Two leaders at a well-known Christian ministry say they respect John MacArthur’s church for defying an order from the state of California but believe other churches can reach a different conclusion and still be obedient to Christ and Scripture.
Mark Dever, the president of the church-equipping ministry 9Marks, and Jonathan Leeman, the editorial director of the same organization, discussed the issue this week during an episode of Pastors Talk, a 9Marks podcast.
“I just wanted to carve out a little Christian freedom there. … I hope we can demonstrate that Christians can love one another and disagree about these kinds of judgments,” Leeman said.
Dever and Leeman recorded the podcast the same weekend MacArthur’s church – Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif. – released a pastor- and elder-backed statement that said the congregation would not obey a California order prohibiting in-person religious gatherings.
“When any government official issues orders regulating worship (such as bans on singing, caps on attendance, or prohibitions against gatherings and services),” the statement said, “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.”
Leeman…
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