Dale Partridge - Real Christianity #138： Pastoral Imprisonment with Erin Coates

00:00:00.000 Welcome to this episode of Real Christianity. My name is Dale Partridge, where each week

00:00:13.100 I offer 15 to 20 minute answers to tough theological and pastoral questions. This is a 100% listener

00:00:20.580 supported audio ministry of relearn.org. And for those who don't know, our mission at relearn.org

00:00:27.480 is to educate and equip ordinary Christians

00:00:30.120 to plant biblical, confessional, and missional house churches.

00:00:34.680 For more information, just visit relearn.org forward slash house.

00:00:40.100 As many of you know, just last week,

00:00:42.060 Pastor James Coates of Grace Life Church in Edmonton, Alberta,

00:00:45.520 was arrested and imprisoned for continuing to hold church services

00:00:48.740 despite Canada's draconian COVID regulations.

00:00:51.980 In addition, James Coates was denied bail

00:00:53.860 and is expected to remain in prison for at least several more months

00:00:57.360 until his trial. As many Christians are aware, in most places in the West, restaurants and bars are

00:01:02.700 open, big box stores are open, and they're shuffling in thousands of people per day.

00:01:06.960 Airlines are open, separating us by six feet during our boarding, only to stuff our flights

00:01:11.500 elbow to elbow just a few minutes later. But the church, in a time of immense cultural pain and

00:01:16.400 emotional suffering, has the harshest of limitations placed upon it. The men who are

00:01:21.100 committed to counseling and encouraging, visiting the sick, performing marriages and funerals,

00:01:25.060 preaching the truth in a world of lies, and offering hope are not permitted to continue

00:01:29.660 pursuing their ministry. This, as many of you know, is just a glimpse of what we can expect

00:01:35.020 to come in the years ahead of us. Comfortable Christianity is no longer, and it's being 0.91

00:01:39.740 replaced with costly Christianity. In fact, it's my belief that the imprisonment of Dr. James Coates

00:01:44.720 will go down in church history as the spark that ignites the coming era of political persecution

00:01:49.440 here in the West. In this special edition, I interviewed James Coates' wife, Erin Coates,

00:01:53.860 to discuss the reality of her husband's arrest. But before we dive into this interview, I just

00:01:58.380 want to briefly remind you that next week we begin the first episode of a series of five episodes of

00:02:03.700 our Theologian series, followed up by our top seven episodes over the past three years. I will

00:02:09.420 be back with all new episodes of Real Christianity toward the end of April. On that note, let's dive

00:02:14.920 into my conversation with Mrs. Erin Coates. It's a huge weight to carry. I keep saying,

00:02:23.260 you know, I'm a homeschooling mom and a homemaker. I teach our women's ministry,

00:02:28.240 but I live a pretty quiet life. So this has been a lot for me to really try to vindicate

00:02:36.220 my husband's name and free him from jail. And it's a difficult task to have to keep

00:02:43.240 pushing forward. Yeah. And how's the family hanging together? I mean, I know this is just

00:02:49.780 have to be a difficult time in terms of your rhythm and, you know, your rock in terms of

00:02:55.520 your husband as your leader of your home. And how has that been? Yeah, it's a huge loss for our

00:03:00.680 children. Um, they, they have their moments for sure. My oldest is the one that's taking it the

00:03:06.600 hardest. And I think it's because he actually has a more fuller picture of what's happening.

00:03:11.800 Um, and my youngest just, he misses his dad. And, uh, so yeah, you're exactly right. The rhythm of

00:03:19.080 our house is is knocked off james is a very um boisterous man and he loves to he has these antics

00:03:26.040 and uh we always say when he's gone it's just so quiet in the house because he's always laughing

00:03:31.560 or making these sounds and singing and um so even just the the daily things you just miss those

00:03:38.300 things and the kids are missing that and uh but you know what i think they understand the bigger

00:03:44.840 picture. They understand that God is at work. And I mean, they've sat under their dad's ministry

00:03:51.120 for 11 years and he's trained them well for just what it means to live your life as a believer.

00:04:00.320 So they're not surprised, I guess. A little bit of shock at first, but they're okay. They're

00:04:08.200 hanging in there. Amen. Amen. Well, just tell us a little bit about your husband's ministry.

00:04:14.840 your ministry as a family. How long ago was the church planted? How many members are at the church?

00:04:20.500 What city is the church located? Just give us some background information.

00:04:23.980 Sure. Well, in 2010, we had a committee come down to the Master's Seminary looking for a Canadian

00:04:29.980 pastor, and they weren't really sure they were going to find one, and they found one. And so

00:04:36.700 my husband called me and was like, honey, there's this church in Edmonton, and they want to know

00:04:41.500 if we're interested. And so I got online and I looked at their website and I just thought,

00:04:46.080 what is this little light shining in Edmonton? It was a church that was planted by just a dear

00:04:52.800 man in 2005. And so they brought us on because he was a little bit older, having some health

00:05:01.040 problems. And so we started our ministry in 2010. And James has been the lead teaching pastor there.

