>THE WEEKLY CHURCH NEWS NOTES
2 views
Skip to first unread message
Pastor Dale Morgan
Aug 7, 2010, 6:05:20 AM8/7/10
to Bible-Pro...@googlegroups.com
>THE WEEKLY CHURCH NEWS NOTES
August 6, 2010
By: David Cloud FBIS
The Weekly Church News Notes is designed for use in churches
JACK SCHAAP’S THREE-RING CIRCUS
The late Jack Hyles, pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, was one of the founders of evangelistic promotionalism. Taught through his books, tapes, and the annual Pastor School, this methodology spread far and wide among independent Baptists and beyond. I witnessed it personally as a student at Tennessee Temple in the 1970s. When I arrived in Chattanooga in 1973, I spent the first several weeks working in Highland Park Baptist Church’s massive bus ministry, learning the Hyles’ program. Basically, the objective was to get a crowd using practically any means possible. Swallow goldfish, hide money under bus seats, put the preacher into a clown suit, give away bicycles, bring in a fighter or a wrestler to challenge the neighborhood toughs, put on a judo contest, bring in the “flaming evangelist” (a preacher who lit himself on fire), whatever you could think of. The associate pastor of Highland Park in those days described promotionalism as “keeping it pumped up.” Once you attract a crowd with a three-ring circus, you have to keep the show going. After Hyles died in 2001, his son-in-law Jack Schaap took over as director of the circus, and he has proven himself adept at keeping it pumped up. In their Fall Campaign they got a big crowd by giving away a series of prizes worth $250 each. Schaap had a television game show-like spinning wheel brought onto the church platform and the five men who brought the most visitors got to spin the wheel before the congregation. There were $250 gift certificates from Ziggie’s Funland, Best Buy, Elmer’s Jewelers, Alberts, and Cabela’s. As the wheel was spinning, Schaap did some figuring and blurted out, “That’s $12.50 per visitor. Not bad!” Not bad, indeed, if you care deeply about meaningless numbers. (He claims that thousands upon thousands are saved every year, but the church itself doesn’t grow by thousands, to say the least. Most of those “saved” people are nowhere to be found.) Not bad unless you consider the fact that you have turned the house of God into a three-ring circus and a trivial television game show. I thank the Lord for many things I learned at Tennessee Temple in the 1970s, but this type of thing sickened my soul then and it sickens my soul today. I was only one year old in the Lord when I went off to Bible School, but I had read the Bible through a couple of times by then and I knew that what I was seeing was not New Testament Christianity. I understand that many men who have bought into promotionalism are sincere in their desire to reach the lost, but we don’t have the authority to do anything contrary to God’s Word. I cannot in my wildest imagination conceive of the apostle Paul dressing up in a clown suit or giving away gift certificates to Ziggie’s Funland in order to draw a crowd. God’s Word forbids us to adopt the way of the heathen or to conform to the world (Jeremiah 10:2; Romans 12:2), and a wheel of fortune is nothing if not worldly. Further, what do the unsaved think when they learn that they were invited to church by someone who is in a position to win a big prize? I remember when I was invited to a Jack Van Impe crusade in Tampa, Florida, before I was saved. One of my hippie buddy’s sisters was an Independent Baptist and she had talked us into attending. When I saw Van Impe give away prizes to those who brought the most visitors that night, I thought to myself, “Well, that is why they asked us to come.” That wasn’t true, but it is how the lost person thinks, and this type of nonsense plays right into it.
