Navigating Christian Life in the Age of Fulfillment

Live from the Mecca of Mormonism, THIS is Heart of the Matter, where we are learning together how to navigate Christian living in the Age of Fulfillment. I’m your host Shawn McCraney. Let’s have a prayer.

The Context of Current Events

Show 15B Follow-Up to Problem Child
Live Show March 31st 2020

PRAYER

I would be remiss if I did not address the events going on in the world from a person who teaches fulfillment. The reason this is important is many Christians are assigning these events as signs of the Second Coming and end of the world. Others are suggesting believers resort to some really archaic nothings to protect themselves, like putting crosses on their front and back doors to keep the virus out.

Let me quickly – quickly, because that is all the time it deserves – offer some reason to this because in the age of fulfillment Christians need reason to interpret events around them.

As of yesterday, according to my sources, there were 740,000 coronavirus cases in the world. Today there are probably 800,000. As of yesterday, there have also been 35,000 deaths world-wide. Our president (that is the respect we deserve to give President Trump is to call Him our president – and by the way I said the same thing when President Obama was in office) says that we could have as many as 300,000 deaths in the USA by the time the thing is done.

Now, if any of those deaths were or are family members, I am sorry. That is one death too many. But we are talking about pandemics and I am talking about reason. So today the United States leads the world in cases with 143,000 diagnosed and 2,500 deaths. In all of the United States of America!

Again one death is too many on the personal level – and I would crash and burn if someone I know and love gets sick or dies, but we are not looking at emotional responses here, we are looking at the facts about pandemics.

Historical Perspective on Pandemics

Just 102 years ago we experienced another pandemic that hit the United States. According to Stanford University Research the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than World War I (WWI) with worldwide numbers at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It was cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history as more people died of that influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351.

They called it “La Grippe or the Spanish Flu." With one-quarter of the US and one-fifth of the world infected with the influenza, it was impossible to escape from the illness. Those who were lucky enough to avoid this flu had to deal with the public health ordinances to restrain the spread of the disease which included helping the public health departments distribute gauze masks to be worn in public. Stores could not hold sales, funerals were limited to 15 minutes. Some towns required a signed certificate to enter and railroads would not accept passengers without them. According to the Deseret News those who ignored the flu ordinances had to pay steep fines enforced by extra officers.

Bodies piled up as the massive deaths of the epidemic ensued. Besides the lack of health care workers and medical supplies, there was a shortage of coffins, morticians, and gravediggers. Interestingly, this deadly influenza pandemic erupted during the final stages of World War I (disease, wars and rumors or wars). And the nation was economically devastated.

Key Takeaways

My point:

• Things were FAR FAR worse then and it was NOT the end of the world.
• We have actually better managed this disease under the united leadership of educated and intelligent people far better than ANY pandemic has ever been managed.
• And all of this suggests to me that God is working in and through this, and things are better than ever, and the world is Not going to end, and this is all evidence of fulfillment not end of the world.

Christians – be of good cheer. Have hope. And freaking be smart. Go along with what is mandated, show unity with all your neighbors and do your part to help the situation and not hurt it.

And that leads me to a really disturbing revelation that I think Christians today need to straight up address:

The idea that Christians or Religious folks are somehow impervious to the rules.

My wife works at the airport here in Salt Lake City. She works with a lot of LDS people who

Entitlement and Rule-Breaking

She really loves and thinks highly of.

At this particular airport, many LDS missionaries return home from their missions, and the airport, due to the virus, asked them several weeks ago to limit those coming to the airports to receive the arriving missionaries to be the parents only. Mary’s LDS colleagues verified that this rule was well understood by all. But this was entirely rejected by the masses. Why? To be it was due to entitlement – religious entitlements. As if they feel that their son or daughter sacrificed to serve a mission and they are therefore entitled – even in the name of God – to do their own thing and break the rules.

This lead to the following picture going around online:

(SHOW PICTURE HERE)

Due to this response, the airport itself posted the following signs and instituted a policy that unless you have a ticket, you are not allowed inside the terminal.

(SHOW the other pictures here)

All because that people group, justifying themselves as exceptions, chose to break the rules. But the Mormons are not alone in this.

Defying State Orders

Our brother Dylan P sent me this article which says: “A Louisiana pastor continues to defy the state’s orders prohibiting gatherings of more than 50 people by holding church services, the latest of which he claimed had over 1,000 attendees. The Rev. Tony Spell, who claims that congregants at Life Tabernacle Church in the city of Central City, about 15 miles northeast of Baton Rouge, have been cured of cancer and HIV, said that coronavirus is “politically motivated.” Spell claims that around 1,000 churchgoers, who the church has bused in from five different parishes in Louisiana, have attended his church every Sunday despite state recommendations against mass gatherings. Additional services on Tuesday, he added, attract an additional few hundred churchgoers. "If they close every door in this city, then I will close my doors," Spell told CNN. "But you can't say the retailers are essential but the church is not. That is a persecution of the faith." Earlier this month, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards issued a ban against gatherings of over 50 people, which he then expanded by issuing a statewide stay-at-home order for nonessential workers and businesses. He called the state’s case count, 1,795 cases and 65 deaths as of Wednesday, “sobering” and said that the state’s trajectory has not changed since its first cases. A recorded livestream of the church’s hourlong services on Sunday shows congregants breaking social distancing guidelines sitting and singing close together.

