Yesterday, President Trump tweeted “DEMS WANT TO SHUT YOUR CHURCHES DOWN, PERMANENTLY. HOPE YOU SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING. VOTE NOW!”
Donald Trump, like many Christians, unfortunately do not understand what the church is. When they think of church, they think of people gathering together in a building to worship God for a few hours each week.
If they understood what church is, then they would see that is impossible to be shut down.
Buildings can close. People can stop attending public worship services. The conventional roles of pastor can disappear.
But none of those things are the church.
The church is the people, and we, as priests in God's kingdom, pray without ceasing and offer our lives up as living sacrifices every day (Romans 12:1-2). We don't have to go to a building to worship. We don't have to travel to this mountain or that mountain. We bow down before God in every action, every conversation, and in every word or deed.
To be honest, if “churches” as we know it were to shut down, we would be closer to first century Christianity than ever.
Groups would begin meeting in homes.
Fellowship would become more about action and not being able to ace a Bible test.
Much of the politics, power, and money associated with modern-day denominations would dissipate.
Allegiance to creeds would become less necessary.
Many other changes would take place, and, for the most part, they would be positive.
There would be negative things of course, and I don't wish for this to happen any time soon, but if it did, my point is that the church would not be shut down. It can't be shut down no matter what laws are put into place or what government officials want or try to do.
As Jesus said, “The gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” And he wasn't talking about a multi-million dollar building in a community where homelessness abounds and pastor's personal private jets. Those can go, and probably should go.
This tweet is another example of a politician trying to take advantage of people's ignorance and emotions to win a vote. Regardless of who you plan to vote for, manipulating the masses by taking advantage of their misunderstanding is wrong, especially when it comes to such a crucial issue as one's faith.
Your exactly right. I couldn’t have said it better.
I love your work keep it up.
Great post brother, direct and simple to understand, great post!!
I usually enjoy most of your articles, but I am personally disappointed in your taking a political cheap shot for an article. I don’t think anyone of average intelligence does not know what Trump’s tweet was really talking about. Christians and Trump are more than aware of what the “church” aka believers go through in other countries and that “the church/people of faith” are currently experiencing draconian restrictions in some areas of the USA vs secular allowances for gatherings – many of which are home gatherings. This inane attempt to connect Trump’s tweet with a fact check on “church” was beneath you.
I appreciate your comment.
Christians should have led the charge in social distancing, wearing masks, and temporarily closing their buildings to reduce the damage caused by coronavirus.
In my experience, though, many of the Christians in my fellowship are anti-mask, anti-social distancing, and many doubt the seriousness of the disease.
I think it is far more harsh to guilt people into attending worship to keep the contribution up by holding Hebrews 10:25 and 1 Corinthians 16:1ff over their heads than it is to demand that churches follow social distancing guidelines.
One article my mother (who contracted COVID from a preacher holding a gospel meeting in town) shared with me doubted the integrity of Christians who wanted to stay home and cancel worship services. Others have said that those people love their own lives more than Christ.
All of this is based upon a faulty assumption that they have to go anywhere on Sunday to be pleasing to God and from a misunderstanding of worship.
Trump, knowingly or unknowingly, supported this through his tweet. I know this because it was shared by someone I know personally who thinks this way.
One can wish that people were more considerate, educated and less greedy, but fortunately we live in a relatively free society SO FAR and that was “the point” Trump was addressing- not whether a building is “the church”. His comment did not in any way command or encourage anything other than upholding our constitutional freedoms to make our own choices by not voting for more regulations and government over our lives.
Your reply to me was a non reply of personal experiences that still did not address Trump’s statement in its original intent.
Write a nice “ain’t it awful” article, but without utilizing a tweet out of context with bias.