Should Christians Mask Up (Again)?

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Welcome to Bible Bash, where we aim to equip the saints for the works of ministry by answering the questions you're not allowed to ask.

01:33

We're your hosts, Harrison Kerrig and Pastor Tim Mullett, and today we'll answer the age -old question, Should Christians Mask Up Again?

01:42

Now, as we kick this episode off, Tim, what Bible verse do you have for us to read? All right,

01:47

Romans 13, 1 says, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

01:57

Therefore, whoever resists authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.

02:03

So you see, it says it right there. Mask up, bigot. Mask up. So your argument is, yes, you ought to mask up, or you risk violating

02:14

Romans 13, huh? I mean, that's essentially what people are arguing for. So I don't think that's right.

02:22

Okay, so you don't think that's right. Why don't you think that refusing to mask up at the government's behest is a violation of Romans 13?

02:33

It's funny. I mean, as I've talked to people about this, it seems like most people, they really don't have a category for the government going beyond their authority in any way possible.

02:47

So almost what they've done is they give the government basically a blank check to come up with any kind of laws that they want to come up with.

02:58

And there is a certain kind of Christian, and they commented on plenty of our posts related to this topic in general, but they essentially say that if the government isn't asking you to sin, then you must comply, and that's what

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Romans 13 means. So being subject to the governing authorities means that as long as they're not asking you to sin, you must do it.

03:17

And that's basically how their understanding of authority relationships work in general is that there's basically a blank check for the person who is in authority to tell the person under their authority to do basically anything.

03:31

Unless it's a husband. Unless it's a husband. In which case, yeah, it doesn't really work that well in that case, for sure.

03:41

But yeah, so I mean, their understanding is basically just the government has a blank check to tell citizens to do whatever possible.

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And really, I mean, it's very hard to come up with an absurd scenario that they won't actually cave on.

03:58

So one of the scenarios I've come up with that I ask people on a regular basis is that if the government mandated

04:04

Taco Tuesday, would you be in sin if you didn't eat tacos on Tuesday every week?

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And the kind of person who is making this argument, I mean, they will be consistent on that, and they'll say yes. I mean, you'd be in sin if you don't have government -mandated

04:22

Taco Tuesday. So they actually swallow the reductio. They go with it, but then you do have to think about, as you're talking about a subject like this, you do have to think about what is the purview of government?

04:34

What is government ordained by God to actually do? And thinking more broadly in terms of how this subject actually works,

04:41

God has ordained certain spheres of authority within the world, within the home.

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So you have the sphere of government. You have the sphere of church, the sphere of the family. You have within the family there's authority structures.

04:55

You have a husband who's in charge of wife and kids. You have parents who are in charge of children. And then you have the sphere of the individual.

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And so you have to think through some of these things and ask what responsibilities has God given to each sphere?

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And then with the idea of something like government -mandated Taco Tuesday or something absurd like that, what's happening is you have the government who is basically acting in a lawless way.

05:19

They're basically usurping the authority of the family, and particularly the husband, to make those kinds of decisions.

05:27

Which, I mean, it's most often delegated to the wife anyways because she's the one who is going to be cooking and everything else if you're in a biblical home for the most part.

05:35

So what's happening there is you have different spheres of authority that God has ordained, and sometimes they come into conflict.

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And there is a sphere of the individual, sphere of the family, sphere of the government, sphere of the church.

05:46

And so then you have to ask, well, what is due to the government? What are their responsibilities in that kind of way?

05:53

And when you think about something like just, is it their responsibility to basically be a nanny state to come up with laws that are designed to protect you from self -harm in that way or what they deem to be self -harm, then you're really getting into murky territory at that point for sure.

06:11

And I don't really believe most people when they say, whenever they make these arguments and they say, hey, as long as the government's not asking you to sin, you must do it.

06:23

I don't even believe that they hold true to that because, I mean, just look back at what happened in 2020.

06:34

And the government is mandating churches to shut down. And most Christians just go along with it for like over a year.

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And, I mean, there's like legal battles over these things and pastors getting arrested and then other

06:50

Christians are coming along and essentially saying, yeah, serves you right for trying to open your church.

06:57

So I don't even believe people when they start bringing up, oh, as long as the government's not asking you to sin, like, hey, look, here's the deal, they did ask you to sin and you still went along with it.

07:07

So I find it hard to believe you when that's the response that we got from most

07:17

Christians when anyone decided, hey, we're looking around and this thing doesn't seem nearly as serious as CNN is telling us it is.

