05-WEEKLY CHURCH NEWS NOTES
Pastor Dale Morgan
October 29, 2006.
By: David Cloud [FBIS]
The Weekly Church News Notes is designed for use in churches.
*EPISCOPAL BISHOP APPROVES BLESSING OF HOMOSEXUAL "MARRIAGES"*
Andrew Smith, the bishop of Connecticut in the Episcopal Church in
America, has approved the blessing of homosexual "unions." He emphasizes
that the decision does not allow Episcopal ministers to officiate at
civil unions, which are legal in Connecticut, but it does allow them to
impart "a pastoral ministry of blessing" ("Episcopal Bishop OKs Same-Sex
Blessings," Associated Press, Oct. 22, 2006). In fact, the difference is
meaningless. God's word condemns homosexuality in the strongest of
terms, calling it "vile affections," "against nature," "unseemly," and
"a reprobate mind" (Rom. 1:26-28), and never gives the slightest support
for "same-sex unions." To bless that which God has called abominable is
the height of folly. "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil;
that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for
sweet, and sweet for bitter" (Isaiah 5:20). The Anglican denomination is
much more like the filthy Harlot of Revelation 17 than the holy church
of Jesus Christ. Those who claim to be "evangelical" and remain yoked
together with this heretical abomination are in open disobedience to
God's Word. "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for
what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what
communion hath light with darkness?" (2 Cor. 6:14).
*
CHRISTIANITY TODAY ADMITS EVANGELICALISM'S LAODICEAN CHARACTER *
An editorial posted to the Christianity Today web site on October 19,
2006, inadvertently admits the Laodicean character of contemporary
evangelicalism. The article, "Let's Improve the Public Perception of
Evangelicalism," frets about public misperceptions of their movement,
especially that "in the public's mind" evangelicalism is "linked with
extreme fundamentalism." Horror of horrors! For 50 years the New
Evangelicals have been trying to portray themselves as the reasonable,
scholarly, positive face of Christianity, but society still thinks they
are just fundamentalists. It is laughable. The author recounts the
beginnings of modern evangelicalism as follows: "Let's agree that the
word evangelical still works, but not like it did when the pioneers of
the neo-evangelical movement adopted it. At that time, it signaled their
positive stance for the gospel along with a fresh, non-fundamentalist
agenda of cooperation and cultural engagement." Observe that the writer
admits that New-Evangelicalism is this generation's heritage, and he
glories in the fact that evangelicalism has rejected separatistic
fundamentalism for a "positive stance." This confirms what we have long
said, that evangelicalism and neo-evangelicalism have become synonyms
over the past 50 years. The author then boasts about evangelicalism's
greatness as follows: "We now have institutional resources and
influential churches to a degree barely hoped for 50 years ago. Our
people are better educated and more affluent." The Lord must be terribly
impressed. "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods,
and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" (Rev. 3:17).
*WOMEN PREACHERS IN THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION *
While there are only a few female pastors in the Southern Baptist
Convention, there are large numbers of women that are disobeying the
Bible by assuming leadership roles in other ways and by teaching and
preaching to men. 1 Timothy 2:12 forbids the woman to do two things:
usurp authority over the man and teach the man. Both are forbidden, but
there are large numbers of Southern Baptist churches that allow women to
teach mixed adult Sunday School classes and otherwise openly disobey
this plain Scripture. It is just as unscriptural for a woman to teach a
class of men as it for her to be a senior pastor. Yet W.A. Criswell's
wife, Dorothy, taught a mixed Sunday Class for many years composed of
men and women at First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. Some of those
who sat under her teaching were students and trustees of Southwestern
Baptist Theological Seminary ("Pastor's letter challenges seminary's
proposed stance," Baptist Press, Oct 17, 2006). Conservative SBC leader
Paige Patterson's wife, Dorothy, has spoken as the principal speaker at
the Sunday Morning worship service at Concord Missionary Baptist Church
in Dallas (Baptist Press, Oct 17, 2006). Billy Graham's daughter, Anne
Graham Lotz, who frequently preaches to mixed crowds of men and women,
is a member of a Southern Baptist congregation. Texas Southern Baptists
featured Lotz's "stirring preaching" at their Evangelism Conference in
1996 and she was again featured as a preacher at a Sunday morning
worship service June 15, 2003, sponsored by the Conference of Southern
Baptist Evangelists (Ohio Baptist Messenger, July 2003). If we are going
to disregard the Bible in one area why not disregard it altogether?
*
MORE CONTRADICTORY SIGNALS IN THE SBC ON "PRIVATE PRAYER LANGUAGE" *
On October 17, 2006, the trustees of the Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, voted to disallow professors
from promoting the charismatic doctrine of a "private prayer language."
