Too often, reporters prefer narratives over the truth.
If you’re waiting for the mainstream media to apologize for ignoring Hunter Biden’s laptop or promoting the Russian collusion hoax, keep waiting.
That lets documentary filmmakers tell the stories that aren’t being told.
In the past, that’s given us Amanda Milius’ “The Plot Against the President,” which predated the Durham Report’s shocking expose on the Trump/Russia storyline. The 2021 documentary “Rush to Judgment” skewered the press for declaring the Covington Catholic High School kids guilty without having all the facts at their disposal.
This year uncorked three such films, documentaries that shed a harrowing light on corruption. These filmmakers picked up stories reporters wouldn’t touch, and the results proved explosive.
<h2>“The Essential Church” </h2>
<div id="attachment_657481" style="width: 399px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-657481" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-657481" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Essential-Church-Picture1-389x576.jpg" alt="The Essential Church. Grace Productions. IMDB." width="389" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Essential-Church-Picture1-389x576.jpg 389w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Essential-Church-Picture1-202x300.jpg 202w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Essential-Church-Picture1.jpg 610w" sizes="(max-width: 389px) 100vw, 389px" />Grace Productions. IMDB.</div>
Grace Community Church took the COVID lockdowns on the chin, and the congregation refused to forgive and forget. The church put its grievances on screen via a powerful documentary that connected the past with the uncertain present: &#8220;<a href="https://essentialchurchmovie.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Essential Church.</a>&#8220;
“Church” recalls similar situations when governments stopped citizens from worshiping, giving the film historical heft. Still, reliving the recent lockdown era proves chilling, especially since we’ve learned the measures had little positive impact and plenty of severe ramifications.
The core of the film follows Grace Community Church’s lawsuit against California’s pandemic measures. Head pastor John MacArthur’s fight is echoed north of the Border as two Canadian pastors fight similar battles against similar restrictions. 
This isn’t the first time a Christian community picked up a camera and told a story. In the past, that meant low-budget films with awkward performances and cringe-worthy plots.
“The Essential Church,” in comparison, is handsomely mounted and packs plenty of cinematic polish. The film’s spiritual component is profound, but you don’t have to be a person of faith to process the cruelty behind the lockdown measures or how politicians applied them unequally.
Bustling Black Lives Matter protests could proceed sans restrictions yet sitting before a pastor put everyone’s lives at risk. And they risked severe fines and even jail time for sharing the Holy Word with their flocks.
That may have gone unnoticed by the mainstream press, but the filmmakers behind “Church” couldn’t let it go.
<h2>“Police State”</h2>
<div id="attachment_643489" style="width: 399px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-643489" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-643489" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ssdd-389x576.jpg" alt="" width="389" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ssdd-389x576.jpg 389w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ssdd-202x300.jpg 202w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ssdd.jpg 452w" sizes="(max-width: 389px) 100vw, 389px" />IMDB. Police State.</div>
Meet the new Dinesh D’Souza.
The provocateur behind “2016: Obama’s America” and “Trump Card’ no longer nurtures his inner Michael Moore. The stakes are too high, and the evidence he summoned for his most recent films doesn’t require a radically partisan lens.
It’s all scary no matter your party affiliation.
His 2022 documentary “2000 Mules” raised questions about election integrity, complete with footage that should have sent shockwaves through government ranks. 
Now, with “<a href="https://policestatefilm.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Police State</a>,” the immigrant asks if his beloved America is becoming a new form of dictatorship. Sound hyperbolic? You won’t say so after processing D’Souza’s compelling evidence.
Conservatives already know some, but not all, of the terrifying stories the pundit-turned-filmmaker shares. Mothers dubbed “domestic terrorists” for questioning their local school’s curricula. Senior citizens hunted down like criminals for simply standing around the Capitol on Jan. 6. Big Tech platforms teaming with the FBI to prevent citizens from flexing their First Amendment rights.
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Sadly, there are many more tales to be told, and “Police State” assembles them in a cold, calculating fashion. D’Souza admits he couldn’t tell his tale if America had a full-blown “Police State.” He suggests we’re running out of time to prevent that reality, and his case is convincing.
<h2>“The Fall Of Minneapolis”</h2>
<div id="attachment_657495" style="width: 586px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-657495" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-657495" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Fall-of-Minneapolis-Picture1-576x576.jpg" alt="Collin. IMDB." width="576" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Fall-of-Minneapolis-Picture1-576x576.jpg 576w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Fall-of-Minneapolis-Picture1-300x300.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Fall-of-Minneapolis-Picture1-150x150.jpg 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Fall-of-Minneapolis-Picture1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Fall-of-Minneapolis-Picture1.jpg 904w" sizes="(max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px" />Collin. IMDB.</div>
Journalist Liz Collin watched her city burn in the wake of George Floyd’s death. The Minnesota-based TV reporter had a secondary stake in the rancor. Her husband, Bob Kroll, served as the head of the local police union at the time.
That put a target on the couple, realized during a BLM protest that literally came to their front yard. Those gathered took turns <a href="https://patch.com/minnesota/stillwater/protesters-whack-piatas-wcco-reporter-liz-collins-bob-kroll" target="_blank" rel="noopener">swatting piñatas dressed as Collin and Kroll</a>, an event featuring a local Democrat running for elected office.
Now, Collin is sharing her side of the Floyd aftermath with “<a href="https://www.thefallofminneapolis.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Fall of Minneapolis</a>,” streaming for free on Rumble.
Neither Collin nor a crush of talking heads raise their voices about what they call the false narratives that emerged following the black resident’s death.
The tone is relentlessly calm as Collin’s team assembles court documents, eyewitness testimony, and bodycam footage to correct the media’s record on Floyd, Black Lives Matter, and more.
We watch veteran police officers tear up as they recall their orders to abandon their precinct to raging protesters. The former peace officers watched their building go up in flames, lucky to escape with their lives. Their supervisors refused to grant them riot gear to protect them from the bricks, Molotov cocktails, and fireworks hurled at them.
That’s only part of “Fall’s” story.
The film opens with a full body-cam reel leading up to Floyd’s death. We watch local police officers patiently try to put Floyd in their car after he tried to pass off fake money at a local shop. 
They beg and plead for him to obey to no avail, and seconds after Floyd crumples to the ground they summon EMS.
We also learn that Floyd’s initial autopsy results showed no physical damage to his neck, even though the media told us officer Derek Chauvin’s unorthodox police hold prevented the suspect from breathing.
There’s more, so much more, and the alleged corruption spreads to the media, local community organizers &#8230; even the FBI.
None of this would be available to the public without filmmakers eager to ask the tough questions and answer them to the best of their ability.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of <a href="http://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://twitter.com/HollywoodInToto?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@HollywoodInToto</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Minneapolis Minnesota

Three Documentaries That Shocked The Mainstream In 2023

Dinesh D’Souza

Documentaries

Entertainment

John MacArthur

Minneapolis

Readers Pass

Los Angeles-area Pastor John MacArthur penned an <a href="http://romans45.org/misc/Newsom.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">open letter</a> to California Democratic Governor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/gavin-newsom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gavin Newsom</a> Thursday after the governor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/newsom-pitches-abortion-friendly-california-in-red-state-billboard-blitz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blitzed</a> red states with abortion billboards earlier this month.
Newsom’s billboards promoted <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/california" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California</a> as an abortion-friendly state and quoted the words of Jesus Christ when he told his followers to love their neighbors. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/author/john-macarthur" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MacArthur</a> called out Newsom’s abortion ad campaign, writing that it “revealed to the entire nation how thoroughly rebellious against God” the governor is.
“You further compounded the wickedness of that murderous campaign with a reprehensible act of gross blasphemy, quoting the very words of Jesus from Mark 12:31 as if you could somehow twist His meaning and arrogate His name in favor of butchering unborn infants,” MacArthur <a href="http://romans45.org/misc/Newsom.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>. “You used the name and the words of Christ to promote the credo of Molech (Leviticus 20:1–5). It would be hard to imagine a greater sacrilege.”
The democratic governor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/newsom-pitches-abortion-friendly-california-in-red-state-billboard-blitz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rented</a> 18 billboards in Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Texas, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Oklahoma, all states that have passed or pushed for legislation to protect unborn babies.
A billboard in Texas features a woman in handcuffs with the caption, “Texas doesn’t own your body. You do.” Another billboard asks, “Need an abortion? California is ready to help.” At the bottom of the advertisement, Jesus is quoted from Mark 12:31.
“Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these,” the verse says.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/tatereeves?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@tatereeves</a> the people of Mississippi deserve to know they have access to the care you are refusing to provide. This will be launching in your state today. <a href="https://t.co/8qg7psYT2j">pic.twitter.com/8qg7psYT2j</a>
&mdash; Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) <a href="https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/1570457823997497350?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 15, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Along with advertising for abortion in other states, Newsom recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/newsom-signs-onslaught-of-pro-abortion-bills" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> a wave of pro-abortion bills aimed at making California a sanctuary for those seeking abortions.
MacArthur’s letter comes after he called out Newsom in a recent sermon for choosing to quote the words of Jesus to promote the practice of abortion, and said “A line was crossed this week that really really gripped my heart.”
“I say this because my heart is grieved that Christ should be so dishonored. Billboards across the country with the words of Jesus trying to support abortion? Terrifying,” he added.
This is not the first time the renowned pastor and author stood up to Newsom. During the summer of 2020, MacArthur’s Grace Community Church openly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/macarthur-we-cannot-yield-to-caesar-that-which-belongs-to-god" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defied</a> Newsom’s strict orders regarding gathering and social distancing during the COVID pandemic.
The church was later <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/l-a-county-to-pay-400000-to-john-macarthurs-grace-community-church" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vindicated</a> when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to pay Grace Community Church $400,000. The settlement stemmed from a Supreme Court decision declaring that churches in California could be exempt from enforcement of some of the state’s coronavirus policies.
But for MacArthur, neither the COVID guideline defiance nor the letter to Newsom over abortion are about politics. Rather, the pastor said he is more concerned for Newsom’s soul.
“Governor Gavin Newsom, who has decided that he is going to lead the nation in providing the slaughter of the children that God creates in the womb has postured himself as if he were Herod. And I am deeply concerned for the jeopardy of his eternal soul.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="John MacArthur Addresses Governor Newsom" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GcbT_ex31gU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Gavin Newsom

‘Reprehensible Act Of Gross Blasphemy’: Renowned California Pastor Writes Open Letter To Gavin Newsom After Abortion Billboards Quote Jesus

Pastor John MacArthur Writes Open Letter To Gavin Newsom After Abortion Billboards Quote Jesus

