We ought to obey God rather than men.
- Acts 5:29
Back in April, this space featured a post titled “Church, Sate and Coronavirus: Does the Civil Magistrate Have the Authority to Ban Church Gatherings?” It was a complaint principally inspired by a threat made by Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear to punish Christians for gathering for worship on Easter Sunday. According to an article published on the Gateway Pundit website, “The state of Kentucky is cracking down on Easter weekend worshippers by recording the license plates of people who attend services and forcing them to ‘self-quarantine’ for two weeks afterwards.”
Go to church on Sunday as the Good Book commands; Governor Beshear sics his hall monitors on you and rewards you with two weeks house arrest. What a guy.
The intervening four months since the above article appeared have seen a continuation of the coronavirus Caligulas’ crackdown on American Christians’ liberty to worship. As such, it seemed good to revisit this issue.
Of course, the coronavirus Caligulas don’t limit themselves to cracking down on Christians. There are plenty of examples of governors and mayors decreeing this or that thing verboten that no one until just a few months ever so much as thought would be banned for any reason.
All this in the name of fighting the dreaded “second wave.”
But for now, these other outrages I elect to pass over. Not because I think them unworthy of discussion, but because time and space would fail me were I to go through them all.
If you’re inclined to learn more about the ways in which big government, big pharma and various and sundry globalists are joining forces to use Covid to strip you of your God-given, Constitutionally guaranteed, liberties, there is no better source than the Ron Paul Liberty Report. There you will find dozens of videos on the Covid crisis made over the past five months.
One recent video that is especially relevant to our discussion today aired Thursday, August 13 and is titled “Defiance! 6,000 Attend ‘Illegal’ California Church Service.”
This video concerns the decision by Grace Community Church (John MacArthur’s church) to hold services in defiance of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s July 13 ban on indoor church services on the state’s COIVID-19 monitoring list. This affects about 80 percent of California’s population. The California Governor’s decision to ban indoor services altogether followed a ban earlier in the month on singing in church.
Lux Lucet 
The Presbyterian and Reformed Churches ought to be downright ashamed because of their silence in all of this.
Agreed.
It’s not as if they haven’t been warned. I know of a Reformed pastor, a very good one at that, who is doing sermons on line. It’s obvious he’s gifted to do just what he’s doing and I wouldn’t count him out of the kingdom, not at all, but it breaks my heart (mind) that those who have the correct body of doctrine are shamed by the sects.
When I say he’s “gifted to do just what he’s doing” I mean as a pastor. It’s obvious he’s he should be one, but he should be ministering in the church building not on line.
I was wrong, the P&R sites that I’ve investigated are saying to comply with government mandates of masks and lock down. If one doesn’t it is rebellion against God. In my opinion they rolled over, and no leadership will come from the P&R community.
My experience is the same as yours with P&R sites. I read one compilation of quotes not long before I wrote my original Church, State and Coronavirus post in April. It was a compilation of quotes from Reformed men all agreeing that the government had the right to shut down churches in an epidemic. The sad thing was, there was almost no attempt to argue from Scripture. One guy cited Cicero.
At the very least one of the sites I looked at used the Heidelberg Catechism to justify the consistories stance. Q/A 104,107, & 122. I understand the position but believe it to be a misappropriation of the Catechism and the scripture upon which it is based.
Something I’ve tried to argue with the P&R community is that this country is NOT Rome, nor are our elected officials Caesars, but it falls on deaf ears in the Church. They do not understand their responsibility in a free country and the duties of keeping it free for their posterity, a better gift we cannot leave our children other than the gospel itself. I guess they really don’t understand the reformation and its fruits. It’s almost as if they believe the hype without any investigation and and have the gall to call those who do discern “disobedient.”
I was talking with a friend today who had a chance to read quotes from pastors just before the time of our country’s independence and he said they sound much different than the P&R pastors of today.
Yes, thanks Steve, again, this is a test of christian resolve. Will they push back and obey God and His Word or believe the lie of the state, which is captured by Anti-Christ Rome (the whore who rides the beast-Rev17 &19). A lie of the man of sin (Vatican/Jesuit run world order)-2Thess.2:9-11. This is a lying wonder, a strong delusion that has captured the world that loves darkness rather than the light of God’s infallible truth.
Sadly, most of the Bible-believing world have not the discernment to see through Satan’s deception. Pray God will wake up His blood-bought people that have failed to watch, discern the times and seek Him alone as the source of truth.
Agree. It’s been difficult to watch so many Christians bamboozled and intimidated by the Jesuit/Globalist/NWO crowd and their assault on our God given liberties. Some have seen through the strong COVID delusion. It is my prayer that the Lord would open the eyes of many more.