The Church of Two Masters

Part 4 in a 4-part series on the American churchs’ response to Covid-19 related restrictions.

“Come all you weary and heavy-laden”, and we will tell you the rules and expect your unquestioning compliance.  The vast majority of American Christian churches in 2020 have, with shocking speed, adopted rituals designed completely by the world to enforce the world’s values, and has made them a requirement for entry.  The “experts” of the world, bestowed with god-like power and influence over American society, have successfully inserted their doctrine of seeking immortality (avoiding death and sickness at all costs) into even the minutiae of American life.  By failing to recognize and acknowledge this anti-Christian doctrine for what it is and to take calculated measures to protect the flock from its teaching, the majority of American churches are now trying to serve two masters. 

One master teaches that death and suffering is to be feared and avoided above all – that sacrificing relationships, family, joy, mental health, and even Biblical instruction is acceptable – even expected – if it means avoiding possible sickness and death. The other Master, Jesus Christ, the head of the Church, teaches that suffering is necessary, and death is only the entrance to eternal life in Heaven.  For the follower of Jesus, “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:21).

It’s just not possible to serve the god of this world, to worship medicine and to prioritize safety and disease-avoidance above all, while still serving Jesus, who instructs us to take up our cross daily and die to ourselves. Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us that Jesus died to FREE us from exactly this kind of thinking! He sacrificed his very life in order to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Why would those of us who represent Christ, who yearn to lead others to this freedom, negate His work on the cross by failing to model the very freedom he died to give us? And not only failing to model it, but doing exactly the opposite?

In Matthew 6:24, Jesus plainly states that, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” 

These fundamentally opposing doctrines cannot be blended.  Attempts to do so negate Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. 

You might be thinking now, “Come on.  You’re being pretty extreme.” If so, it is only because my devotion to Christ and His mission is extreme. Like any devoted Christ-follower, I want to do the right thing – the Christ-like thing – to love people and point them to Him. Always a student of Scripture and Spirit, I have devoted a generous amount of hours in study and prayer, digging into the Scriptural justifications being used to defend the mask and distancing requirements in church, and seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit to direct me in how best to represent Christ and partner in His mission. After all of this seeking, my initial convictions that these practices are anti-Christ-like have only been strengthened. 

Ephesians chapter 4 explains what the church is supposed to be. Verses 1-7 state:

“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”

The church is instructed to nurture humility and gentleness, bearing with one another in love.  With one another – a mutual, reciprocal enduring – not forcing one group (the minority) to bear with the other group, but every person cultivating mutual respect, creating a cyclical exchange of the grace given us by the Lord.  It should be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit, a unity that is not built on cultural trends or the values of the world (like the fear of death), but on the everlasting truth.  

We then read in verses 11-16:

“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

Turning people away from church because of their thoughts on masks or any other worldly idea disables the church.  Those being rejected have gifts that were given to them by God for building up the body of Christ, and all kingdom workers are to be unified in the “faith and knowledge of Christ” – NOT faith and knowledge of science and public health initiatives.  We must aim toward spiritual maturity so that, “we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” 

Only God can knows what’s in the heart of man and only God can foresee the outcomes of our actions.  The only things that we, as Christians, are instructed to stand on as absolute truth is the Word of God.  If one brother or sister sees the forceful controls put on people under the guise of public health as “human cunning,” this is not a sin, and so there is no Biblical basis for the church leadership to seek to correct him. If a believer needs correction, let it come from the Holy Spirit.  

It is not coincidence that many of the world’s Public Health agencies are called “Ministries”, complete with Public Health evangelists. Amongst the list of goals of the National Adult Immunization Plan written by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Vaccine Program Office is to compel the use faith-based organizations as an avenue to promote the government’s mass vaccination agenda. Church leaders who are voluntarily attending regular meetings with public health officials must be especially careful not to take a stand for government procedures without the utmost scrutiny and accountability.  By attending these meetings, church leaders are participating in a deliberate and sophisticated indoctrination process into the world’s belief system under its secular adaptation of the “good neighbor” idea.

Christ-followers are instructed by scripture to be on guard, to be watchful for the schemes of the enemy, who is relentlessly at work in the world to bring destruction to God’s people.  Any idea that is common to the world should be approached with skepticism.  In Romans 12:2, Paul instructs believers, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world.”  2020 has clearly exposed the pattern of this world to be idolatry toward medical interventions and installing doctors and politicians as viable saviors.

Persecution sucks, but the Bible isn’t ambiguous about the relationship between Christians and the world. James 4:4 emphatically reminds believers that “friendship with the world is enmity with God. Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” We also read repeatedly in scripture that if we follow Christ, we will be hated and persecuted.  So why have the majority of American churches in 2020 so readily chosen to implement the rituals of the world as a requirement for entry?  Being hated and persecuted is not appealing, and may even lead to significant financial consequences for churches.  That’s a scary place to go when a church has a staff of employees with families to support. But, like all of God’s instruction, the reason He warns us over and over in His word to separate ourselves from the world is for our own benefit, because:

¹⁹ We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 1 John 5:19

In Revelation 12:9, we read that Satan is “the one deceiving the whole world.” 

In thinking about the churches receiving letters in the book of Revelation, I can see several of the admonishments from God as applicable to the church of 2020 pandemic response. 

The church in Revelation 2:4-5 is charged as such; “You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.”  When the church of 2020 turned from Jesus’ uncomplicated teaching of unconditional acceptance, and toward implementing the pattern of the world, it forsook the things it did at first.

Revelation 3:15-16 translates God’s word to the church as saying, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!  So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Is the church that tries to love Christ and promote safety at equal measure a lukewarm body?  It cannot be on fire for Jesus alone as it incorporates worldly values, nor is it cold to Him. 

Rev 2:22-23 gives serious warning about the Jezebel spirit, which is a spirit of adultery. “Therefore, I will throw her on a bed of suffering, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer greatly unless they repent and turn away from her evil deeds. ²³ I will strike her children dead.” Throughout the Bible, references to adultery are linked to idolatry. In studying this section of scripture, the Holy Spirit revealed to me that this adultery refers to the church espousing idols such as materialism, comfort, safety, even public health. Jezebel’s false prophecy seduced Christ’s followers to stray from their singular love of Christ.  Today’s mainstream medical establishment sells the belief that humans can avoid death and suffering, and this false prophecy is seducing many of Christ’s followers to stray from the truth.

In the end, we lovers of Jesus want to win this battle against our accuser, and we want to lead as many others as possible to the same victory! What is the key to triumph over this powerful enemy of our souls? Revelations 12:11 prophecies who will be the winners in the end – it is those who “did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”

Joshua speaks to God’s people boldly about their tendency to stray from a singular faith in the one true God. In Joshua 24:15, he says:

But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Serving the Lord can definitely seem undesirable at times with its call to self-denial and sacrificial love. People will naturally want to serve the gods of this world that promise safety and comfort.  Following and serving the one true God requires a conscious choice to do so.  We must continually ask ourselves, day to day – Which master are we serving?