RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN CHINA?—The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the Lutheran Laymen's League do not support the persecuted house church Christians in China. They support the Communist- approved and pro-abortion, theologically liberal China Christian Council and such CCC leaders as retired Bishop Ting and Wensao Han. (1/28 Chr. News) No Chinese can go to any public store to buy a Bible. All churches in China are…under the control of the Communists who also appoint the pastors. House churches are “illegal.”

HANG ON TO GOOD HYMNALS—Gordon Sears and Al Smith have gone to heaven – their gain, surely, but a great loss to heart-felt sacred music. Sears fought till his dying breath to try to save churches from going the CCM route with the taped background and the worldly beat. Smith wrote great spiritual songs and produced many good books of hymns and choral numbers for choirs and church groups. His “Singspiration” songs and choruses for children were the mainstay of our youth groups and Vacation Bible Schools in the twentieth century. If you have some of his music books, please hang onto them. They'll be greatly appreciated if God ever sends revival! (Dr. Hugh Pyle, 2/1 Sword of the Lord)

CATHOLIC PEDOPHILE PRIESTS SCANDALS—A former parish priest was convicted in January of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy a decade ago. Records depict the “loathsome deeds of a sexual predator who allegedly preyed on over 100 innocent children over three decades.” The Catholic Church already has paid over $10 million to settle 50 civil lawsuits against this priest alone. The Boston archdiocese has quietly settled child sex-abuse claims against at least 70 other priests in the past 10 years. Church leaders could have stopped the abuse but didn't. Instead, they quietly shuffled the predatory priest from parish to parish where he continued to prey on children. A $120 jury award in Dallas in 1997 was later reduced to $23 million (2/1 CC). Catholics in Ireland agreed last month to pay $110 million to settle cases involving hundreds of people who claimed they were sexually abused as children by priests, nuns, and other church officials over several decades. (2/11 USN&WR) The Catholic “forbidding to marry” rule (1Tim.4:3) is a main causal factor.

MTV: A LARGE EVIL NETWORK—MTV is now the largest network in the world. It affects the teen culture of the world more than any other medium. It now reaches 342 million households worldwide in 17 languages in 140 countries. It boasts an audience of 78 million households in the USA, captivating 12 to 24 year-olds. The editor of Rock & Rap Confidential says MTV is evil and its effects are evil. A Chicago Tribune critic says: “MTV is the single most powerful force in popular music, and also the most ruinous.” (9/15 Baptist Bible Trib. via 1-2/02 Fund. Digest)

SELF-ESTEEM OR SINFUL PRIDE?—Endless campaigns have tried to boost self-esteem, especially among the disadvantaged. Psychologist Lauren Slater now admits it hasn't worked. Some researchers now wonder if high self-esteem may actually contribute to social ills (2/16 World). Slater says if we were to question the value of self-esteem, we would be, in a sense, questioning who we are. So, often what the buzzword refers to is simply pride.

HOMOSEXUAL ADOPTION—The American Academy of Pediatrics now says moms or dads raise children as well as moms and dads do (2/16 World). It last month endorsed homosexual adoption, claiming that children raised by homosexuals can be as well adjusted as those raised by heterosexuals. The AAP ignored abundant contrary evidence and based its findings on disputable research. This is another coordinated assault upon the traditional family by cultural revolutionaries of the left.

TONGUES, PROSPERITY, & GODHOOD is the title of a new book by Dr. Cathy Burns which answers such questions as: Do all Christians speak in tongues? Is that the evidence of the Holy Spirit? Do non-Christians speak in tongues? Should we expect signs and wonders, and to name and claim our desires? Are Christians supposed to be prosperous just by speaking our desires into existence? Can we visualize Jesus? What about inner healing? Are you a god? How do New Agers feel about true Christians? Will Christians be counted as misfits in the new world order? This 180-page indexed book is available from: Sharing, 212 E. Seventh St., Mt. Carmel, PA 17851, $8.95.

OLYMPICS FULFILL 'MORMON PROPHECY'—A former Mormon missionary said Mormons may lie low till after the Olympics, but that to Mormons worldwide, the Salt Lake City Olympics are a literal fulfillment of a biblical prophecy (2/18 USN&WR): “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” Isa.2:2. Mormons got much good PR from the Games!

SAVED OUT OF CATHOLICISM, DISAPPOINTED IN GRAHAM AND STOWELL—Rich Kris (1999 Moody Grad School), writes: “For 28 years [now age 38], I was a Roman Catholic and believed in Catholic doctrine for my salvation. Needless to say, I was on my way to hell….” He adds: “As an altar boy in the Catholic Church at an early age, I served the RC priests, believing everything they told me about Mary, purgatory, and in essence, their false sacrifice (the Mass). But God (Eph. 2:4-5) intervened in my life when I was 28 years old, and today I am simply grateful to know that God saved me by His Grace.” Mike Gendron referred him to CC articles. After reading David W. Cloud's Evangelicals & Rome book (wayoflife.org) documenting Billy Graham's compromise with Catholicism, and there seeing MBI-Pres. Joseph Stowell on a list of evangelicals “entangled” with the RC Church, Kris wrote Dr. Stowell with some pointed questions concerning Graham's compromise. He also questioned Stowell about his being listed to speak at a Pastor's conference in Orlando (see 7/15 CC). Stowell in a very brief reply advised him to “contact Bill Bright at Campus Crusade, sponsors of the event, for specific concerns.” We can well understand how someone leaving Romanism's false-gospel system would be perplexed to see Graham refer to Catholics as “brothers and sisters in Christ.” Last month Kris wrote, as an MBI alumnus, his professors about Stowell's not responding (since Aug.) to his concerns about Graham and evangelical compromise.

