Friday Church News Notes
Volume 24, Issue 15 - April 14, 2023
The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, though this does not imply an endorsement.
TRANSGENDER PASTOR COMPARES NASHVILLE MURDERER TO JESUS’ CRUCIFIXION (Friday Church News Notes, April 14, 2023, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Transgender Pastor,” Fox News, Apr. 4, 2023: “A liberal transgender pastor compared Nashville shooter Audrey Hale to Jesus being betrayed and crucified less than a week after Hale murdered six people [including three children] at a Christian school. Micah Louwagie, who was recently formally installed as the pastor of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Fargo, North Dakota, delivered the Easter-themed sermon to the small congregation on April 2. After reading the Biblical account of Jesus’ crucifixion, Louwagie immediately brought up the mass shooting in Nashville. ... ‘Some folks have tried to focus on eradicating trans people as a solution, because they have been waiting, just waiting for an opportunity such as this. They’ve been waiting for a reason, any reason to stoke their hatred,’ Louwagie said. ... The liberal pastor goes on to compare the Pharisees’ treatment of Jesus to politicians who make laws against drag shows and transgender players in sports. ... The pastor also compared how transgenders were treated in the U.S. to the Holocaust and Japanese internment camps later on in the message.”
NEW YORK SKYSCRAPERS PROCLAIM THE OLD AMERICA AND NEW (Friday Church News Notes, April 14, 2023, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - There are two Americas today, the old and the new. We described this in the Jan. 5 report “Two Americas.” The Old America had a near universal belief in the almighty Creator God revealed in the Bible; acceptance of absolute truth based on biblical principles; emphasis on good character traits such as honesty, purity, humility, self-restraint, and benevolence; exalted concepts of human liberty (as summarized in the magnificent Bill of Rights); justice, republicanism, civic mindedness; pursuit of universal literacy; strong law and order; respect for authority; the centrality of the “nuclear family” (mother, father, children); private ownership of property; small government under the control of the people. Old America was free, prosperous, with little crime, the world leader in science and technology. The New America is built on cultural Marxism, humanism, and atheism, and the fruit is narcissism, licentiousness, destruction of the family, lawlessness, tyranny, and financial irresponsibility. The Old America and New America are reflected on New York City’s skyscrapers. In 1956, the Old America put crosses on three skyscrapers to celebrate the gospel of Jesus Christ. The 150-foot-high crosses were on City Bank, Farmers Trust, and Forty Wall Street Corp. buildings. Today, the Empire State Building is annually decked in rainbow colors to celebrate Gay Pride, and in January 2019, the One World Trade Center was lit up in pink to celebrate the passage of a New York law legalizing abortion for any reason up to birth.
HILLSONG PAID BIG-NAME SPEAKERS MASSIVE HONORARIUMS (Friday Church News Notes, April 14, 2023, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Hillsong Church Paid,” Christian Post, Apr. 6, 2023: “[Hillsong paid celebrity speakers massive amounts of money as honorariums] according to a trove of financial documents from Hillsong Church first made public on March 9 by Andrew Wilkie, an independent member of the Australian Parliament. ... In a document titled, ‘Hillsong Conference (with One Days) Key cost Variances’ covering the period 2005-2011, Hillsong Church paid T.D. Jakes an honorarium of $146,359 in 2010. ... The list of payouts to other prominent Christian personalities includes $58,605 to Israel Haughton, $45,032 to Tim Hughes, $25,000 to Ed Young, $25,000 to Judah Smith, $25,000 to Andy Stanley and $10,000 to Nancy Beach. ... Joyce Meyer received an honorarium of $133,420 in 2008. Both Meyer and Jakes made multiple appearances at the annual Hillsong Conference, and each time they received $100,000 or more in honorarium payments. ... In 2015, according to the records, Hillsong Church spent just over $522,000 on honorariums. ... The list of famous Christian pastors with global brands that have received honorariums for making appearances at the megachurch include: Steven Furtick, Jentezen Franklin, Robert Morris, Louie Giglio, Joseph Prince, Ravi Zacharias, Carl Lentz and many others. The details come after nearly 40 churches around the world were found to have paid up to $100,000, or 3% of their tithes and offerings, annually to Hillsong Church to be a part of the Hillsong Family network, which the whistleblower has alleged offers access to a global honorarium scheme meant to funnel additional income into the pockets of celebrity pastors through sophisticated means.”
