Read Time: 2 Minutes, 27 Seconds

Because God had resurrected him from the dead, James wasn’t about to resign himself to a life as a quadriplegic. He knew his God was much, much bigger than that.

After a zipline accident in June left him clinically dead for a few minutes, James, from Little Rock, Arkansas, was revived, but doctors diagnosed him as a quadriplegic and told him he would never walk again. But James, who already had the faith of a mustard seed, says he refused to believe that report and chose instead to hang onto God’s promises for his healing.

He had seen “thousands” of others healed after praying for him, so why not him?

Soon after, James began to move his arms, and then his legs. It was then he knew that his faith wasn’t wasted and his standing on the Word of God was not vain. He began to walk again, just like he had prior to the accident.

“I fell off a zipline, and I was actually dead,” James said recently in a video that featured evangelist Todd White. “I died for around 10 or 15 minutes and was resurrected from the dead. The doctors said, ‘well, he’s back, but this is one of those Chris Reeve Superman accidents, so quadriplegia was the diagnosis. That meant that nothing below my neck may have ever worked again.

“I told the doctors, you don’t know Jesus. Todd (White) came, he and his crew, and they prayed. When man doesn’t have a way, God has a way, and I am so thankful. God’s promises are true. I just praise God for people who walk in it and believe in it. It’s not based on what you see, but on the truth.”

James’ pastor had told White previously of the effect James was having on people, laying hands on them and praying for them, and seeing them healed. James’ tireless efforts as an evangelist himself were not wasted.

“In June, we were asked to come to the hospital here in Little Rock and pray for this guy who had fallen from a zipline,” White says. “We were told he would possibly be a quadriplegic, abut we were believing for God’s healing. I’m telling you, Jesus is so amazing.

“We were there that day and he (James) couldn’t move. He was in a hospital bed hooked up to a lot of tubes. He shared his heart a little bit and we prayed for him. My whole team was there. The doctor’s report was bad, bad, bad. But Jesus’ report was that he wouldn’t become a quadriplegic. Here he is, four months later, and Jesus made this guy whole.”

Fully recovered, James is now back out into the world to do ministry as God has called him, preaching the gospel and laying hands on the sick and afflicted.

“Jesus loves us so much, so never give up,” James says. “I’ve seen thousands of healings, and kinds of incredible stuff. Seeing the love of God touch people, like he did me, is so amazing. I am so grateful and I praise God forever for what he has done for me and is doing for others.” {eoa}

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Read Time: 3 Minutes 4 Seconds

Pew Research Center projects that Christians will be a minority group in America by 2070, and there is one major factor that is contributing to that statement: shifting cultural values.

Theology and sociology professor Stephen Bullivant told Grid news recently that young adults are spearheading a mass exodus from the church as a kind of “cultural whiplash” from religion to secularism. Bullivant said this trend has hit the United States much faster than it has in other parts of the world.

“Each person has a complex story, and we need to recognize the personal journey,” Bullivant, who recently wrote a book titled “Noverts: The Making of Ex-Christian America,” told Grid.

Bullivant is a practicing Catholic who teaches at St. Mary’s University in London and the University of Notre Dame in Sydney, Australia.

Pew Research points out that, since the 1990s, large numbers of Americans have left Christianity to join the growing ranks of U.S. adults who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.”

This accelerating trend is reshaping the U.S. religious landscape, and it gives a bleak glimpse into the future of what religion in America will look like 50 years from now.

The Pew Research Center has published several intriguing hypothetical scenarios describing how the U.S. religious landscape might change over the next half century.

The report estimates that, in 2020, 64% of Americans, including children, were Christian. People who are religiously unaffiliated, sometimes called “religious none’s,” accounted for 30% of the U.S. population. All other religions—including Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists—total about 6%.

By 2021, Pew reports, 42% of young adults, compared with 29% of all adults, weren’t religiously affiliated. Bullivant says that the largest demographic of what sociologists are labeling as “nonverts”—people who are ditching Christianity—will raise their children as “none’s.”

Bullivant says a tiny percentage of “noverts” return to religion while none’s rarely embrace religion at any point of their lives.

