Call Us: 423 661-4734 | Email: requests@comeandreason.com      
How COVID Messaging Perverts Love

How COVID Messaging Perverts Love

I received this email recently:

Hello, Dr. Jennings.

I have been dealing with a situation concerning a member of my leadership team. These folks have chosen to agree with and follow all of the government’s COVID mandates here in [our state], which, in of itself, is ok with me. I know they have thought things through and have based their decision on what they believe is best for their family.

Here’s the kicker:  The message that is often repeated to me, from this family, essentially goes something like this:“You choosing to exercise your freedoms by not wearing a mask, not limiting attendance, not requiring social distancing, and not enforcing the government’s mandates, violates my liberties and takes away my freedom to choose if it’s safe for me to attend church.”

My spirit reflexively rebels against what is being said here. However, I have not been able to clearly understand what is happening. I want to reject coercive and manipulative methods, and I believe there are tons of accusations as well. For about six months now, I have been praying over this and searching for an answer to what is going on that makes sense.

How would you describe what is taking place here and, given your experience, how would you respond? Recently, I tend to freeze up.

Thank you for your work and ministry. I am having so much fun incorporating the truth about God’s character and design law into my teaching.


Thank you for your email and for thinking for yourself—for not allowing the views, opinions, and allegations of others to keep you from forming your conclusions. God has given each of us our own individuality, the ability to reason and think, and the mature are those who have exercised those abilities and have developed by practice the ability to discern right from wrong (Hebrews 5:14).

God’s design for human beings is that we grow up into the full stature of Christ, intelligent and competent sons and daughters of God (Ephesians 4:15). It is God’s purpose that we develop our individual abilities to think, reason, and act. We choose for ourselves the right over the wrong because we can actually tell the difference and prefer the right over the wrong. We experience, via the work of the Holy Spirit, ever-increasing godly traits of character—“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22, 23 NIV84).

When the Holy Spirit has His way in our lives, we develop self-control, the ability to think and to act in harmony with God and God’s design laws for life, which are the principles of truth, love, and liberty. We present the truth in love and then leave others free to come to their own conclusions. We have the capacity as mature Christians to discern, to think, to comprehend, to differentiate, to critically reason and, thus, make choices in harmony with God’s design, methods, and purposes.

Satan hates this. He wants to destroy our capacity for self-governance and mature decision-making. Satan’s goal is to enslave the minds of people in order to take away liberty, to destroy the capacity to reason, think, and act, to make us pawns and puppets controlled by him.

How does Satan achieve this? It is always through avenues that inflame fear and selfishness. The more intense our fear, the greater is our desire to protect self with an ever-increasing willingness to comply with rules and authority in order to be safe—and the more willing we are to compel others in order to protect ourselves.

Surrendering our judgment to others, to authorities, in order to feel safe—to avoid confrontation, legal trouble, punishment, or be considered a troublemaker—harms the mind, undermines thinking, and damages the image of God in us. Yet millions do this every day just so they can feel less fear, whether fear of the government or fear of social rejection—being an outcast, being labelled an anarchist, heretic, racist, sexist, super-spreader, anti-vaxxer, or conspiracy nut. Fear leads to compliance, to surrendering to the authorities, the majority, the accepted narrative.

Yeonmi Park, a North Korean defector who now lives in the United States, tells how her mind was programmed, how her ability to think and reason was obstructed by the practices of the communist regime. She says,

In North Korea I literally believed that my Dear Leader [Kim Jong-un] was starving. He’s the fattest guy – how can anyone believe that? And then somebody showed me a photo and said “Look at him, he’s the fattest guy. Other people are all thin.” And I was like, “Oh my God, why did I not notice that he was fat?” Because I never learned how to think critically. [1]

She goes on to say, “That is what is happening in America. People see things but they’ve just completely lost the ability to think critically.”

How is it that she thought her leader was starving? Because her teachers told her that he was; her party leaders told her that he was. She was trained to believe what she was told despite the evidence. She was trained to believe based on the authority of the person in office. If anyone did question the party line in North Korea, they were punished and would eventually be killed. Dissenting opinion was not to be tolerated.

This is exactly how the church of the Dark Ages operated. The masses were told to believe merely because the priest said it, the bishop said it, the pope said it. The church was the authority; their word was not to be questioned. It didn’t matter what the evidence, facts, or truth revealed. And if anyone did question, they were punished, ostracized, and eventually killed.

