"Where Sin Abounded - Grace Did Much More Abound" (part 2)

- of false prophets and the true Church during the covid tyranny

In the great shake-up of the Church that occurred during the years of the covid tyranny, a welcome and even greater shake-out of the Church also took place.

No longer ministering to the lives and souls of their flock and instead scrambling to outdo each other in obeisance to the tyranny, pastors and priests became mercenaries of the ruling regime.

Any traveller who has witnessed the Eastern shepherd with his flock, knows that he is always on the alert for his sheep. He scans the skies, he examines the earth, he looks out for foxes and wolves and he will resolutely defend the welfare of his flock. In other words, he follows the evidence - and will do everything within his power, to allow his sheep to graze unhindered upon the green hills.

During the covid tyranny, pastors and priests (from all denominations) refused to countenance the evidence. Instead, like dead fish, they went belly-up, with the stream of tyranny. When the evidence showed very clearly and very early that what was actually happening (with morbidity, mortality, lockdowns, masks and vaccines) was the very opposite of the propaganda of fear unleashed upon the people by government authorities and state media, they meekly went along with the latter. When the government asked them to jump, these feckless shepherds almost all asked, “how high?”

As shepherds of the flocks of their congregations, pastors and priests had an obligation and duty to always examine the evidence and to safeguard the ability of their flocks to feed upon the Word of God, to participate in Holy Communion, to visit the sick, to feed the poor. Instead, these hireling shepherds closed Churches, enforced mask mandates even for children, demanded vaccine passports as a condition of entering the House of God, ignored the sick and the poor and even claimed whilst doing all this, that they were being good Christians and following the Bible!

Even the devil can quote scripture of course - and the epistle of St. James tells us how even the devils know that there is one God and tremble! One verse from Holy Scripture that the hireling shepherds liked to quote was Jesus’ timeless words about the limits of Government -  “give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are God’s.” It does not require a genius to point out to these hireling pastors and priests that Jesus certainly did not ask us to give to Caesar (the government), the things that are God’s!”

Of all people, pastors and priests should have known their own early and recent Church history. They should have known that the martyrs of the Church were imprisoned, tortured and thrown to the lions manifestly because they could not and would not submit to the rule of Rome and bow to the emperor. They should have known the names and stories of at least a few of the recent martyrs in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and China who were tortured and executed for being faithful witnesses to the Gospel. And they should also have known that the greatest murderers and oppressors of mankind have always been their own governments.

But amidst all this abject surrender to the tyranny and betrayal of the flock, a very few priests and pastors (from all denominations) showed themselves to be faithful, courageous shepherds. They studied the evidence on lockdowns, masks and vaccines - and realized that the data was the very opposite of the propaganda; they quickly recognized the fear propaganda from State media and from a government that was already hostile to Christianity; they saw people milling together in their thousands in the “Black Lives Matter” protests and riots (which happened at the height of the covid pandemic in 2020) with no politician or  public health tyrant enforcing any rules of “social distancing,” lockdowns or masks on the massive crowds of protesters and rioters - and very few subsequent reported covid cases among these privileged crowds; and they saw very early that this was a spiritual battle with the forces of darkness and covid tyranny gathered on one side - and light, hope, scientific integrity and the Kingdom of God on the other.

These, brave shepherds of the flock of Christ took their cues not from public health authorities and the government - but from the Great Shepherd who loves His sheep and gave His life upon the Cross, so that we might have eternal life. They looked around and realized that the supposed lion of covid propaganda that was prowling around their Churches was no more than a scruffy, little pussycat - and they flung open the doors of their Churches. The people streamed in through these open doors and found Christian fellowship, love, peace and the Presence of God to give comfort and cheer in their time of trouble.

These faithful shepherds must have known that persecution will follow in the wake of their faithfulness to the Gospel, as night follows day. When it came, the persecution was fierce and included police disruption of Church services, harassment and arrest of the faithful priests and pastors, their jailing - and the bringing of criminal cases against them. But back they came again to their flock, continuing to worship God and partake of the Lord’s Supper together; and when the physical building of the Church was closed by the police - the Church militant moved underground.

The Church was undergoing a winnowing. The false prophets (hireling priests and pastors who closed their Churches and went along with the tyranny) had been exposed. The true shepherds of the Church were now in charge and the people streamed into their Churches in their thousands. The more the tyranny huffed and puffed, the more the faithful priests and pastors were honoured by God - and their congregations swelled.

Pastor James Coates of Edmonton decided for example, that both the covid related evidence and the uncompromising demands of the Gospel meant that he would have to defy the authorities and keep his Church open. He was arrested and thrown into prison. Hardly any hireling priest or pastor raised a whisper in protest. His church was barricaded by police and worshippers prevented from entering. The Church went underground (as in the erstwhile Soviet Union) and continued to meet in a secret location. Pastor Coates refused to relent and refused to serve mammon or to give to Caesar that which was God’s. He continued to be a faithful witness to the Gospel, “choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” A visitor to Pastor Coates’ Church during these tumultuous times recalls how the Church’s attendance had swelled to overflowing - there was standing room only and a Church with a modest membership before the pandemic had become a magnet for thousands who valued the eternal riches of the Kingdom of God far more than the passing, empty pleasures of obedience to tyranny.

The early Church in the fledgling years of Christianity faced constant surveillance and persecution from the Roman authorities. In these early, momentous years for humanity, the House Church was the model that is repeatedly described in the New Testament. People meeting in multiple houses, dispersed across locations and in secret, are much more difficult to round up, fine and put into prison than congregations gathering in central, gothic Cathedrals. The underground House Church model was repeated in the Soviet Union. It is alive and well in China. And in our Western nations, a new and vibrant and miraculous House Church movement was born and continues to flourish in our historically Christian (but now pagan) Western nations.

Before the Canadian Truckers Freedom Convoy finally smashed the covid tyranny, there was a real possibility of prisons and “quarantine camps” for the unvaccinated. Christians who stayed faithful to the values of the Kingdom of God realized they faced a common enemy, regardless of their denomination. The denominations often sank their differences and a glorious Christian unity was realized which had seemed impossible before the pandemic.

Our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters who faced similar persecution and ostracization from their synagogues and mosques became our co-belligerents and friends in the common fight against tyranny - and a new understanding between the great Abrahamic faiths was born. This alliance continues to bear fruit, most recently in the joint battle against the demonic transgender agenda in our schools.

Again and again, as in ancient and recent times, the more the persecutions increased, the more the true Church grew. The more the tyranny bared its ugly fangs, the more the faithful of God stared it down and refused to comply. The more the tyranny tried to divide the faithful, the more the true Church rose in glorious unity. The “Church Triumphant” had once more defied the tyranny - and won.

And thus it was again, that “where sin abounded - Grace did much more abound.”