Friday Church News Notes – January 21, 2022

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.

BOB JONES UNIVERSITY’S BLASPHEMOUS FASHION SHOW AND THE PRESIDENT’S “APOLOGY” (Friday Church News Notes, January 21, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – On December 4, 2021, the Bob Jones University Fashion Department held a public event to showcase the talents of design seniors. The event was not prepared and presented in a secret closet. It was weeks, if not months, in preparation and involved the participation of BJU teachers, students, staff, graduates, and friends, including those from other departments. I have never been a strong supporter of Bob Jones University, but the school did stand for many Biblical things in time (long) past. The most striking of the fashion designs was a takeoff on Christ’s passion, supposedly. It consists of a scarlet “robe” that is clearly effeminate, a crown of thorns, and a scarf of some sort with a graphic photo or painting of someone modeling Christ on the cross. On Jan. 12, 2022, more than five weeks after the event, BJU President Steve Pettit issued an apology. He called the scarlet coat “clearly sacrilegious and blasphemous” and said it “dishonored the Lord Jesus Christ.” He called the event “egregious” and “an offense to the Lord.” He said they are “establishing clear policies and procedures to prevent a similar instance in the future.” He does not explain how such a thing could possibly happen in a supposed fundamentalist Christian school. If teachers and students and associates are participating in and supporting sacrilegious, blasphemous, egregious offenses to the Lord, does that not mean that they are unregenerate, or at best incredibly carnal? “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate” (Tit. 1:16). Pettit is throwing the fashion department under the bus, but this is burying the dead canary in the coal mine and pretending the problem is solved. We have been saying for decades that a good way to lose your child to compromise is to send him or her to BJU. We have seen students lose their zeal for the Lord and passion for truth at BJU. There is a big need for serious education about biblical modesty and practical biblical fashions, but BJU has been departing from these things incrementally for decades. (For more about this, see “Bob Jones University Past and Present” at www.wayoflife.org. This is an excerpt from the book The History and Heritage of Fundamentalism and Fundamental Baptists.)

THOUSANDS OF PASTORS PROTEST CANADA’S LAW LABELING THE BIBLE’S TEACHING ON MARRIAGE A “MYTH” (Friday Church News Notes, January 21, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from “Thousands of churches raise alarm,” Fox News, Jan. 17, 2022: “Thousands of clergy in North America devoted their sermons on Sunday to affirming biblical sexual morality in response to a new Canadian law some warn could effectively criminalize such teachings. An initiative begun by Liberty Coalition Canada and promulgated in the United States by Pastor John MacArthur of Los Angeles secured the support of more than 4,000 Christian pastors who publicly expressed their willingness to protest from the pulpit regarding Bill C-4, Fox News Digital has confirmed. The controversial legislation, which went into effect Jan. 8 after being fast-tracked through the Canadian Parliament in December without extensive debate, describes as a ‘myth’ the belief that heterosexuality and cisgender identity are preferable. Counseling that does not align with such a worldview now carries a potential five-year jail sentence. … MacArthur told Fox News that he believes widespread sexual immorality is evidence of divine judgment on a culture and predicted increased efforts to silence those who speak out against it. … ‘Ultimately, the dissenters, the ones who will not cave in, are going to be those who are faithful to the Bible,’ he said. ‘And that’s what’s already leading to laws made against doing what we are commanded to do in Scripture, which is to confront that sin. And that’s just going to escalate.’ … MacArthur’s involvement in the initiative was in part because of an email he received from Pastor James Coates, who was the first Canadian clergyman to be imprisoned in the name of public health. When he refused to shutter his church in Edmonton last year, Coates spent more than a month in a maximum-security prison. Federal law enforcement later raided his church at dawn, locked it and barricaded it behind three layers of fencing. … Coates told Fox News he believes that Bill C-4 is ‘anything but loving’ if it intends to ‘shut the LGBT community off from the saving and transforming message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.’ ‘I believe our government is capitalizing on a politically expedient segment of its constituency in an effort to further dismantle Western civilization as we know it. To do this, it must outlaw its very foundation, which is rooted in a Judeo-Christian worldview. Bill C-4 is another brick laid in this effort and is evidence that our government is under the judgment of God,’ he said.”

