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Responding to questions from listeners and counting down more of the biggest stories that happened in Christianity around the world in 2023. Visit wwutt.com for all of our videos!
We come back to the biggest stories of 2023. What was happening in the world affecting Christianity around the globe? In all of these things, we give glory to Christ when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible teaching podcast that we may be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky, and greetings, everyone. I am flying solo this week. Becky's not in with me to cover the second half of the 40 biggest stories of 2023. We just got through 20 of those stories last week, and that took us an hour and a half.
But she was way too tired to get in with me for the second half of this list as we got 20 more stories to cover. We typically record these Friday episodes on Thursday night, but since moving to Arizona, Becky and the kids have their homeschool co-op on Thursday.
So she's been up early in the morning doing that all day, and she's just wiped by the time we get to Thursday night, expected to sit down and record a podcast. You know how tired she can get even during the podcast.
So to keep her in on the Friday episode, we're probably gonna have to move it to another night, when we record it anyway. It'll still be on Friday, but we're just gonna record a different day during the week.
Next week, we're covering the 10 most watched what videos for 2023, and we'll be reading some of your comments that were in the comment section of the video and emails that we received as well. So hope you'll come back for that episode, and I really do wanna get her in on that one.
As we come back to our list of the 40 biggest stories of 2023, again, these are the stories that happened affecting mostly Christianity. And of course, I'm coming at this from an American angle, being an American myself, but there are still some international stories in here as well.
This is not a countdown, it's not going from 40 to number one, like the most popular story of the year, since I'm going in chronological order. However, the Religion News Association, they do put out a top 10 list every year of the most web trafficked Christian stories.
And it's the different news organizations that are part of RNA, they will give the organization their results. Like here's the stories we wrote that got the most hits on our websites. So the RNA lays that out as these were the 10 biggest Christian stories of the year.
I will mention that list coming up here in a little bit, but we're gonna pick up where we left off last week, running down these 40 biggest stories of 2023. Before doing that, I wanna mention that I started something this week, I did not know that I was going to get to last week.
There were some variables that had to line up for this to work out, and it just so happened that it worked out. I started doing a Bible reading through the What Channel on YouTube. It's just simply youtube .com slash WWUTT will get you straight to it, or you can search for it on YouTube and find it that way.
Every single day in 2024, God willing, I am reading through three or four chapters of the Bible and using the Legacy translation. Now, I'm not the only one to do this. Some of you are aware that Justin Peters did a read-through of the LSB last year.
He didn't go in chronological order. He was bringing various chapters that were thematically the same into his daily reading, and he would do about three or four chapters at a time. I'm just starting at Genesis 1 and going through Revelation 22, and already have done, what, four lessons now through Genesis, because I didn't start on the first, I started on the second.
And reading four chapters a day will get us all the way through the Bible by the end of the year. I'm not doing a reading on Sunday, so there'll be videos every day but Sunday, and it's text and audio.
There's, I have kind of a Bible image on there. I thought it would be a good idea to get that on there, but there's a crawling text that is the LSB, and then my voice reading the text with it. So you can read and listen along, whichever way you want to do that.
So again, go to WWUTT, subscribe to the YouTube channel, and I'm trying to get those videos uploaded every day. They won't necessarily be in the morning. Sometimes those videos probably won't get up until later in the afternoon.
I'm trying to stay ahead of it, but I might get behind, and so it's not exactly gonna be something that you can necessarily start your day with unless you're gonna follow the study a day back. And you can always do this anytime.
I think it's customary for us when we start a brand new year, we think, hey, I'm gonna read through the entire Bible this year. So you start with Genesis 1 on January 1st, but you can always do this anytime.
Like you can start February 1st of 24 and finish January 30th. Is it 30 days in January or 31? 31 days, okay, anyway. So you can always start this anytime, and I think we just kind of have it in our mind that, hey, it's a brand new year.
I'm gonna read through the Bible this year. Our fiscal budgets don't really work like that, right? Most of you have fiscal years that don't stay within a calendar year, so you don't have to do your Bible reading that way either.
But in case you wanna jump in, I am doing that for 2024, and those videos, again, are uploaded straight to the What YouTube channel. Still gonna be some other What videos coming out of the year in addition to those Bible study videos, and we appreciate you watching and letting other people know about the ministry that we do online, whether it's the videos or the podcast that we put out.
You can go to www .utt .com, which is our main website, direct some other people there as well, and don't forget to send us an email because those questions that we receive, we take time on Friday to read some of those questions in our Q &A.
The email address is whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. I did get a couple of questions after last week's rundown of the biggest stories of the year. I'm just gonna throw those questions in with the list that I'm going through today.
Now, in case you missed the first half of this list, that's fine. I'm gonna cover those 20 that we did last week. I'm just briefly gonna run down those and then pick up where we left off. So without further ado, here were the stories that we covered last week in part one of the biggest stories in Christian news for 2023.
Number one was on February the 6th, and that was Sam Smith's demonic Grammy Award performance and some of the reaction that came from the Christian community in response to what was very literally a demonic performance, dressing as Satan, having demonic women around him with red light and dancing to this satanic song.
Number two was on February the 12th. It was the He Gets Us ads that played during the Super Bowl. All kinds of controversy sparked up from all kinds of people, Christians and non-Christians alike. Expressed their displeasure with those He Gets Us ads.
Since those ads have aired, He Gets Us has pledged $1 billion in advertising to promote Jesus. But is it really the real Jesus that they're promoting? Last week after talking about that, Matt sent this email.
He said, Hey Gabe and Becky, you went through your 40 biggest stories and touched on He Gets Us. It reminded me of an email I sent to Todd at Wretched in February of 2023, just last year. Go to the He Gets Us website and type repent into the search field.
Hope you have a blessed and happy 2024. Yeah, so what happens when you go to the He Gets Us website, which is hegetsus .com and you type repent into the search bar, what do you get? Nothing, you get nothing.
There are no search results on the He Gets Us website. That word repent doesn't appear anywhere. And I actually knew that. I had done that before, not last year, but I think the year before. There was at one point where if you typed in gospel in the search bar, that wouldn't get you any results either.
That has since changed. Even since I did the video critiquing He Gets Us, there's a what video on He Gets Us. I think it was one of the, if I remember right, it was one of the most popular videos that we did in 2022.
But anyway, there was a video that I did on He Gets Us. And I say in that video that there's no mention on the He Gets Us website that Jesus is even God. You don't even know who Jesus is if you're just getting to know him according to what's on the He Gets Us page.
Well, that's since changed. So there are pages now that talk about the gospel. It used to be you could type in gospel, you wouldn't get in any search results. I don't think you even got any search results for like son of God.
Some of that's changed. And it's because Ed Stetzer's gotten involved. So this was an independent group that was putting this website together. And it attracted the attention because they were putting so much money behind it and wanting to advertise Jesus is what their claim is.
Then it attracted some evangelical bigwigs like Ed Stetzer, who has since come in and probably told them you need to include these kinds of things on your website. So some of those things have been added in since I did my critique.
But it's still the case that when you go to He Gets Us and type repent in the search bar, you get zero results. So thanks for that email, Matt. The number three story of the year was on February the 23rd with the Asbury Revival Services coming to a close.
That's when they finished. It went on for more than two weeks. You probably remember the Asbury Revival, but it concluded on February the 23rd. It was the biggest revival service that had taken place not just in America, but worldwide.
At Asbury University in Kentucky. And then there's been some copycat revivals that have kind of broken out from that as well. Number four was on February the 24th. The movie Jesus Revolution debuted in theaters, probably the biggest Christian film of the year, not counting the success that The Chosen continued to have in 2023.
And then I also went down a list of some other Christian movies that came out in 23. Number five was on March the 9th. The Haunted Cosmos podcast launched. Now, Haunted Cosmos is popular. It's probably not so popular that it becomes one of the biggest stories of 2023.
But I used the launch of the Haunted Cosmos podcast to talk about how popular it was among Christians, to talk about things like UFOs or UAPs as they're called now, Bigfoot and ghost encounters and things like that.
This was big among Christians in 23. And I think will even increase in popularity. Haunted Cosmos is one of the more popular podcasts that covers things like this, but there are many other podcasts that do as well.
Blurry Things, I think is the name of one of them. And then we talked about Cultish in the series that they've done on these issues. They also did an interview with the Haunted Cosmos guys. Number six story of 23 was on March the 27th.
That was the Covenant School shooting in Nashville. And you may have heard that there was another shooting that happened. But it was either just yesterday or the day before. And the shooter is what was an identifying trans person, just like the shooter at the Covenant School shooting in Nashville, specifically targeting Christians.
