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VOLUME 11, ISSUE 19 WAY OF LIFE LITERATURE MAY 7, 2010Friday Church News NotesThe Worst Problem with IndependentBaptist Friends InternationalFriday Church News Notes, April 30, 2010 www.wayoflife.orgIn my estimation, the worst problem with Clarence Sexton’s IndependentBaptist Friends International movement is that it has circled the wagonsagainst “criticism.” The reason I joined an Independent Baptist church in1973 not long after I was converted was the separated Christian living, thewillingness to take the whole Bible seriously, even “fanatically,” and thebold defense of the faith. I had grown up in Billy Graham’s denomination,the king of non-judgmentalism and the chief enemy of Biblical separation inour generation. Being convinced that the Graham philosophy is unscriptural,I joined the Independent Baptists. It was in the early 1990s that I first sawsigns of a bold rejection of separation among Independent Baptists and thespread of the damnable New Evangelical “judge not” philosophy. Thisoccurred in conjunction with the rapid growth of Contemporary ChristianMusic and its contemporary Southern Gospel counterpart. Widespread lovefor carnal music accelerated the spread of the non-judgmental philosophyamong Independent Baptists. Music, we are told, is an inconsequential issue.The Promise Keepers movement was another catalyst for the nonjudgmentalphilosophy. When I exposed the ecumenism of Promise Keepers,I was rebuked and mocked by the some IB leaders. They argued that thegood outweighed the bad and that we should be glad that men were beingtaught to assume their spiritual responsibilities. This is the theme-song ofIndependent Baptist Friends International. When I wrote a lengthy e-mail toPastor Sexton, a gracious and respectful e-mail expressing my concerns, hedid not even acknowledge its receipt. He knows of me and my ministry; hehas preached in my home church and has talked with my pastor on severaloccasions. I have heard from several other men who have tried tocommunicate with Sexton about this matter and have been ignored, some ofwhom consider him a personal friend and all of whom appreciate him as abrother in the Lord and a fellow soldier for Christ. I am not talking aboutignoring warnings from a man’s hateful enemies; I am talking about ignoringwarnings from friends. And not just ignoring the warnings, but even treatingthe warners as troublemakers. I have received angry e-mails from severalmen rebuking me for speaking out against IB Friends. They say that I shouldshut up and just focus on the “big issues.” Well, I’m not going to shut up.Big problems usually grow from small ones. God has instructed me to proveALL things, to preach with rebuke and reproof, to earnestly contend for thefaith. Without judging and reproof, there is no mechanism of correction anderror can grow apace. Sexton urges all of us to be friends, and I am all for it.God’s Word tells me that the wounds of a friend are faithful (Prov. 27:6).Paul was a friend when he rebuked Peter’s “small” hypocrisy. He was afriend when he reproved the church at Corinth for their errors, includingsuch “small” things as the sin of misusing the Lord’s supper and taking oneanother to court. I urge Clarence Sexton to stop stonewalling reproof, to stoppretending that criticism of IB Friends is some sort of carnal persecution. Iurge him to publicly acknowledge that his friends have every biblical rightand responsibility to criticize what he is doing. I have a suspicion that hiscritics in this matter are the best friends that he has.BRITISH JUDGE SAYS CHRISTIANBELIEFS HAVE NO PROTECTIONUNDER LAWThe following is excerpted from “BritishJudge: Christian Beliefs Have No LegalStanding,” The Huffington Post, May 1,2010: “A top British judge has ruled thatChristian beliefs have no standing undersecular law because they lack evidenceand cannot be proven. Lord Justice JohnGrant McKenzie Laws made thedeclaration on Thursday (April 29) inthrowing out a defamation suit byChristian relationship counselor whorefused to offer sex therapy to gaycouples. Gary McFarlane protested thathe was fired because offering sex therapyto same-gender couples violates hisChristian principles. But Laws said‘religious faith is necessarily subjective,being incommunicable by any kind ofproof or evidence.’ He added that to usethe law to protect ‘a position held purelyon religious grounds cannot therefore bejustified.’ No religious belief, said thejudge, can be protected under the law‘however long its tradition, however richits culture.’” This foolish decision bodesevil for religious liberty in Great Britain.! PAGE 1

