BELIEVERS ARE TO
BLAME!
by Steve Fair
John MacArthur Jr. is pastor
of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA.
He is a well-known author and has a daily radio program, Grace to You,
heard by millions throughout the country.
MacArthur, 81, has pastored the church since 1969. Gavin
Newsom has been governor of California since January 2019. Newsom,52, previously served 8 years as the state’s Lt.
Governor and before that was mayor of San Francisco. During
his tenure as mayor, he directed the city clerk to issue same sex marriage
licenses, which triggered the nationwide movement to legalize same sex marriage.
In May, Newsom issued an
order banning in-church services in California to blunt the spread of the corona virus. A large Pentecostal church sued the state
seeking a restraining order, but the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals issued a split 2 to 1 decision denying the request. Ironically, the decision was issued the same
day President Trump said governors should allow church, synagogues, mosques and
other places of worship to reopen immediately.
After initially ceasing
services for 20 weeks, Grace Community chose to resume live serves on July 27th. The City of Los Angeles sent them a cease and
desist letter, threatening them with fines and arrest if they continued to
meet. In a statement the elders of Grace said: “It has never been the prerogative of civil
government to order, modify, forbid, or mandate worship. When, how, and how often the church worships
is not subject to Caesar. Caesar himself
is subject to God.” On Sunday to
thunderous applause, MacArthur opened the service by stating, “Welcome to the peaceful protest assembly at
Grace Community.” He was not
arrested. Three observations:
First, government has clearly
used COVID-19 to overreach their authority.
Even if their motive is to protect citizens, they do not have the
authority to close businesses and churches.
In a free society, there is always risk and it is not government’s job
to protect ourselves from ourselves. It
is to punish evil doers and reward those that do good.
Second, lack of involvement by believers
has created this situation. In the past,
MacArthur and other prominent pastors, have been vocally critical of those who
neglect the gospel for politics. “The
kingdom of darkness is going to do what the kingdom of darkness does. A
preacher or pastor should be known for preaching the gospel, not being engaged
in politics,” MacArthur once said. He
advocates voting, but says those who spend more time on politics than the
spread of the gospel are neglecting the gospel.
Clearly the gospel is eternal and politics temporal, but if more
believers had taken equity in their government, we wouldn’t have elected
officials banning church services. Out
of control government has been created by causal political involvement by
believers who were encouraged to ‘stay out of politics’ by their pastor.
Third, government can’t
control a sovereign God. No matter how many
in-person worship services they ban, the church will prevail. The gates of hell will not prevail against
it. The church has endured much worse persecution
than banning in-person services and requiring masks. In the end, God will prevail.
2 comments:
I use to drive by the Grace church in Sun Valley twice a day on my way to and from work. One of Grace's parking lots is across the street from my old American Legion hall. Now we live in Duncan OK. We could not be happier.
Please drop by the SCGOP HQ in Elk Plaza.
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