1Peter 4:12-14 “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
Important Takeaways:
- Open Doors World Watch List: 360 Million Christians Are Now Suffering Extreme Persecution
- More than 360 million Christians around the world suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith, according to Open Doors’ 2023 World Watch List
- “In 1993, Christians faced high to extreme levels of persecution in 40 countries,” the report says. “This number has nearly doubled to 76 countries in 2023. In the top 50 alone, 312 million Christians now face very high or extreme levels.”
- During 2022, according to the report, 5,621 Christians worldwide were killed for their faith, with 90% of these killings occurring in Nigeria.
- Between 2011 and 2021, the terrorist groups Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) murdered more than 40,000 Christians in Nigeria, in addition to thousands more killed by Muslim Fulani herdsmen
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1 Thessalonians 5:1-5 KJV – “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.”
Important Takeaways:
- A Watershed Moment In The Moral State Of Our Rapidly Depraving And Godless Culture
- …Congress passed legislation that codified same-sex marriage as the law of the land, certifying the 2015 Supreme Court ruling Obergefell v. Hodges that had already sanctioned same-sex marriages. Joining the Democrats in the Senate were 12 so-called conservative Republican senators whose votes gave the bill the 60 it needed to move it to the House, where it was easily passed by the Democratic majority.
- The deceptively and deceitfully named Respect for Marriage Act is anything but that. The senators rejected an amendment proposed by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah that used stronger language to protect the religious liberty of people of faith. As the law is written, it could threaten churches, Christian institutions and individuals who hold to the traditional, Biblical view of marriage between one man and one woman.
- As this calamity unfolded, the once-solid bastion of traditional family entertainment Walt Disney was unveiling an animated movie featuring gay characters, and this on the heels of another popular animation that featured a gay kiss that was originally cut from the movie, but then restored after pressure from the LGBTQ lobby.
- The psalmist asked this pressing question long ago: “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3).
- First and foremost, the righteous can pray more fervently than we ever have. We all know that the Scripture exhorts us to pray for our leaders, but I wonder how seriously we take it.
- Second, the righteous can pursue personal holiness and purity in our own lives and witness.
- Third, the righteous can work in God’s strength to make a difference in our communities, schools and local governments. Christians can run for office. Many have been elected to school boards where they bring a badly needed godly influence. We can work to help elect officials whom we know are aligned with godly principles. We are not to sit on the sidelines, but do all we can to fight and stem the rising tide of godlessness. Evil must be resisted, not yielded to… we must stay in the fight regardless.
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2 Timothy 3:6,7 “They are the kind who worm their way into households and captivate vulnerable women who are weighed down with sins and led astray by various passions, 7who are always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
Important Takeaways:
- Are the Biblical End Times Upon Us?
- The Pew Research Center recently unveiled data showing 58% of Americans said “No” when asked, “Do you believe we are living in the end times?”
- But while a majority rejected such a notion, nearly four-in-10 Americans (39%) do believe humanity is living in the end of days. That number is unsurprisingly higher among Christians, with 47% of believers answering affirmatively.
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Jeremiah 15:6 ““You who have forsaken Me,” declares the Lord, “You keep going backward. So I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I am tired of relenting!
Important Takeaways:
- England No Longer a Christian Nation as Atheism and Islam Make Gains – Census
- England and Wales have lost their status as majority-Christian nations, with only 46.3 per cent of the population of England reporting themselves as being Christian, while only 43.6 per cent of the Welsh population now describe themselves as being adherents to a denomination of Christianity.
- It is the first time the total percentage of the population who are Christian has dropped below the 50 per cent mark in modern history, and most likely since the British isles were converted and moved away from Paganism 1,300 years ago
- Meanwhile, the percentage of people saying that they have “no religion” in both nations has spiked significantly to over 37 per cent
- Islam saw the next largest overall increase, growing in number from 2.7 million to 3.9 million in the decade, a rise of 44 per cent in ten years. In all, Muslims now account for 6.5 per cent of ordinary residents of England and Wales
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Matthew 5:10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
Important Takeaways:
- ‘Stop Killing Christians’: Biden Admin Hit with Massive Petition Over ‘Puzzling’ Handling of Persecution in Nigeria
- The Biden administration removed Nigeria last year from the U.S. State Department’s Countries of Particular Concern list, sparking rebuke and concern from persecution watchdogs.
- “In the same year, Islamic terrorists, militants, and other extremists killed 4,650 Christians in Nigeria! It is not right for America to leave these Christians behind. We must stop the killing.”
- This year more than 33,000 people have signed a petition imploring President Joe Biden to reinstate the African nation to an important persecution watchlist.
- “The entire north of the country of Nigeria operates under shariah law,” Curry said. “There are extremist groups [like Boko Haram]. The ideology is the same. They target Christians because of their faith … they’ll attack entire villages.”
