Erica Campbell First Gospel Music Artist to Break 1 Million Instagram Followers

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Erica Campbell First Gospel Music Artist to Break 1 Million Instagram Followers

Erica Campbell (Photo: Reuters/Jonathan Alcorn)

Christian Post Report – Erica Campbell and Warryn Campbell pose with their Grammy award for Best Gospel Song for “Go Get It” backstage at the 55th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, February 10, 2013.

Erica Campbell has another reason to “luh God.” She has officially become the first gospel singer to reach 1 million followers on Instagram.

The 43-year-old “I Luh God” gospel singer took to Instagram to show her fans appreciation for helping her expand her reach.

“I love you and I appreciate your kindness, love and support,” she wrote. “You’ve poured into my life and my ministry.”

This week, Campbell will show her fans how much they mean by providing a sneak peak of her hit WEtv show, “Mary Mary” and her upcoming music video “God You Are,” which was created from fan submissions.

“In celebration of 1 Million IG followers, I’m giving it right back to you,” she wrote.

Campbell’s reach has expanded beyond the Mary Mary group that she started close to two decades ago with her sister, Tina Campbell. After embarking on her solo music career in 2013, Erica released her luxury hair extension line last year.

These days Campbell is beyond busy with her Mary Mary reality television show, solo career and responsibility as first lady of the California Worship Center church. She previously spoke to The Christian Post about balancing her multiple ventures.

“You just take one day at a time. It is a lot, but I don’t feel overwhelmed,” the “Help” singer revealed to CP last year. “I feel like I’m busy, but if God gives you the vision, He will give you the provision to handle it. So I have a great staff of people. I don’t do anything in my own strength or by myself.”

“I just say thank you for the support, I believe there are people that pray for me and lift me up so I say thank you so much. I couldn’t do this without the power of prayer, so I’m very grateful for everyone who’s been supportive up until this point,” Campbell previously told CP. “There’s still much more to come. Erica Campbell stays busy.”

While there is no simple explanation for how Campbell keeps all of her ventures together, she does make sure to prioritize her family.

“At some point you shut it all off and I’m just a mommy and Warren’s wife. I make the best of it and take it one day at a time,” she said. “I don’t think there’s a specific ABC or 1,2,3 for how to manage my life.

“You literally have to make sure that peace is always present. And peace is not the absence of trouble, it’s the presence of Jesus Christ,” she revealed. “So I wake up in the morning and I go, ‘Jesus be with me today in every phone call, in every issue, in every problem, in every triumph … be with me in every moment so I handle it right.'”

Source : Christian Post

Young Christian Thinker Jefferson Bethke on the Root Cause of Objectifying Women

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Young Christian Thinker Jefferson Bethke on the Root Cause of Objectifying Women

Jefferson Bethke (Photo: Courtesy of McClure Muntsinger PR)

Christian Post Report – Author and YouTube star Jefferson Bethke

Inspirational Christian speaker Jefferson Bethke recently spoke on the objectification of women in modern culture and what Christians can do to combat the degradation.

In his most recent YouTube video, Bethke, the author of It’s Not What You Think, explains that he chose to focus his weekly video message on the objectification of women because he believes it’s a “huge cultural problem” that also carries a lot of nuance, adding that the root of the problem can be found in Scripture.

The young evangelical speaker begins his talk by pointing to several cultural disadvantages that plague women and turn them into sex objects, including overly-sexualized advertisements, pornography, and technology.

Although there are several examples of objectification in today’s culture, Bethke says that Christians fail to see what Scripture describes as the “problem behind the problem” in regards to this disturbing issue.

The origin of the problem can be found in Genesis 3, Bethke explains, when Eve and Adam ate the apple in the Garden of Eden, causing “sin [to] first [fracture] the world.”

“We saw [in this passage] that we actually went from image-bearers to now, the inclination in all of humans’ hearts, is to make another human a commodity or an object,” Bethke explains, adding that when “sin entered the world, we no longer see people as fellow brothers and sisters, but now as competition, as objects, as enemies.”

He adds that sin and objectification not only applies to women but also to forms of abuse, including sweatshops, pornography, and reality television.

“The problem behind the problem is not sexual objectification of women in particular, it’s commodification of image bearers in general,” Bethke explains.

