Epstein's London Flats, Houston Synagogue Plot & Cuba's Bold Preacher — Apr 24, 2026

This is The Gospel Briefing. I'm Charles King. Today... the Epstein file refuses to stay buried. A teenage plot against a Houston synagogue. And a young Cuban pastor who keeps preaching even as the police close in. Headlines... Heartbeat... Hope. Let's get into it. [TRANSITION] We begin in London. The BBC is reporting this morning that Jeffrey Epstein housed trafficking victims in London apartments... after the Metropolitan Police chose not to investigate him. Not once. Repeatedly. In 2015, British authorities received credible claims of trafficking tied to Epstein's London properties. They declined to open a formal investigation. The BBC's reporting, eleven years later, shows that women were being moved through those flats while the file sat closed on a desk. Let that land for a second. Every few months, the Epstein story surfaces again. A new document. A new name. A new agency that looked at what was happening and looked away. And the pattern is always the same. Power protected power. The girls didn't count. Here's what Scripture does with a story like this. Proverbs 28:17 says, "If anyone is burdened with the blood of another, let him be a fugitive until death." That's a hard verse. It's saying guilt doesn't expire. Ecclesiastes 12:14 goes further — "God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing." Human institutions close files. God does not. That's not a comforting thought for the guilty. It's supposed to be uncomfortable. But for the victims of Epstein — women now in their thirties and forties who have spent a decade being told their stories weren't worth investigating — there is a court where the evidence is not lost. Where the witnesses are not intimidated. Where the powerful are not protected. We pray for justice in this life. We trust it in the next. [TRANSITION] Closer to home. Houston. Federal authorities this week arrested two young people — one of them just seventeen years old — in connection with an alleged plot to attack a synagogue in the Houston area. According to the criminal complaint, the plan involved driving a vehicle through a congregation during a service to, quote, "kill as many Jews as possible." Law enforcement says the attack was days from being carried out. I want to be careful here, because it would be easy to turn this into a statistic. Another thwarted plot. Another headline. But a synagogue is a room full of people who came to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And two young men — one of them a child by most measures — were radicalized to the point of wanting them dead. Antisemitism is not a new sin. It is one of the oldest. Every generation seems to rediscover it and wrap it in new language. The apostle Paul, writing in Romans 11, warned Gentile Christians specifically — do not be arrogant toward the Jewish people. "Remember," he said, "it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you." The Christian faith is a Jewish faith. Our Savior was a Jewish rabbi. To hate the Jewish people is to hate the branch you're grafted into. Two things worth holding together. Gratitude that this plot was stopped. And grief that it was ever conceived. Both are appropriate. Both are Christian. [TRANSITION] Our third story takes us to Cuba. Christianity Today has a remarkable piece out this week about Ernesto Ricardo Medina — a young Cuban believer who started making short videos from a tiny room in his home in Holguín back in 2024. Two years later, he's become one of the loudest Christian voices on the island. His tagline, if you can call it that, is this: "Jesus is Lord, not the Communist Party of Cuba." You can imagine how that is landing with the Cuban government. Medina has been detained. Interrogated. Threatened. Fellow Christian influencers on the island are facing arrest. And yet the videos keep coming. There's something clarifying about watching the church in a place where faith is costly. Here in the States, we argue about whether a coffee cup has the right logo on it at Christmas. In Cuba, a twenty-something is risking prison to say the name of Jesus out loud. Acts 4 tells us about Peter and John, ordered by the authorities to stop preaching. Their answer was, "We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard." That's not defiance for defiance's sake. That's a man who has met the risen Christ and simply cannot pretend otherwise. Pray for Ernesto Medina this weekend. Pray for the Cuban church. And ask yourself honestly — if my faith cost me what his costs him, would I still be making the videos? [TRANSITION] A few more stories moving quickly. In Washington, Speaker Mike Johnson has unveiled a new plan to extend FISA 702 — the controversial surveillance program — after two failed votes. The deadline is April thirtieth. Christians have long disagreed about the right balance between security and privacy. Romans 13 gives the state real authority. Psalm 146 reminds us not to put our ultimate trust in it. Both are true. The Trump administration is pledging a crackdown on Chinese firms exploiting American AI models, as China closes the gap in the AI race. The tools are new. The competition is ancient. Babel is still Babel. The FDA has approved the first-ever gene therapy for deafness — developed by Regeneron for a rare genetic form of hearing loss. A small number of patients. A real medical milestone. Every time the deaf hear, it echoes something Jesus did on dusty roads in Galilee. And Meta is laying off ten percent of its workforce as it pours money into artificial intelligence. That's thousands of families this weekend trying to figure out what comes next. Pray for them by name if you know one. [TRANSITION] Before we close — a quick word about something I've built. If any of today's stories made you want to dig deeper into what Scripture actually says — that's exactly what I built Bible Copilot for. It's a Bible study app that uses the same inductive method trusted by pastors and seminary scholars — five study modes that help you observe the text, interpret the original meaning, connect it to theology, and apply it to your life. It's free, no ads, no data collection — you get fifteen questions a day, no account needed. And if you want unlimited access plus guided reading plans, Pro is five bucks a month. Search "Bible Copilot" in the App Store — link's in the show notes. Our verse today is Psalm 56, verse 8. "You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?" Every victim Epstein's handlers ignored. Every Jewish grandmother terrified to go to synagogue. Every Cuban Christian sitting in a jail cell tonight. God is keeping count. None of their tears are falling unseen. Thanks for listening to The Gospel Briefing. If this episode helped you think more clearly today, share it with one person who needs it. The news will keep coming. So will He. I'll see you Monday.