The abysmal and disgraceful failure of Christian leadership during the coronavirus scare-demic – Preface
20 indictments against COVID-19 public health order-complying pastors and churches
I would like to begin this preface by making it plain to the reader that I do not for a moment deny that there is an unprecedented crisis in the world today. That crisis however is not the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but rather the global secular government’s response to the virus. It is thus with utter dismay and astonishment that for the last 11 months I have watched how the Christian church, and particularly its leadership, has responded to the COVID-19 scare, and how it has not merely capitulated but rather warmly endorsed the abject and life-destroying evil of government-imposed COVID new-normalism. In particular, I was aghast to see how in uncritical conformity, the vast majority of professing Christianity went along silently and sheepishly with pseudoscientific manipulation and statist propaganda, the sole purpose of which was not to inform but to indoctrinate, and to propagate not facts but hysteria in order to make the citizens look up to the government as saviour, and thus to render its patently absurd and tyrannical policies blind and uncritical obedience. The churchmen have played the leading role in all this, as they have plainly endorsed, embraced, aided and promoted the creation of a new state-cult (created under the guise of “public safety”), whose edicts though patently absurd and rooted in superstition (i.e., not the Bible or any legitimate science), and utterly destructive to human life and well-being, must nevertheless not be questioned but unconditionally obeyed, even if that means promoting gross evil and making the commandments of God of none effect!
In thus adopting the tenets of the COVID state-cult, the churchmen have followed a Satanically-inspired philosophy (Genesis 3:1-5) that ultimately leads to atheism and total apostasy (Isaiah 14:12-15) because it replaces God’s rule of Law for the rule of one’s own corrupt making. And it has been a pattern of history that when men reject the government of God then the human government becomes their god. And therefore, in choosing to march under the banner of the COVID state-cult, these modern day Pharisees have betrayed Christ and in essence voted for Caesar as their lord and saviour.
Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. – Jeremiah 2:11-13.
Sadly, very many professing Christians have likewise committed a great evil when out of fear of a flu-like virus and in blind obedience to the wicked public health order they have dispensed with Christian public worship which God’s Word commands us to keep (Hebrews 10:25) as non-essential! In this they further declared that obeying men and trusting in corrupt human wisdom is more essential than obeying God and trusting in His infinite and perfect wisdom!
And, while the old apostles and saints of all ages when confronted with unrighteous edicts acted on the principle – we must obey God rather than men (Acts 4:19; Acts 5:29) – the vast majority of churchmen and Christian people have turned this golden rule upside down, and so they now obey evil men rather than God!
Moreover, when strong Christian leadership was most needed to counter the effects of government and media-promoted superstitious and utterly unfounded germophobic hysteria, and to shine the light on gross government hypocrisy, abuse of power and establishment of full-fledged state tyranny, and further, when the church was to leave the doors of hope, true love, human contact and comfort open to those suffering from isolation-induced hopelessness, depression, anxiety and suicidal despair, in all these instances the church leaders have for most part played the harlot and betrayed the cause of Christ and aided the cause of His most vehement haters and enemies – the totally degenerate progressive cancel-culture liberal statists. The treacherous churchmen have thus taught their people to worship and honour the new state-cult instead of the one and only true God. And if this is not a troubling sign of the time of a great apostasy of professing Christianity, I do not know what is. For we do not simply live in a time of cold indifference but worse still – approbation and blind compliance to state-endorsed evil – and that by the vast majority of church people. It is not thus surprising that they hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and abhor him that speaketh uprightly (Amos 5:10), and that truth is greatly despised, vilified, shamed and ridiculed; so that he who departeth from evil maketh himself a prey (Isaiah 59:15) – like the GraceLife’s pastor James Coates and the leadership of the Trinity Bible Chapel in Waterloo, as they refuse to bow down their knees to the COVID state-cult and worship at its idol altars.
The vast majority of the churchmen however have completely abrogated their duty as the Lord’s under-shepherds, because instead of rebuking and opposing the government for its overreach, they complied with its wicked anti-Christian edicts. And thus have they betrayed Christ by allying with Cesar in opposition to Christ! The man however who did his pastoral duty – James Coates – and who rebuked the government for arrogating to itself the authority which belongs to Christ alone, now sits in prison while these modern-day Pharisees and their followers lie at ease, and many of them are so shameless and arrogant to criticize him. Or at best, they say that they “sympathise” with him but cannot condone his actions. Seriously?!! Obeying God rather than men (Acts 4:19; Acts 5:29) is now in the eyes of so many churchmen a crime worthy of imprisonment, or at the very least, quarantine confinement!
