Pastor Artur Pawlowski grew up in Poland where stories of the Nazi raids on churches were still passed down by the older generation. Later he personally witnessed the beating of Christians when the Soviet Communists took over.

These images stuck in his mind when six uniformed officers showed up Easter morning at the church where he pastors in Calgary, Canada. When the officers disclosed that they did not have a warrant specifying the purpose of their visit, the pastor immediately requested that they leave. As they tarried and tried to establish discussion with him he refused to listen, instead stood his ground demanding that they leave and only come back with a search warrant.

The officers eventually left and the police department later released a statement that they were concerned that the church was “not adhering to the government’s COVID-19 public health orders.”

See video below of the encounter from the Toronto Sun:

Pastor Pawlowski’s background has made him a bold witness. He regularly preaches on the street distributing gospel literature. He is one of several pastors in Canada and the U.S. who have staunchly resisted the extreme lockdown orders of the governments and has been ticketed several times.

This appeared to be the last straw when six officers showed up at an Easter service.

“This is a place of worship and no place for weapons,” he told the police. “We have people praying here. They were scaring the kids. This was Passover. This is Easter.”

This incident in Calgary has been followed by the fencing off of GraceLife Church in Edmonton, Alberto, Canada. Pastor James Coates has also decided that the lockdowns are a violation of the Canadian constitution that provides freedom of speech and worship. He was jailed for 35 days and fined $1,500 dollars earlier in the year for refusing to comply with “health orders.” Chain link fencing was recently installed around the church property and patrol cars blocked the entrance to the parking lot when people showed up for service.

Another pastor, John MacArthur in Southern California, has also attempted to hold his ground against the authorities. He pastors a 7000-member church in northern Los Angeles County.

He and his congregation who shows up every Sunday to a full house, have repeatedly violated the County health orders. Fines and threats have also been the response. The LA Times news has done extensive research to find evidence of the virus being spread by the meetings, without significant success.

MacArthur was not the only Southern California congregation to hold the line against the lockdowns with varying degrees of persecution.

History has proven that government attacks on the freedom of religion have often created a resolve in the hearts of soul winners to find other ways of getting the gospel out. And gospel tracts have often been high on their list.

Confrontation against evil is sometimes necessary but at the same time the gospel can be quietly saturated into the community to show people in general that God's way is a better way.

For the price of a cup of coffee, several paper missionaries can be stashed where someone can find them and change their eternity.