“When people do nonvert, they tend to do it in their early to mid-20s,” Bullivant said.

So, why is this happening now? Bullivant says you can’t simply blame shifting political views.

Bullivant told Grid news that there are three reasons for the mass exodus that began in 20th century culture: the Cold War, 9/11 and the Internet.

“The generation born after the height of the Cold War—in the early to mid 1980s—didn’t grow up with propaganda and blacklist fears,” Bullivant said from a secular point of view. “So, there is a safe space for the idea of a nonreligious life to open up.

“When 9/11 happened, then you have the new atheism with many prominent people coming out publicly questioning faith in a higher being. They opened up a nonreligious space. And, of course, the Internet.”

The Internet brought about a major shift in cultural in cultural values, giving anyone access to people who questioned their faith. Bullivant said he saw this particularly when interviewing ex-Mormons and ex-evangelicals.

“If you’re raised in small-town Texas or Idaho and everyone you know is some kind of Christian, you’re kind of in a bubble,” Bullivant said. “And then with the Internet, you start getting support groups online with thousands of members, and that helps erode those bubbles.”

There is only one thing that can stop this trend, and that’s a Third Great Awakening, which many kingdom leaders believe is coming to America very soon.

“The mighty God is creating people to turn the tide of wickedness,” says evangelist Mario Murillo. “He doesn’t care about your age or your education. He searches for someone who is travailing over the evil, and who will die without power and purpose. They want to be in the fight—and they want to be in the thick of it.

“The Holy Spirit is energizing you to take a giant leap out of dead church life. You are about to make a courageous declaration of war on the godless ideologies that are destroying our nation. You and I will see a harvest of lost souls. We will carry the gospel to those most victimized by America’s leftist plunge.” {eoa}

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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.

Read Time: 3 Minutes 3 Seconds

Hostility against America’s churches has tripled in the last four years, but Family Research President Tony Perkins says Christians must not live in fear and should continue to stand upon the truth of God in the face of hatred and violence.

The Family Research Council recently released an 82-page report detailing the criminal acts of vandalism and destruction of church property, which has become symptomatic of a collapse in societal reverence and respect for houses of worship and religion—in this case, churches and Christianity.

Americans apparently have become increasingly comfortable lashing out against church buildings, which points to a larger societal problem of marginalizing core Christian beliefs. Many attacks can be attributed to emotions being stirred by hot-button political issues related to human dignity and sexuality, the report reveals.

“As a former commissioner and chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), I’ve seen the warning signs of this gathering like clouds across the Atlantic,” Perkins says. “As the mainstream culture moves further and further away from a biblical worldview, I’ve witnessed the hostility to moral truth creep closer to our shores. The West, once the safe haven of free speech and religion, is turning cold to our religious foundations that have helped us thrive.

“While it is good to see the Biden administration acknowledge that these attacks are a problem, they must do more; the Biden Department of Justice has so far largely ignored these growing attacks on churches and that is creating an environment of lawlessness around the country.

“Christians must not live in fear. We must not be intimidated; we must continue to stand upon the truth of God and defending the freedom of all to live out their faith free from the fear that they will be subject to a violent attack.”

The report conveyed several trends including, but not limited to:

• A total of 420 acts of hostility against churches occurred between Jan. 2018 and Sep. 2022 across 45 U.S. states and Washington, D.C.
• There were at least 57 pro-abortion acts of hostility against churches from Jan. 2022 to Sep. 2022.
• FRC documented 342 occurrences of vandalism, 58 arson attacks or attempts, 12 gun-related incidents, 11 bomb threats and 19 other incidences (assault, threats, interruption of worship services, etc.). Twenty incidents (%) fell into more than one category.
• California had the most incidents, with 51. Texas had 33 incidents, New York 31 and Florida 23.
• Violent or destructive incidences that interfere with an individual’s lawful free exercise of religion at their house of worship present a significant nationwide challenge and must be condemned.

Arielle Del Turco, FRC’s Assistant Director of the Center for Religious Liberty and author of the report, said of the report:

“The problem of acts of hostility against churches in the United States is widespread and growing. This is not a trend that should be shrugged off. When churches are targeted for acts of destruction, arson or threatening messages, it has the potential to be intimidating—and sometimes that’s the intention.

