Proof The Bible Is True

There are very few countries left in the world that truly capture the concept of “kingdom”—where one person’s rule extends over every aspect of his subject’s lives. Especially in the Western world, kingdoms feel like a relic of a bygone era.   For the people of North Korea though, the concept is far too real. They have lived under the brutal totalitarian kingdom of the Kim Dynasty for nearly 70 years, and in that time the Kim family has stretched their power over every aspect of life they can touch. Currently, under the rule of Kim Jong-un, North Korea has [More]

Results from a nationwide study in the United Kingdom unleashed on Sunday revealed that a whopping 93 percent of British Christians believe that their faith is marginalized. Premier Christian Communications (PCC) surveyed some 12,000 Christians in the U.K. to discover what it is like for believers to live in a post-Christian society – in an island nation where militant Islam is tolerated and Christianity is rejected. Stand up After discovering that more than nine out of 10 Christians feel marginalized, the Christian media group insisted that believers in Christ must boldly stand up for their faith – and not be [More]

While many would consider their twenties an adventurous stage of life, Viktor’s story takes that theme to new extremes. Like many this age, he moved away from home and began exploring a new trade. Unfortunately, however, Viktor’s trade of choice was smuggling illegal drugs in Central Asia.   At first, Viktor’s early adult years were filled with adrenaline and adventure. Viktor led an operation that ran drugs from Tajikstan to the state where he lives in Central Asia. He seemed to have natural abilities to covertly network across communities. Viktor’s success rate, in fact, was so high that he was [More]

There’s one thing I often forget when it comes to Christian persecution. One thing that can easily slip my mind when I read about the senseless violence on Palm Sunday in Egypt, the calculated murder of Christians in Nigeria by Boko Haram, the kidnapping of Pastor Koh in Malaysia, or the plan of radical Hindus in India to wipe out Christianity by 2021. What is it that I forget? Sometimes in the midst of the news and world events related to the violence or the marginalization against Christians, I forget that ….. Read More: The One Thing All Christian Persecution [More]

Ting made a living summoning the darkness.   As the local Shaman, villagers in her surrounding area of northwest China would seek her out for the wisdom of the spirits.  And their requests were many—   Who should I marry? What must I do to be successful? What does my future hold? Why am I sick? Have I offended the spirits?   Ting delighted in her success. Word of her abilities drove thousands of the curious and desperate to seek her divine counsel, which she was eager to give. But only for a price.   And then the spirits demanded [More]

She Reads Truth has grown to become a popular online Christian community, drawing hundreds of thousands of social media followers and bringing women together to read the Bible daily. “Honestly, we don’t feel like we ‘launched’ She Reads Truth. The Holy Spirit did. We’re still just trying to keep up!” Amanda Bible Williams, chief content officer of She Reads Truth whose maiden name really is Bible, told The Christian Post. The online devotional community began in 2012 by a small group of women connected primarily through the internet who sought to create a network to promote regular Bible reading. Williams [More]

A Bomb Confirms the Calling of a Pastor in Baghdad    The man has just left his home, hopping into his car, turning the keys in the ignition, and pushing the accelerator as he had so many times before. Only this time, as he began the familiar journey toward the church where he worked as a pastor, he immediately sensed something was different.   Almost right away, an explosion ripped through the car, violently shaking the vehicle and—at the same time—engulfing it in the flames.   “I was totally confused, and I couldn’t see anymore.” The young pastor, named Joseph, [More]

American Bible Society has released its fifth annual study of America’s most Bible-minded cities. Once again, the Southeast dominates the list of cities that show strong engagement with God’s Word and strong belief in the accuracy of the Bible. For the second year in a row and fourth out of the last five, Chattanooga, Tennessee, is the most Bible-minded city, followed by Birmingham, Alabama, and Roanoke/Lynchburg, Virginia. The only top-ten city outside the Southeast was Springfield, Missouri (#7). ABS spokesman Arthur Satterwhite says, “For us as American Bible Society, this survey helps to inform our work in the U.S. as [More]