To me, it’s unconscionable, its reckless, but it is right in harmony with the mindset of many Christians and their zeal. Me, me, me. As we’ve said so many times before, in this age of fulfillment, it's imperative that Christians are the first to comply, the first to donate, the first to pick up liter and recycle, the first to love the homeless, and the homosexuals and other races. The mindset we see played out in what I have just described is the mindset of zealous fanatics who honestly think Jesus will love them more because they are so devout – even to the detriment of society around us.

Selfless Believers

In the age of fulfillment, it is incumbent on believers, who are salt and light, who are humble before their maker, to let the world see what a true selfless, believer and follower of the Lord looks like. I have seen them in the Christian church. I’ve seen them in the Mormon church. Those who are His Sons and Daughters prove it in their walk. May more of us join in. And thanks Dylan for the article.

So last week we had a live show where I went off and suggested that the closed down churches (especially those that have preached tithes) that they empty their bloated banks accounts and liquidate their assets and help the people in their congregations who are out of work and unable to pay their bills. The speech was hyperbolic but was delivered to make a point.

Here are some of the responses we had to that rant:

Patrick L wrote Praise God!!

Stephanie S I have to say, I laughed out loud to your presentation of the angel moroni losing his horn!! It just tickled me so! God does work in small and mysterious ways. Just the whole show was great and very informative, with lots of food for thought. God bless.

Vanessa B I'm gonna celebrate my birthday because I'm alive and love life. I celebrate not because I was born, but because I survived another year on this

Debating Public Reactions to Health Crises

Kaz Uma: Shawn, your thought process always made a lot of sense to me. You really just say what you're thinking but I would have never thought of some of these things lol. Thanks for what you do.

Howard King: Shawn, you hit the ball out of the park —————————-again!

Curtis W: So Sick of Corono Virus talk. It was a huge overreaction. The absurdity of stupid control needs to end. I truly believe all aspects of government are intellectually impaired -some worse than others.

To which Patrick replied: “It's real. People are dying. Please take this serious."

To which Curtis responded: “The flu in 2017 killed over 55,000 people. This is media hype. Hate to say it, everyone will probably catch this one. Yes some will die. Look at the #1 killer: heart disease, #2 cancer, #3 medical malpractice (250,000 in 2017) #4 Accidents…. #9 flu. The government is mentally disabled and overreacting. PLEASE stop spreading the fear!"

To which aperfectcircle also added to Patrick: “Cars are real. They kill people — more than the China virus ever will. Please stop driving. You have more chance of killing someone by driving than by coughing out corona. If you value the lives of others, never drive again. See how silly that is? Take responsibility for your own immune system and ability to transmit any virus and stop trying to control other people."

Exploring Biblical Applications Today

Then from our show last night on problem children,

M H: I'm saving this video with others of yours I've saved…. just in case I have a kid someday. I respect your input on this stuff. Last week's video really made me think too. I do have a question…but it's totally off topic, so maybe you'd have time for it after all the relevant questions…

I'd like to know your opinion about if there's any possible application of 2 Chronicles 7:14 today with all that's going on in the world. I recognize the context of that chapter and verse…and I'm not a straight literalist or anything like that…and not trying to cherry-pick verses here and there either…but this one just comes to mind… You've got years of studying on me, so would like to hear your opinion, if you can fit it in.

2nd Chronicles 7:14: If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

This is a fantastic question – it really is especially in this day and age because of course this passage is HUGE in the Evangelical world HUGE in the Kingdom Now world. HUGE in the pretrib WORLD. It’s simply HUGE – especially in America.

I think there are eternal truths in passages like this, that if a world or nation of people were to humble themselves before the Lord and seek his face and turn from their wicked ways that God would bless them as a Nation. God is good and just and seeks to bless his own. So I get this view.

Unfortunately, I do not think that in this day and age this passage is possible – anymore than it was possible for Lot to find 10 righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah. So I think to preach it has some limitations. And that includes the fact that this is an Old Testament passage to the Jews and spoke to them and their nation and land.

Evaluating Old Testament Relevance

To cite the Old Testament puts the reciter in the place of picking and choosing which passages to cite and apply and which to refuse. And it becomes a game of extreme convenience when people pull passages out of that tome and use them today – where does it end? I don’t know the answer to that?

Should we read passages about sacrificing animals too? Additionally, the Apostolic Record (or what people call the New Testament) mentions nothing about the Land being healed, but does speak of individuals humbling themselves and the LORD lifting them up, as James 4:10:

“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”

See, the Good News of Jesus did not bring with it the promise of prosperity. In fact, it promised suffering. The Law and the Prophets offered a prosperity teaching as the Jews sought to be blessed by God due to their obedience. But obedience to Christ, faithfulness to Him, was a death sentence in the Apostolic Record, and I personally reject the National

Reflections on 2nd Chronicles

Use of 2nd Chronicles by Evangelicals to promise political power or economic strength. In fact, I resent it. But paradoxically I do believe that if a nation of people would humble themselves God would bless them – I just don’t think it would be with a land of milk and honey. Just maybe a land of greater faith and love, not less viruses.

Reader Feedback

ElviraPhins Great perspective. Acting (in love) not reacting. Amazing thing to keep in mind when facing a lot of situations. Thank you and God for all that you do.