It’s Monday, December 18th, A.D. 2023. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
By Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
Nigerian Christian mother released from jail
After being imprisoned for over 500 days in Nigeria, a Christian mother of five, named Rhoda Jatau, has been released on bail and awaits a trial that could land her up to five more years behind bars if she is found guilty of so-called “blasphemy” against Islam, reports The Christian Post.
According to Alliance Defending Freedom International, she is currently in an undisclosed location while she awaits trial for allegedly sharing a video that condemned the lynching of Christian college student Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu.
Yakubu was a college student who attended a university in the northwestern Sokoto State who was falsely accused of blaspheming Islam after she posted a message on social media thanking Jesus for helping her pass an exam.
Following her post, the college student was targeted, set on fire, and murdered by classmates for sharing her Christian faith.
Outraged by the killing of a Christian college student, Jatau took to WhatsApp to condemn the murder of Deborah Yakubu in 2022.
In response to her outward expression, a mob targeted the mother of five, had her arrested, and she was imprisoned in May 2022.
Although she has previously been denied bail multiple times, a judge in the Bauchi State recently granted bail to Jatau following an international outcry over her imprisonment. God has answered your prayers.
Keep praying that she will be acquitted altogether.
US and British navies shot down 15 attack drones over Red Sea
A U.S. warship shot down 14 suspected attack drones over the Red Sea on Saturday, and a Royal Navy destroyer downed another drone that was targeting commercial ships, reports the Associated Press.
Houthi rebels in Yemen, backed by Iran, have launched a series of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, and have launched drones and missiles targeting Israel, as the Israel-Hamas War threatens to spread.
U.S. Central Command said that the destroyer, USS Carney, “successfully engaged 14 unmanned aerial systems” launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said that Her Majesty’s Ship Diamond fired a Sea Viper missile and destroyed a drone that was “targeting merchant shipping.” The overnight action is the first time the Royal Navy has shot down an aerial target in anger since the 1991 Gulf War.
New Zealand gov’t to remove LHBT indoctrination from schools
New Zealand’s new government, a coalition between the center-right National party, the libertarian ACT party, and the populist New Zealand First party, has signaled that it will remove gender, sexuality, and relationship-based education guidelines in schools, reports LifeSiteNews.com.
It is part of what the new government is describing as its “war on woke.”
According to the New Zealand charity, Family First, the previous curriculum sought to “inject sexuality education into the rest of curriculum,” putting “schools at risk of becoming ideological and indoctrinatory spaces.”
Primary age children were to “be addressed by their preferred name and pronouns.” Access to toilets had to “align with their gender identification.” And trans students were not required to use a gender-neutral toilet, but could choose the male or female toilets of their choice.
In Matthew 18:6, Jesus warned, “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in Me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
Obama thinks Biden could lose the White House
According to someone in Barack Obama’s inner circle, the 44th president is concerned about Joe Biden’s prospects for next year’s election and “feels that Democrats very well could lose.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that Obama is troubled that Donald Trump is edging ahead in polls, and that voters are concerned with Biden’s age and the economy as well as Biden’s policies on immigration and Israel.
Right now, Trump leads Biden by 2 points in the RealClearPolitics polling average.
Christian military veteran destroyed Satanic idol
A Christian former military officer has torn down and beheaded the Satanist statue that was erected in the Iowa State Capitol, reports LifeSiteNews.com.
The Sentinel explained that on December 14, Michael Cassidy, who once served as a Navy pilot, “pushed over and decapitated the [Satanic] statue before he discarded the head in a trash can.”
The Satanic Temple of Iowa previously received permission to set up an exhibit that included a statue of the demonic idol Baphomet. The satanic display was installed in proximity to the Nativity scene on the first floor of the Capitol.
Cassidy told The Sentinel he destroyed the shrine to “awaken Christians to the anti-Christian acts promoted by our government. The world may tell Christians to submissively accept the legitimization of Satan, but none of the founders would have considered government sanction of Satanic altars inside Capitol buildings as protected by the First Amendment.”
He also said, “Anti-Christian values have steadily been mainstreamed more and more in recent decades, and Christians have largely acted like the proverbial frog in the boiling pot of water. I saw this blasphemous statue and was outraged. My conscience is held captive to the word of God, not to bureaucratic decree. And so I acted.”
Cassidy echoed the words of Protestant reformer Martin Luther who refused to recant his Scriptural assertions despite the threats by Pope Leo X to excommunicate him.
During Luther’s trial in 1521, he famously declared, “Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason, my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience would be neither right nor safe. God help me. Here I stand, I can do no other.”
116 US Soldiers Profess Faith in Jesus Christ During Church’s Christmas event
And finally, an Oklahoma pastor, whose church recently made headlines after seeing 116 Army soldiers accept Jesus Christ, said the mass embrace of faith was the result of his congregation’s trusting in the Lord, reports Faithwire.com.
Mike Keahbone, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lawton, told CBN Digital that his church normally puts on its annual Living Christmas Tree musical, a massive Christmas show, for one weekend.
But this year, after much prayer, they decided to not only add a second weekend, but also to provide dinner for the soldiers. Word spread like wildfire. Seven hundred soldiers showed up, most of whom were basic trainees.
During its 42-year run, the church always presents the Good News in the midst of the Living Christmas Tree musical. Providentially, 116 indicated a decision to trust Christ as Savior.
Acts 16:31 says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
The church followed up with the chaplains who will now disciple the new believers among the soldiers.
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Monday, December 18th 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.