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‘Exhausted’ Pastors Suffering Decline in Overall Healthy, Respect, Friendship: Study

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The overall health of pastors in the U.S. has declined markedly since 2015, with increasing numbers who say that they face declining respect from their community and a lack of true friends, according to a recent study.

Data collected by faith-based organization Barna Group as part of its Resilient Pastor research showed a significant decrease in pastors’ spiritual, mental and emotional well-being, as well as their overall quality of life, between 2015 and 2022, the group announced last week.

The study conducted 901 online interviews with Protestant senior pastors in 2015 and compared the results with those they compiled based on 585 interviews with pastors from Sept. 6 to Sept. 16, 2022. The interviews asked pastors to rate aspects of their lives on a scale of excellent, good, average, below average, poor or don’t know.

Pastors who reported that their mental and emotional health was below average spiked from 3% in 2015 to 10% in 2022, and those who said they were in excellent mental and emotional health cratered from 39% in 2015 to 11% last year.

Pastors also noted that recent years have taken a toll on their physical health, with 22% describing their physical well-being as poor or below average in 2022, compared to only 7% in 2015. While 24% said their physical health was excellent eight years ago, only 9% said the same last year. (Read more from “‘Exhausted’ Pastors Suffering Decline in Overall Healthy, Respect, Friendship: Study” HERE)

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Oldest Near-Complete Hebrew Bible Copy Sells for Eye-Popping Figure at Auction: ‘Bedrock of Western Civilization’

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Codex Sassoon, possibly the earliest near-complete copy of the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) known to exist, sold for more than $38 million at auction on Wednesday.

The medieval codex contains all 24 books of the canonical Hebrew Bible, which are the same 39 books in the English Old Testament. With only a few pages completely missing and many others partially missing, Codex Sassoon is possibly the oldest known near-complete copy of the Hebrew Bible.

Sotheby’s announced Wednesday that the American Friends of ANU — Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv had won the auction. Thanks to a donation from Alfred H. Moses, the museum acquired Codex Sassoon for $38.1 million. It will be housed at the museum.

“The Hebrew Bible is the most influential in history and constitutes the bedrock of Western Civilization,” Moses said in a statement. “I rejoice in knowing that it belongs to the Jewish people. It was my mission, realizing the historic significance of Codex Sassoon, to see it resides in a place with global access to all people.” (Read more from “Oldest Near-Complete Hebrew Bible Copy Sells for Eye-Popping Figure at Auction: ‘Bedrock of Western Civilization'” HERE)

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Shock Poll: Bible Beliefs ‘Much Closer to Extinction in America’

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A new study by Christian pollster George Barna comparing Americans’ religious beliefs and practices before and after the COVID pandemic finds some stunning departures from biblically faithful Christianity — including a 14 point drop, from 58%-44%, in the percentage of “born-again” Christians who believe Jesus lived a sinless life on Earth.

In another finding of the report comparing beliefs in 2020, before the pandemic, to 2023, found a huge drop among born-again Christians — from 85% to just 50% — who say they are “deeply committed to practicing [their] faith.”

It’s not all bad news, though: the survey by the Cultural Research Center (CRC), headed by Barna and based at Arizona Christian University, in Glendale, Arizona, found a 14% uptick (from 32%-46%) in the percentage of people polled who agree that, “There are moral absolutes that apply to everyone, all the time.”

More Americans in 2023 (46%, up from 41% in 2020) believe the Bible is the “true and completely accurate word of God,” according to the poll. And born-again Christians registered a leap from 47% to 59% who accept the biblical teaching that sex “between two people who are not married to each other is morally unacceptable.”

The CRC study, “How the Faith of Americans Has Shifted Since the Start of the Pandemic,” released April 20, compares 2,000 U.S. adults in 2000 to the same number in 2023. Of those totals, 671 were considered born-again Christians in the 2020 survey and 650 were considered born-again in the 2023 survey. It is part of CRC’s ongoing to attempt to quantify Americans’ adherence to a biblical worldview since the COVID pandemic began. (Read more from “Shock Poll: Bible Beliefs ‘Much Closer to Extinction in America’” HERE)

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Biblical Drama Centering Around ‘Controversial’ Passage in Scripture Enjoys Crowdfunding Success

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A biblical drama hitting theaters just in time for Easter is breaking records for its successful crowdfunding model.