ANNE RICE BREAKS UP WITH CHRISTIANITY
Anne Rice, best-selling author of erotic and vampire/witchcraft novels, has “left Christianity.” In 1998, after many years of professing atheism, Rice returned to the Catholic Church. She has since published books about Jesus, but it is a Jesus of her own imagination. The first one, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, “depicts Jesus as a seven-year-old boy who gets the things he wishes for, like the death of another young boy who annoys him.” In the sequel, Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, Jesus falls in love with a beautiful woman and “struggles with a sense of restlessness of purpose.” On July 28, Rice posted on her Facebook page, “In the name of Christ I quit Christianity and being Christian.” She said that she refuses to be anti-gay, anti-feminist, anti-secular humanism, and anti-science, among other things. She claims that she loves Christ but not Christianity. While Jesus is not the founder of the Roman Catholic Church or of false Christianity, He is the Author, by His Spirit, of Holy Scripture, and a true Christian submits to God’s Word and does not pick and choose what he or she will believe. Jesus said, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me...” (John 14:21). Jesus’ apostle, John, wrote, “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3-4). What Rice apparently doesn’t know is that her beliefs would be acceptable in the many churches that worship The Shack god. This was proven when emerging leader Dan Kimball encouraged Rice to check out his church recommendations (“Pastor to Anne Rice: We Are the Church,” The Christian Post, Aug. 3, 2010). In October 2008, Rice was interviewed on James Dobson’s Focus on the Family program in conjunction with the publication of her autobiography Called Out of Darkness. Dobson gave her a warm, non-judgmental reception and presented her to the millions in his audience as a genuine Christian, no questions asked. In light of the many warnings in God’s Word about the possibility of spiritual deception and the multiplication of false christs and false spirits in the end times (e.g., Matthew 24:4-5, 11; 2 Corinthians 11:1-4; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 13; 4:3-4; 1 Peter 5:8,; 2 Peter 2:1-2; 1 John 2:18; 4:1; Jude 3-4) this was an act of great foolishness and spiritual disobedience. In the strongest terms possible we would urge our readers to beware of the compromise of modern evangelicalism.
VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL PANDAMONIUM
- The latest example of a ridiculous, carnal, apostate VBS program is “PandaMonium” by Group Publishing. Intended for the 2011 Vacation Bible School season, PandaMonium is so named because, they say, VBS is supposed to be “crazy, fun, high-energy.” The word “pandemonium” means “wild uproar or unrestrained disorder.” The packaging features a lovable-looking cartoon panda bear, arms opened invitingly, above the words, “PandaMonium: Where God is Wild about YOU!” (When the publisher was informed that the term also referred to the alleged headquarters of hell in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, they decided to change the name to “PandaMania.”) The concept of “pandemonium” for a VBS program is ridiculous and carnal no matter how you look at it. No wonder most kids leave such churches when they reach adolescence. God is presented as a goofy cartoon figure and the gospel is a man-centered “God is wild about you.” If God is wild about me, accepts me just as I am with no demand for repentance, is non-judgmental, and has no rules, as the wildly-popular novel The Shack says, why not live as I please? This generation is in for a very rude awakening. There is an eternal hell, but it is not the one described in Milton’s fictional account. It is the one described in the Bible, and it is far more fearful, and it can be escaped only through the new birth. Pandemonium is an apt description of the apostasy in the churches. Having rejected the truth and living according to their own lusts (2 Timothy 4:3-4), they have turned the church of Jesus Christ into a worldly party.
RAY BRADBURY’S RELIGIOUS VIEWS
In a recent interview with CNN, science fiction legend Ray Bradbury described his views on God and religion. Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451 and the Martian Chronicles, grew up in a Baptist home, but he describes himself as “delicatessen religionist.” He is particularly enamored with Buddhism and Eastern religion, even calling himself a “Zen Buddhist.” He is a pantheist and an evolutionist. He considers Jesus a wise prophet, like Buddha and Confucius, a man who became Christ through self effort. “Jesus is a remarkable person. He was on his way to becoming Christ, and he made it” (“Sci-fi Legend Ray Bradbury on God,” CNN, August 2, 1010). He claims that when it comes to God, “none of us know anything.” He says that man must leave earth for salvation. “We must move into the universe. Mankind must save itself. We must escape the danger of war and politics. We must become astronauts and go out into the universe and discover the God in ourselves.” Sci-fi arose in the late 19th and early 20th century as a product of an evolutionary worldview that denies the Almighty Creator. Science fiction takes the reader into a strange world without God. Oh, there might be “a god,” a “force,” but it is definitely not the God of the Bible, and the prominent names in this field are atheists.
ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER GOLIATH’S HOMETOWN
Though most archaeologists are unbelievers and the field is rife with bias against the Bible, their work has continually confirmed the Bible’s accuracy. Renowned Jewish archaeologist Nelson Glueck said, “It may be stated categorically that no archeological discovery has ever controverted a single biblical reference. Scores of archeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible” (Rivers in the Desert, 1960, p. 31). Archaeology has found evidence for the existence of practically all of the kings of Israel, including David and Solomon, of Solomon’s palace and stables at Megiddo, of Ahab and Jezebel’s ivory palace at Samaria, Israel’s temples, the walls built by Nehemiah, and a thousand other things. Among the most recent cases are the discovery of Gath, Goliath’s hometown, and Shaaraim, a city in the valley of Elah where David fought Goliath. These places are mentioned in 1 Samuel 17:19, 52. Aren Maeir, director of the excavations at Tel Tzafit (Gath), says that Philistine names have been found which are similar to “Goliath” and that they have found evidence that Gath was a major city at that time (“Archaeologists Uncover Goliath’s Hometown,” Arutz Sheva, July 13, 2010). Shaaraim means “two gates” and the second gate to the ancient fortress there was recently found (“Digging Through the Bible,” Arutz Sheva, July 20, 2009).
DOOMSDAY SHELTERS
USA Today says, “There are signs that underground shelters, almost-forgotten relics of the Cold War, are making a comeback” (“Doomsday Shelters,” July 28, 2010). Several companies are building them locally in various parts of America, and at least one company, Vivos, is planning a nationwide system. They come in various sizes to accommodate and support from 10 to 2,000 adults for one to five years. Vivos calls its shelters “the life assurance solution for you and your family to survive the next earth devastating catastrophe.” The shelters are co-opts which are owned by a group of people who are promised access in case of emergency. They are advertised as the solution for earthquakes, asteroid strikes, tsunamis, nuclear attacks, bio terrorism, and social anarchy. (Of course, if there was a social anarchy situation severe enough to require one to go underground for a year or more, the anarchists would probably find your hole and doubtless would not honor your co-opt receipt!) The Bible tells us that a Great Tribulation is coming on this earth, a time far more destructive than any the world has ever witnessed, but it cannot be survived in an underground shelter. The Bible says the Antichrist will rule for seven years with conditions growing progressively worse, far longer than any shelter stockpile will last. Further, no one will be able to buy or sell without his mark. He is no ordinary man, and he will be supported by Satan and his hoards of demons. Holdouts will be found! A far better solution is to put one’s faith in Jesus Christ and be washed in His blood and serve in His great harvest field while you wait for the imminent Rapture. That is not a fictional scenario; it is the promise of a God who cannot lie. “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief” (1 Thessalonians 5:4).
THE DIGITAL PASTOR
According to a new report, thousands of churches in America are using a digital pastor. For example, the four satellite churches associated with Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, receive their Sunday morning sermons via a high-definition image of Pastor Ed Young, which is broadcast from the “mother church.” Fellowship Church is a very (worldly) cool emerging church which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. (The radically ecumenical, Pentecostal, hard-rocking, contemporary praise group Hillsong, which associates with the Roman Catholic Church, is scheduled to perform there on July 30.) Geoff Surratt, author of The Multi-site Church Revolution, claims that at least 3,000 churches listen to messages from a digital pastor. Some even use a hologram whereby the preacher floats in the air like a ghost! These “churches” are largely entertainment centers, and it is more entertaining to have a “super-preacher” broadcasted digitally than a “regular” preacher in person.
APPLE AS RELIGION: A FULFILLMENT OF BIBLE PROPHECY
Two thousand years ago, the apostle Paul wrote by divine inspiration, “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, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, LOVERS OF PLEASURES MORE THAN LOVERS OF GOD” (2 Timothy 3:1-4). One of the multitudes of proofs that the Bible is indeed the divinely-inspired Revelation from God is the fact that its statements are true. Even statements written 4,000 years ago, are true. For people to treat a dead piece of technology, that has a shelf life not much more than that of a butterfly, with all of the zeal of religious zealots must be evidence that they are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Consider the cult-like status of Steve Jobs, the wild enthusiasm that greats each new Apple gadget, the buyers parked in snaking lines in front of Apple stores to buy those gadgets. Leander Kahney, editor of the tech blog Cult of Mac, says: “If you’re joining a church, you’re joining a community. ... Just as new church members learn the myths, rites and values, new Apple users start to learn the myths and rituals supported by other ‘believers’” (“Looking for a New Religion: Apple Gives Dose of the Divine” ABCNews, Aug. 2, 2010). I like Apple products. They usually work well and they are interesting, but what a poor substitute for God is Apple or the Beatles or the Dallas Cowboys or money or a beautiful woman or a cool guy or anything whatsoever.
CONCLUSION: The Weekly Church News Notes is designed for use in churches. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. 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. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “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).
August 6, 2010
By: David Cloud FBIS
The Weekly Church News Notes is designed for use in churches
JACK SCHAAP’S THREE-RING CIRCUS
The late Jack Hyles, pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, was one of the founders of evangelistic promotionalism. Taught through his books, tapes, and the annual Pastor School, this methodology spread far and wide among independent Baptists and beyond. I witnessed it personally as a student at Tennessee Temple in the 1970s. When I arrived in Chattanooga in 1973, I spent the first several weeks working in Highland Park Baptist Church’s massive bus ministry, learning the Hyles’ program. Basically, the objective was to get a crowd using practically any means possible. Swallow goldfish, hide money under bus seats, put the preacher into a clown suit, give away bicycles, bring in a fighter or a wrestler to challenge the neighborhood toughs, put on a judo contest, bring in the “flaming evangelist” (a preacher who lit himself on fire), whatever you could think of. The associate pastor of Highland Park in those days described promotionalism as “keeping it pumped up.” Once you attract a crowd with a three-ring circus, you have to keep the show going. After Hyles died in 2001, his son-in-law Jack Schaap took over as director of the circus, and he has proven himself adept at keeping it pumped up. In their Fall Campaign they got a big crowd by giving away a series of prizes worth $250 each. Schaap had a television game show-like spinning wheel brought onto the church platform and the five men who brought the most visitors got to spin the wheel before the congregation. There were $250 gift certificates from Ziggie’s Funland, Best Buy, Elmer’s Jewelers, Alberts, and Cabela’s. As the wheel was spinning, Schaap did some figuring and blurted out, “That’s $12.50 per visitor. Not bad!” Not bad, indeed, if you care deeply about meaningless numbers. (He claims that thousands upon thousands are saved every year, but the church itself doesn’t grow by thousands, to say the least. Most of those “saved” people are nowhere to be found.) Not bad unless you consider the fact that you have turned the house of God into a three-ring circus and a trivial television game show. I thank the Lord for many things I learned at Tennessee Temple in the 1970s, but this type of thing sickened my soul then and it sickens my soul today. I was only one year old in the Lord when I went off to Bible School, but I had read the Bible through a couple of times by then and I knew that what I was seeing was not New Testament Christianity. I understand that many men who have bought into promotionalism are sincere in their desire to reach the lost, but we don’t have the authority to do anything contrary to God’s Word. I cannot in my wildest imagination conceive of the apostle Paul dressing up in a clown suit or giving away gift certificates to Ziggie’s Funland in order to draw a crowd. God’s Word forbids us to adopt the way of the heathen or to conform to the world (Jeremiah 10:2; Romans 12:2), and a wheel of fortune is nothing if not worldly. Further, what do the unsaved think when they learn that they were invited to church by someone who is in a position to win a big prize? I remember when I was invited to a Jack Van Impe crusade in Tampa, Florida, before I was saved. One of my hippie buddy’s sisters was an Independent Baptist and she had talked us into attending. When I saw Van Impe give away prizes to those who brought the most visitors that night, I thought to myself, “Well, that is why they asked us to come.” That wasn’t true, but it is how the lost person thinks, and this type of nonsense plays right into it.
ANNE RICE BREAKS UP WITH CHRISTIANITY
Anne Rice, best-selling author of erotic and vampire/witchcraft novels, has “left Christianity.” In 1998, after many years of professing atheism, Rice returned to the Catholic Church. She has since published books about Jesus, but it is a Jesus of her own imagination. The first one, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, “depicts Jesus as a seven-year-old boy who gets the things he wishes for, like the death of another young boy who annoys him.” In the sequel, Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, Jesus falls in love with a beautiful woman and “struggles with a sense of restlessness of purpose.” On July 28, Rice posted on her Facebook page, “In the name of Christ I quit Christianity and being Christian.” She said that she refuses to be anti-gay, anti-feminist, anti-secular humanism, and anti-science, among other things. She claims that she loves Christ but not Christianity. While Jesus is not the founder of the Roman Catholic Church or of false Christianity, He is the Author, by His Spirit, of Holy Scripture, and a true Christian submits to God’s Word and does not pick and choose what he or she will believe. Jesus said, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me...” (John 14:21). Jesus’ apostle, John, wrote, “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3-4). What Rice apparently doesn’t know is that her beliefs would be acceptable in the many churches that worship The Shack god. This was proven when emerging leader Dan Kimball encouraged Rice to check out his church recommendations (“Pastor to Anne Rice: We Are the Church,” The Christian Post, Aug. 3, 2010). In October 2008, Rice was interviewed on James Dobson’s Focus on the Family program in conjunction with the publication of her autobiography Called Out of Darkness. Dobson gave her a warm, non-judgmental reception and presented her to the millions in his audience as a genuine Christian, no questions asked. In light of the many warnings in God’s Word about the possibility of spiritual deception and the multiplication of false christs and false spirits in the end times (e.g., Matthew 24:4-5, 11; 2 Corinthians 11:1-4; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 13; 4:3-4; 1 Peter 5:8,; 2 Peter 2:1-2; 1 John 2:18; 4:1; Jude 3-4) this was an act of great foolishness and spiritual disobedience. In the strongest terms possible we would urge our readers to beware of the compromise of modern evangelicalism.
VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL PANDAMONIUM
- The latest example of a ridiculous, carnal, apostate VBS program is “PandaMonium” by Group Publishing. Intended for the 2011 Vacation Bible School season, PandaMonium is so named because, they say, VBS is supposed to be “crazy, fun, high-energy.” The word “pandemonium” means “wild uproar or unrestrained disorder.” The packaging features a lovable-looking cartoon panda bear, arms opened invitingly, above the words, “PandaMonium: Where God is Wild about YOU!” (When the publisher was informed that the term also referred to the alleged headquarters of hell in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, they decided to change the name to “PandaMania.”) The concept of “pandemonium” for a VBS program is ridiculous and carnal no matter how you look at it. No wonder most kids leave such churches when they reach adolescence. God is presented as a goofy cartoon figure and the gospel is a man-centered “God is wild about you.” If God is wild about me, accepts me just as I am with no demand for repentance, is non-judgmental, and has no rules, as the wildly-popular novel The Shack says, why not live as I please? This generation is in for a very rude awakening. There is an eternal hell, but it is not the one described in Milton’s fictional account. It is the one described in the Bible, and it is far more fearful, and it can be escaped only through the new birth. Pandemonium is an apt description of the apostasy in the churches. Having rejected the truth and living according to their own lusts (2 Timothy 4:3-4), they have turned the church of Jesus Christ into a worldly party.
RAY BRADBURY’S RELIGIOUS VIEWS
In a recent interview with CNN, science fiction legend Ray Bradbury described his views on God and religion. Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451 and the Martian Chronicles, grew up in a Baptist home, but he describes himself as “delicatessen religionist.” He is particularly enamored with Buddhism and Eastern religion, even calling himself a “Zen Buddhist.” He is a pantheist and an evolutionist. He considers Jesus a wise prophet, like Buddha and Confucius, a man who became Christ through self effort. “Jesus is a remarkable person. He was on his way to becoming Christ, and he made it” (“Sci-fi Legend Ray Bradbury on God,” CNN, August 2, 1010). He claims that when it comes to God, “none of us know anything.” He says that man must leave earth for salvation. “We must move into the universe. Mankind must save itself. We must escape the danger of war and politics. We must become astronauts and go out into the universe and discover the God in ourselves.” Sci-fi arose in the late 19th and early 20th century as a product of an evolutionary worldview that denies the Almighty Creator. Science fiction takes the reader into a strange world without God. Oh, there might be “a god,” a “force,” but it is definitely not the God of the Bible, and the prominent names in this field are atheists.
ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER GOLIATH’S HOMETOWN
Though most archaeologists are unbelievers and the field is rife with bias against the Bible, their work has continually confirmed the Bible’s accuracy. Renowned Jewish archaeologist Nelson Glueck said, “It may be stated categorically that no archeological discovery has ever controverted a single biblical reference. Scores of archeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible” (Rivers in the Desert, 1960, p. 31). Archaeology has found evidence for the existence of practically all of the kings of Israel, including David and Solomon, of Solomon’s palace and stables at Megiddo, of Ahab and Jezebel’s ivory palace at Samaria, Israel’s temples, the walls built by Nehemiah, and a thousand other things. Among the most recent cases are the discovery of Gath, Goliath’s hometown, and Shaaraim, a city in the valley of Elah where David fought Goliath. These places are mentioned in 1 Samuel 17:19, 52. Aren Maeir, director of the excavations at Tel Tzafit (Gath), says that Philistine names have been found which are similar to “Goliath” and that they have found evidence that Gath was a major city at that time (“Archaeologists Uncover Goliath’s Hometown,” Arutz Sheva, July 13, 2010). Shaaraim means “two gates” and the second gate to the ancient fortress there was recently found (“Digging Through the Bible,” Arutz Sheva, July 20, 2009).
