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Church News Righteous Defiance

MacArthur Reflects on Recent Court Ruling: Shares News about New Parking

Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church (GCC) gave a brief update to his congregation yesterday morning during the morning service, touching on the Church’s ability to stay open for the rest of the year, news we mentioned here, and commenting wryly on their parking situation.

I want to express my profound gratitude for the Lord for the way he has protected our church all these weeks. It is really amazing. This week was the seventh time that we have been brought into court. And we’re still here. And the court basically put no compunctions on us whatsoever. The reason is that all the efforts to hold us in contempt of court were for violation of health orders or to take away our parking lot can’t be adjudicated until the first amendment issue is dealt with, religious freedom, and that is a wall that the county has not been able to climb or go around.

So we’re still here and we have more parking than ever.

The parking comment is especially salient. The county announced several weeks ago that they were cutting GCC off from one of the parking lots they had been renting, ending a lease that had been in effect for 45 years, in an effort to force them to meet in fewer numbers, and prompting their lawyer Jenna Ellis to say:

The Church has peacefully held this lease for 45 years and the only reason the County is attempting eviction is because John MacArthur stood up to their unconstitutional power grab. This is harassment, abusive, and unconscionable.

While that is still an ongoing logistical issue to navigate, earlier in the service one of the announcers shared with the congregation the good news that Valley Beth Israel, the synagogue east of the church, has agreed to let the GCC use their parking between lot between 7:00 am and 1:00 pm, giving them additional much-needed space.

This will give the church nearly 100 additional parking spots and will certainly alleviate some of the pressure put on GCC, particularly with the lease set to expire before the next service.

As always, you can listen in to the original comments from MacArthur on the Bible Thumping Wingnut below, along with helpful commentary and context from Tim Hurd who has been aggregating and then sharing the segments.

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Church Featured Righteous Defiance

John MacArthur to Congregation: ‘You People are Getting Me into a Lot of Trouble’

Pastor John McArthur received another standing ovation from his congregation yesterday, with everyone standing and cheering for nearly 30 seconds as he made his way to the pulpit and shared a short pre-sermon address.

Macarthur will frequently use this ‘opening comments time’ to give an update on the current court case or to share information or brief thoughts with the congregation on current events or other things related to the day or to the church. These are not always captured as part of the online sermons that get posted, and so our friends at Bible Thumping Wingnut has recorded them and posted the video below, which we’ve transcribed.

“You people are getting me in a lot of trouble.” [Laughter and cheers from congregation]

Welcome to Grace Community Church on this Lord’s day. Psalms 67 says

God be gracious to us and bless us,
And cause His face to shine upon us— 
That Your way may be known on the earth,
Your salvation among all nations.
Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy;
For You will judge the peoples with uprightness
And guide the nations on the earth. 
Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.

God blesses us, till all the ends of the earth may fear him.

Father, we offer you our worship in this hour. As those who come before you unworthy, and yet joyfully welcome because we come in the Saviors name. Bless our fellowship and our worship together. Amen.

While not much to update in this case, we don’t know of the ‘You people are getting me in a lot of trouble.’ is related simply to the fines they are incurring, or something else.

Meanwhile, one of the special counsels representing MacArthur and Grace Church, who also happens to be one of President Trump’s Lawyers, pointed out that hundreds were gathering to mourn the loss of Chief Justice Ruth Ginsberg. She noted they were gathering in large groups without adhering to social distancing, which was fine to her, but like large BLM protests, these are encouraged and allowed while churches remain closed. It needed not be said that if the church gathered in the way that these mourners did, they would be in contravention to Governor Gavin Newsom’s lockdown orders and would be fined.

While Grace church was fined another 500$ this week for gathering, an appeal is expected from GCC early this week and we will also be informed as to what further consequences the Los Angeles County and the Judge will impose on the church for ignoring the court’s orders prohibiting them from gathering if it will be simply monetarily punitive, or if the threat of arrest is legitimately on the table.

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Breaking Featured Righteous Defiance

Exclusive: Calif. Health Department Church Investigator Reveals Details of Grace Church Visits


The BibleThumpingWingnut, (BTWN) friends of the channel who host the Polemic Report and who have been routinely been posting regular breaking updates to the Grace Church saga, have been in contact with a worker for the LA County Health Department tasked with overseeing non-compliant churches who are refusing to shut down as per Governor Gavin Newsom’s orders.

This worker’s identity has been verified to be authentic and has provided BTWN with exclusive information not seen anywhere else. We read from the provided letter, which has been modified to protect the identity of the worker, where he shares more details of this particular case, but also reveals the support that Pastor MacArthur has within the LA County Health Department who are talked to enforce the policies against their will and desires.

