Christianity Shifting from Western Europe, Growing in Central America

For the first time since 1801, when the United Kingdom took its first census, less than half of the population identify as “Christian,” while the share of individuals who say they have no religion has swelled by millions, the latest data from their census show. The data published by the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics show that only 46.2% or 27.5 million of the country’s more than 67 million people say they are Christian. In 2011, when the last census was done, 59.3% of the population or 33.3 million, people described themselves as Christian.

 As in the United States, the number of people with no faith in the U.K. has been growing with the decline of Christianity. Some 22.2 million people or 37.2% of the population reported that they had “no religion.” Ten years earlier, only 14.1 million people or 25.2% of the population, said they had “no religion.” Responding to the results of the census, Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, said the U.K. had “left behind the era when many people almost automatically identified as Christian. It’s not a great surprise that the census shows fewer people in this country identifying as Christian than in the past.” Similar drops have occurred throughout much of Western Europe.

 In contrast, according to a new survey in Central America, evangelicals are the majority with 37% of the population; while Roman Catholicism experienced a big decrease, reaching only 32.6%. 29.1% said they were unaffiliated believers and 1.3% non-believers. Among the 32.6% of Catholics, 19.3% attend their church more than once a week and generally participate in church activities. Evangelicals participate almost three times more than Catholics in church activities (58.4%).

 This increase in evangelicalism has also led to an increase in beliefs on traditionally Christian values. The study says that 83.9% of Central American citizens do not agree with same-sex relationships. Regarding abortion, for 61.3% it is only acceptable if the woman’s life is at risk and for 54.6% in case of health reasons. For 46.8% both men and women should be virgins at marriage. These are all significantly higher than anything in Western Europe or the United States.

 Biblical Connections: Daniel 7:7-8 states “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.”

 Conservative scholars have generally agreed that the fourth beast in Daniel’s vision represents the Roman Empire and the little horn in this passage represents the future Antichrist, thus linking him to the Roman Empire, or more accurately a revived Roman Empire. Daniel 9:26 also links the Antichrist to the Roman Empire, as they are the people who destroyed the second temple. However, for centuries Western Europe was viewed as the bastion of Christianity, sending missionaries throughout the world. People wondered how such a Christian center could one day give rise to the Antichrist. This is no longer the case. Western Europe’s Christian influence has completely collapsed, to the point that even nominal Christianity is dying. The secularization of Western Europe could easily be setting the stage for the kingdom of the Antichrist to rise.

 PRAY: Pray that Christianity will continue to grow in Central America and other place throughout the world and that Christianity may once again take hold in Western

Does Belief in the Rapture lead to “Religious Trauma”?

Could teaching what’s described in the Bible as a “blessed hope” actually be a source of anxiety and trauma? An article published by CNN with the headline, “For some Christians, ‘rapture anxiety’ can take a lifetime to heal,” depicts the eschatological doctrine of the imminent return of Jesus Christ for His Church as a “chronic problem.” The article also describes the teaching as “recognized by some faith experts and mental health professionals as a type of religious trauma.”

Featuring a stock photo with the caption, “Some Christians develop fears related to teachings of the rapture,” the article profiles two women who have battled so-called rapture anxiety, including April Ajoy, who recalled waking up to a quiet home as a 13-year-old girl and fearing she had missed the prophetic End Times event. The article reads: “Ajoy’s mind began churning, trying to remember, trying to make plans. When was the last time she had sinned? Should she refuse the mark of the beast? At least, she thought, if she was put to the guillotine during the time of tribulation, it would be a quick death.”

Describing the event as when “righteous Christians ascend into heaven, while the rest are left behind to suffer,” CNN adds, “However it happens, it is something to be both feared and welcomed, to be prayed about and prepared for every moment of a believer’s life.” Another woman, Georgia resident Chelsea Wilson, told the cable news outlet that she grew up in the Evangelical “community” and believed the End Times teaching was akin to a “scary campfire story.” CNN points to social media chatter from “exvangelicals” — former Evangelical Christians who have since turned to unbelief — who were subjected to “violent rapture-themed films” or spent their childhood years “crying themselves to sleep thinking about people and pets that would be left behind when the end finally came.”

For analysis of the doctrine and its impact on believers, CNN reached out to Darren Slade, president and CEO of the Global Center for Religious Research, a “non-religiously affiliated academic society and publishing house.” Slade, whose website states “certain religious contexts have also been responsible for a number of traumatic experiences for people all around the globe,” told CNN that “rapture anxiety” is a “real thing” and a “chronic problem.” “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,’” he was quoted as saying. But on Slade’s own website, he acknowledges that “the academic study of religious trauma remains in its infancy when compared to other studies in mental health.”

While belief in the Rapture has always been attacked by other Christian groups who hold other eschatological positions, this is perhaps the first time a major news network has attempted to attack the belief for causing “trauma”. This is simply a lie. Millions of Christians throughout the world hold to the belief in the Rapture and are not suffering from “trauma”. In fact, they find peace from knowing that one day Christ will return for His Bride. While it can be true that someone may misunderstand the position or have been taught bad theology, to characterize a belief positively held by millions as a cause of trauma because of a few claims is not realistic and could even be viewed as a dishonest attack on a biblical belief.

Biblical Connection: 1 Thessalonians teaches about the Rapture when Jesus will call His Bride home to heaven.

PRAY: Pray that those who have been wrongly taught that belief in the Rapture is harmful will experience the truth!

Western European Churches Rejecting Scripture

Several recent stories out of Western Europe show a tragic trend toward apostacy. First, a bishop in the Church of England has released an essay arguing that clergy within the denomination should be allowed to bless same-sex unions. Rev. Steven Croft, the bishop of Oxford, released a lengthy essay on titled “Together in Love and Faith,” arguing that the Church of England should remove its prohibition on blessing same-sex unions. “I confirm my affection and respect for those who will want to argue, in good conscience, against change and potential provision for such change. I also make no claim whatsoever to infallibility: I may be wrong, either in the detail or in the overall argument,” wrote Croft in his introduction. “However, the Church will only be led into true and accurate discernment as we each, honestly and faithfully, share the best perspective we can, and subject those views to the wisdom of whole Church.”

 Croft, who said he once ascribed to the theologically conservative and biblical view on the issue, went on to argue that there were “fruits and benefits of same-sex partnerships” that the Church could benefit from, adding that the current stance of the Church created “hurt and pain” for the LGBT community.

 The bishop’s essay and the responses to it come as the Church of England considers the possibility of allowing the blessing of same-sex unions in their congregations. The College of Bishops held a meeting earlier regarding the matter, with the discernment process possibly leading to changes being approved in February at the Church’s General Synod meeting. Five other bishops in the Church of England have also come out in favor of blessing same-sex unions, arguing that priests should be allowed to celebrate them if they support them.

 Meanwhile, Bishops in the Church of Norway, the largest Christian denomination in the Scandinavian country, say they are open to ordaining unmarried, cohabiting priests, going against a resolution of the Bishop’s Conference that prohibits cohabitation. Norwegian news outlet Vart Land found in a survey that all bishops in the Church of Norway would be willing to ordain priests who live with their partner without being married. The news outlet also found that the bishop of Oslo, Kari Veiteberg, had been ordaining cohabiting priests, cantors, catechists and deacons since 2017.

