PERSECUTION IN AFGHANISTAN: THE FALSE AND THE TRUE (Friday Church News Notes, October 8, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from “Christians Trapped in Afghanistan,” Release International, Sept. 27, 2021: “UK-based Release International is concerned about false reporting of persecution under the Taliban, which is obscuring the real hardship faced by the Afghan Christians who remain. Such reports have presented images from Iraq of Isis atrocities, and of a protest in Colombia, claimed to have been filmed in Afghanistan. Even a 2009 rumour of missionaries about to be executed in Iraq has been amplified and applied to Afghanistan. … ‘Understandably, there is a great deal of fear and rumour,’ says Release International CEO, Paul Robinson. ‘This is why we talk to partners who are working directly with the underground church. Release International partners with SAT-7 Pars, which broadcasts programmes via satellite TV into Afghanistan. SAT-7 is hearing directly from its audience about what is happening in that country.’ The executive director of SAT-7 Pars, Panayiotis Keenan, told Release International: ‘Since the Taliban has taken over, we are receiving many messages from Afghanistan that the persecution is getting harder. Afghan Christians are contacting us on a daily basis, describing how difficult the situation is. They are hiding and meeting in secret locations. But winter is coming and that will soon become more and more difficult.’ … Pakistan and Iran are the natural escape routes for Afghans fleeing their country. But officially, the Pakistan border is closed to refugees from Afghanistan, and both Pakistan and Iran say they have reached their limit of refugees and asylum seekers. Meanwhile, Turkey has redoubled its efforts to build a wall to keep out refugees from Iran. The UK has pledged to take 20,000 Afghan refugees, with priority given to women, children and those facing persecution.”
HOMESCHOOLING IS SURGING ACROSS AMERICA (Friday Church News Notes, October 8, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from “Homeschooling,” The Federalist, Aug. 19, 2021: “The last year and a half hasn’t been easy on American school children. Between COVID-19 restrictions and fierce battles over curriculum, schools have become embroiled in political conflict as the future of education has been thrust into uncertainty. It should come as no surprise that homeschooling has dramatically spiked since the onset of COVID-19 and the lockdowns that followed. Census data reveals that by the fall of the 2020-2021 school year, 11.1 percent of households with school-aged children reported homeschooling, double the amount of the previous year. Then, by May 2021, the percentage was 19.5. … Maria Murray is the founder and academic director of a homeschooling community in Northern Virginia. … When asked some of the main concerns she’s hearing from parents, she responded, ‘The concerns I hear from inquiring families are things like requiring masks all day, the redefining of morality, and mostly wanting to be a part of a homeschooling community that primarily focuses on what education used to mean, which is reading, writing, arithmetic, a homeschooling environment where families can work together to focus on the basics.’ … A press release from the Texas Homeschool Coalition reports that ‘interest in homeschooling is already outpacing the all-time records set by the enormous homeschool increase from 2020,’ before going on to note that ‘during the 2020 surge, THSC’s weekly call and email volume exploded from families interested in homeschooling’ and reached an all-time high, but then the organization’s call volume last week surpassed ‘the weekly record set in 2020 by nearly a factor of five.’ The president of the Texas Home School Coalition, Tim Lambert, said, ‘We are literally inundated with calls and emails from thousands upon thousands of families asking how they can begin homeschooling this fall.’”
PERSECUTION IN INDIA (Friday Church News Notes, October 8, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – There are regular reports of persecution of Christians by Hindus in India. The police often turn a blind eye. Following are the headlines of reports from the last several months by Morning Star News: Hindu extremists beat pastors at police station in Central India (Sept. 30); Christian boy, 14, clinging to life after burn attack in eastern India (Sept. 13); Pastor in India driven from home after police torture, threats (July 22); Pastor in northern India killed for his faith, sources say (July 6); Christian families driven into jungles of Odisha State (June 25); Pastor seriously wounded, father killed in northern India (June 4); Police rescue–then jail–Christian family attacked in India (May 4); Christians seriously injured in mob assault on house church (March 24)’ Police in India allow Hindu extremist attack on churches, then arrest Christians (March 3); Pregnant Christian woman loses baby after Hindu extremist attack (February 5). The summary of the last news story is as follows: “Leela Bai, eight months pregnant, rushed outside a house she was visiting in central India after hearing the commotion of a Hindu extremist mob attacking tribal Christians preparing to celebrate the New Year. The mob pushed her down and kicked her stomach until she fell unconscious, and later that evening she miscarried on the way to a hospital–which declined to give her any care, she said. Scores of tribal Christians planning to celebrate New Year’s Eve with a thanksgiving service instead spent the night in the mountains where they had fled to save their lives. ‘My baby died in my womb after they pushed me down and kicked my stomach,’ the 25-year-old Bai said as she wept. … later that evening she miscarried on the way to a hospital–which declined to give her any care, she said. Scores of tribal Christians planning to celebrate New Year’s Eve with a thanksgiving service instead spent the night in the mountains where they had fled to save their lives” (“Pregnant Christian Woman Loses Baby,” Morning Star News, Feb. 5, 2021).
