1,500-Y-O Papyrus Discovered Near Pyramid Refers to Abraham’s Test of Faith When Asked to Sacrifice His Son in the Bible

An ancient 1,500-year-old “magical papyrus” discovered near a pyramid in Egypt addresses the Bible’s God as the God of an Egyptian deity, and refers to the test of faith Abraham faced when asked to sacrifice his son.

LiveScience reported on Tuesday that the text of the papyrus, uncovered near the pyramid of the Pharaoh Senwosret during a 1934 expedition in Giza by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, has now been deciphered by scientists.

Written in Coptic at a time when Christianity was widely practiced in the country, the writer, who isn’t named, pleads: “God of Seth, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, God of Israel, watch over everyone who suffers. My word, may it come to pass with power.”

“May every spirit that is in the air obey me,” he asks.

Seth is an ancient Egyptian god said to rule over the desert and the storms, associated with eclipses, thunderstorms and earthquakes.

The papyrus also calls the biblical God on a number of occasions “the one who presides over the mountain of the murderer,” which according to Oxford University researcher Michael Zellmann-Rohrer alludes to the account in the book of Genesis when God initially asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah.

In the narrative, although Abraham agrees to follow God’s command, a messenger from God reveals it was a test of faith, and so Isaac is spared and a ram is sacrificed instead.

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Euthanasia Activist Unveils ‘Suicide Machine’ That’s Also a Coffin

A “suicide pod” designed by a longtime euthanasia activist is supposed to kill users within seconds and double as a coffin.

The machine was unveiled Saturday at a yearly funeral show in Amsterdam.

Advocates who fight laws allowing for assisted suicide describe it as a mere “stunt” from a man who hungers for media attention.

Over the weekend Australian doctor and euthanasia activist Philip Nitschke, who reportedly considers himself the “Elon Musk of assisted suicide”, showed off his “Sarco,” short for sarcophagus, invention at an Amsterdam funeral show which attracted thousands, reports say.

Nitschke’s Sarco suicide machine has a biodegradable, detachable coffin that is mounted on a stand containing a nitrogen canister; he made the machine with Dutch designer Alexander Bannink.

“The person who wants to die presses the button and the capsule is filled with nitrogen. He or she will feel a bit dizzy but will then rapidly lose consciousness and die,” Nitschke said, according to Agence France-Presse Saturday.

The Sarco was made specifically “to provide people with a death when they wish to die,” he said.

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Stormy Daniels Will Donate $130,000 to Planned Parenthood if She Wins Lawsuit

Stormy Daniels Will Donate $130,000 to Planned Parenthood if She Wins Lawsuit



Stormy Daniels, the porn star who is suing President Trump, claiming he had an affair with her and then had his lawyer pay her to keep quiet about it, says if she wins her lawsuit she will donate $130,000 to Planned Parenthood.


According to LifeNews.com, $130,000 is reportedly the amount of money Daniels took from Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen to keep quiet about the affair.


Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said in an interview with Penthouse magazine that she would make the donation in the name of the President and his lawyer.


“Ms. Clifford gave the Penthouse interview to pair with a cover story and a nude spread for the issue that goes on sale May 8 and names her ‘Penthouse Pet of the Century,’” according to an article in The Washington Times.


LifeNews’ reporter Micaiah Bilger notes that it is no surprise that Daniels, a part of the sex industry, would donate money to Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry since the two industries are closely linked.


For example, this past Valentine’s Day, a women’s porn site donated part of its sales to Planned Parenthood and in 2017, several adult stores sold X-rated products and donated the money to the abortion provider.


 


Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons


Publication date: April 18, 2018

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Georgia Church ‘Flooded by the Holy Spirit’ Moving Into Abandoned Shopping Center

(Photo: Facebook/Worship with Wonders Church)A Sunday evening service at Worship With Wonders Church, based in the Atlanta, Georgia area. In April 2018, a county board voted to approve the church’s plan to move into an abandoned shopping center.

An interdenominational congregation in Georgia will soon be moving into an abandoned shopping center, after local government gave the green light.