 The U.K.-based Premier Christian News noted that under current rules, the Church of Norway does not allow the ordination of unmarried cohabiting partners as per its 1995 statement on the issue. The 1995 resolution said employees from the Church cannot “establish a cohabitation outside of an arranged marriage,” according to Dagen. However, the Church’s presiding bishop, Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, recently stated that bishops can decide to ordain unmarried cohabiting priests on their own. “They agree to hold marriage as the best arrangement for cohabitation, but also agree that each bishop must make an individual assessment of each candidate seeking marriage.”

 Biblical Connection: Paul in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 said, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” In both of these instances, neither group is arguing that the Bible itself allows for what they are calling for but instead that it would simply make it “easier” for people. The only thing that they are doing is making it easier for people to live in their sin and avoid facing the truth of the Scriptures.

 PRAY: Pray that the rise of apostacy in Western Europe would be quenched and that people would turn back to the truth of God’s Word.

Persecution Continues to Rise Against Jews in Academia

Recently, Law Students for Justice in Palestine (LSJP) at University of California, Berkeley, School of Law promoted a bylaw  that would create what critics have characterized as “no-go zones for Jews,” “LSJP is so excited to announce that multiple student affinity groups and clubs at Berkeley Law have adopted a pro-Palestine bylaw divesting all funds from institutions and companies complicit in the occupation of Palestine, and banning future use of funds towards such companies!” the group wrote in an Instagram post in August. “LSJP is calling ALL student organizations at Berkeley Law to take an anti-racist and anti-settler colonial stand and adopt the bylaw into their constitutions ASAP!”

 In addition to urging student groups to support the ongoing BDS campaign against Israel, the bylaw also included troubling language to expunge any speech by individuals who might be considered pro-Israel or pro-Zionist, especially speech meant to correct the many factual and historical inaccuracies in the pro-Palestinian bylaw. “In the interest of protecting the safety and welfare of Palestinian students on campus,” the suggested language read, groups who adopt this bylaw “will not invite speakers that have expressed and continued to hold views or host/sponsor/promote events in support of Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine.”

 And in language which is Orwellian in its attempt to paint bigotry as virtue, cooperating student groups, the bylaw read, will proclaim that they are “publicly stipulating the organization’s position of anti-racism and anti-settler colonialism to speakers, ensuring that proposals for speakers emphasize the organization’s desire for equality and inclusion,” all of this for the purpose of creating “a safe and inclusive space for Palestinian students and students that are in the support of the liberation of Palestine.”

 The implementation of a litmus test of ideological allegiance — only targeted at Jews who support Israel — is part of a decades-old campaign to malign Israel and transform it into a pariah state. It excludes its supporters from progressive groups, by falsely alleging Israel is an apartheid, racist regime of white supremacy that continues to oppress innocent Arabs who were the actual indigenous residents of the land now called Israel.

 Imagine if a student government yanked accommodations for halal food on campus because Islam can be linked to terrorism, the same spurious linkage these social justice cretins have created for “apartheid” Israel, Zionism and kosher food from pro-Israel companies. The campus-wide howling about Islamophobia and bigotry would be deafening.

 The Berkeley situation is, of course, part of a broader effort to marginalize Jewish students, malign Israel and Zionism without debate or counter-argument, contort history and facts to elevate the Palestinian cause and denigrate the Jewish state, and promote hatred and hostility to any supporter of Israel. The real intention of pro-Palestinian radicals, now encompassing a large swathe of academia, is to exclude Israel and Zionism as reasonable topics of discussion and to prevent supporters of the Jewish state from even defending it or offering counterarguments. While Israel is not a perfect country and when they do make mistakes they should be called out on those mistakes. However, the immense hatred of the Jewish people that has arisen to almost pre-World War 2 levels is a sign that Satan is continuing his attacks.

 Biblical Connection: In Revelation 12, the nation of Israel, depicted symbolically by a woman figure, is attacked by both Satan and the forces of the Antichrist.

 PRAY: Pray that the Jewish people will be protected from these types of unjust attacks in the public square.

Red Heifers Sent to Israel in Possible Preparation for a Third Temple?

Five perfectly red heifers, required for the ritual purification of those who have touched a dead body, arrived in Israel from a ranch in Texas, as the Jewish Temple Institute continues preparations to lay the ground for the construction of the Third Temple in Jerusalem.

 The heifers are all under one year old and if they remain 100% red and avoid any blemishes which would disqualify them, they will each be eligible to be used to create the ashes required by Jewish law to purify those who have been in contact with a dead body, explained the Temple Institute. This level of purification would be needed in order to allow the priests to carry out their work in a future Temple.

 The prized cattle were immediately transported to Haifa where they will sit in quarantine for no less than seven days, in accordance with the regulations of the Israel Veterinary Authority. After the quarantine, they will be released to two separate locations in Israel, one of which will eventually be opened to the public. The heifers will be fed and cared for at these locations until they can be slaughtered and rendered into ashes from their third year onwards.

 The heifers were greeted by a ceremony at Ben-Gurion Airport. Temple Institute officials Rabbi Chanan Kupietzky, Rabbi Tzachi Mamo, Rabbi Yisrael Ariel and Rabbi Azaria Ariel participated in the ceremony, alongside Stinson and Jerusalem and Heritage Ministry director-general Netanel Isaac.

 The Jewish Temple Institute has been working for years on creating all the necessary elements to rebuild the Jewish Temple. Their website states that their goal is to educate, research, promote activism and to even prepare for actual rebuilding and dedication.

 What is a red heifer? The red heifer is first mentioned in the Book of Numbers 19:3, when God tells Moses and Aaron “This is the ritual law that God has commanded: Instruct the Israelite people to bring you a red cow without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which no yoke has been laid.” The Bible goes on to explain how the heifer is processed and burnt and its ashes mixed into sanctified water. Those who became impure due to touching a human corpse would be purified by having the water mixed with the ashes sprinkled on them twice: once three days after they came in contact with the corpse and a second time seven days after contact. The Torah relates that a red heifer was brought to Elazar the Priest, the son of Aaron, and was processed for its ashes for the ritual.

 Biblical Connection: Why is the red heifer important to prophecy? 2 Thessalonians 2:4 says that the Antichrist will one day go the temple and claim to be God. Since the 2nd Jewish Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., this would require a 3rd temple to be built. Critics of eschatology have argued for centuries that this passage cannot be referring to a future time because there would be no temple for the Antichrist to go to or try to spiritualize the temple in some manner. However, these types of headlines show that it is clear that the orthodox Jews in Israel would not only like to rebuild the temple, but are actively creating elements and planning for a time when they can rebuild a future temple. Presumably, it will be this temple that will one day be rebuilt that the Antichrist will enter and declare himself God.

 PRAY: Pray that God’s timetable will continue to occur. While we as Christians should not necessarily cheer the construction of a temple, it does show that some of the prophetic elements that God promised could come to pass soon.

Signs of Apostasy on the Rise?

At least a third of senior pastors in the United States believe one can earn a place in Heaven by simply being a good person, according to a nationwide survey. The findings were among several surprising responses as part of a survey conducted earlier this year by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University. The American Worldview Inventory 2022 examined more than three dozen beliefs held by pastors.

