As a pastor, I’ve had many questions come my way about the coronavirus. Is this the beginning of the Tribulation Period? Is God trying to get our attention? Why is this happening? And many others like them. While it’s impossible to give definitive answers to some of these, others are quite evident.
Let’s start with the Tribulation. Many Christians interpret Biblical prophecy to indicate that a seven year period of intense trials will occur near the end of time. Daniel 9 combined with several passages from Revelation and Jesus’ comments in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 are all pertinent to this discussion. Personally, I can’t indisputably connect this pandemic to all that but I would suggest that it really doesn’t matter.
As I understand Scripture, Jesus could return at any moment so we all should be prepared beforehand by accepting Jesus as both Savior and Lord. More immediately, any of us could die and enter eternity at any moment so whether this virus is related to end times or not shouldn’t really affect the way we live. We should be in the center of God’s will already obeying Him in every way we know how and we should be inviting others to do the same whether the Tribulation is beginning or not. If you’re not ready, get ready!
Why is this happening? It’s always dangerous to claim to know God’s purposes except what’s revealed in the Bible. At times God Himself sent harsh judgments as seen in Egypt’s plagues as well as Noah’s flood. At other times He allowed disasters as we discover from Job’s story. For us to assume we definitively know God’s exact purposes in this or any trial is beyond our ability to discern except by special revelation. All suffering has ultimately sprung from Adam’s sin but God can bring good even from pain by helping us grow and mature.
The more important question for us is what can we learn from this? Since we can’t personally change the situation, what personal changes does God want to make in us because of the situation? And since none of us are fully mature spiritually, we all have many possible growth areas.
Perhaps we can learn to not worry about this or anything else, but to pray and trust God in everything as Paul advises in Philippians 4:6. When we do, he assures us that the transcendent peace of God will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. We could all use that, could we not? Faith means trusting God especially when we don’t understand Him.
Is God trying to get our attention? YES! He always has been! That’s why He created an enormous universe filled with stars, planets, and billions of galaxies. That’s why He made gorgeous dogwoods, redbuds, violets and delicious mushrooms. That’s why He sent us prophets, gave us an inerrant Bible, sent His only begotten Son, placed us in families, and healed and blessed us in so many other ways. He wants us to recognize Him as the giver of every good gift.
So what’s He trying to tell us? In the boldest possible ways, God is proclaiming repeatedly, “I love you! And I want you to love me back and be with me forever! I want you to receive my Son and live an obedient life that glorifies me, benefits you, and blesses others. I want to give you the best of everything if you’ll only respond to me!” The cross is the most massive and obvious “friend request” there ever was! But we must accept it! We each need to personally answer God’s wakeup call by turning from our sins and asking God to forgive us through Jesus’ blood.
This virus reminds us of our own mortality and the brevity and preciousness of life. Let’s not speed past it blindly groping for the other side without learning this valuable lesson and taking immediate action to respond to the God who loves us infinitely.
Trusting Him, George