The Asbury University Awakening is being moved off campus this week, but that news comes as the fires of revival are continuing to spread to multiple new locations around the U.S.

Christian filmmaker Alex Kendrick visited one of those spots. On Monday, he was at Lee University, a private Christian college in Cleveland, Tennessee. In a video posted to social media, Kendrick, standing outside of the school’s chapel, said: “There’s no show here. There is no spectacle other than seeing hearts transformed.”

“Revival is still going on. That chapel behind me is still filled,” he said. “It’s been almost two weeks now, and I think that is amazing. My family and I have come up here for a couple of days and just joined in on what God’s doing. It is incredible!”

“When there is peace and unity and it’s very organic. There’s no show here. There is no spectacle other than seeing hearts transformed. Praise the Lord!” the filmmaker said. “And so I’m very, very grateful. So what’s going on at Asbury, Lee University, Samford University, Cedarville in Ohio, there’s a number of colleges that are now seeking the Lord.”

“And praise God for this generation that is seeking after God,” Kendrick added. “Oh, it’s just good! Man, it fills my heart! So, praise the Lord, and let’s pray that the Lord keeps moving as He wills.”

As CBN News reported, Lee University Campus Pastor Rob Fultz noted on Twitter on Feb. 10, “What’s happening at Asbury is not and will not remain confined. It will, and already is awakening the deep wells of revival on campuses across the nation. They have been churning, pressing against the seals that have kept them hidden, and they are about to burst with new life.”

On Saturday, Greg Gordon, the founder of , tweeted a video of Lee students worshipping in the campus chapel.

“Lee University has been meeting now for 4 days straight,” Gordon wrote (Feb 16). “Just absolutely overwhelming Holy Spirit Power in the Stone Chapel at Lee University at this moment. —David Chong.”

Meanwhile, the revival at Samford University, a private Christian school located on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama, is still going strong. On Monday, Greg Gordon posted a video to Twitter showing Samford students worshipping in the university’s Reid Chapel.

“Students have been gathering for over 4 days now without stopping at Samford University in Reid Chapel. ‘How Great You Are’. Jesus is worthy of our all,” he wrote.

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

Reprinted with permission from . Copyright © 2023 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.

Bring Charisma magazine home with a subscription today!

Technology has come a long way in the past few years, and the innovation has stretched into all types of industries, many of which have benefited mankind. The video game industry is certainly among them, and here is a new game that could spark intense debate between Christians and non-Christians in the coming months.

Created by Polish game developer SimulaM, the video game “I Am Jesus Christ” is a historical, open-word simulation game where you can, as The Jerusalem Post puts it, “step in to the sandals of the ‘alleged’ Son of God himself and perform miracles, die and get resurrected.”

It also allows the player, as Jesus, to fight Satan and die “horrifically” on the cross.

“Perform amazing miracles, interact with a cast of biblical figures and travel around the Holy Land from Jerusalem to the Galilee,” reads the game’s page on the PC gaming platform Steam.

To watch the promotional trailer for the game, click here.

The game was most recently revealed at an IGN Fan Fest event. It takes players on a journey from the birth of Jesus, through his life and various miracles, all the way until his crucifixion and ultimately his Resurrection.

Some of the miracles players will be able to perform include walking on water, making a stormy sky dissipate, turning water into wine, and dying and resurrecting. There is, according to The Jerusalem Post, an “over-the-top boss battle with Satan.”

To perform these miracles, The Jerusalem Post reports, players need to “keep an eye on their ‘Holy Spirit’ meter, which depletes with each miracles—though, of course, it can be recharged.

The Jerusalem Post reports that many people have commented on social media about the game. While their tone is that of amusement, their comments could very well border on the blasphemous:

• “Hopefully, no one spoils the ending.”
• A game 2,000 years in the making.”
• “When Jesus said he would return, never thought it would be in the form of a video game.”
• As far as the ending goes, I’m just gonna touch wood, cross my fingers and hope that they nail it.”

“Nail it,” as in Jesus to the cross? You decide.

But then the game could also spark a renewed interest in Jesus and the Bible among Gen Zers, whom many have reportedly run away from the church in America’s culturally charged atmosphere.

One YouTube user refutes any blasphemy claims, saying “This game wasn’t disrespectful in any way and despite the bugs, it clearly has effort put into it.”

“I feel like it was created by a small group who’s just really passionate about Jesus,” Layla said on YouTube.

