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Responding to a couple e-mails from listeners and then Gabe and Beki countdown the biggest stories of the year that have happened in Christianity and religion worldwide. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
What are some of the biggest events that you can remember happening in 2023? We go down a list of some of the biggest stories of the year that happened in Christianity worldwide and how we are to think about these things biblically when we understand the text.
Happy New Year from your friends at When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. This would be a great time to introduce your friends to our ministry, www .utt .com, just in time for 2024.
Now here's your host, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky.
You're welcome.
It is perhaps our biggest program of the year, where we are going over some of the biggest news stories of the year, 2023. Before getting there, let's begin with a psalm. Psalm 8, a Psalm of David, O Yahweh our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, who displays your splendor above the heavens.
From the mouth of infants and nursing babies, you have established strength because of your adversaries to make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have established, what is man that you remember him, and the Son of Man that you care for.
Him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the angels, and you crown him with glory and majesty. You make him to rule over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet. All sheep and oxen, and also the animals of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
O Yahweh our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Great Psalm to end the year.
Yeah, definitely.
We are at the, this is the final episode for 2023.
Yeah, kind of crazy.
Because then on Monday will be the first. And I'll be back in the study of Matthew. We're just moving on to Matthew 20. Still carrying on. Sermons will be on Sunday. So I guess I'll have a sermon yet on Sunday, which is going to sound, it's going to sound Christmasy.
Yeah, it's from last week.
It's from last week.
Yeah.
I guess that's okay though. Because it's technically we're still in the 12 days of Christmas.
Yes.
So it is the Christmas season. We're just done with the commercial side of it.
Right?
And now we have the 12 days of Christmas going on. Don't let the advertisers and the businesses know about that. It's just gonna be our little secret. Now I did say that we were not going to answer any questions and we're not, but I do have a couple of emails to start us off here.
All right.
This one's from Garrett. Hi, in episode 2045, you guys kept recording after the episode was finished for a few minutes.
He figured out the outtakes.
And I think you may have mentioned your kids by name. I wasn't sure if you wanted that in public. It definitely sounded like this was unintentional. You were talking about the watermelon incident and I think one of your children was named.
Some parents want to keep that info private. So I thought I would let you know that it is out there. Thanks, Garrett.
I appreciate that.
We appreciate that. But no, it was on purpose.
So what you're hearing at the end, the outtake, it could be, it's one of three things. It's either the chatter that we had going on before we officially started recording. So it's pre-episode or it's something that I messed up on in the middle of the episode.
So I cut that out and I stuck it as an outtake at the end, hence being an outtake. Or we did just leave the microphone on and then just kept talking. But it's there intentionally. So our kids' names are out there.
I mean, it's on the church website, I think.
I'm pretty sure, yeah.
It's on my books. You know, in my books, I'll have, hey, this is for my kids.
That's public knowledge.
Yeah, that's public knowledge.
It's okay.
There's a difference between wanting to put my kids' faces out there and having their.
Names out.
And they've been in all of my what videos? All of my kids have been in what videos? Yep, that's true. So maybe not their faces, but definitely their voices. Both Aria and Mariah, I think their 3D sonograms are in a what video?
And then who was I pregnant with when I was hiding behind you?
Oh, that was Aria.
Oh, yeah.
That was back in the Why Women Can't Be Pastors video. That was really early on.
That was a minute ago.
That's right. This next one comes from Alyssa. Dear Gabe and Becky,. I've not read this email to Becky yet, so she's hearing this one for the first time.
My name is Alyssa, and I am 17. For Christmas, my parents just gave me my first smartphone. The very first thing I did was downloaded a podcast app and subscribed to the What Podcast.
Oh, that's awesome.
You both have been in our home for literally years. I believe Pastor Gabe met my dad at a homeschool conference, and he told you how much we love your show.
Aw.
Now, I've never attended a homeschool conference unless you're talking about one of the practicum events that we had to go to or something like that. The only thing I could think of was when we were in Nashville for my dad being awarded for 50 years in religious broadcasting.
We were there in Nashville for him to get his award, and there was a homeschool event going on at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.
At the same hotel?
At the same time. Yeah, at the same time that NRB was going on.
Right.
And so, Aziz and I ventured over there, and we just kind of walked through the exhibits, and people were stopping me. And it was, I didn't know why. I was like, hi, you're Gabe, wouldn't we understand the text?
It was amazing. I had no idea that conference was even going on. And apparently, Todd Friel was the keynote speaker.
Oh, cool.
So, it could be that. That might be what she's referencing. I met her dad at that.
Possible.
That's the only thing I could think of attending. That was a homeschool conference. I may have run into him there.
Yeah, because most of the time, I'm the one that goes, I mean, somebody's got to watch.
Kids.
Yeah, well, yeah, you're homeschool.
You are the
I do the homeschool.
You're the homeschool principal, teacher.
Oh, no, you're the principal. They go to you when they're in trouble.
Well, I'm the disciplinary, and that's definitely the truth. So, Alyssa goes on. We listen to your devotionals as a family in the morning during breakfast. I love the Q &A so much that I listen to it twice, in the morning as a family, and then again later in the day so I can hear it without my brothers and sisters in the background.
You sound like Annie.
Yeah, right. You must be the oldest. Now that I have subscribed to your podcast on the app, I can listen whenever I want and intend to go back and hear older episodes.
Oh, that's wonderful.
I'm emailing you from my new phone, thankful for your faithful service to Jesus, and I pray that he blesses you with many more years to come. I will be listening.
Aw, so fun.
Thank you for that. Okay, so, Alyssa, in 2024, in January, I am republishing the book, 40 of the Most Popular Bible Verses, which was my first book, my first nonfiction book, we'll put it that way. I want to send you a copy.
Email me again with your name and address and info and all that stuff. And once I get those new editions in, I'll be sure to send you one. And for the rest of you, if you've read 40 of the Most Popular Bible Verses, this edition is like 60 different than the first.
So you really, it would almost be like reading a brand new book. Some new verses have been added in there because the top 40 verses have changed. Some have kind of moved out of popularity. Others have moved in.
I don't know that I'm going to keep this trend up of just wanting to update it all the time, but I did move a couple of verses out and new ones in to go with the...
Keep up with the times.
Differing trade. Keep up with the times. That's right. The word of God is still the same.
Amen.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away, as Jesus said in Mark 13, 31. But the popularity of certain verses certainly goes in and out.
All right. Well, let's get to some of these stories.
Okay.
And this is probably going to be a walk down memory lane for both of us.
If I remember it.
Recalling some of the things that happened in 2023.
I mean, it feels like 2023 just started. You know what I mean? Like it just flew by.
Well, we moved toward the end of it.
But to begin, 2023, the beginning of it was so long ago. I don't even remember what I did.
This has felt like a really long year.
It's been crazy.
We, of course, experienced a move, and it was less than two months ago. We moved from East Texas to Casa Grande, Arizona, where I am the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church. And as we've mentioned in the past, you can find out more information about the church by going to ProvidenceCasaGrande .com.
I know we say Casa Grand around here, but I feel like you're never going to enter that name right if I just keep saying Casa Grande.
You're going to leave the E off of it.
So if you move here, we'll call it Casa Grande with you.
But for now on the podcast, Casa Grande. So you can.
Just so you spell it right.
Check it out. Find us on Facebook. I did notice that some people that I have seen that will like posts on the When We Understand the Text Facebook page have liked Providence Reformed Baptist Church. I'm seeing some of the names starting to pop up.
So you guys are finding it.
Yay!
If you follow on the Facebook page or the website or the YouTube channel, you can hear the sermons the day that I do them. But if you're just tracking on the app, then the sermons are always going to be a week.
Back.
So the sermon that you hear this coming Sunday will actually be the one that I preached a week ago. So what else? Anything else notable in 2023? I found this statistic. I thought this, I had no idea. I just discovered this a few days ago.
Amazing Grace, the popular hymn, turned 250 years old in 2023.
Wow.
That's amazing.
Still sung at concerts and in churches all over the world. It was sung at the last presidential inauguration.
Yeah, I was going to say, I think a lot of people, even non-Christians know that song.
