Way of Life's blog

The song “Why Can’t All God’s Children Get Along,” which promotes ecumenical unity, is up for the Dove Awards’ “Song of the Year.” The lyrics proclaim: “Why can’t all God’s children get along/ We can’t all be right/ we can’t all be wrong/ We’re just different singers in the same old song/ Why can’t all God’s children get along?” The popularity of this song, which is from Karen Peck’s CD “No Worries,” is not surprising, since this has been one of the unscriptural theme songs of the Contemporary Christian Music movement from its inception. (It has also become one of the theme songs of contemporary Southern Gospel, and it is telling that Bill Gaither and Mark Lowry have lauded “Why Can’t All God’s Children Get Along.”) Contemporary Christian Music is ecumenical music. In fact, Contemporary Christian Music is one of the glues holding together the end-times ecumenical movement. The same music is popular with theological modernists, Roman Catholics, Charismatics, and New Evangelicals. Not one CCM musician that I know of stands against ecumenism and for the whole counsel of Bible doctrine, ecclesiastical separation, personal separation from the world, etc. They have replaced the commandments of God’s Word to separate from error with a feel-good philosophy of unity. The answer to the question “Why can’t all God’s children get along” is found in the Bible. Jesus and the apostles warned repeatedly that many false teachers would arise and that nominal Christians would increase as the church age progresses (e.g., Mat. 7:15, 21-23; 24:11, 24; 2 Tim. 3:13; 4:3-4). God’s people are instructed to earnestly contend for the one true faith (Jude 3) and to mark and avoid those who err (Romans 16:17; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 2 Timothy 3:5). This is not an optional part of the Christian faith. The fact that the Contemporary Christian Music movement despises biblical separation and rejects the Bible’s warnings about end-time apostasy is plain evidence that it is not of God. It is a movement that has made an idol of pop music.

(Friday Church News Notes, March 5, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Interfaith dialogue continues to spread among “evangelicals.” The March 2010 edition of Lausanne World Pulse features an article entitled “Interfaith Interface with Buddhists” by Chandler Im. The author is director of Ethnic Ministries at the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College and professor of missions at Faith Evangelical Seminary in Tacoma, Washington. Chandler Im favorably quotes Lesslie Newbigin, saying, “I strongly concur with Newbigin’s claim that until one has felt in one’s soul the dynamic power and influence of a great religion, one has not heard or understood the message of it.” This is heresy. Nowhere does the Bible teach God’s people to study pagan religions in order to “feel” their dynamic power. To the contrary, the Bible says that the power behind pagan religion is the devil and warns us in strongest terms to stay away from it. “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? ... Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,” (2 Corinthians 6:14, 15, 17). Newbigin, a favorite author of emerging church proponents, was Associate General Secretary in the radically heretical World Council of Churches. In The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, Newbigin denied that the Bible is the verbally inspired Word of God and said the 18th century defenders of the faith were in error when they taught that the Bible is “a set of timeless truths.” Further, Newbigin said, “All so-called facts are interpreted facts. ... What we see as facts depends on the theory we bring to the observation” (p. 21). This is a liberal emerging church principle, that all interpretations of the Bible are imperfect. Newbigin taught that there is the possibility of salvation apart from personal faith in Christ. The March issue of Lausanne World Pulse also features an article promoting the heresy that Hindus do not have to be baptized or identify with a church after “accepting Christ.” This article, “Sharing Christ in Hindu Contexts,” is by Lalsangkima Pachuau of the Asbury Theological Seminary. Pachuau reports approvingly that some “believers” in India “find being labeled ‘Christian’ unnecessary and unhelpful as it isolates them from their native (Hindu) community.” Modern evangelicalism is shot through and through with dangerous heretical thinking.

