Pastor in Mexico jailed, expelled for refusing to participate in Catholic ritual.
Officials in a village in southern Mexico’s Oaxaca state detained for five days and then expelled a Protestant pastor for refusing to participate in Catholic church rituals, according to a U.K-based advocacy group. CD.
20) When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’”
21) At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. 22) So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy.
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Posted: 30th December 2025
As the gospel spreads and impacts more lives, Christians around the world are bracing themselves for a year of increased persecution at the hands of oppressive governments and religious extremists.
Release International’s annual Persecution Trends Report spotlights a number of places in the world where severe persecution is likely to increase in the year ahead.
The report provides a platform for Release International’s partners to analyse the current situation in their country and to say what they think 2026 could hold in store for followers of Christ.
In Nigeria one of Release International’s partners says the martyrdom of Christians could double without swift action. In China Release International’s partner believes persecution it at its worst level since the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and early 1970s.
The report appears in the January edition of Release International’s free quarterly magazine, Voice. It can also be read by clicking the button below. Release Int.
Based on 2026 health care index data analyzing public funding, access, and efficiency, the following is a list of top-performing nations with high-quality publicly funded or heavily subsidized healthcare systems. [1, 2, 3]
The Bible forbids using icons in worship: Religious art vs. religious icon.
Worshippers who use icons claim that they are not really worshipping them, only venerating them. Some even renumber the commandments so that the second is hidden behind the first. But they are, in fact, doing exactly what the second commandment describes and forbids. Changing the name of what they are doing and claiming that excuses them is no more convincing than calling adultery “love making” and thinking that makes it okay. The core prohibition of the second commandment is not about an attitude toward the image or what the image is of (e.g., Christ or a saint), but about what is done with it. “You shall not bow down to them or serve them.” To “serve them” suggests performing acts of worship.
This is why the intricate theological debate over the distinction between worship (latria) and mere veneration (dulia) is moot. The commandment forbids a particular use of the image: making it a focal point of prayer or adoration, bowing before it, or using it as a tool in religious devotion. When an image is used this way, it becomes an icon, and the second commandment explicitly forbids it.
Art is not iconography
It’s crucial to differentiate between religious art (decorations, stained glass) and a religious icon.
Orthodox theologians themselves define an icon by its liturgical function: “The icon’s purpose is liturgical.” It is not merely a decoration in a worship space but is actively used in worship. The Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America defines an icon: “The primary purpose of the icon is to aid in worship.” By definition, an icon is an image used in religious devotion.
This distinction is key when iconodules (supporters of icons) point to images allowed in the Old Testament, such as the cherubim over the Ark of the Covenant or the bronze serpent Moses made (Numbers 21). These were symbolic images or decorations, but they were never used in worship. The cherubim were not bowed to, and the bronze serpent was destroyed by King Hezekiah the moment it was turned into an icon (2 Kings 18:4). The discovery of early Christian art in catacombs or churches, therefore, does not automatically imply the discovery of early Christian iconography. Art for viewing is not the same as an image used for veneration.
The unanimous early church testimony
The historical record from the first four centuries reveals a consistent and unanimous opposition to icons among Christian writers, a position known as aniconism. While Christians fell on a spectrum — from rigorist aniconism (against all images anywhere) to lax aniconism (against only using images in worship) — no one in the early church crossed the line to allow images in devotion.
When did icons arrive?
For the first five centuries of Christianity, there is no evidence of any Christian — not even a minority faction — approving the use of images in worship. The veneration of icons was an absolute novelty that emerged later, triggering a violent and divisive controversy in the 8th century when superficially converted pagans brought their idolatry into the church.
The famous Second Council of Nicaea (787), which mandated the use of icons, did so centuries after the early church period. Empress Irene, who had been alienated from her late husband for her icons, rigged the council to deliver the result she wanted. In doing so, it effectively anathematized the universal practice of the Church Fathers who had come before it. The style and use of the icons it championed were, as noted by historian Henry Chadwick, heavily influenced by pagan traditions, borrowing from images of Zeus and venerated mother goddesses.
The conclusion is stark: the early church strictly prohibited icons. They are not a part of apostolic tradition; they are a later innovation.
John B. Carpenter, Ph.D., is pastor of Covenant Reformed Baptist Church, in Danville, VA. and the author of Seven Pillars of a Biblical Church (Wipf and Stock, 2022) and the Covenant Caswell substack. CP.
Confirming One’s Calling and Election.
3) His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4) Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
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