Europe — Alex Jones, CEO and Co-Founder of the Christian prayer app Hallow, took to X (formerly Twitter) yesterday, announcing that the European Union (EU) would no longer allow its citizens access to the app.

Jones explained that “over-regulation” targeting all religious apps would make it impossible for Hallow to be available in the EU. This news comes shortly after China removed Hallow from its app store in July 2024.

In his post, Jones expressed his heartbreak over the news as Hallow was in the works of expanding its content to Polish, French, Italian, and German audiences. Since its launch in December 2018, Hallow has seen more than 18 million downloads across 150 countries, making its worldwide reach and influence significant.

While the details of the app’s demise in Europe are sparse, some suspect that the EU’s strict data privacy laws are to blame. EU law classifies data that reveals religious or philosophical beliefs as “sensitive” data and prohibits processing such data without explicit consent, with a few limited exceptions.

However, some are preparing to defend the app. ADF International, an international legal organization committed to free speech and religious liberty, replied to Jones on X, encouraging him to “DM them with more details,” stating they “might be able to help.”

As Europe continues to see a decline in religious affiliation, with the Pew Research Center estimating that the continent’s Christian population could shrink by 100 million before 2050, the need for Christian prayer apps and religious content is considered by many to be more important than ever. As Jones shared on X in response to the EU’s actions, “God will not be outdone.”
Sources:persecution

http://theendtimeradio.com

Pastor David Theobald rejoiced with Ryan Corbett’s family in Texas as he returned home after being held captive by the Taliban for nearly 900 days. Theobald credited God’s timing for the safe release and joined the Corbetts in celebrating their long-awaited reunion.

Corbett, who was abducted in August 2022 while on a business trip and held by the Taliban for 894 days, reunited with his relatives in San Antonio, Texas, before planning to return to his hometown of Dansville in Livingston County, Spectrum News reported.

Corbett spent his first hours back on U.S. soil with close family members after his arrival early Wednesday morning. His family later issued a statement expressing their gratitude for his release and requesting privacy while he recovers from his prolonged detention.

Theobald, who leads Grace Baptist Church in the same community where Corbett’s father once served, described a lengthy period in which only a few individuals knew of Corbett’s initial capture.

“We had been walking with them through it for a year before they did that,” he said, referring to the day Corbett’s story became public. Theobald called the knowledge of Corbett’s situation a “huge responsibility,” explaining how church members kept the family’s struggle private until authorities made the case more widely known.

Theobald first met Corbett’s family 15 years ago when he took over pastoral duties from Corbett’s father.

The pastor said the church played an integral part in providing emotional support. “For months, the family fought in silence, only finding peace in the Grace Baptist Church community,” he told Spectrum News. He credited the family for staying involved in worship activities, noting that Corbett’s children sing, play instruments and assist in the sound booth.

Corbett’s wife, Anna, teaches violin and has also performed at church events.

Upon hearing about Corbett’s release, Theobald received a phone call from Anna. He said he could sense her joy “beaming through the phone.”

The pastor added, “I was just overwhelmed. I was trying to find words. I was trying not to ball like a baby. … I just rejoiced with her.”

Corbett’s release came as part of a swap in which an Afghan national convicted of drug smuggling and extremism in the U.S. was sent back to Afghanistan, according to Reuters.

The newswire cited a spokesman for the Taliban who said two Americans were released. The other American is William McKenty.

Corbett and McKenty were transferred through Qatar before returning home last week, CBS News reported.

Afghan Foreign Ministry officials said they had traded them for Khan Mohammed, who received two life sentences in a 2008 trial in the U.S., according to The Associated Press. Mohammed, 55, had been detained on the battlefield in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province and later flown to California, where he was found guilty of securing heroin and opium bound for the U.S. and, in doing so, aiding terrorist activities.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on social media platform X that the Taliban might be holding more American hostages than publicly known. “If this is true, we will have to immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their top leaders.”

The International Criminal Court prosecutor has filed applications for arrest warrants targeting two Taliban leaders, including supreme spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada. The charges concern the alleged persecution of women and girls in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, which occurred soon after U.S. troops withdrew from the country, ending two decades of conflict.
Sources:Christian Post

http://theendtimeradio.com

Millions of people read the New Testament printed with the words of Jesus in red. Most people don’t realize that this is a relatively modern Evangelical tradition. This is the story …

Louis Klopsch

The idea was developed by a man called Louis Klopsch (1852-1910) who was born in Prussia on March 7, 1852. After his mother died in 1853, his father, Dr. Osmar Klopsch, took the family to the U.S. in 1854 and he was brought up in New York. Louis left school and worked in journalism rising through the ranks.

The Christian Herald

In 1874, a British weekly newspaper called The Christian Herald and Signs of Our Times was founded by Anglican clergyman the Rev. Michael Paget Baxter (1834-1910). He was popularly known as “Prophet Baxter” because of his frequent End Times predictions, and in the 1870s he supported Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey when they were in Britain.

