Christian Heritage News

By Raymond Ibrahim A study from the Europe-based Center for Studies on New Religions recently confirmed that “Christians continue to be the most persecuted believers in the world, with over 90,000 followers of Christ being killed in the last year [2016],” which computes to one death every six minutes. The study also found that as many as 600 million Christians around the world were prevented from practicing their faith. Which group is most prone to persecute Christians around the world? The answer to this was made clear by another recent study ; it found that, of the ten nations around the world where Christians suffer the worst forms of persecution, nine are Islamic, though the absolute worst—North Korea—is not. Read more here.

By Diana Chandler - Posted at Baptist Press : ORYOL, Russia (BP) -- Russia's nationwide outlaw of Jehovah's Witnesses will likely ricochet and strike other religions outside of Russian Orthodoxy there, said a Baptist missionary forced to shut down his church in central Russia. "The repression that has already started, in my opinion, it is likely to continue to get worse," Donald Ossewaarde told Baptist Press April 27th by telephone from his home in Oryol. "I don't see any sign that the Russian government is having a change of heart." Ossewaarde, an Independent Baptist, has exhausted his appeals in Russia on an August 2016 conviction of operating a church without a permit under the 2016 anti-religion Yarovaya Law and is making plans to return May 8 to his home in Elgin, Ill. The Baptist ministry he had legally operated since 2002 will cease in the nation where Ossewaarde said every religion outside Russian Orthodoxy is considered a cult, including P

By Michelle Lesley Hank Hanegraaff , the Bible Answer Man. If you hadn’t heard of him before, you probably have by now. President of the Christian Research Institute , author of over twenty books, and host of the popular Bible Answer Man radio call in show, Hanegraaff has been highly regarded in the field of apologetics for years. Until recently, that is, when he publicly announced that he had been chrismated into the Greek Orthodox church he had been attending for about two years. Why? Because the Greek Orthodox church holds many beliefs which conflict with Scripture in much the same way, and on some of the same issues, the Roman Catholic church’s beliefs conflict with Scripture. Much ink and airtime has been dedicated to specific, unbiblical Greek Orthodox doctrines, and you can learn about those in the Additional Resources section at the end of this article, but I’d like to take a look at a statement Hank made during an interview about his decision to join Greek Orthodoxy:

By Jane Robbins - Posted at Truth In American Education : Bill Gates, the funder-in-chief of all things Common Core. Photo credit: World Economic Forum (CC-By-SA 2.0) One of candidate Donald Trump’s biggest applause lines when campaigning was his promise to end the Common Core national K through 12 standards. For the first time in any presidential campaign, an education issue claimed a place of importance with grassroots citizens. What was it about Common Core that so excited the passions of ordinary Americans that they demanded answers in a national campaign? And what are the implications for American education? Joy Pullmann addresses those questions in her new book, The Education Invasion: How Common Core Fights Parents for Control of American Kids . A managing editor at The Federalist and an education research fellow at the Heartland Institute, Pullmann brings her impressive journalistic skills to analyzing the history, philosophy, and quality of the standards. Her book provid

Chinese officials often persecute Christians, such as the woman being beat above. (Photo: ChinaAid ) (Washington, D.C.—April 26, 2017) A newly-released report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) identifies China’s deteriorating religious freedom abuses as a contributor to rapidly worsening religious freedom conditions, listing it among notorious abusers such as North Korea, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Today, USCIRF published its 2017 Annual Report , which yearly pinpoints countries whose religious freedom policies are cause for concern. The report opens by stating, “The state of affairs for international religious freedom is worsening in both the depth and breadth of violations. The blatant assaults have become so frightening—attempted genocide, the slaughter of innocents, and wholesale destruction of places of worship—that less egregious abuses go unnoticed or at least unappreciated.” Read more here.

