"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." Northwoods is a ministry dedicated to refreshing Christians and challenging them to search for the truth in Christianity, politics, sociology, and science
"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life"
Father God, thank you for the love of the truth you have given me. Please bless me with the wisdom, knowledge and discernment needed to always present the truth in an attitude of grace and love. Use this blog and Northwoods Ministries for your glory. Help us all to read and to study Your Word without preconceived notions, but rather, let scripture interpret scripture in the presence of the Holy Spirit. All praise to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
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Former tech executive reportedly spoke with chatbot before killing his 83-year-old mother and taking his own life
A former Yahoo executive who killed his elderly mother and then himself was reportedly influenced by ChatGPT, which fueled his conspiracy theories, the WSJ reported earlier this week.
Stein-Erik Soelberg, 56, and his 83-year-old mother, Suzanne Eberson Adams, were found dead in Adams’ house in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, on August 5.
“Erik, you’re not crazy,” the chatbot reportedly said after Soelberg claimed his mother and her friend tried to poison him by putting psychedelic drugs in his car’s air vents. Adding that “if it was done by your mother and her friend, that elevates the complexity and betrayal.”
The New York Post reported that Soelberg posted videos of his ChatGPT conversations on Instagram and YouTube in the months before the murder.
The outlet also noted that Soelberg went through a tumultuous 2018 divorce marked by alcoholism, public meltdowns, and suicide attempts. His ex-wife obtained a restraining order banning him from drinking before visiting their children.
“We will be together in another life and another place, and we’ll find a way to realign, because you’re gonna be my best friend again forever,” Soelberg reportedly said in one of his final messages to the chatbot, which he named “Bobby”.
“With you to the last breath and beyond,” ChatGPT replied.
An OpenAI spokeswoman told the WSJ that the company was “deeply saddened” by the tragedy and had contacted Greenwich police. OpenAI also pledged new safeguards to keep distressed users grounded in reality, including updates to reduce overly agreeable responses, or “sycophancy,” and improve how ChatGPT handles sensitive conversations.
Soelberg’s case is not an isolated incident of people turning to AI for emotional support. Earlier this week, a California couple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI over the death of their teenage son, alleging that ChatGPT encouraged the 16-year-old to commit suicide.
Sweden jihadist jailed for life over Jordan pilot burned alive
Stockholm (AFP) – A Stockholm court on Thursday handed down a life term to Swedish jihadist Osama Krayem over the 2015 murder of a Jordanian pilot burned alive by the Islamic State group in Syria.
The Swedish court was the first to try a person over the killing that sparked outrage around the world.
Judge Anna Liljenberg Gullesjo said "the investigation has shown that the defendant was at the execution site, uniformed and armed, and allowed himself to be filmed."
Although video evidence showed that another man lit the fire, the judge said the "defendant's actions contributed so significantly to the death of the victim that he should be considered a perpetrator".
Krayem, who is serving long prison sentences for his role in the Paris and Brussels attacks in 2015 and 2016, was given a life sentence for "serious war crimes and terrorist crimes"
On December 24, 2014, an aircraft belonging to the Royal Jordanian Air Force crashed in Syria.
The pilot, Maaz al-Kassasbeh, was captured the same day by IS fighters near the central city of Raqqa and was burned alive in a cage sometime before February 3, 2015, when a slickly-produced video of the gruesome killing was published, according to the prosecution.
Gullesjo said Krayem's actions consisted of "guarding the victim both before and during the execution and taking him to the cage where he was set alight while still alive".
The court also awarded compensation to the parents and siblings of the Jordanian pilot, amounting to 80,000 Swedish kronor ($8,200) each.
'Comfort' for family
Prosecutors have been unable to determine the exact date of the murder, but the investigation has identified the location.
The 32-year-old jihadist remained silent throughout the hearings, which lasted between June 4 and June 26, though segments from interrogations with Krayem conducted during the investigation were read out and played during the trial.
The fact that the defendent did not speak did not "significantly impact the ruling, as the prosecution presented solid evidence, and the investigation was thorough," Gullesjo told AFP.
According to his lawyer, Krayem insisted he had spent only 15 to 20 minutes on-site, unaware of what was going to happen until he saw the cameras.
"This verdict somewhat comforts the family," the pilot's brother Jawdat al-Kassasbeh, who was a civil party to the case, told AFP.
"We thank Sweden and the impartial Swedish judiciary for their efforts in pursuing this case," the brother added.
He travelled from Jordan for the trial to testify to the pain, still raw, that he shares with his loved ones.
No remorse
The family's lawyer lamented in court that Krayem showed no empathy or remorse for his actions.
"Most people who witnessed what Maaz went through would undoubtedly need lifelong, or at least long-term, treatment to overcome the trauma that this causes in a normal individual," Mikael Westerlund told the court.
"Krayem, on the other hand, does not seem to have been traumatised, but inspired. Inspired to continue his terrorist activities, which led him to participate in and then be convicted of terrorist acts in Europe," Westerlund added.
Krayem, who is from Malmo in southern Sweden, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in France for helping plan the November 2015 Paris attacks and to life imprisonment in Belgium for the 2016 attacks at Brussels' main airport and metro station.
On March 12, France agreed to hand him over to Sweden for nine months, the time needed for the investigation and trial.
He must be returned to France by December 27 at the latest, the Stockholm court said Thursday.
"Jordanians will always remember this horrible crime," Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Momani told AFP.
"This decision is a significant step towards achieving justice."