07:26

So we're going to go back to meeting on Sunday mornings because that's what God has commanded us to do.

07:32

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a joke when you think about that kind of thing. Meaning, what you have is you have many

07:39

Christians who they really are ascribing the authority of the government to God. God's authority to the government in that way and they're viewing government as if they're almost

07:51

God with no checks and balances whatsoever. So they'll say, hey, as long as the government isn't asking you to sin, you should do what they're saying.

08:00

But then when push comes to shove, it actually is a blank check that they're giving to the government that almost has no breaks whatsoever.

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You would think that a government stepping in and telling a church they're not allowed to meet, that would at least be a bridge too far for the kind of person that we're talking about.

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But it didn't seem to be in the last case. And in fact, I mean, they would gleefully hand you over to be persecuted and killed in that way, just as the

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Bible describes it. And then they would think that they're doing God a favor as they're actively ensuring your persecution because what's happening is in these kind of scenarios, they know that God expects something of them that's going to be costly.

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And then when individuals do stand firm and say, hey, enough is enough, no, we're going to obey

08:44

God rather than men. In those kind of cases, it shames them and it makes them feel like, it violates their guilty conscience essentially.

08:55

So that's what's happening in those kind of scenarios. But I mean, when you think about what's actually happening as it relates to this topic in general, you are in a situation where God has delegated to the government certain responsibilities.

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And predominantly the responsibilities He's delegated to the government is to ensure property rights in that way.

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And really, I mean, they're given the task to punish evil and to praise those who do good. And so when you think about their actual purview of the government along these lines,

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I mean, most of what they're doing is going to be to secure property rights, and there has to be some sort of victim for there to be actually some sort of crime.

09:34

And so what you have in these kind of scenarios is you have the government who's acting like a parent to you, right?

09:39

They're overstepping the authority of the individual, overstepping the authority of the family.

09:45

So they're basically taking on the responsibility to keep you safe in that way and to come up with laws that there's no victim, right?

09:55

There's no victim in these kind of laws. They're basically just telling you, wear these masks. We know that these masks aren't effective, as Fauci told us.

10:03

We know that wearing a cloth strip over your face is not doing anything whatsoever to stop the spread of an airborne virus in this way.

10:16

I mean, it's like throwing a BB through a tennis net or something ridiculous like that. I mean, that's the way it works.

10:23

You can smell things through these cloth strips. I mean, I think Alyssa Milano was on Twitter bragging about her crocheted mask she was wearing, which had obvious visible holes in it.

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Like it had obvious holes in it with no sense. It was like a fishnet mask or something ridiculous like that, and she had no sense of self -awareness that this actually is not doing anything whatsoever.

10:55

So it's just logic is not the strong suit with these kind of individuals. But I mean, you are in murky territory here.

11:05

So I mean, essentially what's happening is the government is mandating that people do a pointless gesture in order to make people feel better.

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So that's what you're talking about. Do a pointless gesture in order to make people feel better, and then that gesture might actually have safety hazards to it as well than everything else.

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So it's just absurd. So the government's overstepping their realm of authority that has been given to them by God.

11:37

The second question I want to talk through, and this is something I see brought up a lot when it comes to wearing masks.

11:43

So let's just put the government aspect of it aside and just like, hey, when

11:49

I'm considering for myself, should I wear a mask or not, something a lot of people bring up is like, hey, if you want to love your neighbor, you need to mask up for their safety or whatever it is.

12:04

So what's your response to that kind of assertion that masking up is a form of loving your neighbor?

12:11

Well, you know it isn't about that because what we're talking about in these kind of scenarios is that any facial covering will do.

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So it doesn't even matter what kind of facial covering that you're wearing at this point as long as it gives people the impression that you're taking this thing seriously.

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And so you think about what actually happened during this pandemic or whatever. When you think about what actually happened, you're in scenarios and you're in situations where you're walking into restaurants wearing a facial covering for 10 steps and then you're sitting down at a table and able to take your facial covering off as you're sitting down at a table with a group of people who are sitting within six feet of you, right?

12:56

And so, I mean, you think about this like there's - I don't see, what's the problem there? There is nothing logical that's happening in these moments.

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And then if, I mean, you can look at the studies that are done on this kind of stuff and they prove - they basically show that these are not effective.

13:16

Fauci knew that these are not effective, which is why he told people in video form not to go buy all the masks.