CHRISTIAN RAPPER RENOUNCES HIS FAITH (Friday Church News Notes, January 21, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – Brady Goodwin (aka Phanatik) is the latest in a line of Christian rock/rap musicians and prominent evangelicals who have renounced their faith. Goodwin is a founding member of the Christian hip-hop group The Cross Movement and the author of The Death of Hip-Hop, Marriage and Morals (2010) and From Hip Hop to Hollywood: The Art of Christianity (2013). In a YouTube video this month, Goodwin said, “I am denouncing the Christian faith that I have believed, professed, proclaimed, and defended for the last 30 years of my life.” Goodwin is 45 years old, so he must have made a profession of faith at about 15. He made the point of saying, “I’m good; I’m where I think I’m going to be.” All of these men make the point of saying that everything is good now that they have renounced Jesus Christ, but that is nonsense. In August 2019, Marty Sampson, a worship leader and song writer for Hillsong, said he was seriously entertaining atheism and was “so happy now, so at peace with the world.” That same month, Joshua Harris, author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye, announced that he had renounced his faith in Christ and was divorcing his wife. He wanted everyone to know that he was “following his heart” and was at peace. In May 2020, Jon Steingard, of the Christian rock band Hawk Nelson, renounced his belief in God. In an Instagram post, he said that renouncing God is “refreshing and a weight being lifted.” He said, “I am stunned by the number of people in visible positions within Christian circles that feel the same way as I do. Like me, they fear losing everything if they’re open about it.” I don’t relate to these men in any way. I didn’t like to go to church or read the Bible or pray before I was born again at age 23, but everything changed then, and I have never looked back with any longing whatsoever, never doubted God or the Bible or Jesus Christ or any biblical teaching. I relate, rather, to Peter who was converted out of a rough fisherman’s lifestyle, and had no interest in renouncing Christ. When the crowds left Jesus, He asked the twelve, “Will ye also go away?” Peter replied with the testimony of a true born again believer: “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:68-69). We would warn that the Christianity of the aforementioned men was never a biblical Christianity. Their Christian philosophy is described in 2 Timothy 4:3, “… they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” Their Christianity was a “live by your lusts” Christianity. By their lifestyle and associations, they said, “No one is going to tell me who I can befriend or what music I can listen to or what I can look at or where I can go or what I can drink or what I can wear.” But God does tell His people what kind of friends to have (Pr. 1:15; 22:24; 2 Co. 6:14-18; Jas. 4:4) and what kind of music to listen to (Eph. 5:18; Col. 3:16) and where they should go and not go (Pr. 4:26) and what they should speak (Pr. 4:24; Eph. 4:29) and what they should look at (Ps. 101:3; Pr. 4:25; Mt. 5:28) and what they should drink (Pr. 20:1; 23:31-35; 1 Co. 10:21) and what they should wear (1 Ti. 2:9-10. Separation from evil and error is not an optional part of biblical Christianity. “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Eph. 5:11). “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?’ (2 Co. 6:14). “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them” (Ro. 16:17).

ANIMALS DON’T NEED TECHNOLOGY (Friday Church News Notes, January 21, 2022, www.wayoflife.orgfbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is from CreationMoments.com, January 11, 2022: “When we compare ourselves with many of the other living things on this Earth, our abilities are not very impressive. A camel can carry 1,000 pounds 30 miles through the desert every day. As a human being, I become tired even thinking about walking 30 miles with empty pockets. The ostrich can run at 30 miles per hour, faster than my car might go during rush hour. The Indian swift can fly at more than 100 miles per hour. The elephant’s trunk has 40,000 muscles. This is 70 times the number of muscles in your entire body. Yet, his trunk can bulldoze a tree or pick up a pin. Many of us can’t do either one on the first try. The flea can jump 350 times its own length, a total of 13 inches. This is equivalent to our jumping 2,000 feet into the air. Most of us can’t jump more than two feet off the ground. As it works out, 13 inches is just about right if you are looking for a nice warm dog on which to raise a family. A tiny insect called the midge beats its wings an amazing 133,000 times per minute. That’s a hundred times faster than you can blink your eye. Humans can use their superior intellect to build the machines they need. With those machines, they can outdo any one of these creatures. But God simply made a gift to the animals of the specialized abilities they needed. God expects us to follow His example and design and build what we need. If we look carefully, we will see that our Creator has given us all the materials and all the ideas we need within the creation. No one can say that He does not care what we do with our lives on Earth. Author: Paul A. Bartz. Ref: ‘Animal athletes,’ Science Digest, Dec., 1983. p. 20.”

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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