Liberating the Bride: The Story of Setting the American Church Free

By Dr. Stephen Cassell

In the infamous pandemic of 2020 the world was forced into tyranny through lock-downs and unlawful mandates. Steve could read the writing on the wall and anticipated that the assault was really about eliminating the Church. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 that it was the Ekklesia (Church) that would be the offensive force against the working of hell, and therefore is one of the most essential and vital entities in America. This is the first pastor in the nation to take on the Goliath of tyranny and become the “tip of the spear” for the defense of the Church. Steve, his family and their Beloved Church was vilified and ravaged by the media and culture for his First Amendment stance. Eventually the outcome was that the illegal and discriminatory mandates were overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States and all of the Churches in America were victoriously Liberated!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9781664285538

Dr. Stephen Cassell

Dr. Steve has been doing unconventional and radical ministry for over two decades. He has also spent twenty plus years in high level business and corporate positions. Steve has a masters degree in Executive Leadership and a Doctorate in Ministry from Covenant Theological Seminary. He planted a church in rural north-western Illinois in 2012 to pioneer a discipleship culture that would be capable of changing the world, one heart at a time. Steve has been gloriously blessed with his bride, Kay, being in covenant with him since 1995. They have raised two amazing kids who are currently navigating the realm of adult-ing. Steve has enjoyed traveling the United States and many additional countries ministering the Finished Work of Christ and illuminating the Holy Cause of Liberty to churches, freedom rallies and political events. He has accepted his role as a “modern day John the Baptist” striving to bring repentance from sincere souls that can prepare the way of our Lord Jesus and His Kingdom.

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Copyright © 2023 Dr. Stephen Cassell.

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ISBN: 978-1-6642-8551-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8552-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8553-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022922469

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/19/2023

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture marked (BSB) taken from the Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible, BSB Copyright ©2016, 2020 by Bible Hub. Used by Permission. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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Contents

Foreword

Chapter 1 Context Is Important

Chapter 2 The War

Chapter 3 Doctrine

Chapter 4 Founders’ Faith

Chapter 5 Legal Precedent

Chapter 6 Liberty

Chapter 7 Mark Twain

Chapter 8 White Flag

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my beloved, my bride Kay Cassell. You supported and believed in me when all else would have fled. Your grace, beauty and virtue is unmatched on earth. Your commitment to our covenant is supernatural and humbling. Your character is a perfect reflection of the Divine One who taught you the ways of life.

I also want to acknowledge that Beloved Church, my church, our church, is where I am Greatly Loved. It was easy to fight for you because you have fought for me.

I would not be able to experience or tell this story if it were not for the greatest Christian alive today, my mother. She embodies and exemplifies the love of God and therefore is the reason I serve Jesus with all my heart.

All the glory, all the honor and all the recognition I give to the one worthy of it all … Jesus Christ my Lord who saved me from me.

Foreword

State Senator Darren Bailey

Secular philosophy often struggles with the one and the many. Some philosophies place a premium on individual happiness and success, while others revolve around the elevation of society as a whole.

In Christianity, though, there is no conflict between the one and the many. As Christians, we believe in the Trinity, which is to say we believe in a God who is both One and Three (many). In the Trinity we find the perfect balance of the one and the many.

We see this played out in many of the stories of the Bible. For example, God used Joseph—one man—to save the entire people (many) of Israel during a great famine. And God is still using people in this way.

Pastor Steve Cassell’s Liberating the Bride is a story of how God used one man who took on the government to fight for the freedom of religion guaranteed by our Constitution. His story is both inspiration and instruction. There is no question that through the power of God, there is power in the one to influence the many.

More than anything, though, the Liberating the Bride is a call to action for Christians across our great country. No longer do we have the luxury of sitting on the sidelines. There is a battle for the heart and soul of this nation that we can no longer ignore. Will we answer the call? Will we take a stand as Pastor Steve Cassell did? Will we be a power of one for the good of the many?

Liberating the Bride is really a story of the power of the Triune God working through us for us. That is the real power of one, and it is a power we all can have if we open ourselves up to the power of God working through us.

CHAPTER 1

Context Is Important

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A wise man once said that if you take the text out of its context, all you have left is a con. Everyone despises a con, so I will strive to be clear.

My sincere goal is to compel you past every page with anticipation and camaraderie. This is my first book. It is my best adventure in life so far. Please grant me grace as you digest my words, because I truly labored over every sentence to bring your heart into our story.

This will be unlike any other book you have read, because it will be brutally honest. Challenges are mingled with hurt and humor while simultaneously grounded in eternal truths. You will read of failure, persecution, and loss. You will also see victory and heroism cracking through the veil of pain. These expressions of authenticity are not to be made in the sterilized world today, especially by genuine men and ministers. Plastic, hypocrisy, and cool are the standards in our broken society. I really hate fakeness, so, it seems, the world hates me back. What an honor.

