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It's Saturday, September 30, 2023.

Today’s edition covers the surprise ending to the story of a Muslim father locking up and starving his Christian son, the correlation between family structure and Christian faith, the origins of the “Jesus fish,” and more.

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Of Christian Concern

MUSLIM FATHER IN UGANDA LOCKS UP AND STARVES SON FOR CONVERTING TO CHRISTIANITY, THEN THIS HAPPENS

Photo: Ömer Derinyar

A Muslim man in eastern Uganda named Musobya Aramanzani locked up and starved his son for more than four months after learning of his conversion to Christianity, according to a team of Christian evangelists in the area who discovered the situation.

After the 17-year-old was converted while attending a boarding school in Iganga, a teacher notified Aramanzani by phone. Upon the boy’s return home for a visit, Aramanzani and other relatives “tied him up and denied him food,” Morning Star News reports.

On September 14, a team of Christians on an evangelistic campaign came to Aramanzani’s property, but were denied entry. On a second attempt the following day, they were allowed entry to pray for the family. At that time, the team noticed a strong stench, and forcibly entered an inner room, where they found the teenager “in a dilapidated state.” A photo obtained by Morning Star News is described as portraying the boy “in a starving condition with skin clinging to bones.”

The team took the boy to a nearby hospital for treatment, and learned that his mother had been secretly providing him only water, but did not provide him medicine once he fell ill, instead calling him an infidel and telling him to die.

In a surprising twist, the father has now repented and placed his faith in Christ. The pastor leading the team of evangelists says, “We first need to treat the suffering young man, then later discuss with the family the next course of action.”

DECLINE IN TRADITIONAL FAMILY STRUCTURE CAUSES DECLINE IN CHRISTIANITY, STUDY SUGGESTS

Communio’s “Nationwide Study On Faith & Relationships” highlights the correlation between family structure and Christian faith (Screenshot: Communio)

The number of Americans aged 25-49 who live with their spouse and at least one child has decreased from 67% in 1970 to 37% today, Pew Research Center reports. This trend is accompanied by increases in other family structures, such as cohabitating with kids (5%), unpartnered with kids (6%), married without kids (21%), and cohabitating without kids (7%). Factors leading to these numbers include Americans marrying later in life, women having fewer children, and more women having children without being married.

The collapse in marriage and the subsequent absence of fathers in the home “may offer the best explanation for the decline of Christianity in the United States,” according to a new nationwide survey performed by Communio. The survey of evangelical, Protestant, and Catholic churchgoers found that 80% of all Sunday church attendees in the U.S. grew up in a home where their biological parents remained married to each other, during a time when that has become increasingly uncommon. For example, less than half of all Americans aged 25-29 had continuously married parents during their childhood, compared to 80% of church goers in the same age group.

The Communio report concludes: “To disregard [the structure of marriage and family] is to court destruction, in this case the destruction of faith.” Dive deeper into the numbers here.

Also Noteworthy

→ A Virginia man, 35, was arrested on Sunday after making online threats against a church and then entering the the church with a loaded handgun and two knives. Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said, "This was a thwarted diabolical plot to kill churchgoers in Haymarket, Virginia, and local law enforcement stopped it."

→ One in seven Christians worldwide live under threat of significant persecution or discrimination, per a new report from World Relief and Open Doors US. At least 5,621 Christians were killed for their faith in the past year, and many others arrested and imprisoned. To make matters worse, “recent shifts in U.S. policy” have made America less of a safe haven for displaced persons such as Christian refugees.

→ 42% of practicing Christians have a high degree of openness for exploring other spiritual traditions, compared to 36% of non-practicing Christians and 18% of non-Christians, according to a recent Barna study.

→ Pro-life organization Live Action awarded Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt the “Life Awardee” of the year for signing “the strictest abortion ban in the nation, outlawing abortion in the state of Oklahoma.” Critics point out that Oklahoma is the 5th fastest growing state for self-managed abortion, with abortion pills easily ordered online.

→ Unite Auburn, an evangelistic event at Neville Arena on the campus of Auburn University, saw perhaps 200 people baptized in a nearby pond on September 12. The atheist group Freedom From Religion Foundation took issue with the baptisms, calling for head football coach Hugh Freeze’s removal due to his participation in baptizing a player.

