Satan just made the most emphatic statement I have seen in my lifetime. I have been in the ministry 50 years and nothing else approaches this. And, it’s not just what Satan did—it’s where he did it.
In the birthplace of the Jesus movement—in the region where Chuck Smith launched Calvary Chapel—in the home of Melodyland Christian Center, and my pastor Ralph Wilkerson—in the place where Trinity Broadcasting and Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship were headquartered…Satan finally did it.
Greg Laurie’s annual SoCal Harvest reaches out to hundreds of thousands of people. This year is the 29th anniversary of SoCal Harvest, making it the longest-running large-scale evangelistic event in America’s history.
The crusade typically draws 90,000 to 100,000 people, all of whom get a chance to hear the gospel.
As John Collins, Harvest Executive Director said, “We typically have about 9,000 to 10,000 people make a profession of faith,” Collins shared. “That’s 9- or 10,000 people coming forward and saying, ‘I want to know more about what it means to be a Christian. I want to give my life to Christ. I want to rededicate my life to Christ.'”
For the first time in history, they were ordered to take down their posters. CBN News reports, “Evangelist Greg Laurie has been forced to take down a series of billboards depicting him holding a Bible, advertising his upcoming “Harvest” outreach. The ads had been posted at a popular mall in Southern California.
Laurie and Harvest Crusade contracted Irvine Company, a real estate company in Southern California, to advertise the upcoming SoCal Harvest. The event will be held August 17-19 at Angel Stadium and is expected to draw tens of thousands of people. The company agreed to post large billboards promoting the crusade at Fashion Island, a prestigious outdoor mall in the center of Orange County.
However, after claiming the religious imagery on the ads provoked multiple complaints, including a “serious threat,” the Irvine Company mandated the billboards be modified. Harvest complied with the request and resubmitted new ad artwork without the image of the Bible. Ultimately, however, the changes were not enough to resolve the situation as the Irvine Company decided to completely remove all the advertisements and billboards for the crusade.
‘There was nothing overtly religious about it,’ John Collins, Harvest Executive Director told CBN News.
The Bible depicted in Laurie’s hand did not have a cross, religious symbols, or even the word ‘Bible’ on it.
‘We changed it to a more simplified ad that simply said ‘Harvest,’ giving the dates and some of the musical artists that are going to be with us. Then they came back and said they just wanted the ads completely removed and they refunded us,’ he explained.”
We feel it is just unfortunate that people are complaining,” he emphasized. “It’s sad that our culture is at this degree of intolerance…There’s such intolerance against Christianity that we aren’t allowed to state that or to publicly advertise this event. That’s amazing.”
The devil announced today that the culture of Orange County with a rich history of Christian faith has totally changed and will no longer tolerate the church. Beloved, they thought I was crazy when I began blogging warnings to the church that this was coming. Now it’s here, in all its hideous glory. And don’t tell me I am overreacting.
You need to wake up to the reality that we have crossed a very dark and evil threshold. Now, in any city where there is a crusade, someone can make a call and shut down soul winning.
If they can ban posters, what’s to stop them from banning arenas, television time or even churches renting schools?
The Irvine Company’s excuse does not pass the smell test. There is an undercurrent of animus toward Christianity in California. Today, with this act of censorship, California is announcing that we are now the underground church.
Satan did it here because it is the birthplace the Jesus Movement. He is making a statement.
The preachers of the Golden State should unify behind the SoCal Harvest. But that is only the beginning. There should be white hot outrage.
Face it! We are not good at boycotts. The proof lies in the fact that the Irvine Company felt no fear of a backlash even though millions of Christians live, work and buy products in Southern California. Wake up church!
