Israeli researchers have made a breakthrough discovery about the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls, following an intense seven-year study.

CBN News reports that the study involved DNA samples taken from the ancient manuscripts. 

The results showed that some of them were written far off in the Qumran instead of the Dead Sea, where it is widely considered that they were composed by an ancient Jewish sect known as the Essenes.

The researchers made the discovery following a DNA analysis of the animal skin that the scrolls were written on.

“Almost all the scrolls we sampled were found to be made of sheep skin,” said Tel Aviv University Professor Oded Rechavi, who led the interdisciplinary team.

“And accordingly most of the effort was invested in the very challenging task of trying to piece together fragments made from the skin of particular sheep, and to separate these from fragments written on skins of different sheep that also share an almost identical genome,” Rechavi continued.

A notable find in the study revealed that two fragments of the book of Jeremiah were scripted on cowhide; which was not initially found in their location of discovery in the Judean desert.

“Cow husbandry requires grass and water, so it is very likely that cow hide was not processed in the desert but was brought to the Qumran caves from another place,” Rechavi noted.

Additionally, different renditions of the prophetic book were…

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death by a Minneapolis police officer, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick asserted that turning to God is needed to deal with racism and civil unrest.

The Lt. Governor told Fox News on Wednesday evening that the issue of racism across the country is ultimately an “issue of love,” adding that it boils down to loving God, which leads to loving one’s neighbor. 

“It’s loving God,” Patrick asserted. “If you cannot love your fellow man, if you don’t love God — and we have a country where we’ve been working really hard, particularly on the left, to kick God out.”

Patrick also added that the “culture of a country” cannot change until the “character of mankind” is changed first as it involves the transformation of the heart.

Furthermore, he asserted that the change of heart can only come in turning to God through His Son Jesus Christ.  

“And you can’t change that unless you change the heart, and for billions of us on the planet, we believe you can’t do that unless you accept Jesus Christ or unless you accept God”, Patrick said.

Fox News host Shannon Bream echoed his sentiment. 

“The Bible tells us it’s not optional,” she said. “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

However, Patrick noted that “God has been left out of this equation through all of this and we need tremendous healing.” 

“We cannot heal through…

(RNS) — The Southern Baptist Convention will not hold its annual meeting as it regularly does each June. But issues its members have long grappled with — including race and the roles of women — continue to be points of controversy in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

In December, Founders Ministries, a neo-Calvinist evangelical group made up primarily of Southern Baptists, premiered a documentary called “By What Standard?: God’s Word, God’s Rule.”

The film includes selective footage of discussions around last year’s meeting about whether women should preach, juxtaposed with Founders Ministries head Tom Ascol speaking of motherhood as “the highest calling.” Much of the almost two-hour film that has had some 60,000 views online chronicles the passage of resolutions at the 2019 meeting, from one on “the evil of sexual abuse” to another on “critical race theory and intersectionality.”

Two months after the film’s release, the Conservative Baptist Network was founded, calling itself an alternative for dissatisfied Southern Baptists who might otherwise leave the denomination or stay and remain silent.

“A significant number of Southern Baptists are concerned about the apparent emphasis on social justice, Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, and the redefining of biblical gender roles,” the network declared in its…

The pastor of a Chinese church says police last month secretly installed security cameras to monitor the congregation’s activities and to try and force him to stop preaching, according to a new report.

Pastor Ma Chao of the Guangfu house church in Guangdong province told China Aid he was heading to a prayer meeting in May when he noticed three cameras outside the church building, pointing toward the main entrance. 

He was told police had installed them to watch Ma and the church’s members.

The cameras were installed several days after police investigated three church members at the building. 

“Four police officers came, saying that they were investigating the church’s gathering. Two of them said we were not allowed to meet,” Ma said. “I was not present at the time, but pastor Wu, along with another pastor and elder were there.”

The church members asked the police for their identification and for the reason behind their visit, but were refused.

“A police said that his uniform is the ID,” Ma told China Aid. “They also took pictures of the church’s Bibles, hymnbooks, and said that this is where Ma Chao has his illegal gathering, so they came specifically for it.”

Police also investigated Ma in April. He believes the visits are “meant to threaten him and push him out of Guangzhou,” International Christian Concern reported. 

Although Ma’s church is an illegal,…

Attacks by armed gunmen on motorcycles left 27 dead in attacks on three villages in central Mali last week. Many of the deceased were shot or burned alive, the New York Times reports.

The attacks took place over a 24-hour period last week as mainly Islamic Fulani herders killed the predominately Christian Dogon farmers In Bamako. In the first village, Tille, they killed seven people. Then they killed the other 20 civilians the next day in the villages of Bankass and Koro.

The attacks continue a pattern of violence and reprisals after jihadists linked with al-Qaeda siezed the northern 2/3 of the nation in 2012.  French forces pushed back the Islamic militants in 2013, but they have since regained the territory and pushed their influence into Niger and Burkina Faso.

The Mali army fell under heavy criticism for their inability to protect civilians as instances of violence have been on the rise during the last two years. One group that keeps statistics on political violence, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, reported a 90% increase in civilian fatalities in Mali in the first quarter of 2020. This came after Dogon gunmen allegedly killed over 150 civilians last March.

The Barnabas Fund also reported that over 100 men, women, and children died in an attack on a mainly Christian village in central Mali last June.

According to Al Jazeera, 125 peacekeepers with the United Nations mission in…

Contemporary Christian and pop singer Amy Grant underwent open-heart surgery to fix a rare heart condition on Wednesday.

After going in for a regular checkup, Grant discovered earlier this year she has had a heart condition called partial anomalous pulmonary venous return (PAPVR) all of her life, TODAY reports.

Then in February, she took to Twitter to share the news.

“Since February is heart health awareness month, I want to send out a shout out to my doctor, John Bright Cage,” Grant wrote on Twitter. “He suggested I have a checkup because of my Dad’s heart history.”

“As always, I am feeling great, but the battery of tests he put me through show that I have had a heart condition since birth,” she shared.

“The first good news is that I am completely asymptomatic. The second good news is that it’s fixable, so instead of concerts and camping trips this summer, I am going to take care of my heart.

“Are you taking care of yours?! Please do,” she added.

Since February is heart health awareness month, I want to send a shout out to my doctor, John Bright Cage.

He suggested I have a check up because of my Dad’s heart history… (look to image for full message from Amy)#HeartHealth #PAPVR #EveryHeartbeat pic.twitter.com/5bXt17qXQX

— Amy Grant (@amygrant) February 13, 2020

Grant went in for open-heart surgery on Wednesday, and according to a statement on her official Facebook page, the…