___________

Recently I received the following email:

“Thank you so much for taking the time to read this message. I understand that you are busy and I will try to be brief. I have read many of your books and been on your website several times and I am thankful for your stand on many issues that effect so many in Christianity today. Would you please advise on the vaccines that are being touted today concerning Covid-19? There is so much information out there, but I respect your opinions and I believe that you have studied the Bible and you can help me with this issue. Covid-19 has hit my family and I would like to know what you think about those who are taking the vaccine. ... Thank you so much!”

Following is my reply to this man and to any others who have reason to respect my input.

The Covid pandemic has tested the spiritual character of professing Christians and churches. For the child of God, difficulties are trials of faith (1 Pe. 1:7). Satan operates in afflictions to destroy faith, but God operates in afflictions to purify faith. If the faith is real, it is purified. “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Pe. 1:7). If the “faith” is nominal or hypocritical, it will not stand. “And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended” (Mr. 4:15-16). When Judas was tested, he was shown to be a hypocrite who did not have saving faith. When Peter was tested, he was purified and continued on from faith to faith (Lu. 22:31-32).

Many have become focused on the Covid vaccines. I have received probably hundreds of links to anti-Covid vaccine material. I’ve looked at a lot of them, tested them as best I can, prayed about the matter and discussed it with many brethren. If someone thinks I haven’t looked at all sides, they are grossly wrong. For nearly 50 years I have pursued skill in the Word of righteousness and have thereby exercised my spiritual senses to discern both good and evil (Heb. 5:12-14). I have long experience in analyzing medical claims and identifying quackery, including anti-vaxxing quackery. I have learned not to be awed by high-sounding credentials. A lot of very smart, very educated people are nutty as a fruit cake in some areas. Of course, that is true on all sides. I want to check out every claim as best I can. (See the free eBook The Bible, Diet, and Alternative Health Care, www.wayoflife.org.)

For my part, I consider the vaccine issue a personal choice. I do, though, want to push back some against the anti-Covid vaccine frenzy for those who care to hear. And I want to warn yet again about getting off base in one’s thinking about these times.

I am seeing the response to Covid vaccines actually divide churches. I am seeing it cause professing Christians to reject preachers and nearly rail against them on the basis of their position on the vaccines. I am seeing it turn people into anti-government rebels. I am seeing it be the occasion for swallowing wild-eyed quackery (e.g., “all the animals died when they did whatever testings were done”) and will-o’-the-wisp conspiracies.

One man wrote recently, “So you now have joined your voice with Pope Francis, Franklin Graham, and other apostate religious leaders in promoting the vaccine from Hell? I guess I expected a higher standard of research and communication from you, and all I can say is – I hope God opens your eyes to see the Satanic deception that is taking place. To be very honest, in light of your previous communications, it almost seems as if you have been purchased by the system.”

I received the following from a pastor in England: “The last nine months since the second lockdown here in the UK have been extremely difficult. I have sought to lead the church on a moderate course, but we have been opposed by a small minority on either extreme of the Covid-19 debate. ... As for the bigger picture, Covid-19 has weakened the church in the UK. Firstly, by bringing division ... Secondly, by bringing anarchy, each member of church and congregation deciding their own course of action without considering the local body of Christ or their church leadership. Thirdly, by turning the meek into monsters and the steadfast into wimps.”

This is so sad and shocking. It describes professing Christians who aren’t equipped spiritually and biblically to handle even a relatively minor problem. It reminds me of what God said to Jeremiah. “If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?’ (Jer. 12:5). To paraphrase this, we could ask, “If you have been wearied by Covid, what will you do when real trouble and persecution comes?”

One man wrote, “We should proudly defy ANYTHING that is not of God. Fear is one of those things. We shouldn’t be hiding behind masks and vaccines. We shouldn't possess vaccine passports because we should know what they’re leading to. When all the data contradicts itself, how can we believe and support ANYTHING governments throw at us?”

Good luck on “proudly defying anything that is not of God” in this fallen, sin-cursed world! This is pure nuttiness that has no biblical basis whatsoever. This man did not get such thinking from God’s Word. He got it from social media.

It is obvious that some government and science agencies have tried to suppress sound treatments for Covid. It is clear that we are seeing an increase in totalitarianism as the mystery of iniquity progresses.

The question is what can we do and what should we do. That is how I have framed the issue all along. I am not going to war against masks, lockdowns, vaccines, vaccine passports, etc. Paul didn't live like that. The Roman government was 100% pagan and idolatrous. It was demonic, in that sense. Its chief god was Jupiter. But Paul’s focus was the Great Commission, and that must be our focus. When the government forbids the operation of churches and the preaching of the gospel or the preaching of any part of God’s Word, a higher law prevails, and governments are doing this and God’s people are having to make hard choices to obey God rather than man. But we were taught by Christ Himself to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars as far as possible. I am not going to march against Covid lockdowns and vaccine passports; I’m not going to jail for such a thing or restrict my ministry on the basis of such a thing. But I will preach the gospel and preach every part of God’s Word even if the government forbids it, come what may. I have lived in places where preaching and churches were illegal, and in those circumstances I have obeyed God rather than man, and I have experienced persecution because of it.

I have said from the beginning that Covid has been a spiritual thermometer to show the true character of churches and individual Christians. It should have driven God’s people to the Bible and prayer and holiness and separation from the world and renewed devotion to serving Christ and building stronger homes and churches, but I have not seen much evidence of this. Mostly it has driven people into spending even more time on social media, more immersion in politics, more fretting, more worldliness, more focus on playing. One man wrote to me and claimed that he had immersed himself in Scripture, but it was obvious from his communication that he has actually immersed himself in anti-Covid vaccine alarmism.

I am not naive; I understand that I live in a world of lies. I have been learning about fake news from the Bible for nearly 50 years. Trump taught me nothing about fake news. Fake news is as old as man’s fall. God’s Word informs us that we live in a dark world and exhorts us to be sober and vigilant. Thankfully, we have a brilliant light in the darkness, and that is the Bible, and victory over fake news is to know the Bible well, rightly divided, and to test everything by it. By this means we can develop good spiritual discernment. “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19). This is why I spend far more time reading and studying and meditating in the Bible than I do messing around with social media.

As for conspiracies, I know about them because the Bible teaches me about them. The chief conspiracy is the “mystery of iniquity” which is the devil’s program to place his man on the throne of this world. It is described in 2 Thessalonians 2. The devil is called “the god of this world,” and he has blinded the minds of those who do not believing savingly in Jesus Christ (2 Co. 4:4). He is in control of the darkness of this world and actively operates in every unsaved individual. “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Eph. 2:2-3). There have been human conspiracies in this world since the time of Nimrod’s plan to unite mankind against God at Babel, and there are plenty of conspiracies operating today. But behind them all is the mystery of iniquity. That is the conspiracy I am to concern myself with as a child of God and a pilgrim in a foreign land. I will let the unsaved chase other conspiracies and try to catch the tail of the will-o-the-wisp. They have no spiritual light and they have nothing better to do.

In my own experience, which doesn’t mean a lot but does mean something, and I am in contact with a lot of people around the world, I personally know of many people who have died of Covid, but I don’t know of anyone who has died of the vaccines or even suffered permanent injury from them, and I know of a lot of people who have been vaccinated.

The anti-Covid skeptics tend to focus almost entirely on the alleged dangers of the vaccines, while ignoring the very real dangers of Covid itself (though it was not the danger it was made out to be, and could have been handled far more wisely, and should never have caused the draconian lockdowns.)

I have no doubt that the Covid crisis is a changing of the prophetic times, a move forward for the mystery of iniquity. It is like there has been a ratcheting up of another gear or two to move the world deeper into globalism and government control. But I can’t stop the mystery of iniquity and am not told to try. I pray against it, but that’s all I can do. It’s God’s business, not mine, and He is well able to handle it.

Scripture tells me not to fret and to keep my mind and heart occupied with the business God has given to His people for this age, which is laid out in a nutshell in Matthew 28:18-20. God is not wringing His hands over the mystery of iniquity. God is in control of the devil. God is in the saddle. And if God is in control of the devil, He is certainly in control of man’s puny conspiracies. “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way” (2 Th. 2:7). No one but God the Spirit could restrain the devil’s program, and the Bible says He is restraining and will restrain until He is taken out of the way, and that, I am confident, refers to the Rapture. The Spirit of God is omnipresent, but it is also true that He came to earth at Pentecost for the purpose of empowering the worldwide preaching of the gospel to call out a people for God’s name from among the nations (Ac. 1:8; 15:14), which is the church, and the Spirit of God will depart when that work is finished. He seals the church-age believers and will depart with them, in that sense only.

As for the Covid vaccines, I do not accept a lot of the alarmist claims that are being made about them.

Following are factors by which I analyze anti-Covid vaccine claims:

First, I consider the evidence for the claim and require corroborating testimony.

