A Denton, Texas pastor says his congregation will not be deterred by bomb threats and will celebrate Christmas Eve Thursday night.

Denton Bible Church senior pastor Tommy Nelson says about 5,000 people will fill the church tonight, despite a mailed bomb threat received by the church earlier this week.

“It’s the 500-pound gorilla in the room,” Nelson tells NBC 5. “You have to address that in the first 20 seconds – that we know this happened and this is a bad thing.”

Church administrators say they received the threat Monday.

“It’s hard to believe that in America, someone would say to you, ‘We will do you great harm if you proclaim the name of Christ on Christmas Eve.’ That’s hard to believe. But I simply say we will go on with our duty,” according to Nelson.

St. Andrew Presbyterian Church was also threatened, receiving a letter Tuesday, the Denton Record-Chronicle reports.

“Whether or not it’s real or a false alarm, we don’t know. Obviously, we’re going to take it as a serious threat,” says Officer Shanze Kizer, a Denton police spokesman.

Nelson was defiant in a Facebook post earlier this week:

“Though this letter was not from Lex Luthor, The Joker or even The Penguin, we still must take all threats seriously and we shall. We shall have Christmas Eve as always but you will notice more folks at the entrances with more eyes.

“People write such threats for two reasons. A hatred toward what you stand for and a desire to disrupt through ‘terror’ (hence the moniker), and also for the delight of their 15 minutes.

“Someone is no doubt up early this morning watching Fox 4 and chortling over their ‘beautiful wickedness.’”

St. Andrew leaders aren’t being intimidated, either.

“It is our desire to continue our annual Christmas Eve services taking appropriate precautions, but resisting any temptation to succumb to the fear-laden atmosphere that surrounds us,” interim Pastor Alan Baroody tells ABC 8.

Nelson says they will be prepared.

“We will have policemen there. We will have people in our congregation. We have a number of men in our congregation that are trained, and they’ll simply have eyes and they know what they’re looking for during services,” he tells NBC 5.

“You make sure the building is OK first. Then you just watch who comes in. And you keep your eyes out,” Nelson says. “It’s kind of like you don’t expect anything to happen, but you always prepare for the worst-case scenario.”