Attacks on the Rise, What Do Christians Do Now?

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You're seeing the craziness swirling around you. I know you are, because we are too. So now the question is, are you ready to defend not just your beliefs, but your church family?

Now's the time.

On January 18th, anti-Christian sentiment really did hit a new low when Don Lemon—along with, get this, 40 others—went into Cities Church in Minneapolis and shut down their service. Reports and video show us that these attackers weren't just chanting things and shouting things. They were intimidating people. They were threatening people. They very quickly wanted to put an end to their worship service. Many of the people inside the church fled—just got out of the way and left the area. And the pastor was definitely not allowed to continue with his service.

This wasn't a protest. This was an assault on the church.

And it demands we ask ourselves: How then should the righteous live? Do we go Mussolini from the balcony and shout them all down? Do we get physical with them? Do we get passive and just, you know, turn the other cheek and take a beating for the Lord?

How is it that we're supposed to roll?

Gramster Rant: The Distraction Game

Before diving into the Minneapolis situation, we need to address the theater of distraction playing out simultaneously. With all the real things going on, there's a whole bunch of fake things trying to distract us. And one only needs to look at the state of Minnesota to see both of those things happening.

Let's call it what it is: Jessie Smlette 2.0. It was so staged it's embarrassing.

Just days after the church invasion, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar—or as we might call her, Jessie Omar, or maybe just Smolomar—was supposedly "attacked" at some sort of presser when a person walked up and sprayed her with some stuff. It was supposed to be this big attack where she was just so brave, stood up to him, and actually tried to kind of go after him.

But it was kind of funny. It looked like really bad improv. People who are used to being on stage, used to creating things that are supposed to look real—they could look at that and see a lot of problems with it. A high school theater class would have done this better than what they did.

Let's just say there are some questions for Ilhan.

Question #1: Why weren't you concerned about what he was spraying you with?

You know, it could have been biohazard. Contaminated. Toxin. Acid. Something. But she really didn't care. She just walked right back to the podium. Didn't even look down at her shirt to see what did he put on me.

That's off right there.

Nor did she try to protect herself at all. Someone sprayed something on her. She didn't put her hand up—well, one hand up just very, very briefly. She didn't protect her face. Didn't protect her eyes. Didn't try to get out of the way.

Like you weren't afraid in the least.

Question #2: Why wasn't security concerned about anybody else in the room?

Like, is there a thought in any of her security that maybe this guy could have potentially sprayed someone else or some other area in the room unbeknownst to anybody? There was zero concern. You know, that would have been really smart for them to bring up in the pre-production meeting.

Zero concern for anyone else present. No protocol. Nothing to really indicate they handled that situation seriously in any way.

Question #3: Why did he just spray her shirt?

When you've seen other people get attacked like that, they're going for the face. They're going for—they want to stop you from what you're doing, which means stop you from speaking. So they'll douse you with stuff. They'll go for the face. They want to stop you.

He didn't. He went up and sprayed a little something on the front of her shirt.

So thankfully it was clear liquid and she just walked back to the podium and continued. "Everybody..."

He got arrested with third-degree assault, which means he was probably already back home that morning trying to figure out how to get that cash from the brown paper bag laundered into his account.

Just saying. No apology. Just saying.

Not enough authentic concern. Not enough protocol to indicate they handled that situation seriously.

The Contrast Is Stark

Now here's where you can really compare and contrast. When you look at these two events—the Don Lemon event and the Ilhan Omar event—they're starkly different.

At the church in Minneapolis, when the attackers went in, massive numbers of people left. They got out of the way of danger. You know, police will contact you later. If you have kids, protect them. Get them out of there if you can.

On the flip side, at the Ilhan Omar event? Nobody moved.

A couple people up front shifted, but everybody sitting in their seats? They didn't move. They just sat there. And then applauded when it was all over.

Like it was a play that took place.

We know that's fake. We know it's Jessie Smlette 2.0. But here's what makes it so frustrating: there's enough bad stuff going on. Why do you have to pretend there's more bad stuff?

It's a distraction. They're trying to distract people and get headlines that folks won't look into because many people have their 7-second attention span. The news cycle is a whopping 24 hours out of our heads again.

