, Hemphill is the recipient of eight Dove Awards. ... They appeared regularly on the Gaither Homecoming videos. ... In his 2007 book To God Be The Glory: Exalting the Bible View of God Hemphill clearly denies the Deity of Christ. ... He writes: “The focus of my book isn’t what Jesus is not, but rather who God the Father is. God is immortal--Jesus was not. ... He is perfect, sinless man, but man nevertheless! ... A God-man could not redeem us. ... He is the second Adam, not the first God-man. ... The incarnation as taught by modern Christianity is a fable.” Hemphill is a member of the Southern Gospel Hall of Fame.
CHINESE GOVERNMENT INCREASES PERSECUTION AGAINST CHRISTIANS (Friday Church News Notes, August 15, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Christian Aid Association has reported at least 70 instances of persecution against unregistered house churches in the five months leading up to the start of the Olympics (http://chinaaid.org/2008/08/04/report-issued-concerning-china%e2%80%99s-pre-olympic-crackdown-on-house-churches/). The organization says, “It is hoped that the report will shed light on the near daily persecutions that occur in China and uncover the truth from the hypocritical host of this year’s Olympic Games.” Communist authorities in Beijing have forced house churches to sign a covenant agreeing to shut down from July 20 to September 20 (“Beijing’s Authorities Force House Church Leaders to Sign Covenant,” China Aid, July 28). In February of this year, 21 house church leaders were sent to labor camp at the same time. They were part of a group of 249 leaders that was arrested last December at a training program. The rest paid fines and were jailed for a few days to a few weeks, but 21 (17 men and 4 women) were accused of being “evil cult” members and sentenced from one to three years. On August 6 and 7, U.S. pro-life activists were arrested in Tiananmen Square when they tried to protest China’s human rights abuses, including imprisonment of Christians and forced abortions (“Christian Protesters Dragged from Tiananmen Square,” The Guardian, Aug. 7, 2008). Others were arrested for displaying Tibet independence banners. All of this is contrary to China’s own constitution and its international agreements, but history instructs us never to believe a communist party.
PERSECUTION INCREASES IN RUSSIA UNDER PUTIN (Friday Church News Notes, August 15, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “At Expense of All Others, Putin Picks a Church,” New York Times, April 24, 2008: “It was not long after a Methodist church put down roots here [Stary Oskol, 300 miles south of Moscow] that the troubles began. First came visits from agents of the F.S.B., a successor to the K.G.B., who evidently saw a threat in a few dozen searching souls who liked to huddle in cramped apartments to read the Bible and, perhaps, drink a little tea. Local officials then labeled the church a ‘sect.’ Finally, last month, they shut it down. There was a time after the fall of Communism when small Protestant congregations blossomed here in southwestern Russia, when a church was almost as easy to set up as a general store. Today, this industrial region has become emblematic of the suppression of religious freedom under President Vladimir V. Putin. Just as the government has tightened control over political life, so, too, has it intruded in matters of faith. The Kremlin’s surrogates in many areas have turned the Russian Orthodox Church into a de facto official religion, warding off other Christian denominations that seem to offer the most significant competition for worshipers. They have all but banned proselytizing by Protestants and discouraged Protestant worship through a variety of harassing measures, according to dozens of interviews with government officials and religious leaders across Russia. This close alliance between the government and the Russian Orthodox Church has become a defining characteristic of Mr. Putin’s tenure, a mutually reinforcing choreography that is usually described here as working ‘in symphony.’ ... On local television last month, the city’s chief Russian Orthodox priest, who is a confidant of the region’s most powerful politicians, gave a sermon that was repeated every few hours. His theme: Protestant heretics. ‘We deplore those who are led astray--those Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists, evangelicals, Pentecostals and many others who cut Christ’s robes like bandits, who are like the soldiers who crucified Christ, who ripped apart Christ’s holy coat,’ declared the priest, the Rev. Aleksei D. Zorin. Such language is familiar to Protestants in Stary Oskol, who number about 2,000 in a city of 225,000.”
