President Joe Biden underwent his annual physical exam, and despite evidence to the contrary, he is apparently still alive. That’s not the only startling discovery that came out of the exam, however.
The Babylon Bee has obtained copies of the medical record and can now reveal the following surprise findings:
All in all, much less concerning than anyone would have predicted. He’s still every bit as fit to lead as Jimmy Carter!
It’s a serious medical emergency: you’re minding your own business when you hear an opinion you slightly disagree with.
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https://babylonbee.com/news/9-surprising-findings-from-joe-bidens-physical
Iran has reportedly given the green light to Hezbollah to expand its attacks against Israel, raising concerns of a widening war – this threat coming as Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is asking Muslims in Israel to flock to the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount on the first day of Ramadan; CBN’s Chris Mitchell talks about the concerns of an expanding war, reports that an Israeli strike killed 70 Palestinians while they were waiting for aid in Gaza City, and Israel’s response to the threat of another attack by Hamas; President Biden and former President Trump head to the border today amid illegal immigration crisis as Supreme Court will take up Trump’s immunity case, and an Illinois judge rules Trump cannot be on the ballot – all this as Mitch McConnell says he will step down as Senate Republican leader; analyst Jonathan Hartley talks to CBN’s Global Lane about why US food prices are so high; and Franklin Graham preaches the gospel in Eagle Pass, Texas, along the border.
CBN News. Because Truth Matters™
— Read on www.youtube.com/watch
Today’s 20-min top headline news brief from NEWSMAX includes:
[0:15] -Today is Leap Day, coming once every four years.
[1:03] -Donald Trump and Joe Biden have dueling visits to the border today.
[2:40] -Sen. Ted Cruz comments on Mitch McConnell announcement, retiring from Senate GOP leadership at year’s end. [Chris Salcedo Show]
[7:22] -Attorney Jordan Sekulow: SCOTUS announcement is a huge victory for the former president. [Wake Up America]
[11:53] -Congressman Jim Jordan reacts to Democrats’ defense of Hunter Biden testimony. [Eric Bolling The Balance]
[15:56] -FL Rep Greg Steube: We have all the evidence we need to impeach President Biden. [Wake Up America]
[20:44] -Putin gives his State of the Union style address, praises his troops and defends war on Ukraine.
— Read on www.youtube.com/watch
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that President Joe Biden’s annual physical that day did not include a cognitive test because he “doesn’t need” one.
The post Karine Jean-Pierre Says Biden’s Physical Didn’t Include Cognitive Test Because He ‘Doesn’t Need’ One appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
Former DHS secretary under Obama, Jeh Johnson, joined ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss his take on the magnitude of the southern border crisis and what he believes…
— Read on www.youtube.com/watch
Date: February 28, 2024
Host: Jim Schneider
Guest: Pastor Jack Hibbs
MP3 | Order
https://embed.sermonaudio.com/player/a/228242242527228/
Pastor Jack Hibbs is senior and founding pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, California. He’s the author of the newly released book, Living in the Daze of Deception.
Pastor Hibbs began by pointing out that the word, “daze” in the title isn’t a typo, it’s deliberate as it came out of a sermon series that he did. As Jim noted, the first part of the book goes to great length to awaken the reader to the many kinds of deception that have many in such a daze in our time.
So who is he trying to target with his warning? Pastor Hibbs responded by noting that initially the warning was meant for the church, but then the publisher noted that people were buying multiple copies. When he looked into it more he discovered that people have been buying these extra copies for non-believers. As he explained, you don’t have to be a Christian to figure out that what’s in this book is happening in your living rooms, neighborhoods, state and world.
He believes the elements of deception are everywhere. In other words, evil knows no limits. So if it’s in church, politics or business, evil needs to be exposed and deception is the key tactic within evil.
One point this broadcast discusses is global deception (often taking the form of agendas) because of modern communication methods. This can be seen by how easy it is for people to be gripped by fear because they read a headline. This situation was certainly leveraged as the world was basically shut down due to COVID-19. We saw “experts” on both sides in total contradiction and Pastor Hibbs concluded that when you have experts in disagreement on a topic, then there are no experts; the jury is still out on that issue.
Pastor Hibbs brought hope when he said that when people are scared, they need clarity. This is because without Christ and his word anchoring your soul and mind, you’re going to feel dazed as you may not recognize your nation, the family, gender and other things. This is why it’s important to remember that biblically speaking, Jesus and the apostles made it clear that God’s perfect love at work in us casts out all fear.
Learn more about this book, and the other types of deception that you need to be aware of, when you review this edition of Crosstalk.
More Information
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President Trump will visit Eagle Pass, Texas, on Feb. 29, 2024, amid rising concerns about the southern border crisis.
Watch LIVE on RSBN on Thursday, Feb. 29, at 2:00 p.m. ET.
— Read on www.youtube.com/watch
Shoplifters are going hog wild all over America, and our politicians seem powerless to stop this crisis. When I was growing up, shoplifting was something that was pretty rare. Once in a while some irresponsible idiot would slip a candy bar into his pocket, but it wasn’t something that retailers were too stressed out about. But now everything has changed. Retail “shrink” broke the 100 billion dollar barrier in 2022, and the final number for 2023 is expected to be even higher. Stuff is being stolen from our major retailers on an industrial scale, and this is having very serious consequences.
From coast to coast, retail locations are being permanently shut down because there is no end in sight to this madness.
