Toby J. Sumpter's Blog, page 47

Seeing & Knowing God

Do you know God? It can sound like a simple question, but it might also be a troubling question. It can sometimes seem difficult to explain how you can know the infinite God. It can seem strange to describe knowing a Being you cannot see. 

So how can we know God? The answer is that the only way to know God is for God to reveal Himself to you. And the good news is that He has done precisely that. He has spoken to You in His written word. He has spoken to you in His created word. He also speaks in the preached Word of the gospel, and He reveals Himself here at this table. And all of this is possible because God has come and revealed Himself to us in person, in the man Jesus Christ. 

In fact, the Bible says that as we read and hear and believe these words, we are coming to see God and coming to truly know Him. Paul says that when Christ was preached to the Galatians, He was set before their eyes. In the preaching of the cross, Christ is displayed. Christ was just proclaimed. Did you see Him there? Did you see Him there for you? 

And John says, “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him…” (1 Jn. 5:20). When we learn about God, about who He is, He is revealing Himself. And what does He reveal? He reveals that He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, an eternal fellowship of love and joy and delight. And that is what He invites you to share with Him here. This is what your God is like. He comes, He shares, He gives, He welcomes. Do you see that? Do you love that? Then you know Him.

And so come and welcome to Jesus Christ. 

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The Fear of God

[Note: you can watch or listen to this message here.]

Introduction
“Blessed is everyone that fears the Lord” (Ps. 128:1). Do you really believe that? Do you believe that God’s blessing really only rests on those who fear Him?

The clear message of the Bible is that the great divide that runs down the middle of the human race is between those who fear God and those who do not. As we face tyrannical government overreach, various viruses and threats, the impotence and compromise of the modern Church, one thing is very clear: of those who name the Lord Jesus Christ, relatively few of them actually fear God. You will hear much about the love of God, serving God, the peace of God, the forgiveness of God, but churches are not known for their fear of God. But if we want the blessing of God, we must fear God.

This is what the early church was known for: “Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied” (Acts 9:31).

Why Should We Fear the Lord?
John Bunyan has a wonderful little meditation on the Fear of God in which he notes three reasons why God’s presence ought to make the godly fear.

First, His presence is full of greatness and majesty and power. Often the Scriptures point to the power of God displayed in creation: the wind and the waves, floods and famines, pestilence and plague, fires and earthquakes. Modern man is blessed with relative protection from these threats, but it is really only relative protection. Despite all our attempts to control creation or at least shield ourselves from it, we cannot. Storms still rage. Floods still overrun banks. Fires still break out. And the point is that God is so much greater than all of these. He is like the sun burning with a heat we could never endure. He is like the ocean, heavy and deep and overwhelming. Imagine floating alone in the middle of the Pacific. He is like a hurricane, a mighty wind blowing with sheer joy. 

Bunyan also points to how God’s presence always effects people in the Bible. Never does someone look up and casually say, “Oh, hey, it’s you, God.” No, it’s only always fear. When Jacob saw the vision of the ladder reaching up to heaven, he woke up and was afraid (Gen. 28:10-17). When Jacob wrestled the angel, he went away amazed that he was still alive (Gen. 32:30). When God appeared to Daniel, there was no strength left in him (Dan. 10:8, 16). When Isaiah saw the Lord, he was completely undone (Is. 6:5). When angels appear, they are constantly saying, do not fear, but the point is not that there is nothing to fear, it is rather that the message they bring is good news. The presence is still terrifying. Think of things that really are good but are also dreadful. Maybe it’s watching a storm from safe distance – it is both beautiful and terrifying. Or a firearm: it need not do you any harm and it may be there for your protection, but there is a natural fear of its power, of what it could do. 

And this leads to the third thing that Bunyan points to: the goodness of God as the source of godly fear. The grace and mercy of God should cause Christians to fear. God says in Hosea that when He delivers Israel from exile and brings them home into their land, they shall seek the Lord and shall fear Him and His goodness (Hos. 3:5). Or Jeremiah says, “And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me… and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it” (Jer. 33:8-9). 

Bunyan says that to receive the grace and mercy of God does not make men “light and frothy” or silly or casual, but to receive forgiveness is the “most humbling and heartbreaking sight in the world; it is fearful.”

You Cannot Worship God without Fear
Perhaps one of the most startling signs of the apostacy of the modern American church is the abomination of our worship. There is no fear of God in American evangelical worship. It is light and casual and friendly and silly and obnoxious, but it is not fearful. It does not tremble, and it does not cause anyone to tremble. It does not teach anyone to fear the Lord. And we love to have it so. We insist that it not cause anyone to fear. Come as you are. Our worship is informal, casual – anyone will feel comfortable here. Which just goes to tell you that whoever is there, God is certainly not. If God were there in His goodness, His people would tremble. 

