Sept 02, 2007

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

*
CATHOLIC NEWSPAPER NAMED "THE LEAVEN" *

The official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, is
"The Leaven." This reminds me that Roman Catholics simply don't know the
Bible, and any exception to that does not overthrow the rule. To name a
church paper "the leaven" one would doubtless have to be ignorant of the
fact that the Bible always uses the term leaven to describe sin and
error. The statement "a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump" is used
twice in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 5:6 it refers to sin in the
church and in Galatians 5:9, to false teaching. In both cases the leaven
was something undesirable to be rooted out. The term "leaven" first
appears in the Bible in Exodus 12:15 in connection with Israel's feast
of unleavened bread. No leaven was to be allowed in the house for seven
days, and this signified putting sin out of their lives. The offerings
and sacrifices were to be made without leaven because they typified the
sinless Christ (Ex. 34:25; Lev. 2:11; 6:17). The only exception was the
offering on the feast of Pentecost, which pointed to the beginning of
the church age in Acts 2. Since the churches are composed of sinners
saved by grace, that offering was baked with leaven. But this does not
change the fact that leaven always refers to sin or error in the Bible.
The "leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees" was false teaching
(Mat. 16:6). Come to think of it, "The Leaven" is a perfect description
of Rome's heresies, so the title is fitting. I witnessed another example
of this level of ignorance while attending the North American Congress
on the Holy Spirit & World Evangelization in New Orleans in 1987.
Catholic Priest Tom Forrest from Rome, the concluding speaker, said,
"God has called us to be angels of light. We are angels of light."
Indeed. "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming
themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if
his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness;
whose end shall be according to their works" (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
*
CHRISTIANITY TODAY'S CHEAP SHOT AT BIBLICAL WARNING MINISTRIES *

 The August 2007 issue of Christianity Today contains a cheap shot aimed
at Way of Life Literature and another ministry in particular and warning
ministries in general. Titled "Attack Dogs of Christendom," the
Christianity Today article is hypocritical, shallow and unscholarly,
slanderous, biblically and historically wrong, unreasonable, prideful,
fearful of strong biblical language, and evidential of CT's own error
and spiritual blindness. (See our critique of it at
http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/christianity-todays-cheapshot.html.) The
charges made against Way of Life are so untrue and seemingly vicious
that they could be characterized as slanderous. CT says, for example,
that Way of Life's reports "differ little from the coarse vulgarity of
cable TV." See what I mean. To say, as CT does, that a preacher should
not warn of error publicly (CT writes, "Lashing out in public at fellow
Christians is objectionable") flies in the face of Scripture as well as
the example of church history. Scripture commands the preacher to
reprove and rebuke (2 Tim. 4:2) and to earnestly contend for the faith
once delivered to the saints (Jude 3). Paul instructed Titus, "These
things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man
despise thee" (Titus 2:15). When we come to church history we have a
continuous stream of plain spoken and sharp public warnings that have
been issued against error and that helped to protect God's people from
the heresies of the day. Consider, for example, Martin Luther and
William Tyndale and Charles Spurgeon. If New Evangelicals can promote
their doctrine and philosophy freely on the Internet, we can critique it
just as publicly. Way of Life is not an attack dog; it is a watch dog.
We bark at heresy wherever it lifts its destructive head in these evil
last days so that God's people can be warned and beware and can stay on
the straight and narrow path. The reason why this generation of
"evangelicals" is so ignorant of the important issues facing God's
people in these end times is because their watchmen are blind and dumb.
"His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs,
they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber" (Isaiah
56:10). The same spirit of slumber and dumbness is overcoming many
fundamental Baptist preachers. Those who call themselves "young
fundamentalists" are on the same road as that taken by Christianity
Today. Take heed!

*CANADA ANGLICANS SAY BLESSING HOMOSEXUAL UNIONS NOT IN CONFLICT WITH
THEIR CORE DOCTRINES *

 At its General Synod in June, the Anglican Church of Canada voted that
blessing homosexual unions does not conflict with the "core doctrines"
of the church. If this is the case, this New Age Society masquerading as
a church needs to get some better "core doctrines." I would suggest the
Bible, and blessing homosexual unions most definitely conflicts with the
Bible. "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even
their women did change the natural use into that which is against
nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman,
burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which
is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error
which was meet" (Romans 1:26-27). (In typical liberal doublespeak the
same Synod rejected a resolution that would have allowed dioceses to
decide for themselves whether or not to "bless same-sex unions," but
that is another subject.)
*
APOSTATE DENOMINATIONS IN EUROPE HOPE TO RENEW CHRISTIANITY *

