July 1997 News Archives
Distributed by Christian News & Views.. These articles may be used in any manner to the glory of God, and as an aid in the discernment of the times July 1997 [Andy Neckar PO Box J, Hico, TX 76457]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Comments of SBC Pastor and CNV Subscriber
2. A British Charity Is Offering "Lunch Break Abortions,"
3. A New ABC-TV Sitcom: Nothing Sacred
4. The General Synod of the Church of England Votes Pro-Homosexual
5. Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Coordinator Supports Women Pastors
6. Bill Bright’s Wonderful Plan For The World
7. Vatican May Have Stored Pillaged Nazi Loot
8. Episcopal Church Apologies to Homosexuals
9. Protestants Worship With Catholics in Vienna Cathedral
10. Australian Church Report Calls For Open Attitude To Sexuality
11. Catholic Pope Says As Christ Is New Adam—Mary is New Eve.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Comments of SBC pastor and CNV subscriber
A Newsletter subscriber in Florida has been forwarding the Christian News & Views to various people including his former pastor of a Southern Baptist Church who wrote this response"I'm sorry to ask this, but please do not forward the "Christian News & Views" to me any longer. For the writer to suggest that thousands who hear the Gospel proclaimed, no matter by whom, is moved to accept Christ through hearing this word, and is then dismissed as having moved from "the frying pan into the fire" is in my opinion a perversion of the teachings of the Bible."
[Subscribers comments to me in the same letter]
The above feedback is very characteristic of the SBC view of Billy Graham (something like the pope is to Catholics). To even suggest that Billy Graham could do wrong is more than they can take. These are the very people who need reached, but they stop their ears and become very (i.e. deeply) offended. It was this attitude which caused me to leave this church. They do take a separated stand in one sense, they want to separate from the Fundamentalist. I hate to say it, but they seem unteachable.
Now I know what you meant by potential Catholic converts moving from the "frying pan" to the fire, meaning that their final state may be even worse than their starting point. They may have felt the need to be saved and went forward to do so, only to have the whole thing quenched by the Catholic Church who will undo what might have been done salvation-wise and convinced them to go along with the "mother church," which is not to be saved at all. I know that Billy Graham is reported as sending those Catholics who go forward for "salvation," back to the Catholic Church who will mold them and shape them along the line of the Catholic Church, which is a false system that leads no one to salvation in Jesus Christ.
[Editor] What have I to say about all this? AMEN subscriber, AMEN
I’ve lost a few newsletter subscribers over the Billy Graham article in the July ’97 newsletter, but just this one letter "alone", and I’ve received many in agreement, is encouraging.
Truth will be recognized by God’s people who exercise their senses to discern both good and evil, (Heb 5:14) study to show themselves approved unto God, and rightly divide the Word of Truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)
Top of Page
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A British Charity Is Offering "Lunch Break Abortions,"
A British charity is offering "lunch break abortions," according to news reports. Marie Stopes International, an organization similar to Planned Parenthood, said it will make the procedure available at clinics in London, Leeds, and Manchester. The three-to-four minute abortion for women less than 12 weeks pregnant is a service "without medical drama or moral censure," said the group's chief executive, Tim Black. Critics say the procedure trivializes abortion and could harm women. "This would be the ultimate in a fast economy. You have fast food and now you can have a fast abortion," said Josephine Quintavalle, a pro-life advocate. "I don't think a child's life should be disposed of in a lunch hour." [Religion News Today][Editor] The world is in the fast and broad lane to destruction. (Matt 7:13) But there is still time for some to enter the narrow, strait gate.
1 Cor 6:9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, (KJV)
1 Cor 6:10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (KJV)
1 Cor 6:11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. (KJV)
[Editor] Paul says such "were" some of you. These people "turned away" from their sin. No one has sinned too great to be saved by repenting and believing the gospel of Christ.