Now the shooting that happened yesterday, I don't think was targeting Christians. But once again, the shooter is a person who identifies as trans. And this is gonna get buried in the news. It's not gonna get the attention that other school shootings get because it doesn't fit the narrative.
They want white male shooters, and then it becomes an explosive story. This guy is a white male shooter, but I think I'm pretty sure anyway, but also identifies as trans. So it's not gonna be that big an issue.
You're not gonna hear much about it. Number seven, on April the sixth, the American Bible Society released their report about Bible reading decreasing among Americans. And then we tied into that other reports that talked about the number of, how many fewer people there are going to church, fewer number of people that are professing to be Christians, the youngest generation of this country, claiming to not even be religious at all.
Highest percentage that has ever been seen in American history, as long as these things have been tracked. Number eight, on April the ninth, Transformation Church in Tulsa did a blasphemous Easter performance, but they've had all kinds of things that they did this past year that had gotten all kinds of attention.
And one of those stories was the noise complaints that they get, even getting in trouble with the law, getting in trouble with the city of Tulsa, because their church services are just too loud. And people in neighboring homes are complaining about how much they're rattling pictures off the wall.
Nobody's church service needs to be that loud. But Michael and Natalie Todd, who are the lead pastors of Transformation Church, they're heretical anyway. So how loud that church gets, they're just broadcasting heresy.
The church also made the news last year for hiring disgraced Hillsong pastor, Carl Lentz, who was fired because he had been committing adultery. Just a dangerous church all around. Avoid, stay away from it.
Number nine story of 23 was on April the 28th, the second annual SatanCon, Satan Convention, was held in Boston, Massachusetts, featuring the largest known gathering of Satan worshipers in history. Number 10, May the second, Uganda passed a law criminalizing homosexuality and got people from within evangelicalism, American evangelicalism, throwing out a number of different opinions about that.
Some highly in favor, some even pushed back, like Senator Ted Cruz, who got in an argument online with Pastor Tom Askell, who's the founder of Founders Ministry. Uganda didn't just pass this law in which they criminalized homosexuality.
They made a statement that Jesus Christ is Lord. And this is a nation that is gonna be in submission to Christ. That was a pretty big story in 23. Number 11, May the 19th, Tim Keller died at the age of 72 from pancreatic cancer.
He may not have been the most high profile evangelical leader to have passed away in 23, because I mentioned Pat Robertson also died last year on June the eighth, the founder of the 700 Club. He had run for president in the past, had made a number of prophecies that were just outright false, still extremely popular even up to the day that he died.
So Pat Robertson may have been the highest profile figure that died last year, but then there were others, Charles Stanley, Jack Hayford, Harry Reader, Sarah Young had died, who was the author of Jesus Calling, which is a terrible book, but nonetheless, a very high profile name.
Number 12, on May the 28th, the Chosen Pride Flag controversy. And we're gonna hear more about the Chosen coming up here in 24, because season four launches on February the first. This is gonna be another year of the Chosen, I'm afraid.
Number 13 was on June the second. This was the debut of the documentary, Shiny Happy People about the Duggar family on Amazon, and all the different conversations that erupted regarding Bill Gothard and some of his ministry and their practices, and the corruption that had filled that ministry as well.
Number 14, on June the ninth, a church in Germany hosted the first known worship service that was generated by AI, artificial intelligence. But then they weren't the only church in the world to do that.
There were others that followed the example. Stateside, it was a church in Austin, Texas that did the first known AI service, Violet Crown City Church. So that was on September the second, or sorry, September 17th of last year.
Number 15, a story that took place on June 13th, was the Southern Baptist Convention held in New Orleans. And Becky and I covered a lot of the different stories in the Southern Baptist Convention. That particular story itself probably ate up most of our time last week, because there were just so many things regarding the SBC that happened in 23.
Next story, I gotta scroll down past these things quite a ways to get to the next one. Number 16 was on June the 25th. This was the Sparkle Creed that went viral, the Blasphemous Creed, that is kind of a twist on the Nicene Creed, but being affirming of LGBTQ, and even saying of God that he has, that he's non-gender, non-binary, or something like that.
I can't remember what it said. I read the beginning of the creed, but I didn't go through the whole thing. It's kind of funny how you have to respect anyone's preferred pronouns, but God's. He said his preferred pronouns in the Bible, but no, you can't respect his.
He gets to be whatever we say he is, according to these Sparkle people. Number 17, June the 30th, the US Supreme Court ruled in 303 Creative LLC versus Alenis that a Christian designer of wedding websites can refuse to work with same-sex couples citing her right to free speech.
That was a huge landmark case last year, probably the biggest one that was decided by the US Supreme Court in 2023. Number 18 was on June the 30th. There were the blasphemy posts in Pakistan that has resulted in Pakistani Christians having to flee their homes over accusations of blasphemy, saying things against the Prophet Muhammad and Islam, and things like that.
Number 19, July the 4th, the debut of the film, Sound of Freedom. Hey, I had mentioned that Jesus Revolution was probably the biggest movie in 23. That was an overtly Christian film, Jesus Revolution, about Chuck Smith, who was the founder of the chapel, sorry, Calvary Chapel Movement, and then also Greg Laurie, who is the most prominent pastor in that movement and how he became a Christian.
Sound of Freedom wasn't as overtly Christian, but nonetheless had the support of a lot of Christians behind it, because this was a film, a drama, that was about human trafficking and various Christians who have been involved in trying to bust these human trafficking rings, especially with the trafficking of children.
Tim Tebow last year also helped to bring 300, I'm sorry, over 500 human trafficking perpetrators to justice through his foundation, and we expressed our thanks to Tim in last week's episode as well. Number 20 was on July the 11th, and this is the last story, and we'll pick up from here.
Ministry Watch gave multiple ministries a grade of F, and then through that same release of all these ministries that failed these different criteria, we also saw how many churches continued to sing Hillsong and Bethel, how popular those songs from those churches continue to be, even though Hillsong was in such trouble last year with some of the documentaries that came out about them and Bethel Church, same with them, but nonetheless, those songs still remain increasingly popular in many evangelical churches in America and even worldwide.
All right, so those were the 20 stories that we covered last week. Picking up from there, this is number 21, and this one was on July the 26th. Nancy Mace, who is a US representative in South Carolina, she went viral for a comment that she made at a prayer breakfast about extramarital sex, and in case you forgot about this episode, if you were on social media, this was all over the place.
It was an incredibly talked about topic, and then later on, she even appeared on different conservative shows, like Sean Hannity of Fox News, who congratulated her for her comment and thought it was very funny, but in fact, it was promoting extramarital relations.
Here was the comment that Nancy made at this particular prayer breakfast.
When I woke up this morning at seven, I was getting picked up at 7 .45, Patrick, my fiance, tried to pull me by my waist over this morning in bed, and I was like, no, baby, we don't got time for that this morning.
I gotta get to the prayer breakfast, and I gotta be on time, and a little TMI, but he can wait, I'll see him later tonight.
So yeah, there was the comment, and she made this at a prayer breakfast as a professing Christian. Now, the story actually gets sadder, because later in the year, I'm sure this is to no one's surprise, but she and the fiance that she was talking about in that very statement, they broke up, and now they're even in legal disputes with one another on whose stuff belongs to whom.
They weren't even married, not even married yet, but because they were cohabitating and sleeping with one another outside of the marriage covenant. She's joking about sin at a prayer breakfast, which was joked about among many conservatives even after this whole thing had happened.
There were Christians online that were blowing up about, what are you doing inviting her to a prayer breakfast where she's gleefully talking about fornication at a prayer breakfast, but there were conservative pundits that were running cover for her and going, no, it was really funny, don't disparage the lady and all this other kind of thing, but it should be no surprise that this ended up not even working out between her and her fiance and later on in the year, they even broke up and the legal disputes between the two of them continue from that point on.
This is a person who is a representative of our country and probably in more ways than one. I think this is pretty common among even professing Christians to see this kind of practice and even this kind of cover run for this kind of practice.
The number 22 story in 23 was on July the 29th. A teen was arrested, he was 19 years old. He was arrested while street preaching outside a Wisconsin drag queen story hour. Now here's the story as I have it from one particular Christian website.
According to reports, police in Watertown, Wisconsin arrested a 19 year old street preacher at a drag queen event during the city's annual Pride in the Park on Saturday, July 29th. A Facebook advertisement described the event as a day of celebration of the LGBTQIA plus community with loads of family entertainment, which included a children's dance party, drag story hour, two drag shows, food trucks and an expanded vendor showcase.