These exact methods are being employed in America today. People are being told what to think not how to think. The school systems have indoctrinated generations on philosophies that are contradictory to reality, requiring the suspension of critical reason to believe, just like the church of the Dark Ages did. And now, the various authorities give proclamations and people are incapable of thinking through the claims and discerning the reality for themselves. “The CDC says, Dr. so and so says, the NIH says, the World Health Organization says, CNN says, MSNBC says, Fox News says.” People are being taught to believe solely on the weight of authority of office, on who said it, and have lost the capacity to critically reason, to weigh evidences. And then they are threatened: If you don’t obey, if you don’t wear the mask, social distance, you will be fined, have your business license revoked, or even be imprisoned. Don’t question, don’t think—obey! The image of God in people is being destroyed, and fear is rising!

Love and truth are the divine powers that demolish Satan’s strongholds. Only truth can destroy lies. Only love can overcome fear and selfishness.

God is love, and the foundational law of heaven is love. Jesus said:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments (Matthew 22:37–40 NIV84).

God’s law is the law of love. Every law of God is an expression of love. This love is functional, operational, and constant. It goes far beyond mere feelings. It is not sentiment. Love doesn’t take the easy road. Love does the hard work, the painful work, the work of healing and of redemption. Love suffers. Love risks. Love sacrifices. Ultimately, love conquers—but “‘not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6 NIV84). It is love operating in freedom that frees the heart from fear!

Very few people know God’s love. Instead, most have accepted a counterfeit, a self-soothing, self-protecting, fear-avoiding, risk-avoiding, and safety-promoting fraud built on fear—fear of loss, fear of rejection, or fear of failure—by which the removal of this corrosive fear makes one feel so safe, feel so good, that they consider the loss of freedom to be an act of love.

One of the greatest perversions of God’s kingdom is Satan’s replacement of God’s love with fear and selfishness and then getting people to seek to relieve their fear and selfishness by manipulating others, controlling others, and exploiting others and calling that a godly love.

This is what we are seeing in your friends’ viewpoints, using the claim of love as a way to incite guilt in you, to accuse you, to manipulate you, to get you and others to conform your behavior in ways that make them feel safe. It is a lie. It is a fraud. It is not love. It is fear and selfishness.

The way of love is always the way of truth. For the same Spirit of love is the Spirit of truth. Truth and love originate in the heart of God and will be the primary motivators of all who are on God’s team.

But the proponents of the “if you love, you will comply—you will wear a mask, stop worshiping together, stop visiting your beloved grandmother in her assisted living facility, no longer minister to your dying aunt in hospice care, stop your 12-step meetings, prevent children from going to school, and by all means get an experimental injection with no long-term safety data”—yes, the proponents of this lie about love are the same ones who want to restrict liberties, use coercive powers to force their way, and obstruct open and honest dialogue, prevent any truth, facts, or evidences that refute their views from coming into the open. So they censor, deplatform, accuse, and malign.

These same twisted motives are what led Saul of Tarsus to use the power of the state to imprison the worshipers of Jesus, the Dark Ages church leaders to burn people at the stake, and the Pharisees to crucify Christ. It was all about saving lives, saving souls, and stopping the spread of soul-destroying heresies—just as the high priest who led the Sanhedrin to crucify Christ said, “It is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish” (John 11:50 NIV84).

But after Paul’s conversion, after he rejected the methods of this world, the methods of fear and selfishness, and was reborn with a heart operating on the principles of God, he wrote that God wants His people to present the truth in love and that every person is to be persuaded fully in their own minds (Ephesians 4:15; Romans 14:5). This is the way of God. This is the way of righteousness. This is the way of our King, who did not use power and might to force Satan to comply but left His ancient enemy free. Jesus doesn’t win by compelling power, by force, by manipulation. Jesus wins by truth and love. The way of truth and love is the long road, the painful road, the sacrificing road, but it is the only road to eternal life.

The methods employed by these so-called “love-promoters” are not the methods of God; they are the methods of Satan, the methods of coercion, deceit, and restriction of liberties, and they expose those who use these methods as frauds. They may be ignorant of what they are doing, they may be well-intentioned, but it doesn’t make what they are doing right—and it won’t stop the damage that occurs to hearts and minds of all who practice such perverse methods.

Love stands firm; it presents the truth and leaves others free. It is time for love to rule!

So a way to respond to your friend is to say: “I respect your individuality, your ability to think and to choose for yourself. I would never try to dictate the decisions you must make for your life. In love, I will share facts, evidences, and my concerns for your welfare. But at the end of the day, I respect you as a child of God and will leave you free—because I love you. Do you love me enough to show me the same respect? Are your actions motivated by your love for me or your fear for yourself? So, if you think there is a healthier way, win me with the evidence, with truth, but don’t try to manipulate me with the false allegation that my choices over my health restrict your liberties. Love simply doesn’t work that way.”


