#Covid_19 Epidemic: It is the Finger of God

Can anyone give a better account of the Coronavirus? If he can, let him speak out like a man, and tell us who caused it and why it has come now. To say that it originated in China; or it is lab-generated; or that it is not a new but a strain of an old virus known us corona; or to go into a diatribe of its damage and to give accurate daily death tolls globally or to venture into scientific projections of infections or deaths; — all this is evading the question. I repeat the question, who caused it? What possible causes can be assigned for it that have not existed for hundreds of years? I believe these question cannot be answered by an atheist. For atheists deny the existence of the one who designed them, how can they possibly think that there is one who sovereignly rules his universe? It is beyond their mental capacity. 
Who has afflicted the world like this? Is it A. Man B. Satan C. God? 
If you say man you assign man a hat too big for him. If you say Satan, you expose the underbelly of your theology. For Satan to do anything, he has to be permitted or allowed by God. Satan is God's unwilling servant. He could not touch Job unless after God let him. The answer is C - it is God who has afflicted us. God in his sovereignty, is the only with the power to afflict the globe like this. Just as the Lord sent a global flood in the days of Noah, so only God can send global epidemic like Covid_19 in 2020.

 

WHY? I ask to be told why it has come upon us now? How and in what way can the outbreak be accounted for at this particular period? The reason is in Genesis 3 – it is one of the effects of the curse upon Adam & Eve and their posterity. Adam’s sin brought God’s curse to us. It brought pests and diseases; thorns and thistles; enmity and hatred; battles and wars; and it brought physical and spiritual death. Human sin is the reason for Covid_19 outbreak.

I believe that the only cause that we must come to as last is, the finger of God! It is God's just retribution for the sins of men. But... you say, God is loving and merciful. Yes indeed - God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. God keeps steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. That is one side of the coin of God's attributes. The other side is also true. God is also holy, just and righteous and he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children, and the children’s children to the third and fourth generation (Ex. 34:6-7) of those who hate him. God hates idolatry of our day. God detests sexual perversion – homosexuality and gender fluidity of our day. God has nothing to do with the LGBTQ agenda. God abhors murderers – millions of babies are killed by their mothers in collusion with wicked doctors every day in the name of choice. God’s prerogative to punish the evil doer is justified and while I cannot say with absolute certainty that Coronavirus has been sent by God because of all these unrighteousness of men, yet I am sure that the wages of sin is death. Since God will send to hell those who remain in sin and unbelief, it is only fair to say that God has given up the earth to be mauled by a tiny virus. And Covid_19 is nothing compared to hell for unbelievers and hypocrites.

You may argue that I am overemphasizing the holiness and justice of God. Well, I am not.  But let me emphasize the love of God. How has God displayed his love and his mercy and grace to the world? John 3:16. He loved the world and sent his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  He came to save his people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). He lived a perfectly sinless life and obtained righteousness. Christ took the place of sinners and died the sinners' death on the cross to pay the penalty due for our sins. Christ is the only remedy for sins of men. So... yes, God is merciful and he has provided the way of escape from the present corruption and debauchery in the world. He has sent his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
How do you appropriate this blessing of Christ? Believe in Jesus Christ and you will be saved (Acts 16:31). Repent of your sins and call for his mercy (Luke 18:13). And having believed in Him for your eternal salvation, even if you were to contract the virus today, it is not death to die, for Christ killed death for all who are in Him. I do not believe that being in Christ insures us from contracting the virus or any other disease for that matter. Those who teach that Christ came into the world that we may be healthy and wealthy are greatly mistaken. Some faithful God’s children have already contracted and others will contract the virus. But we know that for those who love God, all things (joy & sorrow; good health & sickness; poverty & riches, etc.) work together for their good (Rom. 8:28).

Though Corona virus may not kill you but sin will most certainly kill your body and cast your soul to hell apart from Christ. Corona can only kill the body - not the soul. Oh, that the world would fear sin more than the virus and love Christ more than any vaccine or medicine! Oh that the Great Physician, the Lord Jesus Christ, may be all the more loved by the world of sinful men out of this epidemic! I desire that praises may ring all over the world from this present distress.

Let God’s children call for help from on high. The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials. He will not punish the righteous with the wicked (Gen. 18:25-26) and so, soon Coronavirus will be averted and the Finger of God will be withdrawn from the world, but soon a greater calamity will be revealed will Christ will judge the world with equity, justice and righteousness... and where will you be? The storm will soon be over, but the world will have been shaken by the Almighty God. 

May his name be praised for ever!