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Later on, he basically said that he only said that in order to keep people from buying up all the

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N95 hospital masks or whatever for the sake of the hospitals. But which one are we listening to?

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The first lie or the second lie at that point? But the issue is everyone knows this isn't about safety.

13:39

Everyone knows it's not about safety. Because if you can just wear a shirt, like a cut -up shirt over your face and make everyone feel good, or you can wear a hospital mask, or it got so absurd at a certain point where Russell Moore is wearing two masks to show that he is sufficiently cowed by the government and by everyone else.

14:04

He has double the virtue, man. Double the virtue at that point. Virtue times two. Simple math equation.

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One equals loving your neighbor. Two equals really loving your neighbor. The issue, though, is that everyone knows it's a farce.

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Everyone knows it's a farce. All the rules were arbitrary. They didn't make any sense. They didn't serve any logical, rational, reasonable kind of purpose.

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If you know anything about the size of the virus, and you know about that in comparison to the holes in these masks, which you can actually smell out of and breathe out of, they cut off some airflow.

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Look, we had babies in diapers at that point. You change a diaper with a mask on, and you can smell it.

14:46

None of this is about the science. None of this is about logic. None of this is about reason. If you're asking me, isn't it loving to your neighbor to put a face diaper on or something along those lines?

14:59

Obviously not. What you've done is you've redefined love. Love, in that definition, means that you lie to people in order to make them feel better.

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This only works in the kind of society where lying to other people to make them feel better is seen as some kind of virtue.

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That's what you're talking about. You're not talking about something logical or rational or helpful or reasonable.

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All this is reduced to is basically just showing your pledge of allegiance to the cause, that we're all in this together.

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That we're all trying to do our best to stop the spread and willing to make sacrifices and whatever else.

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If it's not about what you're actually doing, this is just a token that you're offering to the mob in order to help them to know that you care or something.

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But that isn't the way biblical love and biblical care actually works. Biblical love and biblical care isn't just making a show of how compassionate you are, disconnected from what you're actually doing.

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Biblical love and biblical care for someone is going to be to do no harm to them. Wearing a token mask on your face, all that's doing is just a means of trying to calm down hysterical people.

16:16

It's kind of like when you're on the plane and the oxygen mask comes down in the plane when your plane is about to crash.

16:30

You put the oxygen mask on your face and it's like, why are you doing this? How is that going to help you survive this plane crash or whatever?

16:38

What is this actually about? It's like, yeah, maybe oxygen makes you a little bit, pure oxygen like that will just calm you down, make you a little bit loopy.

16:47

But if you're going to crash, you're going to crash, right? So this isn't actually doing what it's advertising to do.

16:52

But even more so, with something like a mask, this is basically the societal -wide equivalent of your wife asking you if the dress makes her look fat, and you just saying, no, honey.

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I mean, it's just that kind of thing. And I think when you live in a society that's as feminized as what ours is, that actually becomes reasonable to people is to lie to them in order to make them feel good.

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And I think in general, too, just that command to love your neighbor has essentially been hijacked by people, by progressive, quote -unquote,

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Christians. In the same way, you'll have Democrats who are saying, hey, this is a threat against democracy.

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Insert whatever thing that we don't like, whether it's like, hey, banning abortion is a threat to our democracy, or whatever it is.

17:55

Loving your neighbor has sort of become this, like, trump card that you're not allowed to argue with.

18:01

And just whatever they decide is loving your neighbor, that is what is truly loving your neighbor.

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And so you must do it, or you're really not a Christian, basically, or you're a bad

18:13

Christian. Yeah, like, hey, love your neighbor. Say the pronouns. Love your neighbor. Make the cake. Love your neighbor.

18:19

Allow the abortion. Love your neighbor. Put the mask on. So, in some of those, yeah,

18:25

I mean, in some of those, it's like actually loving your neighbor is harming them, right?

18:32

And I think in this case, loving your neighbor is lying to them, right? So, you're just lying to them.

18:38

So, it may not yeah, what is it going to hurt to wear a mask? Well, all it hurts is you're lying to everyone, okay?

18:44

And so there are entailments to that. But anyways, what were we saying? So, I was just sort of saying that as an aside, but then the next question

18:52

I had was, you know, so if as Christians, if we if we're supposed to, you know, essentially refuse to mask up, what do you do when you go out somewhere and, you know, you go into a restaurant, you go to a store, wherever you are, and someone asks you to put a mask on, and you say, no, no thanks.

