Tag: greg laurie

Pastor Greg Laurie Has COVID-19

According to New Yorker’s Olivia Nuzzi, Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California has COVID-19.

I don’t think we know the fall out from that prayer march or the Amy Coney Barrett coming out party. Unmasked evangelicals may or may not decide there is a pandemic after these next few days go by.

I believe Greg Laurie is standing unmasked behind Michael W. Smith who is at the piano.

There are many people there who need to get a test.

Greg Laurie made an announcement for social media. His Facebook announcement is here and the twitter video is below.


On Facebook, Laurie said:

I tested positive for COVID-19 last Friday. I have been in quarantine since then. I am happy to report that all members of my family have tested negative for COVID. My symptoms have been mild so far, and I expect to make a full recovery. I have always taken the Coronavirus seriously, and it has tragically taken many lives.

Laurie has taken the virus more seriously than say, John MacArthur. However, why is he in the middle of 50,000 mostly unmasked people singing without a mask? If he was taking it as seriously as he should have been, he would not have been there.

Now Evangelicals Leaders Want to Preach the Gospel

Giddy with power, evangelicals leaders who brought us Donald Trump now want to turn the page on the nightmare that was the 2016 campaign. Greg Laurie started a call for Christians to ignore the bad news all around us with Franklin Graham, Eric Metaxas, James Dobson and other Trump (and some never-Trumps) supporters signing on.

The Year of Good News
In a time of bad news, distracting news, divisive news, disorderly news, and, sometimes, depressing news we—as Christians and as leaders—want to recommit ourselves to making sure that the Good News of Jesus cuts through it all. We call upon Christians in America to make 2017 “The Year of Good News.”

The first month of the Trump administration has been chaotic with assaults on basic liberties, including religious freedom. After a year of telling people in the pews that they need to get involved in politics to elect Donald Trump, now these leaders are telling us we need to rise above politics.

Therefore, we commit to preach louder than our nation’s politics, and we aim to make the message of Jesus Christ transcend the monopoly of our media. We confess our only hope of unity is on the level ground at the foot of the cross of Jesus, and our only hope of healing is in the victory achieved through his empty tomb.

Reactions to the Religious News Service article about the effort are worth looking at.

I guess having the Executive branch of the US government working on your behalf and special interests would be good news to you. Not such good news for the rest of us citizens.
This doesn’t sound right: Fellow believers are to “make 2017 the ‘Year of Good News'” – why again? Let’s all proclaim “the Good News that God loved us so much He sent His Son to this earth on a rescue mission” – for what compelling reason? It’s all because of: “the monopoly of our media … fake news, distracting news, divisive news, disorderly news, and, sometimes, depressing news … the divisions and distractions dividing our nation and disorienting our culture … our political, racial, and cultural divisions”?! (Harvest Christian Fellowship, Feb. 28, 2017)
No, thanks, I don’t do it for political reasons, or out of political motivation – post-election time! Who do they think they are?!

Now I am waiting for these leaders to tell Trump that they don’t want the Johnson Amendment eliminated. If they are going to focus on the Gospel, then no need to intertwine the Gospel with politics is there?
So now that they won, they want the rest of us to ignore the consequences. I suppose I would too.
The initial signers:

  • Greg Laurie – Pastor, Harvest Christian Fellowship
  • Cathe Laurie – Speaker, Author
  • Franklin Graham – Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
  • Al Mohler – President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
  • Anne Graham Lotz – Author
  • James Dobson – Author, Family Talk with James Dobson
  • Jack Graham – Pastor, Prestonwood Church
  • Steve Gaines – President, Southern Baptist Convention
  • David Jeremiah – Pastor, Shadow Mountain Community Church
  • Chris Tomlin – Musician, Songwriter
  • Max Lucado – Author
  • Russell Moore – President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
  • James MacDonald – Founder and Senior Pastor, Harvest Bible Chapel
  • George Wood – General Superintendent, Assemblies of God
  • Eric Metaxas – Author, Speaker, Radio Host
  • Kevin Ezell – President, North American Mission Board (NAMB)
  • Robert Morris – Pastor, Gateway Church
  • Ronnie Floyd – Senior Pastor, Cross Church
  • Joe Focht – Senior Pastor, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia
  • Brian Brodersen – Senior Pastor, Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa
  • Joel Rosenberg – Author
  • Levi Lusko – Pastor, Fresh Life Church
  • OS Hawkins – President, Guidestone Financial Resources
  • Randy Alcorn – Author
  • Willie Jordan – Cofounder and President, Fred Jordan Missions
  • Rev. Samuel Rodriguez – President, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference
  • Skip Heitzig – Founder and Senior Pastor, Calvary of Albuquerque

Is the world about to end?

Preachers gonna preach.

Greg Laurie, who is probably a really nice guy, told his congregation that the 2nd coming is coming sooner than later. He thinks so due to…

…the dramatic escalation of global wars and terrorism, the push for unity or globalism, the change in world economics toward a cashless society, the unprecedented increase of killer earthquakes, and false teaching permeating the church.

I am not a historian but I bet there isn’t a dramatic escalation of wars. I suppose there could be a push for globalism but for sure, there are some countries who are going to hold out on the We Are the World remake. False teaching has been with us from the beginning; but what about those earthquakes?

The US Geological Survey must get that question a lot (Are there more earthquakes now?) because they have a page about it here.

We continue to be asked by many people throughout the world if earthquakes are on the increase. Although it may seem that we are having more earthquakes, earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or greater have remained fairly constant.

A partial explanation may lie in the fact that in the last twenty years, we have definitely had an increase in the number of earthquakes we have been able to locate each year. This is because of the tremendous increase in the number of seismograph stations in the world and the many improvements in global communications. In 1931, there were about 350 stations operating in the world; today, there are more than 8,000 stations and the data now comes in rapidly from these stations by electronic mail, internet and satellite. This increase in the number of stations and the more timely receipt of data has allowed us and other seismological centers to locate earthquakes more rapidly and to locate many small earthquakes which were undetected in earlier years. The NEIC now locates about 20,000 earthquakes each year or approximately 50 per day. Also, because of the improvements in communications and the increased interest in the environment and natural disasters, the public now learns about more earthquakes.

According to long-term records (since about 1900), we expect about 17 major earthquakes (7.0 – 7.9) and one great earthquake (8.0 or above) in any given year.

Vivid events can produce illusory correlations and in this case it appears that a perception of increase is based on better recording of earthquakes rather than an increase in the actual frequency.

Besides NASA says we are all safe…