Students and pastors in Eugene, Oregon, took a stand against protestors on Friday who allegedly wanted to deface and tear down a cross that has been on the small private Christian college’s campus for decades.

A Facebook post entitled, “War on Racism Removal of ALL racist monuments Eugene/Springfield” sparked the protest, according to The Register-Guard. Radical Antifa activists claim that the cross on New Hope Christian College’s campus is a racist symbol because of its previous location on Skinner Butte where Ku Klux Klan members burned crosses in the 1920s.

“We will be using this event site to declare a War on Racism. This will be to identify ALL racist monuments, where they are located, how they were established, and their purpose,” the Facebook post said. “I peacefully request support in asking the New Hope Bible College…to review the history, then remove and replace the cross.”

Several emails and Facebook alerts, however, warned local “Patriots” groups that Antifa planned to tear down the cross, causing several men to stand guard at the entrance of the college armed with weapons on Friday.

Despite Antifa’s claims, New Hope members believe the cross is a symbol of hope.

“The history of the cross and how it came to reside on our campus has been well documented over the years, and there is no evidence to suggest our cross has direct roots…

Some 140 new immigrants from France found a new home this week in Israel.

According to CBN News, the immigrants were welcomed into the country despite travel restrictions and lockdowns.

“The Jews of Europe and the rest of the world are currently facing complex challenges, and every Jew should know that the gates of this country are still open, even during an emergency or crisis,” said Israel’s Minister of Immigration and Absorption, Pnina Tamano-Shata.

Tamano-Shata is also an immigrant to Israel, who came to the country from Ethiopia.

“The Ministry of Immigration and Absorption will accompany the olim (new immigrants) in their first steps towards integration into Israeli society because only together are we stronger,” she said.

Tamano-Shata added that Israel expects to welcome more than 10,000 immigrants this year.

“I congratulate our brothers and sisters from France, who are Zionists and full of love for this country, and who today, realized their dream of making Aliyah (immigration) and uniting with the people living in Zion,” she said.

The flight was sponsored by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which has been helping Jews make Aliyah for more than 20 years.

Already some 450,000 Jews live in France. It is one of the largest Jewish communities in the world, but many still face anti-Semitic attitudes and incidents.

Barbara Simha Bohadana, her husband and three…

Pastor and best-selling author Jentezen Franklin is calling on Christians in America and around the world to turn to God for 21 days of prayer and fasting during these unprecedented times.

Franklin, who leads the multi-campus church, Free Chapel, announced the fast on Facebook last week. He stressed the importance of fasting and prayer amid the pandemic, the economic disaster in the U.S, the upcoming school year, and the presidential election in November.

“I’ve had God deal with me and say call the Church, the body of Christ globally and at our church to a 21 day fast,” he said in a video.

The Georgia based pastor added that he will be hosting daily prayer meetings throughout the fast. He believes that by fasting and prayer, God will bring about a “divine reversal” on the pandemic.

“If my people, which are called by my name, would humble themselves“ Franklin said, citing 2 Chronicles 7:14. “That’s fasting and praying, and call on God.”

“We gotta see breakthrough, we gotta see it for business, for our nation and for our families.” he added.

“In moments like these the church prays, and the church acts,” Pastor Franklin said, according to CBN News. “We pray for a vaccine, we pray for those facing economic challenges, we pray for our children whose education and lives have been disrupted. We pray for those who are lonely and who feel lost in anxiety.  We also…

LOS ANGELES (RNS) — Every year in August, tens of thousands of people fill the seats of Angel Stadium in Anaheim, not for baseball, but for the weekend-long Harvest Crusade.

A tradition for more than three decades, the Southern California evangelistic event, founded by Harvest Christian Fellowship Pastor Greg Laurie and the late pastor Chuck Smith, has attracted millions of people since the ’90s. It has been described as the last of the big Billy Graham-style crusades in the United States.

Christian music artists entertain the crowds before Laurie shares his message of faith, loss and hope from the ball field. Toward the end, thousands of people every year rush down to the field to accept Jesus Christ.

This year, amid a global pandemic, Harvest Crusade will be different.

Instead of the in-person stadium event, Harvest ministries will stream a cinematic crusade titled “A Rush of Hope,” a film that will be released on Labor Day weekend. It will stream on Harvest’s social platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Roku and Apple TV channels.

