Do virtual assemblies count?
Question:
Hello, brother in Christ,
I hope you are doing well.
My question comes from Hebrew 10:25. Now I fully understand what assembling together means, but there seem to be those who say that assembling can be of anything and anywhere. So, does "virtual assembling" count as assembling as described in the Bible? For example: when the coronavirus hit and many places had to close down. Many churches met online. I find that difficult to do because you cannot have the Lord's Supper together assembled via virtual. You cannot sing well via virtual, and you cannot give via virtual.
You can however have Bible study there, which in and of itself isn't true worship, just a part. So I'm just curious to know if my thoughts are correct.
Thanks!
Answer:
The church's primary meeting is for worship. The distinguishing point of those meetings is that the entire congregation is called to assemble:
- "when you come together as a church" (I Corinthians 11:17).
- "when you come together in one place" (I Corinthians 11:20).
- "when you come together to eat, wait for one another" (I Corinthians 11:33) -- speaking of eating the Lord's Supper.
- "the whole church comes together in one place" (I Corinthians 14:23).
- "Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification" (I Corinthians 14:26).
Acts of worship are done by the congregation that expresses the unity of the congregation:
- Partaking of the Lord's Supper (I Corinthians 10:16-17; Acts 2:42).
- Singing (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16; I Corinthians 14:23).
- Prayer (Acts 2:42; James 5:16).
- Giving (I Corinthians 16:1-2).
- Instruction (Acts 2:42).
There was a short period of time when the virus was first detected, that mankind didn't know what we were dealing with. Governments responded with lockdowns to slow the spread of the virus to give the medical community more time to come up with ways to deal with the virus. That all happened. What we are seeing now is different. Treatment and prevention are now known and available and have been for quite a while.
As Christians, we try to obey the government (Romans 13:1-7) but there are limits to that obedience. When the government violates the laws of God, then God's laws come first. The congregation here was fortunate that the local government did not completely band assemblies. We had to meet a few requirements, but those requirements still allowed us to assemble.
