Following Jesus

The Wonders Of Breast Feeding

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Dr. Sarah Buckland-Reynolds writes:

The Wonders of Breastfeeding
Commemorating World Breastfeeding Week

While breastfeeding has been an instinct and ability to many women post-pregnancy for millennia, many are unaware of the biophysical wonder that this process entails. In an attempt to call attention to the benefits of breastfeeding, August 1–7 has been designated as World Breastfeeding Week: a campaign led by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) and supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The official theme for 2026 is: “Breastfeeding for a Sustainable Start in Life: Strengthen What Works”, emphasizing the link between long-term health and the practice of breastfeeding.

Editorial: Human milk, nutrition and infant development, volume II (Francisco Perez Cano, Frontiers in Nutrition and Metabolism, 16 March 2026). Breastfeeding is much more than just an instinct. This article explores the scientific marvels of breastfeeding, its benefits for both infants and mother, and the inadequacy of evolutionary explanations for its complexity.

Interesting Facts About Breastmilk
Comparing Humans with other Mammals

Mammals are defined by their ability to produce milk, and this trait is nearly universal across the class. There are about 6,500 recognized mammalian species, and virtually all of them produce milk to nourish their young. Among human populations in the USA, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that around 85% of babies are breastfed, but only 25% are exclusively breastfed through 6 months.

Breast milk is also one of the few foods in nature that can be described as nutritionally complete for the young of its kind. It contains proteins for growth, fats for brain development, carbohydrates for energy, vitamins and minerals for metabolic balance, and bioactive compounds that regulate immunity and digestion. This completeness underscores its role as the “gold standard” of infant nutrition.

While humans are among those classified as mammalian species given their lactation abilities, human breastmilk is distinct among mammals because it is specialized for slow, brain-centred growth rather than rapid physical development. It contains much less protein than cow’s milk, protecting infants’ kidneys while still meeting nutritional needs.

Its higher whey-to-casein ratio makes it easier to digest, and it delivers a full suite of immune factors (including antibodies, human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), and living cells) that actively shape the infant’s microbiome and immune system. HMOs are a distinctive feature, as these complex sugars feed beneficial gut bacteria, block pathogens from binding to intestinal cells, and help train the immune system. In contrast, calves and lamb milk are denser in protein and fat, reflecting their need for fast growth and early mobility.

Another key difference lies in mineral bioavailability: although human milk has fewer minerals overall, they are absorbed more efficiently in human infants than those in cow’s milk. Human milk also contains tailored fatty acids such as DHA (docosahexaenoic acid: An omega-3 fatty acid critical for brain and eye development) and ARA (arachidonic acid: An omega-6 fatty acid that is essential for cell membrane structure, immune signaling, and growth, proportioned for optimal brain and eye development). In contrast, other mammals’ milk lacks active immune cells.

More Wonders of Human Breast Milk

One of the most astonishing features of breastfeeding is the breast’s ability to adjust both the volume and composition of milk according to the baby’s age, stage, and even health status. Scientific studies have shown that during feeding, tiny amounts of the baby’s saliva can flow back into the breast ducts. This process is known as retrograde milk flow, and it allows the mother’s body to “read” the infant’s immune status and tailor antibodies, white blood cells, and other protective factors in the milk.

Ongoing research into the unique properties of breastmilk continues to reveal new insights into just how important this production is for health. In a recent article titled: The human breast milk microbiome: a landscape review of its composition, origins, and impact on infant health (Rumiana Koynova-Tenchov), Archives of Microbiology. (22 June 2026), the unique microbiome systems from breastmilk, is described as “one of the earliest and most consequential sources of microbial colonization in the infant gut.” The consequences of missing these microbiomes are described as follows by the author:

“Disruptions to this microbial community have been associated with conditions such as infant colic, atopic disease, and obesity.”

These observations show that breastmilk is a highly responsive engineering architecture, as it signals the existence of a feedback loop between mother and child. While many animals produce milk, the adaptive immune tailoring through backflow is most clearly documented in humans. Although in animals, milk composition also changes across lactation stages, the fine-tuned immunological dialogue observed in human breastfeeding appears unique.

But how did such amazing engineering originate?

The Evolutionary Story of Breastmilk

From an evolutionary perspective, the story is that milk production originated in early synapsids (an ancient group of vertebrates thought to include all modern mammals and their extinct relatives defined by a distinctive skull feature: a single temporal opening behind the eye socket). According to the evolutionary timeline, this was over 200 million years ago. The theory goes that breastmilk production began as a skin secretion that kept eggs moist and protected, and that, over time, this secretion became nutritionally enriched, eventually evolving into true lactation. This adaptation is said to have allowed mammals to provide a consistent, internal food source, freeing them from dependence on external environments and giving their offspring a survival advantage.

