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One thing that a Christian must develop if he wants to have spiritual victory is a testing mindset. This means that he must learn to test everything by the Bible to see if it is right or wrong, true or false.

I thank the Lord that the man who led me to Christ taught me this so that I started out my Christian life with a testing mindset. It has protected me from many spiritual pitfalls. Traveling together from south Florida to Mexico, we stopped at a Christian bookstore somewhere on the Gulf Coast. I think it was Mobile, Alabama. He bought me a King James Bible, and then he pointed to all of the books that were for sale and said, “You must be very careful and test everything by God’s Word. You can’t trust man; you can’t trust the “big names.” The Bible warns that there will be many false teachers.” It was with this wise counsel that I began my Christian life.

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 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.

GLENN BECK’S DIVINE DESTINY MOVEMENT (Friday Church News Notes, August 27, 2010, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Mormon talk show host Glenn Beck is hosting an ecumenical political gathering tomorrow at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The Divine Destiny event is aimed to help “heal the soul” of America by overlooking religious differences to achieve a unity of “shared values and principles.” The event is intended to “unite” “pastors, ministers and clergy” of “all faiths.” Beck said he has reached out to “the biggest names in faith” and “asked them to help me put differences aside and to reach out with one another.” (He has not released a list of the names of the participants.) Beck even urges his followers to “prepare to witness mighty and powerful miracles.” The fact is that Beck’s Divine Destiny is part of America’s problem rather than the solution. The root of America’s ills are spiritual and moral. It is particularly the apostasy and compromise of the churches, and Beck’s program is just more of the same. Beck is urging professing Christians to unite with people “of faith” of any and all religious persuasions. This is a direct affront to God’s Word, which forbids true Christians to unite with unbelievers and heretics. “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel”? (2 Corinthians 6:14-15). “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them” (Romans 16:17). “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (2 Timothy 3:5). “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed” (2 John 9-10). These Scriptures could not be plainer. Born again Christians are to separate from apostates and heretics, and Glenn Beck is a heretic. God’s people are forbidden to join hands with unbelievers for spiritual activities, and Beck’s Divine Destiny event is definitely billed as a spiritual activity. How can we possibly “heal our souls” by disobeying God’s Word? Glenn Beck is doubtless a sincere man who genuinely wants to help America, but spiritually he is the blind leading the blind. His movement is confusion of the highest order, and it will only lead to greater divine judgment on our nation.

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 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.

JACK SCHAAP MENTORS EMERGING RAPPER CHURCH (Friday Church News Notes, August 20, 2010, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Jack Schaap, pastor of First Baptist Church, Hammond, Indiana, recently praised a raunchy emerging rapper church and claimed to be its mentor. The church, the Richmond Outreach Center, is pastored by Geronimo Aguilar. Schaap said Aguilar has been attending Pastor’s School for 10 years and was preceded there by his street biker father, Phil Aguilar, who, according to Schaap, “followed Brother Hyles to a T.” Phil’s MySpace site features demonic-looking pictures of he and his friends decked out in their biker regalia, including Nazi helmet symbols. If there is such a thing as being “conformed to the world” (Romans 12:2), Phil has mastered it. Phil produces a line of clothing called SoldierMade, which is advertised with profanities and immodest models. Schaap says that Geronimo sought his counsel when founding the ROC in 2001 and meets with him every year for a day or two of private counsel. “He and I are very dear friends.” Schaap praises the ROC as the “sixth fastest growing church in America, running 4,000 every week.” Schaap told his congregation that Aguilar “knows where to find how to build a church.” That’s the bottom line for Schaap. His is an unscriptural, idolatrous pragmatism that worships “results.” The results can be obtained by side-show promotionalism or by CCM and the contemporary no-standards, judge-not philosophy. Apparently it’s all the same to Schaap. The worship leader at ROC is a rapper dude who goes by the moniker “Chill” Aguilar, and the “worship service” features raunchy performances by the congregation’s rap dancers. Chill’s web site praises filthy rockers such as Korn, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Prince, Morrissey, and Kid Rock. We are thankful for every soul at ROC that has truly been born again and set free of drugs and alcohol, but they have not given up their raunchy music and sensual dancing, their immodest, unisex clothing styles, or their “be cool, live and let live” philosophy, and the result is a worldly confusion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjVZGUWRJgA

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The doctrine of Darwinian evolution is taught throughout the world today. It proposes that life originated spontaneously from inanimate matter and that all living things evolved from an original single-celled creature.

The point of this lesson is that a Bible believer must reject evolution because the Bible and evolution are diametrically opposed.

