Saturday, April 04, 2020

Biblical Considerations of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Many pastors and theologians have provided their counsel, take, admonition, or encouragement on  this virus that is sickening and killing people all over the world.  I've listened to at least four sermons on it, while going about working at home while sheltered-in-place, a terminology I never remember hearing until now.  It's come up in about every one of my sermons since we knew a pandemic had begun.  In addition to the offerings of Thomas Ross in the way of a gospel tract, David Warner from our church wrote one (click on the link here).    Those are very good and should be utilized, if people will touch them, considering the virus might survive on the surface of the tract for twenty-four hours.

Here are ten typical subjects right now, no offense to anyone.  I've brought them up too.  They are worth meditating upon.
  • God is sovereign.
  • Everyone's going to die.
  • God is gracious that this isn't worse.
  • God cares for us more than many sparrows.
  • All things work together for good for them who love God.
  • Sin is the cause of the virus at least as a byproduct.
  • We all deserve worse than this outcome.
  • We know not what shall be on the morrow.
  • Except we repent, we shall all likewise perish.
  • It is only by God's faithfulness that we are not consumed.
Other related topics addressed are the following: Is livestreaming "forsaking the assembling of ourselves together" (Heb 10:24-25), is it actual church or a service, at what point do we meet again anyway, or is this the state taking away religious freedom?  Those are all interesting and appropriate.  This post will take at least a little different tact than any of these above.

Is There A Prophetic Nature to the Virus?

Is the world so wicked that God is sending a shot across its bow to warn it of something much greater to come?  Besides just the virus, are signs of the time in the air?  The soon return of Christ has been mentioned to me far more often since this started, so it's something I think about.  The virus is not technically a "sign" of the coming of Jesus Christ, so why does it get the attention as that?

The book of Revelation uses the word "plague" and "plagues" several times, and the term plague is associated with apocalypse.  The word "apocalypse" is a transliteration of the Greek word that is the title of the last book of the Bible, Revelation.  "Apo" means "from," and "calypse" means "cover."  It literally means "to uncover."  It is the revelation of Jesus Christ.  "Apocalypse" has come to be understood in our culture as "the time when the world ends," and you might add, "with plagues."  Covid-19 is a worldwide plague, which is killing people.  The book of Revelation has multiple plagues that kill people.

More people were killed by World War 2, World War 1, the Spanish Flu, the American Civil War, and the Bubonic Plague, especially by percentage.  The situation we're in seems worse.  Why?  What is it?  Through the history of the world, people were accustomed to early death or even the threat of it.  Rows and rows of emaciated sick bodies on the verge of dying is intolerable.  It seems humanity can stop this and if it can, then it must.  It's a society that will kill millions through abortion, a clandestine death, isolated from human perception.  I'm not impressed by its sudden embrace of life.  I read it as a selfish embrace, more in the nature of the self-serving.

Covid-19 kills.  It doesn't kill everyone, so the death rate is lower by far than other pandemics.  However, we don't know who it will kill.  Some get it and are asymptomatic, another word I don't think I used in my life before this last month.  Since there is no cure, the asymptomatic can be spreading it and give it to someone who is susceptible and to whom it is deadly.  The idea right now is that you touch a door knob or cardboard box, not wash your hands, and you might kill your grandparents.  There is no antidote.

If something isn't done, the disease and death rate overwhelms the healthcare industry, where the few sacrifice themselves for the many.  More casualties of the few bring greater for the many.  Some kind of never before experienced tipping point could occur and the terminology, "mass graves," is used, and sometimes, "body bags."  Funerals become too risky to attend. 

The virus brings apparent justifiable fear, enough fear to stop people from traveling, shopping, and working, all of what results in industry and economy.  Industry and economy stops.  The supply chain is disrupted.  Economy brings people into contact that makes them sick.

Humanity has also become more accustomed to a higher standard of living.  Something much lower seems apocalyptic.  One could and should call this covetousness or greed.  To get what they want, people live right up to the edge, leaving most people one month or less away from bankruptcy.  That seems fine for the people, who have money in the bank, except that they are in the minority.  Businesses can't close, because home owners are so close to defaulting on their mortgage or renters so close to not paying the rent, which results in the landlord defaulting on his loan, that the whole system comes tumbling down, this in a matter of mere months.  Can it start up again then?  Maybe, but only if more money is printed and the federal government borrows the money to bail out more than half the country.

This isn't over yet.  People do not know what will happen.  It might take a long time to sort out.  The fear stops people from buying, which stops people from hiring, which results in less buying, less hiring, and massive unemployment, the collapse of the housing market, then the banks.  I'm describing what could happen, and then the crime.  Some are not going to put up with the lesser lifestyle.  Some will become desperate and steal.  Drug and alcohol use rise.  Societies are not accustomed to what's going to happen.  They will turn to leaders that pander to their worst instincts.  They will be encouraged by others like them.  They have become accustomed to doing what is most expedient.

With due respect to those with the virus who are suffering and have suffered or know or love those who have died from it, this virus is a slap in the hand on a world that deserves destruction.  It is not a real apocalypse.  That is described in the book of Revelation.  However, it is the sample platter.  It is a sample like I haven't, again, seen in my lifetime.  People have the opportunity to repent.  That is the big question right now.  Will they?  Will they listen?  Is this enough?  I don't think it will still be enough.  Yet, believers should use the possible opportunity. I say, possible, because a few perhaps will listen.

2 Chronicles 7:14 Again

2 Chronicles 7:14 doesn't apply to the pandemic.  Solomon had prayed for God to hear Israel's prayers in the temple he led in building, if Israel found herself suffering through pestilence and famine and war, because of her disobedience.  Could she come to the temple and pray out of repentance and have God hear her?  The answer is, yes, if my people come and pray with a truly repentant heart, I'll hear her prayers.  That's all based on God's promises to Israel and in particular Solomon.

