Churches Need to Open Now!

"Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty."

In response to questions about the economic consequences of lockdowns, Nabarro from the World Health Organization said: “We in the World Health Organization do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus. The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganize, regroup, rebalance your resources; protect your health workers who are exhausted. But by and large, we’d rather not do it.” Nabarro then described potential economic consequences, including effects on the tourism industry and farmers or the worsening of world poverty. Lockdowns, along with other safety measures, such as mask mandates, social distancing, vaccine research, creation, and implementation, viable treatments, Plexiglass, hygiene, testing and tracing programs are all elements of a multi-tiered approach to combat Covid-19 in America. All of these approaches are continuing eleven months after the virus outbreak and that is exactly wrong according to the WHO's recent comments. Nabarro walked back his statements after receiving pressure, yet didn't Fauci do the same with masks? All of our safety measures can be maintained, yet mass closures are only justified, "To buy time to re-organize, regroup, rebalance your resources; protect your health workers who are exhausted." Lockdowns were never supposed to become the "new normal."

The closure of schools, libraries, malls, restaurants, family gatherings, work and church should never become the new normal, no matter how much the media maintains it's necessary to preserve public health, as they push and plead that we need to embark on this "new normal" together.

Society is wringing its hands, looking for other answers to closures, to the draconian mandates that suppress our lives and our freedoms. We are looking for some beacon of hope to provide relief of these overt displays of control and power. Society is searching for its other leaders. Leaders who supposedly have nothing to gain or lose from telling the truth. The only such power on earth for which it is possible to have this capability is God. Only God has nothing gained, nothing lost from the truth, He is truth. He cannot be anything other than Truth. And the church is to be His light and His truth among the nations.

So I ask, where are the churches? That's right. Where are you? Where are the ministers of God's truth, His way, His light, His hope? Your job is to comfort, reassure and remind people of an everlasting hope and promise that is salvation is Christ our Lord and that we are no longer bound by suppression, by chains, by the world and its lies. Nothing is more important than this truth. If you must walk through hell fire to provide, and for others to access this truth, so be it! Much less a virus with a survival rate of 99% for most of the population, 94.6% for those with health and age vulnerability.

The church may claim, and many do, that they are closed in an attempt to keep their congregation safe yet, where in the Bible does it say this is the church's prerogative? The church was founded in turmoil, persecution, trials, and very real threats of death. The Bible does not say, spread this gospel throughout the nations, but not in times of pandemic or other world disasters. The main purpose of the church, and every Christian, is to feed into others the bread and water of life. To spread the gospel. The church is called to bear one another's burdens, not to close its doors when the burden seems too risky. Paul says in Galatians 6, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." We should not be using the burden of fear and health concerns as a reason to stop conducting traditional church services.

Comfort, conformity, political correctness, fear--these are the motives from which many churches draw their current actions. They are afraid to lose their mega church status (and perhaps mega church tithings/contributions), to offend their congregants by negating myopic and arbitrary man made mandates, created with no constitutional basis and of which are against our church and our inalienable rights. Rights, not given by man but by God. The federal Constitution was created not to protect the law, but to protect the people from the law, from the government; to protect the people's rights whom only God has the power to give and take away.

It is not the church's job to pander to its congregants but to stand in fear and trembling before the Lord and only the Lord. No fear of any man, whether it be of law or of its congregation, should stop a church from opening its doors to the people. Christ is both Lamb and Lion. For too long the church has pandered to the masses, tip toed the line of society dictated norms, and softened the message of Christ.

Lions in the church and in the Christian community need to stand up and roar that no being on heaven or earth can stop us from worshiping our God, together, united and in community. If we are sheep, let us be sheep towards God alone. If we are in fear, let it be with reverence and awe towards God alone. If we are rejected, let it be as the rejected Cornerstone upon whose foundation we stand and build our faith.

Churches! Do you not remember the words of Christ, to fix your eyes on things unseen, not the seen? For the things which are seen are temporary and the things which are not seen are eternal. For even though our outward man is perishing, our inward man is being renewed day by day? Fix your hearts upon heaven, upon your heavenly reward. The race is not to win a large church with a rock band, a tax break, and podcast! The race is towards heaven and towards men's hearts that we catch like fish with the truth of the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Never forget, we are free. In Galatians 4 Paul writes to the church, "But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?" Why do we still allow ourselves to be distracted and subverted by the whims of this world, which are forever fleeting, purposely pressing our minds towards what will assuredly pass away? How much of our time and energy during this crisis have we focused on our material state rather than our spiritual state?

America needs a revival. Churches, will we be forced to embark on this revival without its leaders? Because we cannot wait. Christians, we need to fall on our knees at the cross, fix our eyes upward and pray God's Spirit be poured out from the heavens. Pray for God's hand to heal our land, to tame our prodigal hearts, to have His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. As Paul goes on to remind us, the greatest liberty is to be dead to sin and alive in Christ. To be rid of the chains of the Law and to be saved by faith in the grace of Jesus' sacrifice. There are no chains, earthly or otherwise, that we should fear, instead we should, "Stand fast therefore in liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again by the yoke of bondage."

Churches, I ask you: If Jesus came back tomorrow, with your church doors shuttered, with your congregants feeling as if you abandoned them to the same whims that have taken their businesses, their ability to provide for their families, their children's well-being and education, would Jesus look highly upon you? Would He favor your decision to acquiesce to the government in a time such as this and in such a way? Did Paul stop his ministry even in chains? Did Stephen, even to his death? Paul asked for Christians to be at peace with authorities, and with each other, as much as it is possible. As much as it is possible. It was not fully possible for a Christian during biblical times to be at peace with authority, as Paul's chains quite simply imply. Despite his chains Paul writes, "To make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus, in whom we have boldness and confidence through faith in Him. Therefore, I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory." Paul's earthly chains are the direct result of revealing the mystery of God, which is salvation, our glory! Paul reminds us that the means justify this end, for the end is the salvation of others. This glory is worth any trial and tribulation, whether it be a virus or fines or legal troubles. We have been unchained. No earthly chain has any claim on our hope, our joy, our testimony, our salvation, our God.

America is undergoing spiritual warfare. It is the churches' responsibility to lead the battle. It is you, churches of America, that need to show how the people should resist lies, how to break chains of bondage, and how to find hope in their trials. Churches, do not be the shepherds Jesus condemned the Pharisees and church leaders to be, those in which He had left His flock within their care. Yet, instead of shepherding them with self sacrifice, mercy, and faith, these shepherds lead the flock astray, led them back into bondage. Churches, you must shepherd the people back to a fear of God, not of man. You must shepherd the people with this truth: that worshiping and communal relationships cannot happen via live stream, or with forced social distancing and masks, and that during no time, past present future, is God unessential.

2 Corinithians 3:16-17 "Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty."