By Jason Charles on 4/22/2020 (4 years 5 days ago) Theology & Religion
I can’t help, but look at this COVID-19 plandemic in terms of divine judgment, simply because of how it has exposed the failings of the church. The Apostle Peter rightly declared that God’s judgment will always fall first on the Christians and church because they are the standard bearers of God’s truth in the world. If there is no Truth and darkness in the world, pastors and Christians only have themselves to blame.
“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” 1 Peter 4:17-18
I would have to say, on a whole I am deeply ashamed of how the body of believers the world over handled this New World Order plandemic crisis, but especially that of the American church. It’s like God, in His infinite wisdom, sent the church a mighty test, a once in a millennia grand opportunity to shine, to proclaim bold Truth, condemn the overreach of government, to show faith rather than fear, to direct the lost to the light of Christ; but instead they hid that light under a bushel. Or in the modern parlance, they closed their physical doors, and sent everyone home to watch a livestream of their services. And I bet if you were to check those service stream statistics they would all show a massive drop-off the moment the music stops and the Pastor steps out on stage to preach, seeing people were only there for the rock concert in the first place.
If there was one thing that God could have done to demonstrate just how cowardly, useless, subservient, weak, groveling and sickly the American church has become; it was this COVID-19 plandemic.
This last month has proven that the vast majority of pastors, deacons, church boards and congregants have absolutely no fight in them. A recent study of cellphone data, tracking Americans behavior showed a complete fall-off in church attendance and activity on past Sunday’s as well as Easter Sunday.
“Cellphone data tracking Americans’ behavior shows that the vast majority of people who might normally be in church stayed away on Easter, the day churches often pull in their highest attendance of the year.
Americans’ attendance at Sunday religious services began dropping dramatically in early March, according to a Washington Post analysis of mobile location data provided by SafeGraph, a company that aggregates location data from tens of millions of devices and compares it with building footprints of all types, including grocery stores, schools and religious organizations.
By then, many states had started to restrict large gatherings, and several denominations had halted in-person worship services in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.” (Washington Post, 4/17/2020)
The sad part about this data is it shows that the modern church lives in fear, they live in fear of the IRS and government retribution, they live in fear of the condemnation of their fellow citizens who would have undoubtedly shamed them and chastised them for their church services, and they live in fear of a common cold virus that has a death rate lower than that of the seasonal flu. It is obvious they listen to the media and government officials; more so than their own hearts or the Bible. The Bible plainly tells them that people need the church more so than ever, and to flee and close down would be an egregious sin.
The plunging attendance would suggest that both pastors and Christians have forsaken the assembling of ourselves together, while scripture commands us to meet, and especially so as the days grow evil.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. Hebrews 10:23-25
If you have even remotely been paying attention you know that the days have grown exceedingly evil. We have the very real challenges of war, poverty, mass baby murder, immorality, godlessness, pandemics, and tyrannical overreach of government all of which is darkness that can only exist in the absence and power of Christian truth. These are the real plagues of our time, but the church runs from these issues in the same way they run at the slightest hint of a spreading cold.
We have to ask in light of the mass church closures who is the God of the American church today? It is no longer obvious. Who do they fear more, God or government? In my opinion they tuned their ear to the culture and to the government rather than toward God.
They are not operating out of love for the people and the believers because in trying times and confusion people need spiritual leadership. If that was the motive then they would have demanded that their church stays open as essential services in every community instead of collectively tucking tail and running with no opposition.
Those Who Have Gone Before Us
A lesson from church history would evidently point out that there was nothing in this world that could keep true, Jesus professing men and women from meeting together as a body of believers. Believers met despite the edicts of some the most tyrannical and harshest of regimes throughout world history. They gathered together despite the fear of Roman soldiers and the spectacle of martyrdom in the colosseum, they met in underground catacombs filled with rats and the disease, the church fellowshipped while targeted by Stalin and the radical League of Militant Atheism in Russia, the confessing church met in opposition of Hitler, people still went to churches in Dresden, England while bombs were being dropped all around them in WWII, many who were later pulled from the rubble having died there.
It is obvious that the Christian men and women took the command by Jesus and the disciples to never forsake the gathering together very seriously even at the risk of their very lives.
