Wednesday, March 16th, in the year of our Lord, 2016.
By Mark Robinette
March election madness reached fever pitch on what some called “Super Duper Tuesday,” as primary voters in Ohio, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, and Missouri cast their votes. Donald Trump won Illinois and squeaked out victories in both Missouri and North Carolina, edging out Ted Cruz in each state. He won big in Florida. Marco Rubio congratulated Trump for his victory in Florida and then suspended his campaign. Moments after his speech was over, his campaign manager tweeted that it was now time for conservatives to rally behind Cruz: “While it is not God’s plan that I be president in 2016 or maybe ever, and while today my campaign is suspended, the fact that I’ve even come this far is evidence of how special America truly is.”
Ohio Governor John Kasich won his first state, his home state, as he predicted. Hillary Clinton swept the field, shutting out Bernie Sanders in all five Democratic contests.
Defending his endorsement of Donald Trump, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, Jr., told student-run newspaper Liberty Champion, “God called King David a man after God’s own heart even though he was an adulterer and a murderer.” Trump, pulling in nearly half the evangelical vote so far nationwide, hit an all-time high in the polls this week at 53%.
Evangelist Franklin Graham expressed his disgust with today’s political climate and called on Christians to participate in a “godly revolution.” Graham called frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump “disappointing,” adding, “Our nation is broken—politically, spiritually, and morally—and our only hope is Almighty God.”
This was true before the political frontrunners came on the scene, as it says in II Chronicles 7:14, “If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
“The problem we have in this country today is because 20 to 30 million Christians did not vote in the last election. We need—and I’m not telling you who to vote for—we need Christian men and women to vote, and before you vote, ask God. Ask God who you’re to vote for. That’s what you’re to do. Don’t ask me; you ask God.”
The United States House of Representatives was not divided on Monday, as it voted 393 to 0 to pass a resolution labeling Islamic State’s atrocities against Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities, a “genocide.”
More than 80 homosexual organizations joined together to send a letter to the NCAA urging that it disassociate with all colleges that have applied for and gotten permission to expel or refuse to admit transgender students. The colleges, mostly religiously based, applied to the U.S. Department of Education for exemptions in 2014 after the department added “transgender” to its anti-discrimination list.
The case of embattled Christian florist Barronelle Stutzman, who was sued for her refusal to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding last year, will be heard by the Washington Supreme Court. The refused couple’s attorney and the ACLU will argue that if her business, Arlene’s Flowers, makes cakes for heterosexual people, she must make them for same-sex couples, no matter what her faith dictates.
No matter what the court rules, God’s word says “(whatever a person) cannot do in faith, it is a sin for them to do” (Romans 14:23).
According to Open Doors, a Christian persecution watchdog group, a formerly Buddhist family in central Myanmar that converted to Christ was recently forced to leave their home and village because of their faith in Christ. This has been a great hardship on the 59-year-old new convert Aung, as well as his wife Phyu. Aung is now pastor of a small church filled with about 12 other converts. Pray that God provides for his needs.
President Barack Obama announced the reversal of plans he approved in 2015 to allow oil companies to drill offshore along the Atlantic Coast. An administration official told CNN that Obama made the surprise switch because of strong opposition from environmental groups. This will affect plans being made in more than 100 coastal cities from Virginia to Georgia.
On a lighter note, Disney announced that Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg will be teaming up for a fifth installment of Indiana Jones, due in theaters in July of 2019.
And that’s the World View in Five Minutes.