“Good afternoon sir, I am a new listener to your network. I work for the L.A County Health Department. I can email you from my government account if you would like me to verify. I have been assigned to investigate churches.

Today, Grace community allowed the health department inside and we got paid to sit through church. The dream come true. The health department will write up Grace community Church for $500 every Sunday for violating the health officer order, just letting people worship inside.

In the past, the LA County Health Department was penalizing the church for two different things. One was interfering with the duties of a health officer, not allowing them inside. The other was, breaking the health officer order by allowing people inside.

Both of those fines equal to $1,000, $500 for each. Now that Grace is letting the health department in, the maximum they can get fined is $500. I think it’s funny that the court ruled in favor of the county, but now every week the penalties will be less and less.

Many churches are accepting the $500 fine every week so that they can have indoor services. Do you have any questions? If so let me know. Obviously I am super busy with all this nonsense but I’m happy to help in any way.

I will say, MacArthur does state a lot of things that are misleading and some that are straight out wrong. But I am on his side 100%.”

Tim Hurd, the man behind BTWN doing the Lord’s work, then asks the worker a few clarifying comments and receives these answers.

Q: How many health officials visited Grace today?

A total of two health officers visited Grace today. I do not mind you sharing what I share with you, but please keep me anonymous. You can say “a guy that works for the health department” or whatever you choose, just keep my name anonymous. Me and two other guys work all the churches in the county. Two of the three of us are strong Christians. I am involved with five other churches every week.

Q: Are you a born again Christian?

I am a Christian. Christ is the center of my life and the only reason I do what I do. I have two children and I stay at home life, by the grace of God I am what I am.

-How much of the info you’ve included in your email can I share publicly?

Anything I tell you, you may say. And I will keep you updated with everything that I know. I think it is important that people know what is going on on the level where the rubber hits the road. Honestly, 90% of the health department is disgusted by laws that are being implemented. It’s just the tip of the spear that makes laws, and then embarrasses us by making us enforce it. For the record, there’s a lot of people who do not enforce things because they do not believe it is right.

Categories
Breaking Featured Righteous Defiance

John MacArthur Defied a Court Order this Morning and Had In-person Services. This is what Happened

Pastor MacArthur defied a preliminary injunction against him and Grace Community Church by an L.A court that prohibited them from having indoor services, setting himself up to be charged with a $1000 fine and face jail time for refusing to abide by the court ruling.

Speaking in front of a packed congregation, MacArthur was greeted by an almost 30-second standing ovation, with the church cheering him and thanking him for not bowing to Los Angeles County Health official’s efforts to shut him down.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1305199224607268865


MacArthur addressed one of the main questions he was receiving; why not just abide by the court order and have outdoor services, which they are allowed to do? The Shepherd explaining that to do so would practically and destroy their services and their ability to properly and effectively preach the gospel and serve the congregation. He said:

“You people are out of control. Are you happy to be at church?

Before we begin, the question has come up a number of times about why Grace church does not just comply with the orders that have been laid down for churches. And I thought it might be helpful to give you the list of things that are required of us as a church so that you understand how utterly impossible that would be. Here are the basic orders.

-No indoor meetings at all
-Pre-registration of every person who comes on the church property
-People only allowed on church property for scheduled events
-Every person who comes on the property is to be screened and have their temperature taken at the entry
-We all must maintain 6 feet of social distance at all times everywhere, including the parking lot and the restrooms
-Every other parking space must be left vacant
-Marked pathways to maintain social distance.
-Keeping people apart by staff monitors
-Everyone always wearing a mask
-Restroom monitors to control 6 feet social distancing at restrooms
-Tape on the ground marking distance
-Signs indicating these mandates and also full exposure on social media
restrooms are to be used during the service to minimize the rush. That would be interesting.
-No hymnbooks
-No communion
-No offering containers
-No pew bibles
-No singing
-No hugging
-No shaking hands
-Disposable seat covers changed between services
-And the services have to be shortened (laughter from congregation) that’s not a problem for me, right?

And based upon the separation, we could only meet in the tent with a maximum of 350-400 people (GCC has 10 times that on a regular Sunday) You can see these are the requirements that would completely shut the church down. Anyone who comes in contact with someone outside their family for more than 15 minutes must self-quarantine for 2 weeks.

Obviously this is not constitutional, but more importantly it goes against the will of the Lord of the church who calls us to gather, amen? So look at the person next to you and say ‘I don’t know who you are but I’m so glad I’m sitting next to you.’