Iran's Stock of Near-bomb-grade Uranium Grows

Iran continues to push toward having the capability of a nuclear bomb, regardless of whether they are willing to admit it or not. Iran's stock of uranium enriched to near weapons grade has grown sharply since it announced a dramatic acceleration in December and there has been no progress on resolving outstanding issues, two reports by the UN nuclear watchdog showed. The stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile purity, close to the roughly 90% of bomb-grade, has been a long-standing concern for Western powers, which say there is no civil justification for enriching uranium to such a high level. Iran says it seeks only peaceful nuclear energy. While US President Donald Trump's administration has said it plans to pressure Iran over its nuclear program, the International Atomic Energy Agency has said time is running out for diplomacy to impose new restrictions on Iran's activities. If Iran is able to get a nuclear bomb, it will dramatically change the negotiating abilities throughout the Middle East, as other nations will no longer be able to simply push Iran to negotiate once they are a nuclear power.

 Two quarterly reports sent by the IAEA to member states showed that while the stock of 60% material has grown by around half, there has been no real progress on resolving long-running outstanding issues with Iran including the unexplained presence of uranium traces found at undeclared sites. "The significantly increased production and accumulation of high enriched uranium by Iran, the only non-nuclear weapon state to produce such nuclear material, is of serious concern," the IAEA said in a passage that, unusually, was included in both reports.

 The stock of uranium refined to up to 60% in the form of uranium hexafluoride grew by 92.5 kg in the past quarter to 274.8 kg, one of two confidential IAEA reports said. That is enough in principle, if enriched further, for six nuclear bombs, according to an IAEA yardstick. There is enough for more weapons at lower enrichment levels. When one combines these types of uranium and nuclear warhead type developments with Iran’s increases in things like ballistic missiles and drones, it could lead to serious problems in the Middle East in the future.  

 One of the reports also spelled out the lack of progress on the outstanding issues such as explaining the uranium traces, which the IAEA has been asking the Islamic Republic to do for years. "Iran states that it has declared all of the nuclear material, activities and locations required under its Safeguards Agreement. This is inconsistent with the Agency's assessments of the unexplained nuclear-related activities that took place at all four of the undeclared locations in Iran referred to above," the report said. "The Agency is, therefore, at an impasse with regard to resolving these outstanding safeguards issues."

 Biblical Connection: Iran’s continual push toward nuclear bombs plays a significant role in Biblical prophecy. First, Iran’s ability to get nuclear weapons could embolden them in their desire to destroy Israel. If they have the ability to launch nuclear attacks, it will be much harder for other nations, like the United States or Europe, to get them to back down if they truly want to attack Israel, like the Gog Magog war of Ezekiel 38-39. Second, the increase of nuclear weapons as a whole, not just with Iran but globally, could have lasting impact into the future Tribulation. Many see some of the judgments in the Tribulation as potential nuclear war and the fallout that would occur after.

 PRAY: Pray that this push by Iran to become a nuclear power will be stopped and that the push for more and more nuclear weapons globally will end.

What is Going to Happen with Gaza?

President Donald Trump vowed the U.S. would “take over” the Gaza Strip, reconstructing and developing the coastal enclave into “the Riviera of the Middle East” while moving part of its population to other countries. The comments that shattered several decades-old, accepted outlines of Middle East policy came during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House, making him the first foreign leader to visit the U.S. president since his inauguration.

 Trump began his unprecedented comments while speaking with reporters before a planned closed-door meeting, reiterating that he sees the Gaza Strip as a “demolition site” that is inhabitable at the moment. “There’s hardly a building standing. And the ones that are, are going to collapse. You can’t live in Gaza right now. I think we need another location, a location that’s going to make people happy.”

 The president noted that the reality in Gaza currently is “all death. … This has been happening for years. If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people permanently in nice homes, and then they can be happy enough … I believe we can do it in areas where leaders currently say no,” he added. Addressing how the people would be moved if they refused to do so, Trump noted that if Gazans were presented with an alternative, “they’d much rather not go back.” “Why would they want to return? That place has been hell,” the U.S. president emphasized.

 Five Arab countries and the Palestinian Authority expressed their opposition to the resettlement of Gaza’s population in a letter. Despite this, Trump said all the population should be resettled “in areas where they can live a beautiful life.” They could be moved to Jordan or Egypt, or “it could be other countries,” he added.

 While Israel’s far-right parties immediately celebrated Trump's comments, the U.S. leader said he wouldn’t support the reconstruction of Israeli settlements in the area. “I don’t see it happening. It’s too dangerous for people. No one wants to be there. Their warriors don’t want to be there,” he said. After the closed-door meeting, Trump and Netanyahu emerged for a press conference, with Trump topping his already shocking comments by declaring that the U.S. would “take over” the Gaza Strip for the foreseeable future.

 The president said the meeting centered on the future of the Gaza Strip, before dropping the bombshell: “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too.” He added that the U.S. would dispose of the unexploded ordnance, level the ruins, and rebuild the area creating jobs and housing. Trump declared it was time to “do something different … if you go back, it’s going to end up the same it has for a hundred years. I do see a long-term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East, and maybe the entire Middle East.”

 The president stressed that he studied the issue “very closely” for months, asserting that everyone he spoke to “loves the idea of the U.S. owning that land.” After reconstruction, the former symbol of “death and destruction” would be an “international, unbelievable place,” where people from around the world will be able to live. “Palestinians, also,” Trump said. "Palestinians will live there. Many people will live there. But they've tried the other, and they've tried it for decades and decades and decades. It's not going to work. It didn't work, it will never work.”

 Despite his comments on the issue, the president did not specify whether U.S. troops would be involved in the plan, what would happen if the population refused to move, or if the neighboring Arab states continued their refusal to accept Gazan refugees. In his speech following Trump’s statement, Netanyahu didn’t directly endorse the president’s plan, which would have been seen as radical even within Israeli politics. The prime minister lauded Trump’s “willingness to puncture conventional thinking.”

 PRAY: Pray that the situation in Gaza will be fixed, and peace will be established throughout the region.

Pushing to Eliminate Christianity from the Public Square

A Virginia realtor and Christian minister has been found guilty by an ethics panel after he quoted Bible verses on social media. Wilson Fauber, 70, a longtime realtor with over four decades in the industry, was found in violation of National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) Code of Ethics, which prohibits realtors from using “harassing speech, hate speech, epithets, or slurs” related to “race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity.” The posts in question, which were made years before the NAR’s adoption of the rule in 2020, included Fauber’s views on marriage and human sexuality according to traditional Christian teachings, attorneys said.

In a statement released through his attorneys at the Founding Freedoms Law Center (FFLC), Fauber said: “In 44 years as a realtor, I have loved and served all people. Regularly, I hear from other faith-based realtors that live in fear of being similarly prosecuted for their faith, and potentially losing their livelihoods, if they don’t hide their faith well enough.”

The controversy began when Fauber ran for Staunton City Council in 2023. Opponents of his campaign uncovered several social media posts from years earlier, including a 2015 post in which Fauber shared his Christian views on marriage, particularly in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s consideration of same-sex marriage. At the time, Fauber had posted a Bible-based perspective on the issue, sharing thoughts from the Rev. Franklin Graham and other Christian leaders.

