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.

AMERICA’S POLITICALLY CORRECT MILITARY (Friday Church News Notes, April 1, 2011, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - It is very sad to see what has happened to the U.S. military. It has been feminized, lawyerized, environmentalized, and even psychologized. The two airmen who were rescued from Libya after their F-15 fight jet crashed must undergo “lengthy psychological and medical screening before returning to the cockpit, a far cry from the policies of just a decade ago in which downed pilots were quickly returned to battle” (“Pilots Rescued in Libya Get Physical and Mental Screening,” ABC World News, March 24, 2011). The airmen must undergo a “reintegration process” that checks not only for signs of physical injury but also for “emotional stress.” The airmen weren’t captured; they weren’t tortured; they weren’t even yelled at, but just the possibility of capture could induce “psychological stress.” Lt. Cmdr. Jim Hoeft, a spokesman for the Libyan campaign, called the ordeal “a negative isolating experience” and said it was necessary to place the crew into a “stress-free environment” for some time. This is very sad. There is no doubt that war can cause mental problems. My dad was messed up in World War II during intense fighting in the Pacific Islands and was never right, but this thing of putting every soldier who enters a sharp combat situation through a reintegration process regardless of whether he shows genuine signs of a real breakdown is psychoheresy gone wild. The vast majority of soldiers, even in the most strenuous fighting conditions, don’t crack. Throughout the 20th century, humanistic psychology expanded the definition of mental illness as a means of expanding its power and financial bottom line. With the current definition of “depression,” most people are mentally ill and need psychiatric help. The military doesn’t have enough frontline soldiers as it is. Can you imagine trying to fight a real all-out war like this? It is a foolish, unnecessary weakening of the military, but what do you expect with a man at the helm who doesn’t have the foggiest idea of how a military should be run and doesn’t even appear to have America’s best interest at heart. The reason the U.S. military is being turned over to women, homosexuals, lawyers, and psychiatrists is that the nation is under God’s judgment, and the root of that problem can be laid at the feet of the preachers. As in the days of Israel of old, profaneness has spread throughout the land from the apostate/compromising prophets (Jeremiah 23:15). America doesn’t fear God because the vast majority of the churches don’t preach the fear of God. “For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD. ... I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah” (Jeremiah 23:11, 14).

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.

ROB BELL’S NEW SWIPE AT HELL (Friday Church News Notes, March 25, 2011, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins has stirred up something of a hornet’s nest of controversy, which we find puzzling. The man has been denying an eternal fiery hell and teaching a universalistic faith for a long time. In a 2005 interview with Beliefnet, Bell said “the church must stop thinking about everybody primarily in categories of in or out, saved or not, believer or nonbeliever.” In his influential book Velvet Elvis, which is popular with a great number of Southern Baptists, he described a marriage that he conducted for two pagan unbelievers who told him that “they didn’t want any Jesus or God or Bible or religion to be talked about” but they did want him to “make it really spiritual (p. 76). Bell agreed with this ridiculous request and said that his pagan friends “are resonating with Jesus, whether they acknowledge it or not” (p. 92). Bell’s most recent book, Love Wins, is just more of the same. Not only does he preach near-universalism, he preaches a false god, a false christ, a false gospel, a false heaven, a false hell, you name it. He is a master of taking Scripture out of context and shoehorning his heresies into a text. Though Bell has denied that he believes in universalism, he certainly makes a case for it in this book, though he might have left room for some folk to wind up for awhile in some type of hell. Consider two of many quotes we could offer as evidence: “This insistence that God will be united and reconciled with all people is a theme the writers and prophets return to again and again. ... The God that Jesus teaches us about doesn’t give up until everything that was lost is found. This God simply doesn’t give up. Ever” (Love Wins, Kindle location 1259-1287). “The love of God will melt every hard heart, and even the most ‘depraved sinners’ will eventually give up their resistance and turn to God. And so, beginning with the early church, there is a long tradition of Christians who believe that God will ultimately restore everything and everybody” (Love Wins, location 1339-1365). Bell even claims that Sodom and Gomorrah will be restored (location 1057-1071, 1071-1082). Bell has nothing but ridicule for the gospel that Jesus died for man’s sins and that those who repent and believe (and only those who repent and believe) will be saved. In true heretic fashion, Bell redefines Biblical terms. He defines both heaven and hell as present realities on earth. He says the statements in Bible about hell being a place of fire and torment are mere poetry.

In May 2008 we made a tour of each of the sites of the seven churches addressed in Revelation 2-3. Accompanying me on the tour were Pastor David Brown of Milwaukee and Brian Snider of Alabama.

