Covid-19: God's Hatred of False Worship

Throughout our nation of the United States, on Sunday March 22, 2020, many churches did not corporately worship, with a few exemptions, and this has carried on through the month of April. Most Christians worshipped, in little groups by listening to a sermon, or some only participating in prayer meetings. This is due to Federal and State laws banning the gathering of persons over a certain number. In some places it is 10 and others it is 25, but even then persons are to remain 6 feet apart. This is a tyrannical law, but I am not going to deal with that aspect of the Covid-19 situation in this article. This pamphlet is about God's warning and judgment for and upon His church, and those who claim to be His church.

The Lord, who rightly calls Himself Yahweh, who is the Triune God of (Father, Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit), does not take lightly how His church worships Him. God does not allow man to create anything, thus adding to what God has made Lawful for corporate worship (Deuteronomy 12:32). God does not allow man to negate anything that God Himself has prescribed in His Word, in the public worship of the assembly of God's people (Isiah 58:13-14). When God's people do choose to do what is right in their own eyes, God sends judgments and warnings to His people, and I will expand on how God has done this to His church in the USA through the text of Lamentations 2:7- The Lord has rejected His altar, He has abandoned His sanctuary; He has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces. They have made a noise in the house of the Lord as in the day of an appointed feast.

Exegesis of the Text

Historically, Lamentations was written by the Prophet Jeremiah after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, and this destruction was done by the Chaldeans/ Babylonians. The chief purpose of Lamentations is God’s hatred and judgment in accordance to the sins' of Judah. You will see this all throughout the book (1:5,8,18,20; 3:42; 4:6,13,22; 5:16). The second purpose is God is merciful as in (3:22–24,31–33; cf.Ps. 30:3–5). Though the book deals with judgment, it turns to God’s covenant love and mercy to those who acknowledge their great rebellion, then repent and obey the Lord (chapter 3 through chapter 5). Now let's get into the text.

The Lord has rejected His altar,- The alter is where sacrifices and burnt offerings were made in the Temple. There were two alters, so this refers to both, the first was the incense alter (Exodus 30:1-10), and the burnt offering alter ( Leviticus 1:1-17). The incense altar was used for burning incense, and it was in the holy place in the Temple. Poured out on burning coals, the incense produced a good smelling aroma in the Holy Place. It was the offering of the person whose sins had been forgiven by blood and who then went on to express the fragrance of love and worship, which was most pleasing to God. Burnt offerings were done for the cleansing of sins committed, not in justification manner, but in a parental forgiveness manner, just as God is His people's Father. Therefore, by God rejecting His alter, He therefore rejects Israel's offerings to appease Him for their sins, and He rejects their idolatrous worship. God also rejected the priest for not allowing them to to do the incense or burnt offerings.

He has abandoned His sanctuary- The sanctuary is the Temple of the Lord, and literally it is better translated as "His holy place". God therefore not only rejected the holy place of the Temple, but He has rejected the whole Temple. This means that God rejected all of His own institutions of corporate and individual worship. God wrathfully rejected the worshipful duties of priest, prophet, and the Israelite, so the whole nation was under God's wrath.

He has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces- This is in reference to the walls of the Temple. The word for palaces means any majestic building, and in the context of verses 6 and 7, it must mean the walls of the Temple. The altar is treated with contempt, the holy places are defiled, the building itself is given into the power of the enemy, and where there once was heard the voices of God's worshipping people, is heard now the wild clamor of heathen idolators. Inside the walls of the Temple was where the people of God would worship Him, but the normal Israelite was not allowed into the Temple, only priest and the high priest.

They have made a noise in the house of the Lord as in the day of an appointed feast. -- God is declaring that He had given the whole corporate worship over to the Babylonians. That is the enemy, the Chaldeans, made worshipful songs in the Temple, blaspheming God, insulting the Israelites, that had worshipped there; rejoicing in their victories over them; singing their Pagan songs to their gods, and other profane songs; indulging themselves in drunken and sexual parties and rioting; making as great a noise with their shouts and songs as the priests, Levites, and people of Israel did, when they sung the songs of Zion on a festival day.

