A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Over 250 prominent scholars, pastors, and church leaders from around the world released on Tuesday a theological statement affirming the essentials of the Reformation. And its Protestant authors contend that in this 500th anniversary year, the document is a “catholic” statement in its best sense.

The Reforming Catholic Confession is a document which outlines the main theological commitments held by a wide breadth of Protestant Christians, including evangelicals, since the Reformation. The purpose of such a statement is to demonstrate the remarkable togetherness that exists throughout the world among Protestants on the core elements of Christianity, said Jerry Walls, an author and professor of philosophy at Houston Baptist University.

Despite how some Roman Catholics fasten the divisions within Protestantism as a case against it, including the joking about there being 33,000 different denominations — as if the entire legacy of the Reformation is endless religious splintering — the Confession showcases the extensive agreement on the substance of the historic Christian faith, Walls told The Christian Post. [ Source: Christian Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – South Korea says it has found a small amount of radioactive element from air samples it collected following North Korea’s latest nuclear test.

The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said Wednesday the discovery of xenon-133 isotope is linked to the North’s bomb test conducted in its northeast on Sept. 3.

The agency says it couldn’t verify exactly what kind of nuclear bomb the North detonated as it hasn’t found several other radioactive isotopes that typically accompany a nuclear explosion. It says the make-up of those radioactive isotopes in air samples could shows if a nuclear test was from a plutonium or uranium bomb. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The House of Representatives passed an amendment Tuesday which blocks funding of a controversial program reimplemented by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The amendment, co-sponsored by Reps. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.), Jim Sensenbrenner (R., Wisc.), and John Conyers (D., Mich.), affects the federal government’s involvement in the controversial practice known as civil asset forfeiture. Attached to a larger appropriations bill, the amendment passed on a voice vote.

Civil asset forfeiture is a legal procedure by which police can seize property without formally convicting or even charging its owner, based on the suspicion that the property has been involved in illegal activity. The tool was originally conceived of as a way for investigators to cripple criminal gangs, permitting them to seize drugs and cash without arresting their owners. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The Trump administration on Tuesday threatened to cutoff from the U.S. financial system Chinese and Russian companies helping North Korea smuggle coal overseas to circumvent international sanctions on Pyongyang’s nuclear activities.

Marshall Billingslea, the Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing, provided Congress with intelligence images mapping North Korea’s illicit shipping networks used to mask the origin of exported coal to China and Russia.

The images appear to expose China and Russia’s covert hand in undermining international pressure on the Kim Jong Un regime to give up its nuclear ambitions, despite the two nations voting publicly on several occasions at the United Nations Security Council to strengthen sanctions. [ Source: Washington Free Beacon (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – In the event of another war with Hezbollah, the IDF’s objective would be to occupy parts of southern Lebanon where the group has support and infrastructure and to force a UN resolution that improves the security situation on the northern border, a senior IDF officer said on Monday.

Thousands of soldiers from the 319th Armored Division, aka the Mapatz (“Bang”) Formation, the majority of them reservists, are currently drilling such a scenario during the second and final week of the Northern Command’s Or Hadagan exercise, the IDF’s largest in nearly 20 years.

According to a senior officer involved in the drill, Israel would not aim to occupy Lebanese territory for a significant period, rather it would be with the aim to end the conflict with Hezbollah as quickly as possible by destroying the Lebanese Shi’ite group’s capabilities and infrastructure.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, who was briefed on the drill while visiting the IDF’s Northern Command alongside Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, head of the Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Yoel Strick and Maj.-Gen. (res) Udi Adam, said that “this exercise is a reminder to anyone planning to harm the security of the citizens of Israel, that the next confrontation, if it breaks out, will end with a clear decision in favor of the IDF and the State of Israel.” [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Ismail Haniyeh, political chief of Hamas, said the organization is ready to talk reconciliation with the rival government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas without preconditions.

Hamas had previously demanded that Abbas halt a series of measures taken against the Islamic militant group before sitting down to discuss a reconciliation deal.

Abbas cut electricity in Gaza and slashed the salaries of tens of thousands of public servants in a bid to compel Hamas to dissolve a contentious committee it formed to run the territory in defiance of Abbas’ government. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet in New York next week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, a US official confirmed on Tuesday.

“The President is planning to sit down with the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I know that the President’s looking forward to doing that,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters during her daily press briefing.

On Sunday, Netanyahu said he would meet with Trump while they both were in Manhattan, but Washington had yet to verify a summit would take place.

The meeting will be the two leaders forth together since Trump assumed office. The two met once in February when the Israeli premier visited the White House, and twice in May when the American president traveled to the region, which included a two-day stop in Israel and the Palestinian territories. [ Source:Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The trash talk, criticism and negative narratives continue. Much of the news media continues to offer coverage which is both hostile and biased against President Trump and his administration. Case in point: a wide-reaching new study from the Media Research Center finds that 91 percent of the recent coverage which aired on ABC, CBS and NBC has been negative.

“Since January 20, Media Research Center analysts have reviewed every mention of President Trump and top administration officials on ABC’s World News Tonight, the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News, including weekends,” write research director Rich Noyes and Mike Ciandella, a senior analyst for the conservative press watchdog. “As of August 31, coverage of the administration has totaled nearly 74 hours (4,418 minutes) of airtime, or about 39 percent of all evening news coverage.

“Analyzing the networks’ spin makes it clear that the goal of all of this heavy coverage is not to promote the President, but to punish him,” the analysts said. “In June, July and August, broadcast evening news coverage of Trump was 91 percent negative — worse than the astounding 89 percent negative spin we calculated during the first three months of the administration, usually a traditional honeymoon period for new presidents.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A federal judge told three Christian congregations in California that they have no case in wanting to opt out of the state’s requirement that they cover abortions through their health insurance plans.

U.S. District Court Judge Kimberly Mueller upheld a 2014 requirement of the California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) that all employers throughout the state must pay for abortion insurance for their employees. She told the three churches that they failed to state an adequate claim.

The churches — Foothill Church in Glendora, Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in Chino, and The Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch — sued the state in 2014 after being informed that they could not prohibit or restrict coverage for elective abortions.

The churches “believe and teach that abortion destroys an innocent human life” and “participation in, facilitation of, or payment for an elective abortion is a grave sin,” according to court documents. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s team won’t attempt to claw back $75 million in U.S. aid provided to Israel, a department official confirmed Tuesday.

“They’re going to get the money,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters.

Tillerson was reportedly interested in asking Israel to return $75 million allocated by Congress at the end of last year. That would have been a departure of the Trump administration’s policy as recently as May, when the White House pledged that same amount of money to support Israel’s missile defense program.

“Israel is an important, trusted ally of the United States,” Nauert said. “That hasn’t changed and that won’t change. We have a strong relationship with Israel.” [ Source:Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]