THOMAS EDISON: PATRON SAINT OF HOMESCHOOLING (Friday Church News Notes, April 14, 2023, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Raymond Arroyo, “Why Thomas Edison,” Fox News, Mar. 21, 2023: “Though Thomas Alva Edison’s creations and ingenuity are legendary, most don’t realize that Edison almost wasn’t the world’s greatest inventor. ... At five, his zeal to understand fire ended with the family barn in ashes and a whipping from his dad. His at times dangerous curiosity and endless questions drove his father to distraction, who wrote the boy off as ‘a dunce.’ But his mother saw something else in her Al. ... Little Al was registered at the Reverend GB Engle’s schoolhouse in 1855. The rote lessons and memorization were likely boring to Al. He daydreamed through classes ... Edison said of this period: ‘The teachers did not sympathize with me and … my father thought I was stupid.’ His teacher did as well. One day, in front of Al, the Reverend Engle complained that the boy was ‘addled’ and ‘unable to be taught.’ Al ran home in tears. The next day, Mrs. Edison appeared at the school, upbraided the teacher, insisted that her son had more smarts than even the Reverend and that she would educate Al herself. Astoundingly, this marked the end of Edison’s formal education and the beginning of the great inventor. Nancy Edison was a teacher by trade and equipped her son with a combination of literary classics and science manuals that fed his passion. She encouraged Al’s daring, hands on experimentation. ... I don’t know why Thomas Edison isn’t the patron saint of home-schooling. He said late in life: ‘My mother was the making of me … she let me follow my bent. The good effects of her early training I can never lose. If it had not been for her appreciation and her faith in me at a critical time in my experience, I should very likely have never become an inventor.’ ... By the end of his life, he would file more than 1,000 patents and transform the lives of millions around the globe. The alkaline battery, the lightbulb, the motion picture camera, the tattoo pen, and the first electric car—all sprang from the mind of a boy who was tossed out of school and told he was too dumb to be taught.”
TIM KELLER’S INFATUATION WITH CATHOLIC AUTHORS AND PRACTICES (Friday Church News Notes, April 14, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Many of America’s most popular “evangelical” teachers are infatuated with Roman Catholicism, as we have frequently documented. Consider Tim Keller, pastor of the Redeemer megachurch in New York City, head of the Redeemer City to City church planting network, and co-founder with D.A. Carson of The Gospel Coalition (council members have included John Piper, Alistar Begg (pastor of the Gettys), Mark Dever, Moody Church pastor Erwin Lutzer, and Southern Baptists Russell Moore and Al Mohler). Keller has a huge influence via books, blogs, and conference speaking, his books reaching the top 10 of the New York Times bestseller list. His love for Catholicism is evident in The Reason for God (2012), in which he quotes and refers to Catholic theologians and philosophers frequently, passionately, and non-critically. He includes Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox within his definition of true Christians. In The Reason for God, Keller quotes Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft, Catholic author Mary Flannery O’Conner, Catholic mystic Simone Weil, Polish Catholic poet Czeslaw Milosz, and Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero, whose doctrine Keller calls “orthodox” (p. 66). He also quotes from Malcolm Muggeridge, J.R.R. Tolkien, and G.K. Chesterton. None of these people held to the true gospel of grace alone without works. They trusted in baptism and sacraments for salvation. In the lecture series What Is Meditation? Keller promotes the contemplative prayer techniques of four Catholic “saints”: Loyola, Francis de Sales, John of the Cross, and Teresa of Avila. He says, “The best things that have been written are by Catholics during the Counter Reformation. Great stuff!” This lecture series was promoted on The Gospel Coalition website. For more about this, see Evangelicals and Contemplative Prayer, available as a free eBook and in print from Way of Life Literature.
THE BEES’ AMAZING TEMPERATURE DEFENSE (Friday Church News Notes, April 14, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Mar. 30, 2023: “When bees are threatened by some diseases or predators, they act like sick children--they get a fever. More specifically, they give their nest a fever, sometimes raising its temperature to levels nearly fatal to themselves. Bees are cold-blooded, but they can generate heat by flexing their flight muscles while holding their wings still. It has long been known that bees can generate temperatures as high as 96.8° (F) to keep the nursery nice and cozy. Researchers have found that this ability is used to cure a sick hive. One of the more dangerous threats to the bees’ nest is the chalkboard fungus. Researchers noticed that bees raised the temperature of the nursery when threatened with the fungus. They then tested the effect of the temperature increase by introducing chalkboard fungus spores into three experimental hives. Even before the larvae showed symptoms of infection, bees raised the temperature in all three hives. While several larvae mummified in one hive, no larvae in the other two hives showed infection. Other researchers have also found that bees use the same strategy on giant hornets. The bees cannot sting through the hornet’s tough armor. So, when invaded, bees raise the hive’s temperature to over 116°(F). That’s enough to kill the hornet, but one degree hotter would be fatal to the bees. God has given His creatures important abilities to gain and keep physical health. But when it comes to spiritual health, we must rely completely on what God’s Son, Jesus Christ, has done to give us that spiritual health. Notes: Science News, 5/27/00. p. 341, ‘The whole beehive gets a fever.’”
