Tag: jail

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Church Drive-In Church Featured In-person Church News Righteous Defiance

The Newest Update on Jailed Pastor James Coates

Court stuff

While many believed that his conditions hearing was on Friday, February 26th, where the judge would determine whether or not James had to abide by release conditions that said he could not step foot on church property, it was not so. Rather, it was only the day that they filed/submitted the paperwork and applications.

Instead, his conditions hearing is set for Wednesday, March 3rd, with lawyer James Kitchen filing an application with the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench seeking the pastor’s release until his May 3 trial begins. Furthermore, according to some sources, the court will reconvene with lawyers on March 5 for a case management plan.

How he’s doing in prison

An update from Erin Coates, James’s wife, posted on Friday the 26th on Instagram:

James is okay. He received his canteen (extra snacks and hygiene products) so he’s a little less hungry. The lack of activity is starting to affect him, he’s very active in both mind and body so this is hard for him. He used to filling his mind with deep theological truth day-in and day-out. I asked him why our phone calls were so short and he had informed me that he only gets 2 15 blocks of time out of his cell.

When he has to shower he only has enough time to tell me he loves me and he has to go. This was the case this morning a quick “I love you.” And “the Psalms have been sweet to me”. And he was gone. This is so hard for me. I have unlimited access to him since he opted to work from home to care for us.

What you can do to help

First off, you can pray. Pray for James, for his family, and for unity within the church body as they go through this. Pray that Alberta Premier Jason Kenny opens up the churches and stops singling them out from among other businesses and establishments to remain closed. Also, pray that the conditions of his bail hearing would go well on Wednesday.

For Canadians, particularly Albertans, call your MPs and representatives. Be kind, and polite, but call them, email them, or send them a letter in the mail. Here is a list of MPs along with their contact information. While they can’t intervene in James’ case at this point, they can intervene in and impact current health policies and legislation that are restricting other churches in the province to 15% capacity.

If you’re in Edmonton or nearby, there is a rally planned for 1:00 p.m. at the courthouse. Please attend if you can.

To conclude with words from Erin Coates:

I’m so thankful for each and every one of you. I have seen the Universal Body love us in a way that makes my heart leap for joy, a taste of our time in heaven…but actually together!

Until then; Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him (Psalm 37:7), God’s time, though it tarry, and God’s deliverance, though delayed, when it comes proves always to have been best: ‘My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him’ (Psalm 62:5)—Octavius Winslow

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Breaking Church Featured News

Breaking! Pastor James Coates Trial set for May 3

Update #1. Friday the 26th has been confirmed for the conditions hearing. If the conditions are not waived, he will spend the next three months in prison.

Pastor James Coates’ trial has been scheduled for May 3rd before Stony Plain provincial court judge Charles Gardner, according to a decision handed down today. Coates did not appear in person in the courtroom as the date of the three-day trial was announced.

The next phase of the case will see Coates having a hearing to determine whether or not his conditions of release will be lifted. The current conditions prohibit him from stepping back onto church property, effectively handing him a restraining order against the church he pastors at and the flock he leads. He has so far not consented to these tyrannical impositions, resulting in more than a week in prison.

According to the Winnipeg Free Press, “John Carpay, president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, the organization representing Coates, said lawyer James Kitchen plans to file an application with the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench seeking the pastor’s release until the trial begins.”

Absent a bid to have the conditions of his release overturned, this ensures that unless he agrees to them at this point, or the crown prosecutor chooses to lay them aside, then the Gracelife Church pastor will remain incarcerated until the summer.

His lawyer, James Kitchen from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms was hoping for the early date, while the Crown wanted the trial in late June. With the May 3-5 date set, this means he will like spend nearly three months incarcerated.

Furthermore, with the church still choosing to remain open past the 15% capacity allowed under the shutdown, Gracelife is still firmly in the crosshairs of the Alberta Health Services who are seeking to shut them down and discontinue their gathering.

As a result, further Sunday services may result in the Associate Pastor being fined or likewise arrested. Or law enforcement officials will begin handing out $1200 fines to any congregants who step foot on Church property, with even another possibility that they will simply physically bar anyone from attending services and stepping on Church property.

