Posted on 10/18/2021 9:46:34 AM PDT by Kaslin
It is time for Christians individually and corporately to repent for the way we and our institutions responded to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Blaming people for contracting a catchy virus has been one of many widely deployed COVID manipulation tactics. That has shifted into blaming people for dying of a catchy virus after they decided their risks from taking the vaccines outweighed their risks from catching the disease.
Shaming people for dying by accident is a bit twisted, but it might make sense if you believe life is over once a person stops breathing, and so cling to the illusion of human control over death to avoid the terror of acknowledging that’s impossible. It’s such pagan assumptions driving the ridiculous number of news articles with fear-porn titles like these: “Kansas City area official who died from COVID was unvaccinated, ‘felt he was immune’”; “Unvaccinated husband and wife die of COVID-19 leaving 5 children behind“; “Unvaccinated Father Inspired Other Family Members to Get Shot Before Dying From COVID“; “Bride Planning Funeral Instead of Wedding After Unvaccinated Groom Dies From COVID.”
Christian teaching diametrically opposes the underlying theology pushed in such articles and in many other popular COVID narratives. That’s true despite the appearance generated by the majority of Western churches prioritizing obedience to men instead of to God by shutting themselves down over COVID-19. Doing so contradicts numerous clear commands of scripture.
It’s a mark of the weakness of the Western church that more church leaders have not proclaimed this to the world by now. They’ve left standing for basics of the faith to the far too few strong pastors such as John MacArthur and Mark Dever. Let’s go through a few of these clear biblical teachings that even this theologically basic laywoman knows thanks to parents who read the Bible to her growing up and excellent pastoral instruction since then.
For one thing, Christians believe that life and death belong entirely to God. There is nothing we can do to make our days on earth one second longer or shorter: “all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be,” says the Psalmist. “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s,” says Saint Paul in Romans 14:8.
For another thing, for Christians, death is good. Yes, death is also an evil — its existence is a result of sin. But, thanks be to God, Jesus Christ has redeemed even death. In his resurrection, Christ has transformed death into a portal to eternal life for Christians. What Satan meant for evil, God has transformed into good.
Verse three of the 1540 Dutch hymn, “In God, My Faithful God,” beautifully expresses this timeless theology:
If death my portion be,
It brings great gain to me;
It speeds my life’s endeavor
To live with Christ forever.
He gives me joy in sorrow,
Come death now or tomorrow.
The Christian faith makes it very clear that death, while sad to those left behind and a tragic consequence of human sin, is now good for all who believe in Christ. A Christian funeral is a cause for rejoicing, albeit understandably through tears from those of us temporarily left behind.
“Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord,” says 2 Corinthians 5:8. This is not a small or unclear doctrine. It is repeated over and over again in scripture. It flatly rejects the heathen idea that death is to be avoided at any cost.
Our Christian heritage also rejects the avoidance of death at any cost by venerating the millions of martyrs we honor precisely for choosing to confess Christ despite the indescribable costs to them of comfort, health, and life itself.
Still today, our brothers and sisters are routinely martyred in countries like Communist China. In the Middle East, Christians are raped and ethnically cleansed to punish their beliefs. It’s time for we comparatively comfortable Westerners to despise the shame and get back to running our race like their fellow Christians, not cowards.
As the Apostle Paul proclaimed, “Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” He, of course, himself went on to make good on that statement with a martyr’s death.
If he can do that, we can go to our safe, air-conditioned churches and worship. We can even go to the hospital rooms and bedrooms of those dying with infectious diseases and love them to the end, like the imitations of our Master Christians have boldly shown themselves to be for centuries, putting pagans to shame.
The Christian church has always faced a stronger prospect of suffering and death because “the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.” We are instructed to be, not driven by “consensus” and social comfort, but the truth as God has given it to us in His Word.
Christ our Lord says in the 10th chapter of Matthew, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” It is this commanded, holy fear of God before all others that motivates not just the noble martyrs but all Christians today who decline to obey the rulers whose commands contradict God’s.
Jesus is direct about what obeying Him, rather than men, can cost. He endured the worst of this cost Himself. “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you,” Jesus says in John. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.”
A bit later in that gospel, Jesus again emphasizes: “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” To put it simply, people who want an effort-free, comfort-filled life need to fight that to be Christians.
Christians are explicitly called to spurn pagans’ approval, advice, and beliefs for the sake of our souls: “Enter by the narrow gate,” Christ says in Matthew. “For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
In a time of crisis, what do people need most? Christians believe the answer to that is: Jesus. Not food, not water, not even health. First and foremost, we need Jesus.
This is why, for example, it has been the historic practice of the Christian church for pastors to bring the Sacraments to the sick and dying. Our faithful fathers and mothers knew that, while God certainly works through doctors and scientists, the most important work, one that belongs utterly to Him, is the “medicine of immortality.”
It is this medicine that we sacramentalists crave and receive each Sunday. It is why there is for us no such thing as “Zoom church.” Church is not church without Jesus, and where has Jesus promised to be? “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Where else has Jesus promised to be? In his Word and Holy Communion. We can’t get those at home by ourselves. That’s why we’re commanded to “not forsak[e] the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is” (Hebrews 10:25).