The Bible, Briefly

The (Bad) Example of Nineveh (Part 2)

“Death of Sardanapalus,” an 1828 oil painting by Eugene Delacroix, was inspired by the play Sardanapalus, about the fall of Assyria (Public Domain)

Last week we discussed how the city of Nineveh, some 150 years after its repentance in response to Jonah’s preaching, had fallen back into sin and received a new prophecy of coming judgment from the prophet Nahum. We outlined some of the sins with which the city (and, by extension, the entire nation of Assyria) was charged. Now we turn our attention to another important theme in the book.

Though the three-chapter book is essentially a prophecy of destructive judgment, the name Nahum literally means “comfort.” This seems ironic at first, but in fact the message of Assyria’s destruction would indeed have been a comfort to the remaining nation of Judah, whose sister nation of Israel to the north had already been conquered by Assyria. Judah, no doubt, was feeling threatened.

That interplay between wrath and comfort is a theme that features prominently in the book, especially the first chapter. Passages highlight both horrifying descriptions of God’s wrath on one hand and great declarations of His patience and protection on the other.

For example, the prophet declares, “the Lord is avenging and wrathful” (1:2) but also, “The Lord is slow to anger and great in power” (1:3). Again: “Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger?” (1:6) but also, “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him” (1:7). And again: “Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. ‘Halt! Halt!’ they cry, but none turns back” (2:8) but “the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel” (2:2). The image emerges of a God who utterly destroys His enemies but delivers His people.

In or around 612 BC, the prophecy was fulfilled when an allied force of the Medes and the Babylonians wiped Assyria off the map. This is how God handles unrepentant nations. We can expect no different in our own day and age.

Church History Tidbit

Ichthus, Explained

Early Christian inscription with the Greek letters "ΙΧΘΥΣ" carved into marble, in the ruins of Ephesus (Image: Mufunyo)

In the early 5th century, Augustine wrote in his famous work City of God:

“But if you join the initial letters of these five Greek words, Ιησούς Χριστός θεος υιός σωτήρ, which mean, ‘Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour,’ they will make the word ιχθύς, that is, ‘fish,’ in which word Christ is mystically understood, because He was able to live, that is, to exist, without sin in the abyss of this mortality as in the depth of waters.”

This quote illustrates how well established the fish was as a symbol of Christianity and an illustration of Christian doctrine by Augustine’s time. Today, many are aware that the famous image of the outline of a fish—now perhaps most commonly seen as the “Jesus fish” emblem on some car bumpers—is a symbol of Christianity. Fewer are aware of exactly what that fish has to do with our faith.

As Augustine observed, the Greek word for “fish” is ichthus (ΙΧΘΥΣ, or ιχθύς in lowercase), which is an acronym for the Greek words meaning “Jesus Christ the Son of God, Savior.” But that and other fish imagery was commonplace in Christendom long before Augustine.

For one, the acronym may have been used as a mnemonic device for new believers to recall this important doctrinal declaration. Beyond that, drawing the fish in the dirt or sand was reportedly used during the Church’s early years of persecution as a way to subtly identify oneself as a believer to other believers. As earlychurchhistory.org explains, “If the other person responded, it was good. If they did not, it was just an idle doodle.”

Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215) listed a fish as one of the appropriate symbols for Christians to use on their personal signet rings: “Let our seals be a dove or a fish or a ship running in a fair wind or a musical lyre…”

Tertullian (155-220) wrote in his treatise about baptism, “But we, little fishes, after the example of our ΙΧΘΥΣ Jesus Christ, are born in water [i.e., baptism], nor have we safety in any other way than by permanently abiding in water…”

Of course, Scripture itself records a number of Jesus’ miracles involving fish (e.g., Matthew 14:13-21; Luke 5:1-11; John 21:1-14), and Jesus calls his first disciples, who were fishermen, with the words, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men” (Mark 1:17).

These examples give a brief introduction into the milieu of ancient Christian thought that associated Christianity with the image of a fish—a symbol that, it is safe to say, has had staying power.

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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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