Consequences of judgment talk

The quote above is usually thought to apply to non-believers  but it’s my assertion that it sometimes applies to us believers when we stumble or walk headlong into errors (anything that is not “truth”). Some preach and teach that “Once saved always saved” is that the truth? Why does Jesus say he will not blot out someone from the book of life if they overcome (my paraphrase) – Rev 3:5 Why say that if you can never be blotted out? Yet others believe and teach that Hell is a temporary place and eventually all make it to heaven. They believe the gospel and pray and trust Jesus for their salvation so are they taken captive to do the devils will? Anyway, It is my hope too that the consequences of the teaching going around that the current pandemic in 2020 is God’s doing can be diffused. If these Christians had the decency or plain respect for the suffering of others to keep their unprofitable and personal views on the origins of coronavirus to themselves, you would not be reading this!

How sad that much of this harsh talk of judgment comes from the lips of those who appear so meek and mild! So what happened to those mild and meek folk to provoke such harsh words for the Church and the world. They obviously believe they are right, and having found a few scriptures that mention plagues, feel empowered to proclaim “its God!” After all, especially if you are in Church leadership at this time, people will be turning to you for answers and you would feel pretty hopeless if you said “I don’t know”.  Yet there is wisdom in those three words. I will pass on another word of wisdom “did you pray and ask God if He had done this?”

As I say, I was involved with these nice folk, who I still love dearly but disagree with none the less. On the rare occasion that I got a straight answer to a straight question – “Did you pray and ask God about it?” – I got the answer “No!” – I was shocked but not surprised.

So the judgment scriptures were rolled out  – even at a time when most people will be remembering Good Friday and resurrection Sunday. How sad. So let’s look at the consequences of such careless talk.

Consequence No 1 – Distraction

No I don’t mean to imply they intentionally want to distract listeners from the most important time in the Christian calendar, but it happened anyway.  Who gained? – I can think of someone and he is in our quote above and if you want a clue – It’s not God.

So an opportunity to present the greatest good news on earth was replaced by judgment and condemnation of society.

Consequence No2 – Prayer

How you pray for the current crisis will depend on whether you think God caused it or not. If you do think He did (or even allowed it) then why would you pray for its ending. Surely that’s in God’s hands -no? What about the vaccine? should you pray for its success if you think this is God’s doing would you pray at all about a successful vaccine rollout?  Should you clap the NHS? Would you pray for repentance? for whom and for what in particular at this time? Yes, God wants all men everywhere to repent but this is universal and throughout time.

Consequence No3 – How the world will perceive you and God.

Do they really think that telling people that God has indiscriminately killed off old and sick people as a judgment on society will get people to repent and turn to God? Does Covid-19 bring indiscriminate death and suffering? Well actually No – it’s worse that that! It seems to have an affinity for the poor and weak. As we have seen in my article on “Is the Coronavirus God’s Judgment”  it is predominantly the elderly 60+ and anyone of any age that has an underlying health condition. It affects the BAME community rather more than any other ethnic group and in addition to all the above it will wreak the most havoc on those who have poor immunity which seems to be the homeless, the poor (and therefore malnourished) – These are the people God has told us to care for! You can’t tell me that only the wicked get Covid-19.  If you tried you would not be taken seriously. Amongst other “innocents” a 9 year old girl died of it and so did a Christian friend of mine. So how would you expect the world to respond to your assertion that this is your God? Perhaps you can answer that yourself now.

Consequence No4 – A divided Church.

Yes, if you haven’t seen that effect yet then you are either blinded to it or have in your midst a small congregation with a few like-minded souls. Speak to any Christian helpline and you will find that they are taking more calls for this than any other issue. Even within prayer groups I have noted how those that pray in a way in keeping with “God is judging” seriously put off others coming to the prayer group who are not of that persuasion. Isn’t it interesting that it is that way around. You don’t find people leaving a prayer group or Church who disagree with a leadership that is not proclaiming “Coronavirus as God’s judgment” do you. The reason – It’s NOT offensive. They are not portraying God as unjust. Sweeping the innocent away with the wicked. They are just getting on with the job of proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord till He comes again. That means at the height of the pandemic, they were offering help to their congregation if any had suffered job loss or hardship and then also in their community as well as preaching the good news of Jesus.  They set a good example to all around by NOT defying the Governments orders and not meeting together physically which would otherwise risks lives and spread the disease as has happened in a few Churches in the USA and South Korea. Now your Church may well have done some or all of these good things but if the leadership has seen fit to proclaim Coronavirus as God’s judgment either overtly or indirectly then they will have caused division and are in serious error.

They lack a deep understanding of God’s character and have fallen captive to a judgmental spirit. Nowhere in the bible will you see God sweeping away the righteous with the wicked. Nowhere.

Conclusion –

I have noted that over time from the height of the pandemic to now various Christian organisations that I could name and shame, have changed their tune somewhat. Where they were boldly speaking of God judging the nations or shaking the nations via coronavirus, they are now promoting a soft judgment, “Its possible it is God” or “we do not wish to comment on the theology of whether this is God or not” or even “It’s possible but we think it’s unlikely to be God’s judgment”. What has changed their tune do you think? I wish it was divine revelation but somehow the cynical part of me thinks they have had negative press from their members, some of whom, have left.

Well let me finish with a word of warning. If you hold the view that God is shaking the nations or judging the world at this time. I forgive you however please listen to the Lord’s conviction. He will be as gentle and as loving as possible towards you but for your sake don’t ignore His conviction because He cherishes His bride.