So you have sexual promiscuity being demonstrated, celebrated and even pushed upon kids at this event. I mean, this is sexual abuse that's happening in broad daylight, in the open, in public. And this teen, this 19 year old, a video of the incident recorded by Jason Storms, who is an evangelist on staff at Mercy Seek Christian Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, he had this video where Marcus Schroeder, who's 19, a fellow church member can be seen being detained by police officers.
Schroeder can also be heard preaching and reading the Bible toward those attending the Pride in the Park using a microphone and an amplifier on the sidewalk near the park, but behind a barrier of the event.
Storms had talked to the Republic Sentinel and said the police per orders from city leaders arrested several young people. Three were arrested earlier in the day while inside the park praying and talking to attendees and then released with warnings.
So you have this sexual agenda being pushed upon children in broad daylight, this is sex abuse. And yet it's the ones who are out there preaching the gospel who get arrested while the Pride event is being protected by police officers who are supposed to serve and protect.
They should be protecting those kids, but instead it needs, it's the drag queens that need to be protected from the preaching of the gospel. That story was not the only one like it that happened last year.
There was also the story of Kurt Cameron who had written a book that he wanted to read during a library story hour. Hey, if the drag queens can have a story hour, then I should be able to do a Bible story hour.
And there were multiple libraries that turned him down for this. And that made international news. But then finally an Indianapolis library welcomed Kurt Cameron and there was an overwhelming turnout for Cameron as he read his book, As You Grow.
Those were some big stories during the year. And as a matter of fact, these were among the biggest stories in 2023 according to the Religion News Association. This was the fourth biggest story of the year.
Most traffic story was with regards to like drag queen story hours and things like that. Here was what Religion News Association said. Debates over sexuality and the rights of transgender persons, royal, local and national politics with school boards and libraries caught in debates over the content of books and curricula, the use of pronouns and drag queen story hours.
The number of states restricting transgender athletes reaches at least 20. Religious conservatives generally support such restrictions with religious progressives opposed. So those were some big stories that hit a lot of the religion websites for 2023.
Next story was on August the 8th. This was the Oliver Anthony song that went viral. You're probably familiar with the song or maybe you had heard it, Richmond, North of Richmond. And then as a result of this song, which went viral, he had three other songs, I think it was, that hit the top 10 on Billboard and that had never happened before.
So this nobody comes out of obscurity and has this song that goes viral and many of his other songs become increasingly popular and are played on many radio stations as well, so much that he has four songs that end up in the Billboard top 10, which had never happened in the history of the music charts.
Oliver Anthony, who's single Richmond, North of Richmond, went viral after its release on August the 8th, making music history by being the first ever artist to have a single debut at number one on Billboard's Hot 100, despite the artist having no prior appearance on any chart.
Anthony is also topping charts on Spotify and Apple Music, according to this story that I had pulled from last August. Oliver Anthony's hit single has gotten 33 million views on YouTube as of this writing, which was done, see, this article was August the 22nd, so it was about two weeks after all of this had broken out.
The country folk song laments the economic difficulty of living in the US and critiques the political leaders in Washington, D .C., i .e. the rich men referenced in the title. "'I've been selling my soul, working all day,' the song begins, "'overtime hours for blank pay.'".
There's a curse word in there. "'So I can sit out here and waste my life away, "'drag back home and drown my troubles away.'". Of course, Anthony became very in demand as a performer after that, and a lot of the performances that he did, he stood in front of the crowds and pulled out a Bible, and he would read straight from the text, read straight from scripture.
He would pray to Christ and call Christ King. So some considered that to be a great testimony. What a wonderful witness for this young man to have skyrocketed to this fame and handle it in this way and proclaim Christ at his concerts.
But there were others that were very disparaging of this witness because of how foul-mouthed Oliver Anthony can be. So he, you know, swear words, there's a swear word right there in the song. I would not be able to play it.
I can't play it on the podcast because he's got swear words in it. So it's unfortunate, but that's certainly something that we've been seeing a lot of evangelicalism, especially since the election of Donald Trump.
And that's something I said would happen back in 2016 when he was elected. I said that this is gonna become a norm in conservative circles, and it's even going to be welcomed and tolerated in evangelicalism.
People are gonna start swearing more. It used to be that those who were on the left were the ones who were more foul-mouthed, but now sometimes you can't even tell the difference between the two. Yet, how does scripture say that we should guard our speech?
In Ephesians 4, verse 29, we are told, "'Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.'.
Jesus said in Matthew 12, "'Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.'. So what comes out of our mouths is gonna be a reflection of what is in our hearts. And if we cannot control our tongues, James chapter one says, "'The person who cannot control his tongue, his religion is worthless.'".
These are things we need to keep in mind, not looking for ways that we can swear and get away with it, and God will permit us to do it, but how do we control our tongues and speak in such a way that is going to be honoring of God?
It's great that Oliver Anthony would give, would exalt Christ in this way. I pray that he does so more and more, but that he does so as a disciplined young man who is able to control his tongue and speak things that are glorifying of God and giving grace to those who hear.
The number 24 story of 23 was on August the 30th. And this was the news that James Coates had been acquitted of all charges. James Coates, of course, was the pastor from Canada who had decided to open his church and continue to hold services in the midst of COVID -19 when the rest of the Canadian government had been saying churches needed to be shut down.
This church, Grace Life in Alberta, said, no, we're going to continue to hold services. James Coates was arrested. He was put in jail. He was released not long after that, but then there was still the legal stuff going on regarding is this guy going to be fined or whatever else?
So here's the story as I have it. It's been more than two years since the property of Grace Life Church in Alberta, Canada was seized by law enforcement due to the church's disregarding the government's COVID -19 health orders.
Pastor James Coates was in prison for preaching and holding worship services throughout 2020. Now, after two years of court battles, Coates is expected to be acquitted of all charges. Now, he was not the only one.
Pastor Tim Stevens of Fairview Baptist Church in Calgary, he went through a very similar ordeal, but he had been acquitted of his charges at the end of 22. James Coates' decision didn't come about until 23.
Last year, there was a documentary that was released. I did a what video on it, and we've talked about it on this podcast too. That was called The Essential Church. And I tell you what, why don't I go ahead and play the what video for that documentary here?
Because I don't think it's going to be in the top 10 for next week. So I can go ahead and play that video. This was one of my more watched videos for 23. It was the what video that I did promoting the documentary Essential Church, where James Coates was interviewed, Tim Stevens talking about some of those things that happened in Canada and in the United States with government oppression against churches because they wanted to continue to gather even in the midst of these government shutdowns.
It's a great documentary. If you have the chance to watch it, I would highly encourage you to. But here again is that what video on Essential Church. In March of 2020, churches in North America and around the world were instructed by governing authorities to shut their doors.
A deadly pandemic was said to be sweeping the globe. Only essential services should remain open, and the church was not essential. Many churches complied. In fact, famous pastors like Andy Stanley, Rick Warren, and then Southern Baptist President J .D. Greer said they'd keep their churches shuttered until the next year.
People on the other end of this argument, I keep hearing them say over and over, the Lord commands us to meet. The Lord commands us to meet. He does not.
God requires us to meet. The very nature of who we are, the ecclesia, we are a gathered people.
In the 17th century, John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's Progress, was arrested and put in prison for holding unlawful meetings, preaching to groups of more than five people outside his own family. During the COVID restrictions, Canadian pastors like James Coates and Tim Stevens went to jail for having church, and very few Christians stood by them.
Hebrews 10, 24 to 25 says, let us consider how to stir one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
The church is essential. When it happens again that a tyrannical government wants to impose its will on the church, remind them that Christ, not Caesar, is head of the church. Stand with the apostles who said, we must obey God rather than men when we understand the text.
And that leads to the number 25 story of 2023. And I've got another video I'm gonna play with regards to this one as well. This was on September the 21st, and it took place during the G3 conference. It was the debut of the cessationist documentary.
And man, this documentary has made all kinds of waves all over social media. I think that the Remnant Radio guys are still talking about the cessationist documentary. They still are putting out episodes in response to this particular film.
So it has certainly made waves and caused all kinds of controversy. Things that had happened in view of the public, and there's even things I'm aware of going on behind the scenes that's not so public, but had stirred some controversy even among believers as a result of this particular film.
It was produced by the same filmmakers who did the movie Man on Fire, which was about Martin Lloyd Jones. I think you can still watch that for free on Amazon Prime. And also the film Calvinist that was done by Les Lanphier a few years back.
