Pastor Says Donald Trump’s Presidency and Blood Moons Are Connected
In a YouTube video last month, Australian pastor Stephen Cioccolanti claims the connection between the presidency of Donald Trump and periodic lunar eclipses known as “blood moons.”
A blood moon most commonly refers to the instance when the Earth’s moon is in a total lunar eclipse. Cioccolanti has studied these occurrences, and discussed their significance over his channel, and in an episode of The Strange Report on the . Podcast Network.
Cioccolanti claims the timing of the blood moons and Trump’s life and presidency are significant. As he pointed out in his YouTube video, President Trump was born during a blood moon in 1946, and the last blood moon on Jan. 20-21 this year came at the mid-way point of Trump’s first term in office. Further prophetic significance could also be derived from the “Super Blue Blood Moon” which occurred the day after Trump’s first State of the Union Address, wrote CBN News.
Cioccolanti explained that God will use signs such as these when he wants to confirm something, siting the star of Bethlehem as a widely-accepted example.
The Thai pastor was born to a family of Buddhists, Catholics, Methodists and Muslims, and is now a Christian author, teacher and pastor of Discover Church in Melbourne Australia. Cioccolanti has been a strong supporter of President Trump, religious rights, and free speech, according to…
In 1999, Hugo Chávez was elected as President in Venezuela. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, Chávez was seen as a beacon of hope in a nation that was struggling. Before assuming office, the Venezuelan people were disenchanted with the democratic administration that left more than 50 percent of all Venezuelan citizens in poverty. In hopes that he would follow through on promises of prosperity, the Venezuelan people elected Chávez as their president in 1999.
This would be the beginning of social and political unrest in Venezuela.
Chávez – who had taken to overspending the government’s wealth on social programs – would stay in office until his death in 2013. While in office, Chávez managed to nationalize the petroleum sector, telecommunications, electricity, steel and cement companies. He also introduced a referendum in 2009 which eliminated term-limits. The referendum was approved.
After Chávez died of cancer in February 2013, Nicolás Maduro was appointed President.
Within Maduro’s first year as president, inflation climbed to over 50 percent and the economy took a nose dive. The socialist dictator began disregarding legislature’s votes and declaring renewable states of emergency that gave the military more power to “maintain public order.” By 2017, the International Monetary Fund found that the Venezuelan GDP had dropped by 14 percent and the inflation rate was at 2,400 percent.
In what many believe to be a rigged election, Maduro won re-election in 2018. Soon after, the head of the National Assembly and…
United Methodist Church Votes to Tighten Restrictions on Same-Sex Marriage, LGBT Clergy Stance
The United Methodist Church voted this week to tighten restrictions on the church’s stance on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ clergy.
While the church’s bishops asked for a resolution, the “One Church Plan,” that would have allowed local congregations, conferences and clergy to make their own choices about same-sex marriages and LGBTQ clergy roles, UMC delegates at the church’s General Conference rejected the proposal this week.
According to The Atlantic.com, delegates voted instead for the “Traditional Plan,” which affirmed the church’s teachings against homosexuality.
Religious experts and other church leaders are speculating that the vote will cause a divide in the United Methodist Church, and many progressive churches may consider separating from the official church.
“This is not a political or social kind of difference,” said Keith Boyette, the head of the Wesleyan Covenant Association and a main proponent of the Traditional Plan.
“It is primarily, for us, a theological difference, and the truth that the Church has been raised up to share. “When a Church begins to fracture around its compliance with its doctrine and ethics and discipline, it becomes a house divided. It becomes dysfunctional.”
LGBTQ supporters, however, say the move is a missed opportunity for the church.
The theological college based in Northwood in north west London said in a statement: “London School of Theology announces that on Sunday 24th February, Reverend Dr Calvin T Samuel provided his resignation from the position of Principal.
“Following an initial internal investigation by the Board of Trustees into the veracity of allegations raised against Reverend Dr Calvin T Samuel by an external party, we have accepted his decision to resign.
“Professor Graham Twelftree has been appointed acting Principal.”
Premier understands Prof Graham Twelftree will be the acting Principal until October at least, and will possibly stay in that position until next January. He is currently the Academic Dean at LST.
Rev Dr Calvin Samuel has been Principal since 2017, is a Methodist minister and was previously the Academic Dean of St John’s College at the University of Durham and Director of Wesley Study Centre.
He’s been a regular contributor on Bible questions on Premier’s Inspirational Breakfast show.
