What do do?
Over the past two weeks, I have received many questions like these:

• I am an R.N. For what I think are valid reasons, I do not want to receive any of these current Covid-19 vaccines. Yet, [large healthcare system], my employer, says that I will be fired if I don’t become vaccinated. Proof of antibodies are not enough. What should I do?
• I have worn two masks for over a year. I worked remotely almost exclusively. I was vaccinated early on. Yet, I still got sick during this latest round of Covid. Thankfully, it’s a mild case. The problem is that my coworkers are now saying things like, “See how dumb your precautions were! Stop being so scared.” I am not scared. I was just convinced this was the best way to take care of the temple of the Holy Spirit that is my body. I do not want to slack in my preventative efforts but am tired of the snide remarks and rolled eyeballs. What should I do?
• I do not want to get the vaccine. I do not believe it is a sin to get the vaccine as a general matter. I have found no Scripture that counsels either explicitly for or against the vaccine. Thus, I believe the decision to get this vaccine is one of free choice as given by God. I do believe it would be sinful for me to knowingly obtain a vaccine that uses or promotes the use of aborted stem cells in its testing, development, or production. However, I am under a presumptively lawful order from Caesar, the [branch of US government in which I serve], to get vaccinated. What do I do?

Two kingdoms
These are difficult questions because they deal with health concerns that are at the same time both individual and corporate in nature. Thankfully, we have guidance from God and from people who traveled this fallen earth before us. In Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8, the Apostle Paul describes a similar dilemma. A few hundred years later, Augustine also dealt with somewhat comparable issues. After thinking it all through, Augustine wrote a book called The City of God.[i] Below is my simple attempt to summarize Augustine’s arguments, which are grounded in Paul’s NT scripture.

First idea – In scripturally debatable situations, one must use wisdom as guided by the Holy Spirit. No one else can make such choices for you.
Second idea – One must be willing to sacrifice personal freedom in order to bless others. This does not mean you should do something that you are convinced is morally wrong.
Third idea – One must not judge others who reach different conclusions.
Applications – Once one reaches a conclusion, there are two arenas of application – in the church of Jesus and within the wider world:

1. Within the body of Christ, debatable things like Covid-19 protocols fall into the Romans 14/1 Corinthians 8 “meat sacrificed to idols” category. The point of that “meaty” argument was health. Interestingly, health is often at the core of debated subjects, and the argument groups are remarkably similar across the ages. Whether one is working through Paul’s meat sacrificed to idols, Augustine’s concerns over the dealing with the Vandals, or current Covid-19 issues, these are the major perspectives:

• Some Christians emphasize personal health in physical stewardship. [Note: meat cooked on pagan altars comprised the healthiest food available at the time Paul wrote.]
• Others focus primarily on healthy spiritual stewardship, concerned about funding evil through purchases at pagan temples.
• Other believers are deeply bothered by realpolitik, seeing increased power of pagan temples or human governments as unhealthy for society.
• Yet other Christians are gripped by public health needs and desire a stronger government to enforce mandates for the greater good.

Whichever group or groups describe your reasoning, take time to apply the scripture to life within your church. That means one must reach a reasonable conclusion regarding the best action for oneself, be willing to give up personal freedom to accommodate others, and never judge others for different choices on the debatable matter.
And note that Paul commands to keep your conclusions between yourself and God. Augustine was just as pointed, saying, “And yet, will we ever come to an end of discussion and talk if we think we must always reply to replies? For replies come from those who either cannot understand what is said to them or are so stubborn and contentious that they refuse to give in even if they do understand.” – Augustine of Hippo Regis, City of God

2. Outside the body of Christ, each particular environment determines one’s faith expression:

• If the non-Christian mentions nothing, just follow your conscience as guided by Word and Spirit.
• If the non-believer is using this as a (misunderstood) litmus test of your faith, don’t publicly take the vaccine/eat the meat/join the Vandals/etc. Better to do without than to reinforce a false idea of Christian hypocrisy.
• If they ask for the reasoning behind your choice, take the opportunity to share about scripture and the freedom one has in Christ.

