LAKELAND OUTPOURING ENDS WITH ANOTHER PENTECOSTAL SCANDAL (Friday Church News Notes, August 29, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Some had prophesied that Todd Bentley’s healing crusade in Lakeland, Florida, was the beginning of a national revival and that entire cities would be “shut down.” In fact, it was the Lakeland Outpouring that was shut down after Bentley announced that he was separating from his wife (“Todd Bentley, Wife Separating,” Charisma, Aug. 12, 2008). A week later it was further announced that Bentley was stepping down as head of Fresh Fire Ministries, after the ministry revealed that he had an “unhealthy relationship” with a female staffer (“Bentley Stepping Down,” OneNewsNow, Aug. 19, 2008). The Lakeland meetings began on April 2, 2008, at the Ignite Church, and continued nightly in various venues for more than three months, with Bentley dispensing his medicine by slamming people on the forehead, shoving them, flinging the Holy Spirit, yelling “Blah, blah, blah, blah,” crying out, “Come and get some,” and staggering around like a drunk. He has kicked an elderly lady in the face, banged a crippled woman’s legs on the platform, kneed a man in the stomach, and hit another man so hard that a tooth popped out. My friends, God has given us clear instructions in Scripture about healing, and James 5 does not describe a raucous “healing crusade.” We believe in divine healing for today, but we don’t believe in Pentecostal showmen. See “I Believe in Miracles” http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/ibelievein-miracles.html. For a more extensive study of this subject see The Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements: The History and Error, which is available from Way of Life Literature.

MORE CHARISMATIC WEIRDNESS  (Friday Church News Notes, August 29, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Our book The Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements documents 100 years of Pentecostal weirdness, so this latest case is nothing new, but it is indeed weird. Michael Guglielmucci of the Assemblies of God in Australia recently admitted that he has been lying about having an advanced stage of cancer. For the past two years Guglielmucci has claimed to have terminal cancer. He even recorded a song called “The Healer” that became a hit and was featured on Hillsong’s latest album. In one church performance that has attracted one-third of a million hits on YouTube, he sang with an oxygen tube in his nose! He claimed that God gave him the song after he learned that he had “an aggressive form of cancer.” Guglielmucci is the former pastor of one of Australia’s largest youth churches called Planetshakers. His parents are the founders of an Assemblies of God church in Reynella. Hillsong is the ministry of Hillsong Church in Sydney, the largest church in Australia and prominent in the contemporary worship field. Brian Houston, who co-pastors the church with his wife, is the head of AOG in Australia (which has been renamed the Australian Christian Churches) The AOG has promised that the money that was raised by Guglielmucci fraudulently will be returned. We have documented many bogus Pentecostal healings, but this time we have a bogus Pentecostal sickness!

THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES’ 60 YEARS OF APOSTASY (Friday Church News Notes, August 29, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The World Council of Churches was founded 60 years ago on August 23, 1948. Currently the Geneva-based organization has 349 member denominations and organizations representing a supposed 560 million Christians worldwide. (It would be interesting to survey these “Christians” and ask a simple question that I have asked of attendees at ecumenical conferences I have attended with press credentials -- “When were you born again?”) The World Council can present different faces, depending on the situation. In some instances it tries to appear more “evangelical” in theological outlook, but more commonly its true liberal face is unveiled. There is probably no heresy that does not find a home within the context of the WCC. It is patently and grossly unscriptural. For example, the WCC-sponsored Re-imaging Conference in Minneapolis in 1993 featured a wide assortment of the rankest heretics. Delores Williams said, “I don’t think we need folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping and weird stuff ... we just need to listen to the God within.” Virginia Mollenkott said, “I can no longer worship in a theological context that depicts God as an abusive parent [referring to Christ’s death on the cross] and Jesus as the obedient, trusting child.” Chung Hyung Kyung said, “My bowel is Buddhist bowel, my heart is Buddhist heart, my right brain is Confucian brain, and my left brain is Christian brain.” Chung encouraged the crowd to ask the trees for life energy and said, “The Bible is basically an open book, and I want to add the next chapter.” The conference gave a standing ovation to 100 homosexual women who gathered on the platform to “celebrate the miracle of being lesbian, out, and Christian.” The attendees worshiped “Sophia, the goddess of creation,” and Aruna Gnanadason invited them to put red Hindu marks on their foreheads “to represent the divine” in them. For documentation of these statements and further evidence of the apostasy of the WCC see http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/wcc.html.