Ultimately, male and female Christians must work to combat this abuse together, the young Christian thinker says, suggesting that it is a woman’s responsibility to present herself in a certain way, just as it is a man’s responsibility to view the opposite sex with respect.

“We should all ask: are we making ourselves more a product, or are we making ourselves more and more about being an image-bearer?” Bethke suggests.

The 27-year-old Christian leader has spoken on the topic of objectification before, explaining at a Q Talk last spring that there is a connection between pornography, technology, and the objectification of women.

The advent of internet porn is, to some degree, “remaking humans, and not in a good way,” Bethke said during an April 2015 Q Talk.

When porn and technology interact with each other, he said, there is an “utter death of intimacy” between women and men because porn, by its nature, cannot provide the type of intimacy required for a loving relationship.

Bethke adds that due to the distraction of modern technology and all of its temptations, including pornography, Christians are no longer able to understand “what it means to be ‘known'” by someone else.

“In fact, I think we’re terrified of being known, not realizing that joy is hiding right on the other side of that,” Bethke said.

Source : Christian Post

Would Donald Trump ‘Get Medieval’ on America’s Foes?

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Would Donald Trump ‘Get Medieval’ on America’s Foes?

Would Donald Trump "Get Medieval" On America's Foes?

Christian Post Report – Donald Trump may authorize “chopping people’s heads off” as an appropriate method of torture should he become president, the 2016 candidate said in a recent interview.

Trump made his comments in a Sunday appearance with George Stephanopoulos on “This Week,” saying that if he were elected commander-in-chief, he would implement tactics that go “beyond waterboarding.”

“I would absolutely authorize something beyond waterboarding. And believe me, it will be effective,” Trump said on the weekend program, adding, “If we need information, George, you have our enemy cutting heads off of Christians and plenty of others, by the hundreds, by the thousands.”

“You have to do it that way,” Trump continued, adding, “And I’m not sure everybody agrees with me. I guess a lot of people don’t.”

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/chopping-off-heads-torture-donald-trump-157199/#kwTxv41dDb6PX2MA.99

Source : Christian Post

Illiterate Christian Man Accused of Sending ‘Blasphemous’ Texts to Islamic Cleric Appeals Death Sentence

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Illiterate Christian Man Accused of Sending ‘Blasphemous’ Texts to Islamic Cleric Appeals Death Sentence

Pakistan (Photo: Reuters/Mohsin Raza)

Christian Post Report – Members of the Pakistani Christian community carry wooden crosses and a casket during a demonstration to condemn the death of a Christian couple in a village in Punjab province on Tuesday, in Lahore, November 5, 2014. Police in Pakistan arrested dozens of people on Wednesday after a mob beat a Christian couple to death and burned their bodies for allegedly desecrating a Quran.

A disabled Christian man who has been sentenced to death alongside his wife for allegedly sending blasphemous text messages to an Islamic cleric has filed an appeal at Lahore High Court, seeking bail due to his deteriorating health.

“I have developed bedsores and I may die in jail as there is no possibility of a better treatment there,” Shafqat Masih, who is paralyzed from his waist down, said in his petition, according to the Deccan Chronicle.

“There are serious contradictions in witness accounts against me and my wife and we are hopeful of an acquittal on our appeal,” he added.

Masih, alongside his wife, Shagufta, both of whom are in their 40s, were convicted and sentenced to death on charges of blasphemy back in April 2014. The couple, who have four young children, were found guilty of sending blasphemous text messages to a local cleric, something which they deny on account that they are both illiterate.

“There was no evidence that the text messages came from a phone owned by the couple. In the first place they had lost the phone some months before July 2013 and secondly there was no SIM card in their names. The only evidence police produced was a bill for a SIM card from a shop owner which is unheard of,” said Farukh Saif, an official of World Vision in Progress, an organization defending the Christian couple.

The Lahore court is set to hear the petition on March 5.

Human rights and persecution watchdog groups, such as International Christian Concern, have pointed out that Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws are often used to persecute Christians and other religious minorities in the country.

While meant to protect Islamic sensitivities, the laws are often used to settle scores, for personal gain, and to oppress minorities, ICC said.

One of the most famous blasphemy cases of the past few yeas concerns Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five who was sentenced to death back in 2010. Bibi was accused of blaspheming against Islam by a group of Muslim women who were angry at her for drinking from the same water bowl as them.