Our genial tour guide, Kemal Capar, is a very knowledgeable professional who spends part of each year in archaeological excavations.

In the apostle John’s day the seven cities were located in a province of the Roman Empire called Asia, but today they are located in western Turkey. This part of the world is also called Asia Minor. The seven cities are situated in a rough crescent about 400 miles in length, beginning with Ephesus on the coast by the Aegean Sea. About 60 miles north is Smyrna, and about 100 miles further north is Pergamum. From Pergamum you go southeast about 100 miles to Thyatira, then another 50 miles southeast to Sardis, then 40 miles southeast to Philadelphia, and finally 50 more miles southeast to Laodicea.

Asia Minor was part of the Byzantine Empire, with its headquarters in Constantinople. The ruins of churches that exist today are from that period and represent the Greek Orthodox faith.

In the 15th century the Muslims conquered Constantinople and renamed it Istanbul. It was the headquarters for the Ottoman Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Today Turkey is a democracy but the vast majority of the people are Muslim and Christians are often persecuted if they attempt to evangelize.

“There are no detailed Darwinian accounts for the evolution of any fundamental biochemical or cellular system, only a variety of wishful speculations” (James Shapiro, molecular biologist, National Review, Sept. 16, 1996).

One of the most frequently-used evidences for evolution is the “just-so” story that purports to explain how evolution happened but which is actually a theoretical explanation lacking evidence. The term “just-so story” was popularized by Rudyard Kipling’s 1902 book by that title which contained fictional stories for children. Kipling says the camel got his hump as a punishment for refusing to work, the leopard’s spots were painted on him by an Ethiopian, and the kangaroo got its powerful hind legs after being chased all day by a dingo.

Kipling’s just-so stories are as scientific as the Darwinian accounts of how the amoeba became a man.

Lacking real scientific evidence for their theory, evolutionists have used the just-so story to great effect. Backed by impressive scientific credentials, the Darwinian just-so story has the aura of respectability.

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.

EARTHQUAKES IN DIVERS PLACES (Friday Church News Notes, March 18, 2011, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - One of the many infallible proofs that the Bible is what it claims to be, which is the divinely inspired Word of God, is fulfilled prophecy. Two thousand years ago the Lord Jesus Christ gave many detailed prophecies of the future. One was the prophecy of the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, which was fulfilled 40 years later in A.D. 70 at the hands of the Roman Tenth Legion under general Titus. Jesus prophesied that “there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down” (Mark 13:2). Some of the stones that were pulled down were thrown off the Temple Mount and were unearthed in recent times along the Western Wall where they can still be seen today as mute witness to the fact that Jesus knows the future. In another prophecy, Jesus said that one of the signs of the end of the age will be “earthquakes in divers places” (Matthew 24:7). The most recent fulfillment of that prophecy was the earthquake that devastated northern Japan last weekend and brought this economic powerhouse nation to its knees in a matter of moments. Many thousands are dead; a modern port city was washed out to sea; four nuclear reactors were damaged, and one has exploded. The nation has been reduced to rolling blackouts to conserve power. Its powerful train system is at a standstill. Its leaders have stated that they are facing the worse crisis since World War II. The Japan earthquake is only the latest in a series of “earthquakes in divers places.” Some 40,000 died in in South Asia in October 2005; 220,000 in Indonesia in 2004; 31,000 in Iran in 2003; 13,000 in India in January 2001; 17,000 in western Turkey in August 1999; 10,000 in Latur, India, in September 1993; 50,000 in northwest Iran in June 1990. According to Bible prophecy, all of these are mere previews of what is coming. A future earthquake will cause every island to sink and the mountains to fall (Revelation 13:11-18). The good news is that no person living today has to go through the terrible future judgments. We are still living in the era of “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people” (Luke 2:10), which is the gospel that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose the third day to offer eternal salvation to whosoever will repent and receive Him as Lord and Saviour. The Bible says God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 33:11). It is His gracious will, rather, that all men be saved (1 Timothy 2:3-4; 2 Peter 3:9).

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.

