There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
It is an uncompromising “Yes” to Jesus that sets us apart. Following Him has to look like something. Our lives should look different.
Intention
To say “Yes” to Jesus because He is so much better than anything this world offers.
Scripture
“And He said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’”
– Luke 9:23
Reflection
Someone once told me, “Your no’s add value to your yes”.
Recently, as we have been launching Episode 3 ofMade in Jesus, I have been reminded of this advice. Ethan shares how being a Christian is as simple as saying ‘yes’ to Jesus and ‘no’ to anything else. This sounds radical – but it’s ultimately the foundation of our faith.
We often quote Jesus when He said, “Take up your cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). But sometimes we forget the “deny yourself” part. We pray prayers like, “Your Kingdom come and Your will be done” (Matt 6:10) – but the reality is that “not my will but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42) is easier said than done. Why? Because there is a cost – and it’s everything.
Jesus was sweating blood in the garden of Gethsemane as He prayed that prayer, so we should not pray it lightly. We must count the cost.
This is where the rubber meets the road and following Jesus starts to look like something. While Ethan is open-air preaching in front of a large crowd of schoolies he declares, “I don’t do drugs, I’ve never had sex, I don’t drink…” The immediate response to this out on the street was amazing as young people responded to this act of boldness with high fives and prayer requests. He continues to share how he doesn’t do any of those things and it’s incredible.
Sometimes FOMO (the fear of missing out), peer pressure, and desire to fit in leads young people to do things they probably wouldn’t have done otherwise.
The truth is that Jesus and His ways are so much better than anything the world has to offer. Saying “Yes to Jesus and no to anything else” will cost us everything but we are getting the best deal ever – because He is so much better.
It is this uncompromising “Yes” to Jesus that sets us apart. Following Him has to look like something. Our lives should look different.
As we have been showing this episode in schools and youth groups around Australia, we have seen hundreds of youths counting the cost and saying “Yes” to Jesus. Many have even decided to be baptised fully clothed on the spot!
On Friday night a young guy said to me right before he was baptised, “Tonight is the first time I have believed God is real”. Many Aussie youths are saying the same or similar because they see through these episodes what it truly means to follow Jesus. It is not just empty words or playing church. But it is lives, laid down for the sake of the gospel.
We are made in Jesus and for Jesus. It is in Him that we find our destiny and purpose to know Him and make Him known. I see the youth of Australia discovering that His ways are so much better than the world’s. I see them realising that following Jesus is the adventure of a lifetime.
This truly is the most exciting time to be alive. I believe we will see the fulfilment of the Great Commission in this generation.
Video
Prayer
God, I thank You for what You are doing in Australia. I thank You that we get to be a part of Your plan.
I pray that You would help each one of us to consider the cost to deny ourselves and take up our cross to follow You, to pray “not my will but Yours be done” and truly mean it.
May our “Yes” to you be more than just a three-letter word. Let it look like something that others would see and want. Help us to live lives that bring You glory and shine Your light everywhere we go. Set us apart and set us ablaze.
The harvest is ripe, Lord. Send us out and raise up more workers for the harvest, until everyone has heard the gospel. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Author Bio
Pat is an evangelist with Youth for Christ Australia, director of Hope Movement, and co-producer ofMade in Jesus. He is passionate about prayer and worship and loves telling people about the hope that he has found in Jesus. His mission is to equip believers with simple and practical tools to share hope.
Prayer Points and Purpose for GO Month 2024
To worship Jesus and give extravagant praise to God.1 Chron 16:23–31.
To pray for revival, repentance and deliverance for Australia and for millions to find Christ.Acts 2:1–41.
To pray for five people by name to find Christ and share the gospel with those five in May.Matt 28:18–20.
We invite you to support this prayer campaign to multiply prayer in Australia for revival and see millions come to Christ. Every donation to the Canberra Declaration helps us promote prayer and make a stand for family, faith, freedom, life, and the good news of God’s love through Jesus Christ His Son.
“We affirm that the whole of Scripture and all its parts, down to the very words of the original, were given by divine inspiration. We deny that the inspiration of Scripture can be rightly affirmed of the whole without the parts, or of some parts but not the whole.”
In 1985 The Jesus Seminar was founded by a number of biblical scholars who sought to “renew the quest for the historical Jesus.” That is, they sought to determine what parts of the Gospel accounts could actually be attributed to Jesus, and then to draw definitive conclusions regarding the true identity of the Jesus portrayed in the Gospels. Their conclusion? Only about 18% of the sayings and 16% of the deeds attributed to Jesus in the Gospel accounts are authentic. Of course, one is completely valid in asking: By what standard did they draw these conclusions? By what beliefs did they analyze the Gospel accounts in order to sit in judgment of them in order to decide what was truly authentic to those accounts? How did they arrive at these beliefs that gave them the ability to decide which parts of the Gospel accounts are “authentic”?
Such questions not only highlight the presuppositional nature of thinking—that all thinking is dependent on or controlled by one’s most foundational beliefs that drive the rest of one’s thinking—but also reveal that one must choose by what authority one is going to sit in judgment of that text that claims to be the only word from the only living and true God.
Article six of the Chicago Statement reminds us that those who adopt the approach represented by the Jesus Seminar do so in direct violation of the authority of Scripture as The Truth from the only living and true God that is unavoidably united in all its “parts.” God’s written word is irreducibly complex because it is from the only living and true God who is Truth.
We, who have the Spirit, will face painful disappointments in ourselves until our Lord returns (1 John 3:2; Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:18-20, 25). In order to make us more like His Son Jesus, we must be humbled of our self-trust and self-righteousness. This will be painful. We have learned to trust and to believe in ourselves. Therefore, we need a new way to understand our lives (Romans 12:2). The Spirit calls us to die to ourselves and to live exclusively for our Lord and to trust in Him alone.
Consequently, our brokenness is beautiful and blessed:
· Matthew 5:3–6 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
How can our poverty in spirit be blessed? We are all poor in spirit. However, those with the Spirit of God have been forced to face our neediness and unworthiness (Luke 17:10). Others, who have rejected the Lord, have little choice but to believe in their own worthiness, even that they are more worthy than others. Consequently, they continue to deceive themselves that they are right while others are wrong.
How can morning, meekness, and our maladies be anything but painful? The Lord assures us that these are His chosen means to blessedness. Therefore, we should rejoice in these:
· Romans 5:3–5 …we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
If we know this, we need not despair. Instead, we can reassure ourselves that the Lord knows exactly what He is doing with our lives. Even the most mature are not exempt from suffering. Paul has given us a close-up example of this:
· 2 Corinthians 12:7–10 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Consequently, strength in our Lord becomes a matter of regarding our weaknesses and afflictions as blessings, even things to boast about, and even for Paul. This is a vital part of the Good News of Jesus. He is at work in our lives and comforts us in our humility and brokenness (2 Corinthians 1:3-5):
· Psalm 34:17–19 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
Here is our fate without the work of the Spirit:
· Psalm 36:1–4 (NLT) Sin whispers to the wicked, deep within their hearts. They have no fear of God at all. In their blind conceit, they cannot see how wicked they really are. Everything they say is crooked and deceitful. They refuse to act wisely or do good. They lie awake at night, hatching sinful plots. Their actions are never good. They make no attempt to turn from evil.