Abortion

California

Jesus Christ

Thirteen centuries ago, an Anglo-Saxon missionary named Boniface destroyed an oak tree in Germania considered sacred to Thor, leading many locals to redirect their worship toward the Triune God. Today, pastors from around the world are likewise converging upon Germany to do battle with the idols of our age.
Last week, the <a href="https://frankfurtdeclaration.com/">Frankfurt Declaration of Christian and Civil Liberties</a> was published in response to the authoritarian spirit gripping many Western governments. In a series of interviews with The Daily Wire, several of the signatories — many of whom have already gained international attention for their righteous resistance to unlawful totalitarianism — explained how Christianity is the only basis by which mankind may reject the abuse of power.
<h3>God The Creator</h3>
In the Western world, materialism — the argument that matter and motion are the full extent of reality — has led to a denial of God as sovereign Creator. The Frankfurt Declaration affirms the role of God as the ultimate source of truth and ethics.
<blockquote>We believe that He has revealed in the Holy Scriptures and the conscience of men an unchangeable morality which is rooted in His own character, and which defines the nature of good and evil conduct for all people at all times. As the Lawgiver, God has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man, the risen Lord Jesus Christ. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.</blockquote>
The statement therefore denies the notion that any earthly authority is able to define morality or mandate disobedience to what God has prescribed — especially as many governments embrace postmodernism, which is incapable of providing a coherent basis for morality.
Dr. Joe Boot — founder of the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity in Ontario, Canada — told The Daily Wire that the Christian notion of a “cosmos that is distinct from, yet governed by an infinite personal God who is always true and faithful” marked a radical departure from previous paganism.
“Western civilization became prosperous, wealthy, advanced, and globally dominant with a worldview that allowed for the development of science and technology because of belief in an ordered cosmos of law-spheres, and similarly governed by deep moral conviction about objective standards of right and wrong,” he remarked. “This led to learning, literacy, social stability, and civilization-building on a scale never seen before in the history of mankind.”
However, the fruit of the West rejecting Christianity in favor of various ideologies — including secular humanism and Marxism — has been progressive cultural decay.
“When as a culture we no longer believe in creation and judgment in terms of the laws of God for His universe, we are steadily deconstructed downward into a void of meaninglessness,” Boot added. “The Christian idea of a universe — unity in diversity — becomes a pagan pluralistic multiverse without ultimate order, structure, or design, and a growing nihilism is the result. In reaction, the modern State will try to invent pseudo-religious beliefs for the masses to keep people under control. Hence the new religion of climate, planetary salvation, and impending doom unless we are saved by the central planning and control of the new god of State.”
<h3>God And Science</h3>
As secular governments struggle to remain coherent on the most basic tenets of human life — such as the definition of man and woman — the Frankfurt Declaration affirms that creation is ordered by objective truth, which mankind can learn through scientific observation. 
<blockquote>We endorse science which seeks to discover, through the scientific method and debate, the truths that God has built into the natural world. We also affirm the limitations of science, including its inability to speak authoritatively on areas outside its purview and its propensity to err when data is lacking. Since man has fallen into sin, we further affirm that all his thoughts, deductions, and institutions contain degrees of corruption which tend to distort, manipulate, or suppress the truth.</blockquote>
The statement, however, rejects the weaponization of science for fearmongering or propaganda, notes that science is not sufficient to answer questions of ethics, and refutes the notion that man can be ideologically neutral.
Dr. James White — a pastor at Apologia Church in Mesa, Arizona — told The Daily Wire that “the myth of neutrality” has hobbled Western evangelicalism and allowed for the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-federal-government-used-evangelical-leaders-to-spread-covid-propaganda-to-churches">cooperation of faith-based institutions</a> with the lockdown regime.
“A consistent Christian understanding of the world begins with a recognition of God’s creatorship and the fact that all of existence, universally, is defined by His purposes, His law, His final glory,” White noted. “There is no neutral fact, for if it is a fact, God made it to be such.”
White added that removing God from the picture leads to men filling the vacuum where only God should be.
“This likewise means that all of human inquiry, including scientific investigation, is an inquiry into the works of God, first and foremost, and hence cannot pretend neutrality,” he continued. “If God has defined all things in creation, we will most certainly miss the true importance of creation if we pretend God can be made a side-issue rather than the central, defining reality.”
<h3>Mankind As The Image Of God</h3>
The tradition of individual rights, equal justice under the law, and limited government in the Western world is rooted in the recognition of men as image-bearers of God. The Frankfurt Declaration affirms that such inalienable rights prevent the State from dehumanizing its people.
<blockquote>These rights and liberties include the right to corporate worship, personal and in-person relationships, vocational employments, and participation in the important events of human life such as the right to comfort the sick and the dying… to attend funerals, to witness the birth of one’s child, to marry in a public gathering, to fellowship and eat together with others, and to engage in honorable work. We also affirm that governments should recognize that each individual is responsible for their own bodily well-being and should protect the right to personal medical self-determination.</blockquote>
The statement notes that lockdowns and mandates usurp the innate value of mankind by subjecting them to manipulation, enforced segregation, and other unjust deprivations of liberty.
Tobias Riemenschneider — the pastor of Evangelical Reformed Baptist Church in Frankfurt, Germany — told The Daily Wire that the modern Darwinian conception of mankind offers “no protection against the abuse of power by the stronger.”
“We believe that we are now seeing the effects of the view of human beings that the States of the Western world have been promoting for many decades — namely, that human beings are nothing more than the product of an impersonal and ultimately purposeless evolutionary process without any transcendental meaning or value,” Riemenschneider said. “According to the biblical worldview, on the other hand, God created man in His image and likeness, whereby all human beings have an inherent dignity and worth from which derive God-given, inalienable rights and liberties, that the State must respect and protect.”
“When the State deprives a person of these rights and liberties or makes them contingent on the compliance with certain mandates, it dehumanizes them and makes them a mere object of State tyranny,” he added. “For a lasting safeguard of our liberties, it is therefore necessary for the State to return to the Judeo-Christian view of God as the Creator of man, since only this provides the basis for the inalienable worth of each individual human being.”
<h3>Limits Of Authority</h3>
Legitimate earthly powers draw their authority — their right to be obeyed — from the God to whom all must give an account. Accordingly, the Frankfurt Declaration notes that the Church and the State are granted limited authority only over their respective spheres.
<blockquote>God has delegated authority to civil governments for the purpose of rewarding good and punishing evil, and to protect the God-given rights and freedoms granted to all people. He has also delegated authority to the Church in its various expressions, particularly to make disciples of all nations by preaching the Word of God, and to establish and administer redeemed communities of faith living under the authority of Christ.</blockquote>
The statement therefore rejects the tendency of governments to centralize beliefs or attempt to redefine good and evil — power grabs that disallow diversity of thought and conviction while conforming all citizens, particularly children, to approved State viewpoints.
Tim Stephens — the pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Alberta, Canada — told The Daily Wire that secular governments view their decrees as “encompassing all of life.”
“Worse than usurping their authority to carry out justice under the Lordship of Christ, they assume the place of God as Lawgiver, provider, and savior,” he explained. “Trouble is, the government is a lousy savior with its interventions taking both responsibility and freedom from households and businesses to the detriment of all.”
Stephens, who was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-jailed-canadian-pastor-tim-stephens-released-after-international-attention">jailed in a maximum-security facility</a> last summer for resisting a lockdown order and opening his church, added that civil governments attract men who desire to use power for their own advantage.
“Without a knowledge of God, men seek to bring healing to the world apart from God&#8217;s Savior, Jesus Christ. Today, men seek to control the climate, change human identity, and bring global peace through the power of human governments,” Stephens observed. “However, these initiatives are leading to economic ruin, mutilated children, and increasing tyranny, along with conflict and division. The city of men failed at Babel, and it will fail again today.”
<h3>Christ As The Head Of The Church</h3>
Christians recognize that Jesus Christ purchased His Church and saved them from their sins through His substitutionary atonement on the cross. The Frankfurt Declaration therefore affirms that the Church has the right — as defined by Jesus Himself — to worship in Spirit and Truth without unnecessary interference from the State.
<blockquote>We believe that Christ, who is Lord over all, calls all without distinction of any kind to freely and regularly gather together in His Name in local congregations to seek and serve Him in truth and love. We further affirm that the activities of the local church insofar as they are essential acts of worship are to be regulated by Christ alone.</blockquote>
The statement thus denies that secular governments are able to regulate the affairs of the Church in matters of faith and practice.
Dr. John MacArthur — the senior pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California — told The Daily Wire that earthly authorities have “always tended to view Christ as an adversary and an inconvenience.”
“From Herod and Pontius Pilate until today, earthly governments have always sought to exert control over Christ and His kingdom,” MacArthur explained. “Caesar is not content with the things that are Caesar’s; he also wants control over the things that belong to God. So earthly rulers invariably try to seize as much dominance over the Church as they can possibly appropriate.”
MacArthur, whose church <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/l-a-county-to-pay-400000-to-john-macarthurs-grace-community-church">won a legal battle</a> against California after officials attempted to mandate the cancellation of services, noted that unjust edicts — including those which support abortion, same-sex marriage, and the “barbaric, pagan mutilation of children” —  represent a “formal, parliamentary declaration of war against God.”
“The Church’s mission is not a partisan political one. There is no political solution to what ails our culture. The Church’s mission is to preach the gospel, recover souls from the domain of darkness, and train them to be Christ’s disciples,” MacArthur continued. “On the other hand, the more Caesar intrudes into matters that belong to Christ, the more the Church must speak out on eternal and spiritual matters.”
“We will continue to speak on such issues, and when government tries to silence the message or punish the messenger, we will not bow.”

