March 27, 2009 Volume 10, Issue 13
March 27, 2009, Volume 10, Issue 13
The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. For instructions on how to unsubscribe to this list or to change mailing addresses, please consult the information paragraph at the end.
DAVID WILKERSON’S FEEBLE ATTEMPT AT PROPHECY (Friday Church News Notes, March 27, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Pentecostal preacher David Wilkerson has given another prophecy. Earlier this month he said: “An earth-shattering calamity is about to happen. It is going to be so frightening, we are all going to tremble--even the godliest among us. For ten years I have been warning about a thousand fires coming to New York City. It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires--such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago. There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide. There will be looting--including Times Square, New York City” (“What You Need to Know,” Christianity Today, March 16, 2009). Wilkerson, author of the popular book The Sword and the Switchblade, is a false prophet. I say that on the authority of his own prophecies. In the early 1970s, in his prophecy called “The Vision,” Wilkinson predicted that the charismatics would be driven out of the Roman Catholic Church. For 1993, he prophesied that there would be 1,000 fires in New York City from race riots. For 1999, he prophesied that there would be no more gospel television networks, that they would all be in bankruptcy and ruin. For 2000, he prophesied a dire financial crash. None of this happened. A biblical prophet cannot be mistaken. He must be 100% right 100% of the time. “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him” (Deuteronomy 18:22). There is no doubt that America and the entire world are headed toward frightful calamities. The Bible plainly describes them, and we don’t need any half-baked additions. “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29).
SCIENCE JOURNAL’S CONTRADICTORY REPORT ON GLOBAL WARMING (Friday Church News Notes, March 27, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A report in the scientific journal Nature warns that global warming 3 to 5 million years ago caused extensive flooding and could predict what is ahead for the earth in modern times. The finding is based on an examination of core samples far below the surface of an ice shelf in the Antarctic. Tim Naish, director of the Antarctic Research Centre at Victoria University in New Zealand said, “What we’re seeing in the past would lead us to believe that we are on track for losing parts of the West Antarctic ice sheet” (“Big Melt Seen in Antarctic Past,” USA Today, March 18, 2009). Scientists conclude that “unless something is done to curb emissions soon ... this would commit us to an inevitable 5-meter (16.4 foot) sea level rise over the next several centuries.” This conclusion, though, contradicts the actual facts of the study. First, the researchers themselves say that a rise in the ocean based on the alleged ancient global warming took perhaps a thousand years to happen. That is obviously not a crisis scenario. Second, the alleged warming took place before modern human culture could have possibly been a factor. How many automobiles and electric generation plants existed three million years ago? The fact is that the global warming scientists are merely guessing. Their views are based on the uniformitarian presumption that there was no divine creation or global flood. We don’t believe the earth existed three million years ago. Man is not going to destroy the earth; God is going to do that. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. ... Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:9-10, 13).
DICTIONARY REDEFINES MARRIAGE TO INCLUDE HOMOSEXUAL COUPLES (Friday Church News Notes, March 27, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from the Christian Post, March 19, 2009: “One major dictionary company has defined marriage in broader terms than the U.S. government. Similar to the definition of marriage under federal law, Merriam-Webster states marriage as ‘the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law.’ Every state in the nation recognizes marriage on similar terms except for Connecticut and Massachusetts. But the dictionary runs askew from legal recognition of marriage by the federal government and almost all the states by tacking on a secondary definition that counts unions between same-sex couples as ‘marriage.’ Merriam-Webster added the secondary meaning for marriage in 2003, even before gay marriage was legalized anywhere in the country. Whereas the company’s dictionary editions prior to 2003 stated no mention of same-sex marriage, the latest version now defines marriage also as ‘the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage.’”
THE MODERNISTS THAT HAVE SAWN ISAIAH ASUNDER (Friday Church News Notes, March 27, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “According to the old tradition, the prophet Isaiah was sawn asunder. Of the truth of the tradition we cannot be sure, but we know that one of the earliest feats of the Higher Criticism was to perform the like operation upon his prophecy. So much is the theory of a divided prophecy gaining ground, that no one must make any pretension to scholarship if he hesitates to accept the double authorship of Isaiah. From chapter 40 to the close was written, we are told with tiresome iteration, not by Isaiah, but by a prophet of the Exile--the Great Unknown. By the way, it is remarkable how many unknown great men flourished among the Jews, and remained unknown to their posterity, until, in these enterprising days, the Higher Critics arose and discovered them, brought them into light with the exception of their names. How wondrously modest, how self-effacing, these writers had been! And how strangely unmindful of their best men had the people been! True, we know they did not always receive the God-sent messengers; they killed the prophets, and stoned them that were sent unto them. But killing a man is a different thing from ignoring a man. You cannot well put a man to death without recognizing the fact that he existed” (Archibald McCaig).
