LLX News

By: Ryan Foley – The Christian Post; christianpost.com

A new study finds that the overwhelming majority of those who read the Bible at least three times a year have experienced transformation as a result of their encounters with Scripture, along with a sizable minority of Christians who interact with the Bible less frequently.

The American Bible Society released the seventh chapter of its 12th annual “State of the Bible” report Wednesday, which focuses on “Bible use.” The survey of 2,598 adults conducted from Jan. 10-28 defines “Bible users” as those who said they interacted with the Bible at least three to four times a year.

Within this group of “Bible users,” 92% answered in the affirmative when asked if “the message of the Bible has transformed my life.” Just 8% said otherwise. By contrast, a majority of respondents who did not meet the criteria for designation as a “Bible user” (62%) did not see the message of the Bible as a source of transformation in their lives, while 38% did.

cont’d…

https://www.christianpost.com/news/92-percent-of-bible-users-say-scripture-has-transformed-their-life.html

By: Anugrah Kumar – The Christian Post; christianpost.com

Victims of religious oppression in Turkey shared their stories at an event on religious freedom at the European Parliament where the speakers suggested that political and social atrocities in that country were behind the Christian population’s decline from 20% to a mere 0.2% over the last century.

The victims highlighted atrocities against Christian minorities committed by the Turkish government and parts of society, according to the human rights group ADF International, which held the event this week in partnership with the group European Conservatives and Reformists.

Among those who testified at Wednesday’s event in Brussels, “Freedom of Religion in Türkiye,” was Mark Smith, a Christian missionary who was expelled from the country in 2020 after living there for over a decade.

“We love the country of Turkey and want to work for the good of its people. We are not a threat to the state, the country or the Turkish way of life,” Smith was quoted as saying.

cont’d…

https://www.christianpost.com/news/turkey-victims-of-religious-oppression-talk-of-christian-decline.html

By: Jonathan S. Tobin – Jewish News Syndicate; jns.org

Being dragged into an endless and unwinnable conflict, to virtue-signal opposition to Russia’s illegal invasion, makes no sense for Jerusalem or Washington.

Eight months into Russia’s brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine, two things are clear about the conflict. One is that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s launching of the largest land war in Europe since 1945 was a crime that has largely united the civilized world in revulsion. Another is that no one seems to have any realistic idea how it can be brought to an end.

Note that I used the word “realistic.” By this I mean a solution that doesn’t require the complete military defeat of a nuclear power that is unlikely to accept abject humiliation. That would also rule out a policy predicated on an attempt at regime change in Moscow, a reckless notion with unknowable and possibly catastrophic consequences.

Of course, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose courageous leadership has helped Kyiv mount a resolute and surprisingly successful resistance to the onslaught, does have a vision of how the war will end. He says Ukraine will keep fighting until a military victory chases the Russians off of every inch of soil that his country controlled in February, and perhaps even those areas it lost to Russia in 2014.

cont’d…

https://www.jns.org/opinion/israel-should-stay-out-of-the-war-in-ukraine/

By: Caitlin Burke – CBN News; cbn.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Large-scale protests are ongoing across Iran even after the government restricted internet access and blocked social media apps. Now, U.S. lawmakers are urging the State Department to do more to help the Iranian people. 

While the U.S. recently eased international internet restrictions to counter Tehran’s government censorship, billionaire Elon Musk wants to take it one step further. He wants to provide Iranians with Starlink, his unique satellite internet service. While the satellites are now active over Iran, the signal won’t be accessible until portable receivers can be distributed throughout the country.

“In Ukraine, he pushed thousands of them, but obviously, we had a government to work alongside. In Iran, we don’t. But there are NGO’s on the ground. We have covert means through various partnerships and routes that we can get these things in,” Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) told CBN News.

Congressman Waltz believes the U.S. government should coordinate those efforts. He and Rep. Maria Salazar recently wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken requesting the State Department get involved.

cont’d…

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2022/october/elon-musk-seeks-to-use-his-starlink-to-help-iranians-battling-oppression

By: Nicole Alcindor – The Christian Post; christianpost.com

To be ‘anti-Semitic would be rejecting Jesus’

Christians in the United States are being urged to use their influence to combat anti-Semitism amid a staggering rise in hate crimes and other incidents targeting Jewish Americans in recent years.

As a leading Jewish civil rights organization reports that 2021 saw violence against Jews reach record levels, followers of Christ have a role to play in fostering acceptance for their Jewish neighbors and pushing back against anti-Semitic conspiracy theories within their spheres of influence, Christian scholars say. 

“I think through genuine conversation, we begin to reflect on how our own churches or communities expressed anti-Semitism, either consciously or unconsciously, wittingly or unwittingly,” Christian theologian Rev. Lee B. Spitzer, an affiliate professor of church history at Northern Seminary in Illinois, told The Christian Post.

cont’d…

https://www.christianpost.com/news/how-christians-can-combat-the-rising-tide-of-anti-semitism.html

By: Anugrah Kumar – The Christian Post; christianpost.com

How do today’s teens across faith groups think about Jesus, the Bible and justice? The U.S.-based Christian polling firm Barna posed this question to nearly 25,000 teens in 26 countries and got encouraging answers.