500 Years Since The Reformation: Germany Prepares For Celebrations And Events

‘Christians Against The Abuse Of Power’: Theologians Around The World Sign Statement Rejecting Government Lockdowns

Bible

Christianity

Church

Germany

Marxism

Propaganda

A one-minute-and-forty-seven-second clip of influential pastor John MacArthur speaking about religious liberty began circulating on social media Monday. Some critics claimed it proved the longtime teacher of the Grace To You radio ministry doesn’t believe the U.S. should protect religious freedom. Others insisted his words meant he advocates for fascism, state religion, and forced conversions.
The <a href="https://twitter.com/mattsheffield/status/1480239102905569282?s=20">clip</a> gained traction after being posted to a Twitter account belonging to Matthew Sheffield, a <a href="https://twitter.com/mattsheffield">self-described</a> “former right-wing activist” now working to amplify &#8220;voices against fascism.&#8221; It was taken from a sermon immediately after President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021. MacArthur shares that he wasn’t impressed by an evangelical publicist who assured him the new administration would uphold religious freedom.
“I don&#8217;t even support religious freedom,&#8221; MacArthur says in the video. &#8220;Religious freedom is what sends people to hell. To say I support religious freedom is to say I support idolatry. It&#8217;s to say I support lies. I support hell. I support the kingdom of darkness.&#8221;
MacArthur then appears to take aim at the political lobbying arm of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest protestant denomination in the nation.
Under the previous head, Russell Moore, the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission filed an amicus brief in favor of a Muslim community’s effort to <a href="https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/erlcs-moore-defends-religious-freedom-for-muslims/">build a mosque</a>, with the rationale that supporting religious freedom broadly helps protect liberty for Christians. Moore also vocally defended devoting SBC resources to supporting the rights of Muslims at the denomination’s annual convention in 2016.
MacArthur seemed to contrast his church with Moore’s approach, saying it has no plans to lobby the government. “We’re not going to lobby for freedom of religion. What kind of nonsense is that? We are in the world to expose all those lies as lies,” he said.
Dozens of political and religious pundits reposted the video to their large social media platforms. Political commentator David French tweeted the clip out to his more than 266,000 followers, <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidAFrench/status/1480630203055497221?s=20">calling</a> it “disturbing.” He added in a <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidAFrench/status/1480630204863242256?s=20">second post</a>, “There&#8217;s an astonishing arrogance in [MacArthur’s] statements and an astonishing lack of respect for dissent from his version of the truth.”
Economist editor Jon Fasman <a href="https://twitter.com/jonfasman/status/1480646679447617541?s=20">said</a>, “What does he support instead of religious freedom? Forced conversions? The banning and criminalisation of any faith other than his?”
This interpretation was echoed by fellow Christians like Brooke Medina, vice-president of communications for the John Locke Foundation. Medina, who also sat on the 2021 SBC resolutions committee, felt MacArthur’s comments implied he supports government establishing a national religion.
“You know what saying you don&#8217;t support religious freedom actually means … It means you think so little of the kindness of God, which leads us to repentance, that you would prefer the force of the State,” she <a href="https://twitter.com/Brooke_Medina_/status/1480603467143995393?s=20">said</a> in one post, later <a href="https://twitter.com/Brooke_Medina_/status/1480606468223254531?s=20">adding</a>, “It also means you prefer outward conformity over inward heart change. History is littered with bloody, heinous examples of powerful people who used their opposition of religious freedom to imprison and kill their detractors.”
(*Note: After this article was published, Medina reached out to The Daily Wire to say she does not believe her remarks suggest she thinks MacArthur wants a state religion.)
Numerous other SBC leaders, including Southwestern Seminary president <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamGreenway/status/1480902398289797126?s=20">Adam Greenway</a>, Christianity Today editor <a href="https://twitter.com/edstetzer/status/1480984451723182081?s=20">Ed Stetzer</a>, and high-profile Southeastern Seminary professor <a href="https://twitter.com/KSPrior/status/1481018904814231553?s=20">Karen Swallow Prior</a> tweeted and retweeted statements about religious freedom that appeared intended to criticize MacArthur.
It turned out, however, that along with misrepresenting the context of a more than <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8kk3-mMgHk">hour-long sermon</a>, the brief clip itself was edited to remove a middle portion that would have further clarified MacArthur’s remarks.
In the full, unedited clip, after MacArthur says, “If the new administration supports religious freedom, get ready; persecution will be ramped up because the more supportive they are of the devil’s lies, the less they’re going to tolerate the truth of Scripture,” he adds this:
<blockquote>We condemn every lie, and we call every person to this: there’s one true God, &#8220;Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You’ll have no other gods before Me.&#8221; Right? There’s salvation in one name and one name only: that’s Jesus Christ.</blockquote>
This, along with the rest of the sermon, suggests that MacArthur was speaking about who the church should look to for protection — not earthly powers, but God. Grace to You executive director, Phil Johnson, confirmed that this was part of MacArthur’s intent.
“MacArthur is certainly not advocating the theonomic notion that Christians today should commandeer governments in order to force Christianity on the world,” Johnson told The Daily Wire. Referring to Matthew 20:25-27 and Revelation 2:27, he further clarified the intent of the clip:
<blockquote>Because Christ is perfectly righteous, He has the right and the authority to rule the whole world without tolerating the kind of spiritual free-for-all that people today call “religious freedom.” But because human governments are run by fallen people who tend to misuse power, we do not believe Caesar should have authority over people’s consciences when it comes to the question of whom and how they worship.</blockquote>
The Daily Wire reached out to French to ask if he was aware that the clip was edited when he circulated it but did not receive a response. Stetzer and Medina also did not respond by the time of publication.
Greenway offered a statement through a seminary spokesperson, saying only that he shared an excerpt of the Southern Baptist confession of faith about religious liberty because he noticed so many discussions about it and wanted to remind his fellow Baptists about the importance of religious liberty.
He declined to comment on the people who appeared to take his post as a direct rebuke of the edited MacArthur clip.
While many big-name commentators may have been quick to attack MacArthur, there was one who came to his defense.
Conservative radio host Erick Erickson said that when he listened to the clip in full and in context, he agreed with it. “He was not talking about the ability of different faiths to worship in a multi-ethnic country of different faiths,” Erickson <a href="https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1481076981831802884?s=20">said</a>. “He was talking about Christians believing Christianity is true and all other religions are false and don&#8217;t really give you freedom.”
Erickson went on to point out that secular governments often persecute Christians while claiming they support religious freedom. “Obama was big into ‘religious freedom’ while he was suing nuns,” he <a href="https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1481076983991783428?s=20">pointed out</a>. “That&#8217;s just true and that is what MacArthur was talking about — the ‘religious freedom’ platitude masks the persecutor of Christ&#8217;s church. He&#8217;s right on that.”
A previous version of this article inaccurately said that Brooke Medina declined to respond by the time of publication. It should have said that she did not respond by publication time.

Bible, gavel and scales of justice on american flag background

Clip Of Pastor John MacArthur Had Critics Pouncing…Turns Out It Was Edited

Religious Freedom

Southern Baptists

Canadian pastors are warning that a new “conversion therapy” bill, just passed by parliament, will likely ban them from teaching that homosexuality and transgenderism are sins according to the Bible.
The bill in question, known as C-4, unanimously passed both the House of Commons and the Senate before receiving Royal Assent on December 8, meaning it will officially become Canadian law on Jan 8. On the surface, it’s meant to outlaw “conversion therapies”— that is, psychological treatments intended to re-train same-sex attracted people to prefer the opposite sex and individuals who believe they’re transgender to embrace their biological sex. When approached in a coercive or abusive manner, nearly all mainstream Christian denominations also condemn such therapy.
But critics say C-4’s language is so broad it also effectively bans preaching and teaching based on biblical sexual ethics. For instance, it could prevent counseling that references the many Old and New Testament passages that demonstrate God reserves sex for one man and one woman within the bond of marriage. It could also criminalize any instruction that confirms human beings are created as indelibly male or female from birth (the Bible has no category for transgender other than to condemn men dressing like women and vice versa in verses like <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/deuteronomy/22/5">Deuteronomy 22:5</a>).
Even further, the bill makes it a crime for parents to provide Christian therapy to their children suffering from gender dysphoria and prevents pastors and other religious leaders from offering biblical counseling or advice to same-sex attracted individuals who desire to obey God&#8217;s commands to repent from the sin of homosexual practices. Violations carry a penalty of up to five years in prison.
In response, John MacArthur, longtime senior pastor of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, is asking for ministers across the U.S. to join him in preaching about God’s standard for sexuality on Jan 16. MacArthur’s <a href="https://www.gracechurch.org/news/posts/2307">statement</a>, issued Dec. 28, calls for a show of solidarity that will “put the Canadian and the U.S. governments on notice that they have attacked the Word of God.”
In his appeal, MacArthur quoted Canadian minister James Coates (who was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/it-was-precious-to-me-canadian-pastor-jailed-for-holding-church-services-recounts-touching-moment-he-was-freed">jailed</a> earlier this year for keeping his church open in violation of government Covid restrictions), saying the bill could be used to “criminalize evangelism.”
“I am eager to support our Canadian brothers and to preach on biblical sexual morality on January 16, and I invite you as a faithful pastor to do the same,” MacArthur wrote, later adding, “We are all well-aware of the evil power and destructive influence of the homosexual and transgender ideology. Our government is bent on not only normalizing this perversion, but also legalizing it, and furthermore criminalizing opposition to it.”
He then went on to point out that similar laws have made their way through state legislatures in the U.S.
In 2012, California enacted a law that prohibited conversion therapy, though it&#8217;s purview is much more limited than C-4&#8217;s. New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Massachusetts, Nevada, and a number of other states passed similar bills soon after. On a national level, the Democratic Party included banning “harmful conversion therapy practices” in its platform at its convention this past August.
At the same time, as The Daily Wire has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/virginias-new-transgender-rules-for-public-schools-use-preferred-pronouns-dont-question-bathroom-choices">previously</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/colorado-school-district-instructs-teachers-to-avoid-informing-parents-if-their-child-shows-persistent-gender-confusion">reported</a> in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-supreme-court-lets-trans-students-using-opposite-sex-bathrooms-ruling-stand">numerous</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-mom-reads-graphic-gay-porn-found-in-school-library-to-school-board">stories</a>, school districts across the U.S. have grown much more aggressive in teaching students that they may be gay or transgender and that identifying as such is good for children&#8217;s mental health. Countless videos posted on social media accounts like <a href="https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok?s=20">Libs of TikTok</a> have gone viral in recent months for showing LGBT educators and their &#8220;allies&#8221; insisting they have a right to indoctrinate children with the idea that characterizing homosexuality or transgenderism as sin is hateful. To date, there are no laws that prohibit teachers, counselors, or clergy from proselytizing for homosexuality and transgenderism. C-4 is no different.
As Anna Nienhuis of Canada’s Association for Reformed Political Action has <a href="https://arpacanada.ca/2021/12/14/c-4-blew-up-and-other-letters-to-the-editor/">pointed out</a>, while the bill bans any attempts to help someone turn away from unwanted homosexuality or transgenderism, it imposes no limits on attempts to “counsel a cisgender or heterosexual individual to become transgender or homosexual.”
In his open letter, MacArthur, whose daily Bible teaching program, “Grace to You,” is one of the most popular radio ministries in the world, quoted Andrew DeBartolo, teaching elder at Encounter Church in Ontario. DeBartolo stressed the importance of pushing back against government authoritarianism on this issue and thanked his American brothers for their willingness to stand alongside him:
<blockquote> In the Preamble of the Bill, it says that the belief that “heterosexuality, cisgender gender identity and gender expression that conforms to the sex assigned to a person at birth are to be preferred over other sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions” is a “myth.” According to Canadian law, as of January 8, 2022, the belief in God’s design for marriage and sexuality will now be seen as a myth&#8230;
On January 16, 2022, faithful men across this country (and many in the United States as well) will be preaching on God’s design for marriage and a biblical ethic of sexuality. We will be doing so illegally, declaring to the State that there is one God and one Lord over His church, and that Christ alone gets to both define marriage and dictate what is required in the pulpit. We are honored that our American brothers will be joining us in this.”</blockquote>
Hours after MacArthur posted the letter to social media, hundreds of pastors affirmed that they had signed it and will be joining him in preaching about biblical sexuality in defiance of C-4 and similar U.S. laws on Jan. 16.
Nate Pickowizc, senior pastor of Harvest Bible Church in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, <a href="https://twitter.com/NatePickowicz/status/1475970108568838145?s=20">said</a>, “I signed, and I’m committed to standing with our Canadian brothers and sisters in the Lord.”
Corey Smith, senior pastor at Heritage Baptist Church in Shreveport, Louisiana, <a href="https://twitter.com/coreysmith_116/status/1476000352315101190?s=20">tweeted</a>, “Let&#8217;s stand with our brothers in Canada in proclaiming the saving and sovereign grace of God in the Lord Jesus to radically transform the lives of those enslaved to the sins of homosexuality [and] transgenderism.”
“We need to stand with our Canadian pastors who will likely suffer for their unwillingness to compromise truth!” <a href="https://twitter.com/TomBuck/status/1475984827073638412?s=20">said</a> Tom Buck, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Lindale, Texas.
Finally, Brandon Byler, pastor of Calvary Byler Church in Cortland, Ohio, <a href="https://twitter.com/BylerBrandon/status/1476187481192206337?s=20">commented</a>, &#8220;Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Signed and thinking through how to pray for our faithful brothers and sisters in Canada, as well as how to continue to prepare my people for when it hits our shores.&#8221;
&nbsp;

