NY Church Gives Away an AR-15 Semi-Automatic Rifle

A New York church is holding a unique giveaway:   As part of a special “Give Back Program” on March 23 honoring gun owners, the independent Grace Baptist Church in Troy, New York–about two and a half hours north of Manhattan–is giving away a semi-automatic rifle.

According to the church website, the giveaway is not raffle, and is not a fundraiser for the church.  In order to be eligible to take home the rifle, an individual must be present and eligible to win.  One eligible adult present Sunday morning, March 23, 2014, will win the NY-modified and NY legal “AR-15.”

In a March 8 letter on the church website, Pastor John Koletas explains:

This is not a fundraiser. To all the many who have kindly asked to buy non-existent raffle tickets or to donate to our church to help cover the cost of our giveaway, you may give whatever the Lord lays on your heart in the offering plate when it is passed or mail in your donation.

Our church is purchasing the rifle from Oakwood Trading Post.The church has paid everything that has gone into this effort. It has been a great financial undertaking for our church.

The sole purpose of this event is to be a help, a blessing, and an encouragement to all gun owners and hunters who have been viciously attacked by the socialist and antichristian media and politicians. For the many, many favorable and supportive responses we have received, we want to thank you deeply for your support and encouragement. Take courage. In the words of our famous forefather Patrick Henry, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

Please pray that the Lord will bless the singing and the preaching.

Pastor Koletas has a word, too, for those who would disagree with the use of guns, or with the giveaway.  He writes:

Dear Detractors:

The Lord has commanded us in I Thessalonians 5:14 to comfort the feeble minded. In accordance to Matthew 5:44, we love you and pray for you all.

To those fake, phony, and fraud pastors masquerading as religious leaders, I suggest you read the King James Bible in its entirety and then read the history of the American Revolutionary War where God’s men were at the forefront for liberty and freedom and the spineless cowards sat back and supported the King of England and criticized those who put their necks on the line and were willing to sacrifice everything for the cause of liberty and freedom.

To those with filthy, vulgar, obscene comments and death threats, we sincerely love you and pray for you. God bless you.

Apparently, Grace Baptist Church’s interest in guns goes beyond this one-time event.  According to the church’s website, there will be an “Adirondack Sportsman Dinner” on March 15.