64% churchgoing young adults drop out, Hong Kong Christian leader arrested, US Muslim gets 40 years for “honor killing”

It’s Thursday, September 5th, A.D. 2019. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus.

By Jonathan Clark

New strict anti-conversion law passed in an Indian state

The northern state of Himachal Pradesh in India passed a strict anti-conversion law at the end of last week.

A similar law was passed in 2006, but the new act includes more severe punishments for violators. Anti-conversion bills have been used across India to target pastors and Christians involved in evangelism.

A Christian leader in the region, Pastor Vinod, told International Christian Concern, “The law directly targets the Christian community. It is a real concern for our lives and particularly for the house churches who are in much danger.”

As the early church prayed in Acts 4:29, “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word.”

Hong Kong Christian leader arrested

Last Friday, police in Hong Kong arrested and charged several pro-democracy activists and lawmakers who have led protests against an extradition bill. This comes after officials banned a rally scheduled for last Saturday that would have taken the Hong Kong protests into their 13th consecutive week.

The arrests included 23-year-old activist leader Joshua Wong, a Protestant Christian, whose involvement in the 2014 Hong Kong democracy protests led to his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.

Since the arrests, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced the formal withdrawal of the controversial extradition bill that would have put Hong Kong people and visitors under Communist China’s jurisdiction in certain cases.

Daleiden’s anti-Planned Parenthood undercover videos lands him in court

Judge Christopher Hite of the Superior Court in San Francisco began preliminary hearings yesterday in a case against pro-life advocates David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the Center for Medial Progress.

Daleiden and Merritt face 15 felony charges for secretly recording conversations with Planned Parenthood executives, exposing the company’s illegal sale of the body parts of babies who had been murdered.

Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society told LifeSiteNews that their goal is to strip away as many of the charges as possible and continue to expose Planned Parenthood for its criminal activities.

BREEN: “Today begins the historic first day of the preliminary hearing in the case of The People v. David Daleiden and Susan Sandra Merritt. This is a 15 felony count prosecution brought by the California attorney general for the first time in California history suing under this illegal taping law and actually bringing that claim against an undercover journalist. Never been done before in California history.”

American Muslim gets 40 years in prison for double “honor killing”

Last Thursday, 25-year-old Nasim Irsan was sentenced to 40 years in prison in a Houston courtroom after pleading guilty to his involvement in a January 2012 “honor killing” that ended the lives of his brother-in-law, Coty Beavers, and his sister’s best friend, Gelareh Bagherzadeh, an Iranian rights activist.

Irsan’s Muslim family was angered by his sister’s convertion to Christianity and marrying a Christian.

Irsan’s father, Jordanian immigrant Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, was sentenced to death in 2018 on charges of capital murder in both killings.

Back in 2000, the United Nations estimated that 5,000 women are killed each year in such “honor killings,” mostly in Muslim countries.

Psalm 5:6 says, “You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.”

Hurricane Dorian claimed 7 lives

Hurricane Dorian, now a Category 2, threatens the Southeast coast of America after devastating the Bahamas on Tuesday.

So far, the hurricane has killed at least seven people in the Bahamas and an 85-year-old North Carolinian man who died when he fell from his ladder as he was trying to prepare his home for the storm.

Barna study: 64% of Christian young adults drop out of church

Back in 2011, Barna found 59 percent of young adults with a Christian background had dropped out of church at some point during their 20s—many for just a time, but some for good.

Eight years later, the dropout rate has increased to 64 percent.

However, Barna has also found a counter-trend. Termed “resilient disciples”, they found 10 percent of Christian 18–29-year-olds, or nearly four million young Christians, are committed to following Jesus, embrace the Bible, attend church, and are concerned about affecting the world around them for Christ.

Romans 11:4-5 asks, “But what does the divine response say to him? ‘I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.”

Close

And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Thursday, September 5th in the year of our Lord 2019. 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.

SUBSCRIBE