Police in Tennessee continue to investigate a hate crime in which 200 Bibles were burned outside a small church on Easter morning.
Greg Locke, pastor of Global Vision Bible Church in Mt. Juliet, Tenn., said the church’s security cameras recorded a “polite crook” stopping his vehicle in the middle of an intersection by the entrance to the church, putting on his hazard lights and then dousing a trailer full of Bibles with gas and setting it on fire.
“If you think that Christianity is not (under) attack more than ever before in the United States of America, you have not been paying attention,” he told his church. “Quit being lukewarm. Quit being so passive-aggressive and namby-pamby and spiritually sissified. OK? I’m telling you, they’re attacking churches in America.”
Hate crimes against churches have more than doubled in recent years, with a new spike since Hamas attacked Israel. But for Locke, it was still a shock.
“You got to be kidding me,” Locke said during the Easter revival service. “How many churches in America have a trailer full of Bibles getting burned to block the parking lot?”
The fire is under investigation by the Wilson County Sheriff’s Department. According to a press release from the sheriff’s office, the Mt. Juliet Fire Department responded to the fire at about 6 a.m. on Sunday and quickly extinguished it.
“The trailer containing Bibles had been dropped off in the middle of the intersection and then intentionally set on fire,” according to the department. “To uphold the integrity of the ongoing investigation, other specific details cannot be provided at this time. However, we assure the community that further updates will be shared at the appropriate juncture.”
Locke called the fire another sign that Christianity was being threatened in America and that the return of Jesus and the End Times were imminent.
Locke then shared how he had just returned from a trip to Israel, which he said was the safest place in the world and that news reports about what was happening in Gaza were media lies. He then discussed the red heifer prophecy — the idea that a red cow has to be sacrificed on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to usher in the return of Jesus and the end of the world.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice