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Coronavirus Featured In-person Church News Unrighteous Compliance

TGC Author: Christians Have Endured No ‘Hostility’ or ‘Ill-treatment’ From Govt During Pandemic

A writer for The Gospel Coalition has published an article making the case that Christians haven’t endured any hostility or ill-treatment from the government during the pandemic, but rather have only endured mild hardships since the whole thing began.

Pastor Paul Carter, writing for TGC Canada, explains that while many churches were forced to suspend their main large group gatherings and “normal Christian activities such as singing, taking communion and sharing a meal together was either strongly discouraged or forbidden outright,” he describes the 14 months as only as a “temporary suspension” imposed by the government and not something dastardly or more permanent that is worth getting worked up about.

He argues that the 14-month long tyrannical and ever-increasing virulent edicts against the church (our words) may be a “hardship” it is not persecution. He acknowledges there’s been a few missteps and “probably” some “overreach,” (Probably!?) but that there has been no “hostility and ill-treatment because of our religious beliefs.” He ponders: “I’m not sure how any reasonable person could argue that [there was].”

Carter makes these comments defending the government handling of the pandemic in his country while a church 120 miles south of him is facing 40 million dollars in fines for being open and whose doors were just recently barred by police. Another 25 miles further, Police arrived on the scene to give out fines because a church was having a drive-in service where they didn’t even leave their vehicles and were listening to the sermon through their small FM transmitter.

This drive-in service was declared non-essential, even as marijuana shops and liquor stores have been open as essential businesses the whole time. Across the country, one church congregation has gone underground after their pastor was jailed for a month and a fence was erected around their church while 60 armed police officers showed up with batons and riot gear to ensure there was no disruption. Further west, Black Lives Matter protesters have been allowed to march and hold rallies at will, congregating out in the public, but all indoor and outdoor church gatherings of any size have been suspended, even as restaurants, casinos, and bars remain open for business and socializing.

In fact, the new rules for outdoor services in Brtish Columbia cap the vehicles attending at 50, and anyone attending the drive-in service where they are not allowed to leave their vehicles must not only ensure their cars and trucks are 6 feet apart, but they must pre-register and their personal information captured, lest COVID-19 magically travel from vehicle to vehicle and infect the whole lot of them.

Finally, Carter declares that churches haven’t been unfairly discriminated against because “Churches, by and large, have enjoyed far greater freedoms than health clubs and workout facilities over the last 14 months” and concludes “so this has been hard, it has been crushing for many – but it does not appear to have been motivated by religious hostility or malice. Not everything that negatively affects the church can be categorized as persecution. Not everything difficult can be ascribed to evil motives.”

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Church Evangelical Stuff Featured

Beth Moore Defends Preaching on Mother’s Day: ‘I’m a Mother and the Pastors are Not’

Ex-Southern Baptist Beth Moore, who has been busy going “to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it,” appeared on the Marty Duren podcast to have a conversation about her recent study on Galatians, along with the “current evangelical challenges.”

Chitchatting a bit about the study, and then about Trump and the Access Hollywood tapes and how they impacted her (more on that tomorrow), Moore shed light on the event that was the beginning of the end for her time in the SBC, explaining that she knew she was going to leave back in 2019, but that it took two years for her to make the final plunge.

It had to do with the brouhaha that erupted after Moore, while speaking to a friend nearly two years ago to the day, revealed that she too was preaching a sermon on Mother’s Day.

Moore explains what happened next:

It was like an atomic bomb dropped, and it was at the height, at the absolute height of the worst sexual abuse crisis in our entire SBC history. We’re right in the middle of it. And suddenly, the most important conversation – it was everywhere Marty. Everywhere you looked. Everyone was talking about it. I’m not just talking about hundreds of pastors.

Every now and then someone would tell me ‘it just a fringe thing.’

Bull.

There was nothing fringe about it. Every kind of article. I was called everything under the sun. And what killed me, and I got to tell you – I can feel a lump in my throat even saying this to you – this was my world and these were my people.

They knew I was not after their pulpit. They knew that there has never been anything in me, never at any time, at any time, that had any ambition to be a senior pastor at a church, I’ve never been any kind of pastor at a church. I loved what I was called to do, and yet it became – my own home, my denomination that knew me, I had served their women, their women, they knew it. Ninety-eight percent of everything I had ever done out and about had been with women, and it was like ‘this is insane.’

And it was over Mother’s Day.

