Friday, April 8th, in the year of our Lord, 2016.
By Kevin Swanson
It has been one year now since the Garissa University terrorist attack that took the lives of 148 Christians in Kenya. One Garissa pastor told the Christian Post, “God is always just, and we should learn to appreciate His will, depend on Him for strength, and thank Him for the gift of life because there is nothing that can compensate the lost lives of the students.”
Matthew 16:25 says, ”For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”
Victoria Wasteney, a Christian National Health Services worker in the U.K., lost her appeal on Thursday after she was accused of “harassing” a Muslim coworker. She lost her job after praying for her colleague and inviting him to church events. Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, commented on the court decision: “We need a radical review of the balance of rights in this country which is skewed to favor religions and ideologies other than Christianity. This is ironic given that it is Christianity that has given our society freedom, tolerance and hospitality.”
So far, 140 people in the Iraqi city of Fallujah have starved to death, according to reports from Human Rights Watch. The besieged city, forty miles from Baghdad, has been controlled by ISIS for two years, and citizens who have attempted to escape are shot to death. A bag of sugar reportedly sells for $500.
Donald Trump told The Washington Post that America is on the “verge of a massive recession.” However, the presidential candidate is promising that he’ll remove the $19 trillion of federal debt in eight years by cutting taxes and working trade deals with China and Mexico.
Americans are now spending more on taxes than food, clothing, and housing, according to an article from the Washington Examiner. The World View spoke to Scott Greenberg, an analyst for the Tax Foundation, regarding the source of these increases: “The most important reason why taxes have increased over the last century is because federal, state, and local governments have expended their spending and have needed to fund their new programs with additional taxes on Americans.” The Dow Jones took a 174-point correction yesterday to make for its worst week in two months.
37% of Catholics think that you can be a good Christian and still support homosexual marriage. Protestants are less likely to believe that, according to a YouGov poll. Only 27% agree that you can be a good Christian and be pro-homosexual at the same time. However, 29% of Protestants think you can be a good Christian and support legal abortion, compared to only 20% of Catholics who believe you can be God-honoring and support the murder of babies in the womb.
Jesus said, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit . . . Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”
The Chicago Tribune reports that there are four individuals who have made what “law enforcement sources say are credible allegations of sexual abuse” against former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. The court will not address these alleged crimes of homosexual abuse, though they would constitute serious transgressions as defined by God’s laws. Hastert was a graduate of Wheaton College and “accepted Jesus as his Savior in his sophomore year of high school,” according to the Chicago Tribune. Wheaton College took Dennis Hastert’s name off of its Center for Economics, Government, and Public Policy last summer. Hastert faces six months in prison if he is convicted of the charges of making hush money payments to one or more of the victims.
“Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality . . . will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:10).
Chinese news agencies reported on a 3-year-old boy who fell down a 295-foot well this week. By God’s mercy, the child was caught on an impediment some 40 feet down. After two hours, the firefighters were able to pull the boy out through the 12-inch-wide opening. The boy was checked out in a local hospital, and he’s going to be okay.
One Muslim family came to Jesus Christ after Christian missionaries prayed over their sick mother. Christian Today tells of Fadilla and her brothers who brought what they called several “men of God” to pray for her. When the missionaries spoke of Jesus, Fadilla was about to order the men from her house when she saw her mother climb out of the bed. The mother testified to seeing Jesus during the men’s prayer, and the whole family repented and came to follow Christ on that day. Fadilla testifies that they are now praying and reading the Bible. She requests prayers as other relatives have threatened to report them to the police.
And that’s the World View in Five Minutes.