The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, though this does not imply an endorsement.
YOUTUBE LABELS MACARTHUR’S SERMON ON BIBLICAL SEXUALITY “HATE SPEECH” (Friday Church News Notes, January 28, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from “YouTube Declares,” Todd Cast, Jan. 19, 2022: “Pastor MacArthur delivered a message Sunday about Biblical sexuality–part of a nationwide campaign to draw attention to Canadian legislation that would silence pastors on LGBT issues. Five years in prison for pastors who preach against the LGBT agenda. So Pastor MacArthur encouraged pastors around the nation to stand in solidarity by preaching from their pulpits about biblical teachings regarding LGBT issues. ‘There is no such thing as transgender. You are either XX or XY, that’s it. God made man male and female. That is determined genetically, that is physiology, that is science, that is reality,’ MacArthur said from the pulpit. ‘This notion that you are something other than your biology is a cultural construct intended as an assault on God. The only way you can address it, honestly, is to say, God made you and God made you exactly the way He wanted you to be. You are not only fighting God in His physical creation, you are fighting God in His sovereignty. You are fighting God in His spiritual relationship to you,’ he explained. ‘This is a war on God.’ … But YouTube removed the clip and sent me a message saying the pastor’s sermon was hate speech. ‘Our team has reviewed your content, and, unfortunately, we think it violates our hate speech policy,’ YouTube wrote to me. ‘We’ve removed the following content from YouTube: “There is no such thing as transgender. You are either XX or XY. That’s it. – Pastor John MacArthur.” In other words, YouTube affirmed the Canadian law by banning any opposition to transgenderism on their platform. … Jenna Ellis, special counsel for the Thomas More Society Special Counsel that successfully represented Pastor MacArthur when Los Angeles ordered his church to shut down during the pandemic, said, ‘The big tech oligarchy in the United States is implementing the equivalent of Canada’s insane law by censoring truth and the right of pastors to teach the Bible,’ she told me. ‘If Americans don’t stop big tech, this new Regime will circumvent the Constitution to foreclose our fundamental rights to speak and exercise religion and the impact will be devastating.’”
63 MILLION BABIES MURDERED IN AMERICA SINCE ROE V. WADE (Friday Church News Notes, January 28, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from “63,459,781 Abortions,” Christian Headlines, Jan. 21, 2022: “The United States passed a tragic landmark in 2022 with its 63 millionth abortion since Roe v. Wade –an eye-opening number that pro-lifers say should awaken Americans to the consequences of the 1973 decision. The statistic is based on data from the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute, which contacts abortion clinics directly for the numbers. National Right to Life, using the Guttmacher stats, says there have been 63,459,781 abortions in the U.S. since Roe. The highest number of abortions took place in 1990, with an estimated 1,608,600. That number slowly declined until 2021, when the U.S. experienced 886,677 abortions. Each January, pro-lifers gather in Washington, D.C., for the annual March for Life to stand up for the unborn and call for an end to Roe. Pro-life activists hope this year’s March for Life–held around the 49th anniversary of the decision–is the last one under Roe. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering a case, Dobbs v. Jackson, that could lead to the undermining or overturning of Roe. The case itself involves only a single law–a second-trimester abortion ban in Mississippi–but Mississippi and others are asking the court to overturn the landmark case. The law bans abortions after 15 weeks.”
VACCINE MANDATES (Friday Church News Notes, January 28, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – Covid-19 appears to be a slight changing of the times in that it has marked an increase in autocratic government power in democratic nations. Following are just a few examples: Austria, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan are requiring all citizens to be vaccinated. Greece has imposed a 50 euro fine on unvaccinated people age 60 and older. Israel requires vaccination or recovered Covid status for all adult tourists. Nepal requires vaccination for all persons age 18 or older arriving or departing its international airport. Quebec, Canada, has announced a health tax for the unvaccinated. In the UK, all National Health Service workers must be vaccinated. In Manila, the Philippines, a level three lockdown is back in place due to Covid Omicron, and unvaccinated people are not allowed outside their homes, with very few exceptions. In America, the Biden administration mandated Covid vaccination for all federal employees, including the military, health care workers (who participate in Medicare and Medicaid, which is the majority), and all businesses with more than 100 employees. All of the U.S. mandates are being aggressively challenged in the courts. The mandate for businesses (including school districts) was overturned by the Supreme Court on Jan. 13, and the mandate for federal workers was blocked by a federal judge on Jan. 21. Public schools in 14 states are trying to mandate covid vaccination, but some state governments are barring the mandates.