Abandoned Church by Edward Peterson Image from fineartamerica.com - Featured at Pinterest By Sean DeMars - Posted at 9Marks.org: Dear Wormwood, I am overjoyed to hear of the way our efforts are bearing fruit in America. I hear that cities like Baltimore are desolate, and entire regions, like New England, are almost entirely devoid of the enemy’s presence. I’m also delighted to share with you that the work we’ve been doing in the so-called “Bible Belt” has been more successful than we could have ever imagined! We’ve given the people just enough of the enemy to inoculate them to him, and the Belt is sheering more with each passing day. Might I add, my dear Wormwood, how excited I am to know that an increasingly large number of churches across the American landscape are responding to our efforts exactly as we intended. As you know, our plan to attack them from the outside with persecution was bearing very little fruit—how I wish the central office would give up on the strategy enti

By Bob Faulkner - Posted at Sermon Audio: Details: They're not just being detained. Our brothers and sisters are being tortured and martyred. A true martyr of our day, Pastor Han is one of thousands. The in-depth story from Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, March 2017. Will you pray? Link: http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=424171817471 (Approx. 28 minutes)

By Diana Chandler - Posted at The Baptist Press : NASHVILLE (BP) -- At least five states have officially declared pornography a public health crisis or harmful to the public, and at least one other is considering a similar measure, according to bill updates filed on state legislature websites. A resolution passed by the Tennessee Legislature declaring pornography a public health hazard was awaiting Gov. Bill Haslam's signature April 21. Days earlier, Tennessee became the fourth state to adopt such a resolution, joining Utah, South Dakota and Arkansas. The Virginia General Assembly stopped short of declaring pornography a public health hazard or crisis, but in February passed a resolution that pornography leads to "individual and societal harms." The Georgia legislature adjourned its 2017 session with two resolutions, both in committees, that would declare pornography a public health crisis. The resolutions emphasize research showing the harmful effects of pornography

Doug Wilson, pastor of Christ Church, Moscow, Idaho Posted at The Truth About Moscow : "Doug Wilson cared about evangelizing lost souls only to the extent that he could persuade others to buy his southern history, which he shackled to the gospel. He wasn’t “taking” Moscow & Pullman for Christ. To be sure, he’s the first deride this kind of Bill Bright–Billy Graham terminology. For him, this was war, and he planned to exact retribution against his enemies. ..." For the next blog post I compiled a large body of quotations from Pastor Doug Wilson of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, regarding his stated objective to “take” the cities of Moscow & Pullman. However, before we go there it’s important to disabuse readers of the notion that the words “take” or “takeover” are metaphors that refer to converting the community. This quote controls, because it was the first time he stated his goal: In the 60s, my father wrote a small but enormously influential book called The

Christian Witness of Rebuke outside Planned Parenthood’s                            100th Anniversary Celebration [sic] in Columbia, SC                 Columbia Mills Building , 301 Gervais Street, April 26, 2017 – 5 PM [COLUMBIA] – Columbia Christians for Life , a Christian ministry supporting the sanctity of human life and chastity, will conduct a Christian witness of rebuke to Planned Parenthood’s 100th Anniversary Celebration [sic], April 26, outside the Columbia Mills Building on the public sidewalk in front of 301 Gervais Street, beginning at 5 PM.           Planned Parenthood has committed 47,500 child-murders-by-“abortion” in Columbia, SC as reported by DHEC, 1978-2015, presently operating an “abortion” center at 2712 Middleburg Drive, Suite #107, Columbia.  Nationally, affiliates of Planned Parenthood Federation of America are murdering over 300,000 children in the womb each year in the United States.  Our land is polluted with Planned Parenthood’s bloo

By Shelly Sangrey - Posted at  There's No Place Like Home : Image Source: There's No Place Like Home Last week I published the second of two posts listing the many reasons that I believe homeschooling is better than school. So, it should come as no surprise to you when I say that, unlike many other homeschooling families, my kids do not have the option of going to school. (At least until they go to college.) One of the beauties of homeschooling is the freedom for each family to do what is best for them, so I am not in any way denigrating homeschooling parents who always keep the possibility of school on the table. I used to feel the same way. In fact, I actually did send my kids back to school for two years, so maybe that’s why I’m so adamant now about not doing it ever again. During the time my kids were back in school, my eyes were truly opened to the differences in my kids and in our lives from when they were homeschooled and when they were not. After the initi

