Proof The Bible Is True

Many American children are looking forward to the arrival of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, bearing presents for good little boys and girls. But most of those celebrating don’t know that there is a real man behind the story of Santa Claus, and that real man was a Christian persecuted because of his faith and actions. Read More  Persecution Blog: Most-Read Posts of 2014: #5.

One of the ways that VOM sometimes encourages American Christians to support our brothers and sisters facing persecution is by asking our government leaders to speak out and act on their behalf. These efforts go back even to VOM’s founder, Richard Wurmbrand, who testified before a Senate committee and even took off his shirt in the hearing to show the deep torture scars on his body. But what is the best way to advocate for persecuted Christians to US officials? And does it make a difference? Do they listen? We’ve got answers to those questions and others this week on [More]

“Please remember to pray for him. With the new Republican majorities in both Houses now would be an excellent time to contact your senators and representative about working on securing Pastor Abedini’s release. It’s for sure Mr. O our supposed Christian president who is such a great admirer of Islam won’t do anything about it.”  Admin Saeed Abedini has written a heartbreaking letter to supporters about his painful time in prison. The pastor, currently imprisoned in Iran, will experience his first Christmas in prison entirely alone as all of his Iranian family have left the country. In the letter released [More]

“Please remember to pray for those and other believers around the world who are suffering greatly for their faith.”  Admin A Ho Chi Minh City Bible school that has often been the target of police activity in recent years was attacked and destroyed for the seventh time on Wednesday, Nov. 12 by hired thugs accompanied by the police. The thugs used hammers and metal cutters to destroy doors, walls, and furniture. Police then raided the college and arrested nine Christians who did not have proper paperwork — documents that had been confiscated by police in earlier raids. The Bible school [More]

Hope is birthed out of some of the most surprising of places. If you have been a Christian for even a small amount of time, you have heard the biblical Christmas story many times. We sing peaceful songs like Silent Night and Away in a Manger. You can feel the magic of Christmas when the lights are hung on the tree and the smell of cider is in the air. The reality is though, the first Christmas probably didn’t appear very peaceful or magical to those who lived in that time. Surely most of us are even aware of the [More]

“Great article on what’s happening in that war torn area and how the Gospel is spreading there.”  Admin Atrocities by the Islamic State (ISIS) are softening the hearts of Muslims to Christianity, and evangelistic techniques and technologies are proving effective, but locally-based missionaries say the main reason for the spike in conversions in the Middle East is simply that former Muslims are finding God is real. In war-torn areas of Syria and Iraq where ISIS is fighting to establish a caliphate, Muslim refugees to neighboring countries, Internally Displaced People and people remaining at home are learning about Christ from native [More]

“Good article on preparing for the challenging times ahead.”  Admin Jewish holiday holds ‘blueprint’ for today’s Christians, rabbi says The story of Hanukkah is a story of defiance. Defiance by a people refusing to conform under immense pressure from a popular culture that had become hostile to the God of the Bible. Antiochus IV issued a decree in 167 B.C. that was pretty cut and dry. If you were an observant Jew, it was game over. You could no longer read the Torah, couldn’t observe the Sabbath, couldn’t circumcise your male offspring, couldn’t practice your faith. Antiochus, leader of the [More]

More than any time in our nation’s history, Americans are skipping church on Sunday. Identifying exactly who those people are — from a demographic and psychographic perspective — the latest research shines some light on what groups of people the Church are failing to evangelize. Collecting data from tens of thousands of unchurched Americans over the past three decades, The Barna Group set out on a quest to determine what attitudes and behaviors instigate a removal from the Church culture into secular society. Also discovered from the numerous interviews is interesting information giving believers a different take on what their [More]

NEW YORK (JTA) — Dimly lit, the stone slab, or stele, doesn’t look particularly noteworthy, especially when compared to the more lavish sphinxes, jewelry and cauldrons one encounters en route to the room where it is installed. Indeed, in a Twitter post this fall, art journalist Lee Rosenbaum described the nearly 13-by-16 inch c. 830 BCE rock, as “homely.” What’s significant about this stone — on view at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of its “Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age” exhibit running through January 4 — is its inscription: “the earliest [More]