- Open Doors USA’s 2022 World Watch List ranks Nigeria as the seventh most dangerous place in the world to live as a Christian.
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Matthew 5:10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
Important Takeaways:
- ‘On the Very Edge of Extinction’: Iraqi Archbishop’s Dire Warning About Christian Persecution, Violence
- The Most Rev. Bashar Warda, the Archbishop of Erbil, told hundreds of religious leaders gathered for the G20 Religion Forum in Bali, Indonesia, he’s fearful for the state of believers in his nation.
- Christianity in his war-torn country is “on the very edge of extinction.”
- “The brutal logic of this is that there does eventually reach an end point where there are no minorities left to kill, and no minorities left to persecute,” Warda said. “Such is the bleak future of religious pluralism in Iraq today.”
- He continued, “I pray that you will find in our story a clear warning to you all.”
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1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Important Takeaways:
- For some Christians, ‘rapture anxiety’ can take a lifetime to heal
- “This is a real thing. It’s a chronic problem,” he says of rapture anxiety. “This is a new area of study, but in general, our research has revealed that religious trauma leads to an increase of anxiety, depression, paranoia and even some OCD-like behaviors: ‘I need to say this prayer of salvation so many times,’ ‘I need to confess my sins so often.’”
- “Now imagine,” he continues, “You are taught that at any minute, you could be left here on Earth. What does that do to the teenager who just had premarital sex, or even simply took the Lord’s name in vain?”
- Slade says suffering in silence, and the threat of losing one’s entire community, compounds religious trauma
- It can also lead people to redefine their faith, or abandon it altogether. The number of Americans identifying as Christian has been steadily dropping for years. A 2022 Pew Research Survey estimates about 64% of Americans identify as Christians, but that number could drop below half by 2070 – and could be surpassed by a majority population with no religious affiliation.
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1 Timothy 4:1 “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons” Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Important Takeaways:
- Why Are Witchcraft, Ouija Boards, Tarot, Horoscopes, and the Occult Raging? Experts Deliver Convicting Reality
- “The fascination with evil in society right now — they’re turning to the wrong side.”
- Jareb and Petra Knott are coauthors of the book “The Science of Deliverance: How Spiritual Freedom Brings Physical Healing”
- Petra said fear is another factor that leads people toward these practices.
- “Witchcraft gives people the illusion of control in their life, and so there’s a huge pull to witchcraft because people feel like they can do the right things and cause their life to be better,”
- “And then the church … has been reticent to talk about these things, so we’ve left a void, and now we’ve got people who go to the church and ask questions, and they’re not getting answers.”
- “[They’ll say], ‘I’ve done horoscopes, I’ve done séances, I’ve done Ouija boards, I’ve done, you know everything under the sun … but I’ve never done any witchcraft,’” she said. “It’s because they don’t have the understanding that all of those things aren’t fun and games; they are witchcraft.”
- “Many facets of our society and our media culture are just putting in little tidbits of friendly witchcraft,”
- When individuals are finding solace in the occult and not in Christ, he said it’s an issue for the church
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Luke 8:13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.
Important Takeaways:
- Christians could be U.S. minority by 2070, Pew Research study finds
- Pew study, titled “Modeling the Future of Religion in America.”
- If current “religious switching” trends continue, as many as 52% of Americans will likely be non-religious and 35% will likely be Christian in 48 years, the Pew Research group said Tuesday.
- Researchers described religious switching as changing one’s identity from one faith to another or none, and stressed that their findings represent “only possibilities” for religious change in America, not “predictions of what will happen.”
- In the early 1990s, “about 90% of Americans identified as Christians” but a “steadily shrinking share” of those raised as Christians have retained their faith into adulthood, Pew said. By contrast, a growing number of Americans say they’ve shed their early identity, as noted by the 2020 survey.
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- How Should Christians Respond When History Is Being Rewritten or Even Deleted?
- “Who controls the past controls the future” said George Orwell
- Arthur Schlesinger, a historian and former confidant to President John F. Kennedy observed: “History is to the nation much as memory is to the individual…
- Milan Kundera, a well-known Czech writer and historian who opposed the Soviet takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1968 said… ‘The first step in liquidating a people’ he said, ‘is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture and its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will forget what it is and what it was’.
- The secularists are insisting that we turn a corner so that we lose sight of the Judeo-Christian influence of our past, and if we do choose to look back they want us to see our religious history as a blotch, not a blessing. They want us to substitute their worldview in the place of our historic religious roots, knowing that if we lose our history we will lose our future – a future they wish to control.
- Our calling and privilege is to represent Christ in this turbulent moment in history. This is not a time for us to deny the negative parts of our history and paint a picture that ignores the sins and racism of the past: we can learn from history without having to destroy it. How many children will receive a better education in our schools should monuments be destroyed? These monuments are a part of our history and should serve as teaching opportunities that both warn and instruct us: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11.3).
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