When Christians – real Christians – know that their sins are forgiven, they do rejoice, they are full of joy, but they always rejoice with trembling (Ps. 2:11). In Ezekiel 16, when God promises to forgive filthy, adulterous Israel, He does so, announcing her complete cleansing, and says, “That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth anymore because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God” (Ez. 16:63). When’s the last time you heard a gospel minister proclaim the forgiveness of God to that sinners might be confounded and shut their mouths?

When many Christians gather for worship, they say God’s name over and over in their stupid songs and thoughtless prayers because they do not fear God or His name. But according to the Bible, God’s people not only fear God but they fear His name: Moses says the law of God was given that God’s people might obey it, “that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD” (Dt. 28:58). David prays, “Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name” (Ps. 86:11). “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings…” (Mal. 4:2).

Why is the modern evangelical church so sickly, so weak, so impotent? Because we do not fear the name of the Lord – particularly in our worship spectacles. They are more like circus shows and rock concerts and late night comedy television. There are two commandments with a severe warnings. The second and third commandments are both related to worship: those bow down to images and serve them will not be forgiven and God will visit their sin on their children to the third and fourth generations. Likewise, those who take God’s name in vain will not be held guiltless.    

How will the nations learn to fear God if God’s own people do not fear God? Why does Governor Andrew Cuomo not mind blaspheming the living God on national television? Because he does not fear God. And why does he not fear God? Because the Christian Church does not fear God. God’s own people do not fear Him. 

Part of the grace of salvation is the gift of godly fear, and when true Christians gather together for worship, they worship with reverence and godly fear because they know that God is still a consuming fire. 

Nadab and Abihu were struck down for offering strange fire before the Lord (Lev. 10). Uzzah reached out and touched the ark so that it would not fall, and he was struck dead on the spot (1 Sam. 2). Ananias and Saphira were killed by God for lying about their offering (Acts 5). And Paul says that some were dead in Corinth for the way they were conducting themselves at the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11). Do not say that God only killed people who trifled with His worship in the Old Testament. It is true of both Old Testament and New Testament, and Hebrews says if anything, the warning is more severe in the New Testament:

“See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven… Wherefore we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:25-26, 28-29).

Likewise, John records one of the songs sung in heaven, “Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest” (Rev. 15:4). You cannot glorify God’s name if you do not fear Him. 

You Cannot Be Saved Without the Fear of God
But some of you are wondering about the scripture that says perfect love casts out fear: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love” (1 Jn. 4:18).

First of all, the fact that we have this verse alongside all of the other verses commending the fear of God in the Bible should give us pause. Whatever this verse means, it does not contradict all of the others. It cannot mean that the fear of the Lord is not the beginning of wisdom. It cannot mean that we are not to fear God.

But secondly, the verse tells us plainly what it is talking about: perfect love casts out the fear of torment, the fear of punishment. Is God out to get you? Is God hunting you down? Is God preparing particular judgments and torture for your sins? If you are in Christ, then no. Perfect love casts out that fear. But perfect love does not cast out the holiness of God, the perfection of God, the justice of God, and the fact that He might have done all of those things to you for your sins. 

Maybe you’ve had a near death experience. Maybe you almost fell from a great height. Maybe you barely missed a terrible car accident or some other accident. Do you remember that feeling washing over you? Relief and terror all at the same time. The relief tells you that you’re safe – the actual fear of that calamity is cast out, but you’re still shaking: a godly fear remains. It’s a godly fear because it teaches you wisdom. The fear that remains teaches you caution, care, thoughtfulness – or least it should. 

But it’s the same thing with God. When you come to realize your sins. When you see them for the rebellion and filth and shame that they are, you can only do that by seeing how good God is. You can’t know how filthy you are unless you come to see how clean God is. You can’t really understand how perverse and unjust you have been, except by looking up and beginning to comprehend how righteous and just God is. 

And in that moment, you know that you deserve His wrath. You deserve to be destroyed. You deserve to suffer. You deserve to receive the pain you have dealt out. You deserve to die. And then God in His infinite mercy grasps you in midair, stumbling over the edge of the cliff heedless, determined, laughing with spite, spitting in His face, and God reaches out just as you look down and see that there is only darkness above and below and in every direction, there is nothing but pain and shame and suffering. There is no hope. And in that moment, God reaches out and He saves you. 

He pulls you up. He sets you on solid ground. He washes you clean. And you are utterly confounded. It doesn’t make sense. It isn’t really just. It isn’t really fair. Because you hear the words: Christ died for you. He bled for you. He stood in your place. Your sins are forgiven. You are safe forever. And there is a glorious inheritance saved up for you. Christ paid for it all. 

“Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1).

