This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program originally airing on 5/30/23. To listen to the program, please click HERE.
Jamie Mitchell: Well, hello again for another chapter of Stand in the Gap Today. We hope you had a blessed Memorial Day weekend. I’m your host, Jamie Mitchell, director of church culture at the American Pastors Network. Joining with me my dear friend, Dave Kistler. And on our program today, we want to have a second part in a three-part series that I’m doing to prepare for Liberty Sunday on July 2nd when we’re asking churches and pastors to devote a day to highlighting the importance of national and spiritual liberty.
This year, our theme is courageously restoring our rights. And we’re encouraging pastors to instruct, inspire, and challenge their congregation to engage in the battle over our inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Now, we’ve already considered the pursuit of happiness, focusing on work and wealth and personal responsibility. In a couple of weeks, we’ll handle the issue of life and especially the assault of the life of the unborn and our need to speak up.
But today, we want to look at liberty. And we’ve said in the past that liberty is different than freedom. Liberty is removing or throwing off the evil bondage or control that may hinder or inhibit us from living free. That’s what’s happened in our nation when we were founded. The King of England was a tyrant, was oppressing us, and we fought to secure our liberty. Liberty can be worn away. And if we’re not careful, it can slip away.
One of the sinister ways that liberty is evaporating, is the out-of-control nature of lawlessness in our nation. Criminals are free to act out and violate the law without consequence. Those who apply the law or should punish the lawbreaker, are looking the other way. Violent crime is up. Police are exhausted and demoralized. The justice system is an embarrassment. And the people of America are watching their liberty fade away with fear and confusion.
The right of liberty is being threatened. And on Stand in the Gap Today, we’re joined by Brad Dacus, founder and president of the Pacific Justice Institute. Brad served as a legislative assistant to US Senator Phil Gramm. Went on to receive his degree from the University of Texas School of Law. Brad coordinated religious freedom and parental right cases throughout the Western State for five years prior to founding the Pacific Justice Institute in 1997 where they handle cases, always free of charge, defending faith and family coast to coast.
And Brad, we’re so grateful for you being with us. Thank you for being a part of Stand in the Gap Today.
Brad Dacus: Oh, thank you for having me. I appreciate the opportunity. I really appreciate what you guys stand for and what you’re trying to do.
Jamie Mitchell: So Brad, you heard my opening. Am I exaggerating this whole thing? Do we have a problem of lawlessness in America? And when you hear the word lawlessness, how would you describe it?
Brad Dacus: Yeah, two facets. One is individuals not respecting the… Well, for one, it’s individuals not respecting the law. And then those in charge of the law enforcement, not enforcing the law. And then for those that do enforce the law, not carrying out proper judicial procedures and punishment for those who broke the law.
So unfortunately, we have a problem on all three levels throughout the country, especially in cities and in states that have passed laws that make it very easy for people to steal and not be punished, and district attorneys who are not doing their job in terms of enforcement. And then cities who make it very difficult for law enforcement to do their job or even punish a law enforcement. So we have multi-tier problems throughout America, which is serious for the freedom and liberty of everyone in our society.
Jamie Mitchell: Brad, let me ask you this. We often hear the phrase rule of law used, in fact, probably hardly a day goes by what some politician in Washington DC when referencing the other political party will say there in violation of the rule of law, or we need to uphold the rule of law.
Could you explain to our listening audience what are we talking about? What are you as a legal expert talking about when we refer to the rule of law? And why is it absolutely essential that the rule of law be valued by all Americans?
Brad Dacus: Well, if we don’t have the rule of law, then we have the rule of men and that opens the door for arbitrary, capricious edicts and favoritism and corruption. That’s what we see that in countries where even in China for example, classic example where you really don’t have the rule of law, you have the rule of men, you’re actually a party of those in power. It’s very corrupt.
