During his Sept. 28 sermon titled “Clearing the Room,” Dauphin County Pastor Philip Thornton wore an unloaded AR-15-style rifle and occasionally pointed it at congregants. “You have to overwhelm your enemy with a violent action of faith,” he preached. “You have to learn to isolate the voice of unbelief and deal with it.”
After some people raised concerns about the prop, Legacy Faith Church in Susquehanna Township, Pennsylvania, said it was grateful for the attention. “We pray many more [people] will watch the message in its entirety and contextually learn how to defeat unbelief in their life,” the church said.
Dauphin County Pastor Assures Worshipers Rifle Isn’t Loaded
As seen on video posted to YouTube, Pastor Philip Thornton wore the rifle around his neck from the beginning of the Sept. 28 service. “This is for an illustration a little bit later, but I figured I [would] go ahead and get your nerves out,” he told worshipers. “It is not loaded. There’s nothing in it. Praise the Lord. So you understand, it’s an empty clip and it’s been cleared. So fear not, everybody.”
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Jesus told his disciples to buy a sword, Thornton noted, and Jesus “wasn’t nice to everybody” while on earth. “In our milquetoast, watered-down pablum Christianity in the West, we’ve been taught that we’re supposed to just turn the other cheek and take whatever the enemy does to us and just accept it and forgive them, ‘for they know not what they do,’” he said. “Sure, we’re supposed to forgive [and] turn the other cheek. But…we’re not supposed to live our lives defenseless or without wisdom.”
Throughout the sermon, Thornton mentioned “spiritual principles that are required for you to activate the miraculous move of God in your life,” saying it “may require some acts of violence.” But the pastor emphasized he wasn’t advocating for gun violence against enemies. “This isn’t a message about the Second Amendment,” he told congregants, calling that “one of the greatest things that was written in our Constitution.”
While teaching about the healing of Jairus’ daughter, Thornton pointed out that Jesus first cleared the room (see Mark 5:40). “[Jesus] put them all out; he went in like a soldier,” said the pastor, who then turned on the rifle’s laser and pointed the weapon around the room.
Thornton continued:
Don’t worry. The lights bright, right? There’s nothing in the gun. Hands off the trigger, right?…I can get you, any one of you. [Jesus] had to target the unbelief. He had to get rid of the unbelief that was filling the room. He had to clear the room. You have to learn how to clear a room in faith. You have to learn how to understand and know that the enemy in hiding is working in such a way so that he can continue to keep you in a spirit of unbelief.
Gun-Toting Pastor Promotes Spiritual Training
For another illustration, Pastor Philip Thornton used a man dressed in military gear who also had a gun. “Jason was sitting there the whole time with a book bag,” Thornton told worshipers. He continued:
How many of you suspected that he had a rifle [in it]? Your enemy would love to just sit in the same room with you with a gun in his book bag, waiting for you to let your guard down so he can come back and pop off unbelief to keep you in a place where you’re neutralized in your faith. That’s why Jesus had to run the people out.
In the military, “clearing a room is a violent action,” explained Thornton. “And if you don’t learn to become loud and boisterous in your faith, then many times the devil’s going to go, ‘They don’t know what they’re talking about.’”
During his Sept. 28 sermon titled “Clearing the Room,” Pastor Philip Thornton wore an unloaded AR-15-style rifle and occasionally pointed it at congregants.Click to Post