Farmers Market at Assembly Street - Image Source: Columbia Historical Photos (1865 - 1918) Posted at  Access Genealogy : Interviewer: Stiles M. Scruggs Person Interviewed: Martha Richardson Location: Columbia, South Carolina Place of Residence: 924 Senate Street, Columbia, SC Date of Birth: 1860 Martha Richardson, who tells this story, lives at 924 Senate Street, Columbia, S.C. Her father was an Indian and her mother a mulatto. She was born in Columbia in 1860 and was five years old, when General W.T. Sherman’s Federal troops captured and burned the city in 1865. “When I gits big ‘nough to pick up chips for de cook stove, we was livin’ in de rear of Daniel Gardner’s home, on Main Street, and my mammy was workin’ as one of de cooks at de Columbia Hotel. De hotel was run by Master Lowrance, where de Lorick & Lowrance store is now.  “My daddy, like de general run of Indians, love to hunt but de game not bring much cash in. My mammy often give him some change (money)

By  Emily McFarlan Miller and Laruen Markoe | Religion News Service - Posted at Christian Headlines: It wasn’t a suicide note that former NFL star Aaron Hernandez left in his prison cell when he reportedly hanged himself. Instead, the Massachusetts corrections officers who discovered his body Wednesday morning (April 19) saw “John 3:16” written across Hernandez’s forehead in red ink. A Bible in the cell lay open to the same verse. Hernandez seemed to want to send a message. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life,” the New Testament verse reads. Hernandez was a convicted murderer, serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, and one who had led what many would deem an irreligious life — brawling and using illegal drugs. In 2013 a jury convicted him of killing semipro football player Odin Lloyd. Read more here.

Link: https://youtu.be/QN3D5sO3QDM

By David Tulis - Posted at  NOOGANOMICS. LOCAL ECONOMY & FREE MARKETS : I worked for the homeschool newsletter Esprit before I was married, and a decade ago, as the father of four children, was handed the role of editor. I’ve been thinking lately about changes in American culture that are affecting the work of such publications and their sponsor groups. It is published by the Chattanooga chapter of the Tennessee Home Education Association, which is considering how to continue making itself valuable to families involved in Christian home education and family-centered living. As homeschooling goes secular, Christian groups face new opportunity Curriculum fairs are closing down. Support groups are withering. Circulation among homeschool newsletters plunges. Moms get along without connecting with other moms. The online world beckons, as do co-ops that do your homeschooling for you. When it started it was not legal, says Claiborne Thornton, president of Tennessee Home Education As

Book Review:   The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End , Robert Gerwarth, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 464 pages. By John C. McKay - Posted at  The American Conservative: Image from Wikimedia Commons A hundred years ago this month, on April 6, 1917, the United States declared war against Wilhelmine Germany. Two pivotal events, dire in their execution and pernicious in their consequences, bracketed U.S. entry into the First World War: the Russian Revolution of March 8, 1917, resulting in the abdication of Czar Nicholas II; and later that year, Vladimir Lenin’s nearly bloodless coup d’état against the newly formed Provisional Government, an event ever since immortalized as the October Revolution. The ruinous burdens of fighting an unwinnable war, increasingly crippling social unrest, the despoiling of the norms of civic order, and disintegration of the Czarist conscript military compelled Lenin to accept the Armistice of Brest-Litovsk on December 15, 1917, effect

By Heather Clark - Posted at Christian News Network : RALEIGH, N.C. — Four Republican lawmakers in North Carolina recently presented a bill that would declare the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling on “gay marriage” to be “null and void,” but the House speaker has considered it dead and won’t bring it up for a hearing. Reps. Larry Pittman of Concord, Michael Speciale of New Bern, Carl Ford of Rowan County and Mike Clampitt of Bryson City filed House Bill 780 , also known as the “Uphold Historical Marriage Act,” on April 11th. It notes that the U.S. Constitution does not give power to the federal government to create laws surrounding the institution of marriage, and that the issue is rather reserved to the states. The bill also outlines that the courts have no right to overrule the laws of God. “[T]he ruling of the United States Supreme Court … also exceeds the authority of the court relative to the decree of Almighty God that ‘a man shall leave his father and his mother and