Yeah, right.
I mean, Joe Biden, when he was inaugurated president, Garth Brooks sang it.
What?
Sorry.
He sang Amazing Grace at his inauguration. I mean, the whole time I'm listening to it, I'm like, you guys have no idea what this song means.
I'm going to keep my mouth shut.
It's good.
Now, of the stories, these are the top 40 stories of the year. Of course, this is going to come from an American vantage point. Sure, of course. So a lot of these things are going to come from the United States of America.
There are international stories that are intertwined in this as well.
But we still have, what, two more days?
Yes, we do. Right.
So just kind of, you know, there might be something big on the last day.
There's still the 30th and the 31st to go.
You know, we did this last year because we did this episode on the 30th last year.
And I said, barring, you know, the Pope dying.
Yep.
And guess what?
And guess what happened on the 31st?
The Pope died.
The Pope died. You could have called me a prophet in the midst of all of that.
No.
I wouldn't want that title.
Now the last story that I have in here, number 40, because I didn't do this in like the top story of the year. I didn't do it in that order. So therefore, like it's not a countdown from 40 to number one.
You went in chronological.
Yes. It's all chronological.
So number 40, I did mark as December 31st.
Because this is something that has been going on all year long. And once you get to December 31st.
It's still going to be there.
It's still going to be one of the top stories of the year.
And you'll understand it when I get there.
It's a pretty big deal.
Now.
Interesting thing about this list. There is not one notable story for 2023 in the month of January.
My birthday. Come on now.
You turned 40.
I did.
You turned 40 in 2023. That's right.
That was notable.
That was notable. That's a big one. That's a milestone.
Headline.
40 stories in the year that Becky turned 40. So bonus that you turned 40 in January. But yeah, it was kind of funny when I was looking back over events of the year, it really kind of took a while for the year to ramp up.
Most of these stories are in the second half of the year.
There's been a lot that's happened just in the last few months.
Even.
It's incredible. Some of the things that have taken place. But pretty much since the Supreme Court of the United States issued some of the decisions that they made in June. And then from then on, that's when some of the biggest stories of the year have happened.
So it was too quiet. So they had to like start stuff.
Just kidding. I'm not a conspiracist.
We got to do something. So we're starting with February 6th. This is the, this is number one on the top 40.
Like nothing.
Top 40 biggest stories of the year. Number one, Sam Smith's Demonic Grammy Award performance.
Say what?
The Demonic Grammy Award performance. I had no idea who Sam Smith was until this story exploded.
I don't even remember.
If I had ever heard a song from him before, I just never heard that name attached. I didn't know Sam Smith. I didn't know that name. But this was such a big deal and exploded all over social media and became a worldwide thing, of course, because the Grammys are an international thing.
There was this performance that this guy, Sam Smith, did in which he was dressed up like the devil and had all these demonic women around him dancing in about as suggestive a dance as you could possibly have.
I mean, you know, could have been in a strip club. I didn't watch the whole thing, but it was enough.
There you go.
And there were clips of it floating around long enough that, you know, I mean, it was incredibly difficult to avoid. If you were on social media, you probably saw at least a screenshot of this performance.
I don't recall it. So don't remind me. It's fine.
And there were Christians there. There were Christians at the Grammy Awards because Christian music received some of those awards at the Grammys. I had family members that were there at that particular Grammys.
You did.
A big story. Oh, and by the way, I didn't mention this at the very beginning. When I'm talking about the 40 biggest stories of the year, we're talking 40 religious stories. So the things that have impacted religion, primarily Christianity around the world.
That's what we're looking at with regards to these stories. And there were all kinds of Christians that chimed in with some of these things that had happened at the Grammy Awards. There was Prestonwood Baptist pastor Jack Graham, who said, our culture has put the worship of Satan front and center as entertainment.
As recently as Sunday night, we must not open the door to these demonic influences. This is a slippery slope. Sean Foyt, I think that's how you pronounce his last name. He also had said, this is full demonic agenda.
It's being exposed. It's out in the open, and it's even being celebrated. Now, of course, that's true. The demonism that you saw front and center at the Grammy Awards, but this has been going on at the Grammys for a long time.
I mean, I got my tongue tied up. Madonna back. I don't know how many years ago that was. She did something like this. In fact, she was the one that introduced this performance by Sam Smith. And that was surely planned.
It's like Madonna did it 20, 30 years ago when she did a performance like this at the Grammy Awards. So she's going to be the one to introduce Sam Smith.
I mean, the secular music industry is incredibly pagan. You will probably see nothing in the culture as devoted to paganism, even presenting those symbols front and center like you will see it in the secular music world.
They are unabashedly pagan. So that was the first big story of the year. February 6. Next one on February the 12th, number two, the He Gets Us ad that played during the Super.
Bowl.
Oh my goodness.
Sparked controversy.
Ah, that was painful.
These were some interesting ads here. Let me see if I can bring this one up. So there were two ads.
Oh, it's so painful.
The first one was called Love Your Enemies, and it shows a highly emotional series of images depicting discord and violence over issues such as race, politics and pandemic lockdowns. Jesus love the people we hate, it says in the ad, and then concluding with the words he gets us all of us, Jesus, and then directing the people to the link.
He gets us dot com slash love your enemies. I don't think that one had any words in it, so it doesn't it wouldn't make sense for me to play it because it would just be better in my ears. So there was the Love Your Enemies one, and then the one that I had critiqued was the one on Be Childlike.
Let me see if this one has. I'm probably playing something here that the our podcast host is going to filter out because we this is copyrighted music.
So I better stop it at least. But yeah, so it shows images of children being kind to one another. Oh, there's that very famous video of the little black boy and little white boy running toward each other and giving each other a hug.
You've probably seen that one.
And so then the the text comes up at the end, Jesus didn't want us to act like adults. That's what it says. He gets us all of us. Now, this goes along with what I've been reading recently in Matthew, where Jesus says, let the little children come to me and tells his disciples, unless you become like a child, you cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
So certainly he says that, right?
But it is like a childlike faith, like not hindering your faith, you know, yes, but but.
It is not true at all to say that Jesus didn't want us to act like adults, right? First Corinthians 16, act like men be strong.
Ephesians chapter four, grow up into the head who is Christ.
What was that about? Like, they are still getting milk. They need to go on to meet.
Yeah, well, in Hebrews, the rebuke, you're still yes, drinking milk and you need to be at this point eating solid food.
And then in First Corinthians 13, when I was a child, I acted like a child, right? I behave like a child. I reason like a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things.
So, yes, we are supposed to grow up. It doesn't say in the Bible, Jesus doesn't want us to act like adults. Yes, you need to act like an adult, having faith like a child. But you need to grow up in your maturity and wisdom and act like a man or woman of God.
That is absolutely the expectation. So anyway, those were the ridiculous, I mean, he gets us is just incredibly absurd. Earlier this year, they also released some news, you know, breaking thing saying that they were pledging to spend $1 billion in advertising to promote Jesus this year.
No, thank you.
We went to a Major League Baseball game earlier this year with my dad, and they had a he gets us ad at the game.
Oh, boy.
It didn't really make sense. I can't remember what it was. It was something like Jesus wore a rally cap to or something. I can't remember. It was something completely cheesy. Yeah, it was totally ridiculous.
You're looking at that going, what does that even mean? Like what is anybody supposed to get out of that? I'm expecting to go gets us. I don't know what that was supposed to mean. But yeah, you you will find these ads in all kinds of public places.
It's that, you know, black and yellow text because they were trying to make their site look like the Black Lives Matter website.
I mean, the stylistically, it's like a complete imitation. That was a big story and some mixed reactions. Some Christians praised it, thought it was fantastic, and that might be the majority of evangelicalism.
I don't know.
But I was definitely more on the on the critical side. It doesn't share the gospel at all. So nothing about those ads is sharing the gospel with anybody. It's just he gets us.
There is nothing about Jesus dying on the cross.
Your sins. Your sins are forgiven.
You need a savior. The wrath of God is coming. You won't even get that when you go to their website.
Nope.
