Hey everybody, this is Pastor Jonathan Shelley from Stemfast Baptist Church, and I wanted
to make a response video to some videos that have been made about me, specifically from
a church just down the street, First Baptist Church of Watauga.
And the pastor, Dennis Hester, has decided to make several statements and issue videos
about our church and some of the things that we preached.
I figured we would just listen to his video, listen to what he had to say, and I could
just make some commentary.
I do want to make a few things clear.
We are an independent fundamental Baptist church.
I am the pastor of the church.
I do have one employee, my administrative assistant, Dylan Oz, who helps with some of
the preaching at our church.
Our church is King James only.
Our church believes salvation is by faith alone and the finished work of Jesus Christ.
And that once someone is saved, they are always saved.
We also have a lot of other very strong opinions on doctrine, but to us the most important
things are using the right Bible, using the Word of God, and making sure that you are
saved by faith.
So I want to go ahead and listen to this video and maybe pause it in a few places just to
give some feedback.
Good afternoon.
My name is Dennis Hester and I am the pastor here at First Baptist Church of Watauga, where
I've had the privilege of serving as a lead pastor for a little over 17 years now.
As we as a church have connected to the community, we've seen God move in a lot of ways, but
this week our hearts have been grieved and broken over some words that have been spoken
directed at our LGBTQ neighbors.
There were some vowel words and words of hatred, even calling for the execution of some in
the LGBT community from a new church start titled Steadfast Baptist.
And in all honesty, some have confused Steadfast Baptist with First Baptist Church of Watauga
and that's created a few issues for us, but of my greater concern is the very fact that
I believe that that message of hatred does not align with God's desire to communicate
and what he's communicated to us through his son, Jesus, when he sent his son to die for
us and for our sins.
In fact, I would say that we strongly disagree with the message and the tone that's been
released in some of the sermons recently.
In particular, a sermon from June the 5th that was preached by one of the pastors that
directly called for the execution of homosexuals or those who were a part of the LGBT community.
And though that was one sermon on one Sunday, this last Monday on June the 13th, that was
followed up by both that pastor and another of the pastors and other members at the Watauga
City Council meeting with similar calls for that kind of treatment of the LGBTQ community.
And certainly I do not believe that that is the message that Christ would have us deliver.
I don't believe that that is a message that honors Christ either.
And so my heart has been grieved and I have met with...
Now what's interesting about Pastor Hester's message here is he said that...
A few things here that I want to kind of correct.
He said that our church is a new start.
That's not true.
Our church actually was founded in 2014.
Additionally, our church has over 200 plus members that come to our church on a regular
basis.
So we've been a church for a very long time.
Probably not as long as probably his church, but it's not a new start.
Also he said that he was really grieved at some vile words that were preached at our
church and specifically he gave a mention here of the idea of the execution of homosexuals.
But what I don't understand is why that's considered so vile when in the Bible in Leviticus
2013, it literally says, if a man also lie with mankind as he lies with a woman, both
of them have committed an abomination.
They shall surely be put to death.
Their blood shall be upon them.
So that's what the Bible says in Leviticus 2013.
Does Pastor Hester think that Leviticus is vile?
Does he not like the words of the Bible?
He said this is not the message that Jesus would have communicated to us, but Jesus often
quoted from Leviticus.
One of the most famous quotes from the book of Leviticus by Jesus is to love thy neighbor
as thyself, which is actually found in Leviticus chapter number 19.
And if you look in the book of Leviticus in chapter 18 verse 22, or you look in Leviticus
20 verse 13, it's very clear it's condemning homosexuality, saying it's an abomination.
It does put the capital punishment on that particular sin.
And right in the middle of those two verses is what we know as love thy neighbor as thyself.
It's a very iconic verse, it's a very popular verse, and I think it's because it has a positive
message.
And of course the Bible has a lot of positive messages, a lot of good things to say, but
the Bible also has things that are considered negative, things that are clearly outlined
as punishments that the government would enact.
And so it's really perplexing to me why Pastor Hester is claiming that this is such a vile
word or a vile idea when it's simply coming from the Bible.
And even if you don't agree that that should even be the law today, how could you not at
least admit that that was the law for thousands of years in the Old Testament?
We have great kings like King Asa, and we have other kings who the Bible says did that
which is right in the eyes of the Lord.
King Hezekiah and they remove the Sodomites from the land, they break down their houses.
We see even in the New Testament though, in books like Romans chapter number one, bringing
up this topic, saying that they're worthy of death.