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War Memorial Cross Supporters ‘Encouraged’ after Supreme Court Hears Case
The U.S. Supreme Court seemed poised during oral arguments Wednesday to let a 93-year-old war memorial cross stand, although it remains uncertain how far the justices will go in their legal reasoning.
At issue is a 40-foot cross-shaped World War I memorial on public property in Bladensburg, Md., that was erected in 1925 but has been targeted in the courts by atheist groups who say it violates the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on government establishment of religion.
Wednesday’s hearing was the first major church-state case before a new bloc of conservative justices that includes President Trump’s two nominees, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.
Multiple court observers said the justices appear certain to let the cross stand. The question is whether they will tinker with the three-pronged Lemon test, which the court has used since 1971 to determine the constitutionality of a law or action. According to the test, a law is constitutional if it: 1) has a secular purpose, 2) neither advances nor inhibits religion, and, 3) doesn’t foster government “entanglement” with religion.
Kelly Shackelford, president and chief counsel of the First Liberty Institute, said Wednesday after oral arguments that he found the justices’ comments and questions “very encouraging.” First Liberty is representing the American Legion, which erected the…
Open Heaven 28 February 2019 Thursday Daily Devotional By Pastor E. A. Adeboye – Anxiety Can’t Do It
Topic: Anxiety Can’t Do It (Open Heaven 28 February 2019)
Memorise: “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”- Philippians 4:6
Read: Matthew 6:25-34 (KJV)
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Bible in One Year: Acts 16, Isaiah 49:13-26
Open Heaven 28 February 2019 Thursday MESSAGE:
Anxiety is a feeling of worry, nervousness or uneasiness exhibited by a person due to the pressure of an imminent event or circumstance with an uncertain outcome. It can also be described as being in a state of apprehension when something unpleasant is about to happen. The inability to meet the expectations of daily life as an individual, parent or employer of labor ranks high among situations that lead to anxiety. When you need to pay for essential things like food,, accommodation, electricity, medical services, gas or school fees and the means is not there, anxiety can set in. as employer of labor, when you have few days to payday and the money to pay your staff is not forthcoming, anxiety will knock on the door of your heart. When you are facing tons of important issues that must be handled within limited time frame, you are also susceptible to anxiety. When a loved one is about to undergo a delicate medical procedure, or when a hurricane, earthquake or any other natural disaster is imminent, the natural mind is bound to be anxious. A natural man will definitely be anxious in circumstances such as these. However, as a child of God, when faced with such situations, the Holy Spirit has told us what to do, saying in 1 Peter 5:7:
“Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”
We must learn to cast our problems on Jesus, knowing that anxiety cannot solve anything.
Are you operating under the threat of evildoers right now? Are you faced with the worst financial crisis of your life? Is your marriage going through turbulent times? Is your family experiencing the worst attack of the devil ever? Is temptation having the better part of you at the moment? Have you just suffered the loss of a loved one and the future looks bleak? Have you gotten yourself involved in cultism or some other diabolical affair and don’t know how to come out? Are you hooked on hard drugs or under any other form of addiction? Have you dabbled into gangsterism and other dangerous vices and can find no way out? Is failure or disappointment pushing you to the edge and suicide has crossed your mind a few times? Irrespective of the jam you find yourself in, accept this invitation and come to Jesus today. Cast your burden on Him in prayer, and you will experience the power of His love like never before. I pray that the powerful hand of God will intervene in your situation today, and your deliverance will be hastened in Jesus’ Name.
Open Heaven 28 February 2019 Thursday Prayer Point:
Father, please calm every storm in my life and give me peace in Jesus’ Name.
Open Heaven 28 February 2019 Thursday Hymn 7: My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less
1. My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
Chorus:
On Christ the solid rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
2. When darkness seems to veil His face, I rest on His unchanging grace; In every high and stormy gale My anchor holds within the veil.
3. His oath His covenant and blood Support me in the ‘whelming flood: When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.
4.When the last trumpet’s voice shall sound, O may I then in him be found. Clothed in his righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before his throne.
Open Heaven 28 February 2019 Thursday Daily Devotional guide was written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the largest evangelical church in the world and also the President of Christ the Redeemer’s Ministries. The Open Heavens devotional application is available across all mobile platforms and operating systems: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Nokia, Windows Mobile and PC. Open Heaven 28 February 2019 Thursday Daily Devotional.
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Open Doors, who serve persecuted Christians worldwide, say amidst all the talk of denuclearisation, people should remember the ‘shocking’ abuse of Christians in North Korea.