“Data show it’s rare that teens think poorly of Jesus,” says Barna, which found that most of them have a positive perception of Him, with 49% of teens describing Jesus as “loving,” 46% believe He offers hope, and 43% say He cares about people. 

Only 8% said He is detached from today’s real issues, 7% believe He is judgmental, 6% think He is irrelevant, and 4% say He is hypocritical.

“The global impression of Jesus is that he is trustworthy, generous, wise, peaceful … and the glowing list goes on,” Barna added.

cont’d…

https://www.christianpost.com/news/survey-reveals-what-teens-think-of-jesus.html

By: John Waage – CBN News; cbn.com

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL–The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) is expecting more than 2,000 Christian tourists to return to Israel for the annual Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) celebrations, beginning October 9.

For the past two years, tourism was heavily restricted in Israel, as it was nearly everywhere, due to COVID lockdowns.

The anticipated turnout has encouraged the embassy staff.

“After all the global travel bans of recent years, the response from our worldwide following has truly been amazing,” said ICEJ President Dr. Jürgen Bühler. “Our Feast clearly signals that Christian tourism to Israel is back.”

The embassy will welcome attendees from 70 nations, including government officials and dignitaries from Africa, Europe, and Latin America.  They also will host singers and musicians from nations including the US, Canada, Brazil, Australia and Finland, Ivory Coast, Fiji, and Iran, along with local Israeli artists.

cont’d…

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/israel/2022/september/after-nearly-three-year-absence-christian-tourists-return-to-israel-for-icej-feast

By: Seth J. Frantzman – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com

Iran reportedly has around 20 types of ballistic missiles, some of which are copies of missiles developed in North Korea, or have origins in Russian and Chinese missiles.

Iran held a military parade on Thursday and unveiled what it claimed to be a new ballistic missile.

The missile is a medium-range ballistic rocket capable of traveling around 1,400km, according to Iranian media. Images of the missile were also shown in Iranian media. Called “Rezvan”, the missile was shown during a parade that marks Iran’s victory over Iraq in the 1980-1988 war. 

With a range of 1,400 km, the missile would be capable of striking anywhere in the Middle East as well as in parts of Europe.

“It’s a precision ballistic missile,” the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Major General Hossein Salami, said, according to Iran’s IRNA. Iran has increased both the precision and range of its missiles in recent years and it has been increasing its abilities to launch satellites and manufacture drones. Iran has reportedly provided Russia with Shahed-136 drones.

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-717930

By: Chris Mitchell – CBN News; cbn.com

JERUSALEM, Israel —It is quite a sight to see a group of cattle arriving at Israel’s busy Ben Gurion Airport.

A recent delivery of five red heifers from Texas to Israel is causing quite a stir. Talk is growing that their arrival is prophetic, and a prerequisite to the return of the Messiah.

Some rabbis believe the ashes of a red heifer are necessary for purifying priests to serve in a future Temple. 

The heifers were discovered and brought to Israel with the help of the Boneh Israel – “Building Israel” – organization and its team leader, Byron Stinson.

Rabbis from the Temple Mount Institute in Jerusalem approached Stinson about the unique cattle.   

“They said, ‘Byron, could you… in Texas find us a red heifer?’ And I wasn’t expecting that that day and it was shocking to me to think about it. But I know a lot of ranchers and I know a little bit about cattle and being in Texas,” Stinson recalled. “I always say yes to these Jewish rabbis because they’re my friends and I love them, and why not?”

This began an in-depth process of finding the rare heifer that meets key stipulations found in the Bible.

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/israel/2022/september/texas-red-heifers-arrival-stirs-prophetic-excitement

By: Adam Milstein – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com

In recent years, while much of the Jewish community has been keenly focused on antisemitism on college campuses, we have largely overlooked another growing danger. Activist teachers and administrators have increasingly injected antisemitism into American public and private high schools through expanded Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) departments and policies and by promoting radical curricula steeped in Critical Race Theory (CRT), such as the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (LESMC). Through this ideology, American Jews are implicitly and sometimes, explicitly, portrayed as privileged white oppressors. By extension, the Jewish State, Israel, is described as an oppressive ethno-state engaged in apartheid, colonialism, and ethnic cleansing.  

We are starting to see the consequences of this campaign. Highschool students, both in public and private schools around the nation are engaging in antisemitic bullying and harassment toward their Jewish peers. Amplified through social media and group chats, the phenomenon has become increasingly frequent in high schools. Antisemitism also rears its head in high school sports and a there’s a spike in antisemitic graffiti, like swastikas. Physical violence rooted in antisemitism has become increasingly common in the U.S. and worldwide, from Los Angeles to Atlanta, Palm Beach, New York, and even in Australia. 

Last month, a federal investigation found that during the 2018 and 2019 school years, a Tempe, Arizona, based Kyrene School District violated the civil rights of a middle schooler when she was forced to endure repeated antisemitic harassment in class. Nine students harassed and called her antisemitic names, in addition to making frequent jokes about the Holocaust.

cont’d…

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-717053