WEEKLY CHURCH NEWS NOTES
Pastor Dale Morgan
*
March 25, 2007.
The Weekly Church News Notes is designed for use
in churches.
*
PSYCHOTIC ROCK & ROLLER BEING TRIED FOR MURDER *
Phil Spector, one of the most
famous names in rock music, is being tried for
the murder of Lana Clarkson, who died in his home
of a gunshot wound in February 2003. Spector, the
legendary rock producer who created the "wall of
sound" effect that helped change pop music in the
1960s, is one of the many people in this field
who have demonstrated psychotic behavior. He shot
a hole in the roof of the recording studio during
recording sessions with John Lennon and pulled a
gun on the Ramones during a recording session in
1980. In an interview with the London Daily
Telegraph in early January 2003, Spector said, "I
have a bipolar personality ... I have devils
inside that fight me. ... I've been a very
tortured soul. I have not been at peace with
myself." He said that he has feared that his
daughter would grow up "unwell herself" and be
attracted to "men like that" who are "psychotic
or cuckoo." He said, "I can't stand to be talked
about. I can't stand to be looked at. I can't
stand to be photographed." Spector's former wife,
Ronnie, said there were "two Phil Spectors," one
who was charming and "gets everyone laughing ...
But I've seen the dark rage that can suddenly
rise out of nowhere in the dead of night when the
gates to the mansion are closed and locked tight,
and that Phil Spector is terrifying" ("Be My
Baby, Spector Begs Ex," The Australian, March 19,
2007). Spector produced the Beatles' Let It Be
album, George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh,
John Lennons' Rock 'n' Roll, and rock classics
such as "Be My Baby" and "You've Lost that Lovin'
Feeling." Not every one who listens to rock music
goes insane or becomes mentally imbalanced, of
course, but it cannot be disputed that a spirit
of insanity accompanies this type of music more
than any other in modern times. The curse of God
is upon the rock & roll scene because of its open
rebellion against His laws. The divine curse is
evident in the turmoil that envelopes the lives
of rock and roll musicians, the countless early
deaths, and the mental instability that has
accompanied this music.
*
BEER EVANGELISM *
A church in St. Louis, Missouri,
called The Journey has a weekly evangelistic
outreach that mixes beer drinking with Bible
talk. Called "Theology at the Bottleworks," the
outreach located in a pub consists of a
"free-flowing spirited debate among hip young
people in scruffy beards and T-shirts" ("Beer and
the Bible," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 11,
2007). Pastor Darrin Patrick says, "We want to go
where people are." I agree with that, but what
does that have to do with drinking beer? Churches
should most definitely evangelize the beer
drinkers but should in no wise encourage beer
drinkers in their drinking! The Journey is
associated with the Missouri Baptist Convention,
the state arm of the Southern Baptist Convention,
and the state association appears to be taking
steps to distance itself from the beer
evangelism. At its annual convention last year
the SBC passed a resolution that stated "our
total opposition to the manufacturing,
advertising, distributing and consuming of
alcoholic beverages." The Journey is one of the
so-called Emerging Churches.
*
MESSIANIC JEWS PERSECUTED IN ISRAEL*
Persecution continues against
Messianic Jews in Israel by ultra-orthodox Jews,
the modern-day Pharisees who are still enraged
that any Jew would believe in Jesus as the
Messiah. The following is excerpted from
"Messianic Jew Attacked, Arrested in Israel,"
Baptist Press, March 14: "The arrest of a
Messianic Jewish evangelist in Israel reflects
the strife that often confronts Messianic Jews
despite Israel's guarantees of religious liberty
and without any repercussion from law enforcement
officials, the leader of a Messianic congregation
told Baptist Press. Messianic evangelist Eddie
Beckford was arrested outside his business, the
Chess and Bible Shop in Arad, after a mob of
ultra-Orthodox Haradim Jews surrounded his van in
the parking lot and beat him Feb. 25. Š
Beckford's arrest followed a call to police when
the confrontation with the ultra-Orthodox mob
broke out. The Haradim complained that Beckford
attacked them, according to an e-mail from
Beckford's wife Lura. '[The police] blame us for
the disturbances the Haredim cause,' Lura
Beckford wrote in a message posted at
israelprayer.com. 'They tell us, If you weren't
here, we wouldn't have to deal with this trouble.
So, they arrested Eddie and put him in leg irons
and took him to jail. They completely ignored the
Bedouin's testimony that Eddie did nothing and
the Haredim attacked him. He spent the night in a
small filthy cell with five other men, and in the
middle of the night they transferred him to
another filthy cell,' Lura added. Š 'I had the
privilege of being hit by the chief rabbi of
Arad. Why? Just because I believe in Y'shua as
the Savior of the Jewish people and the world,'
she wrote. 'S, a visiting friend of ours, has
been terribly harassed while giving out
literature, including being beaten and spit upon.
All this because we have committed the crime of
being believers.' Beckford's arrest preceded the
introduction of a bill by an Orthodox political
party seeking to sentence proselytizers in Israel
to one year in prison."
*HOMOSEXUALS IN FRANCE TO APPEAL LEGALITY OF THEIR
"MARRIAGE" TO EUROPEAN COURT *
Two French men who were "married" in June 2004 will appeal
the legality of their relationship to the
European Court of Human Rights now that it has
been declared void by France's highest court. The
homosexuals were "married" in a ceremony
officiated by Noel Mamere, the mayor of the town
of Begles. The French Supreme Court ruled that
"under French law, marriage is a union between a
man and a woman" and refused to try to make law
from the judicial bench. Mamere claims that in
performing the ceremony he was enforcing the
European Convention for Human Rights which
prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. It
will be interesting to see what the European
Court rules in this case, seeing that France is a
member of the European Union.
