Uncategorized – Page 49 – The Faithful Watchman

Americans’ ‘Health May be Undermined’ by Not Going to Church: Surgeon General

In a recent official government report, the Biden administration has warned that Americans’ “health may be undermined” due to their “decline in participation” in church services and other religious activities.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued the first-ever government advisory on the “epidemic of loneliness and isolation” earlier this month, calling persistent isolation an “urgent public health issue” that impacts the physical and mental health of millions. “Research shows that loneliness and isolation are associated with a greater risk of heart disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death,” says Murthy in an online video released to coincide with the report.

Loneliness is as bad for individuals as smoking 15 cigarettes a day — a pack-and-a-half daily habit — and harms physical health “even greater than that associated with obesity and physical inactivity,” the report notes.

Unfortunately, Murthy writes, Americans have become disconnected from one of the institutions that can forge deep and permanent social connections: church attendance. “Religious or faith-based groups can be a source for regular social contact, serve as a community of support, provide meaning and purpose, create a sense of belonging around shared values and beliefs, and are associated with reduced risk-taking behaviors,” Murthy writes. “As a consequence of this decline in participation, individuals’ health may be undermined in different ways.”

“Membership in organizations that have been important pillars of community connection have declined significantly,” including “faith organizations,” writes Murthy. “In 2020, only 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue, or mosque. This is down from 70% in 1999 and represents a dip below 50% for the first time in the history of the survey question.”

Experts have known about the fraying web of meaningful personal relationships for decades. For instance, the percentage of American men who said they have no close friends had increased 500% between 1990 and 2021. But a persistent sense of abandonment reached societal proportions during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Church attendance and health issues have an inverse relationship, according to multiple studies, including a new report released by evangelical pollster George Barna.

The percentage of millennials who attended a church worship service, either in-person or online, dropped by seven percentage points over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, says the study from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University (ACU), where Barna is director of research.

The retreat from faith has devastated young people, Barna told “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” recently.

Separate ACU polls found that 75% of millennials “say, ‘I don’t know why I should get out of bed in the morning,’” said Barna. A majority “admit that every day they’re struggling with mental health issues, severe depression, anxiety, fear,” and “the highest suicide rate of any generation we’ve ever seen.”

That’s roughly the percentage of millennials who do not attend religious services: Only 28% take part in services in any way.

Conversely, Americans who believe in God and value marriage are more likely to be “very happy” than isolated secularists, according to a Wall Street Journal-NORC poll taken in March.

Russian hackers promise takedown of European banking system

Russian hackers have unleashed on social media a threat to the European banking system, promising, ‘Within 48 hours … nothing will save you.”

The Russian activist groups are known by the names KillNet, Anonymous Sudan and REvil.

“This is not a DDoS attack, the games are over,” the video statement said. “No money, no weapons, no Kiev regime – this is the formula for the death of Nazism and it will work.”

It continued, “Within 48 hours we are launching this global company, nothing will save you and this is not a warning. I am just informing. You have never seen such problems before.”

A report by the Gateway Pundit noted that the three “notorious hacktivist groups, KillNet, Anonymous Sudan and REvil,” are generally not united.

“The three hacker groups declared their intention to unleash a massive cyber onslaught on the European banking system, threatening to bring it to its knees within ’48 hours’ (the information was relevant as of yesterday),” the report said.

The report continued, “Killnet’s leader, who goes by the alias Killmilk, has confirmed to Lente.ru [in Russia] that plans for the attack are already underway. The attack, as he revealed, is set to commence within the ‘next 48 hours.'”

Examining ‘Pride Month’: The Days Of Lot Before Our Eyes

Our Sodom-like society continues to rage toward the Judgment-producing moment in which Jesus said He will be “revealed” (Luke 17: 28). There will be at that future time, the Lord foretold, things going on which will look exactly like things that were happening as the vexed Lot observed his surroundings in the doomed city of Sodom.

We won’t look again in-depth at all the other prophetic signs Jesus and the prophets foretold. Suffice it to say, as we always do, that all signs given in God’s prophetic Word are in a state of convergence. All are coming at this generation with increased frequency and intensity.

In consideration of the one signal Jesus gave, likening His future moment of Intervention into the perverted affairs of mankind to the time when Lot and his family were removed to Zoar, the similarity is, of course, striking.

I’m not certain that the people of Sodom had reached the point of parading in the streets in celebration of the homosexual lifestyle. I’m not sure they had a perennial LGBTQ-plus Pride Month. But if I were a gambling man, I would be placing my bet that these things were taking place not occasionally but in never-ending fashion. I have no doubt that it was gay pride on steroids, as is said.

I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that we, as a society and culture, have been moving ever more swiftly into Sodom and Gomorrah-like configuration. Thus, despite the fact that we are told the percentage of those among our population who are part of the LGBTQ-plus lifestyle is almost infinitesimal.

Some will say that it is the wickedness of the godless, mainstream media that makes the perversion seem ubiquitous and even dominant – that it is the heads of the corporate world hungry for profits who are embracing those of the small percentage among us. It is these who employ debauched merchandising strategies, thereby pouring massive advertising dollars into media in order to lure LGBTQ-plus shoppers that make the perversion appear more rampant than it actually is.

No matter what the strategy they claim or the proposition they put forth that they are simply just going about business as usual, and considering it all merely marketing, the Luke 17:28-30 prophecy seems to be taking shape before our sorely vexed eyes and ears. These days are a match, it seems to me, for the days of Lot which Jesus forewarned those 2 millennia ago while speaking to the disciples atop the Mount of Olives.

The Lord, in fact, likened those former times in Sodom to business being conducted as usual. But we know from history that the fate which followed that business as usual was complete annihilation of the twin cities. Jesus said the same fate awaits the people of that future time when the business as usual reaches the point that God’s Cup of Wrath is full to the brim.

The first thing on God’s list of the things He hates is seen in the following scripture we’ve looked at before.

“These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him. A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, Feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, And he that soweth discord among brethren” (Proverbs 6:16-19).

A proud look heads the list of things God hates. So it is altogether appropriate to look at this thing they have forced us to endure called Pride Month. Even if they take the first word from the title as they are using it –the word Gay— the modern-day champions of Sodom and Gomorrah-like lifestyle is the heart of the designation.

But it isn’t just the matter of pride that is wrapped up in the present Sodom-Gomorrah activity.

The second thing on God’s list: a lying tongue speaks satanic words against the God of Heaven, accusing Christians and those who oppose the corruption of culture as being phobic and evil.

Other evil that God says He hates fester within the black heart of the Sodom-like comportment.

Hands that shed innocent blood are an almost inseparable wickedness of the radical mindset harbored within the militant homosexual movement, i.e., abortion – the shedding of the blood of the most helpless among us – is championed by the LGBTQ-plus community, almost without exception.

An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations is a matter that is in our faces in increasingly despicable and demonstrable ways.

Transvestites are allowed to interact with the very youngest of children in a most sexually aggressive manner. Children in grade school are encouraged to learn the most salacious perversions imaginable by schools and teachers, many who are themselves deeply active as part of the LGBTQ-plus movement. Parents who object have been considered the criminals and have been persecuted/prosecuted by courts steeped in support of a Sodom-like lifestyle.

Governments and even some physicians now, as part of the gay pride industry, alter the bodies and minds of those below legal age, hiding such activity in many cases from the parents of the kids.

Despite growing opposition to the assault being perpetrated by those who champion June as Pride Month, such as the refusal by much of the buying public to purchase goods from Woke franchises such as Target, Kohls and others, the franchise giants aren’t giving in to any great extent.

They are putting on display at point of purchase for even the youngest of children –including infants– their apparel that is of a transsexual nature. The garments are especially designed by those pushing the LGBTQ-plus agenda at every level of society and culture.

The pride that brought complete destruction to Sodom and Gomorrah is on full display for all to witness this month of June.

Toddler in North Korea ‘sentenced to life in prison after parents caught with Bible’

A toddler was sentenced to life imprisonment in North Korea after the child’s family was found in possession of a Bible, according to a new report by the US State Department.

Although the incident took place in 2009, it has been highlighted in the department’s new report on international religious freedoms this month, citing data from Korea Future, a non-governmental organisation documenting human rights abuses in North Korea.

“One case involved the 2009 arrest of a family based on their religious practices and possession of a Bible.

“The entire family, including a two-year-old child, were given life sentences in political prison camps,” it said.