So Les Lanphier was the director and David Lovey was the writer of the cessationist documentary, and a great documentary if you have the chance to pull it up and watch it sometime. You know, it was also at the G3 conference that there was a bomb threat, and that made news as well.
That made international headlines because during the conference where you had, how many people were in attendance at that thing? 7 ,500 or something like that? There was a bomb threat when they were going to show the documentary The Essential Church.
And so the arena had to evacuate. They had to all step outside. Never did get to show the film, very unfortunately. But there was a video that went viral on social media of a lot of the attendees going to a hotel lobby and then starting to sing hymns.
And they're just singing praises even though they've had to evacuate the arena for this bomb threat. Everybody was safe. Turned out there wasn't really a bomb there. I think they even found out who the culprit was and apprehended the person.
But it's still great that the gospel was able to go forth even in the midst of this unfortunate circumstance. Certainly grateful that nobody got injured. Becky and I were recording our 2000th episode of the podcast that night.
And we got back to our house. Well, it was my folks' house to record that episode and talked about, hey, as we're recording this, there was a bomb threat at G3 and everybody's okay. But it's just amazing that all of that was going on.
Let me play another what video here. And this is a sample. This is a section that was taken out of the documentary film, Cessationists. Again, it's not gonna be one of my more popular videos we cover next week.
But this is the segment toward the end. And I had the privilege of being a part of this particular documentary. And the gospel is presented at the end talking about how the Holy Spirit works in a person, transforms the heart to bring them to a knowledge of the Savior.
And this is how the Spirit works in the heart of every single believer. Here is that video.
Is the Holy Spirit still at work today? Yes, he is.
In John 16, Jesus said that he would send the Holy Spirit and he would convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. When God's word is spoken and we see according to the law that we've broken God's law and our hearts are convicted and we realize I am worthy of the judgment of God.
When the gospel is declared, the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins as an atoning sacrifice, that he rose from the dead conquering the grave, that he ascended into heaven and he's seated at the right hand of the Father interceding on our behalf.
We come to receive and accept those truths because of the power of the Holy Spirit.
As John 6, 44 says, no man can come to me except the Father who sent me draws him. Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night. His heart is a heart of stone. God removes that heart of stone and he replaces it with a heart of flesh that is alive.
It is the work of regeneration. God breathes into a dead man and he brings a person to life.
Look for the documentary, Cessationist, available now.
The number 26 story of 2023 was on September the 28th, Andy Stanley hosted the Unconditional Conference. And this was a conference where he gave full affirmation of the LGBTQ agenda, even had teachers at this particular conference who claimed to be married to somebody of the same gender.
So Stanley is all in on welcoming LGBTQism into the church. He affirmed traditional marriage in a sermon that he did after the conference was over, but he's talking out of both sides of his head. He's saying from one side of his face that we believe in traditional marriage here at North Point Community Church.
And from the other side of his face, but LGBTQ people are not in sin. Homosexuality isn't a sin. We need to be welcoming them into the church and not telling them that they have to repent. Here was the story on October the 1st, pastor and author Andy Stanley addressed swirling speculation about his stance on gay marriage during a service that was not live streamed.
This was all going on immediately following the conference. In the comments Stanley made on Sunday morning, he publicly affirmed the traditional view that marriage is meant to be between one man and one woman, while also emphasizing the need for compassion for those with LGBTQ plus identities.
However, if you would consider the reviews that were written about the conference by people who are pro-LGBTQ, they thought it was absolutely wonderful. And they came away from that conference believing that Stanley is fully LGBTQ affirming.
They thought that the representation was terrific with trans and gay identifying people that were volunteering, that were teaching, that were helping to run the event. This was a full throated promotion of LGBTQism in one of the largest and most influential churches in America.
Rosaria Butterfield, who is a former lesbian had addressed the stuff that was going on with this conference. And she said that Stanley's teaching is Satan drenched theology. Writer and speaker Rosaria Butterfield has added her voice to the chorus of people speaking out against the Unconditional Conference, a controversial event recently held at Annie Stanley's North Point Community Church that was aimed at helping parents cultivate healthy relationships with their LGBTQ plus children.
Yeah, apparently helping to cultivate relationships with your LGBTQ plus kids means fully affirming their sin that God has promised that he will judge. The Unconditional Conference came under fire when it was revealed that most of the keynote speakers held to LGBTQ plus affirming theology, including two married gay men.
Stanley has since stated that neither he nor North Point Community Church have changed their views on marriage and sexuality. What a lie, that is a bald face lie. Or it could be that he is telling the truth, but he was lying before when he said that, no, we don't consider LGBTQism to be compatible with Christianity.
Butterfield's remarks about the conference came on the Great Awokening podcast hosted by Josh Dawes. To preface the conversation, Dawes expressed his belief that Annie Stanley and North Point Community Church have departed from biblical Christianity.
Dawes further explained that he felt the need to speak up in light of the fact that he worked on the North Point staff in various capacities from 2004 to 2013. I did not know that until he did the interview with Rosaria.
Throughout the interview, Butterfield expressed her concern about the theology held by many evangelical leaders today, referring to organizations like Revoice and individuals like theologian Preston Sprinkle as all of that heresy and false teaching.
She went on to criticize author Jen Wilkin for a favorable view of public school education, which Butterfield believes is a feeding ground for LGBTQ plus indoctrination. Butterfield remarked, you gotta know what time it is.
Butterfield further accused evangelicals of drinking from the well of David French, a Christian author and legal expert because pluralism sounds much, much more accommodating than the gospel. Speaking directly about North Point's unconditional conference, Butterfield said, I mean, I just couldn't stomach it.
There's just not enough Tums in the closet for me to listen to too much Andy Stanley. Do not be deceived, Christian. He is a liar and a heretic. Avoid Andy Stanley's teaching and do not think that anything that he was doing at this conference was honoring of Christ, respecting of persons, or had anyone's best interest in mind.
It was completely pandering to the cultural narrative. 1 Corinthians 6, 9 says, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Be aware that we should not ever be encouraging anyone in sin that God has promised he will judge lest we also be judged along with them. For as Romans 1, 32 says, although they know the righteous requirement of God that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
Moving on to the next story, next big story of 23. This is number 27 on October the 2nd. There was a sketch of Jesus sitting next to Donald Trump in court, and this story went viral. A lot of the stuff surrounding Donald Trump last year because of the accusations against him having done, having perpetrated an insurrection on January 6th of 2021.
And then so there were various evangelical voices divided over their opinions regarding Donald Trump. There was this image that came out. So of course, whenever you have trials, there'll be the trial artists there who will draw things that are going on in the trial.
Well, somebody did one that showed Jesus sitting next to Donald Trump and that image went viral. As the civil fraud trial of former president Donald Trump continues, many of his supporters have taken to social media to express their support.
By the way, this trial is not about him being tried for insurrection. It's a different charge altogether. As many people as there are out there trying to say that he had instigated an insurrection, he's never even been charged with that.
He's not been arrested for it and charged with it. You so far have the states of Maine and Colorado that are excluding Trump from the ballot this year. This is the year, by the way, that we're voting for the next president of the United States, whether it's going to be the incumbent Joe Biden or another, because it sounds like Biden's going to be the representative of the Democratic Party.
Trump has said he's still running, but Colorado and Maine have removed Trump from the ballot already. They have said he's not going to be on the ballot citing the 14th amendment and saying that Trump had tried to instigate an insurrection.
But again, he's never even been charged with that. He's never been arrested and charged with an insurrection. This is a completely different trial altogether, trying to get Trump on something. You can tell that's what's going on.
Anyway, as has been the case throughout his tenure as a political figure, much of that support has been cloaked in Christian language and imagery. In some cases, that imagery has even become somewhat bizarre.
Trump and other members of his organization have been accused of fraudulently inflating the value of their assets to obtain favorable loans and insurance deals in a civil suit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Nevertheless, to many Trump supporters, this trial is representative of a spiritual attack on the former president. Further, since two of Trump's sons are his co-defendants, it is a spiritual attack on the entire Trump family.
On October the 2nd, Dom Luker, a popular right-wing figure on ex-formerly Twitter, and I've followed some of his stuff on Twix, posted an illustration of Trump sitting in a courtroom. Sitting beside him was none other than Jesus Christ.
This is the most accurate court sketch of all time because nobody could have made it this far alone, Luker wrote, and it received all kinds of attention, millions of likes and reposts and things like that, so it was circulated everywhere.
Be aware, friends, regardless of your opinions on Trump, whether you would decide to vote for him in 24 or not, the man is not a Christian. He is not a believer in Christ. He is somebody who still needs the gospel.
