I feel like Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII, while her sister, Queen Mary, had her locked up in the Tower of London. Mary had deemed Elizabeth a threat to her crown. Each day, Elizabeth would wake up thinking this would be the day of her beheading and she was only allowed to go outside for a walk if she had special permission from the Queen. Instead of being locked up in the Tower of London, I am under a form of house arrest in my own home. Instead of awaiting possible decapitation (she was not decapitated), I wake up thinking I may die from coronavirus. So perhaps I’m being a bit melodramatic, but I can relate to what Elizabeth (who is my ancestor, by the way, but that is a story for another time) was going through.

The new coronavirus pandemic has sparked anxiety and fear in the hearts of all – in people of faith and non-faith alike. It is nearly impossible to remain unshaken in the face of this highly contagious and dreaded disease, which has already taken the lives of many and continues to steamroll both the physical health and the economy of virtually every nation in the world. Coronavirus is an incredibly rapid-moving and unusual virus which doesn’t always cause visible symptoms, making it a silent and rather ghostlike enemy. It is like fighting an invisible war.

Terms such as “social distancing” and “quarantining” are becoming ingrained in our daily vocabulary. To say we are living in “unprecedented times” is a partial truth. However, pandemics (defined as “occurring over a wide geographic area) have been around for a long time and each has reaped its own share of human and economic destruction. During the last several hundred years, alone, bubonic plague, “Spanish” flu, cholera, and smallpox are among those which have decimated populations. And even in the last couple of decades, alone, we have seen a number of threatened pandemics pop up, including SARS, bird flu, swine flu (of which I am a survivor), Ebola, and zika.

For those looking for a political angle, this article will disappoint. I have fairly definitive political opinions about many things, but I am only writing from a spiritual angle on this topic at this time. Besides, I’m still forming my opinions concerning the political nature of the pandemic. It is all raw and new, and hindsight has 20/20 vision as they say. It is difficult to make perfect decisions in such a constantly-evolving situation with so many unknown quantities.

The Bible has a lot to say about infections, disease, and pestilence (pandemics). It contains much practical wisdom. Cleanliness (i.e., hand washing) is reiterated in numerous verses throughout the Scriptures. God knew what He was doing. There is so much more that could be said about the practical nature of God’s wisdom, but that isn’t the thrust of this article either. The practical nature of the Scriptures always points to a higher spiritual truth.

So, on to the spiritual truth. In speaking to the Pharisees of His day, Jesus said “For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence” (Matthew 23:25, NKJV). Many of the Pharisees of Jesus’ day abided by the letter of the law pretty well, and I’m sure they paid very close attention to their personal hygiene. Maybe they were even germophobes. But the point was that they were full of sin. Jesus came to call them to repentance, but they were blinded by their own self-righteousness.

Much of the world, today, is blinded by its own self-righteousness. It doesn’t care to have any real understanding of its own sin and the price that Jesus Christ paid at the cross so that sin could be forgiven and eternal life in heaven bestowed. The world thinks it can manage its problems better than God can (this is not to discount the brains God gave us and, as a result, many of the solutions we come up with). Others will have their hearts softened toward God, especially during a crisis such as the one we are experiencing. Jeremiah 29:13 says “ And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart”. God’s love and patience are truly amazing and His goodness leads to (our) repentance (Romans 2:4).

The Bible also says that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10). There is much to fear in the world. Personally I find criminals, rabid animals, fires, airplanes (please don’t make me talk about that), and contagious diseases to be at the top of my list. But I have to admit that hell is at the very tippy-top. And that is what our sins deserve, but God desires to be so merciful to us (2 Peter 3:9). Please reference the “Romans Road” for a better idea of how to get right with the Lord if you do not have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. I will post the Romans Road separately on this blog.

As for Christians, we do not need to fear. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7) . I don’t know about you, but I don’t always feel as though my mind is “sound” these days. Staying at home too much just doesn’t agree with me. And worry and anxiety over health, money, and a host of other matters can begin to take over when I am not immersing myself in the promises of God. Therefore, I spend daily time with the Lord and in His Word to remain steadfast and sane. When I cry out to the Lord, I receive a peace that truly transcends understanding (Philippians 4:7).

Are we living in the end times? Yes. We’ve been living in them ever since Christ’s days here on earth, but things do seem to be continually ramping up toward the Revelation (last book of the Bible containing prophecies of the end times and the Second Coming of Christ) scenario. Matthew 24 is a great chapter to read to gain a better understanding of what we are to expect in the end times. It has a lot to say about the signs of Christ’s return. Matthew 24:7, Mark 13:8, and Luke 21:11 all mention pestilence (or plagues), in addition to wars, famines, and earthquakes taking place as a sign of the times. Obviously, these have all taken place since the fall of mankind.

However, Matthew 24:8 adds that “these are the beginning of birth pangs”. Now, most of us understand how a pregnant woman experiences labor pains. The pains begin sporadically and gradually increase in intensity and in frequency. There is evidence that our many epidemics and pandemics of recent years are increasing in intensity and frequency. Naturally, we can look at many other Scriptural evidences, as well, which point toward the return of our Lord. You will find a few of them (there are way too many to include in one paper) in my article entitled, “America’s New War”. I published it on this blog. I wrote it in 2001, just after terrorism struck our country on 9/11.

Is God judging the world through this plague? Maybe. It would seem that there is some sort of judgment going on here in that it falls under the category of either God’s perfect will or His permissive will. In other words, whether He is using this disease as a warning to our nations, or whether it is simply one more manifestation of human sin run amok, He is allowing it to happen for a reason. We are shown several instances, in the Bible, of God’s judgment upon either the nation of Israel (as in both the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities), or the world (as in the worldwide flood of Noah’s day). Disease and death have been a part of the world ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden. When they disobeyed God by eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, God said “in that day you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). And they did. And we do. Mankind’s sin brought the curse of disease and death into the world and it has been with us ever since.

Even so, we’re talking about judgment that goes above and beyond the original curse of sin. We have seen many eras in history when a nation or the known world has degenerated into so much wickedness that God has intervened, as referenced in the above examples. We know that before the Lord’s return, the earth and those on it will experience judgments like nothing else since the Flood. My view of eschatology (study of end times theology, or the final events in mankind’s history) is that Christians will be removed (raptured) from the earth before the beginning of a 7-year tribulation period that contains the elements outlined in the book of Revelation – which would mean that I don’t believe the coronavirus pandemic is part of that time frame. My personal view is that this is another of God’s gracious warnings for us to wake up.

The prayer of Daniel (Daniel 9:1-19) is especially fitting here. I’m not talking about praying a rote prayer exactly the way it is written. I’m talking about using that prayer in a heartfelt way and crying out to God for His mercy while recognizing His complete righteousness in every situation. Amazing, how relevant this 2600 year-old prayer is in regard to our current predicament. Daniel and his friends were taken from their homes and held captive in a foreign nation for 70 years! Different situation, yes, but a crisis is a crisis. What did Daniel do? He humbly asked forgiveness for his own sins and the sins of his nation. That is always a prayer that God loves to hear.

I believe we should continually be living in preparation for the Lord’s return. Many of us have lots of time on our hands, right now, to ask ourselves what does God want me to learn from this? Our days are currently consumed with the 20-second hand washing routine (ad nauseum), attempting to get the mask-wearing thing down to a science (and learning new breathing techniques in the process), watching the endless coronavirus news cycles, and learning how to get in and out of a grocery store (which has become like the surreal scene in a dystopian novel) in any semblance of a normal time frame. So with the time that’s left over, let’s not allow the opportunity to pass to both deepen our relationship with Jesus and to be salt and light to a (literally) dying world. We can find a multitude of ways to be Christ’s hands and feet and to bring the hope of the Gospel to others. God wants to save sinners and He wants to awaken His Church to a desire to save lost sinners. Coronavirus is an invisible war, and it reaps many casualties. Sin is an “invisible” war and it is reaping much greater casualties. So let’s keep fighting the coronavirus, but let’s not forget to be soldiers in the Lord’s army. Anyone care to enlist?