Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, believes the strange events surrounding the Olympics this year have presented “a microcosm of what’s not right in the world today.”
“They start off the Olympic ceremonies with the open mockery of ‘The Last Supper,’ the painting by Leonardo da Vinci,” Laurie told CBN News. “And then they deny that’s what it was.”
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He juxtaposed the massive debacle over what many have taken as a drag-queen-driven mockery of the Last Supper against a report that Brazilian surfer Joao Chianca was reportedly forced to remove an image of Jesus from his surfboard before the Olympics began.
“So, we can openly mock Christ here,” Laurie said. “But you can’t have any representation of Jesus on your surfboard? … Everything’s upside down.”
The preacher said the “whole thing is just ridiculous,” but emblematic of a broader problem unfolding in the culture at large.
“This is … really a representation of culture saying, ‘We don’t want God … we’re gonna openly mock God now, we’re gonna make new rules, we’re gonna define what a man is, what a woman is, what marriage is, and I’m gonna change everything,'” Laurie said. “And you have chaos as a result and you see it in the world; you see it in America.”
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The Harvest Crusade founder expressed his belief that the further society gets from God, the more problems will develop — something he believes we’re watching happen in real-time.
Despite the troubles before us, Laurie reminded Christians of the “two secret weapons” in their arsenal: prayer and evangelism.
“We need to use those weapons more,” he said, encouraging people to pray for those who don’t know the Lord. “We are in a spiritual battle, and the best thing in this spiritual battle is to gain ground, not just hold ground.”
Laurie shared his comments while also discussing the powerful “Jesus Revolution” baptism his church recently held at Pirates Cove in California, a historic beach where baptisms have routinely unfolded.
Laurie said 2,000 people were baptized in one day — a stunning number that shows, despite culture’s moral demise, God is still moving.
The immersions took place after Laurie held the Harvest Crusade event on July 20 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, an evangelistic effort that drew 50,000 people in person and 200,000 people online. Thousands of individuals made a profession of faith during that event.
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