Don’t you see? Why is the modern Church so full of filthiness? Because we have not cleansed ourselves. And why not? Because have not perfected holiness in the fear of God. We have no interest in holiness. And we have no interest in holiness because we do not fear God. And we do not fear God because we do not know God.

Our churches are full of people who think they do. They have cried during worship songs. They have signed cards. They have gone forward. They’ve been baptized. They’ve raised their hand during the prayer. But they do not know God. And the reason we know they do not know God is because they have not fundamentally changed. They have not become holy. Their lives are not set apart. They have not cleansed themselves from the filthiness of the flesh and spirit. 

Yes, salvation is a great gift and it is entirely free for us and all who truly believe. But it was it was not free. It is bought with a terrible price. It was bought with the terrible price of Christ’s precious blood. You do not trifle with that cost. You do not make light of that cost. “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). And remember the next verse: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” It is all grace. It is all gift, but when God gives this gift of salvation, He always gives the gift of godly fear so that we will actually turn from our sins and begin walking in holiness. 

Conclusion
We live in a land that is clearly in need of Reformation and Revival. God has struck us with plagues and panic and oppression. And why? So that we will fear Him. We’ve been murdering our own babies for fifty years. We’ve celebrated sexual immorality and called it love. We’ve elected liars and scoundrels. Women are rebellious and unsubmissive to their husbands. And husbands are cruel and lazy and do not love their wives. And children are defiant and disobedient to their parents. And our churches are full of all of the same sins. 

“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Pet. 3:15). We do not have good answers because we have not sanctified the Lord God in our hearts. We do not have good answers because we do not have meekness or fear and therefore we do not really have any hope. 

But the Bible says, “Blessed is everyone that fears the Lord” (Ps. 128:1). If we would have the blessing of God, we must fear the Lord. We must tremble at His Word. We must worship Him with reverence and fear. We must serve Him with godly fear. We must turn to Christ. We must call on the name of the Lord. We must ask God to teach us to fear His name, so that God’s blessing may be upon us, so that God’s people would be once more known for their fear of the Lord.  

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Tranny Nannies & Christian Freedom

Introduction
There is an anarchist demon in every human heart. Every fallen man, woman, and child is born with original sin, that primordial instinct to be god – to be the highest power and therefore, hate all other claims to power and authority. That is the essence of anarchy. It’s a raging contradiction, but it’s a powerful one. It bucks authority, all authority – why? Because *I* want to. Because *I* feel like it. Turns out anarchy is just a ploy, a farce, a lying attempt at a coup. And the same goes for all the intersectional deconstructive nonsense. You want to tear down the power structures? Says who? By what standard? And just to be clear, libertarianism is often just the slightly better dressed bucktoothed, in-bred cousin of anarchy. 

Because we have this anarcho-libertarian enemy on the one hand, Christians are frequently slow and shy to defend the notion of true Christian liberty and freedom. It can sound or look like we’re defending self-centered individualism, get-off-my-lawn libertarianism, or straight up scofflaw anarchy. Aren’t Christians supposed to give up their rights? We have a hard time telling the difference between the love of and stout-hearted defense of true Christian liberty and that gout-faced imposter anarchy and his ugly relatives.

So, many soft-hearted Christians are completely unprepared for the flanking attack of this same enemy, done up like a tranny doing children’s story hour. And what I mean is that this same anarchic thug frequently shows up in the drag of “Christian service.” It’s the same me-god demon, only it’s wearing nylons and a miniskirt over its rebellious hairy legs, trying to cop a Sunday School smile. Don’t you care about the poor, the weak, the sick, and the elderly? Don’t you care about the “common good”? Pulling the heart strings with the fishhooks of tyranny. Their point being, that if you truly care, you will do whatever it is they think you ought to do. Didn’t Christ sacrifice His rights? Can’t you go without church for a few months? Isn’t love not self-seeking? Can’t you close your business for a while and stay home? But just because some dude put on lipstick, it doesn’t make him a woman. And just because your state made him the director of health services doesn’t mean he knows anything about love.

What is Christian Freedom?
So let us say it plainly and then try to push it out into the corners. Freedom is found in Christ alone, and that means freedom is found in following the law of Christ alone – regardless of what anyone else in the whole world says, regardless of their panic, regardless of their eye-rolling, regardless of their virtue-shaming, regardless of guilt-tripping, emotional appeals, or what they call laws. We are Protestants – Sola Scriptura – Scripture is our only ultimate, infallible rule for life and godliness. A Christian may sometimes voluntarily go along with their games if they do not contradict God’s law, but a Christian is not bound by them and refuses to make peace with any aberration from God’s Word. We owe no one anything but the debt of love. And love is defined by God, not the Supreme Court, not the LGBT gestapo, not media mobs, and not how anyone feels next Tuesday.

