Assembling Together: A Guest blog

 (Note:This treatise was penned by my longtime friend, mentor and honest-to-goodness hero Gerald Sutek, who, for the last several years has been laboring in the Philippines and as of late has been holding church in the midst of martial law-like conditions)

 This thesis will not win me any new friends and God knows I do not need any more enemies but I feel I am old enough to insert my comments on a bad, very bad habit developing within the body of Christ.

Heb 10:19  Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 

Heb 10:20  By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 

Heb 10:21  And having an high priest over the house of God; 

Heb 10:22  Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. 

Heb 10:23  Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) 

Heb 10:24  And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 

Heb 10:25  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. 

 

Yes, Hebrews 10:25 is STILL in the Bible and dispensationalizing the book of Hebrews out of the church age won’t convince the Holy Spirit.  The context alone speaks to the last days New Testament Christian and verse 25 is probably the most neglected and disobeyed verse in the New Testament.  It is also interesting that the verse has a very profound prophecy concerning 2021 or the year we live in and even future from that.

 We hear more and more from comfort-loving Christians that this verse “doesn’t have to mean actually bring-your-body-to-a-church-building”.   Well, you need to read it carefully again and remember the Bible says of Itself.

 Pro_30:5  Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.

Luk_4:4  And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

 My life has spanned from pencil and paper and landline phone all the way unto manual typewriter, word processor, voice mail, email, cell phone, facebook, zoom and Youtube.  Yes, I am that old.  When I was little I sat in front of the seven inch TV and stared at the test pattern until the first program of the day came on at 4PM.  Howdy Doody did not know how to spell anything beyond innocent, childish, fun. 

 The only “religion” on TV in that era was Bishop Fulton Sheen who was never worth any time.  What I am trying to say (beyond revealing my age) is that what a Bible believing Christian should know to be CHURCH cannot remotely be replaced by a zoom/Youtube TV program.

 

My family got up early on Sunday morning and put on our finest duds.  My dad had the car clean and mechanically ready lest we miss Sunday school.  We carried an actual paper version of God’s Word to class and communed with similar aged warm bodies and listened to a prepared teacher teaching from a paper version Bible.  We gathered again in an auditorium with the main body of the church.  We found a seat closest to the front next to other smiling/hand-shaking brothers and sisters who loved God and His Word enough to rise early on their day-off in order to fellowship (remember that word) with other beings who were created in the image of God.  We also experienced the full affect of the presence of God among His great congregation and sensed the genuine tug of the Holy Spirit wooing us to the altar to settle a certain matter with our Maker and Saviour.  We enjoyed our individual classes but we also had the familial union of the whole family sitting in church together and submitting ourselves one to another under the fire and brimstone laced spit of the man of God in the pulpit.  We could not just push a button and try another ecumenical entertainer to see which one we liked better.

 Can you imagine the testimony of a young child in our web-world describing sleeping in until five minutes after the TV service began and then jumping in mom and dad’s bed in our jams while mom serves dad his coffee and us hot chocolate.  Dad looks at TV guide to find the zoom service of First Convenient Baptist Church.  We all zoom in together and plump our pillows for ultimate comfort to be entertained by the latest and best-to-offer pop choir song titled Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus…..Oh, yes Jesus…Amen.  The sermon is homiletically perfect and is so powerful that dad white-knuckles his coffee mug while little sister snores in her plumped pillow. 

 

 

 I fully understand the convenience of today’s internet church and I would truly appreciate this spiritual crutch if I were in a hospital bed locked in by some dreaded disease of discomfort.  But the Laodicean Christian had turned this crutch into a skateboard to speed past Heb. 10:25.   I also understand the opportunity of minstering on this media into an area where there truly is no “good church”. But I have also heard about Christians who take a promotion in their career that requires a relocation.  They jump to the money and position but when asked if there might be a “good church” nearby,  they plump their pillow and lean back comfortably on “We can always find something on Youtube”.  This violates “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God”.  Thank God for every pastor who has the availability to minister to his flock during Covid 19.  But any Bible believer ought to know that Hebrews 10:25 certainly transcends any temporary prohibition given by local authority.

   When the good Lord inspired Paul to write Hebrews 10:25 He clearly had your best spiritual interest in heart.  Unless you twist your mind to accept the perverted version of Heb. 10:25 found in Zoom-channel-11,  there really is a universe of difference between the  bodily attendance in a local NT  Baptist church and  Zoom-Web-TV-Pajama-Baptist. There can be little thought and less prayer put into grabbing  your phone and punching in your offering rather than to put cash or check in the plate as it passes by.  The call into service by the Holy Spirit, although not necessarily destroyed by the internet is certainly softened and surely easier ignored.  Even the invitation to be saved or get right with God loses much altar-tug-power through the long distance of radio signals.  It’s just not the same and you know it.

   Then add the prophetic aspect of Hebrews 10:25 and how the Lord so perfectly foresaw the electronic era of our day. and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.   How the devil, by a multiple-thousands of ways could insert himself and, indeed minster to his audience.   God designed the ministry of the local church so He might draw and deal with His bride in a very personal way.  Through the air waves the prince of the powers of the air can now salve the consciences of the guilty and clothe the preacher’s message in a garb much prettier than the rough garments of Bible preachers. 

   Judge me “old fashioned” and I confess to that.  But, don’t be lulled into slumber on the subject of Hebrews 10:25.  Read it again and realize that God said what He meant and meant what He said. 

 

Everybody is a Conspiracy Theorist, As It Turns Out

   Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm misreading my fellow man. But humor me for a moment.

 

  I talk to people (in the sort of face-to-face way that is rapidly disappearing), and I keep noticing a trend.  It seems to me that  there are literally millions of everyday people who for the first time in my life believe they are being lied to about the basic facts of their daily lives.  Virtually every conversation I find myself in , whether with a stranger or a friend, eventually wanders around to current events, and  nobody believes the official story.  Now we might not agree on who is lying to us, or what they are lying about, but there is definitely an undercurrent of distrust in what we are being told.

  Now I find that fascinating  because my entire adult life it has been my policy to never believe the official story, and for that contrarian worldview I have endured the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.  And yet here we are.  Millions of us. welcome to the party, friends.

  I used to wonder what it was like to live in the old Soviet Union, and to be subject to their amazing propaganda industry.  By my reckoning, millions of Soviet citizens got up  every morning and would read , for example, an article in Pravda (which I'm told means 'Truth'. Orwell was on to something) about the bumper potato crop that year. These same people would look around at their family on the brink of starvation and they would know that they were being lied to; that the official story was bunk.  They didn't need 'alternative media'; they had the evidence of their own two eyes and the workings of their own God-given brain.

  Of course they couldn't say anything about what they saw and knew to be true.  Their very safety depending on their ability to pay lip service to the lie; to nod their heads at their neighbors and agree that yes there indeed was a bumper potato crop this year.  Such things are demoralizing to an honest man, and frankly demoralization, not persuasion,  is the point of propaganda. But that's another sermon for another time.

  Of course it goes without saying that I am not a Soviet citizen, and there is a significant cultural difference between us. Woven into the very culture of our American nation is a distrust of our overlords, and a willingness to say something. we are a bunch of spitfire skeptics,and that might prove to be the greatest philosophical gift  passed down to us by our Founders. I maintain that every time you do your best to circumvent our Big Tech overlords to pass along a video or a study that rebukes the ubiquitous propaganda, you are  imbibing in the greatest of American traditions.  You are a true patriot, you conspiracy kook.

  So there are millions of us, and we all 'know' we are being lied to, and maybe we cant prove it, and maybe we even look around a bit before we talk about it.  But we know it as sure as we know the sun came up this morning.  The question before us, to which I have no easy answer, is what do we do about it?

  

 

  I don't know.

 

  But I have some thoughts. 

  One thought is that, although I may disagree with a man on the particulars of the truth, that in and of itself does not make him my opponent. The truth is, we are both being lied to, and our enemy is the liar that benefits from the two of us remaining adversaries. People that are at each others throat are easy to control.

