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“Use your influence for Kingdom advancement”

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Pastor Ben Ochola is encouraging Christians not to step away from positions of influence.
He says that God puts Christians in different places of authority with a divine purpose to fulfil.

“A believer’s desire ought to be kingdom advancement,” he said, “It’s what drives us,”.

To commit to Christ whiles having an influential position, Pastor Ochola explained that a person should have the zeal for what God has planned on earthy and for the Holy Spirit.

“The zeal of our father’s house consumes us,” he said, as he read John 2:17.

Pastor Ochola uses King David, Joseph (Mark 15:46) and Dorcas (Acts 9:39) to explain how God calls people to be the candle in the dark.

“Our purpose (in places of influence) goes beyond luxury, comfort and enjoyment,” he said.

“It is about the kingdom. Therefore, our wealth is solely for the advancement of the kingdom. This is because we are pilgrims here on earth and all we have ultimately comes to pass. We therefore use our blessings to tap into the economy of eternity,” – Pastor Ochola.

People are influenced by the seven mountains, which have a huge impact on the thoughts and daily lifestyles. These are Family, Business, Politics, Education, Spirituality, Media and the Arts.

Pastor Ochola believes that Christians must engage in these “mountains” for Christ and His kingdom. “We therefore use our blessings to tap into the economy of eternity,” he said.

“Joseph was a man who understood the kingdom purpose for wealth. He used his wealth and influence to get the body of our Lord, to get Him a long linen cloth and to bury Him in a grave craved out of a rock! Dorcas was another disciple who used her business to bless the poor and the widows,”

Source: UG Christian News

“Accept Christ And Be Part Of God’s Family” – Apostle Eric Nyamekye

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The Chairman of The Church of Pentecost in Ghana, Apostle Eric Nyamekye, explained that the only way to be part of God’s family is to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal Saviour.

“Anyone who accepts Jesus as Lord, no matter the background, is born into God’s family and has become a brother,” he said, “Whoever believes in Christ becomes part of God’s family; they come with their nationalities; they come with their race; they come with their backgrounds; they come with their perspectives. Whether we like them or not we have become one family in Christ and then we form the temple of God in which God dwells by His Spirit.”

During the Sunday ‘Special Evening Service with the Chairman’ series, Apostle Nyamekye explained that the church is an extension of the family of God in heaven. He also mentioned that the church is a house of many vessel, which makes it great.

Apostle Nyamekye urged the church to be “the new humanity, God’s new community, a model of a human community, a family reconciled to God and to one another, who love their Father and love each other with whom God dwells by His Spirit and this Spirit cries in them “Abba Father!”

He said that as a new human race who no longer alienate but reconciliate, the church must avoid division and hostility but rather encourage peace and unity.

Apostle Nyamekye explained that if a person belongs to Christ, then they are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise that was made, without taking into consideration their nationality, sex, etnicity, and educational.

“Our identities have been dissolved in the blood; we have all put on Christ so Christ covers our identities,” he said.

Apostle Nyamekye read Ephesians 2:18 and Romans 8:11 to emphasise how Jews and Gentiles have access by one Spirit to the Father through Jesus Christ.

“Jesus’ Father is our Father; the Creator Holy Spirit lives in us. The same Spirit that was in Christ is the same in us, who are born again. By this Spirit, He cries Father and with the same Spirit we also cry Father,” he said.
“In this family, if God is our Father, then Jesus is our big brother because we know that He is the Son of God.

Source: Instagram

“Jesus rent the curtains that separated us from God and has allowed us access to God and reconciled us to one another. We have been born into the body of Christ and God’s family.”

According to Apostle Nyamekye, the power of a great family of God lies in unity.

“The greatness of this family or the power of this family is not because God is our Father, No. Not because Jesus is our big brother, No. But it is in our unity; our oneness. Our unity is our beauty, our testimony, our strength that we are children of God,” he said.

