Evangelist Franklin Graham, the president and CEO of the Samaritans purse and the Billy Graham Association, opened up the fourth and final night of the 2020 Republican National Convention in a word of prayer for America.

“Let us pray,” Graham said on Thursday. “Our Heavenly Father, which art in Heaven, we thank you for the great bounty you have bestowed on this nation and the many blessings we have received the past four years. We are forever grateful”.

“As we come tonight, our country is facing trouble. Tens of thousands are in the path of a deadly storm. The pandemic has gripped millions of hearts with fear. We are divided. We have witnessed injustice. Anger and despair have flowed into the streets. We need your help. We need to hear your voice at this crucial hour.”

“We ask that you would unite our hearts, to be one nation under God,” Graham pleaded. “For you are our only hope. We declare today our total dependence upon you and our need of repentance as a people.”

“I thank you tonight for our President Donald J. Trump. We pray that you would give him wisdom from on high, clarity of vision, and strength as he leads this nation forward. Bless him. We pray for our first lady Melania. Their son Barron and all of the family. Protect them and keep them strong and safe.”

“We thank you for Vice President Mike Pence. For his steady hand and clear voice. We pray for second lady Karen Pence and their…

LAHORE, Pakistan, August 27, 2020 (Morning Star News) – The Muslim who regained custody of a 14-year-old Christian girl he had kidnapped threatened to kill her and her family unless she gave court statements that she had married him and converted to Islam of her own free will, the girl told Morning Star News.

Maira Shahbaz, who escaped from Nakash Tariq five days ago, told Morning Star News by telephone that he had raped her and filmed her naked in order to blackmail her into giving the court statements. The Lahore High Court on Aug. 4 ordered her return to Tariq after dismissing documents proving she was a minor and evidence of a fake marriage certificate because she testified that, “she’s 18 years old, recited the Kalma Tayyaba to prove she had embraced Islam without any duress, and married Nakash Tariq by choice.”

Tariq and accomplices kidnapped Maira, of Medina Town, Faisalabad, on April 28, according to family members.

“Nakash and two other men took me to an unknown place at gunpoint, where Nakash repeatedly raped me,” Maira told Morning Star News. “He also videotaped me naked and threatened that he would kill me and my family and also upload the video on social media if I told anyone what he had done to me.”

She said she had been forced to sign blank papers and denied that she had willfully become a Muslim.

“I was coerced into making those statements in…

Labeling this year’s presidential race the “most important election” in the nation’s history, President Trump accepted the Republican Party’s nomination Thursday and warned about a “socialist agenda” he said would be implemented if Democrat Joe Biden wins in November.

Trump spoke for more than an hour to a large, boisterous crowd on the White House lawn, drawing a distinction between the visions and agendas of the two parties. Democrats, he said, “do not see America as the most free, just and exceptional nation on earth.” 

“Instead, they see a wicked nation that must be punished for its sins. Our opponents say that redemption for you can only come from giving power to them,” Trump said. “This is a tired anthem spoken by every repressive movement throughout history. But in this country, we don’t look to career politicians for salvation. In America, we don’t turn to government to restore our souls. We put our faith in almighty God.”

Biden, he said, is a “Trojan horse for socialism” who has joined forces with Bernie Sanders on multiple issues, including on immigration and public safety. 

Trump also criticized Biden on abortion. 

“Joe Biden claims he has empathy for the vulnerable. Yet the party he leads supports the extreme late-term abortion of defenseless babies, right up until the moment of birth. Democratic leaders talk about moral…

One in five churches may shutter their doors in the next 18 months, according to Barna Group president David Kinnaman.

Kinnaman of the Christian research organization recently sat down with NPR to discuss the state of church giving in light of the pandemic. As churches slowly reopen under new restrictions across the country, Kinnaman believes some may not survive the economic downturn.

“The disruptions related to giving, and maybe even as important to all that, is that even for those churches that have reopened, they’re seeing much smaller numbers of people show up,” he said, as reported by The Christian Post. “So simply reopening a church doesn’t fix the underlying economic challenges that you might have.”

He also predicts that the “digital church is here to stay” as online attendance continues to climb.

Many pastors have expressed their discouragement in whether or not their churches will weather the storm. At the beginning of the pandemic, 70% of pastors responded that they were “very confident” they would make it. More recently, however, that number has dropped to 58%.

