Guest Post from Layman in Northwest Ontario: The Impact of Covid-19 on Biblical Worship With an Addendum regarding the Attempted Christian justification for the Government’s Pandemic Protocols
For most of his life Mr Dave Joslin, who not long ago relocated from Southwestern to Northwestern Ontario, was a devout and well-informed practitioner of confessional Reformed Christianity. The beauty of the historic Liturgy and above all the Real Presence of our Lord’s true Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar slowly but surely drew Mr Joslin into the orbit of confessional Lutheranism, with the result that some years ago he was received into communicant membership of our Church by Pr Kurt Reinhardt at Trinity, Kurtzville ON. I venture to issue as a guest posting these reflections that Mr Joslin wishes to share with the readership of Gottesdienst. JRS
There is a great deal of confusion amongst Christians when it comes to the question of biblical worship. This has really come to the fore in 2020 because of the impact of the Covid-19 virus and the governments’ attempt to control virtually every aspect of life including Christian worship. Governments have not been shy about interfering in the worship of Christian congregations. Depending on where a church is located it may be forbidden to meet altogether; it is may be forced to maintain “social distancing”; communion may be banned or drastically altered; singing may be banned; parishioners may be forced to wear masks; it may be forbidden to exchange greetings, pleasantries and to engage in other social interactions within the confines of the church building.
Originally, with the onset of the so-called pandemic, governments promised that a total lockdown would only last two weeks. However, at the time of this writing the lockdown in its various phases has already persisted for five months and restrictions on movement, gathering and social intercourse may last up to three more years according to the federal government in Canada. Various health units in Ontario have already floated the idea that these restrictions will last at least through the next flu season, which means until the spring of 2021.
While churches of all denominational stripes in Canada quickly responded to government demands on the basis that Romans 13 and love of one’s neighbour required them to do so, it is clear that federal and provincial governments have used their authority to unfairly target churches for closure and restriction--closure and restriction that were never extended, for example, to liquor stores, beer stores, or lottery-retailing stores. Churches were declared nonessential by the government while the aforesaid stores were declared essential and therefore allowed to remain open. Nothing more clearly expresses the contempt of the various levels of government, including the local health units, for the Christian church than their insistence that churches must practically vanish from the scene while these other institutions were allowed to keep operating. Further, even churches that tried to carry on within the severe limits placed upon them by Ontario’s provincial government soon found themselves under fire while at the same time the province turned a blind eye to illegal protests by Marxist groups in big-city centres . In fact, the provincial authorities only grudgingly allowed a partial reopening of Christian churches after a petition signed by approximately 500 churches was presented to the Ontario Government. Even now churches operate under serious restrictions and in most areas of the province worshipers must wear masks, maintain “social distance”, and seriously limit the number of congregants that may gather for worship at any one time. And this despite the fact that it cannot be shown that any church meeting has been responsible for the spread of the virus.
Perhaps most distressing of all is that even now, after it has become painfully obvious that the Government’s reaction to the virus has generated more social and financial harm and more threat to life and property than the virus itself, the vast majority of Christians are still in favour of responding with meek obedience to every demand placed upon them by an obviously Christian-hating government system. Indeed, Christians who have begun to question the wisdom of submitting to the State in church matters have to face not only the wrath of the State but contempt and derision from their fellow Christians who seem to think that we should be grateful for any crumbs thrown to them by the State. Nowhere in this whole sorry business has anyone stopped to ask the question, “Is the Government-truncated worship that we are engaged in biblical worship and is God honoured by and pleased with the fact that we have put the Government’s demands before God’s demands.”
And so I would like to look at biblical worship as laid down in the Bible and consider whether we have offended God by our easy and almost complete submission to a secular and God-hating State. I would like to begin my study with a pertinent quote from the eminent Christian theologian and apologist Dr. Cornelius Van Til.
The three persons of the Trinity have exhaustively personal relationship with one another. And the idea of exhaustive personal relationship is the idea of the covenant.
Many Christians today are unfamiliar with the concept of covenant even though the word occurs in the Bible 297 times in 273 verses. In fact, the Bible is called the book of the covenant [Deuteronomy]; God made a covenant with Abraham which the apostle Paul declares we belong to by faith in Christ [Galatians]; the moral law summarized in the 10 Commandments is called the covenant of God [Deuteronomy]; Jesus is declared to be the messenger of the covenant [Malachi]; Jesus is declared to be the mediator of the new covenant [Hebrews].