Even though most of the laws and guiding principles that govern this nation are predicated on the Bible, a surprisingly large proportion of young Americans have developed not only an ambivalence toward Scripture, but an extremely negative view of it, as well. A Closer LookIn the largest study ever undertaken by the Barna Group on a single generation’s take on the Bible, it found many trends in Millennials (Americans ages 18 to 29) that some might find disturbing when it comes to the unchurched and heartening — when looking at the practicing Christians surveyed. Partnering with the American Bible Society [More]

“A lesson in forgiveness.”  Admin In this excerpt from Dreams of Angels, a grieving daughter begs God to help her see her alcoholic mother in a new light. By Lou Dean “So we’ll do the service on Saturday morning, right?” I said to my brother David as we stood looking down on the Arkansas River. We’d decided to scatter Mama’s ashes there because the precious few good memories we had of her were connected to water. The times when she was sober and would join us kids in the rain-swollen creek to catch fish and play with turtles, her contagious [More]

“To find out more about Bro. Duduman visit the ministry site, hand of help”. “Michael Boldea Jr. is Dumitru Duduman’s grandson and he was his interpreter when he had speaking engagements in the US. Michael now heads the ministry his grandfather founded since his passing to Heaven. I remember in 2006 receiving their newsletter in which he had written about this dream which you will read below. Here is an article talking about the geologic plates in this area being in a locked and increasingly strained position. When this finally gives there will undoubtedly be a massive earthquake in this [More]

“To find out more about Bro. Duduman visit the ministry site, hand of help”. “This ties in with other peoples dreams and visions of a Russian attack on the US. You’ll also notice there is no mention of a pre-trib rapture but of a much later rapture.”  Admin September, 1984 Late one night, I could not sleep, The children were sleeping on the luggage.  My wife and daughter were crying, I went outside and walked around.  I didn’t want them to see me cry.  I walked around the building, crying and saying, “God!  Why did you punish me?  Why did you bring me into this [More]

“To find out more about Bro. Duduman visit the ministry site, hand of help”. “We see how this is now being fulfilled. Mr. O recently said the US is no longer a Christian nation but is now a Muslim nation, Hindu nation, Jewish nation, Buddhist nation etc.” Admin Given in 1984 Why did God name America Mystery Babylon? “Tell them, because all the nations of the world immigrated to America with their own gods and were not stopped. Encouraged by the freedom here, the wickedness began to increase.  Later on, even though America was established as a Christian nation, the American [More]

The New Testament speaks about being persecuted for the name of Christ as a blessing, something that’s hard to understand for many American Christians. But after they had been imprisoned and harassed by the religious leaders, the Apostles departed, “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41). As VOM workers travel and meet with Christians who have faced persecution, this same theme is often woven through their testimonies. They see persecution as an honor…as a compliment from God! This week on VOMRadio, Brother John from Myanmar tells Todd Nettleton that he prayed and asked [More]

Marcus Stanley is a talented pianist, playing for some of the biggest names in the music industry. His career almost came to a tragic end when he was shot eight times at close range. Thanks to divine intervention, he’s now playing music set to a different tune. Read More  ‘I Saw an Angel’—R&B Artist Describes Violent Wake-Up Call.

During the days of Nazi Germany there arose a Confessing Church movement that rose against the German Church movement, which became the religious arm of the Fascist Nazi Socialist movement. Of the 18,000 pastors in Germany during that time (from 1933 to 1945), less than 5,000 were aligned with the Confessing Church. Hence, only a remnant held fast to the biblical position with about half of the churches conforming due to political and societal pressure. Unfortunately, this demonstrates that, when push comes to shove, a large percentage of pastors, churches and so-called Christians will probably bow to pressure and allow [More]

“You just never know what an act of kindness might lead to!”  Admin When a young Filipino girl received a Christmas gift-filled shoebox in 2000, she couldn’t have imagined that one day she would meet the 7-year-old boy from Idaho who packed the box in a small town 7000 miles away. And, she never dreamed that she would marry the American boy, now grown up, 14 years later. This month Joana and her new husband Tyrel Wolfe dropped off their own gift shoeboxes at Samaritan’s Purse headquarters in North Carolina, where Operation Christmas Child is run, and told their remarkable [More]