We too are unable to see beneath the face of self-righteousness and even the work of the Spirit in our own lives:
2 Corinthians 5:16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
2 Samuel 1:8 — Did the Amalekite kill Saul or did Saul kill himself? From GotQuestions.org:
The clear answer from the biblical text is that Saul killed himself and that the Amalekite’s story was a fabrication. The biblical text records the story the Amalekite gave but does not affirm it as true …
This would be the correct order of events: Saul is wounded in battle and then kills himself by falling on his own sword. An Amalekite comes across his dead body and takes his crown and armlet. The next day, the Philistines find Saul’s body, behead him, strip him of his armor, send the report, and fasten his body to the wall of Beth Shan (1 Samuel 31:10).
2 Samuel 2:1 — Good things happen after a king “enquires of the LORD.”
John 12:24-26 — Listening to Jesus must have been difficult. Fruit comes from dying. Loving life loses it; hating life keeps it. Servants are honored. The Eternal One will die (John 12:34). God opened the eyes of the blind (Matthew 9:30), but He blinded the eyes of the seeing (John 12:40).
John 12:37 — Notice the different groups:
The uncircumcised outsider Greeks wanting to learn (John 12:21)
The Hebrew crowd who saw the miracles but didn’t believe (John 12:37)
The chief rulers who believed but didn’t confess (John 12:42-43)
Very few fall into the category of a vocal believer.
Psalm 118:24 — Bob Jones Academy performed a song based on this verse.
Psalm 118:28 — A great blend of the immanence of God and the transcendence of God.
Proverbs 15:28 — Interesting parallel to Proverbs 10:19.
Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.
Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. (Psalm 101:6)
If David spoke thus, we may be sure that the Son of David will be of the same mind. Jesus looks out for faithful men, and He fixes His eyes upon them, to observe them, to bring them forward, to encourage them, and to reward them. Let no true-hearted man think that he is overlooked; the King Himself has His eye upon him.
There are two results of this royal notice. First we read, “That they may dwell with me.” Jesus brings the faithful into His house, He sets them in His palace, He makes them His companions, He delights in their society. We must be true to our Lord, and He will then manifest Himself to us. When our faithfulness costs us most, it will be best rewarded; the more furiously men reject, the more joyfully will our Lord receive us.
Next, he says of the sincere man, “He shall serve me.” Jesus will use for His own glory those who scorn the tricks of policy and are faithful to Himself, His Word, and His cross. These shall be in His royal retinue, the honored servants of His Majesty. Communion and usefulness are the wages of faithfulness. Lord make me faithful that I may dwell with Thee and serve Thee.
How will the death of Iran’s president impact Israel and the Middle East? On Monday morning, the Iranian regime confirmed that its President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian had died in a helicopter crash, on their way back from a visit in the neighboring country of Azerbaijan.
Counterfeit Christianity: Satan Does More Harm By Imitation Than Outright Opposition It is a common misconception that Satan hates religion. If that were the case, he wouldn’t have been the driving force behind over 4,000 false religions. Yes, Satan loves religion, particularly when he can use it to counterfeit the truth of God’s Word and manufacture empty ritualistic faiths that are devoid of the soul-saving gospel.
US and Saudi Arabia on brink of landmark security agreement, report says significant progress was made on Saturday during a meeting between National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The eastern city is home to Saudi Aramco, the kingdom’s state-run oil giant. the first component of the deal includes a series of agreements between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, covering defense guarantees and civil nuclear cooperation. This aspect would strengthen U.S.-Saudi ties at a time when China is seeking to expand its influence in the Middle East.
Terror organizations threaten to attack US pier off Gaza Palestinian Arab terrorist organizations are adopting the Hamas position that opposes the operation of the US floating pier on the shores of Gaza, and are threatening to harm any foreign presence, including an American one, in the Gaza Strip.
Israel Launches Strikes Across Gaza as U.S. Envoy meets Netanyahu Israeli planes and tanks pounded areas across the Gaza Strip, residents said, as White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday amid U.S. calls for a more focused military campaign. Sullivan was expected to press for Israel to go after Hamas terrorists in a targeted way, not with a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the White House said before the discussions.
Discovery of ancient Nile tributary prompts reassessment of pyramid construction methods Researchers have recently uncovered an ancient branch of the Nile River located near 31 pyramids in Egypt, including the three iconic structures at the Great Pyramid of Giza. This discovery was made through the use of satellite data. This branch, now hidden by desert sands and farmland, is believed to have been a crucial naval route for transporting the immense boulders and stones necessary for building the iconic pyramids from southern Egypt.
Netanyahu blocking defense establishment chief from meeting US officials American and Israeli officials believe that the reason Netanyahu is preventing the holding of these meetings is his desire to control the message that members of Congress and senior officials in the Biden administration are hearing from the Israeli government, at a time when tensions between Israel and the US are increasing.
Smotrich calls for Hezbollah withdrawal or takeover of southern Lebanon after dozens of attacks over the weekend “A public ultimatum must be issued to Hezbollah that they completely stop firing and withdraw all forces beyond the Litani River,” … “If the ultimatum is not fully met, the IDF must launch an operation deep into Lebanese territory to defend the northern communities, including a ground incursion and Israeli military takeover of the southern Lebanese area,”
Trump calls Ilhan Omar a ‘hater,’ slams Biden for ‘destroying our country’ In an interview with Alpha News reporter Liz Collin, former President Donald Trump discussed the 2024 presidential election in Minnesota, law enforcement, and Rep. Ilhan Omar. Additionally, the 45th president told Alpha News that mass deportations would be necessary to handle the ongoing illegal immigration crisis.
What “The Most Controversial Commencement Speech In U.S. History” Says About America …Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker delivered what has turned out to be the most controversial commencement speech in U.S. history. During his address at Benedictine College, he expressed traditional Christian viewpoints that nearly the entire country would have agreed with a few generations ago. But expressing those same viewpoints today has created a firestorm of controversy. Enraged leftists are seething with rage and are demanding that the Kansas City Chiefs release him immediately.
DYSTOPIAN: China Prepares For War With Military ‘Robodogs’ – Armed With Machine Guns! China is preparing for war with the help of gun-wielding robodogs. The robodogs were showcased during the 15-day “Golden Dragon” military exercises conducted at a secluded training facility in central Cambodia and along the coast. Over 2,000 troops, including 760 Chinese military personnel, were involved in the exercise.
Transnational Terrorist Organizations: Mexican Cartels Operating in Every U.S. State “Mexican drug cartels continue to kill Americans at a rate higher than any terrorist group in history,” said Senator Tom Cotton in response to the fact that illicit drugs smuggled by Mexican cartels into the US killed more than 107,000 Americans last year.