I've talked before, even did a video on having a chat on the he gets his page so you can enter into their chat and chat with somebody. Didn't share the gospel with me. The number three story of the year, February 23rd.
After more than two weeks, the Asbury Revival Services came to a close.
The what?
The Asbury Revival. So at Asbury College, the big revival that broke out there and went on for two weeks. You don't remember this?
I told you it was a lifetime ago.
It does feel like it was a long time ago. So this revival began on February 8th and then it went on for more than two weeks. It began spontaneously after a chapel service at Asbury University in Kentucky.
The round the clock sessions of prayer and praise drew tens of thousands of visitors to the evangelical school while also prompting similar revivals, kind of some copycat revivals at some area Christian colleges.
We've got friends around in that area, people that I know that went there and I got mixed reactions. Like one friend of mine went and said, it looks legit to me.
And he not only went to the Asbury Revival, but he heard about another breakout revival happening at a college nearby. So he went to that one. And in both cases, he said, this, this looks like a genuine move of the spirit.
I had another friend that went that came back and said, this thing's totally bogus. The very first person I talked to when I stepped on campus was a professing LGBTQ person. And he was proclaiming how great it was about these revivals.
You're not repenting of your sin. You don't, you're not convicted in any way, but you think it's great that, that these revivals are going on. It kind of depends on who you talk to. The genuineness of a revival is oftentimes not in what happens when the revival is going.
On.
It's more of the effects afterward.
So, so what's happening after that? Are you seeing some sort of a move on campus since the revivals that have led to a repentance of sin that have led to an increased interest in love for the gospel and sound doctrine?
Asbury being a historically Wesleyan college. So there would be a few things they would need to repent of there. Not to pick on the Wesleyans, but yeah. Anyway. Number four, the number four story of the year, February 24th, Jesus revolution debuted in theaters.
This was the movie that was a biopic about Lonnie Frisbee. The hippie who was also a homosexual, but they did not include that in the film. This was about Chuck Smith, who was the founder of the Calvary Chapel denomination about how he became a Christian and how, well, no, he was a Christian in the film.
It was him leading Greg Laurie to Christ. So Greg Laurie, who's probably the most famous pastor in the Calvary Chapel movement. The movie is really about him coming to faith baptisms in the movie. There've been stories that have come about that since the movie's release, there were revivals that broke out into different places and they had hundreds of baptisms that resulted in that because of the movie, because of what was.
Not because of Christ.
Well, yeah. What was, what was influenced through the film? I honestly did not see the film I did. I did a what video about it while I was at Shepcon and I'm not going to play that video because next week we're counting down the 10 biggest what videos of the year and it might be on that list.
So we're going to wait for that. But Greg Laurie's church was one of them. So in kind of in the fervor of all of the hype that the movie was generating, they baptized 4 ,500 people in one day. Now Greg Laurie has these harvest crusades that he does around the country and it's very similar to the Billy Graham crusades and they're often boasting numbers that aren't really legitimate.
That's what I was going to ask.
Even the, even the.
Even if they did have 4 ,500 baptisms, like how, how many of them were actual baptisms? Or just like an emotional decision rather than a really soul changing.
Those people have actually joined the church and they're showing up weekly to church. Like you're seeing a genuine transformation of these people's lives. When we read in Acts 2, about 3000 people being baptized at Pentecost, those were people that were added to the church.
They're at Jerusalem.
That was legit.
Yes. And then you continue on.
And obviously it was spirit filled, like it was spirit led, it was, it was done the correct.
Way.
It was obvious that they were all legit.
So anyway.
Now I've heard Greg Laurie preach the gospel, so, and I know that what he said is actually the gospel.
Awesome.
So I'm not ripping on that guy, even though I don't think his methods are, are, are entirely on the level, but yeah, he nonetheless likes to inflate numbers. So yeah, we got to be careful about some of those things.
Jesus Revolution was the number one film in theaters for a little while. It earned over $40 million. It was the number one bestseller on Amazon, streaming ahead of John Wick and Top Gun Maverick.
Other Christian films that came out this year include Nefarious, which was a Christian horror film about demons, Journey to Bethlehem, a terrible musical about the birth of Christ. And I reviewed that just a couple of weeks ago on the podcast.
The Shift, which was a kind of modern twist on the Book of Job. I didn't see that one. It was, it was in a theater around here a couple of weeks ago and I thought about going and seeing it, but I was like, I don't, I don't want to see it that bad.
The Chosen season three was in theaters. I think it was both the season premiere and the season finale.
Those two episodes were in theaters and they, they also ran a limited release Christmas story called Oh, Holy Night. Just a few weeks ago, Angel Studios debuted his only son about Abraham over the Easter weekend, which made $11 million on a limited release.
And in case you're not aware, there was another left behind movie starring Kevin Sorbo. I think it was called the Rise of the Antichrist.
Oh, I remember hearing about that.
It made $3 million in its opening weekend, debuted on January 26th. So I guess, uh, there's your, I could have, I could have put that one in there as the January story.
Not like it was terribly big.
Number five, March 9th, the Haunted Cosmos podcast launches.
Ah, yes.
Now guys, I I'm giving you that spot kind of by default because I really wanted to mention here that this year has really kind of stirred interest among Christians in what we call cryptids.
So things like Bigfoot and aliens, um, and ghost stories and things like that. These things are really among the rise in evangelicals. And in fact, there was a story that came out earlier this year where it says that, uh, that fundamentalist Christians at the Pentagon have stymied funding of extraterrestrial investigations because they fear the phenomenon that was being witnessed was demons.
So even Christians that are working in government positions are interested in these kinds of things, but they don't want the government studying it because they think what the government is actually investing in is contacting demonic entities.
That would be terrible.
I agree with that. I do think that's what it is. They're not actually aliens from another world. It's true that they would be extraterrestrials, right?
That's true.
Or beings from another plane of existence that would be demons. But they're not actually aliens from a distant planet.
Something like that. Now, I like this stuff. This stuff is always fascinating me. Ever since I was a kid, I've been fascinated by things like this.
Like ghost stories.
Ghost stories and whatever else. I mean, it's, again, it's contact with the spirit world. We should not be engaging in that. The Bible strictly prohibits it.
But nonetheless.
Multiple times.
When you hear stories like this, this is contact with some sort of evil spirit or demon. And so those things have fascinated me. My concern with this would be, since these things are on the rise, especially among evangelicals, that evangelicals are going to start to dabble in it.
Ah.
Well, what if I can make contact with the spirit world?
That sort of thing. Now, the thing I appreciate about Haunted Cosmos is those guys will absolutely tell the listeners, don't do this. You know, these stories are interesting. We can talk about whether they're made up, whether somebody is just fabricating these instances or whether this really does happen.
These kinds of things really have taken place and there's so much that's happening in the.
World.
It's more than just materialism. We're more than just stuff.
It's never their story. They always get it from the person who experienced it.
Oh, it's extremely well-researched.
But it's not their personal experience.
So they're not going out and trying it themselves.
Am I right?
They've even brought up stuff that I've heard before or I'll go back and look that story up again. I think I remember reading something about that and we'll follow up what they were talking about on the episode by doing some more reading.
So I've enjoyed the show.
In addition to that one, Cultish, which is a podcast that's put out by Apologia Church, they did a multi-part series earlier this year. I can't remember how many parts it was. Eight parts, I think it was.
But they did a series on aliens and going all the way back to the study of extraterrestrials, the fascination with extraterrestrials and how far back we're able to trace it in human history.
Oh, that's crazy.
And then see how it's even come into government research and things like that with Project Blue Book, which was a thing under the Clinton administration.
Oh, okay.
Uh-huh.
And people within the government sector that say, we have made contact with these UAPs or these extraterrestrials. There was the video that leaked, what was it, last year, I think it was, or the year before of the pilots that had caught the UAP on camera and had released that video to the public.
There's been sessions in front of Congress that have been, you know, broadcast on Z-Span.
So these things are definitely on the American conscience, conscious, American conscious. That's it. And so I stuck the launch of the Haunted Cosmos podcast at number five on March 9th. Great show, guys.
And thanks for the work that you do. Number six, March 27th, this one's, we're going from something humorous to something very tragic.