However, Apostle Nyamekye stated that: “Disunity renders our prayer non-effective and our fellowship unavailing. So without unity, we may have God, we may have Jesus; we may have the Holy Spirit but our prayer will not be effective. So when we gather together it will be a futile exercise, sometimes a waste of time.”

Apostle Nyamekye explained that the devil always sows seeds of disunity among the people of God to divide them to see themselves as enemies. The Word of God is therefore the guide for the people.

“In this family, our rule is the Word; it sets our boundaries. Our aim is His glory. Our rule is not what angels say; it doesn’t come from the dreams of people. Angels serve us; we don’t take instructions from them,”.

Apostle Nyamekye told church leaders to be careful not to build what Jesus has demolished.

“The Gospel has the power to equip the believer with the help of the Holy Spirit to live holy and God-honouring lives.”

Source: Church of Pentecost

Church has batism service despire lockdown rules.

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Police stopped an evangelical church from having their baptism service which broke the national coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

Thirty church members were gathered at The Angel Church in north London on Sunday to have their planned baptism service. This was cut short as the police came to shut everything down.

Pastor Regan King wanted to go ahead with the baptism despite of the restriction as he “served a greater good”.

There were two police vans and a police car outside the church’s Mount Zion Hall building in Clerkenwell. At the same time there were four police men standing at the entrance to stop people from entering.

Pastor Regan said : “We were told not to have a baptism and police began to block people from entering the church, so we decided to make other arrangements.

“There were 20 people here initially and it built up to about 30.”

When Pastor Regan was questioned about why he went ahead with the service, he said: “Because I believe we serve a greater good. We have a greater good than whatever this is.”

The pastor also mentioned that he didn’t want the police to come.

“This is an essential service that we provide. It’s about loving our neighbour, and you can talk with a number of people here who are extremely vulnerable, homeless or on the verge of being very isolated.”

Eventually, 15 members were allowed to stay in the church, whiles 15 others had to join a socially distanced service outdoors.

One of the members said: “While the restrictions allow people to go to the supermarket to get food, I think there needs to be consideration for spiritual food as well.”

Worshippers outside prayed for the “police, press and the people who wanted to shut down the meeting”.

The spokesman of the Metropolitan Police said: “Officers explained that due to Covid-19, restrictions are in place preventing gatherings and that financial penalties can be applied if they are breached.

“The pastor agreed not to proceed with the baptism or the in-person indoor service.

“A brief socially-distanced outdoor gathering was held instead which was agreed to by officers as a sensible compromise in the circumstances.

“A support group for vulnerable adults was permitted to proceed as normal as it was in line with the relevant legislation.”

Source: Premier Christian News

Encouraging Ghana to fast and pray

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The Christian Council of Ghana are prompting Christians in Ghana to fast and Pray towards the elections of 2020.

The leaders of the Christian Council of Ghana have decided to encourage Christians around the country to fast and pray for the upcoming National Elections.

They believe that it is important as it will sensitise them to work towards a peaceful election.

The national week of fasting and prayer is planned to take place from Wednesday 25 November until Sunday 29 November. The election itself will be held on 7 December.

There will be organised gatherings across the country.

“I’m going to die today”

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My peculiar experience started the evening my friend and I landed in Guadeloupe. That evening was filled with drama, that I believed it would be my last day on earth.

When we arrived at the airport, we were meant to go to the guest house which we booked online.
We asked the taxi-drivers if they knew the address of the guest house, they did not have a clue and we asked about 10 drivers. None of them seemed to know about the house.

We were just standing there and I told my friend:”Waaw, the drama has started!”
We started praying and asked God to lead us. Then we asked another driver if he knew the place, he asked us for the number of the guest house so that he could give them a call. The taxi-driver called the number and through divine help, he actually knew the host.

So the driver said that he knew the host and we shouldn’t worry as he would take us to where the guest house is. Although the driver knew the host, I was not at peace. We got into the car and as he was driving on the island roads, it was scary. I haven’t seen houses on the hill before, the bushes were everywhere, it kept getting darker and darker. All I could tell myself was “Today is my last day, today is my last day here on earth”.
I also told my friend:” If we die today, glory be to God, at least we tried!”.