Researchers found that in addition to believing that people can merit salvation based solely on their good works, one-third or more of senior pastors surveyed also believe the Holy Spirit is not a person but rather “a symbol of God’s power.” Others said that moral truth is subjective; sexual relations between two unmarried people who love each other is “morally acceptable” and biblical teaching on abortion is “ambiguous.” At least a third of those surveyed also said they believe “socialism is preferable to capitalism and that allowing property ownership facilitates economic injustice,” which researchers say could point to the “increase of cultural and political influence into the church.”

After data reported earlier this year found just 37% of Christian pastors have a biblical worldview, the latest CRC report analyzed that research across all major U.S. denominations. They found that a “loss of biblical belief is prevalent among pastors in all denominational groupings.”

 The current report focuses on roughly half of those beliefs, revealing that a shockingly large percentage reject biblical teaching on some of the most basic Christian beliefs. Among Evangelical pastors, for example, around 43% said they do not believe that the personal accumulation of wealth is provided by God for the individual to manage those resources for God’s purposes.

 Another 39% of Evangelical pastors surveyed said there is no absolute moral truth and that “each individual must determine their own truth.” Roughly the same percentage (38%) didn’t answer in the affirmative when asked if “human life is sacred,” while 37% said having faith, in general, is more important than in what — or more specifically, Whom — one has faith. Perhaps most startlingly, three in 10 Evangelical pastors (30%) didn’t answer in the affirmative if their salvation is based on having confessed their sins and accepting Jesus Christ as their savior.

George Barna, CRC’s director of research, said the results could be linked to another trend he observed in the data. “While studying the spiritual behavioral patterns of pastors, it became evident that a large share of them do not have a regular spiritual routine,” Barna said. “There was a correlation between possessing biblical beliefs and a consistent regimen of Bible reading, prayer, worship and confession. In some of the denominational groupings, a majority of pastors do not engage in those foundational spiritual practices on a regular basis,” he added. “Yet, among the pastors who have the most consistently biblical beliefs, there is also a daily routine that incorporates all of those disciplines.”

 Biblical Connections: 2 Thessalonians 2:3 talks about a falling away or apostasy (Greek, apostasia) that will occur before the Tribulation and the rise of the Antichrist. While there has always been a segment of Christianity that has dealt with false teachers and falling away, it seems that increased secularization in the West has dramatically increased this push away from Biblical truth that has been accepted for centuries to the point that even many pastors have now fallen into this deceptive trap. These are not interpretive challenges that good people can disagree on but are instead the very core of the Christian faith. Perhaps we are seeing the beginnings of this falling away. Only time will tell.

 PRAY: Pray for the pastors that have turned away from the truth of God’s Word. Pray for a return to the faith that has stood for over 2,000 years.

Doctors Refute Abrams' Claim there is No Fetal Heartbeat at 6 Weeks

Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is being accused of spreading "misinformation" after she stated that the unborn do not have a heartbeat at six weeks gestation, despite evidence from medical journals. During an event at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center in Atlanta, Abrams asserted that "there is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks," adding that she believed the sound of a fetal heartbeat at that stage is "manufactured" to convince people that men have a right to "control" women's bodies.

 Abrams' comments were in response to Georgia's heartbeat bill, also known as the Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act. She claimed the legislation shouldn't be called a "Fetal Heartbeat Bill" because "that's medically false, biologically a lie." The bill bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat becomes detectable but includes exceptions for rape, incest, or if the mother's life is in danger or the fetus is unviable. The law was passed in 2019, but a federal judge ruled it unconstitutional. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, returning authority over abortion laws to the states, a federal appeals court overturned the lower court ruling on July 20, allowing the law to go into effect.

 Dr. Donna Harrison, CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, an organization that boasts over 7,000 pro-life doctors, disagreed with Abrams. Harrison stated that Abrams' claims are an example of "misinformation" that ignores evidence from "basic embryology." "In fact, at six weeks' gestation, the embryonic heart rhythmically contracts to pump blood through its arteries, which flows to the placenta to exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen," she wrote. "To call this anything other than a beating heart is dishonest, and serves only to dehumanize preborn people. ... Playing semantics with the definition of a heart does nothing to serve science or the public, but rather only advances a pro-abortion agenda."

 Tara Sander Lee, the director of Life Sciences at the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute who studied heart development at Harvard Medical School, said in a statement that the human heart starts beating 22 days after fertilization. "A baby's heart is actively beating at six weeks gestation and will have already beat nearly 16 million times by 15 weeks," said Lee. "In fact, at six weeks, when Stacey Abrams says a heartbeat doesn't exist, that baby's heart is actually beating at about 110 beats per minute (bpm)." Lee cited peer-reviewed research published by the Charlotte Lozier Institute and a 2019 study published in the National Library of Medicine titled "The Transitional Heart: From Early Embryonic and Fetal Development to Neonatal Life."

 Another study, published in October 2019 by the Department of Radiology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, also affirmed that cardiac activity begins as early as six weeks gestation. In addition, the absence of a detectable heartbeat is a sign of pregnancy failure, according to the study. "Most American parents have seen their baby's beating heart during prenatal ultrasound and discussed it with their obstetrician," she continued. "The mainstream media can perform Olympic-level semantics gymnastics all they want, but most Americans instinctively understand that a developing human organ which beats rhythmically and pumps blood throughout the body is, in fact, a heart."

 As The National Review reported in February, up until recently, Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, stated on its webpage that a "very basic beating heart and circulatory system develop" during the fifth to sixth week of pregnancy. Now, the website states that at five to six weeks, "[a] part of the embryo starts to show cardiac activity. It sounds like a heartbeat on an ultrasound, but it's not a fully-formed heart — it's the earliest stage of the heart developing," the website states. This is yet another example of people attempting to go against God’s plan for life.

 Biblical Connection: The Bible clearly teaches that life in the womb is “knit together” by God (Psalm 139:13).

 PRAY- Pray that those who want to continue to kill the lives of unborn babies will be stopped and the unborn will be protected.

Court rules Christians can’t be forced by the government to perform abortions, gender reassignment surgeries

Last week, the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rule that would have required doctors to perform abortions and gender reassignment surgeries. In a unanimous opinion, the Fifth Circuit Court upheld a 2021 permanent injunction by a lower court that shielded Christian groups from anti-discrimination lawsuits under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, race and national origin.

 The Department of Health and Human Services had been working on implementing the Biden administration’s “Notice and Guidance on Gender Affirming Care” agenda. This would have forced doctors to perform abortion and body mutilating “gender transition” surgeries, even if they were morally opposed to the practices.

 HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra claimed “This proposed rule ensures that people nationwide can access health care, free from discrimination. Standing with communities in need is critical, particularly given increased attacks on women, trans youth, and health care providers. Health care should be a right not dependent on looks, location, love, language, or the type of care someone needs.”

 In 2016 the Obama administration tried to require healthcare providers to perform gender transition procedures, including on minors, even if the providers held sincere religious objections. The Obama-era mandate was challenged in court by multiple groups, and was eventually repealed during the Trump administration, only to be revived by the Biden administration.

