It’s Friday, July 5th, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
By Adam McManus
Nigerian Muslim terrorists demand ransom for kidnapped pastor
Boko Haram, the Islamic terror group, recently shared a video on social media in which Nigerian Pastor Paul Musa was pleading for his life as an armed, masked Islamic extremist stands behind him, reports International Christian Concern.
The Muslim terrorist group abducted the 59-year-old pastor and his wife, Ruth, age 50, in March 2023 from their home in Borno State, Nigeria. In the video, the pastor is wearing orange clothing, reminiscent of the orange jumpsuits worn by the 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians that the Islamic State group beheaded on a beach in Libya in 2015.
The Muslim militants demanded the pastor’s family pay $130,000 by Monday, July 8th or Pastor Musa would be killed.
Since 2009, Islamic extremists such as Boko Haram, Islamic State West African Province, Islamic Fulani militants, and unidentified gunmen have killed an estimated 45,000 Nigerian Christians. In fact, earlier this month, members of Islamic State West African Province executed three Christians in the Borno State. These groups also continue to kidnap pastors and priests and hold them for ransom.
It is critical that there is a loud cry from American Christians to the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.
Please send a polite, yet firm physical letter to Dr. Uzoma Emenike, the Nigerian Ambassador, asking her to use her influence to save Pastor Paul Musa. Send your letter to Nigerian Embassy, 3519 International Court, NW, Washington, DC 20008.
You can also email Mr. Rabi Luwal, Head of Information, to two specific email addresses in our transcript today at www.TheWorldview.com. RabiuLawal@NigeriaEmbassyusa.org, PublicComplaints@NigeriaEmbassyUSA.org
Hezbollah launches big attack on Israel
The Lebanese Hezbollah group said it launched over 200 rockets on Thursday at several military bases in Israel in retaliation for a strike that killed one of its senior commanders, reports The Associated Press.
An atheist set to become new British Prime Minister
Keir Starmer, an atheist, is on course for a landslide election victory as the next British Prime minister, and leader of the Labour Party.
Starmer is forecast to win 410 seats, putting the party on track for its best result since 2001.
In a brutal reckoning, the Conservatives are set to be reduced to just 131 Members of Parliament, their lowest number since the party was founded in 1832. The Liberal Democrats are expected to get 61 seats.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, a Hindu, was heading for crushing defeat as voters rejected Tory rule after 14 years.
Hurricane Beryl’s trail of destruction in Jamaica
Hurricane Beryl is churning toward the Cayman Islands and Mexico today after leaving a trail of destruction in southern Jamaica, killing at least two people on the island nation, bringing down power lines, and leaving hundreds homeless and in shelters, reports NBC News. That brings the total dead this week in the Caribbean to nine.
Hurricane Beryl had maximum sustained winds of about 160 mph, reported the National Hurricane Center, putting the storm in Category 5 status.
Since debate, Trump’s lead widens by additional 3%
Former President Donald Trump is leading President Biden 49% to 43% among likely voters in the latest New York Times/Siena College poll, reports Axios.com.
That’s a three-point swing for Trump since the debate, and his largest lead in the survey since 2015.
Democrats begin to consider Harris at the top of their ticket
As President Biden continues to face questions about whether he should end his bid to seek a second term, there are growing signs that many in the Democratic Party are willing to accept the notion of Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of their presidential ticket, a potentially significant shift, reports The Washington Post.
In candor, many Democrats were also worried that Harris would be a weak candidate, based in part on her ill-fated presidential run in 2020, when she was forced to drop out before a single vote was cast.
But choosing someone instead of Harris, the first woman of color to serve as vice president, seemed politically untenable.
Andy Stanley criticizes Southern Baptists for ousting Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church over female pastor
Georgia megachurch Pastor Andy Stanley has criticized the Southern Baptist Convention for disfellowshipping Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church over its unbiblical approval of female pastors, reports The Christian Post.
In a sermon Sunday at North Point Community Church of Alpharetta, Stanley, the son of the late Charles Stanley, a Southern Baptist pastor, expressed his strong disagreement.
STANLEY: “One of the two people who really launched this movement way back in the late 70s is Rick Warren. Before he wrote The Purpose Driven Life, he wrote The Purpose Driven Church. That book sold millions of copies to pastors, and it was a book about how to create a church that’s for outsiders, for unchurched people. He is a modern church reformer.
“Last year, his denomination kicked him out of the denomination for something immoral? No! Something illegal? No! Something to do with money? No! Because he’s had some addiction. No, none of that, you know, glamorous stuff.
“They kicked him out because he had the nerve to ordain three female staff members who were functioning as pastors. He ordained them as pastors, which is actually a legal status. It gave them a tax benefit. They’re doing the work of all the other male pastors. He’s like, ‘Well, why in the world, would we not make them pastors?’ They’re pastoring. And they weren’t gonna go out and lead a church. They were working on his staff. He ordained three women and they kicked him out of the church. You don’t get any more insider focused than that!”
But, truth be told, that’s not the whole story.
In February 2023, the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee deemed Saddleback not in “friendly cooperation” with the convention. At issue is Pastor Andy Wood, who succeeded Saddleback founder Rick Warren as lead pastor, listing his wife, Stacie, as the church’s teaching pastor. The Baptist Faith & Message 2000, the convention’s official statement of beliefs, says that the “office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”
Although Saddleback Church had previously ordained three female pastors in May 2021, the convention cited Stacie Wood’s naming as teaching pastor as the actual reason for the expulsion.
In describing a pastor, Titus 1:6 says, “An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.”
Join me on the Colorado Father/Son Retreat
Join me, Adam McManus, and my two sons, Honor and Valor, at the Colorado father son retreat Thursday, August 15. through Sunday, August 18.
It’ll be a great time filled with fun activities time for fathers and sons to connect in a meaningful way, and hear inspirational speakers. For more info visit the website, ColoradoFatherSon.com.
Close
And that’s The Worldview on this Friday, July 5th, 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.