Jesus Christ – Psalm 119: 38

This Halloween, witchcraft isn’t just a costume anymore

By Linda Harvey, Op-ed contributor Tuesday, October 27, 2026

We are told in Scripture to love good and hate evil. And of course, evil is defined by God, not by today’s sin fable factory churning out “transphobia,” “colonialism” and the like.

American culture is so far from hating evil that we accept almost anything without much of a fuss. The fuss itself is considered evil.

So, satanists providing the invocations recently at an Iowa city council meeting and at a town council in Washington state produced only a ripple of objection to a lengthy diatribe implicitly defying Judeo-Christian faith and closing with “hail, Satan.” There was one pastor at the Iowa meeting who requested a pause to negate this dark declaration by the satanist, a former council member. “Let’s reverse this curse that was put on our city,” the pastor asked. A moment of silence was then granted.

A moment of silence? To counter “hail Satan”? What has America become?

That pastor represents the diminishing remnant.

The Washington audience voiced no objections. In fact, some members of the Battle Ground, Washington audience affirmed the wicked message through voice or gestures. It’s interesting because this town has been the focus of news stories about an emerging “Christian nationalism” presence, which agitated local liberals.

So, the hellish invocation was a planned political statement in response to the scary threat of Christian patriots. Yet at this meeting, where were the Bible thumpers? If there’s a Christian takeover, it was invisible, as the council heard the satanist with nary a raised eyebrow.

Proud paganism is simply not shocking anymore. As we enter another Halloween season with its strangely exploding popularity ($13.5 billion expected expenditures), it’s time to recognize that the mechanics of paganism and witchcraft are incorporated into the everyday routines of many Americans. Even those who claim Christian faith think nothing of practices that are eerily similar to sorcery.

Incantations like “naming and claiming” (the prosperity gospel), which twists words of Scripture to carry power apart from trusting God’s will, are actually covetous, power-grabbing rituals. Witches would be OK with that.

So is the repetition of words or phrases as a mantra for the same reason (even Scripture). Also, revering objects or icons in prayers; any type of divination; following one’s astrological sign; sending any prayers to female figures as goddesses instead of God Almighty; or seeking altered consciousness, even if one is trying to “connect” with the Holy Spirit. There are even Christian witches, self-declared. But their conduct is heretical, not faithful.

God never told us to do any of this, but instead, He gives stern warnings against pagan practices like these, even if we believe our intentions are good.

As our populace abandons faithful Christianity, paganism is the choice by more and more, although some, especially satanists, call themselves “atheists.” There is even research about what issues are most important to pagans. It’s about what you would imagine: the environment, feminism, acceptance of “LGBT” behaviors, and an “open mind” are at the top.

But many observe that as our populace deteriorates mentally and ethically, those who are somewhat or heavily antagonistic toward Judeo-Christian beliefs — like witches and pagans — are easier to manipulate toward the most radical beliefs. We can see how the politics of paganism may be contributing to a sizeable voting bloc of unthinking screamers.

Unstable males gravitate toward neo-Nazi influencers — Hasan Piker and even, oddly, Tucker Carlson — with hate-filled messages where demonic deception is a convenient side dish. Many “satanists” are simply hard-Left disaffected rebels.

But Satan is not choosy. He will use whatever person invokes his name.

Polling indicates that women lean more liberal politically, and it’s easy to see why. American females are way too easy to draw into even the weirdest insanity of progressive politics — even support for misogynists who love Sharia law.

Doreen Virtue explains in a video, The Dark New Age Rabbit Hole, how easily Christian women can be lured into one occultic practice after another, still believing they are covered through quick prayers to the Lord. Women are moved by an appeal to empowerment and the “self,” but this often ends in disaster.

It’s not just personal tragedy at stake. Our national security may also be going down the rabbit hole through massive spiritual deception.

Feminism has taught females to respond emotionally to self-declared “victims,” tear-jerking messages about immigrants, so-called genocide in Gaza, trans-“affirming” health care for teens (actually, mutilation), defending the “need” for one’s abortion (and even perhaps the murder of one’s toddlers) and the cruelties of alleged GOP “fascism.”

And they will readily believe any tale of conservatives as racists, pedophiles, rapists, etc., who recklessly leave countless (usually unnamed) victims in their wake. These women conveniently ignore the hundreds of thousands of children lost after Biden’s open border invasion, the children mutilated by “trans” procedures, or the millions of babies butchered in abortion.

Our girls are magnetized to dark forms of empowerment, and the spiritual danger is real. The number of adherents to witchcraft is rising rapidly and it’s mostly the young — “maidens” — yet a segment of “crones” embraces the craft as well.

New movies this fall continue the trend to normalize witchcraft — Practical Magic 2 — and to fuel the narrative that some people are “born” witches or into witch families (where have we heard that before?). Hexed, the Disney animation slated for Thanksgiving, will deliver this message to millions of children unless discerning parents turn away.

There’s Forbidden Fruits, out earlier this year. And of course, many American children are feasting on the distortions of the Wizard of Oz knock-off films, Wicked and Wicked for Good, featuring Glinda the Good Witch with her school friend Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, transformed into a victimized, person-of-color animal rights activist.

Of course she is. Even our American classic “witch” stories aren’t sacred anymore but force-fitted with the ever-present leftist agenda.

In the past three decades, the number of witch movies is hard to keep track of. Subject matter that once was repugnant is now ho-hum.

Observe how formulaic today’s typical witch tale is. Witchcraft, sorcery and paganism are portrayed as attractive, useful for problem-solving, empowering, intriguing and free of the “oppression” of orthodox Judeo-Christian values. These beliefs allow for personal (especially sexual) freedom. The sales pitch goes from embracing alleged “good” witch practices to eventually conceding how helpful the “bad” witch tools can be, like calling down curses on enemies.

It is a quick walk the emotionally challenged can easily travel and it is not a big stretch to say that the rapidly advancing embrace of political violence on the left has a strong connection to witchcraft and paganism. They have embraced the lie and are motivated to act.

Pagans and satanists will be found not infrequently among vicious “trans” rights demonstrations and Antifa protests. These “direct actions” can actually be spells, you see.

So, is it any wonder that Christians have more warnings than ever against all occult practices and the observance of Halloween? Ex-witches and ex-satanists are sounding the alarm.

Ex-witch Ashley Jones says that the Word of God is essential. “The only way you can discern evil is to know the truth.”

To which I say, Amen.

Linda Harvey is President of Mission America.

At least one Christian killed every 86 minutes in Nigeria: report

By Christian Daily InternationalSunday, September 27, 2026

Christians in Nigeria were killed at a rate of one every 86 minutes between Jan. 1 and Sept. 8, most of them in the Middle Belt that receives low priority in Nigerian and U.S. security policy, a new report by a U.S.-based aid agency shows.

Among 4,216 Christians killed in Nigeria during the period, a majority of the documented violence against Christian farming communities appears to be religiously motivated and carried out through organized militant networks, with Fulani actors responsible for more deaths than Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) combined, according to the report by Equipping The Persecuted (ETP), “Crisis in the Middle Belt: Religious Persecution and Security Failure in Nigeria.”

Multiple ethnic and religious communities in Nigeria suffer violence, but the religious motivation of attacks on Christian farmers is important to note to avoid flawed policy responses, the report asserts.

“When attacks are framed only as farmer-herder clashes, the actions of unknown gunmen, or generalized rural violence, mass persecution may be misinterpreted as merely a development problem or a policing failure,” ETP states. “Likewise, when the religious identity of affected communities is omitted, the religious dimension of the violence may be underrepresented in public reporting and casualty records. As a result, targeted persecution can be absorbed into broader narratives of insecurity, obscuring both its nature and its scale.”

The 4,216 deaths of Christians in Nigeria recorded by ETP between Jan. 1 and Sept. 8 represents an average of 16.8 deaths per day, or approximately one every 86 minutes.

“Local disputes over land, resources, or communal identity can be deadly, but they are not equivalent to the systematic destruction or depopulation of entire villages,” the report states. “According to Equipping The Persecuted and TruthNigeria field reporting, the destruction of villages, burning of churches, and permanent displacement of communities are overwhelmingly associated with religiously motivated attacks and sustained militant territorial pressure rather than isolated communal disputes.”

The report acknowledges that tribal, land-use, grazing and communal disputes exist throughout Nigeria and can result in serious violence.

“However, these factors alone do not account for the prevailing pattern documented herein, which is characterized by village raids, church burnings, targeted killings, abductions, the destruction of communities, and the long-term displacement of Christian farming populations from ancestral lands,” ETP states.

The tribal, land-use, grazing and other communal disputes account for only part of the violence and do not adequately explain the insecurity facing many Christian farming communities across the Middle Belt, according to the report. Violence is marked by destruction of communities followed by displacement and the loss of ancestral lands.

“While communal disputes may result in localized clashes, they do not ordinarily produce the systematic burning of churches, the targeted killing or abduction of worshippers and clergy, the abandonment of entire villages, or the prolonged denial of return to displaced populations,” the report states.

Nigeria’s Middle Belt is marked by raids on villages, abductions, intimidation, land occupation and limited accountability for assailants, ETP reports.

“In Benue, Plateau, southern Kaduna, Nasarawa and Taraba, armed Fulani militant networks are identified as the principal named threat in TruthNigeria and Nigeria Terror Tracker reporting,” the report states. “The terms Fulani-linked actors and Fulani Ethnic Militia refer specifically to armed groups and organized militant networks identified through incident-level evidence. These terms do not imply collective responsibility on the part of Fulani civilians or the Fulani population as a whole.”

Equipping The Persecuted estimates that more than 5 million Christians have been displaced and more than 600 Christian communities have been destroyed or emptied as a result of violence and insecurity. The group’s Nigeria Terror Tracker (NTT) showed that within comparable 2025 and 2026 reporting periods, Fulani-linked actors accounted for substantially more fatalities than Boko Haram and ISWAP combined.