So you go there and you open a business and you soon discover that your information can be stolen and the government won’t do anything about it and you’re suddenly without a business. I’ve talked to American business owners who’ve done that, made that mistake, won’t do it again. But that’s an example of how the rule of law is important, where you have blind justice, where law is not looking at individuals, it’s looking at the law and it’s applying the law equally and fairly to everyone, whether they are the son of the President of the United States, whether they’re the former Vice President of the United States, whatever the case, or former candidate for president or business owners or CEOs, it’s equal enforcement under the law.
And we’ve seen this happen where you have actors, people of notoriety, people in power, people of wealth, not getting equal enforcement. And then we’ve seen it also in terms of just the average person on the street. We had mobs, massive mobs, burning buildings, shooting, killing. And in the mobs of 2020, they were let go. Basically the message was, “You’re okay, we’re going to treat you differently because of your demographic group that you’re a part of or the message that you have or the cause that you have. But if you’re a conservative and you go to stand up against voter fraud and voter tyranny after the last election, we’re going to throw the book at you and put you behind bars for 20 years even though you’ve done no violence, no harm, and were waved in.”
So those are just classic examples. And it’s so blatant and it’s so flagrant that I think even the average American has to take notice of it if they have any kind of understanding of liberty and have access to any kind of accurate information, which is another problem we have in our country.
Jamie Mitchell: I want you all to be listening today very carefully and continually be thinking about this idea of liberty in the context of throwing off evil. If there is oppression and evil and those kinds of things upon us, then we have to throw those things off and push those things back. Once we do that, it’s the law that keeps our liberty. We’re a nation of laws, and when those laws are ignored or corrupted, we have no nation. When we return, in ways we see liberty being threatened and worn down. We’re going to look at those things with our guest, Brad Dacus here at Stand in the Gap.
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Well, welcome back, folks. We’re discussing the right of liberty as noted in our Declaration of Independence. Specifically, we’re trying to understand today how liberty is being threatened by lawlessness in America. Brad Dacus is our guest today from the Pacific Justice Institute.
Brad, the term Rex Lex and Lex Rex might be new to our listeners. And basically, it states the historical differences of how America operates. Rex Lex is the Latin term, I believe, that says, “The King is law.” And that was England before our independence. One man ruling over all the people.
But when we gained our liberty as a nation, we decided to be Lex Rex, that the law was king. But we’re seeing that we’re losing that because the law is being watered down and it’s not seen as being significant. And in this segment, I want to focus on specific ways we see this happening. Brad, what ways is lawlessness stoking the fires of chaos and unrest in our country?
Brad Dacus: Yeah, well one, I mentioned earlier, is dealing with the enforcement of the law. And the district attorneys not doing their job. We have, these are George Soros appointees, if you will. I mean they’re technically elected, but they’re funded by George Soros. And they’re in major cities across the country, Oakland and St. Louis and Baltimore to name a few. And that is causing tremendous chaos because the law’s not being enforced.
Then you have the legislatures like California and other states basically saying you can steal up to $950 and it’s just going to be a mild misdemeanor if you’re caught. And even felons, murderers like in Los Angeles being let go and not even prosecuted. So frustrating to the point that you have assistant district attorneys protesting, filing lawsuits, going to court saying, “Your Honor, I am totally against what I’ve been ordered to do to drop the charges. I do not believe this is right. I believe that the charges should not be dropped. That in compliance with the district attorney, I’m having to drop the charges.”
I mean, this is unheard of. So that is causing a lot of what what’s happening. As well as on the local level in our public schools, kids learning that not only is it okay to be immoral, that your truth, it’s all about there is no truth, it’s just whatever you believe truth to be, which means you become your own God. And then we even have aspects of society trying to justify crime, justify lawlessness under the guise that you deserve something. Society owes you something because of the group that you’re a part of, so it’s okay to do smash and grab and steal and rob because you’re entitled to it even though that goes totally against the Word of God.
And we have unfortunately some churches spreading that kind of a thinking, even facilitating demographic hatred. So this is all problematic and explains some of the rise of lawlessness and why I think we have it. It’s a breakdown of our concept of right and wrong. If it feels good, do it. Even in our classes, we have not just in terms of stealing, robbing, et cetera, but also in terms of sex acts, sexual promiscuity. It is openly being solicited at a very young age in terms of sexuality, gender identity, confusion. So we have a lot of institutional issues in our society that are breaking down, and bottom line, veering away from the word of God and veering away from the foundations that have allowed us to be free.
It’s been said and quoted by different historians from different founders, that our nation only survives, our founders have said, found, if we are remain ourselves to be a moral and religious people. Absent that, we have chaos because then we have to rely upon the state for civility. And if we do that, we lose our freedoms and we lose our liberty because without a moral people, people do whatever they can, whatever they can get away with, and that results in greater need for government control, government constraint and less freedom and less liberty for everyone.
That’s why a moral and religious people is so critical to the survival and prosperity of our nation.
Jamie Mitchell: Brad, that phrase you just cited was from John Adams, if I’m not mistaken. “Our constitution was written for all moral and religious people. It is wholly unfit for the governance of any other.” And that’s absolutely true. I’m glad you brought this up. We had a situation, Brad, recently here locally that kind of illustrative of what you’ve just said, the law enforcement side of the issue and because of several sets of circumstances, I was an first person eye-witness to the law enforcement side of the situation dealing with some drug-related and thievery-related issues. But after law enforcement handled it, which was textbook, it was textbook by the law, it was amazing to watch how thoroughly and how appropriately it was handled. But then it’s handed off to the court system. And the magistrate sets the bond so low that the perpetrator of these multiple crimes is back out on the street before the night is over. And so that’s kind of illustrative of what you’re talking about.
I want to go to the national level if, I could, for just a second. I want to ask you this question. It’s an insidious thing. It’s part of the wearing down of the rule of law in America, and that is the making of law via executive orders or the making of law via the policies of bureaucratic agencies. I think a lot of our listeners are not aware, perhaps, of all the bureaucratic agencies there are. The EDA, the Department of Education, technically is a bureaucratic agency. These folks are not elected, they just kind of grow up around the function of government, but then they begin implementing policies that ultimately become the law, quote, unquote, “the law of the land.” Can you talk about how that’s happening in our country as well?
Brad Dacus: Yeah, and this goes back to some degree as far as the bureaucratic abuse of power, to the what’s called as the Chevron rule, if you will, of case involving Chevron where the government said, “You know what? The legislative… The court said, “You know what? As long as that there could be some rationalization for a bureaucratic rule tied to some law passed by Congress, as long as there’s just some rationalization, go for it, bureaucrats, make the rules, you spit it out there, no problem.”
Well now the Supreme Court actually is rehearing that, and as we speak, we’re expecting a decision down on this in a short period of time from the United States Supreme Court where we’re expecting, I’m personally expecting the majority to say, “No, not so fast.” Unless the law passed by Congress gives explicit and clear authority for X, Y, and Z, a kind of a regulation, then the bureaucrats can’t do it. And it’s putting a greater shift of responsibility to Congress and legislation and less power to the bureaucrats, which means less opportunity for tyranny.
It’s actually a very, very important case. It’s not getting much attention, but I think it’s something for us to definitely watch. That, yeah, we see that happen all the time in terms of the environment, environmentalists trouncing upon property rights that were never declared by government, never announced by government. That’s what we see coming down from the Supreme Court dealing with the wetlands decision, for example, that just came down. And then we’ve also seen, of course, abuse from the executive authority, executive power.
When you have a President of the United States dictating that any public school in the United States anywhere receiving any federal funds, which almost all of them do directly or indirectly, that they have to allow biological boys to be able to go into the girls’ locker room because the boy apparently allegedly has gender identity confusion or dysphoria, to allow that boy to strip off his clothes and be naked in front of the girls and watch the girls be naked as they get in and out of the shower.
That’s what this president has done, this administration has done. That is an abuse of executive power, executive authority. That is not tied to any kind of carry out of any legislation. And whenever the executive authority does that, anything that may trounce upon statutory rights or constitutional rights, it must be challenged. And the good news, that is what we at Pacific Justice Institute are doing in our cases and litigation across the country, challenging that kind of tyranny.