Religious: Bible with Censored Label across front with American flag

John MacArthur Calls On Pastors To Preach Biblical Sexuality In Defiance Of New Canadian Law That Would ‘Criminalize Evangelism’

Conversion Therapy

Pastor John MacArthur on Sunday commended GraceLife Church in Alberta, Canada, which is meeting in secret after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) barricaded their building behind three layers of chain link fence. He also read a heartfelt letter that the church’s pastor sent to MacArthur&#8217;s congregation.
Rising to address the members of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, which has been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/john-macarthurs-la-county-church-continues-to-fight-for-freedom-to-hold-indoor-services" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">legally wrangling</a> with county and state authorities since deciding to resume in-person services last July, MacArthur first noted how James Coates and his congregation are meeting in a location they refuse to publicize after RCMP <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/police-shut-down-church-of-alberta-pastor-who-was-imprisoned-for-holding-church-services" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">raided them</a> at dawn last Wednesday.
&#8220;Amazing to have an underground church in Canada,&#8221; MacArthur said. &#8220;This because the government of Alberta triple-fenced the church in and locked it so people couldn&#8217;t go there.&#8221;
MacArthur observed how out of the province&#8217;s millions of residents, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:COVID-19_pandemic_data/Canada_medical_cases_by_province" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">approximately 2,000 people</a> have died from the virus in Alberta since the beginning of the pandemic, most of whom were in nursing homes. He claimed there was &#8220;no legitimate reason&#8221; for authorities to forcibly shut down GraceLife Church for continuing to hold services in defiance of Alberta&#8217;s Public Health Order, which capped church services at 15% capacity.
&#8220;But they did,&#8221; MacArthur said. &#8220;This is a first for the Western world, to have the government lock out believers from a church.&#8221;
MacArthur went on to mention how Coates, who is a graduate of the seminary affiliated with Grace Community Church, was imprisoned for more than a month in a maximum security facility in Edmonton. As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-pastor-and-lawyer-defiant-after-canadian-police-raid-barricade-church-at-dawn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>, Coates said fellow prisoners were aware of his situation and came to him <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/it-was-precious-to-me-canadian-pastor-jailed-for-holding-church-services-recounts-touching-moment-he-was-freed" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">seeking spiritual advice</a>.
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Pastor John MacArthur on Grace Life Church Lockdown in Alberta Canada" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QbvXjjxzHMw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
MacArthur then noted how the Alberta government has been met with intense backlash for how Coates and his church have been treated. &#8220;The scene is changing,&#8221; he said. &#8220;There is a massive outcry against the government for doing this.&#8221;
Approximately 300 people gathered at GraceLife Church on Sunday morning to protest, some of whom ripped down portions of the three-walled barrier erected around the building, which was guarded by about a dozen police officers, according to the <a href="https://westernstandardonline.com/2021/04/third-wall-built-around-gracelife-church/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Western Standard</a>. &#8220;Dozens of RCMP cruisers blocked access roads for kilometres surrounding the church,&#8221; the outlet reported.
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A church in Edmonton, Canada wouldn’t obey politicians and lock its doors. So they jailed the pastor for 35 days. The church still wouldn’t close. So police raided it, turned it into an armed garrison &amp; occupied it. And still the Christians come. <a href="https://t.co/yNZRUXXudl">pic.twitter.com/yNZRUXXudl</a>
&mdash; Ezra Levant 🍁 (@ezralevant) <a href="https://twitter.com/ezralevant/status/1381319356265676805?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 11, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro <a href="https://westernstandardonline.com/2021/04/exclusive-ucp-mla-says-shandro-approved-barricading-gracelife-church/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">personally approved</a> the raid against GraceLife Church last week, according to reporting that the Western Standard based upon a United Conservative Party lawmaker who spoke to them on condition of anonymity. Shandro has since denied the allegation.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has faced <a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/fifteen-ucp-mlas-say-kenneys-latest-covid-19-restrictions-move-alberta-backwards" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">internal backlash</a> from members of his own caucus for his COVID-19 restrictions, several of whom signed a letter rebuking Kenney for reinstating restrictions on Albertans.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A Statement from 15 UCP MLAs to all Albertans. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ableg?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ableg</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/medhat?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#medhat</a> <a href="https://t.co/G22ssFs7aN">pic.twitter.com/G22ssFs7aN</a>
&mdash; Drew Barnes (@Drew__Barnes) <a href="https://twitter.com/Drew__Barnes/status/1379880188385710080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2021</a></blockquote>
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After recounting the situation with GraceLife Church, MacArthur later read Coates&#8217; letter:
<blockquote>To Grace Community Church, which is in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace in Him. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has superabundantly glorified Himself through you.
For decades, you have been a strong and steadfast pillar and support of the truth, so much so, the Lord established many other beacons of truth throughout this world as a direct result of your ministry. You have exemplified a profound love for the brethren, warm service and hospitality, and an undeniable love for God and His Word.
In fact, His Word has sounded forth from you with such power and precision, that the fruit of your ministry is absolutely immeasurable this side of Heaven. Pastor John&#8217;s 52 years of faithful ministry is as much a testimony to you as it is to him. May God richly reward you for your faithfulness.
Thank you for the way you cared for me, my family, and congregation during my imprisonment. Your love and prayerful support were vital to our steadfastness in the face of suffering. The letter from the elders was an immense encouragement. The support from Dr. Nathan Busenitz and The Master&#8217;s Seminary was both humbling and strengthening. And the pastoral care provided by Pastor John was incredibly comforting. It was also a rich blessing to receive letters from a number of you while imprisoned. Those letters provided necessary fuel for my resolve.
My wife Erin also sends her greetings and thankfulness. She was and continues to be greatly strengthened by your letters. You poured into her early in her spiritual development and you are pouring into her now, as well.
You have suffered well for the gospel. It is an indescribable blessing to join you in that suffering. Our congregations have been counted worthy for this purpose. May we rejoice in this, as did the apostles in their sufferings. Jesus Christ is the sovereign Lord over all creation and the supreme head of the Church. We will bow to Him and Him alone. Only He is worthy.
And now may He continually strengthen you unto all faithfulness and may He constantly radiate His honor and glory through you. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
—James Coates</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-pastor-and-lawyer-defiant-after-canadian-police-raid-barricade-church-at-dawn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">EXCLUSIVE: Pastor And Lawyer Defiant After Canadian Police Raid, Barricade Church At Dawn</a>

John MacArthur and Royal Canadian Mounted Police

John MacArthur Commends ‘Underground Church In Canada,’ Reads Heartfelt Letter From Jailed Alberta Pastor

Alberta

Canada

Religion

Attorneys for Grace Community Church in Los Angeles filed documents in court Friday, the latest move in their continuing fight to defend their right to gather for indoor worship services.
The church, which has repeatedly made headlines since its leadership decided to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/compliance-would-be-disobedience-prominent-california-church-defies-state-lockdown-to-resume-in-person-assembly" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">resume services</a> last July in defiance of state and local health mandates, was issued an injunction last September by L.A. Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff that ordered them against holding indoor services.
The injunction also required that congregants wear masks and socially distance even during outdoor services.
Grace Community Church and its legal representation will be in court next Friday on their motion to dissolve the injunction.
Among the documents filed was a <a href="https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2021-04/Rebuttal%20Decl.%20of%20Pastor%20MacArthur.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">declaration</a> from Grace&#8217;s senior pastor John MacArthur, who addressed allegations from a blog post that his church is not reporting outbreaks of COVID-19 among the congregation. As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/john-macarthurs-church-cleared-in-l-a-county-covid-19-outbreak-investigation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a> last November, the church was cleared by county public health officials after three out of their approximately 7,000 members came down with COVID-19 in October.
MacArthur wrote that &#8220;of the handful of people in our large flock who were hospitalized or died from COVID-19 over the past year, all the ones &#8230; of which I know were people who had remained quarantined because they had other medical conditions that put them at high risk. They did not get infected at Grace Community Church, because they were not attending services. Most of them were following strict health protocols and got the virus anyway.&#8221;
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MacArthur went on to write at length regarding what he believes are the theological implications of the mask mandate but concluded that it is not the intention of the church to discourage parishioners from following health mandates.
&#8220;We especially do not want to shame the person who wears a mask purely because he or she genuinely believes the current secular orthodoxy about masks as a potentially effective shield against viral transmission,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;People in the church are free to wear masks if they choose. But people who [disagree are] likewise free to worship, sing, pray, and proclaim God’s Word without a face covering—even if that goes against the vacillating, sometimes arbitrary, and frequently heavy-handed dictates of government officials. It is simply not the church’s duty to enforce executive orders based on a politician’s whimsy—particularly when obeying those edicts impinge on our freedom of worship in our church.&#8221;
</div>
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</div>
Jenna Ellis, the church&#8217;s attorney from the Thomas More Society, said in a statement to The Daily Wire: &#8220;LA County has never been required to justify their arbitrary health orders and discriminatory treatment of Grace Community Church. The facts and recent Supreme Court opinions show that the County and the state far overstepped their legitimate authority.&#8221;
&#8220;Worse, LA County retaliated against the Church for challenging their actions,&#8221; Ellis continued. &#8220;Pastor John MacArthur and the board of elders were right theologically and constitutionally to open their church and stand firm. As Justice Gorsuch rightly said, &#8216;Even if the Constitution has taken a holiday during this pandemic, it cannot become a sabbatical.'&#8221;
Beginning April 15, California is loosening restrictions on large indoor sports, theater, and concert gatherings as COVID-19 cases plunge in the state, according to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-sports-nba-theater-los-angeles-lakers-ed9645feef26e713d4a84aaa189791dd" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Associated Press</a>.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/compliance-would-be-disobedience-prominent-california-church-defies-state-lockdown-to-resume-in-person-assembly" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">‘Compliance Would Be Disobedience’: Prominent California Church Defies State Lockdown To Resume In-Person Assembly</a>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/john-macarthurs-church-cleared-in-l-a-county-covid-19-outbreak-investigation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">John MacArthur’s Church Cleared In L.A. County COVID-19 ‘Outbreak’ Investigation</a>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-macarthur-against-the-world" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">EXCLUSIVE: MacArthur Against The World</a>