DESIGNED BY “NATURE” (Friday Church News Notes, August 15, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Secular media reporters, who believe in evolution, frequently use the term “design” in reference to nature. For example, a report on a new camera begins, “Borrowing one of nature’s best designs, U.S. scientists have built an eye-shaped camera using standard sensor materials...” (“Eye Spy,” Reuters, Aug. 6, 2008). Evolutionists unconsciously speak in these terms because of the obvious design that we find on every hand. The eye is such an amazing and complex instrument that man, even in these vaunted days of technological advance, cannot even begin to replicate it. But for an evolutionist to speak of “nature’s design” is a strange and impossible statement. Nature itself has no ability to design anything, unless Nature is a synonym for God. If Darwinian evolution is true there can be no design. Lacking an intelligent Director, how could evolution be anything but blind chance? The majority of evolutionists vehemently deny that evolution is the product of an intelligent designer. Thus, they must stop using terms like “nature’s design.” If the eye was “designed” then there is a Designer; and that could only be Almighty God, because it would have to be Someone with incredible intelligence and mind-boggling power after the fashion of the God described in the Bible. And if there is an Almighty God capable of designing and producing such an amazing universe, that is powerful evidence that the Bible is true and man is a fallen sinner and salvation is only through faith in Jesus Christ. Either the universe was designed, or it wasn’t. There can be no half-way position.
DID DARWIN RECANT EVOLUTION ON HIS DEATHBED? (Friday Church News Notes, August 15, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Was Darwin a Christian,” ChristianAnswers.net: “In the years following Darwin’s death in 1882 several stories surfaced that he had undergone a death-bed conversion and renounced evolution. The best known is that attributed to a Lady Hope, who claimed she had visited a bedridden Charles at Down House in the autumn of 1881. ... This story first appeared in print as a 521-word article in the American Baptist journal, the Watchman Examiner, and since then has been reprinted in many books, magazines and tracts. The main problem with these stories is that they were denied by members of Darwin’s family. Francis Darwin wrote to Thomas Huxley on February 8, 1887, that a report that Charles had renounced evolution on his deathbed was ‘false and without any kind of foundation,’ and in 1917 Francis affirmed that he had ‘no reason whatever to believe that he [his father] ever altered his agnostic point of view.’ Charles’s daughter (Henrietta Litchfield) wrote on page 12 of the London evangelical weekly, The Christian, dated February 23, 1922, ‘I was present at his deathbed. Lady Hope was not present during his last illness, or any illness. I believe he never even saw her, but in any case she had no influence over him in any department of thought or belief. He never recanted any of his scientific views, either then or earlier.’ Darwin’s biographer, Dr. James Moore, produced a 218-page book examining what he calls The Darwin Legend. ... Moore concludes that Lady Hope probably did visit Charles between Wednesday, September 28 and Sunday, October 2, 1881, almost certainly when Francis and Henrietta were absent, but his wife, Emma, probably was present. He describes Lady Hope as ‘a skilled raconteur [storyteller], able to summon up poignant scenes and conversations, and embroider them with sentimental spirituality.’ He points out that her published story contained some authentic details as to time and place, but also factual inaccuracies--Charles was not bedridden six months before he died, and the summer house was far too small to accommodate 30 people. The most important aspect of the story, however, is that it does not say that Charles either renounced evolution or embraced Christianity. He merely is said to have expressed concern over the fate of his youthful speculations and to have spoken in favor of a few people’s attending a religious meeting. The alleged recantation/conversion is embellishment that others have either read into the story or made up for themselves. Moore calls such doings ‘holy fabrication!’ ... While the spiritual journey of a Christian is a journey out of darkness into Christ’s marvelous light, that of Charles Darwin was a slippery slide out of Gospel light (although not saving spiritual sight) into the sheer ‘blackness of darkness for ever.’”
CONCLUSION: Friends in Christ, do not be discouraged by any of this. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. These things remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the coming of the Lord. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ day by day? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:11-14).