Doctrine from the Text

The doctrine taught here is that of God's judgment for idolatrous sacrifices. These Idolatrous sacrifices would be these mentioned in Jeremiah 7:8-10 --“Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—that you may do all these abominations? " God brings judgment on His people when they turn to Pagan ways of worship, and Pagan worship is anything that God has not prescribed in His Word. Pagan worship is the adding or negating Commands that God has written in His Word for worship. The judgment that God has sent to America is that of famine of the Word of God as Amos 8:11-12 says Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will send a famine in the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water — but of hearing the words of the Lord: and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, and they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord, and shall not find it. This is the worst type of judgment because it is the turning away of God to a nation, and allowing it to revert back to its Pagan ways. It also means that the church of that nation is weak, especially the pastors because they are not truly preaching the Word of God. They are not holding their congregations accountable, nor their towns, states, or nation. Nor are they boldly instructing the civil government to be godly, and thus are allowing false religions to amass. These godless city officials have overtaken the church, and now function as the church's leaders rather than the church's pastors. Many churches and pastors are conforming themselves to be like the culture, and this is because many pastors do not have a thorough and complete body of Theology, or they err by not abiding by Scripture alone and teach the doctrines of men and Satan. This is even the case in much of historic Reformed denominations. Many pastors in these denominations only hold to the Doctrines of Grace or as they are more commonly called today, The Five Points of Calvinism. They also hold to elder led churches, but when it comes to other Biblical and historic doctrines, they are ignorant. As you will read below are some of those false sinful traditions of man, which have no Biblical grounds in Scripture.

Pagan Worship in the American Church

1. False gospels, there are many false gospels being taught. One is that of the "Health, Wealth, and Prosperity Gospel", which says if you follow Jesus all your life will be better, and that you will be healthy or you can cast out sickness, if you are sick. This includes, saying that "Jesus died to take away my depression, Jesus died to make me feel better about myself, God only wants me happy, God will give me the money for such and such thing that I want."

2. False Pastors- There are many "pastors" who are not pastors, but are in reality CEOs over gigantic corporations that claim to be churches. These are the Seeker Sensitive churches/ Emerging churches, like that of LCBC, Church of the Highlands, and the others of the like. In these, the gospel is never taught, and God is never worshipped because the god of these churches is not Yahweh of Scripture, but the god of consumer America. This is because the pastors and leaders of these churches only want to create an "experience" for those in attendance, and they do not teach the Word of God, only they tell funny stories or self help talks. Also many so called pastors are not qualified, for many have disorderly families, many cannot teach God's Word, many are adulterers through porn or affairs, many are in it for the money, fame, and power, many cannot tell someone the basic doctrines of Christianity, and many have never confronted sin.

3. False Acts of Worship- There are many false acts of worship in the church today. These are the things in the gathering of the church that God has not commanded in His Word. First is that many church services are very much like concerts. They have loud music from a band, and they have flashing lights with fog. Secondly, is the celebration of "holy days". A holy day is any day that is said to be of importance regarding the birth, resurrection, or any working of God. These are days like Christmas, Easter, Lent, Holy Week, and so on. Also, the act of unworthily partaking of the Lord's Supper or the wrong administration of it by laymen or by partaking of it outside the gathered church. Fourth, there are skits, musicals, and talent shows that go on in the worship of God, and these are nowhere commanded by God in Scripture.

4. Godlessness- Within the church today, many men are regular watchers of porn. In the church, many men do not disciple their families, and they send their children to public schools, where their children are trained for 15,000 hours in ungodly knowledge, so that they are good citizens to Caesar, rather than solders of God. Within the church is the teaching of Feminism, which is either named Egalitarianism or Complementarianism. While Scripture teaches Patriarchy, as the man is the representative head of the family, and only men can serve in the four offices of the church (Pastor/Elder, Teacher, Deacon). Many in the church have more trust and allegiance to the government, rather than to Christ as King because of a wrong belief about Romans chapter 13 or 1 Peter 2. Other idols of the church are celebrity pastors or Bible teachers. Many Christians follow everything these men and women say, without deeply looking into God's Word to test what is being said. There is much greed within the church, for many churches spend millions of dollars on buildings, and seek to draw non-Christians into those buildings to listen to that celebrity pastor. Many churches also have things on their budget as listed above that are false acts of worship, so this money is wasted for the entertainment of the congregation.

The Cure for this Judgment

God is being graceful and merciful to our nation by allowing much time to pass before sending millions of our neighbors to eternal punishment in hades and the lake of fire. He is offering this nation and particularly from our text, the church time to repent in turning from its wicked ways unto true Biblical worship of God. Jeremiah 31:10 says Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare in the coastlands afar off, and say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.” Therefore, the cure for this judgment is to "hear the Word of the Lord". This hearing of the Word is more than simply listening with your ear, rather to hear the Word of the Lord is to obey what He says. Thus, God commands His church to turn away from their idols and to worship and obey Him only (Deuteronomy chapter 12)