“Within the past few years especially, outpourings of political anger have sometimes correlated with vandalism and other acts against churches. When faced with such blatant violence and disrespect against churches (and religion more broadly), our response must be to condemn these acts and reaffirm the right of all people to worship and live out their faith freely—including the freedom to live without fear that they will be the next target of such an attack.”

The attacks show the comprehensive nature of anti-Christian violence. Assaults occurred in 45 states and the nation’s capital. Victimized congregations span the theological gamut from evangelical, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, mainline Protestant, non-denominational churches and Seventh-Day Adventist. Assailants targeted churches primarily attended by white, black and Asian (specifically Korean and Taiwanese) Christians, as well as multiethnic congregations.

Other churches around the world are experiencing the same problems. St. Peter’s Church in Bramshaw, England, for example, has become the target of what the vicar of that church suspects are satanists.

To read the full report, click here. {eoa}

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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor for Charisma Media.

Read Time: 1 Minute 52 Seconds

Was Jesus a sinner, just like the rest of us? A new study revealed that a large percentage of Gen Z adults think so.

A poll conducted by the American Bible Society (with 2,598 adult participants) in its “State of the Bible 2022” revealed that 38% percent of Gen Z adults (ages 18-25) believe that Jesus committed sins, just like other people.

But anyone who reads the Bible—and believes it to be the inerrant Word of God—knows better.

• “You know that He was revealed to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5).
• For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who was in every sense tempted like we are, yet without sin.
• For to this you were called, because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22).

And there are many, many more.

The study revealed that a large percentage of Gen Xers (37%) also believe that Jesus was not sinless. Millennials (35%) and baby boomers (35%) also incline to that way of thinking.

Twenty-six percent Americans aged 77 and older don’t believe the biblical doctrine of a sinless Christ, and that group proved to the “most likely Bible users (58%) of any generation.

John Plake, director of ministry of intelligence at American Bible Society and editor-in-chief of the “State of the Bible” series, told the Christian Post that he is less concerned about generational assumptions than the obvious frightening statistic.

“I’m more concerned that we point people to the Word of God,” Plake said. “We get them there, they’re going to find wisdom, they’re going to find hope for their struggles, and if we can help people deeply connect with the Bible, then doctrinal challenges are going to work themselves out.

“This is not new to America. It’s not new to the 21st century. In some ways, every culture in the world is against Christ.”

ABS’ “State of the Bible 2022” also revealed that there was an unprecedented drop in Bible engagement during the COVID pandemic, which is ironic considering many people stayed inside their homes, for the most part, for months.

Plake told the Christian Post that much of that stems from “social pressures liked to the pandemic.” {eoa}

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Read Time: 3 Minutes 11 Seconds

Three years ago, Chris Battle walked away from his pastoral duties after three decades of leading Black Baptist churches in Tennessee. Battle left, he told , because he wasn’t seeing much of a connection among people, the unity in the body that Jesus Christ died for.

Battle says he felt like people were turned off by sermons, pitches for money and the “Sunday morning formality of all of it.”

“I said to myself, ‘maybe we need to do church differently,'” Battled says. “But what does that look like? I didn’t know until I got to the garden.”

The garden Battle refers to is Battlefield Farm & Gardens in East Knoxville, Tenn., a community garden on the property of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Knoxville. It is an urban farm with the mission of transforming the community’s relationship to land and food. It is a ministry working to end food insecurity by partnering with community members to make fresh food accessible and to cultivate land-based sovereignty through education, workforce development and direct relationship to land, their website states.

Members of Battlefield Farm & Gardens grow vegetables and sell them at a farmer’s market. They also collect unsold produce from around the city and deliver it to people in public housing once a week.

So, what does this have to do with Jesus and with the kingdom? Battlefield Farm & Gardens has become a solid alternative for those who have grown weary of the intricacies of traditional church. With American Christianity experiencing an identity crisis as church attendance continues a steep decline, Christian leaders are scrambling to experiment with new ways to offer meaning in people’s lives. NPR reported that “most of the people who show up at Battlefield Gardens on Sunday mornings say they are looking for a faith community, but are burned out on traditional religion.”

On Sunday morning, Battle delivers a brief sermon on Jesus’ teachings, and members of the congregation talk about it. Afterward, Battle’s “congregation” tends to the 50 raised beds of kale and eggplant, string beans and squash, tomatoes and greens, the chicken coop and the compost pile, NPR reported.

“People, when they come to the garden, they have conversations with you,” Battle told NPR. But you tell ’em you’re a pastor, the conversation changes. They hide their liquor. They quit cussin.’ I mean, everything changes.

“But you tell ’em you’re a farmer, and they start telling you what color their thumb is. And I’m like, wow. Developing relationships with people in the garden. And it’s not happening in church. People are running away from the church.”

Kelly Sauskojus, a 27-year-old PhD candidate in English, told NPR she’s a “refugee from fundamentalist churches.

“Generally I’m here because I want two things out of church,” she says. “I want time to sit down, like we do on Sundays sometimes, or around the fire and pray and center and figure out what we’re about in the world.

“The world is very noisy. Then, I want a church to get [expletive] done with your community and for your community.”

While Christian leaders watch their congregations dwindle, some in the Knoxville area say people still yearn for spirituality.

“Just because you leave organized religion doesn’t mean the hunger to connect with the divine is going to cease,” says Rev. Caroline Vogel, the associate rector and director of Spiritus Knox, a center for spiritual learning and practice at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Knoxville.

Since the pandemic, many have spurned assembling inside a church building for watching live-streamed services on the internet or on TV. Membership in houses of worship in 2021 fell below 50% for the first time since Gallup started its authoritative religion survey, NPR reports.

In 2020—before the pandemic—only 47% of Americans belonged to a church. NPR reported that attendance has been trending downward since 2000 because young people are rejecting organized religion.

In the case of Battlefield Farm, this “church” offers a different kind of spiritual community where people can show up for Bible lessons and dig in the dirt.

“We’re trying to create this community that people can learn to love each other and ultimately love other people and transform this world. … through collard greens and okra,” Battle told NPR. {eoa}

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Read Time: 1 Minute 56 Seconds

During his recent Sunday mass at the Vatican commemorating the feast of Our Lady Guadalupe, Pope Francis said he has seen signs of darker and more harrowing times coming for mankind, The Daily Mail in London reported.

The Pope says God has given him a vision of “omens of even greater destruction and desolation” than the current difficult times the world is experiencing now, including wars, the rising cost of living, poverty, famine and an international energy crisis.

In his homily Sunday, Pope Francis said, “It is a bitter time, filled with the rumbling of war, growing injustice, famine, poverty and suffering.” But, the pontiff said, he had a vision that things will only worsen in the near future.

At the same time, however, the pontiff told the Vatican congregation to prepare for Christmas and to embrace God’s love for humanity, that the Great Commission is of the utmost priority, and that the church must work together in unity to execute it.

“God’s divine love and His coming down to tell us that this too is a propitious time in which the Lord, through the Virgin Mother, continues to give us His Son,” Francis said. “(We need) to get together with each other ‘without delay,’ to go out to meet our brothers and sisters who have been forgotten and discarded by our consumerist and indifferent societies.”

During his homily, the Pope invoked John 3:16 which reads, “God who so loved the world, sent His Son born of a woman so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Pope Francis has been particularly concerned about the plight of the Ukrainian people and critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin “ongoing” invasion of that Ukraine, which will mark one year on Feb. 24.

The Daily Mail reported that he struggled to finish his sermon, choking up and halting his words while talking about the war-torn country.

“I would have liked to have brought you the thanks of the Ukrainian people,” he said. “But … the Ukrainian people for the peace we have so long asked of the Lord. Instead, I must present you with the please of children, elderly, mothers and fathers and the young people of that martyred land, suffering so much.”

A day earlier, The Daily Mail reported, Pope Francis compared the war in Ukraine to a Nazi operation that killed some 2 million people, mostly Jews, in the first years of World War II.

