May 27, 2007.

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

*RICK WARREN RAILS AGAINST FUNDAMENTALISTS, AGAIN *

Rick Warren of Purpose Driven Life fame has railed
against fundamentalist Christians yet again. At a three-day summit on
adoption in Colorado Springs Warren said: "We've got some people who
only focus on moral purity and couldn't care less about the poor, the
sick, the uneducated. And they haven't done zip for those people." He
said that too often Christians these days are defined by a "big
mouth" ("Christian Groups Launch Massive Adoption Campaign, Los
Angeles Times, May 13, 2007). Warren mentioned James 1:27, which says
pure religion is to visit the fatherless and widows in their
affliction. What he failed to acknowledge is that pure religion,
according to the same verse, is also to keep oneself unspotted from
the world. That describes a very strict type of separation from the
world, and the Bible just as plainly teaches that we are to separate
from and renounce doctrinal error (Rom. 16:17; 2 Tim. 3:5; 4:1-4,
etc.); yet Warren viciously denounces those who are attempting to
obey these biblical injunctions, calling them big mouths. Biblical
Christianity involves showing compassion to the needy as well as
strict standards of holiness and truth, not to mention evangelism and
the Great Commission, and that is what Biblicists are have been doing
since the first century. I have written more than 30 articles warning
about Rick Warren's error and compromise, so I obviously have a "big
mouth" by his definition, but my wife and I adopted a special-needs
child when she was three years old and have dedicated almost two
decades of our lives to one of the world's poorest mission fields and
have given away thousands of dollars to the poor. In his interview on
Larry King Live on December 2, 2006, Warren slanderously likened
biblical fundamentalists to Muslim extremists and atheistic
secularists. He has also said that Christian fundamentalism will be
"one of the big enemies of the 21st century" ("The Purpose-Driven
Pastor," The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 8, 2006). The book
"Transitioning: Leading Your Church through Change" by Dan
Southerland, which Warren recommends and which is sold on Warren's
web site, calls the pastor who resists the Purpose Driven movement
"Sanballat" (from the book of Nehemiah) and a "leader from hell" (pp.
115, 116).  Beware of Rick Warren. He is the blind leading the blind.

*BIBLE CALLED INDECENT BY SOME HONG KONG RESIDENTS *

More than 2,000 residents of Hong Kong have asked the
government's Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (TELA)
to classify the Bible as "obscene" for its sexual and violent content
("Bible under Fire," Christian Post, May 16, 2007). That would have
made it illegal for minors under 18 to purchase it and would have
caused it to be wrapped with a warning notice. The complaints, which
were probably sparked by a Chinese language web site that urged
readers to contact the TELA, refer to acts of violence, rape, incest,
and cannibalism in the Bible. In its statement on the issue the
licensing authority responded that the Bible "had not violated
standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by
reasonable members of the community." This brouhaha is ridiculous, of
course. Though the Holy Bible refers to acts of rape and incest, it
does so only to warn against sin and it never does so in a prurient
manner. No one has ever been morally tempted by reading the Bible. In
fact, it has been said that the Bible will keep you from sin or sin
will keep you from the Bible. Anyone who considers the Bible indecent
has only his own indecent, truth-rejecting mind to blame. "The fear
of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD
are true and righteous altogether" (Psalm 19:9).

