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FRIDAY CHURCH NEWS NOTES
January 1, 2010, Volume 11, Issue 1
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.
RICK WARREN CONFERENCE TO FEATURE MARK DRISCOLL, THE ULTRA-COOL PASTOR (Friday Church News Notes, January 1, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – Mark Driscoll is scheduled to speak at Rick Warren’s Radicalis conference in February. The goal is “how to develop emotionally healthy leadership.” The conference also features Pete Scazzero, founder of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, a ministry that promotes emotional health through Catholic contemplative mysticism. Driscoll is the ultra-cool senior pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. He claims to be “THEOLOGICALLY CONSERVATIVE AND CULTURALLY LIBERAL” (“Pastor Provocateur,” Christianity Today, Sept. 21, 2007) and criticizes “hardcore fundamentalism that throws rocks at culture.” He defines himself as “relevant,” “contextual,” and “cool” (“Conference examines the emerging church,” Baptist Pres s, Sept. 25, 2007). Mark Driscoll’s church sets up a “champagne bar” at its New Year’s Eve parties. Members have to bring their IDs. They have “beer-brewing lessons” for men, show R-rated movies, and operate the Paradox Theater to host secular rock concerts. Scott Thomas, director of Acts 29, a church planting network associated with Driscoll, says, “We won’t water down our theology to reach more people and we won’t attack the culture in the name of Christianity” (http://www.acts29network.org/about/welcome/). These are contradictory statements. You can’t be faithful to the Bible (having rock-solid theology) if you “contextualize the gospel” and refuse to attack the sinful and satanic side of culture, which is a very large side of it in a world in which the devil is god! God’s Word commands, “And have NO fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, BUT RATHER REPROVE THEM” (Eph. 5:11). John the Baptist lost his head for rebuking a political leader for his immorality. Too bad he did not have one of Driscoll’s books to help him learn how to be culturally liberal. The emerging John would have been so much cooler.
HOLLYWOOD CULTURE CREATES “INSANE SELF-IMAGE ISSUES” (Friday Church News Notes, January 1, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is by Brian Snider <bsnider@gmail.com> — “Investing a lot of money, time and worry on this body is a hopeless dead end. Sadly, that’s what Hollywood culture demands from those who worship at its altar. Actress Brittany Murphy, who mysteriously died of ‘natural causes’ two weeks ago, apparently spent an inordinate amount of time worrying about a body that would only carry her to 32 years of age. ‘She had insane self-image issues,’ said one of her friends. ‘Her weight, her hair, her clothes, her skin, her teeth, everything. She was always so self-conscious.’ Adds another: ‘A lot of her problems were due to poor self image. She wore extraordinary amounts of makeup, tons of fake eyelashes, got her teeth capped, dyed her hair blonde, lost weight–she wanted to be a beauty. She didn’t want to be the fat girl from Clueless.’ The things she spent so much time worrying about–body, eyes, teeth and hair are now lying in a grave, though her spirit has passed on into eternity. And with all the worrying she did about things that will pass away, we wonder how much time she spent worrying about the state of her soul. This young actress was sold a false bill of goods by the Satanic machinery of the movie industry, which convinces people that looks, prestige and glamour are great things to be sought. There is a permanence to death that is stunning in its seriousness and scope. Better to have the perspective of Scripture now than the perspective of Hollywood, which can only lead to eternal misery. ‘Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes , and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever’ (1 John 2:15-17). ‘It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth’ (Ecclesiastes 7:2-4).”
SCIENTIST SAYS ANGELS DEPICTED IN RELIGIOUS ART CAN’T FLY (Friday Church News Notes, January 1, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – Roger Wotton, a professor at University College London, says that angels depicted in religious art can’t fly. “Even a cursory examination of the evidence in representational arts shows that angels and cherubs cannot take off and cannot use powered flight” (“Angels Can’t Fly,” London Telegraph, Dec. 22, 2009). In fact, Wotton is right, but only because religious art is notoriously lacking in conformity to Scripture. The Jesus of the Bible didn’t look like the effeminate long-haired man typical to religious art, so it is not surprising that the artistic renderings of angels are wrong as well. There are at least three types of angels described in the Bible, and only two have wings. Those are the seraphims (Isaiah 6:2) and the cherubims (Exodus 25:20; Ezekiel 10:5). In appearance , the seraphims and cherubims are unlike humans. On the other hand, the angels that appear to men and bring messages from God are described as human-like in appearance and are never said to have wings. In fact, they were often mistaken for men (e.g., Judges 6:22; 13:6). Though Wotton is right about the flying ability of artistic angels, he is wrong in his humanistic, evolutionary thinking. He is wrong that angels can’t fly unless they have wings patterned after flying creatures on earth. The angel Gabriel is said “to fly swiftly” (Daniel 9:21), but he is never said to have any sort of wings. The evolutionary agnostic is blinded by his willful refusal to recognize the existence of Almighty God. (In an article entitled “The Ten Plagues of Egypt,” Wotton calls the miraculous judgments described in Exodus “myths.”) The One who made the known laws of nature can make any other laws He pleases–or break them as He pleases. Wotton is also wrong tha t angels are mythical figments of man’s imagination. He says, “Looking at these things teaches us something about what we believe and what is concrete. Angels are very powerful religious icons for people with faith.” In fact, angels are not merely icons; they are powerful creatures that were formed by God before man and are intimately involved with life on earth. They are “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). Believers are admonished, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2).
