Amir Tsarfati is an author, Israeli military veteran and the former deputy governor of Jericho, who is on a captivating mission to “explain Israel and its role in God’s plan.”

Tsarfati, whose new novel is titled “Operation Joktan,” runs an organization called Behold Israel that provides news and information about Israel and its role in biblical history and prophecy.

What People Get Wrong About Prophecy

In a recent interview with Faithwire, Tsarfati explained what people tend to get most wrong about prophecy. He noted that inconsistencies and the wrong focus can often compel people to entirely steer clear of prophetic issues.

“The biggest mistake is … people don’t divide the word rightly. They take things out of context,” he said. “They are emphasizing the wrong things. They ignore the important things and so they’re being disappointed over and over again and again and this is exactly why they look like lunatics in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of other Christians.”

At the core of the issue, he said, is the penchant some have for jumping to conclusions and extending beyond what Scripture proclaims. Rather than looking at things like the “blood moons” and other such predictions, he encouraged people to look at what the prophets say in Scripture.

“We are actually the most blessed generation since the time of Jesus Christ,” he said. “More prophecies are being fulfilled in our lifetime than any other generation since that first-century generation, and you know we don’t really have to work hard to find prophecies being fulfilled.”

Tsarfati encouraged people not to become “too sensationalist” and not to simply make proclamations to “sell books.” Instead, he encouraged people to cling closely to the Bible.

Old Testament Roots

Tsarfati’s passion for studying and speaking on Israel and prophecy grows out of his own story. A native Israeli, he found Jesus by exploring the Old Testament.

These Scriptures were the start of his deeper exploration of biblical prophecy and, more broadly, Christianity.

“I found Jesus through the Old Testament Prophets … predominately the Prophet Isaiah,” he told Faithwire. “I realized that the prophets of Israel were not only talking about past events but also about future events. It was clear to me that they are more reliable, authentic, and accurate than even the newspaper of today.”

Tsarfati said he was almost 18 when he discovered Christ. Having grown up in a foster home without parents since a young age, he found himself facing a crisis during his teenage years.

“I wanted to end my life, basically to put an end to my life,” he said. “I had no hope, and through all of that, God really revealed himself to me.”

When Tsarfati’s friends started talking to him about faith and he began exploring the Old Testament, he soon started gaining clarity into the New Testament—and the rest is history.

Tsarfati said he believes Isaiah 53 is “the deal-breaker or the deal maker” when it comes to the most compelling biblical prophecy. This chapter discusses the coming Messiah and is widely known to be a prophecy surrounding Jesus.

“Isaiah wrote it hundreds of years before Jesus came … to me this was an amazing thing,” he said. “And then of course Prophet Ezekiel in Chapter 36-37 spoke of the rebirth of Israel.”

Tsarfati said he’s elated to watch “prophecies being fulfilled” in our modern era. It’s a topic he frequently discusses. {eoa}

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In a lengthy video posted on New Year’s Day, actor Alec Baldwin opened up about his accidental killing of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and revealed he has been seeking spiritual and religious guidance.

The 63-year-old celebrity thanked those who have been “kind and thoughtful and generous in spirit” in the wake of the fatal shooting, calling their support “just incredible.”

“It’s New Year’s Day, and I’m hopeful that this year will be better than last year,” Baldwin said. “I can’t imagine it being as bad or worse than last year. Although, I look at last year and my daughter, Lucia, was born in February. So last year was a great year in spite of the problems we are facing.”

Baldwin said he is seeking help from religious and spiritual advisors to help him “manage [his] feelings better.”

“We live in a world where there’s just oceans of negativity, online and so forth, and one must find a way to manage that,” he explained, continuing:

The one thing I do want to consider very carefully in this coming year and really push myself is in terms of trying to not allow the negativity in my life to affect me. I’ve been having some very interesting phone calls with some very interesting people who I will not name but some of them rather well-known people who deal in all kinds of behavioral, philosophical, religious, spiritual, meditation, all kinds of ways to attain a state of mind where you really short circuit all of the negative in your life.

He added that he “understands” where his critics are coming from.

“To those people who offered me the opposite of support… I understand,” Baldwin said. “I understand where you’re coming from. It’s a tough world, and a lot of people are traumatized, and they want to pass that on to other people.”

Baldwin’s Instagram video comes weeks after he was interviewed on ABC’s 20/20 during which he eschewed responsibility, claiming he “didn’t pull the trigger” of the gun used in Hutchins’ death.

