California pastor John MacArthur said in a sermon Sunday his church will continue to meet in-person despite a state-mandated ban on such gatherings, saying that Christ – not the state – is the “head of the church.”
“I can’t think of anything worse than to put an entire world into fear and then shut down the only place they could go to have their fear finally and completely removed,” said MacArthur, a well-known author and preacher at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif., whose sermons are syndicated on radio stations nationwide. “We’re fulfilling our Lord’s design.”
Churches in at least 30 counties have been ordered by the state to close again due to rising COVID-19 cases. MacArthur’s sermon came three days after the elders of Grace Community Church released a public statement saying the congregation “will not bow” to the state restrictions because the state itself had exceeded its authority.
“When any government official issues orders regulating worship (such as bans on singing, caps on attendance, or prohibitions against gatherings and services), he steps outside the legitimate bounds of his God-ordained authority as a civic official and arrogates to himself authority that God expressly grants only to the Lord Jesus Christ as sovereign over His Kingdom, which is the church,” the elders’ statement said.
MacArthur, in his sermon, said Grace…
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