And The Jerusalem Post’s Aaron Reich wrote: “The game itself isn’t tongue and cheek. Rather, while it may have some unintentional humor—Jesus Christ shrinking to enter a child’s body to cure diseases—the game itself seems to be a serious attempt at spreading the story of Jesus and the New Testament. Each scene included in the game with each miracle is accompanied by a biblical verse from the New Testament describing it.”

The game’s prologue is already available to play at no cost, while the full game is slated for release sometime in the second quarter of this year. SimulaM is planning more biblically based games, with one centering around the building of Noah’s ark and another other featuring Moses and the Israelites’ journey from Egypt to the promised land. {eoa}

Bring Charisma magazine home with a subscription today!

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

Backed into a corner, Christian teacher Jessica Tapia faced a moral dilemma—and knew she just couldn’t compromise.

And for that, she was fired. Plain and simple.

Tapia, a teacher in the Jurupa Unified School District in Southern California, told Fox News Digital that she refused to comply with the district’s gender policies, which instructed her not only to hide students’ gender transitions from parents but also to keep them in the dark through lying.

“I knew immediately, like in my gut, in my heart, in my soul, that there was a decision I had to make because, you know, these two things were totally butting heads,” Tapia told Fox News Digital. “I essentially had to pick one.

“Am I going to obey the district in the directive that are not lining up with … my own beliefs, convictions and faith?” she asked. “Or am I going to stay true …, choose my faith, choose to be obedient to … the way the Lord has called me to live. And so it was crazy to be in the position where I realized that I couldn’t be a Christian and a teacher.”

In January, Tapia received a notice on letterhead from Superintendent Trenton Hansen’s office that say they couldn’t accommodate Tapia’s Christian beliefs, which prohibited her from “withholding information on gender transitions from kids’ parents.”

“Consequently, the District will release you from your employment effective at the end of the day on Jan. 31, 2023,” the statement read. “Based on your religious beliefs, you cannot be dishonest with parents … If asked about a student’s gender identity by a parent, you cannot refer the parent to a counselor, defer the inquiry and suggest they speak with a student …, or otherwise deflect the parent’s inquiry.” The letter was signed by assistant superintendent of human resources Daniel Brooks.

Tapia says the whole situation comes directly from the enemy.

“I don’t believe in my faith that that’s how God’s calling us to love by affirming those lies and confusion,” Tapia said. “I believe firmly that God created man and woman, and you are who he made you to be. And when someone has confusion about that, I believe that’s lies and confusion from the devil.”

As expected, the school district, in a statement to Fox News Digital, denied that it discriminated against Tapia based on her Christian beliefs. The statement reads:

“The District denies the allegations raised by Ms. Tapia. The District takes seriously its obligation to accommodate its employee’s religious beliefs. Simultaneously, the District is obligated to comply with all local, state and federal laws, including anti-discrimination laws and laws that protect students’ rights to privacy, which are in place to protect the nearly 2,500 employees and 18,000 students we serve. We cannot comment further on personnel matters.”

But when Fox News Digital pressed the school district about the accusation by Tapia that educators should lie to parents about students’ gender identities, it did not directly respond.

“The District is required to comply with all state and federal laws, including the California Education Code which guarantees a student’s right to participate in sex-segregated school activities and to use facilities consistent with the student’s gender identity, regardless of the gender listed on the student’s records,” the district told Fox News Digital. “The District is also obligated to protect a student’s right to privacy which is guaranteed by state and federal antidiscrimination laws and the California Constitution. The District will continue to protect the rights of all students and staff as required by law.”

Tapia intends to sue the school district and has retained an attorney at Pacific Justice Institute.

As a physical education teacher, Tapia also refused to allow “male genitals” in the girls’ locker room, a stance that is in direct opposition with school district policy. {eoa}

Bring Charisma magazine home with a subscription today!

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

Jim Garlow was one of the first people to post about the Asbury University revival on social media when it started 13 days ago. In a follow-up interview, he explains what sounded like waves of an ocean as he stood in the wooden pews worshipping God in Hughes Auditorium.

In my first conversation with Garlow, we talked about the tie between the Asbury revival and the Third Great Awakening. Now he is sharing his eyewitness view of what happened right before Asbury University announced the revival would stop on campus Wednesday, Feb. 22.

“Just continual worship and praise. Bunch of students standing on the stage, and the auditorium is packed,” he says.

