Pastor Jim Stephens of Fairview Baptist Church in Alberta was arrested in front of his family on Monday, a week after the government seized his church building and forced his congregation to worship underground.
Stephens was also arrested briefly last month, but the charges were dropped when authorities realized they had forgotten to serve the pastor with the court order they were accusing him of violating. Classic bureaucratic mistake!
On Sunday, however, a police helicopter (!!!) discovered Stephens and his congregation meeting secretly in a new location. While authorities haven’t said why a police helicopter was circling the area looking for dissidents like North Korea, it led to the congregation being surrounded by police cruisers.
Police didn’t stop the time of worship, but observed and then arrested Stephens on Monday at his home:
BREAKING: Pastor Tim Stephens Arrested On New Charges
FULL STORY: https://t.co/mJUy79i2jU
FULL VIDEO COMING SOON at https://t.co/w9zAH1MOnX pic.twitter.com/MH1Sx9uuZF— Adam Soos ⳩ (@ATSoos) June 14, 2021
Listen to the wails of his family. Are you proud of yourself, Canada? Are you making a better world?
I just got a tip that the police may be on their way to arrest me. Why? I continue to lead our church to worship Jesus as Lord over every earthly power.
More to come… Pray brothers and sisters. Stand firm, keep the faith.
— Tim Stephens (@tim__stephens) June 14, 2021
Attendance at these churches has grown, even as the congregations meet secretively to avoid government persecution. It’s funny how tyrannical leaders never seem to understand how the Church grows the more it is harassed!
As with Rome during its many years of Christian persecution and true believers worshiping in catacombs or people’s houses as belief on Christ grew, all this sort of thing will do is grow TRUE belief (not “lukewarm” crapola) and perhaps also signal the foretold “end times scenario.” But it will segregate true believers from the “lukewarmers” and expose those ratting out the true believers. Coming to “blue” states soon, and then “red” states as Christian Zionists fall for the Noahide scenario (aka “strong delusion”)
I kept asking myself what I would do if I were this father with his little ones in this particular situation. What if the whole house was armed, down to the younger ones who were properly trained to use a firearm? (Cue Mel Gibson in “The Patriot”) It all would likely have gone very differently. But this is the coming scenario many of us will have to face. To decide how to confront a situation such as this, is true preparation. To decide. Believe me, I’m counseling myself.
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