The advert shows three children being told they would have a traditional Christmas – with long conversations, singing carols and sitting by the fire.

The parents then reveal they are joking and proceed to all bundle into the living room to watch the brand new TV their Mum has been allowed to test by her employer, Curry’s, and they enjoy a family sit-down. 

The Advertising Standards Agency said: “Complainants believed the ad was offensive because it promoted materialism and equated Christmas with watching TV instead of Christianity.”

The advert received 131 complaints. 

The ASA did not uphold the complaints and added that: “We thought the ad was light-hearted and was meant to be humorous. We understood the allusions to consumerism might be perceived to be in bad taste by some, but considered it was unlikely to cause serious offence. The ad did not ridicule or denigrate Christians or Christianity, so was unlikely to offend on those grounds.

The top most complained about advert was a KFC advert featuring dancing chickens with 755 complaints on the grounds that it was distressing for vegetarians.

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. Sign up to our daily newsletter and receive more stories like this straight to your inbox every morning.

The film, made by Andrew Morgan, follows the American author and former pastor who has been heavily criticised for suggesting Heaven is open to all, challenging the traditional view of Hell and saying that humanity has twisted Jesus’ words. 

In the trailer for aptly-named film, ‘The Heretic’, Rob Bell says: “When I kept going to the Jesus teachings, it took me beyond religion to what does it mean to be human? And I actually think Jesus would be absolutely mortified somebody started a religion in his name.”

The evangelist Franklin Graham has in the past called Bell a ‘false preacher’ and ‘heretic’

The movie claims to be a story showing his confrontation of “long held conservative ideals shaping American Christianity” and follows him on various tours and public speeches. 

Whatever he was at the beginning, Rob Bell is in no way a Christian now https://t.co/rFTctLFmRv

— Josh Hood (@ncpack2010) February 2, 2018

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. Sign up to our daily newsletter and receive more stories like this straight to your inbox every morning.

Last year, they helped finish New Testament translations in 104 languages.

But the CEO, Bruce Smith, said in a statement: “As miraculous as 2017 has been, I am praying 2018 will be even more astonishing,”

Smith explained in a statement how they’ve managed to progress global access to God’s Word: “New strategies, methods, tools, and resources are empowering the local church and Christians to translate God’s Word into more languages than at any time in world history.”

He added: “Our MAST [Mobilized Assistance Supporting Translation] strategy is building momentum. Word is spreading. Even people living in areas of intense persecution, violence, or danger, now have hope.”

Wycliffe developed a strategy in 2014 called MAST (Mobilized Assistance Supporting Translation) which speeds up the process of translation from what was years, to months or even weeks.

The ‘MAST’ strategy involves running translation workshops worldwide and accuracy-checking processes as well as providing technology such as tablets which not only have translation software but also mean groups can translate discretely where they are not allowed. 

Speaking of how these have directly helped the spread of God’s Word, Smith said: “They’re pleading for our innovative technology so they can translate God’s Word for themselves.”

“What was impossible has become possible.”

 Wycliffe…

Although the latter of those proposals has been widely commended, Coalition for Marriage Chairman, Colin Hart says: “Extending civil partnerships to unmarried couples will profoundly undermine marriage. It will be seen as a low commitment form of the institution – a sort of marriage lite.”

The proposals would also mean traditionally-married couples would not be given a marriage certificate on the day and there would be an electronic register instead of an official one in churches. 

Colin Hart added in a statement: “While denying couples a marriage certificate on their happy day does nothing to modernise the institution of marriage, or support husbands and wives, it just seems mean spirited. “

Speaking of how extension of civil partnerships still only helps couples, he commented: “This scheme will do nothing to solve the real cases of hardship amongst family members such as two sisters who live together for company and to share the bills.” 

However, many Christians favour the move as they say it leaves traditional marriage for those who to want to honour God with their union, whilst non-religious couples would no longer have to pretend to in traditional services. 

Civil Partnerships provide legal and financial protection in the case of a split and don’t necessarily come with any religious connotations.

The law, proposed by Tim Loughton MP, is being reviewed by…

This would mean nearly doubling their reach over the whole of the last 20 years, to mark their anniversary.

Since 1998, African Child Trust (ACT) have helped 6,500 across eight African countries including Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Congo Democratic Republic and Nigeria. 

ACT Founder and Director Dr Kunle Onabolu told Premier they “provide education for children of widows and orphans in Africa, but also to empower widows who are poor in rural African community, to provide them with counselling, training and business skills so they generate income sustainably.”

Speaking of what motivates him, Onabolu said: “the verses in Psalm 68 verse 5 where God declares he is the father of the fatherless, the defender of the widows, the Lord will in his holy dwelling keep the lonely people in family – and this is what ACT have been doing for the past 20 years.”

“We have expanded our work from just one country to 8 countries in Africa and we have supported well over 6000 children and widows within that period of time.”

Onabolu added that they will work “extra hard and use all the resources we can muster” to reach their aim.

Their plan involves a project in Malawi to keep teenage girls in school, when more than 50% of girls aged 18 are married, having children or have already had children and have therefore dropped out of school.  

Onabolu…