00:05:11.500 Since then, and and we I don't know how many members we have. Members and attendees are a little bit different, but we have before kind of COVID hit or after COVID hit, we probably have around 400 people.

00:05:28.360 Now, this Sunday was an exception. I think we had about 700 people that heard that we were open and they were just, you know, hurting and didn't know we were open and needed fellowship.

00:05:40.820 And there were some unbelievers there. But normally we have about 380, 400, I would say.

00:05:47.900 Okay. Yeah. And you guys are in cold Canada, up north there, and not too far from us here in

00:05:57.480 Oregon. The connection point here is that I'm a student at the Master's Seminary, and I understand

00:06:04.380 not only just the theological training and education that was required of James, but also

00:06:12.260 who he's been trained by. And these are some of the greatest men in ministry alive today. I know

00:06:18.160 he was in the doctoral program under Dr. Stephen Lawson, who is a friend of ours here at the Real

00:06:26.540 Christianity Podcast. And so there's so many ways to mar a character of a man, but I just want to

00:06:36.980 let everybody know that any man who can graduate from the Master's Seminary has an incredible

00:06:41.280 deal of character. It's a very difficult school. And, you know, just tell us a little bit about

00:06:47.640 your husband, Aaron, in terms of who he is, his mission, his heart for the local church.

00:06:54.200 What's his passion? His passion is expository preaching and building up the local church so

00:06:59.980 that we can successfully accomplish the great commission and making sure that our church is

00:07:05.900 the pillar in support of truth and that he is going to stand before the Lord and give an account

00:07:11.300 for all the lives entrusted to him. But his job is to build them up into the mature man. So he is

00:07:17.200 really like a teaching pastor and is very serious about proper exegesis and exposition. And when I

00:07:25.400 think about men like Pastor John MacArthur and Dr. Steve Lawson, those are the men who have really

00:07:30.760 impacted him the most. He's his own preacher, but I would say you can see the effects of those two

00:07:39.600 men very strong in his life, not only his preaching ministry, but in his character as he's really

00:07:46.520 sought to follow them as they follow Christ. So, I mean, James is my best friend. I think he's the

00:07:55.040 best man in the world. And he's not a perfect man by any stretch of the imagination, but he is

00:08:02.700 so gracious and so kind and so patient with a fiery wife and really has been, I think, the person who

00:08:11.880 has impacted my life the most. I mean, I've been sitting under his ministry for 11 years, so I get

00:08:16.860 to see him preach the word week in and week out, but I get to see him live the word at home. And so

00:08:23.300 he has just greatly impacted me, uh, behind the scenes and has loved me well. So the fact that

00:08:30.300 he's sitting in a prison right now is very emotional. Yeah. It's so, it's amazing that

00:08:37.220 we're letting some people go that are, you know, uh, producing sexual crimes and drug crimes and

00:08:43.360 then arresting the moral pillars of society today. Um, I love your, your Instagram profile,

00:08:50.400 Erin, which if you're not following Erin, she's giving a great update on what's going on with

00:08:55.240 her husband and obviously the legal side and debate of this whole ordeal. But in your bio,

00:09:02.800 you say, married to my pastor. I love that in terms of he's not just your husband, but he's

00:09:09.560 also your pastor. And I can just greatly respect that and the unity that you two have in your

00:09:17.300 ministry there in Edmonton. Can you tell us a little bit about the current restrictions

00:09:22.500 that have been placed on the local church in your area across Canada? And just give us some

00:09:32.160 insight there before we talk about specifically what happened.

00:09:35.100 Sure. We've had two health emergencies in Alberta with two extreme lockdowns. We're in the second

00:09:41.480 lockdown right now. As cases or active cases started to rise around the end of November,

00:09:47.540 we went into that second emergency state. So we've always had restrictions on the gathering.

00:09:53.860 Now, when they ended the first lockdown, our premier, Kenny, said that he was not

00:09:58.200 going to be hitting churches in regards to compliance. He's always been really big about

00:10:04.220 conscience and worshiping freely. According to whatever religion you are, he's really

00:10:10.540 been big on conscience. So somewhere in the summer, he changed and was singing a different

00:10:16.060 tune. So, but we've always had restrictions on the gathering, but this time, this restriction

00:10:21.620 has been since the beginning of December and it's mandatory masks, mandatory social distancing,

00:10:29.760 no singing. Our worship team can sing, but they have to sing with a mask on. Our premier had said,

00:10:36.540 You know, you can sing in the shower like I do at home on a faith leader's call.

00:10:42.380 And you're not allowed to converse with anyone outside of your home.

00:10:48.380 And so as soon as service is done, you have to leave the building.

00:10:52.720 And then you're not allowed to have anybody in your home either.