The Bible teaches us to require multiple reputable witnesses (Pr. 11:14; Mt. 18:16; 2 Co. 13:1; 1 Ti. 5:19). When I read some alarmist thing about the vaccines, I want to know what other reputable voices are saying. If I can’t find solid collaboration, I am not going to believe it. What I urge and challenge people to do is to look at the other side of the alarm reports. Find out what is being said by those who repute the alarm. If you don’t care to do this and instead are eager to believe every alarmist thing that goes viral on social media, you are a perfect candidate for deception. If that is you, I leave you to your delusions, because nothing can help you.

For example, consider Stew Peters’ interview with “former Pfizer employee” Karen Kingston, which has gone viral across social media. Kingston made the claim that Pfizer secretly slipped the nanomaterial graphene oxide, a toxic ingredient, into the vaccine. She supposed that this was done on purpose to create mass genocide. Also cited as evidence for this is a Spanish study that observed “a high similarity” to graphene oxide in the analysis of one sample by means of transmission electron microscopy. It didn’t take long to find out that this has been debunked. The Spanish study itself says that there is no “definitive identification” or “conclusive evidence” of the presence of graphene oxide. The University of Almeria in Spain released a statement that it does not subscribe to the report and called it “an unofficial report by a university professor about an analysis of a sample of unknown origin with total lack of traceability.” The fact is that there is no graphene oxide in the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. This was confirmed by the Medical and Health product Regulatory Agency (MHRA) (“The Pfizer Vaccine,” July 14, 2021, Fullfact.org). We know from Scripture that man is a sinner and that the “god of this world” is a murderer, but I have no evidence that “big pharma” in the West is out to kill people at this particular time in history.

As for Karen Kingston, I have been unable to find out who she is, what her true credentials are, and why I should believe her. As far as I can tell, she is a mystery person who showed up on Stew Peters’ blog and then disappeared. I am highly suspicious of such things and consider it to add up to zero evidence unless and until the issue becomes clarified.

Last October a statement that Michael Yeadon made in a U.K.-based blog named Lockdown Sceptics went viral. Yeadon’s statements were usually accompanied by claims that he was the chief science officer and vice president of Pfizer. It turned out that he was not the chief science officer and vice president of Pfizer but the vice president of a small unit at Pfizer, that he didn’t work with vaccines or infectious disease, and that he hadn’t worked at Pfizer for nine years. Yeadon claimed that the Covid-19 pandemic was “effectively over” in the U.K. because there was, allegedly, already broad immunity and “viruses do not do waves,” thus “there is absolutely no need for vaccines.” He turned out to be a false prophet. The U.K. saw a sharp rise in Covid-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths between November 2020 and February 2021. The same thing happened in many parts of the world, including South Asia where we live. Covid is definitely not over and it most certainly does “do waves.” Yeadon was discredited, yet countless people read his warnings, considered them gospel, and pass them along on social media and their email lists. Yeadon claims that vaccine booster shots are “going to be used to damage your health and possibly kill you.”

Over the last few months, the claim that thousands have died from the vaccines has gone viral on blogs, internet sites, and social media, and believed as gospel by large numbers of people. This is based on raw data found in the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) which is operated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It turns out that VAERS is not an accurate forum for determining the lethality of vaccines. Anyone can report events to VAERS, and its information is unverified. “[A] disclaimer on the CDC website says: ‘The reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable.’ When downloading the data, users are presented with a further disclaimer that the data does not include information from investigations into reported cases. The disclaimer also says ‘the inclusion of events in VAERS data does not imply causality.’ ... Of the 145 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the United States from Dec. 14, 2020 through March 29, 2021, ‘VAERS received 2,509 reports of death (0.0017%) among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine.’ Having reviewed ‘available clinical information including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records,’ the CDC found ‘no evidence that vaccination contributed to patient deaths.’ Dr. Dana Mazo, an assistant professor of medicine who specializes in infectious diseases at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, stressed to Reuters via phone the importance of distinguishing between association and causation when looking at post-vaccine death records. ‘The idea is that we are vaccinating millions of people,’ Mazo said, ‘and, unfortunately, when you look at 96 million people, some of them might die, and they would have died if they hadn’t been vaccinated.’ The fact that medically vulnerable individuals have had the earliest access to COVID-19 vaccines in the United States has also impacted the rate of post-vaccine deaths, Mazo said” (“Fact Check-VAERS data,” Reuters, Apr. 2, 2021).