Bibi’s family won the right to see her in prison without restrictions following a court decision in August, and the petition to free her has gained international momentum. Bibi’s husband, Ashiq Masih, met and prayed with Pope Francis at the Vatican last April.

“We are here in Italy to make sure we can be the voice of an innocent woman who has been suffering in jail for six years,” Masih said at the time.

“Since the day Asia Bibi was arrested, our family is totally destroyed. The children cannot survive without their mother. Asia Bibi misses her children, the children miss her,” he added.

Source : Christian Post

A Miscarriage of Justice for Homeschoolers

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A Miscarriage of Justice for Homeschoolers

A Miscarriage Of Justice For Homeschoolers

Christian Post Report – Two homeschooling families in Ohio could face hefty fines and many years in prison for failing to properly fill out notices of intent with their local school districts.

“Both families said they felt blindsided by these charges after they had taken steps to correct minor paperwork issues, which the school district did not bring to the families’ attention for weeks,” said attorney Peter Kamakawiwoole with the Home School Legal Defense Association to The Christian Post Tuesday.

“As this litigation is on-going, we are hesitant to discuss their situation in significant detail, beyond saying that the families are preparing for their criminal trials, which were originally scheduled for later this month.”

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/ohio-homeschooling-families-parents-threatened-jail-time-criminal-charges-fines-157206/#x6R9yoYcXwi8XMMk.99

Source : Christian Post

Oldest Surviving Copy of Hebrew Bible Recognized as UNESCO World Treasure

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Oldest Surviving Copy of Hebrew Bible Recognized as UNESCO World Treasure

Aleppo Codex (Photo: Reuters)/Ammar Awad

Christian Post Report – A picture depicting the 10th century Aleppo Codex is displayed during a news conference at Jerusalem’s Yad Ben-Zvi institute December 2, 2007. The institute said last month that a 1,000-year-old parchment, the size of a credit card, forms part of the Aleppo Codex, viewed by scholars as one of the most authoritative manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible. The parchment was kept as a lucky charm by Sam Sabbagh, a Syrian Jew who in 1947 plucked it from the floor of an Aleppo synagogue that was torched after a United Nations decision to partition Palestine, paving the way for the creation of Israel.

The Aleppo Codex, the oldest surviving copy of the Hebrew Bible that some experts believe all versions of the Old Testament stem from, has been recognized by UNESCO as an important world treasure.

I24News reported that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization added the millennium-old Codex earlier this week to its International Memory of the World Register, which honors some of the most important discoveries relating to human history.

Adolfo Roitman, the head curator of the Shrine of the Book Museum in Jerusalem, which holds the Codex, explained its significance, stating that all current versions of the Old Testament stem, “in one way or another, from this ancient manuscript.”

Dead Sea scrolls(Photo: Reuters/Baz Ratner)Amir Ganor, director of the unit for the prevention of antiquities robbery in the Israeli Antiquities Authority, shows a document, thought to be an ancient text written on papyrus, at Jerusalem Magistrates Court May 6, 2009. According to the Israeli Antiquities Authority, the document is written in ancient Hebrew script, which is characteristic of the Second Temple period and the first and second centuries CE. This style of writing is primarily known from the Dead Sea scrolls and various inscriptions that occur on ossuaries and coffins. It was seized from two men suspected to be antiquities robbers in an elaborate undercover operation

The Codex is believed to have been written somewhere around the year 930 in the town of Tiberias on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. It has been moved around through several different cities, and as many as 190 pages are missing from the surviving copy, though scholars disagree where and when they were lost.

It was smuggled out of Syria and arrived in Israel in 1958, before it was eventually moved to the Israel Museum in the mid-1980s.

It is also not clear who precisely owns the Codex, though filmmaker Avi Dabach, who is planning to make a documentary about the ancient manuscript, believes that it belongs to the Jewish community that fled Syria.

“In the 1960s the Aleppo-Jewish community sued the people who brought the Codex to Israel. … The Israeli Authorities decided to confiscate this item and then, from a position of strength, force on the community an arrangement,” Dabach has said.

Although the Aleppo Codex is considered the oldest copy of the Hebrew Old Testament, there are much older fragments of biblical manuscripts in existence, such as the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea scrolls.

