Class: The Book of Revelation
Evidence For Christianity is putting on our first live broadcast beginning this Saturday 4/18 at 9:00 Pacific Savings Time, for six consecutive weeks. Dr. John Oakes will be teaching a 10 hour class on the Book of Revelation. The theme of Revelation seems particularly appropriate to these times. To come to the class, you can either access it through zoom 342 225 5971 pswd 857096 or you can go to www.bakersfieldchurchofchrist.com to watch the class. The notes and power point are available here: Revelation PPT Revelation Notes We will see you there.
Other Material
A set of eight sermons from the Book of Mark, as well as the first four classes in a series on a Survey of the Old Testament are now available at the web site. A new series of sermons from Matthew will be begun this Sunday.
Questions and Answers Related to Covid-19
You might guess that I have gotten a good number of questions related to the current pandemic. I am including a very short article I have written as well as two Q & A’s below.
A Christian Response to Pandemic
All of us are struggling to know how to respond in the present crisis. Some think that governments are overreacting and others feel not enough is being done. What is the Christian response to this crisis? Is this a judgment from God? Why does God cause viruses to happen? Does he not care about human suffering? If God is so loving and so powerful, why does disease exist? I have written an essay on the question of pain and suffering. It is attached here. The Problem of Pain and Suffering
Let me give the very brief version. All God created is good. In fact it is very good (Genesis 1:31). Plate tectonics are good because it recycles the minerals in the planet and produces an atmosphere, but it also causes earthquakes. Weather is good because it distributes the energy coming from the sun nearly equally around the spherical planet, but it also causes hurricanes and tornadoes. Bacteria are good because they put oxygen and nitrogen in the air and they support all higher forms of life (for example, putting vitamin K into our bodies), but bacteria also cause disease. Death is good, because, through evolution, it allows change and adaptation over time to a changing environment, but it also means that our pets die and we die as well. Suffering is not evil, but good, but it causes us emotional pain.
As humans, we certainly struggle with disease and death, but these are not the real human problem. The real problem is sin and separation between us and God and between us and our fellow humans. The reason we exist is so that we could love God, God could love us and we could love one another. The thing to fear is not disease and death but separation from God for eternity.
So as Christians, in principle, we do not fear this virus. But, like Jesus, we try to mitigate and minimize suffering, disease and death, not because they are “bad” but because this is what love and compassion demand. So, hopefully, we will not give in to fear and panic at this time (but all of us are subject to fear to some extent, even as Christians). We should take this difficult situation as an opportunity to show Christ. We do this by not panicking, by being submissive to governing authorities (Romans 13:1-4), and by finding opportunities to be a blessing, first to one another, but also to the people we are in contact with (at a social distance, of course). So let us show faithfulness, courage and compassion to our fellow believers, to our neighbors and to our family. A lot of people are asking questions they normally avoid about the ultimate meaning of life. Let us take the opportunity to help them to find the true meaning of life and of disease and death.
Question:
I have done a Bible study about the COVID 19 virus and I wanted to get your thoughts on it. I was recently asked if I think that “meeting on line” would satisfy the command from when God said “Do not give up meeting together as some are in the habitat of doing but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day approaching,” (Hebrews 10:25). I said I would need to pray and ask God and study it out in the Bible. Here is what I came up with. Please tell me what you think. True Christians can not give up meeting together for fear of sickness. God said to Joshua in chapter 1 verse 9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” Jesus said in Luke 14:33 “Those of you who do not give up everything you have (which includes your bodily health, Romans 12:1) cannot be my disciples.” “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” (James 2:26) you cannot be my disciples.We know the Bible teaches that the soul is where the spirit and the body meet. The body and spirit are not separate so long as we are alive in the body. Now, some of us think that we can “meet online.” If faith without works is dead that means that what our body does is how we worship God as it states in Romans 12:1. If we can’t separate body and spirit then we are fooling our selves into thinking we are “meeting online.” When in fact God said we must “give up everything to follow him.’ (including your health) in Luke 14:33. Also Jesus said Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” (Matthew 9:12) Also, the idea of quarantining the sick comes from God in the Old Testament Law of Moses (Leviticus 13). However, God said “work for 6 days a week and on the 7 day rest.” (Genesis). God never advised quarantining people who were not sick or at least at major risk. What do you think?