THE FEMINIZED TNIV—As a concession to political correctness, the Today's New International Version dangerously tinkers with God's Word. It reduces the presence of words such as he and man that feminists find objectionable and mistranslates and changes the meaning of some Greek words. Paige Patterson calls it “dishonest and grossly unfair.” (2/9 World). David W. Cloud says it pushes “gender inclusive” language at the expense of the purity of God's Word, and promotes women deacons.

UNIVERSALISM is the false teaching that everyone will be saved in the end (Bob Dalton). Christian News for 1/28 states: “Universalism, the doctrine that Jesus Christ is not the only way to heaven and that Christianity is just one of many man-made religions, has now thoroughly permeated every major Protestant denomination, Roman Catholicism, and the Orthodox church.” The Pope has made it clear that he believes that Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and even Voodooists all worship the same God only call him by a different name. Popes and the RCC since Vatican II have not taught the truth about Islam, and do not call for the conversion of Muslims. Pope John Paul II kissed the Koran to show his high regard for it.

PIPER TO SPEAK AT EBM EVENT—Respected author and theologian John Piper is listed as keynote speaker at Evangelical Baptist Mission's Church Institute of World Missions conference at Indianapolis (College Park Church), May 20-21. Who is Piper? He is an inerrantist, a Senior Writer for World Magazine, and led a charge last year on Bethel College teacher Gregory Boyd's “open theism” heresy (see 3/15/01 CC). Both men pastor large churches in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, and both churches are affiliated with the Baptist General Conference, which is a member of the NAE and the apostate Baptist World Alliance. Piper attended Wheaton, has a graduate degree from Fuller, and a doctoral degree from the University of Munich (Germany). He was a 2001 Moody Founder's Week speaker, was listed in Billy Graham's “The Cove” (NC) 2001 Program Guide as a June 5-7 speaker, and his Web site shows him speaking at BIOLA and Bryan later this year [all four are in the new-evangelical camp]. Who is EBM? EBM (Kokomo, IN) is a GARBC “partner!”

PEDERSON RESIGNS AS NRB PRESIDENT—No great surprise that NRB president Wayne Pederson resigned, and his resignation was unanimously accepted, at the 59^th annual National Religious Broadcasters meeting, in Nashville last month (see 2/15 CC for background). His proposal in a Jan. 5 interview appearing in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that the NRB should downplay its political image and increase its theological one set off a firestorm of protest – especially from such NRB stalwarts as Dobson, Falwell, Wildmon, and Baehr. These men and others made their voices heard by board members prior to the convention, and carried the day at the convention. Pederson became President last October, the unanimous choice of NRB's Board and Executive Committee to succeed longtime President Dr. E. Brandt Gustavson who died last May. But confidence in his leadership waned after the interview. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft subbed for Pres. Bush who could not attend. Newly elected Chairman/CEO, Glenn Plummer—a charismatic, and the first African-American Chairman/ CEO—along with Pederson, called for unity to heal whatever rift remains. The NRB has strong ecumenical and charismatic representation (and Benny Hinn's organization was there for the first time as an exhibitor!) and has now grown to 1,490 members. Dr. Ralph Colas covered the NRB convention for the ACCC and will make a firsthand report available in the near future.

MEEKS, JACKSON & MBI—The 2/4 Christianity Today had a 6-page article mainly pertaining to Chicago mega-church pastor James Meeks, and Jesse Jackson. Meeks is the exec. v-p of Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and a longtime admirer of him. He is Jackson's heir apparent at Rainbow/PUSH. Meeks says: “I help him be more conservative; he helps me be more liberal.” Many evangelicals see Jackson as constantly craving the media spotlight and too quick to impose the race issue—stuck in a “black victimization” mindset. The announcement a year ago that Jackson had fathered a daughter out of wedlock to some was confirmation that he was a spiritual phony. Meeks defends him, and compares him to David having a baby out of wedlock. His public reemergence took place at Meeks' church, just three days after the revelation. Some of Jackson's theology troubles evangelicals, as do his positions on abortion and homosexual rights. He says, “God did not stop with Revelation. The Bible is a holy book but not the only book of God.” Dwight Perry, professor of pastoral studies at Moody Bible Institute, says: “Jesse Jackson is the premier social activist of our time…He teaches us the importance of not dichotomizing the gospel, that the essence of the gospel is how I am relating to my neighbor….” Is this what MBI students are taught? Meeks is said to be “a frequent speaker at Moody Bible Institute's annual conferences.”

FAILURE IN SEPARATION LEADS TO APOSTASY—Failure in the area of separation always leads to apostasy, be it a denomination, a parachurch organization, an individual church or an individual. The primary purpose of separation is to maintain the purity of the people of God. God is separate from all evil, and if we are to walk in fellowship with Him we are to be holy… (The Projector).

SAVED BY GRACE ALONE is the title of a new book by Dr. Lance Ketchum, Exec. Sec'y of the Minnesota Baptist Association. The author's letter says it is “an inductive, expository commentary on the epistle to Galatians.” It sprang from “concern due to prevalent and growing soteriological inclusivism and the antinomian teaching on grace pervading fundamentalism.” For information on how to get this big 460-page book, and pricing information, e-mail the author: LanceKetchum@msn.com

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