The Atlanta-based Worship With Wonders Church, which is headed by Myles and DeLana Rutherford and has approximately 900 members, has been meeting Sunday evenings at the chapel of another church.

The Cobb County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on Tuesday to allow Worship With Wonders to move into the abandoned shopping center, which is located off Powder Springs Road in South Cobb.

Senior Pastor Myles Rutherford told The Christian Post in an interview on Wednesday that he and his wife see their ministry as “an amazing journey,” saying that their worship services “are just completely overwhelmed and flooded by the Holy Spirit.”

“My wife Pastor DeLana and I have felt for a long time a surge coming back to the mainstream body desiring more of an encounter with God, not just typical church. People are desiring for an authentic fresh move of the Holy Spirit,” explained Rutherford.

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Two Pastors in Burma Freed from Prison

Two Pastors in Burma Freed from Prison



After spending more than a year in prison, two assistant pastors arrested by the Burma (Myanmar) army were freed on Tuesday (17 April) under a government amnesty program. 

 

Dom Dawng Nawng Latt, 65, and La Jaw Gam Hseng, 35, were among more than 8,500 prisoners granted amnesty by newly elected President U Win Myint, sources said. Some 37 jailed political activists were also freed under the amnesty, but most of those freed were in prison on drug-related and other crimes. 

 

Pastor Zau Ra, secretary of the Kachin Baptist Convention in Mong Maung town, Shan state, told Morning Star News that the two pastors were released from Lashio prison, northern Shan state, where their family members went to greet them. 

 

“They were freed around 4 p.m. yesterday, and they are on their way back home,” he said. “We are happy that they were freed, but they spent one year and five months in prison. It is not good for them, their family and even for the convention. They were arrested for being suspicious and sentenced into prison. It was a waste of time, and it was not fair.”

 

Pastor Zau Ra said they are in good health.

 

“It is important that respective authorities make sure that this wouldn’t be happening in the future, as we are in peace-building process,” he said. “This would harm relationship and trust- building between the government and…

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John Piper Offers 4 Suggestions for Those Struggling to Forgive, Reveals ‘Real Sign’ of Forgiveness

(Photo: Rocket Republic via Flicker)John Piper, founder of DesiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary, speaks at the MLK50 Conference hosted by the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention and The Gospel Coalition in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 5, 2018.

Reformed theologian John Piper offered four suggestions for those struggling to forgive others, warning that the physical and emotional pain stemming from hurt can easily morph into “selfishness, bitterness and resentment.”

Piper addressed the issue of forgiveness on his desiringGod.org podcast when a listener, identified Emily, said she was unsure of whether she’d truly forgiven her husband for a distasteful comment due to “lingering pain from the offense.”

The Bethlehem College & Seminary Chancellor began by explaining that the battle for holiness both in marriage and other relationships centers on the struggle to avoid sinning in response to being sinned against.

“What makes this battle so peculiar is that in the very moment when we may be sinning against someone, we have strong feelings of self-justification because of how we’ve been sinned against,” he said. “Some of the feelings that we have may be warranted, even justified; some of the hurt or the indignation may be…

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Christian Pilot Praised for Poise in Face of Disaster: ‘God Sent His Angels to Watch over Us!’

Christian Pilot Praised for Poise in Face of Disaster: ‘God Sent His Angels to Watch over Us!’



A Southwest Airlines pilot who was forced to make an emergency landing on Tuesday relied on her faith to keep calm in the tense situation.


. reports that Tammie Jo Shults had to think fast when the plane she was piloting en route to Dallas from New York City lost one of its engines while airborne at 32,000 feet. Shults was forced to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia.


She radioed the Philadelphia air traffic controller, calmly saying, “So we have a part of the aircraft missing so we’re going to need to slow down a bit.” She also told personnel at the Philadelphia International Airport that they would be needed an ambulance for injured passengers.


Shults was able to safely land the plane in Philadelphia, although one passenger died after she was nearly sucked out of a broken window.