This was the Covenant School shooting in Nashville.
So you had...
That was that long ago?
Yeah, March 27th. And I was actually driving Samuel C. and his wife from Lyndale to Dallas that day. And it was after dropping them off at the hotel, we had been talking all morning, and after dropping them off at the hotel and getting back in my truck, I turn on news, and this is the story that's on the news, the Covenant School shooting in Nashville.
So there were three children that were killed, three adults. The victims were Evelyn Deekhouse, who was nine, William Kinney, nine, Haley Scruggs, also nine, Custodian Mike Hill, 61, Substitute Teacher Cynthia Peek, 61, and Head of School Catherine Kuntz, who was 60.
And of course, the shooter was a girl who thought she was a boy, a transgender, killed these students and adults. The police came in, shot her after she had killed six, and that body cam footage of her being shot was released publicly.
Oh, wow.
Joe Biden made a joke about the shooting.
So he was asked by a member of the press, do you think that the girl that went into this school and shot these students, do you think that she was targeting Christians? And Joe Biden said, I have no idea.
And the reporter said, well, Josh Hawley thinks that the shooter was targeting Christians. And Joe Biden laughed and said, well, then I probably disagree with him. And then he goes, I'm joking.
I'm joking.
Like, he even admits he's joking. He's joking about this scenario of six people having died by this shooter at a Christian.
School.
You know, of everything that he's said and done, I shouldn't be surprised.
But yeah, that's Joe Biden.
It's sad.
Increasingly showing himself to be the worst president in the history of the United States.
Pray for a president.
I'm not even exaggerating there. Number seven, on April the 6th, the American Bible Society report was released that revealed Bible reading has decreased among Americans.
Why do you suppose that is?
Well, we've seen decreases across the board on a lot of things. So there's been decrease in marriage. There's been decrease in church attendance. There's been a decrease in the number of people that profess to be Christians.
So it's not surprising that the American Bible Society releases this report that shows Bible reading has decreased.
True.
Among Americans. All of these things are kind of going hand in hand.
Yeah, they're all connected. Yeah, that's true.
Among the youngest generation of Americans, you have the most number of people in American history that are proclaiming to not be Christian or not be religious of any kind.
Youngest demographic, as in like adults?
No, I think it's, I can't remember what the stat is exactly. I think it's like 16 and up.
So it's not, you know, they're not surveying eight year olds.
I just didn't know how young it went.
Yeah, whatever the bottom of that particular demographic is supposed to be. Number eight. On April the 9th, Transformation Church in Tulsa has a blasphemous Easter performance which goes viral.
Now, Transformation Church was on my list last year as well. They also made the top 40 stories of 2022.
Are they just trying to go for this or?
Oh yeah, their pastor is, I mean, he's crazy.
To put it mildly.
So what was, what was this, you know, like quote unquote service?
Well, the portion that kind of went viral showed three gals and I guess they were supposed to be, you know, rebellious gals. And I think as I did watch this, but I can't remember how this progressed. I've kind of blocked it out of my mind since then.
But I guess it was some sort of skit that they were doing and these three gals were kind of rebellious and later they're convicted and I think one of them comes to Christ, but the other two don't or something like that.
But in the portion of the skit that went viral, that kind of got everybody's attention on whatever it was, Transformation Church was doing that Sunday, was the three of them talking about each other's booties.
And so they're making sexual conversation, really.
And this is during?
This is during church. This is an Easter service.
Easter?
Easter service. Easter Sunday.
Now, this is Michael Todd, who is the pastor of this church, and he's had best-selling books among Christianity. If you go into a Mardell's and they'll have their book rack right there at the front, that's like the best-selling books.
Michael Todd is usually on that rack.
I've heard the name and I've seen the name.
With some ridiculous facial expression that he's making. Now, this isn't the only thing Transformation Church has done this year that has attracted attention. They hired Hillsong pastor, Carl Lentz, who has become on staff at Transformation Church.
Carl Lentz was the pastor who a few years ago was revealed to have been having an affair. He was committing adultery.
And they hired him.
I mean, this is a man who's permanently disqualified from ever being pastor again, and they hired him at the church. So he's now a pastor on staff at Transformation Church.
He used to be the pastor of Hillsong, New York City until he got caught in adultery. And it was the woman.
And then he moved to Tulsa.
And then he moved down to Tulsa. And it was the woman that he was committing adultery with who broke the story, of course.
Well, that's interesting.
Transformation Church has also been in the news, and this has been an ongoing story. I think this has been going on since last year, but they also periodically pop up in the news for noise complaints.
The church is apparently so loud. The volume is so high in this church that houses in the neighborhood around it are complaining about the noise. The base from the services will rattle pictures on the wall and stuff like that in houses that are around the church.
And the church is an arena. Like this isn't like a regular church building. You think about our church in Kansas and where we were right in the middle of a neighborhood.
If we were playing music real loud, yeah, you could definitely see how it would affect the houses that are around.
Because the walls are thin. It's a small building, you know. But this is a huge arena. And so they've got the music so loud that even the arena walls are not blocking it.
They're going out into the neighborhoods and rattling pictures on the walls. So the people in those neighborhoods have complained about the noise at Transformation.
Church.
And it's not one church service. It's not just Sunday morning. They've got stuff going on most of the day.
Well, yeah.
If it's in an arena, they've got tons of services and who knows?
Apparently weird stuff all day.
It's really bizarre, the different kinds. I think one of the stories, I may have mentioned this last year. You may have even remembered this.
But there was the story where Michael Todd spit in his hand and then he rubbed it on the eyes of a guy in his congregation.
Ew.
And it was when he was talking about, you know, when Jesus spit in the mud.
Okay. Yep.
I do.
So it was like in the midst of flu season and COVID season, and you're doing this.
Oh, it's so gross.
That was that church. That's that guy.
That's terrible.
I'll move on to another cringy one.
Oh, great.
Number nine. This was on April the 28th. The second annual Satan Con was held in Boston, Massachusetts, featuring the largest known gathering of Satan worshipers in history.
Now this
That's intense.
This thing actually sold out months before. I never saw any stories about the con itself, and con is short for convention, by the way. So this is a Satan convention and it had sold out months before. I saw the sold out notice.
I never did follow up and find out, you know, what else had happened with the con, at least around that time period when all of this was going on.
But it was about a thousand people, including many who don sinister themed outfits, dressing like demons and Satan
Oh, of course.
To attend this convention. And they gathered at, oh, I can't remember where this was located. It might've been a hotel or something like that. But they were supporters of the Satanic temple. The subject of the critically acclaimed documentary, Hail Satan, attendance more than doubled compared to last year, which had around 300 attendees, according to organizers.
So now they're up to about a thousand, about three. It's really three times what they had done the year before. Group members say that critics often incorrectly assume the organization is made up of evil trolls whose goal is to worship the devil with blood sacrifices.
They say their Satanism is more about free thinking and being a champion of independence and personal expression. So it's not actually about worshiping Satan.
That's kind of what I figured is that they, it's just like a theme, but they're like, there's Comic-Con.
It's about comics.
But this is Satan con. So it's about Satan. So it's, but it's equivalent and it's just entertainment, which is still not okay.
It's still Satanism.
It is.
They're still worshiping Satan. They are. Even though they want to say, we're not really worshiping Satan.
Yeah, you are.
They're encouraging it.
So that's what you're doing. You're either worshiping God or you're worshiping Satan.
Yeah, exactly. But they don't get that.
I mean, it's playing with fire, literally.
It is. Yeah.
It is. It's a scary thing. But this goes right along with, you know, the story that we opened with from Sam Smith and the Satanism that was demonstrated at the Grammys. This stuff is in broad daylight.
When we lived in Lindale, there was a gay pride parade in Tyler, just 20 minutes south of where we were. And there was a church of Satan that had a booth there during this pride event. And they were issuing certificates of some kind, like an unbaptism or something like.
That.
I think it was what they were doing. And they had pieces of baby dolls.
That's what I was going to say.
In a jar.
Promoting their support of abortion and things like that.
And then they also had like Wiccan festivals and midnight festivals.
In a red state.