Grace Community Church

John MacArthur’s L.A. County Church Continues To Fight For Freedom To Hold Indoor Services

COVID

Los Angeles

All the trouble and inconvenience that came with 2020’s string of calamities could actually have one surprising benefit: it might deal a death blow to America’s obsession with flippant, man-centered, self-serving, and fraudulent religion.
I’m thinking of trends like so-called “seeker-driven Christianity,” the irreverent brand of entertainment-as-religion that has dominated evangelical megachurches for three decades or longer. Some of the best-known seeker churches boast massive congregations, but they haven’t actually met in person for almost a full year. Their leaders say they have no plans to resume public meetings until fears about the coronavirus are gone from the talking points of secular society. That makes perfect sense — for them. They have followed and imitated the culture for so long, how could they credibly resist the current drift?
There is also a long list of famous charismatic televangelists and self-styled “prophets” who have obliterated whatever small shred of believability they might once have had. A year ago they were assuring their viewers that they had already declared and decreed the end of COVID-19. And then, even as the virus continued to dominate the news, they boldly announced that the Lord had told them Donald Trump would be re-elected. After the votes were counted and certified, most of the best-known charismatic soothsayers still insisted Trump would be inaugurated for a second term in January. Such a string of highly publicized embarrassments should make it hard from now on to find gullible people willing to buy their preposterous claims. And that’s a good thing.
It’s also frankly not going to be easy to keep selling the lie of “Your Best Life Now” to people who for the past year have endured various degrees of isolation, deprivation, persecution, job loss, and political strife — with wars and rumors of war in the streets of American cities.
All such brands of quasi-Christianity are frivolous substitutes for legitimate religion anyway. They lack the solemnity, stability, and sobriety that should characterize authentic devotion to God.
Full disclosure: I write as an evangelical. But let’s face it: shallow superficiality has been the bane of American evangelicalism for decades now. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the contemporary evangelical movement has been a pathological craving for entertainment rather than edification. For many, this is the only flavor of religion they have ever known.
In his 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman lamented the passing of what he called “the Age of Exposition,” and he observed that the current era might aptly be named “the Age of Show Business.” Knowledge, understanding, and real wisdom have declined rapidly and measurably — mostly owing to our culture’s addiction to amusement. The rise of postmodernism since the 1980s has only magnified (exponentially) the problems Postman was pointing out.
He was warning about trends in the culture at large. But those same evil tendencies have wreaked havoc across the spectrum of American religion. Evangelicals have not been exempt, because of their determination to follow (rather than confront and correct) the destructive tendencies of secular society. As a matter of fact, over the past few decades, popular evangelicalism has become perhaps the most glaring and garish — and inappropriate — manifestation of society’s self-destructive craving for amusement.
In the Age of Exposition, evangelicals made the pulpit the centerpiece of the church. Both the seating arrangement and the order of service stressed this. The preacher was expected to open the Word of God and teach from it. Church services had a sense of gravitas and dignity. The goal was not to be carefree and casual, but practically the polar opposite. The point of the worship service was to meet with a transcendent God and reverently pay homage — not to pretend we have a superhero-style friend in heaven whose whole reason for being is to affirm us and make us happy.
Today’s churches are purposely designed to look and feel like theaters. Instead of a pulpit, the centerpiece is a stage. Churches employ full-time media specialists, programming consultants, directors, drama coaches, special-effects experts, choreographers, and promoters. Light shows and smoke machines are widely considered essential liturgical implements for a properly postmodernized Sunday church service.
In sharp contrast, the church meetings described in the New Testament had just four essentials: the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42). But anyone raised in evangelical circles over the past half century probably considers that a lame agenda.
Jesus’ Great Commission was, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). That is not a marketing manifesto. The church is not a business whose task is to promote a product to consumers. Worship is not a spectator sport where the size of the crowd is a key measure of success. The church is supposed to be a gathering of the faithful to exalt the glory of God. “Sin and righteousness and judgment” are essential themes of the message Christians are supposed to convey to the world (John 16:8). But those topics are deliberately omitted from most of the sermons preached in evangelical churches nowadays.
Instead, it seems American religion has wholeheartedly embraced a kind of lighthearted culture-driven pragmatism, where the central goal is to be cool and stylish; gain attention, admiration, and applause from people steeped in secular culture; and attract massive crowds by giving people what they want (“meeting their felt needs,” in the parlance of seeker-sensitivity).
Scripture says it is a mark of apostasy when preachers cater to people who will not tolerate sound biblical teaching but demand to have their ears tickled with half-truths and fables.
Nevertheless, church leaders in recent years have seemingly put no limits on how far they will go in pursuit of mass appeal. The ultimate fruit of that philosophy has ranged from beat poetry to crass slapstick. Churches have literally put on every kind of spectacle from rodeos to wrestling matches in their Sunday services. Preachers are purposely glib. They talk about the gospel — some of them mention it a lot. But they don’t actually proclaim it.
Again, I’m describing a style of religion that has been spreading like leaven through the evangelical movement for decades. And when a worldwide health crisis brought all of society to a screeching halt last year, churches whose driving purpose had been to convene the largest possible crowds were left with no achievable goal, no legitimate function, and no answers for their anxious and apprehensive neighbors.
The gospel Christians are commissioned by their Lord to proclaim includes the good news that God, in the Person of Jesus Christ, became a flesh-and-blood human Himself, “[so] that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives” (Hebrews 2:14-15).
Who could possibly miss the fact that “fear of death” has literally been the controlling factor in government policies, news reports, economic trends, and almost every level of human activity worldwide for the past year? Scripture gives us a clear and effectual remedy for that fear. And the church’s chief duty with regard to society at large is the proclamation of that message.
Christians: let’s devote our energies to that task.
Dr. John MacArthur is the pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. He is the author of more than 400 books, a featured teacher with the Grace to You media ministry (<a href="http://gty.org/">gty.org</a>), and is chancellor of The Master’s University and Seminary.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

MacArthur: The End of Frivolous Religion?

