Covid-19, A ‘powerless’ Church and A Powerful God

We all remember that period when corvid 19 was ravaging Italy and Spain, recording high death rates and overwhelming numbers of infections. During that time, I listened to a reporter on Aljazeera outlining the progress that was being made on developing a vaccine and eventually a cure. His parting shot was “our hope is in science”. I have no problem with science because I believe all knowledge is a blessing from God and that statement reflected the hopelessness of the situation but for those of us who believe in a superior hope, that was a hard one to swallow. I also listened to some prominent preachers push the idea that this virus could actually be from God to remind us to rethink our ways. The fact that there was no certainty to that revelation is excusable but the thought of God unleashing death with a virus whatever the justification is really frightening. That is not the kind of God I have come to know but people believe what they want to believe yet one would ask, “Are we that bad to deserve this and to what benefit would it be to God seeing many including those who call upon His Name lose their battle to this pandemic?” and “Are those states like New Zealand or Taiwan that have handled this pandemic well the holiest among us?” Others have also wondered where those Pastors and Prophets who preached healing in the media had gone, “Couldn’t they just go to the hospitals and do their thing?”

When God told Moses in the wilderness that He wanted to destroy his people and make him into a great nation, this is how he responded;

^“Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’?”-Exodus 32:12

The Lord relented. If Moses could intercede for the Israelites, has Christ stopped interceding for us? Surely not, neither has God given up on the reconciling work of Jesus Christ to be plotting destruction or bring about judgement before its time. Nevertheless, we still have to live in a fallen world. At least for now.

I also listened to Pastor Chris Oyakhilome criticize the casual manner in which we dismissed the Lord’s assembly without taking time to pray about it. I must confess that I was among those who called for the quick closure of churches because it sounded like a wise decision but David might have smiled saying, “It is wise, consult the Lord”. Faced with a difficult situation in Ziklag after the Amalekites had taken their wives and children captive, it would have been a wise decision to just go after them yet David sought the Lord’s view on his intentions first. It all went well.

Another person would again ask “if this is not from the Lord, then why can’t He intervene and bring it to an end?” Is the church that powerless? This brings me to the early church. After the baptism of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, evangelism was set in motion with power. Many joined the fellowship of believers although it was not long before persecution broke out. There were beatings, arrests, and death. The writer of the book of Hebrews reminds us that others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection for the world was not worthy of them. The believers did not try to normalize the persecution as the will of God, instead they prayed against it and continued to preach the gospel whether in Jerusalem or out of Jerusalem where those who were running away found themselves. Their prayers were not in vain since there were numerous interventions such as the miraculous escape from prison by the likes of Peter, Saul’s mission to destroy the church ended in conversion leading to the church enjoying a time of peace throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria. Better still, King Herod who had put James the brother of John to the sword, was later struck down by an angel of the Lord and eaten by worms. The word of God continued to increase and spread.

Meanwhile, I cannot entirely attribute persecution to be the only reason the gospel spread outside of Jerusalem if we factor in the ministry of Philip who was clearly given instructions by the angel of the Lord on where to go and even after preaching to the Ethiopian eunuch, he was carried away to another town by the Spirit of the Lord. There is also something I find interesting and that is the prayer of Stephen as he was being stoned to death;

While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep. –Acts 7:59-60

I always hold that it was this prayer that opened the way for the conversion of Saul for Stephen asks the Lord not to count that sin against him and his group. However, for someone being stoned to death, you would naturally expect him to plead with the Lord to rescue him but instead he tells him to receive his spirit. It seems that having seen the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, Stephen did not consider hanging onto this world worth his prayer. I say this because Paul later had to make a decision on that;

“I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith. “- Philippians 1:23-25

After he was done with his mission, Paul permitted death to take him when he declared that “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Take note that I have used the word “permitted”.

Back to the corvid-19 pandemic, even if we cannot classify it as persecution targeting believers, it has had similar devastating effect to our ways of worship. With Churches now allowed to congregate, others have opted to stay online. Those congregating may look at the rest as of little faith and those online may consider congregating unwise or reckless. Such debate is an unnecessary sideshow. Those who remained in Jerusalem preached the gospel, those who were scattered because of the persecution also preached the gospel and none was considered inferior or superior, wise or unwise. We are not in a competition; we are here to preach the gospel above anything else. Do with what you find works and do it for the glory of God. Even when Paul and Barnabas had a disagreement over Mark because he deserted them in Pamphylia, they did not let that divert their attention from the most important task of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. So such differences are not new but as Bishop George Odhiambo puts it “Whatever devastation this pandemic will cause, there will be a remnant and those can be spurred by the Holy Spirit to spring up a revival”. We will need one.

The writer is the author of the book; “Why Tithe: Understanding the Sacred Command”