Black Lives Matter rioters, up in arms over the completely justified shooting of Walter Wallace, have set fire to a Southern Baptist church and burned it down in a despicable act of arson and terrorism.
“I have no idea why they attacked our church,” said Pastor Pham, who was woken by a parishioner with news that their building was burning. “They burned it from the roof. They threw flammable chemicals on the roof and [flames] burned through the roof.”
With the flames ripping through the rest of the building, Pham said the church facility is a “total loss” despite some structure remaining.
The Vietnam Baptist Church in Philadelphia was burned during BLM rioting. https://t.co/UwdFuRnC9E
Mercifully, out of the wreckage, Pastor Pham was able to locate a trio of hard drives that were not destroyed. These drives contained nearly 15 years of legal documents, tax records, and immigration paperwork for members of the community, as the church functioned as something of a community center for congregants and community members. According to the Kentucky Today:
I prayed right away: ‘God, please protect the hard drives.’ Other stuff can be recovered. But those files will never be recovered.
I saw the routers and modems and things surrounding the hard drives all burned, melted. But that piece of hard drive, no harm. No harm at all. Just two feet above that, all melted…That is amazing how God knows our needs and answers our prayers. He is an almighty God. He granted our prayer.
Despite the fire, Pastor Pham said he and the church were in good spirits, but requested prayer from the saints:
Remember us in your prayers in time of need like this…The church members here need encouragement. The majority of us have very strong faith in Christ, but a minority, a few new believers, they need their faith to grow. Pray for their faith to take deep root in the love of God so they can be steadfast in Him. Not focus on the problem, but focus on Jesus. Please remember us in your prayers.
Police chiefs in Britain have warned that law enforcement officers will come into people’s homes and break up their Christmas family celebrations if they disregard lockdown rules which prohibit and limit who or when can gather.
Parts of Britain are currently under “tier 2 and tier 3” restrictions, with higher tiers garnering harsher curtailment, and in those zones it is against the law to meet up with people outside of one’s immediate household or support bubble.
West Midlands Police and Crime Chief David Jamieson said that if people flout the rules, he has instructed his officers to enter homes, break up the gatherings, and separate the households, telling the Telegraph:
“If we think there’s large groups of people gathering where they shouldn’t be, then police will have to intervene. If, again, there’s flagrant breaking of the rules, then the police would have to enforce.
It’s not the police’s job to stop people enjoying their Christmas. However, we are there to enforce the rules that the Government makes, and if the Government makes those rules then the Government has to explain that to the public.”
Though not as stringent, this is reminiscent of what Governor Gavin Newsom is doing in California, where he recently declared that no more than 3 families can get together for thanksgiving, that they must wear masks at all times, that the host must record all names and contact information for whoever is attending, that they must gather outdoors and they can’t gather for more than two hours.
Realizing the madness of what the government is proposing, Jamiesen said that his force is on high alert, with civil unrest being a real possibility.
We’re sitting on a time bomb here. We’re getting very near the stage where you could see a considerable explosion of frustration and energy. Things are very on the edge in a lot of communities and it wouldn’t take very much to spark off unrest, riots, damage.”
(Life News) The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to consider a major abortion case out of Mississippi on Friday, just days after the Senate confirmed pro-life Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, challenges a state law that prohibits abortions on unborn babies after 15 weeks of pregnancy. A federal judge struck down the Mississippi law in 2018, and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling in 2019; but the state appealed to the Supreme Court.
On Friday, the justices’ schedule includes time to debate whether they will hear the state’s appeal, CNN reports.
According to Romper, the case is significant, not only because of Barrett, but also because “it is widely considered to be a direct challenge to the precedent outlined in the Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade.”
Daniel Chalmers, founder and president of Love Wins ministry was taken into police custody after the disturbing event, where he was found to have been intoxicated with a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit. According to the police report here:
We also read more about the incident from the off-duty officer: who later mentions to Chalmers admitting to being on medication, which may has exacerbated his poor choices.
The policed report also notes that “As Chalmers passed by the flight crew he advised the Captain of his intentions to sue Delta Airlines for defamation of character for their treatment of him.”
Though the details are a bit hazy on what Love Wins ministry actually is, it seems to have to do with filmmaking and providing resources that “plead the cause for the poor, needy and marginalized people of the world and provide a voice for the voiceless” while also involving life-coaching and fantastical charismatic miracles and prophecy. According to Daniel Chalmer’s bio from his ministry page: Chalmers is closely associated with some of the most extreme charismatics in Christendom and up to his elbows in the New Apostolic Reformation.
