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So I was gabbing earlier, and I saw this picture. This is a picture of a gigantic woman, and Joe Biden also looks like a giant. And they're just comforting Russell Moore and Al Mohler. This is a perfect photo.
Yeah, this is a pretty good one. You know, I don't really understand, is this picture supposed to be real? Like, I know that these faces are added, but I think they're like two elderly people. But the proportions here are just, they're just out of control.
Is this supposed to be real? Maybe it is real, I don't know. But it's a weird one. Anyway, I was gabbing earlier, and you know, I had had a good run of forgetting that the Gospel Coalition even existed.
I hadn't really read, I haven't clicked a Gospel Coalition article in a very, very long time, and I'm not about to start now, that's for sure. But I did see that Protestia commented about a Gospel Coalition Canada article, which is just absolutely insane.
You know, if you haven't figured out by now that the Gospel Coalition as an entity is on the side of our enemies, then there's really not much else I can tell you. I mean, this article, the fact that this article was written by anyone related to the Gospel Coalition, and then when you find out it's a Canadian Gospel Coalition guy, it's really hard to understand how anybody could take this seriously, anybody at all.
This is abysmal. And I'm not going to click the original article, so if I miss something, well, that's just how it's gonna be. I'm not gonna give them any satisfaction for this. But I am definitely willing to click a Protestia article, so let's read how they've reported this.
Here's the article. A writer for the Gospel Coalition has published an article making the case that Christians have not endured any hostility or ill treatment from the government during the pandemic, but rather have only endured mild hardships since the whole thing began.
Pastor Paul Carter, writing for Gospel Coalition Canada, explains that while many churches were forced to suspend their main large group gatherings and quote, normal Christian activities such as singing, taking communion, and sharing a meal together was either strongly discouraged or forbidden outright, end quote, he describes the 14 months as only a quote, temporary suspension imposed by the government and not something dastardly or more permanent that is worth getting worked up about.
So yeah, sure, you can't take communion for 14 months. You can't meet as a church for 14 months or we'll throw you in jail, which is what happened to a Canadian pastor. He went to jail over this. You can't do any of those things, but no big deal, Christian.
Don't worry about it. You don't, listen, it's just an ordinance from the Lord himself. Jesus Christ is the one who established these ordinances, but no worries. The crown has said that they'll give you back your privilege to observe the Lord's Supper soon.
We don't really know when, but soon. Eventually they'll give it back. It's no big deal. It's only been 14 months. Let me make a case here that if you're okay with foregoing the Lord's Supper and you pretend to be a believer and you're okay with that for 14 months, that's a sign you're actually not a believer.
I mean, let's just, I mean, is this crazy? If it's totally cool with you, no big deal. We don't have to meet as a body. We don't have to sing hymns, Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. We don't have to take communion.
It's only temporary. It's only a temporary suspension. Caesar said that they'll eventually give us back these rights and privileges. No big deal for this Christian, that's for sure. I'm just gonna make the case, you're not a Christian if that's your position.
You are probably very good at pretending to be a Christian, but obviously the Lord's table is not that important to you, so it's not that big of a deal. And to make the case that nobody's been mistreated during this, that's absolutely insane.
It's absolutely insane. The only thing that makes sense to my brain is that you are on the side of the enemy. That's it. If you don't think that jailing a pastor for holding church on Sunday is abuse, it's incorrect, or it's mistreatment even, like you even just use the mildest words that you can, mistreatment, ill treatment, there it is, ill treatment.
If you don't think that jailing someone for that is ill treatment, I'm gonna argue that you are actually an unbeliever, you're an enemy of the cross, and that's all there is to it. Gospel Coalition, of course, shields people like this because as a group, the Gospel Coalition is also an enemy of God's people.
He argues that the 14-month-long tyrannical, going back to the article, these are not my words, these are protested. He argues that the 14-month-long tyrannical and ever-increasing virulent edicts against the church, our words, may be a, quote, hardship, it is not persecution.
He acknowledges there's been a few missteps and, quote, probably some, quote, overreach, probably, but there has been no hostility and ill treatment because of our religious belief. He ponders, I'm not sure how any reasonable person could argue that there was.
So if you believe that you ought to meet for church on the Lord's Day, have communion with your brothers and sisters in Christ as the Lord's commanded, sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs also as is commanded in the scriptures, if you believe those things and you decided to do those things, and then you went to jail for it, this idiot says, how could you even think that you're being mistreated?
It's completely unpreposterous. It's unreasonable for you to think that if you get thrown in the slammer for worshiping God on Sunday, because it's too dangerous to worship God on Sunday, of course, the government has spoken on that one, then you're unreasonable.
