It’s Saturday, January 4, 2025.

Today’s edition covers a new estimate of the number of abortions worldwide last year, some persecution headlines, Christians’ reactions to some current events, and the history of the Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Note from the editor: Happy New Year! Just an FYI—In the coming weeks, Project 18:15 may be a little shorter than usual as I focus some additional attention on finishing a book (stay tuned for more about that) and other projects. Lord willing, things will spool back up after that. Thank you for your faithful readership!

Wisdom says: “For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord” (Proverbs 8:35).

Of Christian Concern

ABORTION WAS THE CAUSE OF AT LEAST 42% OF ALL HUMAN DEATHS IN 2024

Abortion accounted for 42 percent of all human deaths in 2024, Breitbart reports. This figure comes from comparing new data provided by Worldometer, which estimated that there were 45.1 million abortions worldwide and 62.5 million deaths from other causes.

Abortion was far and away the leading cause of death. Some runner-ups: “8.2 million people died from cancer, 5 million from smoking, 1.7 million of HIV/AIDS, 1.35 million from traffic fatalities, and 1.1 million from suicide.”

As staggering as this number of abortions is, the actual number is probably even higher. Worldometer’s “more info” page reveals: “According to WHO, every year in the world there are around 73 million induced abortions.”

If that number remained true in 2024, and 62.5 million deaths by other causes is accurate, then abortion accounted for closer to 53.9 percent of all human deaths last year.

Also Noteworthy

→ Colombian pastor Marlon Lora, his wife, and his daughter were gunned down after a religious service on Sunday. His son was severely injured in the attack. Lora, pastor of Prince of Peace Villaparaguay Church and member of the Missionaries Biblical Churches (IBM) denomination, oversaw 35 churches across multiple regions. This is only the latest in a string of attacks against members of Colombian Christian communities.

→ Street preacher Matthew Meinecke won a lawsuit against the city of Seattle after being censored and arrested in June 2022 for reading Scripture and sharing the gospel at a pro-abortion demonstration.

→ Fourteen Sudanese Christians were wounded in an attack on a church service by Islamist militants on Monday.

→ U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk blocked a Biden administration rule change that prevents doctors from reporting abuse related to abortion or gender procedures. The “narrow preliminary injunction,” LifeNews reports, “only exempts” a specific Texas clinic “from the new rule while litigation continues.”

Content Catch-Up

Recent, notable content of Christian interest.*

→ Jimmy Carter’s “Inordinate Confidence”: R. Albert Mohler Jr., President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, reflects on “the life and legacy of Jimmy Carter” in a Monday article. Here’s a quote: “Carter revealed an inordinate confidence in how he personally felt and how he personally imagined Jesus—while rejecting the clear teachings of Scripture.” (Article)

→ People Are Worshipping AI: Jon McCray of the YouTube channel Whaddo You Meme?? reveals growing religious fervor surrounding artificial intelligence (AI). (Video)

→ New Orleans Jihad?: Christian apologist David Wood and Jihad watchdog Robert Spencer discuss Wednesday’s deadly truck attack in New Orleans that killed at least 10 people. Was it related to Islamic Jihad? (Video)

*Not necessarily an endorsement

Church History Tidbit

Notre-Dame Cathedral

Last month was significant for the Notre-Dame Cathedral, which reopened on December 7 after a 2019 structural fire, but its long history has many notable moments. In a recent article, Culture Critic highlights a few:

• Religious, Cultural, and Political: 

  “From the day its construction began in 1163, the cathedral was designed to showcase Paris as a cultural and political powerhouse. With its soaring arches and pioneering flying buttresses, the cathedral became a model of Gothic innovation and a source of local pride.”

• Crown of Thorns Relic: In 1239, King Louis IX “paid over half of his nation’s entire budget” to obtain what he believed to be Jesus’ crown of thorns. The welcome procession for this relic “ended with a sermon inside Notre Dame cathedral,” which eventually became the crown’s home in 1806.

• Napolean’s Show of Power: The cathedral hosted Napoleon Bonaparte’s coronation in 1804.

  “In a carefully orchestrated ceremony, Napoleon took the crown from Pope Pius VII’s hands and placed it on his own head, signaling that his authority came not from the Church but from himself.

  “He then crowned his wife, Josephine, underscoring the shift from divine-right monarchy to self-made rule. This moment, staged in the grandeur of Notre-Dame, showcased the cathedral not just as a religious site but as a theater for power and political transformation.”

• The Hunchback: Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame re-inspired interest and devotion to the cathedral.

• Gaulle Assassination Attempt: In 1944, the cathedral was the stage for a German attempted assassination of French military man Charles de Gaulle, whose “stoic and unflinching” reaction “[cemented] his image as a symbol of French resilience.”

• The Fire and the Reconstruction: On April 15, 2019, the Notre-Dame Cathedral was partially destroyed by a structural fire, which investigators deemed “to have been started by either a cigarette or a short circuit in the electrical system.” French President Emmanuel Macron promised to rebuild it within five years (Frances’s monasteries have been state-owned since 1905), which he did. After its reconstruction, the widely publicized reopening occurred on December 7, 2024.

_{Food For Thought}

While many people appreciate the grandeur of ornate cathedrals, that is not a universal sentiment. In particular, the Protestant Reformation brought some changes to the ways many Christians think. As DivineNarratives explains:

“The architectural design of churches underwent transformation as well. Protestant churches often featured simpler, more austere designs compared to their ornate Catholic counterparts. This architectural simplicity was intentional, reflecting the Reformation’s focus on the individual’s direct relationship with God and a move away from what reformers viewed as the distracting opulence of Catholic cathedrals. Pulpits were given a central place in Protestant churches, symbolizing the importance of preaching and the direct engagement with scripture.”

What’s your opinion on grand cathedrals like the Notre-Dame?

What did you think of today’s briefing?

Have some feedback for me? Submit comments or suggestions here. I’d love to hear from you!

Why "18:15"? The name Project 18:15 is based on Proverbs 18:15: “An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” The aim is for this weekly email—a Christian news briefing, a Bible study, and a Church history lesson rolled into one—to be one way you keep abreast of current events and acquire knowledge you might not acquire elsewhere.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.