More recently, statements by Dr. Peter McCullough have gone viral. He has appeared on FoxNews’ Tucker Carlson Today. Some of what Dr. McCullough says is true. There has been a stifling of freedom of speech among medical practitioners. There has been a politicization of the Covid pandemic. There has been an attempt to shut down even the discussion of the effectiveness of treatments such as Ivermectin and hydrochloriquine. He is right about the fear that has permeated much of the medical community because of the potential to lose jobs and licenses just for talking outside the politically correct box or even prescribing the aforementioned drugs for Covid. But Dr. McCullough has gone far beyond this, claiming that the vaccines have caused thousands of deaths and that the vaccines are intended to mark people so as to eventually exercise population control, etc. McCullough was a consultant cardiologist and Vice Chief of Medicine at Baylor University Medical Center, but he is being sued by Baylor for more than $1 million for breaching a confidentiality separation agreement that he would not use his affiliation with them after leaving their employment. A court has granted a temporary restraining order against McCullough.

Byram Bridle, a viral immunologist and associate professor at the University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College, claimed that “the spike protein itself was a toxin and was a pathogenic protein. So by vaccinating people we are inadvertently inoculating them with a toxin” (interview with Alex Pierson, May 28, 2021). The following is from “Covid-19 Vaccine,” FactCheck.org, July 1, 2021: “Jason McLellan, a structural biologist at the University of Texas at Austin who has been studying spike proteins in other coronaviruses for years and whose work was fundamental for the development of COVID-19 vaccines, said Bridle’s statements are not correct. ‘The spike protein is not pathogenic. It is not a toxin,’ McLellan told us in an email. ‘I have not seen any data to support what Bridle claims.’ Bridle, who in the radio show said he’s ‘very much pro-vaccine,’ says his claims are ‘completely backed up by peer-reviewed scientific publications in well-known and well-respected scientific journals.’ But authors of two of the studies he cites told us their findings don’t back Bridle’s statements. ‘Bridle is taking our results and completely misinterpreting them,’ said David R. Walt, a member of the faculty at Harvard Medical School and of Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, who co-authored a study that found circulating SARS-CoV-2 vaccine antigen in the plasma of vaccine recipients. ... Walt, a pathology professor, added there is no evidence that the spike protein is a pathogenic protein that causes damage in several tissues. ‘COVID, on the other hand, is known to have significant effects on many tissues and organs,’ he said. ‘The most important message is that over 400 million doses of the mRNA vaccine have been administered with negligible serious consequences. It is incredibly safe’” (“Covid-19 Vaccine,” FactCheck.org, July 1, 2021). See also “Claims that Covid vaccine spike proteins are harmful are unevidenced,” Fullfact.org, June 17, 2021.

The following are some Covid vaccine claims that I have examined personally and rejected, to whom it may concern and for what it is worth. I will not be writing more about these particular things or giving my reasons for the following decisions (beyond what we have stated above) and I will not debate the matter by email, but this is a summary:

* I don’t believe that the vaccines are killing thousands of people.
* I don’t believe that the vaccines will produce a holocaust.
* I don’t believe that the Covid is spreading among the vaccinated more than among the non-vaccinated.
* I don’t believe that the vaccine is a key component of a global scheme of population control (as per Dr. Peter McCullough and Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi, etc.). I don’t believe that “the entire covid ‘plandemic’ scam is a global depopulation scheme to scare people into taking spike protein bioweapons shots (‘vaccines’) that will kill them over time.”
* I don’t believe that the vaccine makes people become magnetic.
* I don’t believe that the vaccine “self-assembles to build a biocircuitry system in the cell to control moods and thoughts.”
* I don’t believe that the vaccine is experimental gene therapy. (In reality, the vaccines do not modify a person’s genes; the genome remains unchanged.)
* I don’t believe that the vaccine creates “a pathogenic protein” which is “a toxin” that gets into the bloodstream and causes damage.
* I don’t believe that the vaccination inserts a microchip.
* I don’t believe that the vaccine causes the immune system to become “hyper-charged.”
* I don’t believe that the vaccine causes antibody-dependent enhancement of disease (ADE).
* I don’t believe that the vaccination is the mark of the beast.
* I don’t believe that VAERS is a dependable database by which to judge the lethality of vaccines.

If you believe that any of the above things are true, that is your business. Please don’t make it a divisive issue in the churches.

Again, I’m not advising anyone to take the vaccines or not to take them. I’ve taken one of the vaccines to facilitate international travel without quarantine. As stated earlier, I know a lot of people have taken the vaccines, including the Russian one (Sputnik V), the Chinese one (Sinopharm), Pfizer-BioNtech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson, and though they aren’t equally effectual, I don’t know anyone who has had a problem with the vaccine itself.

