The Gnosticism which COVID—19 reveals

Is worship physically present with the body of Christ essential to being a Christian? Is bodily gathering together to worship with Christ’s people crucial and a requirement as you understand Christianity? Does a person have to obey Jesus Christ in order to be a Christian, in order to have any hope of seeing the kingdom of God and not eternal perdition? 

Or, for you, is Christianity primarily about a “personal experience?”

Surely, does not Christianity entail a life, a path in which Christ Jesus is King, a pathway that obligates us to obey His commandments?

 John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”

In I John and Colossians, specifically, the authors are writing to churches that are being devastated by a new religion, a blending of Christianity with paganism. They urgently appeal to Christians who are being subjected to teachings that were importing pagan ideas and beliefs into the Christian faith as false teachers were re-framing the significant aspects of what it means to be a Christian.

 Gnosticism entails religious beliefs that regard evil as resident within created things and that views true knowledge to be the possession alone of those who have received secret, spiritual insight.

 Being Spiritual, Gnosticism de-emphasizes any commandments which are transcendent and are moral or concern the body. For example, as long as you feel close to God, you will be forgiven of your all sins, (today referred to as “brokenness”). Gnosticism denies original sin and total depravity—it teaches that life is the mastery and unlocking of the inner good and finding one’s personal happiness. To receive grace is to feel good, rather than living obediently. Jesus came to unlock your potential, not to save you from eternal hell by causing you to follow him.

 I am amazed, but shouldn’t be, at the amount of churches and leaders who seem to have made embodied congregational worship optional, not just for the first two months of COVID-19, but seemingly indefinitely. The belief that a personal experience at home is just as good as gathering (and risking sickness and inconvenience) in person in a building or place.

The Video Venue home worship is simply not church. It may have been deemed a good and necessary option for a time, but it is not a replacement of the embodied congregational gathering required of Christianity. Video Venue/virtual worship, taken to its logical conclusion, is a replacement of Christianity. It says that I do not belong to the body of Christ, my presence is optional, The Pastor/guru comes to impart in my life good feelings and principals for living. That is enough. It is individual and autonomous. Just me and my personal Jesus.

In this my personal safety becomes the chief virtue of my life. It is scary to go to church. It might upset my emotional balance. My personal inner comforts are what matters. Don’t tell me otherwise; that is legalism and hurtful of my Holy, in-corrupted feelings.

I fear that the COVID-19 virus is becoming an occasion for apostasy into Gnostic self-worshiping paganism. It is a revealing of how many “confessed Christians” do not have the category of the necessity of embodied worship gathering with the body of Christ, in obedience to Jesus Christ’s commandments as King. Their religion may be closer to the Gnosticism the apostles of Christ encountered in the first century. It may not be Christianity.

 Hebrews 10:25 warns against this: neglecting of the congregational gathering. I John warns against disobedience and not loving the brethren. I Corinthians states 5+ times that “when you gather” as the church.

 When is the gathering of the church for worship ever entirely safe? It may not be safe, but it is sacred. The assembly is a time set apart by a Holy God to worship in Spirit and truth, preaching and proclaiming King Jesus in all of His glory (Col 1).

 The Gospel Declares that Jesus Christ came bodily. He came to redeem all of us. He lived and died and rose again bodily, not merely spiritually. There is no separation of our feelings towards Jesus and our actions in obedience towards him and our good works of love towards others. He calls us to gather and worship him as He directs in His word. This is both faith and repentance. In exchange we receive the assurance that he grants to those he loves who are obeying Him.

 Titus 2:11-15 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

Pastor Eric Anderson: Creeds, Convictions and Commitments on Sola Scriptura as related to The New Social Justice Movement

Creedal Positions:

I am committed to The reformation practice of Sola Scriptura; as articulated through the Historic Christian Creeds and Confessions (II Tim 3:15-17).

LBC 1689 1.6 The whole counsel of God concerning everything essential for his own glory and man’s salvation, faith, and life is either explicitly stated or by necessary inferences contained in the Holy Scriptures.

