Covid 19 and the Great Commission

The Inalienable Right of Christians to Risk and Lay Down Their Lives for Others

In recent days the airwaves and social media have been the epicenter of a raging debate around President Trump's recent pronouncement that churches should no longer be kept closed during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The current Argument

The justification for declaring churches as "essential," for most Christians, is based on two primary arguments: first, that the Constitution protects both our freedom to worship and our right to assemble; second, that we are commanded to gather together in corporate worship. Of course, there is also the very legitimate argument that churches should be no more restricted than grocery stores, barber shops or other places that have looser restrictions than do houses of worship. 

All these are legitimate arguments, and the proposed solutions coming from the churches are reasonable. It is just as easy for a church to re-open safely as it is for a business, and frankly, at this point most of our leaders are hard-pressed to provide us with legitimate scientific, medical, moral or ethical reasons why the country should not be re-opened fully. But back to churches and the key point of this post. 

What's Missing in the Debate

What I have not heard (and it could well be a point that others have made) is much, if any, talk about The Great Commission. If ever there was reason for civil disobedience during the coronavirus pandemic, you would be hard-pressed to find a better reason than the fact that we have been commanded by Jesus to fulfill The Great Commission and we have been stifled by the Authorities in our attempt to do so.

Of course, any in-depth discussion of The Great Commission vis-a-vis the worldwide shut-down of economies and lockdown of churches must include a discussion of missionary work, and that is what I want to address first and foremost.

The Missionary Work of the Church

The history of the Church is not just associated with missions, missions are THE work of the Church. When the Church was told by Jesus Christ Himself to "...go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you," there were no "ifs" or "buts." There were no exceptions for pandemics, wars, civil disorder or the murderous behaviors of those to whom Christ's disciples are to go. The Great Commission is inseparable from The Great Commandment; together, they beg disobedience to any Authority that would hamper the Church's fulfillment of either, much less both.

Missionary Work Is Risky, To Say the Least

Indeed, in the past two thousand years, thousands of Christians have given their lives on the Missionary fields. Whole books have been written on the lives of the Martyrs, and on the extraordinary lives of other who were called to particularly dangerous places and situations to bring the Gospel to those who have not heard it. But we must not focus on just those whose sacrifices resulted in their being well-known role models; indeed, all Christians are called to spread the Gospel, and most have done so without much if any human recognition or fanfare. 

Christians recognize that fulfilling The Great Commission is risky business, first and foremost because the unsaved are hostile to the message. 

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. John 15:18-10

Not Just Murderous Hatred... 

As if the natural hatred towards the Gospel were not enough, Christians often face the dangers of both place and disease. Not all these dangerous places are in exotic or "third-world" countries. Plenty of dangers to Christ's faithful disciples lurk in the "civilized" places of the world. From the ghettos of large cities to the board rooms of big business and everywhere in-between, the "natural man" hates Christ and Christians. Christians have been murdered out of the rage, indifference, superstitiousness and fear of those whom they would make disciples. We are not blind to the evils of disease, or the evils of the world.

...but Devastating Disease

History is littered with--and God's Kingdom is full of--Christians who have contracted diseases and died in pursuit of The Great Commission. Many of the books written about some of the more famous Christian missionaries recount arguments made by the so-called friends of the would-be missionary in which the Christian was warned about the likelihood of contracting and probably dying from one disease or another. Malaria, tuberculosis, the plague...the list is long. It is the rare missionary who undertook his or her commission who did not know or suspect that one or more dangerous diseases could kill them sooner or later (and often it was sooner). It is probable that most of them gave at least some thought to Jesus's own ministry to Leper's and other "untouchables." But Jesus never socially distanced Himself from the diseased, only from the Authorities who could not or would not do anything to help them.

