“If you are not part of the body of Christ, then you are not part of Christ. If you do not love His bride, the church, then you do not love Jesus (Matthew 25:40). You are still dead in your sins, and you are not saved.”
(Gabriel Hughes – The Midwestern Baptist) In the midst of the current pandemic, various local governments have been shutting down those businesses and services it deems “non-essential.” This has stirred a lot of discussion as to what is considered essential and what is not. It was in the spirit of those debates that I made the following comment on Twitter:
“The church is essential.
More essential than a hospital.”
When I made this tweet, I was speaking primarily to Christians, as most of what I teach is for those who fear God and love His word. We as Christians should never forget that the church of Jesus Christ is essential. Notice here that I said “The church is essential,” not “a church is essential.” I do believe even church buildings are important, but that wasn’t my argument. I chose my words very specifically. The church is not defined by a building. We are defined by Christ.
A flurry of comments began rolling in by unbelievers. Seeing that I had their attention, I followed this up with two more tweets, saying, “A hospital might prolong your life, but only Jesus can save it.” And, “You may die in a hospital, but in Christ you will live—forever.” In addition to the comments, my inbox began filling up with messages, mostly by persons trying to gaslight me and start an argument. When I didn’t respond, they would message me again saying something like, “Jesus would respond!” I have several dozen of these.
I do not have the time to reply to every comment I receive. I’m not going to surrender my time to those who only want to belittle and not learn. But given that there are those who may listen, I will post a few remarks here. Even regarding some of the more foolish comments you will see, I hope this is convicting and will lead someone to repentance. (Not included will be any of comments telling me to f-word off to someplace else.)
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