U.S. ‘moving toward elimination of biblical worldview as cornerstone of society’

November 17, 2020 — WND.com reports: “Dr. George Barna and the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University are urging churches to step up to the plate and work to ‘rebuild the biblical worldview’ in America as the country is in the midst of a battle that transcends politics but is rather rooted in the spiritual realm.

‘Most Americans are oblivious to this, the real civil war ravaging America,’ Barna said in a statement. ‘Our nation is steadily moving toward the elimination of the biblical worldview as the cornerstone of our society.’…”  (President Ronald Reagan spoke at the Dallas Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast on August 23, 1984 and stated: “…Without God, there is no virtue, because there’s no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we’re mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under…”  Amos 8:11, 12 states: Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:  And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.)

Teaching Bible’s view of sexual ethics could be ‘hateful’ under new law

November 16, 2020 — ChristianToday.com reports: “The Bible could be considered ‘inflammatory’ and seized by police if proposed new hate crime laws get the go ahead in Scotland, The Christian Institute has warned.

In a submission to Holyrood’s Justice Committee on the Scottish hate crime Bill, the organisation said that the legislation risked having a ‘chilling effect on free speech’ that would be detrimental to traditional Christian perspectives of sexuality. 

The Christian Institute is one of many criticis of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill that proposes criminalising words or behaviour perceived as ‘abusive’ towards certain groups. 

The Catholic Church, lawyers, police, the BBC, comedians and secularists have also raised concerns about the impact of the legislation on free speech. 

The Christian Institute’s Ciarán Kelly told the Daily Express that the legislation as it currently stands lacks sufficient protections for free speech. 

He raised particular concerns over wording in the Bill that would allow police to enter premises and take ‘forfeited material’ which would then be ‘disposed of in such manner as the court may direct’.

He fears that Christian books and ‘even the Bible itself’ could fall under such material…”  (This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their’s also was… But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.  But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works – II Timothy 3:1-9; 13-17 [emphasis mine].)

Chinese Communists Raid Christian Church, Arrest Preacher and 6 Faithful

November 18, 2020 — Breitbart.com reports: “A team of security agents raided Xuncheng Church in China’s Shanxi province on Sunday, interrupting the worship service and arresting the preacher as well as six members of the congregation, International Christian Concern (ICC) reported Tuesday.

The Xuncheng Church was founded as an offshoot of Early Rain Covenant Church (ERCC) in Chengdu, a 5,000-member church shut down by Communist authorities in December 2018 whose pastor, Wang Yi, was sentenced to nine years in prison for ‘inciting subversion.’

The preacher of Xuncheng Church, Rev. An Yankui, graduated from the seminary founded by ERCC and follows the reformed theology of Pastor Wang Yi.

Last April, Chinese police raided the homes of members of the Early Rain Covenant Church who were Zooming a worship service on Easter Sunday, arresting six church leaders. The worship service included a taped sermon by Pastor Wang Yi, which apparently sparked the crackdown.

The following month, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ordered the ERCC to cease all online worship services. Since the shuttering of their church, ERCC members had to resort to online streamed worship services, but now the government wants to stop those as well, the Christian Post reported at the time…”  (If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.  Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.  But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.  If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.  He that hateth me hateth my Father also.  If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.  But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.  But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:  And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning” – John 15:18-27.)