Our country can repent.  That will help the country.  Perhaps people would then have the discernment to make good decisions that would result in a virus not wreaking so much havoc on a nation.  Maybe the disease is a message to the world.  The world, and our nation, should take it as such.  It should be the Luke 13:1-5 message from Jesus, to repent.  Everyone needs to repent, because either from this virus or the debilitating depression that arises from it or something else, everyone is going to die and face God.

We should be preaching repentance, a message that churches haven't been preaching, perhaps 80 percent or more.   We should be praying biblical prayers.  I won't pray for the disease to end.  I'll trust God to do His will.  I'll pray for boldness and abounding love and knowledge and wisdom.  I will pray what God says to pray for his people.  I will pray for the governing leaders.  I will keep serving and preaching in and through the church.  I will not look for something sensational based on a false interpretation of the Old Testament.

As much as ever, people need the Word of God.  This break from the regular rush should bring renewed Bible and prayer.  It shouldn't be planning parties and binging on entertainment.   We should use this crisis as God would have us, to take advantage of the mercy and grace of God.

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:33 PM

    "It's a society that will kill millions through abortion, a clandestine death, isolated from human perception. I'm not impressed by its sudden embrace of life. I read it as a selfish embrace, more in the nature of the self-serving."

    With all due respect, while I agree that it may be that most people are treating this outbreak with greater urgency than they are with the toleration of aborting children, it is not a society that "will kill millions through abortion." The people that lobby for and actively rejoice in the death it causes are a small segment of the worst people. It just so happens that they gained control of the Supreme Court a while ago, but I should remind you that the SCOTUS ruling, and the people that were behind that, do not reflect the overall society but only a tiny minority that happens to be in power. If it were possible to do so in a legal and orderly manner, most people would not tolerate it whatsoever, and it reflect like institutionalized slavery a small segment of powerful interests. The judgement accordingly should fall only on that small segment of special interests. Others have been lied to regarding the facts, although perhaps many are willfully ignorant.

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  2. Hi,

    "Nearly five decades since the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, a majority of the public do not want to see the Supreme Court overturn its landmark ruling, which established a woman’s constitutional right to abortion. While most Republicans (57%) would like to see Roe overturned, larger majorities of Democrats (91%) and independents (70%) do not want it overturned."

    Kaiser Foundation Poll, 2018 -- https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/poll-finding/abortion-knowledge-and-attitudes-kff-polling-and-policy-insights/

    I hate to say you're wrong.

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  3. Anonymous11:21 PM

    Hi again,

    You are still incorrect in your original statement. There is only one group of people, mainly Judaism, which actually wants to (hence, "will") kill millions through abortion. That's how they imposed it originally, by overriding state legislation through the national court. And if it were not for that, this would not be the law for the majority of the population. They're the ones that fought tooth and nail and actually brought it to pass. They dragged the more foolish parts of society with them to get some misconstrued support, and even then had to bypass the will of the people by using the national court. By hook or by crook, as they say.

    Thinking it is necessary for whatever reason to uphold the 1973 decision, for whatever reason, is not equivalent to actually wanting to inflict that. Like I mention earlier, people may mistakenly think that it is somehow necessary for maintaining order, think that on some level it's some kind of necessary compromise with greater evil, or have been made to compromise on any number of levels, or they believe the various false narratives of feminism such as that the problem would actually be worse if not for the ruling (a totally false idea but promoted by political action groups). Also just since you bring up polls, these are slanted and skewed by the same people, who you can imagine want to discourage change. They sample disproportionately from their favored group; and furthermore, social pressure causes people to tilt more toward what's seen as the "socially acceptable" and "expected status quo" on polls (as opposed to what they would actually vote), which the same group has marshalled everything in its power to do for its side regarding this issue. That's just how bloodthirsty and evil the current ruling class I'm speaking of is.

    So no I'm still not wrong. Accusing millions of people for being bloodthirsty killers is not the case, it's a few powerful groups that finagled this upon us, and they have hoodwinked some people into thinking its the lesser of two evils or shamed them into conceding some kind of compromise based on willful ignorance. If they had the true facts in front of them, very few people would still side with them. The blame for actually willing this, and choosing this falls on those groups. Their depravity simply knows no bounds. After all, they were also the slave traders in former times.

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  4. Anonymous11:52 PM

    I am also disappointed that you would so unquestioningly trust such artifices as a political polling mechanism in support of your hasty condemnation of tens of millions of people. For something they neither devised nor had any control over.
    Indeed, supposedly even condemning yourself rather than taking any time to make an accurate search for the truth or even just refraining from such overdramatic accusatory statements.
    "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few."

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  5. Anonymous,

    I have no comment on what you wrote. I'll leave it for the readers to judge. I'm saying that a majority of this country believes abortion should be allowed. I still believe that. That doesn't mean that they want abortions, but they think a woman should have the right to choose. I believe it is over 50% still want Roe V. Wade upheld. If you asked the present Supreme Court to give their opinion, I believe most of them, if speaking forthrightly and truthfully, would say Roe v. Wade is at least unconstitutional and should be a state matter, probably at a 5-4 vote.

    This post wasn't about that. I mentioned it briefly at the end of one paragraph, so that gave it an opening for you.

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  6. Anonymous2:09 PM

    I love this post! Your Biblical approach is so encouraging. Thank you!

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  7. Thanks Anonymous.

    Everyone,

    I tried to fix the link to David Warner's tract, so that anyone could download. Go ahead and try again and let me know if it works. Thanks.

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  8. Anonymous5:23 PM

    Pastor Brandenburg, regarding your comment,

    That's fair enough.

    ReplyDelete