Should the Church have Closed and Is It Time to Reopen?

May 15, 2020 Leave a comment

My friends daughter said “dad why are they closing churches, no one gets sick in church” a simple child’s faith but it gave me pause so I can’t judge a pastor that has decided to keep their Church’s doors open during the Covid-19 Wuhan Flu outbreak in opposition to state orders.  I don’t know if the Spirit called him to stay open or not. God will judge and we may be able to infer something from the results.  If a word is from God one should expect the results to bare fruit.

I believe that the church is a miraculous place that God made for us. Yes God is everywhere and you can meet Him at home but the church is set apart and sometimes home for many can seem much less so, hence God created houses of prayer for all people (Isaiah 56:7, Matthew 21:13, Psalm 122:1, John 4:21, 1 Tim 2:8).

In the beginning while the world was getting a handle on this outbreak of the Wuhan Flu suspending some ministries and moving to online services makes sense. However I don’t know if the church should have completely shut its doors with the staff doing web streams from home. Jesus said “My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations” This is a command which seems hard to fulfill if the doors are locked to everyone no matter the circumstance.   Scripture also command in Hebrews 10:25, “Do not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing.”  As part of our Christian witness and neighborly duty we need to be flexible to meet requests of those in authority to fulfill Roman’s 13. But at some point and some degree we also have to follow what Peter said “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide”.  There is a tension between Romans 13 and Acts 4.  Now after the recovery rate has been determined to be 99.6% and the at risk groups are more clear there should be ways the church could open up a bit more with safety measures while at risk groups watch from home or from cars in parking lot services. Read more of this post

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The Bible, The Church and Psychology

April 25, 2020 Leave a comment

This may be the first post where I don’t really draw a conclusion nor state a strong opinion. That is because it is one thing I have been struggling to get my arms and head around for years. I’m hoping this post may be useful to start some dialogues toward a better understanding. The issue is this. The bible talks about behaviors and also addresses why we misbehave. It even addresses extreme behaviors identifying spiritual and demonic causes. On the other hand psychology studies behaviors, mental and emotional states and also proposes reasons and solutions. This to me seems to be a large overlapping grey area.

Many churches and Christians now defer to psychology placing more faith in its “scientific approach”. But many fail to realize that as a science it lacks many of the rigors of physics, chemistry and even biology. For example in those struggling with depression they find a chemical imbalance in the brain. One would think, “Oh well there is the cause”, but it is really an assumption of cause. It could very well be the effect of something else. Because emotional states cannot be measured; they must be communicated. Therefore cause and effect relationships cannot be rigorously established.

In modern psychology the naturalistic paradigm assumes that all behaviors must have physical experiential causes and therefore physical solutions. From personal experience dealing with my own children struggling with ADHD, after years of denial and mistakes I had to accept the reality of such a mental disability having behavioral consequences.

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Why Sunday?

August 24, 2010 3 Comments

Lions With Commandments

Image by edenpictures via Flickr

I had a conversation with a good friend of mine regarding the observance of worship on Sunday as opposed to Saturday. My friends main concern over the move of worship to Sunday was that it might present a hindrance to Jews accustomed to meeting on Saturday. I would say not Jews only but any other religious group that meets on another day might find it difficult to make the shift from one day to another. Also many people including my friend are of the persuasion that the shift from Saturday to Sunday occurred later in Christian history and was likely more politically motivated then Biblicly or Spiritually motivated. I can truly appreciate these concerns which prompted me to consider the origins of the Church’s shift to Sunday. Read more of this post

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Lost in Translation

August 13, 2010 Leave a comment

Coming out of the enlightenment of the 1600s and early 1700s the church saw great revivals in the late 1700s and 1800s lead by such noted Christian leaders as George Whitfield and Johnathan Edwards. This spawned the age of missions in the church through the 1800s and early 1900s.
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Where is My Honor?

August 11, 2010 Leave a comment

Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11 “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. Read more of this post

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Weeding Out False Teachers and Teaching

August 8, 2010 Leave a comment

I attend a men’s group at my church each weekend. This weekend we discussed the fourth chapter of First John. While the director of ministries lead the session I started noticing some points that drew my attention. While trying to fill out my notes page I started writing notes in the margins of my bible. What follows is an exposition of the points that grabbed my attention. Read more of this post

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