JOS, Nigeria, October 29, 2020 (Morning Star News) – A church pastor in Nigeria who went missing on Oct. 19 has been captured along with two Christian women by militants of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), according to a video released by the terrorist group.

In the video clip uploaded on YouTube today (Oct. 29), the Rev. Polycarp Zongo of the Church of Christ In Nations (COCIN) says the militants captured him and the women as they traveled from Jos, Plateau state to the city of Gombe in the state of the same name.

“On Monday, 19 October 2020, I was traveling to Gombe for a church conference when we encountered the caliphate’s armed men who captured me along the way; and right now I’m with them,” Pastor Zongo says in the Hausa language, appealing to the Plateau state governor, state Sen. I.D. Gyang, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and COCIN leaders to help secure his release. “They too, captured two Christian women who are also here with me. I’m appealing that you all do all that is possible to secure our release from captivity.”

Pastor Zongo leads the COCIN congregation of Wild Life Park Local Church Council (LCC), in Jos.

ISWAP in 2016 broke off from the rebel terrorist group Boko Haram, which originated in Maiduguri.

On Jan. 20, Boko Haram terrorists executed the Rev. Lawan Andami, district chairman of the Church of the…

Nearly 4 in ten American Evangelicals believe that God has already chosen his people for salvation before the world came into existence.

The State of Theology Survey, which was conducted by Lifeway Research in collaboration with Ligonier Ministries, found that 38 percent of evangelicals agree with the following statement: “God chose the people he would save before he created the world.” By contrast, 44 percent disagree with the aforementioned statement.

U.S. adults, however, displayed further disagreement than evangelicals with 50 percent of respondents rejecting God’s plan of salvation while 26 percent were in agreement.

In response to evangelicals, Ligonier Teaching Fellow Dr. Stephen Nichols explained how most Christians today have a difficult time affirming that God is sovereign in salvation, otherwise known as the doctrine of election.

For Christians who do affirm God’s election of His people, Nichols explains that “we cannot live the Christian life without it.”

“But sadly, there are many who do read their Bibles, and they attend evangelical churches, and they call themselves an evangelical, who stumble over this doctrine and outright find it offensive,” he noted. “They cannot envision a God who would violate their free will, and they cannot attribute to God this doctrine, which we would say is a biblical teaching, of divine…

JOS, Nigeria, October 28, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Fulani herdsmen wounded two Christians in north-central Nigeria on Sunday (Oct. 25), a little more than a week after herdsmen in the country’s northeast killed another church member while a Christian woman and pastor were kidnapped, sources said.

Herdsmen shot and wounded the two Christians at Ratsat-Rat Junction in Plateau state’s Vatt village, Barkin Ladi County, at about 6:30 p.m. on Sunday (Oct. 25), said Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri, director of the Emancipation Centre for Crisis Victims in Nigeria (ECCVN), an area resident who spoke with one of the victims, Victor Markus.

“The Fulani herdsmen shot them as they rode on their motorcycle,” Mwantiri said. “Both of them escaped with bullet wounds. Victor Markus was shot on his hand and legs, while Gyang Gwom was also shot on his legs.”

Markus, 20, and Gwom, 30, were treated at Jos University Teaching Hospital, he said.

In northeast Nigeria’s Adamawa state, a group of armed Fulani herdsmen shot David Titus to death on Oct. 17 as was returning to Nega village from nearby Bang village, according to Aslem Nuhu Kyauta, a community leader and a resident of Numan town.

“He was shot and killed on the spot,” Kyauta told Morning Star News by text message. “This happened just a day after another Christian by the name of Kennedy Bitrus, from the same Bang…

In a speech at Warm Springs, Georgia on Tuesday, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden told a rally of voters that America must become “one nation under God” again, The Christian Post reports.

“I run to unite this nation, to heal this nation. I’ve said that from the beginning. It’s badly necessary,” Biden asserted.

The former Vice President then cited Ecclesiastes 3 as he stressed that God is calling the nation to a time of healing and unity.

“The Bible tells us there’s a time to break down and a time to build up, a time to heal. This is that time. God in history has called us to this moment and to this mission,” he argued.

“With our voices and our votes, [we] must free ourselves from the forces of darkness, from the forces of division and the forces of yesterday, from the forces that pull us apart, hold us down and hold us back.”

He continued, “And if we do so, we’ll once more become one nation under God, indivisible, a nation united, a nation strengthened, a nation healed. That is my goal. That is why I’m running.”

