A member of Patreon since December 2015, BTWN, who hosts our own podcast ‘The Polemic Report’ was one of the first discernment ministries to use the platform, and the ban came without warning or any indication that he was in violation of any terms of service, with the company claiming the was violating their policy on hate speech.
Given that he was kicked out after his page was already “thoroughly reviewed” there is no appeal process, and the decision is final.
Hurd, for his part, was shocked by the news.
“It’s finally happened to me. The thing is that I’m not surprised it happened to me but I’m surprised it happened to me before other people in my own theological circle. And you can think of who those people are with healthy Patreon accounts right now, and mine is gone.”
He totally means us.
He continues:
“The only I can think of (that I’ve talked about and which caused them to kick me off) is the biological male who is a swimmer, and from time to time on the BTWN channel I’ve talked about that and said I didn’t think it was right that he was swimming with biological females and wining all those races. If it’s not that, I don’t know what it is.
Patreon did provide BTWN with a list of all his supporters, and so he is moving to the platform Ko-fi.com, which is a Patreon alternative that he hopes will be less restrictive.
We at Protestia still have access to our account, located here, and are actively in the process of looking for free-speech alternatives, given that we are a waaaaaaaaaay bigger violater of their policies than Tim is. Please consider supporting us there, and then when they inevitably send us to the proverbial guillotines, we will have a way to contact you.
Just a brief post to highlight a video from our ministry friend Tim Hurd of the BibleThumpingWingnut. He uploaded a video commending and giving visibility to Marty Iles, whom Hurd argues in many ways might be considered the ‘John MacArthur’of Australia. This is well worth a viewing.
Preaching from Ephesians 1:11-14, John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, took a minute to call out Joel Osteen and his rotten book Your Best Life Now taking it to task for the false promise that it presents. MacArthur notes that for For unbelievers, this is their best life. For Christian, this is not our best life, but rather our worse life, because our best life will be in heaven.
Tim Hurd, who does excellent analysis every week and where we pulled the video from, also explains that this is the first time in a long time that the camera person is showing the crowds and congregants, now that California is allowing churches to gather. For many months they had abanded their traditional practice of showing the audience and chose to focus the whole time on MacArthur, so as not to give authorities an idea of who was in their congregation, lest they be subject to fines and punishment.
I was asked this morning if this was my last sermon ever, because it was titled the final blessing. (Laughter) Now I know for some of you that would be the final blessing (Laughter)
It was about a dozen years ago that a popular book came out written by Joel Osteen, the title of the book was your best life now. And it sold about 8 million copies. at the time it’s been 12 years since then and 12 rather dramatic years particularly, the more recent ones.
Such a jarring disturbing shift has taken place in the social order that we have in our country and around the world that I think few people are convinced that this is their best life right now. That would be a hard sell, probably good that the book came out before the current stress began, or it might not have been very popular. In fact there may be a number of those 8 million who would like to get their money back since this didn’t turn out to be what they had hoped
We are now living under dominant deception, dominant lies, hatred, crime anger, selfishness, immorality. A pandemic wickedness that most of all hates the truth and will assault the truth every possible way it can. And that means that the church of Jesus Christ is going to experience things that we haven’t experienced in this country or even in the West ever perhaps. the noble experiment of America have a just and civil society based on biblical morality and firm legal control by government exercising the threat and the reality of punishment to those who violate the law, is essentially over.
Nobody really seems to care to hide any wickedness anymore. Hearts are unmasked while faces are masked. This cannot be our best life! And it’s not going to get better. Evil men grow worse and worse. This is a free fall, not temporary. We’re going down and we’re going down under the sheer force of unbelief and sin unprotected and unrestrained by the judgment of God.
This is not our best life, not by any means to all who are in Christ, our best life is yet to come our best life is the glory of heaven.
Friend of the ministry Tim Hurd of the Bible Thumping Wingnut had a chance to interview Pastor James Coates on the weekend, asking him a host of questions that were submitted by listeners and supporters. Here is the full interview, with timestamped questions below.
1:32 When did you go to the Masters’s seminary and when did you become Pastor of the Church?
3:52 How do you get locked out of your Church when Covid-19 isn’t that bad in Alberta?
6:39 What time do you think the Police showed up to put the fence up around your church facility?
8:28 What would happen if you didn’t decide to meet secretly, but showed up to the church anyway and had your sermon publicly there?
10:43 What did you think when you saw the fence being taken down by protesters?
13:23 How do you decide when to obey or disobey the government?
15:56 How would you respond to other pastors and brothers and sisters in Christ who disagree with your stance? Those who are saying ‘we can still worship in Alberta’ and ‘they are not being persecuted.’
18:51 Have you seen spiritual growth among your congregation and in the leadership of the church because of this?
22:55: What do you think is going to happen with all this. Will your worship team be arrested next week, might you be imprisoned again? What do you think the future hods?
27:15 While you were in prison, were you ever tempted to give in and sign the condition statement? How hard was it not to?
28:57 One day you heard you were being let out. How did that come about and what changed their mind?
32:59 Did you watch the interviewers Erin did while you were in prison? What did you think of her doing the interviews and the thing she was saying? What about the critique that it should have been the elders giving the statement.