In fact, the theme of covenant runs right through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation: it is what ties everything in the Bible together so that it is impossible to properly understand the Bible without reference to the concept. Dr. Van Til’s quote above brings this out. Because the Persons of the Trinity exist in covenant with Each Other, the concept of covenant is basic to the Trinity and since that concept involves personal relationship and since we are made in the image of God covenant is fundamental to understanding the nature of man. The first characteristic of covenant is that it is personal. The second is that it is intimate. Man was created in covenant with God and man was created with a helpmeet because God said it is not good for man to be alone. Just as God’s relationship with himself is personal and intimate God’s relationship with man is personal and intimate and man’s relationship with man is to be personal and intimate. Man was created to live in community.
But man broke the covenant in Genesis chapter 3 which God then set about repairing. Particularly, we can zero in on the Abrahamic covenant in which God said to Abraham, “I will be a God to you and to your seed after you.” First and foremost the pronouncement of the covenant relationship with Abraham and his seed by God was a pronouncement of personableness and intimacy. The rest of the Bible is the story of the outworking of that covenant which theologians commonly call the Covenant Of Grace.
When God brings Israel out of Egypt and to Mount Sinai He declares that He is reaffirming or renewing the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And within that context He lays his covenant word upon Israel. He promises to bless them. He promises to make them a blessing to the nations around them if they keep His covenant. He promises them prosperity and physical health. He promises them long life and many offspring. And He also warns them of what covenant disobedience will bring upon them. And it is within this whole covenantal context that God lays out for the Israelites how they are to approach Him in worship. Without going over the various sacrifices in detail we will just summarize and say that the sin offering dealt with the sin of the worshiper: it provided the essential forgiveness that makes the next step possible. The whole burnt offering, or ascension offering, deals with the consecration of the worshiper to God. These first two offerings clear the way for what is the climax of covenant worship-the meal offering. The meal offering is an offering that is brought by the worshiper to the Temple and is eaten by the priests, the worshiper, and any others present. It is done before the very face of God.
This pattern proceeds as follows: confession-consecration-communion. We see this pattern in action in Leviticus chapter 9 with the additional steps of calling and commissioning. The people are called into God’s presence. They assemble by tribe, that is, by family. Then the sequence of worship takes place and after that the people are sent away to live faithful covenant lives.
A close examination of Leviticus chapters 1 through 9 shows that the whole sacrificial system is intensely personal and the climax of the system is communion with God in the meal offering of which the Lord’s Supper is the New Testament anti-type.
Now this is exactly why I have a problem with the “worship” that we have been engaging in since the phony Covid crisis was thrust upon us. The protocols forced upon us and accepted by a Christian Church too meek to assert its rights to serve God as required has resulted in a worship service that is depersonalized and antiseptic. We are not allowed to greet each other before or during the service or even after the service within the building. We may not sit with each other but rather must sit apart. Our minister and elders must be masked in order to serve us the Lord’s Body and Blood. We are not allowed to fellowship with each other and are not even allowed to be dismissed without maintaining “social distancing”. And as of August 17 in Northwestern Ontario we have to be masked in the service-the ultimate act of depersonalization. As if that wasn’t bad enough even the communion in one church is handed out with tweezers! This is not covenant worship-it is a horrible distortion of covenant worship. The form may be somewhat there but the heart and soul, the intimacy, has been cut out of the worship. If this is the price we have to pay to meet inside the church building, in my opinion, the cost is too great.
So what should we do then? I believe we should forget about meeting in the church building and resort to meetings in private members’ homes in groups of 10 or 12, perhaps more where we are unconstrained by the rules governing publicly accessible spaces. Either that or we should openly defy the protocols and make it clear to the State that they have no authority to enforce how the Church conducts its business. It is also my opinion, based on current events and their likely trajectory into the future that the time of institutionalized worship in buildings is almost at an end. And I believe we should prepare for that eventuality.
Addendum
I would like to deal briefly with the idea that Romans 13 mandates that we bow to the State in virtually every area. And in fact most Christians have accepted that idea so I would like to provoke discussion by asking some questions that hopefully will clarify our thought on this matter.
1.] When Christians defied the cultural norms and the laws of the Roman State to save condemned children, were they right or wrong to do so?
2.] When Christians refused to swear loyalty to the Roman State which was the law of the land, where they right or wrong to refuse?
3.] When Ambrose Bishop of Milan excommunicated Emperor Theodosius until he repented of his sin, was he right or wrong to do so?
4.] When the State passed the Interim law which demanded that Lutheran Christians rejoin the Roman Church and the Lutheran pastors in the city of Magdeburg refused, sealed off the city, and produced the Magdeburg Confession, were they right or wrong to do so? Remember they were defying an official order of the State.
