It’s interesting that the same people who have been taking about how they stay off of social media because it’s not real, are fine staying home for Zoom church. There seems to be a common denominator.

Martin Luther, (Eisleben, 1483, Eisleben, 1546). German reformer. Doctor of Theology and Augustinian priest. In 1517, outlined the main thesis of Lutheranism in Wittenberg. He was excommunicated in 1520. Martin Luther nailed to the door of the Wittenberg castle church his Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences.

Technology really hasn’t change things all that much. There have always been letters, books, notes, public notices, public debates, second hand information, gossip and on and on. These aren’t nothing, but they aren’t to be the extent of appropriate fellowship for the body of Christ. Listening to a CD is not the same as being at a concert. How much more the power of the Holy Sprit sharing fellowship among believers. Until very recently the meeting together of the Believers was centered around a Eucharist table. Jesus invited his followers to the table. Jesus made it possible for men alienated by sin to come in and have table fellowship with a Holy God.

“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” Revelation 3:20

We have become to comfortable pretending that the physical world is just a placeholder for our minds. This is gnosticism. The physical world is the world. Christ came back from the dead with a new body, that resembled the old body, here in the real world. James says a faith without works is dead. Theory without real relationships in this world, are meaningless.
Paul laments that he can not meet with believers in person (Gal 4:20, I Thes. 2:17). But he writes them nonetheless. Letters are important. Writing is important. It allows us to connect with people who lived long before our time or people who live across the world in our own time. It is a sort of fellowship. There is nothing magical about one or another medium. It is like anything, it can be for evil or for good. Posts online can glorify God or blaspheme him. But if there was no point in being on social media, why are the richest people in the world so obsessed with controlling what goes on there? The reality is that by so many good people being afraid or too lazy to spread the light of the Gospel to these realms, they created an evil place. We have retreated from the public square both publicly and digitally and so they are very dark.

Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the church. It was the Facebook group for his community. He was beginning the discussion about certain church abuses. Were people in the crowd wringing their hands “I don’t get involved in church doors.” “It’s just the worst of humanity.” Lincoln and Douglas travelled around the U.S. in 1858 having public debates. No one lamented that these two were disagreeing in public and how unChristian it was. Rigorous debate has been a staple of Christendom for 2000 years from Paul opposing Peter at the first Church council to debates between G. K. Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw. Don’t be such a sissy. Humans disagree, we need a responsible system in place for handling those disagreements. We don’t just stay home. Get in there and spread the light. If you are unqualified for the fight, then get qualified. But at the very least stop lamenting on those who do get in the ring.

Seraph in the second Matrix movie said you don’t truly know someone until you fight them. It really is true. You don’t know yourself either. You are a spoiled kid who thinks he is the best in the world, because he has never been tried. Liberals want to end debate because they don’t want to know anyone and they don’t want to find out that they are wrong and incapable of forming arguments. It’s easier just to use the power of the victim identity to shut down everything they don’t like. The Christian approach seems to be to let them. Then when everything falls apart we claim it is proof Jesus is about to return. No it is proof that the Church is full of cowards.