HARRY TRUMAN’S RECOGNITION OF ISRAEL (Friday Church News Notes, March 27, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - I believe that one of the most important events in American history was Harry Truman’s recognition of Israel on May 14, 1948. America’s friendship toward Israel has not been perfectly consistent by any means, but the fact remains that America has been Israel’s best friend in modern history, and that is significant. God told Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3). On this authority there can be no doubt that one of the chief reasons for God’s blessing on America has been her blessing of Israel. Truman’s decision to recognize Israel was hard fought. He was strongly opposed by the U.S. State Department, which favored a United Nations trusteeship over Palestine, and by many of the most powerful individuals in the government. The State Department took a pragmatic view, seeing the need for the free flow of oil from Muslim nations in the face of the very real possibility of war with Russia in those days. They did not want to offend the Muslims for the sake of a “few Jews.” Truman withstood this pressure because of his biblical convictions. We don’t know how much he read the Bible in his adult years, but it is said that he read it through three times before age fourteen. Clark Clifford, who was special counsel to Truman, said that the president “was a student and believer in the Bible since his youth” and that “from his reading of the Old Testament he felt the Jews derived a legitimate historical right to Palestine, and he sometimes cited such biblical lines as Deuteronomy 1:8: ‘Behold, I have given up the land before you; go in and take possession of the land which the Lord hath sworn unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob’” (“President Truman’s Decision to Recognize Israel,” Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, May 1, 2008). The new Jewish state was declared at midnight in Jerusalem, May 14, 1948, which was 6:00 P.M. in Washington, and a mere eleven minutes later the White House announced the recognition of the United States.
YOUR BUSY LIVER (Friday Church News Notes, March 27, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from Creation Moments, http://www.creationmoments.net/radio/transcript.php?t=2181: “An adult’s liver is about the size of a football and weighs about three pounds, making it the body’s largest internal organ. Tucked neatly beneath the ribs, your liver performs more than 500 different tasks. It is a vital link between your heart, lungs and digestive system. Inside the liver is a bewildering array of microscopic veins in which each drop of blood is processed. Here, blood conditions are constantly monitored to make sure everything is up to standard. If more of certain substances are needed in the blood, they are supplied. Useless chemicals are broken down into useful chemicals. Proteins are made in the liver, blood-clotting factors are corrected, hormone balances are maintained, and poisons are neutralized. If substances are needed to fight an infection, they are produced and added to the blood. The liver also stores vitamins and minerals and prepares itself to provide your body with quick energy when you need it. In addition, the liver makes bile, which is essential for digestion. Structures like the liver have caused many evolutionists to abandon the idea that life is a result of millions of years of accidents. The liver is just too well designed and integrated into the body to have been produced by purposelessness and mindlessness. Surely it makes more sense to acknowledge a supremely wise Creator who loves His Creation, including you and me.”
JACK OF ALL TRADES AND MASTER OF ONE (Friday Church News Notes, March 27, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “The versatile ne’er-do-well is often castigated by the taunt, ‘Jack of all trades and master of none.’ In reality, however, that saying is a perversion. What the famous Benjamin Franklin actually said was that a man should be ‘Jack-of-all-trades and master of one.’ A really cultured man has been described as one who knows something about everything, and everything about something. So far as the Christian worker is concerned, and most of all the Christian minister, the specialization-point must be the Bible. Other knowledge may be interesting, useful, important; but to be a master in Bible knowledge is vital” (J. Sidlow Baxter, Explore the Book, p. 112).
CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. 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. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “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). This material is sent only to those who personally subscribe to the Fundamental Baptist Information Service mailing list. To SUBSCRIBE, go to http://www.wayoflife.org/wayoflife/subscribe.html. TO UNSUBSCRIBE OR CHANGE ADDRESSES, go to the very bottom of any email received from us and click "Manage My Subscription." Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org.
March 20, 2009 Volume 10, Issue 12
FRIDAY CHURCH NEWS NOTES
March 20, 2009, Volume 10, Issue 12
The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. For instructions on how to unsubscribe to this list or to change mailing addresses, please consult the information paragraph at the end.
THE EMERGING CHURCH, PAGANISM, CATHOLICISM, AND THE NEW AGE (Friday Church News Notes, March 20, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Richard Rohr and the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is hosting an emerging church conference for three days beginning March 20. Speakers include Brian McLaren, Phyllis Tickle, and Shane Claiborne. It is billed as “the first large gathering of Roman Catholic, Mainline Protestant, Evangelical, and other Christians seeking to explore this emergence and convergence together.” Rohr is a Franciscan priest who is heavily involved in contemplative mysticism and liberal “social-justice” works. He holds to a universalistic, panentheistic doctrine and believes that much in the Bible, such as the Garden of Eden, is mythical. Like Thomas Merton, Rohr integrates pagan contemplative practices with that of ancient Catholic “saints.” He has adapted such things as Buddhist koans and Hindu mantras. In January 2008 Rohr and his organization sponsored a conference called “Jesus and Buddha: Paths to Awakening.” The announcement said, “The teachings of both Jesus and Buddha call us to transformational honesty. They are both teaching us how to see, and how to see all the way through! They both knew that if you see God for yourself, you will see the Divine in all things.” Rohr says that his philosophy teaches “us to be both-and” and “keeps us from either-or.” It “keeps us from the false choice of liberal or conservative” and “allows us to enjoy both sides of things”; it “is far beyond my religion versus your religion” and “allows us to be both distinct and yet united.” In fact, this is the essence of Hinduism, the New Age, and the Emerging Church. Biblical Christianity, on the other hand, teaches us that there is truth and error, right and wrong, good and bad, God and the Devil, light and dark, that there is only one way of salvation and many false ways, and that men are either saved or lost. The end-time New Age Tower of Babel is being built before our very eyes.