[1] https://www.foxnews.com/us/north-korean-defector-ivy-league-nuts

 

Email me the blog whenever a new one is published.

Donate online, securely via PayPal using your credit or debit card (no PayPal account needed, unless you want to set up a monthly, recurring payment).


cancel recurring payment

 

Want to use zelle instead?
See how on our
Support and Donations page.

Upcoming Events

calendar

Testimonial Post Slider

Testimony 23

I would just like to add my voice to the many people who, I believe, must have contacted you to express their appreciation for the “Healing the Mind” DVDs. I’ve been listening to your Bible study class discussions for many years and I’ve been personally blessed by your research and teaching about the character of God.

L. G., Oakland, MI, USA

 

Testimony 61

I grew up in a prominent protestant church and had what I like to call religious anxiety. I’ve always had questions about God and Salvation that no one could seem to answer.  I didn’t know how to find resolution. During 2020, at the height of my anxiety, I fell to my knees and begged God to show me truth and light and to give me the hope that I’ve been longing for. Days later, I stumbled upon your online videos and it was like a veil was lifted and EVERYTHING made sense! For the first time in my almost 39 years of life, my religious/spiritual anxiety has lessened. I feel a sense of freedom and peace I’ve NEVER had before… and it’s all because my view of God has changed. Thank you!

Ashleighn C.

 

Testimony 67

I was introduced to Come And Reason by a friend of my mother-in-law, who gave me several CD’s of Dr. Jennings. The clarity of the message and recognition that God’s is a God of love was so clear, advancing beyond Dr. Maxwell’s message. However, grappled with Maxwell saying God used emergency measures for the fallen world. Now after several years of being a regular listener of the Come And Reasoning bible study class and attending Jennings’ meetings in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX, things are becoming clearer for me. Design law versus imposed law has added so much to my personal understanding of theology. This message has really impacted my work in counseling so many people miserable because they are searching for and trusting human governments to create order and peace or believing in a God who says love Me or I will kill you. I am grateful that I have an alternative view to offer my clients that makes sense. I teach a bible study class on a semi-regular basis and I value the materials that Come And Reason so freely offers to aid me in presenting this vital message. Thank you for continuing to provide advancement in our very limited understanding of a Infinite God that is rational and believable.

Dr. Roger D, Arlington, TX, USA

 

Testimony 53

I was so blessed by a friend who gave me your book, “The God Shaped Brain,” while I was sitting in church asking God to please help me learn more about Him and help me not to be so confused and scared. That was about 2 years ago. Your books have helped me to love God even more. I’m not confused or scared anymore! I have listened to all of your bible study classes and feel like I know the wonderful people that attend every week. Thank you for all that you’re doing in spreading the true message about God and His law of love. God bless you and your whole class.

Elssy P., Modesto, CA, USA

 

Testimony 40

I was brought up in a different faith and have been petrified my whole life of God. I believed that I would burn in hell for eternity. When I was 12 I started pursuing the things of this world, but for the next 45 years the Spirit was always calling me, as I knew there was a God through nature. I could see the vast sea of stars in the universe and knew there was something bigger out there. Five years ago, through a Revelation seminar, I was blessed to learn about God’s character and government.

Then I found Come and Reason Ministries and have come under some extreme pressure when I speak about the ministry. One time a member sent me an internet article titled “Whats wrong with Tim Jennings?” I asked her what she thought of it and she said “I don’t know, I didn’t read it.”

I have always wanted to find out for myself the truth about God, so I stayed with the Design Law construct and have been liberated to understand the big picture. Once we consider Design Law, all other Bible stories and prophecies seem to fit perfectly. It is truly beautiful to see people grasping how God operates this Universe of Love and the liberation it has provided in their lives. It blows my mind to see how consistent Design law is with what our founders believed. I hear statements like “This makes so much sense.”