This is particularly true in our largest urban areas. In San Francisco, a Macy’s store that had been open for 77 years is being closed down, and employees are telling the press that shoplifting was the primary factor behind the decision…
Employees at Macy’s flagship San Francisco store in Union Square have blamed its planned closure on shoplifting – despite mayor London Breed claiming crime was not a factor.
The Union Square store announced earlier this week it will be closing its doors after 77 years as part of a plan to close 150 locations across the nation over the next three years.
It isn’t just a few things that are going missing at that Macy’s store.
According to one employee, the men’s department is being systematically looted on a daily basis…
“It happens every day,” employee Steve Dalisay said.
Hanging up blazers in the Macy’s sixth-floor men’s department, Dalisay said blazers, wallets and boxer briefs are the items most frequently stolen from his department. He said thieves take at least four blazers every day, adding that he typically sees about 10 wallets and 20 briefs stolen daily.
Another employee says that most of the shoplifting is being done by drug users and groups of teens…
Shoplifters, he said, tend to be in two categories: drug users going after specific items for fences or teens entering the store in teams on brazen shoplifting blitzes.
“I’m not in charge of making the estimates of how much we lose in a day, but last year we were told the losses were in the millions,” the employee said.
“It’s a big thing,” he added. “What we have learned is a lot of drug users have deals with the fencers. They’ll give the drug users a list of stuff from the store, and they’ll go try to execute the list.”
Our national shoplifting crisis and our national drug crisis are very closely related.
Drug users need money to fund their habits, and shoplifting is one of the easiest ways to obtain things to sell.
At this point, it would be difficult to overstate the severity of the drug crisis in the state of California. According to Governor Gavin Newsom, authorities in his state seized enough fentanyl last year “to potentially kill the global population nearly twice over”…
Roughly 62,000 pounds of fentanyl smuggled into California was confiscated by authorities in 2023. The total amount of the potent synthetic opioid seized last year “is enough to potentially kill the global population nearly twice over,” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Tuesday.
In 2023, the California National Guard supported other law enforcement agencies in counter-drug operations across the state, seizing a record 62,000 pounds of fentanyl at ports of entry, according to a news release from Newsom’s office.
That is certainly a lot of fentanyl.
If you can believe it, the amount of fentanyl that was seized in the state in 2023 was more than 10 times greater than the amount that was seized in 2021…
Compared with just a few years ago, the amount of fentanyl seized by authorities has dramatically surged. In 2021, California authorities seized more than 5,300 pounds of the drug, with a street value of $64 million. In 2022 that rose to 28,000 pounds, with a street value of $230 million, based on the U.S. Department of Justice evaluation of illegal-drug values in the Los Angeles region.
We have never seen anything like this before.
A lot of that fentanyl comes from Mexico, but a lot of it also comes from China.
The streets of California cities are flooded with addicts, and they are going to do whatever they have to do to feed their addictions.
So this shoplifting crisis is not going away.
At one hardware store in San Francisco, employees are now escorting customers around the store in a desperate attempt to reduce the level of shoplifting…
A longtime San Francisco business is trying something new to curb what it says has been “rampant shoplifting.”
Fredericksen’s Hardware and Paint in Cow Hollow is now offering a one-on-one shopping experience. The idea is to separate actual customers from those looking to steal from the store.
During certain hours, Fredericksen’s blocks off part of the store’s entrance and has people wait for an employee to help them instead of allowing people to just roam the store. The store’s longtime manager says it’s a move that was worth trying for the sake of the business, their employees, and their customers.
I think that we will soon see many more retailers offer “one-on-one shopping experiences” to their customers.
Major retailers just can’t keep losing inventory like they have been.
The amount of retail “shrink” in the United States has more than doubled in recent years, and it just continues to explode higher…
Shrink is the industry term for inventory loss often attributed to theft, damage, or errors. Once simply considered a cost of doing business, shrink resulted in retail profit losses exceeding a staggering $100 billion in 2022.
What’s more problematic, the trend of shrink appears to be far from reversing course, with losses more than doubling over the past five years. In an industry where margins and profitability are already under significant pressure, the rise in retail shrink is capturing the attention of all levels within retail organizations.
Sadly, there are some parts of the country where the looting of retailers has essentially become a way of life.
In fact, this has even been happening in our nation’s capital…
A Washington D.C. CVS store is shutting its doors after being repeatedly ransacked by thieves, the chain has confirmed.
The pharmacy, located in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, went viral last October when videos emerged of it totally stripped of all its products after being targeted by a teen gang.
Staff claim more than 45 schoolkids would go into the store and steal chips and drinks in the morning, after their classes and late at night. It will close on February 29, according to WTTG-TV.
Those kids wouldn’t have been able to loot that store multiple times per day if they had been put in prison the first time they did it.
But our politicians don’t want such harsh laws.
They want to coddle the criminals, and as a result much of the rest of the population is living in fear.
This is just another example of how upside down our society has become.
The solutions to our national shoplifting crisis are simple enough, but I doubt that we will see things turn around any time soon.
Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.
About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.
The post Shoplifting In America Is Wildly Out Of Control appeared first on The Economic Collapse.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) on FOX News ‘Jesse Watters Primetime’ explained why Democrats and the Biden Administration are not securing the border:
TED CRUZ: They support the open borders we have. The 10.6 million immigrants who have crossed under Joe Biden, Democrats and the media to view them as future Democrat voters. If people have to die, if children have to be assaulted and women have to be, they are willing to accept that as collateral damage. The odds of a major terrorist attack in America today are greater than they have been at any point since September 11th, 2001. Tomorrow I am going to be on the border with President Trump, I am going to be on Sean Hannity’s show with the president on the border and highlighting this invasion that is happening. Every time I am on the border, when I talk to border control agents they tell me they are concerned about Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists crossing the border, crossing over and trying to commit another mass murder like October 7th.