36:01 Thoughts on some mosques showing full parking lots, and whether or not there is a double standard.
39:39 Did you preach the gospel to other inmates in prison? What about the rumor you couldn’t have a bible?
… so you know would I’d walk by doors to connect with another inmate and on the way, there’d be guys banging on the cell door and getting me to pray for them. And so I had tons of opportunity to share the gospel with the inmates. Not so much with the guards because they’re kept quite a bit removed from you, but let me just tell you this story just to kind of show you the relationship that I had with these guys.
On my final moment basically, as I’m leaving the cell- everyone knows when you’re leaving- and there was lots of visibility around my leaving because I had a court case, a court hearing and then the radio station was announcing my release and so everyone was almost waiting and looking for me to be released. And everyone in the cell can see the exit door and the exit entrance from their cell, and so as I was about to leave and I’m getting to that door, the cell doors are banging.
And there would have been, you know, 30 plus cells with in some cases 2 guys in each cell, so you know 50 to 70 guys. And so I turned around and I waved and the place just shook. I mean it was a moment. And I looked over at the guards to just say ‘see you guys’ and ‘appreciate you and I could see that they were impacted by it. I mean like this was unusual that this would this kind of response would take place as I left, and that the chaplain was there for that moment to witness it and he emailed me after the fact and just said ‘I’ll never forget that moment’. It was just a moment where they were expressing support respect affection for me, and it was a sweet, sweet moment.
45:02 How can people pray for you? How can people help?
48:03 Asking about a message he gave where James describes how ministry and fellowship within a church must take place face-to face.
52:33 In what Ways has John Macarthur reached out to you?
54:32 What scriptures have strengthened you and encouraged you during this time of difficulty with the government?
57:46 How have your church numbers been? How has attendance been impacted by this?
1:00:16 Thoughts on Government taking your building/ has this happened in Canada before?
Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. (3 John 1:2)
Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church (GCC) in Sun Valley, California, who is normally in the news for an on-going battle with Los Angeles County Health Officials to keep his church open amidst California Governor Gavin Newsom’s shutdown orders, has a few people saying his name for a different reason.
Speculation about MacArthur’s health comes in light of him missing preaching two weeks in a row, as well as people not understanding what sort of schedule he keeps.
Historically, John MacArthur takes 8 weeks off preaching duties in July and August, but those months were bumped up to the fall given the heat from COVID-19 and the government threatening to shut down the church. With GCC going to court and receiving a reprieve for several months, MacArthur took off most of October and November. He returned to the pulpit for three weeks, and now has been absent for two.
MacArthur was initially supposed to preach on Sunday, January 3rd and have Steve Lawson preach the evening service, but those plans were changed, and MacArthur was taken off the schedule and Lawson replaced him in the morning slot.
In a brief message from Pastor Tom Patton before the service, he explains:
…And we have the privilege this morning of having Dr. Steve Lawson with us in our pastor’s stead…This gives our pastor John a little more time to rest and prepare for Shepherds’ Conference. I know that seems kind of early (March 3-5, 2021), but Shepherds’ Conference is right around the corner, just so you know. It’s moving fast upon us as the days unfold, so please be in prayer for leaders all around the word…
Tim Hurd of The Bible Thumping Wingnut Network, who like us at Protestia is a huge fan of MacArthur and GCC – having been blessed for years by the man and ministry – has been graciously following along and updating his audience on how things are coming along in these dark times with this Church serving as a beacon in the darkness.
With Hurd being friends with several GCC members and having “insider access,” he explains he was informed that the reason MacArthur needs rest, apart from being 81 years old, is that he is sick with a bit of the stomach flu.
He does NOT have COVID-19.
Dr. Steve Lawson made a few comments during his own message, mentioning his esteem for pastor MacArthur. He describes GCC as having the greatest pastor on planet earth – how he has been raised up by God at this moment in history to be the leading voice of evangelicalism and the last man standing. He says:
There is one strong man, an atlas, who is upholding the faith once and for all delivered to the saints, and that’s the man who stands in this Pulpit. May God bless him. May God strengthen him. May God hold him up. May God give him another hundred years.
To that we say, “yea and amen.”
See the full video below, and subscribe to Tim’s channel and hit the notification bell for the edification of your soul.
On the episode for December 28, 2020, JD is back from “vacation” and ready to talk polemics. After sharing the Gospel, JD launches into an explanation for why Albert Mohler got “Worst Christian of 2020” award from Protestia (he’s been sent a trophy with a goat atop, per our annual tradition). He then discusses numerous topics, including Jonathan Merritt RT’ing a poem and woman who claims that women are uniquely qualified to be a pastor because breastfeeding gives them cracked nipples (we kid you not). JD also gives an Ode to Ken Fryer, who passed away into glory. And then, JD answers some patron’s questions and explains why people missing church for COVID-19 should be disciplined.
On today’s program for October 8, 2020, JD goes through the news of the day including Beth Moore, the latest poll from Barna on Christians not knowing what Christianity is, and other stuff. Then, he discusses Tim Keller’s incessant nonsense on Twitter that people think they don’t understand because it’s too smart for them; in reality they don’t understand it because it’s stupid and doesn’t mean anything. Finally, JD goes through a newsletter from a pastor sheep-beating his church for not wanting to wear masks.