Reply;
About meeting on line, I have already been involved in on-line group meetings. I have to say that they are not as satisfying as face-to-face meetings. However, I am sure that God is perfectly well pleased if we meet through Zoom as if we meet face-to-face. We have been offering on-line services for those who cannot attend for years. Is that a sin? God is not a legalist. Besides, if we meet face-to-face now, we will be guilty of putting our fellow members and our guests in great danger of sickness and death. This is a scientific fact. Would you want to be personally responsible for one of your members or one of your guests dying because you called for a group church meeting? What about older members, who have a far higher likelihood of dying? Are you willing to be responsible for their death? There was a group recently in Florida (and there was another example in Kentucky) who had a large group meeting despite the ban on such meetings and they made Christianity look very foolish. I was so embarrassed to see them flaunting government attempts to slow the spread of the virus.
By the way, if Christians meet at this point, they will endanger non-Christians as well. If we spread this among ourselves, this will also cause those outside our fellowship to be put in more danger. I could not blame them if they resented such irresponsible behavior endangering their lives. Romans 13:1-5 is a clear mandate that we obey governing authorities. Of course, I understand that there are exceptions (we must obey God rather than men when it comes to sharing the gospel), but, given that we still can meet on-line, this is not a big ask on the part of those trying to save lives. In Turkmenistan our church was ordered to not meet in groups of more than two, and when two met, they could not have a Bible in their hands. They complied with this order for six years, after which they were given legal status, and the church grew during this time.
By the way, you are taking Matthew 9:12 out of context. Jesus is talking about the spiritually sick and the spiritually healthy in this case. The physical example he is using, of course, is the man born blind, but Jesus is making a spiritual, not a physical application in this case. To apply this to Covid-19 is to take this passage out of context. In Romans 12:1-2 he is using “bodies” metaphorically. He is telling us to present our lives as a willing sacrifice. I suppose this also includes our bodies, but that is not the principle point Paul is making. Therefore, I believe you are taking Romans 12:1-2 out of context as well. I am not sure you are taking Luke 14 or James 2 out of context, but I do not believe this means that I am not a committed disciple if I meet online in order to avoid endangering lives and to obey the government. That is a bit of a stretch for these passages as well. We should be willing to risk our lives if that is required to spread the gospel–true–but to say this means we are not committed because, temporarily, we do not meet together physically in order to save lives does not seem to me that we are not fully devoted to Christ. As for Joshua 1, it is true that we should be strong and courageous, but it is not true that we should be foolish. To take individual risks to bring the gospel to others (or to conquer the Land God gave to Israel) is one thing. I have done that myself, but to do something unnecessary and dangerous in order to prove how committed we are is not a good application of God’s command to Joshua to be strong and courageous. That is how I view the use of this passage in the context of meeting in large groups right now.
You are right that quarantine is introduced in the Old Testament. In fact, when quarantine was introduced in the sixteenth century in Europe, it was able to nearly eliminate leprosy in Europe. Quarantine works. That is why we use it. The difference in this case is rather obvious. Leprosy as a disease is only slightly contagious. Only a lot of exposure over great periods of time is likely to cause another to get sick. Besides, until one has very obvious symptoms, the patient is not contagious. With Covid-19, the case is different. It is VERY contagious, and a person without symptoms can spread the virus. Therefore, quarantining of only those we know have the disease simply does not work. This is a scientific fact. Thank-you God for giving us the idea of quarantine, but we need to listen to the scientists and the facts in this case, which is that this is a far more contagious disease that can spread among those without symptoms. Please do not encourage believers to disobey the orders of the government in this case. I am glad that you have the courage to be willing to die for your beliefs, but do not ask others to do so unnecessarily or unwillingly. In Bakersfield we are having on-line services, as are all the churches in our fellowship in the US.