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MATTHEW 25 NETWORK EMBRACES OBAMA (Friday Church News Notes, August 8, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Matthew 25 Network is an ecumenical political action organization that supports Barack Obama’s bid for the U.S. presidency. Emerging church leader Brian McLaren recently got on board. The network is named for its misinterpretation of Christ’s statement in Matthew 25:40 -- “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” This, they say, means that people will be judged by Christ according to how deeply they care about liberal social-justice issues, such as defeating global poverty, solving the AIDS crisis, fretting over “global, warming” and otherwise saving the environment. In fact, though, the context of Matthew 25 is the nations’ treatment of the Jews during the Great Tribulation. Matthew 25:40 is not the church’s Great Commission, which is clearly stated and emphasized by its five-fold repetition in Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:46-48; John 20:21; Acts 1:8. We see the Great Commission fleshed out in the book of Acts, where the apostles and early churches set out to win men to Jesus Christ. There is not a hint in Acts of a global social-justice program after the emerging church model. The Matthew 25 Network is the blind leading the blind, and as for their man Obama, he is a great choice for president for those who want more abortion on demand, a dramatic increase in homosexual rights, onerous environmental regulations, and the Marxist redistribution of wealth, and for those who want to see America’s sovereign rights as a nation turned over to that foolish and hypocritical institution called the United Nations. (For more about Matthew 25:40 see our new book What Is the Emerging Church?, which is available from Way of Life Literature.)
TWO BIBLICAL CHARACTERS DOCUMENTED BY RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES (Friday Church News Notes, August 8, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Royal Seal of Prophet Jeremiah’s Accuser Found,” The Trumpet, July 31, 2008: “During the last days of the kingdom of Judah, the Prophet Jeremiah warned the residents of Jerusalem of their impending captivity at the hands of the Babylonian army. But instead of heeding that warning message, the princes of King Zedekiah’s administration attacked the messenger and plunged him into the depths of a miry dungeon (Jeremiah 38:1-6). One of Jeremiah’s accusers, Gedaliah the son of Pashur, had his name stamped on a small clay seal that was recently discovered about 600 feet south of the Temple Mount. Dr. Eilat Mazar, one of Israel’s top archaeologists, found the bulla earlier this year, in mint condition, while wet-sifting debris excavated under a tower at the north end of the City of David--the original site of ancient Jerusalem. Last summer Mazar, whose grandfather was the late Prof. Benjamin Mazar, began an emergency dig near the top of Jerusalem’s famous Stepped Stone Structure in order to repair a collapsing tower. But what started as a reconstruction project quickly turned into a fascinating collection of new discoveries. ... Mazar concluded that the tower must have been built by Nehemiah after the Jews returned from Babylonian captivity to rebuild the temple and repair the walls around Jerusalem. ... Included underneath Nehemiah’s tower were numerous remains and artifacts, including the Gedaliah bulla, that date to the final years of the first temple period--during the reign of Zedekiah, Judah’s last king. Three years ago, Mazar found another seal with the name of Jehucal the son of Shelemiah--mentioned twice in the book of Jeremiah (37:3; 38:1).”
THOMAS ROAD BAPTIST CHURCH SCREENS MOVIE THAT PRAISES BILLY GRAHAM (Friday Church News Notes, August 8, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Thomas Road Baptist Church of Lynchburg, Virginia, where the late Jerry Falwell was pastor, provided a free screening of the new movie “Billy: The Early Years” at its evening service on August 3. The church’s official announcement called Graham “an incredible servant of God.” This is nothing new for Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty University. Falwell openly supported Graham beginning in the mid 1990s, but it is undisputable evidence of their complete capitulation to New Evangelical compromise. Graham was one of the founders of the New Evangelical philosophy in the 1950s, denouncing “separatism” and leading the way in the new ecumenical evangelism which brought born-again believers together with theological liberals and Roman Catholics, blatantly disobeying God’s command to earnestly contend for the faith for the sake of the supposed “larger good” of getting people under the sound of the gospel. Through the decades, Graham has turned thousands of his converts over to the hands of wolves in sheep’s clothing. As early as September 21, 1957, Graham said in an interview with the San Francisco News, “Anyone who makes a decision at our meetings is seen later and referred to a local clergyman, Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish.” In September 1983 The Florida Catholic reported that the names of 600 people from the Orlando crusade had been turned over to Catholic churches. In 1984, David Cline, vice-chairman of the Vancouver, British Columbia crusade, said, “If Catholics step forward THERE WILL BE NO ATTEMPT TO CONVERT THEM and their names will be given to the Catholic church nearest their homes” (Vancouver Sun, Oct. 5, 1984). In 1989 Michael Seed, Ecumenical Advisor to Catholic Cardinal Hume, said of Graham’s London crusade: “Those who come forward for counseling during a Mission evening in June, if they are Roman Catholic, will be directed to a Roman Catholic ‘nurture-group’ under Roman Catholic counselors in their home area.” In 1992 the Catholic archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, supplied many of counselors for the Graham crusade, and all Catholics responding to the altar call were channeled to Catholic churches. Graham’s June 1996 crusade in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, brought the participation of 119 Catholic parishes (Christianity Today, July 15, 1996). In 1997, in an interview with Promise Keepers’ New Man magazine, Graham said that nearly all of his crusades were supported by Roman Catholic churches. Documentation for these and many other examples of this wretched business can be found in our 354-page book Evangelicals and Rome.
