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| PentecostalTheology.com
by Peter Vandever
Let’s be VERY clear about something. The American Church is cowarding back from its divine calling in the midst of crisis. The call of the Church is to be the salt, the light and the city on the hill.
Let’s revisit the Spanish flu in 1918. The world was dying off but the Pentecostal church was having healing meetings in tents all over America. People came to the healing revival with expectation that the Holy Spirit would come in healing power.
Hebrews does NOT say “forsake not the assembly unless there is a virus.” That is not in the Greek or any copy of the book that we have preserved. It just is not there. The Church should be the answer to the crisis, not part of the crisis.
I have been saved since 1996 and I have never seen so much demonic fear among the faithful. We are called to be people of faith, not fear. We can pretend that it is about “wisdom” but wisdom is not rooted in fear.
As Lindell Cooley used to say, “If He is still God, He will still do it.” The same Holy Spirit that anointed the Pentecostals in 1918 is here and alive today. Our response to that is very telling.
Isara Mo
And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a LION, and a BEAR and took a lamb out of the flock:
And I WENT out AFTER HIM, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.
1 Samuel 17:34-36 KJV
A lion and a bear are terrfying than a VIRUS..
Varnel Watson
GREAT POST by Peter Vandever And Nero blamed the Christians for Rome burning. Get ready, the mass hysteria, the calling for churches to be shut down and arresting pastor’s will increase. Kyle Williams Laya Milligan Aaron Powers how did you baptize the ppl getting saved and serve them communion following?
Varnel Watson
Peter Vandever Jared Waldrop Ray E Horton I am getting this comments by someone called Mr.DarwinLee@ via email about this post and I find them quite distasteful
Pentecostal preacher does not have the right to encourage sheep to risk each others life . Have you the Leaders of a religious society that tells others you love God and his ways and for them to fallow the footsteps of Jesus our savior , forgotten to read MATTHEW 6 1/19 ???????? He is defying the order only in order to get himself in the news , disregarding the risk of human life . All of you need to read the bible and live by it . Protect the people that support you and stop media hogs . If you embrace what he does , you are completely showing disrespect for human life and only care about publicity stunts .
Varnel Watson
and then AGAIN by the same poster
Where is the responsibility to do his best to PROTECT the church goers . You and he want to turn this into a right wing activist group quarrel about this right or that right . What about the rights of the public to be protected .You over look that aspect . Please read Matthew 6 : 1-9 . Also retouch with your bible reading and study about “Live By The Law Of The Land Until It Goes Against God’s Laws . Opening a place of worship is not wrong . No . But If the law of the land is doing what it can to protect the public , including the church goers , then abide by Matthew 6 : 1-9 . Remember the Bible was inspired by God to be written by man .You can do the public a favor and stop addressing this as a right wing activist garbage , and help them by fallowing the bible’s teachings .
Ray E Horton
Troy Day Whether Pastor Rodney was right or wrong in holding services, arresting him was uncalled for. It will be challenged in the courts.
James Michael Sanders
Ray E Horton in that I agree! Despite if he was right or wrong, arrest should NOT have happened.
Varnel Watson
you have awaken to a NEW DAY my friend Joe Absher we all HAVE At least you got your boots and havent lost your anointing YET – preach on my friends PREACH ON
Joe Absher
Exodus 4:25 KJV — Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.
Roger Throckmorton
Where is Peter Vandever holding healing services?
Peter Vandever
KC
Varnel Watson
Peter Vandever wasnt that a CHEEP hit-n-run comment
Neil Steven Lawrence
The American church has been cowering for a long time. I always remember one statistic I learned in my missions focus at PTS M.Div. studies: “ American consumers spend more on dog food than the American church spends on World Mission‘s.“ this betrays the lack of Kingdom priorities that the church has.
When pastors are more concerned about tithe payers (& I Believe in the tithe) than lifting people up into ministry and doing World Mission’s, the church will never possess boldness. This is because boldness does not come from obligation or cultural expectation or conventional wisdom but it comes from the Holy Spirit alone! And if we do not have God‘s agenda on the front burner then God’s power to think and do what is right is removed!