By February 1st, by Sunday, the Omar squirting of water thing will be gone. It'll be gone within a week because there's just nothing there.

They're going to try to concoct more to this story because it was so bad. They're going to try to come up with something. But it wasn't acid. It wasn't anything else. Clothes weren't smoking. He just wanted to spray something on her shirt.

It was a stage thing. And the people worth following on X are calling it like a Jessie Smlette thing. And that's where we're at.

Omar's already been censured in Congress. They say they've got the goods on her to take her money back, deport her, and kick her out of Congress. Why don't they do it?

Good question. Very good question. That's the heart of the matter of what's wrong with America.

But anyway. Back to the Minneapolis church with Don the Fired Loser from CNN.

Calm down, honey.

With a calm, loving heart: Don Lemon is a fired, unemployed journalist. When you look up "hack" in the dictionary, there's Don Lemon smiling. He is that bad.

What do we want for him as Christians? We want him to find new life in Christ. We want him to become born again.

But let's call things what they are. Without apology. Time for Christians to start having some straight talk and quit hiding behind all this "Hey, the 11th commandment: blessed be the nice."

Cities Church: A Carefully Selected Target

Now let's focus on this Don Lemon event, because he has really become the poster child for why churches need to be ready to defend their family. That is the reality. And we are seeing attacks against the church in the United States explode over the last 5 to 10 years.

When you go through the evidence, you have to see the premeditation and what was behind it. There was a lot going on here that doesn't meet the eye at first glance.

This church was really carefully selected.

This was not just the average Joe off the street who chose this church and then organized this thing, because this has some far-reaching tentacles.

Cities Church is associated with Bethlehem College and Seminary—a school started by John Piper, a very well-known preacher and pastor, along with a man by the name of Joe Riggney. Now, Riggney is currently the pastor of a church in DC. And just by coincidence, this church in DC also happens to be the church attended by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

You know, it's one of those things that makes you go hmm.

The big thing they pointed to was that one of the pastors at this church in Minneapolis also worked for ICE. And they didn't like that.

The Anti-ICE Sentiment Is Evil

Look, there's room for nuance here. Letters have been written as a pastor for illegal aliens to be shown grace by the system—because some of them have families, they're working hard, they just never were able to get their citizenship and crossed over illegally. When Trump first got in, he said, "Let's keep the good ones." And the good ones can be defended.

The thing is, what ICE is doing is targeting the bad ones. The criminals. Over 3,000 of them have been removed off the streets in Minneapolis, and people are throwing themselves in front of ICE to protect them.

This is the definition of depraved mind found in Romans chapter 1.

When you see someone given over to a depraved mind by God, what we do is pray for their souls, but we also protect our communities. That's why you have to love the illegal alien as best you can while supporting the law enforcement of ICE.

And even the governor comes out saying, "Let's quit calling them law enforcement. We have law enforcement. I told them to stand down and let people destroy the city."

We're living in idiocracy. And it's hard to be calm and loving when we talk about this.

Here's the deeper question the attackers refuse to consider: because they think it's bad or a conflict of interest or a conflict in morality that someone who is a pastor would also work for ICE—but wouldn't you want a pastor working in ICE? To keep it compassionate? To keep it human? To keep it godly and right?

Of course you would.

To say that a pastor can't work in this governmental organization for some reason is just a straw man. That goes back to what our society has tried to tell us for a long time: we've got to kick God out. You can have your God over in the corner but not in the public square.

That's been the downfall of America since we've been in high school. We've really seen a turn.

The Anatomy of a Coordinated Attack

Reports were coming out that describe how this happened. It was very organized.

1. First, the actual agitators came in.
2. Then, the independent videographers who were formally documenting and recording came in.
3. Lastly, Don Lemon and his entourage made their entrance.

This wasn't an organic, spontaneous thing. This was structured, methodical, completely planned.

Much like the Omar event. Completely planned and structured.

When you have independent videographers as part of your protest, you're not protesting anymore.

These folks should be looked at like domestic terrorists. They came in to terrorize people in that church. They came in specifically to shut down the worship service—which is illegal. They came in specifically to cause fear.

That falls under the definition of terrorism.

Three people out of 40 have been arrested. And Don Lemon? Nope. Not a thing.

What relationship does he have with somebody that's running interference for him? That's the question.

