Monthly News Roundup (04.27.23)

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Plain Bible Teaching Podcast

This episode is our monthly news roundup for April. In this episode, we’re talking about a survey indicating that believers in God are the happiest people in the U.S., the declining number of “born again Christians” who believe Jesus lived a sinless life, and a discovery of a fragment of a translation of the gospel of Matthew from the third century.

STORY #1 – Americans Who Believe in God Are the Happiest People in the U.S.

“The happiest people in America believe in God and value close relationships, according to a new Wall Street Journal-NORC survey.

“The poll found that only 12 percent of Americans describe themselves as ‘very happy’ – the lowest percentage ever recorded in the survey, which dates to 1972. More than half (56 percent) rate themselves as ‘pretty happy,’ while 30 percent say they are “not too happy.”

“A handful of strong beliefs separate those who are ‘very happy’ from the rest of Americans. An overwhelming majority of ‘very happy’ people – 68 percent – say belief in God is very important to them. That’s a significantly higher percentage than among the ‘pretty happy’ group (47 percent) and the ‘not too happy’ group (42 percent).

“‘They tend to say belief in God is important,’ The Wall Street Journal reported of the very happy group. ‘Two-thirds describe themselves as very or moderately religious, compared with less than half of adults overall.’” (Christian Headlines)

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STORY #2 – Less Than Half of Born-Again Christians Believe Jesus Lived Sinless Life on Earth

“Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, fewer born-again Christians now say that Jesus lived a sinless life during his time on Earth, and church attendance has dropped by some 15 million people weekly, a new study from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University shows.

“The findings came from The American Worldview Inventory 2023, an annual tracking study of the worldview of U.S. adults involving 2,000 people from across the country and conducted under the supervision of George Barna, director of research at the Cultural Research Center.

“While born-again Christians make up about one-third of all U.S. adults and are considered ‘the backbone of local church activity because of their higher level of commitment to the Christian faith,’ the study shows that between 2020 and 2023, the share of those who say they believe Jesus did not commit sins during his lifetime on Earth fell from 58% to 44%.” (The Christian Post)

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STORY #3 – Researcher Discovers Fragment of 1,750-Year-Old Translation of Gospel of Matthew

“A researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences has discovered what scientists say is a fragment of the oldest writing of the text of Matthew from the Bible’s New Testament.

“The biblical text had been hidden underneath other writing on an ancient piece of parchment.

“‘About 1,300 years ago a scribe in Palestine took a book of the Gospels inscribed with a Syriac text and erased it. Parchment was scarce in the desert in the Middle Ages, so manuscripts were often erased and reused,’ the academy, also known as OeAW or Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, explained in a recent post on its website.

“Medievalist Grigory Kessel, one of the members of the OeAW research team, used ultraviolet photography to reveal the ancient transcription which was located underneath three layers of text. The layered manuscript, a so-called palimpsest, is now legible again using modern technology.

“It turns out Kessel discovered one of the earliest translations of the Gospels, made in the 3rd century and copied in the 6th century, on individual surviving pages of this manuscript, the OeAW said.

“The team’s study announcing the find was published last month in the journal New Testament Studies. The study includes the translation of Matthew 11:30 to Matthew 12: 26 that originally translated into the Old Syriac translations more than a millennium ago.” (Faithwire)

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