“We have a pastor in jail in Canada, and a lot of Christians’ response has been – he deserves this. He should have just bowed. And so the fact that this is not shocking to people just shows that we are the boiling frog in the pot, that we don’t even recognize what’s happening.” – Erin Coates (Interview w/ Wife of Jailed Canadian Pastor)
How can any Christian with a conscience stay silent and indifferent at all this evil?? But then, so many are that blind that they think evil is good (lockdowns – i.e., cruel and inhumane isolationism, and dehumanizing social distancing and masking measures according to which humans are to be regarded as biohazard threats whose sole purpose in life is to avoid contracting and spreading the dreaded disease!) and good is evil (participating in a public Christian worship service), and accordingly, that God’s Law is to be disregarded and rejected but that of the secular Christ-hating government is to be unquestionably obeyed!
How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them? – Jeremiah 8:8-9.
The churchmen who have unquestionably complied with and endorsed their government’s COVID-19 restrictions, and in doing so rejected the very Word of God, are not only destitute of true wisdom but they are also guilty of the following:
Treachery of putting Caesar over Christ, and thus of breaking the very first commandment (Exodus 20:2-3) and having another god before Him;
Idolatry and practical atheism due to endorsing and promoting blind obedience to the state and thus establishing the tyranny of statism;
Aiding the devil’s cause and building his kingdom by directly backing and participating in the abolition of all public forms of Christian worship;
Breaking the fourth commandment – forsaking the Sabbath day and failing to keep it holy and honour the Lord on it by the assembling of ourselves together for worship (Exodus 20:8-11; Leviticus 23:3; Isaiah 58:13);
Breaking the eight commandment (Exodus 20:15; which says “do not steal” and thus requires that we have lawful callings and exercise due diligence in them), by going along with the very same public health order that has prohibited and outlawed the conduct of many lawful businesses;
Breaking the ninth commandment (Exodus 20:16), by promoting a great lie and a delusion, and thus bearing false witness to their neighbour (the lie that the new coronavirus is a huge deadly threat to human societies and therefore justifies draconian countermeasures when in fact this is not at all the case);
Aligning with the throne of iniquity which frameth evil by law and condemns the innocent blood (i.e., the true men of God who oppose it), and which God will judge (Psalm 94:20-23);
Great hypocrisy, because they profess to know Christ and be His ministers and speak in His Name, but are acting against Him and siding with the throne of iniquity instead;
Following a multitude to do evil (expressly contrary to – Exodus 23:2), and in doing so they are also guilty of being complicit in the government’s violation of the sixth commandment, “thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13), because by sanctioning and going along with the government-mandated COVID lockdowns they have also sanctioned the ghastly global man-made catastrophe of economic genocide – death by starvation, poverty and despairing suicide, and have put their stamp of approval on many other fatal consequences of isolationism and of the utterly absurd exclusive public health focus on COVID-19;
Endorsing government hypocrisy – ‘one rule for me and another one for thee’; and while many politicians were caught red-handed, doing what they hoped the public would never discover, the government of Manitoba has at least been that honest to admit publicly that, “Public health orders don't apply to any levels of government”;
Aiding the demonization of Christian faithful who refuse to blindly submit to government tyranny, and who thus defy godless rules which forbid that which God commands (church meetings), and allow that which God forbids, hates and abhors (unabated murder of the unborn; since under the same COVID-19 related public health order that prohibits or severely limits Christian in-person gatherings, pre-born slaughterhouses are allowed to operate freely!);
Ignorance of God’s Word and what it has to say on contagion (Leviticus 13), as well as on the role, jurisdiction and limitations of civil governments, and our obedience to them (Romans 13);
Sloth – failing to do their homework and exercise due diligence in searching the COVID-19 matter out; they has one year to do it but instead, they are keeping their churches closed and to this day continue to follow the fiction and appear to go along with state-sponsored media’s germophobic panic-mongering and indoctrination;
Choosing ease, convenience and conformity over sacrifice and suffering for the sake of truth and obedience to Christ;
Negligence and desertion of their duty as Lord’s under-shepherds, because their alternative to in-person gathering – namely, the Zoom church – is neglecting the deep needs of so many people;
Legalism and Pharisaism – breaking the commandments of God (to assemble for regular worship) in order to uphold the commandments and the superstitions of men (quarantine of healthy people and germophobia); and adding to God’s Word by imposing laws on the church that He never commanded, like socialist distancing, masking, health checks of healthy congregants etc.;
Failing to rebuke and curtail the overreach of wicked civil magistrates;
Failing to be the light of truth and sound-mindedness in the black hole of deranged germophobic madness, and failing to act as a counter-measure to the dehumanizing dystopian tyranny of the COVIDiotic state cult, but becoming instead a part of it;
Ignorance of history and not seeing it being repeated to the detriment of their own flocks as well as society at large; and last but certainly not the least, in fact this may be their greatest sin:
Engaging in a public act that is very close to blasphemy of deeming the assembling church for whom Christ shed His precious blood that she might be His light in the World and show forth His praise non-essential.