Jamie Mitchell: Hey Dave Kistler, I got to ask you this question because when we’re talking about lawlessness, we already know from the scriptures, the Bible tells us that in the end times, lawlessness will be a sign of what’s coming. In the last minute here, what have you preached and taught on when it comes to lawlessness?
Dave Kistler: If you look at 2 Thessalonians 2, one of the descriptive terms given to the great deceiver of the end time called the antichrist, one of the terms is the lawless one. And the Apostle Paul said there was a spirit of lawlessness already at work in his day, that would continue to culminate and increase in its influence until its finds its fulfillment, ultimately, in that individual, the Bible calls the antichrist, the lawless one himself. So yeah, Jamie, I preach on this on a regular basis. This is one of the reasons I love having Brad on today.
He’s dealing with this from the litigation side and the legal side, but he understands also the biblical component of all of this as well. And boy, you put those two together, it’s outstanding.
Jamie Mitchell: Well, the world around us is burning down and our liberty is burning down. And now we have a raging inferno of lawlessness in our nation. We must rise up. We must help restore this important right.
In our next segment, are the liberties of Christians being attacked? And what are we supposed to do about it? Come back and join us as we’re talking about liberty here at Stand in the Gap Today.
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Thank you so much for listening today. We’re getting ready for Liberty Sunday on July the 2nd It is a Sunday. We’re asking churches and pastors to raise up the issue of liberty and the unique aspects of living in America, and how it affects our ability to practice our faith. We’re looking at the inalienable right of liberty with Brad Dacus today.
Brad, sadly, we are seeing the ignoring of the law in many situations today, but suspiciously, Christians seem to be persecuted legally. And many believers are facing criminal complaints. Do you see this happening across the nation? And is it becoming more commonplace than we think?
Brad Dacus: Absolutely, yes. Exclamation mark. We at Pacific Justice Institute, we now have 31 offices, I said earlier, across the United States in 24 states, coast to coast. The reason is not because we wanted to grow. I didn’t want to grow. Growing is a headache, it’s a menace. But we grew because each of those offices represented enough cases that it necessitated us to open an office there. That’s why we grew, out of necessity because of the huge volume. We have over a hundred cases at PJI, over 150 cases now in active litigation. Just one of those cases alone involves a thousand people we’re representing against the city of San Francisco because of the major purging of people of faith in the workplace all across America because of their convictions and faith about a number of issues, of course, including those with religious objections to a very, very, very controversial, and we now know medically harmful potentially COVID vaccinations.
So we see this happening. It’s very common. But it’s not just on that issue, it’s also dealing with pronoun issues. We at Pacific Justice have people in the workplace that are being fired, teachers that we have and others who are being fired because they’re not affirming a lie, they’re not violating their conscience and encouraging a child to be confused. Because when you use pronouns opposite of the person’s actual gender, you’re affirming, you’re encouraging confusion. That is cruel, it’s inhumane. It only furthers a state of mind, which has statistically been proven to be very damaging and fatal eventually for most before the age of 30.
So to tell someone they have to violate their conscience and violate the love of Christ that they have for those children, is inhumane. It’s a clear attack on liberty. And we at Pacific Justice are taking on those cases also all across the country.
We have children being groomed into, quote, unquote, “trying to change their gender,” which is actually biologically and spiritually impossible in the eyes of God, but this is what we see happening. And then teachers lying to parents. This is not isolated. This is standard policy in states like California and others. So we see it happening. And the key that people need to realize is this. God has given us, by his grace, presently a Supreme Court and federal court system that is probably the best in my lifetime when it comes to religious freedom, parents’ rights [inaudible 00:22:40], and proper interpretation, the strict instruction and original intent of the Constitution.
So this is an incredible opportunity by His grace He’s given us, all we need is for individuals to have the courage to step up and say, “Yes, I hear the bell tolling, I see it happening in my school. I see it happening with my child or in my office or in the workplace, and I’m willing to step up.” We at Pacific Justice on our website, we have a book called Reclaim Your School, just it’s free resources, free to download, all about how people can legally evangelize their public schools, what pastors, parents, students, teachers can do.
