This week I interviewed Devin Davis, a husband, father, and follower of Christ who has been actively bringing attention to the unjust rulings made in Alberta.
Some of my readers may recognize your name, but for those who don’t, I’d like them to get to know a little about you first. So, who are you, where are you from, and what are your passions in life? My name is Devin Davis, and I am a member of GraceLife Church of Edmonton. I was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba but moved to the town of Stony Plain, Alberta when I was 11 years old. I’ve lived around the Edmonton area ever since. I’m a motorcycle enthusiast, and a bass player at church but my passion is collecting high end bibles, and my wife and three children. Since being saved I have been very passionate about defending the bible to others and the inerrancy of scripture. You started a Facebook page called “Free James Coates” around the time he was arrested. He was your pastor, correct? How has his testimony encouraged you in your stand for the truth? My wife and I came up with the idea to make the page because “freejamescoates” became a trending hashtag and we decided that it would be a good idea to make the page because we didn’t want someone unassociated with the church making one first. James’ testimony and the stand he took has inspired me to keep standing for truth. His stance has demonstrated to me that even difficult situations arise for our good as believers. I have seen the fruit that resulted from opposing unjust government mandates. God puts us through hard situations sometimes but there is always purpose to everything He does or allows to happen to His followers. God has been glorified through the arrest of James and we have seen atheists come to Christ from the online exposure and people from apostate or heretical denominations flee those situations and run to orthodox bible believing churches. Lastly his stand demonstrated to me that nothing material is worth keeping if it comes between us and honouring Christ. His refusal to allow the government to dictate the terms of worship to Christ’ Church has given me a proper understanding that God will provide for us when we do what He commands. You are quite vocal on your social media accounts about the evils that are taking place in our nation. What gives you the courage to speak out against these things The single most empowering belief I have that allows me to publicly speak the truth is my faith in Christ and Christ alone. God gave me a platform when GraceLife was fenced off and I created the “Devin Davis” Facebook Page and made the decision that I would use it until it was taken from me. So far, I’ve mostly been able to avoid Facebook’s scrutiny because I try to be somewhat careful. I don’t fear backlash because at this point in our current social climate I don’t believe I have anything to lose. From what I have seen, many Christians are either buying into the narrative or being silent about what is happening in our country. Why do you think this is? How could this be reversed? I asked Jacob Reaume of Trinity Bible Chapel a similar question and his response to me was “the biggest problem in Canadian churches is an unregenerate clergy”. I believe this to be mostly true. Most churches don’t have a biblical leadership structure. Orthodox, bible teaching pastors can be fired by a council of board members and the pastors have no authority as elders to make hard decisions. There is a deep lack of discernment among Christians to interpret truth. Anyone speaking the truth is bludgeoned with the phrase “judge not” or “God is love”. The long taught method of seeker friendlyism has created a system where churches must appeal to the world and take the same stance as the world or no one will come and visit their church. I believe what the individual Christian can do is refuse to support these weak churches any further. If a Christian knows there are massive issues they should stop trying to turn a titanic around and instead leave peacefully and properly and start attending a church that was built around gospel believers worshipping together and the preaching of Gods word. The only way this can be reversed is through biblical preaching being highlighted and put to the forefront. Believers need to make sure they attend churches where the leadership has been appointed to their roles properly and the men in leadership are qualified for their positions. Some Christians believe that faith and politics don’t mix. What role does your faith play in speaking out and fighting for what is right? Faith and politics must inevitably come together. Faith in Christ should be an all consuming belief that affects every aspect of your life. Christians need to have a consistent biblical worldview and interpret everything through that lens. In the case of Covid; it became clear quickly that there was an ulterior motive to the decisions our governments were making and so believers who had a strong biblical foundation were able to resist the government overreach into our churches. The churches that submitted already had one foot (or both feet) thoroughly in the world. Christians do not kneel to idols. Personal safety and a desire to avoid offence has become an idol in North American Churches. Politicians in North America still pretend to have a Christian veneer and even quote scripture to persuade believers. When politicians pretend to be believers then the church must also hold them accountable to the standard of a believer. Roman 13 teaches us that the government has a government ordained duty to punish evildoers and they are to stay within the lane that has been laid out for them in scripture. The Christian’s job is to hold them to what God has ordained as their role as the Government. Thanks for taking the time to respond to these questions. Is there anything you’d like to say as we come to the end of this interview? Yes, I would like to say that I am not in leadership at GraceLife Church and my opinions are my own and not a representation of the leadership’ beliefs on the subjects discussed. I may have stronger opinions than most on the state of other churches. Thanks to Devin for one of my top three favorite interviews! You can follow him on facebook and instagram.
1 Comment
9/19/2021 06:16:27 pm
When a man is fully committed to Christ, there is no avenue to separate Church and State.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |