Lockdown church? Straight jacket the church

[vic66]

15 hours ago, R. Hartono said:

Many churches worry this lockdown preventing cashflow instead of worrying the people's safety.

this may well be true but the same thing applies to many businesses around the world right now just listen to the news.

But God word still stand's firm 1 John 1:7 ⁷But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

Edited May 12, 2020 by vic66

[vic66]

Danger to Minsters of the gospel who fail the watch over and tend to the flock of God even during times like now.

No excuses

King James Bible Jer33
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.

[vic66]

15 hours ago, warrior12 said:

 Another thread with the same old argument. Sensible people look both ways before crossing the street, why, cause they don't want to get hit by the  bus.  

Common sense has to prevail here.  There is a crisis in the world, regardless if some see it as conspiracy or a systematic governmental control mechanism or other .  The FACT is, people are dying from a disease that humans can contract easily. What is so difficult to understand about that.  Yes, there are hardships and setbacks that we don't like and want to get back to normal, but  a bit of patience has to be endured here.

As the saying goes, Time heals every wound, no matter how fast you want that broken foot to heal, it will take the time that is needed and nothing can be done about it.  

So, those who think that God does not see every situation and knows the willingness of his saints to gather, is  arrogant and just being silly.  

I think  many want to try a social experiment that can come back to haunt them for a long long time.  Be patient and not like the kid that wants the candy at all cost, crying and being obstinate.  

I think also, the Christians who are advocating this impatience has not understood ALL of scripture.  

Did not scripture say to "endure hardship as a good soldier" and  

 

  1 Peter 4 King James Version (KJV)

¹² Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

¹³ But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

if Jesus confirms lockdown, of the church his bride, and no praising or singing to God by his bride then I will accept it!

Until then I will continue to earnestly contend for the faith.

 Assembling together is a duty God has commanded it.

internet is fine to use, but it is not a substitute for cooperate prayer meetings and fellowship.

it is down to each Christian ministry to work out how to obey

 

Edited May 12, 2020 by vic66

[vic66]

part of a article from conservative woman

source:https://conservativewoman.co.uk/when-will-churches-fight-for-their-god-given-right-to-meet/

The Roman Catholic Church in Britain has not gone that far. It has closed its buildings but it allows its clergy to live-stream services from their churches. 

In which British churches might a conscience-driven protest movement start? The older Protestant denominations such as the Church of England, the Methodists and the United Reformed Church do not seem minded to question the lockdown regime or to call on the government to come up with an exit strategy. The leadership of the Roman Catholic Church is at least talking to the government about when it might be allowed to reopen church buildings, but has said it will not do so until the restrictions are lifted.

It would seem that the most likely candidates for principled defiance of the lockdown would be the newer churches in the Pentecostal and independent evangelical scene. These churches are more counter-cultural, more inclined to dissent from the prevailing culture of political correctness in the British governing class.

The churches inclined to start meeting again in their buildings would, one imagines, be led by people who were sceptical about the proportionality of the lockdown, but they would be mainly driven by the New Testament vision of the church as the body of Christ.

The Apostle Paul used the metaphor of the human body to teach a congregation inclined to disunity about their spiritual interdependence as Christ’s people: ‘If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now God hath set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him’ (1 Corinthians 12v17-18 – Authorised Version).

This metaphor for the church then turns into a synonym: ‘Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular’ (v27).

This New Testament description of the church as the body of Christ rules out putting online meetings on an equal theological footing with the physical gathering of God’s people. Christ had a physical body in his incarnate state on earth. Now in his exalted heavenly state he continues to have a physical body on earth – the human members of his church gathered together in a shared physical space for corporate worship.

According to the Holy Scriptures, virtual Christianity will not do. The body of Christ should never be turned into an avatar.

So, with supermarkets being allowed to open during the lockdown and the feared overwhelming of hospitals not materialising, might some churches consider that they ought not to deny their God-given calling to be the body of Christ here on British soil? At what point under a long lockdown is of course the tricky question. But the point might come for some churches when they think the choice between obeying God or man is staring them in the face.

How might the police react if theological principle moved some churches to start meeting again? Would they arrest Christian worshippers or issue them with on-the-spot fines? If there were prosecutions, how might the courts react? Would they support the police or would they uphold the ancient British right to peaceable Christian assembly?

The Attorney General of the United States, William Barr, has ordered an investigation into ‘state and local directives that could be violating the constitutional rights and civil liberties of individual citizens’.

He said: ‘As the Department of Justice explained recently in guidance to states and localities taking steps to battle the pandemic, even in times of emergency, when reasonable and temporary restrictions are placed on rights, the First Amendment and federal statutory law prohibit discrimination against religious institutions and religious believers.’

Is the British government capable of producing such a champion of the rights of Christian worshippers under a long lockdown preventing their churches from meeting as the body of Christ?

Edited May 12, 2020 by vic66