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Historically, Roman Catholicism has been considered by Protestants and Evangelicals to be an expression of faith that distorts the Biblical gospel of Jesus Christ. While Protestants hold to a soteriological belief of “grace alone through faith alone,” in contrast, Roman Catholics hold to a sacerdotal view of salvation by faith plus works whereby grace is dispensed through the Church by the intervention of a Sacerdote (priest). For them, salvation cannot be attained apart from the sacraments. Bible-believing Christians shouldn’t assume Catholics are born-again Christians because they trust in their own works as opposed to the finished work of Christ on the cross, for their salvation.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Sadly, during this modern time of ecumenical “unity,” many professing Bible-believing Christians have compromised on this. For them, it has become a matter of “individual faith,” and regardless of your religious affiliation, anyone who has that “personal relationship” with Christ can be saved. But there are several errors in this line of reasoning, and it is extremely reckless to assume that Catholics or Orthodox Christians are truly saved. Here’s why.
Denominational Affiliation is an Expression of Beliefs
As stated above, Roman Catholics officially hold to unbiblical doctrines that are opposed to the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, they are designed in such a manner to forbid you from believing the true Gospel. One can only assume that a Roman Catholic is a Roman Catholic because he or she believes the Roman Catholic system to be true. While it is possible that a practicing Roman Catholic can be saved, as God can save anybody he pleases, the likelihood of them remaining in the Catholic Church long-term is slim. Upon justification, the Holy Spirit begins sanctification in the new believer, and will ultimately lead the believer to the truth, and out of the false church. “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace,” (1 Corinthians 14:33). It is of utmost importance for Bible-believing Christians to call all who are caught up in this false system to repent and leave the Roman Catholic or Orthodox church.
For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough
Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians Practice Idolatry
Through aberrant doctrines such as transubstantiation, Roman Catholics, and many Orthodox sects, believe that the bread and wine of the Eucharist are the true body and blood of Jesus Christ and that it is worthy of worship. This is a regular practice in the daily Mass. Further, prayers and worship are regularly offered to Mary and the canonized saints, and relics of past saints and popes are regularly idolized in the church. In every altar in a Roman Catholic church, there will be placed a relic (i.e. bone, vile of blood, or some body part) of a martyr or a canonized saint. This practice of idolatry cannot be overlooked when considering someone to be a brother or sister in Christ. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 clearly states that those who practice idolatry will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians Reject Biblical Authority
Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians do not hold to a belief in the final authority of Scripture, rather, Catholics’ authority is in the hierarchical system of priests with the Roman Pontiff at the head, and the Orthodox Church’s authority comes from the seven ecumenical councils. A rejection of biblical authority is a rejection of Christ himself, for the Scriptures say that Jesus is the Word of God made flesh.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
We cannot compromise the Gospel by assuming that a Roman Catholic or Orthodox Christian who professes to be saved is truly saved. Counterfeit systems of Christianity are very good at distorting their identity. They often speak the same language as believers, yet mean something completely different. They are often agreeable to the believer and are experts at practicing cunning.
Even if a Catholic is truly born again, if they refuse to leave their false church, we must treat them as though they are not. By their own profession, confession, and expression of faith, they continue in sin by practicing idolatry and rejecting Christ. We must not allow them to speak in our pulpits or join with them in any spiritual enterprise. We are to avoid them, treat them as unbelievers, and call them to repent.
But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
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A federal judge recently ruled in favor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C. as he slapped down Mayor Muriel Bowser’s church shutdown order as unconstitutional.
In his rebuke of the mayor’s Draconian lockdown targeting churches while allowing riots and protests to continue unabated, the judge correctly cited Hebrews 10:25 as part of the Church’s deeply-held religious beliefs to assemble regularly.
“…not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
It has been a historic practice of the Church to assemble — in person, regularly — for corporate worship, prayer, and service. The practice has been observed for centuries, however, Pagan-run governments around the world have never ceased in their efforts to stifle religious freedom. For centuries, the politically-motivated Roman Catholic Church held the most power over the true Church — even killing millions of those worshipers over the years who dared to abandon their first loyalty to her.
Now, during a time of epic crisis in the United States and around the world, tyrants have continued to reach for more power while trying to dismantle and neuter the Church.
In D.C., the mayor’s order would allow churches to meet outside the District, conduct services by radio, or limit the number of people who could attend to no more than 100. However, according to the Washington Times, District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, said none of those met the church’s deeply held religious need to meet as a whole congregation, which numbered nearly 1,000 people before the pandemic meant.
The judge stated, according to The Washington Times, that “officials may think their alternatives are good enough but that’s not up to them to dictate. The church has a sincerely held belief about the centrality of a full communal gathering, and the city is hindering that.”
“It is for the church, not the District or this court, to define for itself the meaning of ‘not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,’” Judge McFadden wrote, citing the scriptural passage from the New Testament’s Epistle to the Hebrews.
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Modern Evangelicals are happily embracing a deceptive evil, and letting it creep into their churches. The evil is a counterfeit gospel, a counterfeit Christianity. The evil is the Roman Catholic Church, and it’s creeping in unawares, especially to young and impressionable minds, through worship music. Particularly, a Catholic singer named Matt Maher has become strikingly popular in Evangelical worship. With the compromise of today’s Evangelical leadership, this should come as no surprise. Al Mohler once said he believed that there would be millions of Catholics in heaven. Other Southern Baptists are declaring confessing, professing Roman Catholics saved (See here, and here). And it just about every contemporary Baptist church, you’ll hear “worship” music written by Roman Catholics.
Charles Spurgeon once said,
I question if hell can find a more fitting instrument within its infernal lake than the Church of Rome is for the cause of mischief. And your church will in its measure, be the same if bereft of the Spirit.
What a gem of truth. The rate at which Evangelicals are embracing this false spirit as alarming. Historically, and as a result of the conservative resurgence, Southern Baptists have withstood much of the apostasy that has befallen other denominations. For the most part, Southern Baptists have held a strong (but weakening) stance against homosexuality entering the church. At least, for now, you don’t find acceptance of homosexuality preached from the pulpits in most SBC churches. And most SBC pastors aren’t going to recommend to their congregation books written by homosexual activists, like Matthew Vines, that call themselves Christians.
So why do we make exceptions for Roman Catholics? Why do we declare them saved when they reject the true Gospel? Why do we worship to music written by Matt Maher, a Roman Catholic?
Evangelicals are being duped. Roman Catholicism, like any other false religion, is an abomination to God. It is absolutely asinine for Al Mohler to believe that there would be millions of Catholics in heaven. Does Al Mohler believe there will be millions of Mormons in heaven too? How about millions of practicing homosexuals? Would he want devotionals written by Matthew Vines to be studied in Sunday School at his church? What about prayers written by Glenn Beck to be read during worship service? Do you see the inconsistency?
Yet, Evangelicals everywhere are embracing Roman Catholicism as brothers and sisters in Christ. Russell Moore recently said in an article he co-authored with Roman Catholic, Marco Rubio, “both of us are of the Christian faith.”
Why do they believe this?
Roman Catholics cannot be Christians because they reject Jesus as wholly sufficient for the remission of their sins. Because of this, they practice idolatry regularly, through the mass, in which a priest supposedly summon Jesus out of Heaven to enter a wafer, and then proceed to eat and drink the physical body and blood of what they believe to be Jesus, present in the wafer. They practice idolatry through the veneration of Mary and the Saints in order to try to gain favor with God. They reject the fellowship of a true, local church that teaches and exposits the Scriptures authoritatively. And they practice idolatry by putting their faith in their man-made organization, hierarchical priest system, and sacraments for their salvation.
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. – 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Let me make that clear: Do not be deceived, a practicing, unrepentant Roman Catholic will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It doesn’t matter if a Roman Catholic “sounds evangelical” in his testimony. If he’s in the Roman Catholic Church and doesn’t see anything wrong with the idolatry he practices daily, he has not been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
It doesn’t matter if Matt Maher says he’s a Christian or makes a “Christian-sounding” profession of faith. He is still a Roman Catholic, who practices idolatry, and is not repentant of it. It doesn’t matter if some of his music sounds okay. It doesn’t matter if he says he believes in Jesus. If he is unrepentant of his sin, he has not been regenerated.
But let’s go out on a limb here, and say that perhaps he is saved, and just hasn’t come to realize yet through sanctification that he’s caught up in a false religion. Sanctification is both immediate and progressive, therefore, it is possible for a Roman Catholic to be saved, and still (temporarily) be in the Roman Catholic Church. It still doesn’t matter. He’s still practicing sin, should be called to repentance, and by no means should he, or his worship music be played in a Bible-believing church. We wouldn’t do that for other unrepentant sinners. Why do we make exceptions for Roman Catholics?
We wouldn’t do that for other unrepentant sinners. Why do we make exceptions for Roman Catholics?
