Theology Matters during the COVID-19 Crisis
I apologize up front that this is longer than I intended it to be. These are just the beginnings of thoughts that have been dancing around in my head over the last couple of months as our world scrambles to understand our current viral crisis. Many more of these conversations need to be had in the church. And I pray they are done so with unity in the important matters and charity in the applications of these truths.
Theology matters. Theology is not just for academics in some great institution of learning who has nothing better to do than debate how many angels can dance on the head of a pin (a likely apocryphal debate). Theology is important for daily life. Theology matters especially in a crisis, when everything that was in order, every routine, is thrown into chaos (contrary to this dreadful article suggesting otherwise). Theology is the solid ground, the consistent story that gives understanding to the tumult.
Theology is unavoidable. This isn’t a message about not whether or not we need theology at a time like this, but whether or not we will be good theologians. R. C. Sproul says, “No Christian can avoid theology. Every Christian is a theologian. Perhaps not a theologian in the technical or professional sense, but a theologian nevertheless. The issue for Christians is not whether we are going to be theologians but whether we are going to be good theologians or bad ones.”
Theology isn’t just writing deep thoughts about God that fill large books. Theology is simply telling us how multiple verses relate to one another to tell us about who God is, who we are, and how we relate to one another in this world he made.
In times of crisis we see people throwing around Bible verses to guide, encourage, and correct others. This can be helpful, but it is not careful theological work. We need more than Bible verses, but fuller biblical understanding of what picture God has painted for us to understand his work so that we don’t misuse or misapply these very important truths.
As I look out at the landscape of popular theology right now it seems that a few reminders are in order. Many people are getting sick. Governments are seizing more control of their populations telling us to “trust the experts” and “show me the science.” Churches are closing doors. People are “meeting” and “doing church” online. We are told to stay home to “love our neighbors” for the “health of everyone.”
Whether or not we realize it, these are all theological activities and statements. We hear people say "trust the experts" leaving this whole conversation in the hands of strict scientific research. But there is no such thing. Even the experts are guided by their own theology. This is not just a scientific endeavor but a philosophical battle. The governing authorities trust the experts that confirm their own governing instincts, those that confirm their own worldview biases. It’s who we are (again, theology matters).
Before we speak or act, we ought to be careful to consider as much of the Bible as we can and weigh God’s wisdom. We don’t just want to act in fear, pulling back and waiting for this to pass, but to move forward in faithful confidence that God is sovereign and Jesus’s death and resurrection guarantees us victory over the grave!
So let’s briefly consider a few important theological themes that are relevant to our current circumstances. These discussions aren’t intended to provide a right answer for how to navigate current circumstances, but simply to remind us Christians what discussions should be taking place before embracing any plan of action. We can (and must) disagree charitably on those decisions, but seek unity first on the important theology behind those actions.
Authority
We are created to be a people who live under authority. We live under God’s ultimate authority and we display it in relation to lesser authorities. Typically our society hates the idea of authority (“you can’t tell me what to do”), but in a crisis, our true nature becomes exposed as we see everyone in our culture acting religiously. Everyone is demanding we submit to the highest authorities (in secularism that would be the government), with punishment given to those who break the laws. We are told the right way to “love our neighbors” with shame heaped upon those who don’t do it right. Prophets warn of impending doom and evangelists tell us the only way to escape it is to turn to the god of the state.
We are by nature a people designed to live under authority. And a person who has surrendered to Jesus rightly knows that we are called to submit (Ephesians 5:18, 21), that we have much less control over our lives than we think (Proverbs, 16:9). That is why Paul says things like, “obey your parents,” “submit to your masters,” and “subject yourselves to the governing authorities.”
And so Christians right now are trying to encourage everyone to submit to the government’s orders to close businesses, stay home, and don’t gather with other people (even as a church). We are to be a people submissive to authority. But how that plays out requires some nuance (that we won’t be able to fully cover here).
