Ashamed of the Gospel -a Biblical perspective on “another Christian perspective”

“Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God.” (2 Tim 1:8, the Apostle Paul, emphasis mine)

Don’t be ashamed of Paul’s bold proclamation of the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t be ashamed of Paul’s many arrests and subsequent imprisonment for publicly preaching the Law of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Reject self loving, self preserving shame and share with Paul in the ministry of the Gospel according to the plan and power of God.

To their great shame there were professing believers in the early church who were ashamed of the Apostle Paul. They were ashamed of his bold, unsophisticated Gospel message. They were ashamed of his evangelistic methodology of preaching the Word of God publicly and house to house, calling all men, everywhere, to repent of sin and idolatry, and to confess Jesus Christ as Lord. They were ashamed of the ruckus that his evangelistic ministry caused in the world at large and/or their particular city. They were ashamed of his status as an arrested criminal and a prisoner of the state. In fact, at one point in Paul’s amazing evangelistic ministry he was universally forsaken:

At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear.” (2 Tim 4:16-17, emphasis mine)

“Crying Wolf,” a recent Christianity Today article (http://tinyurl.com/ottevto) by Pastor David Robertson, is a modern day example of the church being ashamed of and forsaking a faithful evangelist when persecution and arrest come. Robertson explains that he is offering “another Christian perspective” on Evangelist Tony Miano’s recent arrest in Dundee, Scotland. True to his word, Robertson does offer an alternative perspective, it just isn’t Christian, not by a Biblical longshot. The title and content of Robertson’s article are clearly antagonistic of Miano’s message, methodology, and motives.

With confused contradicting conviction, Robertson defends Scotland as a land of Christian liberty:

“We are not banned from preaching the Word of God, nor are we restricted (for now) in doing so. So whatever else the arrest of Tony Miano means, it is dishonest and wrong for Christians to say this means that the Gospel cannot be preached in Scotland today.”

Despite the fact that an evangelist was arrested for preaching the Biblical Gospel, Robertson confidently asserts that Scotland hasn’t “banned” or “restricted” the preaching of God’s Word. He is so confident of his freedom to preach the Bible that he ends his sentence with the qualifying words, “for now.” Even more self-contradicting, a few paragraphs later he writes:

“you cannot stand on a street corner and shout out a sentence which includes homosexuality and sin in the same phrase, without expecting some kind of violent reaction.”

Which is it? Is Scotland wonderfully free of bans and restrictions or is it so anti-Bible that preaching certain portions will certainly win you violence from the populace and the police? How is Scotland both a bastion of Biblical freedom and a place where Robertson guarantees a “violent reaction” to the proclamation of Biblical truth? Bear in mind that the “violent reaction” he is referencing is that of an evangelist being arrested for publicly preaching a basic Law and Gospel message in which “homosexuality and sin [were] in the same phrase.” So Scotland has indeed radically “banned” and “restricted” the preaching of certain portions of God’s Word after all. Imagine if an evangelist, filled with love for the eternal souls of homosexuals and lesbians, stood and preached a message from Romans 1:24-32, warning LGBT sinners of God’s judgment upon what He calls “uncleanness…lusts…dishonor…vile passions…against nature…shameful…error…debased…wickedness…evil-mindedness” calling them to repentance and saving faith? In a nation where you can’t publicly mention “homosexuality and sin in the same phrase” without being arrested, how long will it be until you can’t mention it in the pulpit, on your Christian website, or in your Christian home as you instruct your children from the Bible about sexual immorality?

It is clear that breaking Scotland’s ban on what the Bible says about homosexuality will result in Christians being summarily arrested and treated as criminals. It is also clear that some pastors are willing to subjugate the ministry of the Word of God beneath “homophobic” legislation and LGBT cultural sensitivities. Scotland should be very thankful that John Knox did not submit to the prevailing “Catholic-phobic” legislation and Catholic sensitivities of his day. Long before John Knox led the Reformation in Scotland he was the loyal bodyguard of an insensitive street preaching reformer named George Wishart. Later in his life, Knox boldly and insensitively declared Bloody Mary to be a “wicked English Jezebel” and exposed the Catholic Mass as “an abomination” and rank idolatry. When Mary Queen of Scots took the throne, Knox again took to the pulpit to cry out against soul damning sacramental Catholicism lest Mary be allowed to elevate Catholicism to its former glory and deadly authority in Scotland. While many of his contemporaries compromised and stood mute, John Knox threw sensitivity into the dung heap and spoke loudly and clearly against the heresies of Rome in private conversation, public meeting, and the pulpit.