China Builds World’s First Dedicated Drone Carrier China has built the world’s first dedicated drone carrier. The ship has not been reported however and many of the circumstances surrounding it remain a mystery.
Did hospitals mark the covid unvaccinated for “special treatment”? During the covid era we have already seen that certain policies which turned out to be extremely harmful were applied to people who were perceived to be “more vulnerable.” Is it possible that the unvaccinated were also treated as “more vulnerable” and marked for “special treatment”?
“The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.” —Thomas Jefferson (1790)
Fellow Patriots, on this day in 1927, Charles Lindberg took off in the Spirit of St. Louis on the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris. To reduce weight, he didn’t bring a radio or a parachute. He landed in Paris 33.5 hours after takeoff. His small plane now hangs from the ceiling of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. —Mark Alexander
The president pandered to black voters he desperately needs by smearing Republicans.
Nate Jackson
“If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” So said Joe Biden in 2020.
“They’re gonna put y’all back in chains!” That was Joe Biden in 2012, slandering Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” And that was Joe Biden in 2007 about the man soon to become his boss, Barack Obama.
In short, Joe Biden has a habit of saying racist things that are meant to both pander to blacks and to put them in their place.
All that setup helps frame Biden’s commencement address at Morehouse College in Atlanta on Sunday. (He also spoke Friday at the National Museum of African American History and Culture and Sunday at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s “Fight for Freedom Fund” in Detroit.)
Morehouse is a historically black college that boasts Martin Luther King Jr. as an alumnus, and Biden used the opportunity to race-bait, pander, and outright lie, all in an effort to bolster his tanking poll numbers with blacks. He did what Democrats always do — turn King’s dream into a nightmare.
“You’re the reason Donald Trump is the defeated former president,” Biden said. “You’re the reason Donald Trump is going to be a loser again.”
Biden has a history of demonizing the new election law in Georgia, having previously called it “Jim Crow,” sometimes throwing in the hyperbolic modifier “on steroids” or changing it to the goofball rendition “Jim Eagle.” At Morehouse, he simply repeated another misleading claim about the law. “Today in Georgia,” he said, “they won’t allow water to be available to you while you wait in line to vote in an election. What in the hell is that all about?”
The law prohibits electioneering at polling sites by partisans offering water bottles and ensuring prospective voters know who distributed them. It does not prohibit water in voting lines. The entire purpose of Biden’s statement is to make blacks feel oppressed. The racism behind it is the assumption that blacks are somehow as uniquely incapable of bringing their own water as they are of obtaining a photo ID. Why do Biden and his fellow Democrats think blacks lack the ability to do these basic things?
To that point, Biden also attacked the opponents of DEI. “Extremists close the doors of opportunity, strike down affirmative action, attack the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” he hollered. “They don’t see you [blacks] in the future of America.” He also declared, “What is democracy if you have to be 10 times better than anyone else to get a fair shot?”
Democrats were the party of slavery and Jim Crow, and they’re still the party of counting by race. They just decided to shift the focus to getting votes instead of suppressing them.
Again, the real question is this: Why do Biden and his fellow Democrats think that blacks need quotas, sometimes enforced by the government, in order for blacks to achieve anything? It sends an incredibly bigoted message to the black graduates of Morehouse that all their study and work is for nothing without Democrats to make sure they get a slot somewhere.
It’s an utter lie that Republicans or conservatives want to hold back blacks. Instead, we are for a meritocracy that is, as Morehouse alum MLK said, about character and not skin color.
Biden also addressed crime, putting the racial focus in the wrong place. “If black men are being killed on the streets, we bear witness,” he said. “For me, that means to call out the poison of white supremacy, to root out systemic racism.” Generally speaking, white men are not killing black men in the streets or anywhere else. Black men are killing other black men by the thousands. Why do Biden and his fellow Democrats only bring that up to either blame the phony bogeyman of “white supremacy” or to call for stricter gun control?
The only time black lives matter to Democrats is in one of those two scenarios. The proof is in Biden’s next sentence: “I stood up for George — with George Floyd’s family to help create a country where you don’t need to have that talk with your son or grandson as they get pulled over.” By “that talk,” Biden is implying that cops are racist. Of course, he neglected to mention the truth that Floyd was a career criminal who resisted arrest and had enough fentanyl in his system to have killed him.
That is often the case with black men who commit crimes and then either resist or attack police. That is the talk needed: Don’t commit crimes. Don’t resist arrest.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, where Democrats will be hosting their 2024 presidential convention, there were 45 people shot over the weekend. The vast majority were black assailants and victims. Again, Biden never mentions that “inconvenient truth” because it does not fit his race-bait narrative.
Finally, because this was a college commencement, Biden pandered to the pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic goons who’ve taken over campuses nationwide. “I’ve called for an immediate ceasefire,” he said, “an immediate ceasefire to stop the fighting. Bring the hostages home.” Who took the hostages, most of whom are now likely dead? Hamas. Who slaughtered, raped, and kidnapped Israelis on October 7? Hamas. Who are the only people Biden is worried about now? Hamas.
Biden did mention “Hamas’s vicious attack on Israel, killing innocent lives and holding people hostage,” but his “solution” is to reward the terrorists with a “two-state solution.” The same “solution” Hamas has repeatedly rejected because “from the river to the sea” is its genocidal motto.
All told, Biden said a few things typical of a commencement address, but a good bit of his slurred speech was little other than pandering and race bait meant to placate a constituency he desperately needs if he really wants to “finish the job.”
Iran’s president and foreign minister dead, small businesses predict closure under Biden, Mayo apologizes for science, and more.
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
Iran’s president and foreign minister die in helicopter crash: Last night, 12 hours after a helicopter carrying both Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, and its foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, went missing, Iranian state media stopped calling it “a hard landing” and admitted that there’s “no sign of life” at the mountainous, fog-shrouded crash site in the far north of the country. There’s no indication of navigation-jamming drones at this point — only recklessness at the decision to fly under such conditions. Raisi, who Reuters describes as “a hardliner seen as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,” will not be missed by anyone outside the “Death to America” crowd. Stepping in to fill the presidential void is Mohammad Mokhber, 68, Iran’s first vice president. As National Review’s Jim Geraghty notes, “Raisi’s sudden death isn’t expected to lead to any dramatic changes in the policies of the Iranian government, but it may well have narrowed the options for who will succeed the 85-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.” More mischievously, Geraghty adds, “A Hamas-affiliated Telegram account ‘took seriously an Israeli joke about a Mossad agent named “Eli Copter” being responsible for the crash, repeating the claim before deleting the post.’ Also, the word ‘gullible’ is not in the dictionary.“
Disparate impact impacts Chicago: Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is floating a new policy that would order prosecutors in her office “to reject drug and gun charges that stem solely from some routine traffic stops.” Because, of course, what Chicago most needs now is to go even softer on crime. As the Chicago Sun-Times reports: “In an interview, Foxx said the draft policy aims to undercut a dramatic rise in stops that disproportionately target people of color and rarely lead to arrests. ‘It felt like it was time to do something about it,’ Foxx said. ‘And so our office — armed with data, armed with the knowledge that these stops have not significantly or in any way reduced violence in our city — decided that it was time to look at this issue and see if we could model a best practice that we’ve seen in other jurisdictions.’” We’re sure that beleaguered South Side residents will take great comfort in the fact that Foxx’s office is “armed with data.”