"But we believe that a biblically shaped commitment to the sanctity of human life compels us to a consistent ethic of life that affirms the sanctity of human life from beginning to end."
Yes, and in what state of consciousness must one be in to conclude that Joe Biden and the modern Democrat Party affirms that "consistent ethic of life"?
The party that seeks to codify infanticide?
The party that demands the public-school indoctrination of young people with the fanciful view of life being nothing but a cosmic accident with no ultimate purpose or destiny?
The party that actively promotes an ethic that defines disabled or inconvenient life as unworthy of legal protection?
The party that excuses the "humane" extermination of elderly and infirmed life?
The party that champions as courageous those who would terminate their own existence rather than battle terminal illness?
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One of the most oxymoronic statements of 2020 is the statement itself, “Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden.” Joe Biden, himself, is the epitome of pro-abortion and the left has determined that more access to abortion is the path forward for this country.
Besides the fact that Joe Biden is staunchly pro-abortion, Biden and the left’s platform consists of practically everything that God hates; abortion, homosexuality, theft, lawlessness, etc. Yet, despite this, a group of well-known evangelicals has signed a statement endorsing Joe Biden for president.
Among the original signers of the statement include several well-known evangelicals including Christianity Today Board Chair emeritus, John Huffman, Fuller Seminary president emeritus, Richard Mouw, Billy Graham’s Granddaughter, Jerusha Duford, President emeritus Westminster Theological Seminary, Samuel T. Logan, and several others.
The statement boasts financial reasons — not sin — as the most common reason women commit abortions and endorses Joe Biden’s socialism and wealth redistribution as the antidote.
“Knowing that the most common reason women give for abortion is the financial difficulty of another child,” reads the statement, “we appreciate a number of Democratic proposals that would significantly alleviate that financial burden: accessible health services for all citizens, affordable childcare, a minimum wage that lifts workers out of poverty.”
What these signers, who lay claim to the evangelical faith, don’t understand is that abortion is murder. They do not value human life. Life is not expendable simply because a woman doesn’t believe that she can raise a child. To take an unborn human life is not only murder and should be treated as such, punishable under the maximum extent of the law, it is an affront to God and a direct attack on his image. It is not the government’s responsibility to financially support your children, it is your responsibility. It is the government’s responsibility to protect the God-given right to life and freedom to live affirmed in the Constitution of the United States.
To support the right to kill a child is not Christian and none of the signers of this statement should be treated as such.
There are some women who downright disobey this rule and there are some who presumptuously assume the role that has been forbidden to them. Any pastor who makes excuses for this transgression, ordaining women to the office of pastor, are themselves arrogant and unqualified.
But besides the prohibition in Scripture against women preaching, some are just rank heretics — like Beth Moore.
Beth Moore has a multitude of heresies on her laundry list and they continue to stack up. The latest, she has denied original sin and she claims — in opposition to the Scriptures which says that no one does good, no one seeks God (Romans 3:11) — that we are “born with a drive to seek the things of God.”
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This is what interfaith dialogue leads to, at least for the Christian side: total capitulation, the relativization of the faith, and the holding of contradictory ideas. The fruit of the dialogue between Muslims and Catholics has not been the protection of Christians in Muslim countries, but a silence from the Catholic Church on this persecution. Bishops in the U.S. and Europe have now have been teaching for years that any discussion of such matters is “Islamophobic,” and will harm this wonderful dialogue that has actually no accomplishments to its name. In 2013, Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester, Massachusetts canceled my scheduled address to a Catholic Men’s Conference and explained: “Spencer’s talk about extreme, militant Islamists…might undercut the positive achievements that we Catholics have attained in our inter-religious dialogue with devout Muslims.” So you see, even talk about “extreme, militant Islamists,” and Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsmen are quintessentially “extreme, militant Islamists,” is out of bounds, because of the dialogue.
“‘Death Penalty’ Imam Debunks Fratelli Tutti,” by Jules Gomes, ChurchMilitant.com, October 6, 2020:
VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) – Pope Francis’ abrogation of the death penalty in Fratelli Tutti is being blown sky-high by his chief dialogue partner Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayyeb — who, in accordance with Islamic jurisprudence, supports the execution of apostates from Islam.
“Today we state clearly that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible’ and the Church is firmly committed to calling for its abolition worldwide,” Francis declares in his latest encyclical, contradicting Scripture and 2,000 years of Sacred Tradition.
But al-Tayyeb, who is named five times and upheld as the pontiff’s inspiration in Fratelli Tutti (All Brothers), trashes Francis’ declaration, stating: “The four schools of law all concur that apostasy is a crime, that an apostate should be asked to repent, and that if he does not, he should be killed.”
“[Contemporary] jurisprudents concur — and so does ancient jurisprudence — that apostasy is a crime,” al-Tayyeb asserts in a 2016 Arabic interview, translated into English by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
“We should be aware that the concepts of human rights are full of ticking time bombs,” the grand imam warned, labeling apostasy “high treason” and “a rebellion both against religion and what is held sacrosanct by society.”
Al-Tayyeb cites the “exception of the Hanafi School,” which legislates “that a female apostate should not be killed.” He explains the exception is “because it is inconceivable that a woman would rebel against her community.”
‘Only the Pope’ Confused
Church Militant’s Arabic translator, who is himself an “apostate” living in fear of the death penalty for converting to Christianity, confirmed that the translation was accurate.
Distinguished Islamic historian Robert Spencer, author of 21 books on Islam, told Church Militant:
Al-Tayyeb clearly teaches that those who leave Islam must be killed. This is in accord with traditional Islamic teaching. Al-Tayyeb has shown no sign of moving toward the Christian position of the freedom of conscience and dignity of the human person. Only the pope is moving in the other direction.
Article 2(a) of the CDHRI states: “It is prohibited to take away life except for a Sharia prescribed reason,” explaining that, “since all four Islamic schools of jurisprudence concur on the death penalty for apostates,” this made apostasy a valid “Sharia-prescribed reason” for the death penalty.
“Pope Callixtus III vowed in 1455 to ‘exalt the true Faith, and to extirpate the diabolical sect of the reprobate and faithless Mahomet in the East,'” Spencer noted. “Now his latest successor is quoting the holy book of this ‘diabolical’ sect as if it contained wisdom that Christians should heed.”
Interpretations of ‘Equality’ Differ
In a 2019 Arabic interview verified by Church Militant, al-Tayyeb contradicts Pope Francis’ encyclical by condemning the Western notion of equality as “false” and stating that “the Islamic notion of equality is limited.”
But Francis states in Fratelli Tutti: “I have felt particularly encouraged by the grand imam, Ahmed al-Tayyeb, with whom I met in Abu Dhabi, where we declared that ‘God has created all human beings equal in rights, duties and dignity, and has called them to live together as brothers and sisters.'”
Pope Francis’ statement on equality is a partial citation of the words of Muhammad, the founder of Islam. “It would be unrealistic to assert the absolute equality of human beings, although humans are basically equal in rights, duties and accountability,” Muhammad declares, according to a narration in Ayub al Tabarani.
Orthodox Islam rejects the biblical concept of man created in God’s image as blasphemous and the phrase “image of God” never occurs in the Qur’an. Pope Francis avoids declaring this as the basis for equality “because he does not want to upset his Muslim interlocutors. Instead, he adopts the words of Muhammad as the basis for his teaching on equality, with the notable omission of Muhammad’s denial of the ‘absolute equality of human beings,'” Spencer told Church Militant.
“The Western notion of equality is, I’m very sad to say, absolute. It has destroyed — or has strived to destroy — many of the values that are more vital for the stability of people’s lives,” al-Tayyeb observes in his interview.
“If we examine the Western notion of equality … As a researcher I have the right to say that in my opinion, this notion is false,” he adds, noting that this is the basis for gay marriage in the West.
Francis Ignores Islamic Sexism
Catholic feminists, who have expressed outrage at what they claim is a ‘sexist‘ title for Fratelli tutti, are yet to challenge the pontiff for celebrating the grand imam as an “inspiration” despite al-Tayyeb’s views on “wife-beating.”
In the 2019 interview, the grand imam defends the right of a man to beat his wife under “certain conditions.”
People should realize that “the Qur’an’s mentions of wife-beating are not an order. Rather, the Qur’an allows using this method,” al-Tayyeb explains, “when there is no other way, and when he [the husband] strongly believes that this would help resolve the problem. Only in this case, the husband is allowed to beat his wife.’…
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MIAMI, Fla. —During a town hall event with NBC News Monday evening, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said that he would want Congress to send legislation to his desk making Roe v. Wade the “law of the land” when asked about his plan to “protect” the “right” to abortion should Amy Coney Barrett be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“My youngest sister is in high school right now, and I knew whenever I was graduating high school and entering college that I wanted to obtain my degree and start a career before starting a family. Having access to birth control and safe reproductive health care was imperative in making that true for me,” one attendee named Cassidy Brown told the former vice president.
