Pastor James Coates, of GraceLife Church, Edmonton, Alberta, has been jailed. His crime? Holding church services for more people than the government's mandated maximum capacity of his church hall under Covid rules.
I believe this is the first mainstream pastor ever jailed in Canada, if not the entire English-speaking world in the last century or so, simply for mainstream preaching / church activities (ie not for other real crimes).
He was tried in secret, and told he could only be released if he promised not to preach. He could not agree to those terms (obviously), so is still imprisoned.
This is his final sermon before being jailed. It is brilliant, everybody should watch it before it is banned from the interwebs. Subject: Directing Government to its Duty. Many of the topics in it will be familiar to those of us here who already have a pretty good grasp of the role and limits of government, but he does come from a different perspective to my own in some matters and I found this mildly challenging in places, which is good. He traces government right back to Genesis 1, elaborates the purpose of government, why it is God-ordained, why and where it wield's God's authority, where it does NOT wield His authority, what the role of the Church is, and where we should obey vs disobey the authorities.
I can see why they decided to lock him up... This man is awesome.
Anyone willing to preach to the point of going to jail for it needs our full attention. Prayers for certain, for him, his family and his church. But through modern technology we can even listen to his words ourselves, and should take advantage of that opportunity.
And spread this far and wide. This should be a critical moment that actually wakes up as much of the Church that is ever going to wake up. The ones that won't wake up to this possibly aren't even in the Church...
https://notthebee.com/article/the-f...must-not-preach-as-a-condition-of-his-release
https://notthebee.com/article/canad...id-after-their-pastor-is-jailed-for-preaching
I believe this is the first mainstream pastor ever jailed in Canada, if not the entire English-speaking world in the last century or so, simply for mainstream preaching / church activities (ie not for other real crimes).
He was tried in secret, and told he could only be released if he promised not to preach. He could not agree to those terms (obviously), so is still imprisoned.
This is his final sermon before being jailed. It is brilliant, everybody should watch it before it is banned from the interwebs. Subject: Directing Government to its Duty. Many of the topics in it will be familiar to those of us here who already have a pretty good grasp of the role and limits of government, but he does come from a different perspective to my own in some matters and I found this mildly challenging in places, which is good. He traces government right back to Genesis 1, elaborates the purpose of government, why it is God-ordained, why and where it wield's God's authority, where it does NOT wield His authority, what the role of the Church is, and where we should obey vs disobey the authorities.
I can see why they decided to lock him up... This man is awesome.
Anyone willing to preach to the point of going to jail for it needs our full attention. Prayers for certain, for him, his family and his church. But through modern technology we can even listen to his words ourselves, and should take advantage of that opportunity.
And spread this far and wide. This should be a critical moment that actually wakes up as much of the Church that is ever going to wake up. The ones that won't wake up to this possibly aren't even in the Church...
https://notthebee.com/article/canad...id-after-their-pastor-is-jailed-for-preaching
