Category Archives: Religion

John MacArthur sues California over lockdown

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Los Angeles Pastor John MacArthur filed a lawsuit Wednesday against California over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s second coronavirus lockdown order, including banning singing in houses of worship.

John MacArthur
Grace Community Church

“We feel like we are the most essential reality in the world, Look, Jesus is Lord. He is the head of our church. Govenor Newsom is not the head of the church. Mayor Garcetti is not the head of the church.”

At the end of July, the County of Los Angeles sent a demand letter to MacArthur, in which attorney Jason Tokoro called for the church to “immediately cease holding indoor worship services” or face “criminal and civil liability.”

Thomas More Society special counsel Jenna Ellis and Charles LiMandri, representing the pastor and the church, called the restrictions “onerous” in the complaint and called on the state to recognize that Christians are not second-class citizens.

“After Grace Community Church voluntarily complied with state orders for nearly six months, California’s edicts demanding an indefinite shut down have gone now far past rational or reasonable and are firmly in the territory of tyranny and discrimination. This isn’t about health,” Ellis said. “It’s about blatantly targeting churches.”

The lawsuit claims the state is acting unconstitutionally and inconsistently.

“When many went to the streets to engage in ‘political protests’ against ‘racism’ and ‘police brutality,’ these protesters refused to comply with the pandemic restrictions. Instead of enforcing the public health orders, public officials were all too eager to grant a de facto exception for these favored protesters,” the suit reads in part.

“We are simply continuing to do today what we have done for the past 63 years that Grace Community Church has been open to welcome the Los Angeles community and serve their spiritual needs,” MacArthur said in a statement. “We will remain open and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all who decide they want to come worship with us.”

“The Roman Road” to Salvation

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Romans Road is not a physical road, but a series of Bible verses from the book of Romans laying out God’s plan of salvation. When arranged in order, these verses form an easy, systematic way of explaining the biblical message of salvation in Jesus Christ.

There are different versions of Romans Road with slight variations in Scriptures, but the basic message and method are the same. Evangelical missionaries, evangelists, and lay people memorize and use Romans Road when sharing the good news.

Romans Road clearly answers these five questions:

Who needs salvation?
Why do we need salvation?
How does God provide salvation?
How do we receive salvation?
What are the results of salvation?

Romans Road Bible Verses

Take the Romans Road journey into the loving heart of God with this collection of Bible verses written by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans.

Step 1
Romans Road begins with the truth that everyone needs salvation because all people have sinned. No one gets a free ride, because every person is guilty before God. We all fall short of the mark.

Romans 3:9-12, and 23
…All people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin. As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” … For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. (NLT)

Step 2
The price (or consequence) of sin is death. The punishment we all deserve is both physical and spiritual death, thus we need God’s salvation to escape the deadly, eternal consequences of our sin.

Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (NLT)


Step 3
Jesus Christ died for our sins. His death paid the full price for our salvation. Through the death and resurrection of God’s own Son, the debt we owed was satisfied.

Romans 5:8
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (NLT)


Step 4
We (all sinners) receive salvation and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. Anyone who places their trust in Jesus receives the promise of eternal life.

Romans 10:9-10, and 13
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved … For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (NLT)


Step 5
Salvation through Jesus Christ brings us into a relationship of peace with God. When we accept God’s gift, we have the reward of knowing we’ll never be condemned for our sins.

Romans 5:1
Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. (NLT)
Romans 8:1
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. (NLT)
Romans 8:38-39
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NLT)

Responding to Romans Road
If you believe Romans Road leads to the path of truth, you can respond by receiving God’s wonderful gift of salvation today. Here’s how to take your personal journey down Romans Road:

1) Admit you are a sinner.
2) Understand that as a sinner, you deserve death.
3) Believe Jesus Christ died on the cross to save you from sin and death.
4) Repent by turning from your old life of sin to a new life in Christ.
5) Receive, through faith in Jesus Christ, God’s free gift of salvation.

Congressional Statement on Religious Crackdown in China

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December 19, 2018

(Washington, DC)—Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Chris Smith, the chair and cochair respectively of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), issued the following statement regarding the escalating crackdown on Protestant Christian believers in China, including the targeting of Zion Church in Beijing, Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, and Rongguili Church in Guangzhou.  Rongguili is the third major unregistered church in China since September to be forcibly shuttered by authorities.  Among those detained in connection with the crackdown on Early Rain Covenant Church are prominent Chinese pastor and legal scholar Wang Yi, as well as his wife, Jiang Rong, and roughly 100 church lay leaders and seminary students. 

“We are deeply concerned by the escalating crackdown against Christians in China, including the forced closure of prominent Protestant churches, confiscation of church property and harassment and detention of church and lay leaders alike.  These developments are set against the backdrop of the human rights crisis unfolding in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where upwards of a million or more Uyghur and other Muslims have been interned in “political reeducation” camps, amidst growing reports of forced labor.

In short, Chinese President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping’s efforts to “sinicize” religion are taking a devastating human toll.  Chinese officials and others complicit in severe religious freedom violations must be held accountable and specific cases of those unjustly harassed, detained, and imprisoned must be raised at the highest levels of government. As Christians around the world prepare to celebrate Christmas, China’s Christians and other faith communities are under siege and treated as enemies of the state for daring to worship and peacefully live out their faith.”

BACKGROUND: The Chinese Government has long imposed harsh policies against unregistered Christian churches, Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners, and other new religious movements the Chinese government has labeled as “cults.” Set against this grim backdrop, the number of Chinese religious believers has grown rapidly for several decades after the Cultural Revolution. In 2016 Chinese President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping launched a “sinicization” campaign, resulting in unprecedented efforts to manage, control, and even transform the religious practices of tens of millions of China’s citizens. In 2018, revised Religious Affairs Regulations took effect and the United Front Work Department (UFWD) took over direct responsibility for religious and ethnic affairs. The UFWD is charged with securing the support of non-Party sectors of society, including religious groups. By placing religion under the direct management of the UFWD and issuing new legal rules to govern religious practice, Xi Jinping has asserted more direct control over religious life in China. In the past year, religious venues were demolished, Bibles burned, and over a million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities were interned, with many forced to renounce their religious faith.  Last week, Secretary of State Pompeo re-designated China a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), as it has been since 1999, for its severe, ongoing, egregious, and systematic violations of religious freedom.  For additional information on the religious freedom situation in China, please see the Commission’s 2018 Annual Report.

View the full report:

2018AR_Freedom-of-ReligionDownload