“Considering the new Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, what are your particular plans to protect women’s reproductive rights in the U.S.?” she asked.
Biden provided a short answer, advising that while he doesn’t know what Barrett would do, if the court did overturn the 1972 Roe decision, he believes the next step would be to pass a federal law codifying the right to abortion, implying that he would sign it.
“Number one, we don’t know exactly what she will do, although the expectation is that she very well may overrule Roe,” he said. “And the only responsible response to that would be to pass legislation to make Roe the law of the land. That’s what I would do.”
President Trump, who identifies as pro-life but supports the exceptions of rape, incest and the life of the mother, tweeted about the matter on Tuesday.
“Wow. Joe Biden just took a more liberal position on Roe v. Wade than Elizabeth Warren at her highest,” he wrote. “He also wants to pack our great United States Supreme Court. This is what the Dems will do.”
As previously reported, a page on Biden’s website, called “The Biden Agenda for Biden,” similarly explains that — if elected — among Biden’s objectives are to codify Roe v. Wade into law, to reinstate federal Title X and Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, and to repeal the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funds from being used for abortion (with exceptions).
“Biden will work to codify Roe v. Wade, and his Justice Department will do everything in its power to stop the rash of state laws that so blatantly violate Roe v. Wade,” it reads.
“Vice President Biden supports repealing the Hyde Amendment because health care is a right that should not be dependent on one’s zip code or income,” the page states. “And, the public option will cover contraception and a woman’s constitutional right under Roe v. Wade.”
As previously reported, during a vice presidential debate in 2012, Biden, a Roman Catholic, outlined that while he personally believes that life begins at conception, he doesn’t want to “impose” his view on others.
“Life begins at conception in the Church’s judgment. I accept it in my personal life,” he said. “I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews, and I just refuse to impose that on others …”
“I do not believe that we have a right to tell other people that — women — they can’t control their body. It’s a decision between them and their doctor. In my view and the Supreme Court, I’m not going to interfere with that,” Biden stated.
However, as previously reported, Christians throughout history have decried abortion as murder, no matter the reason. The late preacher Lee Roy Shelton wrote in “The Crimes of Our Times” in a section on abortion:
“When killing anyone, the murderer is guilty of taking the life which God has given, and therefore he is ‘playing God’ by saying when and how a man should die. But God doesn’t look lightly upon those who try to take His place.”
“God has given us the Sixth Commandment as a fence about human life to preserve it, for it is sacred to Him. Yes, the Bible declares human life to be sacred. It is a divine creation, mysterious and magnificent in its beginning and possibility, utterly beyond the control or comprehension of any human being. It is never to be taken away at the will of anyone, for how can they tell the full meaning of that life and what it will bring forth?”
“The revelation of God made to man out of His blessed Word proves that He has purposes for every individual and for the [human] race, stretching far beyond the present moment or manifestation; and to terminate a single life is to set yourselves up as wiser and superior to God. The immensity of the issues of death is so great that there can be no sin against humanity, and accordingly, against God, greater than that of taking a human life.”
Please visit Christian News Network’s Outlaw Abortion page to help us work to abolish the worldwide holocaust.
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The Department of Justice on Friday announced it had filed a statement of interest in the case filed by Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., against the District of Columbia and Mayor Muriel Bowser. The 853-member church has a strong religious conviction that it must meet weekly and in person, as a single body, for worship. As a result of Mayor Bowser’s onerous COVID-19 orders (first capping worship services at 10 people and now 100), Capitol Hill Baptist Church (CHBC) has not been able to meet together in the District since March. As a temporary measure, they’ve been meeting in a field in Virginia.
The congregation had asked the mayor for permission to meet at the 45,000-plus-seat Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, which would give them ample room to social distance, but the city denied the application for a waiver, and also the church’s appeals. (More background here.)
Finally, on Sept. 22, the church filed a lawsuit and a request for a temporary restraining order asking that they be allowed to hold outdoor worship services in the District of Columbia, citing the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. CHBC says the mayor has double standards—one for churches and another for large gatherings of protesters. The lawsuit pointed out that the mayor herself has attended some of these gatherings.
“The right to free exercise of religion and the right to protest are both enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution,” said Eric Dreiband, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, in a press release. “We are a nation dedicated to freedom of conscience and freedom of expression. The District of Columbia has, unfortunately, neglected these rights. The Justice Department is committed to defending both of these fundamental freedoms and in supporting all Americans’ rights to worship as they choose.”
The statement of interest is part of Attorney General William P. Barr’s initiative, announced April 27, directing the DOJ to “review governmental policies around the country to ensure that civil liberties are protected during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“While a local government has significant discretion to decide what measures to adopt to meet a public health threat, the Free Exercise Clause of the Constitution requires that, whatever level of restrictions it adopts, government must treat religious gatherings the same as comparable nonreligious gatherings, absent the government meeting strict scrutiny, that is, proving that it has a compelling governmental interest pursued through the least restrictive means,” the DOJ argued in the statement of interest. “Similarly, the Free Speech Clause forbids the government from discriminating against certain speech while privileging other speech with a viewpoint favored by the government, unless it meets strict scrutiny.”
The District of Columbia is also bound by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), the Justice Department said. RFRA “requires that any government action imposing a substantial burden on religious exercise meet strict scrutiny.” The city’s current approach to COVID-19 restrictions “has the effect of treating some forms of protected First Amendment activity differently than other forms of comparable activity and in so doing singles out religious exercise for differential treatment.” CHBC has demonstrated that its lawsuit is likely to succeed on merits, the statement of interest noted.
In its filing, the DOJ said that while the United States “has a strong interest, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, in ensuring the development and maintenance of the best possible public health strategies to combat the virus and protect the people of the United States from harm,” that interest “must be balanced with constitutional liberties.”
“Although the precise legal tests may change based on the specific restriction at issue, the bottom line remains the same: there is no pandemic exception to the Constitution and our fundamental rights,” the DOJ lawyers declared. [Emphasis added] “Individual rights set forth in the Constitution are always operative and restrain government action.”
Mayor Bowser and the District of Columbia clearly don’t agree. Protesters who have the “correct” political views are allowed to gather in the streets with impunity—and without anyone in the mayor’s office, the MSM, or Democratic Party saying boo about it—while churches are told to close their doors and forsake their religious teachings. The aforementioned leftists have no use for those “icky” Christians who insist on obeying the Bible, but, ah, the protesters and rioters—they, and they alone, are worthy of robust constitutional protections amid the pandemic. That hypocrisy is what CHBC takes issue with. The Justice Department is insisting that the discrimination stop.
People need Jesus during these tumultuous times. Christians need to be in church, where they can obey biblical mandates to hear the Word of God preached, partake of Communion, and fellowship together. A few brave churches are wading into the fray, asking only to be treated the way other groups are and for the government to abide by the First Amendment and RFRA. William Barr and Trump’s Department of Justice are making it clear that government “shall make no law… prohibiting the free exercise” of religion. Period. Not even during a pandemic.
Concerns Raised About Faith Leaders at Rose Garden Event, After 8 Attendees Test Positive for COVID
ABOVE: Several faith leaders smile for a picture at the Rose Garden ceremony last Saturday. In the background (left to right) are televangelist Jentezen Franklin, Acting Liberty University President Jerry Prevo, and Skip Heitzig, pastor of Calvary of Albuquerque. In the foreground are Cissie Graham Lynch, Franklin Graham's daughter, and Paula White, head of the White House Faith & Opportunity Initiative.
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Now that eight people who attended the Rose Garden ceremony last Saturday for Supreme Court Nominee Amy Coney Barrett have tested positive for COVID-19, concerns are being raised about the faith leaders who attended the event.
One of the faith leaders—Franklin Graham, CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA)—sat next to the Rev. John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame University, at the ceremony.
Rev. Jenkins is one of eight attendees who tested positive for COVID-19 this week and has been criticized by Notre Dame students and faculty for not following social distancing protocols at the event. (Most of the approximately 150 people attending the Rose Garden ceremony did not wear masks and sat close together.)
Yet according to Mark Barber, a spokesman for Samaritan’s Purse and the BGEA, Graham tested negative for COVID this week before a trip to Alaska.
Barber added that Graham’s daughter, Cissie Graham Lynch, who sat next to him at the ceremony, is in “great health,” but didn’t comment on whether she had been tested for COVID.
In addition to attending the Rose Garden ceremony, Graham also led the Washington Prayer March with thousands of participants last Saturday. However, the prayer march was held prior to the 5:00 p.m. Rose Garden event.
Also at the ceremony, directly behind Graham and Rev. Jenkins, was Jerry Prevo, acting president of Liberty University. Prevo also participated in the prayer march along with more than 2,200 Liberty University students.
Prevo tweeted Friday night that many had asked about his health since visiting President Trump at the White House on Saturday. Prevo said both he and his wife had just tested negative for COVID-19.
Less is known about the condition of other faith leaders who were at the event and sitting in close proximity to Rev. Jenkins.
