Thanks for tuning in to the Baptist Bias.
I'm your host, Pastor Shelley,
and we've got a really great show for you this evening.
We're gonna talk about Christian persecution.
We've got some guests for you this evening,
and we're gonna start with our Benologue.
- The show is this.
The Bible says some believers were tortured.
Others had trial of cruel mockings
and scourgings, bonds, and imprisonment.
They were stoned, sawn asunder,
tempted, slain with the sword, afflicted,
even tormented.
Perhaps escape would have been possible
if only they had read Joel Osteen's bestselling book,
Your Best Life Now.
According to popular TV preachers,
persecution is actually not the will of God
for Christians today, but rather private jets,
talk show appearances, champagne,
and wealth untold are the things
that believers should expect in their lives.
In fact, you might even get raptured
before I finish this sentence,
because apparently Jesus is coming back,
according to most churches, before the tribulation.
Sure, Christians are getting censored
all over social media right now
for espousing a biblical perspective.
Churches are literally blowing up.
Baptist preachers are getting banned from entire countries
for having the audacity to believe
in Leviticus chapter 20, verse 13.
And yeah, Christians who actually believe the Bible
are blacklisted and are getting banned
more often than Rick Warren begs for money on television.
But that's not real.
You're supposed to put your hand on the screen
and send Kenneth Copeland your life savings.
Sure, nobody in America is getting sawn asunder
for soul winning.
And Christians here don't have to choose
between serving God and imprisonment,
but we're getting closer.
Marco Polo, all right?
Families are disowning their own mothers, fathers,
brothers, sisters, all because they believe the Bible.
YouTube channels with hundreds of videos
and decades worth of content are disappearing
in the blink of an eye because of wrong think.
Jobs are scoffing at religious exemptions.
Drag queen shows are being scheduled
outside of fundamental Baptist churches,
hurling the most disgusting filth imaginable at families.
Those who are watching can see the warning signs
that let us know the fig tree is tender
and putting forth its leaves.
The great tribulation is coming
and Christians need to wake up and get the Baptist bias.
- Well, that was a really exciting, been a log.
I really liked the comments
about putting hand on the screen
'cause I really thought, you know,
I was feeling that electromagnet magnetism.
I thought I was gonna get, you know,
all of my prayers answered
by sending in my money to Kenneth Copeland.
So, hey, thanks for joining us this evening.
We've got our official LA gear
for our special guest this evening,
Pastor Bruce Mejia of First Works Baptist Church, LA.
That's right.
It doesn't stand for losers allowed.
It's for something else, okay?
So, we'll make sure that he helps us out with that.
But we have our co-host, Ben the Baptist,
wants to say hi to everyone this evening.
- It's great to be here.
I'm really looking forward to this.
Pastor Bruce Mejia, of course,
is from First Works Baptist Church,
and his YouTube channel, if you guys wanna check it out,
is available right now.
It has a lot of different subscribers,
and people are flocking to this at this point.
He's got a lot of videos, a lot of content.
First Works BC is the place to go.
If you wanna check out Pastor Mejia's preaching
for yourself, again, that's First Works BC.
I would highly recommend that you subscribe today.
In fact, do it before this podcast goes off the air,
if you haven't done it already.
- Yeah, I mean, he's got some really great reels,
and some of them have gone pretty viral.
I know he had one particular video,
he talked about crosses,
I think it got like 160,000 views already.
It might even be higher, it's constantly ticking up.
And so this guy makes a lot of great content,
a lot of great documentaries,
but he's just blowing up
in every way you could possibly imagine.
And that's why we're having him on the show this evening,
to talk about Christian persecution.
Why don't we bring in our guest, Pastor Bruce Mejia here,
and we'll pull him up.
Hey, Pastor Mejia, how's it going?
- What's up?
- You got some coffee ready for the show?
- Oh, yeah.
Mascafe.
(laughing)
- Hey, I like that sweatshirt.
KJV Olding.
- Thanks.
I like your hat.
(laughing)
- We like to have some fun.
I like Pastor Mejia, so if we throw some jokes around,
it's just 'cause we like each other.
(laughing)
You know, it's not persecution when it's your friends, okay?
So. - That's right.
- Well, we wanted to get started
and just kind of talk about persecution
from a biblical perspective for a moment,
because I'm-- - Can you guys hear me?
Can you guys hear me fine? - Yeah.
- You guys can hear me pretty good?
Okay. - Yes, sir.
- All right.
- So a lot of people believe in the preacher of rapture
still, and a lot of people are kind of confused,
especially evangelicals on persecution
in relation to the Bible.
And so we wanted you to kick us off
with some scripture here.
What are some verses that you can think of, Pastor Mejia,
that talk about Christians having to suffer tribulation
or persecution, especially in the New Testament?
- Well, you know, to say that as Christians,
we're not gonna go through the great tribulation,
even though the Bible constantly reiterates
throughout the New Testament that we are,
it's pretty nonsensical.
Especially when you think about famous verses
such as what the apostle Paul said when he stated,
"We must do much tribulation entering to the kingdom of God."
And then you have Jesus saying in Matthew 5, verse 10,
he says, "Blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you
and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely.
For my sake, rejoice and be exceeding glad,
for great is your reward in heaven.
For so persecuted are the prophets which were before you."
And so that's just not even scratching the surface
when it comes to verses in the Bible
talking about persecutions.
For people to say that, you know,
we're not gonna be here during the Great Tribulation
or we're not gonna be here during the beginning of sorrows,
even though we see over and over again in the Bible
talking about the fact that, you know,
yea, all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution.
I think it's just, you know,
it's just Christians who are just afraid
to go through persecution.
So they come up with this excuse of,
well, we'll be gone before that takes place.
Well, you know, I know a lot of Christians
who have been through persecution and suffering
and affliction and God allowed them
to suffer that affliction while they're here on this earth.
And so, you know, I just think it's part
of the Christian life and it's basically an indication
that you're living Godly in Christ Jesus.
You know, you're doing that which is right
in the sight of the Lord, you're serving God,
you believe the Bible, you're preaching the Bible,
you're living the Bible, and this is the repercussion
of doing those things, and so.
- Yeah, I think you kind of brought up another verse there
just in talking, "Yea, in all that will of Godly
"in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
You know, it'd be kind of silly to tell the apostle Paul,
hey, buddy, slow down with all this tribulation talk.
I mean, we're not gonna have any tribulation.
Jesus is coming back.
I mean, in the book of Acts, I mean, it's got his own
many little great tribulation, in my opinion.
And from a personal level, I don't think that you could say
that the apostles could have suffered any greater.
Really, when it talks about great tribulation,
it's talking about just more people involved
in that level of persecution.
But from an individualistic perspective,
haven't we seen the greatest tribulation
in many different Christians' lives throughout the centuries?
- Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, you can go even back to what they would consider
to be Baptist history, where, you know,
you think of the Waldensians and the Albigensies
and Petributions and these Christian groups in times past
who had suffered persecution for hundreds of years,
they were killed, they were martyred.
And so, you know, I know of a lot of Baptist churches
that would look to these groups of times past
as heirs of the faith, but yet they don't seem to wanna
follow in their example, they don't seem to think
that that can happen in their lifetime as well.
- Ben, I know you had some verses you wanted to share
with us, too, and persecution doesn't always have
to be just getting cut in half or being crucified.
There's all manner of persecution that's gonna come.
I mean, you've been a lot even brought up
just rejection of family or internal disputes
or just people not liking you or speaking evil of you.
What was this that you wanted to share?
- Well, I'll go with since you brought up people
speaking evil of you and hating you
and things of that nature, the Bible tells us
in First John chapter three, verse number 13,
what it says, "Marvel not, my brethren,
"if the world hate you."
And I think that's a really impactful reminder
that if you believe the word of God,
if you're serving Jesus Christ,
that hey, the world is gonna hate you,
and it's not something that we should be marveling at.
It's something we should expect to happen,
and when it comes to pass, it shouldn't take us by surprise
because of the warnings like that one
that we see in scripture.
- You know, a verse that I wanted to share too
that I was thinking of was in Matthew chapter number 10,
where the Bible brings up kind of an interesting point
that Jesus says.
He says, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth.
"I came not to send peace, but a sword."
He says, "For I am come to set a man at variance
"against his father and the daughter against her mother
"and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,
"and a man's foes shall be they of his own household."
And I think that from Christianity in general, you know, not every single person is going
to experience the same tribulation or persecution that the apostle Paul did, getting beaten
with rods or being shipwrecked.
A lot of people aren't going to be a pastor or be an evangelist and travel the world and
have to go through the perils of robbers and some of these other tribulations.
But everybody has family.
Everybody has a mother and a father and if you get married, you get a mother-in-law,
you get a father-in-law, you're going to have brethren, sisters, cousins, all kinds
of different people in your life.
And they matter a lot to you just instinctively, just natural affection.
And when you start standing up for the word of God, when you actually believe the Bible,
it can cause a lot of tension within your own family and it can cause a lot of personal
rejection in your family.
And the Bible already prescribed this and it even talks about in the end times how it's
going to be so bad, so extreme.
Children would literally betray their own parents and cause them to be put to death or vice
versa parents killing their own children.
And we already see warning signs of this through things like abortion and we see just horrible
atrocities of the children and parents being able to kill each other and hatred towards
one another.
And a lot of times it even just stems simply from the fact that people are believing the
Bible and people don't.