NEW AGE COMING TO MUSLIMS IN GAZA (Friday Church News Notes, March 20, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Center for Mind-Body Medicine based in Washington, D.C. is busy educating Muslims in Gaza in New Age techniques such as meditation, guided imagery, and biofeedback. Thousands there have been trained in these techniques (“Stressed Gazans Turn to Meditation,” AP, March 12). Mysticism is the glue of the New Age movement. It is what holds all of its diverse aspects together. Mysticism brought the East to the West and is bringing the New Age to society in general. Mysticism is focused on experience, feeling, emotion, intuition, and perception. The 1950s Beat generation and the 1960s Hippie generation were hooked on mysticism, both through Eastern religious practices and hallucinogenic drugs, and this attraction has since grown and spread through every level of society. Books by mystical New Age gurus such as M. Scott Peck, Deepak Chopra, and Shakti Gawain sell tens of millions of copies.
PARENTS TO BLAME FOR AMERICA’S LIBERAL DRIFT (Friday Church News Notes, March 20, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from WorldNetDaily, Nov. 17, 2008: “The big victory on Election Day by ‘liberal’ Democrats shouldn’t be a surprise, because American parents, even many conservatives, have been training their kids to be liberals for too long, says Reb Bradley, author of ‘Born Liberal, Raised Right: How to Rescue America from Moral Decline--One Family at a Time,’ ... ‘A few decades ago, people were just as human as we are in this decade,’ he writes. ‘Like us, they got angry, they lusted, they coveted, and they drowned their grief by one means or another. But in one important way, they were different from us--they had greater self-control. Because they were more self-restraining, they did not allow themselves to be ruled by their anger; hence the murder rate was markedly less. They lusted, but they had greater sexual self-restraint. They coveted other people's money and possessions, but they had the ability to not act on their covetousness. In the last 40 years we have lost the virtue of self-control. No longer is our society populated by individuals who can restrain or govern themselves. To lack the capacity to control one’s urges or passions is to lack what our nation’s Founders called personal self-government.’ ... These ideas are not really new, explains Bradley. They are just in need of rediscovery. He points out that in 1926 Minnesota Gov. Theodore Christianson established a state crime commission. At the end of its research, the commission concluded that criminal tendencies were not the result of poverty, education or environment. Instead, it made the following observation: ‘Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered; he wants what he wants when he wants it: his bottle, his mother’s attention, his playmate’s toys, his uncle’s watch, or whatever. Deny him these and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness which would be murderous were he not so helpless. He’s dirty, he has no morals, no knowledge, no developed skills. This means that all children, not just certain children but all children, are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in their self-centered world of infancy, given free rein to their impulsive actions to satisfy each want, every child would grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a rapist.’” The Bible says, “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him” (Proverbs 22:15).
CHRISTIAN ROCK HASN’T WORKED (Friday Church News Notes, March 20, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - From the inception of Christian rock in the 1970s, we have been told that it is needed in order to “reach the youth.” It is THE music of ecumenical evangelism. Now we learn from the latest Barna Poll that less than one-half of one percent of youth in America aged 18-23 have a “biblical worldview.” The poll defined this as such things as believing that absolute moral truth exists, that the Bible is completely accurate in all of the principles it teaches, and that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life. Those are pathetically basic truths, so say the least, but the number of young people in America that believe them is infinitesimal. How can that be with all of the ecumenical evangelism programs and all of the churches broadcasting Christian rock? The fact is that there is no spiritual power in Christian rock. Romans 12:2 forbids us to be conformed to the world, and God is never pleased with disobedience to His Word. The Bible says that the Christian race must be run according to the divine rule or there is no reward. “And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully” (2 Tim. 2:5). Even sincere disobedience is displeasing to God. When Uzzah steadied the cart holding the ark, God struck him dead (1 Sam. 6:6-7). It appears from the record that Uzzah was sincerely trying to assist in the service of God, but God did not accept it because it was not done according to His Word.