The movie — created with the Erwin Brothers’ Kingdom Story Company — will feature messages from Laurie along with outtakes from faith-based films “I Can Only Imagine,” “I Still Believe” and “Woodlawn.” It will also include performances from Jeremy Camp, for KING & COUNTRY and MercyMe.

The film’s trailer opens with Laurie’s voice narrating as he drives an…

Ed Young, founding and senior pastor of Fellowship Church, is challenging churches across the U.S. to reopen their doors, warning that the spiritual ramifications of refusing to meet outweigh the hype of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Look at our culture. There is so much going on right now spiritually, especially among young people facing depression, anxiety, and attempting suicide,” Young, who leads the evangelical megachurch in Grapevine, Texas, told The Christian Post. “I have counted the cost of not opening our church versus opening, and I believe that risk and faith go hand in hand. It’s critical to reopen churches.”

Young, author of The Fear Virus, believes fear is what compels many churches to remain closed. Many pastors, he said, fear they’ll face online vitriol, criticism from the media, or their services will be poorly-attended should they reopen. He noted that some pastors have said they’ll suspend in-person services until they’re…

It’s a typical Friday afternoon and as soon as Bishop Jakes starts talking it becomes clear that not only does he have something to say, but that one better sit back and get ready to take notes.

In a culture and world that’s so uncertain, Bishop Jakes’s voice is what’s needed. Although Friday for most people is a down day, for Jakes its anything but.  

Jakes has taken on a new assignment to create the STEAM Academy, a branch of his T.D. Jakes foundation, to meet the needs of kids and adults who have been left behind. “I want to be that bridge in helping people,” Jakes told Christian Headlines in an interview.

When asked, why he decided to take on leading a foundation that requires raising millions of dollars from corporations, Jakes asserted that he’s on a mission for God.

“Eighty percent of the jobs in future America will involve science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM). I want to make sure that we are bridging that gap in helping people get the jobs that they need in the future,” Jakes shared.

If numbers are any indicator, the foundation is headed in the right direction. According to the bishop, last week, 5,000 kids participated in the STEAM online camp. 

But, for Jakes, it is not just about the number of kids enrolled in the program, it is also about the impact the program is having on the kids.

“I’ve been involved in this type of work for years, since my days of doing prison…

(RNS) — Church bells and shofars sounded across the country as a group of family and friends — a reduced crowd due to the coronavirus pandemic — gathered Thursday (July 30) to remember Rep. John Lewis at his funeral service at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

The civil rights leader’s life was marked by his deep Christian faith.

He famously preached to his family’s chickens as a boy, before being ordained a Baptist minister when still a young man, and was the youngest speaker at the March on Washington alongside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. Lewis’ beliefs motivated him to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where he was badly beaten by police for the right of African Americans to vote, a cause he later took up as a congressman.

And so it was fitting that his funeral was marked by powerful moments of faith.

The service was led by the Rev. Raphael Warnock, King’s successor as pastor of Ebenezer Baptist, and included messages by the Rev. James Lawson, members of Lewis’ family, his congressional staff, three U.S. presidents and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

They all spoke from Ebenezer’s pulpit in praise of a man whom Warnock described as “a living, walking sermon about truth-telling and justice-making, and he loved America until America learned how to love him back.”

Here are five more faith moments from Lewis’ funeral.

1. Churches rang their bells

Ebenezer…

JERUSALEM, August 3, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Dozens of foreign Christians in Turkey have been forced to leave the country or have been banned from returning in what appears to be government targeting of the Protestant Christian community, rights advocates say.

Many, like Carlos Madrigal of Spain, have been serving in leadership roles in Protestant churches in the country for years. Such foreigners have lived in the country for decades, forming families and buying property, according to a researcher at Middle East Concern (MEC).

Madrigal has lived in the country for more than 19 years on a clergy visa as the spiritual leader of the Istanbul Protestant Church Foundation (IPCF), according to a press statement from the group. At the airport in November 2019, he was issued a stamp in his passport that he realized would keep him from returning to Turkey if he left the country, so he decided to cancel his trip and appeal the decision, according to published reports.

Madrigal appeared on Turkish television in June to point out that he could see no clear reason why he was banned from the country, the MEC researcher said.

Noting that the ban against Madrigal was issued in November 2019, the IPCF stated, “It is with great sadness that we must inform you that since 2019, it has been made increasingly difficult for foreign Protestant clergy serving in Turkey to be resident in our…