‘Jesus Wasn’t a Pacifist’: Training Christian Minutemen to Remove ‘Domestic Enemies’ From Office

In the wake of former president Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, the “Elijah Streams” program has become increasingly focused on promoting far-right conspiracy theorists and self-proclaimed “prophets” who resolutely insist that Trump is actually still president.

The most vocal of these guests has been Johnny Enlow, a Trump cultist, QAnon conspiracy theorist, self-proclaimed “prophet,” and Seven Mountains dominionist who believes that the United States government should “function as a virtual theocracy.” Enlow, who is associated with the dominionist New Apostolic Reformation movement, has made dozens of appearances on the “Elijah Steams” program where he has incessantly spread wild conspiracy theories and made untold baseless claims for which there is no evidence.

Following Trump’s loss, Enlow openly declared that Trump would be justified in imposing martial law and calling for revolution.

On Tuesday, Enlow served as a guest host on “Elijah Steams,” where he interviewed Amanda and Henry Hastings, who run a biblically based tactical weapons training program called Shoot, Move, Communicate. Henry Hastings is a former special forces commander who “transitioned to the ministry” until, he claims, he had a “supernatural encounter” in which God reportedly told him to start training up “modern-day Minutemen”—emphasis on “men.”

Hastings told Enlow that the importance of this type of tactical military training is outlined in the Bible so that believers have the skills needed to “overtake and destroy those who would threaten freedom.”

“Jesus certainly wasn’t a pacifist,” Hastings said. “If you go to the Book of Revelation and you really get to know who the Lord is, he’s definitely not an anti-war pacifist at all. And if you want to go to the Old Covenant and see how men moved and operated, there were definite enemies. … They were people and they were enemies, and men had to go up when freedom was threatened by them and overtake and destroy those who would threaten freedom.”

Hastings then claimed that the Constitution and Bill of Rights place “supreme authority” in the local sheriff who has the power to establish militias under the Second Amendment to remove “domestic enemies” from office. Hastings’ claims about sheriffs’ authority are similar to those promoted by the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, whose leaders talk about their mission in spiritual terms and train law enforcement officers in their “constitutional sheriff” ideology.

“The federal government is now becoming an enemy of ‘We The People,'” Hastings declared. “And when we have elections where people have not been legally or lawfully elected, we have domestic enemies in office and our Constitution gives us the authority to remove them.”

Hastings warned that the nation is heading to another Lexington and Concord.

“It’s not just in the spirit,” he said. “It’s in the natural.”

Hastings later read a prophecy from the non-canonical Book of Enoch to proclaim that “the kings and the powerful ones will perish and will be surrendered into the hands of the righteous and the holy,” which he declared was a warning to who have dared to indict “the Lord’s anointed,” by which he meant Donald Trump.

“This is what we are going to see in this now time,” Hastings proclaimed. “These wicked people who have dug a pit for the Lord’s anointed; I’m going to name them right now: . [Fulton County District Attorney] Fani Willis, [Special Counsel] Jack Smith, [Manhattan District Attorney] Alvin Bragg, [Attorney General] Merrick Garland, [Rep.] Adam Schiff, and soon to be [Arizona Gov.] Katie Hobbs if the state of Arizona files an indictment against the Lord’s anointed. I am telling you, every single one of them will fall into the ditch that they have made, they will fall into the pit that they have dug unless they repent, but time’s running out for their repentance.”

While Elijah Streams has consistently served as a platform for outrageous and baseless conspiracy theories, seeing the program openly promote military training to equip far-right Christians with the tactical skills needed to literally forcibly “remove” their perceived “domestic enemies”—many of whom were listed by name—is an alarming development.

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