By Dr. R. Scott Clark - Posted at The Heidelblog : The arguments made by Milo Yiannouplos (in a recently released and quite graphic video), that pedophilia is not what you think it is, that sexual contact between men and under-age teen-age boys is not wrong but a safe way to help young homosexuals come of age, are nothing new. According to a 2014 New York Times op-ed essay by Margo Kaplan, the DSM ( The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) “defines pedophilia as an intense and recurrent sexual interest in prepubescent children, and a disorder if it causes a person “marked distress or interpersonal difficulty” or if the person acts on his interests.” She agrees with this definition and argues that there are non-practicing pedophiles. She argues that it is a neurological disorder, that therapy and medication can help a pedophile control his impulses. She wants to bring pedophilia out of the closet so it can be treated. She writes, a “pedophile should be held r

By Daniel DePetris - Posted at The Federalist : Serious observers of world affairs are having a very difficult time explaining what strategic effects the missile attack on a Syrian military airport had. The United States bombs a country’s airfield, and the president whom Washington’s foreign policy community once universally considered to be a lemon is now credited with being a resolute commander-in-chief who faced down an atrocity with flying colors. A headline in the Huffington Post couldn’t have summarized this dynamic better: “Cable News Praises Trump on Syria, Because Bombing Stuff is ‘Presidential.’” Blowing up a couple dozen planes from a war criminal’s arsenal makes us all feel good for a few days, especially if it’s in retaliation for a horrible war crime against innocent men, women, and children. Outside of a shot across the dictator’s bow, however, serious observers of world affairs are having a very difficult time explaining what strategic effects the missile at

By Bob Adelmann - Posted at The New American : The mainstream media have rejoiced because they perceive that President Donald Trump has abandoned policies and changed long-held positions that they have considered anathema. Politico said the president has “demonstrated an incredible willingness to bend his past positions, or abandon them entirely. Sometimes he offers an explanation; sometimes not.” CNN called them “stunning U-turns on key issues” reflecting “extraordinary political shape-shifting.” The “key issues” are Syria, Janet Yellen of the Federal Reserve, NAFTA, NATO, his hiring freeze, China’s currency manipulation, and the Export-Import Bank. Syria tops the list currently as the president, who promised to keep the United States out of protracted conflicts in the Middle East, has instead deepened its military involvement with a barrage of missile strikes on a Syrian airbase in retaliation for a poison gas attack on civilians. The problem is that, back in 2013,

Source: Jim Bovard (Facebook) Editor's Note:  Yesterday America lost a true hero and defender of liberty - William N. Grigg (1963 - 2017). He impacted many lives and taught many of us what true freedom is supposed to look like. Please join me in  thanking the good Lord for him and lifting up his loved ones to the Lord for their comfort, care and support during this difficult time. Thank you, Angela Wittman, ed.  Will Grigg Was a Mighty Voice for Justice and Liberty By Jason Sanchez - Posted at the Foundation for Economic Education : Published April 12, 2017 William Norman Grigg died this afternoon. He was a journalist, broadcaster, editor, musician, father, husband, and self-described Christian Individualist. He was also my hero. Will’s main beat was stories about individual victims of the state: particularly Americans who have been unjustly imprisoned or wrongfully assaulted by government officers. His research for each article was exhaustive. From his home in