This kind of freedom, this kind of wisdom and courage is only possible by the power of the Spirit of God living inside of us. “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:17-18). 

There is no liberty except that which is given by the Spirit of God. And what does that Spirit do? He removes the veil of sin, the veil of blindness, so that we can see Christ in all of Scripture, and particularly in the Old Testament (2 Cor. 3:13-15). Why? So that we can be changed into His image from glory to glory, which is freedom. Where is that freedom found? It’s found in Christ, in His Word. “And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts” (Ps. 119:45). 

Three Different Jurisdictions
Now you can’t say that Christian freedom is defined by God’s Word and trundle off into the world making it up as you go along. If God’s Word truly defines what Christian freedom is, then we need to, you know, study God’s Word and find out what it actually says. And what it says is that Christ has established different authorities with different responsibilities in this world. To say that Jesus Christ is Lord is to say that He is in charge of all the authorities and they must obey Him. And all of this is to say that Christian freedom is not a gigantic wet blanket of guilt trips and emotional manipulation and rules and regulations.

Christian freedom is actually quite simple and can be boiled down to two commands: love God and your neighbor. It was also spelled out a little further with the Ten Commandments given to Moses. But one of the gaping holes in the conscientious Christian’s armor is the loss of understanding that God has established three different governments in this world with distinct responsibilities and assignments: the family, the state, and the church. And the reason why this matters so much for the principles of freedom and liberty is that getting these spheres right and fencing them fiercely is one of the key defenses of freedom.

Because freedom is found in Christ and in His Lordship, the jurisdictions He assigns to each sphere of authority are central to maintaining Christian liberty. Keeping the civil government out of the sanctuary and the family government out of the civil government and keeping all of the spheres in their respective lanes is key to maintaining Christian liberty because obedience to Christ is freedom. Incidentally, and for similar reasons, keeping men out of dresses is also key to Christian freedom, but I digress…

The Freedom of the Family
God has assigned to the family the responsibilities of health, welfare, and education. We see this where husbands are commanded to nourish and cherish their wives, as Christ loved the Church (Eph. 5). “Nourish” and “cherish” literally mean to feed and keep warm. A husband is required by God to provide food and clothing and pay the rent and heating bills. In the Old Testament a man with the kind of brain damage tempting him to take a second wife had the standing warning that if he diminished the food, clothing, and sexual rights of his first wife, she was free to leave and find a man who would actually provide for her (Ex. 21:10-11). Likewise, James, that great champion of the orphans and widows, clearly requires the family to be the first line of defense for their welfare, and those men who do not provide for their own families are worse than unbelievers (Js. 5). 

The church is the backstop for the family, but even that ecclesiastical safety net primarily consists of carefully shepherding the vulnerable back toward families (Js. 5). Nowhere is the State given care for orphans, widows, or the education of children, which incidentally precludes welfare, social security, and public schools. Fathers are responsible to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). Those words “nurture and admonition” mean “culture” and “counsel,” and they cover everything needed for living life under the blessing of God, an education that teaches children to love God with all that they are, all day long (Dt. 6). Schools that are required by law to ignore the Lordship of Christ in every class all day long cannot be considered a viable option for Christian parents who take the Bible seriously.

Based on these commands given to the family, the duty of self-defense, physical protection, and long-term provision are all included in this. A man who will not defend his own life or the life of his wife and children or his ability to protect and provide for them is also worse than an unbeliever. “A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children…” (Prov. 13:22). Therefore, it is a basic Christian duty for a man to defend his family, property, inheritance, and freedom – and notice that this freedom is principally the responsibility to fulfill these duties before the Lord. This is how a man loves his God and neighbor. And this freedom is what was enshrined in our US Constitution. A man who fiercely defends this freedom is defending his duty to love God and neighbor. And a godly man who fights the civil government’s encroachment into this freedom is not defending anarcho-libertarianism or self-centered autonomy; he is actually defending the Lordship and love of Christ.

Freedom to Obey God
And this is exactly what we see in Scripture. In His first sermon, Jesus quoted Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Lk. 4:18). So this is the Spirit of liberty – the Spirit of the Lord. It heals, delivers, and sets free. True biblical freedom serves. But it serves in obedience to Christ and His Spirit. Jesus is the one who was filled with the greatest measure of this Free Spirit, and He came to obey His Father, not ‘make it up’ as He went along or do whatever the pharisaical Nannies thought He should do. The freedom of the Spirit is the freedom to obey the law of Christ, not freewheeling, capricious warm fuzzies. And therefore, neither is freedom a limp weathervane that blows in whatever direction the coolmob-wind is blowing or whatever direction the panicmob-wind is blowing.

