New Jersey pastor sexually assaulted children for 16 years, prosecutor says
A pastor for a church in Burlington County, New Jersey is accused of sexually assaulting children over the course of 16 years.
Harry Thomas, of Queens Lane in Medford Township, is charged with aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of children.
Thomas, who was arrested on Wednesday morning, is the pastor for the Come Alive Church in the township.
According to the prosecutor's office, the 74-year-old assaulted four children between 1999 and 2015. The assaults, police say, happened in Medford Township, but they would not confirm if they happened at the church or elsewhere.
No further details about the cases were released as part of an effort to protect the victims' identities.
Church official William Darpino said Thomas is suspended indefinitely from all leadership positions. The church took swift action to remove the head of their flock.
"Leadership has determined this to be the proper course of action at this time until there can be a full investigation," Darpino said.
Medport Diner owner Dino Originos says he has known the man, called "Pastor Harry" for nearly 30 years.
"I've seen him with children, with my children, and there is no way. I can't believe it," Originos said. "He doesn't seem to fit that profile. He is such a nice man and a Godly man and he has grandkids himself."
Thomas was the founder of the "Creation Festival," which started in 1978. In an interview posted online, Thomas talks about being drawn to teaching the young.
"I still had a burden for youth, and my burden for youth started to really come to the forefront," he said in the video.
Police say the reverend is receiving treatment at a medical facility and under the guard of corrections personnel.
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Teaching does not involve touching you freak. Have fun in prison.
if found guilty.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Matthew 7:21-23
Are you trying to say the devil made him do it?
That’s not at all what I said. Jesus said that someone who practices lawlessness like that isn’t a Christian.
That is a No True Scotsman fallacy. You don't get to pick and choose who is a Christian.
So what would you call this:
That's a pretty long (and incomplete) history of Christians not being Christians.
No problem, he just owes some fathers some shekels, and to take the girls to be his wives forever. All the answers are in scripture.
Deuteronomy 22:28-29New International Version (NIV)
28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, 29 he shall pay her father fifty shekels[a] of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
Christians are NOT under the Law of Moses- we are under the Law of Christ
"Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, “You must be circumcised and keep the law”—to whom we gave no such commandment— it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well." Acts 15:24-29
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away." Hebrews 8:12,13
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest part or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.” (Matthew 5:17 NAB)
What matters here is man's law and hopefully it ends up with him being in gen pop with his fellow inmates aware of why he is there.
The requirements of the Law were fulfilled at the cross. Jesus is addressing that He didn’t come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. That is why He established a NEW Covenant with mankind
“The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.
Luke 16:16
For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Romans 10:3,4
Galatians 2:21
I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. Galatians 3:10-14, 24,25
Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman.
Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free. Galatians 4:21-22, 30,31
I have no disagreement with that
And God said unto them, “If you believe in me you are a sucker.”
Hal 12:18
Larry, didn't you previously claim that your buddy Jesus gave those laws to Moses?
Yes He did. There is no contradiction
“What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.”
Galatians 3:19-25
That doesn't make much sense given your superstitious claim that "Christians are NOT under the Law of Moses- we are under the Law of Christ."
By the way if your buddy Jesus didn't want Christian pastors to rape little kids why didn't he explicitly prohibit it?
You are under the Law of whoever made the most recent edit in a collection of novellas.
One can find any excuse in the bible.
As far as the alleged Pastor Thomas, he found what he was looking for. He should have read "Hitler's U-Boat War" by Clay Blair and learned something more relevant.