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Anabaptist Exceptionalism

The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly tested God’s people. Government leaders have implemented restrictions that affect us financially, relationally, educationally, and perhaps most significantly, spiritually. Most churches have experienced some level of restriction to their gatherings. This has ranged from full shutdowns, to holding outdoor meetings, to meetings with only a percentage of members in attendance. In addition, we have been encouraged (sometimes required) to practice social distancing, masking, and regular sanitizing.

While the COVID restrictions are not the primary focus of this article, they do illustrate what appears to many Anabaptist leaders to reveal an underlying problem, a problem that shows itself elsewhere but has been especially apparent in our response to this pandemic. The problem has sometimes been labeled Read it all

We Are Facing More Than a Virus

Deceptions, end times, covid-19, vaccines, truth, hope, warnings. And God!

“I don’t know who I can believe anymore.” Have you thought, heard or maybe declared this statement in the past year? Is it wrong to entertain this thought? More than any other time in my life I have come to see how far reaching deception is. It is everywhere. On a positive note, realizing that deception is so prevalent can instill in us a love for the truth and a need to seek God as the source of truth.

Questioning a source of information because it is human in origin is a good practice in the age in which we live. Without stating it, one has established that something received may be false or deceptive. Did Eve ponder on whether she could believe the serpent? It doesn’t appear that she calculated whether the recommendation the serpent was making could bring negative consequences. I would like to clarify that questioning information, is very different from disrespecting an office of authority such as a leader of the home, church or state.

As we speak, I am asking myself the question, “Should I accept a coronavirus vaccine if it is offered to me? What if it is made obligatory by the government?” We have been praying about this. It has been a prayer request on Wednesday evenings. Maybe it seems odd that I would open this discussion about deception with, the garden of Eden and a coronavirus vaccine. Many of you know I work in healthcare. I do not present this as an expert voice. Let me explain that I know very little about vaccines and have not done extensive research on this subject. In short, my understanding of the science behind the 2020 events and the various vaccines is minimal. To be honest with you, I don’t really know who I can trust to tell me the truth in medical journals or on media sites. I hope that by the time this paper is completed, we can have a new love for the truth and its Author. The Lord is my Shepherd and He is Holy, He has never failed, never been taken by surprise, never wondered what decision is the correct one, He is good and He will not withhold any good thing from the heart that lives in communion with Him.

This perspective comes, not from an expert, but from one of the flock. Since the Lord is my Shepherd all I can say is that you are hearing from a sheep.

One of the great needs of the hour is to find our present day experience in the Truth of God’s Word. Read it all

Do Not Trust in Trump Nor Count on Courts Nor Lean on Legislatures Nor Hope in Howitzers

How to trust and not be afraid when goodness, honor, integrity, justice, kindness, and lawfulness are gone

Society is fraying about us. The culture is rotting. The nation’s fabric is coming apart. The institutions of stability are tottering. The foundations are crumbling. The bastions have been bastardized. The darkness deepens. An ill wind blows. And it’s so alarmingly frigid out there.

And fear chills the heart, gnaws the nerves, and jellies the spine.

Well, did I echo anything in your soul?

If you are already done with the bleak negativity, Read it all

Is It Time for Christians to Defy the Governor Regarding Public Worship?

Do we truly need to choose between honoring God and honoring the governor?

So is there a point where it’s right to defy our leaders?
If so, where is that point?

The two connected questions dropped into the comments on one of my Facebook posts. To know the context is to better understand the questions, so here you are:

Broad: Gubernatorial executive orders restricting some normal freedoms during a pandemic.
Narrow: Restrictions on a variety of public assemblies, including church services.

I gave two brief answers (“Yes” and “Not yet”) in a follow-up comment and promised a more thorough answer later. This is it.

Heroes of the Resistance? Relevant Bible History

Read it all

The Lord’s Prayer and COVID-19

How to pray about the coronavirus pandemic

The Lord's Prayer and COVID-19: Peace

Peter Turner shares some of his thoughts about the Lord’s prayer and covid-19: This morning, I was thinking about how to pray in a general sense about the current novel coronavirus pandemic facing the entire world.

At first, I thought to ask God to kill off, remove, eliminate the virus so that we would see new cases drop and stop, and those in leadership would give the all-clear for us to get back to our ‘normal’ lives and begin repairing the economic damage. But then I remembered that God is able to bring good out of, or somehow through, the evils that come as a result of our fall, our sin, the curse, and this world’s brokenness. Perhaps it is part of His master plan — not that He caused this, but is using to His ends — that the world experience this crisis. Read it all