Christian News & Perspective
The consequences of institutionalized slavery bringing Divine judgment was not lost on many Americans and was a major theme of Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address. Lincoln knew that God had “His own purposes” in bringing the Civil War to the American people. God brings “woe unto the world because of offenses… (and) if we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses,” then “He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came.”
Was the Civil War God's Judgment on America for Slavery? - Fulfilling the Promises
fulfillingthepromises.com
Paul’s Missionary journey through Asia Minor and Greece occurred from approximately 47 to 57 AD. It is during this time period that these seven churches were undoubtedly founded. By the time Revelation was written, in approximately 95 AD, five of these same churches had already suffered serious spiritual decline. Ephesus had left its first love, and most of the rest had been infiltrated by false doctrine and sin. Only two of the seven that Jesus addresses are not condemned by Him in some fashion, Smyrna and Philadelphia, yet today none of the seven currently exist.
The Seven Golden Lampstands - A Solemn Warning for All Churches - Fulfilling the Promises
fulfillingthepromises.com
'All I could see was fire'—Sri Lankan bomb survivor’s face glows with the joy of Christ - Open Doors USA
February 13 - Fulfilling the Promises
February 13 - Fulfilling the Promises
fulfillingthepromises.com
The state and four area churchgoers settled a lawsuit on Wednesday by agreeing that wearing face masks is the only requirement for religious gatherings with less than 250 attendees.Four plaintiffs - Rappahannock County’s Slate Mills Church Pastor Brian Hermsmeier and Madison County’s Novum Baptist Church members Joe Sansone III, Mike Sharman and Charlie Sheads Jr. - filed a lawsuit in May against Gov. Ralph Northam seeking that just the least possible stringent restrictions be placed upon churches
Friday night begins a long-awaited time of public prayer, worship, and repentance in the nation’s capital. The weekend will be packed, from a Friday evening worship event to a separate Franklin Graham-sponsored noon prayer march on Saturday and an all-day assembly called “The Return,” all on the National Mall. Saturday is intended to be a serious day before God with organizers saying the fate of the nation hangs in the balance.
Although 61% of American millennials consider themselves to be Christian, just 2% of them were found to hold a biblical worldview, according to a recent study released by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University.
A large, prominent evangelical Capitol Hill church late Tuesday filed a legal challenge to the District, alleging the city government is violating the First Amendment by facilitating and tolerating massive anti-racism protests but forbidding worship services — indoor or outdoor — of more than 100 because of covid-19.The complaint filed by the 850-member Capitol Hill Baptist Church is the first legal challenge by a religious organization to the capital’s coronavirus restrictions. There have been two others in the region — one in Virginia and one in Maryland — since quarantine measures began, and final decisions are pending in both.
Thanks Cheryl I just posted it.
A little more than half of pastors expect their worship attendance to decline after the COVID-19 pandemic is over, according to a new report by the Barna Group.Barna recently released the findings of week 17 of their Church Pulse leader survey, which drew from a poll of 422 Protestant pastors taken Sept. 10-18.
Huge crowds of Christians and people hungry for the gospel gathered in several cities across Florida over the past few days to stand together and proclaim the name of Jesus.The "Let Us Worship" tour led by praise leader Sean Feucht came to Lake Eola Park in Orlando on Saturday. Despite the rainy weather, thousands of worshippers poured their hearts out as they sang, danced, and repented of their sins.
Former NFL tight end and outspoken Christian, Benjamin Watson, is calling on Americans fighting for racial justice in the U.S. to also call for an end to violence against Christians in Nigeria, as activists warn the world might be ignoring a possible genocide.
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12). It couldn’t have been plainer. The evil one had his own political system, his own false kingdom, and it stands in opposition to the rule and reign of King Jesus.
Several thousand people showed up to sing, dance, and experience His undeniable love. Kneeling down in prayer, worshippers wept with joyful hearts that are yearning to see the church rise up.
Several thousand people showed up to sing, dance, and experience His undeniable love. Kneeling down in prayer, worshippers wept with joyful hearts that are yearning to see the church rise up.
JERUSALEM, Israel - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington Tuesday getting ready to sign two historic diplomatic deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
A watchdog group has shed more light on the widespread abduction, trafficking and exploitation of Coptic Christian women and girls in Egypt, highlighting the cases of 13 women and girls who were kidnapped or abducted in the last three years.
Three Iranian Christian converts, who were facing a combined 35 years in prison because of their faith, have fled the country after a court rejected their appeal, according to a Christian persecution watchdog group. They were charged due to their connection to a December 2014 Christmas celebration and were facing a combined 35 years in prison, according to the U.S.-based International Christian Concern.
Family Research Council: The Planned Parenthood affiliate in Manhattan announced that it was removing the name of its founder, Margaret Sanger, from its building due to her ties to the eugenics movement. It has been well documented that Margaret Sanger's motivation for promoting birth control was to prevent births from populations she considered less desirable.Seventy-nine percent of Planned Parenthood's abortion facilities are located within impoverished minority neighborhoods, and black women are disproportionately receiving abortions. Although they constitute only 12 percent of the population, they obtain 38 percent of the abortions.