 In August 2021, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas issued a permanent injunction against a similar mandate that required medical facilities and health insurers to cover or to provide abortions and gender transition procedures. O’Connor issued the permanent injunction in the case of Franciscan Alliance, Inc. et al. v. Xavier Becerra, concluding that the mandate violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. “No party disputes that the Transgender Mandate threatens to burden Christian Plaintiffs’ religious exercise … by placing substantial pressure on Christian Plaintiffs, in the form of fines and civil liability, to perform and provide insurance coverage for gender-transition procedures and abortions,” he wrote.

 Luke Goodrich of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty was critical of the proposed rule, telling The Christian Post that it was “yet another proposal to force doctors and hospitals across the country to perform gender transitions and abortions in violation of their conscience and medical judgment. This has been the announced policy of the administration since the first day President Biden took office.”

 Goodrich commented that if they had lost, the Biden administration would have declared “open season” on religious hospitals that objected to gender transitions.

 Joseph Davis, also of the Becket Fund, called this ruling “a major victory for conscience rights and compassionate medical care in America. Doctors cannot do their jobs and comply with the Hippocratic Oath if the government requires them to perform harmful, irreversible procedures against their conscience and medical expertise.”

 Biblical Connection: One of the many sins that the Canaanites committed that caused God to bring judgment on them was sacrificing their children for their benefit and pleasure (Leviticus 18:21, Deuteronomy 12:29-31).

 PRAISE: This is a major victory reinforcing the rights of Christian medical groups and providers to not to be forced into performing surgeries going against their sincerely held religious beliefs.

Britain Continues Attack on Traditional Christian Beliefs of Gender

A London-based employment tribunal has ruled that the British Equality Act protects Christians’ beliefs that do not affirm transgenderism, but they cannot express those beliefs in the workplace. The Employment Appeal Tribunal in London delivered the judgment in a case concerning a Christian doctor whose work contract was terminated over his refusal to refer to a man as a woman.

 In July 2018, Dr. David Mackereth, an A&E doctor with 30 years of experience, was forced out of his job in the Department of Work and Pensions. He subsequently took his case to the tribunal which ruled that biblical beliefs on gender are “incompatible with human dignity” and not “worthy of respect in a democratic society.” The doctor then sought to challenge that ruling.  At first read, this judgment sounded very favorable. It means that the belief that God created humans as male and female and not transgender is a protected belief under both the Equality Act and the Human Rights Act, said the British charity Christian Concern, whose legal arm, the Christian Legal Centre, represented the Christian doctor. “Furthermore, it means that more narrow beliefs flowing from that core belief, such as that affirming a transgendered person in their gender identity belief is harmful, are also protected. The right not to believe in transgenderism is also protected,” Christian Concern added.

 However, the appeals tribunal also affirmed that “while the belief, or lack of belief, in transgenderism was protected, its manifestation in the workplace was qualified.” Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, called the judgment “confusing and muddled…The way in which the judge has driven a wedge between holding a belief and manifesting it means these basic Christian beliefs are protected on paper but not in practice,” Williams said. “The freedom to hold a belief, but not be able to express it, is no freedom at all,” he added.

 Mackereth said during proceedings that he was asked in a conversation by his line manager: “If you have a man 6 foot tall with a beard who says he wants to be addressed as ‘she’ and ‘Mrs,’ would you do that?” And Mackereth replied that in good conscience, he could not. His contract was subsequently terminated.

 Mackereth said he was grateful to the court for at least “recognizing that a belief that we are made by God, both male and female ‘in His image’ is not incompatible with human dignity.” However, he also said he will be taking the case to a higher court. Mackereth said everyone in the NHS should be able to say “publicly without fear that a person cannot change sex, but instead we are being forced to accept a massive change to our concept of the medical reality of sex, with no scientific basis for that change.” He continued: “As Christians, we are not trying to be unkind to people in any way. As Christians we are called to love all people with Christian love. But we cannot love people truly when we live and disseminate a lie. If we are to tell patients that they need to ‘follow the science’, then we must not tell them that they can change sex.”

 Biblical Connections: Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 that, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” We are clearly seeing a change in Western culture in which Christianity is tolerated only as long as it does not offend someone else. The moment someone becomes offended, religious freedom is placated.

 PRAY: Pray that this drive in Western culture toward ungodliness would stop and Christian principles and truth would be put back into the public square.

Woke Culture is a Great Threat to Religious Freedom

The head of a noted religious freedom advocacy organization cited “the dominance of woke culture that thinks it’s OK to silence people who disagree” as the greatest threat to religious freedom in the United States and around the world. Michael Farris, president and CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom, explained that many people, especially Christians, find themselves on “the receiving end of efforts to silence them, to cause them to lose their careers” and “not have the ability to even get their opinions out in public society,” Farris said “the dominance of woke culture that thinks it’s OK to silence people who disagree is very dangerous in many respects for freedom of speech and freedom of religion” in the U.S.

 Farris stated that “in some sectors of the world,” the greatest threat to religious freedom is “the same as the United States,” specifically, “the imperialism of woke culture.” He maintained that the “totalitarian mood” behind woke culture extends to the dominant orthodoxies in other countries as well: “In India, for example, Hindu nationalism operates on a very, very egregious basis and tries to close down people that are differing…I was in India just a few weeks ago and met with a young man who was beaten by the police for simply praying out loud on a neighborhood balcony of an apartment,” he said. “He was charged with a crime of forcible conversion. All he was doing was praying for his uncle’s healing.”

 Farris cited the intolerance of Hindu nationalists in India as well as woke culture in the U.S. as examples of how “we’re in a mood of the world where diversity of opinion is not being tolerated. There’s pressure to adhere to whatever the prevailing viewpoint is in a particular country, whether that’s Hindu nationalism or left-wing cultural wokeism. Get in line or face the consequences is the mood in way too many places in the world,” he said, stressing that “it’s relatively a small, very vocal, very vicious minority that wants to silence people, especially in this country.

 “I don’t think that the majority of Americans support this,” he added, noting that “waking up the big middle of the country to what’s happening” is a necessary step in reversing the trend of intolerance because “most Americans still believe in their heart that everybody should be able to say whatever they want and not suffer the consequences of being subjected to mob violence.” Farris recalled that earlier this year, one of his colleagues, ADF General Counsel Kristen Waggoner, had a mob try to “drown her out” as she addressed students at Yale Law School. At the same time, he expressed hope that “America can listen to its better angels and not listen to people who really want to pursue what I believe to be an un-American position of silencing those that you disagree with.”

 Agreeing that “Christians who hold biblical views on sexuality, gender and abortion are not being tolerated in the public square,” Farris identified “most college campuses or most public schools” as the most hostile environments for those with such beliefs: “It is very, very difficult to be able to communicate your views as a Christian and there is punishment being metered out.” Farris elaborated on his concerns with American education, noting that he had been “litigating cases” involving a tug of war between parents and schools and teachers over what is taught in public schools surrounding sex and gender for 40 years. “There has been some level of this that’s been going on at least that long,” he asserted. Farris said one change in education policy that has already materialized is a doubling of the homeschool population in the last couple of years: “It went from 5 percent of the school-aged population to about 10 percent.”

 Farris attributed the ascendance of critical theory and other concerning curriculum in schools to the fact that “school districts are organized in a way that the teachers’ union has an outsized influence in a number of ways.” He also explained that “the general education establishment, if you’re starting with the teachers’ colleges in the country that control a lot of what happens downstream, has pretty much bought into the culturally woke agenda.”