00:10:55.460 So house churches don't work. 0.55

00:10:56.700 We can't break up into house churches because you're not allowed to have anybody in your home that's not of your immediate family.

00:11:02.320 um and I think that's all all the restrictions so pretty much the restrictions are in place oh

00:11:08.980 sorry 15 capacity that's pretty massive which is about one fifth one sixth of our church um so

00:11:15.840 that's a large portion of the church not coming to the gathering and they actually said you know

00:11:22.460 you can sit in your car and live stream as long as you don't get out of your car uh but we prefer

00:11:27.420 that you live stream at home. And so people have been saying, you know, why don't you have six or

00:11:32.880 seven services? And that's fine if your goal is just to dispense a sermon. But that's not what

00:11:41.080 our church is about. We are very strong on the one another's and building one another up and

00:11:45.840 being able to be in each other's lives. And I really honestly think it comes down to just the

00:11:51.080 the theology of preaching and what happens in the moment of preaching and what happens after the

00:11:58.560 moment of preaching and how are we going to encourage one another to go out into the world

00:12:02.820 that week to live for Christ and to be faithful with the Great Commission. So all of that has

00:12:10.300 been taken away from us. And so when you think about just our government putting the restrictions

00:12:14.800 on, they just think church is somewhere that you go and you do this thing and then it's over.

00:12:21.560 It's about yourself and God, but it's not.

00:12:24.780 It's about serving the body faithfully with the gifts that you have been given to build up the body of Christ into a mature man.

00:12:31.120 And so we have been very, very limited in doing that, even in the week, because you're not supposed to see each other.

00:12:38.780 Yeah, we basically dug our own grave, in a sense, in terms of we spent so many years, decades, 0.55

00:12:46.080 training the church to be a consumer, audience, spectator Christianity, where there is no 0.67

00:12:52.240 engagement, there is no involvement, that we've trained a Christian population to believe that

00:12:57.280 it's the exact same thing to watch it from home as it is to watch it in person.

00:13:02.740 And the reality is, is that's not true. You can do a lot of things over the internet. You can do

00:13:07.500 a great business meeting, you could play some video games, but you can't have a marriage over

00:13:12.060 the internet, you can't raise a child over the internet, and you can't do church over the

00:13:15.880 internet. And we need to be together. There's over 100 one another's in the New Testament,

00:13:22.480 and these are bearing one another's burdens and so fulfilling the law of Christ, right?

00:13:26.280 Praying for one another and confessing your sins to one another that you may be healed,

00:13:30.540 loving one another fervently. These are very hands-on, interdependent passages of scripture.

00:13:37.140 When we look at the biblical church and the COVID regulations, it is impossible to do those things. When you look at the American or Canadian institutionalized church that has become spectator Christianity, I can understand why these people are arguing, oh, just do it from the internet.

00:13:58.100 Well, they're not experiencing this true, biblical, connected, intimate, deeply accountable, loving, relationship-heavy, contributor Christianity.

00:14:10.560 And so they don't understand that.

00:14:12.180 And so when a church like yours, Aaron, is actually doing that, they're going, we can't do this another way.

00:14:19.040 There's someone that said a quote, if only 15% of the church can meet, then the church can't meet.

00:14:23.980 And if all these other regulations are on top of that, it's near impossible to even call that church.

00:14:31.220 And so this is why there's such a hard pushback from these biblical churches.

00:14:37.560 And when you hear all those regulations, and in contrast to that, there was a post that went out, Aaron, you saw this. 0.94

00:14:45.180 It says, as of now in Alberta, I don't specifically quote me, but I'm pretty sure these are correct.

00:14:52.820 0.01% of Alberta's population has COVID, 0.008% of Alberta's population is hospitalized with COVID, 0.92

00:15:02.140 0.001% of Alberta's population is in ICU with COVID, and 0.09% of Canada's population has

00:15:12.040 COVID. But we are arresting pastors in a world that is obviously not at risk in this situation.

00:15:21.040 obviously there's also vaccinations that are beginning to roll out i mean this is just

00:15:25.920 nuts so how are you feeling about all this in terms of just the stark contrast of just

00:15:31.680 uh insane thinking well they're they're in darkness so it's not a surprise it is a surprise

00:15:40.400 in a way and it's not a surprise in a way i think it's more a surprise oh like this is actually

00:15:44.000 happening to us it's not i'm not watching somebody else go through this like this is my life um

00:15:50.160 But it's just utter darkness. I mean, the average age of somebody who dies of COVID in Alberta is

00:15:57.300 82. And I don't want to be insensitive to people who have died of COVID. But when you actually

00:16:02.660 pull back the curtain on the numbers, I mean, almost 75% of COVID related deaths had three

00:16:08.880 or more comorbidities. That's pretty serious. And then 14% of them had two comorbidities and