Evolutionary literature also tries to explain the divergence in milk composition among mammals as having arisen through natural selection acting on offspring survival strategies. Human milk is said to have evolved to support slow growth, prolonged dependency, and intensive brain development, reflecting evolutionary pressures favouring long-term survival and cognitive capacity in a species with extended childhood. For other mammals, evolutionary literature teaches that milk composition diverged as a direct response to ecological pressures and life-history strategies, with each lineage optimizing lactation for its young’s developmental priorities.

However, in the context of the complexities of breastmilk, these evolutionary explanations raise many unanswered questions and concerns, including:

How does appealing to selection pressures account for the origins of breastmilk? (The fact is: There can be no selection without there being something to select from.)

How could the complexity and universality of milk across mammals have arisen by chance?

The precise tailoring of milk composition to each species’ developmental needs is far more reasonably interpreted as evidence of purposeful creation rather than evolutionary trial and error.

Benefits for Mothers

As much as breastfeeding is beneficial for infants, the benefits to the mother should not be overlooked, as it profoundly impacts maternal health. Among the benefits include the release of oxytocin during nursing stimulates uterine contractions, which helps the uterus return to its pre-pregnancy size and reducing postpartum bleeding. The energy demands of milk production contribute to gradual weight loss, aiding mothers in regaining their pre-pregnancy body composition.

Long-term benefits are equally significant. Women who breastfeed, especially beyond age 30, show reduced risks of breast and ovarian cancers. The protective effect is thought to arise from hormonal regulation and reduced lifetime exposure to estrogen. Breastfeeding also lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, making it a preventive health measure for mothers as well as a nurturing act for infants.

Breastfeeding and Sustainability

Given the mutual benefits between mother and child, the 2026 theme of World Breastfeeding Day is appropriate, emphasizing sustainability. After all, in addition to its biological benefits, breastfeeding is a natural, renewable resource requiring no additional packaging, no transportation, and no industrial processing.  In a world grappling with resource scarcity, and health inequities, breastfeeding therefore stands out as a practice that surpasses synthetic options in both quality and sustainability. While some mothers face constraints in breastfeeding and must rely on alternatives, we also celebrate the fact that breastmilk offers a template for continuous improvement of alternatives available.

Blessings in the Bosom

It is amazing that scientists continue to discover new benefits of breastfeeding as an age-old practice. In breastfeeding we see God’s providence embodied, as the adaptive intelligence of breast milk, its completeness, and its protective power testify to divine wisdom.

As we celebrate World Breastfeeding Week 2026, we are invited to marvel at this gift, to strengthen the systems that support it, and to honour the God who designed it. Breastfeeding is indeed a glimpse of divine love expressed through the bond between mother and child.

Miracles Are Real.

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Millions of Americans Claim Miraculous Answers to Prayer — Here’s the Evidence

Photo by Danist Soh on Unsplash

From faithwire.com

How many Americans have experienced miraculous answers to prayer? A new survey from the American Bible Society (ABS) reveals the results of this thought-provoking question.

Dr. John Plake, editor-in-chief of the State of the Bible series and chief innovation officer at ABS, told CBN News that 48% of Americans believe that they have received a miraculous answer to prayer.

And the fascinating results don’t conclude there, as 35% also said that they have witnessed or experienced a divine healing.

“We were really trying to get at, not just, ‘Do you believe that these things are possible?’ but, ‘Have you had some kind of an experience where you’ve prayed for something that you believe was answered in a miraculous way, or have you witnessed or experienced a divine healing or a miracle?’” Plake said. “So on the prayer side of things, what we noticed was that practicing Christians, nine out of ten of them, say that they have prayed for something that was answered in a miraculous way.”

The researcher said the level of one’s faith participation has a lot to do with how they view the miraculous.

“People who are practicing their Christian faith, I think, have a worldview that allows them to see that there’s more to life than just the naturalistic world around them,” Plake said. “And so they are more likely to pray, and they are more likely to have these experiences of saying, ‘Hey, something supernatural, something miraculous happened in response to that.’”

Even among non-Christians, though, he said a fifth of these individuals report praying for something that they believe was answered in a miraculous way.

Plake also shared some of the findings he found most surprising, including numbers on beliefs about the current state of miracles in the modern world.

“I was a little bit surprised. I think there are actually parts of the church that take the theological view that miracles were for an earlier age,” he said. “Maybe they ceased when the time of the apostles ceased and things like that.”

With that in mind, he said it is a “little bit remarkable” to see 58% of evangelical Christians report that they have “actually witnessed or experienced a divine miracle.” The same is true of 58% of Black Protestants and 33% of Mainline Christians.

Even among people with non-Christian faiths, 40% reported experiencing or witnessing a divine healing or miracle. Watch the video above for more on this study.

These topics are at the heart of CBN’s “Investigating the Supernatural” film series. The first movie, “Investigating the Supernatural: Miracles,” deals with miraculous healing, and the second film — “Investigating the Supernatural: Angels and Demons,” which was released in March — explores the reality of angels and demons.

Frank Viola: When Christian Leaders Deny the Faith

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Frank Viola writes:

In recent years, the evangelical Christian culture has picked itself up off the floor after being stunned to discover that many of its beloved preachers and music artists have renounced Jesus Christ.

Not long ago, one such leader explained that stepping off the Jesus train was a long process for him. He gave a peek into his heart along with his wife’s saying:

“We didn’t enjoy going to church. We didn’t enjoy reading the Bible. We didn’t enjoy praying. We didn’t enjoy worship. It all felt like obligation, and our lack of enthusiasm about those things always made us feel like there was something wrong with us.”

He went on to say that they realized they simply didn’t believe anymore. And after admitting it, they felt relieved.

He also offered the Old Testament as a reason for denying Jesus Christ (as is virtually always the case). You know, those blood-drenched stories about a “violent God” who loses his cookies whenever someone looks at Him the wrong way.

The leader explained that he “searched for answers,” asking the pastors he knew hard questions, but their answers didn’t satisfy him.

Here’s the thing. I can identify with ALL of this person’s sentiments. But it didn’t cause me to renounce Christ.

It caused me to FIND HIM.

Let me whip out an epic bullet point list to explain what I mean:

  • I stopped enjoying “going to church” in 1988 when I left the organized church. But then I discovered organic body life — which is what we find in the New Testament. And although it’s extremely rare at the moment, nothing compares to it.
  • I stopped enjoying “reading the Bible” until I learned how to discover Christ in its pages, and find “the story.” Ever since then, the Bible has been an exciting adventure and profoundly beneficial.
  • Praying is unenjoyable for most mortals. If by “prayer” you mean the way most Christians pray. Fellowship with the Lord, however, can be powerful, exciting, and life-changing. Unfortunately, most believers today are unaware of the many different ways to commune with God.
  • I stopped enjoying “worship” years ago, if by “worship” you mean standing with your hands in the air following the lyrics to an overplayed “contemporary” praise song as the “worship team” performs on stage. That’s all fine and well, but it’s an extremely limited view of worship. Worshipping Jesus Christ in reality runs far deeper, and it’s much more varied.
  • I stopped doing ANYTHING out of religious duty long ago. In fact, I gave up trying to live the Christian life. In turn, I discovered the secret of serving God out of joy and out of life rather than obligation, which can be crushing.
  • And to this erstwhile Christian leader (if any of you shares this post with him), nothing is wrong with you, dude. The problem is that you kept your “search” limited to the other celebrity speakers and pop writers. I don’t read them myself for the reasons you stated. I’ve heard it all before, and there’s little to no LIFE in it.
  • Most of the pastors I have known throughout my life couldn’t answer most of the “hard questions” I pelted them with. But I didn’t stop there. I looked beyond them.
  • As for the Old Testament and the reliability of Scripture, I wrestled with all of that, but found answers that were completely satisfying. But they are largely unknown in the mainstream Christian world where paying for Facebook ads and YouTube views is what dominates. Everything else gets lost. It’s a bit like US Presidential elections. The smartest, brightest, most capable, most gifted leaders in the country couldn’t run if they wanted because they lack the big bucks. So they’re largely unknown to the world.
  • He didn’t mention this one, but I have money hidden in my socks that says he’d agree. But I’ve always found “the Christian side hug” to be rather silly.
  • The leader I’ve been referring to deserves a taco. (Forget that. I just wanted to make sure you’re still paying attention.)

Indeed, if you keep pulling at the threads of a sweater, it will unravel until the sweater disappears.

But in the case of Jesus Christ, if this is your experience, you’re pulling on the wrong sweater.

The genuine sweater is available if you look hard enough. And it can’t be unraveled.

So it was for me and millions of others.

My point is that this leader and others like him never went to any of us who could identify with everything he wrote, even publishing books and podcasts on it, offering solutions out of real-life experience.