Pray for him, absolutely, but don't be confused to think that Jesus is just automatically on his side. He is not a God-fearing man. The next big story of 23 was on October the 3rd. This is 28th biggest story.
Kat Von D becomes a Christian and gets baptized. So I'm familiar with Kat Von D. I never watched the shows that she was on. I know she's a tattoo artist, was really popular. I saw lots of images of her, I mean, years ago when I was in my 20s, so I know she's been around for a while.
A friend of mine was a big fan of hers and the whatever reality show, LA Ink or something like that, that she was on. So tattoo artist Kat Von D, who is perhaps best known for starring in various reality shows about tattoos, has been baptized into the Christian faith.
On October the 3rd, the artist, whose real name is Katherine Von Drakenberg, shared a video of her baptism, the most recent spiritual milestone in a journey out of substance abuse and the occult. She was also on Allie Beth Stuckey's show and sharing her faith on Relatable.
I guess that's the name of Stuckey's program. So great, I mean, wonderful to see a woman who has genuinely repented of her sin and come to the Lord and been baptized. Lot of different opinions have been floating around, but I'm one that with regards to these kinds of things, wait and see what happens.
I mean, if a person is confessing faith in Jesus Christ, our social media culture has almost made it to where you have to give some sort of opinion about this. You've got to get your opinion out there fast and let people know about this right up front.
Let things be as they are, let the facts come out, see if that fruit is genuine. The people who are shepherding her are not on social media, they're in her church. So you let them shepherd her and you let them make the determination as to whether or not this profession of faith is genuine.
Hulk Hogan, the famous wrestler, he was also baptized this year. This happened just a few weeks ago, as a matter of fact, on December the 20th. And he posted that on social media, said it was the best day of his life.
Now he's professed faith before, so this isn't new. In fact, I was shocked to see him post a video of him being baptized and I'm going, I thought he was already professing to be a Christian. This was something that Andy Olson and I talked about in an interview I just did with him on Echo Zoe Radio.
I don't think that interview is up yet, but be looking for that coming out pretty soon. We talked about Hulk Hogan and various stars that will post something about being baptized or coming to faith. Some of those you can kind of tell, like if it's in a prosperity theology sort of environment, then it's probably not legitimate.
But there are others where if we don't know the facts, just calm down. Don't feel like you have to rush to an opinion. It could be a good conversational piece among friends and family and things like that, but you don't have to be making these statements out in public of which you have little knowledge.
Pray for people like Hogan and for Kat Von D that they would continue to grow in their faith, in the knowledge that they have of Jesus Christ and maturing in this faith of theirs, which is how we should respond to anybody who comes to faith, not just superstars that end up making news headlines, but anyone who comes to faith.
We continue to pray for and encourage and build up in the Lord. There was also the story of Ayaan Hirsi Ali who renounced Islam for atheism. Her conversion made her a global star. In the wake of 9 -11, she appeared to confirm what many feared, that Islam was incontrovertibly backward and oppressive to women.
Certainly she had no cause to think kindly of the faith that she had abandoned. I'm reading this story, by the way, from the New York Post. Now she has made another conversion. So she went from Islam to atheism, and in a take on Bertrand Russell's famous lecture that was adapted into the essay, Why I Am Not a Christian, she has announced that she is, well, a Christian.
Now, I have not looked into this story much. I know it was a big one in 23, so I've included it on this list among the other famous names that had converted to Christianity last year, but this is one I know very little about, so I can't offer any more insight.
I know that it was buzzing among several people that she had made this particular profession, but another person to be praying for, that this would be something genuine. She genuinely loves the Lord and desires to honor Christ with her life.
All glory be to Christ. For everyone who comes into the faith, this is the work that God is doing. Number 29 was on October the 7th, and this was the day that Hamas attacked Israel. Incidents of hate against Jews and Muslims skyrocket after the October 7th attack by Hamas against Israel and Israel's military assault in Gaza.
In Illinois, a Palestinian American boy is killed and his mother wounded in an alleged hate attack. The conflict prompts numerous protests, and college campuses see fierce debate about the war and the boundaries of free speech.
Many Jewish groups and evangelical Christians staunchly support Israel, while many Muslim and progressive religious groups decry Israel's invasion. This was the worst attack on Israel soil since World War II, the worst attack against Jews since the Holocaust.
And it has dominated Christian headlines and various, I mean, just about every Christian podcast that I have listened to has probably mentioned it in some capacity. Many preachers in their Sunday morning services have said something about it.
Debates have erupted online regarding Zionism and replacement theology, and is the church Israel, and different kinds of debates surrounding that. This is what is going on in Christendom right now. And all of this spurred because of this war that is going on with these attacks from Hamas against Israel.
Of course, the United States is pledging their support behind Israel, and they have any and every right to defend themselves against invaders. Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that deserves to be destroyed if this is the way they are carrying out their agenda.
And they always mean violence. By the way, that word Hamas means violence. You can find that word in Hebrew in the Old Testament, and it means exactly that, it means violence. By the way, according to RNA, the Religion News Association, this was the number one most trafficked story of the year.
All the websites reporting were saying anything that they did covering the war against Israel, these were the most popular stories in 2023. Our number 30 story of the year was on October the 17th, and this was when Flamie Grant, not Amy Grant, but Flamie Grant, who claims to be a Christian, is a trans artist, similar, a non-binary, claims to be neither male nor female.
And then Derek Webb, who used to be part of Cademan's Call, has had a solo career for over a decade now. They went and attended the Dove Awards, which is the, of course, the Christian music awards. It's like the Christian music Grammys.
John Cooper, who is the front man of the Christian rock band Skillet, addressed the controversy surrounding the Dove Awards, a controversy that centered on the appearance of Derek Webb in a dress accompanied by openly queer Christian artist, similar, and drag queen, Flamie Grant.
The Dove Awards ceremony was held at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, and it was open to the public. A couple of days after the event, Webb, who holds more than one Dove Award of his own, posted an explanation as to why he wore a dress to the Dove Awards ceremony.
"'As a cis, straight, white man,' he says, "'I walk into a room like that, "'and any room with an incredible amount "'of advantage and privilege. "'If I'm attending as an ally of friends and colleagues, "'I should do everything possible "'to surrender that privilege at the door.'.
Webb added, "'If the way you look at my loved ones "'isn't the way you're looking at me, "'I'm not truly standing with them.'". So that's why he wore a dress, because he's confessing solidarity with a trans artist and a professing non-binary artist.
But of course, Derek Webb, in doing so, becomes just as bad as the Sodomites, as the people that he claims he's pledging his support of. Again, going back to Romans 1 .32, "'Though they know those who practice such things "'deserve to die, they not only do them, "'but give approval to those who practice them.'".
So John Cooper, responding to all of this, said, "'There are lots of Jesus followers "'in the Christian music industry "'that may not know the best way to speak.'". And he added that he wanted to stand for biblical truth as opposed to being compromised.
"'Obviously, they're just trying to get attention,' "'Cooper said. "'They're trying to disrupt, "'and they're going about it in a clever way. "'And the truth is, they are being aggressors in this. "'They are the aggressors,' Cooper said.
"'They've been trying to antagonize "'the Christian music industry, including Christian artists, "'and have attempted to get them to affirm their views "'on the LGBTQ plus movement for years. "'The truth is,' he added, "'they would not show up at a Muslim music celebration "'to do the same because that would be "'a little bit too insensitive.
"'You don't wanna go in and just start stomping "'on everybody's religion. "'The laws of intersectionality would apply. "'However,' Cooper said, "'they know that Christians are so wimpy and weak, "'they know that Christians are going to somehow "'feel intimidated by them and not know how to act.'".
And so these homosexuals were welcomed into this event, probably largely ignored. I know that Flamie Grant had an album that was nominated for a Grammy Award, for Christian album at the Grammy Awards, but it got moved out of the Christian album category and got moved into a pop album category.
Apparently, there's still somewhat of some tactfulness in the Grammys. I think they recognized that this is not an attempt at producing a Christian album. This is not a legitimate attempt to produce a Christian album.
They saw through the veneer on that one. Also in 2023, Plum became one of the latest Christian artists, Tiffany Arbuckle, to come out as LGBTQ affirming. And she affirmed Flamie Grant and Derek Webb and everything that they were doing.
Sarah Groves, and that one was heartbreaking. I mean, it's heartbreaking any time any of these Christian artists that I grew up listening to come out as LGBTQ affirming, but Sarah Groves. I mean, I'm pretty sure, you know, Groves kind of presented herself as a wife and mom.