The same apostate denominations that have destroyed Christianity in
Europe are holding another conference with the objective of renewing
Christianity on that continent. The Third European Ecumenical Assembly,
to be held in Romania in September, is jointly organized by the Roman
Catholic bishops' conference of Europe and the Conference of European
Churches, which "groups Most Anglican, Protestant and Orthodox churches
in Europe" ("Major Church Assembly Expected to Propel Christian Comeback
in Europe," Christian Post, Aug. 8, 2007). Charles Hill of the Anglican
Council for Christian Unity said the conference will "give new impetus
to the churches of Europe to raise their common profile and renew their
mission to bring the light, hope and love of Jesus Christ to our
continent." In fact, it is these very denominations that have destroyed
Christianity in Europe by their heresies and theological modernism and
spiritual adultery and have thereby caused people to turn away from
"church." Take Anglicanism, for example. On one trip to England years
ago I picked up a copy of the Sunday Times and was amazed to see an
Easter interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury (Robert Runcie at the
time) in which he said that he was an agnostic as to why Jesus died on
the cross. On another visit to England I saw an ad in the newspaper for
an Anglican church service featuring music by the Spice Girls. This is
typical of the "Christianity" that exists throughout Europe. It's either
dead Catholicism or dead Orthodoxy or dead Protestantism, take your
pick. It is these people that have made Christianity into the empty
laughing stock that it is in dark Europe. On a research trip in 2003
Brian Snider and David Brown and I visited St. Peter's Kirk, Leiden,
Netherlands, where the Pilgrim's worshipped before going to America. The
church was hosting an art festival. In a video interview with a woman at
festival, Brian asked her what has happened to all of the Christians who
used to be there. In slightly broken English she replied, "I think there
are no more Christians anymore." That sad statement encapsulates what
has happened to England and Europe. Indeed, the Bible-believing
Christians are gone and paganism, in all of its sensuality, pomp and
vainglory, has taken over. And the reason is the apostasy of the churches.
*
TUTU SAYS UNITY WITH HOMOSEXUALS MAKES GOD SMILE *

Desmond Tutu, the retired head of the Anglican Church in South Africa,
recently wrote an open letter to Anglican leaders urging them to put
unity above all their differences so that Jesus will smile at them.
Tutu, who consistently comes up with cutting-edge heretical statements,
particularly mentioned the issue of homosexuality, which is causing
divisions in Anglicanism. Addressing the Archbishop of Canterbury and
the upcoming Lambeth Conference, Tutu said, "Please invite ALL those in
Episcopal orders who are not retired, even those irregularly consecrated
or actively gay; please, now I appeal to you all, do not excommunicate
one another seemingly so easily. Be welcoming and inclusive of one
another" ("Be United and Let Jesus Smile Again," Church Times, Aug. 24,
2007). Tutu concluded by saying: "Our Lord is weeping to see our
Communion tearing itself apart on the issue of human sexuality, when the
world for which he died is ravaged by poverty, disease, war and
corruption. We are one of God's agents to deal with these scourges. God
has no one but us. Please, I beg you all in our Lord's name, agree to
disagree, argue, debate; disagree, but do all this as members of one
family. Accept one another as God accepts us, however we are, in
Christ." This man is deeply confused. The Lord Jesus warned that without
repentance there is no salvation (Luke 13:3, 5). Jesus accepts sinners
as they are, but only on the basis of repentance and faith, and He then
tells them what he told the blind man: "Behold, thou art made whole: sin
no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee" (John 5:14), and the woman
that was caught in adultery, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no
more" (John 8:11). The Tutu gospel is a cheap gospel of license rather
than the biblical gospel of true conversion. The Tutu "church" is not a
true New Testament church after the pattern of the first churches that
required their members to exhibit new birth salvation (Acts 2:41-42) and
exercised discipline toward those who persisted in sin (1 Corinthians
5). The Tutu Commission of changing the world is not the one that Jesus
left us five times in Scripture (Mat. 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke
24:44-48; John 20:21; Acts 1:8). Nowhere do we see the Lord's apostles
going about to heal the world of poverty, disease, and war. Tutu's
Christianity is described in 2 Timothy 3. "This know also, that in the
last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their
own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy, ... Having a form of godliness, but denying
the power thereof: from such turn away" (2 Timothy 3:1-2, 5).
*
TRUTH WOULD NOT BE TRUTH IN THIS WORLD IF IT WERE NOT A WARRING THING *

 The following is from Charles Spurgeon's Sermons, vol. 5, #24: "Truth
could not be truth in this world if it were not a warring thing, and we
should at once suspect it were not true if error were friends with it.
The spotless purity of truth must always be at war with the blackness of
heresy and lies. I say again, it would cast a suspicion upon its own
nature; we should feel at once that it was not true, if it were not at
enmity with the false. .... It is but a rule of nature that holiness
must be at enmity with sin. That would be but a mock purity which could
lie side by side with iniquity and claim its kinship. 'Shall the throne
of iniquity have fellowship with thee?' ... If it were so. beloved, we
might then not only suspect that the church was not the holy, universal
and apostolic church; we might not only suspect it, but we might beyond
suspicion pronounce a verdict upon her, 'Thou art no more Christ's
bride; thou art an antichrist, an apostate, reprobate silver shall men
call thee, because thou hast not learned to distinguish between the
precious and the vile.'"

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).