Moore, getting flustered by the theological hot flashes we’ve grown accustomed to hearing from her, makes the argument that it’s completely appropriate to preach on Mother’s Day. She claims the exemption on this one day because she is, after all, a mother, whereas the pastor preaching is not and has never been, thus giving her the necessary qualifications on account that “there is not a man on the earth standing at a pulpit who has ever been a mother.”

I need to tell you Marty because this is going to probably tell you as much about me as anything else. I spoke again last year on Mother’s Day, and I’m speaking again in a few weeks on Mother’s Day because by golly, there is nothing inappropriate about coming before a congregation and speaking to Mother’s Day and speaking to mothers when I promise you there is not a man on the earth standing at a pulpit who has ever been a mother.

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Church Featured Heresies Money Grubbing Heretics

Charisma News Promotes Trinity-Denier T.D. Jakes as Wise Christian Leader

Richard Roberts, the CEO of Oral Roberts Ministry, wrote an article for Charisma News where he lauded and praised the famous modalist for his “powerful words” and “wisdom and insight” on the topic of “communicating to breakthrough in relationships” during an appearance on his podcast Expect a Miracle.

Unless an orthodox Trinitarian, T. D. Jakes has gone on record as saying he doesn’t believe that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, but rather is just a “manifestation” of God. In fact, even now his church website reads “There is one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in three manifestations: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

Despite not being a Christian even a little, Roberts gave Jakes free reign to discuss a host of topics, as well as promote his new book “Don’t Drop The Mic,” all while describing the encounter and conversation with Jakes as “Spirit-filled.”


Unfortunately, this is not the first time the purveyor of theological poison known as Charisma has promoted and endorsed Jakes. They have a long history of it, showing again why they have no discernment, and no regard for the love of truth or foundational Christian doctrine.

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Charismatic Nonsense Featured Money Grubbing Heretics

Charismatic Pretends to Cast Out Demon in Hilariously Fake Exorcism

A charismatic “prophetess” and her “apostle” husband have posted a video on social media of a hilariously fake exorcism at one of their revival meetings, a performance that makes Todd White’s leg-lengthening parlor trick look like Jesus’ feeding of the 5000 in comparison.

Jennifer Martin, a “prophetic healing evangelist” based in the Nashville area who claims to “both minister and preach in the Glory, blazing a trail of reformation, miracles, healings, signs and wonders, and intense outbreaks of the glory of God,” and is a member of Che Ahn’s apostolic network called H.I.M., uploaded the video of the alleged demonic encounter that took place during their tent revival meetings.

[Editor’s note: Warning: this is so uncomfortably embarrassing to watch it’s not even funny. My browser crashed three times in a desperate attempt to not display it, even as my hard drive whined and whimpered in pain to have to host it while it uploaded to the cloud.]

[Editor’s note 2: I don’t even want to describe what the heck is happening. This makes the Office’s “Scott’s Tots” or “The Dinner Party” look like “Schindler List.” All we will say is, to quote a commentator on the video, “She told the ‘demon’ to repeat after her and to bind the other demons to himself. The demon cast out the other demons. LOL! Then she had to tell the guy it was over and he could stand back up.”]

When told that this video is both clearly fake and blasphemous, Martin responded:

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Charismatic Nonsense Evangelical Stuff Featured Heresies

Wayne Grudem, Mark Driscoll, Michael Brown Sign Joint Statement Affirming False Prophets

(Reformation Charlotte) In a recent statement by the charismatic sub-Christian sect of professing Christendom titled the Prophetic Standards Statement, well-known Evangelical theologian, Wayne Grudem joined a host of false prophets affirming that those who prophesy falsely are not actually false prophets.

If that sounds crazy, it’s because it is. And it’s because charismatics are, by nature, simple-minded and opposed to any kind of deep-thinking theological critique.

While the entire statement is a walking contradiction to the Scriptures, declaring that churches must “make room for spontaneous utterances as the Spirit wills,” most of the signers of the statement are blasphemers that should come as no shock: i.e. Kris Vallotton of Bethel Church, several New Apostolic Reformation “Apostles,” and the world’s most notable apologist for the Montanist heresy, Michael Brown.

On the other hand, that educated men like Wayne Grudem wouldn’t be able to see these contradictions inconceivable. They see the contradictions and basic fallacies opposed to their own doctrine and statement of faith in this statement, yet, they choose to ignore it.

After rejecting the idea that modern-day prophecy is on the “same level” as biblical prophecy–as though God’s revelation is somehow less authoritative today than it was in biblical times–the statement goes on to contradict God’s standard for prophets.