*BBC WORLD SERVICE IN ARABIC *
The British Broadcasting World Service is planning to start
an Arabic television service this fall. It has
been broadcasting in Arabic on the radio for more
than 60 years and has a large audience, but it is
very anti-Western. Frank Stewart, a professor of
Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, warns: "For example,
that a 50-minute BBC Arabic Service discussion
program about torture discussed only one specific
allegation, which came from the head of an
organization representing some 90 Saudis
imprisoned at Guantanamo. This speaker stated
that the prisoners were subject to horrible forms
of torture and suggested that three inmates
reported by the United States to have committed
suicide were actually killed. Another participant
insisted that the two countries guilty of
torturing political prisoners on the largest
scale were Israel and the United States. The
authoritarian regimes and armed militants of the
Arab world get sympathetic treatment on BBC
Arabic. When Saddam Hussein was in power, he was
a great favorite of the service, which reported
as straight news his re-election to a seven-year
term in 2002, when he got 100 percent of the
vote. President Bashar al-Assad of Syria enjoys
similar favor. When a State Department
representative referred to Syria as a
dictatorship, his BBC interviewer immediately
interrupted and reprimanded him. The Arabic
Service not only shields Arab leaders from
criticism but also tends to avoid topics they
might find embarrassing: human rights, the role
of security forces, corruption and censorship.
... If the BBC models its Arabic television
service on its Arabic radio service, yet another
anti-Western anti-democratic channel will find
its place on the Arab screen" ("Bad News for the
US," Frank Stewart, New York Times).
*
ISLAMIC TERRORIST ATTACKS IN AMERICA *
The following is excerpted from
The Berean Call, March 9, 2007: "While it is true
that in the US the danger of home-grown jihadists
to national security is lower than it is in
Britain, it is also true that there is a growing
phenomenon of jihadist violence being perpetrated
by Muslim men against American civilians in the
name of jihad. The Investors Business Daily
published an editorial enumerating a partial list
of acts of terrorism carried out by Muslim men
against their fellow Americans since the
September 11 attacks. Most recently, Sulejman
Talovic entered a shopping mall in Salt Lake
City, murdered five and wounded four unsuspecting
shoppers before being killed by an off-duty
police officer. As was the case when Derrick
Shareef, another Muslim male, was arrested in
early December for plotting to carry out a
similar attack at a shopping mall in Illinois
just before Christmas, the media and the law
enforcement agencies covering the Salt Lake City
massacre have made light of the fact that the
perpetrator was a Muslim. While Talovic is dead
and so cannot explain his motives to authorities,
Shareef was arrested after telling an FBI
informant of his plans to murder Jews
specifically and Americans in particular for
Allah. As Shareef told the informant, 'I swear by
Allah man, I'm down for it too. I'm down for the
cause. I'm down to live for the cause and die for
the cause, man.' [Yet upon] announcing Shareef's
arrest, US Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald
insisted that he was acting on his own and that
he had no outside inspiration for his decision to
commit mass murder for Allah. As was the case
with Talovic and with Naveed Afzal Haq, who
murdered one woman and wounded five during his
shooting rampage at the Seattle Jewish Federation
last July, the media and federal authorities have
hushed up and failed to investigate the jihadist
motives for the Illinois attacker or link him to
any larger phenomenon."
*THE POSITIVE ONLY APPROACH VS. HUMAN NATURE *
The following is excerpted from
The Doctrine and Administration of the Church by
Paul R. Jackson: "Modern psychology objects to a
negative approach and opposes commandments and
warnings. God's Word does not support such a
theory, for the theory ignores the awful fact of
a depraved human nature. It would be ideal if men
could be encouraged to live godly lives without
any warning of judgment upon ungodliness. But to
suppose they will do so is idealistic and
contrary to all observation, as well as to
Scripture. God warns of impending judgment and
says, 'It is a fearful thing to fall into the
hands of the living God' (Heb. 10:31). 'Because
there is wrath, beware...' (Job 36:18). If sin
goes unjudged in a church, we are thereby
inviting others to become self-indulgent. It will
not do to plead 'love' as a basis for neglect.
... God does not put love and punishment in
opposition to each other. He says, 'For whom the
Lord loveth he chasteneth...' (Heb. 12:5-11). The
church has a solemn responsibility to restrain
sin by proper discipline. If we do not exercise
the judgment, the Lord will (1 Cor. 11:31-32)."
*
THE REAL CAUSE OF FAILURE IN MARRIAGE *
The following is excerpted from
Life in the Spirit by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: "The
real cause of failure, ultimately, in marriage is
always self and the various manifestations of
self. Of course that is the cause of trouble
everywhere and in every realm. Self and
selfishness are the greatest disrupting forces in
the world. All the major problems confronting the
world, whether you look at the matter from the
standpoint of nations and statesmen, or from the
standpoint of industry and social conditions, or
from any other standpoint--all these troubles
ultimately come back to self, to 'my rights,' to
'what I want,' and to 'who is he?' or 'who is
she?' Self, with its horrid manifestations,
always leads to trouble, because if two 'selfs'
come into opposition there is bound to be a
clash. Self always wants everything for it-self.
That is true of my self, but it is equally true
of your self. You at once have two autonomous
powers, each deriving from self, and a clash is
inevitable. Such clashes occur at every level,
from two people right up to great communities and
empires and nations."
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).