It’s Tuesday, January 9th, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
By Kevin Swanson
New religious violence tracking database
Global Christian Concern has released a Religious Violence Tracking database which will track religious persecution by incident.
In the year 2023, the system recorded 104 religiously-motivated murders in China, 242 in Congo, 292 in Burkina Faso, 139 in India, 12 in Mexico, 128 in Pakistan, and 1,158 in Nigeria.
Australia bans prayer for homosexuals to repent
This may be a first in the history of political tyranny.
Certain parts of Australia are now banning certain forms of Christian prayer. This comes after The Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021 went into effect in August 2022.
The Act forbids certain religious practices aimed at changing or suppressing an individual’s gender identity or sexual orientation. Indeed, The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission has now specified the “prayer practices” that fall under the ban “with or without a LGBT person.”
Forbidden prayers include petitions to God that “ask for healing; ask for a person to change; ask for a person not to act on their attractions; talk about a person’s brokenness or need to repent; [and] ask for long-term celibacy.”
Violators of said act are subject to 5-10 years in prison.
All we can say is this. “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.” (Daniel 6:10)
Yesterday was bloodiest day in Israeli-Hamas War
Tensions are up in the Middle East. Yesterday was the bloodiest day in the Hamas-Israeli conflict since the war started.
Reuters reports that the Israeli forces are turning up the heat in Syria, with air raids on Iranian arms transfers. Some experts are saying the chances of a full-scale war in the Middle East are rising significantly. One expert, quoted by the New York Times, said there is a 30% higher chance.
The assassination of a top Hezbollah leader in Lebanon, Yemeni attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea, and some 118 recent Iran-backed militia attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria are all contributing to a more incendiary situation.
Lebanon’s tanking economy
Lebanon is also facing the worst economy in the world.
It’s currency experienced a crippling 90% devaluation in 2023.
Fox News featured a medium in prime time
Just last week, Fox News host Jesse Watters featured a medium on his primetime program, who purportedly prophecies concerning the nation’s political future, reports The Christian Post.
Listen to this exchange, starting with Watters who introduces the medium who then uses tarot cards on live television.
WATTERS: “Paula Roberts is the English psychic who is on set to give us a reading right now. I would like, Paula, for you to give me a reading on President Trump.”
ROBERTS: “Just the one card.”
WATTERS: “One card.”
ROBERTS: “One card. Let’s do just one card. We like that one.”
WATTERS: “Uh-oh.”
ROBERTS: “Oh, oh, oh.”
The Tarot card which she turned over was the Five of Cups card which features a black-caped man looking at 3 spilled cups while two cups remain upright.
WATTERS: “What is that?”
ROBERTS: “I mean I do recognize that I’m on Fox TV. A sense of loss.”
Later, Watters asked this.
WATTERS: “Please tell us what America should be looking for in ’24.”
ROBERTS: “Great happiness.”
WATTERS: “Yes!”
ROBERTS: “Great happiness. I mean, that that that’s just, full of joy, happiness, contentment.”
Christians are speaking out against Fox News on this one — including talk show host Erick Erickson and ex-psychic Jenn Nizza who has now trusted Christ as Savior.
Listen to what Nizza said in reaction to the Fox segment.
NIZZA: “When you consult tarot cards, which are a tool of divination, you’re talking to demons. You’re going into the supernatural realm, the spirit realm, to get insight, wisdom and answers through tarot cards, through psychics. But that’s not coming from God. God condemns it. He says not to do it. There’s nothing godly about it. So then, where’s it coming from? It’s coming from demons.
“So, who are demons? Demons are liars. Demons are manipulators. And, guess what, they don’t know everything. This is extremely spiritually dangerous. It is encouraging demonic communication. It is opening the door to demons for yourself, Jesse, and for other people.”
In Deuteronomy 18:10-12, God issues this warning. “Let no one be found among you who … practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord.”
Idaho’s pro-life law
When the U.S. Supreme Court released the Dobbs decision in 2022, Idaho’s trigger law completely banned abortion.
Then, the state softened its abortion law in 2023 to allow for abortions in the cases of rape and incest. But now, the pro-life law has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. And, as of Friday, the high court ruled the law may stay in effect, until the case is heard later this year.
New cruise liner longer than Titanic
The world’s largest cruise liner is expected to go into operation this month.
Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas is 1,200 feet long with 20 decks, out-doing the Titanic which was only 882 feet long.
America’s first rocket to moon in 50 years abandons moon landing
And finally, America’s first commercial rocket to the moon blasted off Monday morning, but ran into technical difficulties right away.
Astrobotic Technology, the company that developed the first lunar lander to launch from the United States in five decades, said it is abandoning an attempt to put its Peregrine spacecraft on the moon less than 24 hours after the vehicle took flight, reports CNN.
The spacecraft has suffered “critical” propellant loss from a fuel leak.
The Peregrine Mission is carrying the remains of deceased persons which were to have been deposited on the moon. America landed a craft on the moon last in 1972. India successfully landed a craft on the moon just last July, and China achieved the technological feat in 2020.
Jeremiah 5:23-24 says, “This people has a defiant and rebellious heart;
They have revolted and departed. They do not say in their heart, ‘Let us now fear the Lord our God, Who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season. He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’”
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Tuesday, January 9th in the year of our Lord 2024. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I’m Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.