Christian Heritage News

 By Daniel Darling - Posted at Baptist Press: Vladimir Putin instructed his forces, amassed at the Ukrainian border, to proceed with the first invasion of a sovereign nation by another in nearly a century. The thirty-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization, of which the United States is a member, condemned the invasion. President Biden condemned the attack as well and announced an escalating series of diplomatic and economic sanctions. Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy both offered similar condemnations of Russia’s unprovoked aggression. For most of us, these events are jarring, having grown up with a free Europe where conflict largely involved a global fight against terrorism, under the assumption that the Cold War was over. But today we face the frightening prospect of an emboldened Russia led by an evil dictator. So how should Christians think and act in this moment? Read more... SEE ALSO: Soldiers For Christ

  Russia Attacks Ukraine from Multiple Directions in Unprovoked Invasion: 'A Full-Scale War in Europe Has Begun' By Brody Carter - Posted at CBNNews.com: Published February 24, 2022 - DEVELOPING... Russia launched a violent, unprovoked, full-scale military attack early this morning against the people of Ukraine. War sirens wailed in Kyiv, the capital, before dawn. That was followed by early morning explosions in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city. "A full-scale war in Europe has begun," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said. "Russia is not only attacking Ukraine but the rules of normal life in the modern world." Read more... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Russia Keeps Punishing Evangelicals in Crimea By Kate Shellnut, Forum 18 - Posted at Christianity Today Published February 23, 2022 Since Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014—one of the central points of conflict in the current clash between the two count

Editor's Note : This was written in September of 2019 and is still relevant today, as the "Patriarchy" controversy continues to rage in Reformed circles.  I would be remiss if I did not share this with the hope it will help clarify the issue for readers and reveal the Biblical truth that is at stake within the body of Christ. May God gives us eyes to see and ears to hear. Amen. - AW  By Thomas F. Booher - Posted at The Tulip Driven Life: The Reformed church is deeply divided over many issues, not the least of which is gender roles, or even more fundamentally perhaps (depending on how we are defining things), gender itself, what it means to be a man, and what does it mean to be a woman. What is masculinity and femininity? What does the Bible have to say about this, if anything at all? It should be pointed out that this crisis mirrors the very real issues in our nations today, especially here in the United States, concerning gender/sexuality, etc. It is quite likely that th

By Michael Grasso - Posted at Green Baggins: Should the OPC hire GRACE to investigate potential instances of abuse in its churches? This question came before the 87th General Assembly (GA) in the form of a motion to add a docket item called “Ministering to victims of abuse”. [1] The motion needed a 2/3 majority to be added to the docket, and it failed to reach this threshold. This motion did not come in a vacuum. Aimee Byrd had called on the OPC to hire this organization on April 5, 2021. [2] Following the GA’s decision not to take up the question of hiring GRACE, Aimee Byrd publicly condemned the decision of the GA in two blog posts on July 21 [3] and 26 [4] respectively. A few months after GA, on October 8-9, the Presbytery of Philadelphia hosted a fall conference on the subject of spiritual abuse with Diane Langberg as the speaker. Diane Langberg is the author of Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the church and is a former board member of GRACE. The

 By Michael Foust - Posted at Christian Headlines: A California father lost custody of his transgender-identifying 16-year-old child after declaring his opposition to hormone therapy and after the judge asked the dad if he believes transgenderism “is a sin,” according to a new report. The father, Ted Hudacko, expressed unconditional love for his biological son in court proceedings before California Superior Court Judge Joni Hiramoto, who continually asked the dad if he could affirm the child’s self-identity. The child, a biological male, identifies as female and prefers they/them pronouns. Because of the father’s position, he eventually lost all parental rights, with no ability to see his child and no right to stop any medical treatments that could leave the child permanently infertile, according to the report. Read more...

 Posted at Morning Star News: ( Morning Star News ) – Unregistered house churches that have relied on online gatherings and teaching to survive the COVID-19 pandemic and persecution will have that option taken away under draconian measures taking effect on March 1, sources said. Churches, seminaries and other ministries have been shaken by the government announcement on Dec. 20 that all religious information on the internet will be forbidden unless organizations obtain government permission – an option not open to unregistered house churches. Only the five government-approved religious organizations may apply for such permission: The Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM, representing officially-approved Protestant churches), the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and the officially recognized organizations of Buddhism, Islam and Taosm. “As the measures were announced, it made Christians and other religious minorities panic, and some WeChat groups with a religious name either changed

 By Wes Bredenhof We might think we’re the first ones in history to encounter questions about how Christians should respond to perceived or real government overreach. However, such questions have been part of the story of the Christian church for millennia. It pays dividends to look back at how brothers and sisters in the past have tried to answer these questions. In his 2003 doctoral dissertation on Theodore Beza , John F. Southworth explained how a two-fold emphasis developed in Reformed theology when it came to politics. On the one hand, Scripture teaches that believers must obey rulers in all things not contrary to the Word of God. When a ruler requires his subjects to sin, that is not a “license to sin.” God’s authority always supersedes that of human authorities. On the other hand, God hates anarchy. He wants law and order. Therefore even a tyrannical government is better than a situation of anarchy. Both of these emphases come to expression in article 36 of the Belgic Con