Thankfully, God is raising up a new generation of hot hearts for Jesus Christ who have the fire of the gospel of the kingdom burning inside them. And I’m honored to know many of you.

When the day comes when this tribe takes to the streets, the fire burning in their bellies won’t be for a cause – no matter how good that cause may be.

It will be for JESUS CHRIST AND HIS EVERLASTING KINGDOM!

The Insurgence has begun … don’t miss it!

The bottom line: Unless you have genuinely encountered the Lord Jesus Christ, you’ll always be in danger of falling away from “the faith.”

But if Jesus Christ gets into your pores, it’s impossible to scrub Him out.

Until next Thursday,

Grace, peace, and frontal bear hugs,

fv

Psalm 115:1

5 Confirmations of a World Wide Flood

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From answersingenesis.com

5 Confirmations of a Worldwide Flood

by Dr. Tim Chaffey on July 1, 2023 ; last featured July 29, 2026

Featured in Answers Magazine

How can we be sure there was a worldwide Flood as the Bible claims? These five strong evidences show that the catastrophic event really happened.

1. Scripture testifies of the truth.

The ultimate support for a worldwide Flood is the testimony of God’s infallible Word. In Genesis 6:17, God tells Noah that He will cause a Flood on the earth to destroy “all flesh” that lives on the land. This phrase is used 13 times in the Flood account to stress the global nature of the catastrophe. The fact that God instructed Noah to bring flying creatures rules out a local flood since they could have flown to safety. Genesis 7:19 further states that the Floodwaters rose above “all the high mountains under the whole heaven.” Mountains could not have been submerged until the lower places on the earth had all been filled with water.

2. Cross-continent deposition supports a global Flood.

Today, many rock layers stretch across multiple continents, showing that the same sediment—identified by grain size, fossil content, and chemical composition—spread over vast expanses of the globe before hardening into rock. A local flood could never distribute sediment to this extent.

3. The order of fossil layers indicates progression of burial during the Flood.

The order in which fossils appear throughout many of the earth’s rock layers reflects the progression of burial during the Flood. The lower layers contain fossils of deep-sea creatures—animals that dwell at the lowest point of the earth and thus would have been buried first in the event of a catastrophic Flood. Successive layers contain fossils progressing from marine animals dwelling at shallow depths to land animals at lower altitudes and finally to land animals dwelling at higher altitudes. When considering earth’s sedimentary layers and the fossils contained therein, we should think of the order of burial during the Flood rather than the alleged progression of “simple” life-forms evolving into more complex forms over millions of years.

4. Gaps in the rock layers indicate rapid deposition of sediment.

When we study the rock layers in large sequences, such as those in the Grand Canyon, we find many places, called paraconformities, where consecutive rock layers are supposedly separated by huge gaps of time. They should show signs of erosion between them, but instead, the upper layer appears to have been deposited immediately after the layer beneath it. These findings are a problem for those who believe in billions of years, but they are easily explained by the Flood. If rock layers were laid down in rapid succession during a global catastrophe, there would be no time for erosion or other sediment to come between them.

5. Flood mythologies support the biblical account.

Over 200 myths worldwide contain details that align with the biblical account of the Flood. Though these myths also contain many distortions of the truth, their similarities to the biblical account suggest a shared global knowledge of the Flood event. It’s likely that ancient people carried their knowledge of the Flood with them when they dispersed from Babel and, over time, came to believe—or at least circulate—more localized, distorted accounts.

Dr. Tim Chaffey earned a DMin in advanced biblical and theological studies from Shepherds Theological Seminary and a ThM in church history and theology. He is the content manager for Answers in Genesis’ attractions division.

61 of 74 Laws Restricting Christian Freedom Came from Labor Governments

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61 of 74 Laws Restricting Christian Freedom Came from Labor Governments

From Daily Declaration

The Australian Christian Freedom Index documented 74 Acts of Parliament that have restricted Christian freedom over the past 25 years. Which parties and worldviews restrict Christian freedoms in Australia — and why?

I’ve spent a lot of time teaching people about worldviews. Because worldviews shape our actions — and Acts of Parliament.

Worldviews are our mental maps of reality — you want them to be accurate. They’re our underlying assumptions about what is true, what matters, and how the world works. Most people don’t consciously think about their worldviews, even though worldviews automate many of their actions.

For example, at footy training with many balls in the air, we often hear a warning, “Heads!” And everyone in the vicinity reels. Now the fact is, the ball can only hit one of us, yet all six of us react — because in that moment, our actions are shaped less by the fact itself than by what we believe the fact to be. Our beliefs about truth shape our worldviews, which shape our values, which shape our choices and actions.

