A Tennessee church's trailer fire reportedly destroyed hundreds of bibles early on Easter, with police and emergency crews dousing the blaze.
Investigators believe the trailer, at an intersection near Global Vision Bible Church led by Pastor Greg Locke, was intentionally set on fire at 6 a.m., the Wilson County Sheriff's Office said.
Firefighters from the Mt. Juliet Fire Department "promptly extinguished" the blaze.
Locke said there were "probably 200 Bibles" on the trailer, adding the fire was set in front of an entrance, The Tennessean reported.
"It was 100% directed at us [Global Vision Bible Church]," Locke said, the outlet reported. "It blocked the entrance to our campus and the fact that it was an entire load of Bibles is rather conclusive proof that is was most assuredly directed at us.
"It did not, nor will it, stop us. It was cleaned up in time for people to drive into the parking lot. We had a full house and a marvelous service."
After the fire was contained, the county sheriff's office deputies and detectives took control of the investigation.
"If you think Christianity is not under attack more than ever before in the United States of America, you have not been paying attention." Locke said about the fire, the Tennessean reported.
In a statement posted on Facebook, Locke said the church's security cameras were able to capture a man reportedly dropping off the trailer, American Newswire reported.
"There was a lady that had driven through the night to get to our church, and she was in the parking lot and was able to get the police officers here quickly, but it was quite the scene to wake up to on my first morning back from Israel," he wrote.
Addressing his congregation at a live-streamed Easter service, Locke said the culprit would be "getting in quite a deal of trouble" soon. He said he hadn't personally viewed the security footage yet, but went on to describe it, The Daily Beast reported.
"He's got his hazard lights on at 5:58 in the morning," the pastor said. "I'm like, Wow, here's the most polite crook I've ever met in my whole life. I've never met, you know, polite Satanists."
"And so he unhooks the trailer and douses it with gasoline, with fuel, and then — there were probably 200 Bibles," Locke continued. "I don't know where he got them."
The pastor said he had wanted to "start passing out" the scorched Bible pages, but that authorities had confiscated them as evidence.
Locke also said incident is being investigated as a hate crime, and that the FBI is involved, the Daily Beast reported.
NewsChannel 5 Nashville reported Sheriff Robert Bryan said he had "no doubt" the Bibles were burned intentionally.
Hundreds took to social media to support the church.
"The evil out there is frightening. So thankful no one was harmed or damage done to the church. May our Lord touch the heart of the person who did this," one user reportedly wrote, The Tennessean reported.
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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