What about you Pastor Me, have you ever experienced really this kind of like internal family
conflict the Bible brings up? Well you know what when I first got saved I do
remember experiencing some backlash from from family and obviously it wasn't
really extreme backlash or extreme persecution but it was a rejection that
I've never experienced before from my family you know and I think it hurt the
most because of the fact that I wanted them to be saved I wanted them to know
God I wanted them to know the Bible and believe the Bible and my effort and to
try to get them saved and believe the Bible was at first immediately rejected
and it hurt you know because a lot of the times they didn't want to be with me
they didn't want to be around me and you know obviously the Bible says that we're
are a light of this the light of this world and we're salt in this earth and
salt although is a preservative or it can preserve life at the same time you
know it can sting a little bit and so I think that's what was taking place and
you know it was it was a painful experience as a brand new Christian
being rejected of my family members because of it but you know thankfully
over the years they've they've seen consistency and they've seen that you
know this wasn't just a phase that I was going through something like that and
you know a lot of them got saved but you know I definitely can can relate to the
rejection of family members and how painful that could be when you get
persecuted by people you don't know or by haters of God that kind of motivates
you it kind of energizes you it pumps you up type kind of thing but when it
comes from those closest to you that's where it really hurts yeah I think
that's great the testimony that you said how just being consistent can kind of
win over those family members and I usually try to encourage other
Christians do the same thing you know my church members or other people to
say hey you know just keep being consistent keep serving the Lord and a
lot of times you can kind of win them over by just being faithful giving them
grace and everything like that I want to get a clip ready I know brother Ben's
gonna show us something here in Luke chapter 14 but kind of for the show
pastor Mahi I want to go through some real-life examples of persecution and
I have a few clips that I want to kind of go through and get your perspective
on and then kind of at the end of the show we want to kind of just walk
through and get your own personal life experiences when it comes to
persecution because we know that your church has definitely gone through some
difficult persecution and tribulation but brother Ben why don't you go ahead
and give us your Luke 14 here I know that's something you wanted to share
yeah I wanted to share these verses and get your guys's perspective on it both
pastor Shelley and pastor Mejia because some people I think have maybe
struggled with these verses they seem jarring on the onset and I'll go ahead
and read it so everybody can know exactly what I'm referring to Luke
chapter 14 starting in verse 25 where the Bible said and there went great
multitudes with him and he turned and said it to them if any man come to me
and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and
sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple so people will
look at these verses here specifically verse 26 and last the question will hold
on a minute is the Bible prescribing for me to actually hate my family
members and perhaps it leads to a little bit of confusion they might not know how
to actually apply this in their lives and so I just wanted to get the
perspective from you pastor Mejia and pastor Shelley you as well what do you
think about this verse how would you apply this practically for someone who
might be struggling to figure out exactly how they ought to be applying
it well I have two interpretations to this and I think they're both valid one
would be the fact that when he says if any man come to me and hate not his
father and mother and wife obviously you know the Bible commands us to honor thy
father and honor thy mother and that is the default setting that we should
always have and in verse 26 when it says hate I what I personally interpreted as
initially when I first came across this verse is that my love for Christ and my
love for the Bible should almost seem like a hatred for everything else which
is actually something that I personally experienced even from personal family
members where they feel like I'm just not with them anymore I'm always in
church or I'm always serving God and they almost think like I hate them or I
don't want to be around them anymore but really what it is just that I just love
the Lord I love the Lord I want to be in church I love preaching and so I've
always interpreted this verse you know the first application I would make is
that my love for Christ should almost seem as though I'm disdaining everything
else because of the fact that I'm committed unto the Lord I'm committed
unto his word and his service but I think a great secondary application to
this verse would be could be applied to people who have reprobate parents for
example you know sometimes not all sometimes but you know our parents mean
a lot to us and it would be devastating to find out that one of our parents is
a reprobator God hater and there might be a temptation there to maintain that
relationship with that parent because they're our mom or our dad whereas the
Bible tells us that we should have nothing to do with the haters of God and
so at that point that individual would have the choice to either choose the
Lord or you know choose their father or mother and of course we're not referring
to salvation or anything like that this is referring to taking up your cross and
following him being a disciple of Jesus Christ you know being a servant of the
Lord we can't serve God and and rub shoulders with reprobates and haters of
God and so that's why he says if any man come to me and hate not his father or
mother so I think that would be a great secondary application but that's how I
would interpret that verse. Yeah I agree with those interpretations I for me when
I read these verses you have to you always have to balance everything in the
scripture and I think Jesus actually illustrates this verse for us in
different parts in the Bible because like Pastor Mahias said we have to honor
our father and her mother you know there's verses in the Bible that says no
man yet ever hated his own flesh but nereth and cherisheth it so you know
when it's talking about hating here it doesn't even say father it says his own
life also so it's very clear you know the Bible Jesus uses really strong
language such as you know we're supposed to die daily and we're supposed to
crucify the flesh and so I believe that a lot of these wordings are really to
illustrate the fact that we're supposed to choose Christ over anything and
everything and it does not matter what obstacle would come our way we see
someone coming and asking Jesus Christ about going and burying his father
before he can go and follow him and he says let the dead bury the dead and and
so kind of just almost showing a hatred in the sense that you know not come to
your own father's funeral is kind of extreme if you think about it I mean to
tell someone not to show up for their father's funeral is really it almost
seems like you would you would hate your father not to go to his funeral but
Jesus is basically saying like you have this one opportunity to come and follow
me and and you should be willing to choose me even above going to your
father's funeral not really giving any kind of second thought to these type of
relationships if you think about Jesus Christ preaching they came to him and
said his brethren and his mother were standing without to speak with him and
he didn't give them the time of day at all he's just like you know behold are
my mother and father and brethren and sisters and he's like you know they that
do the will of God these be my mother and father and brethren they which hear
the word of God and do it so to me it's almost as elevating this the spiritual
journey your your ministry above all carnal things whether that be a physical
relationship even your own life kind of dying to those relationships but I would
not interpret this as like you know hatred could kind of almost seem like
you're attacking someone obviously I don't believe you should be attacking
your family members or aggressively going after them or or trying to do
evil unto your family members I believe you should only do good under your
family members but essentially that you would be willing to discard that
relationship if it really came between serving God or not but again I try to
tell my church members and everybody that I never try to leave relationships
I let them walk away you know I try to engage with my family and friends and
try to have relationship with them as much as I can but at the end of the day
I'm just gonna serve Christ and if they don't want to serve Christ with me then
you know that relationship may diminish and it could appear that I hate them but
like Pastor Mejia said it's more that I just love Christ. And there are ultimatums at
times you know as a Christian you might hit a crossroads where somebody you're
related to makes you pick between them and going to church or them and the
Bible them and the doctrines you believe and I think that's where perhaps Luke
chapter 14 verse 26 would come into play as well and you know Pastor Mejia you
brought up that it hurts a lot more when it's people you're related to and I can
a hundred percent not only agree with that but relate to that because I've
been in a situation where I had family members who wanted nothing to do with me
and you know attacked me for what I believe in things like that and I
remember you know even one time when pastor Shelley was driving back from the
Houston area and I called him and I was like hey you know I just need some advice
on this because of I'm not gonna go into great detail on what happened but it was
something to do with familial persecution and he helped me out helped
me get through it things like that but it makes you stronger it grows your
faith that makes you a stronger Christian and so I feel like even though
it's really really hard you come out on the other side battle-tested in a sense
well I'd like to play a few clips here this evening and you know there's a
particular pastor that really kind of inspired me when it comes to tribulation
and I think Pastor Mejia knows who I'm talking about but have you listened to
the Dean Miller life story Pastor Mejia? I actually have not listened to that okay
this will be a new clip then but I'm not gonna share everything but he went to
Colorado to basically plant a church and he kind of shares his testimony a
little bit starting that church and I want to play a clip from this it's gonna
just be a few minutes but it's gonna explain what they did to him personally
the first like the first weekend or the first like week of him starting this
church just like his basically welcome party and his church is there in
Colorado Springs which is kind of like a parachurch mecca of the world they've
got like Hocus Pocus on the family and they've got I mean they just got all
manner of parachurch ministries but he really paints it as kind of a demonic
stronghold and and if when you listen to this clip it's gonna really it's
really kind of surprising what these people did to him but see if you can
play those clips for us for the Tim and I don't feel I was but he associated me
after some of the things that we've gone through as one of these martyrs as he
made reference to our ministry and when he'd introduced me he'd call me the
martyr of the 21st century because of the things that we've gone through and
I'm gonna tell you some of them right now after the first service that I
preached at the Cornerstone Baptist Church after we got the church started
you not believe what happened I announced to that church by the way
before that I was on television somebody paid a spot for us to be on 15 minutes
of television and to be able to announce to the Colorado Springs community that
we were going to start this church where we're going to be starting at what kind
of a church and I had 15 minutes to give it and I announced to them what kind of
a church this was going to be and after our first service of that church my
wife and I woke up the next morning and brother Ron nobody had ever believed
this except we got pictures we can prove everything that we ever questioned on we
woke up that morning we could not even get out of our house somebody had taken
huge earth movers you know these big earth movers you see my own construction
sites in there and they got these big tires on them they had taken these huge
tires of the earth movers and laid them against the door of our house so we
couldn't even get out we peered through the windows and looked out our windows
and it looked like literally that that they had backed up garbage trucks they
go around and pick up garbage out of from the garbage cans it looked like
they backed up garbage trucks and unloaded the garbage trucks in our lawn
we never saw such piles of garbage in our lives never before and I'm not
talking about just bags of garbage I'm talking about strewn garbage raw
garbage filthy garbage and when we finally got out of the house and the
police came and helped us we got out of the house on the side of my car both
Both sides were hand painted with a spray, probably a spray can that sprayed, and some
of you won't even know who this is, but spray painted the words Jim Jones.
On the front of my house, across the top, on the eaves, Jim Jones.
Down the sidewalk, Jim Jones.
Down the broad, down the driveway, Jim Jones.
They literally strung our whole property with raw garbage.
And that was the welcome we had to Colorado Springs for the first week that we arrived.
Man, this is like one of the coolest life stories and he kind of preaches a two-parter.
I highly recommend people listen to it.
I think we put it on our YouTube channel still for people to listen to.
But this guy says he went to start a church in Colorado Springs and the like first week
or the first night he basically tries to get out of his house.
He can't even open the door because they've just put these like giant tires or something
like on the door so he can't even open it.
And then he says they literally just put just open bags of trash and just all kinds of stuff
everywhere in his lawn, all over his house.
They spray painted his house, put Jim Jones and everything.
And this was decades ago.
This isn't like yesterday.
This is like a few decades ago.
He just starts a fundamental Baptist church in this area.
And I mean, honestly, that's just the tip of the iceberg.
I mean, his story is really incredible.
But it would be crazy to me, and I don't even know.
But it'd be crazy for me to ask him or his church members, like, are y'all pre-trib?
Like, you know, like, I don't even know what they believe on these type of things.
But like, you know, the persecution and the tribulation, I mean, he even said that other
pastors call him a martyr of the 21st century.
And he really has a pretty gripping testimony.
I highly recommend people listen to it.
But you know, Pastor Maria, what do you think about someone coming and just putting trash
all over your house and stuff?
I mean, that I know, you know, we talk like we're these, you know, spiritual giants and
everything, but that's going to mess with your head when people are messing with your
house and all that kind of stuff.
I mean, what kind of emotional toil do you think that's like?
Yeah, that plays a lot of psychological.
It's like it's like a psychological warfare going on there.
But I think I'm pretty, when I heard that little clip right now, you know, it made me
think of Matthew chapter 10, and verse 24, because he's saying that they spray painted
Jim Jones, Jim Jones, where the Bible says the disciples not above his master nor the
servant above his Lord, it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the
servant as his Lord, if they have called the master of the house of Beelzebub, how much
more shall they call them of his household?
And so, you know, if they called Jesus a devil, and they said he was possessed with the devil,
how much more are they going to call his servants who are also preaching the same message and
preaching out of the same Bible and believing the same things?
