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It's Saturday, August 5, 2023.

Today’s edition covers the arrest of a street preacher at a Wisconsin drag event, the kidnapping of an American nurse and her daughter from a Christian-run Haiti clinic, and much more.

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Of Christian Concern

YOUNG STREET PREACHER ARRESTED AT WISCONSIN PRIDE EVENT

Marcus Schroeder was arrested while reading from the Bible at a local drag event. (Screenshots: Twitter / @TONYxTWO)

A video from Watertown, Wisconsin that shows police arresting a young man as he’s reading from the Bible went viral this week. The man, Marcus Schroeder, was one of a number of Christians preaching the gospel last Saturday at a drag event which was “targeted toward children,” The Sentinel reports.

Schroeder has been charged with unlawful use of sound amplification and resisting arrest, according to Jason Storms, who recorded the video. In the video, Storms can be heard chiding the police, stating that they had not issued any warning regarding the amplification of sound before making the arrest.

Storms later told The Sentinel that drag perfomers at the event were dressed in lingerie, and were “dancing and gyrating in front of little children, who were invited to give them one dollar bills.” In an interview with the same publication, Schroeder expressed that protecting children and preaching the gospel were his motivations for protesting the event.

Regarding his arrest, he said, “It was worth it. It’s actually an honor to be counted worthy to stand with the cloud of witnesses who have gone before us and been arrested for the sake of spreading Christ and his kingdom.”

Following the incident, he addressed and preached the gospel to the city council (watch).

AMERICAN NURSE AND DAUGHTER KIDNAPPED FROM A CHRISTIAN-RUN CLINIC IN HAITI

The Haiti flag (Photo: PIxabay / jorono)

American nurse Alix Dorsainvil and her daughter were kidnapped from the property of a Christian-run health clinic in Haiti by armed men last Thursday, July 27. The New Hampshire woman had been working at El Roi, the faith-based humanitarian organization founded by her husband Sandro Dorsainvil and located near Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

On the same day, the U.S. State Department issued an advisory for Americans to leave Haiti as soon as possible, due to “kidnapping, crime, civil unrest and poor health care infrastructure.” Officials from both the U.S. and Haiti were coy about details regarding Dorsainvil’s case, except to say its a high priority and they’re working on it.

Locals, however, claimed that the abductors are demanding a $1 million ransom, The Christian Post reported on Friday.

Correction: Last week, our report about Taylor Borden’s write-up on spiritual leadership in the workplace mistakenly referred to Borden as “he.” She is a female.

Also Noteworthy

→ Federal judge Benjamin Settle rejected Cedar Park Assembly of God’s argument that the Washington law forcing faith-based organizations’ health plans to cover abortions violates their religious liberty.

→ Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a law to move the national celebration of Christmas from January 7 to December 25, to “discard the Russian legacy of celebrating Christmas on Jan. 7.”

→ Gallup reports that belief in God, angels, heaven, hell and the devil have dropped three to five percentage points among Americans since 2016.

→ Nick Vujicic, the well-known motivational speaker and evangelist, unveiled Multitood, an artificial intelligence video translation software that can be used to more efficiently extend the reach of gospel content to multiple languages.

→ Matthew Blake, a former worship leader who now performs in drag as “Flamy Grant,” briefly hit #1 on the Christian iTunes chart last week with his song “Good Day.”

→ A number of residents and interest groups, like ACLU and Freedom From Religion Foundation, filed a lawsuit against Oklahoma leaders over the state’s financial backing of the first religious charter school in the nation, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School.

Content Catch-Up

Recent, notable content by Christian creators.*

→ The Surprising Rebirth of Belief In God: Biola professor Dr. Sean McDowell interviews Justin Brierley, former host of the podcast Unbelievable, about his new book. They discuss what Brierley believes to be an increase of openness to Christianity in the West, and the cultural shifts that have led to it. (Video)

→ A Jewish Professor Stops Ray Comfort: A Jewish college professor who says he was praying for an opportunity to talk to evangelist Ray Comfort gets his chance in this potentially life-changing encounter: “I’m concerned about my immortal soul.” (Video)

→ A Grandma Grateful for Anti-Abortion Activists: A tearful grandmother in Pittsburgh thanks anti-abortion activists for saving her grandchild as she drives away from an abortion clinic with her pregnant daughter. (Video)

→ They Mocked My Son’s Death: Christian apologist David Wood, whose disabled son died in April, responds to comments from internet trolls who mocked his son’s death. Surprisingly, his response includes an insightful exposition of Genesis 22, the passage where Abraham is called to sacrifice his son Isaac. (Video)

*Not necessarily an endorsement

The Bible, Briefly

The Divine Council: Other Gods In The Bible? (Part 1)

“God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment” (Psalm 82:1).

Psalm 82 describes a scene in which God speaks with “the gods” (v. 1), also called “sons of the Most High” (v. 6). At one point, God tells them they shall die “like men” (v. 7), implying they are not men themselves. So, who are these “gods”? Does the Bible teach polytheism—the existence of more than one god?

In a video on this topic, the late Dr. Michael Heiser points out that the term “sons of the Most High” (בְנֵ֖י עֶלְי֣וֹן / bene elyon) is synonymous with “sons of God,” a term seen throughout the Old Testament in reference to “what might loosely be called ‘angelic beings’—the other divine beings who are part of the heavenly host.”

Heiser notes another passage with similar language: “Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones! For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord, a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him?” (Psalm 89:5-7, emphases added). As in Psalm 82, these verses portray “divine beings who work with God,” Heiser says.

At first blush, the modern reader might conclude that these beings are simply what we usually call angels—morally perfect spiritual beings that serve God in heaven and minister to His people on earth. However, Psalm 82 paints a different picture. As it happens, God is not too pleased with these beings.

More on this next week.

Church History Tidbit

Athanasius and the Divinity of Jesus

Icon of St. Athanasius (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Athanasius (c. 298-373), who lived to witness the entire reign of Constantine I and beyond, and who became bishop of Alexandria in 328, is best known for his firm opposition to Arianism—the heresy put forward by his contemporary Arius. Arius claimed that Jesus was not God, a position that was condemned by the Council of Nicea in 325 but endured with some controversy afterward.

Among the reasons for that endurance, says historical doctrine scholar Tony Lane, were that the Nicene Creed was not accepted by the majority of the church in the East, and the emperor preferred a more tolerant, unifying approach that "could embrace a suitably chastened Arius.”

Athanasius, also in the East, could not abide by that. He recognized the deity of Christ as foundational to the faith, and he fought Arianism at every turn, both through his writings and through church politics. The result was his unpopularity with other bishops and rulers, and a total of five different exiles (amounting to 17 years) throughout his 45-year tenure as bishop.

Most of Athanasius’s written works were against Arianism, the best known of which is Orations against the Arians. However, he also wrote a two-volume apologetic work (Against the Greeks and The Incarnation of the Word), a yearly letter to the Egyptian churches to be read on Easter (the most important being from 367, which includes the first list of New Testament books that matches the canon we have today), and his biography of St. Anthony (who we discussed several weeks ago).

In The Incarnation of the Word, Athanasius writes that only the divine Word (i.e., God Himself) could have accomplished our salvation: “We have seen that to change the corruptible to incorruption was proper to none other than the Savior Himself, Who in the beginning made all things out of nothing; that only the Image of the Father could re-create the likeness of the Image in men, that none save our Lord Jesus Christ could give to mortals immortality, and that only the Word Who orders all things and is alone the Father's true and sole-begotten Son could teach men about Him and abolish the worship of idols.”

Read the full work here.

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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.

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