Scammed

 "Through the insincerity of liars, some will devote themselves to diabolical teachings and practices, severing themselves from the goodness of the things which God had created and established for us". 1 Timothy 4:1 &2.

It's pretty rare these days that I hear anything exciting on a company health and safety training Course - there's only so many times that someone can 'remind' you how to move a box or to wear PPE - but this week brought just such a rare occasion.

I was working through a course on on-line safety when the issue of 'phishing' (getting bogus e-mails that intend to do you and/or your company harm) came up. The subject material sought to impress upon me the key reasons that such scams work so much of the time, and they most certainly bear repeating.

These are:

A sense of urgency (the materials often require a speedy response).

A need to please (they are framed in such a manner that you'll want to assist).

Greed (making you an offer you can't refuse).

Fear or Complacency (A sense of foreboding if you don't act, and that everything will be good if you do).

The opening chapter of Laura Dodsworth's excellent 'State of Fear', which I also started this week, shows how the government 'stay at home' announcement last March employed all of the above to 'freeze us in the headlights' of the moment and thereby to entirely accept the scam - that a disease as troublesome for most of us as seasonal flu entirely condoned the wholesale removal of our basic rights.

We're all now only too aware of the general social ills that have followed this, which, even if we snapped back to pre-2020 'norms' tomorrow (and there's currently no evidence that we will), would continue creating huge swathes of damage for decades to come, but there's another side to this coin.

If political and social leaders have, in effect, murdered the good norms of society, what of the church which has, aside from a few rare exceptions, chosen to side with this madness? Where are the vast body of believers in respect to this continuing crisis?

The reality is found in Paul's words above concerning the great apostasy of the last days. Notice what he says brings this about - men who become liars by searing their conscience (in respect to becoming obedient to men first) and in consequence marry themselves to teachings and practices that are 'diabolical' (demonic) in nature, for they sever the Christian church from its proper role - assembling and continuing to serve, particularly amidst a crisis. 

To conform to an edict in a nation that terminates church on the basis of it being 'of no importance' (Government statement) in the pandemic validates exactly what the Apostle is stating, and the sad truth is that in spite what has transpired since that dreadful day, nothing has changed in respect to the view of most church-goers concerning how to behave at such a moment - even though the entire history of the church, until 2020, speaks against this!

Yielding so readily to the perpetrators of this scam will leave a very real and deep stain- a perpetual wound - upon the church for decades to come - indeed, it may not ever be removed, as most believe there is no need for any manner of repentance about this - they were merely doing 'what they were told'.

This is exactly the manner of error made in Germany the 1920s and 30s by the church, which willingly yielded itself, in the main, to the decrees of the nazis, who also stripped the country of all rights and freedoms.

What is simply astonishing is that ministers and their congregations cannot see the parallels, and where this manner of 'obedience' ends.

The church must be called back to the genuine soundness and rightness of what the Lord has established. Only then can we be healthy.