I don't even remember what the moon part was about, but it was something Satanist or Wiccan. I don't even know.
I mean, going back to what the Haunted Cosmos guys like to say, we're more than just stuff.
These things are significant. I mean, as much as people want to say we're not really doing anything spiritual, yeah, you are.
You may not think that you are, but you are. And these things have eternal ramifications to them as well.
And of course, we can get kind of up in arms about the blatant Satanism when it's flaunted like this. But I mean, really, when it comes down to it, we just need to be out there preaching the gospel.
There are any number of these stories here that are demonstrations of evil, where people need to hear the gospel, they need to be told about their sin, the wrath of God that is coming against these things.
There is a hell. It is real. You will burn there forever if you don't repent. And the only way to be saved is to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for sins and rose again from the dead.
So that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. That's any of these things that we're reading about, that needs to be the message spoken into that.
Number 10 was on May the 2nd. Uganda passes a law criminalizing homosexuality.
Woohoo.
Uganda's president had signed a bill criminalizing same-sex conduct, including potentially the death penalty for those convicted of aggravated homosexuality into law. The Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 violates multiple fundamental rights guaranteed under Uganda's constitution and breaks commitments made by the government as a signatory to a number of international human rights agreements.
I'm reading that off of the Human Rights Watch website.
Of course.
So they obviously took an angle against this. Now I think one of the more notable things that came out of this was the exchange that had happened online between Tom Askell and Ted Cruz, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.
So these two had a debate on social media because Ted Cruz had condemned these laws.
The laws against, you know, anybody committing homosexuality or even aggravated homosexuality that could incur the death penalty. Ted Cruz expressed that he was opposed to that. He called it horrific and wrong, grotesque and an abomination.
No, the Bible calls homosexuality an abomination.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
Laws against it aren't an abomination. Tom Askell, who is a pastor in Florida, founders of, or founders of president, I was going to say that he's the founders of president. He's the president of Founders Ministry.
He presented to Ted Cruz, Leviticus 2013, if a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They've done an abomination. They are to be put to death and their blood will be on their own heads.
And so Tom asked Ted, was this law that God gave to his old covenant people, horrific and wrong? Ted Cruz responded, pastor, I don't know you, but I honor your ministry. The Senator began. Your biblical analysis is an error.
Jesus told us to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God, the things that are God's. We're talking the laws of man, not the old Testament laws of God. Do you really believe that the U .S. government should execute every person who is gay?
Which that's not what the law does. It doesn't execute every person who is gay.
It doesn't.
It would execute those.
It took the extreme.
I mean, it would execute those who are guilty of aggravated homosexuality. I mean, I'm in favor of getting giving the death penalty to rapists.
Definitely.
And in Florida, in fact, there was that law that was passed by Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, that would give the death penalty to pedophiles.
And apparently Ted Cruz doesn't think that's horrific and wrong. So what's wrong with giving the death penalty for aggravated homosexuality?
Maybe he doesn't understand.
He clearly doesn't understand. I'm with you there.
Next story. This was number 11. On May the 19th, Tim Keller, 72, died of pancreatic cancer. Now the memorial service wasn't until August the 15th, but there's been stuff going on all year ever since Tim Keller passed.
There's been, you know, huge things in the news, different editorials, exposes, things like that.
Of the kind of impact he had with his ministry. Some trying to say that he was wrong at the end of his life. The stuff that he was doing earlier was much more biblical. I agree with that. There were some things that he was, he was very influenced by the wokeness and therefore taking wokeness stuff and trying to influence the church with that.
There were some very unfortunate things that he was teaching in the last few years of his life. But I'm one who can say that I was impacted by his ministry early on.
So my coming around to understanding reform theology around 2010, Tim Keller, he was part.
Of that.
He was an influence in that. There were other very notable theologians who died this year. Alabama pastor Harry Reader died at the age of 75, not of old age or an illness. He died in a car accident on May 18th.
Oh.
Charles Stanley died on April 18th at the age of 90. And Jack Hayford died at the age of 88 in January. I think Jack Hayford, though I know the name, he was more on the charismatic side of things.
But I think that he wrote the song Majesty.
Worship his majesty.
You know that song?
I think Jack Hayford was one that wrote that.
Hmm.
And so he passed away at the start of the year. And even more than Tim Keller's death. So I put these deaths under May 19th. Tim Keller may have not been the most notable theologian or evangelical preacher to have died in 2023.
I would say it's probably Pat Robertson.
So Pat Robertson, who started the 700 Club, died on June the 8th. And he might have been the highest profile name of those who had passed away. Sarah Young also died this year.
Oh, I don't think I knew that.
The author of Jesus Calling, which is a terrible book. And if you have it, burn it.
Please.
I've got three or four copies of it.
For research purposes only.
For research purposes. I had one and I would write notes in it and then I would lose that one so I'd get another one and then write more notes in it.
And then you had one.
I had one. Yeah.
You had one from your former life. And so I seized yours. Now, it was really great that you still had it, actually, because you had one of the earliest publications which, that disclaimer at the beginning, they had been removing from some of the later publications.
So I appreciate that. In the early publications, Sarah Young would openly say where she got this idea from, and it was from the book, God Calling by Two Listeners. It was God Calling.
So she did her book, Jesus Calling, but God Calling was the predecessor.
And it was written by two anonymous women. It was written by somebody else, but he attributed it to two anonymous women. And Sarah Young was inspired by that to come up with Jesus Calling.
But both books are incredibly flawed, very wrong. Scott Sauls was Sarah Young's pastor, and he happened to be removed from his pastorship this year. So the same year that she died, he was outed by his church, fired.
Oh, interesting.
That's not one of my stories on here, but you know that that happened this year. Number 12, May 28th. That was when the chosen pride flag controversy had started up. Do you remember all of this?
So it was on May 28th that the chosen had posted on their YouTube page a behind the scenes video of the filming of season four. Season four will debut on February the 1st of 2024.
Don't watch it.
It's going to debut in theaters. I think they're showing the entire season in theaters.
If I remember right.
Anyway, so in this behind the scenes video, there's a pride flag on some of the camera equipment, and it was caught by a couple of people. I'm not sure who was the first one to post it, but I know the most prominent guy was John Root, who used to work for the Daily Wire.
In fact, if I remember right, he got fired from the Daily Wire over this because he stirred up this controversy with the chosen, and Jeremy Boring, who is the CEO of the Daily Wire, didn't like it. Didn't like what John Root was accusing the chosen of, and so he fired John Root.
I don't know that that's absolutely the pattern of events, but that's the way that I remember that transpiring, at least as it appeared on social media. So then because he had exposed this behind the scenes thing with the gay pride flag, the chosen guys came out.
There were cast members. There were crew members that came out and defended the crew member who had posted the gay pride flag, and this particular crew member, if you go to his Instagram page, which I did, and I don't recommend anybody do this, but he has nude photos of himself posted on his Instagram.
He's an openly homosexual man. He's one of the cameramen of the chosen, and he was defended by the chosen cast and crew. I think it was something like six of the actors that played disciples came out defending the man and pledging their support and unity with LGBTQ allies.
Well, okay.
Jonathan Rumi, who plays Jesus in the chosen, back in 2019, he had posted something on his Facebook page in which he was pledging his support for the LGBTQ community. So you have the actor that plays Jesus and half of the disciples, half of the actors that play the disciples that are coming out openly supporting of the LGBTQ movement.
And these are the people behind the chosen. Now there was a scene that was released just a few weeks ago, and it's Jesus rebuking the Pharisees. It's somewhat patterned after Matthew 23, and there's also the account in Luke of the seven woes, where Jesus issues the seven woes to the Pharisees.
So that's what this scene is based off of. But when Jesus talks about justice and mercy for the oppressed and things like this, when I hear them talk about that in the show, all I hear is you're rebuking Christians for not aligning with and welcoming LGBTQ people.
That's what you're talking about when you're talking about mercy and justice for the oppressed.
They just don't understand.
I mean, they're heretics. You have heretics behind this show. I cannot see how there's any genuine Christianity behind the making of the chosen. And in all the stuff that I've watched, it's either the pragmatic seeker sensitive stuff at best, or it's straight up heresy at worse.
