Pastor Toby on Greyfriars Hall
Rigor the Right Way
Might be a Road There
The Blinker is to Signal the Bassist to Stay on Beat
The Content Cluster Muster (02.18.21)
Have 'Em Delivered
Write to the Editor
Theology That Bites Back
Theology That Bites Back
Hi Doug, this is what’s going on in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. https://www.jccf.ca/alberta-premier-asked-to-release-jailed-pastor-end-religious-persecution/
Here’s Pastor James Coates’ powerful message this past Sunday, which I suspect that you’d appreciate very much: https://gracelife.ca/sermons/directing-government/
God bless you, your family, and everyone associated with Logos School, NSA, Christ Church, et al…
P.S.: I took you up on your recommendation to a couple of letter writers about what books to read. CS Lewis’ That Hideous Strength is a veritable playbook for what’s been happening in our nation, Canada, and around the world.
My wife and I listened to the message last night. It was very good. I am saddened and angered to see my country doing what it’s doing right now. There are so few pastors and Christians willing to stand up. We got to keep praying for James and his family and doing what we can.
PS. Matthew Abate, did I go to seminary with you? SBTS? 2016-2018
Ross Odnokon
Once again, the “Pastor Toby” entry is just a blank wall for me.
When I first heard of Pastor James Coates being kept in custody, I assumed he had fallen foul of the government over LGBT+. How wrong can you be – although this is by no means an unrealistic possibility. I do respect him following is conscience, but that is about as far as it goes. I’ve not had time to listen to much of his sermon. Sorry, it seems he is breaking the health regulations. Meeting in a church building, people close together and singing is about the prime way of spreading the virus. It is just about under control in… Read more »
This is a serious question: why does everyone (the media and the experts and those who repeat what they’ve heard from them, I mean) keep talking about how we need to worry about the British variant being more infectious, when this is what is actually happening in Britain:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/
Jane – the higher the infection rate, the more likely the healthcare system will be overrun by covid cases. The massive spread of the British variant in the UK towards the end of last year did overwhelm the health system. Not so much ICU capacity but beds taken by those who need nursing through the illness. A great deal of vital and life-saving work had to be cancelled/postponed because of this – I have an acquaintance in the UK who died because of this. Cancer treatment cancelled. This is the sole reason for lockdowns – to save the healthcare system… Read more »
Did you look at my link? The infection rate in Britain is plummeting. Not merely declining, but plummeting. This is incompatible with a “more infectious variant” being on the loose, since the previous presumably less infectious variant was quite virulent and persistent enough. So again, why are we worrying about a “more contagious British variant” when the empirical evidence shows no such thing?
Of course I understand that when there actually is a higher infection rate, there are all kinds of consequences to that.
Jane – yes I did look at the link, and obviously have been following events in the UK where I have family and friends. Although the new variant is more infectious (several European countries have found this to be the case), it doesn’t mean the hygiene measures used to curb the spread are therefore ineffective. A fairly hard lockdown whereby social contact is kept to a minimum will have the effect of reducing the newer version of the virus too. Hygiene measures can cause an exponential decrease in the rate of infection, providing everyone adheres to them. Britain suffered a… Read more »
Hi Ken, All of what you say is valid if you ignore seasonality of the virus. Otherwise there is no hard evidence for any of your assertions. In particular: 1. There is no evidence in the data that the spike over the Jan/Feb period is due to the Christmas easing. 2. Evidence of nosocomial spread in terms of Corona virus is not the main driver (I am not saying that it does nothing. Its just not the main driver. Same with masks). 3. You cannot control a virus. Not with NPI’s nor with vaccines. You can, however, control the EFFECT… Read more »
“The newer mutations don’t make the case hopeless, but they do make it much harder to keep the pandemic under any semblance of control.” Okay, I don’t know how many different ways there are to say this. No they don’t. If they did, the pandemic wouldn’t be coming under control. I understand that it may have been reasonable when the new strain was first isolated and studied, to predict that it would be harder to control. I do not understand how it is possible to say that it is harder to control, when it has actually proved easier to do… Read more »
I should add that the vaccine does not come into play here as the vaccination rate is not yet high enough to account for a radical drop in cases in the face of a “more contagious” strain.