We have passages in the New Testament in 2 Peter chapter two, and in Jude chapter number
one, bringing up the fact that what they do is vile.
And saying these people are reprobate, the Bible says that these people are brute beasts,
these people are showing us an example unto those that after should live ungodly.
And obviously we're in the New Testament, Jude's in the New Testament, but God still
had the same attitude, God still had the same viewpoint towards Sodom and Gomorrah, from
Genesis all the way to the book of Jude, and of course, for eternity.
Because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
So I really don't understand what Pastor Hester is saying here is vile.
Because if he's saying that that idea or that concept is vile, he's really just saying that
the Bible is vile.
And in fact, that is what our founders in America have believed, that's what they had
as their loss.
There is an exact reprint of the laws of Connecticut of 1673 that our church has in its possession.
But you can even look this up, they literally had the law from Leviticus 2013, and would
even cite Romans 1 and some of the laws where they had the death penalty for homosexuality
in America, before the Constitution, during the Constitution, after the Constitution.
So for hundreds and hundreds of years in this great country, we had that particular statute.
So is Pastor Hester also saying that our founders were vile, that all of the Christians from
the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s also were vile?
And it was still a felony, it was still a criminal act for several decades beyond the
late 1800s.
It really wasn't until 2003, in the state of Texas, that the Supreme Court overturned
homosexuality as being a crime.
You can even look it up in the Texas Penal Code right now today, 21.06, homosexuality
is a crime.
And if that case were ever overturned, like Roe v. Wade or any of these other cases, then
homosexuality would still be a crime in the state of Texas.
So I'm not sure if Pastor Hester is suggesting that somehow the Texas Penal Code is vile,
if he's suggesting that the laws of America for hundreds of years are vile.
I don't know what it is that he believes is vile here.
I think that he perhaps maybe is just ignorant of the history of America, he's ignorant of
what the scriptures are actually teaching here, and he's ignorant of many things that
Jesus Christ said himself.
Jesus Christ quoted the Old Testament law in regards to the death penalty.
He said, who so cursed the father and mother, let him die the death.
And that is what Jesus Christ said while he was preaching to the Pharisees, preaching
to the disciples, preaching to all manner of people.
And it's confusing to me why so many Christians suggest the idea that the death penalty is
just vile or doesn't exist or that criminals shouldn't be punished.
I mean, you have books in the Bible like Romans chapter number 13, which gives the power and
authority to the government.
It literally teaches that they're the ministers of God to revenge and to execute judgment.
And it says that they bear not the sword in vain.
And the sword there is a clear picture of the death penalty for evildoers.
In the state of Texas, we have the death penalty for certain crimes.
I don't know if Pastor Hester is also saying that that is vile, if he believes all death
penalty and all criminal punishment is vile.
I don't know if Pastor Hester is saying that he wants the police to be eliminated or something,
that we shouldn't have any crimes, that we shouldn't have any government or we shouldn't
have any legal authority.
I would assume that's not what he's saying.
But if he is saying that we should have punishments like the death penalty, my question would
be, well, where do we decide what should be the punishment or who gets to determine which
crimes are worthy of that?
Why would we not look to the Bible?
Why would we not look to our history of America?
Why would we not say God is more wise and more understanding than us and allow him to
tell us what punishment should exist for human government?
Why would we let our emotions or our feelings determine what's right or wrong?
Why wouldn't we let the Bible itself tell us what is right and wrong?
And if Pastor Hester has a different view on Leviticus 20, 13, why didn't he just tell
us what that verse means since for hundreds of years, all Christians understood that and
believed it and put it straight into their law.
I want to play a little bit more of this clip before I go too far with this.
But I already am very confused as to why Pastor Hester thinks that what the Bible teaches
is so vile and then projects his anger or his grieve towards us when we're simply just
saying what the Word of God actually says.
Handful of other like-minded pastors as we have prayed for both the pastors and the leadership
of steadfast, but prayed for our LGBTQ neighbors.
In addition to the threats that have come from the sermon, there have also been threats
that came directly to the leadership and the pastors of steadfast baptism.
I don't believe that that is God's way either.
In fact, the love of God was put on display for us as he sent his son Jesus in his birth,
in his life, and through his death, certainly.
And because he loved us that much, he did so with truth and with grace.
And we believe that the only really good expression of who Jesus is, is to stand both on the biblical
truth but also to express that through grace the way that Christ did.
And so because of that, we cannot as a church deny what we believe God's design for sexuality
and for marriage and for family is.
