It’s Thursday, June 8th, A.D. 2023. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
By Jonathan Clark
Nigerian Muslims killed 300 Christians since mid-May
Since mid-May, Fulani Muslim militants have massacred at least 300 Christians in central Nigeria.
The latest killings took the lives of two pastors on Sunday. Besides the hundreds of deaths, the Muslims have displaced 30,000 people and destroyed 28 church buildings and 2,000 homes.
Local pastor, Emmanuel Haruna, told Morning Star News, “Kindly pray with us for God’s intervention.”
Nigeria is ranked sixth on the Open Doors’ World Watch List of nations where it is most difficult to be a Christian. The country led the world in Christian persecution deaths last year. The World Watch List report noted, “Nigeria’s government continues to deny this is religious persecution, so violations of Christians’ rights are carried out with impunity.”
Canadian wildfires
Canada is facing a bad wildfire season. Hundreds of fires are active. The wildfires are mostly affecting eastern parts of the country like Quebec and the capital of Ottawa.
Twenty thousand people have evacuated, and over nine million acres of land have burned.
Cities across the northeastern U.S. experienced hazy skies this week as smoke from the wildfires wafted south. And over 55 million Americans are now under air quality alerts.
Christian arrested for opposing Pennsylvania homosexual pride event
On Saturday, police arrested a Christian in Reading, Pennsylvania for opposing a pro-homosexual event.
The city was holding its first “Pride March and Rally.” Damon Atkins approached the event with a sign that read, “Jesus said go and sin no more.” Within a minute, police arrested him for supposedly “yelling derogatory comments.”
A video shows Atkins simply beginning to quote from 1 Corinthians 14:33, which says, “God is not the author of confusion.”
He told CBN News he wants to call people to repentance.
ATKINS: “You got to know Lord Jesus, not some twisted version where your pastor tells you [that] you can keep sin and keep Jesus. That’s why the first word Jesus said, when he started his ministry, was ‘Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.’”
Atkins faces charges in court later this month.
Texas largest state to ban transgender surgeries on kids
Texas is now the largest state to ban so-called transgender treatments.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill last Friday, banning puberty blockers and sex mutilating surgeries on children.
At least 16 other states have passed similar legislation, and 26 states are considering such bills.
Mike Pence and Chris Christie join presidential race
The 2024 Republican presidential field now has about a dozen candidates.
Chris Christie, a former New Jersey governor, and Mike Pence, former U.S. Vice President, are the latest to announce presidential campaigns. (You can watch Pence’s 17-minute speech in Iowa here)
However, former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis remain the frontrunners with Trump leading in primary polls.
The Democrat candidate field is much smaller. It includes President Joe Biden, activist and lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose rising profile is sparking Democratic jitters, and New Age author Marianne Williamson.
Chris Christie warns against electing “a self-serving mirror hog”
In his unusual presidential announcement speech in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Chris Christie explained that leaders need to have humility, reports the Associated Press.
CHRISTIE: “I think what true leaders do is not try to pretend to you that we’re perfect because we’re human just like you. Because in our country, in our democracy, we are no better and no worse than any of you. If your leaders are not willing to admit to you that they’re fallible, that they make mistakes, beware.
“Beware of the leader in this country who you have handed leadership to, who has never made a mistake, who has never done anything wrong, who when something goes wrong, it’s always someone else’s fault, and who has never lost. I’ve lost. You people did that to me in 2016.”
In an obvious dig at Donald Trump, for whom Christie was once an advisor, the former New Jersey governor didn’t mince his words.
CHRISTIE: “Beware of the leader who won’t admit any of those shortcomings. Because you know what the problem is with a leader like that? A leader like that thinks America’s greatness resides in the mirror he’s looking at.
“I believe that America’s greatness resides out there, among all of you, and that any of us who get the opportunity to serve are merely temporary stewards of that greatness, who just want an opportunity to make it a little bit greater.
“And if you can’t admit to the people you want to lead, that you’re not going to be perfect. And if you decide that the people who you ask to come with you to lead will always be the ones who are blamed when anything goes wrong, that they’ll be called names, that they’ll be dismissed, and that after they leave your service, they’re nothing but idiots, beware.
Because that leader not only will not serve you, they will not be able to find anybody who will serve them. And a lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog is not a leader!”
300 Kentucky churches leave UMC over sexual perversion, abortion
Nearly 300 Kentucky churches were allowed to leave the United Methodist Church on Sunday. It’s the latest departure as thousands of congregations leave the mainline denomination.
Jay Therrell is a leader among the departing churches and president of the Wesleyan Covenant Association. He told Life News the United Methodist Church has been straying from “the authority of Scripture and the lordship of Christ for many, many years.”
One of the main concerns is the denomination’s support for homosexuality. Life News reports support for abortion is another major concern. The denomination’s documents notably do not call out abortion as sin.
China to drill 5.5 miles into Earth’s crust
And finally, China began drilling one of the world’s deepest boreholes last Tuesday.
The 457-day project plans to drill over 30,000 feet, or 5.5 miles, into the Earth’s crust, crossing 10 continental strata, or rock layers.
Scientists hope the project will provide new information on earth’s unknown deep territory.
Psalm 95:3-4 says, “For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In His hand are depths of the Earth.”
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Thursday, June 8th in the year of our Lord 2023. 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.