Christians Stop Believing the Coronavirus Con
By Michael Shannon
Pastors are belatedly coming to the conclusion that letting Caesar decide when and where they can worship was a bad idea from the beginning. The fact the vast majority of churches meekly shut down and surrendered Easter demonstrated how deeply secular culture has penetrated the pastorate.
These collaborationists forgot the one time Jesus lost his temper was when secular concerns were interfering with the worship of God inside the Temple. Pastors evidently confused meek with weak and that faulty thinking dominated their Flu Manchu decision-making.
The rush to surrender to secular authorities and be good little church people was positively French in its intensity.
These so-called shepherds surrendered a constitutional right to worship like it was an expired handicapped parking tag. Instead of outsourcing outreach to St. Facebook, pastors should have kept their churches open, urging the frail elderly and those with underlying conditions to stay home and watch while the healthy gathered together as Christians are instructed to do.
During the week, the staff could’ve visited elderly parishioners in person and prayed through the storm door. That would have been much more work than the virus vacation the clergy opted to take. More important, it would have been biblical.
Now a few pastors are beginning to understand that if Costco can remain open, so can church.
It took him until July, but in California Dr. John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church, finally announced, “We will obey God rather than men. We’re going to be faithful to our Lord. We’re going to leave the results to him.”
At a later service, MacArthur welcomed members to the “Grace Community Church Peaceful Protest.”
“We stand firm to continue fulfilling our biblical mandate from Christ to proclaim the Gospel and assemble together, and I earnestly hope that our stance will encourage other pastors, churches, and the general public across America and the world to also stand firm for biblical Truth,” MacArthur said in a statement. “Church is essential.”
The big problem with that announcement is timing. MacArthur is six months late. Prominent pastors and denominations should have met in March and announced that Christians would continue to worship, as is their right guaranteed by the Constitution, and each church would make Kung Flu mitigation efforts on its own.
The Flustapo specializes in making life miserable for individuals and the disorganized. You didn’t notice health officials requiring masks on mostly peaceful looters. A massive pushback from believers would have saved Easter and established that Christians will suffer no infringement on their duty to God.
Also in California, Pastor Rob McCoy of Godspeak Calvary Chapel didn’t surrender Easter, but he mistakenly thought a little going along would mean getting along.
When Black Lives Matter protests were deemed essential and church wasn’t, that was enough. McCoy told Just The News, “Who would ever have thought you’re standing on the front lines because you’re going to church on a Sunday?”
McCoy defied a temporary restraining order from the local Caesar forbidding indoor worship. “I’m not being disobedient to anybody, I’m being obedient to God. No government gets in the way of worshiping the one who created us. We’re living on His dirt, breathing His air, drinking His water, eating His food, we’re going to live by His rules.”
McCoy isn’t alone on the front line. A vindictive county government is seeing to that. A lawsuit against the church also includes 1,000 criminals to be named later who will also be charged with McCoy and fined up to $1,000/day.
My favorite response to Flustapo minions took place in little Holly Springs, Miss. Cops who worshiped Mammon and not God broke up a Sunday Service at the First Pentecostal Church. Pastor Jerry Waldrop then took his 45 members to the local Walmart, which has never been closed, and held services there.
Now Franklin Graham has decided to enter the belly of the lockdown beast. He’s announced he will lead the 2020 Prayer March in Washington, D.C. on September 26th.
Graham and his supporters are hoping thousands of believers will show up and march from the Lincoln Memorial to the steps of the Capitol, stopping along the way for prayer for our nation.
Mayor Muriel Caesar isn’t going to like that. As this is written, travelers to D.C. from 29(!) states are ordered to self-quarantine for two weeks after they arrive. “Mass gatherings” of more than 50 people are forbidden. Face burkas (aka ‘masks’) are required indoors and out.
A camel will pass through the eye of a needle before D.C. will issue a parade permit for Graham’s march.
It’s time for a showdown with secular anti–Christian authorities and D.C. is the perfect location. I hope Graham stands firm and thousands march with him regardless of the consequences. It’s time for the U.S. to remember what “prohibiting the free exercise” really means.
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Copyright 2020 Michael Shannon, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.