Earlier this year, Fauber’s social media posts became the subject of a complaint lodged with the Virginia Association of Realtors (VAR) over the purported violation of NAR’s code of ethics. Sylvester expressed disappointment that the VAR didn’t dismiss the complaint as “frivolous,” but rather “issued a statement a few months afterward in April saying that if the allegations are true, then Wilson might have violated this new hate speech rule.” The posts, which Fauber shared as part of his personal ministry, went unnoticed until two fellow realtors, who Fauber had never met, filed formal ethics complaints against him. The complaints alleged that his posts violated NAR’s vague “hate speech” rule. The VAR panel determined that Fauber’s views on marriage and sexuality, expressed through Bible verses and Christian doctrine, violated NAR’s Standard of Practice 10-5.

One of the two men who filed the original complaint with the VAR is reportedly an “openly gay man.” Complainants are not typically identified publicly in real estate ethics complaints. Fauber’s attorney, Michael Sylvester, said they are “obviously disappointed” by the decision and are “considering all legal options.” “The way the NAR rule is being applied, the message is simple: Bible-believing Christian realtors must be silent,” Sylvester added.

In a Facebook postdated shortly after the panel’s decision, Fauber responded to the NAR policy, writing, “It is appropriate to not bring up one’s ‘religious’ views while working with clients. It is altogether different when a minister cannot express his/her faith on their personal social media in the privacy of their home. The NAR policy is not limited to working with clients, it applies to the realtors’ life 24/7! The cancel culture police are always watching!”

Fauber, an ordained minister, said the NAR policy potentially “also applies to any realtor reading certain scriptures in church!”

Biblical Connections: Secularists for years have argued that they were only trying to “keep religion out of the workplace”, etc. However, now that their goal has been largely accomplished in many parts of the Western world, they are now pushing to eliminate Christianity from the public square entirely, even in one’s private life.

PRAY: Pray this constant attack on Christianity in every aspect of life will be stopped, and religious freedom will once again be allowed.

Court’s Actions Against Israel Cause Concern

Politicians and faith leaders are raising concerns after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant last November for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant over its military offensive in Gaza. The International Criminal Court, a supranational organization tasked with “trying individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression,” released a statement announcing that it issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu over “crimes against humanity and war crimes” that purportedly took place between Oct. 8, 2023 and May 20, 2024. The time covered by the warrant overlaps with the conflicts that have erupted after the terrorist organization Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, launched a deadly invasion in Southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says that over 44,000 people have died in Gaza since Israel’s military offensive began, a tally that doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. The Israeli government has long accused Hamas of using citizens as human shields. The warrant alleges that both Netanyahu and Gallant engaged in “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”

According to the Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC that issued the warrant, there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant “each bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.” “The Chamber considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity, from at least 8 October 2023 to 20 May 2024,” the warrant stated. “The finding is based on the role of Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant in impeding humanitarian aid in violation of international humanitarian law and their failure to facilitate relief by all means at its disposal.”

The warrant maintains that the actions of Netanyahu and Gallant caused the “disruption of the ability of humanitarian organizations to provide food and other essential goods to the population in need in Gaza.” “The aforementioned restrictions together with cutting off electricity and reducing fuel supply also had a severe impact on the availability of water in Gaza and the ability of hospitals to provide medical care,” the document states. The warrant characterizes Israel’s military action as “calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the civilian population in Gaza.” While the chamber stopped short of charging Netanyahu and Gallant for “the crime against humanity of extermination,” the warrant alleges that they committed “the crime against humanity of murder.”

The arrest warrant drew intense reactions from politicians on both sides of the aisle, faith leaders and advocacy organizations. The Rev. Johnnie Moore, founder of the Congress of Christian Leaders, issued a statement on X calling on the U.S. Congress to “take action against the corrupt ICC.” “This actually has little to do with Netanyahu or Gallant,” wrote Moore, an Evangelical public relations executive who had strong ties to the first Donald Trump administration and was a former commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. “It is about the profound corruption of our international institutions (some should not exist at all),” he added.

Biblical Connections: While accountability for leaders needs to exist and is a biblical concept, this accountability clearly seems to be based upon antisemitism, similar to the types of things seen throughout the Old and even into the New Testament with people like Pharaoh, Haman and Nero.

PRAY: Pray for the nation of Israel and their leadership as they continue to be attacked, both militarily and politically.

Bible Removed from Texas School District

The head of a Texas school district says the Bible had to be removed from school libraries because of a new state law prohibiting explicit books. Canyon Independent School District Superintendent Darryl Flusche announced in an email that under House Bill 900, which was passed by the Texas Legislature in 2023 protecting schools from sexually explicit or vulgar content, the Holy Bible is unsuitable due to "sexually explicit material." In an email to concerned parents, Flusche stated the full text of the Bible had been removed because it was categorized under this mandate, even though portions of the Bible remain available in the district's libraries.

 Flusche's statement cited the law's section defining "sexually explicit material" as "any communication, language, or material" that describes or depicts sexual conduct in a manner that is "patently offensive" under the Texas Penal Code. Noting that there are 30 titles available in the library at Canyon Jr. High that are "Bible stories or portions of the Bible," Flusche also cited the school's "strong connections with local churches that [would be] happy to donate a Bible upon request. "We are more than willing to assist a student who would like access to a Bible by arranging this from one of our partnering churches," he added. Flusche concluded the email by urging parents to contact their state legislators about HB 900.

 The email sparked outrage from local parents, with many expressing disbelief at the decision. At a school board meeting on Dec. 9, Canyon ISD parent Regina Kiehne told school officials it "seems absurd to me that the Good Book was thrown out with the bad books." Kiehne, who identified herself as the mother of two Canyon ISD students, said, "In a day when we are needing security guards and bulletproof windows and doors, I think having the Word of God available to our children cannot only be preventative to violence, but also provide comfort and a sense of security in a chaotic world."

She also noted that amid rising anxiety over issues like inflation, political uncertainty, and school violence, young people increasingly turn to the Bible for comfort. "It just makes sense to have the Word of God in our school library," she said. "After all, it is the book of wisdom. It is the bestselling book of all time; it is historically accurate, scientifically sound, and most importantly, life-changing." Kiehne highlighted the Bible's status as the most stolen book in history, stating, "The only reason something is stolen is because it is valuable. The Bible holds great value. It should be valued in our Texas school system."

This incident underscores a larger conversation in Texas about the place of religious texts in public education. In the last year, some state lawmakers, including Republican Rep. Bill Zedler, have championed bills to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms across the state, arguing that they provide a moral foundation and align with American values. However, these efforts have faced resistance from critics who argue that such displays violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Supporters of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, like Louisiana state Rep. Dodie Horton, a Republican, believe the commandments' historical and moral value outweighs religious freedom concerns. Advocates for the Bible's presence in school libraries argue that, far from endorsing any particular religion, access to the Bible supports the development of character, critical thinking and a deeper understanding of history and literature.

 Biblical Connections: Isaiah 40:8 states, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.”

 PRAY: Pray that the Word of God will again be respected across the land and be held with the level of respect and dignity that the Bible deserves.

