It’s Good Friday, April 2nd, A.D. 2021. Today, we remember the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus.
By Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
China’s Hebei House Church ransacked by the police
A Chinese house church in Hebei province was ransacked by the Communists on March 27. Without showing any proper documents, they removed the church’s property and their lease with the landlord, reports International Christian Concern.
They called Pastor Caleb Yang from Yanjiao Abundant Church that morning and asked him to open the door of one of his church’s gathering places. He refused to do so, since there was no activity taking place and no one was there. As a result, the police broke their door and entered on their own.
By the time he arrived at his church, he found out that they not only removed their speakers, guitar, and communion supplies, even the posters with the Apostles’ Creed on the wall were torn apart. However, among what was left in the church, there was a piece of the poster that reads “and will come again to judge the living and the dead.” Yang said, “God is amazing, He uses His words to comfort us!”
Yanjiao Abundant Church is a small house church with around 40 members. They have refused to join the state-vetted Three-self Church and have suffered as a result.
According to the Open Doors World Watch List, China is the 17th worst nation in the world for the persecution of Christians.
Court: U.K. bus co. discriminated against Franklin Graham
In a strong and clear rebuke of the Cancel Culture sweeping the U.K., a court ruled that the 2018 Lancashire Festival of Hope with Franklin Graham was discriminated against by the Blackpool Borough Council and Blackpool Transport Services Limited by taking down bus ads that simply read “Time for Hope.”
Franklin Graham said, “We thank God for this ruling because it is a win for every Christian in the U.K.”
The court emphatically affirmed that Christians and people of other faiths, who hold and publicly express traditional religious views about marriage and human sexuality, are entitled to protection under the law.
Blackpool was ruled to have been in violation of the Equality Act 2010 in discriminating against the Festival specifically because of the religious views of Franklin Graham. The court found that Blackpool also interfered with the Lancashire Festival of Hope’s rights of freedom of expression without justification.
A Twitter pile-on from the homosexual activists pressured Blackpool into removing the bus ads because of Franklin Graham’s religious beliefs on marriage. But the judge ruled that sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage—which are characteristic of Christians and other religions—does not make the individuals or organizations who hold them “extremist.” They are entitled to the same non-discrimination and freedom of expression.
South Dakota Gov. bans abortions of down syndrome babies
Yesterday, Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem signed a law banning abortions performed because of a prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis, reports ChristianHeadlines.com.
If an abortionist violates that law, it will be a felony.
Psalm 127: 3 says, “Behold, children are a heritage of the womb, the fruit of the womb a reward.” And I might add, whether they are healthy or have special needs, the children are a reward either way.
Pro-life countries vs. Biden’s global abortion agenda
Countries who aligned with the previous U.S. pro-life diplomacy only a few weeks ago when Donald Trump was in the White House blocked efforts of the Biden administration and the European Union to include controversial abortion-related terms and explicitly pro-abortion language in the annual agreement of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, reports LifeNews.com.
Conservative countries, like Brazil, refused to allow the U.S. and the European Union to railroad controversial sexual rights language that would be used by U.N. agencies to promote abortion and so-called homosexual and transgender rights as well as the alleged sexual autonomy of children.
Border Patrol rescue 6-month-old tossed into river by smugglers
A six-month-old baby girl was rescued by a special operations team of Texas Rangers from the Rio Grande River after a smuggler threw the little girl out of a raft, reports FaithWire.com.
The Rangers posted a picture of one their colleagues holding the rescued girl on Facebook which you can see through a special link in our transcript today at www.TheWorldview.com.
Atheist and agnostic tried to disprove Christ’s death & resurrection
And finally, as a successful cold-case detective, J. Warner Wallace became so well known at solving decades-old murders, he ended up as the foremost expert on national TV true crime shows, reports FaithWire.com.
But as an atheist, he decided to turn his superior detective skills on disproving the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Warner says that Jesus was definitely really dead since John records that blood and water came out of Jesus’ body on the cross when a Roman soldier pierced him with a spear. He explained, “Water will collect in your lungs at death. Now, if that happens, if you pierce that cavity, you will see a separation of blood and water.” However, that scientific knowledge was not discovered until 1,800 years after Christ.
He was just one of several former atheists, who had trusted Christ, who spoke at the Truth for a New Generation conference.
A well-known former agnostic, Josh McDowell, set off to write Evidence That Demands a Verdict to show the evidence about Christ, including His Resurrection, was so weak, the verdict would be “Not True.” But the evidence pointed to the truth of the resurrection of Christ.
He addressed the theory that the disciples stole the body to make it look as though Jesus had risen from the dead. Well, the Jewish leaders opposed to Jesus were so worried about that exact thing happening, they talked the Romans into putting a massive guard group — as many as 16 soldiers — outside the tomb.
McDowell scoffed, saying, “The impossibility of that! That they could have climbed through there, tiptoed around all the guards and become invisible to the guards in front of the tomb, rolled a one-and-a-half to two-ton stone that in that day, 20 men couldn’t move it.”
Others think that the 500 people who allegedly saw the resurrected Christ during the 40 days he walked the Earth after the resurrection was simply a mass hallucination. When McDowell interviewed five hallucination experts, he learned, “No two people ever have the same hallucination because there’s no external reference to it. It’s all internal.”
Alex McFarland, the conference organizer, said, “In the empty tomb, we have it all, ironclad, guaranteed. I tell people the tomb was left empty so that your life could be made full.”
Luke 24:34 says, “The Lord has risen indeed.”
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Good Friday, April 2nd, in the year of our Lord 2021. 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.
Print stories
75 people allowed to pray outside Florida abortion mill
After a dozen years of being prohibited by Jacksonville, Florida police from being within a block of an abortion mill, work by Thomas More Society attorneys now has put 75 sidewalk counselors right across the street, reports LifeNews.com. On March 25, 2021, just before Holy Week, Jacksonville Family for Life gathered across the street from the Woman’s Choice abortion mill.
During the service, a bio-cycle truck arrived to pick up the tragic remains of babies aborted during the previous week. That led some to remark that the religious service they held would serve as a funeral for the aborted children.
Pro-life film Roe v. Wade, releases today
The docudrama, Roe v. Wade, is scheduled for release today, April 2nd on i-Tunes.
The film, featuring actors Jon Voight and Corbin Bernsen, traces the famous abortion court case, backed by conspiracies, lies, fake polls, Hollywood’s influence, and Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger.
Producer Nick Loeb reports spending about $8.5 million on the film, which no doubt will turn out to be the most controversial of the year.
Pre-order your i-Tunes pass now for the pro-life movie “Roe v. Wade” and watch the movie trailer for Roe v. Wade.