It is clear that Godless and God-hating governors have deemed local church attendance to be non-essential while deeming many other activities and practices where people can spread COVID-19 essential. Yet we shouldn’t be surprised.

The fact remains that Christ’s Church is not of this world, which is why we don’t need to fight those governors (John 18:36). Yet Jesus who said that while He was in the world, He was the light of the world, told His Church before He returned to glory that we are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14-16).

This is important to remember because another fact that remains is that people love darkness and don’t want to come to the light because their deeds are evil (John 3:19). Ultimately only those who are drawn by God come to the light. So we need not worry so much that we cannot fill church buildings right now. There is a much larger and more serious problem that we now have been given great space to consider.

I have said several times since this pandemic started that “THE STATE told THE CHURCH to go home”. I used that statement to point out the blatant hypocrisy of government officials who, at every convenient opportunity, cry out about the “unofficial” law of the separation of church and state. But I bring it up now to point out something even more foreboding than the potential for the government’s unconstitutional overreach of the Church, and it is this…

CHRIST, the builder of His Church, actually LET THE STATE tell THE CHURCH to go home…

And while we know that He makes all things work together for good to them that love God, those who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28), we must be careful not to ignore the implications of not being allowed to assemble in our buildings for all this time. Could it be that something supremely important was missing as we congregated? I believe so.

2 Kings 22:8 says…

And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD.”

This verse is set during the time of the decline of the northern and southern kingdoms (Israel and Judah) as a result of the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. Solomon’s temple was devastated by Judah’s Babylonian oppressors.

Upon orders from King Josiah to renovate the temple, Hilkiah the high priest found the book of the law, which is believed to be the Torah. The moment that righteous king Josiah read it, he realized that despite his best efforts to walk in the footsteps of King David and lead God’s people accordingly, they had been religiously living in defiance of God. Notice what it says in 2 Kings 22:11 and Josiah’s words in verse 13…

When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes… [then he said to Hilkiah] Go to the Temple and speak to the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah… For the LORD’s great anger is burning against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this book. We have not been doing what it says we must do.”

Judah had lost the temple access because of a failure to keep God’s word. Today, with the plethora of false teaching and so-called signs and lying wonders by filthy rich charlatans that is increasingly normalized in the churches, it is no wonder to me that we aren’t being allowed to assemble in our buildings just now.

And I did not even mention all of the other unbiblical immoral lifestyles and practices that are being sympathized with and embraced by many Christians in many churches. Also need I mention the clear COVID-19 powerlessness of all of the so-called faith healers, apostles, and prophets out there?

Far too many things that have practically NOTHING to do with the gospel of Christ have become common practice in the churches. And it stems directly from the fact that the word of God is lost in far too many houses of worship.

Biblical illiteracy is almost a badge of honor these days. I have literally heard pastors of large congregations say that they don’t need to understand the Hebrew or the Greek to know the Bible. That is blatantly absurd.

To have zero understanding of the Bible in its original languages is like trying to read a secretly coded message for which you have not received the cipher. It is ridiculous to totally ignore the original languages and historical contexts. Yet, that is what masses are doing today, and “successfully” failing to truly understand what the Bible says, means, and means to us today.

It is time for a repentant reset, saints! If we do not, then we can surely expect things to get considerably worse for the churches. Christ will chasten His Church as much as He needs to in order to get us knowing, growing, going, and showing what the kingdom of God and His righteousness is truly all about. And I emphasize biblical “knowing” (e.g. Hosea 4:6). It all starts with the Bible.

During this pandemic, the LORD has all but emptied the church houses. May we all, through committed, prayerful study of the word of God, begin to truly find the word of God in the house(s) that we are (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19).

Having said that, I have a final question. IF we are permitted to return to our local assemblies, will the houses of the LORD be filled with people, yet remain empty? What we do or fail to do with the word of God from this point will decide the outcome for the house(s) of the LORD…

May God richly bless you, beloved.

