Actions have consequences. That is not persecution...

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Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." To the contrary, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. - Romans 12:14-21 (ESV)

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I know we sometimes play lip service to actual instruction within the bible, but every word is meant to be taken as God speaking directly to us. The key verses today were under the heading in my bible as "marks of a true Christian." You see God has a plan beloved and the church is integral for the success of that plan. We are supposed to be a shining city on a hill that the unsaved can turn to when their lives have turned to chaos and they see the peace with which we operate. Peace believers should have towards each other and peace towards those on the outside of salvation looking in. When they see us bless those that seem to persecute us. That we do not curse people who declare themselves our enemy. That we live in harmony and as far as we go, in our personal lives, we strive to be at peace with all. That we leave our perceived sense of retribution for the Lord. That we feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty, even if they are not our friends. Even if they would spend a lifetime shouting at the top of their lungs against what we believe. That we do not let evil overcome us but rather overcome evil with good. I often tell the story of two case managers who worked for me. One was a bible carrying, Jesus in your face Christian and let's just say that the other was not. The unbeliever tried to make life miserable for the Christian, even filing multiple complaints with Human Resources because proselytization was not allowed in the contract governing our work. This went on for over a year and all the Christian did was smile, share Christ and pray for her. Sure enough, when things went upside down in the life of the unbeliever she turned to her Christian counterpart and was led to Christ through the sharing of the gospel. She remains committed to Christ to this day. That is the embodiment of the key verses today.

Now, let's get into the way-back machine to 2020 when COVID first hit the United States. There were political factions that decided to push back against anything the government did, calling it "overreach." Incompetently armed without science, these grifters found a profitable venue in being against the government. Unfortunately, this was largely led by the Republican Party that controls the NAR, dominionist apostate church. So soon, you saw pastors rebelling, which violates scripture in multiple places. The first big public name was Rodney Howard Browne, yes that one. Despite decades of false teaching including the claim that he was the "Holy Ghost Bartender" the apostate church flocked to Brown. Soon there were more and more culture warriors, seemingly dismissing the key verses for a chance to stand with the rebels. Behind the scenes and underreported, people started dying. Entire churches became ill and unless you had good media control, your story would leak out. Even bigger names like Jack Gibbs and John MacArthur decided to flaunt the laws of their states and reopen their doors, often misapplying the "not forsaking the brethren" scriptures. Who knows how many people have died as a result of playing politics by men who were supposed to tend to their sheep? Spoiler alert - Jesus knows.

What came along with this defiance was an open bravado exhibited by the leaders of these churches. They were not content to merely violate the law but brag about doing so. I remember Pastor Loren Sandford bragging that despite their flaunting and refusal to mask or socially distance that "no one was sick in his church. A couple of weeks later the ENTIRE church had COVID, and Pastor Sandford would die from it. Churches in California were the most rebellious because their governor was a hated Democrat and their methods of combatting the pandemic grated against many. As with many other states, church services were mandated to cease or proceed with limitations because the actions of traditional church services are a literal petri dish for the spread of the virus. Now, many churches simply worked with their local officials to provide some outdoor services, provided online services, and still supported their communities in such a dark time of need. Unfortunately, most churches were built under the purpose driven model that required in person tithing to survive. The purpose driven model had created swaths of cult of personality preachers whose only role was preaching in a Sunday service and without it, they simply did not know what to do. One such California Church was Calvary Christian Fellowship in San Jose, pastored by Mike McClure. During the pandemic, McClure and CCF were your stereotypic tough guys brazenly flaunting the law and feeding their sheep into the COVID woodchipper, before and after vaccines were developed. Back in December of 2020, after being held in contempt for violating a court order to stop hold unmasked services, McClure had the following inane comments:

"I'm not a policeman, I'm a pastor, I respect the judge, I understand what the laws are, but there's a bigger law." - Pastor Mike McClure

"I'm not worried so much about the things you're worried about. More as much about what God's worried about. God's worried about your heart and your life and your eternity more than a mask because those are debatable things, right?" - Pastor Mike McClure

Yes, there is a bigger law and pastors are held to a higher account. We should pray for Mike McClure because he will stand before Christ one day and answer for what he wrought. Any sickness or death will not be dismissible by complaining about the government. Obeying the bible is NOT a debatable thing. Getting into spitting matches with the government is not what the bible instructs for proper behavior in front of and towards the lost. You see, Mike McClure does not get to decide what he is worried about in a vacuum. If the government says to do "X" then you do "X", especially if it is in the interest of saving the lives of the very people God has put in your charge. I do not care to hear your opinion about matters you have no experience in. Mike McClure is not an epidemiologist. He is not a virologist. He could have simply followed the mandate and still held services but not only was he defiant, but he taught his sheep to be defiant as well. All of which, he will answer for. Now fast-forward to today and the above linked story. It seems the government of San Jose does not forgive as broadly as Christ does. We will only look at what is truly relevant here as Charisma News is trafficking in the more salacious elements such as whether the church was spied on as retaliation - Jesus does not care! The story seems to be injected just to distract from the indefensible position the church took, which is now going to cost them 1.2 million dollars.

