Researchers have found mosaics in Israel, including one that appears to depict the two scouts Moses sent to explore Canaan.

The mosaic depicts two men carrying a pole with a cluster of grapes. In Hebrew is inscribed: “a pole between the two.”

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced this week the discovery of the mosaics at the Huqoq site in Galilee.

The mosaic of Moses’ scouts appears to refer to the book of Numbers, where the men were sent to the land of Canaan after their exodus from Egypt. According to Numbers 13:23, the men “cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes” and returned to Moses.

“We went into the land to which you sent us, and indeed, it is flowing with milk and honey,” Numbers 13:27 reads.

Previously, Israeli officials and researchers have uncovered other mosaics, including ones showing Samson carrying the gate of Gaza, Noah’s Ark, Jonah being swallowed by a fish, the parting of the Red Sea and the construction of the Tower of Babel.

“The discoveries indicate villagers flourished under early fifth century Christian rule, contradicting a widespread view that Jewish settlement in the region declined during that period,” UNC-Chapel Hill said in a statement.

UNC-Chapel Hill professor Jodi Magness is leading the research teams. She has participated in some 20 different excavations in Israel and…

One of the challenges facing church leaders today is finding ways to draw younger adults to church and keep them coming back.

According to studies conducted by the Pew Research Center, 39 percent of adults went to church at least once a week back in 2007, compared to 36 percent in 2014. Meanwhile, the percentage of people who seldom or never go to church at all went up from 27 to 30 percent for the same timeframe.

The studies also revealed that in 2014, 26 percent of people aged 18–29 said they seldom or never went to church. For the same demographic, the percentage of people who attended church at least a few times a year was at 25 percent and the percentage of people who went to church weekly stood at 17 percent.

To encourage more people to attend church, Pastor Carey Nieuwhof, founding and teaching pastor of Connexus Church outside Toronto, Canada, has provided some tips that could…

Ariana Grande and her record company likely wanted controversy when releasing a song titled “God Is A Woman,” and they’re getting it.

The song, though, isn’t the theological treatise that you might expect. Instead, it’s a sexually suggestive symbolic song that uses religious references to compare the singer’s performance in the bedroom to God.

“You love it how I move you; you love it how I touch you; … when all is said and done you’ll believe God is a woman,” she sings. “And I feel it after midnight; a feelin’ that you can’t fight; it lingers when we’re done; you’ll believe God is a woman.”

Other controversial parts of the song include:

• 
  “Boy, I like that you ain’t afraid; baby, lay me down and let’s pray; I’m tellin’ you the way I like it, how I want it.”
• 
  “You different from the rest; and boy, if you confess, you might get blessed.”
• 
  “I’ll tell you all the things you should know; so, baby, take my hand, save your soul.”

The song was released Thursday ahead of her new album, “Sweetener,” due out Aug. 17.

No all fans on her Facebook page were amused. In fact, the top-ranking comments below her post about the song were critical.

Michael Foust is a freelance writer. Visit his blog, MichaelFoust.com

Photo courtesy: Facebook/Ariana Grande

Publication date: July 13, 2018

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The Episcopal Church has held off on editing their Book of Common Prayer to possibly remove gender specific language for God. Instead, they passed a resolution encouraging the creation of new liturgies.

At the mainline denomination’s 79th General Convention in Austin, Texas, the House of Deputies approved a resolution calling for revising their Book of Common Prayer to include more “inclusive and expansive language” for both God and humanity.

The House of Bishops created their own resolution language, which among other things resolved to “memorialize” the 1979 Book of Common Prayer which involves “preserving the psalter, liturgies, The Lambeth Quadrilateral, Historic Documents, and Trinitarian Formularies ensuring its continued use.”

The bishops approved the revised amendment on Tuesday and the deputies passed it overwhelmingly via voice vote on Wednesday.

In addition to preserving the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, they approved a measure called for the introduction of revised liturgies and the creation of the Task Force on Liturgical and Prayer Book Revision.

Perry Noble’s new Second Chance Church finally found a new home about two years after the famed megachurch founder and pastor was fired from South Carolina’s largest church because of his alcohol addiction.

Noble announced on Facebook Wednesday that Second Chance Church, which was launched online late last year following his alcohol rehabilitation, will be housed in a strip mall in Anderson, South Carolina.

Since last December, Second Chance church has mostly existed online with Noble holding some meetings at his own home. This past Easter, the church held a service that was attended by as many as 2,100 people.

“It’s starting to come together!” Noble wrote in his Facebook announcement. “Our plans for upfitting the place where we will meet for Second Chance are in the permitting phase and should be done in the next week or so.”