And that's the chosen in a nutshell. Other things about the chosen. This year, there was the chosen convention that had taken place in Texas.
Really?
The chosen was on the cover of TV Guide. I didn't even know TV Guide was around anymore.
But the chosen was on the cover of the magazine. Anyway, it was a big year for the chosen, and it's probably just going to get bigger with the debut of season four coming out in 2024.
2024.
Season four in 24. Now I can tell when I watch the behind the scenes stuff, their budget has really ramped.
Up.
Because some of the criticisms that I've made of season one were like, this is silly.
You know, Jesus preaching to like 50 people on the beach, but he has to stand in the boat because they can't hear him. There's 50 people right there.
I can get 50 people in my living room.
And they hear me just fine without me having to get into a boat.
But yeah.
Now when you're looking at some of the stuff coming out with season four, the crowds are massive.
Oh yeah.
So they've got plenty of extras. They can afford all the costumes now as they've raked in their millions for this show. The budget has clearly increased on the stuff that they're doing.
That's actually very sad.
Yeah, it is. It is. It's going to continue to sow division and wrong understanding of scripture. And no matter how many people will email me and say, no, the chosen got me to read my Bible. The Holy Spirit convicted your heart and brought you to the word.
The chosen had nothing to do with it.
The Holy Spirit brought you there in spite of the chosen, not because of it.
Number 14. Or no, I'm sorry. We're up to 13. 13 story of the year. June the 2nd, the debut of shiny, happy people on Amazon about the Duggar family and some of the horrific teachings of Bill Gothard.
That had influenced the Duggars and I really was.
That was this year?
Yeah, that was this year. That was back on June 2nd. Now I didn't watch it until, I think it was July. I made some comments about it on the podcast and it was a friend of ours at church that actually said to me, I think you need to watch it.
It'll give you some insight into some of the Gothard stuff and then come to find there were more people at church that grew up in the Gothard environment that I was even aware.
Of.
That was amazing how it just sort of kept going. I would not have guessed that.
I was near it when I was a kid. I had friends that were raised under the Gothard teaching, but I just was not exposed to it.
I don't at all.
I really, I had no understanding of it until really until the Duggars and some of the stuff started coming out about Josh Duggar and his pornography, the pedophilia. Which incidentally earlier this year, Josh Duggar had tried to appeal the decision with regards to his pedophilia and the, uh, the court's decision was upheld.
So Josh Duggar, he's in jail for a while.
But anyway, it was after all of that happened and I was like, well, what, what have been the religious influences in the lives of the Duggars? I never watched any of the show. I just knew the name because it was, I was all over the place and they were considered to be these evangelical faces and this kind of thing.
And so there was kind of looking behind the scenes in the Duggar family that I came to know what the Bill Gothard stuff was. I had no idea what it was. So that all of that is fairly new to me.
There was also a documentary earlier this year exposing Hillsong that debuted on FX on May the 19th. I did notice that in one of the streaming services we have that, uh, that documentary is available.
I've been meaning to watch it, but I haven't seen it yet.
Please spare me.
It'll be one of those I watch after you go to bed. Number 14, June the 9th, a church in Germany hosts the first known worship service generated by AI.
I remember that artificial intelligence. So had come up with the songs, the worship service order, the order of service, the sermon itself was generated by AI. There was this church in Germany was the first one to do it.
An experimental church service that was, uh, that was generated by AI. So of course, if that's going to be done in Europe, we got to do it in the United States too.
Naturally.
So on September the 17th, Violet Crown City Church in Austin, Texas held an AI church service stateside.
Now my question is, are they still doing that or has that failed?
I remember reading a, uh, an interview with the pastor at the church in Austin and he kind of came out like, here's why we're not going to be doing this and here's why it's bad for churches to do this.
But it was still like, why did you do it?
Did you think it was a good idea or you just wanted the news?
Exactly. Just wanted to do it so we can, uh, we can have the news story. There was also, Oh, I found this too.
Hang on.
Let me bring this up. There was this app that was launched earlier this year. A new AI app lets users text with Jesus and other biblical figures. This was a story. This was a story that was featured in the religion news service.
If you ever wondered how Jonah felt while he was trapped inside the whale's stomach for three days, why Solomon had so many wives or why Judas betrayed Jesus, a new app called text with Jesus is your chance to ask for yourself.
No, it's not.
This is like the magic eight ball. Yeah, that's a good comparison. Ask a question, shake it, flip it over.
It's the upgrade to the eight ball. It was launched in July. Text with Jesus is the latest creation from cat loaf software and app developed company in Los Angeles. The app replicates an instant messaging platform with biblical figures impersonated by the artificial intelligence program chat GPT.
Yes, another creation of chat GPT anyway.
Biblical figures.
So yeah, some of the figures include. They've even got a list here. Mary and Joseph, all 12 apostles, which how do you do that? Because like there's no words recorded from Bartholomew.
I know that's what I was thinking. I'm like, there's some that didn't say anything.
Any of the prophets?
I mean, they said stuff. Don't get me wrong. But in the Bible, it's not recorded.
Ruth, Job, Abraham's nephew, Lot, what was the first thing you thought of when your wife turned to Saul?
Oh, I can come up with some.
I'm being PG.
Oh my goodness. Just move on.
I was totally being PG rated.
Did you ever see that joke of there was a gal who she was playing like she was looking for Lot's wife's phone, iPhone, out in the wilderness. And she finds it on the ground and she goes, oh, hey Lot, I think I found your wife's phone and picks it up.
And she goes, oh, it's got the face lock on. Hang on. Then she holds up a salt shaker and it unlocks and she goes, oh, there we go. That was great. That was brilliant.
Number 15, June 13th, the Southern Baptist Convention was held in New Orleans.
We were there.
We were there. New Orleans.
New Orleans.
We were right there. Went to go see my grandfather's old hotel, which it turned out was up for sale.
He passed away 20 years ago.
But I hadn't been there since, no, it wasn't 20 years ago he passed away.
Because I was there when I was 15 or 16, I think was the last time I was there.
And that was almost 30 years ago. So yeah, I guess it was 20 years ago that he passed away.
It's crazy how much time goes by.
Anyway, the Southern Baptist Convention, of course, about the most noteworthy thing that came out of that was the ousting of Saddleback Church. The church that was founded by Rick Warren, because Warren was ordaining women pastors.
Warren, he's not the senior pastor there anymore. He's just a pastor emeritus. But of course, he's behind it.
He loves it. And made a campaign all year long. About, I was sitting because I wasn't ordaining women pastors. And now I've redeemed myself. And here's why you need to be ordaining women pastors. But we can agree to disagree on this subject.
And really, kind of levied a campaign for why churches needed to be ordaining women pastors.
I'm pretty sure I saw an ad on my phone that was him.
Well, most likely.
It was weird.
He had revealed at the convention, too, that over 1 ,000 Southern Baptist churches have ordained women pastors.
Why aren't we outing all of those?
It's a great question.
Well, I say we, but we're not Southern Baptist anymore. We were then when we attended the conference.
Why aren't they?
Why aren't they getting rid of all those other churches?
You guys are all gone. The SBC Executive Committee's interim president resigned upon revelations that he falsified his work record. That was another big story that came about from the Southern Baptist Convention.
SBC leaders faced backlash for approving a legal brief opposing a lawsuit by a victim of child sex abuse. Stephen Furtick's church pulled out of the Southern Baptist Convention because they had kicked out Saddleback.
So Stephen Furtick, whose wife is a pastor and one of the lead pastors at Elevation, they're like, well, we're leaving because they're going to kick us out, too.
There was a church in Oklahoma that was disfellowshipped because their pastor had preached in blackface.
Recently?
I don't know when it was, but I know that's what they were kicked out for because the pastor had preached in blackface. If I remember right, it was like a gimmick that he did that he was pretending to be somebody.
So it wasn't just doing it to make a racial statement, a racist statement. He wasn't doing it with racial malice.
I think. I don't know. I'm not sure if I'm remembering the right story or not. But the church was kicked out for that because the pastor was...
Well, I mean, it's a bit tactless.