Abraham Kuyper explained that there are different spheres of authority that receive their authority from God over varying things. The state (government) has authority to manage the affairs of justice (punishing evil and rewarding good) and relationships between groups, so we are told to submit to government to uphold social order (Romans 13:1–7; 1 Peter 2:13–17). Masters (or in our context business owners and bosses) have authority over economies of production and trade. So the Apostles tell us to submit to those whom God has granted power to control these things (Eph. 6:5–8; Colossians 3:22; 1 Peter 2:18–25). God has given authority over the home to husbands/fathers so he commands wives and children to submit in the home (Eph. 6:1–3; Colossians 3:18–21; 1 Peter 3:1–6). Churches have authority over spiritual affairs related to the gathered citizens of God’s kingdom. The priesthood of believers has authority to declare who is in and who is out (Matt. 16:18–19; 18:15–20). Pastors have authority to stand before the assembly and proclaim the words of the sovereign King of the universe as his royal heralds and care for the souls of their flocks (Ephesians 4:11; 2 Timothy 2:4; Hebrews 13:7, 17; James 3:1).
We don’t just submit simply because someone made a command. People in authority don’t have unlimited authority (only Jesus does), but a limited sphere of power. We need to determine if King Jesus has given that person authority to make that command. So when the Jerusalem authorities told the Apostles not to preach Jesus, they refused to obey (Acts 5:29), not simply because the leaders were commanding the Apostles to do something contrary to God’ explicit command, but because the Jerusalem leadership didn’t have the authority to make such a command.
Peter says obeying a lesser authority is a way to obey a greater authority (1 Peter 2:14). By extension, obeying local governors CAN be (and usually is) a way of obeying God. So we can’t make a blanket statement that we will obey God instead of human authorities, because we most often obey God through human authorities. But we dishonor God’s authority when we subject ourselves to leadership that has not been given an authority by God. And conversely, there are times when disobeying human authorities is obeying God because it is ignoring a usurped authority and taking your obedience up the chain of command (i.e. that governor didn’t have the God-given authority to make that command so I appeal directly to God himself).
This is not to make a statement either way about our current policies, but simply saying that this is where the conversation needs to be had. It’s not about should we submit to the government or not. Clearly we should. The question is, “Does the government have the authority to take such action?” There are good arguments theologically for both sides (e.g. they are overstepping their bounds and stealing authority from the spheres of home, church, and business; or yes, they do have the authority to manage how these spheres interact with one another). We need to recognize that the only tool governments have is to take control by use of the sword (or guns, or fines, or prison), because their legitimate authority is to punish evil [Romans 13:3]). The more a government oversteps the bounds of its authority, the more ridiculous the use of its tool begins to look.
There are also good discussions happening now to whether executive branches (presidents and governors and their police) have the authority in our form of constitutional republican form of government to take current actions. Our constitutions grant that authority to the legislatures. These are where these conversations need to be had instead of accusing everyone who questions the current policies of not submitting to government. Theology of authority matters.
“For People’s Health”
A common justification the government uses right now to lock people in their homes is that it’s “for the health of the community.” This is typically enough to get most people to turn off their theological filters because we really do want to care for our neighbors, but as we began, we need to be as sharp as ever with our theology.
As previously stated, one question we could ask is whether or not the government has the authority to manage the health of its population (it is vaguely defined, but can be in the state’s sphere). But another question to ask is, “What does it mean to be healthy?”
We live in a scientific, material society where health is mostly defined by absence of illness and presence of physical fitness. But this is at best a Platonic way of thinking, as though soul and body can be separated and we can count a person as healthy because there are no known infections in his body.
But how can we talk about human health (or better “wholeness”) without going to Genesis 1 and 2 and asking what God defines as healthy human existence. A body free from pain and suffering is certainly part of that, but it is only a fraction of the equation. Of equal importance are spiritual health (right standing before God) and other important things like relational interaction (Gen. 1:26–27; 2:18, 24) and fruitful labor (Gen. 1:28–30; 2:15).
We were made to work. God worked to create a beautiful world and we reflect his image in our work. We have lost a theology of vocation when we say it is healthy to stay home and not work. By not working we are denying the image of God in us, we are denying what it means to be a healthy human. Sure, we need to be physically healthy to work, but there is value in fighting for and taking risks to work. American patriot Patrick Henry understood this when he said, “Give me liberty or give me death.” He wanted to put his God-given abilities to work without the British Empire determining for him when it was okay for him to leave his home and what he was allowed to do when he did. He believed that a life not free to create and interact in the marketplace was not a life worth living.