Top of Page
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A New ABC-TV Sitcom: Nothing Sacred
A new ABC-TV sitcom will further anger religious conservatives, some predict. The show, titled Nothing Sacred, will feature a parish priest who is unsure God exists and counsels a pregnant teenager to "follow her own instincts," according to the network's description of the show. Disney owns ABC-TV. (Religion News Today July 16)Top of Page
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------The General Synod of the Church of England Votes Pro-Homosexual
The General Synod of the Church of England voted not to take a hard-line against the ordination of homosexual priests, and to keep the matter open for future discussions. The debate was less hostile than a similar one 10 years ago, according to news reports..[When people are exposed to something long enough they begin to accept it. That’s why God preaches separation.] While he said he can find no justification in Scripture to sanction same-sex relationships, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey suggested a commission be formed to study the subject of sexuality. [Must the church study the teachings that God calls sin to see if God is right? When God said "study to show yourself approved unto God..." I "know" He didn’t have this in mind]. Homosexual and lesbian protesters outside the meeting applauded the decision. [See! The devil is happy] (Religion News Today 7/16)Top of Page
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Coordinator Supports Women Pastors
Vestal says he changed his mind after once opposing women pastors
In his first major speech before the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship since becoming its coordinator, Daniel Vestal confessed he's had to "repent" for previously opposing women serving as pastors.The turning point came when he first met a woman pastor face to face and realized she "didn't have horns growing out of her head," he explained. "That flesh and blood encounter made me confront my position."
[Editor] Makes one wonder what other encounters, and with who, will cause people to confront their biblical positions. You know, this enemy of Christ will not have horns either. (2 Cor 11:14) (Associated Baptist Press 6/30)
Top of Page
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bill Bright’s Wonderful Plan For The World
At the Campus Crusade for Christ evangelism training conferences, students are trained to use the Four Spiritual Laws (Bright's evangelistic formula for pitching the gospel)Campus Crusade for Christ’s "simplistic" theology; the "mass marketing" approach to evangelism; and the embrace of businesslike means to fulfill the motivated end of reaching every person with the gospel is not Biblical.
The Four Spiritual Laws Gospel presentation lays out God’s perceived blueprint in this manner. (excerpted from a July ’97 Christianity Today article by a student who attended the Campus Crusade for Christ Explo '72 in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas TX.)
"--God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.
--Man is sinful and separated from God, thus cannot know and experience God's love and plan.
--Jesus Christ is God's only provision for man's sin.
--We must individually receive Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Got it?
Without hesitation she told me she wanted to "receive Christ" and "pray the prayer." I read the prayer from the booklet; she echoed. She cried; I cried.
I thought, This is easy."
Nowhere is the Gospel of Christ, the power of God unto salvation unto everyone that believes, preached. (Rom 1:16) God’s blueprint (plan) of salvation is NOT the four spiritual laws contrived by Bill Bright.
God’s plan of salvation is REPENTENANCE and BELIEVING the GOSPEL of CHRIST. (Mark 1:15)
To equate the gospel "only" to a wonderful plan, comes across as "cool" to students. But are these people told that if they don’t repent and believe the gospel of Christ the wonderful plan God has for them is a "hot hell"?
Can a rote prayer "echoed" by a person really "save"? (Easy Prayerism)
Does a rote prayer "prick" the heart? (Act 2:37)
Does a rote prayer pierce the soul and spirit? (Heb 4:12)
What saves—"Echoing a rote prayer" (no scripture verses existent) or "Believing in our hearts"? (Rom 10:10)
Bill Bright’s Campus Crusade for Christ is Dangerous—Watch Out For It
Top of Page
.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Vatican May Have Stored Pillaged Nazi Loot
The Following Article Is Taken From 7/22 U.S.A. TodaySwiss banks aren't the only facilities accused of safeguarding plundered Nazi-era gold. A newly declassified document identifies the Vatican as a postwar repository used by the ousted Nazi puppet government of Croatia.
In the first evidence of Vatican complicity in the handling of Holocaust loot, a document uncovered by researchers points to 200 million Swiss francs, mostly in gold coins, held for members of the deadly Ustasha after the fall of Nazi Germany.
If the 200 million Swiss francs were still held today, it would be valued at about $170 million, plus hundreds of millions more in accumulated interest.
The Vatican has denied the accusation. "There is no basis in reality to the report," said Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls. He said it is based on an anonymous source "whose reliability is more than dubious."
Ustashas who controlled Croatia during the war exterminated hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies, and historians have denounced the Vatican for maintaining ties to the regime led by Ante Pavelic. A Croatian cardinal was convicted by the postwar communist government of abetting war crimes.
The document, disclosed by researchers for an A&E Television documentary, is an internal U.S. Treasury Department memo kept secret for 50 years. It is among 15 million U.S. documents related to the safekeeping of Nazi-plundered gold, mostly by Swiss banks. New details of the scandal continue to emerge as various researchers pore over the trove.