Evangelicals

Theology

What denominational label would best describe the following person&#8217;s religious beliefs?
He claims to be a committed, born-again Christian but isn&#8217;t sure that Jesus is truly God incarnate. He isn&#8217;t convinced that God has infallible knowledge of (much less sovereign control over) the future. He doesn&#8217;t believe the Bible is truth without any mixture of error. He doesn&#8217;t believe what the Bible says about how the universe was created. He doesn&#8217;t believe people must acknowledge Christ as Lord and Savior—or even know anything about him—in order to have God&#8217;s favor. He doesn&#8217;t believe Satan is literally real. He doesn&#8217;t believe God is full of wrath against sin. And he certainly doesn&#8217;t believe in eternal punishment. In fact, he doesn&#8217;t particularly care for words like sin, atonement, repentance, expiation, or propitiation. He dismisses such terminology as useless religious jargon that fails to communicate anything to normal people. But in reality, what he despises most of all about those words is the underlying doctrine of substitutionary atonement, which he also doesn&#8217;t believe in. He is convinced that God will forgive without demanding any payment for guilt.
Furthermore, while he isn&#8217;t certain Jesus is “perfect,” this person does believe human nature is fundamentally good. He believes God accepts the worship of all religions. He believes acts of benevolence can make up for our moral failings. He believes science has disproved parts of the Bible. At the same time, however, he believes biology does not determine a person&#8217;s gender; that is determined solely by how the person feels.
He also believes it is wrong to regard anyone&#8217;s sexual orientation as sinful. In fact, while he is loath to call any act of personal wrongdoing &#8220;sin&#8221; or &#8220;evil,&#8221; he does believe—with all his heart—that people of European descent have inherited collective guilt because their ancestors enslaved or oppressed other ethnic groups. He doesn&#8217;t regard Adam as a historical person or the Genesis flood as true, so he sees humanity as an assortment of rival races. He further believes each race is either privileged or oppressed—and skin color is what determines the difference. He will go on to tell you that several other factors, including gender, sexual orientation, disability, body weight, and worldview can further marginalize an already-oppressed individual (or conversely, amplify the empowerment of an already-privileged person). He believes justice demands the leveling of all such socio-economic imbalances, and the chief end of religion is the pursuit of that goal.
In other words, he totally believes in Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality. He is therefore &#8220;woke,&#8221; culturally savvy, politically liberal, and (by his own assessment) deeply spiritual.
How would you classify such a worldview?
He calls himself an “evangelical.” And leading voices in the current Evangelical Movement are happy to welcome him into their number without any serious or sustained challenge to his belief system—even though every one of his most strongly-held opinions is a direct denial of one or more vital points of historic evangelical conviction.
The profile I have just described is by no means unusual. Recent surveys reveal that a large percentage of people who self-identify as &#8220;evangelical&#8221; do not understand even the most basic principles of gospel truth. In a recent poll of self-styled evangelicals, 52 percent said they reject the concept of absolute truth; 61 percent do not read the Bible daily; 75 percent believe people are basically good; 48 percent believe salvation can be earned by good works; 44 percent believe the Bible does not condemn abortion; 43 percent believe Jesus may have sinned; 78 percent believe Jesus is the first being created by God; 46 percent believe the Holy Spirit is a force rather than a Person; 40 percent believe lying is morally acceptable in certain circumstances; 34 percent accept same-sex marriage as consistent with biblical teaching; 26 percent reject Scripture as God&#8217;s Word; and 50 percent say church attendance is not necessary.
Most of those views are categorically incompatible with saving faith. In other words, many who self-identify as evangelicals are not believers at all.
No matter. The media consider them evangelicals. Evangelical churches grant them membership. In some cases, evangelical presses publish and promote their writings, and evangelical conferences feature them as keynote speakers.
Consequently, evangelical has come to mean anything and everything. And that’s why, as it is used today, the word hardly means anything at all.
The root of the expression is the Greek term for “gospel”—euangelion. That word and its cognates are used some 130 times in the New Testament, reflecting the apostolic commitment to the centrality of the gospel message and the importance of understanding it and preaching it correctly. “Evangelicals” are gospel people.  The term is loaded with profound biblical and theological significance, and God’s people must not stand by passively while it is evacuated of all meaningful import. Sadly, however, what most people today think of as “evangelicalism” bears little resemblance to the rich heritage of historic evangelicalism.
How could this happen? Only by a catastrophic failure of leadership.
The biblical instructions for church leaders could not be more clear: “Preach the word . . . in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort” (2 Timothy 4:2). That’s the task, even when people with itching ears demand to be affirmed, amused, pacified, or entertained in various ways. Paul tells Timothy to preach God’s Word “with great patience and instruction”—meaning he should faithfully continue teaching sound, biblical doctrine, even when people seem unable to endure it because their ears are itching for something different. The apostle tells another protégé, Titus, “Speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you” (Titus 2:15).
The favored style of leadership in today’s Evangelical Movement is precisely the opposite. Most preachers work hard not to use a tone of authority, and they strive to be as subtle and indistinct as possible when they refer to Scripture. They crave popularity, and they know that postmodern audiences don’t like emphatic truth claims, precise doctrine, or settled convictions. Unchurched people today especially don’t want to listen to a preacher who earnestly contends for the exclusivity of Christ. They want their religion to be as unbounded as the open air, as soothing as a lullaby, and as fluid as the incessant stream of public opinion polls. They also want it shallow, unchallenging, and fashionable. Evangelical leaders have willingly obliged.
Too many who would not qualify to serve as deacons or elders in the church by any biblical standard nevertheless hold positions of leadership and influence in the Evangelical Movement. That is evident from wave after wave of moral scandals that have rocked the movement over the past forty years. It is also reflected in the flamboyant superficiality that is the hallmark of most televised religion. The testimony of the true church is being drowned out by the voices of ostensibly evangelical people who are preaching themselves rather than Christ Jesus as Lord.
Meanwhile, the gospel is being neglected—and in some cases radically modified—even by some men and movements who not so long ago said they believed the gospel is the one viable basis for Christian unity. These are leaders who would describe their ministries as &#8220;gospel centered.&#8221; The word Gospel is enshrined in the names of their organizations. But they are setting aside the offense of the gospel in favor of a theme that is trending in the secular world: &#8220;wokeness.&#8221; According to them, one of the gravest threats to anyone&#8217;s spiritual well-being today is systemic injustice—not only in secular society, but also within the church. The remedies being offered for this perceived evil are laden with stylish buzz words and politically correct dogmas—including secular doctrines with blatant neo-Marxist overtones.
I don&#8217;t think it overstates the case to say that the true evangel is in danger of being swept away with a deluge of grandiloquence from some of the Evangelical Movement&#8217;s best known and most influential thought leaders.
This downgrade did not happen suddenly. For decades key leaders in the Evangelical Movement, obsessed with gaining the word&#8217;s applause and approval, have shown a troubling willingness to adjust their political and doctrinal stance to whatever were the prevailing opinions in the academic world, popular culture, and (more recently) social media. Seeker-sensitive pragmatism has long dominated the Evangelical Movement and marginalized biblical teaching in the name of cultural relevance. As a result, the meaning of the term evangelical has become so thoroughly murky that it stands in urgent need of reclamation and redefinition.
The current generation of evangelicals are the malformed children of such utilitarian influences. The movement is full of preachers who use Scripture only to abuse it. They manipulate people with fables, sentimental homilies, self-help lectures, and pious vision-casting. Such methods have seduced doctrinally and biblically illiterate crowds into thinking they are Christians. There is no worse brand of soul-killing sin.
Before he went to glory, R.C. Sproul and I had several conversations about how compromise and corruption within the visible church have ruined vital theological terms by clouding their definitions. For example, the word fundamentalist once signified someone who was committed to the defense of Christianity&#8217;s cardinal doctrines. But too many in the Fundamentalist Movement lost sight of truly essential doctrines and became obsessed instead with petty preferences. As a result, the Fundamentalist Movement was corrupted by legalism and nominalism. Today fundamentalist is a term of derision.
Similarly, the noble term Reformed has for generations been co-opted by countless churches and denominations that trace their organizational lineage back to early Protestantism but who long ago abandoned any commitment to the biblical principles that fueled the Reformation. The fact that a church has the word &#8220;Reformed&#8221; in its name is no guarantee that the message they proclaim will have anything in common with what the magisterial Reformers were willing to die for.
The term evangelical is suffering a similar fate. The movement that wears that label has become so theologically diverse that it belies its own name. Today the evangelical swamp is chock full of charlatans, heretics, socialists, Marxists, and race-hustlers. There is nothing truly and biblically evangelical about it.
But what is the answer? Should we abandon the term evangelical in favor of a more accurate name? Those who have long lamented the degeneration of the Evangelical Movement have had difficulty coming up with a better name. R. C. once suggested the term &#8220;Imputationists,&#8221; which pays tribute to one of the chief articles of gospel truth: that the sins of all believers were imputed to Christ and his righteousness is imputed to them. But that&#8217;s probably too obscure a term to replace &#8220;evangelical&#8221;—not to mention the fact that people unfamiliar with doctrinal terminology might think it has something to do with amputation.
So what is my preferred label? What group do I identify with? I wish we could simply reclaim the word Christian. I don&#8217;t know if you can identify any more closely with Christ than by using that term. The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch in Acts 11. We are told to rejoice that we bear the name Christian (1 Pet. 4:6). But that word likewise has been so polluted that it has little more than a generic significance. I could settle for &#8220;Biblical Christian,&#8221; but that seems redundant.
I fully embrace classic evangelicalism&#8217;s commitment to the gospel, but the movement that has co-opted the name Evangelical clearly does not. Every unbiblical attack on Scripture—both overt and covert, blatant and subtle—has produced a kind of Laodicean &#8220;evangelical&#8221; lukewarmness, evoking the imagery of Revelation 3:15-22, where our Lord threatens to spit that church out of his mouth.
I cannot support the trendy jargon or the pet causes that today&#8217;s stylish evangelicals are so enthralled with: systemic racism, white privilege, white guilt, critical race theory, intersectionality, socialism, neo-Marxism, reparations, same-sex attraction, abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, and evolution. I have no regard for &#8220;Big Eva&#8221; or the celebrity culture that honors fashion more than faithfulness and esteems big crowds more highly than sound teaching.
So what is my confession of faith?
I am bound by Scripture and reason to declare that Jesus is Lord, in the full sense of that term, and I am his slave, also in the full sense of that term. I love him. I bow to him as God the Son in all the fullness of his deity and with faith in all the fullness of his work. My slavery to him springs from a heart of love that drives me to obey his Word gladly. This is a perfect reflection of his infinite mind and holy nature. What Christ do I love? What Christ do I preach? We preach Christ, who is the eternal Son, one in nature with the eternal Father, and one with the eternal Spirit—the Triune God. He is the Creator and Life-giver as well as the Sustainer of the universe, and all who live in it. He is the virgin-born Son of God and Son of Man—fully divine and fully human. He is the one whose life on earth perfectly pleased God, and whose righteousness is given to all who by grace through faith, become one with him. He is the only acceptable sacrifice for sin that pleases God, and whose death under divine judgment paid in full the penalty for the sins of his people, providing for them forgiveness and eternal life. He is alive, having been raised from the dead by the Father, validating His work of atonement, publicly declaring him righteous, and providing resurrection for the sanctification and glorification of the elect, to bring them safely into his heavenly presence. He is at the Father&#8217;s throne interceding for all believers. As regards his Word, which is perfect, pure, inspired, inerrant, and true, I approach it with objectivity, rationality, veracity, authority, incompatibility, integrity, and unreserved faith.
At the end of the day, when I search for a term to describe this confession of faith, I realize that this is what evangelicalism has historically meant. This is the faith once for all delivered to the saints through the inerrant Scriptures—the true gospel of God’s sovereign grace poured out on sinners through faith in Christ alone. This is evangelical doctrine. Those who have turned aside from these truths to the cheap substitutes of worldly immorality, socialist politics, or personalized, designer doctrines that remake God in the image of man are the ones who have abandoned the gospel. Whatever they call themselves, they are not evangelicals. Those of us who hold to genuinely evangelical doctrine—to the fundamentals of the faith in the only saving Gospel—we must stake our claim on this doctrinal foundation, and we must withstand those who would lay claim to the name evangelical while they are compromising and corrupting the true gospel.
The biblical record and church history both reveal that apostasy is common, yet the Lord always preserves his truth through the testimony of a faithful remnant. My desire is only to be part of that unwavering remnant, “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
What Are the Essential Principles of Classic Evangelicalism?
The word evangelicalism has always signified an unbending belief in the core truths of the Christian gospel—with a resolute refusal to compromise or modify those vital doctrinal principles.
The gospel is what Jesus came to proclaim (Mark 1:14). It is what he sent his disciples into all the world to announce (Mark 16:15). It is what Paul spent his entire apostolic career preaching and defending (Romans 1:1). It is the sole means by which life and immortality are brought to light (2 Timothy 1:10). It is therefore the very heart and the defining feature of authentic evangelical conviction.
Specifically, the gospel is &#8220;that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures&#8221; (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Necessarily implied in that summary are several other vital doctrines, including the authority and sufficiency of Scripture; the fallenness of all Adam&#8217;s offspring; the hopelessness of sin&#8217;s bondage; the necessity of atonement; the truths of Christ&#8217;s eternal deity, his perfect humanity, and his utter sinlessness; plus the sinner’s duty to repent from sin and trust in Christ alone for salvation.
The hallmark of classic evangelicalism is an immovable commitment to the same two principles upon which the whole Protestant Reformation stood:
<ol>
<li>The formal principle is a conviction that the Bible is the supreme and sufficient authority in all matters of doctrine and practice—sola Scriptura. This was the cardinal tenet that shaped all the Reformers&#8217; confessions of faith.</li>
<li>The material principle is the truth that faith is the sole instrument of our justification before God—sola fide. This is the very heart of gospel truth, and it was the singular point of doctrine every disagreement between Rome and the Reformers ultimately came back to.</li>
</ol>
The expression evangelical has had this clear and precise meaning for nearly five centuries. Evangelicalism did not begin in the twentieth century with Billy Graham. The earliest Protestants were called &#8220;evangelical&#8221; because of their intense focus on the gospel and the doctrine of justification by faith alone.
To say it as succinctly as I can, these two unfaltering convictions are what has always bound true evangelicals together in unity: a commitment to the authority of Scripture, and a shared belief in the essential &#8220;first principles&#8221; of gospel truth—starting with the historical facts of Jesus&#8217; death, burial, and resurrection; culminating in settled trust in Christ alone as Lord and Savior.
Those who deny any of those doctrines are not “evangelical” in any historical sense of the term.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author&#8217;s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

MACARTHUR: How ‘Evangelical’ Is The Evangelical Movement?