A MASTERS DEGREE IN FOOLISHNESS (Friday Church News Notes, March 20, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Liverpool Hope University has begun offering a Master of Arts degree in “The Beatles, Popular Music and Society.” This reminds us that the Beatles are the most popular and influential rock band of all time. Rolling Stone magazine ranked them number one in its list of 100 “Greatest Artists.” They have sold over one billion records internationally. This is in spite of the fact that none of the Beatles could read a note of music. They have been called “a revolution” and “a cultural earthquake.” More than 8,000 books have been written about them. Their 2000 album, titled “1,” debuted at No. 1 on pop charts in the U.S.A. and 16 other countries and sold more than 3.6 million copies the first week. Even Contemporary Christian musicians are Beatles fans. Phil Keaggy pays “homage to the Beatles” on his 1993 Crimson and Blue album. Galactic Cowboys admits that their biggest influence is the Beatles. Caedmon’s Call often performs Beatles music. dc Talk opened its “Jesus Freak” concerts with the Beatles’ song “Help.” The lead guitarist for Jars of Clay is said to be a “Beatles fanatic.” We give many more examples of this in the article “The Beatles and Contemporary Christian Music,” which is available at the Way of Life web site. The Beatles’ evil influence permeates Western society and can be felt throughout the world. When John Lennon blurted out in 1966 that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus, he might have been right. The Beatles have had a vast influence upon the hearts and minds, not only of the unsaved, but also of professing Christians, and have helped to create a corrupt form of Christianity that merges paganism with Christ, a Christianity that believes it is wrong to judge sin or to live by strict biblical standards or to say that there is only one way of truth. The average Christian today thinks nothing of going to church on Sunday and then watching R-rated movies and listening to R-rated music the rest of the week; and he knows more about rock stars and sports idols and raunchy television sitcoms than he does about the Bible. “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (2 Timothy 3:5).
EUROPEAN UNION BANS USE OF “MISS” AND “MRS” (Friday Church News Notes, March 20, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from the Daily Mail Reporter, London, March 16, 2009: “Brussels bureaucrats have decided the words are sexist and issued new guidelines in its bid to create ‘gender-neutral’ language. The booklet warns European politicians they must avoid referring to a woman's marital status. This also means Madame and Mademoiselle, Frau and Fraulein and Senora and Senorita are banned. ... Man-made is also taboo; it should be artificial or synthetic. ... They have reacted with incredulity to the booklet, which has been sent out by the Secretary General of the European Parliament. Scottish Tory MEP Struan Stevenson described the guidelines as ‘political correctness gone mad’. He said: ‘This is frankly ludicrous.’ ... West Midlands Conservative MEP Philip Bradbourn said, ‘I will have no part of it. I will continue to use my own language and expressions, which I have used all my life, and will not be instructed by this institution or anyone else in these matters. ... The Parliament, by the publication of this document, is not only bringing itself as an institution into more disrepute than it already suffers, but it is also showing that it has succumbed to the politically correct clap-trap currently in vogue.’”
MUSLIMS ATTACK “CHRISTIANS ON FACEBOOK” WEB SITE (Friday Church News Notes, March 20, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Persecution Blog, March 12, 2009: “Todd Snider, whose pro-Israel site on Facebook was hacked and destroyed by Hezbollah supporters, is not alone; Facebook Jihad is breaking out all over. The group Christians On Facebook has become the latest target of attack for hackers who are posting pro-Islam messages. At 11:15am CDT today, the group’s name was changed to ‘La ilaha illallahu Muhammadur Rasulullah,’ which means ‘There is no god but Allah; Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.’ Since then the name has changed no fewer than ten times. The Christians on Facebook group itself has over 327,000 members from all variations of the Christian faith. This channel or group hack appears to have been designed to replace the fundamental tenants of Christianity with those of Islam.”
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE? (Friday Church News Notes, March 20, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The emerging church claims that God’s love is unconditional, but this is a serious error. God’s love is unfathomable, but it is not unconditional. Consider the following statements that the Lord Jesus Christ made: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21). “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned” (John 15:5-6). “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:21-23). “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).
GOD IS IN HIS HOLY TEMPLE AND ALL WILL BE WELL FOR THE RIGHTEOUS (Friday Church News Notes, March 20, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright. (Psalms 11:4-7).
CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. 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. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “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). This material is sent only to those who personally subscribe to the Fundamental Baptist Information Service mailing list. To SUBSCRIBE, go to http://www.wayoflife.org/wayoflife/subscribe.html. TO UNSUBSCRIBE OR CHANGE ADDRESSES, go to the very bottom of any email received from us and click "Manage My Subscription." Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org.
March 13, 2009 Volume 10, Issue 11
The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. For instructions on how to unsubscribe to this list or to change mailing addresses, please consult the information paragraph at the end.