Oh, it's terrible.
Johnny Hunt sued the executive committee. Adam Greenway is suing for $5 million. Let's see.
Who was the one that had the $1 ,000 coffee?
Oh, that was Adam Greenway.
And it was more than that. I can't remember how much his coffee maker was. But yeah, Greenway had driven Southwestern College into millions of dollars of debt. And so he was fired because he was bankrupting the school.
And so since then, he's now suing.
He's suing Southwestern. I think it's either Southwestern College or former SWBTS president, Adam Greenway, suing for $5 million. It's a $5 million lawsuit, I guess, for false representation or something like that.
I don't remember what it is.
So damages of some kind. Man, the SBC, they're just lawsuit happy. And this is the floodgate you open up.
Because I was going to say, it started not that long ago.
I think it was when the Me Too movement started or something.
And I've expressed my opinion on this before. I'm absolutely opposed to Christians suing Christians for any reason. 100 opposed to it. 1 Corinthians 6 is very, very clear.
And so if you're going to be suing, if you as a Christian are going to be suing another professing Christian, you better have some evidence or grounds to present on that other person being an unbeliever.
Somehow you need to be able to demonstrate they're not really a Christian. If you want this to be a legitimate, you know, not a violation of scripture, in other words.
And as I've shared before, as we've talked about these things, I've been in the position where I have been out tens of thousands of dollars. And I could have sued the person and made the money back if I wanted to.
But it was a Christian.
And it was better for me to just let it go. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6, is it not better for you to be defrauded? I've been in the position before. I can't afford to lose tens of thousands of dollars.
But I've been there.
And scripture is very clear on this. We're not to be taking one another to court. J .D. Greer. Earlier this year, you know, he spoke out not being in support of the ban on women pastors.
You have so many of these guys that talk out of both sides of their head. Well, the scripture says that women can't be pastors. But I'm not in support of a ban on women pastors. What's the matter with you?
The scriptures ban women pastors.
Mm-hmm.
Bart Barber, who is the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, he had donated to an opponent of Dusty Devers, who won his district race in southwestern Oklahoma. Bart Barber is not even in Oklahoma.
He's in Texas.
But he donated to Dusty Devers' opponent, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
And who's Dusty Devers?
Well, he's a pastor in southwest Oklahoma. But now he's a state representative. He's still a pastor. Oh, okay. But he's a part-time pastor. He wasn't full-time.
He was bivocational anyway.
That's politics.
So he's spending the other half of his bivocation.
Sure.
Helping to make decisions for the state.
That's awesome.
And he's an abolitionist for the absolute abolition of abortion. God bless him. I hope that he does amazing work for the state of Oklahoma. Goodness gracious, we're over an hour already. And we're not even halfway through this list.
I think we're going to have to wait until next week to finish it up.
I'm going to have to postpone the top what videos of the year. Let's get through the top 20. We'll get through 20 stories here.
Like I said, this always ends up being our biggest...
Yeah, I think it always goes about an hour and a half or more.
Well, in this case, or more.
We're going to be pushing two hours if we keep it at this pace. Number 16. Oh, I forgot about this. You're going to love this.
Oh, no.
The Sparkle Creed goes viral.
Sparkle Creed?
The Sparkle Creed. Yes. This was on June the 25th. Are you not familiar with the Sparkle Creed?
Maybe.
A clip of a progressive Lutheran church reciting the Sparkle Creed, a version of the Apostles Creed modified to emphasize LGBTQ plus inclusion, caused controversy online this week with critics characterizing it as idolatry, heresy, and absolute insanity.
That's to put it mildly. Adena Community Lutheran Church in St. Adena, Minnesota, recited the creed together on Sunday, June the 25th, which was the final Sunday to occur during LGBTQ plus pride month.
The recitation was led by Anna Helgen, who serves as co-pastor of the congregation. ECLC is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and has been a part of the denominations reconciling in Christ initiative, which seeks to foster the full welcome inclusion and equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual, aromantic Lutherans since 1985.
I invite you to rise in body or spirit and let us confess our faith today in the words of the Sparkle Creed, Helgen said to the congregation. And then, yeah, it goes on.
I was not familiar with this.
I'm not going to play it.
Please don't.
But it starts this way. I'll tell you how it starts. I believe in the non-binary God whose pronouns are plural. That's the way it starts.
So, yeah, downright blasphemous right from the very start. That's the Sparkle Creed. So this was the church that started it. But then there are many other churches since then that have adopted the Sparkle Creed and have likewise recited it in their services.
Especially among the PCUSA, Unitarian Universalists, and, of course, the liberal side of the Lutheran denomination.
Good grief.
There you go. That was this year.
So expect to hear more of the Sparkle Creed.
Probably in the future. Number 17, June the 30th. Now we get to these U .S. Supreme Court decisions this year. The U .S. Supreme Court ruled in 303 Creative LLC v. Alenis that a Christian designer of wedding websites can refuse to work with same-sex couples, citing her right to free speech.
The court also rules in Groff v. DeJoy in favor of a Christian postal worker who wanted Sundays off, saying employers need to accommodate workers' religious practices unless it results in substantial increased costs.
You know, we've really come a very long way since the movie Chariots of Fire, which I think that was movie of the year, the Oscar winning movie of the year in 1980, if memory serves. Do you remember what the plot of Chariots of Fire was?
So there's two runners that are focused upon in the movie, but mainly you had Eric Little who was a Scot born to Christian missionaries, and he had convictions, Christian convictions that he was not going to compromise in order to run in the Olympics.
And they put his event on Sunday, and so he was absolutely not going to run on Sunday. So they found another event for him to run, and even though it wasn't the event that he had qualified in, he was still eligible to compete in that event for the Olympics, and he ran and won the gold medal.
It's based on a true story.
That film, Chariots of Fire, was the Oscar winning movie of the year. We have a man who, because of his convictions, would not run on Sunday.
That's interesting.
And yet now here we are over 40 years later with the Supreme Court ruling in favor of a Christian who did not want to work on Sunday.
So it's progressed in the right way.
Well, at least as far as the Supreme Court is concerned, because we have a conservative Supreme Court right now.
So far.
Until that gets turned around the other way.
Well, that's great.
But in the event of 303 Creative LLC, I mean, that was also a big win.
Yeah, that was huge. Because I remember back, I don't know how many years ago, it was that somebody got arrested or had to quit. They had to close down their business because they refused to make a wedding cake or something.
Well, no. I mean, there probably has been that. But the biggest case and the one that's still ongoing, as a matter of fact.
It's still ongoing.
Is Masterpiece Cake Shop.
So he's still getting harassed by the same person, by the way. So even though the Masterpiece Cake Shop ruling came out in his favor at one point, there's still these ongoing lawsuits against Jack Phillips, who's the owner of Masterpiece Cake Shop.
And it's the same person. It's a man who thinks he's a woman that keeps suing Jack Phillips. And so these are still on. And it's the corruption of the Colorado court system is why this is still going on.
Gotcha.
It's why this is ongoing. So anyway, but yeah, a big victory on behalf of 303 Creative LLC.
Where a Christian business owner can refuse to do business with a homosexual.
You know, it used to be. I remember when I was a kid, there was a sandwich shop on the corner that had a sign in the sandwich shop. I reserve the right to refuse business to anyone.
Do you remember when that used to be a principle?
It was before. The customer is always right.
Yeah, right. But I mean.
The pendulum swung the other way.
Right. It's your business. It's your dollars.
If you don't want to do business with a certain person.
You want some money.
I mean, you want to say, I don't want your money. You can say that.
It's your business.
So it made sense that the Supreme Court had ruled that way. Number 18, June 30th, a Christian in Pakistan is charged with blasphemy for a Bible post. Police in Pakistan charged a Christian with blasphemy on Friday, June 30th, after he posted Bible verses on Facebook that infuriated Muslims, causing dozens of Christian families in a village near Sargada to flee their homes.
Tensions flared after 45-year-old Harun Shahzad posted on his Facebook page, 1 Corinthians 10, 18 to 21, regarding food sacrifice to idols, as Muslims were beginning the four-day festival of the Feast of the Sacrifice, which involves slaughtering an animal and then sharing.