Half of small businesses predict closure under Biden: A second term of Joe Biden likely spells disaster for America’s small businesses. A recent survey conducted by Red Balloon and Public Square found that 22.4% of small businesses said they would go bust under a second Biden term, while another 26.2% said they would likely not survive. The survey asked what changes a small business could make under a second Biden term; the answers included “close my business” and “actively look at selling out to a larger competitor.” The primary issue behind the negative outlook is sustained high inflation, which currently sits at 3.4%. The simple reality is that for many, the cost of doing business is unsustainable.
Big guy’s student loan scheme doesn’t help little guys: We hate to break it to Joe Biden, but he’s not getting his money’s worth if he’s trying to buy some much-needed votes for the November presidential election. As the Foundation for Economic Education reports, Biden introduced “new provisions to his student debt relief plan earlier this month, and the primary beneficiaries are high-income earners, according to a new analysis released by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.” That’s right: His vote-buying scheme is targeting rich folks instead of the less well-to-do folks who could really benefit from the graft. As FEE continues: “While Biden’s 2023 SAVE Plan already put taxpayers on the hook for $475 billion, the new plans add another $84 billion to the tally — largely by ‘canceling’ the student debt of some 750,000 households making more than $312,000 a year on average. The average debt relief for these households is $25,500, the study found.”
Mayo apologizes for science: When the Rainbow Mafia objects to objective reality, scientific cowards dance to their irrational tune. This is the case with the Mayo Clinic, which issued an apology to Rochester Pride after the LGBT organization objected to Dr. Mary O’Connor, an employee of the clinic who dares to hold to the science on the binary nature of sex. Recently, Dr. O’Conner, who is an orthopedic surgeon and limb reconstructionist, was a keynote speaker at a conference titled “Advancing Academic Career Excellence For Women 2024” at Mayo’s Florida campus. The Mayo Clinic is a Platinum sponsor of Rochester Pride, and rather than stand up for Dr. O’Conner, it chose to kowtow to the gender-benders. In its apology, the Mayo Clinic played along in the smearing of Dr. O’Conner, writing, “Since that time, we have learned of Dr. O’Conner’s social media activity which is inconsistent with Mayo Clinic values and does not represent the views of the organization.” And what are Dr. O’Conner’s “values that [do] not represent the views” of the Mayo Clinic? Well, science. Dr. O’Conner has specialized in the biological sex distinctions regarding how diseases affect males and females differently.
Suicide and trans kids: The Rainbow Mafia insists that failure to affirm a confused child’s “transgender” identity is tantamount to wishing death upon them. Activists claim that should these gender dysphoric youth not be allowed to “transition,” then suicide awaits. However, a recently released study is now throwing cold water all over that dubious claim. Actually, it’s worse than that. The National Institutes of Health and the University of Texas looked at the life impact of “gender-affirming” surgery. The study reviewed data from more than 90 million patients and found that the rate of attempted suicide was 12 times higher in individuals who received gender-mutilating surgeries. The lie of the gender-bender cult is actually leading to even more suicides, not fewer. This makes sense because gender dysphoria is a mental illness that physical mutilation of the body will not fix. It turns out that transing the kids is leading to higher rates of suicide.
Free vacation double standards: Democrats and their Leftmedia cohorts have spilled copious amounts of ink over Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, alleging vacuous ethics violations via his vacationing with wealthy friends. Leading the spurious attack against Justice Thomas was ProPublica, which was ridiculously awarded a Pulitzer Prize for peddling this propaganda. Never mind the fact that Justice Thomas had not violated the Court’s transparency rules or the Ethics in Government Act of 1978. It was a classic example of a smear campaign aimed at delegitimizing the Court. Meanwhile, days after ProPublica walked home with a Pulitzer, the outlet conveniently ignored the fact that, last year, Joe Biden took four vacations with wealthy supporters, and he didn’t list any of them as gifts. According to former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter: “If there’s a deliberate omission of a gift, an intentional lie, that can very well be prosecuted as a criminal offense. It just seems to me to be stupid to leave it off the form because everyone knows about [presidential] trips and everyone’s going to ask who paid.” Mark Paoletta, White House general counsel under Donald Trump, asserts that this nondisclosure is not accidental: “This is another intentional refusal to disclose gifts by President Biden. His habit of taking over donors’ homes for vacations and not paying nor disclosing is consistent with his family’s long history of grift and corruption.”
Bill Maher pours cold water onto leftist outrage over Butker: We hate giving Bill Maher too much publicity. After all, he’s still a leftist. And yet, sometimes we can’t help ourselves. A case in point occurred this weekend, as Maher weighed in on the hard-Left’s caterwauling about Kansas City Chiefs placekicker Harrison Butker’s stirring commencement speech at Benedictine College. During his speech, the devoutly Catholic Butker suggested that many of the school’s female graduates might be looking forward to the indescribably important roles of motherhood and homemaking more than a professional career. “I don’t see what the big crime is,” said Maher in response. “I really don’t. And I think this is part of the problem people have with the Left is that lots of people in this country are like this. … And now, can’t that be a choice, too? And I feel like they feel very put upon, like there’s only one way to be a good person, and that’s to get an advanced degree from one of those a**hole factories like Harvard.” Once again, he’s got a point.
Headlines
AOC, Jasmine Crockett, and MTG got into a yelling match for the history books … the faces of the men say it all (Not the Bee)
Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama vote against joining UAW, a blow to union’s expansion in the South (ABC News)
David DePape, man who attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer, sentenced to 30 years in prison (NBC News)
The worst witness in the history of witnessing was exposed by Donald Trump’s legal team last week, as the hush-money show trial moved toward its conclusion.
Douglas Andrews
It’s said that the show must go on, but, mercifully, show trials must eventually come to an end.
Such will be the case this week in Manhattan, as the prosecution’s “star” witness — perjurer, convicted felon, disbarred lawyer, and avowed Trump-hater Michael Cohen — lived down to his expectations last week under a withering cross-examination from Donald Trump’s legal team.
The privilege of clobbering Cohen fell to Trump attorney Todd Blanche, and he didn’t disappoint. Indeed, he masterfully exposed this most consequential of Cohen’s lies and, in doing so, destroyed Cohen’s credibility regarding a key component of the prosecution’s argument: that Trump ordered a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to hide the scandal of his alleged infidelity from voters — as if that were a crime for anyone not named Former President Donald John Trump.
As the New York Post reports, the “Perry Mason Moment,” as it were, came Thursday when Blanche broke the following news to the jury: “Michael Cohen was actually whining about a 14-year-old prank caller when he claimed to have had a key conversation with Donald Trump about the hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.”