The Garissa Massacre

The memory of those awful events continues to haunt us and we begin by expressing our heartfelt sympathies with surviving witnesses of the atrocity and with bereaved relatives.  Jesus Himself wept outside the tomb of his friend Lazarus and onlookers saw how much he loved him.  May God grant that comfort in Christ that is so sorely needed.

It is not our purpose to start thinking about how the terrorists were able to get away with such wickedness on a human level.  We certainly see the depth of sin as such things are planned in detail, and we see the impotence of even the best government to prevent it.  There are far deeper questions.  Where was God?  Was He unable to prevent it?  If He was not unable then why did He let it happen?  Can there be any good purpose in such a thing? 

We are so affected by what happened because it has come home to so powerfully.  It happened on Kenyan soil, it specifically targeted non-Muslims, and there were mobile phone conversations as it happened.  Yet, sad to say, history is littered with such massacres.  Boko Haram has been slaughtering thousands in northern Nigeria.  Little more than 20 years ago 800 thousand are reckoned to have been killed in Rwanda.  During WWII 6 million Jews suffered in what is known as the Holocaust.  2015 marks the centenary of what many call the Armenian genocide when around 1 million or more perished.

Let us not pretend we have all the answers.  The mysteries of why such things happen go right back to the very start when Adam and Eve fell, and the whole human race with them.  God made a creation that He described as “very good”.  Why did sin come in to spoil it?  And the evil consequences remain with us today!  Was God just an observer, unable to control creatures He had made, Satan, and the first couple?  You do not get rid of the problem by declaring that God gave them ‘free-will’.  At the very least surely God knew what they were going to do, for He is omniscient.  He could have prevented the serpent from getting near Eve, or made it unable to speak, or used another animal to speak opposite words; in fact He left Eve completely to herself. 

No, we must rather confess 3 things: God has all power (omnipotent), and all knowledge (omniscient), and His ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9), and past finding out (Romans 11:33).  God has purposes of judgment as well as blessing, of warning as well as comforting, purposes for the future as well as for the present, for others as well as for myself, for His own glory as well as for our good.  Read the Bible and see how God perfectly weaves together all events, both good and evil, to fulfil His gracious plans that finally brought His Son our Lord Jesus Christ into the centre stage of world history.  You do not have to understand how the weaver so expertly manages his loom in order to appreciate the finished product!

Even if we do not have all the answers, there are some very important things we must say about which we have no doubt.

(1) God is just, despite what has happened.  “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Genesis 18:25), proclaimed Abraham when God revealed to him that He was about to destroy Sodom.  Measured on the time line of eternity, and weighed in the balances of God’s law, God never acts unjustly in punishment, although He acts mercifully times without number.

(2) Sinners deserve eternal hell, whether those carrying out atrocities, or those on the receiving end.  Sin is nothing less than rebellion against God.  David confessed his adultery as “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,…” (Psalm 51:5).  Adam was threatened with death (Genesis 2:17); Ezekiel reiterated that “the soul who sins shall die” (18:4); the New Testament teaches “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23); and the last book of the Bible tells us of “the second death, the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14).  It is this death as hell, as separation from God, that our Saviour had to undergo on the cross, as He cried out of the darkness, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).  Anything we experience less than this is less than we deserve.

(3) The response must be repentance.  Jesus was told of a massacre and this was His warning.  “There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.  And he answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:1-3).  We must stop asking the question ‘Why?’ because we do not have all the answers.  We must not suppose that such an awful death is a punishment for specific sin, because Christ denies it.  We must stop just focussing on what happened, or those who were involved.  Jesus says that we must start to think about ourselves and our readiness to face the judgment when we are summoned sooner or later from this world.  Someone might say that this is not very kind, that much more comforting words need to be given.  But apart from the fact that would be to impugn Christ Himself, consider that such a warning is great kindness.  If during the post-election violence you were warned not to go to a certain place because of trouble there would you not have been profoundly grateful.  The Lord Jesus, who infallibly knows all things present and future, had graciously warned you.

(4) The Christian has great hope.  Thank God that all those who die in Christ, have the assurance of eternal life (John 10:28).  Death is but a short sleep for them, when they are absent from the body but present with the Lord.  The terrorist’s bullet may kill their body but it cannot kill their soul.  For this reason Christ told us to love our enemies and not to fear them.  Christianity is the only religion that gives this assurance of resurrection, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.  But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).