VOLUME 11, ISSUE 19 WAY OF LIFE LITERATURE MAY 7, 2010PREACHER ARRESTED IN ENGLAND FOR SAYING HOMOSEXUALITY IS A SINThe following is from “Christian Preacher on Hooligan Charge,” Daily Mail, May 1, 2010: “A Christian street preacher hasbeen arrested and charged with a public-order offence after saying that homosexuality was sinful. Dale Mcalpine washanding out leaflets to shoppers when he told a passer-by and a gay police community support officer that, as a Christian, hebelieved homosexuality was one of a number of sins that go against the word ofGod. Mr. Mcalpine said that he did not repeat his remarks on homosexuality whenhe preached from the top of a stepladder after his leafleting. But he has been toldthat police officers are alleging they heard him making his remarks to a member ofthe public in a loud voice that could be overheard by others. Mr. Mcalpine, 42, whoearns about £40,000 a year in the energy industry, was arrested and taken to the localpolice station in the back of a police van after preaching in the Cumbrian town ofWorkington on April 20. After seven hours locked up in a cell, he was charged withusing abusive or insulting words or behaviour contrary to the Public Order Act 1986.Mr. Mcalpine--who has delivered open-air sermons and handed out leaflets inWorkington for years, and has never been in trouble with the police--said theincident was one of the worst moments of his life. ‘I felt deeply shocked andhumiliated that I had been arrested in my own town and treated like a commoncriminal in front of people I know,’ he said. ‘My freedom was taken away on thehearsay of someone who disliked what I said, and I was charged under a law thatdoesn’t apply.’ ... Mr Adams [the officer who had Mcalpine arrested] has been amember of Cumbria police’s LGBT staff association and last year represented theforce at the Gay Pride festival in Manchester ... On the social networking siteMySpace, he describes his orientation as gay and his religion as atheist. ... Shoppersin Workington were bemused by what had happened to Mr. Mcalpine. Rob Logan, the assistant manager of the O2 mobilephone store near where Mr Mcalpine preached, said he had no complaints. ‘He hands out leaflets, he says his piece and thenhe leaves,’ said Mr. Logan. ‘He is not aggressive or threatening. He is gentle.’ The Rev. Arthur Bentley-Taylor, 68, vicar ofthe Emmanuel evangelical church where Mr. Mcalpine worships, said: ‘As far as I am concerned, this is about free speech. Ifwe arrested everybody who said something we found offensive, everyone would be in prison.’ The Public Order Act 1986has been used by the police in a number of similar cases.”NOAH’S ARK FIND PROBABLY A HOAXThe following is from “Latest Noah’s Ark ‘Just Wood Planted on Ararat,” WorldNetDaily, April 28, 2010: “Has the realNoah's Ark spoken of in the Bible truly been found? At least two seasoned archaeologists who have made numerousexpeditions to Mount Ararat in search of Noah’s Ark are throwing coldwater on this week’s claim the Old Testament vessel has finally beendiscovered, saying it’s a hoax involving wood hauled in from the BlackSea region. ‘To make a long story short: this is all reported to be a fake,’said Randall Price, director of Judaic Studies at Liberty University inLynchburg, Va. [Price thinks the wood was brought to the site from nearthe Black Sea.] ‘This is not Noah’s Ark,’ adds Bob Cornuke of the BibleArchaeology Search and Exploration Institute. ‘This is a fake. It’s a fraudand it’s of the highest caliber according to what I can assess from theevidence and talking to eyewitnesses and people from Turkey.’ WNDreported yesterday that Chinese and Turkish explorers with Noah’s ArkMinistries International said they were ‘99.9 percent sure’ they found theremnants of the legendary biblical vessel high up on Mount Ararat ineastern Turkey. The 15-member team claims it recovered woodenspecimens from a structure at an altitude of 13,000 feet and that carbon dating suggested it was 4,800 years old. ... Anotherark-hunter, Richard Rives of Tennessee-based Wyatt Archaeological Research ... noted that the wood reportedly discoveredappeared in excellent condition. ‘The wood’s in too good a shape to be that old,’ he said. Regarding some of the photospublished online, Cornuke told American Family Radio, ‘There are cobwebs up in the beams. You’re not going to havewood at 14,000 feet in a glacier to have cobwebs in it. It’s impossible to have that situation.’”! PAGE 2

VOLUME 11, ISSUE 19 WAY OF LIFE LITERATURE MAY 7, 2010MORMON GLENN BECK ADDRESSES LIBERTY UNIVERSITY GRADUATIONConservative talk show personality Glenn Beck will be oneof two commencement speakers at Liberty University onMay 15. The school, founded by Jerry Falwell and led todayby his son, praised Beck as “one of the few courageousvoices in the national media standing up for the principlesupon which this nation was founded.” The other speaker wasPaige Patterson, president of the Southern BaptistConvention’s seminary in Texas. Beck is politicallyconservative, but he is a Mormon and thus worships a falsechrist. God forbids His people to yoke together withunbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14-18) and associate withheretics (Romans 16:17; 2 John 8-11), but Liberty stoppedcaring about separation decades ago when Falwell formedthe misguided Moral Majority and then moved fromindependent Baptist to the more “broadminded” SouthernBaptist fold. The root problem in America is not politics,and America will not be saved by conservative talk showpersonalities. The root problem is the compromise andapostasy in the churches, and the source of that is theignorance, heresy, and cowardice in the pulpits. In light ofthat, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, et al, are more a partof