Another thought is that  'alternative media', by itself, isn't the solution, as it is just as prone to assimilation as anything else.  Youtube was once the Wild West of unvarnished unfiltered boots-on-the-ground truth. Now it's practically Pravda. Google promised us access to all the information in the world. How's that working out for you?  Twitter defended people who rocked the boat, until they didn't. And don't even get me started on  Mr. Zuckerburg's  baby.

  But what alternative media DOES accomplish is that it keeps the conversation going. When Youtube was co-opted, somebody started another thing, and it's not as big, but it's out there. When that one gets swallowed up somebody needs to start another one.  But those things are just an extension of what we need to be doing; talking to people.  You see, our hapless Soviet citizens did what they had to do to survive, but they didn't do themselves any favors by agreeing to the lie.  Agreeing to the lie perpetuates it, while simply saying 'I don't know about all that...' is an intensely powerful  statement.  It keeps the cement of propaganda from curing all the way, and buys us a little more time. 

 As Doug Wilson has said "Stupid can't last forever." and the very earth I live on was crafted by One who cannot tolerate a lie. The very fabric of reality itself is imbued with His nature, and as a result, the truth is always struggling to come out, and will come out, if given enough time. We just have to keep it going.

 

Adventures in UnMasking

  I decided recently to stop wearing a face mask in public.

 

 Let me preface all this by saying that I'm not a martyr to 'the cause'. I have no real desire to cast sand unnecessarily into the gears. I just don't want to be compelled to participate in foolishness. Your embrace of stupidity and pseudo-science does not compel me to join you.  I'm just a guy, going about his life, and I really just want to be left alone.

  Having said that, a while back I caught the Covid. In fact, my entire family caught it. For a couple of days I had the chills and an annoying cough, and everything tasted terrible. That's my whole Covid story. No ventilator, no lung scarring. Just a bad case of the flu. My body did what it was designed to do, and repelled the invaders.

  Having survived it, I am, according to science, immune to catching it or spreading it for some admittedly indeterminate period of time  I am chock full of antibodies, after all, as evidenced by my survival. I am safe to be around, and I can be around you, even if you are sick. I am therefore, for sound medical reasons, exempt from any reasons to wear a face mask, and I purposed in my heart to deploy every reasonable means at my disposal to live that way.

  Of course I set some ground rules for myself. I believe, as a Christian, I am obligated to tell the truth (Romans 12:17), but combating foolishness with foolishness (Prov 26:5) might require me to tell a very specific version of the truth.  I am still refining this technique, by the way. Doctors offices have been extremely problematic, and well as oddly enough, the local Goodwill. And I don't win them all. But I don't wear the mask.  So here, submitted for your consideration, here are three very recent examples of living mask-free in public..

Example 1

  My wife and I recently celebrated an anniversary, and we got out of town, staying at a nearby luxury hotel. The hotel was thick with signs about masking and distancing, etc etc. I simply ignored them, and endured the accusatory stares of some. Most people really aren't up for a confrontation, and some even agree with your stand, though they have opted not to take it themselves. I wasn't confronted about it until the next morning when I went down to get our pathetically sad ( at least compared to pre-Covid ) breakfast from the hotel.

  "Sir, you need to put on a face mask" said the lady behind the food counter.

  "Actually, I'm medically exempt." I maintained eye contact, and a casual, but cheerful demeanor.  I am  , after all, not a rabble-rouser, I'm just a guy.  There was a long awkward pause.

  "Umm, ok, well, just don't stand so close to the counter, then."

  See, how hard was that?  I wasn't boisterous, I wasn't rude. Everything I said was not only true, but more true that the propaganda plastered on the walls.

Example 2

  Having left the hotel, we went to go get some food at a Panda Express. I stood in line with maybe 10 other people, and I was the only one not wearing a mask. A cheerful manager of some sort swung thru the lobby reminding us that masks are required. I ignored her. A few minutes later she came back out and repeated the admonishment. I ignored her.  She came out  with a mask and  told me I had to put it on.

  "No I don't. I'm medically exempt."

  "Yes sir, you do."

  "Aren't you aware of your own corporate policy regarding medical exemptions?"  Truth be told, this was a bluff on my part. I certainly didn't know their policy, but the odds were she didn't either.

  "Our policy, sir, is to either send you to the drive-thru or serve you outside if you won't put on the mask."

  A word here; she isn't the enemy. She is an  employee that is being paid to enforce stupidity because her corporate paymasters are concerned about their own liability.  But I wasn't going to wear the mask.  So I left my mask-wearing wife in line to get our food and I waited outside.

  Once again, causing a scene is not what I'm after.  And getting the manager in trouble with corporate  isn't my goal either. 

Example 3

 From time to time my children coerce me to take them an hour or so away to an ice-skating rink so they can be with some of their friends. Last night was just such a night, and it was the first trip we had made there since my decision to be maskless.  I stood in line ,walking right past mask signs. We got to the little booth and the teenage girl asked "Sir, do you need a mask?"

  "No." No explanation given. I simply answered her very specific question.

  "Sir, you're going to have to put on a mask."

  "I appreciate your concern, but I'm not here to skate. I'm just the transportation, and besides, I'm medically exempt."  Keep in mind that as I'm saying this, approximately 10% of the skating population is maskless out on the ice, including the employee in charge with watching the skaters.  But the teenage employee opted to call for backup.  While the line grew behind me, I waited for the next round.

  "Sir, is there a problem?" Another teenage female.

  "No, I was just trying to pay for my kids to go skating, and your coworker  asked me if I needed a mask. I don't. I'm medically exempt."  I gestured back to the growing line. "Look, can I just pay, so that I'm not holding up the line and then you and I can discuss this in more detail?"  She let me pay, which is an important win. I am now a paying customer with a receipt to prove it.  We stepped off to the side.

  "What is the nature of your exemption?"

  "It is medical in nature, and personal."  An awkard pause, Eye contact, casual, cheerful demeanor.

  "Do you have any documentation?"

  "Nobody has ever asked me for documentation. What sort of documentation are you looking for?"

  "Something that establishes your disability."  Another quick word here. She used the word 'disability', not me.

  "Well, I have a government-issued Veterans Adminstration card that  proves I'm a vet with a service-connected disability. Will that do? " I showed her my card. She looked at it for a few seconds and then went to go get her manager.  By now my kids are on the ice and I'm just running out the clock.

 "Sir , is there a problem?" This fellow was presumably the manager. Bigger guy, early 20's.I rehearsed the entire scenario again, and he assured me that I would have to put on the mask.  

  "You  mean this company doesn't have a policy for exemptions?"

  "No, sir."

  "You are aware that the Americans With Disability Act requires accommodations for the disabled? I mean I'm not a lawsuit kind of guy, but you might want to recommend the owners think about that."  Now I know that's not really germane to the situation, but by now I was just having fun.

  "That's fine, but.." he sighed " you need to put the mask on."

  "Even though I'm exempt?"

  "Yes, sir."

  "I'll tell you what, man. I know you're just doing your job, and I'm really not here to cause a ruckus. We drove a long way to get here and I paid to get in, so here's what I'm going to do for you. I'm going to go stand just outside the rink doors out by the indoor soccer set-up. Now, your rules don't allow me to leave my kids here unattended, so I'm going to have to come in here from time to time and check on them. I hope that doesn't cause any problems between me and you."

  He sighed agian "Look, maybe if you just...stood way over there away from the crowd."

  "No, it's ok. I told you I'd stand outside the rink doors in the lobby, and I will. I'll sit on one of those benches and read." I shook his hand, thanked him for his time. He treated to his office, and as far as any onlooking flunkies knew, whatever I did next I was doing with his approval.

  I did go into the lobby where a mob of maskless Latinos were holding an indoor soccer game. I also went to the bathroom and wandered around inside. I checked on my kids. About 15 minutes before the rink closed I went inside to make sure everybody could find their shoes. I, in other words, acted and behaved like a free reasonable man.