Right to Religious Assembly

Some churches feel persecuted with the government ban on group assembly. They think defying the directive is proof that their faith is bold and genuine and not doing so is cowardice and abandonment of the faith. They miss the point altogether. [Picture above by Mark Zamora, Unsplash].

The ban to group together is applied to all--restaurants, offices, parks, schools, and even neighborhood gathering for chats and gossips, etc. Incidentally it also affects the church. And the goal is not to silence faith but to control a pandemic. This is far from being church persecution. You can still freely read the bible, share it with anyone (as long as you observe social distancing) and study it at home.

In fact, we are NOT prohibited to worship. We can worship anytime we want. And fellowship? We can always fellowship with family members and others online. But other pastors and churches don't seem to get it. They see it as an infraction of their religious freedom. Well, IT IS NOT.

The problem is the myopic view on worship and church. They think worship is not worship unless it is done inside that building they call "church." No less than Jesus in John 2 already declared that the temple is not the building but his body when he said "Destroy this temple." Those who were lost thought he was talking of the building. And many Christians today still follow that line of thinking.

Church is the body of Christ, which is the family of believers. So, where believers gather with Jesus, that is church. If you and your wife and kids gather on a Sunday at home or in bed and talk about Jesus, that's church. That's fellowship. If you and a friend are talking about Jesus on the phone or through Messenger, that's church and fellowship. Jesus said where two or three are gathered in his Name, he is there. And that's what constitutes a church--HIS PRESENCE. When he is there. Nothing more, nothing less.

Building or location has got nothing to do with it, whatsoever.

Now, you'd be surprised how some pastors think the "where two or three are gathered" passage is out of context for this topic. They insist that it's not about church. But check it out.

15 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. 16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

It's about what the church should be doing--agreeing in prayer, brethren relationships, binding and loosing on earth and in heaven. That is church. In fact, the context refers to Jesus talking here about making a matter known to the church (highlighted and underlined above) if sinners refused to listen. When they decided on matters such as this they could bind on earth whatever needed binding and it would be bound in heaven. Same thing with loosing. That's church power.

And church is anywhere Jesus is present in our midst. If that's not church, what do you call it then?

We don't need to go out and risk being infected with COVID just to go to that religious building some men call "church." The Acts church met in homes where they worshiped the Lord and broke bread. Sometimes they were at the temple courts, sometimes in a gymnasium, along a riverbed, on rooftops, in the desert, or in prisons. One guy was in the third heaven and another was in a trance (or in another dimension). Worship is not on this or that mountain but in spirit and in truth. The modern church has lost track of these deep truths and think it's not possible that Jesus can be in any place other than their church building.

And when they are prevented from going to their church building (so they won't catch the deadly virus) they think they're persecuted. They terribly lack the spiritual gift of knowledge and discernment--or probably common sense. Worse, they think stupidly braving the danger means your faith is rock solid.

Pastors, if something happened to your members, what would you do? Are you sure you move in God's supernatural signs and wonders and operate in the gift of miraculous healing? By God's grace, I move in these, but nonetheless, I never presume. Because the God we worship is the same God who said be subject to the governing authorities.

If your members catch the virus--or worse, die--what would you do? Pray? But the poor guys caught the virus precisely because you defied the GOD you're now about to pray to. You didn't believe HIS Word in Romans 13: 1-7. Okay, Peter and other apostles at one time said they'd rather obey God than men. But that was because they were prohibited to teach in Jesus' Name. It's a different thing from what we have today.

Our authorities are not forbidding us to worship or teach in Jesus' Name but only to refrain from something that may spread the virus and kill more people.