Eventually we got into an alleyway and the driver got out of the car, my heart started racing. Outside the car, there were about five people waiting. So I looked at my friend and said:”Today, we are actually dying today!”.

God gave me the courage to exit the car and approach the group of people so I could greet them. One of the guys was actually the host of the guest house. We took our stuff from the taxi and put it in the car of the host. We were hoping that the host would turn around and bring us to a nice hotel.

Pink Guest House on top of a hill

Unknown to us, the guest house was right on top of a hill. Even the car of the host could not get on top of the hill. He did try and when we eventually got out of the car I saw that the next house was about 20 minutes away.
I looked at my friend and said “This is the mission”.

That same night, we were praying around 03:00 am. All of a sudden we heard someone knocking at our door. The first thing I said to my friend was:” The natives know that we are here and they are coming for our stuff”. As risky as it was, I decided to open the door, which when I reflect on it I shouldn’t have done.

It turned out to be the wife of the host, she wasn’t pleased with us and felt that we were making too much noise. She then told us that we should leave in the morning as she didn’t like the sound of us praying.

After leaving the guest house, God opened doors for us and we met people who took us in as if we were their own.

God has really been good to us through and this is definitely a mission that I do not regret.

Pastor Altobely Ngoy, missionary to Guadeloupe

Edward Graham spreading the Gospel through shoeboxes

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Edward Graham, the grandson of the late evangelist Billy Graham, says shoeboxes filled with gifts reaches more children and unreached people with the Gospel.

“More kids have heard about Christ through these shoebox distributions than ever heard about Christ in stadiums with my grandfather,” said Graham, about the evangelistic opportunity the gifts are creating to share the Gospel around the world.

Packing gift boxes during holidays are underestimated, however Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan’s Purse, opened the door for people to be a part of evangelism efforts around the world. These gift boxes are sent to 160 nations.

In the spring of 2016, Samaritan’s Purse held an outreach event for the Himba people, an unreached people group in the village of Opuwo on the border of Angola and Namibia.

The gift boxes are often filled with toys, school supplies, hygiene items and books with the Gospel message. Samaritans Purse, along with ministry partners, delivers the boxes to children in need around the world, opening the door for the next generation to hear the message of God.

If children want to continue to learn more about Jesus, Operation Christmas Child has a 12-lesson discipleship program, called The Greatest Journey, which takes children further into discovering what it is to follow Jesus and how to share that with their family. 

The Himba people participated in an oral version of The Greatest Journey. Their hunger to learn more about Jesus grew so large that the village elder had no other choice but to provide some land under a group of trees for the people to gather and be discipled by Pastor Rizera.

Now, villagers have dedicated a church building in Ombaka, Namibia.

Despite their history of being animists, which consist of worshiping their ancestors and tree spirits, nearly 100 Himba now gather at their new church base to worship Lord Jesus Christ.

Source: The Christian Post

“The Greatest Teaching Moment” – Rick Joyner

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     We have come to the time when the distinctions between God’s ways and the ways of those who reject and resist Him are clear. Biblical prophecy calls this time “the Valley of Decision.” With the distinctions made clear to all, every individual and every nation will either make the choice to follow God or side with His enemies. There will be no middle ground for anyone.

     Jesus said in Matthew 12:30, “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” This has been true since Jesus walked the earth, but many have tried to sit on the fence, which is in fact to oppose Him. At the end of the age it will be clear where everyone stands.  

     There is a reason why the two globalist forces in the world, radical Islam and Marxism, both consider Christianity and America their greatest enemies. Both of these globalist ideologies have the destruction of America as their number one goal because it is the biggest obstruction to their ultimate goal of totalitarian control of the whole earth. They are right about that. 

     Radical Islam is the ultimate religious totalitarianism, and Marxism is the ultimate political and economic totalitarianism. Radical Islam cannot tolerate religious freedom, and Marxism cannot tolerate any kind of freedom—religious, political, economic, or any other kind. The total dominance required by both of these globalist forces are threatened by the freedoms America stands for, as well as her political, economic, and military power, to hold these totalitarian ideologies at bay. Both radical Islam and Marxism consider themselves to be the inevitable conclusion of human history—the irresistible force. America is the immovable object. Now is the time of the ultimate clash.

     The core freedoms that have made America the freest and most powerful nation on earth, has also made it vulnerable to the delusion that it could get along in a peaceful co-existence with these contrary ideologies and religions. It is our nature to let others be free to choose their own course, which is one of the most unique and extraordinary characteristics of America. But this innocent naivete has also allowed those intent on our destruction to grow very strong both from without and within our own land. Without a doubt, America is in the first stages of its ultimate battle for survival. 

     It is basic military doctrine that you cannot defeat an enemy you cannot see. It is a historical truth that if someone says they want to destroy you it is a deadly mistake not to take them seriously. Every oath of office in America is to defend The Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic, but it has been the history of America not to be good at discerning enemies until they have become a grave threat. 

     America is now experiencing the truth of Isaiah 5:13: “My people go into bondage for their lack of knowledge.” It is the lack of knowledge of the foundations our nation has been built on, which we lack because of neglect, and the lack of knowledge about the true nature of our enemies, because we have not been vigilant. For this reason, we will use these Heritage Briefs to study our national and religious foundations, and contrast them with present enemies. 

     As America is called to be a healing nation, and one that proclaims liberty throughout the world, we must learn how to balance our healing nature with the ability to recognize our enemies and resolve to defeat them. There are remarkable examples in history of those who were both great healers and great warriors. We must learn from them. These two seeming contradictory natures actually work together to elevate each other, as we will see. To understand how they work together, we must keep in mind Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: 

     “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven, “a time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted; “a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build up… 

“a time for war and a time for peace.”  

     Understanding timing is a key to understanding. We may want peace more than anything, but we will perish if we seek peace when it is the time for war. We are now at war. As history also makes clear, attempts to appease intractable enemies like we now face makes the ultimate cost of the conflict far greater. 

     Remembering the first thing Jesus said about the end of the age is to not be deceived, one of the most common roots of deception is dualistic thinking. This causes people to only think in extremes when the “path of life,” the solution, is usually somewhere between the extremes. Dualistic thinkers cannot comprehend concepts like “the great and the terrible day of The Lord,” but can only see it as “great” or “terrible.” Such cannot resolve that Jesus is both the Prince of Peace and a warrior, the “Captain of the hosts (armies) of The Lord.” He is both a Lion and a Lamb. He is all of these all of the time, but depending on the times one side of His nature will often be preeminent. This is why discerning the times was such an emphasis of Jesus.

     Peace and unity are noble goals, but ultimate peace and unity will not come until the ultimate conflict, prophesied at the end of this age, takes place. If we think it is a time for peace when it is a time for war, we are deceived. Jesus, who is “the Prince of Peace,” who came to bring peace and goodwill to man, who is the greatest Healer there will ever be, also said, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). 

     To walk with Jesus requires that we know what time it is. Jesus came the first time as a Lamb, but He is coming back as a Lion. We are now about to get to know His Lion nature. Those who follow Him in the coming times will be warriors so that when the battle is over the whole world can receive all of the benefits The Lamb sacrificed so much to give this world. As we proceed the path we are here to walk, it will get brighter as well as our purpose in this time. 

     History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or timid. ~President Dwight D. Eisenhower  

     It is fatal to enter a war without the will to win it. ~Gen. Douglas MacArthur

Source: Morning Star Ministries

The Good dog – Ray Comfort

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I had been asked to preach at three services in a church in Southern California. I had spoken in many churches but this one made me nervous. And there was a justified reason for that.