It is clear that Godless and God-hating governors have deemed local church attendance to be non-essential while deeming many other activities and practices where people can spread COVID-19 essential. Yet we shouldn’t be surprised.

The fact remains that Christ’s Church is not of this world, which is why we don’t need to fight those governors (John 18:36). Yet Jesus who said that while He was in the world, He was the light of the world, told His Church before He returned to glory that we are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14-16).

This is important to remember because another fact that remains is that people love darkness and don’t want to come to the light because their deeds are evil (John 3:19). Ultimately only those who are drawn by God come to the light. So we need not worry so much that we cannot fill church buildings right now. There is a much larger and more serious problem that we now have been given great space to consider.

I have said several times since this pandemic started that “THE STATE told THE CHURCH to go home”. I used that statement to point out the blatant hypocrisy of government officials who, at every convenient opportunity, cry out about the “unofficial” law of the separation of church and state. But I bring it up now to point out something even more foreboding than the potential for the government’s unconstitutional overreach of the Church, and it is this…

CHRIST, the builder of His Church, actually LET THE STATE tell THE CHURCH to go home…

And while we know that He makes all things work together for good to them that love God, those who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28), we must be careful not to ignore the implications of not being allowed to assemble in our buildings for all this time. Could it be that something supremely important was missing as we congregated? I believe so.

2 Kings 22:8 says…

And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD.”

This verse is set during the time of the decline of the northern and southern kingdoms (Israel and Judah) as a result of the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. Solomon’s temple was devastated by Judah’s Babylonian oppressors.

Upon orders from King Josiah to renovate the temple, Hilkiah the high priest found the book of the law, which is believed to be the Torah. The moment that righteous king Josiah read it, he realized that despite his best efforts to walk in the footsteps of King David and lead God’s people accordingly, they had been religiously living in defiance of God. Notice what it says in 2 Kings 22:11 and Josiah’s words in verse 13…

When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes… [then he said to Hilkiah] Go to the Temple and speak to the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah… For the LORD’s great anger is burning against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this book. We have not been doing what it says we must do.”

Judah had lost the temple access because of a failure to keep God’s word. Today, with the plethora of false teaching and so-called signs and lying wonders by filthy rich charlatans that is increasingly normalized in the churches, it is no wonder to me that we aren’t being allowed to assemble in our buildings just now.

And I did not even mention all of the other unbiblical immoral lifestyles and practices that are being sympathized with and embraced by many Christians in many churches. Also need I mention the clear COVID-19 powerlessness of all of the so-called faith healers, apostles, and prophets out there?

Far too many things that have practically NOTHING to do with the gospel of Christ have become common practice in the churches. And it stems directly from the fact that the word of God is lost in far too many houses of worship.

Biblical illiteracy is almost a badge of honor these days. I have literally heard pastors of large congregations say that they don’t need to understand the Hebrew or the Greek to know the Bible. That is blatantly absurd.

To have zero understanding of the Bible in its original languages is like trying to read a secretly coded message for which you have not received the cipher. It is ridiculous to totally ignore the original languages and historical contexts. Yet, that is what masses are doing today, and “successfully” failing to truly understand what the Bible says, means, and means to us today.

It is time for a repentant reset, saints! If we do not, then we can surely expect things to get considerably worse for the churches. Christ will chasten His Church as much as He needs to in order to get us knowing, growing, going, and showing what the kingdom of God and His righteousness is truly all about. And I emphasize biblical “knowing” (e.g. Hosea 4:6). It all starts with the Bible.

During this pandemic, the LORD has all but emptied the church houses. May we all, through committed, prayerful study of the word of God, begin to truly find the word of God in the house(s) that we are (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19).

Having said that, I have a final question. IF we are permitted to return to our local assemblies, will the houses of the LORD be filled with people, yet remain empty? What we do or fail to do with the word of God from this point will decide the outcome for the house(s) of the LORD…

May God richly bless you, beloved.