The NTT, which employs a different methodology than the ETP’s master registry, found that Fulani-linked actors accounted for 4,932 recorded fatalities between Jan. 1, 2025 and Sept. 7, 2025, and 786 fatalities during the same period in 2026. Boko Haram and ISWAP, by contrast, were responsible for a combined 1,958 fatalities in 2025 and 189 in 2026.

“Accordingly, Fulani-linked actors caused 2.5 times more recorded deaths than Boko Haram and ISWAP combined in 2025, and 4.2 times more in 2026 within NTT’s verified incident series,” the report states, adding that the NTT and the ETP master registry are separate sources with different analytical purposes and should not be combined or interpreted as interchangeable measures of violence.

The report notes that all figures should be understood as documented minimums and are likely to understate the full scale of the violence and displacement.

The NTT findings on Fulani actors were independently reinforced by figures from the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA), which attributed 53% of documented killings of civilian Christians to Fulani militant groups, compared with 8 percent attributed to Boko Haram and ISWAP combined, the report notes.

The ETP master registry of 4,216 Christian deaths from Jan. 1 through Sept. 8 is a documented minimum derived from ETP and TruthNigeria field reporting, eyewitness and survivor testimony, local contacts and subsequent verification. Casualty figures are not increased until new names, incidents, and supporting evidence have been reconciled against the master registry. Accordingly, eight Christians reported killed in Ayilamo, Benue state on Sept. 10 are referenced separately rather than incorporated into the audited total.

The millions of Christians displaced by killings and kidnappings has resulted in displacement that alters demographics and requires more than short-term aid, the report notes.

“When displaced families remain in camps or temporary settlements while armed actors retain access to farms, transportation routes, water sources, and villages, displacement can evolve from a humanitarian emergency into a mechanism of long-term territorial change,” it states. “Humanitarian assistance remains essential, but relief efforts that are not accompanied by safe and voluntary return may unintentionally contribute to the normalization of dispossession.”

Impunity has long given assailants further motivation to commit atrocities, with attackers operating across local and state boundaries, conducting repeated assault and returning to previously targeted communities, according to the report.

“Effective accountability therefore requires investigations that extend beyond individual perpetrators to encompass the broader support structure behind attacks, including commanders, recruiters, weapons suppliers, transport facilitators, financiers, intelligence providers, and any public officials found to have aided, protected, or facilitated criminal activity,” the report states.

“A sustainable response requires more than emergency relief. It demands security measures that protect vulnerable communities, credible investigations, prosecution of perpetrators and their supporters, restoration of property and livelihoods, and the creation of conditions that enable displaced persons to return voluntarily, safely, and with dignity.”

Otherwise, the cycles of violence, displacement and dispossession are likely to persist, ETP notes.

Media Framing

Nigerian and other media routinely omit reference to religious identity of assailants and victims in attacks that may have a religious targeting component, contributing to the misperception that violence is mere rural insecurity, the report states.

“This issue has significant implications for both public understanding and policy analysis. Datasets that rely heavily on media reports inevitably inherit the limitations and omissions present in those sources,” the report states. “The result is that casualty statistics and conflict analyses may underrepresent the religious dimension of violence in affected regions.”

Accurate assessment therefore requires not only counting incidents and fatalities, but also examining patterns of victimization, community targeting, displacement, and the destruction of religious institutions where those factors are relevant to understanding the character of the conflict, ETP states.

Victims of kidnapping in Nigeria are often tortured and starved while in captivity, and women and girls face an additional risk of sexual violence, the report notes.

“Boys and young men are not typically taken to serve as child soldiers, but they are frequently beaten, tortured, forced into labor, or held for ransom under harsh conditions,” ETP reported. “Kidnappers use videos of hostages to pressure families into paying ransoms, forcing many households to sell everything they own, leaving families destitute, and some ultimately end up in Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps.”

Kidnapping data in Nigeria are neither comprehensive nor fully reliable, it states. Reported kidnappings are often highest among attacks carried out by groups such as Boko Haram, ISWAP and Lakurawa, as these incidents are more likely to be documented by government authorities and security services.

“In contrast, kidnappings linked to Fulani militant activity in parts of the Middle Belt, particularly Plateau, southern Kaduna, and Benue, are often believed to be underreported,” the report states. “Fear of retaliation, limited access to authorities, and mistrust of government institutions frequently discourage families from reporting incidents. While jihadist groups frequently target Muslim as well as Christian communities, many of the underreported kidnappings in the Middle Belt disproportionately affect Christian populations.”

Policy Recommendations

The report asserts that policy priority should be given to a sustained, intelligence-driven campaign to identify, disrupt and dismantle Fulani militant networks in the Middle Belt, alongside continued operations against Boko Haram, ISWAP and other armed groups.

Campaigns should target leadership, financing, weapons supply, recruitment, communications, transport routes, and safe havens while distinguishing militant networks from Fulani civilians, it states.

“Nigeria should be supported and pressed to investigate, prosecute, and hold accountable those responsible for violence,” ETP states. “Where domestic efforts prove inadequate, international partners should consider additional measures to support civilian protection, accountability, and regional security.”

U.S. and Nigerian governments and international partners should prioritize the voluntary, safe, dignified, and sustainable return of displaced Christian communities to their ancestral lands, the report recommends.

“Return initiatives should be linked to long-term security measures that prevent renewed displacement and ensure that affected populations can rebuild their lives in safety,” it states. “Successful return requires more than humanitarian assistance. Security forces should secure and hold affected areas, maintain a continuing presence in vulnerable communities, protect transportation routes, farms, markets, and places of worship, and prevent the reemergence of armed actors.”

Authorities should establish transparent mechanisms for the restoration of property rights and customary land tenure, ETP states, and long-term recovery will require reconstruction of homes, church buildings, schools, clinics, roads, wells, and agricultural infrastructure, together with access to trauma care, livelihood restoration and community rehabilitation programs.

U.S. intelligence, counterterrorism, and law-enforcement agencies should broaden their analytical focus beyond Boko Haram and ISWAP to include a comprehensive assessment of Fulani militant networks and other violent actors operating in the Middle Belt, the report states.

This article was originally published by Christian Daily International.

Christian Daily International provides biblical, factual and personal news, stories and perspectives from every region, focusing on religious freedom, holistic mission and other issues relevant for the global Church today.

The Compassion of Christ For You and Me!

How voluntary was the death of our Lord Jesus! Five times we read that He “gave Himself.” He gave Himself for our sins (Galatians:1:4).
He gave Himself a ransom for all (2 Timothy:2:6).
He loved the church and gave Himself for it (Ephesians:5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it).
How blessed it is to know that He gave Himself for us (Titus:2:14).
But what a personal privilege to be able to say that He loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians:2:20).
—Jim Flanigan, Choice Gleanings 2011 (Quoted in Berean Call)

China Detains Beijing house church leaders in latest crackdown on unregistered churches

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor Monday, September 28, 2026

Authorities in China have detained several pastors and church workers from Beijing Jiaquan Church, an independent house church operating in the capital.

The U.S.-based group ChinaAid said it has received firsthand accounts of the arrests, though the number of people held and the charges against them remain unknown.

The group said it was checking whether Jiaquan congregations outside Beijing were hit.

A coordinated operation in several places, if confirmed, would mark another major move against churches outside the state-run religious system, the group said.

ChinaAid’s founder and President Bob Fu said his organization is “urgently concerned for the safety, health and legal rights of every Jiaquan pastor and church co-worker who has been taken away.” He asked authorities to name the detainees, disclose where they’re being held, provide the legal grounds for their apprehension and detention, and allow them to see independent lawyers.

Jiaquan has operated in the capital for over two decades, has 1,000 members, and has built churches and meeting locations in several parts of China, people familiar with the church said. It draws younger Christians in cities with discipleship, contemporary worship music and interactive fellowship.

Its leaders have run Noah Music School in Beijing for over 10 years, training worship leaders and musicians for house churches around China.

The arrests occurred days before Xi’s summit with President Donald Trump, and follow a Sept. 16 Washington forum on religious freedom, where advocates highlighted cases of Christian persecution ahead of Xi’s visit.

Fu called the arrests part of a growing campaign aimed at several of China’s most influential city churches. He said these churches differ in history and ministry and share a resolve to run church life free of government political control.

House churches stay outside the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the government-approved Protestant body, and other Protestant structures under state control. Rules on unregistered religious groups have tightened in recent years, and there have been verified cases of raids, surveillance and prosecutions.

In October 2025, authorities began coordinated raids on Beijing Zion Church, among the biggest house-church networks in China. Members were detained in several provinces, and 18 were formally arrested.

The group reported on Sept. 10 that eight Zion pastors and co-workers were still in custody in Beihai, a city in the southern autonomous region of Guangxi, on charges of “fraud” and “illegal business operations.”

Police have also repeatedly acted against Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, the Sichuan provincial capital in southwestern China. On June 14, police broke up a church meeting at a hotel in the city of Jiangyou, northeast of Chengdu, and detained more than 30 members.

On Sept. 10, police detained 11 Christians, most of them older than 60, at a small reading group in a teahouse. Authorities banned Early Rain after mass arrests in December 2018, and its founding pastor, Wang Yi, was later sentenced to nine years in prison.

A lawyer for Zion Church pastors has fled China with her spouse and their two children as authorities pressed her law firm to dissolve. Ruth Wang is a partner at the firm, VDoor, and since October 2025 has been on the legal team for Zion founder Pastor Ezra Jin and other detained members.

Taiwan has given the family temporary humanitarian housing, according to the news account Visegrad 24. The Malaysia Sun reported that Wang arrived on the island earlier this month.

