It’s Friday, September 13th, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 125 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com)

By Adam McManus

Spanish Evangelicals ask Nicaragua to revoke closure of churches

This summer, the Nicaraguan regime, led by President Daniel Ortega, has shut down 1,500 independent Evangelical and Catholic groups, churches, and non-governmental organizations, reports Evangelical Focus.

In view of this dire situation, the Spanish Evangelical Alliance made a formal complaint to the Nicaraguan government. In a letter sent to the Nicaraguan consulate in Spain, they wrote, “We ask you most respectfully and firmly to not only stop, but to reverse your harassment and demolition of freedoms in Nicaragua. Although you may not realize it, the first to suffer is the government itself and the country as a whole.”

According to Open Doors, Nicaragua is the 30th most difficult country worldwide in which to be a Christian

Psalm 9:9 says, “The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.”

ABC’s bias revealed during debate

Did ABC have its thumb on the scale of fairness during the presidential debate this past Tuesday night in Philadelphia?

First, Trump was the only candidate whom David Muir and Linsey Davis, the ABC co-anchors, targeted for multiple follow-up questions. 

While CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash chose not to correct any misstatements by the candidates during Trump’s debate with Biden in June, the ABC co-anchors instead challenged statements that Trump made about abortion, immigration, the 2020 election, and violent crime, reports the Associated Press.

Kamala Harris was not once asked a follow-up question. It seemed as though it were a three-on-one debate instead of a one-on-one debate.

During a discussion of abortion, Trump claimed that Democrats supported killing babies after they were born.

TRUMP: “Her vice presidential pick says, ‘Abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine.’ He also says execution after birth, it's execution, no longer abortion, because the baby is born is okay. And that's not okay with me.”

ABC co-anchor Linsey Davis said this in a rebuttal.

DAVIS: “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it was born. Madam Vice President, I want to get your response to President Trump.”

After years of publicly not admitting to his defeat to Biden in the 2020 election, ABC co-anchor David Muir pointed out that Trump had recently, on three separate occasions, seemingly conceded he had lost. Trump replied that he had been sarcastic in making those recent remarks.

Muir offered this rebuttal.

MUIR: “I did watch all of these pieces of video. I didn't detect the sarcasm. ‘Lost by whisker.’ ‘We didn't quite make it.’ And we should just point out here as clarification, and you know this, you and your allies, 60 cases in front of many judges, many of them Republican. ”

TRUMP: “No judge looked at it. Many judges said we didn't have standing. That's the other thing. They said we didn't have standing. A technicality. Can you imagine a system where a person in an election doesn't have standing? The President of the United States doesn't have standing? That's how we lost. If you look at the facts, and I'd love to have you do a special on it. I'll show you Georgia, and I'll show you Wisconsin, and I'll show you Pennsylvania.

“We have so many facts and statistics, but you know what? That doesn't matter, because we have to solve the problem that we have right now. That's old news. And the problem that we have right now is we have a nation in decline, and they have put it into decline. We have a nation that is dying, David.”

MUIR: “Mr. President, thank you. Vice President Harris, you heard the President there tonight. He said he didn't say that he lost by a whisker. So, he still believes he did not lose the election that was won by President Biden and yourself. But I do want to ask you about something that's come up in the last couple of days. Mr. President, thank you. Vice President Harris.”

After Trump claimed that crime had gone up during the Biden administration because of their open border policy which let in criminals, Muir claimed that violent crime had gone down in America.

Listen.

TRUMP: “Millions of people let in. All over the world crime is down. All over the world, except here, crime here is up and through the roof, despite their fraudulent statements that they made. Crime in this country is through the roof. We have a new form of crime. It's called ‘migrant crime,’ and it's happening at levels that nobody thought possible.”

MUIR: “President Trump, as you know, the FBI, says overall, violent crime is actually coming down in this country.”

TRUMP: “Excuse me, the FBI defraud. They were defrauding statements. They didn't include the worst cities. They didn't include the cities with the worst crime. It was a fraud, just like their number of 818,000 jobs that they said they created turned out to be a fraud.”

MUIR: “President Trump, thank you. I'll let you respond. Vice President Harris.”

HARRIS: “Well, I…”

After Trump repeated a report that illegal immigrants were killing and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, David Muir weighed in once again.

MUIR: “Want to clarify here. You bring up Springfield, Ohio, and ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”

TRUMP:  “Well, I’ve seen people on television.”

MUIR: “Let me just say here.”

TRUMP: “The people on television saying my dog was taken and used for food. So, maybe he said that. And maybe that's a good thing to say for a city manager.”

MUIR: “I'm not taking this from television.”

TRUMP: “But people on television said my pets were eaten by the people that went there.”

MUIR: “Again, the Springfield city manager says there's no evidence of that.”

TRUMP: “We’ll find out.”

MUIR: “Vice President, I'll let you respond to the rest of what you've heard.”

Trump turns down another debate

Not surprisingly, on Thursday, former President Donald Trump said he would not participate in another election debate against his rival Vice President Kamala Harris, reports NewsMax.

After participating in a debate against President Joe Biden in June and Harris this past Tuesday, he wrote this on Truth Social: "There will be no third debate!"

He also said that Kamala “and Crooked Joe have destroyed our country, with millions of criminals and mentally deranged people pouring into the USA, totally unchecked and unvetted, and with inflation bankrupting our Middle Class. ... Kamala should focus on what she should have done during the last almost four-year period."

Alistair Begg announces plans to retire

Author and pastor Alistair Begg has announced plans to retire as the senior pastor of Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio, on September14, 2025, five decades after entering into the ministry, reports The Christian Post.

The voice behind the radio teaching ministry Truth for Life, the 72-year-old Scottish pastor has served as Parkside Church's senior pastor since 1983.

Begg said, "It is not precipitous. It's not driven by anything of which I am personal