While Robertson won’t readily admit Scotland’s blatant “banning” of Biblical truth in the public square, he does offer up a solution to the problem. His suggested plan is that the church revive and follow the Apostle Paul’s example of culturally sensitive evangelism. The significant problem with Robertson’s solution is that you can’t actually find an example of this culturally sensitive, non-offensive, idolatry friendly, sin friendly evangelism in the Bible. With grand emphasis he asks two questions that the Bible doesn’t directly answer regarding Paul’s evangelistic message and methodology. His questions, and the nonexistent answers, are meant to show that Tony Miano and Biblical evangelists like him, who boldly preach the Law and Gospel in the public square, have gone astray of Paul’s instruction and life example. Robertson pleads his case:

“Did the Apostle Paul stand on the streets of Rome and yell out ‘Caesar is not Lord’?! Did he parade the streets with banners declaring ‘Down with the antichrist Emperor’?!”

Sure enough, the Bible does not record Paul doing either thing. This is an argument from the silence of Scripture, but what do the Scriptures actually say in answer to similar questions. For instance, how would Paul evangelize in Ephesus, a city passionately dedicated to the soul damning idol Diana? Did he ignore the pagan idolatry? Was he culturally sensitive to the cult of Diana? We don’t have to speculate, we can read the actual account of Paul’s evangelistic ministry in Ephesus:

“’Moreover you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are not gods which are made with hands. So not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship.’ Now when they heard this, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, ‘Great is Diana of the Ephesians!’ So the whole city was filled with confusion, and rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul’s travel companions. And when Paul wanted to go in to the people, the disciples would not allow him. Then some of the officials of Asia, who were his friends, sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater.” (Acts 19:26-31, emphasis mine)

The Apostle Paul’s public ministry of the Law and Gospel in Ephesus, all Asia, and the world was effectively a full frontal assault on idolatry (false gods) and sin (drunken debauchery, sorcery, theft, lying, coveteousness, fornication, adultery, temple prostitution, incest, homosexuality, lesbianism, etc.) calling all men everywhere to repent and confess Jesus Christ as Lord. Demetrius the silversmith was feeling the financial effects of Paul’s effective evangelism as people “turned away” from idolatry and Diana was “despised.” Their cultural sensitivities were necessarily and deliberately trampled upon through the faithful ministry of the Law and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Even after the idolaters of Ephesus were enraged, Paul desired to further risk life, limb, and liberty by publicly preaching in the midst of the violent mob.

At least one more question should be asked regarding Paul’s evangelism message and methodology. How would the foremost Biblical Evangelist of all time reach a multicultural city of staunch, stiff-necked, sometimes violent monotheists (like Islam today) and the polytheistic, broadminded, philosophically hip folks (like the average Starbucks or Scottish pub customer today)?

“Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, ‘What does this babbler want to say?’ Others said, ‘He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,’ because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, ‘May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.’ For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything…we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.’ And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, ‘We will hear you again on this matter.’ So Paul departed from among them. However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.” (Acts 17:16-34, emphasis mine)

The Apostle found the people where they were at, in their place of worship or in the market square. He proclaimed the one true God. He exposed their idols as the useless creation of man’s hands. He lifted up Jesus Christ, fully God, fully man, crucified for sin, resurrected on the third day. He called them to repent of their idolatry and to confess Jesus Christ as their Lord. You can be sure that Paul carried out the same ministry in Rome. Some mocked, some wanted to hear more, and by God’s amazing grace, some believed unto salvation. That is Paul’s example of evangelism in a mixed monotheistic and polytheistic/philosophical often “violent” culture. Robertson’s argument from Scripture’s silence is a good way to promote “another [so-called] Christian perspective,” but it isn’t a Biblical perspective.