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Read Time: 3 Minutes 12 Seconds

Jonathan Cahn says that one of the signs of a nation under the judgment of God has to do with its children.

And with what is now happening in America and the attempting sexualization and paganization of its children through many facets of culture, there is little doubt, Cahn says, that the only hope for this country is revival.

“The Bible says that, in the last days, there will be a departing from the faith, with people giving heed to seducing spirits,” said Cahn, the bestselling author of “The Harbinger” and his latest blockbuster effort, “The Return of the Gods.” “The spirits are here, the gods are back and they are after your children. If they can get the children, they’ve got the nation and its future in the end times.”

Cahn says that today’s generation of children in America are “the most spiritually confused, empty and damaged generation in modern times.”

“They suffer from more mental illness than any other generation,” Cahn says. “They are more likely to harm themselves, to be addicted, to commit suicide. They are the most confused generation even to what they are, male or female. They are the most separated generation from the ways of God.”

Much of that, Cahn says, is due to entities like the Walt Disney Co., formerly a family-and-child-friendly entertainment company that has undeniably gone woke in recent years. Disney has turned to promoting the LGBTQIA agenda in its animated movies like “Strange World and “Lightyear.”

These movies are bringing financial woes to the company. “Strange World” is expected to lose more than $100 million for Disney.

“What is now happening to the Walt Disney Corporation is a sign of all of these things,” Cahn says. “The foremost provider of children’s entertainment has been noticeably darkening, and what is happening to them is accelerating. …

“Once hailed as the producer of child-friendly, family-friendly content, something dark has come upon that company. Something has possessed it. Recently Disney was caught privately confessing that their goal was to queer American children, and they have been seeking to do so. In its last few ‘child-oriented’ pictures, it pushed homosexuality on children, and they have bombed at the box office. But that has not stopped Disney. It has also produced an animated cartoon series called “The Owl House” about a girl learning how to be a witch. And even darker, another children’s show by Disney called—are you ready—”Little Demon.” It’s about Satan impregnating a woman and her anti-Christ daughter. It is said that the show normalizes Satanism and pedophilia.”

“And now, as if to take off the mask completely, Disney has produced a holiday special this year in which the children are to hold up signs saying, ‘We love you, Santa,’ but instead they have children holding up signs that say, ‘We love you Satan.’ It’s supposed to be funny. Not funny, but revealing. Merry Christmas from Disney.”

In “Return of the Gods,” Cahn says he opens up the mystery in which the gods of the pagan world, the spirits of ancient times, return to the modern world and to America.

The signs are all around, and there is no denying their presence.

“When a nation or a civilization that has known God turns away from God, it opens itself up to the spirits and to repossession,” Cahn says. “In the case of America, it opens itself up to the process of paganization, in which a Christian culture is morphed into a pagan one.”

Cahn implores parents, whether believers in Jesus Christ or not, to build a hedge of protection around their children to keep the evil from penetrating their hearts.

“If you’re a parent, guard and protect your child, it’s your responsibility before the Lord,” Cahn says. “If you don’t, you become guilty. And, if you are one who is into any of these darkness’s, get out of them before they destroy you. God’s arms are open and will receive you.

“And for you, child of God, pray as never before for the children, for the young, for the future of America and the nations. Pray for revival. The spirit of God is more powerful than the spirits of this world. The only hope America has is revival.” {eoa}

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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.

Read Time: 1 Minute 59 Seconds

Bishop J. Drew Sheard and the General Board of the Eastern Florida Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the Church of God in Christ announced Tuesday the death of one of its most beloved leaders, Bishop Derrick Hutchins Sr. Hutchins was 65.

Hutchins was the former pastor of New Life COGIC in Pine Hills, Florida, near Orlando.

Hutchins had a lasting impact on those he touched in the ministry.

A good friend, Bishop Brandon B. Porter, an elected official in the Church of God in Christ for 20 years, says Hutchins was one of the “greatest men of God I’ve ever known.”

“My brother, this departure of yours left a hole in my heart,” Porter wrote. “I have had your back for years and you have had mine. Now, I promise to guard your legacy the rest of my life. … He loved the Church of God in Christ. When you really love someone, you don’t just say it.

