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Open the Churches

Hebrews 10:24–25
 
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
 
How many times must an act be repeated to become a habit? Or for how long? A week, a month, a year? The churches in Canada have, for the most part, made a habit of neglecting physical gathering together. The encouragement, “stirring up,” love, good works—are not “virtual” events. They are real and tangible, and it is time we obeyed this command.
 
Here’s another way to understand this: Imagine that a non-plague like Covid-19 occurred in the 1960s when our online world today was just science fiction. Worship was either in-person or it wasn’t. Churches were assembled physically, or they were not churches. How would our ancestors in the faith respond to the ordered lockdown of churches? If many thousands were dying daily in their world, they had the adult wisdom to stay home. But we have lost the ability to think, and meekly do as we’re told by leaders who are themselves breaking the law. Even the leaders have abdicated their leadership to experts who are proving themselves to be malicious fools.
 
But we can happily submit to tyrants because there is an easy out—online worship! We don’t feel the need to face down tyranny, because we have Zoom, Facebook, YouTube, and Romans 13! If there are “two or three gathered together” huddled around the monitor or TV, Christ is there! (never mind that Matthew18:20 is in the context of church discipline and the authority of the church to deal with sin).
 
Christians in the past also had Romans 13, for about 2000 years, but have never used that Scripture to justify this behaviour.
 
Our understanding of our obedience in worship (physical assembly) has been shaped not by Scripture, which demands obedience to God rather than men (Acts 5:29). Our understanding of obedience is shaped by our culture, primarily our technology. We can breathe a sigh of relief that we have the online option, so we don’t have to actually obey. Maybe online church is God’s judgment, not His blessing.
 
“What would we do without the internet?” That should be the question of our soul. The answer could be damnation.
 
Most of us have not worshipped in a year, or enjoyed real fellowship, or communion, and we are in grave danger of getting used to it, of making it a habit.
 
There was a time when gathering was the expectation. Televised worship services were permissible for shut-ins and prisoners, but anyone who was physically able would worship with the saints. No Christian who hoped to grow in his faith would think of staying away!
 
So . . .
We have lost a great opportunity in this past year.
 
We have lost the opportunity to declare to our neighbours and communities that Christ is Lord over the church, and that our allegiance to Him is first and foremost. This is the expectation of every Christian. “If Jesus is not Lord, don’t join us. You’ll be disappointed.”
 
We have lost the opportunity to show physically, that social distancing is a fool’s errand. It is a satanic destruction of human life, and we lost the opportunity to say “no” to it: to defend the defenceless—the infirm, the unemployed, the drug addict, the lonely, the suicidal. We have outsourced Christian compassion and concern a CERB cheque. (CERB is a monthly cheque used to mollify its recipients).
 
We have lost the opportunity to demonstrate hope.
 
We must not seek a return to normal, because that will never happen. Indeed, if normal led us to this, we are insane to seek to return to it. No, we must repent of our fear, anger, rebellion, hard-heartedness, and mean-spiritedness.
 
We must ask God to restore and reform His church.
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We Need Prophetic Denunciation, Not Lament

A recent Christianity Today article calls for lament as a response to the border crisis in the US. “Lament is a cry for mercy or help in a time of sadness and regret.” I understand the sentiment—the feeling of helplessness, or at least a sense of helplessness brought about by doing little about the problem; helplessness because there are no concrete actions planned to be taken. This can indeed make us feel sad; sad to the point, perhaps, of lamentation; at least lamentation seems to be doing something, even if it isn’t doing anything significant to change the situation.

Biblically, however, lament occurs only when all is lost, the tragedy is settled, finished, and there is no recovery to be had. The people of God will lament upon destruction when all hope is lost. Think Job, Jeremiah, etc.

But what is happening on the border between the United States and Mexico, while tragic and sad, is not lamentable–yet.

We are not at the point of lamentation, rather, we are at the point of action.  Nations are judged by this sort of thing, and the actions of several nations at this time are inviting the wrath of God. Now passing the 60,000,000th abortion, the US has been courting wrath for a long time.

Western nations have not yet been on the receiving end of God’s wrath. When that happens, we’ll know, and all we can do at that point is lament: lament for our sin.

No, rather than lamentation we need, and can, announce God’s judgement on the evil that is the present border crisis. What follows is a brief response to the article I made on Facebook:

Regarding the US border crisis.

I think it is terrible that children are abused in this way. They must be terrified. It is a demonic power that is behind the caging of children, then, instead of helping them, to use them as a political football.

The game is this: open borders in a welfare state means votes for a party that will give the most stuff-for-votes: Democrats. This is no secret, nor is anyone surprised by it.

The losing party will be the one that has lost its moral compass and nerve: Republicans. The Republicans have forgotten that they believed in a supreme moral authority and now struggle to keep their power.

There is a bloody thread that runs from slavery, to the KKK, to segregation, to Jim Crow, to the removal of the black father from families to the slaughter of children throughout pregnancy, and now even after birth. This is the Democrat party. Is it any wonder that they will encourage this behaviour at the border because they know they can make political capital off of it? Is it any wonder that a party that believes children are disposable would permit this to continue? Is it any wonder that this same brutality existed under eight years of a recent Democrat president only now to be a backdrop for outrage?

What is outrageous that these satanic pimps would dare lecture others about compassion and caring.

The Republicans. At least there is a philosophical justification for their existence, but morally they are merely pragmatic and seek to retain power at any cost. As Rand Paul said, “Republicans won’t vote to outlaw abortion because they might win.” They seem more afraid of the Democrats than they are of God. If they held to their principles, abortion would have been banned long ago, and the welfare state of the USA would be much less attractive–adequate, but less inviting. Having allowed the Democrats to write their playbook, they continue to fail.

But children and families suffer because it works for those seeking power.

Ignored are the millions of dollars spent by Christian relief agencies at the border to try to save lives and offer comfort. One thing that Democrats and Republicans can agree upon: the problem is something for the government to fix, and it will only be fixed if one side wins at great expense of the other. This guarantees that the suffering will continue.

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Eph 6:12.

The political systems that allow this to continue are demonic, and we must pronounce the judgement of God’s word upon them. Lamenting is a passive response, but not an appropriate one. Christians must take the stance that the Democrat party is a cult that is set against the Kingdom of God and His Church. It is a party that actively seeks to reject the Lordship of Christ. The Republican party is a spineless party that will bend to the whim of what it perceives to be the mood of the people, forgetting its principles. I do believe that to claim to be a Christian, and a Democrat is contradictory and should be a matter of church discipline. I also believe that the parallels in Canadian politics, Liberal, NDP, and Conservative fall along the same lines.

Christians must roundly condemn evil in the political realm. This too is where Christ is king.

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Training Against the Evils of Capitalism

“The younger generation of today has grown up in a world in which in school and press the spirit of commercial enterprise has been represented as disreputable and the making of profit as immoral, where to employ a hundred people is represented as exploitation but to command the same number as honorable. Older people may regard this as an exaggeration of the present state of affairs, but the daily experience of the university teacher leaves little doubt that, as a result of anticapitalist propaganda, values have already altered far in advance of the change in institutions which has so far taken place. The question is whether, by changing our institutions to satisfy the new demands, we shall not unwittingly destroy values which we still rate higher.

Hayek, F. A.. The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents–The Definitive Edition: Text and Documents–The Definitive Edition (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, Volume 2) (p. 155). University of Chicago Press. Kindle Edition.