— Read on www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/02/29/ted_cruz_democrats_view_migrants_as_future_voters_and_are_willing_to_accept_murder_and_rape_as_collateral_damage.html
A relentless crime wave is raging all over America, and you would think that politicians from both major parties would be determined to do whatever they can to make things safer for all of us. Unfortunately, that isn’t what is happening. Our politicians have become so soft on crime, and violent criminals are often put right back into the streets even if they manage to get arrested. So now our streets are absolutely teeming with predators, and conditions are getting worse with each passing year. But apparently that isn’t enough for some of our politicians, and so they have opened up the floodgates and are allowing vast numbers of lawbreakers to come pouring across our borders.
Let me take this one step at a time.
According to Gallup, Americans now consider immigration to be the most important problem that we are facing as a nation…
Significantly more Americans name immigration as the most important problem facing the U.S. (28%) than did a month ago (20%). Immigration has now passed the government as the most often cited problem, after the two issues tied for the top position the past two months. The government ranked first each month from January through November 2023.
In the latest poll, 20% of Americans name the government as the most important problem, followed by the economy (12%) and inflation (11%). Immigration is the only issue that has shown meaningful change in the past month.
Without a doubt, a lot of those that have been migrating to this country are hard working people that are just searching for a better life.
But there are also many that are coming for other reasons.
According to Bloomberg, violent deaths have been plummeting in Venezuela “following years of massive migration”…
Venezuela’s rate of violent deaths dropped to its lowest level in more than two decades following years of massive migration as both criminals and victims fled the nation’s economic crisis.
The Venezuelan Violence Observatory registered 26.8 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants this year from a rate of 35.3 for every 100,000 habitants in 2022, Roberto Briceño León, director of the Observatory, said in a webcast Thursday. That’s its lowest since 2001 and is one-third of what it was in 2016, he added.
That is certainly good news for Venezuela.
But where did all of those violent criminals go?
Kristi Noem, who is one of the top candidates to be Donald Trump’s running mate, is claiming that Venezuela has been “emptying their prisons of dangerous criminals to send them to America”…
Nations like Venezuela are emptying their prisons of dangerous criminals to send them to America. They are happy to let America’s open border be the solution to their problem.
Of course this is not exactly a new allegation.
All the way back in 2022, Breitbart warned that this was happening…
A recent Department of Homeland Security intelligence report received by the Border Patrol instructs agents to look for Venezuelan inmates released from entering the U.S., according to a source within CBP. The report, reviewed by Breitbart Texas, indicates the Venezuelan government, under the leadership of Nicolás Maduro Moros, is purposely freeing inmates — including some convicted of murder, rape, and extortion.
The intelligence report warns agents the freed prisoners have been seen within migrant caravans traveling from Tapachula, Mexico toward the U.S.-Mexico border as recently as July. The source, not authorized to speak to the media, told Breitbart Texas the move is reminiscent of a similar action taken by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro during the Mariel boat lift in the 1980s.
The report does not state whether the released prison inmates were traveling as a cohesive group but does state it was commonly shared knowledge among migrants traveling to the United States within a caravan in July that many of the Venezuelan migrants in the group were convicts and included hardened criminals.
If such allegations are actually true, this is a very, very serious threat to our country.
Violent criminals from Venezuela have certainly been popping up in the news a lot lately. For example, a 32-year-old Venezuelan man just sexually assaulted a minor in Virginia…
Authorities in Virginia have arrested a 32-year-old Venezuelan migrant in connection with a sexual assault on a minor, the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to Fox News.
The Campbell County Sheriff’s Office said that Renzo Mendoza Montes, 32, was arrested on Thursday, February 22, on two felony charges in connection with a sexual assault on a minor.
According to deputies, Mendoza is a Venezuelan citizen who is in the country illegally after being detained and released by US Customs and Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, on September 2, 2023.
And by now all of you have probably heard about the tragic murder of nursing student Laken Riley in Georgia…
Neighbors of the Venezuelan migrant accused of killing nursing student Laken Riley claimed he would watch the running path all day long and that he was seen on security cameras throwing out bloody clothes on the day of the attack.
Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, was arrested at his apartment complex near the running trail close to where Riley’s body was found last week.
Residents of the complex told NewsNation’s Alex Caprariello that their security cameras captured Ibarra disposing of evidence in the building’s dumpster, which they turned over to police.
If our borders were secure and our immigration laws were being enforced, these horrible tragedies and countless others may have been avoided.
This is why so many Americans consider immigration to be such an important issue.
We just want our families to be safe.
Our legal immigration process exists for a reason. If people are going to come here, we should make sure that they aren’t violent criminals.
Is that too much to ask?
Right now, there is so much frustration about the immigration crisis that we are facing. Earlier this week, Elon Musk expressed how he feels about all of this…
On Tuesday, Musk reacted to a report from Fox News’ Bill Melugin that Sen. Laphonza Butler, D-Calif., is requesting federal funds to provide more beds for a migrant shelter in San Diego. Butler said 800 to 1,000 migrants will be mass released daily if the bankrupt shelter does not gain access to additional funds.
“Dams are bursting all over the country,” Musk wrote in a post that quoted Melugin. “America is only 4% of Earth’s population. If only 1% of the rest of Earth moves here, that would crush all essential services.”
“I am ringing the alarm bell, because the flood of illegals is crushing the country!” the billionaire explained.
This crisis has exploded over the last several years, but it goes back a lot longer than that.
We have been doing things the wrong way for a very long time, and now we are paying an exceedingly high price for our foolishness.
Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.
About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.
The post A Pipeline Of Criminals Into The United States appeared first on End Of The American Dream.
Conservative historian and scholar Victor Davis Hanson appeared on the Laura Ingraham show last night to comment on the state of the 2024 race.
Hanson suggested that Democrats want to get rid of Joe Biden but that they don’t know how or when to do it.
He also pointed out that while Biden is in near total meltdown, Trump is surging in a political recovery that looks historic.
Transcript via Real Clear Politics:
LAURA INGRAHAM: Joining me now, Chris Bedford, senior contributor at The Federalist. And Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Victor, we’re seeing a lot of division on the left. Obviously, there’s division on the right as well. But just how big of a problem is this going to be for the Biden campaign as reality begins to set in as they get closer to the general?
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, HOOVER INSTITUTION SENIOR FELLOW: Yeah, I think we’re getting to a point of no return, Laura, with the corruption issue, the cognitive issue, and the unpopularity and disaster of his agenda, and now this defection within the Democratic Party. It’s more of a question of not if they’re going to try to remove him, but when and how, and I don’t think they have the answers to either one.
It’s really the most remarkable meltdown of a president we’ve seen in our modern era, and it’s juxtaposed with probably the greatest political recovery of Donald Trump since Richard Nixon in 1962. And Donald Trump, the more they try to demonize and incarcerate him or use lawfare against him, the more popular he becomes. So, it’s bizarre how things have just flipped since 2021.
It’s remarkable. I think they’re in a dilemma and they don’t — they know what they have to do, but they don’t know how to do it and when to do it…
Hanson goes on to say that he is still concerned about mail-in ballots. Watch the whole thing:
Hanson’s points are well made. The GOP had better get its act together.
The post Victor Davis Hanson: Biden is Melting Down While Trump is Having Greatest Political Recovery Since Nixon (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
The Bible provides a clear framework for parental authority, responsibility, and discipline and the importance of teaching God’s Word. Children are viewed as precious gifts from God, and parents are entrusted with the privilege and duty of nurturing them in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
Read Part 2 of this series here.
In the first article in this two-part series on parental rights, I explained the threats facing parents in America and the growing clash between parental rights and the radical gender ideology that is taking root in America. Here in the second part, I turn to a theological understanding of the rights and duties of Christian parents, and by extension all parents, as everyone has the responsibility, whether they realize it or not, to raise their children according to God’s good plans and vision.
The Bible, as the foundational text for Christians, serves as a guide for understanding the world and shaping one’s worldview. According to the Bible, parents play an irreplaceable role in the upbringing of their children, and the responsibility bestowed upon them — by God — is both a privilege and a duty. Here are some of the key features of a biblical worldview of parental rights.
First, it must be acknowledged that children are a blessing given by God to parents. They are gifts from the Lord. Psalm 127:3-5 states,
“Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.”
One immediate implication of this theological truth is that while parents do have the right to raise their children free from governmental interference, they do not have a blank check from God to simply do whatever they want. Instead, they are commanded by God to raise their children in a certain manner — that is, in the fear and admonition of the Lord. This is seen in Ephesians 6:4:
“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
This verse emphasizes the need for parents to provide a nurturing and disciplined environment that reflects the teachings of the Bible.
The Bible clearly outlines the authority and responsibility parents have in raising their children, but central to the biblical worldview on parental rights is the obligation to teach children the Word of God. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 instructs,
“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
Parents are uniquely responsible for providing not only for their children’s material needs and physical well-being but also for their education and spiritual instruction. This is not a task that parents can subcontract out to the state. As I’ve written in a previous article for the Standing for Freedom enter, the Bible actually provides a symbol for what we call parental rights — the “rod.”
God gives the Church the keys to judge Gospel professions and the state the sword to enact justice — but God gives the “rod” to parents. Proverbs 13:24 teaches us that “Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.”
What is the rod? It is not, as some secularists like to misinterpret, a license to abuse your child. No, it is a biblical strategy for effectively disciplining and raising children into godly adults. As I explained,
“The rod represents both the rights and responsibility of parents to discipline and instruct their children. God never gives this authority to the government. Not once. Another way of putting this is that parental rights are both God-given and given only to parents.”
Proverbs 22:6 states that parents are to “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” This verse emphasizes the parental duty to guide and instruct their children in a manner aligned with biblical principles.
Part of rightly exercising parental rights before the Lord includes godly discipline and correction. Good Christian parents will never affirm their children’s sin, no matter what form that takes, and this includes both homosexual desires and sinful (and futile) pursuits of “gender transition.”
As previously referenced, the Bible encourages parents to discipline their children in a way that reflects God’s love and correction. Parents should teach their children to love what God loves and to hate what God hates. Proverbs 13:24, again, states, “Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.” While this verse acknowledges the necessity of discipline, it also underscores the importance of doing so with love and diligence, avoiding abusive or harmful practices.
If a child is living under the authority of his or her parents, they should submit to their parents in obedience to the Fifth Commandment: “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12). And parents are both just and right to demand that this submission is offered in all proper things.
If you have a biblical worldview on parental rights, you will recognize that Christian parents simply don’t have the option to “affirm” a child’s pursuit of homosexuality or transgenderism. To do so would be a failure of their God-given role and an act of disobedience to God.
