Correspondence With a Friend

(From _____)

         Hope you folks are doing well. I need to share something with you. This is not advice or any thing of the sort. This is just FYI. This has to do with the right to do as you choose movement. I'm all for opening things back up and stopping the lock down. I'm hoping to give a different perspective on why the government is doing what they are doing. 

What I'm about to tell you has to do with my experience in the medical field. Both of us have been exposed multiple times. _____ just got a call from HR, that she had been exposed again. (Around 20 times) Woodburn and Silverton are the hottest spots in Oregon. There is a very high population of Russians around, with several Orthodox churches. From personal experience, this is where most of the positive Covids are coming from. They are very traditional and don't like giving up the way they do things. Most people are trying their very best to be safe. Again, this is just to give you a perspective of what can happen when safety is not observed and one of the reasons why the government is coming down hard on churches. 

There is an evangelical church in Salem they had several positive and few of them died. The perception of the unchurched world has a great impact on government policies.

All our love ……. 

(Response)

Good morning Brother

In my opinion, and I understand it is just an opinion, this whole virus has blown way out of proportion and is the result of a trend toward increasing social distancing that I have observed almost my whole ministry, certainly my whole ministry in Puyallup. People fear unreasonably people, including their germs. I sort of think we deserve to have our fears manipulated. I think it might be one of the things God is judging us for at this time. I am praying for God to revive His people.

It is still only my opinion but I do not believe the way to beat the virus, no matter how threatening it might have been (more and more doctors are confirming that it is no more threatening than the flu) is to face it and not flee from it. The very most that should have been done is to take extra precautions with our elderly and the compromised. Even then the focus should have been personal responsibility rather than government intervention.

Again, my opinion but the government has done what governments do best; it has applied its interventions randomly and irrationally based on political leanings and bad science.

All of that said, I do understand why they would be concerned about churches. A church is by nature a petri dish. We come from all backgrounds, we gather closely and regularly we encourage our members to be out among the people to be a witness, and we resist government interference in our activities.

I am in favor of exhausting all our legal means to redress our grievances before any organized civil disobedience is taken up. But I do believe our grievances are real and the government acted oppressively.

Much love.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields (still under confinement)

Never Again

Never Again

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States entered into WWII, first against Japan and then against Germany, fear struck our nation.

America rallied the most powerful war machine the world had ever seen. People of all walks of life enlisted to fight. Great manufacturing companies converted to make weapons, ammunition, planes, and bombs. Housewives went to work in those factories, replacing their husbands, fighting overseas. They welded, riveted, and assembled the tools their men used to defeat the enemy. Back at the house, families rationed food supplies so the focus of the economy could be poured into the war effort. Navajo Indians even used their native tongue as a tool to confound the Japanese. By all accounts, the American effort in WWII is nothing short of heroic.

Save one black spot.

Our enemy was Japan and there were plenty of Japanese who were citizens of the United States. Of course, there were citizens of German and Italian descent as well, but they weren’t so obvious. The Japanese looked different. They could be identified and thus associated with the enemy. That bred fear. Fear festered into mania and, before too long, anyone who looked Japanese were rounded up, corralled, and placed in containment camps. They were separated from society. Their rights, privileges, and freedoms as Americans were stripped from them. It was extreme, but it felt justified because it was for the greater good.

Until later.

Now, all these years later, a more enlightened people look at the containment of Japanese Americans as an error, driven by fear. Never again, American elitists, will claim, will we allow fear to strip away the rights of men like that.

Really?

Our nation is once again gripped in a kind of world war. This virus isn’t the first one or even the worst one we have experienced. It’s just the first one we can point to. It has been named, marked, identified by the media. And fear has bred. Such fear that mania has erupted. Fear that makes it seem right even justified to strip away the rights, privileges, and freedoms of American citizens. Our government has taken to confining healthy and hard-working people while at the same time releasing convicted criminals from the prison system. Fear has driven the populace to point out and turn in the offenders of the state orders.

How long will it take for our eyes to open and minds to be enlightened?

How long until we cry out, “Never again”?

And, if and when we do, will it be too late? 

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields (but still under house arrest)

God Help Us!

God Help Us!
I am writing this piece to help me work out what I believe are the priorities of a local church in the midst of the current coronavirus pestilence. As I see it there are at least six considerations:

The Lord’s Will                      Biblical                       Christian culture

Constitutional                         Legal                           Health

The Lord’s will

This is simple and plain enough. Hebrews 10:25 (KJV)

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

Biblical

I recently outline Psalms 27:1-6 in my Daily Visit with God, April 26, 2020.[1] It is through the assembly of the local church that God works in the people of God. Assembly is essential because there is no such thing as an invisible church, universal church, or virtual church.

Constitutional

I do not believe our anabaptist fathers would have concerned themselves with this question. I think it is helpful that A.G. Barr wants to ensure our Constitutional right to worship is upheld but I believe we are justified in worship even without that right.

Legal

While I am concerned that our governor has little interest in the need of assembled worship, he has not specifically targeted churches. His measures have been broad sweeping and, for the most part, irrational and indiscriminate. He has forbidden everything from fishing to bicycle riding for heaven’s sake. I believe, concerning assembled worship, he has simply set it aside as:

1. An obvious health risk

2. Of little concern among all of his concerns

Cultural

While precautions seem warranted, some of them have the risk of long term and negative impact on the future of local church culture.

1. I have specifically preached against drive-in church services for 30-35 years probably (ever since I saw it happen at a drive-in theater in Utah while traveling through. More recently I have preached against virtual church services, as that is becoming very popular. 

2. The subject of “social distancing” has concerned me at least as long as my youngest son has been alive. He was born with allergies so that his doctor, aware that I am a pastor, advised us not to have him in the nursery. We refused that advice. I have said for years that the way to have a strong immunity is to be exposed to germs, not isolate from them.[2]

The worldwide response to this virus, I believe, will damage to body/family culture of a local church. If we allow it to become our cultural practice to wear masks, not shake hands, and avoid strangers or any but our favorites at church, God help us.

Health Concerns

When the news of the Wuhan coronavirus first surfaced, I was skeptical about whether it was as dangerous as everyone thought. I like to listen to a medical doctor named Adam Nally. I consider him reasonable and one to study out a position rather than just mimic the traditional medical party line. Early on[3] he said that the reason this virus was more serious than the flu was:

1. It is very contagious

2. It has a high degree of turning to double pneumonia

3. It seems to settle in the kidneys, making it very dangerous for people with type 2 diabetes

These concerns were legitimate and of great concern to me.

When President Trump presented his “15 Days to Slow the Spread” I was willing to take extreme measures because:

1. The plan was reasonable, well stated, and for a limited time.

2. I want to protect the members of our church if possible.

3. I would hate to be responsible for a non-believer becoming ill and possibly dying to face an eternal hell.

4. Our governor seemed to take great measures to give, especially churches, liberty to comply voluntarily.

I am now convinced:

1. This coronavirus is only a little more dangerous than the flu. It may be more dangerous, but it is not the “killer of the world” at first feared.

2. Our governor is now content to leave churches locked up until there is a cure for the virus. This is unreasonable and likely impossible.

3. Our Federal Government has limited power over state government (rightly so) and will be of little help.

4. Our command to obey God supersedes state orders.

5. The suggested “safe practices” are in and of themselves an encroachment on the spiritual culture of a local Independent Baptist Church.

6. We must therefore wisely and discreetly begin to move back to local church, local body worship.  

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields 

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[1] I could recite many other supporting Scriptures.

[2] I do understand that there are some legitimate exceptions – just not as many as some people suppose.

[3] He has since changed his position and said that the coronavirus is no more dangerous than the flu.

I Say, CHARGE! Mr. President

I Say CHARGE!
More and more frequently we are hearing from those in the medical world that this coronavirus is no more potent than the flu (though the flu is very deadly, especially in vulnerable communities). I am still of the opinion, though I confess I am not confidently so, that the way to defeat the virus is to attack against it, accept that there will be losses, and get the thing whipped. Our trouble today is twofold:

First, we have no leader willing to accept the losses.

Second, we have few willing to be among the casualties.

When Eisenhower ordered the troops on D-Day he knew there would be heavy losses and that many of those would die very hard deaths. He did not want any of them to die. He would have loved a solution for victory without loss. Still, victory was a valuable enough treasure to pay the price.

Those soldiers who stormed the beaches did not want to die. They knew that many of them would and, as I understand it, they had trained not to stop at the body of a fallen soldier except to gather his ammunition for his own use. They did not want to die but they knew victory against the enemy was worth the price, even if it was their own life.

When Abraham Lincoln finally found Grant[1] it as not that either man wished or men to die. One of Lincoln’s early problems was that, before Grant, none of his generals was willing to pay the price of loss of life, Union or Confederate. Grant understood that the only way to eventually end the bloodshed was to shed blood – on both sides.

No soldier in the Union army wanted to die. They each hoped that they would be among those who survived the conflict. Still, they were relieved to finally have a general who would press the enemy. They knew no solution would ever happen until the enemy was pressed to defeat.

The medical “experts on today’s task force are afraid to lose a life in the process of winning the war. All efforts have been focused on mass-producing not weapons, but survival gear. Our factories, for the most part, have been converted to making supplies for surviving a long siege instead of the tools of attack.

I say, Attack, Mr. President!

Ignore the milquetoast media

Replace the soft members of the task force

Follow your instincts toward victory

•             Find effective weapons
•             Find a Grant, an Eisenhower
•             Rally the American people[2]

And CHARGE!

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields (Anxious to storm the beaches.)

@realDonaldTrump, #bbcpuyallup, #coronavirus, #covid-19

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[1] Who was himself a junior officer but had gained of the reputation of fighting the enemy.

[2] Increasingly, Doctors and other medical professionals are stepping up who, though junior officers like Grant was, are willing to press this enemy.

Just Trying to Work Some Things Out

I have no solutions. I only have my position.

The Advance of Faith without Truth is Meaningless

The day of the crucifixion.

Why argue about the difference of opinion. Wouldn’t it be better to just rejoice in what we agree about, He arose?

With Easter Sunday just a few days away, this week has been filled with articles, memes, and various information surrounding the final week of the life of Jesus Christ. At issue, most of the time, is the day of His crucifixion.

·       Catholics and the majority of Protestants accept it as Friday and, in a weird twist, refer to the day as “Good Friday”.

·       Bible students of the evangelical and (they believe) enlightened sort claim it is Thursday. I had a professor at college, a very well-educated man, who took this position.

·       Extremists of the Baptist sort embrace Wednesday as the day of the crucifixion. 

I agree with this position. I am certain that the events of the week and Jesus’ claim of three days and three nights, requires a Wednesday crucifixion.

Then comes the question, “Why argue over which day the crucifixion happened? Why can’t we all just celebrate the thing we all agree about, Christ arose?”

It’s a sentiment that is echoed many times within the community of Christendom. It is the anthem of ecumenicalism. It is essential in a universal, invisible church, and it is the foundation of virtually every para-church organization. 

·       Promise Keepers three decades ago chanted “Breaking Down the Walls of Doctrine.”

·       Everything from Bill Gothard’s Institute for Basic Youth Conflicts to Child Evangelism 

·       Fellowships survive in an atmosphere of fellowship around the things agreed upon and avoidance of those areas of disagreement.[1]

It’s a misunderstanding of Jesus’ words, 

John 13:34-35 (KJV)

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

And

John 17:21 (KJV)

That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

I would simply want to point out that Jesus and His Father were one in essence. They would not have been vague about their doctrine. Their fellowship is in unity of truth.

“He is risen” is the only the most important part if the Bible is true because it is from the Bible we learn that He has risen. The Bible is only true if it is true in every part. One mistake, one error, one failure to be true and there is nothing, including the most important parts, that can be trusted.

Is it possible that we have made an error in our understanding? Of course. But to claim those areas of disagreement are unimportant and unworthy of debate,[2] leads to a powerless, conviction-less Christianity destined to be worthless to the world and to those who claim to possess it.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields (while safely sheltered at home)

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[1] My opinion is that this is what led to the disintegration of the Baptist Bible Fellowship. From its inception it existed around the drive to support missionaries. All that was necessary for participation was agreement to a particular, but vague enough doctrinal statement that allowed churches, mostly Baptists, to work together. With the internet came discussion groups and preachers became familiar with the huge differences among them. These differences quickly drove them apart.

[2] I said debate, not fighting.

Have We Been Duped?

As I drove home from our three-man team online worship service last night, April 5, 2020, I listened to a broadcaster cite some current statistics. He said that the model used by both Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx has predicted that, with strict quarantining protocols, we would have 160,000 Americans in the hospital with Chinese Coronavirus by April 4th. The numbers as of last night were closer to 22,000. This morning I noticed that Google’s main screen opened with a cartoon depicting a bell curve of what was supposed to happen versus what has happened and celebrating the much lower numbers. The news has reported that Washington State is returning 400 ventilators because we are not going to need them. The hospital ship deployed to New York is traveling elsewhere because it is not needed there. 

I am saddened by the numbers of people who have and will die because of this virus, but it has not been the crisis we were warned of. The crisis is still to come. 

On the one hand, will be the economic crisis driven by forcing almost the entire world into quarantine. This closely followed by the government’s incentive checks American families will receive and the forgivable business loans the US government is about to force upon American businesses. The fact is America is broke. We are so far in debt that it is questionable whether we can ever pay it off. We float on phony money and, I think, the world’s willingness to profit off this sinking vessel. 

On the other hand, is the crisis that will happen once we are let free. Our immune systems, already weakened by generations of processed foods and poor exercise, has been further weakened by this so-called social distancing,[1] is bound to experience another wave of the virus compounded by various other illnesses brought in by exposure to the germs of people we have not interacted with in weeks, maybe months. What? Are we going to live in isolation for the rest of our lives?

We have been duped. We have allowed fear, amped up by the mainstream media, to drive us to our demise. 

We have got to repent. We have got to turn to the Lord and trust Him for life so long as He wills it. Then we have got to live to His glory and in His power.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields (sheltered safely at home)

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[1] It’s really been physical distancing because we have remained social through various electronic media.