Garlow heard from officials at the revival that 25,000 people came to Wilmore, Kentucky, on Saturday. Cars were backed up 1.3 miles with “revival at capacity” signs lit up on the highway.

The university opened up seven other locations on campus to fit all of those with hungry hearts driving and flying in to sit in the presence of God.

“This was such a spontaneous move of God the city wasn’t prepared for it,” he says.

Garlow recounts altars full to the brim with people weeping before the Lord, the aisles jammed to the back of the auditorium with more people waiting to get to the altar. It has been a revival of repentance.

While talking with numerous people around the room, Garlow met a pastor and his wife from Chile. They sold their car so they could fly in and experience the revival. That is just one of many similar stories.

In the 1970 revival, Asbury University students flew out to other campuses, and the revival spread quickly. This time, because of social media, people are coming to the campus in droves.

Tucker Carlson from FOX News was planning to head out to Wilmore, Kentucky, to cover the event with lights and cameras until university officials reached out, asking him not to come. The infrastructure of the town of just 6,000 wasn’t built for this kind of influx of people.

What started as a normal Wednesday chapel service at Asbury University has spread to numerous other campuses across the nation. Here is a list of documented reports of revival:

• Asbury University, Wilmore, Kentucky.
• Lee University, Cleveland, Tennessee.
• Baylor University, Waco, Texas.
• Ohio Christian University, Circleville, Ohio.
• Mount Vernon Nazarene University, Mount Vernon, Ohio.
• Indiana Wesleyan University, Marion, Indiana.
• The Ramp School of Ministry, Hamilton, Alabama.
• Jackson High School, Jackson, Georgia.
• Cedarville University, Cedarville, Ohio.
• Bethel Austin, Austin, Texas.
• Park Hill High School, Kansas City, Missouri.
• Indiana University, Indianapolis, Indiana.
• University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky.
• Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kentucky.
• Kentucky Christian University, Grayson, Kentucky.

Garlow commends the president of Asbury University, Dr. Kevin Brown, on his tremendous efforts since the revival started on Feb. 8.

“They won’t even take up offerings,” Garlow says. “They shut down donations to it. They don’t want to touch what God has anointed. When was the last time you heard someone say they were going to take up offerings?”

Brown says the university looks at this as God’s gift to the world. They’ve kept classes going, and Garlow says their rationale is “We want this to go in the ebb and flow of our lives” to maintain normal living.

“I think they have an anointing upon them,” Garlow adds.

Bring Charisma magazine home with a subscription today!

In her latest book, “All My Knotted-up Life: A Memoir,” author and Bible teacher Beth Moore delivers a compelling self-portrait filled with unexpected twists and turns with the final destination being God’s enduring love and faithfulness.

CBN News sat down with the prominent Christian leader at her Living Proof ministry headquarters in Houston, Texas. The interview came just days after the sudden loss of her brother Wayne, who appears on the cover of her new book along with her other siblings.

“I just looked up to him, and just loved him so, so much,” Moore said during the interview. “We are reeling. But I had gotten him an advance copy of the memoir and it just moved me so much to know that he got to see himself through my eyes in those pages.”

The title All My Knotted-up Life parallels Moore’s difficult childhood in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.

“Why did you feel the need to be so vulnerable and so open about some issues?” CBN News asked her.

“What I have said before is I always try to be transparent in what I shared, but I just get to be a little more specific this time around,” Moore explained.

Over the years Moore has often talked about surviving childhood sexual abuse. But for the first time she reveals her father as her abuser.

“I’m not sure anything impacts your life more than your protector being your perpetrator,” she said. “In other words, my father was the person on earth that I could trust the least. My home was not safe.”

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

Reprinted with permission from . Copyright © 2023 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.

Bring Charisma magazine home with a subscription today!

Christian author and Old Testament scholar Dr. Michael Heiser has finished running his race and is now an inhabitant of the great beyond.

Heiser had been battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer but did not let that sour his disposition or immense intellect. His social media accounts were maintained with teachings and his unique insights into the Word of God.

It was announced on Heiser’s Twitter and Facebook page that he “stepped into the Unseen Realm” at 3:45 p.m. on Feb. 20.

His demeanor remained confident, even when he shared his diagnosis on Facebook regarding the cancer and how he was slowly bleeding to death.

