Is it time for an after action analysis? I think it would be helpful to review my actions as a Baptist pastor in response to what legal scholars admit was the illegal and unconstitutional response to the Covid pandemic, and what is increasingly recognized to have been an unscientific reaction to the pandemic by people who claim they "trust the science."
I have repeatedly asked myself and others, Since when do pastors have the Scriptural authority to cancel worship services? Consider this matter of authority, a subject thoroughly dealt with in God's Word. Of course, there is legitimate authority, derived authority, and illegitimate authority. God is the recognized Source of all authority, and He is shown to have delegated authority to others, authority to do and not to do.
Then, of course, there is illegitimate authority. Sometimes illegitimate authority is wielded by someone initially granted authority by God, delegated authority, but when an overreach occurs the legitimate delegated authority becomes illegitimate authority by the improper way it is exercised. I believe this to have occurred throughout the United States when pastors overreached the delegated authority granted to them by God by presuming to exercise illegitimate authority as tools of the illegal and unjustified overreach of government mandates to impose a lockdown.
I also wrestled with the question, Since when did compliance to government edicts take precedence over Biblical mandate? In God's Word we are expressly directed to gather for worship. It is God's will for every Christian's life. Yet across our land men pretending to be spiritual overseers took their marching orders from politicians at the national, state, and local level while ignoring God's Word. Was it because the politicians were advised by men and women wearing white smocks with stethoscopes draped around their necks? Does a white smock and stethoscope grant authority? During my growing up years a medical practitioner was an advisor, not an authority figure.
Then I was provoked to ask of myself, Since when did spiritual leaders not weigh the cost of incarceration as integral to serving God? Two decades ago my mother called me to ask if I would someday be arrested as a Gospel minister. I indicate to her that was likely. She then asked if such an arrest would be for doing right or for doing wrong. I told her that my intention was, should such a day come, that my arrest would result from doing right and not for doing wrong. The possibility of being arrested for Christ's sake has always figured in my personal calculus of the cost of the ministry.
I wonder from a historical perspective, Since when did going to a Christian assembly not endanger those who are not believers. At the beginning of the lockdown several pastors were outraged by our Church's refusal to comply with the illegal and unconstitutional requirement to lockdown without due process. They claimed I was endangering the health and safety of others, especially the aged. My reaction was to reflect upon the history of Christian persecution since the first century after Christ. Hs it not always been dangerous to gather for worship? Have believers not always been charged by friends, neighbors, and relatives of endangering them by our commitment to gather for worship? The Covid lockdown in nothing new.
I could not have articulated my conviction well two years ago, but since I have read Matthew J. Trewhella's fine work, "The Doctrine Of The Lesser Magistrates" I have benefitted from the clarity his 2013 book provides, and recommend it for every pastor to read. The subtitle tells you all you need to know: "A Proper Resistance to Tyranny and a Repudiation of Unlimited Obedience to Civil Government."
Sadly, all across the United States we have seen too many illustrations of those occupying positions of spiritual leadership who have not properly resisted tyranny but have bowed in cowardly fashion with unlimited obedience to civil government.
Sadly, all across the United States we have seen too many illustrations of those occupying positions of spiritual leadership who have not properly resisted tyranny but have bowed in cowardly fashion with unlimited obedience to civil government.
My I bring to your remembrance a few names? John Bunyan, Bedford, England, endured twelve years of incarceration rather than affix his signature to a form to become a government licensed Gospel preacher. Obadiah Holmes, whose bare back was mercilessly lashed in 1651 in Boston, Massachusetts. The reason? He and two others gathered for worship in manner not prescribed by law. Patrick Henry, though he was an Anglican attorney, defended numerous Baptists who preached without a government issued license and gathered people for worship without authorization. In our day it has mostly been forgotten that Baptists have historically been conscientious objectors to unjust, illegal, and unscriptural restrictions of Christian liberties.
I was thirteen years old when Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama and sent to a number of his supporters what have come to be known as "Letters from a Birmingham jail." I suggest you read them. http://abacus.bates.edu/admin/offices/dos/mlk/letter.html
MLK, Jr. had been urged by most of his New England liberal supporters to comply with the demands of the governor of Alabama, the county Sheriff, and the mayor of Birmingham not to conduct a march there. Little did anyone realize that he would for all intents and purposes win the civil rights movement war by going, by being arrested, and by sending his previously prepared letters stating his position so effectively. It was a stroke of political genius that sealed his place in the pantheon of civil rights leaders.
