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"and let us
consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not
forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging
one another; and all the more as you
see the day drawing near" (Heb. 10:24-25 NASB).
I have shared
concerns about obeying God’s command regarding assembly, it appears to me that
most believers my age whom I have talked to do not understand that a phone, or
virtual connect, or watching a livestream does not obey the commands of Heb
10:24-25 or the twenty some one-another commands[i]
in the New Testament.[ii]
It is impossible to obey the one-another command in Rom 16:16 without being in
close personal proximity to another believer. Heb 10:24 has three non-optional
commands for a follower of Jesus. These are imperatives in the original
language. My parents’ and grandparents’ generations understood the vital
importance of physically assembling with groups of believers. This
understanding is missing from our current culture and generation due to of our
constant adaptation to changing technology, ignorance of biblical theology, and
ignorance of the vital importance of the local church. Livestream is helpful
when one is providentially hindered from worship. He can mentally benefit from
the teaching and connect with a speaker on an electronic non-personal level.
However, it is not the same as being physically in someone’s presence. Just
like a man and a woman cannot get married on Skype or Zoom and then consummate
the marriage by virtual contact—technology cannot fully bridge the gap. This
would also include kissing the bride after the pronouncement of the official.
I cannot feed
my granddaughter while seeing her over Duo on my phone or wipe her hands and
face after she finishes eating. Duo and Skype are better than nothing, but they
are definitely not the same. Martin Lloyd Jones would not allow his sermons to
be recorded because the Holy Spirit works in the midst of the congregation
during the preaching of the Word in a way that is not reduplicated when a
sermon is later read, listened to, or watched. There is an individual and a
corporate work of the Holy Spirit and they are not the same. Instead of listing
my own experiences of the corporate work of the Spirit, I will just mention
that the book of Acts historically records such events during the days of the
Apostles. I am a Cessationist on the sign gifts but not concerning the Holy
Spirit working both corporately and individually when the Word is preached (See
Acts 16:13-14 [Note that Rabbis sat down to teach in the synagogue. If less
than ten Jewish males lived in a town, the Jewish group would meet at the river
on Saturday]). Thus, in my understanding, it is wrong to not obey Heb 10:24-25
and the twenty plus one-another commands when not significantly providentially
hindered (e.g. being in a nursing home, hospital bed, jail cell, POW, etc.).
On the other
hand, neighbor love, the second greatest commandment (Matt 22:39), must also be
considered. If I believe I might have been exposed to a contagious illness that
could harm my brother or sister, then I should not get within six feet of them,
touch, kiss, hug or shake hands with them. Putting other Christians above and more
important than myself out of love would require using accurate data to protect
them.
So we have an
ethical dilemma because a circumstance provides a situation where we struggle
with obeying both commands. Christians hold to different approaches on this.
When facing these, I am an ideal absolutist, which is just one of six
approaches taken by believers. I seek to find a third alternative that will
allow me to obey both commands.[iii] However, both a
non-conforming absolutist and graded absolutist (hierarchal) would respond
differently. The graded absolutist would choose the greater of the two commands
and move on. The non-conforming absolutist would repent for breaking one
command and obey the other. Likewise, there are other approaches taken by
evangelical Christians when addressing moral dilemmas.
In the COVID-19
situation with the current data and lower numbers of deaths occurring than
predicted, one can still do things to protect others. Wearing gloves, masks,
properly disinfecting areas, and practicing social distancing would be
necessary to obey neighbor love. But some type of regular physical gathering of
those not providently hindered should also be occurring. Those at high risk
because of existing health conditions are providential hindered. Thus, a person
with COPD would be taking excessive risks, putting the Lord to the test (See
Matt 4:7). They should not attend until it is safer.
However, this
assembly does NOT have to occur at or on property owned by a non-profit group
(e.g. a church-owned building). It does NOT have to be in groups above ten,
even though it would be more convenient to have one meeting with more people.
Our closest Wal-Mart allows 1050 customers in the building at one-time.
Nevertheless, convenience is never grounds to disobey the governing authorities
(Rom 13:1-10). These meeting of believers do NOT have to be at the same time of
day. Thus, many groups of ten could meet each day with 30-minute gaps between
them. This would allow a local body to obey both commands. Many members would
not attend anyway because of fear of the virus. There are other creative
alternatives that would also work that gifted elders could prayerfully
discover. One idea is using a radio broadcast to preach to those in cars that
are properly distanced in a church-owned parking lot. Again, for a Hierarchical
Ethicist (Graded Absolutist), they get to pick the greater command and just
follow it. A Non-conforming Absolutist picks one command and repents for
breaking the other.
