Covid-19 has rapidly captured the attention of all – not just a few – people in the entire world. Of course, this is in part due to the power of today’s 24/7 cable news, electronic messaging, etc. For a moment let us recall just a few of the world’s and America’s thousands of previous attention-getters, together with the reported number of deaths:
- the Great Flood (death of all disobedient to God people in the world);
- the Plagues of Egypt (untold number);
- the Crusades (1-3 million);
- the Bubonic or Black Plague (25 million – or 1/3 of Europe!)
- the Revolutionary War (37,000)
- the Civil War (up to 1 million)
- WW I (16 million worldwide)
- Influenza Epidemic in 1918-19 (675,000 in America);
- Chinese Civil War (8-12 million);
- Pearl Harbor attack (2400) and WW II (60-90 million world wide);
- 9-11 attack on World Trade Center (3,500);
(Compare the above to Covid-19 which will result in a relatively small number of worldwide deaths.)
God caused and/or used each of these events in an effort to get all the lost to turn their attention away from all the evils of the world and themselves to God’s Kingdom. Despite resulting in far fewer deaths than most of the others as a fear-generator this current attention-getter has exceeded all previous events because of two factors, 24/7 cable news, and most important, as never before since the days of Noah has the world’s number of lost and level of degradation reached their current levels as reflected by the following symptoms:
- Fear of anything, other than Holy God:
“Fear not, for I am with you…” (Isaiah 41:10)
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are
with me…” (Psalm 23:4)
“…we will not fear; though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst
of the sea…” (Ps. 46:2)
“The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?” (Ps. 27:1)
- Breakdown of the Sanctity of Marriage and Traditional Family Educational Units;
- Love of self, rather than God;
- Desire for self-control rather than God-control;
- Deference to man’s knowledge and “education” rather than God’s knowledge and wisdom;
- Love for and dependence on money, and “stuff;”
- Disobedience of God’s commands, including preservation of all life;
- Church vacancies;
- Idol worship – including politics, political correctness, sports, etc.;
- Desire for world unity and rule rather than God (recall Babel?);
- Drugs and 24/7 sexual depravity (recall Babylon?);
- Seeking “heaven” on earth – rather than God’s Heaven;
- Simple belief in “a god” rather than loving and trusting in the one Creator God;
- Creating a god in our image, rather than obedience to the God who made us in His image.
It is clear that God’s purpose in creating or allowing Covid-19 throughout the world is twofold:
First and Foremost: If you are one of those who say, “How could a loving God allow this?” I say, “How could a loving God not!” If you could stop someone from driving off a cliff, would you not? God’s love for His children compels Him to get out attention – as any loving, disciplining father – time after time, keeping us from going “off the cliff” – reminding us to fear Him, turn to Him, put Him and not ourselves first, and all of those items referenced above; and
Second: Once getting our attention, hopefully capturing our love for Him – and discipling our children – so as to achieve His desire that “none should perish” – not necessarily just from Covid-19 but from any and all other means of losing our Eternal life with Him.
Note well the absolute certainty of the fact that 95% of America is concerned about Covid-19 which carries a death rate of perhaps 1.5%, while only 5% of America shows concern about avoiding a death rate of 100% – absent accepting God’s guaranteed salvation plan for Eternity! While some might wish Covid-19 to be God’s last warning to His people, be assured it is not. What is known is that the Lord’s promised Second Coming will come soon, and that this event will be preceded by God-created disasters that will ultimately result in a loss of one-third of the world’s population. By comparison, Covid-19 will have been a mere gnat to be trampled by a stampede of elephants!
Percentages: Covid-19 vs. Human Sin:
People afflicted (.002 vs. 100%)
People fearing affliction (95 vs. 10%)
Deaths due to affliction without vaccine or cure (2 vs. 100%)
People desiring vaccine or preventive measure (10 vs. 50%)
Effectiveness of currently available “vaccine” (0 vs. 100%)
People currently “cured” after affliction (98 vs. 10%)
Length of lifetime with cure (10 yrs. vs. Eternity)
Copyright 2020, Wilbur McCoy (Joe) Otto