Ken B: I agree. It’s time for individual believers to wean themselves of the organised Religion of the Mask, and to wean themselves of being spoon-fed by professional clergy such as Fauci (who, by the way, is not an epidemiologist, virologist, nor an intensive care specialist), who need to be needed, but are worse than useless. That would definitely bring some good out of the current restrictions. Such as ending them. There have been times in my life where ‘attending media’ has done more harm than good, and I would agree it is completely Biblical to stop, as long-term exposure… Read more »
Nice try, WJ! I had a classic example of what I am getting at on Sunday when the service was streamed on the internet. In the live chat a girl complained that this wasn’t real worship as there was no congregational singing and the church not free to meet as usual. She designated this as ‘persecution’, and clearly doesn’t believe there is a pandemic at all. Not only was the chat the wrong place to discuss this live and potentially in front of a watching world, calling the restrictions persecution is grossly insulting to those who really are being persecuted.… Read more »
Well, that was easy. All it took to get you to dismiss your own arguments was to define the terms. Wrong place, indeed. As if we needed any more proof that the voodoo practitioners of the Cult of the Mask simply cannot handle divergent views. It bears repeating — if the goal is to limit the spread of the Coronadoom, then the following have proven ineffective, and even counterproductive: – Masks. – Lockdowns. They are nothing more than forced gatherings limited to arbitrary collection points. Oligarch-run stores are okay. Churches are not. Black Lies Matter riots are okay. Peaceful Trump… Read more »
What “dehumanizing hatred”? This is a massive overreaction to legitimate criticism. You have avoided the main point I was making – whatever the ins and outs of corona restrictions, they are not persecution of the church. You don’t seem to be able to get beyond seeing all this as political rather than health. This is of course a US perspective, which seems to me to overly obsess with personal autonomy at the expense of the collective. Heaven forbid, that would be socialism! Isn’t Christianity a combination, a balance of the individual and God, plus the gathered church and God? Personal,… Read more »
Massive overreaction, huh? This from the guy who thinks “legitimate criticism” is clutching his pearls out of worry over the church’s image, using inflammatory language, merely because some girl expressed a different opinion than him. Typical leftist tactic out of the same old playbook: When you can’t refute, namecall. Bonus points for creative variation on the “conspiracy theory” trope. When pastors like James Coates are jailed because they *gasp!* held church services, that is textbook persecution. It’s happened the world over for as long as Christianity has been around. Persecution does not magically become not-persecution simply because flimsy pretexts (“public… Read more »
Have you got the remotest idea of how the world actually sees the church? No wonder they won’t listen to the gospel. Apply Rom 2 : 17 to 24 and substitute ‘evangelical’ for Jew. Then think of Ravi Zacharias. Then add Catholic clergy – the world doesn’t differentiate. This is not a left versus right thing. The govt concerned here is a grand coalition of conservatives and social democrats, with the former having a majority. In the UK it is a Conservative government, some of whom are so right wing they are bordering on being fascists. The restrictions there are… Read more »
Ken B: “Have you got the remotest idea of how the world actually sees the church? No wonder they won’t listen to the gospel.” Gee Ken, I have NO IDEA how the world actually sees the church. If only we had some sort of warning, such as Matt. 5:10-12, Matt. 10:22, Matt. 24:9, John 3:19, John 15:18, John 15:21, John 15:25, James 4:4, Psalm 69:4, Romans 1:29-30, Amos 5:10, 1 Cor. 1:18, etc. Of course the mainstream media has absolutely NO effect on how the world views the church. From The Week, headline: “Churches are being unfairly scapegoated for the… Read more »
Well this one has almost reached the point of going the way of all flesh. I had a period where the very thought of ‘going to church’ was almost enough to make me want to throw up. The hypocrisy, the compromise, the indifference to even trying to actually do what the bible says. I was for a while able to see what the church looks like to those who are outside of it. ‘Church’ in its institutional form is a lost cause. I have long since come through that one, but the lesson has never left me. It is very… Read more »