We have a training video called Faith At Work or Faith In The Workplace where they can download this two-part training video free to train business owners on how they can live their faith, share their faith and bring their faith into their company, their employees, customers, et cetera. So the good news is that we do have a great constitution. We have a Supreme Court that’s there. We have civil rights statutes that still apply, defend religious freedom, and we have the attorneys out there to do the work, but we have to have the courage and the conviction to stand up and defend those freedoms and liberties.
It’s Dietrich Bonhoeffer, which I love to reference, I think he’s someone we should all reference. One of his sermons, he was reading from the text of Revelations 2:4-5 it says, for Church of Ephesus. It says, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had it first.” Now what is the love? Well, how does he know that? Well, love is action and we don’t take action to stand up against that which we know is harming children, harming the pre-born, harming society. That is an absence of love.
He then goes on and says… Then the scripture says, “Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen.” So remember where you’re at. “Repent and do the works you did at first.” What were works? Now, maybe it’s not just doctrine and belief. Works, manifesting that grace, living that grace. And then it says, “Consequence, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place unless you repent.” There are major consequences to the body of Christ in the United States right now if it does not take its faith seriously and get off the couch of complacency. Complacency is sin. It’s an aberration of the love that God has given us. And that results in a lack of our freedoms, our liberties and persecution. And we’ve seen this cycle before and unfortunately, I think we’re going to see it again in the United States as we speak here today.
Jamie Mitchell: Brad, I appreciate you so much referencing Bonhoeffer. One of the most transformative books I’ve ever read in my life was Eric Metaxas’s book on Bonhoeffer, but equally transformative was a book by Andy Andrews. It’s a small book, very easy read. It could be read easily in one sitting. The title of the book is How Do You Kill 11 Million People? And most folks are very much aware of the 6 million Jews that were massacred under Hitler’s Nazi regime, but they’re not aware of the 5 million 200 and some thousand non-Jews that Hitler also massacred. But in Andy Andrew’s book, Brad, before I pose a question, I want to say this, there’s one page written by a German Christian who said, “Sitting in our church services on Sunday morning, we would hear the trains off in the distance. First thing we would hear would be the whistle of the train. And very quickly after that, the clatter of the wheels against the track.”
And then he said, “The next thing we knew we would hear was the screams and the cries of the women and the children in those box cars on their way to their death.” And he posed the question, “What did we do when we heard those things?” He said, “We merely sang our hymns more loudly to drown out the screams and the cries of the innocent.” All of that goes right along with what you’re advocating. Love is not love if it does not act. It’s not just belief, it’s action. So let me ask you this.
When Christians find themselves the target, not of just the IRS, okay, well all of us are familiar with what happened with Christians and conservative groups were targeted under the Obama Administration by the IRS. But you’re not just targeted by that agency, but you’re targeted by the legal system itself. You’ve already cited some things with respect to schools, but could you give us maybe some more specifics if an individual or a ministry is targeted by the legal system merely because of their Christian faith or some other reason, and this out of control system comes after them?
Brad Dacus: Oh yeah, we’ve seen this over and over again. We know when the churches were shut down, that was a classic act of overt tyranny and a testing of the church. Unfortunately, the church flunked it with a big F, with the exception of some churches out there. But in particularly intolerant blue states, they bowed the knee to the governors and instead of carrying out the conviction of carrying out the calling of God, they allowed their churches to be shut down when everything else, the liquor stores, the porn shops, strip clubs were allowed to open.
We at Pacific Justice Institute, we found there were five churches in San Jose, California that said, “Not on our watch.” And we represented them. We took it all the way to Supreme Court with the emergency [inaudible 00:28:00]. God granted us favor, he just needed people to stand up. And granted us favor. Supreme Court ruled six to three in just three days, and great things happen in three days, as we know. But in just three days they ruled, “Governor Gavin Newsom of California, open those churches now.” And he did. And it sent ripples across America.
