Repent Amarillo: Interview with David Grisham

They are bold in their approach. They have been referred to as Christian terrorists and likened to Hezbolah. They have been accused of stalking, trespassing and other nefarious deeds. How does Repent Amarillo respond to such accusations? We have decided to let them speak for themselves. The following is from an interview granted to Craig Portwood by Pastor David Grisham, Director of Repent Amarillo Ministries.

Repent Amarillo

Bible Prophecy Examiner: Pastor Grisham, what is your mission as you see it?

David Grisham: Repent Amarillo is associated with Raven Ministries. Repent Amarillo is a repentance based ministry. We believe that our society is in a great deal of sin. Since the summer 2008, Repent Amarillo has been going out into the streets preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Repent Amarillo seeks to change the culture of Amarillo Texas.

I’d like to explain our website so people don’t freak out over all the military stuff on the website. The military stuff comes from Ephesians chapter 6 where it talks about having on the breastplate of righteousness, taking the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Bible Prophecy Examiner: There have been criticisms of your group taking licenses numbers and accusations that your group has been stalking people visiting Route 66 Swingers Club, contacting members employers to get them fired from their jobs and the like. Is this so?

David Grisham: No. We’ve been assaulted over there twice... One time somebody also tried to drive their car at one of us... We started recording license plate numbers so that if we got assaulted, we could give it to the police and they could find out who they are and we could press charges…We have never gone to somebody’s work to get them fired. We have never contacted anybody’s relatives.

Bible Prophecy Examiner: I have seen video’s of your group in the Route 66 Swingers Club parking lot preaching. Are you not trespassing by doing this?

David Grisham: The parking lot does not belong to the Swingers Club. The parking lot next door is owned by a businessman here in Amarillo and there were no no trespassing signs up until the Swingers lawyer started making an issue of us being in the parking lot. The Swingers were parking on there and …we had spoken with this business owner…and he said that parking is for anybody up and down 6th street… and you’re perfectly welcome to be there…we stayed about 5 to 6 feet away (from the patrons of the Swingers Club) so they didn’t feel like they were being intimidated.

Bible Prophecy Examiner: One of the things I had been led to believe, is that you are preaching against is the Seventh Day Adventist’s. I have looked into this issue but am not an expert. I can’t find any damnable doctrine in their teaching. Are they in danger of Hell in your estimation?

David Grisham: The Seventh Day Adventist’s believe you’ve got to do Sabbath on Saturday and you can’t eat pork and things like that. Those are things I don’t agree with…those are things they teach in error and are not necessarily heresy. As far as the Seventh Day Adventist …I couldn’t tell you if that person is in danger of Hellfire or not.

Bible Prophecy Examiner: Keeping the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments. None of the others were considered to be nailed to the cross. How do you reconcile your zealous position as to keeping the law of God and not keeping this commandment?

David Grisham: Colossians 2:16 says don’t allow yourself to by judged on the feast days and Sabbaths…That turns into legalism. We just think it’s supposed to be flexible.

Bible Prophecy Examiner: Aren’t you being legalists by what you preach?

David Grisham: We keep the Sabbath on Sunday’s. There was a change in the law in Hebrews. Those laws that were changed were the dietary law…those laws were changed when Jesus Christ died on the cross and a new covenant was formed…We have been released from those old laws about the food but we have not been released for the moral laws.

Bible Prophecy Examiner: I understand that you had an advertisement in Amarillo in which the Easter Bunny was being crucified. Doesn’t this seem blasphemous to you?

David Grisham: Actually, no one ever brought that up. We heard a couple of people say it. You’re one of the very few, actually, no one ever complained that it was blasphemous against Christ, they were upset that their child saw the Easter Bunny dead.

Bible Prophecy Examiner: Perhaps you’re not aware that, far from being a Christian celebration, Easter is a Pagan celebration. You are understandably critical of Pagans, but Easter is a Pagan celebration that comes from the worship of Ishtar.

David Grisham: I agree with you to a point. We don’t participate in Easter Egg hunts and the Easter Bunny and all that nonsense, what we celebrate is the resurrection of Christ and that’s it. We celebrate the birth of Christ at Christmas…and people can argue about that being a Pagan holiday. I know it had to do with the Catholic Church trying to supplant a Pagan holiday which is Winter Solstice…We don’t celebrate Easter.

Bible Prophecy Examiner: I see a link from your site to the site of Hal Lindsey. Do you actually buy into Hal Lindsey’s pre-tribulation rapture idea?

David Grisham: I personally lean towards pre-tribulation rapture but I honestly don’t know and I really don’t care. That’s one of the vain debates that we need to avoid.

Bible Prophecy Examiner: One issue I have with the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine is this: We were told to watch for the signs of Christ’s coming and yet from what I see, the Christians are taught that it’s going to happen “in the twinkling of an eye,” no one can see it coming so they’re not watching. The only thing they seem to be watching is TV. I see in Matthew 24 that we are told the tribulation preceeded the rapture I believe the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine is dangerously heretical and injures the body of Christ.

David Grisham: That concerns me too. Christians value watching television over reading the word of God. They get their Biblical awareness from the culture rather than from the Word of God. We are misunderstanding something about the rapture. I don’t know what it is. Hindsight is 20-20.

Addendum: Since this interview took place, Pastor Grisham has contacted me by email to counter what he says are misperceptions about Repent Amarillo. I have posted his comments on my website which can be read by following this link.

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