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).
NEW YORK SKYSCRAPERS PROCLAIM THE OLD AMERICA AND NEW (Friday Church News Notes, April 14, 2023, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - There are two Americas today, the old and the new. We described this in the Jan. 5 report “Two Americas.” The Old America had a near universal belief in the almighty Creator God revealed in the Bible; acceptance of absolute truth based on biblical principles; emphasis on good character traits such as honesty, purity, humility, self-restraint, and benevolence; exalted concepts of human liberty (as summarized in the magnificent Bill of Rights); justice, republicanism, civic mindedness; pursuit of universal literacy; strong law and order; respect for authority; the centrality of the “nuclear family” (mother, father, children); private ownership of property; small government under the control of the people. Old America was free, prosperous, with little crime, the world leader in science and technology. The New America is built on cultural Marxism, humanism, and atheism, and the fruit is narcissism, licentiousness, destruction of the family, lawlessness, tyranny, and financial irresponsibility. The Old America and New America are reflected on New York City’s skyscrapers. In 1956, the Old America put crosses on three skyscrapers to celebrate the gospel of Jesus Christ. The 150-foot-high crosses were on City Bank, Farmers Trust, and Forty Wall Street Corp. buildings. Today, the Empire State Building is annually decked in rainbow colors to celebrate Gay Pride, and in January 2019, the One World Trade Center was lit up in pink to celebrate the passage of a New York law legalizing abortion for any reason up to birth.
HILLSONG PAID BIG-NAME SPEAKERS MASSIVE HONORARIUMS (Friday Church News Notes, April 14, 2023, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Hillsong Church Paid,” Christian Post, Apr. 6, 2023: “[Hillsong paid celebrity speakers massive amounts of money as honorariums] according to a trove of financial documents from Hillsong Church first made public on March 9 by Andrew Wilkie, an independent member of the Australian Parliament. ... In a document titled, ‘Hillsong Conference (with One Days) Key cost Variances’ covering the period 2005-2011, Hillsong Church paid T.D. Jakes an honorarium of $146,359 in 2010. ... The list of payouts to other prominent Christian personalities includes $58,605 to Israel Haughton, $45,032 to Tim Hughes, $25,000 to Ed Young, $25,000 to Judah Smith, $25,000 to Andy Stanley and $10,000 to Nancy Beach. ... Joyce Meyer received an honorarium of $133,420 in 2008. Both Meyer and Jakes made multiple appearances at the annual Hillsong Conference, and each time they received $100,000 or more in honorarium payments. ... In 2015, according to the records, Hillsong Church spent just over $522,000 on honorariums. ... The list of famous Christian pastors with global brands that have received honorariums for making appearances at the megachurch include: Steven Furtick, Jentezen Franklin, Robert Morris, Louie Giglio, Joseph Prince, Ravi Zacharias, Carl Lentz and many others. The details come after nearly 40 churches around the world were found to have paid up to $100,000, or 3% of their tithes and offerings, annually to Hillsong Church to be a part of the Hillsong Family network, which the whistleblower has alleged offers access to a global honorarium scheme meant to funnel additional income into the pockets of celebrity pastors through sophisticated means.”
THOMAS EDISON: PATRON SAINT OF HOMESCHOOLING (Friday Church News Notes, April 14, 2023, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Raymond Arroyo, “Why Thomas Edison,” Fox News, Mar. 21, 2023: “Though Thomas Alva Edison’s creations and ingenuity are legendary, most don’t realize that Edison almost wasn’t the world’s greatest inventor. ... At five, his zeal to understand fire ended with the family barn in ashes and a whipping from his dad. His at times dangerous curiosity and endless questions drove his father to distraction, who wrote the boy off as ‘a dunce.’ But his mother saw something else in her Al. ... Little Al was registered at the Reverend GB Engle’s schoolhouse in 1855. The rote lessons and memorization were likely boring to Al. He daydreamed through classes ... Edison said of this period: ‘The teachers did not sympathize with me and … my father thought I was stupid.’ His teacher did as well. One day, in front of Al, the Reverend Engle complained that the boy was ‘addled’ and ‘unable to be taught.’ Al ran home in tears. The next day, Mrs. Edison appeared at the school, upbraided the teacher, insisted that her son had more smarts than even the Reverend and that she would educate Al herself. Astoundingly, this marked the end of Edison’s formal education and the beginning of the great inventor. Nancy Edison was a teacher by trade and equipped her son with a combination of literary classics and science manuals that fed his passion. She encouraged Al’s daring, hands on experimentation. ... I don’t know why Thomas Edison isn’t the patron saint of home-schooling. He said late in life: ‘My mother was the making of me … she let me follow my bent. The good effects of her early training I can never lose. If it had not been for her appreciation and her faith in me at a critical time in my experience, I should very likely have never become an inventor.’ ... By the end of his life, he would file more than 1,000 patents and transform the lives of millions around the globe. The alkaline battery, the lightbulb, the motion picture camera, the tattoo pen, and the first electric car—all sprang from the mind of a boy who was tossed out of school and told he was too dumb to be taught.”