We were made to be with people. Jesus said in John 17 that he came to create a new humanity that would be unified as he is unified in his nature with the Father (vv. 5, 11, 21, 23). How can we be unified if we are separate from one another? You might suggest that the unity speaks of having one mind, being in agreement, and there is truth to that, but that unified mind is displayed in physical interaction. To suggest we can express this unity through “online interaction” is to separate mind and body again as the Platonists and Gnostics are wont to do.
What our poor theology regarding our human health has done is revealed that we don’t understand God himself. An essential part of reflecting God’s image is reflecting his relational nature. God is triune, three-in-one. He is never isolated, always in community. To reflect God most fully, we too must be in community. To not be so is to be unhealthy. To not relate with a diverse group of people regularly indicates spiritual disease. To be isolated is to fail to display God in the world.
Again, this is not to define an appropriate course of action in our current circumstances, but to remind Christians of the conversations we should be having. We can’t ignore relationships and work for the sake of physical health. We must carefully consider a balance (this is why as we emphasize physical health right now, poverty, pornography use, addiction, domestic abuse, mental health, and a host of other problems with our image bearing nature are increasing rapidly). We must start with God and seek his wisdom on what it means to be healthy.
Church
This theology culminates in Christ and his church. Jesus came to create a new humanity that gathered under his authority and scatters to represent his rule. We are the diverse community who gathers to hear from our King and sing unified praises to him. We are the ambassadors who carry his authority in heaven and on earth to make him known (Matthew 28:18–20).
For someone to tell the church not to gather is to claim they have authority of the King to disband his assembly. Another sphere may under their legitimate authority make an appeal for the church to comply for a short season to exercise their proper role, but it is getting dangerously close to usurpation of a separate authority to tell the King who has all authority over creation that his new humanity cannot gather. Any authority who dares make this appeal should feel very uncomfortable doing it and work as quickly as possible to restore proper order (while at the same time we strive to show a submissive heart toward all authorities reminding them of their appropriate roles).
The word “church” comes from a common Greek word meaning, “assembly” or “gathering.” The authority the church has exists as a physically gathered body (Matthew 18:20). To not gather is to not exercise the church’s God-given authority. It is to be removed from our commission as royal ambassadors.
We can’t rightly “do church virtually/online.” That denies our image bearing identity and our commissioned authority. Theology matters, especially in a crisis. “Church” isn’t just a pastor preaching and some people singing. “Church” is the people gathered to display Christ and exercise his kingdom authority (through membership, preaching, and ordinances). Baptism can’t be done alone since it represents spiritual birth into a real family. Communion can’t be experienced from separate living rooms, but a diverse people in the same room sharing the same bounty (1 Cor. 11:18–22). Our witness to the world of God’s great power and glory is that we (who have no reason to be together otherwise) actually meet together in the same place (Ephesians 3:10). It is impossible for us to do our commissioned work and bear witness to God’s work in us while we are separate.
Plagues/Quarantine
Quarantine and isolation is a passive response to a crisis. It denies our human design and rejects the gift of life we have in Christ. Our entire response (no surprise since it is being led mostly by non-Christians) is a sprint back to the Old Covenant law, a grasping at legalism. Of course, as always, we can’t even get that right.
The law in Leviticus prescribed that any who was found with a contagious disease be quarantined, cast outside the camp (Leviticus 13–14; Numbers 5:2; 31:19). Plagues were representative of sin, how permanently damaging and contagious it is. It needed to be dealt with swiftly, cut off from society as a picture of sin being cut off from God.
Sometimes plagues were even a judgment from God as a consequence for the sin of individual people (Gen. 12:17; Exod. 32:35; Num. 16; 25), or the sin of a people and its leader (2 Sam. 12:15; 1 Chron. 21:17), or simply for God’s good purposes (Job, John 9:1–3). Disease was always to be feared and dealt with by cutting off the sick and vulnerable from society.
That is the biblical way to address disease, but we can’t even get that right. We are currently quarantining everyone, because (again theology matters) we don’t understand its source and we think we have more control than we do, so we take more control of other people’s lives. We act out of fear of “what if” worst-case-scenarios instead of following God’s instruction.