“God sent Danny to Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. There, Danny served and lead in the healing rooms and developed a passion for Jesus to get His full reward. Danny wants to shout from the rooftops the goodness of His Heavenly Daddy and see people completely healed – spirit, soul and body. Just as Jesus was the exact representation of the Father, Danny lives to embody the heart of His perfect Father in heaven. He is on staff at Catch the Fire Raleigh-Durham. Danny functions strongly in the prophetic, miracles, signs and wonders. His highest priority is to love God with all his being, adore his family and then overflow into ministry. “
As reported, Alicia Beverly was flying from Las Vegas to Detroit when the dastardly incident happened, telling WJBK-TV, FOX 2 News in Detroit:
“It felt warm, like on the side of me I felt something warm. I jump up and I seen his private area out and I screamed and that woke everybody up. By that time I actually looked at him and I see him shake himself off and I’m like this man just peed on me! I looked and there was a puddle of pee in the seats!”
After her scream, the pastor was subdued by an off-duty officer flying on the same trip who was woken by the shouts. He restrained the man until landing and handed over to the FBI to be taken into custody.
Musician and designer Kanye West appeared on the Joe Rogan Podcast on Friday, spending nearly three hours conversing with the famed interviewer about running for the presidency, design, record contracts, being bipolar, politics, abortion, family, Jesus, race, war, and everything else under the sun, frequently speaking in self-aggrandizing statements and sharing both good and bad theology.
The hotly anticipated conversation was everything listeners hoped it would be, with West talking nearly the whole time in a stream of consciousness. At times he made perfect sense and at others he struggled to explain his ideas and articulate them in the best possible and clearest way, resulting in a confusing mess. He describes his reasoning and the way he processes and shares information this way:
I think very three-dimensionally. I don’t think in the black-and-white lines that I’ve been programmed to think in. And I think in full color. So when I talk, I have to describe a thought in five ways. We enjoy food that has multiple seasonings in it. We enjoy music that has multiple instruments. So when I talk, it’s not a rant, it’s a symphony of ideas.
It’s in this spirit that we offer a few thoughts from West.
On making music for God
When I made Sunday Service, I completely stopped rapping, because I don’t know how to rap for God. All my raps always had nasty jokes. When I went to the hospital in 2016, I wrote, ‘Started church in Calabasas.’ As we left from 2018 going into 2019, I said; I’m not going to let one Sunday go by without starting this church. To start a ministry, I’m like the little drummer boy, where I’m saying, ‘This is all I got to bring, my drum.’ I might not be well versed in the Word, but I know how to make music and I know how to put this choir together. And all things can be made good for God. It quickly became the best choir of all time, because all the best singers moved to California…I was four months in before I gave my life to God. I wasn’t saved, I just had a calling, saying, ‘Just go make this church.’
God knocked me off my horse, literally called me and said, ‘Now I need you.’ Not that God needs me, but we need God. He called me to serve him. I was tired of serving the music industry, tired of serving filling up stadiums.
On expository preaching:
One of my pastors, pastor Adam, the way he preaches is called expository. It’s like one-to-one by the Word. I like all different kind of preachers but there are some type of preachers they get up, they have the bible in their hand, and they close the bible and they just talk for two hours.
And some do have anointing, but expository preachers go line for line, and for me it’s like I come from entertainment. I got so much sauce, I don’t need no sauce on the word. I need the word to be solid food that I can understand exactly what God was saying to me through the King James version, through this, you know, this translation or the English Standard Version.”
On Abortion:
People saw this clip of me crying. Some people didn’t know what I was crying about. I was crying about that there is a possible chance that Kim and I didn’t make the family that we have today. That’s my most family-friendly way to word that. The idea of it just tears me up inside, that I was a part of a culture that promotes this kind of thing.
One of the major statistics on the subject of life is that the greatest advocates for the A-word [abortion] are men from ages 31-37. That’s how old I was. I felt like I was too busy. My dad felt like he was too busy for me. We have a culture of that…In our culture, we’re doped up, and psyched out, and made to kill our children. We have to decouple the conversation of Planned Parenthood and women’s choice.
I’m Christian, so I’m pro-life. When I go into office, I’m not changing laws because I realize we live in an imperfect world and an imperfect society. What I will be presenting is a Plan A. We’ve already started working on a Plan A to change the connotation of orphanages, to change the connotation of foster care.
There were 210,000 deaths due to COVID in America. Everywhere you go, you see someone with a mask on. With A, the A word, A culture–I’ll say it one time, with abortion culture–there are 1,000 Black children aborted a day. Daily. We are in genocide. More Black children since February than people have died of COVID. And everyone wears a mask. So it’s a matter of where are we turning a blind eye to?