Taiwanese officials reportedly told Wang the island cannot grant asylum to mainland Chinese under its rules, citing tensions between Beijing and the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party. Wang is considering a move to the U.S. or Canada and has said the family’s future is uncertain.

In a separate case, authorities released Lian Xuliang, pastor of the unregistered Xi’an Church of Abundance in Shaanxi province, over four years after they opened a national security case against him and two others. He went home earlier this month, according to the rights group Weiquanwang.

The rights group Church in Chains said the three spent six months held apart in small rooms of a former hotel while their families heard nothing. It said they were starved, beaten, drugged and denied bathroom use for long stretches.

Why Communist and Leftist Governments Hate Christianity.

Why Communist and Leftist Governments hate Christianity.

Author: Robin Schumacher

Source: Christian Post

If you’re someone who thinks Christians aren’t persecuted much in today’s world, I have a challenge for you. Subscribe to Voice of the Martyrs magazine, read three issues, and then let me know if you’ve changed your opinion.

The current VOM magazine (March 2020) provides an excellent reality check for those who believe Communism is on the way out and gives a drill down into recent activities in Communist China. After the cultural revolution (1966-76) that resulted in China being placed firmly in the hands of Communist control, the campaign to stomp out Christianity has now risen to a point where churches are routinely bulldozed, Christians are consistently harassed, interrogated, and imprisoned, and pastors get ‘disappeared’.

Why is it that Communist and Leftist governments persecute and hate Christianity so much? To answer that question, we need to peel back the theological, philosophical, and historical covers to get a better understanding of what motivates these anti-God worldviews, where their humanistic pursuits take them, and their tragic end results.

The theological foundation

Jesus provides a succinct explanation for why these worldviews and forms of governments hate Christianity when He says, “The world … hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil” (John 7:7). He speaks to the same thing earlier in the book of John: “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God” (John 3:19-21).

When you tell an adherent of one of these belief systems and their oppressive government that their actions or ideas are wrong, it produces an egocentric rage that quickly manifests in authoritarian actions that first move to silence such ‘hate speech’ and then go further to squash the persons themselves. The Bible says we shouldn’t be surprised at this kind of aggression because “the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot” (Rom. 8:7).

The natural outworking of this, from a governance standpoint, is the rejection and outlawing of liberties and freedoms (especially religious) of the general public. In rejecting God, tyrannical governments and their underlying worldviews suppress the fact that God is a free being, and since we are made in His likeness, we are also free beings who have innate freedoms that naturally flow to us from our Creator.

And for authoritarian governments, that just can’t be allowed.

The philosophical permission slips

Churchill once said that, “the empires of the future will be empires of the mind”.[1] By this he meant worldviews, ideologies, and belief systems power human actions and have consequences. Humanity always looks to some foundation of knowledge or learning to justify what it does, and when we look at the philosophies behind both Communism and Leftism, we find teachings that do everything in their power to reject Christian thinking.

As most know, the philosophy of Karl Marx gave birth to and supports the Communist philosophy. Marx thought religion was a mechanism of control used by society’s elite to manipulate the masses. But he went further to say, “Religion is the self-consciousness and the self-feeling of the man who has either not yet found himself, or else (having found himself) has lost himself once more. This state, this society, produce religion, a perverted world consciousness, because they are a perverted world. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people” (Marx’s original emphasis).[2]

While most understand Marxism, what’s not so well known is the philosophy of Leftist thinking. It was given birth to in 18th century France, with the origination of its mindset being cloaked beneath the cover of the Enlightenment and sheltered under seemingly reputable names like Rene Descartes, Sir Issac Newton, Sir Francis Bacon, and John Locke. Much like Marxism and Communism, it purported to use its philosophy to combat poverty and unfairness.

In truth, the actual set of principles powering Leftist thinking came from Voltaire, a French writer, historian, and philosopher who introduced the common argument against religion of ‘reason over superstition’. He and his lover (Émilie du Châtelet) concluded their formal examination of the Bible by saying it was nonsense. Voltaire and Émilie called Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount “trite, ridiculous, absurd” and His resurrection “comedy”.

Voltaire’s snide and caustic attitude are captured by British historian Thomas Babington Macaulay whose words not only portray the man but also define what is representative of the entire Leftist movement: “He could not build – he could only pull down; he was the very Vitruvius of ruin.”[3]

Other philosophers that aided Voltaire included Denis Diderot who provided a sneak peek into the Left’s use of violence with a quote that is commonly attributed to him: “Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.”[4] Beyond hostility, another attribute characterizing the origins of the Left was muddled thinking, which is represented well by Jean Jacques Rousseau who complained that people’s woes are the result of society, evidently overlooking the fact that societies are comprised of people.

The gods, priests, and prophets of Communism and the Left

It’s a historically verifiable fact that when you hold God’s funeral, someone will take His place. And that replacement is always one of us.

The deification of man that you see today in Communist governments like China and North Korea are nothing new. Look back to ancient Egypt, and you will find the pharaoh being thought divine and elevated above his subjects, who were expected to deliver nothing short of absolute obedience.

Then came other in-place-of-God rulers such as Alexander the Great, Antiochus IV Epiphanes (who assumed the name Theos Epiphanes or “God Manifest”) and various Roman Caesars like Domitian who demanded to be addressed as “Dominus et Deus” (Lord and God).

The interesting thing about emperor worship is noted by historian William Barclay who observed, “The extraordinary fact is that emperor worship was not imposed on the Roman Empire from above; it grew from below.” Romans populations, pleased with their fragile peace and economy, took things too far in the worship of their emperors not realizing the monster they were creating. The exact same thing happened in Nazi Germany.

As the gods of the ancient world had their own priests and prophets, the same is true today. Deified political despots have their enabling politburo members, senators, etc., that the people look to in hope that interventions will be made on their behalf to the current ruler. And the propaganda machines and mouthpieces of the media take the place of prophets with their aim being to serve and glorify their chosen monarch, bury any negative impressions, and proclaim new revelations and insight from on high.[5]

How does it start?

The inauguration of the Communist and Leftist gods, priests and prophets that make up oppressive governments is usually done in a manner that resembles the events that took place during the French revolution of 1789. The American Revolution of 1776, we should remember, was motivated by a faith-based view of humanity and desired freedom from governmental oppression. Its aim was to recognize freedom based on innate human worth, absolute truth, and a morality underpinned by Judeo-Christian values that contained checks and balances to prevent any abuse of power.

By contrast, the French Revolution of 1789 chased a different type of freedom – one that was characterized by the pursuit of absolute power and secularism that included a mob-driven and forceful de-Christianization campaign. Discarding God, it was typified by an untrustworthy moral fluidity that expunged the idea of religious moral boundaries and grounded its ethics in pragmatism and ever-changing right and wrong.

The horrifying end results

The outworking of the French Revolution (and others like them) reflect the worst of modern-day slasher films and bear witness to an important truth for those who participate in them: Communist and Leftist movements are cannibalistic in nature; i.e. they eat their own. Their actions personify what novelist Walter Jon Williams once said: “I’m not afraid of werewolves or vampires or haunted hotels. I’m afraid of what real human beings do to other real human beings.”[6]

The two primary weapons employed by these movements are the lie and violence. History has shown that the tongue of Communist and Leftist governments, and their enablers, is forked and patterned after their spiritual father: “Whenever he [the devil] speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Witness the current COVID-19 lies and coverup from Communist China as just one of countless examples.

In addition to falsehood, violence is another hallmark of Communism and the Left. Again, they mirror their spiritual father who is “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44).

While these oppressive worldviews have criminal records that wrap around the earth hundreds of times, a tired tactic they employ to take the spotlight off their bloody past is to accuse religion as being the real culprit behind the moral brutality that’s occurred down through history. The only problem with that claim is that it is 100% false.

It’s true that atrocities have been committed in the name of religion (e.g. ISIS, the Crusades, the Thirty Years’ War, etc.), but they barely register on history’s violence Geiger counter compared to the carnage and body count produced by secular governments. Historians Philip and Axelrod’s three-volume Encyclopedia of Wars shows that, of the 1,763 wars waged over the course of human history, only 123 of them have been religious in nature. [7] That amounts to an amazingly low 6.98% of all wars being the result of religion.

Further, when wars carried out in the name of Islam are subtracted, the percentage falls to 3.23%, meaning that all religions combined – minus Islam – have been responsible for less than 4% of all humanity’s wars and violent conflicts.[8]

The sobering fact that secular despotic governments account for over 93% of all violence and war in human history is summed up by political science professor R. J. Rummel this way in his book, Death by Government: “Almost 170 million men, women and children have been shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, crushed or worked to death; buried alive, drowned, hung, bombed or killed in any other of a myriad of ways governments have inflicted death on unarmed, helpless citizens and foreigners. The dead could conceivably be nearly 360 million people. It is though our species has been devastated by a modern Black Plague. And indeed it has, but a plague of Power, not germs.”[9]

Afraid but not afraid

So why do Communist and Leftist governments and their adherents hate Christianity? “The world . . . hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil” (John 7:7). “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:18-20).

Ironically, though, for all its hatred of Christian teaching, Marxist and Leftist philosophy end up abducting God’s first commandment of “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Ex. 20:3) and modifying it to be, “You shall not have God before me.”

This anti-God mandate along with today’s prevailing post-truth and anti-Christian thinking of Marxists and Leftists is something that has proven itself to be deadly. Their human condition is summarized well by political researchers Mark L Melcher and Stephen Soukup who speak to the birth of the Left in France: “Their atheism has left them with stunted moral values. Their utopianism has rendered them incapable of assessing the secondary and tertiary consequences of their actions. Their lifestyles provide us with the first glimpse into the sickness inherent in the nihilism that would come to be the progeny of their efforts. Finally, the petulance and outsized egos presage the terrible violence that awaits France.”[10]

However, even in the face of such promised violence and persecution, Christians such as those in China’s Early Rain Covenant Church continue their faithfulness to Jesus. They are afraid but yet not afraid, knowing that God remains sovereign over everything. Theirs is a realism that acknowledges the spiritual evil behind their Communist government’s actions but yet looks upward to pursue a purpose spoken to by their pastor, Wang Yi, before he was arrested:

“The goal of disobedience is not to change the world, but to testify of another world.”[11]

[1] https://www.quora.com/Winston-Churchill-once-said-that-the-empires-of-the-future-will-be-empires-of-the-mind-What-does-this-mean

[2] “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, Introduction,” in On Religion, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, tr. Reinhold Niebuhr (Chico, CA: Scholar’s Press, 1964), pp. 41-2.

[3] Thomas Babington Macaulay, Life of Frederick the Great (American Book Exchange, 1879), 143-4. Vitruvius was a Roman author, architect, civil engineer, and military engineer during the 1st century BC.

[4] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/53247-men-will-never-be-free-until-the-last-king-is

[5] One thing different in the current American media is the shift from news reporting to full biased, opinion-driven communication where, in a very real way, the media are actually trying to govern through their bullying tactics.

[6] https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/walter_jon_williams_250112

[7] http://goo.gl/i84f0

[8] For a PowerPoint presentation on this material, see: http://www.slideshare.net/schumacr/does-religion-cause-war.

[9] http://goo.gl/pDbMU

[10] Mark L Melcher and Stephen Soukup, Know Thine Enemy (Murrells Inlet, SC: 2018), Kindle Edition.

[11] Voice of the Martyrs magazine, March 2020, 7.

Robin Schumacher is a software executive and Christian apologist who has written many apologetic articles, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at various apologetic events. He holds a Master’s in Christian apologetics and a Ph.D. in New Testament.

Another Cure For AIDS

Source: Creation Moment Blog

We hear of the effort to find another cure for AIDS.

AIDS has become most famous among the numerous Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD’s). About 44 million people have died worldwide of AIDS, roughly 600,000 annually in recent years. In Africa, AIDS was the leading cause of death for 30-49-year-olds in 2019. Medical treatment for one infected person in the United States costs a whopping $20,000–$50,000 annually, and is required indefinitely for however long the rest of that person’s life lasts.

These facts can frighten a person. However, AIDS cannot come and suddenly get you like a drunk driver crossing the center line. In fact, unless you refuse the first cure, you cannot sexually acquire any disease. Someone may say, “I have heard of the terror of AIDS, but nothing of a cure. Is it some exotic thing?” You don’t hear a peep about the cure for AIDS in today’s secularized America because it comes from God. Romans 1:20-28 tells us the lost world is not thankful to God, does not acknowledge Him fully from the clear evidence of the creation, nor does it wish to retain Him in their knowledge.

So what is God’s cure for AIDS? Sexual purity: abstinence until marriage followed by lifelong monogamy with one’s spouse.

From Romans 1:20-28, because of deliberate repudiation of God, God “gave them up to uncleanness”, and to “vile affections”, and to “a reprobate mind”, “men… burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of the error which was meet.”

The Scripture clearly lays out the consequences of allowing lust to reign freely and outside of the design of our Holy Maker when it says “receiving in themselves”. And elsewhere there are warnings and guidance in Scripture for a sure cure for AIDS and other STD’s.

“Flee fornication…he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.” – 1 Corinthians 6:9-18

“Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found with child… Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.” – Matthew 1:18 & 19

“You shall not commit adultery.” – Exodus 20:14 & Deuteronomy 5:18

“The scribes and the Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery… Jesus said to her, ‘…go and sin no more’.” – John 8:3-11

God designed the sexual relationship to occur between one man and one woman for their lifetime. So we see Scripture forbidding sexual relations between unwed people (fornication) and married persons with someone besides their spouse (adultery).

Let’s look at the benefits of God’s cure for AIDS.

God’s cure for AIDS is 100% effective to protect a person and to destroy the very disease. Consider the way sexually transmitted diseases are spread. You have to sleep with more than one person to pass on an STD. If you do not sleep with more than one person, it is impossible to pass on an STD. A disease cannot perpetuate which never gets handed on between hosts that die of old age. If mankind obeyed its Creator’s design for the sexual relationship, not only would they not catch and give STDs, but there would be no such thing as an STD to catch.
God’s cure for AIDS is inexpensive; it is FREE. Yes, economic status, not even the most severe poverty, can keep God’s cure for AIDS out of any person’s grasp.
God’s cure for AIDS has complete availability. You don’t have to go to a country where regulations allow its use. You don’t have to locate the clinic. You don’t have to even travel 5 minutes to the corner pharmacy!
God’s cure for AIDS has zero detrimental side effects. This is amazing to the pharmaceutical world because people’s bodies are unique and react differently to a drug. Therefore, we hear the rambling list of potential side effects at the end of drug commercials. Often a person is taking secondary medication to counteract the side effects of a primary medicine. Not with God’s cure for AIDS; nobody will get a hole in their heart valve, diarrhea, or even a mild headache.
God’s cure for AIDS has huge beneficial side effects. Have you ever heard of a cure like this? God’s cure for AIDS also prevents Gonorrhea, Syphilis, Herpes, and Chlamydia. In fact, it is the cure for every single one of the 30+ sexually transmitted diseases of which AIDS is just a small percentage. But that’s not all. Chastity decreases divorce. Did you know that those who cohabit before marriage have a higher divorce rate? Sexual purity is also a hedge against murder. We have read how King David had Uriah killed to cover his adultery with Bathsheba. This is repeated over and over today. Two people have illicit sex, a pregnancy results, they murder the baby and pretend it never happened (over a million babies a year in the U.S.). God offers us a way to never have to be in that situation. Chastity removes shame and increases self-esteem. For the person interested in mental wellness, unhindered in happiness and productivity by worry and distraction, God’s plan for sexuality can’t be beat!

Does God love us or what?! When I think of the good things He gives us, it just makes me want to shout “Hallelujah!” – to give us such a great cure for AIDS, and like the gospel, it is free. Just as with freedom from eternal judgment, God made it so anyone is capable of being free from AIDS – simply by believing Him.

God has given this wonderful cure for AIDS because He loves us, not because He is a killjoy who wants to keep us from having fun (the same lie the devil says about smoking, drugs, or eating the fruit in the garden of Eden).

Why does the world reject a cure that sounds so great, and say there is no cure for AIDS? “Why do the nations rage… Against the Lord, and against His anointed?” – Psalm 2:1,2.

The unbelieving world’s response to Christ’s authority is told to us in the parable of Luke 19:14, “We will not have this man to reign over us”. All (aside from victims of rape, perinatal transmission, blood-to-blood contact, etc.) infected with STD’s, sadly, have rejected the 1^st cure from God. John 10:10 tells us that the devil, who deceived them into doing so, has murder as one of his only 3 motives – “steal and kill and destroy.” Whereas the same verse goes on to tell us the Lord Jesus came, that by Him we may “have life, and have it more abundantly!”

The endeavor for another, a second cure for AIDS marches on. Well over $200 billion has been spent globally on HIV/AIDS research, but no cure. Wow! What about a cure for the stubbornly rebellious human heart?

Thank God He is merciful, and as His offer of a cure for AIDS is still extended to us, so is His offer of the Savior Jesus Christ! Romans 5:8 tells us, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. The Old Testament speaks prophetically of life in the Savior: “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come, buy and eat, Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” – Isaiah 55:1

Bible Worldview

Posted by Glen Reidhaar

Glen Reidhaar is a contributor to Creation Moments. He holds a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Idaho (magna cum laude, Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society). He is a licensed Professional Engineer who has worked for more than three decades in aluminum smelting, semiconductor substrate, automotive, and laser printers. Glen is also an inventor, with 29 United States patents to date.

He accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior on May 12, 1996. Glen is on Answers in Genesis’ list of Modern Creation Scientists and is a 10-year volunteer at their Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky. He is a husband of over 28 years and a father of two boys. In his free time, Glen enjoys creating thought-provoking creation videos, which you can find on our audience-submitted videos page.

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Sin Triad

Sin will take you further than you want to go.

Sin will cost you more than you want to pay.

Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay.

Unknown Author

The Danger of Complacency

“I will search with lanterns in Jerusalem’s darkest corners to punish those who sit complacent in their sins. They think the LORD will do nothing to them, either good or bad.” Zephaniah 1:12

It’s been said that we become like the gods we worship. Whatever we continually behold, we consistently reflect. Some of God’s own children have so lost sight of His Majesty, power, and authority that they shrugged their shoulders and chose to live the way they so desired. They reduced God’s influence to that of a lifeless idol. Furthermore, they projected their own indifference onto him, thinking he cared very little as to whether people did right or wrong, as if he himself would never react to sin or respond to righteousness. The word complacent in this passage is akin to the process of curdling, thickening, or settling into. In other words, when we let go of our own conviction, and when we stop caring about sin (and worse yet, when we somehow think that God is on the same page), something destructive settles within us. Our faith curdles; our sin becomes like quicksand, and we shrug our shoulders over the consequences of it all. God will have none of it. He is not indifferent about anything. God will have none of it. Never confuse God’s patience with complacency. Sin has its consequences and righteousness has its rewards. If you know someone who is complacent in their sin, pray and fast for them. It’s no small thing to God. A day of reckoning is coming unless they wake up and repent.

Ask the Lord to show you if you’ve misjudged Him in any way.

Author: Susie Larson, Prevail, Day 214

Powerful warning! Let us be people of faith who fear (reverence) God.

Thank you for your time.

Carl

Who Will NOT Inherit the Kingdom of God

The Bible warns that in the last days many will be deceived by false prophets (preachers) and false teachers who proclaim another Jesus and another gospel besides the biblical Jesus and His Gospel. They will lead many to hell instead of heaven.

