Forsaking the Assembly, out of Love — Coronavirus Edition

With the potential for the spread of Coronavirus, i.e., COVID-19, I have stated that self-quarantine and social distancing is more important in the immediate term than even attending church on Sunday. I stand by this. I will skip church this Sunday, and perhaps more. I encourage you to think through doing so also. Please stay home. Even if nothing happens, you will still be OK. If pandemic experts like this guy are correct (and we are seeing so far that they are), you will be much better off, and potentially spare, or help spare, the lives of vulnerable folk. But I also need to address the obvious theological question.

First, I posted the following on social media:

This may get me in trouble with some, but here goes: I don't believe in mandatory church attendance. Nor do I believe in mandatory weekly Sunday services. The Bible does not teach any such mandates. I also believe loving your neighbor means not exposing them to increased risk of disease. I support cancelling select weekly meetings. If yous is not cancelled, I support staying home. I especially support this for older and elderly people.

Worship comes in many forms. It first and foremost comes in the form of presenting yourself as a living sacrifice, deference to the needs of others, and works of charity based on our giftings. This is Romans 12. Legalists treat Sunday like magic. #StayHomeSunday

P.S. -- Staying home Sunday (and in general as much as possible) may in fact be the most pro-life thing you can right now.

A couple people have asked the obvious and predictable question: what about Hebrews 10:25? “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is.”

Trying hard to be brief, let me say a few things. First, this is not a mandate, or law, for weekly meetings, or even necessarily regular meetings. It is also not a mandate for perfect or even regular attendance. It is not a call to be there whenever the doors are opened.

This verse is about apostasy, pure and simple. It is warning Jews who were falling away in the first century because the promise of Christ’s return was not taking place as promised. Time was dragging on, and they were getting cold about the faith in general. This is an encouragement not to abandon the body completely.

Note: this is the context of the whole book of Hebrews. The whole book is a call primarily to first-century Jewish believers not to apostatize.

Second, the whole context is eschatological: the coming return of Christ in judgment against Jerusalem, i.e., the “Day” of the Lord. Note: “these last days” in verse 1:1. Note that the Old Covenant is said to be “ready to vanish away” (8:13) then in the first century. Note even in our immediate context:

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching (10:25).

What “day”? Some future return of Christ 2,000 years away? No. The Day of the Lord in judgment, A.D. 70. This book was a final call to Jewish believers who were beginning to fall away, get cold in faith, because they were not seeing the promised judgment of Matthew 24 (and other places) materialize. Paul says no, don’t leave us. Don’t forsake the assembly (a singular noun in the Greek, by the way).

But are we living in “these last days” today? No. It was the last days specifically of the Old Covenant. These warnings do not have the same application today. We should not, therefore, lift that command from its context and apply it to an alien one, at least not 1-to-1. We should certainly not add to it things it doesn’t say.

I don’t deny that corporate worship services are good and necessary, that public Lord’s Suppers are a necessary judicial event in the life of Christians. But there is simply no biblical precedent for demanding that they be weekly, or demanding that Christians attend whenever they are offered. This verse certainly establishes no such precedent. Unfortunately, it has been used for millennia to beat Christians over the head concerning attendance on Sundays. That is legalistic, in my studied opinion.

Indeed, it is even legalistic to try to make Christians feel guilty when they abstain from select meetings or even regularly. This is something individual Christians must deal with in their own conscience.

In addition to the biblical argument, many people are trying to downplay the threat of this pandemic. I think this is unwise. It is especially so when people claim it is a conspiracy by the mass media, some even noting it is especially to destroy “Trump’s economy” or the like.

This is insane. We have had pandemics as well as hype come and go before. Never before have we seen such widespread action on behalf of major players: Harvard, Yale, Stanford, all colleges and universities, the NBA, MLB, and many others. They are not stupid, nor are they reactionary. These are very costly decisions; yet they are making them. Why? Because they have listened closely where others have scoffed. (I would not be afraid to see the stock market close at some point.)