(Friday Church News Notes, March 5, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Rap or Hip Hop music is lawless, violent music, and it is not surprising that it is accompanied by lawlessness and violence. An Associated Press report entitled “Rap’s well-traveled path to prison” bears this out. “It’s a ritual that seems to play out at least once a year in the rap community. A top star faces a criminal charge, and more often than not, is locked up at the height of their wealth and fame. Lil Wayne is the latest example. On Tuesday, he is to be sentenced on a weapons charge and will likely face one year behind bars. Besides his scheduled court date in New York, he is also scheduled for trial in Arizona on March 30 on felony drug possession and weapons charges. ... Lil Wayne joins a group of rappers with legal woes over the past year, from Gucci Mane to Soulja Boy to popular music producer Shawty Reed, who faces a charge of murder in Georgia. T. I., another one of rap’s top sellers, reported to a federal prison in 2009 for his conviction on weapons charges. In the history of hip-hop, other popular rappers such as Slick Rick, Shakur, Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, Remy Ma, Beanie Sigel, Shyne, Mystikal and C-Murder have spent a few months to several years in prison” (“Rap’s well-traveled path,” AP, Feb. 25, 2010). Jeff Royal observes, “The only hope for rap music stars and anyone else is the redemption found in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Their re-hab speeches at schools are for the most part ineffective. While some may warn about the dangers associated with fame, the warnings in my opinion simply go unheeded because they are seen at the next concert glamorizing money, immorality, and the rapper lifestyle. The lyrics of most of the current rappers are some of the most vile that you could ever imagine. What these kids so desperately need is the clear, unvarnished gospel that can save their souls and deliver them from the ravages of sin. Jesus Christ is their ONLY hope!”

(Friday Church News Notes, March 5, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

The following is excerpted from The Washington Post, March 1, 2010:

“A study in the March issue of Psychological Bulletin, a journal of the American Psychological Association, shows that playing violent video games increases violent thinking, attitudes and behaviors among players. And it does nothing to promote positive social behaviors. Psychologist Craig Anderson of Iowa State University and his team analyzed existing studies of 130,000 people from the U.S., Europe and Japan. His findings held for players in Western and Eastern cultures, for male and female players and for players of various ages. ...The new research found that exposure to violent video games was associated with aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition and aggressive ‘affect.’ It desensitizes users and is associated with lack of empathy and a lack of ‘prosocial’ behavior.”

(Friday Church News Notes, March 5, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

V. Gene Robinson, the first “openly gay bishop” in the Episcopal Church in America, claims that Paul did not condemn homosexuality in Romans 1:26-27, which reads as follows. “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.” Robinson says, “St. Paul was talking about people that he understood to be heterosexual engaging in same-sex acts. It never occurred to anyone in ancient times that a certain minority of us would be born being affectionally oriented to people of the same sex. So it did seem like against their nature to be doing so” (“First Openly Gay Episcopal Bishop,” CNSNews.com, Feb. 4, 2010). This is nonsense. Paul condemned homosexual acts in a wholesale manner, which is in conformity to the teaching of the entire Bible. God established the first marriage between a man and a woman and ordained that all sexual relationships outside of holy matrimony are sinful (Hebrews 13:4). Robinson broke his marriage vows two decades ago when he left his wife and two young daughters and moved in with his male partner. In a speech in April 29, 2000, Robinson said: “... we are worthy to hold our heads high as gay folk--NOT because we’ve merely decided we are worthy, but because God has proclaimed it so. That we are loved beyond our wildest imagining by a God who made us the way we are and proclaimed it good.” This is solid evidence of the divine inspiration of the Bible, because it is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy (e.g., 2 Peter 2).

(Friday Church News Notes, March 5, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143.)

On February 20 a presbytery in Wisconsin approved the ordination of Scott Anderson who was disqualified 20 years ago. Anderson pastored Bethany Presbyterian Church of Sacramento, California, from 1983 until 1990, when he was forced to step down because of his homosexuality, since the constitution of the Presbyterian Church USA requires that pastors “live in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness.” In 2006 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA “reinterpreted” this to allow the ordination of homosexuals if approved by a regional ordaining body. It is obvious that words mean nothing to these people, not the words of the Bible and not the words of their own constitutions. Anderson’s new ordination was approved by his apostate peers by a margin of 81-25.

(Friday Church News Notes, March 5, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

The following is excerpted from LiveScience.com, Jan. 15, 2010:

“Scientists have discovered the earliest known Hebrew writing--an inscription dating from the 10th century B.C., during the period of King David’s reign. The breakthrough could mean that portions of the Bible were written centuries earlier than previously thought. ... Until now, many scholars have held that the Hebrew Bible originated in the 6th century B.C., because Hebrew writing was thought to stretch back no further. But the newly deciphered Hebrew text is about four centuries older, scientists announced this month. ‘It indicates that the Kingdom of Israel already existed in the 10th century BCE and that at least some of the biblical texts were written hundreds of years before the dates presented in current research,’ said Gershon Galil, a professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa in Israel, who deciphered the ancient text. BCE stands for ‘before common era,’ and is equivalent to B.C., or before Christ. The writing was discovered more than a year ago on a pottery shard dug up during excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa, near Israel’s Elah valley. The excavations were carried out by archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.” Liberal Bible scholars have been proven wrong time and again. For example, they once denied the existence of the city of Ur, but that was before the ancient city with its magnificent library was excavated!