Sadly, the prominent Christian leaders of America occupying positions of influence proved that they learned nothing from MLK when the Supreme Court handed down the infamous Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. Or perhaps they were not so brave as MLK.
Consider the spiritual leaders who were silent in the face of Roe v. Wade in 1973. What did he hear from Billy Graham, W. A. Criswell, Adrian Rogers, Lee Roberson, Bob Jones, Jr., Jack MacArthur, D. James Kennedy, Jack Hyles, Jerry Falwell, J. Vernon Magee, Carl McIntyre, Norman Vincent Peale, Cardinal Timothy Manning, Cardinal Roger Mahoney? Only the chirping of crickets. Those men were unwilling to risk arrest to block any abortion clinics. Why not? Ignorance? Cowardice? A misunderstanding of the responsibility of God's men to resist illegal and unjust overreaches of authority?
Perhaps you remember the Terri Schiavo case in Florida, ending when she died in 2005. Hers was a tragic case in which her husband wanted her life support to be discontinued and her parents wanted her kept alive. I remember her parent's attorney, David Gibbs III standing aside after a judge ruled in favor of her husband and against his clients, her parents. He claimed there was nothing he could do, so medical professionals removed her from life support and she eventually died.
The attorney, who claims to be a Christian attorney, was thought by many to be helpless in the face of a judicial ruling. But was he? Notorious leftist civil rights attorney William Kunstler routinely defied court orders when he felt judges ruled unjustly and illegally.
We have so many examples of failure by omission, failure because of fear, failure because of an unwillingness to risk all to gain all, to be subject to arrest and imprisonment. I, for one, grow weary of pastors who are unwilling to go to jail for insisting on doing the right thing.
What about Giorgi Vins in Russia? What about Richard Wurmbrand in Romania? What about Chinese house Church leaders? What about Vietnamese pastors, Lebanese pastors? What about several Canadian pastors arrested for doing right during pandemic lockdown.
Some months ago I went to another county to attend a small meeting of pastors. I chose to drive up early and spend the night at an AirBnB place, learning only after it was too late to make other plans that the home in which I was staying was owned by a Lesbian couple. I wondered what the Lord had in mind for me.
To my surprise, they asked me what my response to the Covid lockdown was. I replied, "What lockdown?" They smiled. They told me that they were so enraged by the illegality of the lockdown order and their disgust for pastors who had cancelled worship services that they began looking for a place to worship, to show support for a pastor who, they said, "Read the Constitution with understanding." They had become regular attenders of a Gospel-preaching Church that defied the California lockdown order. Needless to say, I was thrilled.
Let me also include a text sent to a pastor that has come into my possession from a very new Christian:
"Good morning safe travels to and from where you are going . I don't think I had the chance to mention to you how important it was for me in choosing a church not only sound doctrine but the fact that you were open during covid . I recall seeing John McArthur say they could arrest him if they wanted because he was not going to shut down church . To me that was so significant because I thought to myself if you don't stand for something you fall for anything and I see that same boldness in you . That made me know that hell or high water you would stand up for what is right when it comes to serving God and aside from the sound doctrine I knew I wanted to be in a church like this one with a bold pastor who is willing to go to jail for the gospel . I have a kind of hard headed attitude when it comes to Gods word and I should ,and I know being here I would be sitting under the preaching of someone who does too . So please let those pastors know that what they did was a huge mistake because people who are looking at churches look at things that pastors wouldn't even have the slightest idea about . I knew I need to be in church and the fact that you were open and stayed open is what let me know also that you fear God more than man and its easy to say it but you were put to that test and I am grateful you stayed open because it made my decision to go there easier . True believers want to be lead by true believers . Cowards want to be led by cowards . Thank you for your service and boldness I don't think we tell you enough how important you are to this church."
What a great text!
I concluded when first confronted by the statewide lockdown order that I did not possess the authority to instruct believers not to gather for worship, or to make health risk decisions for anyone else, or to comply with any government directive to abstain from gathered worship and ministry.
Further, since I suspect government will again do what has been done, I will resist, and I will go to jail if need be. Early Christians, colonial Baptists, Chinese house Church Christians, and many others are willing. How can I do less?
Pastor, I recognize that some with health issues are well-advised to be cautious and to stay at home. However, that is a personal decision and not a corporate decision or a pastoral decision, imo. If you complied with the government lockdown mandate you owe your congregation an apology. Chalk it up to a learning experience and commit yourself to reflecting Baptist (which is to say Biblical) prnciples from this day forward.
