It’s Thursday, February 20th, A.D. 2020. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
By Jonathan Clark
Iranian Muslims beat, arrest, imprison Christian convert
Twenty-one-year-old Christian human rights activist Mary Fatemeh Mohammadi, a former Iranian Muslim, is alive and being held in Iran’s Qarchak Prison, the country’s largest and most dangerous women’s prison, reports Article18.
Iranian authorities arrested Mary on January 12 after she criticized the government’s treatment of its citizens. Officers severely beat Mary in the process of her arrest and detention.
Her case is still being decided even though her family was able to scrape together the bail money of 30 million tomans (around $2,250), equivalent to more than an annual Iranian salary.
President Trump referenced Mary as he spoke up for persecuted Christians during his address at the 68th annual National Prayer Breakfast earlier this month.
TRUMP: “Weeks ago, a 21-year-old woman, who goes by the name of Mary, was seized and imprisoned in Iran because she converted to Christianity and shared the Gospel with others.”
Hebrews 13:3 says, “Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also.”
(You can watch the whole speech by President Trump at the National Prayer Breakfast here.)
India’s economy fifth largest world-wide
India’s economy emerged as the fifth largest in the world over the last year with a Gross Domestic Product of $2.94 trillion U.S. dollars, according to a report from the U.S.-based World Population Review.
India’s GDP overtook that of France at $2.71 trillion USD and the U.K. at $2.83 trillion USD. The other top five economies were the U.S., China, Japan, and Germany.
India’s economic growth accompanies its development into an open-market economy.
12,254 Boy Scouts allege sexual abuse
As The Worldview reported yesterday, the Boy Scouts of America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday in an attempt to keep operating as the 100-year-old youth organization faces thousands of claims of sexual abuse by former members.
The litigation of 12,254 alleged cases of sexual abuse between 1944 and 2016 are now suspended due to the bankruptcy filing, reports CNN. The Boy Scouts will still likely have to pay victims of abuse.
Trump: Time to end use of aborted babied in gov’t-funded research
The Trump administration announced the formation of a new ethics board yesterday to investigate and end the use of aborted baby body parts in government-funded research.
Alex Azar, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, is directing the creation of the new National Institutes of Health Human Fetal Tissue Research Ethics Advisory Board.
The board will staff 15 non-governmental employees, including physicians, scientists, ethicists, attorneys, and theologians.
30% of churchgoers are church-hoppers
Barna released new research this week as part of their 2020 State of the Church study.
The study found “church hopping” is becoming a common feature of American churchgoers. While most churchgoers stick with one congregation, a sizable minority—around 30 percent—attend other churches at least occasionally.
The study found most churchgoers go to church because they enjoy it, but, again, a sizable minority—between 15 and 20 percent—said they attended church because they had to or out of habit.
The study also found the declining importance of church membership among younger generations with 30 to 40 percent of Millennials and Gen Xers attending church regularly, but not becoming members of any church.
David declared in Psalm 122:1, “I was glad when they said to me,
‘Let us go into the house of the LORD.’”
Sanders has huge lead among Democrat candidates
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont took a double digit lead with 27 percent support in the Democratic primary race, according to Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.
At second place, former Vice President Joe Biden plummeted to 15 percent from 26 percent last month. Billionaire and former Mayor of New York City Mike Bloomberg jumped 5 points to 14 percent, making for a virtual tie for third place between Bloomberg, Senator Elizabeth Warren (14 percent), and Mayor Pete Buttigieg (13 percent).
Young Earth creationist John Whitcomb’s homegoing
And finally, on February 5, John C. Whitcomb Jr. passed away at his home in Indianapolis, Indiana at the age of 95 and went home to be with the Lord.
Whitcomb—a theologian, Old Testament scholar, and one of the primary founders of the young earth creationist movement—was known for his devotion to Biblical inerrancy and his application of that to Genesis in his landmark book The Genesis Flood.
Listen to this audio clip from Dr. Whitcomb’s lecture on the Genesis Flood.
WHITCOMB: “All the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened, and the rain fell upon the earth for 40 days and 40 nights, six weeks of torrential massive downpour all over this planet. It could never happen again. There just isn’t that much water left in the sky, folks. If all the clouds and all the water vapor that surround this planet suddenly precipitated, guess what would happen? It would produce less than two inches of water, on the average. That’s all there’s left in the sky. The whole pre-flood vapor canopy condensed and collapsed in six weeks.
“And the fountains of the great deep burst open. Anybody remember tectonics? Wow! Disruption of the ocean floor, the ocean metal split, millions of tsunamis simultaneously crisscrossing each other for months.
“You say, ‘Well Dr. Whitcomb, how could Noah’s Ark survive on such a catastrophic oceanic surface?’ Answer: What would have happened if you were in a ship in the Indian Ocean four years ago when that tsunami struck? Nothing! It was a wave 500 miles long moving across the Indian Ocean. And if you were on a ship, guess what? Your ship would have risen maybe 30 or 40 feet. That wave would go right under, you didn’t even feel it. But the place not to be is on the shore.”
Psalm 116:15 says, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.”
You can watch Dr. Whitcomb’s entire 50-minute lecture on the Genesis Flood through a special link in our transcript today at www.TheWorldview.com).
(Check out the article written by the Answers in Genesis ministry founded by Ken Ham about Whitcomb’s legacy.)
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Thursday, February 20th in the year of our Lord 2020. 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.