To forsake assembling for worship also breaks the Third Commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” We break this commandment, says Martin Luther’s catechism, when we “despise or neglect God’s Word,” which means “failing to gather together in worship to receive God’s Word and Sacraments” and “rejecting or disregarding God’s Word.”
“How few are we within Thy fold, Thy saints by men forsaken! True faith seems quenched on every hand, Men suffer not Thy Word to stand; Dark times have us oe’rtaken,” laments Luther in one of his Reformation hymns. “…May God root out all heresy And of false teachers rid us.”
Sin destroys faith. It is time for Christians individually and corporately to repent for the way we and our institutions responded to the COVID-19 outbreak. Our refusal to preach and obey the clear teachings of the Bible amid the world’s panic have betrayed Our Lord.
Thanks be to God, there’s a way out for us. It’s the same as for Saint Peter, the coward Christ transformed into a lion. That way out is repentance! Then let us rejoice and sin no more.
Yes. They also rely on Allah to guide their bullets in battle. I wish the Viet Cong had done that.
Anyone pushing martyrdom is the enemy of all humanity, same as those who urged the Jews to comply in Nazi Germany.
We’re in a war. Pick a side.
God does not decide when you die.
Each of us makes decisions which can affect the final result.
In 70AD, thousands of Christians decided to stay in Jerusalem instead of escaping to safety.
Those that didn’t were killed by the Romans.
In 1938, many Jews in Germany saw what was coming and left everything and GOT OUT.
Most who didn’t were murdered by the Nazis.
You have a choice.
Never assume God is going to save you.
I wonder how many of the posters have been inside a Christian church in the past 12 months. Just sayin…
Somehow I doubt this opinion article would be of much comfort to all the people asking for prayers on behalf of their loved ones who’re hospitalized and dying.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
As far as I'm concerned death is an upgrade and early retirement.
HOWEVER, being this close to the rapture I would not being around to participate in what generations has been longing for all this time.
No lose situation =)
*would not mind*
Yes, not sure I buy all this.
Sounds like that pre-destination garbage.
Which I’m convinced ultimately led to people thinking exactly that - there’s nothing I can do - so why not screw around and sin all I want?
“Somehow I doubt this opinion article would be of much comfort to all the people asking for prayers on behalf of their loved ones who’re hospitalized and dying.”
All of this “spiritual” posturing in the article is about as empty as the virtue signaling on the left.
Not a problem, I’ve done the same thing many times. Have a good day!
Just no
though he die, yet shall he live; and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die
“you know that Jamestown thing.”
You mean Lucille Ball? She was from Jamestown.
Or maybe Jonestown?
“So a religious fanatic writes an article saying for a Christian death is a good thing.”
The apostle Paul is the one who originally wrote that, and there are many on FR who believe the same. Not fanatics; Bible-believing Christians.
“Ok, then why aren’t all the other religious fanatics hurrying to get onboard with that”
Because they’re not actual “Christians”.
Well I believe in freedom and free will, which are both things that God gave us, so you can believe whatever you want and so can I. I don’t believe that the Bible is the literal word of God, it wasn’t even written by people who were alive when the events occurred. I believe when ones faithful beliefs are proven to be in contradiction to reality, it is incumbent upon one to figure out why and make the proper adjustments. That is why God gave humans a very special brain unlike any other on earth, and he gave us free will, I think God intended us to think for ourselves; he didn’t give us a brain like he gave insects or lizards, brains that are preprogrammed for simple basic survival. God gave us a different kind of brain,bone that can think and feel and learn new things, can be used to figure out the mysteries of the universe. Why would God give us a brain like that and free will if he did not want us to think and reason for ourselves? The very fact that God gave us such a special brain is proof he didn’t want humans to be just typical automotive like the other life he created on Earth.
“I don’t believe that the Bible is the literal word of God ...”
So — not a Christian. As you said, “free will”, so it’s your choice whether to accept or reject.
So another one proves to be a fanatic believing she alone is able to define whom is a Christian. In other words if one does not believe exactly as you do then they’re not a Christian. Too bad, you at first seemed like a reasonable person the you expose yourself as nothing more than a tyrant.
“you expose yourself as nothing more than a tyrant.”
So being pro-free will is tyrannical? I believe that is the exact opposite of being a tyrant. I didn’t define “Christian”; the word and concept were around way before I was.
I explained my terminology very clearly and you’ve decided to interpret it your way, that’s fine but to lie to one’s self is pathetic and totally proves my point about you. I mean if you have to lie to yourself about the clear reason I called you a tyrant has nothing to do with your belief that the Bible is the literal word of God. And the worst part is that you knowingly lied. Tyrant was used because you claim that anyone whom does not believe exactly as you do cannot be a Christian. Period end of story. Now you’ve proven yourself to be a lying tyrant. You should stop digging while you’re behind, you’re just going deeper.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.