Biblical freedom has a Spirit-wrought steel backbone. Yes, it sacrifices, bleeds, and dies for the protection and provision of those whom it loves in obedience to Christ. And it fights for the freedom to continue to do so. And yes, it gives up particular rights when the Author of those rights requires it, but it does not acquiesce to the whims of men. The rights enshrined in our constitutions were the inalienable assignments given to men by God. Therefore, it is thoroughly unChristian and frankly rebellious to lay down any of those rights or abdicate any of those responsibilities given to us by God.

This real freedom, true Christian liberty is hated by the devil and all men enslaved to their sins, and so the accusations and temptations come from both directions. Anarcho-libertarians want to steal freedom by divorcing it from the law of God and reducing it to self-centered individualism — which we reject, but the Tranny-Nannies want to steal your freedom by shaming you into giving up the responsibilities that God has given you to provide for and protect those He has put under your care. That theft of freedom is actually a theft of care, a theft of provision, a theft of protection, a theft of your duty to love. And usually that theft comes with a bribe, a stimulus check, a tax credit, or federal grant of someone else’s money.

Conclusion
We’ve just been given the 30 day trial version of this liberty mugging in the recent corona panic where the body count is not yet known for the Statist salvation foisted upon us. And I don’t mean the body count of the victims of the virus (which also seems somewhat elusive); I mean the body count of the victims of the State’s good intentions. The one-size-fits-all lockdowns are claims to know better than God, and all in the name of love. But Peter says, “For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God” (1 Pet. 2:15-16). And this applies to the magistrates as much as to any man. They are servants of God (Rom. 13), and they are required to use their liberty to do good and that means staying in their lane and acknowledging their own limitations. The state has been given the sword. Their job is to punish evildoers. They are not to provide care for the elderly. They are not to tell families how to be healthy or safe from viruses or how to run their businesses. When the state starts swinging its sword in the house, people always get hurt. 

So this is love of God and neighbor: receiving and maintaining the assignments that God gives to each sphere of authority. And this is Christian freedom: obeying God and guarding that obedience fiercely.

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Confessional Charades

There is no sin so insidious but conscientious sin. This is the sin that has been thought through carefully. It has been analyzed from numerous angles, explained, defended, excused, and usually, at some point eventually renamed with terms of virtue. The whole thing is an elaborate charade, a distraction tactic, but it doesn’t work.

The reason you spend so much time thinking about that sin and trying to explain it, trying to explain why it isn’t really that bad, and why you just have to, and why even if it is a sin, God will forgive you, and the fact that everyone does it, and the fact that it would be too much trouble to deal with, and too humiliating to confess and repent of – the reason you spend all that time working that knot in your mind is because it’s sin. And you cannot explain it away. Sin cannot be explained, cannot be excused, cannot be defended. That’s what makes it sin. It’s evil, it’s shameful, it doesn’t make sense, it’s inexcusable, and it can only be confessed and covered by the blood of Christ. 

But do not miss the fact that there is an even more insidious way that religious types like to try to play games with God. What they do is they confess a sin that they have no intention of actually forsaking, which is not really confessing sin at all. It’s like bringing a gift to God, a box all wrapped up, but inside there’s nothing. And you think because you went through the trouble of getting a box and wrapping it up, because you went through the trouble of getting on your knees or mouthing particular words before God, that counts for something. But it’s completely worthless and deeply offensive to the Living God who sees exactly what you’re doing. He sees straight through your lies. He sees your heart. He knows. 

So here we are after weeks of being apart, weeks of singing in our cars. Here we are assembled before the Lord at last. Do not come in here and pretend anything. Do not come in here to play games with God. He sees it all. He knows it all. So lay it all before Him now. 

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Thanksgiving is an Open Hand

The pagan mind can be summed up as trying to make bread and enjoy it without saying thanks. Think of bread as the sign of all human life and productivity. The pagan mind wants to make life and produce good things, and it wants to do so above all else without saying thank you to God.

But the insanity of this is that gratitude is the one thing necessary for any kind of productivity in the world. You might say it’s the secret of the universe. God is overabundant and massively generous. He gives and gives. The raw material for wealth and productivity is strewn about the world lavishly. And really, the only thing God asks is simple thanks. Thanksgiving is the hand that receives all of the blessing. But the refusal to give thanks is like making your hand into a fist and then still expecting your hand to be full.

So God places this meal here for us to remember and do, week after week, so that we might stay in His blessing, so that our hands might stay wide open. So as you take the bread and share it, as you take the wine and share it, see Christ struck for you, see Christ risen for you, and see Christ in all of life, in every gift, given for you. And give thanks. And come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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All the Old Stories

Being a Christian means that you have come to believe that all of the old stories are true. You believe in trees with magical fruit, old men who call down plagues with a staff, sea monsters that play in the depths of the ocean, and stars that are angels influencing the course of history. Being a Christian means you believe in giants and giant-killers, dragons and dragon-slayers, the wars of angels and demons, the curse of sin and death, and the power of prayer and sacrifice and grace. 