ENVIRONMENTAL COPS ON THE JOB (Friday Church News Notes, August 8, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A shop in England was fined US$600 for using the wrong-colored garbage bags. The London Daily Mail reports: “Customers shopping for clothes at the Charli boutique watched in amazement when two uniformed men marched in and threatened staff with criminal prosecution. Their crime? Putting out rubbish in the wrong-coloured bin bags. Council officers announced that the shop in Muswell Hill, North London, would be fined £300 after using black bags because they had run out of the grey version issued by the local authority. The designer store had been waiting since July 1 for a delivery of new bags, but by the 17th staff decided they would have to put their rotting rubbish out in four standard black bags--a decision which cost them £75 per bag. Owner Sangita Ibrahim, 47, said: ‘The shop was really busy and they came in here like the Gestapo’” (“Trader Fined,” Daily Mail, July 25, 2008). Al Gore and the great city of London can sleep soundly, knowing that the ever-vigilant, oh-so-wise environmental cops are on the job.
MAKING HARPS FOR THE JEWISH TEMPLE (Friday Church News Notes, August 8, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The harp used by King David, called the kinor, was lost for 2,000 years following the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and the dispersion of the Jewish people throughout the earth. But 25 years ago Micah and Shoshanna Harrari brought it back into existence, and they build harps for the Temple Institute, which is preparing for the rebuilding of the Jewish temple. They have learned that there were 4,000 Levis who played harps in the ancient temple and taught their children from age three to play the harp, shofar, and trumpet, and they are looking for a restitution of these things. In a recent interview with Israel National Radio the Harraris said: “These are Jewish instruments. The fact that they’ve returned means good times will be coming. There will be a time when we will play these instruments in the Temple. We won’t have to worry about making money or terrorism or health problems. We will sit around and play our harps and thank Hashem for everything and bring into this world a great, great joy” (“Harrari Harps Recreates Biblical Instruments,” Arutz Sheva, July 23, 2008). The Harraris migrated from America to Israel because of the biblical prophecies about the regathering of the Jews, and they are looking for the coming of the Messiah. What they don’t acknowledge is that the Messiah or Christ came 2,000 years ago and his name is Jesus, and before He comes the second time the Jews will be purged of unbelievers and only those that repent will enter the kingdom (Ezekiel 20:33-38). The Jewish temple will be rebuilt, but it will be desecrated by the antichrist during the Great Tribulation before the return of Christ (Matthew 24:15).
WORD FAITH PREACHER PROMISES WEALTH (Friday Church News Notes, August 8, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Word-Faith movement forms a large segment of modern-day Pentecostalism, and one of its big voices is John Avanzini. Speaking at Family Harvest Church in Tinley Park, Illinois, on July 17, he said, “God wants you to live with limitless supply,” and, “In good times or in bad times, God is willing to make you rich” (“John Avanzini and His Talking Stones,” http://www.SlideofLaodicea.com, July 22, 2008). Avanzini then presented his new revelation of “reverse entrapment.” He exhorted each attendee to use his or her credit card to give him a gift equaling the size of their monthly mortgage, brazenly promising that God would pay off the mortgage right away. Avanzini also distributed stones to each of the attendees, instructing them to rub the stones whenever they faced higher prices at the gas pump! This sounds like a magic genie or a lucky charm, but it certainly is not Scriptural. For more about the Word-Faith heresy see our 317-page book The Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements: The History and Error, available from Way of Life Literature.