If I were to give myself a label, I would probably fit into the category of an “equipping evangelist.” This is based on Ephesians 4:11-12:

Read Also https://charismatanews.org/the-shepherding-assignments-to-guide-and-to-lead-dag-heward-mills/

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ…

The evangelist has the job of equipping Christians for the work of the ministry, particularly the often-neglected task of evangelism. And that’s what I strive to do. In Luke 10:1-2 we are told:

After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest….”

The laborers are still sadly lacking, and I was in a privileged place to be used by God to stir more to do what they know they should be doing.

I have often likened this to the task of a sheepdog. The sheepdog barks at the sheep in an effort to get them to the place they should be. If you watch a skilled dog at work you will see that he loves what he does, and his eye is forever on the shepherd because above all things, he wants his approval. Sheep will often stubbornly stamp their front feet in defiance of the sheepdog, but that doesn’t intimidate him even slightly. He doesn’t care how the sheep respond. His only concern is the shepherd’s smile.

And so when I go into a local church to herd them towards their evangelistic responsibility, I enjoy myself. Again, this is because we desperately need help in reaching the lost. So few seem to care that sinners are being swallowed by death and if they die in their sins will be damned in Hell. That should horrify every Christian and cause us to run to them with the Gospel. But it doesn’t. And so I bark at the sheep and tell them that they should be involved in reaching the lost. I tell them that they have a moral obligation to reach out to the unsaved. I remind them that Hell exists and that if the love of God dwells in them, they must warn sinners to flee from the wrath that’s to come. It doesn’t worry me if they stomp their feet in defiance. I really don’t care how they react because I will be leaving the next morning. All that I’m really looking for is the smile of the shepherd. He employed me for this task. I want him to be pleased with what he sees and hears, and hopefully toss me a bone.

I was a pastor for 3 1/2 years and during those years, we wouldn’t just let anyone into our pulpit. I, therefore, greatly appreciate it when a local shepherd allows me to speak to his people. I know that I am being put in a position of trust. It’s as though he’s handing his car keys to a complete stranger, sitting in the back with his family, and saying, “Please stay on the right side of the road.”

But this church in Southern California was different. It was my home church. I was being trusted to speak in three services, and I knew that I couldn’t soften the message. I didn’t want to do it, because I wasn’t leaving the next morning.

It was similar to having to share the gospel with our family members. Most of us struggle with the thought of sharing the message with a stranger. But there is the consolation that if a stranger is offended, it’s really no big deal. If he walks away in disgust, there will be an understandable feeling of rejection, but it will soon be forgotten because you will more than likely never see him again. But if your mom, dad, or sibling are offended and get angry at you, you’ve damaged or even lost a relationship that’s precious to you. That’s how I felt about my local church. All I could do was bark as usual and hope that if it upset the flock, the shepherd would still be happy.

The first service was on a Saturday night and it seemed to be well-received. But I still felt a little nervous that I had two more meetings. When my pastor reminded me of the next day’s service times, I smiled and said, “So you want me back?”

He clearly detected my hesitation, and later that night kindly sent me an encouraging email. In essence, it simply said, “Good dog!” And that’s all that really mattered.

Source: The Christian Post

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana celebrates Reformation Day

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 By Albert Allotey

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana (ELCG) has celebrated its Reformation Day with a call on churches to teach their members the biblical truth and avoid monetary demands.     

Reverend John Shadrack Donkoh, the President of the ELCG made the call at a press briefing during the celebration at Anyaa in Accra.     

The theme for the occasion was “Faith Alone, Grace Alone, Scripture Alone” and was to mark the 16th-century church Reformation brought about by Martin Luther, which began on October 31, 1483-1546.     

He said when Luther started his religious reformation, money was in the thick of it; not for himself, but that demanded by the church in the form of indulgences (a method of selling permits to raise money for the church), and he (Luther) disagreed with the church authority.    

“What are the prophets and preachers telling their members today? Can we say that money has become central in today’s churches and among some men of God?” Rev Donkoh asked; and said “Yes, it is! When hard-pressed by poverty, self-styled prophets have invaded the Christian church taking their members for a ride.”     