Blanche shared call logs and text messages between Cohen and Trump’s then-bodyguard, Keith Schiller. The texts showed that Cohen wanted to talk to Schiller about a 14-year-old kid who was prank-calling him, but there’s no mention whatsoever of Daniels. As for the contents of the accompanying call, which lasted a mere 96 seconds, Blanche said: “That was a lie. You did not talk to President Trump — you talked to Keith Schiller, you can admit it. … A 1:36 phone call and you had enough time to update Schiller about all the problems you were having and also update President Trump about the status of the Stormy Daniels situation because you had to keep him informed.”
Jury trials often hinge on complex matters, but this one seemed to hinge on something that couldn’t be simpler: the utter lack of credibility of Trump’s main accuser. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a star cooperating witness get his knees chopped out quite as clearly and dramatically as what just happened with Michael Cohen,” admitted CNN legal analyst Elie Honig. “I’ve certainly seen very effective cross-examinations of cooperating witnesses. I’ve seen aspects of their story cut into and called into question. But this goes to the heart of the allegation here.”
No less a Trump-hater than CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who was in the courtroom during that exchange, understood the gravity of the moment: “I think it’s devastating for Michael Cohen’s credibility on this one particular topic,” he said.
On this one particular topic?
Perhaps Cooper wasn’t paying as much attention to the jurors as Matt Gaetz was. The Florida Republican congressman said afterward that one juror seemed to be holding back laughter as Cohen was being undressed on the stand.
It’s said that when a witness gets caught lying on the stand, the jury no longer sees a witness; it sees a liar. Surely that’s the case with Cohen. But Cohen isn’t the prosecution’s only problem; the case itself is a problem. As constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley notes:
For any discerning juror, the trial has been conspicuously lacking any clear statement from the prosecutors of what crime Trump was attempting to commit by allegedly mischaracterizing payments as “legal expenses.” Even liberal legal experts have continued to express doubt over what crime is being alleged as the government rests its case.
There is also the failure of the prosecutors to establish that Trump even knew of how payments were denoted or that these denotations were actually fraudulent in denoting payments to a lawyer as legal expenses. The judge [a political donor to Biden and other Democrat causes, whose daughter’s firm has raised millions for Democrats by attacking Trump] has allowed this dangerously undefined case to proceed without demanding greater clarity from the prosecution.
As no less than Michael Cohen’s former attorney, Robert Costello, noted during Cohen’s implosion: “There’s nothing that I know about this case that could give the prosecution more life. This case is dead. It was dead on arrival. It never should have been brought. It should have been dismissed by this judge. He still has an opportunity to do that, but I doubt very much he will do that.”
So the question is: Has reasonable doubt been introduced to at least one juror, either about the veracity of the charges against Trump or the witnesses arrayed against him? Today, Trump’s defense team will take their final shots at Cohen, after which the prosecution will try to “rehab” him. Good luck with that.
“New Yorkers are a curious breed,” observes Turley. “Yes, they overwhelmingly hate Trump, but they also universally hate being treated like chumps. When they get this case, they just might look around the courtroom and decide that they are the suckers in a crooked game.”
The administration slow-walked putting protective policy into action and is now disappointed for being called out.
Emmy Griffin
The House of Representative’s Committee on Education and the Workforce has found that Harvard University was unconscionably slow to react to the wave of anti-Semitism on campus starting last fall. This just in.
The main theme of the committee’s findings was that the administration slow-walked putting policy into action to protect students and disregarded the Antisemitism Advisory Group (AAG) that the school had set up to protect Jewish students.
Here are just a few of the charges leveled at Harvard’s administration:
The AAG was little more than a virtue signal. The group itself could be judged as an exercise in moral equivalence. That being said, the majority of AAG members were brave enough to threaten to resign over the administration’s lack of action to protect Jewish and Israeli students and counter the anti-Semitic speech on campus.
What matters — and what speaks volumes — is that the administration’s actions demonstrated the lack of care necessary to restore order on campus. The advisory committee’s good advice was ignored, and its counsel was not sought out by the administration.
Jewish students were yelled at, and some even spit on or followed menacingly by “protesters.” This poor behavior, which violated the college’s code of conduct and was clearly anti-Semitic, was not quickly investigated, nor was action swiftly taken against the instigators. Jewish students had to complain not only to the administration but also to the advisory board for changes to be made. Even still, the rampant chants and calls for genocide continued.
Chants like “From the river to the sea” and “Long live the intifada,” which rang across Harvard common spaces, were not addressed by the administration.
Then there was former President Claudine Gay’s congressional testimony — for which she did not seek advice from AAG — wherein she said that students’ chants for genocide against Israel were only anti-Semitic “depending on the context.”
Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton said in response to the House committee’s findings: “Across 17 submissions, including more than 30,000 pages of information, Harvard has continued to cooperate with the Committee’s inquiry and address their ongoing questions. It is disappointing to see selective excerpts from internal documents, shared in good faith, released in this manner, offering an incomplete and inaccurate view of Harvard’s overall efforts to combat antisemitism last fall and in the months since.”
Harvard brass is disappointed for being called out. But these anti-Western bastions of DEI and moral equivalence are where the leftist radicals are bred and allowed to vent their most violent, hateful spleens, all in the name of the leftist ideologies that they’ve been fed at university. The chickens have come to roost, and Harvard has been exposed for the world to see. However, unearthing the rot is part of the much-needed renewal of our Ivy Leagues and other higher ed institutions across the U.S. It’s the only way that change for the better can happen.
The White House remains mum over two foreign nationals, one on the U.S. terrorist watch list, who attempted to gain entry into Quantico.
Thomas Gallatin
On May 3, two men, one a Jordanian national, posing as Amazon delivery drivers sought entry to Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia. After MPs at the gate, suspicious of their claims, ordered the two in their box truck to pull into a holding area for further review, they ignored the order and sought to drive into the base. The truck was quickly disabled and the two were detained.
This incident did not make national news until the end of last week. Why?
What has been reported thus far is that at least one of these men is a Jordanian national who illegally entered the U.S. via the southern border. Furthermore, one of these two is also on the U.S. terrorist watch list.
After being detained, they were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. No more information has been released to the public, and even the names of these individuals have been withheld.
Questions abound. Who are these two men? What business did they have on the base? Did they have any weapons? Was their truck a weapon? Was this a foiled terror attack or a dry run for a future attack?
Fox News’s Peter Doocy raised the incident with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, asking, “Does the White House believe this may have been a potential terror attack?”
Jean-Pierre’s answer amounted to a “no comment,” as she called it “a law enforcement matter” and refused to delve any further. This seems suspicious. Why is the White House so tight-lipped? There are a number of answers, none of them favorable to Joe Biden.
First of all, thanks to Biden’s de facto open border policy, an unknowable number of terrorists have entered the U.S. Since Biden took office, at least 340 individuals on the terror watchlist have been interdicted after crossing the border. Furthermore, at least eight of these individuals have been accidentally released by an overwhelmed Border Patrol. Clearly, the administration doesn’t want the media spotlight on a thwarted terrorist attack against a U.S. Marine Corps base by jihadists who gained entry into the U.S. thanks to Biden’s border malfeasance.