The two leaders are meeting to discuss topics such as the future of North Korea, with Trump suggesting they could be an ‘economic powerhouse’ if they give up their nuclear weapons.
Something that is not on the official agenda is the treatment of their own citizens.
In North Korea, every aspect of life is controlled by the state, with food owned and distributed by the government and the capital Pyongyang has reportedly informed the UN that it is facing food shortfall of 1.4 million tonnes in 2019.
In January it cut daily rations from 550 to 300 grams per person per day.
It is also number one on the 2019 Open Doors World Watch List, ranking the worst places to be a Christian, and has been since 2002.
Erin James from Open Doors told Premier that a significant conversation about the treatment of Christians was unlikely to happen: “Last year he did say that he raised them in private….but what does that really mean? Does that mean a passing sentence? Does that mean a really earnest discussion? So I wouldn’t be surprised if, to please those voters, he says again that he did in fact raise them but I would question how heavily he’ll push on the issue”.
It follows Saturday’s election which led to the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari for a second four-year term.
The 76-year-old defeated his main rival, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, with a margin of nearly four million votes.
Mr Buhari got 15.2 million votes while Mr Abubakar received 11.3 million.
Mr Abubakar’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the result.
Turnout was a record low at just 35.6% and Mr Abubakar, 72, said this was the result of a deliberate policy to prevent his supporters from voting.
President Muhammadu Buhari insisted the election had been fair.
Dr Khataza Gondwe is Sub-Saharan Africa officer for Christian Solidarity Worldwide. She told Premier’s News Hour there has been some questioning of the election result:
“In November, a key influencer in Nigeria said that the number of registered voters was slightly inflated, so he actually pointed to the fact that this may not be the cleanest of elections.”
She said videos had shown thugs seizing ballot boxes and setting them on fire, mass printing of ballot papers and intimidation by the army at some voting stations in the south of the country.
Delays and violence marred the run-up to Saturday’s poll but no independent observer has cited electoral fraud.
In the 1980s, Mr Buhari was one of several military rulers in Nigeria and this election marks the 20th anniversary of the return to…
Israel Terminates ‘Government Christian Forum’ Shocking Local Christians
The Israeli government has canceled a five-year-old forum that works to build relationships between Israeli Christians and the government.
According to CBN News, Israel’s head of the Desk of Minorities Affairs, Dr. Mordechai (Moti) Zaken, announced that the forum – which was founded in 2013 – was outside of the government’s scope and it would have to be terminated. In a statement, Zaken said, “I have been informed that the Forum does not fall within the scope of the Public Security Ministry. Therefore, I have no choice but to discontinue the activity of the Forum as part of that ministry.”
The unexpected announcement reportedly sent shock waves through the Christian community in Israel. According to CBN News, several local Christians voiced their disappointment noting that by eliminating the forum, the Christian community in Israel will have no place to air their grievances.
In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a local Christian named David Pileggi of Rector Christ Church Jerusalem, voiced concern for the cancellation saying, “Only Dr Moti Zaken, the head the Minority Affairs desk at the Ministry of Public Security has been consistently helpful … This group meets to find practical solutions to the problems of the evangelical community here in Israel, issues such as visas, harassment at the airport, finding ways for young Christians to serve…
Father Thomas White was targeted outside St Alphonsus Church in London Road, Glasgow, on July 7 last year, when he was speaking to parishioners.
Bradley Wallace, 24, from Uddingston in South Lanarkshire, admitted assaulting Father White – a charge aggravated by religious prejudice – when he appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court last month.
He was ordered to spend 10 months behind bars when he returned to the court for sentencing on Wednesday.
The court was told that Wallace, who was intoxicated with alcohol that day, accepts that his behaviour was “utterly reprehensible and quite frankly disgusting”.
Passing sentence, Sheriff Andrew Cubie said: “This is about the courts reflecting disapproval of the depressingly still deep-seated and widespread social issue of sectarianism which generates at the very least tension and at worst both hatred and conflict, and which disfigures civilised society.
“The courts in Scotland still deal all too frequently with cases of sectarian abuse which serve to harden and perpetuate divisions in society.”
He also told the offender: “In my view, this entire incident was not so much aggravated by as entirely motivated by, religious prejudice.”
The court heard how the assault happened amid a “grotesque spectacle” as the clergyman sought sanctuary in his own church to avoid the behaviour of a crowd outside, but he was unable to return to the…
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