The Bible declares; and thus I believe, that God has created differing ethnicity’s/cultures of people (Gen 10:5,20, 32; 11:1-8) under one human race/blood (Acts 17:26) 

I am committed to preach the Word of God in and out of season (II Timothy 4:1-5). Therefore, though, in any local context, the different patterns of groups may be considered in evangelism (to the Jew I became a Jew, Titus 1:10-16), we ultimately must leave the ethnic make up of Christ’s church to the workings of His Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 3:5-7); through whom a new Christian culture is created among all regenerate people in every local church (Galatians 5-6, I Cor 13)

LBC 26:5 In exercising the authority entrusted to him, the Lord Jesus, through the ministry of his Word, by his Spirit, calls to himself out of the world those who are given to him by his Father.⁹  They are called so that they will live before him in all the ways of obedience that he prescribes for them in his Word.¹⁰  Those who are called he commands to live together in local societies, or churches, for their mutual edification and the fitting conduct of public worship that he requires of them while they are in the world.¹¹

I believe The Good News that makes The Gospel Good News: That the body of Death, the old man was paid for at Calvary. (Romans 6:5-11) We believe that all Christians are living in light of the Resurrection and awaiting our glorification of all that is Sin-cursed and fallen; this already/not-yet reality is a tension in all Christian ministry. (Romans 8:12-39) 

I believe that real justice comes from and can only be defined by a commitment to Truth: Sola Scriptura. Any political strategy, social or personal attempts, which are not rooted in the Fear of God and wisdom flowing from His Word will only undermine the church and harm people.

I believe, principally from Scripture, that, while God judges the heart (I Samuel 16:7, Matthew 5:17-30, 7:21-23) the justice we are called to steward is objectively verifiable, rooted in Truth (Exodus 20:1-17, Isaiah 1:16-17) and provable by the establishment of two or three witnesses ( Matthew 18:15-20, Numbers 35:30, Deuteronomy 19:15)

 lBC 21:2 God alone is Lord of the conscience,¹² and he has left it free from human doctrines and commandments that are in any way contrary to his word or not contained in it.¹³ So, believing such doctrines, or obeying such commands out of conscience, is a betrayal of true liberty of conscience.¹⁴  Requiring implicit faith or absolute and blind obedience destroys liberty of conscience and reason as well.¹⁵

Convictions:

I believe the current Evangelical Social justice movement, acutely trending within traditionally historically reformed partnerships, is, as a whole and in the final analysis, deeply damaging to the church because it is driven by an over-fascination with the world–both the sins which Jesus paid for, and the praise of the words, definitions and values of the fallen cultures of men.

I discern that the root of this is under-realized eschatology; which fans man-fear and anger (Proverbs 29:25); leading to the confusion of some fundamental and basic Biblical-Gospel categories and definitions (Identity in Adam/Christ—old man/new man, definitions of sin, extent of Atonement, implications of resurrection and regeneration, etc); as well as an obsession to return to the very land of Egypt the Lord Jesus Christ has freed the elect from; and warns against coveting afresh. (Romans 8:12-15; James 3:14-18).

LBC 25.3 The purest churches under heaven are subject to mixture and error.4 Some have degenerated so much that they have ceased to be churches of Christ and have become synagogues of Satan.5 Nevertheless, Christ always has had and will have in this world to the very end a kingdom of those who believe in him and profess his name.6

I further observe that although this current movement seems to mirror a Socialist/Marxist philosophy, it is not dis-similar from any number of historical “Evangelical-Utopian” promises which have infiltrated the church visible and undermined her gospel work and witness. Through depending upon human effort, the praise of men, pragmatic numbers and quotients, these disorderly-trends divide by demanding sacrifices from certain people for favor of others. This includes, but is not limited to, the church-growth, prosperity, gay-christian and feminist movements of the past 50 years.

Commitments:

LBC 15.4Repentance must continue throughout our lives, because of the body of death and its activities. So it is everyone’s duty to repent of each specific, known sin specifically.⁷

As it is deems wise and necessary, Christians should and must talk about specific sins and patterns of idolatry we inherited from our forefathers (I Peter 1:18), and are now participating in.

For example, the sin of prideful favoritism, which James explains in 2:1-13, should be discerned, rebuked and changes made, to the extent to which the secret sins of the heart (pride) have become visible (division/favoritism);

Yet, I do not dwell upon those; whether this is public or in private counseling; since a Christian is under condemnation, but under grace; and the eternal debt is paid for and canceled.