MORE HINDU PERSECUTION AGAINST CHRISTIANS IN INDIA (Friday Church News Notes, August 8, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - More instances of persecution have been reported out of India. In Kerala the 15,000-member Heavenly Feast Church of Kottayam has been targeted by radical Hindus who are seeking to shut it down (Mission Network News, July 23, 2008). They partially destroyed a tent in which the church operates a ministry to feed the poor, abused church-goers with foul language, and threw stones at them, injuring 25 people. Because of the agitation the local government has stopped the church’s meetings until the issue can be resolved. In West Bengal 14 members of a church were beaten, threatened with death, and forced to leave their homes. In Karnataka a Pastor Abraham was assaulted by 20 Hindus in the presence of his family and congregation. The mob also destroyed all of the church’s Christian literature and Bibles (“Pastor Assaulted,” Voice of the Martyrs Persecution Blog, July 22, 2008). This was the third attack on Christians in that area in two months.
31,000 SCIENTISTS REPUDIATE GLOBAL WARMING THEORY (Friday Church News Notes, August 8, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “U.N. ‘Scaring Planet Earth” into Global Tax,” WorldNetDaily, June 19, 2008. “A scientist whose reservations about ‘global warming’ have been officially endorsed by tens of thousands of other scientists is accusing the U.N. of using ‘mob rule’ to generate fear-mongering climate change reports intended to scare national leaders into submitting to its worldwide taxation schemes. ‘Science has always progressed on the basis of observations, experiments, and thoughts published by individual scientists and sometimes pairs or small groups of scientific coworkers,’ Art Robinson, a research professor of chemistry and co-founder of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, said in a recent column in Human Events. Except at the U.N., he said. Robinson’s concern over the political manipulation of science earlier led him to launch the Petition Project, a compilation of more than 31,000 scientists [including 9,000 Ph.D.s]--with more names arriving daily--who have voluntarily signed their names to the following statement: ‘There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.’”
CONCLUSION: Friends in Christ, do not be discouraged by any of this. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. These things remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the coming of the Lord. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ day by day? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:11-14).
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RICK WARREN’S “INTERFAITH COOPERATION” (Friday Church News Notes, August 1, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Rick Warren and his Saddleback Church are hosting an interfaith meeting for 30 Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders “to discuss cooperation for the common good.” Warren says he is interested in interfaith cooperation “on things that involve all humans regardless of what we believe” (“Interfaith Cooperation,” OneNewsNow, July 25, 2008). Warren is also hosting a presidential forum to discuss issues with Barack Obama and John McCain, neither of whom have a biblical testimony of salvation nor live according to the Bible’s precepts. All of this is part of Warren’s P.E.A.C.E. plan, which aims to overcome the five “global giants” of Spiritual Emptiness, Self-serving Leadership, Poverty, Disease, and Ignorance (or Illiteracy). For authority for his interfaith ventures, Warren quotes Matthew 10:11 in the wildly unreliable paraphrase called The Message. Warren says, “When you go into a village, you find the man of peace. If he accepts, and he’s open, and he’s receptive and he’s willing to work with you, you start your ministry there.” In fact, Warren is not obeying Matthew 10 in any sense. Christ did not say to find a “man of peace” but to find one “who is worthy.” He was referring merely to someone who would be willing to show hospitality to Christ’s disciples. Further, the commission in Matthew 10:5-14 is obviously not for today, because Christ instructed the disciples to preach only to Jews. Further, they were to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, and raise the dead; they were to take no money with them or even a change of clothing; and they were to shake the dust off their feet and pronounce the most horrible judgment upon those who refused to believe their message. Rick Warren does not obey ANY of this. The church’s commission is in Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:46-48; and Acts 1:8, and it says nothing about working with “men of peace” of various religious persuasions, nor does it say anything about a global social-justice program. The apostle Paul condemned Warren’s interfaith policy in the strongest possible terms in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18. “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” The Bible says the church is to be the pillar and ground of the truth in this dark world (1 Timothy 3:15). By receiving unbelieving men who worship false gods and false christs and false gospels and giving them a forum to voice their opinions, Rick Warren has turned the church into the pillar and ground of confusion, and you can be sure that he will answer to Almighty God for it. Where are all of the “conservative” Southern Baptist preachers who should be lifting their voices against this wickedness? I also want to hear them condemn Billy Graham’s ecumenical evangelism, but I won’t hold my breath.
