The following was written after an explanation was given why my church is complying with government mandates. Unfortunately, they are not alone in thinking they are being kind by complying with mandated ill-health directives. The verses were mentioned from Romans 13 regarding obeying leaders in all things.
Obedience to authority when based on Scriptural admonition and precedent allowed or spoken against by God includes some “surprising” moments of God-sanctioned disobedience to those in authority. The biggest moment that pops to mind is that of Shaddrach, Meschiach, and Abednego when they refused to bow to the King’s statue and got thrown in the furnace. Bowing to the King’s statue amounted to worship of another god, which God Himself had stated in the 10 Commandments, was not to be done. He showed up with the three men in the furnace and ensured they were unharmed. A second example was that of Daniel, who served in the Babylonian government. When jealous coworkers convinced the king to make a law against prayer to anyone but himself, Daniel continued to pray to God three times a day and eventually faced the lion’s den for that. God intervened and shut the lion’s mouths. We are to pray to no one but God.
In the New Testament, Stephen was stoned to death for going against religious rulers and continuing to proclaim Christ as Saviour. We are told in the book of Acts that Christ stood to receive him into heaven. Stephen disobeyed religious dictates and Christ honoured that disobedience. Also in Acts we see Peter and John disobeying religious dictates again, claiming they must and are compelled to speak of all they had seen and heard of Christ. Paul would find himself repeatedly “disciplined” by municipal rulers but on his way to Rome, most notably by the religious establishment.
History later records the Early Church being persecuted by Nero and others for refusing to obey government dictates.
When we are told to obey those in authority over us in all things, this is one of those situations where ALL is subject to All Things Sanctioned By God Himself! If a leader of a denomination, town, region, province or country goes against something God has decreed or sanctioned, we have plenty of Biblical and historical precedent to disobey.
While no one questions that covid-19 isn’t real, the way governments, the UN, and health ministries have treated the advent of this new corona virus (cold and flu will trip the PCR test, that’s why there has been no “flu season” this year, they are corona viruses too) to remove protected rights and freedoms across the modern world and most notably of religious establishments. We are not being kind when we allow the elderly to die alone. We are not being kind when we allow those with mental health issues to suffer alone. We are not being kind when we force people to breathe back in their own exhale that contains toxic waste the body is trying to get rid of. This act alone is making people ill. God tells us we are to make wise choices regarding our health, and promoting enforcement of deliberate ill health is not kind to those we inflict those measures on, let alone wise. Forcing people to agree to tracking by their government under such unwise, unkind mandates is no different than reporting your neighbour and feeds into the atmosphere of fear. Fear does not promote positive health physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. There is a difference between wisdom and fear. Any action that makes you fearful is not wise and perpetrating mandated actions that engender fear is not wise either.
Churches in Nazi Germany in the years before the war, thought they were doing a good thing telling their people to go along with what the government was mandating. Bonhoeffer was one of the few pastors to stand up to the government and while his theology isn’t always accurate, his bold stand to protect his congregation from government mandates is honourable and to be examined. Churches that meet in persecuted countries against government orders around the world today should be applauded and their methods studied and then adapted here. I agree with the pastors in the Lower Mainland, and with Pastor Coates in Alberta, that if government will allow shopping, they can allow religious gatherings. I have a Dr’s note against wearing a mask because I struggle with my bandanna during forest fire season! So being able to meet others without wearing masks is very important to me on a personal health level. People recovering from surgeries should not wear masks, growing children up into their teens should not wear masks and it is developmental abuse to force them to due to the brain requiring more oxygen than what masks allow through.
W
e have airlines, cruise lines, sports stadiums, and governments considering vaccine passports for a gene therapy wrongly sold to the public as a vaccine. The US’s VAERS database is showing the largest number of vaccine injuries with the various so-called vaccines for covid since October, than any other vaccine added together over the past 15 years. It is not kind to encourage acceptance of this “vaccine” and the side effects from it don’t quit and can’t be treated. Any doctor worth their salt will admit to this. When they tried to make a vaccine against SARS, too many animals died after real-world exposure. The former VP of Pfizer is speaking out now and I am praying for his safety. Covid-19 has been turned into a tool for a startling level of global control over as many countries as will comply. I applaud the handful of nations in Africa who have said no to this stupidity, and to Governor DeSantis in Florida for standing up to the tyranny as well.
If current trends continue in the medical and governmental handling of covid, continued compliance with orders will make the religious world look like China’s state-run churches and even those over there are at risk of being demolished and parishioners hauled off under Xi, who is complicit in plunging the world into the covid problem in the first place! China admitted that a year ago early March but the media, who has been told to keep the fear-mongering going every chance they get, and to dig dirt up on anyone not following the established narrative, tried to bury China’s admission of guilt.
None of this is hidden information. None of this is conjecture. This is current stuff kept in line with historical precedent and NOT tossing out confirmed, established science in favour of bought-out junk science.
It is not kind to comply with harmful directives and force others to do so as well if they want to engage with you. The saying that if you must choose the truth or choose being kind, to be kind and you’ll always be right, needs re-examining in our current social climate. Sometimes being kind goes against government orders and in our current “pandemic”, being kind definitely goes against government orders!