Second, since many Palestinians are Jordanian Arabs, it may be that these two are connected to Hamas directly or even Iran. Biden has been trying to placate the radical anti-Israel contingent of his base while also pledging support for Israel. Furthermore, Biden wants to bring into the U.S. a number of Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip, a move that some are warning against, likening it to inviting the fox into the henhouse. This incident could derail those plans.
Third, the last thing Biden needs as he sinks further behind Donald Trump in the polls is news of an attempted terrorist attack on U.S. soil on his watch. One of the president’s primary duties is to safeguard the American people. Biden’s border malfeasance has done the opposite.
Even more troubling is that this latest incident is the fourth attempt by foreign nationals to forcibly gain entry to a U.S. military base since January 2023. And according to reporting last year from The Wall Street Journal, upwards of 100 Chinese nationals posing as tourists have sought entry to U.S. military bases over the last few years.
The question is not whether the enemy is within the gates; the question is how many are currently within them.
Biden’s Senior Moment of the Week (Vol. 94) — Biden botched the name of his own labor secretary, celebrated the contributions of “NAAHNANHPI students,” and touted government investments that “helpbassdvjeverything.”
‘Protesting Peacefully’ — Jamaal Bowman claims he saw Columbia students “protesting peacefully” while others saw something entirely unpeaceful.
They Want a Real-Life Planet of the Apes — Freya Allan and Owen Teague, two human stars of “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” recently said that they are on the side of the animals due to the current state of the planet. Just like all of the libs, they hate humans.
Gangsta Judge — A judge has been indicted for two drive-by shootings in two different states.
Kicking Buttker — Through a manufactured fog of lies, the simple truth about women, celebrities, and Donald Trump comes shining through.
“My administration’s taken the most significant action, notwithstanding the Supreme Court tried to stop me, to provide student debt relief. Most supreme ever.” —Joe Biden
“We raised 400 million billion dollars over the next 10 years.” —Joe Biden
Spin Doctor
“How Republicans Echo Antisemitic Tropes Despite Declaring Support for Israel.” —The New York Times
For the Record
“There are reports that Joe Biden is about to issue an executive order to close the southern border when illegal crossings are exceeding 4,000 a day. … 4,000 crossings a day is still 1,460,000 illegal aliens entering our country a year. So, Biden thinks we’re supposed to tolerate nearly 1.5 million illegal aliens crossing our border. That’s not a ‘closed border.’ More importantly, Biden has repeatedly said that he has no such power.” —Gary Bauer
Re: The Left
“Nobody assumed [Harrison] Butker was speaking on behalf of the NFL. He wasn’t wearing his Chiefs uniform, and he wasn’t speaking at an NFL event. So, why was the NFL so anxious to disavow his views? It’s very telling, and it shows how committed the left is. Once it captures an institution, like the NFL, that institution is made to hate the values of millions of Americans. … Remember Colin Kaepernick? He didn’t express his radical far-left views to just anti-American groups in his private time. He expressed his views on NFL playing fields in front of thousands of fans and millions of viewers at home. The NFL never denounced Kaepernick for his anti-Americanism.” —Gary Bauer
“It’s the Left that claims conservatives will ‘end democracy’ and crush freedom of speech, while they demonstrate their absolute intolerance of an opposing point of view. They can’t achieve true ‘progress’ until dissenters are heckled and banned.” —Tim Graham
Green New Despotism
“I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I’d trust the president to drive my car much less dictate the future of industrial policy. Yet, Biden implemented draconian emissions limits for all vehicles, ensuring that within nine years, 67% of all new passenger cars and trucks will be electric. In the old days, a centralized state controlling manufacturing and commerce, production, prices, wages and conditions in our biggest sectors would be called ‘fascist.’ Today, we simply refer to it as the Green New Deal.” —David Harsanyi
“Why do we even assume winning the EV war is a good thing? If an EV future were inevitable, the state wouldn’t have to bribe and force companies to produce them.” —David Harsanyi
Political Futures
“When the history of the 2024 election is written, the fact that the debates (or debate) occurred may be more noteworthy than any effect they had on the race.” —Matthew Continetti
President Trump arrived in court this morning and made a statement to reporters as he does every morning.
This is the sixth week of the hush money lawfare case against President Trump and the prosecution has yet to define Trump’s crime.
Trump called out Judge Merchan again for calling him into court early after Trump had previously scheduled an event with supporters this morning but was then called in early to court by the crooked Democrat judge.
** Judge Merchan’s activist daughter has now raised $93 million off of this ongoing lawfare case against President Trump.
President Trump blasted the criminal judge after arriving at court this morning.
Here is his full statement.
President Trump: As you know, I was supposed to be in a very different state this morning, and the judge actually decided to call it early. And yet it looks like we’re going to have a very big gap between days, and it’s going to be determined right now in court. But we’re here about an hour early today. I was supposed to be making speech for political purposes. I’m not allowed to have anything to do with politics because I’m sitting in a very freezing cold courtroom for the last four weeks.
It’s very unfair. They have no case, they have no crime. It’s been determined by everybody, every legal scholar, New York Post Editorial Board today, Trump prosecution, wind down. It’s always been a witch hunt. With a prosecution winding down in Donald Trump’s Manhattan case, we have to ask in the mortal words of Peggy Is that all there is? That’s the New York Coast Editorial Board.
It’s become utterly apparent, if that wasn’t seen already, that the key elements to any prosecution is missing. The key element is missing And it says, What’s missing? A crime. There’s no crime. They go through all this stuff, and there was nothing done wrong. The NDAs were perfect. And by the way, legal expenses. We paid a legal expense. You know what it’s marked down in the book says? A legal expense. Again, it’s not marked down as construction. It’s not marked down as sheetrock and cinder block. It’s marked down as legal expense. You have a lawyer, you pay them a legal expense, and it’s covered in the book as legal expense.
I had nothing to do with it. A bookkeeper put it down as a legal expense. This is why I’m here, because we called it a legal expense, a payment to a lawyer. Jonathan Turley, even liberal experts, have continued to express doubt out over where’s the crime? Andy McCarthy, let’s stick with the relevant undisputed facts of the case. Mershon should dismiss this case. He should dismiss this case immediately. Bragg’s evidence is woefully inadequate. This case should be dismissed. It should have never been brought. And the judge is highly conflicted. He’s a corrupt judge. He’s highly conflicted. He’s totally corrupt. And he’s interfering with an election. Greg Jarrett. There is no credible evidence of a crime. Brad’s case against the accused is beyond anemic. It is an audacious, let’s see, it is an audacious corruption of the legal process and a very dangerous one…
…All Americans, regardless of political affiliation, should be appalled at this selective prosecution. Today, it’s a great term. I should use it now. I will. Selective I enter prosecution. This all comes from the White House. It all comes from the DOJ in the White House. Take a look who’s in the room. This all comes from the DOJ in the White House. It’s an attack by Biden, who’s mentally unfit. He’s mentally unfit to be the President of this country. It’s an attack on his political opponent. That’s all it is. All of the things you see that you saw over the last four weeks, most of it should have never even been brought up. Then on top of that, there’s no crime. We go on day after day, and I tell Iowa, I’m sorry, I won’t be able to make it. I tell New Hampshire, Sorry, I won’t be able to make it. I’m sitting in an ice box all day…
…John Adams said, Liberty without virtue is tyranny. We have tyranny right now. We have tyranny right now, and we’re disgracing our New York Court system. And we’re really disgracing our country because all over the world they’re watching.
