Evangelist and right-wing activist Mario Murillo told a group of self-proclaimed “prayer warriors” Friday that “the Christian righteous army of God” is rising up against the Democratic Party, “wokeness,” and perversion. Declaring that there can be no compromise in such a battle, Murillo said that pastors and activists must see themselves as “wartime Christians” as he prayed that God’s judgment and “fire” would fall on the nation’s “evildoers.”
Murillo was speaking on a monthly prayer call hosted by Intercessors for America, a network of right-wing pastors and religious-right activists who were closely aligned with the Trump White House and campaign. IFA leader Dave Kubal, a member of the Trump campaign’s recently reinvigorated faith advisory board, claimed that “a few thousand” intercessors were listening to Friday’s call.
Via email and on its blog, IFA promoted the Oct. 1 call and livestream with messages from Murillo declaring, “We are now in wartime” and “You are now a wartime Christian.”
“Satan prizes the destruction of America,” Murillo told IFA’s intercessors. He went on to say that when the pilgrims landed in America, “they made a covenant with God that this would be a land that would preach the gospel.”
“Even in our fallen state, Satan looks at America and says, ‘I can’t do what I want in bringing the Antichrist, the beast, and world domination as long as American freedom exists,'" Murillo said.
“There is a deliberate attempt by the devil using leftist Marxism and the insanity of wokeness, to bury, in essence, the role of America and the meaning of America.”
Murillo, a proponent of Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, told intercessors on Friday’s call that God’s judgment will fall on the United States:
Does anyone honestly believe that a rigged election, a forced vaccination, and alteration of everything that America represents by a rogue government is going to go unpunished? God is in his throne. He's going to act … We know evil is wrong. We know that Christ rose from the dead on the third day. And like Jehoshaphat we can say, “You devils of perversion, you devils of atheism, you devils of absolute total complete racism will be judged by our prayer and by the hand of God.”
Murillo led a prayer that God would judge the “demons” and “powers and principalities that have put their tentacles in every element of American life. … Lord, bring your fire. Bring your glory. Expose the wrong and evildoers. And let the voices of righteousness rise once more in this nation.” IFA’s Dave Kubal urged the intercessors to “join Mario in praying that the fire would fall.”
Murillo encouraged people to tell “the enemy,” “You're not going to have our country. You're not going to have our foundations. You're not going to redefine marriage. We are really not in favor of drag queens reading stories to our 5-year-olds. We are for a different kind of country and a different kind of day.”
Murillo said many Christians were disappointed that Trump “was robbed,” but he said there was an upside: that if “Biden the puppet” had not been put in power, the “vileness of this whole thing” and “all of the wokeness that has come to the surface, the perversion, might not have been known.” And that exposure, he claimed, has encouraged “the Christian righteous army of God” to “dig in its heels”:
So, what’s happened is the Christian righteous army of God has dug in its heels, and it’s not going to back down. … They're not going to compromise. We don't want you to throw us a bone on marriage, on abortion, on any issue. You notice that the stiffening of the spine in Texas and other states against abortion. That's because the army of God and the Spirit of God in the church is rising up and saying, ‘We're not going to accept anything less.'
The same stiffening of the spine and resolve and digging in heels is on the leftists. So, what I'm going to tell you is there's not going to be a compromise in this outcome. There's either going to be a wave of rejection in the midterms, a wave of rejection in the next election, and a miraculous exposure of the deception that America has been under, or we're going to literally be suffocated by evil.
Well, you and I both know, that second option is not even something we can entertain. We can't imagine it. So, our thoughts are freedom is coming. Because the sheep and the goats are being separated. And the power of God will be manifested over America.
Murillo railed against pastors who he said put marketing and church growth above the demands of being “a wartime pastor”:
The Democrat Party is no longer a political party. It is a thriving criminal enterprise bent on one thing: the destroying of Christian influence in the United States. And any pastor that is still on the fence is absolutely and deliberately turning a blind eye to the greatest threat that the sheep under his care will ever face.
Murillo said that the nation was “lost in the first place” because clergy had “lost their heart for war.” He prayed that “a mighty wave of conviction” would fall on pastors so that “sermons filled with fire” would replace the “milquetoast, lawless, toothless drivel that they have been preaching.”
The day before the call, IFA distributed Murillo’s message to church leaders, which was titled, “You are now a wartime pastor.” Here’s an excerpt:
You believe you have a choice. But reality and circumstances have made the choice. You can try to stay out of the war, but you will be labeled a traitor. I am not calling you a traitor–but the situation will. Things are deteriorating fast. The battle lines are drawn so clearly. Your silence will label you a turncoat.
There is a powerful pull to remain a peacetime pastor. Nostalgia and the yearning for simpler times are strong temptations. But there is no going back. Like it or not, reject it or not, you are now a wartime pastor.
So, what should a wartime pastor be doing right now?
One: A wartime pastor will face the fact that our nation is being led by evildoers … They do not care about people’s lives. They do not care that they are despised by most of America. They are dedicated to their Marxist agenda and are bent on destroying this nation. They are reckless and depraved. It is only after a pastor realizes that those who are in power now are totally evil, that they will make the right choices for the good of their own people.
Two: A wartime pastor will educate their congregation as to the evils of Critical Race Theory, transgenderism, and abortion. They will do it early, emphatically, and will not back down. …
Three: A wartime pastor will organize his people, immediately. They will get EVERYONE down to the school board meeting, the county commission meeting, and the city council meeting. Because this is war, you will get your people to start working together. Pastor, they are looking to you and you must lead them!
Four: A wartime pastor will deal with the hard questions—the unavoidable questions.
What will you do when your unvaccinated members won’t be able to be treated at the hospitals? They won’t even be let in the front door. It is already happening. The Church will have to take care of them. Are you ready for that?
Murillo’s written message added, “The promise to prevail against the gates of hell is the exclusive domain of a pastor who is fully engaged in war―and not the preacher who either has their head in the sand, or is running away from it.”