On Saturday, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Edmonton Remand Center, the maximum-security prison where Coates is being kept, worshiping the Lord, praying, and rallying either for his release or for the supposedly devout Roman Catholic Premier of Alberta, Jason Kenny, revise his strict lockdown rules imposed on Churches and let the pastors of the province open up their churches.

This past Sunday, Pastor John MacArthur who is the Chancellor and Professor of Pastoral Ministry at The Master’s Seminary, the school where James Coates graduated from years ago, publicly prayed for him and his congregation, as well as released a statement of support on him.

This is a developing story….

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Church Evangelical Stuff In-person Church News Righteous Defiance

Hundreds Rally At Edmonton Prison in Support of Incarcerated Pastor

The Edmonton Remand Center became the hub of a major protest, as hundreds of men and women turned out to a rally in support of imprisoned Pastor James Coates. The GraceLife Church pastor has become a symbol for freedom of religion and opposition to tyrannical government persecution after he was arrested and remains detained for refusing to close down the church he pastors.

Alberta’s Public Health Act limits church gatherings at 15% capacity and imposes a string of further restrictions on masking, singing, and social distancing during services. With GraceLife Church refusing to abide by it, Coates was eventually arrested. According to the RCMP, Coates “was charged with two counts of contravention of the Public Health Act and charged for failing to comply with a condition of his undertaking, under the Criminal Code.”

Coates was given the opportunity to serve his time at home until his trial, on the condition that he does not step foot inside the Church. Believing he would not be able to effectively shepherd his congregation if he could not do this, he remains remanded.

As a result, hundreds turned out in support of the pastor, in contravention to Alberta’s restrictions on social gatherings which limits them to no more than 10 people. On the other side of town, more were gathered at the Legislature building in opposition to the lockdown and also in support of Pastor Coates.

People peacefully sang and prayed, singing Amazing Grace, delivering a message to the Premiere of Alberta Jason Kenny, and encouraging other churches to open. Pastor Henry Hildebrandt of the Church of God in Aylmer, Ontario showed up to share a message. Hildebrant has been engaged with law enforcement for nearly a year over his own church being open, initially fighting to have even drive-in services, up to recently where 47 congregation members were each issued $880 tickets for violating lockdown orders.

Erin Coates, wife of James Coates, described it as a “sweet joy” to see everyone gathered in support of her husband and told the crowd, “I know my husband is fighting for freedom, but more he’s fighting for the lordship of Christ over his church.”

She encourages them to listen to and circulate this sermon preached by her husband on his last Sunday before his arrest, which explains the roles of the church and government in society. As far as what people can do to support them and the church, she said:

Open your churches. Petition your [unintelligible] to open the Churches. Take a stand for the Lord Jesus Christ and take a stand for the people. Love them. Open the doors. That’s what we need to do right now. People are hurting. They need to hear about Christ. They need to hear about him who has paid the penalty for sins so they can be reconciled to God.

And so I hope that happens through all of this. Open the doors of the churches. Sing your hearts out to the Lord. Love one another…and be kind to those who oppose us, because we’re doing this in love. And they’re not going to understand it – they didn’t understand Christ, they won’t understand us either. And that’s ok, because we love them anyway.

So go on my brothers and sisters with boldness. Proclaim the gospel, use every opportunity to share what he has done in your life and who He is because there’s eternal souls at risk right now, and so I just thank you all for being here.

More rallies and protests are planned for next week.



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Breaking Featured In-person Church Righteous Defiance

Canadian Pastor Imprisoned Until He Promises to Stop Preaching Amid Lockdown

#Update 1. Pastor James Coates’ wife, Erin, wrote on Instagram:

A Canadian pastor remains in prison after being arrested for violating a public health order which prohibits houses of worship from gathering at more than 15 percent capacity, along with restrictions on singing, physical distance, masking, and communion services.

He is the first Canadian Pastor to be jailed for holding a church service.

Pastor James Coates of Grace Life Church (GLC) in Edmonton, Alberta [Editor’s Note: GLC is about as solid as a church as they come, and we have close friends and ministry partners who attend there] has been in custody since Tuesday, the end result of a month-long protracted battle with the province trying to shut them down.

During the bail hearing/ show cause hearing for violating the public health order, the prosecution asked that the pastor be detained until his trial, as they view him as a menace to Albertans and to the general populace. Given that Coates has no criminal record and public health violations don’t typically carry jail time, the Justice of the Peace agreed to release him on the condition that he promises to not step foot on the church property- that he does not lead worship or preach at that church until his trial.