President Trump will be sitting in the icebox as he calls it all day today, the sixth week of this particular lawfare trial.
The Gateway Pundit contributor Paul Ingrassia is covering the case today from inside the courtroom.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) called out NBC News on Sunday for its one-sided crusade against Republicans to “protect democracy.”
On Sunday, Rubio appeared on “Meet the Press,” where host Kristen Welker asked him if he would serve as Donald Trump’s vice president before interviewing him about policy issues, like abortion and immigration.
‘You have Democrats now saying they won’t certify 2024 because Trump is an insurrectionist and ineligible to hold office. So you need to ask them.’
But the interview turned sour when Welker made a hard pivot and whipped out a trite question: “Will you accept the election results of 2024, no matter what happens, senator?”
Clearly annoyed with the question, Rubio questioned its premise before saying that he believes the 2024 election could be contested by Republicans or Democrats “if it’s an unfair election.”
“You’re asking the wrong person. The Democrats are the ones that have opposed every Republican victory since 2000 — every single one,” Rubio answered. “Hillary Clinton said the election was stolen from her and that Trump was illegitimate.”
In response, Welker defended Hillary Clinton and Democrats before repeating the question.
“No Democrat has refused to concede. Hillary Clinton conceded,” Welker defended. “Senator, will you accept the election results?”
“[Clinton] said that Trump was illegitimate. She said that the election had been stolen. Kamala Harris agreed,” Rubio shot back. “By the way, there are Democrats serving in Congress today who, in 2004, voted not to certify the Ohio electors because they said those machines had been tampered with. And you have Democrats now saying they won’t certify 2024 because Trump is an insurrectionist and ineligible to hold office. So you need to ask them.”
As Welker talked over Rubio to say repeatedly that Clinton “conceded,” Rubio cornered the NBC News anchor with an obvious question.
“Have you ever asked the Democrats this question on the show?” he asked Welker.
Welker, however, refused to answer the question.
Instead, she tried to pivot the interview and use Rubio’s words against Trump, suggesting the former president has a history of “undermining Americans’ confidence in democracy.”
But Rubio wasn’t playing those games.
“What undermines elections is when NBC News and every major news outlet in America in 2020 censored the [Hunter] Biden laptop story, which turned out to be true — not Russian misinformation. Unprecedented,” the senator fired back.
Once again Welker went on the defense, saying NBC covered the Hunter Biden laptop story. But a quick Google search shows the outlet only covered the story in a way that was favorable to the Bidens in the run-up to the election.
The interview ended without Welker saying if she has or would ever ask a Democrat if he or she will accept the results of the 2024 election.
On Monday’s “Wake Up America,” Florida Rep. Byron Donalds comments on his experience attending Donald Trump’s New York trial and addresses Vice President rumors.
Former President Donald Trump speaks outside the New York courtroom about the lawfare against him. Watch NEWSMAX, an independent news network with a conserva…
The video below was uploaded about 2 weeks ago, but it already has well over 1 million views. In this video, you will get coverage of 5 arguments for a Creator / Designer: origin of the universe, origin of life, cosmic fine-tuning, sudden origin of new body plans in the fossil record, stellar and planetary habitability and they also mentioned consciousness.
Here is the video:
And the description:
In a lively yet in-depth discussion, Piers Morgan drills down to the core of human existence with Stephen C. Meyer, the prominent ‘intelligent design’ advocate.
In this Piers Morgan Uncensored special, Meyers firmly rejects the idea that a scientific worldview leads to atheism, arguing instead that ‘the universe requires a creator or cause’. When Richard Dawkin’s name is mentioned, Meyer claims that he actually really loves the atheist firebrand and admires his intensity. Lastly, Morgan and Meyers agree that the question of God’s existence is tied to more than just cold hard facts, but also human nature itself.
00.00 – Who is Dr Meyer? 02.23 – Is Darwin Wrong? 06.03 – Scientific evidence for God 15.58 – The Multiverse 19.29 – What is the meaning of life? 22.52 – Atheists’ anger 25.48 – Why is there suffering?
Dr. Stephen C. Meyer directs Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. He is my favorite Christian scholar. Why? Because he keeps writing books about what the latest scientific evidence tells us about reality. I understand that many theists and atheists want to keep evidence at a distance, and just decide for themselves what they will accept as true, based on their feelings and communities. But for those who like to have true beliefs, then Stephen Meyer is for you. He is basically the Thomas Sowell of the origins debate.
By the way, if you watch this video and you enjoy it, then please share. A lot of people need to start thinking about these issues based on what science has revealed. People who have not thought about these issues need to start grounding our beliefs on reality. And we have to help them.
Iranian state TV confirmed Monday that Iran’s President Ibrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash. The major news media uses numbers from organizations controlled by Hamas for the count of Palestinians killed in Gaza. Many analysts say those figures are too high. Christian author, speaker, and activist Ryan Bomberger is speaking out against the fatherlessness epidemic, and the devaluation of the nuclear family.
Want more news from a Christian Perspective? Choose to support CBN:
Today’s 20-min top headline news brief includes:
[1:23] -Iran’s President & foreign minister die in overnight helicopter crash.
[3:16] -Donald Trump addresses the annual NRA convention.
[7:27] -Hogan Gidley: “Trump will expose Biden’s failures in any debate, anywhere.” [Wake Up America]
[9:17] -HBCU Moorehouse college students turn their backs on Biden’s commencement speech.
[11:33] – NEWSMAX host Lidia Curanaj: Super Bowl star’s speech causing controversy ‘simply because he spoke the truth.’ [Sunday Agenda
[16:44] -Retired NJ Judge Andrew Napolitano: “No way Donald Trump should take the stand.” [Wake Up America]
[20:22] -FL Senator Marco Rubio exposes hypocrisy on Meet the Press.
The one signal that most powerfully proves where the world is currently located on God’s prophetic timeline is Israel’s present position within the panoply of nation-states.
It is undeniably obvious that Israel today stands in the bull’s eye of rage. This is true in the case of being targeted by the Jewish state’s perennial antagonists, the Arab and Persian Islamist enemies. It is true in the case of the entire international community, whose constituent nations see Israel as the congestive blockage to regional and world peace. But it is the growing antagonism by this United States presidential administration’s operatives that is most disconcerting while this beleaguered planet wobbles toward a time of unprecedented trouble.