Ben Franklin once said, Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

We will both see shortly whether I qualify as a man who is worthy of this quote. I hope these pages will accomplish both goals.

To make clear the qualified position from which I will attempt to convey my message to you, allow me to give you the exemplary résumé that highly justifies me to pontificate on this exclusive and elite subject of changing the world.

Here it goes. I pray you can find connection:

1. Child of God

2. Breathing air (except when under the maniacal dictates of mask nazis)

3. Literate

There it is! These are the enormous qualifications that have surprisingly and unexpectedly propelled me into the national spotlight and targeted me for the overwhelming hatred and vitriol of the tyrants and dictators of our current society. They dominate and control as lawless, self-aggrandizing political and government hacks with evil motives of reducing your life and freedoms down to the minutest interference. These are the sons of their father, the devil, who was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. If you are picking up on my sarcastic emanations, you will see I am equally qualified with every reader now gripping the pages of this book, or at least can be. The overarching purpose of this book, and the reason I have been repeatedly asked to write about my journey, is to inspire you to rise to the high calling and purpose of your divinely created life.

If you believe you are disqualified, then you are. If you believe God can qualify you, then you are. Be it unto you according to your faith. Lesser folks than us have radically affected their world. Why not you? Why not now?

I would so love to tell you I was living and expressing my life in such a way that I could have made a few verses in Hebrews chapter 11, the famous Faith Hall of Fame. But in all sincerity, I was just trying to do what I was called to do in a nowhere, cornfield-surrounded small Midwestern town and backwoods Illinois. I was just busy about pastoring the church my lovely wife and I planted eight years prior. We were trying with everything we had to change the lives of those few sheep whom our Lord blessed us with. I can honestly report that my fame was barely as big as the four walls of our home, but I was honestly at rest with that. When I went wholeheartedly into the ministry, it was from a humble place of sincerity to honor God. I was never concerned with the ideals of the world’s misconstrued version of hip and famous. Chasing the world’s version of success nearly killed me, almost destroyed my marriage, and jeopardized my place as a father in two precious and innocent children’s hearts. Doing the raw and simplistic call of God was infinitely satisfying at this stage of life.

There was a joy and fulfillment that was exhilarating to us, knowing we were simply doing what we were asked and created to do, and there were some peculiar folks who had joined us in that journey as the love and grace of God was impacting them in a genuine and profound way.

The Storm Arrives

It is likely all of you remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news that the pandemic had made landfall. It was a giant hurricane of fear, lies, deception, and false science, which brought with it the very stench of morbidity and decay. You may also recount vividly what your thoughts and opinions were when you heard that report. This viewpoint created by perspective is where you and I may deviate a smidge. My perspective is generated through my beliefs and experience grounded in the Word of God and His glorious kingdom. But I will get to my theology and doctrine a bit later.

The lightning strike of that worldwide storm, accompanied by the reverberating thunder of change for me, came with a phone call from our local state’s attorney, a friend of mine at that point. I will try to paraphrase as best I can, because I would be foolish to try to quote (and potentially misquote) a lawyer who prosecutes for a living. I may be simple, but I am not ignorant.

Me: Hey friend!

Him: Hi Steve. Sooooo, you’re still having church services, I hear.

The background here is that we, Beloved Church in Lena, Illinois, were not inclined to shutter our church because a government official called us non-essential. This unique choice and position put us squarely at odds with our neighbors, our state officials, and the federal government. Their dictate was firmly grounded in the determined belief that they had the authority to usurp our Lord Jesus (who is the head of the church), the Constitution (which solidifies every American’s inalienable liberties) and the First Amendment (which expressly enshrined our right to assemble and practice our religious beliefs as we saw fit). I will dive a bit deeper into this in the coming pages, but as you can probably surmise, I was not the least bit willing to bow down to the subtle snake of compromise.

Me: Yes sir. We have a biblical mandate to fill the Lord’s house. We have a divine command to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together and a constitutional protection to follow those beliefs.

Him: Well, I understand where you are coming from, Steve … but there is quite a bit of local uproar, and I have received some calls, along with the sheriff, from citizens concerned by what you are doing.

Me: Yes sir. I expected that to be the case after this weekend.

More backstory is warranted here also.

That weekend was the second Sunday after our benevolent governor, Lord J. B. Pritzker had issued his bloviated mandate to destroy all entities and individuals he personally deemed obtrusive, obstructive, and worthless—specifically, small privately-owned businesses, Christians and the church, and the state legislature, who had rightful authority to legislate. The real target of his tyranny was the Constitution, individual freedoms, Christian philosophy, the rule of law, and