00:16:16.080 4.5 had none. That's a very small percentage. And then 73% of COVID deaths happened in long-term

00:16:23.920 care facilities. And then 90, I think it was up to 96 of those in Canada were people who were

00:16:32.580 elderly. And so what's been super frustrating for me to watch, and I watched, I forgot his name now,

00:16:40.300 I can get it for you, but he's an expert and he was a co-creator of Canada's emergency plan

00:16:45.920 in 2014 and he's the former head of emergency management of canada and they have completely

00:16:53.840 ignored the emergency plan that was written and because they have ignored it not only are

00:17:00.160 they costing canadians more money um but they could have saved over 15 000 deaths had they

00:17:07.600 could have been avoided had they followed a proper emergency plan now that we know that

00:17:12.880 covid is hitting the elderly um and and it's it really is crazy we have 324 current hospitalizations

00:17:21.760 in alberta 52 of those are icu um we have uh 4600 active cases within the edmonton zone there's 423

00:17:33.360 cases and we have 161 hospitals so that's about two two people per hospital um and so what i think

00:17:41.760 what's frustrating to watch is it's always we need to keep the system from being overloaded we need

00:17:47.680 to keep the system from being overloaded and it never was overloaded um but now and we we know

00:17:54.640 nurses and doctors in the hospital and now what they're concerned about is actually the effects

00:17:59.120 of the lockdown are far more serious than covet has ever been and that's a very serious thing we

00:18:05.600 We have an opioid crisis happening in Alberta.

00:18:08.720 Drug overdoses, suicide is so high.

00:18:13.660 I was talking to one gentleman at our church

00:18:15.740 and he said, Aaron, I haven't heard of anyone.

00:18:17.600 None of my friends have died of COVID,

00:18:19.660 but I've lost five people to suicide from the lockdowns.

00:18:23.320 I mean, as a pastor,

00:18:24.740 I can't tell you how many messages I'm receiving,

00:18:27.780 how many people I have meetings with,

00:18:29.220 how many coffees I've had,

00:18:30.960 dealing with everything except COVID, right?

00:18:34.340 I'm dealing with marriage counseling.

00:18:36.220 I'm dealing with financial issues.

00:18:38.220 I'm dealing with parenting now that these kids are home and not in school.

00:18:43.240 I'm dealing with so many different issues as a pastor that the last person that you

00:18:49.100 want to put in a situation to not help is a pastor because they're dealing with so many

00:18:54.820 people and supporting so many people in this time of just so much change and difficulty

00:19:02.400 and sorrow and pain. And so, yeah, we hear you there, Aaron. It's such a complex issue.

00:19:09.140 And I think a lot of people around the world are starting to see that the current strategy

00:19:13.340 has not been working. And again, we all know that at some point the culture is going to be

00:19:21.740 turning towards Christianity. A lot of us didn't know when, was it this soon? How was it going to

00:19:27.700 happen. Um, but if you look through church history, this is not something that should shock us. Um,

00:19:33.400 in terms of, uh, give us the story about what happened to James. Um, did he, did he know that

00:19:40.720 the police were coming for him to arrest him? Um, what, you know, what were the warnings? What was

00:19:45.580 his resolve to continue on? Um, give us the background there. Sure. Um, so when the first

00:19:53.000 lockdown happened, our people had a very hard time with that. I always say that it was like

00:19:59.560 they went into mourning when you separate a church like ours. And we paused because

00:20:06.020 we didn't know what was happening. And the information that's coming in on mainstream

00:20:10.960 media is terrifying. And so I think our men rightfully paused to figure out what is this?

00:20:18.480 How are we going to handle this? And so after the two months of the first, I think it was about two months of the first lockdown, and we had information coming in from trusted resources, people that we know, and also watching some trusted news media outlets and and then reading different documentations, actually looking at the numbers, because I think people will hear stuff, but then not actually go and research it.

00:20:46.260 And then we're also looking at the effects of our people.

00:20:49.240 And so our elders really had to wrestle, what's our response to this?

00:20:53.840 What's our biblical response to this?

00:20:56.380 And so when that came to an end, we fully opened up.

00:21:00.420 And we have been open for 31 weeks.

00:21:02.900 We have not had a COVID case contracted or spread within our Sunday gathering.

00:21:10.180 We've had cases that have hit our people that were contracted from their work.

00:21:14.800 And so when we actually heard about those cases, our guys shot right down for two weeks.

00:21:21.140 We went to live stream just to make sure, OK, how serious is this?

00:21:25.340 Has it hit our body? Are we a danger?

00:21:28.740 And so that was what they decided.

00:21:32.280 And that's what we did. So after that was over, it didn't spread in our body.

00:21:35.160 No one else had contracted it.

00:21:38.100 We just kept going and we went through the summer.

