Greetings with Jesus’ joy!

With the arrival of coronavirus (COVID-19) on the world stage, more than 130 countries have been caught in a public health crisis of yet unknown devastation. Today, in the United States, along with other countries, “ordinary” life as we have known it, is no more. We now daily face a deadly virus, one stealthily transmitted by a person unaware of her or his infection. Suddenly, “social distancing” demands that we restrict human interaction – no handshakes, no high five’s, no hugs, no crowds.

The demand for tests and testing and the widespread closing of schools, universities and businesses, along with cancellations of social, political and religious events, all point to a severely crippled America. We see anxious shoppers entangled in chaotic scrambling for water, food, and yes, toilet paper! Just thinking of the long-term impact on the economy boggles the mind. A vaccine, scientists report, could be as far away as twelve to eighteen months.

In Washington, D.C., the rapid spread of COVID-19 compelled a historically contentious Congress to pass an unprecedented bipartisan funding bill. These funds will underwrite the costs of urgently needed resources – many associated with job loss, childcare, medical leave, emergency equipment, and nutritional needs. Clearly, the COVID-19 pandemic has the power to affect us all in ways more drastic and more frightening than anyone could have predicted.

People of faith, however, can access a greater power – the power of God. In times of great stress, people of faith need not be overwhelmed. Crisis may reign but God is strong and unmovable. Each of us can declare with the confidence of the psalmist: God is my refuge and my fortress… my God, in whom I trust (Psalm 91:2). Our attitude toward this “new normal” should not be hopelessness and despair.

As people of faith, we can pray that COVID-19 will peak, decline, and descend into nonexistence. Surviving this outbreak will take more than medical expertise and modified behavior; it will require the steadfast faith of God’s people, drawing strength from both “In God We Trust” and “E pluribus unum.” This is not a time to panic, but a time to activate our faith and trust the blessed assurance of God’s faithfulness to us.

At the same time, we must attend to precautionary measures:

• Educate yourself about coronavirus (COVID-19). Ask questions. Stay up to date with information from credible sources, such as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Maintain strict personal hygiene. Wash your hands throughout the day with soap and warm water, and avoid touching your face, eyes, and mouth.
• Prepare for a possible imposed quarantine. Stock up on food, water, medicine, household supplies, entertainment, communication devices and other essentials to sustain your household for 6-8 weeks.
• Pay special attention to elderly loved ones and to any person in the home with a compromised health condition.
• Maintain contact with family and friends through radio, telephone, television, and social media. Visit them “in person” on Skype!
• Remain calm and prayerful. Seek peace in spiritual pursuits. Explore new ways to stay positive, encouraged, and constructively busy.

Times like these are reminders that health, life, and normalcy are more fragile than we probably realized, but we must always remember that God is in control. Until we can congregate again in person, know that I care deeply about your well-being and will be lifting you in prayer.

Grace and peace be multiplied upon you!

Sincerely,

Dr. Antipas

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Jack Hayford preached a sermon at Church on the Way in 1982. He chose Ephesians 6 for his scripture from which he described the armor of God, and how we were to embrace and wear that armor to ward off attacks of the enemy of our souls. I was 51, single, lonely and living in Los Angeles at that time. I owned a major part of a successful construction consulting engineering firm that was growing nicely. I had become a Christian in 1961.

Toward the end of the sermon, Pastor Jack advised there were times when the devil was out to steal our future and when that was the case, we had to more than put on the armor; we had to declare war on the devil, and refuse to surrender our future.

I played golf later that Sunday. I got to the club late in the afternoon and played alone. I got to the fourth hole and hit the ball well. I drove down the cart path and stopped where the cart path to the eighth tee intersected the path I was using.

I got out of the cart and looked around. No one was close by or about to come my way, so I took that moment to declare war on the devil. By then, I had decided that he was not going to steal any more of my future, and I challenged him at the top of my voice. No one heard me and when I was done, I got back in the cart and played on.

I got home that evening and instead of going across the street to my customary restaurant for supper, I got busy and never bothered to eat. I got up the next morning and felt checked about breakfast, settling for a cup of coffee.

I did not know much about spiritual warfare at that point in my life. Oh, I had heard about it, but somehow it was beyond my level of experience or interest. My two skipped meals lead to a third, a fourth and soon I knew I was fasting. My recollection is that I sort of fell into this fast; at least, I have no recollection of making a decision not to eat.

I went over to my friend’s home on Thursday. His name was Chuck Shoemake, and at that time he pastored the Canoga Park Foursquare church. His wife Ruby joined us, and we sat around their living room talking. Our custom to close one of my visits was to kneel around their coffee table and have a prayer.

The Fall Festivals of God: prophetic rehearsals with relevance for today. Part of the Messianic Foundations series.

In the epistle of Romans, our teacher Paul speaks to the non-Jewish believers reminding them that they have been grafted-in. “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you” (Romans 11:17-18, NAS).

Messianic Foundations
Artwork by Steve Grier © 1997 RBC Ministries. Used by permission.

Much has been said about this “root,” and many theories bantered about as to Paul’s intent. It is not likely that we will achieve consensus in this article, but Paul is clear that the root supports the non-Jewish believer. Biblically, Israel is referred to as an olive tree in Jeremiah 11:15-17 and Hosea 14:6, so the Scriptural precedent indicates that Paul intends the reader to understand the tree to be the believing remnant of Israel. By personal experience and an ever-widening understanding of the Scriptures, this author agrees with Paul, that this root is our ancient Biblical heritage—an inheritance with its origins in faithful Judaism¹.

Theologians discuss “progressive revelation,” and find the pages of the Bible replete with an ongoing, ever expanding and consistent manifestation of the character of God. Such Biblical understanding is often crucial in effective evangelism and apologetics, drawing the plan of the Almighty out like a treasure map for the explorer to find.

By searching through the treasures waiting us in our own Biblical heritage, in this case the Fall Feasts of Leviticus 23, untold riches can be found. Some may have been taught that Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot, are “Jewish” festivals and therefore “dead” in a modern faith expression. If the observance of these appointed times were strictly ethnic, such teaching would certainly be true and any application empty legalism. But in a strictly Biblical context, the only context we should concern ourselves with, and the heritage that is ours to claim, this wholesale rejection of the feast days is both unfair and unscriptural. It denies believers of every denominational creed their own God-given heritage.

The LORD spoke again to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD’S appointed times which you shall proclaim …” (Lev 23:1, 2).

God calls them His appointed times. At no point does the Architect of our faith refer to them as the “Feast of Israel,” or the “Jewish High Holy days.” To do so takes them out of Scriptural context, improperly transfers them into an ethnic context, and in our innocence creates a sense of distance that makes us feel they have no place in our Christian faith. This steals the treasures that God intended for His faithful remnant to have; it robs them of their inheritance, and hinders our understanding of the Bible.