THE GAITHERS ACCEPTING THE EMERGING CHURCH AND ITS FALSE GOD (Friday Church News Notes, March 13, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The 19th annual Family Fest hosted by Bill and Gloria Gather will features William Young, author of The Shack, and the 2005 Gaither Praise Gathering featured emerging church leaders Brian McLaren and Leonard Sweet (“Gaither Family Fest,” Lighthouse Trails, March 7, 2009). Young is tied into the emerging church (he spoke in February at Zondervan’s National Pastor’s Convention in San Diego, which was an emerging church gathering with Brian McLaren and Rob Bell), and his book depicts the false god of the emerging church. “The Shack” is a fictional account of a man who is bitter against God for allowing his youngest daughter to be murdered and who returns to the scene of the murder, an old shack in the woods, to have a life-changing encounter. The “God” that he encounters, though, is not the God of the Bible. Young depicts the triune God as a young Asian woman named “Sarayu” (supposedly the Holy Spirit), an oriental carpenter who loves to have a good time (supposedly Jesus), and an older black woman named “Elousia” (supposedly God the Father). God the Father is also depicted as a guy with a ponytail and a goatee. Young’s god is the god of the emerging church. He is cool, loves rock & roll, is non-judgmental, does not exercise wrath toward sin, does not send unbelievers to an eternal fiery hell, does not require the new birth, puts no obligations on people, doesn’t like traditional Bible churches, and does not accept the Bible as the infallible Word of God. The Shack’s god says: “I don’t need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It’s not my purpose to punish it...” (p. 120), and, “Those who love me come from every system that exists. They were Buddhists or Mormons, Baptists or Muslims ... I have no desire to make them Christian” (p. 182). “The Shack” is another building block of the end-times Tower of Babel.
SURVIVING BEATLES PROMOTE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION FOR CHLDREN (Friday Church News Notes, March 13, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The two surviving Beatles are headlining a benefit concert next month to promote Transcendental Meditation (TM) among children. The concert benefits the David Lynch Foundation, which is dedicated “consciousness-based education and world peace.” The objective is to raise funds to teach one million children to meditate. Joining Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney are Sheryl Crow, Donovan, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, and others. Though some try to deny it, TM is a Hindu practice and is based on the concept that the universe is God and man can tap into God through mysticism. The TM practitioner uses a mantra to put himself into an altered state of consciousness. One page of the David Lynch Foundation’s web site has a young girl saying, “It is quiet and comfortable and I feel connected to everything and everyone.” The practice was brought to America by the Hindu guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 1950s and popularized by the Beatles when they visited his lectures in Wales in 1967 and his ashram in India the next year. Beatle George Harrison went on to join the Hare Krishnas and died in the Hindu faith. Maharishi developed TM from the Hindu Vedas. He called TM “a path to God” and “the spontaneous flow of knowledge.” The Beatles have influenced an entire generation to commune with demons. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
OLDER CHILDREN’S BOOKS BANNED UNDER NEW U.S. LAW (Friday Church News Notes, March 13, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Walter Olson, “The New Book Banning,” City Journal, New York City, Feb. 12, 2009: “It’s hard to believe, but true: under a law Congress passed last year aimed at regulating hazards in children’s products, the federal government has now advised that children’s books published before 1985 should not be considered safe and may in many cases be unlawful to sell or distribute. Merchants, thrift stores, and booksellers may be at risk if they sell older volumes, or even give them away, without first subjecting them to testing--at prohibitive expense. Many used-book sellers, consignment stores, Goodwill outlets, and the like have accordingly begun to refuse new donations of pre-1985 volumes, yank existing ones off their shelves, and in some cases discard them en masse. The problem is the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA), passed by Congress last summer after the panic over lead paint on toys from China. Among its other provisions, CPSIA imposed tough new limits on lead in any products intended for use by children aged 12 or under, and made those limits retroactive. ... Penalties under the law are strict and can include $100,000 fines and prison time, regardless of whether any child is harmed. Not until 1985 did it become unlawful to use lead pigments in the inks, dyes, and paints used in children's books. Before then--and perhaps particularly in the great age of children's-book illustration that lasted through the early twentieth century--the use of such pigments was not uncommon, and testing can still detect lead residues in books today. This doesn't mean that the books pose any hazard to children. ... no one seems to have been able to produce a single instance in which an American child has been made ill by the lead in old book illustrations ... the commission did allow an exception for vintage collectibles whose age, price, or rarity suggested that they would most likely be used by adult collectors, rather than given to children. ... Whatever the future of new media may hold, ours will be a poorer world if we begin to lose (or ‘sequester’ from children) the millions of books published before our own era. They serve as a path into history, literature, and imagination for kids everywhere. They link the generations by enabling parents to pass on the stories and discoveries in which they delighted as children. Their illustrations open up worlds far removed from what kids are likely to see on the video or TV screen. Could we really be on the verge of losing all of this? AND IF THIS IS WHAT GOVERNMENT PROTECTION OF OUR KIDS MEANS, SHOULDN'T WE BE THINKING INSTEAD ABOUT PROTECTING OUR KIDS FROM THE GOVERNMENT?”