By Dr. Joe Renfro - Posted at The Christian Observer : The meaning of history in contemporary American education has changed from what it once was to becoming a form learning directed toward developing minds into a thinking which is in accord with what many want to happen. Change has been escalating in American education in the past fifty years, as the grappling fingers of liberalism has for the most part has transformed education from the earliest grades on through college with the progressive revision of the subject of history. David L. Goetsch in a Patriot Update article in January 27, 2015 rightly wrote that: “Liberals are rewriting America’s history to create a past that does not exist and to eradicate the one the does.” However, Karl Marx, whose family converted from Judaism to Christianity when Karl was six missed the message of history, that it is being determined by God. He created a revision of history that depended on what he esteemed to be the historical materia

Mike Bickle - IHOP-KC - Wikipedia Posted at Design of Providence :  "Obviously, any group, theologian, etc., is going to take certain beliefs for granted. The relevancy here is that this eschatology is grounded upon Mike Bickle's complete abuse of scripture, whether it's interpreting Haggai to mean the building of IHOP-KC ( see my post here ), or how Psalm 2 is a major end-times prophecy, even though the New Testament writers interpreted it as a prophecy of the death and resurrection of Christ ( see my podcast here ). Therefore, the presupposition here is important to note, since we will soon see Mr. Wittenberg commit a false dichotomy between IHOP-KC eschatology and secular thinking." There was recently an article posted on the IHOP-KC blog entitled: Why We Can’t Know the Day or the Hour: the Commandment to Know the Generation of the Lord’s Return . It was written by Adam Wittenberg, who serves on IHOP-KC's marketing department. I wanted to write a res

By Ashli Lincoln - Posted at FOX23 News : A Tulsa parent is speaking out after she says her daughter had a birth control implant embedded into her arm during a trip from school. Miracle Foster says her parental rights were violated. It all started when her 16-year-old daughter attended a Youth Services of Tulsa lecture about sex education at Langston Hughes Academy. After one of the sessions, the teen and other girls reportedly said they wanted to learn more, and the school arranged for Youth Services of Tulsa to pick them up and take them to a clinic. Read more and view news report here. HT: Sermon Audio

Posted at Morning Star News: Tanta, Egypt, in the Nile Delta. (Wikipedia) Blasts in Tanta and Alexandria kill at least 44 people. (Morning Star News) – Bomb attacks on two Coptic churches holding Palm Sunday services in Egypt today killed at least 44 people and injured more than 100 others, according to reports. The first bomb exploded in the Nile Delta city of Tanta, at St. George’s Church about 60 miles north of Cairo, killing at least 27 people and wounding 78 others, according to wire reports. Hours later, a suicide bomber was stopped at the door of St. Mark’s Cathedral in the coastal city of Alexandria, where he detonated explosives that reportedly killed at least 17 people and injured 48 others. Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attacks. Read more here.

MOTHER OF FIVE, ASIA BIBI WITH TWO OF HER CHILDREN Image Source: Voice of the Persecuted Posted at The Free Press Journal : Washington : Two top American Senators have introduced a resolution in the US Senate urging Pakistan to release a Pakistani-Christian woman who is serving a jail term for alleged violation of the country’s draconian blasphemy laws. Senators Rand Paul and Chris Coons on Tuesday introduced a resolution urging Pakistan to release Aasiya Noreen, commonly referred to as Asia Bibi, a mother of five from Nankana area of Punjab province who was convicted of blasphemy in 2009 and has been on death row since 2010. However, after an international outcry, the Pakistani Supreme Court stayed her execution. The senators also asked Pakistan to reform the laws that have led to the targeting of religious minorities. “My heart goes out to Asia Bibi as she continues to endure her unjust imprisonment in Pakistan,” said Paul. “It’s time for Pakistan to immediately release Asia

By Jenni White - Posted at Truth in American Education : Are “Twitterbots” driving the Common Core debate? Image Source: Truth in American Education From 2010 to 2014 – for four consecutive years – I researched and wrote about , lobbied against, designed memes until my hard drive nearly crashed, and crisscrossed virtually the entire state on speaking tours, appealing to as many people as I could to stop the implementation of the Common Core State Standards in Oklahoma. Ultimately our little Common Core is not OK band ‘won,’ and the Standards were repealed from state law in 2014 during a campaign that captured national attention . Today the simple lack of time (stemming from homeschooling four kids, teaching Chem 1 and Pre-Algebra at our Co-Op, running a small farm and needing at least 6 hours of sleep) has pared my education policy involvement down to research and writing on the side. When I saw an article loudly proclaiming “ New Research Shows How Common Core Critics Built So

