DAVID CLOUD'S "WAY OF LIFE"
RECENT ARTICLES
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research
purposes:
PASTOR BLAMED THE 1918 FLU EPIDEMIC
ON THE CHURCHES
(Friday Church News Notes, April 10, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In 1918, Pastor John Quincy Henry of First Baptist Church in San Francisco, held an outdoors meeting and blamed the churches for the Spanish flu epidemic. He said, “[Churches] have been lamentably weak in moral and spiritual leadership and have not yet risen to the august occasion confronting them. Our churches have become conventional, cowardly and worldly. Not only the people, but the churches must repent their sins, and when they do the plagues will cease” (The American Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919: A Digital Encyclopedia). The situation hasn’t changed in nearly 100 years. The bottom line today, as then, is that America needs to repent of her wickedness before God, and that is doubly true for the churches. Radical political action and multi-trillion dollar national debts will not solve America’s ills, because the fundamental issue is her terrible sin against the God that has shown her such light and mercy. And the very root of it all is the apostasy, corruption, compromise, worldliness, and lukewarmness in the churches. And that includes the majority of the most staunchly conservative, evangelical, “fundamentalist,” Baptist! From my perspective, most Bible-believing churches in America are lukewarm at best. One pastor wrote to me recently as follows: “Will independent fundamental Baptist pastors cancel their services and keep their church doors closed if this goes on for months? If they do, I believe that their people will get so used to watching church online that they won't see the need to assemble together as a real church.” I replied, “I would say that if church members would stop attending church because of a few week’s closure, they shouldn’t be church members in the first place. That isn’t a regenerate church membership. And this is truly the fundamental issue--the sad spiritual state of the vast majority of so-called Bible-believing churches.” I believe that the promise of God to Solomon at the dedication of the temple has a proper application to God’s people in America today. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). What happens in God’s house dramatically affects the White House. It’s high time to exchange a frivolous, fun and games entertainment program with a thin veneer of religiosity, for a program of serious prayer, serious Bible study, serious Bible preaching with exegetical substance and plain reproof and rebuke, serious holiness, serious separation from the wickedness of this fallen world, serious pilgrim Christianity, serious Christian living in the homes, being serious about the fathers being the heads of the homes and the mothers being the keepers of the home, serious about putting God’s will before economics, serious training of children and discipling of youth, and above all, serious about a regenerate church membership!
360-DEGREE VIRTUAL REALITY TOUR OF JERUSALEM FREE OF CHARGE FOR EASTER
(Friday Church News Notes, April 10, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem has produced an amazing 360-degree virtual reality tour of iconic sites in Jerusalem. It is called Holy City 360 and has been released for free viewing from Passover through Ramadan, April 9-24. The tour examines the sites today as well as in ancient times. As I write this report on April 4, I can only see the teaser clip, but it gives an idea of how powerful these presentations are, whether or not you have been to Israel. They are multi-faith in perspective, so one cannot expect Biblical truth, but the photography alone is invaluable. The music might be a little intense, but it can be turned down. https://www.tod.org.il/en/holy-city-vr/
IDAHO GOVERNOR SIGNS
“FAIRNESS IN WOMEN’S SPORTS ACT”
(Friday Church News Notes, April 10, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Rev. Graham Praises Pro-Biology Idaho Law,” CNSNews.com, Apr. 3, 2020: “On Monday, Mar. 30, Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed into law the ‘Fairness in Women's Sports Act.’ The law basically says that any sports program affiliated with the state, such as public school teams, public university teams, and sports associations teams will be defined for biological males and biological females. A player’s sex will be determined by their anatomy or their genetic/chromosonal identity. ‘Athletic teams or sports designated for females, women, or girls shall not be open to students of the male sex,’ reads the new law. ... Commenting last year in the Washington Post about transgender ‘women’ in female sports, All-American track athlete Doriana Coleman and tennis champion Martina Navratilova, said, ‘The evidence is unequivocal that starting in puberty, in every sport except sailing, shooting, and riding, there will always be significant numbers of boys and men who would beat the best girls and women in head-to-head competition. Claims to the contrary are simply a denial of science.’” A companion Idaho bill requires that public documents use a person’s biological sex. The bills were passed and signed in spite of massive pressure from the LGBT lobby and from national corporations that threatened punishments.
