Christian Heritage News

By J.K. Wall - Posted at Gentle Reformation: This week’s report by the FBI showing that murders spiked nearly 30% in the U.S. last year is the latest bit of confirmation for what we all know: a lot more people than usual lost their lives prematurely in 2020. The FBI’s data add to the July report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which showed that Americans’ average life expectancy dropped by 18 months last year. More murders and more drug overdoses were factors, but three-quarters of the decline was due to COVID. COVID has killed more Americans than died as a result of the entire Civil War . And even if you believe the COVID death toll has been inflated, cut the official statistics by half, and the disease has still killed more Americans than died fighting in World War 2 . Worldwide, COVID has killed roughly 4.7 million people, and the pandemic is far from over. The good news is that these declines—as serious as they are—are a blip compared to the tremendous gains in lifespans

  By Nathanael Blake - Posted at The Federalist: After decades of tearing down manners and norms, self-proclaimed social progressives are now frantically trying to reconstitute some sense of public decency. Social conservatives are always losing, yet never quite defeated. In politics and the culture wars, it feels like we have fought a long rearguard action, with counterattacks only covering for a general retreat. But we should not despair, for human nature ensures that our insights will remain relevant and our principles will be unexpectedly revived. Just ask Michelle Goldberg of The New York Times, who reports that “sex-positive feminism” is on the outs. Goldberg’s column is an exercise in admitting that social conservatives were right without saying that social conservatives were right. Thus, she presents this as a debate between sex-positive feminism (“the idea that feminism should privilege sexual pleasure and fight sexual repression”) and anti-porn feminists, whose warnings are

 By Joel James - Posted at The Cripplegate: Over the last year and a half, churches around the world have been severely impacted by government regulations related to the COVID outbreak. In South Africa where I pastor, restrictions have varied from banning all church services during seasons of high infection rates, to long-term limits on the number of people allowed to attend worship services (varying from fifty to one hundred people irrespective of the size of the meeting hall). Corporate singing and the serving of communion elements have been banned from the beginning, along with constantly changing prohibitions or restrictions on other fellowship events. Masks and social distancing have been required throughout. No doubt your church has experienced similar regulations, and it has left us all asking, “How do we respond when government regulations significantly impinge on biblical worship and fellowship?” Opinions are legion. Reponses range from, “The church should obey the govern

By Phil Johnson - Posted at Pyromaniacs: We regard the wearing of masks in worship first of all as a matter of conscience—and since we are forbidden by the teaching of Christ not to make extrabiblical religious rules that bind men's consciences (Matthew 23:1-7; 15:1-9), we neither mandate nor forbid the wearing of masks in worship. Veils and face coverings have profound religious significance in many world religions. Indeed, much of the rhetoric surrounding COVID masks (even among evangelical Christians) describes them as symbols of personal piety. Serious questions about the usefulness, effectiveness, or medical necessity of masks are routinely dismissed or swept aside, and people are told to wear them simply because they are a tangible, visible means of showing love for one's neighbor. This rationale is pressed on people's consciences regardless of whether it can be proved statistically that they really safeguard anyone from the virus, and irrespective of the fact that

By David Schrock - Posted at Via Emmaus: “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. — Leviticus 18:24–28 — A few weeks ago, our church restarted its Tuesday discipleship night, which means we have begun again our study of Leviticus . And this week, we looked at Leviticus 18 and its detailed prohibitions against sexual sin. While many parts of Leviticus are foreign to modern readers, this chapter is not. Sadly, sexual sin continues to overrun our

 By Pastor Chris Gordon - Posted at Abounding Grace Radio: One of the most important things Christians should talk about right now is repentance. With the plethora of problems we are facing at the moment, the fact is that, almost universally, among Christians, there lacks a deep humbling of ourselves before the Lord in true repentance. It really is the height of arrogance for us to avoid the question of why nothing is going well. We are plagued by wars and rumors of wars, economic fall-out, corrupt leadership, and a lingering pestilence that has brought mass confusion as we watch the systematic destruction of a nation before our eyes. And the people seem to expect the government to save us as de facto God. Yet, we angrily respond in outrage to the newest hypocrisy of the day, lobbing “gotcha articles” for our side and the corresponding pot shots toward our enemies. But maybe we’re missing the real issue, the most important of issues. Fire From the Throne The reason things are not goi

Reported by 60 Minutes Australia - Posted at YouTube : Direct Link: https://youtu.be/5uHd7auGw64 See also: Hillsong's Brian Houston, Facing Charges, Steps Down from Church's Boards  (Christian Headlines) 60 Minutes Australia Airs Exposé Detailing Abuse Allegations, Celebrity Culture at Hillsong Church  (Christian Headlines)

Image Source:  https://constitutioncenter.org/  By Slimjim - Posted at The Domain for Truth : Editor's Note : This was originally published June 30, 2021, but as it is Constitution Day in the United States , it is also a timely message for us today. - AW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Purpose: Today we will see how a biblical view of human nature has implication of how government’s form looks like and also consideration of the US Constitution. The Bible teaches people can be sinful, so there is a danger with pure democracy The Bible teaches kings can be sinful, so there is a danger with pure monarchy The Bible teaches a powerful minority can be sinful, so there is a danger of an aristocracy The Rationale of the US Constitution for Divided Government and Checks and Balances Some words before we begin I am not trying to say America is right in everything Nor do I think America is wrong with everything In talking about the Constitution I don’t think it is on par with the B

By Pastor Thomas F. Booher - Posted at The TULIP Driven Life : An audio recording of what follows can be listened to here: https://anchor.fm/the-tulip-driven-life/episodes/How-Do-I-Live-As-a-Christian-in-2021-e16me61 Many Christians simply do not know how to live as faithful Christians on a day-to-day basis. This may be you, and you may even wonder what it even means to live day-by-day as a Christian. You may wonder if what you are doing with the bulk of your life, time, and energy, is really pleasing to God. Churches have taught many to ride from one high to the next, sustaining them on nothing but "mountain-top" spiritual experiences. This is discouraging, for living as a Christian isn't about one ecstatic moment after another. As young Christians get older, they realize that life is a lot less about "holy moments" and more about living faithfully to the Lord in the little things. Being "on fire" for Jesus doesn't usually land you a job, a spous

A C-17 Globemaster takes off as Taliban fighters secure the outer perimeter of Kabul’s airport on one of the final days of the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times (latimes.com) Posted at Reformation Scotland: There is one word that the whole world seems agreed on in relation to the western withdrawal from Afghanistan – humiliation. Whether we are truly humbled or only temporarily disgraced depends on how our nations respond. We ought in all humility, to ask why this has happened. To do so does not minimise the heart-rending distress experienced by those abandoned in Afghanistan. Nor does it reduce the courageous sacrifice of our troops. Asking why this has happened gives us a window into our real state as nations. This is not just a military and strategic defeat but a failure of the mission to remake Afghanistan in the image of the West and its values. The decline of the West is due to its moral decay. As western nations we thought we could export to Afgha