One of the most contradictory affirmations in this statement reads as follows:

Finally, while we believe in holding prophets accountable for their words, in accordance with the Scriptures, we do not believe that a sincere prophet who delivers an inaccurate message is therefore a false prophet. Instead, as Jesus explained, and as the Old Testament emphasized, false prophets are wolves in sheep’s clothing, in contrast to true believers who might speak inaccurately (see Matt. 7:15-20; Jer. 23:9-40; Ezek. 13:23). Thus a false prophet is someone who operates under a false spirit masquerading as the Holy…

To continue reading, click here

Editor’s Note. This article was written by Jeff Maples and published at Reformation Charlotte.

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Church Evangelical Stuff Featured In-person Church Righteous Defiance

A Gallery Of The Faithful Gathering For Church Amid Pandemic – Album Fifty Eight

The fifty-seventh album in an ongoing series documenting faithful churches gathering for Sunday service in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

One year in, and we’re still doing this.

With some churches still not gathering in-person in these dark times and others being persecuted by the government for being open, these are the congregations who are meeting faithfully at the command of Scripture (Heb. 10:25).

For previous albums: 

Album #1  Album #2  Album #3  Album #4  Album #5  Album #6  Album #7  Album #8  Album #9  Album #10  Album #11  Album #12  Album #13  
Album #14  Album #15  Album #16  Album#17  Album# 18 Album #19  
Album #20  Album #21 Album #22  Album #23 Album #24 Album #25
Album #26 Album #27 Album #28 Album #29 Album #30 Album #31 Album #32 Album #33 Album #34 Album #35 Album #36 Album #37 Album #38 Album #39 Album #40 Album #41 Album #42 Album #43 Album #44 Album #45 Album #46 Album #47 Album #49 Album #50 Album #51 Album #52 Album #53 Album #54 Album #55 Album #56 Album #57

These churches are preaching outside, are back in their buildings having in-person services, or are having drive-through services. Some with masks and social distancing, others without.

All are being safe. All are being obedient to the scriptures. All are loving their neighbors.

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Featured In-person Church Onward to Glory Righteous Defiance Shutdown

After $40,000,000 in fines, Police To Lock Doors and Take Over Canadian Church

“…you joyfully accepted the plundering or your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.” (Hebrews 10:34)

A judge has ordered a Canadian church to cease worshipping together in their church building, granting the province of Ontario the authority to bar the doors and prevent any congregants from entering. This is the end result after months of fines and threats of fines have proved unsuccessful in coercing the church to cease gathering together as one, an act that is in contravention to provincial lockdown orders that limit church gatherings to 10 people for both indoor and outdoor services regardless of size or capacity limits.

In many ways, Trinity Bible Chapel (TBC) in Waterloo, Ontario has faced the most opposition and steepest price out of any church in North America for being open. GraceLife Church in Alberta had their pastor arrested and spend over a month in jail, and their church is likewise now taken away, but TBC has endured absolutely brutal, punishing, unending fines for being open.

They’re facing 40 million dollars in potential fines right now. 40 million. And while the large multi-million dollar fines might possibly be appealed if granted – some of their large fines like the $83,000 given for a single service cannot be waived, removed, or appealed. These crushing tickets are not just to the Church entity, but parishioner after parishioner is being handed crushing fines for daring to attend. These are crippling numbers, but they have not bent the will of the church.

So now they are having the church building taken away from them.

The judge in the case, Justice John Krawchenko, noted in his decision that the church must be locked up because if it remained open, “the risk of irreparable harm would be too great to ignore.”

In a public statement that everyone should read in full titled We lost the building but kept the church, Pastor Jacob Reaume recounts how they prayed for their own building for years and finally moved into it in the middle of the pandemic, sharing how “It was a time of great joy, and we looked forward to serving our community and worshipping our Saviour in this facility.” But now:

We have around 600,000 people who live in this region.  There are 588 active cases of COVID in the region, with 32 people in the ICU with COVID.  That’s enough to deem the public worship of Jesus Christ dangerous and enough for the Province of Ontario to kick us off our land and bar our doors shut…Our experience (with COVID) doesn’t line up with the hysteria whipped up by government and media, nor do the numbers warrant turning control of the Bride of Christ over to the Premier of Ontario.

Pastor Reaume explains that while the motivations of the government are clear, they underestimate the body’s commitment to the public gathering and worship of Jesus, even as the judge in the case told them that they can do “virtual services” as an alternative.

