Wisdom for lockdown from the 16th century!
Over the last year, the term “lockdown” has taken on a whole new level of meaning, especially here in Australia. Where many countries around the world have been exploring different ways of responding to COVID-19, our leaders in the seeming pursuit of eliminating the virus, have heavily relied on locking down citizens to largely stay in their homes.
Without question, the effects of these lockdowns have been mentally, emotionally, socially, economically, and spiritually damaging. Thinking particularly of the spiritual cost, since our first lockdown early in 2020, the majority of our worship services have been cancelled. Since my ordination in February 2019, I think I have preached more sermons to a camera than to a congregation! According to the Westminster Confession of Faith (Ch 25.III), God effectually uses the ministry of the Church “for the gathering and perfecting of the saints.” Whatever else these lockdowns have included, at the least they have brought with them a significant restriction on the use of the public means of grace. Corporate worship – biblically speaking – is by nature intended to be an in-person gathering of God’s people. The necessity of this in-person aspect of worship is especially obvious in the call to lift our voices in song together (e.g. Ps 84:4; Ps 149:1), to literally come together at the Lord’s Table, and in the general command to not forsake gathering ourselves together (Heb 10:25). Technology is a wonderful thing, but – biblically speaking – we should not view streamed services as a replacement for public worship.
How should we respond to this situation? How do we even begin thinking about it? Well to start with, at the very least, there is one thing we can say with certainty: God calls us to prayerfully and wisely consider the times in which we live. As we are confronted with COVID-19 itself, and the response of our society, we should prayerfully apply our minds to discern the will of God for us in this situation. In scripture we are called to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Mt 22:37). To love the Lord with our mind, we must search for wisdom in the scriptures “as for hidden treasures” (Pr 2:4), praying also for wisdom (Js 1:5), and holding the word of God before us as a “lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path (Ps 119:105).
With all that in mind, my purpose in this series of articles is not to tell you what to think. Consider them rather an invitation to think, and to meditate prayerfully and biblically on the times in which we live. To do that, I want to draw in some conversation partners to join us. Books are a wonderful thing! They allow us to converse with others across space and time, and – importantly – to benefit from the great wisdom that the Lord has for us through the learning of others.
We’ll begin with a voice from the past. Most Presbyterian and Reformed folk know of John Calvin, but a lesser-known man was his successor in Geneva, Theodore Beza (1519-1605). As it so happens, Beza applied his talents to a particular publication relevant for us today entitled: A Learned Treatise on the Plague. Those of us not yet able to read Latin owe a debt of gratitude to Edward Percival for his 1665 translation, to Bennie Castle for his 2020 modernisation, and to the folk at Canon Press for partnering with him to re-release this short volume. Beza aims in his treatise to answer two questions: (i) Whether or not the plague is infectious; and (ii) whether or not Christians ought to avoid (“shun”) the plague.
As to the first question, I find it a refreshing thing to breathe air from another century (provided it’s not “corrupted” of course…). Like us, people in the past have faced viral sickness. Unlike us, however, the way that many have thought about this challenge was fundamentally theological in nature. In all the public discussions about COVID-19 in mainstream media, God is notably omitted. As Christians, reading Beza thus helpfully reminds us that we need to be aware of this as we listen and respond to the legion of voices in the public square. And there’s an obvious question that arises here, that being: to what extent have we allowed the godless thinking of the world around us to affect our thinking and response to our current circumstances? That is a question deserving of careful consideration. Another important question we might pause and consider is: to what extend has godlessness and unbelief influenced the thinking and decisions of our public officials? Perhaps we should take some time to think carefully about how we would answer these questions.
As to Beza’s second question, here we find something more directly applicable to our own situation: is avoidance a godly response when it comes to the plague? Many rulers across the world have adopted a policy of ‘Covid elimination’ resulting in them implementing frequent lockdowns. Certainly, in Australia, this approach has dominated our national response. Is this the right approach? Is it an acceptable approach? Given the great cost that comes with accepting it as a valid approach, at the very least these question must be asked and answered well. Beza describes two responses to this question that were common in his day. The first, held by some, was that avoiding the plague was a “heinous offence” in every circumstance. On the other hand, some argued that “flying” should be pursued without exception. Beza walks a middle path, ably pointing out problems in each of them, and discerning his own path using a singular key idea: “duty.”
Duty is a recurring theme in Beza’s treatise. In his concluding application, Beza counsels his readers to “learn out of the Word of God what his duty is” and “commend himself unto God and continue constantly therein” (p.48). Whatever unanswered questions Beza leaves, this counsel is surely both timeless and relevant. How should we respond in the midst of COVID-19? At the very least, we should begin by learning from the Word of God what our duty is, and having learned our duty we must simply continue in it. What’s more, we should expect that the Word of God will equip us for “every good work” in this circumstance (2 Tim 3:15-17).
Beyond this, Beza does give a number of helpful hints as to what this duty is. “First of all, I think it is to be provided that every man summon himself to the judgement seat of God, regarding the plague as a foretaste of the wrath of God” (p.48). He sensibly applies the sixth commandment by saying that we should put neither our own lives, “nor the lives of any belonging or depending” on us in danger of infection rashly.
There is a notable lack in Beza’s application, however, and this lack is felt keenly in these modern times in which the state has come to play such a central role in society. Touching on the duties of the “Christian magistrate”, Beza says that their responsibility is to “provide that those things which either breed or nourish the plague be taken away as far as… able” (p.51). Beza generally demonstrates what he’s saying in this treatise from scripture, but on this point he doesn’t. For us today, with the vastly extended control of the civil magistrate, we may wish that he did, and then explored his comment further. But while a development of this thought would have been helpful, even the emergence of the question is valuable. What is the duty of the state before God? This is a key question and, in the past, Reformed Churches have had a well-developed theology on it (see, for example, Belgic Confession Article 36). By extension we might ask: do lockdowns constitute a valid exercise of their authority in pursuit of that duty? These are important questions to which we should carefully and prayerfully seek an answer.
I haven’t really provided any specific answers here, perhaps I have raised more questions than I have answered! But I did say at the beginning that this was an “invitation to think” rather than an attempt to tell you what you ought to think. Let me encourage you, then, to do that. Re-read this mediation, mull it over, pause and consider the questions we have raised, and please join me next week as we listen to another voice from the past – the Swedish Reformer Ludwig Lataver! May God give us the wisdom and grace to live in our times in a way that is pleasing to Him.
Soli Deo Gloria!