As a matter of fact, that coming time of unparalleled strife that will bring all nations to Armageddon is termed “the time of Jacob’s trouble” by Isaiah the prophet:
Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble. (Jeremiah 30:7a)
And, it is Jacob’s trouble—the prophesied end-of-days dastardly treatment of Israel by the nations of earth—that will cause the God of Heaven to bring them to Armageddon. This is what the prophet Joel foretells:
I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. (Joel 3:2)
This will be the gathering of the nations of earth predicted in the book of Revelation:
For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty…And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. (Revelation 16:14, 16)
This will be the culmination of humankind dealing treacherously with God’s chosen people, the Jews. The Lord’s promise to Abraham includes severe repercussions for anyone who would curse the progeny of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob:
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12:3)
God’s declaration is most dramatically validated by looking at twentieth-century history. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime made hatred of and genocide against the Jews the focus of the unalloyed evil they spewed. The ashes of the Führer and his Nazi colleagues are scattered in ignominious disgrace across the landscape that Josef Goebbels and the Nazi propagandists arrogantly boasted would be über alles—the all-powerful homeland for their thousand-year Reich.
Any consideration in research of Germany’s history involving the last two years of World War II and the years immediately following must acknowledge that it was as if the very wrath of God was upon the nation. Such documentation includes black-and-white film footage of German men and women forced by Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower to walk by the skeletal remains of thousands of Jewish corpses. That, Eisenhower stated, was so that the German people and the world would never forget the Holocaust. Its aftermath would forever be recorded.
Yet today, mainstream news journalists are more and more denying the genocide that took perhaps six million Jewish lives as well as the lives of other peoples. They show their loss of memory—even their anti-Semitism—by not jumping full-force down the throats of the elite Ivy League professors who regurgitate the lie that the Holocaust is a fable conjured by the Jews of the world. Rarely is there a repudiation of such blatant lies coming from the would-be destroyers of the Jewish State and the Jewish people.
Tragically, the refusal to educate generations that came after World War II on the truth about the insane treatment of the house of Israel is leading to a future time of even greater atrocities, thus judgment, according to God’s Word. The God of Heaven will react violently—more violently, even, than He reacted to the death-dealing of the Nazi demoniacs:
The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it… it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. (Zechariah 12:1–3, 29)
Now we come to the matter of “end-times betrayal.” This blog entry’s title is emphatic in its pronouncement, because the maneuvering actions by this president’s political party in dealing with Israel are wrapped in an impenetrable fog of political doublespeak. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham made manifest the doublespeak in his grilling of the Democrat secretary of state, who is a former top general in the American military establishment.
Lindsey Graham [grilled] Defense Secretary Austin on the Biden Administration’s freezing of weapons shipments to Israel, [asked] if Austin would support dropping the atom bombs on Japan.
Graham asked, “What’s Israel interested in? Do you believe Iran really wants to kill all the Jews if they could? The Iranian regime. Do you believe Hamas is serious when they say we’ll keep doing it over and over again? Do you agree that they will if they can?” Austin answered, “I do.” He also answered in the affirmative when asked if Hezbollah was a terrorist organization. (“Lindsey Graham: ‘Blocking weapons to Israel obscene, Hiroshima, Nagasaki on steroids,’| Israel National News – Arutz Sheva, May 8, 2024)
This former general admitted in the committee probe that Israel, in effect, had a right to defend itself. But at the same time he, as secretary of defense for the Biden administration, withheld promised vital weapons shipments Israel needs to keep its raging enemies from a repeat of October 7, 2023, when Hamas slaughtered and raped 1,200 or more Israelis and others in an unprovoked attack. Hamas, as of this writing, is believed to continue to hold many hostages, including a number of corpses. The terrorist captors reportedly continue to rape and torture their captives.
President Biden himself said he would never give Israel offensive weapons, only defensive ones. This itself is an insanely irrational response to the matter of America remaining faithful in its commitment to its chief ally in the Middle-East–the only truly democratic nation-state in the region.
Israel is one thing more. It is the only invincible nation on earth. And America has nothing to do with its invincibility. Here are the words of the One who will never betray His chosen nation’s promise of invincibility:
This is what the Lord says, “He who appoints the sun to shine by day, Who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord Almighty is His Name; Only if these ordinances vanish from My sight,” declares the Lord, “will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before Me.” (Jeremiah 31:35–36)
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought with it lively conversations about new technological possibilities, warnings, and concerns over potential abuses and misuses.
Listen to the latest episode of CBN News’ “Quick Start” podcast
Dr. John Plake, chief program officer at the American Bible Society, told CBN News his organization set out in its annual “State of the Bible” survey to “look at this unique angle on the Bible and technology.”
The American Bible Society frequently asks specific questions about the intersections of faith and technology, but with the AI discussion rapidly expanding in recent months, researchers decided to ask people a series of positive and negative questions about the burgeoning tool.
“We looked at things like, ‘Can AI be relied on for moral reasoning?’ or, ‘Would you be against AI helping your pastor to prepare his sermon or perhaps preparing the sermon and your pastor just delivering it?’ — things like that,” Plake said. “We asked, ‘Do you believe that AI goes against biblical teaching?’”
The “State of the Bible” report then broke down the results by generation and level of Scripture engagement, and the survey yielded some fascinating findings:
“People who are more engaged with Scripture tend to be more skeptical of artificial intelligence,” Plake said. “And I think part of that is that they’re tuned into moral hazards that come about when we think about machines doing our thinking for us.”
Scripture-engaged respondents were less optimistic about AI’s future benefits, less likely to believe it aids in moral reasoning, and less likely to see it as enriching spiritual practices or promoting “spiritual health.”
It’s not just Christians who are cautious, though. The general public seems overwhelmingly unsure of what the future holds and appears to be more driven by fear than excitement over what’s to come.
The results found 68% of the public disagreed with the idea AI could “promote spiritual health” and 58% also disagreed when asked if it could “aid in moral reasoning.”
Back on the faith front, the so-called Moveable Middle — people willing to give the Bible a chance but not necessarily engaged — had a slightly different perspective.
“The Movable Middle, however, are more likely to believe AI might enhance their spiritual practices and health, possibly indicating a desire to connect with God and Scripture with the right tool,” a press release read.
In addition to these concerns among Christians more generally, Plake said researchers also sat down with experts to discern what areas of viable use AI could have in the church.
AI is just one of the many topics the “State of the Bible” report will address throughout the year. The American Bible Society will release a new chapter every month.
“Coming up in June, we’re going to take another look at human flourishing,” Plake said. “In July, we’ll look at the Bible and neighboring. How does someone really being into Scripture or being Bible-engaged affect the way they relate with their friends and neighbors around them?”
Pat is an evangelist with Youth for Christ Australia, director of Hope Movement, and co-producer of Made in Jesus. He is passionate about prayer and worship and loves telling people about the hope that he has found in Jesus. His mission is to equip believers with simple and practical tools to share hope.
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