Second, in examining reports, I consider the source.

In checking out Stew Peters, for example, I find that he issues a steady stream of conspiratorial type things which are often derived from scant evidence, generally can’t be proven with any certainty, and often are disproven. Last year, Peters promoted the bogus claim that chlorine dioxide cured Covid with a success rate of 99% based on the testimony of a homeopathic doctor from Mexico. Because chlorine dioxide is a poison, it has been banned in several countries for use as a medical treatment. Chlorine dioxide is the main ingredient of the quack remedy Miracle Mineral Solution, which the FDA warns is “potentially life threatening.”

Most of the web sites and social media forums that are big pushers of anti-vaxing fall into the Stew Peters’ type of camp. I don’t trust them. I don’t spend time with them. I have found them making too many mistakes, too much oriented toward conspiratorial frenzy, too much perpetually stirred up in the flesh.

Someone will say, “But what about the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)? Do you trust them?” I do my best to check out CDC statements. They are fallible and have been given, at times, to politics. At the same time, I don’t distrust everything the CDC says. In fact, I believe that the CDC is generally more trustworthy than the anti-vaxer voices. If you don’t agree, that is certainly prerogative. The CDC, the FDA, and other regulatory bodies and committees (such as the Vaccine Safety and Datalink, VSD) are constantly examining adverse reactions (AEs) to vaccines, including Covid vaccines. It was the CDC in April that paused the administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in order to examine six reports of blood clotting. Only after determining that the clots were extremely rare and the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks, was the vaccine’s administration allowed to continue. In June the CDC studied the issue of myocarditis as a reaction to the vaccines. (The incidence of myocraditis associated with the vaccines is extremely rare and serious disability even rarer. The Covid virus itself causes myocarditis in far more people than the vaccine.) It does not seem to me that this is an organization that is eager to kill people.

Third, I ask whether the issue at hand matters for me and whether I can I do anything about it.

Now, the soundness of vaccines does matter to me, and I can do something about it personally by not taking it (if I thought it was dangerous, which I don’t) and by urging others to be careful.

But beyond that, I can’t stop a global conspiracy, even if it existed, so why get perpetually fretted up!

Fourth, I ask whether the issue is reasonable and balanced.

Consider the anti-vax position. Even if it were true that people have died from the vaccines, I need to ask how this fits into the overall scheme of things. I must look at the big picture. Millions have died from Covid. That is a fact. (The global statistic is 4.2 million as of Aug. 1, but even if it is two million, that is a lot of deaths in a short time.) As noted earlier, I personally know of many people who have died of Covid, but I don’t know of anyone who has been harmed by the vaccines. That’s my personal experience. I have to ask whether it is possible that the vaccines are saving lives overall. I believe they are.

Fifth, I am constantly examining how I use my time so that I use it in the best way possible in God’s perfect will.

“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,  Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:15-17).

For 48 years since I was converted, I have been eager to redeem the time. Covid and the vaccine issue is not going to go away. It is a dynamic, “evolving” situation. The virus is adapting, as viruses do, and the vaccines are in a continual process of development. It is a never-ending thing. The Covid situation has created an environment of endless carnal excitement and speculation. Keeping up with the reporting is addicting. If you are addicted to social media, how can you counsel your son to avoid addiction to video games?

If you aren’t very, very careful, your heart and mind will be captured by these things and you will waste countless hours of this fleeting life, hours that could be spent far more profitably, hours that you will give account for at Christ’s judgment seat. I have determined that the computer, the internet, the tablet, the smart phone, etc., are tools I can use in my life and ministry before God, but I vigorously intend to control them and not to allow them to control me. See Spiritual Safety in the Facebook Age.