Instead I commit to person-to-person peacemaking and counseling which involved Gospel declaration, specific sin-repentance and forgiveness; which includes specific commitments to change and reconcile, in all relationships where pride, anger, and fear manifests itself to separate people from one another; of which racism is only one example.

 LBC 26:4aThe Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the church. By the Father’s appointment, all authority is conferred on him in a supreme and sovereign manner to call, institute, order and govern the church.⁷ 

Footnotes:

1. This has been a growing concern among individuals in our fellowship for some time, and while we hope to not “respond” to every trend, we discern this is a serious enough threat to The Gospel and True Unity to re-affirm what we believe with polemic underpinnings.

    

2. The timing and the gravitas of this paper came from the concerns surrounding the direction of Evangelicalism and the Neo-Reformed movement (including institutions) specifically related to articles, blogs and talks surrounding TGC/ERLC MLK 500 Conference. Although the New Social Justice movement’s official positions and definitions can be fluid and hard to pin down,much of our concerns can be seen and summarized through listening to the talks from the MLK 500 and T4G2018 including, but not limited to, the talks from David Platt and Matt Chandler.

    

3. There is a wealth of podcasts and articles analyzing the Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Dangers of this movement: easily accessible from a variety of Apologists and pastors, including James White, John MacArthur, Phil Johnson, Darryl Harrison, P. Andrew Sandlin, Samuel Sey, Todd Friel, Todd Pruitt and Douglas Wilson. A google search will yield much fruit.

4. For academic, yet accessible articles, see Paul Helseth Elect from Every Nation, Ardel Caneday Let’s Get Biblical: Moving from Scripture to Theology Concerning Racial Reconciliation, Neil Shenvi Critical Theory and Christianity, and Peter Jones Revoice: Sliding into Heresy

    

5. Lifespring Church hosted a recent conference on the Doctrine of The Christian Mind, which devoted two talks to this subject as related to historical deconstruction of terms. See www.visitlifespring.com, under “Sermons” from April 2018. In addition, Dr. Caneday came and spoke with a recent pastors fellowship we hosted about these trends and the need for Biblically grounded language.

    

6. Furthermore, I am concerned this new infusion of Biblical and worlds terms will necessary lead to re-definitions of morality including gender and sexuality; for this may as well be called the church growth/seeker movement 2.0, in which the world demands, not big programs and contemporary music from the church, but social, sexual and gender pragmatic affirmation.

    

7. Finally, we love our fellowship and unity. For many of us what we have enjoyed as a network we have not had before to this extent. We are thankful to our God and King, who has seen fit to draw us together, during these divisive times.

Church Worship (and other livelihoods): The Duty to use our Citizenship….

or….Paul did not intend in Romans 13 to promote absolute submission to human authorities,

Citizen:The native of a city, or an inhabitant who enjoys the freedom and privileges of the city in which he resides; the freeman of a city, as distinguished from a foreigner, or one not entitled to its franchises.
- Webster’s 1828

A couple of pre-emptive statements:

1. I am not arguing against the reality of COVID-19 virus nor the degree of prevalence of the spread COVID-19, whether in Crosby, Colorado, or in California, etc, etc.

2. I am not arguing that our church, in retrospect, should not have suspended regular worship. As my friend Joe Reed says, “If someone knocks on your door and says your roof is smoking, only a fool would not go outside and check to see if the thing is burning down.” God is sovereign, we are not; yet we are called to make decisions based upon commandments, convictions and calculated risk every single day. We are guided by obedience to God and love of others, and we act by faith because we do not have foresight. We are, after all, flesh and blood. That’s why, at various times in the winter, we have canceled our church programs for snow (or even on the basis of a forecast) based upon the limited knowledge we have while calculating risk/reward. I do not regret, for our church in our area, the decision to suspend worship for a time, the same decisions that almost all were making, upon the forecasts of COVID–19.

That said…

I am deeply concerned about this now popular notion among-st Christians that Romans 13 argues for absolute submission to the human Governing authorities for seemingly whatever length they suspend the assembling of the church.

Truth: Our attitude should always be one of humble submissiveness, and our actions should be in submission to proper authorities, unless the government goes against the clear directives of Christians as laid down in God’s Holy Word.

What are those clear directives?