The purpose of this seizure is to prevent us from meeting as a church.  They believe that we will continue meeting in our facility, no matter the fines or the public shame heaped on us.  We are willing to pay any price necessary to worship our Saviour because He is worth it.  He died for us, and we want Him to receive a reward for His suffering.  Churches used to sing songs like Charles Wesley’s “O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing” and mean it.  We still do. 

He continues, offering a master class in how believers ought to think about these things:

But it’s now cost us our facility.  That’s after policemen sat outside our lot in cruisers on Sunday to chase our people down and ticket them after the service for gathering to worship.  That’s after each elder received a ticket this past week for opening the church.  That’s after the church itself received a ticket this week.  That’s after we were convicted of our second count of contempt of court today. That’s after we’ve now received so many dozens of charges I’ve actually lost track.  Combined we are facing over $40 million in fines with jail time.  That’s not enough, so they’ve taken our building.

They took our building because they think that will stop us from worshipping.  For twenty years our church has worshipped together each Lord’s Day, and we’ve only met in our own building for eleven months.  So the best part of our history we have not owned a building.  We managed just fine to gather together without our own building, and now we don’t have our own building again.  The early church met in the catacombs under Rome.  The Covenanters met in fields.  John Bunyan led his services in forests.  Churches find ways to worship together, as surely as water flows downhill.

He concludes:

During that season we could have complied with all the nonsense protocols.  But if we had done that, we would have already conceded the facility to the Province.  The Province would have essentially owned not only our building, but also our fellowship and also our worship.  We did not let them own our building.  We did not let them own our worship.  We did not let them own our fellowship.  So they stole our building, at least temporarily.  We’ll keep our worship.  And we’ll keep our fellowship. 

Many churches around these parts think they still own their buildings, but they already voluntarily handed their buildings and their people and their worship over to Caesar months ago.  We just forced Caesar to come and take the building, but we’ve kept the church. 

Caesar can have the brick and mortar.  We’ve kept the church for Jesus.  He who seeks to preserve his church will lose it, but he who loses the church for Christ’s sake will keep it.

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Evangelical Stuff Featured Heresies Money Grubbing Heretics Scandal

Mark Driscoll Shuns Elders and Accountability at New Church

As we work on a new investigation regarding Mark Driscoll, we wanted to call attention to a salient fact that has come up in the course of our reporting: his new church has no elders.

You’ll recall that back in 2014, Driscoll was embroiled in a controversy for his abusive and bullying style of leadership. Overseeing 14,000 people across multiple campuses in five states, he was also taking heat for a plagiarism scandal uncovered by Janet Mefferd and a book-buying scheme highlighted by Chris Rosebrough, where Pastor Mark reached the NYT best-sellers by having his church buy tens of thousands of his own book, unfairly inflating the numbers.

As a result of these actions, he was called out by over 20 elders, many of who later admitted that they were “yes men” and were ashamed that they let him get away with his behavior for so long. The majority wanted him to be disqualified from ministry completely, with a handful desiring that he take a break from the pulpit but not be declared disqualified per se, so that he could return to preach once he got his house in order.

Rather than repent and stick around to go through church discipline and potentially be restored, submitting himself to the authority of his elders, Driscoll jumped ship, moving 1400 miles to Scottsdale, Arizona, where he planted The Trinity Church.

Slowly, he has rebuilt his empire, even as his theology got squishier. He mocked reformed theology and described Calvinism as “garbage.” He publicly apologized for criticizing Joel Osteen. He started selling copies of his sermon notes online, as well as pushed seeker-sensitive services like “swimsuit Sunday.” He even defended the Roman Catholic Church, saying they “believe in the essentials.”

Despite resigning in disgrace and possessing a penchant for theological violence, people flocked to him at his new home, and his church has grown immensely in the last few years, recording over 1000 people attending earlier services this month.

But Driscoll has never repented. He was not changed. Rather than submit to his elder team he chose to flee instead. He picked up his ball and went home, resulting in some of his abusive ways to begin creeping up in his new kingdom. Warren Throckmorton, whose investigations were invaluable in 2013-2015 in exposing the original mess, has begun to roll out testimony from former congregants and staff members of Trinity, detailing more of the same from a pastor who has clearly not learned his lesson.

Non-disclosure agreements are again being used. Money is again conditioned on silence. People are describing abrupt decisions about membership without due process. Friends and family who are considered disloyal to the church are being shunned…

Unfortunately, as we alluded to earlier, Driscoll has set himself up as Pope of his own church, removing any of the limiting factors that previously constrained him, chiefly, the presence of elders.