It is clear that Godless and God-hating governors have deemed local church attendance to be non-essential while deeming many other activities and practices where people can spread COVID-19 essential. Yet we shouldn’t be surprised.

The fact remains that Christ’s Church is not of this world, which is why we don’t need to fight those governors (John 18:36). Yet Jesus who said that while He was in the world, He was the light of the world, told His Church before He returned to glory that we are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14-16).

This is important to remember because another fact that remains is that people love darkness and don’t want to come to the light because their deeds are evil (John 3:19). Ultimately only those who are drawn by God come to the light. So we need not worry so much that we cannot fill church buildings right now. There is a much larger and more serious problem that we now have been given great space to consider.

I have said several times since this pandemic started that “THE STATE told THE CHURCH to go home”. I used that statement to point out the blatant hypocrisy of government officials who, at every convenient opportunity, cry out about the “unofficial” law of the separation of church and state. But I bring it up now to point out something even more foreboding than the potential for the government’s unconstitutional overreach of the Church, and it is this…

CHRIST, the builder of His Church, actually LET THE STATE tell THE CHURCH to go home…

And while we know that He makes all things work together for good to them that love God, those who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28), we must be careful not to ignore the implications of not being allowed to assemble in our buildings for all this time. Could it be that something supremely important was missing as we congregated? I believe so.

2 Kings 22:8 says…

And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD.”

This verse is set during the time of the decline of the northern and southern kingdoms (Israel and Judah) as a result of the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. Solomon’s temple was devastated by Judah’s Babylonian oppressors.

Upon orders from King Josiah to renovate the temple, Hilkiah the high priest found the book of the law, which is believed to be the Torah. The moment that righteous king Josiah read it, he realized that despite his best efforts to walk in the footsteps of King David and lead God’s people accordingly, they had been religiously living in defiance of God. Notice what it says in 2 Kings 22:11 and Josiah’s words in verse 13…

When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes… [then he said to Hilkiah] Go to the Temple and speak to the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah… For the LORD’s great anger is burning against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this book. We have not been doing what it says we must do.”

Judah had lost the temple access because of a failure to keep God’s word. Today, with the plethora of false teaching and so-called signs and lying wonders by filthy rich charlatans that is increasingly normalized in the churches, it is no wonder to me that we aren’t being allowed to assemble in our buildings just now.

And I did not even mention all of the other unbiblical immoral lifestyles and practices that are being sympathized with and embraced by many Christians in many churches. Also need I mention the clear COVID-19 powerlessness of all of the so-called faith healers, apostles, and prophets out there?

Far too many things that have practically NOTHING to do with the gospel of Christ have become common practice in the churches. And it stems directly from the fact that the word of God is lost in far too many houses of worship.

Biblical illiteracy is almost a badge of honor these days. I have literally heard pastors of large congregations say that they don’t need to understand the Hebrew or the Greek to know the Bible. That is blatantly absurd.

To have zero understanding of the Bible in its original languages is like trying to read a secretly coded message for which you have not received the cipher. It is ridiculous to totally ignore the original languages and historical contexts. Yet, that is what masses are doing today, and “successfully” failing to truly understand what the Bible says, means, and means to us today.

It is time for a repentant reset, saints! If we do not, then we can surely expect things to get considerably worse for the churches. Christ will chasten His Church as much as He needs to in order to get us knowing, growing, going, and showing what the kingdom of God and His righteousness is truly all about. And I emphasize biblical “knowing” (e.g. Hosea 4:6). It all starts with the Bible.

During this pandemic, the LORD has all but emptied the church houses. May we all, through committed, prayerful study of the word of God, begin to truly find the word of God in the house(s) that we are (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19).

Having said that, I have a final question. IF we are permitted to return to our local assemblies, will the houses of the LORD be filled with people, yet remain empty? What we do or fail to do with the word of God from this point will decide the outcome for the house(s) of the LORD…

May God richly bless you, beloved.