John MacArthur has declared there is no pandemic. You've got to be kidding me...

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I guess if you share his Calvinist beliefs, John MacArthur was predestined to make an ass of himself this past month. How the mighty have fallen for NAR conspiracy talking points in an effort to defend his indefensible decision to violate California authority, open his church, and expose his sheep to potential death by the COVID virus. Oh, unless they already had another medical condition. Then Johnny Mac does not deem them as actually dying because of COVID. By doing so Mac has essentially spit on the graves of 183,000 dead Americans and shown a staggering lack of compassion for the collective suffering of over six million in this country. How did one of the most revered preachers in the country find himself in bed with QAnon and the NAR? How can he not discern that being on the same side as Paula White and Rodney Howard Browne might be a tad problematic?

You see Mac has not just slipped off the rails a little bit. He is now being interviewed by top dominionists in the country like Stephen Strang and being hailed as a hero. If that is not bad enough, he is boasting about being called by Donald Trump for taking such a bold stance. This stance saw thousands crammed into his church with no distancing nor masks. A virtual petri dish for spreading the virus. I wrote this once and someone emailed my website and said I was "hoping" for people in his church to get sick. Please. Keep your defense mechanisms to yourself. I hope that no one gets sick. The problem is I live a little place called reality. I am amazed how people who claim to believe in absolute truth try so hard to find shades of grey when it suits their worldview narrative. Bottom line is John MacArthur got tired of sitting home and could not figure out how to pastor his church without meeting collectively each Sunday for an hour and a half. Realize that is what this fight is really about. I know of no municipality that would not welcome a local church providing food, clothing, or even spiritual resources while adhering to mandated precautions. No beloved. This is about carrying out the purpose driven mandate and that's it. The purpose driven church growth model is what created these cult of personality mega churches across this land, such as MacArthur's. A church that size depends upon the leader more than Christ. You see, a church that is dependent upon Jesus does not get confused when it cannot meet for an hour and half collectively each week. A church that depends on Christ does not get easily triggered when the unbelieving state declares church as a non-essential activity. That is because a church dependent upon Christ is focused on Him and His Gospel. We understand that those walking in darkness do not consider church essential. Is this somehow a new revelation to someone? I have seen "Christians" post on Facebook that the church is not the church if cannot meet for an hour and a half once per week. You are right. You are not the church. You became a social club somewhere along the line. The body of Christ is interconnected. It relies upon each other during difficult times. A pastor shepherds regardless of where the sheep are. The church prefers collective worship, no question. But we do not NEED the building to be the church. Selfish petulance is not Christlikeness. Neither is this:

"I don't want to offer myself as any kind of an expert, but, a rather telling report came out this week and for the first time we heard the truth. The CDC, the centers for disease control, which is the national organization, government organization, that is to report to us the truth about disease, said that in truth: 6% of the deaths that have occurred can be directly attributable to covid. 94% cannot. Of the 160,000 people there that have died, 9,210 actually died from covid. There is no pandemic." - John MacArthur

First there is the obvious stupidity of saying you don't want to offer yourself as an expert and then doing just that in remarkably un-expert like fashion and then making such a reckless and frankly stupid declaration of there being no pandemic. Experts, who spent decades in schools and training for matters such as virology and epidemiology apparently do not know as much As John MacArthur. Before you get into bed with conspiracy kooks such as QAnon realize that this conspiracy would require all reputable scientists across the entire world, through all cultures and religions to secretly sign off on it. Please stop. You are embarrassing yourself. I would wager that John MacArthur knows as much about virus spread as Dr. Fauci knows about the bible. People need to stay in their lanes.

Secondly, is the underlying political motive for the CDC to release the report Mac references, which mind you is actually not new. The CDC has been banging this drum since mid-April. Yet there was MacArthur acting like this was newly revealed revelation to finally truly explain his own selfish and careless leadership. As for the politics, perhaps Mac is unaware that we have a presidential election coming up this November. No wait, he is aware because he bragged to Stephen Strang that he told President Trump that all Christians were going to vote for him. Given these facts there are people paid to ensure that the president gets reelected and his number one political liability is of course that he has mismanaged this virus to the tune of 180,000 dead Americans. So the best way to combat this is to artificially reduce the number of deaths and spread disinformation or skewed statistics and let the social media mob do the rest. We saw how the CDC does the reduction efforts last week when it revised its recommendation to states declaring that people who are asymptomatic and have been in contact with someone who has COVID does not necessarily need to get tested. Huh? This absurdly ridiculous and dangerous recommendation was roundly rejected by Governors who care about their people but you must realize there are states with Governors who are just trying to please the president such as Florida, Texas and Georgia. Florida has already been caught fudging their numbers.

