-WEEKLY CHURCH NEWS NOTES
Pastor Dale Morgan
June 22, 2008
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*The Weekly Church News Notes is designed for use in churches
SOUTHERN BAPTISTS APPROVE STATEMENT ON REGENERATE CHURCH MEMBERSHIP
Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting approved
a resolution urging
congregations to maintain a regeneration membership and accurate
membership rolls." The resolution, "On Regenerative Church Membership
and Church Member Restoration," stated that "only 6.1 million of the
reported 16.2 million Southern Baptist church members attend the
primary worship service of their church in a typical week." Thus,
only a third of SBC church members show up on Sunday morning, but the
picture is even much worse than that. Only a little more than
one-tenth of the members on SBC rolls show up for anything other than
a Sunday morning service. "These figures suggest that nearly 90% of
Southern Baptist church members appear to be little different from
the 'cultural Christians' who populate mainline denominations" (Jim
Elliff, Founder's Journal, Feb. 7, 1999). After the new resolution
was approved, Tom Ascol, executive director of Founders Ministries,
said: "The problem is that we are in bad shape, and a lot of our
churches are in bad shape. It's hard to admit and once you admit it,
it's hard to know what to do. This resolution won't solve anything
but I've had many pastors tell me they have wanted a resolution like
this passed so they can go back to their churches and use it, saying,
Look, this is not just your pastor's idea. The whole convention is on
record now. This is a problem we need to look at and address" ("SBC
Adopts Regenerate Membership," Baptist Press, June 11, 2008). That is
no doubt a true statement, but it is so very sad to think that
pastors could be so cowardly that they would draw back from something
as basic as maintaining a regenerate membership roll. Perhaps Sister
Complain-a-Lot and Brother Half-Backslidden would get upset if the
pastor tried to remove their dear relatives from the membership roll
just because they live like the devil and never come to church. Well,
so be it. Each and every day we preachers need to take a long hard
look back at the cross of Christ and forward to the judgment seat of
Christ, and fearing God more than man go out and do those things that
are required of us by Holy Scripture.
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WIFE OF NORTHERN IRELAND'S FIRST MINISTER ACCUSED OF HATE CRIME *
The following is excerpted from WorldNetDaily, June 12, 2008: "Iris
Robinson, considered Northern
Ireland's first lady as the wife of First Minister Peter Robinson,
has been accused of 'hate crimes' and is facing both a police
investigation and the possibility of a civil complaint, according to
reports. A report in An Phoblacht, an online political weekly in
Ireland, said Robinson had been invited onto the BBC Radio Ulster's
'The Stephen Nolan Show' to talk about a recent physical assault on a
homosexual by a team of thugs described by the reporter as
'gay-bashing.' She condemned the violence, then described
homosexuality as 'disgusting, nauseous, shamefully wicked and vile.'
Now, the report said, a government agency has confirmed it is
investigating complaints that have been filed against her, and one
homosexual activist said he's contacted a lawyer about the situation.
The reports said complaints against Robinson have been lodged by
Andrew Muir, vice-chair of the Gay and Lesbian Across Down, as well
as John O'Doherty, a member of the South Belfast District Policing
Partnership. ... On the radio program, Robinson said, 'Homosexuality
is not natural. My Christian beliefs tell me that it is an
abomination and that is very clear. It is an offense to God, and
offensive act and something God abhors.' ... She went on to urge
homosexuals to seek psychiatric counseling, because of the success of
various programs that offer to help them re-focus their sexual
lifestyles. 'I have a lovely psychiatrist who works with me in my
office trying to turn homosexuals away from what they are engaged
in,' she said. 'I'm happy to put any homosexuals in touch with this
gentleman. I have met people who have turned around and become
heterosexual. They are married and having families.' The report said
she was describing one of her health policy advisers, Paul Miller.
... The comments from both Robinson and Miller were condemned
immediately by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which holds
'lesbian, gay and bisexual people should be regarded as valued
members of society who have exactly the same rights and
responsibilities as others.'"