The fact that this world is far more than it seems does not mean that it doesn’t matter. Rather, it puts everything into perspective. Our labors, our families, our nations, our schoolwork, our dishes, our projects are all done in the light of eternity, in the light of a fuller reality.

When the army of Syria came to arrest Elisha and his servant, Elisha prayed that his servant’s eyes might see reality as it truly was: and it turned out that they were surrounded by myriads of angelic armies (2 Kgs. 6:17). Do not fear: those who are with us are more than those who are with them (2 Kgs. 6:16). And so it is always with the servants of the King. Greater is He that is within us than he that is in the world (1 Jn. 4:4). 

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The Injustice of Idaho’s Mass Isolation Orders

Introduction
My friend and colleague Douglas Wilson has just written yesterday on the problems with Idaho Governor Little’s Mass Isolation Order. And you really should go read that if you haven’t yet. I want to touch on some of what he’s written and then add my three cents, pushing in a few different directions.

What Little Did
First, to reiterate: what Governor Brad Little has done is illegal. His order can be found here. And there he cites the Constitution of Idaho and Sections 46-601 and 46-1008 in particular as his basis for ordering the Director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to impose and enforce orders of isolation and quarantine ala Idaho Code § 56-1003(7).

Idaho statute 46-601 authorizes the governor of Idaho to declare a state of “extreme emergency” which is defined as “the duly proclaimed existence of conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the state,” including such disasters as “fire, flood, storm, epidemic…” And statute 46-1008 grants the governor the authority to make executive orders that have the force of law in the event of “disaster emergencies.” What is the executive order that Governor Little has issued? He ordered the Director of Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to promulgate an isolation order.

However, statutes often include definitions of certain words so we know exactly what was intended by them. And as it turns out, statute 56-1001 (4), (8) most helpfully defines the meanings of “isolation” and “quarantine” as used in 56-1003(7). Title 56, Chapter 10 Department of Health and Welfare 56-1001 (4) says “isolation” means the separation of infected persons, or of persons suspected to be infected, from other persons to such places, under such conditions, and for such time as will prevent transmission of the infectious agent. Likewise, under Idaho Statute 56-1001 (8) “quarantine” is defined as the restriction placed on the entrance to and exit from the place or premises where an infectious agent or hazardous material exists. 

This means that at most Governor Little could have ordered the Director of Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to require the isolation and quarantine of infected persons — those who actually test positive for COVID19 or those proven to have been in contact with infected persons, but only for a precise and limited period time. If there had been an outbreak in some place or premise, it may have been legal to quarantine those particular places, if they were proven to be infectious or hazardous. But what Governor Little did was treat the entire state of Idaho as hazardous and infectious. He quarantined the whole dang thing. And he ordered the isolation of all “non-essential” residents, thereby effectively accusing them of being infected or suspected to be infected or that their houses, businesses, and/or places of worship were infectious or hazardous.

Erring On What Side?
There are many problems with this, not least of which is the precedent this potentially sets for any number of threats. What is the threshold for declaring a state of extreme emergency or an imminent threat to the health and safety of the citizens of Idaho? Get a bunch of guys on CNN blowing into paper bags. This is clearly far outside the intended meaning of that Idaho code. Governor Brad Little is a servant of the citizens of Idaho, and he may only operate in accordance with the constitution and codes of our land. His order is unconstitutional and therefore illegal. It is not lawful. And this statement of fact in no way dishonors Governor Little, the man or his office. Rather, we render honor when we hold men to the oaths of office they have taken. I do not doubt for one minute that Brad Little has intended to do good and protect our state from the harm of coronavirus by his order. I truly believe that. But no leader’s intentions may trump their actions or the laws of the land.

But the real travesty of justice here is the fact that due process has been effectively suspended in Idaho. Everyone has been summarily tried and de facto indicted by one man’s good intentions. The First Amendment protects citizens’ rights to assemble peaceably, and that includes assembling at their places of business, worship, and recreation, freely and unhindered. The Sixth Amendment protects the right of citizens to due process. This includes the right of a trial by jury of peers, the right to face your accuser and witnesses, as well as the right to supply your own witnesses in your defense. The threshold is steep for abridging or infringing these fundamental rights. There must be a clear and present danger — we’re talking the house is on fire, there’s an active shooter across the street, there’s a bomb in the building, or in the case of epidemic and quarantine, the threat level of the data needs to be demonstrable and certain. But all we have are models and charts with numbers that keep changing, scare stories out of Italy and New York City, and empty hospitals across the nation — nothing approaching demonstrable or certain.

And this is the deal: in God’s economy and in the framework of our constitutional republic and states, we err on the side of letting criminals go if the evidence is not clear. If you do not have two or three witnesses and if you do not convince a jury to vote unanimously to convict, then the accused goes free. And sometimes that means that an accused criminal goes free. But this is because the Christian legal tradition recognizes that it is better to let some evil go unchecked and leave the rest of the populace free to do good than to overcorrect in an attempt to suppress all evil, while running roughshod over the freedoms of the innocent and law abiding.

The same threshold must be kept in place when it comes to isolation orders and quarantines and emergency declarations — even of the sort allowed by Idaho code (and Biblical law, for that matter). Charts and graphs of what might be, of what could be are not sufficient. And this means that until we have hard facts, testimony, and clear evidence, you cannot legally take away the right of US citizens to assemble to worship, to do business, or whatever else they may do peaceably. This means that the threat must be allowed to persist — even in cases when it actually is a much more dire threat than COVID19 has turned out to be — sometimes evil and risk must be allowed to persist until the facts are demonstrated, despite the potential fallout. This is the necessary cost of true justice and freedom. And freedom-loving people and all Christians should rejoice in this principle of justice.

Innocent Until Statistically Guilty?
You cannot summarily convict an entire state of being infected, suspected of being infected, and thereby dangerous to public safety and placed under house arrest on the basis of data models. This is unjust, illegal, and unconstitutional. All accused, especially when the accusation brings with it massive ramifications of loss of livelihood and reputation, are to be afforded careful due process. Instead of that careful due process, the businesses of Idaho were summarily shuttered on accusation of infection and contagion and threat of extreme peril. But how many of them were actually infected? How many of them were even within hundreds of miles of an infected person? In biblical law, the sanctions for false testimony and false accusation were severe: the penalty that would have fallen on the accused if convicted on false testimony becomes the penalty of the false witness. The stakes really are high.

It is the civil magistrate’s job to punish evil doers, which means it is not his job to run around trying to prevent every evil from being done. That is the way of the police state, where every citizen is a de facto suspect. But in Christian nations, citizens are reckoned innocent and may not be harassed or restricted by law enforcement without demonstrable cause. What if an infected person walks into a senior citizens home and the disease is spread and some die as a result? Then bring your accusation against the person in a duly established court of law. Bring your charges to a judge, summon your evidence and witnesses, and if it can be proven that the person was reckless or even committed some form of involuntary/accidental manslaughter, let him pay the consequences and let the magistrate execute justice swiftly and let the populace fear and take greater precautions. But citizens are to be reckoned judicially innocent until they have been proven guilty. You cannot convict someone on the basis of statistics, probability, odds, or fancy data graphs. It is not the case that citizens are only innocent until proven statistically guilty.

What if many people are asymptomatic carriers? As it turns out all people are asymptomatic carriers of sin — well, with varying degrees of symptoms — but everyone carries around in their heart the capacity for great evil. Anyone might snap and go on a shooting spree. Anyone might accidentally crash their car or start a fire that harms many. It could happen. In fact, it does happen. What do we do with that threat? We take reasonable precautions, and then we trust God and hope for the best, but we do not take away the freedoms of the many simply because of the risk that remains with the few. This is what due process means. If intentional or reckless or unintentional behavior can be demonstrated to have caused harm, take it to the courts and make your case. This is what it means to presume innocence until proven guilty.

But I’m not done yet.
In addition to the general, universal house arrest order of Governor Little, he has added insult to injury by making a distinction in his isolation orders between what he deems “essential” and “non-essential” work or business or activities. But there is something massively unjust in this, not to mention demeaning. The civil magistrate’s job is to administer the law. He is an executive of written law. He is not a despot, a dictator, or king. Even in the event of disaster emergencies, his task is to protect our way of life and the laws of our land. And, importantly, he is to be a blind administer of that written justice. It is illegal for him to show preference to anyone. The law must apply equally to all and therefore must be limited and constrained to accomplish that equality. If the Governor’s order had applied equally to everyone, it might have still been foolish, but at least that would have demonstrated complete earnestness. But the selectivity of the order suggests that the epidemic threat is bad, but actually, not really.

One time my uncle was playing his trombone in our living room and it was clearly making our dog skittish. My uncle capitalized on the fun and gave a long trombone bellow in the dog’s direction, and she took off like a shot towards the door. But just before leaving the house, she leaned over as she passed our garbage can and snatched the leftovers of a mostly eaten sandwich. It was an emergency, but clearly not that much of an emergency.

But as soon as you wrongly convict the entire state of infection or contagion, you have already leapt off the cliffs of capriciousness. How will you pump the brakes in midair? Governor Little’s mass isolation orders for the entire state have already been tyrannical — a one man judge and jury convicting the general populace of infection, but now, realizing that this could result in complete devastation, it becomes clear that we need food and housing and (apparently) booze. So the Governor arbitrarily made a list of all the businesses that could remain open. The law only applies to some, not to others. This is the definition of discrimination.