Right now, Churches in Europe are decrying this self-imposed church shutdown, knowing full well that once the government sees how easy it is to achieve compliance, they will do it again and again as a means to snuff out the light of the Church. Read these statements by Eastern Bloc churches that recall the crimes of communism, quoted is one of many church leaders warning against this overreach by government,
“Romanian Catholic bishop Virgil Bercea told CNS April 11 that the restrictions in his country, where since March 24 citizens have been forbidden to leave their homes except to go to work or to buy food and medicines, reminded him of the time of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu.
“The situation recalls the closure of churches for more than 40 years under communism, when we had no possibility to worship, still less celebrate Easter”, Bishop Bercea denounced.
He added that under Ceaușescu and his predecessor as Romanian head of state, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, “our Church was forbidden and forced to live clandestinely… we had no priests and had to worship in our homes”.
“We’ve experienced this before, when having nothing was normal”, Bercea deplored.
“At that time, it was communism, and now it’s the coronavirus. The situation is different, but the realities are much the same.
“Everything is now closed again — churches, schools and universities — and all that remains once more is prayer at home.” (Novenanews.com, 4/17/2020)
There are more important things to consider when weighing the consequences of shutting down the church for a cold virus because of a government mandate. We must ask what effect this will have on the long-term ability of the church to perform its God given role in society. We can never allow government to infringe on the jurisdictional boundaries and God given duties ascribe to the church. The Church has fought extremely hard for these boundaries, and they need to be policed with the utmost tenacity and even vengeance seeing the Church provides so much in terms of easing the suffering of the human soul. Suffering largely derived from what evil government almost always does every century. The greater evil is to stand down in the face of tyranny, more so than the low chance of spreading a sickness. A sickness that can simply be dwelt with by washing your hands, and taking common sense actions like keeping the sick and feeble away. We don't need the WHO, mandated vaccines, Bill Gates and government to save us from a sickness that can be dwelt with by exercising proper hygiene that was laid out long ago in the book of Leviticus. We need more Bible, we need more Truth because the real threat is not the disease but the coming global tyranny this plandemic is ushering in worldwide.
Conclusion
I want to remind all of the pastors out there that jumped when government said to close their doors that we have the perfect example of Christ, a perfect leader who took masses of people to the most diseased parts of town to teach and heal people. Every instance of a leper or a cripple in scripture almost always takes place on the periphery of towns, well away from the population base because that is where the colonies of diseased and disenfranchised people existed.
We read in Luke 17:12-14, that Jesus cleansed 10 leprous men in one of these areas, and then sent them to see the priests. He sent them to the priests as a testimony against them for failing the dying masses at their city gates, and forsaking their duties to heal, teach and aid the people. Why did he do this? Because the priests were tasked in Leviticus to aid in the healing and cleansing of people who had fallen ill or stricken by poverty. That was literally one of their major job descriptions in the Old Testament. They were frontline essential workers, in ancient times, and pastors today have an important role to do the same in our modern times no matter what the perceived threat may be.
The Apostle James repeated this in the New Testament famously by describing pure religion,
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. James 1:27
I have always suspected that when a church signs their IRS 501c3 non-profit paperwork they are signing their souls to the state, and becoming a sanctioned prophet of the state rather than God. This pandemic has demonstrated hugely this to be the case.
By shutting their doors on Sunday pastors told their congregants that they were not essential in times of disease and poverty, they told the frontline workers at hospitals that their prayers and presence was not needed, they told the IRS that their 501c3 tax exempt status was more important than speaking out, they told government that they will universally bow the knee to the state over any emergency real or imagined without hesitation, and ultimately they told God that they will allow government to protect and instruct them over and above what God would have them do during these times.
This shutdown is a blackmark on the church, and it will have massive repercussions as we move into the future in terms of signaling the devil and his forces towards more tyranny. If the church isn’t there to stop and resist, then a new dark age is inevitable. Who is the God of the American church? Because the God of the Bible would have these churches saying like Peter,
"...We ought to obey God rather than men." Acts 5:29
To all the churches and pastors who have found ways to meet, I applaud you and send my love and prayers for protection. Keep the faith, and keep fighting despite the opposition, and then continue fighting after this pandemic lifts becuase this is only the beginning.
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