Self-centered, self-aggrandizing, self-glorifying pride is the modus operandi of human existence. It is the fuel for division. It is the train operator that derails whole churches from their mission while leaving spiritual carnage scattered across a city. Every local church faces many threats. False teaching and persecution threaten from without. But the one that threatens from within is selfish pride.
blog.tms.edu
Thousands of Christians plan to gather in Washington, DC on September 26 for an event called "The Return: National and Global Day of Prayer and Repentance." "It's going to be on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on September 26th," Cahn said. "But it's also going to be around the world and around the country for those who can't make it, it's going to be streamed to their homes, their churches, they can have their own event. The point is, this is a crucial moment."
Charles LiMandri, who works for the Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based law firm that takes religious liberty cases, said the church would appeal which would would ultimately vindicate the church’s right to the free exercise of religion. The court, he said, did not give “adequate consideration to the fact that churches have been treated as second-class citizens compared to the tens of thousands of protesters,” said LiMandri, referencing the protests this summer that largely took place outside.
by Jews for Jesus |July 09 2020As Jewish followers of Yeshua (Jesus), we value our Jewish identity and believe in the holiness and significance of the Torah. The Torah is God’s Word and will not pass away. As Jewish people, we believe that we are called to be a light to the nations through the covenant He made with us. We also believe that Yeshua’s sacrifice atones for us and that salvation has always depended on faith in God and His provision for atonement.
I’m a Messianic Jew. Should I Keep the Torah?
jewsforjesus.org
A Seattle-area church is fighting in court for its religious rights that are supposed to be guaranteed under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. The legal battle is underway because the state of Washington is trying to force churches to violate their pro-life religious beliefs in order to cover elective abortions in their health insurance plans.
HIDDENITE, N.C. — A public school in North Carolina cut two Bible verses out of the back cover of planners donated by a local church before giving them to students out of concern that it would be considered a form of religious indoctrination.According to reports, Sulfur Springs Baptist Church contacted East Alexander Middle School over the summer to ask what it could do to help. The church then had $2,000 worth of planners printed for the students and donated them to the school.
LAHORE, Pakistan (Morning Star News) – A court in Lahore, Pakistan has sentenced a Christian to death over charges that he allegedly sent “blasphemous” text messages to a Muslim colleague seven years ago, his lawyer said.
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and other faith-based student groups are praising a Department of Education final rule issued Wednesday that they say will protect campus student organizations’ right to choose leaders who share their religious beliefs.
In California, 12,000 people have gathered on the Capitol Grounds to worship God. The move was apparently illegal in California, but Sean Feucht, who held the service, says freedom of religion is a right that everyone should have, regardless of what State Officials have to say.
Too Many Aborted is an awareness campaign aimed at calling attention to the prevalence of abortion in the Black community. Stating that nearly 40% of Black pregnancies end in abortion, Too Many Aborted hopes to protect Black lives, empower Black women to choose life, and offer hope and healing for Black women who have suffered through abortion.
Where is our society headed? Is it the one that is now nationally infamous as the site for nearly 100 consecutive evenings of protests, often riotous and violent, in downtown Portland? And where now God’s Word has been publicly burned? Or is it the one where thousands can gather — also in the downtown area — to offer praise and worship to God and ask for His divine intervention to bring peace to the city, region and nation?
Our country is in trouble, and many people have said they are perplexed as to what to do. There is something we can do—we can pray! Our only hope is in God.I’m holding Prayer March 2020 in Washington D.C. on September 26 beginning at noon. We’re going to go from the Lincoln Memorial all the way down to the Capitol, praying for our nation. No music, no speakers—just prayer. Franklin Graham
Christians Descend on D.C. for Prayer March - Blue Ridge Christian News
blueridgechristiannews.com
Worship leader Sean Feucht brought his "Hold the Line" rally to the West Coast this weekend as thousands gathered in Oregon and Washington.Feucht was in Salem, Oregon on Thursday where people prayed and worshipped together, including baptisms at Riverfront Park.
With a third of evangelicals in America saying they just think Jesus was a teacher and not the Messiah, there's a call for better church teaching on the theology of Christ. Every two years a survey is done to assess the theology of the nation by LifeWay Research and Ligonier ministries. This year, 52 per cent of American adults said they believed that Jesus was a great teacher and nothing more, which may not be surprising among the general public, but 30 per cent of evangelicals agreed with the same sentiment.
"Today, as people are beginning to think more about the second coming of Jesus, it’s worth remembering that the feasts not only speak of Yeshua’s first coming, but also His triumphant return. It’s a great time to look again in earnest at the information God has given us in the calendar He set for His people."
I loved the small group Bible study we did once on the Biblical feasts and their significance in Christ.