(Friday Church News Notes, February 26, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

The Darwinian theory of evolution can’t explain how the wasp could have come into existence. We could consider its eyes, its amazing flying and landing ability, its folding wings (on some models), and many other things, but let’s consider one wasp’s reproductive cycle. This is the Eumenes amedei, which is a small black and yellow wasp-like insect of southern Europe and northern Africa. The females build small domed nests about the size of a cherry in which they deposit their eggs, one egg per structure. The masonry houses are composed of tiny pebbles mixed with a mortar made from dust mixed with the female’s spittle. She selects each pebble with care, testing it with her mandibles for weight and hardness and size. She also prefers more attractive pieces of stone such as shiny quartz. She skillfully forms the circular nest pebble by pebble, wielding them together with the strong, waterproof, quick-setting mortar. The eggs are suspended from the roof of the little house by a tiny thread, and before sealing the nest with a cement plug, the female stocks it with food in the form of caterpillars. To keep them from escaping or harming the egg, she paralyzes them with a sting that keeps them in an animated state long enough for the grubs to hatch. She also determines how many caterpillars to put in each nest, five for the male-bearing eggs and ten for the female-bearing. How she could possibly know the sex of her offspring before they are born is a mystery for evolutionists, of course, but she never makes a mistake. When the grub emerges from the egg, it devours its eggshell then spins itself a tiny silken sheath in which it hangs with its head down. It lowers itself down to feed from the still-living caterpillars until it is time to break out of the nest.

(Friday Church News Notes, February 26, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

The following is excerpted from WorldNetDaily, Jan. 17, 2010:

“Quebec Attorney General Kathleen Weil, announcing new policy with Laurent McCutcheon, president of Foundation Emergence, a Quebec homosexual advocacy group. Opponents of ‘hate crimes’ legislation, who have frequently pointed to Canada as an example of how such laws are used to increasingly suppress moral objections to homosexuality, now have more fuel for their fire in the form of the ‘Quebec Policy Against Homophobia.’ The policy, released last month by Quebec’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General Kathleen Weil, assigns the government the task of eliminating all forms of ‘homophobia’ and ‘heterosexism’--including the belief that homosexuality is immoral--from society as a whole. The text and specifics of the policy are steeped in vague bureaucratic language about ‘coordination’ and ‘synergy,’ but the goal is spelled out clearly: to enlist the government to normalize homosexuality in society and to quell common criticisms levied against ‘sexual minorities,’ a term the policy uses to inclusively describe ‘lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexuals and transgenders.’ ‘An inclusive society such as ours must take the necessary steps to combat homophobic attitudes and behavior patterns and move towards full acceptance of sexual diversity,’ states the Premier of Quebec Jean Charest in a letter that serves as the policy's introduction. ‘The policy sets out the government’s goal of removing all the obstacles to full recognition of the social equality of the sexual minorities, at all levels of society.’ The policy further defines the heterosexism that must be stomped out as ‘affirmation of heterosexuality as a social norm or the highest form of sexual orientation.’”

(Friday Church News Notes, February 26, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

The following is excerpted from OneNewsNow, Feb. 10, 2010:

“The mayor of Lancaster, California, has apologized for pro-Christian comments he made recently before a group of pastors. Mayor R. Rex Parris said in his address that Lancaster was ‘growing a Christian community,’ and after controversy developed he issued an apology. City Councilwoman Sherry Marquez posted on Facebook comments about a Muslim honor killing on the East Coast, thought better about it, and pulled the comments an hour and a half later. She has also apologized. The Antelope Valley Human Relations Task Force responded and heard from community residents Monday night. Task Force chairman Darren Parker tells OneNewsNow that hate crimes charges against Parris and Marquez will not be sought. ... Parker said the apologies were helpful. But the Council on American-Islamic Relations has filed a federal complaint against both parties. Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute complains that the case demonstrates that hate-crimes laws chill free speech. ‘With the hate-crimes bill in place, this is probably just one example of many to come of attempts to try to silence people of faith,’ says the attorney. ‘And that’s why we must aggressively correct this and make sure these individuals and their rights are protected against this kind of outrageous intimidation and silencing.’”

(Friday Church News Notes, February 26, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)