Right On or Way Off?

In the words of Ronald Reagan:

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant. It's that they know so much that isn't so."

That's really, really stone cold truth. And we're seeing it in bunches right now.

People have been talking to Don Lemon because he just walked. He's fine. He's free. He's out. And he's made some pretty outrageous claims about what went on inside that church.

Claim #1: "This was our First Amendment right to protest and peaceably assemble."

WAY OFF.

First of all, the church is not public property. The church is private property, which means what they did was illegal. They've already arrested a couple people. Why Don Lemon hasn't been arrested yet is a mystery—he's on video basically saying, "I'm going to break the law and I don't care who knows it." That's really what he did.

That wasn't peaceably assembling. People ran because they were afraid. That's not a peaceable assembly.

And in the Constitution where we have the right to practice our religion in freedom? They totally impeded that. They literally shut it down.

You had no right to do any of the things that you did. If you wanted to protest that pastor working for ICE, you make a sign. You go across the street—not in the street, not on the church property, because that's private property according to the law. You go across the street and you have your peace. You say your piece, whatever it is you want to do.

But you don't go into the church.

Because if it's private property, that means we can go into Don Lemon's house and do the same thing.

Here's the thing that really gets the goat—and we try to give it over to God, try to cast our anxieties upon Him—but we've got two or three grandmothers sitting in jail for praying. Just praying. Outside an abortion clinic. Not on their property.

And Don Lemon is able to do these videos and go into this church and scare kids and do this whole scene, and yet he hasn't faced any charges.

It's ridiculously stupid.

Claim #2: "The protesters were there to talk, and the pastor should have welcomed them in."

WAY OFF.

This was Don Lemon's complaint in a later podcast. He was very critical of the pastor—which is insane on the face of it—and said the protesters were there to talk.

Clearly they weren't. They were not talking to anybody. They were chanting mantras. They were yelling and screaming at people. They were disrupting things.

Don Lemon claimed the pastor should have welcomed them in, not told them to leave. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Right in the middle of a worship service that was organized and structured to make God's name great, you're going to bust in and all of a sudden we've got to just stop what we're doing and entertain you?

No. That's not how real life works in any setting.

That is self-love that is so outrageous and so arrogant at its core. That is prideful and sinful and demonic. Really, it's delusional.

The fact that the pastor told them "You must leave"—that was the perfect response. His requirement was to care for the sheep. That's what he was there to do: protect the sheep. And telling them to leave, which legally they were obliged to do—once someone in authority of the church says you must leave the church, guess what? You must leave the church.

Private property.

Claim #3: "These traumatized children—that's what this protest is about."

WAY OFF. And from the pit of hell.

Don Lemon is outside the church. He sees that there are children who are afraid, and he actually points it out:

"Yes, see over there? There's children. They're uncomfortable. But you know what? That's what this is about."

Words to that effect. That's what he said.

He's openly admitting he's there to scare people. To put some fear into people's hearts.

That, my friend, is from the pit of hell. It absolutely is.

When Don Lemon makes the claim that he's a Christian and that he's there to support people—do not believe it. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Salvaged by God Deep Dive: Is Don Lemon Actually a Christian?

The dude tries to claim that he's a Christian. But that just makes you throw up a little in your throat when you think about what real authentic Christianity is, and what Don Lemon professes to be, and what he actually does in front of the camera.

By their fruits, you will know them.

Everyone loves to proclaim that they're a Christian. Not everyone, but a lot of people. Most people like to say, "Well, yeah, I'm a Christian." Why do they do that? Because to say you're not a Christian—they know there's something there that, you know, they don't really want to go that far.

So it's really easy to claim. "Yeah, I'm a Christian. Sure." It's kind of like a fire insurance policy. Hedging your bets.

But when we look into Scripture, let's look and see what an actual Christian is. Because when you look at the face value of Don Lemon—what he's about, who he is—there seems to be a big contradiction.

This isn't done in a mean-spirited way. It's mark and avoid them. Point these things out. He's not even a false teacher—he's just a false convert if he's claiming to be a Christian. And sometimes you have to point it out. Other times you pray for them and you let it go.