Hebrews 12:6 provides further insight into the biblical perspective on discipline, stating,
“For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
This verse draws a parallel between God’s discipline of His children and the discipline that parents should employ. It reinforces the idea that discipline is an expression of love and is intended for the child’s benefit.
When a state or government seeks to impose its own values and beliefs on children, it undermines the fundamental right of parents to guide and protect their children according to their values and beliefs. To bring this back to the main issue threatening parental rights today, this is particularly concerning in the context of gender transitions and the promotion of transgender ideology, which often contradicts biblical teachings on gender and sexuality.
Parents have a right and a duty to know what their children are being taught in schools. Parents have a right and a duty to remove their children from classrooms where sinful gender ideology and sexual deviancy are being promoted as “normal.” Parents have a right — and a duty — to refuse to allow their minor children to pursue a transgender lifestyle. And parents also have a right and a duty to protect their children from deadly abortion ideology and the sexual immorality that is taught in schools under the guise of “sex ed.”
In the Apostate States of America, all these examples and more are live issues and real fights. Of course, one of the best ways to exercise parental rights and responsibilities in our day and age is to homeschool your children, but we recognize that not everyone has this opportunity.
Christian parents must reject any state-imposed effort to take their children and facilitate gender transitions or promote transgender ideology. This may involve speaking out against such policies in both public and private schools, advocating for parental rights and school choice, and taking legal action if necessary.
I would suggest that it is a bit of rebuke to Christian parents in America that one of the leading and most effective groups advocating for parental rights, Moms for Liberty, isn’t even an explicitly Christian organization. But when equipped with a robust biblical worldview on parental rights, Christians should be driven to assume a position at the front lines of this critical fight for the hearts and minds of future generations.
The biblical worldview on parental rights is rooted in the acknowledgment of God’s design for the family and the role of parents in shaping the spiritual, emotional, educational, and physical well-being of their children. The Bible provides a clear framework for parental authority, responsibility, and discipline and the importance of teaching God’s Word. Children are viewed as precious gifts from God, and parents are entrusted with the privilege and duty of nurturing them in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
As Christians seek to understand and live out their faith, embracing the biblical perspective on parental rights becomes integral to building strong, God-honoring families. By grounding their parenting in the principles outlined in the Scriptures, believers can contribute to the flourishing of the next generation, fostering a legacy of faith, love, and obedience to God’s Word.
As seen in this article, many K-12 schools now embrace the secular woke agenda and are hostile to Christian beliefs and parental rights. Fortunately, parents don’t have to settle for this. Liberty University Online Academy is a K-12 program designed to educate your children in the ways of the Lord while preparing them to stand firm in their faith when they graduate. Our flexible online curriculum ensures that your student is trained at your convenience and keeps YOU the ultimate educator of your children.
Both the Bible and a plethora of judicial rulings throughout the history of the United States repeatedly affirm this basic societal principle: Parents have a fundamental right to raise and educate their children as they see fit — not the government.
The inevitable clash between radical gender ideology and parental rights is coming to a head in America.
Recent, high-profile, and horrifying cases have revealed that very few states are still a safe haven for parents who want to protect their kids from the insanity of LGBTQIA+ indoctrination and transgenderism.
We expect to see it in progressive strongholds like California, where a bill that passed the state legislature (but was ultimately vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom) would have forced judges in custody cases to consider whether a parent was “affirming” of their child’s “gender identity.” Or even in Colorado, where a school placed middle school girls in overnight accommodations with boys identifying as girls on school trips — without their parents’ knowledge or permission.
But it’s happening in Texas and Montana, too. One Texas father, Jeffrey Younger, lost a years-long custody battle for his nine-year-old twin boys, one of whom his ex-wife argues is a “transgender girl.” His ex-wife took his kids to California, where Younger fears his son may end up being chemically castrated.
In Montana right now, Krista and Todd Kolstad have accused “the state’s child protective services of ‘kidnapping’ their teenage daughter after the girl began to identify as a transgender ‘boy.’”
Even in Indiana, it’s been reported that a Catholic couple is now appealing to the Supreme Court after “the Indiana Department of Child Services investigated parents Mary and Jeremy Cox and later took their son after they refused to refer to him as a girl.”
This shouldn’t be a surprise, even though it’s shocking. It’s not like the radical transgender activists have been quiet about their antipathy towards non-affirming parents. . David Moscrop, a far-left commentator, posted on X (formerly Twitter) a stark reminder of the clash of worldviews on this topic, stating: “I am once again reminding you that if trans kids are uncomfortable talking about gender with their parents, their parents are part of the problem.”
This entry in our Biblical Worldview series will explain what parental rights are from a biblical and constitutional basis — and why they are so important to defend in an increasingly hostile and secular society. In the first part of this two-part series, I will explain what parental rights are in general and give an overview of the legal philosophy and judicial rulings that have established parental rights in America. In the second part, I will provide a theologically grounded vision for how Christian parents should understand parental rights from a biblical worldview.
The Parental Rights Foundation explains that “Our nation has consistently maintained that parents possess a fundamental right to raise their children as they see fit.”
Let’s take the second part of that phrase and then make a few additions from a Christian perspective to provide this workable definition of parental rights:
Parental rights describe the God-given, fundamental right, and duty of parents to raise their children as they see fit and to serve as the primary authority figures in the lives of the children, with the full freedom to reject governmental overreach or usurpation of that authority, unless the parents are failing to provide for the basic needs of their children or are actively harming them or endangering their lives.