“His Only Son,” releasing March 31, bills itself as a “Biblically accurate” and “authentic” film based on the story of Abraham and Isaac.

“This is the first time a theatrical release has been crowdfunded in entertainment history,” distributor of the film, Angel Studios, said. . .

Director David Helling revealed that it took five years to make the film on one of the most “controversial” passages in Scripture, the one in which God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son as a burnt offering.

Angel Studios, the distributor and platform that is also behind “The Chosen” series, said the newest biblical drama received a positive response from their tens of thousands of investors, who they call “angels.” (Read more from “Biblical Drama Centering Around ‘Controversial’ Passage in Scripture Enjoys Crowdfunding Success” HERE)

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Angels in Our Midst? One Scientist Explains Why the Bible Supports Extraterrestrials

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The White House press secretary might make fun of aliens being in our midst — but according to one scientist, the Bible gives clear evidence that they’ve been operating in our world since time began. . .

Astronomer and physicist Dr. Hugh Ross makes a convincing case that angels are beings that have existed throughout eternity as God’s messengers — and that they operate like any beings would who are not confined to our “space-time dimensions.”

Ross writes in Salvo magazine, “According to the Bible, these creatures differ from humans in that they are not constrained by either the known laws of physics or the known space-time dimensions. Rather, they exist in a realm distinct from the universe, yet have been granted power to enter the human realm for brief episodes — either in physical or nonphysical form.”

On our “Lighthouse Faith” podcast, Ross, founder and director of the nonprofit Reasons To Believe, expands on this scientific analysis of why it’s perfectly acceptable to believe in the existence of angelic beings.

He says, “If you’ve got a causal agent beyond space and time that created the universe, that causal agent could create other things outside the universe and even grants the power to come into the universe and enter the human realm. So it’s certainly scientifically plausible.” (Read more from “Angels in Our Midst? One Scientist Explains Why the Bible Supports Extraterrestrials” HERE)

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Disturbing: Woke Sermon About ‘Trans’ Jesus Leaves Churchgoers in Tears

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A dean at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. came to the defense of a junior research fellow whose sermon last Sunday about Jesus Christ having a “trans body” reportedly left outraged congregants “in tears.”

Dr. Michael Banner, the dean of Trinity College, said Joshua Heath raised “legitimate” speculation in his Evensong sermon, during which the researcher claimed from the pulpit of Trinity College chapel that non-erotic portrayals of Jesus’ penis in historical paintings “urge a welcoming rather than hostile response towards the raised voices of trans people,” according to The Daily Telegraph.

“In Christ’s simultaneously masculine and feminine body in these works, if the body of Christ as these works suggest the body of all bodies, then his body is also the trans body,” Heath said.

Heath, whose PhD in theology was supervised by the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, also claimed that in one of the Medieval paintings he displayed to the congregation, the spear wound in Jesus’ side “takes on a decidedly vaginal appearance.” In another, he pointed out how the blood from his side flows to his groin.

Heath’s homily during the traditional Anglican service left many in attendance, including children, “visibly uncomfortable,” according to an anonymous congregant who fired off a complaint letter to Banner. Shouts of “Heresy!” reportedly rang out in the church as incensed worshipers left in disgust. (Read more from “Disturbing: Woke Sermon About ‘Trans’ Jesus Leaves Churchgoers in Tears” HERE)

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Sports Star Says ‘God Created Adam and Eve,’ All Hell Breaks Loose

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A retired soccer star whose opinions about gender, based on biblical standards, appeared on social media has been given a suspended 10-month jail term for believing that men are men and women are women, as God created them.

The abuse by the justice system in Greece of retired football legend Vassilis Tsiartas has been profiled in a column by Ben Johnson at Washington Stand.