Church Alleges Discrimination Because of Religious Objections to Same-Sex Marriage

A church is suing the University of Maine System for allegedly refusing to sell a property to the congregation because of its religious objections to same-sex marriage. Calvary Chapel Belfast filed the complaint against UMS and some of its staff members in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, Bangor Division. The church submitted a proposal to UMS to purchase a vacant property known as the Hutchinson Center to accommodate its growing congregation, the filing states.

Although UMS initially allowed Calvary Chapel to negotiate the purchase of the center in August, complaints from community members over the theologically conservative views on sexual ethics and pressure from other bidders for the property led UMS to rescind their offer, the complaint reads.

“Through their rescission of the bid award to Plaintiff, Defendants acted to exclude Plaintiff from a government program solely due to its religious identity and the expression of its Bible-centered beliefs and viewpoint, including its beliefs on marriage and sexuality,” claims the lawsuit. “Defendants’ discriminatory action deprived Plaintiff of its right to freely participate in a government program while expressing its beliefs without punishment.”

The University of Maine announced last week that the center property is awarded to a nonprofit called Waldo Community Action Partners, which offered $3.06 million for the property, well above the estimated value of $2.52 million. “WCAP demonstrated proof of funds, and their top-scoring proposal did not have any contingencies that could delay a timely transition of the property, which the university anticipates could be completed by early 2025,” said the university in their announcement. “As is standard with System solicitations, the university has the right to terminate negotiations at any point if they are not proceeding in a manner that is in its best interest as a public institution.”

The church’s lawsuit claims that after its award was rescinded, it again participated in the request for proposal process but was denied in favor of WCAP. The lawsuit described the WCAP as a “secular bidder that had maliciously criticized the Church’s religious identity and beliefs and on whose Board sits a State Senator who openly stoked flames of religious hostility towards the Church in the community. UMS’s actions, culminating in the award of RFP 2025-031 to WCAP, represent a continuation of its pattern of discriminatory treatment toward the Church and a conspiracy against its constitutional rights,” the complaint states.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver, whose Christian conservative legal group is representing Calvary Chapel, said in a statement that UMS “violated the First Amendment by discrimination against a church because of its Christian beliefs.” “Such discrimination is unlawful,” stated Staver. “It is a sad day when government officials violate the Constitutional rights of its citizens. This is a costly mistake for the University of Maine System.”

In an emailed statement to The Christian Post, a UMS spokesperson denied any wrongdoing. “The University of Maine System is still reviewing the complaint that was filed on Nov. 19 but strongly disagrees with any allegations of discrimination,” stated UMS. “As we have previously stated, every organization had the same opportunity to submit a proposal to purchase the Hutchinson Center, and every proposal received was scored by the same objective standards.” The UMS added that “those with lower-scoring offers may formally protest the award decision in writing and that “the System received a formal protest from Calvary Chapel Belfast.” “Consistent with our long-standing practice, the award is stayed until this protest is resolved,” they added.

Biblical Connection: Jesus warned standing by our convictions would cost Christians. However, the Constitution and Bill of Rights in the United States are supposed to prevent this kind of religious discrimination.

PRAY: Pray the forces within America that are trying to discriminate against Christianity will be stopped and religious freedom will be preserved.

Abortion Advocate Honored

The former president of the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor, disappointing pro-life advocates. President Joe Biden announced that he had awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Cecile Richards, who served as president of Planned Parenthood from 2006-2018. Richards was diagnosed with an incurable form of brain cancer last year.

 Biden shared a picture of himself and first lady Jill Biden at the White House with Richards and her husband, accompanied by a caption reading: “With absolute courage, she fearlessly leads us forward to be the America we say we are — a nation of freedom. Through her work to lift up the dignity of workers, defend and advance women’s reproductive rights and equality, and mobilize Americans to exercise their power to vote, she has carved an inspiring legacy,” he added.

Richards reacted to her recognition in an X post. “Such an honor representing abortion rights and the need for health care for all,” she wrote. “POTUS and FLOTUS, thank you for all you’ve done to support women’s health and rights. Here’s to the work ahead!”

 The White House pool report stated: “With absolute courage and conviction, Cecile Richards fearlessly leads us forward to be the America we say we are — a Nation of freedom. Carrying her parents’ torch for justice, she’s led some of our Nation’s most important civil rights causes — to lift up the dignity of workers, defend and advance women’s reproductive rights and equality, and mobilize Americans to exercise their power to vote. A leader of utmost character, she has carved an inspiring legacy that endures in her incredible family, the countless lives she has made better, and a Nation seeking the light of equality, justice, and freedom.”

 Lila Rose, founder of the pro-life advocacy group Live Action, commented “Cecile Richards presided over the abortions of 3.9 million babies as president of Planned Parenthood. She belongs in jail. Not in the White House receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom.” Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, expressed disgust. “Cecile Richards was just given an award for killing babies in the name of ‘freedom’,” Hawkins asserted. “Cecile Richards is anything but honorable.”

 Throughout Richards’ tenure at Planned Parenthood, the organization was subject to scrutiny over undercover videos implying officials at the abortion provider aided in prostitution and admitted to selling aborted fetal tissue, with pro-lifers alleging the abortion provider violated federal law. The undercover videos led to efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, which receives millions of dollars in taxpayer funding every year.

 Although Richards stepped down from her role as Planned Parenthood head in 2018, she continues to engage in abortion advocacy. She co-founded a website titled “Abortion in America,” which seeks to tell the “stories” of the “thousands of people around the country [who] have been impacted by abortion bans” enacted at the state level after the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the U.S. Constitution does not contain a right to abortion in its 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. Following the Dobbs ruling, several states have implemented abortion restrictions.

 Biblical Connections: In the Old Testament, nations worshiped pagan gods through child sacrifice. Any nation that not only allows this type of action but endorses it as worthy of respect is not a nation that follows God.

 PRAY: Pray the continued push for abortion will be stopped and life will be preserved and loved once more.

Doctor Deliberately Withheld Results of Puberty-blocker Study

A medical doctor and leading proponent of transgender procedures for minors recently admitted that she deliberately withheld the results of a taxpayer-funded study because it showed there were no positive mental health effects for gender dysphoric children who used puberty blockers. Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, who heads the largest youth gender clinic in the United States at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, told The New York Times she feared releasing the results of the study would lead them to be “weaponized” by opponents of such procedures. The doctor also told the outlet she feared the study, which is part of a project that has received nearly $10 million in taxpayer funding from the National Institutes of Health, “could be used in court to argue that ‘we shouldn’t use blockers,’” according to the outlet. “I do not want our work to be weaponized,” she also said. “It has to be exactly on point, clear and concise. And that takes time.”

The study, which began in 2015, followed 95 children with an average age of 11, who started taking puberty-blocking drugs, which prevent the development of natural bodily changes such as breast growth in females or voice changes in males. After the study showed the puberty blockers offered no improvement to their mental health after two years, Olson-Kennedy claimed that was because the study’s participants were already “in really good shape.” The New York Times noted that about a fourth of the patients in the study “were depressed or suicidal” before their treatment.