While America continues to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, racial injustice, political division, and a damaged economy, Biden reiterated that the healing of the nation is possible.

If elected, Biden pledged to be “a president who is not in it for himself but for others, a president who doesn’t divide us but…

Christian music star Natalie Grant has just contracted COVID-19, The Christian Post reports. The 48-year-old singer-songwriter is asking for prayer for her daughter, who is asthmatic.

In an Instagram post, Grant gives her followers an inside look at what her symptoms are like and what she is dealing with. “I’m terribly achy, extra tired, can’t taste anything and just super bleh. Though I realize I’m only at the start of it,” she said.

However, she is still grateful for many things, including “not having lung/breathing issues,” having “a loving family” and having a “supportive husband who is stepping in to fully take care of the kids.”

Grant also talked about those who have COVID-19 and are alone. “I’m thinking of those right now that are having so much difficulty breathing, and are afraid. My heart is with the single parent that has this stupid virus and is panicked about who is going to take care of their kids. I mean, how do you even isolate?” She said in her Instagram post.

In the post, she called single parents “all heroes” and said she was sorry for many people who have lost someone to the novel coronavirus. She also thoughtfully expressed what it would be like to lose a loved one to disease and not be able to say goodbye, “Most of you never even got the chance to say goodbye and I’m grieving with you.”

But, above it all, she says…

Josh Dickson, the National Faith Engagement Director for Biden for President, is calling Christian voters to consider electing Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

Dickson’s remarks are part of a new series by Christianity Today that seeks to make the case for presidential candidates on both sides of the political spectrum as well as a third-party option.

As Christian Headlines previously reported, Paula-White Cain, Trump’s faith advisor, made her case as to why Christians should re-elect the president for a second term.

Like many Christians, Dickson grew up in church and aligned himself with the Republican party. As a four-year-old boy, Dickson celebrated the presidential victory of George H.W. Bush and later cast his first presidential vote for Bush’s son, George W. Bush, while he was in college.

Through his experiences in multiple youth ministries, Dickson explained that is where he learned to implement Jesus’ teachings through words and actions. He resonated with Christ’s words in Matthew 25 that calls for believers to “to care for the hungry, the stranger, the sick, the prisoner, and anyone in need.”

“This is why, after college, my faith led me to teach in a low-income school on the South Side of Chicago,” Dickson wrote. “And that’s where my world changed.”

While Dickson was impressed with his students’…

Theologian and Trump voter Wayne Grudem has written a lengthy response to his friend John Piper, who last week posted a blog explaining why he isn’t voting for Joe Biden or President Trump and questioning why so many Christians back the Trump administration.

“I think it is a drastic mistake to think that the deadly influences of a leader come only through his policies and not also through his person,” Piper wrote. “Flagrant boastfulness, vulgarity, immorality and factiousness are not only self-incriminating; they are nation-corrupting.”

Grudem said he and Piper have been friends for more than 40 years but that the two men have “reached different conclusions about this year’s presidential election.” The Christian Post published Grudem’s response.

Grudem, a professor at Phoenix Seminary, agreed that a candidate’s character is important but asserted that – generally – it should not be the primary issue.

“In most elections, and with most candidates, we have to choose between two rather ordinary human beings, both of whom have flaws. In that case, an evaluation of their policies becomes decisive,” Grudem wrote.

Biden and the Democrats, Grudem argued, would pass laws that infringe on religious liberty and the sanctity of life.

“Piper’s argument fails to recognize that people can decide not to imitate the sins of a leader, but they cannot do…

Three people were killed at a church Thursday in Paris after someone attacked church members with a knife.

After the attack at Notre Dame Basilica, the prime minister raised its security alert status to the highest level, AP News reports.

The church killings were the third attack in two months in France, following the start of a trial of 14 people linked to the January 2015 killings at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket. The gunmen claimed to be part of the Islamic State group and al-Qaida. The newspaper had published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

Police were able to wound the assailant in Thursday’s church killings. He is in the hospital, but police have not released his name.

“He cried ‘Allah Akbar!’ over and over, even after he was injured,” said Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi. “The meaning of his gesture left no doubt.”

The attack also came after Islamic State extremists had released a video on Wednesday calling for attacks against France.

Also Thursday, in Avignon, police shot an armed man to death after he refused to follow officer’s warnings to drop his gun. At the French consulate in Jiddah, a man stabbed and wounded a guard.

Less than two weeks ago, an attacker beheaded a French middle school teacher who showed the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad for a class on free speech.

In September, a man attacked bystanders with a butcher…