YOUNG CHUCK AND THE OBAMA BAIL OUT PLAN (Friday Church News Notes, March 13, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - I would love to give credit for the following, but I have no idea who wrote it. “Young Chuck in Montana bought a horse from a farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the horse the next day. The next day the farmer drove up and said, ‘Sorry son, but I have some bad news; the horse died.’ Chuck replied, ‘Well, then just give me my money back.’ The farmer said, ‘Can’t do that. I spent it already.’ Chuck said, ‘OK, then, just bring me the dead horse.’ The farmer asked, ‘What ya gonna do with him?’ Chuck said, ‘I’m going to raffle him off.’ The farmer said, ‘You can’t raffle off a dead horse!’ Chuck said, ‘Sure I can, Watch me. I just won’t tell anybody he’s dead.’ A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, ‘What happened with that dead horse?’ Chuck said, ‘I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a profit of $998.’ The farmer said, ‘Didn’t anyone complain?’ Chuck said, ‘Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back.’ Chuck grew up and now works for the government. He’s the one who figured out how this ‘bail-out’ is going to work.”
APPEALS COURTS SAY VATICAN CAN BE SUED FOR CLERGY ABUSE (Friday Church News Notes, March 13, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Two U.S. federal appeal courts, the 9th and the 6th, have ruled that the Vatican can be sued for clergy abuse in America. The recent ruling by the 9th circuit court is in favor of an Oregon man who alleges that he was molested in the 1960s by a priest at a Catholic school. The priest, Andrew Ronan, who died in 1992, was transferred to America after being accused of molesting children in Ireland (Los Angeles Times, Mar. 5, 2009). In November, the 6th circuit court of appeals ruled in favor of three men who also allege that they were abused by Catholic priests. The lawyer is seeking class-action status for “thousands of victims nationwide.”
GRIEF COUNSELING PSYCHOBABBLE (Friday Church News Notes, March 13, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Grief or bereavement counseling is big business. The Grief Recovery Institute claims that “hidden grief costs U.S. companies more than $75 billion annually.” Whenever tragedy strikes today, from plane and car crashes to shootings and bombings to wild animal attacks to divorce and untimely deaths, you can be sure that grief counseling is not far behind. The firefighters who sought for survivors after the Twin Towers fell on 9/11 were given extensive grief counseling. After the shootings at Virginia Tech in April 2007 that killed 32 people a memorial fund was created to provide grief counseling and other aid to the “survivors.” After an ape viciously mauled a woman in February 2009, grief counseling was offered to the doctors and nurses who provided medical care. The logical question is whether all of this grief counseling is proper and effective and how did people get along for thousands of years without it, and the answer is that it is nothing more than psychobabble that can cause more harm than good. Dr. Tana Dineen, in Manufacturing Victims: What the Psychology Industry Is Doing to People, gives the following warning: “A battalion chief in a large metropolitan fire and rescue agency, writing about the ascendance of the CISD movement in his field, noted a comment made decades earlier by a hook and ladder captain. ‘We used to have steel men and wooden wagons; now we have steel wagons and wooden men.’ He is one of an increasing number of people who are expressing concern that such procedures undermine the natural support and adaptation that keeps those with jobs like firefighting resilient. Adding support to this concern is the growing scientific literature that finds that the debriefing movement appears to have no appreciable preventive or palliative effect, and may, in fact, be responsible for an iatrogenic effect of causing the problems it claims to treat” (p. 184). “[James] Pennabaker, critical of this simplistic approach [e.g., pop grief counseling] says: ‘Not everyone progresses through stages in grieving or coping. In fact, as many as half of all adults may face torture, divorce, the loss of a loved one, or other catastrophe and not exhibit any major sign of depression or anxiety’” (p. 207). “Another researcher, George Bonanno, a clinical psychologist at Columbia University, offers his empirical analysis of the so-called grief-work hypothesis: the widely held assumption that venting negative emotions and ‘telling your story’ are necessary for regaining mental health. ... ‘There’s really no evidence that these things are effective--and there’s even some to suggest that they can actually be detrimental,’ says Bonanno” (pp. 207, 208).
THE RETURN OF CHRIST IS IMMINENT (Friday Church News Notes, March 13, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Lord Jesus and the apostles and prophets taught that the return of Christ is to be expected at any time and that the child of God must wait in holy expectation. “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 24:44). “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 25:13). “Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand” (Philippians 4:5). “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:5-6). “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (James 5:8). “But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer” (1 Peter 4:7).
CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. 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. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “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). This material is sent only to those who personally subscribe to the Fundamental Baptist Information Service mailing list. To SUBSCRIBE, go to http://www.wayoflife.org/wayoflife/subscribe.html. TO UNSUBSCRIBE OR CHANGE ADDRESSES, go to the very bottom of any email received from us and click "Manage My Subscription." Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org.
