Author: Dean Smith

Medical researchers state babies feel pain in the womb before 24 weeks

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According to an article in England’s Journal of Medical Ethics written by two medical researchers, one of whom is actually pro-choice, they concluded that babies in the womb may feel pain as early as 13 weeks. The duo, Stuart Derbyshire and John Bockmann, added that there is “good evidence” that baby feels pain as early as 18 weeks. This is alarming because according to the latest statistics, England’s abortion industry performs about 6,000 abortions annually on babies 18 weeks and older. It is generally accepted that babies feel pain after 24 weeks and England forbids abortions after this point. However, this paper pushes the time babies in the womb feel pain earlier than previously accepted. In an article published in England’s Daily Mail, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service quickly rejected this study, even though Derbyshire has provided advice to two pro abortion giants, the American based Planned Parenthood and the UK’s Pro-Choice Forum. This also represents a 180 degree turn for Derbyshire, because in an article written for the British American Journal in 2006, he …

British pastor raised from the dead through world-wide prayer chain?

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This past November, Christopher Wickland, 47, who pastors the Word Pentecostal Church in Fareham, Hampshire, England suffered a heart attack after jumping on a trampoline, along with three of his children, at the Flip Out trampoline park. According to the Daily Mail, the park staff immediately rushed to Wickland’s aid thinking he had just passed out. However, when they realized he wasn’t breathing and his heart had stopped, it took four defibrillator shocks to restart Wickland’s heart. The ambulance arrived in about 15 minutes and transported Wickland to St. Mary’s hospital in Southampton, where he was put in an induced coma. But because he had been dead and not breathing for 15 minutes, doctors at the hospital told Christopher’s wife, Tracey, to prepare for the worst. Even if he survived, there would undoubtedly be brain and heart damage. After receiving this dark news, Tracey immediately posted what happened to her husband on Facebook: “I put it on Facebook and it was amazing because hundreds of people from around the world contacted me and told me …

Is Amazon paving the way for the Mark of the Beast?

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Several Christian websites are expressing concerns that Amazon’s plans to create technology allowing people to make purchases with their hand is paving the way for the Mark of the Beast warned by the Apostle John in his vision of the end times: 16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. Revelation 13:16-18 ESV In this passage, John very clearly ties the Mark of the Beast on either the hand or forehead to a person’s ability to buy or sell presenting a dystopian type of world controlling what a person can and cannot do. There has been speculation for decades on what the Mark of the Beast might entail and the recent announcement by Amazon caught everyone’s attention. The Wall Street Journal alleges that Amazon has applied for patent involving a “non-contact …

The new violent enemy of the Evangelical church: Radical feminists

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In the past we could hold different opinions. If you didn’t agree with someone, you would agree to disagree. But that is rapidly changing. Increasingly, we see a world where radical groups are resorting to violence in an effort to intimidate those who don’t hold similar opinions into silence. Shortly after Christmas, an Evangelical church in Tübingen, Germany was attacked resulting in damage estimated at 40,000 Euros ($45,000US). The vandals set fire to the congregation’s mini-bus parked on the street in front of the church and as well spray painted the church building. Attacks on churches are definitely on the increase, but what was unusual about this one was the source of the attack. According to the National Catholic Register, a radical group of feminists, who called themselves the “Feminist Autonomous Cell” (FAC) claimed in a post on line that they were behind the vandalism. In their diatribe, the group said it attacked the church because of its “anti-feminist” views and its pro-life stand. Then a few days later, the same group claimed it was …

Did the 'Revealer of secrets', expose Jeopardy's botched attempt to cut a question?

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The popular TV quiz, show, Jeopardy, was first created in 1964 by Mel Griffin and has gone through several renditions and the current format being broadcast today, currently hosted by Alex Trebek, was created by Sony in 1984. Its unique format provides answers and then requires competing contestants to phrase the question. However, its episode that ran on Friday, January 10, 2020, caused quite a controversy. Under a category called “Where is the church?,” the contestants were then posed with the answer: “Built in the 300s A.D., the Church of the Nativity.” The Church of Nativity claims to be on the very site that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Show host Alex Trebek specifically noted the contestants had to give the current country. In response to this answer, one of the Jeopardy contestants quickly answered “What is Palestine?” When Trebek revealed that answer was incorrect, another contestant quickly answered “What is Israel?” and was awarded the right answer. But the answer and resulting question was hugely controversial. Though it is not a country, Palestine does …

Why is Montana's Glacier National Park changing its signs?

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There is strange thing happening in Glacier National Park, located in Montana, USA, they have already replaced some signs and are planning to change others. It is not that changing or even removing signs is unique in itself, as that probably happens on a semi regular basis in the park, but what is strange, is the reason why. Because of the hysteria built up around man-made Global Warming, the park had been told by the US Geological Survey that its glaciers, the very reason for the park’s existence, would disappear by 2020. The signs dutifully put up by park officials about ten years ago warned visitors its glaciers will have all melted away by this year. Basically, they were saying in our social media driven climate, get one last selfie before they melt away. Well in 2019, it was very apparent due to increased snowfall that the glaciers would not be gone in 2020. You will see the full irony in the increased snowfall in Dr. Viner’s quote at the end of this article. Uncharacteristically, …

God is still in the dream business

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I recently read an interesting, but three-year old, article on Mike Lindell. You may not know him, but he is the owner of MyPillow, a business he started in 2004 that manufactures a poly-foam pillows. According to MyPillow’s website, the pillows are made up of interlocking fill that adjusts to your sleeping position and it has been very successful and many testify that the pillow has changed their lives. Now the article, The Preposterous Success Story of America’s Pillow King, was written in 2017, so it is a bit dated. The company, based in Chaska, Minnesota, had sold over 26 million pillows and employs about 1,500 people with annual sales of around $260 million at that time. But what really caught my attention is where Lindell got the idea for his unique pillow. The byline for the article reads: Former drug addict Mike Lindell’s multiillion-dollar idea came to him in a dream. The Preposterous Success Story of America’s Pillow King by Josh Dean According to Lindell, he got the idea for the pillow in a …

As in the Days of Noah: Three warnings from the church shooting in Texas

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There might be three things that we can take away from the violent church shooting that took place at the West Freeway Church of Christ, in White Settlement, Texas on Sunday, December 29, 2019. A transient walked into the church during the service and opened fire killing one person and critically injuring another, before being killed by the church’s armed security guard. It was a disturbing act of violence, but is part of a trend of violent attacks against churches in recent years: June 2015: A man walks into a Bible study of Emmanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston with a gun killing nine. September 2017: One person was killed and seven people wounded after a gunman started shooting at a church in Nashville, Tennessee. November 2017: 26 people were killed, and 20 wounded, when a gunman opened fire at a church service at the First Baptist Church in Sunderland Springs, Texas So what exactly is going on? As in the Days of Noah Jesus warned in his description of the end times, that in …

Palestinian leader claims Jesus is first Islamic martyr

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According to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), the day before Christmas, one of Palestine’s senior leaders, Tawfiq Tirawi, who is also a member of the Fatah Central Committee, made an interesting comment on Facebook. He referred to Jesus as the first Islamic martyr: “This is blessed Christmas, The birthday of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, the first Palestinian and the first Shahid (Islamic Martyr).” Tawfiq Tirawi Facebook page, Dec 24, 2019 The word “shahid” refers to a person who has died for his Islamic beliefs and as a reward will receive 72 virgins in heaven. Of course the Quran was not written until six centuries after Christ died when an angel gave it to Muhammad between 609 AD and 632 AD. Nevertheless, Islam retroactively claims Jesus as their own Islamic prophet and teacher. Islam also claims the Old Testament Jewish prophets, such as Moses and Isaiah, were Islamic. As demonstrated by Tirawi’s tweet, some Muslims have even taken to celebrating Christmas. In fact, Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas declared Christmas as a Palestinian holiday, and it is even …

37 | The other Christmas story

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A few days before Christmas, and my wife and I were out doing my most favorite past-time at Christmas, returning an item we had bought a few days earlier when we saw a brightly decorated yard that not only included an inflatable Santa and reindeer but also a six-foot inflatable red and green dragon. When did dragons become a Christmas decoration? Well believe it or not there is a dragon in one of the Christmas stories recorded in the Bible. It is just not a story we often recite a Christmas.

Why do people hate themselves?

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England’s Daily Mail reported on a disturbing trend among young people in England uncovered by researchers from the University of Warwick. And if it is happening in England, I suspect the same trends are taking place in North America. According to a survey of 19,000 teens aged 14 years old, the research team led by Dr Dimitra Hartas discovered that over 15% had intentionally hurt themselves in 2018. Also called self harm, it refers to the secretive practice of people directly injuring themselves. This can be done by hitting, scratching, burning and arguably the most common method, cutting. Equally concerning is that girls accounted for nearly 75% of those instances of self harm. Their research also revealed there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people conducting self harm over the last 20 years. Their study, reported in the Research Papers in Education, revealed that the number of people aged 16 to 74 who intentionally hurt themselves has nearly tripled between 2000 and 2014, from 2.4% of the population to 6.4% in 2014. …

Who were the Magi?