So Sad we have went to sleep, and sit by in our passiveness and allowed the enemy to take over with out even a fight, preacher’s have said Jesus did it all we don’t have to do nothing but believe him and his word, YEAH RIGHT NOW TRY PUTTING IT INTO ACTION, word’s with out action don’t mean very much, THE WHOLE REASON THE BIBLE SAY’S IT IS FOR YOU TO TAKE ACTION, IF THE ENEMY PLACE’S SICKNESS ON YOU AND YOU JUST SIT BACK AND SAY OH JESUS DID IT ALL, AND DON’T FIGHT WITH THE WORD AND REBUKE THAT SICKNESS YOU WILL DIE, IT CALL’S FOR A REACTION ON OUR PART, PICK UP YOUR SWORD AND FIGHT, I am so sick of this modern day passive we don’t have to do any thing hippie peace love man, God is Love we just get to sit on a beach and sip our favorite drink, and take in the sun, nothing can harm us, we are special, yeah so special we have given up the POWER AND AUTHORITY JESUS PAID THE PRICE TO GIVE US BACK, THAT ADAM LOST AND WE JUST SIT BACK AND GIVE IT TO THE ENEMY AGAIN, MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON OUR SOUL’S, WE BETTER WAKE UP BEFORE WE LOSE EVERY THING, THE APOSTLE’S GAVE THERE LIVE’S FOR THE SAKE OF THE GOSPEL, THEY WOULDN’T SHUT UP EVEN WHEN IT MEANT DEATH, AND YET WE GIVE UP, IF THEY JUST TALK ABOUT US, IF THEY EVEN STARTED, SOME DON’T EVEN KNOW THERE’S A BATTLE TO BE FAUGHT, WE HAVE GONE TO SLEEP AND IT’S PAYDAY, NOW YOU FIGHT OR LOSE COMPLETELY. Be Blessed brother, for we are fighting and trying, and we will do our part.
Agree, we must fight and I notice Facebook is making it hard to share and comment on Christian or Republican posts! Mad , we must fight against this!
You’re right, nothing I post on Facebook, other than comments, shows up on my timeline. They’ve locked it down completely for sharing any websites or information
Excellent post. I agree with every word you said. We must not sit passively by and allow the enemy free rein. NOW is the time to fight.
Amen!
Please this to my G MAIL,
LIGHTHOUSE 121112@G MAIL.COM
Wow!!
This is stunning in its implications. If this is allowed to stand, what will they get away with banning next in this wicked state? In any state? Pastor Mario is right-the pastors had better speak out loud and clear, and bad together now. If they don’t do it now, we’re farther down into the pit than we even imagined. But not just pastors have to speak up. If you call yourself a Christian, you had better wake up and stand up now. The hour is late.
I think you should appeal this in court and let the favor of God be with you if half dressed men and woman can be plastered all over the place which we as belivers do not want to see then they can handle a man holding a bible we have the same rights in this country as heathens and more with the hand of God on our side. Also, how can they exspect for pepole to know of an event if it is not posted unrelistic to even ask such a thing. If other religion can have there signs up every place then so can we take them to court and sew those non believers. We are the children of God and we are his blessed. God speed be with you.
California *WILL* be judged for its hatred of Jesus, Jehovah and the Bible…
Escape will not be possible when My Daddy rolls up His sleeves!
There’s no point just complaining about it here.
Drop a polite but assertive email to the company at the email address below and hold them to account for their anti-Christian bigotry.
As a private company they have the legal right to do this, but as consumers you also have the right to inform them you will no longer be supporting their retailers.
webmaster@irvinecompany.com
Mario is *NOT* complaining! He is issuing a call to arms!
As Petra has sung ‘Get on Your Knees and Fight like men’ and women of Jehovah!
You are right that large corporations have the legal right and are immune to a few folks here and there complaining to them. A nice letter, though, no matter how forceful and well written will fall on deaf ears and (not) be seen by blind eyes.
No, only Jehovah can get their attention. And, He has given us, His People, the Authority to declare WAR in the Heavenlies which He will respond to. And, as Pastor Cho shared the 3 dimensions we live in are subsumed by the Spiritual Dimension. If we will fight in the Spiritual Dimension we will see change in the Physical World.
But, lazy doubting “christians” do not fight in prayer any more. All they can utter is que sera sera, what ever will be will be, prayers.
Gentlemen your disregard for Christian Crusades and your total intolerance speaks volumes to me about you and I will not be needing any of your products and services.
What “intolerance” Betty?? You mean intolerance of censorship? Sorry, I’m trying to understand what you’re saying.