White was slated to speak at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority 2020” conference in Atlanta earlier this week but did not do so, according to Religion News Service.
I reached out to White for comment, but did not get a response by time of publishing.
Also slated to speak at the “Road to Majority 2020” conference was Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma. Lankford was not at the Rose Garden ceremony but had several meetings this week with Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who was another one of the eight people at the ceremony who tested positive for COVID this week.
The others who tested positive for COVID were President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump; Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president; Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina; Former N.J. Governor Chris Christie; and an unnamed journalist.
Lankford said when he learned of Senator Lee’s diagnosis, he left the faith conference and drove home. Today, Lankford announced that his test for COVID had come back negative, but said he would still quarantine.
Both Ralph Reed, who heads the Faith and Freedom Coalition, and televangelist Jentezen Franklin, pastor of the Georgia megachurch Free Chapel, also attended the Rose Garden ceremony and subsequently spoke at the “Road to Majority 2020” conference.
I reached out to Reed for comment about his health but did not hear back.
Franklin, however, posted a video on Twitter today, saying that he not only had attended the Rose Garden event, but had prayed with President Trump beforehand. Yet Franklin said he learned today that his COVID test had come back negative, and encouraged his church family to join him at services on Sunday.
Mike Pence, who has tested negative for COVID, also spoke at the “Road to Majority 2020” conference.
Other high-profile faith leaders at the Rose Garden event include Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship; Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church; Skip Heitzig, pastor of Calvary Church of Albuquerque; Robert Morris, pastor of Gateway Church; and Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.
Attempts to reach these men was not immediately successful.
I talked with a spokesperson with American Values to confirm Bauer’s attendance and to inquire about his condition. She said someone would get back to me, but at time of publishing, no one has.
UPDATE:On Sunday, Calvary Church of Albuquerque said in an email that Pastor Skip Heitzig was tested last Saturday at the White House and his test came back negative. He was tested again since President Trump’s announcement of a positive result and the church is awaiting results of that test. Pastor Heitzig reportedly feels great and is not experiencing any symptoms of COVID-19.
ABOVE: Barrett and her husband Jesse are members of People of Praise, a small group that teaches that wives have to obey their husbands in everything. SEE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_of_Praise
People of Praise, a tiny charismatic Catholic organization, admits removing mentions and photos of Trump’s supreme court pick
The COVID measures are an attempt to bring in worldwide totalitarianism. I try to show you a wide view in this video. At first I talk a little about the history of the Q movement and "the calm before the storm" .. NOTE: I say it's a 2 year anniversary but it's really 3 years. Mostly this video is about remembering who you are and paying the LOW COST now while it is still possible to stand up to tyranny. I talk about a recent funeral service that broke my heart, I show a portion of Trump's Warsaw speech and I try to show how we are in the midst of a totalitarian WAR ... To support my work, please go to either: 1. https://paypal.me/PollyStGeorge or 2. PO Box address: https://www.amazingpolly.net/contact.... Reference: VIDEO: Amazing Polly: 2018 Poland Resistance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFOCb... Trumps Full Speech Poland:
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Liberals often mock conservative Christians for supporting a notorious sinner and philanderer in Donald Trump, but the left has grown increasingly hostile to biblical small-o orthodox Christianity. Even the ostensibly moderate Democratic nominee Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. represents an insidious threat to the religious freedom of conservative Christians. He also represents a threat to Roman Catholics, even though he is himself a practicing Catholic.
How could this be? Biden’s rhetoric and policies single out those who adhere to traditional religious beliefs and moral convictions, aiming to limit their ability to live by their consciences and ostracizing them from polite society. The Democrat may outwardly campaign on a platform of unity and diversity, but his candidacy truly represents a threat to traditional religious believers.
Disqualified from the Supreme Court?
The most recent evidence of this insidious threat came last week, when a Biden staffer suggested that traditional religious beliefs that homosexual acts are sinful and that marriage is between one man and one woman should be so “taboo” as to disqualify someone from serving on the Supreme Court.
Politico contributing editor Adam Wren noted that President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett “was a trustee at a South Bend private school that described ‘homosexual acts’ as ‘at odds with Scripture’ & said marriage was between ‘one man and one woman’ years after Obergefell v. Hodges.”
Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, responded, “Wait, why is this news? Isn’t this the standard position for any orthodox Catholic?”
Nikitha Rai, deputy data director for Pennsylvania at Biden’s campaign, responded to Hamid, saying, “Unfortunately, yes.”
Hamid responded, “to be fair, it’s the standard position for any orthodox Muslim or Jew as well…”
“True,” Rai acknowledged. Yet the staffer insisted that this perspective must be marginalized. “I’d heavily prefer views like that not be elevated to SCOTUS [the Supreme Court of the U.S.], but unfortunately our current culture is still relatively intolerant. It will be a while before those types of beliefs are so taboo that they’re disqualifiers.”
Rai suggested that presidents and the U.S. Senate should apply a religious test for Supreme Court nominations and confirmations. The Constitution explicitly forbids a religious test for service in government. Article VI Clause 3 reads in part, “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
Nikitha Rai is just one Biden staffer. She doesn’t represent the entire Biden campaign, right? On the contrary, Rai’s insistence that traditional religious beliefs on marriage and sexuality should be taboo fits perfectly with the candidate at the top of the Democratic ticket.
In 2018, Biden described conservatives who oppose LGBT activism as “the dregs of society.”
Speaking to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Biden attacked people who have “tried to define family” in the U.S. “Despite losing in the courts and in the court of public opinion, these forces of intolerance remain determined to undermine and roll back the progress you all have made. This time they, not you, have an ally in the White House,” he said of President Donald Trump.
“They’re a small percentage of the American people, virulent people, some of them the dregs of society,” Biden added. “And instead of using the full might of the executive branch to secure justice, dignity, safety for all, the president uses the White House as a literal bully pulpit, callously exerting his power over those who have little or none.”
As my colleague Paula Bolyard reported, Biden again spoke to HRC in June 2019. On that occasion, he called the Orwellian Equality Act his first priority. The so-called Equality Act would force biblical orthodox Christians to violate their consciences on LGBT activism. It would also open women’s sports and women’s private spaces to biological males, undercutting fair play and privacy. A broad coalition of diverse groups allied to oppose the Equality Act, including pro-lifers, religious freedom advocates, and radical feminists.
Yet of the Equality Act, Biden said, “I promise you if I’m elected president it will be the first thing I ask to be done. It will send a message around the world, not just at home.”
“This is our soul, da*mit, this is who we have to be… This is our real moral obligation,” the Democrat added. “Using religion or culture to discriminate against or demonize LGBTQ individuals is never justified. Not anywhere in the world.”
Interestingly, while Biden vocally condemns traditional believers in such harsh terms, he has remained curiously silent on the horrific attacks against Catholic statues and churches amid the George Floyd riots this summer — despite his Catholic identity.
Americans do not support discrimination, but Democrats have twisted the notion of discrimination in order to force Christians to violate their beliefs.
Christian baker Jack Phillips, for example, refused to bake a custom cake for a same-sex wedding, although he gladly sells all sorts of pre-made cakes to LGBT people in his shop. Yet the Colorado Civil Rights Commission ruled that he had discriminated against people on the basis of sexual orientation. He appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court and won — because members of the commission displayed animus against his religious faith, comparing his views to those of the Nazis.
Even after this Supreme Court victory, Phillips again faced the commission. A transgender lawyer asked him to bake an obscene custom cake celebrating the lawyer’s gender transition. Phillips refused, citing his free speech right not to be forced to endorse a view with which he disagrees. The commission again found him guilty of discrimination, but it dropped the complaint in March 2019. The lawyer promptly sued Phillips. Christian florists, farmers, and other bakers have faced government sanctions for “discrimination” when they refused to celebrate same-sex weddings, exercising their rights to religious freedom, freedom of association, and free speech.
This year, Gov. Ralph Northam (D-Va.) signed legislation that will force Christian schools and ministries to hire people who oppose their religious convictions on sexuality and gender. The laws will also force these ministries — which hold that God created humans male and female — to open women’s sports and women’s restrooms to biological males, to refer to biological males by female pronouns if they “identify” as female, and to pay for transgender surgery in their health care plans.
A lawsuit challenging the new laws as unconstitutional charged that Virginia’s LGBT statues force “people of faith to adopt a particular government ideology under threat of punishment.”
This religious freedom battle in Virginia is just a small taste of what the Equality Act threatens nationwide.
The Democratic Party’s increasing anti-religious animus
Joe Biden’s opposition to the “discrimination” from the “dregs of society” represents a tragically mainstream view in the Democratic Party. Last year, the Democratic National Committee adopted a resolution condemning religious freedom defenses.