Tom W., Mt. Pleasant, MI, USA

 

Testimony 7

Ok, so last night I listened to “The Law of Liberty” and “How to Achieve Victory: Freedom, Truth and Spirtual Warfare.” These are both MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITES so far! The logic is just soooooo beautiful. I had to re-listen to them a couple of times. I just want to EXPLODE! (<< we assume with joy and happiness)

N. B., Canada

 

Testimony 70

I have been watching you for many years and have learned to love God with all my heart. I was raised by a loving Christian mother that had been lied to about who God really was, so our religious upbringing was hell fire and damnation. As soon as I was old enough and moved out, I not only left the church, I ran as fast as I could to get away from it. Sad to say, it wasn’t until the past couple of years that I learned and understand who my Father really is and how much He loves me. I understand God’s Design Laws (which make sense) and when I’m teaching my church Bible study class, I’m able to really put to use the things I’ve been learning and Holy Spirit is leading. Thank you for introducing me to my Father of true, pure love. Everyday with Him is new and exciting. One thing that breaks my heart is that I didn’t know Him sooner. God Bless you and your ministry!

Judy Phelps, Reno, NV, USA

Testimony 22

I have found your Bible study class lectures to be very inspiring and useful as I prepare to teach class every other week. I subscribe to the podcast and download your notes on the weeks I teach. The audio and notes are such a great help in preparing. My own understanding of God’s character has grown as I teach the class. Commendations on the thought-provoking and well-prepared material Come and Reason provides. Personally, I get excited by the tie you make between the spiritual and mental/physical domains.

A.A. Corrales, NM, USA

 

Testimony 19

I truly believe that to know who God really is the first step to understand ourselves in a balanced and kind way, so the healing can take place. Your approach really makes sense – Thank you for your ministry!

A.M., Pittsburg, PA, USA

Testimony 66

I am incredibly grateful for the transformative impact you’ve had on my life, and words cannot fully express my appreciation. Over the years, I have been an avid listener and follower of C&R and extend my heartfelt thanks for creating the C&R mobile app. It has allowed me to immerse myself in your lessons repeatedly, enabling me to grasp the profound significance about the Character of God, Design Law, the protocols for life, the reasons behind the current chaos, and Christ’s mission to restore everything. They have deeply touched me. Having studied with various churches, I came away with the perception that God is no different from the deities of ancient Greek or Roman mythology—demanding sacrifices and taking pleasure in bloodshed. Thanks to your transformative teachings, I have experienced a profound awakening to the true nature of God and the immense power of His love. It is truly a remarkable and liberating sensation to finally grasp the truth and embrace the empowering nature of God’s laws. My self-perception has become brighter and more infused with love. My journey of growth continues on a daily basis.

Chris P., Lake Mary, FL, USA

 

Testimony 2

I continue to enjoy your lessons every week. The more that I research your conclusions, the more I am convinced that the Holy Spirit has lead you to distill out the essence of human redemption. Thank you for your courageous stand for the truth.

S. G., TX, USA

 

Testimony 17

The blessings of clarity and understanding you and your class inspire me to take from the word of God have impressed upon me so greatly the true, loving character of our Creator. I have found amazing freedom and joy through building a stronger, more intentional relationship with Him. What is new is that this is now a relationship built on love, reverence and respect rather than fear and obligation, and as such my eyes have been slammed OPEN as I am continually impressed by the manifestations of God’s true character in His provisions for fallen man.

T.E.H., Salt Lake City, UT, USA

 

Testimony 47

I can’t even begin to thank you and your ministry enough for introducing me to the Truth about a loving and merciful God! I have my daughter and her in-laws to thank for sharing with me “The God-Shaped Brain” as well as your website. I listen to the Bible study class lessons on my daily walk. May God continue to bless your thirst-quenching ministry!

Liz H., Port Angeles, WA, USA

 

 

Testimony 50

After coming into contact with Come And Reason Ministries, I can finally say that many of my unanswered questions have fallen into place. I discovered that my view of God’s Law was “imposed laws and rules” with “imposed punishments” and that this was the major culprit of my many unanswered questions. Thanks be to God for using you and those around you to help us who have struggled with this “infection” of thought. I have now rejected the “imposed law” concept to fully embrace “Design Law”… to look thru “Design Law,” instead of “imposed law,” is a relief.

Viliami L., Australia

 

Testimony 60

Just watched watched lesson 10 in the 1st quarter 2021 bible study classs on Isaiah. I want to thank you for your intellectual spirituality; it’s not an oxymoron! From the point of view of a teacher I also enjoy seeing how much personal pleasure you clearly take in not just tasting, but feasting on God’s word – it reminds me of Jeremiah not being able to hold it in! It makes me smile that your cup is so full and overflowing that you make it to Tuesday’s lesson (on a good day). It just goes to show the richness of God’s Word.

God bless the Come and Reason Team from our church here in Great Britain.

Andrew H., Great Britain