Religious Persecution? In America??
“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities, resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:1-4).
Many pastors of churches are seeing the need to hold church services and Bible studies in the midst of four (highly contagious) walls, defying the orders of authorities and putting the nation at risk – all because of their self-seeking desire to be “relevant,” heard, and their self-centered desire (oh yes, desire) to be put in jail, so they can be seen and heard by the masses – a martyr in the time of “great religious persecution.”
You’re not a martyr. You’re an idiot.
Not only is this a gross violation of God’s command to be obedient to authority – But there is no religious persecution going on here! This is not even a violation of the First Amendment, nor is it a violation of the Bible.
What it is, is a greedy, self-evident, abomination of Scripture – Not to mention that you are no longer salt and light – but nothing more than a white-washed tomb, “having the appearance of godliness, but denying it’s power…” Therefore, I warn your congregants: “Avoid such people” (2 Tim. 3:5).
If God wants your church to exist outside of this pandemic, it will survive.
Or have you forgotten that we serve a sovereign God? “In whom we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
“Pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed” (Rom. 13:7).
No one is telling you not to preach/teach the gospel (which many of you don’t anyway –so now may be a great time to dive in and do some deep exegesis on the cross).
As a matter of fact, no one is outlawing religion at all! There are free places to post your face – (That you recklessly and vainly think everyone in the world needs to see): YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and even WordPress have free sites for you.
For crying out loud! Set up a live-stream and reach the masses around the globe (thought I’d throw that in there to feed your gigantic ego).
For those of you vain and currently, irrelevant worship “leaders” that think we need your face and hear your “magnificent” voice in your futile attempt to lead us in “worship” (ing you) services – Just stop.
To tell you the truth, people need a break from your “Jesus is my boyfriend” music and your “sissified wussy Jesus, who is longing for you,” anyway.
He doesn’t exist anyway.
Jesus has given us instructions in His holy word… and if you were any good at your “calling,” you might have led your congregants to know where to find them….
For now, we all have Pandora, the songs are at our fingertips – and in our key! So, thanks, but we’re good.
If nothing else, this epidemic has revealed those with a “Shepherd’s heart” – and I’m here to tell you, these men who have the “fear of God,” are very far and few between…
Every time I look up and out, examining the behavior of these who rage against the authority that God has put in place, and test them against God’s holy Word, I have found that the gate towards holy and righteousness, gets smaller and smaller, and there are very few traversing that narrow way.
So, suck it up buttercup! It’s not about you.
So now, when they are out of your sight, (out of your control), you don’t know who actually needs you or who you can count on to help you… (of course you don’t need help, I understand) – therefore, in your deep need to satisfy and gratify the flesh, you demand to “put God to the test,” defying authority, and putting the health of everyone in your community at risk.
Just who exactly do you think you are?
If your flock can’t miss a couple months of Sundays of seeing your face – or hearing your voice, without the mass-huddling of communicable diseases –
It’s because you haven’t taught them how to “test the spirits” (Jn 1:4), how to stay away from heretics like T. D. Jakes, Tony Evans, Joel Osteen, Beth Moore, Greg Locke, (to name a few), study God’s word, meditate on it, properly exegete the Scripture on their own… by now – let alone “make a melody with their heart…” Then maybe it’s time for you to rethink your “ministry…”
Because apparently you haven’t taught them anything useful.
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Holly T. Ashley 