I want to pause here for a second because Pastor Hester brings up the gospel.
He brings up the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And of course, this is the central theme of the Bible.
Everything in the Bible is centered around the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And we too believe that is the most important message.
And we're supposed to go out and preach the gospel.
We're supposed to warn people of the danger of hell.
And we're supposed to tell them that they should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for
salvation.
But that doesn't mean that there isn't other aspects of the Bible or life that are important.
And he's even bringing up the family.
He's bringing up marriage.
He's bringing up these other concepts that are very important.
And while the gospel is the most important thing that we can glean from the Bible, the
most important doctrine that we can teach and tell people, I don't understand why that
truth of the gospel is going to negate other teachings in scripture or negate what the
Bible says about the death penalty specifically.
You know, if someone's saved, if someone believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and they're on their
way to heaven, but they commit a crime worthy unto death, the Bible does not teach that
that person, just because they're saved spiritually, should be absolved of any kind of criminal
punishment or that they themselves could not be punished for their sins.
In fact, God makes it abundantly clear that he chases and scourges every son in whom
he receiveth.
And so God is still going to punish people for their actions regardless of their salvation,
regardless of, you know, if they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ or not.
And in fact, I would argue that those who are saved are typically going to get the harsher
punishments in this life because they won't go to hell.
Whereas those that are not saved will suffer a lot more in hell than they will on this
life because they're not even the children of God.
The Bible makes it clear that they're either lost or perhaps they're even a child of the
devil.
And here he also brought up how there's been violent threats towards our church and then
that we've threatened.
But here's the thing, we haven't threatened a single person.
My church is a very peaceful church, it's a loving church.
Our church members do not advocate violence or murder or any of these things that have
been slandered against us or lies about us.
Whereas the opposite side has vandalized our church multiple times.
They've threatened families and children while they're entering into their cars saying
horrible things.
They've doxed me and they've doxed my staff.
They post pictures of our house and of our phone numbers and of all of our information.
They drive by our houses and they follow us wherever we go.
They send us thousands of voicemails saying that they want to murder all of us, naming
specifically me, my wife, my children, my staff, our church members, saying all kinds
of things that they want to do, commit all kinds of crimes against us.
And Pastor Hester, in just a little quick brush, is just saying, oh, there's kind of
threats on both sides.
Number one, I have not threatened a single person.
I've simply said what the Bible said in regards to capital punishments.
And anybody that's a law abiding citizen is in no danger whatsoever.
Whereas what they're doing to us is very specific, named threats.
They show up on our front door.
And think about the logic of this.
If we're such a threatening church, if we're just this pro-violence church, why is it that
all these people are constantly coming right on our front doorstep and trying to provoke
us?
They're constantly trying to drive by our house and provoke us.
If they truly believe that we were dangerous or violent or going to hurt or harm somebody,
they would stay away from us.
They would be afraid of us.
They know that we're harmless as doves.
They know that we would not go outside of the law or take the law into our own hands.
Just like Jesus didn't take the law into his own hands, he didn't start throwing stones
at the woman caught in adultery.
That would have violated Roman law.
And then the Jews would have had a reason to accuse him.
And he would have been potentially criminally punished before the actual gospel.
And that would have ruined the whole gospel.
That's why Jesus came up with a clever way to rebuke the Pharisees by saying,
He that is without sin, let him first cast a stone at her.
But notice that Jesus still said to cast a stone at her.
Jesus didn't say, oh, the death penalty doesn't exist, or the death penalty is mean, or nobody
should ever be put to death for any reason, no matter if they're a serial killer or a
violent rapist or anything like this.
That's not the gospel message.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
And to just kind of brush over this with a stroke and equate what these people have
been doing to our church versus us just preaching sermons from the Bible is really just a categorical
error.
It's really just to be a hypocrite and not even be giving us a fair understanding of
what the real facts are of this case.
It's really just to kind of side with the other people and to try and suggest that,
oh, it's equivalent.
It's not equivalent whatsoever.
The Word of God is not equivalent with the threats of the sons of Belial.
But I want to keep playing here.
He'd also mention, oh, I want to mention one other thing.
He said how he had been praying with other church leaders.
And actually, I saw another video of a church leader from the Church of Nazarene across
the street.
And apparently, both this pastor of the Church of Nazarene and this Pastor Hester have formed
some kind of alliance or some kind of fellowship where they're praying together and hanging
out together.
But it's so funny to me that he brings up the gospel and he brings up the importance
of the Word of God.