The scrolls, written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, date back to the first and third centuries BCE, and contain texts from the Old Testament pertaining to the birth of Christianity. They are believed to have been hidden from approaching Roman armies in the caves in the Judean desert on the shores of the Dead Seas somewhere around 68 BCE.

Back in September 2011, the scrolls were made available online through a joint effort by Israel’s national museum and Google, whereas previously only a small group of scholars had read them.

Source : Christian Post

Sexual Sin Is Not Enough To Take you To Hell – Pastor Sunday Adelaja

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Sexual Sin Is Not Enough To Take you To Hell – Pastor Sunday Adelaja

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Franklin Graham Warns Christians Will ‘Lose This Country’ If They Don’t Vote

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Franklin Graham Warns Christians Will ‘Lose This Country’ If They Don’t Vote

Franklin Graham (Photo: Reuters/Allison Shelley)

Christian Post Report – Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, addresses the crowd at the Festival of Hope, an evangelistic rally held at the national stadium in Port-au-Prince, January 9, 2011.

The Rev. Franklin Graham implored Christians to vote based on their biblical values in South Carolina on Tuesday, warning that they may “lose this country” if they don’t participate in the 2016 election.

Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, made his comments while on his latest stop in Columbia, South Carolina, as part of his Decision America Tour.

The evangelical leader told the crowd of over 7,000 that although he is not endorsing any one political candidate, Christians must remember their biblical values when voting in the upcoming election, warning that if believers don’t get involved in politics, “we’re going to lose this country.”

“America is being stripped of biblical heritage,” Graham said while speaking at the State House in Columbia this week, adding that he encourages American Christians to “vote for candidates who stand for biblical truth and biblical principles, and are willing to live them.”

“I want to get to as many Christians as I can to vote in the next election,” the evangelical leader continued. “Our country is going in the wrong direction. And I think some of the politicians that are running have tapped into the anger and the frustration in this country. And I want Christians to know that their vote does count and we’ve taken God out of government, schools and everything else and we need to get God back into it.”

“Our society is unraveling and it’s coming apart,” Graham added.

The evangelist’s latest stop in South Carolina comes ahead of the state’s presidential primary set to take place on February 20. Graham has already stopped in Iowa and New Hampshire ahead of their recent Caucus and primary votes, respectively.

The religious leader echoed a similar sentiment on his recent visit to Georgia, where he encouraged an audience in Atlanta to fight against society’s use of political correctness.

“You try to lift up the name of Christ in any public form, and what happens? The lawyers come and say ‘we’re gonna sue you.’ And so people begin to back up; people go ‘I don’t want get sued.’ Let me tell you: Get sued. Get sued,” Graham told the crowd.

When speaking in Des Moines, Iowa, in January, Graham said he has “zero hope” for either political party, instead telling Christians that they must rely on their own moral conscience to make the right decision for the country.

“I have no hope in the Democratic Party. I have zero hope in the Republican Party […] My only hope is in the body of Christ,” Graham told the crowd of over 2,000.

On the Decision America website, Graham states that his goal with his nationwide tour is to “challenge Christians to live out their faith at home, in public and at the ballot box,” adding that he will also “share the Gospel” during his visits.

Although Graham has not officially endorsed any political candidate, he did applaud the recent results of the Iowa Caucus on social media, focusing on the large amount of evangelicals who turned out to cast their vote.

“The polls show that more evangelical Christians came out to vote last night than in 2008 or 2012. I hope that this will be true for both the Democratic and Republican parties and spread to every state,” Graham posted on Twitter earlier this month.

“If men and women who love God and fear Him will stand up and let their voices be heard at the ballot box, it will make a difference in our country. God bless America!” Graham added.

As The Christian Post previously reported, voter polling data from Edison Media Research found that in the recent Iowa Caucus, 64 percent of Republican voters identified as evangelical.

Source : Christian Post

Beyonce’s Mother Tina Knowles Reveals Favorite Worship Song

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Beyonce’s Mother Tina Knowles Reveals Favorite Worship Song

beyonce tina knowles (Photo: Reuters/Olivia Harris)

Christian Post Report – U.S. singer Beyonce Knowles (R) holds hands with her mother Tina Knowles on the catwalk after the launch of their first collection, The House of Dereon, at Selfridges September 17, 2011.

Just weeks before attending Super Bowl 50 with her pop superstar daughter Beyonce, Tina Knowles-Lawson was in church giving total praise while listening to one of her “favorite” gospel songs.