Essentially, they’ve given him a restraining order from his own pulpit.

Coates refused to abide by that, and so he has been remanded until he agrees to those conditions or until the Crown prosecutor changes its mind.

His wife Erin shared an update, writing that the condition of his release is that he effectively does not pastor anymore.

In an email to members, GLC elders also state the same:

The conditions currently in place prevent Pastor James from preaching, leading worship and even setting foot inside GraceLife Church until the time of his trial which is yet to be determined. Pastor James could not in all clear conscience abide by his current conditions so he remains behind bars.

Coates will remain in custody there until at least February 24, at which time he and their lawyer, James Kitchen (with the JCCF), will appear before a Judge and seek Pastor James’ release condition appealed or modified.



Coates’ Lawyer said in a statement to CTV:

His first obedience is to his Lord, is to his God. And normally, obeying Jesus and obeying the government go right in hand. The government is forcing him in to a position where he has to choose between disobeying God and obeying government, or obeying God and disobeying government.

He has chosen to obey God.

The province of Alberta has a population of 4.4 million and has 1798 deaths from COVID-19. Seventy-eight percent of the deaths have come from nursing homes/senior care homes and 97 percent of deaths are in people over the age of 60, with the average age of death being 83 years old.

Prior to being arrested, Coates told Rebel News that while he was dismayed that not many pastors were standing with him, he hoped he might serve as an example to stiffen their spine across the province and nation, where in locked down provinces all but a handful of Churches have gone virtual.

“It’s my prayer that some of the sermons that are coming from our pulpit will help to challenge the thinking of pastors all over this province who are true shepherds of the Lord Jesus Christ to take the stand they ought to take for the corporate gathering, to follow in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd.

Right now Coates is in isolation for COVID-19 at the Remand Center. He’s allowed one hour out of the cell per each 24 hours, and he can accept letters, along with a 25 minute video call every three days.

To write a letter in support to him, his new address is

James Coates
Remand Center
18415-127th St NW
Edmonton, AB
T6V 1V1

All letters will be opened and read.


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Church News Righteous Defiance

John MacArthur Updates on the Threat of Jails, Fines, and calls Masks ‘A Bacterial Zoo you Have over your Face’

John MacArthur appeared for a brief interview on the Todd Starnes show on Monday afternoon, posted below, to give a minor update on how his church is handling things and the latest word the progression of the court case.

At first, it was the threat of 90 days in jail, then the last time I saw it it was 6 months in jail, but that hasn’t been activated yet. In fact, we had the sixth hearing in court on Friday- six times the county has taken us to court- and the judge has still not ruled on that. So there’s really been no outcome yet that could be measured in terms of a fine or contempt or jail or whatever, so, they can’t seem to get what they want. The county can’t. They’ve been frustrated six times in court but we’ll see what comes next.

MacArthur mentions that two of the health inspectors were believers and they joined in the service during their inspection duties, as well as complimented MacArthur’s son in law on a singing piece. MacArthur mentions that 90% of the health department is disgusted at what they’re doing to Grace Church, a statistic that was first unearthed by Tim Hurd at the Bible Thumping Wingnut, which we also covered here.

MacArthur reiterates that none of his congregation of several thousand have died from it or have been hospitalized despite meeting for 8 weeks, commenting:

Well look, here is the latest statistic. This came out in court Friday. If you’re living in California, here’s the chance you’re going to die from COVID. This was presented to the court. One chance in 19.1 million. That’s the chance you’re going to die from COVID in California currently.

Starnes asks MacArthur what he thinks ultimately is happening with everything that was experienced in terms of COVID, the culture, and the role of the Church. MacArthur shares:

This is not a response to a virus…this is control. We all know that masks are basically a bacterial zoo you have over your face. They’re not healthy. Medical doctors have told me 30 minutes of one of those you gotta get rid of it. So this is about control. This is all part of the strategy. This plays into the same strategies that are being played out on a number of fronts to bring down the country that we’ve always known, to limit our freedom.

I think if you want a socialist country, you have to get rid of the capitalist and they’re doing a number with this on small businesses. It’s almost like a variation of the bolshevik revolution where you take everybody’s business over with the government and you can see moves being made in that direction.

