Pre-Tribulation Happenings – What you worried about?
Mutant viruses, cataclysms, catastrophes, and plagues are all in the news again. Some of it has merit and some of it is hyped up by liberal media. These events are happening but what does it mean, and what should be the perspective of a Bible believer?
For instance, take the corona-virus, a recent phenomenon that began, it is said, in the province of Wuhan, China. As of May 18th, 2020 there were nearly 4,888,118 cases and about 319,965 deaths worldwide. Corona-viruses are actually a family of viruses that can cause illnesses such as SARS or MERS but the COVID-19 is the one receiving the most media attention. It is assumed that it started with bats and moved over to humans, most likely via the wet market in China. A wet market is a place where fresh meat, produce, fish, and other perishable goods are sold. But now there is speculation that it got out from a Wuhan Bio Lab. In any case, the big question is will this pandemic cause people to seek the true and living God, the Lord Jesus Christ?
The symptoms are similar to what would be expected in the flu or pneumonia. Symptoms include coughing, fever, and difficulty breathing. It is feared as one of the deadliest strains of virus ever to exist and that its effects will be global. It has been compared to the Spanish Influenza Epidemic of 1918 which infected a quarter (500 million) of the world’s population at the time and estimates of 17 to 100 million died during that epidemic.
It has been also compared to the reach of the Bubonic Plague of the Middle Ages that wiped out around 50 million persons which has been estimated to be up to one half of the total European population at the time.
These viruses are not evidence of anything new, considering they occur from time to time. The same goes with volcanoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and any natural disaster. A recent situation with the Sudan and Ethiopia involves swarms of locusts. These incidents occur every few decades. The locusts come in with a fury and are soon gone but the effects of their voracious appetites are devastating. These events are nothing new, but they do not occur very often and are localized.
Some people will say that such a proliferation of events on such a global scale is significant of the Lord’s return and it is to an extent. The Bible-believing Christian knows that God created the heaven and the earth. He has also created laws of thermodynamics and the second one, which concerns the quality of energy, states that “as energy is transferred or transformed, more and more of it is wasted. The Second Law also states that “there is a natural tendency of any isolated system to degenerate into a more disordered state.”
The world itself is becoming more disordered by the day. Scientists tell us that the Earth’s north magnetic pole has moved from Canada towards Siberia because of changes in the liquid iron in the earth’s core. This world is constantly fluctuating and changing. The sun also is losing mass. The mass of the sun is transformed into energy in the form of light. The sun is constantly consuming mass to burn light.
The creation groans and travails in pain until now. (Romans 8:19-22) It should not surprise us that this world is cursed and, as things continue to deteriorate, that new diseases and viruses and pestilences shall come into being.
What is a Christian to do? He need not worry. He needs only cast his care on the Lord. (1 Peter 5:7) Be not anxious about tomorrow, frittering away time thinking about whether you will contract a deadly virus, be wiped away in a tornado, or be drowned in flash flood. (Matthew 6:24-34) The heathen pagans have a slavish fear of such things. They call upon their good luck charms and such like for protection. The world is enveloped in fear because of these things. They appear to be concerned about a few thousand people dying from a puzzling virus but are totally unconcerned about the deaths of millions of children at the hands of the modern Chemosh god of Planned Parenthood.
At any rate, the Christian need not fear. The Bible says that the earth will melt with fervent heat one day (2 Peter 3:10). We know how it will end.
We need to be ready to meet God because our lives are short and frail and we are not guaranteed another day. (James 4:13-17) As patriarch Isaac once said in Genesis 27:2b, “I know not the day of my death”. We don’t know what will take us out of this world or when, but if one would only repent of their sin and trust the Messiah as Lord and Savior they would be eternally saved from the wrath to come.
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HIBM Editorial by Avram Ezra * Pre-Tribulation Happenings! – Dr. K. Daniel Fried, Editor in Chief – copyright © 2020 hopeofisrael.net
Photos:
AP Photo/Ben Curtis;
Emily Wang/AP Photo
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