But when people are this outrageous, is it really bad for an authentic Christian to point it out and say, "This is awful. This guy's a liar"? Mark and avoid this guy. This guy deserves justice—and if he seeks the mercy of Jesus Christ, welcome him into the fold. Celebrate the new life with him because he will change. He will not act like this.

What Scripture Says About Authentic Faith

John 13:35 —

"By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

Where is the love for one another? And you might say, "Well, you're not showing much love for Don Lemon right now."

Actually, there's a lot of love being shown here. We want him to find redemption.

But on the same token, this whole idea that Christianity has to be super soft and super nice, otherwise it's not real? That's just leading people into this false righteousness.

We have to point out the fact that this dude does not love the brethren. He doesn't love people.

He's not a Christian. And to say that point-blank upsets a lot of folks. Saying it point-blank: Dude is not a Christian. He's not born-again.

When Scripture talks about love for one another, it's talking about the love of the brethren, the love of the church. Would someone who loves the church do that to the church? No. Absolutely not.

You can say, "Well, he loves immigrants." No, he doesn't. What is he doing for them? He's not doing anything for them. What he did in that church does nothing for any immigrants in the United States at all. It accomplished zero.

You can say maybe he's standing up for someone, but he's not doing that either. He's helping no one. He's doing nothing. And he's demonstrating an angst towards the brethren, an anger towards the brethren.

That right there is an indicator: No, he's not a Christian.

Romans 13:1 —

"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God."

This was one the progressives drilled down our throats during COVID—and we would counter with the book of Acts, with James and Peter saying we've got to obey God more than we've got to obey man. It's all context, context, context.

It's exhausting. We've watched this coming since the big Arizona morning show days back in 2007, 2008. We saw the propaganda coming and we saw the church get weaker and weaker and weaker. And now you've got Christian brothers and sisters out there saying, "We shouldn't say anything. Jesus is still on the throne. Just bow your head and pray."

No. We speak out without apology. When someone is blatantly not a Christian, it's not an offensive thing to point it out with the hope that they would become one. The best thing we can do for Don Lemon is pray that he finds redemption while justice gets served to him.

As far as we are able without going against God, we are to submit to those authorities because God has put them in place. Even when Biden was in office and conservatives and Christians were a little bit nervous—we weren't rioting in the streets.

Do you know why? Because we're subject to the authorities that God has put into place. We don't want to break the law to make a point. That's built into Christians.

Even back when Hitler was running the German Christians, a lot of the Lutheran churches over in Germany used this verse to justify the Nazis taking over. They were paid by the Nazis, intimidated by the Nazis. You look at all that history and you look at what we're supposed to be: we try to do what we can without breaking the law.

If the government comes and tells us we have to do something against our conscience, that's against God—then we have to stand up to that. Many times that creates martyrs. But you're living in peace and harmony and the love of Christ, and many of the martyrs over the years would speak the truth, but when push came to shove they would stand down and let God be God.

There's a softness that needs to be there with a rigidness. You have to have a spine to stand up during these times, but at the same time you have to have a soft enough heart to have grace and understanding when it presents itself.

The Pro-Life Example

We see this in the pro-life movement. People who are very pro-life go and protest peaceably. They pray, they sing hymns, they gather together for a rally. And unlike leftists, they don't leave the place in garbage and disarray. They leave the place the way they found it.

You can have objection to what your government is doing without submitting to something that is clearly against God.

We have an example in the Bible when the Roman authorities would move through an area and require each citizen to throw incense on the fire and profess that Caesar was Lord. Jesus was telling the people back in ancient times that if they confessed with their tongue that Jesus is Lord, their life would be spared. Because the Roman authorities demanded that profession that Caesar was Lord.

The early Christians said, "We can't do that." They refused. What was the penalty? They died. They accepted that penalty of death because they couldn't say that. They couldn't obey in that.

Complete difference from the leftists now. Conservatives are making some movements, making some decisions and doing things—and now we have anarchy in the streets. That completely goes against what God has commanded in His word.

The fact that Don Lemon is part of all that, fostering it, supporting it—again indicates: not a follower of Christ at all.

John 14:21 —

"Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. My Father will love those who love me."

Jesus never took His conflicts to the synagogue. They were outside. He fulfilled the law by keeping the Sabbath. He did what was right in the people's minds.

Don Lemon did the opposite.