You're just an unreasonable person. How could you even think that that is somehow not appropriate? Of course the crown can jail you for such evil things like meeting for church on Sunday. If you think that that's inappropriate or maybe even something that, you know, maybe we should reconsider, you're unreasonable according to the gospel coalition.
That's insane, guys. That's insane, and I don't think that he's actually stupid. I don't think that Paul Carter is actually an idiot. I actually just think he's an enemy. That's what I think. I don't think he's actually this stupid to not know that jailing someone for going to church when the government tells you not to because it's too dangerous, I don't think that he's actually so stupid to think that that's actually not ill treatment.
I don't think he's an idiot. I just think he's evil. He's an enemy of the cross. He thinks that Caesar has the authority and the right, and it's a good thing for them to jail you if you decide to worship God on Sunday the way he's commanded.
That's the thing, like, I gotta choose my words a little bit more carefully here. Paul Carter is no idiot. He's an enemy. That's who he is. Let's continue. Carter makes these comments, defending the government handling of the pandemic in his country while a church 120 miles south of him is facing $40 million in fines for being open and whose doors were just recently barred by the police.
Another 25 miles further, police arrived on the scene to give out fines because a church was having a drive-in service where they didn't even leave their vehicles and were listening to the sermon through their small FM transmitter.
Nothing to see here, Paul Carter says. This is not mistreatment of believers. Look, you're not even doing really necessarily what Christ commanded. You're not doing the communion. You're not doing, you know, you're in your car together, you know, listening to a sermon.
Good on you guys. I'm glad you're at least doing that, right? I'm not gonna criticize you for doing that, even though it's not really what Christ commanded, but that's fine. Paul Carter thinks, no, no, no, they should be subject to fines.
That's evil to do such things. It's evil to meet and not even get out of your car and listen to a sermon with your church and brethren because you miss them. That's actually wrong, and the government has the authority to fine you for that, and it's a right and good and holy thing for the government to, and if you think otherwise, by the way, you're unreasonable.
This is an unbeliever. I mean, there's really no other way to look at this. He's an unbeliever. He does not believe the things that God has said. He does not believe the things that Christ has commanded.
He's an unbeliever. That's the end of it. You know what I mean? There's just no other explanation here. Let's continue. Protestia continues, the drive-in service was declared non-essential, even as marijuana shops and liquor stores have been open as essential businesses the whole time.
Across the country, one church congregation has gone underground after their pastor was jailed for a month, and a fence was erected around their church while 60 armed police officers showed up with batons and riot gear to ensure there was no disruption.
Further west, Black Lives Matter protesters have been allowed to march and hold rallies at will, congregating out in the public, but all indoor and outdoor church gatherings of any size have been suspended, even as restaurants, casinos, bars remain open for business and socializing.
Now, I happen to know the Protestia people somewhat, and I don't think that they're making the case that as long as everybody's treated the same, the government has the right to close down churches. I merely think that they're showing the insanity of what has happened here, whereas certain things like casinos and weed stores and alcohol stores are essential and churches are not.
Now, I don't think the government has the right to close any of those things, maybe except for casinos. You know what I mean? But they're just pointing out the absurdity here and the ridiculousness of this pastor, and I'm gonna use scare quotes for this, this pastor to say, if you think that that's unfair, you're unreasonable.
Pastor Carter here is not stupid. He's an enemy, and so is the Gospel Coalition. Here we go. Let's finish this article. In fact, the new rules for outdoor services in British Columbia cap the vehicles attending at 50, and anyone attending the drive-in service where they are not allowed to leave their vehicles must not only ensure their cars and trucks are six feet apart, but they must pre-register and their personal information captured, lest COVID -19 magically travel from vehicle to vehicle and infect the whole lot of them.
Finally, Carter declares that the churches haven't been unfairly discriminated against because, quote, churches by and large have enjoyed far greater freedoms than health clubs and workout facilities over the last 14 months, and concludes, so this has been hard, it has been crushing for many, but it does not appear to have been motivated by religious hostility or malice.
Not everything that negatively affects the church can be categorized as persecution. Not everything difficult can be ascribed to evil motives. Yeah, that's true. Not everything difficult can be ascribed to evil motives, but certain things can.
And Pastor Paul Carter, I would assume, has credentials. I'm assuming he went to seminary. I'm assuming that he's convinced, bamboozled, fleeced, tricked a lot of people that he's studied and approved to be in the job that he has.