“[T]hose most loudly claiming that morals, values, and patriotism must be defined by their particular religious views have used those religious views, with misplaced claims of ‘religious liberty,’ to justify public policy that has threatened the civil rights and liberties of many Americans, including but not limited to the LGBT community, women, and ethnic and religious/nonreligious minorities,” the DNC resolution states.
Senate Democrats have launched attacks on the religious faith of Trump nominees, with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) infamously saying, “the dogma lives loudly within you.” Former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) compared a conservative Christian law firm to the Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, citing the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) “hate group” accusation against mainstream conservative and Christian groups.
The SPLC faced a devastating sexual harassment and racial discrimination scandal last year, and former employees outed the “hate” accusations as a cynical fundraising scheme. An attempted terrorist tried to kill everyone at a conservative Christian nonprofit due to the SPLC’s “hate group” accusation, but Democrats continue to cite the SPLC as a reliable arbiter of hate.
Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), has proven one of the worst offenders. In May 2018, Harris launched an inquisition into the Roman Catholic faith of two of Trump’s judicial nominees — because they were members of the Roman Catholic fraternal order the Knights of Columbus (KOC). Harris also cited the SPLC in branding Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the conservative Christian law firm that defended Jack Phillips, a “hate group.”
While serving as California’s attorney general, Harris refused to defend the state law defining marriage as between one man and one woman — even though Californians had voted for it in 2008. Adding insult to injury, Harris rushed to officiate the first same-sex marriage after a court struck down the will of the people.
Animus against conservative Christians is a growing problem among American elites, and it arguably fuels the legacy media’s astounding ignorance of Christian doctrine.
Democrats represent this Christianophobia in political form. Even though Biden is a practicing Roman Catholic, his candidacy represents an insidious threat to traditional Christianity, including orthodox Roman Catholic positions on sexuality and gender.
Those who support traditional marriage or the biological definition of sex as male or female will find their beliefs demonized and their religious freedom and free speech under fire in a Biden administration. It does not matter that supporters of traditional marriage or biological sex are a rather diverse group, including Roman Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims, even atheists, and radical feminists. Biden’s presidency would represent a threat to all of them.
Editor’s Note: Want to support PJ Media so we can continue telling the truth about the Biden-Harris campaign? Join PJ Media VIP TODAY and use the promo code LAWANDORDER to get 25% off your VIP membership.
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Pelagian heretic, Tony Evans, has fully embraced the social justice movement within the Southern Baptist Convention and has joined the ranks of Evangelical leaders like Tim Keller who have exchanged the gospel of saving grace for a gospel of social equity.
Evans, pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Texas, recently preached a sermon calling on Christians to not ignore “abortion after birth” when voting.
Evans, like all social justice-minded Evangelicals, have embraced the notion that social inequity is as repugnant to God as killing children in the womb. Evans, like Tim Keller, Russell Moore, and others, believe that unless Christians embrace a government that is dedicated to solving these social inequities, these Christians don’t hold to a biblical view of the role of government.
When God is left out of government, “life and its value gets downgraded, reduced, dishonored and attacked,” Evans said, according to the Christian Post. “So when you think about Kingdom voting, you must think about the question of life.”
“Life,” Evans continued according to the CP, includes “pre-born life and post-born life; abortion before birth, and abortion after birth.”
“See the problem we get in with voting is that we choose a term insurance policy, not a whole life insurance policy,” he said. “We choose a pre-born insurance policy, and not a post-born insurance policy because we do not view all of life in terms of the image of God. And as a result, Christians take sides.”
Unless the sanctity of life at all stages is fully recognized, “you will not have a biblical view on the role of government,” Evans said. “You’ll just have a partisan view or a personal view. But you won’t be dealing with life as God deals with it.”
Of course, Evans’ view is foreign to the biblical teaching on justice. Evans, who believes that it’s okay to balance out the murder of millions of innocent children with redistribution of wealth — a solidly progressive ideology — wants us to take these things into consideration and come to the understanding that in order to be pro-life, we must embrace the socialist policies of the progressive left.
“When we allow the poor to have worse education than others because they don’t have the same dollar bill, when we don’t care about the health, well-being of people who do not have access to adequate healthcare, when we reduce their dignity we have attacked God. And when we reduce it by law or by practice then that’s called post-life abortion because you are … aborting either the length of their existence or the well-being of their existence so it just depends on which abortion you talking about.”
Evans position is stupid and unbiblical and should be rejected by all biblically-minded Christians.
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False teachers are everywhere — they’re a dime a dozen. The Bible tells us that in the last days, many false prophets will arise and mislead many (Matthew 24:11), and we see this taking place right before our eyes. In fact, you can hardly swing a dead cat without hitting a false teacher. Just turn on TBN, you’ll see endless amounts of them. But another, more nefarious kind of false teacher is the one that lurks in otherwise common Evangelical churches. These are the ones that are more difficult to notice.
For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Eugene Peterson sadly passed away in October 2018. Peterson was famous for his book, The Message, which he referred to as a Bible translation. The Message, however, was not an accurate translation of the Scriptures by any means, it was a complete re-write and in many cases, changing the entire meaning of the text.
Peterson was an advocate of the Emergent Church and was known for building bridges between Emergent practices, such as contemplative prayer and mysticism, with mainstream and biblical Christianity.
Eugene Peterson also came out in support of gay marriage, but then partially retracted his support after LifeWay threatened to remove his materials from inventory, stating,
That’s not something I would do out of respect to the congregation, the larger church body, and the historic biblical Christian view and teaching on marriage. That said, I would still love such a couple as their pastor. They’d be welcome at my table, along with everybody else.
A pastor is someone who is set up to guard the sheep, and the fact that Peterson believed that he could still be a homosexual couple’s pastor reveals that he believes that those living in rebellion to God could still be Christians.
False Teacher #9 – Ann Voskamp
Ann Voskamp is a very popular author, poet, and blogger among the ladies. She writes in a tedious, melodramatic way that most people would find cumbersome. Yet, with a captivating charisma, she’s attracted a massive following at her blog where she writes about the day-to-day happenings in her life that so many women can identify with.
However, Voskamp has stepped into the realm of Bible teacher and is also the author of many works that, while the theology is bad, are theological in nature. Voskamp portrays God’s love in a dangerous way, confusing his love for an “erotic” type of love. In her book, 100 Gifts, she writes of flying to Paris to “learn how to make love to God,” and also, “I run my hand along the beams over my loft bed, wood hewn by a hand several hundred years ago. I can hear Him. He’s calling for a response; He’s calling for oneness. Communion”
By the way, did you know Reformation Charlotte has a Christian gear and apparel store? Check it out at ReformedGear.com.
This view of God’s love is antithetical to the biblical view of God’s love, which is agape. Voskamp teaches a relationship with God that is more like a relationship with a lover or a sex partner.
False Teacher #8 – Mark Batterson
Mark Batterson is the modern father of the practice of prayer circles. In his book, The Circle Maker, Batterson teaches an unbiblical form of prayer that mimics ancient witchcraft more than Christianity.
Based on an old Jewish Legend from the Talmud, Batterson teaches his readers to draw a circle on the ground, step inside the circle, and pray, and that by doing so, you will be able to access untold blessings from God. In his book, he also twists the Scriptures to teach a form of the prosperity gospel, he writes,
Your job is not to crunch numbers and make sure the will of God adds up. After all, the will of God is not a zero-sum game. When God enters the equation, His output always exceeds your input. Your only job is to draw circles in the sand. And if you do the geometry, God will multiply the miracles in your life.
The Scriptures, however, teach that we are to pray according to God’s will (1 John 5:14).
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False Teacher #7 – Nancy Leigh DeMoss Wolgemuth
Nancy Leigh DeMoss is another circle-maker, like Batterson, who started off well, but began to slide into this heretical teaching over the last few years. DeMoss, like Batterson, mixes this pagan practice of drawing prayer circles with biblical Christianity.
DeMoss is the leader of a popular women’s prayer event called Cry Out. At this event, she regularly turns to the prayer circle and attributes her teaching to an early 20th-century British Evangelist, Rodney (Gipsy) Smith. She writes,
Gipsy Smith was a nineteenth-century revivalist who did something unusual when he came to a new town. He’d stop on the outskirts and draw a circle in the dirt. Then he would stand inside that circle and say, “O God, please send a revival to this town, and let it begin inside this circle.”
Would you ask God to revive His people? Would you let the Holy Spirit draw a circle within your own heart? Then say, “Lord, I long for You to send a revival to my nation, my church, my marriage, and my children. But Lord, would You first start a revival inside this circle? Let it begin in me.”
She’s also a promoter of another well-known Emergent teacher and mystic, Richard Foster, one of the founders of spiritual formation — a movement whose central disciplines revolve around contemplative prayer and other forms of Eastern mysticism.
False Teacher #6 – T.D. Jakes
This one seems like it should be obvious, but sadly, it isn’t. Up until recently, T.D. Jakes was sold in Southern Baptist LifeWay book stores around the country.