“We’ll look back at this pandemic as a fundamental change…” Kinnaman said. “I think also it’s really going to change the way people think about their donation relationship with local churches as well. There’ll have to be even greater demonstration of the value that a church…

A 32-year-old TikToK user says she prayed to God for the first time since becoming an atheist after she watched other videos about God on TikTok.

The user, identified as Felicia and under the username “inkydoeshair,” posted in her own now-viral video that she needed “help” learning how to be a Christian, Faithwire reports.

“If you’ve been on my page before, you know I’ve posted things about being an atheist and I took it down because now I’m really confused. Because all I see are videos about God and Jesus, and I actually prayed the other night, and I don’t know why,” she said in the video. “I guess I need help, because I just don’t know where to start. I just don’t get how, if you guys claim He loves me so much, I don’t understand why I have denied him so many times.”

@inkydoeshair

Hardest video I’ve made. Please don’t judge me. If you see this please help me on why I’m so confused right now ##jesus ##god ##askingforhelp

♬ empty crown – YAS

Felicia said in the video that she was raised as a Christian but became an atheist several years ago. Other TikTok users have asked her if she will now delete some of her past videos, in which she curses and asks the universe to manifest things in her life.

“I can see where I was when I felt lost, and you can see it in those videos, and now you can see where I am now,” she said in a

A majority of Americans and nearly a third of evangelicals say Jesus was a “good teacher” but was not God, according to a new survey for Ligonier Ministries that was conducted by LifeWay Research.

All total, 52 percent of Americans say they believe Jesus was a “good teacher, but he was not God,” according to the survey. Although the poll’s finding about the general population may not be shocking, Ligonier said it is surprising that nearly a third of evangelicals (30 percent) affirm the statement and believe Jesus was a good teacher and nothing more. Sixty-six percent of evangelicals disagree with the statement.

“The confusion illustrated in these results suggests a dire need for Christians to be taught Christology, the doctrine of the person and work of Jesus Christ,” Ligonier said in a news release.

The question was part of Ligonier’s biennial State of Theology survey.

Meanwhile, 65 percent of evangelicals believe “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God” – a statement that conflicts with the Bible.

Christ’s deity and eternality are taught in such passages as John 1:1, John 8:58, Romans 9:5 and Hebrews 1:1-4.

“Statistics like these from the State of Theology survey can give us quite a shock, but they also shed light on the concerns that many American Christians and churches have expressed for decades,” said Stephen Nichols,…

Last weekend, Christians from multiple churches alongside elected officials in Ashland, Ohio partook in an act of corporate repentance and prayer before God in calling for a national and global revival.

Hundreds of people from the community gathered at the special event held on Saturday at Ashland’s Freer Field, a 78-acre park near the city, Frontlines Ohio reports.

The gathering is considered to be the first-ever “Sacred Assembly” in the area, as it featured a time of worship, prayer, and remarks from church leaders and several officials.

“There is a sense that GOD is doing many great things. GOD is re-writing the history of Ashland. I believe with all my heart there will be a great harvest by what has been prayed for here tonight. We are beginning to see the activity and orchestration of GOD,” said Pastor David McNeely of New Life Community Church.

State Rep. Darrell Kick, an assembly speaker, acknowledged the spiritual uniqueness of Ashland as his represented district. He also noted how a Bible study is held by several state lawmakers prior to casting their vote at the Statehouse. 

“There is the perception Ashland is a GOD-fearing county. As an elected official, I have noticed over the past couple of years there has been spiritual renewal in this area. After what I saw today, I am not aware of another district where the Mayor commits the city to Jesus Christ…

Kristi Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota, tackled a number of issues in an interview on CBN News on Wednesday, including religious freedom, cancel culture and the coronavirus pandemic.

Noem explained to CBN News Chief Political Analyst David Brody that she did not implement lockdown procedures during the pandemic because she felt that it would be government overreach.

“I know that when you have a leader overstep their authority in a time of crisis, that’s really when you lose this country, and I didn’t want to be guilty of doing that,” she explained. “I never issued a shelter in place, I never closed a business. I didn’t even define an essential business, what would be essential and what wouldn’t be because I don’t have the authority to do that,” she said.

Noem noted that she believes other leaders, particularly governors in Democrat-run cities, have politicized the pandemic.

“At the beginning of this crisis back in March and April, I don’t think it was really politically motivated because these same Democrat governors that are on TV, tearing apart the president today, months ago, were singing his praises,” she said, adding how they were thanking Trump during conference calls for his assistance during the pandemic.

“What I am saying, though, is that what I heard on those conference calls was fear. I was shocked and amazed by how fear controlled people,…