BILL GAITHER SAYS JUDGING IS ALWAYS WRONG (Friday Church News Notes, August 29, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In an interview with Kim Jones of About.com, “Mr. Southern Gospel” Bill Gaither said it is always wrong to judge. He said, “Finger pointing is never, I think, of God. Because I know that Scripture ‘Judgment is mine, sayeth the Lord.’ When we get out of the judgment business and just get into the being business, the being what God wants us to be, it will take care of itself. I get weary of the finger pointing also” (“An Interview with Gospel Great Bill Gaither,” About.com, Dec. 6, 2004). This level of biblical ignorance is frightening, especially when we consider the vast influence that Gaither wields among churches in this generation. First of all, the Bible nowhere says, “Judgment is mine, saith the Lord.” It says, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Rom. 12:19). The believer is taught to give place unto wrath and to avoid avenging himself upon his enemies, because that is strictly God’s business. On the other hand, though the believer is forbidden to judge hypocritically (Mat. 7:1-5) and forbidden to judge in matters in which the Bible is silent in this dispensation, such as in matters of diet and holy days (Rom. 14:1-5; Col. 2:16), he is most definitely taught to judge many things by testing it with the Word of God and condemning it if it is in error. The believer is to judge sin in the church (1 Cor. 5:12). He is to judge preaching and teaching (1 Cor. 14:29; Acts 17:11). He is to reprove the unfruitful works of darkness (Eph. 5:11). As a matter of fact the Bible says that “he that is spiritual judgeth all things” (1 Cor. 2:15). That is a very far-reaching statement. The spiritual man knows that he lives in a world of spiritual darkness and error and he is warned repeatedly in the Bible about false teaching, apostasy, and spiritual deception. Thus he carefully tests everything by the light of God’s Word. The spiritual man does not judge by his own thinking and opinion, but by the holy Word of God, which he has in the Scriptures. For more on this see http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/gaithersdisobedience.htm.

YET ANOTHER CATHOLIC DIOCESE PAYS FOR ITS IMMORAL PRIESTS (Friday Church News Notes, August 29, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Catholic diocese of Kansas City has agreed to pay $10 million to settle 47 sexual abuse claims against priests, including retired Wyoming bishop Joseph Hart. The diocese has already paid out more than a $1 million to settle separate cases. In 2007 alone the Catholic Church in America paid $615 million to settle abuse cases. The total far exceeds a billion dollars. The Bishop Accountability organization says that more than 4,000 priests have been accused of abusing children (“US Church to Pay 12.6 Million,” AFP, Aug. 11, 2008). That represents roughly 10% of the Catholic priests in America, and the statistics include only those that have been formally accused. A conservative Catholic organization documented this wretched business in the fall/winter 2002 issue of the magazine Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, observing: “… the overwhelming majority of sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church--about 90%--involve homosexual priests preying on teenage boys. The major media and the U.S. culture at large want to deny or spin the homosexual factor out of the scandal.”

NURSE RECOUNTS HORRORS OF INFANTICIDE PRACTICE BARACK OBAMA PROTECTED (Friday Church News Notes, August 29, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from LifeSiteNews, Aug. 12, 2008: “At the same time that the National Right to Life Committee has unearthed documents proving that Barack Obama repeatedly voted against a bill that would have protected children born alive after an attempted abortion, Illuminati Pictures has released a video of an interview with a nurse who witnessed the very practice that Obama protected while in the Illinois senate. Jill Stanek was a nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois in 1999 when she discovered that babies born alive after failed abortions purposely were being left to die in the ‘soiled utility room,’ which, says Stanek, is a room where biohazard materials and soiled linens are disposed of. ‘That’s where nursing staff took these babies and left them to die.’ Stanek went public with her traumatizing experiences when hospital staff refused to stop the practice of infanticide. In 2000 she was asked to testify before a U.S. House committee for the federal Born Alive Infants Protection Act (BAIPA). The BAIPA was a two-paragraph bill intended to clarify that any baby who is entirely expelled from his or her mother, and who shows any signs of life, is to be regarded as a legal ‘person’ for all federal law purposes, whether or not the baby was born during an attempted abortion. A version of this bill, almost identical to the federal bill, was eventually brought before the Illinois Senate, which is where Obama repeatedly opposed the measure. ‘Christ hospital--and we now know other hospitals and clinics around the country--are involved in an abortion procedure called induced labor abortion,’ says Stanek in the video, entitled ‘Kill and Destroy.’ In this type of abortion, she says, the abortionist inserts a medication into the birth canal of the mother and induces premature labor. ‘My experience was that they [the babies] survive as short as a few minutes, to once, almost as long as an eight hour shift.’”