And remember in all this that judgment must begin at the House of God (1 Peter 4:17), and to whom much is given – such as those in position of authority and leadership – much is required (Luke 12:48).
“…the first thing I would say [to the pastors]:…worship is essential for many people to get over this adversity…but I would also say, elders have a role, I’ve heard from many pastors who are telling me that the elders are not wanting to open the churches because of judgment of others. Well, they should be thinking about judgment of Somebody else! Not judgment of the congregants or not judgment of people on social media, there is God that they should be seeking and only seeking [and] whose judgment [they should be fearing]!
…
This is the same parallel that I see in the political caucuses…many of my former caucus-mates I know oppose these measures, but they fear the premier, or they fear the prime minister, and they are not being honest, they are not upholding their oath of office out of fear of somebody else, of the premier…I don’t know what oath of office a pastor takes, but I am going to suggest that that oath is to a much higher authority…and just as politicians are breaking their oath of office and not being honest, I got to think that there are pastors who aren’t understanding that their oath is not being upheld as well.” – Randy Hillier (MPP for Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston and one of the founders of End the Lockdown Caucus, Interview: Randy Hillier on the Arrest of Pastor James Coates)“When I hear of people barred from the communion of the church, not for sin but because they did not wear this mask, or that they were removed from the assembly of God’s people because the church had reached its capacity according to the government, I fear for those ministers and elders. I fear for them, they will have to answer to God, and unless they repent, I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes on the day of judgment for anything in the world. There are consequences for the decisions we make as leaders in the church. Do you realize that we are on the cusp of a division in the church in North America? Between state-established, state-sanctioned churches and underground churches? I mean, unless God intervenes that’s exactly where we are headed. We are becoming in that way a little bit like China and other nations where there are two kinds of church: those under the authority of the state and in conformity to the state’s rules and guidelines, and those under the authority of Jesus Christ. Churches that will always look as churches have always looked, and churches that look the way government wants them to look. And I will tell you plainly, I fear for those ministers and elders who are state-sanctioned ministers and elders because they have broken faith with God…Whom they have promised to serve.” – Steve Richardson (pastor, Faith Presbyterian Church, Tillsonburg, Ontario, Ministers, Hirelings & Masks)
For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered. – Jeremiah 10:21.
“Every congregant, every member of every congregation needs to say – where the hell are the churches, where the hell are the pastors, you know, what the hell are you doing?! Is my faith no longer important to you? Is my well-being no longer important to you? Why have a collection plate out? Why have that building that sits empty? Why do I call you pastor when you do not pastor?” – Randy Hillier (MPP for Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston and one of the founders of End the Lockdown Caucus, Interview: Randy Hillier on the Arrest of Pastor James Coates)
“I remember one of the very first protests we went to. A man took me aside, he found out that I was a pastor, and he was a business guy…he took me aside and said – look, if the church won’t stand we’re lost, because people of faith they are…a source of morality, they are a source of strength, they are a source of integrity, and we need the church.” – Michael Thiessen (pastor and campaign manager for Liberty Coalition Canada, Interview: Randy Hillier on the Arrest of Pastor James Coates)
“When I saw this developing last year [i.e., the COVID state-cult], I saw churches and pastors and houses of worship in that light, in that if we’re going to get out of this we need to have those churches and faith to do it…so I am going to reiterate that – where, the hell are you?? We need our pastors and our churches and our houses of worship to defend our society, to defend our humanity.”– Randy Hillier (MPP for Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston and one of the founders of End the Lockdown Caucus, Interview: Randy Hillier on the Arrest of Pastor James Coates)
We do need the church to step up and uphold the righteousness of God, and to oppose the dystopian-Orwellian erosion of our humanity by the alarmingly rapid increasing encroachment of atheistic statist tyranny. And if the church won’t step up to the task at hand it is indeed ripe for judgment.
“When the church fails to apply the Law of God and shape the minds of men, she fails to be the pillar and ground of truth in the community. The church has failed.” – Armen Thomassian (minister of Faith Free Presbyterian Church, Greenville, South Carolina, Unmasking a Future Lockdown, Part 2)
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. – Matthew 5:13-16.
And with that said, I dedicate this work to pastors and churches who refuse to bow their knees to sheer Covidiocracy and government tyranny. They are the wise and faithful stewards who will not be ashamed at their Master’s coming (Matthew 24:45-47; Luke 12:42-44).Ministers, Hirelings & Masks