Details: Published on Mar 22, 2017 Senate confirmation hearing, day three. Asked by Senator Dick Durbin whether the intentional taking of unborn life is wrong, Judge Neil Gorsuch replied that the Supreme Court created a law that makes the unborn child "not a person." "The Supreme Court of the United States has held in Roe v. Wade that a fetus is not a person, for purposes of the 14th Amendment. That [decision] is the law of the land. I accept the law of the land." -- Judge Neil Gorsuch, 3-22-2017 Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5y3fsbkTuQ See also: U.S. Supreme Court Nominee Neil Gorsuch: ‘A Fetus Is Not a Person’ Under the Law   (Christian News Network)

By Heather Clark - Posted at Christian News Network: Feng Jianmei looks at her baby girl after Chinese officials forcibly aborted the child. Image Source: Christian News Network WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has ended government funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) over concerns about its complicity in China’s one-child/two-child policy—an accusation that the organization denies. According to reports, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker received a letter this week from the U.S. State Department advising him of the development. “This determination was made based on the fact that China’s family planning policies still involve the use of coercive abortion and involuntary sterilization, and UNFPA partners on family planning activities with the Chinese government agency responsible for these coercive policies,” the letter read. The Associated Press reports that the $32.5 million that had previously been earmarked for UNFPA will in

Posted at Barna.com : Despite leaving the church, this group has maintained a robustly orthodox view of God. In every case, their beliefs about God are more orthodox than the general population, even rivaling their church-going counterparts. ... We live in an increasingly secular American culture. In this new age, religion is in retreat from the public square, and traditional institutions like the church are no longer functioning with the cultural authority they once held in generations past. Today, nearly half of America is unchurched. But even though more and more Americans are abandoning the institutional church and its defined boundary markers of religious identity, many still believe in God and practice faith outside its walls. This is the first of a two-part exploration of faith and spirituality outside the church. Let’s start with a look at the fascinating segment of the American population who, as the saying goes, “love Jesus but not the church.” (Return next week

Posted at Istoria Ministries Blog : The following is a letter I received from a woman that goes by Hupomone when she comments. She listens regularly to our podcasts from overseas, and she also reads Istoria's Blog. The past year has been a difficult one for her. In an effort to process some of the things that transpired, she decided to write the equivalent of a "blog post." She doesn't have a blog and or even Facebook, so the letter was really initially intended for immediate family/friends. She's given me permission to publish it on Istoria. I believe it illustrates beautifully how principles of the Scripture are either applied - or not applied - in the lives of Christ's people. "I remember my childhood home well. I grew up with my brother, sister and my parents. "My mom always tried to do such a great job making it feel like not just a house, but a home. She tried to decorate in a way that would be nice, but economical. Most vividly, I remember

Christians who gather in house churches such as this one are often detained. (Photo: ChinaAid) (Langzhong, Sichuan—April 1, 2017 ) More than 20 police officers from China’s southwestern Sichuan Province recently detained 15 Christians for attending a Bible study. Authorities broke into a church in mid-March and took into custody 15 Christians who had gathered for a Bible study. Officers accused them of illegally gathering and “gathering a crowd to disturb public order,” and detained them for 15 days. Additionally, they confiscated church seating, projectors, and air conditioning equipment. Read more here.

By Amy Spreeman - Posted at Berean Research : What’s in a name? When the name and title of “General” is used in a church leadership context, it’s a rank that ought to be a red flag for you. After reading this article, I hope it will be in the future. First, the photo. Hillsong’s Brian Houston posted this on his Facebook profile: The rank title in this case may be easily dismissed as nothing more than just a friendly term of endearment. But did you know that “General” is code word for Apostle within the New Apostolic Reformation movement? Read more here.