the problem than the solution. America does not fear Godbecause the fear of God is not being preached in itschurches. In spite of the massive amount of conservativepolitical activity of the last 40 years, including that done byconservative Baptists, American slide into moral filth hasbeen unabated. If all of that political activity and fussing andfretting had been channeled into repentance and prayer, thenation would probably have been saved. (See also “JerryFalwell: The Billy Graham of Independent Baptists” at theWay of Life web site.)SAMARITANS STILL FOLLOW A MIXED RELIGIONThe Samaritan religion is a corrupt mixture of paganism andJudaism which began with the transportation of pagans intothe region by the king of Assyria (2 Kings 17:24-41).Amazingly it is still alive today. The Samaritans observe thesabbath and have an annual sacrifice called Pessah which ispartly based on the Passover, but their holy mountain is Mt.Girizim (today called Grizim) instead of Mt. Moriah.Girizim was the mountain that the Woman at the Wellalluded to in her conversation with Jesus (John 4:20). AtPessah each family sacrifices and eats a sheep withoutbreaking a bone and they eat it hurriedly with a staff in handas if leaving Egypt, like the Passover. But the accompanyingbread, called maza, is not unleavened; it is soft and roundlike pita. And there are other differences. This year theSamaritan festival was observed on April 28 and 7,000attended, most of whom were non-participating observers.The Jews pride themselves in being People of the Book andlook down on the Samaritans, but in reality neither arepeople of the book today. In fact, in one way the Samaritanfeast is more like the biblical Passover than what the Jewsobserve today, because at least they shed the blood of alamb which the Bible requires, though they don’t have theslightest idea what the lamb signifies. The typical JewishPassover today focuses not on the lamb but on theunleavened bread, called matzo. The focus of the Passoverfor religious Jews is the Seder, which is a ritualistic mealthat has little to do with the true Passover. It is preceded bythe painstaking removal of all leaven (chametz), but thedefinition of leaven has been greatly enlarged by vainJewish tradition. For Orthodox Jews it consists of anythingmade from grain that has not been completely cooked within18 minutes after coming into contact with water, plus allrice, corn, peanuts, and beans. In fact, such things cannoteven be fed to one’s pets or cattle and must be eitherdestroyed or sold to non-Jews. The main things that areeaten at the Jewish Seder are unleavened bread and bitterherbs, but also eaten are such things as fish, roast chicken orturkey, and beef brisket. But no lamb! The rest consists ofwashing hands, drinking wine (four cups), various blessings,and reading of Scripture and Jewish tradition. The Scripturesays that “it is the blood that maketh an atonement for thesoul” (Lev. 17:11). John the Baptist testified that thePassover Lamb pictures Jesus the Messiah (John 1:29). But“blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness ofthe Gentiles be come in” (Romans 11:25).! PAGE 3

VOLUME 11, ISSUE 19 WAY OF LIFE LITERATURE MAY 7, 2010HUGH HEFNER SAVES HOLLYWOOD SIGNPlayboy founder Hugh Hefner has helped save the famous Hollywood sign by donating nearly one million dollars topurchase the land as a public trust. By raising $12 million the Trust for Public Land purchased the Cahuenga Peak areawhere the sign sits, saving it from investors who planned to build luxury estates there. The pornography mogul said, “Mychildhood dreams and fantasies came from the movies, and the images created in Hollywood had a major influence on mylife and Playboy.” We have no doubt that this is true. Hollywood is a symbol for decadence and the flaunting of God’s lawsand has had a incalculable influence for evil in modern society throughout the world, encouraging people to live in a fantasyworld without God. Hollywood actor and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said the sign is “a symbol of dreamsand opportunity.” Indeed it is, but the dream is the one that John Lennon sang about, the vain dream that there is no heavenor hell, particularly the latter.ConclusionFriends in Christ, do not be discouraged by any of this. 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. These things remind us that the hour is very late, and we need tobe ready for the coming of the Lord. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ day by day? “Andthat, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when webelieved. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on thearmour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, notin strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the luststhereof” (Rom. 13:11-14). This material is sent only to those who personally subscribe to the Fundamental BaptistInformation Service list. To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE ADDRESSES go to http://www.wayoflife.org/fbis/subscribe.html. Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143,fbns@wayoflife.org. David Cloud is the director of Way of Life Literature and author of the Friday Church News Notes.! PAGE 4