Michael Shannon is a commentator and public relations consultant, and is the author of “A Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times.”
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Amen. Thank you for posting this. Christians need to come together and worship in our time of need. Do not be ashamed or scared to Praise and Worship Jesus with others. Either in a building, on a corner, or in your house. But, please let others know about your Faith and Loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ
Has there been some sort of issue that I haven’t heard about with respect to Christians being ashamed or afraid to admit that they worship Jesus Christ? Because if there hasn’t, your post is just silly.
Fools like this are the explanation why the US has failed in its battle against the coronavirus. Why the US is pitied and laughed at.
No offense but this is a bit over the top for
Me. I am a Christian, went to Bible College for theology and know that not forsaking the fellowship of the brethren, Paul was not talking about a building. Christians back then in places met in hiding and didn’t have mega churches. Paul said this without any understanding of pandemics or any sort of social greater good to protect thy neighbor from sickness. All he was saying is don’t be an island, gather as a body. They didn’t have YouTube back then, didn’t have Zoom, probably met outdoors anyway so to say that temporarily closing indoor service blocks Christians ability to “not forsake the gathering of believers” is plain wrong and being used as a rallying cry that holds no water. I wish more pastors would call people out on this point.
Another thing, our rights! First century Christians has no rights. They didn’t have protected freedom of religion back in the day. They were called to love one another. Jesus said, they will know you are My disciples if you have love for one another…There is no greater love than this than to lay down ones life for their friends.
We are talking about a mask people. It is the Christians who are demanding their rights, something first century Christians didn’t have, and in demanding their rights, the Gospel takes a back seat and we cleave and scratch for Constitutional rights sacrificing the Gospel. I didn’t know our constitutional rights over night became way more valuable than the only Gospel that can save.
Regardless if this whole thing is made up and is a ploy of globalists and people behind the scenes using this to see how far they can push it and how much they can take, many non-believers think as well as Christians that the threat is real and by not wearing a mask you are hating your neighbor and putting them in harms way. When the unbelieving world looks on at the Christian church dancing around in their church smiling without masks, without social distancing and sticking it to everyone saying “but our rights” I feel that is offensive to God because like Christ said of the Pharisees that they searched for proselytites and Jesus said they made them
twice the sons of hell meaning, where the religious leaders were to draw the unsaved into the loving arms of God, instead they drove them further into the enemy’s camp.
If the unbelieving world only sees Christians claiming their rights, while the unbelieving world’s families are dying alone and younger people without preexisting conditions as well, how much are they going to want the God that these Christians say they serve.
No they will hate this God or, if they don’t attribute what the people do to God, either because they don’t believe in God or have the maturity to know what followers of God do don’t always represent that God, they will think Christians are self centered, care more about their rights than the world around them and use Scripture to justify their callous attitude to the family members who are dying around them.
Guys this is not about our constitutional rights! It is about loving our neighbor as ourselves and if we can’t put on a flippin mask for our neighbor, I feel we might just be a sham and have really missed the mark of what it means to take up our cross daily, deny ourselves, follow Christ and love our neighbors as ourselves.
All this wrought about quoting verses about Acts 4, Daniel where Daniels friends don’t bow to Nebekenezer, where the mid wives in Egypt defy the pharoe’s order to kill the children, that’s in the Bible but it doesn’t apply here. There are way more verses about submitting to the authority God put in charge over us and I don’t see at all how asking people to wear masks, moving our services outside, social distancing keeps us from sharing the gospel or loving one another. People being persecuted in other countries and being put to death for sharing the gospel, that is where social disobedience is understood. Peter saying he would keep on preaching was because the government was telling him not to preach the gospel. Has nothing to do with face masks. Daniels friends not bowing down to the king had to do with being punished for worshipping God not because they had to move service outside. The midwives not killing babies had to do with not killing babies not social distancing. Using these biblical references to justify this to me is really reaching.