DOOMSDAY SHELTERS
USA Today says, “There are signs that underground shelters, almost-forgotten relics of the Cold War, are making a comeback” (“Doomsday Shelters,” July 28, 2010). Several companies are building them locally in various parts of America, and at least one company, Vivos, is planning a nationwide system. They come in various sizes to accommodate and support from 10 to 2,000 adults for one to five years. Vivos calls its shelters “the life assurance solution for you and your family to survive the next earth devastating catastrophe.” The shelters are co-opts which are owned by a group of people who are promised access in case of emergency. They are advertised as the solution for earthquakes, asteroid strikes, tsunamis, nuclear attacks, bio terrorism, and social anarchy. (Of course, if there was a social anarchy situation severe enough to require one to go underground for a year or more, the anarchists would probably find your hole and doubtless would not honor your co-opt receipt!) The Bible tells us that a Great Tribulation is coming on this earth, a time far more destructive than any the world has ever witnessed, but it cannot be survived in an underground shelter. The Bible says the Antichrist will rule for seven years with conditions growing progressively worse, far longer than any shelter stockpile will last. Further, no one will be able to buy or sell without his mark. He is no ordinary man, and he will be supported by Satan and his hoards of demons. Holdouts will be found! A far better solution is to put one’s faith in Jesus Christ and be washed in His blood and serve in His great harvest field while you wait for the imminent Rapture. That is not a fictional scenario; it is the promise of a God who cannot lie. “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief” (1 Thessalonians 5:4).
THE DIGITAL PASTOR
According to a new report, thousands of churches in America are using a digital pastor. For example, the four satellite churches associated with Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, receive their Sunday morning sermons via a high-definition image of Pastor Ed Young, which is broadcast from the “mother church.” Fellowship Church is a very (worldly) cool emerging church which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. (The radically ecumenical, Pentecostal, hard-rocking, contemporary praise group Hillsong, which associates with the Roman Catholic Church, is scheduled to perform there on July 30.) Geoff Surratt, author of The Multi-site Church Revolution, claims that at least 3,000 churches listen to messages from a digital pastor. Some even use a hologram whereby the preacher floats in the air like a ghost! These “churches” are largely entertainment centers, and it is more entertaining to have a “super-preacher” broadcasted digitally than a “regular” preacher in person.
APPLE AS RELIGION: A FULFILLMENT OF BIBLE PROPHECY
Two thousand years ago, the apostle Paul wrote by divine inspiration, “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, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, LOVERS OF PLEASURES MORE THAN LOVERS OF GOD” (2 Timothy 3:1-4). One of the multitudes of proofs that the Bible is indeed the divinely-inspired Revelation from God is the fact that its statements are true. Even statements written 4,000 years ago, are true. For people to treat a dead piece of technology, that has a shelf life not much more than that of a butterfly, with all of the zeal of religious zealots must be evidence that they are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Consider the cult-like status of Steve Jobs, the wild enthusiasm that greats each new Apple gadget, the buyers parked in snaking lines in front of Apple stores to buy those gadgets. Leander Kahney, editor of the tech blog Cult of Mac, says: “If you’re joining a church, you’re joining a community. ... Just as new church members learn the myths, rites and values, new Apple users start to learn the myths and rituals supported by other ‘believers’” (“Looking for a New Religion: Apple Gives Dose of the Divine” ABCNews, Aug. 2, 2010). I like Apple products. They usually work well and they are interesting, but what a poor substitute for God is Apple or the Beatles or the Dallas Cowboys or money or a beautiful woman or a cool guy or anything whatsoever.
CONCLUSION: The Weekly Church News Notes is designed for use in churches. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. 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. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “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).
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages