THE ALMIGHTY AND THE VIRUS

• 4/7/2020

The novel CO-rona VI-rus D-isease that broke out in late 2019 (shortened to COVID-19) has now spread to almost every country in the world in just a few month’s time. Unlike most diseases, natural disasters, revolutions, wars and the like, this affliction is rapidly and directly affecting people everywhere on earth: from politicians, business and clerical leaders and even royalty, to millions of adults and students suddenly thrown out of work and school.



CAUGHT AT LEAST partially unprepared, many global leaders have claimed they had no idea such a tidal wave of monumental social and economic disruption and death was coming, or even possible. However many scientists and epidemiologists have been warning for decades that a new global pandemic was not only possible, but--with populations exploding all over the planet and international travel now easier and swifter than ever--some new pan-world medical scourge would definitely come upon us one day. That day is obviously here.



ONE WELL-KNOWN televangelist, who I personally know, told his audience just before Passover that the Covid virus is a demonic enemy out to kill people and prevent Christians from gathering together. Apparently coming from the pit of hell, he “rebuked” and “commanded” it to leave the world, and then urged others to do the same. To me, this view portrays the “ultimate enemy,” also known as Satan or Lucifer, in far too strong a light. Was Israel’s Sovereign Almighty Lord hibernating last December when the highly contagious virus began to spread in central China? Did He wake up in February only to discover that a potent new--and too often fatal--illness was sweeping across the world that HE created and “holds together”? Was He caught totally off guard and unprepared, racing around to locate personal protection equipment wherever He could? If this worldwide scourge and its enormous effects truly took our Heavenly Father by surprise, then we are in far greater trouble than we know!



I FIND IT MORE than coincidental that the Covid virus first surfaced during China’s most important annual festival marking the Chinese New Year. Then it swiftly moved into increasingly-Christian South Korea, Europe and North and South American, just before the annual season of Lent began, culminating in Christianity’s most important annual celebration of Messiah’s resurrection in Jerusalem. It is also the pre-Passover period when Jews everywhere recall the plagues of ancient Egypt, climaxing in the “passing over” of the angel of death as the blood of the sacrificial lamb was spotted upon Jewish doorposts. For Muslims around the world, it is also just before the annual Ramadan fasting month begins in mid-April. So for more than half the people on earth, the modern scourge came as they were preparing to celebrate important annual holy days, now widely disrupted by the spreading virus.



ALTHOUGH THE SACRED SCRIPTURES make clear that this present fallen world is in a very real sense under Satan’s malicious power, they also confirm that overall control remains with the eternal King of Kings. If God knows the diminishing number of hairs on our heads, then He certainly at least knew about AND ALLOWED the virus to break out in China and then gallop across the planet. However, as I’ve written before, I believe He did more than this--He permitted the release of this potent affliction as a means of (hopefully remedial) judgment upon the earth--to both get our attention and our sincere repentance, and as a preliminary punishment for the gross sin that is everywhere on display, as it was in ancient pre-exile Jerusalem and other cities and countries that the Bible records were judged, and sometimes destroyed, by the Lord. Further, and far more severe, judgments lie ahead...as foretold by many of the ancient Hebrew prophets and in the New Testament.



AS I ALSO WROTE in earlier postings, I felt the Holy Spirit began speaking to me in late 2017 that the time was nearing when the Judge Of All The Earth would begin “avenging the blood of the innocents” that has been shamelessly shed upon the earth in recent decades, especially after the legalization of “on demand” abortion in many countries on earth. I also noted that millions of abortions are the direct result of illicit, or at least careless, sexual activity. The murder rate has also shot up around the earth since World War Two, while copious amounts of innocent blood has been shed in fresh wars raging in many parts of the planet, including untold thousands of children slaughtered and maimed in Syria’s brutal conflict. Did we really think the Most High God, who warned of final judgment upon the earth at the end of this age, has been fast asleep in some celestial winter cave?



LORD ALLOWING, I will be writing more about the current global situation and what might lie ahead for America and the nations in the coming days. In the meantime, as we endure this “birth pang” as best we can, may the Lamb of God be our hope, shield and guide in these times that try our hearts and souls!!