Robertson goes on to malign Tony Miano’s motives and ministry:

“Being put in jail in Scotland for ‘preaching the Gospel’ will play well with the supporters back home and Christians in the UK who are desperate to jump on the persecution bandwagon…to be honest it does the church and the gospel, harm, both in the short and the long term.”

It seems clear that Robertson would find happy union with the spiritual rebels and super apostles of Corinth who despaired Paul and his bold evangelistic ministry in a similar fashion while they won the world’s friendship, favor, and goods through compromise of the Gospel. Here is Paul’s warning and response to them:

“You are already full! You are already rich! You have reigned as kings without us — and indeed I could wish you did reign, that we also might reign with you! For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored! To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now… Therefore I urge you, imitate me.” (1 Cor 4:8-17)

Were Paul, Peter, John, Stephen, and John the Baptist playing to the home crowd? Did Paul, Peter, John, Stephen, and John the Baptist do the church and the Gospel harm? Peter managed to run afoul of the law and get arrested, stripped, whipped, and stocked for insensitively preaching Christ to people who obviously didn’t want to hear it. What shame he brought upon the early church. What a stumbling block to the Gospel Peter was. In the same despairing light, the Apostle John would certainly be seen as a blight upon the early church and the ministry of the Gospel. We can all breath a little easier knowing John was exiled to the island of Patmos for an evangelistic time out where he could just sit and think about the ruckus he was causing with “the Word of God and the testimony of Christ.” The martyred Evangelist Stephen would clearly be relegated to Robertson’s “redneck” (his word) category of destructive unsophisticated evangelistic buffoons. Stephen was anything but “culturally sensitive.” Instead, he faithfully indicted his culture for their “stiff-necked” rebellion against God as evidenced by their murder of the prophets and Jesus Christ Himself. What did Stephen get for his efforts? He was stoned to death by a violent mob whose sensitivities were trampled upon. For Robertson to be consistent he would have to say that the big jerk got what was coming to him. Instead, the awesome reality is that the Lord Jesus stood up from His throne at the right hand of the Father to receive His faithful martyr! Consider that John the Baptist was beheaded for boldly standing against perverse sexual immorality, the very thing that Tony Miano was arrested for in Scotland. Was John the Baptist a bumbling “redneck” Jewish prophet, or was he the greatest of those born of women as the Lord Jesus declared?

Imagine the accusations, beatings, arrests, imprisonments, stonings, crucifixions, and persecutions the Apostles could have avoided by embracing and implementing Pastor David Robertson’s advice to package the Gospel in a creative, non-offensive, culturally sensitive, idol friendly, sin friendly way. No doubt, the Apostolic church would have been revolutionized by Robertson’s evangelistic instruction and example, but they would also have avoided the following glorious accusations:

“Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!” (Acts 5:28, emphasis mine)

These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.” (Acts 17:6, emphasis mine)

What Robertson and those like him have missed is that we are not commanded to be God’s public relations experts, putting a bright and cheery, culturally sensitive spin on the Law of God, the Gospel of God, and God Himself. In stark contrast, with all authority in heaven and earth, the Lord Jesus commands “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations” (Luke 24:47, emphasis mine).

The Lord of the church did not leave us in the dark groping for answers about the mission of the church. We don’t need to ask, “What would Jesus do? We don’t need to ask, “What would Paul do?” We need to repent of creative, culturally sensitive, evangelistic rebellion that enables us to avoid dying to self and taking up the cross daily. We need to do what Jesus commands us to do in the Gospels. We need to do what the Apostle Paul commands us to do in the Epistles. We need to follow Jesus’ actual evangelistic example. We need to follow Paul’s actual evangelistic example. We desperately need to forsake safe, self loving silence and fill our cities with the doctrine of Christ! We desperately need to obey the Great Commission and turn the world upside down with the Gospel of Jesus Christ! If David Robertson, Christianity Today, or anyone else wishes to provide the Church “another [so-called] Christian perspective” insisting on disobeying the Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul’s clear evangelistic command and example, let them abide in the shame of their rebellion quietly. Cease ridiculing and mocking those who by grace alone, through faith alone, for the glory of God alone, actually follow Jesus. Get behind those who are on the front line of the Gospel battle, or get out of the way.