ISRAELI STUDY CONCLUDES THAT NATURAL IMMUNITY IS 13X STRONGER THAN VACCINES (Friday Church News Notes, October 8, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from “Israeli Study,” The Federalist, Aug. 27, 2021: “A new pre-print Israeli study has found that people with natural immunity to COVID-19 could be 13 times less likely to contract the respiratory virus than those who were solely vaccinated against the disease. [See ‘Comparing SARS-CoV-2 natural immunity,’ medrxiv.org.] Conducted by researchers at Maccabi Healthcare and Tel Aviv University, the yet-to-be peer-reviewed study found that when comparing individuals previously infected with the virus and those that received two jabs of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, those with natural infection saw greater protection against the delta variant and breakthrough infection. … The study ultimately concluded that ‘natural immunity confers longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization caused by the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, compared to the BNT162b2 two-dose vaccine-induced immunity’ and that ‘individuals who were both previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 and given a single dose of the vaccine gained additional protection against the Delta variant.’”
OVERALL, ELECTRIC CARS PRODUCE MORE CARBON DIOXIDE THAN GASOLINE-POWERED ONES (Friday Church News Notes, October 8, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from “The Dirty Secrets of ‘Clean’ Electric Vehicles,” Forbes, Aug. 2, 2020: [T]he supposed advantages of EVs in emitting lower carbon emissions are overstated according to a peer-reviewed life-cycle study comparing conventional and electric vehicles (“Comparative Environment Life Cycle Assessment of Conventional and Electric Vehicles,” Journal of Industrial Ecology). To begin with, about half the lifetime carbon-dioxide emissions from an electric car come from the energy used to produce the car, especially in the mining and processing of raw materials needed for the battery. This compares unfavorably with the manufacture of a gasoline-powered car which accounts for 17% of the car’s lifetime carbon-dioxide emissions. When a new EV appears in the show-room, it has already caused 30,000 pounds of carbon-dioxide emission. The equivalent amount for manufacturing a conventional car is 14,000 pounds. Once on the road, the carbon dioxide emissions of EVs depends on the power-generation fuel used to recharge its battery. If it comes mostly from coal-fired power plants, it will lead to about 15 ounces of carbon-dioxide for every mile it is driven–three ounces more than a similar gasoline-powered car. Even without reference to the source of electricity used for battery charging, if an EV is driven 50,000 miles over its lifetime, the huge initial emissions from its manufacture means the EV will actually have put more carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere than a similar-size gasoline-powered car driven the same number of miles. Even if the EV is driven for 90,000 miles and the battery is charged by cleaner natural-gas fueled power stations, it will cause just 24% less carbon-dioxide emission than a gasoline-powered car. As the skeptical environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg puts it, ‘This is a far cry from zero emissions.’”
LOVERS OF PLEASURES CHURCHES (Friday Church News Notes, October 8, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – Paul’s prophecy of the last days in 2 Timothy 3 describes apostates as “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Ti. 3:4). This is a perfect description of last days society, which is pleasure mad. There has never been more economic prosperity and there have never been more avenues for pleasure. Even most professing Christians love pleasures more than God. Consider the test of time. How much of one’s time is spent on God compared with how much is spent on pleasures? Consider the test of money, energy, and enthusiasm. A great many Christians, even in the staunchest Bible-believing churches, are as sports mad as the secular crowd. Christian youth are as much in love with video games and rock & roll and hip hop and mature-rated movies and Facebook self-expression as the secular crowd. Consider the typical church’s calendar, which is filled to the brim with entertainment, not only for children and teens, but also for the “senior citizens.” Over the pleasure program is a thin veneer of God. Think of the average evangelical or even “fundamentalist” Christian home. There is a little prayer, a little Bible, a little evangelism, a little ministry, perhaps, but there is a whole lot of pleasure. This is accepted as normal Christianity, but it is actually apostasy.
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).