For the rest of this article, visit our content partners at .{eoa}

Reprinted with permission from . Copyright © 2022 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.

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Pastor Ray Bentley, founding and senior pastor of Maranatha Chapel in San Diego, California, died on Jan. 4. The church released this statement:

With grieving hearts, we need to let you know that our dear Pastor Ray went home to be with the Lord this afternoon due to complications of COVID. We are all in shock and heartbroken. We find comfort in knowing that he is rejoicing in heaven with his beloved Jesus. Certainly, he was welcomed with those beautiful words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Please pray for Vicki and their family and for our church. More information will follow, but for now we needed to let you know and ask for prayer.

May God bless us all.

Pastor Bentley founded Maranatha Chapel in August 1984 when he began teaching a small Bible study in a recreation center with 30 people. Now, Maranatha serves 7,000 people weekly through its various ministries. He reached thousands more on his daily radio show Maranatha Radio “as he takes the whole Gospel to the whole world.” Many of his messages and devotionals can be seen on his unded Maranatha Chapel in August 1984 when he began teaching a small Bible study in a recreation center with 3website.

Many considered Bentley an expert on biblical prophecy. He wrote The Holy Land Key: Unlocking End Times Prophecy Through the Lives of God’s People in Israel. He also just completed a trilogy called The Elijah Chronicles, along with Brock and Bodie Thoene. These geo-political thrillers centered around Jerusalem and brought end-times prophecy to life. He discussed that trilogy with CBN News last year in [an] interview.

Bentley also founded The Nehemiah Fund, “an outreach ministry of Ray Bentley Ministries that supports and endorses a group of non-profit organizations dedicated to helping and blessing Israel and her neighbors.” The ministry is based on the Scripture in Genesis 12:3: “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

To read the rest of this article, please visit our content partners at CBN News. {eoa}

Prior to the holidays, a school district in upstate New York announced that it would ban the teaching and singing of the beloved Christmas classic song “Jingle Bells” in the name of diversity and equity. The school district’s actions have drawn the ire of some significant faith leaders.

Black Pentecostal Pastor Mark Burns, who is running for U.S. Congress in South Carolina later this year, says the action by Council Rock Primary School is just another example of cancel culture’s attack on Christianity in America.

“The liberal left’s shameless attempt to label ‘Jingle Bells’ as racist is just another despicable attempt to remove Christianity from society entirely,” Burns says. “The left’s pet project in schools right now, DEI—so called diversity, equity and inclusion—is really all about erasing Christianity, erasing the rule of law, and erasing Western civilization.

“And in the case of the erasure ‘Jingle Bells’ from this school district, this New York school board is canceling a song that doesn’t overtly refer to Christianity, but which is closely associated with the secular celebration of a high Christian holiday,” Burns adds. “The left is actually going one step further with this Stalinistic cancel culture. Clearly the next step for cancel culture will be the complete removal of even vague references to Christianity.

“The left and godless Democrats obviously want to erase Christmas. Any objection they make in protest of that fact is clearly a lie. They are canceling us while telling us we are crazy. Quite frankly, it’s abusive behavior.”

“Everyone associates the song ‘Jingle Bells’ with Christmas, which everyone knows is really about the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So, of course the liberal left wants to cancel anything to do with Christianity in public schools and in society more broadly.”

Dr. Alveda King, niece of late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., says the school’s action only promotes divisiveness in our culture, not unity.

“We will never solve the problem of racism until we do what my Uncle Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said to do,” Alveda King says: “‘We must learn to live together as brothers [and sisters, added by Alveda King], or perish together as fools.’

“Acts 17:26 teaches us that we are one blood, one human race,” she says. “We are not divided into separate races by skin color; that is ethnicity, not race. Looking for divisive markers according to skin color breeds racism. ‘Jingle Bells’ is a song written years ago. It is futile to continue to divide the human race by markers that delight some and offend others. There is one critical race, the one-blood human race.”

Dr. Michael Brown, author, apologist and host of The Line of Fire, offered a response as well.

“Talk about a ridiculous, woke overreaction,” Brown says. “This is yet another example of an extreme, PC culture destroying some of the simplest joys of life and making everything into a race issue. Sing the song and enjoy the season!” {eoa}

Brown has authored a new book titled, The Silencing of the Lambs, due out in March, from Charisma House. The book chronicles the ominous rise of cancel culture and what we can do to overcome it. {eoa}

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A Christian ministry saw more than 190,000 young people turn to Christ last year, and the positive pattern is showing no signs of slowing down.

