John MacArthur’s California church gathered Sunday morning for worship in spite of a last-minute court order that upheld government restrictions on indoor worship due to the pandemic.

“We’re not meeting … because we want to be rebellious. We’re meeting because our Lord has commanded us to come together and worship Him,” MacArthur, the pastor of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles County, said at the beginning of Sunday’s worship service.

Under current rules in Los Angeles County, churches are limited to outdoor gatherings, provided they social distance.

The service capped a busy legal weekend that initially saw the congregation win in court before Los Angeles County appealed to an appellate court.

On Friday, California Superior Court Judge James Chalfant ruled the church could meet indoors but ordered the congregation to social distance and to wear masks. MacArthur on Friday said he was “very grateful” that the judge vindicated “our desire to stay open and serve our people.”

But on Saturday, Los Angeles County filed an appeal with the California Court of Appeals, which late in the day blocked the judge’s ruling and upheld the county’s right to “enforce the Health Order’s ban on ‘indoor religious activity.’” The county had “demonstrated a likelihood” it would win the lawsuit, the appeals court said in its unanimous 3-0 decision, citing…

LAHORE, Pakistan, August 14, 2020 (Morning Star News) – A court decision to return custody of a 14-year-old Christian girl to the Muslim who allegedly kidnapped her and forced her to convert to Islam and marry him will make more Christian girls vulnerable to such trauma, sources said.

Lala Robin Daniel, a rights activist based in Faisalabad assisting the family of Maira Shahbaz, said the Lahore High Court’s refusal to take into account the documented age of the girl and the falsification of documents, including a fake marriage certificate, was unprecedented and would lead to more such cases.

“If the courts of this country start validating underage marriages of girls belonging to the minority communities, it will encourage people from the majority faith to target them with even more impunity,” he said. “A minor child can easily be influenced or coerced into renouncing their faith and marrying someone. This practice needs to be stopped.”

Daniel and the family’s attorney correctly refer to the girl as Maira in court documents, but the court mistakenly called her Maria in its verdict. A Catholic from Medina Town, Faisalabad, Maira contracted false marriage with the already married Muslim, Nakash Tariq, on Oct. 25, 2019 – six months before he allegedly abducted her on April 28, according to her mother, Nighat Shahbaz, a single parent and domestic worker.

According…

Saying “gay rights and freedom of speech” can co-exist, a federal judge Friday sided with a Christian photographer in ruling the city of Louisville, Ky., cannot force her to work at same-sex weddings.

The case involved a Christian photographer, Chelsey Nelson, who owns a studio that specializes in photographing, editing and blogging about weddings. She sued Louisville in 2019, claiming its anti-discrimination law would require her to photograph a same-sex wedding and thus violate her First Amendment rights.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Justin R. Walker sided with Nelson and issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the city from enforcing the law against her in her photography and her blogging.

Nelson will likely succeed in her lawsuit, he ruled. Alliance Defending Freedom represented her.

“America is wide enough for those who applaud same-sex marriage and those who refuse to,” he wrote. “The Constitution does not require a choice between gay rights and freedom of speech. It demands both. … Forcing citizens to express ideas ‘contrary to their deepest convictions’ is ‘always demeaning.’ It doesn’t matter if most people agree with the expression the government compels. Free thought ‘includes both the right to speak freely’ and to say nothing at all.”

The city, he wrote, is “attempting to compel religious speech at the core of the First…

Holding indoor services once again in defiance of California’s COVID-19 lockdown orders, Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church on Sunday told his congregation, “We are holding church … because our Lord commands it.” The megachurch met hours after an appeals court blocked a ruling that had allowed it to meet for worship.

“They don’t want us to meet, that’s obvious,” MacArthur said after Los Angeles County secured a stay of the trial court ruling that would have allowed the congregation to meet indoors with masks and social distancing.

“They’re not willing to work with us. They just want to shut us down. But we’re here to bring honor to the Lord,” the pastor continued.

The California Court of Appeal said in its ruling late Saturday, “As between the harm that flows from the heightened risk of transmitting COVID-19 (namely “serious illness and death”) and the harm that flows from having to conduct religious services outdoors instead of indoors, the balance at this early stage favors issuance of a stay.”

MacArthur said he doesn’t know…

Christianity is a faith with a long and detailed history, with numerous events of lasting significance occurring throughout the ages.

Each week brings the anniversaries of great milestones, horrid tragedies, amazing triumphs, and everything in between.

Here are three things that happened this week, Aug. 16-22, in Church history. They include the martyrdom of missionaries during the Boxer Rebellion, John Bunyan preaching his last sermon, and the death of the first president of Dallas Theological Seminary.

Teens and young adult Christians do not like to use certain words, including “converts” and “winning souls,” while talking about the reasons behind sharing their faith with others, a study has found.

Millennials and Gen Z teens are more cautious than older Christians about the words they use when they discuss missions, according to the evangelical Christian polling firm Barna Group, which looked at data from its The Future of Missions report which highlights the way different age groups talk about missions and why teens and young adults lean away from certain terminology.

For example, 35% of young adults and 38% of teens said the word “convert” tops the list of objectionable mission-related words for them. And 31% of young adults and 30% of teens also rejected the term “winning souls.”

It’s not due to embarrassment or shame, the study clarifies. “In some places in the world, calling oneself a missionary isn’t merely socially awkward; it’s a closed door. According to a seminary professor who trains aspiring missionaries, ‘There are places where you cannot get an entry visa to be a missionary. If…