Her and her husband were very charitable, did a lot of charity work. She recorded a song with one of my favorite artists, Joel Hansen, used to be lead singer of the band PFR. She toured with Randy Stonehill, another artist that I really liked.
I love Sarah Groves. There were several songs of hers that I really, really enjoyed. And yet now she's come out as being LGBTQ affirming. I kind of lost track of her, wasn't really following her for a number of years.
And then suddenly her name pops up as going all in with the LGBTQ movement. On number, the number 31 story of 2023 was on October the 25th, when Mike Johnson was appointed Speaker of the House, evangelical Christian conservatives cheer the election of one of their own as House Speaker Representative Mike Johnson, longtime culture warrior, active in the courthouse, classroom in Congress.
Some progressive faith leaders meanwhile, sound the alarm about Johnson's past activism against LGBTQ rights, well done, and his skepticism about the separation of church and state. When he was appointed as Speaker of the House, Johnson stood before the House and he said that he was appointed to that position by God.
But he also said to every one of those representatives in the room, you also have been appointed to your positions by God. How are you using this appointment that God has given to you? It really was a great speech.
So putting it upon those even who are progressive, liberal, the far left, who are pushing these anti-human agendas that are destroying unborn children, that are destroying children even with the trans movement, trying to dissect our kids.
As Johnson had put this upon those people on the left, you're gonna have to answer for this before God who appointed you for this task. So what are you doing to honor his name and the role that he has given to you?
I'm adding words to this. That wasn't exactly what he said, but was grateful for that particular speech. Now, even within evangelicalism, Johnson has his critics. Johnson, who is a representative from the state of Louisiana, had opposed the abolition bill that was supposed to have passed in Louisiana.
The votes were even there to pass it, but Johnson was one of those who came out and opposed the bill so that abortion was not abolished in the state of Louisiana. He would proclaim himself to be pro-life, but the pro-life movement has really done some pretty shady things to ensure that abortion not get abolished.
And there is not one state in the union right now where abortion is abolished. There is still abortion practice in every state on some level. Even though Arkansas and Texas have claimed to abolish abortion, it may not be practiced in abortion clinics, but there are still chemical abortions going on through the abortion pills that are still being sold in those states.
And there's no penalty, no recourse against anybody who tries to get an abortion that way. Abortion is not declared murder in those particular states. And that's exactly what we understand abortion to be.
It is the murder of an unborn child. Number 32 story in 2023 was on October the 28th, the Mike Bickle scandal. And it has even since come out that Mike Bickle has completely resigned from the International House of Prayer.
Now, in case you're not familiar with the name Mike Bickle, you're probably more familiar with the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, where they have been doing nonstop prayer 24 hours a day ever since the church had started in the 90s.
Now, as I understand it, that nonstop round the clock prayer had to be put on hold during COVID. So it actually did come to an end at one point that there wasn't anybody at the facility doing prayer. So they can't quite claim that prayer has been ongoing there since the 90s uninterrupted, because when the whole COVID thing happened, that kind of put a stop to that.
But nonetheless, they claim that they have these 24 hour prayer rooms. So there's always somebody in those rooms, either singing a song or in meditative prayer of some kind. And it is indeed an international phenomenon.
There are IHOPs that have been started in various places around the globe. The International House of Prayer in Kansas City executive leadership team continued to keep the public informed regarding the investigation in the sexual and spiritual abuse allegations against the ministry's founder, Mike Bickle, with an update letter and a report on initial findings.
So there are credible accusations that have been made against Bickle. Those things have been explored and have been tested and found to be legitimate accusations against Bickle who had conducted or committed sexual immorality in the past with women.
But as I've covered Bickle in what videos in the past, he should have been removed a long time ago and should be regarded as a false teacher for many, many reasons. I mean, really the news about this when it came out, it's sad, it's heartbreaking, but it did not surprise me.
This is what I've come to expect from a lot of these huge charismatic leaders, especially like Mike Bickle. And this was a guy who had, he had rubbed shoulders with people exactly like this, exactly like him.
He claimed that he had visited heaven and had a personal audience, a personal address with Jesus who told him what it was that he was supposed to do. So if you disagree with Mike Bickle, it's the same as disagreeing with Jesus.
This is the kind of power grab that guys like this make. And even though there have been people in the past who have defended the guy and built him up and said how great he is, whether it was Francis Chan or Michael Brown or Sam Storms, all of those who have sung the praises of Mike Bickle, he has always been unqualified.
He's always been a false teacher. Should have been removed for false teaching a long time ago, but it took an instance such as this in the wake of the Me Too movement to actually unseat him from his position of authority that he had at the International House of Prayer.
We'll probably hear some more stories about this even coming up in 24. The number 33 story of the year was on November the 1st. This was the date that the Texas Rangers won the World Series. Now, there were all kinds of sports stories that happened all year long, and I had chronicled a bunch of them.
What do I have here? I have over 20 stories right here in front of me with all different kinds of times that this pro basketball player or this pro football player or this baseball player had come out and had professed faith in Christ and had opposed the woke movement or the LGBTQ stuff.
So there were all kinds of stories like this throughout the year, but I had grabbed the Rangers story and kind of put it all here under November the 1st because the Texas Rangers were the only major league baseball team to not have a gay pride night in 2023.
Not only that, they were the only, they are the only pro sports team, if I remember this right, out of hockey, basketball, baseball, and football. They are the only pro sports team to have not had a pride night ever.
They've never had one. And this was the team that ends up winning the World Series for 2023. A lot of Christian guys on that team who were very open about their faith leading up to the World Series, even after the World Series, giving glory to Christ and talking about the Christian environment that that locker room really has been for the Texas Rangers.
There was also a great story that came out of OU, Oklahoma University back in June. The softball team for OU three-peated. So the women's softball team are national champions for the third consecutive year.
And it seems like, I don't know if this is the case or not, it seems like every single gal on this team is a Christian. I don't know if you've seen the interviews with the OU gals, but they sound like evangelists up there whenever the press is interviewing them.
Here's the story that I have in front of me here that was written by Stephanie Martin. If the Oklahoma women's softball team wins game two of the College World Series tonight, this was of course back in June, against Florida State, they will have completed a historic three-peat.
But despite the team's dominance and 52-game winning streak, on-field victories aren't the priority for the Oklahoma softball players or their coach. Several Sooners are devoted Christians who boldly share their faith.
They're following the example of head coach Patty Gasso, who regularly glorifies God for his many blessings. Gasso credits God with changing her mindset years ago, shifting the focus from winning softball games to winning souls.
When an ESPN reporter asked how the women handle pressure and maintain their joy, team captain Grace Lyons responded. And this was on ESPN. The only way that you can have a joy that doesn't fade away is from the Lord.
Any other type of joy is actually happiness that comes from circumstances and outcomes. God-given joy isn't dependent on on-field success, Lyons said, noting that the game of softball can be a roller coaster.
Joy from the Lord is really the only thing that can keep you motivated and in a good mindset no matter the outcomes, she said. Amen to that. And that is not only a great testimony before unbelievers, that's a reminder that we as Christians need constantly that joy would not be in our circumstances, but that our joy would be rooted in Christ.
Paul was in jail when he wrote Philippians and said, rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again, rejoice, Philippians 4 .4. Going on with some of these other comments from some of those softball players, Lyons infielder, Alyssa Brito, explained the team's eyes up strategy in which players point upward to indicate they're really fixing our eyes on Christ.
Brito, who was baptized last year by two teammates said, we know this game is giving us opportunities to glorify God. Once we figured that out, it really changed so much for us. Brito said that when Jesus changed her outlook on life, that brought her much freedom and joy.
Whether the season ends with a championship or not, she said, this isn't our home, we have so much more, we have an eternity of joy with our Father and I'm so excited about that. No matter what, my sisters in Christ will be there with me in the end when we're with our King.
Is that not gorgeous? That is awesome. So congratulations to those gals, they did end up winning their championship and are three time national champions with a winning streak of over 50 games. Congratulations to those gals, but especially for the way that God has blessed them with the faith that they have in Christ.
The number 34 story of the year, and by the way, there were all other kinds of sports story, let me go back again to a few of these. There was an Auburn coach who participated in baptisms, that was kind of controversial.
There was a story that I read on top 10 Christian NBA players, 10 NFL players who were Christian. There was a football coach who won the Supreme Court case who had returned, this was a story a couple of years ago, he had won a Supreme Court case, remember when he wanted to pray with the players on the field, the school told him he couldn't do that, they fired him.