Even if this was made up, Paul said to the early Corinthian church that eating meat offered to idols is nothing. It’s no big deal. Idols are not really gods and eating the meat does nothing to me. However, if it causes my brother to stumble who thinks idols are something, and something bad will happen, Paul says he will never eat meat again even though Paul knew it would do nothing because he cared more about the conscience and care for the other person. I mean Paul wouldn’t do the thing for someone’s conscience. We are not even talking about someone’s life. Either way though he knew it wouldn’t do anything for the sake of his brother he wouldn’t eat it.
So too today, many believe this virus is legit and will kill unless we band together, wear masks and practice social distancing. Even if you don’t believe it will, for the sake of your neighbor and for the sake of Christ andHis name and for the sake of Heaven and the unbelieving world, wear a mask, social distance and demonstrate love not in word but also in deed. The world is watching and if all the Christian church will have come to mean after this is people about their rights more than about Christ and the lost around them, then the message will be lost and the church will cease being the salt of the earth and the city on a hill.
Seriously I talk to unbelievers who have little children and they get upset at how Christians are claiming their rights. Guys we don’t have any rights that are greater than the command to love our neighbor as ourselves and to lay down our lives for our friends.
If we keep this up the world will hate us more than they already do and the gospel will take the back seat to fighting against conspiracy theories and big brother.
Let’s just be very careful how we represent Christ and make sure the gospel is preached. Also let’s have humility. The boldness of some preachers pretty much calling other Christian sheeples and blind and lemmings and compromisers is cruel and completely unloving. The pastors acting like they know more than the scientific community when they have a Bible college degree, is unbelievable.
Do I believe this is being used by some yes. Do I believe people may be testing how far they can go, yes. But do I believe there is a legitimate threat to people young and old who are really dying from this and getting horribly sick absolutely. I know this is the case. And where deaths may be lower than the flu, the results of this virus and what it can leave your body wrecked with permanently is worse than the flu.
But again even if the numbers are far lower than what is being reported love thy neighbor should be paramount. No more slamming other Christians who want to follow the mandate to demonstrate they love others and no more demanding Constitutional rights more than preaching the gospel and no more using Scripture saying we are being persecuted when we are just being asked to wear masks, social distance and/or move outside. It is so not the same.
Let’s not give the nations of the world a reason to blaspheme God and want nothing to do with Him because His followers seem to care about no one except for their rights.
Two more things.
Some say let the vulnerable stay home. That’s fine but if someone not vulnerable gets it and is a symptomatic and takes it to the vulnerable then they are now sick. Just because you may not die from it, you can still get it and get sick and carry it to those who can. To keep repeating saying have the vulnerable stay home just shows those people don’t understand the virus at all and again looks unloving and uninformed.
And finally, it is not cool if the governors are giving better rights to restaurants over churches or Costco over churches but the truth is still the same, even if they are giving better treatment to non church buildings, it is still unsafe to meet in doors close proximity without a mask. Do we say you gave Costco a bigger toy so I get a bigger toy. No you say, regardless it is still unsafe for us to meet, we will meet out doors. You don’t to prove a point at we will meet in doors till Costco can’t infecting more people while trying to prove a point.
I get feeling alarmed by feeling like our rights are being stripped. That is scary but what this could end up leaving the church looking like is scarier.
And church you know the world at some point will fully turn against the church and most likely we will lose rights at some point. It is ok to wish that day not come for a long time, but regardless when it happens, let’s preach the gospel and love those around us.
I don’t think this will go on forever and I won’t get into the vaccine debate but for now, and it has only bee for a handful of months let’s consider holding fast for each other.
Let’s also consider the reason they shut down churches was due to ventilation, close proximity, projection of voices expelling droplets containing the virus, all a bad recipe for spreading scientifically instead of chalking it up right away to conspiracy theories.
I know the debate is much deeper than this but this is what I am seeing and maybe this response can at least get others thinking who didn’t see it from this perspective to st least pause and I am happy too to hear the other side.
I could be wrong on a lot of this stuff but wanted to share because I am not hearing much of this perspective so at least wanted to get it out to have discussion about it.
P.S. I know lots of friends, people who love God who feel their rights are being taken and sit on the other side of this debate. I know they love God, I know they love people. I just don’t think sometimes they appreciate the perception their position may be painting to the outside world so I want to share.
Thanks for reading.
God bless