The leader of Hamas in Gaza has called for a cease-fire with Israel, according to reports.

In an interview with an Israeli newspaper, Yehya Sinwar said he didn’t want a war.

“A new war is in no one’s interest, certainly not our interest,” Mr. Sinwar said in the interview in the newspaper Yediot Ahronot. “Who really wants to confront a nuclear superpower with four slingshots? War doesn’t achieve anything.”

The interview for the Israeli newspaper was Sinwar’s first to the Israeli media since he became the top official in Hamas.

To the question of why he gave the interview to an Israeli newspaper, Sinwar said: “Because I now see a real opportunity for change.

“I’m not saying I won’t fight anymore; I’m saying I don’t want more wars,” he said.

“What I want is the end of the siege,” he added.

Tension between Hamas and Israel have increased as Hamas has protested along the Israeli border, calling for returning Palestinian land to what is now Israel.

Then last week, Israeli soldiers shot dead seven Palestinians, including two boys, ages 12 and 14. Israeli officials said the soldiers opened fire after rioters sabotaged security infrastructure and threw grenades and other explosives at the fence and soldiers.

The Israeli military says it plans on sending “wide-scale” reinforcements to the area.

Sinwar, meanwhile, told the…

Pastor Tim Challies recently wrote a review of Francis Chan’s new book, Letters to the Church. In his review Challiesargues that Chan, a former Cornerstone megachurch leader, makes many strong points, many of which are too “hyperbolic” about the state of the American Church.

Challies, who is a Reformed theologian and the pastor of Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto, called Chan’s book into question in a review that came out on Wednesday, noting that he is concerned about the message the book is spreading.

“I am concerned about how often he overstates his case. Chan consistently states the problem and his solution with far too much force and far too little nuance. His book is packed full of hyperbolic statements about the woes of the American Church and the superiority of house church[es]. Some of these are uncharitable while others tip into the absurd,” he writes.

Challies then lists several quotes from Chan’s book that he felt fit the uncharitable or absurd bill. One of the quotes reads, “Gangs have a much stronger sense of what it means to be a family than we do in the Church.”

Another quote calls for the renewal and replacement of all Christian leaders saying, “The Church is in dire need of a fresh wave of godly leadership. I pray all existing leaders would be renewed or replaced.”

These claims cause…

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. recently underwent surgery to repair a hole in his heart after connecting with renowned surgeon Ben Carson.

According to The Christian Post, Falwell and his doctors told Liberty medical school students  on Wednesday that he had undergone a new and innovative procedure called the NobleStitch last month in Fairfax, Virginia.

The one-hour procedure uses a microscopic needle to sew a hole in the heart closed and avoids the need for a permanent device to be implanted. It also avoids the need for an open-heart surgery.

The technique has only recently been approved in the U.S. and as such only about 130 NobleStitch procedures have been completed in the United States. Worldwide, however, nearly 1,500 NobleStitch procedures have been completed successfully. According to Liberty University, no one has ever reported complications from the NobleStitch procedure.

Falwell explained that he was only connected with the procedure’s inventor Dr. Anthony Nobles after confiding in neurosurgeon and White House Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson, in May.

In 2016, Falwell, 56, had two small strokes and often complained of migraines. According to CBN News, the Virginia-based Christian university president confided in Carson with these health concerns. After hearing his symptoms, Carson was able to…

Republican Sen. Susan Collins said Thursday afternoon she will vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, all but guaranteeing that President Trump’s selection to replace retired justice and swing vote Anthony Kennedy will be confirmed. Moments later, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) also announced his support. 

The Senate is scheduled to vote Saturday. 

With the announced support of Collins, Manchin and that of Republican Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) earlier Thursday, the Republicans now have exactly 51 pledged votes – enough to confirm Kavanaugh. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) voted against Kavanaugh in a procedural hurdle Friday morning and is expected to vote no.

Collins (Maine) announced her support in a 45-minute speech on the Senate floor Thursday afternoon, saying she carefully read the FBI report on sexual allegations against Kavanaugh. 

“I understand both viewpoints,” Collins said. “ … But certain fundamental legal principles, about due process, the presumption of innocence, and fairness do bear on my thinking, and I cannot abandon them.” 

The four witnesses that accuser Christine Blasey Ford said were at the party where she was attacked “could not corroborate” any of Ford’s testimony, said Collins, who added that she found Ford’s testimony compelling and believed she had experienced a sexual assault at some point in…

A Toronto woman videoed a man who was harassing pro-life protesters at an annual event in Toronto on Sunday. When the man saw the phone in her hand, he briefly argued with her before delivering a roundhouse kick to her shoulder.

Marie-Claire Bissonette, who serves as Youth Coordinator for Campaign Life Coalition, told her story in a post for LifeSite News. She explained that the assault happened at an annual event called Life Chain, which brings together thousands of pro-life advocates who stand on street corners across Canada in silent protest. Their signs only display messages, including numbers for the local pregnancy help center, but do not contain “abortion victim photography.” 

Bissonnette was in charge of a street corner where 76 people stood holding signs when a man, now identified as Jordan Hunt, walked up and started frantically scribbling on people’s signs with red and blue markers. When they realized what he was doing, the protesters held their signs out of reach and he wrote on their clothing instead. 

The video began with him talking to one pro-choice protester who stood on the corner holding a sign which read, “My body, my choice, my right.” She disagreed with his tactics and told him to “kill them with kindness.” 

As Bissonnette approached him, she told him that he was destroying private property. He responded by asking her, “If somebody gets…

Abortion may be legal nationwide, but voters in three states – Alabama, West Virginia and Oregon — will decide in November whether to curtail the right to end an unborn baby’s life.

Alabama citizens will vote on Amendment 2, which would change the state constitution to “recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, including the right to life.” The goal is to ensure abortion cannot be legalized in Alabama if Roe v. Wade is overturned. 

“We want to make sure that at a state level, if Roe v. Wade is overturned, that the Alabama Constitution cannot be used as a mechanism by which to claim that there is a right to abortion,” Alabama Republican state Rep. Matt Fridy said earlier this year. 

In West Virginia, voters will consider Amendment 1, which has a similar goal and would add language to the state constitution stating that “nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of abortion.” The amendment, if passed, also would overturn a state Supreme Court ruling that allowed state funding of abortion.

Finally, Oregon citizens will vote on Measure 106, which would amend the state constitution so that public money cannot be used for abortions. 

Pro-lifers in Oregon are making sure voters in the left-leaning state understand the measure’s intent.

“This isn’t going to…