Sean Dunn, president of the Christian organization Groundwire, said his success is rooted in targeting the right people.

“We’re not going after the atheists,” Dunn told Faithwire. “The media would want us to believe that everybody’s an atheist, but, truthfully, 71% of Millennials [and] Gen Z believe that God’s a real being.”

Still, young people, despite believing in God, tend to ignore Him, especially in today’s chaotic culture.

That’s why Groundwire, a group that seeks to help youths enter into personal relationships with Christ, uses popular media channels to connect with Millennials and Gen Zers in the digital spaces through which they currently engage.

Listen to Dunn explain how he and his group help bring so many young people to Jesus:

“What we’re really good at doing is interrupting them on their entertainment—on their small screen—and bringing to light their need, their purpose,” Dunn explained. “We don’t need to convince them that [God’s] real. We need to remind them that he’s relevant and he becomes relevant when he intersects [at] that point of need in their life.”

So, Groundwire turns to social media platforms to meet young people where they are. With some youths looking at their phones more than 100 times a day, encountering them where they gather has been incredibly effective.

“We can’t get them to go to church, but we can’t get them to put down their phones,” he said. “So, what we do is we use Hollywood-produced content.”

With short attention spans, Dunn said his organization appeals to young people with short video pieces that effectively grab their interest. And once that attention is snagged, Groundwire has people ready to chat with them 24 hours a day.

Find out more about Groundwire here.

For the rest of this story, visit our content partners at . {eoa}

Reprinted with permission from . Copyright © 2022 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.

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Does the beloved Christmas carol “Jingle Bells” have a longtime connection to slavery? Cancel culture says it does, and a New York elementary school is villainizing the beloved Christmas song by dropping it from its school curriculum, as Charisma News reported last week.

Despite a public outcry as well as an academic leader’s refutation of the alleged link with slavery, district officials have made it clear that they not only agree with but defend the school’s position.

The Rochester Beacon reports that the Council Rock Primary School made the decision to stop using and teaching the song based in part on an article by professor Kyna Hamill, director of Boston University’s Core Curriculum.

Council Rock Principal Matt Tappon told the Rochester Beacon that the song had been replaced with other songs that didn’t have “the potential to be controversial or offensive.” And Brighton Central School District Superintendent Kevin McGowan posted a statement to the district’s website saying the change was not “based on a complaint, but as part of an effort to review curriculum with a diversity/equity lens.”

A Boston minstrel show first introduced “Jingle Bells,” composed by James L. Pierpont, for a public performance in 1857. Minstrelsy was then a popular form of entertainment in which white actors performed in blackface.

The song has been regularly sung at the White House for Christmas—most recently by President Barack Obama and his family upon lighting the National Christmas Tree in 2016.

When told that Council Rock had removed “Jingle Bells” based partly on her research, Hamill was stunned. Her article does not link “sleigh bells” with slave bells, although the Rochester Beacon reports reports that “a quick Google search shows that bells on horses were common as far back as Roman times.”

“I am actually quite shocked the school would remove the song from the repertoire,” Hamill wrote in an email to the paper. “I, in no way, recommended that it stopped being sung by children.”

“The use of bells on enslaved peoples may be true, but there is no connection to the song that I have discovered in my research,” Hamill wrote. “Perhaps finding a well-referenced source for this claim might be in order if that is what [school officials] want to determine as the cause for not singing it.

“My article tried to tell the story of the first performance of the song, I do not connect this to the popular Christmas tradition of singing the song now,” she wrote. “The very fact of [the song’s] popularity has to do [with] the very catchy melody of the song, and not to be only understood in terms of its origins in the minstrel tradition. … I would say it should very much be sung and enjoyed, and perhaps discussed.”

But that’s not the tune taken by McGowan. The superintendent also wrote that “it may seem silly to some, but the fact that ‘Jingle Bells’ was first performed in minstrel shows where white actors performed in blackface does actually matter when it comes to questions of what we use as material in school. I’m glad that our staff paused when learning of this, reflected, and decided to use different material to accomplish the same objective in class,” per USA Today.

McGowan also noted the song’s close ties to Christmas. Because of that holiday’s connection to religion, he says, “Jingle Bells” is “not likely a song that we would have wanted as part of the school curriculum in the first place. Our staff found that their simple objective could be accomplished by singing any one of many songs in class and therefore they choose to simply choose other songs.”