MOTIVATION OF LIGHT-ON-CRIME DISTRICT ATTORNEYS (Friday Church News Notes, January 28, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – District attorneys in many U.S. cities are undercutting law and order by treating violent criminals with kid gloves. I asked a lawyer friend, Kelly Whiting, for his take on their motive. He replied, “They’re committed to Leftist ideology which requires that the present system of ordered liberty be made unworkable. They’re the ideological descendants of the founders of the ACLU, whose express purpose was to destroy freedom by pushing the boundaries as far as possible, using the legal system against us, in the service of communists. These DAs are radicals working to destroy the present system by making it unlivable. Almost uniformly they’re funded by Soros. But they are each committed Leftists and claim criminal law is a systemically racist thing that must be destroyed, or, in their fake words, ‘reimagined.’ But their claims are dishonest. The real endgame is to make it impossible to enforce the law, which leads to the overthrow of the government because people won’t live in chaos, and then they imagine themselves leading the new Leftist tyranny that replaces the system they’ve destroyed.” I think that nails it. From a spiritual standpoint, it is a judgment of God on a wicked nation.
MICROSOFT WORD WANTS TO WOKE YOUR COMMUNICATIONS (Friday Church News Notes, January 28, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – Microsoft wants to help people think in a “woke,” politically correct, feminized way, so the newest version of Microsoft Office 365 flags supposed improper terminology and offers a “correct” replacement (“MS Woke,” The Sun, Jan. 12, 2022). Marxists love this type of thing, but they don’t mess around with mere “suggestions.” They are into full-blown force. Consider some examples of Microsoft’s flags/replacements:
- mankind – humankind or humanity
- postman – mail carrier or postal worker
- mailman – mail person
- congressman – congress person
- maid – house cleaner
- headmaster – principal
- gentlemen’s agreement – unspoken agreement
- master – expert
- manpower – workforce
- heroine – hero
- Mrs – Ms
- housekeeper – house cleaner
- showgirl – performer
This is propagandizing. Sure the goofy feature can be turned off, but most probably won’t go to the trouble or even see the need, especially children and young people, and they will be unwittingly influenced toward rigid, leftist, lockstep thinking. Microsoft Office has 250 million users.
“We should always look upon ourselves as God’s servants, placed in God’s world, to do his work; and accordingly labour faithfully for him; not with a design to grow rich and great, but to glorify God, and do all the good we possibly can” (David Brainerd, missionary to American Indians).
“If one evil thought, if one evil word, if one evil action deserves eternal damnation, how many hells, my friends, do every one of us deserve, whose whole lives have been one continued rebellion against God” (George Whitefield). “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:10-11).
THE MIND OF BACTERIA (Friday Church News Notes, January 28, 2022,) – The following is from CreationMoments.com, December 14, 2021:
“Researchers are learning that bacteria have senses similar to our hearing and sight. Bacteria even have a brain that receives information from their senses. They can make decisions. However, all of this is not enough to explain how bacteria can make the decision to swim toward food. When you want a candy bar, you know where to find one, even if you must go to the nearest store. You might also hope that your dentist doesn’t see you buying candy. All of this involves memory, which has long been considered a basic part of the mind. Researchers, using various solutions of substances that attract or repel bacteria, have now learned that bacteria do indeed have both long-term and short-term memories. They remember where goodies are to be found. Once a bacterium develops a strategy for dealing with the unknown, it will remember what to do next time. This finding shocked researchers. They know that when you or I decide to retreat or advance, at least hundreds and probably thousands of brain cells are involved. The one-celled bacteria can make the same decision based on past memories. Are there really ‘simple’ forms of life that serve as the living traces of evolutionary development? Scientists haven’t found any yet. According to the Bible’s account of creation, we don’t expect them to find any simple forms of life from which we can be traced. Author: Paul A. Bartz. Ref: Pietsch, Paul,“The mind of a microbe.” Science Digest, Oct. 1983, p. 103.”
CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. 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).
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