In 1878, an American edition called The New York Christian Herald was started by Joseph Spurgeon, a cousin of the famous preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon, based at 63 Bible House, New York. In 1898 Louis Klopsch became the editor, and in 1899 ended up buying it to become its proprietor. In 1901 the New York Christian Herald was renamed The Christian Herald by which time it had grown to have a large cross-denominational readership peaking at nearly a quarter of a million.

Klopsch became a good friend to prominent Evangelical leaders at the time like Thomas De Witt Talmage, Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey. The Herald alerted readers to crises around the world and rallied Christian support for relief, raising huge sums for famines in Russia (1892), India (1897), Cuba (1898), Sweden and Finland (1903), and Japan (1906), as well as an earthquake in Italy in 1908. In 1904, Klopsch received the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal First Class for services in India from King Edward VII, and in 1907 he received the Order of the Rising Sun from the Emperor of Japan.

The inspiration

On June 19, 1899, Klopsch was working on an editorial when he read Luke 22:20 in the King James Version where Jesus said: “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” This gave him the idea of printing the very words of Jesus in the colour of blood, i.e. red.

Rubrication

The process of coloring some words in red, known as rubrication, was not in itself new. Klopsch may have been aware that rubrication had been common in medieval manuscript to emphasise certain passages, and was used to mark liturgical directions in Orthodox texts, but it was not the practice in printed Protestant Bibles. The ‘rubrication’ term comes from the Latin word ‘rubricare’ meaning to colour red, related to the word ruby.

At the time pretty much the only Bible translation in normal use was the Authorized or King James Version. This Bible dated back to a time before quotation marks were used as punctuation. Thus, in the KJV it was not obvious what was speech and what was not speech. Modern Bible versions now insert speech marks, but these did not exist in the King James Version, and so using red letters served a helpful purpose at the time.

First red letter Bible

Consulting various Bible scholars, Klopsch decided which parts to colour red. In 1899 the Christian Herald printed the first red letter New Testament, with a print run of 60,000. It was titled, “The New Testament … With All the Words Recorded Therein, as Having Been Spoken by Our Lord, Printed in Color.” This proved very popular, so in 1901, The Christian Herald printed the first red letter Bible titled “The Holy Bible: Red Letter Edition.”

In the 1901 Bible, Klopsch wrote: “The Red Letter Bible has been prepared and issued in the full conviction that it will meet the needs of the student, the worker, and the searchers after truth everywhere.” In the history of the Bible, this makes it a relatively modern innovation, and now it has become an Evangelical tradition.

Red sections

Some red letter Bible editions only include the words of Jesus in the four Gospels, but others also color sections in red in Acts and the epistles. For example some editions colour parts of Acts red where Jesus is quoted talking to Peter in Acts 10:13 and Acts 11:7 and 9, to Paul in Acts 10:15 and Acts 18:9-10, and where Jesus is quoted in Acts 11:16. Some editions also color red where Jesus is quoted at the Last Supper in 1 Corinthian 11:24-15 and where Jesus is quoted in 2 Corinthians 12:9.

Some Bibles color verses red in Revelation where John is spoken to in his vision e.g. Revelation 1:8, 11, 17-20 and the whole of Revelation Chapters 2 and 3, Revelation 4:1, Revelation 16:15 and Revelation 22:12-13, 16 and 20.

Problems

However, there are a number of problems with red letter Bibles. One issue is that it implies to the reader that we know exactly where speech started and finished. In most cases it is clear, but sometimes it’s not. There was no punctuation or speech marks in the original Greek. Where to start and stop the red letters is the decision of the editor. As a result, not all red letter editions are the same, and different editions color different sections in red. For example in the third Chapter of John, scholars disagree as to whether Jesus ends His message at verse 15 or at verse 21.

The use of red letters can give the idea that the red text is more important than the black text which it sits in. For some people, this is like a canon within the canon. The danger is that red letter editions of the Bible serve to create the idea that one part of the New Testament is more important than others. It can give the idea that the words of Jesus in red are the primary text and the rest in black is secondary. The color of the text isn’t meant to elevate one section over another, although it might have that effect in some people’s minds. From a practical point of view, adding red ink makes the Bible more expensive to produce.

Advantages

For some people the idea of red letters for the words of Jesus is that it seems to honor Christ. The real advantages of red letter Bibles is in old versions like the King James Version which didn’t include speech marks, and so the red letters are helpful to quickly and easily identify the words of Jesus. For many people, it helps them to study by highlighting the words of Jesus.

On a practical level, looking at pages of black text is daunting. Modern Bibles break up the text into paragraphs and add sub-headings to make it easier to read and navigate. Adding color can also break up the page and make it visually more attractive and interesting.

Death

By the time that Louis Klopsch died in New York 1910, aged 57, his idea had already been copied. He has no large memorial, just a granite stone with a small plaque. His greatest memorial is that today many Bible publishers produce red letter editions.
Sources:Christian Post

http://theendtimeradio.com