Jakes is a modalist — that is, he believes a damning heresy about the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. The modalist heresy teaches that the Trinity is not one God existing in three distinct persons simultaneously, as the orthodox creeds teach. It teaches that the Trinity takes on different modes (or personalities) at different times. That God either exists as the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, but never all three simultaneously.
Besides this blatant heresy, Jakes is also a prosperity gospel teacher who essentially teaches that God is like a genie in a bottle and exists to provide us with whatever we desire, so long as we have enough faith.
False Teacher #5 – Sarah Young
This also seems like another obvious one, but again, sadly, it isn’t. Sarah Young’s books and studies are still widely sold in Christian bookstores, including LifeWay of the Southern Baptist Convention.
In her book, Jesus Calling, Sarah Young portrays herself as a recipient of divine revelation, who, like the Apostles, was tasked with writing down God’s specific words. She claims to have personally heard from God himself, and her book is the written record of this new revelation.
Of course, this is complete heresy. The canon of Scripture is closed and God does not speak directly and specifically in this way today. Further, much of what Young writes in her book is contradictory to what is already written in Scripture and has been edited several times when these contradictions were brought to light.
False Teacher #4 – Priscilla Shirer
Priscilla Shirer is one of the many darlings of the Southern Baptist Convention, and a regular speaker on the LifeWay Women’s speaking circuit. Shirer, daughter of Pelagian heretic, Tony Evans (below), is an advocate of mystical forms of prayer and contemplation that were born out of the Emergent movement.
Justin Peters wrote an excellent review on Shirer’s movie, War Room, which basically sums up these false teachings as highly emotional and seductive to fallen human nature.
Priscilla Shirer participated in a DVD on the contemplative prayer heresy calledBe Still. She addresses her critics on her web page and though at first glance it may sound like she supports a biblical view of prayer, looking deeper into what she is saying, it becomes clear that she doesn’t understand what biblical prayer and meditation are.
In her FAQ she says,
By participating in the Be Still project, we by no means meant to convey our agreement with the theological viewpoints and positions of other participants yet we did believe (and still do) in the over-arching theme of the resource and that is why I agreed to do it.
This is a contradictory statement. The theological viewpoints and positions of the participants are the over-arching theme of the DVD, and she says she supports it.
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Tony Evans is Priscilla Shirer’s father. Evans’ heresies include (but are not limited to) Pelagianism (the denial of original sin), Inclusivism (you don’t have to be a Christian to be saved), and Limited Theism (the denial of God’s omnipotence).
But the thing that the death of Christ did was cover and overrule original sin so that no man is condemned because they are born in Adam, but men are condemned because they consciously reject salvation.
Evans also holds to inclusivism, that is, you don’t have to actually know Christ personally to be saved. In this same interview, Evans says,
If a person believes somebody’s up there that created this… I don’t know who He is but I want to know Him… if that person were to have a heart attack at that moment, God could not condemn him and be just because God says he who seeks shall find, so since God makes that promise, if God doesn’t give him the Gospel or give him a direct revelation then He has to judge him out of another dispensation.
Lysa TerkHeurst is a protege of Steven Furtick, the loudmouth prosperity huckster out of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC. TerkHeurst, like her spiritual father, Furtick, is a proponent of the prosperity gospel.
“We will be victorious because Jesus is victorious. Victorious people were never meant to settle for normal.”
She also practices and promotes the contemplative prayer heresy, which teaches that you can receive direct, divine revelation from God if you “tune your frequency in” to his voice. In a PDF she put out titled How To Hear God’s Voice, she writes,
God will never speak to us or tell us to do something that is contrary to His Word. But unless we know Scripture, we will not be able to discern whether what we are hearing is consistent or not with the Word.
False Teacher #1 – Beth Moore
And last, but not least, we have Beth Moore. Beth Moore is the favorite among the lady preacher speaking circuit ranging from LifeWay and the Southern Baptist Convention to Hillsong. Beth Moore’s most blatant heresy is undoubtedly her claims to have received a direct vision from God — a vision that contradicted the Scriptures entirely. In this vision, God supposedly told her that Roman Catholicism is one of God’s true Christian denominations and that he desires unity among the various denominations, including Catholicism.
Whether it be Beth Moore’s endless accounts of visions from God, or her regular teaming up with heretics like Joel Osteen or Joyce Meyer, or just the fact that she has literally no discernment and is politically charged with leftist identity politics while declaring that spending time in the Bible is not the same thing as spending time with God, one thing is for sure — Beth Moore has captivated millions of people around the world and led them astray. Whether she devours them herself or feeds them to her pack mates, she is a wolf in sheep’s clothing that, for some reason, still continues to be paraded around in orthodox churches as though she is benign. She is not, she is to be avoided at all costs.
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Is the ostentatiously devout Catholic Joe Biden, who wore a Rosary (or was it wire?) on his wrist while debating Donald Trump, really a bad Catholic? Prolife Catholics have been saying so for years, and now a leading bishop has spoken up on their side. The Catholic News Agency reported Tuesday that Cardinal Raymond Burke, “a canon lawyer and formerly the prefect of the Church’s highest court, has said that Catholic politicians supporting abortion should not receive Holy Communion, including pro-choice Catholic presidential candidate Joe Biden.”
That’s the kind of statement that makes you formerly the “prefect of the Church’s highest court.”
Biden, Burke asserted, “is not a Catholic in good standing and he should not approach to receive Holy Communion,” because “a Catholic may not support abortion in any shape or form because it is one of the most grievous sins against human life.”
If that is the case, then Biden is clearly not a Catholic in good standing. Accordingly, Burke stated, “I would tell him not to approach Holy Communion out of charity toward him, because that would be a sacrilege, and a danger to the salvation of his own soul. But also he should not approach to receive Holy Communion because he gives scandal to everyone. Because if someone says ‘well, I’m a devout Catholic’ and at the same time is promoting abortion, it gives the impression to others that it’s acceptable for a Catholic to be in favor of abortion and of course it’s absolutely not acceptable. It never has been, it never will be.”
The good Cardinal is right in a sense. That is indeed the teaching of the Catholic Church. But teaching is one thing and practice is quite enough. Pope Francis has repeatedly made it clear that as far as he is concerned, the real sins, the real serious sins that get you a tongue-lashing from the Roman Pontiff and doubtless a date with hellfire in the age to come, are opposing mass Muslim migration into the West and believing that Islam is not a religion of peace. Abortion? Come on, man! That’s child’s play, so to speak, compared to the big sins.
Last September, Pope Francis, who back in 2014 fired Burke from his position as “prefect of the Church’s highest court,” made clear what the big sins really are as far as he is concerned, when he emphasized that Christians had a responsibility before God to take in migrants: “This loving care for the less privileged is presented as a characteristic trait of the God of Israel and is likewise required, as a moral duty, of all those who would belong to his people.”
On that same occasion, the Pope unveiled a huge statue in St. Peter’s Square, “Angels Unawares,” which depicts a boat full of migrants and a pair of angel wings, so as to emphasize that the migrants into Europe, among whom have been numerous jihad terrorists, rapists, and other criminals, are saintly and deserving of Christians’ support and protection.
What about Christians in Europe who are concerned about the spiraling crime rates and the strain on the welfare systems of nations that have taken in large numbers of migrants? Are they allowed to exercise charity toward their neighbors and friends by opposing mass migration and trying to preserve and defend their own cultural heritage?
Not on your life. Or at least they can’t do that and remain Catholics in good standing. And Francis’ Brave New Church has other newly-minted “grievous sins” as well. The Pontiff has claimed risibly that “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.” As ridiculous and readily disproven as this is, it has become a superdogma in the Catholic Church: if you don’t believe that Islam is a Religion of Peace, you will be ruthlessly harassed and silenced by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and the hierarchy elsewhere as well. The bishops of the Catholic Church are much more concerned that you believe that Islam is a religion of peace than that you believe in, say, the Nicene Creed. And so what possible reason could there be to be concerned about these “refugees”? It’s a religion of peace!
As of several years ago, the U.S. Catholic bishops had 91 million reasons — indeed, 534 million reasons — to turn against the truth and disregard the safety and security of the American people: “In the Fiscal Year 2016, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) received more than $91 million in government funding for refugee resettlement. Over the past nine years, the USCCB has received a total of $534,788,660 in taxpayer dollars for refugee resettlement programs.” And how much have pro-life organizations given to the Church in that span? Not $534,788,660.
As Ilhan Omar might say, it’s all about the Benjamins.
And so Cardinal Burke may say Biden is barred from Communion, but it’s certain that there are numerous others who will readily administer Communion to the candidate. After all, he’s right on the really important things.
“Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)
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As the Pope celebrates “the World Day of Migrants and Refugees,” he lumps all migrants together, demonstrating the unity of his perspective with that of his fellow globalists and the same determination they display to advance the cause of open borders. He has been completely ignoring the reality of economic migrants and of jihadis infiltrating the refugee stream. He has said nothing about the migrant-caused spike in crime rates, and little about persecuted Christians who are all but abandoned. He also refuses to lead by example and tear down his own safe walls at the Vatican Palace in Vatican City, behind which he is safe.