Tragically, we, the body of Christ, have often taken our religious freedoms for granted in the United States. Doing so, we have allowed those freedoms to erode, often under the guise of false narratives related to the “separation of church and state,” a term not found in the First Amendment of our Constitution. Rather, President Jefferson allayed the fears of the Danbury Connecticut Baptists in 1802 by insuring them that a wall of separation prevented the state (government) from infringing upon their religious freedoms. The Supreme Court supported Jefferson’s view until 1947, when, in “Everson v. Board of Education,” it began curtailing our religious freedoms by using the idea of “separation” in the opposite manner it had been used for 145 years. Further SCOTUS decisions continued the erosion (i.e. “Engel v. Vitale” in 1962; “Abington v. Schemp” in 1963; “Stone v. Graham” in 1980). Such decisions aided and abetted ongoing efforts to secularize our public schools. They also furthered the aspirations of secularists and historical revisionists to remove from our national consciousness the knowledge of how a biblical worldview was integral to our nation’s founding and development. Attending such schools, our children have been indoctrinated with a secular worldview, making them complicit pawns in the complete secularization of our nation. Meanwhile, the body of Christ has been largely oblivious to the disintegration of their religious freedoms. Focusing now on the body of Christ, a line from an old song comes to mind, “When you gonna wake up?” If we don’t wake up, recognizing that a spiritual battle rages about us (Eph. 6:12), we will continue to see our freedoms disentigrate. Or, we can wake up, allow God to familiarize us with the nature of the spiritual battle about us, instiling in us the knowledge of effective warfare and how to curtail the erosion of our religious freedoms. The choice is ours. May we choose wisely.
The prophetic Words written and spoken by David Wilkerson are fully manifesting in these days. We have no one to blame but ourselves. God gave us His Word and men who preached it,in totality,we refused to listen. Hosea 4:6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,BECAUSE YOU have REJECTED KNOWLEDGE…..
We chose instead to yet again believe the lie “you will surely not die”Gen.3
The Word of God never changes.God’s mercy has kept us thus far and His foundation is firm.Let those who name the name of Christ depart from iniquity!
2Tim.2:19. We are in a spiritual battle,we better learn to fight ,God’s way. You can’t do battle with a dull sword, the sword of the Spirit,the Word of God!! We are told to “Put on the whole armour of God” Eph.6
Wake up o sleeper, I say wake up, and arise from your slumber before the eventual and sure strong man will over take you, and render you powerless and ineffective in this world of darkness!
Ichabod California. Where demons are loved, Jesus is hated. Reprobate minds rule the state.
Well some of us refuse to throw in the towel.
We Engage!!
Time to get the megaphone and go to Anaheim.
Time to mobilize and go door to door in California sharing our testimonies and having personal alter calls on the doorsteps where folks live.
The enemy can not stop us from soul winning.
They are operating within the world systems where the devil has control. It should be expected! Now what to we do, fight against flesh and blood? This is exactly what the devil wants. He wants to get us off our ground in Christ!
Dr. Corse is right.
A persecuted church is a church on fire! The lukewarm will either get lit or fall away. God will show up in power, people will get saved and revival will break out.
This could be the best thing that could have happened. If the news feeds pick it up that’s free advertising. People who would never see a billboard will see feeds on FB, reports on the nightly news and this could go national or international. Bench warmers will finally see it’s time to mobilize.
God will use this for good, because we love Him and are called according to His purpose.
Wake up church! The HARVEST is white.
Ohhh Mario…its finally started the violent network of socialist behavior and tactics. Isn’t that the typical way the enemy operates? Satan takes a large US state a highly populated state, a picturesquely beautiful state, where the Lord God Himself moved mightily on several occasions throughout recent modern history. Then the devil encourages those who are willing to agree with his smarmy cause, to defile the atmosphere, satan does this ‘because’ that’s the place where God moved so strongly before. Its a spiritual Turf War between The King of kings and Lucifer, I remember what my old Pastor Mike Purkey used too say…” The devil is a liar!!”
Here’s the GOOD News!
Mario – due to your fresh fire preaching and inspiration some 30 years ago, I never missed the crusades you’d hold at my dear friends Tommy & Maria Barnett’s church. You held the fresh fire back in the 80’s and held onto it clear from back in the 60’s & 70’s when you helped make the Jesus movement MOVE.
As well, Pastor Greg Laurie as fabulous as he is, was another one who Christ greatly used in my life similar to you Mario. IN fact I venture to say that you “2” are the most anointed evangelists of our era.
I have you both as my preferred ministry links on my video website and I share what you both have inspired me with, to over 292,000 viewers globally that come directly to my web location as we speak. Additionally, according to my stats & URL stats over the last 10 months the most highly viewed US state by region on my site was ‘California.’ So I know they’re seekers of The Truth and biblical scripture because my target & appeal audience is not usually directed at Christians, but anybody. I carry both of your (links, blog posts, Youtube sermons, and website info)…God will move people for Greg Laurie’s Harvest crusade, just as he moved people for your Huston and Las Vegas crusades. But I wanted to let you know Mario you’ve got people all over the world from Madagascar to Fiji, to the Marshall Island to Russia, to Brunei, to Iceland, to New York, London and little LA that are looking and hearing me and you and Greg everyday, in Jesus Name.
