“That this plague of coronavirus shaking the world now mercilessly is a mystery hidden in the Bible prophecy of the beginning of birth pain in Matthew 24 #BreakingOfTheSeals”
This and many other tweets like it claim that the recent pandemic is a direct result of God’s judgement. So what does the Bible really have to say about this recent pandemic?
God’s Use of Judgment
There are examples in the Bible where God alters the natural order of things as part of judgment. The most dramatic case was the unleashing of the fountains of the great deep and the global flood that wiped out the entire planet save Noah and his family. Then we have the classic case of God’s judgement of a nation found in Exodus 7:14-11:10 and the 10 plagues of Egypt. Still to come are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the Seven Bowls of Revelation, which once again brings us God’s judgement on a global scale. God has also used nations as tools of judgement against other nations (Deuteronomy 20:16-17, 2 Kings 17:1–6, 2 Kings 25, etc.).
So what can we take from this alone? God can and has used judgement on a wide scale including a pandemic. However, historically speaking we can also see that God’s intervention to judge a nation or the world is rare, in the grand scheme of things.
The Natural Order of Things
“For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now” – Romans 8:22
We know from the Bible that we live in a fallen creation, and when bad things happen, it does not automatically mean it is the result of God’s judgement. Jesus rebuked his disciples when they assumed a person was blind either because of his or his parents sins (John 9:2). Jesus also gave the example of the eighteen who were killed when the tower in Siloam fell on them, asking “do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no…”. (Luke 13:4–5). And to much chagrin to the Calvinists out there, we know from the Bible that “time and chance happen to them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11).
Is the Pandemic God’s Judgement?
Because we live in a fallen creation, we are going to have a wide swath of irresponsible opinions on this question. There are Christians who will push the agenda that this is God’s judgment, and there are secularists who will twist things to push their agenda. Lee Fang of the far-left liberal The Intercept wrote a piece titled “TRUMP CABINET BIBLE TEACHER BLAMES CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC ON GOD’S WRATH — SOMEHOW IT INVOLVES CHINA, GAY PEOPLE, AND ENVIRONMENTALISTS”. Because of the liberal bias in the media, I suspected this was fake news and found out quickly I was right by simply reading the article he referenced, Pastor Ralph Drollinger’s blog Is God Judging America Today?. It turns out Pastor Drollinger essentially made the same argument I have here, but in much more eloquent and detailed fashion. Drollinger lamented “I make this abundantly clear in the study that the media got wrong – they reported just the opposite of what I said in my Bible study.”
To conclude, while we cannot be absolutely certain God is not using this pandemic as judgement, what we can be certain of is that we live in a fallen creation, bad things will happen, and God’s mercy will provide a victory. Ultimately none of the pandemics, hurricanes, floods and other calamities throughout history are God’s fault, they’re our fault. Perhaps the grandest irony of them all is that such calamities are a blessing, in this sense – without a penalty for our sin (fallen creation, death), there would be no mechanism for God to pay that penalty Himself. God already took all of the death, pandemics, tragedies, and hung them on a cross over 2000 years ago, a free and undeserved gift to those who believe in Him.
“… Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” – Psalms 50:15
Praise God! Excellent post, I too have the same conviction! Amen!
Fred, I really loved your conclusion, spot on brother!
However, I’ve had a heavy heart for America regarding this decade. It began before COVID in 2019. It really has very little to do with COVID, and everything to do with Americans shameless attitudes, rebellion and increasing sin. It is very clear America is no longer a nation under God, and we are enabling others within and outside our nation to sin.
When you think of the Judeo-Christian influence upon our nation – the Lord is referenced in our Constitution, God is in our Declaration of Independence, God is in our national anthem, on our money and throughout the nation on buildings and historical sites. Yet, SCOTUS has influenced laws in the past 60 years in opposition to God’s Word, they have no filter or Godly perspective in their decisions which has led them, and our nation into rebellion because their bias is spiritual blindness. As a result, rebellion would be better stated as, warring with God becoming tools of Satan.
Revelation 2:20-22 reminds us of an ungodly power that made laws for a nation and ruler that should have known better, but she was a direct tool for Satan who purposefully initiated a war with the God of the Jews…
“But this I have against you, that you, tolerate that woman Jezebel; who calls herself a prophetess – yet she is teaching and deceiving my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat foods sacrificed to idols. (21) I gave her time to repent but she refuses to repent of her immorality. (22) Behold I will throw her into a sickbed…”
Jezebel would be killed according to the prophecy foretold against her evil, and a more righteous yet uncouth warrior would take the thrown for the Northern Kingdom, but in his zeal, He went beyond what God instructed, and not much later, the nation would be destroyed. The nation, the people – never came to national repentance to appoint leaders that fear, respect and love God honoring His ways in their life and to others in the nation and abroad.
America has had plenty of time to repent, and there was a spiritual revival in the 70’s after Satan’s powers and principalities full assault came upon our nation with the sexual revolution and school prayer in the 60’s shortly followed by killing of innocence in the 70’s mostly for sexual pleasure. SCOTUS has been behind both as power was given to the ungodly that have no filter of righteousness in their laws because the majority within them reject God as a whole. Their corrupted thinking through secular humanism has made them fools, and traitors could our forefather’s assess their rule from their grave. This Judicial power within our Government has led our nation into the darkest of times with defiling the sanctity of marriage and celebrating the unnatural. Isaiah 5:20 – “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”
In observation, there is a grace period (an interval of unknown time) in which God extends unmerited mercy before His judgment falls. This is true for every human that has ever lived past the age of accountability, God’s grace and mercy is there for any to choose, but after death, that time is gone and grace is over. During this period, God gives ample opportunity to repent, change and avoid His judgment. As wonderful and comforting as this is, it is wiser to respond to God’s correction at it onset and not test the limit of His mercies. This same concept can be seen carried beyond people and to a nation – Israel. America is different, but we are also similar. America is a nation and people post-Grace and redemption through Christ under a new covenant. The Jews for the most part are still living according to the law, and they experienced the curse of Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 32 for about 1900 years. On May 14, 1948, prophecy was fulfilled again for the end times as God regathered them according to the many prophets writing for God. A nation born in a day according to Isaiah’s marvel of God (Isaiah 66:8-9).
America needs a spiritual revival, and the sooner the better.