“When you have an opportunity, you move mountains to show it. Rest in peace my awesome friend and brother.”

Alex Danvers wrote this of Hutchins on :

“In the few years that I had the good fortune to know him, he had such a profound and enduring impression on my life that it will never be erased. Bishop never stopped referring to me as his brother in the covenant. What a fantastic individual he turned out to be. A mighty man of God, a visionary and a leader who also happens to be one of the best preachers and instructors I have ever listened to.

“Bishop Hutchins inspired me to perform deeds that were honorable. Every time I got the chance to read for him, he would tell me, ‘Read up on the Word, not like you were reading.’ We give thanks to God for providing the chance for us to participate in such a wonderful ministry.”

Hutchins often invoked the phrase, “injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere.” It is no truer than what is happening in society today.

He also often said, “true fulfillment comes through true involvement.”

Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.

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Read Time: 1 Minute 48 Seconds

The news headlines in 2022 have been filled with gloom and doom forecasts. People write and speak of a shortage of this, there is a shortage of that, whether it’s diesel fuel or essential food products.

So, how are we to prepare ourselves for famine throughout our land?

Prophet Chuck Pierce says God has given us authority and has put us in strategic places that give us access to everything we need. However, Pierce says we must think like Joseph in the Bible so that we may survive in the lean times.

“Think about during Joseph’s time. There was seven years of fatness and there was seven years of drought,” Pierce told Charisma News in an exclusive interview. “What he did was to develop a strategy of 12 centers for administration of supply. And once he did that, then they were able to sustain through the drought ahead.

“You see, God gives us supply so that we have the provision we need to advance His kingdom. That’s what Deuteronomy 8:18 says. God says ‘I’m going to give you the power to get wealth.’ That means He’s going to make us like a chameleon who can change if necessary, to gain what we need to accomplish His covenant purposes. So, that is key for us as we advance into the season ahead.”

Pierce says that in 2022, we have already been involved in a significant war over supply lines. But, he says, God has given us the victory and “we can see from a higher place that they enemy does not have access to.”

“This year (2023) is about opening up new supply lines,” Pierce says. “So, we’re in this war over the supply for our future. But you want to understand that God has already given you the authority to multiply either what you have or to find new sources to multiply. So this year, when the warfare comes, it’s all about how will we fill the house with the supply that will sustain us in years to come.

“So, I want to encourage all of you to think multiplication, think creativity. Don’t let the world produce fear in you

For the rest of Chuck Pierce’s prophecy, watch this video interview with Charisma News’ John Matarazzo. {eoa}

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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor for Charisma Media.

Read Time: 1 Minute 21 Seconds

A new study from Barna Research Group revealed that one the biggest reasons many pastors give for quitting the ministry is the political division within their church.

Amazingly, 38% of pastors pointed to “current political divisions” as a factor for them making a potential career change. Both mainline (66%) and non-mainline Protestant pastors (53%) expressed a concern that “Christians are more loyal to their political views than their faith.”

Of those surveyed, mainline Protestant pastors were more likely than non-mainline pastors to see political division as a problem within their congregation, an issue that has affected their ability to do their kingdom job.

A total of 47% of mainline pastors said that “Christians’ political partisanship reflects poorly on the church.”

Along that line, 42% of mainline pastors and 38% of non-mainline pastors said “the church should be a place of peace, not division.” An incredible 39% of mainline pastors said the church was “too aligned with Christian nationalism.”

Additionally, 29% of mainline pastors and 19% of non-mainline pastors asserted that the church is “too aligned with political conservatism.” Conversely, 8% of mainline pastors and 4% of non-mainline pastors believe the church is “too aligned with political liberalism.”

The Barna survey revealed that “immense stress of the job” as the leading cause of pastor burnout. A total of 56% of pastors who were considering quitting the ministry cited stress as the major reason they were thinking about switching vocations.

A total of 43% of pastors who thought about abandoning full-time ministry said they feel “lonely and isolated.” The survey found, however, that while many pastors are struggling, a majority of them are “staying the course.”

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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor for Charisma Media.