 By Jane L. Green - Posted at Journal of the American Revolution : "On the morning of March 9, a sergeant appeared at the guard house and told Ditson to strip to his breeches. More men followed carrying a bucket of tar and a feather pillow. An officer standing in the doorway ordered the men to tar and feather Ditson from head to toe, including his pants. After he was tarred and feathered, a soldier read a placard to him and then hung it around his neck. According to Ditson’s oath, it proclaimed, 'American Liberty or Democracy exemplified in a villain who attempted to incite one of the soldiers of his Majesty’s 47th Regiment to desert and take up arms with rebels against his King and country.'” The status of Thomas Ditson, Jr., as a minor hero of the American Revolution has more to do with the perception that he was an average, unpretentious farmer caught in the wrong place at the wrong time than with specific displays of courage. A deeper look at his activities reveals yea

By Elizabeth Prata - Posted at The End Time: In 2019 at the Truth Matters conference, there was a panel Q&A. Moderator Todd Friel of Wretched Radio ended the session with a sort of lightning round, by asking John MacArthur to respond to the some names with one or two words only. Friel said, “Beth Moore” and famously, MacArthur’s reply was “Go home”. You can see the entire discussion with video host commentary, here . Or without commentary, here . That was not all he said. He expounded on his thought regarding why he said what he said, why Moore should go home. He used scripture and said there is no place in the Bible that allows a woman to preach. Owen Strachan was asked to reply as well, and Phil Johnson replied too. So the entire conversation was not simply two words, but a scripture-based mini-lesson on the error of a woman preaching. Moore waited two and a half years, and this week tweeted out a Twitter thread whining about how long she has been waiting to hear an apology from

 By Michael Foust - Posted at Christian Headlines: The eyes of the world may be on Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics, but the head of a religious liberty watchdog says China's persecution of Christians is nevertheless escalating. "It is getting worse," David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors, told Christian Headlines. China was No. 17 on this year's 2022 World Watch List , which ranks the countries of the world according to the danger level for Christians. The report said Christians "are facing increased pressure from the Chinese authorities," due partially to the "most oppressive and sophisticated" surveillance system in the world. Chinese Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping "knows that he cannot stamp out" the nation's Christians, Curry said. There are an estimated 96 million Christians in China, the report says. "And so he is slowly strangling Christian faith, and he's doing it with high-tech surveillance. They wa

Charles Kamya was beaten unconscious in Kampala, Uganda on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022.  (Morning Star News)  Posted at Morning Star News: Muslim extremists tried to kill him prior to debate, he says NAIROBI, Kenya ( Morning Star News ) – Islamic extremists on Saturday (Jan. 29) stopped an evangelist on his way to participate in a debate about Christianity and Islam in Kampala, Uganda and beat him unconscious, he said. Charles Kamya, 43, said he was about 300 meters from the open-air debate site in the Bwaise area of Kampala when two men stopped his car. “I stopped my car only to be ambushed by six other Muslims in Islamic attire who resurfaced from the bush at around midday,” Kamya told Morning Star News from his hospital bed. He said one of the assailants told him, “You have been terrorizing our religion. Today Allah has called you, and you are going to meet him.” “Some beat me badly while others cut me with some objects, and I lost a lot of blood as they pulled me out of my car and thr

 By Diana Chandler - Posted at Baptist Press : BEIJING (BP) – As the Winter Olympics in Beijing approach, China is set to impose new restrictions on online religious content that will essentially outlaw evangelistic Scripture just days after the games conclude, according to Christian persecution watchdog China Aid. “If you promote Gospel spreading, John 3:16, or the Great Commission of Matthew 28,” said China Aid Founder and President Bob Fu, “these are all regarded as conversion of state power, because you are essentially spreading messages for other persons to believe and to encourage others to share the Gospel.” The new law, Measures for the Administration of Internet Religious Information, takes effect March 1 as China enters the fourth year of its five-year plan to Sinicize Christianity, Fu said in the Jan. 31 issue of the Bob Fu Report . “If you post any religious-related content on the Internet without a license, it’s declared totally illegal,” Fu said. Christian House Churches

By Wes Bredenhof My Dad was a pilot in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and, as a boy, I was so proud of him. In his job, he flew some famous (and infamous) people. Probably the most famous of all was the Prime Minister of Canada. This happened around 1980. Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau took a vacation touring around the Arctic. We were living in Inuvik, NWT. My Dad was tasked with flying Prime Minister Trudeau on from Yellowknife to several other spots in the Arctic. I thought that was pretty cool. A couple of years later I was trying to impress some friends at my new school in Alberta. I told them my Dad had flown Prime Minister Trudeau. I didn’t really pay too much attention to politics at that time. Just new in town, I had no idea the PM was enormously unpopular in Alberta. So I was taken aback when my friends responded, “Well, why didn’t your Dad do us all a favour and kick him out of the airplane while he was flying?” Perhaps you can forgive those sorts of sen