WEEKLY CHURCH NEWS NOTES
Pastor Dale Morgan
June 17, 2007.
The Weekly Church News Notes is designed for use in churches.
*
THE ANGLICAN GOTH EUCHARIST*
There appears to be no bottom to the apostasy of the Anglican Church.
St. Edward
King and Martyr Church in Cambridge, England, has hosted a Goth
Eucharist every other week for the past two and a half years, led by
Chaplain Fraser Watts and Assistant Chaplain Marcus Ramshaw. It has
been praised by the Anglican Bishops of Ely, Huntingdon, and Whitby.
Instead of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs the Goth Eucharist
features Goth rock music by debauched groups such as Sisters of
Mercy, Depeche Mode, Joy Division, and Nightwish, complete with swear
words. Sisters of Mercy web site says, "We are a rock 'n' roll band.
... And intellectual love gods in our spare time." Their interviews
and testimonials are filthy. Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" record
cover was pornographic. Nightwish songs include "Planet Hell" and
"She Is My Sin." Joy Division's lead singer, Ian Curtis, hung himself
at age 25 while listening to Iggy Pop's album The Idiot. Ramshaw
says, "The service is very honest about how rubbish life is. Goths
seem to be quite into depression and this is a way of letting out all
your anger and frustration. ... It has taken a long time reassure
people that you could be a Goth and a Christian. They are not
incompatible. Christianity is all about finding light in dark places"
("In Goth We Trust," Cambridge News, Jan. 14, 2006). In fact,
Christianity is about shining light into dark places, because a dark
place is a place absent of light. Christianity is not about letting
all your anger and frustration out; it is about putting away "all
bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking,
with all malice" (Ephesians 4:31). Goth and Bible Christianity are
not compatible. Jesus Christ demanded that people repent when they
come to Him and turn from all of their evil ways, saying, "... except
ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3). The apostles
preached the same thing. Paul preached "that they should repent and
turn to God, and do works meet for repentance" (Acts 26:20). The
Bible teaches that when someone turns to Christ he is to turn from
his old life and "be not conformed to this world" (Romans 12:2), but
Ramshaw doubtless has a different Bible.
*HOMOSEXUALS TRYING TO DESTROY FREEDOM OF SPEECH *
The following is adapted from "There is only one
acceptable way to talk about homosexuality -- SILENCE!" by Ed
Vitagliano, OneNewsNow.com, May 31, 2007: "More and more, in the
U.S., Canada and Europe, homosexual activists and their straight
sympathizers are trying to ensure that the only speech that's
tolerated is the pro-gay kind. ... In the United Kingdom Stephen
Green, national director of the evangelical group Christian Voice,
was arrested at a gay pride event for distributing leaflets
containing Bible passages opposed to homosexuality. ... In France the
mayor of a French town was fined almost $4,000 merely for saying that
homosexuality was 'inferior' to heterosexuality. In Scotland the
pressure to conform manifested itself in another way. The National
Health Service issued a new policy document for hospital workers
titled Fair For All -- The Wider Challenge: Good LGBT (Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, Transgender) Practice in the NHS. The new policy
requirements, the document said, were intended to combat
'homophobia.' How did Fair For All define such 'homophobic language?'
STAFFERS WERE TOLD TO 'AVOID OFFENDING GAY PATIENTS' BY USING WORDS
LIKE 'MOTHER' OR 'FATHER,' since some patients might have two mothers
or two fathers. ... 'HUSBAND' AND 'WIFE' WERE ALSO DISCRIMINATORY,
according to the new policy, and must be replaced by 'partner' or
'they/them.' ... Meanwhile, in the Canadian city of Kamloops, British
Columbia, Catholic city councilman John DeCicco was brought up on
charges before the provincial Human Rights Tribunal after two
homosexual men took offense when he stated at a city council meeting
that homosexual acts were 'not normal and not natural.' ... Also in
British Columbia, postal workers in Vancouver staged a walkout
against delivering mail from Christian organization that was critical
of the homosexual lifestyle. ... Luis Padilla was fired from his job
at Cargill Foods in Timberville, Virginia, because he had a sign on
his pickup truck supporting an amendment to the Virginia Constitution
which defined marriage as being between one man and one woman. ... a
statement released by the company said the sign could be 'reasonably
construed as a show of hostility and intolerance toward homosexuals.'
... In all these cases there is a common sentiment: If you fail to
support, by words or deeds, the normalization of homosexuality, you
will be punished."