"Approximately 200 million Swiss francs was originally held in the Vatican for safekeeping," says the declassified Oct. 21, 1946, memo from Treasury agent Emerson Bigelow to his superior, Harold Glasser, identified as director of monetary research.
The document surfaced after A&E producers Stephen Crisman and Gaylen Rosq finished a two-hour documentary on Switzerland's handling of Nazi gold, so it is not reported in the program, which is being shown on the cable channel July 26.
The program details shipments of gold ingots by the fascist Romanian government to Swiss banks to keep from the Allies and dealings of the secretive Bank of International Settlement, run by American Thomas McKittrick, which Ross said laundered gold for the Nazis in Switzerland.
Ross provided a copy of the memo on the Vatican to The Associated Press, and other researchers vouched for its authenticity. It contained declassification markings dated Dec. 31, 1996.
Other documents establish that Bigelow received reliable information from the American Overseas Special Services, precursor of the CIA, on Nazi wealth held in specific Swiss bank accounts.
The memo quotes a "reliable source in Italy," apparently a U.S. intelligence source, as saying the Ustasha organization removed 350 million Swiss francs from funds it had confiscated in Croatia, then part of Yugoslavia.
The memo says 150 million Swiss francs was impounded by British authorities at the Austrian-Swiss border and the balance was held in the Vatican.
While stating that as a fact, the document cites rumors that a considerable portion of the Vatican-held money was sent to Spain and Argentina through the Vatican's "pipeline," but says the rumors might be a "smokescreen to cover the fact that the treasure remains in its original repository" at the Vatican.
A number of Ustashas, including Pavelic, found refuge in either Spain or Argentina after the Nazi defeat. Several investigations are following the trail of Nazi plunder after World War II.
In another development, the Swiss Bankers' Association is trying to resolve claims to looted gold by buying space in newspapers around the world this week to list owners of all dormant accounts dating to World War II, The Times of London reported today.
Surviving account holders or their heirs will be encouraged to come forward to settle the accounts, the newspaper said. Any money unclaimed a year from now will be donated to charities chosen by the association and Jewish groups. (The Associated Press, as reported in U.S.A. Today. 7/22)
[For a detailed study on the Ustashas, including Pavelic, see "The Slaughter of the Serbs" and "The Vatican Ratlines", chapters 20 and 21 in Dave Hunt’s book "A Woman Rides The Beast"] You can order this book for $10.00 plus $2.00 S&H. Double S&H for all non-USA orders Order from: The Berean Call, PO Box 7019, Bend, OR 97708
Top of Page
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Episcopal Church Apologies to Homosexuals
The Episcopal Church ended its 10 day national convention July 25 by issuing an apology to gays and lesbians. Lay leaders and bishops voted to approve the apology, which expresses regret and repentance for the "rejection and mistreatment" of gays and lesbians by the church, according to news reports. (Religion News Today-7/28/97)
[Editor] How about that. If the gays and lesbians refuse to repent of their sinful lifestyle before God, the "church" will repent to the homosexuals. "Denominational
churches" are the "head" of the "religion of the world", the "New Christianity". But Praise God, I am a member of THE CHURCH with CHRIST as HEAD.
The apostate churches of the New One World Religion are not leading souls to salvation, but are leading the people to where they themselves are going. Unless the churches repent and believe the gospel of Christ, the power of God unto salvation unto everyone that believes, (Rom 1:16) the COOL message they deliver will lead them into a HOT HELL.
Top of Page
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Australian Church Report Calls For Open Attitude To Sexuality
A recent report on sexuality, commissioned by the Uniting Church, one of Australia's largest, has recommended stronger support for marriage, but has also called for the introduction of liturgy recognizing divorce and for a study on how the church might endorse unions of faithful, same-sex couples By far the most controversial issue in the report is the recognition of homosexual relationships. The sexuality task group, whose report completes six years of work, wants the next Uniting Church Assembly (in the year 2000) to consider "how the church may respond to lesbian and gay people who wish to have their commitment to a life-long faithful relationship affirmed by the church." (Ecumenical News International)[Editor] Instead of studying to show themselves approved before God,(2 Timothy 2:15)these churches are studying to see how they can contest God and get by with it. It seems they think if they (the church) affirm homosexuality God will sanction it too. But MAN is not HEAD of the CHURCH--CHRIST is
Man does not speak for God, or command Him. God commands man and will destroy those who reject Him. Let the churches consider this:
II Th 1:6 Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; (KJV)
II Th 1:7 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, (KJV)
II Th 1:8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: (KJV)
II Th 1:9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; (KJV)
God will repay those who trouble true believers-- and believe me—this troubles true believers. Their day is coming. AMEN
Top of Page
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Protestants Worship With Catholics in Vienna Cathedral
Historic meeting mixed Baptists and Catholics with electric guitars and Vineyard choruses (Charisma 5/97)On Jan. 18, for the first time ever, a Baptist pastor preached in Catholic City Cathedral of St. Stephen's in Vienna, Austria.. Worship, electric guitars, saxophone, drums and all was led by a musician from a Vineyard church
More than 2000 people, mostly young Christians, showed up for the service which involved church worship, contemplative Catholic hymns, personal testimonies, Scripture readings, an evangelical sermon, worship dance, a Catholic procession carrying the cross, a light ceremony and more.