Worldviews in Politics

Worldviews also shape actions in politics.

Some claim this only applies to religious conservatives. They complain that Christians vote according to their worldview, while progressives somehow operate from a neutral, objective place. They pressure conservatives to keep quiet about their foundational truths lest they shape their values and choices.

And yet progressives also possess foundational truth-claims, and assumptions about morality, identity, and human flourishing – and act accordingly. Yet they see no need for “separation of their beliefs and state,” because their beliefs are the state. So, their assumptions continue to shape their worldviews, their particular values, choices and actions… And sometimes those actions are Acts of Parliament.

2025 Australian Christian Freedom Index and 74 Acts of Parliament

This was in my mind as I read the Australian Christian Freedom Index 2025.

One of its more startling findings is that since 2000, Australian federal and state governments have enacted 74 Acts of Parliament that have reduced Christian freedom, with more than half of those passed in the last five years.

As someone who studies worldviews, my immediate questions were: Who passed these laws? What were their worldviews? Who do we need to avoid?

I already suspected that the decline of Christian freedom was not just the result of fewer Australians holding a Christian worldview. It was also the result of governments increasingly operating from worldviews that replaced biblical foundations with their own secular truth claims.

History repeatedly shows that belief systems moving away from biblical truths eventually regard Christianity as an irritant to be contained, marginalised or removed. For decades, we’ve seen this happen in various forms, from within Islam, ancestral animism and secular socialism.

I went looking for the worldviews behind the 74 Acts.

Which Governments Passed Acts Restricting Christian Freedom?

On pages 77 to 80 of the Australian Christian Freedom Index 2025, all 74 Acts are listed with the year they were enacted. So, I cross-checked which governments were in office at the time of each.

Who passed each, and what were their worldviews?

61 of the 74 Acts were passed by Labor governments.

8 were passed by Coalition governments generally regarded as socially moderate or progressive: Turnbull, Berejiklian, Marshall and Gutwein.

5 were passed by Coalition governments that could be described as more conservative: the Hodgman government’s Mandatory Reporting 2018, and the Marriage and Gender amendments 2018; the Morrison government’s Online Safety 2021, and the Respect at Work legislation in 2021; and the Perrottet government’s Voluntary Assisted Dying legislation in 2022. Some of these were passed under new federal constraints, and/or under pressure from progressive elements within their parties.

Labor Party Worldview

Labor openly declares itself to be a democratic socialist party, as a core objective in its Constitution (page 4).

Progressives tend in the same direction, toward moral frameworks defined by secular assumptions rather than biblical ones. Doug Wilson pointed to 1 Samuel 8:11–17 and Deuteronomy 17:15–17 as biblical warnings about governments accumulating power and overreaching their proper boundaries. The state increasingly becomes the primary authority for defining rights and social morals. Socialist Karl Marx was explicit in his criticism of the Church, the nuclear family and private property as oppressive structures.

Worldviews automate actions.

That’s why voting citizens need to learn to discern which worldviews animate which political parties.

Yet many Labor voters have no idea that Labor is socialist, let alone what that means. Some voters read the Labor party platforms, but through Christian lenses when they should read them through socialist lenses to recognise what they really mean, even as they coopt the language of human rights.

And what also tells us what they really mean are their actions. The bills they introduce, the debts they accrue and why, the harms they allow, the restrictions they introduce… the Acts of Parliament.

If we fail to name those parties and worldviews that restrict our freedoms of conscience, aren’t we giving them tacit approval, free passage toward increasing their totalitarianism?

Surely, we have already allowed too much from parties and factions animated by socialist and progressive worldviews.

Read which governments passed which of the 74 Acts restricting Christian freedom and when here.

Hate crimes against Christians surge in Europe: report

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From Christian Post

European national flags in front of European Parliament building in Brussels, Belgium.
European national flags in front of European Parliament building in Brussels, Belgium. | Getty Images

Arson attacks were prevalent among a surge in anti-Christian hate crimes in May, according to the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe).

The watchdog’s May report shows 37 verified anti-Christian hate crimes across 11 European countries. The crimes include 13 arson attacks, 10 acts of vandalism, three cases of desecration, three incidents of physical violence, three thefts targeting religious objects, three cases of vandalism and violence, one case of incitement and one disrupted worship service.

“This continued prevalence of fire-setting against Christian sites remains one of the most serious patterns documented during the year,” the report stated.

The 13 verified arson incidents represent the highest monthly total that investigators have recorded this year. The report dubbed the monthly figure “exceptionally high” as blazes hit properties across multiple countries, including attacks on church buildings, chapels, parish buildings and other Christian property.