ROCK & ROLL HYPOCRISY (Friday Church News Notes, August 1, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Rolling Stones have been preaching “do your own thing” for 45 years, so it is grossly hypocritical for them to question how one of their members is currently living. In 1965 the Stones sang in their brash manner, “I’m free to do what I want any old time ... I’m free to choose what I please any old time” (“I’m Free”). That rebellious lie rode deeply into the hearts of multitudes of youth through the sensual back beat. I was in the 10th grade at the time, and I certainly bought into the rock & roll lie, foolishly thumbing my nose at my father, the government, and Almighty God Himself. Now the London Daily Express reports that the Stones are amazed and troubled by the fact that guitarist Ronnie Wood is in rehab for the second time in a month and has left his wife for a 20-year-old Russian waitress, which might hinder their upcoming European tour. The Express reports that “Mick [Jagger] and everyone can’t quite believe it.” Rock & rollers are hypocrites. They mock biblical laws and morality and preach, “Do your own thing,” but they are quick to cry foul when their “lovers” cheat on them or their friends abandon them or their record companies steal from them or their rock partners fail to show up for a tour or their neighbors call the cops on them or their own children reject them. Hey, if I’m free to do what I want any old time, then other people are free to do to me whatever they want any old time! That, though, is anarchy. God’s law is better. It says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3), and, “... as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31).
A VISIT TO HIGHLAND PARK BAPTIST CHURCH (Friday Church News Notes, August 1, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from a report by James Knox, a Baptist preacher from Deland, Florida. Highland Park Baptist Church is the home of Tennessee Temple University. I graduated from there in 1977, and it was a different place then. “We decided to drive in for the evening service at Tennessee Temple University, telling the boys on the way about the history of the school. When we arrived we thought we had found a skateboard park or waterless beach. There were groups of long haired boys and short haired girls milling about, all of them wearing shorts and t-shirts and not one of them had a Bible. We entered the lobby of the auditorium and found it filled with posters advertising ‘Christian’ rock bands. There were posters, refrigerator magnets, and autographed pictures of different groups, all designed to look just like the same paraphernalia sold at a secular concert. ... Thinking there must be some mistake, in a daze we tried to make our way into the auditorium. On the platform were enough instruments and drum sets to make the Rolling Stones envious. Technicians were setting up the laser light show which was to accompany the bands. A painted babe in tight pants approached us. ... She said, ‘Oh you can’t go in there yet; the artists are still setting up for the show.’ I said, ‘Is there no church service tonight?’ With disdain she sneered, ‘Of course, this is a church service.’ ‘But what about the preaching of the word,’ I asked. ‘Oh we have (and she named some rock bands I was supposed to have heard of) performing and Jonathan Falwell is going to give a word in between.’ ... Now I know what some of you are thinking, because you hear it so much you almost believe it. We have to stay relevant and up to date to reach the young people. [In reply, I would say,] one, when the world converts the church you haven’t reached anyone, and two, huge buildings that once served as dormitories for the school are vacant and for sale, so it didn’t work. When you bring in music, holidays, dating programs, funzy time, etc., so kids who don’t want the word of God, street preaching, Biblical Christianity, and self-denial will want to come to your school you are on the road that leads to what we saw in Chattanooga Wednesday night.”