You know, that sounds to me like this pastor was obviously a godly man, if they're willing
to go so far as to call him and spray paint on his house, Jim Jones, I mean, that's pretty
wicked.
When he has literal fights with like Satan worshippers and all kinds of stuff, I don't
want to spoil it because it's really an incredible sermon that he delivers through his life story.
But I highly recommend everybody listen to it.
And you know, he seems new IFB, even though he's not really, but you know, or whatever.
And I really like his testimony a lot.
But I wanted to kind of share that and I wanted to share another story that I found
pretty compelling.
But what do you think about D Miller?
Have you listened to the whole?
I listen to both parts.
Yeah, it was a while ago.
Give us your feedback about.
I listen to both.
But I mean, I would think it would make anyone the temptation.
Here's what I'm trying to say.
The temptation to quit, I'm sure would be immense in a situation like that.
When you think about all the things that this guy went through, and in addition, them attacking
his home, you know, that's his personal life and having it, you know, the the garbage and
desecration. Like I said, I'm sure the temptation is there to quit. The temptation is there to just
draw back and say, you know what, I can't do this. The enemy is too adamant about me not being here.
So to me, the fact that he was able to overcome that and keep trucking along, despite so much
affliction, is I think the most powerful portion of his testimony, that he was able to overcome
all of that. And I think it gives your everyday Christian hope. You know, you listen to something
like that, it makes you think, you know what, I can go through what I'm going through. You know,
it's okay. Yeah, my family might not want to talk to me and I've been cut off by some of my closest
friends and things of that nature, but I can overcome that. I can get through that because
of testimonies like this Dean Miller life story and obviously, you know, other pastors throughout
history as well. Well, I want to play another clip and this is from the Hamilton Square Baptist
Church. It's in San Francisco and I believe this was 1993 if I remember the timeline correctly.
It's on YouTube. The footage is really kind of sketch, but you can still hear it pretty well. So
I want you to listen to this clip and you can still kind of watch it a little bit, but it's
really kind of crazy to me that this happened in the 90s in the San Francisco area, but Hamilton
Square Baptist Church was being attacked by sodomites and they had a lot of news coverage
about this event. And so I want to play, it's going to be a little bit longer of a clip,
but it's really powerful in my mind, just kind of watching some of the persecution that some of our
Baptist brethren have gone through in the 90s. In San Francisco in September. Now, since that
story aired, that attack has gained a great deal more media attention in San Francisco itself.
On Monday of this week, the city's board of supervisors looked into the incident and people
on both sides spoke out very strongly. CBN News reporter Richard Hunt brought you that first report
and now he has this update. Jesus protect us from your followers. That was the message on a banner
unfurled by homosexual activists Monday morning as they held a press conference on the steps of San
Francisco City Hall. But in order to understand the unusual banner it's important to provide you with
some quick background information. On September 19th homosexuals targeted San Francisco's Hamilton
Square Baptist Church for a protest. The guest speaker that evening was Reverend Louis Sheldon
of the Traditional Values Coalition. Because police protection was minimal activists were able to
deface the church building and vandalize property. Worse yet worshipers like Carrie Vaughn were
accosted by demonstrators. This one guy, great big guy, dark hair, shoved his face in my face.
I mean like right up to here, you know, menacing again and call me a bitch, a bigot. During the
service angry gays pounded on doors to the sanctuary, frightening young and old alike.
In an exclusive interview in October, Captain Rich Carnes told CBN News that under some
circumstances, the politics of the Liberal Board of Supervisors does impact police operations.
In reality, there is some politics that are going to override, you know, what might occur.
Reverend David Ennis, pastor of Hamilton Square Baptist, blames the supervisors, not the police
for the attack on his church, and he decided to take on City Hall. More than 300 ministers
from 28 states responded to Ennis' call to rally, then march, on the Board of Supervisors
this past Monday. Just four hours before the pastor's rally, homosexuals held a hastily
arranged press conference. Their cry was, "Christian bigots are trying to hurt us."
Rebecca Hensler with Act Up.
It would be wrong to allow Lew Sheldon or anyone else to promote violence against us,
simply because he cloaks his bigotry in scripture and plans our holocaust in a church.
Pro-homosexual activist Margie Covino.
The problem is not with good Christian people, it is with the new ayatollahs in America who
use feminism and who use gays and lesbians to manipulate those good Christian people
to further their own political agendas and to reconstruct America into a fascist theocracy.
However the activist refused to hold homosexual protesters responsible for their actions
against Hamilton Square Church.
Back at the church, ministers had received word that the gays were going to try to fill
all the available seats at the board of supervisors meeting in hopes of keeping the Christians
out.
As a result, Christians immediately marched to city hall with police escort, then waited
outside the chambers alongside homosexuals for the doors to open.
There were encounters.
It's a disgrace to call yourselves Christians.
You are not a Christ, you're a Beelzebub.
In response to homosexual taunts, the ministers broke out in song.
It was a crowded and rowdy session of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors as Christian
pastors and homosexual activists took turns at the microphone.
San Francisco is a city of refuge for us, the gay men and the lesbians and the bisexuals.
We come here to escape hostility, to escape bigotry, to escape hatred and physical harm
perpetrated on us by our families and by our neighbors and by the churches in which we
were raised.
Now, the same intolerant bigots that drove us from our homes and from our cities are
here in San Francisco.
Is there a double standard in this city?
One opposing gay bashing and another winking at Christian bashing?
There is so much Christian phobia and anti-Christian bigotry in this supposedly tolerant city
that it ain't funny.
I just want to say that no people were prevented entry into that church.
Everyone who wanted in, got in.
They might not have got in exactly when they wanted to, but they got in.
I also want to say that I do not apologize for my community or its outrage, never.
We will not stand to be intimidated on how to preach, what to preach, and when to preach.
Amid cat calls and interruptions, Reverend Louis Sheldon was finally allowed to speak
after Angela Alioto, chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors, threatened to clear the room.
This is a first amendment right he has and he's exercising it and it's important.
I want to hear what he has to say, I've been fighting him for six years, I want to hear this.
I preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and we will not have any particular group tell us
what is politically correct, we will do what is morally correct.
Now watch your television carefully as a man with glasses in the lower right part of your
screen spits into Sheldon's face.
He's immediately moved in and arrested the man dragging him away.
Homosexual activists were outraged by this.
He did not spit.
More people were allowed to speak.
Then as Reverend Chuck McElhenney was about to talk, the supervisors moved to stop the
public comments.
Hamilton Square's David Ennis, who had planned to present the gay flag raised over his church
to Carol Migdon, a lesbian supervisor, was not permitted to or to speak.
Migdon issued a media statement that read, "This demonstration today is not a call for
justice.
It is a well-orchestrated publicity stunt to generate support for an extremist attack
on lesbians and gay men."
And supervisor Sue Bierman voiced this assurance to homosexuals that all but confirms the special
status given to gays by city government.
And I want to speak for just a minute to the gays and the lesbians and transsexuals in
this room.
You just don't have to get all upset here because we know what you're going through.
But later, back at Hamilton Square, the mood was joyous, not because any supervisors had
been won over, but because politicians had shown their true colors and Christians had
taken a bold stand in the chambers of what is likely the most pro-homosexual city government
in America.
Richard Hunt, CBN News, San Francisco.
Ladies and gentlemen, when you hear of these initiatives to give...
Man, I know that we played a lot there, but it's a really powerful clip in my opinion,
and it illustrates a lot of truths and it kind of helps, you know, I think a lot of
Baptists not feel alone in their fight for the truth and taking a stand.
In fact, if you go to Wikipedia, which is not a conservative website,
it's not even usually the truth, they lie. But even on this particular issue,
they have a page called Hamilton Square Baptist Church protests.
And of course, with the media coverage, you're never going to get a very accurate portrayal
of the events. Most of the clips of the preacher speaking were very highly edited,
didn't let them say hardly anything, whereas, you know, these sodomites are getting to just
blah, blah, blah. But on the Wikipedia page, it literally says this. It says that the sodomites
occupied the church grounds, shouted obscenities, and threw rocks at worshipers who wanted to enter
the church. They damaged walls and fixtures, plastered obscene posters on walls and windows,
and tore down a Christian flag inside the building, replacing it with the rainbow-colored
Queer Nation flag of the homosexual right activists. When they saw children standing in the lobby,
the homosexual activists began shouting, "We want your children!" Literally. They didn't even just
stand outside. They broke into the church, ripped their flag, put their own flag up,
were screaming at the children, saying that they want the children. They're getting in ladies faces,
using obscenities. You know, that is the real picture of what these sodomites are like.
And it's not a new thing. You know, some people would say like, "Oh, this never happened,
you know, back in my day." But this is the 1990s. And, you know, a lot of people would think that
this never even happened. But one of our great friends from Verity Baptist Church, Deacon Oliver
Gonzalez, literally went to this church. I think he like grew up there or he spent a large portion
of his Christian life in this church, which it's pretty cool that there was a church in San Francisco
that was taking a stand like this and they had many pastors come and support them.
So obviously there's a righteous remnant even in San Francisco, at least in the 90s. I don't know
where they are today, but you know, I feel like they're a kindred spirit with us. And I really
wanted to play that clip because of our guest this evening, Pastor Bruce Mejia. And I know that he's
had to go through, you know, probably what feels like a pretty, it feels like he's probably just
reliving his past with that clip or something. I don't know. Have you ever seen that clip or
heard about the Hamilton Square Baptist Church, Pastor Mejia? No, I've never seen that before.
That's the first time I've ever seen it. It really ticked me off, but it kind of made me feel good
though, too, just to see that. Because it's almost like exactly what happened to us. That's almost
like everything that had taken place there. Obviously it was in the city hall. We had ours
at our church, but there's nothing new under the sun. And so that's an awesome pastor there.
I wish I had known about him. What did you think about that, Clip? All I could do is echo what
Pastor Mejia just said. There's nothing new under the sun. The same vile, grotesque, and evil enemies
of God that we're faced with today, our opposition, the enemies of the gospel, the enemies of
righteousness, children, by the way, screaming about how they want to get the children and defile
them. It's the same people that were back then as well in the late 90s, and it goes all the way
back to Genesis chapter 19 and Sodom and Gomorrah. There is nothing new under the sun. These people
have always been this way. They hate, they despise Jesus Christ, and Pastor Mejia, I'm with you. That
did tick me off as well, and I'm doing everything within my power not to get our YouTube channel
nuked. Well, yeah, and also, I mean, like you... Go ahead. I was gonna say, you know, it also is
encouraging to see that, you know, 'cause sometimes people can get this thought or Christians can get
this thought that we're the only ones who have ever taken this stand, we're the only ones who
have preached this hard. But it really shows you that throughout the generations, there's always
been 7,000 prophets who have not bowed the knee to Baal. There's always been someone who's had the
spirit of Elijah and, you know, who's kind of standing their ground and he was hated of the
world. And so that's really encouraging to me because that's like a spiritual father to me,
so to speak, to look at that pastor. Even though I don't know him personally,
you know, it's pretty amazing that there are men of God like that in times past.