“I am at the end of the road in the late stage (4) of a very aggressive pancreatic cancer,” Heiser shared on a Facebook post Sunday, Jan. 22. “Nothing to date has reversed the tumor’s status. It has now invaded the upper GI and stomach areas causing slow, uncontrollable bleeding. No one on my medical team has a solution or knows of one. During the latest endoscopy an effort was made to cauterize as many of the bleeding points as possible to at least slow the bleeding. In essence, I am bleeding out at a slow rate with no solution.”

Knowing where he would end up, Heiser faced his diagnosis with as much courage and confidence as anyone in his situation.

The author and scholar gained fame for his outreach to the “forgettable” members of society, those often dismissed as crazy, nerdy or just not worth the time. But these people matter to God, and they mattered to Heiser.

He would engage in discussions about aliens, UFOs, science fiction, conspiracy theories and so much more, but his stance and argument came from the Word of God. He sought after good, honest, intellectual research that confirmed the Bible instead of proving it false.

Heiser wrote on his website about those who delve into the paranormal and look towards space as a heaven without the divine:

“Rather than belittle those who have rejected Christianity in favor of this new religion or denying someone’s anomalous experience, my goal is to help people consider that perhaps the problem isn’t the Bible, but the inside-the-box (or head-in-the-sand) thinking that often characterizes Christian approaches to these subjects. This is why I blog at UFO Religions, speak at UFO conferences, write sci-fi paranormal thrillers (The Facade, The Portent), and host the ‘Peeranormal.'”

The Bible says in Mark 16:15, “And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.'”

That is what Heiser did. He was blessed to not only find the path in life that God had for him but also to excel at it. He made an impact on the lives of many whom society had either forgotten or turned their backs on, knowing that God hadn’t done so.

With his transition to the heavenly realm, the world loses a truly brilliant mind who approached problems in as unbiased a manner as possible, concluding that the only logical answer to the universe is the Lord God in heaven:

“I am also a Christian because it’s the only religious approach that makes any sense for solving the fundamental problem all religions are supposed to address: right relationship to God. All other religions require perfect performance of imperfect people to please a perfect being. That’s impossible.” {eoa}

This is a developing story, and we will update the article as more information becomes available.

Bring Charisma magazine home with a subscription today!

James Lasher is staff writer for Charisma Media.

For 20 years God has been speaking to Dutch Sheets about revival breaking out on college campuses. We sat down and talked with him about what has happened at Asbury university and the early beginnings of a possible Third Great Awakening.

“What is happening at Asbury is just another sign,” he says. Dutch isn’t fazed that the revival is ending at Hughes Auditorium.

He believes the outpouring experienced there is part of the bigger picture of what God is doing in the earth. Dutch encourages believers to discern and look for more subtle signs as these events start to take place.

On the week of 9/11 Dutch had an open vision from God about a revival happening in the hearts of young people. He describes seeing things in the Spirit with his eyes wide open. He saw a hand write on the wall Acts 3:19 which says, “Therefore repent and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”

Describing the vision, he saw a fire of God coming to America. The fires of revival began to burn on college campuses. “What I saw wasn’t like anything I’ve seen,” Dutch says. The grassroots movement wasn’t surrounding a ministry or person but students gathered together organically.

What has happened at Asbury has sparked a fire in believers around the country. Repentance, holiness and worship has transformed the minds and hearts of many. God is reminding His church that He can and will move in this country.

“There is no revival I know of in history that didn’t come at a very dark time spiritually, morally and nationally,” Dutch says.

The point of revival is revive the hearts of the people. God can and will pour out His spirit on those who will respond. Let excitement and joy replenish your soul. What has happened in Asbury is real and along with Dutch, you should be encouraged by it.

“Whether it happens there or in a charismatic church it doesn’t matter to me. God never limits His outpourings to a particular stream or denomination. He comes to the hungry. We build those walls, He doesn’t,” Dutch says.

So, how can you prepare yourself for all that is still yet to come?

Stay hungry for God and walk in humility before the Lord. Dutch reminds, “He is our only hope!” Continue to pray and ask for revival and be supportive of where God moves. “Be a unifier not a divider,” Dutch says.

Dutch, like many others are standing on faith that the awakening that’s coming will bring in a billion souls. Don’t be discouraged that Hughes Auditorium is closing it’s doors, this is just the beginning. {eoa}

Bring Charisma magazine home with a subscription today!

Shelby Bowen is an assistant editor for Charisma Media.

A New York Times best-selling author, Alex Berenson is perhaps best known for his skepticism about the COVID vaccines and alarmist approach.