Brighton Central School District Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Allison Rioux also supports the school’s decision. She wrote in an email:

“Some suggest that the use of collars on slaves with bells to send an alert that they were running away is connected to the origin of the song Jingle Bells. While we are not taking a stance to whether that is true or not, we do feel strongly that this line of thinking is not in agreement with our district beliefs to value all cultures and experiences of our students.

“For this reason, along with the idea that there are hundreds of other 5 note songs, we made the decision to not teach the song directly to all students.”

Both Rioux and Tappon declined to speak directly to the Rochester Beacon about the decision to nix “Jingle Bells.” {eoa}

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For more information on how you can fight back against cancel culture, make sure to get a copy of what Charisma founder and CEO Stephen Strang says is his most important book yet. God and Cancel Culture, released Sept. 7, is now available wherever fine books are sold. Order it at .

The wife of an Alabama pastor died last week after a stray bullet struck and killed her during a church Bible study, but her family is already offering grace and forgiveness to the person responsible.

Grace Carter, 65, was killed Tuesday while inside Everlasting Life Holiness Church in Prichard, Alabama, after a stray bullet entered through a door and struck her chest, WKRG-TV reported.

A 26-year-old woman named Kaillyn Christine Howard Harris was arrested and charged over the deadly incident. Harris, who turned herself in, expressed remorse after her arrest and sought forgiveness.

“I’m sorry, and I didn’t intend to do this. Anybody who knows me know I got a good heart,” she reportedly said. “And I ain’t intend to do this. Can y’all please forgive me?”

Carter is the wife of Cecil Carter Sr., a pastor-elect at a separate church called Sunlight Missionary Baptist Church. The preacher, who said his wife sometimes attends Everlasting Life Holiness Church, expressed shock and pain over the tragic loss.

But he said he’s remaining strong for his family.

“Sweetheart I love you as always … right now my heart is empty because she’s not by my side, but I know that she’s there spiritually,” Carter told WALA-TV. “Right now, I’m getting strength from knowing that God is able and knowing that my wife is in a better place with the Lord, and no doubt about it that she loved the Lord.”

Dee Carter, the victim’s daughter, also expressed deep pain over the death. But she offered forgiveness before police arrested a suspect in the killing. Carter said her mother would have asked God to forgive the perpetrator.

For the rest of this article, visit our content partners at . {eoa}

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An Alcoholics Anonymous group is facing internal scrutiny after being caught reciting the Lord’s prayer at the start of their meetings.

Higher-ups in AA reportedly told the leaders of the group in Yeovil, Somerset, their meetings were becoming too Christian-focused and, as a result, the group was removed from the organization’s online directory of AA locations, according to the Daily Mail.

John Palmer, treasurer for the Somerset AA group, condemned the organization’s decision as “shocking” and “ridiculous,” per a press release from the Christian Concern.

“AA was founded by Christians to save and transform lives,” said the 69-year-old Palmer, who attended his first meeting in the 1980s, when he was an “addicted wreck” who’d spent years struggling with alcoholism. “Over the years, I have seen Christianity being eroded and marginalized from the organization as a whole. It is sad to see, and I think AA is having less of an impact on people’s lives as a result.”

Like many AA groups in the U.S. and around the world, the Somerset group held its meetings in a church.

“Of course, you don’t have to be a Christian to be part of an AA group, but if you cannot say the Lord’s prayer in a church without being treated like this, what are we coming to?” Palmer asked. “We were shocked when we found out about the action being taken against us, but we are determined to carry on.”

The Daily Mail reported concerns about the group in question were raised during a meeting between AA administrators in Somerset. Critics described the group as “lovely but not [run] along AA guidelines,” with some allegedly voicing their disapproval after someone supposedly claimed the “only way to recovery is through Jesus.”

“They have gone against the traditions,” one person purportedly said. “[There’s] nothing wrong with talking about Jesus, but this is not AA.”

It was determined by the administrators the group “must be kept separate” from AA.

Palmer, it should be noted, has vowed to keep the group active, now calling the gathering “The Real AA,” a nod to AA’s roots as a faith-based organization.

Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern, condemned AA administrators for “separating and punishing” the Christians in the Somerset group.

“The message of the gospel is of a Savior Jesus who came to bring hope to every one of us,” Williams said. “The power of the gospel message is what inspired the setting up of AA following the radical transformation alcoholics experienced after encountering the hope and healing found in Jesus Christ.”