In contradiction to his boss, the Pope of Islam, Cardinal Robert Sarah once issued a warning about Muslim migration and the destruction of open-door Europe. Sarah declared that “it is a false exegesis [interpretation of scriptural text] to use the Word of God to promote migration. God never wanted these rifts.” That is exactly what Pope Francis has been doing for quite some time, acting as a blind guide in preaching that it is un-Christian to oppose mass Muslim migration into Europe, and now in comparing migrants to Jesus. In so doing, he is woefully insensitive to victims of jihad terror. Migrants are like Jesus? Jesus certainly would never go on a jihad stabbing spree.
“Pope Francis: Migrants Are Forced to Flee ‘Like Jesus,'” by Thomas D. Williams, Breitbart, September 28, 2020:
ROME — Pope Francis emphasized the involuntary nature of much migration Sunday, insisting that, like Jesus, migrants and refugees are often “forced to flee.”
“Today the Church celebrates the World Day of Migrants and Refugees,” the pope told the pilgrims gathered in Saint Peter’s Square for his weekly Angelus address. “I greet the refugees and migrants present in the Square around the monument entitled ‘Angels, unawares,’ which I blessed last year.”
The pontiff said this year he has dedicated his Message for the commemoration “to the internally displaced, who are forced to flee, as also happened to Jesus and his family. ‘Like Jesus, forced to flee,’ likewise the displaced, migrants.”
“Our remembrance and our prayer to them, in a particular way, and to those who assist them,” he added.
Pope Francis has often compared migrants to Jesus Christ, suggesting that the cold welcome Christ received on coming into the world is similar to the reception many migrants experience.
“Jesus knows well the pain of not being welcomed,” the pope said in a 2018 tweet for International Migrants’ Day. “May our hearts not be closed as were the houses in Bethlehem.”
During the flight into Egypt, “the child Jesus experienced with his parents the tragic fate of the displaced and refugees,” Francis said earlier this year, “which is marked by fear, uncertainty and unease.”
“Unfortunately, in our own times, millions of families can identify with this sad reality,” Francis said. “Almost every day the television and papers carry news of refugees fleeing from hunger, war and other grave dangers, in search of security and a dignified life for themselves and for their families.”
“In each of these people, forced to flee to safety, Jesus is present as he was at the time of Herod,” he continued. “In the faces of the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, strangers and prisoners, we are called to see the face of Christ who pleads with us to help.”…
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Donald Trump, addressing the leftist attacks on Judge Barrett at the Al Smith Dinner tonight, defended Roman Catholics, stating that America is strong because of Catholicism. While Trump was directly addressing the anti-religious freedom rhetoric of the Democrat party, he appeared to inadvertently indict the whole of Protestant Christianity, of which the beliefs this nation was actually founded upon.
Historically, there is no group of people more “anti-Catholic” than Protestant Christians. Not atheists, not Muslims, not Democrats. Protestant Christianity was founded on the notion that Catholicism is a perversion of the gospel of Jesus Christ and, in fact, are protesting the Roman Catholic harlot.
Protestant Christians do not believe that Roman Catholicism adds anything to the strength of this nation and certainly not to the strength of the Church — they are, in fact, the false Church.
For more on Roman Catholicism and why we continue to Protest it, see this link.
"He is outspoken in his liberal political beliefs on social media, frequently replies aggressively to President Trump, and often uses language unbecoming of a man of the cloth. He often refers to white people as “mayo dripping neanderthals.”"
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President Trump has tested positive for COVID-19 just hours after it was revealed that one of his closest White House aides, Hope Hicks, tested positive.
Trump made the announcement last night on Twitter around 10:45 PM that Hicks tested positive and that he and the First Lady were awaiting their own test results while beginning the quarantine process.
Just over a month away from the election, the president has now tested positive and will be required to remain in quarantine until he tests negative or does not develop symptoms at least 10 days following his first positive test according to CDC guidelines.
One leftist pastor known in his circles for his hatred for Donald Trump, white people, and his continual instigation of racial division, Talbert Swan, mocked the president as the news broke.
I mean... someone needs to say it, right? The Megachurch world can be a mess. I know I’m going to make a lot of people uncomfortable with what I’m saying in this video, but someone needs to say this. This is not me being nitpicky, being a guns blazin’ heresy hunter, or trying to point out minor differences in how worship is done or how sermon styles are conducted.No, this goes FAR beyond that. This is an actual legitimate issue that needs to be talked about in the megachurch. A lot of thought and prayer went into making this video. I hope that I relay my thoughts on this with integrity. The ending was sorta off script, but I kept it because I meant it. Please pray for all Megachurch pastors. What Is the Gospel?: https://youtu.be/YkxEdB_3QLM When a Christian Leaves the Faith- My Thoughts: https://youtu.be/RluEHxI0Gv8 Definitely worth watching American Gospel: http://www.americangospelfilm.com/
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On Saturday, in the throes of America’s turbulent 2020 election, thousands of Christians gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the inaugural National Day of Prayer and Return, a calling to repentance and prayer for healing.
Dueling rallies and worship services on either side of the Washington Monument attracted crowds of thousands. Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham held one rally with Vice President Mike Pence in front of the Lincoln Memorial Saturday afternoon, while Jonathan Chan and Kevin Jessup held “The Return” rally starting Friday night and continuing throughout Saturday in front of the U.S. Capitol building.
The rallies focused on a theme of repentance and prayer, rejecting sin and returning to God in turbulent times. Pence paraphrased 2 Chronicles 7:14, in which God promised King Solomon, “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
“We stand today on an ancient promise that Americans have claimed throughout our history that if His people who are called by his name will humble themselves and pray and turn, He will do like he’s always done — through much more challenging times in the life of this nation — He’ll hear from Heaven and he’ll heal this land, this one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” Pence declared.
The vice president declared that prayer is a “great American tradition,” citing Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and noting that “President Donald Trump has observed many times that America is a nation of believers, and you’ve proved that again today.”
Pence received loud cheers when he urged the audience to “pray for all of our justices on the Supreme Court, including the remarkable woman that the president will nominate to fill the seat on the Supreme Court later today.”
While the vice president spoke at Franklin Graham’s Prayer March 2020, leaders at The Return read remarks from President Donald Trump.
“On this inaugural National Day of Prayer and Return, the First Lady and I join millions of Christians here in the United States and around the world in prayer, as we turn our hearts to our Lord and Savior,” the president wrote in his statement.
“Our great Nation was founded by men and women of deep and abiding faith—a faith that has stood the test of time,” Trump added. He cited the Pilgrims’ faith in Providence. “Following in our ancestors’ footsteps we continue the ‘firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence’ that provides us enduring strength and reassurance in our times of need.”
“The trials and tribulations the American people have faced over the past several months have been great,” the president admitted. “Yet, as we have seen time and again, the resolve of our citizenry—fortified by our faith in God—has guided us through these hardships and helped to unite us as one Nation under God.”
“As we continue to combat the challenges ahead of us, we must remember the sage words of President George Washington during his first Presidential Address: ‘propitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.’ As a country and a people, let us renew our commitment to these abiding and timeless principles,” the president added.
“Today, I am pleased to join my voice to yours in thanking God for blessing this nation with great power and responsibility. With reverence, humility, and thanksgiving, we beg for His continued guidance and protection,” Trump concluded.
Speaking after his prayer march, Graham noted that “many thousands of people have come from all over the United States to participate and to pray.”
“I think we’re at a crucial point in this country. We’re that close to losing this nation, and there are people that are wanting to manipulate the direction of this country and we just pray that God may intervene,” Graham added. He warned that “God’s judgment may fall on us one day due to the evil of abortion. “We confess that to God and ask for His forgiveness. These laws that are wicked, that he would turn them in another direction.”
Former Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.), Bishop Harry Jackson, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece Alveda King, homeschooling advocate Sam Sorbo, and many more addressed the crowds. Bachmann, Jackson, King, and likely others addressed both crowds.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC), prayed with Graham at the World War II memorial.
Darryl Strawberry, a black former MLB right fielder, prayed for Americans in front of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture.
“We pray for compassion, we pray for kindness, we pray for respect, we pray for reconciliation, Father. We pray for the violence to stop,” he prayed next to Franklin Graham. “We want to pray for us to unite together as people of race. Father, we have been divided, we have been torn apart by the enemy. We rebuke the divider right now in the name of Jesus!”
Alveda King, a pro-life activist, prayed, “Father, we have sinned or misunderstood or just on purpose thought that we are separate races. We are one human race. … Let us love life, … life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness from the womb to the tomb.”