The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law. It’s based on the Qur’an: “They wish you would disbelieve as they disbelieved so you would be alike. So do not take from among them allies until they emigrate for the cause of Allah. But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them and take not from among them any ally or helper.” (Qur’an 4:89)
A hadith depicts Muhammad saying:“Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence.
This is still the position of all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, both Sunni and Shi’ite. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the most renowned and prominent Muslim cleric in the world, has stated: “The Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-‘ashriyyah, Al-Ja’fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.”
Qaradawi also once famously said: “If they had gotten rid of the apostasy punishment, Islam wouldn’t exist today.”
Muslim Relatives of New Christian Break into Home to Kill Him
NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Muslim relatives of a Christian convert in eastern Uganda on Friday (July 18) forced their way into his locked home and killed him, sources said.
As he had done since accepting Christ in April, Kasajja Abdul Maliki of Kaliro village, Kaliro District had locked himself in his house during Friday mosque service to pray and study the Bible when his Muslim relatives burst in and stabbed him to death, his niece said. He was 37.
Maliki, who was unmarried, had begun receiving questions from his family members about his absence from mosque prayers earlier this month – he responded that he was getting training as a welder – and a week before his death, a Muslim neighbor informed relatives that he was seen leaving a church premise, sources said.
His niece, identified only as Shamina, said that on Friday (July 18) at about 3 p.m. the relatives heard Maliki praying loudly inside his house “in the name of Issa [Jesus], petitioning Issa to save the family members.”
“I then alerted the family members about Maliki’s strange way of praying, who hurriedly went to his house,” said Shamina, daughter of Maliki’s older brother Lubega Kalimu. “They found the house locked as Maliki was still praying. They pushed the door very hard and got inside and found Maliki still praying with the Bible placed beside him.”
They picked up the Bible and tore it to pieces, she said.
“As we were inside the house, other members of the family arrived and were so angry and started shouting the Islamic slogan, ‘Allah Akbar [God is greater],’ and began striking Maliki with kicks and blows,” Shamina told Morning Star News. “Soon more members of the family arrived with knives and sticks led by my father, Kalimu, and Sempa Arafat.”
As Maliki screamed for help, Kalimu “with a sharp knife pierced him through his chest,” she said….
Al-Sharaa’s forces are trying to terrorize the Christians (and other religious minorities) into abandoning the country. This kind of action is how “the Islamic world” was created.
Al-Julani’s Forces Loot and Burn Greek Orthodox Church in Southern Syria, Targeting Christians and Druze
Al-Surah Al-Kabira, As-Suwayda Governorate – In a violent escalation in southern Syria, fighters loyal to Abu Muhammad al-Julani looted and set fire to the Church of San Michel, a Greek Orthodox church, in the village of Al-Surah Al-Kabira, located in the northern As-Suwayda Governorate, on July 15, 2025. The attack has intensified sectarian tensions in the region, with both Christian and Druze communities targeted.
Local sources report that the assault on the church, a significant religious site for the area’s Greek Orthodox Christian population, is part of a broader pattern of aggression by al-Julani’s Sunni militant group against non-Sunni populations. The destruction of the Christian holy site has drawn condemnation from community leaders, who see it as a direct attack on religious coexistence in the region.
Sectarian hostilities are not new to al-Julani’s forces, who have previously clashed with other religious groups, including Alawites in western Syria. Analysts suggest that these actions reflect deep-seated sectarian divisions, with al-Julani’s group reportedly showing intolerance toward those who do not share their Sunni beliefs….
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham should not have been removed from the list of terrorist organizations, and Trump should not have treated al-Sharaa as if he were a legitimate leader. U.S. policy toward Syria must make a sharp reversal, or yet again we are aiding those who have a desire to conquer and subjugate us.
Indonesia: Muslim cleric orders church shut down after ten years of operation
In the Islamic scheme of things, the Islamic community must always grow, and the non-Muslim community always diminish. In this case, the pretext appears to be the fact that a Muslim woman converted to Christianity; Islam forbids non-Muslims to proselytize among Muslims. This woman says Jesus appeared to her in a dream, but apparently even Jesus Himself is forbidden to proselytize as far as this imam is concerned.
7/10/2025 Indonesia (International Christian Concern) — After pastoring his church in South Kalimantan, Indonesia, for more than a decade, Pastor “Matias” was recently ordered to stop leading worship services.
The order came from a new imam at a mosque that sits just 55 yards from the church. More than 40 people attend the services, which are held in a structure next to Matias’s home.
The imam claimed that the services were disturbing villagers. Anger toward Matias stems from an event that occurred four years ago, which has since angered the Muslim community. It was then that a Muslim woman visited Matias’s church, explaining that Jesus had appeared to her in her dreams. She came to the church to give her life to Christ and be baptized.
After news of the woman’s conversion and baptism spread and anger toward Matias boiled over, several Muslim men visited the pastor. They accused him of trying to convert the entire village to Christianity.
The woman later told the men that Pastor Matias wasn’t the one who baptized her and didn’t pressure her to leave Islam. She said she put her trust in Christ on her own volition.
After the imam prohibited Matias from leading worship, word spread that a group of Muslim men would prevent the church from hosting services. After hearing this, members of the Dayak tribe, an indigenous group to which Pastor Matias belongs, attempted to meet with the imam but were unable to locate him.
Despite being animists, the Dayak tribe visited the church and stayed the night to help guard it. Fortunately, the group of Muslim men did not show up….