But I think a lot of it has to do with the election. You would say, ‘well is this some kind of conspiracy being orchestrated by one person?’ I don’t know anything about that, but I do know these things play into the chaos, the utter chaos and disillusionment they have generated on other fronts, and this is just of one those additional operations that is making life miserable for Americans and I think they want to blame the president for it.

In further developments, PJ Media is reporting that:

“Los Angeles County has expressed its intention to haul Grace Community Church (GCC) Pastor John MacArthur back into court, attempting to secure a contempt ruling against him, which would involve hefty fines. On Monday, an LA superior court judge punted on contempt, but the county told MacArthur’s lawyers that it intends to refile charges in another court.”

Continue to pray for Pastor MacArthur and all the brothers and sisters at Grace Community Church.

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Church Featured Righteous Defiance

Louisiana Pastor Faces 3 Years in Prison for Defying Church Lockdown Orders. Arraignment set for Tuesday

Tony Spell, pastor of the Life Tabernacle Church, leaves East Baton Rouge Parish jail after posting bond in Baton Rouge, La., Tuesday, April 21, 2020. Louisiana authorities arrested the pastor on an assault charge on Tuesday after he admitted that he drove his church bus toward a man who has been protesting his decision to hold mass gatherings in defiance of public health orders during the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Rev. Tony Spell, the pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Central, Louisiana, is set to be arraigned on Sept 22 for six misdemeanor charges incurred in the early months of the pandemic for refusing to abide by Gov. John Bel Edwards’ lockdown orders.

At the time, in the months of March and April, Rev Tony Spell gained national prominence and notoriety for being known as the pastor of the ‘Last Church In America Still Open’ where the Church never shut down and had in-person services without any social distancing, weekly drawing hundreds of congregants, and possibly being the only church in his state never to close. This resulted in him getting arrested, being fitted with an ankle monitor, and defying the restrictions place on him and preaching anyway.

These particular 6 gatherings that he’s being charged for, which at the time exceeded the 10-person limit set by the Democratic governor, each carry a penalty of six months in jail and a $500 fine.

Though this scenario would happen, if the governor and prosecutors were hellbent on it, they could charge Rev. Spell for each of the 80 services he conducted in direct contravention to the orders, each with a sentence of up to six months, resulting in 40 years in prison. The fact that such a sentence is even a theoretical possibility is terrifying.

Rev Spell has released a statement, saying in part:

“…At the state level, the state legislature makes the law.  While the Governor may be authorized to issue emergency orders, he cannot make law. It should be clear that no emergency order of a Governor can lawfully take away our constitutional rights under the First Amendment, which includes Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, and Freedom of Assembly.  Any attempt by the Governor to do so is ultra vires, or outside the law and of no effect.”

“When the Governor had the Chief of Police of Central come and arrest me in the sanctuary of Life Tabernacle Church, that arrest was totally unlawful.  When District Judge Fred Crifasi ordered me not to preach in church on Sunday morning, ordered that I be confined to my home, and ordered an ankle bracelet attached to my leg, all of those things were unlawful too.

“Here at Life Tabernacle, the persecution of our congregation and me personally continues, but I will not bow to the state and agree that the Governor has the lawful authority to bar me from the pulpit, or close down our church — or any church for that matter!”

Rev. Spell’s attorney, Jeff Wittenbrink, relayed that the defiant reverend will enter a plea at the time of the arraignment and we expect him to plead ‘not guilty.’

As a bit of insider baseball, Spell’s Lawyer contacted us here at Protestia wanting to know why we referred to Rev Spell as a heretic in one of our responses, writing: “Pastor Spell has stood up for our God-given rights to worship and assemble freely since the beginning of the Wuhan virus.   I recently saw a reply to a friend that you made saying that he was a “heretic.”   I read your “About P & P News” section.  My question:  exactly how is Pastor Spell a heretic?”

Our response is simple. For as much as we admire his courage, we would never advise anyone to worship with this group on any day of the week, much less during a pandemic. In fact- any true believer would run screaming like a banshee from this hellacious cauldron of blasphemy.

Services of the self-declared “Apostolics of Baton Rouge” are riddled with the worst excess of pentecostal concoctions. Imagine 30 middle-aged women dancing at the front during worship while waving hands and lavender flags to the irksome beats of Hillsong, and you get the picture.