As The Christian Post reported in 2019, the federally-funded research grant that bore Olson-Kennedy’s name altered the protocol and lowered the age for cross-sex hormones from 13 to 8. Amy Tishelman, who serves as a clinical and research psychologist at Boston College and was involved in the original study, was critical of its results being withheld, according to the Times. “I understand the fear about it being weaponized, but it’s really important to get the science out there,” she said. “No change isn’t necessarily a negative finding — there could be a preventative aspect to it,” she also noted. “We just don’t know without more investigation.”

Erica Anderson, a clinical psychologist who identifies as trans and specializes in working with young people who have gender dysphoria, denounced the decision to withhold the study’s results, according to the New York Post. “We’re craving information about these medical treatments for gender-questioning youth. Dr. Olson-Kennedy has the largest grant that’s ever been awarded in the U.S. on the subject and is sitting on data that would be helpful to know,” Anderson told the outlet. “It’s not her prerogative to decide based on the results that she will or won’t publish them,” Anderson added.

The news regarding Olson-Kennedy’s study prompted attention from public figures on X, such as Elon Musk, who has been outspoken about his own son Xavier’s struggles with gender identity. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who has faced backlash for years because of her outspoken opposition to men being allowed to enter women-only spaces, was especially vocal. “We must not publish a study that says we’re harming children because people who say we’re harming children will use the study as evidence that we’re harming children, which might make it difficult for us to continue harming children,” Rowling tweeted. Rowling’s post earned a retweet from Musk, who gave it a “bullseye” emoji. The X CEO called Olson-Kennedy “evil” in response to a viral video during which Clementine, one of Olson-Kennedy’s former patients, claimed she was put on puberty blockers at age 12 and testosterone at 13, despite noting her confusion followed sexual abuse. She also had a double mastectomy at age 14.

Biblical Connection: Romans 1-2 describes the fallen nature of man and how one of the impacts of the fall is for people to destroy the order God created in Genesis 1:26.

PRAY: Pray madness of our culture in terms of the LGBT agenda and its dramatic impact on our younger generations will be stopped and God’s established order will prevail once more.

Pope's Statement Sparks Backlash

Pope Francis Continues to Lead Catholics Away from the Faith

During a three-day visit to Singapore, Pope Francis declared that “all religions are a path to God,” sparking backlash among religious leaders in the U.S. The statement was made at an interreligious meeting with young people at a Catholic junior college shortly before his departure back to Rome. Departing from his prepared remarks, Francis spoke off the cuff, stating that different religions are like “different languages” to reach God. “If you start to fight, ‘my religion is more important than yours, mine is true and yours isn’t,’ where will that lead us?” he asked. “There’s only one God, and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are Sheik, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and they are different paths to God.” Francis, referring to the universal nature of God, claimed, “Since God is God for all, then we are all children of God.”

Reacting to the pontiff’s comments, Bishop Joseph Strickland, who oversaw the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tyler, Texas, until his dismissal by the Vatican last year, said in a post on X, “Please pray for Pope Francis to clearly state that Jesus Christ is the only Way. To deny this is to deny Him. If we deny Christ, He will deny us, He cannot deny Himself.” Strickland was ousted for disagreeing with Francis on the issue of banning pro-abortion Catholic politicians from receiving communion and over the degree to which outreach to the LGBT community is acceptable in the Catholic Church. A petition created in defense of Strickland last year said he was ousted because he “publicly corrected several heterodox statements from Pope Francis.”

The pope’s remarks come amid reactions from conservative Catholic quarters, reminiscent of past controversies. Francis previously faced criticism and accusations of heresy on social media back in May for claiming the human heart is “fundamentally good” during a “60 Minutes” interview.

When asked by interviewer Norah O’Donnell what gives him hope about the world, the pope responded with “everything,” citing acts of goodness by people as proof of humanity’s inherent goodness. “You see tragedies, but you also see so many beautiful things,” he said. “You see heroic mothers, heroic men, men who have hopes and dreams, women who look to the future. That gives me a lot of hope. People want to live. People forge ahead. And people are fundamentally good. We are all fundamentally good. Yes, there are some rogues and sinners, but the heart itself is good.”

At the time, many commenters on X criticized Francis for his remarks, with some accusing him of failing to grasp the basic teaching of the Gospel. Others quoted portions of Scripture that teach God alone is good and that humanity has a sinful nature. Some X users noted that Francis’ comment appeared to be an example of Pelagianism, a fifth century heresy that denied original sin and taught the essential goodness of humanity. During his 2022 trip to Kazakhstan, he made similar statements. Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Astana, a frequent critic, had then commented on the risk of creating a “supermarket of religions.”

Biblical Connections: 2 Thessalonians 2:3 states, “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first”. Many believe that what Paul is describing here is a great apostasy that will arise prior to the Rapture and the Tribulation. That the leader of the Catholic Church continually drives away from Scripture and toward universalism should be an immense red flag for believers. While there are many in the Catholic Church that disagree with the Pope on these issues, he does control Catholic theology and has an immense sway on the average Catholic worldwide.

PRAY: Pray that Pope Francis will stop this madness of moving away from Scripture and moving the Catholic Church further away from Orthodox Christianity.

Iran Negotiates Against Israel

There were some that thought when Iran’s new regime would come to power that there was the possibility for peace and a change of strategy in the region. That appears to not be the case. In contrast, it seems that Iran’s new policy is to shore up support from other nations in the region to build a coalition against Israel.

Iran’s new Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has been moving quickly to cement Iran’s role in the region. His diplomatic offensive is taking shape even as Iran continues to threaten Israel with military force. This is important to recognize because it represents a multi-pronged Iranian offensive, on several levels. Araghchi is already holding a series of meetings, even as he is just getting his feet wet in his new role. He brings with him a wealth of experience, so this is not exactly new territory for him. According to Iranian state media, Araghchi spoke with his Kuwaiti counterpart Abdullah Al-Yahya. “In this conversation, Kuwaiti foreign minister pointed out the will of his country to continue the process of development and expansion of relations between Tehran and Kuwait, and emphasized the importance of continuing political dialogues between the two countries,” Iran’s IRNA state media said.

He also reached out to Oman and spoke with his Omani counterpart Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi. “In this conversation, Al Busaidi pointed out the Sultan of Oman’s special attention to the relations between the two countries and its increasing development process, and emphasized his readiness to work closely with his Iranian counterpart to follow up and implement the agreements of the heads of the two countries,” IRNA noted.

At the same time, Iran’s president and Iranian envoys are working to improve relations with key countries. For instance, the Iranian and Turkish ambassadors to Iraq met and shared their views on the region. Iran backs militias in Iraq that have been attacking Israel while Turkey operates in northern Iraq. According to IRNA, Mohammad-Kazem Ale-Sadegh met with Anil Bora Inan, Turkey’s new ambassador to Baghdad. Both Iran and Turkey have close ties to each other, as well as with Russia. Iranian ambassador to Turkey Mohammad Hassan Habibzadeh met the country’s Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz, while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani also met in Tehran.

Qatar is a key partner of Iran. “During a meeting in Tehran, the two sides discussed a wide range of bilateral, regional and international issues,” IRNA noted. Iran’s president slammed Israel in the meeting. The Iranian diplomatic offensive includes more outreach to Egypt as well. Overall, Iran’s goal is to create a ring of fire around Israel, isolating it diplomatically while using proxies to attack Israel.