But even better news than having explicit instruction on how to deal with disease, is that Jesus himself conquered every plague and death by his authority as the Son of God, as the perfect Man, as the one who died for sins and rose from the grave. In Mark 1:40–45, for the first time in history, instead of a diseased man passing his disease onto a clean man, the cleanness passed onto the diseased man. Jesus is reversing the curse. He alone has the power to undo every plague. We ought to be running to him and begging him for mercy as this leper did. Better than quarantine is the power of our risen King!
Death
And even better news than possible healing in this life is that we have eternal healing coming in the next. When Jesus returns we who are in Christ will receive resurrected bodies that will never get sick or die again (Rev. 21:4). We do not need to fear death. It has no power over us.
Lazarus knew this when Jesus pulled him out of the grave (John 11). Even if he were killed again, he knew Jesus could raise him again. This is the confidence that overcame the Apostles in Acts. After seeing Jesus rise and ascend to heaven, and receiving the Holy Spirit, they knew they too would be raised. Death was a reality that they were quite comfortable with, because Christ had defeated it forever in his resurrection (1 Cor. 15:55–57). It is simply a necessary part of dying to our old self and rising to new life (Matthew 16:24–26; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; John 12:24).
But we live in a world afraid of death. Our leaders say things like, “I will do everything in my power to save even one life.” Theology matters. This is a power that only God has. And this is a reality that only God has accomplished in Christ. But our leaders try to take that authority upon themselves and since they don’t actually have that power they end up doing more damage to humanity.
Our world is currently making decisions to deal with the threat of a new virus based on a fear of death. 160,000 people die every. single. day. That number is staggering and we have no idea it is happening because we spend every dollar we have and every minute we live working to ignore it or delay it. It is only when someone close to us gets sick or dies (or possibly a celebrity) that we are forced to consider death. But even then it goes away within days, weeks, months because the rest of the world continues to go about their business.
But now we have every news outlet reporting new virus deaths (which are insignificant in the great picture of death), and we are panicking because this time we can’t escape it. The news is ubiquitous. And it’s not going away any time soon.
Everyone is afraid of death. Those who want to hide in their homes are afraid of death. Those who want to get back to work are afraid of death (so they can get back to ignoring its reality). But theology matters.
Death is the ultimate statistic. We are all going to die. How you face it depends on how you understand theology. Do you understand what you were made for? Do you understand the authority you have as an image bearer? As a redeemed royal ambassador? Have you put your faith in the one whose resurrection is a promise that you too will be raised to an imperishable life (1 Cor. 15:42)?
Get out of the news. Get off of social media. Get in your Bibles and see that God is sovereign over life and death. He has numbered your days. He has given you a task to do (George Whitefield once said, “We are immortal until our work on earth is done”). Remind yourself of your identity in Christ through his word and get to work on earth until he calls you home.
Once again, this post is not to push for certain policy decisions or urge churches to ignore the government’s decrees. I don’t envy the positions of many who are in greater leadership roles than me. A great number of lives are at stake with every press conference.
There is a phrase in politics saying, “follow the money” if you really want to find out what is motivating many political decisions. I’m not suggesting that this pandemic is hyped up to get some people rich. Instead I’m saying, “follow the theology.” Even those who appear to have public interest in mind are still informed by their own gods (money, control, comfort, fame, success, affirmation, physical health, etc.). If we want to navigate this crisis well, then we need to turn from our idols, seek God’s face, and see the world through new spiritual eyes in Christ. This is the work of theology.
My goal in this post is to build up your theological foundation to give you confidence in the chaos that God is still in control and the resurrection guarantees eternal life. God is still building his church, defeating kingdoms, and restoring all things in Christ. I want you to think more critically about what your responsibility is in this season of God’s unfolding plan of redemptive history. It is not to sit idly by and wait for this, too, to pass.
We are still God’s ambassadors. We are still his image bearers. Christians are still promised to rise from the dead to eternal life. Theology matters because it outlines the conversations we should be having and informs what we ought to be doing right now.
There are many other relevant theological conversations to be having right now in addition to these. My hope is that this spurs the church to more of them. Let’s not throw in the towel and just wait this one out. Now is the time to dig deeper into the word and engage more boldly with the world.