Even so close to, I mean, as far as like the 90s is concerned, that's awesome.
Yeah, and it really illustrates a lot of verses. Like when the Bible talks about we wrestle not
against flesh and blood, and it's talking about spiritual wickedness in high places,
they literally said that one of the board supervisors is a lesbian. And we notice that
some of the talking points, they haven't changed their talking points because they say Christians
are these fascists, these bigots, and really they just keep repeating these narratives.
And it's funny to me, the signs, that first sign, it was something like, Jesus, please help protect
us from your followers. And it just reminds me of our church, because we've had a lot of protesters.
And there's this one guy, and like every time I walk into church, he just screams at me and he's
like, "My Jesus doesn't hate! My Jesus doesn't hate!" And I'm just like, dude, that sounds pretty
hateful, bro. Like, the hypocrisy is just so funny to me. Love, not hate, F you. Do you not
have any self-awareness whatsoever? Oh yeah, you don't. Well, they want to be protected from the
violence of these Christians while they throw rocks at them, spit, and physically assault them.
You know, it's like, what in the world? Who can't see through this narrative? And they're
also calling the Christians above. They're like, they're a BL. They're not a Jesus. They're a BL.
It's like, yeah, talk about that's exactly the point you made. Yeah, you just made that point
about how they're going to call us worse. And then they just call, you know, them BLs above and every
evil thing. And it's funny to me though, how they use scriptural points to attack Christians,
because they know that there's no worse insults. There's no worse insults than to say someone's a
reprobate or to say someone's of BLs above or to say go to hell, because there's no worse punishment
than hell. So it's interesting to me that this group of people that reject the Bible, they hate
the word of God, they say that it's fairy tales, that they're atheists and everything else, yet
they can't come up with any original ideas. Every single thing that they say to us is just coming
straight from the Bible, straight from the word of God. Why can't they come up with some better
attacks or some better name calling? It's like all they can do is just borrow from the word of God
because they realize that's the only thing that has true power. And they'll, of course, falsely
accuse Christians of being themselves. They'll say, "Oh no, you're the homosexual. Oh no,
you're the pedophile," or whatever, knowing that that's the worst thing someone could ever be
and they just want to try and drag you down in the mud with them. Well, I want to talk a little
bit about the reaction here because what kind of blew me away at this clip is this pastor gets
protested by several sodomites. But it's said that all these other pastors came out of nowhere
basically to show up and to support this guy. And I think that that's important. I think that
it's really important that Christians could put aside whatever differences they may or may not
have to take bold stands against the sodomites or on these big issues. When the children of
Israel were hearing about this woman who basically got killed by a bunch of sons of Belial and
judges, you know, they all they all got this body part in the mail, which has got to be kind of
weird. But you know, all these tribes, they may not be like the best as a buds, like I don't know
that is a car just loves, you know, Manasseh and Dan, like, they probably have a little bit of
tension. Yet when it comes to this issue, they all just rally together as one man, the Bible says
they're like knit together as one man, and they come and fight it. And you know, it makes me really
sick is when Baptist, so called, will get up and literally denounce a pastor who's being attacked
by sodomites and try to make him feel bad about it or try to attack him. And it makes me think of
this fake pastor named Michael Johnson. And he's really just a nobody. But he tried to act like he
was our friend for a little bit. But then whenever Pastor Mejia went through something really similar
to this, instead of rallying against the God hating psychopath, pedophile reprobates, he's just,
he's literally going against Pastor Mejia almost siding with the sodomites almost happy that it
happened. It seemed like I think we have a Facebook post of this, don't we have the proof?
Well, let's bring the receipts for those watching on video. Where's the where's the receipt? Do we
have this? Can we pull this up? All right. Michael Johnson, MJ, right there. Let's see what he said.
He said Bruce Mejia is a proven liar. Well, I don't know what proof he has there that has been
bringing railing accusations against quote true men of God. I wouldn't stand with him or anywhere
near him for that matter. Looks like the hedge of protection is gone and he's no job. Now,
I'm going to get my thoughts and we're going to kind of go to Ben here for a second too. But
what's stupid about this is let's just for a half a second, let's just say Michael Johnson was
true. Let's just say Pastor Mahia is like the biggest liar that we've ever met in our entire
life. Okay. And let's even say Pastor Mahia doesn't like some other Christian or something
like that or had a bad spirit. Here's a question. Is Pastor Mahia saved? Because if Pastor Mahia is
saved and sodomites are attacking him, you know who I'm going to stand with? The saved person,
no matter how big a sinner they are, as evidenced by Lot, who's like literally one of the worst
Christians in the Bible living in Sodom and Gomorrah, literally. And yet Abram isn't like,
well, you know, Lot's kind of a screwed up guy. I'm going to stand with the sodomites on this
issue. No, no, no. He wants Lot to be rescued. He even rescues him himself. And what kind of,
you know, pastor are you so called that you literally would not stand with another brother
in Christ against God hating psychopaths, you would literally condemn, you would literally be
pleased or happy that a saved person would just be fed to the wolves. Oh, you know, even if it was
the lost lamb, which again, let me make it clear. I don't believe that pastor may he is a proven
liar whatsoever. And I know of no true man of God that he's ever attacked. So, you know,
the railing accusations are really just a projection from Michael Johnson's own heart,
but it's just insane to me that anybody that's got the Holy Spirit inside of them would ever
want to join up with Belial and be their buddy. I mean, how does this make you feel brother Ben?
It's almost like Michael Johnson's referring to himself when he talks about the true men of God
that pastor me, supposedly. Yeah, and it's like a lie who who claimed that he wouldn't give a
flattering title. And then he says that he's there in God's stead. Speaking to Job, he is a lie who
incarnate. But, you know, the choice is so easy for those who maybe are unaware. Pastor Bruce Mejia,
like pastor Shelley just said, had undergone an attack wave after wave, I should say attacks plural
by the sodomites. And, you know, they bombed this church, they persecuted him, they persecuted his
family, they persecuted his church, his church members. And so you have a choice here, you have
the man of God who believes unapologetically everywhere to the Bible. And then you have a
bunch of degenerate freaks. The choice should be simple. It should take you a nanosecond
to figure out who you're going to stand with if you have a brain in your head.
Excuse me, go ahead Pastor Maheno. Well, here's the thing is that let's say for example,
there's a pastor out there who I just don't get along with and, you know, I don't think he's a
good person. And let's say the the reprobates begin attacking him. Well, here's an option,
you just stay out of it or don't make any comment about it. You know, you're just kind of like,
well, you know, I think this person's a bad person, or I think this, this, this pastor's maybe a false
prophet or whatever maybe, you know, then at that point, you stay out of it, because the the option
of siding with reprobates shouldn't be an option. It shouldn't even be on the table. Because obviously,
that's wicked. But you know, the Bible says that they that forsake the law, praise the wicked,
but such as keep the law contend with them. And so all this shows me is that Michael Johnson is
just a person who's forsaking the law. You know, when he's siding with wicked people against men of
God, and he rather stand with with queers and stuff like that. I mean, that's that's just it's
weird. And it's kind of embarrassing. You know, this story, this this Facebook post makes me think
of a story in the Bible, it makes me think of David, because David is literally being hunted
down by Saul. So you could say he's, you know, attacking true men of God, because Saul's attacking
David, who is literally the man after God's own heart. Not only that, Saul's lied multiple times
throughout the entire charade of trying to kill David and his true motives. He lies to Jonathan
about the reason why he even wants David to come to the feast. And he has other times when he's
lying. So Saul, in my opinion, literally fits the bill for a person who's a proven liar and attacking
true men of God. Yet when someone comes and tells David that they've killed Saul or something bad's
happened to Saul, David's not like, oh, glad he got what's coming to him or man, he really deserved
that. He actually very sad and it grieves him and he's frustrated and even kills the guy that killed
Saul because David doesn't want anything bad to happen to King Saul. And here's my viewpoint.
If I know someone was saved, like it's not really questionable whether or not they're saved. Even
if they were my own personal enemy, I feel like it would be like my obligation to stand with them
against the sodomites. Like that's just not even, you know, really a question for me. It's not like,
oh, well, this guy did me bad or lied about me or attacked me. It's like he saved and he's being
attacked by sodomites. Well, now we're buddies, you know, now what can I do to help you? You know,
it's like a silly, stupid mentality, which I think it goes beyond stupidity. It almost, like you said,
just shows a wicked heart. Someone that doesn't even have any love for the brethren, you know,
someone that would just side with the devil incarnate in people. Well, should us thou help
the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? You know, that's the question that these people
should be asking themselves. That's a great verse. Yeah, 2 Chronicles 19, too. It's almost like he
thinks that persecution constitutes God's judgment. So do you want to take that logic then and apply
it to Dean Miller's life story? Was he getting judged by God, you think? What about the Hamilton
Square video? Was that church under God's judgment or chastisement because a bunch of freaks were
attacking it? Give me a break. Yeah, and I mean, obviously no one is Job, literally, but Book of
the Bible is written for our admonition. So there's gonna be in samples to us. There's gonna be men
in our generation that are like Job, just trying to serve God, caring about their family, and then
just evil just befalls them. And it's a really silly mentality to just go ahead and just, well,
getting what you deserve, buddy, you must be wicked. We should actually just encourage our
brethren, support our brethren, and not wish evil to ever happen to any saved child of God,
no matter how bad they are. I don't care if they're the worst Christian on the planet.
You're not supposed to hope that bad things happened to your brothers and sisters in Christ.
We should be interceding for them and loving them. And I kind of wanted to show these clips
to do a buildup to really kind of go back through Pastor Mejia and talk about some of his
personal tribulation. So I want to take a trip through memory lane before we do this.
We've got some clips here of some of the events that you and your church had to go through.
And I'm thinking you've probably seen some of these, but we have a Fox news, Fox 11 news
snippet that they kind of did some coverage on your church, First Works Baptist Church,
LA. Now y'all were in El Monte, California, at the time that these attacks were taking place in this
news coverage was taken. And I want to just kind of play this clip. Do we got this clip aired up?
Right. For the Tim, let's kick it off with this Fox news clip. Has residents asking the city to
kick him out of town. Sheena Silva talked to residents of El Monte who have been protesting
against the pastor and his church. We're making El Monte a righteous city. At First Works Baptist
Church in El Monte, Pastor Bruce Mejia is preaching against people in the LGBTQ community.
