It’s a pleasure to interview you. I first met you when you came to Nova Scotia for a visit with your family. For those who may not know you, can you share a little about who you are, where you are from, and what your passions are in life?
Thank you for the opportunity to share with you and your readers regarding the great need of our day. My name is Trevor Stephens and I am the associate pastor at Victory Baptist Church in Sherwood Park, Alberta. I grew up on a small hobby farm in eastern Ontario just north of Cornwall. It was here that I was raised in a Christian home and came to know Christ as Saviour at the age of 14. I ended up meeting my wife, Anne, in Saskatchewan at Briercrest Bible College and we just celebrated our 17th year of marriage this year. The Lord has seen fit to bless us with 6 beautiful children (4 boys and 2 girls) ranging in age between 15 and 2. Around the year 2005/2006 my wife and I finally got serious about our Christian walk after dusting off our Bibles and that led us to the church we are at to this day. I have passion that people would take their faith seriously and “to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might” (Ephesians 6:10). When we visited Alberta in July, we came to your church. It was an incredible experience to be able to stand beside people without restrictions, singing praises to God, and listening to a good message. Clearly, your church has taken a different approach than most churches throughout Canada which decided to compromise God’s clear command to gather. What brought you to this decision and why do you think other churches have decided to take a different path? Wow, how do I answer this concisely? Like most other churches, when the alarm sounded in March of 2020 we closed our doors temporarily to accommodate the declared crisis. If the authorities come and announce that there is a deadly flood coming and we must evacuate, do you not heed their warning at face value? A part of our decision to publicly open was learning a little more about the virus and that it was not what they had been purporting, however, the biggest factor in our decision was having a biblical ecclesiology (doctrine of the church). The church as most Christians know is not the building, but rather the people. Furthermore, the greek word underlying the English word church is ekklesia which means “called out assembly.” A church by definition is one that physically assembles or congregates. When you add to this the clear command as you mentioned to gather or assemble (fulfill the duty of a church), for us it was a choice between being obedient to the One who bought us or being disobedient and elevating the authority of man above that of God. Another key factor in coming to our decision was in having a biblical understanding of Romans 13. Again, this is a subject I could speak at length about, but essentially a question that needs to be answered by Christians is: "Does Romans 13 give ultimate or complete authority to the government or are there limits to their authority?" I believe that the Bible is explicit that there are very clear established limits to their authority. Therefore, understanding the different spheres of authority was critical to us in wrestling through passages like Romans 13 or 1 Peter 2. Coming to the understanding the ‘powers that be’ are under the authority of the King of kings, the Lord Jesus Christ is essential to unpacking these passages. The government is an ordained authority just like the family is a God ordained authority as well as the church. What we find is that all three of these spheres are to be under the authority of the Lord Jesus. Although there can be some overlap, what we find is that the government does not have authority over the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. For us at Victory Baptist Church we decided there were three things in which we came to the conclusion that we did not have to obey the government. First, when the government commands us to do something that God forbids. Secondly, when the government forbids something that God commands. Thirdly, and often left out is when the government commands something that is not theirs to command. The government has a God ordained role, however, they were not given authority over education, care of the poor as is often assumed, and certainly not over the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. A further explanation of our beliefs on this issue can be found here. Most other churches have not taken this path. Some I believe sincerely disagree on our interpretation of Romans 13, 1 Peter 2, Hebrews 10:25, etc. Others, see this as only a temporary measure that they can accommodate (was not Daniel only commanded by the government to disregard God’s commands for 30 days?). I have heard of pastors fearing for their jobs and losing their congregations. Some, sincerely believe that this is how they best witness to the community or show love for their neighbour. I am convinced that there will be many pastors that will in the future weep over their stance, limiting their numbers, and turning off the lights to the lighthouse. After a brief period of restrictions being lifted, they are now back in effect in Alberta. In the past, one thing I have heard from churches that have decided to follow all the government mandates is that they don’t want to be a bad witness to their community and turn people away. From your own experience, what would you say to those who argue this point? We are certainly called to be witnesses but what is a witness? A witness is someone who tells what they know to be true. The truth is that Jesus is Lord and is the rightful Judge of all the earth. I have found that most Christians think that the best way to be a witness is to show love for your neighbour by