The latest census in Australia has shown a dramatic fall in those who identify as Christian, and a significant rise in those with ‘no religion’. For the first time in its history, the proportion of Australians who say they have ‘no religion’ (29.6 per cent) overtook the number who identify as Catholic (22.6 per cent), according to analysis of Australia’s 2016 census by The Guardian. In 1996, just 0.6 per cent of the population marked ‘no religion’ on their census, but has seen a dramatic shift in the following decades. In 2001 the figure was 16 per cent, which nearly [More]

  This year marks the 500th anniversary of one of the most important events in history, the Protestant Reformation.   The world is converging on Wittenberg in eastern Germany this summer, where 500 years ago a local professor of moral theology is said to have nailed 95 theses to a church door, and by that single act, changed the world.   Germany is now in the middle of a yearlong national celebration. But Luther’s time was rarely this colorful and tidy as re-enactments today. The 1500s in Germany were cold, muddy, dreary and rude. Luther’s Time: Back to the Future [More]

Splintered into small congregations meeting secretively in the homes of fellow church attendees, the members of a house church in China’s southern Guizhou province penned a letter describing how government persecution obliterated their finances, imprisoned and tortured their leaders, and fractured their thriving church body. Beginning with the church’s founding, the members of Huoshi Church traced its entire history with the government, insisting that the Communist Party abused them despite their attempts to comply with the law, which included reporting on all of their activities to the local religious affairs and public security bureaus. As the church quickly swelled into [More]

Disputes over government surveillance devices in house churches continue in China’s coastal Zhejiang as officials cut power and water supplies to several area churches and the homes of church leadership at the beginning of June. Members of Tuanqian Village Church in Rui’an, a county-level city in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, spoke with reporters on June 4, saying that after their church refused to install government surveillance equipment, they lost power and water to several buildings associated with the church. Read More: Further denials of water, electricity for house churches in Wenzhou – China Aid

“Brother Matthew” is a pastor and church planter in South Asia, working among Muslims to share the gospel. After threats against his life and an attack on his brother, he was encouraged by family members to leave his country. He fled to a safe place, but God clearly called him to go back to his home country, in spite of the danger. Matthew obeyed, and since his return he’s seen explosive growth in his church planting work. Matthew says persecution is something God uses to purify and unify the church, and further it’s something that every Christian should be ready [More]

Got an extra Bible in the house? Jason Woolford of Mission Cry said there’s a way to put it to work. Mission Cry distributes Bibles and Christian literature all over the world, and you can help too.   “When you think about sending a total used book value of $300 million to 171 nations, those were Bibles and Christian books that were either going to be recycled, thrown out, or sitting on somebody’s shelf,” said Woolford. “Instead it has truly changed the landscape of this entire world.”   (Photo courtesy of Mission Cry) Take the Kenya distribution center. Woolford said [More]

It’s a thrilling time to be involved in Bible translation, as workers are helping millions of people who speak unwritten languages have access to the Bible in their own languages. According to Wycliffe Associates President and CEO Bruce Smith, unwritten languages are “the last and the least” of the languages that have yet to receive Scripture. But the advancement of technology has helped to address this problem; national translators are now being provided with Bible Translation Recording Kits, which consist of a computer tablet with pre-loaded software and a microphone. Smith explains that the translators can use this digital tool to translate [More]

If you ask a woman what she’s looking for in a man, she may tell you wants him ‘tall, dark and handsome’. If you ask a woman what she’s looking for in a Christian man, she may still want him ‘tall dark and handsome’, but will start to list specific traits he must have to make him the whole package.   There are many characteristics men hold that women love. However, for Christian men, there’s an extra spark that captures a woman’s heart. A nice looking man who is in good shape, dresses well and possesses all the characteristics below [More]

Many born-again Americans are “missing the mark” when it comes to the accuracy of their biblical beliefs. That’s according to the latest data from pollster George Barna. A recent survey by the American Culture & Faith Institute finds that only 30 percent of born-again adults have a biblical worldview. According to that survey, almost 90 percent of them describe God as the “all-knowing, all-powerful creator and ruler of the universe” – but only one in four believes “as sinners, people are not basically good.” Sixty-three percent believe someone can earn their own way to heaven. (See other findings in table [More]