But there is a
new twist to this situation. Once a church / assembly follows the initial
governor’s executive order to not meet, there is a new problem of determining
when to stop complying. They were already disobeying one command (assembly) and
only obeying the other (neighbor love). Some were disobeying out of fear. Most
Americans have accepted the propaganda of the news media and are not gathering
with other believers because of fear, but they are inconsistently going to grocery
stores, hardware stores and doing food curbside with people outside of their
families who could be virus carriers. One thousand-fifty people are currently
allowed in the Wake Forest Wal-Mart at the same time and their parking lots
holds enough cars to transport over three thousand people. That people would
fear worship but not Wal-Mart actually shows a low priority for the church.
Corporate worship is not equal to attending a play or a basketball game. Contra
the executive orders, a pastor is a much more essential occupation than an
exempt ‘essential’ news media reporter. Nevertheless, since the decision to not
have services was made, it becomes difficult, but not impossible, to justify
restarting them before the dates of the state’s phases that are just weeks
away. However, a case can be made if the decision to cancel a church service
was based on inaccurate information provided by sources with an agenda other
than the truth and only the truth and all the truth.
There are many
that are also concerned with the financial implications and the issue that we
live in a world with two kingdoms in conflict. There are many small churches
that did not have electronic funding available before this crisis that may not
be able to continue in July. There are Christians whose businesses may be in
bankruptcy or closed and they may be unable to give to their particular church
for many months to come.
What type of
people in our world might be in favor of the gospel light going out in a
community when a church closes no matter what means were used to be able to
shut it down? This would include communists, atheists, Satan, demons, and all
those under their influence. Are there any news media producers or political
leaders that can be described in these terms? Yes, there are. Is it biblical to
not comply with people motivated by these perspectives? Yes, in certain cases,
it is.
On the other
hand, could a group of elders be motivated by keeping their jobs, lifestyle
level or protecting their traditional place of worship as their primary
motivation? To defy the executive orders (which are not laws approved by both
houses and then signed by the governor in a Constitutional Representative
Republic), their motives must be carefully considered. If money or traditions
are the primary motives, then they would be following a sinful and fleshly
motivation. This would be wrong as a primary motive for civil disobedience.
However, it is not practical to require financial concerns of the elders to not
be a secondary or lower motive along with a biblical primary motivation. The
financial concerns can also be considered because a man who does not provide
for his household is worse than a pagan according to the Apostle Paul (1 Tim
5:8).
The Bible gives
a number of circumstances where the elect are required to defy the government.
The books of Exodus, Esther, Daniel, Acts and Revelation are very helpful in
this matter. Examples include the Hebrew mid-wives (Exod 1:15-22), Hebrew
mothers (Exod 2:1-2), Moses vs. Pharaoh (Exod 9:13-30), Mordecai vs. Haman
(Esth 3:2-5), Daniel and the other three Hebrew young men against the empire’s
orders on diets, idolatry and forbidding prayer (Daniel 1, 3, 6). Likewise,
there is the case of the Apostles’ response to the highest Jewish leaders, the
Sanhedrin, when they were ordered to not preach in Jesus’ name (Acts 4:19-20).[iv] Furthermore, the elect are marked by God
(Ezek 9:4; Rev 7:3) and are not to receive the legally required symbol (Rev
20:4) of the Beasts or worship them or their idols (Rev 13:11-17, 14:11, 16:2,
19:20). Defying this governmental order prevents the elect from being able to
buy or sell food and goods legally.
Outside of the
Bible, life in the Roman Empire, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, China, most of
Asia, Southeast Asia and Northern Africa required Christians to regularly not
follow government regulations. John Bunyan spent twelve years in jail for
preaching in England without a license from the Anglican Church in the 1600s.
This is where he wrote Pilgrim’s Progress
as a Baptist pastor. When we must disobey the government, we do need to take
their punishment willingly and display love for them as our enemies whenever
possible (Matt 5:44).
Unfortunately, the news media wanting to
influence political leaders has spread massive fear and is constantly using
fear to motivate the population. Immoral celebrities giving hypocritical Skype
lectures to the population that are also shown on TV have joined the news
media. One Christian pastor friend who is spot on recently wrote: “I am not
afraid of COVID-19, or of sickness or death from any other disease, because God
is in absolute control and has all my days numbered.”
Worry is a sin
(Matt 6:31-34). Not trusting God is a sin (Zeph 3:1-5). Lacking faith in God is
a sin (Rom 14:23). If a person rode in an automobile and ate at a restaurant in
August 2019, they were doing statistically risky behavior that actually exceeds
the risk of dying from COVID-19 at this point.