00:21:41.000 And I think it's significant to say too, because our doctor that, that we know that speaking out

00:21:47.060 against the dangers of the lockdown, she's saying like, there's so many important things that you

00:21:51.820 need to be doing with like a healthy diet, proper vitamins, vitamin D is very important in, in a

00:21:59.040 place like Edmonton. And so she's telling us all these various ways that we can be staying healthy.

00:22:05.380 And our congregation, I'd say is very serious about health, not in like an idolatry way, but

00:22:10.980 just in wanting to be a good steward of our body and make sure we're at the fullest capacity that

00:22:15.580 we can be at to serve the Lord. So I think that's something. So we went all the way through the

00:22:21.420 summer and then people started complaining about our church. So we would have women's ministry

00:22:28.960 during the week and people were calling our Alberta Health Services saying, you know,

00:22:33.940 there's people at the church. And then they started to get more strict with the lockdown

00:22:40.880 around the beginning of December. And then again, people are, we call it the snitch line.

00:22:47.840 They started snitching on us. And then Alberta Health Services with the RCMP started showing up

00:22:53.480 at our gathering and came into our gathering and would observe our gathering. And we made sure we

00:23:00.360 were really honoring our RCMP and we would give them a standing ovation. James would share the

00:23:04.880 gospel and they would kind of leave. And then we would get the report of all the things we had

00:23:09.840 violated. And, uh, and so, um, that happened for a couple of weeks. And then on December 17th,

00:23:19.180 HS posted a public order, I think to really get the public worked up about the fact that we are

00:23:25.500 gathering as a church. And then that Sunday, James preached a phenomenal sermon called,

00:23:31.460 uh, it's a time to stand. And what was our responsibility to, to the government?

00:23:36.240 and he was fined that day. So we just kept going and our men just thought before God their

00:23:46.060 responsibility is to shepherd the sheep of grace life so that we can continue on with the Great

00:23:51.380 Commission and to care for their souls. And then on January 21st, AHS filed a court application to

00:24:01.000 enforce stronger consequences for James and holding the gathering. And then the Queen's

00:24:09.120 Bench accepted that application that jail was a possibility if he broke the court order.

00:24:16.160 And so we kept on going. And people might think we're foolish, but that's okay. They're not 0.96

00:24:23.300 responsible for Grace Life Church before the Lord. They won't give an account for the souls

00:24:27.640 that make up Grace Life Church before the Lord.

00:24:31.380 And so on James's birthday, on January 29th,

00:24:35.680 AHS didn't do anything, but they issued a closure notice.

00:24:40.360 So they stuck a, this church is closed

00:24:42.200 on the front of the church, but they didn't lock the doors.

00:24:44.740 So we kept going in.

00:24:46.120 And as long as they're going to keep us open,

00:24:48.780 James felt like he had an obligation to preach.

00:24:51.800 So then on February 7th, he was placed under arrest

00:24:55.160 and the RCMP you know I think we're just caught between a rock and a hard place I don't think

00:25:00.660 they wanted to do what they were doing but there's a lot of cooks in the kitchen and this is what

00:25:05.020 something that's been really difficult for me is the RCMP are pointing their finger at at it's not

00:25:10.700 them. AHS is pointing the finger at the RCMP. Everyone's pointing their finger at Kenny. Kenny's

00:25:16.040 saying I don't have any responsibility for this so I'm just kind of thinking who's in charge here

00:25:21.100 Um, so everyone's just pointing at everyone, um, where no one's giving an answer as to

00:25:27.880 like, why are they hitting us so hard when other places weren't hit as hard as us?

00:25:33.820 Um, and so it was kind of a catch and release.

00:25:37.020 They, they arrested him without cuffs in our church office and, um, they put him under

00:25:44.240 an undertaking saying that you have to abide by the restrictions we put in place.

00:25:50.140 And if you violate those restrictions, you'll be placed under arrest.

00:25:55.300 And so they were really prohibiting him from doing the services the way he had been doing them and feeding the sheep.

00:26:03.680 And so on February 14th, he preached the sermon to the government, instructing them on their role before God,

00:26:10.660 which I think is a really loving thing to do as much as people don't view it that way.

00:26:16.300 If we, as the light of the world and a city on a hill and the pillars in support of the truth,

00:26:21.780 the ones who have the word of God are not instructing the law as to how they're to carry out their God-ordained roles as ministers of God,

00:26:33.380 who's going to do that?

00:26:35.800 So James preached that sermon, and then we got a call from the RCMP.

00:26:42.600 I believe it was Monday, and they said, you know, you're under arrest.

00:26:45.760 but it was a holiday that day and that, you know, James would have to turn himself in. I mean,

00:26:52.360 they could have come to our house and arrested him, but James opted just to turn himself in.