The organizers said, "the meeting succeeded because it was a demonstration of true unity" and an example of how Christians from different backgrounds can celebrate together
Bruce Clewett, national director of Youth With a Mission in Austria said, "the Protestants were so eager to come!"... "Protestants actually joined the Catholics on their turf!"
Johannes Fichtenbauer, chief organizer of the meeting said,. "Let's say between Baptists and Catholics, there is a detectable togetherness,"
[Editor] For centuries Vienna was the capital of political Catholicism, a propellant of the Counter-Reformation and a bastion of opposition to all who would not conform to her image. Even the secular government punishes those of her citizens who fraternize with her enemies--especially in war-time. The world is at war (enmity) against God (James 4:4). The world hates God. (John 15:18) Should not the church dis-fellowship these "professed Christians"? Still wonder why I question these "Christian Associations".
Top of Page
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Catholic Pope Says As Christ Is New Adam—Mary is New Eve.
At the general audience, in St. Peter's Square on July 9th, Pope John Paul spoke of the Assumption of Mary, stating that "Church Tradition" shows how this "is part of the divine plan and is rooted in the singular participation of Mary in her Son's mission.""Vatican Council II," he said, "draws attention to the privilege of the Immaculate Conception: precisely because she is 'preserved free from every stain of original sin,' Mary cannot remain like others in the state of death up to the end of the world. The absence of original sin, and holiness, perfect from the first moment of her existence, demanded for the mother of God the full glorification of her soul and body."
The Pope pointed out that "in the Assumption of the Virgin, we can also see the divine will to promote woman. As an analogy to what happened at the origin of the human species and the history of salvation, in God's project the eschatological ideal had to be revealed, not in an individual, but in a couple. Therefore, in the heavenly glory, next to the Risen Christ, there is a risen woman, Mary: the new Adam and the new Eve." (Vatican News Service 7/9/97)
[Editor] Mary is being decreed to be more like Christ as the manifest apostasy of the Roman Church increases.
1 Cor 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. (KJV)
1 Cor 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. (KJV)
1 Cor 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. (KJV)
1 Cor 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. (KJV)
1 Cor 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. (KJV)
If Mary is the new Eve, was she also made a quickening spirit? Christ is the second man, the Lord from heaven. Does this make Mary, the second woman, queen, not only "of heaven", but "from heaven"?
Will Christians one day be conformed to the image of Christ, "and Mary"?
If Roman Catholics cannot answer yes to these questions they are not true to the teachings of the Roman Pontiff, and are therefore anathematized by that Pontiff. If they do answer yes, many of them will be committing the sin of blasphemy in the eyes of their conservative (yet still lost) brethren.
I am so grateful to be under the perfect law of liberty in Christ. (James 2:12) I "know" I am saved. (1 John 5:13) I "know" where I am going when I die.( 1 Peter 1:3-4) I "know" these things because I "know", not just "know of" Jesus Christ, (James 2:19) and believe His gospel: (Rom 1: 16) not His gospel "and" extra tenets of the faith, (church teachings and tradition) making the Word of God of none effect. (Mark 7:13) I am so grateful that I believe the gospel of Christ as it is written in God’s Word and not an "additional" gospel. (Rev 22:18-19)
The Roman Church is lying about Mary, (the new Eve: co- redeemer ect.) or the Word of God is lying about Mary.
Luke 1:46 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, (KJV)
Luke 1:47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. (KJV)
Roman Catholics ‘must’ know that they put their faith in a "gospel of man the power of Satan unto damnation."