The meat.
And so Pakistan.
Wow, that's intense.
Yeah, that's a big deal.
I can't, I can't even imagine.
And so then even after that, even after all of that had happened, there were many Christians that had to flee their homes after blasphemy accusations. So this next story, this was on July the 20th. So this one is almost a month later.
A third accusation of blasphemy in less than a month compelled Christians fearful of Islamic retribution to flee their homes in an eastern city in Pakistan this week. Muslim crowds, including members of Islamic extremist groups, blocked the main highway for hours on Sunday, July 16th, after mosque announcements urged people to protest posters allegedly bearing derogatory caricatures and comments about Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, and his wife Aisha.
Is that right? Aisha? Aisha. That were pasted on mosque walls. So there are Christians being persecuted under these blasphemy laws in Pakistan. Number 19, July the 4th, the movie Sound of Freedom debuted in theaters.
And this movie, of course, exposing the trafficking of children, human trafficking.
Ah, that one, yes.
Now the film is now on Amazon Prime. We're subscribers to Amazon Prime. I hate to have to admit that, but we are. Not trying to give them any press or anything. So I've been meaning to watch the film, but I haven't gotten around to it.
I know it's going to be a hard watch.
It's not really one of those things you sit down and you want to be entertained by.
You know what I mean?
So the film did very, very well in theaters. There were occasions in which it was grossing higher than any of the blockbusters that were in theaters at the time. Some of those numbers are a little bit fudged, though, because Sound of Freedom had this system set up where you can go watch the movie and then you can pay for someone else's ticket.
So that counts as a sale.
It does.
Whether or not that ticket got used.
So it doesn't mean that many people actually went and saw the movie.
But it did do extremely well because of that pay it forward campaign that the movie was doing. Now this film was released by the same studios that came up with The Chosen.
And also did the movie. Interesting. Also did the movie, My Only Son, the one about Abraham and Isaac that came out this year and the movie about that was like the reinvention of Job or a modernization of Job.
The shift that also came from Angel Studios. Angel Studios is doing a lot of stuff.
Mm hmm.
It's like it's Mormon owned.
Or owned by Mormons. Not not the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the men who own it are Mormons.
So it might be faith based, but it's not going to be doctrinally sound.
In any way.
Tim Tebow this year also helped to bring human traffickers to justice. The Tim Tebow Foundation helped to bring over 500 human trafficking perpetrators.
I remember that.
That was awesome.
So Tim Tebow had that going for him this year as well. Thank you, Tim.
And God bless the ministry that you have continued to do through the platform that you have.
Number 20. On July the 11th, Ministry Watch released their list of ministries and the grades they give to each ministry, and they gave multiple ministries a grade of F. So this is from Ministry Watch.
They tell donors not to give to T .D. Jake's Ministries, Billy Graham Evangelicalistic Association, or Joel Osteen. Ministry Watch, an independent Christian organization that advocates for transparency, accountability, and the renewed credibility of Christian ministries, is warning donors not to give to 34 well-known Christian ministries due to a lack of financial transparency.
They also included Kenneth Copeland, grade of F. Benny Hinn got an F. John Hagee got an F. Creflo Dollar, F. Trinity Broadcasting Network got a C.
That network is full of heresy, but I guess Ministry Watch is just grading based on transparency.
Fair enough.
So if they're transparent with what they do with their dollars, they got a higher grade.
Although only somewhat transparent.
Somewhat transparent. No surprise that Creflo Dollar is not transparent with what he does with his dollars. There was also a report that came out earlier this year that showed many churches are still singing Hillsong songs, Bethel songs, and Elevation worship songs, despite all the controversies and scandals that have been surrounding those churches.
So it hasn't really stopped anybody from singing Hillsong, even though there was that documentary that came out this year exposing Hillsong.
It hasn't diminished the number of songs of theirs that have been sung in many churches. They're still very popular. For the past decade, a handful of megachurches have dominated worship music, churning out such hits as Goodness of God, What a Beautiful Name, King of Kings, and Graves into Gardens.
And though churches like Australia-based Hillsong and Bethel Church in California have met with scandal and controversy, worship leaders still keep singing their songs. A new study released on Tuesday, July 11th found that few worship leaders avoid songs from Hillsong and Bethel, two of the so-called Big Four megachurches that dominate modern worship music.
Yeah, our church is one of them. We avoid songs from those organizations.
Very much.
All right. Well, that's 20. That's 20 stories. We've spent an hour and a half on those 20 stories.
I hope you all have enjoyed. The flashback.
As we count down the biggest events that have happened in 2023. Now, like I said, a few stories ago, we were not going to be able to make it through all of these. So now I'm pushing back the episode that we were going to do, counting down the biggest what videos of the year.
So that's going to be the next week now. It's not going to be on January the 5th. It's now going to be on the 12th. So next week, January 5th, we'll finish up this list. And by that time, we'll be done with 2023.
So if anything does happen on the 30th or the 31st, that's right. It'll make the list.
Add it in there.
It'll be a bonus story in there.
A 40 plus.
A 40 plus. 40 biggest stories happening in religious news and Christianity around the world. I hope you've enjoyed the top 20 thus far or these 20 thus far. And then we'll get to the next half of the year next week.
You know, even though I said that stuff really didn't start ramping up until February, we are about halfway through the year. So the 20th story was on July 11th. We're going to pick up with July 26th next week.
So still in the month of July. All right. Let's finish there with prayer. Again, if you still want to email us, we're going to hold on to the questions for the Q &A for a couple of weeks, obviously. But you can send those questions to when we understand the text at gmail .com.
And don't forget to tell your friends about our ministry, the daily devotions that we do that you can find at www .utt .com or whatever podcasting app you use. Type in www .utt .com and you'll find our podcast.
Subscribe and you get the daily devotions, which we do Monday through Friday. Now, this week I was, of course, behind. A lot of people weren't doing anything this week because of Christmas.
So that just made me feel worse that I wasn't getting the devotions out. It's like nobody's doing their devotions this week and I can't get mine out. But on Christmas Day, I had no voice. I couldn't have done it if I wanted to.
We had two sick people in the house.
That's right. We got behind. So appreciate you having patience with us. I am going to try to be more diligent in 2024.
To get these done in advance. Lord willing. So you actually have these devotions five days a week. Well, anyway, let's pray.
Yes, let's.
Heavenly Father, I thank you for the way that you've blessed us this year. And I pray for your blessings the next year. That we would have even more opportunities to proclaim the word of Christ to the people of God.
Even gaining new listeners. Maybe somebody stumbles into this not knowing what it is. And they hear the gospel for the very first time. And so I pray that you would convict hearts through a program like this.
Through podcasts. Through YouTube videos. Whatever it happens to be. What a blessing to be able to reach out in more ways than have been available to us in the past. May we continue to be faithful to this.
Faithful to your word. Faithful to the gospel. Proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. He who died on the cross for our sins. Who rose again from the dead. Ascended into heaven. Is seated at the right hand of God.
Is coming back again to judge the living and the dead. All who believe in him will not perish. But have everlasting life. May we be as shrewd as serpents and gentle as doves. As Jesus told his disciples to be.
As we enter into this next year. Looking for more opportunities that we might impact the lives of others with the gospel of Christ. It's in Jesus' name that we pray.
Okay, are you up loud enough? Because I don't have your.
I don't know. Probably not.
Check one, two. Check, check, check. Check. Is that better?
Yes, that's better. Thank you.
Just don't yell at me.
Which, you know, that's a big problem.
No, yeah, yeah.
Huge.
You want to finish your ice cream first or are you ready?
No, I'm not ready. I'm done with my ice cream. But my mouth is a little. I can't move.
Well, you can run through your intro there to warm me up. Warm your lips up. I could come warm your lips up. I couldn't help myself. I could not help myself. I had to. I could not stop myself. It was right there on the brain.
It's like it's going to come right out my mouth. I know it is.
At least I'm your wife.
Yes, I would not say that to anybody else.
I didn't think you would say it to anybody else. But you would think that's an excellent comeback.
Oh, man.