Short Take #1: Is This Persecution?

Here is another short take from The Christian Worldview with David Wheaton. Now, last year in America, many who rioted and destroyed property while disobeying COVID masking and distancing mandates, I might add, were arrested and then released. Right now, those who enter the United States illegally are often released into the country.

Apparently, this has become very selective. Meanwhile, in Canada, our ally to the north, in a small town just west of Edmonton, a pastor has been imprisoned for the past month awaiting his trial two months from now in May. His crime?

Burning and looting, inciting violence? Well, if you guessed, holding in-person church services in violation of government COVID mandates, you'd be correct. Pastor James Coates' imprisonment has garnered worldwide attention. For non-Christians, government and, quote, experts are their gods, so they heap condemnation on the pastor for following biblically-based beliefs. What is surprising, however, is that many professing Christians say or write that Pastor Coates isn't really being persecuted because all he had to do was, quote, comply with COVID mandates or just hold his church online.

Pastor Eric Davis of Cornerstone Church in Jackson, Wyoming, went to seminary with Pastor Coates. He's written extensively about his imprisonment, and he joins us this weekend to discuss why Pastor Coates should be respected and prayed for rather than ridiculed for making the decision to meet in-person with his church. Why is James Coates being imprisoned, and is it actual persecution?

It is certainly persecution. He's being imprisoned because he refused to compromise his conscience as it concerns presiding over the gathering of the wonderful great church up there outside of Edmonton Grace Life Church and restricting their church families' gathering to merely 15% capacity. He absolutely, as does any pastor, has the right to, before God and biblically, to go with their conscience on that issue. Look, another pastor in Canada, I have several friends who are pastors across Canada, some might with their conscience say, okay, I am going to go with 15%, we're going to have six services or whatever it might be.

And that's okay. But biblically speaking, I think what's happening with some people here is they're imposing their conscience upon others. And God's ideal, Hebrews 10, 24 to 25, God's ideal is that the body of Christ would celebrate together with the full local body, the whole local family there, in corporate worship with all of the body present, all the gifts present, all the one anothers being practiced. You know, we have to be careful with being so dogmatic that it's not persecution. Because I wonder what those individuals might have said to someone like Stephen, you know, who was stoned to death, as the apostle Paul watched in Acts chapter seven. You know, he has some firm words, Stephen did, and it was recorded in Acts chapter seven for the Sanhedrin. I mean, he says, you know, that you you are stiff necked, you're resisting the Holy Spirit, and they stone him to death.

They kill him, they murder him with stones under the guise of abiding by the law. And I wonder if people who are coming down so hard on Pastor Coates would say, well, you know, technically, Stephen didn't need to say that they were stiff necked, you know, he could have done a more backdoor gracious way and just done like a passive aggressive approach. And then he and therefore he could have avoided being stoned. And so technically, you know, Stephen stoning to death wasn't persecution. Or maybe they would have said that about John the Baptist, you know, well, technically, he didn't have to confront Herod on his sexual perversion. And technically, he could have just taken a more gracious approach. And so since he got his head cut off, you know, that decapitation wasn't technically persecution, when in fact, John the Baptist held up as the greatest, you know, the greatest guy ever, our Lord says in Luke 11.

So I think we just have to be real careful about that. And I wonder if some of the people making those statements, not all, you know, not all, but some of them might be compromising in their own conscience, behind the scenes as it were in their heart and then imposing that upon others. So I think it's we have to be more gracious, we have to be real careful about imposing our conscience upon others and instead, support this brother in prayer. Even if we disagree, that's the Christian way. This has been a short take from the Christian worldview with David Wheaton. To find out more about the Christian worldview, order resources, make a donation, become a monthly partner or contact us, visit thechristianworldview.org. You can also call us at toll-free 1-888-646-2233 or write to us at Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. That's Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331.