As a Christian and as a pastor here are a few thoughts that are directed at professing Christians, and in particular directed at people that are actually saved, born again (John 3:1-7) Christians.
Since the COVID-19 problems began, I have noticed a goodly number of professing Christians have taken to social media to state their concerns and to warn others about government intrusion into our affairs, and about various and sundry conspiracies to take our rights from us. There is certainly some truth to this notion. Of course, to Christians, the most alarming aspect of this concerns not being allowed to worship as we see fit, the right of which is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
For example, in my home state of Michigan, we have a liberal Democrat governor named Gretchen Whitmer. It was bad enough at first when churches weren't allowed to meet in their own buildings. But things really got out of hand when the governor placed bans on fishing, motorboating, golfing, and buying nonessentials like paint and such at the large home improvement stores. This was intolerable----and was a clear violation of the First Amendment right to worship.
The same for golfing---- all that green grass, blue sky, birds singing on the flagsticks, people out there actually KNEELING REVERENTLY while they line up their putts---- a truly heavenly experience; not like sitting in a church service with all of those hypocrites.
And let us not forget shopping for paint at Home Depot or Lowe's instead of going to church. After all, anyone who has read the Bible very much knows that Ecclesiastes 10:18 says: "By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through." So, in reality, shopping for paint on Sunday to properly maintain your home instead of attending a church service would be SCRIPTURAL.
I had been wondering, as had many pastors of Bible preaching churches, where all of these highly patriotic defenders of the First Amendment had been for all these years, but now that all these opportunities to worship God according to their individual consciences have been taken away from them, they have now risen up in righteous indignation and are now a social media army to be reckoned with.
Now, we are truly seeing revival. Many of these soldiers of the cross who haven't even crossed the road for YEARS to listen to the Bible preached or taught have now gotten so motivated by the loss of their rights to worship that many of them recently got in their cars and drove 50, 100, even 200 miles to Lansing, the Michigan state Capital, many of them with rifles and Confederate flags, to show the evil Governor a thing or two about God, guts, and guns---- just like Jesus would have done.
And I fear that I must repent publicly of the false notions that I have been clinging to where Christian warfare is concerned. I had thought that the battle with government intrusion into our affairs and loss of our rights had been ongoing for thousands of years, according to Ephesians 6:12: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
I have been deceived. I erroneously believed II Cor 10:4, that says: "(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds)"....... I was naive enough to think that I was supposed to fight this kind of evil by fulfilling what is really the bare minimum of my obligations to Jesus Christ after being saved----- by being as faithful as I possibly could in a Bible believing, Bible preaching church, whether in somebody's home or in a building.
I thought that the Christians that I pastor should fight these battles also at prayer meetings. No wonder hardly anyone shows up for a prayer meeting----- not enough heavy discussion about conspiracy theories, and too much boring, dogmatic reliance on praying "For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty (I Timothy 2:2).
Please, dear reader, have mercy on me, and tell me where the next protest is being held, or at the very least, send me a petition to sign! It's time for war!
________________________________
Thanks Pastor Art for your thoughts. It is time for us all to decide where the real war is, with our adversary the devil, or with the politicians.