Despite having hundreds and hundreds of people attending each week, there are no elders at The Trinity Church. Instead, there are five other pastors, none of whom function in the office of an elder with the accountability and decision-making process that goes with it. He does have a small corporate board made up of a handful of people, some who don’t even go to his church, and others who aren’t even pastors.

Whereas in years past Driscoll defended a biblical understanding of the office of elders in his teaching and in his books, he has since disavowed their importance, choosing to abstain from anything that may tinker with his power or do him dirty by daring to take him to task for his many acts of malfeasance. In fact, Throckmorton is covering one right now.

Armed with the keys to the kingdom, Mark finally gets to call the shots all on his own, unencumbered by a biblical ecclesiology or any sort of accountability.

With Driscoll, we’ve seen this all before, and we know how it all will end.




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Charismatic Nonsense Evangelical Stuff Featured Money Grubbing Heretics

Charismatic Prophetess: Angels Compete in Olympic-like Contests in Heaven called ‘Angel Games’

Kat Kerr, our favorite pink-haired, mainstream-continuationist, spunky charismatic meme-bot and “Dr. Michael Brown-approved prophetess” has given us a fresh round of “revelation” about heaven, and it is a joy to behold.

Appearing on Episode 21 of Wednesdays with Kat and Steve,” one of the shows guests, looking positive thrilled that he gets to nerd out and ask Kat a question, ponders this query:

Q: I am a huge Superman fan – like massive, okay? My question is…can you fly in heaven?

Yes, you can fly, you can fly in heaven. Number one, why wouldn’t you? Which is what the Holy Spirit says to me all the time -why wouldn’t you fly? I mean it’s the place of creation. It’s the life and the power of God is everywhere. If plants can sing, if you can travel on light in heaven, if you can speak and create food and it’s on a tray in front of you, why wouldn’t you be able to fly?

And there is a park, there’s an amusement park. I was taken to that, I have evidence that I was taken to that in my book, it really exists!

They have a place called ‘Flyby.’ That’s one of the amusement things in heaven, in their park, and you get taught to fly there. And your friends who are in heaven will come to watch you learn to fly because it is hilarious. You’re not really good in the beginning – you’re like spinning through the air.

I mean you actually have places for them to sit and watch you learn. But the point is this: Christopher Reeves who made it to heaven, it’s what he gets to do in heaven...you’ll find out when you go though. You’ll be standing in line with everyone else waiting to learn.

Q: That sounds amazing – what about superstrength? Can you like lift super heavy things?

Well you know, nothing really weighs much in heaven. It’s made out of light but it is substantial like the walls of your mansion and heaven. Don’t try to run through them. A portal would open you would run through the portal and the wall of your mansion, but it’s a real place in your spiritual body in the spiritual world.

You feel the ground you’re walking on, you feel the food that you’re eating it and so I would imagine since this is one of the best things I’ve talked about very little, they actually have the angel games, not kidding at all, they actually have what we call the Olympics they call the ‘angel games’ in heaven and the army of heaven put them on on a regular basis when they come back from a lot of warring, they get to do the angel games and show how good they are at the different supernatural things they do, so you’ll probably be there watching that.

These angels are lucky Kerr isn’t competing, as she would get the gold each time.

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Featured World News

The Netherlands Euthanized 1 in 2450 Citizens Last Year

In an act of radical depravity, the Netherlands euthanized 6938 people last year, representing approximately 1 out of every 2450 citizens. These ghoulish numbers are nearly a 10% increase from last year, when 6361 people chose to engage in state-sanctioned suicide.

Furthermore, this number represents almost 5% of ALL deaths in the country, including, including those who succumbed to the novel coronavirus.

While the majority of people choosing to die with the help of doctors had terminal cancer, there were some who had dementia, cancer where the chances of recovery were slim but viable, and a few people who were chronically depressed and their mental state deemed “not compatible with life.”

The startling increase in case counts is no surprise, however, as government leaders and politicians have been becoming more and more lax regarding the conditions surrounding who may kill themselves and when.

The Netherlands government announced last year their desire to extend the option of euthanasia to children between the ages of 1 and 12, as current law allows euthanasia in teenagers, as well as for newborns up to a year old, should their parents give their consent.

The government is further opening up the service to people who are not at risk of dying, but rather are “tired of living.” This burgeoning accommodation comes after government research revealed that around 10,000 people over 55 have a serious death wish, and so they are seeking to make allowances for that.