00:26:58.800 And he went before the justice of the peace and essentially the crown was hitting really hard

00:27:05.760 to have him detained. And the justice of the peace was kind of saying, you know, I don't want to make

00:27:12.000 a martyr of this man and kind of wash their hands. And so they put a restriction again in place that

00:27:17.320 prohibited James from being able to conduct the service the way he had been doing it. And that if

00:27:22.260 he didn't agree to that, he would not be allowed to conduct a service at Grace Life or even allowed

00:27:26.400 on Grace Life property. And James just, he couldn't, he couldn't do that for him to have to turn away

00:27:33.080 a portion of the Lord's sheep and have to turn away unbelievers and have to restrain our church 0.68

00:27:41.860 from the one another. He just said, in good conscience before God, I can't do this. So

00:27:46.860 they would release him if he would just sign the document and he can't. So he could be a free man

00:27:54.200 right now if he would just capitulate, if he would just override his conscience and agree to

00:28:01.080 whatever restrictions are placed on him. But he just can't do that before the Lord.

00:28:06.820 He loves grace life.

00:28:08.780 She is his heart.

00:28:10.640 And he just can't do it.

00:28:13.680 And so he's paying the consequences for that.

00:28:17.200 Yeah, I mean, obviously, if you have not read the book Pilgrim's Progress or know much about Bunyan,

00:28:23.000 obviously there's echoes of that going on here loudly.

00:28:26.960 It's a great story to look up if you have not.

00:28:30.700 So how is he doing right now?

00:28:32.620 um what what's his uh you know is there any information on when he may be released uh

00:28:40.240 if he can be released will he be in there as long as the pandemic is going um what what's uh what

00:28:46.580 do you guys know at this point i don't know a lot so just his his physical well-being he's hungry

00:28:51.960 he says every time i talk to him and we have our conversations are probably about 11 minutes

00:28:57.240 long they're not giving him a significant amount of time out of his cell or on the phone um he's

00:29:03.920 in quarantine right now for two weeks and so he's already almost a week in um and even after

00:29:09.540 quarantine is over because of the covid restrictions the children and i will not be able to see him

00:29:14.840 we'll be able to have a half an hour phone call with him um every second day i can't remember if

00:29:22.280 every second day or twice a week, something with a two. I have to nail that down and I, and I just

00:29:27.360 haven't had time to do it. Um, so we won't be able to see him and then he'll, he'll be able to kind

00:29:32.600 of move freely within, within the jail. Um, well not completely freely because they still have

00:29:37.940 restrictions in there. Um, Wednesday, so tomorrow is his trial date setting and they're going to set

00:29:45.480 a date for trial. And our lawyer has been pushing for the earliest date possible, which is the first

00:29:50.640 week of May. Um, but the crown is pushing for mid June. And, uh, the thing is, it's like the

00:29:57.640 crown could drop this at any point. Um, especially with the fact that we have so little cases and we

00:30:04.640 have so much knowledge about how this disease actually works for them to not drop the conditions

00:30:10.340 is astonishing to me. Um, but I realized that, that the Lord is at work. Um, so if they don't

00:30:19.000 drop a condition tomorrow. The court date will be set. And if they do drop the condition, all he

00:30:23.880 has to do is pay his bail and he can walk free. Now, I'm working on an appeal for him to drop

00:30:32.100 the conditions that we're hoping to be heard at the end of this week, beginning of next week. So

00:30:38.020 that's my hope is that we can get that an appeal in and show the courts like this is a man who

00:30:43.980 is being treated like a criminal and is somebody who has given his life to service

00:30:48.720 in Edmonton and, uh, would, will serve anyone who comes to him. Um, so just trying to put that

00:30:55.500 before the court, but I have no knowledge of how long he'll be in there for. Um, because

00:31:00.680 if he's in there until his trial, well, they could jail him. They could sentence him at his

00:31:06.940 trial for even longer. So I have no idea how long he will be in there for.

00:31:13.520 And this is, you know, I love your thoughts is, do you think this is indicative of

00:31:17.520 what's coming at a more harsh level in the future for the church in the West, meaning that we have,

00:31:25.400 you know, right now it's COVID. Next, it could easily be if you preach on X about LGBT or if

00:31:34.100 you preach about this on the state of sexuality and gender. If you preach on life or political

00:31:42.300 issues related to this, we will do X, Y, and Z. Do you think that that is what's coming for the

00:31:50.780 church, is that the culture, the government will be making a stand and claiming that a variety of

00:31:58.740 things that we do as Christians with conviction are either going to be called hate speech or

00:32:04.620 either going to be disobedient to the government to the point where they are going to start jailing

00:32:09.660 and imprisoning christians i don't know when this is going to happen but do you think this

00:32:13.420 is indicative of maybe the beginning of that journey absolutely dale they are so first of all

00:32:18.860 our our law enforcement and government is so heavily entrenched in critical race theory and

00:32:25.740 they are already passing they're they're seeing it pass a bill right now that prohibits pastors

00:32:32.140 from speaking to parents of children who want to have a sex change and if they do speak to them

00:32:39.020 they can be charged with up to two years in prison that is that's significant and already you know

00:32:44.860 when i look at the fact and again i don't want to be insensitive to the fact that there's been

00:32:48.780 1800 deaths uh with covid and i want to be careful i say is with covid um well they abort

00:32:55.900 we have free abortion on demand here and you know they kill more babies in in a two-month period

00:33:03.500 than this whole COVID period.