An example is found in a Christian Post article concerning the former president of Exodus International, a once-prominent Christian ministry that sought to help people with unwanted same-sex attraction. The ministry closed in 2013. He is quoted as saying:

“Someone’s relationship with Christ isn’t dependent on the things that they do or the behaviors that they’re involved in.”

And

“there are so many gay and lesbian people that I know, transgender people, bisexual people, you name it, who have a vibrant relationship with Christ and their sexual narrative doesn’t negate their righteousness or holiness.”

The following Scriptures are presented in love as a warning to show that these type of comments are deceptive and wrong. There are people who the Bible plainly teaches will not inherit the kingdom of God. This means they do not go to heaven but to eternal torment when they physically die. Do not be found among them. Flee to the real biblical Jesus who said, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Carl

Scriptures:

Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.

Lord Jesus – Matthew 10:32-33

But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time, and shall begin to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and shall cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; weeping shall be there and the gnashing of teeth.

Lord Jesus – Matthew 24:48-51

But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved.

Lord Jesus – Matthew 24:13

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior, ²⁰idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, ²¹envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:19-21

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral*, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate**, nor homosexuals***, ¹⁰nor thieves, nor the greedy****, nor those habitually drunk, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

*sexually immoral (pornos) is one who engages in sexual immorality (Moody), i.e. fornication, adultery, homosexual, lesbian, bestialities, abuse of children, etc.

**effeminate are “men who fill the sexual role of the female” in homosexual activity. (Moody)

***homosexuals means literally “males who take other males to bed”. (Moody)

****greedy: covetous, “those who would like to have more” and act unethically to get it.” (Moody) This person has made mammon his god and is an idolator.

I Corinthians 6:9-11

But sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints; ⁴and there must be no filthiness or foolish talk, or vulgar joking, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. ⁵For this you know with certainty, that no sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, which amounts to an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. ⁶See that no one deceives you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. ⁷Therefore do not become partners with them…

Ephesians 5:3-7

…when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels ⁸in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God, and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹These people will pay the penalty of eternal destruction,away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power…

2 Thessalonians 1:8-9

Therefore, treat the parts of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. ⁶For it is because of these things that the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, ⁷and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.

Colossians 3:5-7

For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; ⁴that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, ⁵not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; ⁶and that no one violate the rights and take advantage of his brother or sister in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you previously and solemnly warned you. ⁷For God has not called us for impurity, but in sanctification. ⁸Therefore, the one who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

I Thessalonians 4:3-8

Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him; and their time of punishment would be forever.

Psalm 81:15

There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, a soothsayer, one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, ¹¹or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who consults the dead. ¹²For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things [abominations] the Lord your God is going to drive them out before you. ¹³You are to be blameless before the Lord your God. ¹⁴For these nations, which you are going to dispossess, listen to soothsayers and diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.

Deuteronomy 18:10-14

The one who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. ⁸But for the cowardly, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and sexually immoral persons, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

…and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Revelation 21:8, 27

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life, and may enter the city by the gates. ¹⁵Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral persons, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.

Revelation 22:14-15

Conclusion : Jesus warned us that in the last days there would be much deception. Many in the attempt to justify their behavior before God have sought out false preachers who will tickle their ears by misinterpreting the Word of God or outright lying to justify their lifestyle. John, a disciple of Jesus, tells us very plainly about how we can tell we are deceived:

If we say that things in common we are having with Him [God], and thus fellowship, and in the sphere of the aforementioned darkness are habitually ordering our behavior, we are lying, and we are not doing the truth.

[In other words, the person is deceived and God does not approve of their behavior but condemns it and instead of fellowshipping with God, they are actually fellowshipping with a false Jesus/God who is a demon. ] Then John goes on to say:

But if within the sphere of the light we are habitually ordering our behavior as Himself is in the light, things in common and thus fellowship we [God and the believer] are having with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son keeps continually cleansing us from every sin.

I John 1:6-7 Wuest Expanded Translation

Following Scripture explains the Biblical standard concerning conduct.

Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. ⁵You know that He [Jesus] appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. ⁶No one who remains in Him sins continually; no one who sins continually has seen Him or knows Him. ⁷Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; ⁸the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹No one who has been born of God practices sin, because His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin continually, because he has been born of God. ¹⁰By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother and sister.

I John 3:4-10

Lord Jesus came to free us from our sins and purify us for Himself:

For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all people, ¹²instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and in a godly manner in the present age, ¹³looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of ^]our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, ¹⁴who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, eager for good deeds.

Titus 2:11-14

The next Scripture tells us how to be saved from our sins:

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, ⁹that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; ¹⁰for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. ¹¹For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.” ¹²For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; ¹³for “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Romans 10:8-12

If you see yourself in these Scriptures and realize that you are continuously practicing one or more of these sins and are subject to God’s wrath, repent (turn) from and confess your sins to God and call upon the Lord Jesus today to wash away your sins with His precious blood. He will save your soul delivering you from the wrath of God. He will give you His Holy Spirit to live in you. He, the Spirit of God, will teach you and empower you to become free from practicing sin and live a life pleasing to Him.

God is merciful to those who are repentant and contrite of heart. He will save you regardless of what you have done if you will confess your sins and ask Him to have mercy on you. Call out to Him today.

Carl

Notes:

All Scripture is from the New American Standard Bible (1977 Translation or later) unless otherwise indicated.

Xi Jinping’s CCP is rewriting the Bible

by Samuel Ben-Ur, Op-ed contributor – May 13, 2026

Christian Post

The Chinese Communist Party is rewriting the Bible.

As part of Xi Jinping’s “Sinicization of Christianity” campaign, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) plans to ensure Christianity in China is instilled with “core socialist values.” Pursuant to that effort, the CCP is currently working on its own translation of what it calls the “Chinese Christian Bible.” While it has yet to complete the project, the CCP has already given Christians a glimpse of what the world’s first communist Bible might look like.

In China, the Ten Commandments became nine, then six, then zero.

In 2018, mere months after Xi announced his “Five-Year Plan to Sinicize Christianity,” authorities forced a state-approved church in Henan Province to delete the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” The removal of arguably the single most important line of text not just for Christianity, but for all three Abrahamic faiths, is a strike against the very heart of religion.

Later that year, the government changed the curriculum of a Sunday school in Hong Kong, removing not just the first four Commandments, but all references to “the Lord.” The entire book of Genesis was also removed. In 2019, the CCP completed this progression and replaced the Ten Commandments wholesale with Xi Jinping quotes. Within the span of a year, “You shall have no god before me” became “Use Chinese Culture to permeate faith” and “follow the party.”

The CCP has also targeted John 8:3-11, among the most famous passages in the New Testament. In the original story, when the Pharisees bring Jesus a woman accused of adultery, he replies, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her.” He then forgives the woman.

A textbook published by China’s University of Electronic Science and Technology Press, a government-run school, changes the ending. After the Pharisees leave, Christ tells the woman “I too am a sinner. But if the law could only be executed by men without blemish, the law would be dead.” Jesus then personally stones her to death.

These stories reveal the true face of “Sinicization.” Xi seeks to transform the Gospel into banal communist diktats, where mercy is subsumed by oppressive lawfare and the Party is the only higher power.

The CCP is, of course, avowedly atheist, and essentially deifies former Chairman Mao Zedong, who banned all religion during his reign, from the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 to his death in 1976.

The CCP views Christians particularly with suspicion, due to perceived Western ties and the role of Christianity in the Taiping Rebellion of the 1850s, in which more than 20 million died.

Xi might similarly desire to ban Christianity, but Xi is not Mao and Xi’s China is not Mao’s China.

When Mao came to power, there were approximately four million Christians living in China. Since Mao’s death and China’s relative relaxation of religious restrictions, the Christian population has exploded. Xi presides over as many as 160 million Christians, though the exact number is opaque, as most worship in underground churches to avoid CCP oversight. If Christianity continues to grow at a steady rate, China may be the world’s largest Christian country by 2030.

Despite CCP propaganda glorifying Mao, the Party is not eager to repeat the insanity of the Cultural Revolution, which spanned from 1966 to 1976. That period brought societal turmoil and more than a million deaths. Coupled with the challenge of forcing disbelief on more than 100 million Christians, today’s CCP is likely unable and unwilling to enforce a zero-tolerance religious policy. Instead of suppressing Christianity, it has sought to adapt it to Chinese Communist ideology — developing Christianity into another propaganda mill for the CCP. Grasping Xi’s endgame is crucial to understanding the unique persecution Chinese Christians face.

Where other forms of Christian persecution are marked by bloodshed, such as in Nigeria, where Islamist terror groups routinely massacre Christians, China instead seeks to replace God with the Party. This is why, of all Christian teachings, the CCP first sought to remove the first of the Ten Commandments, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

Incidents such as these are merely the surface of what Xi’s “Sinicization” program entails.

China has instituted a bevy of religious restrictions since 2020, including loyalty tests for clergy, requiring the inclusion of Xi Jinping’s thought in seminary curricula, and a total ban on minors participating in religious activity.

Surveillance technology now permeates churches across China, monitoring sermons and building a database of Chinese Christians. Resistance to the implementation of surveillance devices can lead to beatings or disappearances for Christians who wish to maintain a degree of independence from the CCP. Authorities have ripped down thousands of crosses and replaced them with portraits of Xi. Churches that refuse to join China’s state-sponsored religious bodies have been targeted with increasing frequency in large-scale raids in which police lock up hundreds of worshipers.

As the Trump administration increasingly seeks to combat the oppression of Christians worldwide, Washington should mandate that the State Department’s International Religious Freedom process explicitly catalog altered biblical texts, approving committees, state-run publishers, and responsible officials. Those findings should be used to drive rolling Global Magnitsky sanctions and visa bans against those involved in clergy loyalty tests, church raids, and scripture rewriting.