So how does God view them as rapists? How does God view them as child molesters? He tells the men in
his congregation not to let their wives work. And much of adultery that takes place in marriage is
when a woman is working out in the world. That happens all the time. Why? Because women are weak.
I'm not downplaying them. I'm not degrading them. It's fact. It's also a fact in his book
that Disney characters like Elsa from Frozen are sinners. She's not a princess. She's a whore.
How are residents in El Monte reacting to all of this?
They plan to continue holding demonstrations like this one. He preaches so much hate against
everyone. The way that he's twisting things in the Bible, the way that he is trying to put down
women. It worries me that we have been living here our whole lives and that there are people
who agree with this rhetoric and we're potentially like targets to like hate crimes. But Pastor
Mejia doesn't care what they think. I'm not afraid of these freaks. First work Baptists are calling
for the exit government execution of the LGBT community. While conducting interviews a
parishioner came outside of the church to speak with us. Well I agree 100% with his message and
it's not a message of hate. So you don't think it's hateful to say that the government should
execute them? That's not hateful. That's what God says. That's what the Bible says. You believe
that that is okay? Yeah that is okay because God said it. I am completely disgusted that this city
has allowed these people to be able to continue to say their hate speech. We spoke with the
El Monte chief of police and the city manager who told us they are offering mediators. To help
facilitate a conversation, a roundtable dialogue around these issues but with anything else the
parties have to be willing to sit down and participate in that dialogue. But Mejia has
refused to meet with any mediators and while his speech may be considered hateful, police chief
David Reynoso says it's not criminal. Well criminal speech is when you directly threaten a crime
and get someone to threaten or hurt someone to kill someone as opposed to very general hate speech.
I'm still not apologizing. We're getting you guys out of here. Okay, you're still filthy.
That was Gina Silva reporting. Now of course we have reached out to the pastor for comment,
but he has not gotten back to us. I feel like they made you look so awesome in that clip.
Like they just like, it made me feel like Ben edited that clip personally,
especially the part where it's just like, I'm not validizing. I wrote, I first saw that I was like,
man, this is like the best clip ever. Cause obviously they minted it to evil, but what I
thought I was like, man, this is good. I couldn't have edited a clip better myself. So I am curious,
did they even contact you about this supposed mediation? Is that even true? So, um, when they
did this interview, they hadn't contacted me about it, but then they contacted me afterwards.
And what happened was the, the chief of police had called me and said that the, the city manager
wanted to have a meeting with me. And I asked them, I was like, well, what about? And he just said,
Oh, we just want to talk to you about some things. And so I drove down there, we went to the city
hall and then we went into this office and she said that she, she was basically saying like,
Hey, I understand that you're, you know, you believe you're preaching the Bible. We just want
to have a roundtable discussion with the other party, with the other group and, you know, just
kind of get you guys to kind of agree. And I basically told him, I was like, well, I have
nothing to say to that, to the other side, everything that you, any question that you,
you want to ask me, I probably have already answered and I'm not apologizing for it because
they wanted me to apologize. Basically, they wanted me to go before the group and say, you
know what, you know, I was kind of extreme on some of my views, but there's no reason we can't
coexist or whatever. And I told him, I said, I'm not going to apologize. Nothing's going to change.
And, and so this is, and she says, well, help me then. She said, help me. What can we do? What
can I do so that we can have peace in our city? That's what she said. And I said, well, here's
your answer. Leave me alone. I said, if you just leave me alone and allow me and my church to serve
God and preach the Bible and just do my thing. I said, God's not going to judge this city. I said,
just leave me alone and you will have peace. And she said, I get that. But what can we do?
And I said, I just answered you. Leave my church alone and God will not judge this city.
And then she said, well, what can I do to have peace? I said, well, you just got to get saved.
I said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that shall be saved. I said, I don't know what else
you want from me, but that's the only advice I have for you. But I'm not going to, you know,
have a roundtable discussion with the other party when you already know that I hate them and, you
know, my views. And so I'm not taking anything back. That's my answer. And that was it. That was the
discussion we had. That's funny to me because when you said, what can we do to have peace,
my immediate thought was Leviticus 2013. But I like your answer. And you know, this is what I
like because hearing this story, because I didn't even know this, but in Proverbs 22, the Bible says,
"Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings. He shall not stand
before mean men." So the Bible talks about men of God, people that work really hard,
they're going to get noticed and they're going to get these opportunities to speak to,
you know, really elevated positions of power, like, you know, the city commissioner or the
chief of police or these people. And you literally gave her some of the word of God. I mean, you were
able to sit there and tell her how to get saved. And, and you know, that's, that's pretty cool.
If you think about it, obviously I went through a lot of evil to get there. You know, you should
have had a round table with Elsa because she obviously, you know, was really offended by
you calling her a whore. I like how the lady said, he's, she's a sinner. And then it's like, cuts the
buzzer. She's a whore. Tell us how you really feel. Now I think we have another clip. I want to keep,
I want to give some more clips because I know for us, we kind of have an idea of what happened, but
for our audience out there, we want to give a little bit more viewpoint of what kind of happened
with your church and kind of the events as they unfolded. I think we have another bombing clip
here because these sodomites didn't just protest. They literally bombed pastor Mahias church. Let's,
let's play this other clip here that often improvised explosive device that an El Monte
church this morning. The FBI now handling this investigation. CBS two's Joy Benedict shows us
the damage it did. And she talked to neighbors who heard it. It's a scene that lingered all day in
this El Monte community after a night that was hard to believe. I heard a loud boom, sound like a
firework, but way louder. Hell, it sounded like I'm forming a military. So it sounded like artillery.
The FBI is calling it an IED, an improvised explosive device, a phrase rarely heard to
describe violence in this community. The idea that something like that would happen in this
neighborhood is beyond, you know, comprehension. But investigators say someone targeted this church.
El Monte police officers responded just after one a.m. It was filled with graffiti and just
obscene things that they wrote on the walls and the windows were blown out. They had thrown a
bomb in there. Bruce Mejia is the pastor at First Works Baptist Church. He says their security
cameras captured two people walking up before the attack. People may not like your message,
but people need to understand that if you don't like it, then go somewhere else. If you don't
like it, just turn off my sermon. First Works Baptist Church has been the target of demonstrations
recently by a group called Keep El Monte Friendly. After organizers say sermons posted on the church's
YouTube page preach hate. Now welcome here folks. On several occasions the pastor uses offensive slurs
towards the LGBTQ community and says he doesn't care that some want him to stop. We're going to
sign all these petitions and get all these signatures, try to get the mayor to come to you
and throw you out. Then what? You think I'm going to stop preaching after that? But when you use
certain words and say you're not welcome here, I mean you have to understand how that can upset
people. Yeah and you know what? Everyone has the right to be upset but no one has the right to come
and bomb a building because they're upset. The El Monte Police Department says they have had
several calls in the past to this church because of demonstrations but none of them have been
violent. We can't really say what the motive was for this attack. I don't want to say those groups
in any way were responsible for this. No one was injured in the explosion and investigators are
searching the area for security video but neighbors have had enough. You don't like what someone else
protests is about. You don't like somebody of religion. That's your choice. That's your belief
but you don't have the right to put somebody's life in jeopardy. For those who live around here
hope and arrest will not only bring justice but peace. Joy Benedict, CBS2 News. You know I want
you to help us just get a little context here because we kind of saw the first clip which
was based on like the initial demonstrations people protesting your church and then that kind
of escalated to this bombing but kind of walk us through this this a little bit Pastor Mejia.
What is kind of like a timeline as far as like what started happening and then kind of how these
these two clips run together? So what basically took place was that towards the end of 2020
I started getting messages on my Instagram about a particular person that found my preaching
against the sodomites and began to repost it and trying to you know get some attention and
so my DMs and emails started filling up and then it started catching a lot of momentum and then this
particular person basically wanted to get a petition signed to get me kicked out of the city.
So they wanted to collect like 10,000 but then they got 15,000 they were trying to go up to 25,000
and then at the beginning of January they started handing out flyers and putting my face all over
the city of El Monte with some of my quotes about sodomites and Elsa and just a lot of these things
that they and a lot of the quotes weren't even real though like some of the stuff that was on
there I didn't say at all but I mean obviously who cares you know but so they're posting that
all over the city of El Monte and and just bringing more attention and so this began to escalate and
then I remember you know prior a couple weeks prior to the actual bombing I just instructed some
of the men like hey we need to stand outside of the church just to be a presence just to let these
people know that they're not just dealing with a pastor there's there's men at this church there's
people here and we're not going to back down and it was you know during that time people would drive
by and they take pictures and they flip us off and and and say wicked things or whatever
and so that was taking place for a couple of weeks and then um then they scheduled a protest
so then they scheduled the protest and obviously this was during covid and so
they wanted to do like a car caravan type of a protest and so uh we kind of just took the
liberty to just kind of make fun of them because of that it was like a drive-by protest that was
kind of lame and so so they're they're doing this this protest which which some of the cars actually
end up crashing uh which is pretty funny they ended up like crashing into each other because
they're looking out the window they're looking at our church and they're not paying attention
and then they crash into each other it was funny and so uh they did that and then but they actually
came out so a lot of the people that were there though a lot of the sodomites i don't think were
part of elmani because there's a wide spectrum of and omani is is predominantly hispanic and so
there is a wide variety of different races there and they had cameras and and you know when they
came to protest and so they did that and that the sunny morning protest was pretty wild because
obviously we don't have a buffering we have a buffering zone at that time so they were right
there up against the the church walls and the church door and they had horns and then they had
hired this this transvestite heavy metal band to come and play outside of the church like with
speakers and drums and snares and all that and a guitar and it was this this just this overweight
tranny that couldn't even get out of the car right out of the truck it had to sing from inside the
truck and you know so there's you know they're singing these and it's it's it was the most
disgusting thing you ever hear ever we have it recorded and we have it on video but it's
the most vile disgusting perverse things you'll ever hear in your life and so they were out there
and then they had the sodomites out in front and then they had what they were called like agitators
who we don't really know where they came from but they were just there just to kind of create chaos
and so there's there's a time when I actually went out there and I was just kind of kind of
walking back and forth and one of the agitators came up and from behind me and just kind of shoved
me from behind and yelled F you in my ear and as soon as I turned around he like ran into the crowd
and was trying to get me to come and fight him you know he's like come out here and fight come
out here and fight and so uh the police were there and I just told him I was like hey this guy you
you know, he's on our property. He just shoved me right now. So just letting you guys know.
And he's like, you want us to arrest them? And I just said, No, not really, whatever.
