Just recently a well-known figure told us that we should avoid our returning college students like the plague. “Keep him locked in the garage if you must have him home,” she said. I confess that such parental affection moves me to tears. Of course, the rationale is built on the back of famous phrases like, “Love your neighbor,” “protect grandma,” “keep CNN relevant,” and other such lines.
And now, there is an entire new propaganda machine that has picked up steam under the Biden banner which says that a true leader makes lock-downs national. If Chicago has to do it, then Pace, Fl. has to as well. Oh, and let us not forget that the leader of the WHO said just recently that there will be no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future. How long? We don’t know, except that for these scholars, a day is as a thousand years.
Add to this plethora of good news that churches are shutting down again, and pastors are being put in that uncomfortable position of closing their doors for as long as it takes to please the CDC gods. For many of our esteemed theological leaders who said, “Follow the guidelines, follow the guidelines,” to other esteemed theological followers, well they did! And they did for a really long time. And now just as they thought the darkness was making way for the sunshine, gatherings of 20 or more are once again going to be shunned, Thanksgiving turkeys are going to extend their life-span by another 365 days, and singing must be muzzled. I guess if you have for this long given your right hand to the magistrates to dictate your worship practices, you might as well give your left hand, and let’s start with the first three toes on the left foot as well.
I do not want to minimize for pastors around the country. I know there are genuine men debating vigorously these issues with their leadership, and I know that churches are divided over this, and I am saddened by every story I hear. But I also know that for too many, early on they gave an inch and the WHO–not the band–took several miles of real estate. MacArthur was right all along.
Let me stress the same thing I have for over nine months: absence from worship is not something you can make up on the first Sunday once this thing is over. It’s something most will never get back in a lifetime. Why? Assuming you are a good churchman, because the habits of good worship is built over time. To get to point B, you need a consistent dose of point A for a sustained period of time. Getting back to worship is not like making up a late test. You have actually missed nine-months’ worth of tests and that accumulated knowledge will take years to recover.
When we allow the government to enter our buildings and re-direct our attention to their liturgy, we have given them access to the holy. We have given them our pulpits and our pews. When they tell us not to sing, they are not telling us to not sing at all, but they are telling us to sing their songs. I dare say what we are witnessing is the greatest single distortion of the good I have seen in my lifetime. If we didn’t think we could hang on under the Trump administration, an administration who used phrases like, “worship is essential,” wait until Grandpa Joe gets in. Boy, does he have a wonderful plan for your life, and your church, and your liberties.
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