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One of the tough questions surrounding the story of Jesus’ birth revolves around the magi. Who were they? Well looking at the Biblical account of their arrival only recorded in Matthew, we can determine several things: First we don’t know how many there were. The plural version of this word is used in Matthew, so we know there was more than one. Though they brought three expensive gifts — gold, myrrh and frankincense — it doesn’t mean there were three of them. Some believe this involved a larger group, as many as 12. For sure, they would have been travelling in a caravan for protection. Secondly, they were important enough that King Herod eventually requested a meeting with them. Their gifts express wealth or political connections and probably both. In fact, we read that Herod and all of Jerusalem was troubled by what they had to say about the new king (Matthew 2:3). In other words, Herod respected their opinion enough to be very concerned. We know that thee magi did not arrive at the …

How God paved the way for a marriage with a prophetic vision

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I read an interesting story by Joshua Rogers of the unusual circumstance that led to him getting engaged to his wife Raquel. Joshua is a believer and a regular contributor on Fox News. He believes in God. He believes in marriage. This story reveals God’s divine and prophetic intervention that prepared the way for this event. When Joshua approached his future father-in-law, Charlie, to ask for permission, Joshua said there was initially lots of resistance. Joshua and Raquel had only been going out for three months and this would result in red flags for any parent. Joshua said the two talked in circles, with Charlie expressing his concerns and Joshua trying to answer them. And after a conversation that lasted about 90 minutes, Charlie said that he wasn’t really comfortable with Joshua’s plans, not that he was opposed to them getting married, just not right now. Charlie described his resistance as a yellow light. But in a matter of a few seconds, everything dramatically changed when Charlie asked when Roger was planning to ask Raquel …

The importance of finding God's purpose for your life

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Viktor Frankl, who died in 1997 at the age of 92, was a holocaust survivor. He and his wife along with his parents and other Jewish family members were sent to Nazi concentration camps in 1942. Frankl, who even endured Auschwitz, was the only member of his family to survive the holocaust. After the war, he developed a form of therapy called logotherapy that was based on his time in the concentration camp. He along with others were able to mentally and physically survive their concentration camp experience by finding a purpose and meaning in the midst of the horror. In fact, he even wrote a book on this entitled “Man’s Search for Meaning” based on his concentration camp experience. He believed that within people there is an instinctive desire for meaning. We all need a purpose for our life and people attain happiness when they find that sense of meaning. He went on to suggest that many forms of mental illnesses such as depression can be attributed to this lack of meaning because without …

Was anti-Semitism behind the Jersey City attack?

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It was described as a battle scene involving hundreds of shots being fired in a two-hour gun-battle between police and two suspects barricaded inside a Kosher market in Jersey City. Six people were killed including, the alleged suspects, a police officer and three people inside the Kosher store that serves a large Jewish population in Jersey City. The confrontation started at a nearby cemetery, when a police officer went to the scene as part of an investigation of a murder a few days earlier. The two suspects shot the officer, killing him, and then fled the scene in a U-haul van and drove to the KC Kosher Supermarket and open fired on the Jewish store. According to reports, two police officers near the market engaged the two individuals who then ran inside the store, set up barricades and started firing back. After a two-hour stand-off, the police stormed the market with an armored vehicle and killed the two suspects. Inside they also found the bodies of three Jewish people, who had apparently been killed by …

Joseph and Mary traveling to Egypt by Gentile da Fabriano (1370-1427) Credit: jean louis mazieres/Flickr/Creative Commons

The Jewishness of Christianity

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Two recent articles speak to a divide, that exists in some parts of Christianity. The first involves the Mayor of the Norwegian town of Strand, Irene Heng Lauvsnes, who asked the Klippen Pentecostal Church to take down the star of David that was on display as part of its Christmas celebration in a local municipal park. The church has held ceremonies in the park for years and traditionally used the Star of David to symbolize the star that informed the magi of the birth of Christ. But this year, the mayor asked the church take it down because the Star of David symbolized the state of Israel and the Jews, and apparently some were offended. Writing for the Dagen Daily, editor Vebjorn Selbekk noted: “Municipal Christmas bureaucrats obviously do not want a Jewish or Israeli mark on their Christmas. Then we almost have to remind them of some key facts about why we celebrate Christmas at all. [Christmas] is marked by the fact that a Jewish boy was born to a Jewish mother in a …

Dinosaurs on Titan?