I’ll give the Lord Jesus, Peter, the Apostles, and John Knox the final word:

“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:34-38, emphasis mine)

“‘Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!’ But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: ‘We ought to obey God rather than men.’” (Acts 5:28-29, emphasis mine)

January 24-25th Abortion Clinic Evangelism & Comic Con Gospel Outreach

“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!'” (Rom 10:14-15)

There is a great Gospel opportunity this Friday and Saturday for those who attended last August’s Biblical Church Evangelism Conference. Join us in lifting up the Law and Gospel in Portland this coming weekend. A terrific evangelism team from southern Oregon, led out by Mason Goodknight, is coming up to partner with us once again. Mason and his crew attended last August’s conference and we were blessed to spend a long and exciting day preaching the Gospel in Seattle with them.

Here’s the plan. We’ll leave Beaverton Grace Bible Church (Beaverton, Oregon) Friday at 11:00 AM for the Portland Planned Parenthood where we will engage in life and soul saving Abortion Clinic Evangelism. You may recall that a baby was saved there last year during the conference. At about 2:00 PM we will transition over to the Portland Convention Center for the Comic Con Gospel Outreach (http://www.wizardworld.com/home-portland.html). There will be open-air preaching, Gospel conversations, and tract distribution. We’ll wrap things up at the Convention Center by 8PM, perhaps earlier depending on crowd size and weather conditions.

 

Saturday morning we’ll leave the church at 6:30 AM for the Lovejoy Surgicenter abortion clinic in downtown Portland where we’ll minster the Law and Gospel until 9:00 AM. Praise God, during the last two weeks there have been at least three babies saved at this notorious clinic. At 9:00 AM we’ll return to the Convention Center for a great day of Comic Con Evangelism. The crowds should be great Saturday morning as attenders make their way into the conference. If numbers let up during the middle of the day we may move over to Pioneer Courthouse Square or to the river front. Saturday’s outreach will end at approximately 5:00 PM. Things are always a bit fluid once your feet shod with “the preparation of the Gospel” hit the street, so actual times may fluctuate a bit.

For planning purposes please let me know if you would like to be part of this Gospel outreach and what day/times as best you can. You can contact me at chuckoneal@cleaninter.net. Whether you attend or not, please be in continual prayer for the event. Thank you!

Evangelist Arrested Again!

Our brother and faithful evangelist, Tony Miano of Cross Encounters, was arrested today in Dundee, Scotland, for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the open air. You may recall that Tony was arrested last summer while preaching the Gospel in England. Reports of other genuine “grace and truth” preaching evangelists being arrested for some form of “disturbance of the peace” or “homophobia” continue to come in from across the United States and Europe.

How should the Church respond when someone is arrested for preaching the Law and the Gospel publicly? They should pray that the arrested evangelist will make the most of the opportunity to uplift the name of Jesus, and that upon their release they will continue to boldly call all men everywhere to repentance and faith in Christ. Read the following Scripture and consider the rather touchy circumstances of Peter’s arrest for publicly preaching the Gospel and the subsequent trial as he stood before the same ruling body that condemned the Lord Jesus to death.

“And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, ‘By what power or by what name have you done this?’ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:7-12, emphasis mine)

That is beautiful! Peter and John’s freedom and lives were on the line and the Spirit of God empowered Peter to boldly preach the Gospel to the very men that cried out for the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. Gospel opposition does not justify a retreat, or mean that Peter, John, or a modern day evangelist has erred in failing to adopt a more “Seeker Friendly” approach. Quite to the contrary, Gospel opposition is a good indicator that the radical message of repentance of sin (thief, drunkard, fornicator, homosexual, lesbian, adulterer, blasphemer, idolater, etc.) and confession of Jesus Christ (fully God, fully man, crucified, buried, and risen on the third day) as LORD and God, was faithfully and successfully proclaimed and heard. Peter and John do not sound the retreat and find a way to make the Law and Gospel less offensive or more palatable for sinners. Motivated by the love of God and the love of the lost, they press in with the Sword of the Spirit and drive home the Gospel message to the highest court.