5.] In Nazi Germany a small percentage of Christians refused to become part of the Reich Church and stepped out of the mainstream to form the Confessing Church and openly spoke against Hitler’s persecution of the Jews. Were they right or wrong to do so?
6.] When the Nazis overran Holland they issued a legal decree demanding that all Dutch physicians perform euthanasia on the chronically ill, and on non-Aryans, and turn over lists of all Jewish patients to the Nazis. Rather than comply every single physician in Holland took down his doctor’s shingle and officially refused to practice medicine. Were they right or wrong in what they did?
6.] When the Dutch hid Jews instead of turning them over to the Nazis they were committing an illegal act. Were they right or wrong to do so?
7.] When the Dutch hid their young men instead of allowing them to be sent off to Germany to work in the war factories--a legal requirement--were they right or wrong to do so?
I have been outraged by the statements of Christian leaders that they are going along with the Government’s pandemic protocols out of love for neighbour. To me this is the height of hypocrisy and deceit. Why? Because anybody familiar with the teaching of the Bible would know that isolating people in the lockdowns is un-biblical and bound to create serious emotional and psychological problems, especially in those whose emotional makeup is fragile to begin with. The Bible makes it clear that God created man a social creature. The Bible says that it is not good for a man to be alone. The Bible says no man lives unto himself. The Bible says God sets a solitary in families. That Christians should go along with the idea of being separated from their families- especially from sick or aged parents; that ministers should tolerate being disallowed from seeing the sick and the shut-in is absolutely incredible and yet by and large that is exactly what the Church has done. For more than three months now we have heard that the rate of depression and suicide has skyrocketed; what did we expect? How is allowing the State to impose these antisocial lockdown protocols without even a murmur of protest--let alone outright resistance--loving one’s neighbour?
Then there is the financial aspect of these ungodly protocols. We have been hearing for months that studies out of the United States and Germany indicate that 30 to 40% of small businesses will go bankrupt and never open again. I read an article on the Internet the other day stating that upwards of 60% of small restaurants will never open again. Recently, I made a business trip down to southern Ontario. I travelled down the TransCanada to Sudbury and then down Highway 69 to the 400 and then over to the Wingham area. What I saw all the way down was heartbreaking: scores of small mom- and-pop businesses closed and shuttered that will never open again. Small businesses like that do not have the financial reserves to go for months at a time without customers. And the proprietors of these businesses are, on average, in their 50s and 60s. How are they going to pay their bills? How are they going to feed themselves? What are they going to do for income? And how is someone that age with that set of skills going to find another job? Especially if they’re operating a motel or gas bar and variety store out in the middle of nowhere on the TransCanada? You hypocrites that say that you’re going along with the protocols out of love for neighbour tell me, how is bankrupting your neighbour, possibly costing him all future livelihood and possibly his house and reducing him to a dependent of the State--how I ask you in the name of anything holy is that loving your neighbour?!
Finally, within the last month or so disturbing reports have been surfacing that child sex trafficking is dramatically on the rise, especially in areas where mandatory masking is in effect. Imagine an adult and a child walking hand-in-hand out of a mall, both masked. You cannot see the face of the adult and you cannot see the face of the child. You cannot tell if their features are similar enough that they are likely related and you cannot tell if that child is scared or disturbed because of the mask. For all you know that child is being kidnapped right before your eyes to be sold into sexual slavery and other horrors that we can’t even hardly imagine. I want you to read the testimony of a border agent on the southern border of the United States:
17 years ago, I was a young Border Patrol agent working the line on a midnight shift. A couple hours into shift we received an urgent call to phone the station to receive information that they did not want to send out over the radio. When I called, I was given the name and description of an 8-year-old boy who was being smuggled out of Mexico City into the United States where he was going to be slaughtered for his organs. They believed that he was going to be trafficked through our area that night. My view of the world changed that night...and no, we did not find him, although I was never more vigilant than I was on that night.
Today, July 30, on World Day Against Trafficking in Humans Day, please take some time to spread awareness of the issue. There are more slaves today than when slavery was legal. Some are sex slaves, some are forced labor slaves, and some are harvested for organs. Most of them are women and children. It is not just something that happens in third world countries. It is well established within the United States, you know, the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. Take action. Do something. Learn about it. If you are able, support an organization in the fight. It only ends if we do something about it, and the problem and industry is growing rapidly.
How can any Christian even begin to try to justify going along with protocols that make the wretched business of sex trafficking any easier for these perverts?
Shame on the Church of Jesus Christ! Shame on her cowardly leaders! Shame on the people in the pews! Shame and eternal shame! And do not think that this will not be required of us on the day of days because it will.
But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.
When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Dave Joslin
For Christ’s crown and covenant August 15, 2020