The whole interview is fascinating and be seen here or on Spotify. West talks further about Jesus and God speaking to him in a host of other contexts, all peppered throughout the interview, with some of it good and some of what he has to say very bad.
With some megachurches like Andy Stanley’s Northpoint Church and Southern Baptist Convention presidentJ.D. Greear’s summit Church staying closed until 2021, even as some megachurches like Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church have resumed service, one Pastor has taken the boldest and most unbiblical step yet, announcing that his church will not resume in-person services until a coronavirus vaccine is developed and widely distributed.
World Overcomer’s Church’s in North Carolina, a non-denominational congregation that boasts 15,000 members, made the decision to not meet for in-person services until a vaccine is developed, a prospect many are saying may take between 1-3 years, if one comes at all. Instead, the church says that it will only have “virtual services” services for the near and far future, with Senior Pastor Andy Thompson telling CBS17 news:
Church for us is just growing. We’ve never had this many people watching…I don’t think I’ll ever go back to having church the way I did before.
When our people are able to come back together, they’re going to want to greet one another and hug one another, and in my estimation, the risks are too great. We have to figure out ways to minister to people beyond just them risking contact in the middle of a pandemic.
The Pastor, who the church website describes as “an international faith leader, life coach and relationship expert on his mission to help you discover the keys to making good decisions” and a “balanced-life strategist” who is “master teacher on this subject” says that he doesn’t think any churches should be open right now, saying:
Every time they tell me they’re having meetings, I always say, ‘You might want to rethink that. Do you really have to have meetings to minister the gospel of Christ?’ Figure out a way to be effective when it comes to the future.
Hillsong Melbourne has announced that they have completed the purchase of the iconic Festival Hall for a cool $23,375,000, turning the famed concert venue into their new church home.
The controversial, prosperity-preaching state church, which is “pastored” by Tim & Nicola Douglass, has been looking for a new home for years. Having no permanent location, they’ve frequently have been nomadic, offering 10 services across 4 locations, usually in theaters and halls rented out for the day, having to do teardowns and set ups each week.
The purchase of the hall has not been without controversy. Initially opened in 1913, it has functioned as major cultural attraction for over 100 years, hosting concerts from Frank Sinatra and the Beatles, to Ed Sheeran and Lorde. It has also hosted the Olympic games and other sporting events. Put up for sale almost three years ago and requiring millions of dollars of investment to compete with newer venues, it had been generally assumed it would be flattened and converted into multi-level apartments, retail, and commercial development, until being declared a heritage site and thwarting those plans.
Along with the purchase of the hall comes large buildout costs, with the church likely to spend up to another $10-15 million on a major renovation, adding multiple stories for added functionality, including space for the nursery, children’s church, offices, coffee shops, and other ministries. The concert hall as it is holds seating for 5000 people, but that number will likely change. The church has also indicated that it may still be open to the public in some capacity, however. According to Pastor Tim:
“The cool thing about purchasing Festival Hall is it’s going to continue to be Festival Hall. It has served the people of this city in different events over the years and it’s going to continue to do that. We just get to be the church that purchases it and continues to serve, but also gets to see it be the house of God on Sundays.”
Disgraced pastor and teacher Dr. Arturo G. Azurdia III (Art Azurdia) is back on the preaching circuit and making the conference rounds 20 months after his fall from grace. He was scheduled to speak at the 2020 Word conference in May, along with The Gospel Coalition member H. B. Charles Jr., but due to COVID lockdown that conference has been postponed until June 1-3, 2021.
Dr. Arturo G. Azurdia III, you’ll remember, was the brilliant expositor and homiletics master at Trinity Church in Portland. Many thousands were blessed by the preaching of Art Azurdia, especially in circles that are considered to be more theologically sound. He even preached at John MacArthur’s 2018 Shepherd’s conference, a pulpit not easily attained.
Then a few months after that conference, it was revealed that he jumped into a bed of sexual immorality and was consequently released from his position as pastor.
Several years ago, prior to the inception of Trinity Church, I strayed from my wedding vows, breaking the covenantal bond I made to my dear wife thirty-six years ago. More recently, I again violated my marriage commitment. In both instances I engaged in adulterous relationships that were nothing less than acts of defiance to the will of my God and Father, as well as expressions of profound ingratitude for the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ that I prize so dearly.
I confess this sin and take full responsibility for it. There are no justifications, excuses, or rationalizations for my behavior. I, in acts of idolatry, chose sin over God. I am profoundly ashamed at the enormity of my rebellion, as well as the hypocrisy of exercising ministry while cloaking my sin in the shadows.