Rev Donkoh said the 21st century church has a lot to learn from the 16th century Reformation and that Africa as a continent had been blessed with some great church leaders who could champion exemplary lives of integrity and modesty and teach the right scriptures to their flocks.     

The President said: “The principles of fruitful living can all be found in the Good Book (Joshua 1:8-9). We cannot afford to have a failed church because we will all be doomed if that happens. Salvation, eternal life is neither gained by praying all day, without doing any gainful work, nor by being coerced into paying lots of money to the church.     

“Rather, it is a free and voluntary offering of God for His church for what He has done for mankind through the suffering, death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. Neither is peace nor forgiveness of sin earned by what we do. It is purely a free gift of grace by our Lord, who love and still does, by sending His dear Son to liberate us from sin, death and the devil.”     

Rev Donkoh reminded Lutherans and other Protestants the world over who celebrated the Reformation Day of what Luther stood for in the 16th Century by returning Christianity to its roots; an idea of liberating people, which has become the international politics of freedom.     

“Man is justified and saved by the grace of God alone and not by works of his own or of the saints. Jesus Christ alone has earned this for us,” he said.   Rev Donkoh urged Ghanaians to be peace ambassadors during this year’s political campaign, saying; “Don’t allow yourselves to be used in exchange for few cedis; say no to vigilantism.”

Christian businesses’ will be attacked if Biden wins

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Evangelist Franklin Graham warned that “there will be an attack against Christian businesses” should Democrat Joe Biden win the United States election.

Evangelist Graham, the president of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, is concerned about the impact that the win of Biden would have on people of faith and religious institutions.
Tom Basile of Newsmax’s “America Right Now”, described the Obama administration as “perhaps the most hostile to religious freedom and the rights of conscience that we’ve seen in this country.”

“I’m afraid there will be an attack against Christian businesses like we saw during the Obama administration. Florists who refused to do flowers for a gay wedding, they will put out of business. Someone who didn’t want to make a cake for a gay wedding, put out of business,” Evangelist Graham said. During the Obama administration, Christian-owned businesses faced lawsuits if they refused to participate against anything that was against their believes.

Barronnelle Stutzman, a Christian florist has received fines for refusing to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding, because of her religious beliefs. Jack Phillips, a Christian baker, faced similar lawsuits for not baking a cake for a same-sex wedding in 2012 and a gender transition party, all when this wasn’t even legalised in the state.

Not only will Christian business owners face more attacks in a Biden administration, Evangelist Graham warned that they will “want to try to come after churches and tax churches and tax tax-exempt organizations that are doing humanitarian work, social work throughout the country.”

Some democrats want to revoke the tax-exempt status of faith-based organizations and churches that subscribe to the biblical definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

Beto O’Rourke gave following answer to a question about whether “religious institutions like colleges, churches and charities should lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage” in the affirmative. “There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us,” he said.

According to Evangelist Graham and other prominent Christians who wrote a letter to congressional leaders urging them to oppose the Equality act, as “the Equality Act would gut religious freedom protections — even the protections enjoyed by houses of worship.”

The Christian leaders contested that by changing the “nondiscrimination provisions in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, some houses of worship would be barred from ensuring their leaders and other employees abide by their beliefs about marriage, sexual behavior, and the distinction between the sexes.”

Evangelist Graham has been warning Christians in the U.S. several times about what could happen with the 2020 elections over the past few months. In July, he mentioned that the U.S. would experience “all-out socialism” if the Democrats won.

In August, Evangelist Graham said that if the the U.S. should fall into socialism, the left would “close the Church down in many places” because of COVID-19, despite the fact that the First Amendment gives Christians the right to worship without interference from the government.

During his appearance on Newsmax, Evangelist Graham said that he was “independent” and analyzes both political parties. He concluded that “one party is pro-life and the other is not. One party is … pro-police and supports our law enforcement, the other doesn’t.” Graham urged the American people to “pray before they vote” and “ask God to give you wisdom as you cast that ballot.”

Source: The Christian Post