Gathering together personally and publicly as a local church for worship (Colossians 3, Hebrews 10:25). The Holy Spirit brings isolated sinners from death to life, through the preaching of the Gospel, and into a local family, the church, as we run together towards heaven (Hebrews 12:1-2) The church is certainly more than Sunday worship, but it is also certainly nothing less than Sunday Worship – together, in person. Virtual meetings are a mirror of gathering, but there are many “one-anothers” which cannot occur through a video screen, and much participation by the whole is lost while watching the performance of one. Virtual worship is something, but it is certainly not “the church.”

Let me give an example from Scripture which I think is quite applicable today, showing us how and when to properly interpret scenarios where submission to Government applies.

In Acts 16 as Paul and Silas are preaching the Gospel, the rightful governing magistrates of Philippi, being influenced by some upset and angry citizens, arrested and beat the evangelists, throwing them in jail. They were then released by a divinely sent earthquake. Their jailer and his family, in fear and awe of God’s power and the kindness of his disciples, hear and are converted by the Gospel to Christianity. Here is the relevant text for us today, in our current situation: Christians who are also American Citizens:

But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.” (36) And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.” (37) But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.” (38) The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. (39) So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city. (40) So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.
Act 16:35-40

Do you see it in v. 37? Paul uses the rights of his Citizenship, as (evidently) understood by All Romans, to challenge the authorities, that they, not he had violated the law and needed to repent, to change their course. Paul was actually demonstrating proper and legal submission to the government by reminding them of the rights of Roman citizens that Roman magistrates were expected to honor. The Magistrates had violated the law, not Paul.

Paul disobeyed the magistrates by not leaving town, but his dis-obedience was not moral, it was not a sin against God. The magistrates were out of line, according to their own oath of office. But confronting them, he was both helping himself and doing them a favor.

Each nation, of course, is different, so let me appeal to Americans.

In the USA the rights of citizens are recognized in the Constitution. It is the right of citizens to free, peaceful assembly: “Congress shall make no law respecting and establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

We obey God and God commands us to gather together bodily for worship (Colossians 3, Hebrews 10:25). It is what the pastor/elders/leaders of your church will be held accountable to God for. Did they obey God, even in the face of opposition? We can suspend worship, related to common sense reasoning (weather, pandemic, etc), but it is the church’s government, not civil government’s responsibility and sphere of authority. If, we as church leaders, make a wise or foolish decision, that is on us, not our civil government. Our American Constitution itself recognizes the very fact. Thank the Lord for this reality. The Governor can make recommendations and pleas to the church, but the church leadership are delegated to make decisions on Worship.

My question: In our Governor’s executive order to not allow churches to “meet for public worship”, is he, within the rights of his office and the laws of the land, according to the Constitution, or are we?

When we gather peaceably, we are exercising our rights as citizens and indirectly reminding others that this right is protected.If we do not remind the government of our place and their place, according to our own laws, who will? My primary goal in re-staring public worship is not to remind the government of anything. I am obeying God’s command. But, as an American Citizen, it is within my rights to do so. Period.

All things considered, such as the issues of risk, health, and love, it is crazy for the church right now to not at least read the constitution and wrestle with our American rights, our duties as the citizenry, as Paul did in Acts 16 when his rights were violated.

End Notes:

*We must differentiate the authority of civil magistrates and the authority (oft too much) of public opinion. Fear is a powerful weapon to wield, and it can enslave those who succumb to its influence. How often do we surrender our call and obedience to God because of the fear of who will shame us or hurt us?

*Similar principles and rights apply to businesses and other livlihoods in our nation. Where in the constitution is my right to make honest and peaceable commerce not protected right now….by what standard?

*A helpful video on the purpose of Church worship (Governmental Authority and the church) is found at https://www.facebook.com/aomin.org/videos/247003543025946/

This coming Sunday (April 12), we are able to gather together in our Vehicles for Sunday Worship!
This will take place at our regular time (9:30), at Miners Mountain Center Trail-head, just out of Ironton in the Mountain bike Rec area. You will be able to participate in your vehicles. This will also be broadcast over the radio on Skeeter 101.5 fm. Directions: turn North on County RD 30 in Ironton for 1/4 mile. As you leave town, take the first left into the rec area. The road winds for approx 1/2 mile until it takes a right turn. We will be in the farthest parking lot, at the base of Miners Mountain/scenic overlook. https://naturalatlas.com/trailheads/miners-mountain-rally-center-2296562