And then he also in the same breath is saying that he's praying with this other pastor
of a denomination who does not believe that salvation is a free gift by faith.
The Church of Nazarene does not believe in faith alone for salvation.
They believe in works.
They believe that you also have to repent of your sins.
You have to turn from your sins, that you have to live a life that's essentially in
coordination with the Bible.
And in fact, if you don't, that you would lose your salvation.
So the Church of Nazarene does not teach the gospel according to the Bible.
They have a works-based salvation.
They are heretics in regards to the gospel message.
And it's confusing to me how Pastor Hester wants to have friendship with someone who
doesn't even believe the gospel, doesn't believe salvation by faith alone, doesn't
even believe in once saved, always saved.
That guy, it's okay for him to be buddies with him, but not a church that actually believes
salvation by faith, not a church that actually believes in the gospel.
And then he wants to get mad at us for preaching what the Bible literally said about capital
punishment.
This is hypocrisy at its finest.
This is ecumenicalism.
Ecumenicalism is where you're friends with the world, where you essentially join hands
with wicked people so as to keep peace or unity.
And we see this throughout the Bible.
We see good men of God making bad alliances, going, the kings of Judah or the kings of
Jerusalem going and making affinity with Egypt, or perhaps they go and join up with the northern
kings of Israel who are very wicked.
And in 2 Chronicles 19, one of the kings of Judah is rebuked for helping one of the kings
of Israel.
And it says,
So according to the Bible, you're not supposed to help the ungodly.
You're not supposed to love those that hate the Lord.
You're not supposed to go and side with the devil.
You're not supposed to be on the devil's team and try to get unity with the devil against
other brothers and sisters in Christ.
Even if that brother and sister in Christ was an error, even if they were doing something
wrong, it still makes no sense to join up or to yoke up with churches and pastors that
teach a false gospel because they're leading people to hell.
Why would I want to have any fellowship with that individual?
This really is just an egregious error that Pastor Hester is making here.
And it makes me question, does he even believe salvation by faith alone?
You know, the Southern Baptist Convention, if you look at their doctrinal statement,
they say that you have to repent of your sins or to genuinely turn away from all your sins
to be saved.
And I believe there's a lot of people in the Southern Baptist Convention that aren't even
saved.
They don't believe salvation by faith alone.
They believe in faith and works, and they believe that you have to turn from all your
sins, which is literally impossible.
The Bible never says that.
And so I would even question, what does Pastor Hester even believe on this subject when he's
yoking up and fellowshipping with people, with heretics that are clearly not Baptist
in doctrine by any stretch of the imagination?
That would not be loving.
That would not be standing on the truth.
But neither can we call for the extermination or the murder of those who are living outside
of God's design.
He says we can't call for the extermination or the murder.
Number one, I've never called for the murder of any person.
That's a lie about us.
And number two, you know, this word extermination is just being used to try and play on people's
heartstrings to make it sound weird or to sound bad.
You know, capital punishment, lawful execution is a biblical principle.
It's been taught from Genesis to Revelation.
We even have Noah getting off the ark.
God instituted the death penalty.
This is not some unloving thing that God is shying away from or doesn't like all of a
sudden.
The law of the Lord is perfect.
And so right here, he's saying, let's stand on biblical truth.
But he's not saying a biblical truth by hanging out with heretics.
He's not saying a biblical truth by bringing up.
I mean, is he really saying the death penalty is not even valid?
Does he not even realize that in the state of Texas in 2022, someone was literally put
to death in our state is Pastor Hester.
Did he get really mad about that?
Did he go out and protest or make videos about the fact that literally people in the state
of Texas have been put to death?
You know, I wonder if Pastor Hester voted for Rick Perry for governor because Rick Perry
in the state of Texas put more people to death during his term as governor of Texas
than most any other governor in our history.
You can look up the statistics.
He put several hundred people to death.
I'm wondering if Pastor Hester stood against Rick Perry and didn't vote for Rick Perry
back then, voted for the Democrat or something like that.
You know, I wonder if Pastor Hester is really even reconciling all of these contradictions
he keeps quoting and bringing up or straw man arguments.
I mean, the things that he's saying here make no sense to one out of one breath say, hey,
we're going to stand a biblical truth.
It's not loving to tell people things that aren't true.
But then at the same time, he's then saying things that aren't true and not really standing
on biblical truth again.
Well, let's keep listening.
And so our desire is to show the world as he is best shown through the New Testament.
In fact, Hebrews chapter one, verses one through three says that Jesus was God's express word
to us.
He was the full expression of who God is.