EMERGING PREACHERS TO SPEAK AT SOUTHERN BAPTIST PASTOR’S CONFERENCE (Friday Church News Notes, March 18, 2011, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The annual Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference this year features at least four emerging preachers: Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, Louie Giglio of Passion City Church in Atlanta, Paul Gotthardt of Life Baptist Church in Las Vegas, and Darrin Patrick of The Journey Church in St. Louis (home of “Theology at the Bottleworks” where participants “grab a beer and discuss spiritual topics”). Actually, all of the speakers at the SBC conference are emerging in philosophy after the fashion of Seattle’s Mark Driscoll (“theologically conservative and culturally liberal”), and right in the middle of the pack is John Piper, who is influencing many fundamental Baptists. The June SBC conference will be Piper’s second joint meeting with Rick Warren. In April, Piper is scheduled to conduct a Desiring God conference at Saddleback Church. The “fundamentalists” who are moving in the direction of the “conservative evangelical” John Piper (such as Kevin Bauder of Central Baptist Seminary who praises Piper in his blog) need to explain how such a conservative man is so spiritually blind that he would yoke together with an apostate like Rick Warren, who says God won’t ask about your doctrinal views; who continually and approvingly and non-critically quotes from heretics such as Roman Catholic universalists Mother Teresa, Henri Nouwen, and Thomas Merton; who likens Christian fundamentalists to Islamic fundamentalists; who calls for unity between Baptists, Roman Catholics, Anglicans, etc.; who promotes the exceedingly liberal Baptist World Alliance; who yokes together with New Age practitioners such as Mehmet Oz, who promotes occultic Reiki, and Daniel Amen who promotes the filthy Hindu Tantra Yoga; and who presents Roman Catholic inter-spiritualist globalist Tony Blair with a peace prize at Saddleback Church (March 2011). Hasn’t Warren read the Bible, which states that there is no peace to the wicked (Isaiah 48:22; 57:21)? “Conservative evangelical,” indeed! The Southern Baptist Convention is an unscriptural, frightfully worldly, mixed multitude of “evangelicals,” charismatics, modernists, Masons, modern textual critics, theistic evolutionists, New Agers, female preachers, pastor-ruling deacons, and women-run churches, all dancing to the beat of rock & roll, and the fact that many Independent Baptist preachers are moving in the direction of the SBC in sympathy and philosophy and most IBaptist preachers of influence are saying nothing publicly is truly frightful to a man who grew up in that denomination and knows it all too well from inside-out. And please don’t say that it has gotten better, because I can prove that such is not the case. A few things have improved at a certain level, but in most ways the corruption has continued to progress steadily.

AN EXHORTATION TO MY READERS TO ACT WISELY IN THE CHURCHES

Updated March 9, 2011 (first published April 28, 2010_ (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) –

The following are some truths that I consider very important and that I would like for all of my readers to take to heart. Please keep in mind the fact that I am not your pastor. I hope to be a helper in Christ, but I am not your pastor. And I want to give an exhortation about how to act wisely in the churches.

The vast majority of you knows and lives these things, but sometimes I hear things from pastors and others that cause me to realize that some of my readers might need this exhortation. At the same time, I don’t have any particular case in mind, so there is no need to write and try to explain yourself to me. Rather, let us be doers of the word and not hearers only.

I DO NOT SUPPORT THOSE WHO SEPARATE FROM ALL CHURCHES TODAY.

Let me make this very clear: I do not support those who separate themselves from all churches today. While I believe that God’s people must be discerning and cautious and not overlook error, at the same time we are to be patient and faithful to God’s ordained institution, the church, and to God-ordained pastoral authority, and I believe we should strive as much as possible for unity and not disunity among true believers. Both things are emphasized in Scripture, though it is not always a simple matter to obey both of them at any one time and place.

If you think that you are justified to separate from all churches today because of David Cloud’s writings, you are mistaken. I do not preach that and I am not pleased when people do that. There are hundreds of churches that I support.

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.