When Peter and John are later commanded by the ruling government of Israel to cease and desist their public proclamation of Jesus Christ, they respond:

“Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19-20)

Were they rebellious trouble making seditionists against the state who should be disowned by all decent Christians? Not at all. They were under a higher authority, the authority of the Christ, the King of Kings. They were loyal subjects to the Kingdom of Christ. Consider the theocratic royal nature of the Great Commission. The King of Kings gives this command:

“[King] Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.” (Matt 28:18-20, emphasis mine)

Just like Peter and John, you and I are under the authority of King Jesus, an authority that is infinitely higher than that of England, Scotland, or America. So when the Sanhedrin of Israel or the ruling body of any government forbids the proclamation of the Gospel, we obey the Lord Jesus’ Great Commission command with a clear conscience and boldly preach repentance and faith. (For more encouragement and Biblical understanding SEE: Gospel Seditionists Submitting to State Authority)

After Peter and John were arrested, taken before the highest court in the land, and forbidden to preach Christ, an incredible prayer meeting was held. There was no retreat in the prayer meeting. There was no faint hearted fretting or rebuke of Peter and John for publicly preaching the Law and the Gospel and calling down the wrath of the authorities on the Church. There was no Arminian minded talk about what unbelievers might think of this open conflict with the rulers of Israel and how that may turn them off to the Gospel. They recognized that evangelism is spiritual warfare and that conflict is unavoidable if you are going to be faithful to the mission and message of Christ. Their united prayer evidences faith in an all sovereign God who is working all things according to the counsel of His will. Amazingly, their prayer culminates in a passionate plea for GREATER GOSPEL BOLDNESS. Check it out:

 “So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: ‘Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: ‘Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ.’ ‘For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word.” (Acts 4:24-29, emphasis mine)

That is the exact kind of prayer meeting that should be going on for Tony Miano right now. The world is growing increasingly hostile to the Gospel. The charge of “homophobia” is increasingly made not just by the radical LGBT movement, but by police officers and those in positions of government authority. LGBT activists, atheist activists, Muslims, and Muslim sympathizers are ever increasingly intolerant of the public ministry of the Gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ commands us to carry out in season and out of season. The world’s hostility or even violence toward the public ministry of the Law and Gospel often results in the police arresting the evangelist rather than those who are committing actual crimes of assault or making threats toward that end. That does not change the Gospel mission, message, or method of the Church (SEE: The Mission Of The Church #2).

The church must be Biblically educated and equipped to endure persecution and press on with a bold public ministry of the Gospel. We can’t abandon the public ministry of the Gospel in the face of opposition. We can’t downplay sin because sinners protest their sin being exposed by the light of God’s Word. We must expose sin just as the Lord Jesus lovingly exposed the Samaritan woman’s “many husbands” as serial fornication. We can’t cry “peace, peace” with the world’s false religions and cults as did the false prophets of Jeremiah’s day. We must expose them for the idolatrous systems of works righteousness that they are, and call all men everywhere to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. When there are many adversaries and the hour is dark we need to hold fast to the admonition and example of the Apostle Paul:

“Stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.” (Phil 1:27-30, emphasis mine)

When arrests come for the sake of the Gospel (and they will come) we look to Peter, John, and Paul’s admonition and example and pray for boldness to stand our Gospel ground. We don’t abandon public ministers of the Gospel in the face of opposition. We look to the early Church’s example and stand by God’s faithful evangelists with unceasing prayer and loving practical support, so that we might be able to say with the Apostle Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:7). May the Lord raise up a new generation of gracious, holy, loving, unwavering, BOLD PREACHERS OF THE GOSPEL and BIBLICAL CHURCHES to support them when they’re in the thick of spiritual battle.

WATCH: Tony Miano’s VIDEO Explaining his Arrest in Scotland

LISTEN TO: Tony Miano’s Post Arrest Interview on the Janet Mefferd Show 

Chuck O'Neal Chuck O’Neal, pastor of BGBC