And it's in Christ in truth and in His grace that we see the best picture of who God is.
Because we believe that God's word is our standard for truth.
We cannot affirm here at First Baptist Church Watauga an argument for LGBTQ lifestyle, being
a part of God's design, whether that's argued from a biblical worldview or whether it's
argued from an atheistic worldview.
We believe that God designed man and woman to have a sexual relationship and for that
to be expressed through a relationship with one man and one woman who are in a committed
family relationship.
And in fact, a committed family relationship?
Does he not even believe that they have to be married?
That's a weird way to word that.
They should be married.
You can't just live together in a family relationship and that's right with God.
That's called fornication.
People need to actually be married.
Any expression of sexuality outside of that design of God, whether it's premarital sex
or whether it's adultery within a heterosexual lifestyle, both of those would be outside
of God's design for the family and for how we as humans express our sexuality.
Because of that, our commitment is to stand on God's word and hold to that truth that
God has created us, one man and one woman, to be joined together in a heterosexual relationship
in a way that honors him and builds the family.
And so even though...
Now, this is what's interesting to me.
Pastor Hester does say that the homosexual lifestyle is not biblical, it's not right,
that we shouldn't encourage it, promote it, or tell people that that's okay.
But here's my question.
What verses in the Bible is Pastor Hester basing that doctrine on?
Is he basing that doctrine on Leviticus 2013?
Is he basing it on Romans chapter number one?
Why doesn't he even bring up the verses that he's basing that doctrine on?
I would suggest he's probably not bringing up those verses because he would end up showing
himself to be a giant hypocrite for saying why homosexuality is wrong when he's saying
you can't have the death penalty.
But that's the verse he's actually basing that idea and that doctrine on.
And I don't know what verses he would bring up.
He didn't bring up any verses.
But to me, it's very clear why we have that doctrine.
We're just simply going to those actual verses and saying that we believe all the verse,
not just certain applications of it.
Even though we may have that disagreement,
as I prayed and sought God's direction through this,
one of my greatest concern is that the true picture of Christ be expressed in our community.
We've worked hard over 17 years to love our community through outreach efforts,
providing backpacks for children, providing gifts and food for families during the holidays,
and many other expressions of that love.
And in Scripture, that's exactly what we see.
We see Christ love expressed to those who are hurting.
In fact, Jesus withheld his harshest comments.
And in fact, his condemnation was really focused more on those religious zealots
who called for the destruction of those who had sinned.
Now, here's the thing.
Pastor Hester says that Jesus expressed a lot of love for people and that's what they do.
That sounds great.
He then brings up this religious zealots.
It's really just the Pharisees is what he's talking about.
And Jesus did have his harshest criticisms of the Pharisees,
but it goes beyond just a criticism.
In Matthew chapter number 23,
Jesus Christ literally says of these people that they're a child of hell.
The Bible tells us that they're the sons of the devil.
The Bible, Jesus Christ is saying, you're of your father, the devil.
Jesus Christ is saying that they could not believe in the book of John,
making it clear that these people were already reprobate.
They hated God in their heart.
They could never believe on Jesus Christ.
These people blaspheme the Holy Ghost.
So this group of people that he's calling religious zealots
are really just the ministers of the devil and of Satan specifically.
So let's make it clear that Jesus,
while he was loving towards many people in his ministry,
he had no love for the Pharisees and rebuked them openly,
calling them the children of devil and said,
how can they escape the damnation of hell?
So it's not like Jesus literally was loving and kind to every single person at all times.
That would be an unfair characteristic of Jesus Christ.
There were certain people who Jesus Christ did rebuke harshly.
And did not show any love or compassion towards.
And that was the Pharisees.
Now, he may have done it early in his ministry,
but after they had showed themselves to be unworthy of that compassion,
unworthy of the love of God, and they rejected Jesus over and over.
Jesus finally got done with those people and rejected them back
and basically made it clear that they could never get saved.
They were going to go to hell
and that they were making one proselyte twofold more the child of hell than themselves.
Whether it was in a large crowd or whether it was individuals who were brought before Jesus,
I'm reminded of Jesus standing on a mountaintop after he had spent days healing and loving on
people and preaching the good news of the kingdom.
And he looked over the people and the scripture says that as he saw the crowds,
he was moved with compassion because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
And he called on his disciples to pray that the Lord would raise up laborers under the harvest,
that they might provide leadership and provide a shepherd for those who were hurting.