Some professing Christians try to hold to evolution and the Bible at the same time by interpreting the early chapters of Genesis as poetical or allegorical. But this is an impossible position, as we will see in our first point:

1. The early chapters of Genesis are literal history.

a. The first 11 chapters of Genesis are written as literal history, not as poetry. “There are 64 geographical terms, 88 personal names, 48 generic names and at least 21 identifiable cultural items (such as gold, bdellium, onyx, brass, iron, gopher wood, bitumen, mortar brick, stone, harp, pipe, cities, towers) in those opening chapters. The significance of this list may be seen by comparing it, for example, with ‘the paucity of references in the Koran. The single tenth chapter of Genesis has five times more geographical data of importance than the whole of the Koran.’ Every one of these items presents us with the possibility of establishing the reliability of our author. The content runs head on into a description of the real world rather than recounting events belonging to another world or level of reality” (Walter Kaiser, Jr., “The Literary Form of Genesis 1-11,” New Perspectives on the Old Testament, ed. by J. Barton Payne, 1970, p. 59).

Science fiction takes the reader into a strange world without God. Oh, there might be “a god,” a “force,” but it is definitely not the God of the Bible, and the prominent names in this field are atheists.

Take CARL SAGAN, for example. His best-selling sci-fi novel Contact was made into a movie. Sagan was one of the high priests of atheistic evolution. In his novel he has the main character debating two preachers and saying, “There is no compelling evidence that God exists.” In 1997 Sagan said, “I share the view of a hero of mine, Albert Einstein: ‘I cannot conceive of a god who rewards and punishes his creatures or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I--nor would I want to--conceive of an individual that survives his physical death. Let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egotism, cherish such thoughts’” (Parade, March 10, 1997).

Consider another prominent name in Sci-Fi, ISAAC ASIMOV. In a 1982 interview he said, “Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don’t have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn’t that I don’t want to waste my time” (Paul Kurtz, “An Interview with Isaac Asimov on Science and the Bible,” Free Inquiry, Spring 1982, p. 9).

Consider ROBERT HEINLEIN, called “the dean of science fiction writers.” He rejected the Bible and promoted “free sex.” His book “Stranger in a Strange Land” is considered “the unofficial bible of the hippie movement.” Heinlein was a nudist and practiced “polyamory.” He promoted agnosticism in his sci-fi books.

The following is from “Answering the Myths on the Bible Version Debate,” which is available in print and e-book formats from Way of Life Literature.
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A question that comes up frequently in the Bible Version debate is this: “If you believe that the KJV is the preserved Word of God in English, which edition do you use, seeing that it has been revised many times and in thousands of places?”

ANSWER:

I will answer this question under the following five headings:

1. There were corrections of printing errors, typographical changes, and spelling updates.

These were done by the British publishers of the KJV and can be grouped into two time periods.

There were updates made between 1613 and 1639 for the purpose of correcting printing errors. The revisers included Samuel Ward and John Bois, two of the original translators. “Some errors of the press having crept into the first edition, and others into later reprints, King Charles the First, in 1638, had another edition printed at Cambridge, which was revised by Dr. Ward and Mr. Bois, two of the original Translators who still survived, assisted by Dr. Thomas Goad, Mr. Mede, and other learned men” (Alexander McClure, The Translators Revived, 1855).

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 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.

ANN COULTER TO SPEAK AT “GAY” CONVENTION (Friday Church News Notes, August 13, 2010, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Ann Coulter, a political commentator who is often held forth as one of the bright stars of the conservative movement in America, will be the featured speaker at Homocon 2010 in New York City. The meeting is staged by GOProud, the only national organization of “gay conservatives.” (GOP usually stands for the Republican Party, though we do not know if it has that meaning in this context.) This highlights the extreme weakness of the “conservative” movement for the Bible believer. What good does it do to fight for constitutional conservatism when the root problem of America’s ills is moral and spiritual? It’s like putting a bandaid on a cancer. The U.S. Constitution could not have been created in this wicked, apostate generation, and it will not be preserved in this generation. The only hope is for true spiritual revival in the churches, and that would require separation from the things that God hates. Many Independent Baptists and fundamentalists are yoked together with unbelievers and immoral people for the sake of “saving America.” That is disobedience to the Bible, which says, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness” (2 Corinthians 6:14). We are never going to get God’s power and blessing by disobeying Him. Furthermore, Bible believers are already being persecuted and harassed by homosexuals across the land, and this persecution is increasing each year. Will these “gay conservatives” speak out against the so-called hate crimes laws and the persecution of Christians who believe that homosexuality is a sin?

