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It's Saturday, March 9, 2024.

Today’s edition covers a report on accelerating acts of hostility toward churches, a demon-dressed protestor opposing restrictions to drag shows, the meaning of “faith toward God,” and more.

“My son, eat honey, for it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste. Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.” (Proverbs 24:13-14)

Of Christian Concern

ACTS OF HOSTILITY AGAINST CHURCHES ARE ACCELERATING, REPORT SAYS

Photo: Nachelle Nocom

Acts of hostility against U.S. churches more than doubled from 2022 to 2023, according to a report released last month by Family Research Council (FRC).

Of the 436 recorded acts of hostility in 2023, the most common type was vandalism, followed by arson. Less common were gun-related incidents, bomb threats, and other incidents.

This is FRC’s sixth annual report analyzing “open-source documents, reports, and media outlets to assess the number of acts of hostility against churches.” Since the council only includes incidents with “verifiable timeframes,” and since many incidents are likely unreported in FRC’s sources, “the number of acts of hostility is undoubtedly much higher.”

Also Noteworthy

A protestor opposes a new Missouri bill that seeks to restrict drag shows. (Rep. Justin Sparks / X)

→ A demonstrator dressed as a demon voiced opposition on Wednesday to a Missouri bill (HB 1650) that would ban drag shows from public property or anywhere they could be viewed by a child. A photo of the demonstrator was posted on X by Rep. Justin Sparks.

→ Another Missouri bill (HB 2885) seeks to impose strong penalties on teachers who “contribute” to a student’s “social transition” (i.e., gender transition).

→ CVS and Walgreens will start carrying the abortion pill mifepristone for over-the counter use in states that allow it, the pharmacy chains announced last Friday.

→ France became the first country in the world to add a right to abortion into its constitution, by a Parliamentarian vote on Friday. Preborn babies in France can be murdered up to 14 weeks, which is still more restrictive than some U.S. states’ policies.

→ A Christian school in Maine must follow the state’s LGBT policies to be eligible for a state tuition assistance program, a federal court ruled last week. The school plans to appeal.

→ Fifty eight percent (58%) of UK scientists say sex is binary, according to a new poll. On the other hand, sixty four percent (64%) say gender is fluid.

→ Pope Francis says “gender ideology” is “dangerous” because “it is abstract…as if a person could decide abstractly at will if and when to be a man or a woman.” He claims, “This has nothing to do with the homosexual issue. If there is a homosexual couple, we can do pastoral work with them, move forward in our encounter with Christ.”

Content Catch-Up

Recent, notable content by Christian creators, or of Christian interest.*

Screen grab from Hayden Rhodea’s March 8, 2024 video titled “Pro Choice Student Debates Christian Abolitionist.” (Hayden Rhodea / YouTube)

→ Pro Choice Student vs. Abolitionist: Abortion abolitionist Hayden Rhodea sits down to an informal debate with a pro-choice college student. (Video)

→ Are Catholics, Christians?: In Friday’s episode of his daily podcast The Briefing, seminary president Albert Mohler reviews the State of the Union Address, and answers questions about how Christians should think of Catholics, and what age a person who died as a child will be in heaven. (Podcast)

→ No Religious Test?: Contrary to the common notion that the U.S. Constitution forbids a religious test for politicians at any level, journalist Ben Zeisloft shared on X a list of quotes from state constitutions that required political representatives to affirm a Christian faith. (Post)

*Not necessarily an endorsement

The Bible, Briefly

Milk: Faith Toward God

Photo: Collis

We’re studying “milk”—the six foundational topics of Christian doctrine (Hebrews 5:12-6:2). Last week we focused on “repentance from dead works,” and we now turn our attention to “faith toward God.”

How should we define “faith toward God”? We get some clues in verses like John 3:16, which famously says, “whoever believes in [Jesus] should not perish but have eternal life.” To “believe,” of course, is synonymous with having faith. That means faith toward God is faith in Jesus (as Jesus Himself says, “No one comes to the Father except through me,” John 14:6).

Not to be overlooked, John 3:16 implies a terrifying fact: those who don’t believe in Jesus will “perish.” As the text says only two verses later, “whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (3:18). Just as the drowning person who doesn’t grab onto the lifebuoy that’s thrown to him is condemned to drown, so the person who doesn’t believe in Jesus is condemned to perish.

But why, exactly? The passage goes on to explain, “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (3:19). So, that’s the crux of it: those who “perish” will do so as a consequence of their evil works, which they love so much that they refuse to exchange them for eternal life.

On the same theme, the Bible says elsewhere that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). That means everyone, because of their sin, deserves to die. When you work, your employer pays you in money, but when you sin, God pays you in death. This refers not only to earthly death, but also to eternal death—that is, punishment for your sin in “the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8). That’s God’s prison, and there is no parole.

Lest anyone think their sins are too small to deserve such a great punishment, the same verse lists the sinners that will be subject to it: “the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable,…murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars...” There’s not a single human other than Jesus Himself who escapes this list. No sin is small to God, not even lying. In the Psalms, David prays, “For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you” (Psalm 5:4). God doesn’t tolerate evil, not even a little.

But, in light of this grave reality, John 3:16 gives a message of hope: it’s possible to not perish. It’s possible to escape eternal death and have eternal life—to have peace with God, a relationship with Him that begins now and continues forever (John 17:3). There is only one way, and that is to believe (to have faith) in Jesus. How does one do that? By embracing what Jesus did to pay the penalty for sin.

Almost everyone has heard that Jesus died on the cross for sins. But what was the significance of that? It starts with the fact that He’s God’s Son—God in the flesh (Philippians 2:5-8). He had no sin of His own to pay for (Hebrews 4:15). So, when He died, rather than paying for His own sins, He paid for all the sins of those who would believe in Him (Hebrews 9:26). Like a benevolent friend who pays someone else’s fine in a criminal court, Jesus paid the price for our crime against God by dying in our place. Then, He came back to life three days later (1 Corinthians 15:4). His death wrote the check for sin, and His resurrection proved that the check had cleared (Romans 6:4).

To believe that, then—to believe, in tandem with repentance, that Jesus’ death paid for your sins—is to have “faith toward God.”

To be continued… 

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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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