March 6, 2009 Volume 10, Issue 10
FRIDAY CHURCH NEWS NOTES
March 6, 2009, Volume 10, Issue 10
PDF VERSION HERE
The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. For instructions on how to unsubscribe to this list or to change mailing addresses, please consult the information paragraph at the end.
VISION FORUM (Friday Church News Notes, March 6, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Another avenue whereby Calvinism is entering fundamentalist and independent Baptist churches and homes is Vision Forum. This organization has a worthy goal of building godly families and exhorting fathers to take the headship of their homes, and many of their materials are helpful. But Vision Forum is founded upon and permeated with Reformed Calvinistic theology. Its statement of faith includes the following: “All who were chosen in Christ from eternity past are born again by the Holy Spirit, respond from their new hearts with repentance and faith in Jesus, are justified on the basis of the shed blood of Christ, become children of God, and are indwelt, sanctified, and sealed by the Holy Spirit until they are glorified at Christ’s return.” Vision Forum books include the following: John Calvin: Man of the Millennium, The Story of the English Puritans, The World’s Greatest Reformation History Library, The Geneva Bible Calvin Legacy Edition, Children’s Stories of the Reformation, Stories of the Covenanters in Scotland, Reformation Heroes, Famous Women of the Reformed Church, Puritan Fathers Classics Library, and Gill’s Body of Doctrinal Divinity (hyper, hyper Calvinism). They even sell a statue of John Calvin. Vision Forum is not dispensational and rejects the imminent, pre-tribulational return of Jesus Christ. They have no emphasis upon preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth. This is not even mentioned in their mission statement, though it is THE thing that Jesus Christ emphasized after He rose from the dead (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:44-48; John 20:21; Acts 1:8) and is THE emphasis of the book of Acts.
VIRGINIA BANNING PRAYERS IN JESUS’ NAME (Friday Church News Notes, March 6, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - On February 23, a Virginia Senate committee killed legislation that would have restored the rights of state police chaplains to pray in Jesus’ name at public events (Christian Post, Feb. 24, 2009). The measure would have reversed the sorry policy of State Police Col. Steven Flaherty that forbids state troopers to pray in Jesus’ name. The misnamed American Civil Liberties Union threatened a lawsuit if the legislation had been enacted. The city of Fredericksburg, Virginia, also bans such prayers, and the ban was upheld by a federal appeals court. Six chaplains resigned last year over the police chaplaincy censorship. In 2006, James Klingenschmitt was court-martialed and fired by the U.S. Navy for praying publicly in uniform in Jesus’ name outside a chapel. Though Congress sided with him and rebuked the Navy, he has yet to be reinstated. Christian young people who are thinking about joining the military should understand that it has changed dramatically in recent times toward liberal “political correctness” and will doubtless change even more dramatically under the new commander-in-chief Barack Hussein Obama.
WASHINGTON STATE TO ALLOW ASSISTED SUICIDE (Friday Church News Notes, March 6, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Washington has joined Oregon to become the second U.S. state to allow assisted suicide. The new law, which was approved by 60% of voters last November, requires that the patient be at least 18, declared competent, and be determined by two physicians to have a terminal disease and be expected to die within six months (USA Today, March 1, 2009). It is only “suggested” and not required that the next of kin be notified of this drastic action. At this present time, doctors are not required to participate, but that will eventually change once we go down this slippery slope. At this very moment Barack Obama, the pro-abortion president par excellence, is on the verge of removing legal protection from doctors and other health care workers who refuse to perform abortions. A nation that requires doctors and nurses to murder babies will doubtless require them to murder “terminally ill” people. The new law is called “Death with Dignity,” but there is nothing dignified about death. It is the wages of sin (Romans 6:23). According to the Bible, the individual that dies without regenerating faith in Jesus Christ will spend eternity in torment for his or her sin against the Law of a thrice-holy God, and there is no second chance beyond the grave. There is no dignity in hell. Men do not have the “right to die” any more than they have the right to kill. Only God has the right to take human life. (For more on this see “Do We Have the Right to Die” at the Way of Life website.)
DESIGNER BABIES (Friday Church News Notes, March 6, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Sex-Selection and Hair, Skin and Eye Color in High Demand,” Lifesitenews.com, Feb. 27, 2009: “Demand for sex-selection for in vitro fertilization is ‘rapidly growing’ according to many private IVF facilities in the US. a CNN report on sex-selection and other genetic screening tests ... focused on the success of the Fertility Institutes, a private artificial reproduction facility in Los Angeles that advertises ‘gender selection’ by pre-implantation genetic diagnosis of already created embryos, and claims a nearly 100 per cent ‘success rate.’ The facility also claims to be the first to offer the ‘pending availability’ of genetic tests to pre-determine the eye color, skin and hair color, and ‘cancer tendency’ of embryos created in the lab. ... The specter of "designer babies" has held the public imagination since the technologies were being developed in the late 1970s. ... [T]he commercial world of artificial reproduction has embraced the highly lucrative practices of genetic screening wherever the law allows it, including in the US. ... Dr. Jeff Steinberg, director of the Fertility Institutes, claims that his company is performing approximately 10 gender selection procedures every week, at a fee of (US) $18,400 each. ... Dr. Jeffrey Nisker, an ethicist and IVF specialist at the University of Western Ontario, told a House of Commons Committee that after his team had developed the technologies, requests came flooding in from all over Canada, but, ‘The number one genetic disease they requested this for was that of being a woman.’”