"Iranians are turning their back to their faith, to their institutional faith, and receiving Christianity as their new faith," Ansari said on CBN's Christian World News program. "One-point-five percent becoming Christian may not seem a big number, but for a country that is closed and persecuted towards Christianity that number is a huge indication of the Gospel growth."
A “once in a lifetime” find is how the City of David described three immaculately preserved 2,700-year-old decorated column heads, or capitals, from the First Temple period that indicate a connection to the Davidic Dynasty.Archaeologists from the City of David did not expect to find anything this special when they began digging near what is now the Armon Hanatziv Promenade.
The Center for Bible Engagement has released a research study finding that six out of 10 adults attend a church that is not racially or ethnically diverse, yet the membership reflects the make-up of the surrounding community. The remaining group was evenly split between those who attend a diverse church and those who attend a church that is not diverse and does not reflect the surrounding community.
Pastors of Racially-Diverse Churches See Engaging the Bible as Key to Racial Reconciliation
christiannewsjournal.com
Modern secular culture is on a march to evangelize Christians and Sunday School, church services and youth groups are no longer enough to inoculate Christian children from its new gospel without God, warns founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, Tim Keller.
According to a new survey of 50,000 Iranians—90 percent residing in Iran—by GAMAAN, a Netherlands-based research group, 1.5 percent identified as Christian.
The pastor of a large California church that was fined over $50,000 for holding indoor worship services despite adhering to social distancing guidelines said that even as the county continues to increase penalties, the church will remain open. Jack Trieber, pastor of North Valley Baptist Church in Santa Clara, California, said Tuesday that Santa Clara County posted an additional order on the church’s doors this week and is fining the congregation $5,000 for each service.
In the wake of what appears to be a steady stream of moral failures, outright renunciation of an orthodox Trinitarian Christian faith and embrace of sexual life-styles condemned in Holy Scripture, how should Christians respond individually and corporately?Dr. Richard Land was president of the Southern Baptists’ Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (1988-2013) and has served since 2013 as president of Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, NC.
Indeed, with just about sixty days remaining until the national election in the United States, the potential consequences of all the races in 2020 continue to crystallize—and the clarity is truly a difference between life and death.R. ALBERT MOHLER, JR.
The Great Commission is more than just evangelizing the lost and making disciples—as important as those things are. The apostles were also concerned with the endgame. They cared about why the Great Commission matters, not just from a human perspective, but also from the divine. They understood that there must be something fundamental that drives the Great Commission. That something, strangely enough, is a prophecy from the Old Testament. The vision behind the Great Commission is actually a vision from Daniel 7.
The "Vision" Behind the Great Commission
blog.tms.edu
“When I read the gospels, I’ve never seen a Jesus who would sit there and say, ‘Too bad for him,’” he said of the apathy that can sometimes creep in on this issue. “And that is not the gospel I know.”
A “Riots to Revival” movement is gaining momentum in Wisconsin after starting in June at the memorial site of George Floyd.According to CBN News, last week, Dr. Charles Karuku shared on social media that the revival, started by Dr. Karaku and Pastor Lindsey Karaku of the International Outreach Church in Burnsville, Minnesota, had begun in Kenosha, Wisconsin.“Let the healing begin!” Karuku posted on Facebook, alongside photos of people praying, worshiping and being baptized.
Samaritan's Purse and Operation blessing have provided much-needed supplies and help to the thousands of residents in Louisiana who were affected by Hurricane Laura. Both organizations plan to work with The Red Cross, the National Guard, and other relief organizations to help as many people as possible during the recovery from this devastating hurricane.
Possessing the power to make the timid brave, the good better, or the bad devastating: crowds. When passions are shared, they swell, exciting actions to the status of legend or infamy. The power of assembly can build a better society or destroy it.Article by Greg MorseStaff writer, desiringGod.org
Los Angeles County has notified Grace Community Church, led by Pastor John MacArthur, that it will soon be evicted from a parcel of land it uses as a parking lot — a move lawyers say is retaliation for the church’s decision to hold indoor worship services amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Not that I am ready for in person services, especially indoors- but given the permitted activities non-religious groups are allowed vs churches who are being harassed points to a bigger issue here.
Back in June, the movement started by Dr. Charles and Pastor Lindsey Karuku with the International Outreach Church in Burnsville, Minnesota took to the streets of Minneapolis to proclaim Jesus' name. Christians and non-believers came together at the location of George Floyd's memorial site where the Holy Spirit healed bodies and hearts as salvations, baptisms, and worship filled the streets.
Santa Clara County, California, used spies to infiltrate North Valley Baptist Church and fined the church $10,000 when they caught worshipers singing during indoor religious services. "The county understands that singing is an intimate and meaningful component of religious worship. However, public health experts have also determined that singing together in close proximity and without face coverings transmits virus particles further in the air than breathing or speaking.
08/28/2020 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – The persecution of Christians in Pakistan is severe and complex. Daily, Pakistani Christians are treated as second-class citizens simply due to their religious identity. Christians also face many other forms of abuse, including false blasphemy accusations, physical assaults, attacks on places of worship, abductions, and forced conversions to Islam.