PUBLIC SCHOOLS CAUGHT IN TEST FRAUD (Friday Church News Notes, August 1, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Homeschooling Advocate: Public Schools All about the Benjamins,” OneNewsNow, July 26, 2008: “A home-schooling advocate says a recent case in which half the students in a big city school district failed a test after being provided the answers is just more proof that U.S. public schools have failed miserably at educating students. The school district of Rochester, New York, provided students and teachers with the questions and answers for a required test for seventh- and eighth-graders. The test covered four subjects: English, math, science, and social studies. Not only did the district deny that there was anything wrong with providing students with the answer key--but half the students failed the test anyway. Connie Leech, the district supervisor for secondary schools, informed a local newspaper that issuing the study guides was ‘probably not in the best judgment,’ but denied any wrongdoing. She also told the paper: ‘I’m not concerned that it’s a cheat. What we were doing is giving kids a better sense of the knowledge that they needed for the test.’ Bruce Shortt is a Dallas-based attorney who has written extensively on the need for a mass exodus from the public schools. He says Leech’s comment--that giving the answers for a test is not cheating--is typical of the attitude in an institution whose main focus is maintaining the status quo, and advancing students who cannot read or write. He also contends public schools are more focused on making money than educating students. ... Shortt says test fraud is something that has been an open secret for a very long time. But he says that is because public schools are only interested in maintaining an appearance that students are being educated. ... The home-schooling advocate accuses the public schools of bleeding the taxpayers dry, and crippling families financially through property taxes. At the same time, he adds, they are failing to educate children, and are indoctrinating them with various kinds of leftist ideology regarding homosexuality, the environment, economics, and gender roles.”
NUMBER OF INTERNET USERS IN CHINA SURPASSES U.S. (Friday Church News Notes, August 1, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The number of internet users in China has surpassed that of the U.S., to become the world’s largest internet population. At least that is what China’s own figures claim. The China Internet Network Information Center says the number of online users has risen to 253 million, a 56% increase from a year ago (“China Says Has More People Surfing,” Yahoo, July 25, 2008). Internet surfers in China get to see only what the Red Communist government wants them to see, though, blocking sites deemed “subversive.” In September 2005 the official Xinhua news agency announced, “The state bans the spreading of any news with content that is against national security and public interest.” Forum 18, a Norway-based organization that monitors state restriction to religious freedom, reports: “The Chinese government has blocked a wide range of foreign-based religious internet sites that relate to persecution of Christians and believers of other faiths...” (ENI, July 23, 2004). Todd Nettleton, spokesman for the Voice of the Martyrs, says: “China has thousands of internet policemen. Their job is to monitor information and keep in the information they want to keep in, and keep out the information they want to keep out” (“China Ratchets up Christian Persecution,” WorldNetDaily, April 19, 2008). China requires that internet service providers spy on their customers by installing software to screen emails and to provide detailed information to the government; internet cafes are regularly raided, and the government requires the installation of software that bars access to restricted sites (The Australian, Jan. 23, 2002). Webmasters are supposed to monitor and cut off “subversive talk” on internet chat rooms. Many Chinese citizens have been imprisoned for “online subversion” Qi Yanchen, for example, a freelance writer, was sentenced for four years in prison for posting articles on the internet calling for political reform. Li Dawei, former police officer, was sentenced to 11 years for downloading articles from overseas-based Chinese democracy web sites (“Amnesty International Demands Release of Chinese Jailed for Getting Political Online,” AP, Nov. 26, 2002). Communism has never been a friend to true liberty. According to the communist’s dictionary, liberty is the freedom to do what the government allows.
CONSISTENT CHRISTIAN LIVING IS THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE CHILDREN TRAINING (Friday Church News Notes, August 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, www.northstarministries.com, dhs.northstar@charter.net) -- “Twenty years ago, I had the privilege of working with the youth of the church. Later, I worked with the young couples. At the same time, my wife and I worked together in the large children’s church program. Then we started a Christian school. Again, I worked with families and their children. It was a unique experience. I came to know the younger children in the children’s church. I also knew the teenagers, having been the youth pastor for several years. In working with the young couples of the church, I got to know the parents of many of these same young people. Spirituality and character in the children and teenagers closely paralleled the degree of spiritual maturity and character evident in their parents. I came to learn that when the Bible spoke about reaping what we sow in Galatians 6, it likely had an application to our offspring. ... How we as parents live spiritually will profoundly affect our children. ... Children and teenagers are very perceptive of inconsistency and hypocrisy. Perhaps, because they are required to be under authority, they subconsciously scrutinize those over them. ... Mom and Dad, we do reap what we sow, and the harvest often comes through the children. ... The sowing to the flesh [brings] a harvest of corruption, and children tend to gravitate to the lowest common denominator spiritually in their home” (Training Your Children to Turn Out Right, 1995, pp. 137, 138, 146, 147).
CONCLUSION: Friends in Christ, do not be discouraged by any of this. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. These things remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the coming of the Lord. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ day by day? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:11-14).