A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Wycliffe Associates, an international organization involving people in the advancement of Bible translation, wants to begin Bible translation in hundreds of languages in Indonesia in the next six months.

Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation in the world, where approximately 87 percent of the population is Muslim. Attacks on Christian churches as recently as May 2018, where 13 people died in three church bombings on the same day, haven’t deterred Indonesian Christians from their resolve to see the Bible translated into their respective languages.

More than 700 languages are spoken across the nation, and Wycliffe Associates has received multiple requests from Christians there who want to translate the Bible for their own language groups.

“People are so hungry for hope, desperate for the truth of God’s Word,” says Bruce Smith, President and CEO of Wycliffe Associates, “even in remote areas—even in areas of intense persecution.”

Wycliffe Associates’ breakthrough MAST strategy (Mobilized Assistance Supporting Translation) trains Christians to undertake Bible translation for their language groups themselves. Using a collaborative drafting and accuracy checking method, mother-tongue Bible translators can complete translations of books of the Bible or even the complete New Testament in a matter of months rather than years.

To date, Wycliffe Associates has helped launch 1,173 new Bible translation projects worldwide using MAST. The organization hopes to launch 600 new Bible translations this year.

“Now the word is out,” says Smith. “Christians all over this 13,000-island nation are pleading for the training and tools to get started translating the Scriptures into their own heart language.”

Along with training, Wycliffe Associates equips mother-tongue translators with technology and tools through a program called Tablets for National Translators, which places computer tablets loaded with Bible translation software into the hands of mother-tongue translators. The tablets help keep the translators and their work from becoming targets of violence in nations like Indonesia, where Christianity is a minority religion.

“Bible translation can happen by hand,” says Smith, “but it’s slow and their handwritten work can be confiscated or destroyed.”

Wycliffe Associates hopes to provide 1,021 tablets to mother tongue translators in Indonesia at a cost of $300 each. To date, Wycliffe Associates has distributed 4,654 tablets to mother-tongue translators in 66 countries.

“Translators are waiting and ready, willing to risk everything in order to offer God’s Word to their people,” says Smith. “But until they have the tools, their people—after waiting for decades—can only keep waiting. I believe the time is now.”

About Wycliffe Associates

One of the world’s leading Bible translation organizations, Wycliffe Associates was organized in 1967 by friends of Bible translators to accelerate the work of Bible translation. Wycliffe Associates empowers national Bible translators to provide God’s Word in their own language, partners with the local church to direct and guard translation work, harnessing their passion and desire for God’s Word, and engages people from all around the world to provide resources, technology, training, and support for Bible translation.

Because millions of people around the world still wait to have the Scriptures in the language of their hearts, Wycliffe Associates is working as quickly as it can to see every verse of God’s Word translated into every tongue to speak to every heart. Wycliffe Associates is directly involved with speeding Bible translation by providing technology, training, resources, logistics, networking, expertise, volunteers, discipleship, church planting, and support. Last year, 7,402 Wycliffe Associates staff and volunteers worked to speed Bible translations in 73 countries. For more information, please see https://ift.tt/1yHQh0f.

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(Worthy News) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) severely injured three pastors in an attack on Saturday, September 8. The attack took place under the close watch of local policemen in Premnagar, located in the Barely District of India’s Uttar Pradesh State, where Christians were holding a two-day spiritual retreat. Pastor Ashok Benjamin, Pastor Vijay Masih, and Pastor Shivcharan were among those injured in the assault, sustaining wounds to their heads, hands, and lower backs.

Local sources told ICC that a mob of 50 radicals under the leadership of Pawan Arora, the district chief of the VHP, and a few policemen attacked a hall where approximately 25 Christians were meeting for a two-day spiritual retreat. While hurling verbal insults at the Christians, the mob savagely beat the three pastors who were leading the retreat.

“All of this happened in the presence of the police,” Pastor Masih, a 36-year-old pastor who was gravely injured in the attack, told ICC. “The police did not come to our rescue. Rather, they joined the mob in accusing us of doing forcible conversions.” [ Source: Persecution.Com (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Evangelist Franklin Graham is making an impassioned plea on behalf of Nigeria’s persecuted Christians.

“Christians in Nigeria are being brutally slaughtered, and they feel like the rest of the world is turning a deaf ear to their cries,” the 66-year-old head of Samaritan’s Purse wrote in a Facebook post over the weekend.

It comes as ongoing violence between Christians and Muslim farmers in Nigeria’s central Plateau state continues to escalate. [ Source: CBN News (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The Temple Institute has announced the birth of a flawless all-red heifer that could pave the way for the fulfillment of a major End Times biblical prophecy.

The reddish-colored female calf was reportedly born in Israel on August 28 and is being raised in accordance with the Jewish laws of the Torah, according to the Temple Institute.

In Jewish theology, the red heifer is essential to the rebuilding of the third Holy Temple in Jerusalem and will be needed to be sacrificed to complete the ritual of purification for the Temple. [ Source: CBN News (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – A U.S. appellate court ruled Monday that Missouri can enforce a law that forces abortion clinics to meet ambulatory surgical center requirements and requires doctors performing abortions to get admitting privileges at local hospitals, despite a 2016 Supreme Court ruling striking down a similar Texas law.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit delivered the opinion striking down a ruling from a lower court that eliminated the Missouri law. Abortion rights groups pointed to the Monday ruling as evidence that abortion rights are under threat if Brett Kavanaugh reaches the Supreme Court, since the case could wind up there.

“Today’s ruling should be a stark example of just how easily judges like Brett Kavanaugh can gut women’s constitutional rights, ignoring the real barriers that these medically unnecessary place on women’s access to abortion,” said Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – House Republicans have introduced legislation to lock in cuts to individual tax rates beyond 2025, a proposal that will have trouble advancing in the Senate but which sends a signal about GOP priorities ahead of competitive midterm elections.

The sweeping, $1.5 trillion tax cut enacted into law last year permanently lowered the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%. But reductions in individual tax rates were scheduled to expire after eight years so the GOP could meet a restriction imposed as a condition of the fast-track reconciliation procedures used to pass the new tax law. The restriction mandated that the tax law couldn’t increase budget deficits beyond 2027.

The extension of lower, individual tax rates is contained in legislation that is part of a three-bill package. Besides permanently lowering individual rates, the measure would also lock in the new standard deduction, which increased to $12,000 per individual and $24,000 for a married couple, and the special deduction for owners of pass-through businesses, in which business revenues flow through to the tax returns of individual owners. The package also contains measures dealing with retirement savings and aimed at helping startups. [ Source: Wall Street Journal (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The number of Central American families arrested for entering the United States illegally surged again in August, according to a Trump administration official and Border Patrol agents in South Texas, an increase that comes as the president threatens a government shutdown to extract funding from Congress for a border wall.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is expected to publish the most recent border arrest totals this week, and the numbers will be used to gauge the effect of President Donald Trump’s order halting the separation of migrant parents from their children.

Agents working in the Rio Grande Valley, the nation’s busiest corridor for illegal crossings, say they’ve seen more families turn themselves in and ask for asylum in recent weeks, a potential indication that the policy reversal has encouraged more Central Americans to head north. [ Source: Washington Post (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Hundreds of Palestinians gathered on the beach in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday where they reportedly set afloat on rafts dozens of burning tires, in an attempt to reach Israel’s maritime border.

Earlier, dozens of Palestinian boats tried to approach the border with Israel, promoting the navy forces to fire warning shots in the direction of the boats, which resulted in an immediate retreat by the Palestinians.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says 10 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire along the territory’s coast and a Palestinian cameraman in a “Press” vest was shot in the leg. Israel’s military said forces shot next to the vessels and at Palestinians on land who threw an explosive device and rolled burning tires at soldiers. [ Source: Ynet News (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The Trump administration ordered the closure of Palestine Liberation Organization offices in Washington on Monday, broadening its pressure campaign on Ramallah to return to peace talks with Israel.

The fate of the Georgetown offices has been in limbo for over a year, ever since the administration discovered it was congressionally obligated to close the diplomatic facility should Palestinian officials target Israel at the International Criminal Court. Palestinian Authority officials have said they plan on doing just that in the coming weeks.

“We have permitted the PLO office to conduct operations that support the objective of achieving a lasting, comprehensive peace between Israelis and the Palestinians since the expiration of a previous waiver in November,” the State Department announced on Monday. “However, the PLO has not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – US President Donald Trump has received a request from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a follow-up to their historic June summit, and planning is in motion to make it happen.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that no details had been finalized.

Trump had told reporters last week that he was expecting a letter from Kim. Sanders said Trump has received the letter, which she described as “very warm, very positive.” The White House will not release the full letter unless Kim agrees it should be made public, she said. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

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