Friday Church News and Notes

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.

EVOLUTIONISTS ADMIT THEIR FIELD’S FAILURES  – The following is excerpted from “Evolutionists Admit,” Evolution News and Science Today, July 1, 2022: “An article in The Guardian by science journalist Stephen Buranyi represents something remarkable in the way the public processes the failures of evolutionary theory. In the past, those failures have been admitted by some biologists … but always in settings (technical journals, conferences) where they thought nobody outside their professional circles was listening. … Well, the field of evolutionary biology has just done the equivalent of a massive Facebook dump … In a very long article, top names in the field share with Buranyi what intelligent design proponents already knew, but few Guardian readers guessed. The headline from the left-leaning British daily asks, ‘Do we need a new theory of evolution?’ Answer in one word: yes. The article is full of scandalous admissions: ‘Strange as it sounds, scientists still do not know the answers to some of the most basic questions about how life on Earth evolved. Take eyes, for instance. Where do they come from, exactly? The usual explanation of how we got these stupendously complex organs rests upon the theory of natural selection. … This is the basic story of evolution, as recounted in countless textbooks and pop-science bestsellers. The problem, according to a growing number of scientists, is that it is absurdly crude and misleading. For one thing, it starts midway through the story, taking for granted the existence of light-sensitive cells, lenses and irises, without explaining where they came from in the first place. Nor does it adequately explain how such delicate and easily disrupted components meshed together to form a single organ. And it isn’t just eyes that the traditional theory struggles with. ‘The first eye, the first wing, the first placenta. How they emerge. Explaining these is the foundational motivation of evolutionary biology,’ says Armin Moczek, a biologist at Indiana University. ‘And yet, we still do not have a good answer. This classic idea of gradual change, one happy accident at a time, has so far fallen flat.’ There are certain core evolutionary principles that no scientist seriously questions. Everyone agrees that natural selection plays a role, as does mutation and random chance. But how exactly these processes interact–and whether other forces might also be at work–has become the subject of bitter dispute. ‘If we cannot explain things with the tools we have right now,’ the Yale University biologist Günter Wagner told me, ‘we must find new ways of explaining’ [Buranyi, ‘Do we need a new theory of evolution?’ The Guardian, June 28, 2022] … [U]nderneath all this lurks another, deeper question: whether the idea of a grand story of biology is a fairytale we need to finally give up.’ … ‘Absurdly crude and misleading’? A ‘classic idea’ that ‘has so far fallen flat’? ‘A fairytale we need to finally give up’? … This is how writers for Evolution News have characterized the troubles with Darwinian theory. But I didn’t expect to see it in The Guardian.” [CONCLUDING NOTE: Natural selection, mutation, and random chance are not creative powers and explain absolutely nothing about the existence of life as we know it.]

EX-TRANS TEEN BACKS FLORIDA BAN ON MEDICAID FUNDS FOR TRANSGENDER MEDICAL INTERVENTIONS  – The following sad account is excerpted from “California ex-trans teen,” Fox News, July 10, 2022: “A California teen girl who once identified as transgender and took hormones and underwent surgery to affirm such an identity spoke out in favor of a Florida rule blocking Medicaid funds from paying for medical interventions for gender dysphoria. ‘I really didn’t understand all of the ramifications of any of the medical decisions that I was making,’ Chloe Cole, 17, said at a public hearing Friday. She said she was medically transitioned from ages 13 to 16, taking so-called puberty-blocking drugs and testosterone, and undergoing surgery to remove her breasts at age 15. ‘I was unknowingly physically cutting off my true self from my body, irreversibly and painfully.’ ‘I don’t know if I’ll be able to fully carry a child, and I might be at increased risk for certain cancers, mainly cervical cancer,’ Cole said in a separate private meeting with Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo Friday, footage of which Ladapo posted on Twitter Sunday. ‘I am not able to breastfeed whatever future children I have.’ … ‘No child should have to experience what I have,’ she concluded. When asked what she would say to the public, Cole said, ‘Do not transition your kids.’ … ‘Medicalization of minors with gender dysphoria might advance the political views of physicians involved in their care, but the data showing any benefits for the actual children is extraordinarily thin,’ the surgeon general told Fox News Digital. ‘The affirmation model runs an unacceptably high risk of harm.’”