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The phrase “fossil fuels,” leaves the impression that oil and natural gas are derived from millions of years of dinosaur and plant decay. As a result of this, oil and gas are considered a non renewable resource, in other words some are sounding the alarm that one day we will run out. However, a few articles are portraying another side to this debate. The first involves an article entitled “Let’s Colonize Titan” published as a blog post on the Scientific American website. In it, the authors Charles Wohlforth and Amanda Hendrix were looking at potential habitable locations for humans in our solar system. They quickly eliminated the Moon and Mars because neither has the atmosphere needed to protect people from deadly Galactic Cosmic rays. Mercury is too hot. Venus’ atmosphere is too poisonous. The authors instead nominated Titan, one of the moons of Saturn. So why was Titan chosen? Well there are a couple of reasons. First it has a methane atmosphere that would protect us from those deadly cosmic rays and secondly it literally …

Godly angels intervened politically in the Book of Acts

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When we look at the Book of Acts and the formation of the early church, we are struck by two things. The first involved a powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit as God moved in signs, miracles and gifts. But what often gets downplayed is the significant role that angels played in the early church. Angels broke Peter out of jail twice, and an angel led Philip to evangelize the Ethiopian Eunuch and directed Cornelius to contact Peter resulting in an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on a group of gentiles meeting at Cornelius’ home. But we also see angels actively involved in protecting the early believers from severe persecution by government officials. Perhaps the most significant of these was recorded in Acts 12 where we are told that an Angel of the Lord struck down Herod Agrippa who was considered the King of Judea: 21 On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. 22 They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, …

God knows your potential

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J.K. Dobbins, 21, is a star running back with the Ohio State Buckeyes and some consider him a potential Heisman Trophy winner which honors the most outstanding football player in college football. Though, Dobbins is not considered a leading candidate for the award, he is certainly in the conversation. During the game, Gus Johnson, who was calling the game on behalf of the Fox Sports network, made a startling announcement about Dobbins. Johnson said that there was a player on the Ohio team, whose mother had nearly aborted her child but changed her mind at the last moment. As the TV cameras focused on Dobbins, Johnson said: “J.K. Dobbins’ mom became pregnant when she was 18 years old, she went to see the doctor because she was thinking about aborting the baby, but changed her mind.” Gus Johnson, Fox Sports Johnson added that Maya later described J.K. as her “miracle baby.” Then as if to add an exclamation mark on Johnson’s statement, Dobbins went on to have the best game of his college career, rushing …

It is time to just start doing it

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The Apostle John makes an interesting statement in his first letter. He says it is time to grow up and take responsibility for your faith. Now you are probably scratching your head and trying to recall where he exactly said that. Well, he didn’t exactly say it in those terms, instead John wrote: 27 As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things … 1 John 2:27 NASV We live in the day of superstar Christianity. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not against the mega pastors, anointed prophets, teachers and healing evangelists. There are a few that I enjoy listening to, and in fact I believe we need more of them. And I think this is the point that the Apostle John was trying to make. As believers, we have relied too much on the professionals to build the Christian faith. In the early church, they had their superstars like the …

What if?

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If you study the size and diversity of the DNA of our current human population, scientists using computer modelling concluded that humans must have evolved from thousands of ancestral couples. However, Dennis Venema, a Biology professor, challenged this notion in his book Adam and the Genome where he discussed a study by developmental biologist Ann Gauger and Swedish mathematician Ola Hössjer. The two scientists wondered how long it would take, using the same computer models, to have the same genetic diversity today if you started with just one pair of humans. As Venema explained in his book that had never been done before, because in the minds of most evolutionists, that was not the way it happened, so why bother studying such an alternative. So using the same computer model and generally accepted presuppositions such as population growth rates, Gauger and Hössjer started with one original couple instead of thousands. The results show that if the original couple shared some genetic bio markers, (meaning they evolved from a common evolutionary ancestor), it would have taken …

The angel Gabriel announcing Mary's conception by Paolo de Matteis 1712. This was part of the Feast of Annunciation (Mary's conception) celebrated by some Catholics on March 25th.