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We have to come to grips today with the claims that Gail Riplinger is making.

I want to read to you one of her claims from Hazardous Materials, page 42, in which she says, “No knowledge of Greek or Hebrew is required to read this book. ... I have done all of the Greek work for the reader.”

You don’t need to do your own work. She will tell you what it says.

But she had to admit in a May 1994 interview with Dr. Wayne House that she can’t read Greek or Hebrew. But she will tell you what it says. What kind of role would that give her in your life?

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 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.

JACK SCHAAP’S THREE-RING CIRCUS (Friday Church News Notes, August 6, 2010, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The late Jack Hyles, pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, was one of the founders of evangelistic promotionalism. Taught through his books, tapes, and the annual Pastor School, this methodology spread far and wide among independent Baptists and beyond. I witnessed it personally as a student at Tennessee Temple in the 1970s. When I arrived in Chattanooga in 1973, I spent the first several weeks working in Highland Park Baptist Church’s massive bus ministry, learning the Hyles’ program. Basically, the objective was to get a crowd using practically any means possible. Swallow goldfish, hide money under bus seats, put the preacher into a clown suit, give away bicycles, bring in a fighter or a wrestler to challenge the neighborhood toughs, put on a judo contest, bring in the “flaming evangelist” (a preacher who lit himself on fire), whatever you could think of. The associate pastor of Highland Park in those days described promotionalism as “keeping it pumped up.” Once you attract a crowd with a three-ring circus, you have to keep the show going. After Hyles died in 2001, his son-in-law Jack Schaap took over as director of the circus, and he has proven himself adept at keeping it pumped up. In their Fall Campaign they got a big crowd by giving away a series of prizes worth $250 each. Schaap had a television game show-like spinning wheel brought onto the church platform and the five men who brought the most visitors got to spin the wheel before the congregation. There were $250 gift certificates from Ziggie’s Funland, Best Buy, Elmer’s Jewelers, Alberts, and Cabela’s. As the wheel was spinning, Schaap did some figuring and blurted out, “That’s $12.50 per visitor. Not bad!” Not bad, indeed, if you care deeply about meaningless numbers. (He claims that thousands upon thousands are saved every year, but the church itself doesn’t grow by thousands, to say the least. Most of those “saved” people are nowhere to be found.) Not bad unless you consider the fact that you have turned the house of God into a three-ring circus and a trivial television game show. I thank the Lord for many things I learned at Tennessee Temple in the 1970s, but this type of thing sickened my soul then and it sickens my soul today. I was only one year old in the Lord when I went off to Bible School, but I had read the Bible through a couple of times by then and I knew that what I was seeing was not New Testament Christianity. I understand that many men who have bought into promotionalism are sincere in their desire to reach the lost, but we don’t have the authority to do anything contrary to God’s Word. I cannot in my wildest imagination conceive of the apostle Paul dressing up in a clown suit or giving away gift certificates to Ziggie’s Funland in order to draw a crowd. God’s Word forbids us to adopt the way of the heathen or to conform to the world (Jeremiah 10:2; Romans 12:2), and a wheel of fortune is nothing if not worldly. Further, what do the unsaved think when they learn that they were invited to church by someone who is in a position to win a big prize? I remember when I was invited to a Jack Van Impe crusade in Tampa, Florida, before I was saved. One of my hippie buddy’s sisters was an Independent Baptist and she had talked us into attending. When I saw Van Impe give away prizes to those who brought the most visitors that night, I thought to myself, “Well, that is why they asked us to come.” That wasn’t true, but it is how the lost person thinks, and this type of nonsense plays right into it.

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The damage that evolution has caused on college campuses is legendary, and its not difficult to cite examples of children from Christian homes who have turned away from their childhood faith after attending college--even ‘Christian’ college. The final episode of the PBS series [“Evolution,” September 2001] gives a striking example from Wheaton College, which is said to be a conservative Christian college. According to Wheaton’s website:

Wheaton College selects candidates for admission from those who evidence a vital Christian experience, high academic ability, moral character, personal integrity, social concern, and the desire to pursue a liberal arts education as defined in the aims and objectives of the College.

This college is the show-pony of the PBS series, showing viewers how people can mix ‘God’ and evolution. But one must wonder how the school defines a ‘vital Christian experience’ since their professors evidently don’t believe the Bible, the only source of information about Christ. At one point in the PBS series, it shows a teacher on a school field trip who proclaims that a water hole is 33 million years old.

There was quite a stir back in 1961 when Prof. Walter Hearn promoted evolution at Wheaton. As a result of this controversy, now the school apparently insists that professors sign a statement that Adam was a historical figure.