A few days ago Todd Starnes shared an article about churches becoming nervous about having to temporarily close their doors in the face of the Coronavirus. Now, the article wasn’t written by him, but he did add this comment, “Let’s just hope and pray the temporary bans don’t become something else…” That’s it, that’s all he said, but you would have thought he’d blasphemed God Himself by the way people reacted.
They said he was ‘fear-mongering’, accused him of creating an issue where none exists, lectured him about the church not being a building so it didn’t matter, we can just meet in homes, and the list goes on. But I think they missed the whole point of his comment.
I get what Mr. Starnes was saying.
Now I’m not an expert, but I’m pretty sure that when Communist countries began cracking down on religious liberties most people had the same thoughts, “Church isn’t a building, its people!”
This is true. I wholeheartedly agree.
But when people gave up their buildings, the Communist party moved on to forbidding holding meetings in homes, which turned into forbidding any religion other than the state-approved religion. Bibles and church buildings burned, and millions of Christians were faced with having to renounce Jesus or go into hiding. They faced jail, public shaming, and humiliation, lost their jobs and homes, and sometimes lost their lives. Suddenly, they were no longer able to live their Faith openly.
Yes. Underground churches were formed, but at what cost?
It began with the country/state forbidding them to meet in buildings. That’s why America was created in the first place. Christians wanting to live their Faith openly, without the state-run church telling them how to Worship, hopped on ships and started a new country, one where ALL people could live their Faith as they wanted, but unfortunately, today’s America does not resemble its beginnings.
Churches and Christianity are under attack. We are told how to believe, how to interpret the Bible, labeled bigots and racists if we don’t adhere to the World’s view and standards. Our Faith is the only religion that can be slandered, maligned, belittled on daytime TV or movies and told we do not have any right to complain about it.
Not surprisingly, our government has had a heavy hand in trying to destroy our Faith. They try to pass laws that limit what we are allowed to say, or do, or believe. Some of our elected officials publicly vilify Christians; encourage people to harm us, twisting the scriptures to use for political points. So if we give up, roll over and let those in government who hate God and our Faith have control, we might just find ourselves sliding into having to meet in basements for fear of being jailed, or worse.
To accuse Mr. Starnes and others of ‘fear-mongering’ is ridiculous. It’s not ‘fear-mongering’ to look at the world’s history and learn from the mistakes that were made. To say that he is spreading fear, or doesn’t have enough Faith is also ridiculous. There’s nothing wrong with taking precautions or suggesting we be careful how much we allow our government leaders to control in our Worship, or where we Worship, or when we Worship. If anything, it makes our Faith stronger.
The Bible says in Matthew 10:16: “Listen! I am sending you out just like sheep to a pack of wolves. You must be as cautious as snakes and as gentle as doves.”
So Church, that means we must be wary of the motives of our government leaders, always on guard against their efforts to strip us of our Faith, while being examples of Jesus’ love to the world around us.
NOW, that being said, a temporary pause of large church gatherings to prevent this virus from spreading is prudent and necessary. So to those of us panicking over not physically meeting I say this – Take a step back, breathe in deep, and let God be God in this matter. – In this present time, we must value those in our congregations who are vulnerable to this disease and put aside our fear. Jesus wouldn’t do any less, so neither should we.
Of course, we cannot just let our government leaders drag this temporary ban on indefinitely, or we risk losing the freedoms America’s founders fought so hard to give us. Yes, we must learn the lessons history has to teach us, but as long as we remain steadfast in our convictions to VOTE, and hold our elected government officials to upholding our Constitutional rights, we will return to our houses of Worship the stronger for it.
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