And by harm, I mean real harm, not the fake “harm” that people claim is caused by parents rightly rejecting homosexual identities or preventing their children from “transitioning” their gender.
Like man-woman marriage, parental rights form the basis of all functional civil societies. It is not pre-political but rather a bedrock of the political organization of all nations.
The Parental Rights Foundation defends this understanding, explaining that the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 declared in Troxel v. Granville that ‘the liberty interest…of parents in the care, custody, and control of their children is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by [the] Court. In fact, this right of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children predates the Court itself. It is a right that was already understood and acknowledged long before the United States came to be.”
The rich history of the defense of parental rights extends even to John Locke’s Second Treatise of Civil Government, where he argues that “This is that which puts the authority into the parents’ hands to govern the minority of their children. God hath made it their business to employ this care on their offspring, and hath placed in them suitable inclinations of tenderness and concern to temper this power, to apply it, as his wisdom designed it, to the children’s good, as long as they should need to be under it.”
From before the 1600s (when Locke was writing) and up to the present day, the legal recognition that parents had the God-given right to raise their children — and not the state — can be found in a plethora of Supreme Court rulings.
In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled in Wisconsin v. Yoder that “The history and culture of Western civilization reflect a strong tradition of parental concern for the nurture and upbringing of their children. This primary role of the parents in the upbringing of their children is now established beyond debate as an enduring American tradition” (emphasis added).
In summary, parental rights are fundamental in a free society, as they allow parents to guide, nurture, and protect their children according to their values and beliefs. The best conservative philosophy and a plethora of judicial rulings throughout the history of the United States have repeatedly affirmed this: Children belong to their parents, to be raised how those parents judge best, and not the government.
To learn more about what the Bible says about parents’ rights and responsibilities in raising and educating their children, read Part 2 of this series by clicking here.
As seen in this article, many K-12 schools now embrace the secular woke agenda and are hostile to Christian beliefs and parental rights. Fortunately, parents don’t have to settle for this. Liberty University Online Academy is a K-12 program designed to educate your children in the ways of the Lord while preparing them to stand firm in their faith when they graduate. Our flexible online curriculum ensures that your student is trained at your convenience and keeps YOU the ultimate educator of your children.
When William Dembski said, “Naturalism is the disease. Intelligent design is the cure,”1 I had never thought of naturalism in those terms. I had always thought of naturalism as a faulty belief system – a wrong worldview. But the more I thought about it, I think that Dembski is absolutely correct. Since naturalism denies the possibility of the supernatural and instead attributes all phenomena to scientific laws, the idea of God becomes irrelevant. Thus, the world becomes self-sufficient and not in need of a creator. But without a creator we face a host of debilitating consequences.
First, we do not have to account for our sins to a creator. According to Dembski, “Naturalism promises to free humanity from the weight of sin by dissolving the very concept of sin.”2Since we cannot sin against nature we can justify wrong behavior and eat, drink, and be merry, because tomorrow we die. However, peace and joy, which is a by-product of obedience to God, are rarely found by the naturalist.
Second, the strict naturalist, by definition, came into this world by chance, and must give up the comforting belief that life on earth has a purpose. Our naturalist friend is faced with the reality that he came from nothing and when he dies he goes back to nothing and somehow he must cram all the meaning he can in life in between these two states of nothingness. Depression and sleepless nights often can accompany those individuals that take God out of the equation of life.
Third, naturalism leads to all forms of idolatry. For the naturalist, he sets the creation above the creator and worships all types of false gods from sex, to money, to fame, and a host of other idols, that never seem to deliver what they promise. Fleeting happiness is often accompanied by despair as these idols can never deliver real peace and joy.
And finally, whether the naturalist wants to admit it or not, he is on a collision course with death. In fact, he must come to grips that he has a terminal illness from birth – his body will grow old, and soon die. With no hope of an afterlife, and no real idea of why you were born in the first place, if it is only to die shortly thereafter, despair becomes the traveling companion of those who deny there is a God. As a former atheist, I can tell you that life has so much more joy, peace, and meaning, now that I have put the creator in his rightful place – above nature.
1 William A. Dembski, Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science & Theology. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 120.
2 Ibid., 100.
The post Naturalism is the Disease appeared first on Bible Apologetics – A DAILY DEVOTIONAL.
According to atheist New Testament scholar, Bart Ehrman, “It is a large mistake to think that when it comes to the New Testament, only the Gospels attest to the historical existence of Jesus.”1 Simcha Jacobovici provides a good example of one who made precisely this kind of blunder during one of his History Channel programs.2 Because he believes that the Gospels “come to us from writers with a religious agenda,” he asks whether there is “any evidence outside the Gospels that confirms that Jesus actually existed?” His conclusion? “Only one, in the writings of a first-century historian named Flavius Josephus.”3
Claims of this kind raise important questions. Should the Gospels be dismissed because they were written by people with a religious agenda?4 Clearly there would be a host of religious implications if Jesus really said and did the things described in these texts, so couldn’t the bias be working in the opposite direction? Perhaps it’s an anti-religious agenda that refuses to allow the possibility that such things could occur or that such a person could exist.5 Secondly, is Josephus the only non-Christian source to mention Jesus?6 This is quite easy to disprove. To give just one example, according to the Roman historian Tacitus: “Christus…suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate.”7
In reality, we have quite a lot of ancient reliable sources that end up confirming Jesus’ existence. On some occasions, I’ll begin lectures before Christian audiences using a video clip in which Simcha Jacobovici makes the claim I cited above. “Outside the Gospels and Josephus,” I’ll probe, “what sources do we have that serve to vindicate Jesus as a historical figure?” Sometimes this query generates little more than blank stares, but most of the time one or two individuals will begin throwing out names of secular historians who write about Jesus, such as Tacitus, Suetonius, and Pliny the Younger. While these sources are certainly relevant to the question, I believe that appealing to them at this stage of the conversation reveals an important misconception related to the strength of our case.