ABORTION OF BLACK BABIES HAS DESTROYED THE EQUIVALENT OF THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF BLACKS IN 1960  – The following is excerpted from “Abortion’s twisted logic of racism,” Washington Examiner, Feb. 28, 2020: “While many positive accomplishments by African Americans are now brought to our attention every February [during Black History Month], there are those who exploit this annual event to further their own political agenda, which is actually counter to the historical advancement of blacks in American history. Among them is Planned Parenthood. The nation’s largest abortion provider has done a masterful job of creating a false impression that its programs somehow benefit the black community. … Abortion in America has contributed to the greatest decline in the black population since the first black slaves arrived in the Americas in the 1600s. According to U.S. census data, there were 18,871,831 black American citizens in 1960. Since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in 1973, abortion has killed an estimated 20 million black babies–more than the entire black population of 1960. How does this benefit the black community? … Claims that the pro-life community is a bunch of white supremacists are completely baseless. Such calumny cannot erase the truth that abortion has been used to control the black birth rate, and Planned Parenthood has led that charge. … Only in a world of twisted logic could organizations and individuals working tirelessly to save black lives from abortion be called ‘racist’ for their efforts.”

MORE BLACK BABIES ABORTED IN NEW YORK IN 2016 THAN BORN – The following is excerpted from “More Black babies are aborted,” LiveAction.org, Feb. 16, 2020: “The most recent data available shockingly reveals that in 2016, more Black babies were killed by abortion than were born in New York City. The data also shows that in 2016, Black abortions accounted for nearly 40 percent (38.7%) of all abortions in NYC. These alarming statistics reveal how abortion is decimating the Black community and is also hurting other minority groups. Out of 60,000 (59,854) total abortions reported in NYC, nearly 67 percent (66.7%) were committed on minority Black (23,209) and Hispanic women (16,718), leaving some to speculate that there is a targeted eugenics agenda at work.”

JOEL OSTEEN’S SUPER-DUPER BLESSING CUBE  – Joel Osteen, pastor of America’s largest megachurch, is offering “The Inspiration Cube” for gifts of $50 or more. With the press of a button, the cube will bless your life with daily inspirations, sermons, and affirmations. It is advertised as “the beginning of a new life,” “victory over negative thoughts,” “the overcoming of any obstacle,” “enablement to walk in your destiny,” and “new levels of blessed life and influence.” With this device, “The blessings of God are drawn to you like a magnet.” This is based on the Pentecostal Word-Faith, “name it and claim it,” heresy. Lakewood Church was founded by Joel’s father, John, the author of How to Flow in the Super Supernatural. He taught that believers can use their words to create their own reality. Joel holds his father’s Word-Faith theology, but he focuses more on a “positive uplifting” message and ignores unpopular Bible teachings such as judgment, hell, surrender, sacrifice, apostasy, and separation. When Osteen packed out the coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, in March 2005, his message was, “Make a decision before you leave this place, you’re going to get happy where you are.” That message resonates with apostate America. In an interview on the international cable television program Larry King Live, June 20, 2005, Osteen was asked where atheists, Jews, or Muslims go if they don’t accept Jesus Christ. He replied, “You know, I’m very careful about saying who would and wouldn’t go to heaven; I don’t know.” In an interview with The Washington Post in Oct. 2011, Osteen said that Mormons are true Christians. In August 2014, Joel’s wife Victoria, co-pastor of Lakewood, told the congregation “I want you to know this morning: Just do good for your own self. Do good because God wants you to be happy¯” (“Osteen Says Obedience, Worship ‘Not for God,’” Christian News Network, Aug. 28, 2014). Joel, standing by Victoria’s side, nodded in agreement.

COMPLEX ANT SOCIETY  – The following is from creationmoments.com, October 29, 2021: “Imagine a huge living creature covering about one square mile and made up of almost a third of a billion cells. Imagine each of those living cells being able to move about independently of the others. No, it’s not the plot of a new science fiction movie. Some scientists have suggested that ant colonies may be thought of as one large living organism. They suggest this because of the way individual members within ant colonies behave. Ant colonies have many kinds of members, each with its own specific task. The soldier ants in a colony have extra large heads and heavy-duty jaws for fighting. Other ants are concerned only about finding and returning food. Still other workers do nothing but process and store food. Within the colony another caste of ants does nothing but tend the eggs. Others prepare the food for the larvae and deliver it to other specialized ants who do nothing but feed the next generation. If this sounds complex, imagine the largest known ant colony. This Japanese ant colony has an estimated 306 million worker ants, and more than a million queens. The colony occupies 45,000 interconnected underground nests that range over about a square mile! There is obviously intelligent design and control behind ant society—intelligence not found in ants or in nature itself. This intelligence comes from outside nature. Here is yet another witness that no concern of any living thing is too small for God’s complete attention! Author: Paul A. Bartz.”

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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