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DOLLY PARTON'S NEW ALBUM MIXES JESUS WITH MORAL TRASH *
In a fashion that is typical for country music, Dolly
Parton's new album, Backwoods Barbie, mixes a vague Jesus with moral
debauchery. The song "Jesus and Gravity" says, "Jesus, I've got
Jesus/ He's my everything ... He gives me hope and He gives me
strength/ And that's all I'll ever need..." Yet the same album has
songs about drinking, carousing, breaking one's sacred marital vows,
and sleeping with someone outside of marriage, all from a very
"non-judgmental" perspective. This is 2 Timothy 4:3 Christianity.
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but
after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having
itching ears." Parson dresses immodestly and has played the madam in
an R-rated movie about a house of prostitution. She has covered Led
Zeppelin's occultic song "Stairway to Heaven" and John Lennon's
atheist song "Imagine." She joined the Dixie Chicks, Carole King,
Yoko Ono, and others to record a benefit album in support of the
Human Rights Campaign, a radical homosexual rights organization.
Parton's Jesus is not the one revealed in Scripture. She says, "God
isn't the monster in the sky that I grew up with [in the Church of
God]. He's a feelin' within you" (Parade, Nov. 2, 1980). For the
stage production for her song "Go to Hell," she used 12 dancers. She
said, "We do this with six dancers on the devil's side and six on the
Lord's side. At the end of the song, they all merge and we all go
into the light" ("Dolly's Flame Worthy Streak Continues," Country
Music Television, April 21, 2004). This would appear to depict the
New Age-Hindu concept that everything is one, that good is evil and
evil is good, that everything is evolving and merging into one. In
spite of this, Dolly is popular with the Southern Gospel crowd. The
Southern Gospel Hall of Fame is located at the Dollywood
entertainment center and they host a 30-day Southern Gospel Jubilee
each year. This is another example of the worldliness and
unscriptural "judge not" philosophy that permeates much of Southern
Gospel today.
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THE EMERGING CHURCH'S ENVIRONMENTALIST AGENDA
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The emerging church's agenda is not just to keep the
air clean and the streams pure; it goes far beyond that to a position
that is akin to earth worship. In May 2008 Pastor Jeffrey Whittaker
attended Brian McLaren's Everything Must Change tour at Goshen
College in Indiana, and he witnessed the environmental frenzy first
hand ("A Pastor Reports on McLaren's Everything Must Change Tour,"
June 2, 2008, http://herescope.blogspot.com/). The very first session
was titled "Focusing on the Wounds of Our Planet." They sang a song
based on Francis of Assisi's poem "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" and
watched a DVD by the Sierra Club "exposing the immoral mining
techniques used by energy companies in West Virginia." Then they were
treated to a song that cried out against "our rape of Mother Earth."
The second day's session began with another environmentalist song
that said mining is a "scar cut across the face of Mother Earth."
They were constantly reminded that "catastrophic consequences due to
global warming are upon us." Another session opened with the "Hymn of
Remorse," which bewailed the supposed desecration of the earth. "We
repent for covering your colorful earth with gray cement ... for
cutting down trees ... for scarring your earth ... Lord, have mercy,
can we be restored?" By no stretch of the imagination can such a
position be supported by the Bible. From the very beginning God gave
man the right to use the earth. "And God blessed them, and God said
unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and
subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the
earth" (Genesis 1:28). Man has a divine right to subdue the earth and
use its resources, to cut its trees and mine its ore and pump its
oil. This does not mean he has the right to destroy the earth and
turn it into a filthy cesspool; no one in his right mind is in
support of polluting the air and water and wiping out the animal
species. But God has given man the right to use the earth's resources
in a responsible manner. The environmentalist movement is not based
on proven science; it is not merely the push for reasonable
conservation; it is a blind religious faith. Its most zealous
proponents are gullible tools in the hands of one-worlders who intend
to use the environmentalist cause to increase their authority at a
local, national, and global level. When Marxist globalists jump on
the environmentalist bandwagon, you have to know that something other
than love for a clean earth is driving the agenda. Jonah Goldberg has
wisely observed: "At its core, environmentalism is a kind of nature
worship. It's a holistic ideology, shot through with religious
sentiment. ... Environmentalism's most renewable resources are fear,
guilt and moral bullying" ("The Church of Green," Los Angeles Times,
Op-Ed, May 20, 2008).