 Biblical Connection: The early church faced a similar issue when first the Jews and then the Romans tried to silence their voices through persecution and even death. However, the believers stood strong in their faith and continued to spread the Gospel.

 PRAY: Pray for those who are in danger of persecution but also pray that this tide will shift, and many parts of the world will turn back to religious freedom.

What Is the Impact of Reversing Roe v. Wade?

At any moment, the Supreme Court will release their decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case over a Mississippi law which bans abortion after 15 weeks. In 1973, Roe v. Wade establish abortion on-demand as a federal right. In the almost 50 years since, the Supreme Court has repeatedly blocked a multitude of commonsense pro-life state laws from going into effect.

 When Roe v. Wade was decided, babies were considered viable (able to survive) at 28 weeks. Today, with aggressive medical care, premature babies are able to survive at 22 weeks or even earlier.

 God’s Word reminds us, “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13). Since 1973, medical science has “caught up” to prove that an unborn child is indeed a human life. As early as 5 weeks, babies in the womb have a heartbeat, blood vessels forming a circulatory system, and the brain and spinal cord are begining to develop. At 10 weeks babies have arms, legs, fingers and toes. And at 15 weeks, babies have a fully developed heart, nose, lips, eyelids and eyebrows. They can yawn, hiccup and suck their thumbs … and they can feel pain.

 This momentous decision could immediately enact pro-life laws across America. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 10 states have provisions to ban all or nearly all abortions; four states have passed an amendment declaring their state constitution does not secure or protect the right to abortion or allow the use of public funds for abortion; and 17 states have laws banning abortion at or before 20 weeks.

 Last month, after a draft of Dobbs was leaked, crisis pregnancy centers, pro-life advocacy groups, and churches were targeted. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America released a report listing over 40 incidents of violence and vandalism including activists throwing Molotov cocktails and setting fire to the offices of Wisconsin Family Action in Madison and the offices of Oregon Right to Life.

 Marjorie Dannenfelser, the group’s president, commented “Every abortion is an act of violence – violence against the unborn child who is killed and violence against the mother who is wounded in one of the deepest ways possible. In contrast to that inherent violence, the vast network of pregnancy centers, maternity homes, and other organizations across America exist to peacefully and lovingly serve women and families.”

 Also upset with the Dobbs leak, Nicholas John Roske, armed with a gun and a knife, was arrested near the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and was charged with attempted assassination. Just yesterday, Roske, who has admitted to flying across country to kill Justice Kavanaugh, pled not guilty. A tentative trial date has been set for August 23, but it remains to be seen what the outcome will be.

When the final Dobbs decision is released, there is a very real threat of escalating violence and destruction. Jane’s Revenge, a radical pro-abortion group, has declared “open season” on pro-life institutions that do not shut down threatening, “If abortions aren’t safe then you aren’t either.” They have promised additional attacks saying it “will not stop” or “hesitate to strike” until abortion’s legality is secure.

 PRAY: Pray for safety for the justices of the Supreme Court. Pray for the protection of crisis pregnancy centers and pro-life advocacy groups. In addition to praying, commit to coming alongside those groups who provide pregnant mothers and their children and families with much needed resources that help them embrace life.

Bible Researchers Decipher Earliest Hebrew Inscription Known as ‘Curse Tablet’

Biblical researchers say they have decoded an ancient Hebrew inscription, known as a “curse tablet” that predates by centuries any known Hebrew inscription from ancient Israel. The inscription was found on Mt. Ebal, the mountain of the curse, mentioned in Deuteronomy 27 and Joshua 8. “Cursed, cursed, cursed — cursed by the God of YHWH, you will die cursed, cursed you will surely die, cursed by YHWH cursed, cursed, cursed,” reads the earliest proto-alphabetic Hebrew text recovered on a small, folded lead tablet, the Associates for Biblical Research announced at a press conference at the Lanier Theological Library in Houston, Texas.

 “I believe the amulet dates to the Late Bronze II age, or as early as 1400 BC,” Scott Stripling, ABR’s director of excavations, told The Jerusalem Post. He added, “This is earlier than many skeptics believe the Bible existed, making this the earliest appearance of the word YHWH in Israel and it was found at a covenant site. The implications are enormous and will reverberate for many years to come.”

 The amulet, known as a defixio or curse tablet, came to light in December 2019 when Stripling, also the director of the Archaeological Studies Institute at the Bible Seminary went with his team to wet sift the discarded material from excavations conducted in 1982-1989 in the West Bank. Those excavations were conducted by the late Haifa University archaeology professor Adam Zertal who discovered the altar of Joshua on Mount Ebal near the city of Nablus in the West Bank.

 “This amulet and its inscription do not predate the Bible,” Stripling said. “We believe it coincides with the biblical events. We talk about verisimilitude, a consistency between what we read in the text and what we find in the material culture. If the text were true, this is what you would anticipate finding, and indeed, it is what we found.” Haifa University professor Gershon Galil told The Times of Israel, “This is a text you find only every 1,000 years.”

 Some have raised concerns about the claims, with one unnamed academic telling The Times of Israel, “The fact that they are publishing it in the news before being published scientifically is a bit off.” However, the Associates for Biblical Research said an academic, peer-reviewed article will be published later this year. It is not uncommon for articles in the field of archaeology to take several years to go through the publishing process. The researchers include: Stripling, Galil, Ivana Kumpova, Jaroslav Valach, Pieter Gert van der Veen, Daniel Vavrik and Michal Vopalensky.

 According to the Bible, Mount Ebal was the mountain from which the curses were called out for those who broke God’s law when the children of Israel made a covenant with God before entering the land of Israel. Deuteronomy 11:29 reads, “When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses.”

 This discovery, if proven accurate based on these early reports, would be a game-changer. Critical scholars argue that Israel as a nation did not even exist at this point in time, that the Exodus never happened and that the text of the Bible was not written for centuries. Showing that the Hebrews not only could write at this time, but actually had portions of the Bible written in various forms would go a long way to establish the historicity of the Old Testament, something that has been greatly questioned by skeptics for the last few centuries.

 PRAY: Pray we will continue to see discoveries in archaeology that will help to strengthen the historicity of Biblical text.

Second Synagogue Discovered in Mary Magdalene’s Hometown

Archaeologists say a second synagogue dating back to the Second Temple period has been discovered in what is believed to have been the birthplace of Mary Magdalene of the Bible and is “changing our understanding of Jewish life in this period.” While excavating the Galilean town of Magdala, known today as Migdal, archaeologists say they found the remnants of a second synagogue dating back to the Second Temple period — which in history was a time that is believed to have lasted between 515 or 516 B.C. up until 70 A.D. 

 “This is the second synagogue from the Roman period that has been uncovered in the village — and the first case of the existence of two synagogues in any locality from the Second Temple period, a period when the Temple in Jerusalem was still standing,” the Israel Antiquities Authority shared on Facebook.

 Prof. Adi Erlich,  who heads the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, and Dina Avshalom-Gorni, who directs the excavation of the site on behalf of the University of Haifa, believe the discovery “sheds light on the social and religious life of the Jews in the Galilee during this period.” They contend that the finding “indicates the need for a special building for studying and reading the Torah and social gatherings.”