You see, outside the Gospels, the strongest evidence for the life of Jesus is actually found in other parts of the New Testament itself—a fact that is recognized by historians and New Testament scholars around the world. The problem is that most Christians haven’t been trained to recognize the evidential and historical value of texts such as Acts or 1st Corinthians. Instead, we view them almost exclusively as spiritual or religious works that are treasured by believers and dismissed by unbelievers. We also tend to think of the Bible as a single volume sent from heaven, rather than as a collection of many different kinds of ancient texts written across a vast amount of time.
Though the writings of Paul, for example, may not be read and appreciated by your secular friends and relatives, whether we realize it or not, these ancient texts are certainly respected and valued by ancient historians. From a completely historical perspective, Paul may or may not have been inspired, but he certainly lived, and he certainly wrote several letters in the middle part of the 1st century which need to be studied and evaluated on their own terms.
In his book, Did Jesus Exist, Bart Ehrman discusses all the various historical sources for our knowledge of Jesus, and surprisingly, he ends up concluding that the most reliable information we have about Jesus apart from the Gospels are found in the book of Acts, the epistles of Paul, and other New Testament texts. No one disputes the fact that Paul wrote his letters from the late 40s to the early 60s, and according to Ehrman, this “is highly relevant for establishing the historical existence of Jesus.”8 Similarly, the book of Acts, he says, “preserves traditions about the life of Jesus that are both independent of anything said in the Gospel and, in the judgment of most critical historians, [are] based on traditions in circulation before the production of the Gospel.”9 He even goes on to say that Luke’s second volume “shows how the Christian movement went from being a small group of Jesus’ followers immediately after his death to becoming a worldwide phenomenon.”10
Again, Bart Ehrman is an atheist who doesn’t view the New Testament as a collection of sacred texts. Nevertheless, I’m convinced that he and other like-minded scholars have a higher appreciation of their historical value than most conservative Christians do. For example, in his assessment of the book of Acts, Ehrman observes that for this writer, “Jesus was very much a man who really lived and died in Judea, as can be seen…in the speeches that occur abundantly throughout the narrative.”11 These speeches have not been “invented” and are not based on “Luke’s fertile imagination.”12 Rather, his account “incorporates much older traditions. And these traditions are quite emphatic that Jesus was a Jewish man who lived, did spectacular deeds, taught, and was executed, as a human in Jerusalem.”13 In fact, in his discussion of events recorded in the first chapter of Acts, Ehrman goes so far as to admit that Luke’s account “gives clear evidence of being very early and Palestinian in origin…This is a tradition that goes back to the earliest Christian community in Palestine.”14
As he assesses the writings of Paul, Ehrman says, “The reality is that, convenient or not, Paul speaks about Jesus, assumes that he really lived, that he was a Jewish teacher, and that he died by crucifixion.”15 Paul frequently uses “the terminology of ‘received’ and ‘delivered’” which according to Ehrman “is the kind of language commonly used in Jewish circles to refer to traditions that are handed on from one teacher to the next.”16 And as he unpacks the significance of the tradition concerning the Last Supper in 1 Cor. 11, Paul “emphasizes that this event happened ‘on the night in which he was handed over.’”17 For Ehrman, this is significant: “This is not some vague mythological reference but a concrete historical one. Paul knows that Jesus had a Last Supper with his disciples in which he predicted his approaching death, the very night he was handed over to the authorities.”18
“In one of his rare autobiographical passages,” Ehrman continues, “Paul indicates that just a few years after his conversion he went to Jerusalem and met face-to-face with two significant figures in the early Christian movement,”19 namely Peter and James, the brother of Jesus. “These are two good people to know if you want to know anything about the historical Jesus. I wish I knew them.”20 Ehrman then unpacks the significance of all this: “Paul states as clearly as possible that he knew Jesus’ brother. Can we get any closer to an eyewitness report than this? The fact that Paul knew Jesus’ closest disciple and his own brother throws a real monkey wrench into the mythicist view that Jesus never lived.”21 After all, “If Jesus never lived, you would think that his brother would know about it.”22
Ehrman then makes a rather startling admission:
Since no one would have made up the idea of a crucified messiah, Jesus must really have existed, must really have raised messianic expectations, and must really have been crucified. No Jew would have invented him. And it is important to remember that Jews were saying that Jesus was the crucified messiah in the early 30s. We can date their claims to at least 32 CE, when Paul began persecuting these Jews. In fact, their claims must have originated even earlier. Paul knew Jesus’ right-hand man, Peter and Jesus’ brother James. They are evidence that this belief in the crucified messiah goes all the way back to a short time after Jesus’ death.23
In his recently published work, On The Resurrection: Vol. 1, Evidences, Gary Habermas points out that Bart Ehrman ends up listing “over twenty independent sources for the historical Jesus” throughout his books, ten of which “are drawn from the New Testament” which combines to make “quite an impressive collection of works.”24 While this may seem somewhat surprising, particularly in light of Ehrman’s atheism, we need to realize that this kind of approach is not at all out of step in the world of contemporary New Testament scholarship, even among other hardcore liberal, agnostic, and atheist scholars. In fact, in one of his footnotes, Habermas takes the time to cite a variety of atheist and critical scholars who have conceded the fact that the famous early Christian creed found in 1st Corinthians 15:3-5 (which attests to the belief in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection),25 dates to sometime before Paul’s conversion.26
According to James Ware, “there is almost universal scholarly consensus that 1 Cor 15:3-5 contains a carefully preserved tradition pre-dating Paul’s apostolic activity.”27 Along these same lines, Ehrman writes, “The idea that Christians were telling stories of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection before…Paul is held by virtually all scholars of the New Testament, and for compelling reasons.”28 So if Paul became a believer within two years of the crucifixion, this would indicate that the idea of Jesus’ resurrection wasn’t a doctrine that was invented sometime later. In fact, atheist scholar Gerd Lüdemann says, “we may reckon that the appearances of Jesus were talked about immediately after they happened.”29 These are frank and startling admissions.