The Church's Response: A Template Worth Studying

Looking at this pastor—there's something to look up to. His tone was good. If tested like that, we all hope we could win the day. And honestly, that would be a miracle of God, a movement by the Holy Spirit, which is what we all really need anyway.

Some of us struggle in our own selfish pride. It's hard to look at people being better than us at certain activities and circumstances. You know what it's like—you have to beat me on the racetrack before I'll admit you're a better driver. It's like being the best driver in the house until you get beat.

As a radio host all these years, there are very few people held in high regard. Rush Limbaugh, always held in high regard all the way back to when he was first coming up in AM radio. He just had that "it." He was brilliant. Steve Dace with his show—love people who are good at what they do. They have a gifting clearly.

So when other pastors are out there doing different things, there's not usually a thought of "Wow, that guy was really much better than I ever could be."

But watching this guy? That's how it felt.

This guy handled that situation better than many of us could have. There's probably something to learn from him. This takes us deeper in faith and uncovers some of the warts we still have—the roughness that still needs to be sandpapered out by the Word of God in our sanctification journey walking towards holiness.

There's a desire to be a calmer guy. Some of us weren't built that way. Family dynamics where we would yell at each other and sometimes even throw blows and then 10 minutes later, "Can I get you a beverage out of the fridge?" That's the world some of us come out of.

We were taught as kids: don't ever be afraid of anybody. You say what you need to say and let the chips fall where they may. And sometimes the chips have fallen and not in a good way.

Him getting angry and going rage against the machine in that environment—like what probably would have happened from some of us—was not healthy, was not helpful, and did not honor the King. And that's what we've got to be about every day: honoring the King.

A Unified Congregation

When you look at the video, everybody in the congregation seemed like they were just so on the same page. Nobody met the invaders where they were. They didn't return screaming. They didn't return the awfulness that was being thrown at them. They remained calm. They walked away. Some of them did engage with people, but as soon as the people got out of control and angered, they would just say, "We're done," and walk away.

Those impulses had to be bubbling up in them—that's just humanity. But they managed to handle the situation in such a godly way.

The pastor told them to leave. That was exactly right.

This Is NOT the Only Acceptable Response

However—and this is critical—this is not a cookie-cutter response. This is not the only acceptable template.

There are security teams at churches now, and almost every church needs one. And those that want to do the opposite of what this church did—physically remove some of those folks, physically confront them, match them, draw the concealed weapon—we would stand behind them 100% as well.

They chose the passive side and it was good. But choosing the aggressive side is not necessarily bad.

If the intent of the heart of the men of the church is "This is a threat to my wife, my children, and the worship place where I honor God, and I'm going to defend it with intentionality and with vigor and with forthrightness"—that is just as holy as what the pacifist standing down did.

It comes down to the intent of the heart.

• If it's "I'm just ticked off that you're here and I'm going to try to be the big dude"—that's not from God.
• But "I'm going to physically take you outside and make sure you don't hurt anybody here. I've got a gun in my hand and I'm going to put you down if you continue to threaten our people. If you pull a gun, you're going down"—that's protection.

The Center Mass Question

A conversation happened once with a bunch of pacifist Christians who are loved dearly. They talked about if you had an active shooter in the back of your church, what should you do? And they were literally trying to tell us that the righteous thing to do would be to shoot them in the leg and then share the gospel with them.

And in that meeting, a different take was shared—and there was chastisement from those people for saying it. But it stands to this day:

"I'm more of a center mass kind of guy."

If you're at church and somebody's got a gun and there's a chance to put them down and protect the congregation—we're going center mass. And that's not problematic. Even though that's a disagreement among born-again Christians, authentic born-again Christians disagree on this.

If you've been in law enforcement or the military or any sort of vocation like that, you realize that someone with a gun can be very, very dangerous. They're lethal. Even if you shoot them in the leg and they go down, they're still lethal. You can't blanket every situation.

So while we are proud of Cities Church and how they responded, that doesn't mean we're saying that's the only way. And if you respond with some anger or you respond physically—you're not wrong.

Read the book of Nehemiah. Read that last chapter. It's going to blow your mind.

And it really throttles the argument that comes our way as Christians:

"So you're saying you don't love this sinner enough to actually be sacrificed for him like your Lord did? Don't you know your Lord died for him? Isn't he one of God's children?"