Azurdia returning to teaching and preaching is an interesting one, in light of further comments he made where he acknowledges the consequences of his actions would have on his public ministry and the pursuance thereof:
Because of my sin I have disqualified myself from the office of elder. Furthermore, I have no desire to pursue ministry of any kind. My focus is entirely directed at making right the very thing I have ignored for too long: the well-being of our marriage.
Along with his role of pastor at the church he planted, Trinity Church, Azurdia also served as a professor of theology at Western Seminary and taught homiletics.
The megachurch led by John MacArthur that has been defying L.A County public health orders for months and insisting on having full-capacity indoor services has had several confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus.
According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, there have been three confirmed cases that have emerged out of Grace Community Church (GCC), with more cases said to be on the way. Officials will work with the church to try to determine the pathway it took to spread and engage in some good old fashioned contact tracing. There is no word on whether those infected were congregation or staff members, or even the extent that that church service had anything to do with it.
The Sun Valley church has been battling with Public health officials for months over the serious risk that coronavirus is said to pose, costing the church hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. MacArthur declared that his church doesn’t believe the narrative and that they don’t know anyone who has it, saying:
In California as of now, you have a 1 in 100th of 1%. That’s the number of people who have COVID. 100th of 1%. Out of 40 million. That’s not a death certificate that’s a COVID statistic. By no definition does that fit a pandemic by their own data. Something else is going on and I think we all pretty much all know that. It’s wonderful to realize that God is in charge, and everything is on schedule perfectly as far as he is concerned.
Under the county health officer’s order, places of worship must report to the county Public Health Department when at least three coronavirus cases are identified among staff or worshipers within a span of 14 days so the agency can determine whether there is an outbreak.
After several months of protracted legal wrangling in early fall, Grace Community Church won the right to stay open and have their services indoors at maximum capacity until 2021, pending further litigation. Unlike many other churches, pre-registration before attending the church is not required, there are no temperature checks at the doors, and masks are not mandatory but only worn as a matter of conscience, a practice the vast majority of congregants eschew.
Update #1. We’ve reached out to sources at Grace Church for more information and they told us that there have been no hospitalizations as far as they know, and they don’t believe it is members of the church staff.
Liberty University has taken the next step in their pledge to launch a comprehensive review of their business operations and shady practices, hiring global forensic law firm Baker Tilly US to investigate the University, as well as setting up a website to “facilitate the reporting of potential misconduct to the investigative team.” This is a continuation of their decision that was announced in late August after the gross moral failings and sexual shenanigans of president Jerry Falwell Jr. were revealed.
According to an LU press release:
The web-based portal is hosted on encrypted services. It permits confidential submission of sensitive information from current and former Liberty University employees, contractors and business affiliates. The website was developed and is hosted by a third-party vendor independent of Liberty University.
Those with information they believe might be useful to the forensic investigation into potential misconduct in business operations of the University and/or any improper decisions or actions by current or former members of University leadership, are encouraged to visit the portal at https://lu.integrityline.org/index.php to learn more and file a confidential report.
The website reporting is only available for 60 days, and rest assured that while not strictly designed for us, we at Protestia contacted the firm and listed a series of grievances and questions of impropriety, particularly the notion that Falwell left the University on “good terms” and as a result received a multi-million dollar payout.
We wrote about this two months ago, when we said:
Liberty University has declared themselves complicit in Jerry Falwell Jr’s sin by covering up and sweeping everything under the rug, agreeing to pay the disgraced former president $10,500,000 following his resignation, content to see him leave peacefully rather than insisting that he be held accountable for his actions.
Falwell is receiving the full amount under the terms in his contract because he is departing from the University officially in good standing with them, without admitting to any wrongdoing and because the university has chosen not to formally accuse him.
‘The board was gracious not to challenge that,’ said Falwell, relieved at being able to get out with millions in his bank and refusing to acknowledge any wrongdoing or sin on his part. ‘There wasn’t any cause…I haven’t done anything.’
Furthermore, according to sources, Falwell will be given the privilege to consult for the school during its transition to a new administration, offering advice and input into the new President who will be replacing him and acting President Jerry Prevo.
If the Board of Trustees and the Board of Directors had any sort of integrity or strength of conviction, they would not have allowed Falwell to leave in good standing with them, staying silent as his insistence that he has done nothing wrong despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.
They wouldn’t have chosen not to formally charge him, but rather would have enacted disciplinary procedures, showing the world and their students that they take these sorts of things seriously. They should have challenged his compensation. They should have fired him for gross misconduct and sexual malfeasance. They should have kicked him out, publicly, acknowledging that he did do something terribly wrong.
But no. They are allowing Falwell to slink away, undercover, in good standing, with $10,500,000 dollars and likely the last word they will ever say on his behavior, allowing the impression that ‘hasn’t done anything’ to stand in the chasm.
