June 24, 2007.

The Weekly Church News Notes is designed for use in churches.

*SOUTHERN BAPTIST SAYS WE CAN'T REACH THE WORLD TODAY WITHOUT ROCK MUSIC *

 Speaking at the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in San
Antonio, Texas, Rob Zinn said the denomination must be willing to change
its methodology to reach this generation, and one of those changes
includes music. He asked grandparents in the audience, "How many of you
love those grandkids enough you'd be willing to change your music for
them?" He then said: "[I]f we're going to win [young people] to Jesus in
this culture, we're going to have to be willing to change our mindsets.
... Folks, what you did in the '40s and what you did in the '50s isn't
going to win this culture to Jesus" ("Wrap-up," Baptist Press, June 15,
2007). Zinn, who is the pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church, Highland,
California, has been brainwashed and led astray by the contemporary
church growth philosophy and probably by fellow California Southern
Baptist pastor Rick Warren. Zinn committed three errors in this one
short statement. First, nowhere does the Bible say we are to win this
culture to Jesus. Rather we are to win sinners to Jesus, and they are
won today the same way they were won 2,000 years ago. They are won by
the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the quickening power of
the Holy Spirit. It is the Gospel that is the power of God unto
salvation (Romans 1:16). Second, nowhere in the New Testament is music
used in evangelism, so the subject of music is irrelevant to the subject
of soul winning. Third, the rock music that Zinn is referring to is of
the world, the flesh, and the devil, and cannot be properly used in the
service of a thrice-holy God. I have grandchildren, and I love them
enough to warn them not to be conformed to this world and also to warn
them of confused Baptist pastors who will attempt to lead them astray
from the Bible to a man-made philosophy and program.

*SOUTHERN BAPTIST PRESIDENT SAYS "TERTIARY" DOCTRINES SHOULD BE LAID
ASIDE FOR EVANGELISM AND UNITY *

 Many speakers at the recent Southern Baptist Convention's annual
meeting said the denomination needs to lay aside "tertiary" doctrines
for the sake of evangelism and unity. The theme was set by SBC president
Frank Page, who was re-elected to his second term. He called for a
passion of reaching the lost rather than infighting and finding faults
with others ("Southern Baptists Hear a Call for Unity," AP, June 12,
2007). He said that for "Jesus' sake, and the sake of His kingdom on
earth, we must not make every doctrinal issue a crusade" and "we have no
right to judge others with whom we disagree about secondary and tertiary
doctrines" ("Southern Baptists Urged to Overcome Factionalism to Win the
Lost," Christian Post, June 13, 2007). These "secondary" doctrines are
things such as Calvinism and non-Calvinism, cessationism and
non-cessationism, views on Bible prophecy, and views on women in
ministry. The New Testament's doctrine of unity is much narrower than
Page's New Evangelical approach. Timothy was instructed to allow "no
other doctrine" (1 Timothy 1:3) and was instructed to "keep this
commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord
Jesus Christ" (1 Timothy 6:14). The commandment that Timothy was to keep
without spot is that which Paul had delivered to him in this epistle,
the theme of which is church truth (1 Timothy 3:15). In this epistle
Paul had commanded Timothy about such things as the woman's role in
ministry, the very type of thing that is considered "tertiary" among
evangelicals today. But Timothy was instructed to keep all such things
without spot, and to do so requires that we narrow our fellowship
severely in these apostate, compromised times. And there is no
contradiction between holding to the Bible's strict position on doctrine
and having a zeal for evangelism. The Southern Baptist Convention's
failure to win people to Christ, which was bemoaned often during its
recent conference, is not due to divisions caused by "secondary"
doctrine. That is a smokescreen. It is due, rather, to the worldliness
and spiritual lukewarmness that is rampant in SBC congregations. I grew
up in Convention churches, and the situation is much worse now than when
I was young, and it was very bad then.
*
NON-ESSENTIALS? *

 The following is from the late H. A. Ironside's commentary on Daniel:
"I have heard Christians refer to certain precepts in the Scriptures as
non-essentials. But we may rest assured there are no non-essentials in
our Bibles. 'The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a
furnace of earth, purified seven times.' When people talk of
non-essentials in regard to anything concerning which God has revealed
His mind, it is well to ask, 'Essential or non-essential to what?' If it
be a question of the soul's salvation, undoubtedly the one great
essential is faith in His blessed Son, whose finished work alone avails
to put away sin and procure peace with God. But if it be a question of
what is essential to the enjoyment of communion with God--essential to
obtaining the Lord's approval at the judgment-seat of Christ--then it is
well to remember that in everything the believer is sanctified to the
obedience of Christ."