 The first synagogue in Migdal was uncovered in 2009 through an excavation that found ritual baths, streets, a marketplace and industrial facilities in the ancient village. The second synagogue was first discovered by probes conducted by Barak Tzin of the Israel Antiquities Authority and lies less than 200 meters away from the first synagogue. The IAA statement states that the discovery of the second synagogue is “changing our understanding of Jewish life in this period,” IAA stated.

 “We can imagine Mary Magdalene and her family coming to the synagogue here, along with other residents of Migdal, to participate in religious and communal events,” excavation co-director Avshalom-Gorni told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

 The discovery was made amid a plan to build new infrastructure in the town of Migdal. But while the areas were being excavated — a typical practice in advance of construction —  the second synagogue was discovered by the IAA, Y.G. Contractual and the University of Haifa.  Avshalom-Gorni told the newspaper that the first synagogue had a decorative mosaic floor and the second one had a compacted, plastered and earthen floor, thus the second synagogue is said to be smaller and not as ornate as the first.

 The first synagogue was in an industrial area, while the second was located in a residential street, which suggests they were built “within the social fabric of the settlement,” Avshalom-Gorni told The Times of Israel, who reported that the second synagogue consisted of the main hall and two side rooms. A stone bench was also recovered. Archaeologists found bases for two of the building’s six pillars that held up the roof. The walls of the synagogue were colorfully decorated and covered in plaster. Archaeologists believe that a room at the south end of the main hall with a shelf may have stored scrolls.

Christian doctor to have case heard at UK tribunal

A Christian doctor who lost his job for refusing to use trans pronouns will appear before a tribunal in the United Kingdom to challenge a ruling that held that biblical beliefs on gender are “incompatible with human dignity” and not “worthy of respect in a democratic society.” Dr. David Mackereth, a physician who in July 2018 was forced out of his job in the Department of Work and Pensions, will challenge the ruling at the Employment Appeal Tribunal in London.

“My case affects everyone, not just me and Bible-believing Christians, but anyone who is concerned by compelled speech and transgender ideology being enforced on the NHS and other public services,” Mackereth said in a statement. “The judgment from two years ago said to Christians, ‘you have to believe in transgender ideology.’ That is totalitarianism. It made out Christianity to be nothing, the Bible to be nothing. That cannot be allowed to stand.”

The case comes about a week after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told members of Parliament that “when it comes to distinguishing between a man and a woman, the basic facts of biology remain overwhelmingly important.” In the two-day hearing, lawyers are expected to cite Maya Forstater’s tribunal victory last June, maintaining that an earlier decision against her “erred in law.” Forstater served as a senior researcher at a think tank in London and was fired in 2019 for tweeting that “men cannot change into women.” She criticized the decision to house a trans-identified biological male in a woman’s prison.

In 2018, Mackereth was terminated as a medical assessor after refusing to identify clients by their chosen gender identity. In 2019, he took his case to an Employment Tribunal in Birmingham, claiming harassment and discrimination based on his Christian beliefs. Mackereth said during proceedings that he was asked in a conversation by his line manager: “If you have a man six foot tall with a beard who says he wants to be addressed as ‘she’ and ‘Mrs,’ would you do that?” And Mackereth replied that in good conscience, he could not. His contract was subsequently terminated. But the tribunal ruled in October 2019 that the Department for Work and Pensions had not breached the Equality Act of 2010 by firing the physician, who now works as an NHS emergency doctor. “A lack of belief in transgenderism and conscientious objection to transgenderism in our judgment are incompatible with human dignity and conflict with the fundamental rights of others,” the judgment read.

The Christian Legal Centre argues that the employment judge “effectively put ‘transgender rights’ ahead of freedom of conscience.” The legal group contends that the consequence of the decision is that it “authorized employers to compel Christians to use pronouns preferred by customers who believe in gender-fluidity. It is believed to be the first time in the history of English law that a judge has ruled that free citizens must engage in compelled speech,” a statement from the Christian Legal Centre reads.

Mackereth believes that NHS employees are “being forced to accept a massive change to our concept of the medical reality of sex, with no scientific basis for that change. No doctor, or researcher, or philosopher, can demonstrate or prove that a person can change sex,” Mackereth said. “Without intellectual and moral integrity, medicine cannot function and my 30 years as a doctor are now considered irrelevant compared to the risk that someone else might be offended.” As Christians are called to be “love all people,” Mackereth asserts that followers of Christ can’t “love people truly when we live and disseminate a lie.”

Christian Legal Centre Chief Executive Andrea Williams said if the judgment against her client is upheld, it will have “seismic consequences” for “anyone in the workplace who is prepared to believe and say that we are created male and female. The teaching of Genesis 1:27 is repeated throughout the Bible, including by Jesus Christ himself. It is fundamental to establishing the dignity of every human person but is, in a bizarre ironic twist, being branded as incompatible with that dignity,” Williams said.

Pray- Pray that this left-leaning push to drive out the Biblical foundation of man and woman will be defeated and order will again be restored.

Did the United Nations Create the Beast of Revelation 13?

A new giant statue installed outside the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan is being likened to an End Times “beast” described by the Apostle John in Revelation 13:2, which states, “The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.”

 The U.N. released a statement about the new statue. “A guardian for international peace and security sits on the Visitor’s Plaza outside #UN Headquarters. The guardian is a fusion of jaguar and eagle and donated by the Government of Oaxaca, Mexico … It is created by artists Jacobo and Maria Angeles,” the U.N. says in a tweet that includes a photo of the statue.

 This new statue has led many to identify it as the beast of Revelation. This has led to some confusion, with some wondering if this is a sign that we are now in the Tribulation. However, there are several problems with this idea. First, the two beasts in Revelation 13, the beast out of the Sea and the beast out of the land, are not actual beasts but are symbolic representatives of actual people in the future. This is very similar to the four beasts found in Daniel 7, which are not actual beasts either but represented the nations of Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece and Rome. In Revelation 13, the beast out of the Sea represents the future Antichrist and the beast out of the land represents the future False Prophet.

 The characteristics of these beasts are symbolic of their power and abilities. For example, the “ten horns” of the beast represented the power of the beast, given to him by ten future kings that will empower his empire. Much of the symbolism that John writes about in the Book of Revelation comes right out of the Book of Daniel. If the beasts in Daniel were symbolic, then it should be clear that the beasts in Revelation are similarly representative of other things. Thus, the beast statue should not alarm us into thinking that the Tribulation period has started in any way. There is no literal future beast figure that is coming that matches the physical descriptions given in Revelation, but instead the Antichrist and his False Prophet fulfills these future beasts.

 Second, the assertion that this statue in any way means that we are somehow in the Great Tribulation is also inaccurate. The Rapture of the Church has yet to occur. The Antichrist has not risen to power. It is only with these two event that the Tribulation can occur. Therefore, we should not be worried about this statue representing any beginning of the Tribulation.

 However, while we should not view this statue as any “sign of the apocalypse”, what it should do is alarm us at the increase of wild speculation that the COVID pandemic has brought into our culture. Instead of being faithful to the Biblical text, people are jumping at whatever they see that vaguely resembles anything from the Bible and trying to make it fit into their narrative. They are reading the newspaper first and then trying to make the Bible fit with current events. Instead, what we must always do as good followers of the Biblical text is to try to understand it in its proper meaning. For example, the Beast of Revelation 13 cannot mean we are already in the Tribulation because the Bible makes it clear the church will not be in the Tribulation. We must be wise and biblical in our interpretation and make sure we are always following the true meaning of the text!