19:21

And then you just move on. But then they're persistent about it. What do you do?

19:27

How do you respond in that kind of situation? Yeah, I mean, I would say that with this scenario, my impulse is to not lie to people.

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So, I wouldn't want to give them the impression that I'm doing something that I'm not.

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Now, I mean, I can conceive of situations where you have a gun put to your head, and you're like, basically, you're, like, it's easier to talk about this depending on the social consequences of what we're even saying at this point.

20:01

Meaning, like, if you're living in the South or something like that, I mean, I think for the vast majority of the first quote -unquote pandemic,

20:08

I didn't wear a mask at all. So, for the vast majority of it, I refused to play ball.

20:14

I did for a little bit because I hadn't sorted through the implications of it. And possibly,

20:20

I mean, maybe it was sinful cowardice on my part too, so I'm willing to acknowledge that as well. But at a certain point, it became clear to me what was actually happening, and I didn't want to do this anymore.

20:33

And so, in those kind of situations, I think there was little social cost to me in doing that.

20:45

And I can imagine people in different areas of the country where if they don't play ball, they lose their job, and lose their ability to provide and everything else.

20:57

And so, I don't know that I would want to necessarily say that in those kind of situations, there's fundamentally an act of Christian unfaithfulness to ever be forced against your will to do something stupid or something like that, or do something irrational.

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So, you know, I think in those kind of scenarios, I do have a category for the thug holding a gun to your head and saying, you know, do this pointless thing or else

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I'm going to shoot. And you say, okay, alright. Well, here's my wallet, right? At that point, you know,

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I'm only doing this because you're threatening me, but I will do it because you're threatening me, and I want to make it known that that's what's happening in those kind of cases.

21:42

So, I mean, I do have a category for that kind of thing, and you know, I do know that in certain areas of the country, it can be easier than other areas of the country to, you know, actually like, meaning there might not be any cost to it, but at the same time, you know, what needs to happen is that you need courage in the population in general, and the more that people are unwilling to play ball, the more that, you know,

22:07

God will reward that, and, you know, maybe we can push back against the zeitgeist along those lines, but I mean, at the very least,

22:13

I think everyone should be able to have a category for saying, you know, I'm not going to lie to you, and I'm not going to live in fear, and I'm not going to pretend, and I'm not just going to, you know, do these things that, you know, give this pinch of incest to Caesar at this point, and,

22:32

I mean, I think particularly as it relates to, you know, areas that you actually have control over, I mean, you don't have to, I mean, we have curbside delivery for most of our grocery stores, so,

22:40

I mean, I think there's a lot of situations where you can get it taken care of, you know, without having to wear your mask, without having to go into the store, you don't have to go to restaurants, you don't have to be entertained, and I think, you know, for a lot of what happened in my own personal experience, like, not wearing a mask in a lot of places, what

22:58

I found is that when people turned me away, I just got turned away, I didn't care, you know, so, that's fine, all right, well, you're gonna make a big deal about it,

23:05

I'm just gonna go elsewhere, I don't wanna, you're not gonna get my money then, so, tell your boss that, you know, so I think, like, particularly when it comes to, like, you know, the,

23:15

I mean, there's no excuse for it in optional areas, in that way, you know, I mean, maybe if it's like, hey, your whole entire livelihood depends upon it and there's nowhere you can get a job unless you do it, like, maybe you need to be thinking, like, hard about moving at that point, relocating and everything else, but, you know,

23:33

I do have, essentially, I do have a category for them holding a gun to your head, so to speak, but I think particularly in areas where it's optional, get out of there, or don't do it, you know.

23:45

So, do employers have a right to tell you to wear a mask?

23:53

Because, you know, I mean, we would, you know, we would say, like, it's a pretty regular thing for an employer to say, like, hey, this is the dress code we expect you to follow while you work here.

24:07

So, would masks fall under that because they're, you know, they're paying you for your time and effort, or is it a similar argument to the government?