BACK ON UNCLE SAM’S PLANTATION (Friday Church News Notes, March 6, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Back on Uncle Sam’s Plantation” by Star Parker, a syndicated columnist for Scripps Howard News, Feb. 9, 2009: “Six years ago I wrote a book called ‘Uncle Sam's Plantation.’ I wrote the book to tell my own story of what I saw living inside the welfare state and my own transformation out of it. I said in that book that indeed there are two Americas--a poor America on socialism and a wealthy America on capitalism. I talked about ... a vast sea of perhaps well-intentioned government programs, all initially set into motion in the 1960s, that were going to lift the nation's poor out of poverty. A benevolent Uncle Sam welcomed mostly poor black Americans onto the government plantation. Those who accepted the invitation switched mindsets from ‘How do I take care of myself?’ to ‘What do I have to do to stay on the plantation?’ Instead of solving economic problems, government welfare socialism created monstrous moral and spiritual problems--the kind of problems that are inevitable when individuals turn responsibility for their lives over to others. The legacy of American socialism is our blighted inner cities, dysfunctional inner city schools, and broken black families. Trillions of dollars later, black poverty is the same. But black families are not, with triple the incidence of single-parent homes and out-of-wedlock births. Through God’s grace, I found my way out. It was then that I understood what freedom meant and how great this country is. ... [Now] Uncle Sam has welcomed our banks onto the plantation and they have said, ‘Thank you, Suh.’ Now, instead of thinking about what creative things need to be done to serve customers, they are thinking about what they have to tell Massah in order to get their cash. There is some kind of irony that this is all happening under our first black president on the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln.”
GEORGE WASHINGTON, THE MASONS, AND AMERICA (Friday Church News Notes, March 6, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - President Harry Truman oversaw the complete rebuilding of the White House in the early 1950s. They gutted it, leaving only the outer shell, and put in new basements and rebuilt the entire thing. When they found the original stones, they bore Masonic symbols. The biographer says, “Truman was also pleased to learn that on the Saturday in October 1792 when the Free Masons of Georgetown had laid the first stone, in the presence of President George Washington and the architect of the house, James Hoban, they had afterward paraded back to Georgetown, to ‘Mr. Sutter’s Fountain,’ where toasts were raised to the fifteen United States, the President, and ‘masonic brethren throughout the universe’” (David McCullough, Truman, pp. 878, 879). This reminds me that America has always been half-pagan, half-Christian. It has a unique and wonderful heritage among modern nations, our liberties have been unprecedented, and Washington was a great man, but America has never been anything like a consistent “Christian nation,” whatever that would be.
ANTS THAT GARDEN (Friday Church News Notes, March 6, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Creation Moments, http://www.creationmoments.net/radio/transcript.php?t=2283: “Farming and gardening are said by evolutionists to be very advanced activities. They say that primitive humans did not do these things, and that gardening developed only recently in human history. But if there is a Creator, we would expect that He would have taught many kinds of creatures to care for plants or even trees. Guess what? There are even ants who garden. There is a particular type of fierce ant that cares for the South American bull’s horn acacia tree. While the ants don't need the tree for their survival, they do eat portions of it. But they never eat enough to cause damage to the tree. In fact, the ants protect their tree--they snip off vines or other growth that comes too close to the tree, maintaining plenty of growing room for their tree. The ants are aggressive enough to keep other insects or even birds or larger animals away from their tree. In studying this amazing relationship, researchers have removed the ants from some of these trees. Within two to fifteen months the tree is dead. Without the ants’ care, animals eat off all the leaves and surrounding plants overrun it. Who taught these ants to be gardeners? How could two so very different kinds of life develop such a close relationship? This results in a great mystery for evolution. Without ants you couldn’t evolve the tree, and without the tree, the ants couldn’t learn to care for it. You can't get around it. Both were created fully formed, and the Creator taught the ants how to care for the tree.”
THE RETURN OF CHRIST IS IMMINENT (Friday Church News Notes, March 6, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Lord Jesus and the New Testament apostles and prophets taught that the return of Christ is to be expected at any time and that the child of God must wait in holy expectation. “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 24:44). “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 25:13). “Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand” (Philippians 4:5). “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:5-6). “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (James 5:8). “But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer” (1 Peter 4:7).
CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. 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. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “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). This material is sent only to those who personally subscribe to the Fundamental Baptist Information Service mailing list. To SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, or CHANGE ADDRESSES go to http://www.wayoflife.org/wayoflife/subscribe.html. Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org.