Friday, October 26th, in the year of our Lord 2018

By Jonathan Clark

Congressional Report: Chinese Christians are Living a Nightmare

A U.S. congressional commission report released this month stated that Christians in China are living a “nightmare” as President Xi Jinping tries to subject the church to the Communist Party.

U.S. Representative and commission co-chair Chris Smith said those who don’t follow the Chinese ideology are arrested, tortured, and even killed.

Just this month, officials shut down six Protestant churches in the Guizhou province and destroyed public Christian symbols in several other provinces.

Matthew 5:10 says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Portuguese Pro-Life March Expecting Thousands

Thousands are expected to join the Portuguese March for Life this weekend across multiple cities with the slogan “Life in first place!” reports the Portuguese Pro-Life Federation.

With European and general parliamentary elections next year, the federation hopes to call all Portuguese parties and politicians to protect human life against abortion and euthanasia.

Anglican Australians Taking a Stand Against Sodomite “Marriage”

The Sydney Anglican diocese is planning to ban homosexual weddings from any Anglican church in Australian and to prohibit using its properties to promote homosexuality or transgender ideology, reports Fairfax Media.

This comes as the government has moved to legalize faux homosexual “marriage” after a referendum last year.

Sweet Cakes by Melissa Might Be Getting Sweet Supreme Court Justice

In God’s providence, the Supreme Court favored Christian baker Jack Phillips of Colorado in his Masterpiece Cakeshop case this year. But there is an even bigger question of religious freedom being decided in the Sweet Cakes by Melissa case from Oregon. Aaron and Melissa Klein and First Liberty have appealed their case to the Supreme Court, hoping to know whether they will be heard by April of 2019.

The World View spoke to Keisha Russell, attorney at First Liberty, about the differences between the Klein’s case and Jack Phillip’s case.

“This case is different from Masterpiece in that it allows the court to clarify whether speech is truly free or whether it’s government mandated. Basically, can the government compel citizens to create a message contrary to their religious beliefs? And that’s something the court didn’t answer in Masterpiece. Just because some of the facts they wanted to be really clear weren’t quite clear. Masterpiece didn’t allow them to do that.”

Russell said the Klein’s case could make for a landmark decision on religious liberty.

“The differences that really matter here are that the Kleins, Aaron and Melissa, only created custom cakes. And in Masterpiece that wasn’t the case. They had off-the-rack cakes as well as custom cakes. The question is whether you could attribute the denial to make that same sex wedding cake as a denial of a custom cake or an off-the-rack cake which wouldn’t necessarily indicate any speech concerns. But here, Aaron and Melissa only make custom cakes, and that will allow the court to sort of address that issue head on. ‘If I’m engaging in this conduct and I have to express myself to do it, with this speech, are you going to make me create it?’”

Vice President Pence Condemned Suspicious Packages Sent to Democrats

On Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence visited Regent University in Virginia to support Republican U.S. Representative Scott Taylor for the mid-term elections, reports CBN News.

During the event, Pence condemned the suspicious packages sent to Democratic leaders this week. Pence also called for unity amid political division, asking Americans to pray for the nation.

Apple’s CEO: My Homosexuality Is “God’s Greatest Gift to Me”

Back in 2014, Apple’s Tim Cook was the first CEO of a major company to come out as a homosexual.

And on Wednesday, Cook proudly told CNN it was God’s greatest gift to him.

“I’m very proud of it–yes, absolutely. To me, it is God’s greatest gift to me.”

But God said in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I Can Only Imagine Movie Producers Form “Christian Pixar”

After Andy and Jon Erwin’s Christian film I Can Only Imagine became a blockbuster this year, grossing $83 million, the brothers said they are launching a new production company called Kingdom to spread biblical messages and “serve the church.”

Jon Erwin told the Baptist Press it would be like a “Christian Pixar” with the support of a Hollywood studio.

Favorite Teen Restaurant? Chick-Fil-A!

And finally, banking firm Piper Jaffray released their semi-annual “Taking Stock with Teens” survey this week.

For the first time since 2011, the Christian fast-food restaurant Chick-fil-A beat out Starbucks as the favorite restaurant for teenagers.

1 Samuel 2:30 tells us “Now the LORD says . . . for them that honor Me I will honor, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.”

Close

And that’s The World View in 5 Minutes on this Friday, October 26th in the year of our Lord 2018. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldView.com. I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldView.com) Seize the day for Jesus Christ.