It has been the custom of religious leaders in the U.S. to proclaim any major disaster or hardship as judgment from God. The recent pandemic and coming economic collapse are no exception. The problem with any religious assessment of our current day is that they are plagued with one of two maladies. Either the key religious concepts necessary to make such an assessment are skimmed or completely ignored or assessments on both sides of the issue are only interested in a quick shallow defense of their particular worldview. This leaves the actual question completely unexamined. Here we will attempt to define the necessary concepts and give an objective assessment of the spiritual implications of the Covid Crisis and general state of the world.
To accomplish this, we need a basic understanding of what God’s judgment is and to do this we must have a basic understanding of God’s relationship with humanity. Both concepts are mangled beyond recognition in the larger culture and lead to all the confusion of the issue. God is not an angry schoolmarm waiting to wrap humanity’s knuckles at the slightest provocation. God is also not a passive uninterested observer of human affairs.
First, we must understand that a human being is the only thing in the universe that can say no to God. Angels must obey God, demons must obey God, even the wind and the sea must obey God but fallen humanity can say no. When an individual human or collection of humans, like a nation, say no to God long enough, He turns them over to that which they have chosen. This is the nature of judgment.
The perfect story in scripture to illustrate this is the story of the prodigal son found in Luke 15:11-32. The son demanded his inheritance and wanted to leave. The father turned him over to what he had chosen by giving him his inheritance and letting him leave. The results of the son receiving what he chose in opposition to his father’s wishes was him experiencing the pain and suffering of the world. Nations can also experience this type of judgment as its citizens collectively say no to God. That nation then suffers the worldly consequences of what it has chosen. Jerusalem and Israel repeatedly were at the mercy of the worldly nations because they chose to tell God no.
So, the question for us is Covid 19 a direct result of the United States telling God no. First understand that Covid 19 is not an exclusively United States issue. The virus is affecting the world. It would be arrogant of us to believe that even as the rest of the world has suffered various viral epidemics in recent decades that it is suddenly significant because it now includes us. No Covid 19 is not a judgment from God on the United States.
But…
What is also true is that the world has entered the season categorized biblically as the end times. Yes, I know that many of us have been hearing this all our lives and yet it is now true. Just as God would have spared Sodom for ten righteous citizens (Gen 18:16-33) God does not turn this world completely over to judgment for the sake of the righteous nations. The U.S. and other nations though far from perfect used to acknowledge God in how they treated the poor at home and abroad, how we treated our neighbor, how we strove to constantly improve who we are. Now we spend more money and time on entertainment than we do on the ministry to the poor, we are the biggest drug market in the world resulting in all the suffering in neighboring nations and have mutated individual freedoms into a collective narcissism. We are a shadow of our former selves. As the U.S. goes dark so does the rest of the world.
The end times is the collective turning over the world to what it has chosen. If the tribulation we read about in the book of Revelation is the dead of winter the we are currently in the early autumn. So Covid 19 is part of the larger darkening of the world but it is not a new and specific judgment on the U.S. No one can know how long it will take to come to the events described in the book of revelation. What we can know is that although there will be rallies and temporary improvements that what we are experiencing now is the new normal. When Covid 19 is over then we will face the economic hardships, then there will be the political unrest and violence in our streets, then there will be wars that the U.S. will not emerge from unscathed etc. Although the issues will change there will be little relief.
The important question is not; Is this season we are experiencing a judgment and of what type? What is much more important now is to make your choice about Jesus. Attending church on Mother’s Day and Easter is not going to keep your mind and heart at peace during the season we live in. Only a real relationship with Jesus Christ can do that. Now is the time to make that choice.
God Bless.