If that by itself wasn’t enough to shudder the spine of even the reformed-est of men, their statement of faith paints an even clearer picture of theological decrepitude: that of 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 who hold to the doctrine of sinless perfectionism.

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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.

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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.’

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Featured News Righteous Defiance

John MacArthur set to have Church this Morning in Defiance of Court Order: Here’s the Punishment he Faces

John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church (GCC) has indicated that he will have indoor services this morning, in defiance of a preliminary injunction granted by a Los Angeles judge that prohibits him from doing so.

On Thursday L.A. County Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff sided with the public health officials hell-bent on shutting down CGG, giving the adversarial officials a win after a string of losses against the church.

The judge overseeing the case ruled that the MacArthur-led megachurch would be barred from having indoor services this coming Sunday as well as every other Sunday for the foreseeable future, arguing that the church being open is an “immediate threat to public health and safety due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

With the County obtaining a preliminary injunction, it means that GCC cannot meet indoors until it is resolved, but may still meet outside, so long as they socially distance, wear face masks, and meet in smaller groups. Judge Beckloff wrote in his decision:

But MacArthur has indicated he will defy those orders, telling Shannon Bream in a Fox News interview friday night “We’re going to have Church on Sunday. There is absolutely no reason not to have church as far as safety goes….Plus we’re under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and he says have church, and we’re gonna have it.“

In an op-ed posted this morning by pastor MacArthur on the Daily Wire, he elaborated on his motivations for defying the injunction, writing:

Churches must keep the priorities in order. We cannot sacrifice robust spiritual health, the preaching of the gospel, and the gathering of the church for worship under the power of divine truth in order to guard people from something that is only slightly more threatening than the seasonal flu. We don’t ‘save lives’ in any way that counts for eternity by putting a muzzle on our public proclamation of the Word of life.

Speaking of the commission and purpose for the church, MacArthur asks:

Could anything be more callous than to cause people to fear a virus and then shut them off from the only source where they can have that ultimate fear finally and completely removed?

We, the church, cannot relinquish our duties before God in order to appease the arbitrary, mercurial, and onerous restrictions of a governor who imposes rules on others that he does not even follow himself. Our fear of forsaking the assembly of believers greatly surpasses the fear of being infected by COVID-19 (much less the fear of whatever consequences we might face from government officials). We will put nothing in the way of those who come to church for fellowship, instruction, worship, and the sanctifying benefits of hearing God’s Word proclaimed.

…May the Lord give us all wisdom, courage, and love to honor Him as so many of our spiritual ancestors have done in much harder times than these.

It is not completely clear whether or not the church will have outdoor services, however. So far everything MacArthur has said has indicated that they will not, but rather will continue as usual with their indoor gathering, perhaps buoyed by the knowledge that their lawyer Jenna Ellis has filed an appeal on Friday to contravene the injunction.

As for punishment for intentionally disregarding the court injunction by Judge Beckloff, we read:

  • “If a court issues a temporary restraining order or a preliminary or permanent injunction in an action brought pursuant to subdivision (a) or (b), ordering a defendant to refrain from conduct or activities, the order issued shall include the following statement:  VIOLATION OF THIS ORDER IS A CRIME PUNISHABLE UNDER SECTION 422.77 OF THE PENAL CODE .
  • Section 422.77: Any willful and knowing violation of any order issued pursuant to subdivision (a) or (b) of Section 52.1 of the Civil Code shall be a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than six months, or by both the fine and imprisonment.“

GCC has so far has amassed over $20,000 in fines for having indoor services and singing during those services, an act outlawed by Governor Gavin Newsom’s shut down order. While we imagine they won’t waver about paying the $1,000, there is a very real threat that they could put pastor MacArthur in jail, based on the willful disobedience and open rebellion he has to the judge’s orders.

Given how rapacious the County has been in seeking to have them shut down – being the 5th time they’ve brought this motion forward, as well as canceling a 45 year parking lease, it would not surprise us to see MacArthur led out in handcuffs in the next several weeks. It’s not overly likely, given the severe nature and optic of such a move, but it is not outside the realm of possibility, given how crazy everything has become.

Pray for Grace Church and Pastor MacArthur.