John MacArthur Launches Petition Campaign to 'Open the Church'

John MacArthur, Pastor of Grace Community Church (GCC) in California who has been engaged in a protracted battle with the LA County Health Board and State Government over their right to have church services as they see fit, has launched a petition campaign to tell our leaders that the church is essential.

Launched in partnership with Liberty University’s The Falkirk Center, the four-minute “The Church is Essential” video follows MacArthur around the campus of GCC where he gives a high-level recap of the position churches are in, and explains the reason for launching the petition, with the promotion material for the campaign enjoining:

The Government is trying to dictate to the church how we should worship. We have been commanded by God to meet and that freedom is protected by the Constitution.
SIGN to remind our leaders THE CHURCH IS ESSENTIAL.

As MacArthur walks around Grace Church, he comments that the current crop of politicians are trampling on the citizenry and crushing their constitutional rights under a manufactured fear, discussing the low death rates of COVID in his state, saying:

That absolutely does not warrant shutting down anything, but especially, absurdly, arbitrarily, churches who have a special protection from the constutition—oh, and at the same time leaving open abortion clinics, strip clubs, and marijuana dispensaries…

Describing this as targeted discrimination by leftist and secular government officials, Macarthur hammers over and over that the Church is essential.

Describing this season as a watershed moment in America, MacArthur states that “we are commanded to be the church by the Lord Jesus Christ who is the head of the church.”

“This is a time of all times to meet as the church,” he said. “Open your church. The church is essential.”