Rev. Tony Spell, the pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Central, Louisiana, has gone viral after a video of him was released showing him beating up a man who allegedly threatened to rape his wife and children.
Spell, 48, said he was working on the bus when his neighbor Scott Sherwin, 20, who was known to the church and had a history of harassing them, started shouting at him.
“He said, ‘Tony, I’m gonna rpe your wife, I’m gonna rpe all of your grandchildren,’ and he said, ‘The next time you go out of town, I’m gonna kill them, and what the F are you going to do about it?'”
Spell then ran to the man and took him to the ground, where he began pummeling him, throwing nearly 30 punches and giving him a twist to the neck and a kick to the side for good measure.
Following the incident, Spell claimed that he had a “duty and obligation” to protect his family.
“Number one, I’m a husband, number two, I’m a father, and number three, I’m a pastor who shepherds his flock. I will not allow a man to murder my children when I’m gone.”
He also addressed it with his congregation during a church service, quoting Mark 16:18:
“These signs shall follow them that believe. In my name…they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. So today, I fulfilled the scripture. I laid hands on the sick. I don’t know how much ‘recover’ they’re going to have, but I laid hands on the sick.”
Spell was booked for second-degree battery and faces up to 8 years in prison if convicted.
Spell gained national prominence and notoriety in March 2020 for being known as the pastor of the ‘Last Church In America Still Open.’ His church never shut down and held in-person services without social distancing, possibly making it the only church in his state to remain open. This resulted in him getting arrested, fitted with an ankle monitor, and threatened with 3 years of prison. He defied the restrictions placed on him and preached anyway.
Notably, they are Oneness Pentecostals who deny the Trinity, who believe water baptism using a certain formula and baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of tongues to be the conditions for salvation, and hold to the doctrine of sinless perfectionism.
9 responses to “‘I fulfilled the scripture. I laid hands on the sick.’ Pastor Goes Viral For Beating Up Man Who Allegedly Threatened to Kill, Rape Family”
Threats and mouthing off are one thing. But actual action is another. I’m not sure what this pastor did could be considered self defense or defense of family, by Biblical standards. But he is not wrong about the fact that there is such a point where defensive action to protect self and family is not only not sinful, but is indeed a matter of duty and obligation to the Lord. He’s not wrong about that. I just don’t know if matters had reached that point in this particular situation.
I can say that as it pertains to my uncle who has engaged in extremely rapine wickedness against myself and my family, deliberately deceived us, scammed us, stole a huge amount of equity from us, has tried to kick us out without our money, determining its amount using his own magic math, depriving us of our right to use our money to fix up the house for sale, flushing $50K+ of it down the drain to pay for temporary housing, storage, moving more than once, and having to pay gift tax on what is supposed to be lawful equity, is now threatening to try to kick us out without our money again. Recently Mom had a stroke, and she cannot pack and move right now. I’ve told him flat-out, that if he will not stop harming and bullying this family, and if he makes the wrong move right now, such as trying to kick us out again without our money that he stole and has denied us access to, I am going to put him in a place where he will no longer be able to do so. I’ve pled for years. I appealed to the pathetic excuse for a church. The church did nothing. I even reported the church to the pathetic excuse for an SBC Executive Committee (Jeff Lorg) and their lawyer “Robert” at Fidelis Law. They did nothing. I reported it to the local magistrate. He did nothing.
If I have to do what I have to do, then I will do it. He can be assured of that fact. And his rapine and harmful actions against my family, and continued bullying, would be permanently ended. It cannot be tolerated. It cannot be allowed to continue. And it is going to stop one way or another. If the bully will not stop of his own accord, then the bully will receive his long overdue whippin. It may violate the laws of Caesar. But it absolutely must not violate the laws of God. And so this must be taken very seriously, and considered very carefully, all other and proper civil recourse must be pursued, it must be the absolute last resort, and one must be absolutely sure that it is the right thing to do.
It is indeed a man’s duty and obligation to the Lord to protect his household, up to and including giving his own life. That is a fact. But there are very clear scriptural requirements and conditions that have to exist. It cannot be vengeance for something that happened in the past. It cannot be fear of what might possibly happen in the future. It must be defense against something that is being done right now – i.e., actual existent and continuing wickedness that demands such a response. A man must be ready to put his own life on the line.
The situation with this pastor and his church may or may not be such a situation. I don’t know. It seems to me like they aren’t (though could be close), and that what he did may not have been justified (though he didn’t exactly harm the man – it wasn’t much of a beating). But we don’t know the facts of the situation. And they may not be known until we all face the ultimate judge in the highest court. That is the court and judge that matters. And so what we do had better be ok with Him.
Violence is rarely the answer. It rarely solves anything. But the idea that it is never the answer is just not true, particularly in cases of self defense. If a predator is actively and imminently trying to harm a man’s family, then that predator needs to be eliminated. Right. If a bear is charging my grandniece, I’m going to take out my 444 magnum and put a swift end to that bear. And the same is true of human predators who absolutely refuse to quit their wickedness. But we must be very, very careful. It must be the absolute last resort. Violence rarely solves anything, but there are certain very specific situations where it does. War is another example. There are several examples in scripture. But we’ve got to be very, very careful and be absolutely sure that we are ok with the ultimate court and ultimate Judge. We cannot recompense sin for sin. Sinning back and forth doesn’t solve anything. But there are indeed certain specific and rare instances where it is not sinful.
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From what I’ve read outside of lamestream media, the beatee kept mouthing off to the pastor that he was going r@pe his wife and kill his family. He’s lucky to still be breathing. Here in Texas, those threats are taken seriously and dealt with seriously.
ah yes, tekton has to write a another novel…this time using dictionary words (rapine) numerous times. wonder if he’s getting paid by the word to comment…
You are exactly the sort of persistent unrepentant bully who should be removed from the land of the living …
The pastor’s actions leave him open to legal charges. It would have been better to have audio and/or video of the neighbor’s son acring up then go for a restraing order. Let the other side be seen as crazy
After 30 yrs on the CPD witnessing Calvinism in it’s fullest every day I can say that some people need beating and some people need killing…..
[…] after beating up his neighbor’s son in a now-viral video, pastor Tony Spell is in the news again, this time for another encounter […]