Last week he blogged, “COVID has revealed how out of control the public health establishment and its handmaiden virologists and immunologists have become. Drug companies too, although their corruption of medicine is less of a surprise.”

In hindsight, one wonders as to whether President Donald J. Trump was wrong by creating the U.S. coronavirus task force in Jan. 2020, placing Dr. Anthony Fauci, then head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as a trusted key figure in his nightly briefings. Thereafter, he was the Trump Administration’s point man and mouthpiece to the coronavirus response.

President Trump failed to ask others for guidance, such as the highly credentialed, widely cited professor Dr. Knut Wittkowski. Providing the opposite approach to Fauci’s misguided “flatten the curve” approach, Dr. Wittkowski was silenced by Big Tech, Big Media and Big Pharma—the propaganda arms utilized to discredit doctors and experts who opposed the “official line.”

Dr. Wittkowski’s advice, in March 2020, was to get the elderly and vulnerable out of harm’s way, get the kids in school, run one’s business and carry on with life as usual. The virus then would have run its course in four to six weeks, with the development of herd immunity among the general population as the only thing capable of halting the virus. “Quarantines” and “flattening the curve,” in Wittkowski’s expert view, only delayed and prolonged the outbreak of the virus.

But once the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed an $8.3 billion emergency bill in March 2020, public opinion began to shift and criticism was more and more leveled at the administration’s response to the coronavirus. Political maneuvering in the upcoming election on Nov. 8, 2020, had now taken center stage.

On March 20, 2020, we wrote about what we called “the Gibeonite deception” as found in Joshua chapter 9, and its political ramifications. “Like the queen being captured in a chess match, the advantage of a bustling economy has been removed from the table by the devastating effects of the coronavirus on the U.S. economy. As a result, Trump’s reelection this fall is no longer a given.”

Fear was being spread through the president’s nightly COVID updates and social media’s big-time propaganda pushers—Big Government and Big Pharma—were mobilized in order to disparage and belittle renowned medical doctors, acclaimed epidemiologists and distinguished virologists who lined up in opposition to Fauci’s official narrative.

As a side note, American journalist, author and lawyer Glenn Greenwald tweeted recently, “The corporate media’s ability to—overnight—turn anyone who dissents in any way into some sort of fascist or even Hitler-like figure, and then have millions of their followers go around mindlessly repeating it, is both impressive and chilling.”

By Aug. 2021, Dr. Anthony Fauci, seemingly drunk with power and hubris declared, “I’m sorry, I know people must like to have their individual freedom … but I think that we’re in such a serious situation now that under certain circumstances, mandates should be done.”

In his exalted highbrow opinion, mandates were more important than individual freedom.

This brings us to the real war in America’s public square: the battle for spiritual control of culture. Secularists have been given unilateral control over the cultural levers of power and influence, and thus a free hand in secularizing, manipulating and monopolizing the public arena. This shows that the war in reality concerns the spiritual conflict between the eternal and immutable Jehovah God versus the transient and mutable god of religious secularism.

In his excellent commentary, Gleanings From Joshua, A.W. Pink clarifies to which tribe the Gibeonites belonged: “These Gibeonites belonged to the tribe of the Hivites, and the renowned Hebraist, John Gill, tells us that the name Hivites signifies serpents! They certainly acted here in complete accord therewith, conducting themselves “wilily” (Josh. 9:4), telling downright lies, and succeeding in thoroughly deceiving Joshua and his princes.”

Multiple so-called “serpents” and “giants” of the Gavin Newsom kind are now stalking America. California Governor Newsom’s stay-at-home-order on March 19, 2020 designated liquor stores, marijuana distribution centers and abortion clinics as “essentials” and churches as “non-essentials.” While the singing of hymns in California churches was outlawed, an apparent all-clear was given to Antifa and BLM’s burning and looting of American cities.

Law enforcement was halted, with Fortune 500 companies actively underwriting cultural anarchy. Free rein was given to the advancement of Critical Race Theory in public education, to biological boys competing against girls at state track championships and swimming events and to cultural Marxism.

Asbury Revival

What started on Feb. 8, 2023, as a routine chapel session for Asbury University students turned into an ongoing worship session of students, faculty and out-of-towners. Thousands of people from near and far flocked to Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, to take part in what many called a revival.