No. He's one of God's creation. Made in God's image. And there's a certain respect there.

But what God has put on the heart of protectors is: "I love my congregation. I love my wife and my kids. I love my elders and their wives. I love them and their kids. Anybody who attends my church and wants to make Jesus's name great—there's a love that comes where we want to protect them. And out of protection, we're not going to allow an active shooter to kill innocents."

The Feminization of the Church

This goes back 10 years of discussions with people. It's fatiguing for people to try to make Christianity into this weak-wristed, wussified consumer Christianity where blessed-be-the-nice is the 11th commandment.

"Oh, he's not nice. He must not know Jesus—because if you know Jesus, you're going to just be nice and soft."

Totally feminized the church.

And what happened then? How did that work out for America the last 30 years when we've wussified the church to where men can't be men anymore?

The Real Story of St. Nicholas

Read the story of Santa Claus, aka St. Nick.

Pretty cool guy. Literally saved the church at the Council of Nicaea.

St. Nicholas was put in charge of taking care of the widows, the orphans, the poor. Santa Claus is kind of created after him—hence St. Nicholas, Santa Claus—because he did a lot for children and all kinds of stuff.

What a lot of people don't know is that he was a very forceful man. When they got together at the Council of Nicaea, there were people trying to infiltrate the church with the idea that Jesus was not actually God—not fully God, not fully man.

St. Nicholas put a really swift end to that by dragging them out and putting fists to them.

A couple of the guys, he did them one after another. He dragged them outside and pummeled them. There were people pushing heresy and trying to bring it into the church. It wasn't a "come let us reason together" discussion. No. There's no discussion here.

Because there was this physical altercation, some in the church thought, "Hey St. Nick, maybe you ought to step down." Well, the people St. Nicholas served loved him so much they said, "No, no, no, no. You will not put him out. He loves people. He cares for people. And he is caring for the church right now."

They relented and let him stay.

Back Up Your Pastor

One of the greatest things in life in serving Jesus as a pastor and shepherd of any authentic congregation is to have a group of strong men who are not afraid, who have your back. Even if you mess up, they'll pull you aside and say "You messed up," and you say "I messed up," and you fix it and go on. And when you are preaching the truth and the opposition—the enemy—brings forward, every time these guys shut it down.

That's invaluable. That's something you don't find around every corner.

For all the pastors out there: pray that you have that.

And if you are that for somebody: back up your pastor. He needs to know that he can speak the truth and that if they come for him, they're coming for a whole bunch of guys, not just him alone.

It makes a difference. It calls for discernment. That's for sure.

The Official Statement: Justice and Worship

The church put out a response, and it's really, really interesting. What a way to start a letter:

Jesus is real.

When we gather on Sunday mornings to worship him, we are gladly giving ourselves to what is most central and sacred in our life together. We worship Jesus—stretches as the main banner over our church alongside two other pursuits that flow from it: loving one another and seeking the good of the Twin Cities.

On Sunday, January 18th, a group of agitators jarringly disrupted our worship gathering. They accosted members of our congregation, frightened children, and created a scene marked by intimidation and threat.

There's your testimony.

Such conduct is shameful, unlawful, and will not be tolerated. Invading a church worship service to disrupt the worship of Jesus, or any other act of worship, is protected by neither the Christian scriptures nor the laws of this nation.

They got to the reality of it: you disrupting us like that is not allowed.

We welcome respectful dialogue about present issues and about how the realness of Jesus, as revealed in the Bible, provides the only final answer to the world's most complex and intractable problems. Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, lived, died, and rose again for the rescue of all who put their faith in him.

And that would even include Don Lemon, should he ever turn from his sins and fully repent.

He offers a love that transcends cultures, borders, policies, and politics. As those who have been loved and rescued by him, we will not shrink from worshiping Jesus. Nor will we stop teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah. (Acts 5:42)

Church buildings are meant to be places of peace and solace where worshipers can hear and live out this message. We therefore call on local, state, and national leaders to protect this fundamental right.

And we are evaluating next steps with our legal counsel.

May we add: Sue them. Sue them all.

Then the 11th-commandment Christians about blessed-be-the-nice are going to come out and say that's not very Christlike.