Bishop Harry Jackson, speaking at The Return, noted that “the root of all sin is pride and independence.” He claimed that God has “allowed there to come four major problems”: the coronavirus, “which is like a plague of the Old Testament;” racial division, “which is all about pride and our being arrogant about who we are;” the #MeToo movement; and divisions on the basis of class.
While it is essential for Christians to confess our sins, humble ourselves, repent, and turn to God, it remains unclear whether or not God’s promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14 can apply to American Christians today. God made that promise to Solomon, the king of His chosen people. America is indeed a blessed nation, but it is not God’s chosen country. That said, a nationwide movement toward repentance and prayer is fitting. God can indeed heal the wounds in this country, and Christians are right to pray for this healing.
This massive event should bring hope to Christians looking for a revival in these turbulent times. It seems particularly remarkable that Trump, who in 2016 said he had no need to seek God’s repentance, would celebrate a prayer event centered on the theme of return and repentance.
The Prayer March was streamed live and The Return’s livestream is ongoing. Click here to see Graham’s march. Watch The Return below.
ABOVE: District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser walks on the street leading to the White House after the words Black Lives Matter were painted in enormous bright yellow letters on the street by city workers and activists Friday, June 5, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
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Capitol Hill Baptist Church, a prominent and influential church in the District of Columbia, has sued Mayor Muriel Bowser and the District for violating its right to worship as guaranteed by the First Amendment.
In March, Bowser issued an executive order prohibiting churches from gathering to worship, whether indoors, or out, citing the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the District’s four-stage plan, CHBC’s in-person worship gatherings will be prohibited until there is an “effective cure or vaccine” for COVID-19—a scenario that could take many months or even years to come to fruition. The District of Columbia is still in Phase 2 of the four-step plan to reopen, which means gatherings are limited to 100 people or up to 50 percent of the building’s capacity, whichever is fewer. For the last several months, the 850-member Capitol Hill Baptist Church (CHBC) has been meeting in a field outside a Virginia church.
For the 142-year-old congregation, “a weekly in-person worship gathering of the entire congregation is a religious conviction for which there is no substitute. The Church does not offer virtual worship services, it does not utilize a multi-site model, and it does not offer multiple Sunday morning worship services,” according to the lawsuit.
Moreover, per the church’s covenant, which is recited at all members’ meetings and before communion is administered, members agree that they “will not forsake the assembling of [them]selves together,” which is commanded in the Bible.
“CHBC desires to gather for a physical, corporate gathering of believers in the District of Columbia on Sunday, September 27, 2020, and on subsequent Sundays, and would do so but for those actions of the Defendants that are the subject of this Complaint,” the lawsuit charges.
For those who aren’t well acquainted with the discussions about ecclesiastical polity (operational and governance structure of a church) going on in evangelical circles, CHBC Senior Pastor Mark Dever has been at the forefront of a movement to encourage churches to be biblically faithful in their preaching, theology, understanding of the Gospel, conversion and membership policies, as well as church discipline and church leadership. His seminal (in my opinion) book, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, launched the 9Marks ministry, which has led to a clarifying debate about what a healthy church looks like (you can read about the 9 Marks here).
I’ve benefitted greatly from the ministry’s resources and have attended services at CHBC several times when visiting family in D.C. It’s an ethnically diverse congregation with no bells or whistles—music is simple, consisting mostly of hymns, with sermons lasting an hour. The simple, stripped-down services, which are heavy on theology and eschew entertainment, manage to attract a large number of young people, many of them likely exhausted from years of entertainment-focused youth ministries at other churches.
Justin Sok, a pastor at CHBC, explained the reasons for the lawsuit in a statement on the church’s website. “Since its founding in 1878, CHBC has met in-person every Sunday except for three weeks during the Spanish Flu in 1918,” he stated. “That changed following Mayor Bowser’s first orders concerning COVID-19 on March 11, 2020. Since that time, the members of CHBC—most of whom live in the District—have been unable to meet in person, as one congregation inside District limits (even outdoors).”
“CHBC has applied for multiple waivers to the policy. District officials refuse to provide CHBC with a waiver beyond 100 persons as part of a mass gathering,” said Sok. The lawsuit filed Tuesday, he said, asks that CHBC be permitted to meet in-person “with similar restrictions as area businesses and other gatherings have employed to protect public health.”
“A church is not a building that can be opened and closed. A church is not an event to be watched. A church is a community that gathers regularly and that community should be treated fairly by the District government,” declared Sok.
On June 10, the church requested a waiver from the worship ban from the mayor’s office, asking to meet at RFK Stadium, where they could all worship together while social distancing. The mayor’s office ignored the request and subsequent appeals until Sept. 15, when it denied the request.
“The denial letter thanked CHBC for providing information about its ‘social distancing plan, and other measures to mitigate the risk of spread of COVID-19′” and pointed out that capacity limits for places of worship were “double the District’s current prohibition on mass gatherings of more than fifty (50) persons,” suggesting that they ought to be grateful for that minuscule concession.
Further, the letter stated that “[w]aivers for places of worship above that expanded capacity are not being granted at this time” therefore, the request “is denied.'”
Not so fast, Mayor Bowser.
The lawsuit points out the inconsistencies in waiver approvals:
Meanwhile, on June 27, 2020, the District of Columbia granted a waiver request for a different type of expressive gathering protected by the First Amendment. Earlier in June, two local companies had requested a waiver to operate a pop-up drive-in movie theater at RFK Stadium in a desire “to bring people together in D.C.” The D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency approved the waiver request, allowing the drive-in gathering to hold up to 350 socially distanced vehicles.
The lawsuit claims Bowser and the District “have been discriminatory in their application of the ban on large scale gatherings,” citing a June 6 appearance by Bowser at a gathering of tens of thousands of anti-racism protesters where she declared that the crowd was “wonderful to see.” In addition, the District’s Metropolitan Police Department closed city streets “to accommodate protests and marches of thousands to tens of thousands of people.” Not only that, three weeks ago, “the Mayor coordinated with organizers of the Commitment March on Washington to ‘re-imagine’ the five-hour event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for several thousand people in attendance to hear an array of speakers.”
In addition, many museums, restaurants, and other entertainment venues in D.C. are open and Metro services have been restored to pre-COVID levels.
“Creating an exception for mass protests and not other types of First Amendment activities is constitutionally forbidden content-based discrimination and thus violates CHBC’s free speech rights,” the church asserts.
It would be one thing if the lockdown policies were being enforced consistently, but the hypocrisy of shuttering churches while allowing protesters to gather, aided and abetted by the police and the District, is breathtaking.
“The First Amendment protects both mass protests and religious worship,” the lawsuit explains. “But Mayor Bowser, by her own admission, has preferred the former over the latter. When asked why she celebrates mass protests while houses of worship remain closed, she responded that ‘First Amendment protests and large gatherings are not the same’ because ‘in the United States of America, people can protest.'”
Long before anyone ever heard of COVID-19, CHBC had made the “convictional choice not to hold multiple services, instead capping attendance at the capacity of its auditorium.”
On March 13, Senior Pastor Mark Dever announced that the church would not be streaming its services online.
The church is asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for relief in the form of a declaration that the mayor and the District of Columbia have unlawfully burdened the church’s free speech rights and their right to peaceably assemble under the First Amendment and that the District has violated CHBC’s religious free exercise rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The church is also asking the court to declare that their Fifth Amendment right to due process has been violated. They seek a temporary restraining order, “preliminarily enjoining, and permanently enjoining Defendants from prohibiting Plaintiff from physically gathering as a congregation in the District of Columbia if conducted with appropriate social distancing practices.”
“Meeting in-person as one congregation is a deeply-held religious conviction for which there is no substitute,” Pastor Sok said. “Our simple desire is to have a community and one that meets together safely.”
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One can only look at what this nation has become with complete and utter disdain. The judgment of God is upon this nation when violent anarchists, rioters, looters, and domestic terror groups are allowed to freely assemble in the streets with the foreknowledge that destruction will ensue while Christians, on the other hand, are arrested for singing hymns.
That’s exactly what happened in Moscow, Idaho. While the name resembles the name of the capital city in the Communist nation, Russia, its actions mirror them just as well. The city has now arrested several Christians for gathering in the streets to sing hymns amid the terror and chaos taking over or cities in America.
We hope that this nation will understand what is happening before its too late and hope that more people will come to realize that without faith in Christ, there is no hope.
In case you want to reach the city council members of Moscow, Idaho, their email addresses are listed below:
Email the Moscow, Idaho city council members:
blambert@ci.moscow.id.us
mlaflin@ci.moscow.id.us
abettge@ci.moscow.id.us
gtaruscio@ci.moscow.id.us
azabala@ci.moscow.id.us
bsullivan@ci.moscow.id.us
skelly@ci.moscow.id.us
Of the three arrested, one of them, Gabriel Rench, was a candidate for Latah County Commissioner and was arrested on charges of not social distancing and flouting the facemask order. The two others arrested were a husband and wife on charges of singing too closely together.