*NEWT GINGRICH SPEAKS AT LIBERTY UNIVERSITY'S GRADUATION *

Newt Gingrich, former U.S. House
of Representatives Speaker, delivered the speech at Liberty
University's graduation service on May 19, 2007. Gingrich's
invitation, which was extended before Jerry Falwell died earlier this
month, is further evidence of the deep spiritual compromise that
encompassed Falwell's ministry in his latter decades. Gingrich is a
brilliant politician and historian, but he should not be the speaker
at an alleged Bible-believing college. His testimony of salvation is
very weak. He told James Dobson, "In terms of my own life, let me say
that I was raised initially as a Lutheran and I ended up converting
and becoming a Southern Baptist when I was in graduate school at
Saint Charles Avenue Baptist Church with Dr. Avery Lee, who was just
a great, great preacher and moral leader" ("Newt has 'sought God's
forgiveness,'" WorldNetDaily, March 8, 2007). To convert from
Lutheran to Southern Baptist is not a biblical testimony of
salvation. I wrote to Gingrich's organization and asked for his
testimony, but I received no reply. In his commencement address at
Liberty University Gingrich did not even mention salvation in Jesus
Christ, and in his commencement address at the University of Mary
Washington on May 13, 2007, Gingrich urged the graduates to follow
"five basic rules of life" -- "dream big, work hard, learn daily,
enjoy life and be true to themselves." The idea of being "true to
yourself" is not scriptural, and he neglected the most important
"rule" of all, which is to be born again and to fear God and make
Jesus Christ the Lord of one's life. Gingrich is twice divorced and
thrice married and has had affairs both during and outside of wedlock
("Newt Gingrich," Wikipedia). He supports some homosexual rights
(though not homosexual "marriage"). When Gingrich was asked by John
Loftus what he thinks about homosexuality, he replied that though he
believes that the Bible calls it an abomination he doesn't "want to
be judgmental about others" and is "not prepared to render judgment
to individuals" ("Interview with Newt Gingrich,"
http://www.theamericanview.com/index.php?id=331). Gingrich also told
Loftus that he does not think that being homosexual says anything
negative about a person's character and that "there are many good and
kind and decent people who may also be homosexuals." Gingrich
actively supported a homosexual congressional candidate in Wisconsin,
praising him for 'courage' in running for office, and he opposed an
attempt in the House of Representatives to censure homosexual
congressman Barney Frank for criminal conduct, including letting a
homosexual prostitution ring be run out of his home (The New
American, Dec. 1994). Gingrich is a member of the racist NAACP
(Ibid.), and he is one of the top lobbyists for the alcohol industry
(The Fundamentalist Digest, Jan.-Feb. 1993). Falwell's downward slide
began with his entanglement with politics and the formation of the
Moral Majority in the 1970s. The Bible warns that "evil
communications corrupt good manners" (1 Cor. 15:33), but Dr. Falwell
ignored that to his detriment and to that of those who have been
influenced by him. In the 1960s Falwell said, "Nowhere are we
commissioned to reform the externals. We are not told to wage wars
against bootleggers, liquor stores, gamblers, murderers, prostitutes,
racketeers, prejudiced persons or institutions, or any other existing
evil as such. I feel that we need to get off the streets and back
into the pulpits and into our prayer rooms" ("TV Evangelist Jerry
Falwell Dies at 73," USA Today, May 15, 2007). He was right in that
statement, but in the late 1970s Falwell made a 180 degree turn and
founded the Moral Majority. By 1986 Falwell stated that Catholics
made up the largest constituency (30%) in the Moral Majority
(Christianity Today, February 21, 1986).

*500 CHURCHES AND 67 DENOMINATIONS PARTICIPATE IN FRANKLIN GRAHAM
NORFOLK FESTIVAL *

More than 500 churches representing 67 denominations are participating
in the
Franklin Graham evangelistic "festival" in Norfolk, Virginia, May
18-20 ("Franklin Graham Brings Soul Festival to Virginia," Christian
Post, May 18). The Graham organization refused to give us a list of
the churches and denominations, but there are NOT that many churches
and denominations in the Norfolk area that are sound in doctrine and
practice. In the past, Billy Graham has often included Roman Catholic
churches in his crusades and has turned the names of tens of
thousands of seekers over to Roman Catholic dioceses for "follow up,"
and Franklin Graham has praised his father's ecumenical approach.
Franklin told the Indianapolis Star that his father's longstanding
ecumenical alliance with the Catholic Church "was one of the smartest
things his father ever did." He said: "In the early years, up in
Boston, the Catholic church got behind my father's crusade. That was
a first. It took back many Protestants. They didn't know how to
handle it. But it set the example. 'If Billy Graham is willing to
work with everybody, then maybe we should too'" ("Keeping it simple,
safe keeps Graham on high," The Indianapolis Star, Thurs., June 3,
1999). Franklin is correct in understanding that his father broke
ground in his ecumenical endeavors, but he did so in disobedience to
Scripture and it has brought great confusion to the cause of Christ.
A Catholic archbishop was present at the media launch for Franklin
Graham's 1998 crusade in Australia. Denominations involved in that
crusade included Anglican, Catholic, Assemblies of God, Baptist,
Lutheran and Uniting. That moral reprobate and habitual liar Bill
Clinton, who supports the "right" of a woman to murder her unborn
child, is scheduled to speak at Franklin Graham's Norfolk festival.
The worldly rock & roll will be supplied by Three63, Third Day,
Nicole Mullen, and Charlie Daniels Band, among others. It is never
right to do wrong in order to do right, and doing wrong will not
stand at Christ's judgment seat no matter how much "good" we think we
are accomplishing.