The famous Pentecostal passage: “you’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my martyrs (witnesses) in the whole world.“ (Acts 1:8)
The power is not so we can look flashy or appear spiritual, it is so we can DIE! If you are not willing to die for Jesus Kingdom and his purposes then the power will be removed from you – and all that will be left is a “form of godliness.“
I do believe this pandemic represents a great opportunity for the church:
1. To change its communication efforts by bringing the good news outside of the four walls of the church.
2. To stand up with faith and give the people of the world a greater hope
3. To minister to needy people who are afraid
4. To listen to what God is saying through this
Without boldness and God’s purposes none of this is possible. Let us not miss this great opportunity to shine the kingdom!
James Michael Sanders
Troy Day brother I’ve said over and over that our brother should not have been arrested.
However, how can you say that other Men have not obeyed God during this time?
Do you not believe God still speaks?
Do you not believe that God can say stop, go here, or go there, or do this, or not at this time?
According to the post and comments that you and Peter and others keep making you guys are rebuking hundreds of thousands of men of God.
Do you not think that all them men prayed? Does God not speak to them? What if God commanded them to stay put temporarily and yet you guys are condemning them.
Do all of us men that where told by our Lord Jesus how to serve at this time obey man/YOU/Peter/Rodney or do we obey God?
All of us can use scriptures to justify our personal thoughts.
Respectfully brothers, you guys are using the passage in Acts completely out of biblical context. When has our government forbid us to preach Jesus? Not one man has told me I can’t preach Jesus. I’ve preached Jesus every single day before, during, and shall continue after this quarantine.
The Word clearly teaches that we are to obey our government officials as good citizens UNLESS they command us to do the opposite of Gods Word. That’s simply NOT happened.
No one has told me not to share Jesus. I’ve shared Him with Saints and Sinners this entire time. I’ve prayed for people nonstop every single day.
Romans 13:1-2 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
1 Peter 2:13-17 Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
Titus 3:1 Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work,
Are we literally going to throw all these biblical instructions in the trash over a simple temporary safety quarantine for all the unbelievers? To allow all the unbelievers to see the Church as rebellious over a safety matter? How will we reach them when they all hate us and see us as rebellious evil doers who refuse to even follow safety guidelines?
Please don’t say this virus doesn’t hit Spirit filled believers if they have enough Faith. We’ve seen many Christians die from plagues, viruses, and diseases.
So if we get infected by disobeying a simple temporary quarantine and kill people what will we say then? “Well I obeyed God and preached Jesus inside of a four wall building, who cares that it killed sister Janet, little Timmy with heart disease, and all the elderly at the local old folks home, I opened up a four walled building.”
Or
Let’s be good civil servants at this time. Let’s preach Jesus to the sinners and the saints with might and power at every opportunity that God has given us. Look at this opportunity! Many Men are looking up right now fearful. There’s people praying that probably hasn’t prayed in years. We have a time before us to reap a great harvest for our Lord Jesus.
Or we can just condemn thousands of Christians for not opening a four wall building for a month,…. that can let the spread of a virus go down so that we don’t overwhelm the Hospitals and allow countless lives to perish alone.
I’m a Pastor and no one tells me I can’t preach Jesus or how to preach Him. Yet I’m also a RPSGT for the hospital that sees and helps countless people breath with respiratory issues. My wife is a Nurse. We can tell you first hand that dying without air isn’t pleasant. For us to use our Faith in Jesus/life to purposefully endanger others isn’t LOVE. I’m trying save lives and souls. I want people to live so that they can hear the Gospel of Jesus. Once they are dead it’s too late.
Francisco Arriola
Hold on there Mr. Sanders. You well reasoned and thoughtful response does not belong here. You need to be radical and write things draw attention to you boldness and anointing, not confined by the authority of man. You need defy authority and draw attention to yourself by getting arrested and then compare yourself to Jesus and Paul and the martyrs of Revelations. Come on man get with the program!!!
Varnel Watson
James Michael Sanders I will answer you as soon as I hear from Francisco Arriola because I wonder what type of Pentecostalism does NOT support another Pentecostal brother and preacher ARRESTED for preaching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_wLZ1E-Y34&feature=emb_title
James Michael Sanders
Troy Day who doesn’t support the Pastor arrested?
