Tuesday, Valentine’s Day, February 14th, in the year of our Lord 2017
By Kevin Swanson
Valentine’s Day Commemorates the Third-Century Christian Martyr Valentinus
Valentine’s Day commemorates Valentinus, the one who dared to tell the emperor of Rome about Christ. He was a courageous Christian man who lived in third-century Rome who performed secret marriage ceremonies in the woods, going against the Roman emperor’s edicts who wanted men to remain single and serve in his army with singular devotion.
Valentinus was arrested and dragged before the emperor who was furious not only at the weddings, but also because he refused to worship Rome’s false gods. For these crimes, Valentinus was sentenced to death. He proclaimed Jesus as God’s Son and invited the emperor to believe in Him and be saved before he was martyred by Claudius Caesar II on February 14th, 269 AD. He is the only Christian martyr whose name is still remembered around the world by the commemoration of a specific day.
Get the book The Story of St. Valentine, published by Voice of the Martyrs, for your children.
This may be one reason the Pakistani High Court has banned the celebration of Valentine’s Day this year — to include the mentioning of the day on social media, and the sale of commercial products referring to Valentine.
More than half of Americans celebrate the day, and the National Retail Federation estimates they’ll spend $136 on the day — no doubt, failing to remember the Christian martyr who gave his life for his love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today, let us remember those who, for their faith, “were stoned, slain with the sword. . . They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented — of whom the world was not worthy.” (Hebrews 11:37-38).
Trump’s Popularity Rating Down at 40 Percent
He was an unpopular candidate in the polls. Now, President Trump is an unpopular president in his first month of service.
A new Gallup poll finds his popularity rating at 40%, with 55% of Americans disapproving of the job he’s doing. That compares to presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama who came out of the gate in the high 50’s.
Counter Protesters Gather to Support Planned Parenthood at Pro-Life Protests
About 60 pro-life groups around the nation have joined in the Defund Planned Parenthood movement. And last weekend, pro-lifers organized protests at 227 Planned Parenthood abortion mills in 43 states. This time, counter protesters showed up by the thousands.
According to the Star Tribune, thousands of Planned Parenthood advocates protested against the 400 pro-lifers in Minneapolis, separated by crowd barriers. It looked something like the David vs. Goliath confrontation.
News reports indicate hundreds of pro-lifers showed up at the Denver Planned Parenthood abortion mill, while thousands of counter-protesters gathered at Senator Cory Gardner’s office to argue for taxpayer funding of the abortion provider.
The World View spoke to Monica Miller of Citizens for Life on the protests and the rising opposition to the pro–life cause.
“The pro-abortion people chalking out our memos we chalked to the sidewalk outside of the abortion clinic, and they came along and they defaced all of our chalkings, they stood in front of us, they basically – it was bullying tactics, blocking us with their signs, and shouting over us all the – it was something else, I gotta say. And I think even the secular media took note of the disrespect and the rudeness that characterized the pro-abortion protesters.”
Marco Rubio Speaks on China’s Human Rights Violations
Senator Marco Rubio called attention to China’s numerous human rights violations in a speech he gave on the Senate floor yesterday. He mentioned Jiang Tianyong and Tang Jingling, both of whom are lawyers who’ve been tortured for their defense of Christians.
“Today I wanted to discuss the cases of two Chinese political prisoners, whose courageous wives I had the opportunity to meet last week, when they visited here in Washington, DC. These women personally requested that I intervene on behalf of their husbands, pressing the Chinese government to immediately and unconditionally release them, and in the case of one, to account for his whereabouts.”
Nearly 200,000 People Evacuated Due to Breach in Dam
Almost 200,000 people have had to leave their homes after a breach was discovered in the California dam on Lake Oroville. Pray for the safety of the people there and that many might cry out to God in their despair.
“The Shack” Movie Coming Soon
The most popular Christian book of the last decade introduces God the Father as a black woman who insists she’s about relationships, not rules. She does not want her followers to love her and keep her commandments. She also assures everybody that she’s going to be reconciled with everybody, and nobody is going to hell.
The book is called “The Shack” and now it’s a major motion picture to be released in three weeks. The producer, Gil Netter, also produced pluralistic, polytheistic movies like “Life of Pi.”
Thus says the Lord God: “Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit. . .because they have seduced My people, saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace. Therefore, thus says the Lord God: ‘I will cause a stormy wind to break forth in My fury; and there shall be a flooding rain in My anger, and great hailstones in fury to consume.’” (Ezekiel 10:3-13)
Trump Meets with Canadian Prime Minister
President Trump met with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yesterday. Trudeau’s agenda was to impress on Trump the importance of women in leadership.
North Korea Launches Missile 300 Miles
And finally, North Korea set another record on a missile launch over the weekend — 300 miles. The missile launch coincided with Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
And that’s the World View in Five Minutes.