The greatest dangers facing the church in Kenya today

And I tell you, .... on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

(Matthew 16:18 ESV)

There is no question that the Lord Jesus Christ is building His church upon the rock of the truth presented by Peter here. There is no amount of worldly or Satanic intimidation that can yield any fruit to this end. He has already given His life to redeem her for Himself. He will soon come for her with great splendour as His own bride. 

So this article does not seem to downplay the power of Christ in establishing the church to be what He wants it to be. However, as a country we must be alive to the ills that are seemingly bedevilling the church of Christ so that those of us who have the capacity to do something will not be distracted from the proclamation of the gospel. We must give ourselves fully to the task of shepherding the flock of God which the Holy Spirit made us overseers. Those who care for the glory of Christ should take note of these dangers and do all they can to eschew them ASAP!

1. Doctrinal heresies

Many churches have no solid doctrinal or Biblical foundation because their pastors are not in the disciplined habit of a thorough study of the Bible. The effect is that there is a lot of compromise on the truths of the Bible. There are a lot of preachers who preach the most new ‘truth’. They say that whatever is sensational, that attracts as many people as possible must be what is good to preach about. You may find out this by checking out a few websites if these churches even post their doctrinal statement or confession of faith. 

So most of them copy the internationally acclaimed preachers and do not bother to check out the truth in what they preach. For example many are preaching deism because TD Jakes is preaching it. They deny the traditional doctrine of the Trinity because he denies it.  There is a great danger of men who are not thoroughly equipped for ministry being pastors of a flock.

Battle for the truth: It is on this soil that the Charismatic movement, the so called health and wealth or prosperity also called Word of Faith (WoF) movement has held firmly its tendons. The devil is being fattened on the diet of lies, either consciously or unconsciously. I think WoF is the greatest tragedy that has befallen the Kenyan church because this has penetrated all denominations and it is producing thousands of 'decisions for Christ' and in so doing inoculating people from the gospel as many are left thinking that they are saved when they are not. Decisional regeneration is the very tragic and it is demonstrated in the altar calls. True saving faith in Christ is always accompanied by repentance from sin. But these preachers have come up with a different faith and a different repentance. It is no longer faith in Christ alone, it is faith in oneself. It is no longer the sinner's repentance it is now 'preachers repentance' as it is the preacher's prayer that is repeated!

2. Ungodliness

Since wealth and health or prosperity gospel is very enticing as it is both sensational (appeals to emotion and not reason) and carnal (appeals to the flesh) many have run after it hoping to get rich quickly. Preachers are not dealing with the greatest need – sin. Instead they deal with people’s felt needs. The trials and difficulties affecting the society is what make the spiritual diets of many churches. Therefore there are so many preachers claiming to heal and to work miraclesl. They also pledge their hearers riches and job promotions. Many would promise those who attend their churches big cars and owning their own houses. They say that people are poor because they have generational curses that are hindering them from prospering. And so the answer is to visit their churches or to touch the television set (for many who are tele-preachers). Many now sell 'anointing oil' which is supposed to be the Midas power. Other preachers sell 'brooms' that are supposed to 'sweep' all the problems away. But the most shocking thing is that people are so gullible as to buy them!

Thousands upon thousands of people have been held captive by such preachers who rather than helping them, con them of their money. Clearly both the hearers are like because they love money as Paul describes it in 2Timothy 3:1-6. It is because of materialism that many are leaving their pulpits to be politicians as it was witnessed in 2007/2013 when many left pulpit to become councilors, Members of parliament and even one vied for presidency.

In the context of false teachers, Paul gives this counsel to Timothy:

You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:10-17 ESV)

3. Denominationalism

 Although the influence of ecumenism is waning it is still a danger for many churches. However it is taking another form of denominationalism whereby many people are leaving established churches to register their own with the government so that they are the ones who are at the helm of leadership. By 2010 there were more than 10,000 registered churches. Schisms and infightings are so common. The trend is still high because of leadership struggles. Most of these outfits are not worthy the name they call themselves and most of them are owned by individuals. Sadly this is what many are clamoring for and it makes Christianity in Kenya to be pathetic to those from other religions. This is so especially in slum areas where there are thousands upon thousands of ‘churches’. I took a walk in Dandora and I was shocked at what I saw. Almost every available space is taken up by churches of one sort or another.

Sadly this is not the unity that the Chief-Shepherd of the Church prayed for in John 17. True unity is only to be found where there is a deliberate fellowship in the truth. Where there is no truth, there will be fractured and dismembered, hypocritical unity. Ecumenicalism of NCCK is false because they unite under the 'lowest common denominator'. This means basic evangelical truths are sacrificed at the altar of unity (take unity here to mean presenting one national voice to the government on social-political issues)