And so I went in. And then we had some protocols that we had to go through. And I basically
told the man, Hey, I told him, I said, whatever you do, do not engage these people at all
physically. Okay? I don't want you to throw blows with them. I don't want you to punch
them. I don't want you to like, don't touch them. Because obviously, you know, when they're
yelling at you, some of the most vile things and they're screaming at your wife, you know,
in the flesh, you want to respond. And so I like emphasize that I hammered that so much.
I was like, do not like if you love your church, if you love me, if you love the Lord, don't
do it. You know, you just got to not you just got to kind of ignore it as best as you can.
Well, that kind of went out the window. Because what happened was, there's a there's a particular
sodomite that had a blow horn and she was on our property. Because there's like a blue
strip that was considered our property and she was on our property and she was putting
the blow horn through the door. And so one of the guys just went out there and just shoved
her shoved her off the property and said get off our property and just shoved her. And
then all all these sodomites just rushed him. They all rushed him. And this is actually
during the announcements. So I'm giving the announcements. I'm giving announcements and
I'm like, you know, hey, make sure no men allowed in the mother baby room, you know,
hey, we're having a potluck at this time, you know, service times, we're going to the
Book of Whatever on Thursday nights. And then this happens. And so we have a family in the
back. And the wife, one of the wives at the back looked at me and said, they're hitting
him. And as soon as she said that, all the men just rushed out. It was like a mob. And
it was like my worst nightmare, because this is exactly what I didn't want to happen. Yeah.
So I jump off the platform and I'm running down the aisle like a Pentecostal. And I'm
running and I'm just I'm like moving guys out of the way. And then and then I didn't
know who it was. But one of them was Ray. Well, Ray was out there. He was right. But
he was out out. You know, Ray, the sods. Shout out to the sod slayer. And he's I saw him
and I thought so. I was like, No. So I go out there and they're out there and I just
I just grab all the men by the collars and I'm just throwing them in and I'm pulling
them in. And then they're just rushing. They're coming like they're not rushing me but they're
just like yelling at me. And then at that point, I'm actually going to put out a clip
sometime this week because we're making like a compilation video of it. There's a new family
that was just coming to our church and they're walking up right at that time. So they're
brand new. And I'm just kind of like, yeah, come on in, come on, welcome to church, you
know, as these sodomites are like yelling at us. And so then I just closed the door
and I go up to that particular person and I said, you did what I told you not to do.
I said, but it's okay. Everything's gonna be all right. And then luckily, you know,
the sodomites had gone to the police and there's like a video out there. This is the reason
we know about it. And she's like, he shoved me, he laid his hands on me. And you need
to go in there and arrest him. And he said, he told her he goes, he said, listen, or and
she said this, she goes, they're not wearing their masks in there. They're not social distancing
in there. And he said, listen, we know exactly what they're doing in there. They're exercising
their rights, you know, as Americans to meet in the church and to exercise their religious
freedom. And he said, you're on their property. So they have every right to remove you from
their property. And so and he said, and then he told her this, he said, let me say this,
you being across the street, or I'm sorry, he said, when I was across the street, he
said, you flipping me off and saying F you, he's like, doesn't help you know. So at that
point, like the sodomites knew that the police had taken our side. And, you know, obviously,
they took our side because initially they had said, we're going to remain neutral. We're
not your bodyguards. We're not, you know, we're not here to like protect you guys or
anything like that. But then they had to because they were seeing families come in with children
and wives and these family units. And then you have these sodomites just yelling the
most foul perverse things there is. And so after a while, the police literally would
just stand in front of the building with like their hands like this and just kind of guard
us, which I thought was great. But, um, so that happened and then they came in protest
at night. What were you saying? Your story makes me think that you're like literally
the angels in Genesis 19. Yeah. Lots outside the door. It's like going to break the door
and he just grabs him and pulls him back. It's like best for me. He is like an angel
from God. Crazy. I was about to smite them with blindness, but their heart had darkened.
I can't get more blind. That was done a long time ago. Now fast forward. Obviously that's
intense, but then it gets even more explosive. What happens later? When the service would end,
we just had to dismiss and I told all the men we just need to go to our cars. There's particular
men who basically had volunteered just to escort my family and I because my van was right out front.
I went out last and so everyone kind of disbanded and I went out last and the men were just kind of
overseeing me and as we're I'm putting my my kids and my wife is pregnant she's great with child
during this time you know I got my kids with me and we're trying to put them in their car seats
and they're just like yeah I mean they're in our face yelling at us and so we get in the car and
we drive off or whatever and then we come back for Saturday night service and it's the same thing
like they basically um they're harassing our church members and you know I'll share this story uh you
know I told the man you know hey you know you're not allowed to get physical with any of these
people especially when we're on our on our property but obviously you have every right to defend
yourself when you're out there and I have no bearing over what you do you know what I mean
like if you're with your family you have to do what you have to do but I'm not deputizing you to
be a security guard or anything like that and and the reality is I mean pastor shell you've been to
that you were in that building at one point you know you seen there's no parking there we have no
parking lot and so sometimes putting it nicely really far yeah parking is atrocious at that
old building oh yeah we didn't have a parking line so sometimes people have to park really far
oh that's right so then uh one of our church members you know he's with his wife and he's
like walking down and this is at night and some sodomites began to follow him and you know one
of our church members kind of turned around and said you need to disengage and leave me alone
and they're just coming they're coming at him they're coming at him and he's saying he's like
disengage disengage and so the one of the sodomites had a bike and so he got off his bike
and he was kind of coming at him with his bike and that particular person church member had bear
spray on him and so he just pulled out the bear spray give him a little sprinkle in the eyes there
and you know the guy yelled out in pain obviously because he's you know pepper spray but there's
there's a couple instances like that when that took place so that that happened on that sunday
and and then after that we're just like well thursday's coming around and and then you know
we'll see we'll see what happens then they had announced that they were gonna have like a drag
queen contest the following sunday and that really grieved me i was i was very vexed by that and i
remember thinking to myself like just kind of praying unto the lord saying like lord like just
please don't stand by and just like allow this to happen like there's nothing that we can do
and i remember trying to devise a witty invention to try to counter balance that or to counter
attack that like we're gonna put like large speakers outside the church just bumping my
preaching at them um we're gonna build a wall or something we bought like like face coverings for
the kids so they wouldn't see them and i'm just trying to come up with every single witty invention
there possibly was just so our kids will not be violated by this you need like the 300 men with
shields like from the movie 300 yeah have this shield barricade oh man that's gross it was and
they and and they had literally posted on their instagram and said uh you know when they're
promoting the drag queen contest they're saying you know let's make them throw up let's make them
throw up that's what they had put on there so you know they obviously know that that's so
disgusting you want to throw up so then thursday came around and and pastor burzins um he was he
had offered he was gonna be in town so he's like you want me to preach for you i'm like yeah for
sure so he came out and preached then i told him everything that was happening and so he preached
a pretty epic sermon at our church but we had no protesters there that thursday and so um you know
i thought that was kind of weird but we didn't have any protesters we had some demonic encounters
kind of like what you and i experienced when we went over to preach for the for the fire baptist
baptist fire fire breathing baptist fellowship do you remember when we went out to eat that
that night pastor shelley oh yeah yeah at the restaurant there was some you remember that
trolling you or whatever what at the bar or something it was weird he was like demonically
possessed he was possessed for sure because he had been kind of harassed not harassed but he was
kind of like looking through the windows and then he came into the restaurant sat at the bar and
just stared at pastor birds and for a long time but we had an encounter like that when pastor
birds came out to preach for us well he preaches that sermon and then friday comes around and we
i have a meeting with the men in our church and just say you know we're not going to do any of
these witty inventions that i came up with we're just gonna we're just have to pray that god makes
it rain really hard and then that lightning strikes you know and that's just what we're
gonna have to do and so we have a prayer meeting and we're we're just you know real men pray in
precatory prayers and so we're just praying in precatory prayers and we're just like lord
destroy them send lightning bolts increase our faith and well i mean he answered our prayer just
not in the way we would want sometimes god answers our prayers in different ways you know right and
works in mysterious ways uh he does and so friday night or should i say early saturday morning
um i don't know i think it was like around two o'clock in the morning
um my wife gets a phone call and it's from our evangelist brother ulysses who was part time
at that time and then um he wants to talk to me and he said because i had told him i said hey
unless you know like our church gets blown up or something like that i said don't contact me i don't
want to know about people threatening me online i don't need to know about people saying they're
gonna uh do things to my family and i i was like just keep that stuff to yourself just trash those
emails unless like the church gets bombed and i was like joking about it and so he told me he said
hey you didn't want me to he's a prophet yeah and i told him i said look uh or he said you told me
not to call you unless the church gets bombed so i'm just calling you because the church got bombed
wow and i said what he's like yeah i'm out i'm at the building right now and basically what happened
was his wife was just up in the middle of the night and she's just kind of going through her
phone and i think like she looked at the security cameras or something like that and we had just
put security cameras the week before because i told him i said we need to put security cameras
just in case something happens and and they were offline so then he's like what in the world so
then he goes and then he finds out that you know it got bombed and of course the fire department's
there and then the fbi came and then i had to come and you know they basically placed an explosive
inside they they they put graffiti all over the walls and then they broke out one of the windows
hoping to throw a bomb all the way inside the building but because the windows were kind of
gated they couldn't fit one so they put it almost like on the window sill and it blew up the wall
along with like the inside of the ceiling and so then that happened and then they were looking for
like a second bomb and whatnot and but we have the people on on camera so the FBI came and then they
they you know questioned us and whatnot and I just remember thinking to myself like this is crazy I
can't believe this just happened and I think I text pastor Anderson or something like that like
at four o'clock in the morning and I just said like our church got bombed like you know because
I was I was communicating with them throughout the week and I was just kind of you know pouring out
my heart just telling them like hey I'm not gonna quit I'm not planning on quitting I'm not gonna
throw in the towel or anything like that but I'm just letting you know like I need to tell someone
that this is really hard because you know they're threatening my family and they're doing all these
things and so it's I feel like it's taking a toll on me but I'm and I told him I was like I'm not
telling you this because I'm telling you that like I need you to come help me or I'm gonna I can't
preach I can't pastor anymore I'm just saying like I just need to tell someone this and so you know
he gave me some words of encouragement because of course pastor Anderson has been through that
multiple times and um so we're just communicating back and forth and then I told him that and I
think he just responded with like wow sorry and then uh well what do you say I mean that's such a
that's such a horrible text to get you're just kind of like oh man like I don't even know what
words to you know outside of just giving scripture or something like I don't even know what I would
say yeah I mean like well we ended up talking on the phone and he just he basically told me he said
well this is what you signed up for when you became a pastor and and I said no this is what
I signed up for when I became a christian you know this is what it's all about yeah there you go and
so um yeah I ended up going home and I told my wife I said I'm gonna go to sleep because I'm tired
just hold take messages and and I'll figure out what we're gonna do in a couple hours so I went
to sleep and then I I woke up and I said well we need to find a place to meet because we're
still gonna meet and so we we we found a location and we met under a tabernacle for a couple weeks
and it was great I mean it was it was an awesome experience to be quite honest obviously during that
time it was very difficult and even weeks after that because weeks after that they stole our
vehicle my vehicle from my house they camped out in front of my house and a bunch of other stuff
took place but you know during that time it was very very stressful it was very difficult
but looking back I mean I wouldn't have if I can go back and if I had the chance to go back and
say you know or and change something I wouldn't you know what I mean I would do it exactly the
same way because of the fact that it helped our church it strengthened our church it it you know
endeared the the hearts of their church members one to another and and I wasn't the only one who was
persecuted I mean our church members till this day are still being persecuted from family members
you know they were persecuted by the sodomites a lot of the sodomites went after the jobs of the
people in our church and try to get them fired from their jobs and you know even even try to
get them expelled from like private schools that their children were attending they would contact
the principals and just just a lot of wicked stuff and they would threaten them and dox their
address and post their address online you know things of that nature but but it's strength in
our church so you know when Michael Johnson says hey the hedge of protection has been removed
and God is judging me well that's funny because God blessed us with more church members more
salvations you know we were baptisms yes i don't know i mean this is a pretty cool judgment if