A record-low percentage of U.S. adults believe that God created humans in their present form, according to a Gallup survey.   Thirty-eight percent accept the strict creationism view compared with 38 percent who believe man developed with God’s guidance and 19 percent think God had no role in man’s evolution, according to the Gallup poll.   It’s the first time since 1982 — when Gallup asked the question with the same wording — that belief in God’s direct creation of man is not the most-common response.   Read More

Christianity may be on the rise across Asia, Africa and South America, but it is sharply declining in the United Kingdom. A new report from The Benedict XVI Center for Religion and Society at St. Mary’s University discovered an alarming trend. “For every one person brought up with no religion who has become a Christian, 26 people brought up as Christians now identify as Nones,” the study found. Read More: For Every New Christian in the UK, 26 More Leave the Faith | CBN News

More Americans now believe that the Bible is a book of fables and history than those who believe it’s the literal Word of God, a Gallup poll released Monday has found, and even fewer than a third of Christians say it’s to be taken literally. “Over the past three decades, Americans’ view of the Bible as the literal Word of God has been declining, while their view that the Bible is a collection of fables, myths and history recorded by man has been increasing,” Gallup observed about the poll, which was conducted of 1,011 American adults between May 3–7, with [More]

Research shows only 17 percent of practicing Christians have a biblical worldview. So if that’s the case, then what do they believe? It turns out that 61 percent of Christians who attend church at least once a month and say their faith is very important to their lives and self-identify as a Christian also believe some tenets of New Age religions. Jeff Meyers of Summit Ministries, which, along with the American Faith and Culture Institute, put the numbers together, says this is a serious problem. Read More: What are believers believing exactly?

What happens when someone actually cares? In life, everyone’s just trying to feel connected. But in this cold and lonely world, what we all need is The Touch. Hannah Moore knew real life. The daily fight to build an existence on her own terms sustained Hannah and held at bay the grief of being used as a plaything first by her father and then by a succession of boys and men. As far as Hannah knew, this world offers no handouts. Her struggle to find work that wouldn’t be affected by a previous stint in prison began to seem an impossible [More]

“Tanya” is a Christian worker in Central Asia, living and ministering in a country where she must always be cautious about what she says openly and who she says it around. Listen to hear how Christians in the former Soviet Union are carefully sharing the gospel, and are willing to endure persecution if that’s what it takes to see God’s love spread to their countrymen. As a mom and a pastor’s wife, Tanya shares how the threat of persecution impacts the way Christians raise their children to follow Christ. You’ll be inspired as Tanya shares how Christians living under persecution [More]

Listen this week for an update on the church in Nepal, especially how the church has been impacted by Nepal’s recent adoption of a new constitution which included anti-conversion provisions.   Michael Huff has been the leader of Operation Mobilization in Nepal and is now based in the US helping to mobilize Christians to take the gospel all over the world. Listen as Michael shares how OM is working to raise up Christian workers and evangelists in Nepal, and some of the lessons Nepali Christians have taught him during his years of ministry there.   He’ll share how two Christian [More]

When God called Leanna to missions she was a young woman fresh out of college. Then God specifically called her to a part of South Asia known as “the graveyard of missionaries.” He led her down a different path from most foreigners at the time; Leanna lived in a village, drinking dirty water, sleeping on a grass mat and subsisting on lentils and rice. As she lived through the hardships of village life she was able to introduce people to a God greater and more powerful than the millions of Gods in their faith: Jesus Christ.   Listen as Leanna [More]

For Christians in Syria and other Middle East nations, human logic is clear: get out! Go someplace safe! In spite of such advice, Tom and JoAnn Doyle tell us many Christians are choosing to STAY and serve the Lord and witness for Christ. These bold brothers and sisters are standing in the fire of war and persecution, and they are finding—just as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did—that God is standing with them. Listen to the story of Jamila, a 12-year-old girl healed from cancer after a Christian man prayed for her in Jesus’ name, leading to hundreds of Druze people [More]

The leader of an American pastors network is warning about a generational gap among pastors that needs to be bridged. The president of the American Pastors Network, Sam Rohrer, says there’s a divide that’s much larger than most people think. “What that divide is between is not just between older and younger,” he observes. “It’s between older, faithful pastors – those who do believe in the authority of scripture, have remained faithful in their ministry – and then the Millennial, the younger pastors – some of whom are not faithful to the Word but then others who are.” Read More: [More]