During the worship portion of a church service held at St. John’s Houston, Knowles took a few seconds to shoot an Instagram clip of the worship band singing and playing to Richard Smallwood’s 1996 song, “Total Praise.”

“One of my favorite church songs : ‘lift Your Hands in Total Praise,'” Knowles posted along with a clip of the entire church with hands lifted in worship.

“Total Praise” has become a staple song in gospel music, being covered by many churches and choirs throughout the years. In 2001 when Destiny’s Child was looking to do a gospel medley for their album “Survivor,” the Washington Post reported that Michelle Williams suggested “Total Praise” to fellow group members Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland. Although they did not cover the complete song, the girls used Smallwood’s “Amen” chorus as the final part of their gospel medley.

“Total Praise” is based on Psalm 121, in which King David wrote about relying on God during his most difficult times. “I lift up my eyes to the hills, From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth,” the psalm reads.

Beyonce has never shied away from mentioning God throughout the years. Early on with Destiny’s Child, she was known to occasionally sing a few gospel numbers and her faith can be accredited to her mother.

Knowles-Lawson, now remarried to actor Richard Lawson, in a keynoteaddress at the Texas Women’s Empowerment Foundation’s eighth annual Women & Money luncheon, shared her testimony and talked about growing up in the Christian faith as a Catholic.

She accredits all of her success as a fashion designer with House of Deréon to the tough skin she gained while attending Catholic school.

“The nuns picked on us a lot, my family. I didn’t understand at the time but my mom did the altar cloths. She did the altar boys’ uniforms. She worked for the nuns. My dad chauffeured the nuns around. My brothers cleaned the school yard,” she said. “And I often wondered why we were indentured servants to the church. And the nuns were very hard on me. They would always say, ‘You really don’t belong here. If you only knew, you’d be very grateful to be here. You’ve got a rebellious spirit. We need to take down that spirit and control it.'”

Source : Christian Post

Iran-Backed Militias Lead Attacks on Christians in Baghdad

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Iran-Backed Militias Lead Attacks on Christians in Baghdad

Radical militias with Iranian support are reportedly attacking Christian communities in Iraq, seizing property and sites of cultural interest.

Lisa Daftari of Foreign Desk wrote Tuesday that this was happening especially around Baghdad and attributed her information as coming from multiple sources, including “Christian members of the Iraqi Parliament,” “Christian community leaders,” and the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat.

“According to leaders, the seizures have been carried out in the upscale regions of Baghdad, where militia men have forced entry into homes and businesses with falsified documents,” wrote Daftari.

“Iraq’s Christians are considered to be one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, with their villages concentrated in Baghdad, Basra, Erbil and Kirkuk. The Assyrians had made the towns and regions around the Nineveh Plains in the north home, until IS forced them out.”

A religious minority who have ancient roots in the Middle Eastern nation, Iraqi Christians have found themselves the victims of increasing persecution.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, the situation for Christians in Iraq has become increasingly hostile, with large numbers fleeing the nation.

With the rise of IS, Christians and other religious minority groups have found themselves in danger of what some have called a “slow-motion genocide.”

Christian persecution watchdog group Open Doors USA recently ranked Iraq among the worst persecutors of Christians in the world today, noting that “Christians have lived in Iraq for two millennia but are currently on the verge of extinction.”

“Christians are caught here in the crossfire of two different battles: one for a Kurdish autonomous country and one for a religious cleansing of Iraq by Islamic terrorist groups who wish to make the country purely Islamic,” noted Open Doors.

“On the other hand, amidst the current crisis, there are also sparks of hope as opportunities arise for churches to reach out to refugees.”

News of the militia attacks on Christians in Baghdad comes as the European Union Parliament voted overwhelmingly to label IS’ actions in Iraq and Syria “genocide.”

Sophia Kuby, director of EU Advocacy at Alliance Defending Freedom International, told The Christian Post in a statement that she hoped the EU resolution will “save lives.”

“Genocide is an internationally recognized legal term and it is necessary to call for further steps such as a referral by the U.N. Security Council to the International Criminal Court in order to condemn and punish the perpetrators of genocide,” stated Kuby.

“We hope that the resolution that the European Parliament adopted today will ultimately help to save lives.”

Source : Christian Post

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