Do I go to Bible study and worship?
Question:
Good morning, sir,
I am writing from Nigeria in Western Africa.
One day, in the village where I visited a brother, the King sent his town crier (messenger) to announce that the weekend would be used to perform some ritual rites from Saturday morning to Sunday night. They warned that no human must be seen, or else they would lose their lives.
Saturday evening is when the church gathers for Bible study, and Sunday morning is Lord's Day worship.
I'm confused about whether to go out and worship on both days. Will I be tempting my faith? I don't know if the other brethren will agree to worship despite the warnings. What if they don't?
Please advise me.
Thank you.
Answer:
There are a few ways to handle this. Technically, Nigerian law grants freedom of religion ["Freedom of Religion or Belief and Peaceful Assembly," National Human Rights Commission]. Among the rights is the right to peaceably assemble without interference by others. Thus, according to Nigerian law, what this king ordered was illegal. Kings are tribal leaders who have retained old titles, but their position doesn't allow them to override the national law.
- You can try to avoid a conflict by moving the church's meeting to another place for the weekend. Thus, all the Christians in town will "just happen" to be out of town that weekend.
- You can go to the meeting place in advance and stay there all weekend.
- You can go to someone's home and stay there all weekend and have services there.
- You can petition the Human Rights Commission and ask them to inform the king that he has overstepped his bounds. The problem is that you won't get a response quickly enough.
- You can contact the king and politely inform him that he is interfering with Christian worship and ask him to modify his edict to allow people to worship. If he is reasonable, he will realize that he needs to change his edict to stay out of trouble with the government.
- You can ignore the edict and attend Bible study and worship. This option might cost you your life, but life here on earth is temporary anyway. God always comes first.
Response:
Good evening, sir,
Thank you for your timely response and shared wisdom. God bless you, sir.