That’s how powerful it is when people are willing to stand up and not be cowards and devoid of the love of Christ, but to be pleasers as men rather than pleasers of God. The absence of speaking up against evil is evil, and that’s what we saw, unfortunately, during that time. We see it also happening with other attacks on churches.
We have a Christian preschool that’s under attack. California wants to shut down every Christian preschool that requires any child to sing religious songs or hear Bible teaching. That’s the law in California. And we’ve taken on that case. It’s a major case in active litigation.
We’ve got Christians out of our Detroit office who want to get their organ transplants, and they’re being denied because of their faith and convictions about medical procedures. They’re being denied. They’re basically put on medical death row. Well, the good news is we’ve stood up and we’ve saved the lives of two out of one hospital, I think it’s Trinity Hospital, and another one out of University of Michigan Hospital, another two. And so those are real important pro-life clinics. And blue states are under attack. God’s doing a great work in some of the red states with pro-life legislation, pro-school choice legislation.
I just came from Texas testifying for chaplains to be allowed to be in public schools. It just became law in the state of Texas. And yet we have in states like California where we have hideous things taking place in the public schools and tyranny and attacks on pro-life clinics. It’s like a purging attempted by the blue states to shut down these wonderful, important critical ministries.
But the key is, is standing up to the plate and we can’t do it unless there’s people willing or institutions saying, “Yes, on our watch, we hear the bell toll. We’ll stand up against this tyranny.”
Jamie Mitchell: Amen. God, help us if we remain silent in these days. That’s why we’re doing this. Pastor, church leader, I hope you’re listening. That’s why we need you to do a Liberty Sunday, to have these conversations with your congregation. When we wrap up this discussion, we’re going to talk a little bit about practically what to do as we’re encouraging you to restore the rights of liberty. Come back and join us for our final segment.
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I always feel a sense of angst every time I get to this fourth segment of Stand in the Gap Today, because I have so many more questions of our guests and so little time. As we are finishing up with Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute, I want to encourage all of our listeners to check out your website, Brad, especially pastors and churches. There, they’ll be able to find some great material to help them even to prepare for Liberty Sunday on July the 2nd.
Brad, tell our audience how they can find out about PJI and what exactly your ministry does. Take a minute and do that.
Brad Dacus: Oh, certainly. So pji.org, P for Pacific, J for Justice, I for Institute dot O-R-G. And we’re unique in we got lots of free empowering resources there as I mentioned a few of them already. Opt out forms for parents to protect their children against many of the vices in public schools. How to start church homeschool co-ops, how churches can do that. We’ve been pushing that and promoting that.
And what we do is we defend religious freedom, parental rights, safety of human life on parental rights. We have a 12-steps article on how to protect your children from being taken by social workers or CPS. Extremely important. Every parent, every family in America should have that downloaded. It’s free because there’s very little time when a social worker is threatening to take your kids and they’re not taking children because parents are not promoting LGBTQ with their children or trying to affirm LGBTQ.
So these are some great resources we have all without charge at pji.org. Also think it’s time to get our legal insider newsletter, which is really important. And if they’d like me to come guest preach at their church or one of our attorneys, people know me as a constitutional law attorney. I’m also a preacher and evangelist. I preach at hundreds and hundreds of churches coast to coast, and I don’t charge anything, no love offering, no honorarium. And I’ll pay for my plane flight and I’ll preach at the tiniest church across America. And I love seeing people come to Jesus. So if they ever have me out to their church, I encourage them to invite non-believers.
Jamie Mitchell: Well, Brad, as we finish up, as both citizens of Heaven and of Earth, we at times need to resist and push back and contend for our liberty. The Apostle Paul had no problem when he saw his rights being infringed upon to stand up and speak. Is that appropriate? And I want you to speak to pastors, because sometimes pastors fear even encouraging this. But is that appropriate to speak up? And how would you suggest that Christians start restoring their liberty? And what if we don’t?
Brad Dacus: Right. So first off, it’s very biblical to speak of. In fact, the book of James is all about the fact that real love, real faith results in real work, real works, real results. The love of Christ compels us not to be silent. It compels us to speak up for a truth.