24:21

Yeah, I would think that a private employer has, you know, they certainly have the ability to ask you to wear certain uniforms with the expectation that you will wear it, and if you want this voluntary form of employee, if you want this, like, voluntary form of employment, you know, you're not actually a slave to them in that way, then

24:43

I would say that they're in stronger footing than the government is in that way. I don't think it's, like, right for them to, you know,

24:52

I don't think it's right for them to ask you to do that, if that makes sense. But then, you know, certainly you have to, you certainly, like, that's, hey,

25:04

I'm going to pay you to wear this costume and you need to wear it, you know, if you want to get paid. Right. So whether or not it's, like, a just, honorable, good thing that they're asking you to do, you know,

25:14

I don't think that they're asking, like, I think in of itself if you isolate the mask that you're wearing from any extraneous meaning whatsoever, like, you understand what

25:26

I'm saying? Like, if you can just isolate it as they're just asking you to wear a costume, period, the end, like, certainly, okay, yeah,

25:35

I mean, that, like, certain forms of employment require that kind of thing. Now, if you're asking for, like, the grounding behind it, is that a good grounding for them to ask you to do, well, no, but I mean, like, you know, objectively, it's not sinful to wear a costume, so to speak, right?

25:50

So if you got employed by an actor's studio to wear a ninja mask or something like that, you certainly wouldn't be in sin by, you know, wearing the costume that they're asking you to do, and because you're, you know, an at -will employee, then you have to follow the rules if you want to get the job, and so their job is requiring this ridiculous, stupid mask, and, you know, you're going to have to think very hard, like, yeah, hey, like, do

26:15

I want to get paid or not? And if, you know, there's nowhere I can go where they're going to pay me without me wearing this ridiculous, pointless costume, then you have to think about it along those lines, but I think, yeah, that would be more within their rights as an employer than a government would have at that point, and so you have to deal with it along those lines.

26:37

So I do think, at that point, you're asking, as a condition of my employment, they're requiring me to wear a ridiculous costume that doesn't do anything, and it's like, well, okay,

26:48

I guess so then, right? So I think you're in a difficult, I think you're definitely in a difficult spot there, for sure.

26:55

So is the answer, yes, you should wear it, or no, you shouldn't? Well, I don't know that it's a yes, you should, or a no, you shouldn't, as much as it's, if you want to get paid, you have to, you know, wear this costume they're asking you to.

27:12

I mean, you do have a responsibility to provide for your family at that point, so this might be a good opportunity right now, before it happens again, for people to shuffle themselves over to places where, you know, like Florida, for instance, where they've already preemptively passed legislation that will prevent them from having to do that kind of thing, you know, so that may be an impulse for people along those lines to do that very thing.

27:36

But yeah, I think definitely, I don't think it's a should or shouldn't as much as it's, if you want to get paid, then that may be a hoop you have to jump through to get paid, basically.

27:46

Okay. If that makes sense. Either that or move. And I think I would, you know,

27:53

I think the best thing that people could do, though, is, like, you know, be pushing their legislators to make laws like Florida's making along those lines.

28:04

So, for Christians who are refusing to wear masks, what would be the better response in your mind?

28:14

To just outright, say you walk into, you know, a restaurant or something, they say, hey, we need you to put a mask on.

28:22

Is the better response to say, no, I won't do that? Or is it to say, okay, and then you put on a mask that you've cut holes into for your mouth and nose as a sign of mockery towards the whole idea of masking up?

28:41

Which one would be a better response? I think to the extent to which you can avoid,

28:50

I mean, I think to the extent to which you can avoid those kind of scenarios is probably better. Like, in general.

28:55

Meaning, like, it would be better, particularly if you're going to a restaurant or something like that, just to say, hey, no, thanks. You know,

29:01

I'll go to somewhere that doesn't require me to put this stupid thing on my face. I think that would be a better scenario.

29:06

Now, I mean, if you're just forced, if you're forced to play ball or something like that, then,

29:15

I mean, I think the protest kind of mask might be, I mean, at the very least it'd be funny, you know?

29:27

But then... It would be funny, yeah. I mean, I think to the extent to which you can make it very clear to everyone around you that this is a joke and you know that this is a joke, you know, as much as you can push that as possible,

29:41

I think you probably should. But maybe don't cut the hole out for your mouth and nose.

29:49

I think it would be better probably to, like, have the black mesh in there, you know, that's like a big mouth -shaped, nose -shaped black mesh or something.

29:59

That could just, you know, point to the fact that it's a joke.

30:04

Or even, you know, maybe even wear one of the Halloween masks or something like that. Oh, how could

30:12

I ever forget? And then you put on, like, a scream mask or something. A Jason mask.