Varnel Watson
James Michael Sanders This one and your other questions are all great and we need to pick on them pretty soon To your concern I think it was Anthony Christchild who said
no we are all not
to our reference, but he may be Lutheran after all
Francisco Arriola
Mr. Day, thank you for providing the video to make my point. That interview with the reprehensible and nasty Alex Jones, who is being sued by parents of the children murdered at Sandy Hook (which Rodney was and is aware of and yet he continued to openly associate with him) makes my point. The book he is promoting is a conspiracy theory book. Everything he was talking about there can by seen or read at Q-Anon sites, Mark Taylor videos, Rick Wiles etc. Why not promote the book on 700 Club? Because what better place to go to promote a book on conspiracies, than the Alex Jones show. As for Rodney’s arrest-it will be windfall for him. He will become a martyr for the faith and appear on all the shows, no doubt drawing comparisons between him and Jesus, Paul and the martyrs of Revelation. He will exploit this to the max. Watch.
Varnel Watson
I quite appreciate your balanced answer. There are 3 articles we have due on this issue today ALL have the said interview PLUS the video by or brother Joseph Castillo which is very very nice
NOW the interview was taken 3/28 Putting aside the conspiracy is it your belief the arrest was because of the book and not because of the church services which have been going non stop with no prior arrests ?
Francisco Arriola
Based on the story appearing on multiple news outlets-local, regional, national-Rodney will soon be a hot guest to book on the Christo-tainment talk show circuit. He will write a book, give speeches and profit off of his martyrdom. Lets see how long it will be before he goes on Alex Jones. It has been a while. All those pastors who followed the county order should remember what Rodney said about them, how they were surrendering their freedoms etc. He came up short of calling them cowards, but the message was implicit.
Francisco Arriola
While we are on the subject here is the start of another “prophecy” from Jeremiah Johnson. You should read the whole thing-Last night in my dream, I found myself at a White House briefing with Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and Dr. Anthony Fauci. The President was making an announcement to the United States regarding COVID-19. As he began to encourage the people with a message of hope and promise, suddenly, Dr. Fauci turned into a big rat the size of a human being. Alarmed, I ran to the side of the stage and saw a line of men dressed in fine clothes, many of them not American, who were standing behind the doctor handing him large sums of cash”. At the end he says that he is not referring to Dr. Fauci as a rat, but if you read the posts of many of his followers, that is what they took from it. These people who “prophesy” have a lot influence on a lot of people, and they have created a subculture in Christian circles of conspiracy theory believing Christians, who know more about the deep state and all the other associated garbage, than they do about the Bible. I bet you that many of Perry Stone, Rodney and Jeremiah’s followers probably still believe that President Obama was born in Kenya. These “prophets” are shaping the world view of their followers in a very negative way. However, when they always seem to excuse the faults of their anointed leader, Donald Trump. That is the constant among all of them. He seems to do no wrong, even when it is obvious that he is. Their prophecies always defend him, but never correct some of his transgressions.
Varnel Watson
Francisco Arriola YES I saw it we posted and rejected the said prophecy widely I am also NOT the greatest fan of Rodney though we’ve had our common events in the past BUT when all said and done
preachers arrested for having church
in 21st century America under Trump
Come on now – how is this NOT a problem ???
BTW I think you are 400% wrong on Perry You just need to study him more and not what others say about him
Mike Partyka
Could you imagine the church at Antioch saying they were closing due to illness? Being fed to lions or being crucified I’m sure we’re more terrifying.
Francisco Arriola
No I can’t. The church at Antioch wouldn’t have been aware of the dangers of a lethal virus. Next!!
Bo Luke
Why call the early church ignorant ??? Francisco Arriola,they obviously new a JESUS THAT HAD HEALED ALL MANNER OF DISEASES !!! enlighten me please what those DISEASES are.NEXT !!!
Francisco Arriola
I didn’t call them ignorant. Virology didn’t exist in ancient times. Seriously, think.
Bo Luke
Enlighten me please on what manner of diseases JESUS HEALED,PLEASE
Bo Luke
JESUS the same yesterday,today AND forever !!!!!!!
Varnel Watson
Francisco Arriola Mike Partyka wasnt there a prophecy of famine and they STILL went Wasnt Paul rightly prophesied he will be arrested and he still went Didnt Jesus know?
Francisco Arriola
Ok