[Penn4God]

When the government believes it has the right to shut down private bible studies, it is time for our silent Pastors and passive Christians to wake up and take a stand for what is right. Radical Secularism must be stopped before we have moved past the point of saving the U.S. and our God given freedoms. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated, " Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act"

[jonrick46]

Every Wednesday night our family would meet with other families at a church members house for our weekly Home Meeting. We might have 20 people and we comfortably filled every available seat in the house. Everyone brought something to eat and we ate like kings. The study of Christ’s teachings surpassed anything you could get at a church service. The most precious part of all of this was there was miraculous healing at these meetings. We saw people with intense memories of being sexually abused as children, released of their pain. We saw intense back pain instantly healed. And blood disorders completely healed. We learned the power of the Holy Spirit.

We learned that when the government puts bureaucratic obstacles in the way of God’s purposes, that the Lord will remove those obstacles if we ask Him to do so.

[grateful]

So, if the government is insisting his house is a church, does that mean he can stop paying taxes? ;)

[ravenwolf]

When the government believes it has the right to shut down private bible studies, it is time for our silent Pastors and passive Christians to wake up and take a stand for what is right. Radical Secularism must be stopped before we have moved past the point of saving the U.S. and our God given freedoms. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated, “ Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act”

---

I believe this is the reason Paul wrote the below scripture,
the people who make and enforce the laws are not all of them bad people.

In fact many of them would look at it just the way you do
but they must obey the rules of the world rather than obey God, because they are of this world, unless they come out of her.

Gods people are not of this world and we are not running it, does that mean that we need to start liking what they do? God forbid.

---

Ephesians 6:12
12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

---

The apostles were told by the authorities not to go around preaching the gospel, did they obey the authorities? no, they obeyed God and continued to preach the truth.

The price they paid was death, but they gained ever lasting life.

[Carriage Hill]

Home Bible Study crime Ping.

[JimRed]

If he was hosting a NAMLA chapter, no problem!

[gunsequalfreedom]

From the story...“Any time you are holding a gathering of people continuously as he does — we have concerns...

So does the Chinese government worry about people meeting on a regular basis. I'm going to call the city and talk to them. What's there number?

[yldstrk]

I don’t recognize my country anymore

[Rashputin]

"Was he taking up a collection"

From what I've found it doesn't look like he was taking a collection. This is the only shot of the property I found and it doesn't outline the property in any way (the blog that connected me to it is covered in marketing garbage, but at least it has the photo). Judging by the other lots, it actually does look like 1.5 acres and not 4.5 unless the vacant lot behind him is part of the property. There's a photo around that seems to have been taken on that vacant lot, so maybe it is part of the property, and maybe it's a property Salman hopes to purchase. Also, is the indicator on a part of the original home (the garage?) or the new 2000 addition he built?

Either way, there doesn't seem to be any shortage of places for people to park out of the way of traffic unless they don't care and park along the street.

I don't know what problem the neighbors have with this, but I don't believe the "game room" stuff, either. That's an attempt to avoid costly additional building codes and regulations that apply, something that implies to me that Salman looks for angles and loopholes at least as often as he looks to the Lord. I know people who play all sorts of games about being a pastor in order to avoid taxes (one of them now in prison), so I have no doubt some people would play games to avoid additional construction costs. There's a good chance that this boils down to Salman getting caught trying to be too clever by half, then yelling "persecution" to try and avoid bringing his "game room" up to the standards expected of everyone else who builds a church.

It actually looks like the city wasn't doing much of anything about the complaints until Salman built his "game room" at which time they began taking a very active interest.

IMHO, Salman wanted a fight and started one he could have easily avoided. Otherwise he wouldn’t claim he was having family and friends over to worship when there was a sign out front that said, “Christian Worship Sunday 10 am, Wednesday 7 pm” along with various Scriptures on a reader board in front of the home, meaning that he had deliberately turned his “home study” meetings into something clearly defined as meetings open to the public. When he did that, he knowingly was no longer having “home Bible studies” as defined by the laws that apply where he lives and purchased property. A sign that said, “Salman Family Home” and a single unchanging verse, for example, wouldn’t have caused a problem according to what I’ve found so far about local Pheonix regulations.

[HarleyD]

So he had 20 people on 4.5 acres of ground and this is a code violation??? Christians need to wake up.

[Cvengr]

The source of the problems comes from how the IBC is written.

It categorizes the occupancy of less than 16 people in worship activities as an R3 occupancy, possibly covered instead under the IRC (International Residential Code)

The code is inconsistent because it also classifies worship activities as an A3 category or as an E (Educational) occupancy for <100 people.

Even if a code violation exists, the more criminal aspect is for the municipality to enforce criminal charges vice civil charges. Technically, if a person conducts business out of their home using a FAX machine, or a PC, they too could be jailed and fined by these codes.

The code also exempts periodic gatherings such a a family reunion might entail.

IMHO, these institutions such as the fire dept and the Planning dept for the municipality have been taken over by those who are enemies of Christ and they hate Christ first, then are adversarily accusing anybody associated with his worship. I witness no love for their fellow man emanating from those 2 institutions in these reports.