NH Baptist Pastor Charged With Possessing Child Porn

Manchester’s ABC News affiliate reports:

The pastor of a church in Nashua has been arrested and charged with possessing child sexual abuse images after an investigation that police said has been going on for years. Stephen Bates, 46, pastor of Bible Baptist Church, was arrested Tuesday at the church’s Caldwell Road property.

Police said the investigation dates back to 2016 when the Nashua Police Department was notified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that child sexual abuse images had been accessed by an IP address associated with this church. Similar tips were then received in 2017, according to police.

Boston’s NBC News affiliate reports:

The IP address associated with the Bible Baptist Church was also linked to a 2019 investigation into online child sexual exploitation in Denver, Colorado; a 2020 investigation into the publishing of child pornography on the internet in Tallahassee, Florida; and a 2021 investigation into the sexual exploitation of a child in Blaine, Washington, according to Nashua police.

Police said Bates was contacted several times by federal investigators over the years during the earlier child pornography and child exploitation investigations, but there was not sufficient evidence to charge him with any crimes. “During a search of his person, he had some thumb drives or flash drives on him, which we were able to analyze on scene and they contained child pornography,” said Nashua Police Lt. Brian Trefry

From the church’s “Our Beliefs” section:



We believe in the blessed hope of the personal, corporal, glorious, imminent, pre-tribulational return of the Lord Jesus Christ in the skies, where He will meet in the air all the dead in Christ (N.T. Saints) and the regenerated ones that are alive here on the earth.

Shortly after this catching away (rapture), all N.T. believer’s will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ at the Judgment Seat of Christ and give an oral account as to the character of the things done in his/her body. Then the Marriage of Christ and His bride, at the Marriage Supper will take place in heaven.

These future events will take place during the seven year tribulation on the earth which concludes with the pre-millennial, Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ!

After the Lord Jesus Christ defeats the armies of the world in the Battle of Armageddon, the devil is bound for a thousand years, while Christ’s kingdom is established here on earth and the Lord Jesus Christ reigns with His saints for a millennium.

At the end of the millennial reign of Christ on this earth, the devil is loosed, the final battle takes place, and the earth is purged.

Then follows the Great White Throne Judgment when the unsaved of all the ages will be judged and cast into the lake of fire for evermore. The Bible concludes with all the saints of God living for eternity in the new heaven and the new earth reigning with Him for evermore.