There are estimated to be between 200,000 and 400,000 clandestine Christians in the North Korea, mainly in the West where many are believed to have settled after an “explosion” of interest in the religion in 1907.

Korea Future’s report was based on interviews between 2007 and 2020 with 244 victims of religious persecution, who had been subjected to arrest, detention, forced labour, torture, denial of fair trial or right to life, and to sexual violence, for practicing shamanism, or Christian beliefs.

Paranoiac lack of tolerance

The findings reflect the regime’s paranoia over religious minorities and its lack of tolerance for any belief other than absolute devotion to the ruling Kim family as they seek to maintain their iron grip on power.

The North Korean regime has tried to stamp out Christianity for decades, and is said to fear the influence of the church after studying its role in the collapse of the Iron Curtain in Europe in the 1980s.

Defectors have revealed horrific details of Christians being brutally tortured, killed and incarcerated in gulags.

There are a handful of Christian churches across the country, including four in Pyongyang. But most observers say these are just “show churches”.

Protestors condemn Christian church hosting ‘family friendly’ drag night: ‘DEFEND PURITY, REJECT PERVERSION’

Sherman, Texas police confirmed they had off-duty officers protect the attendees of the drag show at the church

A Christian church in Texas hosted a drag event last weekend that was open to families, prompting protests from locals urging the attendees to “DEFEND PURITY, REJECT PERVERSION.”

The First United Methodist Church in Sherman, Texas became the venue for the May 13 LGBTQ event, after it was moved from its original location at nearby Pecan Grove Park.

The event, called “Pride Prom,” was billed by organizers as a “family-friendly drag show.” A poster for the event, which had the original venue on it, read, “Pride Prom. Be True To You. Saturday, May 13th, 8-11 PM.”

The poster noted the event would have “open mic karaoke,” the “family-friendly drag show” and that it would be hosted by Alex Gemini. The event was organized by Grayson County Pride, an organization representing the local LGBTQ community.

Reports noted that the venue changed last minute and was held at the “Mosaic Campus” of First United Methodist.

On its website, the church noted that it prides itself on inclusivity, stating, “We are young and old, married and single, gay and straight, liberal and conservative, non-conformists and traditionalists, those recovering from addictions, those still battling addictions, and those whose challenges take other forms.”

The event attracted the attention of protestors, who corroborated the existence of the event and the presence of drag queens and “furries” at the church.

Footage of UFOs over conflict zones seen for first time: ‘This is devastating’

UFOs in conflict zones create a potential for unintended crossfire, because combatants don’t know whose assets they are, investigative journalist Jeremy Corbell told Fox News Digital

The Pentagon released a video of a UFO flying over an active conflict zone in the Middle East in 2022, and its mere existence creates “the probability of unintended crossfire,” according to an expert.

The short clip of a metallic-looking orb flying at a fast pace was shown during Wednesday’s hearing before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities.

The object was first seen moving from the top right of the screen to the bottom left. It temporarily disappears out of view and then briefly reappears.

“This is essentially all the data we have of this event,” said Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). “It’s going to be virtually impossible to fully identify that just based off that video.”

The 2022 Middle East orb is considered an “unresolved case,” Kirkpatrick told lawmakers, and the footage reminded Jeremy Corbell of the “Mosul Orb,” a similar-looking metallic orb recorded by a U.S. spy plane flying over Mosul, Iraq, in 2016.

Ancient tablet found on Mount Ebal predates known Hebrew inscriptions

An early Hebrew inscription from Mount Ebal near Nablus that was found on a folded lead tablet during an excavation in the 1980s recently underwent x-ray tomographic measurements to reveal hidden text.

Epigraphic analysis of the data revealed a formulaic curse written in a proto-alphabetic script likely dating to Late Bronze Age that predates any previously known Hebrew inscription in Israel by at least 200 years.

The finding has just been published in the journal Heritage Science by Prof. Gershon Galil, a researcher at in Jewish history and biblical studies at the University of Haifa; Scott Stripling of the Archaeological Studies Institute in Katy, Texas; Ivana Kumpova, Daniel Vavrik and Jaroslav Valach of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics the Czech Academy of Sciences; and Pieter Gert van der Veen at the Department of Old Testament and Biblical Archaeology at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany.

The inscription was: “You are cursed by the God YHW.”

In December 2019, an expedition on Mount Ebal to wet sift the discarded material from excavations led by Adam Zertal – a prominent but controversial University of Haifa archaeologist who died at the age of 79 in 2015 – from decades earlier, yielded a small, folded lead tablet.

The east dump pile from which the object emerged contained the discarded matrix from two structures that he interpreted as altars dated to the Late Bronze Age II and Iron Age I. The earlier and smaller round altar lay underneath the geometric center of the later and larger rectangular altar.

Former Disney actress promotes ‘witchcraft’ in new film about her occult spiritual journey

Former Disney actress Vanessa Hudgens recently released a new film that follows her occult spiritual journey. Hudgens is best known for her role as Gabriella Montez in the Disney movie “High School Musical” and as Candy in “Spring Breakers.”

The actress’ latest project, “Dead Hot,” is an unscripted Tubi film about Hudgens and her best friend, musician GG Magree, exploring witchcraft and ghost hunting.

In the film, Hudgens and Magree travel to Salem, Massachusetts, the setting of the 1692 Salem witch trials, to connect with the spirit world.

The duo, who consider themselves to be self-taught students of witchcraft, regard experimenting and connecting with the spirit world to be their pastime, according to Variety.

Hudgens told the outlet that the recently released film “was a lot more personal than anything I’ve ever done.”

“I’m not hiding behind a character as I normally do in films — this is me, exploring something that I am very passionate about,” she added.

“I knew it would be extremely personal, and I would be sticking my neck out doing so,” Hudgens continued. “But I’m hoping that it makes other curious people out there to be inspired to open their hearts, minds and soul. Trust their intuition and find a bit more peace in the unknown.”

Americans Who Believe in God, Marriage More Likely to be ‘Very Happy’: Survey

In an age of rapidly declining happiness and rising anxiety, those who embrace the biblical values of faith and family are far more likely to thrive, a new secular survey has found.

Faith in God almost perfectly predicts Americans’ level of happiness, according to a Wall Street Journal-NORC poll taken in March: 68% of “very happy” Americans say they believe in God, compared with 47% who say they are “pretty happy” and 42% who are “not happy.”

The role faith plays in enhancing personal tranquility seems worth studying, given the massive plunge in the number of U.S. citizens reporting positive mental health. Only 12% of Americans describe themselves as “very happy,” a massive fall from the historic norms of 28% to 38% since the survey began asking the question 51 years ago. “The 12% was the smallest share of ‘very happy’ people ever recorded in NORC’s General Social Survey, dating to 1972,” reported the Wall Street Journal — down from 32% just five years ago.

Part of the higher rates of well-being may come from the fact that Americans who regularly read the Bible have greater resilience in the face of trials, a separate poll recently concluded. “Scripture engaged” Christians — meaning those who regularly read or listen to the Bible and say its teachings guide their lives — are more determined to persevere through difficulties and seek successful outcomes than “Bible-disengaged” Americans.

“In dealing with the struggles of life, people who engage with the Bible have far more hope than others,” concluded the American Bible Society.

The survey’s results came as no surprise to Bible-believing Christians. “A recent study showed that Americans who read the Bible have ‘far more hope’ than those who don’t. That’s absolutely right. It is ‘a lamp to our feet and a light to our path’ (Psalm 119:105),” said Rev. Franklin Graham, the founder of Samaritan’s Purse. “I encourage you to read and meditate on the truth of the Word of God. I don’t understand it all, but I believe it all — and it can change your life today.”

World On Cusp Of Woke Totalitarianism As Governments Act To End Freedom Of Speech

Media blackout as politicians in EU, US, UK, Brazil, Ireland, Canada, and Australia seek to jail citizens for wrongthink under the cover of a Big Lie about “hate speech”

The key area of action is the European Union. It is seeking sweeping new powers to regulate social media companies. And if it acts, it may change how social media companies operate worldwide, given the EU’s economic power and influence globally.

Under the EU’s Digital Services Act, large tech companies must share their data with “vetted researchers” from non-profits and academia, which would cede content moderation to NGOs and their state sponsors.

The US’s RESTRICT Act, sponsored by Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), threatens 20 years in prison or a $250,000 fine for accessing blacklisted websites through “virtual private networks,” or VPNs, which are ways to create a private connection between a computer or phone and the Internet.