Time will tell whether the early report of the Asbury Revival is a movement of God or the fabricated product of man. But it is certainly this type of activity of the Spirit moving across high school and college campuses that will lead to personal repentance for sin in our personal lives. It is the unbridled sin, woven into the warp and woof of culture, that will most likely precede the next Great Awakening. “Unless the LORD builds the house, the builder’s labor is in vain” (Psalm 127:1).

If so, American Christendom will have to be retooled and activities that indicate an astounding ignorance of the impending crisis that is upon us must be avoided. Such ill-conceived undertakings include being on furlough in an election season, taking a trip to Israel two weeks before an election, calling a meeting of the prophets and removing them from their “field of lentils” in election week, taking a Mission Trip in election week, and, calling a statewide conference on Election day, as the North Carolina Southern Baptists managed to do.

But praise be to God that Gideons and Rahabs are now beginning to stand. {eoa}

Bring Charisma magazine home with a subscription today!

David Lane is the founder of The American Renewal Project.

If you know anything about the younger generation, you know that many of these teens and young adults have a real passion for justice, even if misguided at times. Many of them are also highly empathetic, commonly siding with the perceived underdog and outcast.

That’s why so many Gen Z young people stand with the LGBTQ community or even identify as such. It is an essential part of who they are.

All this is common knowledge, and it helps to explain why between 21-40% of Gen Z self-identifies as somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum compared with less than 3% of Baby Boomers, even though relatively few Gen Z’ers engage in same-sex activity. It is a matter of solidarity more than practice.

That’s why one of the chapters in my latest book is titled, “If Gay Is Good, then Christianity Is Bad.” The church must be rejected because it rejects the LGBTQ community.

What I recently discovered, however, is the degree to which these mindsets still influence and impact some committed Gen Z Christians. In light of this, how can we better serve them and help them fulfill their potential in the Lord?

Since 2004, I have spoken to countless thousands of people of all ages on issues related to LGBTQ and the Bible, following the divine mandate to “reach out and resist,” meaning, “reach out to the people with compassion; resist the agenda with courage.” Put another way, it is not a matter of grace or truth but of grace and truth.

Recently, I was speaking to hundreds of multi-national, Gen Z ministry students on this very topic, and as always, I did my best to speak with sensitivity and compassion.

I pointed to the hurt and rejection suffered by LGBTQ individuals over the years. I said that the vast majority of them are not activists and are simply trying to live their lives in peace. I emphasized that many of them feel hated by God and the church. And I explained that some of our gospel clichés are highly offensive to them. For example, when we say, “Love the sinner and hate the sin,” they hear, “You hate me, since this is not what I do. This is who I am.”

I shared with tears, stories of young people “de-transitioning” after having life-altering hormone and surgery treatments as teens. And even when I showed shocking examples of LGBTQ indoctrination of little children, I explained that those involved, be it the parents or the teachers, really thought they were doing a good thing.

So, the presentation was as caring as could be, spoken with a heart of love.

Yet when most of the students laughed out loud when I read off lists of the latest preferred gender pronouns, a small minority of the students were offended. They felt as if everyone was laughing at one of their friends or loved ones and as if I was ridiculing one of their friends or loved ones.

One young woman from Latin America, herself a former lesbian, wanted to talk with me before class one day. Speaking with love, respect and honor, she told me that, years earlier, “It was because of men like you that I left the church.”

She fully recognized my love for her and for those who still identified as LGBTQ, and she acknowledged the care with which I spoke. But when I had addressed the destructive fruit of LGBTQ activism, drawing reaction from the students, I crossed a forbidden line. That’s how deep her sense of empathy was with her former community.

Later that same night, one of the ministry leaders shared something with me that absolutely shocked him.

During my final session, where I talked about the larger culture and how we got to where we are today, I showed the powerful and creative video of Messianic Jewish gospel singer Beckah Shae titled “If Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ ‘Unholy’ were a Christian song by Beckah Shae.” The video became especially relevant after the overtly satanic performance of “Unholy” at the Grammys, where Smith wore a hat with devil’s horns, just one of the many truly demonic features of the performance.

Before I showed the students the video, my only mention of Smith and Petras was to say that Smith identified as non-binary and Petras identified as transgender. Then I briefly described what happened at the Grammys. (Many were already familiar with what had taken place.) I then played Beckah’s video, which changes the call to do something unholy into a call to accept God’s love, live a holy life and avoid His coming wrath.