In Germany, four arson attacks damaged properties in Marbach, Munich, Delmenhorst and Gladbeck. The country also saw severe property violations; in Knittelsheim, assailants scattered consecrated communion hosts across a church altar, while unknown persons daubed satanic graffiti inside the Barbara Chapel in Penzberg. Vandals in Bad Oeynhausen deliberately damaged church bells and live power lines, creating potential physical harm for the community.

In Italy, authorities recorded eight hate crimes, including four cases that carried an explicit ideological link. In Genoa, attackers defaced the Basilica of San Siro with anti-clerical and anarchist graffiti demanding that perpetrators “burn churches.”

Italian monitors also recorded a desecration at the parish of San Paolo della Croce in Rome, and heavy vandalism at the Church of Sant’Angelo Magno in Ascoli Piceno, where attackers destroyed a crucifix, sacred statues and a historic 17th-century organ.

Three arson cases in France included an attack at the Church of Notre-Dame de l’Assomption in Lentigny, alongside a highly dangerous suspected arson at a parish hall in Tergnier while children were inside the building.

French vandals also ransacked the Church of Saint-Pierre-ès-Liens during Pentecost at Pont-du-Casse near Agen. In Paris, thieves broke a crucifix and stole a figurine of Christ from Saint-Germain-des-Prés. In South Gironde, a wave of burglaries targeted several churches, resulting in altar desecration and tabernacle profanation. Assailants in Saint-Martin-la-Sauveté tore Christian statues from graves, while attackers in Poleymieux-au-Mont-d’Or near Lyon beheaded a statue of Mary holding the infant Jesus.

In Krosno, Poland, an attempted arson damaged an image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help inside a desecrated chapel, while vandals in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska defaced several chapels with physical damage and satanic inscriptions.

Arsonists and vandals also targeted two churches in Ireland. In Warrington, England, police launched an arson investigation after discovering fires inside a disused church building.

Violent crime targeted clergy as well, as robbers held a Portuguese priest hostage for 90 minutes while they looted a church building and parish house in Cantanhede. In Chania, Greece, a shotgun attack damaged a historic church bell tower. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, criminals forced entry into the Serbian Orthodox Church of St. George in Tuzla, marking another repeated act of vandalism against the site.

In Leipzig, Germany, a Christian-run café announced its permanent closure after organized harassment campaigns by left-wing extremists. The operators reported 26 attacks over the past two-and-a-half years, which included repeated vandalism, graffiti, and butyric acid attacks, making continued business financially impossible.

The report cited the closure as evidence of “the persistence of repeated and sustained campaigns targeting Christian institutions.”

“According to the operators, the attacks were carried out by individuals associated with the far-left extremist scene and ultimately made the continued operation of the café financially impossible,” OIDAC Europe stated.

Left-wing extremists reportedly also assaulted and seriously injured two Catholic fraternity students in Innsbruck, Austria. In Bielsk Podlaski, Poland, an assailant insulted and attacked a nun at a bus stop, tearing a cross necklace from her neck.

Perpetrators also fired steel and plastic balls during a Mass that approximately 200 worshippers attended at the Holy Spirit Church in Hanau, Germany. The projectiles shattered windows, and the report noted that the attack placed the congregation in immediate danger.

“The incidents recorded this month … illustrate that anti-Christian hostility is not limited to attacks against church buildings,” the report stated. “Several cases targeted Christian individuals, religious communities, and organizations directly, demonstrating that visible expressions of Christian faith and Christian presence in public life can themselves become targets of aggression or intimidation.”

The overall dataset includes widespread vandalism, desecration, physical assaults, and thefts targeting religious spaces and individuals. Germany led the continent with 10 reported incidents, followed closely by Italy and France with eight cases each. Poland recorded three cases, Ireland reported two, while Austria, Portugal, Spain, Greece, the United Kingdom, and Bosnia and Herzegovina each documented one verified incident.

“Germany also recorded numerous additional non-counted thefts, break-ins, damage incidents, and fires under investigation,” noted the report.

OIDAC Europe also noted widespread property damage that fell outside the official statistics due to unverified bias. This additional data included local authorities investigating nine church building fires alongside 14 unverified acts of vandalism, 24 break-ins, and dozens of thefts.

Separate figures confirmed last month to the Greek Parliament by the Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports reported 4,409 incidents involving Orthodox Church properties in the country between 2015 and 2024. This accounted for 96.05% of all recorded incidents involving religious sites in Greece over that 10-year period, covering attacks, vandalism, thefts, desecrations, and burglaries.