JACK VAN IMPE’S PASSING
(Friday Church News Notes, April 10, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Somehow we missed the passing of Jack Van Impe on January 18 at age 88. He started his preaching career in the late 1940s as an evangelist with Youth For Christ. Called “the Walking Bible,” he could quote more than 10,000 Bible verses. In July 1995 he said he had read 10 thousand books in his lifetime. From the 1950s to 1980, he conducted revival crusades attended by more than 10 million. In early 1973, before I was saved, I attended a Van Impe evangelistic crusade at a church in Tampa, Florida. One of my pagan buddies had a believing sister who invited him to the meeting, and he asked me to come along. I was put off by the musical showmanship, and when Van Impe gave away expensive study Bibles to those who brought the most visitors, I thought to myself, “This is why they invited us!” After I was saved, I heard Van Impe speak at Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, if I remember correctly. Van Impe was closely associated with Jerry Falwell and moved in “fundamentalist” circles. At the 1976 World Congress of Fundamentalists in Edinburg, Scotland, Van Impe said preachers are “to contend with false religionists in order to show them the error of their way.” But by the early 1980s, Van Impe had changed direction. In his 1984 book, Heart Disease in the Body of Christ, Van Impe maligned fundamentalists as unloving and called for ecumenical unity between all Christians. He republished it in 1991 under the title Sabotaging the World Church. Not surprisingly, since the flow of the ecumenical river is always Rome-ward, he was soon praising the pope. He said: “Let’s forget our labels and come together in love, and the pope has called for that. I had 400 verses on love. Till I die I will proclaim nothing but love for all my brothers and sisters in Christ, my Catholic brothers and sisters, Protestant brothers and sisters, Christian Reformed, Lutherans, I don’t care what label you are. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another.” On his September 29, 1992, television program, Van Impe “praised Pope John Paul II, calling him a ‘great’ man and telling his audience that they ought to ‘thank God’ for such a courageous religious leader.” In 1993, Van Impe published Startling Revelations: Pope John Paul II, a video that presented the pope as a defender of the faith! Van Impe continued to praise the pope until his death, even though he had devoted himself wholly to Mary. Van Impe is yet another illustration of the truth of 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” Van Impe specialized in speculative prophecy in his weekly television program Jack Van Impe Presents (co-hosted by his wife Rexella) and his magazine Perhaps Today. His video A.D. 2000 - The End came near to setting a date for the Lord’s return. He suffered a lot in the last 15 years, total knee replacements, cancer, stomach ulcers, a severe sepsis attack, triple by-pass surgery, and a broken hip.
THE WORLD PASSETH AWAY
(Friday Church News Notes, April 10, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (1 John 2:15-17). The verb “passeth” is present indicative middle. The present tense is a continuous tense. So the world is passing away. The indicative mood “asserts something which is occurring while the speaker is making the statement.” So the world system is passing away at this time. The middle voice tells us that the world is passing away “by an action acting upon itself or concerning itself.” So the world is being passed away. We know that the world is not passing itself away, and we know that the god of this world is not passing it away. Rather, it is God who is passing the world away. He holds the reins. He is using this present world system for His eternal plans and glory, and it will be finished exactly when God decides, to be replaced by Christ’s kingdom. The prophet Daniel described the end of this present world system. In the dream given to Nebuchadnezzar, it was depicted as a great image of a man representing the ruling empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome (Da. 2:31-35). Daniel’s interpretation explains that Rome continues in various forms until the return of Christ, at which time the world system will be crushed and replaced with Christ’s righteous kingdom. “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth” (Da. 2:34-35). Bible commentator Robert Lenski says, “The world is now in the act of passing away. It is its very nature not to last. Its doom is overtaking it. Its glory is fading, its flowers are withering, its promises are failing, its hopes are crumbling. Isa. 14:11. ... Does the siren voice of the world tickle your ears? Hear the word of truth: ‘The world is passing away!’ The bank is breaking, it was never solvent--will you deposit in it? The foundation is tottering, it was never solid but only sham--will you build on it? The mountain is rumbling, quaking, it was never anything but volcanic, ready to blow off its head at any time--will you build your city there?”