00:33:06.320 And you cannot go,

00:33:08.140 you can't be within 250 meters

00:33:10.180 of an abortion clinic 0.99

00:33:11.360 to plead with those women

00:33:12.720 to give their babies a chance at life,

00:33:16.320 which is in our charter

00:33:17.240 and rights of freedoms,

00:33:18.800 without being fined.

00:33:22.480 So it's dark.

00:33:23.700 So Canada, yeah, it's dark.

00:33:26.120 And we know that, again, 0.99

00:33:27.500 if you've read church history,

00:33:29.200 we know this is how it always happens.

00:33:32.580 And we can anticipate that this will be the case.

00:33:36.380 Canada, obviously, is a little bit ahead in terms of its persecutory elements

00:33:40.620 because it doesn't maybe have as much religious freedom as we do here in America.

00:33:45.040 But it's coming for America as well.

00:33:47.300 And so this is a time to prepare, not just theologically, spiritually,

00:33:54.540 but really to train up our children in truth, to train up our churches in truth,

00:33:59.580 to talk about the church in a greater detail, this is a definite shift.

00:34:06.520 And I think that we'll look back in church history and see that James Coates was actually a catalyst or a spark

00:34:12.780 that was the beginning of this season for the church that we're going to enter into.

00:34:20.820 Tell me, how can we support you in this journey?

00:34:24.520 how can we get out there and support the issue, support religious freedom in terms of Christian

00:34:32.620 freedom and rights to be able to proclaim the gospel and fulfill the Great Commission? What

00:34:37.380 can we do? Is there any funding that you need? Catch us up there. We don't need any funding

00:34:44.280 right now. We have our lawyer who's a constitutional lawyer and he's working pro bono.

00:34:50.840 He works for the JCCF and they do everything for free.

00:34:56.420 So if anyone wants to donate, feel free to donate to that as they fight for freedoms.

00:35:03.220 But our need is not that.

00:35:05.100 I think the greatest need is for the church to wake up.

00:35:09.740 And I'm receiving a lot of messages from people who are saying, like, I didn't know I was sleeping and this has woken me up.

00:35:16.380 What's happening is COVID has really sought to lull the church to sleep and to, you know, even people, for them to say that live streaming is a viable option for the church is so sad to me because they just really don't know.

00:35:39.600 They just don't really have a high view of the gathering.

00:35:42.020 They don't have a high view of preaching.

00:35:43.500 they don't have a high view of what actually happens to an individual when they're isolated

00:35:49.400 from the body and what the enemy can do with that. And so I think the thing is when churches

00:35:54.840 fall asleep, they don't actually know they're sleeping. When they're lukewarm, they don't know

00:35:59.160 they've turned tepid. And so really just praying that churches would consider their sheep. I'm

00:36:08.040 again receiving so many messages from people that are so lonely uh they're really struggling their

00:36:13.880 pastors haven't reached out to talk to them or see how they're doing um they are they're struggling

00:36:20.440 with depression i'm getting the same message all the time aaron i wish my pastor would take

00:36:25.880 a stand for us i wish my pastor would open the doors and that's really that's really really

00:36:32.520 sad and i think that's why we had a flood of people come to grace life on sunday is because

00:36:36.840 they're, they're walking wounded and they need help. Um, and so that's the biggest thing is just

00:36:44.100 pray that the eyes of the church, the true church would be open to, um, take a stand because I

00:36:52.160 really believe that, um, you know, now that we know more about COVID and how, how it's working

00:36:58.840 that the government is just hiding behind this to, um, see how far, especially churches will go.

00:37:05.580 and you have to know this,

00:37:07.180 churches do get money for staying closed

00:37:09.540 or abiding by the restrictions.

00:37:12.300 So if you are in good standing,

00:37:15.040 you will get a check from the government

00:37:16.540 to keep your church closed.

00:37:19.560 Wow.

00:37:20.040 Yeah, I mean, we've been having continued,

00:37:21.720 I mean, we planned biblical house churches,

00:37:23.700 reformed house churches as our ministry,

00:37:25.780 and we are getting more and more messages daily

00:37:28.860 of saying our church has been closed since X month.

00:37:31.660 We're trying to find a house church

00:37:33.000 anywhere we can meet with other believers.

00:37:34.920 Do you know of any in your area?

00:37:36.980 So we're getting more and more conversations that are talking there.

00:37:40.020 I think, Aaron, what you're saying is, I actually put out a tweet yesterday that said,

00:37:43.360 you can change this with the West, but I actually used the word America.