And then because he won his case, he jumped back into coaching football, but now he's resigned again, that had happened last year as well. And then of course, there was the NBA player, Jonathan Isaac, Becky and I have talked about him before, who started an apparel company to combat woke companies, and he includes Bible verses on the shoes that he makes.
All right, the number 34 story of the year, this was on November the 3rd, a Southern Baptist pastor was exposed as a cross dresser, and then he committed suicide, and all of this had happened in just a matter of days.
This was a story that went international, when a Southern Baptist pastor was discovered online, dressing up like a woman and behaving as a trans person in some very pornographic websites. This is a story from Jesse T. Jackson, according to WRBL News, Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones confirmed that FL Bubba Copeland was found dead Friday evening off a Lee County road and he died by suicide.
I can confirm that he took his own life, Sheriff Jones told WRBL News. Copeland was the pastor of First Baptist Church in Phoenix City, a Southern Baptist Convention Church in Alabama, and he was the mayor of Smith Station, a town of less than 6 ,000 in Lee County, Alabama, and a convenience store owner.
Earlier in the week, it was discovered by 1819 News that Copeland who is married and has a family had an online presence as Brittany Blair Summerlin, a transgender woman who posted explicit content and images including fictional erotica.
Copeland referred to himself as a curvy transgender on social media, which has now been, that account had since been deleted. But because of all that controversy and because that story went international, Bubba Smith ended up taking his own life.
He had made some incredible comments before all of that happened. He had said, only my wife knows about it. It's a hobby I do to relieve stress. I have a lot of stress and I'm not medically transitioning.
It's just a bit of a character I'm playing. I don't go out and seek solicitation or anything like that. And he also said, and this was the comment that was astonishing that came out of this, what I do in my private life has nothing to do with what I do in my holy life.
Yes, it absolutely does. Everything you do is before God. And if we are transformed by Christ, then all that we do should be unto the glory of God, unto the glory of Christ. Romans 12, one says, present your bodies as living sacrifices to the Lord, holy and acceptable to him.
This is your spiritual act of worship. And as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. Doesn't matter whether it's in private, doesn't matter whether it's in public.
Everything that we do should be Christian. It should be a glory unto Christ. It absolutely does affect your life in every single way. What you do in private, what you do in public. It was John Owen who said, who you are in private is who you really are.
And that is absolutely true. Jesus condemned the Pharisees, those who present themselves in public a certain way, but in private, their hearts were far from God. There were many other stories of pastors getting caught in sexual immorality in 2023.
There was a Louisiana pastor that was charged in sex abuse. There was a pastor who defended the innocence of a man that was allegedly found in possession of thousands of child sex abuse images and called that man a man of integrity.
There was a pastor that was charged over inappropriate text messages with a minor. There was a story of a pastor who'd sexually exploited a child. There was a pastor in Virginia Beach that was caught in a prostitution sting.
And there was also the story, and Becky and I had talked about this last week, Josh Duggar of the Duggar family, shiny, happy people, you know, that whole story. He is in jail for possession of child pornography, and he tried to have that case thrown out or retried, and the conviction was upheld.
That happened in 23 as well. The number 35 story of last year was on November the 7th, and this was issue one that had passed in Ohio. According to RNA, this was the second most popular story in 23 was a lot of the stuff that's been coming about as a result of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which of course happened in 2022.
But then you have had states since then who have either passed laws banning abortion or laws in which they are legalizing abortion in those states. And back in November, that would have been the state of Ohio where that happened.
Legislative and legal battles continue following the 2022 Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade with numerous states now banning or restricting abortion and 20 others solidifying abortion access.
Ohio voters enshrine a right to abortion in the state constitution. Senator Tommy Tuberville blocks hundreds of military nominations and promotions in opposition to the Biden administration policy, allowing troops to travel to obtain abortions in states where it is legal.
These were the kinds of stories that were coming out in 2023 following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. There are three red states now that have attempted to make abortion illegal and have as a result ended up legalizing or enshrining abortion as protected law in those states.
Red states, Republican states, states that traditionally go in favor of Republican candidates. And those states are Ohio, just being one of them, Kansas and Kentucky. And so far everywhere that an abortion ban has shown up on a ballot, allowing the citizens of that state to vote for it, it has, the citizens have voted in favor of legalizing abortion in red states.
So that tells you where the hearts of most Americans are. That even in these states, you would think would be passing laws making abortion illegal. It's the citizens are voting to make it accepted, to legalize it in their state.
Number 36 was on November the 8th when Pope says transgender people can be baptized. You had probably heard the story at the end of the year where the Pope had blessed the blessings of LGBTQ plus persons or persons who are in a same sex relationship.
Well, this kind of all started with a statement that trans people can be baptized unless it causes a scandal, says Vatican's Doctrine Czar. Answering a question from a Brazilian Bishop, the Vatican department that oversees doctrinal matters said on November the 8th, that there is no reason to bar transgender people from being baptized or from serving as witnesses at Catholic weddings.
Here's the quote, a transsexual undergoing hormonal treatment and sex reassignment surgery can be baptized under the same conditions as other faithful if there are no situations in which there is a risk of generating public scandal or disorientation in the faithful, whatever in the world that's supposed to mean.
But you understand baptism as being a confirmation that this person is a genuine believer. They've been baptized in their sins with Christ and risen with him to new life. That's what's being symbolized by our baptism.
So the Catholic church is making a declaration that yeah, it doesn't matter that a person is trans, living in open sin, they can still be baptized though they're not really repenting of anything. And so that was the declaration that was made by the Catholic church, of course, that has widespread international implications to it.
And this also goes with the story that had happened later in the year, closing out 2023, where the Pope had said that same-sex relationships can receive Catholic blessings. That's not to say that the Catholic church is conducting same-sex relationships.
That hasn't happened yet, but you know what's heading there, right? You know, it's just a matter of time. It's not a matter of if, but when. Number 37 story of the year was on November the 11th. Pope Francis removes Bishop Joseph Strickland from leadership of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, following increasingly fierce criticism of the pontiff by the traditionalist.
Francis also acts against another frequent critic, stripping retired American Cardinal Raymond Burke of his Vatican salary and apartment subsidy. So the Catholic church is not tolerating those who are ridiculing and criticizing these decisions that the very liberal Pope Francis has been making.
This story from the Associated Press, Pope Francis on Saturday ordered the removal of the Bishop of Tyler, Texas. And this, by the way, this would have happened just less than 20 minutes from where I lived in East Texas.
But at this time, as it was happening on November the 11th, I had already left. So this took place like two weeks after we had moved here to Arizona. But anyway, Pope Francis ordered the removal of the Bishop of Tyler, Texas, a conservative active on social media who has been a fierce critic of the pontiff and has come to symbolize the polarization within the US Catholic hierarchy.
A one-line statement from the Vatican said Francis had relieved Bishop Joseph Strickland of the pastoral governance of Tyler and appointed the Bishop of Austin as the temporary administrator. Strickland, 65, has emerged as a leading critic of Francis, accusing him in a tweet earlier this year of undermining the deposit of faith.
He has been particularly critical of Francis's treatment meeting on the future of the Catholic Church, during which hot button issues were discussed, including ways to better welcome LGBTQ plus Catholics.
And of course, that is something that we saw happen in 2023, especially at the end of the year. So they removed this guy, and then toward the end of the year, the very next month, Pope Francis makes that issuance that the priests can bless same-sex couples.
You're just seeing the Catholic Church going more and more left, more and more liberal. Now, of course, we would consider the Catholic Church to be apostate. They are not Christian. They would be considered Christian only in like a demographic or, you know, like an encyclopedic sense, calling it a Christian religion, since, of course, they claim to worship Jesus Christ.
But we would call this church apostate because the Catholics, of course, teach in their doctrine very clearly that we're saved not by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, but through faith plus works, that we do various things to merit our salvation.
And one of those being that you have to be part of the Catholic Church. So if you're not baptized Catholic, you're anathema, according to the Catholic Church. Number 38, the number 38 story of the year was on December, the 17th, the Anglican communion verges on schism as conservative church leaders representing about 85 of the global Anglican population, declare no confidence in the communion's traditional instruments of unity, including the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
This follows a Church of England decision to let priests bless same-sex marriages and civil partnerships. According to the Associated Press, the Church of England priests offered officially sanctioned blessings of same-sex partnerships for the first time, though a ban on church weddings for gay couples remains in place amid deep divisions within global Anglicanism over marriage and sexuality.