Biblical Connections: Ezekiel 38-39 talk about a future invasion of Israel in which Israel will be surrounded by enemies and will only survive through God’s direct intervention. Iran, then known as Persia, is specifically listed as one of the enemies in this invasion. The invasion seems to come from all sides. Is it possible that Iran’s dealings are leading up to a war in which Israel will be surrounded and will need divine intervention? The nations that Iran are trying to accumulate would certainly point in that direction. While time will tell where this leads, it should certainly get our attention that Iran is not only calling for the destruction of Israel, but is actively trying to accumulate allies, including Turkey and Russia, to bring to bear against Israel.

PRAY: Pray the nations of the Middle East will recognize the evil intentions of Iran and stop negotiating with a nation that hates Israel and sponsors terrorism.

National Guard Discriminates Against Christians

An infantry officer who expressed Christian views on human sexuality and other LGBT-related issues faced pressure to resign from the Idaho National Guard and was stripped of his commanding position following a complaint from a subordinate who identifies as homosexual. Liberty Counsel announced that it had notified Gov. Brad Little about the alleged First Amendment violation. While the infantry officer is represented by R. Davis Younts, LLC, Liberty Counsel has added its voice to the man’s case, requesting a response to avoid further legal action.

According to Liberty Counsel, a subordinate senior enlisted man who identifies as homosexual filed an Equal Opportunity complaint against the infantry officer. The officer reportedly expressed Christian viewpoints on human sexuality and expressed opposition to “pernicious practices,” which include prescribing puberty blockers and opposite-sex hormones to children suffering from confusion about their sex. The subordinate who filed the complaint claimed that the officer’s speech showed “just how much the officer truly hates the LGBTQ community.” Liberty Counsel disagreed with this assessment, arguing that the officer believes everyone is made in God’s image and cares for those under his command, regardless of religious or political differences.

“Soldiers who identify as LGBTQ are required to tolerate Christians in the military workplace and may not file false EO Complaints or other charges against superior officers (or subordinates) because they disagree with protected religious or political speech,” Liberty Counsel stated in its letter to the governor. “False charges like these interfere with good order and discipline. Here, the dichotomy between ‘speech for me, but not for thee’ could not be more evident: the baseless and discriminatory AR 15-6 investigation stems from a false EO complaint filed against the Officer by a subordinate senior enlisted man, because the officer had the temerity to speak his religious and political beliefs in public outside of the military context.”

Following the complaint, the Idaho Army National Guard removed the officer from command and initially agreed to lift the flag on the officer’s file, allowing him to resign without penalty and fulfill his duties in Wyoming. The Idaho Army National Guard did not lift the flag before the Wyoming position became unavailable, according to Liberty Counsel. In addition, the Idaho Army National Guard allegedly used Bible verses to mock the officer for not keeping a promise to leave by a certain date.

Among its list of recommendations, Liberty Counsel requested the restoration of the officer’s career and the dismissal of what the firm described as the “meritless EO complaint.” In addition, Liberty Counsel recommended a rejection of the “No Christians as Commanders Policy,” referring to recommendations made by the Idaho Army National Guard’s investigating officer. The investigating officer reportedly encouraged the Idaho Army National Guard to adopt a policy of scrutinizing future full-time National Guard Duty candidates’ religious and political beliefs. If concerns about the candidates’ beliefs are substantiated, then the National Guard would report them to the Department of Defense Counterintelligence as an example of “Extremist” and “Insider Threats” for “adjudication by subject matter experts” at the Pentagon.

In a statement to The Christian Post, a spokesperson for the Idaho Military Division confirmed that leadership is aware of the allegations and is investigating the matter. “We take this matter seriously and in accordance with all federal and state laws regarding discriminatory behavior, we have initiated an unbiased investigation to address the issue thoroughly. The investigation is ongoing, and it would be inappropriate to comment further on the matter at this time.” The spokesperson promised that if the investigation uncovers violations of the Idaho Military Division’s anti-discrimination policies, those responsible will be held accountable in accordance with state and federal law.

Biblical Connection: Matthew 10:22 states, “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

PRAY: Pray the LGBTQ agenda that has overwhelmed so much of our culture will be stopped and biblical morals will once again be established and enforced.

Why Doesn’t God Stop All the Problems in the World?

QUESTION:

 Since God has all the power to do so, why doesn’t He stop all the problems in the world?

 ANSWER:

 The answer to this question lies in the fact that God has made man a free moral agent. Man had the right to choose good or choose evil in the Garden of Eden. He chose evil, and the world has been under a curse ever since. Because of Adam’s sin, we are all sinners:

 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned,” Romans 5:12.

We are born in sin, and we continue in sin. Our sin not only relates to our own lives, but the lives of others. The criminal’s sin affects the victim. The parent’s sin takes its toll on the children. The world leader’s sin causes him to go to war, costing lives on both sides. As the passage in Romans says, we are also under the sentence of death for our sins, and because of that, our mortal bodies suffer as well.

 God does sometimes intervene in the affairs of mankind and end some of the suffering. But He does not do it in all cases, for many reasons that are unknown to us. However, one reason we do know about, is that problems do tend to draw men closer to God, which ultimately brings glory to Him as a result:

 “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy word,” Psalm 119:67.

 The good news is that our Lord will intervene universally in the world situation at His Second Coming at the conclusion of the Tribulation. At that time, He will defeat the Antichrist and his armies at Armageddon and institute His 1,000 year Millennial Reign of righteousness. Sin and evil will not occur with impunity as is the case now. Even better, we who know Jesus as our Lord and Savior can look forward to even speedier deliverance when He returns prior to the Tribulation on the occasion of the Rapture and Resurrection.

 Although we are now experiencing troubles, we can look forward to that day when problems shall be no more:

 “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea … And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 21:1,4

 PRAY: Pray for those who do not know the Lord to come to salvation. Share the Gospel with loved ones and friends while we still have the time.

Antisemitism Shown on Capitol Hill

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the United States this summer was supposed to show America’s dedication and resolve to continuing to help one of its biggest allies. Instead, it has shown just how much Antisemitism is possibly influencing American politics. Netanyahu was invited by both leaders of Congress, Representative Mike Johnson in the House and Senator Chuck Schumer in the Senate, to give a speech on the Capitol floor about the continued war in Gaza. It was supposed to be a unifying time where both nations could show their continued support.

However, the visit did not go as planned for a variety of reasons. First, Netanyahu did not receive much publicity on his arrival or during much of his trip because of the major political events that were eating up the American news cycle. Former President Donald Trump had a failed assassination attempt only a few days before Netanyahu’s arrival. Then, during his arrival window President Biden came down with Covid and eventually dropped out of the presidential race, naming Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor. All of these events simply overwhelmed the media buzz, to the point that many, including sitting Congressmen, had even forgotten that Netanyahu had even arrived or that his speech was upcoming.

Second, the political turmoil of the weekend of Netanyahu’s arrival was evident. President Biden was away from the capitol at his home in Delaware with Covid, so he was not there to welcome the prime minister at the airport as is customary when a major ally arrives in the nation. Vice President Harris, who has been a vocal critic of Israel and Netanyahu in particular, was not there to welcome him either. Even Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was not present. Therefore, Netanyahu arrived with little fanfare or media coverage.