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DISCIPLINE OR DISORDERS?*
The following is excerpted from Training Your Children to Turn out
Right, an
excellent book by David Sorenson (Northstar Ministries, 1820 W.
Morgan St., Duluth, MN 55811, 218-726-0209,
www.northstarministries.com, dhs.no...@charter.net) -- "I make no
pretense of being a psychologist. However, I am convinced that much
of what is diagnosed by modern child psychologists is just a figment
of their professional imagination. It seems that decade by decade and
almost year by year new 'psychological' disorders are 'discovered' in
children. ... I am convinced that some of these 'disorders' are
things that psychologists have invented to describe children who are
just lacking in self-discipline. ... My wife, particularly, has
worked with children for over 27 years and in my estimation is a
master in working with them. ... In later years as the nature of our
ministry changed, Pam has continued to work with children. Though the
group size she has worked with in more recent years is smaller,
parents still come to her and tell her that 'Johnny' is hyperactive,
or 'Susie' has an attention deficit disorder, or little 'Billy' is
learning disabled. Our experience usually has been that these
children have had very little encouragement in self-discipline. ... I
have watched Pam work with children who are 'hyperactive.' The
psychologist's solution to the problem was to prescribe behavior
modification drugs to essentially sedate the children. Their parents
would come to Pam and warn her that little Susie had this disorder
and that they could not do anything with her. ... Pam would work with
these children in junior church or in some other children's program
and would let little Susie know in no uncertain terms that her word
was law, and that she was going to obey, period. There was kindness,
a positive incentive to cooperate, and a fun atmosphere about the
program, but above all she demanded and taught behavioral discipline.
And she got it. I have watched many of these children over the years.
Even though they were a terror at home and diagnosed as hyperactive
at school, they would sit up straight, pay attention, behave, and
learn the lesson or story in junior church. ... Pam teaches
discipline and she demands it. Yet the children love her. And the
Sunday School bus kids, who for the most part come of their own
volition, come back week after week" (Training Your Children to Turn
Out Right, 1995, pp. 38, 39).
*THE PARABLE OF THE WOMAN AND THE MEAL *
"Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like
unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal,
till the whole was leavened" (Matthew 13:33). The leaven that Jesus
described in this parable is not peace; it refers to the apostasy
that will increase throughout the church age and leaven the whole
"visible church." Compare 2 Timothy 3:13. Leaven in the Bible is
always a symbol of sin or error. The woman of the parable "hid" the
leaven in the meal, indicating deception. The first time we see
leaven mentioned in Scripture is in Exodus 12:15. Beginning on the
day of the Passover, which signified salvation through faith in the
blood of Christ, there was to be no leaven in the Jewish homes for a
full week. This signified the putting away of sin after salvation.
The only offerings that had leaven were the two loaves of the feast
of 50 days or Pentecost (Lev. 23:17), and this is because those
loaves signified the Jews and Gentiles united in one body in the
church and the fact that they are not sinlessly perfect in this
present world. On the other hand, the other offerings signified the
sinless Christ and were thus made without leaven (Ex. 29:2; Lev.
6:17). Jesus warned the disciples to "beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees and of the Sadducees," referring to their hypocrisy and
heresies (Mat. 16:11-12; Luke 12:1). Paul warned the churches that "a
little leaven leaveneth the whole lump," referring to the leaven of
sin (1 Cor. 5:6-8) and the leaven of doctrinal error (Gal. 5:9).
CONCLUSION: Friends in Christ, do not be discouraged by what is
happening today. 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).