The Los Angeles church that has been legally wrangling with county government over COVID-19 lockdowns saw three confirmed cases among its congregation of roughly 7,000, public health officials said Thursday.
Grace Community Church, which <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/compliance-would-be-disobedience-prominent-california-church-defies-state-lockdown-to-resume-in-person-assembly" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">made headlines</a> in July when senior pastor John MacArthur and the church elders reopened their doors in defiance of state and local lockdown orders, are working together with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, according to the <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus-outbreak-strikes-l-megachurch-232615172.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Los Angeles Times</a>.
Houses of worship must report to the county Public Health Department when at least three positive COVID-19 cases emerge among either staff or congregants in order to assist the government in containing a potential outbreak.
Jenna Ellis, who serves as legal counsel for the church, pushed back against the assertion that three cases constitute an outbreak.
In a statement to The Daily Wire, Ellis said:
<blockquote>Three very mild positive tests among more than 7,000 people is hardly news. 0.04% is not an &#8220;outbreak.&#8221; The LA Times and others’ grossly misleading and fear-mongering headlines aim to mischaracterize Grace Community Church as irresponsible and a superspreader. It has never been the Church’s position that it is only safe to hold services if no one ever tests positive, or for example, if no one ever gets the flu during flu season. Our position has been that LA County shutting down churches indefinitely amid a virus with a 99.98% survival rate, especially when state-preferred businesses are open and protests are held without restriction, is unconstitutional and harmful to the free exercise of religion.</blockquote>
Within days of the church first announcing its intention to defy the lockdown order, the county issued a <a href="https://www.thomasmoresociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Ex.-5-1_Cease-and-Desist-Letter.pdf">cease and desist letter</a> threatening $1,000 daily fines and even imprisonment if they failed to comply. In response, the church filed a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/church-sues-california-after-being-threatened-with-fines-and-jail">lawsuit</a> against the county asking for a declaration and judgment that the health order is unconstitutional, both on face and as applied. A judge later <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/judge-refuses-to-hold-john-macarthur-grace-community-church-in-contempt-without-trial.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">refused to hold the church in contempt</a> without a trial, and their next court date is Nov. 13.
During a recent interview with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-macarthur-against-the-world" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Daily Wire</a>, MacArthur did not rule out the possibility that infections might occur at his reopened church but maintained that it was not as deadly as many seemingly believe:
<blockquote>While the virus, of course, can be deadly, MacArthur said, the chance of dying of it — particularly for those under 65 without any co-morbidities — is a fraction of a percent. In a recent Sunday service, he even went so far as to declare “there is no pandemic.” As evidence, he cited the <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2020/09/cdc-did-not-admit-only-6-of-recorded-deaths-from-covid-19/">CDC report</a> that of the 200,000 people who have died in connection to the virus, “for 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned.”
When I asked him if his critics among the Lockdown Left would declare that he was selling false hope if he were to get infected and die, the pastor shrugged off such a claim.
“For me, to die is gain,” he replied, quoting the apostle Paul in the Book of Philippians. “That is not even a relevant thought to me. Far better to depart and be with Christ… The Lord’s in complete charge of my life. When it’s over, it’s over, and it’s up to him.”
While MacArthur dismissed cynical attempts to undermine the larger message about the freedom of religion, he said that he does not want to be “irresponsible” in his approach to coronavirus. “The good news is I haven’t pronounced that I can heal people,” he joked. But he also made a point of noting that no one has died of COVID-19 from going to his fully reopened church.</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-macarthur-against-the-world" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">EXCLUSIVE: MacArthur Against The World</a>

LA Times Reports COVID-19 ‘Outbreak’ At John MacArthur’s Church. City: 3 Confirmed Cases

Grace Community Church lead pastor John MacArthur recently sat down to talk with The Daily Wire about his legal battle with Los Angeles officials, the media’s Covid fearmongering, and the response of most Christian churches to the virus — and the chances are none of them are going to like what he had to say.
To be honest, I found myself struggling to pay much attention to the old school praise and worship ensemble on the stage. While the band clearly had practiced hard to perform with excellence for that Sunday service, the truly captivating spectacle was in the pews.
The rows and rows of pews of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles that Sunday morning were packed with people — unmasked people, thousands of them — all there to hear an 81-year-old pastor offer his emphatically not “seeker friendly” biblical teaching.
If I had looked closely enough, perhaps I could have spotted the government auditors who had been attending the services for weeks to chronicle the church’s mounting Covid-19 health order infractions. While most of the rest of the country is now mostly open, Los Angeles is still in strict “lockdown” mode, including forbidding full in-door church assemblies — the type Grace has been defiantly hosting since August.
When Pastor John MacArthur finally took the stage, the most striking thing about him was that his demeanor was unchanged from two days earlier, when we’d met at the Daily Wire offices. There on the stage was the same man; no aura of special status or sense of self-importance. Rather, standing in front of the 7,000 congregants was a man who has spent decades delivering the same message in the same mode, warning of the consequences of rejecting God’s truth — and in many ways predicting the converging crises of which he was quite publicly now in the center.
MacArthur&#8217;s an even busier man these days than usual, adding regular appearances on Fox News and the courtroom to his already jam-packed schedule, so when we sat down on Friday we quickly got to the subject that’s been dominating the headlines for months. When I asked him if America is in the throes of the biggest media-pushed false narrative in the country’s history, MacArthur said without hesitation, “Oh yeah.&#8221;
“We all heard the same thing: give us two weeks and we’ll stop the hospitals from being overrun. But that never happened,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I think that’s why people keep coming to Grace Church — because they just don’t believe the narrative.”
While he said he had understood historically something as seismic as this clampdown on individual freedom was possible, the swiftness and magnitude caught him off-guard.
“There was never even an attempt to do something like this before,” he said of the liberty-restricting and economy-crushing lockdowns. “There was never even a short-term act like this, let alone going on for six, seven months.”
“We all saw coming the ability of powerful people to control us in ways that had never been possible before. We’re dealing now with a whole pile of unintended consequences,&#8221; he said, citing the power of the internet in promoting fear. “The decision that Fauci made, they made a decision in a complete vacuum. They made a decision to do one thing and never considered the massive implications that would go all over the place, that were far worse than them doing that one thing. And they’re still beating that drum, and people are still acquiescing.”
“What we saw was the most graphic illustration in history of the fact you don’t need an army to conquer a nation, you just need fear — and it doesn’t have to be a real fear, and it can be completely deceptive,” he observed. “You have all these generations of people who gave their lives in war to get freedom for generations that they wouldn’t even know. They were sacrificing their lives for future generations. Now people will give up every freedom if you’ll protect them from a virus that won’t kill them.”
While the virus, of course, can be deadly, MacArthur said, the chance of dying of it — particularly for those under 65 without any co-morbidities — is a fraction of a percent. In a recent Sunday service, he even went so far as to declare “there is no pandemic.” As evidence, he cited the <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2020/09/cdc-did-not-admit-only-6-of-recorded-deaths-from-covid-19/">CDC report</a> that of the 200,000 people who have died in connection to the virus, “for 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned.”
When I asked him if his critics among the Lockdown Left would declare that he was selling false hope if he were to get infected and die, the pastor shrugged off such a claim.
“For me, to die is gain,” he replied, quoting the apostle Paul in the Book of Philippians. “That is not even a relevant thought to me. Far better to depart and be with Christ… The Lord’s in complete charge of my life. When it’s over, it’s over, and it’s up to him.”
While MacArthur dismissed cynical attempts to undermine the larger message about the freedom of religion, he said that he does not want to be “irresponsible” in his approach to coronavirus. “The good news is I haven’t pronounced that I can heal people,” he joked. But he also made a point of noting that no one has died of COVID-19 from going to his fully reopened church.
At its core, the pastor suggested, his battle with the county is about the battle for truth — about whether we live in a society that embraces it or rejects it. “Once truth breaks down, everything is lost, and all you can do is fight — all you can do is fight with the truth for the truth,” he said.
Teaching the truth is the mission of the church, but too many churches are failing to carry out that mission, he said.
<div id="attachment_153845" style="width: 1210px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-153845" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-153845 size-open-graph-image" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/John-MacArthur-4-1200x800.jpg" alt="John MacArthur" width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2020/10/John-MacArthur-4-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2020/10/John-MacArthur-4-1800x1200.jpg 1800w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" />Photo by Gregory Woodman</div>
So how did it come to this — MacArthur against the world, a modern-day Athanasius at odds not just with the state but other church leaders?
In late July, MacArthur <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/compliance-would-be-disobedience-prominent-california-church-defies-state-lockdown-to-resume-in-person-assembly">announced</a> that he was reopening the doors of Grace Community Church in defiance of Los Angeles County’s ongoing restrictions imposed on houses of worship. Within days, the county issued a <a href="https://www.thomasmoresociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Ex.-5-1_Cease-and-Desist-Letter.pdf">cease and desist letter</a> threatening $1,000 daily fines and even imprisonment if MacArthur failed to comply with the county mandate. In response, the church filed a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/church-sues-california-after-being-threatened-with-fines-and-jail">lawsuit</a> against the county asking for a declaration and judgment that the health order is unconstitutional, both on face and as applied.
MacArthur’s team maintains that they simply cannot comply with an unconstitutional order. The county, on the other hand, says that the church’s legal arguments, based on the First Amendment, are a mere “sideshow” and have demanded exorbitant fees and possibly jail time. On Sept. 24, the L.A. Superior Court <a href="https://www.thomasmoresociety.org/macarthur-prevails-california-court-says-church-and-pastor-entitled-to-trial/?#more-12931">ruled</a> in MacArthur&#8217;s favor, agreeing that he is entitled to a full trial before the county can seek contempt against him.
The pastor made clear during our talk that he is not defying state orders lightly. The mission of his life, as it is for all believers, he said, is to spread the Gospel to the best of his ability and to responsibly carry out the ministry he’s been given during this brief stint on earth. And he certainly won’t fail to carry out his ministry for a law that flies in the face of the First Amendment.
For those who study the Bible, he said, much of this looks familiar. “Of course, as a Christian, we see in Scripture prophecy of the world eventually becoming global,” said MacArthur, pointing to the Book of Revelation. “One world government, one world economy, one world ruler. That is more possible now than it has ever been in human history, and you can see just how it lays out.”
But while he could see that there was “a prophetic picture that would unfold at some point,” he did not see “this level of capability of that being a reality.”
“The ramping up of the incessant media generating fear — and still doing it. It’s what P.T. Barnum said, ‘There’s a sucker born every minute,’” said the preacher. “People can be deceived … How do you explain Nazi Germany? How do you explain Christian people in Christian Germany massacring millions and millions of people almost unconscionably? It’s amazing the power that can be exerted over people if you have enough fear or if you get them in enough depressed situations.”
The true crisis behind the crisis, he suggested, is that ours is now an era of lies. “Lying is so ubiquitous and everybody knows that everybody is lying,” he said. “Of course, Satan’s the author of lies, so this is his world. He is the ultimate force behind it all, supernaturally.”
So what are we to do in a &#8220;world of lies&#8221;? There is but one recourse, MacArthur told me. “Once truth breaks down, everything is lost — and all you can do is fight,” he said. “All you can do is fight with the truth for the truth.”
And this is where the solemn biblical scholar offered a glimmer of hope. What he has seen in his church in the middle of a valley dominated by leftist politicians and activists is a thirst for the truth, particularly among young people.
Grace has seen about 100 new members a month for years, he said, and 90% are 30 and under. He&#8217;d thought that his congregation would get older as he aged and as his church consistently rejected the “seeker-friendly” approach. But the opposite has been true.
“Conservative millennials are truth-seekers — that’s what marks them, that’s their conservative character. They want the truth,” he explained. “They don’t want to be lied to. They have values. They have morals. They have convictions. &#8230; Liberal millennials just want to burn, tear down, destroy what exists. The separation is massive.”
When it comes to churches, he believes this year has been a “sifting time,” when “the weak” will fall away.
“There are churches that have been irrelevant, but it wasn’t obvious until crisis came and they don’t have any answers. You can’t make daisy chains when people are terrified — not so much terrified by the virus, but terrified that they’re losing the world they’ve always known; that the future is totally out of their hands and it’s not going to be good because people are lying to them. If people want anything, they want the truth.”
“One out of five churches are predicted to never come back,” he said. “That’s not all bad. Maybe they were getting away with sentimentalism and superficiality because there was no reason to fear things, to feel like you’ve lost everything.”
“I’ve watched guys who have commanded the Christian internet — nobody listens to them,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Because they’re woke, and if they’re woke, they won’t say a word. If they bought into being woke, if they bought into CRT [Critical Race Theory], if they bought into ‘systemic racism,’ if they bought into social justice, they can’t make a peep. Because they’ll be alienated. They picked sides, and from my standpoint, as a truth-seeker, they picked the wrong side.”
Some of his friends from other ministries will not speak to him anymore because he’s spoken out against the social justice and CRT agenda, said the pastor. “This is very positive: What’s coming out of this is stop with the nonsense and give me the truth.”
That&#8217;s why Grace is seeing more than 2 million sermon downloads a month, he asserted. “There’s only one common reality: they want to hear the truth.&#8221;
&#8220;And Christians need not fear offending people — indeed, they should embrace it when it comes to the gospel,&#8221; he advised. “There is built-in offense to the truth, and I don’t think we need to sneak up on them. We need to be up-front.&#8221; Speaking the “offensive truth” presents a “stark comparison” to the falsehoods people are hearing. They need to be “knocked off the comfort level of just buying into the narrative.”
That is, after all, what Jesus did, he noted. “Jesus said you hate me because I tell you you’re sinful. That’s why you hate me… That’s the most jarring thing you can say to people: You’re sinful, you need a Savior, you’re going to perish, you’re going to be judged, you’re going to eternal punishment. There&#8217;s no more jarring reality than that. In fact, it’s so jarring that the pragmatic megachurch will never say it.”
This, the pastor argued, is no time for pragmatic, self-help sophistry. It&#8217;s a time for a fearless, tireless commitment to countering the lies of the world with redemptive truth.
“We have the responsibility of proclaiming the most jarring message that’s ever been proclaimed — and it not only cost Jesus his life, it cost all the Apostles their lives, as well, and all the other Christians in the early church who were being slaughtered and martyred,” he said. &#8220;It wasn&#8217;t that they were offensive people. It was that they were traveling around telling everybody that there was only one redeemer, and it was Jesus Christ, and if you didn&#8217;t put your trust in him, you were going to hell.&#8221;
People will come to churches that preach that message unashamedly, said MacArthur. They will come because of this “strong desire to find out is the Gospel true — and what else is true.&#8221;