that's what that's what it is you know and so i'm thankful for that you know i want the listener at
home to realize you know i'm kind of laughing we're kind of laughing at all this now and kind of
almost seeming happy but it's not like we think that it's cool to bomb church buildings it's not
like we think that this is awesome or we want buildings to be burned or we want people to harass
us or or any of that kind of stuff because you know from a christian perspective we shouldn't
desire for evil the bible tells us that we're supposed to pray that we wouldn't be delivered
to evil and we're supposed to pray that we're not entered into temptation and so we certainly
don't ask for it you know the bible says i when i i am for peace but when i speak they are for war
so you know we definitely want to be peaceful in the community it's these sodomites and these god
hating atheists that want to attack us but when you look at it from hindsight all you can do is
just what the bible said because in matthew chapter 5 the bible says rejoice and be exceeding glad for
great is your reward in heaven so when the bible talks about being persecuted or being reviled or
people doing evil unto you the literal commandment of god is to rejoice and be exceeding glad so
someone's mad at us for laughing or or enjoying living reliving these experiences you know they're
the ones that are not right with god because the right attitude in hindsight is to have joy and to
just see how the lord works in mysterious ways but obviously at the time you know when i first
heard i wasn't laughing or or joyful or anything like that i was very grieved i was very upset
to hear that your church was going through that and i know that well i remember i remember you
christians are affected i remember i remember you called me and i was at home and you were like
vexed i remember you calling me and telling me like i need to send security to your house what
can i do can i send police over there can i send security over there and you're like calling people
like in montobello and trying to get people to come and like watch over us and i was so mentally
and emotionally drained i was just like thank you you know do whatever you can like i can't really
even think of what we need to do but it was taxing it was a very taxing situation well i mean the
emotional stress is hard i'm not just the pastor but everybody else and i think that we don't want
to downplay that i like how you said i signed up for this when i'm a christian like you said your
church members your wife your children these these children of these other family members
they're going to this same church they got bombed it's not like it's just your church by yourself i
mean it's a whole group of christians that have to experience this type of persecution and
tribulation and it's very real you know this is a this isn't we're not just making stuff up this
evening these are literal news stories this this is a literal bombing of a church and you know for
just preaching what the bible says you know it's not like we're asking for people to do evil unto
us it's not like pastor mehia was hoping for bad he already told us he talked to the city commissioner
said just leave us alone like we just want to you know preach the gospel we just want to reach
people for jesus christ and we want to get people saved and get them baptized and you know we don't
want to hurt a fly even pastor mehia he's telling his whole church like don't touch them yeah don't
engage with them you know yet while they're the ones that the provocateurs they're the ones that
are screaming and spitting and throwing stuff and and trying to cause the units you know what's
funny about that is that the week before the protest i preached a sermon called preparations
for warfare and it was just basically my pep talk to my church to kind of get them ready
for their onslaught so to speak and i was explaining the fact that this is a spiritual
warfare it's a spiritual battle we wrestle not against flesh and blood and the weapons of our
warfare are not carnival mighty through god and i'm just explaining to them like we can't allow
this to get physical this is spiritual we need to pray our way through this preacher our way through
this stand our ground and they reposted that the sodomites reposted that sermon but only like a
small clip and said this guy is asking for literal war he wants to go to physical war with us
and then i remember people like commenting like he literally said in that sermon that it's spiritual
he's he's telling his church members not to go and then all the comments just feel well like what
if war is what he wants and war is what he's gonna get we're gonna do this we're gonna do this so
it's just like it's crazy you know there's there's no way to placate these people and they're always
gonna twist and pervert your word no matter what you say well and it for some christians it's crazy
to me we can show them genesis 9 genesis 19 judges 19 judges 20 show them throughout the kings throw
them roman's one and it's like they just pretend like that's not real you can show them the hamilton
square baptist you can show them pastor mahia you can show them all these different examples
of real persecution real tribulation and they just kind of want to put their finger in their ear and
say my best you know my best life now i just want to you know basically have my 401k and my
vacation home and there's never going to be any tribulation i'm never going to see any evil
you know any bad thing that happens to me is because i'm not right with god or something
like that kind of like job's friends you know it seems like there's a lot of job's friends out
there and we wanted to bring you on here and talk about this to help people realize that
tribulation should be expected and i really love that quote it's like the quote of the show
that's what i signed up for when i became a christian and and i want christians to realize
that tribulation is real whether you make it all the way to the rapture or not you're going to
suffer tribulation if you're going to try and live godly well one thing that i learned from all that
is i learned a lot of things but one thing in particular you know is the fact that you know
obviously we're all going to go through some form of tribulation whether it's you know we're going
through a tough time we're going through trials whether that's persecution affliction that stems
from relationships with our families because of what we believe but at the end of the day people
just have to realize that if you're going through a trial and it seems really difficult seems really
hard then just remember that god allowed you to go through that so if he's allowing you to experience
that much pain and affliction it means that he knows that you can handle it because he's not going
to give us more than we can bear and so the the fact that we're going through tribulation is simply
an indication that god believes in you you know he believes that you can go through it because he's
not going to give us more than we can handle he's gonna he's gonna he's gonna strengthen us and and
you know to a certain extent you know to a certain extent we can kind of say based upon the scriptures
that has thou considered my servant pastor shelly has not considered my servant ben the baptist and
the reason god said that about joe is because he knew joe can handle it and the reason i say that
is because you know sometimes when you're in the midst of a trial or tribulation you can kind of
feel like you're pressed out above measure where it's just like i don't know if i can handle i
don't know how much more i can handle i don't know how much more i can take but if you find
yourself in that situation it means that god knows that you can and you just need to kind of grind
your way through it pray your way through it read your read the bible your way through it
just keep doing what you're doing and joy cometh in the morning you know well and so yeah i think
that's great and i mean for you and me you know becoming a pastor to some degree we did kind of
sign up for you know being on the front lines but i want to get brother bing's perspective here too
because you know he's just a church member you know he just comes to church you know sunday morning
sunday night wednesday evening um he's real active in the ministry but there's nothing stopping ben
from just walking away there's nothing stopping you know some of our church members from just
deciding to go do whatever they want it's not going to really affect their income it's not going to
affect you know a lot of things from a carnal perspective but you know when you hear stories
like this when you hear about pastor me he is church we hear kind of the inside baseball here
what are kind of your thoughts about this testimony well from a layman's perspective
i think it underscores the importance of especially during a time i think we should
we should back our pastor and always be a blessing to the church but especially when
the church is undergoing an onslaught like what you described there pastor mahiya and pastor
shelly you've gone through it as well i mean both of you have from a layman's perspective
i take that as an opportunity to make sure that i call up my pastor and say i just want to let
you know i got your back if there's anything i can do to help you get through this even if you just
need somebody to talk to you know if you want to just get your mind off of some things and we could
you know uh talk about some funny youtube videos right now whatever i can do to be a blessing in
this particular scenario i really want to be able to be that person for you a positive influence for
you and like i said we should always back our pastor but you know as they're following christ
we should follow the men of god as they follow christ but especially when there's an onslaught
be there as a layman for your pastor and say i'm here and i'm backing you up and i'm ready to
defend the cause of christ alongside you and be especially during that time as much of a blessing
as you can and and and you know what pastor shelly i think that uh i'm sure you've experienced that
as well people call and pastor mahiya as well people calling you up and saying hey i just want
to let you know i support you i'm with you i got your back we're going to go through this thing
together yeah it's nice to have people say that as opposed to the opposite sometimes you get calls
and it's like so when are you going to apologize or you know do you really have to say that or
i think i'm going to take a break from the church right now or they you know it's this thing you
never stop being a pastor and and people even though you're going through all this turmoil
people still have their issues and so they'll call you up and they're like hey i know that
your life's kind of hard right now but let me tell you about all my problems yeah it's like that's
probably the wrong move at that point well i don't know that it's the wrong move i mean obviously
signing up to be a pastor i think that people should be able to come to you with their problems
and we should try to help them but i think that the the point that i'm trying to make is that
sometimes it's easy to get real self-involved or real kind of just self-absorbed thinking about
you're the only one that's suffering or hurting in these issues and and it's really you know a lot
of people are being affected by these type of issues by these problems and it's important to
try and really encourage other people even when you're going through a hard time and i find that
helping other people when you're struggling kind of helps you just kind of forget about how bad
your life is like when you're just kind of like thinking about other people and trying to help
other people kind of distracts you from your issues your problems and and allows you to just
basically feel good about just helping other people and just kind of casting all your care upon christ
and and really just trying to bear the burden of other people who are maybe don't have the same
level of courage or the same stamina or or the same level of faith that you're trying to try and
encourage them i know that pastor yeah and also if you think about it like you know sometimes
we go through trials and tribulations just so we can have an answer for someone when they experience
a trial tribulation like we empathize with people so much the more when we've experienced some sort
of hard difficulty in our lives so it's like as a pastor god is going to allow the pastor to go
through some pretty difficult things because he wants them to be equipped to help people
and to weep with those that weep you know when they're going through a difficult time i think
of like second corinthians 1 6 where it says that whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation
and salvation which is effectual in the enduring of the same suffering which we also suffer or
whether we be comforted is for your consolation and salvation a lot of times it's like we go
through difficult times just so we can find out a solution or come out as gold so that when someone
goes to that tribulation or trial we have the answers we have the experience and we can instill
confidence in that individual to kind of hang on and endure that affliction as well. Well I think
it's important to have shows like this to kind of talk about some of the issues and some of the
problems that churches have already gone through because as we get closer to the return of Christ
and as we get closer to the coming anti-Christ as we come to the end times, tribulation and
persecution is going to ramp up. It's going to become extreme as you already mentioned,
the great tribulation. And so I think it's important that we try to prepare people now
rather than allowing them to be caught off guard with this like pre-trib mentality or
your best life now mentality or there's a lot of just bad Christian doctrine that's being preached
in regards to this topic. I think it's important for us to put out real life examples and a lot
of scripture to illustrate that tribulation is a real thing. It's happening right now in 2022
America and Christians need to join the battle. They need to get into a church that's experiencing
the persecution, experiencing the tribulation, get on the front lines, try to find a place to
start serving, bearing the burden of other people. I certainly wouldn't want to live in 2022 America
a communist country that's pro baby-killing, pro-sodomite, pro-drinking, pro-whore,
and my church is just like there's no problem. It's just like everything's just so grand,
it's so great. You'd be kind of wondering like what's going on here? Like how are we getting
along with the world so well when it's just this evil, it's this wicked, it's promoting so much
false doctrine. It seems like people are mad about the Democrats and Republicans,
but yet their church is experiencing no persecution. I mean, that just doesn't
seem to add up for me. I know you've been to other churches before, brother Ben. I mean,
are other churches, you know, experiencing the same level of persecution or what do you,
what is kind of your viewpoint on this? Not in my experience at all, no persecution. I mean,
for them, I guess persecution would be that the line at Starbucks was a little too long or
they had to wait for a few more hours than they wanted at the DMV or something like that, you know,
apparently. But you know, the Bible says in Psalm chapter 78 verse 9, "The children of Ephraim,
being armed and carrying bows, turned back, turned back in the day of battle." And I don't want that
to be the listener today. I don't want that, you know, whoever's listening to this podcast, take
this as motivation to say, "I'm not going to be the one who, I'm not going to be like the children
of Ephraim here. I'm not going to turn back in the day of battle. I'm going to stand for the Word of
God and the cause of Christ." And the Bible also says that all things work together for good to
them that love God, to them who are the called according to the promise. And I think with regard
to what you went through, Pastor Mejia, that verse comes to life, because you ended up getting a
better building, a way better building. My wife has visited on multiple occasions. She's practically
a church member of yours as well, because she has family out there. She goes a few times a year,
but she's seen it. She's told me how nice it is. You got a better building. It all worked out,
and here's how it worked out for me. Your story actually made an impact for me in my life.
