REOPEN CHURCHES DESPITE COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS

Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, California is calling pastors and church leaders across America to reopen their churches despite COVID-19 restrictions by “leftist and secular government officials” who seek to “shut us down.”

According to The Blaze, MacArthur released the video on his official Twitter account on Wednesday, which has since gone viral with over 550,000 views.

“Today’s current crop of politicians are trampling on the Constitution and on the resolve of citizens to demand their rights under the pressure of a manufactured fear,” MacArthur said in the video. “The reality is that the COVID data just doesn’t match the government’s COVID narrative.”

MacArthur, who is in the midst of an ongoing legal battle with California officials for holding church services amid coronavirus restrictions, claimed that people have a high rate of surviving the disease.

“You have a 99.99 percent chance to survive COVID,” the California pastor claimed. “It’s just not what they’re saying it is.”

“That absolutely does not warrant shutting down anything,” he continued. “But especially, absurdly, and arbitrarily, churches that have a special protection from the Constitution. Oh, and at the same time, leaving open abortion clinics, strip clubs, and marijuana dispensaries.”

MacArthur noted that a double standard has been evident among the Health Department who have kept churches shut while allowing protests and riots to continue “without regard for the mandated health and safety ordinances.”

“This is obviously targeted discrimination,” he added. “Leftists and secular government officials have no tolerance for biblical Christianity, so they’re using COVID as an excuse to shut us down.”

MacArthur further explained that he had initially followed the restrictions when the virus first hit the state, but Grace Community Church members gradually returned on their own because “they didn’t believe the narrative the local government and media were giving them.”

Towards the end of the video, the octogenarian pastor stressed the Constitution’s defense of religious freedom and the biblical mandate for the church to meet.

“This is a watershed moment in America,” MacArthur asserted. “We have been granted by God the freedom to meet as a church, and that is protected by the Constitution. We need to be the church, not only because we’re free to be the church, but because we’re commanded to be the church by the Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the church.”

“This is a time of all times to meet as the church. Open your church. The church is essential.” he concluded.

The “Church is Essential” petition was released by the Falkirk Center in addition to MacArthur’s video.

Milton Quintanilla | Contributor for ChristianHeadlines.com

Jeff Thompson

In 1978 at the age of 21, Jeff moved to Vienna, Austria to smuggle bibles behind the Iron Curtain. His book, “Leaving The American Sector” available from www.mercyprojects.org chronicles many stories from that time period. He leads Mercy Projects in Murrieta, CA assisting vulnerable children and families in Ukraine, Kosovo, and Armenia. He enjoys espresso from around the world, and this gives him the energy to tell his grandchildren stories of being banned from Russia twice in his lifetime. Dan Wooding and Jeff have known each other for many years.

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