Por qué el 25 de Diciembre fue elegido como el cumpleaños de Cristo

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English: Why December 25th was chosen as Christ’s birthday Hay mucho debate sobre por qué el 25 de diciembre fue elegido como el día en que nació Jesús. Hay poca evidencia bíblica que revele la fecha del nacimiento de Jesús. Lucas 2: 8 se refiere a los pastores en los campos que sugieren que el nacimiento de Jesús tuvo lugar en la primavera cuando los pastores estaban con sus rebaños durante el parto. Tal vez no por casualidad, Juan se refiere a Jesús como el Cordero de Dios (Juan 1:29). Clemente de Alejandría (150 DC – 215 DC), un maestro cristiano Egipcio, había citado el 20 de mayo y el 20 o el 21 de Abril como posibles fechas del nacimiento de Cristo encajando con la teoría de la primavera. Para el año 400 DC, el 25 de Diciembre junto con el 6 de Enero se consideraron las fechas para el nacimiento de Cristo, y el 25 de diciembre fue el principal candidato y el ganador final. La fecha de Diciembre se mencionó como el …

Survey reveals religious freedom is important to Americans

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A survey conducted by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in September and October 2019, revealed that the vast majority of Americans support religious freedom. In the survey, people were asked to rank their support for protecting religious freedoms on a scale from zero (indicating no support) to 100 (indicating full support) on multiple issues. According to the survey of 1,000 Americans, the overall average score of 67 indicated very strong support for religious freedom in the US. In particular, the millennials (aged 24 to 36 approximately) showed the highest support for religious freedom, and they also reported the highest rates of religious discrimination of any age group. One of the areas surveyed was whether people should have the freedom to disagree with same sex marriage. On this controversial cultural topic, 74% of people believed religious groups and individuals should not face discrimination or fines if they do not support same sex-marriage. Of the several issues addressed in the survey this opinion had one of the highest levels of support. This flies in the face …

Speak to your mountain

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In His powerful statement about faith, Jesus says that if we had enough faith we could cast a mountain into the sea (Mark 11:23). But the key was believing in our heart without doubting. But I think we are missing a second critical element in this verse. Jesus also said that we needed to speak to our mountains. It wasn’t enough to believe, we needed to verbally declare our faith. In other words, we can have all the faith we want, but without speaking nothing changes. There is power in our words. In Proverbs 18:21, the writer states that the tongue has power that can lead to life and death, my interpretation is faith or unbelief. Words make a difference. And I am not talking about what we say to other things or other people, I am talking about what we say to ourselves. Studies indicate that upwards of 70% of the thoughts we think in a single day are overtly negative or at least have a negative bend to them and considering that we …

Will a court ruling in India pave the way for rebuilding a third Jewish Temple in Jerusalem?

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Some are arguing a court case in India may set a precedent for building a third Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where the Jewish Temple stood before it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, now houses the Muslim Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque. Jews have been demanding access to the site for decades and a group has even been created to pave the way for the eventual reconstruction of a third Jewish Temple on the location. Called the Temple Mount Project, it has already constructed much of the furniture needed for the Temple (everything except the Ark of the Covenant) and even ordered architectural drawings for a third Temple. All that is holding this back is that the Muslims control the site. However, the case in India is giving those desiring a third Jewish Temple renewed hope. The India Supreme Court recently ruled that a Mosque built in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh must be moved, because in the 1600s it was built over the site of an ancient …

Revisado por especialistas, estudio médico revela que Dios sana, incluso si usted no cree en la sanidad divina

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ENGLISH: Peer-reviewed medical study reveals that God heals even if you don’t believe in divine healing Un estudio publicado en una revista médica, Terapias Complementarias en Medicina , informa sobre la curación milagrosa de un niño cristiano de 16 años de edad. Incluso el título, Reporte de caso de la curación gastroparesia: 16 años con un síndrome crónico resuelto después de la oración de intercesión proximal , revela el papel clave que jugó en esta oración la sanidad divina. Es interesante anotar, que aunque sus padres cristianos creían que Jesús sanaba las personas en la Biblia, ellos no creian que Dios todavía sanaba hoy. ¿Entonces qué pasó? Despues de un par de semanas después de su nacimiento, este niño no identificado fue diagnosticado con gastroparesia. Esta es una condición donde el alimento no se mueve correctamente hacia el estómago y el tracto intestinal y como resultado se queda en el depositado en el estómago durante un período prolongado. Esto puede dar lugar a una serie de síntomas como náuseas y vómitos, dolor y distensión abdominal, falta …