ARCTIC ICE REFUSES TO MELT (Friday Church News Notes, August 29, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Steven Goddard, “Arctic Ice Refuses to Melt as Ordered,” The Register, London, England, Aug. 15, 2008: “Just a few weeks ago, predictions of Arctic ice collapse were buzzing all over the internet. Some scientists were predicting that the ‘North Pole may be ice-free for first time this summer.’ Others predicted that the entire ‘polar ice cap would disappear this summer.’ The Arctic melt season is nearly done for this year. The sun is now very low above the horizon and will set for the winter at the North Pole in five weeks. And none of these dire predictions have come to pass. ... The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado released an alarming graph on August 11, showing that Arctic ice was rapidly disappearing, back towards last year’s record minimum. ... The problem is that this graph does not appear to be correct. Other data sources show Arctic ice having made a nice recovery this summer. Maps of Arctic ice extent are readily available from several sources, including the University of Illinois. A comparison of these maps (derived from NSIDC data) below shows that Arctic ice extent was 30 per cent greater on August 11, 2008, than it was on the August 12, 2007. ... ice has grown in nearly every direction since last summer--with a large increase in the area north of Siberia. ... There appears to be a consistent pattern of overstatement related to Arctic ice loss. ... The media tendency to knee-jerkingly blame everything on ‘global warming’ makes for an easy story--but it is not based on solid science. ... And what of the Antarctic? Down south, ice extent is well ahead of the recent average. Why isn’t NSIDC making similarly high-profile press releases about the increase in Antarctic ice over the last 30 years?”

DRESSING FOR THE LORD (Friday Church News Notes, August 29, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - After reading our book Dressing for the Lord, one reader said: “I finished reading ‘Dressing for the Lord’ this morning, and Sir, you have hit the nail right on the head! This is the best and most comprehensive work I’ve ever seen on the dress issue; praise God! The book is super and really needs to be read by Christian men and women the world over.” To lay a solid Bible foundation for modesty, we give a careful exegesis of about 25 key Bible passages from Genesis to 1 John, developing Bible principles that can be applied to any nation or culture. The chapter titles include “The Origin of Clothing, “Clothing Is a Language,” “The Captains of the Fashion Industry,” “Isn’t This Basically the Man’s Problem?” “Bible Guidelines for Clothing,” “A Study on Biblical Modesty,” “Worldliness and the Christian’s Dress,” “Pants and the Christian Woman,” “Pushing the Edge on Dress Standards,” Questions Answered on the Issue of Christian Dress,” “Testimonies from Christian Women on the Issue of Modest Dress,” “Survey of Men on the Subject of Women’s Dress,” and “Sources for Ready-made Modest Clothing.” The section on QUESTIONS ANSWERED deals with 36 common challenges, such as “Since God looks on the heart, why be so concerned about appearance?” “Shouldn’t we just teach the Bible and let the Holy Spirit deal with this issue?” “I believe dress standards produce pride and hypocrisy.” “Should women only wear drab sack dresses?” “I wear pants because there are many things I can’t do in a dress.” “Those who preach against pants on women are legalistic.” “What about the issue of modesty in other cultures?” and “What about tattoos and piercings?” The 203-page book is 203 $9.95 plus postage. It can be ordered by internet, phone, e-mail, or post. Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143 (toll free), fbns@wayoflife.org (e-mail), http://www.wayoflife.org. If ordering from Canada contact Bethel Baptist Church, 4212 Campbell St. N., London, Ont. N6P1A6, 1-866-295-4143.