On Pandemic Panic

“Do not forsake the assembly”  (“except for persecution and pandemics,” says Second Delusions, Chapter 2?). 

Maybe church leaders wish there were some pseudepigraphal dictates in some dusty scrolls somewhere which might justify their closing of church doors during the latest flu (Corona) season. 

When Christians in times past faced not a little sickness, but execution by anti-Christ rulers, they did not forsake the assembly.  How is it that we submit to decisions to close down church – forsaking the assembly! – when a robust flu comes around and spreads some discomfort, even some sickness?

Are we so protective of our lives on this side of glory that we would forsake the glory and health the witness found in the holy gathering of His people?  Is that gathering not the locus of divine encounters and healing?  Is that not the place where holy prayers – necessary for the wellbeing of the members of the Holy Church – are conducted? 

Right decisions in times of war or persecution or pandemics are important.

No.  Worshipping “on line” does not get it.  Such is not the “assembly” where the “Sacrament” -the very “Supper” the “Eucharist” the “Holy Bread and Wine,” the “Body and Blood”, the “Real Presence” is distributed to God’s holy people.

Leadership of God’s people is crucial to a strong and faithful witness to the Truth.

2 Aug., 2021