obeying the dictates of man even if they are in conflict with God’s commands. There are many problems with this, but what I have found is that loving your neighbour has devolved into doing whatever your neighbour or the world expects or wants from you. The world does not want the truth. They don’t want to hear about how their sin has separated them from a holy God. They don’t want to hear that they will be judged for their sin. Our calling to love our neighbour is to have a genuine concern for their souls and obey the command to preach the gospel to every creature and command men everywhere to repent. What I have found in speaking to others regarding this is that they often have a man-centred theology rather than a God-centred theology. What I mean by that is that they are focused on pleasing man and being liked or well thought of by others. A God-centred theology speaks the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) and has pleasing God as their focus. Once we get our focus off of Jesus and look at others or ourselves, we quickly begin to sink (Matthew 14:29,30). You know a thing or two about the cost associated with gathering. Your brother, Tim Stephens, was arrested twice for his faithfulness to God in gathering the church. How did this affect you and your family? My brother, Pastor Tim Stephens was instrumental in our journey as we spoke at length on the phone wrestling with these issues. An interesting story is that shortly after Pastor James Coates was imprisoned I was not able to sleep as I was troubled and was praying through much of the night. The next morning I came to the conclusion that now was the time to take a bold stand. The first person I thought of to help organize something was my brother Tim. I found out that morning that he also had the same burden and that is when we started the ‘Open Alberta Churches’ campaign and I spoke at the rally a few days later for James Coates. Here is a short clip of what I said at that rally earlier this year. After James was released the pressure was really placed on Tim as he was the next target of the government. Because Tim is a faithful man and pastor he continued to call God’s people to public worship and that placed him at odds with the government. The first time Tim was jailed he was released just a few days afterwards, however, the second time he was jailed we knew it was going to be for a longer time. That is when I essentially set aside all my other duties and become singularly focused on raising awareness and organizing rallies/protests to get him out of jail. I even wrote letters to US politicians calling on them to speak against this persecution. This letter can be found here. We ended up hearing publicly from Senator Scott Hawley and former governor Scott Walker. We also held two public rallies and having speakers like James Coates (GraceLife Church), Jacob Reaume (Trinity Bible Chapel in Ontario), Michael Thiessen (Liberty Coalition of Canada), Drew Barnes (Alberta MLA), John Carpay (President of the JCCF), and Derek Sloan (MP). I posted online what I said at the rallies. Here, here, and here. The way that your brother dealt with the authorities displayed a great measure of Christlikeness. How has his testimony encouraged you in your stand for the truth? We are so pleased and proud that Tim has decided to stand for The Lordship of Jesus no matter the consequences. His zeal for truth and his courage has definitely had a big impact on me and our church. It is my prayer that if I were put in a similar position as Tim that I too would be found faithful. We are both resolved and have counted the cost to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Other than government mandates what do you see is the greatest threat to the church? How can we prepare ourselves and stand firm in the faith? I do not believe the greatest threat to the church comes from outside the church, but rather from within. And if you will allow me to be more specific, I believe the biggest issue in the church today is the one who stands behind the pulpit. We have men abdicating their responsibilities and rather than protecting and leading the sheep, they are looking out to protect themselves. I know it is a controversial message, but I believe Pastor Jacob Reaume was spot on in his message called “Where are the Shepherds.” We need to prepare ourselves by getting plugged into a solid biblical New Testament church that upholds the Lordship of Christ and a pastor that will never put man’s authority above God’s. Encourage one another, comfort one another, love one another, bear one another’s burdens, and stand firm with one another. In doing all that we look to our Lord and Saviour who has promised he will never leave us or forsake us. He has a wonderful purpose and plan through all of this. As we come to the end of this interview, what encouragement do you have for faithful churches in Canada as times are getting tough again? Despite all that God has permitted to befall us, we constantly need to remind ourselves of several stabilizing truths. Remember that God is faithful (1 Cor. 10:13), that God is on the throne (Psalm 47:8, Psalm 2), and our God is a jealous God (Ex. 34:14). These were the truths that emboldened Daniel to pray with the windows open even though he was only given a ’temporary’ command to bow the knee to the government instead of the Lord. These truths allowed those three Hebrew young men to be willing to face the fiery furnace rather than bow the knee to the idol. And these truths should stabilize us as we seek to walk in obedience to the One who has bought us with His precious blood for that is our reasonable service (Romans 12:2) and our duty (Luke 17:10) as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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