If a power forbids the path you have chosen, face the heat of the furnace with confidence. As the three Hebrews confessed in Daniel 3: God is able to save us, but whether He does or not, we will not violate conscience. The worst outcome is that some power moves us more rapidly along toward our home in the permanent kingdom of God. The best that can occur is God’s amazing provision – which often brings persecutors to repentance in these kingdoms on earth. Thus, every outcome is a win for the one who stands non-judgmentally and strong in conscience.

God bless,
Wayne

As so often happens, my mailbox blesses me immensely – or rather, the contents do. Lately, I have been receiving many questions regarding discernment. Here are a couple that I found insightful, along with my replies.

Reading with discernment
Q. Have you by chance read [book]? It was recommended to me by a trusted mentor. However, I am finding myself very concerned with the content. I’m a firm believer in learning how to chew and spit in today’s culture (read something with a biblical lens, consume what is truth, and spit out the gristle)! But is it wise to continue to power through when the first two chapters appear to be straight gristle?! A.k.a. no truth at all! I would so love your wisdom on this…
A. I don’t know that book, but will share these observations:

1. The time to serve Jesus now is too short to read junk.
2. I learn better and more when reading something that is straightforwardly heretical. Sounds odd, but it’s true. I can listen, laugh and learn. Admittedly, I laugh at them mostly, but sometimes at myself as I gain perspective from how they view me.
3. When the book purports to be biblically sound but is full of gristle, I stop reading. I have found that if I continue, I will only become a curmudgeon toward an author who probably is my brother in Christ. Better to wait. The problem may be my immaturity, in which case I will be better able to hear him later. On the other hand, his nonsense may be to blame, in which case I’ll be glad I didn’t waste time. Either way, I put the thing down.

Is this the end?
Q. What do you think about Christians who are tying COVID to some kind of New World Order, Great Reset, population control, etc? I really feel like there are only two options: a) those churches are 100% right and we are choosing to be blind about the Antichrist, or b) they are so far off that they are causing great damage to those who have honest questions about events. Any guidance on this? I am a well-educated believer in Jesus, and I am confused.
A. No kidding. During the last great plague in England, the churches got just as wildly predictive, maybe more so. Weird eschatological heresies like 5th Monarchism gained huge traction. They declared that such high levels of death and societal control had to be the work of the particular Antichrist described in John’s Revelation. Obviously, they were mistaken. Of course, had God chosen that era to unfold His eschatological promises, those events could have fit 2 Thessalonians and Revelation. The same is true now. This could be prophecy unfolding, though it may not be. Certainly nothing is gained by ‘newspaper exegesis’ and trying to force events to fit one’s understanding of the Bible. In other words, we could receive our blessed hope today. But the same was true in 1620…and 1920…and 2020. Should Jesus tarry, I pray my grandkids will wisely say the same in 2120 – “It could be today! But it certainly doesn’t have to be.”

God bless,
Wayne

Preach the gospel to yourself
Studying Psalms 42-43, I was struck by the writer emphasizing the importance of continually remembering truth. In letting truth lead us, we are brought to the Lord and equipped to handle the emotions, pains, and problems of life. This is why Jerry Bridges always taught, “Preach the gospel to yourself every day.”

My Daily Need
I recently shared Jerry’s mantra, and in response a friend sent me a simple little book, A Gospel Primer for Christians. It came out in 2008 and is devoted to letting the gospel lead every day. In fact, Jerry Bridges wrote the introduction. After reading it, I thought “How had I missed this? This book is excellent!”

Here’s a sample. The author, Milton Vincent, shares this entry called “My Daily Need”:

The gospel is so foolish[1] (according to my natural wisdom), so scandalous[2] (according to my conscience), and so incredible (according to my timid heart[3]), that I daily battle to believe the full scope of it as I should. There is simply no other way to compete with the forebodings of my conscience, the condemnings of my heart, and the lies of the world and the Devil[4] than to overwhelm such things with daily rehearsings of the gospel.

Amen! Preach it (to yourself.)

I am melting
As a child, televisions and movies convinced me that quicksand would be a large part of life in adulthood. Like amnesia, everyone on the screen seemed to wrestle with quicksand on a regular basis.

As a grown-up I realized that physical quicksand (again, like amnesia) is incredibly rare, widespread only in the minds of tired screenwriters who have run out of ideas. However, I also discovered that adults struggle with a kind of spiritual quicksand – depression – which is far from rare. This explains why the Bible speaks very little of quicksand, and that almost always as a metaphor, yet addresses depression in great depth.

One Hebrew term for deep depression contains a remarkable word picture: שׁיח syh originally meant “to melt away” like chocolate left out in the sun. The image is so strong that the term survived thousands of years, coming into modern Arabic as “sink into the ground.”

Making it through quicksand
I once taught through some of the scriptures relating to depression, and received this note afterward:

Wayne, Charles Spurgeon wrote a great response for his own soul when struggling with deep depression:
It is well there is One who is ever the same, and who is ever with us. It is well there is one stable rock amidst the billows of the sea of life. O my soul, set not thine affections upon rusting, moth-eaten, decaying treasures, but set thine heart upon him who abides forever faithful to thee. Build not thine house upon the moving quicksands of a deceitful world, but found thy hopes upon this rock, which, amid descending rain and roaring floods, shall stand immovably secure. My soul, I charge thee, lay up thy treasure in the only secure cabinet; store thy jewels where thou canst never lose them. Put thine all in Christ; set all thine affections on his person, all thy hope in his merit, all thy trust in his efficacious blood, all thy joy in his presence, and so thou mayest laugh at loss, and defy destruction. Remember that all the flowers in the world’s garden fade by turns, and the day cometh when nothing will be left but the black, cold earth. Death’s black extinguisher must soon put out thy candle. Oh! how sweet to have sunlight when the candle is gone! The dark flood must soon roll between thee and all thou hast; then wed thine heart to him who will never leave thee; trust thyself with him who will go with thee through the black and surging current of death’s stream, and who will land thee safely on the celestial shore and make thee sit with him in heavenly places forever. Go, sorrowing son of affliction, tell thy secrets to the Friend who sticketh closer than a brother. Trust all thy concerns with him who never can be taken from thee, who will never leave thee, and who will never let thee leave him, even “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”
“Lo, I am with you always,” [Matt. 28:20 KJV] is enough for my soul to live upon, let who will forsake me.
– Charles Spurgeon, Morning & Evening

God bless,
Wayne

Christianity and science
I was recently honored to teach on the interplay of the Bible and science, showing that what we call science is a direct outgrowth of wise scriptural understanding. In response, I received this uplifting note:

I was very excited to hear the message on science and Christianity this week. The message was so right. As a young man, I was purposefully agnostic. I didn’t know and I didn’t want to know about Truth. While I was far from Him, the Lord brought me to a point where I realized I could not continue without knowing what was true. So, by the grace of God, I set out on a quest for knowledge in my early thirties. I was afraid of what I might find. Either there was a God or there was not, and both were equally terrifying (at the time)! Somehow though, God prepared my heart to follow the truth wherever it might lead. This personal search led me to return to college and pursue science. I did not expect that search to lead me straight into the arms of a loving God. Every step of the way, I was delighted (shockingly) to discover that God’s Word and his creation are not only compatible, but fundamentally entwined. The God of the Bible must also be the God of the real world and that is exactly what I found! The same qualities He gave me that made me a good scientist led me straight to His Son. Now I work in cancer genetics and see His fingerprint in His creation every single day. What an awesome God we serve! We need not fear Truth. “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” John 18:37.

God bless,
Wayne

Apology Accepted
Last Sunday, our church ordained two new Elders for the church board. The charge given by FBC chairman Paul Hahn stirred us, and I requested a copy of his words to share with you. His charge reminded me of educator Mortimer Adler’s dictum that “the best education for the best is the best education for all.” In the same way, this commission is not merely for Elders, but a scriptural reminder for all Christians:

I charge you to be courageous in this world – a defender of the faith, always ready to give a reason for the hope within – knowing that eternal rewards have temporal costs.

Be courageous with your fellow elders; never hold back just because your view differs. Your perspective may have eluded your fellow servants. But speak out in humility, not to have things go your way, but to ensure the board has the “full counsel of God.”

Be wise in the Word & the world:
In the Word, study to show yourself approved unto God, that you need not be ashamed; and be doers and not only hearers.
In the world be vigilant, that you may stand against the wiles of the devil and guide God’s flock accordingly.

Love God’s children as you do your own. Joy in their accomplishments, stand beside them in their trials, and lovingly correct them when they stray from the Truth.

In all things, follow hard after God, toward the goal that His Name is exalted in all the earth.

God bless,
Wayne