From March 29 to April 5 this year, most of the Christian world enters into the holiest days of their calendar year. These are the days that commemorate the final days of the life of Jesus. Investigating what is remembered and celebrated can be both practically impactful and spiritually inspiring. On Palm Sunday, Jesus entered into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. This was a specific and calculated choice evoking the Old Testament prophecies from Zechariah. The prophet tells Israel that “your king is coming to you, a just savior is he, Humble, and riding on a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9). The miracle worker and famous preacher enters Jerusalem during Passover, the busiest time of year for the ancient city. He chooses a donkey (the symbol for peace) rather than the horse (known as the animal of strength for military leaders). The crowds welcome him, but they will be the very crowd that rejects and deserts him on the day of his trial. Palm Sunday reminds humanity that we can too often be noncommittal about our faith. Our commitment to prayer and holiness often wavers when we hear what the crowds are saying. Our faith often collapses the moment we must face sacrifice and ostracization. We blend into the masses rather than stand out and defend our faith. Four days later, on Holy Thursday, Jesus celebrates his last meal with his disciples. But before doing so, he left them a sign that they are directed to follow. He got on his hands and knees and washed the feet of the disciples (John 13). The God of the universe placed himself in the lowest position to showcase that love is sacrificial. Then he took bread and wine, said the blessing, and told his disciples that the bread was his body and the wine was his blood. Before he was arrested, beaten, and killed, Jesus laid down his life. His mission was coming to its culmination. In order to remain with us always, he left the gift of the Eucharist: his body, blood, soul, and divinity. When Jesus said that the bread and wine become his body and blood—they truly change. We take Jesus at his word. He was not speaking poetically. Through Christ’s power, handed down to the priest through the generations, the bread and wine become his body and blood. The proposal of the Catholic Church is that Jesus waits for us in the Eucharist. In every tabernacle across the globe, he desires to meet us and hear from us. The challenge is to make time for him rather than ignore him as the disciples did on his final day before his crucifixion. We must be firm in our hope that the resurrection has the last say over any pain and suffering. Following the Last Supper, Jesus leads his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane. Here sweating blood as he considers his forthcoming pain (Luke 22:39-46). There he is arrested and brought to several Jewish leaders before he lands in front of Pilate on Good Friday. Once he is convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death by crucifixion, he is brought to be scourged. Prisoners would have been stripped completely naked and chained by their wrists to a post or wall. Two strong soldiers would alternate blows as they whipped him with a flagrum, a torture device similar to and more severe than a “cat of nine tails.” This was a whip with straps that had objects tied to the end of each strap. At the end of each strap would have been a piece of glass, rock, bone, or metal object. The intention of the soldier was to hit the prisoner so hard that one of these sharp objects would dig into the flesh of the man. Then the soldier would pull back the whip, literally ripping out tendons and muscles from his face down to his feet. Recent medical analysis reports that the incisions Jesus would have endured during the scourging would have needed roughly two thousand stitches to repair. For this reason, many sources report that prisoners would often died during the scourging, not even making it to crucifixion. Now a cross beam weighing between 150-300 pounds is placed on Jesus’ shoulders, and he carries it a half-mile to his place of death. Along the way, he is continually mocked and whipped. Soldiers held Jesus down as they nailed 6-to-9-inch nails through his hands and feet. Then the cross would have been lifted about ten feet high in the air for all to see and mock. Ultimately, Jesus dies after hanging on the cross for nearly three hours. He would have died of asphyxiation or suffocation as he could no longer lift his beaten body up to breathe. It is the tremendous suffering of Jesus that stands out among these holiest of days. Despite being humiliated, deserted, rejected, mocked, and brutally beaten he remains calm and forgives his enemies. He loved us to the end. For this reason, the crosses that adorn homes, churches, and necklaces serve as reminders of the love that our God has for us. They are invitations to keep God at the center of our lives and become mirrors to His love in our homes and communities. If we do that, then this week will make us into reflections of the heart of God. I can’t think of a time when we need that more. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post The First Holy Week appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Bauhaus can lay claim to being the founding fathers of goth

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told G7 foreign ministers that he expects the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran to end after a few weeks.