The publication of the data comes as the FIFA World Cup kicked off across 16 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico on Thursday. Anja Tang, the executive director for OIDAC Europe, wrote an introduction to the report noting a negative reaction to sports personalities expressing their faith in the public sphere in the run-up to the matches.

“With the beginning of the World Cup, debates surrounding Christian football players have once again highlighted how expressions of faith continue to attract public scrutiny,” Tang wrote. “While athletes are increasingly encouraged to bring their identities into the public sphere, openly expressing traditional Christian beliefs can still provoke disproportionate criticism and controversy.”

The organization stressed that the official numbers represent only a baseline of the issue across the continent.

“The figures presented in this report reflect only documented cases known to OIDAC Europe and therefore cannot capture the full extent of anti-Christian hostility in Europe,” the report noted. “Nevertheless, the incidents recorded during May point to a continuing pattern of attacks affecting Christian places of worship, religious symbols, and Christian organizations across a broad range of European countries.”

Michael Rydelnik: The Problems With The Passion Translation

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I have been seeing an increasing level of criticism of The Passion Translation lately. Here is one article that graciously summarises some of the key issues with this version or paraphrase of the Bible

The Problems with the Passion Translation

Written By Dr. Michael Rydelnik

Was one of your New Year’s resolutions to read through the Bible this year—or maybe just to read more of it? People have asked me if it would be good to use a fairly new version called The Passion Translation this year. This is not the first time I’ve been asked about it.

On the first day of class recently, I told students they needed to bring a Bible to class every day, and then specified which versions were acceptable. One student said she read The Passion Translation and wondered if that would be okay for class. When I said no, she was deeply disappointed because she loves it so much. Since this version is gaining in popularity, I thought it would be good to go over the reasons we should put caution signs around this new version.

The Passion Translation styles itself as “a new heart level translation using Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic manuscripts that expresses God’s fiery heart of love to this generation, merging the emotions and life-changing truth of God’s Word.” It is the labor of love of Brian Simmons, who styles himself the “lead translator” of this project. From everything I can tell, he is a fine man who loves the Lord and sincerely wants to help people grow in the Lord. So, although I find The Passion translation deeply problematic, none of my criticisms of this version should be taken as disparagement of Brian Simmons personally. These critiques are about the translation not about the translator. So why be cautious about using The Passion Translation?

First of all, The Passion Translation is not even a translation but a paraphrase, and one that takes more liberties with the Scriptures than other paraphrases do. People use other paraphrases like the original Living Bible by Ken Taylor or Eugene Peterson’s The Message. Paraphrases have their place but they are problematic. By fashioning the words of Scripture into modern terms, they frequently veer away from Scripture. A good example of this problem is found in 1 Kings 20:11. In the NASB, it reads, “ Let not him who girds on his armor boast like him who takes it off,” but the Living Bible reads, “Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.” The paraphrase doesn’t hurt but it’s clearly interpretive. The problem occurs when a paraphrase uses its interpretive style to take liberties with the text and teaches a particular theological viewpoint. That’s what the Passion Translation does. Brian Simmons holds to an egalitarian view of men and women in ministry and marriage, and his paraphrase reinterprets the meaning of the words to reflect his own view. He also repeatedly uses words and phrases that are significant in the hyper-charismatic world, even when they’re not in the text of Scripture.

Second, The Passion Translation is an idiosyncratic version of the Scriptures. By that I mean, it veers from the normal approach to Bible translation which uses a team of scholars to check each other’s work. This way a translation doesn’t reflect one person’s distinctive perspective but the actual meaning of the words of Scripture. All translations require some sort of interpretation—but using a translation team guards a translation from weird or problematic translations. Although Brian Simmons identifies himself as the lead translator, there’s no mention of the other translators he’s leading. It’s the work of Brian Simmons and no one else. As a result, it contains his idiosyncratic views of the Bible and not a mainstream understanding of it.

Third, The Passion Translation uses the wrong manuscripts to guide it. Although it claims to be based on the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, Simmons declares that the version’s unique translations are derived from the original Aramaic New Testament texts. Since the New Testament was written in Greek, what is he talking about? Well, he means that in the gospels, Jesus and all the other people there would have spoken Aramaic. So Simmons at times conjectures at what the Greek New Testament would have been had it been written in Aramaic. Then he uses that speculation to translate. Other times he uses the Syriac version, translated 500 years after the gospels, which is not even Aramaic, and calls this “the original Aramaic.” This approach is not a translation of the Bible but pure speculation. No other translation or paraphrase has ever done this before.