TIM KELLER’S INFATUATION WITH CATHOLIC AUTHORS AND PRACTICES (Friday Church News Notes, April 14, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Many of America’s most popular “evangelical” teachers are infatuated with Roman Catholicism, as we have frequently documented. Consider Tim Keller, pastor of the Redeemer megachurch in New York City, head of the Redeemer City to City church planting network, and co-founder with D.A. Carson of The Gospel Coalition (council members have included John Piper, Alistar Begg (pastor of the Gettys), Mark Dever, Moody Church pastor Erwin Lutzer, and Southern Baptists Russell Moore and Al Mohler). Keller has a huge influence via books, blogs, and conference speaking, his books reaching the top 10 of the New York Times bestseller list. His love for Catholicism is evident in The Reason for God (2012), in which he quotes and refers to Catholic theologians and philosophers frequently, passionately, and non-critically. He includes Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox within his definition of true Christians. In The Reason for God, Keller quotes Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft, Catholic author Mary Flannery O’Conner, Catholic mystic Simone Weil, Polish Catholic poet Czeslaw Milosz, and Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero, whose doctrine Keller calls “orthodox” (p. 66). He also quotes from Malcolm Muggeridge, J.R.R. Tolkien, and G.K. Chesterton. None of these people held to the true gospel of grace alone without works. They trusted in baptism and sacraments for salvation. In the lecture series What Is Meditation? Keller promotes the contemplative prayer techniques of four Catholic “saints”: Loyola, Francis de Sales, John of the Cross, and Teresa of Avila. He says, “The best things that have been written are by Catholics during the Counter Reformation. Great stuff!” This lecture series was promoted on The Gospel Coalition website. For more about this, see Evangelicals and Contemplative Prayer, available as a free eBook and in print from Way of Life Literature.
THE BEES’ AMAZING TEMPERATURE DEFENSE (Friday Church News Notes, April 14, 2023, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Mar. 30, 2023: “When bees are threatened by some diseases or predators, they act like sick children--they get a fever. More specifically, they give their nest a fever, sometimes raising its temperature to levels nearly fatal to themselves. Bees are cold-blooded, but they can generate heat by flexing their flight muscles while holding their wings still. It has long been known that bees can generate temperatures as high as 96.8° (F) to keep the nursery nice and cozy. Researchers have found that this ability is used to cure a sick hive. One of the more dangerous threats to the bees’ nest is the chalkboard fungus. Researchers noticed that bees raised the temperature of the nursery when threatened with the fungus. They then tested the effect of the temperature increase by introducing chalkboard fungus spores into three experimental hives. Even before the larvae showed symptoms of infection, bees raised the temperature in all three hives. While several larvae mummified in one hive, no larvae in the other two hives showed infection. Other researchers have also found that bees use the same strategy on giant hornets. The bees cannot sting through the hornet’s tough armor. So, when invaded, bees raise the hive’s temperature to over 116°(F). That’s enough to kill the hornet, but one degree hotter would be fatal to the bees. God has given His creatures important abilities to gain and keep physical health. But when it comes to spiritual health, we must rely completely on what God’s Son, Jesus Christ, has done to give us that spiritual health. Notes: Science News, 5/27/00. p. 341, ‘The whole beehive gets a fever.’”
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).
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Distributed by Way of Life Literature., publisher of Bible Study Materials and reports for Fundamental Baptists and other fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians. Established in 1974, Way of Life Literature is a fundamental Baptist preaching and publishing ministry based in Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. Brother Cloud lives in South Asia where he has been a church planting missionary since 1979. OUR GOAL IN THIS PARTICULAR ASPECT OF OUR MINISTRY (REPORTS AND FRIDAY NEWS) IS NOT DEVOTIONAL. IS TO PROVIDE INFORMATION TO ASSIST PREACHERS IN THE PROTECTION OF THE CHURCHES IN THIS APOSTATE HOUR.
David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
The Way of Life Literature preaching and publishing ministry is based at Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. A mail stop is maintained in Port Huron, Michigan.
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