The statement says the seminary will not knowingly hire professors who
advocate this practice. At the same time, though, the president of the
seminary, Paige Patterson, said professors who practice this privately
and do not teach it in the classroom will not be disciplined or fired,
and one of the school's trustees who openly endorses this practice will
remain in his position ("SWBTS Takes Stance against
Pentecostal/charismatic Doctrine," Baptist Press, Oct 17, 2006). This
reminds us of what happened at the SBC Foreign Mission Board in late
2005. The board passed a rule forbidding the appointment of missionaries
who practice a "private prayer language," but the head of the Board,
Jerry Rankin, both practices and endorses it, and the current
missionaries who practice it will not be dismissed. This demonstrates
how weak a denominational structure is and how it necessarily results in
compromise of the truth, because it brings together men with differing
doctrines and opinions and the truth must be brought down to the lowest
common denominator, and even if a stand is made on one side, it will
often be contradicted on another. Why can't men be content with the
institution that the Lord created, which is the New Testament church?
The apostles did not create a denominational or associational structure
to bring the churches together so they could allegedly "accomplish more
together than separately." There is not a hint of this in the book of
Acts or anywhere else in the New Testament Scriptures.
*
NOBEL WINNER DOUBTS ISRAEL'S SURVIVAL *
Nobel Economics Prize winner Professor Robert Aumann doubts whether
Israel is capable of surviving for the long-term. Aumann, who moved from
the USA to Israel in the 1950s, says: "Too many Jews don't understand
why they are here. If we don't understand why we are here, and that we
are not America or just a place in which to live, we will not survive"
("Nobel Winner Doubts Israel's Survival," Haaretz.com, Oct. 18, 2006).
Aumann criticizes Israel for giving up land to the Palestinians and for
untimely disengagement from conflicts with its neighbors. The professor
would be right except for one thing, and that is God. According to the
Bible, Israel's near future is very dark but beyond that her future is
as bright as the glory of Christ's kingdom. Until Israel repents of
rejecting her Messiah she will be insecure in this world, but when she
repents during the 70th week of Daniel's vision she will again be the
object of God's delight and protection. "And it shall come to pass in
that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against
Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and
they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for
him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for
him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. ... And I will
bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is
refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name,
and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say,
The LORD is my God. ... Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against
those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet
shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before
Jerusalem on the east ... And the LORD shall be king over all the earth:
in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one" (Zechariah
12:9-10; 13:9; 14:3-4, 9).
*GROWING VIOLENCE AGAINST CHRISTIANS IN IRAQ *
The following is excerpted from "Thousands of Frightened Iraqi
Christians Are Fleeing Iraq," Barnabas Report, Oct. 20, 2006: "Several
horrific attacks on Christians in the last three weeks have increased
the fear amongst the Christian community. On Wednesday October 4th an
explosion was detonated in the mainly Christian district of Camp Sara,
Baghdad. As people gathered round to help the wounded a second, larger
explosion occurred. Nine Christians were killed in the attack, one of
the largest deathtolls for a single attack. On Tuesday 10th October
Paulos Iskander, an Iraqi church minister, was abducted in Mosul.
Iskander's eldest son received a phone call from the kidnappers
demanding a ransom of $250,000; the family, unable to raise this money,
were able to negotiate for a ransom of $40,000, but the kidnappers also
demanded that Iskander's church publicly repudiate the remarks about
Islam quoted by Pope Benedict XVI last month. ... However, before the
ransom could be paid Iskander's decapitated body was discovered on 12th
October, dumped in an outlying suburb of Mosul. His body showed signs of
torture, with cigarette burns, bullet holes and wounds from beatings.
His hands and legs had been severed, and arranged around his head which
was placed on his chest. ... In Baquba, 65km north-east of Baghdad, a
Christian doctor was abducted and killed on his way to work in Baquba
hospital. There has also been an unconfirmed report that a 14-year-old
Christian boy was crucified in Basra. Amidst the surge in hostility
towards Christians in recent weeks, Christian girls have increasingly
become the target in a spate of kidnappings and rapes. The girls are
taken from their families at gunpoint, from their homes or snatched off
streets into waiting cars. They are frequently raped and abused while in
captivity, only released if their families are able to find the large
ransoms demanded."
*20,000 SCIENTISTS DENY CHIEF GLOBAL WARMING THEORY *
The following is from The Berean Call, Oct. 18, 2006: "20,000
scientists, of whom about 2,700 of them are physicists, geophysicists,
climatologists, meteorologists, oceanographers or environmental
scientists, who are in a position to understand the global warming
issues, have signed the following statement: 'There is no convincing
scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or
other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future,
cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of
the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence
that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial
effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the earth'
(Beisner, E.C., P.K. Driessen, R. McKitrick, and R.W. Spencer, 2006, 'A
call to truth, prudence, and protection of the poor: An evangelical
response to global warming,' p. 10). Christians especially need to be
cautious when it comes to the issue of global warming and other
environmental issues. One of the reasons is that these issues have been
hijacked by individuals who desire to change our way of life, and in
particular, the Christian worldview that has guided the Western Hemisphere."
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).