Besides reduction, the CDC puts out reports that blame 94% of the COVID deaths on comorbidities. This simply means the person had an underlying condition when they contracted COVID. This is the third point to discuss from MacArthur's quote, which was stated from the pulpit. This is exactly what the administration wanted. They create a blanket statement, which become memes on social media and get spread as if they were the Gospel truth. Except they're not. They are designed with simplicity to dupe the simple. What? Only 6% of people died solely from COVID? There is no pandemic! Currently, 1 in every 5 people worldwide have what we refer to as "underlying medical conditions." With 7.5 billion people, that is 1.5 billion people as the potential pool of COVID victims. What percentage of that pool is an acceptable loss to John MacArthur so he can have service for an hour and a half on Sunday?

The next point gets to the heart of the heartlessness in taking this stance. The 94% would not have died if not for COVID. It is beyond grossly misleading to use the CDC report to pretend as Mac does that only 9,210 people have died from COVID. The bottom line is that if someone had Diabetes, contracted COVID and died - they still died because of COVID. Without COVID, they would still be alive. Stop trivializing their deaths because by doing so you trivialize their lives. All a comorbidity means is the presence of two conditions or more at the same time. Is anyone truly surprised that people who have none, which means they are generally healthier, have a far greater chance of surviving this virus? Also, what does this say about how we view those that may be sicker? Are they expendable? If 20% of MacArthur's flock were to die would he shrug them off by saying, well they had underlying conditions? All so he could have the purpose driven right to hold service for an hour and a half on Sundays?

The final point on this CDC report requires one to actually download the report and get into the weeds a little bit. Just a look at the first couple of pages of data finds conditions that were likely caused BY COVID as opposed to pre-existing. This is very important because it is often presented that we are discussing "pre-existing" conditions plus COVID and the reality is that the conditions that were comorbid at the time of death may have not been pre-existing at all. Consider the language from the report itself:

"Table 3 shows the types of health conditions and contributing causes mentioned in conjunction with deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death. The number of deaths with each condition or cause is shown for all deaths and by age groups." - Center for Disease Control

Page one of the data has deaths caused by "Influenza and Pneumonia." Page two has "Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). This refers to collection of fluids in the lungs and is often what leads the medical staff to place the patient on a ventilator. Pneumonia is another condition that is in all likelihood caused by COVID. Are we getting the picture yet? It is not just people who took poor care of themselves that are dying from this disease. The true sin though is in taking this 6% statistic and declaring the 94% did not die from COVID. It is such a distortion of the facts and a slap in the face of the dead. I expect it from cold blooded political operatives. The problem is they rely upon Christians to spread their lies far and wide and the apostate church relishes this role.

That is because they are fighting for the purpose driven model of church and not the body of Christ. The body of Christ has not stopped meeting during this pandemic. They have met online. They have worshipped virtually. True shepherds have used this time to grow closer to their sheep despite being apart. Is all of this preferred? No. But there is a pandemic despite what "Dr." MacArthur says. There are stories littering this country about churchgoers and pastors dying from this virus because they insist on playing the role of defiant fool, whining that the world called them non-essential. The truth of the matter is that the purpose driven, mega-church model of gathering for an hour and a half on Sundays is not essential. The brethren are essential. The word of God is essential. Worship is essential. Prayer is essential. None of those essential elements are bound by an hour and a half on Sundays beloved. They may be what we are used to. They may be what we prefer. Essential? No. What is essential is avoiding a plague that has claimed the lives of nearly a million people worldwide. God forbid that we should come down with COVID, develop Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome and as a result have our death referred into the comorbid column where callous businessmen disguised as pastors could label our passing as not really being from COVID. Just absolutely disgusting.

Reverend Anthony Wade - August 31, 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.