By now most have likely heard of the ongoing battle churches have with their individual states in their overreach of power, forcing, by edict, the churches' continued unconstitutional closure. Now, one church in Chula Vista, CA has opted to take its case to the U.S. Supreme Court. (At posting, Gov. Newsom has relented and now permits churches to open, but under very limited and unacceptable extreme requirements.)
After losing their appeal to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 22, 2020 in a split two-to-one decision by a three-judge panel, the South Bay Pentecostal Church now seeks an emergency injunction against California's governor Gavin Newsom. They are asking the high Court to order the governor "to cease and desist his biased shutdown of religious worship in California, in blatant violation of the First Amendment's constitutional guarantee that citizens may freely exercise their religious faith."
Regardless of the eventual ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court, in my opinion, this is a tragic mistake!
First, it is not necessary to seek the Court's opinion on this matter. The opinion was rendered April 19th, 1775 in Concord, Massachusetts when the people of a newly forming free world stood up to the tyranny of a foreign power and said, NO! A costly bloody battle ensued that eventually won for all succeeding generations the rights later set forth in the Constitution of then a new government unlike any in history. A republic was born.
Since those laws, rights, are unambiguously stipulated in the Bill of Rights, no court is necessary to offer its opinion on what is guaranteed and so plainly written in the First Amendment regarding the role and authority of the government in the life of a church:
The church, by definition, the local church, constituted by the people who freely choose to become members, is not an institution. I know, we all have become used to that definition by society—but at a costly price in heretofore judgments rendered by the same court to which this new petition is submitted. I say again, the church is not an institution. No one gets to define it other than the one upon whom it is built, its foundation, its head. By scripture, it is defined as the corpus christi, Latin for, the body of Christ. As such, as He lives then she lives. It is organic! No institution is capable of that.
Secondly, since the church, then, organic, the body of Christ, as the Bible teaches, there is but one head, one authority. Being defined as the bride of Christ, He is defined as her solely rightful Husband—her Head. No mayor may be so. No governor may declare himself or herself as such. And certainly no government's Supreme Court can assume that power and role. There is but one supreme head and it is neither man nor man's government. It is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Thirdly, although it may seem logical for a reasonable person to assume in any matter regarding the violation of a citizen's right to appeal to the higher court of the nation, and certainly that may be true with legal grievances against the state, however, in matters of ecclesiastical polity the government has no authority. I repeat, no authority!
When pastors abdicate their authority by yielding and submitting freely to the state, thus supplanting God's leadership for that of man, they are aligning themselves with a corrupt institution. It did not take long to see how corrupt many of these so-called leaders actually are. Besides a ban on church attendance, many, drunk on the power yielded to them by misguided church leaders, enacted some of the most draconian unsubstantiated orders—no gathering, no singing, no baptizing, and the most hellish of them all, no observation of the Lord's communion! From whose play book do these mandates appear to originate? Exactly, Satan's. Who else would impose upon the Body of Christ such restrictions, and, let's be real, would ban them altogether if they thought they could get away with it?
For this reason alone, it is easy to see the great danger in yielding the church's authority to the state. We easily see exactly what they will do. But there is a greater danger. The freedom and existence of the church itself is at stake. Although it is laudable for a church to seek the government's aid to remove the boot of local leaders from its neck, it is fraught with peril. There will be unintended consequences.
We have already seen what happens when redress is sought by our U.S. Supreme Court. These include the loss of religious liberty within our schools, the legalizing of the murder of the innocent within a mother's womb, forced acceptance of a sinful life style, and lately the decision of the court, without debate by our representatives or our majority opinion, the redefinition of marriage by the legalizing of same-sex marriages.
It is not far-fetched to fear in this case brought by the church in Chula Vista, CA an outcome that will be anathema to the church. We should pause to seriously think on this course of action for redress. Should the Court, as it has done previously, rule in any way other than complete protection as stipulated in the First Amendment, even in the smallest restriction, it will legally empower the government to insinuate its authority into matters Biblically reserved exclusively to the church. The term "slippery slope" comes to mind here. The church, then, will no longer be an independent New Testament church. It no longer will be organic; it will have become an institution, and like all other institutions, the government, or ill-intended leaders, will seize its control and put upon it further regulations.
Are we sure we want to take this course? An unnecessary one. Rather than seeking the Court's opinion on our violated First Amendment rights, we should stand together as the early patriots once did and say, NO! We serve no power greater than God's. Pastors, grow a spine. Lead your people! As the Bride of Christ, we will not allow man, any man, to come between Him and His people. We will not give His Body over to adultery. We stand shoulder to shoulder in defense of what He has declared exclusively His. We will not step aside and allow any government of this world to impose its power and authority over the Kingdom of His world. We are resolute. Of the many things the people of God in the Old Testament taught us, the greatest is this: The Bride of Christ will not go whoring in this troublesome time.
- Monday, May 25, 2020
See also: A Giant Tree Has Fallen.
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