A church that is filled… This is an analogy I came up with that, is that a church that is truly filled with the love of Jesus, truly, they’re going to care about people outside their church walls. That they truly, truly care about people outside their church walls, that includes their nation and in their community, they’re going to vote. That’s one thing. So they’re going to encourage their people to vote. We at Pacific Justice have a program called Church Finds Its Voice and it’s a great program. People can contact us.
Peter Mordh pastors as the director of that program. We’re enabling churches to do voter registration Sundays at their church at this upcoming time, I think you said July 2nd, across America. And that’s part of it right there. Also, part of it also is if you’re going to a church, first off that is doctrinally heretical like many First United Methodists are, Episcopal churches are, I’m calling out by denomination. People a little surprised, but we’ve got to call it out. When you have open blatant heresy, we need to call it out. These are false, false, religions. It’s not a real Christianity when they do not adhere and carry the Word of God.
John 8:44-47 in there, I’ll just read part of it. It says, “Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” And churches that do not hear the Word of God, do not preach the Word of God, obey the Word of God what it says on these issues we’re facing today, they’re not of God. And get out of those churches and join a church of the Lord.
And then also be a part of a church that may have good doctrine, but also be careful not to be part of a church that’s just complacent. And if you’re a part of a church that has good doctrine, maybe talk to the pastors and say, “Hey, I want our church to address the issues of the day.” The word is living. It’s not dead. And if it’s living, it means it applies to what we’re facing today.
Churches and pastors that skip scriptures and areas because it may be controversial, those are the scriptures we need to be using and addressing because those are addressing our lives today with the challenges we’re facing today, and it’s so important. And so those are some things we need to also in in the marketplace. How can Christians today shop at Target baffles me. Something that in your face says, “We are an abomination to God. We are blasphemous against God and we’re blasphemous against those who are followers of God.” And with their big pride displays. We see it also in Kohl’s department store, K-O-H-L-S. They’re blatant.
Even Walmart has this material that they’ve announced it’s going to be going out in their stores across America. We need to go out of our way, and our church needs to go out their way to call it out and to act on it and to be obedient, not to support with our commerce, with our business or our politics, that which is clearly against the Word of God.
You know what’s interesting? And that is in Matthew, which I think is real important, Matthew 28:18 or 19 it says, “Therefore go and get people saved across the nations.” That’s not what it says. It says, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to get people saved.” No, it says, “To obey all the commands I have given you, which includes evangelism.” But evangelism is part of it, but part of it is living the faith, teaching the faith, practicing the faith in all that we do in every way.
And then it says, “And be sure of this, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” We can do this and call these stories out and do this work and our politicians out and have our voice heard, knowing full well that the Lord God is with us. I talked to a group of pastors and I told them, I said, “What’s the worst that can happen to you?”
Well I was told, “Well, we lose our tax-exempt status.” Nobody says, “Well, maybe we’ll be arrested.” I said, “No. The worst that can happen to you is that you be executed. Taken up by the government, put in prison and then executed.” I said, “That’s the worst they can do to you.” I said, “We all have to die. Do you want to die in a hospital with an IV? I don’t know about you, I’d rather go out being executed for Jesus.”
Folks, we can’t lose. God’s with us. Let’s be obedient. Let’s go forth and let’s exhibit the love of Christ that God has given us, which compels us not to be silent in a days such as this.
Jamie Mitchell: Brad Dacus, you are a gift to our nation and certainly to the body of Christ. Being able to blend your expertise on legal matters, but with a passion for Christ and a passion for His Word. Thank you, thank you, thank you for serving our listeners today. Thank you Dave Kistler. And again, my friends listening, get your church to stage a Liberty Sunday on July the 2nd.
You can go to our website, standinthegapmedia.org for all kinds of information resources. We have one more program focusing on the final right of protection of life, and that’ll be happening in just a couple of weeks. But I hope you heard what we said today and how important it is for you to stand and speak up for liberty. Till again, take what we’ve shared today and we encourage you to do what we encourage you every time, and that is to live and lead with courage.
God bless you. Have a wonderful rest of this day.
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