Finally, pro-Hamas protesters made it very clear that they did not want Netanyahu comfortable. They released multiple kinds of bugs into the Watergate Hotel where he was staying and pulled the fire alarm multiple times the night before his speech to Congress. Thousands of protesters arrived at the Capitol, burning the US flag in protest and even replacing it with the Hamas flag in front of the Capitol. Many of the Capitol police that attempted to stop the protesters were attacked.

Vice President Harris, along with many other Democratic Congresspeople, also skipped the speech. Harris’ team said that she was doing events on the campaign trail, but it is customary that as acting Vice President she would be present for the speech, as she was when President Zelensky of Ukraine gave a similar speech earlier this year.

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib made headlines when she held up a sign during the speech calling the prime minister a “war criminal” and advocated that he be arrested and given over to the International Criminal Court. This cannot happen in the United States as the US is not a member of the ICC and does not enforce its laws. Needless to say, the speech and the entire visit have seen very little positive and much negativity toward the Jewish leader.

Biblical Connection: After the horrible events of World War 2 and the Holocaust, it seemed like the West would take care of the Jewish people. People even wondered how the future Antichrist would be able to turn the world against the Jewish people again, as described in the Book of Revelation. However, the events of October 7th have shown that Antisemitism is still very much an active part of society and that all it takes is a little push for people to turn on the Jewish people once again.

PRAY: Pray this hatred for the nation of Israel would cease and that America would again become a strong ally to the Jewish people.

Interest in the New Testament Grows in Israel

The faith-based nonprofit Jews for Jesus, an organization that shares the Gospel with people of the Jewish faith, says it has seen an increase in the number of New Testament orders from Israelis since the war between Israel and Hamas began last October. Jews for Jesus, affiliated with the Messianic Jewish movement, is an organization dedicated to helping Jewish people continue living out their faith while believing in Christ, the Son of God. The organization engages in conversations about Jesus in public spaces like college campuses and parks and hosts events to create opportunities for dialogue. The group is devoted to demonstrating Christ-like behavior through charitable acts, such as soup kitchens and ministering to Holocaust survivors during their last days of life.

Jews for Jesus offers the New Testament for free to Israelis through its website and the sites of its ministry partners, One for Israel or Tree of Life Ministries. According to data provided to The Christian Post, the organization has seen 1,230 New Testament orders from Israelis since the war between Israel and the terror group Hamas began in October. Jews for Jesus Executive Director Aaron Abramson told CP that one possible reason for the increase in requests is that Israelis appear to have a lot of questions, including spiritual ones, since Hamas’ Oct. 7 onslaught. “But there’s also a kind of hopelessness,” Abramson said. “Israel has prided itself in its ability to defend itself, so Oct. 7 was a real blow to that for people. You had people questioning whether they should remain in Israel and if it was safe for them. You have people who once lived in other countries and experienced antisemitism who were like, ‘Well, where do we go from here?’ And so, if you can’t put your trust in maybe, let’s say, a political solution, you can’t put your trust in like a military solution, or if you can’t put your trust in an economic solution, then where do you put your trust?” he asked. “And I think that’s why a lot of people were starting to sort of dig into those spiritual questions.”

Abramson said many of the organization’s staff in Israel have wives, husbands or kids in the Israeli military who were called in after Oct. 7. He said the nonprofit decided to “shift gears” by supporting those who were impacted by the terrorist attack, partnering with groups like Samaritan’s Purse. In addition to helping kibbutzim residents relocate after Hamas devastated their communities, Jews for Jesus helped provide food once residents resettled at hotels. They also set up makeshift classrooms so children could continue going to school.

Jews for Jesus transformed its Moishe Roshen Center in Tel Aviv into a location that provided resources to those impacted by Oct. 7, such as toiletries and medication. Abramson said that the group even set up an art gallery to help people express themselves and hosted barbeques for military units. “So for us, it was really how can we create space for people to come in to wrestle through deeper questions and how can we speak to those spiritual needs, as well as meeting some of those emotional and physical needs?” Abramson said.

Biblical Connections: In Romans 11, the apostle Paul said Israel was spiritual blinded and the Gospel would go to the Gentiles, but in the future Israel would turn back to God and recognize Jesus as their Messiah. While this will most likely occur during the Tribulation period, it is possible that we are starting to see the beginnings of this revival today.

PRAY: Pray more Jewish people will have their eyes opened to the Gospel and accept Jesus as their Messiah and Savior.

Doctor Faces Going to Jail for Protecting Children

The U.S. Department of Justice has unsealed the four-count indictment against a doctor who potentially faces 10 years in prison after blowing the whistle on the largest pediatric hospital in the U.S. for allegedly prescribing puberty blockers to minors despite claiming otherwise. Dr. Eithan Haim, 34, who completed his surgical residency at Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) in Houston, was slapped with four felony counts after he “obtained personal information including patient names, treatment codes and the attending physician from Texas Children’s Hospital’s (TCH) electronic system without authorization,” according to a DOJ press release.

Haim reportedly leaked such records to journalist Christopher Rufo last year because they exposed the “gender-affirming services” allegedly still being performed on minors at the hospital at the time, even though the hospital told the public it had paused such procedures.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had earlier released a formal opinion in February 2022 that labeled some sex-change procedures and the use of puberty blockers as “child abuse” under Texas law, after which Gov. Greg Abbott issued an order instructing state agencies to investigate them as such. The six-page indictment released by U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani and reported by National Review alleges that Haim went to the press instead of the appropriate authorities within the hospital.

Last May, within 24 hours of Rufo publishing a story in City Journal based on Haim’s leak, the Texas Legislature passed SB-14, which made such procedures for minors illegal in the state effective Sept. 1, 2023. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill into law last June.

Rufo’s story also prompted Paxton to launch a formal investigation into TCH. The hospital’s CEO, Mark Wallace, later issued a statement promising to finally shut down the facility’s trans procedures for minors by the time the law went into effect.

Rufo noted in a subsequent article last June that the information Haim leaked to him redacted key personal information, but the indictment claims the records retained dates of service, diagnosis, procedure codes and physician names. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tina Ansari, the lead DOJ prosecutor in his case who also signed his recent indictment, showed evidence of bias and went after both him and his wife, his lawyers claimed in a letter sent to members of Congress earlier this year.

Ansari allegedly described trans procedures as the “last hope” for some families and pressed Haim to avoid felony prosecution by admitting to a crime. She also reportedly claimed it was not Haim’s job to expose the trans procedures at the pediatric hospital and used a personal cellphone to communicate with Haim’s attorneys. “These people are corrupt,” Haim told The Christian Post in January. “And the only way to expose it is to not play into this Kabuki theater, like these people are practitioners of justice. Because if we were to collude with them, we would be sanctioning our own destruction.”

Biblical Connection: While it can be argued that Dr. Haim did not use the proper channels when calling out what he considered child abuse, the bigger issue is that a hospital catering to children would not only do “gender affirming surgeries”, which many can and should view as child abuse, but also that they would continue to do so even after telling the public that they had stopped. Unfortunately, many in the medical field have bought into the LGBT agenda and will stop at nothing to propagate and even instigate the issue with these types of surgeries on minors. Isaiah 5:20 summarizes this idea perfectly when it states, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

PRAY: Pray our children will be safe and that this agenda to change God’s design for our families will be halted.

