A documentary that traced the struggles of three Christian churches to remain open as governments tried to shut them down during the coronavirus hysteria has surged to number one on the Apple iTunes Store in its documentaries category.

The film, entitled The Essential Church, which hit number one on iTunes this week, was produced by Grace Productions and follows the fight by three churches to remain open to serve their flocks even as the woke state tried to forcibly close them down during the worst of its pandemic hysteria starting in 2020.

The film features the tribulations of Grace Community Church’s John MacArthur in Los Angeles, Fairview Baptist Church pastor Tim Stephens in Calgary, Canada, and GraceLife Church pastor James Coates also in Canada.

The film discusses the reality of the risk of the COVID-19 virus and the likelihood of transmission in groups. It also speaks to the authority government has or should have to shut down churches, and speaks to the role that civil government has in the church, and when and how it should or should not be obeyed by Christians.

Faced with what many health authorities called a health calamity when the COVID crisis began, these churches were forcibly shut down over their objections and, they felt, in violation of their freedom of religion.

We know now that the predictions of high contagion for the virus were overblown and that it was unlikely that going to a Sunday church service would present any harm. But were the churches right to protest the shut downs when no one yet knew this to be true?

Did governments exercise a dangerous authoritarianism that impinged on freedom of religion by sending armed police to shut these churches down during the pandemic? Do Christians have a responsibility to civil authority or first to their God?

All these questions and more are asked in this important film.

The film is also available for those who do not use iTunes by going directly to the film’s website.

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