Another day another crazy NAR preacher making carnal argument to ignore this pandemic...

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But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. -- Philippians 3:20-21 (ESV)

https://www.charismanews.com/opinion/renewing-america/80861-why-this-pastor-says-we-must-reopen-our-states-right-now

David Lane is a NAR operative who runs the "American Renewal Project"; designed to further his seven mountains heretical dream of global domination. We must understand as followers of Jesus Christ that our place is not to influence culture but to save people from it by the preaching of the Gospel. The obvious hallmarks of the NAR dominionist mindset is a laser focus upon the things of this world instead of the kingdom. Read the key verses carefully. Our citizenship, present tense, is in heaven. From that place of citizenship, we await the second coming of Christ. God does not allow dual citizenship. While we are to be stewards of the planet and good citizens of the earthly administrations God allows, our citizenship does not change. It is a biblically poor argument to excuse this dominionism based upon stewardship arguments. The NAR folks want to use the argument that we were to take "dominion" but to do that is to expose that they are in fact dominionists.

So we come to the COVID global crisis. Most do not deny that the virus is real and praise God for that. The arguments from the NAR dominionists now revolve around things they do not understand. A mortality rate cannot be properly judged until AFTER the crisis, not during. The fact that only one percent of the US population has been tested also skews any stats. More importantly, why are Christians making arguments that some people dying is an acceptable trade off for monetary and economic reasons? Seriously? When you stand before Christ and answer for why you spread a lethal virus to people who ended up dead do you really think you can make a mortality rate argument? Apparently pro-life only matters when it does not adversely affect YOUR life. How hypocritical. I have heard all of the arguments and they are all carnal. Constitutional arguments are carnal. Economic arguments are carnal. I have yet to hear one biblical argument for killing off the elderly and disabled to ensure that your way of life continues. None. With that as a backdrop, let us reason through the latest offering from David Lane, linked above and see these carnal arguments in action.

"In regard to the overreach by some government bureaucrats and elected officials, we raised in our last op-ed the legitimate question of who, in a constitutional sense, is the king of America.

The answer is: We the people. Conspicuous by its absence in the coronavirus conundrum is any citizen participation or representative debate about the actions to be taken. Although President Trump and other elected executives do have constitutional emergency powers, who decided this was such a dire exigency that the actions taken were justified? That decision was made by unelected government bureaucrats, selected "experts," doomsday soothsayers, computer models and a frenzied media. Only now that their ever-changing predictions have fallen flat, dissenting voices are starting to be heard. Where were the freedom and constitutional protections of speech, assembly, religious observance and democratic process? They were found unutilized, hidden behind face masks and quarantine's closed doors." -- David Lane

Who is king of the US? Citizenship participation. Representative debate. Unelected government bureaucrats. Constitutional protections. What are all of these things? Carnal arguments. They have nothing to do with the kingdom of God. Now, Lane is not even right from a constitutional or carnal perspective but it is a waste of time to argue over what does not matter anyway. God is not impressed with our pagan nation beloved. I know that might hurt our "American exceptionalism" backside but that is the truth. America, or more pointedly, those in America, will be judged just like every other nation on this planet. At this point, Lane reprints a letter from a mega church pastor in Texas named Steve Riggle.

Pastor Steve wrote on Saturday, April 18: '"Liberate Texas now. Time to reopen Texas. We have been patient, even though every projection of the impact of the coronavirus has been grossly wrong. We were told to flatten the curve because there was no cure, even though a very small number actually die from the virus in comparison with the population and other diseases and causes of death we live with on a daily basis. Now, over 22,000,000 people have lost their jobs in one month ... and there is more economic fallout to follow [for example, 43% can't afford to go more than one month without a paycheck, and 24% have less than $250 in their bank accounts preceding payday.] In our county, in the same time period, we had five coronavirus-related deaths and 15 suicides.' -- Steve Riggle

Ugh. Texas is not in need of liberation. The NAR forces want to pretend that being asked to stay home is akin to becoming the underground church in China. As for the rest of this carnal argument, please keep in mind that a Christian pastor is making the argument that the loss of life is not as important as the loss of jobs. Keep in mind the inherent dishonesty in his comparison. He is comparing 22 million jobs lost in the country to the five lives lost in his COUNTY. There are actually 46,000 deaths in the country. Now bear with me but if you believe that the 22 million jobs lost are more important than the 46,000 lives lost, than I am going to assume you are not saved. Sorry but enough nonsense. What is also missing from his crackerjack analysis is of course what effect the closing of the state has had positively upon the very low numbers he openly mocks. Regardless the carnal arguments he opens with are transparent and decidedly unchristian.

'"We waited for our governor to tell us he was ending the restrictions that have ruined our economy and our livelihoods. Instead, he made an announcement about an announcement and appointed a task force to further delay getting everyone back to work when he could have restored everything with a stroke of his pen. Since our governor put the restrictions in place by his edict, he should have simply removed them with some guidelines by the same process. Shockingly, his big action was to tell those struggling with mental and emotional health issues to go to the state parks with a mask on rather than opening the churches and suggesting they seek help there. He also decided to allow some elective surgeries since the hospital systems in Texas are losing money because so few are actually in the hospital. And he allowed retail businesses to open up for curbside shopping. ... He didn't say where the change rooms were, presumably in your car or on the sidewalk.' -- Steve Riggle

Uh-huh. This is all about servicing the mentally ill. Right. I might add that if the church used safe distancing they could probably see people individually. That is not what Mr. Riggle wants though. You see, his church draws 17,000 people per weekend and he must be missing out on a ton of forced tithing. That is the reality for most of the stories you hear of defiant pastors. The purpose driven mega church model demands a never ceasing cash flow to sustain it. Joel Osteen's church for example brings in over 500K per weekend. A month of no services costs them two million dollars, at a minimum. Mega churches are mega business. Between that and the desire to take over the government and we can see clearly the true objectives here. Riggle wants to hide behind counseling the mentally ill. Truly depraved.