 PRAY: Pray for believers to be wise and biblical in interpreting the Bible and world events.

Most millennials, Gen Z adults support bans on abortions when baby's heartbeat is detected

A new poll released ahead of the annual March for Life reveals that most young Americans support efforts to ban abortions after a baby's heartbeat can be detected. The poll, conducted on behalf of the pro-life organization Students for Life of America from Jan. 5–11, asked 834 young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 for their views on abortion and the United States Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion nationwide. The poll’s release comes as pro-lifers were set to gather in Washington, D.C., for the annual March for Life that's held in the nation's capital around the anniversary of the Roe decision.

The survey informed respondents that “the human fetal heart begins to beat 21 days after conception, at 3 weeks gestation” before asking if they supported banning abortions after a heartbeat is detected. Fifty-two percent of those surveyed said they supported banning abortions after a heartbeat can be detected compared to 48% who opposed. Denise Harle, an attorney with the religious liberty law firm Alliance Defending Freedom, reacted to the poll’s findings in an interview with The Christian Post. “I think that is fantastic news,” she said. Harle told CP that she was “so encouraged” because “it means that … our younger generation understands what medical science shows us and what biology teaches us, which is that … life begins at conception, it’s a human right and it should be protected.”

Some of the young Americans who participated in the poll changed their views on abortion once they received more details about Roe v. Wade. Initially, 60% of respondents expressed some level of support for Roe, with 21% saying that they very strongly supported the decision, 26% reporting that they strongly supported the decision, and 12% telling the pollster that they did “not strongly support” it. The share of respondents who expressed some level of support for Roe decreased after they learned that Roe allows abortions to take place throughout all nine months of pregnancy, right up until the moment of birth and allows women to abort their children if they do not like the sex of their baby, fear it has an abnormality like Down syndrome or believe that the baby might be same-sex attracted or one day identify as transgender.

Additionally, the poll informed respondents that Roe has “been used to justify sending U.S. taxpayer dollars to perform abortions or off-set other expenses of abortion vendors/providers,” allows women to use abortion as contraception and “ends a disproportionate number of minority lives.” At the end of the poll, support for Roe had dropped to 50% among those surveyed.

When asked for their views about abortion in general, 25% agreed with the statement asserting that “I support an abortion at any time without exception.” Twenty percent expressed support for “abortion after a heartbeat is detected, up until the fetus can feel pain.” Twenty-eight percent opposed abortions after a heartbeat can be detected, while supporting exceptions to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest. Seventeen percent opposed abortions at all times after a heartbeat can be detected, except to save the life of the mother. The remaining 9% opposed abortion in all circumstances.

The Students for Life of America survey, as well as this year’s March for Life, come as the Supreme Court weighs whether or not to uphold a 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi. A ruling in favor of the state of Mississippi, which is seeking to uphold the ban, would significantly weaken the precedent set by Roe v. Wade. Harle finds herself “very optimistic” about the future of abortion policy in the U.S. based on the oral arguments in the case surrounding the Mississippi abortion law, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which took place last month: “It’s quite possible that Roe v. Wade will be overturned, which would mean that this issue would be returned to the states so that Americans can decide and enact policies consistent with their values, policies that protect life, that protect women’s health.”

Pray- Pray that the push against abortion will continue to gain prominence and America will one day stop the slaughter of the innocent.

Old Testament Prophecies and Christ’s Birth

There are over 100 prophecies in the Old Testament that were fulfilled by Christ’s First Coming. Six of them, in particular, relate to His birth, including the first prophecy of the entire Bible. After the fall in the Garden of Eden, God said to the serpent:

 “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel,” Genesis 3:15.

 This is a prophecy of both the birth and the death of Christ. Concerning His birth, it refers to Him as the seed of the woman. As it is a man who has “seed,” and not a woman, this indicates that Jesus would be born of a woman, but not in the usual way. The angel spoke to Joseph of its fulfillment in Matthew 1:20. This brings us to the next prophecy, that of the virgin birth:

 “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel,” Isaiah 7:14.

 This would find its fulfillment in Mary’s own admission when the Angel Gabriel announced Jesus’ coming in Luke 1:26-35. Isaiah’s passage also contains another prophecy, that of our Savior’s name, “Immanuel,” Hebrew for “God with us,” a prophecy fulfilled by Jesus according to Matthew 1:22-23.

 The Savior’s birthplace at Bethlehem was prophesied by the Prophet Micah, and was fulfilled in Matthew 2:1.

 “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting,” Micah 5:2.

 When the wise men came to visit Jesus in his infancy, King Herod would display his insecurity about his own position by attempting to kill this new “King of the Jews” by slaughtering all the young male children in the Bethlehem area. This slaughter of the innocents was prophesied by Jeremiah:

 “Thus saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not,” Jeremiah 31:15.

 To insure that no harm came to the Christ child, Joseph was instructed to take Him and His mother to Egypt, then to bring them back when the danger posed by Herod was over (Matthew 2:13-23). This flight into Egypt and return was prophesied by Hosea:

 “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt,” Hosea 11:1.

 From these verses alone, it is easy to accept that Jesus Christ, by His birth, was the prophesied Messiah of Israel and Savior of the World. But when we consider that there are still over 100 prophecies related to other aspects of His First Coming that were just as accurately fulfilled, the evidence is unmistakable and irrefutable. The Apostle John put it well when he wrote towards the end of His Gospel:

 “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name,” John 20:31.

Harvard Chaplains Elect Atheist as New President

John Harvard would be horrified by the actions of the school that bears his name. Greg Epstein, an atheist and humanist chaplain at Harvard University who says he doesn’t look to God but people for answers, has been elected by his colleagues as the newest president of the Harvard Chaplains. Esptein, 44, was elected to the presidency of the university’s organization of chaplains by more than 40 chaplains from some 20 different faith and spiritual traditions even though he is an atheist. He shared the news in an announcement on Twitter along with a profile of his election to the position by The New York Times.

 Margit Hammerstrom, the Christian Science chaplain at Harvard, told the publication that while Epstein’s election to such a role may have been problematic at a more conservative institution, the decision was unanimous at Harvard. “Maybe in a more conservative university climate, there might be a question like, ‘What the heck are they doing at Harvard, having a humanist be the president of the chaplains?’ But in this environment, it works. Greg is known for wanting to keep lines of communication open between different faiths,” Hammerstrom said. This shows just how far Harvard has fallen from its founding, with its original purpose to train pastors for the ministry.

 The new leader, who authored Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe, is expected to coordinate activities for the corps of chaplains. He has served as a humanist chaplain at Harvard since 2005. Recent survey data highlighted by the Harvard Crimson shows that a growing number of students enrolled at the Ivy League campus don’t identify with any particular faith. In 2017, some 32.4% of incoming freshmen identified as either atheist or agnostic. By 2019, the share of incoming freshmen who identified as either atheist or agnostic increased to 37.9%.

 “There is a rising group of people who no longer identify with any religious tradition but still experience a real need for conversation and support around what it means to be a good human and live an ethical life,” Epstein, who was raised in a Jewish household, told The New York Times. “We don’t look to a god for answers,” he said. “We are each other’s answers.”