00:37:47.240 I said, America is likely the most challenging mission field on earth.

00:37:51.200 It's drowning in prosperity.

00:37:52.920 It's bewitched by comfort.

00:37:54.600 It's addicted to autonomy.

00:37:56.540 It's offended by order.

00:37:57.880 We may have a few great Christians in America, but America as a culture absolutely hates 0.75

00:38:02.540 Christianity. 0.99

00:38:02.980 And we're seeing that more and more, that in the West, here in Canada and America, is that we are sleepy, lazy, fat Christianity. 0.99

00:38:11.980 We are spiritually overweight. 0.98

00:38:13.780 We are not toned.

00:38:15.180 We are not fit.

00:38:16.360 We have not had any resistance.

00:38:18.340 We've been having lackadaisical, costless Christianity for so long that this is just, yeah, we're just not aware of what's actually happening here.

00:38:27.080 And I think, again, it's a slow fade. 0.60

00:38:29.160 The enemy is a patient incrementalist.

00:38:31.320 And we're seeing that slowly and slowly evolve until we go, you know, a lot of pastors out there thinking it's just going to return to how it once was.

00:38:41.320 And I have to remind them, it's never going to return how it once was.

00:38:45.920 It's not going to do that.

00:38:47.440 We actually released an article talking about the predictions of COVID in March of 2020.

00:38:54.640 And many of those have come true.

00:38:57.600 And this is something that I think you're dead on in terms of Aaron,

00:39:01.500 just that we need to wake up, especially the pastors and leaders,

00:39:05.280 to boldness, to pushing back, to buying as much time as we possibly can

00:39:09.060 to be a witness for Christ, standing true for the gospel and the Great Commission.

00:39:13.560 And so thank you so much, Aaron, for just taking the time to talk with us.

00:39:18.580 I think this has been an edifying experience.

00:39:20.320 For those who don't know this story, you guys can go to Aaron's Instagram account.

00:39:24.860 Aaron, tell us where we can follow you, where we can maybe even follow the information coming

00:39:29.640 from your church. Is there any way that we can stay in touch? Absolutely. So I'm at Aaron Coates

00:39:34.880 80 on Instagram. Our website is gracelife.ca. And once you go to our website, what pops up

00:39:42.860 is our statement of why we've chosen the direction that we've gone with the lockdown measures.

00:39:50.100 And then I would say we have a YouTube channel. I would say go and listen to my husband's December 20th. It's time to stand sermon and his most recent one on February 14th on instructing the government.

00:40:04.100 I think we're a generation that just doesn't know a good theology of the position of government or even has a good ecclesiology.

00:40:17.100 And this is case in point.

00:40:18.660 I've been told so many times over the last days that going to church is not selfless.

00:40:24.260 It's selfish.

00:40:25.180 and I'm thinking going to worship the triune God as he deserves as the local expression 0.99

00:40:32.220 of a blood-bought body is selfish this is the world we live in and this is Christians saying 0.97

00:40:39.060 this um and so we just have a poor ecclesiology and I just think you know Dale when I read I read 0.98

00:40:46.560 The American Puritans by Nate Pickawicks and what it cost them to have to worship freely when they went to America and many of them lost their lives.

00:40:59.520 It was just so striking to me what they were willing to do for the purity and freedom of worshiping the triune God.

00:41:07.940 And so I just feel like if we don't stand and fight, all of the work that those men did is gone.

00:41:15.600 It's in vain. And so I want to be able to continue that work to just hopefully help people see and direct them to sound men who are preaching the truth and have that sound ecclesiology and fight for Christ's bride because it's really serious.

00:41:34.560 Amen. Amen, sister. Thank you so much for joining us today and sharing this story. If you guys are a regular listener to the Real Christianity podcast, you guys can leave a review. You can tap the stars on your podcast app. You don't need to write anything, but if you do, I will read it. You can also follow us at relearnhq on Instagram or myself at Dale Partridge on Twitter. Thank you for joining us on this episode. My name is Dale Partridge, and we'll see you guys next week.

00:42:00.460 thank you for listening to this episode of real christianity if you're a regular listener to this

00:42:07.440 show would you prayerfully consider making a donation to support our ministry efforts

00:42:11.240 simply visit relearn.org forward slash donate again that's relearn.org forward slash donate

00:42:17.980 and for those looking to explore the idea of joining or planting a church in your home

00:42:22.120 you can download our free pdf ebook titled the basics of biblical house church by visiting

00:42:27.240 relearn.org forward slash house. Lastly, do you have a theological question you would like

00:42:32.480 answered on the show? Submit your question at relearn.org forward slash question. Thanks for

00:42:38.000 joining us on this episode of Real Christianity. We will see you next Wednesday.

Dale Partridge - February 25, 2021

Real Christianity #138： Pastoral Imprisonment with Erin Coates

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