When individuals were brought before Jesus, John chapter 8,
we see the story of the woman who was caught in adultery and a group of religious zealots who
encircled her and they came and they declared what she had done and demanded that she be stoned.
And Jesus just simply very quietly stood and looked at those religious men and said,
the one who's without sin, you cast the first stone.
Of course, those men, one by one, starting with the oldest, dropped their stones and walked away.
Jesus had words of both compassion and truth for that woman.
He looked at her with compassion in his eyes and said, who condemns you?
She looked around and said, no one.
He said, neither do I, but go and send no more.
That's really the best picture of where we stand.
We come with compassion and love, even for those with whom we disagree,
with whom we have a different worldview or we don't agree on lifestyle or politics.
Our desire here at First Baptist Church, we'll talk of my desire as pastor,
and I know that many of the other pastors here in the community,
is to show that picture of Jesus, both a picture of truth standing firmly on the Word of God and
what God's design was for marriage, but also to stand on the side of love.
In fact, now here's the thing.
Pastor Hester brings up the story of the woman caught in adultery.
And the Bible makes it abundantly clear in John chapter number eight,
that the Jews were trying to tempt Jesus,
that they were trying to trap him with this particular part of the law.
And the reason why they were trying to trap him is because the Jews hated Jesus.
They wanted to destroy Jesus.
It had nothing to do with the Jews' desire for this woman to be put to death.
That's a straw man argument that Pastor Hester is bringing up,
like these people just really want to kill this woman or something like that.
That couldn't be further from the truth, because in fact, in other portions of the Gospels,
when Jesus Christ is rebuking the Pharisees,
he says that Moses had told them to honor thy father and thy mother.
And it said, Whosoever curses father, mother, let him die the death.
The Jews had rejected that commandment for their tradition of just saying raka or not,
sorry, not saying raka.
The Jews had rejected that for saying it as a gift as Corban,
and essentially not honoring their father and mother and not believing in the Bible.
Some people have this weird idea that the Pharisees believe the law strictly,
but the Pharisees were actually very liberal in their theology.
They didn't actually believe any of the commandments.
And Jesus was constantly trying to remind them and instruct them
that they should have believed Moses, that they should have believed in the law,
that they should have had an actual proper interpretation of the scripture.
And even this woman who's caught in adultery,
Jesus Christ did not say there is no death penalty again.
I've already said this, but Jesus said, you know, to cast a stone at her.
Now he put a condition on that that no one could fulfill except for himself.
And it's very clear that Jesus' purpose to coming to this earth the first time
was not to condemn a single person.
Jesus didn't condemn anyone.
He came to save the world.
And so, of course, it makes no sense in Jesus Christ's ministry
to go around and condemning people.
If he had done that, everybody would have gone to hell, that I didn't already believe in him.
No, Jesus came to save, to seek and save that which is lost.
Jesus Christ clearly had compassion in this woman and even myself included.
Well, I do believe that all the capital punishments of the Old Testament
should still be the law of the day, including things like adultery.
Since we don't have that law in America today,
if someone were in the sin of adultery, you know, while that's a very grievous sin
and they should be rebuked for that sin, we can still have love towards that person,
compassion towards that person, and wish that they get saved.
But to equivalent adultery here with the sin of homosexuality is a false dichotomy
because there is a difference between adultery and homosexuality
in the sense that the Bible teaches that adultery is still a natural sin,
it's still a natural temptation,
whereas homosexuality is a vile affection, something that's not natural.
And the reason why these two are different is because homosexuality is a result or consequence
of someone hating Jesus and never wanting to believe in Jesus Christ.
Whereas adultery is just simply giving yourself over to the flesh
and just allowing yourself to sin a very natural sin.
And so it's more normal to want to give compassion towards those people
who still have a chance to even get saved.
It does not make sense, though, to give compassion or love
to those who are already the children of the devil,
to those who are the tares sown amongst the wheat,
to those who have rejected God over and over and their hearts been hardened,
they become reprobate in their mind, and they don't even want to attain God in their knowledge.
You know, it does not make sense to try and get that person saved.
But even in this message, we have Pastor Hester bringing up
what I would consider just a straw man argument.
I'm not sitting here saying that we can't have compassion on people
that disagree with our politics or people that disagree with certain lifestyle choices.
We're talking about criminal punishment that should be for all people,
regardless of their politics.
And we're talking about the difference between someone being able to get saved
and someone not being able to get saved.
You know, the Bible teaches those who blaspheme the Holy Ghost can't get saved.
The Bible teaches those who take the mark of the beast cannot get saved.