The Point Is...

that the World does not understand, nor can it, why Christians would risk limb and life to go among people who hate them, and risk contracting diseases that would ravage their bodies in order to obey Christ's Great Commission and His Great Commandment. In a not-so-roundabout way, the Founding Fathers of the United States understood this. That is why we have the First Amendment, and largely why we even have a Constitution. That is also why they did not spend many words or much time making exceptions, and why the exceptions they did make were explicit. They did not want someone 200 years later to "interpret" what our Rights meant and start making exceptions to the enforcement thereof. 

No Exceptions

There is no exception to the First Amendment right to worship, to assemble and to speak freely. The Founding Fathers did not state any such exception explicitly, nor did they imply circumstances under which the First Amendment may be suspended. They did not allow for an end-around run for the sake of convenience or for what some would consider the common good. 

So, Why the Debate?

We live in a post-Christian culture. Arguably, except perhaps in our first few years as a nation, we have  never had a Christian majority; nevertheless we have until recently had a culture that at least recognized the inherent advantages of living what was more or less considered to be "a christian life," which included honoring the Constitution and embracing the Rule of Law. That culture is gone, and has been for at least 90 years now (if not before, then certainly it started with the disastrous 12 years of the FDR presidency). That is why, prior to Covid-19, the deadliness pandemic in 100 years, we never shut down the entire country during any other health crisis, war or natural disaster. To be clear, the reasons for the difference between then and now are manifold, but certainly  two of the drivers of the change are:

1. Creeping Socialism and the Death of a Republic

Starting with the FDR years, actual acceptance of socialist political programs and policies has become more commonplace--indeed, even desirable--to many of our citizens. Big Government, or Statism, is no longer feared--it is welcomed, worshiped and served. Non-republican, "pure Democracy" first, followed by Social Democracy, has largely replaced the Republic as our new form of government. Without the widespread acceptance of Socialism, which many still deny is the case, we would never have shut down the economy and churches would still be open and free to assemble and carry on with The Great Commission..

2. Largesse: Stimulus Payments

The most emphatic proof that our Republic's goose is cooked and the remainder of the goose is almost done is the final fulfillment of de Tocqueville's prophecy that "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury." That final fulfillment of the prediction, at least symbolically, if not actually, has come in the form of the Covid-19 Stimulus payments (in fairness, you also have to look back to the stimulus payments during the economic crisis of the Obama Administration). And Americans can feel good about not directly voting for largesse because we now have a government we can trust to provide the largesse without the need for a vote. After all, who is going to complain about "free money?" We have gone from "Taxation without Representation" to "Distribution without Contribution."

Summary

The Christian Church has always had to go about its business of fulfilling The Great Commission in a hostile environment, and that is what we face in today's America: A hostile culture that falsely believes we are a dangerous bunch of fanatics because they view us as a some sort of club that wants to have its meetings in the name of religion and thereby place everyone at risk of catching a virus. What they don't see is that we are energized to fulfill The Great Commission precisely because people are already, and always have been, dying. They fail to comprehend that death is not the ultimate risk, nor is it the ultimate outcome. It is the consequence that follows death that concerns the Church. A virus may kill hundreds of thousands and afflict millions more; but sin afflicts all and eventually kills everyone. How we deal with sin determines where and how people will spend eternity, not just whether they go to hospital or their body to the grave.

God, in his infinite wisdom and at His good pleasure, has so structured His Creation that he has given to the Church the task of spreading to the world the Good News of Christ and the Salvation He alone makes possible. The Gospel is the cure for sin and death, The Great Commission is the task of spreading the Gospel, and declare it we must. God is the Authority above all other authorities. Where there is a direct conflict between God's authority and Man's authority, a conflict that we cannot resolve in the legislatures or the civil courts, then our Constitution empowers us to exercise our religion freely, and our LORD commands us "to obey God and not Man." 

Undoubtedly, in fulfilling The Great Commission some will die a mortal death after contracting Covid-19. But just as surely that person and some to whom he has witnessed will attain to eternal bliss. And so our plea to the civil authorities is to not inhibit the Church from doing peaceably what the Church must, and will, do anyway, because God has commanded it, and because more than our temporal and mortal lives is at stake here.