Monday, November 2, 2026U.S. Edition

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Church Today

US Bill seeks to ban Nigerian government from hiring paid lobbyists in Washington over Christian persecution

Representative Barry Moore introduced H.R. 10939 to sanction American firms receiving funds from Abuja while Nigeria remains on the religious freedom watch list.

Mercy Herald staff · 3 min read
  1. Church Today

    Iranian Christians hold secret online church services in groups of 30 to 50 as Tehran threatens spy-law charges

    SAT-7 runs four private live sessions a week for Iranian believers, while Tehran lists the network as “hostile” and weighs new internet limits.

  2. Church Today

    Christian family in India leaves ancestral home after mob of 150 attacks: “Wherever we live, we will live with Jesus”

    In Chhattisgarh, three families were beaten with sticks for refusing to return to Hinduism. Vikas Salam's family would rather lose land and home than renounce Christ.

  3. Church Today

    Nigerian pastor begs President Tinubu to rescue wife and toddler daughter held by Boko Haram for nearly a year

    Mercy Simon and her toddler Talita were taken in Borno on Nov. 9, 2025. Their captors now demand 12 million naira, about $8,900.

  1. Archaeology

    Researchers extract charred wood from deep inside boat-shaped formation in Turkey as lab tests for Noah's Ark site begin

  2. Archaeology

    2,200-year-old fortification at Kiriath-Jearim may be the Emmaus where Jesus appeared after the resurrection

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Latest news

  1. Archaeology

    Tel Shiqmona purple dye factory from the days of Jeroboam II also pressed olive oil, wove cloth and penned livestock

    Peer-reviewed PLOS One study of Haifa sediments; the authors say the seasonal calendar is inferred from known timing, not read directly from the soil.

  2. Church Today

    Former Muslim on the Arabian Peninsula, driven from home, beaten and jailed: 'I will tell people about Jesus'

    Bassam is the face of this year's International Day of Prayer for Persecuted Christians, held Sunday. Voice of the Martyrs says opposition starts at home.

  3. Church Today

    Uganda: 5 Muslims sentenced to death for killing two evangelists who preached to Lake Victoria fishermen

    The Oct. 7 ruling hits the killers of Robert Baguma and Moses Okech; executions require the president's sign-off, and Uganda has not hanged a civilian since 1999.

  4. Church Today

    Brazil pulls 'all ages' rating from Record TV's Bible cartoons, advising 8 p.m. or later; the network can ask for review

    The Sunday-morning block, on air since 2003, is now 'not recommended for under 12.' The rating is advisory, not a ban, and the network can request review.

Mercy HeraldThe Christian world today and the history behind the Bible.A Mercy publication
  • Archaeology

    3,200-year-old Gal'on Fortress from the era of the Judges opens to visitors in Israel with a 3-ton stone threshold

    The 12th-century BCE building in the Shephelah reopened after a NIS 400,000 renovation; its tie to the Book of Judges is one of context, not of name.

  • Church Today

    Nigeria: Intersociety counts 3,083 Christians killed in eight months of 2026, while Open Doors logged 3,490 in a year

    A Sept. 6 report covers January to August; the government denies religious motive and the totals do not add up. Attacks continued in October.

  • Church Today

    French teen, 18, hauls 77-lb walnut cross up Spain's Aneto after the summit cross was cut down; vandals toppled his too

    Maël Le Lagadec, a Montauban landscaping apprentice, climbed 3,404 m with a 35 kg cross. Spain's Guardia Civil is still investigating the cut 1951 original.

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  • Church Today

    Brazilian pastor has freed more than 50 people from Pakistan brick kilns, paying about $3,000 per rescue

    Claudinei Vicente of São Paulo has paid off families' debts in Lahore since 2020 with Brazilian donations. Pakistan has 2.3 million in modern slavery.

  • Archaeology

    Tell Qasile: Philistine harbor town in Tel Aviv built three temples on one spot, and no one knows which god they served

    Excavated by Amihai Mazar in the 1970s, the site from the days of the Judges shows Philistines and Canaanites blended; the Samson link is only a parallel.

  • Archaeology

    Archaeologists expose 300 meters of the 21-km aqueduct that fed the Temple Mount near Ramat Rachel; its date is still debated

    A stretch of Jerusalem's Lower Aqueduct surfaced ahead of a new neighborhood; the Hasmonean origin is likely, but the exact date is still debated.

  • Bible

    Tomb of Jesus: Holy Sepulchre dig reveals a quarry, planted plots and rock-cut tombs, but cannot say which tomb was his

    A preliminary Sapienza University report on the Jerusalem basilica describes the ground beneath it; the plant remains still lack radiocarbon dates.

  • Bible

    Where Jesus was baptized: archaeologist says ruins dug up in Jordan from 1996 to 2002 reveal the 'true place'

    A six-page paper by Mohammad Waheeb revisits digs from 1996 to 2002; in 2015 UNESCO's advisers said the archaeology could not prove the baptism spot.

  • Archaeology

    Ramses II statues: pink granite block found by Egyptian farmer led to 5-foot head; Moses link remains unproven

    Rescue excavation at Behbeit el-Hagar in the Nile Delta recovered two statues attributed to Ramses II. The Bible never names the pharaoh of the Exodus.

  • Archaeology

    2,600-year-old Temple Mount clay seal bears the name Asayahu, like King Josiah's servant; study due by end of 2026

    A study of the “Yeda‛yah son of Asayahu” sealing is due in the Israel Exploration Journal; its link to Asaiah in 2 Kings 22 remains a hypothesis.

  • Archaeology

    Second Temple ritual bath complex found at foot of Temple Mount: 3,000 sq ft, with one vaulted mikveh still 14 feet tall

    Hebrew University excavators announced the Ophel find after five seasons; coins date it to about 10 CE, and the full scientific report is still to come.

  • History

    Frankfurt Silver Inscription: 1,800-year-old amulet with a prayer to Jesus holds 18 lines of Latin and divides scholars

    Found in 2018, read by CT in 2024, the Nida amulet is billed as the earliest Christian evidence north of the Alps. Its wearer's faith is debated.

  • History

    Archaeologists in Italy say they have found the likely church of Altino's bishop, described by St. Jerome in a letter of AD 396

    Ca’ Foscari’s team cites a “very high degree of confidence,” but the link to Jerome’s letter is circumstantial and the date runs to the 5th century.

  • Archaeology

    Hittite royal archive of 184 cuneiform tablets, 3,400 years old, records an epidemic, a princess's death and a plea for chariots

    Koç University's team at Kayalıpınar, Turkey, adds 131 tablets from 2026 to 53 from 2025; researchers are still translating the texts.

  • Bible

    Ebed-melech, the Cushite who pulled Jeremiah from the cistern with old rags and ropes: what we know about Zedekiah's official

    BAS revisits Jeremiah 38. No inscription naming him has turned up in our reporting, but seals of two nobles from the same chapter were found in Jerusalem.

  • Bible

    Jesus "appeared alive on the third day": new study reopens the mystery of a 2,000-year-old text by a Jewish historian

    Written around AD 93, the most controversial passage by Flavius Josephus survives in four different versions. A Spanish researcher compared them all to find out what the historian really said.

  • Bible

    Scientists start drilling into the "Noah's Ark" site: radar points to right-angled voids beneath a 538-foot formation near Mount Ararat

    A Turkish and American team spent 90 days at the hull-shaped formation, collected 1,000 soil samples and found pottery. The lab results are still to come.