The U.S. is the only country in the world that can bring to bear sufficient pressure on China to slow or even stop its corruption of the Christian faith. Standing up to Beijing is essential to any policy of defending persecuted Christians.

Originally published at Providence.

Samuel Ben-Ur is a research analyst focusing on Christian persecution at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

What is the Deceitfulness of Sin?

The writer of the Book of Hebrews in the Bible warns us of the following:

Take care, brothers and sisters, that there will not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another every day, as long as it is still called “today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Hebrews 3:12-13

Drawing from the history of the Jewish people, the writer exhorts us not to be like those who had unbelieving hearts, fell away from the living God and died in the wilderness.

The Holy Spirit is speaking through the writer to warn us about our heart [our inner man- who we truly are] becoming hard [unbelieving] toward God and His Word [the Bible] because of the deceitfulness of sin.

Here is some of the ways sin deceives us:

Offers False Promises of Pleasure – sin acts as bait, dangling immediate, fleeting satisfaction or gain while hiding the inevitable pain and ruin it produces.

Progressive Hardening of the Heart – sin dulls spiritual sensitivity over time, moving a person toward apathy, disobedience, and an inability to recognize evil.

Self-Deception – The Bible warns that our own hearts are deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9), prompting us to rationalize wrongful behavior and believe we can escape consequences.

Distortion of Truth – Sin mask itself as wisdom or enlightenment, just as it did in the Garden of Eden, causing us to doubt God’s word.

Misleading About God – It makes God’s commands seem unreasonable or restrictive, trying to make us believe that God is against our best interests.

Did you recognize any of sins deceptions? Unfortunately, I recognize them all. They have tricked me at times into forsaking church attendance, not reading/studying my Bible, not praying, being prideful and arrogant, thinking I’m special when I was just sinful, not loving my fellow Christian and the unbeliever, being consumed with my agenda and not God’s, lying, lusting, being rebellious, unloving, and stubborn….and I could go on all day.

What should we do if we find ourselves with a hard, unbelieving heart today? We need to confess our sins and pride to God the Father. He already knows our sins. He is not surprised by them. He has promised the following to His children:

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. I John 2: 1-2

and

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I John 1:9

In Proverbs there is a Scripture that says a righteous man falls seven times but he always gets back up. So if you find yourself convicted by this post, get back up, turn from your sins and confess them to God, receive God’s forgiveness, believe God’s Word, be led by the indwelling Holy Spirit and perform the good works God called you to.

Be a blessing and an encourager to someone who needs mercy and grace.

May He richly bless you in your obedience.

Carl

How Wealthy Are You?

…attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with persuasive arguments.” Colossians 2: 2-4

“In short, he says, “You are fabulously rich in Christ; and don’t you let anyone ever tell you otherwise.”

“Do you know how rich you are? The richest man is the one who understands truths the world’s greatest minds have never understood–that the wise and successful life is one focused on Christ. The richest woman is the one who grasps, that at the heart of all God’s plans for the future is, Jesus. We may read about CEOs on enormous salaries, but we are richer.

“Do not let anyone, inside or outside the church, tell you differently with “fine-sounding arguments” (v4). Do not be swayed by entertaining preachers who tell you that life is all about you and your happiness when it is really about Christ. Do not be charmed by highly qualified teachers who try to persuade you that Christ is anything less that the glorious divine being we met in Colossians 1: 15-20. As long as we hold on tight to this Jesus, then our faith will remain strong (v5). I pray that everyone, especially those I love, will never let go of Jesus. ” Journey Through Colossians and Philemon –Mike Raiter

Dear Reader the following Scriptures tell us who this Christ is:

“And He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities –all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church, and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” Colossians 1: 15-20

Do you know this Jesus? Are you fabulously rich because you understand who He is? Are you going to spend eternity with Him or do you have reservations somewhere else? I pray you are holding on to Him. If not, why not today?

Turn to Him, confess your sins and ask Him to forgive you. Then ask Him to be your Savior and Lord based on what He did for you on His cross where He took the guilt and penalty (death) for your sins and mine. You will never regret it.

Thank you for your precious time. May God’s blessings be on your life.

Carl

5 Short Points Concerning UFOs

All extraterrestrials are in for a big shock because at the end of time God says He is going to roll up the heavens like a scroll and create a new heaven and earth:

“And,
“THOU, LORD, IN THE BEGINNING DIDST LAY THE FOUNDATION OF THE EARTH,
AND THE HEAVENS ARE THE WORKS OF THY HANDS;

11THEY WILL PERISH, BUT THOU REMAINEST;
AND THEY ALL WILL BECOME OLD AS A GARMENT,

     12AND AS A MANTLE THOU WILT ROLL THEM UP;
            AS A GARMENT THEY WILL ALSO BE CHANGED.
            BUT THOU ART THE SAME,
            AND THY YEARS WILL NOT COME TO AN END.” (Hebrews 1:10-12)

and also:

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. 11Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. (II Peter 3:10-13 NASB)

and one more:

And I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. (Revelation 6: 12-14 NASB)

If there are other living beings on other planets, they are in for a big surprise when this happens. They and their “advanced civilization” are going to be rolled up and thrown away by God Almighty.

2. The strange creatures from outer space always use the latest technologies.

There is a story in Mormon folklore ( I am not Mormon) that tells of a popular man in a certain community passing away. Later one day while they are having a get together outside, a paddle-wheeler boat (latest technology at that time) comes by IN THE SKY and guess who is standing on the deck waving at everyone. You guessed it… the guy who had just died. So don’t be surprised at the fast moving planes or ships or objects. They are just using the latest technology to dazzle earthlings.

3. Space aliens will be blamed for the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of born again believers after the Rapture of the true Church has occurred.

The leaders of false, work based so-called Christian groups, such as the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, the Prophet of the Mormons plus the priest of the Hindus, Buddhist, and clerics of the Muslims, are going to need to blame someone when all the truly born again Protestants disappear in the twinkling of an eye. Their followers will clamor for an explanation. These leaders will say something like “The aliens came and got these rebels and removed them for the good of mankind.”

New spirituality believers and New Age adherents will consider the Rapture a fulfillment of what their Ascended Masters have been saying all along. These deceiving spirits are quoted as saying in channeled New Age books that those who reject their teaching will have to be dealt with or eliminated so their movement can spread and take over the earth. They will celebrate the UFOs removing these rebels from their communities.

The UFO deception will be put to good use to deceive the remaining people on earth after the Rapture.

4. Aliens are real and they are already among us.

But they are not from outer space. They are from our space. They are Satan and his demonic hordes that Jesus Christ conquered on the Cross of Calvary. You can read about Jesus Christ casting them out of people in the New Testament. His followers went forth doing the same before the Cross and after His resurrection.

When Jesus encountered people controlled by aliens (demons) the demons knew that He was the Son of God and that there was coming a day when they would be cast into a place of torment. We await that joyous day!

5. To understand how to deal with the aliens (demons) and their tactics, please read the New Testament.

You can actually read what the head alien Satan and his demonic followers said in the New Testament.

Thank you for allowing me to share these thoughts with you.

Blessed is the one who knows the true God!

Carl

The Big Difference

How does keeping of the Old Testament Law and walking in New Testament grace compare?

There is a big difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament when it comes to equipping the believer to live a God honoring life. The following saying illustrates this point.

Do this and live, the Old Testament Law demands, but gives neither feet or hands.

A better word the Gospel brings. It bids me fly and gives me wings.

Author Unknown

Born again believers get their “wings” by understanding the truths found in Paul’s letter to the Romans in chapter six through eight. God has given us a new nature and set us free from our old sinful nature and gave us His indwelling Holy Spirit. Now we can say “no” to sin and temptation and escape from the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Apostle Peter said the following about these truths in II Peter 1: 3-4 (Wuest Expanded Translation):

“Seeing that all things to us His divine power has generously given, the things which pertain to life and godliness, through the experiential knowledge [which the believer has] of the One who called us [into salvation] by means of His own glory and virtue, by means of which [glory and virtue] there have been generously given to us the precious and exceedingly great promises in order that through these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped by flight the corruption which is in the world in the sphere of passionate carvings.”

Today let us lay hold of these precious and exceedingly great promises the Father has made to us. As we do so, we can escape the corruption which we will face today in the the world in the sphere of passionate carvings.

May you conquer all temptations and snares today in the Name of Jesus!

Have a blessed day walking in the Spirit!

Carl

I fed 5 major religions into an AI engine. Here is the ‘winner.’

By Jay Atkins, Op-ed Contributor Monday, April 20, 2026

I recently did something that will likely make both my Christian and atheist friends a little uncomfortable: I asked a popular AI engine to evaluate the world’s major belief systems and tell me which one makes the most rational sense.

To be clear, I didn’t prompt it to favor Christianity. I didn’t ask leading questions or try to stack the deck. I asked it to analyze the heavyweights — Atheism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity — using a simple two-step framework: First, which worldview best explains reality, and second, which one does so while requiring the fewest unsupported assumptions? In other words, tell me which one has the highest explanatory power with the lowest evidentiary burden.

As a professing Christian for more than 40 years, what I got back should not have surprised me, yet it did. AI, in seconds, reached the same conclusion I’ve been working towards for decades: Christianity offers the most reasonable overall explanation of reality with the fewest leaps of faith.

Pause and let that settle in. AI ranked Christianity as the most reasonable view of the world.

The analysis I asked AI to do was not complicated, but it was comprehensive. I asked it to evaluate each worldview against the same basic questions:

1. Why does anything exist at all?
2. Why is the universe ordered and intelligible?
3. Why do humans possess consciousness and reason?
4. Are moral truths real or are they just social constructs?
5. Does human life have meaning or purpose?
6. Do the historical and fact claims of each belief system hold up?