THE GREAT RIVER OF APOSTASY (Friday Church News Notes, March 4, 2011, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In our day evil reigns, apostasy is on the attack, compromise is in the very air we breathe. We’re in this wicked world in these apostate times whether we like it or not, and we must overcome it or it will overcome us. End-times apostasy is like a great flowing river sweeping everything along with it, and the Bible-believing New Testament church is like a boat. If we aren’t paddling hard upstream -- through such things as genuine conversion, serious, separated Christian living, and uncompromising preaching -- we are carried along with the flow. There is no neutrality, no relaxing, no retiring. If you get tired of the work and put down the paddles of godly reproof and separation, you immediately begin to move with the flow. Over the past 20 years, many fundamental Baptist churches have stopped paddling. When it first happens, everyone is happy. Of course, there are usually a few souls who are concerned about the change and they make everyone uncomfortable at first with their complaints, but since the pastor isn’t concerned and stresses that “nothing has changed,” everyone relaxes and the old foggies that still want to paddle are warned not to have a “critical eye” or not to “shoot” the man of God. If they don’t settle down and enjoy going with the flow, they soon find that they are not welcome and they leave in search of some little boat somewhere that is still paddling up stream, and they take their muck-raking magazines like O Timothy with them. With the “complainers” gone, the church can finally enjoy the new situation. It seems like a win-win deal. Instead of paddling for dear life and wasting all of that energy, they can relax and enjoy the scenery, and there is no longer a preacher yelling at them to paddle harder. They get so happy that they feel like rockin’. They stop messing around with just “adapting” CCM. They roll out the rock band, tune up the bass, tighten the drum head, dial up the amp, trot out the worship team (making sure that at least one member is an attractive woman dressed as sensually as their pastor will allow), and let her rip so they can “experience God” through some real worship. Now they can enjoy life for a change instead of being bound by rules and restricted by separation. They notice that everywhere they look there are many other boats merrily moving with the flow. The crowd can’t be wrong. Why, that’s Rick Warren’s big boat over there. Man, they are rockin’! And there’s Franklin Graham’s boat. Doesn’t he look happy! Why it’s hard to imagine that some of those old hard-paddling preachers used to warn about his dad. It would be laughable if it weren’t so pathetic and wrong. Finally the boaters find themselves a part of the majority and no longer the laughing stock of the boating class. Then they notice a a lot of side rivers, and they all look interesting, though the jungles lining their sides look dark and fearful; and for a moment -- but surely it’s the imagination playing tricks -- it appeared that there were monsters moving beneath the dark waters. No, our new pastor (the son of the founder) tells us that all those streams are fine and we have lots and lots of liberty. God is broadminded and loves all the streams. There is the emerging stream and the contemplative stream and the Christian hedonism stream and and the Church Fathers stream and many others that they once saw as dangerous but now they can see for themselves that they are fine Christian streams. The thing that everyone keeps repeating is that life is so much more fun now that we don’t have to paddle. It’s wonderful to finally be free to make your own choices and not be hemmed in by the rantings of some fanatical preacher. They get so fired up by the rock band, so immersed in “worship,” so busy exploring all of the different streams, that they don’t notice that the river is flowing faster and the scenery is changing. There are rapids now and rocks and shoals. They start feeling a bit uneasy, and someone suggests that perhaps they should start a bit of paddling again, but that is put off as Pharisaical. Someone remarks, “What, I guess the next thing you will suggest is that we have that hyper-legalist, preacher-wounding David Cloud in to speak!” Everyone has a good laugh. Anyway, by now it’s too late. They are moving too fast. The river has them firm in its grip. There is no turning around. And then they hear something in the distance, a sort of roaring, and it is getting louder. And louder. And then they see it. The water is heaving and boiling as it is swept over the great fall. They are helpless now, in the grip of something too powerful to resist. The time to turn around is past, and they shoot over the fall and crash on the rocks below. Just before they go over, their cool pastor cries out, “But all we did was stop paddling!!!!” “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

Many independent Baptist churches that still have any sort of conviction against CCM are “adapting” it by using the words while toning down the rhythm. They are trying to take the “rock” out of Christian rock. They think they can tame the beast and turn Charismatic praise music into fundamentalist praise music.

This results in the gradual acceptance of and increasing use of CCM, the gradual allowance for sensual rhythms, a continual pushing of the boundaries.

Many discerning men have issued warnings about this slippery slope and its outcome, including the following:

The first example is the late Evangelist Gordon Sears:

“When the standard of music is LOWERED, then the standard of dress is also lowered. When the standard of dress is lowered, then the standard of conduct is also lowered. When the standard of conduct is lowered, then the sense of value in God’s truth is lowered” (Evangelist Gordon Sears, Songfest newsletter, April 2001).

A missionary wrote to say in a very gracious manner that he does not agree that I should have published a warning about West Coast Baptist College’s music without first contacting Pastor Paul Chappell. He said that publishing my warning after he had opportunity to reply would have given me more credibility and that all of the people he has spoken to about this believe the same way. He closed with these words: “You have a blessed, powerful, needed ministry. I have been blessed as have many others over the years by your publishing. Is it possible you were wrong this time?”

REPLY FROM BROTHER CLOUD

After thanking him for taking the time to write, I replied in part as follows:

As for your question, could I be wrong on this. Of course I could be wrong. I am just one weak little man. But I don't think I'm wrong and I'm the one who had to make the decision and I'm the one who has prayed about and thought about it more than anyone, and I'm the one who has to give account for it and who has to live with it. (And my pastor supports what I did.)