Fourth, The Passion Translation contains lexical errors, particularly in the Hebrew. The reason is that Simmons claims that he received a vision with guidance for translating the Hebrew words. The unique idea was that he should base the translation on Hebrew homonyms. A homonym is a word that sounds or is spelled the same but has different meanings. For example, in English, the word “pen” may mean an area where animals are kept or a writing instrument. We know which meaning by context. Simmons doesn’t recognize the meaning of a Hebrew word in context but claims that all the homonyms of the Hebrew words are correct and uses all of them with their multiple ideas in his translation. This special approach is unique to The Passion Translation because it is so wrong that no other translation would dare do it.

Finally, bizarre claims are made to justify The Passion Translation. For example, Simmons claims that the Lord came to him in a vision, touched his forehead and enlarged his brain, so he could understand the Bible as no one ever had before. When struggling with the Hebrew, Simmons claims an angel visited him and guided his translation. I suspect every seminary Hebrew student wishes that could happen. Simmons also claims that the footnotes of his Bible are inspired. Simmons may actually believe these assertions but they are so far-fetched and therefore, deeply concerning to me.

The Passion Translation is popular because of the way it makes people feel. But it’s far better to read the Scriptures themselves and only allow the actual, real meaning to affect our emotions. According to Hebrews 4:12, God’s Word alone is “living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” It’s in the true words of the Bible itself that we find the power to renew our minds and change our lives. Let’s stick to that.

Apostolic Summit Session 7

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In this session, Dr Ben from Ghana shared by teleconferencing about his experience with John’s apostolic covering.

Derek Ott talked about the original slander against God and how the apostles witness to overcome satan’s accusations.

1 Kings 22:17-21
God has a heavenly household. He wants us to be involved in his counsel.

Deuteronomy 13:1-2
False prophets are allowed in order to test God’s people.

Deuteronomy 32:7-8
God gives nations inheritance
We are God’s nation and we need to be cleansed and purified.
The Lord’s portion is His people.
All the other nations were ruled by lesser spirits but Israel ruled by God.

The first person to be slandered was the Lord by satan. Genesis 3.

Numbers 14
You have rebellion in church, God had rebellion in heaven.
People are rebellious because they believe bad report. God threatens to destroy the people but Moses said if you do this the nation’s will think God is not able to save.

1 Corinthians 4:9
Apostles are witnesses. God’s answer to slander is apostles. They model the goodness of Christ and it multiplies through the church. This is the answer to the original slander against God.

Acts 8:4
Revival in Samaria but distracted by Simon the Sorcerer. He wants to buy the power to give the Holy Spirit. V. 21.He had not repented. They needed the apostles to come and bring discernment and confrontation.

Promise Isaiah 59: 21

 “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the Lord.

Apostolic Summit Session 6

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Charles Harrison comes form the United States Mid-West. He is a quietly spoken, depp thinking man.

When Charles came to meet John, he came not to learn doctrine but to meet the man and find out whether he is a true reflection of Jesus. He has come to love the people of Peace Church, who stood by him when his wife passed away. He loves the fact that the church building is just a shed. We must seek God’s glory not glamour.

The opponents of the apostolic movement think that anyone can govern a church – teachers, pastors, evangelists – except apostles.

One concern that is expressed is that apostles are said t make decrees. John feels that this is a wrong term. Decrees are made by God and by kings. However, any christian can make a declaration or a command with justification, because we are made in the image of God. Our words carry power.

God trusted men to write scripture, so He can trust people to speak His words.

The opponents think that prayer is limited to making requests of God. The Bible talks of wrestling with spirits and powers. The Lord requires active, hands on, engagement.

In Acts 9, Peter prays to get in the Spirit, and then commands Tabitha to get up. In Joshua 10, Joshua issues a command for the sun to stand still. All of this is evidence that Jesus honours commands and declarations.

Apostolic Summit Session 5

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It was unusually cool this morning, but warmed up as the day progressed.

It was Lloyd Gill’s time to share. Lloyd has probably as close a relationship with John as anyone. His special area of ministry is Africa.

When people say they are honouring John & Hazel (or anyone else for that matter), we are in fact honouring Christ who moulded them, raised them, placed them in families, and gifted them.

While it is true that there are false apostles, sometimes it means that they are people who have a calling but are not yet mature enough to take up the calling. This is like Moses who was called at the burning bush, but did not step into leadership of the Hebrews for another 40 years.

In Exodus 3:4-10, God says “I am coming to rescue your people so go and do it.” The fact is that God always uses people to achieve His purposes.

Whatever your call is, it is holy ground, whether that is to be an apostle or a mother or a labourer.