I framed the analysis this way, not to pick a winner for rhetorical effect but to see which belief system actually holds together under the pure, rational scrutiny of a machine. When the analysis was done, here’s what happened.

Atheism scored well on simplicity. It doesn’t require belief in miracles or divine revelation. But that simplicity comes at a cost. It struggles to explain the biggest questions: why does the universe exist at all, why is it governed by rational laws, how does consciousness arise from mere matter, and why do we experience moral obligations as something real and binding? In many cases, it simply labels these things as either illusory or as “brute facts” and moves on, but it does not answer them.

Buddhism performed better as a practical system. It offers profound insight into human suffering and provides a quasi-workable path toward inner peace, but it largely sidesteps the deeper metaphysical questions. It gives advice on how to cope with reality, but not what reality ultimately is.

Hinduism fared about as well as Buddhism. It offers a sweeping explanation of reality with concepts like ultimate unity, karma, and reincarnation that attempt to account for both the material and spiritual world. That gives it significant explanatory depth, but with a big tradeoff. The system relies on a complex web of metaphysical claims that can’t be verified or falsified, creating a very high evidentiary burden relative to other worldviews.

Islam held together fairly well. It offers a strong account of God, morality, and purpose, which is understandable given its Abrahamic roots. But it runs into serious historical tension when it comes to the historicity of its claims about divine revelation to Muhammad, Jesus’ crucifixion, and correction of earlier traditions. Islam’s brand of retrospective revision carries a very heavy evidentiary burden that it simply can’t carry.

Christianity, by contrast, occupies a unique position. It offers a comprehensive explanation of reality, why the universe exists, why it is ordered, why we are rational and moral beings, and why we long for meaning. At the same time, it concentrates its evidentiary burden into a relatively small number of claims, most notably the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That matters because a worldview that explains everything but requires you to believe a thousand fragile claims is not rational. The most reasonable worldview is the one that explains the most while assuming the least. On that metric, Christianity wins.

Of course, I can hear my critics screaming right now, what about science? Isn’t Christianity fundamentally at odds with modern scientific understanding?

Not even close. In fact, one of the more interesting aspects of this exercise was how well Christianity aligns with what science has discovered. Take the Big Bang, for example. Modern cosmology tells us the universe had a beginning, a finite starting point for space, time, and matter. That is not what most ancient worldviews predicted. It is, however, exactly what the ancient Hebrews said God told them happened, and it is exactly what we would expect from a universe created by an omnipotent and transcendent God. “In the beginning God created …” is not bad for a book written thousands of years before modern physics.

Or consider the deeper assumptions that make science possible in the first place: the universe is orderly, the laws of nature are consistent and universal, and human reason is capable of understanding them. Those are not scientific conclusions. They are philosophical starting points. And historically, they emerged from the distinctly Christian view that creation reflects the rational mind of its Creator. Science and faith are not in conflict. If they appear to be, it’s a good sign you’re reading one of them incorrectly. The idea that Christianity is anti-science is not just wrong, it’s backwards.

Again, none of this “proves” Christianity is true. Faith is not the product of an algorithm, and salvation does not come through data analysis. These questions ultimately require personal engagement through study, reflection, and prayer. But this exercise does show something very important: Christianity is not a leap in the dark. It is not the abandonment of reason. It is not blind faith in ancient superstition. If anything, it’s the opposite.

For 2,000 years, serious Christian thinkers have argued that faith is grounded in reality, that it makes sense of the world as it actually is. Critics have long dismissed that claim as wishful thinking. Now, in AI, we have a new kind of tool, one that is relentlessly logical, culturally neutral (or so they say), and unimpressed by rhetoric, running the same analysis and arriving at a remarkably similar conclusion. That should at least give us pause.

There is a tendency among some Christians to view artificial intelligence with suspicion, as though it represents a threat to our faith. I don’t see it that way. AI is not a worldview. It doesn’t have beliefs. It doesn’t have a soul. It doesn’t even have opinions in the way we think of them. What it does have is the ability to process information and follow logic wherever it leads. If, as we believers profess, Christianity is true, if it really is grounded in the nature of reality itself, then that kind of analysis should not scare us. It should confirm what we’ve been saying all along. And in this case, it does.

AI is not going to answer the big questions for us, but it might help us see which answers make the most sense. For some skeptics, that might be a lifeline. And for that, we should be thankful.

By day Jay Atkins works as a Government Affairs attorney for a California-based technology company. By night he is a lay author and Christian apologist. He thinks and writes about proofs for faith and how they intersect, or should intersect, with public policy.

Source: Christian Post

Do Not Forget Any of His Benefits

Bless the Lord, my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
²Bless the Lord, my soul,
And do not forget any of His benefits;
³Who pardons all your guilt,
Who heals all your diseases;
⁴Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you with favor and compassion;
⁵Who satisfies your ^[a]years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

⁶The Lord performs ^[b]righteous deeds
And judgments for all who are oppressed.
⁷He made known His ways to Moses,
His deeds to the sons of Israel.
⁸The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in mercy.
⁹He will not always contend with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever.
¹⁰He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us according to our guilty deeds.
¹¹For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward those who ^[c]fear Him.
¹²As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our wrongdoings from us.
¹³Just as a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord has compassion on those who ^[d]fear Him.
¹⁴For He Himself knows ^[e]our form;
He is mindful that we are nothing but dust.

¹⁵As for man, his days are like grass;
Like a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
¹⁶When the wind has passed over it, it is no more,
And its place no longer knows about it.
¹⁷But the ^[f]mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting for those who ^[g]fear Him,
And His justice to the children’s children,
¹⁸To those who keep His covenant
And remember His precepts, so as to do them.

¹⁹The Lord has established His throne in the heavens,
And His ^[h]sovereignty rules over ^[i]all.
²⁰Bless the Lord, you His angels,
Mighty in strength, who perform His word,
Obeying the voice of His word!
²¹Bless the Lord, all you His ^[j]angels,
You who serve Him, doing His will.
²²Bless the Lord, all you works of His,
In all places of His dominion;
Bless the Lord, my soul!

(Psalm 103 – New American Standard Bible Translation, emphasis added)

Praise Him for all of His benefits! May we be like the early believers who were “…going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit… (Acts 9:31)

His blessings be upon all that love the Lord Jesus Christ.

Carl

(Scripture and footnotes from Bible Gateway)

Footnotes

Psalm 103:5 Or desire
Psalm 103:6 Or deeds of vindication
Psalm 103:11 Or revere
Psalm 103:13 Or revere
Psalm 103:14 I.e., what we are made of
Psalm 103:17 Or faithfulness
Psalm 103:17 Or revere
Psalm 103:19 Or kingdom
Psalm 103:19 I.e., the universe
Psalm 103:21 Lit hosts

“Dreaming” in Jude – A Warning Against Immorality

“Yet in the same manner these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh,…” Jude 8

Welcome back as we continue our study of the false teachers in Jude:

3. Our opening scripture means they indulged in what we would call pornography. “Dreaming” means metaphorically “to be beguiled with sensual images and carried away to an impious course of conduct” (Thayer). As a result they were defiling their physical bodies with acts of immorality.

The term “in the same manner” refers to verse 5 – 7 where it says:

Now I want to remind you, though you know everything once and for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶And angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling place, these He has kept in eternal restraints under darkness for the judgment of the great day, ⁷just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these angels indulged in sexual perversion and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

Jude compares the false teachers to the fallen angels who left heaven and committed fornication with the wicked women of the earth (Genesis 6) and to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah who committed “gross immorality” (NASB) or “fornication” (KJV). God has the fallen angels in prison for their sin TODAY awaiting the final judgment and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah are still “undergoing the punishment of eternal fire” TODAY. Both are held up as an “example” which means “something held up to view as a warning” (Wuest). Jude holds both of these exhibits up to the brethren as a warning that God will not be mocked, He will not be “outwitted or evaded”. These examples are still a warning to us today.

These false teachers, while claiming to be God’s spokesman, were participating in fornication and adultery. Not only them, but, as we will see, the Lord’s bond servants they deceived. God plainly reveals His will about sex outside of marriage and adultery in the New Testament:

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;…” (I Thessalonians 4:3-5)

May we heed His warning and keep ourselves from sexual immorality.

God bless you.

Carl

Understanding the Threat of Islamism to Christians and Western Values

The global surge of Islamist activity, marked by violent acts, protests, and religious tensions, has sparked significant concern for Christians and Western societies. From terrorist attacks in New Orleans and violent demonstrations in Europe to widespread grooming and abuse scandals in Britain and brutal persecution of Christians in Africa, these events reflect both historical patterns of conquest within Islam and the modern implications of Islamism. This escalating threat underscores the urgent need for vigilance, prayer, and support for persecuted Christians worldwide.

The rough start to 2025 did not start on January 1. On New Year’s Day, a U.S. Army veteran plowed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans in a terrorist attack done in the name of the Islamic State. A few hours later, pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked Sixth Avenue in New York, calling to globalize the intifada. Across the Atlantic, a report was released about Muslim “grooming gangs” preying on lower-class white girls in Britain, although “grooming” is too mild of a descriptor for what the report claimed.

Since 2000, 250,000 British girls have been drugged, sexually assaulted, and trafficked. Those who reported their assaults were blamed or ignored. Fathers who attempted to rescue their daughters were arrested. People who tried to expose this behavior were imprisoned. Apparently, officials were afraid of being labeled racist or being accused of inciting racial tensions. They were more fearful of being insensitive than protecting girls from sexual abuse and exploitation.

Across Europe, Christmas markets were attacked and disrupted by Muslim demonstrations. In many European cities, Muslims regularly pray publicly in areas in acts designed to cause maximum disturbance. This is something rare in actual Islamic nations and indicates the intent of Muslims to claim new territory as their own. On New Year’s Day, immigrants, mostly Muslim, rioted in Brussels, Berlin, and other cities.