This was a huge story with far-reaching implications, of course. While we would consider the Catholic Church to be apostate, we would not have necessarily said that about the Anglicans as they're still considered to be Protestant, although if this is the direction the Anglican Church is going, you would certainly say that now, wouldn't you?
When the majority of the Anglican Church is declaring that LGBTQ persons can receive all the blessings of the church, they are welcoming them in without telling them that they are in sin and heading to hell, and even issuing blessings to same-sex partnerships, this is also a church that has gone apostate.
Many Anglican congregations can be set apart from that, and that can be conservative. They can make declarations that we're autonomous, and what is being represented on the global stage is not representative of us, but by and large, we would declare the Anglican Church to have had their lampstand removed.
Now, that had happened with the Episcopal Church a long time ago. The Episcopal Church is the American side of the Anglican Church, but likewise, they have already been affirming of all of these, of the whole spectrum of LGBTQ perversions, and now we see this in the Anglican Church as well.
Of course, just like with the Catholic Church, it's only a matter of time that they also start conducting same-sex weddings. It's not a matter of if, but when. Number 39, the number 39 story of the year was on December the 25th, when 160 Christians were killed, including pastors in Nigeria on Christmas Day, and there have been all kinds of stories like this in Nigeria all year long.
I'll read you a couple of others here in a moment. According to Christian Daily International, terrorists massacred 160 people, many of them preparing for church Christmas programs Saturday night through Christmas Day in coordinated attacks on predominantly Christian areas in Plateau State, Nigeria, sources said.
Church pastors were killed, and hundreds of houses were destroyed in the massacres in villages of Barkinladi, Bokos, and Mangu counties, officials and residents said. The assailants killed the Reverend Solomon Gushi of Baptist Church in Daris Village, along with nine of his family members, said a Bokos County resident.
Some pastors were killed, and another pastor and his wife and five children were killed during these attacks, Malau told Christian Daily International in a text message. These terrorists who attack these Christian communities were in the hundreds, and they carried out the attacks as the hapless Christians were preparing for Christmas programs lined up by their pastors.
God help us, and may the Lord give comfort to those people in Nigeria who have been affected by these horrible terrorist attacks. It wasn't just Christmas Day, it's been going on all year. Previously, 33 Christians were murdered in April in Nigeria, 17 in March, and 17 in January.
Internationally, there were also churches that were attacked in Sudan. This was a news story that was published in the Morningstar News in November. At least two Christian buildings were bombed amid fighting between rival military factions in Sudan, sources said.
On Wednesday, November 1st, a Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church building in Omdurman, across the Nile from Khartoum, came under heavy shelling from the Sudanese Armed Forces at about 9 p .m. that left its worship structure in ruins, two SPEC sources said.
Several people were at the SPEC compound, which includes an orphanage, but were unhurt. The SPEC church building was hit three times, causing severe damage, especially to its roof. Everything inside was destroyed, including Bibles and hymn books, one of the sources said.
There was also a church in the Congo that was bombed, resulting in 17 deaths in January a year ago on the Open Doors persecution list, which was released this past year, of the churches, or of the countries rather, that are the most aggressive against Christians, persecuting Christians.
North Korea is still at the top of that list, ranked at number one, followed by Somalia, Yemen, Liberia, and Nigeria. Those are the top five countries the most unfriendly against Christians. So that was a big story, of course, happening on Christmas Day, but there have been murderous attacks against Christians around the world that have been happening all year long.
Continue to pray for these things. Follow something like Morningstar News, by the way, because they will give you stories that are happening internationally to our missionaries. There's also Mission Network News that gives coverage on these kinds of things.
Voice of the Martyrs. These are different places that you can go to and find out what is happening in international communities. I think that as Christians, we need to be aware of this so that we may know how we are to pray for our brothers and sisters in the Lord.
And I'm gonna do that here in just a moment as we pray for those who have been under persecution for the faith. The Apostle Paul said that he was being persecuted for his faith and asked the churches that he wrote to to pray for him.
In Ephesians 6, 18, he says, pray at all times with all prayer and petition in the spirit and to this end, being on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints as well as on my behalf that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains so that in proclaiming it, I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
So just as Paul requested, prayer would be made for him in the work that he is doing for Christ so we should pray for one another and know how we ought to pray for our Christian brothers and sisters in other parts of the world who are undergoing this persecution.
Let us pray now, let us say a prayer before we get to our top story of the year. Heavenly Father, we pray for those Christians that were attacked, especially in the Sudan, in Nigeria, in some of those other countries where persecution is very prevalent that I listed just a moment ago.
We pray that those Christians who are undergoing these assaults would remain firm in their faith, they would stand strong even in the midst of this persecution for the reward that we receive is not on this side of heaven, but in glory that awaits us a beautiful inheritance we have been promised in Christ.
The apostle Paul said the sufferings that we endure in this life aren't even worth comparing to the glories that await us in Christ. So give them the strength that they may persevere in the midst of these things, bless those families that have lost loved ones, help them to be comforted by the hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ, who though we will be struck down in this life, our bodies will perish in this life, we will be raised anew, resurrected and live with God forever in glory where none of these things can touch us ever again and Christ will have his victory over his enemies.
Come quickly Lord Jesus, we pray in Jesus name, amen. And here we are at the last story of the year, not the number one story, because as I said, according to RNS, that would go to the conflict that's happening between Israel and Hamas.
The legislative battles following Roe v. Wade, that would be the number two story of the year and this story, this one here that I have at number 40 is the number three story of the year according to RNA.
So here we are, number 40, December 31st, over 7 ,659 churches have left the United Methodist Church or about one in four. My friends, that's a schism. That is huge. A quarter of all Methodist churches in 2023 left the United Methodist Church.
Many join more conservative Methodist denominations or they go independent in a widening schism over theology and the role of LGBTQ congregants in what had long been the nation's second largest Protestant denomination.
The largest, of course, being the Southern Baptist Convention, second largest is the Methodist, not anymore because of this schism. A quarter of the churches have split off from the UMC. They cannot rightly call themselves the United Methodist Congregation anymore because they are very divided over these issues and the churches that have left, of course, it has been over the LGBTQ issues.
Since the Methodist Church in America is going progressively more left, more affirming of these LGBTQ issues. So, and then we're just gonna see that gap widen. There are many other churches that are gonna leave the United Methodist Church in 2024.
And I believe it's this year that they have their next international conference. So we're going to see, without those conservative churches that are now part of the general conference, we're gonna see the general conference, I believe, become fully embracing of the LGBTQ agenda because there's not even enough conservative churches in the movement anymore that would keep them from going in that direction.
That general conference is scheduled for April 23rd through May the 3rd in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is the United Methodist Church's top lawmaking body, long delayed by COVID, but we'll see multiple options for the church's future when it meets here in just a few months.
And this, again, it's gonna be international headlines. You're gonna see the Methodist Church in the top 40 stories of 2024 as well as these things continue to transpire. It is incredible how much the LGBTQ agenda is infecting evangelicalism.
And this is becoming quite the dividing line. You saw it in 23. We're gonna see it again this year and in years following where you will have more and more professing Christians that are becoming welcoming and affirming of these perversions that God has promised he will judge, perversions that he judged with fire in Genesis, destroying Sodom and Gomorrah.
And yet blind to the truth, there are professing Christians that have aligned themselves with these perversions. It's astonishing. It is clearly sexual perversion and sexual immorality. And yet these are the things that are being embraced by progressive evangelicalism.
Be in prayer for those things as well. Be watchful, as Peter said in 1 Peter 5, 5. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour, but resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished among your brethren who are in the world.
Be like those gals at OU who said that, despite the fact that they've had such wonderful successes, their joy is not dependent upon those worldly successes. Their joy is dependent upon Christ. It is rooted in Christ.
And may our joy be rooted in that so that even when great adversaries come against us and want to destroy our bodies, our families, our homes, our churches, we still, even in the midst of those things, can rejoice in Christ, knowing that in him our sins are forgiven, we have life forevermore with him in glory, and that God will return to judge his enemies and deliver the righteous.
And so we say once again, come quickly, Lord Jesus. May 2024 be the year that we get to go home and be with Christ in glory. I would pray for that. I don't know about you. Heavenly Father, we thank you for these stories, these things that we've read over the course of the year, things to rejoice in, things that break our hearts, things to mourn over, things to be mindful of and watchful about.
But we commit this year to you. May, for myself and for every Christian who is listening, may this be a year that we walk with Christ, that we desire to do those things that are honoring of the Lord, for you have done such wonderful things for us.
You alone are worthy of our praise. Lead us in paths of righteousness this year for your name's sake. And it's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.
This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.
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