'"Enough of the ridiculous! "It is time to open up Texas based on the following five words: "We have Rights; we are Americans who have a Constitution and a Bill of Rights. "We are Rational. Consider the following facts from the Texas DSHS website as of April 17: Population of Texas: 29,000,000 (29 million). Tested for COVID-19: 169,536 (.0055 or half of 1%). Positive for COVID-19: 17,371 (.0006 or 6/100 of 1%). Hospitalized for COVID: 1,522 (.00005 or 5/1000 of 1%). Deaths due to COVID: 428 (.000014 or 1/1000 of 1%). "You could read the data and interpret it that 'protecting some' has actually become 'needlessly punishing all.'' -- Steve Riggle

What is ridiculous is a mega church pastor pretending he know anything about these matters. First of all, asking Christians to think of others instead of themselves is not "punishment." It's, oh what is the word I am looking for"Christian. What is missing from his understanding is that the reasons why the stats are so low is because of the measures the governor has taken. That however is just as much a carnal response to his carnal arguments. This is still an alleged pastor making the argument that the 500 dead neighbors of his do not matter compared to money. Strip away the constitutional bluster about things he clearly does not understand all you are left with is a selfish, self-entitled hireling crying about losing his tithe monies and spitting on the graves of those who have died from the pandemic he mocks. Ask the families of two Virginia pastors who mocked COVID and are now dead from it what they think. Ask the 43 church goers from Illinois now suffering from COVID for attending church. Ask the three dozen churchgoers from Arkansas who have now tested positive. Ask them all if their suffering and deaths of loved ones is worth you "opening" Texas back up. I know their opinion will not matter to you. I would say then to ask Jesus but obviously His opinion does not matter either.

'"We take Risks. We are Texans who stand tall and realize that life has some risks. That should be our choice, not the mandate of the state attempting to protect us from perceived harm. "We understand Responsibilities. We are citizens who will do the responsible thing. Those who are at risk should stay home. Those who are afraid should stay home. "We will Resist, because it is our right to do so. We are free people. Unless an overwhelming number of people let our officials know that we are done with their mandates and edicts we will continue to be controlled by them.' -- Steve Riggle

Life has some risks? Seriously? That is your Christian argument? It should not be your choice because you are clearly incapable of making it with any compassion or wisdom. If you understood your Christian responsibilities outweighed your dominionist responsibilities then you would obey the leaders God has ordained over you and figure out how to best meet the spiritual needs of your congregants within the structure presented to you. It is your right to resist? I must have missed that in the Beatitudes. Listen beloved, these are just more carnal arguments, made by a carnal hireling, who does not have a biblical argument to fall back on. He will close now with what has to be one of the most ridiculous abuses of the concept of heaven I have ever seen:

'"Historian William J. Federer ended one of his presentations with this story: 'Someday you will be dead--but you will be in heaven because you believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay for all of your sins. "Imagine being in heaven 10,000 years--you will probably run into Moses, maybe walking along the streets of gold. Maybe he will invite you over to his place. He'll probably have a pretty nice place, maybe having one of those big fireplaces where the logs don't burn up (he saw the burning bush in the wilderness and it did not burn up!). "You are there with all the guests, and Moses is seated at your table. You ask, 'Moses, what was it like? I read the book, and even saw the movie, but here you are--can we hear it firsthand?' Moses stands up and says, 'I was 80 years old, and Pharaoh's army was charging at us, and we were totally unarmed,' and I held out my staff and said, 'God, use me to deliver your people--and the waves parted, we went through and Pharaoh's army was drowned.' "Everyone in the room will be in awe! Then you look around the table, and there is David, so you ask him, 'David, tell us your story.' David stands up, the room is quiet. 'I was just a teenager, and this giant thug Goliath was mocking our God and mocking our faith, and the grownups were too chicken to do anything. So I took my sling, hit him in the head with a stone and used his own sword to chop his head off.' "... Everyone in the room will be in awe. "Then you look, and see Gideon and say, 'Gideon, tell us your story.' Gideon stands and says, 'There were 120,000 Midianites and I had 32,000 Israelites, and God said, "That's too many; tell everyone who is scared to go home." Great, now I only had 10,000. God said, "That's still too many; go drink from a creek," and He whittled it down to 300. With 300 we defeated the Midianite host!' "One by one, everyone around the table tell their stories--Deborah, Elijah, the apostle Paul ... then they come to you and say, 'Tell us your story!'" Out of 6,000 years of recorded history God has placed us here, in 2020. This is our time. This is our kairos. What story are we going to tell?' -- Steve Riggle

I do not want to even get into the narcissistic presentation of what heaven is. Does anyone think Moses will be bragging about the Red Sea? That David would refer to the people of Israel as chickens? Or that he will essentially take the credit for what God did? Or that Gideon would essentially brag about winning with only 300 people? Or that you would be sitting around a table chilling with the great heroes of the bible! The truly disgusting part of this analogy is that Steve Riggle and David Lane think that Gideon slaying the Midianites is comparable to rebelling against society for daring to ask you stay inside. They think that the story of David and Goliath is comparable to a mega church pastor whining about not being able to collect his weekly tithes. That God using Moses to deliver Israel from the Egyptians is the same thing as being so callous and uncaring that the lives of a mere 46,000 people do not matter compared to losing money. Only a reprobate can think with such a cold heart so don't worry Steve about what to say when it is your turn to speak at your pajama party with Moses, David and Gideon.

You won't be there.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- April 22, 2020

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.