The report explains Tsiartas also was given a fine, suspended, for being “transphobic.”

His comments on social media came in his opposition to a law that would have lowered the age in that nation to legally change one’s gender to 15.

He initially responded, “I hope that the first sex changes will be made to the children of those who voted for this abomination,” and he suggested lawmakers there may as well “legalize pedophiles and complete their crimes” against nature. (Read more from “Sports Star Says ‘God Created Adam and Eve,’ All Hell Breaks Loose” HERE)

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Groundbreaking Geomagnetic Study Confirms Numerous Biblical Accounts (VIDEO)

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A joint study by TAU and the Hebrew University, involving 20 researchers from different countries and disciplines, has accurately dated 21 destruction layers at 17 archaeological sites in Israel by reconstructing the direction and/or intensity of the earth’s magnetic field recorded in burnt remnants. The new data verify the Biblical accounts of the Egyptian, Aramean, Assyrian, and Babylonian military campaigns against the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

Findings indicate, for example, that the army of Hazael, King of Aram-Damascus, was responsible for the destruction of several cities—Tel Rehov, Tel Zayit, and Horvat Tevet, in addition to Gath of the Philistines, whose destruction is noted in the Hebrew Bible. At the same time, the study refutes the prevailing theory that Hazael was the conqueror who destroyed Tel Beth-Shean.

Other geomagnetic findings reveal that the cities in the Negev were destroyed by the Edomites, who took advantage of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Judah by the Babylonians. . .

Thus, in a 2020 study, researchers reconstructed the magnetic field as it was on the 9th of the month of Av, 586 BCE, the Hebrew date of the destruction of the First Temple and the City of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army.

Now, using archaeological findings unearthed over several decades at 17 sites throughout Israel, alongside historical information from ancient inscriptions and Biblical accounts, the researchers were able to reconstruct the magnetic fields recorded in 21 destruction layers. They used the data to develop a reliable new scientific tool for archaeological dating. (Read more from “Groundbreaking Geomagnetic Study Confirms Numerous Biblical Accounts” HERE)

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Bible Banned: School District Removes Holy Book for ‘Content Review’

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A Texas school district is removing 41 books from library shelves while administrators perform a review using content guidelines that will be approved by their board of trustees.

Included in the list of books that officials from the Keller Independent School District are asking to be removed from library shelves are “Anne Frank’s Diary (The Graphic Adaptation),” the Bible and “All Boys Aren’t Blue.”

A spokesperson for Keller ISD told Fox News Digital that campus staff and librarians are being asked to review books that were challenged in the past year to determine if they meet the requirements of newly approved policies from the board of trustees.

“Keller ISD’s Board of Trustees approved policies EFA (Local) and EFB (Local) at its August 8, 2022, Special Meeting. These policies relate to the acquisition and review of instructional materials and library books. Right now, Keller ISD’s administration is asking our campus staff and librarians to review books that were challenged last year to determine if they meet the requirements of the new policy,” a Keller ISD statement read. “All of the books included in Tuesday’s email have been included on Keller ISD’s Book Challenge list over the past year.” (Read more from “Bible Banned: School District Removes Holy Book for ‘Content Review'” HERE)

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Concerning Percentage of Americans Don’t Believe Bible Is God’s Word

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Mainline American churches long have been in decline. And there have been a number of actual civil wars among congregations and divisions that have resulted – often over social issues facing the nation such as the LGBT agenda.

Now the reasons, or results as you choose, are being seen: Only 20% of Americans see the Bible as the actual Word of God. A full 29% call it “fables” and “legends.”

The biggest portion, 49%, say it is “inspired” by God but it is NOT to be taken literally.

The results of the Gallup polling say the 20% who believe the Bible actually is God’s Word is at a record low.

That’s down from 24% the last time the question was asked, in 2017, and about half what it was in 1980 and 1984. (Read more from “Concerning Percentage of Americans Don’t Believe Bible Is God’s Word” HERE)

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