THANK THE LORD FOR TRUE SCIENCE (Friday Church News Notes, January 1, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – Modern science is a wonderful thing in many ways. To the extent that it reflects truth and reality, it is God’s gift, for “he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: He revealeth the deep and secret things” (Daniel 2:21-22). Modern inventions in such fields as medicine, travel, communication, energy, food preservation, man-made materials, and mass production have changed our lives for the better. At the same time, that which the Bible calls “science falsely so called,” with its over weaning pride and its pretense to know things it does not know, is a curse. As Dr. Marvin Lubenow says, “The failure of the scientific community to recognize the high degree of subjectivity in its interpretations of past events is the major cause of the ‘warfare’ between the Bible and th is area of science. … Believing that we have a reliable historical record of two crucial past events, creation and the flood, we Christians accept with gratitude and thanksgiving the contributions of science in our lives today while we challenge the authority of science to make dogmatic statements about the past” (Bones of Contention: A Creationist Assessment of Human Fossils, 2004, p. 259).
WIKIPEDIA EDITOR USES ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIA TO PROMOTE GLOBAL WARMING MYTH (Friday Church News Notes, January 1, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from “History of Climate Gets ‘Erased’ Online,” WorldNetDaily, Dec. 21, 2009: “A new report reveals a British scientist and Wikipedia administrator rewrote climate history, editing more than 5,000 unique articles in the online encyclopedia to cover traces of a medieval warming period–something Climategate scientists saw as a major roadblock in the effort to spread the global warming message. Recently hacked e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit expose a plot to eliminate the Medieval Warm Period, a 400-year era that began around A.D. 1000, the Financial Post’s Lawrence Solomon reports. … The warming period is said to have improved agriculture and increased life spans, but scientists at the center of the Clima tegate e-mail scandal believed the era undermined their goal of spreading concern about global warming as it pertains to today’s climate. … A 1995 e-mail predating the recent Climate Research Unit scandal was sent to geophysicist David Deming. A major climate-change researcher told Deming, ‘We have to get rid of the Medieval Warm Period.’ … Solomon revealed that William Connolley, one man in the nine-member [RealClimate] team who is a U.K. scientist, a software engineer and Green Party activist, took control of Wikipedia’s entries to see that any trace of the true climate history would be erased. Beginning in February 2003, Connolley rewrote Wikipedia entries on global warming, the greenhouse effect, the instrumental temperature record, the urban heat island, on climate models and on global cooling, the Little Ice Age, the Medieval Warm Period, and the hockey-stick chart. … Through his role as a Wikipedia administrator, Connolley is said to have created or rewritten 5,428 unique Wikipedia entries. ‘When Connolley didn’t like the subject of a certain article, he removed it–more than 500 articles of various descriptions disappeared at his hand,’ Solomon wrote. ‘When he disapproved of the arguments that others were making, he often had them barred–over 2,000 Wikipedia contributors who ran afoul of him found themselves blocked from making further contributions.’ … Through his control of the Wikipedia pages, Connolley is said to have ‘turned Wikipedia into the missionary wing of the global warming movement.’”
LIBERAL PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS CONTINUE THEIR DECLINE (Friday Church News Notes, January 1, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The liberal “mainstream” Protestant denominations in the United States continue their numerical decline. According to the latest Barna poll, the six largest of these denominations have lost more than one-quarter of their membership in the past 50 years. These are the American Baptist Church, the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church. The membership of these “churches” is also graying dramatically. Only 2% of the members are 25 years old or younger, while one-third are 60 and over. In spite of the decline in numbers, these denominations remain wealthy, generating more than $15 billion in donations, epitomizing the Laodicean age in every particular. “I know thy works, that thou art nei ther cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see” (Revelation 3:15-18).
ANGLICAN PRIEST RECOMMENDS SHOPLIFTING (Friday Church News Notes, January 1, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – In his Sunday sermon on December 20, Anglican priest Tim Jones recommended that poor people shoplift from major stores. He claims that this is not breaking the eighth commandment, since “it is permissible for those who are in desperate situations to take food that they might not starve” (“Thou Shalt Shoplift,” Daily Mail, Dec. 22, 2009). This Church of England heretic, who pastors at St. Lawrence and St. Hilda in York, England. has apparently read Karl Marx more than the Bible. No wonder that a recent survey found that 93% of people in England had no plan to attend church this Christmas. Anglican leaders blame “secularism” on the decline in church attendance, but the real culprit is wretched, soul-damning apostasy. The Word of God says that even if a man steals “to satisfy his soul when he is hungry, ” he is guilty of a crime and “shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house” (Proverbs 6:30-31). The law of God says that if a man is caught stealing and “have nothing,” meaning he is too poor to repay what he has stolen, “then he shall be sold for his theft” (Ex. 22:3).
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.