Also, in what’s become a terrible tradition on holy days in Nigeria, Christians again suffered a series of murderous attacks over Christmas at the hands of Islamic Fulani herdsmen and ISIS-related groups. According to a report from Open Doors, at least 25 were killed, some while returning from a Christmas Day church service. 21 Christians were also killed in Christmastide attacks in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Most Muslims are peaceful and would condemn such attacks in the name of their faith. However, a significant percentage of Muslims are Islamists, and Islamists who believe that Islam is destined to rule the world often think that jihad is how this domination will happen. Islamism is not an aberrant form of Islam, as is often claimed. In view of the history of Islam, Islamists more closely reflect the life of Mohammed and the history of Islam than is often acknowledged.

Mohammed, a merchant turned religious leader turned warlord, initially attempted to convert the surrounding Arabs by preaching to them. When that failed, he turned to raiding and sought conversions by military conquest. As his power expanded and Mohammed’s raiding extended into Persia and the Byzantine Empire, he allowed his warriors to take non-Muslims as sex slaves, similar to what is happening today in Britain.

Mohammed’s successors also expanded Muslim territory by conquest. In fact, conquest is the primary means by which Islam has spread across the world. Some groups, like the Turks, converted to Islam to avoid slave raids. Others allied with the Caliphate for economic reasons or to obtain better military technology. In some areas, Muslims were welcomed as merchants and granted concessions until, when they were strong enough, the Muslims took over those regions. A recent parallel is Lebanon, once a majority Christian country until Palestinian refugees consolidated enough power to topple the government.

Muslims often claim that jihad does not mean “religious war” but rather “struggle” and that the “greater jihad,” according to the Qur’an, is the struggle to submit to the will of Allah. That is true according to the Qur’an, but in Islamic literature and history, jihad overwhelmingly refers to religious warfare. In principle, jihad as warfare is to be defensive. However, in practice, and according to Mohammad, anyone who is called but refuses to convert to Islam is a threat to the Islamic community and subject to jihad.

The early chapters of the Qur’an contain statements prohibiting coercion in religion, as well as positive statements about Christians and Jews. However, these statements are considered by Islamists to be abrogated by later statements prohibiting friendship with Christians and Jews. Included in these later passages are particularly vicious statements against the Jews. Historically, in Muslim countries, Christians and Jews were considered second-class citizens, with limited rights and increasing prohibitions on their behavior, often designed to humiliate them.

Many critics and scholars suggest that Islam needs a Reformation, like what happened in the sixteenth century within Christianity. Arguably, Islamism is that reformation, a return to the authoritative sources of Islam, a literal reading of the Qur’an, an embrace of Sharia law, and an emphasis on the personal example of Mohammad.

Clearly, the rise of Islamism around the world holds serious implications for Christians and the West. Even more, the implications are immediate for our persecuted brethren in Islamic countries and in borderland territories like Nigeria. Pray for these brothers and sisters in Christ living under Islamic rule.

By John Stonestreet – President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program.

Source: Christianity .com

From ‘Borderline Satanism’ to God Encounter: Former Lesbian Says Jesus ‘Completely Transformed’ Her

Talia Wise

Melanie Rivas’ joy for Jesus is contagious. In fact, a recent video about how God changed her life has gone viral on social media, garnering nearly 400,000 views.

Yet, just nine months ago, the 22-year-old was homeless, broke, and fleeing from an abusive same-sex relationship.

“My ex-wife stole all my money and locked me out of all of my accounts. So I had nothing,” she told CBN News.

Rivas says she was despondent and on the brink of suicide. However, a strange email notification led her to randomly purchase a Bible at a local Walmart. Rivas said that as she began to read the New Testament, the Spirit of God filled her car and her life was “completely transformed” in that moment.

Early Years

The Chicago native grew up in a Catholic home familiar with the traditions of the faith, such as baptism and communion. She shared, “It almost felt like a routine for me.” Rivas admits her relationship with Jesus was “like (a) procedure,” and devoid of any connection to Him.

She told CBN News that because she didn’t have a solid relationship with Christ, she was led by the wrong influences.

“I was just following the world, and I was super (impressionable), because I didn’t have Jesus,” she said. “When you don’t have Jesus as your anchor, like you’re just looking at what’s around and you want to be a part of it.”

“I go into this high school where they’re telling me that it’s actually weird that I’m not homosexual,” she shared, explaining that was when she began “entertaining homosexual relationships.”

With little guidance and direction, Rivas also began to experiment with drugs.

“I was in a rebellious state too,” she recalled. “I started doing a bunch of drugs. That’s when I got into weed, and then weed turned into acid and then acid turned into shrooms, and then it turned into cocaine. And I’m doing this as a high-schooler!”

Rivas said she also struggled with depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. All of that was exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the height of lockdowns, social distancing, and isolation, she turned to TikTok.

As CBN News reported, the popular social media platform known for quick videos, one-minute dance challenges, and viral trends, became a big hub for witches and warlocks around the pandemic.

Videos with the hashtag #WitchTok had amassed more than 30 billion views and made it easier for would-be witches or those interested in the occult to learn more about it, according to a 2022 BBC report.

Rivas was one of its viewers. “Like I said, for a teenager who doesn’t have Jesus, the culture impacts you so much. So it’s almost like being a witch was cool,” she recalled. “I didn’t think of it as like a witch, like a warlock or something like that. I just thought it was cute.”

The young woman explained that she began to go deeper into witchcraft after she met a girl who worshipped the “idol of death.”

“We’re all created to worship God,” she pointed out. “That’s literally why we’re created to have a personal relationship with Him. But when you don’t have that relationship with (Jesus), you look to worship other things. Like you’re so open to it. I was searching for that missing aspect of my life.”

“I’m sitting there worshiping death. And it’s borderline Satanism,” she added.

The 22-year-old said she eventually married that girl, but the relationship was “very controlling and very toxic.”

Rivas said that the woman convinced her to join OnlyFans. The subscription-based platform is widely recognized for its explicit content. Rivas said she joined just before the platform became popular, but she quickly found herself “deep in the rabbit hole.”

Finding Jesus

Rivas shared that things in her life went from bad to worse overnight.

“(My former relationship) got to the point where we had a really bad fight. It ended with the marriage certificate being ripped in my face, my clothes were in trash bags outside, and I was getting kicked out,” she recalled. “In a single day, I lost my home, I lost the person I thought I was going to be with for the rest of my life and I lost my way of getting income…I ended up sleeping in my car.”

Rivas recounts that she spiraled into a depression. “I even tried therapy, and the therapy didn’t work, but the therapist did give me antidepressants.”

The artist said she began to be tormented by thoughts of committing suicide.

“I remember getting to a point where I thought I had tried everything. I tried drugs. I tried spiritual spells… like all this stuff. Nothing worked. I even tried therapy, and the therapy didn’t work. And so I was like, you know what? Like, I am so done with life. I don’t want to be here anymore. And so I ended up planning (to take) my life.”

Rivas remembers sitting in her car with a bottle of pills in her hand. She then made a decision that would change the trajectory of her life – she checked her email.

“I got this weird email from like a horoscope email, and it said, ‘You need to go get a book right now,'” she recalled, adding that she felt deep in her heart to go to the nearest store.

“I had a Walmart two minutes away from me, and I was like, okay, I’ll go,” Rivas said. With five dollars to her name, she perused the book aisle.

“My ex-wife stole all my money and locked me out of all of my accounts. So I had, I had nothing. And so I went to the book section, and there were all these (expensive) books,” she told CBN News. “They’re (books) that are $50, $60. I thought this was pointless.”

“And then I keep looking, and there’s one book, and it’s one dollar, not a $1.50, just a plain dollar,” she said. “It’s the New Testament Bible. And I remember looking at it and was like, ‘You can’t even get a candy bar for a dollar.'”

Rivas says she was shocked and intrigued by her find. She purchased the book, went back to her car, and sobbed as she read the Bible.

“As soon as I opened it…I don’t even know how to explain it. It was like I got this warm feeling in my body,” she said. “I genuinely felt the Holy Spirit.”

Rivas describes feeling God’s love for her, His compassion for her, but also a sense of sadness for how she was living.

“I felt His mourning for me…like He has seen me try and live this life alone…like He’s just been missing me.”

A Voice to Her Generation

It was an encounter with God that has impacted her. Rivas says she has fully surrendered her life to Him and now spends her time proclaiming the Gospel message on social media.

“I got baptized, and that was nine months ago,” she said, adding that God has called her to make an Instagram account to share what He has done for her.

“He’s grown it in like seven months from zero to 78,000 followers. And that’s all Him,” Rivas expressed. “I just proclaim Jesus everywhere I go.”

Her message has been getting out to the masses. Recently, Lila Rose, the president of Live Action, shared one of Rivas’ videos to her social media page, and it has gotten nearly 400,000 views.

Rivas says she will continue to share her story because it reveals “how merciful and how abundant our Father is.”

She is encouraging GenZ to turn to God because a world that promises answers in drugs, sex, and alcohol can only give you destruction in return. Rivas says true peace comes from Jesus alone. She says she hopes her story will help someone open their heart to Him.

“He’ll completely transform your life,” she said.

Source: CBN News

Atheist Filmmaker Abandons Unbelief For Jesus

Please visit the following link for a true fascinating journey of an atheistic filmmaker who finally finds salvation in Jesus Christ. God bless you and yours. Carl

www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2026/january/atheist-filmmaker-abandons-unbelief-for-jesus

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The theological foundation

The philosophical permission slips

The gods, priests, and prophets of Communism and the Left

How does it start?

The horrifying end results

Afraid but not afraid

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Posted by Glen Reidhaar

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Footnotes

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