It’s Tuesday, October 11th, A.D. 2022. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
By Kevin Swanson
Analysis of ministries to the persecuted church
According to The Worldview’s analysis of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability’s numbers, Western Christian care agencies for the persecuted church provided 27% more assistance to the suffering body of Christ in 2021 than 2020.
The five largest persecution aid ministries spent a total of $121 million in 2021, up from $96 million in 2020. Our analysis found Persecution Project, Barnabas Aid, and Open Doors ministries had the lowest ratio of administration and publicity to total expenditures ratio (over three years). Their efficiency with charitable funds ran 9.3%, 10.8%, and 9.7% respectively.
Voice of the Martyrs maintained a ratio of administration costs at a ratio of 15.3%, and International Christian Concern maintained a ratio of 16.8%.
Open Doors was retaining more of the income, with a 2021 expenditures-to-income ratio of only 65%. And Barnabas Aid indicated the highest need of funds, with an expenditures-to-income ratio of 108%.
You can reference ecfa.org/Members to do your own analysis before funding these ministries.
Jesus said: “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail.” (Luke 12:33-34)
The financial cost of the hurricanes
Although Cornwall Alliance asserts that the incidence of forest fires and hurricanes are not necessarily worse than they have been in other periods of history, property damage does seem to be on the rise.
In the providence of God, estimates for damage wrought by Hurricane Ian will total between $41 and $70 billion. The 21st century is shaping up to be hard on the United States.
According to our Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2022 will turn out to be the eighth worst hurricane and fire season in recorded history. The fifth worst year was 2020. The fourth worst year was 2012. The third worst year was 2021. The second worst year was 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana.
And the worst natural disaster year was 2017, racking up $366 billion in losses, when American shores were slammed with Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, and Hurricane Maria.
The total loss of life caused by Hurricane Ian now exceeds 100, making this the deadliest storm hitting America since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which killed 1,833 people, and Hurricane Agnes in 1972, in which 122 lost their lives.
You can help the Hurricane Ian victims here.
Samaritan’s Purse organized 1,000 people for Operation Clean-up
Samaritan’s Purse has organized a clean-up operation for Southwestern Florida, reports The Christian Post. As of Monday, 1,000 volunteers are on the ground.
Franklin Graham introduced the campaign, stating that, “Everything we do, we want to do it in the name of Jesus Christ. I want people to know that God loves them. He hasn’t forgotten them.”
U.S. stocks crater
The U.S. stocks continue to crater.
The NASDAQ lost 14% over the last month, and another 6% over the last four days.
Since January of this year, the NASDAQ is down 34%, Bitcoin is down 60%, and gold is down 7%.
Russian missiles fired on Ukraine
The Ukraine war shows no signs of abating.
Death rained from the sky as Russian missiles hit cities across Ukraine on Monday, right into the heart of Kyiv, the nation’s capital.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the strikes were a consequence for the Ukrainian strike on a Russian bridge over the weekend.
The U.S. has poised itself as a significant player in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, as the President approved another $12.3 billion of military aid to the conflict a week ago.
This is in addition to $15.2 billion appropriated so far this year. The European Union has provided about $2.5 billion to the Ukraine war. The EU and U.S. contributions to the war is about twice the Ukrainian military budget.
Communist Cuba greenlights homosexual faux marriage
Communist Cuba has voted to legitimize homosexual faux marriage.
Two-thirds of the nation showed up at the polls to approve a government-endorsed policy to allow surrogate pregnancies and unnatural sexual relationships.
This comes exactly 100 years after the Bolsheviks were the first in the modern world to approve of homosexuality, with a revision of the criminal code in 1922.
Skyrocketing elder fraud
And finally, elder fraud is on the rise.
The FBI reports a four-fold increase over 2017. Now, our elderly are scammed out of $1.7 billion per year.
The most common scams are government impersonation (including IRS and Social Security scams), sweepstakes scams, robocalls featuring the question, “Can you hear me?, and the Grandparent scam, in which the voice begins with “Hi, Grandma, do you know who this is?” It usually involves a plea for overdue rent, car repairs, or jail bonds.
God’s Word reminds us this day: ’You shall rise before the gray-headed and honor the presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:32)
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Tuesday, October 11th, in the year of our Lord 2022. 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.
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The Faith of Elvis
Elvis Presley’s stepbrother, Billy Stanley, has just released a memoir, entitled “The Faith of Elvis: The Story only a Brother Can Tell.”
The author told The Christian Post that he is convinced Elvis was a Christian. “He constantly read the Bible. This guy read it every day of his life. He was always in the Bible.”
Billy recalls the last conversation he had with Elvis two days before he died on August 14th, 1977. Elvis asked Billy if he believed that “God forgives you for all your sins?” Billy responded, “Yes he did.” Presley replied, “Good, I just wanted to hear you say that.”
Elvis Presley’s life has been well documented for various scandals relating to drugs and breaking the seventh commandment, “You shall not commit adultery,” in Exodus 20:14. God is the Judge, and the Redeemer of His people.