To obey is better than sacrifice - Minister sanctions churches closing to prevent spread of virus

I can feel the drum of your heartbeat,

Calling us to be your hands and feet.

We’re rising up with courage in our hearts,

To carry out your love to the hardest and the dark.

– Take Courage, Lindy Conant

Last week Sunday, a bishop had several ministers and Christians in a huff as he classed them as cowards for closing their church doors to stave off the spread of the coronavirus.

He went as far as saying that the Church was cowering in the presence of a virus that Jesus had died to heal.

However, Minister Leroy Hutchinson, author and national youth director of the Church of God of Prophecy in Jamaica, said that “while it is a challenging time for the Church, a lot of believers have got so accustomed to corporate worship, they have forgotten that Jesus called us to reach the world and to express our faith outside of the building”.

“The church is not the building itself but is, instead, the believers. Even amidst the present situation, as the bishop alluded to, we must realise other fundamental truths, that despite our God-given authority, suffering is still a part of the Christian faith. It is still a pivotal ingredient in our spiritual formation,” Hutchinson said.

He alluded to biblical characters who had their own challenges and reminded us that Paul beseeched God three times in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 to “take the thorn out of his flesh”. Instead, God told him that His grace was sufficient for him. Timothy had a stomach condition, Peter had financial issues, and Jesus Himself was viciously crucified without being delivered because his demise was to fulfil God’s purpose.

“So we have to ask ourselves, why can’t we rebuke everything, even with the power and the authority that the Church has? My answer is, God wants us to seek His face in suffering,” he said.

Hutchinson said that science and medicine, through God’s wisdom, play an important role in believers’ lives and are supported by faith. It is with that in mind that he proposed a balance in the Christian’s faith with the understanding that despite this pandemic, God is still in charge.

misconception

He added: “There is a misconception of the prophetic gift/calling. Today, we have prophets and prophetesses saying that the coronavirus is here because God is judging the world, pastors throwing tantrums at believers for being absent from services due to the COVID-19 outbreak, etc. While I believe that believers have the power and the authority to bind and loose, we also have to consider that the Book of Revelation must be fulfilled. Certain things must happen, so we cannot rebuke what is said in the apocalyptic books such as Daniel and Revelation. We cannot rebuke prophecies which have already happened in the future which we are just now experiencing, that is, the ‘already but not yet’ (eschatology).”

Hutchinson stated that during this pandemic, Christians have a duty to protect themselves and their loved ones, but most of all, they are charged to be obedient.

For him, taking safety measures has nothing to do with cowardice or faithlessness. He said, “The Bible talks about diseases, wars, and rumours of wars, so you and I don’t have the power to rebuke those things as they are already set in stone. The responsibility of the Church, in this time, is to pray, demonstrate God’s love through meeting people’s needs, evangelise, and to remind people of the impending return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“So look at what’s happening now, what is it that God wants to show us? Why does it have to be that the devil is getting the glory out of this? Why can’t we see the millions being spared?” he asked.

“There are things that Christians have to speak out against, but we have to know what to speak out against and what to obey as, for example, there is nothing evil about being absent from the building right now because of possible transmission of the virus,” he said.

Hutchinson reminds us that the Church, in the Book of Acts, assembled in homes, and therefore, he sees nothing strange about it now.

“We sometimes forget that this was how the Church started. We have got so used to keyboards, drums, and mass gatherings that we forget that this is the church Jesus called us to be,” he stated.