The Finnish Supreme Court charged Swedish MP Päivi Räsänen, who was leader of the Christian Democrats and a former minister of the interior, for having written and published a pamphlet in 2004 that argued that changing the Lutheran Church’s position on homosexuality contradicted God’s will. She was found guilty, not for the Bible verse per se, but for “insult.” [hate speech] Räsänen was convicted for calling homosexuality a “psychosexual development disorder” and “deviation,” deemed derogatory. That sounds like a medical viewpoint. She was acquitted for tweeting the Bible verse. The former Parliamentarian was found guilty of “agitation against a population group” for the 2004 pamphlet on homosexuality. She was fined about €1,800 while being acquitted in a separate case involving a Bible quote tweet. Nonetheless, she was convicted of writing a pamphlet defending the Bible. “I am shocked and profoundly disappointed that the court has failed to recognize my basic human right to freedom of expression. I stand by the teachings of my Christian faith, and will continue to defend my and every person’s right to share their convictions in the public square.” – stated Päivi Räsänen after receiving the judgment. The pamphlet was put out 22 years ago!!! They are attacking her for something she wrote 22 years ago because of something she wrote in 2019. The Alliance for Defending Freedom International wrote: Räsänen was previously acquitted unanimously by two lower courts on all charges. The long-serving parliamentarian and former minister of the interior has been convicted for “hate speech” under a section of the Finnish criminal code titled “war crimes and crimes against humanity.” The medical doctor and grandmother of twelve was tried in early 2022 and again in 2023 for expressing her beliefs in a 2019 tweet that included a Bible verse, as well as in a 2019 radio debate and a 2004 church booklet. After the prosecutor appealed for the second time, the Supreme Court, which heard the case in October 2025, has now ruled on two of the three original charges: concerning the tweet and the church booklet. The Supreme Court was not asked to rule on the radio debate, as the prosecution did not appeal it, so Räsänen’s acquittal for the debate stands. She can appeal to the EU Court of Human Rights. These are globalists for you. According to US Assistant Secretary of State Riley Barnes, “Holding Christian beliefs isn’t a crime. Finland’s ‘hate speech’ conviction was for defending the Bible. It shows the tragic state of religious freedom in the West. “The United States stands opposed to these ideological attacks against the Christian faith,” says Barnes. Alliance Defending Freedom called it a ‘modern-day heresy trial.’ The high-profile trial received significant global attention, particularly after the prosecution attacked core Christian teachings and cross-examined Räsänen and the bishop on their theology.” No matter how the rulers try to get around it, it is an attack on Christianity. https://x.com/Watchdog_MP/status/2037200516300628446?s=20 Canada is doing something similar. The majority of Canadian MPs have voted to pass a Liberal bill that will allow the criminalization of religious expression and belief when quoting parts of the Bible, including those about homosexuality and gender. MPs from the Liberal Party and the Bloc Québécois, in a 186–137 vote, passed Bill C-9, known as the “Combating Hate Act.” Conservative, NDP, and Green Party MPs voted against the bill in a rare show of unity among the parties that usually oppose each other. I haven’t read the bill, but LifeSite News says it criminalizes quoting Bible passages. They believe it will put Christians through a whole new level of hostility. Opinion Another problem not mentioned is that it’s not just LGBs. They have added all these bizarre TQIAx+++, who are often mentally ill. They want to force everyone to accept this as normal. As a result, people who are mentally ill won’t get help. Those who sleep around with anyone or anything will be normalized, and moral standards disappear. The post Finland Convicts Former Minister for Defending the Bible in 2004 appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Grace Jin Drexel hopes Donald Trump can get her father out of a Chinese prison. Mingri “Ezra” Jin is the pastor of Beijing’s Zion Church, one of China’s largest underground Christian churches. In October, he and 22 other church leaders were arrested and imprisoned as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown on independent churches. Drexel, an American citizen, told The Daily Wire that Trump has an opportunity to build on his “impressive” record of freeing hostages to advocate for her father’s freedom. “This Eastertide season, President Trump has the unique opportunity and ability to secure the release of my father — building on his already impressive track record of freeing hostages — and show that he has not forgotten persecuted Christians,” Drexel told The Daily Wire. “My father, as a pastor, only wanted what Christians all over the world want: to worship our one and only God freely. We are so proud to have such a role model as a father and grandfather.” Her comments come after a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday urged Trump to press Chinese President Xi Jinping on the treatment of Chinese Christians during his upcoming visit to China. “We encourage you to advocate for their release and request the PRC to allow Mr. Jin to leave China, in addition to raising concerns regarding the ongoing unjust imprisonment and persecution of Christians, Tibetans, and Uyghurs, among other religious and ethnic minority groups across China,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter led by Senators Ted Budd (R-NC) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Reps. Riley Moore (R-WV) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY).  The lawmakers also asked for the Trump administration to use visa restrictions and sanctions to target individuals responsible for locking up Christians and other religious minorities in China.  “President Trump cares deeply about our great Christians around the world,” White House principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told The Daily Wire. “We do not comment on the president’s private conversations.” Drexel, who testified about her father’s plight during a hearing by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in January, thanked the lawmakers for their advocacy.  “I am so grateful for the letter by so many members of Congress from across the country that highlights that me and my father’s story resonates with so many,” she told The Daily Wire. “As a daughter, I want my father back with us in the U.S. and I hope that the leaders of both countries, both having daughters, will understand my family’s plight.” Drexel previously told The Daily Wire that her father became a Christian after the brutal Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989.  “When the country betrayed them in such a brutal way, it really was shocking, and they lost a sense of direction for my dad,” she told The Daily Wire. “He then found the sense of purpose and direction in Christianity, and he turned to Christ, and he realized that was the firm foundation that he needed in order to build his life upon.” The initial wave of arrests targeting Christians occurred in October 2025, but another wave began in January 2026 when police arrested at least seven people linked to Early Rain Covenant Church, a prominent evangelical Presbyterian church located in southwestern China. The Trump administration previously condemned the arrest of Jin and other Christians.  “This crackdown further demonstrates how the CCP exercises hostility towards Christians who reject Party interference in their faith and choose to worship at unregistered house churches,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in October 2025. “We call on the CCP to immediately release the detained church leaders and to allow all people of faith, including members of house churches, to engage in religious activities without fear of retribution.”