What is
changing in May 2020 is that the warmer temperatures, sunlight, and higher
humidity will also lower the risk of spreading any viruses in the coming weeks.
However, the media has not allowed this event to be viewed in comparison to
SARS, the swine flu, or the bird flu. We did not restrict anyone’s
constitutional rights to assemble and to freely practice religious duties for
these epidemics. The statistical death
toll of COVID-19 does not come anywhere close to percentage of the population
lost to the Spanish flu or the bubonic plaque in proportion to the world
population in those times. Christians were allowed to meet and were on the
front lines helping victims during both of these pandemics.
Some additional
problems with the current reaction is that the regular flu killed more people
in 2019 in many states than have died by COVID-19. In NC, 520 people have died
of COVID-19 out of 7.5 million. Yet during the 2019 flu season, thousands of
small businesses in the state were not destroyed because of influenza. Many
businesses may be gone in July 2020 that were functioning well in January. When
AIDS showed up in California, a quarantine could have wiped it out, but because
of political correctness, the government did nothing like this to protect the
population. For many years HIV killed every person who contracted it (COVID-19
has not). HIV used to have a one-to-one ratio and the government response was
free needles and something else I won’t mention, but no quarantine. Consistency
has not been used in the fight against diseases that are contagious. Because of
this, it makes it painful to see that many small churches throughout the
country might have to close because of this different reaction to a virus.
How should we
respond if we disagree with the churches that have won their right to assemble
in courts or those who have chosen to peacefully meet according to the same CDC
guidelines that Wal-Mart is using? The concept of theological triage will help
us here. Biblical doctrines’ importance is on three levels. Crossway has just
released a book explaining this.[v]
On theological
triage, the matters discussed above are all third level doctrines except the
commands listed. Third level doctrines are ones that we lovingly work together
with those who hold to different views than we do on these non-essential
doctrines. Husbands and wives and church staff members, elders, deacons and
church members can hold to different positions on any third level doctrines and
still loving function and work together in unity.
The commands to
assemble and love our neighbor are second level doctrines. You can be wrong on
these and still enter heaven, but you cannot serve closely with those who would
clearly and intentionally live in violation of either command. Love for them
would make conversations unpleasant as they were called to renewed obedience to
these biblical commands clearly applied to believers in the New Testament as
well as the Old Testament. Nothing touched on in this response is a level one
doctrine.
Level one
doctrines include the virgin birth, trinity, deity and humanity of Christ,
blood atonement, salvation by grace, justification by faith alone and by Christ
alone, etc. Those who hold the wrong view on these, especially after being
exposed to the truth, are not saved and our contact is not one of fellowship
but relational evangelism. For those actively teaching in cults, we must even
distance ourselves from them (2 John 10).
The bottom
line—even though it would be exhausting, I would enthusiastically support any elder who would personally
vote to schedule multiple groups of ten people following CDC protocol at different
times at a safe location as a way to comply with God’s command and the
government until they are offered a better and more creative way to do it. I
believe there are creative minds in the church that should discuss these issues
together. Together they can come up with even better ways to both show love for
neighbor and assemble with believers. Godly elders can discover win-win
alternatives in discussions and prayer. Then, in each phase of reopening, adapt
to the new lesser restrictions. After all the true factual data is gathered
from these past months, there may be grounds in the autumn season to not comply
with parts of executive orders that violate biblical commands if proper
preventative polices are put in place to prevent the spreading of contagious diseases.
END NOTES
[i].
See a list of one-another commands and statements athttp://conservativeevangelicals737.blogspot.com/2020/05/what-does-reciprocal-living-mean-nt-one.html and http://conservativeevangelicals737.blogspot.com/2020/05/nt-one-another-commands-and-statements.html
[ii].
For this same reason I agree with the Pillar Network’s position that a pastor
needs to be present with his people during preaching and not just viewed on a
screen at a satellite worship location. A new church should be planted with an
actual man rather than an electronic video image that cannot hold their hand at
a hospital or graveside. They need a person who can see, listen, and speak.
[iii].
See my view on moral dilemmas at this link http://conservativeevangelicals737.blogspot.com/2019/07/a-personal-evaluation-of-moral-dilemmas.html
[iv].
19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is
right in the sight of God to give heed to you
rather than to God, you be the judge; 20 for we cannot stop
speaking about what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:19-20 NASB).
[v].
Gavin Ortlund, Finding the Right Hills to
Die on: The Case for Theological Triage, Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020.