John Oakes
Question:
I have some Biblical Questions for your kind replies. 1. Is the Covid – 19 outbreak human error or God’s anger on mankind? 2. Why did God create harmful bacteria and viruses? Is it to punish mankind or any other purpose? 3. In the Bible God punished Ananias and Saphira for lying immediately after their sin. Why? We are lying and doing many sins even after baptism. Why is God not punishing us immediately as he did with Ananias and Saphira in Acts5?
Answer:
I believe that I already answered this question in the article above and in the article on the Problem of Pain and Suffering (see the link). However, let me explain one more time. Disease is not evidence of God’s anger. This virus has nothing to do with God being angry with humans. I am not a prophet, so it is really not my place to say why God does the things he does. Therefore, when I say that this is not the result of God’s anger, I am speculating on general principles, which is that disease and death are part of the natural world. I cannot absolutely disprove that God is involved in creating this disease, but I very, very highly doubt that he is.
Covid-19 is also not the result of human error. It is a natural event. Bacteria and viruses naturally evolve over time. For this reason, it is natural that, over time, certain diseases can become more contagious. You are proposing the possibility that the outbreak is a human error, which would mean that it was created in a laboratory and released. This is not absolutely impossible, but there is no evidence this is the case, so I am assuming that this outbreak is the result of natural processes. The last thing we need is people spreading false rumors that this disease was caused by humans. Coronaviruses have been around for a long time, but this particular one happens to be more contagious and more dangerous.
Although the virus is almost certainly not the result of human error, the rapid spread is the result of dense population and globalization. What would have spread only much more slowly one thousand years ago can now spread around the world in just weeks. Humans can spread the disease, but wise human behavior can also help to prevent its spread. I believe that Christians everywhere ought to help efforts to slow the spread of this disease by following guidelines such as social distancing.
This brings me to the next question. Why, then, did God allow bacteria and viruses to exist in the first place? In this world, disease and death are not the issue (although they cause great emotional pain to human beings, which God cares about for example as shown in John 11:35). The issue is not that people get sick or that people die. The issue is sin, rebellion and separation between people and God and between human beings. God’s concern is not to prevent death, which is, after all, natural, but to prevent people from being divided against one another and from going to hell–from being separated from Him for eternity.
This world is not safe, physically. As they say, no one gets out of this life alive. Whether we die of an accident, a natural disaster, an illness or simple old age, all of us will die. The fact that people die does not mean that God does not love us or care for us. As for why bacteria exist, I say that bacteria are a good thing. Without them there would be no oxygen or nitrogen in the atmosphere. Without them, we would have no vitamin K in our systems. I am not a microbiologist, but if I were, I would be able to list dozens of absolutely essential functions that bacteria have. It is true that these otherwise “good” bacteria also cause diseases, but I am not going to fault God for allowing bacteria to exist. In any case, neither bacteria nor viruses exist for God to punish mankind. Like I already said, this life is not eternal. We are not immortal. The bodies we have were not intended to be immortal but God intended us to have a different kind of immortal body (1 Corinthians 15).
What happened to Ananias and Saphyra was what I like to call a one-off thing. This is not by any means whatsoever the “normal” way that God deals with sin. I believe that God allowed this to happen one time and one time only (although I cannot prove this–it is a guess on my part), in order to make a point to the church about the seriousness of sin.. We can still learn from this one-off event even now because it is recorded in the Book of Acts. I believe that what happened to them was to help the church understand the seriousness of sin. However, for the vast majority of us, God does not interfere in natural processes as he did with Ananias and Saphyra. God is not judging us. He is disciplining us, which is a very different thing. If we will be punished, it will be after Judgment Day when our eternal destiny is set. Physical death is not punishment. It happens to “good” people and to “bad” people. The reason God does not punish us immediately for our sin is that he is a patient, merciful and loving God (Jonah 4:2 2 Peter 3:9), who wants us to come to repentance. In this life he disciplines us for our good.
In any case, I believe that the Covid-19 virus is not a judgment or the result of God’s anger, but it is the result of natural processes. Hopefully it will give people an opportunity to pause and to think about what is important, and come to God for mercy and forgiveness, but I do not believe it is the result of God’s wrath.
John Oakes