Many of the passengers commended Shults on her poise in the face of disaster. “The pilot Tammy Jo was so amazing! She landed us safely in Philly,” said passenger Amanda Bourman on Instagram. “God sent his angels to watch over us. I actually heard someone say, there is a God!!”


Shults herself identifies as a Christian. She gained experience as a pilot while in the U.S. Navy, flying F-18 fighter jets. Her skills landing planes at high speeds certainly helped her bring her passengers to safety on the Southwest flight.


Shults also said she…

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San Francisco Church to Hold Beyoncé Mass; Pastor Insists ‘We’re Following in the Way of Jesus’

(Photo: REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson)Beyonce performs at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, U.S. on February 12, 2017.

A San Francisco church will host a “Beyoncé Mass,” featuring songs from the pop star that congregation members will be invited to sing along to, and one of its pastors is insisting that the event goes hand in hand with the teachings of Jesus Christ.

“I know there are people who will say using Beyoncé is just a cheap way of trying to get people in the church,” the Rev. Jude Harmon, director of innovative ministries for Grace Cathedral, an Episcopal Church, told SFGate on Tuesday.

“But Jesus used very provocative images in the stories he would tell to incite people to ask hard questions about their own religious assumptions. He regularly provoked. We’re following in the way of Jesus.”

Harmon, who is also the founder of Vince, a weekly contemporary worship service project espousing progressive theology, insisted that Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s music “opens a window into the lives of the marginalized and forgotten — particularly black females.”

He pointed out that 2018 has seen “so much conversation about the role of women and communities of color, we felt a need to lift up the voices that the church has traditionally suppressed.”

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GPs are the ‘new clergy’, study finds

Alistair Appleby, a GP who carried out the report published in the British Journal of General Practice, was prompted to after noticing how many of his patients needed spiritual questions answered.

Alex Bunn, a GP from the Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF), told Premier why people are seeking help from GPs over vicars.

 

He explained: “I think in a previous age people would have gone straight to a pastor when their souls ached and would have recognised that kind of spiritual element.

“But now, we tend to want a medical label for some of those issues.”

Interviews with 19 GPs in Scotland found that some family doctors are dismissing the idea of spirituality because they don’t believe in organised religion.

However Bunn warned GPs not to ignore the spiritual needs of their patients.

He added: “I do believe we should skill-up and if there are Christian healthcare workers out there I would recommend they get in touch with CMF – we do offer training in how to deal with spiritual enquiries.

“I think we should be better equipped to deal with what patients are asking for which is how can they deal with what are often existential or spiritual problems.”

The study echoed this point as some GPs reported feeling frustrated by having little to offer patients with complex problems driven by social and emotional difficulties anything other than pills.

Bunn urged GPS and spiritual…

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Why Some Christians Don’t Trust Their Devices

Why Some Christians Don’t Trust Their Devices



“Who is Jesus?”


Some Christians aren’t happy with the answers they’ve gotten to the question from their smart speakers, including Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Assistant on Google Home devices.


David Sams, the CEO of KeepTheFaith Radio Networks — who describes himself on his website as a “21st century media chameleon” — is just one of those Christians. Sams posted a video to Facebook earlier this year asking “Who is Jesus?” to his Google Home. It’s been viewed about 32,000 times.


“Google knew who I was, but Google did not know who Jesus was, Google did not know who Jesus Christ was and Google did not know who God was,” he later told his local television news station, FOX 17 Nashville.


Instead, Sams’ device responded in the video, “Sorry, I don’t know how to help with that.”


As of last month, nearly 1 in 5 Americans had a smart speaker in his or her home. And while many people have expressed privacy concerns about the technology similar to those expressed about Facebook by the members of Congress who grilled CEO Mark Zuckerberg last week, some Christians are more worried about the alleged ideological bent of their devices’ answers — that is, if viral videos are believed.


“It’s hard to tell if people are really upset about it or it’s just a viral video,” said Daniel Silliman, a Lilly Fellow at Valparaiso University and historian…

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