 A study from the Pew Research Center published in late 2019 showed that only 65% of Americans identify as Christian, showing a 12% decline over a decade earlier. The number of Americans who identify as religiously unaffiliated also increased to 26%. “The changes underway in the American religious landscape are broad-based.

 The Christian share of the population is down and religious ‘nones’ have grown across multiple demographic groups: white people, black people and Hispanics; men and women; in all regions of the country; and among college graduates and those with lower levels of educational attainment,” Pew researchers reported. “Religious ‘nones’ are growing faster among Democrats than Republicans, though their ranks are swelling in both partisan coalitions,” Pew added. “And although the religiously unaffiliated are on the rise among younger people and most groups of older adults, their growth is most pronounced among young adults.”

 This is another example of the growing movement within the United States, especially among Millennials and Gen. Z, toward an abandonment of our Christian foundation and a move to hard-line secularization. Whereas in the past places like Harvard, who have long abandoned any sort of Christian foundation, would at least keep up a charade of acceptance of Christianity, many of these groups now actively and openly share their disdain for Christianity and their complete acceptance of the secular worldview.

 PRAY: Pray for our young people in America to turn to God and abandon the hopeless worldview of secularism.

The Rise of Apostasy

The Bible tells us that at the time of the end, men will begin to depart from the truth and to deny the basic message of the Word of God. Certainly, some of the major controversies facing the Church today – the problems of apostasy, atheism, preterism, and secularism – fulfill that prophecy. What effect are these issues having on our culture today?

 The challenge of apostasy is rising from within the evangelical church. There are those who claim they believe the Bible, but who are watering down the truths of the Word of God.

 In 1984, Francis Schaeffer, the great theologian, wrote a book called The Great Evangelical Disaster, in which he predicted that this exact trend would occur in the future – that people would depart from the basic truths of the Word of God while claiming to believe its message.

 Notice what the Apostle Paul predicted 2,000 years ago in 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2. Moved by the Spirit of God, Paul looked down through the corridor of time, and reminds us that there is a tragic deception coming that will precede the return of Christ.

 “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first…,” 2 Thessalonians 2:3.

 The term for “falling away” is the Greek word apostasia, to depart or fall away from a standard of truth. In other words, a time of apostasy will come first. Then the man of sin, the son of perdition, will be revealed. Finally, the Lord Jesus Christ will return.

 Paul says in his last letter to Timothy, the last letter that he wrote:

 “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned into fables,” 2 Timothy 4:2-4.

 He goes on to instruct, “Don’t listen to what they have to say.” Today there are those who try to water down the message of the Gospel, the challenge of Jesus Christ Himself who said, “Follow Me. Repent. For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

 If you start changing the Biblical message to simply accommodate today’s culture, then culture defines Scripture, instead of Scripture defining the culture. Sin then becomes redefined as nothing more that “poor choices.” Hell is not real.

 The doctrine of repentance will be diminished in the last days. A strong call to personal salvation and transformation will be eliminated. The Gospel will be reduced to nothing more than easy believism. The day and age will come when inner feelings replace objective truth.

 That is exactly what Francis Schaeffer predicted 37 years ago and what the Apostle Paul predicted 2,000 years ago. Jesus becomes totally repackaged. The Gospel becomes redefined. The Bible is irrelevant. The Church is unnecessary. Biblical statements about men, women, marriage, and family are all culturally conditioned, so they do not apply to today’s culture.

 As secular culture moves further and further away from God and the things of God, it removes itself from the message of the Word of God. Meanwhile, churches start to accommodate themselves to attract more people. Thus, we end up demeaning the message of the Word of God, and ultimately eliminating the challenge of the call of Christ Himself.

 “… I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” John 14:6.

 That is a very clear, narrow statement from Jesus Himself. Jesus also said:

 “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven,” Matthew 10:32-33.

 If we, as evangelical, Bible-believing Christians, water down the Gospel message, then a wave of apostasy will come like a tsunami and roll over what is left of evangelical culture and wipe out the message of Christ. To combat the rise of apostasy, we must stand firm on the inerrant, inspired Word of God!

 We here at The King is Coming are committed to the authority of the Bible, to preach “thus saith the Lord,” to call people to a personal point of repentance and faith, to give your heart, life, and soul not to some vague mythological idea, but to the real, living Savior, who died for your sins, who rose from the dead, and indeed, who is coming again!

Can We Still Believe in the Rapture?

The Rapture Changes Everything

“The Lord himself will come down from heaven … and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

 One of the most exciting and compelling prophetic events described in the Bible is the rapture of the church. It will occur instantaneously and without warning. Suddenly, millions of people will be missing—caught up to heaven to meet the Savior in the air. While this prophetic promise is of great comfort and assurance to believers, it will have a shocking impact on those who are left behind.

 At the moment of the rapture, the bodies of all believers who have died with faith in Christ since the day of Pentecost will suddenly be transformed into new, living, immortal, resurrected bodies. Even those whose bodies have long since decayed or whose ashes have been scattered across the oceans will receive a new body. This new body will be joined together with the person’s spirit, which Jesus brings with Him from heaven. Then the bodies of those who are alive on earth and have accepted Christ as their Savior will also be instantly translated into new, immortal bodies.

 Notice the similarity between the descriptions of the Rapture in 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 and 2 Thessalonians 4:15-18. When Christ comes to take His church (all believers) to heaven in fulfillment of His promise in John 14:1-3, He will include all New Testament believers, both the living and the dead.

 Together, all believers will be instantly transported into heaven to meet their loved ones “in the clouds” and then to meet the Lord in the air. Those who have rejected the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ and remain on earth will witness a miraculous event of astonishing proportions—the sudden mass disappearance of millions upon millions of Christians from the face of the earth.

 Scripture calls the Rapture “the blessed hope” (Titus 2:13) because this event provides comfort not only to those believers who are concerned about the coming tribulations of the last days, but also to those who long to be reunited with their departed loved ones who shared faith in Christ.

 The Second Coming, which encompasses both the Rapture and the glorious appearing, is one of the most significant events mentioned in the entire Bible. The New Testament alone has 321 references to this awesome event, making it the second-most prominent doctrine presented in Scripture after the doctrine of salvation. The concept of the Second Coming is clearly taught in both the Old and New Testaments. It is also affirmed in the doctrinal statement of every major Christian denomination.

 On average, the New Testament mentions the Second Coming in one out of every 30 verses, and it is mentioned in every chapter of 1 and 2 Thessalonians, the first books written for the early church. Moreover, all nine New Testament authors mention the Second Coming, and 23 of the 27 New Testament books reference it.

 While various views exist as to when the Rapture will occur (before, during, or after the Tribulation), all must acknowledge that there will be a rapture. The only real question is, when will it occur? The chief characteristic of the Rapture is that it will be sudden and will catch people by surprise.

 “Of that day and hour no one knows” (Matthew 24:36), which is why we should live so as to “be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not expect” (Matthew 24:44). Indeed, throughout the ages, the Rapture has appeared imminent to Christians of every generation. And one day He will! The trumpet will sound, the archangel will shout, and we will all go home to be with Jesus.

God intended His church to be motivated to holy living, fervent evangelism, and missionary concern by the study of the second coming of Christ. If Jesus is indeed coming again, then we who are Christians need to let the world know it!