But by what standard are liquor stores deemed “essential” but churches are “non-essential”? By what standard may grocery stores continue operating, with social distancing protocols in place while restaurants and movie theaters may not? And now, in the Governor’s more recent adjusted order, schools are apparently free to re-open at local school board discretion, while churches are still remanded to parking lots. By what standard? The problem is that there is no standard. These people are making it up as they go along. And that really is the definition of tyranny — even if we haven’t yet descended to the most depraved caverns of that dark hole.

One last thing.
As noted above, the First Amendment gives special protections for exercise of free speech, religion, and assembly. This means that the bar is higher for the state or a city to order churches not to meet. Arguably, the right of assembly includes all activities, whether for business or recreation, but the right of religion is one of the most prized possessions of the American people. This means that the government must use extreme caution in restricting religious expression. And when it does, it must do so using the most limited means possible and they are required to prove that. The burden of proof is on the government to demonstrate that they used every possible precaution and limitation in restricting religious gatherings. In other words, if the government is to err, it is required by law to err on the side of protecting religious freedom. But what our government has done is err on the side of protecting Jack Daniels. If you can’t work or support your family, at least you can go buy a fifth of something and get good and goosed.

My point is that the First Amendment has not been upheld at all. Grocery stores and hardware stores have routinely had a hundred people in them during this lockdown, with health and hygiene protocols in place, but places of worship? We have been treated like movie theaters and sporting events. We have been relegated to entertainment and social clubs. But the First Amendment enshrined our privileged position in this land. It is the First Amendment, right there at the beginning so you won’t miss it. Quite apart from everything else noted, this is straightforward religious discrimination, not to mention a deep insult to Christian believers everywhere to be treated as less essential than liquor stores and lumber yards.

There is no explicit provision in the Bill of Rights for liquor stores. There is no transcendent right handed down from God for men to have gin and tonic after work. There is no explicit provision for movie theaters or football stadiums — though they are arguably protected in the right to peaceful assembly. But there absolutely is a reference to religion and its free exercise. Churches got a special, explicit reference because for some reason it has been the tendency of magistrates to restrict them, ignore them, or condescendingly tut-tut them like they were a 4-H club or something. But the 4-H and Elks Club didn’t make it into the Bill of Rights.

Photo by Jack Kolpitcke on Unsplash

Food for Fellowship

One of the more glorious ways God shows His kindness to people is through the gift of food. He made the world, and filled it with food. And He made people with the ability to imitate Him in preparing food and enjoying it.

When Jesus taught us to pray, He specifically taught us to ask our Father for daily bread, and many of His miracles included the provision of food. And right on schedule, when Jesus rose from the dead, He picked right where He left off, meeting the disciples on the seashore, cooking fish for breakfast.

Not only is food a sign of God’s kindness, but it has always been an invitation to fellowship with Him forever. And so here it is again, but here it is with even more kindness. Come, eat and drink, Christ is risen, your sins are forgiven. You are most welcome here. 

Come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

God Shut Down the World

It really is marvelous to stand back and see what God has done. God closed down the world. The mighty modern nations of the earth have been shut down. 91% of the population of the world is under some kind of restrictions, with somewhere between a third and a half of the world’s population in some kind of lockdown. God closed down the world because He can, because He is the Lord.

However, it appears that the primary switch God used to shut everything down was fear. And what is it that people fear? People fear death. Why? Because they are guilty, and they fear the judgment of God for their sins.

But Christ died in order to deliver us from the fear of death and our slavery to that fear. And He did that by taking our sin, dying in our place for our sin, and thereby disarming the devil’s power of death – His power to accuse us for our sin.

So then, are you fearful? The same God who shut the whole world down, numbers the hairs on your head. Our Jesus holds the keys of death and Hades, and there is no condemnation in Him.    

Photo by Marine Golfetto on Unsplash

Confess Sin Like Christ is Risen

Christ is risen from the dead. He is risen indeed. Sin is dead. Death is dead. The devil, the Accuser, is struck down, cast down, and his head has been struck with a mortal blow. Sorrow and suffering are swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? And so the exhortation is to worship the Lord like this is true, beginning with confessing your sins. This Easter joy, this Easter triumph is the death of our sins, and therefore the only way to have this Easter joy is to agree with God that they are in fact dead. All your envy, all your bitterness, all your worry, all your ugly words, petty idols, and appalling pride – all of it is dead. It died on the cross. So leave it there. Confess any of it that remains. Sin is death, and death is dead because Christ is risen from the dead.  

Photo by Simon Godfrey on Unsplash