John Piper just released a little book today, Coronavirus and Christ. Here's an excerpt about the example of the early church and how it relates to coronavirus today (pp. 91-93):
EXAMPLE OF THE EARLY CHURCH
Rodney Stark, in his book The Triumph of Christianity, points out that in the first centuries of the Christian church the “truly revolutionary principle was that Christian love and charity must extend beyond the boundaries of family and even those of faith, to all in need.”
Two great plagues struck the Roman Empire in AD 165 and 251. Outside of the Christian church, there was no cultural or religious foundation for mercy and sacrifice. “There was no belief that the gods cared about human affairs.” And “mercy was regarded as a character defect and pity as a pathological emotion: because mercy involves providing unearned help or relief, it is contrary to justice.”
Therefore, while a third of the empire was perishing from disease, physicians fled to their country estates. Those with symptoms were cast out of homes. Priests forsook the temples. But Stark observes, “Christians claimed to have answers and, most of all, they took appropriate actions.”
The answers included the forgiveness of sins through Christ and the hope of eternal life beyond death. This was a precious message in a season of medical helplessness and
utter hopelessness.
As for the actions, large numbers of Christians cared for the sick and the dying. Toward the end of the second plague, Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria wrote a letter, extolling the members of his church:
PUTTING TO SILENCE THE IGNORANCE OF EMPERORS
Over time, this countercultural, Christ-sustained care for the sick and the poor had the effect of winning many people away from the surrounding paganism. Two centuries later, when the Roman emperor Julian (AD 332–363) wanted to breathe new life back into the ancient Roman religion and
saw Christianity as a growing threat, he wrote, in frustration, to the Roman high priest of Galatia:
RELIEVING GOD-SENT SUFFERING
There is no contradiction between seeing the coronavirus as God’s act and calling Christians to take risks to alleviate the suffering that it causes. Ever since God subjected the world to sin and misery at the fall, he has ordained that his people seek to rescue the perishing, even though he is the one who has appointed the judgment of perishing. God himself came into the world in Jesus Christ to rescue people from his own just judgment (Rom. 5:9). That is what the cross of Christ means.
EXAMPLE OF THE EARLY CHURCH
Rodney Stark, in his book The Triumph of Christianity, points out that in the first centuries of the Christian church the “truly revolutionary principle was that Christian love and charity must extend beyond the boundaries of family and even those of faith, to all in need.”
Two great plagues struck the Roman Empire in AD 165 and 251. Outside of the Christian church, there was no cultural or religious foundation for mercy and sacrifice. “There was no belief that the gods cared about human affairs.” And “mercy was regarded as a character defect and pity as a pathological emotion: because mercy involves providing unearned help or relief, it is contrary to justice.”
Therefore, while a third of the empire was perishing from disease, physicians fled to their country estates. Those with symptoms were cast out of homes. Priests forsook the temples. But Stark observes, “Christians claimed to have answers and, most of all, they took appropriate actions.”
The answers included the forgiveness of sins through Christ and the hope of eternal life beyond death. This was a precious message in a season of medical helplessness and
utter hopelessness.
As for the actions, large numbers of Christians cared for the sick and the dying. Toward the end of the second plague, Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria wrote a letter, extolling the members of his church:
Most of our brothers showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy.
PUTTING TO SILENCE THE IGNORANCE OF EMPERORS
Over time, this countercultural, Christ-sustained care for the sick and the poor had the effect of winning many people away from the surrounding paganism. Two centuries later, when the Roman emperor Julian (AD 332–363) wanted to breathe new life back into the ancient Roman religion and
saw Christianity as a growing threat, he wrote, in frustration, to the Roman high priest of Galatia:
Atheism [i.e., Christian faith] has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not a single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans [i.e., Christians] care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them.
RELIEVING GOD-SENT SUFFERING
There is no contradiction between seeing the coronavirus as God’s act and calling Christians to take risks to alleviate the suffering that it causes. Ever since God subjected the world to sin and misery at the fall, he has ordained that his people seek to rescue the perishing, even though he is the one who has appointed the judgment of perishing. God himself came into the world in Jesus Christ to rescue people from his own just judgment (Rom. 5:9). That is what the cross of Christ means.
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