You could spend more time reading and studying God’s eternal Word. You could take a course like Understanding the Bible for Yourself to “up your game” in this most essential business. There is not a soul who couldn’t benefit from this course. I have studied about 30 courses on Bible study and interpretation and learn new things continually. You could spend a lot more time in prayer and thus see God change things by your intercession, including things in your personal life, your home, your church, and your nation. You could spend time taking Bible courses and getting much better educated in the things that really matter and better prepared for God’s service. Way of Life has dozens of serious Bible courses, many of them accompanied by video series, and we are publishing new ones all the time. Those who are content with a little Bible knowledge and a little preparation for Christian life and ministry are actually spiritual pygmies, though they might be considered giants in a lot of weak churches. As we have often said, the equivalent of a Bible Institute education is the very beginning of being equipped for God’s will. If your church offers Bible courses, take every one it offers. You could spend more time focused on your home, as a mother on being a more effectual keeper of the home (Tit. 2:3-5), as a father being a more effectual spiritual head and educator (Eph. 6:4). Fathers and mothers could spend more time together praying and planning for the home and being better educated themselves and better educating their children. You could spend more time in evangelism. Most people in your town and county or district and state or province don’t know the gospel, even if they are church people, and every individual who does not hear and understand and receive the gospel is on his or her way to eternal condemnation. Typically, the number of people in the average church who are really engaged in evangelism is pathetically small. Yet those people who have no time or interest in being an ambassador for Christ, the most important business on earth, have plenty of time for sports and trading recipes and playing games and entertaining one another and endless shopping and endless hours on social media, etc. It is a sin and disgrace, and every such lifestyle will burn to cinders at Christ’s judgment seat. These are the things that matter eternally.

Sixth, I pay close attention to guarding my spirit.

The beautiful Psalm 37:1-4 and Colossians 3:1-4 tell me how to live in the face of evil.

“Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”

By God’s grace, I intend to live like this. As I have often emphasized, I refuse to get into the same mindset as the conservative political activists. Most of them aren’t born again, don’t live in God’s Word, and don’t have spiritual discernment. I refuse to get all fretted up with the fretting that permeates “conservative” social media. I refuse to make their fears my fears. I refuse to make their priorities my priorities. I refuse to have their mindset. I have a different God, a different Saviour, a different hope, a different purpose in life, a different authority, a different source of wisdom, and a different understanding both of the present times and of the future. The most brilliant conservative thinker, if he is not born again, is in gross darkness.

More than anything, I am staying focused on what God has told His people to do in this age.

God has given His people their marching orders for this age in Christ’s Great Commission, and we see in the apostle Paul’s life that he refused to get sidetracked, even though the Roman Empire was rife with injustices that begged for correcting and entertainment that called for participation. If I am spending more time reading and discussing and thinking about conservative politics and alleged conspiracies and “natural health” and such than I am reading and studying and memorizing and meditating on Scripture and getting out the gospel and praying and building up my home and church in Christ and otherwise serving the Lord according to Scripture, then I am not obeying God and I will give account for this at Christ’s judgment seat.

Most Baptist and “fundamentalist” churches today are extremely weak when tested by Scripture. Look at the families, the mothers, the fathers, the youth, the elderly. Consider the church’s prayer life. Consider the people’s conversations. Do they talk about Christ and the Bible and the things of God, or do they talk nearly non-stop about the things of this world? Compare the church to the examples in Scripture that describe a true New Testament church, such as Acts 2:41-42; Romans 15:14; Ephesians 4:11-16; Colossians 1:25-29; 1 Thessalonians 1:3-10; 1 Peter 2:3-5. There is so much that could be done to strengthen the churches if God’s people would focus on what God has told us to focus on. And that begins, of course, with the pastors.

If you are in a half-hearted, carnal, worldly church, find a good one if you have to move to the other side of the country! But make sure you are actually qualified to be a member of a good church.

Since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, we have led our church to stay off social media and to stay focused on the Bible (reading, study, memorization, meditation, using the Weekly Memory Verse Journal, etc.), on prayer (private, family, corporate, prayer partners, “no prayer, no power; little prayer, little power; much prayer, much power”), on discipling every new member (one on one discipling with the One Year Discipleship Course), on building the families in God’s will (on mothers being the keepers of the home and fathers being the spiritual heads, on educating and disciplining and discipling the children), on expository Bible preaching, on personal and family Bible courses, and on evangelism (every member being engaged, daily prayer for the unsaved, gospel Bible studies with the Seeker’s Bible Study, tracting, drug rehab guys, monthly gospel meetings, etc.). We want to be a Philadelphia church (Re. 3:7-13). God has blessed. I’ve never seen such unity in a congregation. Every single member of our church is faithful and growing spiritually, from the youngest to the oldest. This is our goal in obedience to Acts 2:42 and Colossians 1:28, “Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” We are witnessing amazing conversions. We are nothing, of course, and we don’t claim to be anything; but I can see every evidence that God has blessed this church for obeying Him and not getting off track in the Covid era.

Friends in Christ, these are opportune-filled days. The hour is late, sure. But in most places there are still great liberties and opportunities to obey Christ and build godly homes and churches and bring forth fruit for God’s eternal glory.