Carolina
http://www.vimeo.com/carolinausa
https://vimeo.com/channels/4him4u
PS…Mario and Bloggers,
I just received this article from Franklin Graham asking for prayer, its the same thing secular humanists refusing any banner advertisement.
https://billygraham.org/story/franklin-graham-pray-for-boldness-amid-opposition-in-blackpool-england/comment-page-1/#comment-1688942
This seems to be a global spiritual attack against Christ’s Beloved people’s outreach.
Last days…last chances…
Not the “last days.” We’re in the last HOUR! And God’s people better start recognizing things like His Sabbath and His Feasts! They don’t belong to just the Jews, they are for EVERYONE who loves the Lord! Yeshua said, “take My yoke upon you for My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” He also said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments”!! And His commandments are in Torah – the first 5 books of the Bible! Being obedient to Him is a JOY! And we who ARE obedient to His Torah, are the REMNANT.
This country especially California, needs a new Great AwKening. PRAY.
Yes Mary, let’s believe & pray together, that CA will have another great revival awakening!
Yes Dorrie, wouldn’t it be lovely “if” what you say is true?…that, “We’re in the last HOUR!”
Yet Dorrie, I”m afraid you’ve forgotten something, your quote, “God’s people,” if someone is actually one of God’s people, then they’ve already long ago recognized Shabbat and the various Feast Days of Judaism, while acutely remembering and putting into practice (not just recognizing) Apostle Paul’s instruction to the Galatian church 2: 16-19,
“Yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified. For through the law I have died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me! The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God.”
You see Dorrie, Mosaic commandments, some 613 Levitical laws and ordinances, special days, weeks and Sabbaths were merely a shadow of the greatness that has come in the Person of Christ Jesus The King of Everything.
Exercise & recognize your faith in God’s Grace, Dorrie not the piety of your own obedience to Torah law works.
Listen up “Christians”. Yes, it’s a dark day, but God always has a ray of light that shines thru. This could be the best thing that’s happened to Greg Laurie’s ministry in years. The “Church” has never grown so strong as when it is persecuted. And I don’t mean just in numbers either. And I’m not talking about the “weenies“ currently in the pulpits either. I’m talking about strong dedicated Christians who know how to conduct warfare! I’m glad Laurie got his money back, those signs weren’t very good, in fact they were terrible! Nobody looks at signs anymore, and you’re lucky if you can find I am full of people in the current generation I can read. You’ll get a lot of free advertising for this event if you get out and notify the news outlets, take to the streets, lock arms in protest, and get after it! Follow Dr. Martin Luther King‘s example. Donald Trump got so much free advertising during his campaign that he literally ran every other candidate off the stage because of his free advertising, he knew how to play the media. That And the fact that he was anointed by God for the position he has now as president. Christians, how about getting off your dead rear and actually doing something! Don’t just sit there and whine to Mario, get with it, get out there, and take back that which yours… if you even know what it is.
Writing a letter to the Irvine Company could have an effect on this decision. As far as I know, there’s a large Christian population in Orange County and adding that to the letter could be helpful. Another fact I is that the Harvest Crusade is about to have their 29th Crusade and that it is a family friendly event with an attendance of around 60,000 some attending every year. Please be polite and state your support of this event and that you believe this is another a good decision to alienate the Christian population in Orange County. The address to contact is: webmaster@irvinecompany
Unbelievable. The sign company needs to get a spine. Threats from some tiny minority. You called it. It does not mean thousands still will not be saved however. Word of mouth and angels God can still use to draw them in. I pray it is even bigger than any year before. Let the negative publicity be a powerful reason for people to show up, Lord, to find out what the devil is so afraid of. Like Mario, lol.
The devil tries to blind and dumb you down so you have to stand up for the gospel and be seen and be heard.
Put the message out on your car, your business and your home. Reach out and spread the word. Extend your influence over the marketplace by doing good and doing well. Teach your children. And above all, live a life of love. Love God, extend His love for you to your family, your neighbor and your co-workers. Love conquers all.
Though some may want to participate in company boycotts and lawsuits, the real need for action is the Church to pray!