Her video says nothing about Smith or Petras and nothing about being gay or bi or non-binary or queer or trans. Nothing at all. And the students loved the video, appreciating the power of the rewritten lyrics.

Yet, this ministry leader told me, a young Christian woman who was in my class took offense at the video. She explained to him that she felt like it was an attack on Sam Smith, whom she felt she had to defend. After all, she had been watching Smith for years, and she grew up with the sense that she always had to defend and protect the LGBTQ community.

So, at that moment, even as a follower of Jesus, she felt more solidarity with Sam Smith, who sang a song called “Unholy” while dressed like the devil himself, then with a godly Christian woman who changed the call to do something unholy into a call to do something holy. How extraordinary.

This underscores the degree to which Gen Z not only feels empathy for the perceived underdog and outsider, which is commendable, but also the degree to which this generation has been massively indoctrinated, even brainwashed, by the spirit of the age, which is grievous. It also underscores the degree to which this young generation is more bereft of a solid biblical worldview than any previous generation in our history.

I do not blame them for this, since they grew up under our watch and care (or, under the watch and care of our kids). And I recognize that there are millions of solid, biblically grounded, clear thinking Gen Z believers, representing the vast majority of those I have the privilege of teaching and training.

But we must not underestimate the degree to which they have grown up in a radically different world than we did, one in which same-sex “marriage” is the law of the land. In which trans is trendy and gay is cool. In which any rejection of LGBTQ activism is perceived as hateful. And in which, even for some Gen Z Christians, there is a deeper sense of solidarity with LGBTQ people than with the ways and Word of God.

And so, just as the older generation focused so much on LGBTQ issues that we lost sight of the people, the younger generation has focused so much on LGBTQ people that they have lost sight of the issues.

May we join together across the generations to bring positive change to the world through the grace and truth that are in Jesus. And may the Lord give us deeper wisdom, compassion and conviction as we minister to this young generation which now represents roughly one-third of the world’s population—about 2.5 billion precious souls for whom Jesus died. {eoa}

Bring Charisma magazine home with a subscription today!

Dr. Michael Brown () is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program. His latest book is “The Political Seduction of the Church: How Millions of American Christians Have Confused Politics with the Gospel.” Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

The site of continual worship and prayer on campus for nearly two weeks, Asbury University says it is moving its non-stop services to “another location in the central Kentucky area.”

The final public evening service was held Sunday. But public worship will continue in the afternoons through Wednesday at 2 p.m., Asbury announced over the weekend.

Asbury’s Facebook page announced that the concluding public worship service of this recent outpouring on the Asbury University campus was scheduled for Monday at 2 p.m.

“Beginning Tuesday, services available to the public will be held at another location in the central Kentucky area. Asbury will host evening services for college-age and high school students (25 and under) through Thursday, Feb. 23,” the Facebook announcement read.

“On Sunday, the university, in consultation with local law enforcement and city administration notified incoming visitors that parking and seating had exceeded capacity. Asbury will live stream limited portions of services at through Thursday, Feb. 23. Live streaming from cell phones is still prohibited in Hughes Auditorium.

People from across the United States and around the world had made the trek to the small northeastern Kentucky community of Wilmore (population just over 6,000). Tens of thousands of people have descended upon Wilmore, and WKYT reported that cars lined the streets of the town for blocks to “illustrate the widespread interest the spontaneous revival has attracted.”

The Asbury Revival began on Feb. 8 as a regular worship service and the Holy Spirit simply took over.

“We just had some people arrive from Finland, from the Netherlands. They have been coming from all over the country,” Asbury’s Communications Director Abby Laub told WKYT.

As reported by Charisma News, Asbury University President Dr. Kevin J. Brown announced that the ongoing services would come to an end, and that there must be balanced between this “historic” move of the Holy Spirit and the students’ academic experience.

“We recognize life for the students had to return to normal, they have to go to school, they have midterms next week,” Laub told . “They know this is a gift, they have received it as a gift, so we are going to change them with now you take this to your job, your family, your church.”

Bobby Singh, who owns and operates a Shell gas station across the street from the Asbury campus, said the community never expected the volume of this crowd, and it’s causing concerns among locals when it comes to public safety.

“It’s overwhelming,” Singh said. “There are cars parked in people’s house space.”

Laub told that the school hopes the revival’s spirit continues at another location.

“It was always God’s to begin with,” Laub said. “We’re going to let Him take it.”

Bring Charisma magazine home with a subscription today!

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