My in-laws couldn't understand my hatred for the sodomites for the longest time,
despite some of the verses I shared with them. Because they're from, again, that's where my
wife is from, that area, the El Monte area, Pastor Mejia. When they found out about your
church getting bombed, my mother-in-law gave me a call. She said, "Nothing but this. I get it now.
I know where you're coming from. I see it now. I see why you have this much vitriol and why you
view it this way, why you view the sodomite issue this way." To me, that's a blessing, Pastor Mejia.
For me, it's a blessing for other people to get red-pilled and realize there is no equivalency
between preaching the Bible to your congregation and actual threats, violent threats, threats of
murder that these sodomites will leave for pastors who preach the Word of God, the voicemails
that you guys get and the emails that you guys get. There's no equivalency between you preaching
the Bible to your congregation within the confines of your church and these bunch of
deviants, these depraved enemies of God sending you the most vile filth imaginable to your email
and your phone. And also, Pastor Mejia, I think it shows that we're right about this issue. Their
actions, their behavior, them manifesting the attributes of Romans chapter one before our eyes
only serves to prove not just our point, it serves to prove the point that's made in Scripture.
And for me, that's a blessing. Yeah, amen. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, what you said there
regarding the fact that what we're going through, you know, it reminds me of Romans 836 where it
says, "As it is written, for thy sake, we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep
for the slaughter." So it's almost as like we have to be, in a sense, sacrificed in order for
people to see how bad this can really get. And, you know, I've heard that testimony many times.
And even in my personal experience, people who didn't agree with me contacted me and said,
"Okay, now I believe you," you know, or "I get what you're saying now." You know, there's even
actually, you know, there's a person on social media who during the protests, or a little bit
before the protests, all the way up into the protests, they weren't necessarily like friends
of ours. They were just kind of like, or I'm sorry, they weren't necessarily like full-blown
enemies of ours, but they didn't like us very much. And they were Christians and, you know,
they just thought like, "Hey, I think you're taking the Bible out of context. You know,
you really got to do your best to love these people. They need Jesus too." And, you know,
they were kind of blowing up my DMs with just kind of like nonsensical things that I just
was kind of frustrating to read. And, but then we got bombed. And after we got bombed,
I had posted that we met under the tabernacle. And he messaged me and he says, you know,
he basically said something to the extent of, "I'm so happy you're still serving the Lord in
spite of what happened." But then he went silent for a while. He went silent for a while. I didn't
hear from him very long. But then within the last, I would say, six months, he started popping up
again in my, on my comment section and on Instagram, defending me against the sodomites.
And even now, I'm preaching post-trip, pre-wrath, once saved, always saved. And he's just like,
he's fully like new IFB. And he's like, this guy has the truth. He goes every bombing. I've been
listening to all his sermons. And through him, I found these other pastors. These guys have the
truth. And so, you know, I feel like those types of trials and tribulations are not only inevitable,
but they're necessary. They're necessary in order to convert more people. They're necessary to reach
more people. It's a necessary evil in order for us to get the word out there, get more people saved.
And like Pastor Shelley said, when he came out with the sodomite deception, if this just moves,
as long as it moves people a little closer to our side, that's still a victory. You know,
the people who now agree with us, they may not be all the way to our side, but we move them a
little closer to the biblical view, you know, to biblical doctrines and the teaching of the
reprobate doctrine. They now are a little closer than they were before. But, you know, if this
wouldn't have happened, you know, who knows if that would have taken place? Well, I'm really glad
you you plug sodomite deception, because I didn't even think about it. But that's a great
documentary. It was like, it was like perfect timing. Oh, man. That was crazy how things work
out as far as timing. But you can go to sodomite deception.com. Watch the movie for free. We have
free DVDs we give away at our church. I should probably bring a bunch out with me when I come
to LA, shouldn't I? Do y'all have any? Yeah, like physical copies? Yeah, we have some. Okay, I'll
make sure to bring some more just in case. We got we got Pastor Anderson, because I think you
sent them to Pastor Anderson and he brought us. Okay, that's good. I was thinking like, how'd you
get? We'll take more. Great. I'll bring more. Well, you know, your story, he brought the Sodom and
Deception and he brought your New Testament. Okay, do you like the New Testament too? Yeah,
those are cool. Yeah, I mean, I'll bring some of those too. Well, you know, here's the thing. The
point of this podcast is to highlight some of these stories. You know, the Dean Millers of this
world, the Hamilton Square Baptist of this world, the pastor Bruce Mejia's of this world. And we want
to relive these stories. We want to tell these stories that people are aware of what's really
going on. Because like you said, some people just, they kind of just don't want to believe Genesis
19's like reality. But then when they see it, you know, once Lot sees it, he can't really go back.
You know, eventually when Lot sees it, he realizes how wicked these people are. And he's like, do not
such a vile thing. And he's like, oh, now you're going to judge. And for some people, we need to
make sure to wake them up before they're Lot, before they're literally surrounded by the
sodomites and basically going through this evil. You know, if even if we have to be the Lot,
we have to be the guy that has to go through the pain and the suffering a little bit just to wake
some more people up to get some people, you know, on fire for God, then so be it. But you know,
that's why we need to have podcasts like this. We need to have shows like this. And we need to
really emphasize that tribulation is a real part of Christianity. It is not a hypothetical. It's not
just in the book of Acts. It's not just for the apostle Paul's of this world. It's not just for
pastors of this world. As Pastor Mejia put it, I signed up for this when I became a Christian.
And so I think that's going to do it for us this evening. This has been a great show. You need to
check out Pastor Mejia. He's in the Los Angeles area. Specifically, I think it's Orange County
or the Anaheim area. Why don't you go ahead and plug your church for us so the listeners out there
can find you. Yeah, come pay us a visit. You can find us at 5223 East Orange Thorpe Avenue
here in Anaheim Hills, Orange County. And the address is on the website. Come pay us a visit.
We have services on Sunday, 1030 a.m. and then Sunday evening, 5 p.m. Thursday night, 7 p.m.
I do want to say this before we conclude. It's something that Brother Ben mentioned,
and I think this is so important that church members out there, you know, that you do support
your pastor, you know, throughout these trials and tribulations and persecutions.
I think it's important that you support him, you know, by literally encouraging them with words
or spending time with them. Honestly, I don't think that can be overemphasized just because
I remember those times when it was really difficult. And, you know, looking back and
seeing the support that I got from my church members, I loved my church members before,
but I love them so much more now. You know, they mean the world to me, and I'm so thankful for the
men in our church. Although I'm their pastor, like, I feel like that trial endeared my hearts to them.
Like, I love them so much more. I feel like I would take a bullet for them. And, you know,
don't let trials go to waste. You know, trials and tribulations are the best, is the best type of
environment to cultivate deep personal relationships with people. And we made some
memories with my church members that we'll never forget. You know, it endeared my heart to them
and endeared their hearts to me. And, you know, take advantage of that as church members. You know,
support your pastor, love your pastor, pray for him, be there for him, spend time with him,
be the mighty man for David, you know, that he needs. Be the zero-ayahs every once in a while
and just kind of tell them, "Hey, do you want me to go take off their heads? Is that what you want
me to go do?" I'm just kidding about that, sort of. But, you know, be a blessing to your pastor.
Yeah, spiritually, of course. You know, be that person who's there for your pastor,
that right-hand man, because it'll not only be a blessing to your pastor, but it'll be a blessing
to you because you build these really deep, deep relationships in the church. And I couldn't have
asked for a better church. I couldn't have asked for better church members. They're wonderful
people. And so take advantage of it. Well, those are some really encouraging words.
And I didn't even think about it, but it is a true benefit to go through these hardships
because the relationship bond that you create with other church members becomes that much more
tangible, real, and you have a deeper love, a deeper joy, and you can relive a lot of these
experiences. Well, that's going to end up doing it for us this evening. You can catch the Baptist
Bias on all kinds of podcasts, Apple, other podcasts. Ben, why don't you sign us out?
That's it for the show tonight. If you want to hear more from Pastor Mejia, FirstWorksBC,
subscribe on YouTube, FirstWorksBC. He proudly proclaimed Elsa's a whore. I agree 100%.
Folks, we'll talk to you guys again after a while.