*LUTHERAN COLLEGE HIRES HINDU TO HEAD RELIGION DEPARTMENT *

St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, which is affiliated with the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has hired a Hindu to head up its
religion department. Anantanand Rambachan is not only a Hindu, he is a
Hindu who is opposed to "the obsession of converting others" to one's
religious faith. His writings have been featured on the website of the
Hindu-American Foundation, which publishes a list of Christian
organizations that are guilty of "hate crimes" against Hindus. Way of
Life Literature is on that wrong-headed list, but we have never hated
Hindus and we have never committed any crimes against them, unless it is
a crime to love them enough to preach Jesus Christ to them even in the
face of much persecution. Rambachan calls biblically-based Christians
naïve, saying, "It is only ignorance of other traditions or the refusal
to be challenged by their claims which enables one to explain away
religious pluralism by the naïve conclusion that one's own tradition is
true to the nature of God and that all others are false" (Hindu
Appointed," WorldNetDaily, June 8, 2007). The man could not be more
wrong. Jesus Christ dogmatically claimed, "I am the way, the truth, and
the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6), and,
"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). Before I became a follower of Christ in 1973, I was
a member of Hindu guru Paramahansa Yogananda's Self-Realization
Fellowship Society, and the thing that changed me was simply believing
the words of Jesus Christ. There is nothing naïve about that.

*LESBIAN SUES EHARMONY FOR DISCRIMINATION *

A lesbian has sued the online dating service eHarmony for alleged
discrimination against homosexuals. Linda Carlson, who said she was
turned down when she tried to use eHarmony to meet a woman, filed the
suit in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. She said such
discrimination is "hurtful and disappointing" ("Woman Sues eHarmony,"
Yahoo News, June 1, 2007).

*THE WORDS "MOTHER," "FATHER," "HUSBAND," "WIFE" ON THE ROPES *

Use of terms such as "mother" and "father" is under attack by homosexual
activists and their dupes in government and education. Consider the
following three examples. The first example is Bill SB 777, which was
passed by the California Senate for the second time this year (it has
been vetoed once by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger), would ban absolutely
anything that "reflects or promotes bias against" homosexuals in
America's largest public school system. Randy Thomasson of the Campaign
for Children and Families warns that references to "mother" and "father"
would probably be banned from any school text if this idiotic policy
becomes law ("Lawmakers Pass Redefinition of 'Sex," The Berean Call,
June 8, 2007). The second example is the new policy that was passed in
Scotland recently. The National Health Service's new policy for hospital
workers is mis-titled "Fair For All -- The Wider Challenge: Good LGBT
(Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Practice in the NHS" (Ed
Vitagliano, "There is only one acceptable way to talk about
homosexuality -- SILENCE!" OneNewsNow.com, May 31, 2007).  In fact, the
new policy is "fair" for no one, because it destroys the right of free
speech and forbids the use of historic and biblical terms such as
"mother" and "father" (since some patients might have two mothers or two
fathers) and "husband" and "wife," labeling this "homophobic language."
Such terms must be replaced with "partner" or "they/them." The new
policy is to be strictly enforced. The third example is a case that
began in 2003, when the city of Oakland, California, labeled a flier
posted on a workplace bulletin board as "homophobic" because it used the
terms "the natural family and marriage" (Suit to Decide Workplace 'Hate
Speech,'" The Washington Times, June 11, 2007). The flier, which was
posted by Regina Rederford and Robin Christy, was removed after a
lesbian complained to the city attorney's office that it made her feel
"excluded." When Rederford and Christy sued the city, claiming their
First Amendment rights had been violated, they lost at the local, state,
and federal level, with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling
against them. The case has been appealed to the Supreme Court.
*~*

 On June 8 a mob of Hindus beat and humiliated a pastor and attempted to
immolate him. This occurred in Bangalore, which is known as "The Silicon
Valley" and "The Fashion Capital" of India. It is also the headquarters
for many Christian ministries. The attack upon Pastor Laxmi Gowda began
in his house in front of his wife and small children. The mob beat him,
doused him with kerosene, and threw a burning Bible on him. Only by
God's grace was he not severely burned or even killed. The mob then
stripped him naked, hung a sign around his neck saying, "I am the one
who was converting people," and paraded him through the area ("Hindu Mob
in India," Compass Direct News, June 12). The angry crowd burned at
least 250 Bibles and vandalized furniture and equipment. This is another
example of the spread in persecution in India, and oftentimes the police
take little or no action. The event was orchestrated by a lawyer and led
on the ground by youths from the Bajrang Dal Hindu organization and
joined by an estimated 1,000 locals ("Bangalore--The Barometer of
India?" WEA Religious Liberty News, June 15). It is thought that they
were trying to make an example of Gowda for his conversion from Hinduism
15 years ago. Prior to that, he was a member of the RSS, a radical Hindu
organization that is the parent of numerous Hindu extremist groups. Two
pastors were murdered in India in 2005. In 2000 a Catholic priest was
murdered by Hindus who left behind literature denouncing
"proselytizing," and in 1999 Protestant missionary Graham Staines and
his two sons were burned to death.

CONCLUSION: Friends in Christ, do not be discouraged by any of this. 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. These things remind us
that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the coming of
the Lord. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for
Christ day by day? "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).