Don't believe the people who think the court system is not for you just because you're a Christian. Don't believe the people who tell you you're not supposed to stand up when people treat you or others around you like a doormat. That court system is for you.

Whether they sue or not—whatever. But loving the fact that they are considering all their options, weighing things out. Some question why you would ever seek legal counsel on this.

What Scripture Says About Justice

Micah 6:8 —

"The Lord has told you what is right and what he demands: See that justice is done. Let mercy be your first concern. And humbly obey your God."

See that justice is done. Did you get that? See that justice is done.

And then the next line's really key: Let mercy be your first concern.

In the concern of mercy being first, you can still want justice. The mercy in our hearts for Don Lemon is that he would find Jesus. But we want justice done. And we want to humbly obey our God throughout that.

It's hard when you get all worked up. But it's also just as difficult when you get all soft and weak-wristed at the same time.

The scriptures encompass the whole thing. The scriptures encompass all scenarios. The courts and justice—that's a part of your life too. Don't abuse it. Don't misuse it. But it is there for you.

Keep that in mind as you want to criticize the church. Isn't it something how non-believers—or lukewarm believers—love to tell blood-bought believers how they're supposed to act?

Ecclesiastes 8:11 —

"Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."

What does that mean? That was kind of wordy.

Basically: if you don't have punishment for evil—if it's delayed, if it's weak, if it's not swift and accurate—that encourages men to become more and more violent. More and more evil. If you don't deal with it appropriately.

The heart of children of man is set fully to do evil. Our default position is sinful. That's why one of the biggest problems in America across the board is false converts. Fake Christianity.

When you go back to World War II, when everything started being taken out in the '60s and then the '80s—we just slowly kicked God out. What do you think's going to happen?

Evil is going to run rampant. And the big counterfeiter is going to masquerade as if it's righteousness. Fake righteousness comes out of a fake church.

Isn't that what we're seeing in the United States today? There seems to be no justice and it just gets wilder and wilder and more vile.

Some guy gives a TED Talk, or you have false teachers like Steven Furtick who do not know how to handle the Word of God, and they get this big following because they're up there performing and doing psychobabble and trying to appease people's emotions. He's just one of many that we're supposed to mark and avoid.

It's not executed speedily. The heart of children of men is fully set to evil.

So what then shall the righteous do?

Proclaim the gospel. Any way you can.

It all comes down to contentment with godliness is great gain. Make His name great and share the gospel any way you can.

The Numbers: Violence Against Churches Is Exploding

If it seems like attacks on churches are increasing, you're not imagining it. The Center for Religious Liberty keeps track of all these assaults against the church, and it is on the rise. They have the data. They have the numbers.

We are seeing attacks against the church in the United States explode over the last 5 to 10 years.

That is exponentially larger in just the last five years. Attacks against the church are happening more frequently, and they're becoming more serious as well.

What Should Christians Do Now?

So what should we do if that situation were to arise? Let's think about that before it happens—not wait until it does. What should we do? How should we protect our church family?

Because it's not just about me, myself, and I. It's about your entire flock sitting there.

1. We Cannot Have a Sense of Fear or Frustration

Remember where Jesus said, "They hated me first—they're going to hate you." We might experience times of peace and harmony and everything's going good, but eventually we know this is the situation of the world. This is the way it's going to be.

The Scriptures tell us over and over and over: Fear not. Fear not. Fear not.

That plays into how we act. You cannot have a sense of fear.

2. You Don't Have to Be a Doormat

Nehemiah 4. Luke 22. You carry a sword. This is what you do.

In Luke chapter 22, Jesus is about to go to the cross and he's going to be sending out these disciples. He gives them an instruction and tells them:

"Last time I said don't take anything with you. Now I'm telling you—take a robe with you, take sandals with you, take a sword with you."

And if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and get a sword.

Whoops.

They brought all their stuff together and said, "Hey, we have two or three swords." And He said, "That's enough."

You can carry a sword.

There is a time and a place. But not out of fear. Don't be doing it out of fear.

3. You Don't Have to Go All Dog Day Afternoon Either

You don't have to go intense response. But on the same token, you cannot badmouth an intense response if that's what's called for.