Those who tamper with God's word, they can have their name
blotted out of the Book of Life.
And in fact, the Bible also teaches those that reject God over and over,
they can get to a point where they become reprobate,
just like Pharaoh hardened his heart over and over and then God hardened his heart.
Just like other wicked evil individuals throughout the scripture,
Cain, Balaam, these people are mentioned in the New Testament
as being of the wicked one, being of the devil.
The Bible tells us that there are ministers of the devil.
And really, if you're going to tell me that everyone can be saved,
do you think the devil can get saved?
Are you trying to minister to Satan himself?
Are you trying to minister to the children of the devil?
I mean, this is not a consistent, logical idea.
And even if you disagree with me, why would you tell me
to try and minister to someone that's a son of the devil?
If I'm correct, if someone is truly the son of the devil,
why would I try to minister to that person and try to get that person saved
or even invite them into my church?
That doesn't make sense.
Just like Jesus did not minister to have compassion towards the Pharisees.
The Pharisees had already proven themselves to be reprobate,
to be children of the devil, and they are the enemies.
You know, according to Pastor Hester's doctrine,
he almost makes it where there is no enemy.
There is no one that's against us.
You know, what does Jude chapter one even mean
when it says that we're supposed to earnestly contend for the faith?
You know, who is it that we're contending against?
Who are the ministers of the devil?
Who are the tares amongst the weak?
You know, he is providing almost no one because he's joining up with pastors
that don't even believe the gospel, who I would suggest are ministers of the devil.
He's joining up with those that say horrible things like God is a freak.
They say that, you know, blasphemous things about Jesus.
They say they hate God.
They say that they want to kill all Christians.
I mean, this is that kind of group that he's suggesting that we should have compassion for.
And I will suggest to you that there's a major difference
between people that hate God, want to kill all Christians,
or just have this evil attitude towards everything about God
and someone that just commits adultery.
You know, while they're both grievous sins,
you know, one is for a completely different reason than the other.
One's a selfish sin.
The other sin is a result or consequence of just a hatred,
a desire to have nothing to do with God himself.
And for those people, once you've come to the conclusion
that that's that type of person, that they don't want to hear the gospel
and they don't want to get saved, move on.
You know, you don't want to just sit here and waste time on people
that aren't interested in the gospel.
But Pastor Hester doesn't have that viewpoint.
He just pretty much rejects this doctrine that's been taught for hundreds of years
and negates all of historical evidence to suggest that no Christian,
you know, from even the founding fathers
or even all kinds of different denominations,
thought that everyone is on their team, that everyone is good.
In fact, the greatest expression of God's love for anyone
and for everyone was found in Jesus himself.
Romans chapter 5, the Apostle Paul says that God demonstrated his love for all of us,
that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
If you want a picture of how much God loves a sinner,
don't look to the words coming from the pulpit at steadfast Baptist.
Look to the words of Jesus.
Look to the words of scripture.
Look to Jesus when he said,
for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,
that whosoever believe in him would have everlasting life.
I have published a full statement concerning my heart here out online.
Let me just read the last couple paragraphs of that as I end this.
We do not believe that the compassionate love of Jesus
was on display in the city council meeting
or in the recent sermons that I mentioned above.
We reject the message espoused on these occasions
and believe that they really are a gross misrepresentation of God's message
that was delivered and demonstrated by his son in scripture.
Though we would likely disagree with many theological, philosophical,
and lifestyle issues with our LGBTQ neighbors,
our desire will always be to show love and compassion
as fellow sojourners in this world.
Understanding this, some will not agree with our beliefs or our message,
but we welcome all to worship and to learn what we hold to be true
from God's word by joining us in worship or Bible study on any given Sunday.
So God bless you and I pray that in the coming weeks,
even days or hours, that you get to see the love of God expressed in your life.
So Pastor Hester again brings up the gospel.
And of course, the Bible teaches Jesus Christ died for every single person.
We believe that.
And whether someone believes in Jesus or not, he is their savior.
He's their only savior.
He's the only way to heaven.
And that's what we believe.
That's what we want everyone to come to the knowledge of the truth.
But there are some people that have not faith.
The Bible says deliver us from unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not faith.
And Pastor Hester here is just literally just railing on us and slandering us
by saying that we don't show love when we go to the city council
and try to tell them what the Bible says.
Now, here's the thing.
Anybody that's paying attention has to realize that children
are being trafficked in this country in exponential numbers than ever in our history.
We see all kinds of grooming.
We see all kinds of molestation.