"Calvary claimed the government's orders violated their religious freedoms, the judge disagreed and said the mask mandate was "neutral and generally applicable" to other similar institutions in the county. It should appear clear to all"regardless of religious affiliation"that wearing a mask while worshipping one's god and communing with other congregants is a simple, unobtrusive, giving way to protect others while still exercising your right to religious freedom," Pennypacker wrote." - Charisma News

We saw this throughout the pandemic. Churches were not "targeted", rather any public gathering such as church services were deemed unsafe. Stating that you couldn't hold your purpose driven mega-services has nothing to do with your religious freedoms. Now, it is unfortunate that Rick Warren convinced so may pastors to think that faith was ONLY about that hour and a half on Sundays because it never should have been. How hard was the ask from the government really? To protect themselves, to wear a mask if they wanted to congregate in large groups. It seems that the rebellion WAS the point. The act of thumbing their nose to the government was the point. Week after week of telling the officials to take a hike. Of violating ordinance after ordinance. Violating court orders after court orders. Well tough guy, the bill now comes due.

"With mask mandates being a highly contentious subject in the United States, and the world, the judge's opinion rings shockingly partisan and personally influenced for such a ruling." - Charisma News

Huh? This quite the laughable statement from Charisma. So, because there are a bunch of unscientific folks like Mike McClure, who contend against reason that wearing masks is helpful, that precludes a judge from ruling that he is wrong? That is the height of absurdity. The only reason why this is eve debated is because of people like Mike McClure, who listened to Facebook posts and conspiracy theories before bothering to check the science. The mere existence of dissent does not make stating fact partisan.

'Pennypacker continued in her ruling writing, "Unfortunately, Defendants repeatedly refused to model, much less, enforce this gesture. Instead, they repeatedly flouted their refusal to comply with the Public Health Orders and urged others to do so 'who cares what the cost,' including death."' - Charisma News

Did you get that? The church had the opportunity to model civic behavior and save lives but not only chose to ignore that but encouraged others to do the same! They did not merely disagree, but they flouted their disagreement! They made a public spectacle of disobeying laws designed to protect people from a plague that has killed millions of people. Do we honestly think for one minute, Jesus is going to want to hear about government overreach or uneducated opinions based on disinformation? As a biblical olive branch, this church should pay their fines and apologize for putting so many people in danger.

"Attorney Mariah Gondeiro, who is representing Calvary Chapel and is with Advocates for Faith and Freedom, argues the constitutionality of the mask mandates as they were not applied equally in the state and county. "This is not just our 1st Amendment rights, it's really our biblical mandate not to forsake assembling with the saints," Pastor Che' Ahn, senior pastor of Harvest Rock Church in Pasadena, said during his church's battle with the California legal system in 2021." - Charisma News

Yeah, no. Che Ahn is one of the more egregious false teachers of our day but he is also wrong on the merits here. Virtual assembly, while not ideal, is certainly a plausible temporary replacement. Not to mention, no one said they could not assemble! Just that they need to protect themselves if they did. As for the lawyer - who cares? You cannot address biblical issues by trying to find legal loopholes. What's the message then from McClure? Because we do not think the mask mandate was applied evenly, we are not going to comply? Is that the issue at hand? Shouldn't a pastor care about his sheep more than legally nuance arguments after the fact?

"This is not the first time that Pastor Mike McClure and his church have been the target of the California court system. The AP reports that "The church and its pastors were previously held in contempt of court and fined for violating limits on indoor public gatherings. But a state appellate court reversed those decisions last year, saying that the restrictions on indoor worship services were stricter than for secular activities such as going to grocery stores." As the world continues recovering not only from the pandemic but the government overreach that resulted in massively restricted freedoms for the entire world, there are radical government entities still targeting Christians and their houses of worship to this day." - Charisma News

Let's make sure we are straight about some things here. Pastor McClure and his church are not targets of the court system. They are violators of law. That would be like robbing a store and then feeling indignant because the police targeted you by arresting you. There are mechanisms built into our system for disagreement, starting at the ballot box. We cannot just randomly decide what laws we will and will not follow. The church especially cannot due to the key verses today. People do not see a shining city on a hill in San Jose California. They see a whiny petulant child stamping their feet up and down like a snowflake because the bill for their disobedience has come due. They should be thankful because this is just the carnal bill. The eternal bill is still pending.

"Satan is relentless, and he will stop at nothing to intimidate Christians from worshipping God. This stripping of freedom is not overt though, it is often disguised to help keep people safe from an outside threat even when the restrictions turn out to be more harmful than the threat they are established to prevent. Lift up all Christians around the world who are being persecuted today for their faith, and pray that the Lord give them the strength and provision to endure and persevere in the face of these attacks." - Charisma News

Stop with the faux-persecution and pearl clutching! No one tried to stop Christians from worshipping! They just tried to stop them from spreading a lethal contagion. The state wanted them to continue to worship but to also care about each other and their fellow man at the same time and the church said no. This story from a Christian perspective has nothing to do with the stripping of freedoms. It had to do with a church that thought they were a tough guy and thumbed their nose at society and government for daring to try and limit the amount of deaths from a worldwide pandemic. Each week they held service, maskless, and not socially distanced they were racking up fines for ignoring the law. They were told this over and over again. They did not care. Now that the bill has come due, it seems they are trying to care by avoiding their personal responsibility. Real Christian are being persecuted across the globe every day for their faith. From the underground church in China to the abuses in the Sudan. People facing execution for refusing to renounce Christ in the Middle East. How insulting that these snowflake pastors cry persecution for being asked to wear a mask. Unconscionable. They will answer for the blood on their hands. Until then, mark and avoid.

Reverend Anthony Wade - April 25, 2023

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.