The lesson here for all of us is that we shouldn’t think of the New Testament as a collection of uplifting spiritual texts intended only for Christians. Rather, these ancient texts describe a series of events that everyone needs to reckon with. The events reported in these texts either happened or they didn’t. The current consensus, even among atheist and critical New Testament scholars, is that these historical artifacts aren’t easily dismissed, and when taken together with a variety of other ancient sources, it becomes rather obvious that the world’s first Christians didn’t invent the story of Jesus. He certainly lived, he was certainly crucified under Pontius Pilate, and from the very earliest days, his followers certainly proclaimed his resurrection.
Now, as a reminder, these are simply the conclusions that result from a close study of the most reliable ancient sources apart from the New Testament Gospels. Perhaps, therefore, we should be cautious about dismissing the message of the Gospels themselves. Perhaps all of us should attempt to read and examine them carefully, not merely for their inspirational and practical value, but as artifacts of the real world that cry out for some kind of explanation.
RELATED BOOKS & ARTICLES
On The Ressurection, Vol. 1: Evidences, Gary Habermas (book)
Can We Trust The Gospels?, Peter J. Williams (book)
How to Detect Deception, Shane Rosenthal (article)
Authenticating The Fourth Gospel, Shane Rosenthal (article)
Did Jesus Exist? (New York, HarperCollins, 2012), 105-106
The Naked Archaeologist, Episode 113, “Last Man Standing.” I discuss this at some length on Episode 12.
Ibid. This statement is made right at the opening of the program linked above. Jacobovici then goes on in that episode to argue that the Josephus passage is a forgery, therefore, in his view, there are no unbiased sources about Jesus in existence. I discuss this at length here.
I put this question to Peter J. Williams, John Dickson, and other scholars on Episode 15. In particular, Dickson referred to this approach to history as being “historically tone-deaf.”
In my thinking, any view that refuses to consider or evaluate evidence, from either side of the fence, is a form of “blind faith.”
On Episode 12, I discuss numerous additional secular sources for Jesus, including Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, as well as in a variety of lines preserved for us from Emperors Claudius, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, etc.
Annals, 15:44 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus_on_Jesus). On Episode 12 I discuss numerous additional non-Christian sources for Jesus, including a second citation by Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, and an additional reference by Josephus. along with various lines preserved for us from Emperors Claudius, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, etc.
Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist?, 95
Ibid., 106
Ibid. The book of Acts is set from just after the crucifixion in 30 AD to the time of Paul’s house arrest in Rome, which most scholars date to around 62 AD. The fact that Ehrman admits that Christianity grew during this period to become a “worldwide phenomenon” is worth noting.
Ibid., 107
Ibid., 109
Ibid., 109-110
Ibid., 108
Ibid. 118
Ibid., 122
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid., 144
Ibid.
Ibid., 145-146
Ibid., 148
Ibid., 164
Gary R. Habermas, On The Resurrection: Volume 1, Evidences (B&H Academic, Brentwood, TN, 2024), 285
I discuss this at length on Episode 9.
Ibid., 380-381. Apart from Ehrman himself, some of the scholars who hold this view include Robert Funk, Gerd Lüdemann, John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, Michael Goulder, Gavin D’Costa, Hans Grass, and others.
Cited by Habermas on p. 386.
Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist, 261
Cited by Habermas on p. 393.
Source: https://www.humbleskeptic.com/p/outside-the-gospels-what-can-we-really
By Elizabeth Prata
Someone commented this week on the blog that “As a Christian woman, I respect the Feminine representation of God; which is what Rachel, and early Hebrews call “Asherah”.”
See how easy it is to make an idol?
There are no other gods. God revealed Himself as Yahweh. He desires to be seen as male, He, Father.
O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord,
Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving,
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
3 For the Lord is a great God
And a great King above all gods,
(Psalm 95:1-3)
There are no other gods
There is no Allah
There is no Zeus no Mars no Dagon
Nammu, An, Ki are ephemeral as vapor
Amun and Horus are fictitious myths
Freyr and Loki … figments and chimera
All other gods are illusory
Their names hold no power
and their existence is in wood and statue only
Let the heathen howl
their bitterness at an unseen and unknown god’s failure
Spurious and futile gods who remain silent at man’s pleas
Let the pagan rail
their outrage at the silent deity who cannot and will never help
Let the godless who appeal to no-god
wail in frustration
for prayers that are never answered
For God is the only God.
Let the hopeless come to the throne of hope
Let the disillusioned bask in the fountain from the Rock
Let the helpless find help in Immanuel’s outstretched arm
Let the discouraged find eternity in God
The only God.
Truth2Freedom's Blog 