*
UNITED METHODISTS APPROVE TRANSGENDER PASTOR *
A "transgender" pastor received a standing ovation
from fellow Methodists attending the annual Baltimore-Washington
Conference of the United Methodist Church recently. The individual in
question began her ministry five years ago as Ann Gordon, the female
pastor of St. John's United Methodist Church in Baltimore, but after
a sex change operation she changed her name to Drew Phoenix and now
considers herself a man. She said: "The gender I was assigned at
birth has never matched my own true authentic God-given gender
identity, how I know myself. Fortunately today God's gift of medical
science is enabling me to bring my physical body in alignment with my
true gender" (Baptist Press, June 6, 2007). St. John's voted on May
25 to appoint her for another term as pastor. This sad event is a
fulfillment of Bible prophecy. "But there were false prophets also
among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you,
who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord
that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And
many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of
truth shall be evil spoken of. ... But chiefly them that walk after
the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government.
Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil
of dignities. ... Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease
from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with
covetous practices; cursed children" (2 Peter 2:1-2, 10, 14).
*
IRAN'S PRESIDENT SEES COUNTDOWN TO ISRAEL'S END*
Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has again
stated his desire to see Israel destroyed. On June 3 he said: "With
God's help, the countdown button for the destruction of the Zionist
regime has been pushed by the hands of the children of Lebanon and
Palestine. By God's will, we will witness the destruction of this
regime in the near future" (Reuters, June 3, 2007). He said that if
Israel attacks Lebanon again "the angry ocean of the nations of the
region will remove your rotten ... roots." In fact, Israel will not
be destroyed because God's covenants with her are certain (i.e.,
Jeremiah 31-33), but she remains in rebellion against God to this day
and will go through the "time of Jacob's trouble" to bring her to
repentance (Jer. 30:7). The book of Revelation describes this time in
great detail beginning in chapter 6. When Israel repents and her
Messiah returns, her enemies will be destroyed (Zechariah 12:6-9).
"For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this
mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness
in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be
come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There
shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away
their sins" (Romans 11:25-27).
*ANNE GRAHAM LOTZ JOINS WITH WCC PRESIDENT IN A CONFERENCE IN INDIA *
Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of
Billy Graham, and World Council of Churches president Samuel Kobia
were among the speakers featured at a convention of the Mar Thoma
Church in India in February. The convention was held in Maramon,
Kerala, February 11-18. The Mar Thoma Church is a member of the
wretchedly apostate World Council. Kobia doesn't preach the
redemption of the soul through the blood of Christ; he preaches the
redemption of society through socio-political endeavors. In April he
said the focus of the World Council is not on the evangelization of
the world but on such things as the healing of divisions between
denominations and challenging violence ("WCC Head Calls for Change in
Famed Ecumenical Motto," Christian Post, April 28, 2007). For more
about the World Council of Churches see
http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/wcc.html.
*
SADDLEBACK CHURCH'S SCHOOL OF ROCK*
Under the Worship section of Saddleback Church's web site we find the
"School of Rock," where you can learn to sing "like your favorite pop
artist" and play guitar songs "by legendary bands." This is "worship"
of a holy God Rick Warren style. (Warren sang the drug-drenched Jimi
Hendrix song "Purple Haze" before his church on April 17, 2005,
accompanied by his "praise and worship" band.) The "Beyond the Blues"
class "will take your blues playing to another level, along with
classic blues licks by the masters." The Saddleback web site neglects
to say that the legendary rockers, pop stars, and classic blues
artists were and are drug- and alcohol-drenched and their lives and
music morally filthy. "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is
that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Romans 12:2).
"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but
rather reprove them" (Ephesians 5:11).
*
INVENTOR OF JAZZ WAS AN EXCELLENT REPRESENTATIVE OF THAT FIELD *
Two movies are being made about
Buddy Bolden (1877-1931), called by some the inventor of jazz, and an
examination of his short life turns up evidence that he was a premier
representative of that field, not only musically but morally. Known
as "King Bolden," the New Orleans "cornet king" played in one of the
city's most popular bands. At age 29 he was incarcerated in a mental
institution after attacking his mother-in-law with a water pitcher,
and he spent most of the rest of his life locked up for insanity. His
heavy drinking doubtless contributed to his illness and his early
death at age 54 in an insane asylum. He was buried in an unmarked
site in a pauper's graveyard. Bolden often closed his
ragtime-blues-jazz shows with a song called Funky Butt. This was a
reference to "the olfactory effect of an auditorium packed full of
sweaty people dancing close together and belly rubbing" (Danny
Barker, Buddy Bolden and the Last Days of Storyville, 1998, p. 31).
Thus the moral lewdness that has characterized jazz and blues and
rock & roll was very much evident at its birth. It is impossible to
use music that is so intimately associated with immorality and
rebellion for the glory of the thrice holy God of the Bible.
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).