Trump has closed travel from Asia, the Middle East, and now Europe. He is signaling further actions by executive order. If this is a conspiracy, it cannot be against Trump. A house divided and all that. If this is a conspiracy, Trump is in on it, and sadly, you’ll need to find a new political hero. If you can’t see this, then you are devoted to the point of utterly irrational. You and I both know this cannot be true. Right?

This is not a conspiracy—-at least not like that.

Many are saying this is less problematic than the flu. Most of the more informed experts I have read and heard say otherwise. Simplistic comparisons you see in memes and other anecdotes are the kind of sources that get me thinking or laughing; but not the kind of source to which I’d entrust my life. I know we like to trust our sympathetic brothers and sisters more than we do the blowhards and fake news in mainstream media, but you should never make major decisions on such bases. This is not about scoring rhetorical points online. It could cost people their lives.

I am hugely, as you well know, sympathetic to libertarian theory. I am deeply libertarian and have been accused more than once of being an anarchist. We love our theories and we will often defend them to the bitter end. This is one bitter end we don’t want to witness.

There are not many well-developed libertarian theories of quarantine out there that I have seen. I dare say that a thorough and serious treatment of the non-aggression principle will end up justifying some principle of civil-government quarantine in the end. A more robust doctrine of Christian libertarianism, based upon loving your neighbor, will provide even more support, I believe.

While I am sympathetic with those who see this as a move to assert greater government control over our lives, the truth is that quarantine is not outside the realm of proper government response. When you realize this is the case, the rest will be either academic discussions or conspiracy theories.

Some have pointed out that a large part of successful quarantine is the public fear factor involved. Even more fear than is warranted is still a good thing, in the views of many. I heard just this morning something like this: “If people are complaining that we have overreacted, then that is what we want. That means we are probably doing the right thing.” So, for the libertarian theorists who are complaining most loudly that this is all bunk and conspiracy, just be informed that the more you complain, the more you encourage the authorities. Conspiracy or not, this can’t help you get your way.

Finally, to anyone who accuses you or me of trying to avoid or discourage “worship,” I again point to Romans 12 as the model of what New Testament worship truly is. It is about presenting your life as a living sacrifice for God, transforming your life through right relationships and good works as you are gifted.

If this model of worship had prevailed rather than the clergy-centric, ritual-centric, Sunday meetings of old (which even the Reformers adopted and only partially altered), then the history of Christendom as a force in society would probably look much different. For starters, we would not think of “church” as a building we go to and a set of routines we engage in on Sunday.

In the 1300s, as the Plague swept Europe and killed millions, the churches had no answer, hardly, except to attend more masses and process statues of Saints around the building, like they always did. A holier-than-thou movement of Flagellants arose in response to this perceived failure. But their answer was only to pray harder and whip themselves in the streets. It was piety on steroids, with whips. They led processions through cities while whipping themselves in penance for God’s judgment. None of this did any good to avert God’s wrath or to protect the people. All it did was make it worse by encouraging people to gather more and thus spread disease more greatly. The flagellants themselves were ascetics who did not bathe. They not only succumbed to the plague in great numbers themselves but also transmitted it from town to town as they went, and led others in doing so even more greatly.

Again, I know it will not make me popular, but I strongly support you staying home from church, and every other possible public or family event in the near term. I indeed encourage you to abstain. People with this viral infection are contagious before they present symptoms. They will look normal and you will think everything is fine while they may be infecting you. They will possibly remain contagious for up to more than a month after their symptoms are gone.

We may not beat ourselves with whips, but we still often beat ourselves and others over the head with traditions and false notions of piety. Our task today is to be wise and knowledgeable Christians who do not let our ideas of holiness and piety herd us, and especially others, into danger. Whatever my flaws may be, I will not be remembered as a 21st-Century flagellant spreading a modern-day plague.