We see all kinds of crazy things happening in public schools, in the libraries.
We see companies having this major push for these drag queen events with children coming to them.
We have people trying to do that at our church,
trying to expose children to anything wicked or any kind of filthy thing.
And by us trying to say, hey, that's not appropriate.
Hey, this should be stopped.
We should take a biblical approach to this.
How is that not loving towards the children that are getting molested,
whether it's through their mind or their eyes or their ears or even just physically?
Does Pastor Hester have no compassion on the children that are constantly being subjected
to this evil, that's constantly being subjected to what these people are doing to them?
I mean, he doesn't provide any solution.
He doesn't provide any answer to this evil.
He doesn't suggest that these people should be stopped
or that they're even possibly even responsible for any of this molestation that's going on.
Maybe it makes sense why the Southern Baptist Convention
recently had a lot of articles come out about it,
that there's a lot of child molesters and predators in their ranks, within their leadership.
You know, anybody that ever committed a sin or crime like that
should be put to death, a child molester should be put to death,
and they should be rejected from leadership,
not passed around to the next Southern Baptist Church,
and certainly not welcomed into the church.
Pastor Hester is saying that these people, he's saying that, you know, trannies,
transvestites are welcome to his church.
He's saying that, you know, some of the people out here are literally just completely
exposing the upper parts of their body.
Women are exposing the upper parts of their body.
He's wanting those people to come to his church.
He's wanting men dressed like women to come and worship, quote unquote,
with the families and the children of their church,
for topless women to go and to worship with his church,
for people that hate God and hate the Bible and want nothing to do with God.
He wants those people, I mean, does he not even believe in church discipline?
I mean, 1 Corinthians 5 makes it clear that not everybody's welcome in church.
You know, it just seems like Pastor Hester here has a very hypocritical view,
and it makes me nervous for his church.
If he's partnering up with people that don't even believe the gospel correctly,
like this pastor of the Nazarene Church,
if he is suggesting that these groomers, these transvestites and homosexuals are welcome
into his church, where he doesn't even exercise church discipline, apparently,
I mean, I would be fearful to take my little child into a church that is saying,
yes, a transvestite can sit right next to your children, right next to your family.
I don't even know if they have standards on who could be their Sunday school teacher,
or who could be teaching in their church.
I mean, this is appalling.
This is so grotesque.
I mean, the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 5,
the guy that was committing fornication with his father's wife should be cast out of the church,
that it was a sin that even made the world blush.
It was so wicked.
I can't even imagine at the extremity that our culture is coming to,
and churches are welcoming those type of people into their doors,
welcoming people to sit in the pews of their church.
I mean, why would I try to worship God with the wicked?
You know, the Bible says I've hated the congregation of evildoers,
and in the book of Psalms.
And it seems to me that the word hate has been erased from Pastor Hester's Bible.
But I'm telling you, the King James Bible has the word hate in it.
The Bible says it's a time to love and a time to hate.
I would question if Pastor Hester hates anything,
but here's the thing, by him welcoming those people in, he does hate children.
He hates the gospel if he's going to have partnership and fellowship
with heretics and people that don't even believe the gospel.
And I don't necessarily respond to everybody that talks about me,
but I felt like it's important to make a response video to this,
and to make it clear that this guy is in some serious error,
serious heresy when it comes to some of his doctrinal viewpoints.
He's being very ecumenical.
And, you know, I would encourage people to, you know,
beware of a church that's going to invite predators into their church.
He's not King James only.
So, of course, you know, if you like verses being taken out of your Bible,
like the NIV, then, you know, you might, I guess, ignore lots of parts of the Bible too.
Ignore Leviticus and ignore the times when Jesus Christ brought up the death penalty,
and ignore the fact that the Apostle Paul said if he had committed any crime worthy of death,
he refused not to die in the book of Acts.
But, you know, let the reader decide for himself.
Pull a Bible off your shelf, read the book of Leviticus,
and then tell me that the death penalty is unloving,
or tell me that God doesn't want the death penalty to be a part of our culture.
That would be someone who really just doesn't believe the Bible.
And so, I hope that this video could be a blessing to you.
If you are interested, you could always visit our website, sbckjv.com.
It'll take you to our website, and there's a preaching tab.
You could listen to the sermons of our church.
A lot of times social media takes them down, but you could still listen to the MP3.
Also, you could visit our church.
We would always love for you to come and hear the Word of God being preached,
and to actually stand on biblical truth, and not let man tell us what to believe.
God bless, and have a good day.