“In the West we have not experienced such persecution as many others have but that will eventually change therefore it would be wise to learn how others are coping under such circumstances so we will be able to stand when it comes.”  Admin In this week’s episode of VOMRadio we talk with Dr. Berhane, a Christians from the small African nation of Eritrea–a nation where almost 1,000 Christians are currently in prison for their faith. Dr. Berhane spent 11 months in prison for his Christian work; he watched friends and fellow prisoners led away to execution. But he also saw [More]

We can say that we love God and others, but talk is cheap. How can we know for certain whether our love is real? …read more Read more here: AIG Daily     

Earlier this year, I told you about some of the challenges in reaching Millennials for Christ, that is, young adults aged roughly 18 to 33. While 55 percent of Baby Boomers say they’re religious, only 36 percent of Millennials do. “Today,” University of Virginia sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox notes, “fully 29 percent of Millennials consider themselves religiously unaffiliated, a record postwar high. They are also much less likely to describe themselves as ‘religious’ compared with earlier generations of Americans.” Well, how is this rising generation connecting to the Bible? In a word, poorly. According to a new study by the [More]

Several years ago, when I was involved in active church consultations, I assembled data on what I called GFCs, genuinely friendly churches. I set certain parameters for GFCs; then I attempted to measure those churches guest return rates. A guest return rate is simply the percentage of guests who will return to the church for at least a second visit. Here is the simple but profound difference I found in GFCs and all other churches: A genuinely friendly church has a guest return rate six times greater than other churches. Did you get that? If a church meets the guidelines [More]

Southeastern Seminary, where I work, challenged all students, staff, and faculty to share the gospel at least once a day during the month of September. Based on my experiences that month, in addition to years of sharing Christ with family members, here are my thoughts about why my family and friends struggle with believing the gospel. Read More  10 Reasons Why Friends and Family Struggle to Believe the Gospel.

If you’re dismayed that one in five Americans (20 percent) are “nones” — people who claim no particular religious identity — brace yourself. How does 38 percent sound? That’s what religion researcher David Kinnaman calculates when he adds “the unchurched, the never-churched and the skeptics” to the nones. He calls his new category “churchless,” the same title Kinnaman has given his new book. By his count, roughly four in 10 people living in the continental United States are actually “post-Christian” and “essentially secular in belief and practice.” If asked, the “churchless” would likely check the “Christian” box on a survey, [More]

In July, as the terrorist group Islamic State (IS) drove out more than 100,000 Christians in the area of Mosul in just a few days, many became newly aware of Islamic extremism at its worst. In Part I, we shared about Islamic extremist groups in the Middle East. Christians also face extraordinary dangers in both Africa and the Philippines. Christians working in more than fourteen countries have indicated an increase in terrorist organizations that specifically target Christian populations. In Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, groups like al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Shariah are known for their violence. In Libya’s capital, Benghazi, Ansar al-Shariah [More]

Around the world, the advance of Islamic extremist groups is creating increasing difficulties for Christians, as Islamists seek territory and political power. Islamic groups often terrorize Christians by chasing them off of their property, appropriating Christian properties, and even kidnapping or killing family members.The increasing threat of extremism was highlighted this year with the advance of the Islamic State (IS) terror group from Syria into Iraq. Taking advantage of the war between Muslim rebels and the Syrian government, IS militants begin seizing control of cities in both Syria and Iraq and declared a “caliphate” in June 2014. As celebrations were [More]

“I was in the desert alone, lost. As far as the horizon, there was nothing in sight but sand. I felt the sand on my bare feet. Then I saw something extraordinary. In the midst of that barrenness, an immense wooden cross emerged from the earth, rising up with sand spilling from it back to earth.” So begins a dream narrative posted by Bosnian Muslim teenager Emina Emlonic. A dream about Jesus. It continues: “I felt then a spectator in my own dream, and the sight of the cross gave me neither fear nor joy. But I was a curious [More]