California Continues the Push to Remove Parental Powers

The California Senate has approved a bill that would prohibit school districts from requiring school officials to share information about a student’s sexual orientation and gender identity with the child’s parent, drawing concerns from Christian and parental rights groups. The Democrat-controlled California Senate passed Assembly Bill 1955 in a 29-8 vote. Support for the legislation fell along party lines, with all votes in favor of it coming from Democrats and all opposition coming from Republicans.

The legislation includes a provision declaring that “[a]n employee or a contractor of a school district, county office of education, charter school, or state special school for the blind or the deaf shall not be required to disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent unless otherwise required by state or federal law.” The bill states that “policies that forcibly ‘out’ pupils without their consent remove opportunities for LGBTQ+ young people and their families to build trust and have these conversations when they are ready.”

The measure comes in response to local school districts adopting policies requiring parental notification when it comes to such issues. Sonja Shaw, a member of the school board for the Chino Valley Unified School District that passed a parental notification policy, said that “if a child is asking for the school district to now call them by another sex’s name or go into the other sex’s restroom, we will notify the parents. No one’s outing anybody,” she said, adding, “The kid is coming out, and the parents have a right to know.”

Students First California, an advocacy group that seeks to ensure that “parents have a seat at the table” when it comes to their children’s education, published a letter expressing opposition to the measure. “There is a reason courts have consistently affirmed parents as having a fundamental right to direct the care and upbringing of their children,” wrote Students First California President Jonathan Zachreson. “Parents know and care for their children more than anyone else and are ultimately responsible for them in every setting — school, home, and elsewhere,” he added. “Notifying and involving parents in something as paramount as when a school takes an active role in socially transitioning a child is critical for the well-being of children and for maintaining trust between schools and parents.”

Citing state law, Zachreson noted that “parents of students under 18 years old in public schools have an absolute right to access all records related to their children and the editing or withholding of any of those records is prohibited.” “These records include the gender and name in which the child goes by at school regardless of if the gender or name matches a student’s official government documents,” lamenting that “AB 1955 would enable and strengthen policies that violate this right.”

California Family Council has also expressed its opposition to the bill. “This bill assumes parents with biblical beliefs about gender and sexuality are a threat to their own children,” the organization stated in an online campaign against the bill. “AB 1955 marginalizes parents, preventing them from receiving critical information about their kids. Parents need to be informed partners in addressing issues of gender identity, ensuring their children receive the support and guidance they need within the family unit.” The bill must return to the Assembly before it can be sent to California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.

Biblical Connections: The Bible clearly places the care of children in the hands of their parents and family. For a government to intervene and attempt to lesson that bond for nefarious reasons shows just how far parts of the nation have moved away from the Bible.

PRAY: Pray this continued push to hide children’s actions and thoughts from their own parents would be stopped and that a Biblical foundation will again reign throughout the nation.

Pope Francis Argues “People are Fundamentally Good”

Pope Francis has been a controversial figure to say the least over the past few years as many conservative Catholics argue that he is drawing the Catholic Church further away from their roots and into a more liberal theology. This concern was highlighted when he drew scorn and accusations of heresy on social media for maintaining during his “60 Minutes” interview that the human heart is “fundamentally good.”

Responding to interviewer Norah O’Donnell’s question regarding what gives him hope when he looks at the world, the pontiff said “everything,” and then went on to list examples of people doing good things as evidence of humanity’s essential goodness. “You see tragedies, but you also see so many beautiful things,” he said. “You see heroic mothers, heroic men, men who have hopes and dreams, women who look to the future. That gives me a lot of hope. People want to live. People forge ahead. And people are fundamentally good. We are all fundamentally good. Yes, there are some rogues and sinners, but the heart itself is good.”

Many commentators on X criticized Francis for his remarks, with some accusing him of failing to grasp the basic teaching of the Gospel. Others quoted portions of Scripture that teach God alone is good and that humanity has a sinful nature.

“This is contrary to basic Christian theology,” radio host Erick Erickson wrote. “We are all sinners. There aren’t just ‘some sinners.’”

“If this is true, we don’t need a Savior to die on the Cross. So this pope is a heretic,” wrote author Eric Metaxas.

“Welp, this is a Satanic lie…” wrote Babylon Bee editor Joel Berry.

“This raises a question: Is the Pope Catholic? Apparently not! The minute he saw an American journalist nodding at him, he should have known he had gone astray,” Daily Wire host Andrew Klavan wrote.

Some X users noted that Francis’ comment appeared to be an example of Pelagianism, a fifth century heresy that denied original sin and taught the essential goodness of humanity. Pelagianism was named after a monk named Pelagius who was ultimately excommunicated from the Catholic church in 418, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Multiple councils condemned his worldview, which was also famously repudiated by Augustine of Hippo in his “Confessions.”

Francis also raised eyebrows for other comments he made during his interview, such as accusing conservative U.S. bishops of exhibiting “a suicidal attitude” by opposing his “efforts to revisit teachings and traditions.”

The pontiff also responded to the furor around the Vatican’s recent “Fiducia Supplicans” guidance, claiming it does not permit the blessing of a homosexual union itself, but rather the two individual homosexuals engaging in the union. “What I allowed was not to bless the union; that cannot be done, because that is not the sacrament,” he said. “I cannot. The Lord made it that way. But to bless each person? Yes. The blessing is for everyone.”

Biblical Connections: In Luke 18:19, Jesus stated, “So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” Paul in Romans 3:23 stated, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” In Isaiah 64:6, the prophet writes, “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.” While humanity was created fundamentally good, the fall of man in Genesis 3 has led to a sinful condition throughout all of humanity. To argue that humanity as a whole is fundamentally good and that there are only a few bad apples that mess things up simply is not consistent with the pages of Scripture.

PRAY: Pray the drift to more liberal leaning movements of various groups within Christianity will stop and people will return to the foundation of the Bible.

Fight Ensures Over the Ten Commandments

Louisiana became the first state to require public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments through a Republican-backed bill signed by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry. House Bill 71, sponsored by Republican Rep. Dodie Horton, mandates that each public school classroom display a poster-sized copy of the Ten Commandments by next January. "If you want to respect the rule of law you've got to start from the original law given, which was Moses," Landry said during a signing ceremony.

The display must be a “poster or framed document that is at least eleven inches by fourteen inches,” according to the text of the legislation. The text of the Ten Commandments must be the “central focus” of the poster or framed documents, which shall be printed in “large, easily readable font.” The display must also include a four-paragraph “context statement” telling readers that “The Ten Commandments were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries. Around the year 1688, The New England Primer became the first published American textbook and was the equivalent of a first-grade reader. The New England Primer was used in public schools throughout the United States for more than one hundred fifty years to teach Americans to read and contained more than forty questions about the Ten Commandments,” the context statement reads.