30:19

I mean, I think to the extent to which you can make it very clear that you are in a scenario, like, when you can't escape, you're in a scenario that you, like, that is going to involve you having to give the impression that you're deceiving people, you know, that you're a hypochondriac person, that when you're actually not,

30:42

I think the best thing you can do is to try to push against that for sure. And make it very clear that this is just, like, obviously, this is you're being forced to do something against your will.

30:54

You wouldn't want to send the wrong message, you know. On a slightly more serious note, don't you think that as, you know, as Christians, being asked to put a mask on would be a good opportunity to share the gospel with someone?

31:13

Meaning, you know, like, hey, you walk into the restaurant, the lady says, hey, you need to put a mask on.

31:22

Is that a good opportunity to talk to someone and say, like, hey, why are, you know, why are you so scared of this thing?

31:33

Like, what's moving? I mean, because it seems like the, I mean, maybe that's kind of hard, because there's some,

31:41

I'm sure there's plenty of people, especially depending on where you live, who are just asking people to put a mask on because they've been told by a boss that that's what they need to do, and they don't necessarily care much themselves, whether you have a mask on or not.

31:55

I know I ran into a lot of people that were like that, but then it seems like the general consensus overall with the response to COVID in general was just like this, like,

32:07

I mean, just total fear of what it might do, and possibly, like, being killed by COVID.

32:18

So wouldn't this, wouldn't being asked to wear a mask be a good opportunity to share the gospel of someone essentially asking, hey, why are, you know, why are you so scared about this?

32:31

Or, you know, if you get the impression that they're probably not scared, why is it that you think people are scared about this in general?

32:39

And then try and point that to, you know, like, hey, people are afraid they're going to die, and ultimately they're afraid they're going to die because they know that they're guilty for their sin.

32:49

Yeah, I had plenty of those kind of conversations during the last masking, you know, mask up kind of events where I just wouldn't wear it and, you know, people would say, hey, you have to wear a mask, and it's like, no,

33:03

I'm just not going to lie to people, and you know, I believe in God, I'm not held captive to the fear of death in this way, and I think those are just perfect opportunities to have those kind of discussions to the extent to which you can, you know, to the extent to which you can.

33:19

I mean, I think, you know, hopefully, whenever round two comes about,

33:24

I think hopefully a lot of people did learn from the last round, and, you know, one of the things you can see, just particularly on Twitter, is person after person after person saying, you know,

33:38

I refuse to ever wear a mask again, you know, I will not wear a mask, and I'm largely encouraged by that kind of thing, but then

33:46

I do think people need to say, hey, Lord willing, I won't. You know, don't, you know, to the one who thinks they'll stand and take heed lest they fall, and you know,

33:56

I think to the extent to which, you know, larger percentages of the population are not complying, it does make it very hard for the government to step in and start getting tyrannical again, and that's kind of what happened, you know, once um, with the first round, you know, the first round of locking things down, they tried to transition back into a second round and, you know, people weren't having it, and so they didn't get a lot of movement on that, but yeah,

34:24

I think definitely saying no, taking that as an opportunity to share about ultimate things,

34:30

I think, gospel, the good news, why you're not, the hope that's in you, why you shouldn't lie to people,

34:36

I think those are all good things to do, and, you know, I do hope that we're a lot more courageous than we were last time around, but, you know, just thinking about the actual state of affairs in our country,

34:47

I don't think, I don't know that we will be. I'm optimistic. I think when you're in a small, you know,

34:55

Twitter echo chamber or whatever, it makes you think that there's a lot more of you than what there actually are, but, you know, maybe there's a lot of angry secret conservatives out there who are fed up with it, you know, now it's been politicized, but who knows.

35:06

I guess we'll see. But, alright, well, that's a good place for us to end the conversation on, and, you know,

35:14

I mean, it just seems like this stuff is coming pretty soon, so it's good for us to talk through these things again, and, like you said,

35:23

Tim, hopefully, the point behind the conversation like this is to hopefully help prepare people ahead of time, because I think, at least part of the problem was we've just spent so long just not even having to think about any sort of, like, persecution or, you know, what is like the actual, what is the actual sphere or role of government?

35:49

How much authority has God given them? And, you know, at what point are they actually asking us to sin?

35:55

Because I think they were asking us to sin and we just went along with it. So, hopefully with a conversation like this, the goal is to try and get out in front of it this time and hopefully convince more people that it is better not to lie and it's better to, you know, be courageous, tell the truth, and refuse to submit to a government who has far surpassed their sphere of authority.

36:23

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36:32

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36:39

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36:47

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36:56

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37:08

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