JOS, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed a Pentecostal pastor and abducted a Baptist pastor in a spate of kidnappings this month in Kaduna state, Nigeria, sources said.

“The herdsmen, about 20 of them, shot into our house and broke the doors of the house,” said Emmanuel Noma, who along with his father, 60-year-old pastor Elisha Noma, was kidnapped at 1 a.m. on Aug. 14. “They forced us out of the house at gunpoint and took us away. After two hours they released me, with the demand that I should go and raise 20 million naira [US $55,155] for them before they will release my father or else he would be killed.”

The Rev. Joseph Hayap, chairman of the Kaduna State Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), confirmed the kidnapping of Pastor Noma, of Nagarta Baptist Church in Makiri, Kaduna state, in north-central Nigeria. Pastor Hayap said the kidnappers have reduced their ransom demand from the original 20 million naira.

“The kidnapping herdsmen are now asking for 7 million naira [US $19,304], but we are still negotiating,” said Pastor Hayap, a Baptist.

Two weeks earlier, Fulani herdsmen killed pastor Jeremiah Omolewa of Living Faith Church in the Romi New Extension area of the city of Kaduna and kidnapped his wife, a church source told Morning Star News. Attacked on Aug. 4 along the Kaduna-Abuja highway on…

In response to the news of former pastor Joshua Harris saying he is no longer a Christian, John Piper says Christians could “commit apostasy this afternoon and go to hell” if it were not for the grace of God.

Piper, theologian and founder of desiringGod.org, was speaking in an “Ask Pastor John” session at the Sing! Conference in Nashville, Tenn.

The interviewer did not specifically mention Harris, but asked Piper, “What would you say to those of us who have a healthy distrust of our own hearts; who look at this man who has now walked away from the Gospel and we say, ‘Could this happen to me too? Could I one day walk away from the Gospel, walk away from my spouse, walk away from Christ?”

Piper answered: ““The short answer is yes, and the interesting thing about that answer is that for a lot of people, it seems to call into question the doctrine of eternal security, which I believe,” Piper began. “It shouldn’t call into question the doctrine of eternal security to say, ‘yes, I could commit apostasy this afternoon and go to hell.’ I wonder if that’s a jarring juxtaposition for you.

“Nothing you do originates the decisive act or impulse that saves you,” he continued. “Nothing you feel, nothing you think, nothing you will, nothing you do, originates the act of the soul or the act of the body that causes God to elect you, predestine you, call you, keep…