“The Ten Commandments were also included in public school textbooks published by educator William McGuffey, a noted university president and professor. A version of his famous McGuffey Readers was written in the early 1800s and became one of the most popular textbooks in the history of American education, selling more than one hundred million copies. Copies of the McGuffey Readers are still available today.”

The new law is likely to face legal challenges. Secular church-state separation groups have already threatened lawsuits, contending that it violates the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation announced their intention to file a lawsuit. The groups assert that school displays of the Ten Commandments equate to “religious coercion of students, who are legally required to attend school and are thus a captive audience for school-sponsored religious messages.”

The organizations believe the law violates U.S. Supreme Court precedent set in the 1980 Stone v. Graham decision. In a 5-4 ruling, the Burger court ruled against a similar law passed in Kentucky requiring classrooms to post copies of the Ten Commandments, finding that it violated the First Amendment. "The law violates the separation of church and state and is blatantly unconstitutional,” the groups wrote in a joint statement. “The First Amendment promises that we all get to decide for ourselves what religious beliefs, if any, to hold and practice, without pressure from the government. Politicians have no business imposing their preferred religious doctrine on students and families in public schools.”

Supporters of the law maintain that its purpose is to highlight the document’s historical significance, as the legislation describes the Ten Commandments as one of the "foundational documents of our state and national government." The bill also allows schools to display other historical documents, such as the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence and the Northwest Ordinance. “Although this is a religious document, this document is also posted in over one hundred and eighty places, including the Supreme Court of the United States of America. I would say is based on the laws that this country was founded on,” Republican state Sen. Adam Bass told KALB.

Biblical Connections: Many of the founding documents and laws of America were founded on biblical precedent. Getting back to that precedent is paramount in having a successful nation.

Pray- Pray that there will continue to be a push for getting America back to its biblical roots and that the court challenges to stopping this will be defeated.

God Bless America A Message for Our Nation

It’s time to exhort the people of America to call upon God and ask God to indeed bless the United States of America.

If we humble ourselves before God, repent and ask for forgiveness, God could certainly return His blessing upon America. He has already wonderfully blessed our nation far beyond anything we deserve. And though we are not a perfect nation, and though there are many problems and challenges and difficulties, it is still one of the greatest nations in all the world.

Can any nation say, “God bless our nation?” The Bible tells us “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 32:12).

Now in the Old Testament context, the people of Israel realized they were in a special covenant relationship with God. They were a theocratic kingdom of the people of God on Earth. Yet that blessing of God was not limited just to them. It was available to any people that would come to God.

It was available to the Assyrians, if they would repent at Nineveh. It was available to the Babylonians, if they would come to God. It was available to the Egyptians. And it’s available today to any nation in the world that is willing to say, “Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is our Savior. He is our God. And we’re going to pray that God will bless our nation, not to the exclusion of other nations, but that God might bless our nation in particular.”

Everybody in every nation ought to be able to pray for that and say it from the depth of their heart and their soul. If you love God with all of your heart, and you love your country, then certainly you want God to bless you nation, just as you want God to bless your life. The blessing of God comes when we receive the power of God Himself in our lives. The Bible tells us that the Spirit of the Lord is the Spirit of liberty. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty and freedom.

Liberty is a gift from the God of liberty. It’s the blessing of God in our lives. It’s not just something that is a political circumstance in our experience of Americans. The patriots that founded the United States of America made a Declaration of Independence, that asked God to bless this nation, and we have in turn been blessed by the results.

But it’s more than that – it’s the blessing of God that comes to the lives of people who are willing to let God be God in their lives. It’s that personal relationship with God that brings the blessing of God to us as individuals, to our churches, and to our nation.

One of the reasons God has blessed America all these years is because America was founded by godly men and women who were concerned to take the Bible seriously, and to live out its truths in their lives.

Secondly, they took the whole issue of freedom seriously, a freedom that was guaranteed to everybody as one of the unalienable rights given to us by our Creator. They understood that we were not here by accident. We’re not simply here by convenience. We are here by the Divine sovereign choice of God Himself. God called those Pilgrims and Puritans to come to this new world, to establish this new nation to the glory of God.

When we as a people are willing to get on our faces before God, on our knees before God, we’re willing to call out to Him, cry out to Him, and let Him deal with our hearts and lives, we can then say, “God bless me, God bless America, God bless the world through us.” Then America can reach the greatness God intended for her to have. Not just as a military power, not just as a commercial enterprise, but as a nation that would reflect the goodness of God, the freedom of God, the liberty of the Spirit of God, the blessing of God.

In nation after nation after nation, God is calling people to come to Him, to believe in Christ. He’s building His Church. He’s blessing those nations whose God is the Lord.

Excerpts from this article taken from Dr. Ed Hindson’s message, God Bless America.

PRAY: Pray that freedom of religion, freedom of choice, freedom of opportunity to open the Word of God continues in America. Pray that our nation turns back to God.

Catholic Church in US Slowly Abandoning Stance on Abortion

For decades the Catholic Church has had a strong stance in the pro-life movement. However, a new survey has seen that a majority of American Catholics think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, although support for legal abortion is much lower among Catholics who attend Mass regularly.

The Pew Research Center released a blog titled “9 Facts about U.S. Catholics”. One fact included on the list, based on research conducted from March 27 through April 2, 2023, found that 61% of Catholics living in the United States believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. This is a slightly smaller percentage than the number of U.S. adults who said the same (62%). Support for abortion differs among subgroups within the sample of Catholic adults surveyed. A slightly higher share of Hispanic Catholics (63%) favor keeping abortion legal in all or most cases than their white Catholic counterparts (59%).

Conversely, the difference in support for abortion among Catholics who attend Mass weekly and those who go less frequently is much starker. Only 34% of Catholics who go to Mass every week think abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances. Meanwhile, 68% of Catholics who attend Mass once a month or less or not at all support legal abortion in all or most cases.

Michael New, a pro-life scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, reacted to this particular finding from the survey on X. “Church attendance tells us far more about abortion attitudes than denomination,” he said. Carol Swain, a conservative commentator and former Vanderbilt University professor, cited the report’s findings as evidence that “Pope Francis and progressive public Catholics like Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Democrat President Joe Biden have been disastrous for orthodox Christians of all denominations.” Swain’s comments suggest that Pelosi and Biden, self-professed practicing Catholics who support abortion despite its direct contradiction to the teachings of their faith, are causing many of their fellow Catholics to stray from church teaching on the matter.

The report measured the share of U.S. Catholics who attend Mass weekly at 28% while finding that 10% of American Catholics go to church once a month, and the remaining 62% attend Mass a few times a year or less. Catholic Church teaching, as laid out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, declares that “direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law” and that “formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense.”

Additional findings from the Pew Research Center show that partisan affiliation also plays a role in Catholics’ level of support for abortion. Forty-three percent of Catholic Republicans favor legal abortion in all or most circumstances compared to 78% of Catholic Democrats. The partisan divide within the Catholic Church as it relates to abortion mirrors the divisions among the American public as a whole. Among all U.S. adults, 40% of Republicans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 84% of Democrats said the same.

Biblical Connections: 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 states, “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” The push for Christians to abandon the Bible is strong in our day.

PRAY: Pray for those who call themselves Christians will actually follow what the Bible and live Godly lives in all areas of life.