But unfortunately, Pastor Paul Carter is an enemy. He doesn't see that the church being fined for meeting, jailed for meeting, and all these kinds of things with jackbooted thugs surrounding your church so you can't go in it, he doesn't see that as a problem.
He thinks that that's totally legitimate. The church is actually in the wrong for meeting. So they should pay the fines, they should go to jail. That's not abusive in any way. That's Paul's position. He also doesn't seem to think it's all that big a deal.
I mean, it's only been 14 months. It's only been 14 months since you have worshiped together and taken communion and done all these things. 14 months, no big deal. In fact, give it another 14, why not?
No big deal to Paul Carter. And so you put these two things together, he's for the church being fined and jailed for meeting. He doesn't think not meeting is that big of a deal. You put those two things together and there is evil intent there.
Paul Carter wants you not to go to church. He wants you to do whatever the government says that they want you to do for whatever reason they want you to do it. Obey the government, don't go to church.
There's Paul Carter's position in a nutshell. By the way, if the government abuses you, don't say that it's abusive because that's actually unreasonable. And of course we know that one of the Christian's prime directives is to be reasonable.
And so of course, you don't wanna be unreasonable by saying if a pastor's jailed for holding church on Sunday that that's abusive, you're unreasonable. That's Paul Carter. The reality is that the Gospel Coalition plays for the enemy.
They take their orders from the enemy. They encourage you to do evil, to do wrong, to not go to church. And that my friends is something that we should not tolerate anymore. There comes a time when an organization like the Gospel Coalition has been wrong for a long time and they're wrong about a lot of things, right?
But I've never played the guilt by association game where if you are part of the Gospel Coalition, you're automatically evil yourself. I've never played that game. But there comes a time when an organization has gone so far that associating with them in any way is now on you.
And I think that that time for Gospel Coalition, if it hasn't already come, it is fast approaching. It is time to get out of her. This is not a Christian organization, first and foremost. They use Christian words, they'll quote Bible verses.
They'll have some decent content, but as a force, they are encouraging you to sin constantly, constantly. And so don't associate with Gospel Coalition anymore. Let me tell you a contrasting story. This past Sunday, I went to a local church because we were going to my son's homeschool groups, had like a picnic that we were all gonna hang out together and stuff like that after church.
So instead of going to my church that's far away, we went to a local church and it was such a blessing. It was an amazing thing because the pastor of this church has been out of commission for a while.
He caught COVID and he got one of the longer strains of it where it kind of lasts for a long time kind of thing. And so he's been out of commission for a bit. And the last time I went to this church, I would say 50 -50 masks, no masks and stuff like that.
They had like the pews were kind of separated and stuff. So they were doing some of the things that they've been told, you know, separation, stuff like that. Anyway, so I went this past Sunday and not only was the pastor there for the first time in a while, he wasn't preaching, but he had come back.
And not only that, but it was chock full to the brim of brothers and sisters coming together, singing loudly to the Lord, chock full. I mean, hardly any spaces available for people that wanted to come.
They have an upstairs that was empty, but on the bottom floor, everyone was together laughing and smiling and not a mask in sight. And it was amazing. It was almost like it was normal. It was amazing to see people, you know, talking to each other, knowing where they were at, you know, emotionally, because when you see someone's face, you can kind of, you see where they're at kind of thing and just, you know, hugging and high fives and shaking hands and just, it was so pleasant.
It was good to be with God's people. And I have to say that if you don't, if that's not something that you think is a big deal that you're not getting, and I'm not just talking to Paul Carter, obviously he's an enemy, but I'm talking about just people that are listening to this.
If you don't miss that, if that's not something you desire, if that's not something you're looking for, I take a good look in the mirror and I think about that, because that's a problem. That's a problem.
We all took communion on Sunday as well, and it was just beautiful. It was just beautiful. I feel bad for my brothers in Canada. I get messages all the time how bad it is in Canada. They can't find a church within 100 miles from them.
You gotta stop promoting leadership like this. If you want things to change, then people like Paul Carter need to be rejected in the strongest possible terms. I'm praying for you guys, man. Canada's got it bad, there's no question about it.
Way worse than we have it here in the U .S., way worse. And so, and it's going to get worse too, I think. That's my prediction. So I would resolve it in myself to start taking the steps now to protect yourself and to prepare yourself for what's to come, whether you're here in the United States or Canada.
The time is now to resolve in your heart that I'm going to fear the Lord, not man. If the Lord is on your side, what can man do to you? That's the attitude you have to have, and I would be praying that God would encourage you and strengthen you in that.
God bless you. I hope you found this video helpful. God bless.