“Separating and punishing Christians so that they cannot attract new members for sharing the gospel message of hope is disturbing and ludicrous,” she continued. “Is now saying the Lord’s prayer in a church offensive and not appropriate? It is sad, but not surprising in our world of cancel culture, to hear from this group that the gospel message is no longer appropriate for AA and must be kept ‘separate.'”

Christian Concern is calling on the leaders of AA to reinstate the group and “recognize the crucial role Christian faith plays in transforming lives.”

For the rest of this article, visit our content partners at . {eoa}

Reprinted with permission from . Copyright © 2022 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.

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For more information on how you can fight back against cancel culture, make sure to get a copy of what Charisma founder and CEO Stephen Strang says is his most important book yet. God and Cancel Culture, released Sept. 7, is now available wherever fine books are sold. Order it at .

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland reach millions for the gospel of Christ worldwide each week with their Believers Voice of Victory program and other media outlets. But it wasn’t always that way.

Kenneth Copeland says he remembers a Christmas when his children were younger in which all they had to eat for dinner was a can of Chef Boyardee chicken Alfredo. It was all they could afford at the time. And, Gloria Copeland says, they praised God for it.

“We were glad to get it,” she said on a recent BOV broadcast.

“We had a lot of fun with the kids when they were little, and they didn’t know any better,” Kenneth Copeland says. “We gave a dollar to our daughter for a gift and a small can of firecrackers to our son. That was it. But we had a hoot for Christmas.

“I get amazed at some of the things that happen at Christmas, but I want to say that going into debt over Christmas is a foolish thing to do, because it doesn’t last very long, except the debt,” he says. “You say, ‘I just need to get some presents.’ No, you don’t. You need to teach your children and just level with them. Sit them down and say, ‘We know we are celebrating Jesus’ birthday here, so the big thing is, He is the reason we’re doing this. We don’t have much money for presents, but as the Lord blesses us, you will get blessed, too.’ As things improve through the years, we will have some extra money and buy presents. This teaching will become a special gift to a special child because of a special child that was born many years ago.”

Watch the rest of this video above and learn how to be blessed at Christmastime. {eoa}

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David Bradshaw didn’t simply develop a relationship with Jesus over time.

At the age of 15, Bradshaw received a radical introduction to Christ and the Holy Spirit during the famed Brownsville Revival in 1995 at Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida. He came back from Pensacola a totally changed teenager, one “bursting” with enthusiasm and on fire for Jesus.

More than 25 years later, Bradshaw is still serving God with his whole heart and soul as the founder of Awaken the Dawn Missions Base in Fredericksburg, Virginia, a movement dedicated to helping people get into the personal presence of God and to launch a new season of awakening in America to God’s goodness.

Considering the manifestation of the Holy Spirit that occurred in Brownsville during the revival, it isn’t difficult to understand what happened to Bradshaw during his visit there.

“I got filled with the Holy Spirit very dramatically,” Bradshaw told Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of Greenelines on the Charisma Podcast Network. “Prior to that, I wasn’t really engaged with the Lord very much. But I came back from Brownsville completely and utterly transformed.

“I was 15, just starting high school. I was a young man and I went to a Christian school. Nobody at that age I knew was actually a believer. But it was such a radical encounter with God’s love and His presence and the reality of Jesus’ person. That’s what transformed my heart. It wasn’t moralism. It wasn’t just a moral code or even just a fear-based pursuit of God but a hunger that had burst in my heart.

“I got so desperately hungry for God and came back to my high school and just began to boldly tell my friends to preach the gospel. They put me in front of the chapel, and I think I made 100 friends and 100 enemies. Honestly, a move of God started among young people in our whole city.”

Little did Bradshaw know that years later, he would become a pastor and help lead a nationwide Pentecostal movement.

“Of course, I didn’t know when I was a teenager that I’d go into full-time ministry,” Bradshaw says. “But the heart of what David says in Psalm 27, ‘for one thing you’ve desired of the Lord, that one thing to see the beauty of the Lord, to dwell in intimacy with the Lord,’ absolutely consumes my life.

“I mean that in every sense of the word. It’s the healthiest way to live. That was the Genesis, the birthing really, of what became Awaken the Dawn.”

Awaken the Dawn is mobilizing a new Jesus movement in America. His new book, Awaken the Dawn, poses the question, “What if the presence of God became so real in people’s hearts that it revived the church?”

For more of Bradshaw’s inspiring story, tune into this episode of Greenelines on the Charisma Podcast Network. {eoa}

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