Australian Independent
Baptist Newsletter
OCTOBER 2003
Dr. David C. Bennett, Editor (DCB)
PO Box 1241 - Dubbo - NSW 2830
Phone/Fax 02-6884-2846
Email: Bennett@BibleForToday.org
Permission is given to forward material contained in the AIB
Newsletter.
Purpose: To inform and warn God's people of religious, social, and
political events in today's world.
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"remove".
ALPHA COURSE: The Alpha Course is coming to Sydney 17th -18th
November 2003. This inter-denominational gathering will be held at the
large charismatic Hillsong Conference Centre, Baulkham Hills. The Alpha
Course is an ecumenical mixed bag. Tim Costello, past president of the new
evangelical Baptist Union, wrote a recommendation along with George Pell,
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney. The workshops offered include
Catholic Alpha. Under the heading WHAT WILL THE CONFERENCE COVER? "Attend
your choice of special workshops covering….Alpha in a Catholic Context…."
Editor’s Comment: 2 Peter 3:17 "…beware lest ye also, being led away
with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness."
MORE ECUMENISM: September 25th – 27th 2003 the
Gateway Baptist Church, Brisbane, Australia, hosted 24.7. The advertising
for this event said "24.7 is to lead young people through worship, one
step closer to knowing God and making Him known within our culture." One
of the values of 24.7 as given in the pamphlet is "to see all individuals
and churches united!" (Emphasis by DCB)
Editor's Comment: A. W. Tozer wrote "The constantly recurring question
must be: What shall we unite with and from what shall we separate? The
question of coexistence does not enter here, but the question of union and
fellowship does. The wheat grows in the same field as the tares, but shall
the two cross-pollinate? The sheep graze near the goats, but shall they
seek to interbreed? The unjust and the just enjoy the same rain and
sunshine, but shall they forget their deep moral differences and
intermarry? ... The Spirit-illuminated church will have none of this"
Anglican News Service (ACNS hereafter) 19 SEPTEMBER 2003
ANGLICAN-BAPTIST INTERNATIONAL CONVERSATIONS (ABIC) NORTH AMERICAN PHASE
(Edited by DCB) "The North American phase of the international theological
conversations between Anglicans and Baptists was held at Acadia
University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, from 10 - 12 September 2003."
Baptist groups represented were the: Baptist World Alliance, Southern
Baptist Convention, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and Canadian Baptist
Ministries.
This meeting between the Baptists and Anglicans "began with a
celebration of an Anglican Eucharist in the local parish church…"
Editor’s Comment: In one of Spurgeon’s tracts he wrote "Verily some
persons can eat a large amount of dirt!" He then rebuked the Anglican
Church of his day for being "still in fellowship with the works of
darkness practised in the Anglican denomination of Romanists." He said the
Anglican Church was "mainly responsible for the growth of all this
Popery…" It is the Anglican Church that protects "these growing upas trees
which drip with death to the souls of men! You foster these vipers beneath
your goodly garments! You will be used as a shield to protect the agents
of the devil, until they need you no longer, and then they will cast you
away! For the love you bear to your Redeemer, be duped no longer, and by
your own hatred of monkery and priestcraft, "come ye out from among them,
be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing." This goes for the SBC as
well!
Sermon Audio.com Wednesday, September 17, 2003 CANADIAN PARLIAMENT
EMBRACES HOMOSEXUAL "MARRIAGE" (Edited by DCB) "OTTAWA - By a razor-thin
margin, the federal Parliament embraced gay marriage on Tuesday by
rejecting a 137-year-old definition that preserves the institution for
‘one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.’"
Editor’s Comment: Mark 10:6 "But from the beginning of the creation God
made them male and female."
Episcopal News Service (ENS Hereafter) 11 September 2003 ANGLICANS,
EPISCOPALIANS STILL WEIGHING GENERAL CONVENTION DECISIONS (Edited by DCB)
"One month after the Episcopal Church's General Convention adjourned on
August 8 in Minneapolis, reactions to several of its decisions on
sexuality issues continue to ripple through the church and across the
Internet."
While some ministers in the Episcopal Church continue to be vocal
against the election of Sodomite Gene Robinson, the primate of the church
in Southern Africa, said "Adopting a hard-line stance" against
homosexuality "does nothing to enhance church unity" but he said what was
needed was "Dialogue, sharing stories and experiences are the ways to
understanding the complexities of our humanity."
Editor’s Comment: Isaiah 5:20 "Woe unto them that call evil good, and
good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put
bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"
ACNS-ENGLAND- 10 SEPTEMBER 2003 FORMER BOND GIRL LEADS CLERGY ON THE
CATWALK (Edited by DCB) "A former Bond girl will be among a dozen church
ministers taking part in Clergy on the Catwalk, a clerical fashion show at
the Christian Resources Exhibition…."
Rev Dr Shannon Ledbetter was in the 1997 Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies
and last year was ordained a deacon in the Church of England. She is a
lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies. Other clergy "on the Catwalk"
will be wearing "colourful, contemporary vestments from leading
ecclesiastical designers.
This "Christian" Exhibition had "everything from computers to communion
wine, pilgrimages to pews…on display."
Matthew 23:27 "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward,
but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness."
Falwell Confidential 17 September 2003 HANNITY'S LESSONS ON IMPACTING
THE CULTURE (Edited by DCB) "The convocation service at Liberty University
on Wednesday, September 17, served as a microcosm of what typically takes
place on campus virtually every day."
After "a beautiful period of praise and worship music" Dr. Jerry
Falwell introduced the main speaker, conservative television and radio
personality Sean Hannity. Dr. Falwell said he believed "Sean is the
perfect man to address our students." According to Dr. Falwell Hanity
promotes "the Judeo-Christian principles of our Founding Fathers."
Dr. Falwell went on to say that "…one of our goals at Liberty is to
‘reproduce a few thousand young people like Sean Hannity.’" Hannity also
took questions from Liberty journalism students. Following one question
Hannity "said that going to church together every Sunday is a priority."
Hannity is a Roman Catholic.
Dr. Falwell said the Liberty students "…had been effectively
‘Hannitized’ by this conservative warrior."
Editor’s Comment: Future Christian leaders in whatever field God calls
them should seek to walk in the steps of the man who can say "Be ye
followers of me, even as I also am of Christ." 1Corinthians 11:1.
Yours against apostasy and for Biblical truth,
David C. Bennett, Titus 2:13