MacArthur Against The World

Christianity Today

Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles released a video earlier this week in which he explained why he believes &#8220;church is essential&#8221; and urged other churches to reopen.
In a video he prefaced with a Bible verse that commands Christians to gather together, as well as one in which Jesus promised that &#8220;the gates of hell shall not prevail&#8221; against the church, MacArthur laid bare what he described as the inconsistent and arbitrary lockdown measures against houses of worship in California and elsewhere.
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OPEN YOUR CHURCH. Hebrews 10:25; Matthew 16:18<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChurchIsEssential?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ChurchIsEssential</a> <a href="https://t.co/CH28pwcWpL">pic.twitter.com/CH28pwcWpL</a>
&mdash; John MacArthur (@johnmacarthur) <a href="https://twitter.com/johnmacarthur/status/1313879694031241216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Today&#8217;s current crop of politicians are trampling on the Constitution and on the resolve of citizens to demand their rights under the pressure of a manufactured fear,&#8221; MacArthur asserted. &#8220;The reality is that the COVID data just doesn&#8217;t match the government&#8217;s COVID narrative.&#8221; Even if an individual catches COVID-19, MacArthur claimed, &#8220;You have a 99.99% chance to survive COVID. It&#8217;s just not what they&#8217;re saying it is.&#8221;
&#8220;That absolutely does not warrant shutting down anything,&#8221; MacArthur continued. &#8220;But especially, absurdly and arbitrarily, churches that have a special protection from the Constitution. Oh, and at the same time, leaving open abortion clinics, strip clubs, and marijuana dispensaries.&#8221;
&#8220;And by the way, the Health Department is on record as saying they are going to allow riots and protests without regard for the mandated health and safety ordinances. This is obviously targeted discrimination. Leftists and secular government officials have no tolerance for biblical Christianity, so they&#8217;re using COVID as an excuse to shut us down.&#8221;
&#8220;We have to stand firm on the reality that the church is essential. The most meaningful, transformative, exemplary lives in a community all come together in a church, and that&#8217;s been our impact on the city of Los Angeles.&#8221;
MacArthur explained that after crucial ministries in his church were shut down for 20 weeks, he first began preaching to an empty auditorium until members began returning because &#8220;they didn&#8217;t believe the narrative the local government and media were giving them.&#8221;
Appealing to the legacy of the Protestant Reformation, MacArthur warned, &#8220;This is a watershed moment in America. We have been granted by God the freedom to meet as a church and that is protected by the Constitution. We need to be the church, not only because we&#8217;re free to be the church, but because we&#8217;re commanded to be the church by the Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the church.&#8221;
&#8220;This is a time of all times to meet as the church. Open your church. The church is essential,&#8221; MacArthur added.
Evangelist Franklin Graham quote-tweeted the video in a show of support, writing, &#8220;I’m thankful that [President Donald Trump] declared that churches in this country are essential. I appreciate Pastor [John MacArthur&#8217;s] stand and agree that churches should be able to open and not be stopped by the government.&#8221;
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I’m thankful that <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> declared that churches in this country are essential. I appreciate Pastor <a href="https://twitter.com/johnmacarthur?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JohnMacArthur</a>’s stand and agree that churches should be able to open and not be stopped by the government. <a href="https://t.co/8B7dMWVwK2">https://t.co/8B7dMWVwK2</a>
&mdash; Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) <a href="https://twitter.com/Franklin_Graham/status/1314300042736545792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 8, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Graham expanded on his thoughts about church lockdowns <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-franklin-graham-talks-d-c-prayer-march-scotus-blm-church-lockdowns-and-the-democrat-agenda" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">in a recent interview with The Daily Wire</a>:
<blockquote>Regarding what the future may hold for American Christians, Graham reiterated the warning of freed pastor Andrew Brunson, who will be attending the march and offering the prayer at one of the stops along the Mall. A year ago, Brunson told the Washington Examiner that <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/i-think-were-very-close-freed-pastor-andrew-brunson-urges-young-american-christians-to-prepare-for-persecution" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">he believes persecution is possibly “very close” for the American church</a>, a prediction about which, Graham said, there is “no question.”
Graham condemned the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-church-relents-to-county-demands-after-fines-exceed-100000" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">lingering lockdowns of churches</a> in states like California as illegal and unconstitutional. “The Constitution guarantees us the right to worship without interference from the government,” he said. “For a governor just to arbitrarily say that Lowe’s, Home Depot can be open, or Walmart can be open on Sunday, but churches have to be closed, and they can’t have more than 100 people or 50 people or whatever, it just shows you that they are targeting churches.”
“Businesses can stay open, but churches cannot. I appreciate the president saying that churches are essential,” Graham added, commending Los Angeles pastor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/an-inexplicable-ruling-john-macarthurs-church-cannot-hold-indoor-services-l-a-judge-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">John MacArthur</a> especially for taking a stand against state and local authorities, despite continuous court battles. “He’s right,” Graham said. “We have the right to worship, whether pandemic or not a pandemic. We have the right to worship and the government can’t stop us.”</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/macarthur-why-the-church-has-never-been-more-essential" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">MACARTHUR: Why The Church Has Never Been More Essential</a>

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