Think about one of those 415 attacks from 2024. It was a guy who was concealed carry that stopped an open gunman at the back of the sanctuary before he ever even got the gun leveled at the people. He got shot down.

That has happened more than once.

That guy is a hero and is following the Lord.

There are so many different churches and now it doesn't even make national news. If it does, it makes it for 10 seconds. Pastors being killed—that guy in North Carolina in a little circle Bible study with like 20 people, and the kid next to him pulled out a gun and killed him.

Did he die a martyr's death? Absolutely he did.

Standing up for the gospel is sharing the love of Christ with our parishioners, with the people who come to church, in a loving manner. We try to be as aggressive as the situation calls for—always trying to seek mercy, loving justice, and moving forward in the love of Jesus Christ.

Let love be your guiding point.

The point is always this: love does not always show up as being the most passive, quiet, nice guy in the room.

We don't know how God built you. We don't know how God built any of us. All we know is that when we have Him in our life, when we've surrendered and accepted that substitute and been justified, as we walk out our sanctification process—we will seek justice. We will love mercy. And we will walk humbly before the Lord knowing we ain't all that, that we don't have all the answers.

But today, as this comes up in our grill, this is how we're going to respond. We try to respond with love and understanding and calmness in as many situations as we can. But there sometimes is a time where we don't have to be the doormat. We can go forward a little aggressive.

4. Have a Plan

It's so important. Your church needs to have a plan if all of a sudden they are in the sights of someone. Different family members have attended churches where that has happened—where the church then had to contact city law enforcement and say, "We need extra protection."

Have a plan within your board members, within your church, so that when this day arises it's not a shock. Everybody knows what they need to do.

If you have any law enforcement in your church, lean on them first. They will help you structure a plan better than what Billy Ray Bob Jim and his sawed-off shotgun can do for you. It's a much more reasonable response, especially if these law enforcement people, first responders, are sold out for Jesus and they love their community and their church.

That's fantastic.

Cities Church did an excellent job. But please know: there is no cookie-cutter response. People respond in different ways. The pastor told them to leave. The parishioners tried to talk calmly, and many of them then backed down.

Other churches wouldn't do that. They would be more aggressive.

No one way is the right way.

There were children present who needed to be protected. This was an angry mob, not a protest. People need to be protected.

A judge said Don Lemon's not going to face charges. That's just pathetic. It's ridiculously stupid.

But one interesting perspective: maybe it was a good thing he didn't get arrested. It keeps attention on him. It keeps his plight alive. Everybody would feel sorry for him. He probably was even a little disappointed he didn't get arrested because he would have loved the significance that would have come with that.

Who knows? But they were willing to get arrested because they went in and did something they had to have known was fully illegal.

It's really good to know the law. Have a plan for your church.

Violence against the church is on the rise, but we do not need to fear—because Jesus has said this too must come to pass.

Final Thoughts

If you're not going to go all-in with Jesus now, what's it going to take?

This is designed for born-again Christians. And here's what we believe at the core:

The visible church—people who go to church on Sunday—there's a lion's share of them who are falsely converted. They don't know the real Jesus. They're not living victoriously.

Here's the statement used a lot:

"50% of all marriages in America end in divorce. Well, 50% of Christian marriages end in divorce as well. So Christianity is not better than anything else."

No. That is a false statistic. That is not Christians.

50% of Christian marriages do not end in divorce. 50% of people who claim Christianity divorce, but not actual Christians.

People who are living defeated, living falsely—they're missing out on something. They've been on the stony ground or the hard path or in the thorny ground. And they can come to good ground relationship with Jesus Christ.

Here's the belief: contentment with godliness is great gain. And we hold the secret of life.

People ask, "What's the meaning of life? It's all worthless. It's all meaningless."

No.

The meaning of life—authentic Christians who are living it out with joy in their heart and living for the life to come—they have it. They found it. They've gotten it. Jesus has redeemed them.

It's not your circumstances. It's not your finances. It's not your relationships.

Living victoriously—you know where that starts? It starts by understanding where you have been placing your hope. And if your true, deepest hope is not in the Lord Jesus Christ, it can set you off balance and you can lose that joy.

Get back into God's Word. Get focused on what Jesus has said and done and what He's promised to do. Put your hope there.

And then the promise is this: you're going to have joy unspeakable in spite of any circumstances.