According to data collected by John Hopkins University COVID-19 deaths in the United States has exceeded 250,000. One news article said, “The sharp rise in the number of cases and fatalities has accelerated calls for government action.”
I am amazed at the general public’s confidence in government’s ability to control the current pandemic. It was certainly one of the factors working against Donald Trump’s reelection, his supposed mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic. I am not a prophet, but I am not all that convinced we are going to see an immediate decline in COVID-19 cases once Joe Biden is inaugurated.
Of course, government has been acting in our best interest to stop the spread of this killer virus. That’s why the governor in Nevada ordered churches to remain closed, but opened up casinos and bars for business, for the public’s protection.
More recently, a judge in San Diego ruled strip clubs could open back up to provide those essential services the viewing public demands, but churches continue to be danger zones and must remain closed. All of this is because government has the best interest of the people and public health at the heart of their decisions.
I realize the two preceding paragraphs are steeped in sarcasm so let me be clear in the point I am attempting to make. I am not confident in thinking all the decisions made by state and federal governments during this pandemic have been made in the best interest of public health.
Billy Graham one said, “the central issues of our time aren’t economic or political or social, as important as these are. The central issues of our time are moral and spiritual in nature.” That truth has not changed.
Despite America’s economic might, which has been threatened by this pandemic, I do not believe we can buy our way out of this plague, nor can we vote our way out of it.
Some have said this disease is a judgment sent from God but I am reticent to say that. What I can say without fear of biblical contradiction is that death itself is God’s judgment on sin, without regard to the mode by which it comes, as evidenced by God’s decree to our first parents that they would die if they disobeyed Him.
The Apostle Paul clarified this point when he wrote, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned,” Romans 5:12.
While I do not believe we can buy our way, or vote our way out of this pandemic, I do believe we can repent and pray our way out of it.
If “My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land,” 2 Chronicles 7:14.
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